“Nhh…”
“Ah, awake now?”
I handed the ninja girl a cup of warm water.
“Where…am I…?”
“On our ship.”
“Ship…?”
It looked like she wasn’t fully conscious yet.
I helped her drink the water as her eyes struggled to focus. She seemed to have trouble swallowing, but she didn’t spit any of it out. She was weak, but the damage to her digestive tract was not too severe. She’d eaten just enough to avoid the effects of starvation.
I prepared another cup for her.
We didn’t have any soup or other food that would be easy to eat in her malnourished state, but Yarandrala had squeezed some berries to make a warm, sweet juice that would help the girl’s weakened body recover energy. When she took a sip from the cup, this time filled with the warm juice, a spark returned to the girl’s eyes.
The sweetness must have worked to stimulate her brain.
“Lady Torahime?!” she cried.
“Who’s Lady Torahime?”
She looked around frantically, saw the older woman lying on the ship, and went to rush over toward her…then staggered and started to fall.
“Whoops.” I quickly caught her—and the cup of juice, too. “She is terribly emaciated. I don’t think she’ll be able to wake up right now, and it would be better not to call out to her.”
“What did you do to the princess?!”
“We healed her, since she was on the verge of death,” Yarandrala answered with a reassuring smile. “I’m Yarandrala, a florist living in Zoltan…though I’m not really doing that right now, so, hmm…” Yarandrala cocked her head, unsure of how to introduce herself.
“Right now, I guess you’re a shipwright?” I suggested.
“Aren’t you the champion of the colosseum?” Rit offered.
“A hobbyist,” said Ruti.
“A helpful sister-figure,” said Tisse.
We all answered in our own way.
The girl looked confused.
And what was with Tisse? Every once in a while, she’d say something where it was impossible to tell if she was joking or serious.
Mister Crawly Wawly just swayed his body with resigned acceptance.
“Ah, also, she’s a super-skilled healer, so she helped the princess lying over there. She’s still unconscious, but her life isn’t in any danger.”
“Th-thank goodness…”
The strength seemed to leave the girl’s body, and she stopped struggling.
I gave her back the cup of juice and guided her to a seat.
“I’m Red, this is my little sister, Ruti, and that’s my fiancée, Rit.”
“Ruti?! Are you Ruti the Hero?!” the girl shouted.
“No, I’m just Ruti,” she answered without batting an eyelash.
“But Ruti is…”
“Ruti isn’t that uncommon a name… Ah, maybe you didn’t know, since you’re from the East.”
“Oh… Is that so?”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not the Hero.”
“No, it is this one’s fault for leaping to conclusions… Humblest apologies.”
The disappointment was clear on her face.
I guess the feats of Ruti the Hero had even made it all the way across the world to the Jade Kingdom.
“I’m Tisse, and this my friend, Mister Crawly Wawly.”
Mister Crawly raised his right front leg in greeting.
“Eeep! A spider?!” the girl yelped.
“Ah, do you not like spiders? Sorry about that.” With some chagrin, Tisse put Mister Crawly Wawly in her bag.
“Ah, not at all. Forgive me…,” the girl apologized again, lowering her head. “This one is uncomfortable around bugs.”
She seemed a frank and honest sort of girl.
“Apologies for not introducing oneself sooner. This one is called Habotan. Thank you for saving her life.”
“Habotan, huh. That’s an odd name.”
“Apparently, it comes from the name of a flower.”
“I see.”
The girl looked a little embarrassed. Why now, when she was just talking about her name? Did it have something to do with Jade Kingdom culture?
“The woman lying over there is known as Lady Torahime, this one’s master and princess of an exalted family in the Jade Kingdom.”
“So that really was a Jade Kingdom ship.”
I couldn’t believe a ship like that had managed to cross the most dangerous sea in the world… There was still so much about seafaring I didn’t understand.
Well, technically, it had been adrift, so it didn’t exactly cross safely, but still.
“The ship was accompanied by an incredible group of samurai!” the girl said, her voice filled with pride. But as soon as the words left her lips, her expression went rigid, as if she’d just realized something.
“…What of the rest…?” she asked.
“By the time we got there, there was nothing we could do for them.”
“Ah… I see…”
Tears welled in the girl’s eyes, and she quickly turned to look up at the sky.
“It is an honor for a Jade Kingdom samurai to die for their master! You were all splendid!” she said, her voice quivering.
It was obvious she was fighting to keep it together.
The Jade Kingdom, huh…
I waited for her to collect herself before continuing.
“Our ship is headed for the city of Zoltan in the Republic of Zoltan. It’s a place that doesn’t generally probe too deeply into peoples’ pasts, but they’ll probably have a few questions for someone who washed up from the East.”
“Oh! Ah… That’s…”
“You should probably take the time now to figure out what you can and can’t say.”
“…Are you not going to question us, Sir Red?”
“If you feel like answering questions, then I don’t mind asking them, but we’re just normal citizens of Zoltan. That’s a job for the city guard.”
They probably had some sort of important reason for being here.
The Jade Kingdom was a country on the other side of the world that was separated from the dark continent by a strait and had been fighting the demon lord’s armies for many, many long years. Things in the west were going better with Hero Van and Prince Salius’s efforts, but the situation might have been worse in the East. If they had come seeking help…that would be difficult.
It was possible for a heroic party of a handful of people to cross the Wall at the End of the World, but moving an army over it was impossible with humanity’s current level of technology.
It might have been different if the dragons were willing to help carry soldiers across the Wall…but that wasn’t really something I could do anything about.
“This one is…” Habotan started, before stopping herself short and looking down. “Deepest apologies.”
What a conscientious girl.
“Your master is still sleeping, so you can’t say anything careless, right? Don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
“Oh, there is one thing I do want to ask!” Rit popped her head out from behind me. “Are you a ninja, Habotan?!”
“Yes! You are correct!” she answered in a loud voice.
…Were ninjas usually like this?
It was dark by the time we’d made it safely back to Zoltan and taken the two of them to a clinic. We could have just left the rest to the doctors and guards, but…
“Ah, no… Thank you for everything…”
Hearing Habotan say that to us with the look of an abandoned puppy, we couldn’t help but explain things to the guards for them and get them admitted to a hospital run by the Church.
Well, after all, Habotan was in an unknown country, all of her comrades were dead, and her liege Torahime was still unconscious. It was only natural she might feel disheartened.
After helping out and promising to come see her tomorrow once we were done with work, we made it back to the shop after the sun had well and truly set.
It had been a pretty exhilarating day off.
“So they’re from the other side of the Wall at the End of the World…”
“I wonder what it’s like!”
“I doubt we’ll ever get to see it, but it’s not every day we get a visitor from the East, so it’d be nice to ask Habotan a bit about it.”
“Yeah!”
Rit and I had dinner smiling and talking about our day as per usual.
It had been a busy day, and we hadn’t had time to go to the market or make a fancy meal, so dinner was just a simple pasta soup using olive oil and tomatoes.
It might have been simple, but it was still tasty—the perfect meal for a time like this.
“That certainly was a unique day off.”
“Yeah, it was.”
I loved the ordinary days I spent with Rit, but having a bit of excitement in our lives every now and then was fun, too. And after our adventure, I got to spend the evening together with Rit just like always.
Yeah. It was a good day.
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