Chapter 6
Summer Memories
It was the day after the battle with Eremite. Our trip was finally at its end. No clouds marred the sky. The sea was blue and clear.
This was the beauty of the time after a storm.
“Now let’s swim!”
“““““Yeah!!!”””””
Rit, Ruti, Tisse, Mister Crawly Wawly, Tanta, and Gonz all answered my shout with great enthusiasm.
Yarandrala, Mido, and Nao were behind them, raising their right arms, despite not joining in the cheering.
We’d decided to swim to make the most of our vacation until the last second when the boat came.
“Let’s go, Tanta!”
“Yeah!”
Gonz, his nephew, and everyone else jumped into the water. Even Nao, who’d been seasick on the first day, was enjoying herself in the ocean.
“It’s finally done,” Yarandrala said. She had approached me with Tisse close behind.
“Thank you both,” I said to them. “A lot happened, but in the end, things worked out, and we got to enjoy ourselves.”
“It really was a lot. But I’m glad Tanta will be okay,” Yarandrala replied.
I shook my head. “It’s not that simple. His life starts now. I’m sure he’ll struggle and come to know plenty of uncertainty.”
“True…,” Tisse agreed quietly.
“But we’ll be there for him. His childhood is ending, but he’s still our friend.”
Yarandrala and Tisse smiled and nodded at my remark.
“Hey, where’s Mister Crawly Wawly?” I asked.
He’d been swimming with Tisse, but I didn’t see him in the water.
“Over there.”
“Oh?”
Tisse pointed, and I followed her finger to the grill we’d used for the barbecue. Looking closely, I spied a frying pan on the grill. Mister Crawly Wawly was moving around hurriedly.
Something like a headband was wrapped around his head.
“What’s he doing?”
“He wanted to make the last day’s lunch himself.”
“Huh?! He’s cooking?!”
I knew he’d taken the Cooking skill, and I’d seen him help Tisse with meals before, but it was a bit of a shock to watch him making food for people by himself.
“Apparently, he’s making fried spaghetti.”
“Wow.”
He really was a crazy high-spec spider.
“I can’t wait to try it,” I said.
Tisse bobbed her head. “Me too.”
I couldn’t help but get excited, wondering how his handiwork would taste.
Yarandrala and I waved at the spider to cheer him on.
He hopped up in acknowledgment.
“Oh, Red!”
After we’d had lunch, Rit suddenly called to me as though she’d remembered something.
Mister Crawly Wawly’s fried spaghetti had been delicious, earning high marks from everyone. Ruti and Tanta even had seconds.
“I brought a beach ball along, but totally forgot about it!”
Rit pulled a large ball from her item box. It was so large that it would’ve been tough to throw it with one hand.
“I wanted to play with it, and it completely slipped my mind!”
“Are you sure? The ship’s coming soon, isn’t it?” Nao asked.
Our boat was bound to arrive in a little while, but there was still some time yet. Maybe the merchant was late departing Zoltan because he sold a bit extra.
“It’s not every day we get to enjoy a vacation on the beach, let’s make sure we don’t end it with any regrets.” I scarfed down the last of my spaghetti, and everyone else finished up quickly, too. “Time for the last game of the trip!”
We ran to the beach and started throwing the ball around.
“This really has been a great time,” Rit said to me.
“Yeah, it truly has,” I agreed.
We laughed together as we chased after the ball.
Our island trip was filled with smiles to the very end.
Not long after, the boat arrived, and soon, we were on the way back to Zoltan.
“Mmm, that’s a nice breeze.”
Rit stretched. I could see from her neck down to her breasts.
My heart raced a little.
I’d seen her in a bikini plenty during the trip, but it never got old. She was always cute and wonderful.
“So, Eremite orchestrated the storm ahead of our arrival, right?” Rit said.
Ah, a serious talk. I should focus.
“I think so. Not even a high-level Saint could manage that kind of weather manipulation on the fly. I’m sure she was working for days before we showed up.”
I’d suggested that we visit the beach the day I ran into Tanta at the cemetery. He’d seen some kind of white shade, and I’d proposed the idea on a whim to cheer him up.
That had to have been Eremite. Her Prophecy skill had told her that if she frightened Tanta, I would suggest heading to the island.
We’d been playing into her Prophecy skill the whole time…but Tanta had a strong enough dream to resist being drawn into his blessing. Eremite never stood a chance.
“Was it really okay to leave Eremite alive? She could be trouble in the future,” Rit wondered.
“It’s fine,” I replied.
Following the battle, Eremite had been left devastated by her failure.
This is the only chance, I thought.
“Now it’s a test of endurance.”
“Endurance…?”
Eremite looked up at my comment.
“Your prophecy failed, making this our victory.”
Her face twisted in terrible anger, but I ignored it and continued.
“But Tanta’s life is just beginning. I’m sure his blessing will influence him many times in the future.”
“…”
“He won’t forget what’s happened here. So we won’t know if your prophecy has truly failed until Tanta dies.”
“…!”
Eremite seemed to deduce what I was getting at.
“That’s why I call it a test of endurance.”
“Indeed… Yes. Mark my words. Someday, Tanta will choose Demis’s love…and until then, I shall continue to wait on this island.”
Eremite trusted in God and Divine Blessings, and now that she’d done everything necessary to realize her prophecy, there was no other course of action but to wait.
I suppose there was a chance she might choose another path, but she was a little more suggestible in her current state, so I figured she’d accept my logic.
Eremite wouldn’t know if she’d won or lost for a very long time. I didn’t expect her to make any problematic reports to the church until then.
“The most important battle in the war is the negotiation process after defeating your enemy,” I muttered.
During my time as a knight, I’d been entrusted with diplomatic negotiations many times.
Sir Flores, the knight I’d served as a squire, said that a knight needed the heart to understand a defeated foe. He wasn’t exactly suggesting sympathy, but rather, that we needed to understand the enemy to succeed at postwar negotiations.
Eremite believed in her prophecy, so rather than crushing her faith, I’d aimed to neutralize her threat by using that belief against her.
“She can’t accept Tanta’s dream, but having a connection to someone that powerful is still good for him. Now she’s driven to see her prophecy come true before Tanta dies. If he’s ever in serious danger, she’ll save him,” I said.
Rit shrugged. “Hopefully, it never comes to something like that.”
Either way, the point was that Eremite wasn’t a threat anymore.
“If only Ruti had taken it a little better,” I groused.
“Yeah.” Rit smiled slightly.
When I’d finished negotiating with Eremite, Ruti had vented her annoyance by hitting me on the back once.
“I was surprised. Ruti always agrees with how I’ve done things, so I didn’t expect her to be so upset.”
She’d wanted Eremite completely gone.
I definitely understood why, but we both understood keeping Eremite alive was for the best. That’s why she’d done nothing more than give me a little punch.
“You look almost happy about it, Red,” Rit remarked.
“Because I am!” Ruti had her own thoughts about what was right and wasn’t blindly accepting mine. That was a good thing. “Honestly, I’m so happy I might cry.”
“It’s that emotional for you, huh?” Rit’s expression turned to a wry grin.
My little sister was growing up. Of course I was glad.
As the conversation died down and we looked out at the sea, Rit abruptly asked, “Hey, what was that thing at the end about?”
“What thing?”
“You asked Eremite a question, right?”
“Oh. I was just curious about something.”
Before we left Eremite, I’d asked her a single question.
“‘If you didn’t have the Saint blessing, would you have had such powerful faith?’ right?” Rit said.
“Yeah.”
That’s what I’d asked her.
“Her answer was ‘Of course I wouldn’t have had such strong faith had I not been a Saint.’”
Rit sighed. “I guess that’s how a blessing supremacist would answer.”
She was probably right about that.
“Is that really how faith should be?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“It isn’t just limited to clerics. Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder how Ares would’ve answered that question. I asked Eremite because I thought she might answer like he would’ve.”
“Ahh, I see. Ares did feel like he thought he was special because of his Sage blessing.”
“Do you think that maybe they both thought their blessings were the only things that gave them value?”
Rit exhaled through her nose. “Maybe.”
Perhaps that was why Ares couldn’t forgive me.
I’d taken the Sage’s role as advisor, so he came to question the worth of his Divine Blessing, making him doubt his value.
If that was how he felt, maybe he’d had no choice but to try and get rid of me and take over all the responsibilities I’d held.
“You’re getting pretty gloomy,” Rit said as she hugged my head. “Don’t think too hard about it.”
“I just wanted to understand Ares a bit…since it’s summer.”
I smiled as Rit held me to her chest.
“Hey, just so you know, your public flirting increases by the day.” Tisse had appeared from nowhere, pointing at the merchant who was smiling awkwardly.
“Ah, sorry.”
I apologized even though my head was buried in Rit’s chest. Tisse shuddered at the sight, although her expression remained largely unreadable.
Later, I learned she was close to bursting out laughing. At least, close for Tisse.
“We’re all alone out here on the ocean, it’s not like anyone else can see,” the merchant responded generously.
He was a good guy.
Rit blushed a bit and quickly released me.
“Still , it looks like you had quite the fun trip.” The merchant looked toward the bow.
Tanta and his family were huddled together under a blanket, sleeping. Mister Crawly Wawly was curled up on top, resting with them.
The merchant smiled gently as he watched the family. “They look pretty satisfied. They must’ve had a great time.”
“Yeah, it was a really fun vacation,” I said.
We’d never forget these summer memories.
Rit cast me a bright smile. “It was great fun.”
The green island was yet visible in the distance. White seabirds flew past overhead.
We’d put on sunscreen, but Rit’s face was just a little bit red. Her blue eyes narrowed as she grinned.
Seeing her smile made me truly grateful that we’d gone on this trip.
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