NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14
Trilemma in a Carriage
Relying on the light from my hand, I draw up a spell, and when I am finished, I read a book.
I originally lived alone in the castle. Changing my environment to a carriage doesn’t make my time move any differently nor does it leave any discomfort. Naturally, I do not feel lonely. I actually feel rather comfortable.
But it is troublesome to constantly drive away the poisonous moths that keep flying in on a regular basis.
“What a fashionable lizard in the window…..”
“Good evening, I am poisonous!” or at least that is what the colorful lizard seemed to be saying as it stuck to the window. I breathed out a sigh before lightly tapping the window to let the lizard know to go home. I then sat back down to try and read some more of my book …….. before I had to drive away a swarm of poisonous moths that had come to the window. How many is that now? Between the moths, the lizards, and the frogs and all the other various creature that were trying to get inside this carriage. Of course, every single one of them was quite fashionable.
And I have to drive them all away. It was easy work the first time, but it gets annoying having to do it repeatedly throughout the night. All this effort isn’t to protect Alexis’s sleep by the way. It is to protect Percival’s. I would really like to be spared of having to deal with him when he is tired again.
“But as a result, I end up protecting Alexis. It’s really really annoying.”
While muttering so, I take out a sugar confection and throw it into my mouth.
A faint aroma and gentle sweetness spread as the confection melts in my mouth. It is delicious, but when I think about how I obtained this sweet by threatening and blackmailing Percival for his previous episode, it only gets even tastier.
Then while enjoying the sugary goodness of the confection, and periodically purging the poisonous moths and lizards, I killed time by reading my book. It was a history book describing the witch hunts. It is filled with a lot of bloody descriptive words, and it is a very frustrating thing to read when just killing time.
I am capable of reading these types of things by myself. Even if it is dark.
Do not tell me that there are some dangerous noises coming from the darkness; reading in this type of atmosphere can be fun and exciting. I also realize that darkness is producing what some would call scary noises.
“Is it possible to borrow books from witches?”
The thought suddenly struck me.
Books related to witches and their magic are only owned by the witch themselves, and they are passed down in their family generation after generation. They are not something you can pick up from a bookstore. The Idira family magic books that I own are ones that I picked up from the old castle, and I have spent a lot of time in the old castle reading them.
What I am trying to say is that I am getting sick of rereading them.
I know that it is necessary to read something three times to truly acquire the knowledge, but I still want to read some new magic books. Surely the witch from Phosphorous Country has a magic book that I have not seen. Or maybe they will have another book about the witch hunts.
Would they be willing to lend it to me, or is it something where I would have to trade with them? Unfortunately, I do not have any witches as friends who could answer these questions for me. Then again, I don’t have any ordinary friends either. Robertson is a very good spider friend, but that isn’t an achievement I can necessarily pin to my chest.
While I was thinking about such a thing, the horse-drawn carriage rocked and came to a stop with a *gattan*. The colorless water in the cup that I was holding swayed, and the necklace near it swung forward hitting the cup and producing a lighter sound. In order to find our exactly what was going on, I stuck my head through the window to talk to the driver.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry. The wheels have gotten stuck in some mud. We will be on our way again just as soon as I free it.”
“Can I help?”
“There’s no need.”
Telling me to wait, the driver took out some tools and boards, and he got to work on one of the wheels. His movements were deft and fast, so I withdrew my face as an amateur’s assistance were clearly unnecessary.
Opening the door and looking at the ground, I saw that the ground was indeed quite muddy, and there were puddles of water dotting the road here and there. According to the driver, it had apparently been raining for several days in this area previously. It’s only natural that a wheel would get stuck on a road like this. How unlucky.
While looking up at the cloudy night sky and sighing, a frog slipped in through a crack of the open door. As if it was pursuing it, a snake slithered in afterwards.
“If you do not leave the carriage before we depart, we will end up taking you far away from your homes.”
Chatting with the two, I shoo’ed them back out of the carriage away from Alexis ……… and my eyes went round in my helmet. Whether it slipped in unintentionally without me noticing or there was a gap in the carriage’s roof and it fell down, there was a rather large slug resting on Alexis’s face. It was quite obese, and it was squirming over Alexis’s face. While I was looking at it, the snake came back in and gathered on him as well. There was a triangle relationship of predators right there, and the three did their best to eat each other.
Alexis awoke with a start when he felt them moving across his body, and his breathing was heavy and muddled. While listening to such groaning, I sat back and watched. It was about time for a shift change anyway.
“How … … …why, why are these things on my face …?”
“Oh good, you’re up. It’s Alexis’s turn to watch. I’m going to bed, so don’t slack off.”
“Wait, don’t act like this is normal….. Oh god, I’m so slimy……”
Looking completely creeped out, Alexis tried to sweep away the three animals while groaning ….. and as a result of that movement, the three quit fighting each other and moved around to find cover from this new assault.
“Uwaaaa, stop…..quit sticking to me!”
“They’re just sticky overall, aren’t they? Yosh, there! Go!”
“Monette, don’t encourage them!”
Alexis struggled to get rid of the three animals while keeping his voice down. Like this, can it be said that this was anything besides comical and hilarious?
This was a good way to kill time while the carriage is stuck. But while I was watching this, Alexis eventually screamed out in frustration, and the sleeping Percival grunted in a small voice.
As soon as she heard it, Monette panicked and started calling off the three.
“Desist, desist! Because an annoying person seems to be getting up, desist!”
Waving her arms and head, Monette removed the battling three back into the mud.
It would be dangerous if Percival woke up now. The snake and the frog and the snail fighting, Percival struggling to drive them away, Monette is made to rest her head on Percival’s lap, and Percival’s lullaby echoing in the carriage…..it can only be called chaos. It would be hell.
Imagining such a scene, I wipe the cold sweat from my brow. Well, it can’t be done. My iron glove just scrapes across my helmet. Then I turned my gaze back to Alexis. He was wiping some of the slime off his face with a towel when he noticed my gaze and turned back to me.
“Monette, why is the carriage stopped.”
“The wheels have been caught in some mud, but they are likely to get it fixed soon.”
“Is that so? Were there any other problems?”
“If you mean were there any problems for us, then there was nothing. However, if you mean there were no problems among us, I will say that there was.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone got sleepy.”
“Ah….”
That’s right. Alexis turned his eyes towards Percival.
Although he had stirred earlier, he seems to have settled back down, and he does not notice the gaze set upon him. Folding my arms and shrugging while leaning against the window, I do not bring up the words said before. He is an annoying person, I mutter in my heart, but I will not tell Alexis those words. Because Monette is a gentle and kind child who promised to forget the words said several hours ago.
“He is very annoying when he is sleepy. Has he always been like that?”
Clinging to people when you are sleepy, cuddling up to them and randomly stroking them, it could become a major problem. It would become an incident if the victim was a woman not wearing armor. – No, it is a problem even if she is wearing armor. –
Alexis shrugged his shoulders and answered Monette’s question.
So far, Percival has lived in a knight dormitory full of men, so the damage from his sleepy escapades has only affected his male colleagues. It seems that at those times, he was beaten or thrown into the bath. Talking about it, at the end Alexis mutters that, “it started about a year ago.” If it is like this, then it is around when Alexis’s bad luck began. It must be to eliminate the peace of mind that would be generated if they slept in the same room, or so Alexis says.
Listening to such a story, Monette sighed in her helmet and turned her eyes to Percival as well. In the time where it was impossible to rest or where it was so boring that you’d naturally get sleepy, why is this only happening now? The reason is simple, because I used a spell to limit the effects of the curse. I enjoy watching Alexis suffer when the curse is in play, but that means I have to deal with Percival when he is annoying and troublesome.
How unreasonable. I don’t want to think about it anymore, so I just say, “I will go to bed,” and I lie down on my spot.
Then inside of the carriage quiets down.
Once the whole carriage shook with a start, the driver called in to announce its departure, and it took off once again. Fine vibrations and the sound of the wheels turning continue. Everything is rattling slightly, and the water in my cup is churning about. The necklace that was next to me is now in my hand…inside the gauntlet. If it was a flesh and blood hand, I’d probably think that the necklace was cold, but I could not tell through the iron. Grasping the necklace gently enough so as to not scratch it, I tried to close my eyes inside my helmet.
“It’s kind of hot and humid … … Monette, I am going to have a drink of your water.”
“Wait, Alexis, that’s…”
I got up from my rest and tried to stop him.
But I didn’t make it in time. When he took a drink, Alexis’s face scrunched up, and his face turned pale in the blink of an eye. In a panic, he threw open the window, stuck out his head, and spewed the water out in a coughing fit.