361 - Harvest Festival Wedding
The season had changed to autumn, but it was still a little too hot to switch to autumn clothes. Even so, the weather had grown cool enough that my clothes had changed from short sleeves to long sleeves. For the past few days, Mirshe had been following Kalisa around, learning how to take care of me. How to maintain a lady's appearance, how to do the braiding that was popular in the capital, work that was a bit different from menial tasks.
...If I was going to be Mirshe-chan's practice dummy, I should not have cut my hair.
It could not be helped since the spirits' venting had left it cut unevenly, but only now did I finally feel like I had made a mistake. Felicia had been angry at the spirits about cutting a girl's hair, and that was probably a justified anger.
...Thanks to her studying work under Kalisa, I have actually had more time to talk with Mirshe-chan.
I was being told not to coddle her too much, that I had to maintain the boundary between master and servant, but talking a little at the end of the day was allowed. And now, there were even gaps for a bit of casual chat.
...Having a lady's maid really is nice.
I already had Kalisa as my nurse maid, so she could not become a full-time lady's maid, but having her learn under Kalisa meant I had more chances to talk with her than when she was working in the kitchen or tending the back garden as a servant. So I wanted her to keep studying under Kalisa for a while.
...Leonardo-san had also gone completely back to his old life.
Not his life before going to the detached palace, but his life from around the time I had been taken in at the Fortress Lord's Residence. He came home at irregular hours, to the point where he was practically only coming back to sleep. If there was one small difference from before, it was that he came back while I was still awake. In the past, depending on the timing, he would come back after I had gone to sleep and leave before I woke up, so we would not see each other for over a day. But now, we at least met once a day.
...But the fact that it felt like he was only coming back to take naps bothered me.
And during those naps, he would not lie down on the bed next to me. When I could not stand it anymore and told him to sleep in the bed, he invited me to take a nap together. Leonardo's trauma seemed to be getting worse steadily.
...When will he finally feel at ease, I wonder.
Sometimes I sat on the edge of the bed and kept him company during his naps. When I did, I would spend the time doing embroidery or reading a book while watching him sleep lying down, but even if I lost to drowsiness and collapsed on top of him, he would not wake up. Yet if I simply stood up from the bed for some errand, he would wake immediately. I was a little worried whether he was really getting any sleep like this. Alf had been holding his head over this clinginess, but in terms of being "bound", I did not particularly feel inconvenienced. I was just worried about whether he was actually sleeping properly.
...The spirits really did a troublesome thing.
I looked down at the report Leonardo had given me when he returned from the fortress. It seemed my additional guard in the capital had been decided. According to the report, Leonardo had apparently tried to bring in new recruits, but I had already expressed my wish to return to Grenore city quickly, and in accordance with the personal request of the knight herself, the silver-white knight who had been guarding Felicia would be coming to Grenore.
"I recognize this name."
I shifted my gaze from the report, which concluded by saying the knight would be dispatched to Grenore as soon as the handover in the capital was complete, to the attached personal record. I recalled the faces of Felicia's guards I had exchanged words with many times at the detached palace, and found the name written in the personal record among them.
"Huh? Felicia-sama's favorite knight?"
I recalled the image of Felicia's favorite knight, the one with such a delicate appearance that you might mistake him for a woman if you were not careful, and read through the report once more. No matter how many times I read it, it said "secondment to Grenore by personal request."
...Felicia-sama, what did you do!?
If Felicia's favorite knight was coming to Grenore, it was either that Felicia was concerned about me and sent someone trustworthy, or the knight wanted to escape from Felicia. I could not understand wanting to run away from someone as beautiful as the goddess Felicia, so it was probably the former. Even if it was the latter, it was the former.
As autumn deepened a little, the season of the Harvest Festival arrived. This year as well, pots of blooming flowers were being placed under the street trees, and the festive atmosphere was apparently increasing day by day.
I said "apparently" because I did not go outside the residence grounds much, so this was something I heard from Mirshe, who sometimes accompanied Tabitha to the market for shopping.
...With festivals, Leonardo-san was basically working.
For the Recollection Festival, since the rites were held at night, the daytime was a break for taking a nap. But because I participated in the Recollection Festival as the Spirit's Favored Child, Leonardo stayed awake during what should have been his nap time to keep me company. For the Spring Blossom Festival and Harvest Festival, he worked just like the Black Knights and soldiers standing guard all over the city. In ordinary households, festivals might be treated as holidays, but in our house with a Black Knight for a big brother, they were just regular work days.
...Maybe I should go out and play sometime.
Even I, who prided myself on being a shut-in, sometimes thought about going outside to have fun. That said, even when I thought about going to the Harvest Festival, the only thing I could think of as a destination was the Three Crows Tavern's festival-limited menu. With only one objective, I suddenly felt too lazy to go out. I felt bad making Aaron and Giselle accompany me for just a single purpose.
While I was thinking about that, Leonardo gave me an errand, which was rare.
"There is a wedding in the knights' residential district. Could you deliver a gift as my proxy and show your face for a bit?"
"I would be happy to run an errand, but would me going really serve as a substitute for Leonyaldo Big Brother-sama?"
If the wedding was being held in the knights' residential district, the groom was almost certainly a Black Knight. Leonardo attending as the Knight Commander and his sister attending would carry different weight, would it not?
"It is Lorenz's wedding. You know him. He was there when we went to Mey Village, and I sent him as a messenger to Wiyack Valley too, remember?"
"Ah, the intimidating-faced one."
I heard later that when selecting people to come to Mey Village, Leonardo had deliberately chosen only intimidating-faced Black Knights. At the time, surrounded by all those intimidating-faced knights, I must have wondered if having an intimidating face was a prerequisite for becoming a knight.
"It seems even that intimidating-faced guy found a bride."
A few years ago, after Teo's challenge, gifts were delivered to the fortress during the Spring Blossom Festival, and apparently since then, the rules had been relaxed to allow children from Black Knight families into the fortress during the Spring Blossom Festival. Perhaps thanks to that, there had apparently been a string of Black Knights getting married at Grenore Fortress in recent years. It was a wonderful thing.
"...Girls like brides, do they not? Go take a look."
"I have not even had my first love yet, so I do not have any desire for marriage or longing for brides..."
I had already been thinking about going out anyway, and with the added purpose of being Leonardo's proxy, it would make it easier to get my reluctant self moving. In fact, my mood, which had been hesitating about going out just for the Three Crows Tavern's limited menu, was on the rise.
"Very well, then I will go out for a bit."
"Yeah, go ahead. Just make sure you do not leave Aaron and Kokumaro."
"You forgot about Giselle!"
Now that it was decided I would go out to play, I prepared to leave. I had them prepare a light coat and took out my black cat wallet from the drawer after a long time. The black cat wallet I had chosen and bought at age nine because "it was fitting for a child" felt a bit out of place for me now.
...Should I buy a new wallet? But then again, I do not really have opportunities to go out carrying a wallet, do I?
When I shopped as the young lady and sister of Leonardo, Kalisa or Tabitha paid using the wallet Leonardo had entrusted to them. Or if Leonardo was accompanying me, he paid for everything. The chances for me to go shopping carrying my own wallet had been few from the start, and would probably become even fewer from now on. Whether to get a new wallet was a dilemma.
...Well, whatever. Today I will use the black cat.
If I saw a wallet I liked while looking around the festival, I could buy it then. First, I checked my change, and had Tabitha exchange some money for me before heading out. For buying food at festival stalls, grain copper was more useful than silver or copper coins.
"Oh, I am also going to the Three Crows Tavern, so should I invite Mirshe?"
"Mirshe is busy today. Tabitha is teaching her festival cooking, so she cannot go."
If she perfectly learned how to take care of me as a maid, I could take her along, but unfortunately it seemed Mirshe still could not handle me on her own yet. Though I was not sure if Mirshe could really become a maid on par with Kalisa, who could even handle guard duty.
"Understood. Then I will buy a souvenir for Mirshe."
When I put on my coat and went out the front entrance, Aaron furrowed his brow at the bare entrance. He asked if I was not taking the carriage.
"It is within walking distance."
Since Grenore city was not as vast as the royal castle where you had no choice but to rely on a carriage everywhere, I basically walked around town. I did not get any proper exercise, so it was better to walk when I felt like going out.
"Also, there should be a lot of people out today, so I think a carriage would be dangerous."
"A carriage would be safer, though..."
Aaron looked into the distance with a slightly faraway gaze, as if lamenting his charge's lack of a sense of danger. Then he started a lecture about how if there were plans to increase the number of servants, they should first increase the stable hands, and how since I was technically a young lady, I should prioritize my own safety. Listening to Aaron's nagging, I suddenly remembered I had not seen Petrona in a while. Since returning to Grenore city, I had only gone to greet Petrona's parents once to say thank you for everything.
...Yeah. Let me take Aaron along and see Petrona-chan's surprised face.
I now had one more errand to attend to at the Harvest Festival, and I started walking while smirking inwardly at the mischief I had just come up with.
The house Leonardo had sent me to was not that far from the Fortress Lord's Residence. Since the Black Knights' homes were in the knights' residential district, it might even be visible from the window of my room. The black shiba inu, Kokumaro, walking beside me occasionally looked up at my face, and making eye contact with him, it was a distance we could reach even at a leisurely pace.
Since it was a wedding, the gate was already decorated with flowers and cloth. In this country, weddings were not held at churches, but at the couple's new home. Since Grenore was a fortress town surrounded by walls, land was limited, so a proper new house was difficult, but it did not change the fact that the wedding was held at the house where the couple would live.
"As my brother's proxy, I have come to deliver a gift to the bride and groom."
When I said this and gave a lady's curtsy, the Black Knight standing at the gate let me through with a smile. I had been a little concerned that the Commander's proxy being a child like me would be an issue, but it seemed to be no problem at all. I could not claim to know the faces of all the Black Knights in the fortress, but many Black Knights knew my face. It seemed that just the fact that the Commander's treasured little sister had come as his proxy was enough to show sincerity about not being able to attend the ceremony.
I presented the gift and congratulatory words to the bride and groom, and breathed a sigh of relief that I had fulfilled my duty for now. As I was wondering whether to go home or watch the wedding a little longer, the bride's grandmother invited me to stay for a meal, so I decided to have a little something before leaving.
...I only thought it would be rude to refuse food I was offered, that is all. It is not like I wanted to try a different family's cooking for once or anything.
I made excuses in my heart that I had definitely not given in to my appetite, and accepted the river fish pie recommended by the bride's grandmother. The seasoning was close to Tabitha's cooking, but since it was a different family's cooking, there was a slight unfamiliarity to it.
...But it was delicious. And the bride was beautiful too.
I had not been that interested in the bride before coming, but seeing her in person, my heart did flutter a bit. It seemed the meager maiden circuits I had left were barely functioning properly.
...So it is not a pure white wedding dress, huh.
Part of me felt it would not be surprising if some reincarnator had introduced them, but surprisingly, the bride's dress was not white. It was a glossy red long robe embroidered with vivid flowers. It was not long enough to drag on the ground, but there was a veil too. What held the veil in place was not a tiara like I had seen in my previous life, but a crown made of nuts and vines. Using nuts was apparently because nuts represented autumn's bounty, carrying a wish for the couple to be blessed with children. Autumn brides made crowns of nuts, while spring brides made flower crowns and summer brides made crowns of green leaves. The most popular season was apparently autumn weddings. Almost no one married in winter. I felt like there might also be a more adult reason, like getting married before winter so you could hole up at home and immerse yourself in creative work during the cold season. At least, that was how it was in a closed-off village like Mey Village.
...Huh? Come to think of it, is not finding marriage partners for servants the lady of the house's job?
Giselle was a noble's daughter, so I was not worried about her since her family would handle things, but the problem was Kalisa. Kalisa did not have parents who would find her a marriage partner. What was more, I had heard from Leonardo that apparently because she was a triplet, there would be no takers for her as a bride, though I did not fully understand that myself. I did not know what kind of superstition was involved, but twins or triplets, to me Kalisa was Kalisa. I had no intention of giving Kalisa in marriage to a man who would hesitate because she was a triplet.
...But what does Kalisa herself think about it?
What did Kalisa think about her own future? I was aware that I was being influenced by the bride I had just seen, but I suddenly became curious and decided to ask her directly.
"Marriage? I do not have any plans or longing for it, particularly..."
Kalisa looked down at me with a genuinely puzzled expression, which somehow made me feel uneasy. Did Kalisa not have dreams for her future, or desires to have children someday, or anything like that?
"As long as Tina-sama needs me, I will work by your side. When my duty is over, I will return to Mandez."
There, together with her sisters, she would live the same life as now, Kalisa said. She would serve the master of the residence and work there until she could no longer work. That seemed to be Kalisa's plan for the future.
...Our household's servants, including the master, suffer from a serious love deficiency!
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.