Kaito sat down on the bed. The room was dark. To someone accustomed to living under fluorescent lights, candlelight felt remarkably dim.
He had actually gone to see the prime minister once earlier in the day.
Apparently, there had been no word from Yuna. It seemed she hadn't thrown in the towel yet. However, several hours had passed since then. Perhaps she had taken some sort of action by now.
(Well then. Time to pay the prime minister another visit, I suppose.)
He stood up slowly. His business was the improvements to their living conditions that they had just settled on. He picked up the sheet of paper from the table and folded it in half.
Since the other side had disrupted their lives and summoned them to this alternate world in the first place, there was no reason to wait until tomorrow morning.
Asking about Yuna would just be an afterthought.
The prime minister's room was located around two turns down the hallway. Light leaked out from beneath the door. When he knocked, a reply came immediately.
"Excuse me."
He gave a slight bow as a matter of courtesy before stepping inside.
The old man was seated at his desk. Several sheets of half-written parchment were stacked atop it, and two candlesticks stood on either end. Without setting down his pen, Seifert merely raised his head.
"Prime Minister. Still awake, I see."
"Ah, Sir Hero. What brings you here at such an hour?"
"I have a few requests regarding our daily living arrangements. Complaints are pouring in from my classmates right now. If things continue like this, it will affect morale."
Kaito unfolded the paper and set it down on the edge of the desk.
They likely couldn't read Japanese anyway.
Handing it over wouldn't accomplish anything on its own.
"Specifically, what kind of complaints might these be?"
"First, the baths. How often is the water changed? Also, there aren't enough tubs. And I'd like a water pitcher placed in every room."
Looking at the paper, he went through the list, asking and requesting each item in order.
The prime minister responded to each inquiry, accepting the tasks one by one—promising to double the number of tubs by tomorrow, instruct the maids tonight regarding the water pitchers, allow extra salt at the kitchen's discretion, and have cloth brought out from the storehouses. The old man never doubted that the requests were reasonable.
"As expected of the Hero. It makes our work much easier when you provide such detailed instructions."
"I'm glad to hear you say that. But... you people were the ones who summoned us to this world, after all. We can't have you failing to guarantee our basic necessities."
"Quite right. It shall be done."
The prime minister bowed respectfully.
The talk had gone well. The duties of a "Hero" went far beyond merely swinging a sword.
Moving the tip of his pen toward the margin of the paper, the prime minister added as if just remembering something.
"Ah, yes. The coachman has returned. He reports having safely delivered the two to the village."
"I see. Thank you for your hard work."
He had already heard from a soldier during the day that "the carriage had returned from the abandoned village."
This was the first time he had received the official report, however.
Being delivered to the village meant the two had been there since this morning.
One of the variables he needed to track had now been confirmed.
The prime minister brought up another topic in the tone of casual small talk.
"Also, this is a report from the fief's residents... but just past noon today, to the east... near the contaminated zone, a pillar of light was seen rising."
"A pillar of light? It's probably just a monster. I heard that's the kind of place it is, after all."
"...Well. That may indeed be the case."
The prime minister did not answer right away.
Still holding the pen, neither setting it down nor writing, he merely shifted his grip between his fingers once. Then, he pulled the candlestick slightly closer to his hands.
Kaito took it as a sign of the old man's fatigue. Working at his desk until this hour, it was only natural.
Putting on a casual demeanor, he asked just one more thing.
"Also, one question from me. Any word from Shirakawa?"
He asked without missing a beat.
Before answering, the prime minister's gaze dropped once toward the desk drawer.
"...None."
"I see. Well, it's only the second day, after all."
Kaito smiled.
When he closed the door behind him, both candles on the desk were still burning.
Returning to his private room, the candle flame flickered at the exact same height as when he had left. Kaito slid the door latch into place before sinking onto the bed.
The two had left the castle yesterday evening and traveled for half a day. If they had been dropped off at the village, that meant they had spent an entire day there from this morning until now.
(Hah, there's no way they'll hold out.)
Splitting three days' worth of food between two people meant that, no matter how much they rationed it, they would run out by tomorrow. The water situation was even more dire. There was no way clean water was welling up in a place like that, in a contaminated zone. Even if it were, it certainly wouldn't be fit to drink.
According to the prime minister, the well was dry and the fields hadn't recovered. A village where no one had lived for twenty years. There was no way anyone could survive there.
His mind readily supplied what would follow. Running out of water, running out of food, with nothing left behind except Kuze's useless job.
(Kuze might already be dead, for all I know.)
Knowing that guy, he would definitely try to play the martyr and hand over all the food and drink to Yuna.
Just as he was about to think that Kuze dying wouldn't bother him in the slightest, Kaito paused.
If Kuze had died, Yuna would have already called out for help. She wasn't the type who could stand by silently while someone collapsed right in front of her. The fact that she hadn't reached out meant it was safer to assume Kuze was still breathing.
(...Well, that's just how it goes.)
Even so, it was only a matter of one more day. Just staying alive required water. Without it, there was no tomorrow for those two.
Kaito counted on his fingers, tallying it up once more. That made three times now.
Tomorrow, Yuna would come back.
That was the calculation he had arrived at.