213 - Side Story - Leonardo's Perspective - The Old Hero's Lost Item Search 2
"Your management of your subordinates seems lacking."
"I am deeply ashamed."
As we left the solitary cell and walked down the corridor, those words came from Bertrand's mouth as he walked ahead. I felt like retorting that it seemed he had failed to manage his own son, but I swallowed it. I was not young enough to poke a bush knowing there was a snake inside. To get through this by pleading ignorance, I needed to let some things slide.
"Even if they were found items, selling the personal effects of the deceased... I believe Jean-Jacques needs to be sent back to Vilupe Fortress once and receive re-education."
That had actually already been planned, and I had intended to send him to Vilupe Fortress as soon as preparations were ready. But because Bertrand had broken the bones in his arm, the trip to Vilupe was going to be delayed.
Vilupe Fortress was a knight training facility where young people who showed promise as knights were gathered and given knightly education and martial arts training. Even if Jean-Jacques, who could not even hold a sword until his bones healed, went there, he would not be able to start any training.
"...May I see the ring in question?"
We moved to the office, and I examined Bertrand's ring once more. I had clung to the faint hope that Bertrand's belief that Tina was his granddaughter was just a misunderstanding, and that there was a possibility Bertrand's ring was not Saromon's. But seeing the ring handed to me, I realized it had been a futile struggle. There was no mistaking it. The ring in my hand was the one I had buried when I interred Tina's father. The family head's name carved in the center was covered in scratches, as if someone had tried to scrape or crush it out, but the name 'Saromon' was still clearly legible. The wooden ring that had been enshrined alongside it had Tina's name, Saromon's name as the family head, and her mother's name in place of a family name carved into it.
...Come to think of it, where had Tina's ring gone?
They should have been kept together in the box, but the only thing in front of me now was the gold ring with the stone. Tina's wooden ring was not here. Jean-Jacques had said he found the ring, but he had never said anything about Tina's ring. Had it been lost somewhere when a stray dog dug it up, or was it still inside the box?
...If I had known things would turn out like this, I should not have buried them together. I should have given Tina hers to keep.
Guiding Bertrand to Saromon's grave was no problem, but not knowing where Tina's ring was bothered me. Saromon's ring alone would not reveal that he had a daughter, but if that ring were found, it would be bad.
...If it was buried in the dirt, that was fine. But if possible, I would like to recover it.
I decided not to let them do any more violence to Jean-Jacques. Using that as my excuse, I decided to accompany them to Mey Village. In truth, I was planning to secretly recover Tina's ring while we were there.
When Bertrand said he wanted to go to Mey Village right away, I told him to take a two-hour nap. Bertrand had probably also gotten little sleep, having had the journey to Mey Village explained to him all night, but apparently he saw no need to take it easy and schedule it a few days later. To be honest, it was a nuisance. If I had a few days' leeway, I could have sent someone ahead and recovered Tina's ring under the pretext of cleaning the grave.
"Good morning, Leonardo-san."
"Good morning, Tina."
Tina, who had been eating breakfast, stopped and greeted me. As always, her address to me had gone back to 'Leonardo-san.' Last summer, for a little while, she had called me 'Big Brother Leonardo,' but apparently she still was not ready to fix it. Alf had told me to approach it as a long-term battle that would take three years to regain lost trust, but it really might take three years.
The topic at breakfast was, reluctantly, Jean-Jacques. Salisa had apparently told her some of it, but she still seemed worried. Tina had been trying to fix her way of speaking since last summer, but it quickly fell apart when she got talking. Hermine was supposed to be teaching her a more ladylike tone, but it was not sticking. She was trying to change her natural way of speaking for outward appearances, so it was probably a stretch.
...Well, she still had a few years until adulthood.
As long as she was under my protection as my ward, it would be fine. As the sister of a fortress lord, she would hardly ever be dragged to places requiring manners. The problem would be if she were dragged out as a noble's daughter. As the sister of a commoner, she was fine. But as the granddaughter of a noble, she could not be shown outside yet.
...I thought it would be fine if she learned it over a few years.
But with Bertrand as the other party, that would not fly. Judging from how he treated Jean-Jacques, Bertrand had no patience. It was clearer than fire that he would not let her learn over a few years. He would force her to fix it immediately and inflict corporal punishment that would break even a boy's body.
...There was no way I could let Tina be taken from me.
I thought it would be unreasonable to entrust even an ordinary child to Bertrand, but Tina was a little different from ordinary children. If she had been raised as Bertrand's granddaughter from the start, she might have had no choice but to adapt to even a somewhat eccentric grandfather. But it had taken her over a year just to get used to me. Before she could get used to Bertrand, Tina would break down.
At the end of our conversation, when I said I would be away from the residence for a few days, Tina asked where I was going. When I declined to answer, saying it was work-related, Tina did not press further. She was curious, but she did not stubbornly push. She was really well-behaved, and it helped.
...Well, she made it look like she was being obedient, but lately she seemed to have learned how to use people to get what she wanted.
I really had to wonder whether to lament that her methods had grown more sophisticated or to be glad she had become more ladylike.
As I was loading ten days' worth of water and food onto the horse's saddle with some margin, Tina came out to see me off, accompanied by the Black Dog. Bertrand seemed to have judged it was pointless to do anything about the Black Dog sticking to Tina, and had not come to reclaim it.
Whenever I went out, Tina always came to see me off, and whenever I returned, if she noticed, she would come out to greet me. Apparently, this was a normal sight for people who had family, but for me, it was something I only got after taking Tina in. Before that, I had no family, so only the Black Knights and the servants would see me off or welcome me back. I did not want to lose this life where my little sister was waiting for me at home.
...I was surprisingly narrow-minded, it seemed.
When Tina saw Jean-Jacques appear, led by Bertrand and the Black Knights, she flew into a rage. His arm was in a sling, and bandages were wrapped around him here and there, clearly showing he had been treated. She could immediately tell what had happened.
Tina protested to Bertrand, saying torture was horrible. And more than the rights and wrongs of Bertrand's actions, I felt a dark joy. If she kept growing more suspicious of her grandfather like this, she would never suddenly change her mind and declare she would become Bertrand's granddaughter.
...No, I knew I should properly tell her someday.
Because I did not want to let go of my little sister, I could not bring myself to tell her that the sturdy old knight before her was her blood-related grandfather. And since that grandfather was looking for his son, Tina's father, it was an utterly absurd scene, though he did not know it.
Tina repeatedly warned me to keep a close watch and make sure Bertrand did not do any more violence to Jean-Jacques. I remembered that Jean-Jacques and Tina had not gotten along very well, but knowing he had been tortured, she was still worried.
I patted Tina's head, said "I am off," and mounted my horse. Bertrand called to the Black Dog, which had been waiting beside Tina with a face like an obedient pet. Apparently he intended to bring it along to Mey Village.
...I really did not want to bring a dog with a good nose.
I had no reason to tell him to leave it behind. What I could do was run the horses hard and try to tire out the Black Dog. But since Jean-Jacques, who was accompanying us, had a broken arm, it would be better not to go too fast. It was surely just a coincidence that Bertrand had broken Jean-Jacques's bone, but the timing really could not be worse.
We rode mostly in silence along the road to Mey Village. At one point, we passed by the site of another village that had been burned as part of the Words Disease cleanup, but no conversation arose. Bertrand truly seemed interested only in Mey Village, where Saromon's grave was located. Aside from resting the horses, we kept moving almost continuously.
At one point, I took pity on the Black Dog and lifted it onto my horse. But what simmered within me was anger at Bertrand.
...Now I understood well why Saromon-sama did not tell Tina to go to her relatives.
Bertrand was the type who trained his son until he broke, tortured a knight and broke his bones even when there were charges against him, and dragged dogs and horses along without considering their stamina. There was no way he could interact with a young girl while matching her pace.
...And Oscar was as unaffectionate as ever.
Bertrand did not take care of him, so I had no choice but to let him ride on my horse. But the moment we arrived at Mey Village and I let him down, the Black Dog did not spare me a single glance and moved straight to Bertrand's side. He would show his belly to Tina in submission, but I, as Tina's guardian, still seemed to be a target of his wariness.
...Everything was gone now.
There was no point in staying angry at a cold Black Dog forever. I tied my horse to a tree and walked through the settlement that had once been called Mey Village.
A village without people fell into ruin quickly. The houses had already been burned down, so the only tall things within the former village were the trees that had been there from the start. If it were Tina, who had lived in Mey Village, she might have felt nostalgic even at the shapes of the trees. But unfortunately, I had no attachment to this place that would make me sentimental. To me, Mey Village was simply the place where Tina was born and raised. Even if weeds covered the ground where black charcoal remained, even if I could tell from the way the grass grew that a house had once stood there, I felt nothing.
...But Tina still did not seem to want to see this scenery.
When I came to check on the frontier village once, I brought Tina to the burned Mey Village as a detour. But she wanted to leave that place immediately. I remembered that even though her parents' graves were there, she clung restlessly to my leg, wanting to leave that place more quickly than she wanted to pray at the grave markers, making it a little hard to walk. Back then, maybe seeing the dead Mey Village was still too painful for Tina.
"Hoo-oi, it is over here, you see."
Jean-Jacques waved his hand lazily and guided Bertrand. Ever since entering Mey Village, the Black Dog had been sniffing the ground constantly.
"This here is the grave where I picked up that ring."
With a theatrical 'ta-dah' gesture, Jean-Jacques led Bertrand to, as expected, Saromon's grave. Not a single marker remained from the stones Tina had arranged when we buried him. They had probably been covered by soil when we refilled the grave.
"...Oscar."
When Bertrand called, the Black Dog, who had been intently sniffing the dirt, came before Saromon's grave. There, it began sniffing again, then barked three short times. The Black Dog was a trained dog. It had been taught to bark differently when it found something or when it needed to alert its owner. When Tina called, it would bark back as if matching her childish tone, but normally it did not bark.
"Please do not disturb the dead's rest."
"I am well aware of that much."
In truth, I just did not want Tina's ring dug up. But I warned him not to dig up the grave. Even if we dug it up now, the flesh of the body would have returned to the earth. At most, only clothes and bones would remain. It would be impossible to confirm the grave's occupant's face.
"It is clear from Oscar's behavior. There is no mistake that my fool son sleeps here."
I averted my eyes from Bertrand, who had dropped his gaze. I did not want to see a guardian-unfit like Bertrand mourning his son's death. I could not hand Tina over out of temporary sentiment, saying 'She is your granddaughter.'
...Hm? What was that?
In the corner of my vision, Jean-Jacques was making a strange movement. Even if he was bored and had no interest in visiting the grave, I could understand. But he seemed oddly focused on the ground.
...Right. I needed to check whether Tina's ring might have been dug up around there too.
When Bertrand began a silent prayer at Saromon's grave, I ran my eyes over the ground, trying not to be noticed. As I did it, I realized that Jean-Jacques's objective was probably the same. He knew something was here, Tina's ring or perhaps something else, and was looking for it.
...Could it be that when he said he picked up the ring, Tina's ring was also there?
Tina's ring was a simple thing made of wood. Given that he had cashed in the gold ring, it would not be surprising if Jean-Jacques, finding a wooden ring that would not sell, had simply thrown it away on the spot.
"It hurts!?"
Jean-Jacques's scream and the Black Dog's bark as it bit his leg happened at the same time. The Black Dog had approached Jean-Jacques without me noticing, and was biting his leg. Jean-Jacques, who had reflexively lifted his foot, immediately showed on his face that he had screwed up.
"What is it? What is all the commotion about?"
As Bertrand complained about keeping quiet during a grave visit, the Black Dog sat down on the spot and barked three short times. Recognizing the same bark pattern as before, Bertrand immediately understood that there was something related to Saromon there.
"Is there something there?"
"There is nothing... Ow!"
As Bertrand approached Jean-Jacques, Jean-Jacques lowered his foot, which he had kept lifted. When the Black Dog bit him there again, I realized there was something at Jean-Jacques's feet, and he was trying to hide it by stepping on it.
...Why was it in a place like that!?
Ignoring Jean-Jacques, who was pinned down by the Black Dog and could not move, Bertrand knelt to the ground. What he picked up from the spot the Black Dog was guarding was a round clump of dirt. From the size, I was certain it was Tina's ring.
"...A ring. Quite a crude make, though."
I had managed to warn him not to dig up the grave, yet the crucial ring had already been unearthed. Moreover, it was not near the grave. It was lying a short distance away, making it hard to find. Considering that Jean-Jacques had been in that area from the start, he must have known the ring was around there.
"Absorbing moisture from the soil, it looks about to crumble... but there is something carved on it."
Brushing the dirt off the ring with his fingers, Bertrand attempted to decipher the letters carved into it. Now that he had the ring first, I could not very well snatch it away. I could only hope the corrosion had progressed enough to at least erase Tina's name, but it seemed such a convenient wish was not going to come true.
"It seems my fool son had a daughter."
Unpleasant sweat trickled down my back. If my memory was correct, Tina's ring bore her real name, Saromon's name, and the name of his wife, Chloe. The only name that would connect to Bertrand was Saromon's. Just as Saromon had gone by 'Saro,' if his wife's name was also a pseudonym, there might have been a way to bluff. But since the name Saromon carved on the ring was not a pseudonym, it was unlikely his wife's name was either. If, as Tina had imagined, Saromon and his wife were lovers who had eloped, there was a possibility Bertrand knew the name of Tina's mother.
"Which grave is the daughter's?"
...Right. There was still the possibility that she was dead.
Far from dying of illness, Saromon's daughter was currently living in the fortress lord's residence. But there was no way Bertrand could know that. If I pointed to some convenient grave and claimed it was the daughter's grave, the granddaughter whose existence he had just learned would become dead in Bertrand's mind.
Now, what should I answer? I was not good at lying, and I did not want to if I could help it. But I did not want to tell the truth and have my sister taken from me either.
I did not feel like I had been thinking for that long, but Bertrand apparently decided to rely on the Black Dog's nose rather than try to extract the information from me. 'Oscar,' he called the Black Dog's name briefly, and that alone was enough for the dog to understand his owner's intent. It brought its nose close to the ring in the outstretched palm, sniffed once, barked once, and then, instead of wandering through the graveyard, turned back toward the village entrance.
...If this were not the situation, I would want a talent like that at the fortress, damn it.
I wanted to put my head in my hands at the Black Dog's excellence, but I could not show such an obvious reaction in front of Bertrand. I simply clenched my arms. As for Bertrand, something seemed to have occurred to him, seeing the Black Dog return to the village entrance instead of searching for a grave.
"...Your sister at the residence. Her name was Tina, was it not?"
"And?"
"Under what circumstances did you come to have a sister? Surely you do not mean to say you found a real sister out of nowhere."
The age gap was too large. Even if she were a blood-related sister, considering our ages, she would have been a sister with whom I had had no connection whatsoever. There would be no reason for me to take her in now, he said.
"Your background was investigated once before. I hear that even the capital's intelligence department could not find your family."
As Bertrand began to conclude that there was no way such a thing could turn up now, I took my cue. Partly I wanted to steer the conversation away from Tina, but I had also heard something that bothered me a little.
"...My background was investigated?"
"You did not know? The Silver-White Knights are this kingdom's strongest knight order, also tasked with protecting the royal family. It is only natural that members are selected based on ability, but naturally their backgrounds are investigated as well."
Pointed out as natural, I had no choice but to nod in agreement. Even if I were in the position of leading the Silver-White Knights, I would at least do a minimum background check.
"...Even with the intelligence department moving, my family could not be found?"
Back when I became a knight and had money to use freely, there was a time I searched for my family personally. I searched for my home based on vague memories, and when that reached its limit, I even hired people to search. I had thought it was only because I was searching as an individual using hired help that I could not find them. But I had not known that even the intelligence department, professionals in this line of work, had been unable to find them.
Time is up. I feel like I failed the title, so I might secretly change it someday.
I will fix typos and errors another day. I will skip tomorrow's update.
Typos and errors I found have been corrected.