"Then, excuse us. We'll be heading back."
At the front door of the Japanese-style wooden house, Hirohiko and Chiba watched the dozen or so people ahead wave goodbye. They both raised their hands and gave a small wave in return.
"Be careful on the way."
Then they spoke in unison.
"I never expected Lord Chiba to be such an easygoing person!"
"Yeah, you really can't tell that he's any different from us."
"Exactly, exactly."
Then, amid a round of chatter, the two watched them leave.
"Let's continue our previous topic."
After watching those people disappear from sight, Hirohiko turned to Chiba and spoke.
Then he turned around and went back inside.
"Ah."
Chiba nodded in response. After one last look in the direction those people had left, he followed Hirohiko back into the house.
It seemed Hirohiko had gathered quite a few people worth associating with around him as well.
That thought could not help flashing through his mind.
After buying tea, food, and other daily necessities, Chiba did not return to the kitchen when he came back to the wooden house. Instead, under everyone's enthusiastic insistence, he sat down with them.
Although this was Hirohiko's home ground, aside from people relatively familiar with him like Mito Kiko, the others were also quite interested in Chiba.
And perhaps because Mito Kiko had said something else about him, many people—especially the younger ones—were full of curiosity about him. They asked all sorts of questions, probing indirectly. Chiba was not especially talkative, but under their barrage of questions, he gradually became acquainted with them.
Having seen all kinds of shameless, hateful faces in his previous life, as well as hypocrites who acted one way to someone's face and another behind their backs, Chiba could tell that every one of these people had