Setting Out on the Journey Once More
"It's a pleasure to meet you. You're a reincarnator as well, same as us… is that the right word?"
"Uh… yes… nice to… meet you?"
"At the very least, I hope you can rest easy while you're here."
"Thank… you…"
Ever since arriving at the Evergarden family estate, Louis had found himself face-to-face with the Countess herself — Freyja Evergarden.
Silver-white hair, a gentle smile, a generous b— well, anyway. With her kind and lovely features, Freyja welcomed Louis with the utmost warmth.
Louis, however, felt nothing but awkward and thoroughly uncomfortable.
"So, uh… this might be a little rude, but can I ask you something?"
"Of course. Please, speak freely."
After holding it in for as long as he possibly could, Louis finally decided he simply could not take it anymore and asked about the thing that had been bothering him from the start.
"Those two. Why are they like that?"
"................."
"................"
In the far corner of the drawing room, a brother and sister knelt with their arms thrust high overhead, faces steeped in gloom — and Louis could not stop staring.
"Ah, it seems you've grown quite close to my children. Even though a sudden turn of events forced us to live so far from where we once called home, I do think it's wonderful that they're gradually building relationships they can rely on."
"No, that's not the issue — why are they doing that?! They were waiting outside, then suddenly barged into the room and have been staring this way in that position ever since. Honestly, it's incredibly uncomfortable!"
"Oh my, you needn't concern yourself. I merely gave them a light scolding…"
"How am I supposed to not concern myself when they look like that?! They've been muttering something this whole time and it's giving me goosebumps!"
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sor—"
"I am an octopus, an octopus that dreams, in my dreams I can do anyth—"
After parting ways in front of the Evergarden estate, the siblings had reappeared looking like something had gone terribly wrong with them. The light of reason had fled their eyes; they sat crammed into the corner, muttering darkly to themselves like a pair of lunatics.
The whole scene looked like something out of a horror film. Louis's skin crawled. He finally shot up from his seat and shouted in protest.
"Eugh?! Look at them! They're halfway gone already! You say something too!"
Spooked by the hair-raising spectacle, Louis even turned on Tene, who was sitting right beside him — but.
"Ah… well… that is…"
"Tene?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"You've had a hard time stuck between my children. Why don't you rest well today?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Or is there something else you'd like to discuss?"
"No, ma'am. Nothing at all. As always, I'm deeply grateful."
Before she knew it, Freyja's gaze had shifted onto her. Tene answered every question with perfect diligence, her body stiff as a board.
I-if I'm not careful, I'll end up just like big bro and big sis a minute ago… eugh?!
Even a dragon — the strongest being in this world — could not bring herself to offer an opinion after witnessing that scene.
It had been a while since she'd last visited the estate, and partly to pay her respects, partly out of pure curiosity about what fate awaited the two of them, Tene had slipped over to the drawing room where Rosaria and Felix had gone. She eased the door open a crack and peered inside.
And she saw.
What she saw was so horrific, so spine-chilling, so utterly beyond the power of words that she could not bring herself to speak of it.
"........."
Seeing even Tene reduced to that state, Louis finally gave up arguing. All the strength left his body, and he slumped bonelessly back onto the sofa.
"Right, then. You mentioned heading north, did you?"
"Yes, well… it's the original hometown of this body's former owner, and the only ones who can refine dragon scales are the dwarves."
"Indeed. I've heard the dwarven race is exceptionally skilled at crafting."
"The north, though… the north."
The north at a time like this… the timing lines up almost unnervingly well.
Quite apart from how brazen it was of the two siblings to casually announce a trip north after causing a massive incident at the Academy, the timing itself was awkward.
Brazenness aside — if dragon scales really are that exceptional a material, it would make our children that much safer.
Recalling how even modern fiction treated the byproducts of dragons as extraordinary materials, Freyja thought this opportunity might well make her children stronger and more secure.
But right now, the monsters up north are in their breeding season, which means Viscount Bjorn can get his hands on young ones — and he's already plotting something. I've received several reports confirming it.
Once this season ends, he'll almost certainly come to our territory and start talking about monsters…
Unfortunately, Viscount Bjorn's subordinates had already taken up positions in the north to hunt monsters currently entering their breeding season.
That said, the north was no small provincial town. The places where Bjorn's men were stationed and the dwarven nation that was Rosaria, Felix, Tene, and Louis's destination were a considerable distance apart. The odds of them crossing paths were slim.
And yet… I can't shake this unease.
Freyja felt a cold prickle climb her spine — the sense that if she let them go like this, something was bound to go wrong.
Between the Academy incident and the way major disasters seemed to erupt the moment her children slipped out from under her control, Freyja could not help but feel anxious.
If I send them off as things stand, I have a bad feeling my son and daughter will get swept up in some enormous incident. It doesn't sit right.
Freyja was someone who trusted data and precedent far more than vague superstitions like "gut feelings." But a gut feeling was, in the end, the instinctive recognition of patterns built from a lifetime of likes and dislikes — and ignoring it entirely felt equally wrong.
"…You two? That's enough. Come over here."
Clap—
"Private Kim! Hyun! Soo! I can't hear you?!"
"Urgh?!"
"Whoa… chills…"
Emerging from her brief reverie, Freyja clapped her hands once and called to the two figures still planted in the corner.
Watching the siblings leap to their feet and come running, Louis's face twisted in pure exhaustion.
"Now then. Is there a reason the two of you absolutely must go north?"
"Uh… well… so… that is…"
"Um… it's… you know… that thing…"
Seated across from Freyja, neither of them could quite meet her eyes. Faced with her question about why they needed to go north, they hemmed and hawed without a proper answer.
"I'm not going to scold you the way I did earlier, so just be honest with me."
"Or would you rather have more punishment?"
"Because the guns I use now will get better."
"I wanted to enjoy high-quality mana stones and the dwarven nation."
Freyja offered them a sweet little smile and asked if their punishment hadn't been enough. Their mouths flew open at once, and the truth came pouring out.
"Hmm, I see. So there's no absolute reason you have to go?"
"Well… I guess not."
"Yes…"
Is this not happening…?
What a shame… we finally got leave from the Academy and everything…
Hearing Freyja's reaction to their true motives, Rosaria and Felix shrank into themselves, dejected, certain it was a no — but.
"All right. Go ahead."
"Well, I suppose we have no choi— wait, what?!"
"For real?"
To their surprise, Freyja gave them permission to go north without a fight.
"However, there is a condition. Once you set out, you will contact me through a crystal ball at a set time every single day."
"And don't claim you packed it and then leave it behind like last time?"
"…So you found out about that."
"Of course I did. All right!"
There was a condition attached, but compared to what the two of them had done wrong, it was remarkably generous. The siblings nodded readily.
"Well then, shall we have a meal before we continue? I already spoke with Gordon, so the food should be ready by now."
"Louis… is that the correct name?"
"Please, just call me Louis."
"Oh my, I see. In that case, Louis, why don't you join us and enjoy a comfortable meal?"
"I'm hungry anyway. I'd be grateful to eat."
With that, Freyja brought the conversation to a close, and one by one they began to rise from their seats.
"Daughter? Would you stay behind a moment so we can talk?"
"Me?"
Just as she was sending the others off, Freyja called Felix back alone.
"It won't take long, so don't worry."
"Hmm… all right. What about?"
The gathering had ended, but Felix alone remained to speak with Freyja — carefully enough that the other three, already distracted by the prospect of a meal, would never notice.
"You got that? You absolutely have to bring my axe back too, all right?"
"I already said I would! How many times are you going to bring that up?!"
The next day.
After a full day of rest and a proper home-cooked meal for the first time in ages, Rosaria's party finished packing early in the morning and prepared to leave.
In the middle of it all, Darian's request that she have a spectacular axe made for him as well finally wore Rosaria's patience thin, and she snapped at him.
He trained so violently that even newly forged axes never lasted long before he smashed them to pieces. Naturally, he wanted a weapon of his own — which was why he had been needling Rosaria nonstop since the night before, reminding her not to forget.
"Oppa, you all packed? Did you say goodbye to Mom and Dad?"
"Hey, Oppa-ssi, we heading out now?"
"I'm done, so let's go already!"
"My axe!!! If you don't bring it back, you're dead, you hear me?!"
"I said I got it!!! Come on, hurry up!!"
"Whoa?!"
"H-hey, don't push!"
Driven by Darian's relentless fussing, the party scrambled out of the estate once more.
Felix and Louis, who had been waiting for Rosaria, were shoved forward by the force of her urgent shove and went clattering out through the front gate in a rush.
They planned to finish their business in the dwarven nation and then spend a few more days at home rather than returning straight to the Academy, so the preparations were nowhere near as elaborate as when they had first left for school.
Ordinarily, the other servants would have come out to see them off as well, but Rosaria had refused, not wanting to put anyone to extra trouble on their account. For a noble family, the departure was remarkably modest.
Still, Felix and Rosaria only smiled, saying it suited them just fine.
"Where's Tene?"
"She already went ahead into the forest yesterday. We just need to get there."
"Okay. Let's move! To the dwarven nation!"
It had been two months since their last visit home, and yet the party left in a frantic scramble all the same.
"Really. Our children are such a handful."
Watching them from the window of her study, Freyja wore a faint, bittersweet smile.
Neither of them had any idea how hard her heart had dropped when the incident broke out at the Academy.
They were still too young to understand that this was simply what it meant to be a parent.
"Come back safe."
And so, even for a brief parting, Freyja lightly folded her hands and wished for their safety, as she always did.
"My axe!!! You better bring it back!!!"
Darian's voice roared from the front gate loud enough to shake the estate, but she decided to ignore it.
Sometimes it really does feel like I'm raising three children instead of two, she thought.