The Tour of the Territory
The party setting out on the tour of the territory was, as always, a modest one. It reflected Duke Randert's distaste for pomp and ceremony — the minimum necessary personnel departed with exactly the supplies they needed and nothing more.
The only difference from usual was that, whereas they had always ridden horses for speed's sake this time, a single carriage had been added to the procession.
"Father, I can ride a horse as well. I've been taking regular riding lessons at the Academy."
Rain was still falling steadily over Hamilton. Through the carriage window, Bayul could see the Full Moon Knights in their rain cloaks. It felt wrong to him that he should receive special treatment just for being the lord's son.
"I suspect it isn't on account of you, young master Bayul."
The one who spoke up, as if answering Bayul's words, was Father Juan. He smiled sheepishly as he explained.
"The truth is, I can't ride at all. My legs lack the strength, and I've been thrown from a horse more than a few times."
"You've fallen? Were you hurt anywhere?"
The most dangerous moment in riding was the instant one was thrown from the saddle. To hear that it had happened to the priest several times left Bayul genuinely taken aback.
"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine. It's entirely thanks to the Full Moon Knights."
Before Father Juan ever touched the ground, one knight or another would always come sprinting to catch him, so no serious injury had ever come of it.
"Father Juan speaks the truth. This carriage was prepared not for you, but for him, so don't let it trouble you."
"You hear that?"
Father Juan added with a smile that said see?
"My apologies, Your Grace the Duke. Being so poor a rider, I can't help but be a burden this way."
"None of that. The most important person on this tour is you, after all. I'm grateful you've come along. Thanks to you, I get to travel by carriage in comfort for the first time in an age."
"I am merely going to fulfill my duty as a priest. Being able to do what I ought to do alongside Your Grace is the greater honor. Call upon me whenever you need."
"…Are there, perhaps, patients along today's route?"
Listening to the exchange between his father and Father Juan, Bayul finally began to sense something. This was his first time accompanying his father's tour, which was why the realization came late. He had assumed a tour simply meant inspecting the territory — only now did he understand that tending to the welfare of the territory's people was part of it as well.
"The village we're visiting today has no temple of its own. Because of that, treatment for the sick tends to come late."
"Ah, so that's why…"
"Yes. On occasions like this, when the tour takes us far afield, I accompany them. Enjoying such luxury as this, no less."
Reverence shone in Father Juan's eyes as he gazed out the window. When would he ever again receive the escort of the Full Moon Knights? Even riding in a carriage bearing the Randert ducal banner felt like more honor than he deserved.
"Not luxury — hardship. Won't you be the busiest person here once we arrive?"
"I'll only be tending to patients indoors. Compared to what Your Grace and the Full Moon Knights will be doing, it's nothing at all."
For all their stature, most of the work these remarkable men would perform on the tour amounted to repairing collapsed bridges or clearing the rubble of ruined buildings — tasks any ordinary laborer could have managed.
However great Duke Randert's authority might be, Father Juan never failed to marvel at the sight of knights who obeyed without a single word of complaint. Every time, their sincerity was genuine, and they spared not even their bodies for the humblest labor.
That, too, was why Father Juan held Duke Randert in such true reverence. To serve so exemplary a lord was both a blessing and a glory for those beneath him.
"By the way — that young man there. Isn't he the servant who brought the herbs with young master Bayul that time? Am I right?"
"Ah, yes. His name is Death — I brought him back with me from Carrington."
"Not even a nobleman, yet he rides remarkably well."
And that wasn't all. His very presence was extraordinary. Even amid the shock of receiving that enormous quantity of herbs, Bayul remembered flinching the moment he noticed Death.
Had they met anywhere else, he never would have taken him for a servant.
"You're right. It's my first time seeing him today too, and I'd say he rides better than I do."
Death had joined this tour specifically as a porter. Bar and Amon had wanted to tag along as well, but their hopes were dashed by a single remark from Rita.
'Absolutely not! Bar needs to learn how to cook. I was just about to start his special training — where does he think he's going? And the same goes for you, Amon. If everyone leaves, who's going to do the cleaning? Me?'
Death's inclusion, by contrast, was owed to Rita's enthusiastic recommendation that his strength would let him haul even the heaviest loads with ease.
"You delivered the herbs to the temple, I take it?"
"Yes, well, you see—"
"Oh my — did Your Grace not know? Young master Bayul donated an enormous quantity of herbs. Enough that we won't have to worry about supplies for the foreseeable future."
The Duke's eyes narrowed as they settled on Bayul.
"Thanks to your donation of even herbs that are hard to come by these days, I hardly know how to express my gratitude. And the restoration of the herb fields — how neatly you saw to that. Allow me to thank you once more, here and now."
Entirely without Bayul's knowledge, Father Juan bowed his head deeply in thanks. Swept up in the joy of departing on a tour with his father, Bayul had failed to anticipate that something like this might happen. His father was bound to find it strange — how on earth was he supposed to explain?
"There were that many herbs left in the castle?"
As far as Duke Randert knew, there were not. Only recently, the head butler Cunning had filed a report worrying over exactly that.
"…No! I brought them from Carrington."
Facing his father's suspicious gaze, Bayul blurted out the lie before he could stop himself.
"From Carrington, you say?"
"Yes. The weather there is fine, unlike here. That's why I was able to buy them in bulk at a low price."
"Oh ho! So you procured them yourself, for the sake of the territory's people! I am truly moved by your generosity, young master Bayul! Truly the son of His Grace the Duke!"
"Excuse me? Ah — no, I only…"
At Father Juan's praise, both of Bayul's cheeks flushed red. A lie he had told to escape one crisis had come back around like this, and he had no idea where to put himself.
"Impressive."
A smile bloomed across Duke Randert's face as well.
"You've done a good deed."
It was touching enough that his son worried for his father — but to already be thinking of the territory's people besides? Remarkable. Bayul could have made a show of it, and the fact that he hadn't pleased the Duke all the more. His son's heart seemed far deeper and warmer than he'd imagined, and it filled him with gladness and pride.
"Your Grace, it looks as though we'll need to camp here for the night."
Just as Bayul found himself cornered by the stream of praise from his father and Father Juan, the carriage rolled to a halt and Sadad's voice rang out.
"There's no village nearby, apparently. Will that be all right?"
"Of course. Please don't worry about me."
As if he were well accustomed to this sort of thing, Father Juan stepped boldly out of the carriage first.
"And you — will you be all right?"
"Yes, Father. Don't worry about me either. Camping out — I've actually wanted to try it at least once."
He'd seen it countless times in books. People building a campfire, simmering stew, roasting meat from the hunt. To Bayul, who had spent his life shut away inside the castle, it was a romantic, enviable scene.
"We've brought plenty of blankets, so wrap up well. You mustn't catch a chill."
After issuing the warning sternly, Duke Randert descended from the carriage. Bayul threw on his rain cloak and hurried after his father.
"This way, young master."
The sun had not fully set, but the sky was already darkening. Stepping outside, Bayul found the camp tents nearly complete. The knights were dividing up the work among themselves with practiced ease — clearly not the skill of men who had done this only once or twice.
"Are you cold?"
Ian led Bayul to a spot beneath a great tree. One of the knights was trying to light a fire with firewood laid out in advance, but the wood, damp from the humidity, refused to catch.
'Shame.'
Bayul called softly. Even without another word, Shame understood his intent well enough. A hand shot up from beneath the earth and cradled the firewood, and in an instant the flames roared to life.
'Innocent, could you lighten the rain a little?'
—Sure! Just leave it to me!
With Innocent's power, Bayul could have stopped the rain entirely, even if only briefly. But doing so would drain her to exhaustion again, and he had no wish to push her that hard.
'Tempesta, I'd like you to help spread the warm air around evenly.'
—Easy!
Here and there beneath the tents, campfires were springing to life. The Full Moon Knights could shrug off this level of cold without complaint, but a little extra warmth never hurt anyone.
'I'm glad I can help Father, even in a small way like this.'
For the first time since becoming a Spirit User, Bayul thought he might be a little bit admirable after all.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!
It was at that very moment that a tremor rose from the ground.
"Wh-what's happening?"
As a flustered Bayul stammered the question, Ian dropped flat to the ground at once and pressed his ear to the earth. And he wasn't alone. Every knight who had been moving with such seamless coordination was doing the same. Only his father remained standing, head raised, gazing at something in the distance.
"It appears there's been a landslide."
"…A landslide?"
—It's close.
"Close? How close?"
The words burst out of Bayul reflexively at Shame's voice. At that, Ian glanced at him for a moment with a puzzled look before answering.
"The tremor is strong. It's not far."
His expression was grave.
—It looks like it's going to reach us?
Tempesta, who had been soaring high in the sky, came flying back like the wind to report.
'Shame, can you stop it? Tempesta, can you do it too?'
His father and the knights were all here. Not a single one of them could be allowed to come to harm.
—I'll do everything I can…
—I'll try. I just have to blow it all away, right?
There was no confidence in Shame's voice — a sight Bayul had never once seen back in Carrington. Tempesta didn't say anything either, but the tension was plain on him.
'If only we had a Spirit Stone—!'
The moment Bayul clenched his lips in frustration, a command fell from above.
"Everyone, fall back."
Duke Randert's order came without warning. At once, without a flicker of hesitation, the knights gathered together in a single mass.
"Young master."
Guided by Ian's hand, Bayul joined the group as well. They placed Bayul, Father Juan, and Death at the center and enclosed them on all sides, as though forming a shield.
"Ser Ian, why—?"
Bayul could not make sense of the situation at all. That they would protect him, fine. But why was his father standing all alone over there?
"Father…?"
Having confirmed that the others were clear, Duke Randert drew his sword. It was a sight Bayul had never witnessed, not once in his life.
Was he truly intending to hold back a landslide with that sword?
Could such a thing even be possible?
And yet Bayul was the only one worried for his father. Ian, of course — but Sadad and all the other knights as well remained perfectly calm, without a trace of tension among them.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The sound came now, along with the tremors. The landslide was close enough that they could see rock and timber and clods of earth cascading down from the mountain's peak.
Merely watching it was enough to send a chill down the spine — yet standing squarely in its path, his father's face betrayed nothing. He was composed from first to last; fear simply did not exist for him.
Swoosh—
The Duke's sword arm rose. In the instant before the landslide swallowed the whole area, a flash of light burst before Bayul's eyes.
CRACK!
The brilliant light stung his eyes, and he squeezed them shut, then opened them again.
"…?"
And Bayul tilted his head. Because nothing had happened. The surroundings were a wreck, scarred by the landslide's aftermath — but his father, the knights, every single person was unharmed, and it was simply… over.
'Wh-what in the world…?'
Beside the dumbfounded Bayul, only Death mouthed a silent ooh, an expression of keen interest playing across his face.