"You scoundrel!"
The booming shout that rang out from early morning caused my eyes to open on their own.
Bright light was pouring in through the window. And the noise that had probably woken me seemed to have come from outside as well.
"How many times have I told you! Your handful and my handful are different, so don't use your hands, use a tool!"
I raised my stiff body and picked up the indoor robe I had carelessly tossed aside yesterday.
After roughly throwing on the robe, I flung the window wide open, and the booming voice became clearer.
Below the window, in front of a brightly decorated flower bed, Xenon was scolding someone with both hands on his hips.
He was holding a trowel; he was likely angry because someone had touched the flower bed without using it.
"Hmm……."
Leaning against the windowsill with my chin propped, I quietly watched the scene below and clicked my tongue softly.
I know how diligently Xenon tends to his flowers…… but this seems like a different issue.
Can you really call it normal to scold a skeleton you can't even communicate with, telling it to use a trowel to care for the flower bed?
Completely unaware that I was watching from above, Xenon even demonstrated how to use the trowel by gripping its handle with his own hand. At this point, it feels like he's practically practicing rote education.
At that moment, the skeleton, which had been watching Xenon's actions with a highly uncooperative attitude, raised its head.
[Captain! Did you cough?]
The skeleton's bones rattled violently. Following the skeleton's gaze, Xenon also looked up, discovered me, and beamed a bright smile.
"Lady Anelli!"
He flung the trowel aside and used magic to levitate himself, flying up to my window in an instant.
"You should have slept a little longer."
"I slept enough."
"Judging by the time, you probably didn't sleep much, did you?"
Xenon looked at me with puzzled eyes, and no trace of mischief could be detected on his face.
Momentarily at a loss for words, I fell silent for a moment before replying with a calm expression.
"……It's enough."
"That can't be……"
"More importantly, since when have you been able to communicate with skeletons?"
I outright shifted my gaze and changed the subject. Xenon didn't put up any particular resistance and obediently followed my lead.
"Voice and text don't work, but actions seem to get through a little."
I glanced sideways, rolling only my eyes to look down at the skeleton. The skeleton, which had been kicking the trowel with its foot only to have its ankle detach, was squatting down and clumsily reassembling its own bones.
Action language…… It doesn't seem to be getting through at all.
"You used to shudder and hate even facing skeletons at first."
"I still do."
Xenon answered with a sigh-laden voice and perched his hip on the windowsill beside where I was leaning.
"Since we have to coexist with them anyway, we have to keep trying, even if it's just action language."
"Admirable."
When I muttered with a voice tinged with laughter, Xenon smiled broadly and asked,
"If it's admirable, can we continue what we left off yesterday?"
"……."
"I thought you needed more rest, but seeing you now, you seem to have regained all your energy."
I looked at Xenon with incredulous eyes as he subtly slipped over the windowsill and crept into the room, and I couldn't help but ask,
"……Do you have a conscience?"
"Of course. My conscience is probably more solid than yours, Lady Anelli?"
I couldn't deny it, but it felt a bit unfair. That conscience of his, which he claims is more solid than mine, seems to disappear only in specific situations. Is it my misconception?
I furrowed my brow and opened my mouth to protest, but my words were cut off by lips that swiftly approached.
In the end, I didn't leave the bedroom until well past lunchtime.
* * *
Having a mage by your side was truly convenient.
And if that mage wasn't just an ordinary one, but a very skilled and powerful mage, the convenience of daily life increased severalfold.
If I hadn't reunited with Xenon early on, I wouldn't have been able to travel so comfortably between Veladia Castle and outside the Trevi Mountains.
In that sense, Xenon, who was both capable and perceptive, was truly an excellent lover.
Xenon had not only organized Veladia Castle but had also connected warp gates all across the country for convenient travel.
Of course, those warp gates were personally installed by Xenon, so only authorized people could use them.
"Should I search the capital again?"
After a late lunch, I gazed down at the map spread on the table and sank into thought.
Since I hadn't recovered all the Dullahans yet, I was traveling around the country every day to find them. Some might not be on this land anymore, but at least a few must remain.
"If Bark had awakened in the imperial palace, rumors would have surely spread……"
Frankly, I expected a considerable number of Dullahans would choose to remain by my side. I don't know if this is my arrogance.
So far, the Dullahans I had recovered totaled five. First Nadav, then Zigore, Tristan, Mori, and Ganik, who returned a few days ago.
Most were in the same places where I had first taken them in, so we were able to reunite without issue.
However, in Pallides's case, like Tristan, I thought he would be in the Freya region, but he wasn't there, so I couldn't pinpoint where he might be right now.
And Soana and Dasha…….
Recalling the final moments of the two knights, I forcibly shook off the thought. Then I glanced sideways.
"What do you think?"
The bumblebee busily flying around me first offered an active opinion.
[Shall I make inquiries through the insects in that area?]
Almost before it finished speaking, a black starling flapped its wings and interjected.
[And then stir up a hornet's nest again! Do you know how many turf wars have broken out because of you?]
[You're just a starling with no friends to ask!]
[I'm going to tell Uncle Wyvern!]
Tristan and Zigore bickered more fiercely than before they had found rest. I distinctly remember them parting with immense affection when they first found rest……
[Ca-Captain! It's possible they didn't awaken immediately after you were resurrected. Re-revisiting the capital seems like a good idea!]
Instead of the distracted Tristan and Zigore, who were busy arguing, Mori, who was inside my pocket, poked his head out to answer.
Mori, who looked up at me with round, pitch-black eyes, was still in the form of a small snake, no different from an earthworm.
And he still loved being inside a silk pouch. More precisely, he seemed to love being able to stick close to me.
"If Bark or Minte awakened a bit later, it would make sense that I couldn't find them immediately when I searched the capital."
After reuniting with the Dullahans, I learned they had awakened later than I did. It was because they had entrusted their rest to my choice.
Since I searched the capital right after I awakened, if they woke up later than I did, it would be natural not to have found them then.
"Right. It might be better to search again for Bark and Minte first, as they have the highest probability."
With Xenon by my side, using transformation magic would make travel easier, and with the Dullahans, I could make inquiries much faster than when searching alone.
Since Bark is highly likely to be in the imperial palace, I should start by inquiring about Minte, right?
Just as my mind was leaning toward the capital, the lounge door opened and someone entered.
"Lady Anelli, an invitation!"
The one who entered, fluttering an envelope in hand, was Xenon.
"An invitation?"
The only people who knew I was at Veladia Castle were Xenon and Heinri. Since Xenon is right in front of me, the person who sent me the invitation must be Heinri.
I hadn't met Heinri directly since being resurrected. We only exchanged messages through Xenon, and later I received a separate communication artifact delivered through Xenon.
Even so, he was so busy that we rarely actually communicated.
"An invitation, all of a sudden?"
If he had business, he could have just used the communication artifact.
To send an invitation to Veladia Castle, he would first need to send a letter via a trustworthy messenger to a village near the mountains, and then Xenon would have to retrieve it—a cumbersome process.
Given how complicated that is, the fact that he went through such trouble to send it this way suggested this invitation contained something out of the ordinary.
"It does bear the imperial seal, though."
To entrust an invitation stamped with the imperial seal to a rural village.
I felt a pang of pity for the unknown someone who must have temporarily received this invitation. How anxiously must they have worried, lest the invitation get crumpled?
"What does it say?"
"Well……"
The envelope only stated it was addressed to the master of Veladia Castle, with no other information.
I unceremoniously tore open the envelope. The stiff paper was of such high quality that, on top of being decorated with all sorts of ornate patterns, it was even sprinkled with glittering gold dust.
"Oh."
I let out a low exclamation as I unfolded the paper. As I stared wide-eyed at the contents, Xenon crept closer and peeked at the paper.
I outright handed him the invitation and spoke.
"A coronation is being held."
This was an official invitation sent to me, the master of Veladia Castle and the Resurrected One, requesting my attendance at the coronation.
"Good heavens, did he finally commit patricide?"
"I hadn't heard anything like that in recent communications."
And since the emperor's passing would be something no citizen of the empire could be unaware of, he probably didn't kill him. The emperor was notoriously stubborn, so I was curious what kind of threats he might have used.
"But this is an invitation requesting your public attendance, Lady Anelli."
Xenon, who had been turning the invitation this way and that with curious eyes, soon furrowed his brow and muttered.
Knowing full well that I, who disliked people clinging to the Resurrected One, always changed my appearance and traveled around, he seemed to assume I would decline this invitation.
That was probably Heinri's intention in sending such a formal invitation. He knew I wasn't someone who would yield to status and reluctantly accept an invitation.
It was his own way of showing consideration: not relying on our private friendship, so I could comfortably decline if I wished.
I snatched the invitation back from Xenon.
"I was planning to go to the capital anyway."
"You'll attend?"
"I have to go to a coronation. It's a coronation. It's bound to be an event pushed through by force; think of all the amusing scenes I'll get to see."
And if I wanted to claim ownership of this Veladia Castle, I needed to make an appearance at least once.
Thus, without any reward for pondering over the map, my destination for this outing was confirmed as the capital.