150 - Side Story: Leonardo's Perspective - My Little Sister 9
The next day, Tina still seemed a little tired. Lately, with spring arriving and the weather growing warmer, she would usually finish breakfast and then immediately run out to the garden with the puppy, but today she was relaxing on the lounge chair, leisurely drinking her after-meal tea. The puppy lay at her feet, waiting for her to get up at any moment so they could go play, but Tina only gave it a gentle pat on the head now and then. She showed no sign of bounding out energetically like she usually did.
"Are you tired, Tina?"
"I suppose going out two days in a row really wore me out."
Tina said she planned to spend the day relaxing at the residence and then attend Hermine's lessons in the afternoon. I felt a little bad about it, but I invited her to the third day of the Spring Flower Festival.
"But I've already been to the Spring Flower Festival twice..."
"But you haven't been with me even once, have you?"
Her face clearly showed she thought it was a bother. The fact that her true feelings showed so plainly on her face made me feel she'd grown quite attached to me.
"Hermine-sensei told me that the third day of the Spring Flower Festival is when there are lots of people who became couples at the festival..."
"The square overflowing with couples is tonight. It's not that bad while the sun's still out."
The general flow of the Spring Flower Festival is this: on the first day, you convey your feelings to the object of your affection through letters or gifts, and on the second day, those whose feelings are requited receive their replies and become couples. On the third day, newly-formed couples often go on dates under the guise of the Spring Flower Festival. Of course, there are also those who send letters on the second day, and those whose love goes unrequited, so it doesn't apply to everyone, but as Ms. Hartmann told Tina, the third day of the festival is overwhelmingly filled with couples.
"We walked a lot yesterday, so I'm tired."
"You don't need to play Cupid today."
"I've already seen almost all the festival stalls too."
"What I want to see today is the back side of the festival. Things you normally can't see, you know?"
When I suggested we grab lunch at the Three Crows Tavern, Tina finally showed a hint of consideration. As expected, Tina is more about food than romance.
"Okay. I'll go if Leo carries me the whole time we're out."
A big child who would be turning ten by summer could hardly be carried around all day, or so Tina seemed to think, proposing with a face that said she'd come up with a brilliant plan. But a proposal like that was nothing to me. A ten-year-old child does seem fairly big, but Tina is smaller than average, while I am large. And thanks to my daily training, I have confidence in both my strength and stamina. Carrying Tina in my arms the whole time we were out was not impossible for me.
Muttering incomprehensible things like "You underestimate a doting brother," "Your stamina is clearly abnormal," "Your strength stat must be maxed out," Tina was carried in my arms. Though she'd been reluctant to go out at first, by the time we left the knights' residential district, her mood had improved. By the time we'd visited several temporary guard posts and received reports from the past two days, she was completely into it.
...It's good that her mood improved, but her struggling is a bit troublesome.
In response to my promise to carry her all the way back to the residence, Tina seemed to have come up with a game of obstruction. She declared the rule that if I dropped her, I'd lose, and then enthusiastically engaged in obstructive behavior, tickling my neck and trying to climb up onto my shoulder. I warned her several times that it was dangerous and I might drop her, but each time she just tilted her head cutely and said, "But you'd never drop me, would you, Leo?"
...My little sister is adorable.
But sometimes she pulls these incomprehensible pranks. That's also adorable in its own way, but according to Alf, it's a type of disease. A disease that afflicts older brothers who have cute little sisters.
...What's wrong with my little sister being cute?
If it's a disease, I suppose I should try to cure it, but my little sister is cute, so it can't be helped. It's just not the kind of thing that gets cured.
As I passed through the main street with Tina in my arms, the number of young people who had apparently become couples at this year's Spring Flower Festival increased. It's common for people to become sweethearts during the Spring Flower Festival and then get married at the autumn Harvest Festival.
...And those whose love went unrequited this year drown their sorrows at the tavern.
I turned off the main street into a side alley and walked through the back streets with Tina still in my arms. When I peered into the tavern that came into view, the rejected men were gathered there, just like every year.
"...It smells like alcohol."
It was no wonder Tina pinched her nose and muttered that. I'd only looked in from the entrance on the street, but even though it was still daytime, the smell of alcohol was too strong.
"As I thought, we should increase the patrols in the alleys this year too."
It would be best if neither drunken men falling asleep on the street and having their wallets stolen, nor passersby being harassed by drunks, happened at all. If increasing patrols and rounds could reduce even one of these incidents, the knights and soldiers on patrol would surely be glad.
"...Leo, why did you bring me along?"
As I delivered replies to the letters I'd received yesterday while making my rounds, Tina tilted her head in puzzlement. Every time we visited a girl's home or workplace to deliver a reply, she noticed the girl's face briefly brighten with joy before immediately shifting to confusion. Few of the girls had truly believed a reply would come in the first place, but none of them would have expected a man carrying a child to show up with one. It was no wonder their faces stiffened with bewilderment.
"It seems I don't look completely unlike a father and daughter with Tina, so Alf suggested that if I walk around town carrying her, the number of gifts I receive might decrease next year."
Since banning gifts to the fortress would be unfair to the other Black Knights, they'd suggested a plan to reduce the gifts coming specifically to me. If people knew I had a dependent like Tina, then any girl wishing to court me would necessarily have to be someone prepared to accept Tina as well, which would serve as a filter at that point. For young girls, that alone should cut down the numbers considerably.
"...In that case, today I'll call you 'Father.'"
Saying that, Tina buried her face in my neck and rubbed her cheek against me, murmuring "I love you, Father." My little sister is adorable.
"Being called 'Father' is nice too..."
Though my first preference is 'Big Brother.' Being called Father is also wonderful in its own way.
"If you want a real child to call you 'Father,' first you need to find a wife, you know."
"If you'll call me that, Tina, I don't think I need a wife."
When I let my honest thoughts slip out, Tina, who had been cuddling against my neck, suddenly pulled back and looked up at me steadily with her blue eyes.
"...What will you do if I get married and leave?"
If Tina were to marry and leave. Though she was still small now, in a few years she would become a girl of marriageable age. Even if I didn't think about where she would marry now, the day would surely come when Tina would leave my side.
"...Alright. I'll build you a detached house in the garden. You and your husband can live there."
If I prepared a new home within the grounds, even if Tina married, she wouldn't go far. If I got worried, I could go see her anytime, and if she grew tired of her husband, she could return to the residence immediately. Thinking I'd come up with a pretty good idea, I looked down at Tina, only to find her staring up at me with a dumbfounded expression.
"You have no intention of letting your little sister marry, do you."
"No, I do plan to let you marry someday, I really do. I just think I'd like you to live as close as possible so I can always help you out."
"I see."
Still wearing that dumbfounded look, Tina let out a soft sigh. Even I thought I was being pathetic, so from Tina's perspective, having a brother so clingy, I must seem like a terribly unreliable older brother.
"...It might be nice to adopt Tina's child."
When I muttered that under my breath, she asked, with a perfectly reasonable question, "Can a single person even adopt?"
...I've thought this before, but Tina is a smart child.
Though she sometimes pulls incomprehensible pranks, I think she's intelligent for her age. Before, her slurred speech made her seem younger than her years, but now that's resolved, and sometimes she says things that don't seem like they should come from a child.
...I've heard that girls mature emotionally faster.
But somehow, Tina's case feels a little different. I know from growing up in an orphanage, where there are many children, that children vary in growth and personality. There are quiet children and rambunctious ones. Some learn letters quickly even when young, while others can't even memorize the basic characters no matter how much time passes. I'd thought Tina being such an obedient child was just one of these individual differences, but lately I've been feeling a sense of dissonance.
...Come to think of it, I remember thinking there was something off about her when we first met too.
Back then, I thought there was a mismatch between her clothes and what was inside her. A pretty little girl, clean inside, wearing shabby clothes. When she said her father had fallen ill and I went to meet him, it turned out to be Saromon, who should have been a noble, so I convinced myself the dissonance was just a noble's daughter wearing poor clothes. But I feel like the dissonance I sense in Tina isn't limited to that.
...I've thought she seemed mature for her age, but...?
When we stopped at the Three Crows Tavern for lunch, something awakened in Tina. Whether it was her mischievous spirit being stimulated or her innate contrarian nature awakening, she insisted I read the entire menu, refusing to back down. Until now, I'd intentionally avoided reading menus I clearly knew Tina wouldn't eat, but apparently Ethelbert-sama, whom we'd encountered the other day, had noticed I wasn't reading all the menus and pointed it out. Seems the sashimi had really agreed with her. She started saying she didn't like having the menu hidden based on my preferences.
...Is this a rebellious phase?
Thinking such things, I read the menu for Tina as she demanded. Usually, she would decide based on her mood from the items I read aloud, but today she ordered whatever caught her interest from the full menu. She pounced on a dish called Wottan, fermented beans, which I never thought she'd express a strong desire to eat. She pounced on it, and when the Wottan arrived, her face underwent a dramatic transformation.
...I did explain clearly that it was fermented beans.
And yet, seeing the brown beans set before her, Tina looked visibly disappointed.
"That's right. If you ferment beans, they become natto. It's not tofu... Fermenting beans doesn't make tofu..."
She muttered such things while gripping her chopsticks and stirring the Wottan as the tavern owner had instructed. According to the owner's explanation, this smelly dish called Wottan was eaten by mixing it well and making it stringy.
In the end, Wottan didn't seem to suit Tina's palate, but she ate it all without leaving any. I offered to eat half of it for her, but since she'd ordered it on her own whim, she showed a mysterious resolve to finish it all herself. When I asked if it was really that bad and took one bite from her portion, the Wottan with its peculiar smell was genuinely unpleasant. Napaji, where Wottan is commonly eaten, really is a strange country.
After finishing all the Wottan, Tina seemed to have used up all her energy. She spent the afternoon quietly, clinging to me as I carried her, accompanying me on my letter deliveries.
Since it's Leonardo's perspective, it's written as Wottan in katakana, but from Tina's perspective, it would probably just be natto (Wottan).
I'll fix any typos when spring comes. I've corrected the ones I found.