208 - Side Story - Leonardo's Perspective - My Little Sister 16
Once I decided on going to Lagarette, I wanted to pick up the painting Tina had made as soon as possible. I could not afford to leave the residence under-guarded, and even without that, it was not desirable for the fortress lord to leave the fortress he was meant to protect.
Since it was a painting Tina had made for me, I had no intention of selling it, but to be thorough in confirming that, I still needed to confirm Tina's intentions, so I had Tina accompany me as well. If I was bringing Tina along, she would need a caretaker and a nursemaid, and as a result I had to prepare a carriage, which meant it was no longer a light little trip.
...Come to think of it, I had said I would teach her to ride a horse when she turned ten, but I still had not taught her yet.
If Tina could ride a horse on her own, traveling by horse would become possible. But even then, I still had concerns about letting the small Tina ride a horse alone, so riding double would be essential. Even if it cut a few days off the travel time, it could not compare to a comfortable and safe journey by carriage. If I was moving with Tina, a carriage would probably be essential even if she became able to ride a horse alone.
Summer was approaching, so the river water had become only slightly cold. From spring to autumn, cargo was actively transported via the river from the port city of Tior. This time as well, I decided to make use of those transport boats.
Since we would be going downstream from the city of Grenore to Lagarette, we would arrive in half a day even without doing anything, but if we had an Aback pull the boat, it would take less than half that. Just like when I had used the river to return from Lagarette to Grenore last time, I decided to load the carriage onto a small boat and go downstream, and Tina was overjoyed on the boat. Salisa, who was following Tina around constantly to make sure she did not accidentally fall overboard, seemed a little overwhelmed.
"The Aback really is fast, isn't it! It's like a boat with a 'motor'!"
Rejoicing about how fast it was, unfamiliar words flew out of Tina's mouth. Perhaps she had grown more relaxed ever since confessing to me that she was a reincarnated Japanese person, but unfamiliar words would occasionally come out of Tina's mouth now. Thinking back on it now, the sleep-talking of Tina's that I could never understand no matter how many times I heard it might have been Japanese as well.
"Tina, what is a motor?"
"Huh?"
When I pointed out that she was unconsciously talking about her past knowledge, Tina let out a strange, flustered noise. Then she showed a brief thoughtful expression and corrected her slouching posture and tone.
"Well, a motor is... the power source of a ship? I think. Ah, wait? But motors are also in 'RC' things, and if I think about it, they should be in 'airplanes' too...? Actually, isn't the power source an 'engine'...?"
The girl who furrowed her brow with a thoughtful expression and went "Hmm..." was comical and adorable, but the words coming out of her mouth were bundles of ominous confusion. I had absolutely no idea what she meant. In other words, they were probably words from her past memories.
"I've got it. Motor was wrong. What's on the ship is a 'screw'."
"Right. I get it too. That's past knowledge, isn't it."
When I pointed out that she should lower her voice a little, Tina finally seemed to realize her own carelessness. After quickly covering her mouth with both hands, she began to avert her eyes guiltily.
...Tina had said that she only had enough knowledge to read Japanese.
But at this rate, she seemed to possess a variety of knowledge. Whether it was that Tina had the ability to think things through, or that she was good at reasoning logically. Like how she had explained the difference between granular and powdered medicine ingredients using granulated sugar and sugar cubes, she might be able to take even scraps of knowledge and organize and compile them into proper knowledge.
...There were probably a lot of people who would want that.
If it became known that Tina was a reincarnated Japanese person, there would probably be many people who would pile up large sums of money in front of me and ask me to sell Tina. It might happen someday that I would have to let her go for employment or marriage, but I had no intention of selling Tina off to somewhere else. I did not think someone who would sell a family member had the right to have a little sister.
...But I was an unreliable big brother.
It was almost a year since our fight last summer, but Tina's way of addressing me had gone back to the old "Leonardo-san." She still had not called me "Big Brother" again.
When we got off the boat, we immediately got into the carriage. Learning from our last mistake, we did not stop at Jemian's main residence in the suburbs, but headed directly to the art gallery in Lagarette's city center. I thought surely he would want to stay close to his daughter Basilia right after a kidnapping incident, but Jemian was living at the gallery just like usual, unchanged. He did not normally return to the main residence, so it was better to assume he was at the gallery this time too.
...What was this?
The carriage stopped in front of the gallery, and I stepped down from the carriage step. Just as I stood by the step to escort Tina, a stir ran through the crowd around us. Thinking it was suspicious, I looked around and saw a cluster of ladies gathered on the roadside a short distance away. The stir seemed to be coming from around there.
I furrowed my brow, wondering what was going on, but Tina's small hand was placed on mine, drawing my attention back. First I had to safely get Tina down from the carriage, and when I turned my gaze back to Tina, another stir rose from the crowd.
...What was this?
I began to feel prickling stares, and without understanding the reason, I followed the source of the stares. Around here? When I cast my gaze toward the spot I had guessed, one lady screamed and collapsed.
"What is it?"
"Could it be heatstroke? I don't think the sunlight is that strong..."
Tilting her head in puzzlement, Tina turned her face toward the collapsed lady where a crowd of people was beginning to form. I thought briefly about whether I should escort Tina into the gallery first, or go to attend to the lady who seemed to have collapsed on the roadside, and I headed toward the lady. Fortunately, this was right in front of Jemian's gallery. If I sent someone to call for help, the gallery's servants would take care of her.
"Are you all right, miss? Do you need my assis--"
"Eeeek! I'm being violated by his gaze!! I'm going to get pregnant!!"
"...Huh?"
I had intended to offer my hand as a knight to the lady who seemed to have collapsed from dizziness, but the lady let out a horrendous shriek and recoiled from my outstretched hand as if fleeing from it. Her expression, even as she screamed "I'm being violated!," was dreamy and blissful, her cheeks flushed rosy.
...Really, what was this?
I had no idea what was going on, and stood frozen, unable to withdraw my extended hand, staring blankly down at the lady, until Tina tugged at my hand which had remained frozen in its extended position.
"Leo. Leo."
Called by name in that adorable voice, my consciousness was pulled back to reality from that strange state of shock, but when I turned my gaze toward Tina, her cold stare made me straighten my spine. The lady's words contained no basis or truth whatsoever, but as information entering my ears, they were nothing but unsettling.
"...Is Leo going to make this lady pregnant?"
My little sister's suspicious gaze was painful. The prickling stares from around me were nothing compared to this. My little sister Tina's doubtful gaze hurt the most, stabbing into my chest.
"Tina, for now... babies come to a married man and woman, in due time, from God..."
"I don't need that kind of fairy tale for children, or religious explanations."
Given how she cut me off so sharply, Tina might have proper knowledge from her past life. Of the correct knowledge about making babies.
...So this was confirmed. When I came back from the brothel, the look Tina always gave me, with an indescribable contempt in her eyes as she looked up at me... was it because she understood what I had done where?!
I was different from her. After various things happened in the capital, I had only first learned about the birds and the bees at the brothel Siegwald had taken me to.
As soon as I reached the age where I could become a soldier, I had immediately enlisted, and from there the path to becoming a knight had opened up, and my days became filled with studying. Because of that, I had acquired knowledge of academics, swordsmanship, and tactics, but I had not learned sexual knowledge as part of my studies. Even so, apparently senior knights would normally take younger knights to the red-light district to celebrate their knighthood, but in my case, I had been too young to leave Fort Vilupp as a knight. Apparently the senior knights at the time had exercised restraint, thinking it would be inappropriate to take a boy to the red-light district, and as a result, the first time I learned about sex was after my self-proclaimed fiancee became pregnant. I had not known anything about sex, so it was impossible for me to have made my self-proclaimed fiancee pregnant without laying a single finger on her, and it was Alf who had rejected all of my self-proclaimed fiancee's claims and settled the matter. Later, when I was taken to the red-light district later than was typical, the acts I learned there were indeed acts I had certainly never performed with my self-proclaimed fiancee.
"...Leonardo-san, what relationship do you have with this lady?"
Tina's voice carried a hint of a barb, pulling my straying thoughts back. Rather than thinking about what Tina's past knowledge contained and how much she understood, I should deal with the lady screaming in front of me.
"I swear, I met this young lady for the first time today, right here. At the very least, we are not in a relationship where I could make her pregnant."
"Really? Truly, really?"
Tina was still looking at me with suspicion, so I let out a sigh and pointed out that there was no way I could make someone pregnant just by making eye contact. Apparently Tina did have some general knowledge about such things, because at this explanation she seemed convinced. "That's true too," she murmured, then called out to Salisa and sent her to call someone from the gallery.
"There have been many young ladies recently who collapse from overexcitement like that."
The guide servant told me with a wry smile about the lady who had collapsed in front of the gallery. Lately, the number of young female guests at the gallery had increased, and apparently some ladies became so excited that they collapsed.
...Having many of those would be a problem.
A lady who screamed at the sight of a person's face and, of all things, cried out about being "impregnated!" Whether for the sake of public decency, or for the family that lady belonged to, having many people engaging in such bizarre behavior would be a problem.
...But still, the atmosphere had changed quite a bit since I was here last time.
I left the lady's care to the servant Salisa had called, and also requested an audience with Jemian. Apparently he was in the middle of a business negotiation, so we would have to wait a bit, which was only natural. When I asked to be shown to the embroidery painting in question first, I noticed that the entire atmosphere of the gallery had changed just from walking through the hallway. Before, I had only seen gentlemen and young men with the air of aspiring artists, but now the sight of young women caught my eye.
...And here too, I could hear stares and screams.
A lady whose eyes happened to meet mine pressed herself against the wall as if frightened, and even I was hurt by that. Even though I had done nothing to her, she looked at me with fearful eyes, yet somehow with hopeful, moist eyes. I truly did not understand the reason, and it was uncomfortable.
"This way, my lord. Your little sister's work is displayed here."
What I was shown to was a door. I had assumed it would be displayed in the hallway like many other works, but apparently Tina's embroidery painting was given its own room. It was supposed to be a private work, but this was exceptional treatment.
"...What is this?"
That was quite an exaggerated handling for a child's embroidery. Thinking that, I opened the door, but seeing the strange scene inside, I understood that this was not preferential treatment but isolation. People were gathered in a radial pattern around the painting, worshipping it. Regardless of age, most of those gathered were women, but there were also middle-aged men among them. The women were all smiling blissfully, their cheeks flushed as they admired the painting, but the men... and I could tell because I was a man myself... all of them had bulges at the front of their pants.
...What kind of painting was Tina's painting?!
That thought and Tina letting go of my hand happened at the same time. Tina squeezed her small body into the crowd, pushing forward and forward. Eventually she seemed to break through the crowd, and from the front her adorable voice rang out.
"Leonardo-san, look!"
Whether she was jumping up and down, occasionally Tina's fingertips could be seen above people's heads. Seeing a small girl calling out to her guardian from behind, the gentlemen and ladies around naturally opened a path for her.
"Ta-dah! This is the embroidery painting I sewed with all my heart, one stitch at a time, as a birthday present for Leonardo-san!"
What Tina indicated with her adorably playful gesture was indeed a painting I could tell was based on me. The facial features were exactly me.
Titled "Herkeles' Slumber," the painting was an eyesore in a single word. This was something that should not be shown to young ladies, and originally, it was something I did not want my little sister Tina to see either.
"...Tina, did you know this myth when you made this?"
"I know it! I learned it at the Menhishumi Church!"
The myth Tina then explained to me was a version watered down for children. Herkeles, tired from hunting, was resting by a lake when a human girl happened to pass by and he fell in love with her. That was the entire story. The children's version, that is.
If you looked into the myth in a little more detail, you would quickly realize this myth was not about a love between a god and a human. Under a prank by Eigiros, the god of lust, and Wawarabera, the god of dreams, Herkeles was shown a dream a brother god should not have seen, and to calm his own arousal, he submerged half his body in the lake. There, he happened upon a human girl bathing naked and forced himself on her. Satisfied, Herkeles left the scene, but the girl left behind became pregnant with the god's child. The human girl, pregnant out of wedlock, incurred her father's wrath and was killed. Taking pity on the girl's death, the Great God raised her into the night sky and made her one of the constellations... this was the story behind the embroidery painting Tina had made, a tale with more things I wanted to point out than I could count.
...In other words, the me in this painting had a bulge at the front. With the myth in mind, although his expression was languid, his cheeks seemed to have a slight flush. If there was any small mercy, it was that Herkeles in the painting was in a nearly prone position. The part that was probably not suitable for ladies to see was under his body and not depicted in the painting. Instead, almost all of his buttocks were visible.
Herkeles, the male god whose body was clad in armor-tight muscles, was relaxing prone with his feet dipped in the water. It seemed to be a depiction of him resting after bathing. He was pushing back his hair clinging to his skin, with a single bead of water trailing down the muscles of his arm. His clothing was even more ancient and simpler than what one would wear in the Recollection Festival rituals. He wore a loincloth, but because it was wet, it clung to his skin and was slightly translucent. The fact that even this wet effect was rendered with embroidery thread was impressive, but I wondered why I could not bring myself to praise it honestly.
...If the figure in the painting was a beautiful woman, I would probably visit the gallery every day too.
Regardless of the model, my eyes were drawn to the triangular space created between the buttock flesh and the gap in the cloth. If this were a painting of a beautiful woman, and it showed a beautiful woman's buttocks or cleavage, I would probably stare at it endlessly without tiring.
...But it was a man's buttocks. And the face was my own. I did not think I had a flabby body that needed to be ashamed of, but that did not mean I had any interest in being put on display either.
...But now I understood why I had been receiving sidelong glances ever since we arrived at the gallery.
It was probably because this painting, which in a certain sense irresistibly drew people's eyes, looked exactly like my face. I also understood why those women had screamed about being impregnated just from making eye contact. Those women probably thought that, in line with the myth of Herkeles, they would be impregnated just by meeting his gaze. Understanding that now, this painting, themed after the War God Herkeles, was embroidered with threads in strange colors that looked both like Herkeles' gold and my black depending on the angle, perhaps because it expressed the play of light. I had heard that the preliminary sketch was done by someone through Jemian's connections, but the coloring was Tina's. There was no doubt that Tina had given this embroidery painting some kind of effect.
...What was this? What was the problem here...?
The embroidery painting Tina had received as a gift from Jemian had beautiful landscapes sewn into it, but it did not have any captivating allure that made you unable to look away. It had been a perfectly ordinary painting. Tina had supposedly started embroidering paintings of her own, inspired by that one, but the finished product was completely different.
At an indescribably exquisite balance, this was a painting that should not be put on display.
"...Tina."
"Yes, deshu!"
Unsure how to react, I called out Tina's name. Tina's voice as she answered cheerfully was bright. More than that, she looked up at me with sparkling blue eyes, as if thrilled and excited.
"This is your birthday present to me?"
"Yes. I sewed it one stitch at a time, with all my heart and love."
Tina had said something similar earlier. That meant these were words she had prepared well in advance. But what she had sewed into each stitch was not heartfelt sincerity, but a mischievous impulse.
"...And your honest opinion?"
"I worked hard to help Leonardo-san understand that receiving a painting of yourself isn't actually enjoyable."
"In other words, it was payback."
Embroidery thread was certainly not cheap, but apparently Tina had thrown a large sum of money at finishing this embroidery painting just for payback. The terrifying thing was that I had not contributed a single shivil in funding. She must have put the payment she received from Alf for embroidering the handkerchief into this embroidery painting.
...But still. Just what kind of person would want this painting after seeing it?
Seeming satisfied with my stunned expression, Tina returned from in front of the painting to my side in high spirits.
It got long, so I'll continue with a perspective shift again tomorrow.
Typos and omissions again another day. Fixed any typos and omissions I found.