The Road Home (2)
Honestly, when it came to security measures for camping out on the open road, there wasn't much to it.
You just drove short stakes around the campsite, ankle-height at most, and strung thin cords over them that were hard to see.
Then you tied little security bells or anything else that made a decent noise at intervals along the cord, and that was that.
With even this much in place, careless bands of bandits would walk right into it on their own. Low-intelligence monsters went without saying.
Of course, if an assassin came gunning for our lives in earnest, such precautions would naturally be meaningless—but surely no one had the gall to send an assassin after Ethan.
"There's no forest or mountains around here, and no villages or territories nearby either. Bandits probably won't show up."
"I think so as well, but I still believe we should set up proper precautions."
"Right. Obviously we'll do it anyway. There's always a chance something might happen."
Just as Ethan said, there probably wouldn't be any bandits—at worst a few low-grade monsters might pop up—but if you didn't do these things properly, you'd pay for it later.
Besides, according to the 'Security Measures Statistics' someone had posted on the Rua Gallery, there was meaningful data showing that the risk and encounter rates differed between camping with precautions and camping without. That statistically speaking, setting up measures was safer went without saying.
In other words, it was a hassle, but simply putting these precautions in place reduced the odds of pointless danger, so there was nothing to lose by doing it.
'Back in the game, I usually just skipped it because it was tedious.'
For one thing, driving in every single stake and tying on cords and bells was borderline grunt work, and by the mid-game story, you'd be strong enough that the precautions were basically meaningless anyway.
Whether it was monsters or bandits, one or two battles finished far faster, in terms of play time, than planting precaution stakes.
And since clearing out bandits was actually a pretty decent farming event, I'd often deliberately camped without precautions. In particular, hunting the named bandit 'The Elf Hunter,' who spawned every time you camped with Silena, was efficient farming.
Of course, now that world had become reality, I had no intention of pulling crazy stunts that put lives on the line. Besides, today's campsite included Isabel, a non-combatant.
If I'd failed to set up proper precautions and Isabel lost her life to bandits or monsters, I don't think I could ever forgive myself.
Naturally, the same went for Ethan. ...Well, he was so strong I hardly worried about him getting ambushed.
And so, after driving the stakes into the ground one by one and encircling the campsite in a long oval, the moment I reached into my breast pocket to draw a knife to cut the fine twine for the security rig—
a blade with a slightly thicker feel than the slim silver knife I usually gripped slid into my hand.
Hold on. Don't tell me this is—
"Oh."
"What is it, Lilith?"
"...Nothing, Young Master. It's nothing at all."
"...Isn't that dagger in your hand the one you picked up during that duel with Luke a while back?"
"...I'm afraid it is."
It was the dagger that Seraphin had given Luke—a gift I'd held onto specifically to provoke her during the evaluation duel.
The sigh had escaped my lips the moment I belatedly realized I'd forgotten to return the thing.
No, I genuinely meant to return it. I even visited the Academy chapel twice.
But what was I supposed to do when they said emergency patients couldn't receive visitors other than their guardians until they'd fully recovered?
And I couldn't exactly hand Luke's possession—Seraphin's gift—over to some random person to pass along for me, so I'd ended up carrying it around all this time, all the way onto the road home.
'...At this rate, it really does look like I stole Luke's dagger from her.'
Please don't let her call me a thief the moment I get back to the Academy.
No, given Seraphin's personality, I doubted she'd say anything like that—but the odds of at least some measure of disappointment were fairly high, in my own estimation.
All I could do was keep it safe to avoid misunderstandings and return it the instant classes resumed.
"You are going to give it back, Lilith?"
"Yes, of course, why would you even ask such an obvious questi—"
—Shhlick.
"...I... am, of course... going to give it back..."
Well, it does cut nicely. Must be because it's a product of the Imperial Family, hmm.
Compared to the one I got from the Marchioness's daughter, there's definitely a meaningful gap in quality...
"...You *are* going to give it back, Lilith?"
"...Of course, Young Master Ethan."
"If you need a new dagger, I'll buy you one. Blackwood Territory doesn't have a smithy, but the neighboring territories have plenty of skilled craftsmen."
"...Yes, Young Master Ethan."
Would those craftsmen really be skilled enough to match a dagger Seraphin had personally commissioned and had made specifically for Luke?
The fact that such a thought had slipped into my head unbidden went unmentioned to Ethan.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
Deep in the night, when everyone else was asleep.
By the time the time-stone's hands crept past the number one, the only light left around us was the bonfire at the center of the campsite and the moonlight in the night sky.
Even though it was still late summer, a slight chill crept in with nightfall, and I sat quietly letting the crackling fire warm my body.
'How boring.'
Well, I'd expected as much, but standing watch alone was tedious work.
I was trying to read a book I'd bought on the Isle of Knowledge by the firelight, but reading in the dark while depending on irregular flames inevitably scattered my concentration.
In the end, I gave up on the attempt and quietly closed the book in my hands.
I'd learned Mana Chains and my auxiliary magic had advanced from the first tier to the second, so boldly learning a spell like Unquenchable Lantern probably wouldn't be a bad idea.
But I still hadn't cleared level 10 yet, and I couldn't afford to waste skill points just to read a book in the dark.
The experience I'd gained from catching Luke in the evaluation duel was around a thousand, but I still needed a bit more to reach level 11.
Nothing stung worse than squandering points carelessly and then being unable to use them where they actually mattered.
So there I was, idly poking at the burning bonfire with a poker a few times, when...
...suddenly, I sensed an unexpected presence behind me.
"...Young Master Ethan?"
"How did you know?"
"It's less that I knew and more that it was my hope. I preferred it being you over bandits or monsters."
"...Sorry. Did I startle you?"
"Not at all. Still, please be more careful next time. If I had mistaken you for a bandit, I might have attacked you without thinking."
"...I'll be careful from now on."
"No. Since I failed to stay alert as well, strictly speaking, my fault is the greater one."
I'd distinctly checked on him in his tent maybe ten minutes ago—when on earth had he snuck around behind me?
Apparently he'd slipped out of the tent during the brief stretch when I'd been trying so hard to concentrate on my book.
Judging by the fact that I hadn't even noticed the tent in plain sight opening, night-watch reading clearly wasn't workable at all.
"Why are you awake so early? You still have an hour until your watch shift, Young Master."
"...I don't know, I just couldn't sleep?"
"Come to think of it, you couldn't fall into deep sleep for the first few nights in the Academy dormitory either. It seems you simply have trouble settling into an unfamiliar bed."
"Hey, that's because you—no, never mind. It's nothing."
What on earth did I ever do to him? What does my presence have to do with his insomnia?
Lately, misunderstandings about things I'd never done had been turning into strange rumors left and right, and the last thing I wanted was to hear baseless accusations from Ethan himself.
Besides, as someone who had, quite literally, offered up her body to assist him, it was unfair on multiple counts.
"You know full well that I've been accommodating your simmering lust roughly once every two weeks, and yet you slander me?"
"N-no... I mean, that's genuinely a pleasant—ah, no, it's certainly something I'm grateful for, either way..."
"And just four days ago, didn't I let you touch me with no conditions attached? Under the pretext that you were worried about your duel with Miss Nathalie in the evaluation."
"Th-that's because you seemed a little off after your duel with Luke...?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"N-nothing! ...B-but, um, thank you for letting me touch you, Lilith..."
"As long as you understand, that's enough."
Well, to be fair, I only permitted it because I didn't want to see Ethan lose to Nathalie.
No matter how much Nathalie had been my favorite from my past life, she and I now were nothing more than unrelated Academy freshmen in Class 1 and 2.
Ethan, on the other hand, had grown up alongside her since childhood, so there was genuine affection and history between them.
For the current me to root for Ethan instead of Nathalie wasn't any strange phenomenon at all.
"...Um, Lilith."
"Yes, Young Master Ethan."
"Could I... ask you just one question?"
"Yes?"
"It might be a little sensitive for you to answer right away, but."
"......"
Why is this boy suddenly setting such a strange mood again?
In an atmosphere so grave it felt like it could have been a heroine's confession event in the game, Ethan carefully posed his question to me.
While I fumbled, unsure how to respond to this reaction of his, only the crackling sparks of the bonfire brushed against my ears.
"What is this question, Young Master Ethan?"
"...Lilith, do you perhaps... still hold any bad feelings toward me?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"It's just... I don't remember giving you a very good impression when we were children. Calling you away over and over when you were busy with work to play weird pranks, doing things like... groping you, the thing you hated most."
"......"
"I just wondered if... you might still be angry with me for what I did back then."
...All that buildup, and *this* is what he wanted to ask?
He wanted to know if I was still mad about something from years and years ago.
It went without saying that I'd long since forgotten everything from back then. If anything, it was only now, with him bringing it up, that I'd recalled 'oh right, that happened' for the first time in ages.
Honestly, the reason I'd blown up at him back then wasn't really the groping itself. It was that habit of his—interfering with everything I did and making a nuisance of himself—that I couldn't stand.
He'd pull his childish pranks in a situation where I was already fuming, and then taunt me while I couldn't even get up from the pain, so my patience had simply run out.
It was years in the past, and even I could see how much Ethan had reflected and grown since then—holding a grudge from back then would have bordered on insanity.
So I simply gave him the answer that there was no need to dwell on something from years ago.
"No, I don't particularly hold anything from back then against you."
"R-really?!"
"It was years ago, wasn't it? I was certainly angry with you often at the time, Young Master Ethan, but not anymore."
"I see... that's a relief..."
Why on earth does he watch my expression so closely, when he's my master and I'm his exclusive maid?
So what if I did still hold a grudge about back then? Spilling my personal grievances in front of a Duke's heir—that one time back then had been more than enough.
With that thought, I turned my gaze back toward the burning bonfire and tossed another log into the inner flames.
And that was when Ethan, sitting beside the fire, called my name once more and spoke up carefully.
"...Hey, Lilith. There's something I want to say."
"If there's something you want to say, then say it."
"I, um... I'd like you to listen to this a little seriously."
"......Yes?"
...What now? Is this seriously a confession event?
No, there's no way. Why would Ethan suddenly confess to *me*?
And yet somehow, the atmosphere was arranging itself exactly like one, and my heart began to flutter with a flustered unease.
Whether or not he knew what I was feeling, Ethan took both my hands in his as if he truly were about to confess, and began to speak with utmost seriousness.
"I hate beating around the bush, so I'll get straight to the point."
"...Young Master Ethan? Please, calm down for a moment and gather your thoughts—"
"Lilith. When you graduate from the Academy... at that time, will you be my—"
—Jingle-jangle, jingle-jangle, jingle-jangle...
"......"
"......"
Just as a conversation that felt like it might become some sort of turning point was about to unfold, the sudden sound of a bell rang out beside my ears.
At this hour of the night, the identity of a ringing bell had only one or two possible explanations.
And in the silence that hung thick with a strange tension, one emotion rose up in my head entirely on its own.
'Son of a—there goes my entire night's sleep.'
No wonder things had felt off from the moment he planted that flag.