"Hmm... You invited them along, but at this rate, this is no different from a family vacation."
"Well, isn't that fine? They'll be living together after the wedding anyway, so think of it as a dress rehearsal."
With half a day left until we reached Gunjou City, we set up our final camp. Since Primera was with us on this trip, we had started preparing camp early so she could get used to our routine.
"Primera! The fire's too strong!"
"Ahh! It's burning!"
"It's still fine! Please calm down! Besides, we can just cut off the burnt parts!"
Primera was cooking under Jeanne's instruction, but she had miscalibrated the heat and nearly flipped the frying pan in a panic. For the record, Amour was only offering commentary from the sidelines, which wasn't helpful in the slightest.
"Lord Tenma, the tea is ready~"
Being on tea duty meant Aura had less to do, which put her in a good mood. If Aina were here, she'd be forced to do extra work whether she liked it or not, but during the trip there was none of that, so her stress levels were probably lower too.
"All right, Amour and Aura take the first watch, Grandpa and I take the middle, and Primera and Jeanne take the last stretch."
With Primera joining us, we could now rotate three pairs for the watch shifts without needing Slarin and the others — a quiet but welcome improvement. We could've done two and three for the first and second halves, but having more options was always appreciated. Besides, while Primera wasn't exactly a skilled cook, she had experience giving and receiving orders during camp watches from her time with the Knights, so she was reliable. This time I'd paired up with Grandpa, but if we wanted to balance the combat strength, it would be ideal for Grandpa and me to pair with Jeanne or Aura, while Primera and Amour teamed up. That said, with Slarin and the Golem around, we didn't really need to worry that much about it.
On this particular camp, probably because we were only half a day from Gunjou City, we made it through the night without a single issue.
"Lord Tenma, enemies! Shall I run them over?"
"By all means, go right ahead!"
"Aura, Amour, I'm dead serious — I will get angry. Raiden, pull over to the side and stop."
After finishing the entry procedures at the gates of Gunjou City and starting to move forward, Aura blurted out something alarming. Amour, reacting to her words, leaned out the window and confirmed three people ahead before giving his approval — but there was absolutely no way I could allow that, so I ordered Raiden to stop. Then I swapped Aura and Jeanne and gave them a lecture inside the carriage.
"I'm sure you meant it as your usual joke, but that kind of remark is unacceptable."
After me, Grandpa also scolded them sternly, so the two quieted down... But they'd never stop fighting entirely. Even if they didn't pick a fight, those three would start one on their own, so no matter what, the usual spectacle would unfold. The problem was that since Reni wasn't here, it would end up being two against three... but once Jeanne joined, that shouldn't be an issue. Primera probably wouldn't get involved anyway.
The two who'd been scolded by Grandpa were sitting obediently in seiza at the corner of the carriage. Both of them were supposedly terrible at sitting in seiza, but ever since they'd started getting scolded by Aina and Reni at our place, they'd been made to do it so often that they'd apparently gotten quite used to it.
"Tenma, the three from 'Wildcat Princess' are here!"
Jeanne was sitting in the driver's seat, and since Ride had stopped as ordered, it seemed the impatient three had made their way over to us.
"Yo! Long time no see, all three of you!"
Since Aura and Amour had already spoken up, I tried to play it off with a naturally bright tone—even though they probably didn't know anything. However,
"Are you... in a bad mood or something?"
"I don't think they actually heard Aura's and Amour's voices, though..."
Normally, they'd use their triplet synergy to come clamoring over noisily, but today they looked quite displeased. Just then,
"What's wrong? You're awfully quiet."
Primera, suspicious that the three who supposedly arrived were being so quiet, peeked her head out from beside me. The very next moment,
"TRAITORS!!!"
All three suddenly burst out with loud voices, causing a commotion. Well, I'd expected as much beforehand.
"Amour, we have to go protect the lady of the Ootori household!"
"Indeed! That's exactly right!"
Reacting to the clamor of the three, Aura and Amour—who had been sitting quietly until now—stood up, but
"You two, keep it down."
"Yes..."
Glared at by Primera, they resumed their seiza in the corner.
"I'm sure all three of you have plenty you want to say, but we have a packed schedule from here on out. Let's have a discussion tonight at the Manpukutei."
Primera had been quietly listening to the three at first, but since they each kept making a racket, she forcibly put a stop to the conversation and decided they'd talk about it later. Perhaps because Primera's intensity at that moment was different from usual, the three stopped their clamoring instantly, nodding with frightened expressions.
"We're heading straight to the Knight Corps headquarters from here, but would you like to ride along as far as the Guild?"
""We'll walk!""
The three, having been thoroughly intimidated by Primera's overwhelming presence, promptly climbed down from the carriage and headed off toward the Guild on foot.
"Then let's head for the Knight Corps headquarters. Jeanne, if you would."
"Y-yes! Lyden, please."
When Jeanne gave the order, Lyden began walking forward at a slow, steady pace — but Jeanne herself seemed to be quite tense from being suddenly put on the spot.
"To think she sent those three packing without giving them a single chance to argue..."
"The third one's got to be Primera, no question..."
Having seen Primera chase off Lillie and the others, Aura and Amour had apparently been thinking about making Primera the final member for tonight's showdown against the "Lynx Princess" at the Manpukutei —
"Amour, Aura... I'm not doing it."
"Y-yes..."
Rebuffed by Primera, the two settled down quietly, just as Lillie and the others had.
"Hmm... I don't have many ties with the Gunjou City Knight Corps, so I think I'll just wander around town. We can meet back at the Manpukutei tonight — shouldn't be any problem."
With that, the old man abruptly climbed out of the moving carriage. The fact that he chose this exact moment to leave meant he must have found Primera just as terrifying as the others.
"Great idea! I'll head out too!"
Spotting the old man's escape, Amour quickly fled the carriage as well.
"I... I can't do it..."
Next, Aura tried to make her getaway too, but she simply didn't have the nerve or the ability to jump from a carriage that was already in motion, so she resigned herself the moment she poked her head out the window.
"Tenma... were you really that scared of me?"
"No, well... everyone was just caught off guard, that's all."
"I see..."
Five people had fled one after another, so even Primera had finally realized she was the cause. And because I hadn't handled her sudden advance very well, Primera had ended up looking dejected. Seeing her like that made my heart ache, but the one who had taken even more damage was Aura, who had tried to flee but failed.
It may have looked like I had delivered the final blow, but in reality Primera had already been wounded before that point, so Aura — who had directly widened those wounds — was overcome with guilt.
"Huh? Ah, thank you, Slarin."
While I was trying to figure out how to cheer Primera up, Slarin took out tea and snacks she had stored in her Magic Bag and offered them to her. And the moment Primera sat down, Shiromaru immediately approached and let her pet him. Solomon did the same for good measure.
Slarin's actions were certainly intended to encourage her, but Shiromaru and Solomon were probably just after the snacks Slarin had brought out. Still, it seemed to help cheer Primera up. You could call it a successful animal therapy session by the Familiars. And Shiromaru and Solomon, having become the heroes of this therapeutic success, were cheerfully collecting their snack rewards.
"Primera, I can see the Knight Order headquarters."
Normally she would have reported to me as her master, but Jeanne had reported to Primera without a moment's hesitation. Well, once they got married, Primera would become someone equivalent to a master, and given what had just happened, it couldn't be helped.
"Come to think of it, was Commander Alan the only one attending the wedding from your side?"
"Yes. The others all have work, so they can't come to the Royal Capital. At first, Aida apparently planned to come as well, but since her children are still small, she ended up giving up on it."
So among the acquaintances in Gunjou City attending the wedding, it was Commander Alan on Primera's side, and on my side, Lily and her two companions, Serna, Henri, and Marcus. Mom and Dad couldn't close the Mankokutei, plus they had Soleil to look after, so they wouldn't be attending. Flute also had small children and wasn't coming, and apparently the Guild Master wasn't going either since Flute and the children weren't going. Apparently the Guild Master had gotten an earful from Flute over this, but a letter signed jointly by the Guild Master and Flute had been sent, explaining that since it was impossible for Flute — who was in the middle of raising young children — to run the Guild alone, they had decided not to attend.
"Then Primera and I will go pay our respects, but what about you, Jeanne?"
"Um, should we wait somewhere?"
"If we can use the carriage parking area, we could wait there. What would you like to do?"
"Hmm, let's see... The places we're stopping by today are here, the Guild, and the Mankokutei, so Jeanne and Aura, feel free to do whatever you want. You can wait around, or you can go shopping."
"In that case, maybe we should meet up at the Mankokutei. The Commander can get quite long-winded once he starts talking, and if Aida joins in, there's a high chance it'll take even longer..."
Grandpa and Amour had already fled and were off doing whatever they wanted, and it felt mean to make just the two of them wait, so I was about to let them go free when Primera suggested meeting up at the Mankokutei.
"Then I'd like to go shopping!"
At Primera's suggestion, Aura chose shopping without any hesitation. Since Aura chose shopping, Jeanne ended up going along with her, and after agreeing to meet at the Mankokutei by evening, I sent the two of them off. Gunjou City was relatively safe, so I didn't think much would happen to just the two of them, but—
The Ootori family.
Being connected to them, I was wary of them getting caught up in some incident, so I had Slarin and the others accompany them as guards. Solomon would definitely cause a commotion if he were seen outside, so he would need to remain on standby in the Dimension Bag, but Shiromaru alone would serve as more than enough deterrence against anyone with ill intentions.
"Tenma, you really shouldn't give them the option of making them wait in situations like that. Setting Aura aside, Jeanne's personality would have her choose to wait."
After seeing the two of them off, I was stowing Raiden and the carriage in the bag when Primera pointed this out to me. Sure enough, Aura would have chosen to do whatever she wanted regardless, but Jeanne would instead be considerate and choose to wait. After all, when Primera had made her suggestion, Jeanne had simply gone along with Aura's preference and chosen to go shopping.
"That's right. I need to be more mindful of that going forward. Still, that was quite observant of you, Primera."
"From my perspective, the real question is why you didn't notice, Tenma. Though in my case, I suppose I've often watched Jeanne from a third-party perspective."
With that, Primera strode toward the reception desk of the knights' headquarters, leading the way for me.
Jeanne's Side
"Jeanne, I bought us skewers! Shiromaru and Solomon get the big ones."
Aura had bought two large skewers and regular-sized
four
of them.
She offered the large ones to Shiromaru and Solomon (which vanished the instant they were handed over), and the rest ended up as one for Slarin, one for me, and two for Aura.
"Still, there sure are a lot of delicious stalls in Gunjou City."
"There are. There might even be more than in the Royal Capital."
In terms of sheer numbers, I'd say the Royal Capital has more, but proportionally, Gunjou City might have the higher hit rate. Since parting ways with Tenma, we'd already stopped by several stalls, and not a single one had been a letdown. Rather, they'd all been nothing but delicious.
"So, what should we do now? It's still too early to head to the Mankokutei... Maybe we could check out the guild?"
"Sounds good. We won't have time to take on any requests, but we could take a look. If we wait at the guild, Tenma and Primera might show up there too. Slarin and Shiromaru can also — what's wrong?"
Once we'd settled on where to go, I turned to call out to Slarin and Shiromaru, only to find the two of them staring fixedly in the same direction. Curious, I looked that way too, but couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary.
"Jeanne, let's get moving for now."
"Right. Slarin, Shiromaru, let's go."
I called out to the two of them once more, and this time they turned toward us, so we set off together.
"If I remember correctly, going straight down this road and turning right at the dead end should bring us to the guild... Hm? Isn't that Merlin and Amour?"
"Looks like it. They're lightly disguised, but I'm pretty sure it's them."
As we walked toward the guild, we spotted a pair up ahead browsing the wares at a street stall. The people around them didn't seem to notice that the hooded duo was Merlin and Amour, but thanks to those well-worn cloaks, Aura and I recognized them right away.
"Merlin-sa— Mmph!"
"Quiet! Calling that name will cause confusion!"
They had spotted us too, and as Aura drew closer and tried to call out their name, she received a slap from Amour. Technically, her mouth was simply clamped shut... but given Amour's strength and the force behind it, it amounted to the same thing.
"Now, Amour, that was a bit much."
Merlin reprimanded Amour for the stunt, and Aura was promptly released, but—
"Aura... your mouth is all red."
The slap from Amour had left the skin around Aura's mouth flushed and swollen.
"With a face like that, it wouldn't do to wander around too much. Shall we find somewhere to settle down?"
With that, Merlin set off in search of a shop, turning into a side street that didn't look particularly promising.
"By the way—who might you be, trailing along behind us like that?"
After walking a short distance, she suddenly spun around and directed the question at the person behind us.
"Suspicious character!"
"Hyah!"
At the end of Merlin's gaze stood someone whose face and body were hidden beneath a cloak, frozen in shock. Amour lunged at them, but... a voice that sounded somehow familiar came from the cloaked figure.
"Hm! This feeling... it's Renitan!"
The person pinned down by Amour was none other than Reni, someone we all knew well.
Jeanne's Side — End
Since I included 34 pages of newly written material for Volume 11, it ended up being shorter than planned.