The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)
Chapter 38: Witches and a Friend

Chapter 38: Witches and a Friend

LEO

"Can you tell me more about Erdville?" Isabelle asked me.

"Heh, there are so many things to talk about. I don’t even know where to start," I said.

"What are the people like? The weather? The food? What’s Erdville famous for?"

"Well, we have the best potatoes in the Empire! That’s for sure. Everyone agreed—Mario, Alexis, Dimitri, Briant, and Thomas too."

"Thomas said so too?"

"Yeah, he said they were the best potatoes he’d ever had."

"I see."

Then I remembered something.

"Oh, did you like that book Thomas brought?"

Isabelle paused for a moment before answering, her face brightening with a smile.

"Yes, I did. But I’m still reading it."

"Yeah, it sounded interesting."

"I could lend it to you after I finish it," Isabelle said generously, but—

"It’s Mario’s book, though...?"

"Hah! Silly me!" Isabelle said, laughing.

We walked a little farther, my eyes carefully scanning the area for the right herbs. Then, finally, I found just the one that goes well with wild boar.

"Oh look, ramsons!" I yelped in joy as I hurried over.

"Ramsons?"

"Yeah, we also call them ’wild garlic.’ They have a strong smell but go well with wild boar meat. These will work perfectly."

"Wow, you really know your stuff about the wild," Isabelle said, impressed.

"Everyone does in Erdville."

"Is that how people gather food there?"

"Yeah, we have a market, of course. But why pay for things when you can get them yourself for free?"

"Gathering them in the wild isn’t free, though," Isabelle said.

I found that confusing.

"Eh, what do you mean?"

"The time and effort you spend gathering things is time you could have spent doing other work to earn money—opportunity cost, basically."

"Oppo... cost?"

"Yes. Every time you do something, it means you can’t be doing something else. We all have only one body and twenty-four hours in a day, don’t we?"

"I don’t quite get it. If I buy them from the market, I have to pay. If I get them in the wild, I don’t..."

"Put it this way—I had an aunt, Aunt Joan, my mom’s sister. She was so kind and nice, and I loved it every time she came to visit. But then she got a job as a live-in maid for some rich household. Since then, she couldn’t come to visit us anymore. And at some point... she stopped sending us letters too. She just, like, disappeared... but anyway, do you see it now?"

It kind of made sense.

I remembered I was often alone at home during the busy season while Mom worked in the fields and Dad spent long hours at his workshop. They couldn’t be with me because they were "busy."

"I see."

Then we started plucking the ramsons. The boar Dimitri had caught was quite big, so we needed to collect a lot of them. While I was enjoying the gathering and humming to myself, Isabelle suddenly said,

"Leo, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," I said without looking at her.

"Can anyone else in your family use magic?"

I stopped cold.

The truth is, I didn’t know. Nobody in Erdville ever used magic. As far as I knew, I was the only one who could do a few magic tricks. I’d never seen Mom and Dad do it, but they might have been refraining from using magic too, just like they told me to.

"I don’t know, to be honest."

"The gift for magic is something you’re born with," she said, squatting beside me and looking at the particularly big ramsons I had just found.

"Okay...," I said simply, not knowing what else to say.

"And I thought I was quite special because there aren’t many dual-magic users around," Isabelle continued.

"I didn’t know. But Isabelle—I think your magic is wonderful," I said.

"Thanks, hehe," she said with a laugh.

I felt a little more relaxed.

Then she continued,

"But you could do everything I could too. And maybe even more."

"It was... just a fluke," I admitted.

"Nobody can use magic by fluke."

Her tone suddenly felt a little too serious.

I turned to look at her, then realized she was looking at me a little too intently. It made me look away and focus on the ramsons.

"Tell me, Leo. How did you do it?" Isabelle asked again, probing.

I felt like I couldn’t really lie to her, but I couldn’t tell her how the gentleman was helping me use magic either.

"I... really don’t know. It just kind of happens."

I wasn’t exactly lying.

"I see. I suppose you’ve never received any magic training either, right?"

"No, I never had any training. I’m sorry..."

"You don’t need to be sorry! Eh, I’m sorry for asking so many questions."

"It’s okay... and... I think we’ve got enough ramsons now, hah! Let’s return to camp!"

I tried to change the topic.

"Leo, I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m sorry," Isabelle apologized again.

"It’s not a problem. I just wish I could give better answers."

"It’s okay, Leo. I think you have a very interesting gift. It’s almost like your way of using magic is different. Like it’s from the book I’ve been reading and almost—"

"Like a wi-witch?!"

Isabelle suddenly went quiet, which made me even more nervous.

Did she... really mean that I was like a witch?

Thomas did say that "witchcraft" is just a name for magic people didn’t understand. That kind of fit me—true. But I didn’t want to be called a "witch" either.

"You know... Leo, when I was a child and people first found out I could use dual magic, some kids called me a witch."

"That’s so mean..."

"But then... someone told me something that made me feel better."

"Oh?"

"He told me that ’witch’ is just a word people use for magic they don’t understand."

I knew who had said it, but somehow I felt like I should keep quiet about it.

"That’s very nice of him, er... whoever he was."

"Yeah, he’s a very nice guy, although he doesn’t look like it."

With that, she smiled and skipped ahead toward the camp.

I didn’t quite know what to make of the whole conversation, except that Thomas was a very nice guy and he had made both Isabelle and me feel better.