The capital of the Kingdom of Palma, Palma.
Seeing that the king, the nation, and the capital are all named Palma, it somehow gives off a strong city-state feeling.
Or the king just really wanted to spread his name far and wide.
Anyway, to head for Palma, a car was essential first.
“I count me and Elodie, Selena, Riri, Arald, Pielot, Vasileo, and even Carla. Eight people in total.”
“The principal is coming too?”
Elodie asked as if surprised. Had she thought Carla would stay behind?
“I checked with her, for now. It’d be good if we had two cars as well.”
When I said that, Arald nodded.
“I’ll prepare them.”
“...Can you get them right away? It won’t be cheap.”
“Of course. Since I’m in charge of the three-dimensional map, investments from each company haven’t stopped.”
Can we really buy cars with that money?
I wondered, but for now I silently nodded.
Arald would handle it properly anyway.
And the next day.
“They’re ready.”
Like a lie, two cars appeared in front of the house.
“......”
“Both are vehicles advantageous for long-distance driving, and their mana efficiency is extremely excellent. At least until we reach the capital, there’ll be no need to stop by a mana filling station. Also, the exterior finish and design are so outstanding that each is counted among the flagship models even within this brand—”
“No, it’s a problem if you start firing off sales-dealer lines at me. You already bought them.”
“Right, of course. Still, I wanted you to fully appreciate how excellent these cars are.”
I feel like I can tell even without you saying it.
No, it’s a problem precisely because I can tell.
An exterior that looks luxurious at a glance. In this world, you can roughly infer the price range just from a car’s design, and the standards for “luxurious design” are very similar to the previous world.
So if I take one look and feel like it’s expensive, that naturally means it’s expensive.
“...Is this really okay? Buying cars like these?”
“Of course. We have plenty of funds.”
...Do we?
Did I become a tremendous rich man without even knowing it?
“Wow! We’re riding in this from now on?”
In the meantime, people gathered one by one, and Riri was the first to rejoice at the cars.
“Oh? This model is last year’s. You somehow snagged the most popular one?”
“Riri, you know cars well?”
“I like them.”
Riri answered with a bright smile to my words.
Elodie looked at the cars and spoke.
“Hm. Just so-so.”
“...The rich young lady has strict standards.”
“What, says the rich young lord.”
Well, the House of Roach is no slouch either. Amper is so frugal that it’s a problem, but even so, we naturally lived comfortably.
“Then how should we split up?”
“I’ll ride with Riri, Arald, and Carla in one vehicle. The rest take the other.”
That’s close to the original operational formation we decided to move with. There was no particular reason to change it.
There was a small problem there.
“Who’s driving?”
“...Ah.”
At Riri’s question, I was at a loss for words.
On my side, there are plenty who can drive. No, except for me, everyone probably has a license.
But in the other car, Elodie, Selena, Pielot, and Vasileo have no licenses. They either only just became adults, or aren’t adults yet.
At that point, Selena raised her hand.
“I can drive.”
“What? When did you get a license?”
“I don’t have a license.”
“......”
“I’ve been driving since long ago, so there’s no problem.”
Selena spoke as if there was nothing to worry about.
Is it part of so-called assassin training? I’m starting to wonder what she can’t do.
“But no. We never know when we’ll get caught.”
“...My driving isn’t so poor I’d get caught.”
“That’s not it, you fool. If we run into the police in front of the capital, they’ll get suspicious right away. You look obviously young at a glance.”
After thinking for a moment, I looked at Riri.
“Riri, let’s switch.”
“Eck.”
“If it’s about finding demons, we have Arald, so it’s fine. And if Riri, who used to be a Zodiac, moves to the other car, I’ll feel secure.”
“No. I want to be with Frondier. I’m Frondier’s subordinate.”
“If you’re a subordinate, obey orders.”
Riri grumbled at my words but seemed to accept it in the end.
I looked around at the others.
“Then who’ll switch...?”
Srrk.
One person raised a hand there.
“I’ll switch with her.”
It was Pielot.
His face was calm.
“...Reason?”
“No particular reason.”
Pielot answered as if he simply wanted to.
But I had no real reason to refuse, so I nodded.
“Then it’s me, Arald, Carla, and Pielot in one vehicle. The other is Elodie, Selena, Vasileo, and Riri. Good?”
“Fine.”
“Everyone get in, then. We’ve already delayed too long.”
While everyone was getting into the cars—
“...Um, Frondier.”
Selena carefully approached me.
“What is it, Selena?”
“The truth is...”
Selena whispered softly into my ear.
***
—It failed. Linking Pielot with a shadow.
Arald had taken the wheel, and Frondier fell into thought, recalling what Selena had said.
—Why?
—He firmly refused himself.
According to Selena, the original plan was to link a shadow to Pielot without him knowing.
Pielot only suppresses his pride under humility; it’s not that he inherently lacks pride. For someone like that, forcing a shadow link would wound his pride.
So she’d planned to do it secretly, and even if she had asked Frondier, he would have told her to do it ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) that way.
But he caught her.
'...For Selena’s shadow-linking to be noticed.'
Selena stood at the top as an assassin. Granted she had been a bit off guard, but the fact that Pielot caught it was surprising.
Selena’s shadow connection was honed to the point that a mere touch of her hair was enough. If he sensed something from such a trifling contact, that meant Pielot’s senses had become that keen now.
Selena thought Pielot would get angry, but he didn’t.
Of course, he refused, but the reason for the refusal was different than expected.
“It’s a waste.”
“A waste?”
“Senior Selena is important in this operation. Having someone like you stay by my side to worry about me is a waste of manpower.”
“...Shadow transference takes only an instant. You can come and go anytime, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
At Selena’s words, Pielot smiled and shook his head.
“If I were truly to be in danger, Senior Selena wouldn’t be able to leave me behind.”
“...So you’re prepared to be put in danger...”
“We’re trying to stop a war.”
Pielot lifted his scabbard. Clack, he drew the blade a little and looked at the keenly honed edge.
“Danger will come to everyone, and when it does, where Senior Selena needs to be is obvious.”
“Pielot.”
“I don’t need a shadow.”
Pielot’s tone was gentle but firm.
If Selena were to force a link, it was as if he really could cut the linked shadow with that sword.
“Senior Frondier won’t be satisfied unless I have that level of resolve.”
...They had such a conversation, and Selena roughly relayed it to Frondier.
'Well, this is something.'
Frondier let out a silent, bitter laugh inside.
It had already been a year and a half unofficially since Pielot became his student.
From the first time they met, he’d resolved to fix his grit from the roots.
'What on earth have I raised?'
From the passenger seat, Frondier glanced at Pielot through the rearview mirror.
Pielot was quietly looking out the window. His eyes, not merely calm but tinged with desolation, skimmed the scenery beyond the glass.
Perhaps Pielot now had a more desperate mindset than Frondier himself.
Even now, he was looking out with the eyes of a man bearing such resolve—
“...Senior.”
Then Pielot opened his mouth.
“Ah, yeah?”
“I’m getting carsick.”
“...Huh?”
“I tried to endure it by looking outside, but I think I’m going to die.”
Frondier blinked for a moment.
“Hey! You made a fuss about seasickness on the ship, and now it’s the same in a car?!”
“If we rest for a moment and go, I’ll get better soon...”
“It’s been ten minutes since we left! You plan to stop every ten minutes? I told you to bring medicine!”
“I let my guard down since I heard it’s better than seasickness...”
Pielot spoke with an even more desolate face than before.
Frondier pressed a hand to his brow and spoke.
“Pielot, do you remember what I said on the ship?”
“Which part?”
“Handle your motion sickness yourself.”
At Frondier’s words, Pielot tightly shut his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was looking at Arald.
“Mr. Arald.”
“W-What is it, Pielot?”
Arald grew nervous at Pielot’s terribly grave expression.
“I’ll handle my motion sickness on my own. Instead,”
“I-Instead?”
“If this car gets dirty, you’ll handle that on your own, right?”
Arald’s expression went cold. He quickly looked to Frondier with pleading eyes.
A vein stood out at Frondier’s temple.
“Pielot, you’ve gotten pretty crafty, huh?”
“Call it wisdom squeezed out in a life-or-death situation.”
Frondier raked his hair in agony.
It’s not that Frondier refused to stop the car just to torment him.
But if they truly stopped at this interval, they’d never reach the capital no matter how much time passed. And there was no guarantee the road ahead would continue to offer convenient places to pull over.
“...Ten... nine...”
“You’ve really gotten impudent, huh? You’re doing a countdown now?!”
“I’m simply conveying the urgency of my situation at a glance.”
Frondier sighed with his throbbing head.
“This isn’t what this is meant to be used for.”
Frondier took the necklace into his hand.
Srrrk.
Heukcheon flowed out from him and spread.
Pielot was startled at that.
“...! No matter what, I cannot vomit on Heukcheon!”
“Who told you to throw up here!”
Heukcheon went out the window. Then it settled on top of the vehicle.
“Pielot, climb up onto the car. Heukcheon will be laid out like a carpet up there, so get on it.”
“...You want me to get out here while the car is moving and climb on top?”
“Can’t you?”
“As if.”
Whoosh.
Pielot swiftly slipped out the window and, with neat timing, climbed up onto the roof. As Frondier said, Heukcheon was spread out there.
When he sat on it, the motion sickness suddenly subsided. The jolts and the up-and-down shaking from the car disappeared completely.
“Oh! Senior! This is amazing!”
“Keep quiet!”
“If you had this method, I wish you’d used it earlier!”
“I’ll really blow you off!”
Frondier let out another sigh.
Truly, this was not what that was meant to be used for.
