7

 I held the bumpy purple ball in my hand with trepidation. Ruby peeked her head out of the carriage, obviously expecting me to eat it, but there was a problem.

"Um, maybe you *should* give this to the prince or whatever, right?"

"How dare you object to my student's wishes!" Ruby said, jumping outside. "Naturally, of course *I* want to give it to him, but it's a gift from Emma."

"What?"

"You heard me. This was a prize for completing an exceedingly dangerous exam, and she was going to give it as a gift for the crown prince. Now, for some reason, she wants a stranger like you to have it?"

"..."

"Even I don't know what's going on in her head. Maybe she went crazy. Not surprising, as all talented magic users seem to have some screws loose somewhere."

"Okay, then I'll give it to the prince myself and tell Emma I ate it."

Ruby's eyes went wide. "Are you crazy? Maybe you really are a mage at heart."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know anything at all? Obviously a nobody like you can't just meet with the prince of a nation without some exceedingly outrageous circumstances."

"Right..."

*I don't even know why I didn't think of that. It should have been obvious.*

"So. Just eat it."

"Okay, yeah... here's the thing. I don't like mushrooms."

"are you kidding me."

"Yeaaaahhhh so that's why I don't want to eat this."

"It's a freaking lavender truffle for heaven's sake, just eat it, even if you have to push your gag reflex to the limit!!!!"

*Holy- The loli-looking elf has gone mad!*

Ruby furiously swiped the truffle thing from my hand and tried as hard as she could to stuff the thing in my face.

Eventually, I just gave up and let her put it in my mouth. I gulped it down as hastily as I could to avoid having to taste the damn thing.

"... That wasn't bad," I said.

"See? Even the biggest mushroom haters capitulate in the sheer greatness of the lavender variety!"

"I didn't say it was good, either. I didn't throw up, so that's a win in my book."

To be honest, I was trying my hardest to NOT taste it, so I'd held my breath the whole time.

"Ungrateful kids! You all..."

*Oh my god.*

I dashed back towards the carriage to avoid having to hear another word from Ruby's mouth. As I took a seat, I realized I'd forgotten to ask the very question I went outside to ask in the first place. Fortunately, there were two people in here that could help me with just the thing.

"Hey. Kid."

"Hmph. What do you want now?"

"Why are we stopped?"

"Hell if I know! I can't stand sharing a carriage with you. We better get home soon."

"Right..."

*I should've known he'd be useless.*

I shook Emma awake instead.

"Why are we stopped?" I asked.

"Hm? Oh!"

When she realized it was me and not Riche who'd woken her up, she sat up super straight.

"Most likely, they're feeding the wyrms. After what happened last night, they're a little spooked, so they probably used more energy than normal after that. Originally, we'd planned on not having to feed them, but unexpected things happen!"

"I see."

*I think she's still scared of me for some reason.*

Was there any use trying to placate her? It's not like I was her friend. We barely knew each other. If anything, perhaps this natural separation was for the best.

*Looks like there's just some time to kill... Might as well try to get some more sleep.*

For some reason, I always had a talent for falling asleep whenever I wanted.

"Wake me up when we get to wherever we're going."

I passed out before I could hear any response.