12. Today More than Yesterday, Tomorrow More than Today

“Man...” Haruhiro muttered.

How long had it been since the eight o’clock bell chimed? Five minutes? Ten? Haruhiro didn’t have anything expensive like a pocket watch, so he didn’t know.

“They just aren’t showing up, huh...” he went on.

“They aren’t...” For a while now, Merry had been standing next to Haruhiro, restlessly poking at the ground with her short staff.

Haruhiro had probably arrived at the north gate at around half past seven. It looked like Ranta had come back to the lodging house late last night. When he’d tried to drag him out of bed, Ranta had said to go ahead without him. He hadn’t gone to call Shihoru and Yume. He hadn’t thought it was necessary.

He had woken up fairly early in the morning and, with nothing better to do, Haruhiro had decided to leave the lodging house early.

Merry had shown up at the north gate around ten minutes after Haruhiro. Of course, he had been relieved to see her.

Thank goodness, he’d thought, from the bottom of his heart.

Merry had learned Sacrament. It was a top-class light magic spell that healed serious wounds in an instant, and it could have been considered mandatory for any priest of mid-tier or higher.

Merry could still only use it around twice per day, but Sacrament was sure to be a great boon to the party. If it came to it, they could return from the brink of death. Having that sort of trump card would no doubt let Merry approach her battles with composure.

Haruhiro had learned another skill from Barbara-sensei in addition to Assault: Shatter. This was a skill that was chained after Swat to strike the enemy’s knee. With two options that he could use following a Swat, Arrest and Shatter, it would give his attack patterns more variety. Instead of just using Swat to hold out, he could look for opportunities to go on the attack, then go in for the kill with Assault. That was the strategy Haruhiro had in mind.

Well, I doubt it will be that easy, but we each need to expand what we can do, and take it as far as we can, he thought. If we do that, probably—no, definitely—we’ll find a way forward.

Haruhiro was optimistic. Or, at the very least, he was trying to be.

He wasn’t a good one, but he was this party’s leader nonetheless. A leader needed to hold his head high, moving forward one step, or even one half-step, at a time, or no one would follow him. In fact, if the leader wasn’t moving forward, there was no way for anyone to follow.

It wasn’t a question of whether he could do it or not. He had to start by just doing it. Nothing would start until he took that first step. If nothing ever started, there could be no results. Once there were some results, he would accept them, use them as nourishment, and move forward a little more.

—However.

“They’re so late...” Haruhiro murmured.

“Yes... but...” Merry said.

“Yeah...”

“Maybe they slept in...” she suggested.

“...I’ll bet.”

“They could be tired from learning skills and whatnot...”

“Ohh,” Haruhiro said. “Yeah, that could be it.”

“I hope that’s all...”

“Well, I think it probably is...?” Haruhiro said. “Normally... well, I am too... y’know? If you were to ask me whether I’m fully rested, I’m really not... Barbara-sensei’s real strict... Ha ha ha...” Haruhiro’s laughter sounded so stupid and incredibly vacuous that he felt awkward.

Damn, this isn’t good, he thought. What’s with this atmosphere? This atmosphere, it’s—Why? Why aren’t they showing up? How can they be late on such an important day? Like, there’s no way they should be, right? It’s weird, seriously. They can’t be late for this. That’s obvious. Get your act together, okay? Or, what—could it be something else?

Like, maybe, they’re not late?

“Nah... Ha ha ha...” Haruhiro laughed again, trying to chase off the uncertainty welling up inside him. It didn’t help in the slightest; it just made him want to run away.

He didn’t, though. He’d seem like a weirdo if he did.

“They just aren’t showing up, huh...” Haruhiro repeated.

“They aren’t...” Merry agreed.

What do I do now? Haruhiro thought. Merry’s looking pretty worried, too. What’s with this? Seriously, what’s up? Ranta, I get. He didn’t even try to get out of bed this morning. I mean, he’s Ranta. But Shihoru and Yume, too, seriously? Yume may not be that punctual, but Shihoru takes things seriously. She’s never been late to a meetup before. Not once. This is the first time. In that case, something must be up, and that’s why they aren’t here yet. That’s the logical conclusion. After what happened to us, and with all of us like this, now this happens.

“Ah...“ Merry mumbled.

When he looked at her, Merry was looking across the street. Haruhiro cast his gaze in that direction, too. Shihoru or Yume or Ranta must have come.

What, they’re finally here? Haruhiro thought.

He was wrong.

There was a man who was quite tall but had poor posture walking towards them. He wore a breast plate, gauntlets, and a few other pieces of plate mail, but all of it looked secondhand. The breast plate had Lumiaris’s hexagram engraved on it.

“Hey.” The man stopped in front of Haruhiro, giving him a nod.

Though Haruhiro wasn’t one to judge, he thought the guy looked awfully gloomy. He seemed out of place on such a fine morning.

“...Kuzaku,” he said.

“Why are you...?” Merry looked down, fidgeting awkwardly—

Wait, her face is red? Why? Haruhiro thought. What? What happened?

“Ohh.” Kuzaku brought his big hand to his forehead, scratching his right temple with his little finger. “Err. Yeah, let’s say that never happened.”

“Then don’t say anything to begin with!” Merry exploded.

“Ah. Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t’ve, huh,” Kuzaku agreed.

“Huh? Huh...?!” Haruhiro butted in, unable to keep quiet. “Wh-What?! Hey, what’s up, did something... happen...?”

“Nothing!” Merry was completely losing it.

“Nah, nothing,” Kuzaku wore a vague expression, and it was impossible to get a grasp on what it all might mean.

—Yeah, something happened, Haruhiro thought. Something definitely happened.