[V15EX5] A Gift for a Friend Leaving on a Challenge

The Zolderieve was a monster that fed on humans. It possessed the power to transform into a beautiful woman, which it used to infiltrate the royal court.

It lurked in there for a while, feasting on the flesh of the residents.

This lasted until a young maid witnessed the Zolderieve devouring a young man.

With its identity exposed, the Zolderieve dropped all pretense. Its elaborately styled hair came undone and started writhing like countless snakes.

The fair woman was no more.

What remained was a horrific monster. Narrow eyes capable of freezing anyone’s heart with its stare. A gaping maw constantly stained red by the blood of its prey.

The Zolderieve approached the maid leaving a trail of blood and entrails. It raised its sharp claws and…

“…That’s exactly what you look like right now, Cyril. A man-eating Zolderieve with its identity exposed!”

“Just shut up already!!”

Cyril ignored Raul and washed his face with water from a basin.

Unfortunately, water did little to remove the makeup. Ironically, the smeared makeup pushed his appearance closer toward the monstrous Zolderieve.

Cyril had done his best to fix the hair and makeup himself, but he eventually realized the impossibility of it. In the end, he was forced to ask Raul for help.

After muttering, “where are the ends of my hair…” several times, he finally managed to undo his hair. However, it had been tightly braided and slathered with gel, so clumps of his hair bounced all over the place.

In that sense, the comparison to a Zolderieve without its disguise seemed rather accurate.

“Is soap and water not sufficient to remove makeup…?”

Cyril had managed to wash off the powder, but his cheeks still felt sticky and slimy.

Unfortunately for him, all of the cosmetics in this building belonged to Melissa Roseberg, who preferred vivid colors and used makeup to conceal freckles and other blemishes at all costs. Her makeup was designed to be hard to remove.

Raul hummed in thought as he sorted through the bottles.

“Well, I grabbed every bottle that looked promising… This one’s perfume. That’s probably a prototype potion. This is a cleaning solution for potion bottles… What’s this one? Moisturizer?”

The white and golden weasels also sniffed around the bottles lined up on the table.

“This one smells like roses. This one is oranges.”

“This one has a lot of mana. Drinking it will give you energy.”

“Maybe for you,” Raul interjected. “Humans definitely shouldn’t drink it.”

Raul sorted through the bottles while listening to the advice of the weasels, but at this rate, it was questionable if they could actually find one for removing makeup.

“Raul,” Cyril said with a resigned expression. “Can you get me some cooking oil?”

“Oil? Why?”

“Oil-based grime can only be removed with oil.”

A very janitor-like line of thinking.

Be it skin or hair, Cyril had never gone any further than washing with soap. But now, he was desperate to wipe everything off.

＊　＊　＊

Cyril rinsed off the hair gel with hot water, then aggressively scrubbed off the makeup with a mixture of soap and cooking oil. Once he was done, he leaned back in a chair and looked up at the ceiling.

“What a nightmare…”

“That was Isaac’s doing, right?” Raul asked.

“Most likely…”

Cyril pressed a hand to his forehead and tried to recall the events of the previous night. But all he could remember was the sweet taste of alcohol, how happy it made him, and a fuzzy sensation.

If Isaac went this far, he must’ve done something wrong.

Thinking back to his time at Serendia Academy, Neil had acted a bit distant for a while after the Fluff-Fluff Incident.

“What on earth did I do…?”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t know since I fell asleep right away.”

Raul set a cup of soup in front of the dejected Cyril.

Cyril had skipped breakfast since he was too busy trying to get the makeup off, so he gratefully sipped the soup. The sweetness of the vegetables soothed his weary heart.

After a long sigh, Cyril returned his thoughts to the man who did this to him.

“The next time I see Ike… How am I supposed to act…?”

“Huh? Can’t you just say ‘What the heck was that man!’ or something?”

How could he possibly? Cyril grimaced as he sipped more of the soup.

“I must have done something rude to him while I was drunk… He’s probably furious with me…”

“If he was really angry, then he wouldn’t have played a prank on you.”

Surprised, Cyril paused mid-sip and lifted his head. After blinking a few times, he echoed the word.

“…Prank?”

“Yeah, that was a prank, right?”

“Really…?”

“Probably.”

Cyril wanted to yell at Raul for making irresponsible comments, but he couldn’t. What Raul said made too much sense.

A prank. Isaac, of all people, playing a prank on him… Cyril swallowed down a bundle of emotions he couldn’t quite process along with the soup.

The soup had a mild and gentle flavor. Rather than catching in his throat or sitting heavy in his stomach, it went down smooth and left a comfortable warmth.

Once Cyril finished the soup, the white and golden weasels pushed a basket of bread toward him.

“Cyril, Cyril, want some?”

“There’s also the jam we made yesterday.”

“I’ll take it.”

After drinking the soup, Cyril was back to his usual self.

Cyril quickly lined up the schedule after breakfast in his head. He still needed to write up a report on the incident the other day, and look for picture books to read to Zoe.

Then, he remembered something and turned to Raul, who was preparing a tea with a bundle of random herbs.

“Raul, I want to confirm something with you before you leave.”

“Yeah?”

“Regarding your study abroad destination…”

Raul would be going to the Liedengran Magical University, one of the most prestigious schools in the Empire. His departure was scheduled for autumn.

Cyril fixed his gaze on Raul, waiting for him to finish pouring the hot water into the teapot. Once Raul placed the lid back on, Cyril asked the question.

“Are you really going to be studying at Liedengran?”

Raul turned to Cyril with a start, swaying his red curls. He had always been terrible at lying, so it showed up on his face as a wry smile.

“…Did I maybe let something slip?”

“No, it was just a hunch.”

Cyril claimed it was a hunch, but he had several reasons backing it up.

First, House Roseberg had always treasured Raul as the second coming of the First Thorn Witch. It made little sense for them to send him on a casual study trip to the Empire.

Second, the Black Lion Emperor made a visit to the Kingdom of Ridill just before Raul announced his study abroad. Was that a coincidence? Or perhaps…

——Could it be that House Roseberg made some sort of deal with the Black Lion Emperor?

Cyril had been suspicious for a while, but he kept quiet because there was no proof. It was also not his place to meddle in House Roseberg’s internal affairs.

Then, as Raul’s departure drew near, Cyril had asked for the address to contact Raul while he was studying abroad.

In response, Raul had given him the address of a boarding house near Liedengran, along with the warning, “I’ll probably be late in replying to your letters though.”

Cyril found this strange. Liedengran had dormitories. Why was Raul not staying there?

The comment about his delayed replies seemed suspicious as well. Could it be that the boarding house was merely a relay point for forwarding letters to his actual location?

If they placed someone at the boarding house to forward Raul’s letters, then he could be literally anywhere.

Liedengran was located in the Empire’s second capital, the center of the Black Lion Emperor’s authority. It would be easy for him to forge records of Raul’s enrollment.

…Given all of this, Cyril started to suspect that Raul had been given a secret mission as one of the Seven Sages.

After all, Monica’s mission guarding the prince was only a few years ago. Cyril believed that Raul’s study abroad trip was a cover-up for a similar mission.

However, after the recent incident in ‘The Botanical Specimen Garden’, Cyril came up with another possibility.

According to the records in the Forbidden Archives, House Roseberg once possessed a certain ancient artifact, until it was stolen by a bird monster.

The name of that lost artifact was…

“The Chromatic Garden.”

Or more precisely… The Chromatic Garden, Rebecca.

An artifact created by the worshipers of the First Thorn Witch, Rebecca Roseberg. One so powerful that no one had ever been able to wield it.

“You’re going to look for it, aren’t you?” Cyril asked.

Raul answered with a complicated expression.

“…The study abroad stuff isn’t a complete lie. I will be doing a lot of studying where I go.”

“I see.”

Cyril did not press any further. Even if he asked additional questions, there was nothing for him to do.

And so, he stood up and pulled a small box of cards from his travel bag. This was one of the games they played yesterday.

Upon seeing this, Raul looked mildly surprised.

“That was yours, Cyril? I thought for sure it belonged to Monica or Isaac.”

“Yeah.”

Cyril had bought the cards in preparation for the sleepover, figuring it would be appropriate.

As both a game to play and a parting gift.

“Raul, stay there. Point the palms of your hands up.”

“Huh? Uh, okay?”

Cyril slowly backed a few steps away from Raul, carefully gauging the distance. Meanwhile, the two weasels curiously watched the exchange from the table.

“Here it comes!”

“O-Okay?”

Cyril tossed the box of cards to Raul.

In contrast to the volume of his shout, the throw was an underhanded lob that traced an arc through the air to land gently in Raul’s hands.

Raul blinked a few times in confusion, glancing between the box in his hands and Cyril.

“Huh? Why did you throw it? You never do stuff like that, Cyril.”

His words stunned Cyril into silence with their legitimacy.

Indeed, Cyril never threw things for no reason. In fact, he constantly scolded others about it being “bad manners” or “what if you drop and break it?” or “show respect to your belongings”.

Cyril answered in a quickened tone, as if trying to hide the awkwardness.

“Because I’m not used to this kind of exchange. I couldn’t catch Sophocles when Ike threw him at me. I need to reflect on that failure.”

“…Why did he throw Sophocles?”

“I caught him,” Pikeh added, puffing out her chest in pride.

“Pikeh is really good at catching things,” Thule followed.

“Hehe.”

Since Cyril pouted and went silent again, Raul scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“Uh, so basically, you wanted to practice throwing stuff?”

“That is a part of it…”

Apparently, the unusual act of throwing something had left Cyril incredibly embarrassed. He covered it up by lifting the teapot sitting on the table.

“…I thought that tossing a parting gift would be friend-like,” Cyril continued. “So you’d be happy, or something…”

The act of casually tossing a parting gift to a friend and saying, “Here, catch!” was something Cyril had seen in a play once.

The way he did it was not casual at all, but he hoped to be forgiven for that since he was still learning.

Cyril fell silent, unable to stand the awkwardness, so he went back to pouring the tea. Meanwhile, a giggle leaked out of Raul’s mouth.

Cyril shot a glare at Raul.

“Don’t laugh.”

“But, hehe… haha… I’m just so happy.”

Raul cradled the box of cards in his hands.

“I’m going to the Empire with a purpose, but… a part of me just kind of wanted to get away from Ridill too.”

Cyril could understand that feeling. He wasn’t about to scold Raul for abandoning his duties as a Sage, because he knew that Raul Roseberg was not a man who ran from responsibility.

“But my feelings have changed,” Raul said, raising his head with a brighter than usual smile. “I’m looking forward to visiting the Empire, as well as coming back here.”

“I see.”

“I’ll practice the card game a lot! I’ll make a bunch of friends over there too!”

“Good. I’ll practice too, so I can give you a proper match when you get back.”

Cyril returned a solemn nod, recalling his crushing defeat yesterday. It was then that Thule and Pikeh, who had been cooling their tea, joined the conversation.

“Cyril, Cyril, can you teach me the rules too?”

“Sure, you can help me practice.”

“Cyril, can I be the Adventurer Queen again?”

“That’s a different game. Give it up.”

To tell the truth, Cyril had also bought another deck of cards for himself.

While imagining how he would ask Monica and Isaac for tips, Cyril took a sip of the herbal tea.

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