“That’s right.”
“So, this trip is also for that?”
Sera asked in disbelief, and Nainiae nodded.
“It’s because of me.”
“I didn’t even know this and…”
There was a flame that was flying around the area. To be precise, the flame was Heliona, the summon spirit. Sera looked at Heliona and put up dumbfounded look on her face. She then turned her face red as if she was mad as she glared at Nainiae.
“Nainiae! Nainiae, you really…!”
Sera was half shocked and half upset. With those feelings in her heart, Sera glared at Nainiae. Sera tightly grabbed on Nainiae’s shoulder and started to talk as if she was disappointed.
“Why didn’t you say anything to me?”
“I was concerned you might worry like this.”
It seemed Nainiae was sorry. She was unable to look at her in the eyes. Nainiae merely fiddled with her fingers. Watching this made Sera even more angry. Sera shook Nainiae’s shoulder.
“Still!”
“Actually, we were never going to tell you, but… since you ended up going with us on the trip, Young Master said it would better to tell you, so…”
“Young Master did?”
Sera was yelling at Nainiae while holding her on the shoulder. Sera casually turned her head and looked at Riley who was sitting near the cave’s entrance.
Shrug…
Riley’s eyes met with Sera’s, and he shrugged.
“… Ugh!”
It seemed seeing Riley shrug made Sera feel a little better. She sighed big time and looked at Nainiae again.
“All right. At least you told me now. It’s fine.”
“I’m sorry.”
Nainiae, with sincere look on her face, apologized. Sera placed her hands to rest on her waist and said,
“I knew something was up. It was not like our Young Master to say he wants to go on a trip during the winter. I thought it was so out of the blue that I wondered if the sun was going to rise from the west the next morning…”
“Ah, hahaha.”
“In that case, I guess Lady Iris was wrong about her worries. That’s unusual also…”
“Lady Iris?”
“That’s right… Actually, I was added to this trip because she was worried about our Young Master. She asked me to go with you.”
Sera didn’t cause ruckus for long. She went back to preparing the lunch again. She watched Riley who was sitting at the cave entrance and slowly blinking his eyes.
“Well, looks like maybe Lady Iris was just overly concerned.”
“…”
Listening to Sera mumbling, Nainiae steadily watched Riley as she thought that Iris’ worries were not baseless. Anxious, Nainiae bit her lower lips.
‘The trip…’
While Nainiae was deep in her distracted thoughts, Sera wiped off her hands with the apron. It seemed she was done with preparing the lunch. She went to Riley.
“… Young Master? Young Master!”
Riley was blinking his eyes as he watched the snow storm outside. He was about to doze off, but because someone shook his shoulder, he opened his eyes big and turned to look who it was.
“…?!”
“H… Here is your meal.”
Somehow, Riley appeared to be on the edge. Sera shriveled as she gave him lunch.
“I’m sorry… What time is it?”
“It’s almost 1 pm. You were awake only a moment ago. Did I wake you up at the wrong time? Would you like to go back to sleep?”
“Ah, no… It’s fine.”
Last night, although he left Sera to be on guard through the night, Riley merely had his eyes closed without actually falling asleep. He was awake through the entire night until the morning. Riley rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up.
“It smells great.”
It seemed they made a different course from the stew yesterday. The delicious smell made Riley smile. He walked to the inside.
“Young Master.”
“Yes?”
“A… Are you all right? You look very tired.”
Now, not just Nainiae, but even Sera could notice the tired look on Riley’s face. It looked that bad.
It had not been long since they started the travel, yet he was already like this. Let alone handling the rest of the trip, it looked like Riley should be concerned about how he would look when he contacts the mansion through the mirror.
“It’s nothing! It’s not like they have seen me looking sleepy only a few times, right? If you are that concerned… I’ll get some shut eyes after eating.”