The journey toward the royal capital began after leaving Lenoglade.
The trip to the royal capital would take about a month.
It was a long journey, but thanks to the carriage Albert gave us, we were able to travel comfortably.
Then one day...
"Hot, hot, hot—so hooooot!!!"
Licorice fluttered around inside the carriage in a completely exhausted state, yet her voice rang out energetically as she shouted.
Apparently her voice reached the driver’s seat, because Sofia’s voice came back from the front.
"Please don’t make so much noise. It’ll just make it feel hotter."
"But still, this heat is impossible to endure! It’s seriously tough for delicate and fragile little Licorice-chan!"
"Well, it certainly is hot today..."
The sun shone brightly overhead, pouring down blazing rays of light.
"Hafuu..."
"Ofuu..."
In the sweltering temperature that made sweat pour down endlessly, Aisha and Snow also looked completely worn out.
Even so, the two of them remained snuggled close together, unwilling to separate at all—they were just that close.
"Hey, hey. Can I freeze this carriage a little with magic?"
"I can already see the future where you complain that it’s too cold, so no."
"Ugh, but I really can’t stand this heat!"
Licorice shouted, and then—
"Fuheraa..."
She wobbled and dropped out of the air.
I hurriedly caught her in my palm.
"Are you okay?"
"Not okay… I feel like I’m about to turn into dried Licorice-chan… I’ll become a local specialty…"
I had no idea what she was talking about.
This might actually be dangerous.
Since there was a path leading to the driver’s seat, I leaned my head out that way.
"Sofia, are you okay?"
"I’m fine, but..."
Seeing Licorice spinning her eyes around while lying on my palm, Sofia let out a sigh.
"It looks like that one isn’t doing so well."
"Maybe we should take a break somewhere?"
"Yes, let’s do that. Instead of pushing ourselves through the midday heat, we should travel during the cooler mornings and evenings."
As she said that, Sofia took out a map.
This was also something Albert had given us, with extremely detailed terrain drawn on it.
Once again, I felt grateful.
"Let’s see if there’s somewhere around here we can rest… Ah, there’s a lake nearby."
"A lake!"
"Whoa!"
Suddenly, Licorice sprang up.
The exhausted state she had just been in vanished completely, and she spoke with sparkling eyes.
"I want to bathe! A bath in cool water!!!"
"A water bath? But we don’t know if that lake is a safe place or not..."
"Let’s go check it out first. If there are monsters, Fate or Sofia can handle them."
"It doesn’t seem like ‘not going’ is an option."
I couldn’t help but give a wry smile.
"Sofia, shall we go?"
"Honestly… Fate, you spoil Licorice too much."
"Ahaha."
I just laughed it off.
After that, we changed our route slightly and headed toward the lake.
About thirty minutes later, the lake came into view.
"Wow..."
It was incredibly wide and beautiful, the surface of the water glittering brightly.
Not only that—if you looked closely, you could even see the lakebed reflected clearly.
Not only would it be good for bathing, but we could probably replenish our water supplies here as well.
"I don’t sense any monsters around..."
Back when I was a slave, I had been forced to stand watch many times, so I was confident in my ability to detect presences.
"Then let’s take our break here. We should also refill our water supplies."
"I’m going to take a bath in the cool lake!"
"Yes. We need to rest as well… Fate."
Sofia looked at me, her cheeks slightly flushed.
"Would you like to take a bath together?"
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