Chapter 32
“Yeah! They told me to move thirty pots. They said if I didn’t move them all, I wouldn’t be allowed to go home.”
Jasper puffed out his chest, looking aggrieved.
Charmant found the sight simply adorable.
Thirty flowerpots.
For her, who had even made the youngest, Radi, practice carrying a thousand bricks in a duck-walk as training, this was an almost precious, tiny task.
Yet for Jasper, even this small effort was impressive.
“Thirty pots?”
“Yeah! They were small, though.”
Jasper rubbed the bridge of his nose sheepishly.
“That’s amazing. Miyu must have had a much lighter workload today.”
“The witch didn’t lift a finger!”
Jasper recounted the day’s events in a whiny, playful tone.
To Charmant, all of it sounded utterly cute, yet she put on a serious expression.
“That won’t do. If they make you do something too hard, you must say firmly that you can’t. Do you want me to say it for you?”
Jasper feigned surprise but shook his head soon after.
“I-it wasn’t really that hard. I’m a boy, after all.”
His expression was a mix of embarrassment and quiet pride.
Charmant smiled and replied in a soft, teasing tone.
“Right, that’s impressive. I’ll prepare your bathwater, so go wash up.”
Jasper nodded vigorously.
“Okay!”
Then, with a clatter loud enough to make a racket, he ran into his room, pulled out his clothes, and came back.
“What about food?”
“I already ate!”
Jasper shouted as he dashed into the bathroom.
How spirited.
Charmant cast a spell so that the bathtub would fill with warm water just as the door closed and smiled contentedly.
The Jasper she had seen at first was now hard to recognize. He was so much brighter.
Even though he spoke like that, it seemed he had grown close to Miyu. Charmant thought she could hear him humming from the bathroom.
On the other hand, her worries were growing with time.
Even if he appeared so cheerful, he surely constantly thought about his family.
She could tell just by seeing him pray over his mother’s belongings every morning.
That made her worry that the wounds etched into his heart would only deepen over time.
She hoped Jasper’s mother or brother would come to find him soon.
At least, she wished they would arrive before she could stop the war and leave this place.
“I should visit Jasper’s house once more.”
She needed to make time to check whether the note she had left last time was still there.
First thing tomorrow morning, she would watch Jasper practice swordsmanship a bit.
Ah, but first, she had to go see Ahil Duff and then visit the palace.
There was a mountain of tasks ahead.
