The dust still filled the entire training field.
Elias stood several meters away from the center of the explosion, catching his breath as he kept his eyes fixed on where Elysia had been standing.
The dust swirling through the air made it impossible for him to see what was happening over there.
After a while, the dust slowly began to clear.
Elias narrowed his eyes when he spotted a figure standing in the middle of the field.
Elysia was still standing there, but Evelyn had moved in front of her with her sword drawn.
The girl stood there calmly, as if the explosion that had just happened wasn’t something worth worrying about.
Elias was a little surprised to see her there.
He clearly remembered Evelyn standing off to the side of the field, quite a distance away from Elysia.
‘When the hell did she get over there?’
Elias then looked at the area around them.
The ground in front of Evelyn was cracked from the impact, while his own sword was lying several meters away from where they stood.
Judging by the situation, Evelyn must have stopped his attack before it could hit Elysia.
Elias let out a sigh of relief after making sure Elysia hadn’t been injured.
‘If she got even a tiny scratch, I’m so screwed!’
“My lady!”
Evelyn turned toward Elias.
“That was pretty strong. But it’s still nothing compared to me.”
“Really?”
‘Was she trying to compliment me or brag about herself?’
“But this is good. You managed to catch Elysia off guard and launch an attack. If I hadn’t stepped in…”
“S-sorry…”
Elias walked toward them while picking up his sword from the ground.
He then inspected the blade to make sure it hadn’t been damaged by the impact.
“Thank goodness my sword’s fine.”
Elias returned the sword to its sheath before turning his attention back to Evelyn and Elysia.
“I’m sorry if my attack was a little too much, Lady Elysia.”
Elysia shook her head as she sheathed her own sword.
“It’s fine.”
The girl then looked at Elias’s sword.
“That was an interesting attack. I didn’t expect you to be reckless enough to try something like that.”
Elias was a little surprised to hear that.
He hadn’t expected Elysia to say something like that after nearly getting hit by his attack.
“Y-yeah… I just wanted to try it because I was curious…”
Elias scratched the back of his head with a small laugh.
“So that means you were using me as a test subject?”
Elias went silent for a moment before dropping to his knees, pressing his forehead against the ground.
“…I wouldn’t dare.”
Seeing Elias suddenly kneel made Evelyn let out a small laugh.
The gentle sound of her laughter made Elias feel a little embarrassed and even more worried about what might happen to him.
“Get up. Don’t just suddenly kneel like that. You look ridiculous.”
‘W-what?!’
Elysia’s tone suddenly sounded different from usual.
Her voice was slightly higher, and there was even a faint tremble in it.
Elias eventually stood up and noticed that Elysia had turned her face away.
Strangely enough, her ears were visibly red.
Confused, Elias could only stay quiet while scratching his cheek.
‘Maybe she’s feeling hot.’
“Alright, that’s enough for today.”
Elias’s body already felt much more exhausted than before.
Using such a large amount of Arcana had apparently taken more out of him than he’d expected.
Evelyn nodded.
“Let’s take a break~.”
Elias nodded and followed the two girls as they left the training field.
* * *
Elias eventually arrived at a garden filled with flowers.
In the middle stood a spacious pavilion surrounded by a pond, with pathways and flower beds extending throughout the area.
Evelyn and Elysia were sitting inside the pavilion, enjoying some tea and sweets.
Meanwhile, Elias stood off to one side of the pavilion, facing the two of them while waiting for them to finish.
Honestly, Elias preferred things like this, when the two of them weren’t doing anything.
The reason was obvious.
Wasn’t standing around without moving both tiring and boring?
Of course it was boring if there was nothing to look at or think about.
Besides, if all he had to do was stand around, Elias could probably stay on his feet for three hours without doing anything.
‘Better this than having to follow them around while they do something weird.’
Elysia noticed Elias smiling to himself and raised one eyebrow.
‘Is something making him happy?’
“Elias.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Why are you standing over there? Come here and sit with us.”
“Eh? B-but…”
“Elysia’s right. Come sit with us. Besides, you must be a little tired after what happened earlier.”
‘I’m actually exhausted.’
Elias did want to accept Evelyn and Elysia’s invitation, but he remembered his duties.
“I’m sorry, but I’m your Caretaker. So there’s no way I can sit at the same table as you.”
At that moment, Elias felt like some bald monk who was being unnecessarily stubborn and preachy.
Besides, this was already part of his plan.
Elias was a little suspicious of their sudden invitation.
It could easily be a trap to get him into some kind of trouble and give them an excuse to have him beheaded.
Elias gave a small snort, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his lips.
‘Hmph!
You two are still two steps behind me, kids.’
“Quite sad that he rejected our invitation.”
Evelyn lowered her head slightly, then put on a sad expression as if she’d just suffered the most painful rejection imaginable.
Elias could only give her a strained smile, a bead of sweat appearing on his cheek.
He knew perfectly well that the expression was completely fake.
‘Seriously…?’
Before Elias could say anything, Elysia had already moved beside Evelyn and wrapped an arm around her with an exaggeratedly pitiful expression.
“Big sis…”
She gently patted her Big Sis’s head for a moment before turning toward Elias with an annoyed expression.
“You… made my Big Sis sad! You even made her cry!”
The white sword that had been resting at her waist was slowly drawn and pointed toward Elias.
“Huh…?”
Elias immediately straightened up.
“Wait, Lady Elysia. Why are you suddenly drawing your sword?”
“You made my Big Sis like this!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
Elias started to panic as sweat began pouring down his face while he stared at the sword pointed directly at him.
He then glanced at Evelyn, who was still leaning against Elysia with a sad expression and a convincing crying voice.
However, from the corner of his eye, Elias could see that she was barely managing to hold back a smile.
‘The hell are you talking about?!
She’s practically trying not to laugh!’
Since there seemed to be no other way to deal with them, Elias could only let out a long sigh.
“Alright. I’ll sit.”
The moment she heard that, Evelyn immediately stopped crying and pulled herself away from Elysia’s embrace.
The sad expression on her face disappeared just like that, replaced by her usual smile.
Elysia also lowered her sword before sitting back down calmly and taking another sip of her tea.
Elias: “…”
Just moments ago, the two of them had looked like they were putting on some kind of drama, but now they had both gone back to normal.
There wasn’t even a single wet spot on Evelyn’s clothes, and her eyes weren’t even the slightest bit puffy.
‘…Do these two wanna become soap opera actresses or something?’
Elias finally walked over and sat down between Evelyn and Elysia.
Meanwhile, the two girls simply went back to enjoying their tea and sweets as if nothing had happened.
Although Elias couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d been played, he could at least look on the bright side.
At least he was still breathing.
Elysia then picked up the teapot from the table and poured some tea into Elias’s cup.
“Drink.”
Elias was a little surprised by this.
He wasn’t used to being served like this, especially by the two people who were supposed to be under his care.
“E-eh? I can pour it myself, my lady.”
“It’s fine.”
Elysia placed the teapot back on the table and Elias hesitated for a moment, but eventually picked up the cup and took a sip.
“Thank you.”
Not long after, Evelyn picked up one of the sweets on the table and held it out toward Elias.
“This too.”
Elias stared at the sweet for a moment before finally accepting it.
“Alright.”
He put it into his mouth and started chewing, it tasted pretty good.
Elias didn’t really mind if they wanted to give him a little food, especially since there were still plenty of sweets left on the table.
However, after a while, Elysia picked up another sweet and brought it toward Elias’s mouth.
“Say ahh~.”
Elias looked a little confused, but eventually went along with it and ate the sweet Elysia offered him.
Evelyn did the same right afterward.
“This one too.”
“Wait…”
Elias opened his mouth again and accepted the sweet after barely having enough time to swallow the one Elysia had just given him.
At first, he still thought it was normal.
But as time went on, Evelyn and Elysia began taking turns feeding him without giving him any chance to pick up the sweets himself.
One sweet after another was handed to him.
Elias could only accept them while occasionally taking a sip of the tea Elysia had poured for him.
“This one.”
“There’s still one more.”
“This too.”
“Mm…”
Before long, Elias’s mouth was stuffed full of sweets.
He could only chew while staring at the two girls with a confused expression.
‘My jaw hurts…’
Elias finally managed to swallow everything in his mouth.
He then raised one hand slightly, trying to stop them.
“That’s enough, my ladies. I can eat by myself.”
The moment they heard that, Evelyn and Elysia stopped moving.
The two of them simply stared at Elias for a few moments.
The happy expressions they’d had before slowly turned into disappointment.
Evelyn even lowered the hand that was still holding a sweet, while Elysia simply looked at Elias with a slightly gloomy expression.
“I see…”
Evelyn’s voice was quieter than before.
Elysia then lowered her head slightly.
“You don’t like it when we feed you? Do you hate it when we feed you?”
“Eh… What’s wrong with you two? That’s not what I meant.”
Elias immediately answered after seeing their expressions change.
“I just think I can do it myself. You don’t need to trouble yourselves.”
Evelyn simply stared at the sweet still in her hand before slowly placing it back on the table.
“…We just wanted to feed you because you’re our Caretaker.”
Hearing that, Elias could only fall silent.
For some reason, the relaxed atmosphere in the pavilion had suddenly begun to change.
Elysia who had been silent this whole time, slowly reached toward her waist.
*SRING!
Her white sword was drawn, making Elias immediately tense up.
“L-Lady Elysia?”
Elysia wasn’t the only one.
Evelyn also drew her own sword with a calm motion before pointing it toward Elias.
Elias slowly backed away from his seat, sweat beginning to appear on his face.
‘…Why the hell are they drawing their swords?’
Neither girl said anything.
They simply stared at Elias with disappointed expressions, their swords still pointed directly at him.
“M-My ladies? Why are you suddenly drawing your swords? Please put them away! Swords aren’t something to play around with!”
Evelyn tilted her head slightly while still pointing her sword at Elias.
“Then you really don’t want us to feed you?”
Her voice was gentle, but for some reason, it only made Elias feel even more uncomfortable.
“Lady Evelyn, that’s not what I meant. I was only saying that I can eat by myself—”
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
Hearing the two of them say it at the exact same time as they swung their swords, Elias could only close his eyes with a smile.
‘Damn it…’