While patrolling around town with El and Labrys, I learn that the Sorcerer Association is offering a reward and looking for the mysterious hero. That means me.
I’m sure they want to eliminate and dissect me.
(I think this means… We’ll probably face each other soon.)
This thought makes me feel a little weary.
“In any case, thank you for the information.”
“Yes. Good luck lady-killer.”
“…? Ah, yes.”
I say goodbye to the owner of the stall, and turn back to Labrys, but then…
“Hn?”
I notice she’s absentmindedly looking at something.
She hasn’t even touched the skewer in her hand.
“What’s wrong Labrys?”
“Eh? N-no, nothing…”
She quickly turns away, and I look to where she was looking.
“Ah…”
I see a girl holding her knee and crying.
It looks like she fell and scraped it.
“You’re worried about that girl, aren’t you?”
“…Not really. I just don’t like to hear children crying.”
Labrys says while turning away again, but she keeps peeking at that girl.
I don’t want to ignore a crying kid either.
“Sorry, I’m going there.”
“Ah…”
I run towards the girl.
“Are you all right? Did you fall and get hurt?”
“Y-yes… And it’s bleeding…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it with magic.”
“…But you’re Chrom the failure.”
“I really am famous, uh…”
I drop my shoulders, and then check the wound.
Blood is oozing, but it really is just a scratch. And since it hasn’t been very long, I can handle it even if I’m not feeling my best.
I put my hand over the girl’s wound.
(‘Time, turn back’.)
The time of the wound returns to before she got hurt.
The little girl blinks rapidly as she watches the wound close quickly.
“So? Does it still hurt?”
“N-no! W-wow… It doesn’t hurt anymore!”
“I see, that’s good.”
I smile and place my hand on her head.
“T-thank you big brother Chrom…”
She says with her cheeks a little red, before turning back and running.
“She reminds me of you when you were her age, Labrys.”
“…”
“Labrys?”
For some reason, her eyes are wide open.
“H-hum, what…”
“Chrom, what was that just now…”
“Eh, just healing magic?”
“…You can use healing magic? That’s pretty high level stuff, you know? And you never had the aptitude for it, right?”
“I-I read books, and then I was able to use it… I guess?”
“That simple…”
Labrys’ look of suspicion kind of hurts.
“W-well… It was just a scratch.”
“Even so, a healer would charge a few gold coins for what you just did.”
“But it was just a scratch…”
“That’s how rare it is for someone to use this kind of magic. And I’ve never heard of someone completely ‘erasing’ it and leaving no mark whatsoever.”
“Really…”
I didn’t know. And I even studied this era’s magic too.
(It’s more underdeveloped than I thought…)
Now that I think about it, mages tended to be more secretive in this era.
Many tried to hide their knowledge about magic for the sake of titles and renown.
The family I was born into, the Belmond family, and Labrys’ Scarlet family are known as two of the four great houses of the Kingdom of Historia, and hold considerable power. But it’s all because they monopolize knowledge of magic.
It’s difficult for techniques to evolve in this environment.
“Chrom, yesterday…”
Labrys starts to say something.
“Ah, there you are you two~!” Geez, don’t leave me behind!”
El comes running with her eyes a little moist.
“Hn? Laby? Were you saying something?”
“…It’s nothing.”
“Really?”
El then hands me a stack of papers.
“But you know? I heard lots of things from different people~. Here. It’s all the trouble in town organized in terms of priority.”
“O-oh… In such a short amount of time too…”
El is just too efficient, especially with her combination of personal virtue and a lot of personal connections.
She kept talking about us having fun together, but she’s been casually putting in the most work.
“S-sorry… I’m kind of ashamed of myself.”
“I think I was wrong about you El… Sorry.”
“Why are you two apologizing…?”
“I’m glad I came along with you. This would’ve been a lot harder if I was alone.”
“Hehehe. Really?”
I’m not popular in this town.
If I tried to ask people if there was anything troubling them, a lot would probably be reluctant to rely on me, and I’m sure this would’ve taken a lot longer.
“Well then, let’s go through this list one at a time.”
We start heading to where this list says there’s trouble right away, and a few hours later…
“Hey, I hear Chrom can solve anything if you ask.”
“He fixed a jar that’s our family heirloom.”
“He jumped into a fire and rescued a kid.”
“He fixed a roof leak that’s been there for years in an instant…”
“Is there anything he can’t do…?”
“Sorry for calling you a failure all this time, Chrom!”
“Hey, form a line!”
“The end of the line is here~!”
Townspeople line up in front of me.
It’s a small town, so word that I can solve problems quickly spreads.
“““Chrom! Chrom! Chrom!”””
People start chanting.
What a turnabout. Just a few hours ago they were all treating me like a failure.
“W-wow Chrom! You’re popular!”
“No… This is impossible.”
“Ha, haha… I never expected this either.”
Labrys is staring at me.
“How many kinds of magic can you even use?”
“H-hum…”
I’m only using one, time magic, but I don’t really want to reveal its existence.
“I’ve been self-studying a little bit of everything.”
“…You couldn’t use any magic at all until just yesterday.”
“I guess everything’s possible if you put your mind to it.”
“Hm…?”
It’s not a lie, but it’s not a good excuse either.
Labrys keeps looking at me like she’s looking for an answer.
◇
By the time we finish dealing with the townspeople’s troubles, it’s already evening.
“Sorry for making you two come along.”
“…Geez, it’s because you wanted to solve problems that didn’t even matter too.”
“S-sorry… I just didn’t want to say no.”
El smiles, and Labrys looks exasperated.
“Hum, what?”
“Hehehe… I was just thinking that it’s just like you.”
“…Yes. It’s just Chrom being Chrom I guess.”
“Hum, what do you two mean by that?”
“I-I don’t know.”
Labrys turns away.
El on the other hand, sounds happy.
“You know, even when we were kids, you always wanted to help people in trouble, right? It’s just like you to want to help everyone, right Labrys?”
“…D-don’t ask me.”
Labrys sounds flustered.
“W-well… You’re Chrom, so when you tried to help them… You always just started pathetically panicking.”
“Uu…”
Labrys’ words bring back a lot of memories.
She’s right. I used to try to help people when I saw them in trouble. I wanted to be like the ones who saved me, Mister Sirius, Miss Reina, and El.
But I didn’t have the power I have now, so a lot of times I ended up not being able to do anything.
“I-I’m kind of getting embarrassed…”
You could call it youthful enthusiasm, but I feel like my dark history is getting dug up.
“…But didn’t you actually manage to help some people too?”
“Eh?”
“…Hmph.”
Labrys turns away. How many times has she done this just today?
“Yes, it’s nothing to get embarrassed about. I like watching you help people.”
I get even more embarrassed after El says this, and my face gets increasingly redder.
“B-but today was fun wasn’t it? The three of us being together for the first time in a while?”
El frantically tries to change the subject.
“I hope it’s like this forever.”
“Me too.”
“…Hn.”
I feel like Labrys nodded just a bit at El’s words, and when I look at her, she turns away.
I get the feeling that her face is turning red, but that could be the sunset.
“Still, I’m sorry for keeping you here so late, Labrys.”
“Yes. Your house is far away too, so you should probably go back soon.”
“…Yes.”
We don’t want to keep her here too long, because she came here from the capital.
But for some reason she’s not moving, except for looking up and peeking at me.
“Aren’t you going home?”
“Hum… Before that, there’s something I want to ask you… Chrom.”
Says Labrys, hesitantly.
“Chrom, yesterday…”
“Yesterday?”
“Hum…”
Labrys mumbles something.
“…No, forget it.”
She shakes her head like she’s clearing her mind.
“I’m sure it’s all in my head.”
“Really?”
“…Yes.”
Labrys’ seemingly lonely smile leaves an impression on me.
“…See you tomorrow.”
“Yes, see you tomorrow.”
“Bye Laby!”
Tomorrow… I’m sure the future that’s waiting for us is the same as today.
I wave at Labrys as she leaves with this belief in my heart.
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And you using it for some small problem in view of all of town people… yeah, it is not showing off, for real, he behave as 16 years old boy, not as 100+ year old “monster”.
Why I think this? Because he don’t even think about consequences of what he is doing.
First he showing what he have strange magic, and should try be under cover as long as he can, 2nd his enemy can make hell for this people to research his magic.
But ofc it ends well, because book is book, and author may write any dumb decision and they ended as best solution, but it do not building consistent characters or world.
100+ years. And still naive. Really weird.
That’s a flag.