Chapter 4 – 4. Aris [Edited]
Aris had no choice but to return home due to Arthur’s order to celebrate guests.
Aris went into her room and lay down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow.
‘Ugh… Arthur won’t keep saying he won’t see me, right?’
Aris was worried that her relationship with Arthur would fall out. Normally, she would have tried to reconcile right away by any means possible, but in this case, she thought it was her fault, so she decided to listen quietly.
‘Ha~ I want to see Arthur’s face.’
Aris says she has always lived with Arthur since the beginning of her earliest memories. And I was really happy about that. Because only he knew everything about Arthur’s cute side that other kids couldn’t. A person who doesn’t know her has a pretty appearance that might mistake her for a woman, her considerate personality that makes me think she might have come from the goddess herself, and even the courageous way she protected me.
When I think about it, I fell in love with her at first sight when I was younger than I am now.
At first she thought she was just a ‘favorite’ for her family. But she knew for sure now.
The fact that she likes Arthur as her opposite sex.
That’s why she thought Arthur was going to die.
She was so sad that she thought her heart would be torn apart.
Because he asked me to go catch a fish for no reason, because I couldn’t run away quickly and because I couldn’t protect Arthur from being killed by a wolf.
What if Arthur died because of me? I don’t even want to imagine it. Because without Arthur, she can’t live even a day.
She thought her heart stopped earlier when Arthur slapped my hand away from touching her cheek.
He always didn’t resist when I touched his face with both hands, but he made such a cold face and then slapped my hand away and told me to leave… I’ve never seen him like that.
Arthur’s sudden change in attitude made her feel like she was going to cry, so she said something and hurried out of her house.
“What should I do to return to the original Arthur.?”
Hylia asked Arthur for time, but Aris didn’t even want to wait that time.
What should I do to make Arthur like it? Should I secretly go next to him and give him a surprise kiss? No! Dad said you can do that later when you grow up!
Hmm… What can I do for you? Okay! Since Arthur protected me, I will protect him this time!
But I don’t know how to fight… Should I ask my mom?
The worries didn’t last long, and Aris immediately went to see Milia in the living room.
“Mom!!!”
“Huh? What’s going on, Aris?”
“Teach me how to fight!”
“Is anyone bothering you these days?”
“It’s not like that! From now on, I will become strong enough to protect Arthur.”
“Oh. This kid has a feminine side to him. So did you confess?”
“Well… I haven’t done that yet. No!! “Teach me how to fight faster than that, Mom!”
Millia smiled at the fresh appearance of Aris.
“Hmm… It feels a little early, but it doesn’t matter…? But even though my mom was a silver plate adventurer, she seems like she could teach me better than me. How do you feel?”
“Heungheung! Good! Who? By any chance, Dad.?”
“Jade.? No, I’m talking about Hillia next door. She’s the only gold-plated adventurer in town. And your dad was so weak that I always protected him. Just like you are now.”
“Mom too?! How did you confess? Huh?”
“Why? Do you want to listen and follow along? You’re never going to tell me? Daughter, love is something you achieve for yourself.”
“Profit! I hate you mom! “I’m going to Hilia!!”
Aris shouted loudly at Milia and ran out of her house, where she headed to Hilia’s house.
Knock.
“Hilia! It’s me, Aris. Please open the door!”
“Come in first. And you know you can’t meet Arthur, right?”
“Do not worry! This time it’s for a different reason!”
* * *
“So you want me to tell you about the fight?”
“Yes! “I want to protect Arthur too, and Hylia is the strongest in our village.”
Hylia began to worry with a serious expression.
Hmm. What should I do with this? Since I won’t be able to protect Arthur if I die later, is it better to make Aris stronger and have her protect him instead?
Okay, since when did I think about it? I don’t have much left anyway, but at least Aris can trust Arthur.
Once Aris becomes strong to the target I want, she will have to work hard from now on.?
“Hmm… Aris? I will accept you as a disciple, so from now on, call me Master, not Hylia.”
“Yes! “Master!”
Aris looked at Hilda with her bright eyes.
“Then the first assignment I will give you is…”
“Right…?”
“Run 100 times around the yard in front of my house.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear, let’s go! “You don’t want to protect Arthur?”
“No… No… I’ll come back… Master…”
With a disappointed look on her face, Aris went for her run.
* * *
“Hehe. Hehe… Hehe… Master. I did it all.!”
“Okay? Then come here, disciple.”
‘Are you finally teaching me how to fight?’
“See it over my shoulder here? Massage there a little.”
“Yes? Master? What does this have to do with becoming stronger-“
Beans!
“What kind of heavenly teacher is this! If you are a disciple, you can do whatever the teacher tells you to do and stop doing it!”
“Ugh…”
Aris, who had been hit by a nuclear honey balm, moaned while touching the hit area with both hands.
“Don’t pretend to be sick, but start quickly, disciple.”
“Yes, Master. Sniff.”
“Are you crying? “If I cry, I get another hit with honey?”
“Hey!!! Oh, I didn’t cry!!”
Hilda thought. She said she had to work diligently from today onwards, and of course she tried to pamper herself a little.
* * *
One year has passed.
Aris was training at her teacher’s house as usual to remove dust from her house.
She could teach me slowly.
“Disciple, I have something to tell you. Please come out to the yard.”
At the sound of Hilda’s voice, Aris quickly ran into the yard.
“Disciple, how much do you know about mana?”
Mana? I’m sure I heard this somewhere…?
“Ah! This is the power used by wizards!”
“That’s true, but what I’m going to teach you is how to use a warrior’s mana. The method is very different from the magic that is expressed through equivalent exchange through star contracts.”
“…?”
“Was it too difficult? Anyway, you don’t need to know magic, I’ll teach you the theory first. What do you think is the most important thing to become strong?”
What is important to become strong.
Since it still felt distant to Aris, she had no choice but to find the answer in the stories she had heard from her mother about her days as an adventurer.
“Hmm… When you receive a blessing, you receive a good blessing.?”
The correct answer chosen by Aris was a blessing.
This is because she heard from her mother that most skilled adventurers have good blessings.
But Hilda’s thoughts were different, and she looked a little disappointed.
“Dang! That’s not the right answer. Of course, if you receive good blessings, you can easily become stronger than others. However, the truly strong train their mana without relying on blessings. Of course, I am not saying that blessings are meaningless, but… Anyway, among the people I know, there were two people who were stronger than me even though they did not receive blessings.”
“Who is that?”
“One of them was a warrior. At first, I didn’t believe it either. “It was the first time I knew that humans could become that strong with just pure mana.”
Hilda naturally recalled her Hero party days, but she realized she had made a mistake in her words when asked Aris’ following question.
“But how does Master know that?”
“… Well, I saw him a few times while working as an adventurer, and since he was such a famous person, I heard stories from all over the place…”
Hilda vaguely spoke while avoiding Aris’ eyes.
“Hmm. Anyway, that’s not the point. You receive the blessing at age 10, so you still have two years left, right? Since you don’t know what blessings you will receive, it is better to just train your mana.”
Even if Aris’ head was just a little bigger, she wouldn’t have been able to get through. Since she was still just a child, her topic easily changed to curiosity about blessings.
“What blessings did you receive, Master?”
“I have been blessed with fire. Thanks to this, my mana has a fire attribute and my resistance to fire is a bit high, right?”
“Wow! I also want to receive good blessings! “I want to be blessed with lightning coming out of my hands and being able to fly in the sky!”
Hilda smiled slightly at Aris’ innocent and innocent idea of flying through the sky and shooting her lightning, and then told her reality.
Because she wasn’t the type of person who liked giving false hope.
“… Disciple, such a blessing does not exist… And don’t expect too much. “I might just receive the blessing of becoming slightly healthier.”
“Eh… Is there such a blessing? “I’m suddenly so worried…”
“I will make you strong enough to not have to worry about such things, so just train hard from now on. First, let me teach you how to strengthen your body-“
* * *
“Aris! Are you done with training?”
“Yeah, I just finished.”
As can be seen from the conversation between the two, Aris was able to reconcile quickly after Arthur’s order to congratulate her.
However, perhaps because of the trauma, Arthur did not leave the village, and spent most of his time at Hilda’s house reading or studying the books she brought while Aris was being trained.
“Arthur! “What did you do today?”
“Huh? Today I read a book called ‘The connection between magic and circles.’ “It took me a long time to read it because it was harder than the last time I read it.”
“Ugh. This isn’t fun already… Arthur really likes magic, right?”
“Huh! Isn’t it so amazing? You can do anything you imagine with mana! “Someday, I want to use magic too!”
“… But you know you should never use magic, right? “Master said you have too little mana, and it would be dangerous to use it.”
“I know… That’s what they say… It’s nice just to look at it, so it would be nice if I could see magic right in front of my eyes every day…”
‘Oh! This is sullen Arthur. ‘So cute!’
“Then Arthur, I’ll just go! Tomorrow’s training will only be in the morning, so let’s play together during the day hehe.”
“Good! See you tomorrow, Aris. Goodbye!”
Every day is a happy day. But Aris was clueless.
There are not many days left for Arthur to be happy.
