"Guhyo-ho-ho-ho-ho! Two males and two females! What do you want with yours truly? Calling me forth with such dog-shit offerings... I’ll slaughter the lot of you, yoho-ho!"
"This guy is kind of gross."
Likely due to the goblin head used as an offering, a small demon—resembling a goblin itself—manifested before us.
It had black skin, pointed ears, bat-like wings, and a whip-like tail. Incensed by Ragna’s blunt remark, the creature leveled its three-pronged spear at him.
"Did you summon me because you were tired of living?"
"This is kind of lame."
"Then dieeeee—!?"
The spear never reached Ragna; it stopped dead in the air just before him.
"Is this weapon made of magic power, too?"
"It is."
"A materialization type, huh? Demons really are ridiculous."
Ragna disinterestedly snatched the spear from the demon and drove it back into the creature’s own head.
"Th-th-th-that much won't kill m—blegh!?"
The demon tried to maintain its bluster, but Ragna ignored it, shoving his hand deep into the creature's open mouth.
From that moment on, the demon’s condition shifted violently. Its eyes rolled back into its head and it began to convulse, looking for all the world as if someone were raking through the contents of its body from the inside.
"Uhyah... what in the world is he doing...?"
"Who knows? I haven't a clue..."
Mariana was covering her eyes, though she was clearly peeking through the gaps in her fingers. I stood beside her, staring fixedly at the scene. I could tell from his expression that he was searching for something, but I remained completely ignorant of what he was actually doing.
"Ah, I see."
After Ragna muttered those few words, the demon vanished without a sound. It dissolved like dust dancing in the light, melting away into the landscape until it was gone.
"Well, that was a job well done."
"Ragna-san, what did you do?"
Mariana questioned Sebas, who stood there with an air of "this was only natural."
"Since the Young Master excels at Sensing, he simply located the thing that serves as the Demon Core and destroyed it."
"I didn't understand that at all! So that's what was happening... Ragna-san, you're amazing!"
Listening to their conversation out of the corner of my eye, I turned my gaze toward Ragna. He was staring at his own palm, brooding as if reflecting on some internal realization.
What exactly does he see?
Mariana praised him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it so readily. I didn't understand what had just happened, and that lack of comprehension kept the words trapped in my throat.
If I could, I wanted to praise him. I wanted to commend the man who always showed me consideration, who treated me kindly, and who put my needs first. I wanted to give him a carefree smile, from the bottom of my heart.
But I couldn't understand what he had done. I felt that if I offered superficial praise, the words wouldn't reach him at all, so I stayed silent.
Having spent the last few months with him, I had come to realize one thing.
—We were too different. Far too different.
Obliterating a demon right in front of me was part of it, but it went deeper than that. His eyes always seemed to be focused on something far away, and in that distance, I felt the presence of a wall.
"Alicia, even if a demon shows up now, we'll be fine."
"Thank you."
I returned his smile with one of my own.
When we first met, I had thought him a rude man. Later, I came to see him as straightforward—someone who saw me for who I truly was.
But now that I think about it, I was only under the impression that I understood him. He felt distant enough to make me doubt everything I thought I knew.
I used to think his erratic behavior was a result of never interacting with people his own age, but that probably wasn't it either. I couldn't identify the source of that lingering sense of wrongness. I had hoped that spending time with him in the Brave Territory would reveal the answer, but I remained in the dark.
Even when he was right beside me, Ragna felt like he was somewhere far away. I had felt that way for a long time now.
He says outrageous things occasionally, but in conversation, he’s a normal person. He communicates well enough, and his hand is warm when I hold it. He should be no different from me, so why is the gap so vast?
Perhaps it’s the result of growing up in the Brave Territory—a set of circumstances I might never truly comprehend.
"That is that, and this is this." If only I could think like that, how much easier would life be?
But I was afraid that if I left things as they were, I would repeat the same mistakes. I would be like the old me, the girl who never truly looked at Edward as a person... and that thought terrified me.
"Let's go back, Alicia."
"Yeah."
He took my hand.
Our relationship was still delicate—a distance that was neither close nor far—but what would happen if we grew even closer? Right now, he was leading me by the hand, but what would become of me if he ever let go?
Watching him made my own weaknesses stand out so clearly that I felt a prickle of impatience. Mariana has her Recovery Magic, a power that can actually heal him. I have no such magic. For now, the most I can do is till the soil.
An engagement can be broken at any time. If I become nothing but baggage to him... oh, what would I do then?
I didn't believe it was enough to just be by his side. The pride he carried viewed "moving forward without giving up" as the ultimate virtue. If I neglected that, he would likely stop looking my way. He would treat me like his mother or his brothers' fiancées—people he never spoke of, not even once.
No, simple is best, right?
Action over brooding. That was the proper way for a fiancée of the Brave family to act. And yet, I still found myself falling into these thoughts.
Sigh. I really don't want to disappoint him.