Jared Murphy was sitting directly on the ground in the backyard of the Alway Ducal Family Villa, meditating to recover from the wounds he sustained in a fierce battle with Pfeil, an assassin from Waalthe.
As an Earth Elemental Mage with the rare talent to communicate with spirits, Jared was trying to regain at least some of his lost stamina and magic power by connecting with the spirits through the earth.
“…I’m still far from being fully recovered.”
He had narrowly escaped death, but fighting without learning his lesson had depleted far more stamina and magic power from the young mage than he had imagined.
He knew he would eventually recover if he slept, but his fiancé, Olivier Alway, who was ten years older than him, was terribly worried. He wanted to heal as quickly as possible, so he was doing this now, under her watchful eye.
If she found out he wasn’t in bed, Olivier would surely fly into a rage.
“She’s scary when she’s angry.”
Even as he said this, a smile touched Jared’s lips.
Olivier’s every action – her concern for him, her somewhat overprotective attitude, her quick temper when he didn’t listen, her childish sulking – was novel to him.
He guessed she would be angry if he said he was enjoying this, too.
He could think of his fiancé like this now because he had been able to protect her and her mother from the assassin.
Jared could confidently say this was the first time he had fought for someone else’s life, and it had meaning.
He had learned about Olivier’s past and her feelings for her mother, and he wanted to help. No, he *had* to help.
He hated injustice. No life should be taken away for someone else’s convenience.
This was something Jared understood, having had his own life threatened unjustly in the past. Yet, at the same time, it irked him slightly that he himself was in a position to take lives unjustly.
This wasn’t to say Jared had unjustly taken anyone’s life. He did occasionally take the life of a magical beast for human convenience, as per requests from the Mage Association, but that wasn’t what bothered him.
Jared could easily kill someone if the priority was clear. He hadn’t realized this before, but he became aware of it during his recent battle with Pfeil.
To protect his fiancé, her mother, and their maids, Jared had intended to kill the young assassin.
The fight had started to protect Olivier and the others, but after defeating Pfeil and realizing he had no information, Jared had decided to kill him. He had acted impulsively, driven by anger, intending to take a life unjustly.
He wouldn’t pretend he had never taken a human life before. Most of those instances, however, were in self-defense or because it was necessary. If he had hesitated even slightly, Jared wouldn’t be alive. In such situations, killing his opponent had not pained his heart.
But this time was different. He had won the battle, yet he had moved to deliver the finishing blow. He had been driven not just by the desire to eliminate the danger to Olivier, but by the anger of not being able to reach the mastermind targeting his fiancé.
If Olivier hadn’t stopped him, he would have regretted killing Pfeil by now.
Although the young assassin didn’t know the mastermind’s name, he had met them. He had seen their face.
He had almost lost a valuable witness.
“Why couldn’t I stay calm?”
He couldn’t find an answer even when asking himself.
With a sigh, Jared let out a great breath. He realized that the spirits he had been trying to draw power from to heal had vanished.
“Huh?”
Spirits were naturally restless. While they didn’t kidnap children like in fairy tales or myths, they were simply very curious.
They would sing to a baby, or stay with a crying child until they stopped. They sang, danced, and played, acting as good neighbors to children.
It was said that even without the ability to interact with spirits, children could clearly see and communicate with them. Some theorized that the spirits initiated the communication, but it was not confirmed. They never gave straightforward answers about such things.
They also had a mischievous side, committing pranks ranging from minor to major. Interestingly, they often did these out of goodwill and never played tricks on people they disliked.
Perhaps these traits were the reason for legends of the spirits kidnapping children.
Even so, the spirits had moved away from Jared and were by the building. They seemed to be peering out of a window.
“Are you drawn by the smell of sweets again?”
Jared stood up and called out to the spirits. They put a cute index finger to their lips and gestured for him to be quiet with a “shh.”
They seemed to be watching something intently. He couldn’t recall what was in the room they were looking into, so he peeked from behind them.
“…Gah!”
He was speechless.
Through the window, Olivier was taking a shower completely unclothed.
Spirits had no strict gender. He wanted to believe they had no lecherous thoughts. Besides, what benefit would spirits get from watching a human shower?
Jared pondered this. He continued to think, his gaze fixed on Olivier, who was in her natural state.
He neither averted his eyes, nor left the scene, nor scolded the spirits. He stood frozen in astonishment.
In an instant, for reasons unknown, the spirits tapped on the window.
—HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
Jared screamed internally a great scream.
Even if his wound had reopened, if he had tried to escape with all his might, a different outcome might have awaited him. But Jared did not move his feet.
Perhaps he still wanted to look at Olivier’s naked form, or perhaps he was captivated. Or perhaps he was frozen in fear of what was about to happen.
In short, he had made eye contact with Olivier.
“Jared?”
“Ah, hahahaha, Olivier-sama, please listen, it’s a misunderstanding.”
He could sense the spirits nearby, cheering, “We did it,” “It worked perfectly,” “Operation Cupid’s Arrow,” “Success.”
In other words, for some reason, the spirits had apparently tried to do him a favor.
—This is too much trouble!
“…You’re a sixteen-year-old boy, aren’t you? I never imagined you’d peep so brazenly.”
“That’s not true. Well, I mean, it’s true that I saw you, but I didn’t intend to. It was the spirits, the spirits are to blame.”
“Oh, really? Where are these spirits? Would you introduce me?”
Olivier looked at Jared with frigid eyes, speaking calmly without covering her naked body.
“Well, uh, I thought maybe you wouldn’t be able to see them, Olivier-sama.”
He wasn’t saying anything wrong, but Jared himself thought it sounded like a flimsy excuse from a fool who’d been caught peeping, blaming the spirits.
Olivier likely thought so too. Finally covering her modest chest with a towel, her cheeks rapidly flushed red.
It was impossible to tell if it was shame or anger.
The next moment,
“You pervert!”
Her angry voice was accompanied by a basket of clothes flying through the air and hitting Jared in the face.
The young man, stumbling and falling onto his back, received a look thoroughly filled with contempt from his fiancé, who then snorted and disappeared into the depths of the bathroom.
The boy, who was not allowed to clear up the misunderstanding or make an excuse, felt the spirits dancing joyfully on his stomach.
That night, after desperately placating a displeased Olivier and apologizing, Jared spent time and effort clearing up the misunderstanding with his fiancé’s mother, who chuckled, “So proactive. Such youth.”
