The Morning Of The Date

Feeling the light, I slowly opened my eyes.

The sun had already risen, so morning had apparently come.

I sat up and looked around the room.

My nostalgic old room was still piled high with things, making it look almost like a storage closet.

The door opened with a sound, and Tanya stepped inside.

The moment she saw me, she bowed her head.

“Good morning, Nova-sama.”

“Yeah, good morning, Tanya.”

“I received a reply from Shia-sama. She said that, if it suits you, she would like to go to the southern part of town together this afternoon.”

Hearing Tanya relay the reply to what I had asked her yesterday, I answered, “All right.”

Normally, just coordinating schedules with someone could take several days, so the fact that this had not even taken a full day made me think once again how incredible magic was.

At the same time, something suddenly occurred to me, so I asked Tanya about it.

“Tanya, where did you get Shia’s contact information? From Rowen-san?”

“Huh? Ah—no, I got it directly from Shia-san herself. She gave me the stationery at the same time.”

“Oh, so you got some too. Shia’s magic really is amazing, isn’t it?”

Magic that let you communicate no matter where you were or how far apart you were was incredibly convenient.

Tanya nodded in agreement, but then seemed to think of something and promptly smacked a fist into her palm.

“In that case, how about you send Shia-san the reply yourself, Nova-sama? If you specify the manor entrance as the meeting place, it’ll be perfect, and I’m sure Shia-san will be happy too!”

“That’s true. I’ll try using it right away.”

I quickly finished getting ready for the morning, then cleared off the desk that had been cluttered with various things.

I sat down in the chair and took out the stationery.

I had heard that it was enchanted, but the stationery itself looked ordinary.

Though judging from the quality of the paper, it did seem expensive.

I wrote that I agreed and that we should meet in front of the manor gate.

At the end, I also added a line saying that I was looking forward to it.

“Oh, as expected of you, Nova-sama. Perfect.”

“Really? I only wrote something ordinary.”

“Now then, go ahead and press here.”

“R-Right…”

As though being hurried along, I pressed the House Ark Gate crest three times with my finger, and the paper became enveloped in light before disappearing.

The sight was unlike anything I had ever seen, and it startled me. So that meant the stationery had been sent to Shia.

After waiting a little while, white letters began appearing on the black sheet of stationery that had come with it.

‘Understood. I’m looking forward to seeing you too, Nova-san.’

It seemed Shia had written a reply.

In only a few seconds, I had managed to exchange messages with Shia despite how far away she was.

“Amazing… This really is convenient.”

“Yes. I was surprised the first time I saw it too.”

“…The first time you saw it was yesterday, right?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. …Anyway, there’s still a little time. What would you like to do?”

There was still some time until early afternoon.

If I had nothing else to do before then, there was only one answer.

“Training.”

Brother Zeroad was still at the manor, but he should be returning to his own territory soon.

If he tried to start something with me, I could always wait a little while.

Thinking that, I headed for the courtyard.

By the time I reached the courtyard, Brother Zeroad was apparently just about to return to his territory. Our eyes met, but he left without saying anything.

I had not seen Brother Kairas since yesterday, so perhaps he had returned home sometime during the night.

Thanks to that, no one interfered with me, and I was able to enjoy my morning training to the fullest.

And now, I was standing alone in front of the manor gate.

Just as I thought it was nearly time for us to meet, the manor’s small side gate opened.

For a moment, I panicked, wondering whether Shia had perhaps teleported inside the manor, but the person who came out was a girl wearing a servant’s uniform.

“Ah, h-hello.”

“Ah, yeah.”

She was an unfamiliar girl with gray hair.

Had she been hired by the manor recently? Even so, she looked quite young.

Unless she had entered into a contract to serve a noble child personally, like Tanya had, it was uncommon for a girl of her height to work as a maid.

But I did not have any younger siblings.

Which meant she could not be anyone’s personal maid.

Or perhaps she was older than she looked.

In the end, the girl did not say anything else and simply headed off toward town.

Maybe she was going out to buy supplies.

Still, sending her alone seemed a little strange.

Just as I thought that, the side gate opened again.

Wondering what it was this time, I looked over and saw Tanya standing there.

“Tanya? Is something wrong?”

“Ah, Nova-sama. Did a small maid happen to come this way?”

“Yeah. She went toward town just now.”

“Thank you.”

Tanya started to head in that direction, so I called out to stop her.

“Wait a second, Tanya. Is that girl all right?”

“She is a maid at this manor, but it seems the others keep pushing menial chores onto her… I happened to come across it before and helped her out, but today, the moment I took my eyes off her…”

There had been times over the past few days when Tanya was nowhere around, and it seemed she had been helping that girl.

Managing the maids was Rowen-san’s responsibility, but perhaps he did not know about it.

If I told him myself, things might improve at least a little.

“I see. I don’t know whether it’ll help, but once I get back, I’ll talk to Rowen-san.”

“I’m sorry. Please do.”

Rowen-san generally only took orders from Father, but it was not as though he treated me harshly.

So at the very least, if he learned that the girl was being mistreated, he should do something about it.

I was thinking that as I watched Tanya run off.

Then golden light poured in.

When I turned toward it, I saw something glowing in an oval shape.

So this was Shia’s teleportation magic, I realized just as Shia emerged from within the golden light, her long black hair swaying like the darkness of night.

The moment she saw me, she smiled brightly.

“Hello, Nova-san. It’s been a few days. I’m happy you invited me.”

“Yeah, hello, Shia. Thanks for coming today.”

“Not at all. I’m not especially busy right now, so it’s fine.”

I knew from watching Father that the head of a family was always busy, so there was no way that could really be true, but Shia was probably saying it out of courtesy.

“I see. Then today I’ll show you around Saria. I’m sure you’ll like it.”

“Yes, I’m looking forward to it! It’s my first time in Saria, and it’s also my first date with you, Nova-san.”

“Y-Yeah…”

Seeing how happily she said that, her cheeks slightly flushed, made my heart stir restlessly.

Feeling my own face growing warm, the two of us started walking toward Saria.