I Own A Brothel In Another World (Ch. 1-196)

Chapter 140 - Through the Eyes of Another: The Tactician's Typical Day

A certain distance from Evaneheim on the side of a travelling path...

I take a deep breath while stretching myself inside my sleeping bag. A quick yawn escapes my throat as I open my eyes and look around. Judging by the faint trace of light making it through the thin material of my tent, I'm pretty sure that it's a very early hour, barely after dawn or somewhere close, most likely. As usual, my body knows its routine well and wakes up by itself at the proper time.

Warming my shoulders as I sit up, I reach to the side and grab my glasses, tossing them onto my nose and hooking the curved ends behind my ears. I give my head a little shake to check if they are still working and they are, as amusing and amazing as it is.

Usually, simple glasses such as these would be a pain in very active environments and would either require a durable string attached to the temple tips or be completely replaced by contact lenses. Thankfully, people of this world are very resourceful with their magic and various interesting minerals so I don't really have to worry about it.

And, with the help of the King's artificers, they had quickly fixed me an almost exact same pair as my normal ones but with an extremely neat feature. The nose pads are made of some weird, reactive, adhesive metal, which when supplied with mana, firmly attaches to almost any surface, and yes, that includes the skin.

Therefore, no matter how much I shake my head, my glasses remain on my face like it's their life mission. Honestly, I don't even need the temples to go over my ears and could literally wear them without like those round spectacles often shown in fancy steampunk movies and TV shows. But, that feels a little weird with the normal glasses so I opted in to keep the entire package.

Nevertheless, it is time to get up and follow the schedule. I climb out of my sleeping bag and quickly dress up, leaving my belts, pouches, and cape behind for now. The same goes for my bow and quiver, they remain hidden in my storage ring given to us by the King.

Giving the inside of the tent one more glance, I turn towards the closed entrance and part the curtains to peek outside. Just as I've guessed, the sky is just slowly getting illuminated by the rising sun. There's at least an hour or two before we get the true morning and the surrounding forest is still bathed in a somewhat shady, dim light.

Noticing the cracking of firewood, I turn my gaze to the small campfire slowly dying out after an entire night. A single figure sits next to it in a meditative position with their eyes closed and hands joined together. Even though their eyes are closed, I have no doubt that they are much more aware of our surroundings than even I am, considering their situation.

Since I've definitely been spotted already, I walk up to Shino without trying to hide my steps in hopes of not disturbing her concentration. She opens her amethyst eyes and glances up at me with a gentle smile.

"Good morning, Paul-san. You are up early. But, it's not like that's something new."

"Yeah. It's just the usual. Thanks for taking two shifts. Who would have expected Kamil to get food poisoning out of the blue? Even after Nat healed him up, he didn't look the best." I nod at her to return the greeting. "You can get back and catch some more sleep before everyone wakes up for us to depart. I'll keep an eye on the camp while warming up."

"Are you sure? You know that I wouldn't mind taking even the entire night by myself now and then, so this much doesn't really make that big of a difference."

"You still can enjoy a good rest even if you tire much slower after receiving Alastair's help. There's no need to stay here unless you really want to, of course," I answer while looking around.

"Alright. Thank you, Paul-san. Have fun with your exercises."

I extend my hand to her and Shino gets up after grabbing it. She dusts off her clothes, gives me a nice smile, and heads towards her tent, soon disappearing behind the parted sheets. Taking a deep breath of fresh, morning air, I move past the campfire and start stretching, making sure to switch my position after each rep to keep my eyes on every direction just in case.