(Yukito side)
Hah… dinner earlier really turned into a mess. I couldn't even enjoy the food in peace.
Luke and Loki-san kept drinking sake without stopping, and in the end, they both collapsed after drinking several dozen cups.
While they were still going, they were extremely energetic, and Luke repeatedly invited me to drink together with the two of them.
Of course, I refused. I wasn't in the mood to drink sake right now. Since there was food different from usual, I preferred not to drink.
Iris and Hime, well… the two of them kept arguing nonstop, to the point that I didn't even know what they were talking about.
Maybe what they were talking about earlier didn't even have anything to do with the current situation.
But even so, even while they were eating, they didn't stop arguing.
They finally stopped when Forn-san intervened and made the two of them fall silent.
Forn-san seemed to say a few things that finally made Hime and Iris stop arguing with each other.
After dinner, I had to carry Luke's body to the room that had been prepared for the four of us.
Luke and I would be in one room, while Hime and Yuu-chan would be in the other.
The rooms used by the four of us were still on the second floor, and I could say that the room was fairly spacious.
It might even be two or three times larger than the room at Sikiyomi-san's inn.
Since it wasn't only Luke who had fallen asleep from being drunk but also Loki-san, I initially planned to carry the two of them one by one, so I asked Forn-san about it.
"Um, Forn-san, if you don't mind, I can carry the two of them," I said.
"No need to trouble yourself. I can carry my husband myself," Forn-san replied when I tried to help.
If Forn-san said that, I was sure what she would do next was—
"Alright, I'll accompany him to the room. Iris, don't stay up too late, okay?" Forn-san said.
She said that while wrapping her arms around Loki-san's body and lifting him up without showing any difficulty at all.
Even though, when I looked closely, Loki-san's body was clearly heavier than Forn-san's… but since they were husband and wife, I thought it was only natural that Forn-san could do that.
"Iris, I'll take Luke as well. Hime, what about you?" I asked.
Hime and Yuu-chan were still in the dining room together with Iris, while I was already standing and carrying Luke.
"I have something to take care of here for a bit. Yukito-san, you can go on ahead," Hime replied.
If they said so, then maybe the three of them wanted to discuss something serious.
Well, even though I thought Iris and Hime might end up arguing like before, I felt that this time they would be fine.
I closed the door after stepping outside and entered the room that Forn-san had told us about earlier.
"Hah… you really like sake that much? You've gotten heavier after getting drunk like this," I muttered after placing his body on the bed.
Ah right, I need to check my sword.
I took it out of its scabbard and began to look at it carefully.
Back then, Mats-san had warned me that I needed to regularly check this sword.
Just wiping it with a cloth, to keep it clean and to ensure that the quality of the Mithril remained the same and didn't deteriorate.
He said that if I didn't clean it for more than three days, the quality of the Mithril would decrease, and its color could fade.
I didn't know why this Mithril sword had to be maintained so carefully. Maybe it was because it was a metal of very high quality?
But if the quality of a metal was high, wouldn't its maintenance usually be less troublesome? Whatever the case, I had to take care of this sword.
Besides, if it's just wiping it every night, it wouldn't cause me any trouble or anything like that.
This is also the only weapon I own and can use. Even though my sword skills are still far from being very good or very strong, I still need to hone them.
If I ever meet a soldier or a knight who is very skilled with a sword, I want to train with them.
My attention was suddenly drawn to the window in this room, because the room became slightly brighter than before.
And I knew that the light was coming from the direction of the window, likely due to the moonlight.
Oh, right. The moonlight was entering through the window, making me curious to see it more closely.
I got up from the floor and opened the window to look at the night sky.
The full moon showed its perfectly round shape, its light so bright that it felt like hope in the night for everyone.
The light shining in the middle of the dark night, accompanied by hundreds—perhaps millions—of stars surrounding it, turned a night that should have been dark and blind into something bright and radiant, like the beauty of the universe itself.
As I gazed at the moon, the leaves of the giant tree glowed, as if they were using that light as nourishment.
The tree suddenly looked far more beautiful than before, and the light from its leaves blended with the colors of the moon and the stars.
This… was far too incredible and breathtaking. This wasn't a sight I could see forever.
I rested both of my hands on the wooden window frame and stared at the sky with an empty mind, focusing only on the beauty of the night.
"Hah… the wind feels cool as well. This must be coming from the leaves…" I murmured.
I could say that this was the best nighttime scenery I had ever seen in this world.
Its appearance, its sounds, its atmosphere—everything was perfect tonight.
Knock, knock.
Hm? Someone had just knocked on the door to our room. I thought it might be Hime or Yuu-chan.
Because of that, I left the window and went toward the door, opening it in response to the earlier knock.
"Do you need something—" I was slightly surprised when I saw who was standing in front of my room.
The person standing before my eyes was not what I had expected a moment ago.
"Yuusha, do you have some time?"
I think I knew what answer I should give her.
——
But still, I never expected Iris to be the one standing in front of my room, then asking me to follow her again.
I had no reason to refuse her invitation, so I behaved like a good kid and followed her to a place she wanted to go.
We went up to the third floor, and Iris entered one of the rooms closest to the stairs.
This room was located right next to the room her family had used when welcoming my party several hours earlier.
"Iris, where are we actually going?" I asked while waiting for Iris to open the door to the room.
"Ahem, you'll see later~" Iris replied as she inserted a key into the door handle.
I didn't understand why this room had to be locked or why Iris wanted me to follow her inside.
The door finally opened, t-this—