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Suspicions of Moving On
“Sorry for the trouble, but can I exchange my cooking duty scheduled two days from now for today’s, Master?”
Harukara said such a thing this morning.
The festival came to a close, and things started to finally calm down around here.
“That would be fine, but for what reason?”
“Oh, I’m going to Furata’s neighboring town, Nasukute.”
Nasukute Town was just a one week’s walk from Furata Village. I also went there on occasion, but scarcely so. It’s too far away for routine shopping, and it doesn’t have all that much to offer in terms of goods and services, since it’s so small a town.
Frankly speaking, it was an unappealing place to visit. It felt like a longer route from home compared to Furata Village.
Well, I wouldn’t have any problems with going there if only it wasn’t so far away.
“But, why exactly are you going there?”
“Just going to inspect the place. Anyway, time for me to go water the flowers~”
Harukara left it at that, already gone from her seat.
It became hard to ask what the inspection was for…
The following day, during lunch break..
Harukara was flipping through some papers for whatever reason.
“That seems about right~ I want this lot size~ No, rather, I guess a larger size would be better~ Oh, but I should probably negotiate with the real estate agent before deciding~”
I was hearing her talk about that sort of thing.
Eh, real estate? You’re buying land and buildings?
Harukara wants to move out and buy her own home?!
I never saw this coming, but I did openly treat Harukara as if she were a joke character. That being said, it probably isn’t fun to be on the receiving end of it.
Harukara was originally an established, working adult, and proved to be quite the success in business. Furthermore, she’s an excellent apothecary. It shouldn’t be surprising that a person such as her would leave after receiving these rough treatments.
I really shouldn’t have been making light of her skills as an apothecary…  Some aspects of my life are a mess, which is what lead me to finding faults in Harukara’s work.
What should I do?
Should I try telling her, ‘don’t leave’?
But she didn’t say a single word about actually leaving, so wouldn’t it be weird if I brought it up first?
Also, what an adult decides for their future is their own choice. It’s completely different from a child going into college and commuting from home.
一While my head was swarmed with worrying and distracting thoughts, Harukara went somewhere.
“Calm down, calm down… It doesn’t seem like she’s made a firm decision on it yet. Besides, it might just be some sort of misunderstanding on my part.”
The paper that Harukara left on the table had a complete list of the real estate information of Nasukute.
Even some of it has been highlighted in red.
“Wow! She’s serious!”
Just then, Leica came in looking flustered. She was looking around restlessly.
“Um, Azusa-sama, could I have.. a bit of your time?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“I can’t be too sure of it yet, but isn’t Harukara-san planning to move from here? If you know anything of this, please tell me..”
“You think so too?!”
I thought this was a conversation not meant to be had here, so I moved it to my room.
“Why, I did actually think that was the case ―― Just the other day, Haruka entered the room to prepare some medicine, and during it, she said something about, ‘I’ll obtain an even wider work area in the next location.’”
“Let’s see.… As expected, she really is thinking about leaving us..”
She’s a full-fledged adult, so she likely saw no need to inform me about this.
Rather than saying I was like a master to her, there were some peculiarities about our relationship.
“I briefly investigated Nasukute Town, and found out the land there is fairly cheap. There’s also a thick and lush forest by the place, a prime location for harvesting regents. Harukara is clearly aware of it, and planning to leave here for a place like that, so..”
For a while, me and Leica sank into silence.
“Should I.. tell her not to leave?”
I didn’t know what to do, so I asked Leica.
“I think whatever choice you make is the right one. It should be decided by Azusa-sama herself. However――Harukara-san will have the final say in it. I thought we were like a family living together, but since we are not a real family…”
It’s like that.
Harukara didn’t feel the need to discuss this with us. In other words, there’s no use in worrying about it; her intention looked to be strong.
“Yes, thanks, Leica. I found the answer within me.”
I displayed a lonesome looking smile.
“So, that answer is.. ?”
“Wait here for a bit. Let me get my daughters.”
I brought Farufa and Sharusha, who were reading some difficult books in my room.
“Umm, first of all, promise me you won’t talk to Harukara about this. Okay?”
“Yes!” “Yea.”
I obtained my daughters’ agreement.
I told them about how Harukara was planning to leave this house.
“Eeh!? We’ll lose big sis Harukara?!”
Farufa seemed like she was about to cry.
“Farufa, quiet down. Unfortunately, yes, it’s very likely that she will. She’s even decided on the new location for her new home.”
“Sharusha thought that as well. Harukara was saying things like, “I’ll be getting a fresh start soon.””
As I suspected, she wants to have a fresh start in a new place.
If that is actually the case, what we’re able to do here is limited. But we should still do all that we can.
“Everyone, this is, in the end, something that Harukara decided for her own happiness, so I think we shouldn’t try to bug her about this. However, even if she is to leave soon, we can still create some pleasant memories about her parting, right?”
Farufa nodded in agreement.
“So tomorrow night, let’s hold a grand surprise farewell party!”
“By the way, why does it have to be tomorrow night?”
Leica, that’s a good question.
“Harukara is going to the city’s real estate agent the day after tomorrow. If we manage to sway her heart with our plan, she might reconsider staying.”
While it is a ‘farewell party’, it might as well be our last chance to persuade her into not leaving.