CH 377

The next morning, we parted ways with the other merchant, and once again continued our journey towards the Stolla domain.

That reminds me, that merchant introduced himself to Temuru, but not us.

But I guess there weren’t that many merchants who would try forming friendly relationships with some passing escorts.

“Still, you are a surprising tactician, Nicole.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m talking about yesterday’s events. From scouting techniques to enemy detection skills, and the adaptability during the smoking out operation. You didn’t look like a first-rank beginner at all.”

Leon started up such a conversation on the way.

As he said, I ended up getting a bit too worked up and overdid on a bunch of things. Preparing a bonfire while erasing my footsteps, scouting, and generally acting flashily. It was probably better to make up an excuse here.

“Well yeah. We’ve been at it for quite a long time even if we don’t look like it. We are still rank one since we’ve only been hunting nearby animals so it never went up.”

“Hunting in Raum’s outskirts, huh… That’s surprisingly good training.”

“Indeed, their skills can’t be underestimated at all. Michelle was quite amazing too.”

Ellen also followed up with her praises. Well, I was chosen as one of the Six Heroes due to my scouting skills, so it was only natural.

Then, I heard a sudden “oh” from Michelle who was walking next to me.

I felt a little anxious, wondering if I let another enemy slip within my radar. It has happened quite a few times lately, so I was kinda losing my pride as a scout.

“What’s wrong. Did you find something?”

“Yeah, raspberries.”

“Ah, I see…”

“But we have already passed them.”

With the graduation done and having prepared to move out, we had reached May. It was the perfect time of year for raspberries.

I just ignored her comment at first, but recalling the bittersweet taste and lumpy texture of it, I could feel my mouth salivating.

“Well, can’t be helped eh.”

I swung my arm and sent one of my piano wires flying. I couldn’t use my gauntlets in front of Finia, so I could only use the piano wire.

The steel thread pierced the berry, plucked it, and brought it to my hand. After repeating that several times, I gathered quite the amount as an afternoon snack. Though it was still morning now.

However, there were people who observed my actions with astonished eyes. They were Leon and Ellen, and also Finia.

“Lady…Nicole…”

“Ah.”

That reminded me, I still haven’t told Finia about my Gift. It was natural for her to be shocked after suddenly showing a special move while gathering fruit.

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“Oh, I forgot to say it huh. Actually—”

I would be adventuring with Finia from now on. I couldn’t go on without mentioning my Thread Manipulation Gift forever. It was necessary to reveal some information here that wouldn’t link to my past.

“I have a Thread Manipulation gift.”

“Thread Manipulation… Same as Lord Reid?”

“Yeah. Well, it’s not such a rare Gift, but it gets a bit problematic when you become a double Gift holder. So I didn’t tell my parents and others either at first. Maxwell found out about it later, but with… Lord Reid’s matter, we decided it was better to keep quiet about it for a bit longer.”

I put all the responsibility on Maxwell as I explained. I sure have turned into one dirty b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲.

“Now that you’ve said it, you have always been abnormally talented for your age when it came to knitting.”

“Yeah, I practiced.”

“I am convinced…is what I would like to say, however… you have similar abilities as Lord Reid. And you decided on it at three years old?”

Finia inclined her head in doubt. As expected, it was hard to convince her right away. Even I didn’t find this explanation convincing enough.

After all, I was appraised for Gifts at three years old. It was abnormal for a child that age to think “it would be bad if this gets found out.”

Still, I had one more card up my sleeve.

Finia was the one who told me about Reid, and also the one who told me the most anecdotes about him.

She revealed to me that she was one-sidedly in love with me when I was five, but even until then, she told me about the Six Heroes as bedtime stories, so my childhood was filled with moments where I cringed in shame.

From that, it was easy to imagine that she had an uncommon attachment—at the time I didn’t know they were romantic—to Reid.

“Well, it appeared that there was something between you and Reid.”

“Well, that is true…”

“And mom and dad were making complex expressions, so it was hard to talk.”

“Ugh… I caused such worry to a child. I fail as a caretaker.”

“If you fail, then every childcare worker in the world fails too.”

I made a supportive comment when I saw her turn dejected and then moved my gaze to the raspberries at hand. Their number was decreasing before my eyes.

“Hmm?”

As I raised a doubtful voice, Michelle next to me suddenly covered her mouth.

Her fingertips were dyed in red. And her throat was moving as if swallowing something.

“Michelle, you snatched some, didn’t you?”

“I-I-I-I didn’t.”

“Come on, everyone’s share would decrease like that.”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold back! You and big sis Finia were busy talking about something difficult too.”

“There was nothing difficult in it, was there?”

It was something I told her before too. Given her reaction, I wasn’t sure she understood it at the time.

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But for better or worse, she obediently accepted whatever people told her. There was no need to worry about her leaking it to others.

“Good grief, Michelle…”

“That reminds me, Michelle used to harass me with stealing food at the church too.”

“Big sis Finia, it’s not good to dig up people’s dark history.”

“That sounds like an adorable dark history.”

Michelle raised her hands in objection, but she looked like a puppy coiling about its owner. If she was doing it purposely, that was too sly. But I daresay it was just a natural action.

I sighed while my soul was being healed by the sight of two before me, and then sent my thread once again to collect additional raspberries.