"Joji, she can undergo the same procedure, can't she?" Duchess Rosalind asked, her tone outwardly composed, almost clinical.
Then the composure softened, just a little.
"My girl works very hard, you know."
"I know," Joji said.
Something in his voice made Daisy lift her head at once.
"I know how hard she has pushed herself to reach the peak of Rank-3 as a mage," he went on. "I know she has mastery over earth, wind, and fire as well."
Daisy gasped. Even the duchess looked surprised, but not for Daisy's sake.
Daisy's breath caught because that was no small noticing. That was attention. Care.
The kind that watched quietly and kept count without making a grand display of itself.
Joji had been keeping track of her all this time, not with the hollow noise of a man pretending concern, but in silence, in memory, in action.
Her eyes stung. Then she ran to him.
Despite Joji being damp with sweat, she threw herself into his arms and began to cry.
