Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~

Chapter 17: The Duke’s Sisters Have a Buggy Sense of Personal Space Between Men and Women

The carriage rattled and jolted as always, yet I woke up feeling strangely comfortable.

Against the back of my head was a soft, squishy sensation.

As I tried to open my eyes in that half-asleep haze, a woman’s palm gently brushed over my eyelids so the light wouldn’t bother me.

“Morning, Haro. You sleep like a rock.”

Through the gaps between the fingers stroking my forehead, Zaria was looking down at me.

My head was resting on her soft thighs—this so-called “lap pillow.”

After several days of living together, the embarrassment had gradually faded.

“…”

“You’re spacing out. Still sleepy?”

“Yeah, a little… I’m not used to camping out.”

Zaria grinned widely and kept stroking my hair.

Thanks to her casting Clean multiple times, there was no dirt or smell at all—my hair was smoother now than when I lived in the tower, and her slender fingers combed through it easily.

The past few days had been nothing but camping and traveling.

We took turns keeping watch at night, so we were all short on sleep and spent the days dozing like this.

Still, the fact that a duke’s daughter was giving me a lap pillow—an act that felt downright sinful—was mainly possible because this box-shaped carriage wasn’t very big.

Even putting that aside, these sisters had a strangely close sense of personal space.

Maybe they were completely unguarded because they saw me as a child, or maybe this was just their natural personality.

It was a mysterious feeling, but it wasn’t only Zaria—Noiche was the same.

The moment she noticed I was awake, Noiche stood up lightly from the opposite sofa, leaned over—

And without a word, stared at me for a moment before pressing a light kiss to my cheek.

I understood. This was the kind of greeting kiss a mother gives her child or an older sister gives her little brother.

Nothing more, nothing less.

“Morning, Haro.”

Usually you say that first.

I stared in amazement as Noiche calmly returned to her seat like nothing had happened.

“…Zaria, is your little sister really okay like this?”

“Okay with what? Noiche is the cutest in the world today too.”

“Yeah, sure.”

These little demons.

“Haro, right arm treatment.”

“Right. Thanks again today.”

At Noiche’s reminder, I offered my right arm while still resting my head on Zaria’s body.

Or rather, more accurately, Noiche just grabbed the arm that wouldn’t move on its own and stretched it out for me.

The paralysis in my right arm had gotten worse.

It still hadn’t returned to normal, and right now the sisters were treating it together with me.

First they used regeneration heal magic to boost the body’s basic recovery ability, then we slowly worked through rehab to regain grip strength.

Clenching and opening the hand, bending and straightening the arm, pressing fingers against a potion bottle laid horizontally and rolling it back and forth—

Basic muscle training like that, but it was a decent way to kill time.

“Any pain?”

“None at all. It’s easier than before.”

Previously there had been lingering sensation, so I suffered from nerve pain, but once the numbness progressed this far I couldn’t feel anything anymore.

“By the way, how much farther to our destination?”

The thought suddenly occurred to me.

From what they said this morning, we were supposed to arrive today—

“Oh yeah, you were asleep, Haro.”

“We can already see the walls.”

With that, the sisters helped sit me up.

I can move my upper body without help… I thought, but I peeked out the window anyway.

Beyond the flat grasslands, massive stone walls were indeed coming into view.

At some point the road the carriage traveled on had turned into well-maintained stone paving that led straight to the gate.

A large river flowing in from the left was incorporated right into the outer wall and seemed to merge with the city’s waterways. Just that was enough to tell this was a prosperous city.

“Ahh! I wanna take a bath already!”

“…Yeah, me too.”

At Zaria’s shout, Noiche nodded heavily with rare emotion in her voice.

Compared to the medieval period I knew from before, plumbing was surprisingly advanced in this world.

There was a culture of bathing, and even separate systems for sewage and fresh water.

That was probably because water and earth magic made waterworks construction much easier.

In any case, for young ladies from a ducal house, even with the Clean spell available, going this long without a proper bath had apparently been unbearable.

“Haro can’t use one arm, so we’ll wash you real good~”

What is this girl saying.

“For entering the city, just like we told you, okay?”

“Y-yes ma’am! Leave it to me!”

At Noiche’s words, the coachman flinched and nodded obediently, still clearly terrified.

And so, it seemed we had finally reached our destination.

After a little more traveling, the gate came clearly into view.

Here officials conducted checks: anyone without clear identity was turned away, and most citizens had to pay a passage tax.

In my case, I had no way to prove I was from Moscaneira.

Normally that would mean failing the check—but there was an exception when you had a guarantor.

This time, my guarantors were of course House Levi and the coachman himself.

The coachman worked for the city’s biggest trading company, so he naturally had a proper passage permit. Having two or more guarantors apparently left a good impression on the officials.

“Haro, you look kinda nervous?”

“Of course I am. If we get turned away here, I’ve got nowhere to go.”

“You’re surprisingly anxious… It’ll be fine. We’ll do the talking. You just sit there looking cute.”

We’re making that guy pay the passage tax too—Zaria pointed at the coachman.

If you took just that line out of context, it sounded exactly like a thug, but unfortunately she was a ducal lady.

“It’ll be okay.”

Noiche added from behind me, as if pushing my back.

Soon the carriage reached the gate and was stopped by two gate guards.

The coachman handled the first exchange, and after a while one of the guards called inside to us.

“I was told you are ladies of House Levi, but…”

“Yeah, yeah—passage permit, noble crest, and guild card.”

“Thank you very much, I’ll take a look.”

Zaria lazily showed the documents and badges, and the guard bowed repeatedly while quickly checking everything.

The passage permit was required for merchants and nobles alike when crossing cities. The noble crest was a design that proved each noble house’s identity—its manufacturing method was kept secret so it couldn’t be forged. In the sisters’ case it was embroidered on the inside of their robes.

The check seemed to go without issues.

Finally the guard looked at me.

“That boy over there… I was told you two are his guardians.”

“Haro. We picked him up because his face is cute. He’s our favorite.”

“Any problem with that?”

“N-no, not at all…”

At Zaria and Noiche’s joking replies, the guard asked nothing more.

Instead he looked at me for a moment, then reached his arm inside the carriage.

“Welcome to Dura.”

“Eh? Oh, thanks.”

It was a handshake.

I gripped his hand firmly with the arm that still worked, then let go.

After that the guard gave the same “Welcome to Dura” greeting to Zaria and the coachman before stepping away.

The carriage carrying us began moving slowly and finally entered the city.

Once we were a little distance from the wall, Zaria let out a big breath.

“We were kinda suspected for a second, huh? But we made it! Safe!”

“That felt like suspicion?”

“…He was checking your hands. The hands of someone trained to hold a sword or pen have distinctive features. People trying to hide their background are often agents.”

“I see.”

They didn’t let suspicious people through just because they were from a duke’s house—an attitude I could actually respect.

Anyway, Zaria continued.

“Originally we were gonna head straight for a bath… but since we got a tiny bit suspected, let’s solidify your identity first.”

“Identity?”

“Yep—the Adventurers’ Guild.”

It’s actually pretty useful, she said, holding up a business-card-sized slip of paper.

It was one of the identification documents she had shown the guard earlier, along with the passage permit and noble crest—

A “guild card,” the membership card of the Adventurers’ Guild.