The Great Sage Who Did not Remain in Legend - 27.1
— Rikka’s Dining Hall —
“How terrible! How terrible!”
The owner, Dadd, hurriedly returned to the shop.
“What’s all this commotion? What happened?”
“Mergin! Mergin!”
Dadd shouted loudly.
“What happened to Mergin?”
Hearing that, Rikka ran over.
“Mergin! Mergin!”
“Father, what happened to Mergin?”
Rikka, imagining that Mergin might have been killed, had a tearful face.
“He’s been taken away by the nobility.”
“What did you say?!”
The anger of the landlady, Millie, surged immediately.
“We have to go help him!”
Rikka tried to run outside.
“Wait!”
“Ugh!”
Rikka, who was about to rush out, was grabbed by the scruff of her neck by the landlady, making an unusual noise for a girl.
“Cough, cough. Wh-what are you doing? I thought I was going to die!”
“What do you think you can do by rushing out like that?”
“But Mergin…”
“Hmm? I’ll ask again—what is Mergin to you?”
“Well, it’s not like he’s anything special, but…”
“Then don’t interfere. Dadd, did Mergin really get taken away by the nobility?”
“Uh, no, he wasn’t exactly taken away, he more or less got into the carriage himself…”
“What?”
A slightly calmer Dadd explained to the landlady what he had seen.
“He got into the carriage voluntarily, wearing what looked like expensive court magician’s clothes, right? It doesn’t seem like he was taken away against his will.”
“Y-yes, but…”
“Dadd, Mergin chose to get into the noble’s carriage on his own. This is not something we should interfere with.”
“But Mother…”
“Listen, Rikka. Mergin has his own life. You’re not part of it. It’s time to face reality.”
Rikka, who knew this deep down but didn’t want to admit it, was confronted with a painful reality by her mother.
“Mergin… Mergin…”
“Certainly, Mergin cared for you. But it wasn’t because he saw you as a woman. He cared for you like a younger sister or a relative’s child.”
“I-I understand that…”
“Rikka, Mergin has moved on. Don’t be a hindrance.”
“Are you saying I’m a hindrance?”
“If you had interacted with him normally until now, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But you’ve started to see him as a man as you’ve grown up. And then, seeing other women around him made you angry. Mergin is not yours. He has his own life. It’s not one that’s meant to be stifled in a place like this.”