kscans

Chapter 131 - The Master with No Memories Returns to the Tower

"Master, how do you make this?" Mireille asked, taking out the all-purpose dagger Ariel had once given her.

Ariel tilted her head and took it in her hand.

"Did I make this?"

"Yes!"

"...Let me see."

Mireille felt a small sense of relief at her master’s dispassionate reply. The Ariel before her now had not lost all of her memories. She still retained the knowledge and memories from before she met Darius and the others. They could have a normal conversation about alchemy, though her expression remained blank.

"...My daughter? My apprentice?" Sometime after waking, Ariel stared intently at Mireille, tilting her head in confusion.

Next, her gaze fell upon Leonhard.

"Father?"

"N, no, that’s not it!" Leonhard stammered, his face turning bright red as he denied it.

Then she looked at Adrian.

"Father?"

"N, no! You... I... I bought her with money!"

"?" The man was spouting nonsense. Adrian looked bewildered at being seen in such a way.

After that, it was decided that Ariel and Mireille would accompany Adrian to his territory.

Though called a territory, it was actually adjacent to the Royal Capital. It was near the lodgings Leonhard had stayed in when he once went to the Tree Sea Defense Force’s base. In other words, it was less than an hour away from the capital by horse.

However, it was a vital region, containing a detour around the Tree Sea necessary for travel to other countries. If the kingdom’s power were to wane in the future, it was highly likely that monsters would begin to leak out from the Tree Sea. This territory was a bulwark, protecting the nation’s safety.

"An alchemy shop would be a great help. Adventurers and merchants pass through, so it would surely become popular." At Adrian’s suggestion, a combination home and shop was to be built for Mireille and Ariel.

Leonhard and Kyle each rented houses and were hired as Adrian’s private soldiers. With two such skilled men, the territory’s security stabilized in an instant.

"Adrian, Eleonora-fujin." It seemed Ariel had learned their names.

"What has become of the place I used to live?"

"...The tower in the Tree Sea?"

"I need alchemy materials. Also, I have too much mana built up, so I have to kill."

"Kill... what?"

"Monsters. I need to take their magic cores."

It seemed Ariel had been unconsciously venting her mana by hunting monsters all this time. What’s more, the magic cores had also served as fuel for the Magic Furnace.

"But someone else has that duty now. You don’t have to do it."

"Is that so..."

Ariel cast her eyes down, looking a little lonely.

"But I want to go back to where I lived."

"The tower is on national land. The Tree Sea Defense Force’s base is also under someone else’s control now."

"I see..."

Seeing the dejected Ariel, Eleonora quietly made a suggestion to Adrian.

"...Why don’t you let her go to the tower?"

Only a select few could enter the Tree Sea or the tower. And no one was a match for Ariel. It was hard to imagine anyone laying claim to that tower.

In the end...

"Alright, but you must report your safety every day. And if you’re told to leave, you will obey."

"Understood."

And so, Ariel began to live in the tower as she had before.

One day, Ariel stared intently at a ring on Leonhard’s finger as he visited the tower.

"Hk...!" Leonhard’s heart skipped a beat. This was the ring Ariel had once made for Darius. Had she remembered?

Mireille, who had come with him, held her breath as she watched Ariel’s face.

"I’ll make one of these for you, Mireille, and one for me. We’ll all have matching rings!" Ariel said with a cheerful smile. The two of them let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

...It seemed she had not remembered Darius after all.

Leonhard suddenly thought of a man far away. Darius.

He had not even spoken to him since the Magic Furnace incident. He had not been able to see him when he left the order, either.

"...I wonder what he’s doing now."

He recalled Adrian’s fury. Meeting him would surely not be easy. But should he simply accept that they now lived in different worlds? Or should he try to see him, just once...

A whirlwind of unanswered questions swirled in Leonhard’s chest.