After leaving the city, endless farmland stretched out before them, with a few scattered houses among it. It was a standard rural scene.
But the sight of golden wheat fields stretching endlessly across the land was exceptionally magnificent.
After traveling for a long while, they once again arrived at a vast, rolling grassland. Even the horse had grown tired from walking, and the sun had already risen high into the sky.
Finally, at noon, the two of them reached the point when they had no choice but to part, the exam also began as scheduled.
After Ash tied up the horse, Roxy came to the center of the grassland. She raised her wand and began chanting the Saint-level magic, Thunderous Rainclouds.
Simply put, it summoned strong winds and heavy rain, along with a bolt of lightning. However... an accident happened halfway through, and she failed to control the direction of the lightning properly, causing it to strike a tree.
Fortunately, Ash knew this occasionally clumsy girl well enough that he hadn't tied the horse near a tree beforehand, allowing the horse to luckily avoid disaster.
And almost as a matter of course, having been taught beforehand, Ash easily imitated her and successfully used the magic on his first try, creating a large-scale downpour accompanied by lightning... He also offered some suggestions for correcting her somewhat cumbersome spellcasting.
The magic looked quite spectacular, but its overly complicated and lengthy casting process clearly made it unsuitable for battle. Instead, after two heavy downpours, the two of them were both soaked through.
But at this final moment before their parting... the girl with her hands behind her back leaned forward and gave him the brilliant smile that was rarely seen on her face.
"Congratulations, Ash. Now you're not only a Saint-level healing mage, you've also become a Water Saint-level mage."
"Are you really not going to consider staying here with me?", Ash seemed reluctant to part.
"Thank you, but no matter how many times you ask, I can't keep relying on your kindness and letting you take care of me."
"If anything, I'm the one being taken care of by you."
"You've certainly caused me quite a bit of trouble, but you've also taught me a lot. And yesterday I helped interview a new maid for you. She'll be starting tomorrow, right? Make sure you get along with her, and don't bully her too much, okay?"
At the very end, Roxy still put on the manner of an elder and gently advised him.
But he didn't really want to agree. Somehow, it felt like agreeing meant he had lost. Although he only teased her because he found her interesting, he would never waste his time on people who didn't matter.
So in the end, he didn't argue. He silently changed the subject and untied the horse.
"Anyway, I'll take you part of the way first. There aren't even any carriages here."
"Is that okay?"
"Come on, don't be polite."
Without even waiting for her answer, he casually picked Roxy up amid her startled cry, ignoring her protests and placed her on the horse... and naturally, this earned him another scolding.
But after she finished complaining, she had barely leaned back against his back when Roxy seemed to think of something. She showed an expression as if she wanted to say something but hesitated, then carefully raised her head to look back at him.
"Come to think of it, you're not a local, are you?"
"Huh? Yeah... Did you hear that from Ghislaine?", Following the direction Roxy had pointed to earlier, Ash casually nodded as he rode the horse.
"Yes. Sorry... I was just a little curious and asked."
"What's there to apologize for?", Ash laughed indifferently. His gaze looked ahead, across the vast fields around them. He quietly watched the wheat fields stretching endlessly after they left the grassland, like a golden sea, then took the initiative to say, "Actually... I'm from a very, very distant place."
"Why? What attracted you to this place? And why do you work so hard at studying? I've actually always been very curious."
"It's complicated. Simply put, it's so I can return to my homeland."
"Is that very difficult? Or is it really that far away?", Roxy curiously turned around to look at him. But he gazed toward the far end of the horizon with a trace of homesickness.
"I guess it's both difficult and far away?"
"This... um...", After hesitating for a moment, Roxy tried her best to encourage him, "You'll definitely be able to go back!"
"Yeah. One day, I'll go back," He said this with certainty, then lowered his head to look at the girl before him, "What about you? I remember you're a demon race, right? Somewhere on another continent, I think? Aren't you going back to take a look?"
"I...", With the topic suddenly turned to her, Roxy showed a bitter expression and silently lowered her head again, "I'm different from you, who can't go back. I don't want to go back."
"I see. But if I'm still here, you're always welcome to come back. You can treat my place as your home, or even as your homeland. If you like it, I can just give you that house."
"Although I'm really happy that you'd say something like that, but...", His words, completely free of any lies, made Roxy both happy and troubled. She couldn't help lecturing him.
"Please don't suddenly say things that can easily be misunderstood. If I didn't know that you genuinely don't care about money at all, an ordinary person would probably think you were proposing to me..."
"I don't think so," Ash smiled and raised his hand, gesturing from the top of her head to the position of his own chest, making everything clear without saying it.
This immediately made Roxy pout.
"What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Do you want to know?"
"I·do·not! Seriously... why are you still saying things to bully me at the very end..."
Realizing that he was trying to say that she looked like a child and therefore no one would misunderstand, Roxy complained and complained... and they continued on like that for a long time.
In the end, it was Ash who suddenly thought of something and interrupted her.
"Come to think of it, where are we going? Where are you planning to go?"
"Actually, when I hired the maid yesterday, I also took another teaching job from the notice board."
"Uh... what's with this strange feeling of being kicked out and having the previous person seamlessly move on to a new one?"
"What do you mean, 'kicked out'?", That strange way of putting it made Roxy sigh deeply, "I'm just going to be the teacher of a rather special girl."
"Just wait. I'll go kidnap that girl right away and make you understand the consequences of betraying me."
"That sounds scary~"
Of course, Roxy didn't take his words seriously. She only regarded them as his way of complaining about her, while Ash, naturally... was only joking too.
At least for now, he was joking.
———
The two of them chatted as they continued on without realizing how much time had passed, even eating lunch on horseback.
And so, at around three in the afternoon, when the sunlight was no longer as hot as it had been at noon, Roxy finally arrived near a farmhouse under Ash's escort on horseback. She had insisted on having him see her off, or rather, she wanted to see who exactly the person who had stolen someone away from her was.
Roxy pointed at the farmhouse in the distance, indicating that he could let her down, and said, "If I'm not mistaken, that should be where I'll be working from now on. Hurry up and put me down."
"Why? Wouldn't it be better if I took you directly there?"
"No need! Besides... who knows what you might say to them if you go there?"
Roxy really had no idea what kind of thing he might do, so she naturally remained suspicious, unconsciously narrowing her eyes and staring at him for quite a while.
After all, this person could do almost anything for the sake of amusement. It was better to be on guard.
But after getting down, she pushed Ash away and chased him back a few steps. Then Roxy remembered something. After searching around inside her robe for a while, she pulled out a strangely shaped necklace.
The pendant gleamed with a metallic sheen. Its shape looked as if three spears had been joined together, and it even still carried some warmth.
Roxy simply stuffed the necklace into his hand.
"Normally, when a disciple reaches the Beginner level, they should be given a wand. But you started out as a Saint-level healer, and you're a strange mage who prefers swords to wands... So take this as your graduation gift."
"What is this? Ah, could it be... a token of love?", Ash deliberately pretended to be surprised, then said awkwardly, "But even if you do this, I think it's a little inappropriate for a master to treat her disciple like this..."
"Of course it's not! What kind of immoral things are you thinking about?", Realizing that he was joking, Roxy immediately retorted before he could refuse her, then couldn't help giving him a sideways glare.
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