Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Lars remained utterly dazed until they got up and set out the next morning. It was not only because this well-behaved child, who had always gone to bed at nine sharp, had been forced to stay up with a new-era tough girl until nearly dawn. It was also because of that speech, which had been about as soul-crushing as fanservice from a dean of discipline.

“Galahad…” For the first time, Lars was not clinging to Ruiyin. He trailed behind the Silver Knight in a fugue, head drooping, repeating the same things over and over. “What do I do if she says she doesn’t need my protection… What do I do if she says I’m still a child… What do I do if she says I’m still too weak to stay by her side…”

Lars grabbed at his hair in distress. “That might not have been exactly what she said… Ah, but that isn’t the point. That has to be what she meant! Ruiyin thinks I’m too weak, that I’m not qualified to stay beside the Xisaluo Envoy, but because she’s far too kind, she couldn’t bear to tell me outright to leave. So she used this gentle method to make me understand my own shortcomings so I could improve myself… In that case, how am I supposed to get stronger?”

No one applauded his miraculous talent for overthinking. The only person present who could listen to him was currently in a state of madness.

“East… N-no, wrong! It should be south. But south is clearly the opposite direction from where we came from, so why would that man tell me to head back the way we came? Was I wrong? No, as a Silver Knight, I must be right! Therefore, our direction is the correct direction! But where are the sea and the forest? Oh no…”

Galahad clawed wildly at the messy cowlicks sticking up all over his head. In the end, the ball of green algae had been transformed into a full-blown shrub.

Lars, still trapped in his own imagined world and unable to extricate himself, finally could not bear to watch. “Don’t be so depressed yet, Galahad. At least this place is the entrance to a continental teleportation magic array. Didn’t Ruiyin already go look for it? See? Ruiyin is back!”

The boy, instantly revived, waved his arms happily. Not far away, a tall, thin woman was slowly walking over. Ruiyin had changed out of her battered armor. In its place, she wore a grayish-white travel outfit. The thin hood could not block the scorching sun of this hot country. When she narrowed her eyes, her expression carried a faint, gloomy killing intent.

“Pack up. We’re going back,” Ruiyin said flatly when she reached them.

Galahad, who had been clawing at the ground in madness, raised his haggard face. “Why? Could it be… Could it be that I was wrong after all? That uncle who doesn’t even count as a knight was actually right?!”

“Ever since I started traveling with you, I gave up on crossing the sea through normal channels,” Ruiyin said without mercy. “Your choice has no meaning whatsoever.”

Galahad lowered his head, devastated by the blow.

“Then why are we going back?” Lars asked humbly.

Ruiyin’s face darkened slightly. She endured it for a long time before saying, in an extremely unwilling tone, “Thanks to our friend on the ground there, the teleportation array has been temporarily shut down. Merchant ships are forbidden from passage. We have to buy a boat and cross the sea ourselves, but we don’t have enough money. We need to return to the forest and hunt for magic crystals to sell.”

“…It was obviously closed because of the Orcs’ war. What does that have to do with me?” Galahad muttered unhappily. Before he could finish, however, the money pouch in Ruiyin’s hand smashed into his forehead with rage that had been held back for days.

“You still have the nerve to say that! Count them yourself. Since we set out with you, how many times have we been chased by level-seven magical beasts, shut out by townspeople, hit by torrential rain every single time we camped outdoors, or somehow lost our travel papers every time we passed through a city gate?! This is all your fault!”

Ruiyin hated him so much her teeth itched. Unfortunately, these accidents really could not all be blamed on Galahad. In the past, she had thought this man was merely foolish and idiotic at worst. Only now did she realize that even his foolish idiocy was probably being dragged down by a certain congenital defect: Lucky T.

…That was right. This man’s luck stat had already reached a level that neither E nor ED could describe. It was charging straight toward troll territory. No matter how ordinary, simple, or easy a task was, once it reached him, countless inconceivable problems would always appear. This man could even cause a forest fire just by watching a campfire, then get chased by fire-type magical beasts. Compared to that, today’s temporary closure of the teleportation array was entirely within expectations.

“Shut up! Get back to the forest and grind monsters right now!”

The blow to Galahad’s head had not hurt, because just yesterday, in the short half hour after the money pouch had been handed to Galahad so he could buy provisions, thieves had visited it quite thoroughly. Thinking of this, Silver Knight Galahad was reminded of the black cloud of financial luck that would not disperse from around him, and sorrow rose from the depths of his heart. He did not even have the energy to appeal the contempt of a lady.

Only an idiot like Lars would cling to the thought that “the Divine Envoy is being gentle and awkwardly giving me a chance to improve myself” and throw himself into monster grinding with overflowing enthusiasm. Galahad listlessly waved the sword in his hand, his heart silently shedding tears of blood. A woman like Ruiyin was like an icebone dragon that lived on the polar plains: arrogant, rude, and uncivilized, and at any moment capable of firing off icy blades that pierced straight to the heart and bone. Having to treat such a woman with knightly courtesy was something he truly could not accept. Why exactly did he and this Little Knight have to protect someone who did nothing but order people around and…

The magical beast’s shrill scream cut off his grievances. Galahad raised his head and saw the thin, weak-looking girl ahead of him, strenuously riding on the back of a frenzied armored rhinoceros. She drove the dagger in her hand viciously into the rhino’s most vulnerable spot, its neck. In that instant, her face wore a somewhat perverse, twisted smile. She twisted her wrist and sliced. Blood pumped by the artery sprayed across her face. Only when the prey gave a mournful cry and collapsed completely did the girl withdraw her blade, jump down from the rhino’s back, and stab into its skull, searching through the mass of sticky matter inside for a magic crystal.
“…”

Galahad’s face went ashen. Fine. Aside from ordering people around like she owned the place, this woman did serve other functions. At first, she had been a powerless weakling who couldn’t truss a chicken, but with the protection of a Silver Knight, she had still stubbornly kept training herself. Her physique could never be like Lars’s or his, swinging a longsword hard enough to split mountains and crack stone, but her small frame gave her its own advantages: agility, cunning, and ruthlessness. With those, she had even managed to add to the three-person party’s GDP without dragging them down.

That said, Galahad absolutely refused to admit she had only trained so hard because he was unreliable.

“Why are you spacing out?” By the time his mind wandered back, Ruiyin had already walked up to him. Her face was still spattered with blood from the mist-form spray just now, and the dagger in her hand was still dripping with magical beast blood. Paired with her cool expression, the impact went straight past the upper limit of what Galahad could endure.

He stared mournfully at the crystal in Ruiyin’s hand. “The highest-level magical beasts in this forest are only level four. At this rate, when are we ever going to scrape together enough money to buy a ship?”

“Soon!” Lars bounded over excitedly, holding a handful of crystals in all kinds of colors. “Ruiyin and I have already hunted this many. We only need about three thousand more! If we live here for a month, we’ll have enough money to go out to sea!”

Lars beamed brightly at Ruiyin and Galahad. In that instant, both of them felt the urge to smack him.

“No, that won’t work.” Ruiyin set down her dagger and the magic crystal in her hand, then rubbed her forehead with a headache. “We have to find another way. Otherwise, before we save up enough money, the Orcs will have already fought their way here. Galahad, you’re so experienced at getting lost. In your opinion, could there be any high-level magical beasts in this forest?”

“Based on my experience getting lost… Wait! I do not have that much experience getting lost!” Halfway through, Galahad flushed crimson and hurriedly changed the subject. “There definitely are high-level magical beasts! This environment is exactly the sort of habitat level-seven Jungle Giant Pythons love best. The problem is that Jungle Giant Pythons like to live in groups. With the three of us, surrounding one python would barely be manageable, but if we barged into their colony, even I would die for sure!”

“So that won’t work…” Ruiyin sat down, a little dispirited. She had run into being broke plenty of times, but never during wartime, when even finding someplace to work was difficult. And beside her were two big-and-small gluttons. Apart from their half-baked combat ability, one had been committed to getting lost for a hundred years without wavering, while the other only knew how to draw a salary and eat at the public trough, and might never have even worked a job before. Counting on them was probably less reliable than praying to the legendary Xisaluo.

“Uh… um…” Lars suddenly spoke hesitantly, looking at the two of them with some uncertainty. “If we only need to lure out a single Jungle Giant Python, I remember that the Silver Knight has already received the God of War’s protection and can use a skill called Mirror Shield, which protects the weak from one fatal attack?”

“Yes, and?” Galahad said listlessly. “Little Knight, if we’re surrounded by that many Jungle Giant Pythons, how could using Mirror Shield only once possibly be enough?”

A smile spread across Lars’s face. “Then there’s no problem! Jungle Giant Pythons love eating magical beast magic crystals more than anything, but because of the way they hunt, it’s hard for them to find intact crystals. Since we have so many low-level magic crystals here, as long as we use them to draw the python group’s attention, one of us can take the chance to sneak in and use some higher-level magic crystals to lure away an outer python that can’t compete for the food. The pythons inside definitely won’t notice one snake disappearing. As long as you, Galahad, can use Mirror Shield to protect that person from one attack, we’ll have a good chance of drawing it completely away!”

“Not a bad idea.” Ruiyin looked at Lars with some surprise, and the boy’s face instantly flushed scarlet from that mild praise. She considered it. “Then all we need now is bait. Let me think. Weak, nimble enough not to be easily noticed, and preferably with some ability to protect themselves. In that case, this role seems practically designed for me, doesn’t it?”

“Huh?” Lars and Galahad froze at the same time, then said in unison, “No!”

“I wasn’t asking for your opinions.” Ruiyin slowly rose from the stone. “If I’m not mistaken, judging by the traits of a knight, this kind of protective skill should be more effective the weaker the target is, right? The person among us who best fits that condition is undoubtedly me. Also, once the bait comes back, they’ll need strong teammates to receive them, won’t they? Galahad needs to cast the skill, and Lars, you…”

She gave the excited boy, who had clenched his fists, a meaningful look. “I believe that aside from you, no one is better suited to guarding my back.”

In that instant, the dazzling light that burst from Lars’s eyes successfully carved the words “I’m finally not the stupidest one anymore, yay” into Galahad’s heart.

Author’s Note: The Little Knight is so easy to coax~