The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 59

59.

“I’m just going for a walk. It’s a secret from Mom!”

Blank stares focused on Kasena. Soon, the head of the guard shouted.

“Lady, how are you standing…? No, a walk, what on earth are you…?”

“A walk is a walk!”

Kasena threw herself off the railing, and gravity and updrafts soon enveloped her. Not only the guardian knight but also Rain’s eyes widened.

“N, no, wait a minute!”

*What kind of recklessness is this… How long has it been since she saw me, and she trusts me this much? What if she dies doing that?*

Before he could even shout, he had to jump down as well.

Hair wildly fluttering, a sense of floating overwhelmed by gravity. In that sensation, Kasena was laughing gleefully.

“The form of the magic circle is a fan shape, the runes to engrave are ‘board’ and ‘float’!”

To explain, it’s about engraving the qualities of ‘foothold’ and ‘levitation’ into wind attribute magic. Soon, the headwind calmed, and the falling speed slowed down.

“Look at that, isn’t it really pretty… ?!”

The exclamation resonating from Kasena’s chest was released as a white breath.

“It’s been so long…! Looking down on this city like this…!”

That was the first time Kasena showed me a pure smile.

*‘Pretty,’ I thought.*

Even within the yin energy [passive, withdrawn energy] of a shut-in that was gnawing at the girl’s beauty… or rather, was it beautiful precisely because it was contrasted?

It seemed like the first time since Rista that I thought a woman was beautiful.

“You know… I really liked seeing this, but that’s not why I always went to high places.”

“Why is that?”

“Because then Mom would look at me. Mom and Dad were always busy and didn’t look at me much….”

*Heh, so there was such a story.*

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Around that time, a bell rang from the mansion, signaling an emergency, and shouts from soldiers were heard from above.

“Anyway, you know this city well, right? I have no sense of direction.”

*Thanks to that, didn’t I get lost on the day of the entrance exam and have to take an additional test?*

Then, a confident, almost arrogant expression, bloomed on Kasena’s face.

“Hmph! Who do you think I am? I’m a woman who has a knack for deceiving my mother and the guards to run away.”

Kasena scoffed and pointed to the left.

“Let’s go there! If you go a little further from there, there’s a rice cake shop, and their honey rice cakes are really delicious.”

“Yes, yes.”

He controlled the magic to change the direction of the fall. As they slowly descended from the sky, people could be seen panicking and whispering.

“Oh, what is that?”

Amidst that attention, Kasena excitedly hit Rain’s arm.

“I’m going to run as soon as we land!”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to run excitedly as soon as we land! Do that for me, okay?!”

*Controlling the nervous system with magic is also my first time, so it’s not like I can do it as I please, but she’s only saying comfortable things.*

Still, I can’t refuse that bright face… I’m in a position hired as a tutor, so should I do my best for now?

Kasena, who landed awkwardly, soon began to run barefoot, and her disheveled lavender hair fluttered vigorously.

“Oh, hey, that hair color, could it be….”

“The Page family…?”

As expected, perhaps because of her highly distinctive hair color, the sound of passersby murmuring could be heard. Regardless, Kasena excitedly turned the corner.

“Hurry, hurry up! It’s right over there!”

*I wish you knew how hard it is to move your body with magic while also moving my body….*

“I’m running, I’m running!”

However, because she was smiling so brightly, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse a smiling face.

“Here it is, here!”

The place Kasena ran to with vigor was in front of a rice cake shop.

“All the rice cakes here, give me this and that!”

The shop owner, with white hair sparsely spread on the display stand, blinked his eyes. Then, a faint voice trembled.

“K, K, Kasena, Miss Kasena?”

“Yeah, it’s me! Long time no see, right?”

“I can’t believe this… No, how, I even heard you had passed away.”

The shop owner looked at Kasena, who was chewing on rice cakes with her mouth full, and teared up.

“It was my pleasure to see the young lady come to this humble place and eat the rice cakes so deliciously, I don’t know how to express this feeling.”

“There’s no need to. We’ll see each other often from now on!”

Kasena pointed to me, who had arrived a beat late, and told him to give me a white honey rice cake skewer, and the shop owner carefully asked as he handed it over.

“Who might this person be…?”

“This guy? He’s my tutor. Still a temporary candidate!”

*Well done, really.*

Even while being forced to eat honey rice cakes at Kasena’s insistence, I had to feel the pressure that the rice cake would get stuck in my throat any moment.

Because in that distant sky, figures descending from the sky with magic similar to mine could be seen. The Page family’s shield, the Magic Guard.

“You have to decide here and now whether you’re going to run away or get caught.”

As soon as she saw that, Kasena stuffed the rice cake skewers she was holding in both hands into her cheeks like a squirrel.

I guess that means she’s going to run away.

Really tiring… I hurriedly took out my money pouch, but the shop owner waved his hand.

“Oh, no, no! How could I take money from the young lady! Just go!”

“If I don’t give you this, it’ll cause problems later. Then.”

After roughly handing over a silver coin, he began to run through the city with Kasena.

Bumping into pedestrians, pushing through crowds… Even while doing so, Kasena perfectly guided the way through the alleys here and there. In a very excited voice.

Is she so happy that she can run through the streets she loves without being pointed at by anyone?

“There, to the right! There’s a fountain coming up soon! Turn left there! You idiot! Not that left, that left! Are you directionally challenged? Can’t you even find your way?”

“Which left is *that* left, huh?!”

However, these runaway antics are useless in front of skilled hunters.

One on the roof….

And another one right behind. Still, since there’s a risk of Kasena getting hurt, they won’t use dangerous attack magic.

*‘They’re narrowing the encirclement in an instant. Impressive.’*

Then I should get caught around here so that I don’t get hurt and Kasena doesn’t get hurt either.

“What, your running speed has slowed down!”

“Mana, I’m short on mana.”

Actually, I’m not short.

Like that, gradually slowing down the running speed, the moment I entered an alley where there was no one as if by mistake, my foot got caught on something and I flew into the sky.

And there was a clanging sound that came half a beat late.

One of the sonic speed footwork techniques shown by those who have reached the pinnacle of quick sword.

“Caught you.”

Just before I was about to fall head over heels in an unsightly manner, I rolled on the ground with a breakfall to get up, and soon I could face absolute pressure.

It was an old knight.

The armor reflecting the twilight was not an expensive decoration but a display of the owner’s strength with the scars of fierce years, and behind him, three rings of mana flickered brilliantly.

Mana of swordsmen.

Chain (鎖; *ManaChain*). [A swordsman’s ability to enhance their physical abilities with mana.]

Even three layers… Isn’t the realm of the Triple Chain a realm reached by a genius among geniuses? For reference, Rista had four layers.

The old knight, who had appeared at some point, was holding Kasena respectfully.

In that instant, he disarmed me by tripping me and secured Kasena at the same time.

Swan, the guardian knight of the Ludwig family, is also a great talent at a young age, but as expected, the head guardian knight of the Page family is an unbelievably skilled person.

“Let go, Ansein, let go of this! Let me go! Rain!”

“I cannot do that, young lady.”

“Run away, you run away!”

“If you try to run away, I will have no choice but to resort to force, Rain Ludwig.”

The eyes looking at me from the old knight’s wrinkled eyes shone eerily.

Is there no way to escape….

The Magic Guard appeared on both sides of the roof. But even if it wasn’t them, I wasn’t going to run away anyway.

“This bastard, this son of a bitch….”

Soon, a middle-aged man appeared, panting, leading countless guards. Kasena’s father, Yuren.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you on the spot… Rain Ludwig.”

“The young lady said she wanted to see the city, so I just showed it to her.”

“You were trying to kidnap her! What are you doing taking a child who can’t even walk properly!”

Is he so shocked by the incident that he can’t make a judgment in his head? Yuren raised his fist and huffed, then looked at the old knight.

“Ansein!”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Summary judgment, I will cut off this guy’s wrist here!”

Wrist? No, the story is getting too rough? But here, you can just wait.

“Your Highness, but this person is a scion of a magical family.”

“I am the Grand Duke of the Arphen Royal Family!”

Ansein seemed hesitant because I was a scion of a magical family, but reluctantly put his hand on the hilt of his sword at his master’s command.

It looks very urgent, but here I also have something I firmly believe in.

That is.

“Don’t touch my tutor!”

Kasena’s loyalty.

The moment Kasena shouted that, Ansein, who was approaching me, stopped abruptly.

Yuren blinked his eyes.

“Kasena, what did you just say…?”

“Dad is stupid! I hate you, I hate you! You never try to listen to me!”

“That guy lured you out and tried to kidnap you. How can you defend such a guy….”

I’m sorry.

I’m not an idiot, why would I do that….

“No! That’s not it! Rain was the first! Rain was the first to know what I wanted and let me go outside!”

“If it’s a walk, I can do it as much as you want….”

“With dozens of guards? People point fingers! They laugh while watching! I’ve told you so many times, but you didn’t listen, did you!”

“I was thinking of your safety─”

“─Yes, you would have! You were thinking of my safety! But you didn’t think about my heart… even a little bit….”

Tears flowed endlessly from Kasena’s face as she shouted that. It was truly the moment when the wedge was driven into the match.

Not only the old knight Ansein and the guards, who were showing vigilance towards me, but also Yuren, who had been furious until just now, didn’t know what to do and was sweating profusely.

“D, don’t cry, Kasena. I was wrong. But is it any different for this guy to take you out than to bring a bodyguard? The people would have looked at you strangely.”

“He didn’t just take me out. He made me run! He said he would make me walk again!”

Yuren blinked his eyes as if he was dumbfounded. And when he looked at Ansein, Ansein nodded politely.

“Yes, the young lady was definitely running… I (臣) [humble ‘I’ in Japanese], was also surprised.”

“What’s the point of telekinesis? How many magicians have tried to make you walk with that? You were the one who refused all of them.”

“No, that’s not it! I can feel myself running. It was different from telekinesis! Dad, I want to learn magic from Rain. So I can walk with my own strength!”

What words should be used to describe the emotions that surged hotly in Yuren’s heart at that moment?

The child who had abandoned the present, the future, and the past, and was just locked in a room hoping to die, is saying words that look to the future?

Yuren blankly looked back and forth between Kasena and Rain, then strode up to Rain and grabbed both shoulders.

“Is that true? Will you really make my daughter walk?”

“W, well, I’ll have to try, but I don’t think it’ll be that difficult.”

“Forgive me for the mistake of saying strange things because I was out of my mind. And if, if you really do that… I will give you an enormous reward. If it’s something I can’t do on my own, I’ll ask my brother, the Grand Duke of Arphen, to do it!”

*I’ve already been promised a reward, so that’s enough. A reward from the Grand Duke, it’s just burdensome.*

Anyway, did the gamble succeed….

Whew, it was a heart-pounding moment, but it seems to have ended well. Now my aunt will be cleared of charges, and I will get access to the forbidden book list.

*‘What….’*

Rain glanced at Kasena, who was nodding at Yuren’s changed attitude. She was smiling as if she had never cried.

*‘It seems like the favorability side has been resolved roughly well.’*

Starting with that day’s incident, the job of tutoring Kasena Page, the heir to the Page baronial family, was added to his already busy life.