116 - Pudding and Discussion of the Return
A few days later, the knight who had gone to Grenore as an express messenger returned to Mandez. It seemed he had loaded the horse with as much luggage as it could carry, and I felt a bit sorry for the horse. All the luggage brought was for me. He must have been considerate, thinking I might be inconvenienced by the sudden move. I understand that, but...
...More clothes again.
Casual clothes, undergarments, and a thick coat. Under normal circumstances, these are all very welcome deliveries.
...I never expected that even I would have more than enough clothes already waiting for me at the Mandez residence.
Since they had taken the trouble to prepare them, lately I had been burning with a strange sense of mission to wear every single piece at least once during my stay. To be specific, I have been changing clothes between morning and afternoon.
...I do feel like I am being terribly wasteful and extravagant, you know?
They were prepared out of kindness, so I did not want them to go completely to waste. That was my reasoning, but with the clothes delivered this time, I feel it has become difficult to accept the kindness so readily.
...I really do not want to change clothes three times a day.
As I was inwardly at a loss while checking the delivered luggage, I found a complete set of embroidery tools. I had been consulting Hermine about a design to embroider on a handkerchief to give to Aurelia, and she had written down several book titles containing sketches, saying that as for recommended flowers and their meanings, if it was the Mandez Fortress Lord's residence, the study would likely have the same books as Grenore.
...Hermine-sensei, thank you. That makes me happiest.
Now I can do the embroidery I like, and it will kill time too. I will not have to keep Kalisa occupied as my playmate all day long.
"Young Miss Tina really enjoys embroidery, does she not."
"I like the sense of achiewment fwom seeing it turn into a pictuah widdle by widdle, deshu."
When I showed Alisa Hermine's note and asked her to find the book, she brought me an additional book as well. Rather than a book, it was more of a collection of embroidery patterns. The pages were not paper but were made of cloth in various materials, colors, and thicknesses, and each one had delicate embroidery on it.
"What is this wonderful book, deshu."
It was such a lovely book that I could only think of it as a treasure. If I learned everything in this one book, the range of my embroidery would surely expand even further.
"It is a sample book made by a tailor. It contains fabric samples and embroidery patterns."
Apparently it is delivered to the residence in advance so that the lord can more easily imagine things when ordering clothes. There seem to be as many sample books as there were tailors favored by successive lords.
"That is amazing. There are sample books from quite old eras too..."
Since I was extraordinarily interested, I asked if there were more, and several sample books were brought out not from the study but from the archives. The oldest one had embroidery dating back fifty years. The slightly sun-faded cloth gave a sense of age, but perhaps because they had been kept in book form, the pages that had not been exposed to the sun retained their vivid colors from when they were made.
...Right, of course. If it is a tailor's sample book, there would be all kinds of embroidery, would there not?
That was a blind spot. I had not been that interested in handicrafts in my previous life, so the very possibility of sample books existing had not even crossed my mind.
...Maybe I will ask to see them next time Leo goes to the tailor.
At any rate, for now I will immerse myself in this new book. Holding the sample book that Alisa had found for me with great care, I promptly moved to the room with the fireplace.
Since I became absorbed in embroidery, Kalisa, freed from babysitting me, seemed to have started helping Iridal with his paperwork. I had thought it was Iridal's paperwork, but to be precise, it was Leonardo's work. It seemed that because the lord's absence had been so long, Iridal was handling Leonardo's work as the lord of the residence in his stead. According to Iridal's explanation, at the other fortresses as well, the servants should be handling things in a distributed manner.
...As I thought, Leo being the lord of four fortresses by himself is a problem.
The residences meant for fortress lords having only servants living in them ordinarily also feels wasteful. At the very least, while Leonardo is commander, they should treat the title of 'Commander' as an honorary position and have the vice-commander who actually does the commander's work live in the residence as the fortress lord. Even in terms of managing the residence and when urgent approvals are needed, having power concentrated in Leonardo, who normally is not at the fortress, feels quite inefficient.
...Well, this is not something for a child like me to think about.
The deficiencies arising from the lord's absence are surely obvious even to people other than me. It is not something for me to point out now.
When I peeked to see what kind of work Iridal and the others were doing, it seemed to be bookkeeping related to the residence's finances. I thought I could handle simple calculations, so I asked to be taught the method and tried my hand at it. Of course, since it was the request of a child whose abilities were unknown, they could not let me help with the real work. I just calculated the same things that Iridal and Kalisa had calculated alongside them, merely pretending to work.
"You are calculating correctly."
"...mashu. Young Miss, you are good at calculations?"
Iridal and Kalisa tilted their heads, comparing the calculation results with the documents. I had only intended to calculate as I was taught, but was it really that surprising?
...For my part, I was more surprised by Kalisa's calculation speed, since she had been nothing but my playmate until now.
The term "human calculator" fit her perfectly. And if I may add, Iridal was also a human calculator. Since I had heard that Iridal raised the three sisters, Kalisa's fast calculation was likely due to her inherent talent and Iridal's education.
Having established that I could do calculations, I seemed to have earned a certain degree of trust, and they began entrusting me with some documents. For verification calculations, it would be fine to leave them to me, apparently.
When Leonardo came home in the evening, he was surprised to see me continuing to calculate at the desk. For my part, I was happy that there was something I could help with, but Leonardo seemed to feel differently. When I asked what there was to be surprised about, it turned out Leonardo had thought I was bad at calculations.
"Tina, are you not bad at calculations?"
"I am neither bad nor good at them deshu. Why did you think that, deshu?"
"You never said anything about calculations, did you? I thought you were intentionally not talking about them..."
Pointed out, I thought about it for a moment. It was true that I had prioritized learning to read and write and had only practiced letters at the residence. As for studying calculations, I had only done a few problems that Nils gave me at the Menhishumi Church.
"...It is just that I can do calculations, so there is no need for me to learn them even at home, deshu?"
When I answered as I honestly thought, Leonardo made a puzzled face. Judging by this reaction, perhaps Leonardo was bad at calculations. Or at least, he might have been bad at them when he was around my age.
"I do need to study mathematics like the scholars on the third floor of the church do, but for plain calculations, I think I am fine, deshu."
The scholars on the third floor of the Menhishumi Church researched various things, including history and ancient languages. I had heard from Nils that among them were fields of study close to the mathematics I had learned in my previous life. They were the kind of disciplines that ordinary people find hard to understand, the sort that people say "what we learned in school is useless" about. This knowledge is actually useful in various fields like architecture, but since there are overwhelmingly few people who can apply it, it tends to be undervalued. Even at the Menhishumi Church, it was treated as a classroom that only accepted those who had the motivation to learn.
"...If Tina can do calculations, maybe we could have you help with paperwork at the residence when we return to Grenore..."
"Eh? There is something I can help with, deshu?"
If there was anything I could do, I wanted to help however I could. Ever since Leonardo took me in, I had only been cared for and had given nothing back. Even something small, if I could help, would make me happy. When I raised both hands to express my joy, Leonardo tilted his head in puzzlement. He seemed genuinely perplexed that a little girl would be happy to be made to do calculation work.
...It is not being made to do it! It is that there is something I can help with!
There is a big difference. I tried to argue this, but unfortunately, it seemed Leonardo did not understand. First he tilted his head to the right, and then he tilted it to the left.
Life in the city of Mandez passed slowly. Perhaps winter life is like this everywhere. In the village, if we were running low on firewood, we had to go to the mountains to gather it, but at the residence, it was different. There was no need to go collect firewood, and no need for me to cook.
Salisa's recreation of pudding was completed on the third try. The second attempt, with increased milk, was a bit too smooth and did not set, but the third try, with less milk, produced a pudding that held its shape even when turned out of the mold. When I lifted the plate and gently shook it, the pudding jiggled enticingly.
...I think that is plenty good enough, you know?
A perfectly respectable pudding was completed no matter how you looked at it, but Salisa's research spirit was not satisfied with just completing the pudding. After all, pudding was something you could make with just eggs, sugar, and milk. There was plenty of room for improvement and adding individuality.
...The way she can instantly turn an idea into reality is really impressive.
At least, it is a talent I do not have. While I was taste-testing the freshly made pudding, I wondered aloud if soaking sponge cake in alcohol and putting it in would make it tasty enough even for Leonardo to enjoy, and the next day she had made it. And when I wondered if using milk tea instead of milk would work, she turned that into reality right away too.
And today's snack was coffee pudding, originally proposed by Leonardo. Sitting side by side with Leonardo on the long sofa, I opened my mouth wide and ate the faintly brown pudding.
...It has a slight bitterness, and it is delicious.
Maybe the pudding with alcohol-soaked sponge cake from the other day would go well with coffee pudding too. As I thought such things and ate the coffee pudding with abandon, Leonardo brought up the topic of returning to Grenore.
"Eh? We can take Kalisa home with us, deshu?"
"Take her home...? No, Tina said it yourself. With the increased number of guests at the Grenore residence now, the burden on Bart and the others is too great."
"I did say that deshu. But is it really okay, deshu? If we take Kalisa away, Iridal's workload will increase, deshu yo."
Kalisa was supposed to be the main force behind Iridal's paperwork. She was incredibly fast at calculations. When I pointed this out, it seemed that while Kalisa was good at calculations, the other two were equally skilled as well. The three sisters had no differences in ability. Ordinarily, they handled tasks according to their individual preferences.
"...So that means Kalisa can also make delicious pudding, deshu?"
"That should be the case."
Wanting confirmation, I looked at Kalisa together with Leonardo. Kalisa, receiving gazes from both me and Leonardo at the same time, blushed slightly with embarrassment, then answered in a small voice, "I can make it." Apparently she could make not only the classic pudding but also the milk tea-flavored one and the coffee pudding that Salisa had been continuing to improve.
"I have decided to borrow Kalisa for at least a year, until Jasper's transcription work is finished."
"Only one year, deshu..."
"I received a consultation from Iridal about this..."
The three sisters, taken in by a fortress lord several generations ago, had been stationed at the residence their whole lives, so their perspective was extremely narrow. You could also say they did not know the world. According to Iridal, lending one of the sisters to a residence in a different city under the same lord would be a good opportunity for the three sisters to learn about the outside world. After a year, if more help was still needed, they would rotate with another sister, wanting all three to see a world beyond the Mandez residence.
"Kalisa being the first one, is that really okay, deshu?"
If you spent a little time with her, you would understand, but Kalisa was shy with strangers. Would it not be better to send one of the other sisters first and let her hear about their experiences? Even I thought so, so surely Iridal, who raised Kalisa, would naturally be aware of this as well.
"Kalisa is already used to Tina. It was decided that bringing her along to Grenore together with Tina would be less stressful for her than having her come alone a year from now."
"Is that really okay with you, Kalisa? Are you sure, deshu?"
When I asked, Kalisa, though looking a bit anxious, nodded clearly. She said traveling with us would be more reassuring than making the carriage journey alone a year later.
"Let me explain the return trip a little."
According to Leonardo's explanation, they would be using a carriage for the return. If it were just Leonardo and his escort moving, they could have traveled by horse like before, but since I had come to Mandez unexpectedly, it seemed they would return by carriage. Even if it was only a few days, a winter journey on horseback was too much for a child like me. And while the carriage journey would be somewhat more comfortable than riding horseback alone, the number of days would increase. There were roads where horses could pass but carriages could not.
"Can we make it back by the end of winter? Leo, would you not prefer horses, deshu?"
"I have Tina with me, so there is no need to rush back."
"Yes yes, you are totally whipped for your little sister, deshu ne."
Putting that aside, I lightly brushed it off and urged him to continue. Since he was going out of his way to explain the itinerary, there must be something more than just the mode of transport.
"Since I have Tina with me, I would really like to head straight back to Grenore, but..."
"Are we making a detour, deshu?"
"A detour, if you could call it that. This is Mandez."
Leonardo's finger pointed to a spot on the unfolded map. I had heard about Mandez's location before, so I roughly knew where it was.
"From the northern city of Tior, a large river flows down to Grenore, right?"
"It flows deshu. Eh? We are going downstream from Tior to return, deshu?"
"That would be too much of a detour, so we will stop at the big city of Lagarette in the middle."
"A big city, deshu?"
"It is smaller than the capital, of course, but it is a bigger city than Grenore."
The spot he pointed to, saying "right here," was roughly midway between Grenore and Tior. Apparently he planned to get lodgings there and then split off for a separate errand. He wanted to go check on the Lugmilama Fortress, northwest of Lagarette.
"Can I not come along, deshu?"
"Lugmilama Fortress borders on the neighboring country. It has been quiet these past two or three years, but I would rather not have Tina near it."
"I understand deshu. I will stay at the inn, deshu."
I did not want to go near dangerous places either. Being left behind by Leonardo was a bit worrying, but Kalisa would be accompanying us on the return trip. If I was not alone, I could manage staying behind while traveling.
"I will come back as soon as I have checked on Lugmilama, and then we will go upriver and return to Grenore."
"Not downriver, but upriver, deshu?"
"This river is born from the snowmelt of the Erath Mountains, which run through the center of the continent. It flows to the sea, so returning to Grenore is 'upriver.'"
I had just been casually following Leonardo's finger movements, so it seemed I had mistakenly assumed it was downriver. I took the opportunity to ask about the location of Lugmilama Fortress, and it was not that far from Lagarette.
...About a week round trip of staying at the inn, I wonder?
The map of the locations is in an activity report from quite a while back. Those interested, please take a look. And if I have gotten the directions wrong again, please call me out on it. I am bad with cardinal directions. Even when I check and write it, I still make mistakes.
I will fix any typos another day. I have corrected the typos and errors I found.