The Road Home (1)
It was the day after Ethan's swordsmanship department evaluation duel had come to an end.
The three of us, Isabel included, boarded a carriage and set off on the long journey toward the Blackwood territory.
Since Harold was currently serving as a temporary professor at the Academy, I'd assumed he would be returning home with us — but to my surprise, word came back that even a temporary professor had duties left to see to, and he would be staying at the Academy a few more days.
And so the decision was made that, for now at least, the three of us would return to the Blackwood estate ahead of him.
There was a real chance that if we delayed the schedule any further, we'd barely have a few days at the Blackwood territory before we had to turn right around and head back to the Academy. Better, then, that those of us with no remaining obligations make our way home first.
The problem was that this happened to be the season when Academy students were all heading home for their holidays one by one, which made finding a coachman who could drive a four-person carriage quite the uphill battle.
In the end, we never did manage to hire one, and on the day of departure we had no choice but to set out from Luminor Academy toward the Blackwood territory without a coachman.
And if there's no coachman, then who drives the carriage, you ask?
Well, obviously that would be me. What other option was there?
“Will you be all right, Lilith?”
“Are you worried about me, Young Master Ethan?”
“Of course I'm worried. Driving a carriage is dangerous.”
“I shall drive so that not a single wound touches your precious body, Young Master, so please do put your worries to rest.”
“It's not me I'm worried about, it's you….”
Well, this was Ethan's first time riding in a carriage I was driving, so a little anxiety was only natural — but delaying the schedule any further than this would have been inefficient.
Besides, I had learned how to drive a carriage from Dietmeier for precisely this kind of emergency.
In the game, if you put Lilith on the Demon King Subjugation Squad, most of the carriage driving was handled by Lilith and the protagonist taking turns — which meant there was not a chance in ten thousand that the body I'd transmigrated into had no talent for it.
It's not as though driving a carriage would be impossible just because this was Lilith's body rather than my original one — but if I'd been reborn as Lilith, then at the very least, something like handling a carriage ought to come easily.
“Lilith~ I don't think everything's going to fit in the luggage compartment. Can I load some of it onto the inside seats?”
“Sure. I'll be up in the driver's box the whole time anyway, so it doesn't matter at all if you fill up my seat with luggage.”
“…….”
We chatted like that through the preparations, getting an early-morning start toward the Blackwood territory — and the moment I climbed up into the driver's box,
Ethan, out of nowhere, began settling himself into the seat right beside me.
“Hup.”
“…Young Master Ethan?”
“What is it, Lilith?”
“The passenger cabin is empty. There's no need to sit in an uncomfortable spot — please ride inside.”
“…Sorry, Lilith. I just feel like getting some fresh air right now.”
“Getting to the Blackwood territory will take nearly a full day and night of driving. Sitting in the driver's box is hardly a pleasant experience.”
“It's fine, so go ahead and get moving. Isabel, don't wait for us — ride inside.”
“Understood. As per your orders, Young Master Ethan, I'll board the cabin alone.”
“…Isabel?”
Ethan, wedging himself into the seat beside the driver's box when a perfectly good seat was available, and Isabel, boarding the cabin without so much as a raised eyebrow at his eccentricity.
Their shameless behavior was so blatant I half wondered if I was the one reacting strangely — and with no other choice, I set the carriage in motion.
Thus the carriage, loaded down with three people and their luggage, began its journey toward the Blackwood territory to the northeast.
About a day and a half had passed since we'd set out from the Isle of Knowledge, driving the carriage toward the Blackwood territory.
Despite our fairly early morning start, the road had somehow grown dim and dusky around us.
Judging that pushing further on through this darkness would be a bit of a struggle, I gingerly offered a suggestion to Ethan.
“Young Master Ethan.”
“Yes, Lilith?”
“…Forgive me for saying so, but I believe we'll need to camp for the night around here.”
“Yeah, I was thinking we'd have to soon enough myself.”
With Ethan's approval granted — and as it happened, a suitably flat stretch of ground perfect for camping came into view — I brought the horses to a stop.
Climbing down from the driver's box, my body stiff from sitting there so long, I stretched with a long groan.
“Uuuuugh~!!”
“Tired from all that driving, huh? Isabel and I will handle the camping preparations, so you take it easy for a bit, Lilith.”
“…Yes, sir.”
In the game, the carriage seemed to move so much faster, but now that it was reality, the passage of time really hit differently.
It was a moment that made me appreciate, all over again, the skill of the Blackwood family's coachmen. I'd already made the round trip between the Blackwood estate and the Isle of Knowledge a few times now — how on earth had they managed to cover this distance in a single day, every time?
Still, we were roughly sixty to seventy percent of the way here, so if we set out tomorrow morning, we'd arrive at the Blackwood estate without trouble around midday.
“Shall we set up the tents first, Young Master?”
“Yes. I'll tie down this side of the tent, so you take the other end, drag it over to that tree, and fasten it there.”
“Yes, understood.”
Watching Isabel — who had at some point climbed down from the cabin to spread out the spare tent — and Ethan, I felt an odd pang of guilt.
I walked over to where he was tying the tent to the tree and quietly offered my apology.
“I'm sorry, Young Master Ethan.”
“Lilith? I told you to rest.”
“If I had driven just a little faster, we could have reached the territory by today. Instead, I've forced you to prepare an overnight camp, and I truly don't know what to say.”
“What are you talking about, Lilith? If it weren't for you, we probably wouldn't even have left the Academy until the day after tomorrow.”
“Still, this is a distance the other coachmen of Blackwood can cover in a single day and night….”
“You can't compare yourself to the estate's coachmen, who've spent over a decade doing nothing but drive carriages. Besides, you only learned to drive in the first place in case there was no coachman available. This much is more than enough.”
“…….”
“Young Master~! Come help me spread out this tent over here~!”
“Coming! …You must be exhausted, Lilith. Go rest inside the carriage for now.”
I watched Ethan work with Isabel to pitch the second tent for a little while longer, then, as he'd instructed, climbed into the carriage to take a short rest.
It was two hours later that the smell of stew woke me from my sleep.
“Hahh, mmph… hahh….”
“Take it slow, Lilith. The stew isn't going anywhere.”
“…Yes, Young Master Ethan.”
“Are you feeling rested, Lilith? You're not one of those grizzled old coachmen, so don't push yourself too hard.”
“…Mm. I slept soundly, so no need to worry about me.”
I genuinely did feel well-rested. My last clear memory was sitting down in the carriage seat for a quick nap — yet when I came to, I was sprawled across the seat, drooling in my sleep.
Apparently nearly nine hours of driving had stacked up quite a debt of fatigue.
And unlike simply being ferried along inside a carriage, actually holding the reins from the driver's box meant the exhaustion naturally multiplied several times over.
The headwind hitting me head-on, the strain on my eyes, the driver's box jolting more than the passenger cabin ever did, and the mental focus demanded by keeping tabs on two horses' speed and fatigue — that combination was surely what had worn my body down.
Even so, a single bowl of Isabel's chicken-and-vegetable stew, along with some baked bread, was enough to shake off the worst of the tiredness.
I was truly grateful, in moments like these, for Isabel's knack for conjuring a meal this good out of nothing but odds and ends scavenged from our plain luggage.
“It's a blessing to have you around at times like this, Isabel. I have no talent whatsoever for cooking.”
“You're the son of House Blackwood, Young Master. It's not that you lack talent — it's simply to be expected!”
“And I couldn't exactly ask an exhausted Lilith to cook after all that driving. Though I suppose Lilith's cooking is less cooking and more… ah.”
“…And what, exactly, might be wrong with my cooking, Young Master Ethan?”
“…Ah, no. Nothing at all, Lilith.”
Why stop mid-sentence? If you're going to say it, say the whole thing.
Having trailed off in a suspiciously pointed way, Ethan then focused on his meal with deliberate intensity, as if warding off any follow-up questions.
I too, needing to recover my strength, let it go without pressing further and turned my attention to the food in front of me.
Come morning, I'd have to drive for another four or five hours the moment I woke up, all the way to the Blackwood territory — and for that, replenishing my stamina was non-negotiable.
“Pile up the dishes in one spot and I'll take care of all of them in one go with Clean later.”
“Yes! Please do, Lilith.”
“After the meal, we'll set up some security measures around camp and take turns sleeping. Can either of you stand watch?”
“Ah, no…. I've never done it before….”
“I can, Young Master Ethan. In fact, I have actual experience.”
“…Experience, you say?”
…Crap. This mouth of mine, again.
“…I'm referring to the watch duties against monsters I experienced in my hometown village as a child. Slimes would frequently wash down as far as the village during the rainy season, you see.”
“Ah, I see. That's what you meant.”
“Goodness. And here I was thinking I'd missed some essential part of my maid training, since Lilith was the only one with experience….”
Thankfully, both of them were gullible enough to accept the explanation without digging any deeper.
I'd been staying on my toes lately to avoid slipping up, but I'd gotten a bit tired today, and my guard had loosened just a touch.
“Since I just rested first, I'll take the first watch.”
“I'll take the middle shift, and Isabel can take the dawn shift along with preparing breakfast. How does that sound?”
“Yes, Young Master!”
“We only need to keep a general watch tonight, just in case, so I doubt anything will happen. It's not as though bandits would suddenly appear in a wide-open place like this.”
…Ah.
That. That has the distinct smell of a flag.