??? Side
The bodyguard duty over Eliaria that Ryoma had taken on continued until
Sebas called her back to the inn. Now, they were back at the inn's lobby and
confirming their booking.
"Ow-ow-ow..."
"Are you okay, My Lady?"
"Yes, my feet are just a little tired. Also, from the carriage... Were you all right
with it, Ryoma?"
"It wasn't a problem."
The fatigue of the journey and a little pain down his backside from the rocking
carriage was nothing to Ryoma. When Eliaria realized those were his true
feelings, her shoulders slumped a little from comparing herself with the sameaged Ryoma. One of the maids noticed that and immediately called out to her.
"That's normal for a first journey, My Lady."
"Araune."
"You will grow used to it as you ride in carriages more. Master Ryoma seemed
fine with it, but was this your first experience riding a carriage?"
"This was... the first."
"Oh, really? You seemed unaffected, so I assumed you had ridden one
before."
"I haven't... but I've run alongside them, and pulled them before."
He had ran parallel to man-powered rickshaws as part of his daily training
during his school days, and outran them several times. Eventually he ended up
scouted by the rickshaw owner, and out of nostalgia for his rickshaw-pulling
job, those were the words that fell out of his mouth. However, Eliaria and
Araune mistook the words as Ryoma being forced to pull the carriages in place
of horses. The conversation came to a halt at the sudden misunderstanding, the
air growing heavy.
...What? Did I say something weird...?
Speaking too much about his past had a high chance of creating holes in his
story. That was why Ryoma was meant to make others think he had a past that
was hard to intrusively question, but his utterance this time had been
accidental, so Ryoma himself wasn't aware that his words had caused the
sudden pained look on Araune and Eliaria's face.
He tried to bring up a new topic in his confusion.
"Umm... have you never... gone out before, My Lady? You didn't... seem
familiar with the carriage... so I'm curious."
"Oh, no, I have gone out before, but until now, whenever we had business in
other towns I would ride the familiars of my mother or grandfather. I would ride
carriages in the towns, but only for short durations."
"I see."
But there was no way a man who had been terrible at socializing for over 40
years would suddenly possess the conversational ability to break out of the
situation so easily, and the conversation trailed off into silence.
The one who eventually broke the silence was Reinhart, who returned from
discussing tomorrow's plans with the escorts.
"Good work today, everyone. Elia, we won't be camping tonight, so get some
proper rest."
"Yes, Father."
"As for Ryoma, I wasn't able to get a room like ours for you. I'm sorry, but
you'll be staying in one of the servant rooms for the inn guests."
"That will be enough."
"It's a big room, but Sebas is going through the procedures to put you in the
same room as Zeph and the others. I'm sure you'll feel more at ease with
familiar faces around."
"I am very grateful."
After Ryoma gave his thanks, he went with Sebas while Eliaria went with her
parents to their respective rooms.
■ ■ ■
In the ducal house's room.
The four people of the House of Jamil were relaxing in the room, when
Reinhart suddenly asked Eliaria a question.
"Elia, what were you talking to Ryoma about in the lobby earlier? The air was
kind of tense."
Eliaria flinched at those words.
"Th-The truth is, I touched upon Ryoma's past a little..."
"Really?"
"Yes. Ryoma seemed fine in the carriage, so I thought he was used to riding
them... but... today was his first time riding in a carriage. He said he hadn't
ridden them before, but he used to run alongside or pull them himself..."
"I see... but he didn't seem too bothered about it himself. He was acting
normally after that too. So you don't need to worry too much about it either,
Elia."
"Just be at ease, dear. You dragged him everywhere before we came to the
inn, no? Keep being that way around him."
Eliaria blushed when that was pointed out.
"That was... L-Looking back on it now, I'm embarrassed... I was too excited."
"I agree, it was a little improper."
"E-Eep..."
"Hoho, being energetic is a good thing. Elia is still a child, so it's a point of
charm. However, you mustn't grow careless. Acting like that is just asking for
thugs to target you, you realize? You must take care of yourself."
"Yes..."
"Now, go take a bath and sleep for today, we'll be on the move tomorrow
too. And camping again, got it?"
"I understand. Have a good night, Mother, Father, Grandfather."
Eliaria said, leaving the room to take a bath. Once she was out of sight, the
adults changed the topic.
"Phew... so, what do you think of Ryoma?"
"I told Elia not to worry about it, but honestly there's lots to worry about."
"But he seems like a good child. Anyway, if he was planning something up his
sleeve, I believe he would have acted more like a normal child to avoid
suspicion."
"I have no objections to that. However, just what kind of life has he gone
through to turn out like that? He said he took care of bandits with poison
slimes, but that wasn't all of his abilities. He has a considerable amount of
strength himself, casually protecting Elia while being dragged around in circles."
"While the only ones who attempted anything were amateurs who didn't
notice us, it was a wonderful show of skills. It made our job much easier."
"That's right."
Reinbach looked at his right hand, where a small snake was peeking out of his
sleeve. The snake slithered along his palm and poked its head out between his
index and middle fingers, which Reinbach petted with his thumb comfortingly.
While it would seem cute to some people, it was a B-rank monster called the
assassin snake. Its combat ability wasn't that high, but its compact size and
swift movement, combined with its high wariness, made it difficult to find and
defeat. Reinbach used this wariness to keep an eye on the thugs that
approached his granddaughter. Even if Ryoma hadn't done anything, Eliaria
wouldn't have been exposed to any real danger.
"If he's that skilled at that age, then he must be..."
"There's no need to be concerned over that right now. As long as one's alive,
there's nothing wrong with being strong. We just have to watch over him."
"That's true. However, his reaction to the town hasn't been favorable, as
expected."
"Yeah. I won't say he has to go as far as Elia, but a child should normally be a
little more excited."
"He didn't even blink at the size of the town or the number of people, it was
like he was looking at a pebble on the road."
Reinbach's opinion wasn't wrong in a sense. However, his interpretation was
greatly different to Ryoma's. While Ryoma had been looking at the crowds like
he was looking at pebbles, that was because he had lived in a place as
populated as Tokyo, spending his days within such crowds. Since he had seen
far bigger crowds on a daily basis, he was wholly unsurprised by the crowds of
this town, and was indifferent to the sights on offer. That was why he had
looked at everything flatly, but for these three who were unaware of his
situation, it looked as though his eyes were devoid of life.
"It doesn't feel right to see youth with their whole future ahead of them with
that sort of look in their eyes..."
On that day, more misunderstandings grew about Ryoma while he wasn't
present.
■ ■ ■
Meanwhile, in the room allocated to the servants.
Sebas brought Ryoma to the room where he would be staying the night.
"Excuse me."
"Pardon the intrusion."
They entered the room with their greetings to see Jill, Zeph, Camil, and
Hughes inside already. It was a wide but simple room, with six beds and small
tables lined next to each other.
"Yo, you're here!"
"Welcome."
"It's only for one night, but let's get along."
"The bed in the corner is free."
"Thank you, I will be in your care."
After exchanging greetings, the five other occupants in the room started
chatting by asking Ryoma questions.
"Come to think of it, what do you normally do?"
"Huh?"
"We live in town, so we can go out eating and drinking at night, but you were
in the forest, right?"
"Oh... Normally, I research slimes... and practice magic. Also, I work out."
"...Is that all?"
"Yes."
"Doesn't it get boring?"
"Magic and slime research... is fun."
"If you find research fun, you might have the disposition to be a researcher."
"That would definitely be impossible for me."
"Come to think of it, Master Ryoma occasionally uses some advanced
vocabulary and polite language. Did you study anywhere before?"
"I learned from my grandmother. She said having knowledge and manners...
was important to get by."
"Master Ryoma's grandmother sounds like a wonderful person."
"She was a person who could do everything, other than fighting with a
weapon."
"Oh? Then what kind of person was your grandfather?"
"Opposite of my grandmother... He could only make weapons and fight. But
he was very good at handling weapons. The weapons he made... were also top
class. I was no match against his fighting... nor his blacksmithing."
"Huh, you're a blacksmith too?"
"I helped... so I know the basics. But I didn't learn properly... and haven't
touched on it in over three years. I can only smith dull rejects."
"You certainly wouldn't be able to get any proper tools or materials in that
forest."
"Now that you're out of the forest, you can just buy the things you need.
More importantly, though, is there anything you want to do? If it's before
dinner, you could even go for a walk."
That was when Ryoma said, "Then, can I ask where... is the church?"
"Church? Sorry, but the church is closed at this hour."
"The church in this town shuts its gates before it gets dark, so it closes early.
By the way, there are two churches in this town — which one do you worship,
Creationism or Divinity?"
"Creationism."
"In that case, the church is unfortunately closed for today. If it were the
Church of Divinity, then they would open the gates for a considerable
donation..."
"Really?"
"While the scale of Divinity is large, there are many corrupt priests who would
do anything, depending on the donation."
"Even among the worshipers, there are many that believe in the gods but
don't trust the priests. They say that those with their eyes on money head
towards Divinity, which leaves Creationism with the devout priests instead."
"They worship the same gods, and there isn't much difference in the
doctrines. Most people decide on their church based on the size or the
personalities of the believers."
"I didn't know that... thank you very much."
"It was nothing. But you must be pretty devout yourself, naming the church
as the first place you want to go."
"Really?"
"...I am also a follower of Creationism, but I only visit the church once a
month, if at all. I barely worship while traveling."
"Did you go to church often before you lived in the forest?"
"Ever since birth... I have never... gone. I just prayed... to the stone statue at
home. I also had a stone statue made from earth magic in my forest home."
"Then how about we buy some stone materials for you to make a statue? This
is a high-class inn, so they should have the materials for carving statues of the
gods."
Sebas said, so Ryoma bought three large blocks from the inn. However, the
stone materials sold there were of rather high quality, so the three blocks cost
one small gold coin, a surprisingly high cost. Despite that, Ryoma bought it and
returned to the room to use his earth magic.
This time, the elaborate details on the completed statues had Camil making a
fuss, while Sebas praised his work as good enough to make a living on. The
details on the stone statues were simply due to the fact that Ryoma had
actually met the gods in person, so he had a firm image of them in his mind.
Thanks to his magic control skill, he had been able to control his earth magic
precisely. And finally, thanks to his hobby of making figurines in his previous
life, he was used to creating items like this.
Starting with Hughes, the detailed reasons didn't matter. He enjoyed the
peaceful time, smiling at having the statue before him being praised. He
completed the three statues in that soft atmosphere, and by the time he
finished praying it was time for dinner.
Ryoma enjoyed another peaceful and fun time having his meal, then went to
bed early in preparation for the new day.