[7] Chapter 1. Reversing the Pendulum of Time (6)
“Ilyas!”
“Hm? What.”
The road up to the capital Pomilas was quite long and arduous.
When they stopped by a small village for a night’s rest along the way, Fernciana booked lodging and immediately left the room with Ilyas. Perhaps he had finally gotten used to the motion sickness, as Ilyas’s complexion, though still a bit pale, was tolerable.
The villagers seemed accustomed to various strangers frequently passing through. They naturally engaged in solicitation, leading them to shops.
Fernciana walked past such a shopping street to a place she had taken note of since entering this village. Ilyas followed a step behind.
“Ilyas, this.”
“A wooden sword?”
Fernciana stopped in front of a blacksmith shop and pointed to a wooden sword the blacksmith had carelessly laid out.
“Buy this for me.”
“Why should I?”
Ilyas retorted in a sullen voice while munching on fruit, and Fernciana smiled brightly.
“Ruairi-ssi gave you a money pouch when he left. If I add up the carriage fare and hotel room I paid for, it would only amount to this one wooden sword, right?”
“That’s a separate matter~!”
“If you buy me this, I’ll protect you.”
“…Really?”
“It’s amazing how you flip your opinion like the back of your hand in the face of life.”
Fernciana teased Ilyas like that, but she swallowed an admiring look when Ilyas readily paid for a wooden sword and handed it to her. He couldn’t possibly truly believe that she, whose head was much smaller than his, would protect him.
“You said you’ll protect this brother? Keep your promise!”
“Yup, yup.”
The blacksmith tried to sell other products to the two, but both Fernciana and Ilyas gently refused and left. This time, Ilyas took the lead.
Fernciana followed Ilyas and glanced back at the blacksmith shop. A sword made of iron could be seen through the window inside the store. Even if it was for practice, a sword that could be used in actual combat right away would certainly be better. Yet the reason she deliberately bought a wooden sword was because she wanted to avoid it as long as possible.
‘It really hurts terribly, you know?’
She wouldn’t mind being criticized for saying comfortable things now that her environment had become more pleasant. She really wanted to avoid it as long as possible. Touching iron would blister her skin in the blink of an eye, but healing took the same time as other wounds, sometimes twice as long. Often it was an ordeal just to grip utensils, so it was really hard to be in more pain here.
‘Besides, will there be any need for such a thing?’
They were with a merchant group, and from here to the capital Pomilas, they only had to go straight up the road, almost in a straight line. The road started to be paved, and they occasionally passed people going by. Moreover, once inside the capital, there would be no need for a long sword from the perspective of an ordinary person.
Fernciana stroked the wooden sword in her bosom with a complacent thought.
“Pei-run! Hurry up!”
Ilyas, who had been walking ahead in a wobbly manner, waved his hand widely. It seemed to be a small bookstore in the neighborhood. Fernciana moved her steps to where Ilyas was, lightly running.
Since Ilyas had opened the store door first with a flourish and gone inside, Fernciana had to bump her forehead squarely against the returning door. Ilyas, who had entered first, burst into laughter without any sign of apology.
*
“…Isn’t the Tabula already well-known?”
“Huh? Oh, what did you say?”
Fernciana, who had been nodding off leisurely while basking in the sunlight coming through the window, sitting in a large rocking chair by the window on the 1st floor hall of the inn, suddenly raised her head.
Across the table, Ilyas was sitting opposite her. The light also reflected off his snowy cream-colored hair, making it sparkle. She had been blankly staring at it again, and Ilyas’s expression instantly turned grim.
“This little one is really acting like an old man.”
The words ‘I’m your older sister, you brat!’ came up to her throat and went back down. Fernciana fake coughed and changed the subject.
“Ah, no. That’s not it… The sunlight is making me sleepy. What did you say just now?”
“Isn’t the Emerald Tabula already well-known? Is there anything I need to specifically find out for you?”
Fernciana lowered her gaze to the book Ilyas was holding. It was a book he had bought from the small bookstore they had briefly visited when they went out to the village a little while ago. Fernciana had bought a wooden sword, and Ilyas had stopped by the bookstore. <Compendium of Mysterious Legends of the World>.
“Of course, I want to know many other things besides what’s known. Are you testing me?”
“…This little one.”
Perhaps the question of whether he was testing her hit the mark, as Ilyas fake coughed for a moment and uncharacteristically added an apology, saying “Sorry.” It seemed he was apologizing for trying to approach the customer to a certain extent as an information merchant. Fernciana shrugged her small shoulders.
Perhaps if she hadn’t known, she might have told him. Despite the short few days of their connection, Fernciana had no one left in the world. The only person she was constantly sticking to and talking to like this. If she knew nothing, she might have really told him everything.
‘But…’
In a few years, Ilyas would become the crown prince’s closest aide, receiving official positions and titles and commanding the political world.
And the Emerald Tabula… That rare jewel passed down through generations of the imperial family was a historic artifact that protected the emperor from assassination. If Ilyas learned the details of her purpose, he would have the most definite information to hinder her in the future.
Ilyas turned his head back to the book and muttered as if to himself.
“I didn’t ask on purpose.”
“I know.”
“Little one.”
“You keep calling me little. Must be nice to be tall.”
While giving a sharp retort through the book, Fernciana had such a thought.
In the ‘past’ when she saw him, of course she had never spoken to him and only seen him from afar, but he still seemed mysteriously cold. Even if he was slippery, he gave the impression of having no gaps, but now that she was facing him like this, he also seemed sloppy. He didn’t give the feeling of being the continent’s top information merchant.
‘But his secretary is that handsome… It must be real, right?’
“Little one. You had a silly thought, didn’t you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Seems like you did. You thought of Ruairi, didn’t you?”
“N-No, I didn’t.”
“I’m his boss, his boss!”
“A boss who gets kidnapped by his secretary?”
“As I said even then, huh? There was a misunderstanding. Ruairi is a guy whose hands move first when he’s a bit impatient.”
“Aha…”
When she stared at him with an expression of disbelief, Ilyas bit his lip hard and made a scolding face. No matter how she looked at it, it was a face that seemed to be coaxing the youngest sibling.
Fernciana rolled her eyes and sank deep into the rocking chair. Ilyas looked at Fernciana like that, chuckled, and turned his head back to the book he was reading.
Fernciana glanced at Ilyas one last time and slowly closed her eyes.
It would have been nice if she could have told him. But she wouldn’t be able to tell him, ever. Their connection would probably only last until the capital Pomilas, and after that, they would likely be enemies to each other.
As Fernciana’s consciousness sank deeper and deeper under the sunlight, Ilyas’s small muttering brushed past her ears. It seemed to be saying that she was trying to sleep without covering herself with anything. Soon, the warm and soft sensation of cloth enveloped her up to her neck.