24 - The Knight's Return and What I Can Do
The follow-up report arrived two more days later.
Considering the horse's round trip, he might have returned to the fortress and come straight back.
The black knight's voice reporting to Leonardo reached my ears as well.
"Transmission from Jean-Jacques to a prostitute has been confirmed!
The prostitute in question has been isolated, and the customers who were with her after Jean-Jacques have been secured.
The other prostitutes have also been isolated.
The Sedovara Church is currently disinfecting the entire brothel, but it seems they don't know how effective it will be."
Additionally, the dining hall and tavern that Jean-Jacques frequented have also been closed, and disinfection work by the Sedovara Church appears to have been carried out..
...Just one Jean-Jacques-san is causing a lot of trouble for businesses, isn't he.
I do think it's a necessary measure to prevent further spread if the shops were infected.
But to the shop owners forced to close, I can only say that I feel sorry for them.
It's a fine case of business obstruction.
"Take this and go."
Coming out of the workshop, Aurelia placed a handbag-sized pouch on the table.
Perhaps because it was filled about halfway with something, it made a small sound when set on the table.
...Is it packed full of small grains?
The clacking sound is similar to the sound you hear when shaking a tin of candies.
Though the sound is a little higher-pitched, so the things bumping together inside the pouch must be small grains.
"Is the same ones to the previous medicine.Choose a person to distribute.Do not distribute to people who are unlikely to recover."
As always, when speaking with Leonardo, Aurelia uses English, so I couldn't understand what she was saying.
They spoke with grave faces, and as someone who could do nothing but observe their expressions, I was nothing but anxious.
...If it was going to be like this, I should have taken English more seriously.
Instead of learning it as disposable knowledge just to score points on a test, I should have properly acquired it and understood it.
The English you learn as mere knowledge and the English actually used are completely different.
As I was alone stewing in regret over my lack of diligence in my past life, Leonardo and Aurelia simultaneously turned their gazes toward me.
...Huh?
What?
I had been completely outside the loop until now, so suddenly having both of them look at me startled me.
What's going on?
I blinked, and Aurelia placed her hand on my shoulder, then began beckoning toward Leonardo.
...Ah, in foreign countries, beckoning is reversed, right?
So she's shooing Leonardo-san away?
At Aurelia's gesture, Leonardo furrowed his brows, but eventually seemed to give up.
He let out a deep sigh, then knelt down and met my eyes.
"...Tina, I'll be heading back to the fortress soon.
The incubation period seems to have passed, and there's no sign of a high fever either."
Apparently, the exchange just now had been Leonardo asking Aurelia whether it was safe for him to return to town.
If so, what on earth had been the reason for them both looking at my face at the same time?
"Me too, with Leonyaldo-san, go?"
"I want to take you back with me too... but I need you to stay here and help Aurelia a while longer.
Aurelia says the same."
So it turned out that staring contest had been a standoff over whether to take me back or leave me in the valley.
A struggle between Leonardo, who wanted to take me back as my guardian, and Aurelia, who couldn't manage making the medicine alone.
"Help I can do, mortar, and, watching pot, only.
Can be, useful?"
Wondering if it was really alright, I instinctively looked up at Aurelia, but she pressed my head down and returned my gaze to Leonardo.
My words should reach Aurelia, but she seems intent on continuing to pretend she understands only English when dealing with the black knights.
In other words, don't involve me, settle it with Leonardo on your own.
...At this point, it's just a hassle, so it'd be nice if Aurelia-san would just talk.
That dissatisfaction showed on my face, but Leonardo apparently took it for a look of anxiety.
He tousled my head, ruffling it roughly.
"Once things settle down at the fortress, I'll absolutely come get you, so stay here and help Aurelia for a while."
"Nn, understood."
I nodded firmly and saw Leonardo off.
From atop his horse, Leonardo looked back countless times.
He must really be worried about me.
...He doesn't need to worry that much.
I'm not a real little girl, so I won't cause Aurelia-san that much trouble.
At any rate, I'll help within the range of what I can do.
I can't do things like compounding medicine, of course, so my work is turning raw materials into ingredients as Aurelia instructs.
All day long, making powder in the mortar, drying leaves, making powder in the grinding bowl.
Occasionally, when the leaf shape or the sand color changed, I felt a small sense of accomplishment knowing I'd moved on to a different task.
Day one, day two, I just kept repeating monotonous work, and in between I'd make meals, do laundry, and other housework.
Aurelia hardly ever comes out of the workshop.
...Aurelia-san, this is not how someone who's been entrusted with a little girl should act.
If I were a normal little girl, an adult would be taking care of things like meals.
At the very least, you couldn't act the way Aurelia does, coming out of the workshop once a day, eating the meal the little girl made, and then holing up in the workshop again.
...Well, I'm not a normal little girl, and it's an emergency right now.
I know Aurelia is holed up in the workshop, grudging even sleep.
With Leonardo gone (he was the one who would tell me "children need to sleep"), my sleep time too kept slipping later and later until I reached a good stopping point in my work.
Because of that, I know that the workshop light stays on until late at night.
On the sixth day after Leonardo returned to town, a delivery arrived.
The knight who brought it identified himself as belonging to the Gurnol Knight Order, so it was probably what Aurelia had ordered when the black knight first came.
I still can't read letters, and even if I could, there's no way I would understand what it was, so I called Aurelia, who was holed up in the workshop.
Aurelia checked and sorted the parcels, and the black knight who had carried them was made to help with organizing.
Being still a little girl without physical strength, I couldn't help with heavy labor like organizing parcels.
Just watching Aurelia and the black knight would have been a waste of time, so I went into the house and swung the wooden mallet.
Up until now, Leonardo had crushed things down small for me, but he's not here now, so I have to do it myself.
When the pieces are big, you can't use the mortar, and making them smaller is more efficient too.
As I was using the mallet despite my lack of strength, the black knight, who seemed to have finished organizing the parcels, poked his head in.
"Tina-chan, Tina-chan."
"Yes?"
At the black knight beckoning from the doorway, I tilted my head but set down the mallet and approached.
Looking at the black knight's face up close, I remembered it was a face I'd seen among those who had come to Meiyu Village.
"Umm... Lorenz-shan?"
I stumbled over it a little, but I think that was the name.
The black knight called Lorenz smiled happily, then took a palm-sized tin from the pouch at his waist.
"From the Commander to Tina-chan.
He said it's a reward for working hard at helping out."
"A reward?"
What could it be?
I gave the tin a light shake.
From inside came the sound of something clacking.
...Candy?
It sounds similar to when I shook the tin of candies I received the other day.
Those candies are already closer to emergency food for when cooking meals is too bothersome than something to enjoy as a sweet.
...If I think about it calmly, this really isn't an environment for raising a child, is it.
The elder, Aurelia, doesn't come out of the workshop.
The meals are made by the little girl herself.
And when even that little girl finds cooking bothersome, she just ends it by sucking on a candy.
...Yeah, no good.
If you become a child of this household.
At this fact I've finally noticed, I despaired internally.
Life with Aurelia only works because I have the memory, or rather, the awareness of having reached adulthood in a past life.
It's not a place where a real little girl of just a few years could live.
...Anyway, let's have one new candy.
I try to open the tin, but it's hard to open with a little girl's hands.
After my fingers slipped several times, Lorenz, apparently unable to watch any longer, opened the lid for me.
Packed inside the tin was an amber color, different from the candy drops I'd received the other day.
"The Commander said they're honey-flavored candies, but..."
"I love you, Lorenz-shan!"
Drawn by the honey, I show maximum gratitude.
Due to the height difference, it ended up being clinging to his leg, but I clung without concern.
Having received the gift of honey, I must show maximum gratitude.
"Though it was the Commander who prepared them..."
"Then, please pass that on, to Leonyaldo-san too."
I promptly pop one into my mouth and feel happiness at the sweet taste of honey spreading through my mouth.
With this taste of happiness, I felt like I could keep going just a little longer, despite the unending, simple, sleep-inducing tasks.
Three more days passed, doing nothing but working the mortar.
Is it about lunchtime?
I went outside and flipped over the drying nets.
To me it just looks like clumps of mud and grass, but since Aurelia made it, these must also become medicine ingredients.
...Now that I think of it, even though I've been helping out quite a lot, I'm not learning the names of any grasses at all, am I?
Rather than not remembering the names, maybe it's more that proper nouns don't come out of Aurelia's mouth in the first place.
Aurelia's instructions are things like "dry this grass," "powder that red leaf," and the names of things never appear.
She might not know the words in this country's language, but these things must have names.
If they didn't have names, she couldn't give orders to the knights to procure them in town.
...Did someone say Aurelia-san's techniques are kept secret?
Could it be that she's deliberately avoiding saying names so I don't accidentally memorize them?
As I was thinking about such things while flipping over the nets, Aurelia came out of the workshop.
"Aurelia-san, lunch, eat?"
I called out to Aurelia, who lately has been showing herself only in the morning and at night.
My pancakes made from flour still can't compete with hotcake mix, but they've finally reached a quality good enough to serve to other people.
"...Huh?
A basket?
Going somewhere?"
"Ah, I've run out of materials at last.
If I don't go gather some, I can't make any more."
I thought she'd come out of the workshop, but Aurelia was holding a backpack basket.
I'd only ever seen her make Leonardo carry it, so it's quite a fresh sight.
"Carrying stuff, I'll come!"
"If you were my apprentice, I could teach you the gathering spots, but I can't teach you."
If the medicine compounding methods are kept secret, then apparently the gathering spots for the raw materials are also kept secret.
Come to think of it, Leonardo also said he only accompanied her to carry the load.
Even if you could accompany her nearby, you probably couldn't help with gathering the materials.
"Aurelia-san, needs, help.
Me, become apprentice?"
If I become Aurelia's apprentice, Leonardo won't have to look after an orphan, and Yurgen said that would be convenient for him.
Being shut up in the valley is a bit of a concern, but if they attached a guard in the name of escort, they might allow me to go out.
Right now, I don't have any particular occupation I want to take up, nor a house I need to inherit.
Even if the training is harsh and I want to run away, there's no longer a home with parents to run back to.
What Yurgen said about me being "convenient" is correct in many ways.
When I looked fixedly up at Aurelia, she blinked for an instant, then immediately twisted her mouth.
I couldn't understand what she said, but after Aurelia made this face, Leonardo would often get angry, so it's probably the face she makes when teasing or speaking venom.
"As if I'd take a child who doesn't even understand what it means to become a witch's disciple as my disciple."
Pinching my nose firmly, Aurelia snorted and declared.
It seems there's something more I must know before I can become Aurelia's disciple.
"Hand over a few of your candies.
I'll have them in place of a packed meal."
"Honey ones, and, clear ones, which?"
"Both."
Leonardo and the others showed restraint, but Aurelia has no qualms about taking candy drops from a little girl.
When I offered her one on the day I received the candies, she started coming to demand them from time to time.
"How many, you take?"
"All of them."
"How cruel!?"
She's taken care of me, and they're candies I received as a gift, so I don't mind sharing with Aurelia.
But all of them is simply too cruel.
Especially the honey-flavored candies.
I've been restraining myself to one a day, treasuring them even when I want to eat more.
"Hurry up and bring them."
"Ugh~!
Tyranny..."
I have complaints, but I don't know how far Aurelia intends to walk.
When she went out with Leonardo, they would often leave in the morning and return in the evening.
She might actually need a packed meal.
With a wrenching feeling, I handed over the two tins of candies to Aurelia, and Aurelia transferred the remaining candies from the tins into one tin.
I thought she really was going to take them all, but Aurelia transferred three of each candy into the smaller tin, and properly returned the rest.
Aurelia, who had gone out with the candies in place of a packed meal, did not return even when night fell.
[Author's Note]
(Excerpted)
(Take this and go)
(The same medicine as last time. Choose carefully who you distribute it to. Do not distribute to those with no hope of recovery.)
"Is the same ones to the previous medicine.Choose a person to distribute.Do not distribute to people who are unlikely to recover."