TLFKCT 07

Chapter 7

“Tell me.”

“I-I’ll bring you something proper. It may be a little unpleasant, but I happen to have a set of clothes made from wyvern leather. The clothes cling somewhat tightly to the body, but they are easy to move in and don’t tear easily. Would that be all right?”

“That’s exactly the kind of clothes I want!”

I answered with a bright smile. The owner glanced at me before going inside.

I hummed as I looked through the clothes on display. Leather clothes, huh? It would probably be good to buy a shirt or something to wear underneath them, too.

Shopping really is all about clothes.

I happily rummaged through the clothes. I also found something that would be good for Vanessa, so I put that aside as well.

Next, shoes? It would be nice if they had something like military boots.

It was a successful shopping trip. The black market was the best.

And as expected, Kael was watching the whole thing.

Leaving the weapons shop behind, he had followed Rosana first. The aide who had come with him remained at the weapons shop.

By now, the aide was probably haggling with the owner over the weapons Kael had chosen.

But Kael did not expect his aide to show bargaining skills as impressive as Rosana’s.

Kael silently stared at Rosana as she walked around the clothing shop while humming.

Had Rosana eaten something strange?

She was going to wear clothes made from monster leather?

Of course, Kael and the other knights wore clothes made from monster leather underneath their armor. Clothes made from wyvern leather were considered among the finest, but they were not normally available through legal trade.

Kael had also submitted proposals to the Emperor several times about armor made from wyvern leather, but they had been ignored every time.

‘Such vulgar behavior! You want to wear the skin of those filthy things on your body and claim to be saving the Empire? Crown Prince, have you truly gone mad? What will people think!’

The Emperor was a man who cared greatly about appearances, so he rejected it without hesitation.

To protect the lives of himself and his knights, Kael had secretly obtained clothes made from wyvern leather through unofficial channels and distributed them to his closest subordinates.

And Kael could swear that, during that process, he and his aide had not shown bargaining skills more impressive than Rosana’s.

Kael held his head.

‘Don’t even bring something that filthy in front of me.’

‘You want me to wear such a low-class item? How dare you. What do you take Lady Rosana of Ardena for?’

The Rosana he knew.

His memories of her were collapsing.

Was this really right?

Kael rubbed his face in confusion. Apparently, he had gone mad.

If not, then Rosana had gone mad.

Kael continued watching Rosana until she disappeared from his sight. Then two aides returned to his side.

One of them had been given the task of finding Rosana.

“I apologize, Your Highness. I could not find Lady Rosana…”

“There is no need.”

“Pardon?”

“I said there is no need to find her.”

Kael fell silent after saying that.

For some reason, he felt that Rosana would calmly return to the campsite after finishing whatever she had gone to do, as if she had never left.

With that bright smile on her face.

Just as Kael expected.

Before breakfast, Rosana returned without a care in the world and blended back into her place as if she had never left.

“Oh? You changed your clothes, Lady Rosana.”

“I can’t keep walking around in that dress.”

“That’s true, but…”

The young lady looked Rosana up and down as if she were looking at a stranger.

Rosana, who had always insisted on wearing fancy dresses and jewelry, was now wearing plain clothes without a single decoration, and even her hair was neatly tied back.

“I never thought you would wear such simple clothes, Lady Rosana.”

“These are much more comfortable for marching. What do you think? They’re not bad, right?”

Rosana grinned at the young lady her age, who simply nodded blankly.

Was her name Vanessa?

She was a stand-in who had been adopted into the family in exchange for money on behalf of the precious heir of some count’s family.

There were many people like her here, so it was nothing particularly surprising.

Kael simply watched them quietly and calmly, making sure not to attract attention.

Rosana took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped Vanessa’s face.

“Did you cry again while sleeping? Vanessa, if you keep crying like that, you’ll become dehydrated. You might die from dehydration before you even get chewed up by a monster.”

“Ugh, don’t say scary things again… Monster teeth… You said I wouldn’t have to see anything like that. That’s what the Count who adopted me said… He said I only had to follow along… and pretend to do things… Achoo!”

“You need to stop thinking so carelessly. Here, change your shoes to these, too.”

“Where did you get these?”

Rosana grinned as she took off Vanessa’s old shoes.

They had been supplied by the expedition, but the soles were thin, and the leather was already cracked in several places. The supplies given to those whose families had not prepared proper equipment were mostly of this quality.

“I found them on the road. Pretty good, right?”

Rosana put the new military boots on Vanessa’s feet and tightened the laces firmly.

“There. Done. How are they? They’re military boots. They’re similar to the ones knights wear. More precisely, they’re closer to the ones mercenaries wear, but at least they’ll last longer than those old shoes. And as for this huge sword…”

Rosana took away the old longsword that Vanessa had been using like a walking stick.

The blade was chipped in several places, and even the handle was loose.

Instead, Rosana firmly fastened a belt and a dagger around Vanessa’s waist.

“W-What is this?”

“A dagger for self-defense.”

“But isn’t this sword still better than that? A dagger…”

Vanessa looked down at the dagger on her waist doubtfully.

Instead of answering, Rosana simply smiled.

That dagger, which the weapons merchant had guaranteed could pierce even monster leather, would be much more useful than the chipped longsword.

Rosana generously shared the equipment she had obtained with her companion.

This was another side of her that Kael had never seen before.

Rosana had always been too busy taking care of herself. She would never give away what she had, while greedily wanting even what she did not have.

Wasn’t that Rosana?

Kael quietly engraved this new image of Rosana into his mind.

Exactly as she was.

Exactly as he saw and heard her in her raw form, under extreme circumstances.

I didn’t like the thought of someone I had spent several days with dying.

Even if she was just a companion, she was still my companion. Losing someone beside you was a terrible experience.

Even if people dying was an everyday occurrence in this world.

The only people who didn’t die here were the female protagonist, the male protagonist, and a few other major characters.

The others were torn apart by monster claws, eaten, or trampled to death.

In fact, being able to march this far without encountering any monsters could be called pure luck.

Thinking back to the original novel, there had been a similar description there, too.

「Until they reached their destination, northern Greystone, the only creatures they encountered were the Spider Clan. It was like the calm before the storm, or the final rest granted by God.

Because the moment they arrived at Greystone, the monsters began their attack.

The monsters crushed human bones with their sharp teeth and tore through human flesh with their hard claws. Amidst it all, only Kael stood out with an especially vivid presence. Like a brilliant light leading them toward hope in the darkness.」

It was written from the female protagonist’s point of view. It must have been the scene where she fell for Kael at first sight.

There were still about fourteen days left before we reached Greystone.

It had only been a day since we left Rainford…

At least that meant we would be safe for a while.

I turned my head and stared at Vanessa.

“Sniff. Mom, hnggg… I want to go home.”

Seeing her sniffle and sob so hard that even her shoulders were shaking made me sigh.

If she kept crying like that the whole time, she would be the first one to become monster food.

And if that happened, the place she would return to would not be home, but the damp belly of a monster.

Even though I had told her several times, she just kept crying like that.

One week.

Could I make Vanessa useful in just one week?

At the very least, she needed to be able to run away when we encountered a monster.

I didn’t want to watch her die like this.

I wanted to stop hearing the breathing of a companion fading away before I could do anything.

If possible, I wanted all of us to survive together.

But how?

It might be faster to hope that the monsters suddenly became good people…

Sigh.

::