"Shirou has such a good temper."
After sighing at Shirou's good nature, Texas curled back up. After all, she had been driving all day yesterday, and coupled with the fact that she was a light sleeper who woke up easily, she still needed a little more time to catch up on sleep.
Just a little.
"Up so early. Did you not sleep well?"
Standing in the living room to stretch her body a bit, Exusiai heard the matron's voice from behind.
"I slept very well. Thank you so much for lending us the room."
Turning to face the matron, Shirou replied.
"Think nothing of it. Since you came all this way to help deliver a letter, getting a letter from the two of them is already plenty good."
The matron said, then as if remembering something, she picked up the letter from the table nearby and handed it to Shirou.
"Do you need to send a reply?"
Shirou paused for a moment before asking, as he was still unfamiliar with these tasks, which were primarily handled by Texas and Sora.
"Yes. My daughter hopes to have me move over to their place, but I'm old and feel much more at ease staying here. So I'll trouble you to send this letter back."
The matron said with a wry smile.
"I understand... Just leave the letter here for now. I need to talk to the others."
Shirou noticed the crystal on the matron's hand and understood what she meant.
She probably became infected by accident after her daughter left home, which was why she had no intention of going over.
Infected... This was the first time Shirou had practically felt what kind of treatment the Infected received on this land.
"Then I'll leave it to you. Also, it snowed quite heavily last night. If things are inconvenient, you're welcome to stay here for a few more days."
"Thank you very much."
Shirou politely expressed his gratitude to her.
A polite response to goodwill shown by others could never be wrong.
"Not at all. By the way, did you interact with the Reunion Movement people yesterday?"
The matron suddenly remembered that Shirou had gone back into the house yesterday to grab some bread and take it outside, seemingly to give to two children.
She recognized those two children; they were people from the Reunion Movement.
"Reunion Movement? You mean... Mephisto and Faust?"
Thinking back, the only people he had interacted with yesterday seemed to be Mephisto and Faust, so Shirou figured those were the ones the matron was talking about.
What was the Reunion Movement, though?
"Ah, judging by your expression, it seems you don't know about the Reunion Movement. Let me tell you about it, just in case you run into them outside and don't recognize them."
With a look of I knew it, the matron pulled Shirou to sit on a nearby chair and even poured him a cup of hot water.
A little past nine o'clock, the sleeping bag in the room suddenly shifted, and then Sora's head poked out from inside.
"Mmh... What time is it..."
Sora sat up, dazed. It had been a bit cold sleeping last night, and she hadn't slept well at first. Every now and then, a gust of cold wind would blow in and make things rather uncomfortable.
"Nine o'clock."
Texas had woken up a bit earlier than Sora, but the temperature inside the sleeping bag was vastly different from the outside. Unless there was something particularly important, Texas had no intention of leaving the sleeping bag anytime soon.
"Nine already? Ha..."
Sora yawned, then shrank back into the bedding.
On a cold day with warm covers, going outside was out of the question.
She wouldn't crawl out of bed unless Mama Emiya called her.
"Are Exusiai and Croissant not up yet?"
Sora thought for a moment and decided not to go back to sleep, choosing instead to chat with Texas.
"Not yet. Those two must have gone to sleep very late yesterday."
Mentioning those two troublemakers gave Texas a slight headache.
Now that she thought about it, she should have just woken Shirou up directly last night. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to conquer the Sleep Monster at the time and just kept sleeping.
She regretted it even more when Shirou brought sleeping bags to cover them extra this morning. Shirou was so kind-hearted, yet he suffered the cruel prank of the fluorescent lamp and the Bread Man.
She would just push Exusiai and Croissant out later and let Shirou deal with them.
Texas thought to herself.
"Hiss..."
Nearby, Exusiai and Croissant felt a chill and shrank deeper into their sleeping bags.
"Did they not sleep well either? It was indeed a bit cold yesterday."
Sora assumed Exusiai and Croissant had also been kept awake by the cold.
"They dragged Shirou into the room after he fell asleep yesterday."
As soon as Texas finished speaking, Sora was instantly wide awake and sat straight up to check her surroundings.
Not seeing Shirou's sleeping bag, Sora breathed a sigh of relief, thinking Texas was just scaring her.
Then she saw another sleeping bag draped right on top of theirs.
66 Teacher
"...Shirou covered us with this this morning?"
For the first time, Sora felt that her teammates were truly punchable.
Could they at least let her have some mental preparation?
"Yeah. Let's tie up Exusiai and Croissant later."
Texas calmly sentenced her teammates to death.
"Agreed."
Sora's mercy ran out for what the two of them had done this time.
The sleeping bag didn't feel so cozy anymore. Sora crawled out of it, and while her body was still warm, she put on both of her coats.
"I'll go out first and see what Shirou is doing."
After telling Texas, Sora left the room.
Pushing the door open, Sora saw Shirou sitting by the stove, weaving something in his hands.
"?"
Sora looked at the scene before her.
To call it harmonious was an understatement, but to call it bizarre was also accurate.
Seeing Sora freeze in the doorway, Texas crawled out of the covers inside to take a look as well.
Then both of them stood at the door with question marks on their faces.
After a while, when Shirou finished the motion in his hands, he finally noticed the two of them staring blankly at the door.
"Sora, Texas, what are you two daydreaming at the door for? Come sit over here, Madam Dalia specially lit a fire."
Shirou pointed to the burning stove nearby and said.
Dalia was the owner of this house, and after talking with Shirou for a long time early in the morning, she had gone out.
Before leaving, she specially lit a fire and, fearing Shirou would be bored, even taught him how to knit.
Shirou had been exposed to knitting before, so he picked it up very quickly, and in about two hours, it had roughly taken shape.
He could probably finish it in a day or two. He was exceptionally good at such highly repetitive work.
The yarn was naturally a friendly sponsorship from Madam Dalia; in exchange, Shirou gave her all the remaining bread.
"Shirou, you've already gotten that chummy with her?"
Sora unceremoniously sat down by the stove. The warmth of the heater was completely different from the warmth inside a sleeping bag.
Texas also sat down nearby, enjoying the heat of the stove.
"Madam Dalia is quite enthusiastic. This morning she pulled me aside and told me a lot about this village."
Shirou set the towel aside and picked up the instant coffee to brew a cup each for Texas and Sora.
Though drinking coffee black was a bit bitter, fresh milk was hard to come by, so they just had to make do.
"Thanks."
Taking a sip of the coffee, the bitter taste made Texas much more alert.
"Muw..."
Sora, however, seemed a bit unable to handle this kind of bitterness, but upholding the spirit of not wasting, Sora still drank the coffee down.
"Oh right, Madam Dalia seems to have a letter she wants us to deliver back."
Seeing that Sora had finished drinking, Shirou silently stuffed the sugar packets back into his luggage, opened up a new topic, and picked up the letter nearby to hand to Texas.
"Deliver a letter? I understand."
Putting down her coffee, Texas briefly checked the letter and tucked it into her luggage.
The original job was to deliver the letter and then bring the recipient back. If the person was unwilling, she was to ask for a reply letter. Looking at the letter in her hand, Texas understood that the other party apparently had no intention of leaving.
Still, she wouldn't try to persuade her. Their job was to accurately deliver letters, items, and messages; as for how the parties involved made their choices, that was their own business, and Penguin Logistics wouldn't pry.
However, if someone laid a hand on them, that would be another story.
"Phew... I wonder if we'll be able to head back today."
Sora said after the bitterness subsided. It was simply too cold here, and she couldn't quite stand it.
"Probably difficult. I took a look just now, and the weather still seems a bit bad."
This time Shirou poured a cup of hot water for Sora. Of course, the water was brought by Penguin Logistics themselves, heated slightly in a kettle.
The cup and kettle were items Shirou had projected, though both Sora and Texas assumed Shirou had borrowed them from Dalia.
However, the other party's household only had one set of teaware, and Dalia originally planned to borrow from another family until Shirou pretended to pull a tea set out of his luggage, making her give up that idea.
Shirou probably wouldn't take this tea set with him and would just leave it here. As long as it was used normally, there wouldn't be any problems.
"Well, nothing to be done then."
Hearing what Shirou said, Sora gave up struggling as well, pulling her legs into her coat too. Although it was a bit of a stretch, her figure was rather slim, so she still managed to fit inside.
Sora sat in the chair, hugging her tucked-in legs, her two small sock-clad feet dangling and swinging outside.
While this was somewhat warmer, the drawback was that she could only sit in the chair in a single fixed posture.
Fortunately, Shirou always helped her handle her things, so this drawback didn't matter.
Sora quite liked such leisurely moments of relaxation, provided the weather could be just a little warmer.
"Is there anything special about this village?"
Texas had felt that something was a bit off about this village since yesterday, and now knowing that Shirou had obtained some information from the locals, she wanted to find out more.
"Well... I remember there's a mountain forest to the north of the village. There are a lot of wild animals inside that occasionally harass the village, but three months ago, after an organization called the Reunion Movement stationed themselves there, the problem with wild animals harassing the village was solved. Now, the village and the Reunion Movement have a cooperative relationship of sorts."
Shirou thought back to their chat that morning and briefly summarized it.
That morning, Madam Dalia had told Shirou a lot about the Reunion Movement. Madam Dalia's initial reaction had made Shirou think the Reunion Movement was some kind of evil organization feared by the villagers, but... this was it?
They helped defend the borders of the mountain forest and the village, and any excess edible animals were shared with the villagers. They got along very harmoniously with the villagers, basically maintaining a relationship of mutual aid.
There seemed to be some infected creatures in the mountain forest, which was the real trouble for the villagers. Quite a few people had been attacked by infected creatures and turned into Infected; thanks to the Reunion Movement, they were able to live relatively stable lives now.
"The Reunion Movement?"
Regarding this unfamiliar term, Texas fell into thought.
Before you continue