“Young Master…”
“I’ll get going first. Follow me.”
“Young Master!”
Riley got outside into the snow storm. Sera, who extended her arm toward Riley, turned to look at Nainiae, not knowing what to do.
“N… Nainiae… shouldn’t you stop him?”
“…”
Nainiae spared the response. Contrary to what Sera was hoping for, she straightened her knees and got up.
“Now, we should head out too.”
“Nainiae?”
“It will be all right.”
Unable to comprehend Nainiae, Sera was about to have an argument with Nainiae about this. However, Sera noticed the determined look on Nainiae’s face. Sera relaxed her crumpled eyebrows.
“Ugh.”
It seemed Sera trusted Nainiae. Sera followed suit and got up. She also got out of the cave, in to the snow storm.
‘Uuuu… the snow storm is…’
Sera faltered because of the harsh wind. The snow storm was so severe that she couldn’t see what was right in front of her. She started to look for Riley who went out into the open first.
“Young Master!”
Sera covered her face with her arm and called Riley. She realized the intensity of the snow storm that was harassing her had subsided substantially. Sera opened her eyes big.
“Ms. Sera, are you all right?”
It seemed Nainiae used magic.
Unlike how the scenery looked, something was resisting the snow and wind. It suddenly became easier to move. Sera lowered the arm she used to cover her face and called for Riley again.
“Young Master!”
Unlike them, Riley was walking through the snow without Nainiae’s magic. Having noticed Riley, Sera quickly followed him.
“Young Master, please wait! I’ll cast resist magic for you!”
Nainiae operated mana inside her body and extended her hand toward Riley.
“Resist magic?”
“Yes!”
Having heard what Nainiae just said, Riley turned. As if he understood it, he made an okay sign with his right hand.
‘… Ms. Heliona, help me.’
Having noticed Riley’s hand, Nainiae nodded lightly and looked at her own shoulder.
Despite the snow storm, the summon spirit of flame was burning up in full force. The spirit locked her eyes with Nainiae and nodded.
<You need to buy me pudding later, all right?>
‘All right.’
With her hand to the front, Nainiae prepared magic and casted not the resist magic but sleep magic.
‘Please.’
Although she said it was resist magic, she cast sleep magic instead. She felt guilty inside, but hide her emotion and hoped she would not be found out.
‘Please, he must not notice this.’
Nainiae thought Riley would withstand the spell if she just cast the sleep spell, so she chose this method.
<That guy is already on his last leg. It’s ridiculous that we have to cast sleep spell like this to him in the first place, but…>
Heliona was helping Nainiae to use the magic. Heliona mumbled as she broke cold sweat.
‘If I get scolded for this, that’s that… I can’t just sit and watch this anymore.’
Nainaie apologized inside. She gathered up all of her mana, even ones she didn’t know she had, and used them all to cast the sleep spell on Riley.
“You don’t need to cast something like this for…”
Riley was standing there and looking back toward where Nainiae was. His eyes slowly closed. At the same time, his body also slowly tilted.
“… me.”
Because Nainiae said it was resist magic, Riley let his guard down. Also, it seemed the exhaustion from days worth of lack of sleep came rushing at him at once. Riley collapsed to the front as he fell asleep.
“Y… Young Master?!”
Sera didn’t know what was really happening. She saw Riley suddenly losing consciousness and collapsing. She tumbled and rushed toward Riley.
“Young Master!”
Fortunately, he fell to the snowfield, so he didn’t fall hard. The problem was that it looked like he just fainted.
“Nainiae! Young Master has… Huh?”
Sera turned to look at Nainiae who cast magic on Riley. Sera had a question mark on her face.
Only a moment ago, Nainiae was behind Sera. Now, she was gone without a trace.
“N… Nainiae?”
“… Young Master.”
Only a moment ago, Nainiae was behind Sera, but now she could hear Nainiae’s voice from the front. Sera blinked her eyes vacantly and turned to look at where Riley was.
Nainiae was there.
It seemed she used a short-range teleportation magic. Nainiae instantly appeared in front of Riley. She supported Riley who was a sleep. It looked like Nainiae could cry.
“I am sorry. I’ll receive the punishment later.”
“Ugh, I thought you disappeared.”
Sera was worried how they were going to move if Nainiae was gone. She sighed in relief and came next to them.
“How’s Young Master?”
“He fell asleep. That’s all.”
“Did you do it?”
Nainiae nodded.
“Yes. I… did it.”
Nainiae held Riley a little tighter in her arms. She bit her lips and said,
“In the past few days… no… few weeks, he didn’t get proper sleep. I was concerned about his wellbeing, so…”
“Few weeks? I definitely saw him sleeping during the morning?”
“He probably just had his eyes closed.”
“What?!”
“For now, let’s go back to the cave.”
Nainiae looked at Riley sleeping. This time, she used a more powerful resist magic.