Chapter 45

#45 Episode: The Tin Knight and the City of Springs (4)

The girl who introduced herself as Gale was staring at Dorothea with bright, sparkling eyes.

The White Knight beside her seemed to be keeping silent, as if trying to follow his master’s wishes.

‘At least it doesn’t look like she intends to be hostile right now.’

Dorothea pondered for a moment.

At this point, Dorothea and Gale were merely customers who had coincidentally bumped into each other in front of a shop.

There was no deeper relationship between them, and from an objective viewpoint, Gale’s sudden self-introduction was just a “strange action.”

So, it wouldn’t be problematic for Dorothea to ignore Gale or act as if she wasn’t listening.

However.

‘…I haven’t done anything wrong, so is there really a need to run away or hide my identity?’

A conclusion was reached.

Therefore, Dorothea boldly opened her mouth.

“I am Dorothea, the Witch’s Apprentice from the East.”

“Thank you for acknowledging me! I was so nervous wondering whether my intuition was right or not. If it turned out to be a misunderstanding, then I would just look like a weirdo, right?”

“So, what’s your business?”

Dorothea coldly brushed off Gale, who seemed eager to continue chit-chatting.

She hadn’t lifted her staff just yet, but she was ready to jump into battle at any moment, so Gale’s chattiness was of no concern to her.

Despite feeling awkward, Gale only smiled cheerfully without any signs of displeasure.

“I wanted to greet you! After all, we’re rivals competing for the same goal, right?”

As Gale reached out her hand to the right, the White Knight beside her handed her a bag.

Gale’s gloved hand, covered in white lace, rummaged through the bag and pulled out something small and disc-like.

With a gleeful expression, Gale showed it off and said, “This! Dorothea, you have one too, right?”

Dorothea frowned.

“Don’t call me so familiarly.”

“Huh? But we look about the same age, don’t we? If I refer to you as Miss Dorothea or something similar, it just feels too distant and awkward.”

“Tch.”

Dorothea was taken aback.

It was amusing that Gale was whining about feeling distanced despite the fact they had only just met, but the way she was flaunting the compass—the key to finding treasures—like it was a new fashion accessory was absurd.

“I don’t think we’re in a friendly relationship here, though?”

“Why not?”

“Why not, you ask? There are many people after treasures, but there’s a limited amount of them. It’s only natural that we’d end up pushing each other aside, right? Should I really have to explain this much?”

“Oh, come on. It’s all about perspective. To put it differently, the four of us are all trying to gather the eight treasures ‘in one place,’ right? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to split up the search rather than trying to find all eight scattered by ourselves? From that standpoint, we could even call ourselves comrades! Or rather, friends?”

Dorothea stared blankly, her mouth agape.

At this point, even the nonsense was refreshingly entertaining.

‘Her head must be filled with flowers.’

Dorothea shook her head.

Watching Gale ramble on and on made her old serious caution feel silly.

[‘The Tin Knight’ warns you to be careful, as those who usually maintain such careless attitudes can often turn out to be strong opponents!]

Dorothea flinched and shivered.

It felt like an uncanny coincidence, as if Gale had read her mind.

Realizing she had been unconsciously underestimating her opponent, Dorothea restored her broken guard.

Letting out a short sigh, she resumed her usual curt expression and spoke.

“Well then, we could just get on with that ‘efficient division of labor’ right now. If I take all the treasures you collect, isn’t that the division of labor you were talking about?”

Gale smirked at Dorothea’s words.

“Do you really want to give it a shot? I’m all for it! The one I’ve been most looking forward to facing is the wizard from the south, but the necromancer from the east has many bizarre techniques too, so I think that would be fun as well.”

As spirits and curses gathered around Dorothea, mysterious glyphs floated around Gale.

The Tin Knight excitedly lifted his sword and shield, while the White Knight silently drew his lance and shield.

Just as the two champions were about to clash,

“Uh, excuse me, everyone? If you do that in front of the shop, you’ll be disrupting the business…”

Suddenly, Synk peeked his head through the slightly opened store door, causing everyone present to tense up.

Dorothea and Gale exchanged quick glances.

If this continued, rather than being seen as mysterious witches, they would be classified as troublesome customers causing disruptions.

The wise witches, who knew how to maintain their dignity, reached a silent agreement and simultaneously withdrew their magical powers.

Gale clapped her hands.

“Well, it’s still early in the journey! There’s no need to rush. We can enjoy the duel later after all the treasures are safely in our hands!”

Dorothea muttered under her breath, “Dueling among witches is a total waste of time…”

Gale walked into the store, while Dorothea stepped out onto the street.

There were no goodbyes, promises of reunion, or anything of that sort.

Both of them believed they would meet again soon in this city.

***

“So that was what happened…”

Adelheid was unable to contain her admiration and astonishment at the news Dorothea had conveyed.

No matter how she looked at it, it was strange and surprising that so much had occurred in such a short time.

Was it because Dorothea had a knack for attracting incidents, or was it also due to the Tin Knight? Perhaps it was both?

“Well then, should I go to the dojo by myself? The Knight will have to guard the witch, after all.”

Adel recalled the events that had happened in Rowefelt.

While the Tin Knight was away from Dorothea, she was attacked by another witch, causing her to face a life-and-death crisis.

If there was another witch in this city, then the Tin Knight would need to guard Dorothea to prevent another surprise attack like last time.

“Well, that’s fine. Just take me with you.”

But Dorothea shook her head at Adel’s words.

Adel was taken aback and asked, “But…”

“That girl probably isn’t the type to do surprise attacks like Franka. She’s the kind who enjoys direct combat despite being a wizard.”

Sofia, who had been quiet until now, chimed in.

“Still, that’s just Dorothea’s assumption, isn’t it? The opponent could have intentionally acted to lower our guard.”

“That possibility exists. I don’t think I’ve figured out everything about her just from a first impression.”

Dorothea accepted Sofia’s criticism without hesitation.

“But that girl is from the Magical Kingdom. If she were to attack a lodging facility like Franka did during a duel, she’d be taken straight to prison.”

“Oh my. It seems the relationship between the Magical Kingdom and the Empire isn’t very good.”

“Almost everything is contentious except for war. In fact, they’re just avoiding all-out war on the surface, but they engage in skirmishes locally. And whenever they feel tired of it, they would join hands and talk about peace.”

“Ah, I see. It’s all about the power struggle, isn’t it?”

“Either way, given the circumstances, I’m almost not worried about getting ambushed. This time, I’ve certainly prepared defensive magic, and besides, if necessary, I could just use this girl as a shield.”

“Isn’t using a comrade as a shield a bit too much?”

“Just be thankful I found a useful role for her.”

Watching this back-and-forth, where it was more like Dorothea was one-sidedly picking on Sofia rather than bickering, Adel blinked.

At that moment, the Tin Knight patted Adel’s shoulder.

[‘The Tin Knight’ suggests they head for the next dojo!]

[‘The Tin Knight’ insists he wants to fight too!]

[‘The Tin Knight’ erupts in frustration, realizing it wasn’t a test fight, but rather an event that left only a strong opponent’s bait!]

“P-please calm down, Knight. You’ve been throwing around so many strange terms that I can barely understand the last part. I can get the general meaning, though.”

It was only for a moment.

Once Adel got over the unexpected situation and realized that the Tin Knight was going to accompany her, her expression brightened.

The Lenart Dojo was a kind of testing ground for Adel, and in some sense, the enemy territory.

There was no question which scenario would be more comforting—charging in alone or going alongside a reliable master.

“Well then, shall we go! To the dojo in this city of TikTok!”

***

With determined strides, the two headed toward the dojo.

As Adel stepped into the dojo, filled with resolution, what welcomed her was—

“Welcome! To the dream and hope-filled Land of Lenart!”

—an amusement park.

“Huh?”

Adel rubbed her eyes.

Something felt off.

It was like the moment when a hero charging into a dragon’s cave to slay it was suddenly shown a page where the dragon transforms into a beautiful woman, confessing her love to the hero, while the saintess, who had been the hero’s companion, bites a handkerchief, vowing revenge.

Somewhere, the genre was collapsing.

‘Guess I’m just too tense and imagining things.’

Placing her hand over her heart and taking a few deep breaths, Adelheid slowly opened her eyes.

This time, surely, it had to be the grand dojo building, filled with dignity. The muscular, blade-like instructor. The sight of disciples sweating as they diligently trained day after day must have been waiting for her.

Finally, Adel’s purple eyes opened wide.

“Welcome! To the dream and hope-filled Land of Lenart!”

“Why is this not a dream??”

Unable to stop herself, Adel blurted out, prompting the receptionist—or rather, the one at the entrance to the dojo—who smiled and continued explaining.

“Oh! It appears you must be a first-time visitor to our Land of Lenart. Do you have any questions?”

“Well, um. I came to take the ‘test’ at the Lenart Dojo. Did I perhaps take a wrong turn?”

“No! You’re right on track!”

Adel looked around.

At first, she was too flustered to take in her surroundings properly, but as she looked again, she saw several disciples repeatedly sparring with each other.

However, their sparring partners were not human.

“Alright, I’ve gotten accustomed to the basic difficulty now. Increase the difficulty!”

《Confirmed. Initiating mock combat at intermediate difficulty.》

“Ugh, argh. Damn it. Facing an opponent with a spear is tricky for closing the distance. Time for a break!”

《Confirmed. Entering standby mode.》

“Haah!” Bang!

《Confirmed. Evaluating attack score. Impact score is 45 points.》

There was an automaton made entirely of wood engaging in combat with a disciple.

There was a doll displaying elegant spear techniques while wielding a spear with a dull tip.

And there was a large automaton, which, big as it was, held a massive shield, taking hits left and right as it got evaluated for scoring.

Adelheid mumbled in a daze, “Are the magical automatons… fulfilling the role of instructors?”

“This is TikTok, after all.”

The receptionist responded to Adel’s words.

“When it comes to training with humans, there’s the need to control power while attacking or to consider the opponent’s condition, leading to various restrictions. However, if it’s the magical automatons, there’s no need to concern ourselves with those issues. One of the instructors here focused on this and ordered a large number of magical automatons, creating a training system using them.”

That was an explanation Adel could certainly empathize with.

After all, it was how she herself had learned to fight against the Tin Knight.

“There were some instructors and disciples who opposed this, claiming it tarnished the honor of the Lion Duke’s bloodline, but they couldn’t hold out for long either. The disciples enjoyed being able to learn martial arts from obedient, competent automatons instead of instructors who preached about mentality, and the instructors themselves found they had more time to focus on personal training since the automatons took care of managing the disciples. The trend quickly shifted, and the instructor who developed this training system using magical automatons became the head of the dojo.”

The receptionist, wearing a long hat with a brim, lifted the brim slightly and gazed at Adel.

Her hair was golden, and her eyes were purple.

“Welcome to the newly reborn dojo, Adelheid von Lenart. My long-lost cousin. Please feel free to enjoy your time here.”

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