“Here you go.”
“…Ah.”
It’s nighttime. Under the light of the moon and stars floating in the sky, I sit across from Ryufa with a campfire between us.
We’re both sitting on large pieces of wood we’d gathered. I steep some tea found among our supplies using water boiled over the campfire and pass it to him. The color is close to matcha. It’s interesting that such things exist in this world too.
Ryufa accepts it and takes a small sip. Then his face contorts into a grimace.
“What’s wrong?”
“…This requires endurance.”
“Ah, I apologize. If you’d prefer—”
“No, it’s fine. This country is Grand-Ende now. ‘This man’ and others have been drinking this awful tea since long ago. We’re used to it.”
“I’m sorry… even though I just said I’d try to be more considerate of you.”
“Don’t worry about it. And remember what I just said. ‘This man’ cannot become familiar with you. This response is appropriate.”
While saying this, Ryufa… or rather, ‘this man’ continues drinking the tea with a grimace.
I try drinking it myself… well, it has a fragrance and aroma somewhere between barley tea and green tea. It’s delicious to me, but perhaps for Ryufa, these two pleasant flavors are actually having an adverse effect on his palate.
“If you’d like, please have some of these.”
I take out a paper package from my belongings and offer it to Ryufa.
“What’s this?”
“Something to go with the tea. I hope it suits your taste.”
As I say this and open the paper package, what’s inside are cookies.
They’re butter cookies, specifically. These are simple to make.
The ingredients are just butter, sugar, flour, and olive oil. You could use more ingredients if you wanted to be fancy, but right now these are enough.
To make them, mix butter and sugar, then add flour and mix some more.
Once that’s done, spread olive oil in a pot, place the cookies in whatever shape you like, press them down lightly while cooking. When they’re browned, they’re done.
It would be much quicker with an oven, but since we don’t have one, I made something that could be done in a frying pan instead.
‘This man’ picks up one cookie and brings it to his mouth.
After chewing it two or three times, he then takes three or four more cookies in his hand.
“How are they?”
“It’s edible.”
“I see.”
I bring a cookie to my mouth with a wry smile.
Indeed, these frying pan cookies are a bit different from oven-baked ones.
While maintaining the characteristic taste of butter cookies, the olive oil’s aroma also spreads in your mouth. If you get the amount wrong, the butter and olive oil fragrances can become overwhelming, so you have to be careful with how much olive oil you use.
What’s unique about cookies made in a frying pan is that the sugar melts and gets slightly caramelized. It adds a bit of toasted flavor.
For something I haven’t made in a while, I’m glad I managed to balance the flavors well. It could have been a disaster if I hadn’t.
“…It’s been a while.”
“Pardon?”
‘This man’ speaks contemplatively.
“Since I’ve been able to rest like this during a mission.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Usually… no, let’s stop there.”
“What’s wrong?”
“No unnecessary information. No unnecessary emotions… that’s all.”
‘This man’ is thoroughly devoted to his mission, isn’t he.
“Are you that loyal to this person you call master?”
“That’s right.”
‘This man’ takes a sip of tea before answering.
“…Since this is already known to other countries, I’ll tell you: ‘Ryufa Hien’ is a kind of title. The existence of ‘this man’ and others is close to being symbolic.”
“Symbolic?”
“It means the strongest general in Grand-Ende.”
“The strongest of the Three Treasured Generals…”
The words Aeclys had let slip before.
Grand-Ende’s Three Treasured Generals, Ryufa Hien the Sword Treasure.
So that means there are two other people called Generals besides Ryufa, right? Just going by the words.
“That’s why we take pride in being chosen for this body. Though we must abandon our lives as humans, we reach the pinnacle of martial arts that we desired.”
“The pinnacle of martial arts…”
“However, when I met Kuuga, it was the first time I felt threatened by him. For not killing him, for not being able to kill him. It was the first time I regretted something.”
Eh? Kuuga?
“But you defeated Kuuga, didn’t you?”
“Yet I failed to kill him. In order to kidnap you, I had to let him go, which allowed you to escape. For me, it’s nothing but humiliation.”
Though speaking quietly, a slight furrow appears between ‘this man’s’ brows.
“Since becoming ‘Ryufa,’ it was the first time I couldn’t kill an enemy.”
He takes such pride in his title of ‘Ryufa’…
“…I’ve talked too much for being myself.”
“Is that so?”
I don’t think he talked that much though. After all, he still hasn’t said anything about why I was kidnapped.
“Get some rest now. Tomorrow we’ll reach the capital, and an audience with my master awaits.”
“Your master…?”
“That’s right.”
“Before that, may I ask something?”
Ryufa makes a suspicious face.
“What is it?”
“Why did you tell me so much that you think you’ve talked too much?”
“It was a whim. I’m not trying to become familiar with you.”
Ryufa states firmly. This isn’t getting familiar…?
Perhaps in Ryufa’s mind, this is conversation while maintaining a clear line that shouldn’t be crossed? Hmm, I don’t understand.
“However.”
“Hm?”
“It’s just that I was human too… My dedication is lacking.”
After saying this, Ryufa leans against the covered wagon and becomes motionless.
He’s fallen asleep. Seems he ate his fill of cookies and went right to sleep.
In the end, I haven’t learned anything specific about why we’re here. Ryufa’s work is perfect. He hasn’t given me any useful information.
But looking at this person, I realize something. Even on the enemy’s side, there are people with various thoughts and beliefs.
“…I’ve only ever tried to engage with war from our side’s perspective.”
I mutter softly.
That’s right, the enemy must have their circumstances too.
We’ve come this far by overcoming that.
If I look back, there’s probably a path made of the people we’ve killed.
“…So this is the weight that Gungrave carried.”
Thinking about it now, I feel a renewed sense of respect.
That person fulfilled his dream by stepping over countless corpses.
“Well, time to sleep—”
As I’m about to continue that thought, something is thrown into the covered wagon.
When I get up startled, there’s a piece of paper there. A rolled-up piece of paper in the covered wagon.
“Why?”
I whisper involuntarily but quickly fall silent.
Could this be…? With faint hope, I open the paper as quietly as possible.
There… is familiar handwriting! It’s Lill’s writing!
“Is she somewhere around here…!?”
I want to go outside the wagon to check, but doing so might alert Ryufa. Why isn’t he coming in this situation? Is he really taking that much of a rest…? No, that doesn’t matter right now.
Anyway, the contents… after reading them, I close the paper.
The written contents are simple:
“I tracked Shuri using one of my inventions. However, I can’t track where the invention itself is. If you receive this letter, please bury it along with a marker. We’ll follow that.”
Bury it…? So I just need to bury this letter and leave a marker, is that right? They’ll understand from that?
What kind of invention could it be? Are they tracking something related to me?
No, I shouldn’t think about that.
The marker… I can bury it when cleaning up after the campfire. That should work.
It would be more helpful if I wrote where we’re heading, rather than just burying it.
…Is that okay? I eat the remaining cookies while thinking.
In the end, I don’t know the reason or purpose.
In that case, shouldn’t I just dive right in?
“…Alright.”
Having decided what to do, I add some words to the paper.
The contents are:
『We are heading to Grand-Ende’s capital. However, immediate help is not necessary.
I want to use this opportunity to investigate their purpose from the inside.
Please don’t worry, I’ll be careful not to die.』
I don’t know if this is the right choice. It might be the worst decision.
But I won’t understand anything unless I overcome the worst. So I have to do it.
“…This is the best I can do right now.”
With that resolve, I put the paper in my pocket and decide to go to sleep.