April had ended, along with spring, and came May, with summer closing in. Today is the 2nd day of May.
“Yes, this is a letter. A, B, C. Let’s try reading them.”
“Eii, beee, shiii!”
Mine and Elsa were having a study session, teaching Hanna.
Jin, who was absent-mindedly listening to them while laying down, once again thought about how similar these world’s letters are to Earth’s ones.
(Well, there might also have been some other human who was summoned long ago from Earth.)
He won’t come up with an answer even if he pondered and so he recalled the conversation he had with Reinhart last night.
[Seems like the Serroa kingdom’s governing body started operating properly at last, as we were finally able to renew our passing license. It has been a while since I rode a carriage.]
“Glad to hear that.”
[Yeah. Beth and Dolly probably want to meet their family as well, after all.]
“You too, right?”
[Haha, yeah. We have been away from our motherland for more than a year now, so we all feel homesick.]
“Where are you staying tomorrow, again?”
[After departing from Forte in the morning, we will probably go to Bololon. Everyone has been waiting to resume the journey, so it’s pretty lively here.]
“A lot has happened over here too. I ended up receiving a village within Kurain kingdom’s borders as a leasehold land for the next 50 years.”
[Sounds fun.]
“Actually…”
And that was how their conversation went.
(Shouro empire, eh?… I do feel like going there.)
But seeing Hanna practicing letters with her utmost efforts, it was kind of hard for him to bring up the talk of going on a trip.
It seems Elsa felt something about that Jin.
After the study session had ended, Hanna and Elsa held hands and were on their way back. Along the way,
“Hanna-chan, what do you think about Jin-nii? You like him?”
“Yep, I like onii-chan!”
Elsa and Hanna were talking about Jin.
“Right? I like him too.”
“Yay!”
“Hanna-chan, what do you think about Jin-nii going out to travel?”
“Ehh, I don’t like it. I would feel lonely.”
The obvious response.
“Yep, it would get lonely, huh? But, what did you think about the three of us going out? Wasn’t it fun?”
“It was fun!”
Elsa nodded and patted Hanna’s head.
“Right? It was fun. And, so, Jin-nii has a place he wants to visit.”
“He does?”
Hanna stopped and looked up at Elsa’s face.
“Yes. Jin-nii has been looking forward to visiting this country called the Shouro empire.”
“……”
Elsa squatted and looked up to Hanna’s face.
“If we like Jin-nii, let’s let him do what he wants, alright?”
But only silence came back. After a whole 3 minutes of them staying like that, Hanna finally opened her mouth.
“…Yes”
Elsa hugged Hanna.
“Such a good girl. You did good.”
Saying that, she stroked Hanna’s back.
“But, it will be fine. If it’s Jin-nii, he will come back time to time.”
“Yup… he will.”
Hanna said with wet eyes.
Afternoon of the same day, Jin was checking up on the magic eyes which were set up within last night.
“Hmm, hmm. With this, even if humans were to come attacking, we would have ample amount of time to prepare.”
They were able to monitor a maximum of 10 kilometers and at least 2 kilometers away from the Kaina village area.
“I guess I will make a support intellect exclusively for monitoring.”
Something like a small-scale Laojun. In terms of efficiency, it will be about a hundredth of Laojun but should have enough processing power to rival 100 men.
Since he had experience making Laojun, it only took him about 30 minutes to complete.
“Activate.”
[Pleased to meet you, master.]
“Alright, your name will be Koushin.”
These namings also have a complicated backstory.
In a manga Jin had read long ago,
-Insects within the human body leave the host on the “Kanoesaru’s” night and tell the Lord of their hosts’ evil deeds. The Lord would then reduce their lifespan depending on those deeds and so the humans would not sleep on the Kanoesaru’s night.-
Jin remembered reading such folklores there. It was a faint memory but from that one point of monitoring, Jin named it Koushin (Kanoesaru).
[Understood. I am Koushin from now on. I will do my utmost in monitoring work.]
“I leave it to you.”
Jin returned to Kaina village after 3 PM.
When he went to the library on the 2nd floor, he found Hanna there, waiting for him.
“Onii-chan, welcome back.”
“Mm? Did something happen, Hanna?”
She cast her eyes downwards and was being hesitant but after a while, looked up to face Jin, and said with a clear tone.
“Onii-chan, it is fine if you want to go travelling somewhere, okay?”
“Eh?”
Jin was confused by this sudden event.
“When we went out before, it was really fun. Onii-chan, you also have some place you want to visit, right? Then it is completely fine if you go visit. I will be a good kid and wait here.”
“Hanna…”
Certainly, his desire to go to Shouro empire swelled up after having that conversation with Reinhart.
But was it really so obvious that even Hanna realized it? — Jin thought, but soon understood that it was probably Elsa. After all, the only ones who knew of this were her and Mine.
But he didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he just stroked Hanna’s head.
“Thank you. Then, I might head out sometime soon. But I will return from time to time, I promise.”
“Okay!”
Jin promised to return. Hanna was happy with just that.
＊ ＊ ＊
That night, during Reinhart’s regular call.
[We finally reached Bololon.]
“Glad to hear that. I also might head there sometime around tomorrow.”
[What? Jin, you okay?]
“Ah, only me, though. It’s still impossible for Elsa, right?”
[Hmm. Fritz is back to normal but we don’t know about his home, after all. Ah, right. We also found Adburgh and Herman.]
“Adburgh was the butler and Herman was the guard, right? What about the other one?”
[We are unsure about the manservant, Otto. As far as I have heard from Herman, after the dismissal, he went away on his own. So he won’t probably be returning to Shouro empire.]
“I see. I guess we can’t help it.”
[Elsa is doing fine, right?]
“Yea. This time, I will be coming alone.”
[Got it. We will probably reach Ganiz by tomorrow and Toskoshia the day after. Catch up to us by Toskoshia, alright?]
“Yea, leave it to me.”
[Haha, I thought you would say that. Alright then, I will be looking forward to our reunion.]