372 - Leonardo Perspective - The Adorutoru Emblem Facing West 1
"Please try to calm yourself a little, Leonardo-sama."
Bart gently cautioned me, saying that since I had finally returned to the residence after several days, I should rest. I understood being told to settle down since I had come back to the residence to rest, but my feelings simply would not stop stirring. Even as I stood here, Tina was being carried further and further away. I fully understood the necessity of rest, but staying still itself was agony, and I reached for the coat I had just taken off. If I could not relax anyway, then the residence's sitting room and the fortress's office were the same. I might as well spend the time at the fortress. Thinking that, I began to put on my coat, when Bart placed a cup of coffee he had brewed before my eyes.
"First, have a cup and calm your nerves. If any new information comes in, the fortress would surely send word here."
"I know that, but..."
Tina was not here. I had never imagined that alone could make the residence such an unsettled place. It was true that Tina had been away from the residence before, but even then, she had always been at the detached palace in the capital, or at Aurelia's house. Her whereabouts had always been known. Never before had she been snatched away somewhere without my knowledge, her location unknown, like this. Even when she was taken by spirits right before my eyes, word came within half a day that she had been secured. Having her whereabouts unknown for days on end, this was the first time.
"I will go check on Kokumaro."
Since it seemed I could not rest quietly, I decided to check on things within the residence. I had felt it was a shame to keep a pharmacist tied up taking care of Kokumaro, so I had brought him back to the residence and entrusted his care to Mirshe, but I had not checked on him since. I had visited Aaron, who had received treatment at the Sedovara Church just like Kokumaro, several times and spoken with him, but I had completely put off checking on Kokumaro.
I set the empty cup on the table, thanked Bart, and left the sitting room. Kokumaro was the guard dog kept at the residence, but right now he was in the servants' annex for easier care.
As I circled around through the back garden toward the annex, a plain pot casually caught my eye. Searching my memory for why I was drawn to a mere pot, I realized it was Tina's pot. It was the pot she had shown me when she was sorting the luggage she had brought back from the capital, saying it was her treasure. She had said she would grow flowers in it come autumn, but with its owner absent, the pot sat at the edge of the garden, empty of soil or anything else, tidied away.
...I was thinking I would pick one with more care next time, you know.
Before I could look for a potted plant to give at the Spring Flower Festival, I had to find Tina, the one I meant to give it to.
With renewed resolve to first fulfill my role as Tina's older brother, I visited the servants' annex. As Tina's brother, I would check on the guard dog in her stead.
"Ah, Leonardo-sama. I'm sorry, I did not come to greet you."
I spotted Mirshe's small back in a corner of the annex's sitting room and approached. Noticing my footsteps, Mirshe stood and bowed, just as Kalisa had taught her. At her feet was an old blanket, and I could see Kokumaro's black fur.
"Mirshe, you have been working hard. Spending all day taking care of a dog must be tiring. I am the one who should apologize."
"No, it is my job. Besides, while Christina-sama is going through such a hard time, all I can do is take care of Kokumaro..."
I placed a hand on Mirshe's black hair as she hung her head dejectedly. Tina had soft black hair, but Mirshe's hair was a little stiffer and firmer. Looking only at the color, there was nothing strange about me and Tina calling ourselves brother and sister, but when it came to hair texture, Mirshe's was closer to mine. Perhaps because of that, even when I patted Mirshe's head, I did not feel as though I were mistaking her for Tina.
"How is Kokumaro doing?"
As I spoke and peered down, the black dog lying on the blanket moved his limbs as though pawing at the ground. Occasionally I heard the sound of his claws scraping against the floor, but he did not seem able to plant his feet and stand yet.
"It seems he is anxious that his body will not move the way he wants. He whimpers all night long. He cannot eat solid food yet."
Mirshe told me about her struggles over the past few days, that he could only eat things softened into a mush, and even then, it might get stuck in his throat if she was not careful. Aside from feeding and helping him with waste, she was also giving him massages during the day as the pharmacist had taught her, to speed up the recovery from his paralysis.
"His legs are starting to move, but it still seems like moving them is all he can manage."
"I see. It must be hard on you too, but with Mirshe's help, please recover somehow."
If not, Tina would be sad, I thought, patting the head of the black dog lying down. He did not seem able to turn his face toward me, but his ears twitched as if in response. When I lifted my hand from his head, he whimpered and sniffled, which made me think he was anxious about Tina not showing her face. He had been thoroughly spoiled by Tina since he was a puppy, so even though he was supposed to have been trained as a guard dog, his personality was a clingy one.
It was not exactly because I had checked on Kokumaro, but the next day, before returning to the fortress, I stopped by the Sedovara Church. Aaron, who had been occupying one of the Sedovara Church's treatment beds for treatment of the paralytic poison, had already finished the detoxification itself. There was no longer any need for a full-time pharmacist to attend to him, and they said he could be brought back to the residence if there was someone to look after him, just like Kokumaro.
"This is the limit for now."
Saying that, Aaron slowly moved his arm to show me. His fingers trembled only slightly at the tips, and he could not grasp anything. It looked like he was putting strength into trying to bend his arm, and his elbow was quivering violently. About the only joint he could manage to move was his shoulder.
...Which will come first, the paralysis fading or his joints stiffening?
When joints are immobilized for treatment of fractures and such, they stiffen and become hard to move. Of course, once you start using them again the stiffness eases, but if the joints stiffened before the paralysis faded, recovery from the paralysis would likely be slower too. If I kept him at the Sedovara Church, they could give him exercises to loosen his joints regularly as a countermeasure, but Aaron was a Silver-White Knight. It would be a waste to keep him confined to the Sedovara Church. In times of emergency, a Silver-White Knight's command authority was higher than a Black Knight's. Though I was a Black Knight and also a Silver-White Knight, placing me above Aaron, if I wanted to leave the Grenore Fortress while Alf was away, I would have to entrust the fortress to Aaron.
...Well, his body may be paralyzed, but his mind is still clear.
At this rate, I thought, I could probably entrust him with a few days' absence.
"Still, you have regained quite a bit of movement, have you not? When you were found, even your breathing was touch-and-go, was it not?"
Unlike Kokumaro, Aaron could also move his mouth. Just being able to eat solid food alone changed the speed of recovery.
"I can only rotate my shoulder so far. I am worried my body will grow sluggish before the paralysis fades..."
"Frustrating," Aaron said, lightly lowering his eyes, but their focus was off. He was indeed looking in my direction, but his gaze did not quite meet mine. It was not from awkwardness or averting his eyes.
"How are your eyes?"
"With my right eye, I can only tell where the light is. With my left eye too... it is like I cannot focus. It is hard to judge distance. I cannot make out people's expressions either."
Aaron said it was manageable enough for daily life, but as a knight, he could not serve in a guard capacity. Not being able to judge distance was troublesome enough, but not being able to read people's expressions was fatal. Even if a suspicious person was lurking in a crowd, he could not spot them and be on alert. There was no way he could serve as a guard like this.
"They say they do not know how much my eyes will recover."
Aaron looked apologetic, saying this was no time to be lying around in bed. According to reports, his left eye might be recoverable, but his right eye was hopeless.
"Speaking of which, could I ask you to handle a task?"
"Of course. But as I am now, I cannot swing a sword, nor can I even hold a shield. Is there really work for such a useless man who cannot even leave his bed?"
"Even if you cannot leave your bed, your mind is clear, is it not? I want to leave the fortress to you."
Perhaps it might even be a good idea to leave the fortress to Aaron, who could not move, while I, who wanted to move, went outside. I had been thinking that rather than sitting still at the fortress waiting for information to come in, I wanted to go to the scene and investigate with my own feet.
"I want to go see the place where the boat was found too. And I have got business in Lagarette as well. I would like to leave the town of Grenore for a while, but unfortunately I have sent Alf to the capital as a messenger. I could not think of anyone else I could entrust the fortress to."
As a Silver-White Knight, Aaron would have the Black Knights at the fortress listen to his orders as well. Everyone at the fortress knew that Aaron had been afflicted with poison as a result of chasing after Tina, who had been taken from the Sedovara Church. No one would look down on him, thinking, what use is a knight who cannot move his limbs?
"I will attach Arnold, your orderly, as your assistant. But you will also need someone to take care of your personal needs."
As I started thinking about hiring someone, Aaron himself interrupted, saying "A Black Knight is fine." I had been thinking of a woman who would notice the small details, but Aaron argued that his trained body was heavy, and it would be unreasonable to have a woman take care of him.
...I thought someone like Petrona would have taken good care of him.
But it was true that looking after Aaron would be too much for Petrona. As he himself said, Aaron's body, sheathed in a suit of muscle, would be too heavy for Petrona. Even if Arnold was there as an assistant, it would be too much for Petrona, who was still just a girl.
In the end, I hired a male pharmacist from the Sedovara Church to care for Aaron, and had Aaron transported to the Grenore Fortress by carriage. Since he could not even sit in a chair on his own now, Aaron's desk became the bed in the nap room of my office. I had Aaron organize the information that came in and issue the next orders. After watching him work for a day, I felt reassured that I could leave the fortress for a while, and decided to head outside town.
...I wanted to see the place where the boat was found, but it is too late for that now.
On the very day the boat was discovered, footprints from the criminals getting on and off would have remained, but too much time had passed. Since then, Black Knights had visited several times for investigation, so in that sense too, there should be no footprints left. Even if I found footprints now, the chances were higher that they belonged to the Black Knights rather than the criminals.
Giving up on searching the area where the boat was reportedly found, I traveled down the river to the town of Lagarette. If I was just heading to the town of Lagarette, traveling by river was easier and faster. I could not use it for traveling while observing other towns and villages, but it was an effective means of transport when I had business only in Lagarette, like this time. Going downstream, I could just let the river carry me, and since it was autumn and the water had not turned completely cold yet, it would be easy to return to Grenore by riding an Aback upstream.
"I have been waiting for you, Leonardo-sama."
When I arrived at the pier in Lagarette, for some reason Basilia was there to greet me. I had contacted Jemian, so I thought someone would be there to meet me, but it was a little unexpected that his daughter Basilia had come out. Basilia was Tina's friend, and I had thought she was still in the capital, but apparently she had returned to the town of Lagarette at some point. More likely than not, it was because Lagarette was closer to Tina than the capital. Their first meeting seemed to have been quite intense, but the two of them got along well now. Thinking about it that way, perhaps it was not so strange that Basilia had come to greet me.
"...Oh? Is Christina-sama not with you?"
Standing on her tiptoes as if to peer behind me, Basilia made an openly disappointed face when she saw no one accompanying me besides the Black Knights following behind. She must have come to welcome me thinking Tina might be coming along with my travel.
"I am sorry, but Tina is not with me."
Far from being with me, she had been missing for more than half a month now. Black Knights had scattered to various regions to continue the search, but her whereabouts were still unknown. We still did not even know which direction she had been taken in.
"I had assumed Christina-sama would be clinging to her dear older brother and accompanying you..."
"I am sorry to disappoint you, but could you guide me for work?"
I continued, saying I wanted her cooperation for Tina's sake, and Basilia, who had been visibly drooping her shoulders, perked up. Her eyes sparkling like Tina's when she came up with some mischief, she gave a lady's curtsey.
"Leave it to me. I came as my father's proxy, so I shall guide you properly."
"...And Mr. Jemian himself?"
"He will not come out of the art gallery."
That is just how he always is, so please do not mind it, Basilia said, turning her body. It seemed she intended to guide me to our destination just like this.
"I have been told I may guide you anywhere you like. Right now, I could even take you to the room where my father keeps his secret paintings hidden from my mothers."
Basilia smiled with a soft hehe, and the disappointment from her hopes of Tina being with me had completely vanished from her face. Now she wore the same mischievous grin Tina sometimes showed as she walked ahead of me. When I inadvertently let slip that she seemed to be in a better mood, Basilia answered with a beaming smile, "If I tell her I went on a date with her dear older brother, I imagine Christina-sama would get terribly jealous." It seemed my thought that she looked like a mischievous child had been neither wrong nor mistaken.
...If I told her that Tina was missing, Basilia would be sad, would she not.
Time is up.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.