TERMS 09

Chapter 9

“You can do it whenever you want. You can even do it every night.”

“Ghk!”

At those words, I let out an involuntary groan and dropped to my knees.

That level of cuteness was completely unfair!

At that moment, I finally understood the true meaning of the phrase heart-fluttering people used all the time back on Earth.

This was exactly what it meant.

As I clutched at my chest, Baron startled and grabbed my face with both hands.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

“No. I’m not hurt.”

I lifted my head and looked at Baron.

His eyes were filled with worry.

This lovable little thing.

I wrapped Baron tightly in my arms.

“You’re just too cute!”

I expected Baron to get embarrassed and pull away, but after hesitating briefly, the little guy hugged me back instead.

Ahh, this was true cuteness!

I squeezed him one more time before standing up.

Now that we’d caught Search thanks to Baron—and with the sea calm and the wind quiet—it was the perfect time to test things out.

I tied the rope connected to the basket around my waist, attached the glass bottle to my left wrist with a string, and gripped the net in my right hand.

“Baron, go inside first. Now that we caught Search, I’m going to check the sea for a bit. If the water looks good, I might gather a few things too.”

“What’s ‘water looks good’ mean?”

“It means the color and condition of the seawater. The better it is, the more clearly you can see underwater. If muddy water flows in, you can’t see anything.”

“Ah, I get it.”

After nodding, Baron suddenly pointed somewhere and said something unexpected.

“Then I’ll light a campfire over there. Use it to find your way back.”

I was speechless at how clever he was.

He was only seven, yet he thought of something like that.

At this point, it honestly wouldn’t have been strange if Baron turned out to be the male lead himself. Though with violet eyes, he obviously couldn’t be the red-eyed emperor protagonist.

‘Still, no matter how smart he is, asking a child to start a fire from scratch is too much.’

But at the same time, entering the night sea without any landmark was genuinely dangerous.

I stacked a few pieces of wood and transferred some fire from the stove. If I did that, even a small campfire would start burning soon enough.

“I’ll leave it like this. Go rest inside, then come check the fire once in a while, okay? If it looks like it might go out… hmm.”

After glancing around nearby, I plucked two palm-sized leaves and handed them to him.

“Use these to pick up branches and put them into the fire.”

Baron accepted the leaves and asked,

“So splinters don’t get in my hands?”

“Yeah. And don’t get too close to the fire.”

Smiling, I ruffled his hair before heading toward the sea.

Yesterday evening, when I’d been collecting sea snails, I never entered once the water rose above my ankles.

But now, thanks to Search, whom we’d just caught, I could safely go as deep as my thighs while observing the ocean.

Search’s light was unbelievably bright.

‘If I could dip it underwater to look around, I’d see even better.’

But unlike the waterproof diving lanterns from my old world, this one was a living creature, so that was impossible.

Holding the glass bottle in my left hand, I searched around the sea. The basket tied to my waist floated well on the water and obediently followed behind me.

Soon, I spotted a sea snail half-buried in the sandy seabed.

I gently scraped it up with the net—

Then something pale flashed past the edge of my vision.

‘A blue crab!’

Recognizing it instinctively, I quickly raised my head. Illuminating the area with Search’s light, I saw five or six blue crabs darting across the seabed like they were flying.

“Jackpot.”

Since nobody else was out catching them, all of these were mine.

At this rate, it felt like I wouldn’t have to struggle for long.

‘Maybe I’ll even be able to build a new house soon?’

I silently praised my past self for having shoreline foraging as a side hobby.

At that moment, something with an ominous presence suddenly swept through the water.

“Huh?!”

Startled, I whipped around and briefly caught sight of a massive black shadow.

My whole body tensed.

‘Could that be… some kind of magical beast?’

But no matter how much I looked around afterward, I couldn’t find the shadow again.

Instead, at the end of the direction it had passed through, an absolutely enormous blue crab was resting on the ocean floor.

Apparently that had been the “shadow.”

Victory!

Baron watched as Ignis Fatuus, now named “Search,” and Hayley gradually disappeared into the distance.

Then he muttered quietly,

“Kamen.”

A massive chunk of stone rose from the ground before him.

About the same size as Baron himself, it was an earth spirit that consumed the magical power permitted by its contractor in order to use its unique abilities.

Kamen slowly bowed in greeting.

Holding a handful of leaves in one hand, Baron pointed toward the small campfire.

“Add firewood so the campfire grows.”

Kamen sank back into the ground.

Soon, a faint tremor spread through the earth, and scattered dry logs slid together from all directions before neatly stacking themselves onto the fire.

As a result, the already tiny flame nearly went out entirely, but Baron paid no attention and jerked his chin toward the cabin.

“Make sure the foundation’s stable so the house doesn’t collapse, and clean up around the area. Repair things a bit too, but don’t make it obvious. Be careful not to make noise.”

Hayley hadn’t seemed to notice, but on the first evening, when Baron had ordered his subordinates to tidy the area, he’d already received reports that the cabin wasn’t entirely safe.

It would probably be fine in good weather.

But during heavy rainstorms or typhoons, it could collapse, so he ordered Kamen to reinforce it.

Creeeak—

A faint sound and vibration soon came from the cabin.

Since the old structure itself had already been leaning, achieving complete silence seemed impossible.

A few pieces of wood fell to the ground from the impact. Even one of the roof-supporting logs looked like it might come loose, but Kamen’s power quickly caught and secured it back into place.

Clatter, clatter.

The trash scattered around the cabin began moving across the ground and piling itself neatly into one corner.

As Baron watched Kamen work, he remembered Hayley’s voice.

‘B-Baron, did you clean this up?’

Her eyes, wide with amazement, had sparkled like sapphires.

Baron smirked faintly and looked down at his left index finger.

‘Come to think of it, this spot did sting a little.’

He couldn’t exactly say he’d ordered his subordinates to do it, so he pretended he’d gotten pricked by a thorn.

And the moment he said that—

The soft sensation of lips touching his finger still seemed to linger there.

Hayley’s lips.

Without realizing it, Baron closed his eyes and pressed that same finger against his own lips.

Thinking of the lips that had touched both his finger and, just moments ago, his cheek—along with the warmth of her embrace—made his heart pound wildly.

He had never felt emotions like this before, emotions he couldn’t even define, but they made him incredibly happy.

Then—

“Raven Honor, I came immediately after receiving Black Livia’s message.”

At the sudden voice, Baron jolted in surprise and coughed awkwardly. Raising one hand to signal Raven to wait, he summoned another spirit.

“Salamander.”

A tiny fire lizard suddenly popped into existence.

“Light the campfire. Revive the embers inside the house too before you leave.”

“Ppiik.”

With an adorable cry, the little fire lizard leaped into the campfire.

Fwoosh!

The dying fire instantly blazed to life. Then the Salamander crawled out of the flames and entered the cabin.

Baron glanced toward Raven, who was kneeling on one knee with his head deeply bowed, before turning his gaze back toward the sea.

Since his master said nothing, Raven carefully turned his head toward the dark ocean.

After confirming the direction Baron—no, Bloden—was staring at, he asked cautiously,

“Your Majesty, it seems an imperial citizen entered the sea. Shall I force them out? Sea slimes roam around at night, so it’s dangerous.”

“Ah, sea slimes.”

Bloden snorted dismissively.

“They hate strong light. So it’s fine.”

Sea slimes were giant nocturnal leech-like creatures living in the ocean. Once they found an animal, they latched on and sucked blood until the victim died.

Because of that, imperial citizens never approached the sea at night. Even during the daytime, they usually stayed aboard boats while fishing with nets, rods, or scoop nets.

That was simply common sense within the Empire.

“What do you mean it’s fine, Your Majesty?”

“I put an Ignis Fatuus inside a glass bottle for her.”

‘Excuse me? You gave an Ignis to an imperial citizen?’

No wonder that area looked so bright!

Raven stared with his mouth hanging open in shock.

Completely unconcerned about the emotional devastation of his subordinate, Baron casually added,

“From now on, Ignis will keep staying with her, but Hayley thinks it’s just a Flash Firefly, so make sure your story matches hers.”

“H-Hayley? Who exactly is this person?”

“My roommate.”

“…Pardon?”

“We started living together yesterday.”