Gathering at the Capital (1)
By the time I woke from my sleep, the sun was already hanging high overhead.
Gazing at Ellie slumbering peacefully beside me, murmuring softly in her sleep, I gave her a gentle shake.
"Mmm...?"
"Wake up. It's already noon."
At my words, Ellie turned her head toward the window — where bright sunlight was already blazing down from the very center of the sky.
After a long moment, she managed to prop herself up, rubbing her eyes as she struggled awake. Hmm... it seemed Ellie was terribly weak in the mornings.
As she sat up, the blanket, defeated by gravity, slid down and bared her upper body entirely — which meant Ellie's bare skin was laid out before my eyes in full.
Not that it lasted; she snatched the blanket back up in a panic.
"Hyun... when did you even get dressed...?"
"After cleaning up... and... taking care of everything else... right away."
"Uuuugh...! So I was the only one who slept naked!"
She wasn't wrong — I had already seen all of her. She must have realized it too, because she bowed her burning face down low and hid it from view.
"Embarrassed, Ellie?"
When I called her by that pet name — the one, she'd told me, only her parents had ever used back when she was little — Alice buried her face in both hands and started to whine.
"Uuuugh!! Don't!!"
"How did you get so cutesy, anyway? Keep this up, Ellie, and you'll start looking like my little sister."
At that, Ellie lifted her flushed face and glared at me. Then she opened her mouth.
"That's fine by me. So what? You're the one who calls me 'Ellie,' after all. Still... you'll let me play the big sister where it counts, won't you?"
Her words set off a warm, ticklish ache in my chest.
I gathered her into my arms and held her close for a moment, then turned my head aside to give Alice some privacy to dress. Whereupon—
"H-Hyun...?"
"Hm?"
Why does her voice sound shaky...?
At that faint, unmistakable tremor, I figured some kind of bug must have appeared and turned my head — to find Ellie sitting there in nothing but her birthday suit, every inch of her once again laid bare before my eyes.
But surely she'd had a reason to call my name, so I shook my head and banished the wandering thoughts. "What is it, Alice?"
"I... don't have anything to wear out...."
...Huh? Oh. Right. Ellie had come to my room that night wearing nothing but a slip.
I dug through my closet and handed her some clothes I'd worn years ago but had long since outgrown. She held them up to gauge the size and thanked me, and I turned away once more so she could change in peace.
Before long, Ellie told me she was finished and that I could turn back around.
"You can look now. I'm dressed."
I turned to find her standing there in an oversized hoodie and a pair of old track pants. Watching my lover pad around in my clothes... left me with the strangest feeling.
Then, when I opened the door to walk Ellie back to her own room — the maids who were always posted outside were simply gone.
"Huh...? There's no one here?"
Ellie frowned at the empty corridor as well. "You're right...? What in the world...?"
It never crossed her mind that the household staff might have simply stepped away to rest at their own convenience. And small wonder — every servant in this manor had been hand-picked by Ellie herself, all the way back in her childhood. Each of them had earned the approval of the likes of Edgar before ever setting foot in this house, and I had always treated them with the same respect they showed me. Had any of them ever shown the slightest hint of shirking their posts or taking us for granted, I would not have respected them in return.
Sharing that same sense of something amiss, we made for Alice's room. Along the way, Ellie came upon the maids cleaning the manor halls, called them over, and began questioning them about the whereabouts of the maids assigned to my room. As head of this household, it was her duty to hunt down the cause of any irregularity.
"Why was no one posted outside Hyun's room this morning — the Lord Successor's room? Someone was assigned to it, was there not?"
"There was, my lady."
"Then why was no one standing at that door? I'm not here to scold you, so speak plainly. None of you would ever abandon your posts without cause. Something happened, did it not?"
The maids bowed their heads in answer. So something really had happened. Though... was it my imagination, or had the questioned maids' faces gone faintly pink?
Just as that oddity registered, one of them opened her mouth.
"Th-the senior maids... told us that you and the Lord Successor, my lady... had... um... spent the night together."
...Huh? They knew about that? Even I was flustered — I could scarcely imagine how Ellie must have felt.
"Uh...? Ah...? They... they k-knew...?"
Ellie had sailed right past flustered and into full system failure. Her face, naturally, was scarlet.
"Yes, my lady. When the Lord Successor did not emerge even after the hour had passed, the senior maids feared something had happened and looked inside — and seeing the two of you sleeping so soundly together, they withdrew at once."
Ah... of course. The maids would never leave their posts unless something was wrong. And that "something wrong" had been us.
"Uu... uu...!"
I swept the mortified Ellie into my arms and spoke for us both. "Our thanks. We were merely startled to find no one at the door when we rose this morning. Please, carry on."
"Yes, my lady..." came the soft reply, in near unison.
Once the maids had gone, I turned to Ellie, who still hadn't managed to lift her head. "Ellie. You can look up now."
"What am I supposed to do now...? How am I ever supposed to look those people in the eye!!"
That one, even I couldn't answer. Time would probably sort it out. Probably.
So I saw Ellie back to her room, then made my way down the corridor beneath the weight of every maid's stare. Knowing this would last at least a week gave me a slight — no, a considerable headache. But there was nothing to be done about it.
And so a week went by.
Even a full week after that happy night with Ellie, the maids' gazes had, if anything, only intensified. Work still had to be done, so there was no choice but to show ourselves outside — and Ellie, unable to bear those looks, kept me glued to her side, parading me around under the official pretense of an escort knight. In practice, I was her shield.
What she may not have realized was that our little display was exactly the sort of thing that made the maids' stares burn all the hotter.
Be that as it may — the time had finally come for us to make our way up to Leona, capital of the Holy Empire. The Emperor had even sent a letter with his own hand, saying he wished to see the new Successor in person.
And at long last, the Tide of Corruption had come to an end on every front. East, West, South, and North had all carried the day — joyous news, every word of it.
The trouble was the West: Crystal Territory had scraped out its victory by the barest margin, without a Successor. After our contest for the succession had ended, word of their defeat was met — unexpectedly — with total silence. They swallowed the result without a word of protest, even though war had been looming at their doorstep, and even though fighting that war without a Successor made no sense whatsoever.
Which could only mean that Florence's character was rotten to a degree that not even her own family could look the other way.
With the Tide of Corruption driven back to victory across the board, the war's course and its outcome had to be reported to the Emperor in person — and so we resolved to make for Leona.
Leona lay a considerable distance away, and Ellie, pressed for time, gave me our departure date: tomorrow. Between readying the journey and preparing the report itself, she had apparently been run off her feet.
Which left today pleasantly free — so I decided to practice invoking the Aura of the Hidden Dragon and Domain Proclamation in tandem, and headed for the training grounds to drill my authorities.
"All ready?"
"Yeah. You, Ellie?"
"Of course. Done and done."
It seemed that no sooner had I slept than departure time arrived. Yesterday I'd spent the entire day at the training grounds working my authorities, and the mental exhaustion had knocked me flat — I was asleep the instant I toweled off.
Ellie, meanwhile, had spent that time rushing about — wrapping up the departure preparations, making the formal announcement of Edgar as acting head of the household, and a dozen other duties besides. I was beginning to suspect I was the only one who'd slept too much.
Next time, I'm asking to help out a little too.
Whether Ellie would actually allow that, though, was another matter entirely.
The coachman climbed up onto the driver's seat — all that remained was for us to board, and we would be off.
Ellie turned to Edgar. "Edgar. I leave the territory in your care while I am away. You, who guarded it without a single misstep even through the war — you I can trust with anything."
Edgar answered with a gentle smile. "In repayment for the faith you place in me, my lady, I shall see to it that this territory knows nothing but peace until the day of your return."
"Good."
"And you as well, Lord Successor — may you return safe from the capital."
"The territory is in your hands, Edgar."
With Edgar's answering bow, we climbed into the carriage.
"Oh, right. Hyun?"
"Hm?"
The moment we boarded, I felt her mode of address flip from 'Lord Successor' to 'Hyun' — and my spirits lifted sky-high. Come to think of it, that had happened plenty of times since we started dating, and if it still made my heart this light, it could only mean I'd fallen for her that much deeper.
"Hyun! Daydreaming again?"
Feeling mischievous, I answered with a nod. "Yep."
"Stop thinking! What could possibly be so absorbing that you can't even hear me?"
"About a week ago?"
"A week—!! Hyun!! I told you that one never leaves your mouth!!"
After that day, as the maids' stares only grew more searing, the last resort Ellie had been forced to was a strict policy of silence — a standing gag order on any mention of that happy night, one week past. When my angel of a girlfriend asked so earnestly, I'd obliged, and hadn't breathed a word about the events of that week since.
But we were inside a carriage now. If I told her I'd naturally assumed that made it fair game, she'd have no comeback at all.
"Uuuugh...."
And just as I'd predicted, Ellie could only burn red, unable to muster a word of rebuttal. She shook her head hard at me.
"Keep that up, and no lap pillow for you when the motion sickness hits!"
Ah. Losing the lap pillow... that would be a bit much.
"Sorry... Ellie... I just wanted to tease you a little."
"You have far too much mischief in you, Hyun! Ugh... I do love that about you, too... just... could you not fluster me quite so often?"
As if that were going to happen... I tease precisely because I want to see her flustered face. Take that away, and why bother teasing at all? Even so, this once, a nod was the wise play — otherwise the lap pillow would vanish before my very eyes. Obviously.
"We're departing!"
The coachman's hearty cry rang out, and the carriage rolled forward, bound for the imperial capital. Before many hours had passed, I found myself in dire need of Ellie's lap pillow.
It wasn't that I didn't want one. The motion sickness was simply overwhelming.
The culprit was the roads themselves — in a medieval world like this one, they were horrendously rough. Dirt and gravel were the least of it; at times the wheels ground straight over exposed rock. Early on I could keep the nausea in check, but my rear end took a brutal beating. Had this been anything short of a noble family's carriage, it would have been split clean in two — and then some.
But as the hours wore on, every last ounce of that pain began funneling straight into my head, as though the agony itself had learned to redirect its attacks. Against that throbbing, miserable ache I tried every home remedy I knew... and none of it helped. In the end, the cure I chose was sleep.
"What would you have done without this lap pillow, hmm?"
At her words, I expressed my overwhelming gratitude — with a swift, birdlike kiss pressed to her lips.
"I... know..."
The voice was so drained I half-wondered if it had really come from me. It startled Ellie more than it startled me.
"Why are you so limp? I can hardly believe you're the same one who cut down ranked demons in a single stroke on the battlefield..."
"Ugh... my head... If I could, believe me, I'd erase this pain..."
"Try your authority, Hyun. Wouldn't that work?"
It wasn't as though I hadn't considered it. Purification meant, quite literally, restoring something to its original state — erasing the pain and returning my body to normal. The problem was that the relief lasted mere moments. Before long the ache came creeping back, so what was the point? If it held for an hour or two, I could have endured. But the symptoms returned in under thirty minutes. It was enough to drive a man mad. So I'd given up on the idea altogether.
"Oh my... so this is how bad your motion sickness gets..."
Ellie's eyes went wide, and she began gently stroking my aching head. "Then how about you sleep until we reach the halfway point?"
"But... then... your legs will fall asleep..."
She let out a soft laugh. "Don't worry. If a knight commander's legs go numb over something like this, what would she ever do in battle?"
"Still..."
Those were my girlfriend's legs, after all. Naturally, I considered it my duty to protect them.
"Th-then, if it makes you uncomfortable, I'll owe you a small favor instead."
"A favor...?"
"Mm. A favor. A full wish would be too big — it wouldn't be fair, would it? So just small ones, favors I can actually grant!"
If she'd offered me a wish, I'd have taken that gladly too. But apparently her conscience wouldn't let her promise something so large. Still — if my girlfriend had something to ask of me, granting it was simply what I did. I nodded and accepted her proposal.
"All right. I'll take it... your favor."
"Good. Then that's settled. Now sleep a little. Look how pale you are..."
"Ugh..."
It felt as though someone was patiently splitting my skull from the inside. If Ellie hadn't noticed and kept stroking my head, I might well have smashed through the window to escape. After all, if I activated the Storm Wave Formation and ran with Baram riding on my back, we could cover this ground far faster than any carriage.
The reason we hadn't was obvious enough: the imperial capital had to be entered with proper ceremony. To observe that etiquette meant passing through the city walls by carriage — and since most nobles arrived by carriage anyway, carriage it was.
With the distant vow that someday I would pave this entire road with asphalt, I closed my eyes and let sleep claim me.
"Hyun..! Wake up and see!"
At Ellie's voice, I opened my eyes to find the carriage already at a standstill, parked beside some building as we waited.
"Are we here?"
"Mm. This is the village where we'll stop to rest a while. It's called 'Sky.'"
A village named Sky. It was the sort of thing that made you realize just how seriously the people of this world took their devotion to the Four Divine Beasts.
In case anyone caught sight of us and kicked up a scene, we draped ourselves in hooded cloaks before stepping down from the carriage.
While I'd been asleep, Ellie had apparently dispatched the coachman to secure us a room at a high-class inn. It was a fairly large village, so I supposed that was why one even existed — still, it struck me as remarkable.
Catching that look on my face, Ellie giggled. "You're so adorable every time you make that face. Hehe... can't you show me more of it?"
"If you ask so sweetly, Ellie... I can try. But it won't come out natural."
"A shame, then. I'll simply have to keep showing you magnificent sights, until that face of yours comes out on the regular!"
"I'll look forward to it, Ellie."
"Hehe! Just leave it to me."
We made our way toward the inn, and at last stepped through the doors of the establishment Ellie had reserved. The moment we entered, there was none of the stale, musty odor I'd half expected — instead, a warm fragrance filled the place from wall to wall.
"Welcome. I'll show you to your room on the second floor."
At the staff member's words, I glanced left and right, noticed there were rooms on the first floor as well, and was about to ask — when Ellie leaned close and whispered the answer into my ear.
"Second floor is for guests staying overnight. First floor is for travelers who just want to rest a while before moving on."
Oh. So that was it. Well, why else would she have picked the second floor?
And so Ellie and I set about exploring the inn, hoping to loosen the weariness the long journey had worked into our bodies. The inn looked, for lack of a better word, peaceful. And the staff were so unfailingly kind that my guard began to slip, just a little.
Had we revealed who we really were before setting foot inside, would the outcome have been any different? It is a question no one will ever answer. But I don't believe it would have.
After all — the ones who laid that trap to take us, who stooped to so vile a scheme just to ensnare a single one of the Four Great Families... would they have changed course?
In the heart of that tragedy, Ellie and I would come to stand at its very center — drenched by the cold rain.
Had we known such a thing awaited us, we would have pushed straight on through the village, motion sickness and all.
But I, still knowing nothing of it, walked on laughing at Ellie's side toward the room that had been reserved for us.