房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"You can get onto the same carriage as me only right before departure. No... actually, only after we will pass the main gate to the estate. Go wait in front of it."

"HUH?!" *thump*

Miriette declared and pushed Grazio outside, causing him to fall on his butt and let out a flabbergasted gasp.

"If you want to know why the coachman isn\'t back yet... Well, Since he announced that you were the one to pick me up, I thought that he was a con-man and knocked him out. He should be back to his senses in half an hour or so... so be thankful that it\'s not raining."

*THUMP*

The dark-haired girl spoke coldly and shut the carriage\'s door right in the red-haired boy\'s face.

Grazio\'s first reflex was to raise his voice in protest but thankfully for himself, he managed to bite his tongue right in time.

Shouting at the heir of the Espine family right in the middle of Espine territory while in the very front of their castle was such monumentally stupid that not even a madman would risk doing it.

And more importantly, it was Miriette.

Grazio could almost feel how her glare is burning a hole in the carriage\'s door while she was readying herself to cast some nasty spell that he would have no chance of protecting himself against.

Did he really have to put himself through that trouble right before the start of the school year?

Of course not.

"...I guess it is a good thing that it\'s not raining..."

The red-haired boy muttered to himself and shamefully dragged his feet to the spot where Miriette pointed him where he lowered his head and started hiking the ground all sulkily.

It also seemed like Miriette overestimated the coachman sent by the Victureo family, not only he stayed unconscious for longer than thirty minutes, he only got in the shape necessary to do his job a full hour later.

Grazio had to activate his enchantments to keep himself in top condition otherwise his legs would go numb!

Nonetheless, some embarrassingly long time later both Miriette and Grazio ended up in the same carriage... but the atmosphere inside certainly didn\'t match the image of the engaged couple traveling together...

*grouuugh*

"Silence, Trashy-pest. Can\'t you see I\'m reading? Stop ruining this ride more than you already are."

After passing the largest city of the Espine territory, Grazio\'s stomach started grumbling and Miriette glared at him coldly from over the romance novel she was enjoying.

"..."

The red-haired boy chewed on the response that was forcing its way through his throat and instead reached out towards a neat basket on a spot next to him.

From there he pulled out a sandwich and two glass bottles of juice.

"My lady, if you\'d like..."

Grazio pulled up all of his courage and reached out his hand holding one of the bottles towards the diseased girl.

"Thank you for the offer..."

"!!!"

Miriette took a deep breath and the inflection in her voice made it seem as if she was going to reluctantly accept the drink which made Grazio visibly excited...

"...but I\'d rather die of thirst than drink from a bottle that you touched."

Still, the next words that left Mireitte\'s pale lips brought him to reality like an armored punch straight to the stomach.

"This...! This is a sealed bottle! It\'s not like I drank from it or anything!"

Grazio gasped and blushed getting innocently flustered.

"You better not, if you did a mere suggestion would have cost you that arm and leg that lady Burushi worked so hard to restore."

"...!"

The dark-haired girl scoffed, shaking her head and causing her hair to cascade like a waterfall while also making the red-haired boy tense up at the memory.

"...what are you going to do about the food then...?"

"..."

Even then, Mireitte earned herself only a few additional minutes of silence after which Grazio attempted to make a conversation, pissing her off to no end.

"If I will be hungry then I will eat."

Miriette shrugged her shoulders and raised her hand – with the slight movement the curtain of her hair parted revealing that she brought a basket with food on her own right from the start, only it was obstructed from Grazio\'s sight.

"Now, stuff your trashy mouth hole with this garbage you pest, and shut up. Breathing the same air as you make me nauseous."

The red-haired girl flipped a page of her book before lowering her hand and returning to reading.

The travel from the Espine territory to Aspakeony Academy wasn\'t the shortest and it especially seemed endless for Grazio who was put down the moment he dared to make any sound or move too much.

"Why do act like that towards me?!"

At some point, the red-haired boy couldn\'t hold himself back and asked with his face turning beetroot-red.

"Don\'t worry about it now – I will definitely tell you everything when we will arrive at the Academy. It will not take much longer so sit tight."

Surprisingly, the dark-haired girl didn\'t seem bothered by the shouting at all and responded calmly while flipping the pages of her book.

She was almost by the end and the romance plot was reaching its climax but she couldn\'t really enjoy it.

|In the previous timeline, this was the place where Surou picked up Burushi from the side of the road...|

Miriette thought and couldn\'t stop herself from sighing while glancing through the window of the moving carriage

"My lady, are you bothered by the recent events?"

Grazio who was annoyingly stubborn about trying to start a conversation asked even though there was still a lot of anger in his voice.

"Not in particular. Only the start of it all."

Miriette lowered her gaze and sat up straight protecting her face from Grazio with the book.

"Everyone talks about it though! Helterose family is under severe attack. Actually, many people believe that they bothered your father and he decided to show them their place!"

The red-haired boy exclaimed and his eyes began shining with interest.

"It\'s not Duke Espine if that\'s what you are alluding to."

Miriette rolled her eyes and lowered her book seemingly willing to talk.

"But then who else has so much power over the fire? Beginning with the estate of the youngest brother of the current head of the Helterose family, one after another the estates of their bloodline have been burnt down to the ground claiming both property and countless lives!"

Grazio waved his hand dismissively before cheering, getting way too excited about the achievement of the unknown perpetrator wielding fire magic.

"...and since my parents murdered their way to the former Babenor territory you think that Espines are behind those new incidents?"

"...!"

Miriette raised her brow and asked coldly making Grazio freeze on the spot as he realized the great mishap he committed.

"N-no...! I mean...! I didn\'t have anything bad in mind while saying that...! I mean... yo-you surely know how that new money tried to worm its way into being recognized as part of the six great families, right? I only..."

Grazio\'s face turned ghastly pale and looked down so fast that he almost broke his teeth against his knees.

"Is that so? Big assumptions from a member of the Victureo family."

Miriette didn\'t show anger and instead leaned back in her seat and snickered mockingly at the boy in the opposite seat.

"I mean. If we are talking about fire magicians, my father might be a powerful transcended fire magician, but he can\'t hold a candle to your older sister. If anything, I should be the one asking you about being involved in this whole mess."

"My lady...! Th-that\'s not at all what is happening...!"

The dark-haired girl winced and completely terrified the red-haired boy.

"Then why are you even trying to talk about this subject? Didn\'t I say that I was only interested in its beginning?"

She added picking up her book again.

"Then, you don\'t mind talking about the incident in which the youngest brother of the current head of the Helterose family died..."

"That is not the first fire-related incident in that chain of events, Trashy-pest."

Grazio fidgetted and ended up asking, but Miriette silenced him with a single ice-cold glare.

"I\'m talking about the fire at the private property of young lady Kierul Berra Helterose."

Miriette muttered under her breath and clenched her hands on the book so hard that her knuckles turned white.

As she was doing that instead of looking through the window, she completely missed an arrogant-looking red-haired girl in simple travel clothes walking hand in hand with a tall black-haired boy whose face was hidden behind a porcelain mask carrying a large backpack.

...the pair was going in the same direction as Miriette\'s and Grazio\'s carriage...

"Are you sure? The Helterose family claimed that it was a tragic accident and both Keirul and her attendant Aku died while the young lady experimented with her magic and failed."

Grazio tilted his head and asked, doubting Miriette\'s words.

"Shut up. Don\'t even dare open your mouth before we arrive at the Academy."

"!!!"

He foolishly made the dark-haired girl furious and shuddered at her threat.

While Grazio was cowering, Miriette bit her lips trying to hold back the tears that were gathering in the corners of her eyes.