房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Chapter 448 146 - Perserios territory - part 1- Settling in (part 8)

　　"Oh, I see now. A lone girl from a fallen noble family just so happened to be assigned to the same unit as you, my lord?"

　　"Let's make one thing clear, miss Etwistrall. My lord, Zoemi Benevi Banemor is already taken!"

　　"...?"

　　"!!!"

　　The blond girl declared, puffing out her chest as if she wanted to use it to knock out the girl far inferior in the volume area, which made Zoemi raise his brow and Miriette straight up flinched.

　　"Yah, you heard me right. Although not officially, lord Zoemi is in a relationship with my friend and I will not allow some up-and-coming seductress to try and steal him away from her!"

　　Burushi announced with unwavering confidence leaving the other two stunned.

　　Although not for long...

　　"Ohohoho~ is that so...? I would like to see you try and stop me from doing whatever you might be imagining, miss attendant~"

　　To Zoemi's great surprise the dark-haired girl didn't swoon over the declaration of friendship the blond girl unknowingly gave them. Instead, she sat down on the bed and leaned on it in a confident - provocative even- way and made her voice sound unnecessarily seductive.

　　"You...! I knew it! My lord, chase away this heathen! She's here with ulterior motives! Chivalry my ass!"

　　Seeing her like this, Burushi took a deep breath and called out pointing at Miriette with accusation while turning around and looking up at Zoemi, who was barely able to hold back the amused laughter.

　　-------

　　"Burushi, you don't have to actually come with us to survey the battlefield, right?"

　　Zoemi said, looking to his left at the blond-haired heroine sticking closely to his side.

　　"You say that now, but I am the only person keeping an eye on that girl. You are far too nice to everyone, you know? That makes you easy to exploit!"

　　Burushi declared while leaning forward and glaring angrily at the girl wearing a full helmet that was on Zoemi's left side and didn't pay any attention to her angry hissing the whole time.

　　...or at least that's how it looked like from Burushi's perspective...

　　"Am I really easy to exploit? I thought that I always tried to make people feel like they control me to make them do what I want... although, considering how often that didn't go my way maybe you are right..."

　　"(Eh?! Master, you were doing that on purpose?!)"

　　"(...pffft...!)"

　　|...|

　　The black-haired boy wondered out loud, but since even his resident sentinels couldn't hold back their feelings on the subject, he realized that maybe things didn't look the same from others' perspectives...

　　"Hmhm~ That's a part of your charm, I guess~"

　　"!!!"

　　Miriette hummed in a very content way but that only made Burushi tens up as her face froze in a murderous grimace.

　　"Don't you dare talk like that to him! Zoemi, if

　　you don't tell her off, I will tell on you to you know who!"

　　The blond girl hissed furiously at the helmet-wearing one and then she looked back up at Zoemi and declared with a grim expression.

　　"Is she really doing something inappropriate though? She's just being friendly."

　　The black-haired boy said, leaning down towards the heroine and whispering into her ear.

　　"I'll have you know that she wears the helmet because she is worried about me. I thank you for being worried about me, but you might be overly conscious about miss Etwistrall... maybe if you observe her closely you will find that things aren't the way you think?"

　　He added seeing that Burushi was already opening her mouth to scold him for being so dense.

　　"...haa..."

　　"...?"

　　But to his surprise, the blond-haired girl only sighed and shook her head before looking up at him with pity.

　　"Kindhearted guys like you are really sweet, but that's why you need someone like me to keep all the sluts away. If you think that she is afraid of you then you really don't know how girls act... She wears a helmet because she is afraid of you - ha! as if! That's how she wants to get to you! Seriously. I am doing this for her too, by the way. Miriette would chew her head off if she saw how she acts."

　　Burushi breathed out and explained in a hushed voice.

　　"Youngsters no matter how strong you might be being too lax so close to the battlefield can be deadly."

　　A tall man in full armor with blue mana stones embedded in his gauntlets spoke up, glancing over his shoulder at the trio.

　　From his point of view, it must have looked like they all were flirting all lighthearted despite the place they were walking through, and he was slightly irked because of it.

　　"(What is his deal? There are no bad guys in a mile radius...)"

　　"(Maybe the bad guys have spells that work over big distance?)"

　　The first ones to react to the guide showing the trio to the closest contested point on the border were Zoemi's resident sentinels. The thing was neither of them could quite understand the man's worries.

　　"(The barbarians have spells that work on different principles than the elemental magic we use, so they might as well be able to affect us like that.)"

　　"(EEEEHHHH...?!)"

　　"(They can?!)"

　　The small sentinel residing within Burushi's shadow joined in too and Zoemi's sentinels gasped in shock before starting to pay more attention.

　　"/The hexes and curses don't have a range limit, but usually require an item that belongs to or was a part of their target if they can't actually see them. As long as they don't have anything that belonged to our masters, everything will be fine from that far away.\"

　　Then the shrunk air emperor wrapped around Miriette's helmet to prevent it from falling off no matter what happened joined in and provided a more detailed explanation.

　　"(Ooohhh...!)"

　　"(So clever!)"

　　"(...excuse me, were you invited to the sentinel only talk?)"

　　Zoemi's sentinels gasped in awe but Burushi's didn't seem all that happy.

　　"(It's sentinel only?! But our master can hear us...!)"

　　"(Master, are you a sentinel?!)"

　　"(...)"

　　The first sentinel gasped in shock while the other straight up asked the black-haired boy while the small sentinel went silent either because it got really angry or very embarrassed.

　　"Is that so? How often this spot is contested through the day?"

　　Zoemi decided to not get involved in the talk between the sentinels and the air emperor and instead asked their guide curiously.

　　"Day...?! What in the world do you think this place is? This spot is attacked once every few weeks at most and usually when the barbarians are trying to distract us from another target. If this place would get harassed as often as you thought, it would mean that the bandits have taken over and settled in the eight or eleventh outpost a few miles ahead."

　　The armored man scoffed, shaking his head and pointing towards the northeast where a fort-like structure was clearly visible on the foot of a mountain.

　　"Good to know. Then, how often the mates are taken over by the barbarians' hexes? And what is the effective range of an average hex?"

　　"...!"

　　The black-haired boy asked and his question clearly surprised the armored man.

　　"I keep forgetting that you central-landers learn about barbarians from textbooks and whatnots..."

　　He sighed and shook his head before continuing to walk forward.

　　"Listen up, youngsters. Hexes and curses are not the same at all, honestly, most of the barbarians we fight aren't even capable of using them. They are basically the equivalent of our commoners. They have a chance with magicians only because of the extensive use of cursed items, which are their version of enchanted gear. Each tribe has more than enough curse users to have at least one if not two and more in each group they sent to fight us. Now, everything changes when it comes to hexes - that type of magic is impossible to learn and has to be passed through the bloodline. That's why the hex users are usually the Chiefs and their direct descendants. There are only a few of them in each tribe - and a tribe can often count a couple hundred to a thousand people. Things tend to get really troublesome when hex users are involved - honestly, it's straight-up scary because they can take control of weak-willed magicians without the protection of water magicians."

　　The man explained in a serious voice.

　　"...how come you are so sure that it's impossible to learn hexes...?"

　　"Because that's the captured barbarians have told us after thorough investigation."

　　Zoemi asked in confusion to which their guide answered with a shrug as if it was obvious.