Time passed. Ian finally woke up.
He reached out to check the time on his phone. He felt Cassie's hand instead, and wondered why his phone had gone so soft. Had it turned into marmalade? He went on feeling at her hand and thought that it felt like a cat's paw.
"Are you finally awake?" Cassie asked.
He opened his eyes at once and realised that he had been feeling her hand this whole time. He immediately sat up and asked what she was doing there. Maybe he was still asleep.
She advised him to lie down a little longer. He still seemed foggy in the head.
He fell back again, and she became worried and asked him not to get up.
He grabbed his head and remembered that he had lost consciousness. He had forcibly raised the level of his summoning magic, talked to a dragon, and even given himself a nosebleed. He looked at the girl, and realising that she had seen and heard all of it, he pulled his hood down over his face and tried not to burn with shame.
He asked where the drake was, but she did not know.
Maybe he went to see his girlfriend, Ian thought. And he called me a friend. What a cold shoulder.
He apologised to Cassie for causing her trouble, and she told him not to worry about it.
He wondered how she had got in here. He doubted that the dragon had simply let her past.
She answered that she had just told him she was his friend.
"How did you do that?" he asked. "Did you say it in Moronius?"
She did not understand what he was talking about, and he thought: did she just type it into a machine translator?
He began to feel sleepy again, and Cassie said that in fact she had followed him, even though she knew it was dangerous. She wanted to ask him for something.
Yesterday's attack. It was all because of her.
That statement lifted his drowsiness immediately. She lowered her head guiltily and asked if he was surprised. She was sorry that she had dragged him into this.
He looked away. The situation had suddenly become so complicated.
"So that's why you were trembling," he said. "You were in league with those bandits."
She denied it indignantly. And what was so bandit-like about her?
He calmly answered that she had a bandit's face, which made her puff out her cheeks in offence, and then she said that it was actually a secret, but she was not Cassie. She was the princess of this country.
Ian had expected her to say exactly that, and asked who she was.
She answered that her real name was Lucy. She was of the Tarian clan. In short, she was a noblewoman, and those bandits had been sent by her fiancé to kidnap her.
He wondered whether this was a lovers' quarrel. In his eyes she immediately began to look like one of those cruel women who leave an innocent fiancé for another man.
Lucy asked in displeasure what kind of look that was. Everything was not as he imagined.
In fact, she had been planning to run much further away, so that her fiancé would never find her. But after yesterday's events she was not sure she could escape alone. She took his hand and, with pleading eyes, asked him for help.
He decided to find out everything in more detail first, and asked why she was running away. Had her fiancé done something, or what?
She told him that the Tarian family was a baronial house that ruled the Fian region. But since they lacked knights, they were constantly under threat of attack. At that rate, a little more and a war for territory would be unleashed against them, and the Tarian family would be destroyed.
In the end, the Tarian family decided to marry her off to a knight, a former mercenary captain. Since he was the captain of the fastest-growing mercenary company, external threats to their family became fewer. At first even he seemed content with his position as the baron's son-in-law, and she liked him as a person. But over time he began to use his position to seize power. He took other women, and he began to treat her with contempt.
Deciding that they could no longer tolerate this, her parents demanded that the engagement be broken off.
However, this scoundrel poisoned them.
Ian was shocked by such a villain.
She burst into tears. "If the engagement was broken, he would lose all his power! So he poisoned my parents to silence them!"
Ian frowned. He really was a scoundrel.
The girl continued. No matter how well he swung his sword, if he could not marry her, he was just a commoner. He would not be able to inherit either the Tarian house or her parents' fortune. That was why she had escaped, with the help of one of the servants. She would rather die than marry him. And he would certainly not give up trying to catch her and force her into the marriage.
That was why she was asking him for help. Let him help her reach a safe place.
He did not rush to answer. The situation was difficult, and it was clear enough why she could not cope alone. The man had poisoned his future father-in-law and mother-in-law for power, and now his fiancée was nearly being kidnapped because of it. He did not even know what to think. He completely failed to understand how these medieval rulers thought.
Lucy burst into tears again and swore on the honour of her family that she would reward him generously.
He asked in confusion why she was asking him for help. What if he betrayed her?
She said excitedly that the bandit was a terrible miser. So even if he handed her over, he would only be given a couple of silver coins.
She paused for a second, considering her words, and added that, unlike him, she could give him everything.
He asked what she meant by everything, and she declared desperately that she would even give him the entire Tarian family.
He paused, thinking. Did she mean that even someone like him could marry her? It was an incredible chance for a farmer's son to become part of the close nobility in a world like this.
But if that happened, how would Ian Alletus Raven, apprentice of the mage Alletus, live? Being a nobleman and engaging in politics might be fine, but he had been born into a fantasy world for a reason. Shouldn't he master magic perfectly? By helping Lucy he could gain experience as a mage. Plus, he could earn money for his travels. For now he would drive away the pursuers, and then let everything take its course.
He cleared his throat and told her to ask someone who was better with a sword than he was, because a mage was not exactly a warrior.
She began to beg him, and he stood up.
"However — since you're willing to pay, I'll at least help you escape. But the consequences will be your own responsibility."
She burst into tears and howled again, though this time it was from happiness. He already thought that he had somehow managed to offend her, and began to calm her down. And then she took his hand and thanked him with all her heart. She laid her head on his shoulder and went on crying, and he gave her time to calm down.
Outside the cave, Longtail was lying in the sun. Hearing footsteps, he immediately dropped what he was doing and called out joyfully to his friend, asking how he was feeling.
Ian told him he was fine, and wondered whether he was sunbathing just to look impressive in front of her. He said it was time for them to go down the mountain. Everyone was probably waiting for them. He also thanked him for the gift, a bag of treasure.
The dragon smiled, calling it a trifle, and told him to climb on. He would carry him.
He climbed onto his back and thanked him, and Lucy stood where she was, not knowing what they were saying or what she was supposed to do. Noticing this, Longtail rudely called her Princess and barked at her to climb onto his back at once.
Ian asked him not to be so cruel to her, and he calmed down immediately.
Lucy had no idea what they were talking about, so Ian extended his hand and motioned for her to sit behind him. He helped her up, and at last they began to descend the mountain.