Chapter 11 - A Born Errand Boy at Heart
Why were there so many couples in the world?
Even though the chances of someone you liked returning your feelings were practically nonexistent.
Lizel believed it was because affection could be instilled in someone.
The moment someone realizes that another person likes them, they become conscious of that person's existence and begin watching them. And every time that affection was expressed, it became further ingrained in their mind.
If you wanted someone to like you, you had to make an effort to win their affection. One way to do that was to find the right way to express your feelings and earn their favor.
To a merchant striving to establish himself, Lizel showed his complete trust by purchasing goods while leaving every decision in the merchant's hands.
To an unemotional attendant who didn't know how to lean on others, he conveyed unprecedented, unreserved affection through the touch of his hand.
First, he made his affection clear, planting his existence firmly in the other person's mind. Then, he continued giving them what they wanted.
If he could make his affection indispensable to them—not so frequent that they took it for granted, yet not so rare that they could bear to lose it—then he had succeeded.
It was one of the methods Lizel used whenever he met someone he wanted to become close to.
It might sound like a rather underhanded tactic, but it was nothing of the sort.
It was only natural to show affection toward someone he wanted to befriend. Lizel simply had a knack for choosing exactly how to express it.
He could do this because his insight into others was exceptional, allowing him to understand what they wanted.
Lizel didn't particularly care what others thought of his methods, but there was one thing he wanted them to understand.
The affection he gave was genuine, just as the affection others came to feel for him was genuine. There was no falsehood in either.
"I understand that you're hopeless at everything except business, but come back as soon as you can."
"Hopeless...?"
"Where's your answer? Honestly, the only thing that's grown is your height."
"Ouch!"
That was why, when he saw Studd and Judge playfully bickering before their departure for the merchant nation, Lizel found the sight endearing. Unlike Gil, he didn't feel the slightest urge to tell them to hurry up.
He had, however, stepped in when Studd actually smacked Judge.
"Studd is always so harsh with me."
Judge voiced his dissatisfaction unusually bluntly, prompting Lizel to smile wryly at how close the two of them were.
Inside the carriage, which rattled gently as it rolled along, Lizel turned to glance at Judge's back as he sat at the reins.
Ahead stretched grasslands as far as the eye could see. If not for the possibility of monsters appearing, the pleasant weather would have been enough to lull him to sleep.
As one might expect, the carriage Judge owned was intended for transporting goods.
Lizel might have thought it would be easier to put everything in a bag enchanted with spatial magic. However, although he had yet to encounter one himself, he had heard that many labyrinth items were impervious to magic of all kinds.
A carriage was still necessary for transporting goods like those.
Despite being a cargo carriage, its exterior resembled that of a passenger coach.
It had a sturdy frame, and rather than canvas, its body was enclosed with wooden panels. The timber apparently came from a labyrinth, and despite its solid, hefty appearance, the carriage was said to weigh less than a covered wagon.
Designed to minimize jolting and protect delicate goods, it was far too luxurious a carriage for the owner of a single shop to possess.
It was the sort of carriage that could only be commissioned by a shop like Judge's, which frequently dealt in labyrinth items.
Still, it was clearly built for transporting cargo. There were no windows, and the only seat was positioned directly behind the driver's seat, facing the opposite direction.
A plank jutting out from the wall provided enough space for about three people to sit side by side, but thanks to Judge's thoughtfulness, it had been made remarkably comfortable.
Although there were no windows, the entire rear of the carriage could be opened for loading and unloading cargo. The section behind the driver's seat could also be opened so the driver could retrieve items.
Since they weren't carrying any goods that required special care (they did have a few items aboard, but nothing particularly delicate), both openings had been left wide open. A refreshing breeze, faintly scented with earth, flowed through the carriage.
Because Judge sat higher up, his back was level with the backs of Lizel and the others' heads, but that posed no problem for conversation.
They could hear the horse's hooves striking the natural road, its surface packed firm by countless travelers.
"I was imagining something a little more like a covered wagon."
"Wha—? There's no way I could make you ride in something like that, Lizel-san...!"
"You really didn't have to go to so much trouble. But this is very comfortable. Thank you."
As Lizel said, this was an extraordinarily comfortable ride for an adventurer's first escort mission.
Unless they were high-ranking adventurers, it was hardly unusual for them to be crammed into whatever space remained between the cargo.
Normally, they had to endure motion sickness and aching backs in a cheap carriage until they finally reached their destination.
And yet... Gil thought, glancing briefly at the seat beneath him.
What had once been an ordinary plank was now covered with fabric, with padding filling out the backrest and turning the seat into something as soft as a cushion.
Gil himself didn't particularly like escort missions and rarely accepted them, but even he could tell this was exceptional treatment.
Wondering whether this was really appropriate for Lizel's first escort job, he leaned his head back.
Peering over the top of the open backrest, he saw nothing but grasslands stretching into the distance.
"Gil? Did you see something?"
"...They haven't noticed us. Keep going straight."
"Y-yes!"
Judge had no idea what Gil had spotted, but he tightened his grip on the reins.
Lizel also knelt on the seat and leaned forward to look, but he couldn't see anything.
"What was it?"
"Probably a pack of Windcutter Wolves."
"Probably?"
"That was the sort of presence I sensed."
Gil let out a single yawn and leaned back against the seat. Lizel glanced outside once more, still no closer to understanding what Gil meant.
"You often talk about sensing presence and killing intent, Gil, but I can't sense any of that at all."
"You get used to it."
"How am I supposed to get used to it?"
"Uh... Maybe spend some time somewhere you'll die if you can't sense the presence of what's around you."
As he said this, Gil felt a sudden, ominous premonition and turned to look at Lizel.
Just as he'd expected, Lizel seemed to be seriously considering the idea, so Gil simply told him to forget about it.
From experience, Gil knew all too well that Lizel was the sort of person who could be perfectly intelligent and still go ahead and do something stupid without a second thought.
Watching Judge's back tremble at their alarming conversation, Gil sighed.
"Hey, you know what to do, right, employer?"
"Huh? Y-yes?"
"If monsters show up—"
"I stop the horse and get inside the carriage!"
Judge himself had made the trip to Marcade many times before.
Of course, he'd always had escorts with him, and there had never been a single ten-day round trip without encountering monsters at least once.
He'd learned to alert his escorts when monsters were approaching, and he'd even developed a little courage when it came to passing by monsters that showed no interest in them.
Of course, whenever monsters appeared, he'd still flee from the driver's seat into the carriage on the verge of tears. By now, he'd gotten quite used to that routine.
That's more or less how things normally go, Gil thought as he explained it to Lizel, glancing up at the carriage ceiling.
Incidentally, Gil's explanations were rough in tone and disjointed in delivery, but since he stuck to the essentials, Lizel found them easy to understand.
"Hey, does the top open?"
"T-the top?"
"The ceiling."
"Oh, yes. You just push it and it opens... How did you know?"
Just as Judge had said, it opened when pushed. There was no handle on this side.
True to a carriage designed with airtightness in mind, there were no visible gaps. Only a faint outline marked the panel, barely noticeable even when Lizel examined it closely.
It had presumably been designed that way to allow cargo to be removed from above as well.
"Then listen. Even if a monster spots us, keep going until it gets within fifty meters."
"...What?!"
"Stopping every time would just waste time, wouldn't it?"
Judge turned around with an expression of utter disbelief.
Normally, the moment a monster turned its attention toward them from a distance, the carriage would be stopped. Honestly, that alone was terrifying enough.
And yet Gil was telling him to keep going, which meant proceeding as though nothing was happening without even slowing down.
The adventurers Judge knew were no pushovers themselves, but none of them had ever told him to do anything like that.
"A-are you going to attack them from a distance with magic...? But you said you couldn't cast it repeatedly, and that it was difficult to aim from inside a carriage..."
"It's not magic, so it'll be fine. He's the one doing it."
"Hmm, I've never tried shooting from on top of a carriage before... I wonder if I'll hit anything."
"What the hell are you talking about? You're the guy who can casually bang off shots while walking and still hit his targets."
Resting his elbow on the backrest, Gil looked down at Lizel and spoke in exasperation.
Despite wondering aloud whether he could do it, there wasn't a trace of anxiety on his face.
Even while walking and talking, Lizel could shoot straight through a target without difficulty whenever Gil indicated the direction. Shooting from atop a moving carriage should be no problem for him; from his perspective, he would still be stationary. Besides, the magic gun itself floated in midair, so it wouldn't be affected by the carriage's vibrations.
"Manipulating magic requires a delicate touch, you know. Honestly..."
"But you can do it."
"Well, I suppose I can."
Gil retorted as Lizel grumbled under his breath, but he understood that Lizel wasn't wrong.
Normally, spells that require the manipulation of magical power don't demand precise control over the direction of the magic itself.
Take a fireball, for example. It doesn't have a front, back, left, or right. Usually, its trajectory is simply guided toward the target.
Even among magic users, very few could manage even that. Lizel's magic gun, however, had a specific orientation of its own, requiring him to set the precise angle toward his target while also controlling its powerful recoil.
The concentration required to do all that while walking and talking, along with the mental capacity to process multiple things simultaneously, was clearly extraordinary.
There was no way someone like that would suddenly struggle to aim just because he was standing on top of a carriage.
Of course, Gil understood that it would take a toll on Lizel, so if monsters appeared too frequently, he intended to take care of them himself.
Though it wasn't as if an ordinary carriage escort mission would involve that many monsters in the first place.
"Lizel-san, that thing..."
Judge, who had frozen in place, suddenly began moving again.
Even while Judge had been frozen stiff, the horse had continued along the designated route. It must have had an extraordinary level of trust in its master.
Brushing his windblown hair behind his ear, Lizel pretended to take the gun out of his pouch.
It would be difficult to pass it off as anything else if he simply made the gun appear and disappear in an instant.
"Would you like to see it? Here."
"Huh? W-wait...!"
Lizel turned around and held out the gun.
In a panic, Judge checked that the road ahead was straight before accepting it with one hand.
Its solid weight left no doubt that it was a real gun, and Judge was bewildered by the claim that Lizel used this thing as a weapon.
"Hey."
"It's fine."
Gil glanced at Lizel with a suspicious expression and asked in a low voice.
Judge would surely realize that it wasn't an ordinary gun. Gil couldn't imagine Lizel intended to reveal his secret, so he wondered what the hell he was up to. Yet Lizel continued smiling as serenely as ever.
After examining it for a while, Judge tilted his head with a puzzled, "Huh?" Just as expected.
"This isn't an ordinary gun, is it?"
"That's right. That's why I use it."
"The bullets are crystals... No, wait, maybe they're magical power... But it doesn't look like they can be replenished."
Gil had expected him to see through it, but even he was impressed by how detailed Judge's appraisal was.
Being able to discern the properties of an object from another world was nothing short of remarkable.
Watching Judge examine the weapon with satisfaction, Lizel lightly pointed at its bullets.
"Exactly. You can't infuse it with magic, can you?"
"That's right... I've never heard of bullets made of magical power before, but... it is a labyrinth item, after all."
If it's from a labyrinth, there's nothing you can do about it. That rule applied to labyrinth items, too.
No matter how absurd something might be, everyone was willing to accept it with a simple, "Well, it's from a labyrinth, so what can you do?" For Lizel, that was incredibly convenient.
"When I opened the treasure chest, it absorbed almost all my magical power. That probably triggered something, so now only my magic can get inside."
"Only your magic...? It doesn't look like it's made of a material that conducts magical power, but I suppose things like that can happen."
(No, they can't.)
"Oh, but what about the recoil...?"
"Of course there is. I've just figured out how to work around it."
As the two chatted away amicably, Gil fired off one incredulous retort after another in his head.
Both at Lizel, who lied so casually, and at Judge, who swallowed every word without a second thought.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to come up with an excuse now, in case Lizel ever had to fight alongside someone other than Gil in the future.
If he could fool even Judge, who possessed such an exceptional eye for appraisal, then there was practically no chance anyone else would discover the truth.
As Gil sighed, Lizel gave him a smile that suggested he saw right through him.
"And that's the story we're going with, Gil."
"Got it. I'll say I was there when you obtained it, too."
"Brilliant as always."
Lizel whispered so that Judge wouldn't hear, and Gil nodded, agreeing that they needed a convincing story.
There would always be people who, upon seeing someone in possession of a valuable item, would forcefully level baseless accusations against them.
They might try their luck with Lizel, but few people would dare complain to Gil.
"Ah..."
Perhaps his instincts as a shopkeeper had kicked in. Judge had been examining the gun intently, and just as he returned it to Lizel and turned his attention back to the road, he suddenly spoke up.
The moment Judge uttered that brief exclamation, his grip on the reins tightened.
Far across the grasslands, scattered silhouettes of monsters were gradually growing larger.
Lizel glanced at Gil, who nodded in confirmation. The monsters must have noticed them and were heading their way.
Judge went pale at the sight of the silhouettes approaching from diagonally ahead. Although Lizel couldn't see his face from the seat, he easily guessed how Judge was feeling and gave him a reassuring pat on the back.
"I'll protect you. Don't worry."
Once he felt the tension leave Judge's body beneath his hand, Lizel stood up.
He remained perfectly steady inside the exceptionally well-built carriage as he looked up at the hatch directly above him.
He pushed up against it with both hands. After a slight resistance, the hatch opened smoothly—a testament to how well it had been maintained.
"...Gil, I can't climb up."
"Huh? Your hands can reach it just fine."
"Please stop assuming everyone can do pull-ups."
Gil, who could lift his entire body with one arm, wouldn't understand.
How many grown men could pull themselves up onto a roof just by grabbing hold of an edge?
The high ceiling, designed to accommodate Judge's tall stature, only made things worse. After all, the hatch hadn't originally been intended as an exit.
Judge began trembling with anxiety again at their exchange. Lizel's earlier reassurance had been rendered completely meaningless.
"L-Lizel-san...! Please don't push yourself...!"
"As I said, it's fine. Gil."
"Mm."
Thanks to the gun, Judge had finally managed to picture Lizel fighting in battle. But now he found himself once again unable to imagine Lizel doing anything of the sort.
Oblivious to Judge's thoughts, Lizel called out to Gil, who extended one hand toward him without getting up from his seat.
Realizing what Gil meant by holding out his hand as though inviting him to take a seat, Lizel smiled wryly.
"Should I take my shoes off?"
"Just hurry up."
Keeping one hand on the hatch above, Lizel placed one foot in Gil's palm.
Gil's arm remained extended without any additional support, and it didn't budge in the slightest, even when Lizel put his full weight on it.
What kind of muscles did it take to pull off something like that? Looking down at the arm that appeared slender even by an adventurer's standards beneath his clothes, Lizel hoisted himself up in one smooth motion.
Once he had pulled himself up to his waist, the rest was easy. He climbed out and stepped onto the gently curved roof.
Waving to Judge, whose head rose just above the roofline as he turned around anxiously, Lizel shifted his attention to the monsters in question.
The creatures that had been little more than distant silhouettes were now close enough for him to identify them clearly.
Green Hyenas. He'd never encountered them in person before, but he remembered them from a monster encyclopedia.
Their fur was a dull greenish brown, and their relatively large bodies bounded toward them. Perhaps because they inhabited the grasslands, they were well suited to moving across the open terrain.
There were eight of them in all, apparently a pack, and the way they charged forward was a perfect picture of a hunt. If he hadn't been their prey, Lizel might even have found the sight beautiful.
"Lizel-saaaan..."
"Just keep going as you are. It'll be fine."
Offering yet another reassurance, Lizel walked across the roof, bent down, and gently patted Judge on the head.
Judge didn't even seem to have the presence of mind to feel embarrassed. His eyes darted nervously between Lizel and the hyenas, making it clear just how frightened he was.
Maybe it's a little hurtful to be considered that unreliable, Lizel thought, smiling as he took out his gun.
"Is the horse okay with loud noises?"
"Huh? Yes... It should be all right with most things..."
A moment later, a sharp, bursting sound rang out in Judge's ears.
Before the echo of the first shot had even faded, another sharp burst rang out. Completely bewildered, Judge flinched.
A few seconds passed without him understanding what had happened. When he finally realized the noise had stopped, he cautiously opened his eyes, which he hadn't even noticed he'd squeezed shut.
Judge timidly looked up at him, and Lizel gently stroked his shoulder to calm him down.
"There, all done."
"Huh...?"
Not understanding what Lizel meant, Judge stared blankly in the direction the hyenas had been charging from just moments earlier.
No matter how hard he looked, the hyenas were nowhere to be seen. Looking more closely, he spotted patches of greenish-brown fur half-hidden among the grassland vegetation.
Stunned, Judge turned back to Lizel and saw the magic gun hovering motionlessly beside him, almost as though keeping him company.
"How did you...?"
"Oh, this? It's to compensate for the recoil. I'm controlling it with magic."
Slowly, Judge began to process the answer he'd received to his question, which he'd asked without really knowing what he wanted to ask.
The horse, which continued steadily onward despite Judge being completely useless at the moment, could only be described as exceptional.
Judge hadn't known much about magic to begin with, and his confusion only made it easier for him to accept Lizel's explanation at face value.
"Hate to interrupt this heartwarming moment, but there are two more."
Hearing the voice from below, Lizel tilted his head slightly with a quiet, "Hm?"
"Where are they, Gil?"
"Friends of the ones from earlier, closer to our direction of travel. Probably lying in wait."
"I was hoping they'd run away."
Lizel tried to follow Gil's instructions, but the monsters were still too far away for him to see where they were hiding.
"Monsters really are something else," he murmured, standing up and readying his magic gun.
He fired several shots at the likely hiding spots. The monsters revealed themselves and charged at them, so he intercepted them just as he had the others.
Only after confirming that there were no more monsters in sight did Lizel finally make the magic gun disappear.
"All right, I'll head back inside now. Do your best driving, too, Judge-kun."
"Y-yes!"
"But it's quite a drop when you look down from here... Gil."
"What are you, some kind of sheltered lady?"
Watching Lizel disappear through the hatch in the roof to the sound of Gil's exasperated voice, Judge tightened his grip on the reins, his mind clearly elsewhere.
Not that tightening his grip made any difference. The horse was capable enough to follow the road on its own, so there was no need to worry.
Judge suddenly remembered a conversation from the other day and mentally placed a frame around the scene he'd just witnessed.
How much would a painting of that moment be worth?
"Lizel-san and his gun... That might fetch quite a price..."
Naturally, his quiet murmur reached Lizel and the others, who had returned to the carriage directly behind him. Needless to say, this prompted a conversation along the lines of, "Wait, am I going to be sold?"
Camp
Their journey was progressing smoothly, since they didn't need to slow down or stop the carriage every time they spotted monsters.
As it turned out, they hadn't encountered any more monsters since that earlier incident, allowing them to cover far more ground than planned.
By nightfall, they had traveled roughly two days' worth of distance.
The carriage was lightly loaded, and with only three people aboard and its excellent construction, the horse still seemed to have plenty of stamina left.
However, they weren't reckless enough to travel through the night, nor were they in such a hurry that they needed to. As planned, they began preparing to make camp.
"Judge-kun, is there anything I can—"
"It’s fine! Please, just sit back and relax!"
That said, Judge was the only one doing any of the preparations.
He seemed to positively glow as he busied himself with cooking. He must really enjoy it.
Lizel wasn't particularly desperate to help, either. And if someone asked whether he was confident in his cooking, the honest answer would be that he'd never tried it.
He'd only get in Judge's way while the latter worked so efficiently, so sitting quietly and staying out of the way was probably his best option.
"Gil, are you good at cooking?"
"...I can make something edible, I guess."
"That's amazing."
At Lizel's words, Gil resolved never to let him handle a kitchen knife. Not ever.
Lizel was generally good at just about anything he tried, but every now and then, he'd do something utterly outrageous. Gil didn't even want to imagine what would happen if cooking turned out to be one of those exceptions.
Knowing Lizel's background, it was easy for Gil to imagine that someone who'd been a nobleman had never once cooked for himself.
Lizel seemed eager to learn just about anything. Standing beside Judge, he mimicked the man's movements, wielding an imaginary knife and pretending to cook. His technique looked perfectly fine, at least.
When the delicious aromas began wafting through the air, Judge eagerly pulled a table and chairs out of a trunk enchanted with spatial magic.
He proceeded to arrange them inside the spacious carriage.
Judge was so thorough that he even spread a white tablecloth over the table. Gil looked exasperated, while Lizel smiled wryly.
With service this attentive, they might find themselves reluctant to accept escort requests from anyone other than Judge.
They took their seats at Judge's invitation, and he set down glasses and bottled water for them.
"Spatial magic is wonderful, isn't it?"
"You don't have that where you're from, do you?"
"Once I get used to it, going back home is going to be rough."
When Judge stepped outside to check on the cooking, Lizel looked down at his own pouch, wondering if there was any way he could take spatial magic home with him.
If something like this could differ between two worlds so remarkably similar in every other aspect, he had a feeling it might simply be impossible to reproduce in his own world.
"One day, let's go find a mage who can enchant things with spatial magic."
"...Mages who specialize in spatial magic are extremely rare."
"I've never met one, either."
If even Judge, who dealt in magical goods, had never met one, perhaps such mages were kept under particularly tight protection.
Or perhaps, if spatial magic was equivalent to teleportation magic in Lizel's original world, it was something determined by one's lineage.
While he pondered these possibilities, dish after dish was laid out on the table. There was absolutely no mistaking what kind of meal it was.
"Gil, he's served us a full-course meal."
"That guy hasn't used anything but a frying pan."
The only real difference was that the dishes weren't being served one course at a time.
The dishes covering the entire table looked so exquisite that calling them a perfect royal banquet would hardly be an exaggeration.
Prepared by Judge's enthusiastic hands, the meal was so flawlessly executed that even Lizel couldn't find a single thing out of place.
If the dishes had been transported here using spatial magic, Lizel wouldn't have questioned it.
But food couldn't actually be stored in spatial magic, so just as Gil had said, every dish had genuinely been made using nothing but a single frying pan.
"Please, help yourselves."
They followed Judge's cheerful invitation and began eating. Needless to say, the food was delicious.
"Lizel-san... You really suit the role..."
"Not at all."
(He is a professional, after all.)
They made Judge sit down and join them for the meal instead of letting him devote himself entirely to serving them.
The moment he took his seat, his lively demeanor faded, and he returned to his usual, slightly timid self.
Although the meal looked exactly like a proper full course, nobody seemed particularly concerned about appearances, so they chatted freely as they ate.
"Come to think of it, we're camping for the night. Do we need to take turns standing watch?"
"The carriage has a monster repellent enchantment, but we'll still need someone on watch."
Monster repellents were little more than a precaution.
All they did was make monsters feel vaguely reluctant to approach. Naturally, some monsters couldn't care less.
And since the horse was tethered outside, someone would still need to keep watch through the night.
"I-I can..."
"You've been driving the carriage all day, so please get some proper rest."
Judge volunteered, but Lizel turned him down.
Of course, when there were multiple clients, they would take turns standing watch as well. But Judge was their only client.
There would be no point in letting Judge, who had spent the entire day driving, exhaust himself completely.
"Let me take the first watch. I'm not too confident I could wake up if I'm fast asleep."
"Oh, that's surprising..."
"This guy's always hard to wake up."
"How rude. I'm not that bad."
Since Lizel and Gil could take turns resting inside the carriage, it was only natural that the two of them would stand watch.
Lizel wondered whether he would actually be of any use standing watch.
He could handle things just fine if he could see the monsters, but he had absolutely no idea how to sense their presence or anything of the sort.
Gil offered to handle the entire watch himself, saying he could sleep during the day instead, but Lizel refused to let him do that.
As a matter of course, Lizel ended up taking the first watch, while Judge once again handled all the cleanup after dinner by himself.
Lizel tried to offer a hand with the cleanup, at least, but the now-animated Judge refused his help once again.
Come to think of it, whenever Lizel visited Judge's shop, the man was always polishing or organizing merchandise. Perhaps he was the sort of person who couldn't relax unless he had something to keep his hands busy.
As he looked at the thick mat and blankets laid out inside the carriage, Lizel reflected on how different Judge's brisk, energetic movements were from his usual demeanor.
"He's the type who loves taking care of others."
"Cooking and all that... He's surprisingly versatile."
The mats laid out across the spacious carriage looked unbelievably comfortable to sleep on.
If word of this got out, there would be no shortage of people jumping at the chance to accept an escort request whenever he put one up.
Glad he'd accepted the job, Lizel settled into a chair beside the campfire. Naturally, it was wonderfully comfortable.
Judge had provided the chair with an indignant, "I can't possibly make Lizel-san sit on the ground...!" Judging by the way he'd put it, perhaps he hadn't offered chairs to his previous escorts.
Perhaps this was also the first time he'd gone to such lengths with the cooking and all the other thoughtful touches. Lizel entertained the thought for a moment, then decided to stop there. He wanted Judge to remain the sweet, straightforward young man he seemed to be.
"Do you think it'll be all right if I read a book?"
"As long as you don't get too absorbed in it."
"Then you need to get plenty of rest, Judge-kun."
"Y-yes!"
"Good night."
"G-good night!"
As he took out his book, Lizel smiled at Judge, who was still looking at him with an apologetic expression.
He made sure to remind Judge to get some proper rest, lest the young man feel too guilty to relax.
He watched Judge duck into the carriage while fidgeting bashfully, then he gave Gil a casual wave as well.
"Call me if anything happens."
"You need to get some proper sleep, too. Otherwise, I won't switch shifts with you."
"Idiot."
Gil muttered the word in an exasperated voice and climbed into the carriage.
Imagining the two tall men lying side by side, Lizel had to resist the urge to peek inside and see for himself.
He'd get to see them when it was time to change shifts anyway. Looking forward to that, he turned his gaze away from the half-closed rear door.
He opened the book he'd been reading.
The faint scent of earth and the gentle breeze were soothing.
The only sound was the faint rustling of leaves in the trees. The darkness of the night seemed to amplify the silence, lending the surroundings a profound stillness.
The flickering flames weren't exactly ideal for reading, but Lizel smiled softly, deciding that a night like this wasn't so bad every once in a while.
***
[Author’s Note]
Food can be stored in spatial magic, but only if it's in a container, like a plastic food-storage box.
If you put the food in directly, it'll end up splattering everywhere when you put it in or take it out. Alternatively, the food will come out without its plate and splatter everywhere anyway. It's a rather inconvenient design, in a subtle sort of way.
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