“I understand you’re concerned about Amy, but you should thank Tenma first, and then ask about Amur and the others who were injured. Amy should come last,” Albert chided him gently.
Tida seemed to realize his mistake and apologized to me and Gramps. He thanked me and then asked about Amur and the others before bringing up Amy again. I told him she was fine thanks to Amur and everyone else, but he still wanted to check on her himself because he was so worried.
Princess Isabella suddenly appeared. “I can’t let you go out in this snowstorm,” she said, and Tida quieted down and stepped aside. “Thank you for earlier, Albert. Having someone in your position say that to Tida must’ve made an impression. And Tenma, Master Merlin, I’m so sorry for the trouble. If you hadn’t made it in time, it could’ve damaged the kingdom’s relationship with the SAR and House Sylphid. I’m so grateful. I’m going to send Amur and the others a letter of thanks later.”
She sounded more formal than usual, perhaps because we were still in the castle where other nobles could overhear us. I gave her the most proper response I could manage.
“Tida, let’s go back to our chambers. Amy’s safe at Tenma’s estate. You shouldn’t worry so much.”
“Okay,” Tida said obediently to the princess.
“Trust me, nobody shady can sneak into my place that easily, and we’ve got an escape plan if something does happen. I’ll tell Amy that you were worried about her. And if you want me to pass along another message, I can do that too,” I offered.
Tida thought for a moment and then said, “Tell her, ‘I was so worried when I heard you were attacked. I can’t wait to see for myself that you’re well and smiling when we meet again next time.’”
It felt a bit simple, but it would’ve been way worse if he’d gone with some over-the-top declaration of love. I promised to pass it on and said goodbye to them both before heading home.
Finally, we arrived back at the estate.
“It’s crawling with golems,” Gramps said.
The golems I’d stashed around the property for security had all gathered in the yard. They were on full alert.
“I bet Rocket did this,” I said.
He must’ve taken extra precautions, and honestly, I was glad it was snowing so hard. If it had been clear today and there were people out and about, there would’ve been a crowd gathered at the estate already.
“For now, let’s pull the extra golems and just boost our overall security a bit,” I suggested.
“Right. With this many golems out there, our carriage might have a hard time getting through,” Gramps agreed.
We left about twice the usual number of golems out and sent the rest back to their spots. Jeanne must’ve heard them moving because she opened the door to greet us.
“Jeanne, how’s Amur?” I asked.
“She woke up a little while ago, but...”
The way she trailed off made me nervous that something was wrong.
“She’s being really cranky and demanding meat,” she said.
That was such a classic Amur thing to do that both Gramps and I nearly fell on the floor like in a comedy sketch. We managed to stay upright, but the snow had made the floor so slippery that we really did almost wipe out.
“She didn’t say anything about being in pain, did she?”
“She says her left arm, left side, right shoulder, and right leg hurt. But she didn’t mention nausea or a headache,” Jeanne said.
She was probably feeling pain from getting hit or slammed around, which was to be expected. There likely wasn’t anything to worry about for now.
“Did she eat anything?” I asked. If she was asking for meat after already eating something, I thought it would be best to hold off on that, but Jeanne told me she hadn’t yet. I decided to make something easier for her to digest.
“Amur, I made you some rice porridge. This’ll have to do for now.” I had gone with a simple porridge with rice and egg since it would be light and easy on the stomach. It wasn’t a meat dish, but as a little compromise, I added a small amount of sweet and savory ground beef on the side for her to use as a topping.
“Hmph! Why didn’t you just make me a thick-cut steak instead?!”
“Oh, I guess you’re not hungry,” I said, pretending I was going to take her bowl away.
“Wait, no! Owww!” She panicked and tried to stop me but ended up hurting herself in the process.
“You need to stick to soft foods until the pain goes away. I’ll make you whatever you want once you’re fully healed.”
Amur grumbled and finally nodded, looking over at the porridge on the nightstand.
“Tenma, ahhh!” She opened her mouth like a baby bird. Clearly, she wanted me to feed her, but that wasn’t happening.
“You’re up, Aura.”
“Leave it to me!”
I handed the job off to Aura, who’d been eyeing the food. Amur started complaining loudly, but I ignored her and let Aura deal with her instead.
A bit later, I heard Amur yell from her room. She’d probably shoveled the porridge in her mouth without cooling it down first. Jeanne would get her water, so I figured I’d just head down to the dining room and get something cold ready for her.
“Water! I need water! And Tenma, you come too!”
It turned out the burn was worse than I had thought. Jeanne had come to get water, and once she spotted me, she dragged me off to help treat Amur.
It was only then that I realized I had forgotten to relay Tida’s message to Amy.
I should probably do that before I forget again...
Things had been nonstop chaos—pun intended—since we had gotten back to the capital, what with the whole Tida and Amy situation and then the fight with Chaos. I wished things would finally calm down, but there was a fat chance of that happening. I could probably relax about Tida and Amy now, but the Chaos incident was way too suspicious. There was no doubt that more trouble was on the way.
For now, all I could do was hope that things would be more peaceful until the snow melted and it became easier to move around again.
“Tenma, hurry! Amur freaked out from the burn and smacked her arm. She’s in total agony!”
Yeah... Some peace and quiet would be really nice.