Volume 4 Chapter 2: Where the Journey Takes Us Part I

The journey in search of Keith began.

We ride our carriage in the direction the ugly bear points as it follows Keith’s scent (well, to be precise, it’s following memories, but I can’t see it as doing anything but following a scent.)

For now, we do as the bear says – or rather, as the bear points. I don’t know whether this bear will be of any use, but right now our only lead is this bear, so it can’t be helped.

On a side note, we borrowed a rather large carriage (we did choose one that merchants or regular citizens would use just in case), so we’re not packed inside despite there being six of us.

Though well, Sora is driving the carriage for us so he isn’t sitting inside.

Inside the moving carriage, Lahna is passionately answering a small question about magic Maria had asked her. There’s no sign of her stopping talking any time soon.

Maria is listening to Lahna’s explanation intently, perhaps out of duty given that she was the one to ask the question or perhaps because of her diligent personality.

Jared, sitting in a seat up front, has been seeming rather downhearted since we left. He’s more well-behaved than usual – he simply gives one-word responses at appropriate points and smiles a fake smile.

I myself listened to Lahna’s explanation at first, but as her explanation grew in complexity, I became unable to keep up. So I started to feel drowsy and ended up dozing.

“Katarina, for the time being, we’ve reached the first town,” says Lahna, waking me up.

Looking through the window, I see a fairly large town.

It looks like we’ve reached our first town while I was napping.

At Lahna’s urging, I exit the carriage. I hear the bustle of the town.

Although it’s the first town on our journey, it’s close enough that we reached it in a half-day. However, I’ve never been here before – I’m a bit excited.

It’s been decided that we’ll start by asking around for information about Keith in this town.

“Well then, since the town is fairly large and we’ll stand out if we move around in a big group, let’s go looking for info in three groups – Katarina and I, Jared and Maria, and Sora,” Lahna suggests.

“If I can, I would prefer to be with Katarina,” Jared says, but Lahna rejects his request, saying that it’s already been decided.

Well, I don’t really care who I’m with. I just don’t want to be alone since there’s a chance that something troublesome will happen.

And so, it was decided that Lahna and I would work together.

After wandering around the town, we found that it wasn’t too different from our own town, perhaps because it wasn’t that far from it.

Still, I can’t help but nervously glance back and forth in a town I’ve never been in before.

“You’re like a country girl that came to town for the first time,” says Lahna with a wry smile, seeing my behaviour.

In this way, despite acting like country hicks, we asked around town about Keith as we walked. But we didn’t get any information.

To be honest, even putting aside my bias as his stepsister, Keith is a handsome guy who stands out. My thoughts had been lighthearted – I believed that we’d immediately find out where he was if we just asked a few people. It was a disappointment that we didn’t find out anything at all.

I feel downhearted.

“We’ve just started. It’s what happens from now on that matters. Don’t make a face like that,” Lahna comforts, “And Alexander is pointing to somewhere further ahead.”

She gestures at the bear riding on her shoulder. When I turn my gaze towards it, as expected, it looks at me condescendingly as if it’s snorting at me. It really makes me mad.

Noticing my sour expression, Lahna follows my gaze to the bear, but by the time her gaze reaches it, it’s already returned to its original expression. What an infuriating bear.

But my irritation disappears in an instant as we turn a corner. A store is there, seemingly delicious sweets displayed out front.

“Ooh… looks so good…”

Entranced by the sweets, I press against the storefront.

Ah, those are my favourite sweets. And other there, there’s sweets I’ve never seen before. I wonder how they taste?

As I stare at the sweets, my stomach lets out a loud gurgle – I’m feeling somewhat hungry. My body is so dedicated to its desires.

Right then, I hear laughter coming from behind me. Glancing back, I see Lahna laughing rather strangely.

It seems like my stomach’s loud gurgling was hilarious to her. She laughs for a while longer before continuing.

“We still have some time until we’re supposed to meet up, so do you want to buy some to eat?”

“Yes,” I naturally respond, cheerful.

I enter the sweets shop with Lahna and pick out my favourite sweets and the sweets I’ve never seen before for myself. Feeling bad grabbing sweets just for myself, I also bought snacks for everyone else.

Lahna said that she didn’t want any right now, but she did buy some featured sweets for later.

And then, we sit down on a bench and open our bags of sweets.

“Delicious…”

I throw the sweets I bought into my mouth, lost in their deliciousness. Lahna snickers again in a strange way.

“Is something the matter?”

Huh? My stomach isn’t growling anymore, right?

“No, I’m sorry. It’s just that your quickly shifting expressions are so fun to watch, I couldn’t help myself.”

“… I see.”

I can’t really tell if she’s complimenting me or what.

“It means that it’s really fun being with you, Katarina. Right now, I can understand how they feel. And why you’re someone they need in their lives as well.”

“… Who do you mean by ‘they’?” I ask, not understanding one whit of what she was saying.

Lahna just smiles meaningfully.

“What I mean to say is that I think it’s the same as how my magic is to me,” she says, not answering my question.

“How your magic is to you?”

“That’s right, for me, my magic is what gives the world colour,” says Lahna, her expression somehow calm and nostalgic, “In the past, when I was young I was bored with the world. Since I was talented, I could do most things easily. There wasn’t anything I found fun. I wasn’t a cute kid – I always was thinking that everything was boring.”

Her story was like something I heard before. About a person who was so perfect – too perfect – that they weren’t able to be interested in anything. Someone who seemed blessed, but was lonely in a way.

“But one day, someone I knew gifted me many collections of books relating to magic. My acquaintance was a little strange and gifted me mainly difficult books that even adults would have difficulty reading rather than children’s books.”

They gifted her difficult books on magic? If I had been her, I would’ve probably immediately pushed them into a corner on my bookshelf.

But Lahna apparently didn’t do that.

“I was addicted after reading just a bit. I felt that something was interesting for the first time ever – I devoured all the books I was given at once. I received quite a few books, but I finished reading them all in two, three days. And by the time I finished reading, I had become completely obsessed with this thing called magic. Fortunately, I had magic myself, so I was about to try out a lot of things, and so I got even more addicted.”

Ah I see, so that’s how Lahna became the magic geek she is today. I listen, making noises of understanding at times.

“Oh yes, you’re the second person to hear this whole story, Katarina,” Lahna says.

“What, is that so?”

I had automatically thought that it was something she told a lot of people.

“Well, it’s not really a story I want to tell just anyone. The only ones I’ve told are you and my partner, I guess?”

“Partner?”

“Yeah, my fiancé.”

“Your fiancé!?”

I was shocked. To think that Lahna, who seems to have zero interest in anything but magic, had a fiancé as well.

But no, Rafael did mention that Lahna was a noble of fairly high prestige, so well, it’s not as if it’s out of the question…

“W – what is he like?” I ask, curious.

“Eccentric,” Lahna responds shortly.

Ah, so her fiancé is that type of person…

I see. But I still kind of want to meet her fiancé at least once, just to see what kind of person he is.

Fiancé… oh, speaking of which.

“I just remembered!” I say suddenly.

“W – what did you remember!” asks Lahna, looking surprised.

“Ah, my apologies. I had been thinking that your story of your childhood sounded familiar, and I just remembered why it does.”

“Oh, and why is it familiar?”

“Ah, yes. It reminded me of Jared-sama. He told me before that he’s able to do anything and isn’t capable of being fascinated with anything.”

Well, in reality I didn’t hear it from the man himself. I just read it during the otome game’s storyline from my past life.

“I see, so Jared was the same. So he was able to safely find something that fascinates him as well.”

“…? No, I do not believe that Jared-sama has found such a thing yet?”

After all, he should’ve met Maria and fallen in love with her, thus becoming fascinated with her. But unfortunately their love didn’t bloom, so Jared shouldn’t have found anything to be fascinated with yet.

“… it’s awfully unrequited.”

“Hm?”

Lahna lets out a deep sigh for some reason.

“Well, still, it’s fortunate just that he found something that fascinated him. Just finding one such thing brightens your surroundings at once. You gradually find more and more things you find fun, after all. Just like I did,” says Lahna, laughing mischievously, “Alright, it’s time to meet back up. Should we get back to the carriage?”

And so, we returned to the carriage, each holding sweets in a hand.

When I return holding sweets, Jared says, “All you did was eat sweets, no?” so I erase his portion of the souvenir sweets.

I gave Jared’s portion to Maria, who happily exclaimed, “Wow, they look so good.”

Everyone else hadn’t been able to find any information on Keith either. So, in the carriage, we head even further out.

************

As we ate sweets inside the carriage, cheerfully talking together, we reached the next town.

We’ve gotten quite far from the academy – the town is much larger than the one we reached first.

“Woah, what a big town,” I exclaim at the scenery I can see from a carriage window.

“That’s true, it’s the biggest town in this area,” Lahna explains, “Mm. The sun has begun setting – should we rest in this town today?”

With Lahna’s statement, it was decided that we would stay in this town today.

When we leave the carriage and head out into town, it’s fairly bustling with activity, even if naturally it isn’t as much as the castle town.

There’s double the number of people compared to the last town, and plenty of stores.

Lahna and Sora have apparently visited this town before, but this is all new to everyone else.

I had never visited the town from before as well, but as it wasn’t that far from where we lived, I was mostly used to the scenery, the stores, and the goods being sold. But this town was very different.

The atmosphere was very different and the goods being sold are mostly items I’ve never seen before. I end up distracted by the variety of goods displayed by the stores.

And then I can’t help but stop when my eyes land on one such item.

“Woah, that’s cool. It’s nice… I want it…”

I’m in a cheerful mood – I feel like going around to sightsee.

“Katarina, we did not come here to have fun,” Jared interrupts.

“Ugh, you’re right.”

“But well, if there’s something that has caught your eye, shall I buy it for you? Which do you wish?”

“What, are you serious!?”

How generous, as expected from a prince.

Well, I am from a Duke’s House, but I’m the only one in the family not given much of an allowance because “we can’t have you waste money.”

And so, I need to carefully pick and choose what I want to buy, and most of it goes towards vegetable seeds, seedlings, and manure. So I’m actually pretty broke.

To make things worse, I spent quite a bit of money on sweets in the last town, so I need to save my money for the future.

Thus, I’ll accept his kind offer!

I pick up the item that had caught my eye and hold it up in front of Jared.

“It’s this!”

“What!? This is…”

I feel like I see Jared twitch a little. Then, after a little while…

“Um, what kind of tool is this?” he asks.

“I do not know. But doesn’t it seem super cool!?” I answer, somewhat excited.

The item I picked up after it caught my eye was a round tool that fit nicely in my hand. It seemed kind of like a mirror, but there was no mirror attached to it – instead, decorations adorn its rim in a circle.

I have no clue what it might be used for, but it looked like some kind of secret magical tool (much more than that ugly bear, honestly) and seemed super cool.

It looked kind of like you could summon beasts by shouting out “Come!” while holding it.

Its cool design re-awoke my otaku soul from my past life and made me want it.

At my insistences that I wanted it because it looked cool, Jared lets out a vague “I see,” then gives a realistic response: “For now, let’s ask the shopkeeper what it’s used for.”

“Oh, that’s just an ornament,” the elderly shopkeeper responds once we ask.

“Just an ornament? Is it made by someone famous?” Jared asks. The shopkeeper looks troubled.

“No, I don’t know who made it. It’s something that’s passed through a lot of different stores since no one wants to buy it. We were thinking of getting rid of it soon too – we’ve had it for quite a while but no one’s been interested in it.”

So to summarize it’s travelled all around the marketplace because no one buys it no matter where it is.

The shopkeeper says that they bought it off of it an acquaintance shopkeeper for a low price.

And so, we were able to buy it for a fairly low price. I was glad because although Jared generously offered to buy it for me, I wouldn’t have been able to ask him to buy something too expensive for me.

“Are you really happy with that?” Jared asks me a number of times.

“I’m fine with this,” I respond repeatedly.

And so he buys it for me.

“Jared-sama, thank you very much,” I thank him cheerfully, carefully putting the ornament in a pocket.

“Something so cheap… I would’ve bought you something more expensive,” he says.

“I wouldn’t accept, you’ve bought me so many vegetable seedlings and such. I would feel bad asking you for an expensive item.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. We’re engaged, aren’t we?”

“No, but…”

While it’s true that we’re engaged now, it’s just for the moment. If Jared finds someone he loves… huh, I feel like I’ve forgotten something important because all I can think about is how Keith ran away…

Jared smoothly reaches a hand and caresses my hair as I think deeply.

My heartbeat kind of rises.

“Hey, Katarina, it looks like you’ve forgotten because you can’t think about anything but Keith, but like I said before, I –”

“–Enough. So you were loitering in a place like this when I noticed that I couldn’t see you two,” says Sora, appearing suddenly and grabbing Jared’s hand.

The hand caressing my hair stops touching, and I can no longer remember the thing I was almost about to recall.

“… Sora, did you do that on purpose?” Jared asks, turning a threatening gaze to him.

It seems like Jared has suddenly gone into a bad mood even though he was all smiles a moment ago. Why in the world?

“Yes. I had been asked to, after all,” Sora responds.

“Asked to?” says Jared, raising an eyebrow in distrust.

“Yes. Lady Mary Hart submitted an official request through the Ministry of Magic to ‘ensure the safety of Katarina-sama’.”

“… Is getting in my way a part of that request?”

“Yes. Actually, that is the main goal of the request.”

“…”

Jared goes silent, his face grim.

I didn’t really understand some parts of the conversation, but the important thing was that Mary made a request to the Ministry of Magic to ensure my safety during this journey. Though this journey wasn’t really dangerous or anything, it made me happy that my friend cared about me.

What a kind friend I have.

“Well then, we’ve decided on an inn so we should head there. Lahna-sama and Maria-san are waiting there.”

That’s right, at Sora’s urging we head to today’s inn.

Jared was muttering things like “She got me,” and “To think she’d go this far.” Did something happen?