No. No. This was absolutely impossible. Yet, apart from the terror slowly spreading across his face, Leopold's body moved faithfully.
And the moment his sword touched the monster's hide.
Boom!
A great explosion erupted. A halo of light blazed within the mountains. An instant before the blast, Leopold yanked Teron toward him. Then he wrapped his arms around him and rolled across the mountainside.
A cough rasped out. The two boys, slammed up against the base of a tree, kept coughing endlessly.
Their joints ached, and pain stabbed through their lungs.
Are we going to die like this? The thought crossed his mind, and then Leopold snapped back to his senses and shook Teron by the shoulders.
He pressed his ear to Teron's chest. He was alive.
Ah, thank goodness. Relieved, Leopold rose to his feet, limping on his injured leg.
Before him lay the monster's corpse. Its body had been shredded into countless pieces. Among the trees snapped by the explosion and the deep gouged-out crater, blood-stained lumps had gathered together.
His body trembled of its own accord. A ringing kept sounding in his ears. Even when he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, the scene before him stayed the same.
Did I do that?
The moment he thought it, a voice reached him.
“Your Highness.”
He slowly turned around, and there was Teron, smiling where he stood. With his flushed red cheeks and the corners of his eyes slightly crinkled as if in excitement, the boy didn't look like the Teron he knew.
Is he happy? Because I killed that monster? No, is that really something I did? How could that be, how could a mere human wield such power...
Teron Meyer slowly rose and took a single step, but promptly toppled over.
Even sprawled on the ground like that, he rolled around cackling.
At a glance he looked like a madman, but seen another way, he looked like an innocent little child overcome with joy.
He tried to get up again but seemed to lose the strength in his legs and fell flat once more. Worried, Leopold went to him.
“Are you all right?”
He hauled Teron Meyer up to his feet. Even as Leopold held him up and supported him, Teron said nothing. He simply kept his eyes shining as he observed the spot where the explosion had happened.
And then he burst out laughing like a lunatic again! Genuinely frightened now, Leopold put a hand to his forehead.
“You're not hurt anywhere, are you, Teron? Stop laughing already. Pull yourself together, okay?”
“Leopold.”
“Yeah, what.”
“You're incredible. A genius the world will never see again. Does this even make sense? How long is this damned god going to be so unfair?”
Hearing words Teron would never in a thousand years say, Leopold's eyes widened without him realizing it, and he checked once more whether Teron had lost his mind. Fortunately, he was properly alive. It was just that the strange talk was closer to muttering to himself like a madman.
Leopold pulled Teron into a tight embrace.
“...Let go.”
Thankfully, Teron soon returned to normal. The First Prince murmured.
“I'm glad you're alive.”
“Let go of me, right now. This is disgusting, what kind of-”
“You deserve a little punishment. What a lunatic. What on earth got into you? I really thought I was going to die.”
He obediently released Teron, and once his head cleared, he groaned at the pain washing over him. Teron asked.
“When you killed that thing, did you feel mana?”
Did I? Recalling that fleeting instant, Leopold soon flinched, trembling at a strange sensation churning in his gut.
“What is this? Teron, I feel something strange. Something's moving inside my stomach.”
“...Really?”
Teron's cheeks flushed red again, properly this time. He smiled and answered.
“That's what mana is.”
“...Mana. Mana, you said?”
“Yeah. First let's treat your wounds, then try swinging your sword again. You should be able to keep drawing out the same power as before.”
Having said that, Teron desperately got back to his feet and began staggering back toward the wooden cabin they'd come from. Left with no choice, Leopold followed. It hurt, but well, a wound like this wasn't going to kill him. He could endure it.
“Why are you following me?”
“Because you're going, so I'm going.”
The black-haired boy scowled but let him be. Back at the wooden cabin, Teron Meyer picked up the healing potion he'd tossed into the corner earlier.
After gesturing for Leopold to come closer, he poured the potion over his leg. He poured it over the injured side, his hands, and his arms with their small scattered cuts too.
The wounds healed in an instant. Since potion remained, Teron handed it over and said.
“Drink.”
“You drink it. You're hurt too.”
“I'm not hurt. I only took a light bruise. The aftereffects of that teleportation magic just piled on top of it, so I had trouble walking for a moment.”
“So you are hurt. Drink it right now, Teron.”
Irritation surging, Teron Meyer shoved the potion into Leopold's mouth. Along with choking sounds, the potion went down Leopold's throat. But it was immediately stopped by the First Prince's hand.
The First Prince let out an incredulous scoff and then took his revenge in exactly the same way. Coughing, Teron roughly yanked the potion lodged in his mouth back out.
“Are you insane?”
“Huh? Why do you keep introducing yourself?”
“I've let this slide long enough, and now you're pulling all sorts of-”
He trailed off. Because Leopold was smiling at him with a look that asked whether he had any conscience.
“Still, your body feels a bit better, right? Now that the potion's inside you.”
It was true, but he didn't much feel like answering, so Teron sank down onto the floor inside the cabin and leaned his body against the wall.
Utterly exhausted, he stared quietly into empty space and let his mind settle. Meanwhile, Leopold said he wanted to wash the blood off his body and went into the bathroom.
“...There's a pump?”
He'd assumed there'd be no plumbing, but perhaps there was a water source nearby. When he worked the device, clear water gushed out. Beside it were a ladle and a scrap of cloth that looked like a towel. It was clear this had once been a place where people lived.
As he kept splashing water over himself, he could see the blood gradually washing away. At last, having reclaimed his true appearance, Leopold draped the scrap of cloth over his head and slipped out of the bathroom.
Teron was crouched beside the wall, still with his robe pulled over him. Feeling a bit of a chill, Leopold went over to him. Then he hooked Teron's head under his arm from behind and toppled him over.
“Won't you let go?”
The sight of him genuinely furious was just funny now. Leopold placated him and apologized, but didn't unwind his arm. Holding him, Leopold caught sight of Teron's filthy robe and spoke up.
“Aren't you going to wash?”
“Let go before I kill you.”
Ignoring him, Leopold stripped off the robe he was wearing. His short-tied hair was mussed every which way.
“You rolled around on the ground like that. Your clothes are dirty, and now that I look, your body's grimy too.”
In that moment, Teron Meyer bit him. Unable to bear the pain, Leopold groaned and pulled his arm away, but he didn't give up.
He'd already had his fill of pain earlier, enough that a single bitten arm no longer fazed him, he'd built up a tolerance. He pulled Teron back in, buried his face in the space between Teron Meyer's shoulder and neck, and sniffed.
Teron flinched.
“You don't smell, though. Why do you look so dirty? Just go wash over there.”
“Let go of me.”
“I'll let go if you say you'll do it.”
The black-haired boy trembled with rage but finally relented. Leopold went to where the pump was, personally filled the ladle with water, and handed it to Teron.
Taking it, Teron Meyer didn't hesitate to dump the water over Leopold's face.
“...Teron.”
Coughing and rubbing his face with his hand, Leopold narrowed his eyes to thin slits. He then worked the pump again, scooped up water, and poured it over Teron's head.
In the end, the two thoroughly soaked boys shivered their way back in front of the fireplace. Teron Meyer insisted they had to return at once and tried to draw a teleportation circle, but the First Prince blocked him.
“You have Academy classes tomorrow. If Your Highness disappears, plenty of people will come looking. Especially at a time like this, if you vanish...”
“Don't worry. It's fine. There have been plenty of times I've had to rush off to the royal palace on urgent business, and times I slipped out to deal with a monster and ended up absent. I can take care of myself, so I won't let anyone make such a fuss.”
“...”
Convinced, Teron curled up in front of the fireplace again. Seeing that he was sensitive to the cold, Leopold went outside and gathered firewood. Teron drew a magic circle and lit the fire.
A long while passed, and around the time the sound of firewood crackling in the fireplace grew pleasant, the First Prince looked at Teron and asked softly.
“Where were you? Do you have any idea how worried I was these two weeks you were gone?”
