The Male S*ave of the Count Sianella Family

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Time flowed relatively quickly since Shione’s confession.

Shione began her day with jogging, which had almost become a habit, and spent most of her time at the shooting range.

She sat down in one spot at the range and continuously drew back her bowstring.

What had changed in her training method is that she now attempted to channel her mana with every arrow she shot.

Only after collecting mana into her arrowhead did she release the bowstring, and her arrows pierced through several scarecrows.

Thanks to Shione’s diligent practice, her reputation at the shooting range had certainly transformed positively.

However, unlike the others, I couldn’t evaluate Shione solely in a positive light.

‘Everyone is doing it for their own desires, after all.’

I knew full well that Shione’s current effort was led by her shadowy self.

It was merely a result of her being swayed by the proposal I had made a few days ago out of desperation.

Perhaps what she truly wanted was not the high-level skills, but me instead.

Yet, if you were to ask if I felt any sense of danger because of Shione practicing like that—

Well, I wouldn’t say I felt overly tense or conscious of the situation.

‘There’s no way a few days of practice could compare.’

Mana application at the Sword Expert level is no trivial matter.

It’s impossible to achieve in just one or two days.

Even among knights, those with outstanding talent would need years, perhaps even decades, to reach the Sword Expert level.

If Shione were to catch up to the feats achieved by such individuals—

I believed it would take at least one to two years.

While thinking that, I was watching Shione shoot her arrows.

“Ugh…”

Shione let out a groan, lowering her bow as she realized her mana wasn’t flowing as she wished.

“Hah…”

After a small sigh, she bit her lips, puffed out her cheeks with air, and pressed it back out.

Fwoo—

Immediately after, she exhaled, steadied her mind, and lifted her bow again.

Her cute struggle almost made me smile, but—

“…I should have just done it then.”

…What on earth was it that she should have done?

Hearing Shione’s muttering caused the corners of my mouth to drop straight down.

Putting that aside.

Shione continued to fail in creating a dense concentration of mana akin to that of a Sword Expert.

Yet, there were undeniable encouraging aspects stemming from her ongoing practice.

With her persistent mana application training, the swirling mana around her arrowheads became clearer.

While it hadn’t condensed or solidified more intensely, the amount she could gather had certainly increased.

With every day, the sustaining power and efficacy of her mana were improving, and the scarecrows that served as her targets were frequently replaced.

Even if Shione told the archers to focus on their own practices, they couldn’t help but glance at her occasionally.

Amidst this, as the sun began to rise to its zenith and started to tilt again,

“Princess Shione, I will go see the priest for a moment.”

“Has it already reached that time? I’ll come along.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“Honestly, I was just thinking of taking a break since my arms were starting to hurt from shooting for too long.”

I nodded casually and stepped out of the shooting range.

*

A golden ray of light descended from the priest’s hand onto my arm.

Gone was the state of being a complete wreck, and my arm was perfectly healed.

As I felt quite satisfied with the strength returning to my arm, I was smiling brightly when—

“From today, all treatment is complete. Good job.”

“It’s you who’s done the hard work, priest.”

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the priest, he stood up to leave first.

As soon as the priest left, Shione, who had been watching the healing process beside me, approached.

“How’s your arm?”

“It’s all better. I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but it feels like it moves even better than before I got hurt.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I was worried since the priest took longer than expected to arrive.”

“Considering the depth of the wound, it makes sense. But now it’s all healed, so that’s good, right?”

With a small smile, I lifted my left arm and waved my hand.

“Yeah, if it’s all healed, then that’s what matters.”

With that, Shione gently stroked my head.

It looked more like she was ruffling my hair than stroking it.

I quietly accepted her touch.

Of course, I wasn’t always this compliant from the start.

Every time she tried to stroke my hair, I’d subtly step away, but in the end, I had been caught and ended up being patted anyway.

It was just a light caress, not a full embrace, so I let it happen.

I swallowed a sigh that was about to escape and looked at Shione.

While stroking my hair, she seemed flustered by her own actions, intentionally avoiding my gaze.

She had been so bold to kiss me back then, yet here she was shy about a little head patting.

Shione sure was something else.

As her petting was coming to an end, I asked,

“What do you plan to do next?”

“I have nowhere to go, so I don’t think it’d be bad to head back to the shooting range. What do you think?”

“After pulling back the bowstring from morning until now and handling mana, I think it would be better for you to rest a little rather than go back to the shooting range.”

“Hmmm.”

The weather was nice, and the summer heat had also lessened a bit.

It seemed like a good idea to visit the garden after a long time.

Despite loving flowers, I hadn’t had time to spend in the garden since the Feiosha Marquis family got busy.

It didn’t sound like a bad idea, so I slowly brought it up.

“How about we stroll through the garden? You haven’t had a chance to see the flowers slowly after visiting the Marquis’ garden.”

“A garden, huh? Sounds nice. Alright, let’s go.”

Shione seemed to express her approval of the idea, starting to hum as she led the way.

Her pace was not particularly fast.

As we leisurely made our way to the garden, the surroundings began to grow raucous.

Some were moving quickly, while others were even running.

Seeing the usually composed servants now flustered and rushing was a curious sight.

I began to wonder if something had happened.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one; Shione was also watching the busy servants with interest.

“What could have happened?”

“I’m not sure. If we run into someone on the way to the garden, let’s ask them.”

As time passed, the servants we could see in the distance moved even more urgently.

Most of those hastily moving were heading toward the main entrance of the mansion.

Naturally, our gazes followed in that direction.

Then, we noticed even the priests, who usually waited inside the mansion for emergencies, heading toward the entrance.

Our focus shifted away from the garden.

“I’m heading to the entrance.”

“I’ll follow.”

As we got closer to the mansion entrance, the crowd was visibly larger.

Shione caught one of the passing servants and asked,

“Can you tell us what’s going on that everyone is moving so urgently?”

The older male servant frowned deeply at Shione’s question.

“…A knight from the Cult Search and Suppression Team that left for the Beltlin Mountain Range has come running with a message.”

The Cult Search and Suppression Team.

I knew it was the team led by Siabel Shianella and Diolia, who had gone to search the Beltlin Mountain Range.

What kind of message had they sent that warranted such a commotion?

A thick curiosity began to stir inside me.

“A message, huh? Can you tell us the contents of the message as well?”

“Well…”

The servant seemed hesitant to speak of the contents, as if it was hard for him to voice.

Seeing him struggle, Shione folded her arms and glared at him like a sister.

“Can’t you just tell us quickly?”

“…I will relay exactly what I heard from the knight.”

After Shione spoke a bit irritably, the servant took a deep breath to steady himself.

Once his expression had calmed, he quietly began to recite the message he had heard from the knight.

His solemn demeanor while conveying the message was quite serious.

“During the search for the cultists, in the operation against the demons, 17 soldiers died in battle, and 9 were severely wounded.”

The servant’s complexion noticeably worsened.

“…Shianella Siabel is also returning with serious injuries from the battle against the demons.”

Shianella Siabel was returning with serious injuries.