With a despairing Rainy clinging to my back, my first destination was Laura’s room.
Knock, knock.
“Young Lady, it’s Raden Dayven.”
Despite my knocking, no response came from within.
Even if Laura were asleep, her guard should have been awake, so the silence meant Laura had ordered them to keep silent.
Though I had said nothing about exercise, Laura seemed to instinctively sense that she needed to avoid me.
It seems her talent for magic isn’t her only strength; her intuition is sharp too.
“Hmm.”
I pondered for a moment before the door, then pulled a key from my pocket.
A man picking the lock to a room occupied solely by women—it certainly felt illicit.
A slight wave of guilt washed over me, yet every action I took was for Laura’s health.
It was a difficult decision made for her well-being, even if it brought a pang of guilt, and I trusted she would understand it all in due time.
Click. Click.
I heard the stiff sound of the key turning in the lock.
“Hey! Stop that!”
Only then did Laura’s voice return.
“Ah, you’re alive? I was worried you might have passed away since there was no response.”
“…”
“The weather is splendid today; how about we go for some exercise, Young Lady?”
“Absolutely not!”
I had offered gently, but Laura, whose voice, when raised, rivaled that of any grown man, vehemently refused.
Both Rainy and Laura, why did they despise exercise so much?
I found it regrettable that they failed to grasp the splendor of physical exertion.
“Hmm… if you refuse to exercise, then I, too, will be forced to resort to extreme measures, won’t I?”
“…”
“Well, personally, I believe it would be perfectly acceptable if you were to simply consume vegetables for all three meals, even if you don’t exercise. What shall it be?”
Laura was an intelligent mage.
She would have understood my underlying intention: if she wanted to eat meat and bread, she would have to come out and exercise.
A brief silence hung in the air.
“Honestly, to resort to blackmail with food is utterly petty. So petty.”
Laura’s grumbling voice returned.
Even I had to admit that threatening someone with food was indeed petty.
But what choice did I have?
Without this method, there was no way to impart the magnificence of exercise.
The Duke, too, would surely understand my decision.
“So, Young Lady, what will you choose? Exercise? Or vegetables?”
“…”
“Silence, then… Very well. In that case, tonight’s dinner will be cabbage salad with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, served without dressing.”
“Argh, fine! I’ll exercise!”
Bang! Bang!
Laura, unable to contain her fury, let out an exasperated cry from within the room, and the door burst open.
Laura was dressed in the blue gown she usually favored, while their guard wore a tightly fitted suit.
I grinned, seeing her finally raise the white flag, and addressed her.
“We’ll depart immediately. Please change into something comfortable for exercise and return.”
“…”
Fixing me with a venomous glare, Laura abruptly spun around and retreated into her room.
It took a little longer than expected, but I had successfully managed to coax her out.
While I had threatened to give her only vegetables if she didn’t exercise, in reality, I couldn’t actually restrict her to just vegetables, considering her nutritional needs.
Had she decided to stubbornly resist, I would have had to concede defeat before long, so it was fortunate that my threat worked at such an early stage.
****
A small hill nestled within the Dayven territory.
I led the way, with a despairing Rainy and Laura trudging along behind me.
The mountain located within our territory was more akin to a local hill; its altitude wasn’t particularly high, making it suitable for the two women, whose stamina was frankly abysmal, to build their basic physical strength before embarking on more serious training.
“Haaah… Baron! Please, a little slower…”
“Damn it… I want to go back to the Holy Order!”
However, simply walking slowly wouldn’t achieve much, so I picked up the pace slightly, which instantly unleashed a torrent of resentful curses from behind me.
Realizing this must have been how the drill instructors in my past life’s military training felt, I turned back to them with a bright smile.
To my surprise, the two were supporting each other as they ascended the mountain together.
It was merely a hike for physical training, yet it was also fostering a sense of camaraderie!
What a heartwarming sight this was!
I encouraged them with a pleased smile.
“Just a little further now. A bit more effort, please!”
“J-just a little?”
A flicker of life returned to Laura’s otherwise deadened eyes.
Conversely, a venomous glint swirled in Rainy’s gaze.
The naive Young Lady believed my words implicitly, but having endured countless trials and tribulations, Rainy, unlike her, seemed to have discerned my deception.
Nevertheless, I was grateful that she refrained from speaking up and plunging Laura’s spirits into despair.
Their guard, who had been walking beside me, clearing away any threatening branches or thorns for Laura, wore an inscrutable expression.
“Are you serious? From my perspective, we still have four times the distance we’ve covered so far.”
“Haha, doesn’t one naturally find more motivation when there’s hope that the goal is near? This is a white lie, a benevolent fabrication.”
“…”
“Besides, since this mountain is essentially a neighborhood hill, saying ‘not much left’ isn’t exactly a lie. It’s a mountain where you can reach the summit in three hours, after all.”
“That’s by the Baron’s standards, isn’t it? Judging by the Young Lady’s pace, it’ll take six hours. And a neighborhood hill? It looks to be at least 700 meters high…”
I swiftly clamped a hand over their mouth.
“If such facts were revealed, wouldn’t the Young Lady’s motivation be crushed? Guard, you would ultimately benefit from the Young Lady’s improved health, so let’s just quietly overlook this, shall we?”
The guard, whose mouth was covered, nodded slightly.
“Indeed, I too have been thinking that the Young Lady’s current physical condition is far too poor.”
“Precisely. So, I request your active assistance with her physical training, Guard.”
The guard maintained an inscrutable expression for a moment before nodding.
“Yes, I will do my utmost to assist the Young Lady, provided it doesn’t overexert her. And my name is Yumi. Please feel free to call me that.”
“Y-Yumi?”
The name was so unexpectedly familiar that I flinched slightly.
“Yes, is there a problem?”
“N-no.”
Yumi looked at me strangely, but I couldn’t very well explain that it suddenly reminded me of a certain cat, so I simply averted my gaze.
“Oh!”
As we quietly ascended the mountain, a scream suddenly erupted from Rainy and Laura behind us.
Yumi and I spun around simultaneously, without a moment’s hesitation.
We discovered Laura on the verge of falling into a pit, with Rainy desperately holding onto her.
We sprinted like phantoms, pulling Laura out just before she plunged into the hole.
“Huff… huff…”
Laura, having barely escaped with the combined strength of the three of us, was sweating profusely and gasping for breath.
“Young Lady, calm down and try to breathe slowly. Hooo… hooo…”
While Yumi was calming Laura, I inspected the suddenly appearing pit.
When Yumi and I had been leading and checking the path, there had been nothing unusual, so the sudden appearance of a pit suggested its entrance had been camouflaged.
A camouflaged pit on a local hill like this—what could it be?
Rainy, who was peering into the pit just as I was, furrowed her brow.
“Magic power is flowing from here!”
“Magic power (TL Note: A dark or demonic energy often found in dungeons or emanating from monsters.)?”
“Try to draw upon your divine power.”
Following her instruction, I called upon the divine power that I had recently been able to manifest, albeit faintly.
I was utterly astonished.
Indeed, a damp, unsettling aura unmistakably wafted from within.
“You felt it, didn’t you?”
“Yes…”
“To be able to sense magic power immediately from the start, your talent truly is remarkable. Usually, Holy Knights need years of training to discern it.”
“Yes, well, my talent is indeed remarkable, but… why is this magic power emanating from here…?”
Rainy, after dabbing a bit of the pit’s soil onto her finger and tasting it, stated calmly.
“It seems there’s a dungeon here.”
“A dungeon…?”
Even though this was a rural corner, half-isolated from society, I had thought it was pleasantly peaceful.
A dungeon in our territory, of all places.
“Well, you don’t need to worry too much. Judging by the faint magic power, it seems to be one of those common low-level dungeons.”
“Th-then what should we do? Should we request assistance from the Holy Order right away?”
Leaving a dungeon unattended would eventually lead to its explosion, unleashing monsters to devastate the surrounding area, so the standard procedure was to immediately commence subjugation upon discovery.
In most cases, Holy Knights from the Holy Order, upon receiving a subjugation request, would handle the task.
“Hmm… I don’t think the Holy Order will come.”
“Pardon?”
“The Holy Order implicitly doesn’t dispatch Holy Knight Orders to incidents that occur too far in the provinces. They can deal with two dungeons near the capital in the time it would take to send Holy Knights to the provinces.”
“Th-that’s…”
“Especially since the Dayven territory is a remote area among remote areas, the probability of a Holy Knight Order being dispatched is even lower. Even if a dispatch were decided, it would take at least two months for them to arrive in the territory, and the dungeon could explode by then.”
“…”
Both in my past life and this one, living in the countryside seems to be a hardship.
As I lamented my ancestors’ abysmal real estate choices, Rainy grinned and patted my shoulder.
“Don’t worry too much. Who am I? I’m a former Saintess, boasting the greatest divine power in history. A Saintess. I can easily clear a low-level dungeon of this caliber.”
“Ah!”
My spirits quickly revived.
Come to think of it, there was no need to request the Holy Knight Order.
Why would I summon a weaker Holy Knight Order when a former Saintess of such caliber stood right before me?
Unable to conceal my joy, I embraced Rainy tightly.
“As expected, Saintess, you are the best!”
“Hehe, so you finally understand my worth, do you?”
As we exchanged pleasantries in this convivial atmosphere,
“A dungeon…?”
A clear, ringing voice echoed from behind us.
Turning my head to identify the owner of the voice, I couldn’t help but recoil in shock.
The trembling figure from moments ago was gone, replaced by a Laura whose eyes now sparkled with excitement.
“I want to go into the dungeon too!”
