Chapter 162 Skyrunner
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Lord, I’ve come to serve you.”
The words were calm, almost formal, but they hit like a thrown dagger.
A Skyrunner. An actual Skyrunner had finally come to serve him. The report had sounded so dignified when it arrived, so prestigious, that Ayumu had almost puffed up reading it.
But now that she was standing right here in his office, wings folded neatly behind her, Yoluminette’s voice cut the air like a whip.
”…What an ominous sight…!!”
Ayumu followed her stare.
Yeah. Okay. He got it.
The girl’s wings—sleek, arching from her back—were black. Not deep midnight blue, not dusky gray. Black. The shade of ravens, pitch-dark and glossy as wet ink.
And judging by Yoluminette’s pale face, that color was apparently the next best thing to a death omen around here.
The moment Ninim and Cartier laid eyes on her, they froze, then barked in perfect sync. “Rejected!” “Don’t come any closer, pleaseꐦ!” Their hands jerked up into awkward shapes like they were slicing invisible sigils in the air, muttering Goddess Aria’s name under their breath as if to scrub away some creeping filth.
It was… wow. Harsh.
Honestly, seeing her flinch back under their glares kind of hit him. He’d been treated like dirt enough times by Cartier and Sasami that he couldn’t just toss someone out the door like that.
So he waved everyone down and decided to at least hear her out.
Her name was Alma.
Apparently, she had come all the way here because she’d heard the new Lord of Keldan was a former rumin [T/N: 流民, wandering commoner with no homeland] who had somehow clawed his way up into the upper nobility—and, more importantly to her, that he was black-haired.
She thought… maybe a Lord with black hair might not care about black wings.
Honestly, he could respect that.
Her manners were polished enough, her tone even kind.
And compared to Cartier and Sasami, who acted like mocking him was their divine duty, she seemed downright decent.
And really… this whole “black wings bring bad news” thing? It had to be superstition. Some bias that had calcified into tradition.
If he was going to hire someone anyway, he might as well choose someone who didn’t make him want to throw himself out a window.
”…Alright. I’ll hire her.”
The words slipped out before he’d even fully thought them through, but he didn’t take them back.
Of course Yoluminette exploded immediately. “You absolutely chose her for her looks, didn’t you?!”
”Once you hire her, it’ll disgrace the nobility if you try to fire her later!” Ninim added sharply.
Ayumu just waved them off. “Come on. As if the color of her wings could change the future. That’s ridiculous.”
He crossed his arms. “And for the record, I am not hiring her because she’s a young woman. Don’t say it like that.”
A true gentleman would never judge someone by appearance.
Never.
…Okay, maybe sixty percent. Tops.
Alma burst into tears and thanked him like he’d saved her entire family line.
——A few days later.
”I told you this would happenꐦ!”
Ayumu winced as Ninim’s shrill voice rattled through the hall.
Yeah. So. Funny story.
Right after he hired Alma, a string of weird little disasters hit.
Nobody died or anything, but still.
First, Arliese—one of the knight cadets sent from Nelrearia—joined a big raid with Velma, the captain of the Keldan city guard. She tried to use her signature fire magic to corner the criminal they were chasing and, um… accidentally burned part of a residential block.
Then Yoluminette’s beloved white stallion went berserk while she was practicing a mounted charge, slammed into a wall, and left a massive crack in the newly built lord’s mansion.
Ayumu just stood in the wreckage, staring into the void. “Fu…shigi da naa…” he muttered weakly. “So mysterious…”
”Don’t you play dumb with meꐦ!” Ninim barked, jabbing a finger at him so hard it trembled. “This is clearly because Your Excellency hired that one!”
”…Come on. It’s obviously just human error. There’s no way wing color actually curses anything… r-right…?”
His voice trailed off as his eyes drifted toward the window, where a shadow passed—a soft flick of Alma’s black feathers in the sunlight.
…Maybe old superstitions weren’t so easy to laugh off after all.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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