The Young Master Who Keeps Coming to My Side

A tree.

A snow-covered tree.

A tree, quietly asleep, its bare branches laden with heaps of snowflakes, their delicate patterns blurred.

……I'm bored to death.

How long do I have to keep watching the trees march backward?

Yuria's body was as fragile as a sunfish, right down to her semicircular canals. I’d brought a book on magical theory to read and pass the time in the carriage, but after just two sentences, I started feeling sick.

Derek had taken my comfort into consideration, and although I was working as a maid, my true status was still that of a noble, so we were riding in the finest carriage available to us.

Even so, there was no getting around motion sickness.

I want to read.

I had no desire to leave this world, where everything was far more plentiful and comfortable than back home, even if it had no internet.

Still, while I was here, I had to look for a way to become a man again.

No matter how completely I’d grown used to a woman’s body, or how diligently I’d adopted women’s ways of speaking, behaving, and thinking, my sense of self couldn’t accept being forced on by a man while in a woman’s body.

Even if the conventions of the era said otherwise, I’d pursue even the faintest chance of avoiding it.

But, well. I just can’t stand motion sickness.

[Thud-]

Suddenly, something landed lightly on the roof of the carriage.

At first, I thought we were under attack by a monster I’d never actually seen before. But now, on the third day of our march, I’d gotten used to the sound.

Even though I felt a little annoyed, I was secretly glad he’d come.

After all, chatting away with him in this unfamiliar, boring place put me at ease and made things more enjoyable.

A familiar silhouette opened the carriage door from outside and climbed in.

“What are you doing, Yuria?”

“Watching the trees…… No one can hear us…… right?”

“I told you this carriage has excellent soundproofing. Just talk comfortably.”

The sound of him landing on the roof didn’t exactly inspire confidence in that soundproofing.

I hope he didn’t break the ceiling.

More importantly, if you want to talk to me, I keep telling you to call me outside instead of coming in here.

“Damn it, stop crawling in here all the time! I’m alone in a carriage with top-notch soundproofing, and do you have any idea what people will say if you keep climbing in here?”

Not that it would ever happen with me, but a personal maid and her noble master were considered one of the pairings most likely to fall for each other—and in reality, it often happened.

Setting aside my mindset and Derek’s usual behavior, from an outsider’s perspective, we’d known each other since childhood and had spent years practically glued to each other. We were a rather unusual pair.

On top of that, despite my shortcomings interfering with my maid duties, Derek had stubbornly insisted on keeping me as his personal maid and bringing me along everywhere.

The carriage could even turn its seats into a bed, and it was designed so no sound escaped and it was hard to see inside. And I was in here alone.

And Derek kept coming in all the time?

Over the past three days, whenever I stepped out of the carriage for a bit, I’d overheard the new knights whispering about us quite a lot.

……This is so fucking annoying. Who are they trying to pair with whom?

Even if he’s my closest friend, I have absolutely no intention of spreading my legs for him.

“People say things like that all the time anyway. If a personal maid never heard gossip behind her back, she’d practically be failing at her job. Don’t worry about it.”

“Try being a woman. Do you think you can just choose not to care about something like that?”

“You call yourself a man. Now you’re a woman again?”

“Get it through your head. I mean ‘a woman’s body.’ Anyway, why do you keep saying I’m a man, then treating me like a woman?”

Lately, the way Derek saw me had changed a lot from before.

He used to play along whenever I reminded him I was a man, but these days, it felt like he kept subtly poking at the femininity that came out of me without my even realizing it.

Was there something he wanted from me?

“Anyway, what are you here for this time? Did you chop off another White Goblin’s head?”

The day before yesterday, on the first day of our journey, a group of monsters attacked us on a mountain path as we headed for our first destination.

They were a strange kind of goblin that lived only in snow-covered mountain regions, and were called White Goblins.

They usually didn’t come down as far as the Grand Duke’s direct domain, but for some reason, we ran into them as soon as we set out.

According to the knights, it was a sign that this year’s monster wave was unusually bad.

Of course, to these elite warriors, they were no more than a bite-sized snack.

Even the youngest apprentice could slice them up with a casual swing of his sword.

In the middle of all that, Derek had cut off the head of a leader-class monster and shown it to me, just to brag pointlessly to someone who’d only ever encountered monsters in books.

And delicate Yuria didn’t have the stomach to endure the sight, so I ended up giving the day’s lunch menu a visual review.

“I don’t have a weird hobby of admiring your vomit. Seeing it once was enough. I’d love to skin a Yeti and show off its hide, but……”

“Ugh. That’d be a bit much…… Actually, that sounds okay?”

“Huh?”

“They say that if you prepare Yeti hide properly, it makes the perfect material for a luxury bag. We could bring some back and find an artisan in the city to make one.”

……I’d meant it as a joke, but Derek’s eyes lit up.

He really looks like he’s about to go get one.

If you’re going to get one, don’t bring back raw Yeti hide. Bring me a bag made from it instead.

By the time we reach the capital, it’ll be my birthday, you know?

“If we find a Yeti, I’ll give it a try. Honestly, it’s no more than a bite-sized snack for me, but it’s harder to control my strength enough to keep from damaging the hide.”

Yeah, good for you.

You could just control your strength the way you do when you massage my shoulders. Quit exaggerating.

……Suddenly, I was craving that gentle pressure.

When Derek massaged me, it eased the pain and put me at ease.

“We can think about the Yeti later. Come outside first. We’re staying here for the night.”

“Here? It’s still bright out. Aren’t we going farther?”

“This is a crossroads. You’ve been in a carriage near the front of the procession, so you wouldn’t have seen it, but there’ve been quite a few small attacks from the rear. There are more monsters than we expected, so we’ll have to split up into smaller groups and sweep the area in several directions.”

From what my family in this world—my ‘only’ parents—had told me, every few decades, the monsters beyond the White Mountains stirred during winter.

Because the lands beyond the mountains were remote and had an extremely harsh climate, expeditions had failed time and again, and the cause of the monsters’ stirring was still unknown.

Whatever the cause, when it happened, the monsters at the bottom of the food chain were usually pushed into the border regions where people lived.

It looked like we’d drawn the short straw and ended up in one of those rare stirrings.

And of all the times, it had to happen when I’d been dragged along on patrol despite having absolutely no fighting ability.

As always, I’d better stick even closer to Derek.

……Maybe I should just keep him in the carriage with me, even if it means putting up with unpleasant rumors.

That way, I’d be safe and less bored.

***********

Winter days in the mountains are awfully short, and the darkness lasts longer than you’d imagine.

……That was what I’d always thought.

It was still a long time until dawn, but paradoxically, it wasn’t all that dark.

The mage from the Knights had spent ages explaining it. What was it again?

To sum it up, the closer you get to the mountain range, the denser the mana in the air. When the moonlight reflected off the snow piled up here and there spread through the mana in the air, the light did something or other……

It’d be nice if mages would explain things in a way ordinary people could understand, whether they were writing books or talking.

Whatever the principle, it was bright enough for even an ordinary person like me to make out my surroundings without any trouble.

Thanks to that, I could keep up my usual routine even during the patrol.

That meant getting up before dawn, getting myself ready, and preparing to attend to my duties first.

I stepped out of the carriage that served as my private bedroom.

The only noncombatants in the group were me, the driver of my carriage, and the porters.

Since I was the only woman, I slept in the carriage, while everyone else slept in tents like the knights.

The women in the Knights slept in a tent of their own, too. I should’ve slept there.

Since I went back and forth attending to Derek every day, I’d gotten close to plenty of older sisters—noonas, I mean—and as a man, there were few things more blissful than sleeping surrounded by beautiful women.

Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

I glanced at the tent where the older sisters were sleeping, then headed for the campfire where the night watch was keeping guard.

Before bed, I’d heard from Derek that there was an open-air hot spring nearby, and I wanted to slip in for a soak while everyone was asleep.

Even if the mage sisters kept using cleansing magic on us, there was no reason to pass up the chance to warm up in hot water.

They say people with a high N score on the MBTI need to spend at least thirty minutes washing every day while contemplating the origin of the universe.

I was planning to just let the night watch know I’d be stepping out for a little while on my own.

But, quite by chance, Derek was on watch.

“Oh, Yuria. You’re up already?”

“What, it’s you? I get up at this time every day. That’s what a maid should do.”

“Still, you should sleep a little longer. You don’t need to attend to me during the patrol.”

When Derek was acting as ‘the Grand Duke’s heir,’ I did my job as his personal maid. But when he was acting as ‘the Knights’ Swordmaster,’ I usually didn’t.

Derek had insisted I stay out of it, since I’d only get hurt if I got caught up in a fight.

And right now, his role as Swordmaster took precedence over being a young master.

There was a reason Derek was standing night watch despite his status and position.

“I didn’t get up to attend to you. Just tell me where that hot spring you mentioned yesterday is. I’m going to wash up.”

“An open-air hot spring? There is one about five minutes away, but…… were you planning to go alone?”

“I’ll sneak off while everyone’s asleep. They’ll set out as soon as they wake up.”

To sweep up monsters across as wide an area as possible, the Knights were going to split into small units at this crossroads and move out in different directions.

But my group included noncombatants like me, so we had to reach the next territory as quickly as possible.

If I didn’t go now, I wouldn’t have time to soak in the hot spring.

Derek thought about something for a moment, then suddenly stood up and headed for the tent right beside us.

A little while later, he came back with a knight rubbing his sleepy eyes.

Derek whispered something to the knight for quite a while. The knight suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked back and forth between me and Derek, his eyes sparkling.

“Yes, leave it to me, Young Master! I’ll guard her for you, no matter what!”

“All right, I get it, so keep your voice down, Allen. You’ll wake everyone.”

Derek patted the knight called Allen on the back a couple of times, then came back over to me.

Then, all of a sudden, he grabbed my hand and tried to take me somewhere.

“What is it? Why are you…… Young Master?”

I belatedly switched to honorifics so the knight, whose eyes were still sparkling, wouldn’t hear me.

Derek kept hold of my hand and led me toward the forest.

Once the knight was out of sight, I asked Derek again.

“Hey, what are you trying to do right now? Let go, you punk!”

“I’m showing you the hot spring.”

“You could’ve just pointed me in the right direction. Why are you escorting me there? And why’d you wake someone up just to leave them as your replacement?”

“How could I send you alone? I need to keep watch while you’re washing up.”

“Huh?”

Wait. I said I was going to the hot spring to wash up, and this bastard’s coming with me……

……You’re crazy, you bastard?