After making my decision. I asked Ciel for the details.
"When do we leave?"
"I've scheduled it for tomorrow. Telling you to bring Sir Brimdal was half a joke, but the other half was serious. The place where the elves live isn't easy to get to."
"Ah."
I guess I’ll have to go by carriage. Seeing this, I got a sense of just how absurd Dersia’s magic was, opening doors to places kilometers away. As I nodded, Ciel explained some additional details.
"I'll rent the fastest dragon carriage, but even with that, it will take a week. More than half the journey is through the wilderness, so there's the danger of bandits and wild beasts."
"I can handle things like that."
"It’s also necessary for when you decide to resist, Master."
"... Understood."
Is she really a maid? Of course, I couldn't skip my body-refinement training for that long, so I had to take Brimdal. He would be helpful in an emergency, too.
The problem was that he didn't seem like the type to give a hopeful answer like, "Sure, I'll come along." I decided I had to try anyway, so I arranged to meet Ciel tomorrow and headed for the hut.
"Linmel?"
On the way, I ran into Linmel on the forest path, trudging along with a tearful face. I wondered what happened. As I spoke to her, she suddenly came closer and asked, her eyes all red.
"J-Jern."
"Yes, what is it?"
"Are you really living with Elysia?"
Have they gotten close enough to be on a first-name basis? No, more importantly, what is this about?
"Well... for now, yes?"
"Have the three of you met with Elysia's dad?"
"That happened too."
"Did you save each other's lives?"
"I... guess so?"
The statements were very vague, but not incorrect. It had the feel of the way nobles walk the line between truth and lies.
"No, but if you want to get into the specifics—" Linmel’s eyes were brimming with tears, so I spoke up to manage the situation, but when I blinked, she was gone.
She's improved a lot. I lowered my bewildered, outstretched hand and shook my head. Elysia must have said some strange things to emphasize how close we are.
I can just explain it to her the next time we meet. Right now, I had something far more important to do. When I arrived at the hut, Brimdal was sharpening his sword as usual.
He glanced at me.
"What is it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why the long face. You look like you've eaten a bug."
At his words, I touched my face, but my expression was normal. Can a knight of his caliber read even the slightest change in expression? I didn't have much to hide, so I just told him.
"You know that I'm a mage, right?"
"Telling the difference between a fallen one and a mage is my job, but yes."
"And you know I had a Master for magic, too?"
"I did. What are you getting at, beating around the bush like this?"
"... Have you heard of someone named Dersia Aspandil?"
Brimdal, who had been looking puzzled, found the connection in my questions and narrowed his eyes. But he soon shook his head in denial.
"No, that's impossible. There's no way that monster would have taken you as a disciple."
"I find it quite strange myself."
"... Is that true?"
He really is good at reading faces. Noticing that I wasn't lying, his surprise gave way to him rubbing his chin and nodding slowly.
"No... rather, because of that, perhaps..."
It seemed he found some reason to convince himself. I took the opportunity to tell him the other facts.
"And she's run away from home now, but I have a lot to ask her, so I think I need to go find her."
"What kind of nonsense is that? Run away?"
"I know. I don't really understand it either."
A disciple leaving home is one thing, but a Master running away? What kind of joke was this?
"Wait here a moment."
With a dumbfounded expression, Brimdal let out a deep sigh and went inside the hut. A few minutes later, he came out with a bag.
"When is the departure date?"
"It's set for tomorrow."
"That's soon. I'll have to pack only the essentials."
"...?"
Seeing him get ready, it looked like he was really planning to go, so I was the one who was surprised and asked.
"You're coming with me?"
"If our destination is the land of those pointy-eared bastards, it'll take a week to get there, two weeks to persuade her, and a week to get back."
"Are you planning to skip all your body-refinement training during that time?"
"No, but... are you sure?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you must have your own things to do."
"Teaching you is my job right now."
Since when was he so dedicated? Things turned out ten times better than I expected, but I couldn't just accept it. His motive was unclear.
For example— "If your Master is Dersia, then I have something to say to her." If it was something like that, it would be a huge problem. I was startled and tried to stop him.
"I'm sorry. If you're going there to fight, I can't go with you."
"I'm not going to fight. There's nothing to gain from it, and it's not like we know each other that well."
"Then what is it you have to say?"
"I'll tell you when we get there."
Brimdal, on the receiving end of my suspicious gaze, spat out in annoyance.
"Fine, I swear on my knight’s name that I will absolutely not fight. Happy now?"
"Thank you."
I didn't know what was going on, but as long as I had his word, it was fine. But a question still remained. No matter how I looked at it, Brimdal wasn't the kind of person to swear on his knight’s name for my sake.
It was awkward to say that directly, so I put it a little differently.
"I feel like you've gotten a bit kinder recently."
"That's ridiculous. You're imagining things."
"It's not my imagination..."
How should I put it? Unlike our first meeting, it feels like he's treating me like a disciple? When did he ever stop treating me like a rock or some bug?
Just as I was about to point that out, the back of my neck tingled.
"Ugh."
Thwack!
I dodged by lunging away in a roll. A sword was now stuck upright in the ground where I had just been standing.
"Your reaction to attacks from above is slow. Train more thoroughly. Even if you have eyes that can see everywhere, they're useless if you keep them closed."
Having thrown the sword, Brimdal left those cool-sounding words behind and headed for his hut. Staring at his back in disbelief, I sighed and pulled the sword out of the ground. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like he used training as an excuse to end the conversation because he was at a disadvantage. ...
I had no way to prove it. The next day.
"You really brought him."
"... I didn't think he would actually come."
Ciel’s eyes widened as she looked at the strange creature known as a well-built dwarf. Brimdal looked at Ciel with a lukewarm expression, then let out a sigh.
"You—" "Yes? What is it, Sir Brimdal?"
"... Do as you please."
Leaving those words behind, Brimdal squeezed himself into the dragon carriage. It was clearly a conversation between people who knew each other, so I got a little curious and asked.
"Did you two know each other?"
"Of course not. We were only slightly acquainted a very long time ago, that's all."
It didn't seem that way, but for her to say that meant she wanted to hide it. I didn't feel the need to dig into it. With me also getting into the dragon carriage, the catastrophic party composition of a dwarf, a fallen one, and a head maid was complete.
"Then let's depart. Have you told all your acquaintances?"
"I've already taken care of it."
I explained the situation to Aletus, and since Elysia would surely throw a fit trying to come along, I asked him to tell her after I had left. I also told the orphanage Director to please take good care of Linmel if she came looking for me.
My social circle, stretching it, was about this wide... so an hour was more than enough time. At least it was good that it ended quickly.
"Why should I have to tell other people that I'm leaving."
Still, I guess I'm better than Brimdal. Clip-clop, clip-clop, the dragon carriage started to pull like a horse, and we immediately fell into an endless silence. Ciel, who would have otherwise acted as a social lubricant, was driving, so the two of us had no common topics and nothing to talk about.
The saving grace was that neither of us was the type to care about such things. Brimdal polished his sword with a cloth, and I observed the deep sea fish. The top priority was to find the yellow jellyfish.
That one is definitely helpful. In one way or another.
"... Huh."
In the middle of that. For the first time, I saw a deep sea fish die.
[......- -......---.....]
It was something like a large shark mixed with a snake. However, a part of its torso was torn off, as if it had been attacked somewhere. It was a little far, so my Tide Sense wasn't working properly, but I could tell it was struggling.
[--...]
In the process of its struggle, I noticed some strange things. Parts of its body would cave in, then return to their original state, over and over again.
Many times.
Gradually, the number of times it caved in increased. And some parts didn't return to normal. At one point, dozens of spots caved in at once.
Pfoom-pfoom-pfoom~! Pop.
With a small popping sound—it suddenly vanished. It had literally disappeared from the Deep Sea.
"...?"
I, who had been tracing it with my Tide Sense, was horrified. It hadn't disappeared. That giant body had been compressed to its limit, turning into a mass the size of a fingernail.
This thing was holding on like that? I'd assumed it had adopted some method like filling its body with liquid to withstand the water pressure. But it was just enduring the water pressure with sheer brute force. ...
Just like me. I couldn't understand it at all. Why did it adopt such an inefficient method during its evolution?
Simply enduring the water pressure seemed like one of the worst possible ways. While feeling puzzled, I kept my Tide Sense spread out. From somewhere, an anchovy swam over, swallowed the small piece of meat that had been the shark, and swam away leisurely.
This was also the first time I'd seen a deep sea fish eat something. No wonder I'd never seen them fight. It was a bizarre food chain where they waited for each other to die, unable to overcome the water pressure, and then ate whoever lost.
This entire process happened in a matter of seconds. If I hadn't honed my proficiency with Tide Sense to its limit during my training with Brimdal, I might have never known. I collected myself from the shock and wrote down what I had learned today.
"What in the world are you drawing."
As I drew the scene I had just witnessed as if possessed, a startled Brimdal was frowning. The process of the shark being compressed, drawn in my notebook, must have looked quite grotesque.
"This is the place where I am. I'm trying to draw it in as much detail as possible."
"What?"
Brimdal glanced at the notebook for a moment, then clicked his tongue.
"Are all fallen ones like this? This is literally hell, is it not?"
"It's a bit cold to be hell."
The burden was growing by the moment. The most important thing, the water pressure itself, was still manageable as I trained my body, but now the cold I had been ignoring was becoming severe. If there was a silver lining, it was the robe.
The last time I took it off, I was shocked, suddenly feeling as if I were in the middle of a snowfield. This robe seemed to play a role in reducing not just the water pressure, but the burden itself, like the cold. I'll have to ask about this too.
"Hmm..."
Brimdal started pondering something as he scanned the notebook.
"Is there something you'd like to say?"
"You, perhaps—" Before he could finish his sentence.
Thump, the dragon carriage shook with a large impact.
"Umm, everyone, it seems we have a problem."
"?"
The conversation was halted by Ciel's troubled voice. I got out of the dragon carriage to check, and I could see that a wheel was badly damaged.
"Oh dear, it's broken."
"I made a mistake..."
Ciel stared intently at the wheel, then sighed.
"I'm sure I had the wheels changed before we came, but for it to suddenly crack... It seems I bought a faulty one."
"We could make a new wheel, but at this distance, it would be faster to go back and return."
"No. I have a spare wheel."
"... What?"
At my words, Brimdal and Ciel gave me a strange look.
"It's true. I put one in my workshop."
"But, why did you pack a wheel?"
"They say it's better to be safe than sorry."
"I mean, why a wheel of all things..."
"To be precise, I put a small carriage inside my workshop. Just in case."
The workshop was needlessly spacious, so using it like this was convenient. Besides the carriage, I also stored all sorts of long-lasting food, clothes, and survival tools, and then I realized. This is why a workshop is essential for a mage.
Unless you're on Dersia's level, opening doors everywhere, it's incredibly useful. I now understood why Dersia went as far as to threaten the magic tower to get it for me. I opened the carriage door into my workshop.
Ciel blinked, seeing the carriage sitting right in the middle of the workshop.
"You really did put a carriage in here."
"Yes. Every moment is precious, so it feels like a waste to go back."
I entered the workshop to get the wheel. And then—something was caught by my Tide Sense.
"...?"
What is this? There's no way an intruder could be in my workshop. ... Could it be?
I strode over to the carriage and opened the door.
"Zzz... phew... zzz..."
Inside, a young, blonde knight was sleeping comfortably. I carefully closed the door so as not to wake her, and answered Ciel, who was looking at me in bewilderment.
"Sorry, but let's just go back."
Wasting time seemed better than this.