106 - The Residence Without Leonardo
Around the time the embroidery on one shirt's cuffs was completed, the season came for Leonardo to head east to Mandez Fortress for the Divine King Festival. Mandez Fortress wasn't as large as the city of Grenore, but it seemed a town had grown up around the fortress as well. As Commander, Leonardo was given a residence there just like at Grenore Fortress, and apparently he didn't need to prepare clothes or other items for the stay. It was said that all daily necessities were already prepared at that residence for the once-every-four-years long-term stay. Of course, a residence manager was also always stationed there. Everything was truly arranged so that Leonardo could just show up with nothing but himself.
"...You really won't come with me?"
"You hired Hermine-sensei to stay home with me, Leonyaldo-san deshu?"
Right when it was finally time to depart for Mandez Fortress, Leonardo made a last-ditch effort. Even though I'd been saying since summer that I wouldn't go on the trip, he just wouldn't give up.
...Well, I did think about going along for a bit, you know?
Staying home at the residence, Hermine would teach me all sorts of things as my tutor, Kokumaro was here, Tabitha and Bart were here too. Everything was prepared so thoughtfully that I wouldn't feel lonely staying behind. With everything arranged this thoroughly, it'd be embarrassing to say I couldn't stay home. Besides, I was different from Leonardo, whose long-term stay was prepared in advance. If I decided to tag along unexpectedly, they'd need to prepare food, clothes, and other things. If I really wanted to go, I should have contacted the Mandez residence at least a month ahead.
"I can stay home properly mashu, so please go do your work with peace of mind, Leonyaldo-san."
Saying that, I couldn't reach his back, so I pushed at Leonardo's waist. At the sight of Leonardo being sent off to work by his little sister (me), the Black Knight who'd come to pick him up, wearing a black uniform with orange trim, gave a wry smile. Since Leonardo's travel had the title of Commander, they could have prepared a carriage, but Leonardo seemed to have chosen a horse, prioritizing speed over travel comfort, just to delay his departure and spend more time with me. It seemed he was using the time gained from horseback to push back his departure.
I saw him off as he kept looking back repeatedly while heading toward Mandez Fortress, and once he was out of sight, I went back inside the residence. Since Leonardo kept turning around endlessly, I'd gotten a bit cold from keeping him company.
...Time to warm up by the fireplace quick.
I sat the slightly cute-ified ugly cat cushion under my butt and stationed myself in front of the fireplace. Hermine's lessons were in the afternoon, so I still had free time. I could leisurely work on the embroidery for the second shirt.
The residence without Leonardo wasn't much different from usual. Since Alfred had brought the original research materials of the saint Yuuta Hiraga in autumn, Leonardo had always been at the residence guarding them, but before that, his being at the residence was actually the rarer occurrence. It was just returning to life before Alfred came. And it was also the kind of life where he'd come back once the transcription work was done.
...About the only change is that Alf-san started staying over instead of Leonardo-san?
Since Leonardo, who had been staying at the residence to guard the originals, was now absent, Alf had begun lodging at the residence as a handoff of guard duty. Of course I couldn't do something like crawl into Alf's bed since he didn't act like a big brother, but our relationship was about as long as with Leonardo, and I trusted him too. So thankfully, I didn't have to feel all that lonely with Leonardo gone.
...I hope this homesickness gets completely cured too!
Waking up in the morning, watching Tabitha prepare breakfast, eating breakfast. Playing with the puppy after meals, embroidering when I got bored, lessons with Hermine in the afternoon. After lessons, Hermine would play board games with me, and when I got bored of that, I'd embroider or read again. Eating dinner, then playing with Kokumaro until I got sleepy, or embroidering and playing again, saying goodnight to Bart on night patrol, and going to sleep. What a truly relaxed life.
...Thanks to that, the embroidery I'd planned to work on all winter looks like it'll be done soon.
For the first shirt I did a simple one-point embroidery, for the second I changed it up with a single deep crimson color going all the way around the cuffs, and for the third I was thinking of sewing something a bit more elaborate. Mainly for the purpose of dragging out the embroidery work.
...What do I do. Embroidery is surprisingly fun, and I don't feel bored, but it looks like it'll be finished too quickly.
To avoid finishing the embroidery, I tried extending my time playing Saik with Hermine. At first I wondered what the point was in setting up pieces according to game records, but as I set up more and more records, I started to see something like the flow of the game. You might call it beginning to understand the theory. Alf, who learned Reversi quickly, seemed to be good at Saik too, and showed me matches evenly matched with Hermine. When I peeked at their games, sometimes I'd end up getting a lesson myself, so maybe I shouldn't peek too much. Hermine's lectures mainly covered everything from how pieces move to strategy and commentary on past match records, but Alf's lectures came with explanations tied to actual military tactics, so they were easy to understand and interesting. When I said, "It's weird for a battle to have the king himself go out onto a plain with both armies having equal forces," like I'd told Hermine, Alf actually agreed with me. When I got carried away and talked about terrain effects, critical hits, and dodging attacks, I got the feeling he started thinking about improving the Saik board. He might develop a more strategic version of Saik that introduces dice at this rate.
Around the time I got used to Alf staying at the residence, a wooden box was delivered from the capital. When the Silver Knights checked its contents, it seemed to be a letter addressed to me and a box stuffed full of ginger.
"Umm?"
The sender was Alfred. Alfred was as boisterous as a typhoon, but his consideration for a little girl (me) was excellent. He'd written a letter I could read on my own, using simple words and short sentences.
As for the content, it seemed to be a thank-you letter about his stay in autumn. Praise for how I'd taken care of him during his stay was concise, while praise for the tatsuta-age filled most of the page.
"He really liked the tatsuta-age, deshu ne."
...Come to think of it, he did have a record of eating the whole thing by himself before, Alfred-sama.
At a loss for how to handle the letter filled with massive amounts of ginger and praise for tatsuta-age, I consulted Alf. Consult Alf about anything concerning Alfred. I'd learned during Alfred's short stay that this was the most reliable approach and would resolve things faster than worrying about it on my own.
When I took the letter to the guest room where Alf was staying to consult him, he told me Alfred's intention was probably to have me send the tatsuta-age recipe. As for the large amount of ginger, it was probably because Alfred remembered me saying "it's just a taste test" on the first day he visited the fortress lord's residence. Since it was still being improved, send the finished recipe once I was satisfied with the result. It was like an advance investment for that purpose.
...Should I try making it again after all this time?
Improving tatsuta-age was a truly delicious task. The residence now had plenty of stomachs, so if I made several types of sauce in different portions, the frying itself could be done all at once. Even if I ended up with a huge amount of tatsuta-age, there were mouths to eat it.
...And as a bonus, I also tried a sweet-spicy sauce packed with garlic!
The tatsuta-age was generally well-received, but the Silver Knights seemed to particularly like the sweet-spicy sauce with garlic. Tatsuta-age was delicious even with mirin, but it still felt more right without it.
To put the conclusion simply, I couldn't create a finalized recipe like Alfred wanted. Everyone's taste preferences were all over the place. Some knights preferred it with mirin, others even said garlic was better than ginger.
...Maybe I'll write the basic recipe without mirin, and then write several variation suggestions?
Whether adding mirin or leaving it out, tatsuta-age needs soy sauce. For now, soy sauce could only be imported from Napaji. I thought a little about how if Alfred, being royalty, happened to get hooked on Napaji seasonings, a Napaji boom might happen in the capital, increasing imports and making things a bit cheaper to buy. Of course, I didn't actually think it would happen. I just thought it'd be nice if it did, that's all.
Unable to say that the recipient was a prince, I wrote the recipe and thanks for the ginger under Hermine's supervision. Of course, I paid meticulous attention to writing in the beautiful, ladylike handwriting Hermine had taught me. It felt more like drawing than writing, similar to transcription work.
In the end, I had Alf check it too, then sealed it. I didn't know how to send letters to royalty, so I decided to leave it to Alf. If I sent the letter through Alf, even if there were some mistakes, Alfred would smoothly gloss over them. On the sole basis that it had passed through Alf's hands.
"...Tina, you're good at embroidery, right?"
"Embroidery is fun and I like it deshu yo."
What about it? I asked back, looking at Alf who was staring intently at the sealed letter. Alf had been at the residence the whole time too, so he knew I was embroidering the sleeves of Leonardo's shirts, and he'd seen them too.
"What if you sent some embroidery to Aurelia?"
"That's a great idea deshu ne!"
Hermine had praised me for being good at embroidery. Good enough to become a seamstress right now, she said. If that was the case, then even if I gave embroidery as a gift, I could make something at a level that wouldn't embarrass the recipient. And more than anything, even after the third shirt was done, I now had something new to make. The best part was that I didn't have to deliberately cut down on embroidery time by playing Saik or improving recipes.
It was decided that Alf would pay for the gift for Aurelia. Since Aurelia wouldn't accept gifts from Alf straightforwardly, he said he could at least cover the material costs. I was happy to be able to embroider. Alf was happy to be able to give a gift to Aurelia. It was a truly wonderful proposal with mutual benefits.
There was just one thing I was worried about.
"You don't think they won't be able to deliver it to Aurelia-san properly, like with the letter before deshu ka ne?"
I worried that, like with the previous letter, it might get swapped out for something completely different under the guise of censorship at the Sedovara Church. But Alf nodded with a reassuring smile.
"It'll be fine. I've already thought of countermeasures against the Sedovara Church, so you can leave it to me."
This is the third short chapter in a row, but it's just because it was a good stopping point. Probably. If the next chapter is Leonardo's side story, he'd surely be in a serious dona dona state. And that's not the plan. The next chapter is planned to be about the Divine King Festival.
I'll fix typos and errors another time. I'll skip the update on the 22nd.
Fixed the typos and errors I found.