Chapter 19: What the hell is going on? (2/2)
”Wait, isn't he…” Quickly alternating their eyes between the archmage and his victim, the initial anger of the guards disappeared, replaced by a strange feeling of relief and pity.
”Well, it's good that someone finally taught him a lesson… Hey, Irea, who is that idiot?” Clearly hinting at something that was common knowledge for the locals, the guard addressed the girl by the name, proving that she also had a fair bit of shame in this war camp.
”He is not… This man is well… Under our protection? Or maybe I am? In fact, it wouldn't be a lie to claim that he is a benefactor of my entire group.” Lowering her head, the girl turned her attention to the guards as well before explaining the situation.
Leaving her sentence on an open note, Irea scratched the side of her chin for a moment before suddenly shaking her head and smiling uneasily. ”Either way, I hope you won't pay any mind to the friendly spar that was the cause behind this entire situation, ” said the girl as she reached with her hand to the side, only to place her palm on the back of Layn's head before forcing his entire upper body down as she bowed herself.
Initially startled, Layn didn't put any resistance to her guiding moves. Once Irea's intent clarified, the archmage actually lowered his head on his own, accepting the way that the girl has chosen to diffuse the tension in the air.
In the end, he started the entire affair because of his own reservations. No matter what, Irea knew far more about the world of this time than Layn did, making her judgment far more likely to be correct than whatever Layn would be able to come up with on the spot. As such, rather than blindly trying to find a way to get away scot-free from pummeling the other guy, just lowering his head to the guards appeared as a simpler option.
”As if I would let the situation end like that! I…” Noticing how the entire situation was calming down and heading to a peaceful solution, Kerren jumped up. With the threat of Layn's cold eyes already phasing away into nonexistence in his memories, he was clearly keen on making things hard for Layn and his guide.
”You really, ” squinting his eyes, the archmage looked towards the location of that pitiful, arrogant man, when a familiar voice broke through the noise created by all the people that already gathered to observe the situation.
Raising his eyes towards the source of the sound, Layn saw Karter walking towards him in big strides, with his arm raised in a way that made it look as if he wanted to draw everyone's attention to his forearm.
”Kerren will let this situation be as it is. Let's just all go our own way, okay?”
Ignoring Kerren who was trying to add something to the side, the leader of the Irea group pointed at his forearm before looking at the guards with a look of steeled resolve in his eyes.
”I'm willing to get marked for that.”