Morning After the Secret Tryst
Edwin had been moving his body in the training grounds until morning. Even after the sun rose, he lingered for quite some time before finally pulling out a teleportation scroll.
The timing was perfect.
The moment he returned to the inn, he heard a knock at the door.
“Are you awake?”
It was Lina.
Edwin strode over and opened the door.
I knocked for quite a while, but there was no answer from inside. I was just about to turn around and come back later when the door suddenly opened.
Everett’s black hair was slightly damp.
“I thought you were still sleeping.”
He must have been washing up and didn’t hear the knocking.
When there had been no response no matter how hard I knocked from outside, I’d assumed he was sleeping very deeply.
This inn must have excellent soundproofing.
Come to think of it, it had been strangely quiet last night, as if no one was in the room next door at all.
Thanks to that wonderful soundproofing, I slept like a baby.
Everett, on the other hand, looked exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept a wink.
“Good morning.”
I greeted him brightly, hoping to cheer him up, and only then did Everett smile back at me.
“Yeah.”
It was a tired smile, the kind someone might wear after intense physical exertion.
Noticing that Everett didn’t seem to be in the best condition, I carefully explained why I had knocked on his door.
“We were supposed to go to the horse market today, right? But I heard that in Feram, the horse market only opens in the morning during summer. It seems like we should head out early.”
To travel from the Feram fief to the Diegis fief, we had to cross one mountain.
We could have rented a carriage, but there was a narrow section midway up the mountain that was difficult for carriages to pass, which would force us to take a long detour.
Six hours on horseback versus eleven hours by carriage.
Since we didn’t have much luggage, we had decided to ride horses.
I’d woken up unusually early today and learned this information while wandering around the inn.
“We should leave right after breakfast, then.”
Everett glanced out the window to gauge the time, then pointed toward the stairs leading downstairs.
Right now? Looking like that?
“Just a moment.”
I grabbed Everett as he tried to lead the way.
“Why?”
Everett turned to look at me, golden eyes filled with confusion.
“Are you planning to go down like that?”
I pointed at his hair, which had been dyed a dull brown by the disguise magic tool.
“Ah.”
It seemed like Everett had only just remembered the existence of the disguise magic tool after I mentioned it.
“Do you think it’s okay for someone who was blond to suddenly show up with black hair?”
I lightly tapped the arm of a frozen Everett standing in the hallway.
“The disguise magic tool is in your room, right? Change it quickly before the other guests come out.”
Everett rolled his eyes around as if he couldn’t quite remember where the disguise magic tool was.
Then he answered in a slightly suspicious tone.
“It’s… in the room. I’ll be right back.”
The way he closed the door was rather hasty.
Edwin slipped into the bathroom in case the light from the teleportation scroll might leak through the crack of the door.
Then he quickly tore the scroll.
In a flash, a brilliant light filled the bathroom.
It had only been ten minutes since he’d left.
Kylus must have already gone home, because the Emperor’s office was empty.
“There it is.”
Edwin immediately spotted the disguise magic tool on one corner of the desk.
He had released the magic while working and forgotten to take it with him.
Edwin activated the disguise magic tool.
After confirming the dark blond hair and bright green eyes he had grown somewhat accustomed to over the past day, he tucked the tool securely into his pocket.
Now all he had to do was return to the inn.
Edwin pulled out a teleportation scroll, but just before tearing it, he paused.
“I almost forgot.”
Edwin left a note on a blank sheet of paper.
The recipient was Kylus, and the message read:
Came and went. Prepare two more teleportation scrolls.
If Kylus—who had spent the entire early morning hounding the mages at the Magic Tower to barely secure ten teleportation scrolls—saw this, he would probably clutch his neck in despair.
But Edwin, who was in a hurry to return, didn’t care in the slightest.
Flash.
A bright light burst in the dark Emperor’s office, and Edwin’s figure vanished.
Flutter.
The note, lifted by the faint breeze created by the magic activation, floated up before slowly settling back down.
When we went downstairs for breakfast, it must have been an awkward time because we were the only ones there to eat.
As soon as Everett and I sat down, the innkeeper brought out a simple breakfast.
“Your husband’s eyes are completely bloodshot.”
Then, with a friendly tone, she spoke to Everett.
After having a rather long conversation with me during my early morning walk, the innkeeper had become noticeably warmer toward us.
“I’ll have to check later to see if the door is still on its hinges.”
She added a spicy married-person joke she couldn’t hold back and chuckled.
Everett, who had been sipping soup, let out a small cough.
And I turned red from the very start of the morning.
Since it was a quiet time, the innkeeper leisurely wiped the tables with a dry cloth and straightened the chairs.
In other words, she kept hovering around us.
Conscious of the innkeeper, we continued our newlywed couple act while eating.
“Ed, can you pass the salt?”
“Here. Lina, you have something on your lip.”
“Aww, what a loving couple.”
The innkeeper chimed in, apparently thinking we were doing a decent job.
“Ahaha, thank you.”
“Sorry for meddling during your meal. It’s just nice to watch.”
When she saw me quickly set down my spoon, the innkeeper apologized and moved away.
But the way she kept glancing back at us with fond eyes while wiping tables was incredibly burdensome.
I gathered my courage and picked up my fork.
Then I stabbed a piece of salad and held it out to Everett.
“Ed, say ‘ah’~”
It was my ultimate feeding move.
“Uh, uh?”
Everett looked greatly flustered, but when I kept giving him meaningful looks, he opened his mouth.
The timing was off as I fed him the salad and he closed his mouth.
Clack.
Everett bit down on the fork.
I hope Everett’s teeth are okay.
Anyway, it was a reasonably successful performance.
Thanks to that, we grew used to calling each other by pet names.
It turned into an unexpected training session.
After finishing breakfast that way, we headed to the horse market.
“Wow, the horse market is pretty big.”
“Most fiefs near ancient teleportation magic circles tend to be like this.”
While I looked at the horses, Everett carefully selected them.
“We’ll take these two.”
After paying, Everett took the reins of both horses in one hand and approached me.
“They’re not particularly fast, but they have steady gaits and gentle temperaments, so they should be comfortable to ride.”
As Everett said, both horses looked docile.
“Let’s go with the chestnut one. This fellow seems to like you more.”
It was mutual affection.
I had also been thinking that the chestnut horse was a bit cuter.
“Sounds good.”
I cautiously reached my hand out to the horse.
“Hiiing.”
Warm breath touched the back of my hand.
I was laughing at the ticklish sensation when Everett took a sugar cube from a small pouch and handed it to me.
The horses’ heads followed the path of the sugar cube from Everett to me.
They seemed to be begging for a treat.
“I’ll give it to you, I’ll give it.”
I willingly fed the sugar cubes to the horses.
After quickly devouring one each, the horses nudged their heads toward my hands as if asking for more.
I stroked their manes with both hands.
“Can I give them more sugar cubes?”
“One each.”
Everett held the pouch out toward me.
As if telling me to take them out myself.
Just as I withdrew the hand that had been stroking the horse and reached for the pouch, the pouch suddenly vanished with a whoosh.
It was there, and now it’s gone.
When I followed the direction the pouch had disappeared with a dazed look, I saw a young child running away with the sugar cube pouch in hand.
“It’s a pickpocket.”
“A pickpocket indeed.”
The two adults who had just had all their sugar cubes stolen by a child who looked about seven years old were stunned.
Everett was the first to snap out of it.
“I’ll catch him.”
Even if it was a freebie that came with buying the horses, a pickpocket was still a pickpocket. We couldn’t just let it go.
His train of thought was practically visible.
Everett left me with instructions to wait there and ran off in the direction the child had fled.
And not long after, he returned carrying the pickpocket child dangling in his grasp.
Even while being held by Everett, the child hadn’t given up hope of escape and was squirming wildly.
“Put me down!”
Everett isn’t budging an inch, though.
“If you keep struggling, you’ll fall.”
At the threatening words, the child’s resistance stopped abruptly.
Only when he reached me did Everett set the child down on the ground and hold both shoulders firmly so he couldn’t run away again.
His face was already intimidating when he wasn’t smiling, but when he deliberately hardened his expression, it was scary enough to make even me flinch.
It must have felt even more so to a child, because tears welled up in the boy’s eyes.
Whether because he had a strong will or not, he widened his eyes to keep the tears from falling.
He looks like he’s been starving for a long time.
There were white flakes on his tightly bitten lips, and his cheeks, which should still have had some baby fat, were hollow.
I secretly tapped Everett’s arm.
Everett’s gaze turned toward me.
I whispered softly, only moving my lips.
He’s just a child, so just scold him and let him go.
I said it because I was worried Everett might be harsh even toward such a scrawny, dirty little kid.
He’s still a child, after all.
Once again, Everett looked at me with the eyes of someone watching overripe fruit or a cotton ball.
In the end, he nodded.
After staring at the child with cold eyes for a moment, Everett spoke in a low voice.
“For pickpocketing, we usually cut off the wrist.”
Oh dear.