[V8C7] A Conflicted Pretty Boy, Unable to Understand Why This Brutish Man Is the Star of a Love Comedy, and Not the Pretty Boy
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryMonsters were waiting to ambush them in the town of Merwen and by the Western Wall.
Upon coming to that conclusion, the Wedge Tower mages elected to send the Apprentices back to the Wedge Tower via the Lange Hamlet.
Heading to the Lange Hamlet would be six people: the Apprentices Tia, Wren, Sevil and Rukiye, their instructor Hütter, and the Protection Office’s Otto for support.
The six of them disguised themselves as traveling merchants and their errand boys, then headed off by carriage towards the Lange Hamlet.
Hütter and Otto would take turns driving the carriage. Tia, with her keen eyes and ears, would stay on lookout.
Tia sat next to Otto as he held the reins, and looked up to the sky.
She couldn’t see any Monsters. Nor could she hear any calls that sounded like one.
Hütter had decided that the Monsters were staking out around the Western Wall, but now since they were inside the Wall, there was always a chance of them running into Monsters regardless.
The Monsters were targeting Wedge Tower mages. That said, it wasn’t so easy to identify a mage just from their looks.
Hütter had surmised that they were either indiscriminately attacking anyone wearing a robe, or they were attacking people based on information dug up by their thralls.
It was safe to assume that any who used flight magic to fly around would be attacked for certain. Only a certain kind of mage could even do that in the first place.
Therefore, Tia was forbidden from using the Magical Flying Device.
(But the Magical Flying Device couldn’t be fully repaired either…)
Rukiye did the best she could to repair it, but it would be hard to get it fully repaired without the Wedge Tower’s workshop.
According to Rukiye:
“I removed the torn wing and replaced it with a new once, but I think any long-distance flight would be a struggle. You can use the leaping mode as you always have, though.”
Basically, Tia could pretty much only leap for the time being. She wouldn’t be much use as a messenger like this.
She would finally be able to meet Frederik after so long, so Tia felt a little disappointed.
Frederik Lange was a generational talent in flight magic, and to Tia, he was her rival in flying.
Of course she would feel a little disappointed and frustrated to be meeting her rival yet unable to fly.
“Mr. Otto, what kind of place is the Lange Hamlet? Have you ever been there, Mr. Otto?”
Riding on the carriage, Tia fiddled with the hems of her brand new shirt as she asked Otto.
From the driver’s seat, Otto replied casually.
“The Lange Hamlet is part of a village called Dorn. Deep behind that village, there’s a strip of land and mountains ruled by the Lange Family, and we call that general area the Lange Hamlet, I suppose.”
It sounded like the Lange Family first became Monster Hunters in order to protect the land and mountains they lived on. That tradition has continued to the present day, where they have made a name for themselves as Monster Hunters.
Further back in the carriage, Wren heard their conversation and, through motion-sick wavering, spoke up.
“Then, does that mean Oliver and Frederik are rich kids?”
“Well, you’re not wrong about that. I’ve only seen their manor once, but it was quite impressive.”
Otto casually confirmed Wren’s question.
Tia didn’t really have a concept of what being a ‘rich kid’ entailed, but Wren seemed to think something of it.
“To imagine Oliver grew up as a rich kid… I dunno, it feels weird…”
Wren groaned with a tense expression, but Rukiye and Sevil objected to his assessment.
“Does it? I always thought it seemed like he came from a well-off household.”
“Indeed. I felt the same way.”
Wren’s face said it still didn’t make sense to him as he groaned.
Things like this were best asked to the person in question. Tia looked up to the sky and asked.
“Oliver!! Hey Oliver, are you a ‘rich kid’?!”
Otto, on the driver’s seat, and the others in the back of the carriage all reacted “What?” in chorus as they turned to look at Tia.
The response to her question came from directly overhead.
“No! In my family, the oldest son is treated the best. Therefore Brother is the rich kid!—”
Oliver came flying straight towards them from ahead, before quickly flying past the carriage, slamming directly into a large tree, and flopping unceremoniously onto the ground.
“To be honest, we’ve found evidence of Monsters.”
After being picked up by the carriage, Oliver spoke to them about the conditions of the Lange Hamlet.
Since the Lange Hamlet was located close to the Crystal Territory, several other Wedge Tower mages aside from Frederik were also stationed there.
Oliver, who had lately learned how to accomplish ‘horizontal flight’ with his flight magic, was also stationed in the Lange Hamlet as a messenger in all directions.
“The last time we met, you said you hadn’t found any Monster tracks around the Lange Hamlet for a while, didn’t you?”
In response to Sevil’s question, Oliver nodded. “Yes.”
Oliver always maintained his placid expression, although now his brows were drawn a little closer together than usual.
“We’ve only found traces of Monsters in the past few days. Thus, I was prepared to take off with flight magic to inform you, who we assumed to be somewhere near the border.”
It seemed that Oliver didn’t yet know of the King of Darwock’s death.
While word of mouth had probably already spread to some of the big towns, the Lange Hamlet was located on the periphery, so it took time for rumors from other countries to come trickling in.
The King of Darwock was dead, and the Monsters had disappeared.
Headmaster Möbius was providing watch around Prince Axel and the Queen’s faction.
Monsters had laid ambushes in Merwen and along the Western Wall, and killed the Wedge Tower’s messengers.
—As Hütter explained their situation, the creases on Oliver’s brow deepened.
“I couldn’t imagine that things had become so dire…”
“That’s why we took the Apprentices with us, and we’re stopping by the Lange Hamlet on our way back to the Wedge Tower.”
Hütter took the lead on explaining everything. As Oliver groaned, Hütter spoke calmly as he wiped the fog from his glasses.
Wren interrupted their discussion.
“Mr. Hütter, you’re surprisingly calm. It sounds like there’s Monsters here too, though.”
“Well, if Monsters are appearing all the way out in Merwen or along the Western Wall, of course there’s gonna be some Monsters showing up around here, so close to the Crystal Territory. But we’re far better off being here. There’s some capable fighters in the Lange Hamlet.”
The only ones among their group who could hold their own in a fight were the magic sword users Otto and Sevil.
Hütter couldn’t use his illusions freely, while Wren and Rukiye were strictly on support duties. Tia’s Magical Flying Device was damaged.
For this group of six, even a single Lesser Monster would be a handful.
But so long as they were in the Lange Hamlet, Frederik and the other vanguards of the Wedge Tower were here.
If they were to encounter Monsters either way they went, it made sense to choose the path that offered them the most powerful allies.
“It would be hard for me to make a decision like that in this situation…”
When Oliver groaned again, Tia leaned over and spoke up.
“You know, Oliver, I think you should give up on flying around as a messenger. You’re gonna be targeted by Monsters in the sky.”
Hütter nodded to Tia’s words.
“She’s right. It seems you’ve been lucky enough to evade detection so far, but I can’t guarantee you’ll be lucky forever.”
If you spotted a human flying, nine times out of ten, you could be certain that it was a mage of the Wedge tower.
If you were spotted, you would become a priority target for the Monsters.
“Not being able to fly… That makes me uneasy.”
Tia understood Oliver’s feelings all too well.
Be it Tia or Oliver, once you took flying away from them, their options became much more limited.
The whole group decided, for the time being, to travel with the newly acquired Oliver back to the Lange Hamlet.
With Oliver as a guide, it didn’t take them long to arrive at their destination.
Just before sunset, Tia and the others arrived at the village of Dorn, where the Lange Hamlet was.
Tucked into the foothills of the mountains, Dorn may have been only a village, but it was relatively prosperous and its population was nothing to sneeze at.
Tia and the others dismounted from their carriage. Mostly to the benefit of motion-sick Wren, who moaned “I’d rather walk on the ground…”
Wren stumbled as he walked. Between shaky steps, he looked up to Oliver and asked:
“Oliver, is your house that huge one over there by the mountains?”
Wren pointed his finger towards a building surrounded by a sturdy stone wall. It almost felt more like a small fortress than a manor.
“Yes, that’s my family’s home. Brother and the other mages are inside. Let me guide you.”
Just as Oliver said that and started walking, a black-haired girl who looked like one of the villagers ran up to them.
She was a short girl who looked to be somewhere in her late teens. She was not well-dressed, but she had a simple cuteness about her. Yet, she looked a little too gaunt and her face was a little too pale.
“Oh Oliver!”
Oliver stopped and turned around at the sound of her voice. “Romy?” He muttered. It sounded like that was the girl’s name.
The girl called Romy smiled and looked up at Oliver.
“You came back so fast! Could it be, did you run into a Monster? … Oh, your forehead is a little red…”
Romy lowered the tips of her brows in concern. She stretched in an attempt to reach Oliver’s forehead.
But the height gap between the tall Oliver and diminutive Romy was too great, and her arm just barely couldn’t reach. Her hand shook at its maximum extent.
Tia could hear Hütter muttering under his breath “Come on, bend over you blockhead.”
All of a sudden, Romy’s body tilted over. Oliver reacted quickly by sticking out an arm and holding Romy steady.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Wa– Wa– I’m sorry…”
Romy laughed cheerfully, but it was clear that she was suffering from poor nutrition. Her arms and legs were far thinner than other girls her age, and the color of blood was absent from her face.
Despite that, Romy was more concerned for Oliver’s well-being than her own.
“Oliver, your forehead’s all red. You’re not bleeding, but do you need me do look at it?”
“I’m worried about you too, Romy. Are you feeling anemic? You know, a good diet is the first step to a healthy life. You look like you’re not eating enough meat and beans. They’re field rations, but I’ve got some beans on me I can give you.”
“I’m just fine, okay! More importantly, you’ve got to report to your brother, right? Come on, you can’t slack on your work!”
Romy circled around behind Oliver and pushed on his back with her delicate arms.
…Wren, who’d been watching this whole thing play out, twisted his lips in discontent.
Tia was curious, so she asked Wren:
“Wren, what’s up? You’re looking less like a pretty boy, you know?”
“It feels weird to see Oliver be popular with the girls…”
“…Piyo?”
“You know, it’s Oliver we’re talking about?”
“…Pefuu?”
Wren pursed his lips and muttered objectionably “Even though there’s a once-in-a-million pretty boy right here…”