19 - The Wise Woman's Apprentice
Today, like any other day, Leonardo and Aurelia gulped down breakfast as if forcing it in, then headed out with baskets on their backs.
As for me, same as yesterday.
I was entrusted with the housework and the task of using the mortar to turn the contents of the burlap sack into powder.
If there was one small difference, it was that the work of tending to the leaves Aurelia had laid out on racks last night had been added.
Leave the leaves on the racks to dry in the sun, turn them over once when noon comes, she had told me.
...Taking yesterday's failure into account, let me think about dinner before I start working today.
Since the vegetable soup can't be overturned anyway, I decided to focus my efforts on improving the flavor of my pseudo-stew.
Last time it felt like it lacked saltiness, and Leonardo had also suggested trying to add cheese.
...Well then, maybe I'll try adding cheese today. Though I don't really feel like cheese alone will solve things.
In my previous life I had eaten it without particularly thinking about it, but I miss stew made with store-bought roux.
I can vaguely recall the taste, but I don't have the skill to cook something to a targeted flavor.
I'll just have to repeat failures and gradually get the taste closer.
...Since I've figured out I can make fresh pasta without too many problems... let's change the shape. There was that simple-looking pasta you shape with the back of a fork, or was it the handle? I don't remember the name, though.
Remembering that there was a pasta shape designed to catch the soup, I decided to take on that challenge.
Rather than putting noodle-shaped pasta into stew, this feels like a more logical excuse to tell myself, 'This is soup pasta, not stew pasta.'
...With a little girl's arm strength, the most time-consuming part is making the pasta. Maybe I should just make the dough ahead of time?
Making pasta actually takes a surprising amount of strength.
With a little girl's arm strength, making enough pasta for three people without any tools, it's even more so.
If I just make the dough first, the rest can be done while making the vegetable soup.
I took out from the storehouse just the vegetables needed for the soup and placed them in the kitchen basket.
By the time I finished kneading the pasta dough using my body weight, most of the morning was already over.
Is it about time to flip the leaves, or is it still too early? As I was worrying about this, there was a knock at the front door.
...Why a knock? This is your own house.
It's earlier than usual, but Aurelia and the others must have come back.
I opened the door without the slightest doubt, and there stood a large man I didn't recognize.
"Oh? There really is a kid here. You the Commander's little sister?"
He leaned his face in close without any reserve, and I reflexively hid half my body behind the door.
Realizing from that alone that I was frightened, the man's face briefly showed sadness before he pulled back.
...Ah, he seems like a decent person.
With a bit of distance now between us, I observed the large man again.
Short, spiky black hair, tall in stature, and brawny.
Stubble remained on his chin, and whether for fashion or for a reason, a black eyepatch hid his right eye.
Age-wise, late thirties perhaps.
A large man with a fierce-looking face.
...Well, but since faces are different from Japanese people, the chances that my estimate is accurate are low.
After staring at the man's face, I lowered my gaze.
Under his moss-green cloak, I saw black armor.
"...Are you a Black Knight?"
I had just been taught that knights in black armor were Black Knights of commoner birth.
His face was scary, but I understood he wasn't someone I needed to fear.
"I'm Yurgen Porre, Vice-Commander of the Restham Knight Order. Are you the Commander's little sister, little miss?"
"Commander is Leonyaldo? If you mean Leonyaldo, I'm his younger-shister-figure."
Since the "younger sister" thing was my father's forced idea, I made sure to correct that.
I'm not a blood-related younger sister, nor a sister by marriage.
If I were to state the precise relationship, "adopted child" or "younger sister figure" would be closer.
Then, wondering where information about me being Leonardo's younger sister had spread, I thought back and remembered.
When we met the Black Knight before entering the valley, Leonardo had introduced me as his younger sister.
It must have reached the ears of the large man named Yurgen through that Black Knight's mouth.
"I heard our Commander's holed up in this valley... So where's your big brother, little miss?"
"Older-brother-figure Leonyaldo, you mean. Leonyaldo went out with Aurelia. Won't come back until evening."
"Together with the Witch of Waiyakku Valley, huh. Even if I knew where, I can't exactly chase after them, now can I..."
...Witch?
Come to think of it, Leonardo had also called Aurelia a witch.
Alf had immediately corrected him, though.
The word "witch" doesn't carry a very good image.
In the Middle Ages, there was a history of wise women who made herbal medicines being called "witches" and persecuted, but I wonder how it is in this country.
Aurelia, who has shut herself away in this valley for so long she's even forgotten the language, might actually be confined to the valley to escape persecution.
Thinking that, it felt like the presence of knights, who I assumed were guards, at the valley entrance also made sense.
"I have a letter from Leonyaldo. If a Black Knight came, give it to them, he said. I've been holding onto it."
You are the person the letter was meant for, correct? I held out the letter I had been entrusted with yesterday.
Yurgen checked the addressee on the letter he received, then casually broke the seal and began reading.
...Huh? You're reading it here? You're not taking it back with you? What was the letter even for?!
After quickly scanning the letter, Yurgen returned it to its envelope and stowed it in his breast pocket.
As I stared at him dumbfounded, Yurgen beckoned me with a little wave.
What could it be? I stepped outside as summoned and saw a cart parked outside the house.
"This stuff is bread, and since I can't imagine the Commander or that old hag making anything, there's flour, butter, salt and such, plus the usual ketchup, salt-cured meat, vegetables... in short, food for you and the others, little miss."
He added that there were also changes of clothes for Leonardo and me, then tossed me a bundle.
Checking inside, I found several dresses for a young girl.
"Still... looks like a little more might be needed."
I don't know what was written in the letter, but perhaps it had mentioned an estimate of how long they'd be staying.
Judging the cart's load insufficient, Yurgen began pondering something.
The shadow at his feet was short.
"Is it about noon?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah. It's noon."
I had asked for someone else's opinion, doubting my own sense of time, but it definitely seemed to be noon.
Judging by the short shadows, it must be close to midday.
"It's noon. Gotta turn the leaves over."
Remembering Aurelia's instructions, I flipped the leaves that were drying in the sun.
Since they were drying sandwiched between two racks, they'd probably dry quickly even without bothering to flip them.
"...Little miss, you planning to become the witch's apprentice or something?"
"Apprentice?"
I understood that "witch" meant Aurelia, but what did he mean by apprentice?
Come to think of it, I feel like Leonardo had mentioned something at the very beginning, months ago, about sending an apprentice.
I also heard that the annex where Leonardo and I are sleeping and living was originally a building prepared for that apprentice.
However, I haven't yet seen the apprentice themselves.
"If you're helping with the witch's work, doesn't that make you her apprentice?"
"I'm just house-shitting. Turning leaves over, just helping out a little."
Since I'm the one staying behind to watch the house, Aurelia probably just entrusted me with the work.
And that work is nothing more than flipping drying leaves when noon comes.
It's hardly the work of someone who could be called something as grand as an apprentice.
"It's rare for that hard-to-please old hag to let someone else touch her medicine ingredients. If you're an orphan, it's convenient, right? How about becoming the witch's apprentice?"
...How does he know I'm an orphan? Ah, from Leonardo's letter?
If that's the information source, then personal information is leaking freely from that letter stowed in his breast pocket.
That said, since I don't know how personal information is handled in this country, there's no way for me to complain.
"If you get along with the witch, this is a recommended workplace, you know. The witch's skills are valuable, after all. You'd be treasured."
As I listened to his grumbling, that she's getting on in years so they want her to take an apprentice, but none of them last, I realized something.
I ended up realizing it.
..."Treasured," doesn't that mean being locked up with guards?
I don't know why Aurelia is called a witch.
I had vaguely thought that Aurelia, called a witch, lived hidden away in the valley, with knights stationed in a guard hut to protect her, but it's probably a little different.
Yurgen's words and actions made me realize that.
Leonardo had said Aurelia had forgotten this country's language, but Aurelia sometimes speaks to me in that language.
And only when Leonardo isn't nearby.
...Aurelia is only pretending to have forgotten the language because she doesn't want to talk to the knights.
When Leonardo came home in the evening, I told him that a knight named Yurgen had come and that I had given him the letter.
Leonardo was surprised that Yurgen, who held the title of Vice-Commander, had come, but that was all.
When I told him Yurgen had said something about coming again in a week, he began moving the cart's cargo into the storehouse.
After helping carry the goods, I made white sauce, but today it came out lumpy.
Was the day before yesterday just beginner's luck?
No, I'm pretty sure "beginner's luck" is supposed to mean something else.
I messed up a bit, but this too is what you'd call part of the charm.
Maybe thanks to the cheese adding saltiness, it felt like it tasted more stew-like than last time.
...No, this is soup pasta. It's not stew pasta. It's different.
Deceiving myself, I scooped up pasta with my spoon and brought it to my mouth.
Not bad, but something was missing.
That kind of taste.
"...Would it be okay if I became Aurelia's apprentice?"
Suddenly remembering what Yurgen had said during the day, I asked Leonardo.
Leonardo, when asked, seemed surprised, his eyes widened slightly.
"Why are you suddenly saying something like that?"
...Huh? His voice dropped lower.
His expression didn't change, but I felt there was a sharp edge to his voice.
I don't know what exactly it was, but I seemed to have angered Leonardo.
"Tina, where did you hear the words 'witch's apprentice'...?"
As I sat frozen, startled by seeing Leonardo angry for the first time, Leonardo seemed to have figured out who had taught me the phrase "witch's apprentice."
Or rather, he wouldn't even need to think about it.
Currently, we're holed up in the valley, practically cut off from outside information.
In such circumstances, the people who could feed me new knowledge are limited.
"Yurgen. That old man, saying unnecessary things..."
"...Orphan, convenient, kind of thing, he said. Recommended job."
"You're an orphan, sure, but Tina already has a guardian (me), doesn't she? I'm going to raise you as your brother, so you don't need to think about things like that."
Leonardo's anger, which I had glimpsed for just a moment, turned toward Yurgen, and he looked at me with bewildered eyes as he reached out.
The motion of him stroking my head was a little rough, so I could tell he was masking his own irritation.
"...Don't have to look after an orphan. Leonyaldo can have it easier."
"Even if you have no parents, how could I abandon a younger sister who hasn't even come of age?"
Perhaps rough head-stroking alone wasn't enough to quell his irritation, because Leonardo's fingers moved to pinch my cheeks.
He was just squishing and squishing them, but it was quietly painful.
...To Leonardo, Father's words are absolute, aren't they.
I felt bewildered by how Leonardo used the word "younger sister" without any hesitation at all.
If it were me, even if it was the orphaned child of a benefactor, even if asked on their deathbed, I couldn't decide to take them in on the spot.
Much less could I resolve to raise them until they came of age.
An orphan is, after all, a stranger.
But it seemed that inside Leonardo, the word "orphan," which would give me pause, had already been fixed as "younger sister," overwriting "stranger" to the point where it couldn't be changed back.
Maybe he was even indignant, thinking that as her "older brother," I found him unreliable and was keeping him at a distance.
"If, once Tina's come of age, you still say you want to become Aurelia's apprentice, I won't stop you. But right now, it's still no."
I cupped my finally freed cheeks with both hands as if shielding them from Leonardo, massaging them to soothe the ache.
My cheeks hurt, but I felt a strangely ticklish sensation inside.
Once the dinner cleanup was done, Aurelia inspected the day's work.
When I handed her the container holding what I'd ground into powder with the mortar, Aurelia turned the box around and around, examining its contents.
"Put away the leaves that were drying outside. They're bone-dry now."
When I pointed to the racks I'd brought inside and stacked on the table, Aurelia nodded silently and began transferring the powder, whose inspection seemed to be finished, into the same type of container as last night.
...If she's not saying anything, does that mean there were no problems?
After returning the box of powder to the shelf, Aurelia approached Leonardo, who tonight was using the mortar to turn stones into powder.
When I followed Aurelia and peered at Leonardo's hands, what had been pebble-sized when put in had been crushed as fine as grains of sand.
"How's this, Aurelia? It's been pulverized!"
To Leonardo, who was showing off the mortar with a triumphant look, Aurelia silently swung down her staff.
"...It's completely no good, she says."
Even without words, I could at least tell this much.
Aurelia was rejecting Leonardo's work.
Aurelia handed me the mortar with bits still in it (I suppose meaning, "regrind this into powder"), then grabbed a burlap sack and dragged Leonardo away by the ear, disappearing somewhere.
When Aurelia returned a while later, she was alone, and she put the pebbles she'd picked up today into the sack.
Then she began smashing them with a wooden mallet, bang, bang.
I learned the next morning where Leonardo had been taken. Apparently there was a stone mill in the storehouse.
He'd been made to use it to turn the sand-grain bits in the sack into powder.
...So there was a stone mill. Well then, a little girl like me can't use it. Guess I have no choice but to leave it to Leonardo.
I don't know what the powder they're making is used for, but one thing was certain. Efficiency had improved.
Aurelia crushes things to a certain small size, then Leonardo and I turn them into powder.
Life in the valley became one where, outside of housework, almost all our time was spent together with the mortar.
[Author's Note]
Aurelia isn't just averse to knights, she's a misanthrope who doesn't want to talk to anyone if at all possible.
The reason Yurgen calls her "that old hag" is because of the deep familiarity built up from being hit, jabbed, and knocked around by her countless times over the years (not really).
The reason Aurelia talks to Tina is probably just that the English she uses sarcastically with the knights doesn't get through, but she still has to give work instructions, so the words "slip out" in spite of herself. I don't think Aurelia herself is consciously switching between them.