26 - The Witch's Apprentice and the Role of the Valley's Knights
"You're loud, how shameful! A girl shouldn't bawl like a baby!"
I don't know where or how I ran. The weathered skull, washed clean by the rain, I could endure, but the decomposing corpse was impossible. My reason blew away and my mind went blank. I ran to get away from the corpse, wailing like an infant. I ran while crying. The way back, the direction of home, things I should have been thinking about cleanly dropped out of my head, and I simply ran. Then, beyond the thicket I burst out of, there was Aurelia, the one I had been searching for, sitting with her back against a tree.
"Au-Aurelia-san..."
Finding the person I was looking for, my tears receded in an instant. But now, from the relief of having found Aurelia, my tear ducts burst.
"Oleliashan, you're heeereeeee!!"
I won't lose sight of you again, so thinking, even while crying, I reached out my hands to grab Aurelia. Aurelia, who had a face that said she didn't understand why I was bawling my eyes out, nevertheless grasped my outstretched hand in return.
"What're you cryin' for, this child. You're loud. I'm the one who wants to cry here."
She pinched my nose with a squeeze, and my mouth reflexively opened. Into my wide-open mouth, a honey-flavored candy was tossed. As the sweetness spread through my mouth, I rolled the candy around with my tongue. While doing so, a little calm returned.
"...sweet... it is."
"Calmed down?"
"Yes."
I was still hiccuping a little, but the tears had stopped. With finding Aurelia, one anxiety had also vanished. I don't want to recall the decomposing corpse, but finding an adult (Aurelia) and the sweetness of the candy were beginning to distract me. With this, I should be able to switch my thoughts so I don't recall that scene any further.
"...So, what're you doing here anyway?"
"Aurelia-san, not coming back. Came to search."
Are you hungry? So saying, I held out the water pouch and the bag with food to Aurelia. Aurelia, who checked the contents of the bag, took out not bread but a honey-flavored candy and tossed it into her mouth.
"...And so you got lost and were bawling your eyes out."
"Not lost. Was crying, because surprised."
"Surprised?"
While talking, I was able to calm down considerably. I can't leave the corpse I discovered unattended, and burial is difficult with the strength of a single little girl. Right now Aurelia is busy making medicine, so we can't bury it immediately, but to bury that corpse, someone adult's help will definitely be necessary. At any rate, I need to convey that I found the corpse first.
"At the wall, way over there. Someone, was dead."
"The wall... you went all the way to the edge of the valley?"
"Yeah. Searching for Aurelia-san, walked straight. Then, reached the wall. Human bones, there were lots."
Pointing toward the wall, I used gestures to convey what I had seen. I told her that near the rock wall human bones were scattered, and that a short distance away there was a decomposing corpse. I had been so shocked that my eyes only registered the eye sockets of the corpse, but as I explained, I was surprised to find I remembered details like the corpse's clothing. When I conveyed the clothing the corpse was wearing, wrinkles carved themselves into Aurelia's brow.
"The corpse you saw is the girl who, until a short while ago, lived in that house as my apprentice."
"...Huh?"
Even hearing she was Aurelia's apprentice, it didn't click. That's the occupation Yurgen recommended to me as "convenient."
"The kitchen in the annex was well-stocked with seasonings, wasn't it. I didn't think them necessary, but that girl seems to have been particular. She brought them with her when she came to the valley."
When I heard that she was the original owner of the sugar I had been happily using, it finally felt real. The previous resident of that house had been lying as a decomposing corpse near the rock wall. Perhaps she was also the original owner of the adult-sized sandals.
...Ah, sandals. Did they come off somewhere?
I dropped my gaze, and before I knew it I was barefoot. Apparently, because I was running frantically, I dropped the sandals somewhere. Once I realized I was barefoot, the soles of my feet began to sting. Noticing the state of my soles, Aurelia washed them with water from the water pouch and lent me her own shoes.
"Aurelia-san's shoes, I wear. Aurelia-san, can't walk."
"Right now my back's given out a bit, so I couldn't walk from the start. I'll lend you my shoes, so go call the Black Knight above the valley."
"Don't know the path out of the valley."
"No need to go out of the valley on purpose. You went to the rock wall where the bones were rolling, right? There's always a Black Knight right above that place, so if you make a racket there he'll come down on his own."
Above the rock wall where the bones were rolling, a Black Knight is always there. And the identity of the corpse that was lying there was Aurelia's apprentice, and according to Leonardo's explanation, Aurelia's medicine arts are very strictly concealed. I had simply understood it as the methods being too precise, so apprentices would run away before they matured, but I began to feel that wasn't all there was to it.
"...Aurelia-san, your apprentice, why did she die in a place like that?"
"You've probably got a vague idea already."
So saying, Aurelia gave a bitter smile, but in the end she told me. The knowledge of the wise woman and sage who received direct instruction from Saint Yuuta Hiraga is extremely precious. However, the methods are surprisingly precise with many compounding processes, and there were few who could correctly remember it all. As far as is known, Aurelia is the only person in this country who has correctly inherited the knowledge of the wise people of that time. Aurelia's medicine arts have the power to save human lives, but put the other way, it means she "holds the lives of others" in her hands. And there are always people anywhere who want to secure a person capable of such things as a pawn. To put it plainly, those in power. The country has kept the wise people who live in the valley for generations.
"So, the Black Knights, are watching?"
"Those fellows are the watchers who keep me shut in the valley, the guards against those who come to steal me from outside, and they exist to dispose of the half-baked failed wise women who run away with incomplete knowledge. Can't have them going outside with half-baked knowledge and spreading poison under the pretense of treatment, after all."
The knowledge of the wise woman's medicine arts is wonderful. In a sense, she is treasured like a national treasure by the country. In exchange, she is shut into the valley and bound to monopolize that knowledge. She is made to take apprentices to pass on the knowledge, but apprentices who give up and run away are killed by the watching knights to prevent the outflow of knowledge.
...Before, I thought the Black Knight outside the valley seemed like a watcher... but he really was a watcher.
He wore a smile that seemed kind, but did he create that decomposing corpse? When it came to the Black Knight above the valley, only one person came to mind.
"Aurelia-san, are you shut in? Do you want to go outside the valley?"
"Don't get the wrong idea. I live in the valley by my own will. To a half-baked runaway, this might be a hell where you don't get out alive, but once you've grasped the techniques, it's your game. There's almost no one who can inherit them, after all. I can make a fair number of selfish demands all I want."
I want to eat this, I want to eat that. I want seedlings of rare flowers from the eastern country. Bring me a boxful of pearls because I'll crush them to make medicine. A fair number of unreasonable requests are all granted. That is the witch of the valley.
"A lot happened, and I grew sick of living among people. So shutting myself up here alone is rather comfortable, even."
"You like being alone, so, you pretend to have forgotten the language?"
"...That might be part of it too."
That might be part of it, meaning that isn't the whole answer. Then what is the real answer? Seeing my face as I began to think, Aurelia lowered her eyes once. And then, just when I thought she slowly opened them—
"You're a reincarnated person, aren't you."
At the words Aurelia pointed out, I unconsciously straightened my back and held my breath. Leonardo had also considered it as a possibility, but I had never been directly stated to in a tone of certainty. Now, how should I answer? As I racked my brain in a fluster while breaking into a cold sweat inside, Aurelia unusually broke into a grin.
"You need to learn to bluff a little better. Show even a bit of a reaction and you'll be found out. In the first place, there's no such thing as an obedient child like you. Learn to behave in a way befitting your age in this life."
"Age-befitting..."
Behaving age-befittingly means acting and gesturing like a child. Having some pride as an adult woman, playing a child is more than a little embarrassing. I am aware that I am currently a little girl, but I simply cannot behave like a real child. I even understand what an adult would feel toward a selfish child. That a high-maintenance child is a pain.
I could have practiced on my parents in this life, but I tried to be a good, low-maintenance child and couldn't do it. From now on I have to pretend to be a normal child with Leonardo, but he is a complete stranger. If he finds caring for a child troublesome, he could even abandon me.
"...Age-befitting, is hard."
Where should one learn a level of childlikeness that isn't unnatural?
...Come to think of it, I haven't really interacted with children much in this life.
When I lived in the village, there were real children in the neighborhood, but I never actively associated with them. Partly because I had been ostracized, but also because I couldn't keep up with children's incomprehensible words and actions and cut off contact myself. Being with adults was far more comfortable than being with children.
...Huh? Could it be, the child I was closest to in the village was Marcel?
He was, in his own way, a very easy-to-read boy. Though from my perspective, it was nothing but a nuisance. The kind who torments the girl he likes.
"Even if it's hard, you've got to become able to do it, or someday you'll be found out as a reincarnated person. Besides, you don't seem especially clever at it."
I flinched and straightened my back at just a single remark. If I react this honestly, anyone can understand that what was pointed out is correct.
"You mustn't be found out as a reincarnated person. You'll lose your freedom."
"Aurelia-san, after all, the valley, you're shut in...?"
"It's not about living in the valley. It's the story from before I came to the valley. I can manage to read something like English, but I can't handle the languages of other countries. On top of that, I don't have any particularly outstanding knowledge. As a reincarnated person, I'm a dud if ever there was one."
But with a reincarnated person's knowledge, one never knows what will turn out to be a blessing until the time comes. Because of that, Aurelia became someone managed by the Sedovara Church, and with no leeway to let her freeload, she was sent as an apprentice to the valley's wise woman at the time. Whether she had talent, or whether her personality suited detailed work, she splendidly inherited the wise woman's medicine arts. Being able to become the next wise woman was likely good fortune. Thanks to that, now she is not someone to be disposed of by the Black Knights, but someone in a position to swing her staff and chase them around to vent her frustrations.
"...Well then, it's about time. Go and call the Black Knight."
[Author's Note]
Typos and errors will be checked another day.
It's gotten so hot I can't work during the daytime anymore... orz. With work time limited to only nighttime, practically halved, I feel like updates will be every other day for a while, or in the 1 to 2 AM range.
Heat and cold last until the equinox!