Volume 6 - Chapter 31 – Approach (2/2)
“The enemy in the mountain pass used [Hide], right? I studied it and made a more effective version. …That’s all, Reiko.”
Jin said and Reiko once more disappeared.
“I see. After all, Jin-kun’s amazing.”
“Eh, [Hide]? What’s that?”
Elsa and Beana showed different reactions.
“An enemy who attacked us earlier had an item charged with that magic.”
Elsa explained. Hearing that, Beana said,
“Oh yeah. …Elsa’s travelling with Jin, right, and they’re experiencing many things together, right.”
“…?”
Elsa thought that Beana who suddenly seemed disheartened was suspicious,
“Beana, does your stomach hurt?”
“Eh? N-no. I’m fine.”
“Oh? Alright then. …Ah, Rai-nii.”
Looking where Elsa was looking, Reinhardt was there. And next to him was a beautiful woman with blond hair reaching all the way to her back.
“She’s…If I’m not mistaken, Dominique-san?”
That woman was indeed Celuroa Kingdom’s special envoy Dominique. She was thick in the right places and skinny in the others, the type of woman Reinhardt seemed to prefer.
“But flirting doesn’t really float for Reinhardt.”
Jin said, to which Elsa replied,
“Flirting? Float? Rai-nii can’t fly in the sky. Or are you talking about swimming?”,
A natural-airhead-like remark came and Jin explained to Elsa the misundertanding and what flirting is. And then surprisingly,
“Rai-nii has a fiancee back home.”
Such a fact suddenly came to light.
“Oh…really, Reinhardt does.”
Elsa explained that it wasn’t unusual for male nobles to be married by the age of 20. There’s even people who get married as early as at the age of 18, she said.
“Hmm, how about the women?”
When asked that, Elsa looked surprised for a moment but soon returned to her usual expression and replied,
“There’s girls who get married as early as at the age of 13. Most usually get married when they’re between 15 and 19 years old.”
“Is that so?”
As expected this world’s age of marriage is low, Jin sincerely felt.
“Jin-kun’s how old? I’m 16.”
Elsa asked and peeked at Jin’s face. She even told her own age without asking.
“Me? I’m only 20. Oh, very soon I’ll be 20.”
Jin answered, and,
“Eeeeh?”
Beana who was listening to the conversation next to them raised a hysteric voice.
“Hey, mind the occasion.”
Jin cautioned Beana who said somewhat agitatedly ,
“Jijiji-Jin’s 20 years old!? I was certain you were my age or at most a year or two older.”
“Me too.”
Elsa also agreed, and Jin felt a little sad.
“…Do I really look that childish?”
He said subduedly, and Beana said in a hurry,
“Th-that’s not it. You’re just, uh, how should I say it…”
“Young-looking.”
Elsa gave a helping hand to Beana, but saying that didn’t make Jin much more pleased.
Certainly it’s said that Japanese people look younger compared to Western people.
However, formerly when he went to to high school his classmates used to say “Nidou-kun is kind of like an old man” or some such, so Jin was shocked greatly, so,
“Child on the outside, old man on the inside, huh.”,
His self-deprecating muttering was understandable.
“Is it impolite to call you Jin-kun?”
It seems Elsa didn’t think he was four years older than her so she decided to call him Jin-kun, however after being called that until now changing it would feel strange, and above all Elsa’s social standing is higher than his so the same manner as before would be fine, he said.
“Sorry for interrupting your talk, Jin-dono, wasn’t it?”
Just then Celuroa Kingdom’s leading Magi Craftsman who built the crystal golem Ceres, Stearina, came and greeted him.