The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies

3 – The Trigger (01)

004.

*

The day Kallen met Blamia, his benefactor and teacher, was about two years ago.

The two disciples instinctively knew.

The time to part ways was approaching.

-Boom!!

“…”

“Huh…”

The big and small changes that occurred over the two years.

The small training ground that had been set up haphazardly in the backyard was one of them.

And in the middle of that backyard,

a large magical trace had created a deep pit.

“Second rank.”

Blamia looked at the pit and spoke calmly.

Kallen listened to those words, panting.

“You’re fast, Kallen.”

“…Thanks to you, Master.”

“What you just used is a second-rank combat attribute magic, ‘Explosion.’”

“Yes.”

The clear imprint on the ground.

However, the flow of mana was still not felt.

That was another peculiarity of Kallen.

Although the various spells of the first rank still had the feeling of magic,

from the second rank, where they started to be divided according to attributes, that feeling was almost gone.

Was it because he didn’t use mana?

A laugh escaped at the sight of him mastering second-rank magic at the age of thirteen.

But that was why they were parting.

The boy in Blamia’s eyes, fortunately, understood the old man’s heart.

“If that rascal could follow even half of your example, it would be good.”

“The young lady is doing well.”

“Even though you’re the same age, how long will you keep calling her ‘young lady’? Still, thanks to you, she seems to have taken an interest, which is fortunate.”

Was that why he was unnecessarily bringing up Sinat to change the subject?

It was Kallen who brought up the main topic.

“Thank you for everything, Master.”

“You knew?”

“You can’t take responsibility for me forever. Thank you for taking in a homeless kid and even providing a way to live.”

“…If your talent wasn’t noteworthy, I couldn’t have done even that. It’s something you can like a bit more.”

There were no tears shed in regret for parting,

nor was there a grand farewell ceremony.

They just calmly understood each other’s circumstances.

Thanks to the perceptive Kallen, it was Blamia who felt rather bitter.

Indeed, the kid was still mature beyond his years.

*

Groan-

It was common for Blamia to groan.

Mostly when Sinat troubled him with magic.

But now the situation was a bit different.

– No! No! I said I like it!

– You never said you liked it until now, Grandpa! You said you brought me to make friends!

– If it’s not Kallen, I don’t want it… Grandpa brought him, so why are you sending him away…

Kallen was a quiet person, but that seemed to suit Sinat better.

Of course, there was no other way since he was trying so hard to protect Kallen.

“Why are you trying to send him away again…?”

Blamia asked herself.

It was just a monologue with no one to hear, but it was the best way to organize her thoughts.

Bringing Kallen was purely because of Sinat.

After all, she didn’t like anyone, so she did it out of spite, but there was also a sense of urgency that there might not be a single person in the world who Sinat liked.

However, by chance, it seemed that Kallen, whom she had picked up randomly, was exactly to her granddaughter’s liking.

That became Blamia’s dilemma.

At first, Blamia also saw Kallen as a pitiful kid whose status was unfortunate compared to his talent.

But as time went by, she began to see her past mistakes reflected in Kallen more frequently.

That’s why she was trying to kick Kallen out, making excuses that she wasn’t a good person from the start.

In fact, it wouldn’t be strange at all to take responsibility from the moment she brought him until the end.

She even stayed by his side for a while to see if he was a strange kid, and now that she had achieved the goal of making a friend for Sinat, there was no need to force him out.

But she was terribly afraid of the nightmare she had tried so hard to forget coming back to life.

“It’s difficult… so difficult…”

How nice it would have been if Sinat’s parents and children were alive at times like this. They would have been much better than herself, for sure.

Blamia swallowed such regrets and quietly shook off her thoughts.

Now was the time to do the postponed work.

She had rested enough for Sinat and Kallen.

In the end, she failed to persuade Sinat, so she had to leave it to Kallen.

She had to go deal with the backlog of work for now, but when she returned, Kallen would have persuaded Sinat.

With that hope, Blamia moved to find Kallen.

Even if she was a great wizard or whatever, Blamia couldn’t win against Sinat.

Because she was her most precious granddaughter in the world.

*

“Wow…! If you’re already at the 2nd rank, won’t you become like our grandfather later?”

“Who knows.”

“No, no. I believe Kalen will definitely become a great mage. After all, he’s a friend of mine, Sinat Dranus.”

“…By the way, why did you call me?”

“Huh? Oh, right.”

In the small backyard training ground.

If you walk straight along that path, there’s a small hilly ridge.

Especially at sunset, the slightly darkened twilight scenery was quite beautiful.

Kalen and Sinat were talking there as usual.

The moderately flat stone embedded in the ground was like their own private seat.

After exchanging a few trivial jokes,

they began to open up their hearts, starting with a brief silence.

Sinat, who had called Kalen to the hill, and Kalen, who vaguely guessed Sinat’s intention, thought it was a good time to bring up the main topic.

“Hey… Kalen, do you dislike me?”

After being together for two years, there are a few things you learn whether you want to or not.

One of them was that Sinat’s favorite place in the world was this twilight hill,

and that when she wanted to have a serious conversation, she would call him by his name instead of a nickname.

“Why do you think that?”

“Even though I told you not to use formal speech, you keep doing it… You don’t call me by my nickname… And I’m always the one who starts the conversation…”

It didn’t look good for the always lively girl to be talking so timidly.

Kalen carefully chose his words.

“Dislike? Why would I dislike the lady who first approached someone like me with nothing?”

“…Then why are you trying to leave?”

Only then did Kalen realize why Sinat looked so depressed.

Thinking that Sinat had found out that he had to leave soon, Kalen recalled Blamia’s words.

– Try to persuade Sinat. She doesn’t listen to me at all, but maybe you’ll be different.

Blamia was not good with words.

Even though he was a great mage, he hated showing his face to the outside world.

It seemed Sinat had misunderstood Blamia’s words.

“Hmm…”

But Kalen was also not good with words.

After scratching his head for a long time, Kalen finally spoke.

“I don’t know either.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know why I have to leave. No, I still don’t know why you took me in in the first place.”

Unorganized words lack coherence and sometimes fail to convey the intended meaning.

But they are sincere.

Though the words are raw and unrefined, they are genuine because of it.

“Well, maybe it’s something like that. Just like there was no reason for Master to take me in. It’s just time to leave.”

That sincerity had a certain weight, compelling the listener to focus.

It gave strength to the somewhat lacking persuasion.

“Rather, I’m grateful that you took in a nobody like me and raised me this much. And…”

An awkwardness bubbling up from deep within.

To clear up Sinat’s misunderstanding, the inarticulate Kallen stopped using honorifics for the first time.

“I don’t dislike you, Sinat. If someone as… pretty as you treats me well, I’d like it.”

But there was no way to stop the regret that came rushing in.

People Kallen met at the gambling house.

Among them, there was a man who was always drunk who once said,

-When persuading people, there’s nothing better than compliments, kid. Hahaha!! Huh? If you flatter them a bit, you can easily get a silver coin, that’s what I’m saying!

The situation was a bit different, but anyway, since he was trying to soothe Sinat, he thought it would be effective.

As Kallen was deeply regretting his words, he heard a faint laugh.

“Pff… Pfft!”

When Kallen looked at Sinat with a puzzled expression, Sinat was holding his stomach and wiping away tears.

“Why do you say things so awkwardly…!”

“That…”

“Haa… Haa… Ah, it’s funny…”

How long did they laugh?

As the awkward silence settled between Sinat and Kallen, who had finally caught their breath,

“But still…”

Sinat placed his arms on his knees, rested his chin on his hands, and smiled at Kallen.

“It wasn’t a complete zero, Kal.”

“…”

“I’ll try to understand. But don’t expect too much. I don’t want to let go of a friend who fits so well like you.”

Watching that smile lightly tinged with the sunset glow, Kallen could understand a little why Sinat liked the sunset here the most.

*

After having a sincere conversation on the hill, Kallen could no longer return to formal speech.

It wasn’t because he was afraid Sinat would glare at him if he only used formal speech, but because he thought he might as well continue since he had already started using informal speech.

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait until the master returns?”

“No~ you fool. How can you not understand my feelings like that?”

How could he know her inner thoughts when she hadn’t even spoken?

Kallen felt wronged, but Sinat was still the granddaughter of his benefactor.

“This is… well… a kind of apology.”

“Apology?”

“I was a bit annoyed before grandpa left… and I feel sorry for that.”

Sinat had asked for help a little while ago.

Dragged along, wondering what was going on, Kallen finally realized Sinat’s feelings.

In short, she wanted to show her magical achievement as a form of apology and reconciliation for the argument they had before Blamia left.

It was indeed a very Sinat-like idea, and at the same time, the best apology for Blamia.

After all, he was an old man who loved magic and his granddaughter the most.

Recently, she had been working hard with interest, but achieving results was another matter.

There was nothing more certain than Sinat showing her magical achievement.

“Still, the second-tier magic seems too dangerous. I did it in front of the master too.”

“The contract attribute has the least risk of failure. Even if it goes wrong, it’s just a failed spirit contract.”

As Blamia had confirmed, Sinat’s magical attribute was ‘contract.’

However, she could only handle a few first-tier spells.

If she succeeded, it would indeed be a great event, but the second-tier was not a wall to be taken lightly.

However, the contract attribute was literally magic that made contracts with spirits of the spirit world.

The higher the tier, the higher the level of spirits she could contract with, and even if she failed, there was no great risk like other attributes.

Sinat pointed out that fact.

“…Alright.”

Kalen, who knew well the relationship between Blamia and Sinat, found it hard to ignore that feeling.

As Sinat said, contract attribute magic carries almost no risk.

It’s not that he couldn’t understand the granddaughter’s desire to apologize to her grandfather.

If it’s just a one-time attempt, it’s actually the right thing to help.

With only a slight sense of unease as a reason for opposition, Kalen soon decided to help Sinat.

“Really? Then I’ll go ahead and get ready!”

Kalen, temporarily setting aside that unease, simply followed the excited Sinat.