Both reckless and stupid

“Master Shiidou, may I make a query?”
“Sure, but drop the formality. As long as we’re on this mission, we’re travelling companions, not master and maid”
Ann hesitates a lot before asking her question. It’s clear she’s not entirely comfortable addressing me as an equal, but I’ll never close the gap between us if I don’t push her to do so.

“...you hid your element from your family for over a decade. In fact, you were incredibly vigilant about making sure none but myself would find out. So why now? For what reason would you undo so much hard work, simply to join me on a quest?”
“I already said, didn’t I? I want to protect you. I’m sure one of dad’s samurai guys could have done the job, but I’d much rather do it myself.”
“Trust you not, that I can survive alone?”
“Well you always were clumsy as a kid, figured you’d need someone to help you up every now and then.”

I say this in jest, and expect Ann to simply shrug it off as she does most of my jabs, but she looks hurt at my words.

“I deeply apologise, Master Shiidou, if my services have been inadequate. I had thought I was meeting the expectations set for me, but if you say otherwise then I am deeply regretful.”
“No, no, not as a maid. I meant back on Earth, you were always tripping over your own feet or dropping things. I must have watched you get yourself hurt more times than I could count back then.”

I chuckle to myself, thinking back on all the times she fell flat on her face in front of me. The graceful Ann now is barely recognisable to how she was back on Earth. Her new body must have better built-in coordination.
Ann seems not to share my happy reminisces, taking her eyes off of me and looking dejectedly head, her eyes filled with blank stares.

“Ah, right, sorry, you don’t like me breaking the illusion of this world, do you? I’ll try to stop mentioning Earth so much.”
Ann is far more invested in this world than I am, and doesn’t seem to like it when I bring up our past lives. She normally just outright denies that she was reincarnated, which I guess is her way of telling me to pack it in.

“Mas- Shiidou, night will set in soon, for how long should we allow ourselves to sleep?” Considering night is still at least an hour off, it’s likely that Ann is just trying to change the subject, but I pretend I don’t notice.
“We’ll have to sleep in shifts. You sleep for the first four hours, I’ll sleep for the second.”
“Are you sure we have such time to spare?”
“The horses need rest too, and if we don’t give ‘em enough time they’ll be too worn out to finish the journey.”
“Perhaps you are right. Such an event would cripple our travel speed.”

I use the horses as an excuse, but I also want Ann to get a good night’s sleep for once. Four hours may not sound like much, but Ann tends to go above and beyond at her work, doing housework at my family home late into the night and waking up early to help the villagers. Her dedication is admirable, and her heart is pure, but I don’t like seeing her run herself ragged like that.
Man, back then she was a total slacker, too. Late homeworks, barely studying, tardiness, a total delinquent. I guess being reincarnated into such a difficult job kicked the laziness out of her.

“Shiidou, see you what I can?”
“Hmm? Oh, shit.”
While I’m lost in thought about the past, I’m given a rude reminder of the present. Our road ahead is blocked by a pair of earth deer.

Animals, especially monsters, can also sometimes have control over elements, and earth deer are a prime example. Taller than the deer back home, and with large antlers that have a high resonance with mana, they’ve been known to attack humans on the road by ripping apart the path beneath them with magic. For horsemen, it’s a pain. For carriages, it’s a death sentence.

“Pull up and we’ll dismount. I can get rid of these guys easily but we can’t risk injury to the horses.”
“As you so wish.”
Ann and I slow our stout little steeds to a halt and climb off their backs. We’re some eighty metres away, out of the range of any magic a monster of their size can throw.

“I have a plan, think you can buff my strength and endurance?”
“Of course, but may I ask for what purpose? I suppose you do not expect to fight monsters twice your height in hand to hand combat?”

Maybe I shouldn’t have taught Ann how to snark.

“Obviously not, I’m not stupid. I’m gonna use magic, but I have to be close enough to touch them.”
“Ah, I see. I thought you were being both reckless and stupid, but it appears I was only half right.”
“I’m starting to think telling you to act more casual was a mistake. And which was the half that was ri-”
She cuts off my question by loudly incanting her strength and endurance blessings. Damn you, Ann, I know for a fact you can cast silently.

“Those blessings work for only a few minutes, so please finish this quickly and without putting yourself at an unnecessary risk.”
“Unnecessary risk? You act like I’m reckless.”
“You are.”
“So that’s the half you were right about.”
I continue to banter, but Ann’s somewhat impatient demeanour tells me ‘just get on with it,’ so I turn to face the deer who’ve been holding their position this whole time.

I bolt towards them, my enhanced leg strength making it easy to maintain a high speed. As I enter their range, they begin casting their unique earth magic, changing the ground beneath me. At first they open a pitfall, but I leap it with ease and land firmly on the other side. They then try the opposite strategy, raising the ground beneath me to throw me off balance. This is slightly more effective, and I stumble a little, but the larger of the two deer mistakenly assumes I’m now an easy target, bounding towards me at speed.

Checkmate.

I steady myself and dodge the great hooves aimed for my face, carrying my forward momentum and passing the deer on its left side. I stop myself on the spot and jump, my enhanced strength increasing my jump height dramatically, and land myself on its back.

The deer goes frantic and tries bucking me off, but I plant one of my hands on either side of its body and channel my mana. It yelps in pain, and after a few seconds it starts visibly losing energy, before collapsing dead on the road, a shrivelled corpse.

Lifeforce drain. Its use on intelligent enemies is frowned upon, but I’m gonna get much more use out of that life force than a violent oversized farm animal.

Smack

My hilarious internal monologue is rudely interrupted by the reminder that I was fighting two deer, not just the one. The smaller of the two, enraged at its partner’s death, had sprinted behind me and rammed me with its horns, sending me rolling along the dirt road. Under other circumstances, that’d sting like a bitch, but Ann’s buffs are busted. I barely feel a thing.

Standing up, I face my second foe. It sets up to do another charge, but I’m ready for it. As it runs towards me, I ready my hands, plant my feet, and grab its mighty antlers before they can do any serious damage. It pushes with all its might, but with my strength buffed I can just about match it.

The antlers are too magic resistant for me to drain its lifeforce through, so once it slows to a halt I let go and very quickly wrap my arms around its neck. It flails its legs to get me away, but my magic is too strong, and it collapses as its partner, its lifeforce now mine.

“Must you be so impulsive at every occasion?”

I turn around to see Ann, horses in tow, running towards me. As she reaches me, she brushes the dirt off my clothes and looks at me with a mixture of relief, worry and irritation.

“Relax, I knew your magic would never let me down.”
“Even so, your actions were rash and dangerous. I wish not to see you hurt, and I request only that you take more care.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’ll be careful. I just wanted to show off a little for you, y’know?”
“Ah-” 

Ann’s weakness to flirting is something I figured out a while ago. She’s incredibly cute when flustered and speechless.

“C’mon, still an hour ‘til sundown, let’s get back on the road.”
“Y-Yes, let’s.”
Ann gets atop her horse, failing completely at hiding the red in her cheeks.