Breaking Off The Engagement… Bring It On! Chapter 13

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?
As I stayed silent thinking about many things Thoma became fl.u.s.tered.

“Ah- no, sorry! I asked an awkward to answer questions. You don’t really have to tell me the detailed story.”

Why I do not know but Thoma seemed fl.u.s.tered for some reason.
He nodded his head saying something like ‘You got a lot on your plate as well, after all’.
It seems his personality hasn’t changed at least.
Maa, it’s probably better not to have the matter about the engagement breaking off spread too much so it should be fine not to say anything.
In return, there is something that I want to try asking instead.

“By the way, Thoma, didn’t you leave to attent a school in the royal capital? Does that mean you returned here after graduation?”

Ever since the past, possibly because he was with us so much, Thoma had quite some ability with a sword.
Because of that he came to attent a boarding school at the royal capital that focused on martial/military arts.

“Aah, I graduated 2 years ago and returned here, right now I’m one of the feudal lord’s employees. Well, there’s much to it but the main tasks are maintaining public order in the territory. That includes things such as monster hunting, taking out thiefs and bandits and the likes.
Essentially, the same things we did back then.”

Ara, how fun that sounds.
Gohon!
No, well, I too want to protect the peace inside the territory ..

“Is that so~ You are helping out Mother then.”

“Well, I guess that’s what it sums up to. So then today was actually a holiday for me, but my old man suddenly came and threw me out saying he was out of some ingredients for a feast he was going to throw.
So when I met Ririina inside the forest I was quite shocked.”

Oyaoya, head chef. So you are already starting to prepare now for when my Grandparents will return home, is that so.
I wonder how much of a feast it will turn out to be.
I’ll already be looking forward to it.

“Is that how it is .. Maa, I’m the same in that I have been asked to go here by Mother. So, have you found those fragrant gra.s.ses?”

“Aah, found all of them. So while I was about to go back I sensed the presence of another person and came here. But to think that believing in that perception/sixth sense would be correct. I never expected that I’d meet Ririina here and like this.”

Possibly because he was happy that he got to meet his childhood friend again after a long time, Thoma was laughing.
But indeed, I am happy too having met Thoma for the first time in a while.

“Yos.h.i.+! Then let’s head back. You’ve already finished plucking those herbs, haven’t you?”

“Eeh, I’ve collected alot inside this bag.”

“Ooh, amazing. That’s alot. Alright, in that case I’ll be carrying it so hand it over.”

Saying so Thoma put my bag on his back.

“Ara, I will carry at least my own luggage myself. Also, Thoma, yours seems rather much as well.”

“It’s fine, it is. I’m not the kinda guy who’d let a girl in his company do the heavy lifting.
And also, Ririina is more or less a n.o.ble’s daughter after all. More or less.”

Mu, I got told ‘more or less’ twice.
Oh well, since I know that this too is Thoma’s kindness I’ll leave it to him here.

“.. Thank you, Thoma.”

As I looked over at Thoma, with a slightly embara.s.sed face, he only replied ‘Ou’.