Chapter 32: Preparing for Departure

After my question, Rowena hesitated for a moment.

Then, as if she had made up her mind, she firmly grabbed a lock of her golden hair and held it up for me to see.

At the same time, with her other hand, she pointed at my head.

“My… head?”

Confused, I muttered.

Rowena grabbed my hand with her small one and began pulling me along.

With that determined tug, I had no choice but to follow her, still puzzled.

The place Rowena led me to was a small barbershop tucked away in a corner of the city.

Only then did I finally understand what she meant.

I unconsciously reached up and touched my own head.

‘Come to think of it… my hair really has gotten long.’

I hadn’t cut it even once since leaving the capital.

Back when I was a guard, I kept it trimmed regularly, but now it had grown down to my shoulders, and I couldn’t even remember the last time I had it cut.

In the end, the two of us ended up sitting side by side in the barber’s chairs.

The cheerful shop owner skillfully began cutting our hair.

My hair, which had grown down to my shoulders, was trimmed neatly to the nape of my neck, and as usual I tied it together behind my head.

Rowena’s uneven ends were trimmed neatly, leaving her with a charming hairstyle that reached her shoulders.

When she saw her new hairstyle in the mirror, she looked extremely happy, smiling with clear satisfaction.

After leaving the barbershop, I took Rowena to a street lined with stalls.

After browsing a few of them, I picked up a simple hair accessory.

It was a wooden hairpin carved with a delicate leaf pattern.

“How about this?”

When I showed it to Rowena, her eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly again and again.

I paid for it and fastened it into her hair right there.

The small hairpin looked perfect against her golden hair.

Rowena seemed so delighted to have something decorating her hair that she spun around happily on the spot.

“Well, since we’ve gotten our hair cut and all…”

I took Rowena’s hand and headed toward the same bathhouse we had visited when we first arrived in the city.

Just like before, we rented a private bath.

Standing before the steaming bath, I first washed Rowena’s hair.

Her fine, soft golden hair slipped through my fingers as I gently combed through it while washing.

Wet with hot water, her hair looked like threads of melted gold.

When it came time to wash her body, Rowena no longer needed my help.

Compared to the first time we bathed at the roadside inn, she had become much more capable of taking care of herself.

While I was washing myself, Rowena, who had already finished, timidly came behind me and began washing my back with her small hands.

The sensation of her little hands felt strangely ticklish.

After that, we both soaked in the bath, easing our fatigue before the journey.

Rowena’s body floating in the water was still that of a child, without any curves.

But the painfully thin appearance she had when I first saved her in the forest was completely gone.

‘…She’s really become healthy again.’

While I was thinking that, I noticed Rowena staring blankly, her cheeks flushed.

Perhaps the water was a bit too hot today.

“Rowena, are you getting dizzy? Let’s get out soon.”

When I said that, she nodded quietly.

After leaving the bathhouse, we walked back to the inn through the cool night air.

“Starting tomorrow, there will probably be plenty of days when we can’t take baths for a while. You’ll be alright with that?”

“And the food will probably go back to hard bread again.”

“And we’ll have to eat the sweets we bought little by little.”

As I talked one-sidedly like that, Rowena nodded firmly and squeezed my hand tightly.

That night, we shared one last dinner with the members of Black Dagger in the inn’s dining hall.

“Be careful. Along the road past Blackleaf Forest, packs of Sleep Wolves show up. They’re especially active at night, so choose your campsites carefully.”

“On the north side of the forest there’s a place where Moonlight Grass grows naturally. It glows faintly at night, so if you find some, it’s good to pick a little. It works well for treating wounds.”

“In winter, Norest gets buried in snow so deep the roads disappear. Leaving now is definitely the right choice.”

“And when you reach Vaide, you absolutely have to try the steak at the Earth’s Blessing Inn! It’s famous for being incredible!”

Zack seemed a little dejected since Rowena was still scared of him.

Gordon, Pip, Fiona, and Lyra.

Each of them generously shared information that would help us on our journey ahead.

Eventually, the farewell gathering came to an end.

Back in our room, I checked our luggage one final time.

Nothing had been forgotten.

Rowena was about to crawl into bed while still wearing the hairpin she had just gotten.

“Rowena, take that off before you sleep. It would be bad if it broke.”

When I said that, she touched the hairpin reluctantly, but nodded obediently and removed it, carefully placing it in a small box by her pillow.

Tomorrow we would finally depart.

We decided to go to sleep early.