I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 55: The Eloreal Empire (1)

Soon after the long-awaited winter break began, Alex and I boarded a carriage bound for the Eloreal Empire.

The Eloreal Empire is quite a distance from the Kingdom of Leavrov, and the journey to get there will be no easy one.

It’s not just the half-dozen warp gates we’ll have to pass through, but the time spent traveling from gate to gate.

We’re looking at spending at least a week in a swaying carriage. And of course, the trip back would take just as much time.

Just as we did on the shores of Canbina, we’ll need to devote the entirety of this vacation to fighting the witch of Walpurgis.

I’ve already asked Kael to send word since I won’t be able to make it down to the family manor this vacation.

Actually, I felt bad for making Elise follow me around with my chores twice, so this time I definitely told her to go down to the mansion and take a vacation…

“What do you think I’d do if I left you and went to the mansion?”

“Yes? Oh, I’m not saying you have to work, just use this winter break like a vacation.

If you’re not comfortable at the Anastasia manor, would you like to go down to your old home for a visit? I’ll tell Kael to arrange transportation if necessary….”

“There’s no way I’m going back home on my own, I’ve already buried my bones in House Anastasia. Besides, I consider Arianna’s side to be my home in the first place.”

“Uh…is that so?”

“So I’ll accompany you on your journey and serve you, Lady Ariana, because it’s more like a vacation for me.

…Though if you are truly uncomfortable with my presence, I will have no choice but to wait for your return at the mansion.”

“Of course not…Okay. I’ll tell Alex that Elise is coming along, too, because I’m sure she’ll be helpful in many ways.”

“Thank you, Ariana.”

Hearing her say thank you when she’s the one doing the work makes me almost feel bad for her overwhelming loyalty.

On top of that, the carriage we’d already arranged was a two-seater, so she’d have to sit with Dale in the coachman’s seat.

Fortunately, neither Elise nor Dale were unhappy about this.

Best of all, Elise is just as capable of driving the carriage as Dale is.

Perhaps Elise could take turns holding the reins of the carriage to ease Dale’s fatigue.

In any case, the sudden addition of another person to the trip wasn’t that big of a deal, when you think about it.

The real problem that was bothering me was on the other end of the spectrum.

“Ugh…heh….”

“Ariana, are you okay?”

“Hey, I’m fine….I’m still hanging in there, eek….”

“Ariana….”

Being told to spend half your day in a carriage is, to me, the equivalent of being told to spend half your day in hell.

Within the kingdom, the roads are at least somewhat maintained, so the journey to and from the coast of Canbina was somehow bearable.

Outside of the kingdom, traveling on poorly maintained roads, the journey was more than twice as painful as my last carriage trip.

If only I could somehow harness wind magic, I could have taken to the skies like the other wizards.

It was the first time I felt sad that I had to rely on such an archaic means of transportation.

For the record, it has been a long time since Prince Eamon and Charlotte flew to the empire on the wind.

Prince Eamon’s purpose for visiting the Empire in the first place was a little different than Alex and mine’s.

He’s supposed to be visiting to exchange with international students from the Eloreal Empire, which is different from the excuses Alex and I had prepared in advance.

While both are fake purposes designed to deceive, it’s still better to visit separately for the sake of the eyes.

Aside from that, being able to fly freely in the sky without worrying about motion sickness is something I really need in my current situation.

Even in my previous life, I was so motion sick that I couldn’t ride in a car with someone else.

If I was going to have a past life, I shouldn’t have had to deal with such an uncomfortable condition.

It’s hard to hide my frustration that I had to suffer from motion sickness in another world.

“Ariana, drink some water.”

“Oh, no….If something goes down my throat now, I’m sure something bad will happen….”

By the time the carriage set out on the next day’s journey to the Eloreal Empire, my body was reaching its limits.

“…….”

Seeing me in this state, Alex had a troubled look on his face, and then, as if suddenly deciding, he held his thigh out to me.

“If you’re tired, you can lie down here, Ariana.”

“What?”

“You look pretty motion sick, but it’s better to lie down than to sit and get sick.”

“…….”

What’s going on here?

Up until this point, I would have been the one making these suggestions, not Alex, but the way he’s acting now is quite unexpected.

Did something happen to change his mind?

Or was it just a whim, or if not that, some other reason….

“…Was that unnecessary meddling?”

Alex shrugged, obviously embarrassed that I hadn’t responded and was only hesitating.

“Oh, no, I like it.”

Well, in any case, it wasn’t a bad thing for me that Alex was being proactive.

He had the courage to be proactive with me, and it would have been hurtful to turn him down.

Being a clueless guy means that when you’ve been rejected by a woman once, you have to swallow a lot of pride to approach her again.

“Now if you’ll excuse me….Ugh….”

And all that aside, my body was already at its limit.

I’m at the point where I’m just trying to keep myself from going any further, because it’s like driving a wagon over a road that’s even bumpier than yesterday.

I knew that if I didn’t go in a more comfortable position, something really bad would happen.

And that would be the end of me as a fiancé and the end of him as a young man

So, before it was too late, I laid down with the back of my head on Alex’s thigh and my face to the sky.

Once I got comfortable, the nausea that had been bubbling up inside me seemed to subside.

“How’s it going, is it tolerable now?”

“Yeah….Not bad….”

The look on Alex’s face as he looks up from below is quite comforting.

At this rate, I can probably make it through half a day.

Thanks to Alex’s care, I’m able to travel comfortably and without motion sickness until the carriage reaches its next destination.

* * *

The journey to the Eloreal Empire is, as I said before, quite a long one just from the travel time alone.

Even if you were to fly through the air with wind magic, it would still be over 20 hours long.

You’ll have to travel much farther, and you’ll be traveling by carriage, which is slower than wind magic.

Obviously, you can’t cover the distance in a day or two.

And unlike cars in the real world, the horses pulling the carriage don’t have infinite stamina.

Simply feeding them lots of carrots won’t give them the stamina to keep going.

If you don’t give them enough rest at an inn with stables, they’ll be in the middle of the road in less than three days.

Yesterday, we spent the night camping due to circumstances, but today we’ve scheduled a night at an inn, even if it means traveling a little less.

In the process of organizing that stay and rest, we ran into a small problem.

“…You don’t have any double occupancy rooms?”

“Yep. Technically, we only have one double room left, sir, and all the rest are single occupancy, sir.”

“Hmm….”

It wasn’t a completely unexpected situation.

In fact, the fact that there was a room left at all meant that the worst was already over.

If the inn had been crowded, we might have had to leave the horses in the stable and camp nearby.

It’s already getting chilly, and putting Alex on a cold floor two nights in a row would probably be bad for his health.

“I’ll take one double room and two single rooms, then.”

“Okay, thank you.”

So I borrow the keys before I leave, and then it’s just a matter of figuring out the room allocation.

As we headed up to the second floor with the three keys from the innkeeper, I was the first to bring up the subject of room allocation with the other three.

“I think it’s probably better if Alex and Dale share a room, right?”

Alex is the first prince, after all, so it would be much better for him to have Dale by his side.

“Wouldn’t it be more important for Lady Arianna to have a servant by her side?”

“I can take care of myself, so I don’t mind. Besides, if we leave Alex alone he’ll immediately overwork himself and if there is no watcher, he might stay up all night reading magic books, right?”

“I’d have to agree with you on that one.”

“I respect your opinion, so I won’t argue with you.”

Dale and Elise nodded in agreement.

“…….”

Except for Alex, who didn’t voice his opinion until the end, as if he was considering something.

“……No.”

As soon as the expression of denial was out of his mouth, Alex snatched the key to the two-room visit from Dale’s grasp.

“Alex?”

“The double room is for me and Ariana. Dale and Elise will each have a single room.”

“You’re……?”

It was an unexpected action and remark, the kind of thing that makes the eyes and ears of a sane person suspicious at the same time.