Chapter 6
Please Stop Scolding My Absolute Fave

“Orsis, Alba!”

Father came running up and knelt down in front of me and my brother—both a bit muddy—and hugged us with both arms. I could hear him muttering, “Why are you at a place like this?” 

It was then I realised that we had caused him a tremendous amount of heartache. 

“Isn’t it too far out for you two to be playing alone in these woods?”

“We’re not playing.” Brother and I replied in harmony to Father’s bitter question.

“If not, then why?”

“To cure Alba’s disease.” “To find a new herb.” 

Our simultaneous answers inadvertently had baffled Father; while in his arms, we met Father’s eyes and lowered our brows.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, as long as you’re alright. Both of you, let’s go home.”

“We can’t do that.” 

Relieved, Father had urged us to go home, but Brother shook his head firmly. He then showed Father the map of the forest in his hand. 

“Father, please look at this.”

“Is this a map of this forest…? The trails match the ones on my map. Was this drawn by you Alba? When did you see my map?”

“Father, so you have a map of this forest! Wouldn’t it have been quicker if I had borrowed that?”

“Alba, I think you would have had to explain to Father in the first place if you wanted to borrow it, so that would have been a bit impossible.”

“Oh, right. Um, I’ve never seen a real map of this place.”

I was slightly curious to see how the maps of this forest were drawn for normal use. I mean, each map here was ridiculously expensive, and each one was hand-drawn, so they were all pretty gorgeous and hard to read. There were even trees and bushes drawn on them; it made me wonder, were those even necessary in maps? 

“Then, this is… Hm?  Saev peepul haiding in tri’s burou?” Father glanced at the map and tilted his head in confusion.

He seemed to be trying to decipher my messy handwriting. As a young child, I couldn’t move my hands as well as I wanted to, so my handwriting wasn’t as neat as it should have been.

“Da locasyen wer da erb is faund…? And on this path, there’s Brek monsuter’s trep; could it be the one who wrote all this is Alba?”

“Yes. When I was drawing the map, I had a lot of fun and I ended up jotting down a lot of things.” I hurriedly answered, and then Father stared at my face.

His knees were lowered to the ground, so our eye levels were matched. People who lower their eye level to match a child’s really are nice.

“Father, we want to go to this ‘The location where the herb is found’. Here we may find the plant that will cure Alba’s illness.”

“What if I say, ‘I can’t allow it’…?”

“I will still go by myself. I have lost my bearings a bit, though.” 

Brother declared, while looking really cool. But his last remark was so cute and precious. The fact that it wasn’t said in a cool way made it sound all the more adorable.

“The correct way is to follow this road towards the other end. But in this area, the road passes close to a precipitous area, and the ground can be loose when it gets muddy in the rain, so it is a dangerous road. This marked place is exactly in that area. I don’t think it’s right for two children to go to a place like this, that’s dangerous even for adults. Orsis, aren’t you in a position to tell Alba off?” with a grim face, Father rebuked Brother, so I hurriedly pulled the former’s sleeve. 

My brother had talked me out of it, and then he listened to what I had to say; afterwards, he told me that he would find it together with me. He only got involved in this because of me, so I felt it was wrong to reproach him.

“Father, this whole plan was devised by me. Brother only got dragged into it. So, please don’t get angry at Brother. Only be angry at me. Brother has always been a good boy. It’s all my fault and I’ll resign myself to being punished for it when I go home. So—”

You already told us the direction, so please me live—Nope, let me go.1

When I stared straight at Father, he furrowed his brows a little as he made a troubled face, then stroked Brother’s head and picked me up in his arms.

“Father, I still can’t go home.”

“Well, why don’t you let Father in on Alba’s plan? Of course, there will be a stern lecture for you Alba, when you get home.”

“Er…yes. But please don’t scold Brother.”

“All right. I’ll punish you and you alone. So this is the place we are going to. Everyone, follow the map to this destination. Make sure there is no danger to the two children.” Father methodically commanded the soldiers.

The harsh sound of his voice was probably mitigated by the fact that he was holding me in his arms. When I told him that I would walk on my own, he reminded me that he didn’t have a first aid kit on hand in case I collapsed here. I showed him that I had brought some cheap oral medication; he broke into a smile and rubbed his cheek against mine, praising me, “Alba is so clever.”  

That only makes you appear less dignified, you know?

The group followed a narrow path. While walking, there were some fallen trees and overgrown grasses that made it difficult to find the way, but after a while, we arrived at our destination. 

On the side of the road, the ground was cut off into a gentle cliff. At the bottom of the cliff, we could see the ravine, which told us how high the place we were at was. I looked down into the ravine from within Father’s arms and felt something cold run through my body, starting from my feet. 

SO HIGH! It’s just too high from up here. Eh, how did you manage to fall down here and come back alive, Brother?2 I sincerely wanna know. I mean, how can you not die from this?

“Well, the place we have come for is around here. How are we going to find this ‘new herb’ that Alba is talking about?”

“Oh, if you miss your footing and fall down, there’s a step before you get to the ravine; from there, you go into a cave and the plant grows in there…but I’ll give up. Let’s go home, Father.” 

Just by looking down, I felt a creepy, unpleasant sensation and my body started to shake on its own.

Maybe I’m not good with heights. The only high places I’ve ever been to are the windows on the third floor of my house, so I never noticed much. From now on, I won’t go near the windows in the rooms above the first floor.

“Falling down is certainly not a good idea. Hm, a cave midway down there… Solem, check it out.”

“Hah!!” At Father’s command, one of the knights huffed a salute and proceeded to the edge of the cliff.

You’ll fall! Don’t go too far over there, you’ll fall off! Even seeing others getting close to the cliff made me queasy, so I couldn’t help clinging to Father’s clothes and burying my face in them.

“Alba, are you afraid of heights?”

“S-scared… Just seeing them approaching the cliff makes me scared.”

When asked by Brother, I answered in no time—I couldn’t afford to fool him. Brother then furrowed his brow.

“I can’t believe you tried to come alone when you’re so scared.”

“I never thought I’d be so afraid of heights either…”

“My knights are strong, they’ll be fine. If you are afraid, just bury your face like that. You don’t want to have a seizure again. Don’t worry. Father will protect Alba, no matter what.”

“I’m fine, but I want you to protect Brother…”

“Let me put it this way. Father is strong. I will protect you and Orsis both. Is that clear? Because to me, you and Orsis are my most precious children.”

I’m not even blood-related to him, is it okay to have him do so much for me? Even though I’m a no-good?

I was feeling very reassured and happy, and I felt a sting from the depths of my eyes. I sniffled, and a smaller hand overlapped mine, which was squeezing Father’s sleeve. 

It was Brother’s hand—the most reassuring hand in this world. 

“I found it! A little below here, there is a ledge with a possible foothold and a crack in it!”

“Can you go down there on your own?”

“I don’t have a rope ready, so it’s going to be difficult.”

“‘All right. You can move back.” Father acted in appreciation to the knight and stepped forward as he said, “Let’s go.”

Er, wait. The knight just said it was difficult. How are we going to get there? I’m scared!

I clung to him tighter and he chuckled at the sight of me, then began to chant. Ice sprang from his hands and began to take form. The forming of the ice was so instantaneous that it made a crunching sound, and the ice formed was so beautiful that it was out of this world. The ice stretched towards the cliff and then disappeared down the ledge.   

Holding me in his arms, he began to make his way gracefully along the ice path, which looked like a slide or a bridge. The ice path led to the cliff ledge. Marvellous! But I couldn’t afford to open my eyes too much in case I would seriously see down there! If I had come here by myself, I would have been stuck. I could only thank Brother and Father this time.