...

She held it up to the kettle and let the steam spin it, then pulled it away and blew on it to spin it herself.

“Just like when a person blows out air, the steam blowing through the whistle makes a noise.”

“Arisa’s amaziiing!”

“You’re so smart, ma’am!”

To my chagrin, Arisa’s explanation seemed to get through to Pochi and Tama easily.

If I learned to use Water Magic, I’d like to try developing a spell that blew enemies away with steam or turned into a wall or something. Although, I supposed that might exist already.

Once we had finished the meal and were relaxing contentedly, I noticed a light on my radar and turned my head.

Locking eyes with me, three cat-people and dog-people kids froze in their tracks. I recognized their stuffed animal–like appearance right away.

“Forrr the chick’n, sirrr.”

“Thank’oo, sirrr.”

“It was rrreally tasty.”

The beastfolk kids thanked me repeatedly, and each one placed a little leaf full of nuts and berries on the stump I was sitting on.

“What are these?”

“Trrreats, sirrr.”

Were these thank-you gifts?

At once, Pochi and Tama came running over.

Arisa and Lulu had gone with Liza as their escort to buy some fruit for dessert, so they weren’t around.

“No fightiiing!”

“You musn’t bully our master, sirs!”

Apparently, they thought these kids were attacking me and were clearly ready for all-out war.

“It’s all right. These kids brought me nuts as thanks for the grilled chicken I gave them.”

At this, Pochi and Tama relaxed their fighting stances.

“These are chinquapin nuts, sir! They’re very tasty, sir!”

“And these are wolfberriiies. They’re good, toooo!”

Picking up the treats on the little leaf plates, the girls told me their names.

“They’rrre forrr him!”

The children didn’t seem to like that Pochi and Tama had picked up some of the treats without permission, and they raised their voices in protest.

I certainly wanted to accept their gifts with gratitude, but considering what I’d heard from Pochi and Tama before, I was concerned that they needed this food far more than I did.

…I know, I’ll give them a thank-you gift for their thank-you gift.

If they’d come a little earlier, I could have given them some stew and bread…

But I still had almost five pounds of dried meat, so I figured I could give them that.

“Thank you very much.”

I wrapped the nuts and berries in a handkerchief and tucked them away in my Garage Bag.

The children seemed satisfied at this and started to leave, so I called out to them.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“Whazzit, sirrr?”

“We have so much of this that we couldn’t eat all of it. Do you think you could take some for me?”

Pochi and Tama looked like they were about to speak up, so I hastily covered their mouths.

I was sure they were going to tell me that they could eat any amount of meat just fine.

“Arrre you surrre?”

“Yes, you’d be helping me a great deal.”

Pochi and Tama stared at me with protest in their eyes, but I pretended not to notice.

I waved at the beastfolk kids as they left, carrying the wrapped parcel of dried meat like a precious object.

At some point, Pochi and Tama had discovered the fun of rubbing their heads against my stomach, so I let them carry on until Arisa and the others returned.

On the way back from our “camping practice” (which was really just pretext for a picnic), I stopped by the general store to fill out the necessary paperwork for purchasing the horse-drawn carriage.

We arranged for Nadi to complete the purchase that day, with delivery scheduled for noon two days later.

It was a surprisingly speedy process.

While we worked on the paperwork, Arisa suggested that we should bring Mia back to her home.

Nadi said the elves lived just south of the old capital, so it should be easy enough to go there after sightseeing in the city.

When we brought it up, Mia seemed quite enthusiastic, and I was certainly interested in seeing an elf village, so it was decided that we would talk to the store manager about it when he returned to Seiryuu City. I guess we do need to get her guardian’s permission.

But even after we made our decision, the manager still didn’t return.

Still, Nadi didn’t seem too worried about her beloved boss, so it was probably fine.

As for the horse-drawn carriage, when it was time for the long-awaited introduction and test drive, Lulu and I headed outside the city so that she could help me practice driving it.

“The weather’s very nice again today.”

“…Yes, sir. It is, sir.”

I tried innocuously chatting about the weather, but Lulu’s expression was as stiff as ever.

Lulu seemed anxious about being alone with me; her shoulders were tense. The horses seemed to sense her nerves, too, as they were snorting roughly and couldn’t seem to calm down.

“You don’t need to be so tense. I’m not expecting you to start behaving like Arisa—in fact, I’d rather you didn’t—but I hope you can be more comfortable with me like Pochi and Tama.”

“But…I’m a slave. That seems so strange…”

Lulu’s voice was so faint it was practically inaudible. It seems like it’ll take a while to change her mind.

For now, maybe I should start by getting her to take deep breaths and relax.

“Lulu, breathe in slowly…”

I took the reins from her while I gave her instructions. Thinking it’d be best to relieve the tension from her body as well as her mind, I showed her how to do some seated stretches that I sometimes used in the workplace.

Maybe because I’d gotten a youthful new body when I came here, I hadn’t had any stiff shoulders or anything, so I hadn’t done them at all recently.

“Do you feel a little better? As long as we’re here, would you like to chat a little?”

I deliberately looked away from Lulu and up at the clouds, speaking in a laid-back tone.

Her tension seemed to have abated a little, but she still gave only short responses like “yes” and “indeed.”

That’s right…isn’t Lulu uncomfortable with men?

According to Arisa, her male cousins and and neighborhood kids had bullied her sometimes, so it wouldn’t be that surprising.

She didn’t seem to be too comfortable with talking, either. In cases like this, it was best to let them talk about what they do want to talk about instead. If it was about something she liked or could brag about, she should loosen up a bit. That was how it was for my nerdy friends and me, after all.

Now then, what topic would be best?

I thought for a moment, then settled on the topic of Arisa.

“…It’s true! Arisa’s just so amazing!”

Apparently, my decision had been the right one.

Lulu seemed to be enjoying herself as she talked about Arisa.

Her eyes sparkled, and her cheeks were a little flushed. She was always a beautiful girl, but this only made her even more so.

Oh, yikes. My thoughts had veered into dangerous territory for a second there. Scary.

“You really love your little sister, don’t you?”

“Yes! Although sometimes it’s hard to tell which one of us is really the older one.”

“She certainly doesn’t act like an eleven-year-old.”

“Well, Arisa has always been a genius, ever since we were little.”

I wasn’t sure if she was a genius so much as she just had a lot of knowledge from her previous life. I wondered if she’d actually talked to Lulu about that?

Well, whatever. As long as we’re on the subject, we might as well delve into it a little.

“What was she like back then?”

“Well, for example…”