Witch Hunt Chapter 3 part2

Since my next semester is coming pretty soon, I'll upload a bunch of these:

(Part 2)

When I returned to the store, several palace guards were already there; they were in the middle of accepting custody of the thief Mr. Bread had tied up with a rope.

The reaction of the soldiers I spoke with at the palace gates had been pretty surprising; but once again it shocked me how quick they had responded coming to our help.

“Lucca!” When my boss realized I was back, he pushed past the soldiers in front of him and ran to my side. I could see a mixture of different emotions in his face, worry and anger and more, but in the end, he just hugged me without saying a word. His big hand ruffled my hair roughly.

“Ow, that hurts, boss!”

“Idiot, this is what you get for making me worry. Idiot…!” His voice sounded a bit choked.

Hearing him sound like that had the effect of cutting the thread of tension, I guess, because before I realized it, I was bowling my eyes out. My boss was caught in the emotion and began weeping as well with burning tears. Crying out loudly like that in the middle of the city, we probably looked like a stray puppy and a bear howling together…in other words, quite a peculiar sight.

The soldier and busybodies around us were staring at us with vacant looks. It was a bit embarrassing, but I still felt like having a good cry with my boss. After a while, when we finally became tired of sobbing, we released one another.

“Boss, here!” While wiping my tears I showed my boss the bag of stolen money.

“That…no way, it can’t be?!” My boss’ eyes, bloodshot after shedding so many tears, opened widely.

“I chased down the thief…and then…he dropped it…” I’d forgotten to invent an excuse to justify how I’d managed to get the money back. No matter what, there was no way I could say I had recovered it using magic to vanquish the thief. So in the end, I ended up babbling incoherently as I searched for words to say.

“That was a dangerous thing to do.” My boss let out a sigh when he noticed my dirty clothes and the gash in my cheek. A moment later, he rapped me over the head. However, I felt no pain; more than actually hit me, I felt him place his hand on my head.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized sincerely.

It really had been dangerous. If I hadn’t considered myself able to defeat the thief using my own powers, I wouldn’t have even tried catching up to him. But ultimately, I had misjudged what I was able to do.

It’s not like I’m able to accomplish every single thing I try, just because I have magic. Until that point in time, all I could were simple spells, like reducing my apparent weight as much as I could and looking for people. If I tried to use the power of blood, I’d likely be able to produce much more powerful effects, but I had never attempted it so far. For a wimp like me, it had been shameful to act motivated by my sense of justice in this conditions.

All those thoughts coursed through my head as I apologized; my boss received my words with a smile. “Thanks, you did save me, Lucca.”

“…Yes, you’re welcome!”

Perhaps because he was feeling bashful, for a while my boss had been evading my eyes. But his words were clearly directed towards me, so I peeked at his face from below, extremely happy. When I did that, he gave me a noogie.

“Ow, it hurts…”

I needed to reflect about several things about myself, regarding my actions that day. But just one word of thanks from my boss gave me relief. I was truly glad I chased down the thief when I did. With my feelings overflowing, being held as I was by my boss, once again I burst out crying.

()

Chapter end