198 - Side Story, Aurelia's Perspective - Small Friend
Even when I think back on it roughly, I don't think this life has been much of a life.
It was by no means a life that could be called happy, but I was born into a place completely different from the world where I had lived so long. About the time I could see clearly, the first thing I thought was, could it be Halloween today? Or perhaps, I thought, the town residents could not wait for Halloween and had been in costume for days already. I thought the people around me, wearing simple, unadorned clothes, were dressed in medieval costumes.
But even after many days passed, Halloween did not come, and the residents' clothes did not change either. By the time I understood that this was normal clothing in this life, my family found out I was a reincarnator and I was sold by my parents' hands. Before I could realize that being a reincarnator was something I should hide, I was betrayed by my parents in this life.
At the place I was sold, at first it seemed they had expectations for someone who was a reincarnator from another world, but once it became clear that I could only understand English, the treatment worsened. English had already been researched to the point where it was compiled as a field of study, and it was nothing new at all, they said. I was not aiming as high as a Japanese person, they said, but at least if I could read German, I would be useful. A reincarnator who can only speak English, what a rotten draw I had gotten hold of, they said.
In my previous life I had not received much education, so I did not have any particularly useful knowledge. I could make some sweets, but even that was not something I could boast about to anyone.
...Well, thanks to having an empty head, it seems I had plenty of capacity to learn things.
For someone like me who had not properly studied anything, it seems that without extraneous knowledge, I had more room in my head to learn things than others. Being an amateur in the medicine arts might have been a good thing too. I thought I would use my light head to greedily absorb the Sedovara Church's medicine arts.
The prescriptions left by Saint Yuuta Hiraga were, in any case, complex in procedure and labor-intensive. If you did not follow them perfectly, you could be making poison that harms the human body while thinking you were making medicine. Hence, there were few called wise women or sages who had perfectly inherited the medicine arts, but by the time I was still of an age called a girl, there were about three people who had inherited the techniques. I took one of them as my teacher and learned the medicine arts. Sometimes my hands were slapped or I was hit with a staff, a strict teacher, but her teachings were precise for it, and her words never changed from day to day. She was a rigid and square teacher, but if one were not of that nature, they probably could not have passed down the medicine arts through oral tradition. Once humans get used to something, they inevitably think about cutting corners somewhere. Saint Yuuta Hiraga's medicine arts were so precise that that carelessness could be fatal. Even if the procedure was just slightly off, medicine would turn into poison.
When I inherited everything from my first teacher, the Sedovara Church's wise women became four. The Sedovara Church was pleased that one wise woman had increased, but I was not satisfied with that. Seeking the medicine arts that had been lost under my first teacher, I also studied under the other two wise women. As a result, I think it was fortunate that I was able to connect the fragmented memories that were missing between each individual and revive three lost prescriptions. Thanks to that, I went from being "a dud reincarnator" to "a wise woman who could not be treated carelessly."
Having acquired knowledge from three wise women and even revived lost prescriptions, I gradually gained status and a voice within the Sedovara Church. Within the Sedovara Church, there was no one left who could oppose me. "In that case," I thought, and I desired the position of manager of the herb garden in Waiyakku Valley, which my first teacher had managed. My teacher was already elderly, so a successor was needed, and I thought that if I shut myself away in the valley, I would be freed from bothersome social interactions.
I shut myself in Waiyakku Valley, saw my teacher through to the end, and felt refreshed being alone. I would make medicines that could be stored and have them sent to the Sedovara Church, and when I tired of that, I would make bobbin lace with makeshift tools. While rolling the bobbins, I could become empty-minded, and a life without others was peaceful for the heart.
Occasionally the Sedovara Church would send pharmacists as disciples, but I accepted them all, and they all ran away partway through. The disciples' dying words were that the instruction was too strict, but in my opinion, my guidance was on the lenient side. We are pharmacists. A small mistake or arrogance can result in taking the life of a patient we were supposed to save. There is no need for coddling when training disciples.
I watched many disciples run away, throwing themselves into the abyss of death. At some point I realized that the reason I became a proper wise woman was because I had no foundation as a pharmacist, and I even advised the Sedovara Church of this. The reason I could absorb all of my teacher's teachings, I told them, was because I had no pharmacist education, no pride, and had no choice but to obediently swallow everything.
No matter how much I was a wise woman who revived the lost saint's medicine arts, for the disciples who were already active as pharmacists, learning from someone like me who could not even read or write the language they used must have been something they resisted. And it was not just the disciples who were sent, the Sedovara Church was the same. Even if they knelt and called me "Wise Woman-sama" to beg for teachings, the inner feelings of the Sedovara Church's doctors and pharmacists were not much different. They scorned me as someone who could not read or write, a dud reincarnator, and did not listen sincerely to my words.
As a result, the tendency of the disciples sent to me was not improved, no new wise women were born, and the two wise women who came before me passed on to the afterlife. That the wise women inheriting Saint Yuuta Hiraga's medicine arts were reduced to only me remaining is, without a doubt, a man-made disaster.
...Well, if it is something that can be lost just by me dying, then that is all it was worth, I suppose.
Since it was a medicine arts I learned mostly out of a rebellious spirit, to be honest, if it is going to die out, then let it die out, I think. I will make the effort to pass on the medicine arts if disciples are sent, based on what I learned from my teachers, but that is all. I have no intention of actively making efforts to preserve it.
...Knowledge brought by reincarnators is too much for this immature world. The fact that things are lost even when people make efforts probably means that this world does not yet have the foundation for knowledge and techniques brought from another world to take root. Only prescriptions that are simple enough for anyone to master after a certain amount of study, and that require little effort, will remain. The miracle-like medicine arts that Saint Yuuta Hiraga created will someday be lost, leaving only the simple things behind. It is just a difference between whether it ends with one's own generation or is passed on to the next.
...Well, if there is a need, another reincarnator like the saint will be born. A genius with persistence like Saint Yuuta Hiraga, who made tools from scratch, researched the components of various animals, plants, and minerals, and combined ingredients to create medicines with reliable efficacy. Unfortunately, I do not have that kind of talent. All I had was an empty head with capacity to stuff things into.
...What purpose did I have for being born so strangely as a reincarnator. The memories of living in another world were of no use at all. They only took my parents in this life away from me, at an age when it is uncertain whether I even had awareness.
As a reincarnator, I was of no use to anyone, but the medicine arts I inherited from my teacher were useful. Seeking the medicines I prescribed, people of various social standings knelt at my feet. I did not care what status they held or who they were, but I was weak to pregnant women and young children. This part, I think, is due to the influence of my upbringing in this life. Perhaps, because I was sold as a child, I have a longing for the mother from whom I was separated.
Now that I too was approaching old age, the Sedovara Church panicking over disciples who were slow to amount to anything was simply ridiculous.
At that time, a little girl with black hair came to Waiyakku Valley. The little girl, who had lost her parents to an epidemic, was brought by a Black Knight and would stay in the valley for a while. The little girl named Tina, who had a lovely appearance, was amusingly a Japanese reincarnator that the Sedovara Church wanted desperately. Leonardo, who was supposed to be her guardian, had not noticed at all, but I saw it immediately.
"I can not speak English."
In the characteristically terrible pronunciation of Japanese people, Tina said this. It was such bad English that only by making an effort to understand it could you finally think it might be English. For the Black Knight who was drilled in English to a practical level, it was probably so bad that he could not understand it.
A reincarnator other than myself, I saw one for the first time in my life. And one that the Sedovara Church wanted, a Japanese reincarnator, at that.
I was interested, but having shut myself away alone for so long, I had forgotten how to make conversation starters. Unable to find words to speak to Tina, the other reincarnator, for a while the days continued with me just observing. But, on some whim, Tina took a liking to me on her own. Probably, the timing of having just lost her parents had an influence. The man who called himself her brother throwing away his newly acquired sister and returning to the city early was also a big factor. Before I knew it, Tina, who had grown comfortable with me on her own, began saying that perhaps she should become my disciple. Intuitively, I could tell that this was a child who would amount to something. But, for the sole reason that I did not want to please the Sedovara Church, I refused this. As a pretense, I used her age as the reason. Even though at Tina's age, I had already chosen to study under my first teacher.
If she left Waiyakku Valley and went to the city, she would probably forget about me. That is what I thought, but Tina continued to look out for me in various ways even afterward. She even moved Leonardo, known as an inflexible stick-in-the-mud, and came to see me.
...When we reunited, I was surprised that she hugged me right away. The little girl I thought would forget about me if she went to the city had not forgotten me at all, and instead kept her affection for me as if I were a grandmother or something. I think that made me happy. After receiving several letters, I was inadvertently won over. I ended up inviting her to come play in the valley, saying I would teach her bobbin lace.
When Tina came to the valley for the third time, she truly surprised me. On her second visit, I learned that she had actually stolen research materials of Saint Yuuta Hiraga, which were being transcribed at the Grenore residence, so I hurriedly burned the letter that served as evidence. It was a letter full of mistakes in English, mixed with this world's script and kanji, a chaotic and unreadable letter, but it was one Tina had written to me without anyone else's help. It was very precious and I was reluctant to let it go, but I could not leave evidence of Tina's information leak, so I burned it.
...I learned from that child that children are scary because you never know what they will do. I never thought I would still have things to learn at this age. She is usually a well-behaved child who listens, but I never thought she would stoop to a crime like information leakage. Even for a child, her fearlessness has its limits.
Rather than having bombs suddenly dropped on me by Tina from afar, I began to think about going to the city. It would be more reassuring to keep watch nearby than to suddenly receive terrible reports afterward, I thought. Besides, if I went to the city, just that alone would be a meritorious deed for Tina. It would probably offset some of her crimes.
...Come spring, will it be goodbye to this house too.
I said I would go to the city, but I did not say I would move. However, in the end, I feel like I might leave this house I have lived in for so long, out of fondness for Tina.
...Come spring.
When spring comes, I might move. Starting this life over again together with that small friend might not be bad.
That is what I think.
It was meant to be a side story from Aurelia's perspective, but it became almost entirely a monologue. Some days are like that.
Typos and omissions again another day. Fixed any typos and omissions I found.