432 - Leonardo's Perspective - Tina and the Spirits 1
When I woke to the sound of a knock, my eyes met Tina's blue eyes. Tina, who had been sleeping with my chest as her pillow, seemed to have woken before me, and was staring intently at my face.
"You should have woken me, you know?"
Thinking she must have been bored if she was the only one awake, I stroked Tina's head, which was on my chest, but Tina silently shook her head. It seemed that a single night's sleep had not restored Tina's condition.
"Someone came."
"Yeah. Tina can stay in bed, it is fine."
When I got out of bed to greet whoever was knocking, Tina followed behind me just like last night. Since she had fallen asleep as she was last night, the ribbon tied in Tina's hair was a little crooked. After fixing it slightly, I opened the door. Outside the door stood a man wearing the uniform of a Zugall Empire regular soldier, waiting with a cart loaded with meals.
"So you are the one Old Man Camille said was his guest? He said you would not be able to leave your sick little sister until she woke up, so he told me to bring meals... but she is cute. Hey, she is awake, is not she?"
Mid-sentence, the man bent down and peered at Tina's face. Tina, who had been clinging behind me, suddenly had a strange man's face thrust into hers, and hid behind my back.
"...My sister is shy around strangers. Do not take it badly."
"Well, then she probably will not be coming to the dining hall for a while. We could put out a lot more stuff in the dining hall, but..."
Saying, "Leave the cart outside the room when you are done," I watched the man's back as he left, then pulled the cart into the room. What sat on the cart was my breakfast and a mushroom spirit wearing a hat.
"I would like to ask, just to be sure. Is there anything mixed into the food?"
--Salty stuff, spicy stuff, slimy stuff...
"I phrased that wrong."
The salty stuff was salt, the spicy stuff was pepper, and the slimy stuff was probably salad dressing. To the spirit, which counted the breakfast seasonings on its little mushroom fingers, I changed my question.
"Is anything in there poisonous if you eat it?"
--Nope.
The mushroom spirit puffed out its chest, saying it had been watching, so it was fine. Why they were this helpful to me was still a mystery, but having invisible spirits keep watch on the other party's movements was a blessing. When I gave a brief word of thanks, the mushroom spirit laughed proudly and headed back to the dining hall.
"...The food is not that different."
"Different?"
I took out plates and cups from the dish cabinet and portioned out Tina's share. Not knowing how much Tina could eat, I put small amounts of bread and salad on the plate. The breakfast menu was hard bread, soup, sausage, and salad. Considering this was what was prepared for soldiers in the Zugall Empire, it was on the good side. Guarding the cave (here) where the reincarnator was sheltered must be an important duty for the Zugall Empire. The treatment of the soldiers seemed better here than elsewhere too.
"They said Camille, who is sheltering us here, is a reincarnator. There are lots of unusual things in the room too, right?"
So I had thought unusual food might come out too, but it was surprisingly ordinary. The hard black bread was what commoners in the Ivizia Kingdom ate normally, and the knights also carried it as field rations. Even sausage was not all that rare.
"Hot water comes out just by turning a handle, so I would not be surprised if something that could easily bake bread appeared, but..."
The bread was probably brought in from outside. The reason the bread was hard was that it was made with as little moisture as possible for preservation during transport. If eaten as is, it would suck the moisture right out of your mouth, so I tore small pieces of bread and dropped them into Tina's soup. Doing this let the bread soak up the soup, becoming soft and easier to eat. It would be just right for Tina right now.
Watching Tina eat bit by bit, I mentally listed the ingredients that had been brought in last night. Meat, vegetables, flour, and such had been brought in, apparently so we could cook for ourselves, so it might be nice to try cooking for the first time in a while. I would not be able to leave the room until Tina recovered somewhat either.
...Maybe I will try making scones.
I remembered how Tina had jumped for joy at Aurelia's scones, and how the next day I had gotten the recipe from Aurelia to make scones in competition. It seemed Tina had not liked them much, but I had not baked scones since the Waiyakku Valley. I felt like I could make them better now.
...No, the oven here probably works differently. Even if I could make the dough, I do not feel confident I could bake them well.
As my thoughts started to drift toward whether I could consult the spirits about the oven too, there was another knock at the door. Wondering what it was this time, I stood up and moved to the door, and Tina stopped eating to follow behind me.
...Even here, huh.
When I opened the door, there was the man from before, and behind him several other men. When the men saw my face, they showed obvious disappointment, but when they noticed Tina hiding behind my back, their expressions softened in unison and they lowered their gaze.
It was the same scene I had seen at Grenore Fortress. I guess this cave counted as a military facility guarded by soldiers. With a cute girl like Tina having come to a workplace full of men, they had come to see Tina's face.
"...Can I help you?"
"No, it is just that your little sister did not have any food, right? We brought some from the dining hall."
Look, they said, ignoring me and holding out a plate with a small stack of two pancakes toward Tina. It was a sweet thing with honey and butter on the side, probably trying to catch Tina's attention.
...Well, that will backfire on Tina.
Having strange men peer at her face, Tina was completely shrinking back. Before, she might have managed a polite smile, but Tina did not have that kind of composure right now. As if to hide her face from the men, she pressed her forehead firmly into my back.
"Oh, she hid."
"I told you my sister is shy around strangers."
Shoo, shoo. I took just the plate with the pancakes and chased the men away. The men who had come just to see Tina were disappointed she had hidden behind my back, but having gotten at least one look at Tina, they were mostly docile as they left. After watching their backs go, I urged Tina back to the table where our breakfast was.
"You want some pancakes?"
Back at the table, I placed the pancakes, a tribute from the men, in front of Tina. Right now, if it meant Tina would eat even a little more, I did not mind breakfast being sweet things. When I prepared a knife for cutting the pancake, Tina cut a small piece and brought a piece of pancake soaked in plenty of honey to her mouth. Before, she would have been practically dancing with joy over honey, but now she was silent. The strangeness of Tina's state showed even in things like this.
...Actually, they definitely baked these for Tina, did not they?
Otherwise, it would mean pancakes were a normal item on the menu here, and the soldiers regularly ate pancakes drenched in honey with straight faces. I had not seen it yet, but if it was a dining hall, it must be a fairly large space where the men crowded together. Imagining the sight of men all eating pancakes at once, I felt an indescribably strange feeling.
"...I will give half to Leo."
Tina pushed the plate toward me, offering me the pancake. Tina said half, but all she had eaten was the first small slice she had cut. That was not half.
"You have barely eaten anything."
"Full stomach. Cannot eat all."
She passed the pancake plate to me, and I thought she was done eating, but she started eating the soup and bread from before, so I supposed this was her way of thinking about it. Sweet treats drenched in honey do not count as a meal, she meant.
--Are you leaving it?
--Do not want it anymore?
--Can we eat it?
As I watched Tina resume eating, I saw small hands at the edge of the table. When I peered at them, I could see imps and winged lizards trying to climb onto the table.
"If you want to eat, go ahead."
Here, I said, moving the plate Tina had pushed away to the edge of the table. Given permission to eat, the spirits flocked to the pancake with rustling cheers. They seemed to like sweet things.
"Leo, who are you talking to?"
"Hm? Now that you mention it, I never asked Tina."
To Tina, who looked up at me with a curious expression, I tilted my head slightly. I had been so surrounded by spirits since yesterday that I had almost forgotten common sense.
"There are spirits here... Can Tina see them too?"
"...There is no one here."
I tried urging her to look at the plate with the pancake, but Tina glanced at the plate once and immediately returned her gaze to me. She really did not seem to see anything, and an imp started dancing in front of her as if to tease her, but Tina's gaze was fixed steadily on me.
...That is strange. Why can I see them and not her?
If Tina, said to be a Spirit's Favored Child, could not see them, then other people probably could not see them either. In terms of being a reincarnator, Camille should also be a Spirit's Favored Child, but he did not seem to be able to see the spirits at his feet.
--In the current world, you are the only one who can see us.
--Even the bloodline of the King, they see us and they do not.
Twirling and dancing on the table, they spun words with a cadence. The words that came out as if sung were somehow ominous.
...When the spirits say King, do they mean the Divine King, or the King of Spirits...?
Either way, it was not an answer to why I could see spirits.
--You look puzzled.
--You look puzzled.
--Want us to tell you why?
--We will tell you if you give us a name.
The request that popped out was to give them my name. They did not miss a trick. They were trying to wheedle my name out of me in this vague manner. Thinking about it the other way, it was rare for spirits to be this fixated on an individual. According to what the Divine King said, spirits were not that interested in humans. Sometimes, on a whim, they might bring good fortune to a human they liked, but there were almost none that attached themselves to an individual and protected them like the spirit of the Enomena flower. The Divine King would not move just for protecting the human they were attached to, but if they started retaliating against others, that was a different story. Mediating between humans and spirits was one of the roles the gods gave the Divine King in the age of myth.
"I wonder how much I can trust Camille?"
"The reincarnator grandfather?"
"He is the one sheltering you and me here."
Though she was vague, Tina's head seemed reasonably clear. She properly understood the circumstances I had been explaining bit by bit since last night.
...And her hand has stopped eating.
The bread she had soaked in soup seemed to be finished, but the soup itself remained. The salad had decreased a little, but the sausage had not been touched.
--Camilo is mostly an honest one.
--Camilo, unlike you, does not tell lies.
"Camilo? Do not you mean Camille?"
The spirits, aiming for the soup Tina had left behind, started dancing near the cup. Since I wanted her to finish at least the soup, I lightly shooed away the spirits swarming around the cup, and put the salad and untouched sausage plate at the edge of the table instead.
--Camille? Was it not Camilo?
--Camilo? Was it not Camille?
--Which was it?
--Which was it?
At the spirits, who had started looking at each other saying "How strange," I smoothed the frown beginning to form between my brows. They were the ones who had started mixing up Camille and Camilo, but even they did not seem to know for sure themselves.
...Hm?
Keeping the spirits who had started discussing something at the edge of the table in my field of view, I noticed a change in Tina. Tina had furrowed her brows in a pout, puffing out both cheeks until they were full.
...That brings back memories. At some point she stopped doing it, but until she was about ten, she would puff out her cheeks when she was angry...?
How cute, I started to feel warm and fuzzy at Tina's gesture, then remembered. When Tina puffed out her cheeks, it meant she was angry.
...What is she suddenly angry about...? The spirits? Is she jealous because I was only talking to the spirits?
Unable to think of anything else, I figured it must be because I had been talking to the spirits she apparently could not see. It would be a problem if she got completely sulky, so I speared a piece of carrot floating in the soup with my fork and brought it to Tina's mouth.
...Ah, she ate it.
The carrot brought to her lips was accepted into Tina's mouth, still with a displeased expression. Her brows were still furrowed, but the carrot was slowly chewed and pushed down her throat.
...If I bring it to her mouth, will she eat?
If it would increase how much Tina ate, it was a welcome discovery. But overfeeding her to the point of making her throw up would be bad for her body, so I needed to be careful. As I started seriously wondering how much I could safely feed her, Tina, who seemed to have finished eating the carrot entirely, opened her mouth. Apparently she was still willing to eat. Or perhaps she was just being needy.
Since she had opened her mouth on her own, I slowly fed Tina the soup. Thinking she would be fine as long as she was opening her mouth on her own, I managed to get her to eat all the soup I had moved to the cup, but that was a mistake. For Tina right now, the amount she had stopped eating on her own was probably truly all she could handle. A little after the meal, Tina threw up everything she had eaten.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.