Mightiest Melee Magician

The Ardell territory was a quiet one where it would be hard to find a single traveler.

But a guest had unexpectedly visited.

No, maybe they were in a sense expected……

“……Irene?”

My guest.

Irene Prius.

She really came……

“Mhm. You don’t have to worry about getting here after me. I also only just arrived today.”

She smiled playfully while she sat next to my father and Ruina.

Ruina exchanged looks with my father before pouting.

“Bro, care to explain this situation?”

“……”

My father also nodded, in hopes of receiving an answer.

This was my first time seeing him with such an expression.

Even when I told him I was victorious in the Grand Festival, he didn’t have an expression like this.

It was as if he was saying,

‘This kid’s all grown up now.’

He had a gentle smile, like a grandfather who just saw his grandchildren.

Father, just what were you thinking?

We’re just friends.

* * *

“……So what you’re saying is…  you’re just friends?”

Ruina sat next to me while pouting, like she was uncomfortable about something.

“You’re telling the truth, right? You’re not dating or anything like that, right?”

Her tone when talking about my relationship with Irene was not unlike a detective interrogating a criminal.

I was also getting uncomfortable here.

“Pft…… Yes. That’s right. Just friends.”

Irene couldn’t hold in her laughter at this situation.

But Ruina couldn’t let that go either.

“Miss, why are you laughing? Am I funny?”

“Ah, sorry. Pft. You’re just so cute.”

“You know I’m already 12 years old, so can you not say that?”

“……”

Ah, was that so?

Lady Ruina, who was already 12 years old, declared proudly to ‘not call me cute!’ while she had her hands on her hips.

And Irene ended up laughing again.

“Ah…… I want one as well… A cute younger sister like that.”

I was thankful that she thought my sister was cute……

But I couldn’t get used to this situation at all.

My father was like the others, seeming to be enjoying it.

“Did you say you were Miss Prius?”

“Ah, yes. My name is Irene Prius.”

“Ruina isn’t an ill-mannered child. She seems to feel that her brother, whom she hadn’t been able to see in 6 years, is getting stolen by a friend… but she should calm down soon.”

“Yes. I understand. It’s honestly great to see a family like this……”

My father looked to be quite satisfied by Irene’s polite demeanor and laughed heartily.

“Then, Ruina, could you show Miss Prius around our territory? I have to talk to your brother about something.”

“Me? Why?”

“You don’t want to? Then I guess there’s no choice. I’ll have to send Ruin to do it himself……”

“Uh? My brother, by himself……?”

Oh ho.

So there was a method like this.

Ruina, after having fallen in my father’s trap,

“N-no! I’ll do it. I will.”

She got up faster than I had seen her move before and she grabbed Irene’s hand.

“Follow me. I’ll guide you.”

“Ah, thank you… Young Lady Ruina?”

“Miss, can you not call me that? It sounds like you’re making fun of me.”

“Sorry. Then what should I call you?”

“Just Ruina is fine. Ruina.”

“Fufu. Understood.”

Irene burst into laughter again as she wiped a tear from her eyes.

It seemed that, unlike Ruina’s intent to repulse Irene, Irene just ended up liking her even more.

“Then, I’ll see you around later.”

And so Irene and Ruina left the reception room, and only my father and I were left.

My father asked in a tone that suggested honesty in this man-to-man conversation,

“Is she really not your girlfriend?”

“I already told you no.”

“……That is quite unfortunate.”

What was so unfortunate?

In any case, our personal talk between father and son ended here.

We had a lot to talk about regarding the 10 thousand gold I won and the 36 thousand gold we got back from Monzo,

And for such things as these…

“Baggins, come in.”

My father called out to Chief Baggins, who was standing outside the reception room.

He was holding the box with the 10 thousand gold that I gave to him before, and after Father received this box, he gave it back to me.

“I cannot accept this money.”

* * *

* * *

“Why?” 

“This is yours, Ruin. It is not the money of Ardell.”

This inflexibility of my father, and his coolness.

I, who respected this part of him more than anyone else, could understand his intentions immediately, but at the same time, I was a little saddened.

“Am I not a part of Ardell?”

It felt as if it would take years before I would take part in running the Ardell territory.

However, my father spoke more firmly.

“No matter what anyone says, none can deny that you’re the heart of the Ardell family, Ruin. However, you still have a lot left to do outside of Ardell, don’t you?”

“No. My thoughts are different. It’s my money, but it’s also Ardell's money, so I’ll spend it the way I want to, just like you did.”

“……”

Just as my father had.

After hearing what I said, my father looked at Chief Baggins, and Baggins scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed.

“Haha…… It seems I’ve made another slip. I had judged that the young master should know about what you did to maintain our territory with your own money, my lord. I apologize.”

“It’ll be good for you to come discuss with me before making a snap decision in the future.”

“Yes, my lord. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“……”

Even then, my father was still stubborn, not changing his will on this matter.

“Even if you think that, I won’t allow it. I have no intention of putting the burden of the territory on you yet.”

He lifted the bag with the 36 thousand gold in it and smiled lightly.

“Don’t I have the 36 hundred gold in this bag? It was rightly our money, but it feels great, like finding some emergency funds.”

Eh? 36 hundred gold?

Not 36 thousand gold?

Now that I thought about it, the size of the bag that was supposed to contain 36 thousand gold was quite small.

What the hell was this?

As I opened my box of gold, it had the 10 thousand gold, as well as an additional 32 thousand and 4 hundred gold.

“I won’t ask how you were able to get 10 times the money we were owed from Vilcos Monzo. I can guess.”

“……”

“I also won’t tell you to return it to Vilcos, but that doesn’t mean I can accept that money so easily. It’s not the money of Ardell either.”

This unjust money that didn’t coincide with his beliefs.

He wouldn’t accept it, no matter what.

I looked at my father.

If I was in his position, would I be able to turn it away, just like he did?

I didn’t know.

It wasn’t an easy question.

However, one thing was for sure.

“We, Ardell, are not abundant, but we are not lacking either. So use that money as you wish. As you want to.”

I respected my father’s wishes.

I looked toward Chief Baggins and asked him,

“The thing we talked about before. Have you told my father?”

Subjugation and expanding our territory,

And how to invest the 10 thousand gold into that.

However, Baggins shook his head.

“No. As the lord didn’t even accept the money, I couldn’t bring up the topic.”

“Is that so?”

This was fine.

With the 10 thousand winning gold and the 32 thousand 4 hundred I got from Monzo…

I asked my father again,

“Father. You said that I can use this gold as I wished, right?”

“That’s right.”

“……Alright. I’ll do that.”

Without the help of my father, the Lord of the territory, or Baggins, the chief of office…

I would do it myself.

As I wished.

As the will of the young master of House Ardell.

As Ruin Ardell wished.

Yeah.

I just had to do it ‘directly’.

* * *

I left the room and headed straight toward the terrace.

If I was to pick the best thing about Ardell, I would choose this terrace that could see over the town at the base of the hill.

I could see Irene and Ruina as they left the town and headed toward the mansion.

I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but I could tell that their relationship had changed quite a bit from before.

Ruina would actively try and guide Irene, smiling with her.

Her face would also sometimes go red with embarrassment, but I could tell soon enough what that was about.

“Please keep the boyfriend thing a secret from my brother.”

“……Boyfriend?”

“Hiek! Ruin?”

Ruina got startled by me appearing out of nowhere and hid behind Irene.

I narrowed my eyes and asked Ruina again,

“What the… Ruina, you already have a boyfriend?”

“N-no! M-me? A b-boyfriend? No way. Right, Irene?”

“……”

Looks like I was right.

This brat.

Already having a lover at such a young age.

When I was your age, I hadn’t even held hands with anyone.

Well, kids these days do things too fast.

“Who is it? I need to see him to see what he’s like. Now that it’s come to this, I want to see him directly……”

“I-it’s fine! Why are you eavesdropping on someone else? Hmph!”

“Someone else…… Your brother is sad to hear that……”

“Irene, I’ll leave my brother to you. Let’s play together tomorrow too!”

“Fufu. Sure.”

After being completely flustered, Ruina left Irene to take care of me and ran into the mansion.

Talking about playing together tomorrow…

Were they that close already?

Irene’s eyes smiled as she looked on lovingly at Ruina.

“Don’t you think Ruina is so cute?”

“Em… Yeah. She is cute, but she was cuter before. Recently, she became the violent type, hitting people on the back for no reason……”

“Violent? Didn’t she start learning swordsmanship to protect her weak older brother? How admirable.”

“……Yes, that’s true. I can’t refute that.”

Irene inhaled the deep green of the Ardellian forest.

“It’s quite different to Ravirdyne.”

“Is it too uncomfortable for you?”

“No. I like it here. It’s beautiful and simple. I think I understand why you have pride for your hometown. It’s nice to have a hometown you want to protect.”

Hometown……

But wait, what was it like at the Prius family?

I had only realized just then that I had never heard anything about House Prius.

But I also ended up missing the chance to ask Irene about it.

“Have you thought of your plans for this break?”

“Yes.”

“What are they?”

“I need to protect my territory.”

Without the help of my father, there wouldn’t be many things I would be able to do right now.

With small steps, slowly but steadily…

The first thing I needed to do……

Get more money.

——