✪ Chapter 4 ✪
“No! That area has always had a lot of monster attacks. And this isn’t even your fault, Rosé.”
“Now that I think about it… I think I missed one piece of equipment during the last regular inspection.”
“…What?”
Well.
Whose fault is it now?
The panic on Elline’s face disappeared in an instant.
She had been on the verge of tears, but the moment I admitted my mistake in front of everyone, she fell completely silent.
Before anyone could even start passing the blame around…
I had already taken all the blame onto myself.
Everyone in the Security Department stared at me without saying a word.
“Why are you all looking at me? I’m the only water mage here. This really is my responsibility.”
The barrier could only be properly repaired by a water mage.
As soon as I finished speaking, our team leader, who had just walked into the room, spoke as if he had been waiting for this.
“Ahem! Then Rosé will go!”
For the record…
Our team leader was one of Crown Prince Lucas’s direct subordinates.
He followed Lucas’s orders and secretly kept an eye on Elline.
Of course…
He knew exactly which of us he should pay more attention to.
In the original story, there was even a time when Elline became seriously ill.
After receiving an urgent report from the team leader, Lucas rushed all the way here himself.
Of course…
I wasn’t there.
That happened in the episode after my wedding ended as a broken engagement.
Other people’s love stories don’t matter to me.
The only thing that mattered…
Was my freedom.
Just thinking about it filled me with energy.
Resignation. Quitting is the best. Just wait for me, resignation.
I hummed to myself as I packed everything I needed for the field assignment.
Meanwhile…
Elline stood beside me, unable to hide the worry in her eyes.
“No. I’m coming with you, Rosé.”
“It’s fine. One person is enough.”
“But what if a dangerous monster appears? What if you get hurt because of me…? That’s what I’m worried about…”
“Elline.”
I slowly turned toward her.
Then I gently held the hand that had been trembling this whole time.
“Thank you.”
“But before worrying about me… you should worry about the punishment you’ll receive.”
“Right now, you have bigger problems to deal with.”
Even if I had taken most of the blame…
Elline still couldn’t be considered completely innocent.
The Security Department was under the Special Management Department.
And the person in charge of that department…
Was Crown Prince Lucas.
Lucas would definitely summon Elline.
“Miss Elline. The Management Department is calling for you.”
Ah.
So he’d already called for her.
“M-Me…? Sir Lucas wants to see me personally?”
“Yes. A letter from the royal palace also arrived this morning. I brought it with me.”
“My goodness… Why…?”
“Who knows? Perhaps he has a lot to say.”
That last comment sounded a little sarcastic.
I glanced toward Sir Carlo.
The two envelopes resting in his large hand were finally placed into Elline’s hands.
Even before she read Lucas’s letter…
Her eyes were already turning red.
I frowned a little.
A man who sends letters to two women… first thing in the morning.
What a strange man.
Definitely not my type.
Just then…
Elline wiped the corner of her eyes.
“Oh!”
She suddenly grabbed my hand.
“I have a great idea, Rosé!”
“W-What?”
“We’ll go together.”
Before I could react…
She pulled my wrist toward the person standing beside us.
The warmth from his hand immediately spread into mine.
Our fingers accidentally brushed against each other.
I couldn’t help trembling.
W-What is this…?
“Sir Carlo…”
“Please.”
“I can’t let Rosé go alone.”
“Would you go with her on this field assignment?”
Elline looked at him with eyes full of worry.
Tiny tears had gathered in them.
Sir Carlo, whose hand Elline had suddenly grabbed without warning, didn’t seem to know what to do.
Even his ears had turned slightly red.
I looked back and forth between them with my mouth hanging open.
…What kind of situation is this?
It felt as though a second male lead had suddenly appeared…
Even though nothing like this existed in the original story.
A bad feeling settled over me.
No…
I’ve already done enough playing matchmaker.
“I’m really fine.”
“I understand.”
“I’ll… go with you.”
“I said I’m fine.”
Sir Carlo was an excellent fire mage.
At this rate… I’m going to get roasted.
His hand was unbelievably warm.
It was probably because of his fire magic.
The border region of Delphinia.
Thanks to teleportation magic powered by the wind element…
It only took us a few seconds to arrive.
We quickly found the tangled magic circuit causing the problem.
That’s a relief.
No one has been hurt yet.
I quietly looked around the village near the border that had almost suffered a disaster.
Then I let out a relieved sigh.
Rosé becoming a water mage and designing barrier magic wasn’t part of the original story.
But this incident…
Was.
Several people died because monsters appeared… and dozens more were injured.
The heroine making a mistake because she was distracted by the male lead’s upcoming wedding…
Volunteering for the field assignment…
Those were all events from the original story.
Because the mission was considered too dangerous…
The male lead rejected her request to go.
While they wasted time arguing…
The barrier completely collapsed.
Romance stories were always like this.
Whenever the whales fought…
It was the innocent shrimp who got crushed.
So today…
My job was to protect the shrimp.
“I’ve almost finished repairing it.”
“There wasn’t any mistake in the design.”
“The unstable wind magic spread into the fire magic, which weakened the water magic.”
In the end…
It was the wind magic causing trouble again.
Maybe things would improve if we threw our team leader to the monsters.
“Anyway…”
“I’m glad the two of us came together.”
“I never expected we’d have to repair the fire magic too.”
I suddenly realized…
If only Elline had come here by herself…
Things could have become very dangerous.
“…Yes.”
“I didn’t expect it to be this serious either.”
Sir Carlo also looked relieved.
Perhaps…
He was thinking the same thing I was.
Earlier, he’d seemed flustered just because Elline grabbed his hand.
Now…
It looked like he’d completely fallen for her.
I quietly sighed.
He was a good coworker.
Well… goodbye.
My feelings became complicated.
I’d always thought Sir Carlo was just another supporting character.
Then again… he’s the male lead’s childhood friend.
It makes sense if he’s actually the second male lead.
He was Lucas’s childhood friend.
He had even been Lucas’s fire magic teacher when they were young.
Now that setting suddenly felt much more important.
…Still, that’s strange.
In the original story…
He never became the second male lead.
Nor was there ever a scene showing him secretly in love with Elline.
Maybe changing Rosé’s role had caused the story itself to change.
“Take my hand.”
“I’ll help you up.”
“Ah. Thank you.”
After collecting the remaining flames around us…
Sir Carlo held out his hand to me.
As I finished adjusting the final order of the barrier design…
He kept a wall of protective fire around us just in case a monster slipped through a tiny opening.
Monsters hated flames.
Especially blue flames, the hottest kind.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve.
I’d only been standing near the fire for a few minutes…
Yet my whole body was already hot and covered in sweat.
“I was thinking about making a little ice.”
“Would you like some?”
“That sounds good.”
“Just a moment.”
I nodded.
After letting go of his hand…
I gathered my magic.
“Hm?”
Cold drops of water spun around inside my palm…
Then quickly froze together into solid ice.
The next instant—
I suddenly changed their size…
And threw the ice past the back of Carlo’s head.
Thud!
“SKREEEECH!”
A monster that had been hiding behind him was struck directly in the head.
It let out a terrible scream.
“Haha… I wonder when it managed to sneak in.”
I pressed a hand against my forehead.
