"Well then, I'm counting on you to take over. When you heat up the midnight miso soup, transfer the portion you're going to eat into a small pot first."
"Got it!"
"Roger!"
This time, we'd decided to run the watch in four shifts — the first half staffed by the women, the second half by the men. The first rotation of the men's half was me and Albert, and the second would be Cain and Leon. Incidentally, Grandpa had drawn a lucky lot in the raffle, so he was sitting this watch out entirely.
"Tenma, sorry, but I'm at my limit. I'm gonna rest first."
While I was giving them a simple handover and a few pointers, Albert said he couldn't even stay on his feet any longer and ducked into the tent designated for the male shift.
"I've got the gist of it, so you can go to sleep too, Tenma. If anything comes up, I'll wake you then."
Cain said it was fine, so I left the rest to him and headed into the tent. Inside, Albert — who had only just gone in moments ago — was already asleep and snoring away. I lay down on the spot next to him.
*(Found you... Come to me...)*
"Hm? Sorry, did I wake you?"
While I was getting my bed ready, I heard what sounded like a faint voice from somewhere, and I thought I'd accidentally woken Albert. But Albert was no different from when he'd first entered the tent — still fast asleep, breathing steadily.
"Must've been my imagination..."
I could faintly hear Cain and Leon chatting outside, and insects were chirping close to the tent. It might have just been Albert talking in his sleep, so I decided there was no need to worry about it and crawled under the covers.
However, just as my consciousness was fading and I was on the verge of drifting off,
*(A bit far away, I see... Well, that's fine... I've waited this long, so there's no need to rush...)*
The voice was quite faint, but this time I could make it out more clearly than before.
"Is someone there?"
I stepped out of the tent and scanned the surroundings, but there was no sign of anyone nearby.
"What's wrong, Tenma?"
"Huh? When did you get out?"
The two on watch had their attention directed outward, so they were a bit slow to notice me.
"Cain, Lion. Was anyone near the tent? I thought I heard a voice…"
The two exchanged glances at my words.
"No, nobody came near, right?"
"Yep. We've been by the fire the whole time, and if anyone from the caravan had approached the tent, one of us would definitely have noticed… It was probably just us talking that you heard through the tent. Sorry about that."
"I don't think it was your voices, though…"
"That's just how it sounds through a tent wall — voices sound different from what you'd expect. My bad. I'll keep it down next time."
Something still felt off, but thinking about it rationally, what Lion said was the most likely explanation, so I went back into the tent and lay down once more.
"Tenma! Hey, Tenma! Are you okay?!"
"W-What?!"
It seemed I had drifted off without realizing it. Albert was shaking me awake.
"What do you mean 'what'? You've been tossing and turning like crazy, Tenma!"
"What happened? Did something go wrong?"
"I thought I heard Albert's voice just now — what's going on?"
As Albert explained, Lion and Cain came in right after him.
"Whoa! Tenma, you're drenched in sweat!"
"No kidding. It's pouring off you like a waterfall."
It was only when they pointed it out that I realized my entire body was drenched. Not only that, but the blanket I'd been using was soaked through with sweat as well.
"Could it be that you're not feeling well?"
Albert leaned in with a worried look on his face, but aside from a bit of sluggishness, I didn't feel anything particularly wrong.
"What's all the commotion this early in the morning?"
The noise must have gotten louder with Lion and Cain joining in, because Grandpa—who had been sleeping in the tent next to ours—woke up.
"I was apparently having a nightmare while I slept. The three of them were just worried about me."
"Hmm… Do you have a headache, or does anything hurt?"
When I answered his examination with "Nothing much besides a mild sense of fatigue," he told me, "It's probably just mental exhaustion. Why don't you wash off the sweat and freshen up?"
"Yeah. We'll take care of the bedding, so you should go get cleaned up."
Since Albert said the same thing, I decided to accept their kind offer.
The bath still had yesterday's leftover water, so I just needed to reheat it and I could get right in.
**Merlin's Side**
"Since Tenma himself is saying it, I don't think his condition is truly bad, but…"
"Merlin, is something troubling you?"
"Yes. Tenma isn't here, so I'll say it—I am opposed to Tenma going to Kukuri Village."
I hadn't thought it was my place to object to a decision Tenma had made on his own, but perhaps my worries had been justified.
"To be blunt, Tenma is the strongest person in this country. That much is clear from the fact that he possesses greater Magic Power than I do and beat Din in a head-on fight. Well, if it were magic alone or martial arts alone, there would be a chance, but having to face both at once would be difficult."
Hearing my words, the three of them nodded in agreement.
"However, he is still immature when it comes to his mental fortitude. After all, he's a young man who has only just come of age."
Compared to others his age, his mental strength was far greater, but still, there were aspects of him that showed his true years. My concern was whether Tenma could endure visiting the land where his father, his mother, and so many villagers had lost their lives.
"If my worries turn out to be nothing but baseless anxiety, that would be best…"
The three of them listened to what was nearly a soliloquy from me and silently gazed in the direction where Tenma had gone.
Merlin's Side — End
"Whoa… I've made a puddle with my sweat."
When I casually wrung out my undressed clothes, an astonishing amount of sweat poured out. I hadn't even felt the symptoms, but I could've been on the verge of dehydration, so I hurriedly rehydrated, skipped filling the tub, and settled for a bucket rinse instead.
"Is anyone in there~?"
"Jeanne?"
I had just finished washing off and was toweling myself dry when I heard Jeanne's voice from outside. If it had been Chris or Aura, they probably would've barged right in before calling out — past the screen that served as a changing room. Amour had been improving lately, so I figured it would be okay… but honestly, I still wasn't entirely sure.
"Oh! Was Tenma in here? What about the laundry?"
"Yeah… when you head out, put it in the basket and bring it to me later, okay?"
"Got it."
Handing my sweat-soaked clothes to Jeanne was a little embarrassing, but doing the laundry was her job, and she'd already been washing things back at the mansion, so it was nothing new. I tossed them into the basket all the same. The thing was, I didn't really like the idea of her carrying them off while I was standing right there, so I told her to come get them later.
"Come to think of it, that voice from yesterday… what on earth was that?"
Lion had said something about it sounding different because it came from beyond the tent, but I had my doubts about whether it really changed that much.
"I didn't feel like it matched any of the people on this trip either…"
"Perhaps it was a 'fairy.'"
When I got back from the bath and told Grandpa about the voice I'd heard the day before, he said it might have been the doing of a "fairy."
"A fairy — like the ones from stories and legends?"
"That's right. Mind you, I'm told no one has ever actually confirmed a fairy's existence, so I can't say for certain what the truth is."
"Oh, come on, Grandpa, don't mess with me!"
I protested, and Grandpa had been laughing, but his expression suddenly turned serious.
"Whether fairies truly exist or not is one thing, but the owner of the voice Tenma heard may well have been a supernatural being. Something along the lines of a 'god,' perhaps."
"God..."
When I'd met them in a dream before, they had occasionally said they were watching over me, so maybe that had been the case after all...
"There are researchers who say such things, you know. And others claim to have overheard 'conversations between the gods,' or heard 'the voices of the dead' or 'the voices of vengeful spirits' and the like."
Beyond that, there was also the theory that my nerves had been wound too tight and some random noise had simply sounded like a human voice. At one point, the conversation veered into the territory of paranormal phenomena, but in the end, it was agreed that it had all been nothing more than my imagination.
"Good morning. Merlin, what were you all talking about?"
Chris stepped out of the carriage, and seeing Grandpa at the center of a little cluster of men, she called out to us.
"Oh, it's nothing. Tenma was half-asleep and got spooked thinking he heard a 'ghost's voice'... We were just chatting about that."
"Grandpa!"
"What's the matter, Tenma-kun... Were you too scared of ghosts to sleep?"
Grinning along with Grandpa's story, Chris started teasing me.
"Well, Chris, you seem like someone who has plenty of sleepless nights too — worried about falling behind and all."
A bit irritated, I let slip what could only be called a forbidden remark. Chris just kept smiling at me after that. I smiled right back at her. And the grandpas who had been standing around us had, at some point, quietly vanished.
"Tenma-kun... whatever do you mean by that?"
"I think it means exactly what it sounds like, don't you?"
Our quiet little standoff continued until Aura showed up, completely oblivious to the tension, to let us know that meals were ready. According to what I heard later, Jeanne had told her to come fetch us.
"Grandpa. How much longer until we reach Kukuri Village?"
"Like I said before, it'll still be a few more hours."
"Tenma... it hasn't even been an hour since you last asked."
"Is that so?"
I'd been certain a decent amount of time had passed since I'd last asked, but apparently not at all, and both Grandpa, who was driving, and Cain looked at me with exasperation.
"Now Tenma, calm down a little. You've been fidgeting nonstop since a while ago."
"That's right, Tenma. You've become our leader, so how are you supposed to act like this?"
Even Leon was scolding me, let alone Chris—I must have been really restless.
"Tenma, want some tea?"
"There are snacks too. My personal stash."
Jeanne and Armel were also watching me with worried expressions.
"Still, this is the first time I've seen Tenma this unsettled. Usually he seems more composed than the rest of us."
"That's true. When we first met, he handled the orc herd calmly, and even after learning His Majesty's true identity, he didn't seem all that nervous."
"I'd love to hear that story."
Chris agreed with Albert and briefly mentioned something about the past, which caught Leon's interest. Jeanne, Aura, and Armel also looked eager to hear the old tale.
"That time was truly terrifying... His Majesty suddenly declared, 'This way is a shortcut!' and forced a change to the route Kurif had set. Then we ran into an orc ambush in an area with terrible visibility. On top of that, the Orc King was there, so they were disturbingly well-organized and we were stuck on the defensive. We had our backs against a cliff wall when suddenly Tenma came crashing down and solved everything in the blink of an eye... Honestly, it totally destroyed the Royal Guard's reputation. After it was all over and we returned to the Royal Capital, the captain found out we'd struggled against orcs, and every guard who'd been on escort duty got chewed out... It was hell."
Chris also talked about what happened in Kukuri Village, but before long it had turned into a reminiscence about Shiromaru, and Leon jumped in with a quip.
The carriage had gotten quite lively thanks to Leon's retort, but I still couldn't calm down. If anything, just thinking that we were getting closer to Kukuri Village only made my anxiety worse. But with everyone going out of their way to be considerate like this, I couldn't let them sense my impatience.
"Hm? We've gotten pretty far from the Great Old Forest, haven't we?"
Chris happened to glance outside and noticed that the carriage, which should have been following the road along the Great Old Forest, had at some point taken a completely different path.
"Grandpa, what happened?"
"It'll be a bit of a detour, but this road is much safer. That means we don't have to be on guard as much, so our travel speed goes up. We might even arrive sooner than if we'd stayed along the forest edge."
Even Grandpa and the others had been worried enough about me to change our planned route.
"Sorry, Grandpa."
"Don't worry about it. I simply remembered a road that's safer and gets us there faster than staying on the current path, so I decided to switch. That's all."
Grandpa's words were met with a nod from Cain, who was sitting beside him.
"Also, Tenma. You can see a herd of orcs off in the distance—why don't you go blow off some steam?"
Looking in the direction Grandpa was pointing, I could indeed see a herd of orcs watching our movements. They were probably lying in wait in that area for hunting, but since we had approached from a different angle than usual, they had nowhere to hide.
"Yeah. How about you accompany me for some stress relief this time?"
With that, I took to the sky, leaving the slowed carriage behind, and swooped down on the orc herd from above.
Merlin's Side
"He went shooting off, didn't he..."
"He must have had quite a lot of pent-up stress."
It was the first time he'd seen Tenma rush off in such a hurry.
"Could it be because we're getting closer to Kukuri Village?"
"Well, I can't think of any other reason..."
Even if Tenma was an extraordinary existence, he was still an eighteen-year-old young man, so perhaps it was only natural that he had the temperament to match his age.
"Lord Merlin! Tenma just flew off at an incredible speed!"
Chris opened the window with a startled look. Amuro was clinging to her back.
"There's a herd of orcs camped out along the route we switched to. For safety's sake, I had Tenma go ahead."
"So that's what happened."
With this explanation, Chris and Amuro seemed to grasp the situation, but Lion was a bit disgruntled, muttering, "They could have at least said something to me..." Well, it was less that he wanted to rampage and more that he wanted to take the initiative since it was his own territory, but Chris and Amuro were glaring at him with a "read the room!" look.
"Lion couldn't do it. By the time Lion got there, the orcs would've scattered and fled. And even if they didn't run, with Lion's fighting style, the orc meat would be ruined. Goblin meat can be smashed to bits and it's fine, but orc meat would be such a waste."
With Cain's explanation, Lion conceded, "That's true too." Behind him, Shiromaru and Solomon, who had perked up at the word "meat," were wagging their tails as if to say, "Tonight's dinner is meat!"
"Oh! It looks like it's over."
Looking toward Tenma at the sound of Cain's voice, I saw the last orc's head hit the ground.
"Impressive, as expected. The time it took was one thing, but the way he took them down was even cleaner. You could tell from way far away."
As Chris said, every last orc had been felled with a clean decapitation.
"Aura, time to get the bath ready."
"But I don't think Tenma-sama got blood on him or anything?"
"Aura, even without blood there's still the smell, and he'll be sweaty. Do as Jeanne says and get the bath ready quickly... or I'll tell Aina."
Aura really was a bit scatterbrained at times. On the other hand, Jeanne was remarkably observant. And a bath would help with relaxation too, I supposed.
"Now then, Raiden. Take me to where Tenma is."
After seeing Aura, flustered by Chris's threats, scurry off to help Jeanne, I picked up Raiden's pace.
Merlin's Side — End
"Tenma, feeling a bit better now?"
As I was stuffing orc corpses into the Magic Bag, the carriage pulled up beside me and the old man called out.
"Thanks to you, yeah. A little."
Not entirely, but compared to before I lost control, moving my body around had left me feeling somewhat lighter.
"A little, eh... well, that's good. Jeanne's getting the bath ready, so take your time and rest your body."
"Thanks."
After washing away the blood pools around me with water magic and brushing the grime off my clothes, I climbed into the carriage where Jeanne was waiting with a towel.
"Here, a towel. You've got a change of clothes, right, Tenma?"
"My change of clothes is fine. Thanks, Jeanne."
As I took the towel from Jeanne and moved to head for the bath, Chris and everyone else in the carriage (except Lion) were wearing worried expressions. Shiromaru and Solomon had also noticed something was off with me, rubbing up against my legs. Well, when I opened the door to go bathe, Shiromaru quickly pulled away from me, and Solomon followed right after the departing Shiromaru. Probably, Shiromaru thought it was going to get a bath, and Solomon, seeing Shiromaru suddenly bolt, figured it might be able to score a treat from someone.
"Well, it's not like I'm in the mood to give Shiromaru a bath right now anyway, so I guess that's fine..."
Though I still felt a bit uneasy about Shiromaru's attitude, I decided to go ahead and take a bath to rest my body. By the way, what with the mental fatigue, the exhaustion from all that exercise, and on top of it all the Magic Power from the bath, I ended up falling asleep in the tub. In the end, Albert and Lion — who had been getting worried about me taking so long — had to come in and fish me out. Fortunately, when the two of them found me, they both shouted so loudly that I woke up before the women, who had come rushing into the bath alarmed by the commotion, could catch sight of me naked. Well, after I got out of the bath, I did get chewed out pretty good by Grandpa and Chris... but that was still far better than having to deal with the embarrassment of being seen completely bare.