“So, when will you set out?”
At my question, the bright smile that had graced Sir Celes’s face faded. Looking glum again, he sighed as he replied, “In half a month... I’ll be busy making preparations, so I won’t be able to come here for a while. Sorry, Lucia.”
When he became dejected, the dashing and handsome Sir Celes somehow became cute and dashing. Although the “dashing” part never changed, no matter what his expression. I had no idea how he did that. He was just always handsome. I would never manage that, no matter what I tried, not with my plain looks.
But if he was that dejected about it, then could I take that to mean that he enjoyed our time together as well? I wasn’t the only one looking forward to it, then? If that was so, then I would be elated. So truly, truly happy. Which made not being able to see him even more lonely. I mean, I always enjoyed this time we spent together so much.
“How long will it take?” I asked.
Sir Celes sighed again. “Who knows... We’ll be guarding the Sacred Maiden as we travel to purify the Cristallo Sacro, so I suspect it will take a while. To get to the Cristallo Sacro of Kyriest, it takes about seven days on horseback, if you take the back roads. But the Sacred Maiden has never ridden on a horse or in a carriage, and we’ll be traveling along the main roads, so I have no idea how long it will be...”
These days, your options for traveling were to go either on foot or horseback, or by carriage. With monsters so prevalent in the last hundred years, the number of carriages traveling between cities had diminished. At this point, there were no civilian carriages at all. However, the kingdom did send out carriages on occasion. There weren’t many, but people could move about by riding with merchants or the kingdom’s carriages. The kingdom’s carriages were protected by magical stones created by the students of the Academy, and were also protected by soldiers as they traveled, so they kept the cities connected. When I had come from Hasawes to Arldat, I’d used one of those kingdom-owned carriages. Apparently the royalty and nobility would hire guards and travel using their own carriages, but of course, that wasn’t an option for we common-born folk.
But, the Sacred Maiden from another world had never ridden in a carriage before? Perhaps she had lived in a way that didn’t require her to travel. Or maybe she’d used some other means of transportation. I would never have the opportunity to meet her, of course — but if I did, it would be interesting to ask. Although, a common-born person like myself had no business asking idle questions of such an august lady, anyway.
“They’ll be announcing this publicly tomorrow, but His Highness the crown prince will travel with us. So we’ll be traveling by carriage, but that means we won’t cover much ground each day. I suspect it will take six months, or a year...maybe even longer than that before we return to the capital.”
“That long!?”
“Yeah... I would like to come back sooner, but the purification of the Cristallo Sacro is vital.”
A whole year... It seemed like such a long time to go without seeing him, but once the Cristallo Sacro were purified, the rampaging monsters would be contained and the world would be at peace again. Put in those terms, a single year seemed like the very near future indeed.
“I wish you luck on your journey, Sir Celes. Travel safely.” Praying that my beloved friend would be safe, I lowered my head deeply.
In response, Sir Celes thumped his uniformed chest once and gave me a brilliant smile. “I promise, I’ll come back to you. And then we’ll meet here again,” he swore.
I couldn’t help but be happy at that promise.