Arc 1
Chapter 4: Princess Knight and Moving Weapon
Night, inside the camping car.
Naoto sat in the driver’s seat, grasping the steering wheel in his hand as he drove the car.
The scenery in the front gla.s.s that was illuminated by the headlamps was a straight dirt road.
Compared to the amenities of an asphalt road of modern j.a.pan, the difference was like heaven and earth, but the dirt road wasn’t to a degree that a car couldn’t travel through. The speed was about 20 kilometers/hour, so Patricia didn’t shook that much.
On the 6-jou j.a.panese Room residential section behind the driver seat was the armored Sofia and a puppy.
The dog was lying sprawled out on its bell, while Sofia watched it from some distance away.
Naoto remembered the time when he was still in the college and traveled with his friends in a rental SUV, everyone was playing cards behind him while the car was moving.
(Even so, that was fun.)
While remembering this, he also felt the same mood right now.
Seeing one woman and one animal that was reflected by the rearview mirror, which triggers his nostalgic memories, Naoto began to ask the Princess Knight’s condition.
「Will we arrived at the lake in this direction?」 (Naoto)
「That’s right, there is a large lake in the south after we descend the hill a bit.」(Sofia)
「The south, huh?」 (Naoto)
Naoto looked at the compa.s.s located next to the speedometer, which showed that his direction was really pointed towards the south.
「If so, then we can somehow replenish our water or now.」 (Naoto)
「I’m sorry, it is because I consume too much water in the shower.」 (Sofia)
「No, I’m alright about the water. I can replenish them in a lake or a river after all.」 (Naoto)
If there is something that can be considered as a problem then it’s about the gasoline, thought Naoto.
「There is something I want to ask you, you don’t know anything about gasoline, right?」 (Naoto)
「Gasorin? Sorry, I never heard about it before.」 (Sofia)
「Well, there might be crude oil at least…」 (Naoto)
He was just asking since he already expects that gasoline didn’t exist here, so he was not dejected.
Simultaneously, he also didn’t get disappointed at all.
It could be said that for Naoto, gasoline wasn’t 「Something that is needed by all costs」.
Even if Patricia didn’t have any gasoline, she could still move by using only electricity if her battery was charged by sunlight for the whole day. If the car didn’t move the electricity could be used for the appliances usage.
The impact of not having any gasoline was only the inability to travel long distance.
「If there aren’t any then we only need to take it slowly, I guess.」 (Naoto)
Even if he only drive the car and unseriously travel for five minutes, Naoto is fine with this.
Perhaps this way is better, he thought. He had spent 10 years of his life as a corporate slave, so he wanted to live carefreely for now.
「Do you say anything?」 (Sofia)
Sofia came asking. Instead of replying, he threw a question to her about something that had bothered him.
「You… why aren’t you surprised?」 (Naoto)
「You mean, about this house?」 (Sofia)
「It’s a car, though.」 (Naoto)
She had pointed this out but it wasn’t wrong to call this car a house.
「That reminds me, this thing has wheels. So this is a carriage, huh?」 (Sofia)
「Yup.」 (Naoto)
「But this liveable…… this moving house, what do you call it?」 (Sofia)
「A moving house, huh? In my wo── country, we called this camping car or motor home.」 (Naoto)
「It’s words that I never heard before. This is also the first time I saw something like this.」 (Sofia)
「Even so, you are not surprised. Usually, people would be surprised by things they saw something they never see before ── like this?」 (Naoto)
Naoto pushed a switch close by, it was the ceiling LED lamp switch. The light in the 6-jou room (rokujouma) disappeared and then lightened again.
「You also never something like this before, right?」 (Naoto)
「Yes, I never saw something that can give light without any heat.」 (Sofia)
Funny how it was said by Princess Knight who used magic to attack Orc. From this fact, though, it could be said that this world science level was more or less under his expectation.
Perhaps it was at the medieval level.
「Even though you saw this for the first time, you are not surprised.」 (Naoto)
「It’s because of my father’s teaching.」 (Sofia)
With that introduction, she straightened her position on the tatami. Seeing across the rearview mirror Naoto saw an astonishingly breathtaking, awe-inspiring beautiful appearance.
「Do not be surprised by things that you see, there was a rule that governs everything that you see in this world, so even if it something that was unknown or absurd, you most never surprised, so he said」 (Sofia)
「I see, that’s why you didn’t get surprised.」 (Naoto)
(In exchange, she is hopeless in many things.) (Naoto)
He secretly thought this and didn’t let this pa.s.s through his mouth.
Sofia then spoke again.
「 Furthermore, when I went to the Western Empire that was connected to the Alliance, I had seen what the Empire boasts as the strongest moving fortress. If moving fortress exists, then it wouldn’t be strange if moving house also exists.」(Sofia)
「You have said something amazing, but well, certainly this is inferior compared to that.」 (Naoto)
Naoto made a complacent smile after hearing Sofia’s explanation.
He was happy that his prized RV had been included in the same category with the moving fortress, a phrase that he heard for the first time.
Moving fortress and RV.
Either one would tickle the heart of a man who likes gadgets and mechas.
「Isn’t that good, Patricia?」 (Naoto)
Naoto rubbed the dashboard as if he was patting a child head, then he heard Sofia’s voice from behind
「Ah……」 (Sofia)
「What’s happen?」 (Naoto)
「N-no, nothing.」 (Sofia)
Sofia might deny it, but he become more interested in her reply, so Naoto look toward her direction from the rear-view mirror while driving.
Beside the kotatsu were the armored Sofia and the puppy. One woman and one animal, located side by side across the kotatsu, but there was a delicate distance between them. It was a distance just barely outside an arm’s reach.
Sofia was looking at the puppy that was lying atop the tatami with a stare as if going to eat it. Excluding the time when she was explaining her father teaching, she was conversing with Naoto while always looking at the puppy.
It was obvious, even when seeing her from the rear-view mirror, that she was fidgety and her hand was itching to do something.
(She wants to pet it, huh?) (Naoto)
Sometimes she feigned still sitting that she moved when the car jolted and close the distance to the puppy, but each time the puppy moved a bit and create a distance to her.
She moved and the puppy escaped.
The puppy escaped and she chased.
At that time, she let out a voice and dropped her shoulders in dejection.
Seeing from the rear-view mirror, she had repeated this thrice.
If this continue then they would only circle around in the kotatsu, so she was racking her brain about this.
Naoto felt a quite a pity for Sofia who keep on refused by the puppy like this, so he thought that he need to do something and stopped the car.
「Naoto?」 (Sofia)
Removing the lock, the driver seat rotated 180 degrees and faced the residential section.
He stood out, walked past the Princess Knight who sat beside the Kotatsu and headed towards the storage room.
He opened the door to the storage room and took out a cardboard box that he got when he bought the food from the supermarket.
After he took it out, he returned to the room.
「What is this?」 (Sofia)
「Cardboard box.」 (Naoto)
「Cartboat box?」 (Sofia)
「Wait a minute.」 (Naoto)
Naoto opened the folded cardboard box, placed it on the room corner after a.s.sembling it, and placed a towel inside.
「Hey, Puppy, it’s cardboard…… Orange box you know.」 (Naoto)
「Kuuun?」 (Puppy)
When it was called, Puppy rose up, and looked alternately between Naoto and the cardboard box that have the picture of orange printed on its side.
The orange box, Naoto, the orange box, Naoto.
It looked back and forth, but perhaps it felt something at the orange box, the Puppy’s sight time at the orange box gradually become longer.
Before long, with a trot, Puppy began to walk towards the box.
「Ah……」 (Sofia)
Sofia made a yelp. In front of her, the puppy crept into the box by itself just like when it climb the porch.
Then, it peeked out from the box and rested its face on the box’s rim.
It made a languid, lethargic expression.
「Hawaaan」 (Sofia)
Although Sofia had sat with a straightened position until now, she was weak against the combination of Puppy and orange box, and her expression became softened.
Naoto thought that the Puppy is cute, but not as much as Sofia.
「Sofia.」 (Naoto)
「How cute……」 (Sofia)
「……Sofia.」 (Naoto)
「Yes!?」 (Sofia)
When he called her louder, she jolted and came to her sense, cleared her throat and mend her position.
「W-what is it?」 (Sofia)
「Do you know what is “work of art” means?」 (Naoto)
「Kugh, don’t look down upon me, certainly I am ignorant of the ways of the world but of course, I know what the notion of “work of art” is.」 (Sofia)
「Well, it the same. A dog in an orange box…… Please enjoy this sight, but you can’t touch it. It’s a work of art, after all.」 (Naoto)
「……Is that so! So that how it is.」 (Sofia)
Sofia made an exaggerated surprise and nodded.
(So she really get surprised?) (Naoto)
「I understand, I won’t touch it!」 (Sofia)
「Please do so.」 (Naoto)
Just like what she said, the Princess Knight held the strongly clenched fist atop of her lap and not reached it out to the Puppy, but her fist lose its strength and her face became soft.
「……You are so easy to influence…」 (Naoto)
Although he made such flattering nuanced impression, it didn’t reach Sofia who was in a daze.