“Belle!”
Noticing the girl beside him collapse, Barou, alarmed, tried to help her up.
Jin also couldn’t just stand by and watch so he rushed over too.
“Seems like she has a fever.”
Belle’s face had turned red so Jin put his hand on her forehead to check and noticed she was burning up.
Belle’s consciousness had also gotten hazy and her breathing became shallower.
“Belle! Belle!”
Barou, who was holding her up, was desperately shaking and calling her but she didn’t regain consciousness.
Jin stood up.
“Reinhart, can you leave these two to me?”
Jin asked Reinhart.
(“Yea, I don’t mind. Do you plan on taking them with you?”)
Reinhart replied with a low voice so only Jin could hear him. Jin also answered in a low voice,
(“Yea, I can’t just stand and watch and I also feel like I have some responsibility here, even if only a little.”)
(“I see… Once you get into Shouro empire, a visa or ID won’t be needed.”)
It seemed as if Reinhart vaguely knew what Jin was going to do judging from what he said at the end there.
“Got it. Then I guess I will be fine in my carriage tonight as well. Tomorrow at 8, again?”
This time, he raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. Reinhart too replied in a similar voice.
“Yeah. We will depart at 8… Well then, Matheus, let’s go.”
Saying that, he started walking again. Matheus hurriedly followed him and asked,
“Reinhart, is that okay? What about Jin-dono?”
“Yeah. Today will be our last night in Serroa kingdom, let’s go all out, shall we?”
While saying that, Reinhart glanced back at Jin behind him gave an eye signal.
Jin answered to it by raising his thumb.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Keep it together! Belle!”
Jin tapped Barou’s shoulder, who was now at a loss as the girl in his arms wouldn’t regain consciousness.
“You — for now, we can’t keep that girl as she is.”
“Eh?!”
Barou looked up and saw Jin.
“The person who was with the noble just now?”
Seems like he finally noticed that Jin was also there. Jin nodded.
“Yeah. And I have been entrusted with you two by him. What will you do? Will you come with me?”
“Y-Yes”
As a last hope, Barou tried standing up with Belle in his arms. But he staggered.
“As I thought. Seems like you also reached your limit. Reiko, please carry the girl.”
“Yes, father.”
“Father?!”
Jin was actually 21 years old but because of his baby face, he looked less than 20.
Barou was surprised seeing the girl, who looked 12-13, calling Jin ‘father’.
Reiko picked up the girl and briskly walked towards the carriage.
“Ah, w-wait, please!”
Almost being left behind even by Jin, Barou also followed hastily.
With his utmost efforts to keep his legs moving, he followed Jin.
(I don’t know if we can really trust them or not… but we don’t have anywhere else to go anymore…)
That was the only thought which went round in Barou’s head. With that as his only hope, he moved by willpower alone. But before long, even Barou had reached his limits.
Jin got into a peculiar carriage. Just before that, Barou also lost consciousness.
“Ah-he was also at his limit, eh.”
Jin, who noticed this after looking back, felt bad.
The impression left by the girl he saw yesterday night who faked having a bad leg was strong on Jin so he ended up unconsciously testing them.
“Reiko, could you carry them one by one, then?”
＊ ＊ ＊
“Welcome back, onii-chan!”
“I am back.”
Jin went back to Kaina village. With no souvenirs. After all, he had not stepped into the city once this whole time.
It was now about 6 in the evening. The time difference between Toskoshia and Kaina village was about 2 hours and when Jin had came up from the underground workshop, Martha and the others had just finished having dinner.
“So, you’re saying you want to leave those two with us for a while, right?”
Jin was talking to Martha, Mine, Elsa and Hanna at Martha’s residence.
They left the two kids asleep on the 2nd floor of Jin’s house.
“Yes. If possible, I would like Elsa and Mine to look after them.”
As he said that, Elsa slightly inclined her head, as if to say ‘why?’.
“Those two are saying they’re from the Shouro empire.”
Jin simply explained how he met the two.
“I see, the nobles they had been serving have fallen into ruin and now they’re jobless, eh.”
“Yes. They wanted to return to their country but couldn’t cross the checkpoint. And so they had clung to Reinhart.”
When Jin finished saying that, Elsa cut in,
“And? What did Rei-nii say?”
“‘It’s impossible if they don’t have a visa’. And so, they were left to me.”
When Jin answered simply like that, Elsa looked a bit disappointed when she said,
“That was cold of Rei-nii.”
“Haha, that’s not true. He also said ‘There is no need for visas once you cross the checkpoint’ too, you know.”
“?”
Even when he said that much, Elsa couldn’t understand. Jin explained even further,
“In short, for the time being, I will look after them but after we enter Shouro empire, they can go to him.”
“…Ah, now I get it. But, do you guys understand each other from just that, Rei-nii and you?”
“Yea, well, somewhat.”
“…I see.”
Elsa’s eyes were suspecting. Jin remembered that look. It is the look she gave him when she thought Jin had a thing for puppet love. To think she would have this suspicion following Matheus…
“A-ah, that reminds me, Elsa, how much do you know of Matheus?”
Jin tried to change the topic.
“I know him well. He played with me a lot when I was little. He is the elder brother of Rei-nii’s fiance, Belche-san.”
“He likes geography and minerals and stuff, huh?”
Seems like even Elsa didn’t know of that.
“Eh? Is that… so?”
“Yeah. He really got into the topic when I said that Toskoshia was probably the bottom of a sea because of the sandstone there.”
“The bottom of the sea? What, is that?”
“Jin, what do you mean? Land being the bottom of sea? I don’t understand it a bit.”
Not just Elsa, even Martha, who had been silently listening till now came asking. Jin realized once again that everyone has a thirst for knowledge, after all.
“Well, you see, sandstone is formed when rivers or the like carry sand to the bottom of the sea and the pile up……”
Jin repeated the explanation he had provided to Matheus.
“…Ohh.”
“……I see.”
“…Is that how it works?”
“?”
Seems like everyone except Hannah understood.
“Jin, you really know many different things, don’t you? That is very admirable.”
Martha said. Jin thought to himself,
(Having this kind of random discussions about facts is also pretty nice.)
At that moment,
“Father, those two have woken up.”
Said Reiko, who had been looking after them.