Actually, Ethan’s shop was pretty run-down—or, more accurately, nobody lived there. Apparently, the person who’d lived here before was one of the former lord’s men. The lord punished him for skimming money from the shop, and since Ethan was coming here anyway, he handed the place over to him.

But apart from the counter, there was almost nothing else. The bed had no mattress or blankets, and there weren’t any household supplies at all.

Just as Tori was thinking that tonight was going to be an uncomfortable night’s sleep, Ethan actually brought out a blanket, a mattress, and the like.

“Huh?!”

Tori’s eyes lit up as she stared at Ethan. “What is that…?”

Ethan raised his right hand. Tori looked it over. It was perfectly clean.

She looked utterly confused.

Ethan bent his middle finger slightly. A gentle flow of mana passed over it, and a ring appeared on his finger. “This is a spatial ring. Space-storage items used to be things like pouches, but ever since the Witches started making them, people have preferred the ring style. It really is convenient. You can’t buy one of these in town, though, so I put a little magic on it to keep anyone who sees it from trying to steal it.”

A spatial ring!

A classic! The classic of all classics!

Was there anything more classic than this? The one thing no fantasy world could go without: a spatial ring! Tori asked carefully, “Can I ask how much this spatial ring costs?”

“Well, it depends on how much space it has inside. Mine’s about the size of a small room, five meters long, wide, and high. It cost me thirty gold coins.”

“Ah…”

Thirty gold coins?

Three hundred thousand?

Why not just rob someone? Then again, if you put it at twenty-five square meters, property in plenty of places back in my old life cost even more than that. Maybe it wasn’t an impossible price after all.

But money’s hard to come by!

“I keep some household supplies and food in here, so I can use them when I go out to fight monsters. So… I’ve used this blanket before. If you don’t mind, you can use it. Or you can stay at an inn.”

Tori grabbed Ethan’s blanket and sniffed it. “It doesn’t smell at all. You really do care about keeping clean! It’s fine—I’ll use this!”

Then she started spreading the blanket over the bed.

As she did, she noticed Ethan take out another set of bedding and start making a bedroll on the floor.

“! What are you doing?”

The girl eyed him warily. “Don’t you have a room at the inn? It’s not even that far from here.” She had a feeling this guy was up to no good.

Ethan didn’t even feel like answering. The girl could be a little clueless sometimes, but after a moment, he decided to explain. “You know what happened to me, right?”

“What happened to you? I know you were dumped by your fiancée and all.”

“…All right. This might bruise my pride a little, but you don’t really think you’d be safe living alone after spending the whole day with me, do you?”

Tori froze for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“There are plenty of people who want to come after me. You’ve been with me all day. If you stay by yourself tonight, I can guarantee you’ll be kidnapped, and someone will send me a message telling me to come rescue you.”

“…That’s absurd.”

“Absurd? What does that mean?”

Tori gave him a flat look. “If that’s how it is, then I won’t be safe even if I go back tomorrow. I still have to take the road, too. And if someone in Lusaka Village really wanted to come after you, I couldn’t stop them. Lusaka Village isn’t powerful.”

“It’s fine. They’ll make their move tonight. I’ve given them the chance. You need to remember: no matter what methods they use, I’m their target, not you.”

Though the only light in the room came from a dim magic lamp, Tori could still see a glint in his eyes as he spoke.

He was calm and composed, as if everything were going according to plan.

Tori suddenly came back to herself. After a moment’s thought, she took out the magic potions she’d brewed. The kind that exploded as soon as a Potion Maker’s mana touched them. She placed them by the door and the window.

“You’ve made something pretty interesting here.” Ethan watched Tori and teased her. “You can’t make a Meditation Potion, but you’ve made plenty of this stuff. Maybe you were born to destroy things, not create them.”

Tori glared at him. But when an eight-year-old girl glared at someone, it could only look cute. At any rate, Ethan wasn’t scared in the slightest.

Tori crawled into bed fully dressed.

Ethan shook his head and gently put out the magic lamp.

And so, the night grew completely still.

Tori’s heart pounded. She was excited. She knew she couldn’t sleep—and there was no way she’d manage to anyway. But waiting for someone to attack was a long, nerve-racking business. What if Ethan couldn’t handle them and she died right here? Would they capture her, turn her into a slave, and sell her to some noble as a sex toy?!

All kinds of scenes she’d seen in stories before began running through her mind, making her heart beat faster and faster. Fear, nerves, excitement—her feelings tangled together until she couldn’t even enter a meditative state.

In the darkness of night, she turned slightly and sneaked a glance at Ethan.

“If you’re this nervous, some Mighty might notice you. They haven’t made their move yet. It’d be best if you could fall asleep or enter a meditative state.”

Ethan’s voice suddenly reached her, making Tori feel terribly embarrassed. But she really couldn’t calm down. This was serious. This was living on the edge. It was the kind of thrill Tori, who’d lived an utterly ordinary life in her previous life, had never experienced. Her young heart felt like a train racing at full speed, unable to stop for even a moment.

At last, she climbed out of bed as quietly as she could and slipped under Ethan’s blanket.

“Hm?”

Ethan looked surprised. “What’s going on with you?”

“I, um… I’m a little scared.”

It was an unexpected answer, but it made perfect sense. No matter how bold Tori acted, she was still an eight-year-old girl. Of course she’d be scared of something like this. Seeing her confidently chatting with shopkeepers and owners all day had made him forget how young she was. Her fear was only natural.

He chuckled. “You’re not afraid I’ll do something to you now?”

“…I am.”

Surprisingly honest—and cute.

“It’s fine. In theory, my status is much higher than yours. I’m the Third Young Master, and I’m not scared. What are you afraid of?”

“What does status have to do with it? Anyone can be afraid of dying!”

“Fair enough.”

After bickering with Ethan for a bit, Tori found herself gradually feeling safer. Her pounding heart slowly settled, and she began to calm down.

“What are you really trying to do, Young Master Ethan? I don’t think you’re the sort of person who’d be content to build a future in a town like this.”

“Of course not. If I’d already given up on my goals and ideals, why would I invest in you? There are plenty of things I want to do. For starters, I want to prove how strong I am and make my siblings fear me. And I want the person who broke off our engagement to regret it and realize she made the wrong choice… Those are just some of the things I intend to do.”

Tori pouted. “Revenge usually leaves you feeling empty afterward.”

“Feeling empty is better than being consumed by anger all the time. Besides, the moment you get revenge is definitely satisfying.” Ethan didn’t deny it. “Take one of the servants from before I came to town. He tried to kill me. But I killed him instead. When he saw I was stronger than he’d expected, he was terrified. He cried and begged for forgiveness on his knees. Honestly, seeing that made me feel great. It was so satisfying—”

Tori couldn’t help shivering. Young Master Ethan might have a few screws loose!

Well, she was just badmouthing him in her head.

But thinking it over, this was pretty normal. Ethan was only thirteen or fourteen, after all. The defining traits of people that age were their strong likes and dislikes, their big ideas, and their drive to act on them.

“That’s enough. Stop talking.” Ethan suddenly put an arm around Tori’s waist.

Tori’s body shivered, but she obediently kept her breathing steady until she felt mana spreading through the room.

With each breath, Tori slipped into a meditative state.

She sensed a blue-green element entwined with the mana. It was wind magic. Were they going to kill them outright with wind blades or something like that?

“Blow him up.”

Ethan’s voice came in a sudden whisper.

Tori detonated the potion by the window. The explosion sent shards of ice flying in every direction, while Ethan yanked up the blanket to shield them from the impact.

Then he tightened the arm around Tori’s waist and pulled her against him. Holding her with one arm, he reached into the spatial ring with the other and drew his sword.

Tori clung to Ethan in alarm and came out of her meditative state. She saw light burning along the long sword in his hand, its mana surging with immense force.

“Cross Light Sword!”

He swung his sword in a cross, and the shining cross took on the solid form of a blade. It flew toward the window that had just exploded, smashing it completely and leaving a cross-shaped mark. Then blood spurted into the air.

That was so damn cool.

No man could resist a cross-shaped attack like sword energy. Tori was no exception. Suddenly, she felt miserable that she couldn’t become a Magic Swordsman.

Then Ethan let her go. “All right, you can sleep now. If there’s a draft in here, you can move to another room. Someone will take care of it, so don’t worry about it. I’m heading back to the inn.”

And then he really did just open the door and leave. Tori looked at the cross-shaped cut in the window.

She clicked her tongue a couple of times. Damn, that was smooth.

She picked up the sheets and bedding and moved to another room.