IDMWE 07

Chapter 07

It was at that moment that Rigan, finally realizing Leona was no longer looking at him, was about to turn his head following her gaze.

“Duck!”

At the same time as she shouted, Leona pushed Rigan’s connected hand with great force.

Caught off guard by the sudden action, Rigan had no choice but to fall backward.

“Ugh.”

The moment his back hit the ground with a strong impact, Rigan saw an object flying in from somewhere in his field of vision. With a loud noise, an object about two knuckles long embedded itself in the carriage wall.

Rigan immediately recognized what had pierced halfway through the thick carriage wall.

“…A mana bullet?”

Rigan’s eyes wavered as he confirmed the bullet made of Aether. The spot where the mana bullet had struck was exactly where his head had been.

“The flaming guy earlier was just a distraction!”

Leona shouted loudly.

With the surprise attack having failed, the enemy sniper, whose position had been revealed, immediately attempted to flee.

Leona quickly tried to get up and give chase, but it wasn’t easy because of her hand connected to Rigan.

“Ah, seriously.”

Leona’s eyes quickly scanned Rigan, who was lying beneath her. It was clear there wasn’t enough time to get him up and chase after the enemy together.

In the end, Leona raised her upper body while still lying on top of Rigan.

Naturally, this put Leona in a position straddling Rigan’s lower abdomen.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Ugh, what are you doing?! Get off!”

“Just stay still.”

*Thud*—.

Leona drove the sword in her hand into the ground right next to Rigan’s face, which was trying to squirm away.

“……”

Cowed by her forcefulness, Rigan had no choice but to shut his mouth.

Once Rigan quieted down, Leona quickly rummaged inside her uniform with her free hand.

What she pulled out was a short-barreled mana pistol.

“Good thing I brought it just in case.”

Then, without a moment’s hesitation, she fired three shots in rapid succession.

*Bang, bang, bang!*

Even with one hand, it was flawless marksmanship.

*Thud*—.

The fleeing enemy was seen collapsing in the distance.

Without even needing to check, all three shots had hit their mark.

“Phew—.”

After confirming the enemy was incapacitated, Leona playfully blew on the muzzle.

At that moment, the wind brushed through Leona’s red hair.

Leona’s gaze from above met Rigan’s gaze from below, lying down and looking up at her.

“Who says I can’t do long-range attacks?”

“……”

“Ah, I guess a dim-witted mage who couldn’t even notice a mana bullet flying toward his back wouldn’t know that the Knight Division has a marksmanship course, right?”

And I got a perfect score in marksmanship for all three years. Leona grinned as she delivered the final blow.

After handing over the situation to the security forces who arrived subsequently, Rigan and Leona returned to headquarters.

After briefly reporting the situation to the startled personnel who saw their clasped hands, the sky was already growing dark.

“Whose fault is it that we have to go through all this hardship on the very first day?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

Bickering with each other, Rigan and Leona made their way to the visitor lodging a little distance from headquarters.

They each had their own assigned dormitories, but the reason was that they both absolutely hated the idea of letting the other into their respective rooms.

The problem began after the two entered the room.

“I’m feeling a bit hungry.”

At Leona’s words, Rigan flatly refused.

“Absolutely not. Endure it for a day.”

“Why! We haven’t even had a proper meal!”

They hadn’t been able to eat lunch or dinner because they’d been caught up in all sorts of commotions all day long.

As the hungry Leona roared, Rigan silently averted his gaze somewhere.

‘Ah.’

The place his gaze was directed at was the bathroom. Only then realizing the gravity of the situation, Leona quietly shut her mouth.

“Um, changing clothes is going to be difficult too, right?”

It was hard to call it a battle, but they had rolled around on the dirt floor, so their clothes were dirty.

However, right now, Leona’s left hand and Rigan’s right hand were touching each other.

No matter how hard they tried to take off their clothes with one hand, it would just get caught on the other arm.

“Huff… First, take it off and then cut one sleeve with a knife or scissors. I’ll cast a restoration spell on it.”

Rigan didn’t want to keep wearing dirty clothes either. Restoration magic was a simple spell that didn’t consume much Aether, so it wouldn’t be too much of a strain.

“Oh, thanks!”

Leona beamed and quickly rummaged through her bag to find a change of clothes.

Seeing that, Rigan quickly turned his body, hiding their connected hand behind his back.

“…Hurry up.”

“Ugh, this is hard.”

Leona held the clothes and rustled around for a while.

However, putting on and taking off clothes with one hand was no easy task.

“Ah, my underwear really won’t come off.”

Eventually, frustrated after struggling with her underwear for several minutes, Leona momentarily forgot Rigan was there and casually blurted it out without thinking.

Hearing that, Rigan jumped up and shouted.

“Hey! What kind of girl talks like that in front of a guy?!”

At Rigan’s overly sensitive reaction, a curt reply also escaped Leona’s lips.

“Making a fuss over just one word. It’s not like I showed you anything.”

“Sh-show me what?! You’re really such a—.”

“What? Do I look like a girl to you? All I see in front of me isn’t a man, just a blockheaded mage.”

Leona, who was about to even blurt out “Are you a virgin by any chance?”, barely managed to stop herself by slapping her own mouth.

She was aware that going that far would be crossing the line.

‘Of course, with that face, there’s no way he is.’

From his academy days, it was said that if his talent appeared once in a hundred years, his looks appeared once in a thousand years.

Of course, Leona made sure to add, “And his filthy personality is about one in ten thousand years.”

Anyway, Leona was also aware that she had misspoken.

Having rolled around to survive among the rough male knights, her speech had become coarse and she had developed a habit of speaking without thinking… That was definitely something she needed to fix.

‘It’s this damn mouth of mine. Let’s be more careful!’

But separately from that, she was genuinely annoyed at Rigan, so she didn’t want to apologize obediently.

“…Huff, fine. Why am I even talking to someone like you.”

From behind his back, Rigan’s sighing words could be heard.

That irritating tone only soured Leona’s mood further.

‘Yeah, as if I’d apologize to a guy like that.’

As the two clamped their mouths shut, silence eventually filled the room.

Only the sound of Leona changing clothes echoed in the space.

‘This is driving me crazy, seriously!’

And in that awkward silence, Rigan was having just as miserable a time.

He could barely stand being in the same room with a woman other than his nanny for the first time in his life.

‘Underwear! Isn’t that idiot out of her mind?!’

Does she have no awareness that she’s in a room with a man right now?

And the way she just straddled me earlier!

The image of Leona, mounted on top of him and firing her mana pistol in rapid succession, automatically replayed in Rigan’s mind.

The moment his thoughts drifted to their connected lower bodies, Rigan’s face instantly flushed bright red.

‘What am I thinking! Snap out of it, Rigan Clanford!’

Rigan quickly shook his head vigorously to dispel the afterimages in his mind.

‘Ah, come to think of it…’

After brushing away those embarrassing situations, one thing remained.

Regardless of the circumstances, the fact that Leona had saved him from almost being hit by a mana bullet.

‘…Did I end up owing a debt?’

The fact that he, a genius mage, had been saved by that sword-wielding fool was utterly humiliating.

But separate from his wounded pride…

He couldn’t let receiving help slide without acknowledgement.

Eventually, with a sigh, Rigan spoke to Leona from behind his back.

“Hey.”

“What now. If you’re here to pick another fight, just stop.”

“No, that’s not it… Um… Is there anything you want?”

“While I’m changing clothes, what kind of nonsense is that out of the blue?”

Leona retorted at Rigan’s unexpected words.

“Because of the mana bullet… incident earlier. And if anything I said upset you, I’ll just compensate you with money, so let’s call it even.”

It was another expression of ‘thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’ that Rigan had squeezed out as best he could.

“Excuse me?”

“You know, girls like sparkly things, right? Like jewels. You can pick an expensive one.”

Leona couldn’t comprehend Rigan’s thought process of suddenly offering her money in the middle of their argument.

‘Is he really insane?’

But money from an insane person’s wallet is still money.

Leona decided not to overthink it and to seize the opportunity given.

“I don’t need jewels. Just buy me the throwing dagger set from the ‘Sacred Ground’ blacksmith’s new seasonal lineup, the ‘SSS-Grade Netherworld’s Black Dragon’s Roar’ series.”

“S-grade, Netherworld, what?”

Rigan was flustered by the sudden stream of words.

“You don’t need to know. Just tell the blacksmith to send the bill to the Clanford family, okay?”

“…Fine, whatever.”

Thanks to that, the two barely managed to conclude something resembling a reconciliation.

‘Because of those crazy constellations, what is this nonsense… I’m going to invent a magic spell for changing clothes.’

While barely fastening the last button with one hand, Rigan made that vow inwardly.

“I’m done. You can turn around now.”

And so, the two, having finally finished changing, faced each other.

“Hah?”

“What is it?”

Leona and Rigan were speechless upon seeing each other’s changed outfits.

“What are you, an actor in a theater troupe?”

“And you look like a homeless person from Central Station.”

Thus began Round 2.