The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)
Chapter 39: Two Mysteries. One Solved.

Chapter 39: Two Mysteries. One Solved.

MARIUS

The dinner was surprisingly fantastic. At first, the taste of garlic was a little too strong, but the more I ate, the more I realized it was the perfect match for wild boar. It was a completely different culinary style compared to what the Chef back home cooked, but the smoky taste from the wood fire mixed with the rich flavor of garlic and boar meat was a strong combination. The only downside of the great dinner was that, as unbelievable as it was, we finished the entire boar in one dinner—mostly thanks to Dimitri and Skylark.

After dinner, we sat around the fire for a chat. Beatrice wanted to discuss our discovery that something impossible was happening on this mountain.

"Hm... so a tree that wasn’t there suddenly appeared?" Isabelle asked.

"Correct," Beatrice answered with certainty.

"Couldn’t it be that we just didn’t notice it the first time?" Dimitri posed the question again.

"No. I am certain that that tree wasn’t there."

Beatrice had no doubt at all, and her conviction made it impossible for the rest of us to doubt her.

"It would be more productive for us to discuss why and how this happened than to figure out whether it is true or not," I added.

"I agree," Isabelle chimed in as well.

But then Skylark, who had been silent all this time, asked,

"Does it matter, though? We are safe here... we have our shelters. We have the fire. We have the sea-turtle rock."

"Skylark, anything we don’t understand is a potential danger in the wild," I reminded him.

"But nature is full of things we don’t understand," Skylark insisted.

"That is true—but we need to remind ourselves that this is a survival ’mission.’ It’s a test. I wouldn’t be surprised if the instructors have set up some challenges for us," Beatrice theorized.

"Like a puzzle to solve?" Isabelle asked.

"Possibly, yes," Beatrice said, nodding.

"Well, if it’s a challenge, then bring it on. I will go and hack off that tree first thing tomorrow morning," Dimitri declared confidently.

"I’m not sure that is the best idea. It might be a trap," I said, feeling the need to add caution to our strategy.

"You worry too much, Marius," Dimitri said, and continued, "there are more important things to talk about around a campfire, you know?"

We all looked at him, puzzled.

"Leo, do you have a girlfriend back home?" Dimitri asked nonchalantly.

If I was drinking tea, I would have spat it out. Beatrice blushed a little and Isabelle giggled.

"I...I don’t think such things are appropriate to talk about here," I tried to steer the discussion away.

"Yeah... yeah," Skylark answered.

"’Yeah’ as in ’yes, I do have a girlfriend back home’?" With a big grin on his face, Dimitri pressed on with his question.

"No..." Skylark said.

I was relieved that... this would be the end of the discussion and we would talk about more important matters.

"Then did you have a girl you liked back then?" Dimitri fired off yet another question.

"Aw, stop it, Dimitri!" Beatrice tried to cut him off.

"Heh, this is actually fun," Isabelle said, clearly enjoying it.

"Er... ma... maybe?"

Skylark’s answer surprised all of us.

"Now we must hear it!" Isabelle exclaimed.

"Spill the beans!" Dimitri added.

Beatrice, who until a moment ago seemed to want the conversation to end as much as I did, was now paying attention to the conversation, but with the mask of a refined lady who showed no interest in gossip.

I felt like something was crawling under my skin, as if some wild bugs had managed to get in.

"There...there’s this girl—actually, she’s Abe’s elder sister," Skylark said upon being pressed by three pairs of eyes, with only my eyes trying their best to look away.

"And?" Isabelle asked enthusiastically.

"She makes really good soup. And she’s really strong. She has arms as thick as my thighs and she could lift me up with one hand and sling me over her shoulder. It was really fun when she spun me around when I was a child, but I bet she could still do it, though she’s a bit older now..."

Isabelle narrowed her eyes, Beatrice tilted her head, and Dimitri stroked his beard.

Seeing that everyone—but me—wanted to hear more about this mysterious woman, Skylark continued.

"And... and... she was really funny. She used to tell us all these stories about when she was young and—"

"Wait, Leo. How old is she?" Dimitri asked.

"I think she’s like... thirty at least now?"

"An older woman! But wait..." Isabelle was excited for a moment, then looked like she had just stumbled upon something.

"Everyone in the village liked her. She could also do this magic trick where she could throw a coin in the air and pull it out from behind your ear. That’s cool, right? She was Abe’s sister but quite a bit older, so we used to call her Big Sis Sally. She didn’t like it because she thought it made her sound old, but she really was like a big sis to every kid in the village, and—"

Dimitri raised his hand to halt Skylark, closed his eyes, shook his head, and spoke.

"Leo."

"Ye...yes?"

"So basically you like her like a big sister?"

"Yeah."

"And every kid in your village likes her? And you feel the same?"

"Yeah, we all like her."

There was silence between us, only the sound of wood crackling as it burned.

"Leo, did you ever think about wanting to marry her?" Dimitri asked again.

"Heck, no!" Skylark yelped, stretching his arms out and waving his hands while shaking his head from side to side.

"Then that’s not the kind of ’like’ I was talking about!" Dimitri yelled.

"Yeek! Then what is it...?!" Skylark was genuinely confused.

Isabelle couldn’t stop giggling and Beatrice was visibly trying to suppress her laughter. I felt a strange sense of relief.

"You know, mate, I was talking about whether you ’like’ a girl in a way that makes you want to marry her, haha," Dimitri said, clarifying.

"Oh..."

Then there was more laughter, ringing through the night forest.

The mystery of the tree hadn’t been solved yet, but at least we managed to solve the mystery of Skylark’s lady.

And that was good enough for today.