Chapter 10

The door was knocked on, and Baudi's voice asked for permission to enter.

"Miss, can I come in?"

"Wait a minute!"

She stuffed the notebook under her pillow, leaned back, quickly straightened the blanket, and put on the shawl that always lay by her pillow.

All done in four seconds! How about that, pretty quick, huh?

"Come in, then."

Good, safe! I don't think he suspects anything.

I'm a bit worried about what's under the pillow, but I can't let him see. I mustn't worry about it.

"Can you eat something? I brought it. ...What's wrong? Your hair is all messy."

As he placed the tray of food on the desk, she remembered she had just woken up. She tried to comb her hair with her fingers, but Baudi took a comb out of his pocket.

If the pillow moved, it would be bad, so she firmly declined his offer to comb her hair and promised to do it herself later.

"Oh, right! Hey, Baudi, do you know what magical artifacts are?"

"Huh? Magical artifacts? What's up, Miss?"

Yeah, I guess you would wonder, right? But I won't back down.

"Hey, how do they work? Don't they study that at magic school?"

"Ah, I see. Did you talk about school with the Duchess's daughter yesterday?"

He seemed to have come to that conclusion on his own and brought over a palm-sized glass object from her desk. When he touched a part of its base, a light turned on.

Yeah, it's a touch-sensitive light, right? Oh, I see, I didn't notice because it works just like in Japan, but this is a magical artifact too.

"This is the easiest magical artifact to understand. In principle, if you open the cover at the bottom, you'll find a magic stone inside. There's a magic circuit inside here, and it uses the magic stone's power to light up."

He flipped the light over, unscrewed the cover, and revealed a square stone inside, which was the magic stone.

Ah, I remember!

This is a clump of magic that you get from defeating a magical beast. I think it's a crystallized form of magic inside the beast's body... like a gallstone, kind of. Maybe not exactly, but close.

I remember that you get small magic stones from small magical beasts and large ones from large magical beasts.

...Memory, you know, it comes out when you have a trigger, but when you can't remember, it just doesn't come out at all... Pfft, that clumsy Reimi!

"Is it not possible to see the magic circuit?"

"Touching it carelessly is dangerous, and artifact makers don't want their circuits seen, so special procedures are needed."

I see, it's like a trade secret.

I really want to take it apart, but if it's expensive, it would be a pain, so I'll leave it alone.

"I see, then I'll look forward to learning about it at magic school."

When she said that, he looked at her intently.

Did I say something strange? I just said I'm looking forward to studying, right?

When she tilted her head, trying to figure out the meaning of his gaze, he seemed to realize something, closed the cover of the light, put it back on the desk, and tried to bring the food to her bed.

"Oh, I'll go there, so just leave it there, okay?"

She didn't like eating in bed.

So, she got up, put her hand on the desk, and stood on one foot. She sat down in the chair he quickly pulled out for her. Yeah, it's getting much smoother.

"I wasn't mistaken, was I..."

He said it as if he couldn't help it. Ah, right, this was the first time he saw me standing.

I always practiced secretly in my room.

If he saw me, it must have been the first day I stood up.

He didn't see me crying, right? That was Reimi's sentimentality, so it doesn't count for me, but if he saw my crying face, it would be embarrassing.

"I can do this much. Oh, right! Do you have crutches? If I had those, I could move around much more easily."

"Crutches..."

He looked shocked, but she continued without paying attention.

"If I had those, I could move around more. I've lost a lot of stamina in the past year and get tired easily, so from now on, I want to move around more and build up my strength. I want to be... well, half a person by the time I enter magic school."

With a determined expression, she declared her resolve, and he looked like he might cry... but his twisted face quickly turned into his usual grin, so maybe it was a mistake... He patted her head with his large hand.

He hadn't done that in a long time, and it made her heart flutter.

"That's a good attitude. I'll get you crutches right away."

He said that, kissed her forehead, and left the room.

...Baudi! That's the kind of thing you do! Ah, Reimi's heart is going to explode!

After taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she started to eat the lunch he had brought.