How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 84

The Immortal Girl and the Golden Knight 3

The witches had gathered once again for a tea party at Beatrice’s mansion in the Capital.

“Whhy did he become like this.”

As usual, Valeria had her chin resting on one hand while she shoved sweets into her mouth with the other hand.

“Robin has grown up a lot, riiight? But he’s still cute as ever.”

“Hmm, but I was really surprised to find he can go to Ria’s house in the forest by himself… without even using teleportation magic.”

“What’s more, he came to visit me 2 days consecutively. Do imperial knights have that much free time?”

Since Robin was a new recruit in the Knights, he should have a tight schedule full of various training and practice. However, he never showed any exhaustion from his training and would come visit Valeria frequently.

“Heehee, it’s love.” Beatrice smirked. 

Valeria’s face turned into a fierce scowl at that.

“Speaking of, I heard new recruits would also participate in fighting the magical beasts in the area that was purified.”

“Yeah Robin said he was going to go as well.”

“Oh, I seee.”

After the whole True Salvation Religion event, Gil had spent day after day steadily clearing out the demonic realm across the valley, and creating a new barrier around the newly cleared area. As a result, they had been able to clear up enough land in 2-3 years for the Avilier Kingdom to gain a new territory. Apart from this, Gil had also worked hard to make the temporary title given to him by the state become permanent, but that was another story.

Currently, the imperial knights were trying to clear the purified area from the magical beasts that were left behind after the purification.

“Ah geez, I hope he doesn’t get carried away and end up getting hurt…”

　◇

The battle with the magical beasts turned out to be much harder than they had expected.

They faced great resistance as several large demonic beasts, that had been hidden underground before, showed up at the commotion while the knights were already busy fighting the medium and smaller sized beasts; their numbers too were much larger than what anyone had expected. Most of the new recruits had never fought magical beasts before. And so, by the time reinforcements, and Eleonora, arrived, there had been too many injured which included those who had fallen unconscious or were critically injured.

Among them, Robin, who was used to fighting beasts on a daily basis whenever he went to the forest to see Valeria, fought bravely against the beasts and was able to kill a huge number of the beasts. It was largely due to him that there were no casualties even in this desperate situation,

However…

“Has Robin gained consciousness?”

It had been 3 days since Robin was brought into the medical wing of the royal palace.

Leonardo asked Miriam. He had taken the spare time off his work to come see him when he had run into Miriam who had also arrived to check over him. 

“Not yet. His wound was deeper than we expected. The fever brought on by the infection only abated this morning.”

“I see…”

Ever since Miriam became the Crown Princess, Leonardo would address her formally as the aide of the prince, but right now he had reverted back to his former manner for the sake of his family. 

“There were too many injured this time, but at least we didn’t have any casualties.”

“Is that so.”

Miriam grasped Robin’s hand. His sleeping face still had the innocence from his boyhood on it.

“Everyone said the same thing.”

“What?”

“That if Robin wasn’t there they would have all died…”

The new recruits had been sent to an area where the number of magical beasts was estimated to be considerably low. The purpose of the operation was to allow them to gain some experience. However, the number of beasts was far greater than they had originally thought; it wouldn’t have been unreasonable if all of them got wiped out. 

Among the chaos, Robin had looked after his panicking companions, and had fought hard even after getting injured.

The white armour he had been wearing was dyed yellow from the blood of the magical beasts. That, along with his shining blonde hair in the evening sun earned him the name of ‘The Golden Knight’ from his fellows who watched him fight in awe.

　―――――That night.

The room where Robin was confined was lit up by a lapis lazuli coloured light.

Valeria walked up to him and sat down beside him on the bed. She reached out her hands and stroked his cheeks as he slept peacefully.

“Fighting until you were reduced to such a state… you stupid man…”

She leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on his forehead. Then, with one last stroke on his cheek, she got up and was about to walk away when her hand was grabbed tightly from behind.

“!”

“You’re mean, calling me stupid.”

Valeria whirled around to see sky blue eyes gazing at her.

“You’re awake!”

“Yeah. With the princess’ kiss.”

“… idiot.” She mumbled out as a single tear dripped down her cheek.

Robin, looking at her crying, pulled on her hand and brought her into a hug. Since when did he get so big? Valeria thought as she too wrapped her arms around his back.

“I have already decided I was going to look after you until you turn into an old man…”

“Hmm.”

“So don’t go dying on me as you please…”

“Sorry, I made you worry, right?”

“…I won’t forgive you if you do.”

“Haha, I already said sorry.”

Robin looked at her warmly.

At first he had thought of her as an elder sister.

Then one day those feelings turned into that of a childhood friend. And then one day he realised he was in love with her.

He wanted to stay by her side forever.

“Ria, stay by my side. Until I die.”

“…That’s a terrible thing to say.”

“Sorry. But I love you…”

Valeria glanced up and their gazes met.

The child she had found crying in the forest had grown up so much.

For her, who had lived an immortal life, the time spent with him was nothing but a small second. But even then, she wanted to spend it with him, she realised.

“Food…”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll allow it if it’s just coming to my house for food.”

“… that, isn’t that the same as now?”

Robin’s lips pulled into a pout as he grumbled. Valeria leaned up and placed a light kiss on his lips.

Surprised, Robin’s face turned bright red before splitting into a wide grin.

“This is payback for the other day. Anyways, you should focus on getting better for now. We can talk later.”

Saying so, she cast out a magic circle and soon disappeared along with it.

Robin sighed as he turned to lay on his back on the bed.

“…looks like I have to wait a bit more.”

His grumbling voice dissolved into the night.

After that, Robin went on to earn various achievements as a Knight and eventually became a Knight Commander. The Caparoni household received a large number of marriage proposals for him, but he never accepted any of them.

Robin spent the rest of his life going back and forth between the Capital and the forest as he lived his life with Valeria, the Witch of the Forest. Valeria too, remained by his side until his last moments.