RTTFW CH 2.9

As night fell, the coachman, Paladin, found a suitable spot and halted the carriage. The terrain ahead grew increasingly treacherous, and though it was still early, if they didn’t stop here, they risked being stranded on the mountain pass by nightfall.

“Young master, I’ve lit a fire. Please sit here and rest.”
“Oh, thanks.”

Ent nodded toward Paladin, who seemed to have a head two sizes larger than his own. When he first encountered Paladin, Ent had unconsciously clutched his forehead and muttered, ‘This damn Harbilta…’

He was just a coachman pulling the carriage, but what about that enormous frame? And that height – enough to make your neck ache.

Ever since Ent had once discovered several daggers hidden in the folds of Paladin’s coat when he’d nearly tripped and fallen, Ent had resolved never to treat Harbilta’s servants carelessly again.

Not that it would happen, but still.

“Paladin, I’ll go find something suitable to eat.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll go today. You stay and guard the young master.”

While Ent sat blankly before the fire Paladin had lit, Izel guarded his side as Paladin left to find food. They did have some bread and dried jerky they’d brought along, but these were literally emergency rations. Unless the weather was truly bad, they usually hunted for their meals whenever possible.

It was the third day since leaving the Harbilta domain. Ent had initially found the roughing it uncomfortable, but he was starting to adjust a bit now.

With so few people, they had brought a tent, but they didn’t bother setting it up. Paladin slept nearby in his sleeping bag, while Izel and Ent slept inside the wagon.

“Lord Ent, are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“Yeah. I feel better today than I did yesterday.”

This was a concern about whether Ent could eat food without issue.

After learning he had bulimia, Ent had researched his physical condition extensively. Wasn’t bulimia fundamentally an eating disorder stemming from psychological causes? Yet, his soul had changed, and the memories of Ent Harbilta, who had refused food, were gone. So why on earth was he vomiting food up again?

Ent sought help from Izel and began eating small amounts of food. At first, he could swallow it without any particular issues. However, the more Ent focused on the food he was eating and thought about what he had consumed, the more repulsive it became. Eventually, he would vomit it up involuntarily, regardless of his will.

“Just eat while zoning out.”

So this was the method Ent chose.

By consuming food with the mindset of eating merely to survive, his mind blank, without thinking about what he was eating, Ent managed to eat and digest food safely for the first time that day. Though he did suffer a bit of an upset stomach.

Though Izel didn’t fully grasp the meaning of Ent’s “zoning out,” whatever the method, he felt relieved that his young master could at least consume food little by little.

Ent didn’t know it, but from Izel’s perspective, always by his side, he had been wasting away so much that it seemed he might die any moment.

A short while later, the coachman Paladin returned with a wild boar of suitable size he had caught nearby.

“It’s a dead boar, young master, so it might look a bit scary to you,” Paladin said, dragging it to a corner out of Ent’s sight and starting to prepare it. But Ent found Paladin himself far more frightening from the way he could effortlessly hunt down a boar of considerable size all by himself.

“Come to think of it, young master, your appetite has decreased significantly, hasn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“Did you deliberately cut back? It has been a while since I last saw you… Back then, you were so plump and cute, but you’ve grown quite thin since I last saw you.”

At Paladin’s words, Ent glanced sideways at Izel.

Ent chuckled softly and dismissed Paladin’s remark with a “Well, it just happened…”

Watching Paladin swiftly prepare the game, Ent felt a slight chill run down his spine. The way he separated the meat with expert precision, without the slightest hesitation, suggested this wasn’t a skill acquired after just a few tries.

‘What kind of coachman is this?’

Ent shook his head, thinking, ‘Typical Harbilta.’ Izel, helping Paladin with the cooking, didn’t seem clumsy either. Ent wondered if becoming a servant of the Harbilta family required passing a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ test.

Looking at the small portion of soup served to him, Ent could now pick up his spoon without hesitation. Perhaps because his body had refused food for nearly a year, he still couldn’t manage a normal person’s portion size.

A small amount, but he would eat steadily. For the sake of his excessively weak constitution, Ent needed to restore his physical condition to normal quickly. Above all, he had to meet the God of Time, Omb, soon and understand his entire situation.

“It’s warm and delicious. Thank you… both of you.”

Ent didn’t savor the food’s flavor as he ate, but his praise was genuine. For a dish made from freshly caught game, it lacked any gamey or foul taste. It was clean, with no lingering unpleasantness, and perfectly seasoned. Thanks to this, Ent could gulp down the soup like water without a second thought.

Paladin chuckled heartily at Ent’s thanks. It wasn’t something a noble young master should say to someone of his lowly station, but saying it so casually was also very much like the Harbilta family.

‘You really are different from when you were young.’

Who among the Harbilta household servants hadn’t heard of Ent’s notorious reputation? They all used to say in unison that if you didn’t have the guts to handle the young master’s temper, you shouldn’t even go near him.

Paladin had thought the same when he first saw Ent. After all, when he first saw the young Ent, he was tearing up every flower blooming in the garden.

He seemed filled with rage, unable to contain his emotions, so he took it out on the plants instead. And strangely, Paladin felt pity for that young Ent.

“… Young master, if you take your anger out on the flowers, they will hate you.”

That was why. While all the servants watched him with cold expressions, regardless of whether his hands were cut by the grass or not, Paladin stepped forward. Ent, whose hand Paladin had grabbed, tried to pull his arm away in terror, twisting and screaming.

“As proof, the flowers cut you, young master, and you got hurt like this.”

He was neither Count Evant nor Bernil; he was merely a coachman. There was nothing Paladin could do. All he could do was lift the child, Ent, and carry him out of the garden. Handing him over to a nearby servant, Ent returned to his room quietly, looking exhausted.

‘Still, he was rather well-behaved, in his own way.’

He couldn’t tell what thoughts were running through that tiny head, but Ent, who had initially screamed to be put down when he was lifted, calmed down the moment he saw his face. Palladin wondered if it was because he looked so fierce that the child was scared.

Later, when the gardener Thomson, who had become a friend, screamed so loudly, Paladin had to buy him quite a lot of food to cheer him up. Remembering that, Paladin couldn’t help but chuckle.

“… What?”

Feeling eyes on him, Ent stopped staring blankly into the fire and looked up at Paladin. Even if he tried to ignore it, how could he not notice when someone twice his size was staring right through him?

“Nothing. Just reminiscing.”

Paladin gave a good-natured chuckle, and Ent followed with a small, almost bored smile. For some reason, seeing Paladin made him feel a little more at ease. Back when he was still the notoriously infamous Ent, and no one would accompany him on his travels, Paladin was the only one who volunteered to come along.

Three days had already passed since they left the Harbilta family. Before climbing into the carriage where Izel had laid out a blanket to sleep, Ent habitually glanced up at the sky.

“Why are you doing that?”
“Oh, just because the stars are pretty.”

It was the same sky he saw every day. What exactly was so pretty about it? Izel looked at Ent with a puzzled expression, but he didn’t care. In a corner of the night sky studded with countless stars, a moon hung that was on a completely different scale from anything he’d seen before.

To think he’d considered this spectacle special only to himself… That people in this world could find something special even in their ordinary daily lives – perhaps that was the only advantage of having come from another world.

“… It feels peaceful.”

The rain held off, and the pace of their journey was comfortable. Even the many inconveniences of sleeping outdoors and roughing it weren’t such a bad experience.

Ent was slowly, very slowly, becoming immersed in this world.

It was a peaceful journey under a night sky filled with countless stars.