Chapter 166. The Final Night of Our Reunion.

After the trip, we went back to the manor where we were greeted with a peculiar sight. A hundred royal knights surrounded the entire manor, they were encircling the manor which showed how much protection someone like Kaori receives though that much protection is kind of useless for her, from what I can see.

“It seems like the guards are looking for us,” Mana smiled bitterly as we watched from afar.

“They already know that I will come back, don’t worry,” Kaori chuckled.

“How many times a day do you vanish for them to get used to such?” I looked at her before she averted her gaze.

“Mama Kaori causes chaos onto the entire palace ten times a day, Mama!” the immaculate Crystal replied as Kaori looked at her with a glare, “Mama also buys a lot of snacks every day from the capital and brings them to my room to hide!”

“Hey, stop talking!” Kaori immediately tried silencing the little girl, but she only received a bleh from the girl which caused all of us to laugh except for Flora and Fiona who were watching. Flora, to be exact was holding off her laughter.

After a little while, the others have calmed down as I suggested, “How about we head inside for now, how long are you four planning on staying here?”

“I think we’ll be leaving tomorrow since I can’t leisurely go around with how much work I have… why did I even bother taking over a kingdom, haaaa…” Kaori sighed as Mana and I looked at her with a bitter smile… she was right, all three of us did have work to do.

Kaori had a kingdom to manage, I have a town and Mana has her fief and businesses to take care of. Not to mention, Flora and Crystal are children who still have to go to class and even Flora has work which is being a knight while little Crystal has Princess duties which I can roughly guess what they are about.

“Hey, how about we head to a hill somewhere and camp there for the night?” Mana suggested with a smile, “It is, after all, our three-month-long reunion with each other… even though Leisha isn’t here, we should still take all the remaining time to spend with one another, right?”

“You are right… a camp over at a hill sounds nice, even a flat grassy field would be good like a garden,” I nodded before Crystal’s eyes suddenly sparkled with a dreamy look.

“Mama, are we going stargazing?!” she asked Kaori while grabbing her dress, “I always wanted to stargaze at a field!”

“You read too many stories,” Flora looked at Crystal who glared at her. Flora is quite insensitive to her little sister which makes it kind of funny, unlike Crystal who is open about everything, Flora is more open about food more than anything else, “Well… if there is barbeque then I am in…”

Like I said… she is quite open about food which makes her the greatest glutton history has seen… no, not a glutton but a tsunglutton.

Kaori looked at Crystal and patted the girl’s head as she smiled, “A little camp at a field sounds nice… I already have one in mind which doesn’t have monsters a lot and is pretty beautiful at night… well, it’s an artificial field that I ordered to make back then but forgot about it…”

“Does it have a clear view of the sky?” Mana asked.

“Do you really expect me to build a field that is covered in a thick wall?” Kaori responded back as she looked at us to which, we immediately averted our gazes… if it is Kaori then the possibility of her doing that is not zero at all, “Hey! I know what all of you are thinking!”

“Pfft—Anyhow… where is this little hiding spot that you built?” I looked at Kaori and smiled.

“It is located a little bit far away from here, but I can teleport to it, though we need someone to buy some snacks which I plan on bringing your little Succubus maid along with Flora since I want to have a talk with your maid and also Flora has the best taste in food selection,” she replied.

Leaning a bit on a tree, I looked at Kaori and asked, “How about all of us head to the marketplace instead, wouldn’t it make this more memorable? After all, this is our last meeting with all of us except for Leisha here for possibly months.”

“I agree…” Flora mumbled with a shy look.

“Mama, let’s buy pizza!” Crystal suggested.

“I feel out of place, my lady…” Fiona laughed with telepathy as I looked at her bitterly.

“Let’s go to the marketplace then, though we’ll go to the capital’s since it is much larger… is that fine with all of you?” she asked as all of us simultaneously nodded before she reached her hand out in the air as her dimensional sword materialized.

After grabbing the sword, she soon swung it to the side before a crack in space appeared. To be honest, all of the spatial cracks she makes look pretty intimidating. It’s like a black hole but without the gravitational pull, you can’t see what’s beyond the crack, but your body instinctively knows its destination is correct.

“Let’s go shopping then,” she said.

All of us both looked at each other before entering inside the spatial crack as our surrounding immediately distorted before calming down as the beautiful nightscape of the capital came into our view. The capital looked beautiful with the giant palace being situated at the very center of everything.

The palace looked very mesmerizing from afar with a giant pointed pillar that goes from the center of it reaching super high up in the skies. It looked like a sword that was pointing towards the stars, I haven’t exactly seen that structure when I came to the palace last time but from the memories of my other self, the structure has been there for as long as the kingdom existed apparently.

It is called Aethral and they call it, the guardian of the kingdom which apparently watches over the citizens' wellbeing. The myth behind the structure is that the structure was a sword of the Goddess after her battle with a certain creature that threatened the world but knowing the Goddess, it could most likely simply be some made-up talk by the people.

“Mwama… I smell boar,” Flora’s eyes suddenly sparkled which brought quite the nostalgia onto me as we walked out from the alleyway, entering inside a very crowded market with children happily running around together with their parents.

Flora looked around for a bit before she started to use her boar smell detector for a second as all of us followed behind the adorable girl who continued to use her nose as a wayfinder until a few moments later, we soon arrived at a butcher’s store where she finally stopped.

“The high-quality boar smell is here!” she said before freezing for a second as she just realized what she was doing all this time and blushed.

Crystal couldn’t hold herself and immediately started laughing as she said, “Elder sister really acts childish when it comes to her favorite food. AS E X P E C T E D O F A G L U T T O N!”

Flora couldn’t retort back and simply averted her gaze as Mana and Kaori looked at her with a smile, I patted her chubby head before walking over to the counter where the seller could be seen chopping some meat for a customer, wrapping it with a certain kind of leaf before handing it to the customer.

“Little lassies, are you here to buy some boar meat?” he looked at us and asked.

“Mhm, I want to buy a certain amount that will make us full for the night. Do you have enough?” I replied before he started frowning.

“That little brown-haired lass over there seems to be a glutton for being able to find my store which means the amount of meat you want will be five times more than what is enough for seven people… lass, are you fine with one entire boar… naturally only the meat,” he asked.

“It’s fine, how much would that cost?” Kaori replied.

“Around ten gold coins if you want the meat to be marinated in the special marinade which makes for the best barbeque night, but excluding that, it would be around two gold coins with half being the boar and the rest being labor,” he replied.

Without hesitating, Kaori took out twenty gold coins and placed them on the counter as she smiled, “Take it or leave it, make sure the marinade is as special as you call it.”

“You can count on me for that, lass!” he said before taking the twenty gold coins without hesitation as he quickly went to the other side of his counter where a large pile of large boar meat waiting. He took out his butcher knife and started to slice the meat in sizes that makes it easier to eat with a human mouth.

He then activated a fire magic crystal on the bottom of the table and cooked the meat a bit before walking over to another side where you could see the same leaf we saw a while ago together with some marinade sauce in a semi-translucent container waited. He took both and laid the leaves on a long table before dripping the marinade on it.

The entire leaf was covered in the marinade to which he then transferred over all the meat to the leaf without the meat ever touching his hands which shows his skills as compared to the modern world, there are no gloves to use for these cases and the best of butchers usually use their knives to transfer the meat around from what I can tell.

All the meat was soon placed on the long pile of leaves before he then took another long leaf and covered it with his marinade sauce before placing it on top of the meat as he then took some ropes and started to wrap it around the leaves, tightening it before nodding as he then fired up another magic crystal which continued to cook the leaf-wrapped meat for a few minutes before he turned it off as he nodded with a satisfied look.

“The meat was already pre-soaked last night, but it is soaked again with the special leaf adding to the flavor, if you want the best flavor out of the meat then leave it there for a few moments before eating it,” he said while taking the giant leaf-wrapped meat and handed it over to Kaori.

“Hmm… this smells pretty good. What is your name?” Kaori asked.

“You came to this store without knowing my name, lass?!” he looked shocked before he noticed Flora and understood immediately as he showed a proud look, “Ah… that glutton, no wonder. Well, you can go around the capital and ask for who owns this shop and not a single person would not know.”

“If we are talking about a butcher or meat seller that everyone knows in the capital then there is only one person, Joseph Rein… correct?” I looked at him and asked before he smirked.

My other self’s memory knows of him, and all nobles do as well since he is quite famous. If you were to ask someone where to buy the best quality meat for parties then every single person would definitely say Joseph Rein because of how special his meat tastes.

“Now, now lassies, don’t keep standing there. The meat will deteriorate if you don’t store it well,” he showed a grin as all of us nodded, “Thanks for the purchase!”

Afterward, all of us left the shop where Kaori swiftly stored the meat on her dimensional storage without a single person other than us noticing. We have purchased our snack for tonight which means the only thing left is to head to the field.

“Do you want to head there now or does anyone still have something to buy?” Kaori asked.

All of a sudden, a loud growl came from Fiona as she looked away which caused all of us to smile a bit as Crystal spoke, “Weird lady is hungry!”

“My lady…” Fiona telepathically spoke to me as I chuckled inside.

“No one seems to have anything left to buy, how about we head there now?” I suggested before Kaori nodded as she waved her hand, gesturing us to follow her as all of us were soon led to an alleyway with not a single person before she soon created a spatial crack.

All of us already understood what to do next and entered inside before a beautiful flat field came into our view. There were no flowers, it was simply short grass with a very crystal clear view of the starry night sky which left us in awe.

“This is the field that I asked to create, there is a wooden house over there if you don’t want to sleep on the grass. As for cooking, we can cook on that rock over there with the use of fire magic unless you want to use the kitchen which will take more time,” she said while pointing at a flat stone that seems to be sliced for the purpose of cooking.

The wooden house she pointed to was also a simple wooden house that looked pretty medieval with smoke coming from what seems to be the fireplace and glass windows. The house itself is two floors with an attic that has a pentagon glass window.

I immediately sat on the grass with a smile as Kaori took out the leaf-wrapped meat and placed it on the flat slab of stone before unwrapping the rope as she let the leaf slowly peel itself off from the meat, revealing the heavenly sight of a beautifully medium-rare, cooked meat.

The smell was so appetizing that Flora couldn’t help herself but take one and nom it in one go as Crystal looked at her and said, “My elder sister is really a glutton… at least wait until Mama says so.”

“Food is food,” Flora retorted as Crystal pouted which was adorable.

“Now, now… the two of you should really get along together. How is the meat, is it cooked enough?” Kaori looked at Flora who nodded.

“It tastes so good…” she replied which made my stomach growl as everyone looked at me with a laugh.

“You can’t blame me, looking at that meat makes me hungry,” I laughed bitterly before they smiled.

“How about we eat then?” Mana suggested as all of us nodded without hesitating.

And so, all of us started to eat before, with a full stomach, rested on the grass as we stared at the constellations at the skies. The starry night looked super beautiful as we gazed at it with the bright moon staring down at us.

“Mama, is that a unicorn?” Crystal looked at me and pointed at the constellation of Monoceros which seems to exist in this universe.

“It can be a unicorn as long as you want it to look like it,” I smiled.

“Then that must be a boar!” Flora spoke as she pointed at another constellation which seems to be the bull constellation, making me laugh a bit as I watched the two little daughters of mine who were resting on my lap.

“It must be a boar since you said so,” I giggled.

“Are you sure that looks like a boar?” Kaori looked at the constellation Flora pointed as Mana and Fiona both chuckled a bit.

Kaori was resting on the grass beside me while Mana was sitting beside me as Fiona also sat down behind us with smiles before Flora looked at us with a little bit of sad smile, “Aywumi-mwa, we can meet again right?”

“Naturally… why are you asking?” I caressed the little girl’s head.

“It’s just… I feel afraid Aywumi-mwa will leave again like last time…” she replied which made all of us smile a bit bitterly except for Fiona who doesn’t know what had happened.

I kissed both Flora’s and Crystal’s forehead with a smile, “Don’t worry… I won’t leave the two of you again, you can come to my place every time you want…. One day, we will live together again like before. Just wait for that day.”

“Promise?” she asked as I nodded.

“I promise,” I smiled before looking up at the skies for a few seconds and turning my attention back to the little children of mine as I smiled, “Now, now… how about the two of you sleep, the two of you will have quite the busy day tomorrow again.”

“Mhm… love you, Mama…” Crystal nodded before looking at her elder sister, “Let’s go to sleep now, elder sister…” before Flora looked at her and nodded as the two of them hugged me on my waist and slept together as I continued to caress their hair with my hands.

“I love you two as well…” I kissed their foreheads one more time.

“How about us?” Kaori laughed before Mana rolled her eyes.

“The two of you also want a forehead kiss?” I joked before Kaori averted her gaze a bit which signified that she kind of wanted, causing me to be embarrassed a bit as I looked at them and said, “Come a bit closer…”

They didn’t hesitate and came closer as I both gave them a kiss on their forehead before smiling, “Have a goodnight's sleep, the two of you. I love you both.”

The two looked at each other and nodded before handing a kiss on my cheeks as a warm feeling rose inside my heart, I feel happy… happier than I was in the past. I guess being transmigrated onto this world didn’t really feel bad.

‘I wasn’t alone… and I never was alone,’ I thought to myself while looking at the skies.