Chapter 149 : Forgetting the Capital

TL:SummerPeanut

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Right now I'm sleeping between Clarice and Ellie. As usual, Clarice is on my right and Ellie is on my left.

I slept the same way at the fort in the Margrave Isaac territory, but there is one thing that is different from that time. That is the way Clarice and Ellie are dressed.

They said they wanted my things because they were going to be separated from me, so of course I said yes, but they chose my shirts.

I washed it well, but they said it smelled like me. ...And they put the shirt on and came into the bed where I was sleeping and hugged me, asking for “more Mars-ium”.

A beautiful woman in a baggy Y-shirt and short shorts… T-that’s bad... This is where the Wand of Sage (Fake) comes in...

I wanted their personal belongings too, but I didn't tell them that. Ellie always falls asleep right away when she sleeps next to me. Not quite the level of Nobita-kun, I suppose, but she fell asleep in less than a minute. And she sleeps like forever. Unless I wake her up, she continues to sleep...

Clarice is also sleepy, but she's struggling to stay awake. Normally she would still be awake at this time, but it’s only normal to get sleepy when one gets into the bed.

“This is the first time we'll be apart ever since Grantham...”

Clarice whispered to me.

“Yeah...sorry. It's a Bryant family situation... and I also don't want to be away from you two... That’s why I'll be on my way there as soon as January comes.”

I told Clarice the above, and Clarice replied.

“Maybe I'm still good... Because Ellie's there... If I was alone maybe I would have said I didn't want to separate... I don't want to separate from Mars, but I don't want the same with Ellie either. Before I know it, Ellie became important to me too..."

These words made me very happy. I know Ellie adores Clarice. After all, Clarice was the one who broke Ellie's curse.

I knew that Clarice dislike Ellie, but I was a little curious as to how she actually felt about her.

I don't know if Ellie was listening to this conversation, but I feel her hugging of my left arm slightly stronger now. I talked to Clarice for a bit afterward, and before I knew it, I fell asleep too.

6 December 2030, 5:00 am.

I woke up a little earlier and tried to watch them sleep, but something unexpected happened. They were both sleeping in my shirts from yesterday. And their baggy shirts were open. Even though they were wearing underwear, it seems the saying that early bird gets the worm, is true.

I was admiring the spectacular view when Clarice woke up.

“Good morning.”

I said, and Clarice kissed me.

“Good morning.”

She answered back.

I kissed Ellie and soon she woke up too and buried her face in my neck as usual.

We're leaving at eight o'clock today, so we have to get a lot of things done first. I wanted to spend more time with the three of us, but we quickly got ready and headed for the living room. Even though it was early in the morning, Zeke and Van were already awake.

Ike and senior glasses are not awake yet, so the five of us finished eating first.

Ike and senior glasses woke up when Zeke and Van went to make their rounds of the town, and while Clarice, Ellie, and myself were relaxing in the living room.

Ike's face is not so bright, while senior glasses’s face is glistening.

“What's wrong? Did something happen last night?”

I asked Ike in a whisper. It was possible that this was the first time Ike and senior glasses had slept in a room together. It is strange that two young people sleep in the same room together at night and nothing happened.

“...as soon as Ede entered the room, she fell asleep, apparently tired from the spartan instructions of yours and the nervousness of meeting father all at once.”

Apparently, nothing happened yesterday... I'll lend Ike the Wand of Sage (Fake) next time.

At eight o'clock the ladies were ready for their journey, so the six of us - myself, Ike, Clarice, Ellie, senior glasses and Van - left West Rimurgarde.

I and Ike accompanied them for about half an hour from West Rimurgarde, and we decided to separate from the four of them after checking the safety of the surroundings.

We drove the carriage for half an hour, and when we judged that the surroundings were relatively safe with no signs of magic beasts, I got off the carriage and embraced Clarice and Ellie in a passionate embrace.

“Mars. When you come back, don't bring a fifth with you, alright.”

Clarice said to me jokingly. Ellie said nothing, just buried her face in my neck. I nodded silently at Clarice's words. Because if I said anything, she would know I was in tears.

When we were about to leave, Clarice put something like a piece of cloth in my hand. Ellie also put something like a cloth in my other hand.

“If you ever get lonely, just think of these as us.”

Clarice seemed to be trying very hard to hold back her tears, but it didn't seem to be happening. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Ellie seemed to have been crying for a little while and without saying anything, she just waved her hand and got into the carriage, Clarice followed.

When Clarice got into the carriage, senior glasses who was hugging Ike also got on the horse next to Van and the carriage moved away from us.

In the end, I didn't say a firm goodbye to Clarice and Ellie. This is because I felt like saying goodbye would raise a flag. A cold thing runs down my cheeks... As expected, I couldn't bear it...

I tried to look at the nice textured cloth in my hand so Ike wouldn't see it.

This is probably something ... I'm sure I wear on my skin all the time ... probably a treasure I can't even show Ike. I sneak a look and it was a handkerchief something that I never wear. Maybe Clarice and Ellie saw me crying and gave me this.

When the carriage was out of sight, we too headed back towards West Rimurgarde. As we ran and reached the front of the West Rimurgarde house, Ike was out of breath.

“Mars, are you fine running at this speed? This is quite the speed, isn’t it? Are you using magic or something?”

“It does indeed tire you out a bit, doesn't it? I don't use magic. I run more than 20 km every day in less than an hour...”

Ike was immensely surprised at my words. He looked very tired, so I whispered to Ike so that no one could hear.

“Do you want me to Heal you?”

“No, I want to practice the spear when I'm at this exhaustion level. I need to be able to keep swinging the spear even when I'm tired in a real battle. I haven't been able to move much lately, so this seems like a good opportunity.”

As expected of Ike. It's true that it's no go if you can't swing a sword or a spear when you're tired in a real battle. Maybe I need to do something more tiring in the morning training too...

Before going inside the mansion, Ike and I decided to do some sword and spear training. It had been a long time since I had a hand-to-hand combat with Ike, but Ike's spear was powerful. However, I sometimes feel his fatigue and his thrusts are a bit shaky.

His hand holding the spear is also slipping from sweat. I think we fought for a longer time in the spring room of the Irgusia labyrinth, but at that time we were already strong enough to not need to give our all if we were only fighting goblin generals.

After about an hour of training we decided to take a bath. Again, Ike was surprised when we both went into the bathroom we had built yesterday.

“Mars... you... what's with your body...? Do you work out?"

“Yes. I do this every morning too, you know? Some say I've always been muscular though...”

Ike chuckled.

“I'll make running and strength training part of my routine next year too.”

After getting out of the bath, Ike and I headed towards the watchtower. By the way, Zeke is the temporary Lord of the city so it seems that he’s out on a patrol.

When we talked to the adventurer guarding the watchtower, he told us that in the past the magic beasts used to attack sporadically, but recently they have been attacking in batches, as they did yesterday.

According to the adventurer, "There were two attacks yesterday, so they won't be coming today.”

Ike and I told Zeke, who was talking with the residents of West Rimurgarde, that we would look around outside the town, and then we went outside.

There were some adventurers outside the town. Apparently they were taking it in turns to be scouts. If this many people are keeping a close watch, they won't be taken by surprise.

When I was training with Ike because we had some free time, I saw a group of people heading east from the west… In other words, Rimurgarde.

There were eleven of them, and even from a distance I could sense that they were a strong group. They were not people who had left from West Rimurgarde. ...who could they be?

Ike and I were watching the group. Then the group on the other side seemed to have noticed us too. One of the group came over to us.

“Those uniforms are from the Lister Imperial School, right? You're in danger here! Go back quickly."

He seemed concerned and went out of his way to warn us. Even in the Kingdom of Balkus, they can tell that you are a student of the Lister Imperial School by looking at this uniform.

“Yes. Thank you for the warning. Where are you all going? It's quite dangerous ahead as it's Rimurgarde, don't you think?”

Ike asked the man who advised him.

“We're precisely going to that Rimurgarde. We're an A-rank party."

Oh my God! I got to come here and talk to someone from an A-rank party! And he seems like a pretty nice guy. They even went out of their way to warn us that it's dangerous here.

“A rank party! That's amazing! Please tell us the name of your party!"

“It's Ice Emperor] and Morning Star]. I'm the sub-leader of Morning Star, Luck. It's really dangerous, so be careful!”

Saying this, Luck returned to the group. Luck... As a party member of the A-rank party, he’s strong in his own way, but he wasn't as outstanding as Guster. Well, even if there's only one A-rank adventurer, it's still considered as an A-rank party.

Name: Luck

Title: -

Status: Human, commoner

Condition: Good

Age: 25 years old

Level: 42

HP: 182/182

MP: 20/20

Strength: 62

Agility: 48

Magic: 18

Dexterity: 50

Durability: 59

Luck: 5

Special Ability: Knifemanship (Lv6/D)

Special Ability: Spearmanship (Lv7/C)

Special Ability: Axemanship (Lv6/D)

Special Ability: Earth Magic (Lv 2/F)

Equipment: Halberd

Equipment: Mithril Silver Dagger

Equipment: Shield of Earth

Equipment: Mithril Silver Armor

He was equipped with a halberd, a rare thing that looks like a spear and an axe together.

I really want to appraise A-rank adventurers, but naturally, it would be impossible to appraise them from this distance.

I kept looking at them until I couldn't see Ice Emperor and Morning Star anymore.

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