The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

Chapter 159: An Introspective Meeting

Chapter 159: An Introspective Meeting

As soon as we stepped into the mansion, we were greeted by June and Bright.

Ferris was also behind them, standing with her arms crossed.

What’s up with her? The two others I can understand, but could young Ferris be worried for us as well?

“Instructor Poer!”

“Sir Poer!”

I raised my hand to greet the siblings as they approached.

And would you look at this – Bright seemed so worried that he even hugged my legs. Now he’s acting his age for once.

By this time, Pochi has probably already made her way to the room from the garden outside, but perhaps it would’ve been better if I had brought her along here to the entrance hall.

“Apologies for my tone just now, Master Bright.”

On the spur of the moment during the battle, I had called him informally – he might have taken offense to that.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong, Instructor Poer! I mean… you were so awesome!”

Well well, I’m so happy to hear that. I’ll brag about it to Pochi later.

“Shiro, too!”

And maybe I’ll leave that part out. She’ll let it go to her head otherwise.

After Bright’s excited complimenting of us, June proceeded to add,

“Thank you very much, Sir Poer – I mean it. Never have I expected the enemy to take action at this time…”

“Oh, no, my carelessness did play a part in it, too. I’d like some context surrounding this whole incident, if possible.”

“Yes, of course. I must say that I’m still in shock, though… Bright just suddenly emerged from your room, of all places!”

“So am I! You cast that spell, and the next thing I knew, I was under that bed!”

Was he shocked because of how dark it was under there, or was he surprised by the Teleportation spell?

Well, I mean, that should’ve been obvious…

“That was… well…”

“It was awesome! Could you teach me to cast that spell as well?! Please?!”

To Bright’s insisting, I returned a dry smile.

Nope, can’t – It’s definitely not a good idea to teach it in this era.

Yeah, I just CAN’T teach it here. Still, I would always feel as if I can’t say no whenever this boy asks me for favors… could this be a curse effect that the Black Emperor had on me?

“When it’s the right time, then… yes, when it’s the right time.”

“O-of course!”

Bright smiled… brightly… and tightly clenched his fists.

Bah, I’ve just gone and made a dangerous promise.

Well, it SHOULD be fine if Bright doesn’t teach it to anyone, I suppose. Right, I won’t teach it to him until I’m truly sure that I can trust him, either – that is what’s most important.

“Lady June.”

“What is it?”

“I have… urgent matters to discuss with Shiro. Could you please give me some time?”

“Mm-hm, you can have an hour, then. Come to my room when you’re done.”

Her room?

Now that was a first. Usually, we would use the reception room whenever a discussion came up.

And a female leader of a noble household calling a servant to her room… wouldn’t that be a cause for concern?

After awkwardly answering June that I would, I started toward the second floor, where Pochi was most likely waiting for me… and her stuff.

But then young Ferris called out to me,

“So, you… Poer, was it now?”

We’ve been together for half a month already; shouldn’t she have remembered my name by now?

“Yes, milady?”

“I express to you my gratitude as a representative of House Adams. Thank you for saving my friend.”

She had already turned away by the time she said that second sentence, but the fact that she had said it at all surprised me quite a bit.

The tomboy princess, thanking someone, eh…

I looked on as she trotted away; she seemed quite embarrassed – perhaps she herself was also surprised by what she had just done.

“Sir Poer.”

“Sir Alfred.”

Here comes Alfred, looking as stern as ever… though he did express a brief gesture of thanks as he passed me.

“Thank you for saving the Young Master. You have my gratitude.”

He said just that before heading to June and Bright’s side.

That was quite an angle I don’t see often from the old man, too… Still, though, I’m not yet quite used to being thanked for things I have done, despite how many times it’s been.

While thinking about that, I reached my room. Inside, Pochi was preparing some tea, putting it on the table.

“The Storeroom, Master! Hurry up!”

In other words, ‘bring out my snacks’… that’s what she was saying.

Well, I was going to anyway, so I suppose it’s all good.

I used the Boil Swift Magic spell to heat up the tea, and then took out some baked sweets and fruits from the storeroom.

Pochi wolfed them down in a matter of minutes, and her belly was wonderfully inflated by the end of it.

“C’mon, it won’t kill you to share a little…”

“No!”

“But-“

“No buts!”

I had asked for some of those treats while sipping my tea to fill the lonely void that was my mouth, but again and again, my Familiar had refused.

I swear, her gluttony is one of the few things about her that never changes.

Well, that really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, I suppose. It’ll soon be time for dinner anyway.

Now then, I’ve got to talk to Pochi about the battle we had gone through today.

Today was supposed to be our day off, but THAT did just happen… June was sure to want to discuss it as soon as possible as well.

Despite that, she had just given me some time for myself, so I’ll have to make the most out of it.

“So, Shiro… what did you think of the enemy?”

“Well… see for yourself, sir.”

Although I had already washed her with water, Pochi still had traces of blood all over her fur.

This might have been the biggest trouble we had found ourselves in since popping out from the location that ‘marked my beginning’.

“Kaiser Dyno, a Rank S monster, huh…”

“Its movements weren’t all that fast, but it’s still a Dragon, you see… I would’ve been no match for it if not for your enhancement spells, sir.”

Pochi stated only the facts regarding the enemy’s strength. To my surprise, she didn’t seem to let that get her down.

I suppose she does know the appropriate time and place for things after all, in her own way.

“Monster archetypes sure make up a lot of difference in this era, sir…”

“Right…”

“So, that D?n? Familiar… what was its level, sir?”

“Sorry, didn’t look. Judging from its speed, I thought it was about the same level as yours, so I only scanned the Chiquiata chick.”

“What was her level, then?”

“A hundred and fifty-two.”

Pochi put one paw under her chin and pondered that answer over.

“It’s normal to go in considering yourself on a lower level than them, sir, but since you were able to fight her just fine, shouldn’t that be considered good enough?”

“Considering D?n?’s personality, Chiquiata’s abilities, and how the Myans girl was still in training, I thought maybe we could have won, if narrowly, you see…”

“But you didn’t expect them to have that Cobalt Dragon with them, did you?”

“Yeah… D?n? was already an S-ranked enemy, and that thing was even more dangerous, you know…”

Pochi tilted her head, questioning my statement.

“How so? The latter may have seemed more troublesome because of how the battle was going, sure, but shouldn’t D?n?’s rank make it a technically bigger threat?”

Pochi was probably referring to their ranks as classified by the Adventurers’ Guild. The Cobalt Dragon was classified as Rank A, while the Kaiser Dyno was Rank S.

“The Kaiser Dyno is a grounded creature and must fight among monsters – that’s what got it the S rank. The Cobalt Dragon, on the other hand, doesn’t have as much competition for survival since it’s sky-bound, so it was considered less dangerous. But if they were made into Familiars, especially with access to the Limit Breakthrough magecraft in this era, then…”

“…Then the Rank S monsters… no, even Rank SS ones would be no match for them.”

“That’s right. Going by that idea, though, it does mean that Baladd has a lot of untapped potentials, too.”

I hadn’t meant to mention that name, but now it makes me wonder… is Lina and Baladd doing all right for themselves right now?

Or could they have found themselves at odds with Tifa and Tarawo again?

“Well, let’s just end it at how we now know that the both of us have room for improvement, sir. I say it’s better not to think about it too deeply, at least for the time being!”

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Right.”

“Also, that Deca Spell sure was a surprise, sir!”

“You noticed that? Oh, you know me so well, Familiar doggo!”

“Of course I did. All those spells were advanced-level, weren’t they? You used to be able to fit in just one or two of them before, but now you could just have them all…”

She was right – I usually used carefully-optimized intermediate-level spells for the Deca Spell, but in today’s battle, most of them had been of the advanced level.

Pochi did well in seeing that, too, considering how she was in battle the whole time.

Or perhaps it was the Deca Spell that had distracted her, resulting in her getting hurt… No, let’s not consider that to be the case.

“Leveling up probably helped with that. My drawing techniques have improved, too – now that was quite unexpected. Well, the Freeze Fire at the end was an intermediate-level spell, though.”

“Ah, yes, now that you mentioned it.”

Pochi’s behaving herself surprisingly well now – which is good, since we’re in the middle of an actual serious discussion.

Could this be because she’s happy for how much improvement I had achieved for myself, too? She’s wagging her tail and all…

“It’s good that we successfully rescued Bright, but we were the ones who had to escape in the end, sir. We still have a long way to go, I say~~”

“Right… I’ll have to think over a lot of stuff from now on. Well, I have a meeting with Lady June coming up. Maybe you should start packing up for tomorrow or something, Shiro.”

After saying that, I stood up to leave the room… but then Pochi tugged on my mantle, preventing me from doing so.

I have a bad feeling about this… but I still should ask her what’s that for.

“Please look at that, sir.”

What Pochi was pointing at was the room’s clock.

Its hands were slightly off from my Biological Clock, but either way, the time was almost seven in the afternoon.

“It’s almost time for dinner!”

I know, I know…

And so I heaved a deep sigh before invoking the Storeroom spell again.