163 - River Play
With summer arriving, the content studied at Menhishumi Church also changes to somewhat more difficult material categorized as Basic Knowledge 3. Those with room in their lives, and those seeking further learning like Black Knights and scholars, take applied and review classes after Basic Knowledge 3, but I am still thinking about it. It is not just that what I am currently studying is easy. Commoners are not expected to have such high education. Even among adults who finally have room in their lives and can find time to study, few advance to the next stage.
...Leo seems to want me to acquire education on par with nobles, though.
Brother Leonardo. I correct myself for having accidentally called him "Leo" in my head. I still do not seem to be used to the new way of addressing him.
Teo, who was a capable child when he tried, finished Basic Knowledge 2 at the same time as us since he attended class seriously. Now we are all safely taking Basic Knowledge 3 together.
Until now, I had been spending my mornings leisurely and attending afternoon classes, but in summer, the afternoon class time overlaps with the hottest part of the day. So I decided to attend morning classes only during summer. I thought that if all students made such choices, the morning classrooms in summer would be more crowded, but Menhishumi Church is a place where those who seek learning visit of their own free will. Children who do not want to study during the intense summer heat avoid going to Menhishumi Church in summer, and children from families whose busy season is summer are called to help with the family business. As a result, the number of students visiting the classroom settled at about the same as usual.
...Classes divided by season are surprisingly convenient, are they not?
You can choose to take classes during comfortable seasons, and even if you cannot continue attending for some reason, you can retake classes next season. Since I am taking classes at a relaxed pace, if I wanted to learn everything from Basic Knowledge to Applied, it would take a full year, but if I took classes all day at Menhishumi Church, I could finish all the classes in half a year.
...And I never thought about how, when church classes end in the morning, I would have the whole afternoon free to play.
By studying at Menhishumi Church in the morning, the afternoon is wide open. If I spend it at the residence, I can take Hermine's lessons, but today, quite unusually, I made a promise to play with Mirshe and the others in the afternoon. I could have gone back to the residence once for lunch and then joined them, but this was a rare promise to play. Wanting to do something a little different from usual, today we made a plan to have Kalisa, who comes to pick me up, bring a lunch, and eat together.
...Since I have the whole afternoon to play, I came in secondhand clothes that are easy to move around in. Maybe I am looking forward to this more than I thought?
"Huh? Why is Leo... no, why is Brother Leonardo here too?"
When I finished class and left the Menhishumi Church building, Leonardo was there along with Kalisa. Should he not be holed up in the residence guarding the research materials? When I asked him worriedly, it seems Alf happened to bring work from the fortress, so Leonardo conveniently pushed the guarding onto him and left the residence under the pretext of carrying luggage. Apparently it was Siegwald's idea that it would be good for me to make memories of "playing with my guardian" once in a while. Alf apparently could not say no to that and took over guarding the residence.
...Alf-san, Sieg-sama, thank you.
I secretly thanked the two who are more like guardians than my actual guardian. The real guardian probably never even thinks about making memories with me. If he were the type to think of such things, he would not have taken me in and then immediately left me at the residence.
The adults were Leonardo and Kalisa, the children were the usual group, and for some reason the Black Dog (Oscar) came along too. The river flowing through the city is a hangout for children in this season. Everyone wore thin clothes, gathered at the water's edge, and played as they pleased, jumping into the river, kicking up water.
"What a nice place to play."
I bit into the egg sandwich Kalisa had brought while looking around. The river flowing through the city has footholds and bridges, but not everything is completely maintained. Here and there rocks were exposed, and trees and undergrowth grew. There were footholds being used as diving platforms, and seeing children jumping into the river without hesitation, it was probably a bit deep down there. Besides the children energetically diving into the river, I could also see elderly people just soaking their feet in the river to cool off.
...Come to think of it, I think I saw a child swimming in a jinbei last year.
When was that? As I thought about it, I became aware of my own clothes. Today I wore secondhand clothes expecting to move around a lot, but if I had known, a jinbei might have been better. With a jinbei, I could have entered the river without worrying about my skirt flipping up.
"Just jump in the river without worrying about it."
He must have seen me pinching my skirt. My guardian gave me permission to jump into the river without caring about my clothes.
"I will pass. My clothes have a lot of fabric, so they would get heavy when wet..."
My hair has also grown, so it would take time to dry. In this world without hair dryers, I do not want to get my hair wet carelessly.
...Besides, I have seen news about children dying from parasites or something after playing in rivers.
I think it was a TV show from my past life, but there was an accident like that. A boy who played in a river had a parasite enter through his nose, eventually moving to his brain and killing him. I think the accident itself was foreign news, but they said there were cases in Japan too. So it is probably something that can happen anywhere. Jumping headfirst into a river that is not disinfected pool water is a little scary.
...About all I can do is soak my feet in the water like those elderly people, right?
After eating, I will soak my feet in the water. As I thought about this while slowly biting into my egg sandwich, Teo called out to Leonardo from a distance. At first Teo was as quiet as a borrowed cat in front of Leonardo, but he is probably used to it by now. He no longer clams up with tension just because Leonardo is there. Lately, I have even started to wonder if Teo might actually get along better with Leonardo than I do, even though he is my brother.
"...You are being called, Brother Leonardo."
That slight edge in my voice. Is it jealousy? It seems I am more possessive of Leonardo than I realized, even surprising myself.
"Tina, let us go together."
Leonardo said this and held out his hand, so after thinking a bit, I took it. Sulking and being jealous is a waste of time and energy. I am a child, and I came to the river to play, so rather than sulking alone about my brother being taken by a male friend, it is better to play together.
...I still cannot jump in, though.
Aside from my fear of parasites, I feel like the act of jumping itself is impossible for me.
Playing in the river was truly a comfortable way to spend time. I did not swim, but after eating lunch, soaking my feet in the river water and leisurely passing the hot afternoon was really wonderful. After running around at the water's edge for about two hours, even Teo and the others seemed tired. They started getting out of the water, lying around, wringing out their wet clothes to dry. The preparations for going home had begun.
...Whoa, it is higher than I thought.
Since everyone started getting ready to leave, I moved onto the rock that served as a diving platform, which I had not approached until then. I thought I would not get in anyone's way now, but I should not have looked over. The exposed rock surface and the depth of the edge I peered into were more than enough to scare me.
...Thinking about it logically, it seems shorter than Leo's height, but looking down from above is scary.
It is probably less than two meters from the water surface, but of course, since it is not neatly arranged like a pool, it is pointlessly scary. I had a strange confidence that if I stepped forward any more, my feet would freeze and I would not be able to move, so I slowly backed away. Then suddenly, the sound of bare footsteps approached from behind.
...Huh? Is someone jumping in?
If so, I need to get out of the way quickly. That is what I thought in that instant. My hand was swiftly snatched. When I realized I was being yanked, I was already being thrown backward with force into the air beyond the diving platform.
After that, it was truly like slow motion.
Various thoughts raced through my head before I hit the water, and the blueness of the sky pierced my eyes. Falling with a force that seemed to suck me backward was nothing but terror. When I plunged into the river, sending up a column of water, my mind was filled with thoughts of parasites and news of tragic accidents and incidents in water.
...Scary, scary, scary, scary, SCARY!!
[Author's Note]
I could not get as far as planned. Ran out of time. I discovered that Basic Knowledge and Basic Education got mixed up. I will check and unify them to one. I also want to fix the places where the God of Knowledge Menhishumi occasionally becomes the God of Wisdom (when spring comes).
Also, it seems there are parasites that can infect just by skin contact with water, without even putting your nose or mouth in the water. orz
I will fix typos and errors another day. I fixed the typos and errors I found.