CHAPTER 24

About a week passed since the visit from the supply officers.

A weekly newspaper brought new updates from the western front.

As Igret of the Seven Flames had predicted, she captured the capital of Palban in just three days.

No—rather than calling it a capture, it would be more accurate to say she completely annihilated it.

With her magic, she burned Palban— a city with centuries of history—into nothing but ashes.

Now, only seven kingdoms and one empire remained on the battlefield. The situation had grown even more urgent, yet there were still places where it all felt like a distant world.

Wibin was one of those places.

“It’s getting quite chilly.”

Unlike the tense developments in the west, Wibin carried on in a calm and leisurely atmosphere.

Aside from some minor commotion caused by outside merchants transporting designated goods, nothing particularly noteworthy had occurred.

With the full arrival of winter, the residents busied themselves chopping firewood and maintaining tools they had previously neglected.

At the Portman estate, time passed peacefully as they handled larger issues the villagers couldn’t resolve on their own.

Elric was no different.

“It seems the fireplace is running low on firewood. Shall I have more brought in?”

“If it’s not too much trouble… may we keep it like this? If it’s too warm, I find it hard to concentrate.”

Inside the Portman family’s office, the room was so cold that one needed to wear a coat indoors.

Elric asked out of concern, but Tiria shook her head and replied as such.

She claimed it was for concentration… but Elric wasn’t entirely convinced.

“You must prefer the cold.”

“If you are feeling cold—”

“No, it’s fine. I’m not that sensitive to changes in weather.”

After all, he had once lived curled up on bare ground even in freezing conditions where the soil itself turned solid. A little draft meant nothing to him.

He had only asked out of concern for her—and since she answered that way, he simply accepted it.

“If it gets too cold, let me know. I’ll have more firewood brought in.”

“Yes.”

Tiria’s pale skin looked even paler in the winter light.

The tip of her nose was slightly red, and her lips were even redder—standing out sharply against her complexion.

At the same time, Elric found himself idly noticing that the fur cloak draped over her shoulders looked quite old.

He let out a small chuckle.

I must really be bored.

He had already finished learning the major tasks. What remained were only minor paperwork duties.

Since Tiria had advised him to build a habit of going to and from work, he stayed in the office—but in truth, there wasn’t much for him to do besides observing her.

Naturally, a thought resurfaced.

It was about a certain feeling he had experienced during the supply officers’ visit.

The idea that she might be left alone again—and face something like that day—left a strange tightness in his chest.

That feeling still hadn’t faded.

It was still a small ripple.

But it was too bothersome to ignore, and so Elric often found himself lost in the same thoughts.

Of course, thinking about it didn’t bring any easy answers.

And so, he simply rested his chin on his hand and glanced at her repeatedly—until suddenly, Tiria looked up, and their eyes met.

He flinched.

“Is there something you need?” she asked.

Saying he had just been staring felt awkward.

Elric quickly made an excuse.

“No, I was just looking at your fur cloak.”

“This? Ah…”

Tiria gently stroked the cloak.

“It’s made from the hide of a magical beast. I received it as a gift from the villagers about seven years ago.”

“I see.”

“A magical beast from the back mountain came down and caused damage to the village. That year, the villagers hunted it, and its hide was turned into this cloak.”

“That brings back memories,” Elric said with a soft laugh.

“I used to run around trying to find those beasts myself.”

Behind Wibin stretched a vast mountain range with countless peaks.

Dense forests and steep terrain made it difficult for people to enter, naturally allowing magical beasts to thrive there.

For children, magical beasts were always the perfect enemies in their games.

And Elric had been no different.

He had once seen one—a massive wolf several times the size of a grown man—and fled in terror.

Strangely, even after that, he kept going back to search for them.

Looking back, it was a miracle he survived.

Perhaps the reason he never saw one again was his master.

His master had lived halfway up the mountain—so it was likely he had driven away nearby beasts.

Now that he thought about it, the oddly fishy meat his master often fed him… might have been from those beasts.

It had a strangely addictive taste…

At first, it smelled unpleasant, but the more he ate it, the more he craved it.

Even on the battlefield, when he felt homesick, that taste would come back to him.

Elric smacked his lips slightly.

Then he noticed Tiria staring at him.

“Ah… sorry. I got lost in my thoughts. Talking about the mountain brought back memories.”

“…It’s fine.”

Her gaze dropped.

Something about her expression felt different—but Elric couldn’t tell why.

He tilted his head slightly.

At that moment—

Knock.

“Milady, new documents.”

Aldio entered, carrying a stack of papers as high as his waist.

Elric was shocked.

“W-why is there so much work?”

“It’s nothing major. Just the villagers’ requests piling up.”

That many requests?

For a moment, Elric felt a sense of dread.

If even a small territory like Wibin had this much paperwork, what about larger ones?

Was being a noble far more difficult than it seemed?

“That’s not the case,” Tiria explained.

“We don’t review everything in detail. We skim through minor requests. The purpose of gathering them is to understand the state of the territory—what people need, what goods are in demand.”

“I see…”

Elric scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

“I thought we had to fulfill every single request.”

“We are rulers, not servants.”

It was a firm statement.

Then, as Tiria flipped through the documents, she pulled one out.

“Of course, sometimes there are matters we must handle personally.”

“What is it?”

She handed the paper to Elric.

His eyes widened.

“A magical beast hunt?”

A beast from the back mountain had come down and was causing trouble.