I Raised an Obsessive Servant - Chapter 162

* * *

Even though he hadn’t taken any medicine, he felt much better after a long sleep.

Reynard stirred in his bed, and the damp towel on his forehead fell onto the bed. With a blank expression, he followed the towel with his gaze, only to spot someone lying on the bed, which made his eyes widen.

“…Aiden?”

His voice was hoarse, probably due to a mild sore throat, but that wasn’t what mattered. What really mattered was that Aiden was sitting on the floor by the bed, leaning over and asleep.

‘Why is he here?’

As Reynard mulled over his memories from yesterday, Aiden seemed to sense something and lifted his head. His hair was in a mess as if he’d just woken up, and as soon as his eyes met Reynard’s, he jumped up.

“Huh? You’re awake? How are you feeling?”

Aiden’s booming voice made Reynard’s head ring as if he had been hit. Reynard frowned, pressing his temples with his palm, which made Aiden lower his voice and ask again”

“Does it still hurt?”

“Why are you here? How did you get in?”

“Huh? Don’t you remember? You let me in.”

Aiden stretched out his hand towards Reynard with a puzzled expression. Reynard instinctively stepped back, and Aiden patted his shoulder once and then touched his forehead with his palm. He seemed dissatisfied, then moved his hand to feel Reynard’s cheek.

“I think I might have caught your cold. Our foreheads feel the same temperature. Do I have a fever too?”

Aiden coughed a few times, it was obviously fake, then continued speaking in a quieter voice.

“You know, they say when you pass a cold onto someone else, you recover faster. That’s why I used to stick to my siblings whenever they had a cold. And you know what, when I caught the cold, they’d all recover. Isn’t that amazing?”

Although it was a trivial story, he shared it with a serious tone.

“Did your cold pass onto me this time? Then you’ll recover from your cold soon!”

Reynard pushed Aiden away with a blank expression as he moved in to examine his face.

“You idiot, how old are you to believe such a thing? Your siblings recovered because it was their time to recover. And it’s not that you have a fever, it’s that my fever has gone down.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

Despite hearing Reynard’s sarcasm, Aiden didn’t seem upset at all. Instead, he smiled brightly and gave Reynard a big hug.

“Great! Your cold is all gone! I was worried because you didn’t take any medicine, but I’m glad!”

Surprised by the sudden hug, Reynard was unable to either push him away or hug him back. His hands hovered awkwardly in the air.

“I saw you faint when I went to get your medicine yesterday! I was really worried!”

Reynard, annoyed by Aiden’s booming voice ringing in his ears, glanced around the room.

A bowl full of water, a few damp towels scattered on the floor, medicine and a bowl of cold soup on the table. The room was a mess, evidence of how much Aiden had run around the night before.

The mess didn’t bother him as much as the unfamiliar feelings welling up in his chest. Maybe it was because his throat was still a little sore.

“Are you hungry? Should I get something from the cafeteria? It’s better to eat something before taking your medicine!”

Aiden released Reynard and started to leave the room. His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep, and the whites of his eyes were red.

Strangely, Yurina’s face popped into Reynard’s mind. It felt wrong to compare Aiden to her, but he could see a similar expression on Aiden’s face to the one Yurina wore when she was taking care of him.

Without realizing it, Reynard mumbled softly behind Aiden’s back.

“…Thank you.”

His voice was as soft as a mosquito, but Aiden seemed to hear it and turned around with a grin.

“What are you thanking me for? It’s only natural among friends.”

* * *

Year 470 of the Imperial calendar, Autumn, Reynard 16 years old.

God is truly unfair.

As Reynard threw all his strength into blocking Aiden’s wooden sword under the blazing sun, Aiden repeated those words to himself.

Despite sweating profusely from sparring under the sun, Reynard still looked charming. Even at this close range, Aiden couldn’t find a single flaw in his appearance.

‘Shouldn’t he look a bit ugly when he’s sweating and making that face?’

He himself probably looked hilarious with his face covered in sweat and dirt! Feeling a sense of defeat, Aiden forcefully pushed Reynard’s sword away.

Not just his looks. Since the beginning of the term, the rumors had been flying around the magic department about Reynard receiving the ‘Blessing of the Goddess’, and just a few years later, there were whispers that he’d surpassed the professors in skill.

Aiden, who had watched him for three years, knew that the rumor wasn’t completely unfounded. He had seen the professor stumble over Reynard’s question three times just this year.

Well, his appearance was noticeably different from the moment they met, and his magical abilities were extraordinary, as the professors would say, a talent that only comes once in a few hundred years.

‘But isn’t it too much that he’s good at swordsmanship too?’

Two years ago, when Aiden had strongly persuaded Reynard to take a swordsmanship class together, Reynard couldn’t even properly hold the sword and wobbled.

In the end, he fell onto his butt without even swinging the wooden sword a few times. It was a natural result, since his arms and legs had little muscle compared to his lanky body.

Aiden, who had already learned a decent amount of swordsmanship from his father in his territory, teased him by swinging his wooden sword up and down in front of him.

Reynard, whose ears turned red in an instant, stood up abruptly without even brushing off the sand on his arm and swung the wooden sword again. However, he soon lost his balance and fell again.

Until then, Aiden had secretly thought that this guy wouldn’t improve much even if he learned swordsmanship.

But what was the problem?

He was so talented in magic, enough to say that he received a blessing from the goddess, so it was no big problem if he was bad at swordsmanship. Plus, if there were a magician and a knight with the same skills, they would prefer the magician. Because it’s harder to be born with a talent for magic than for the sword.

However, Aiden thought it was sufficient to learn swordsmanship as it would improve his physique and stamina.

But strangely, contrary to Aiden’s expectation, Reynard’s skills improved day by day as he gained some muscle from basic physical training.

When they first met, Reynard was noticeably shorter than Aiden. As of last year, they were about the same height, but now, Aiden felt that Reynard had grown a bit taller.

Compared to those who practiced swordsmanship all day long, his muscle mass and strength were low, but compared to those who were always stuck in the library with magic, his shoulders broadened and his muscles grew decently, and his body hardened.

Aiden was talented in swordsmanship, enough to hear from the teachers about giving up magic and changing his major to swordsmanship. Reynard had never beaten such Aiden, but his skills improved to the point where he could spar with him.

Even just a while ago, Aiden was quite surprised while blocking Reynard’s sword, though he didn’t show it much. The speed at which he swung the sword had gotten quite fast, and the strength with which he struck was so strong that his wrist felt numb.

‘Wow, it’s really unfair.’

Is the goddess of the Empire more merciful than the god of his Kingdom? Did she therefore pour all possible abilities into Reynard? If not, he couldn’t explain this unfair reality.

He’s my friend, but that’s too much!

Aiden swung his wooden sword, embedding his personal feelings into it. The spar ended with Reynard’s wooden sword flying high into the sky and falling to the ground of the training ground.

“Ah, it’s hard to win after all. Can’t you go easy on me? Do you have to use all your energy to beat me? It’s really hard to keep up.”

Reynard looked at the fallen wooden sword and shook his head. Despite complaining about being extremely tired, he didn’t look particularly fatigued, apart from his flushed face and heavy sweating.

Aiden stared blankly at his friend’s face and then chuckled.

“I’m already going easy on you. I don’t have a reason to beat you using all my power. If I did that, you wouldn’t be able to block even one of my swings, right?”

When Aiden swung down his wooden sword with all his might in the air, this time it was Reynard who chuckled.

“If it comes to that, I could just end it with one spell.”

“Wow, we’re talking about swords, and you’re bragging about magic? Are you mentioning magic because you want to beat me? Do you hate losing that much?”

While shaking his head, he infused mana into the wooden sword. The dull brown wooden sword faintly emitted a bright light.

“I may not be a sword master, but if I infuse my sword with mana, I can face most knights. If I just infuse mana, I can compete with a real sword using this wooden sword. Do you know what that means? Even if you defend with magic, I can break through it!”

“What if I use an attack spell instead of a defense one?”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Aiden was left speechless, only moving his lips like a fish. His face, already flushed from the heat of the spar, turned even redder.

“You’re saying you’re going to use an attack spell on me now? Are you really going to do that? An attack spell on your friend, isn’t that too much!”

Whether Aiden was angry or not, Reynard picked up the fallen wooden sword from the ground and left the training ground. Aiden followed him, whining like a chick. Reynard, without looking back, gestured to him.

“Stop it and let’s go wash up and eat. If we stay here, we’ll be cooked alive.”

“Hey, hey, hey!”

Suddenly Reynard stopped. Aiden, who had been arguing about how friends could do that, didn’t notice in time and ended up bumping into his back with his nose.

“Ouch, ouch. Reynard, you…”

Aiden, who was about to protest if Reynard was purposely messing with him, tightly shut his mouth at the sight beyond Reynard. In front of Reynard, a female student stood with a shy face.

“Um, Reynard.”

The female student hesitantly held out her hand, with an ivory-colored handkerchief emitting a scent similar to hers.

“You’ve sweated a lot. If you don’t mind, please wipe yourself with this.”