CH 548.1

Weekend outing.

“How nice… a holiday spent outside with the Sacred Beasts… I have a question though, do you need me to escort you?”

“N, not at all… we are just visiting my home.”

Teacher Neil offered to escort the group with an ulterior motive for wanting to go along, but I politely declined.

“I see… you won’t need guards with Sacred Beasts beside you, and I couldn’t be one in the first place. Hah~ what a pity.”

Teacher Neil’s shoulders slumped with disappointment.

I wondered in what world teachers escort their students like that… but I was able to get a permission for everyone to stay out overnight without incident.

Then came the weekend.

After returning to the special dormitory after classes, we immediately headed for the front gate with a few small pieces of hand luggage.

Actually, most of our luggage was in our inventories, but we decided to carry nearly empty bags to camouflage the fact that we were going to stay out overnight. On the street leading to the main gate were students who, like us, had been given permission to go out and were hurrying to the boarding area just outside the main gate to catch a ride on a stagecoach.

If you are planning to do some shopping in the Capital, the stagecoaches are unfortunately the busiest on weekend mornings and evenings.

Therefore, students whose parents have homes in the Capital should avoid this and return home right after class, because they could get on the stagecoach with relatively short wait.

Since I had arranged for Miria to pick us up, there was no need to hurry, so we headed leisurely to the main gate.

Miria was supposed to wait near the main gate first because she had to load her own luggage.

I offered to put her luggage in my Inventory as well, but she was adamant, saying, “I can’t let you carry a servant’s luggage, Cristea-sama…”

It wasn’t heavy, so why not?

When we arrived at the square in front of the main gate, the carriage with the crest of the Ellisfeed family was waiting for us.

“Cristea-sama, over here.”

“Oh, Tea. I have been waiting for you.”

“Oniisama!?”

Eh, why is he here?

Seeing me with a question mark on my face, Oniisama made a proud face as if his prank had succeeded.

“I heard from Miria that you were going home, so I thought I’d come too. I wanted to surprise you, so I told Miria to keep it secret.”

“Umm, Cristea-sama. I was thinking that since Norman-sama was planning on returning home as well, there was no need to go through the trouble of arranging a second carriage, so…”

I see… that’s right, before arranging a carriage home, I should have asked Oniisama about his plans.

This is my fault, so I should thank Miria for her tactfulness.

“Thank you, Miria. I’m sure Otousama and Okaasama will be delighted to see you return as well, Oniisama.”

“Fufu, I think they have been eagerly waiting for you to return much more, Tea. Well, get on board, everyone. Oh my? That reminds me, are the Sacred Beasts house-sitting?”

“Oh, they will warp over later to stay out of public eye.”

It seems that Oniisama was wondering why Mashiro and the others were nowhere to be seen, but the Duke’s carriage and the members riding already attract too much attention, and it would get even worse with the Sacred Beasts on board, since they were the talk of the town. Although, a single carriage would be over capacity with them in their humanoid forms anyway.

“Senior Norman, Miss Cristea, thank you for taking care of us on this occasion.”

“Ah, e, err, thank you for your care!”

As soon as the carriage began to run, Sei thanked us, and Mariel-chan hurriedly followed suit.

“You are just coming to stay at a friend’s house for the night, so there’s no need to feel self-conscious about it. Rather, thank you for always being so friendly with Tea.”

“Oniisama… you are too overprotective.”

“Fufu. It’s because before you enrolled, you were so anxious about making friends. I’m really glad you’re having fun now.”

“Oniisama… please stop embarrassing me, geez.”