She wasn't particularly curious, but Echi arranged her expression into something politely interested. He had tried to look out for her reputation, and beyond that - she owed him a debt she would never be able to name.
"I've been around geniuses long enough to know how they work. The Commander, for instance - we were roommates at the Academy."
Baraha stood quietly to the side, not joining in, his expression thoughtful. Dietrich glanced back at him, rubbed his chin, and chuckled.
"After watching so many of them, I've noticed they all have something in common."
"Which is?"
"They're all, without exception, a little strange. Each one in a different way. For someone ordinary like me, it's a world I can't really follow - so I've just learned to let it be. Your outfit, for instance."
"…You're calling me a genius?"
"Yeah. A magnificent oddity."
Dietrich laughed loudly and patted her shoulder a few times. She couldn't tell if it was a compliment or an insult. Echi's face twisted, and he winked at her.
"Anyway, the dress aside - you look good in it. That's what I was actually trying to say. Pretty, and I like it. Let's get along, Cadet Echinacea."
[Isn't he the one who's going to become LemminGiosa's next owner? LemminGiosa has peculiar taste.]
'Was he always like this?'
Her memory of him was so defined by his worst moment that she hadn't known who he was outside of it. Echi looked at him, letting her disbelief show.
"…Senior Dietrich might be something of a genius himself."
"Is that an insult? You're quick. But I'll take it."
He laughed and smacked the back of Baraha's head lightly as he turned to go.
"Ow! Sir Dietrich, what..."
"Cheering you on. Do well."
And just like that he was gone. Baraha rubbed the back of his head with a long sigh. Once Dietrich was out of sight, he turned to Echi and lowered his head.
"I'm sorry."
"You haven't done anything to apologize for, Senior."
"I was trying to help, but I wasn't thinking. About how it might look on you."
"It's fine. That kind of thing doesn't affect me."
She shook her head with a small smile. She knew why he had helped, not out of any chivalric impulse toward her as a woman, but because she was his junior squire and he was that kind of person. Knowing that, she didn't mind it. Baraha caught the smile and crossed his arms with a gleam in his eye.
"So I can keep helping, then."
"That's not what I said."
Echi shut it down without hesitation. Not caring about rumors was one thing, actively generating them was another. Especially anything that put her in close proximity to others. Baraha laughed and pointed off to the side.
"The Vice-Commander's area and mine are going up over there. If you run into trouble, come find me."
"Understood. Thank you."
"Take care."
Once he left, she was alone. She finished setting up her tent and Yurien's, using mana sparingly for the parts that required more strength than her current body could comfortably manage. Thanks to everything Baraha had taught her during the probation period, it went more smoothly than it might have.
By the time she finished unpacking, it was past midnight.
Finally, she pulled out a neatly folded cloak from the bottom of her bag. Plain dark navy. No pattern, nothing distinctive. It was the one Yurien had draped over her shoulders at the fountain.
She set it on her lap and smoothed a hand across it.
[That's Yurien's, isn't it?]
"Yes. I need to return it."
She had kept it this long because she hadn't been able to bring herself to make a special trip just for a cloak.
She held it for a moment, then lifted the tent flap and looked out. Yurien's tent, right beside hers, was dark. He had gone straight to a meeting deep in the gorge when they arrived; he hadn't come back yet.
'I'll leave it inside his tent. Before he returns.'
They would be in close quarters from here on regardless - but she wanted to minimize direct encounters where possible. She checked her surroundings and slipped across to his tent.
It was May, but the north ran cold. The tent fabric was thick enough to block every last trace of light. Even for Echi, who could navigate in near-darkness, it was difficult to see anything.
But she didn't need to see.
Yurien was in the tent.
She had been focused entirely on checking the outside - she hadn't considered that someone might already be within. While Baraha had taken the lead setting up the tent, she had helped too, which had made her careless about what might already be inside.
And if a knight of Yurien's ability stayed still and chose not to be detected, most people wouldn't catch him.
All of it was an excuse. She had simply been careless. She should have checked for a presence before walking in.
Echi stood frozen at the entrance. She had moved quietly, but there was no way he hadn't noticed her. And yet - no sound. No movement. Just stillness.
All she had to do was explain that she had come to return the cloak. But the knowledge that Yurien was right there, beyond the darkness, and her lips refused to cooperate. She gripped the cloak harder.
After what felt like a very long and tense silence, there was a soft rustle. Yurien lit the lamp.
A steady, reddish glow filled the tent.
"Cadet Echinacea."
He spoke her name and then paused, as if working out what came next. His gaze moved away from her briefly before settling back. The lamp's flame flickered gently in his quiet blue eyes.
"…What brings you here?"
His voice was lower than usual and carried something she couldn't quite read. Echi took a slow breath, and the paralysis eased.
"I came to return this. I'm sorry it took so long."
She held out the folded cloak. Yurien looked at it in silence. After a moment, he moved closer, each step sending a soft echo through her chest.
He took the cloak from her hands. Their fingertips barely grazed. The contact lasted less than a second, and was through gloves, and somehow it was still vivid.
He looked down at the cloak. Not at her. The tension that had been coiled through her gradually came undone.
She studied him. Bathed in the reddish lamplight, he looked somehow warmer than usual.
His lowered lashes trembled faintly, barely perceptible. Below them, his eyes moved like water with something running beneath the surface. His lips parted and then pressed closed again, as though he had swallowed a word.
He did it again. And once more. Each time, he seemed to be holding something back.
It struck her all at once. He was nervous.
Until now she had never been calm in front of him - and she had failed to notice that it worked both ways. He was being just as careful with her as she was with him. Every action deliberate. Every word measured.
The same as she sharpened to a point in his presence - he was walking on the edge of something when he faced her.
"…Why?"
The sudden stillness in her own chest was strange. She had finally seen it. She could see it plainly: the careful, tentative way he held himself. How had she not seen it before?
The moment passed, and wasn't long. He broke the silence.
"Did you only come to return this?"
"…Yes."
Did there need to be another reason? Echi hesitated, then added:
"If it's been an inconvenience, I apologize."
"Ah! About the medicine from last time. Thank you. It helped a great deal."
"…Did it?"
At that, he raised his head and looked at her. And then, to her startled surprise, he smiled fully. Eyes and lips both softening, defenses entirely gone, as if he hadn't thought to hold anything back.
She had never seen him smile like that before.
If she hadn't been the one receiving it, she might have thought he was in love with someone. If she stared at it just a little longer, she might have started to believe it was her.
It was the suspicion that he knew, about the erased past, about what she had done, that kept her from falling into that.
Hurriedly, she looked away.
"I'll take my leave, Commander."
"Cadet Echinacea, a moment."
His voice caught her just as she reached for the tent flap. She stopped without turning around. Through her heightened senses she felt his hand begin to reach toward her shoulder, and then draw back, quietly lowering.
"…Have you ever encountered a monster before?"
An odd question. She turned it over.
After the reversal, she had encountered monsters only in passing during her time as a cadet, nothing serious. But in the years between the first life and the reversal, after she had finally broken free of the cursed sword's control, she had spent years hunting Giosa through abandoned places. Monsters had been a constant.
The noble lady Echinacea Roaz, however, would have had no reason to.
"I can't say I haven't seen them before," she said carefully.
A quiet sigh from behind her. Then:
"Monsters behave differently from humans, the way they move, the way they target prey. Have you had any instruction about them?"
"…Some."
"Then that's fortunate. Still..."
He paused. She wondered what expression he was making, but looking back felt like it would cost her too much. If she saw that unguarded smile again, something she had worked very hard to bury would start to move.
She bit the soft flesh inside her cheek and held herself still.
"Cadet Echinacea. Tomorrow morning, the force splits into two groups to sweep both sides of the gorge. The central path carries the highest monster density, after both sides are cleared, we'll take a day of rest before the Giosa owners lead a push through the center. Squires will not be excluded from the central sweep. You'll be part of it."
His voice had returned to its formal, measured register. He added:
"I do not doubt your sword. But monsters are unpredictable. Stay close to me and don't stray."
"You say you don't doubt my sword, have you ever seen me use it?"
The question came out before she could stop it. He hadn't, had he? There had been no opportunity since her enrollment. The sparring request was precisely because he wanted to see it. So how could he trust something he had never witnessed?
She turned around. He met her gaze.
After a brief pause, he answered calmly.