Wh-What In The World Am I Supposed To Do?

The next day.

Lady Shitoen was in the carriage.

And I was riding alongside the road with the other knights, escorting it, when it happened.

“Captain.”

Raul, who should have been behind me, brought his horse alongside mine and spoke to me.

“What is it?”

When I asked, he indicated the carriage with his chin.

I turned to look and was startled to see the maid Eaton pressing both hands to the carriage window, trying to signal something.

“Stop the carriage.”

The moment I gave the order, Raul spurred his horse and rode ahead of the carriage.

As I pulled on my reins, I called out, “Whoa, whoa.” My obedient beloved horse gradually slowed to a walk, as if saying, “Ah. We’re stopping?”

“What is it?”

I dismounted, handed my reins to a nearby knight, and approached the carriage.

I opened the door from outside and stuck only my head inside, then froze in shock.

Lady Shitoen had collapsed against the seat, her upper body stretched out.

She had been constantly on the move the whole time in the County of Sheen, so perhaps the fatigue had only hit her now.

“Lady Shitoen!?”

I hurriedly climbed inside.

Eaton, who had been seated across from her, made room for me and spoke in a voice that sounded close to tears.

“Is there somewhere we can stop and let milady rest?”

“Raul!”

The moment I called his name, he came at once.

“Secure us an inn or somewhere nearby.”

“At once.”

Apparently, a single glance into the carriage had been enough for him to grasp the situation. He drew the curtain and shut the door firmly from outside.

“Lady Shitoen, what is wrong? Are you motion sick?”

I leaned close and called to her.

Her face was terribly pale.

And her breathing was shallow. Her brows were knit, and sweat stood on her forehead.

I did not have medical knowledge like Lady Shitoen, but even I knew this.

It was the expression of someone enduring pain.

“Does something hurt?”

“Um… well…”

Lady Shitoen tried to force out the words between waves of pain, but then immediately bit her lip as if finding it hard to say. As I stared at her in confusion, her ears turned bright red.

“Milady has very severe monthly pains. The shaking of the carriage is hard on her.”

It was Eaton who said it first, but the moment I heard it, it did not quite register.

“Monthly pains?”

I asked back, wondering what that was.

Lady Shitoen turned bright red before my eyes, and I thought steam might rise from her whole body.

“You know… something women have once a month.”

Eaton spoke in a low, rapid voice.

And on top of that, she came at me with enough force to look ready to punch me.

Only then did I understand.

“Ah! That! Ah… I see!”

The moment I blurted it out loudly, I regretted it deeply. Lady Shitoen shrank in on herself as if she could not bear it.

“No, um… my apologies. No… wait. What am I supposed to do?”

I kept standing up, half crouching, looking at Lady Shitoen, getting glared at by Eaton, and pacing around in confusion. At that point, I was the one everyone wanted to ask, “What is wrong with you?”

“There is medicine I always take. I think I will be all right if I take it and sleep for a while.”

Lady Shitoen said that in a voice so faint it seemed ready to vanish, then lowered her face onto the seat.

She stayed like that, enduring the pain, and I could no longer sit still.

“Wh-what in the world am I supposed to do?”

As I turned this way and that in a panic, Eaton punched me in the back.

“I told you already, find a place where she can take her medicine and rest! Somewhere that does not shake!”

Ah, right, right. That was it. That was what she said.

I scrambled out of the carriage in a hurry.

“Raul! Raul!”

I frantically called my adjutant’s name, and he was in the middle of spreading out a map and discussing something with the knights.

“Here! …Captain, this is bad. There is a posting station nearby, but it looks like the area has poor security… Is it motion sickness? If it is something that will improve with a short rest, then we could let her sleep in the carriage as is… or push on at full speed to tonight’s lodging?”

Holding the map, Raul came toward me with the other knights, but

“I do not know. I do not know whether it will go away quickly…”

I shook my head violently.

“What do you mean, you do not know? It is not motion sickness?”

One of the knights tilted his head.

“No, um… it is a woman’s… you know… that monthly thing, apparently. It seems the shaking makes it worse.”

The moment I said it, every one of those battle-hardened veterans stared blankly like idiots.

“I see, I see.”

“Aha, yes, that would make sense, mm-hm.”

“Mm, mm. That must be quite difficult indeed.”

They were all pretending they understood, but it was plain that every one of them was about as clueless as I was.