406 - Giselle's Perspective: The Useless White One 7
The bobbin lace I prepared, hoping it would distract her even a little, proved more effective than I expected.
Christina's waking hours became markedly longer, and she spent most of her waking time weaving bobbin lace.
At first Christina seemed to struggle with the bobbins made from whatever materials were on hand, but now she seems accustomed to them.
The pleasant clattering sound does not echo, but Christina continues weaving bobbin lace with hardly any hesitation in her movements.
Perhaps I should be glad that she has even started humming when she seems to be in a good mood.
However, some drawbacks have also emerged.
She has become so absorbed in bobbin lace that it has become difficult to take her out for walks.
The fact that she has had fewer opportunities to go out into the garden from autumn into winter is also a reason.
Christina, absorbed in bobbin lace and walking less, has been losing muscle strength in a steady, unfortunate way.
The strength she maintained from spring through summer has returned to where it was when she woke up in winter.
It is not to the point where she cannot get up, but she probably will not be able to run alone like she once could.
...If only Kokumaro were here, I could tie a bobbin lace pillow to his back and have Christina-sama chase him... that would make good exercise.
There are dogs in this castle, but they are guard dogs.
They do not have the charm of a black Shiba (Kokumaro), nor do they see Christina as their master like the Black Dog (Oscar) does, so if she crosses beyond the iron bars, they would bare their fangs even at Christina.
The guard dogs are not protecting Christina. They are positioned to prevent Christina from escaping.
I think the guard dogs' true masters are Edgar and the trainers who care for them.
"Sistina-sama, can you read these characters?"
Jasper showed Christina a document that seemed to be in Japanese, but Christina remained silent in response.
When Christina is focused, it seems no temptation other than pudding reaches her ears, and even if she does hear, she ignores it if she is not in the mood.
If you forcibly try to get her attention by taking away the bobbin lace, rather than turning her focus toward retrieving it, it becomes "the end."
She will not even look at the bobbin lace that was taken away.
Christina right now barely makes any assertions of her own, but on the flip side, she seems to extremely dislike being forced to do things.
You can guide her, but you cannot force her.
If you force anything even a little, Christina sulks and stops moving.
She is incredibly stubborn in the strangest ways.
If you want to make the current Christina do anything, you have no choice but to guide her skillfully.
And Jasper, staying in the castle as the pharmacist assigned to Christina, had also noticed this.
...Could something like that really capture Christina-sama's interest?
He seemed to have given up on having Christina read the document, but that does not mean he can give up on having her read Japanese.
Jasper wrote characters that seemed to be Japanese on writing boards (blackboards) and paper, hiding them in various places around the room.
He probably thought that if Christina's eyes happened to fall on them and she carelessly read them aloud, it would be a bonus.
And Christina fell for this strategy.
Christina, who had occasionally used a writing board at the detached palace as well, seemed to react to the writing board even though it was not the same one.
Her eyes followed the characters written in chalk on the writing board, and she spoke for the first time in what felt like ages, saying "...no...o...wa...to...shite?"
For me personally, that alone was a great achievement, but for Jasper, Christina's reaction seemed to give him something to worry about.
His face froze when he realized she had only read the hiragana.
"...Has she regressed to infancy? No, I have known Sistina since she was eight, but she was not like this..."
I think it is meant to double as a health examination, but Jasper kept reaching for her neck and touching her cheek to check her pulse, which seemed to annoy Christina.
Christina abruptly bit down on Jasper's finger.
"Ow!? ...No, wait, did she actually do this before?"
I have only known Christina since she was eleven, so I have never seen her bite anyone, but apparently for Jasper, it was within the realm of "possible behavior" for Christina.
Since I only know Christina as someone who, while a bit of a tomboy, strove to behave like a lady, I could not imagine it at all.
"But if she really has regressed to infancy... it might take time, but we might be able to overwrite her guardian."
If that were possible, it would make her easier to handle, Jasper said, rubbing his finger with its impressive teeth marks while gazing at Christina.
He looked as if he had finally seen a ray of light, but for me, this was extremely troubling.
If Christina's guardian were overwritten, I felt it would make it impossible for Christina to return to Leonardo.
From an outside perspective, it would be a situation where "the kidnapped Christina was able to return to her original home. How wonderful," but from Christina's perspective, there was a possibility she would perceive it as "I was kidnapped."
...H, hurry! I have to do something quickly!
There was nothing I could do to take immediate action, so I decided to start with what I could.
First, to do something about her completely deteriorated muscle strength, I decided to move the location of the bobbin lace every time Christina looked away.
Specifically, I would bring pudding in front of her, get her agreement with "Let us clean up the table, shall we?" and move the bobbin lace tools away.
After that, all I had to do was put away the pudding plate as slowly as possible and wait for Christina, unable to bear waiting for the bobbin lace tools to return to the table, to go get them herself.
If she fetched the tools and came back to the original table, Christina would have walked a round trip.
Even if not, Christina walking even a short distance is important.
Since this method involves no forcing, Christina would walk quite obediently.
...It is a tiny distance, though.
Without mentioning that it is for building Christina's physical strength, I wonder if I could get Edgar to prepare a puppy that can be kept indoors.
Lately Edgar seems to think of Christina as a dress-up doll, and has been giving her numerous dresses and shoes that match the doll's.
If I said something like "for Christina's emotional education," I feel like he would surprisingly easily prepare one.
This morning, Christina was in a bad mood from the moment she woke up.
Usually she cooperates by raising her arms when prompted, making it easy to change her, but today she would not say a word or make a sound.
Still, the maid hired from town who had experience raising children did not try to humor Christina, and laughed saying "This happens often with little children" as she dressed Christina.
I carried Christina, who would not move on her own, to the lounge chair by the window to give her her daily sunlight.
If you put Christina, who stays perfectly still, next to a doll made to look just like her, she really does seem like a doll herself.
Her naturally small build, coupled with the loss of muscle strength making her limbs stick-thin, was also a factor that diminished her human quality.
...Huh? Is there something... off about this morning?
I felt something was wrong, but I could not figure out what it was.
I watched Jasper examine Christina as usual while she sat on the lounge chair, then slowly looked around the room.
There was definitely something different from usual, but I could not tell what it was.
But maybe Christina had noticed this subtle sense of wrongness, which was why she seemed off today.
...? What is that sound?
As I watched Jasper leave the room to prepare Christina's medicinal bath, I heard a tapping sound.
Wondering if someone was knocking on a table, I looked at the elderly maid who was pouring tea from a tea set on a cart, but she did not seem to be tapping anything.
So where was it coming from? I searched for the source of the sound and, drawn by it, approached the window where Christina was.
The sound was coming from right near Christina.
...Did something move?
Feeling like something had moved, I stared intently while following the source of the sound with my ears.
I sensed something moving in the corner of my vision and turned my attention there, and saw a person's hand moving below the window.
"Fufufufuuuuuuuuhhh!?"
I tried to shout "Suspicious person spotted!" but a sudden sense of deja vu made me hesitate.
For just an instant, I made eye contact with the man who was ducking his head to hide outside the window.
I felt like I recognized that face.
In the end, the strange battle cry that came out of my mouth served both to report the anomaly to Christina's watchers and to alert the intruder to flee.
By the time the watchman came to the window, I could hear the sound of the man outside running away.
...Why do I feel like I have seen him somewhere...? Huh?
A red-haired man with an eyepatch had been peering in through the window.
His clothes were dirty, and it was immediately obvious he belonged to a world I should have no connection with.
Still, feeling like I recognized the man's face, I belatedly realized something was different.
...That man, did he call Christina-sama... "Tina"?
He had tapped lightly on the window, and I was sure he had called her "Tina."
Which meant that red-haired man was Christina's rescue.
If Christina's rescue had come, then I should not have raised my voice just now.
...Too late! Even if I realize it now, it is too late! Me!
I wanted to put my head in my hands and wallow in despair, but I could not let the watchman who had rushed over see what I was really thinking.
If Christina's rescue had arrived, I had better keep the alertness as low as possible.
...Huh? The numbers are low?
I noticed it belatedly, but this was probably the source of the strange feeling I had had earlier.
There were usually always six watchers in total, inside and outside the room, but today there seemed to be only one.
Maybe he was guarding the door outside, but even so, only one person rushed to the window at the strange cry.
"What happened!?"
"Uh? Ah, well... it looked like a dog wandered into the garden..."
I could not very well say "It looks like Christina's rescue has arrived," so I pointed in the opposite direction from where the man had fled and said something plausible.
I put on a slightly exaggerated angry act, saying things like "Did one of the guard dogs get out of its cage? What would you have done if Christina was attacked?"
I made a fuss for a while, but there was no sign of the watchers inside the room increasing.
It seemed the number of watchers really was low today.
...I remember now! That Black Knight, Jean-Chack or whatever!
I had been thinking about where I had seen the red-haired suspicious person's face, and the answer came to me just before bedtime.
Since a different maid was taking the night watch today, I was about to lie down in bed early when I suddenly remembered.
I had seen that face once in the capital, and a second time at Virup Fortress.
I was sure Christina called him "Jean-Jacques," and he had always corrected her, saying "It is Jean-Chack-sama."
...Huh? But wait, was not the side with the eyepatch different for Jean-Chack...?
I recalled the face of the suspicious person I had seen for just an instant and compared it with the face I had seen at Virup Fortress.
I had tried to remember the faces and names of people Christina met as her escorts, but there was a clear difference between the Jean-Chack in my memory and today's suspicious person.
The side with the eyepatch was reversed.
...So after all, is he a different person? But it could also be part of a disguise...?
Just by switching which side the eyepatch was on, I had not been able to recognize him immediately.
Maybe he changed the side of the eyepatch as part of his disguise.
...Has Christina-sama's rescue come...?
It would be difficult for me alone to safely return Christina to the Kingdom of Ivizia, but it is a different story if the Black Knights are moving.
If the Black Knights are moving, it means Leonardo and Prince Alfred are giving orders.
Which means they should come to reclaim Christina with methods far more reliable than anything I could think of.
...Which means, after all, I have to restore Christina-sama's muscle strength.
As she is now, she cannot run even if she needs to.
The Black Knights found Christina.
The day a helping hand is extended should not be far off.
...They should be gathering as much information as possible on their end too. I need to somehow convey Christina-sama's current condition...?
I think it is better to convey Christina's condition.
Even if they manage to secure Christina, as she is now, they would have to constantly carry her while escaping.
They would need considerable preparation for that.
...That is right. A letter! If I write a letter and can give it to Jean-Chack!
There is no way today would be the only time they would contact Christina.
They will definitely watch for an opportunity and try to make contact again.
If they have noticed me, I might be able to pass them a letter.
First, I will write a letter, I thought, getting out of bed and heading to the desk.
If I lit a lamp, the watcher outside the room would realize I was doing something, so I decided to pretend to draw a bobbin lace pattern and disguise it.
The first pattern I had made was one Christina had already memorized, so it would be perfect.
Hiding it within the paper I was drawing the pattern on, I wrote a letter about Christina's current condition.
I wrote about how she had been acting strangely since she woke up, how her appetite had decreased, how her muscle strength had declined, folded it small, and hid it in my pocket.
Since I have no way to contact them from my end, passing the letter is difficult.
Which means the next time I see that face is the decisive moment.
He will definitely try to make contact with Christina, so I have no choice but to pass the letter then.
...I hope the "next time" comes soon!
× Jean-Chack ○ Jean-Jacques
Typos and errors to be corrected another day