A Fun Breakfast And A Close Call!

A ship sailed across the blue sea under the morning sun.

Liricia and I ate breakfast in a first-class cabin.

On a tray of small side dishes were rice, grilled fish, salty seaweed soup, an omelet—and a sheet of black paper.

And there were rotten beans.

Recoiling from the stench, I stared at the beans.

“Can you even eat this? It’s rotten.”

“It seems to be called natto, Master. You mix in soy sauce and mustard, then pour it over rice to eat.”

Liricia said that while examining the natto through her monocle.

I pressed my lips into a line, braced myself, and mixed soy sauce and mustard into the natto.

The smell got worse.

“Stinks—! And the slime got even worse!?”

“That seems to mean you’re doing it right! They say you should mix it about a hundred times.”

I finished mixing as instructed and poured it over rice.

The smell was so strong that I pinched my nose and took a bite. Brown strings stretched out.

The stink flooded my mouth and I suffered, but after chewing a few times, my cheeks loosened.

“Huh! It’s surprisingly good! If I pinch my nose, the smell drops a lot—yeah!”

“Really!? Then I shall also…”

With graceful fingers, Liricia poured on soy sauce and mustard and mixed the natto.

Her beautiful face twisted in discomfort.

I suddenly got an idea and reached out, pinching Liricia’s straight, elegant nose.

“Then I’ll hold your nose for you.”

“Th-thank you very much… munch”

When she brought it to her mouth, her brow was slightly furrowed, but as she chewed slowly, her expression turned into a smile.

“Mmm! It’s deliciou—delicious, master!”

“Right? It’s better than you’d think.”

“It’s fermented food, so it seems good for the body—then next, I shall pinch Master’s nose—”

Liricia pinched my nose while I ate natto rice.

It tasted good once I started chewing, but for some reason laughter welled up anyway.

My laughter spread to Liricia, and she burst out too.

For a while, we laughed out loud together.

“Eating while pinching our noses… what are we even doing?”

“Truly! There are lots of other things too! Let’s eat!”

We ate the omelet and fish.

The black paper seemed to be seaweed pressed thin and hardened.

Wrapping rice with it tasted of the sea, and it was delicious.

As we enjoyed a foreign breakfast, I found myself thinking.

“…Still, this kind of thing might be nice.”

“Master?”

“Eating the world’s weird foods, seeing scenery we’ve never known. Traveling around—not as an adventure, but just as a trip—might be good.”

“Yes. Someday, I want to. Just the two of us, Master.”

“When we have time… yeah. Once I’m rejuvenated, we’ll definitely do it.”

“It will cost money, you know?”

“Puchi Eli has been selling fairly well, so after I’m rejuvenated, we should have some breathing room—so let’s go, Liricia.”

“Yes, Master!”

Liricia narrowed her eyes happily.

Feeling joy at her smile, I decided we would absolutely travel the world someday.

A little after noon.

The ship I was on arrived at Kove, a port town in the Yamata Kingdom.

A long mountain range stretched east to west just north of the port.

Liricia and I got off the ship.

Many buildings had triangular roofs.

“All right… that one should do.”

I asked a crewman near the ship.

In the cabin, Liricia—an angel—had already used a simple Yamata Kingdom map to locate where Edgar was.

“Sorry, can I ask you something? How do we get to the city called Kyō?”

“Kyō? From Kove, go straight east along the coast and you’ll hit a big river called the Edo River before the commercial city of Osaka. Follow the river northeast and you’ll reach Kyō, the capital.”

“Sounds pretty far.”

“Mmm, yeah. About two days on foot. If you want, take a highway carriage or ride a horse. The carriage station is…”

He explained the station’s location in detail.

“Thanks.”

I thanked him and stepped away.

Liricia walked close at my side.

As we headed for the carriage station, people in overlapping-front clothes—kimono—passed along the narrow road.

Maybe because Liricia’s silver hair was unusual, everyone stared at her.

Liricia lowered her gaze, embarrassed.

“I feel like we’re being watched.”

“A beauty like you is rare. Even in the Fortis Kingdom, it’s rare.”

“Oh, master… I’m happy.”

Blushing, Liricia pressed even closer, wrapping her arm around mine.

Her cute warmth reached me.

—Then.

A crowd had gathered in one place up ahead.

A man standing on a platform was energetically scattering papers.

“Extra! Extra! News sheets!—Yesterday, a thief broke into Lady Mikoto’s castle! He stole a treasure, but he’s been caught! And get this—he’s the head ninja of the Mikawari Corps, so it’s a huge uproar! Come on, buy a sheet, buy a sheet!”

I could hear the crowd’s chatter around him.

An older woman cried out as she read her paper.

“Oh, thank goodness! Lady Mikoto’s safe!”

“Troubling such a good ruler—what a filthy thief. He ought to be executed.”

“Truly… though our Lady Mikoto is kind, so she probably wouldn’t do that.”

“They say this time he really crossed the line. He might be executed.”

“Really? That’s unusual.”

Liricia squeezed my arm tightly.

I nodded.

“It has to be Edgar. Let’s go save him. You can become an angel, if you want.”

“Huh!? Is that allowed!?”

“In a far eastern island nation like this, word won’t make it back to the kingdom. Besides, they say what happens on a journey stays on a journey.”

“Yes! Understood, Master!”

Liricia pulled her brows into a determined line and nodded firmly.

At the station, we paid and borrowed horses, then drove them at full speed—casting healing magic and giving them Puchi Eli as we went.

A refreshing afternoon breeze blew through Kyō.

In the courtyard of Mikoto’s castle, Mikoto personally conducted the interrogation.

A reed mat had been spread atop white sand, and Edgar sat there bound.

Inside a room facing the garden, behind lowered bamboo blinds, sat Mikoto—slender, beautiful, and delicate.

A man in a kimono with a sword at his waist demanded in a sharp voice.

“Azuma! Where did you put Lady Mikoto’s heirloom, the glowing orb!? If you won’t talk, I’ll whip you again!”

Edgar’s back was exposed through torn clothes, red blood seeping from his skin.

“I’m ready for it. The death penalty is fine.”

“You—!”

The man struck Edgar.

Thud—wham, dull impacts echoed across the courtyard.

Edgar was beaten again and again without resisting.

Then Mikoto spoke.

“That is enough. It would be troublesome if he could no longer speak.”

The man stopped at once, turned to Mikoto, and bowed deeply.

“M-my apologies!”

“Why not try something that would make him want to speak of his own accord?”

“Huh… what do you mean, Lady Mikoto?”

Behind the blinds, Mikoto leaned back and indicated with a closed fan.

“He left the country to resurrect the Mikawari Corps princess, did he not? Bring the princess here.”

Edgar jerked his head up. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

“Wait—she has nothing to do with this!”

“See? That’s the face of someone who wants to speak, isn’t it?”

“As expected of Lady Mikoto! I’ll bring her at once!”

The man ran out of the courtyard.

Behind the blinds, Mikoto chuckled.

“You sent it so far away that even my mystic power cannot reach it… So who asked you to commit such a crime? Or rather… should we capture them as well? What do you think, Azuma?”

“The princess… she has nothing to do with it…”

“Right now, the only one who can use resurrection is the witch Cordelia in the Fortis Kingdom, yes? I doubt she did it, but wouldn’t your collaborator be somewhere around there?”

“Ggh—!”

Edgar’s eyes widened beneath his messy hair, and he bit down hard on blood-wet lips.

—Why would someone in this far-off country know that!? Was it true he had divine blood!?

Then an elderly man in red garb entered the courtyard, bringing a child with him.

A doll-like princess in a cute-patterned kimono.

The old man spoke with shining eyes.

“Lady Mikoto. I have brought Princess Nobara.”

“That is Red Shadow. Good work.”

“Azumaaa!”

The moment the princess saw Edgar’s battered condition, she screamed through tears.

She looked ready to run to him, but Red Shadow grabbed her and held her back.

Red blood trickled from Edgar’s clenched lips.

Behind the blinds, Mikoto spoke while fanning himself.

“Now then, Azuma. If you refuse to speak, it won’t be your life that disappears, but something far more precious. Right before your eyes… even though she just came back to life… Red Shadow.”

“Yes.”

Red Shadow instantly drew a kunai and pressed it to Princess Nobara’s fragile throat.

Tears pooled in the princess’s eyes as she cried out to Edgar.

“Why!? Why has it come to this, Azuma!?”

“I’m sorry, Princess…!”

Edgar grimaced in anguish and could only bow his head.

Mikoto pressed further, wearing an even more decadent smile.

“What are you doing, Red Shadow? Don’t kill her right away. Until the man talks, cut off one finger at a time—”

“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! So please—please, spare the princess—!”

Edgar rose onto his knees and pleaded desperately.

The swordsman rushed in, kicked Edgar, and forced him to sit back down.

Mikoto gave Edgar a sideways glance so beautiful it was chilling.

“Very well. If you tell the truth, I will at least spare the princess’s life.”

“Yes… Alec-san, I’m sorry for betraying you.”

“Hm!? What!?”

Mikoto stopped fanning and leaned forward despite himself.

Edgar faced forward and declared clearly.

“The one I sent the orb to is Alec-san—the former hero who runs the potion shop Puchi Eli in the royal capital of the Fortis Kingdom!”

At Edgar’s strained shout, Mikoto screamed as if his voice flipped.

“W-what!? What did you say!?—Kill him. Kill him at once!”

“Yes! …Be honored to die before Lady Mikoto!”

The man beside Edgar slowly raised his sword overhead.

Edgar squeezed his eyes shut and thrust his neck forward.

“…Princess, Alec-san. I’m sorry.”

“Nooo! Azumaaaa!”

The princess’s scream rang through the courtyard.

Startled pigeons flapped into the air.

A bird’s shadow passed over Edgar.

“—Forgive me!”

The sword swung down fast, the blade flashing in sunlight.

—CLANG!

“Gah!”

The man who should have struck was blown away.

Beside the fallen sword, a single-edged black blade was embedded in the white sand.

Mikoto sprang up onto her knees.

“What in the—ugh!”

Behind the blinds, Mikoto pitched over and collapsed.

Her slender body twitched violently.

And amid white feathers glittering in the sun, a silver-haired angel with white wings spread descended from above the courtyard—cradling a man in her arms.