Next to the fallen man, I clenched my fist, feeling the result of my training. I was able to fight with an adult—and someone of such a skill—with this small body. Not to mention, without being overpowered through the sword’s might, setting the tackle aside.
In other words, it was proof that strengthening my body with threads raised my battle power quite a lot.
“That said, if I use it for a full three minutes, my body would give in first…”
Even now, a stinging pain ran all over my body, especially my shoulders and knees. If it was like this, were I to recast it during the battle to extend its time, I probably would become unable to move for a few days.
“Well, I can work on that part bit by bit. For now, I need to get away from this place…”
A clearly suspicious-looking child had clearly stabbed a clearly suspicious-looking man to death. If someone saw me like this, I would end up spending some days in jail regardless of how young I looked.
Even if Matisse gave testimony for me, the fact that I slip out at night would be revealed, so the end result would still be bad.
I wiped the soot from my face with the scarf and returned back to the kidnappers’ base. If I wiped the filth of my face and covered my glossy hair, I would be hardly distinguishable from your average street urchins.
There was already a crowd gathered around the base, with guards surroundings Matisse and giving her emergency treatment. Seeing that, I heaved a relieved sigh and slowly withdrew from the place.
With that, her safety should’ve been guaranteed. After this, the Queen Blossom’s seeds would reach Maxwell and Cortina via the guards.
I activated my Stealth Gift, returned to Cortina’s house and slipped into my room. Then I wet a towel with the water jug and carefully cleaned the filth from my body. As expected, it was not even early summer now, so getting naked and wiping my body made me feel quite cold, but if I didn’t do at least that much I’d be reeking of sweat.
I was already staying up late as a child, so the burden on my body was quite big. I wanted to guarantee myself a good quality sleep.
I decided to wash the towel, scarf, and my bloody clothes tomorrow… Well, it would be quite troublesome to do that without being seen by Finia…
“…Well, whatever. I’ll just wash them in the academy next week.”
I received the attention of other students so I couldn’t do anything too suspicious, but that much shouldn’t matter. I put the filthy towel inside the drawstring purse where my gym uniform was, then changed to my pajamas and slipped into my bed.
The next morning, when I woke up and headed to the dining room, Cortina was nowhere to be seen. Actually, it was already close to forenoon so I overslept quite a bit. I greeted Finia who was in the middle of preparing dinner.
“Morning, Finia.”
“Good Morning, Lady Nicole. You slept for quite some time today.”
“Yeah, I ended up staying up late yesterday.”
When I mentioned that, Finia seemed to have misunderstood what I meant. She covered her mouth and started giggling meaningfully, with an unpleasant smile. Her expression practically screamed how amused she was.
During that time, her hands didn’t stop doing the waiter duties. She quickly carried the salad and toasts to the table, and even prepared ham and eggs.
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“Now that you mentioned it, you witnessed Lord Lyell in action yesterday, right? No wonder you couldn’t sleep at night.”
“You are way off the mark.”
Her absurd misunderstanding put me in a foul mood and I protested while looking away. But that action produced yet another misunderstanding.
“Lord Lyell is really cool. You see him in a different light after witnessing his feats, right?”
She immediately agreed to my objection. Embarrassingly enough, I was still number one in her eyes. She probably glorified the past a lot, but I was still grateful for her high evaluation.
“Where’s Cortina?”
“I heard there was a fire last night. But that place turned out to be the kidnappers’ base and they found Lady Matisse there.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“Moreover, the stolen Queen Blossom’s seeds were discovered alongside her, so both Lord Maxwell and Lady Cortina are very busy.”
“Oh, looks like we can get her nectar now.”
“Indeed, with that, you can become energetic, Lady Nicole!”
“I’ve always been energetic, though…”
Rather, I’ve been training my body incomparably harsher than other children. The problem was that it bore no fruit. But that would be solved soon. When the Magic Buildup Disease that was the culprit of my weak strength gets cured, my training will finally start producing proper feedback.
“Mhm.”
“You look happy, Lady Nicole.”
“Well, my illness is going to be cured, so I suppose I am a bit.”
I finished my brunch and brought the after-meal cup of hot milk to my lips. It was quite sensible that it had a faint sweetness of sugar. That sweetness permeated my body, making me feel at bliss.
But such a calm forenoon didn’t last for very long. The door suddenly burst open and Maxwell and Cortina intruded inside.
“We’re hooome. Aah, I’m so tired. Finia, can you pour me some tea?”
“Make it soybean one for me. And preferably strong.”
“I will prepare it at once.”
Cortina aside, at least you hold back a little, Maxwell. I cursed in my mind while amazed at Finia’s good personality. Without paying me any mind, or reading the mood, Maxwell started talking.
“Well then, Nicole. I assume you’ve heard of the situation?”
“I got the gist from Finia.”
“That’s good. It would be bothersome to explain it all over again. We will be returning back to the Queen Blossom at noon, so make preparations.”
“Got it. What about Michelle and Letina?”
“Yeah, I suppose we have to contact them or they would hold a grudge. I leave that to you.”
“Okay, I will let them know.”
If I were to be honest, I wasn’t so keen on taking them with us, because we were still heading for the monster territory, regardless of how docile they were. However, unlike Maxwell, I was their classmate and spend every day with them. I wanted to avoid hearing their complaints every time we saw each other.
“Then I’ll go and let them know now.”
“Okay, take care.”
I hopped down from the chair—since my feet couldn’t reach the ground—and went to change my clothes, then stepped outside.
I felt three warm gazes on my back, but I decided to pretend that I didn’t notice.