21 - Side Story. Leonardo's Perspective. The Benefactor's Daughter 3
Please think of dialogue where katakana and hiragana are swapped as being pronounced in Japanese. For example, プリン美味しい→ぷりん美味シイ
Please think of dialogue in 『』 in scenes where Tina is absent as being in English.
Dinner was ready, so I headed to the bedroom to call Tina, who was resting. When I opened the door quietly so as not to make noise, I saw Tina sleeping at the edge of the bed.
……She didn't make it to the middle of the bed, huh.
Her figure, slumped face-down on top of the blanket, looked more like someone collapsed by the roadside than anything else. She'd managed to get onto the bed but then ran out of energy, and probably couldn't make it to the middle of the bed or get under the blanket.
"Tina, dinner's ready. Let's eat together."
I tried shaking her shoulder lightly, but Tina showed no sign of waking. Once Tina falls asleep, she doesn't wake up easily. She won't wake no matter if you shake her, tickle her, or lift her up. She works all day with a child's stamina, so it might be only natural.
……I'll let her sleep.
I scooped up the soundly sleeping Tina and turned back the blanket. I laid Tina back down in the middle of the bed and pulled the blanket up to her shoulders.
……She's really sleeping well.
I stroked her soft hair and observed her sleeping face for a while. Her innocent sleeping face was adorable. Her round, soft cheeks made me want to poke them with my finger.
……Though if I poke too much, the half-asleep Tina will bite me.
Unconscious Tina has no mercy. When she bites consciously, she bites hard with her front teeth to cause pain, but unconscious Tina clamps down as if grinding with her back teeth. There was even a time she almost bit a chunk off.
……Come to think of it, was it the day after we came here? When Tina said she'd sleep on the floor because she didn't want to sleep together.
Her reason for not wanting to sleep with me was simple. That Tina's a girl, and I'm a man. I can understand the argument that a boy and girl of age would want separate sleeping quarters, but whatever the case with me, Tina is still just a child. That's not a reason to use separate beds. When Tina insisted on sleeping on the floor, we ended up in a ridiculous argument over the floor. What kind of older brother sleeps in a bed while his little sister sleeps on the floor? In the end, we wound up sleeping in the same bed, but something similar happened with the bath. Tina's still a child, and she'd never used a bath before, so I tried to go in with her to wash her, and she hated it.
……Girls are difficult. Even this small, they want you to treat them like women.
I sighed while poking her squishy cheek. She gives a strong impression of being childish with her baby talk, but she's precocious.
"...burg."
Tina's lips moved squishily, and a small voice leaked from her mouth.
……Crap. Did I poke too much?
I pulled back the finger that was poking her cheek from Tina, who had begun mumbling something in her sleep. If I poke her cheek any more, she'll definitely bite me. I'd learned that from the experience of being bitten many times already.
"Pu, pu, puddin'. Puddin'. Wanna eat puddin'. Lotsa fwesh cweam on top, wanna eat puddin'. Bucket puddin' I wuv you. Wuv wuv puddin'. Pucchin pucchin, Pucchin puddin', I wuv youuu"
She mumbled something incomprehensible in her sleep, and at the end Tina smiled with a happy face. I can't make out what she's saying at all, but Tina talks the most when she's asleep. In her dreams, the restraint of being embarrassed by her baby talk probably doesn't work.
……What kind of dream is she having?
I tried straining my ears, but other people's sleep-talking isn't something you can make out.
"No... veg'table soup... I'm awweady sick of veg'table soup evewy day..."
Her happy smile changed in an instant to an expression of anguish. I could make out "vegetable soup," but I couldn't understand the words that followed.
……She eats without complaining about likes and dislikes every time, but does it actually have vegetables she hates in it?
When she makes the soup herself, Tina struggles to somehow change the flavor. I was surprised when she made stew with flour, butter, and milk, but that's about it. It was a bit lightly seasoned, but honestly delicious. Tina ate it normally too while tilting her head, so I don't think it was a case of the taste being off but containing vegetables she hates.
……Did her mother teach her the stew? Even this small, she can already cook.
Did her mother teach her, or did she learn by watching? She didn't seem satisfied with the stew's flavor, but the French toast Tina made was delicious. I don't know what makes it "French," but the hard bread turned wonderfully soft, and I remember Aurelia seemed to find it easier to eat too.
……Tina's cooking is about half successes and half failures.
From my perspective, most of it is good enough to call a success. It's never flavorless or, conversely, too strong. But maybe her own standards are too high, because Tina herself tilts her head dissatisfied.
……Speaking of Tina's failures, the pancakes were admittedly iffy.
I'm aware that I grade Tina's cooking on a sweet scale, but even I found them iffy, so to Tina it must have been an unforgivable failure. Pancakes haven't appeared on the table since. However, there are signs she's continued her research. She apparently figured out the reason for the failure from the baking powder Aurelia pulled out after the meal.
……After a huge failure she won't serve it again for a while. Tina's quite the sore loser.
I thought this might be part of her shyness too, but she energetically spouted incomprehensible words like "I want hotcake mix! Convenience store, come here!!" so she's definitely a sore loser.
With her small body, Tina's meal portions were small too. Not even worth comparing to an adult man like me, she can only fit about half the amount the elderly Aurelia eats into her stomach in one meal. Naturally, working all day means her stomach won't last until night, so during the daytime when she's often left to look after the house alone, she seems to be working on improving the pancakes.
……I was worried about leaving her to watch the house alone, but there was no need to worry about Tina.
During the day, Aurelia and I go out to gather medicine ingredients, so Tina is left alone at home. At first I worried about whether she could handle watching the house alone, but it turned out to be needless worry. Tina is a clever child to begin with, so she's not much trouble. On the first day she failed to make dinner because she was absorbed in the mortar, but by the next day she'd already figured out how to make dinner.
……What was I like when I was eight?
I recalled myself when I was still at my parents' home and clutched my head. At the same age as Tina, I barely helped around the house, running around outside with the neighborhood kids until dark. If I'd been entrusted with watching the house, I would have gone out to play the moment my parents left and their backs disappeared down the road. I couldn't have watched the house as well-behaved as Tina, helping out, even preparing dinner.
……Is this the difference between boys and girls?
Looking back at my past self, it certainly does seem, as Tina insists, that even a young child should be treated as a girl. At the very least, treating her the same as a boy is impossible.
……Speaking of differences from boys, girls are nice. There's the joy of dressing them up.
Lately, Tina wears a dress for young girls. The baggy shirt borrowed from Aurelia was cute too, but clothes that fit her build are best. Speaking of fitting her build, the ones she originally wore would be best, but we burned them to guard against disease infection, and they were shabby things anyway. The adorable Tina and shabby clothes were a mismatch, so this was probably for the best. It was just a dress picked out roughly by gender and age, but compared to what she'd worn until now, it matches her somewhat better and is cute.
……When we return to town, first I'll have to get her clothes and shoes.
She wears a dress, but her shoes are still adult-sized sandals. Foot sizes vary greatly, so they couldn't be gathered roughly by age.
……That bastard Yurgen, he put unnecessary ideas into Tina's head.
I recalled the face of the man who brought the dress and frowned. I never thought Tina would suddenly say "should I become Aurelia's apprentice?" Something like a witch's apprentice. It's the nonsense of a child who speaks only because she knows nothing. Tina's thinking seems to be that "I wouldn't have to take care of an orphan so it would be easier for me." She doesn't want to become Aurelia's apprentice, she just doesn't want to be a burden on me.
……Do I look that unreliable?
I'm large-framed and trained, so I have strength. Knights earn more than merchants or soldiers, so I have decent savings, and I've also studied to some degree. Supporting just one Tina is no burden at all to me.
……When will she come to trust me?
As if to distract from the helplessness in my heart, I poked Tina's cheek, and the next instant, chomp, she bit me.
I turned the leaves Tina had left partially ground into powder with the grinding bowl. Aurelia had been watching the large pot again after dinner, but that task was probably nearing its end. Sounds began to come from the back of the kitchen.
If I don't grind them into powder at a level Aurelia accepts, they might get mixed into the food again, so I put strength into it and carefully ground the leaves. It takes quite a bit of strength, but Tina had been doing this the whole time she was watching the house alone. Maybe there's some trick to it.
……Come to think of it, she doesn't complain about Tina's work.
The leaves I ground got mixed into the food, but the leaves Tina ground were put in a separate container. Also, when we turned pebbles into powder, what Tina powdered was moved to a separate box, while what I powdered, she said was "crushed, but not powder" and left the rest to Tina.
……Tina and Aurelia get along pretty well.
As her big brother figure, I'm a bit displeased. Speaking of displeased, the fact that Tina kept quiet and cooperated with Aurelia's prank also displeases me. Aurelia told me the pasta with a bad texture and different color was "specially made by your little sister for her big brother," and when I looked to Tina to ask if it was true, our eyes met and she smiled adorably, nipa. I was completely fooled by that. She still won't call me "Big Brother," but it made me a little happy to think she calls me "Brother" to Aurelia. Quite happy. I was so happy that I ate the gritty-textured pasta with gusto.
……I will never forget for the rest of my life the indescribably subtle face Tina made when I said it was delicious.
It was after I'd finished eating everything that I heard Aurelia had played a prank with that green pasta. That was the moment my brand-new little sister betrayed me.
'Still sloppy as ever. Shall I make more gritty pasta for your breakfast tomorrow?'
Aurelia had come out of the kitchen before I knew it and said that while peering into the grinding bowl.
'Your little sister, on the other hand, picks things up quickly and does her work carefully.'
She said it had been a long time since she'd given instructions to make powder and the person actually made powder.
'Three months ago the church sent an apprentice, right? That apprentice couldn't make powder?'
'Every last one of them does sloppy work, nothing but incompetents who can't even do what they're told. Give them just a little guidance and they immediately whine and run away.'
'It's because your "little guidance" isn't little that the apprentices run away...'
Aurelia may have forgotten this country's language, but she has a sharp tongue and quick hands. She fires off instructions in English like a barrage, and if you ask back even once, she hits you with her cane and calls you a slowpoke. Even a pharmacist excellent enough to be sent out to the valley as the witch's apprentice would want to run from this.
'...That child might amount to something. I wouldn't mind taking her in. She seems to want it herself, after all.'
'She's lost her parents, but Tina should still have relatives. I have no intention of leaving her in the valley.'
If Tina were an adult, fully aware of everything, and said she wanted to be the witch's apprentice, I would support her. But Tina is still a child. She doesn't truly understand what it means to become the witch's apprentice.
When I flatly refused the request, Aurelia showed disappointment with a rare, easy-to-read expression. It seemed she genuinely wanted Tina.
'What a shame... That child looks like she'd stick with it.'
'It's not a shame. Tina is different from the candidates who come knowing everything to become the witch of the valley's apprentice—'
There was a clunk from the back door, followed by the sound of the door opening. Just when I thought light footsteps continued, Tina peeked her face through the kitchen door.
"...I'm hungry."
Probably because she'd slept through dinner as a result. With a pathetic face, Tina muttered that. She might also be half-asleep, as she kept blinking drowsily.
"Were you fighting?"
Slightly furrowing her brow, Tina compared Aurelia's face and mine. Then, whatever judgment she made inside, Tina toddled around me and over to Aurelia.
"Tina? Come here."
Her criteria were a mystery, but the shock of her choosing Aurelia over me made me beckon to Tina. As for the beckoned Tina, she stared at my face for a moment, then turned away with a huff.
"Leonyaldo-san, you have a scawy face. No."
So saying, Tina clung to Aurelia's waist. The clingy gesture she never normally showed told me Tina was half-asleep, but it was impossible not to be shocked by the honest words and actions that came precisely because she was half-asleep. As for Aurelia, who Tina clung to, she wore a beaming smile she would absolutely never normally show and looked triumphant.
"Is good. Make scones for you."
"Scones!?"
Did she react only to the word she caught, or did she understand the meaning? Tina let out a "kyaa" of joy and clung to Aurelia once more, then pulled Aurelia's hand as if dragging her toward the kitchen. Aurelia, walking to the kitchen as her hand was pulled, turned back just once and wore a triumphant smile.
……Is it food? Does she get hooked by food? Come to think of it, when she was first searching for seasonings in the kitchen, when she found the sugar she was overjoyed with a smile I'd never seen before.
So she's weak to sweets after all. Does she like sweets because she's a child, or does she like sweets because she's a girl? Either way, it doesn't matter.
……When we return to town, first I'll try baiting her with sweets.
Though "baiting" my little sister is a bit off. But to first be recognized as her brother, I at least wanted to know my little sister's favorite foods.
Subtitle "The Case of My Little Sister Being Too Cute and Her Big Brother Figure's Screws Blowing Off"
(Machine translation dependent. Abbrev.) (There, there. I'll make scones for you.)
"Is good. Make scones for you."