[V9C15] Raging Younger Brothers

Above the hill a short distance south of Rainfield’s forests, there was a handsome young man in priestly robes dancing in the air, his golden hair fluttering in the wind. His name was Rubelmeria, and he was a greater wind spirit.

Chasing after Rubelmeria was a flock of six wyverns with greenish-brown scales. One of them was much larger than the others.

“Ugugugugu…! You persistent pests. How unpleasant. Very unpleasant.”

Rubelmeria furrowed his brows, though the rest of his face displayed no emotion. He had come here to drive the wyverns away, but he found himself being chased instead.

The presence of a large wyvern allowed the flock to maintain a certain level of coordination. Thus, the wyverns split up to evade Rubelmeria’s whirlwinds and dove back for a simultaneous counterattack.

Rubelmeria backed off while shooting one of the wyverns in the forehead with a blade of wind.

One down, five left. However, another wyvern had circled around from behind, opening its wide maw to devour the wind spirit.

But at that moment, there was a swooshing sound. The ambushing wyvern suddenly froze and fell to the ground, decapitated.

The wyvern’s neck had been severed by a blade of wind infused with high-density mana. This was an inhuman feat, impossible for normal mages. Rubelmeria only knew of one person capable of doing this.

“Rynzbelfied-niisama!”

＊　＊　＊

Rynzbelfied sent a blade of wind into the flock of wyverns.

Human magecraft was not powerful enough to cut through the durable scales of a dragon. However, being a greater spirit, Rynzbelfied could infuse far more mana into his magic.

Of course, he still lacked the power to cut a dragon in half, especially not a greater dragon. Nevertheless, cutting through the neck of a lesser dragon like a wyvern was simple enough.

With the appearance of Rynzbelfied, Rubelmeria grew much more confident. The nearby winds began swirling into a raging storm.

“I have nothing to fear with Rynzbelfied-niisama here!”

Rubelmeria sent the miniature tornado he had created into the flock of wyverns.

The wyverns attempted to escape by performing a u-turn, but they were met with a tornado from Rynzbelfied flying in from the opposite direction.

Caught in the collision of the two tornadoes, the wyverns had their wings twisted apart, plummeting to the ground in a pitiful state.

Though expressionless, Rubelmeria let out a triumphant huff.

“Rynzbelfied-niisama!”

“Oh right.”

“…?”

Unable to understand the meaning of Rynzbelfied’s response, Rubelmeria furrowed his brow in apparent confusion.

Rynzbelfied nodded once and explained.

“I was starting to forget my own name. It’s good to have it confirmed.”

“…”

“Now then, I’ll be going.”

Rynzbelfied waved goodbye to his younger brother, then returned to the forest.

He had used a fair amount of mana battling the wyverns, so his body was starting to fade away in places. That said, the forest provided enough mana to recover his appearance.

After confirming he could maintain a proper human form, Rynzbelfied headed to the spring again. Carla had refused to make a promise yesterday, but she should still be there until the end of the festival.

——I’ll ask her to say my name.

Yesterday, Rynzbelfied had refrained from introducing himself to Carla because he wasn’t confident in his name. But today, he had confirmed it with Rubelmeria, so now was the best time to perform a proper introduction.

A considerable amount of time had passed since the rising of the sun, making it the time of day where humans were awake and active.

Rynzbelfied was relieved to find Carla’s tent next to the spring in the same location as before. However, there was someone else with her.

A young man with chestnut-colored hair, apparently Carla’s junior disciple, was chatting with Carla.

“Those priests told me a roundabout way to ‘please check on Starspear Witch-sama for us’. The damn geezers were too scared to take a single step into a mana-dense forest.”

The junior disciple spoke with a grin. Rynzbelfied recognized this as the face of a villain.

“Well, I suppose it was quite entertaining to see them humbling themselves before a youngster like me though. Hahaha.”

“There you go playing the villain again.”

Carla sighed in exasperation at her junior disciple’s antics. Then, she put on the troubled smile of an elder sister scolding her younger brother.

“You don’t have to get angry for my sake, you know?”

The junior disciple blinked in surprise and pursed his lips.

“…I just believe that you deserve better treatment. Both the priests and the nobles… all of the old fogies in power look down on you for no good reason.”

“I mean, I’m a commoner girl who rose to the position of a Mage Countess, so it’s only natural that they don’t like me. But don’t worry about me, I’d rather you lend a hand to other people in a similar position.”

Carla’s gentle words implied that she was fine with her own treatment.

The junior disciple fell silent like a sulking child, then inserted a hand into his robe. He then pulled out a bottle of wine and handed it to Carla.

“Here. A little souvenir that I swiped for your troubles.”

Carla took the bottle and widened her eyes upon seeing the label.

“Wow, this is a really nice brand. Not the kind you want to guzzle down outdoors.”

“The priests consume food and wine as luxurious as some nobles. A considerable amount of money flows into the temple.”

The junior disciple was making a veiled accusation of embezzlement. However, Carla quietly scolded him for this.

“Louis, you should really stop meddling in the affairs of local authority figures. That’s a bad habit of yours. I have no intention of interfering with the ways of the land.”

“…Understood.”

After exchanging a few more words, the junior disciple took his leave. Upon confirming that he was completely gone, Rynzbelfied landed in front of Carla.

“It seems all younger brothers tend to lean towards the ‘raging’ side,” the wind spirit said.

“Raging…? Hmm, well, I can agree that he tends to be a bit hot-blooded.”

Carla raised the wine bottle and offered Rynzbelfied a drink, but he shook his head, since spirits lacked a sense of taste.

“I am a wind spirit, so offerings like alcohol are unnecessary. More importantly…”

Rynzbelfied placed his hand over Carla’s hand holding the wine bottle.

The woman’s hand was thickened with calluses throughout many journeys. While feeling that warmth against her skin, the wind spirit continued.

“Rynzbelfied.”

To the slightly surprised Carla, Rynzbelfied explained with a hint of pride.

“That is my name. I was not very confident in my memory yesterday, so I went and confirmed it with my younger brother.”

“…What?” Carla interjected in a low, husky tone.

The woman stared intently at Rynzbelfied with a stern expression, gripping the hand that had been placed on hers. Then, she muttered something under her breath, likely the incantation for a detection spell.

“…Yesterday, you told me, ‘You must be like the wind’ as if you weren’t sure of yourself.”

Come to think of it, Rynzbelfied indeed felt as though he had said something along those lines. As the spirit absentmindedly reflected on the events of yesterday, Carla continued.

“Your ego is weakening, and you’re finding it difficult to identify yourself as the wind. Forgetting your own name is a terminal symptom. At this rate, it won’t be long before you fade away.”

For a human, this was akin to a death sentence. However, Rynzbelfied’s heart remained unshaken. All he thought was, “Oh, is that so?”

More importantly, what bothered him was that Carla had yet to call him by name, even after all the effort he went through to confirm it.

“Do you remember which wind you are? Your homeland?” Carla asked.

Rynzbelfied silently shook his head. He vaguely remembered that his younger brother Rubelmeria was born from a storm, but nothing about the location, time, or circumstances of his own birth.

Carla released Rynzbelfied’s hand and let out a deep sigh.

“Meddling in the affairs of others is not the traveler’s way… but just letting you fade away like this would leave me with a bad aftertaste. I could try that, but it would definitely cause a huge commotion… Oh, I know, the night of the festival should work.”

Carla began muttering to herself as she scratched her head vigorously.

Rynzbelfied simply watched the scene in silence until Carla suddenly lifted her face, peering straight into the spirit’s eyes.

“Wind Spirit Rynzbelfied.”

The moment Carla spoke his name, it felt as though he had a concrete existence. His blurred and faded ego seemed to regain a bit of its outline.

As Rynzbelfied pondered this phenomenon, Carla withdrew her stern expression and narrowed her eyes into a smile reminiscent of the time she had allowed the spirit to sit next to her.

“On the night of the festival, come to the roof of the temple. I’ll show you something amazing.”

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