NOVEL NEXT Chapter 224
224. Trust Isn’t Earned Without Repetition, Isn’t It?
I barged into the inn where Eva and the Casper sisters were staying, dashed up the stairs, and flung open the door to their room with a bang.
“Eva! I’ve got an idea for how to find the hidden village, and I wanna try it… out… now…”
My words trailed off into nothing.
Because there stood half-naked Eva, half-naked Camille, and half-naked Marilyn.
At their feet lay scattered clothes and gear. Maybe they’d been sorting through their travel supplies.
“Uh, this is a misunderstanding. Yeah, that’s…”
The three of them stared at me, eyes wide. And naturally, my gaze drifted to the biggest… part.
“Damn, those are huge.”
“[Sky Bomb Blast]!”
Eva’s merciless magic attack sent me flying, crashing through the inn’s open atrium and straight onto a table in the first-floor tavern. Surrounded by adventurers mid-meal, my consciousness faded away.
◆
The scene shifted from the inn to my house.
Ryuuko was brewing tea for the three sisters.
On the living room sofa sat an utterly pissed-off Eva, the ever-expressionless Camille, and Marilyn, whose cheeks were slightly flushed.
Apparently, they’d carried me home after I knocked myself out.
Couldn’t they have just healed me on the spot? Marilyn was right there…
“We would have, if you hadn’t been shouting about the hidden village for everyone to hear.”
Eva’s voice was icy.
“My bad.”
“Your… bad?”
Her tone sent chills down my spine.
“O-of course! I’m also sorry for barging into your room!”
I recalled Jabil-sensei’s warning: “Knock before entering a room.”
He was right!
…Well, no, that’s just common sense. The fault was entirely mine. So I prostrated myself before the three of them.
Marilyn, cheeks still red, murmured, “I-I should’ve locked the door… so it’s my fault too…” and forgave me.
Camille brushed it off with, “It’s not like my body’s interesting to look at anyway.” I didn’t quite get what she meant, though.
As for Eva… yeah. She chewed me out. Like, really chewed me out. Made me kneel in seiza for two whole hours while she lectured me.
Then, partway through, Camille got scolded too. Here’s why:
“Camille! You noticed Craft coming, didn’t you?! Why didn’t you lock the door or something?!”
“Because it seemed more fun this way.”
And so, the two of us ended up kneeling together for a joint lecture.
By then, it was already night, so I let the three of them stay over.
“If you’ve got any indecent ideas—”
“Jabil-sensei lives here too, and so does Ryuuko! We’ve got plenty of guest rooms to spare!”
It took some effort to clear up that misunderstanding.
Maybe I’m just cursed when it comes to women.
◆
The next morning, aside from the three sisters, Ryuuko, and Jabil-sensei, Van and Leafan were also there for some reason.
“Your Majesty. What’re you doing here this early? Don’t you have work?”
Van made a face like he’d bitten into something bitter.
“Not really. I’ve got things to do before my guards catch up to me.”
I was gonna report properly later, geez.
Leafan let out a heavy sigh.
“Craft, your reports only ever include the results. Half the time, everything goes wrong along the way! Could you at least try to think about how it feels for us to hear about the aftermath?”
I figured “all’s well that ends well” was good enough.
As if reading my mind, Leafan raised an eyebrow.
“We’re here because we need to see more than just the results!”
“O-oh. Right.”
I caved. I wasn’t about to turn them away after they’d come all this way, but I still wasn’t fully convinced. This time, there wasn’t even any real danger.
Leafan pointed a finger sharply.
“So? What’s your idea this time?”
“Nothing big. I figured if Eva uses dowsing, we might be able to find the village’s direction.”
Leafan paused for a moment, then brightened.
“Dowsing… Craft, that’s brilliant! But can you even dowse something as vague as a village?”
“No idea, so I wanted to test it. That’s why I barged into the inn yesterday. The Dowsing Tear Drop recognizes concepts based on the user’s knowledge, so I thought it might work.”
“Just testing shouldn’t be dangerous, at least!”
“Rude. If there was danger, I wouldn’t have suggested trying it at night!”
Leafan gave me a sidelong glance at my defense.
“You’ve got too much of a track record.”
“Harsh.”
Anyway, I handed Eva the Dowsing Tear Drop and had her try it.
Leafan, being more experienced with it, explained how to use it—though she really didn’t need to keep emphasizing “there’s no danger” so much!
Once Eva understood, she flicked the chain lightly and held the Tear Drop.
“So I just imagine the village while using it?”
Leafan nodded.
“The more detailed, the better!”
“Got it. Here goes.”
At first, the Tear Drop stayed still, but then it began to spin slowly, emitting a faint glow as it pointed in one direction. Leafan’s eyes sparkled.
“It’s reacting! But it’s pretty vague. The direction’s northeast-east, I’d say? And it seems pretty far.”
The destination must’ve been really distant, given how weak and unclear the response was.
Van stroked his chin.
“The royal capital, perhaps?”
“I think it’s further east. The reaction suggests it’s beyond even the capital.”
“I see. Then we’ll teleport to the capital and try again there.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
A large teleportation gate connecting the capital to Golden Dawn had already been set up for authorized merchants, along with a smaller one for Van and his associates, so getting to the capital would be easy.
I announced to everyone:
“Alright, everyone! Prep by tomorrow and gather at the castle!”
“““Yeah!!!”””
And so, we embarked on our journey to revive Kyle!
The next day.
As everyone gathered in a room at Golden Dawn Castle… we had a problem child in our midst.
“Jitaro…”
“What’s up?”
I glared at the mountain of unnecessary food and supplies piled up behind him.
“What the hell is all this…?”
“Well, it’s a long trip, so ya can never have too much, right?”
“You just went on a shopping spree at Sealra’s place, didn’t you?”
“That’s beside the point! This is different!”
“Ugh… The kingdom’s supplying all the essentials anyway.”
“That’s beside the point! This is different!”
I shook my head. This guy was hopeless.
“C’mon, Craft, Eva, you’ve got your storage magic! It’s fine, right?”
“I really don’t wanna stuff all that in…”
“Honestly, same.”
It’s not like we couldn’t store it, but… it just felt wrong. Like we were enabling Jitaro’s greed.
Eva and I were too stunned to even argue.
“Alright! Let’s move out!”
“““Yeah…”””
With half-hearted replies, we stepped through the teleportation gate and headed for the royal capital.