336 - Leonardo's Purchase
I welcomed Leonardo back after he returned from making his report, and we had dinner together.
The main topic at dinner was how each of us had been doing lately.
"Thank you reshu for the rice as a birthday gift, Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama."
"And Tina, thank you for the lovely cameo."
"Well, the cameo was from Christoph-sama, though."
"The cameo I received is a profile of you, Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama," I said, opening the pendant to show him. It was not unusual for me to use him as a model for various things without his knowledge, but apparently a face-only piece was a first. Come to think of it, the embroidery paintings I had made almost all prominently featured nude physical beauty, and the fountain holding a jar in the annex was fully nude. The cameo profile showed his neck and was not wearing clothes, but since it only went as far as the neck, it was hard to call it nudity.
"Speaking of which, there was something I wanted to ask you now that you are back, Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama."
When I said there was something about Alfred that had been on my mind, Leonardo glanced at Solana, who was waiting behind me. Since Solana was a maid borrowed from Alfred, I supposed it could not be helped that his eyes went to her whenever Alfred came up.
"Alfred-sama is... well, how should I put this... Al-fred-sama?"
I was not sure if I should say outright the sense of wrongness I had been feeling about Alfred lately. So I said his name with a slight pause, leaving it open to interpretation.
"...Tina noticed, did she. I do not know when it started, but it is Al-fred-sama."
"Ah, so it really was Al-fred-sama."
Knowing what that sense of wrongness was, I finally felt relieved. I did not know when they had switched, but the person currently working as Prince Alfred in the capital was Alf, not Alfred. When I checked with Solana, she firmly denied it, saying "Prince Alfred and Alf Big Brother are completely different. They are different people." But since Leonardo said so, my intuition must have been right. Solana did not seem to be playing dumb, so perhaps she genuinely had not noticed. Thinking about it, it might be somewhat interesting to observe who had noticed and who had not.
...Come to think of it, I do call them slightly differently, Alfred-sama and Alf-san.
As for the queen's antidote, Alfred had reacted as if he was hearing about it for the first time. No matter how you looked at it, it was strange that he would not know about his own mother's condition. I had thought maybe he just did not know the current state of affairs, but if the person was actually Alf instead of Alfred, it was not strange that he would not know about his mother's condition.
Having more or less settled the matter of Alf or Alfred, we moved on to the next topic. I reported that the bobbin lace guidebook was finished and that I had revived the second of Saint Yuuta Hiraga's secret arts, and Leonardo praised me. Felicia and Alf praised me too, but being praised by family was something special. If I had a tail, I would have been wagging it with all my might, I was so happy.
"If I revive one more, I will get permission to return to the city of Grenore."
I had obtained the snow cap and Laroche pollen, which were thought to be difficult to collect. The remaining ingredient was just Adorutoru's unfertilized egg, but Cody had just been lamenting how hard that was to obtain. If I failed to obtain it again next year, I might have to consider switching which medicine I was trying to revive.
"...Cody told me when he brought the Laroche pollen, but even though the war seemed to have ended quite a while ago, it took you a long time to come back."
When I asked if the post-war negotiations had dragged on, he told me the negotiations themselves ended quickly. Since Ivizia Kingdom had won almost unilaterally, it seemed Saenard Kingdom did not even have the right to refuse any demands. Apparently Leonardo had crushed them so thoroughly they would not think of waging war against our country for a long time. The situation seemed mostly the same as what I had heard from Cody.
"Then why did it take over a month to come back?"
"I went to check on Grenore before returning to the capital."
Since he had been away for a long time, and Alf, who he had left in charge of Grenore Fortress, was in the capital, he said he had been concerned about that as well.
"What I said I wanted to talk about after dinner is about the residence in Grenore."
"It is a serious talk, right? What is it... surely Christoph-sama has not put some mysterious pressure on you not to let me return to Grenore..."
"I will absolutely refuse," I said, arbitrarily making Christoph the villain since I could not think of anything else. He might be sneezing mysteriously right about now.
"There is no such talk, so you can rest easy."
Leonardo said that since I had said I would come to the capital when I turned twenty, they probably would not do anything to deliberately pick a fight. After all, they had worked so hard to build such a friendly relationship, and they would not do anything to break it.
"So, what is this serious talk about, Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama?"
After dinner, we moved to the living room. Leonardo sat down on the lounge chair, so I sat down next to him. Sitting beside Leonardo on the lounge chair in the living room, I finally felt the reality that he had come home. We usually had tea after meals, but today I was joining Leonardo in having coffee (Ihoku). Coffee was too bitter for my childish palate, so mine had sugar and milk in it.
...What could Leonardo-san's talk be about?
Since Leonardo was having trouble bringing up the topic, I decided to try guessing what it could be. He had said it was something that would make me angry, if I remembered correctly. When it came to things that made me angry, there was him going to see the prostitute ladies before showing his safe face to his little sister, but that had not happened this time, so it was not something that would make me angry.
I thought about whether I should hurry him along or wait until he brought it up himself, bringing my coffee to my lips. Personally, I wanted to hear it quickly, but as a lady, I should probably wait until Leonardo spoke. While I was wondering which would be the age-appropriate behavior for a twelve-year-old, Leonardo seemed to have made up his mind. With a face like the end of the world was coming, he opened his heavy mouth.
"...I told you I checked on Grenore before returning to the capital, did I not."
"Yes, you just said so."
I wondered what could have happened in the city of Grenore to make him think I would be angry. I would be upset if he took away the attic, but with Hermine around, the attic had become my retreat room, and I had started using the third-floor children's room normally. There was no point in Leonardo taking it away now. So maybe he had slept using the giant bear plushie as a belly pillow in my absence and gotten drool on it? Even then, I had dressed it like a sheet with clothes, so changing those would be the end of it. And even if the plushie itself got coffee stains on it, it was originally something Leonardo had bought. I would be disappointed, but not angry enough to get mad.
...What did you really do, Leonardo-san?
I tilted my head and looked up at Leonardo, but he averted his eyes as if to escape my questioning. It did not matter, but averting his eyes when poked on a sore spot was just like Rannvald. Their overall atmosphere was similar, so seeing the same habit made me want to look for other similarities.
...Come to think of it, Rannvald-sama has the same hair and eye color as Leonardo-san.
Royalty were said to often have blue eyes, but Rannvald's eyes were black. When I thought about it carefully, Christoph's hair was blond, but his younger brother's hair was black. I had never heard that Ethelbert had multiple wives, so perhaps his wife had black hair.
While I was thinking about such unrelated matters, Leonardo finally spoke his second words.
"...I made a purchase that is probably going to make you angry, Tina."
"Is that all?" was my honest reaction. When he made a face like the end of the world and struggled and agonized just to get out a single word, and then it turned out to be just about wasting money, I did not know how to respond.
"Um... did you buy it knowing it would make me angry?"
I tried to think about what kind of purchase would make me angry. If he bought a living creature without consulting me, like Kokumaro, that might indeed make me angry. Or maybe another giant plushie. If he had bought a house in the capital without me knowing, that would also make me angry. But since he seemed to have made the purchase in the city of Grenore, that should not be it.
"...If I had not bought it, I thought I would get angry about that too."
"Well then, I am sure buying it was the right choice. I trust your judgment, Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama."
I lifted myself from the lounge chair and patted Leonardo on the head comfortingly. It felt like I was comforting a child, but surely that was just my imagination.
"So, what exactly did you buy? I will not get angry, so tell me honestly."
"...Mirshe."
At the name that came out of Leonardo's mouth, my hand stopped mid-pat. I stared at the top of his head in silence for a while, then grabbed both of his cheeks with both hands.
"Mirshe? You mean that Mirshe? The tiny cute one?"
"She is about as tall as you are now, but yes, that Mirshe."
He had made a purchase that would make me angry. The purchase in question was Mirshe. As Leonardo's sister and as Mirshe's friend, that was indeed shocking, but my mind was filled with something else.
...I always thought she was so small, but even Mirshe-chan, who is two years younger than me, has surpassed me in height?! That is quietly devastating.
Stunned by the various shocks, I stared blankly into Leonardo's black eyes, but once he had said it, he seemed to feel relieved. He told me the detailed circumstances that led to him buying Mirshe.
Before returning to the capital, Leonardo had stopped by the city of Grenore and apparently made his way to the district where the brothels were. I was going to let that slide, but Leonardo smoothly made the excuse that he had gone to check on the brothels that had been shut down when Wards' disease was brought into the city and then rebuilt. If he had not added anything, I would have honestly considered it part of his patrol, but I thought this was completely shady.
In any case, it seemed Leonardo had encountered Mirshe working in that area with the brothels. Shocked by the location, he asked Mirshe what had happened, and apparently her mother had taken her from the Three Crows Tavern and sold her to a brothel on the spot. I was away in the capital, and Leonardo was also away from the city of Grenore. Alf might have kept an eye on Mirshe more frequently, but the person currently in Grenore was Alfred. It was possible Alfred did not even know Mirshe existed. For Alfred, saving Mirshe would have been impossible. The owners of the Three Crows Tavern seemed to have tried to protect Mirshe, but in the end, they lost to her biological mother who held parental rights. With Leonardo's watchful eye gone, the mother sold Mirshe to a brothel, and Leonardo found her and bought her out of the brothel.
"That was the right call, Leo. Buying Mirshe-chan, and buying a living creature too, you have to think carefully about it, but that was absolutely the right call."
I felt very complicated inside, but this much was certain. Leaving ten-year-old Mirshe in a brothel was far worse than Leonardo buying her out.
I hugged Leonardo around the neck with gratitude. I knew I should stop hugging him soon, but from what I had seen in my previous life, foreigners hugged even as adults. It was a form of showing affection, so I wanted permission to hug family members even as a lady. If I could not get permission, then I wanted to keep hugging even if I had to avoid people's eyes.
"...So, what is happening with Mirshe-chan now?"
After hugging him to convey my gratitude fully, I pulled back slightly and looked at Leonardo. I had heard up to the point of him buying Mirshe, but I had not heard what happened after.
"She is with Tabitha right now. She is training as an assistant at the Grenore residence."
"Which means, when we go back to the Grenore residence, I will not be able to call her 'Mirshe-chan' anymore."
"That is right. Mirshe is not your friend Mirshe anymore. She is the assistant Mirshe."
"Are you still angry?" he asked, looking into my face, and I shook my head slowly. I told him that knowing my ten-year-old friend had been sold to a brothel and pretending not to know without buying her out would have made me angrier.
"I am just a little sad. Elke and Petrona only agreed to work as maids while we are in the capital. When we go back to Grenore, we will be friends again."
But Mirshe was different. Because she had been sold, Mirshe no longer had the right to decide things for herself. For the rest of her life, Mirshe would be Leonardo's property, purchased as a human being.
"For now, Mirshe was bought with my own money, so she is not bound to the Grenore residence as a Brownie servant."
"How is that different?"
"Unlike Bart and Tabitha, if I am no longer the master of Grenore Fortress, she will follow wherever I move."
She really was Leonardo's property. Unlike servants like the Brownies who were attached to the residence, she would not just have a change of master. In a sense, Leonardo intended to take full responsibility for having "bought a living creature."
"It would be good if Mirshe could earn enough to buy herself back... but well, that is probably impossible."
Food, clothing, and shelter were not free. For Mirshe, who was still a child and could not work as much as an adult, it would be impossible to demand she work more than she consumed. Even for adults, most of what they earned went to living expenses. Even if Mirshe could buy herself back someday, it would be after decades of saving money.
"By the way, how much did Mirshe cost?"
"I tried to buy her the moment I found her. The brothel owner suspected I had a thing for little girls and jacked up the price."
It was apparently above market value for a child, but since Leonardo had wanted to get Mirshe out of there immediately, he bought her at the asking price. He had his own thoughts about the brothel's actions there, but apparently he had left that to Alfred. In the city of Grenore, where Leonardo held a role similar to a territorial lord, the one who saw his desperation and jacked up the price was in the wrong. By now, Alfred (pretending to be Alf) was probably exacting revenge more severe than Alf himself would have. Since Alf and Alfred did not want to be discovered in their switch, they played each other a bit exaggeratedly. I remembered being put off when Alfred (actually Alf) acted out Alfred's perverted love for Alf.
"...Can I pay you, Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama, and buy Mirshe from you?"
"It is possible in theory, but I will not allow it. Tina is still a minor, and Mirshe is a minor too."
Leonardo said it was better for him, as an adult with social standing, to own Mirshe as an assistant and keep her under his care until she was old enough to manage on her own. Having both the owner and the owned party be minors would be a source of trouble in itself.
"Do you intend to let Mirshe-chan go someday, Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama? Even if she does not earn back what you paid?"
"In the sense of being a child sold by a parent... Mirshe and I are the same."
Leonardo had already removed Mirshe from my "friend" category and seemed to be placing her elsewhere. Somewhere that was not his little sister's friend, nor a servant.
"Buying with money is easy. But just because I bought her easily does not mean I can abandon her easily either."
He said he would have her work as a servant at the Grenore residence until she reached adulthood, and after that, he would listen to whatever Mirshe wanted to do. Whether she continued working as his property or bought back her freedom, it was not something a ten-year-old Mirshe should be worrying about right now.
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And so, this is Mirshe's current situation, which people were worried about in the comments section.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date. It has suddenly gotten cold, so I will skip tomorrow's update.