226 - Pop Quiz and Two Guards
"Tina young lady, the loading and unloading of the carriage luggage is complete."
Called 'young lady' by Hermine, I blinked for just an instant. After a moment, I remembered that since she couldn't bring a nurse maid along, I had asked her to also serve as a maid in the capital while accompanying me. While in the capital, it was only during lessons that we were 'Hermine-sensei' and 'Tina-san.' As far as Hermine was concerned, switching forms of address seemed to be part of the lesson itself.
"I'll check the carriage. Tina..."
"I'll go with you!"
I kicked my chair lightly and stood up. Even though Alfred was there with the same face as Alf, I was fundamentally shy around strangers. I didn't want to be left behind in a place full of people I didn't know.
Not wanting to be stopped, I took Leonardo's hand as if to say let's go quickly. When I tugged him toward the corridor, Leonardo gave a wry smile and started walking with a 'well, well' expression on his face, but Hermine's face grew stern.
...Huh? Why?
I stopped, sensing something was off. If Hermine was making that face, then I must have done something wrong.
...What was bad about it?
Trying to find the cause, I looked at the chair I'd been sitting in until just now. I thought perhaps it was because I'd gotten off the chair so enthusiastically, but then I saw Alfred sitting across from me, elegantly sipping herbal tea, and I belatedly realized my mistake.
...Abandoning a royal (Alfred) is indeed bad, I suppose.
Now what should I do, I thought, spinning my head at full speed. Seeing me stop and start thinking, Hermine's expression returned to normal, apparently having realized I'd noticed my blunder. Leonardo, like Hermine, seemed to be waiting to see what I would do. He neither urged me on nor said he'd go alone.
"...Alfred-sama, would it be alright if I left here?"
"That's about 20 points, I'd say."
At a loss for how to handle the situation, I honestly conveyed my feelings, and received a truly low score of 20 points. Hermine didn't interject, apparently thinking it was fair.
"As a lady, an 80-point response would have been to leave it to Leonardo and stay here yourself. Even if you wanted to go, you shouldn't show it on your face. Smiling pleasantly and entertaining me is the conduct befitting the master of the detached palace."
"If 80 points gets that kind of response, what should I have done to receive full marks?"
"If you wish for full marks, in addition to that, you should have entertained me with topics of interest, satisfied me, and then naturally created an atmosphere of parting."
In any case, it seemed the host's job at a tea party was to control the atmosphere of the room. I had thought we'd only just arrived at the detached palace today and that tea was prepared for us to rest first, but I was already the master of this detached palace and also the host of this tea party. Unlike in the city of Grenore, I couldn't just be treated as an accessory to the master of the residence.
"In other words, I was about to abandon Alfred-sama, my guest, and leave."
That was indeed incredibly rude. Even without saying it out loud, Hermine's expression changing made sense.
"If you were aiming for an even higher score, you should have sent the maid (Hermine) who made the report to the back and scolded her."
There was no problem with reporting itself, but the issue was saying it where the guest could hear it. Under normal circumstances, Hermine would never make such a mistake.
"...In other words, a trick question?"
It was like a pop quiz to see if I could take the correct action on the spot. I had perfectly fallen for the trick question Hermine had prepared.
...And so, today's lesson was this, wasn't it.
It wasn't lesson time yet today, and I'd thought it was just a break after arriving, so it was a complete failure. I'd probably be called for a reflection session later.
"Well, I was thinking it was about time for me to go report my return and your arrival to Father."
Alfred stood up, saying he'd go with me to the entrance, and offered his hand, so I placed my own hand in his. My escort partner had changed from Leonardo to Alfred, but if that was enough to end a tea party I hadn't been controlling well, it was a cheap price to pay.
Walking along the corridor leading to the entrance hall, I asked Alfred where the famous fountain was. He laughed wryly, saying that even if it had been his sister's detached palace, he didn't have knowledge of what was in someone else's palace gardens. But he did tell me I could probably get an answer right away by asking the servants working at the detached palace. Apparently, even though there were four different rooms for different seasons, the Eighth Princess had built an annex surrounding Leonardo's fountain and spent almost all day there.
...Leonyaldo-san's pheromones are really something.
The characteristic obsession of royalty had apparently manifested with Leonardo. She'd had him model to preserve his image, and in exchange, she was prohibited from approaching Leonardo himself, a mental structure that was hard to understand from a normal perspective.
...If it were me, I'd prefer the real Leonyaldo-san over a statue of him.
After all, unlike a statue, the real one answered when spoken to, and hugged me whenever I asked for a hug. I couldn't understand the Eighth Princess at all, who was apparently satisfied with a statue that didn't move or speak.
"Alfred-sama. Thank you very much for your hospitality during this journey."
Having just made a mistake, I consciously tried to behave politely. When dealing with a prince, even if he said he was 'going home,' I couldn't just say 'okay, goodbye.' I would need to offer a slightly more polite farewell.
Once Leonardo confirmed that the luggage loaded onto the carriage had been properly unloaded, the large carriage departed from the detached palace. The carriages that arrived in exchange were a small but elegant one, and a carriage with iron bars on its small windows, like the one Cidur had used to transport gold coins back then. The elegant carriage was for Alfred's transport to the King's castle, and the prisoner transport wagon was for Jean-Jacques, who would be sent to Fort Viloop. Jean-Jacques had been counted as one of the escorts during the journey to the capital, but once freed from guard duty, he was just a Black Knight under punishment. Being put in the prisoner transport wagon was only natural.
After seeing Alfred off as he boarded the elegant carriage, I turned to face Jean-Jacques. Jean-Jacques loaded some documents and a small packed bag into the prisoner transport wagon, then gave Leonardo his farewell greeting for departure. When that was done, he came over to me and ruffled my hair roughly.
"See ya, Tina kid. Next time we meet, you better be a beauty that makes me wanna kneel without thinkin'!"
"Isn't it only three years you're going to Fort Viloop? Three years from now, I'll still be a fourteen-year-old minor child."
I pointed out that if I could become anything, it would be a beautiful girl, not a full-grown woman. It might be possible for me to become a beautiful woman eventually, but I'd need at least ten more years for that.
"Oh yeah, three years from now you'd still be a fourteen-year-old brat."
"I plan to stay as Leonyaldo Big Brother's household child until I'm twenty, so becoming an independent adult is even further off."
I puffed out my thin chest with a little pride. In this country, adulthood was fifteen, but perhaps due to my memories as a Japanese person in my previous life, fifteen still felt like a child to me. I vaguely remembered Leonardo saying once that he intended to look after me even after I came of age, so I was planning to take him up on that and set my independence at the Japanese age of adulthood.
"...Tina will stay at home until she's twenty, huh."
That's still nearly ten years away, Leonardo said with such obvious relief on his face that the contrary switch inside me woke up. I decided to throw Japanese common sense at Leonardo, who was looking all warm and relieved.
"Marriage should be possible from age sixteen!"
"Five more years... what!?"
"No, marriage is possible from fifteen, right."
The final straight man to our sibling comedy routine was Jean-Jacques. In this country, adulthood was set at fifteen, and since one was an adult, marriage was also possible from fifteen. Few commoners got married immediately upon coming of age, but even so, a clingy child who wasn't an heir declaring they wanted to stay at home until twenty was rare. My wanting to stay with my guardian (Leonardo) until twenty was simply me being pulled by my Japanese consciousness.
I saw off Jean-Jacques as he boarded the prisoner transport wagon, then returned to the detached palace escorted by Leonardo. When I turned around, the two guards were standing behind me.
...Come to think of it, I never asked the White Knight lady's name.
Alfred had introduced the two of them as my guards, but Leonardo's objection over one of them being a White Knight had derailed the conversation. I had already met Aaron, so there was no need for a new self-introduction, but I did need one from the White Knight girl.
"...How should I address you?"
"Please call me Giselle, young lady Tina."
When I tilted my head and asked, at a loss for how to address her, the White Knight who gave her name as Giselle straightened her back. A White Knight meant Giselle was a noble's daughter. I'd thought a noble would announce their family name to assert their status, but Giselle simply gave her name shortly as 'Giselle.' There was no accompanying self-introduction about family name or rank at all.
"Is 'Giselle-sama' acceptable?"
"Please, just 'Giselle.' Until I am relieved of my duty as the young lady's guard, my master is the young lady Tina."
"I understand. In that case, should I address Aaron-sama as just 'Aaron' as well?"
Considering the master-servant relationship, I should naturally drop the honorific from Aaron too, but it felt strange. I had been calling him 'Aaron-sama' since the day we met. Changing how I addressed him now felt somehow resistant.
...Is this also part of the lesson?
It was probably like when Hermine acted as a maid and told me to call her 'Hermine' outside of lesson time. As long as I was the two of them's protection target, I was the master, and they were the attendants.
When asked whether he should be addressed by name alone, Aaron nodded silently. As usual, he seemed to be a man of few words while on duty.
"What will you do now, Tina? You can go back to the pavilion and eat sweets, or check your room..."
"Huh? Well..."
If I went straight back to the pavilion, Hermine the 'teacher' would probably hold a reflection session. Thinking about that, I felt like I wanted to get a grasp of the detached palace's floor plan while I still had some energy left.
"Where is Leonyaldo Big Brother's room?"
"Leonardo-sama's room will be the guest room."
It was Aaron who answered my question. For some reason I'd expected Giselle to answer, but Aaron seemed to know the detached palace better.
"...Why the guest room? Isn't it okay to have the same room?"
Setting aside sharing a room, if I was the master of the detached palace, it felt a little strange for Leonardo, my brother, to be in the guest room. He should be treated as an equal or even better.
"Tina, sharing a room is probably not acceptable anymore."
"Then, next door?"
"Well, next to your room, the waiting room will be a nap room for Hermine and the guards."
Leonardo said that even as a brother, having his own room as a man would cause issues. In our case, even though we called ourselves siblings, there was no blood relation at all. So that was all the more reason to draw a line between men and women.
"...I don't feel like I'll be able to sleep soundly in a place I'm visiting for the first time."
"Then rest assured that Aaron, a Silver-White Knight, will be standing guard, so there's no need to worry."
He couldn't sleep in the same room, but he was also serving as a guard, so I didn't need to worry.
...Not being able to sleep in a new place isn't just about safety, though.
Couldn't write up to the planned point (as usual). But I managed to squeeze in Giselle's name through sheer willpower. It's Giselle. A name that sounds like she has little fortune, and the moment I saw it I was like "This is it!!" She's a rare character in this story whose name wasn't generated by a name generator.
Typos and omissions again another day. Fixed any typos and omissions I found.