After my room"s parlor had been cleared and not a trace of the special dinner could be seen, Kaname pulled me to the bedroom and showed me our packed belongings."Are we going somewhere?" I asked while pointing at the several bags.
"When you said that you don"t have a reason to leave the castle, I immediately thought of our trip to Gunma last year. You loved it there and I think you must be bored from staying in your room the whole day so I organized a trip to the villa."
At the mention of the villa, I ran to his arms and rained him kisses on the face. Is he psychic? I"ve had the onsen village in my mind for days now and I"ve been secretly wishing we could go...
"Looks like you"re more excited about this trip than the rest of the gifts you received," he chuckled while embracing me.
"I"ve been thinking about the villa a lot recently," I said, in a way admitting that this was the type of gift I prefer. "I wanted to ask you if we could go and visit Yasumori-san soon but because of the babies, I hesitated."
"We"re bringing them along, don"t worry."
"We"re traveling with the children?" I caught a glimpse of one of the bags, it contained some of the twins" clothes. This should not have come as a surprise to me, especially since I knew I wouldn"t want to part with the twins.
"Why not?" he asked, puzzled.
"The travel time is long and they"re still quite young," I told him. "Maybe we can reschedule this trip to when Riku turns one."
"If it"s already winter, I wouldn"t even think about taking you there but the weather is still relatively warm. Hinoha.r.s.ensei told me that they should be fine as long as their feeding schedule remains followed."
"Oh," he was one step ahead of me. "Aside from our family and the guards, who else are you planning to bring with us?"
"Ryuko-san and one of the witch twins. Of course, there"s also Riku"s wet nurse."
I was probably still looking apprehensive because he added, "We shall leave the day after tomorrow so everyone still have plenty of time to rest. I have doubled the number of guards who will be escorting us and we shall be taking a shorter route this time so you may rest a.s.sured that we"ll be fine."
"Will the children and I be traveling by palanquin?"
"No, the twins will be with the maids and Riku will be with his wet nurse. You"ll be riding with me although we shall be bringing your stallion along. While we"re there, I shall teach you how to mount it."
"How long will we stay there?"
"A week, ten days at most."
"Wow," I was not expecting for it to be a long vacation. "What about your military duties?"
"I"ve finished whatever was there for me to finish."
Judging from his quick answers, Kaname has clearly thought of this trip thoroughly. Because I see no more reason to not push through with the trip, I finally agreed and started checking the bags for essentials that we might forget to bring.
~~~
The route we took was indeed shorter. Kaname told me that it was a newly opened road that the department of public works made as a special order from him. As it was already fall, the foliage we pa.s.sed were colorful and showed different tones of reds, yellows, and golds.
I was slightly worried that since the road was newly opened, there would be no restaurants to eat at and inns for us to take quick rests in. However, since it was him who organized this trip and this was a project he personally planned, we didn"t have a hard time looking for such places.
The twins were excellent travelers and zonked out immediately after each feed, Riku was the same, so my another one of my major concerns about this trip disappeared. Kaname joked that horseback riding was probably like being rocked to sleep for them.
~~~
We arrived in the villa three hours earlier than the last time. When I saw the third person welcoming us, I immediately turned to Kaname with a questioning look.
"You"ll understand soon," he whispered and took my hand.
"Ryoji-san! Aiko-san! Welcome back," Yasumori-san greeted us jovially. Beside him, Fumi and Mirei lowered their heads respectfully.
"It"s been a while, old man," Kaname told him with a smile.
"Indeed! Now you and the missus are back with your bundles of joy!" the old man replied while craning his little head. "So, where are they? This old man wishes to see the little ones!"
I smiled and motioned for the maids to join us. "These are our children: Riku, Touya, and Miyako," I introduced the three sleeping rice b.a.l.l.s.
"Oho," Yasumori-san stared at the three babies adoringly. "Beautiful! They look just like you, Aiko-san."
I giggled, "You heard that, anata? The rice b.a.l.l.s look just like me."
Kaname grunted in mock disapproval. Yasumori-san chuckled lightly and motioned for us to get inside. Beside him, Mirei was staring at me with a look that told me that she came back to work for Yasumori-san not because she needs the money but because of something else.
~~~
After freshening up for a bit, everyone went to the kitchen. There, the dining table was waiting for us with steaming bowls of the caretaker"s signature soba. When I saw the food, my eyes lit up. Everyone hurriedly sat down, grabbed their chopsticks, and ate. Upon seeing our reactions, Yasumori-san beamed and looked like a parent smiling happily at the sight of his children enjoying his cooking. We all complimented the food, making the old man extremely pleased with himself. In fact, he was so happy he even offered to teach my head maid the secret to his famous okkirikomi.
~~~
It was almost time for the babies" next meal so I asked the maids and the wet nurse to wait for me in the room adjacent to ours. The room was renovated recently with the children in mind. On my way there from the kitchen, a voice that grated on my nerves stopped me in my tracks.
"Lady Aiko, I would like to respectfully ask to speak with you," the woman said softly.
Thinking that I should just get this over with, I nodded and led her to the garden in the villa"s foreyard.
"What is it that you want to talk about, Mirei?" I asked as soon as I found a suitable spot for us to talk.