episode_0025

Swish.

He slowly brought his right hand to his waist.

He unbuckled with his thumb and gripped the sword hilt tightly.

“Ah… yes…. Ahhh-.”

His blood was slowly boiling.

His heart pounded as if it would burst, and his vision narrowed.

He ascended the last step.

Now, only this thin door stood between him and the truth.

Creak. Creak.

“Ah, nghhh-. Ahh-.”

A cacophony of discordant sounds mixed with the man’s groans.

He couldn’t bear it.

He gripped the sword in his right hand and held the doorknob with his left, which held the lantern.

He put his shoulder into it, intending to shove the door open.

Thump!!

The door was firmly locked.

At the same time, the noise and groans from inside abruptly ceased.

Damn it.

“Wh-who’s there!?”

He heard Fosao’s flustered voice.

He calmly replied.

“I’m on patrol.”

“……Ri-Ritsu?”

“Yes.”

It became quiet inside again.

How long did the silence last?

A moment later, he heard a heavy thud, as if something large had landed on the floor, or someone had gotten off a bed.

The trembling of the stairs he stood on told him a hefty mass was approaching.

Clunk.

The metal bolt was undone, and Fosao opened the door.

“…….”

But it was only a sliver.

He opened it just enough for half his face to be visible, peering down at Ritsu with shadowed, dark eyes.

Fosao was wearing nothing.

The thick hair on his chest and lower belly was visible, and his groin was barely covered by a hastily wrapped blanket.

That alone told Ritsu that Fosao had been naked just moments before and had rushed out at his call.

Fosao asked in an anxious voice.

“Wh-what’s going on, in the middle of the night!?”

“I was on patrol and heard some noise.”

“What noise?”

“You sounded like you were in pain. Are you unwell?”

“No! I-I’m fine!”

Fosao was breathing heavily.

His entire body was drenched in sweat, as if he had been moving vigorously just moments before.

Hot, humid air also wafted from inside the room.

“Then what were you doing?”

“Ex-exercising….”

“……What?”

That was an absurd claim.

He had never once, in his entire life, seen this man do anything resembling exercise.

For this lazy man, who had lived his entire life with a belly like a lump of lard, the word ‘exercise’ simply did not fit.

And making sounds like “yes” or “good” while exercising?

His mind was slowly going insane.

He raised himself on his tiptoes to try and see inside the room.

But Fosao pressed himself tightly against the door, blocking any gaps.

This pig…!

“Exercise?”

“Yes…. It’s-it’s true. I’ve been… re-really working hard lately.”

He was stammering unusually much and sweating profusely.

He couldn’t believe it.

“Could I possibly step inside?”

“……Why?”

His dark eyes shifted.

His gaze trembled with anxiety.

“To check if there’s a problem.”

“Ah… is th-that so?”

“Yes. I need to be sure. You never know. You might be unwell. We can’t do it on the stairs, so if you sit on your bed, I can examine you.”

As he said this, he tried to open the door further, but was blocked by the man’s heavy body.

The guy sputtered, exhaling an unpleasant breath.

“U-um, Ritsu….”

“Yes?”

“You… seem a little… strange.”

“I think you’re the strange one.”

“Is it… right… for someone on patrol… to come into a house… with a sword?”

Fosao pointed at the sword in Ritsu’s right hand.

“Ah, I was just holding it in case. I’ll put it away now.”

Click.

He hung his weapon back on his waist.

“There. So now, please open the door.”

“N-no.”

“You should be cooperative with a patrolman.”

“Your village, to begin with, never even came on patrol to my, my house.”

Fosao said with a clear voice, despite his stammer.

“Coming to my house, out of nowhere, at night, with a sword… I don’t think this is right, Ritsu.”

“…….”

His blood, which had been boiling, instantly cooled at those words.

What if.

What if Fosao really was just exercising?

Then he was no different from a robber who had broken into a general store in the middle of the night with a sword.

From Fosao’s perspective… that’s all he would see.

So there was even less reason to open this door for him.

In fact, it was a situation where it wouldn’t be strange if he were to be attacked with a sword himself.

Fosao had opened the door even a little because he recognized Ritsu’s voice.

To the person who had willingly helped him when he was sick.

What was he doing now?

“……I’m sorry. It’s my first time on patrol, so I’ve been rude to you.”

“Nghhh-. Ah, no. Heehee….”

Fosao took a step back, revealing the room.

Creak-.

Fosao’s room was just as he remembered it.

As a child, he used to take naps on that large bed.

He had hidden in that enormous wardrobe during hide-and-seek, and giggled behind the safe.

Back then, the room had been incredibly messy.

He remembered the sight of the room filled with all sorts of trash and belongings.

Now, it looked as if everything had been cleared out, incredibly neat.

That made it even clearer.

Tia wasn’t there…

And there was nowhere for her to hide.

“Phew.”

His pounding heart quickly cooled.

With the comfortable relief that washed over him, he let out a relaxed breath.

Fosao gestured.

“C-come in?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ve confirmed there’s no problem. But you sure… exercise vigorously.”

“Because it feels good… Heehee.”

It really seemed like he had undergone some kind of change of heart.

Cleaning the garden, and even exercising all night.

He’d seen it all now.

“Then I’ll be going. I apologize for causing a disturbance at night.”

“Mm-hmm. Go carefully… Heeheehee….”

Thump! Clunk!

As soon as he descended the stairs, the door closed and the bolt was firmly drawn.

“…….”

His face burned.

What in the world had he been doing?

He raised the lantern again and headed up into the village.

“…What in the world?”

The sun must be rising in the west tomorrow.

That man exercising. He couldn’t even laugh.

Was he going to lose weight and propose to just any woman now?

But he wasn’t rich or a noble.

Would there truly be any woman in this world who would want to marry an old, pig-like man like that?

Well, he’d figure it out himself.

Thud. Thud.

He went straight to Tia’s house.

And when he peered through the window…

She was there.

Tia was lying on her bed, fast asleep.

So that was it.

His imagination must have run wild.

Tia wasn’t the type to go out in the middle of the night. She probably just went to the bathroom in a hurry.

And unluckily, they had just missed each other.

Well, he didn’t particularly want to wake her.

He felt reassured seeing Tia sleeping soundly like a baby rabbit, and that was enough.

Whoosh-.

Cutting through the strong wind, he made another round of the village.

* * *

“Cough! Cough! Ahem!”

It seemed he had overexerted himself.

Standing guard on top of feeling unwell was too greedy.

He started sweating cold by morning and eventually collapsed onto his bed, unable to move.

He had forced himself out of bed, thinking he needed to make medicine for the elders, but Sherry Auntie forcibly carried him back and plopped him onto the bed.

She said that resting comfortably was helping, and told him to worry about his own body first.

She wasn’t wrong. It was just that he had been too busy to rest at all.

When he woke up after a deep sleep, a black medicine bottle was placed next to him.

It was a recovery potion made by Tia.

He was grateful, but at the same time, he sighed.

He had said he would take care of it himself.

Yet Tia had stubbornly made more medicine and brought it to him.

The time it took to make just one bottle of this was enormous.

If she had used that time to help with village work instead, he wouldn’t have had to overexert himself this much.

After roughly taking the medicine and sleeping for a short while, he indeed felt his body lighten.

He spent the entire day lying in bed, and by then it was almost evening.

He wanted to take a short walk, so he went outside.

His aunts were chattering around the bonfire.

“…She’s sleeping again?”

“That’s what I’m saying. I just saw her.”

“Then we should wake her.”

“I’m just going to see how long she sleeps. Hmph…”

As he ambled about, Merid Auntie turned to look at him.

“Ritsu. Don’t keep groaning, just go inside and rest.”

“I just came out to get some fresh air.”

“Ah, Ritsu, by the way. What does Tia do every night?”

“…What?”

Olivia Auntie pointed towards the storage shed.

“Tia has been so tired lately. She keeps dozing off from morning, it’s pitiful to see.”

“Well, I don’t quite know about that….”

“You said you were on patrol yesterday. Didn’t you go to Tia’s house?”

He recalled last night’s events.

But he decided not to mention them.

He shook his head.

“I did go, but… she was just sleeping soundly.”

“Really? Hmm-. That’s strange.”

“Isn’t she sick?”

“Oh! That could be it.”

“Go check on Tia. She’s probably still sleeping.”

Listening to his aunts, he went to the storage shed.

The door was ajar. When he peered through the gap, he saw Tia.

She was curled up tightly in front of a pile of firewood, fast asleep.

Wasn’t she cold?

Worried she might catch a cold, he quickly shook her awake.

“Wake up, Tia. Your mouth will get twisted [a superstitious warning about facial paralysis from sleeping in a cold place].”

“Mmm…. Ritsu……?”

“How long have you been sleeping?”

“Mm…. Just for a bit….”

Tia slowly lifted her slumped shoulders and got up.

Her face still showed signs of sleepiness.

“You’re not sick, are you?”

“No.”

“But why are you so listless these days?”

“Hehe- It’s winter, so I guess I’m trying to hibernate-.”

Then she perched her chin on the pile of firewood and started nodding off again.

“…….”

In the past, he would have found such jokes and her dozing cute, and simply laughed it off.

But now, she shouldn’t be showing such a state.

Every time Tia’s name came out of his aunts’ mouths, his heart sank.

He would hold his breath, wondering what it could be this time, and listen to their stories.

He even wished he could apologize on her behalf if he could.

But as it kept repeating, he was becoming increasingly annoyed.

He considered himself to have lived a fairly moral life.

But when it came to anything involving Tia, he was confident he wouldn’t care about morality at all.

Sometimes he felt like a cold-blooded person, capable of lying without hesitation for Tia’s sake.

He had always done so, and would continue to do so in the future.

…However, that didn’t mean he felt no pangs of conscience.

He was human too.

Every time he deliberately remained silent or lied in front of the villagers, his heart felt cold.

He also wanted to live speaking only the truth.

He wanted to live without a single shred of shame under the sky.

He no longer wanted to deceive and mislead others.

To protect you like this, to be with you.

He had torn his conscience to shreds with his own hands.

But you, what in the world…

“Tia. Snap out of it.”