388 - Leonardo's Perspective Spring Blossom Festival Without Tina
I never thought a Spring Blossom Festival without gifts could feel so empty.
Before I took Tina in, it was only natural not to receive anything, and the years I actually got Spring Blossom Festival gifts were probably fewer than those I did not. Yet just having those few years' worth of gifts stop has left my heart so cold. In recent years, it had become customary for the Black Knight household's child to deliver gifts to the fortress, and there were indeed presents addressed to me, but they were gifts from women (strangers) whose faces I could not match to their names. They were not gifts from family. Because of that single point, they did not stir my heart at all. As Tina would say, my siscon disease is severe. I turn my suffocating love for my little sister (Tina) into bouquets, filling Tina's room with flowers.
"I do not need this many! They are in the way!!"
Imagining Tina puffing out her cheeks in anger, my face unconsciously relaxed. Then I immediately shuddered at the unsoundness of my mental state, warming at the thought of my angry sister. No matter how you look at it, warming myself by imagining a sister who is not here is bad. Before being a brother, I felt I had one foot in a territory a person should not enter. There was no falsehood in how important my sister was to me, but even so, I had to wonder if this was appropriate for a human being.
...Let me calm down a little. In the first place, warming at the image of an angry face is strange.
If I was going to imagine something, perhaps I should imagine Tina's happy face, I thought, and that calmed me down. I had filled her room with flowers out of suffocating affection, but Tina would absolutely not be happy about this. On the surface, she would thank me politely, I was sure, but she would keep only a single potted flower at hand and dispose of the rest by giving them as gifts to the Black Knights while charming them. Then the Black Knights would extort sweets from her in return, and she would come staggering back. She would have gone to reduce the flowers, only to end up with more. With a face saying, this does not make sense.
...Yeah. That is more like Tina.
I had heard rumors in the capital that she was a mysteriously beautiful girl like a spirit, but the word mysterious did not suit Tina. Lately she had become capable of behaving like a lady, but she was a tomboy and tenacious at heart. She was not the kind of girl who sat still in a chair and smiled like a doll.
After the Spring Blossom Festival ended, daily life returned as usual. Aaron compiled the reports delivered from the Restham Knight Order, and the orderly Arnold transcribed them into report documents. Meanwhile, I looked over reports of incidents and accidents that occurred during the Spring Blossom Festival, signing and stamping the necessary documents.
"Commander, a messenger has come from the residence..."
"A messenger?"
Thinking it strange, I signaled the Black Knight who had come to report and had the messenger shown into the office. The one who came was Mirshe. Though Kokumaro had also recovered enough to no longer need round-the-clock care, it was unusual for Mirshe to be sent to the fortress as a messenger. When I prompted her, asking if something had happened at the residence, she said it was a visitor who was quite difficult to handle.
"Bertrand-dono came to visit without any prior notice?"
After hearing the story, it was indeed a guest who was hard to deal with. With Tina absent, a sudden visit was genuinely troubling. If she were simply away it would be fine, but Tina had currently been taken by someone and was missing. This was very bad. He was not the kind of person I could brush off with an invitation to have some tea and wait until she came home.
"What is your business today?"
Leaving the fortress work to Alf, I returned to the residence with Mirshe. When I entered the reception room guided by Bart, Bertrand was sitting with a large box stacked beside the sofa.
"Where is Christina? I did not come here today to see your face."
I hid Mirshe from Bertrand's searching gaze as he looked around, as if asking why I had not gone to call Christina. Mirshe had been sent to the fortress as a messenger on Bart's orders. She had no reason to be blamed by Bertrand.
"Do you have business with Tina, Bertrand-dono?"
"Does a grandfather need business to come see his granddaughter's face?"
"...With Tina and Bertrand-dono, I think she would not come out unless there was business."
"Ngh..."
I sent Mirshe out and sat down in the chair across from Bertrand. Salisa prepared tea for me. Though I had no such composure internally, I brought the cup to my lips, pretending to enjoy the aroma.
...Was the box's contents a hat?
I recognized that large round box. Women's hats were often stored in such large round boxes to keep the brim from being crushed. And if Bertrand had business in Grenore, it was almost certainly related to Tina.
...In that case, had Bertrand-dono brought a hat for Tina?
The Spring Blossom Festival was already over, but it was not unusual for gifts from family living in distant lands to not arrive on the festival day itself. Those who absolutely wanted to make it in time for the festival would prepare gifts early, and those who did not would simply have their gifts arrive a little late to the recipient.
"It seems Sofiya-dono prepared some Spring Blossom Festival embroidery for Christina."
The round, large box Bertrand indicated as he said he had come to deliver it was just as I had thought. Tina had received a hat from Sofiya before, so she had probably prepared one this year as well.
...Now then, how should I explain this?
If it were just Bertrand, it was possible Tina would not come out of her room. Lately she seemed to be trying to improve their relationship somewhat, but it would not be particularly strange for Tina to chase Bertrand away, saying she did not want to see him. However, if there was a Spring Blossom Festival gift that her aunt had prepared for her, Tina would reluctantly but absolutely come out of her room. Tina was not the kind of person to treat her aunt Sofiya poorly, even while being wary of Bertrand.
"...Tina is not here right now."
I agonized over how to explain it, but in the end, I decided to tell the truth. Tina might not be able to admit it honestly yet, but Bertrand was her grandfather. When his granddaughter had been kidnapped, I could not keep him in the dark.
"Is she out? If so, I do not mind waiting a while."
When Bertrand started saying he might even take lodgings in the city for two or three weeks, I looked straight into his face. Having decided to speak, I could not tell Tina's grandfather while averting my eyes.
"Tina is not in the city of Grenore."
Before I could even finish saying she had been taken from the Sedovara Church by someone and kidnapped, Bertrand's fist came flying. I did not brace for it, nor did I dodge. I took it on my cheek and stared straight into Bertrand's purple eyes. They were the same color as Saromon's eyes, Tina's father. More than speaking to Bertrand, it felt like I was apologizing for my failure to Saromon.
"...Hmph. No charm at all. If you had at least flown into the wall, it would have been more endearing."
"I cannot afford to fall down right now."
The taste of blood spread in my mouth. He had punched me with full force without any preparatory motion, but it seemed no bones or teeth were broken. It would probably swell later, but that was all. Indeed, there was nothing charming about it at all.
"Do you know who the culprit is? How is the search going?"
"The nursemaid and the White Knight who were with Tina disappeared. Also, one pharmacist from the Sedovara Church is missing."
Among them, Kalisa was found dead, and the gold pendant Tina had been wearing was discovered in the town of Blois toward Mail Castle Fortress. If the culprit was among those who disappeared, it was probably the pharmacist Jasper. Giselle was a very typical White Knight, true to her title. Even if she had some dark scheme, she could not have pulled this off so perfectly. She would have slipped up somewhere along the way, and by now Tina would have safely returned to me. Given that they had already crossed the border, I did not suspect Giselle.
"From the clues Kalisa left behind, it seems someone connected to a certain region of the Zugarri Empire is the culprit..."
We had learned some things about the West-facing Adorutoru crest, but not everything. We knew it was the crest of a fallen kingdom, the approximate region where that kingdom had existed, and that no family currently used it openly. Considering the vast territory of the Empire, I could be glad that the search range had been narrowed to some extent, but we still lacked a decisive lead. To get Tina out of the mansion where she was being held, we could not afford to break into the wrong one. If I snuck into the wrong mansion and information about it was shared among families who secretly held the West-facing Adorutoru crest, the real culprit who had taken Tina would heighten their guard. To retrieve Tina as safely and surely as possible, a single failure could be fatal. As Alfred said, it was better to proceed as cautiously as one could be.
"Once we narrow down her whereabouts a bit more, I plan to go in myself."
That was what the preparations were for, I said, pulling at the hair at my nape that had grown longer. I could not say there was no one in the Zugarri Empire who knew my face, so to sneak into the Empire in secret, I needed a simple disguise. If it came down to it, I could prepare a wig or cut it short, but for now I was growing my hair out to hide my face.
"...Hmph. Then I will find Christina first and bring her home."
After I told him the full situation of the search, Bertrand snorted and crossed his arms. He seemed to think for a moment, then started saying something ominous.
"Bertrand-dono, would you not be even more restricted in your movements in the Empire than I would?"
"It has been quite a while since I was active in battle. Even at the border, the new soldiers who would be assigned as gatekeepers do not know my face. ...I have acquaintances over there too. I will go in under the guise of a trip."
Thinking about it, Bertrand raised one eyebrow and remarked that perhaps it was fortunate that he had not formally adopted Tina. Since it was not known that they were grandfather and granddaughter, he probably would not be too heavily watched just for entering the country.
...Certainly, it would probably draw less suspicion from the culprit than if I, as her brother, went in.
I thought so, but having Bertrand go in concerned me. I was trying to proceed carefully, but I had an不安 that he might ruin everything.
"Regarding the fallen kingdom that used that crest, if it is an old kingdom, we could probably look into it in the Divine King's Domain of Quebia. That country is the oldest, continuing since the age of myth. It preserves more history than any other nation."
"Quebia is a country with history and influence, but it basically maintains a policy of non-interference with all nations. Even if the purpose is to retrieve a kidnapped sister, whether they would provide information about another country..."
I thought that might work, but whether it would succeed was uncertain. It was hard to imagine that Quebia, which maintained a neutral stance toward all nations, would act just because the Ivizia Kingdom's Black Knight (I) inquired about information on a fallen kingdom.
...No, there was someone. An acquaintance who could work in Quebia.
I caught Alfred, who had just returned from the capital, and reported Bertrand's situation. I myself had no power to restrain Bertrand's actions, but a word from Prince Alfred would be different. It was a bit pathetic, but to warn Bertrand against doing anything rash, it would be more effective coming from Alfred. Incidentally, Prince Alfred was supposed to be in overall command of the search for Tina.
"...Bertrand-dono said that we could probably investigate in the Divine King's Domain of Quebia."
"Quebia? That works out well. The former Eighth Princess Claudine, who lost her status as a princess, is a useful pawn who would do anything for you, and I was planning to send people there anyway."
Alfred vouched that if I wrote a letter, she would move immediately. Sure enough, Claudine would do anything for me. In that sense, I was grateful for my good fortune that such a reliable person was in Quebia. However, having run away from her all this time and only relying on her when I needed something was rather awkward. Claudine probably would not take offense at being used conveniently by me, but precisely because I knew that, she was also a hard person to ask. I was simply taking advantage of her goodwill, without a shred of intention to respond to it.
...I knew it was too convenient, but this was not the time to say it was hard to bow my head to her.
More than anything, she was someone I was confident would definitely produce results if I asked. If I thought of it as bowing my head for Tina's sake, I should gladly accept a little guilt.
This is the middle of the chapter, but I have run out of time.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date. I will aim for every-other-day updates for a while.