Chapter 190
Chapter 190
Shia chewed on an apple as she kept a close watch on Billet.
Whenever their eyes met, she immediately snapped her gaze away.
It wasn’t that she was afraid of him.
Unlike herself, who had lived in darkness, his eyes were far too dazzling.
It felt burdensome, so she naturally averted her gaze.
“Why, want more? You’re tiny but you eat well. I’ll have to make more, so wait.”
“Ti—!”
Shia, who had been about to shout, closed her mouth.
She had almost flared up at being called tiny.
There was no need to show emotion.
She quietly took a deep breath and calmed herself.
“What were you about to say?”
“…….”
When Billet asked, Shia simply shook her head.
She silently followed the movement of his hands as he focused on cooking.
He spread butter in the pan, sprinkled sugar, and grilled the apple.
On the surface, it was a simple process that anyone could do, but his hands moved without hesitation. As if he had cooked often, every action was skillful.
‘……A noble who’s good at cooking? I’ve never heard of such a thing.’
The culinary virtues a noble was expected to possess were a sense for planning meals, an eye for bringing skilled chefs into the family, and the ability to judge taste.
‘But to cook personally?’
Cooking was a kind of sacrifice.
After all, it was the act of filling the stomach of the hungry.
“All done.”
Billet placed the grilled apple onto a plate and readily held it out to Shia.
……He had changed.
He had changed far too much.
‘……Since when did he become like that?’
After the Crown Princess’s accusation, Shia had completely stopped paying attention to Billet.
The only thing she knew about him was that he had even been driven out of the dormitory and was clinging to life in the Academy’s livestock shed.
And that, for someone of high noble blood, he was incompetent.
But Shia began to question that last point.
After tasting the food he had just made, that doubt only grew stronger.
‘……He doesn’t seem completely incompetent.’
She had realized it during the Recorox field trip.
The ghosts of Recorox had seemed impossible to defeat.
But Billet had proposed a certain strategy, and as if predetermined, his predictions had been exactly right.
Without perfectly grasping both allies and enemies, such a strategy could never have been formed.
At the time, Shia had merely observed the situation in silence, but it had been quite astonishing.
Was it because he carried the blood of a high noble?
Even if his physical ability and magic were lacking, perhaps his reconnaissance, tactical strategy, and command abilities were exceptional.
And recently, he no longer seemed to bully other students.
He didn’t appear to enjoy associating with ill-mannered students or corrupt nobles anymore either.
Was it an elaborate act to avoid further disciplinary punishment?
Or…… perhaps the shock of being forced to live in a filthy livestock shed despite being a high noble had jolted his mind back into place.
Maybe the shock had been so great that even his personality had changed.
As she was thinking that, someone sat down beside her.
“It’s good, right? Billet’s good at cooking.”
Before she knew it, Rapin was beside her.
“…….”
Looking slightly flustered, Shia avoided her gaze and brought the apple to her mouth.
Even without an answer, Rapin continued chatting softly beside her.
“Shia, do you have a favorite food? If you tell him, he’ll make anything for you.”
“Rapin. Why are you speaking as if you’re the one who’ll cook for her?”
“If I ask, Billet makes everything.”
“…….”
A conversation bloomed, but Shia did not utter a single word in the end.
After finishing the meal, we moved again.
Using the ‘Danger Detection’ Skill, we avoided encounters with monsters as much as possible and headed toward the Central Area of the Island.
By the time the blue sky was dyed in golden sunset hues—
‘I’ve seen this place before.’
Even the scenery and the placement of the surrounding trees were exactly the same as in the game.
The moment I saw it, I knew we were close to our target—the nest of the giant white serpent, the boss.
And my prediction proved correct.
“……There.”
I hid behind a tree and looked in one direction.
In the distance, the enormous serpent lay coiled.
The giant white serpent that was meant to be the main boss monster of the Comprehensive Examination.
Normally, it would have been a raid boss requiring dozens of cadets to take down.
‘But now it’s different.’
The difference was clear. The current boss hadn’t been injected with an enhancement potion.
That meant it would be far easier to defeat than in the original storyline.
Still, we couldn’t let our guard down.
We needed a strategy, a surprise attack, and a preemptive strike.
But…… Shia wasn’t hiding. She was standing openly, staring straight at the monster. At this rate, the serpent would notice the intrusion.
“Why aren’t you hiding?”
It was just as I spoke.
Tap—!
Shia’s foot moved.
Instead of hiding, she dashed straight toward the giant white serpent alone.
‘……Don’t tell me she’s going to handle it by herself?’
She closed the distance in an instant.
Boom—!
A violent gust roared, followed by an explosive crash.
KEEEAAAGH—!
The giant white serpent let out a dying scream.
It had already been split in half.
And at the center of it stood Shia.
‘……In one strike?’
I was dumbfounded.
I knew it would be easier than usual, but I had never imagined it would be defeated with a single punch.
The serpent twitched briefly after being cleanly severed, then stopped moving and turned into black ash.
“……Billet, is it over?”
Rapin even began chanting the ultimate resurrection spell, but judging from the serpent’s state, there was no sign of revival.
For a boss monster, it had fallen too easily. It didn’t even feel real.
I looked at the System before me.
Progress 100%
First Quest Complete!
Thankfully, the System acknowledged the clear with a 100% completion judgment.
“Yeah. It looks like it ended before we could even do anything.”
“Mm. I’m glad no one got hurt.”
As Rapin said, if the problem was resolved like this, I had no complaints.
Was it because the main body had died?
The split offspring around it also collapsed and turned to black ash.
At some point, the ‘Danger Detection’ Skill that had been active in my mind stopped responding.
‘It’s all over.’
With this, the threat to the island had been eliminated.
“Good work.”
I approached Shia and spoke, but she didn’t even spare me a glance.
Her feet moved as she brushed past me.
“Hey, you’re just leaving?”
“……What needed to be done is finished.”
After saying that,
She ran off and disappeared from sight.
“…….”
I didn’t bother following her.
As she said, there was no reason for us to continue traveling together.
But—
“What’s wrong, Rapin?”
Rapin kept staring in the direction Shia had run.
Her eyes looked strangely regretful.
“……I want to be friends with Shia.”
Before I could ask why, Rapin continued.
“When I look at her, I see the me from before I met you, Billet.”
Did she feel a sense of kinship?
Well, Rapin had suffered under a witch, after all.
And Shia was enduring quite a bit under her father as well.
“Lotti told me. Yesterday morning, Shia cried. She said she was scared of having more surgery.”
……So that was it.
That must have been why Shia had desperately covered Rapin’s mouth.
Both Rapin and Shia had looked flustered then.
But that wasn’t something I needed to involve myself in.
“Still, with that uncooperative attitude, it’ll be hard to get close.”
“……Mm.”
Rapin nodded in the end.
‘Even so, thanks to Shia, more than a few things turned out well.’
During the Comprehensive Examination, she had nearly burned the island down. But now, she had protected it.
If she hadn’t been eliminating monsters since yesterday, the island’s damage would have spiraled out of control.
The animals would have been in grave danger as well.
‘There’s no doubt—I received her help.’
I didn’t want to leave it at that while remaining indebted.
Strictly speaking, she was on the opposing side…… but she had helped me regardless. I wanted to offer a proper repayment.
I wondered what I could give her as compensation, and then the wound on her neck came to mind.
It kept bothering me.
‘But with her personality, there’s no way she’d allow me to touch her.’
If I reached out to heal that wound, my body might end up split in two like that monster. I had to avoid that at all costs.
‘Still, it can’t be good for her to walk around showing that wound.’
The bandages didn’t fully cover it. It looked rather unpleasant.
‘Even if I can’t heal it, at least I can hide it.’
I opened my Subspace and reached inside.
What I took out was a thin piece of cloth.
A handkerchief made from the silk of a Thousand-Year Butterfly Larva.
It wasn’t some extraordinary piece of equipment. It was literally just a handkerchief.
I had only made it as practice before crafting equipment for Rapin.
‘She can wear it like a scarf to cover her neck.’
A handkerchief or a scarf—it was a difference of a single fold.
After all, something hung on the ear becomes an earring; hung on the nose, a nose ring.
But the problem lay elsewhere.
‘……How do I give this to her?’
Shia barely spoke to me and seemed almost disgusted by me.
There was no way she would accept a gift from me.
So…… I needed an intermediary to deliver it on my behalf.
And the answer to who that would be was obvious.
That night, beneath a bright moon.
Shia arrived beneath the Treehouse, dragging her weary body.
This was the place she spent every day with Lotti.
“Loo~tti, where are you~?”
As she called out, an instant later—
“Purung!”
With a cheerful cry, the silver deer came running.
“Ah, Lotti!”
Shia’s face brightened as she hugged her.
The moment she embraced Lotti, it felt as if the weight of her fatigue melted away.
But—
Purung~!
As if wanting to show her something, Lotti brought her face forward.
In her mouth was a white piece of cloth.
“What’s this? Is it for me?”
Purung!
She gently pressed the handkerchief against Shia’s neck.
Shia quickly understood the intent.
“Lotti, did my wound look painful?”
Pururung~!
“You brought this because you thought I should tie it like a bandage?”
Purur…… pu, purung!
The deer nodded, then hurriedly shook her head.
It seemed she had much more to say, but Shia couldn’t understand that far.
“Alright! I’ll use it as a new bandage.”
Shia accepted the cloth and tightly wrapped it around her neck.
Puru. Puru. Purung!
Flustered, Lotti shook her head and loosened it slightly.
“Lotti, what’s wrong? Ah, are you going to tie it for me?”
Pu…… rung!
Trembling slightly, Lotti tied the cloth.
Billet and Rapin had carefully taught her how to tie it like a scarf.
Recalling that, she moved her mouth.
Before long, a neat ribbon-shaped knot rested just below Shia’s neck.
It looked beautifully arranged.
The ugly stitch marks and scabbed wound were perfectly hidden.
“Ah…….”
A smile spread across Shia’s face.
“It’s such a pretty bandage!”
With a satisfied expression, she touched the scarf around her neck.
It was as soft as Lotti’s fur.
Comfortable. Though it was only tied around her neck, it felt as if her whole body were wrapped in a warm, fluffy blanket.
And……
“……That’s strange.”
She didn’t know the principle behind it, but the nagging pain scratching at her nerves was gone.
“Lotti. It doesn’t hurt anymore! Really!”
It was just a single piece of cloth.
So why did it make one corner of her heart feel so warm?
As she fiddled with the scarf, her eyes caught a single letter embroidered in one corner.
Just one letter.
She read it aloud.
“V……?”
What did it mean?
It felt familiar somehow, but she couldn’t quite remember.
“Thank you. I’ll keep wearing it from now on!”
With the white scarf around her neck, Shia hugged Lotti and said that.