Toward the Holy Kingdom
Beep—
“....”
“...nom.”
“Looks delicious.”
“Mm-hm. It is delicious.”
“....”
What a vicious little wench.
If I had to put the emotions in Jerny's eyes into words, that was probably about right.
“I told you I wasn’t eating it.”
“...No, that wasn’t it—!”
“You also said you couldn’t eat it.”
“...Ughhh!”
I was only refusing to give her any because of that, so what was the problem?
There was an old saying: those who do not work shall not eat.
When I stared at her blankly, Jerny wriggled around in agony.
Hmm. Maybe I should stop teasing her there.
It wasn’t as if I’d actually planned to eat it all by myself in the first place, so this was about the limit of the joke.
“...It’s delicious!”
With a blissful look on her face, Jerny tore into the meat with gusto.
It was a completely different sight from the way she’d eaten the orc meat.
Even though a rain buffalo and an orc were both monsters.
After a pretty fine meal, we left behind the rain buffalo herd, who watched us with miserable eyes, and set off again.
“Keep your butt planted in the saddle and straighten your back.”
“Like this?”
“A little more than that... like this.”
“Gasp, Kana’s personally correcting my posture...!”
Jerny made a strange little giggle, like hee-hee-hee.
Smack!
“Ow!”
“...Focus.”
After disciplining the delinquent student who refused to pay attention in class, I continued the lesson.
“You’re tensing up too much.”
“Didn’t you just tell me to straighten my back?”
“I told you to straighten it, not stiffen up.”
“...Isn’t that the same thing?”
“How is that the same thing?”
By the time the lesson ended, Jerny’s posture was much better than when we’d started.
The process hadn’t exactly been smooth, but if the result was good, that was what mattered.
Jerny, graduate of Kana’s first riding class, left the following evaluation:
“It was nice that you taught me so kindly, unlike when you were teaching swordsmanship! Hehe, Kana really is considerate.”
“That wasn’t because I was trying to be kind or anything.”
“You’re being all shy~”
Tap, tap.
“Don’t do that.”
I swatted away the finger that kept poking insistently at my cheek.
The problems with riding a horse were different from the problems with handling a sword, so of course the way I taught had to be different too.
Well, it wasn’t as if it mattered whether she misunderstood or not.
* * *
“Haaahh...”
Jerny let out a long, drawn-out yawn.
After learning the proper riding posture from Kana, the muscle soreness that had been tormenting her eased off.
At first, she’d been regretting, I should’ve just taken a carriage... but before she knew it, that thought had long since changed into good thing I rode a horse.
It was faster than a carriage, and more comfortable too....
— Riding a mana-engine carriage would be way more comfortable though.
— You still haven’t bought one?
— The poor Kana is suffering because of the stingy guild master...
“Since it isn’t your money, you’ll say anything, won’t you? If you’re going to say stuff like that, then at least give me some money first!”
— Why tho???
— Are you promoting real-money trading right now?
“...I guess I should just stop talking.”
— So you’re declaring a strike?
— Are you refusing to do your duty as a streamer?
And so on.
The chat reacted exactly as Jerny had expected.
Honestly, they were always the same.
Shaking her head, Jerny turned her eyes toward Kana instead.
After riding for hours and hours, Kana didn’t seem even a little bored. She just swayed this way and that with the horse’s movements, showing no particular sign of speech or action.
If Jerny hadn’t known she always answered when spoken to, it would have looked like someone had simply propped up a doll.
Of course, Kana is cute enough to be mistaken for a doll.
So even if someone did confuse her for one, it wouldn’t be strange.
Jerny shamelessly indulged in a little fangirling in her head.
For a moment, she grew curious about how Kana would react if she heard all that praise, but she didn’t actually act on the impulse.
Hair fluttering softly in the wind, pink eyes half-lidded and lost in thought.
Seeing her look like a painting, Jerny couldn’t bring herself to disturb her.
Cutness was justice.
Today, too, Jerny reaffirmed that truth and gazed happily at Kana’s side profile.
Normally, she would’ve thought “I never get bored just looking at her face” was the kind of embarrassing nonsense people said all the time, but watching Kana like this, she wondered if maybe it wasn’t nonsense after all.
Maybe she’d stared too hard.
Kana, who had been blankly looking forward, turned her eyes toward Jerny.
“...Why.”
“...Huh? Did I say something?”
“You didn’t say anything, but your eyes are gross.”
“....”
“Gross.”
“...I get it, so can you stop saying that...?”
Kana looked as mild and harmless as if she’d never even sworn in her life, but if you listened to the words that came out of that pretty mouth, there was a surprisingly sharp edge to them.
Once again, Jerny had been hit by a fully loaded straight right out of nowhere, and she muttered darkly to herself.
Still, she’s better than she was at first.
Compared to when Kana had completely ignored her whenever she spoke, this was so much better, even if it hurt Jerny’s feelings a little.
Whether that had truly been the only thing Jerny had wanted to ask her, Kana lost interest again and stared straight ahead.
No, she tried to.
“Oh, right! Kana, I’ve got a question—can I ask?”
“...What.”
If Jerny hadn’t spoken just as curiosity struck her, then—
“Why are you going to the Holy Kingdom, anyway? Now that I think about it, I heard you were going to the Holy Kingdom, but I don’t think I heard why you were going there....”
At the question, Kana looked at Jerny as though she were staring at something bizarre.
For the usually deadpan Kana, it was a remarkably rare change in expression.
“Eheh...”
Jerny gave an awkward laugh.
Even she thought it was pretty absurd.
They’d already been traveling together for days, and now she was asking this?
If she was curious, she should’ve asked earlier. If she wasn’t going to ask, then she shouldn’t have asked at all.
Of course, Jerny had just been so excited to travel with Kana that she hadn’t thought it through that far.
It was a question asked at a truly awkward time, but not one that was impossible to answer, so Kana readily satisfied her curiosity.
“I became curious about something.”
“Curious about something?”
Even if you got curious about something, would you really cross all the way to a kingdom on the other side of the continent?
Normally, no.
As soon as one question was answered, another arose, and Jerny asked again,
“So the thing you’re curious about can only be solved in the Holy Kingdom?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I ask what it is?”
“No.”
“Figures~”
So she really did know how to say no and mean no. What a sharp little thing.
With Kana’s firm refusal, Jerny backed off obediently.
Kana probably didn’t realize it, but from Jerny’s perspective, there were two kinds of refusals from her.
...No.
Please don’t~
Haaah...
A refusal that still left room to change her mind if you begged and clung hard enough, and a firm refusal that left no opening at all.
Kana’s answer just now belonged to the latter.
So instead of pestering her with questions, Jerny started turning the problem over in her head by herself.
If she says she has to go to the Holy Kingdom specifically, could it be something related to the Church of Edel?
She didn’t seem particularly devout, though.
“Gasp, wait—does she mean she’s going to become a nun?”
“Wait a second. Kana’s nun outfit skin...? Hisss, that might actually be good.”
“Ah... thanks for the explanation!”
After that, Jerny continued chatting with the viewers for quite a while with her mic turned off.
Now and then, Kana would glance her way, but Jerny, absorbed in talking with the audience, didn’t notice.
All the while, the horses the two of them rode kept dutifully moving their legs, racing down the road toward the Holy Kingdom.
“Let’s stop here for today.”
How much time had passed?
By the time the sun had begun sinking behind the ridgeline, Kana finally opened the mouth she’d kept shut all this time.
Just as Jerny had been slowly running out of things to talk about, she greeted Kana’s words with relief.
“It’s been a while since we’ve camped. Kana, have you ever camped before? Ah, right, of course you have.”
Remembering Kana’s previous occupation, she trailed off awkwardly.
Come to think of it, Kana probably had far more camping experience than she did.
“But... we’re camping here?”
The location and the ground both made it look like a place poorly suited to camping.
At least from the eyes of Jerny, who had a fair bit of camping experience herself—though not as much as Kana—that was how it seemed.
“We should look for a good spot.”
As Kana answered lightly and tapped the horse’s side, the horse immediately understood its master’s intent and walked on at a leisurely pace.
“Oh, I think I see a light over there?”
Something sparkling caught Jerny’s eye as she scanned around for a campsite.
Fire dancing atop neatly stacked firewood.
A natural fire might happen, but firewood would never be stacked that prettily on its own, so it had clearly been set up by a person.
“Wait—”
With a delighted heart, Jerny spurred her horse past Kana and rode toward the campfire.
“Anyone there~?”
There was an open clearing like this in a place like this?
If the people already there didn’t mind, she’d love to stay with them.
Reaching the small clearing where the campfire burned, Jerny stretched her neck and searched for the person who’d gotten there first.
Clop, clop.
“Jerny.”
“Ah, you’re here!”
“...Haa.”
Kana, who had arrived after her, let out a sigh.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“...Nothing.”
Kana’s lips moved as though she had a great deal she wanted to say, but in the end she said nothing.
Instead, she turned her head toward the sound of someone nearby.
Rustle.
“Oh? Are you travelers?”
“...A nun?”
The figure that emerged, making the soft sound of stepping on a twig or leaf, was a woman wearing a nun’s habit—someone who looked grown, but still had a lingering youthful air about her.
Jerny’s gaze drifted unconsciously to a certain rounded area, and then she suddenly remembered the donation message she’d received earlier, snapping her head hard from side to side.
The nun asked worriedly, “Are you hurt somewhere?”
“N-no...! There was an insect.”
“Oh dear. Most insects around here aren’t poisonous, but there are some that are, so you should be careful. Just in case, would you like me to take a look?”
“I-I'm okay...”
She’s a real nun...!
Seeing the nun’s image, as if compassion had taken physical form, Jerny’s darkened heart was purified white again.
“Are you camping here alone?”
“Yes. I split up from my group in the previous city, so I’m by myself.”
“I-If it isn’t too rude, could we stay here with you too?”
“Of course. I’m not the owner of this land, after all. I was actually worried about spending the coming night here, so thanks to you all, I can breathe easy.”
Smiling warmly, the nun set down the things she’d been holding in her arms.
Dry twigs and fruit-like things spilled out in a heap.
“Kana, we got permission! She said we can stay here too!”
“...Ugh.”
At Jerny’s bright gesture, Kana sighed once again.