A few days later...
"Extra, extra! Word is the Fire and Theft Watch and both magistrates' offices teamed up and took down one of Mitsunobu's monstrous cronies!"
The kawaraban seller's boisterous voice rang out through the street.
Yasutaka watched it all from a distance, or rather, with the distant, glazed-over eyes of a man who'd given up on life.
"Nice work out there, Taa-chan! ♪"
Mani fussed over him happily, nursing him with cheerful little bustling motions.
After all that, Mani, fully healed by her own restorative prayers, had shown up at the badly wounded Yasutaka's side and marched him straight off to an inn.
Wounds and all, he'd been trussed up head to toe in hemp rope.
Yasutaka let out a sigh and grumbled.
"Hey, um... could you at least heal my wounds? You can do that with your prayers, right?"
"No way. You'd just run off the second you were healed."
She'd read him like a book.
Mani, positively giddy, had already started packing for the trip home.
"I finally get to go home with Taa-chan! The second we're back, it's straight to the wedding and straight to baby-making! ♪ So how many kids do you want?"
"Uh... well..."
"I want thirty-six! ♪"
"That's way too many, no matter how you slice it!"
Yasutaka snapped back, exasperated by her cheerful declaration.
Mani tilted her head, genuinely puzzled.
"Whaat? Here I was hoping for at least a hundred..."
"No, that's not happening unless we're still at it when we're a hundred."
"Well, if we just make about five at a time..."
"You'll kill me! I'll seriously die!"
"Taa-chan... you're worried about me..."
"That's not what I meant!"
Not a single comeback landed on this hopelessly oblivious princess.
Utterly spent, Yasutaka could only sigh.
"Look, could you at least let my landlord know I'm—"
"Already handled it. I gave notice on your place already. Mōha said he was moving somewhere else too, so the timing worked out great."
"You're kidding..."
Yasutaka felt a pang of sorrow, thinking of how easily he'd been parted from the comrade he'd worked alongside all this time.
"Um... could you at least tell Lord Heizō that—"
"Oh, I already spoke to Lord Heizō myself. He said, 'I had no idea you had such a beautiful wife waiting for you!' ♪ Eek! ♪ How embarrassing! ♪"
"Wait! What exactly did you introduce me as?!"
Yasutaka froze, realizing every last one of his escape routes was being methodically filled in.
(Wh-what am I gonna do...)
With no way out left, all he wanted to do was clutch his head and groan.
That night...
"Tomorrow's finally the day we go home together! ♪"
She bustled about happily, putting the finishing touches on their travel preparations.
Yasutaka grumbled, his face a mask of misery.
"Um... I can't exactly move like this, so..."
"Don't worry, I already arranged for a horse! ♪ I'll load you right up! ♪"
It seemed he was to be shipped home strapped across a horse like a sack of cargo.
Gloom settled over Yasutaka, but Mani, blissfully happy, lay down beside him and leaned her weight against him.
"Hee hee hee! ♪"
"What now..."
"I'm just so happy, thinking about how we get to be together forever from now on..."
"...We've been together this whole time, haven't we?"
"...That's exactly why it was so lonely, you know?"
Her expression suddenly turned sorrowful.
"They told me once I finished my miko training, we'd have the wedding, so I threw myself into it with everything I had. I pushed myself to finish in just three years, so I could come home even a little sooner... and then... Taa-chan was gone by the time I got back... and I..."
Nuzzle, nuzzle...
Mani rubbed her cheek against him, over and over.
"Taa-chan... please don't go anywhere ever again..."
"..."
Hearing that left Yasutaka at a loss.
(It's not that I dislike her... if anything, I actually like her...)
A feeling he couldn't quite put into words welled up in him.
And then...
"Zzz..."
She'd simply fallen fast asleep.
"Mani? What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
He asked, sensing something was off, and just then the paper door slid open with a clatter.
"Looks like she's out cold..."
Granny Moon said, stepping into the room.
"Hey, old woman. What are you—"
"You want to play around a bit more, don't you?"
She said, already working the ropes loose.
Snip, snip, went the scissors, deftly cutting through the cords.
"The princess is happy enough as she is, I reckon. But you, you want to live a bit more freely, don't you?"
"Well... yeah..."
He admitted, a little uncomfortable but honest about it.
"Come to think of it, we've put you through a lot. The princess is just made that way, can't bear to be apart from you even a moment, so there was never anyone who could take your place... You've been at her side since the day she was born, after all."
"..."
Yasutaka's face soured at her words.
It wasn't as though he could dislike a beauty who'd stayed so devoted to him for so long.
As for her character, she doted on him endlessly. He had no real complaints there.
It was just that being together every waking moment, day and night, wore a man down.
And since the princess outranked him, it was always Yasutaka who had to yield.
Going through something like this, of course it wore on him.
Thanks to Granny Moon's snipping scissors, Yasutaka was finally free.
He tried to stand, but...
"Ow, ow, ow..."
His wounds hadn't fully healed, and he rose unsteadily, pain shooting through him.
He hadn't walked in nearly a week, and his legs barely obeyed him.
"Get yourself to Edo Station, quick. Mōha's waiting for you there."
"Mōha is?"
"That's right. I left the escape arrangements to him, so even I don't know where you're headed. I'll smooth things over with the princess, so get moving while you still can."
"Thanks! Granny Moon!"
He turned to make his escape, but then, on sudden impulse, he leaned in and whispered softly into Mani's ear.
"I'll come back, I promise. Just let me stay free a little while longer."
With that, Yasutaka slipped out of the inn and into the night.