Chapter 5
One Year Together
It was the morning after that quiet battle for the fate of the world.
“Morning.”
“Good morning.”
Rit and I got up at the same time and greeted each other like always. As we opened the curtains, the sun shone in through the window like it did every morning.
““Mmm.””
We stretched at the same time and smiled at each other, then went out into the yard to bask in the sunlight, where we did some light exercise. A bird was chirping in a nearby tree. The wind blew, and Rit took a moment to enjoy the breeze. Moments like this were enjoyable, even during Zoltan’s summers.
“Okay, let’s have fun at work today, too.”
“Yeah!”
We had to work hard to make up for the time lost yesterday; we’d closed up shop early to deal with everything with Altra. And, after a day of hard work today, tomorrow would be a day off.
We washed our faces and went back inside the house.
I put on an apron and went into the kitchen to start making breakfast. Ruti and the others would be joining us today, so I’d be cooking for five. I melted a little butter into the frying pan and fried some bacon, then added eggs once the bacon fat started sizzling. While waiting for that to cook, I boiled some potatoes in salt water and added slices of lemon to cold water fresh from the well.
The idea for breakfast today was “simple but delicious.”
Rit, Ruti, Tisse, Mister Crawly Wawly, Habotan, and I were all sitting around the breakfast table.
““Thanks for breakfast.””
Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food. It wasn’t a special meal, nor a special occasion, but this morning was still wonderful.
“How was Altra afterward?”
“She will be discharged in five days. The doctors were quite angry with her.”
“Haha, well she did leave without permission, then came back in as bad a state as when she was first admitted.”
Apparently using up every bit of her magic power and then pushing herself to perform the sealing had been too much; Altra had collapsed unconscious, and we’d had to quickly hurry her to the hospital… But anyone would collapse in that state, wouldn’t they?
It would be a little while longer before Habotan and Altra could live together.
“Are you planning to live with Altra here in Zoltan?”
“Yes. Once Lady Torahime is discharged, we plan to rent a house near Sir Ruti’s estate.”
Habotan and Altra hadn’t decided yet what exactly they were going to do going forward, but they had settled on staying in Zoltan for a while.
“The plan today is to look for a home. Sir Ruti is also accompanying this one!”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’m Habotan’s reliable senior here in Zoltan. She can count on me to help look for a home,” Ruti said, puffing out her chest confidently.
She sure was a dependable friend.
“With the failure of his invasion of Avalon, the demon lord’s power to keep his forces together will weaken. The wyvern knights have been devastated, too—they don’t even have the power left to fight Altra, let alone Ruti, do they?”
“And if they realize we know how to seal them, even Asura demons might hesitate to chase us down.”
“Very true. The one group of allies Demon Lord Taraxon won’t betray are his fellow Asuras. Demons, orcs, dwarves…all of them are only being brought to heel by force of strength.”
Now that she no longer had to hide that she was from the dark continent, Habotan could tell us a lot about her homeland and the demon lord’s armies.
However, having been born the daughter of the demon lord, she had spent most of her young life in the castle and had then been kept in confinement after Taraxon usurped the title, so she didn’t seem to have much firsthand knowledge of a lot of things.
Her journey with Altra had been her first trip into the outside world.
“Lady Torahime taught this one many things. The oden we had in the Jade Kingdom was delicious.”
“Right, oden did come from there originally, didn’t it? We have it here in Zoltan too, so you should try it sometime.”
“Really?! Once Lady Torahime is well, we shall!” Her eyes lit up.
“You still call her that, even after her identity as Altra was revealed,” Rit pointed out, and Habotan’s cheeks reddened.
“You know…it was this one who gave Altra the name Lady Torahime.”
Her tone had changed slightly, probably because she wasn’t speaking as a ninja now, but expressing how she truly felt.
“This one does not have a name.”
“You don’t have a name?”
“No. The clan of the demon lord inherit the demon lord’s name. Until then, they are nobody. This one was only ever called the demon lord’s daughter and was always treated as such; she has never seen her father’s face. So when Altra gave this one the name Habotan, it felt as if she had been born into this world for the first time.”
“…So that’s how it was.”
“This one wanted to give Altra something in return, so when Altra was thinking of an alias, she suggested the name Torahime. It may be conceited for this one to say, but…Lady Torahime was pleased.”
Even the demon lord had it rough…
They must’ve decided it was better for future demon lords not to have any unnecessary experiences; otherwise, they might stray from their path as the lord of evil.
In which case, Habotan might be different from any other demon lord in history.
“I see. Then maybe we should keep calling her Lady Torahime as well.”
“Okay, so in Zoltan, she’s Lady Torahime, a princess of the Jade Kingdom and Habotan’s master.”
Hearing the way me and Rit responded, Habotan smiled.
…That smile reminded me of how glad I was we’d been able to save Torahime.
“Oh, you mentioned wanting to make a product for the one-year anniversary of Red & Rit’s Apothecary, did you not?” Habotan said, awkwardly changing the subject. She must’ve been feeling embarrassed about opening up to us with her feelings.
It was adorable.
“Yeah. Actually, I already have an idea. I was planning to work on it once we closed up for the day.”
“Then let me look after the shop today, and you can work on it now,” said Rit.
But I shook my head.
“I want to do it the same way we did the cookies.”
“The same way…?”
“I want us to do it together. If we’re going to make a new product celebrating one year of Red & Rit’s Apothecary, then that’s the only way.”
“R-really…? Ehehe.” Rit hid her big smile behind her bandana.
I loved the way she did that.
“Then let me watch the shop today.”
“This one will help, too!”
“I’ll also provide assistance once I’ve finished work at the plantation.”
Ruti, Habotan, and Tisse all volunteered to help.
“You’re sure about this? Don’t you need to look for a place to live, Habotan?”
“It will be quite some time before the demon lord dispatches any more pursuers, so this one and Lady Torahime are not as pressured for time. This isn’t enough to repay you, but please allow this one to be of some use!”
“Big Brother’s shop is fun. I’m sure you’ll like it too, Habotan!”
“I really appreciate it, you three.”
Ruti, who had once been the Hero, and Habotan, who would one day become the Demon Lord, standing together behind the counter of an apothecary in a remote land… Torahime called it fate, but if it was, it wasn’t a fate sketched out by Demis.
I couldn’t help finding it incredibly exciting.
Rit and I sat together at a bench in the workroom of the apothecary.
“So what’s this idea you had?” Rit asked as she picked up a bottle filled with dried medicinal herbs.
“Well, we run an apothecary.”
“Yeah?”
“Most medicines people only use when they’re not feeling well.”
“Right.”
“I was thinking of trying to make something else people can use even when they’re healthy, but I want to try taking it in a different direction this time, rather than focusing on health.”
“What sort of direction?!”
Rit was getting excited. Her reactions were always so much fun to watch.
“Even if they don’t feel it, people’s bodies get damaged every day. So I was thinking of making a medicine to help heal that.”
I touched Rit’s beautiful blonde hair.
“R-Red?!”
“The new product for Red & Rit’s Apothecary’s one-year anniversary is a medicine to protect people’s hair.”
The idea was to make a tonic to protect hair from the rain or getting dried out, that had a subtle but pleasant scent and could be used for long periods of time without any side effects.
“I’ve already developed a couple of different recipes. All that’s left is to make a few minor adjustments.”
“Incredible!”
“But my hair’s pretty strong, so it doesn’t really need this sort of thing.”
“True, you do always have a nice head of hair,” Rit said, mussing it up.
“Mm… Ahem, so I wanted to make some samples today and get your advice on them.”
“You want my advice?”
“Yeah, I want to make whichever recipe you think is best. Wouldn’t that be perfect for our shop’s anniversary product?”
“Definitely! …Ehehe.”
Rit was surprised but pleased, and that was more gratifying to me than anything.
“All right, I’ll try out a few different recipes, so you just stay next to me.”
“Of course. I’ll always be by your side.”
I felt my face go a little hot when she said that to me.
I made a bunch of different samples, Rit gave me her honest opinion on each of them, and we kept testing and experimenting.
When the store closed, we had dinner with Ruti and the others, and after they left, Rit and I went back to the workroom.
We’d considerably narrowed down the options. All we had left to do was adjust the strength of the scent…
““It’s done!!!””
We held hands and smiled at one another.
“All right, I’ll make more for tomorrow.”
“And I can give out samples!”
I was looking forward to it.
Today had been another day filled with excitement and happiness in our quiet life.
The next day, Rit took a basket with samples around town for a couple hours.
Meanwhile, I recommended our new product to customers who visited the shop.
Unlike with the cookies, this time there were a lot of women buying it—a testament to how trusted our shop had become in the past year. The thought filled me with joy.
An older gentleman was picking up his medicine.
“Ohh, that looks good.”
He was a butler working for a noble in central Zoltan. Apparently, he was off today, because he wore a loose shirt instead of his regular butler attire.
He’s married, isn’t he?
“Why not get some for your wife? I’m sure she would like it.”
“There’s an idea. It’s almost our anniversary.” The gentleman put two bottles on the counter. “And your one-year anniversary product is an appropriate present, since we wish to be as close and affectionate as the two of you.”
“Ah, that’s, um, thank you very much.”
He smiled happily, seeing me at a loss for words.
Rit came back to the shop at around noon. Reactions had been good, and thanks to her handing out samples, there were even more customers in the afternoon.
By the time we closed up shop in the evening, we’d completely sold out of the new tonic.
“Good work today, Rit.”
“You too, Red.”
We looked into each other’s eyes and high-fived. I remembered back to the first time our shop had been filled with customers, when I’d gotten caught up in my excitement and lifted Rit up in a hug.
Maybe I should do that again now.
“Wah!”
“Thank you for everything, Rit.”
“Ehehe, just like a year ago.”
“No, it’s not just that.”
Our bond was even stronger now than it had been back then. Rit was irreplaceably precious to me.
“Rit… There’s something I wanted to give you,” I said, setting her down.
“Mm, I have something for you, too.”
Still standing close to each other, we took out our wrapped presents.
“Rit.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for being with me this past year. I hope you’ll stay with me forever.”
Rit hid behind her bandana, then opened the gift.
Inside was the sea-drake-horn comb I’d bought from the sailor at the harbor and a bottle of the medicine from yesterday.
I had made it for the shop’s anniversary…but also for Rit.
“Your hair is so beautiful, and I want to take care of it, too.”
“Thank you. I love it!”
Then I opened my present from Rit.
It was a bandana with the same design as the one Rit wore around her neck.
“We do our own things a lot of the time, but with this, I feel like we’ll always be connected.”
I wrapped it around my left arm.
“Does it look okay?”
“Yeah! It suits you just as much as my bandana does me!”
I pulled Rit closer and kissed her.
Next year, we would officially be married, which meant that this was our first and last anniversary as just lovers.
That thought made me love her even more.
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