A Spring Day's Stroll
After dealing with the yetis crowned in ice, I returned home to find Eric waiting to greet me.
"Master, what became of the cave those yetis came from?"
"There was nothing there..."
"What?! But—even their corpses all vanished..."
"Those minions must have been bound to the Ice Crown. That's why."
From the kinds of servants Grandfather Deprim had spoken of, it seemed the yetis had been entities linked through a demon as their medium.
"Then... you never found the demon worshippers?"
"No. They were probably summoned somewhere else, moved this way, and then created the yetis. I tried searching, but..."
This place was the Amazon jungle of winter... There was no finding them. Even with Hati and Hugin, it would have been like hunting for a needle in a desert.
We left the yeti incident behind us. Days kept passing, time flowed on, and spring drew near.
The weather warmed, and the snow melted away.
"Master! Everything's ready!"
"Right. Just let me grab this last thing and we can go."
Eric and I were preparing to descend the mountain.
Now that spring had come, flowers were appearing and the forest was growing denser by the day. We needed to get down quickly, before the undergrowth rose as tall as I was.
"I'm going to miss the house a little..."
"When you told me you'd built this cabin and all the wooden buildings by yourself, I was genuinely astonished."
"Hm? You think I did a good job?"
"Honestly, it felt like something out of a fairy tale."
"Pfft... So you do know how to work a room, huh."
We would leave the house and storehouses as they were.
As I sorted through what we would take, I realized far too much remained. Having to abandon so many goods made it sting a little...
I set the regret aside, packed our loads, and headed to where the others waited.
"Eric, hop up on Hati."
"Yes, sir! Hati, I'm counting on you!"
"Woof!! Woof!!!"
"Eric, nothing uncomfortable?"
"No! I'm fine. A saddle would be more comfortable, but Hati hates it so much..."
I had wanted to make a saddle before winter ended so we could ride Hati properly, but leather alone had its limits, and in the end I never managed it.
Straps alone couldn't endure Hati's speed, and if I cinched them tight enough to hold, Hati found it unbearably uncomfortable.
"Still, if your back starts hurting, you tell me right away, understand? If you don't want to end up with chronic pain later, speak up the moment it starts."
"Haha... My seat does feel a bit unstable right now..."
"That's why we'll rest often along the way. Or we can turn it into running practice."
"What?! W-with the armor and sword on!?"
"I won't push it that hard. Even I have a conscience."
"Hey—conscience?"
My faithless disciple shot me a look of pure disbelief, clearly remembering the hellish weight training of earlier days.
"Disciple. That was strength training. Making someone run endlessly through mountain terrain while loaded with gear and weapons—that would be torture."
"Can I... really believe you, Master..."
"Believe me... And look what happened when you followed my instructions with the iron. Your stamina and strength are leagues better than when we started. Just think of this the same way."
"That's true, but..."
At first the chainmail hadn't fit and even moving in it had been a struggle, but now Eric's strength and endurance had improved enough that he could wear full gear without trouble.
He had grown a little taller and broader too. Keep growing and aging, and one day he might surpass me in size...
Hmm.... He was a noble young master raised well from childhood, so it was possible. I found myself curious just how big Eric would get.
"Preparations are done... All right then—let's head down!"
"Yes!!" "Caw!" "Woof!" "Pong!!"
With a chorus of spirited cries we broke into a run, and in what felt like an instant we had raced down the mountain.
"Master!!! Is this the right direction!!!!"
"Yeah!!!! The compass says this way!!!"
We were moving so fast that ordinary speaking voices simply couldn't be heard.
Hugin was keeping pace overhead just fine.
"Ugh! Blanc... stay still."
"Pooong....."
Even as we tore along at speed, Blanc looked blissfully happy, nestled in my arms as if they were the coziest place in the world.
How long had we been running...? We had put an enormous distance between ourselves and our original position, and finally stopped to rest on a highland plateau where a broad field spread out before us.
"Uuugh...."
"Eric, want to just run the rest of the way?"
"Ah—no! I'll stay mounted!"
"Sheesh... Never mind. We're not in a hurry, so from here on we'll just walk."
"Thank you..."
"Go on, lie down a bit."
I let the motion-sick Eric rest and looked around. Wildflowers bloomed everywhere.
Beneath a clear sky, a luminous green field formed the backdrop for blossoms of every color...
Winter's atmosphere had been fine in its own way, but the spring vista was breathtaking.
After taking in the flower-strewn plateau, I returned to the others and found Eric chewing on jerky, his nausea apparently settled.
"Hmm.... Eric! How about honey for a snack?"
"I'd love that! We've had nothing but meat so far—I could really go for something different."
"Now that you mention it, we did live on meat alone all winter..."
"It sounds spoiled to say, but right now I'd even take a hard biscuit."
"Same here... Anyway, while I was looking around I saw bees flying over the flowers. There has to be a hive nearby. Hati!"
"Woof!!!"
"Smell anything sweet? If you find it, lead us there."
"Woof woof!!"
Hati took my request and quickly located a beehive high in a tree near the plateau.
"Oh? That's a big hive."
"Good for us, isn't it? But how do you plan to drive the bees off?"
"Smoke. We'll light a fire under the hive and cover it with fresh grass—that'll produce plenty of smoke to chase them away."
The plan worked perfectly. Leaving the visibly dazed bees behind, I split the hive in half and divided it among Eric and the others—though Eric looked oddly melancholy.
"Ooooh... It's packed full of honey."
"Mmm.... It's really delicious...."
"Hm? Not to your taste, Eric?"
"Ahahaha... It just brought back old memories..."
Eric explained that his fiancée had often given him sweets as gifts, and one of them had been candy made with honey.
"And you're the one who ran away and left that fiancée behind..."
"After hearing your stories, Master... I realize I really did something terrible..."
"What was it you said at first? That childhood friend heaven itself had linked you to—what was it? 'My childhood friend always brought me snacks'?"
"Haha... I was wrong..."
Through the endless power of character education, Eric had gone from beast to human.
"So? Have you made up your mind?"
"Pardon?"
"About marrying your fiancée."
"Ah! Th-that's... a little hard to say right now... Hahaha..."
This kid... I'd asked him during the winter too, and he still hadn't settled it?
Storm-and-stress adolescence was one thing, but this was too much—he wasn't stringing her along on purpose, was he...
Looking at Eric, who had been force-fed this whole sweet-potato of a situation, I decided enough was enough.
Time to bring up that scenario.
"Eric. Are you toying with your fiancée?"
"What?! No! I would never toy with her!!"
"Then why can't you say it? Just tell her you'll live together as partners for life."
"Th-that's true, but...."
"That hurts people. She's waiting for you to accept her feelings, and you're making her wait even longer... Stop thinking only of yourself."
"........"
"Or let her go."
"What?"
"Eric. You've made plenty of mistakes, and if you still can't decide, then let her go."
"Th-that..."
"Doesn't it bother you that while she's waiting for you, she might miss out on good experiences and happy times?"
"Ugh....."
"Sheesh... Or picture this. Your childhood friend, worn out from waiting for you, gets approached by another man—ends up pregnant and marries him...."
"!!!!!!!"
The expression on Eric's face beside me turned extraordinary. He shot to his feet and shouted.
"That!!! Could never happen! Eshirin would never—!"
"Then make sure it doesn't. Write her a letter the moment we reach a city. And looking at that reaction—you clearly like your fiancée, so what's with all this..."
"I will..."
"Good. Smart choice... Ahem!! Though maybe I stuck my nose in a bit too far?"
"Not at all! You've helped me settle my heart for certain!"
So his fiancée's name was Eshirin...
I did want to see my disciple turn out well and actually make it to the goal line once...
And watching Eric steel his resolve, it seemed that across every world and era, NTR was something that could never be forgiven.
"All right, let's get moving soon. Eric, if it gets hard, say so right away."
"Yes."
And so the lifelong-bachelor master finished his disciple's romance counseling, and we set out along the road toward the city.
"We're completely on the plains now!"
"Haa... Feels good to finally be free of those endless uphill climbs..."
After two months of travel, our party had broken free of the mountain region and reached flat ground. We still hadn't seen any roads or man-made structures, but it couldn't be much farther now.
"The trees are still thick, but we should be able to move a lot faster... Or we could do some training...."
"Ugh!! Y-you don't mean—!"
"That's right, Eric. Time for you to run."
"No! You said making someone run nonstop through the mountains in full gear was torture!"
"This is flat ground. And it's been more than three days since you last ran. After that last stretch you've been riding Hati the whole time."
"Well, yes, but..."
"Keep this up and your stamina will drop. Didn't you say you wanted to become the strongest knight?"
"!!!"
"You have a talent no one else has. I already told you—from here on, all you need is effort."
Even in my original world, there had never been any such thing as pure natural genius. Whether the conventional wisdom or the opposite, Edison's line about one percent talent and ninety-nine percent hard work held true in every field.
And not long after, Eric set out to put his dream of becoming the greatest knight into practice by marching with everything he had...
"Huff.... Hoooff.. Huff..."
"Good grief... I told you to ride Hati."
"Uuugh... Th-that... ugh."
My disciple's enthusiasm had overflowed so completely that even when I told him to stop he wouldn't, and after a full week of forced marching he collapsed foaming at the mouth.
"We'll rest here for now. Blanc! Can you heal Eric a little?"
"Pong!"
"Eric, lie down here for a bit."
"Y-yes..."
For the fallen Eric's sake, we would have to camp here for a while.
"I...m...sorry..."
"Don't worry about it. The rest of us were getting a little tired and wanted a break anyway."
"Yes, sir..."
I set up camp and nursed Eric, and his condition improved quickly.
"Eric, how are you feeling?"
"Much better, Master..."
"I'll throw together a simple stew, so eat that."
"Understood..."
A few days later, with Eric fully recovered, we set out again.
And not even a few hours later, we found the Imperial Highway and shed tears of pure gratitude.
"A road!!!!"
"Sniff... Master... I believed in you..."
"Finally!!! Finally!!! A road!!!"
After so long in the mountains with no path in sight, I had been quietly terrified—and now this clean, proper road....
I couldn't help but worship Alberic, who had given us the compass and directions.
"Wow~ To think it was this close... Only half a day's travel from the campsite."
"Um... Master. At that speed, half a day doesn't sound quite right."
"Who cares! The compass says if we follow the road we'll get there, so we just keep heading this way."
Had I already adapted to this filthy, landmass-obsessed other world? A distance like that already felt incredibly close.
We walked along the road, and several more days passed.
Before we knew it the sky was darkening, so we made a simple camp.
"We'll rest here tonight."
"Yes, Master!"
"I'd like to cook something proper, but we're out of salt and pepper..."
"So from now on it's nothing but jerky...."
"We've got more than enough jerky, though, so eat your fill."
Around the campfire we talked about this and that, and we trained as well.
"Here I come! Master!"
"All right. Wooden swords, so I'll give you five exchanges."
Eric's habit of taking hits had improved a great deal, and the Ox stance—high guard for thrusting—had become his foundation.
He charged at me and swung his sword with deceptive variety.
Whoosh! Whoosh!! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
From high guard he feinted a vertical cut, then spun his body into a horizontal slash—a genuine fake mixed in.
Crack!!!!!
I knocked the horizontal wooden blade upward.
In that instant Eric's stance collapsed badly, and I leveled my wooden sword at his throat.
"Ugh...."
"You're mixing in fakes now too. Your skill keeps getting better."
"That was my secret technique..."
Seeing my disciple grow like this filled me with quiet emotion...
"Let's rest for now... Tomorrow we walk hard again, so we'll brew some tea."
"Good thing I packed the dried herbs. Haa... The city can't be much farther, right?"
"It shouldn't be. Footprints and other traces are showing up more and more along the road... Here."
"Thank you."
Eric and I finished our spar and were resting at the campsite when Hugin suddenly shot into the sky and cried out.
"Hm? Hugin! What is it?"
"Caaaaaw!!!"
Huh.... There's some fucking bastard nearby?