"It's nooooooot fairrrrrrr!"
On the morning of the day we were to leave the Royal Capital, Aura's voice echoed through the manor. Only Grandpa and I were leaving; I had told Jeanne and Aura they would be managing the manor back in the capital. This was the result of that announcement first thing in the morning. Well, over half of Aura's extreme reluctance probably came from the fact that the person in charge (acting head) was Aina.
"There's no helping it... Hmph!"
"Ugh!"
Aina's temple twitched. She dropped the Aura clinging to the stair railing with a chokehold, silencing her quietly.
"Lord Tenma, I believe His Majesty will be arriving here shortly. It seems he thought the entrance to the Royal Capital would be too conspicuous, and that here would attract less attention."
Aina had bound Aura's limbs and gagged her, then revived her. For a while after regaining consciousness, Aura looked bewildered about what had happened. But the moment she saw Aina's face, she seemed to remember what occurred, and desperately tried to flee the spot—which was, of course, impossible. She hadn't gone a meter before Aina caught her.
"Aura, this is for your own good. I made a promise to His Majesty, Maria-sama, and Lord Tenma that while he was away from the capital, I would train you into a first-class... well, a first-class maid is impossible, but a competent one. If I fail, in the worst-case scenario, you and I will be executed for treason. There's only one way to avoid that: you must become a competent maid!"
Aina grabbed the face of the half-confused Aura with both hands and started saying ridiculous things at close range. Under normal circumstances, even Aura would have realized it was a lie, but given her confusion and Aina's stellar acting, she seemed to believe she was in a dire situation.
"Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh..."
"I see you understand. I'm so happy."
Aina showed a gentle smile she rarely wore towards the half-crying, red-faced Aura, patting her head. The brainwashing seemed complete.
"Oh? It seems His Majesty and the others have arrived."
As Aina murmured, a moment later, the sound of the gate opening was heard, and a carriage pulled up in front of the entrance. The moment it stopped, the entrance door opened, and Luna was the first to burst inside.
"Big bro! Where's Solomon? There he is! Solomooooon!"
"Mew!"
Upon entering, Luna immediately located Solomon and charged at him. However, Solomon seemed startled by Luna, and just before being caught, he flew out the window and escaped.
"Solomon, wait, ugh!"
As Luna chased after Solomon and tried to jump out the window, she was hoisted into the air by Aina.
"Luna, jumping out the window really isn't very ladylike, you know."
Aina had grabbed her by the back rather than the collar, so she wasn't hanged, but the impact was still considerable, and Luna was coughing in distress. Then, like a kitten carried by its mother, Luna was borne off toward Maria.
"Aina, thank you for your help. Isabella, I'll leave her to you."
"Yes, Mother."
Luna getting scolded as usual. Knowing I wouldn't see this sight for a while, I felt a swell of sentimentality... no, that's not right, actually. Thinking about it calmly, I didn't.
"Well,
that
aside... Tenma, catch!"
The King shot a sidelong glance at Luna (and Isabella, who was lecturing her), then drew a small box from inside his coat and handed it to me. I checked the contents right there: inside was a palm-sized Orichalcum medallion engraved with the Ōtori family crest. Naturally, it was the one without Namiitarō on it.
"On the back, my name and the royal crest are engraved alongside a passage vouching for the Ōtori family. Show that, and short of something truly extraordinary, the nobles won't dare lay a finger on you, Tenma."
The Ōtori family itself held no political power, but thanks to this inscription, they'd been granted a decent measure of authority from the royal house. In other words, he'd obtained a miniature Kōmon Lord's seal... or as some would call it, a fox borrowing the tiger's might...
"Thank you very much. I promise to make good use of it, and I swear I will never misuse it—
by my father and mother in heaven—
I swear."
The King and the others apparently didn't follow any particular god, so I decided to swear by the father and mother that both the King and I held dear.
Hearing my words, the King and Grandpa both broke into broad smiles, and Maria nodded with eyes glistening.
After speaking with the King, I had a talk with Maria, then went to say my farewells to Caesar-sama and the others. Caesar-sama and Isabella thanked me for looking after the children (especially Luna), and Zain thanked me once again for treating Mizaria. Incidentally, Mizaria hadn't come along—she apparently wanted to, but since carriage rides disagreed with her and she'd quickly take a turn for the worse, Maria had decided she would stay behind. Lyle and Ernest told me they'd take me to a good restaurant next time I came to the Royal Capital, but Maria overheard them, and
a good restaurant,
which she mistook for one of those "adult establishments," and grilled them about it rather persistently. Incidentally, what Lyle and the others meant by
a good restaurant
apparently referred to a place that served good food and drinks.
After that, I also talked with Tida and Luna, but Luna seemed only half-present. So when I called Solomon over, she thanked me and ran straight to him.
"I'm sorry, Tenma..."
Tida looked truly apologetic over her sister's behavior. The King and the others, who had been chatting with Grandpa, also sighed when they saw how Luna was acting, and Maria-sama and Isabella-sama were discussing something with grave expressions. They were probably hammering out Luna's educational policy going forward. Meanwhile, Luna was about to slip away from Solomon once again, but—
the secret weapon
she managed to get her hands on him after all... with a bonus to boot.
Once all the conversations had wound down, we moved outside and chatted with the members of the Royal Guard who were on standby. Din tried to wrench my joints the instant we shook hands, Jean said with a completely straight face, "Next time you come by, I'll invite you over to my place. But don't lay a finger on my daughter—she's six," Chris murmured something like "The problem is the age gap..." after our chat, and I couldn't keep a conversation going with Sigurd since we barely had anything in common. The only one I could hold a proper conversation with was Edgar, and that was the sorry state of things.
The King and the others stayed at the manor until the last possible moment, exchanged farewell greetings once more, and then headed back to the royal castle. After this, Grandpa and I are heading to the entrance of the Royal Capital, where we're supposed to rendezvous with Jin and the rest of Dawn Sword.
I checked my room for any forgotten belongings, then headed to the backyard to see how Juubei and the others were doing. Obviously, I couldn't take all three with me, so they'd joined the stay-behind group. Taking care of Juubei and the others would be handled by the people of Kukuri Village, with Aunt Martha at the center. I also asked Aina, Jeanne, and Aura for help, but since the three of them have other things to do, they'd only be providing supplementary support.
The three of them were grazing in the cow shed as usual, but Tama-chan barreled into me the moment she saw me. It wasn't because she disliked me or anything—this was just Tama-chan's way of showing affection... though she only ever did it to me...
After dodging her charges a few times as usual, Tama-chan pressed her head against me. I was petting her and had just finished checking the feed trough and water bucket when Grandpa called out to me—he was done preparing.
When I headed toward the voice, waiting there alongside Grandpa were Jeanne, Aura, and Aina, as well as Tida and Luna, who I thought had already left, plus Chris and Edgar.
I knew Jeanne and the others would be coming with Grandpa and me to the entrance of the Royal Capital, but Tida and the others had said they wouldn't be going that far.
When I asked Tida why she was seeing us off, she said Maria-sama had told her to right before they left. Chris and Edgar were apparently serving as their escort. It probably also served as a show of how well Tida and I got along, but I wish they'd given me a heads-up beforehand. Well, complaining wouldn't change anything, and it wasn't a big enough deal to fuss over, so I kept quiet.
For now, we all decided to ride in my carriage. It was more efficient to travel together in one carriage, and it would be easier to guard—the two who'd proposed it, though,
the two of them
each wore a satisfied expression. In contrast, the ones wearing puzzled looks were Shiromaru and Solomon. The two were currently locked in tight hugs and couldn't move an inch. Tida, who was usually the straight man, wore a resigned expression, and since Edgar was riding outside on horseback, there was no one to stop the two of them. As for me, I figured intervening would only make things messy, so I deliberately looked the other way.
When we arrived at the meeting spot, a small crowd had gathered. Most of them were people from Kukuri Village, along with the Royalist Faction led by Duke Sanga and Marquis Samons, and Baron Mustang and the Neutral Faction nobles I'd gotten to know during the coup d'état. They'd apparently come here because they'd heard the royal family was at the manor, so they'd moved to our side instead. They'd judged that trying to approach us while the royals were present would be impossible.
We got off the carriage and started talking with everyone, but almost immediately I felt sharp gazes from behind. Grandpa and the others had noticed them too, but everyone ignored them. Seeing our attitude, the owners of those gazes seemed to lose their patience—
"Hey, how about you help us out already?"
Someone spoke up. The voice belonged to Namitarou, who had once again taken up position atop the carriage roof—his body had dried out and stuck to it. In fact, he'd been stuck up there since before the royals arrived, so he'd been in that state for several hours by now.
"...Water Ball."
After having everyone step back, I fired three shots at Namitarou. Once he'd regained his moisture, he slid down from the roof under his own power. After stretching his body as if nothing had happened, he casually joined the circle of conversation.
As for Namitarou's future plans, he'd be traveling with us for a while before splitting off at a river along the way. He said he'd follow the river downstream to the sea and then go visit an acquaintance.
Jin and the others still hadn't shown up, so the farewells with everyone continued for a bit longer. Among the villagers, Aunt Martha and a few others said they wanted to come along, but Uncle Mark and the rest talked them out of it. They couldn't very well abandon their current lives to leave, and when Uncle said he'd just be in my way, everyone accepted that. Still, they made me promise to send a letter every few months with updates on where I was and how things were going.
As for the nobles—mainly Albert, Lion, and Cain—all three of them were dead set on visiting Seigen. Technically they were heirs, but none of them had really started working in earnest yet, so they apparently had a lot more free time than the others. Baron Mustang seemed to get along well with Grandpa, and after talking with me he spent quite a while chatting with him. With the other Neutral Faction nobles, though, he simply exchanged normal greetings and that was that. Thankfully, the Neutral Faction nobles here said they'd look after Jeanne and Aura back in the Royal Capital.
Duke Sanga and Marquis Samons were deep in conversation with Grandpa and the others. They kept glancing over this way from time to time, so they might have been scheming something.
We spent our time like that, but the Dawn Sword still hadn't shown their faces. Just as the agreed-upon time was about to pass, a single carriage finally arrived. It was the Dawn Sword... though for some reason there were two extra people...
"Sorry, seems we kept you waiting... Take it up with those two."
What Jin pointed to was Branca and Amour. Branca had a guilty look on her face and was restraining Amour, who had tried to leap off the carriage and tackle me. Amour dangled in the air, flailing all four limbs.
I asked Jin for an explanation. According to him, they'd been grabbed by Amour right before leaving the inn, and it had been that way ever since. Apparently Amour had been keeping an eye on Jin and the others, who seemed easier to persuade than me, and had checked out of the inn the day before to lie in wait. In her own words, it was a "successful surprise ambush."
I checked with Branca too, but she said they'd have to head back before too long, and that stopping by Seigen was actually in the right direction anyway, so it wasn't much of a problem. In fact, she said that if they'd taken the route home without stopping at Seigen, there was a high chance Amour would have quietly vanished at some point along the way—so that would have been the bigger issue. They planned to stay in Seigen for about ten days.
Everyone was getting pretty worked up, but it was almost time to depart. I'd only been in the Royal Capital for three months, but it might have been the most intense stretch of my life. Reuniting with the King and the others, the people of Kukuri Village, and Grandpa. Meeting the royal family, the heir trio of Albert and the others, and getting to know Branca and Amour. On top of all that, I'd also made connections with trustworthy Neutral Faction nobles.
Parting with these people was bittersweet, but it wasn't a farewell for life—we'd surely meet again someday.
"Alright, Tenma, let's head out."
At Jin's words, I climbed into my carriage and took hold of Tanikaze's reins. Grandpa sat down beside me and nodded, ready to go at any moment. Jin and the others were the same, having already loaded into their carriage and waiting for departure.
"Everyone! I'll come back again someday!"
With that as the signal, the carriage began to move, and distance slowly opened up between us and the crowd.
Every face I could see from the carriage was smiling, all of them waving at us. This was the second time I'd been sent off like this, but farewells were still lonely all the same. I mean, it wasn't like it was so far that I couldn't come back whenever I wanted—maybe it was because reuniting with the people of Kukuri Village had stirred up memories of my childhood.
As I let myself sink into those sentimental thoughts, I noticed a commotion starting up behind us. I turned around to see what was going on...
"No, you're not leaving me behiiiiind! I don't want my big sister to gooooo! Ugh..."
It seemed Aura's brainwashing had finally worn off. She was desperately trying to chase after the carriage, but within about ten meters, Aina and Jeanne caught her. And then, once again, she was subdued.
Noticing my gaze, Aina gave a small bow in my direction and carried Aura away, slung over her shoulder like a bundle. Jeanne, walking beside her, looked terribly embarrassed.
It was such a us-like farewell, or perhaps there was no better way to describe it... Whenever Aura was involved, things never quite ended properly... I hoped she would have grown a little by the next time we met.
Sadly, that impression became my last in the Royal Capital...