Chapter 13 (1/2)

Gasagasa

The one that appeared was ..

Nh? Who?

We fixedly stared at each other.

Uu-n, but I get the feeling I have seen them somewhere before ..

Ah-!

“Thoma?”

As I said that he responded with the same timing:

“Ririina .. sama?”

Is what he muttered.

As I thought, he had grown a lot so I hadn’t recognized him right away but this was the head chef’s son, Thoma.

We hadn’t met each other in 6 years so I didn’t realize right away.

If I recall properly we only briefly saw each other’s faces when I last returned to the territory.

Thoma is the same age as Brother, and since we were small we had often been playing together.

Throwing in Sana as well we could be called childhood friends.

People really grow when you let 6 years go past, huh~

Resemblance to his face back then .. well, the hair color and eyes, I guess?

Ooh~ well done me, for having recognized that it was Thoma!

“By the way, Thoma, what are you doing in a place like this?”

“He? Ah, I just got asked by my old man to go gather some fragrant gra.s.ses to be used as ingredients in his cooking, so I came here .. I mean, is why I have come here.”

Nh?

His choice of words felt a bit strange.

“More importantly, about Ririina .. sama, what are you doing here this .. nay, in a place such as this?”

Oi!

That seems like one bothersome way of talking, correcting each and every thing~

“Thoma, it’s fine to talk normally, you know. It’s not like there is anyone else besides us.”

Thoma made a troubled face.

“No, but .. I suppose.”

And didn’t give a proper answer.

I’m saying it’s fine, so isn’t it fine already.

“You’ll just tire yourself out by using some strange polite forms. You can leave out the honorifics for my name as well like you did in the past.”

“Ah- yeah .. well then, I’ll take you up on that. So, what’re’ya doing here?”

“I have been tasked by Mother to go collect some medical herbs.”

“No, what I wanted to ask is why are you here in the territory, but ..”

Ah, I see.

Thinking about it normally, it’s strange for me to be in the territory.

Isn’t it bad for me to be cheerfully hanging out outside despite having returned due to the cancelling of my engagement?

Are? In that case, could it possibly be bad to visit different places in the territory in order to hunt monsters?