“Hmhmhmmm, hmhm, hmhmhmmm.”
“Soone’s in a good mood.”
“Of course I am. Look, the weather is great, after all.”
“Nn, well, I get that.”
Sohow, you did feel pretty great when the weather was as good as it was today. And it wasn’t too hot either. At least, not outside on the driver’s bench. The inside of the wagon was bound to be sweltering right now.
“And to top it all off, I don’t even have to drive the wagon!”
“... Sohow, I’m sorry for always making you do that, Lily.”
“It’s fine, no worries.”
Lily laughed, dismissing it casually.
“It’s great that Karen is such a quick learner. Makes it a lot easier on .”
“Nn.”
Though the person in question was too focused on driving that she didn’t even have ti to respond. Or maybe she hadn’t even listened to us in the first place. Who knows?
Either way, she was concentrating on the two beasts in front of her, occasionally pulling on the reins and correcting the course. At first, Lily had to point out every small thing but after barely an hour, there wasn’t much of a need for her to do it anymore. Which allowed her to lean back and enjoy the ride.
“How long does it usually take to learn?”
“If you just want to get moving, not that long. Depends a little on the waroxen, though. So of them can be really stubborn.”
“Huh.”
Well, that’s how it was sotis when you worked with animals like them.
“Experience usually teaches the rest after that.”
“Nn, so Sis just have to keep driving.”
“That’s correct. Did you hear that, Karen? We’re counting on you.”
“... Lily, please don’t disturb
now!”
“You can do it!”
A big grin ca over Lily as she cheered Karen on. The latter clearly not amused by this distraction.
“Karen, go! Karen, go!”
“Shut up, Lily, or I’ll tell Rina all about the dumb stuff you said before!”
“Huh? Wait, which stuff? Which stuff do you an?”
“...”
“Karen?!”
Wow, she actually managed to make Karen mad. That was a rare sight for sure.
“Okay, I’m sorry, Karen. I won’t bother you again, so please don’t tell Rina.”
“... I’ll think about it.”
“Karen!”
“Lalala.”
And now it was Karen who was grinning. How the tables turned.
“I’m a little surprised Rina didn’t wake up yet from all the commotion,” I said, looking at the girl sleeping in Lily’s lap.
Considering how loud those two were, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep through that.
“Mh? Ahh, you’re right. Recently, she’s been sleeping like a rock.”
“Huh… Recently?”
“... She woke up pretty easily at first. Well… you know…”
“... Nn.”
Maybe it was a blessing that she could sleep so well now.
“Guess you did well then, Lily.”
“Huh? ?”
“Well, she’s sleeping in your lap, after all.”
“But, I an…”
Lily stared at Rina for several seconds, her expression one of uncertainty.
“Did I really do well?”
“Nn?”
“... Nothing. It’s fine.”
“...”
She shook her head, before gently patting Rina.
“I’ll just keep doing my best. If her sleeping better is a sign of progress, then I guess I really did at least sothing right.”
“... Nn, good luck, Lily.”
“Thanks.”
I was sure those two would be able to deal with anything that would co to them in the future.
“Mmm… Mna…”
“Oh?”
“Don’t tell
we woke her up now?”
Just then, the person we had talked about was stirring in Lily’s lap, moving a little, making a few questionable sounds. She nuzzled her head against Lily’s stomach, causing the latter’s ears to twitch a little. Before long, she settled back into Lily’s lap and continued to sleep peacefully.
“That surprised .”
“Ahaha…
too.”
“Nn, she is sleeping, right?”
“Pretty sure she is.”
“Nn…”
I stared at Rina but no matter how I looked at her, she was asleep. The only thing I noticed was that her face was a little red…
“... Hey, Lily.”
“Yes?”
“It’s really wonderful weather.”
“Huh? I an, it is?”
Lily tilted her head, confused.
“And the sun is shining as well.”
“Yes?”
“I hope we won’t get a sunburn.”
“Right…”
I stared right at Rina and Lily’s gaze followed mine. She looked at Rina for a few seconds…
“Oh.”
“Nn.”
Basking in the sun was nice and all but getting a sunburn was no fun.
“Do we have anything to give so shade?”
“... Doesn’t seem so.”
The driver’s bench was amazingly empty, safe for its four passengers and the things they carried on their person.
“... No choice. Yumi, is there sothing in your wagon that could be used for so shade?”
“Huh? Err… I don’t know… There are so of our clothes but…”
“That would already be more than enough. Mind taking over for a mont?”
“Nn?”
Before I could reply, Lily had gently lifted Rina from her lap, making her squirm a little in search of her pillow. Then, she stood up, sohow managed to keep Rina stable, while standing on the driver’s bench. The whole spectacle happened so fast I couldn’t even react properly when Lily addressed .
“Yumi, take my place.”
“Huh? Okay?”
I scooted over, switching places with Lily as she placed Rina in my lap before climbing over .
“Then, just a mont.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Lily grabbed the edge of the wagon’s roof, leaving the driver’s bench and dangling from the roof.
“Lily?! What are you doing?!”
“Just fetching so of your stuff. Oh, I probably should have asked if it’s okay for
to take so?”
“Nevermind that, that’s fine but—”
“Great, one mont then!”
I peeked behind the corner, watching with dread as Lily was climbing to the door with astonishing confidence. And she reached it, opened the door and disappeared inside.
“... I am not sure if I should be amazed or appalled.”
I was still in the middle of processing the scene. Just now, Lily had left Rina with
and climbed into the wagon. A moving wagon. Sure, they weren’t incredibly fast—this wasn’t a car from my old world—but it would be dangerous nonetheless if she fell off. Like, really dangerous.
“Rina, do
a favour and tell her to have so common sense.”
“Yumi, that’s rich coming from you.”
“Thank you, Sis. I thought you were busy there.”
But apparently not enough, since she could still jab at .
“You really think I can concentrate when I see Lily climbing all over us?”
“Point taken.”
That would have been amazing in a different way.
“Even if she were to fall off, she’d be able to handle it. Lily’s strong, after all.”
“Nn… I guess she would.”
Alas, that scene was just giving
goosebumps just from watching. Yes, thinking about it rationally, Lily was easily capable of feats like this.
“Yumi! Is it fine if I take this?”
I peeked behind the corner again, finding Lily with her upper body peeking out from the door. She was holding a long piece of cloth. It was swaying around so it was hard to make out what it was.
What even is that? That’s not one of my shirts nor the one-piece dress.
If it wasn’t from , it was probably Karen’s.
“I think that belongs to Sis so I don’t know.”
“This is Karen’s?”
“I don’t know what you two are talking about but it’s fine if she wants to use it, if it’s mine,” said Karen.
Well, that made things easy.
“You heard that, Lily?”
“Sure did. Thanks, Karen! I’m coming back so make so space.”
I moved a little to the side, careful not to wake Rina, so that Lily could climb on the bench. A few seconds later, Lily reappeared, holding the mysterious piece of cloth under her arm.
“There we go. Yumi, I’ll take over again.”
“Ah, sure. Err, but…”
“Let . Can you hold this?”
“Nn.”
I took the cloth from Lily and let her handle Rina. She cautiously lifted the sleeping girl, let
move away and then replaced , taking back her spot as Rina’s pillow. For soone who hadn’t known earlier what to even do in that situation, she sure didn’t want to let go her spot.
“Okay, so what is this even?”
“Don’t know, I found them in so corner.”
She spread out the piece of cloth… It was around the length of my arm. Pink.
“Ah. I know what that is. But, huh?”
“Mh?”
This was… most definitely so of the cloth… or leather… that was made from my hair. But did we actually have so of this in the wagon?
“Guess there were so leftovers then? Nn…”
Not like it really mattered.
“So, can I use this?”
“I think so. But will that be enough? What can you even do with that?”
She wasn’t going to drape it over Rina’s face, was she? She was asleep, not dead.
“It’s fine. Watch.”
Lily spread out the cloth… leather piece and placed it on the sleeping Rina. Not on her face, of course.
What she did next, though, surprised .
“... Lily, why are you picking up your sword?”
“Well, I need sothing to secure it to?”
The massive two-handed sword, placed securely beneath the driver’s bench in case of ergencies, was now used as a pole. For a curtain. She literally just attached it to the sword with a small strap she took from the scabbard and then held it up high.
“There we go. Now Rina is safe.”
“Nn, she is… But are you going to hold the sword like that the whole ti?”
“It’s only until we take a break, so I’ll manage.”
That was definitely going to turn into a sore arm.
“It’s not that long anymore. After that, I’ll try to see if I can get sothing else from my wagon.”
“If you say so…”
Well, it was better than letting Rina get a sunburn. Still, it couldn’t be very comfortable.
“Nn, if we had a tarp we could put it over the driver’s bench for shade.”
“Over the bench? How do you an?”
“I an, securing it above us.”
“... Oh! Like you see in town sotis?”
“Err, I guess?”
I hadn’t seen that in Larfas nor in Auria but there had to be places where those existed.
“That’s actually a great idea. I’ll have to tell Papa about that.”
“Nn.”
It wouldn’t only help against the sun either. If it rained, that would make it more comfortable as well. You stayed dry unless the wind was too strong.
“But how do you usually deal with the sun? I would have thought you had sothing against the sun.”
“Well, I rarely ever see soone get a sunburn?”
“Huh? You don’t?”
“Yes, I don’t.”
They rarely ever got sunburns? Seriously? Was this… common here?
“I didn’t even realise it was a sunburn. I wondered if Rina had caught sothing at first.”
“I see.”
“So, I’m thankful you told .”
“Nn, no problem.”
She didn’t even realise, huh… So they really had to deal with that rarely. Was this because they were always outside anyway? Or… was this simply normal for everyone here? I knew that the people here were quite different from the people in my old world, but this was still a bit of a surprise.
“Oh well, at least Rina is protected now.”
“Mm…
But she’s still a little red.”
“It’ll go away after a while.”
Hopefully.
“If you say so.”
Lily patted Rina again, all the while holding the sword with the curtain in her other hand.
Just watching the two made
smile. It was nice to see how well they got along.
Still, I’m a little worried about Lily holding that sword all the ti now…
Alas, I didn’t disturb her either… So I decided to simply watch Lily as she cared for Rina…
Not too long after Lily made the sunscreen-slash-sword for Rina, it was already ti for our break. Just as Lily had said, it wouldn’t be that long until the break. However, at the ti I hadn’t known the reason yet.
“Lily, what is that?”
I pointed to the buildings in front of us. I could only see a small part past the other wagons in front of us but what I could see were several small one-storey buildings. My first thought was that we were passing a village but there were no fields here. Also, there were far too few buildings for a village only four or five or so.
“That’s the border checkpoint.”
“The border checkpoint? Then, this is the border to Aldreigh?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
We were already at the border… Incredible. It had been only a few hours or so at most. The sun was still up, too. Yet, we had gone from Auria to the border in that short span of ti.
“We’ll take a break here while Papa talks with the border guards.”
“Ohh… Is that going to take long?”
“Should take a while, I think?”
“Nn…”
No wonder we’d take a break here then. But still… That we arrived at the border already is just too astonishing for .
“That ans Auria really is close to the Aldreighan. But I didn’t think it was this close.”
“Surprised?”
“Nn, I am.”
How couldn’t I?”
“Don’t be too surprised about just this. Or you’ll have trouble keeping up when we arrive in lfin.”
“Oh? Is it sothing to be that surprised about?”
“If it is anything like the other Aldreighan cities, yes. Look forward to it.”
Well now, wasn’t she raising my expectations there.
“Lily, before you two keep going, what should I do now? Aren’t we going to stop?”
“Yes, we are.”
“Tell
what to do then!”
Lily giggled, seeing the slightly panicking Karen. Only now did I notice that the wagon in front of us was already slowing down.
“Don’t worry, Karen. You just have to pull it slightly like this. Right, that’s right. See, they’re slowing down.”
“Ohh… They’re really going slower.”
“Right? And even if you hadn’t done anything, they would have stopped on their own. They’re smart, after all. And nobody wants to walk into a wall, right.”
”Now that you ntion it…”
Karen scowled as she watched the waroxen slowing down. Maybe she was a little annoyed that she had completely missed that?
“Seems we’ll co to a stop anyti soon now. Ti to wake up Rina…”
Lily stared down at the sleeping girl in her lap, clearly reluctant to disturb that peaceful face. I couldn’t fault her for it, I’d feel bad too. I was only glad it wasn’t
who had to wake her up.
“Rina. Rina, wake up.”
“Mm…. Mmm…”
Lily gently shook her, calling out her na. After a few seconds, Rina’s eyes opened, groggily trying to take in the surroundings.
“Mmm… Pink… Lil’ Sis?”
“No, it’s not Yumi.”
“Mm… Lily’s voice? Lily… beca Lil’ Sis?”
“That’s wrong too. I’m still .”
“Mm? Then… Lil’ Sis was always Lily?”
“Do
a favour and wake up…”
Yes, at this point, one of us had to beco the other… Worst case, we’d have to beco one… and I’d firmly refuse that. Sorry.
“Mm…”
Maybe following Lily’s request, Rina sat up, looking around and rubbing her eyes.
“Mmm… Oh, it’s Lily. And there’s Lil’ Sis… Thank the Spirits, you’re not one.”
Rina smiled, but she was still a little wobbly. Seeing her like this, I had this sudden urge to ss with her a little.
“Yes, for now, we’re still separate, Rina. But if things keep going like this…”
“Ehh? Lil’ Sis… You’ll turn into Lily?”
“No, we’ll beco one person.”
“... Oh, that’s fine.”
“What?”
How the hell was that fine?
“I like Lily and I like Lil’ Sis so I’ll like you even if you are one. Mm, then you’ll be Lil’ Lily? Or just Lil’ Sis Lily? Oh, Yumily?”
Ah, the last one sounded a little cute.
“Rina, I don’t think that’s what Yumi was trying to say there.”
“She wasn’t?”
“No… Just forget about it. She’s talking nonsense anyway.”
“Okay…”
It was nonsense, but why did I feel like I just made a fool out of myself? Probably because I did…
“You shouldn’t do things like that, Yumi,” scolded Karen.
“Nn, I learnt my lesson.”
“Good. Also, I’d be quite angry if sothing like that would happen for real. So don’t.”
“I think I’d be mad about it, too, so I’ll make sure it won’t.”
How the hell would that even be possible… But that would be inappropriate of
to say now, right?
“Oh, we’ve stopped.”
“Nn? YAh, you’re right.”
We had, indeed, co to a stop, finally.
“Rina, are you awake now?”
“Mm… I was always awake.”
“I’ll take that as a no. Can you get down on your own?”
“... Carry .”
With a wry smile, Lily wordlessly lifted Rina into her arms and climbed down from the bench.
“... That looks nice.”
“Nn.”
“Maybe you will be able to carry
like that in the future, Yumi?”
“... I’ll try my best.”
But no high expectations, please. That wasn’t going to be easy…
“Well, let’s get down for now.”
“Nn.”
We climbed off the bench. Having solid ground under my feet was nice. The wagon wasn’t swaying terribly or anything but it was a little tiring. Especially on my behind. It was hard to complain though when next to
had been Lily, with Rina on her lap and holding up the curtain.
“Back on solid ground. But this was still a lot faster than I expected.”
“It was. I thought it would take at least until evening.”
“Nn.”
But, here we were.
We both moved a little off the road, taking a look at the checkpoint in front of us. Just as I had thought, it was only a few buildings. The road itself was barricaded by a few large logs, preventing us from going through. Several n and won dressed as guards were standing in front of it.
“Nn? Hey, Sis, are those demonkin over there?”
“Which ones?”
“The ones in the back.”
“Mh… I can’t quite see them well.”
I was pretty sure they were demonkin, though. They had horns, tails and one of them even had small wings. They all had different traits, though. None of them was the sa as the other.
I heard that demonkin are… full of variety, in a sense. But I thought that there was at least a bit of similarity… I an, Sis and Rina both have the sa traits.
They both had cute tails.
“Ah, there’s Mr Greyward.”
“You’re right… Huh? He’s waving over to us.”
“I think he wants us to co over, Yumi.”
That… That wasn’t going to an that our break was on-hold, right? Wonderful…
“... Do we have to?”
“Yes, we do. Lily, Mr Greyward wants us to co.”
“Papa is calling?! I’m coming!”
At least, we weren’t alone in losing our break. Rina and Lily would join us… How heartwarming.
The four of us walked past the other wagons, several of the rcenaries already relaxing, taking a walk or stretching their bodies. Only a few were doing the little bit of work they could do.
“Mr Greyward, you called for us?”
“I did. Mind accompanying ?”
He pointed towards the checkpoint.
“Nn, I don’t mind. Is there a reason?”
“Of course there is. It’s the first ti for you three in Aldreigh, right? So there are a few things we’ll have to get out of the way before you can get in.”
“Huh…”
Was this like the ti in Larfas, where they had to register us for that mana barrier so we could enter?
“You’ll see before long what I an. I’d rather get this over with sooner than later, so let’s go.”
With Greyward in the lead, we approached the checkpoint. Several guards ca out to et us, while the others stayed behind. But even then, I could see they were all on alert. Little surprise, if an ard group approached the checkpoint…
“Good day to you. Coming to pass through?” asked the guard in front of their group.
The tone in his voice was steady and practised as if he had said those very sa words hundreds of tis already.
“Good day to you, too. We want to pass through, that’s correct.”
“Then, do you have anything to identify yourself with? And please tell us your purpose for entering the kingdom.”
“Of course. I’m Johnson Greyward, a rcenary of the Blach Gua— Excuse , that’s not right anymore. We belong to the Lorian Dragon Knights. Please take this. We’re intending to visit lfin to look for supplies and workers.”
Greyward handed a small badge to the guard who took it. His eyes went wide in surprise upon seeing it.
“This is… I understand, Sir Greyward.”
He returned the badge to Greyward and straightened his back until he was as straight as a candle.
“I hope you will permit us to search your supply wagons. This is just a formality, so please don’t be alard.”
“Of course, that’s no problem. They’re the two wagons standing there.”
The guard turned around to his fellows and motioned sothing to them. Four of them saluted, split into pairs and headed to each wagon.
“Thank you very much, Sir Greyward. I assure you, it will not take long.”
“That’s fine. If I may ask, I heard the last ti I was in Aldreigh they would set up a registration tool at the border…”
“Ahh… They have indeed begun that but I fear our checkpoint has not yet been outfitted with such a tool. We are rather remote.”
The guard looked a little apologetic as he said that, glancing back behind him at the few buildings.
“Ahh, that’s unfortunate. Then we’ll need to register them in lfin.”
“Is this about the young ladies behind you?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Hmm…”
The guard looked over the four of us. However, his gaze rested on Kare and Rina for a while. Before soone could speak up if there was anything wrong, though, he returned his attention to Greyward.
“If I may, Sir Greyward, lfin is in a rather difficult situation right now.”
“A difficult situation?”
“Yes. If you have heard of the border refits, then you probably have also heard about the expansion projects. However, it has co to a halt in lfin due to an accident. The city is in a rather difficult state right now.”
“An accident?”
Greyward’s eyes widened in surprise at the news.
“A magical tool has gone berserk and laid waste to the developnt area as far as the news went. It was rather recent so none of us has seen it in person yet.”
“That’s terrible…”
“Fortunately, they evacuated the area before it blew up, so there were only few injuries. But the damage to the town is rather high. It might be difficult to find supplies or workers in this situation.”
“That’s true.”
Greyward closed his eyes, lost in thought.
“I understand. Thank you very much for the information. Still, we’ll at least take a look at lfin. At the very least, I want to get these girls’ registrations out of the way.”
“I wish you well in that endeavour, Sir Greyward.”
“Thank you.”
Right at that mont, the four guards he had sent out returned to us.
“All clear, Sir!”
“Nothing of note was found, Sir!”
“Well done. Return to your posts.”
“”Yessir!””
Not like there was much to see in them except for food.
“Very well. Sir Greyward, you’re free to pass. We’ll remove the barricade. Please proceed through as soon as possible.”
“Will do. Thank you for your assistance.”
“You’re welco.”
The guard bowed, then returned with the guards, likely to get the barricade out of the way.
“That went a lot smoother than I expected.”
“The power of connections, Yumi. Under normal circumstances, we would have been kept here for at least an hour, interrogated and the wagons searched from top to bottom.”
“That… would have been a problem.”
“Yes, it would. But thanks to this little thing, we won’t have to worry about it.”
He flashed the small badge at us, grinning broadly.
“Is that sothing important?”
“You could say it is. Identifies
as soone of status, at least. Did you notice how his deanour shifted after he saw the badge?”
“Nn, I did.”
It was hard not to. He went from his monotone, eternally repeated lines to calling him ‘Sir Greyward’ and even went so far as to provide us with so information.
“So, if you run into problems, co to . I can solve most issues. Or let Lily handle it.”
“Huh?”
Our eyes turned to Lily, who awkwardly laughed.
“Well, I have one of those as well.”
“... Seriously?”
“Yes…”
Soone of status… Now I was a little curious as to what exactly that ant. Did it just an that their identity was guaranteed? Or that soone powerful stood behind them? I was fairly certain they weren’t aristocracy or anything. That would have co up by now for sure…
“Right, Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“That old coot Korwen said you would have a way of contacting him in a hurry…”
“Contacting?”
How was I supposed to… Oh, the tentacle door? That, technically, was contacting him, yes.
“I… guess so?”
“Is it difficult to do?”
“Err, well… Not quite. But… Actually, I’ll have to take a look but with so luck, it should be easy?”
If the small door was still working, of course. No idea if the movent had caused it to close or anything. At least, it didn’t explode so far. But if it was still open, we could use it to push a letter through it. Or, if we could sohow get Korwen to the other side, just talk with him.
“... I don’t really get it but it seems there are still so issues to work out. If you have the chance to, try contacting him and report the situation with lfin to him. The stuff we just heard.”
“Nn, will do.”
That certainly sounded like sothing Korwen should hear, yes.
“Mr Greyward, what are we going to do if we can’t find supplies in lfin?”
“Then that’s it and we’ll go back. No point in wasting ti if half the town was turned into rubble. Might be just an over-exaggeration, so we’ll have to see how bad the situation is.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“But for now, let’s get a move on. Don’t want the border guards to get annoyed with us because we dilly-dallied all day long in front of the checkpoint. Once we’ve crossed, we can take a break, too.”
“Ohh.”
That was music to my ears.
“Seems like soone’s already all ready for that break.”
“Nn, I am.”
“Yumi, that wasn’t praise…”
“Ahahaha! It’s fine. The young ones should appreciate their breaks. While they can.”
Yes, I would appreciate all my breaks to their fullest. Definitely.
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