266 - Grandfather's Influence
"The young lady's mother seemed to be the one restraining the two, you know," said Ethelbert.
"Mother did?"
According to Ethelbert's information, when Tina's father fell in love with her mother and came into conflict with Bertrand, her mother stopped her father from running away from home many times. She would say not to do anything rash, that they should talk it out properly. And so her father apparently tried to patiently persuade Bertrand as well, but in the end they could not come to an understanding and he left home.
...Could it be that Mother never changed her name so that Bertrand-sama would be able to find Father?
Listening to Ethelbert's story, that is the feeling I get. It seems Father and Bertrand simply could not understand each other no matter what, but Mother apparently kept trying to stop Father from leaving home until the very end. If she had fallen in love with Father because she wanted to marry into a noble's son, then running away would hold no advantage for her, so I can understand her stopping him. But in the end, Mother followed Father. She was always smiling even in their poor life in Mey Village as just Saro, no longer a noble's son. That alone makes it clear that she did not fall in love with Father because he was a noble's son. Mother simply never wanted Father and Bertrand to be at odds. And perhaps she hoped that someday they would come to understand each other and reconcile.
"With a daughter like you born to them, enough time has passed for both of them to have calmed down. If that old man had reached you just three years earlier, if he had made it in time for your father's deathbed, do you not think he would have returned home?"
"...I will not deny the possibility, but in reality, he arrived more than two years after both my parents had died. If I had not met Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama, I think I would be dead by now."
Father had told me to seek out traveling merchants and aim for an orphanage, but traveling merchants stopped by Mey Village maybe once every six months. It would be difficult for me, just eight years old at the time, to survive even those six months alone. If Leonardo had never visited Mey Village, sooner or later I would have died before ever meeting Bertrand.
"Setting aside Father and Mother, I have also heard that Bertrand-sama drove his cousin's mother out of the house. I cannot think of someone so heartless as a grandfather."
"If you mean Sofiya, could it not have been his own way of thinking about her future? She has the beauty and youth that would be wasted if she remained confined to the residence as a widow."
Since the age of adulthood is lower than in Japan, the average age of first marriage is also lower, but the period considered prime marriageable age is terrifyingly long compared to Japan. In Japan, it is as if youth is everything. Women who have entered their late twenties are called old hags and denigrated. But in this world, a woman in her late twenties is just beginning to bloom if she were a flower. The prime is considered to start in one's thirties, and as can be inferred from the fact that Christoph, who is old enough to have grandchildren, has a son younger than those grandchildren, women commonly bear children even into their forties. At an age where one might have children a bit older than me, a woman is still very much in her prime and able to remarry.
"I agree that Aunt Sofiya has the kind of beauty that could find a new husband. I have met her once, so I can attest to that. But I think there was a problem with the way it was handled."
If it had been a case where the matter was explained to her, she understood, and left the house of her own will, then my feeling uncomfortable about it would be meddling where it is not my place. But from what Sofiya said, it did not feel at all like she had left of her own understanding. She was hurt by being driven from the house, became reluctant to go outside, shut herself in, and lives a life where Mikaela has to drag her out. And as for her child, Sofiya did not give him up willingly. When I told her about what I had heard of Bertrand in Grenore, and the part about Bertrand's grandchildren came up just a little, Sofiya perked up her ears and listened closely. Even though she was separated from her child by Bertrand, Sofiya was a mother who worried properly about her own child. If a loving woman like Sofiya were my grandmother, I might at least consider returning to Father's family home.
"In any case, unless Bertrand-sama fixes his autocratic tendencies, I will not be in a mood to listen to anything he has to say."
So I drive the point home to Ethelbert. Do not do any more unnecessary meddling. I can get along with him as a kind old man who is just someone else's grandfather, but I cannot get along with a grandfather who runs a domestic dictatorship. I already have a family in Leonardo. There is no need to force a relationship with a blood-related grandfather who I know will only bring me stress.
Perhaps because we had met face to face once at Ethelbert's detached palace, Bertrand stopped visiting the detached palace every day. That in itself was good, but it seemed Grandfather had been busily spreading harm outside my field of vision.
I noticed something was wrong in the middle of the night. I woke up sensing a noise, and the Black Dog (Oscar), who should have been sleeping at the foot of my bed, was gone. Thinking it strange, I looked around the room and found the Black Dog sitting in front of the door leading to the antechamber. Thinking it odd, I opened the door, and the Black Dog dashed out from the antechamber into the hallway. Left behind in the antechamber was Giselle, unusually, not Aaron. This too seemed suspicious, and when I asked where Aaron was, she urged me to go back to my room and sleep. This is seriously strange, I thought. Something must be happening. But Valerier handed me some warm milk to help me sleep, so I gave up on pressing further and returned to bed. Despite it being the middle of the night, people had been stationed around me, and those who could fight had gone off somewhere. Which meant I should stay in my bedroom.
I went to sleep feeling uneasy, and the next morning my guard Aaron told me what had happened.
...Really, that old man never does anything good, does he?
My internal language is crude, but I am not showing it on my face, so please overlook it. This is my honest impression after hearing the whole story from Aaron.
Bertrand, who had recently stopped appearing around me, had apparently been seriously seeking an audience with King Christoph. Mainly to inquire about the truth of the claim that I did not want to have children. He was so persistently tenacious that apparently it became known to everyone around that I was Bertrand's granddaughter. That alone would not have been a problem. But since it had been rumored until now that I was a hidden child of a royal who had been given a detached palace, the revelation that I was actually the granddaughter of a Merit Peerage caused some White Knights to start looking down on me as the granddaughter of an upstart. More specifically, White Knights from the Flower Peerage family, which had been established for more generations than the Merit Peerage, disparaged me. Not only did they slack off on their guard duty, saying that the granddaughter of a Merit Peerage was not worth protecting, but one apparently even took a bribe from the third son of a Loyalty Peerage family and guided him to sneak into the detached palace late at night. In short, an arrangement for a night visit.
...The White Knights really are useless, just as the rumors say.
I had heard they were useless as a fighting force, but I never thought they would go so far as to arrange a night visit to the person they were supposed to be protecting. This is beyond lacking foresight.
In the end, the noble who sneaked into the detached palace and the aforementioned White Knight were captured, and it seems they are currently awaiting judgment. Since it was an attempted rape of a princess (Felicia) and a minor (me), Aaron told me the noble's punishment would likely be severe. According to the culprit's confession, I was supposedly the target, but Felicia is currently staying at the detached palace. If someone sneaks into the detached palace, they cannot help but be suspected of malicious intent toward Felicia.
As for the White Knight, it seems the peerage of his parents and siblings is to be stripped, and he himself is to be subjected to a punishment that they will not even let me hear about. If he had worked seriously, he might have been able to hope for meritorious deeds, and the family might have been able to hold onto their peerage for one more generation. But since he harmed the person he was supposed to protect, there was no way to defend him. His parents and siblings lamented what their foolish son had done, and though it was far too late, they apparently disowned him.
I worried that if they punished him too harshly, I might become the target of resentment. But it seems the impression has been manipulated to make it look like Felicia was targeted. That is, he is being judged not for committing an outrage against the granddaughter of some mere Merit Peerage, but for committing barbaric acts against a princess.
...I really am being protected, am I not.
Guards are placed to protect me physically, and Felicia and the other royals act as a shield to protect me from malice and ill intent. I had heard that Japanese reincarnators were treated well, but this leaves no room for doubt.
...But still, that old man. What am I going to do about him.
Even if he had no intention of doing so, he brought direct harm to me. I may need to reconsider my attitude that it is fine to just not interfere.
...After all, they say attack is the best defense!
[Author's Note]
Continued from yesterday, so today's is short.
The reason the marriageable age range is long is not so much the birth rate, but rather the high infant and child mortality rate. Since the probability of a child growing up safely is low, you cannot just have a few children young and then stop. It is more like, they want you to have as many as you can while you can. But in practice, the only ones who actually have lots of children are those with enough money to raise them, or conversely, families so poor that the children do not reliably survive. For similar reasons, women who have given birth are popular sellers in the marriage market.