Chapter 68
After our reunion with those familiar faces, we headed for the house where my acquaintances Kreias and Martena lived—or rather, their mansion.
That said, I had no intention of staying there. I owned a house in the town of Vistcoat, but I'd entrusted its keys to the two of them and asked them to look after it.
I've been traveling all over the place, and a house deteriorates if it's left unattended for too long.
Well, some deterioration can't be helped, but if it became a nest for a weasel or some other beast, it would inconvenience the people living nearby as well.
So, to secure a place to sleep tonight, I first had to get my house key back from Kreias and Martena.
After that, I'd have to clean the room we'd sleep in.
I'd gotten caught up talking with Rodner after our reunion, so unless we hurried, sunset would be upon us soon.
If we weren't careful, night might fall before we had time to clean.
Quite apart from me, Win and Shizuki were probably tired from the journey, so I wanted to let them rest properly if possible.
Thus, by walking briskly through town, we reached our destination.
After I struck the knocker on the huge mansion's door four times and waited briefly, a servant came out. Startled to see an elf like me, they asked what I wanted.
The servant was young and, as expected, someone I didn't recognize.
But when that servant led us into the mansion, the person who came out to greet us was a familiar... refined lady.
Yes, it was Martena, who had succeeded as an adventurer, retired, had a child, and watched that child grow independent.
"Eisa-san, it really has been so, so long. Welcome to our home. ...Oh my, who are these children?"
She was so happy to see me that she even had tears in the corners of her eyes, but her eyes suddenly widened when she saw the children—especially, for some reason, when she saw Shizuki rather than Win, who was a half-elf.
I sensed something strange about that.
Normally, I might have taken an interest in that oddity and pursued the matter to some extent.
But honestly, I was tired from the journey too, and the thought of having to clean afterward made everything feel like a chore, so I deliberately ignored it.
"This is Win. Didn't Airena tell you? Win is my adopted son, and this child is Shizuki. He's the son of someone who's been looking after me in the royal capital. Oh, right, I wanted to ask—could I have the key to the house I left in your care?"
At my words, Martena looked at Win in surprise this time and... then nodded as if she understood.
Win was accustomed to drawing attention from strangers, provided he was with me, so he didn't seem to mind.
Shizuki, on the other hand, gripped the hem of my clothes tightly, as if clinging to me.
"Of course I'll return the house key. But Eisa-san, please stay with us tonight. My husband should be home soon, and the children must be tired, too, right? I'll send someone to clean that house tomorrow."
Martena smiled gently and suggested that.
At least, I had no reason to refuse such a generous offer.
There were a few things that concerned me, but... even taking those into account, I felt I ought to stay at this mansion.
Afterward, the five of us—Kreias, Martena, Win, Shizuki, and I—had dinner together, then washed away the grime of the journey in a sauna-like bath.
Once I lay down on the bed in the guest room we'd been given, Win and Shizuki, apparently overcome by their travel fatigue, fell straight asleep.
In other words, I'd finally had a chance to collect myself, and my head was working again, so perhaps I should think about this seriously.
To be honest... it wasn't something I really wanted to think about.
Before dinner, Kreias had been slightly shaken when he saw Shizuki, rather than me or Win.
He'd hidden it fairly well, but because I'd anticipated that reaction, I could tell he hadn't concealed it quite enough.
Shizuki, too, must have felt something when he saw Kreias.
His reaction was much easier to read; it showed plainly in his manner.
Come to think of it, the child of Kreias and Martena had chosen the path of an adventurer, just like their parents, and become independent. Their child was currently away on a job and wasn't in Vistcoat.
I'd wanted to meet them at least once, but things didn't always work out.
...Yeah, I'm pretty sure Shizuki's—and probably Mizuha's—father was Kreias.
I could infer that from the attitudes of Shizuki, Kreias, and Martena.
But I had no idea why things had turned out that way.
Kaeha and Kreias knew each other, and Kaeha probably respected him, but she had never seemed to harbor feelings like that.
Of course, I didn't know about the three years Kaeha had spent in Vistcoat, or what had happened after I left the royal capital, so I couldn't say there was absolutely no possibility.
Even so, Kreias already had a family at the time, and Kaeha didn't seem at all the sort of person who would do something capable of disrupting and destroying it...
Hmm, I felt a little unsettled.
I also wondered when Shizuki—and presumably Mizuha as well—had learned that Kreias was their father.
That, too, left me with some questions.
It was probably recent, and perhaps my return to the dojo had been what set it off.
Looking back, the twins' interest in me and their habit of talking to me at every opportunity seemed less likely to have been because elves were rare, and more like they'd been sounding me out.
And after realizing that their father wasn't the mysterious first disciple who had rebuilt the dojo and then left, they had pressed Kaeha and her mother for answers.
If so... had I brought the seeds of discord into their family?
I reached out and stroked Shizuki's cheek as he slept in the bed.
His face closely resembled Kaeha's.
What had Shizuki been thinking, and how had he felt, when he asked me to take him to Vistcoat?
And what had Kaeha been thinking, and how had she felt, when she saw us off?
I didn't know any of it.
But... looking at Win sleeping beside Shizuki, I thought to myself:
Well, whatever.
Actually, who Shizuki and Mizuha's parents were was certainly important, but in the end, it didn't matter.
Just as who Win's parents were had nothing to do with the love I gave him.
Kaeha and her mother undoubtedly loved and cherished Shizuki and Mizuha.
Then that was enough.
Even without understanding the circumstances—or even if I did come to understand them—I would stand by Kaeha and protect Shizuki and Mizuha, her children.
All right. Time to sleep.
I wormed my way into the space between Win and Shizuki in the bed where they lay side by side.
Win and Shizuki protested sleepily as I jostled them, clearly annoyed, but I didn't care in the least.
Because I wanted to sleep between them.
Whatever circumstances lay behind it all, this moment, this place, belonged to me.