「I came here before but……I find it hard to find a building that would hold a stall.」
「But not the south base, right? 」
「We looked there last summer but that shouldn’t be it. There’s nowhere to hide there.」
「Then…..how about the women’s dormitory over there?」
「Well, we have time now so let’s take our chances.」
I looked around again and found that this place is full of Schenker buildings.
Warehouses, stores, residences, factories, everywhere we go, we can see fellow members of the Schenker family.
My legs were tired from all the walking.
But for some reason, this little guy was smiling happily.
「I can’t find anything」
「Hey」
「Hnn?」
「This is kind of fun, isn’t it?」
「What is?」
「Exploring strange places like this with someone.」
I glanced at Casio and my eyes met the small eyes behind that hat.
「When you were younger, didn’t you go out like this?」
「Well, back in my hometown, not everyone was nice like the crafters. For that reason, they didn’t let me out of the house very often.」
「Not all the people here are nice either.」
「Do you think so? I think they’re all good people.」
An amused laugh smiled out of my mouth as I was saying that’s not the case.
「It’s just that everyone’s not having any trouble eating.」
Slaves, that’s what we are.
We are not so good that children will call us good people.
I patted Casio’s head and pulled my hat back on tightly as I stared at the gray sky.
It’s cold even though it’s daytime.
「Ah! Areh!」
「What’s wrong?」
I chased Casio who suddenly ran off. The red hat stopped in front of a Torquiva grill stall.
「Hey, isn’t this a food cart?」
「Hnn? This….?」
Casio pointed to a miscellaneous pile of boxes and chairs in front of the store.
「Look closely, this thing under the cloth, it’s not just a desk. It has wheels.」
Inside the cloth rolled up by a small hand, there was indeed a big wheel.
I picked up a box on top of the cloth covered desk thing and found that there was nothing inside.
I looked at a cart disguised as a stall.
「Let’s go inside and ask!」
「Yeah!」
When we went inside the Torquiva grill, there were no customers, probably because it was already past lunchtime and a frizzy haired boar woman was sitting on a chair with a cigarette in her mouth.
「Ano! What food stall was the one outside…..」
「Ah, you have to wait until nightfall.」
「It’s “that”, isn’t it?」
「What’s that?」
「Oden!」
「You guys are Schenkers too, right? Don’t you dare tell anyone about this.」
After the lady said so bluntly, Casio and I embraced each other without care.
「We did it! Hoorayyy!!」
「Yeah! We found it!」
「If you’re just going to do that, you better get out. What are your orders?」
「Oden!」
「Wait till nightfall. It’s still simmering.」
「Pork balls then!」
Casio and I ate Torquivayaki, then relaxed and waited for the night. Promising to come back later to give our impressions, we took out the earthenware pot full of cooked oden home.
We wrapped the oden in our leather jackets to prevent it from cooling down and changing taste. We walk around ignoring the cold.
We finally made it!
Thanks to our little sage, Casio!
-0-
The oden that I had with my friends in the room tasted sour, salty, and strange but I didn’t care about that anymore.
After eating the trophy in the now empty earthenware pot, I feel more happy than anything else.
I feel like if the four of us are together, we can do anything.
The three of us carry our scaleless sibling on our shoulders and go to an expensive meat restaurant for a palate cleanser.
We had been walking around this city every day for the past six months.
It’s like a garden to us now.
I know it better than any other city I’ve ever lived in.
This is my city.
This place.
Torquiva.
My city.
The four of us ran north to the main street, rushed by the snow falling on the city at the year’s end.
