Law of Space and Time

Chapter 35: Hello, Cousin

Erwin and Kaiba returned to the campsite on horseback first, while Larwood stayed behind to supervise everyone in transporting the Falcon Beak Lizard carcasses back to camp.

Chase had heard the massive commotion ringing out within the Terarody Mountain Ranges earlier, and he was very elated and relieved to see his good friends return safe and sound. He immediately asked them what had happened, and Erwin knew that Kaiba definitely wasn't going to pass up this golden opportunity to boast about his own exploits, so he carried several sets of Falcon Beak Lizard internal organs that were still dripping with blood before heading straight for Onean's carriage.

"What are those things?" Onean was seated on her bed, and she could tell that it was Erwin from his footsteps, but she was rather taken aback by the urgency with which he had entered her carriage, and her surprise was only further exacerbated as she caught sight of the things that Erwin was carrying in his hands.

The internal organs were still dripping blood incessantly, and she immediately swept a hand through the air to cast a domain-type spell onto the interior of the carriage. As a result, the rank and pungent blood from the internal organs of the Falcon Beak Lizards disappeared into the domain instead of dripping onto the ground.

"These are Falcon Beak Lizard internal organs," Erwin replied with a smile.

An amused smile appeared on Onean's face at the sight of Erwin's excited expression. She could see that there was still smoke rising up from several parts of his body, and he smelled like a piece of roast meat that had just been removed from the roasting rack. 

"I was wondering why there was such a massive commotion going on outside," she chuckled.

"I was worried that you wouldn't make it to Burmen. Otherwise, I wouldn't have risked my life to hunt these things!" Erwin said in a disgruntled manner. "I was almost roasted to death by a fire dragon!"

"How did a fire dragon end up getting involved?" Onean asked with a perplexed expression as she cast some spells upon the Falcon Beak Lizard organs that Erwin was holding, upon which the organs began to shrink. Within the span of just a few seconds, they had shrunk down to around the size of Erwin's hands, and the outer skin was so tight that it looked as if it had been air-dried.

"The Falcon Beak Lizards were smarter than we expected, and they were so desperate that they lured the fire dragon over to kill us..." Erwin said as he pulled a few glass containers out of the cabinet, then placed the lizard organs inside them while giving Onean a recount of what had happened during their hunting trip.

"That's what you get for being so greedy," Onean said in a completely unsympathetic manner.

"Hey, the least you could do is thank me after all I did," Erwin grumbled in an indignant voice.

"Hmph, stop trying to make me feel sorry for you, I'm not going to fall for your tricks." Onean carefully stood up from the bed before picking up the glass containers and closely examining them.

"Your complexion has improved a little," Erwin said with a sheepish smile. "Looks like you managed to get some sleep. I'm glad you're able to even get up on your own now."

Onean completely ignored him as she opened her magic potions book and began to read through the procedure for brewing the potion.

"Alright, I'll leave you to it then. I'm exhausted after all that, so I'm going to lay down." After that, Erwin sat down onto Onean's bed without any hesitation before lying down in a comfortable position. Prior to doing so, he made sure to push Onean's quilt to the side as he was worried that the ashes and dirt all over his body would dirty Onean's quilt.

This was completely inexplicable. Why was it that he was worried about getting the quilt dirty, but the same concern didn't apply to the bed?

Onean turned around to glance at Erwin's shameless display, then shook her head with an amused smile.

A short while later, the sound of loud snoring rang out from behind her, and she couldn't help but shake her head in amusement once again.

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By the time Erwin woke up, Onean was still hard at work in front of a pile of glass apparatus.

"Have you still not finished refining the magic potion?" he asked with a surprised expression.

"The amount of ingredients you brought back is enough to brew dozens of doses of the potion," Onean replied as she gestured toward an orderly row of potion vials arranged on the desk.

"How is the effect of the magic potion? Have you used it on yourself yet?" Erwin asked as he picked up one of the vials before looking into it.

"I already applied some onto my wounds, and it's quite effective," Onean replied.

"That's really strange. Wasn't Master Piro the one who brewed your magic potions? Why is it that they have such a minor effect on healing your wounds?" Erwin asked with a perplexed expression.

"At the time, my body was too weak, and Teacher was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle it if he made the medicine too strong, so he intentionally made the magic potion weaker. The plan was to slowly increase the efficacy of the magic potions over time during my recovery process," Onean explained. "Of course, my teacher had no idea that I was going to sneak away to fight in a war."

"I see," Erwin replied with a nod.

"Besides, do you really think the royal palace is well stocked with all types of magic ingredients?" Onean asked as she turned to look at him with an amused expression.

"Isn't that the case?" Erwin asked with a surprised expression.

Onean shook her head in response. "There are only some common magic ingredients kept in the royal palace. No one regularly ventures into the mountains to hunt for magic beasts at the risk of losing their own lives. Hence, rare ingredients that come from magic beasts like this one can only be ordered from the black market. Otherwise, there would be no way to source it in Sarus."

She then turned to roll her eyes at Erwin as she continued, "Did you think everyone is as reckless as you are? In the past, when Teacher and I went on hunting trips, we had to prepare extensively each time before setting off."

Erwin had never considered this before, but what Onean said made a lot of sense. After all, if it weren't for that stunning sequence of attacks from Kaiba, perhaps all 120 members of the hunting party would've perished.

"In that case, I just did something very impressive, didn't I?" Erwin said with a smug expression. "We managed to bring back over 20 Falcon Beak Lizard carcasses with us this time!"

Onean nodded in response. "Indeed. Your ability to throw away your own life at the drop of a hat is truly unmatched!"

She was clearly mocking Erwin for his performance during the Pillow Sword Tournament.

"By the way, have your friends asked you any questions? Are they not curious about who's living in this carriage?" she suddenly asked as she turned to look at him. "Or did you already tell them?"

"Er..." Erwin didn't know how to respond to this question.

"You already told them, didn't you?" Onean asked.

"I did," Erwin replied with an apprehensive expression. "I know you wanted me to keep this a secret from them, but if I hadn't told them about our current circumstances, I wouldn't have been able to convince them to come with me to hunt for these Falcon Beak Lizards."

"I'm not blaming you or anything, I was just asking," Onean said in an indifferent voice.

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As Larwood and the others returned to the campsite with all of the Falcon Beak Lizard carcasses, all of the other mercenaries were astonished by what they were seeing. After all, most of them had never even seen what magic beasts looked like before, so this was very much an eye-opening experience.

However, it wasn't like they had won a battle against soldiers of the Skycourt Kingdom, so they didn't go as far as to throw a celebration over these slain Falcon Beak Lizards. Having said that, the atmosphere at the campsite that night was very joyful and boisterous. No alcoholic beverages were served, but everyone had a great time feasting on the flesh of the Falcon Beak Lizards while chatting loudly with one another. In particular, the mercenaries who had gone on the hunting trip were particularly loud, and all of them were telling extremely spectacular stories.

Right as a certain mercenary was telling everyone his own story in a spirited manner with spittle flying everywhere, Kaiba gave him a kick from behind, causing him to fall down onto the ground. The mercenary immediately flared up with rage, only to turn around to discover that the culprit was the hero who had saved everyone from a dire situation in the mountain range. As a result, the furious look on his face immediately gave way to a fawning smile.

Erwin, Chase, and Larwood were also gathered nearby, and they were all very amused to see this. The tales of Kaiba's heroic exploits had already spread through the entire mercenary legion like wildfire. Of course, the story of Erwin luring the fire dragon away by himself was just as rousing a story, and the two of them had earned themselves a great deal of respect for their heroic displays.

"By the way, where did Kaiba learn that set of spear techniques from?" Erwin asked as he turned to Chase and Larwood.

"Oh, he didn't tell you?" Chase was the one to reply. "After your match with that spear-wielding martial artist, Kaiba was extremely impressed with his spear techniques, and he was determined to go and learn from them."

"In the end, he spent 1,000 Loonies to learn that set of spear techniques from that martial artist," Larwood chimed in.

"1,000 Loonies?!" Erwin was astonished to hear this. "That's a little steep, isn't it?"

"Think about it this way: if it wasn't for that set of spear techniques, would we have been able to return without any casualties?" Larwood asked with a smile.

"That's true. This is our first time going into battle against magic beasts, and we didn't lose even a single person. Now that I think about it, this was a resounding success!" Erwin said with a joyful smile.

"Yeah, and also, it's all thanks to the suicidal Erwin challenging the fire dragon to a one-on-one battle that we were all able to return safe and sound," Larwood jeered with a mocking expression. "Oh, and it was also all thanks to Erwin that we stayed even after the fire dragon appeared. Otherwise, we would've retreated long ago!"

Chase was very amused to hear this, and it was clear that Larwood had already told him what had happened earlier.

"There you go again! If you're still so opposed to this, then how about you don't use the armor made from the Falcon Beak Lizard scales?" Erwin challenged.

"Fine! I don't need that stuff anyway," Larwood scoffed with a disdainful expression.

Chase was forced to step in and mediate. "Alright, that's enough from you two. You're acting like a pair of children!"

All of a sudden, a pleasant voice rang out from behind the three of them. "Indeed, they really are like a pair of petulant children."

The trio turned around in unison to find a man with a head of chestnut hair, which was arranged into an orderly, unisex bun. There was a fringe of hair arranged diagonally across his forehead, and judging from his suit of intricately crafted leather armor, it seemed that this man was a young noble who hailed from an affluent family. There was a slightly mischievous look in his shimmering, golden eyes, and his facial features were so beautiful and delicate that even other men couldn't help but stare. If a woman were to see him, they would most likely instantly fall head over heels for the dashing young man.

Even though Erwin knew exactly who this was, he still couldn't help but be stunned by the person standing before him.

Larwood and Chase weren't idiots, and they also immediately realized who this was. As such, they were placed in a rather difficult situation, wondering whether it was appropriate to bow or not.

Onean remained silent as he looked at the three of them with an amused expression.

"Ah, what are you doing here, Cousin? Aren't you resting in the carriage to recover from your injuries?" Erwin hurriedly said as he communicated wordlessly with Chase and Larwood using his eyes.

"Oh, so this is your cousin, Erwin. You should've introduced him to us sooner," Chase complained with a sly smile, then turned to Onean as he continued, "I'm around the same age as Erwin, so can I call you Cousin as well?"

"Ah, that's right, I'm also around the same age as Erwin. Nice to meet you, Cousin," Larwood hurriedly chimed in.

Onean's amused smile was becoming more pronounced, but she continued to remain silent.

Right at this moment, Kaiba just so happened to have completed his trip around the campsite, and he made his way over to Erwin's trio with a pleased expression. He then noticed that the three of them were standing around an unknown man, and a curious look appeared on his face.

"Oh, I'm glad you're here, Kaiba. I have something to speak to you about," Chase said as he gave Larwood a subtle look.

"Ah, yes, that's right, we were just discussing what we were going to do with the hide of these Falcon Beak Lizards. The problem is that we don't have anyone killed in forging," Larwood said as he dragged Kaiba away.

The two of them were eager to leave Erwin alone with Onean, so they quickly tried to sneak away. They could interrogate Erwin about what happened after the event, but they definitely weren't going to spoil the moment with their presence, particularly when in the company of someone of as lofty a status as Princess Onean.

"Who's this?" Kaiba didn't want to be led away, and he insisted on approaching the unknown man to take a look at who he was. As a result, he ended up in the same awkward predicament as Erwin's trio had been in, and he was left ruing his decision to try and satisfy his own curiosity.

He turned to find Chase and Larwood both glaring at him with displeased expressions that said: "are you happy now?".

Chase put on a smile as he introduced, "This is Erwin's cousin."

"Hey, can't you guys tell that Erwin's cousin has something important to discuss with him? Let's get out of here so they can talk to each other in peace," Larwood complained.

"Ah, I see. Hello, Cousin. My sincerest apologies for interrupting your conversation. Please continue," Kaiba hurriedly said as he turned to "Erwin's cousin" with a fawning smile.

After that, he grabbed Larwood by the arm before walking away, putting on a serious expression as he said, "You were saying that we don't have anyone skilled in forging in our legion, right? If that's the case, then I think..."

Chase certainly wasn't going to be left behind, and he immediately joined the discussion.

"After the war, all four of you should sign up to become actors in stageplays!" Onean finally burst into laughter as she watched Larwood's trio depart into the distance.

"Looks like the magic potion was very effective, seeing as you're already able to get up and walk around now," Erwin said as he carefully inspected Onean's condition, upon which he discovered that the complexion of her face and lips had improved significantly.

"I'm afraid I still can't do much more than walking around at the moment," Onean said with a wry smile.

She was then silent for a moment before continuing, "Thank you for what you did."

"There's no need to thank me. If you hadn't used your Springlay Fox bone marrow potion on me, you would already be fully recovered by now. Besides, I didn't really do much anyway," Erwin replied with a slightly bashful smile. "I'm sure you've already heard about what happened. If I hadn't been so greedy at the time, we could've retreated with just one or two carcasses, and that would've still been enough for the magic potion."

Onean shook her head in response. "I'm not referring to that, I'm thanking you for allowing me to come with you to the front lines in Burmen."

"Well, you said it yourself: there are a lot of volatile factors in this war between our two nations," Erwin said as he raised his head to look up at the stars. "Besides, it would be a real pity if you were absent from such a significant occasion."