Chapter 292: The Witch and The Ash-Covered Bride (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 292: The Witch and The Ash-Covered Bride (2)
Inside the carriage, following the golden lizard that was tracking the next sacred treasure.
Sitting on a sofa far too gaudy for a carriage, Dorothea thought to herself.
…Something about the atmosphere feels like it’s changed recently.
The bond of traveling together.
If one were to elaborate on that short phrase, it would mean this: a relationship where you eat together, sleep together, brush up against each other as a matter of daily life, and see each other's faces from morning till night, day in and day out.
In short, it was a dynamic in which you were bound to notice immediately if anyone changed.
This was especially true for Dorothea, who, unlike someone who couldn't care less about others, was the type to secretly pay a great deal of attention to those around her, despite her prickly exterior.
The most noticeable change was in Adelaide's demeanor.
For one, she was bright.
Incredibly bright.
With every move, every breath, it was as if she were radiating the energy of sunlight from her entire being.
The reason for this was also easy enough to guess.
‘She’s laid down all her burdens. She must feel relieved.’
The pressure of having to become the heir to the domain, the duty of reviving her family, the thirst for revenge, and the anxiety and worry for her mother, who would not wake.
All the heavy burdens that had tormented Adelaide had either been resolved or lost their meaning.
Of course, there were many new burdens she had taken on as the new head of the Lion Duke's bloodline, but there was a world of difference in mindset between burdens one was forced to carry and burdens one chose to carry.
Besides, as for those ‘new burdens,’ Adelaide was currently just lending her name as a figurehead, while Maris and the other members of the Lion Duke's bloodline were handling all the actual work.
This might make it sound like the Lion Duke's bloodline was being treated unfairly, but in truth, thanks to the outstanding figurehead that was Adelaide, they were receiving the minimum amount of scrutiny they would have otherwise faced from the Empire. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
From Adelaide's perspective, all her troublesome worries were now resolved, and she was in a position to purely enjoy the journey, so it was understandable that she was in a good mood.
It was understandable, but.
‘Still, isn't this… a bit much?’
The Tin Knight's training, to be frank, was on the rather harsh side.
It was a method of accurately grasping the trainee's limits and pushing them to the very brink.
In other words, no matter how much the trainee's abilities improved, from their perspective, they would continuously experience extreme fatigue and physical pain.
Humans are not inherently such rational creatures; they have a tendency to avoid actions that benefit them if they are immediately difficult for the body and mind.
How many people in the world don't know that exercise is good for the body or that studying helps in life? They know, but they don't do it because it's hard.
The Adelaide that Dorothea had observed was no different.
She had diligently followed the Tin Knight's training out of a sense of duty and sheer grit, but that didn't mean she didn't find the training itself difficult.
Early in their journey, her sessions were filled with tears and screams. By the middle of it, she had reached a point where, conversely, she would become mentally anxious without training. Had there been a psychiatrist in this age, they would have likely chosen their words very carefully, a grave look on their face.
But now?
“Sir Knight, Sir Knight! I succeeded at juggling leaves with just sword pressure, without the blade touching them, like you mentioned! What should I do next?”
She had reached a state where she herself would proactively ask the Tin Knight for the next task.
And with great excitement, at that.
It was similar to, yet different from, ‘getting used to the training.’
It was also somewhat different from ‘coming to enjoy getting stronger.’
To Dorothea's eyes, the current Adelaide seemed to enjoy anything and everything, as long as she was doing it with the Tin Knight.
Training was simply the most convenient ‘joint project’ with the Tin Knight, so she latched onto it. But it seemed she would have been just as happy with any other excuse to be with him.
“She's not some puppy who's just happy to be with its master… wait, since she's the head of the Lion Duke's bloodline, she's a feline. So does that make her a puppy-cat?”
What's more, Adelaide wasn't the only one who had changed.
After the incident with the Pied Piper, Sophia had also changed somewhat.
It wasn't an easy-to-read, blatant change like Adelaide's.
Sophia wasn't the type to easily show her emotions in the first place.
However, there were clear changes in the minor details.
For example, there was this incident.
While Sophia was engrossed in a new book, the Tin Knight tried to start a conversation with her.
The topic of conversation was, to be clear, trivial.
It was about whether one preferred to eat fried food by pouring the sauce on beforehand to make it moist, or by keeping the sauce separate to enjoy the crispy texture.
Since the Tin Knight had muttered it while sitting in the driver's seat, staring blankly at the sky, Dorothea guessed he had probably seen a cloud shaped like fried food or something. The Tin Knight spouting nonsense out of the blue was a daily occurrence.
The old Sophia would have either answered after finishing the book or simply agreed with him without taking her eyes off the page.
Sophia read incredibly fast and never forgot what she read, so the very fact that she was taking her time with a book meant she was thoroughly enjoying it.
But this time, as soon as the Tin Knight spoke to her, Sophia immediately set her book aside, laughed and played along with his silly topic, and only picked the book up again after the conversation was over.
There was another incident.
During their travels, a swamp blocked their path, forcing them to proceed on foot. Without a second thought, the Tin Knight slung Sophia over his shoulder like a sack of luggage.
It was hardly an appropriate way to carry a grown woman, but the Tin Knight wasn't the type to care about such things, and Sophia, for her part, tended to be indifferent to physical pain or discomfort, so in the past, the matter would have been dropped.
“Sir Tin. If it's all the same, could I request a different position?”
After a few adjustments, the position they finally settled on was the princess carry.
The Tin Knight was initially reluctant, saying he wouldn't be able to swing his sword in an emergency, but when Sophia framed it as a ‘side quest to cross the swamp using only your two legs without getting dirty in the muddy water,’ he cheerfully complied.
Finding this behavior strangely concerning, Dorothea later pulled Sophia aside to talk.
“Have you become more sensitive to pain or discomfort since that last incident? If there's something wrong with your body, tell me now.”
“No, it's not really like that. To be honest, I don't feel any complaint or distress even when treated like a sack of luggage. It's just…”
“Just?”
“The act of being cared for can be meaningful in itself.”
Dorothea found it difficult to grasp the exact meaning of those words.
She could only tell that the final lingering doubt, or hesitation, that had remained like a stumbling block for Sophia had been resolved.
Adelaide, who proactively approached the Tin Knight, wanting to interact with him even a little more.
Sophia, who never initiated contact herself, but responded with warmth and favor whenever the Tin Knight approached her.
Dorothea had clearly sensed the change in the atmosphere between the two.
To say it again, she was far from dense; on the contrary, she was quite perceptive and observant.
However, as for whether she could do anything about what she'd sensed… well.
If it had led to any discord within the party, she would have taken appropriate measures as the leader, but neither Adelaide's nor Sophia's relationship showed any signs of friction.
If anything, they got along as well as ever.
So what could she do? She had no choice but to accept it for what it was and move on.
‘By the way, is that tin can aware of this? Or not?’
Considering his usual unhinged words and actions, it wouldn't be strange if he scored a perfect zero in this department.
But considering the way he sometimes seemed to pierce through to the essence of things, it was entirely possible that he had already noticed and was simply not reacting.
Even the perceptive Dorothea found it difficult to say for sure.
Anyway, he was a troublesome guy in more ways than one, Dorothea thought.
He was foolish, eccentric, and acted like a madman even in serious situations. To be blunt, he was the first person anyone who preferred peace and comfort should avoid.
While she wondered what was so great about a guy like that, when she actually thought about the path he had walked, she found herself thinking, Well, I guess I can see why, and feeling a sense of understanding.
In any case, it was Dorothea who had set the Tin Knight on his adventure, and it was Dorothea who had been by his side throughout his tale.
She was the one who knew better than anyone what he had grasped and what he had achieved in this world.
Even as she grumbled and called the Tin Knight a tin can or an idiot, that much she never denied.
“……Hah. Whatever. As long as it doesn't interfere with the journey, it's fine.”
Shaking her head, Dorothea came to that conclusion and stopped thinking about it.
As if on cue, a message from ‘that idiot’ echoed in her head.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ informs his contractor that the next destination is in sight!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ rejoices, saying he's looking forward to whatever clusterfuck awaits them this time!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ requests permission to attack in advance, since it seems like they're going to fight soon anyway!]
“Forget it, you moron. Stop trying to cause a scene and just behave.”
With a light scolding-slash-admonishment, the witch gripped her staff and rose to her feet.
The time had come to begin another adventure.