It is a cloudless afternoon, and Serloitte is riding alone in her carriage.
The carriage from Agartha University to the farm: ....... As usual, Serloit is the only one in the carriage. The charioteer who drives the carriage has noticed a change in the woman's mood recently.
To tell the truth, when he first saw her, he thought she was a ghost or something. Her face was gaunt, her body was as thin as a wire, and she had a hunched back. ....... There was no sign of life in this woman. It was a sunny afternoon just like today.
There were hardly any horse-drawn carriages going to the farm from Agalta University. Students who study agriculture live in dormitories near the farm, so there are only a few people who go to the farm from this canvas in a day. Moreover, most of them usually arrived in the morning or in the evening. In other words, university staff used the bus only to deliver packages and mail.
The man liked his job. He thought it was the right job for his body now.
As a young man he had traveled all over the world as an adventurer. He was a reasonably skilled adventurer, holding the rank of adventurer B.
However, he could not overcome the passing of the years. One by one, his companions left him or passed away. He was left alone. At that time, he was approached by a party of young adventurers. He joined the party to share his experience with the young men, but it turned out to be a bad idea. Unexpectedly, he was seriously attacked by a demon and was left with paralysis in his right leg.
He could no longer be active as an adventurer. He decided to retire.
Even though he had retired from a life of danger, he still had to lead his daily life. However, having only been an adventurer, he could not decide what kind of work he should do in the future.
He was confident in his swordsmanship, but this was only possible because he could move freely, and now it was difficult for him to stand up and teach the young man how to use a sword. Moreover, his sword was polished in his own way, and it lacked fluidity and power.
He could use magic, but not nearly as well as a wizard. In other words, all of his skills were half-baked. He could not teach them to others.
While I was worrying, my savings from my adventuring days were dwindling rapidly. It was then that the guild introduced me to this job.
Because of his limp, he is unable to get in and out of the carriage frequently. However, Agalta, his employer, offered him a job that would allow him to ride a horse only a few times a day, and the amount of money he was offered was enough for him to survive. He decided to give the job a try.
It was a monotonous job. He only had to go back and forth between the university and the farm once in the morning and twice in the afternoon. Moreover, the carriages were almost empty. I wondered if the university would be all right with this kind of work. He wondered as he steered the horse. He had heard that one of the ladies of the king of Agartha had recommended the operation of this carriage. Agartha is one of the world's great powers. They must have an inexhaustible supply of money. That's why even this route has been operated without being discontinued. He thought so.
It was then that Serloitte appeared.
The afternoon service is the first one that no one gets on. He got on the coachman's stand with a great deal of ceremony and took hold of the reins to start the horse. Just then, he heard a voice. He looked closely and saw a woman standing nearby.
She was wearing a hat and was lying on her face. He could not see her face. I only recognized her because she was wearing a skirt. She is mumbling something in a low voice. He listens to her voice.
"...... ...... farm to ...... farm to ...... farm to ...... farm to ...... farm... ...I want to go to ......, but..."
I want to go to the farm. That's what the woman said. She looks up quickly. The man looks at her and is speechless. It was no joke. He thought he saw a ghost.
He had seen ghosts before when he was an adventurer. He was taking care of a fallen comrade when he suddenly saw a human figure nearby. It was a scrawny, bearded old man with a cane, smiling at him. When the man tried to ask the old man who he was, he vanished like a mist. He was later told by another colleague that it was the soul of a dead person wandering about, unable to come back to life.
The woman in front of me now was young, but her appearance and atmosphere were very similar to the ghost I had seen at that time. The man gasped.
"That ......! I want to go to the beach...but..."
I could hear him struggling to keep his voice down. Instinctively, I realized that I should not be frightened here. He silently cocks his chin. The woman looked relieved and got into the carriage quickly.
Since then, the woman has been using the carriage almost every day. Naturally, there was no conversation at all. Occasionally, I looked at the woman sitting in the seat, but she just gazed at the view from the window.
......Well, I hear that the university in Agartha attracts the best and the brightest from all over the world. It is such a big university. There must be all kinds of people there.
The man thought so, and just went about his daily work in silence.
Recently, she stopped looking out the window. She always has a notebook open and is writing something.
I am not interested in what this unknown woman is writing. I wouldn't know it even if I saw it, and I don't want to see it. More than that, the way she gets on and off the carriage, stretching her back and walking quickly, she seems to me to be a different person from the one she was before. What happened to her? The driver was a little curious about the woman.
She is writing something in her notebook again this day, crunching away. The carriage pulls into the farm stop as usual. Usually, with a faltering voice, the woman says, "Oh, thank you, sir," and gets off the carriage. If she is leaving soon, she asks them to wait for a moment and then gets off. Without such words, it was an unspoken agreement that they would return on the next flight.
However, on this particular day, I did not hear the woman's voice when the carriage arrived. I looked over and saw that the woman was writing something in her notebook. The man wondered if he should call out to her or not.
"Here I am!"
Perhaps startled by the man's voice, the woman started to bob up and down. Then, as if jumping up and down, she stood up, hurriedly packed her belongings, and got off the carriage at a quick pace.
......Good grief.
The man sighs slowly. The road is extremely bad once you get out of the north gate, no matter if you are in the city or not. It can be very bumpy, and in some cases, you may feel a bouncing impact. In such a situation, what are you writing about? What is it that I have to write down there?
Just as he was thinking about this in a daze, he heard a woman's voice in his ear.
"Ah......Ah......Ummm..."
I looked over and saw the woman who had just gotten off the carriage standing there. The man looks at her.
"Kitto, kitto, kitto, I'm not leaving ...... today, kitto, kitto, I'm not leaving ......."
The woman then turned her head down. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a faint blush on her neck. In the meantime, she spun on her heel and ran in the direction of the farm.
......I see...she has found a man....
The man looked up at the sky with a grin. It's a beautiful day as usual. With this thought in mind, the man takes hold of the reins and lets his horse run. There was not a trace of discomfort in his heart. In fact, he wanted to cheer the woman on so that she would be happy. Something warm was flowing through the man's heart. .......