Early the next morning.
Reinhild snapped his eyes open and sat up before Xion could wake him.
It was time to go back to Root.
“You’re up early.”
After he went down the long corridor and found the kitchen. Xion, who was preparing breakfast, greeted him.
Xion lightly pulled Reinhild into his arms and kissed his forehead.
The faint scent of butter felt like the start of the day, and his already good mood lifted even more.
“It’s time to go back to Root, Xion.”
“You should eat before you go.”
“I can eat on the way.”
“No. It’s cold out—if you don’t fill your stomach, it’s dangerous.”
At Xion’s firm reply, Reinhild pouted and nodded.
He wasn’t wrong.
Outside, the wind was strong enough to shake the trees hard, and if they were going to ride a horse over a distance that took twenty-four hours, it was better to eat well before setting out.
He’d had enough of being cold and hungry.
“We’re leaving right after we eat, right?”
“Of course.”
“Good.”
Reinhild filled his belly well with freshly baked bread, an omelet, and a fruit salad, then stood up.
Getting ready to return to Root took no time.
Everything he’d taken when he fled Root had either been used up or lost.
Instead, Reinhild wore the warm new clothes Xion had bought him and, ill-matched to the cold weather, a straw hat.
“Shall we?”
“Yeah.”
Without hesitation, Reinhild took the hand Xion held out.
A servant who had been waiting at a distance came up as if he’d been waiting for the cue and spoke.
“I’ll have a carriage prepared.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“It’s too cold to ride on horseback; it’s dangerous.”
“Knights have come to Root and the villagers are terrified. If a carriage suddenly rolls into the village, they’ll be shocked, so we’ll go on horseback.”
Reinhild nodded vigorously in agreement with Xion.
Seeing they wouldn’t accept any other suggestion, the man had no choice but to withdraw.
Riding in a carriage might be a bit warmer and more comfortable, but it was slower than traveling on horseback.
Reinhild wanted to get back to Root as quickly as possible.
Even if it was a little cold and hard, once they got home, Xion would hold him warm, so it was fine.
“Xion. If we’re going by horse, could we find a horse named Brownie and go with him? He’s the horse I rode to come here, and I want to go back together.”
“Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find a particular horse in the city. He’s likely already been sold to another trader or has a new owner.”
“Then it can’t be helped.”
From far off, the butler cried, “Then I will go find this horse called Brownie!” and started to run over, but, sensing how things were going, he quietly withdrew.
The horse Xion had prepared was a sturdy brown one, larger than Brownie.
“Only one horse?”
“It’s cold. If we ride together, we’ll stay warm.”
“I see.”
“Here, this way.”
With Xion’s help, Reinhild mounted.
Xion sat right behind him, wrapped an arm around him as if to embrace him, and took the reins.
Though he knew that riding double would weigh the horse down and make it slower than a carriage, Reinhild said nothing.
He also kept to himself that a carriage would be much warmer than sharing one horse, and that, if he was worried about Root’s residents, taking a carriage and then getting off in a nearby forest out of sight to walk the rest would be faster and more comfortable.
Hiiing!
As a result, it was only the horse that had to suffer for it.
Xion and Reinhild left the city of Audrit without any trouble.
“Looks like the travel restrictions have been lifted. Good.”
“Seems so.”
There were still lines of people who hadn’t managed to get out of the city and were protesting, but Reinhild—who had no interest in any human who wasn’t Xion—was too full of thoughts of returning to Root to spare them even a glance.
“Are you uncomfortable at all, Rein?”
“I’m fine.”
Reinhild leaned into Xion’s chest with confidence and enjoyed the journey in comfort.
Maybe because Xion blocked all the rough wind, he didn’t feel cold at all.
“Aren’t you cold, Xion?”
“I’m fine.”
Worried that Xion’s body might have gotten chilled, Reinhild slipped his hand inside the right sleeve of Xion’s arm that held the reins to check.
He felt Xion flinch at the touch of his cool skin, but thankfully Xion’s skin was still warm.
So he hadn’t been lying about not being cold.
Only then did Reinhild smile in satisfaction and shift slightly to settle into a comfortable position.
With his left arm, Xion held close the Reinhild who was nuzzling into his chest.
“Warm.”
For all his worries that it might be cold and uncomfortable, the journey back to Root was easy.
Had he used some kind of magic? A distance that took a full day even at a gallop on horseback, they covered in just a few hours.
He wondered if it was simply that time flew because being with Xion was so enjoyable, but when he lifted his head, the sun hadn’t even set yet.
Even someone as indifferent to the world as Reinhild could tell the sun hadn’t set and risen again.
‘Whatever.’
Arriving early was only good.
He let it pass without fuss and craned his neck to take in the long-missed sight of Root Village.
Between the dense trees, Root slowly came into view.
‘Huh?’
Far off, Xion’s house showed faintly.
Though it stood apart from the village center and was always quiet and peaceful, people were swarming around Xion’s house.
An uneasy feeling crept over him.
❖ ❖ ❖
Right after Xion left Root to search for Reinhild.
The knights of the West ducal house, who had been encamped in the forest on standby, received orders to withdraw and left the village at once.
But not knowing the knights had left, the people of Root Village were gripped by extreme fear.
When the knights they thought would attack the very next day failed to show, the villagers, even more frightened, locked their doors and holed up at home.
Several days after the entire village had hidden indoors, one night the forest behind the village caught fire.
Whether the knights of House West had set it out of spite when they left, or lightning struck a dry tree and started it—no one knew.
Because no one had come out of their houses, the fact of the fire wasn’t discovered right away.
Hiiiiiing—!
If not for the horses bursting out of the woods, it might have been discovered even later.
“Fire! The forest is on fire!”
“The woods where the lake is! We have to put it out now!”
“This is bad—the whole lake has dried up!”
People ran to fight the fire, but the great lake that had filled one side of the forest had vanished without a trace.
“The Hero… it’s the Hero’s doing. I saw the Hero erase the lake!”
When the village chief shouted this, voices blaming the Hero swelled.
“Would the Hero have set the fire?”
“Hero, my foot! That Hero erased the lake from the start with the intent to set a fire. As if sending knights to torment us wasn’t enough, he tried to burn the whole village down!”
The villagers poured out their resentment toward the Hero as they strove to put out the flames. Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread beyond where the lake had been.
Not knowing that the wave of mana that spread when Xion erased the lake had blocked the blaze, the villagers wept and thanked the gods.
They worked all day to extinguish the forest fire, and as a light rain began to fall, they finally managed to bring it under control.
For a visit from the fire demon, the village had suffered little damage.
Only one wall of Xion’s house, which was closest to the forest, had burned and collapsed. A great pile of firewood stacked behind the house had let the flames spread quickly, which was the problem.
With ash piled on the wooden floor and water poured all over in the effort to douse the flames, the interior had become a chaotic mess of wet and soot.
“What do we do… the house is a wreck.”
“But I don’t see Xion.”
“Don’t tell me those damned knights dragged him off?”
“Xion! Where are you, Xion!”
Realizing Xion was missing, the villagers, exhausted from fighting the fire, set out to look for him.
A few villagers, including Rebecca, stayed behind to straighten up Xion’s ruined house.
They couldn’t repair the collapsed wall immediately; all they could do was wipe down the soaked areas and hang out the soiled bedding.
While the others tidied the collapsed bedroom, Rebecca headed for the kitchen. She went to peel up the waterlogged carpet so she could wash it and hang it to dry.
“Huh? What’s this?”
There was a door beneath the carpet.
“A safe?”
In a small village like Root, it was common to make a little space in a wall or floor to use as a safe.
The door looked a bit big for a safe, but more than that, she worried the safe might get thoroughly waterlogged.
Seeing water trickling through the crack, Rebecca hurriedly opened the door.
People usually put valuables in such spaces.
She didn’t know what was inside, but she planned to dry it off at once before anything stored within was damaged.
Fortunately, instead of valuables, there were stairs leading down to a basement.
“Whew, that could’ve been bad. So Xion’s house had a basement.”
Even Rebecca, who had known Xion a long time, hadn’t known that.
Water had flowed down to the lower steps and pooled.
Before the basement could take on a musty smell, Rebecca descended, wiping up the water as she went.
“…Huh?”
At last reaching the basement, Rebecca froze where she stood, wet rag in hand.
There, a bloodstained sword hung on the wall.
A sword identical in shape to the Hero’s sword she’d once seen in a book.
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