The food in the boxed lunch was, naturally, not piping hot. However, when coupled with the novel setting of the train car, the food tasted especially good. The meal must have been perfectly seasoned to taste good even when eaten cold. The creativity and fastidiousness at work were pleasant to the tongue.
“It’s delicious.”
“Yeah.” Kiyoka gave but one word in reply before he continued to silently chew away. It appeared Miyo was the only one getting excited by the meal.
I’m sure Kiyoka must be quite used to traveling by now.
As a Gift-user, Kiyoka had been all over the Empire in one way or another. He was very familiar with traveling by train, so he must have eaten enough train station lunches to no longer find them novel.
Miyo grew a bit dejected, nibbling here and there at her lunch.
Still, this was quite an exciting first for Miyo. Her heart fluttered with each bite.
She continued to eat until she had finished about half of her lunch. All of a sudden, she felt eyes on her, and she blinked when she looked up to see Kiyoka staring back from the opposite seat.
He had apparently finished his own lunch and was gazing at Miyo with an almost cheerful and amused look in his eyes.
While the word amused had come to mind for her, Kiyoka’s expression was relatively unchanged. Still, Miyo could tell now that she had been around him for a year. This was the face he made when he was enjoying himself.
“Kiyoka?”
“What?”
“…Um, is something the matter?”
“Not at all. Why?”
If that was the case, why was he staring so hard like this? Kiyoka replied to Miyo’s cocked head with a smile so beautiful, Miyo almost lost herself admiring it.
“I just found it so adorable how you grow giddy over each bite of your lunch that I had to watch,” Kiyoka added, as if he had read Miyo’s mind.
Even Miyo couldn’t help being a bit annoyed by his response.
“I—I know you’re just trying to say I’m childish and immature.”
He shook his head, as if to tell her she just didn’t understand.
“You just seem to have so much fun with everything you do. I find it adorable.”
“Wh—! Um, K-Kiyoka, lately, you’ve been…very quick to say things like that…”
“I think it’s important to make a habit of properly conveying what I feel.”
Kiyoka was surprisingly aloof, despite the honeyed words coming out of his mouth.
He’d been like this ever since they’d gotten married. When it came to Miyo, he was always sweet and doting. With his reputation for being coldhearted, no one could have ever imagined Kiyoka being this affectionate with his wife in private.
Miyo was embarrassed being told how adorable she was in such a serious tone.
“P-please don’t stare… I can’t stand it.”
“Then I’ll try to make sure you don’t notice while I watch you. Go ahead and eat; don’t mind me.”
He was asking the impossible. Swallowing her protests, Miyo once again worked her chopsticks. She managed to finish eating despite feeling his gaze on her, and after cleaning up her empty lunch box, she took a sip of the tea from the special steam train teapot and relaxed.
At some point, Kiyoka had started staring out at the scenery.
Amid the calm, the rhythmic click-clack of the train car’s motion echoed around them. It was just past noon, and it had grown surprisingly quiet, likely because the other passengers were also eating their own lunches.
Click-clack, click-clack.
With her stomach now full, the comfortable rocking invited her to slumber.
Her eyelids began to feel heavy. The train car interior was warm, and little by little her mind grew foggy.
Her consciousness fading, Miyo heard the empty seat beside her creak as someone sat down.
“If you’re sleepy, lean against me.”
The familiar deep voice was so very gentle and tender. Miyo placed her head down in the direction of the voice without a second thought.
Wrapped in an irreplaceable feeling of security, Miyo surrendered herself to sleep.
The train arrived in the old capital station around dusk, when it was still light out.
“This is the old capital…”
After getting off the train car, Miyo looked around the area with curiosity.
The air coming through the platform was slightly different than that of the capital. The wooden station was a classy Western-style building, with the appearance of a European palace or cathedral.
“This way.”
Following after Kiyoka as he confidently walked along the platform, Miyo advanced through the hustling crowd.
While the leisurely trip in the train had been long, Miyo had enjoyed herself and felt a bit sad it was over. Thanks to the nap she had taken on the train, however, she wasn’t very tired from the trip. She was ready to enjoy the old capital atmosphere to the fullest.
They exited the building, and the magnificent fountain of the station plaza came into view, along with the busy streets of the city, which bustled with people and automobiles. It was a modern and well-maintained cityscape.
“Wow…”
“Different from what you were expecting?”
“I would say so. I thought the city itself would look much older.”
“There are older-looking sections elsewhere… Now then, someone should already be here for us.”
Kiyoka scanned the area before heading toward an automobile.
The head family had sent a car for them, just like Kiyoka’s parents had when they’d traveled to the Kudou villa last year. This looked to be their ride.
“Master Kiyoka and Mistress Miyo Kudou, I presume?” The male driver politely bowed to them. “My name is Nakaoka, and I have been tasked with your transport. Please, come inside. I shall bring you to the estate.”
After Miyo and Kiyoka got inside, the automobile abruptly departed.
Miyo had heard that the old capital was an ancient land with a long history, yet the area in front of the station appeared to have just as many modern Western-style buildings as the capital did, if not more. Scattered here and there in between all the new buildings, however, were temples and shrines. This was different from back in the capital.
“Can you bring us to the shrine first instead of the estate?”
“As you wish,” the driver replied to Kiyoka’s instructions.
Their destination wasn’t very far from the station.
The scenery did change significantly before the automobile finished its short path through the bustling main avenue and parked in front of a grand and imposing wooden torii gate.
“Please make your way from here.”
When Miyo and Kiyoka left the car, the driver climbed back into the driver seat with a bow, and the car slowly drove away.
This is quite a big shrine.
The large torii gate, whose top was too tall for her to clearly see, wasn’t merely as impressive as the famous shrines in the capital but left an even stronger impression on her.
Kiyoka spoke up as Miyo stood there in awe beside him.
“This is the Ikukuni Shrine, where generations of Miyakoujis have served as head priests. The family patriarch should still be here at this hour, and I figured it’d be best if you saw it for yourself.”
“It’s magnificent.”
“That comes from its long history. The shrine is said to have been built nearly a thousand years ago. The buildings were reconstructed once, however, so those are only four hundred years old at most.”
“A-a thousand years…?!”
Miyo couldn’t even fathom an institution built a full thousand years ago surviving to the present day. The shrine itself may have only been four hundred years old, but even that was such a long stretch of time.
Kiyoka let out a quiet chuckle as he observed Miyo’s shock, then he extended a hand to her. Still astonished, she took his hand.
They passed through the torii gate, patiently going up the relatively few stone steps one by one.
The path ahead was straight and orderly, paved with gray cobblestones. It led to the large front shrine, which had a grand and stately air. Beyond that was the main shrine, lacquered in vibrant vermilion, albeit not to the same extent as the front shrine.
The two advanced down the cobbled path, ascended the step on the front shrine, and clapped their hands together in prayer.
“This way,” Kiyoka said after they’d bowed and descended back down the steps, going around the side of the front shrine to the main shrine.
Someone was just leaving the building as they arrived.
“Oh, hiya there, Kiyoka. Thanks for making the trip out to our neck of the woods.”