Reunion at Dusk
You recognize me, Ash.
“You… the black-haired boy from back then……”
But it seemed difficult for him to continue. The swirling thoughts in his eyes were plain to see as he looked at me.
From his perspective, all of this must have felt far more confusing and complicated than it did for me.
It was already hard enough to accept that someone who was supposed to be dead was standing right in front of him—let alone trying to tell him that he was that boy from back then.
Our appearances had changed, and our identities had to stay hidden.
What could we even do?
Even if we recognized each other, there was nothing we could do about it.
“Ash.”
“……Jeanie.”
We called each other’s names in hushed voices, feeling a quiet joy and a small spark of happiness deep inside. All we could do was exchange that vague, intimate signal.
Very quietly, we realized we had been reunited.
“You two over there!”
Maybe we had been too focused on each other—because the shout felt like an ambush.
We scrambled apart in a hurry.
The workshop door flew open with aggressive force, and Lox’s voice filled the already cramped space with chaos.
“What on earth are you two doing? Why haven’t you come out yet? The play ended ages ago!”
Lox immediately started scolding Ash the moment he reached us, clearly anxious about something.
“You said just a moment. Just a moment! You said you’d be right out!”
“Ah, Lox.”
“Why do you keep trying to be alone with her? It’s suspicious!”
Oh, the timing.
If they were going to put on a play, they should’ve made it longer. It ended already?
Useless as dog crap, seriously.
When Lox got worked up, he used formal speech with Ash. It seemed like his usual casual tone was just an act to pretend they were friends.
“Why are you glaring at me like that? Did I interrupt something good?”
Lox reacted immediately to my displeased look.
“Glaring? This is just how my eyes look. If you’ve got a problem, go complain to my parents.”
“……No matter how I look at it, the atmosphere is extremely suspicious!”
“Oh my, got a case of paranoia?”
“This isn’t a joke! What were you two talking about? What were you doing that made you lose track of time like this……?”
“Shopping, obviously. Want to see what we picked out? I’m buying all of this. It’s not much.”
True to his role as a watcher, Lox treated me like a spy at the drop of a hat.
Being suspected was annoying enough, but if he figured out Ash’s real identity because of me, things would get messy. So to avoid suspicion, I proudly showed off everything I’d chosen.
A new belt, a vest, several pairs of gloves, knee guards, leather pants, a dagger sheath, an herb pouch, various cords and ropes, a foal-sized backpack, a hairband, and more—quite the haul.
“Good heavens, you bought all this in such a short time…… Why didn’t you just rob the store while you were at it?”
“There was a lot I needed.”
“You bought all sorts of things. What’s this foal backpack for?”
“Ah! I’m going to put it on Rai. It’ll be perfect for carrying luggage, don’t you think?”
“You’re going to strap this on a dog? Someone’s definitely going to steal it.”
“No one can steal anything from Rai, so it’s fine. If you’re suspicious, go ahead and try. Just watch your hands.”
Lox looked worried about my plan, but there wasn’t a thief alive who could survive Rai’s teeth.
“Jeanie? Earlier you clearly said he was a friend, not a dog……”
“This is horse treatment.”
“……I see.”
Ash seemed to quickly realize that arguing was pointless.
Your head’s pretty sharp.
“Thanks to you, I got everything I needed. Thanks, Ash!”
“Don’t mention it.”
“And from now on, just call me Jeanie. No need for honorifics. You’re older than me anyway, right? Speak casually too.”
Ash was three years older than me, and in this world, a five-year age gap was still considered close enough to be friends.
Only around a ten-year difference would make someone clearly an adult in their eyes.
Maybe status mattered more than age, which was why the atmosphere felt that way.
“I’ll try.”
“What’s so hard about it? Just do it!”
“……You really are……”
“Let’s be friends. Okay?”
I held out my hand again—the same one I’d hurriedly pulled back when Lox appeared.
I wanted Ash to understand. That I felt this close to him, and that my goodwill was genuine.
Smack.
“……Ow.”
“Where do you think you’re touching so casually! Where? Hey!”
“Hey! You just hit me!”
“Hit you? Are you trying to fake an injury for blackmail? I simply made you drop your hand. Ash is too innocent to associate with someone as dangerous as you! Friends? Don’t say such reckless things. This meeting is over. Don’t even think about being alone with him without me!”
He was acting like a total mother-in-law. Did he think holding hands would get someone pregnant?
Lox was openly trying to keep me away from Ash. So what did I do? I grabbed him by the collar.
How dare he lay a hand on me! I was the type who wanted to do something even more if told not to!
“What did you just say? So what, I’m some kind of seductress now?”
“P-Please let go. There’s no need to react so violently……”
“That’s what you meant!”
“That’s not what I meant……!”
“Then what?”
“……How can I trust someone who steals things from thieves! You’re not exactly the trustworthy type! Look at you now—grabbing people by the collar just because you don’t like what they said!”
Oh. He had a point.
I reined in the temper that had flared up and slowly released my grip on his collar.
“Uh, this is…… self-preservation instinct. Self-defense.”
“That’s exactly why I can’t trust you!”
“Why are you like this? I’m someone who can live without laws.”
“Exactly! You’d ignore every law! Or make your own!”
Tch. Lox was turning out to be a surprisingly tough opponent. How did he know?
“Don’t tell me you act like this with Ash too?”
“Of course not. I don’t treat people I like this way. I’m actually very kind.”
“So what you’re saying is…… you don’t like me!”
The sharp-eyed Lox straightened his crumpled collar and launched into a full-on nagging attack.
Just because I grabbed his collar once, he was treating me like a terrible person.
People get angry sometimes and grab collars! It happens!
For some reason, amid all the noise, Ash looked a little embarrassed.
***
It didn’t feel like we’d walked that far, but the sky was already darkening.
The sun was setting right in the direction we were heading, and the fleeting glow of twilight was so beautiful that everyone naturally stopped walking.
“Look over there, kid.”
There were five of us in the group, but only four were walking. Einy had been riding on Chad’s shoulders in a piggyback for nearly an hour now.
“It’s pretty!”
“What do you call that in your language?”
“Shuri!”
“Shuri…… That’s nice. Your language sounds really pretty.”
The two of them had become surprisingly close, proving once again that Einy was only particularly shy around me.
Einy liked Ash and Lox too. While wandering the city, she’d held their hands tightly and swung them around like it was the most fun thing in the world.
I could tell she would’ve had a great time even without me. At this point, maybe I was the third wheel.
“Hey, do you know what Einy’s name means?”
“No, I don’t.”
Huh. It felt like I was the only one left out. The four of them must’ve gotten pretty close while I wasn’t around.
“It means ‘blessing of the moon.’ And my name means ‘horse hoof’ in their tribal language! Puhaha, horse hoof!”
“How nice. Horse Hoof.”
“Pretty funny, right?”
“Not at all.”
Was he joking? I’d laugh if it was actually funny.
[Should I kill him?]
[Rai, don’t turn me into a murderer over something like this.]
[But I can sense killing intent coming from inside Master!]
The conversation was so boring that a bit of bloodlust had risen up.
Chad didn’t reflect on his own foolishness and instead labeled me cold-blooded.
“Oh dear, oh dear. You must’ve had a hard time, little one. How did you manage to travel with such a cold woman?”
“Yeah…… It was hard.”
“This won’t do! From now on, travel with us!”
“Okay!”
I knew it was a joke, but it still felt like an easy betrayal.
“Einy?”
“……But Big Sister is scary.”
Einy was pouting openly, as if she trusted Chad completely.
At some point, she’d started liking Chad more than Ash.
The way she clung to Chad’s shaggy head, resting her chin on top like it was the most natural thing in the world, made them look like family.
“I like Uncle Chad!”
“Even if we have to respect personal taste……”
“Hey! What’s wrong with me?”
“I’m genuinely curious—what exactly do you like about this guy? His stupidity? His loud voice? The way he picks fights over nothing?”
“Um…… Uncle is…… like a dad!”
Ah. Maybe weird tastes were hereditary.
“Mom said that Dad was really big. Super strong too, and even though his hands were rough, he was super careful when he brushed Mom’s hair. That’s why she chose him as my dad!”
“……What are you doing, kid? Do you even know what that means?”
“Now that I think about it, they do seem similar. Kenta and Chad.”
[They’re alike!]
Why was I only realizing this now?
In many ways, Chad resembled Einy’s real father, Kenta—especially in build. They were shockingly similar.
Even Rai, who had been following beside me, nodded in agreement.
“Big Sister! Have you seen our dad?”
“Only briefly. We traveled together. Back when I was your age—ten years old, so a bit older than you. I got lost in the forest, and Aunt Arnel and Kenta saved me.”
“Wow…… What was our dad like?”
As we started walking again along the darkened path, I spoke casually, but everyone’s eyes were sparkling with interest.
Not just Chad—Ash and Lox too.
“He was like Chad. Strong, and he was the first one to charge at the ogre.”
“Really? At an ogre? Our dad is amazing!”
“He was the vanguard of the mercenary group.”
“That’s so cool! Right, Uncle Chad? Our dad is awesome, isn’t he?”
“Whoa, what a man! I’m jealous, kid.”
So this was what Einy looked like when she smiled.
Faced with her first bright, genuine smile, I had to admit I’d been pretty mean to her.
If being unkind counted as being mean, that is.
But what could I do? This was just my nature.
That evening, Einy looked happier than she had on any day she’d spent with me.
It wasn’t thanks to me—it was thanks to Ash’s group.
It had been a pretty enjoyable day for me too. I’d learned that having companions wasn’t so bad. I never felt lonely with Rai around, but having a group of people around wasn’t unpleasant either.
The noisy, pointless chatter was actually kind of fun.
“I was sure traveling alone suited me best……”
Einy had fallen asleep with a rare smile on her lips. Late at night, with only me still awake, I found myself lost in thought.
It was clearly a hassle, but somehow it felt like something I should do.
The question of whether I should change my plan—sending Einy ahead to Dmitry via warp while I returned by land—and instead follow Ash for a while.
I still wasn’t entirely convinced. My biggest enemy had always been laziness.
“I want to help, but…… it’s such a pain.”
It wasn’t that I wanted to become a Guardian for the sake of social climbing or bringing glory to my family.
I certainly wasn’t after the wealth and fame that would come with it. I already had more than enough fame to make me nauseous.
After all, I was the Saint of this region.