Liam's prediction had been completely wrong.
"The place where I was born and raised before coming to the ducal estate is Lyupf City. This is my first time going anywhere outside of Lyupf City and the area around the estate."
Lyupf City lay to the south of the estate, in the exact opposite direction from Harvy City, where they were now headed.
"Is that truly so?"
"Yes. I have no reason to lie about it. It is not exactly a secret. A little inquiry would reveal the truth soon enough."
Liam's mind grew complicated. Elliot looked at him quietly and smiled.
Confused, are you?
At that moment, Endairon came rushing back from wherever it had been exploring and addressed Elliot in a flurry of excitement.
Elliot, Elliot!
Yes?
There is a huge boar over there!
Is there.
Yes! It has been so long since I have seen one that I find it terribly fascinating!
By a spirit's measure of time, "so long" was a relative thing.
How long, specifically?
Mmm. I think I saw one about five hundred years ago?
That was rather a long time to be excited over a mere boar. But as it happened, the timing was convenient.
"Shall we have some meat tonight?"
"Meat, young master?"
Emergency rations were sufficient in practical terms, but they were emergency rations compact by necessity, and neither particularly satisfying in taste nor in filling the stomach. Fresh meat, if it could be had, would be far more welcome.
Though without proper spices, the emergency rations might actually be preferable.
But whatever else he was, Elliot was the youngest son of a ducal household, and provisioning not only himself but the knights and soldiers alike was nothing he had given a second thought. He had made a point of packing spices in generous quantity.
"Yes, I find myself wanting some. What do you say to a hunt? We are in a forest, after all."
Meat, out of nowhere.
Truthfully, entering the forest was not something Liam was particularly eager to do. If Elliot had turned out to be the sheltered young lord everyone had assumed, Liam would have found some excuse to decline. But things were not so simple anymore.
"...Yes, very well. Lef!"
Liam called over the soldier who had come from a hunting background.
"Hunt something suitable nearby. Can I count on you?"
"Of course!"
"It is not fully dark yet, but the forest at night is dangerous, so move in pairs. Who else would you suggest?"
"Sergio also has a hunting background."
At that point, Elliot quietly inserted himself.
"Would it be all right if I came along?"
"You, young master?"
"Yes. I do not think I will be in the way."
"Well, that is..."
Lef opened his mouth to say something, then glanced at Liam and let it close again. Liam gave him a small nod.
"Very well. I will come along as well."
Was it simply his imagination? Or was there genuinely something unusual about Elliot? Liam had decided he wanted to find out.
They had not been moving long when Elliot said:
"This way."
"But young master, that direction..."
Lef, with his hunter's background, began to object, but Liam cut him off.
"Wait. We follow the young master's lead."
"But the direction he is pointing has a low probability of anything being there. There are, however, traces of rabbits off to the side."
Elliot said nothing, simply looked at Liam with a quiet smile. The expression asked what he intended to do about it.
"...We follow the young master's lead regardless."
Lef looked dissatisfied but said nothing more.
"I will take the lead."
But before long, every one of them except Elliot found their eyes going wide.
A boar?!
Not far away at all.
There was a boar. The direction Elliot had chosen had seemed entirely arbitrary, yet even Lef, an experienced hunter, had not detected any trace of the boar's presence there.
Toward that boar, Elliot walked with complete composure. Liam lurched forward in alarm.
"Young master!"
However well-conditioned Elliot might be, a careless approach to a boar was an easy way to get hurt. It was nothing compared to a monster, but it was a fierce animal all the same.
Grrrr.
The boar growled and readied itself to charge.
"It is fine."
Elliot summoned Ridil and threw it lightly with his left hand.
Endairon.
On it!
Ridil passed cleanly through the boar's brow.
When Elliot returned to the camp, the welcome was warm. Lef and Sergio were carrying the boar between them, which drew immediate attention. The soldier responsible for cooking came over and nudged Lef on the shoulder.
"Who found it? Sergio, judging by the look on your face?"
"Young master Elliot found it."
"Hm?"
"And young master Elliot brought it down."
The cook laughed and shook his head.
"Come on."
"It is the truth."
"It is."
When Lef answered seriously and Sergio backed him up without hesitation, the cook realized it was not a joke.
"The young master who looked like he had never suffered a day in his life?"
"One shot, at that. See this mark on the head? Single dagger."
Lef tapped the spot with a finger.
"How? Setting aside throwing a dagger accurately well, he would have learned aura technique as a noble, I suppose."
"Whatever the explanation, he is clearly not what any of us had him pegged as."
From start to finish, there had been none of the mistakes one might expect from a first-timer. No posturing, no orders that would have left the soldiers feeling slighted.
"That much was clear from the beginning, was it not? I never in my life expected him to share his own spices with the rest of us. What was it he said earlier? That being treated differently when it comes to food is what stings most."
"I think we had him wrong. He is no ordinary young master, that much is certain."
Lef nodded slowly, turning something over in his mind.
Even so, how did he find the boar? Purely a coincidence feels like too simple an answer.
The knights, Liam included, were thinking along similar lines to the soldiers. But there was one critical difference in what captured their attention. Where the soldiers focused on the boar, Liam's attention was fixed on Elliot's skill with the dagger. A hunter's perspective and a knight's perspective were simply not the same.
"When did you learn to throw a dagger like that, young master?"
"I practiced in my spare time, as a hobby."
Calling it a hobby seemed rather an understatement for that level of proficiency. The force to kill a boar in one stroke was something that could be explained by aura training.
But if that had been directed at me.
A chill ran through Liam's body. He was not certain he could have stopped it if he had not been fully prepared.
"In any case, did you know the boar would be there?"
"Intuition."
"Intuition?"
"Yes. Fortunately it paid off. It would have been rather embarrassing if there had been nothing there. But let us eat first. Everyone is tired and hungry."
There was nothing to take issue with in Elliot's answer.
And yet something is there.
If Elliot had not been above him in standing.
Liam grumbled internally. Pressing further seemed unlikely to produce a straight answer.
After that, a quiet meal followed.
This is good.
Crackle and pop.
The sound of a campfire burning.
"So you and Jane actually broke up?"
"We did not break up. It was just a small argument."
Peaceful conversation all around.
This brings back memories.
And good food to go with it.
There had been a time like this before. After losing in the contest for succession, he had become a wandering mercenary, surviving by the barest margin, having shed everything else. He had traveled the world with nothing to weigh him down, until the war began. The emptiness of those days had been real, but the peace of mind had also been real.
"Incidentally, who made this boar dish? It is genuinely delicious."
What had captured Elliot's attention most was the boar soup. It looked rough and unassuming, but the taste was something else entirely. Expensive spices had been used, but producing a flavor like this was not simply a matter of ingredients.
"There is a cavalryman who has cooking as a special skill. His ability in the kitchen matches his ability in the saddle."
"Could you bring him over?"
"Is something the matter, young master?"
"He made something this good for me, so I wanted to remember his face. Actually, I will go to him myself."
The meal was nearly finished, and the soldiers were beginning to move toward cleaning up.
"Which one of you is the cook?"
When Elliot approached without warning, Lef answered with some surprise.
"This fellow here, young master."
"My name is Silos! Is there something wrong with the food, young master?"
Elliot smiled to put them at ease.
"Nothing is wrong at all. I came because it was too good. I look forward to eating well going forward."
"It is an honor!"
"Where did you learn to cook? This is no ordinary skill."
"From my mother!"
"Is that so?"
"Yes, sir!"
His mother.