325 - Side Story: Dietfried's Perspective - Cat-Headed Trajectory 2
Unfortunately, Kyuubee was not my friend, but I did have one other friend. That friend, Basilia, had sent me a letter, but right now I was meeting with Father. Having been drilled by the villainous steward (Iridal) that such matters should be set aside for later, I sat properly even as my knees fidgeted restlessly.
"...You want to read it, don't you? Go back to your room and read the letter from your friend."
"No. Right now I am receiving precious time that Father has made for me, so I want to talk with Father."
"Is that so. Dietfried has really become a child who can control himself..."
Father nodded approvingly, looking moved, and it tickled a bit. I was only saying what was only natural, but seeing him so impressed made me reflect on how selfish my former self must have been.
"Right. How about showing your father how you have learned to read letters? I have seen from the occasional letters you send that your handwriting has gotten neater, but I have never had you read aloud to me."
"Yes, Father."
I thought that Father was soft on me, making up excuses to let me read my letter sooner. If it were the insidious steward (Iridal), he would have deliberately drawn out the conversation and not let me read the letter until I got angry.
I cut the seal on Basilia's letter and spread open the stationery with its faint, warm color. A subtle floral scent rose from it. I suppose that was the touch of a girl's sensibility, something that would never occur to me.
"Umm, 'Dear Dietfried-sama...'"
Basilia's letter followed the format Alisa had taught me as a model. It began with seasonal greetings, wrote about recent news, then moved to the main subject. Lately, Basilia's recent news and main topics were often about Tina. She had moved to the capital chasing after Tina, she had invited Tina to a tea party, she had received a lace ribbon from Tina, she had been invited to Tina's tea party and they had made cake together, the cake was so cute she could not eat it and her older sister took it away, then two cake-shaped jewelry boxes were made as matching sets so she gave one to Tina. The content was Tina, Tina, Tina through and through. I was grateful in that I could learn about Tina's movements, but I did think Basilia and Tina were getting along a little too well. As always, about seventy percent of this letter was Tina information, but as I read on, my eyes stopped at a certain passage.
"...Tina is having an arranged marriage meeting?"
"Christina is? Her guardian (Leonardo) is at the Lugmilama Fortress right now and is not here. There is no way such a thing would come up, but..."
Ignoring Father who tilted his head with a "That is strange," I stood up from my chair with a clatter. I did not have time to take it easy. The letter did not have enough information. Fortunately, Basilia was in the capital. It was a little far from the royal castle, but not so far that I could not go immediately.
"Father, I am terribly sorry, but an urgent matter has arisen, so I shall take my leave here."
"Ah, that is fine, but..."
He seemed to find it strange that I would run off upon hearing about an arranged marriage and yet claim it was not love.
When I met Basilia for the first time in several years, her impression had changed considerably. In Lagarette, her hair had been shorter than mine, but now it had grown and she looked more like a girl. Before, it seemed like the dress was wearing her, but now Basilia was properly wearing the dress.
"Christina-sama says it is not an arranged marriage at all, but I think this is absolutely suspicious."
Saying such things, Basilia made arrangements for us to infiltrate the tea party. Since Basilia said she would come along, the scale of the tea party changed from a family-only gathering to one where Madame Michaela's friends and acquaintances gathered. I wondered if an arranged marriage would really happen at a tea party of that scale, but since Basilia was motivated, I decided to stay quiet. She used to be a girl who would not move properly unless I dragged her around, but in just a few years of not seeing her, she had grown into a remarkably reliable strategist.
On the day of the tea party, as a theme to precede the Divine King Festival, we were to dress up as animals, so I decided to dress as a cat. In Lagarette, Tina had always dressed as a black cat, and according to Basilia's information, she had also worn a cat costume this past winter. Basilia herself would also be dressing as a cat, so I thought it would be fun if all three of us were cats. When I had my lady-in-waiting make the costume, she got too into it and brought me a cat headpiece. The slightly ugly craftsmanship bothered me, but if I popped out from inside this, Tina would be surprised. Thinking that, I started to feel excited.
When I arrived at Siegwald's mansion, which was the venue for the tea party, I immediately looked for Basilia and Tina. Basilia spotted me from across the room and ran over, but I could not see Tina. It seemed she had arrived a little late. Tina and the others had apparently been guided to a separate room for a family discussion. In that case, we really could not crash in.
Since Tina was not there, I passed the time by playing Reversi with Basilia. At a tea party of a certain scale, it was not unusual to have board games prepared as one of the attractions. Since Tina and Basilia were coming, many children had gathered at the board games at this tea party where children were permitted to attend. Before, I used to win against Basilia effortlessly, but she had apparently learned the rules of Reversi and had gotten decently strong. Still, I won, and on Basilia's recommendation, I faced off against a slightly older boy and won again, then against a girl and won again. As I kept winning, before I knew it, there were children all around me. The children, who did not know that there was royalty beneath the cat headpiece, cheered for me and cheered for my opponents without reservation. I thought to myself that not having my face visible was a good thing. The children, who did not think of me as royalty because they could not see my face, treated me completely differently from the ladies-in-waiting and servants at Father's detached palace. They had no reservations around me, just like the servants at the Mandez Residence. That made me a little happy, and I played intently, lost in the moment.
Around the time I had almost forgotten my original purpose, Tina appeared from the other room. Since I had always lost to her in Lagarette, I wanted her to see how much stronger I had gotten and challenge her to a match, but the words would not come out. Unfortunately, Tina's costume was not a cat, but that did not matter at all.
Tina, who had grown a bit in height and hair, seemed more radiant than the nine-year-old in my memories. The harsh steward (Iridal) had said that memories tend to get embellished, but the real thing was cuter. A shock like being hit on the head with Salisa's tray struck me, and I could not say a word. Every single gesture of Tina's captivated my eyes, and my throat went completely dry.
Unable to speak, I beckoned to Tina with my paw-padded gloves. In place of my voiceless self, the children around me conveyed my intention to Tina. That I was challenging her to a game of Reversi.
"I shall decline. Please play with the other children."
"My cousin seems not to know Reversi, so I will be her opponent."
I only wanted to play Reversi with Tina, but a boy who called himself Tina's cousin inserted himself between us. There was no way Tina did not know Reversi, so was this boy calling himself Tina's cousin without even knowing that?
...His name was Aristalf, I believe?
From the information I had looked up beforehand, I knew the name of Tina's cousin. He was frail and hardly ever went outside, the grandson of the hero Bertrand. He was also the boy Basilia had said was Tina's arranged marriage candidate.
...I will definitely win!
With that determination, I challenged him to a match and lost. As the honest steward (Iridal) said, there was always someone better. I had kept losing to Tina and the servants of the Mandez Residence, but since returning to the capital, Aristalf was the first person to beat me. As I stood frozen in shock for a moment, Tina pulled Aristalf away from the Reversi table. When I watched to see where they were going, Tina and Aristalf started playing Saik at another table. Tina had always been strong at Saik, but the match between Aristalf and Tina ended with Aristalf's victory. Tina did not look all that disappointed, but I thought that if I could beat Aristalf here, I might hear Tina say 'Cool' and see me in a new light. Acting on impulse, I moved to their table, and Tina noticed me and gave up her seat. Whether winning or losing, Tina did not seem to be the type to latch onto her opponent saying 'One more round!' I had always latched onto Tina, so I realized belatedly that I must have really annoyed her.
...Next time, I will win!
And then I would apologize to Tina for my past behavior and challenge her to a match once more.
With that resolve, the Saik match against Aristalf ended with me losing as cleanly and anticlimactically as could be. 'You pushed too hard,' was Basilia's assessment, murmured behind my back. Even without thinking it through carefully, there was no way that I, who had never once beaten Tina, could beat Aristalf, who had beaten Tina.
"J-just you wait! I will definitely win next time!!"
Frustrated by my loss at Saik, I finally managed to produce something resembling words in front of Tina. Though the content was just sour grapes directed at Aristalf.
I could not even bring myself to speak to Tina, and I could not avenge her either. Feeling pathetic and bitter, I fled the scene. For some reason, Basilia followed after me, but unlike before, she did not fidget anxiously around me. She simply placed a hand quietly on my cheek, and with a lady's smile, said this.
"What a splendid sound of a loser's howl!"
Basilia, who said next time I should take off the cat and speak while looking the opponent directly in the eyes, was probably on my side. Probably.
His Majesty the King, my grandfather, prepared a detached palace for me, saying if I had any intention of obtaining a Royal Peerage, I should first try governing a detached palace. Children of the royal family, as practice for someday ruling the country, were first given their own detached palace and learned how to manage people by governing it. In other words, the detached palace was a training ground for governing the royal castle.
I had no intention of aiming for the next throne, but since I was born into royalty, I did want to bear part of that responsibility. Perhaps it would be good to obtain a Royal Peerage like Father and support His Majesty the King and the next king.
Thinking that, I gratefully accepted the detached palace that His Majesty had prepared for me. Father objected to me leaving his detached palace, saying I had only just returned, but in the end he respected my feelings.
With personnel I could freely move, I gathered information about Tina while arranging the detached palace to my liking. For some reason, Tina had been given a detached palace by His Majesty and was living within the royal castle, even though she was not a child of the royal family. I was thinking it was convenient having her so close when Father came to check on me and brought a souvenir. When I opened the thin box he said would look nice displayed in my room, there was a portrait of Tina set in an intricately crafted frame.
"What... is this, Father?"
"It is a portrait of Christina wearing the costume of the flower goddess Menhiriya at the Recollection Festival. Young Gregoire of the Merit Peerage was so impressed by Christina's appearance that he had his personal painter create it, and I had him part with it."
As Father said, 'She is cute, it is well done,' the Tina in the painting was as lovely as a flower. When I tried to recall her speaking, only her sassy expressions from Lagarette came to mind, but the Tina I first met had smiled at me adorably just like in this painting.
...The real thing is even cuter.
I did not mean to criticize the painter's skill, but between the painted Tina and the real Tina, even if she only ever said spiteful things to me, I preferred the real Tina. Come to think of it, I noticed that my thoughts were full of 'Tina is cute,' and I put on the cat headpiece. Lately I had come to like this situation where my face was completely enveloped and could not be seen from the outside. What was especially good was that no matter what expression I was making, neither Father nor the ladies-in-waiting could tell while I was wearing this.
When I looked into Tina, it turned out there were other paintings of her besides the one the Merit Peerage had commissioned. Who had painted them was a mystery, but paintings of Tina wearing the flower goddess Menhiriya's costume seemed to be popular. They were apparently being traded as merchandise among noble men, and I ordered my servants to collect them whenever they found any.
Speaking of servants, it seemed there had been an incident at Tina's detached palace a while ago. Several servants had been dismissed, and more recently there was an intruder disturbance, and a White Knight had been caught. Thinking I should quietly protect her, I started taking walks around her detached palace, and occasionally I would see suspicious characters sticking their faces into the hedges. When I had my guards capture one of these suspicious persons, the culprit turned out to be a painter. Having infiltrated the royal castle from who knows where, he was plotting to catch a glimpse of the real Tina and paint her himself, since portraits of her sold well. I also apprehended the White Knight who seemed to have guided him and handed them over to the Silver-White Knight. Tina herself rarely left her detached palace so she probably had not noticed, but apparently there were quite a lot of these kinds of people.
When spring came, I received a Spring Blossom Festival gift from Basilia. A handkerchief embroidered with the cat head I had been wearing lately. I learned that Basilia seemed to quite like me. She had said 'What a splendid sound of a loser's howl,' but that was probably her way of cheering me on. I would think of it positively.
Gazing at the gift from Mother, I looked over the mountain of gifts from young ladies whose names I barely knew. There were many gifts, but there was nothing from Tina.
I decided to think positively that she must have simply forgotten to send one, and went to receive her gift myself. It was not that I could not visit her without some reason. It also was not that I forced an errand. We lived in the same royal castle. If I wanted to see Tina, I could go see her anytime. I was simply going to go to Tina, who seemed to have forgotten to send a Spring Blossom Festival gift, and receive one from her myself this time.
Since I patrolled (took walks) around Tina's detached palace every day to check for suspicious persons, I was on familiar terms with the White Knights on guard duty too. Even wearing the cat headpiece, I was not found suspicious and could pass through the detached palace gates. When I was guided into the entrance hall by Tina's lady-in-waiting, Ulrika, I saw Tina surrounded by many flowers. Tina picked up a small Enomena pot from among the many flowers and smiled softly and happily. She did not even glance at the other flowers. What Tina cherished was only the Enomena pot in her hands. Only that pot had earned Tina's smile.
...For the Spring Blossom Festival, men could give flowers too, could they not.
Remembering such an obvious thing, I realized that I was already behind. Tina's heart was already with the Enomena pot, not directed at any of the other flowers. If I just waited around as I had been without taking any action, my existence would be silenced in Tina's mind, and I would not even be counted among those who had given her flowers.
...I did not want that.
The moment I realized that, I turned my back to Tina. Tina started to say something, but I ran without looking back. In my haste, I tripped along the way, and the cat headpiece got badly dented.
First, I had to give Tina flowers. Seeking flowers, I returned to my detached palace. The gardener had kept the garden of my detached palace beautifully maintained. If I looked in the flower beds, there were plenty of flowers suitable for giving as gifts. I pulled out many flowers from among them, had my lady-in-waiting arrange them into a proper bouquet, and visited Tina's detached palace again, but Tina was not there. I searched everywhere in the detached palace but could not find Tina, and when I ran into Petrona, who had been with me at the Mandez Residence for a while, she screamed. Apparently she was startled by the dented cat headpiece. While I was let into a room to fix the cat headpiece, word came that Tina had returned.
I tried to give her the flowers this time for sure, but even when I finally spotted Tina from behind, I could not bring myself to speak to her. Back in the streets of Lagarette, no matter how much she disliked me, I could barge into her room every day without caring, but now I could not do that. I thought about what was different between the me back then and the me now, but could not find the answer, so I decided to borrow the wisdom of Aunt Felicia, who was staying in the guest room.
When I consulted Aunt Felicia, saying I wanted to give flowers to Tina but could not bring myself to speak to her, Aunt Felicia smiled amusedly. She looked at me with eyes that seemed to find me endearing, saying that in the short time she had not seen me, her nephew had become a proper young man, which made me slightly uncomfortable. Besides, I had been a boy since the day I was born. Aunt Felicia's words were a little strange.
With Aunt Felicia's help, I succeeded in giving the bouquet to Tina, but Tina's reaction was tepid. If anything, it was even less of a reaction than she had to the flowers lined up in the entrance hall. She seemed to have understood that my flowers were for delivery and tried to pass them on to Aunt Felicia.
"No. I picked those flowers for Tina."
I murmured that under the cat headpiece, but it did not reach Tina's ears. Tina blinked her blue eyes in confusion and tilted her head as if to say 'What was that?' That gesture was so cute, and I was frustrated and sad that she did not understand, and I could not make sense of anything anymore, so I fled from before Tina's eyes.
A few days later, Basilia, who had apparently heard about this story from somewhere, wrote to me saying 'You did your best. But was that a loser's howl, or a loser cat's meow? Nyaaan.' Perhaps because she had been having tea parties frequently with Tina, Basilia's personality seemed to have changed quite a bit from what it was in Lagarette. She showed no mercy toward a prince (me).
Spurred on by Basilia's encouragement that was almost like verbal abuse that came occasionally, I continued to patrol around Tina's area afterward. While hunting down the occasional peepers, summer came and Tina turned twelve. Thinking I wanted to get an early look at her costume for the coming Recollection Festival, I snuck into the garden of her detached palace and made eye contact with Tina. Startled by Tina's surprised blue eyes, I was startled too and fled again for no reason. It was only after I had dashed into my own detached palace that I realized I should have used that eye contact as an opportunity to speak to her.
...Well, that is fine. I got to see her face today.
I was amazed at myself, finding joy in such small things.
Finally, the day of the Recollection Festival arrived, and I thought about inviting Tina to go play in the inner city. Maybe I could invite Basilia too.
As I was thinking about this while eating breakfast, one of my guards, a Silver-White Knight, asked me 'Are you sure it is alright to take it so easy?' When I asked what he meant, the Silver-White Knight seemed surprised that I did not know, and looked a bit guilty. If I did not know, it might have been better not to know, he said.
According to that Silver-White Knight, Tina apparently had the important job of 'watching over the Recollection Festival rites as the Spirit's Favored Child.' Naturally, she would not go play in the inner city, and during the time of the rites, she would be confined to the 'Spirit's Seat,' so I could not go visit her either.
"I heard that quite a few nobles brought painters and were stationed since morning in the courtyard and corridors overlooking the gallery, hoping to catch a glimpse of Lady Christina moving to the 'Spirit's Seat' again this year..."
I understood the rest without hearing it all. To see Tina, who would be confined to the 'Spirit's Seat' all day, I would have had to go early to a spot overlooking the gallery and wait, anticipating the moment she might pass by.
Hurriedly gulping down my breakfast and taking only my Silver-White Knight guard, I headed for the King's residence. Since the King's residence was also the king's living space, only a limited number of people could enter. Therefore, once inside the residence, it was easy to outpace the other nobles.
...Where would be the best view?
Thinking that, I decided to borrow the wisdom of those who came before. Saying 'those who came before' sounded nice, but essentially it meant the senior peepers. I barged into the place where tea was being prepared for them to pass the time, and with an innocent face, joined the ranks of the peepers. I really wanted to see cute Tina's figure all by myself, but I felt like if we made eye contact again, I would run away, so I did not want to be alone. Among the nobles who could enter the residence, there were many Staff Peerages. Those at the Staff Peerage level were skilled at gathering information, and they welcomed me into their tea party circle without any questions about my cat headpiece.
"This year Leonardo-dono, who is always glued to her side, is not here, so will we not get a clear view of her?"
"No, no, last year I was blocked by Alfred-sama escorting her and only caught a glimpse of that lovely figure."
"When she turns at that pillar corner, at just the right moment Alfred-sama will be hidden and we will get a clear view of Lady Christina. I am certain of it."
"I hear this year the costume is of Ashtate, the goddess of arts. A jeweler supposedly delivered a hair ornament crafted with all their heart and soul."
Listening to such conversations among the Staff Peerages, I stared at the corridor, waiting for when Tina would pass. However, even at the time when the information the Staff Peerages had gathered said she should appear, Tina did not show herself, and the other end of the corridor grew noisy. By the time I noticed that something was strange, that something was wrong at the far end of the corridor, the Staff Peerages' jokes had also stopped. As I stared at the corridor, wondering what was happening, my uncle Alfred passed by, accompanied by a single Silver-White Knight. The next time I saw him, His Majesty the King, who should have been confined to the 'Spirit's Seat,' was with him too. The Staff Peerages were surprised by the appearance of the King accompanied by several guards, and they each began gathering information on their own.
By the time the commotion in the corridor had temporarily settled, a servant of the Staff Peerages picked up a piece of information and returned with it.
Tina had apparently vanished without a trace before the eyes of the Menhishumi Church people and Uncle Alfred.