Chapter 68: Morning
Two curtains hung over the window, drawn nearly shut, yet not completely. Between them, a narrow gap had been left, just wide enough for a thin ray of morning sunlight to slip quietly into the room.
“Uu… nn…”
Beside Shia Onee-sama, who lay there faintly groaning as the sunlight disturbed her sleep, I slowly pushed myself upright and carefully climbed out of bed, still wrapped in the lingering haze of drowsiness.
“…My eyepatch…”
Was it because I had slept beside Shia Onee-sama?
Having slept more soundly than usual, I now found myself waking up worse than I had in a long time. With my thoughts still foggy and unfocused, I began searching for my eyepatch out of habit, my hands moving almost automatically.
But no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find it.
“—Ah… right… I still had it on.”
After a while, realization finally caught up with me, and I let out a quiet murmur as I reached up, my fingers brushing against the eyepatch already in place.
Normally, I would remove it before going to sleep. But today—no, last night—was different. With Shia Onee-sama beside me, I hadn’t wanted to show her the painful scar beneath it, and so I had left it on.
“…I’m really still half-asleep.”
A faint sigh escaped me as I acknowledged just how sluggish my mind felt. Slightly exasperated with myself, I began to take off the pajamas I had been wearing.
“Cold…”
Muttering under my breath, I made my way to the closet in nothing but my underclothes and began changing into my military uniform.
Once dressed, I stood before the full-length mirror and began to put myself in order. I dampened my hair slightly to fix the bedhead, ran my fingers through it to tidy it up, and after giving it a simple arrangement, I placed my military cap neatly on my head.
“Alright.”
No wrinkles in the uniform. No dirt on the military boots. The position of my rank insignia—perfect.
My appearance was, as always, impeccable.
“…Noah.”
As I struck a small pose in front of the mirror, checking my reflection with quiet satisfaction, I suddenly heard Shia Onee-sama’s voice from behind me.
“O-Oh—you were awake?”
It wasn’t that being seen while changing bothered me… but being caught posing like that? That was a little embarrassing.
I was still only fifteen. Even if, counting my previous life, I was technically older than General Newsbeck herself… I had long since felt that the mind tends to be pulled along by the body it inhabits.
“Mm… I woke up a little while ago. Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
Shia Onee-sama had pushed herself upright, her upper body clad in a sheer, almost translucent negligee. I returned her greeting, though my gaze wavered slightly.
…Honestly, I’d thought this many times before—no, I’d always thought it—but her choice of sleepwear was just a bit too stimulating.
It was embarrassing.
“…Are you leaving?”
Her quiet, uneasy voice reached me, cutting through my idle thoughts.
“Yeah… I have to go see General Newsbeck again today. I need to finish preparing for departure—what I couldn’t get done yesterday. And… I think it’s better to leave the royal capital as soon as possible.”
She had said yesterday that we would depart the day after tomorrow.
But if possible, it would be better to leave even today.
There was nothing to gain from lingering in the royal capital.
“…I see.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t apologize… I understand. I’ve already prepared myself… to see you off. I’ll be able to say it properly this time.”
The sadness had not completely left Shia Onee-sama’s expression.
And yet, compared to the previous two times, there was something brighter there now—something gentler and more composed—as she looked straight at me.
“…Come back safely, alright?”
“Of course. Well then… I’m off.”
There was only one thing I should say in response to her.
At first, there hadn’t even been the words “take care.”
The second time, when she said them, they had been strained—forced, barely holding together.
“Yes… take care.”
But this third time, those words were different.
They were words that truly sent me on my way.