30 - Side Story - Alf's Perspective - Guarding the Fortress 2
With the fortress's master having returned, command returned to Leonardo. Once the handover was complete, he slept a full night in lieu of taking leave, and finally got back to his proper work.
I think this is a matter of personal disposition, but leading a unit is not a job suited to me. If anything, I think I am better suited to assisting the leader who commands the unit. A person like me who is clever and nimble ends up being regarded with caution by others precisely because of those traits. I am not good at gaining trust and worming my way into someone's inner circle.
But Leonardo is different.
Without using cunning schemes, he always charges straight ahead and plunges into the opponent's inner circle. He is a bit overbearing at times, but to me, who grew up in an environment with only demons and snakes, he was a very refreshing person. Now he is a friend I trust about as much as the wise woman of the valley, second only to her.
With Leonardo taking overall command, I was able to focus on organizing information. I gathered various pieces of information such as the infection situation in towns and villages and the trade routes of merchants, and compiled them into one. Among the miscellaneous information, one troubling item had slipped in.
In a town to the southeast, a traveling merchant fell ill to the disease, continued fighting it while staying at an inn, and finally died.
"...The merchant's corpse had pox, and there were also scratch marks all over the body, it seems."
This also matches known cases of infectious disease. I cannot say for certain without investigating, but this merchant was probably the one who carried the source of infection.
"The problem is what happened after he died."
According to the report, another merchant apparently approached the innkeeper, who was troubled over what to do with the dead merchant's body and goods, with a business proposition. He would buy the goods the dead merchant left behind, and in exchange, he would cover the funeral expenses. Even if the deceased was a guest at the inn, the innkeeper had no obligation to see to the burial of someone who died in a guest room after a long battle with illness. If selling the dead merchant's luggage would allow for the dead merchant's burial, the innkeeper found it reasonable and agreed. And so the source of infection, which should have stopped there, began moving toward the royal capital once again.
As we searched for the merchant who bought the goods of the merchant who died of disease from the innkeeper, the body of a man who appeared to be a traveler was found on the highway. From the knife wounds, it was first thought that some unrelated traveler had been attacked by bandits, but the description matched the merchant we were searching for. With no wagon or horse left behind, he had likely had his horse and goods taken by bandits and was himself killed.
...Now we have to search for bandits.
Should I consider it a mercy that his destination was no longer a town or village with dense population? Or should I lament that the search range has expanded from the highway to the surrounding mountains and forests?
...Despite being busier than hell, Leonardo won't shut up about Tina, Tina.
Fundamentally, he is a man who can do nothing but swing a sword. Even so, he sincerely faces his work to fulfill the responsibilities he has taken on, and he has been diligently handling the paperwork he is bad at too. Until now, he would sometimes complain but never throw his work aside. Now, instead of complaints, he has started bragging about his little sister (Tina). Since he is still doing his work, I cannot complain, but I wish he would calm down a bit. There is nothing more boring to listen to than someone else's bragging about their own child.
...Well, I suppose I can understand him getting excited about a little sister who appeared out of nowhere, since he was utterly alone in the world for so long.
Thanks to some foolish woman, Leonardo became reluctant to marry. Normally, a family grows when a man marries and has a wife bear him a child of his blood, but Leonardo will only be able to desire that when the pain of his heartbreak heals. Leonardo still cannot seem to forget the woman who abandoned him, and even if he becomes willing to look for another partner, it will be at least several years from now.
And then a sister appeared before such a Leonardo. What is more, her appearance is so adorable that there is nothing to criticize, and her manners are good, perhaps because her parents raised her well. The way she speaks with a slight lisp is also endearing in a little girl and stirs one's protective instincts. It might be impossible to tell a man not to get excited over a cute little sister who suddenly appeared.
"...I wonder if she's lonely with only Aurelia there."
Seeing Leonardo glare at his documents while his heart seemed to be in the valley, I felt like making a snide remark.
"Isn't she relieved to be rid of her annoying big brother?"
If Leonardo has been fussing over her like this all the time, Tina is probably stretching out her limbs in relief by now. Having him reach out with Tina this and Tina that for everything she does would be suffocating, not just a little. Even though they lived together for about half a month, they were still practically strangers. No matter how much she is cherished, it must be difficult for little Tina to let her guard down as family. Rather, it is possible that Leonardo's excessive doting kept her so busy that she has not been able to sort through her feelings about losing her parents at all.
"I'm not annoying. I properly let her be independent, we slept together but bathed separately..."
"...You tried to bathe together?"
I asked because I thought I must have misheard, but Leonardo nonchalantly admitted it. He said he tried to bathe together, but Tina refused.
"You are definitely hated. She's a girl, even if she's only eight, right? There's no way she'd want to bathe with a complete stranger."
"A stranger is a stranger, but we are brother and sister through our name-giver..."
"Even if you were blood-related siblings, there isn't a little girl in the world who'd bathe with a middle-aged man she met just yesterday."
Girls mature mentally faster than boys. Even young children are aware of the differences between boys and girls. Even if she understands that the man has no ulterior motives, she would still dislike it.
Leonardo seemed to have some realization that he might be hated, and he looked away from his documents, thinking for a while. Eventually, as if remembering something, a frown creased his brow.
"...When I had a small argument with Aurelia, Tina took Aurelia's side, even though she shouldn't have been able to understand what we were saying."
"She took Aurelia's side? Tina has a good eye for people."
Until now, my impression of Tina was only as a 'cute little girl' and 'Leonardo's little sister figure,' but hearing that she took Aurelia's side was very interesting. If she is on the side of my benefactor Aurelia, then she is also someone I should protect. I felt that perhaps I could compensate for what Leonardo lacks in raising her.
...For now, let me do something about this brother who is running wild. It is absolutely a bad idea to raise her the same way as a boy (himself).
After I pointed out the possibility that Tina might hate him, Leonardo decided to have Lorenz, who happened to be delivering goods to the valley, take a gift for her. I hope he does not do something idiotic again. When I checked, for Leonardo in the throes of sister-doting madness, it was a normal gift.
...Because Tina was overjoyed when Yurgen brought candy, he said. That's just copying someone else's idea, isn't it?
I wanted to call him out on that inwardly, but apparently it was surprisingly well-received by Tina. When Lorenz, recounting Tina's reaction with gestures, mentioned that she hugged him saying 'I love Lorenz,' Leonardo sulked, saying he was the one who gave the candy, and it became a whole annoying thing.
...Lorenz was probably happy to be liked by a little girl too. His intimidating face usually makes women flee and even children cry at him.
Thanks to Leonardo bragging everywhere that 'the Commander's little sister is super cute,' more and more people volunteered to deliver goods to the valley just to see the cute little girl. Those who won the delivery rights through a strict lottery would cheerfully buy up candy and head out.
...Shouldn't we worry about Tina getting cavities?
Every time a deliveryman returned, rumors would spread around the fortress about how adorably Leonardo's rumored little sister had received the candy. The knights seemed simply delighted, but what about Tina, who kept receiving nothing but candy? Was she really happy?
...From what I've heard, she does show her appreciation dutifully every time, though, Tina.
From the stories, Tina's expressions of joy seem to follow several patterns. It is as if there is a template -- she seems equally happy regardless of what flavor the candy is. Being equally happy with everything can, conversely, be interpreted as there being nothing especially delightful.
...Am I the only one who hears this as a little girl putting on a show of being happy out of consideration for a swarm of old men crowding around her?
This is hardly the time for such thoughts, but when I genuinely started worrying about Tina's cavities, Leonardo, apparently growing impatient with the returning knights' bragging, began saying he wanted to go pick up Tina.
"Even if you brought her here now, you'd just be leaving her alone at the mansion. You don't have time to fuss over Tina."
The infectious disease showed no signs of subsiding, and there was no effective medicine either. Even if he called Tina here under these circumstances, all he could do was keep her cooped up in the house. I do not know how far he intends to go in raising her -- Leonardo may not have even thought about the scope of raising her -- but whether he sends her to the Menhishumi Church or hires a tutor, preparations are necessary. To begin with, just for her to live, Tina would need all new things for her daily life. Yet Leonardo has no time to prepare those for her. He could have people gather them, but he does not even have time to give instructions to those 'people.' Even if he called her from Aurelia's place, all he could do was lock Tina up in the house with the clothes on her back.
"If I brought her to the fortress instead of the mansion... Tina is well-behaved and sensible, so she wouldn't get in the way of work..."
"Denied. Leaving aside all the other problems, trying to call a young child to the fortress when it is dealing with an infectious disease, even if we are in quarantine -- what are you thinking, you fool?"
I rolled up a checked invoice and smacked the head of my superior, who was saying nothing but dreamy things. He is my superior, or rather precisely because he is my superior, I must make him distinguish between public and private matters.
"...Tina lived in a village where the infectious disease was rampant but did not contract it. I thought that observing her lifestyle and adopting some of her habits could help with infection prevention..."
"I'm surprised you have the cleverness to prepare a pretext."
He is a man who achieved his current position almost entirely through martial strength. He can handle minimum paperwork, but he is not a man capable of using cunning tricks. And yet Leonardo was racking his nonexistent brains to come up with an excuse to call Tina over.
...A little sister isn't that great of a thing, you know.
Though since Leonardo and Tina are not blood-related, they may be more reserved with each other and might build a better relationship than blood siblings in an ordinary family. As someone who actually has a blood-related little sister, I cannot understand why Leonardo is so fixated on a sister who appeared so suddenly.
"Well, whatever pretext you come up with, I oppose calling the girl here under current circumstances. Besides, whether calling her or going to pick her up, we don't have any free knights to spare..."
"You haven't taken leave in a while either. I'll give you three days, go to Lady Aurelia's house..."
"Six days."
No way. No thank you. Rejected. I had prepared words of refusal, but at the name of Aurelia, what came out of my mouth was an extension of the offered leave.
Aurelia, to whom I owe a great debt from long ago, is not someone I can casually visit to check on without a reason. However, she is now reaching old age, so her health condition worried me. If I had an opportunity to go see her directly, I would endure a bit of hardship to make it work.
"If it were just me, I could return in three days, but with Tina it's impossible. She'd fall off."
It was a bit irritating that Leonardo had successfully manipulated me. But when I spurred my horse into Waiyakku Valley to see Aurelia's condition in person for the first time in a while, I witnessed something unbelievable. After conveying that I had come to pick up Tina and fetching her change of clothes from the annex, Aurelia, famous for disliking people, was carefully braiding Tina's hair. The two of them looked like a close grandmother and granddaughter, and I felt like returning to the fortress right then and there. It was obvious at a glance that Aurelia doted on Tina, and Tina seemed to hold Aurelia in high regard as well. I had come to tear these two apart. All because Leonardo wanted to keep his little sister close and fuss over her.
...Aurelia seems to have reluctantly opened up to her, which is rare, and Tina is surprisingly dependable. I would actually feel more at ease if Tina stayed here.
Tina could contact the Black Knights if anything happened to Aurelia. That would be far more reassuring than elderly Aurelia living alone.
...The fact that Aurelia speaks in anything other than English is proof that she has taken a liking to Tina.
When Tina heard that she 'probably would not be able to see Aurelia again,' she started saying she would give all her candy to Aurelia. Tina seems to hold Aurelia in such high regard that she would give away all her sweets. With that much affection, even the misanthropic Aurelia would surely be moved.
...I don't want to take Tina away from Aurelia.
Reluctantly, I set Tina on my horse and began the journey back. As I held her on my lap so she would not fall, the ribbon in her hair swayed forlornly. She probably had never seen such a thing before. Tina did not seem to understand its value at all, but it was a lace ribbon made of high-quality silk thread and studded with gems.
It was too expensive and frightening for a little girl to wear. If she wore something like this, I could not let her walk outside casually.
...Aurelia's lace.
When Aurelia was young, she was sold to the Sedovara Church. In the valley, the previous wise woman drilled herbal medicine into her, and she started making medicines, barely leaving the valley since. For that reason, very few people know about this. Aurelia's lace-making skill is magnificent. It is extremely intricate, delicate, and graceful, with no one able to imitate it, and no one with similar skills is known to exist. 'A failed reincarnated person who can speak English' was the Sedovara Church's assessment of Aurelia. But if she had not been sold to the Sedovara Church, Aurelia might have made a name for herself as a lace-making artisan and enriched this country with a new product.
...Truly, you never know what reincarnated people will bring.
What I do know is that rather than keeping them caged from a young age like Aurelia, it is better to leave them free and wait for them to distinguish themselves on their own.
...Huh? This pattern?
Staring at the ribbon swaying before my eyes, I realized that I recognized the pattern. Thinking about where I had seen it, it could only be the lace handkerchief my mother owned. As far as I know, Tina and my mother are the only people who have been given lace by Aurelia.
...A lace ribbon with the same pattern as my mother's. This is a frightening charm.
Simply put, it is a statement that if anything happens to Tina, she will incur Aurelia's wrath. If I read deeper into it, my family home was volunteering itself as Tina's guardian, as if to say 'Alf's family won't stay silent either.' This is the glare of the head of the Sedovara Church and my family home, which is technically of noble standing. This is frightening. Too frightening. But it is frightening.
...Well, if Aurelia wishes it, I suppose that's fine.
Aurelia saved my life. It seems unlikely that I will have many opportunities to repay her directly, so perhaps protecting Tina in her place is not a bad idea. I owe Aurelia a debt I can never fully repay.
I want to repay it, little by little.
I cannot shake the feeling that Alf's value hierarchy is Aurelia > Tina > > > Leonardo.
I will fix typos and errors another day. Next is Chapter 3... it should be, unless I feel like writing a Leonardo side story.
Typos and errors corrected. I will take a 6-day break from updates. I do not think I can finish even if I stay up late today, so I will work on Leonardo's house floor plan instead.