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Chapter 20
Everyone Knows His Feelings Except Him
Blinking a few times, I carefully looked at his broad chest and solid shoulders before asking cautiously,
“…Do you even know what you use to plow a field with?”
At my question, Cedar’s thick eyebrows shot up.
He tilted his chin up slightly and replied in that usual arrogant, curt tone of his,
“Don’t you not know either?”
That too in “you too” means he doesn’t know.
‘Good grief. For a second, I thought he actually knew.’
Of course not.
He’s the first son of House Granite and the commander of the Azure Dragon Knights — when would he have ever learned farming?
For all I know, he might think you plow the field with something shaped like a sword.
Maybe he just assumes he can do anything that involves physical work.
‘So, he probably wants to show off because I collapsed doing something “trivial.”’
Whatever his motive, farming was definitely not the way to go. I shook my head firmly.
“I’ll have you know, I’m pretty well-versed in theory. I read whenever I had free time.”
Of course, that didn’t mean I actually knew how to grow herbs.
Back at the magic academy, there were fairies assigned to the greenhouse who grew all the medicinal plants for us.
‘Still, I probably know more than Cedar, who doesn’t even know what herbs look like.’
When I looked up at him with that thought, his face twisted as if he found something about me particularly irritating.
After a brief stare-down, Cedar abruptly turned his body and said,
“…I see. Then you can just stay beside me and tell me what to do.”
“What?”
“Plowing or whatever — I’ll do it. You just stand there and give instructions. That works, doesn’t it?”
How on earth did he interpret my words that way?
“T–There’s no need for that! I can just do it little by little myself!”
I waved my hands frantically to show my objection, but Cedar pressed his fingers against his brow like he had a headache and muttered,
“Haa… If you collapse again, my heart…”
“What? Your heart hurts?”
A Swordmaster with heart problems? That’s serious.
Without realizing it, I gave him a once-over. But despite his words, there was nothing wrong with his body.
“I can sense immense aura energy flowing through your body. You’re perfectly healthy. If you feel like your heart hurts, maybe it’s psychosomatic?”
To reach the level of Swordmaster, one must undergo extraordinary training. But once there, training hardly matters anymore.
Their body naturally circulates vast amounts of aura with every breath, channeling it effortlessly down to their fingertips.
That was why his body always seemed to shimmer oddly to my eyes.
Even now, his heart was pulsing steadily, pumping magic through every fiber of his being.
‘He’s not one to fake an illness… Should I introduce him to a wizard who specializes in aura-user physiology? But then again, if they met Cedar, they’d probably want to dissect him and preserve his heart.’
Most wizards aren’t exactly sane, so I couldn’t easily bring it up.
Honestly, there had only been one normal wizard at the academy.
Grisha — a puppy-like boy who followed me around calling me “sis.”
‘Speaking of which, I still need to contact Grisha…’
When I remembered that worried boy, another meaning of Cedar’s earlier words suddenly hit me.
I blinked wide-eyed and asked,
“Wait—did you mean your heart hurts because you were worried about me?”
Was that some kind of poetic expression I missed?
The moment I asked, Cedar’s handsome face flushed red, and he barked back loudly,
“N–No! I was just talking to myself! I didn’t mean, like, my heart can’t take it when you faint or anything!”
“Oh, so you meant I’m just a nuisance.”
“That’s not it either, woman!”
So it’s not that, and not the other thing either… then what is it?
As he kept yelling, I pouted my lips in protest.
He’s the one who said something weird and got angry about it — and now he’s trembling and pointing a finger at me like, “You, you…!”
Then suddenly, he stomped off toward the dining hall door, shouting,
“Anyway, not today! You’re doing nothing today!”
Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.
I stuck out my lip and quietly set down my fork.
But before my fingers could even leave the handle, he whirled around and shouted one last command,
“And I will check, so don’t you dare get up before you finish everything on that plate!”
“…Tch.”
I thought his tantrum meant I could leave my vegetables half-eaten, but apparently not.
‘Why does the Granite family have such annoying traditions? Who makes everyone eat together like this?’
Grumbling, I picked my fork back up.
But my appetite vanished at the sight of the mountain of green leaves on my plate.
‘Ugh, I don’t want to eat this.’
Call it a privileged problem if you want, but when your appetite’s gone, it’s gone.
I’d only eaten about half when a cheerful voice came from behind me.
“Oh! You’re up, my lady!”
“Sir Heil.”
It was Heil, Cedar’s aide — practically his butler. I smiled brightly at him.
‘Hopefully he’s here to drag Cedar away. Then he won’t be able to inspect my meal.’
That hopeful thought didn’t last, because behind Heil came another stranger.
Taller than Heil by a head, slim as a willow branch, with light brown hair — almost beige — tied back loosely to his nape.
His gently curved eyes were a pale green.
A handsome man, tall and refined, but otherwise unremarkable — except to my eyes.
Around his ear, I could see a faint distortion of magic.
Normal people don’t cast spells on their ears. So this man must have used magic to hide them.
And if someone’s using magic to hide their ears…
“…You’re not an elf, are you?”
At that, his languid eyes widened slightly, then curved in a soft smile.
“As expected of the Empire’s Grand Mage — keen eyes indeed.”
I scratched my cheek at his praise.
He wasn’t wrong — only a handful of mages could recognize ear-altering magic like that. So I didn’t bother pretending modesty.
When I gave an awkward smile, he dipped his head politely.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Jacques, healer of the Azure Dragon Knights. As you guessed, I’m an elf.”
So he’s serving as a healer.
Elves, being attuned to water and wind spirits, make ideal healers.
Of course, I only knew that from books, so I couldn’t say for sure.
‘The texts said elves stopped interacting with humans a century ago, but one’s right here!’
They were practically mythical now — most people wouldn’t even recognize one if they saw it.
Proof of that was Heil, blinking in confusion even after hearing the word elf.
‘Lucky me.’
For a curious mage, encountering another race was an absolute delight.
So I pressed a hand to my chest and offered a formal elven greeting.
“With reverence to the guardians of the ancient forest. As you’ve heard, I am Grand Mage Nelly Periway.”
Jacques’ long, slender brows twitched upward.
“An archaic greeting — I’m impressed. You must have studied records of our kind.”
“Yes, I read about elven customs and greetings in ‘The World Does Not Revolve Around Humans’ by Sir Elliott, a cross-race scholar from about a century ago.”
“Ah, Elliott. A good friend. Had a strange habit of chewing on tree bark.”
The casual way he spoke of a man from a hundred years ago made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t human.
My eyes sparkled as I looked at him.
Cross-racial studies weren’t exactly my specialty, but meeting a real elf — the first in a hundred years — set my heart racing.
“I’d read that elves never leave the forest, so I guess the records weren’t entirely accurate! I always wondered how they learned about your habits if you never came out.”
“Most of us truly don’t. I’m… a bit of a special case.”
“A special case?”
“I’m very sensitive to the cold.”
“Ah.”
The way he said it — dragging the sound like a sigh — made me respond automatically, which earned me a frown.
“‘Ah?’”
I waved my hands quickly. I hadn’t meant to offend him.
It was just that I saw something.
“It’s just… your chest area looks faintly distorted. I was wondering why — turns out you’ve got ice-elemental magic bound to your heart. Almost like a curse.”
“…You can see that?”
He looked genuinely shocked, but I just shrugged.
“I’ve got good eyes.”
“Then… can you undo it?”
