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After breakfast, Papa Howard headed straight for the Amukham House. He said he wouldn’t be returning until the main knight order corps arrived.

Before noon, Mama Sonia would also be going there, so I decided to head over to Amukham House myself after having lunch at school.

When I mentioned that at school, Bibi and Mia both said they wanted to come along.

Bibi wanted to see her father, who still hadn’t returned home, and Mia said she was tagging along as my attendant.

After morning classes ended, we got permission from the teacher, quickly ate our meals, and then left for the Amukham House. The building was about a kilometer west of the school, just a short detour south from our usual route home.

“…Su, are you giving yours to someone tomorrow?”
“Huh?”

Mia suddenly asked something strange as we walked. What on earth was she talking about?

“Bibi, you’re giving yours to Irvine again this year, right?”
“……Yeah… I guess.”
“You worked so hard on it, too.”
“……Yeah, I did.”

(Wait a minute…) Bibi’s face was getting redder by the second.

“Oh, honestly! The Thanksgiving Festival is such a hassle!!”

(Ah, I see now. Tomorrow’s the Thanksgiving Festival.)

The Thanksgiving Festival was dedicated to Eiana, the goddess of spring. Compared to the autumn Harvest Festival, it was a much smaller celebration. It was also pretty different from the Thanksgiving that existed in my old world. Here, it was a day to thank Eiana for letting us survive the winter, welcome the coming spring, and celebrate the safe growth of children, mainly girls.

The customs were simple. You made a lotus flower wreath, hung it at your door for the day, and before sunset, you let it float down the nearest river while offering a prayer of thanks to Eiana. In a way, it was more like Hinamatsuri, the Girls’ Day, from my old world.

And on this day, girls gave handmade bangles to the boys they liked. If a boy accepted it, it meant he accepted the girl’s feelings.

Nowadays, the bangles are made from wood or braided leather, light, handmade things, but long ago, they were thick metal bracelets. They served as protective charms, symbolizing that they would keep the wearer safe. Though… there was also a rumor that they were basically handcuffs, a way for girls to declare “He’s mine!”

(Girls are terrifying!)

And the boys who willingly accepted them weren’t exactly innocent either.

Anyway, as the Thanksgiving Festival approached, it was tradition for girls to give it their all to make bangles for the boys they liked. Mia probably asked because she wanted to know if I’d made one for anyone during my trial.

(Excuse me! I made no such thing, good grief! The only thing I made during that time was a statue of Papa Howard! It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself, and Papa was really happy with it! So, this whole love bangle business has nothing to do with me!)

Come to think of it, a lot of the boys had been rolling up their sleeves lately. Alan, for instance, had kept saying, “Ahh, my left wrist feels so light,” in this super obvious way. Mia and I exchanged a look and sighed together, “Boys are hopeless.”

“Oh, by the way, those things Mary and Gloria were working on, are those for the festival?”
“Yeah, and also Irma and Jannis, right? They were all squealing about giving theirs to Irvine.”

Oh no! Mia just dropped a bomb she really shouldn’t have dropped! Bibi’s eyes began twitching! Right. Best to pretend I didn’t hear that. Irvine! You’d better handle that properly!

When we finally arrived at Amukham House, the place was in complete chaos.

Huge carriages blocked the roads, waiting for their turn to unload supplies. People were stacking, sorting, and transporting boxes, while others were checking the contents and taking them out. Craftsmen, on the other hand, were already busy using the materials.

The whole area around the Amukham House looked like a noisy construction site.

“What the heck is this?!” Bibi yelled, clapping her hands over her ears.

Yeah, I agreed, this level of commotion didn’t suit the peaceful Amukham I knew.

“Princess?! Isn’t that Princess Susie of Amukham?!”

Even through the noise, a clear, cheerful voice rang out behind us, and it said something I really didn’t need to hear shouted in public.

“Wha—?! W- whaaat?!”

Everyone working nearby turned to stare. I could feel my face heating up as I turned around, and there she was, a pretty young woman, running toward us with a bright smile.

It was Raisa, one of the knights, who had visited our house recently.

“I knew it! It is Princess Susie! I’m so glad we met again!”
“Eh?! R-Raisa…?”
“Yes! Raisa Urnova, Princess! You remembered me! Thank you!”

I introduced her to Bibi and Mia, who were covering their ears and frowning at the noise. Though… both of them completely ignored the part where I got called Princess, didn’t they?!

“I’m sorry about the ruckus…” Raisa said, rubbing the back of her head with a smile. “But we’ve got to rush or we won’t make it in time!”

So, it was a construction site after all.

She explained that they were building temporary barracks for the main knight corps and their support staff, who would be arriving soon.

“Our envoy leader is such a slave driver! No breaks, no rest, I thought we’d get a chance to breathe once we reached Amukham, but nooo, I got assigned to oversee the construction! I’m going to die of overwork before I ever get a boyfriend!!”
“T-that sounds… rough…”

And that’s how I accidentally learned about the knights’ less-than-glamorous working conditions. Bibi and Mia both gave her sympathetic looks as she wailed at the sky.

“Oh! I’m so sorry for keeping you! You came to see your father, the Boss, right?”

When I nodded, Raisa clapped her hands.

“He left his office a bit earlier and should be in the great hall now, having a late lunch. Ahh! I’ve got to run, or Captain Magritte will kill me! Princess, let’s meet again sometime!”

And just like that, Raisa dashed off again, apparently a lot more high-strung than I remembered. Bibi and Mia just stared after her, looking half amused, half exhausted.

Then, weaving through the noise and confusion, we made our way toward the great hall, where Papa Howard and the others were.

◆◆◆◆◆

The distance from Dekenbel to Cope Town was roughly three hundred kilometers, connected by a well-paved and maintained highway.

The road was solidly built, its surface lined with hexagonal basalt stones about fifty centimeters across. It was over five meters wide, wide enough for two carriages to pass each other with ease. This highway was one of the great arteries of the nation, stretching across the heart of the continent and linking one end to the other.

Now, along that very road, a group composed of several dozen horsemen and a handful of carriages was heading north.

The riders carried packs on their backs, wore armor on their limbs, and bore gleaming cyan-blue magic orbs on their chests. The faint, intermittent glow from those jewels made it clear that this was no ordinary caravan.

At the center of the group, preceded by a dozen neatly arranged riders, rolled a large ebony carriage, larger and more striking than the others, escorted closely on all sides by mounted guards.

One rider broke formation and approached the carriage alone. He drew his horse alongside, pulled back his hood, and tapped lightly on the carriage window a few times.