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By the time my sisters had finished getting ready for the move, dawn had broken.
“Is this everything you wanted to bring, you two?”
At the rear of the manor so as to avoid any unwanted attention, Armeria, Cosmos, and I were making a final check of our belongings before we left. But honestly, all I needed to do was to put their belongings into my storage bag.
“I’m fine. Thanks to you, Hisui, I’m able to take a lot of books.”
“I feel a little bad for doing this to father,” I admitted.
A short while earlier, once I had found Cosmos, I told her what I had told Armeria while keeping an eye out for Glenn and Mikhail. Cosmos had been just as startled to hear everything, but she didn’t hesitate for a second before agreeing to leave the manor with me.
So we returned to Armeria’s room, and I told them to pack up their things...but in the course of doing that, we ended up relieving half of our father’s books from his study.
It wasn’t like father was going to read them, right? Armeria loved books, and I was sure they’d be happier in the hands of someone who would actually read them.
“It’s fine—don’t worry about it. No one besides you two ever touched those books anyway,” said Cosmos, offering her opinion—which was the same as mine. It looked like we were all on the same page, so to speak. Both me and Armeria laughed sheepishly.
“Anyway, Hisui, when did you manage to get a magical artifact? That one’s for storage, right?”
“Yup, that’s right. I got it...when I went to Lycoris, as a reward,” I lied.
“Oh, I see. The marquis must have awfully deep pockets to give away an artifact like that. Amazing! And on top of that, we’re heading to stay at his estate now, aren’t we?”
“Yup. He gave me his permission, so I’ll protect you two on the way there. Don’t worry about anything.”
“Chirp! Ch-Chirp!”
“I’ll protect you too!” Dandelion seemed to be saying, given the tone of his chirps, and he raised his right...hand? Wing tip? From his seat in Cosmos’s hands. As soon as he did, Cosmos raised her voice in a delighted squeal.
“Ohmigosh! How cute! I can really tell how much he wants to help!”
“Chiiirp...” Dandelion sounded like he was being crushed in Cosmos’s embrace, but a little hug wouldn’t kill him. He just wasn’t used to the feeling of being squished a little, but he’d get used to it in time.
Sorry, Dandelion. Put up with it just for a little longer... I begged his forgiveness in my heart and looked away. It seemed that Cosmos loved small animals more than anything. Azalea liked them too, so maybe all girls adored cute animals. To be fair, I also liked them, even though I was a boy—maybe cute things were just universally appealing.
“Be careful not to hurt Dandelion, Cosmos.”
“I know, I know. Your family is our family too.”
“All right. Well, we have everything all packed up now, so let’s go before Glenn catches us.” I grabbed the handle of the cart-like carriage I’d created with spellcraft with large, simple wheels affixed to its underside. In my previous life, this was called a rickshaw. I was going to see Armeria and Cosmos safely to Lycoris with it.
“What is this, Hisui?” Armeria stared at it, openly curious. She’d never seen one before.
“It’s called a rickshaw. You two will ride on the cart part, and I’ll pull it. It’ll be a lot faster than walking, and we can travel super easily.” Like a horse-drawn carriage, just without the horse. Or rather, I was the horse.
If I’d asked Fouré to help, she would have just created a horse, but I didn’t want to deal with any questions about that, so getting her assistance was no-go. I could already handle the situation just by doing my best with my own abilities.
“A...rickshaw? I don’t want to work you like a horse, Hisui!” As I expected, Armeria expressed her discomfort. A strange expression came over Cosmos’s face as well.
“It’s fine. I can use magecraft, and this’ll be good practice too. Besides, you two can’t move through the forest underbrush very well, right? I’m used to traveling around in the woods, so you can trust me to get us through.”
“Hisui...” Reluctantly, the two of them did as I bade and climbed into the seat. They must’ve felt that complaining any further would just make things harder on me.
“Okay! Hold on tight so you don’t fall out!” I said, just in case. If I pulled the rickshaw fast enough that they were in danger of falling out, though, that would basically guarantee some kind of accident. I’d already decided to go at a nice, gentle pace.
Wreathing the entire rickshaw with magecraft, I began to move. As soon as I did, though, I heard a shout from behind.
“Hisui?! Where are you going? And Armeria! Cosmos! What do you think you’re all doing?!”
It was Glenn’s all-too-familiar voice.
“Ugh... Not this.” I didn’t want us to get caught, but of course we had been—and at the absolute worst moment too. Still, there was no turning back, and I doubted Glenn could stop us even if he wanted. Come on then, Glenn; go ahead and chase us through the forest if you’ve got the guts, I snarled in my head.
I began to sprint, ignoring his cries for me to stop. The rickshaw was practically light as a feather.
“Are you sure about this, Hisui? Glenn looked really mad...” Cosmos asked from behind me, sounding worried. I answered her with a bark of laughter.
“It’s fine, really. It’s not like we were planning on ever coming back here.”
After a short pause, she finally replied. “All right. That’s true.” Cosmos understood. Armeria didn’t seem that bothered either, as she simply opened a book to read without so much as a word.
After a moment of running, Glenn disappeared from sight. We couldn’t hear his shouting anymore either. It seemed like he really didn’t have the guts to follow us into the woods after all. Silence filled our surroundings. In the peaceful quietude, I began chatting with Cosmos. We were careful to keep our voices low, however, to avoid disturbing Armeria from her book.