277 - Gift
By the time I'd grown used to having Rebecca do my hair, the merchant came to deliver the kotatsu and the kotatsu cover. The kotatsu itself was as ordered, but the kotatsu cover was already something different from what I thought a kotatsu cover would be. As someone had said, it ended up looking more like a table dress than a tablecloth.
...It came surprisingly quickly.
Since this should have been their first order, I'd thought it would take a bit more time, but it didn't even take a month. Even though it's a large item, a kotatsu is basically just a table, so perhaps it wasn't that difficult.
...The kotatsu cover really doesn't feel like a 'futon' at all. I think I'll call it a kotatsu cover or a kotatsu dress from now on.
Calling it a futon felt too strange, and my brain couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. I decided to tell myself, "This is just what it is. It's used as a kotatsu cover, but it's a different name for it." The gap between the word and the actual appearance was just too great.
"It came out well."
"Yes. It seems the young lady is satisfied, so the craftsmen will be pleased as well."
It was Rebecca who handled the direct dealings with the merchant on my behalf. There's no clear power hierarchy between the Loyalty Peerage and the Merit Peerage, but since the Loyalty Peerage has had its title for longer, they take precedence when authority is needed. Put simply, Rebecca took over Valerier's work, and the previous tasks were divided between Ulrika and Stina. When the two of them were short-handed, Hermine also lent a hand as a maid.
...There's a pocket on the inside.
When I felt the middle layer of the three-layered kotatsu cover, there was a pocket added that wasn't on the order form. As I checked its size by touch, the merchant explained through Rebecca.
"Since you mentioned using a hot water bottle inside the kotatsu, we added a pocket so you could put small hot water bottles or heated stones in it. It's on the inside, so it's not visible from the outside."
"I think it's a wonderful idea. Thank you."
Since I'd been thinking purely in terms of 'kotatsu,' it never even occurred to me to put a pocket on the kotatsu cover for a hot water bottle. In my head, I was focused on the kotatsu itself, but in the merchant's mind, the goal of spending the winter warmly must have remained. As a way to stay warm, they'd added a function that I never would have thought of.
As I was stroking the kotatsu cover, delighted by this unexpected auxiliary feature, the merchant, who had seemed relieved for a moment, hardened his voice slightly. He must have something difficult to report. Now that I noticed, I had ordered four items, but only the kotatsu and the kotatsu cover were here. Considering the seated chair I'd ordered along with it wasn't here, I could guess why the seated chair cover was also missing.
"About the chair with a rotating seat that you requested, miss... we've actually been having some difficulty with it. I came to ask if you could grant us a little more time."
"Since I want to use the kotatsu in the winter, it's fine if it takes until around the last month of autumn."
I encouraged him not to rush and to make a good product, and had him show me the design plans.
...It's still hot, huh.
The month had changed and it was now mid-autumn, so the temperature had dropped and it was a bit chilly, but it was still too early to wear winter clothes. And on top of that, with the Divine King Festival costumes, the amount of fabric used was even greater than ordinary winter clothes.
...The owl costume has a lot of fur, too. It's all fluffy.
The owl costume that Felicia had ordered made use of fur on many parts. I'd been called in for the fitting, but I'd started to sweat a little.
...But I'll bear with it. If I have the headpiece made so it's easy to move in, I can wear it throughout the winter.
After all, I needed to be in an animal costume during the winter to avoid being taken by spirits again, and if the research materials of Saint Yuuta Hiraga arrived, I'd be reading them in a place with no fire allowed. Since these were preparations to spend the winter as warmly as possible, I had no choice but to endure being a little hot now.
"Oh, really?"
Felicia's usually composed voice brightened slightly. The news brought by Felicia's lady's maid, who arrived late at the fitting, seemed to have pleased Felicia. I wondered what it could be, and when I turned my gaze toward her, Felicia met my eyes and smiled happily. Even the tailors who should have been working at the detached palace stopped their hands the moment they caught sight of that smile.
"It seems Alf has returned to the capital. After he's greeted Father with his return, he'll likely show his face here too."
"Alf-san, you mean?"
Huh? I tilted my head, and after a moment, I remembered. Felicia calls Alfred 'Alf,' while Christoph calls Alf 'Alfred.' For a moment, I'd thought of Alf, the vice-commander of the Grenore Fortress, but considering she said 'returned,' Felicia's 'Alf' probably referred to Alfred.
I'd thought he'd come to the detached palace right away with the research materials on Saint Yuuta Hiraga now that he'd returned to the capital, but Alfred showed up at the detached palace a week later. When I waited for Alfred at the entrance hall every day, Nadine told me that he'd probably prioritize clearing the work that had piled up while he was away from the capital first. Alfred left a strong impression as a cheerful prince, but the royal family of this country were all the type to clearly separate public and private matters. When she said he'd prioritize his work, I had to agree that made sense.
"Welcome back, Alfred-sama."
When I spotted the carriage surrounded by knights clad in silver-white armor, I dashed out of the entrance the moment it arrived at the detached palace. I'd thought only Alfred would be coming, but besides the white carriage Alfred rode in, there was also an unadorned black carriage stopped there. What could that be? As I turned my gaze to the carriage behind, Alfred, who had descended from the white carriage, pinched my cheek.
"Coming out to greet me and then getting more distracted by the gifts than the guest, that's inexcusably rude."
"Sorry..."
Holding my lightly pinched cheek, I apologized for my rudeness. Indeed, running out saying 'welcome back' and then staring at the gifts wasn't very proper behavior.
...Hm?
"Gifts, you say?"
I thought he'd gone to Grenore to pick up the research materials of Saint Yuuta Hiraga, but was it really an errand where you'd receive gifts? In my mind, it felt like asking someone to pick up homework I'd forgotten at home, so receiving a gift from someone who'd done me a favor felt like too much and made me hesitant.
"Rather than gifts, the carriage behind you has your autumn and winter clothes. The servants at Grenore, the Brownies, asked me to bring them via Alf."
...I can't talk about other people, but our household's fairies are amazing for making a prince run errands.
I looked up at Alfred with some apprehension, wondering if this was really okay, but Alfred himself seemed rather pleased, saying, "I can't say no when Alf asks." It seemed there was benefit for both sides, so this probably wasn't something for me to interfere with.
...Thank you, Alf.
When I left the task of bringing in the autumn and winter clothes, the so-called gifts, to Ulrika, she went back into the detached palace to call the male servants. Since the servants couldn't do their work unless we went inside first, I tried to urge Alfred in, but Alfred was looking back at the white carriage he'd arrived in.
"Alfred-sama? Did you forget something?"
"Not forget, exactly, this is a gift from Alf."
"From Alf-san?"
I tilted my head and looked toward the white carriage. Once he confirmed my attention had shifted to the carriage, Alfred said, "Come," giving an order toward it. I heard the faint sound of claws scraping against the floor, and then a black dog descended from the carriage. Called by Alfred, the black mass that stepped out of the carriage sent my excitement skyrocketing.
"Kokumaro! It's Kokumaro!"
To my eyes, he looked like a black shiba, but apparently Kokumaro's breed is called an Absolk. His pitch-black coat and the distinctive white maro eyebrows were unchanged, but his body was fully that of an adult dog. He was supposed to have been entrusted to a trainer at the Grenore Fortress to be trained as a guard dog, but the fact that he'd been returned to me like this probably meant his training was complete. Tabitha and Bart's thoughtfulness had also made me happy, but Kokumaro's return was so joyful it blew away my mask of a lady.
"Maro, Kokumaro~"
With pure inner joy, I stroked the head of the black shiba who had gotten off the carriage and sat beside Alfred. The fluffy, slightly stiff coat felt nostalgic against my hand, but the black shiba's reaction was awfully cold. He didn't wag his tail happily like before, nor did he get excited and start running around.
"...Huh? Could it be that Kokumaro has forgotten me?"
"He's trained now and can control his impulses, so don't spoil him."
"Am I not allowed to pet him either?"
"Praising him is fine, but too much praise is no good."
He was trained as a guard dog, so I suppose this meant don't spoil him and turn him back into the clingy puppy he used to be. Come to think of it, I'd heard he'd be trained for a year, but more than a year had passed before Kokumaro was returned to me. It might very well have been because I'd been too affectionate with him.
...Did I do something wrong to Kokumaro?
From my perspective, I was just doting on a cute puppy. But for training him as a guard dog, having him grow up to be too clingy would have been a problem.
As I was looking at the black shiba who had returned to me, his ears twitched left and right, and he lifted his bottom from where he'd been sitting quietly. I turned to see what had caught his attention, and Oscar was coming out of the entrance.
"Eh? No. Please don't fight again, okay?"
Oscar is smart, so I thought he'd understand my words. I told him not to fight, but for some reason, Alfred stopped me from doing so.
"Establishing hierarchy is important for dogs. Watch over them as their master."
"I don't like it when they bark or bite each other. Oscar bit Kokumaro before."
"So it's fine as long as it's somewhere you can't see?"
"As long as they don't get hurt and it's somewhere I can't see, then fine."
"You heard her. Go decide the hierarchy somewhere Tina can't see."
As Alfred gave the order saying "Go," the black shiba barked once, as if answering, "Ow," and ran off toward the spring garden. Oscar, who should have received the order at the same time, sat beside me and showed no sign of moving.
"...Huh? Oscar?"
Aren't you going? I wondered, and Alfred gave a wry smile. As a guard dog, Oscar was the superior one, he said.
"Tina, give Oscar the order."
"...Ah, so that's how it is."
The reason the black shiba moved and Oscar didn't was simple. The one who gave the order was Alfred, not me. Even though the trained guard dog Kokumaro had been transferred to me, he had followed the orders of his master Alfred during the journey here, while Oscar, for whom Alfred was neither master nor anything, simply didn't obey Alfred's command. That was all.
...Kokumaro is already losing to Oscar from the start.
I don't know if it was due to a difference in training experience or if the transfer of masters simply hadn't gone smoothly, but for my guard dog, it would be a problem if he was still listening to Alfred's orders. If Alfred were my enemy, having my guard dog go somewhere else on Alfred's command would make him useless as a guard dog.
"Oscar."
When I called out to him again, Oscar barked once, "On," and lifted himself up. He looked like he was wearing an expression of utter annoyance, but that was probably not far off.
As I watched the two dogs leave, the door of the black carriage opened. I'd heard the black carriage was loaded with clothes, but I was wondering why the door opened by itself, and then my question was blown away when I saw the person who stepped out. What day was it today? There were too many happy things in a row, and I had no room to put back on the mask of a lady.
"Jasper! You came to see me! It's been a whi... ow, it hurts!"
When I went to greet Jasper, who had descended from the carriage, with a big welcome, the moment I reached him, my cheek was pinched. Alfred had at least been gentle, but from Jasper, there was neither restraint nor consideration. He just squeezed my cheek tight, and it hurt.
"Why are you pinching my cheek?"
"'Came to see me,' she says, that's a summons, however you look at it."
According to Jasper, the letter summoning him, saying something like 'I'm going to decipher the research materials of Saint Yuuta Hiraga, so come help with the actual work involved in reviving the secret arts,' seemed to have been written in a threatening tone that left him no option to refuse. For someone belonging to the Sedovara Church, and for someone researching Japanese script, it was content that gave him every reason to jump at it.
"...I didn't think it was that coercive."
I suppose I should say sorry, I continued, and then my other cheek was pinched.
"It hurts! What's that one for?!"
"More importantly, who in their right mind honestly reveals they're a reincarnator?! You absolute fool!"
"But the prescription for the Wards disease medicine was in there! You'd think I'd have to tell someone, wouldn't you?!"
Why was I the one getting scolded? I felt a bit unfairly treated and yelled back. Jasper could sometimes speak harshly, but this was the first time he'd scolded me so completely overbearing like this.
"...If you'd quietly told me at the residence, that would have been the end of it."
Jasper said that if I'd secretly read the research materials at the Grenore residence and told him the contents in private, it could have been brought to light at an appropriate time as a 'successful deciphering,' and I wouldn't have been exposed as a reincarnator.
...Huh? Something seems strange here.
The way Jasper spoke, something that would normally be expected when someone claimed to be a reincarnator was missing. The natural element of whether to believe it or not, when faced with someone calling themselves a reincarnator, was completely absent from his words.
"Jasper, did you... know that I'm a reincarnator?"
I didn't think it was possible, but I asked anyway. The way he talked, whether I was a reincarnator or not seemed to be no issue at all for Jasper. I wanted to confirm that first.
"On the day we first met, you spoke Japanese, didn't you. 'Anataha seiseishii made no bou yomidesune,' or something like that."
"Huh? Did I do that?"
Did that really happen? I couldn't remember right away, so I searched my memory seriously for a moment, but I still couldn't recall. However, now that he mentioned it, I felt like something like that might have happened. Back then, I used to spew venom in Japanese, thinking no one around me would understand.
"I was shocked that you spoke the same language as Almel. I thought you were terribly careless and a complete fool."
When he continued, saying that was how Almel had been sold, I understood why Jasper was angry now. Jasper was angry out of concern for my carelessness.
"...I didn't think you'd be able to understand Japanese, Jasper. Did you know about me from the very beginning?"
"Almel used Japanese about half the time, so I can understand some of it. There was also the possibility that you'd learned it from an old man in the village..."
Normally, someone who'd been sold as a child because of Japanese wouldn't teach that language, which had brought disaster upon them, to other children.
"And I could tell right away from watching you in the quarantine zone that you weren't like ordinary children."
When he thought that someone born in the same village as his childhood friend Almel, and as a reincarnator who could read the same Japanese, might follow the same fate, the person who protected me (Leonardo) was a good man nothing like the village chief. If I could just go on living without revealing myself as a reincarnator, I could probably walk a perfectly ordinary life without any problems. Just as he was starting to feel relieved about that, came the summons to the capital and the letter asking me to lend a hand in reviving Saint Yuuta Hiraga's secret arts. If that's not a summons, what is it? Apparently pinching my cheek wasn't enough, as he grabbed my head firmly. Since he was gripping it in frustration, it hurt more than a little, but I accepted it willingly. This was something like proof that Jasper had been worried about me.
...I never thought that after Mey Village was destroyed and I left it, I'd still have someone from the village worrying about me.
Jasper had apparently been quietly watching over me all this time. It felt kind of itchy and unbearably wonderful.
And so, that's Jasper. Finally, I could see behind his reaction when we first met. The reason he let Tina help with transcription work back then is also connected to this.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.