439 - Leonardo's Perspective - Tina and Camille
After finishing going around all the rooms in the cave looking for Kalisa, I felt that Tina had gained at least a little stamina. That said, it was only to the extent that the number of breaks she needed while walking had decreased. She still could not walk without resting from the rooms we were given to the deepest part of the cave, and her walking speed was slow. When I stroked her calf to check if she had gained some muscle, she got mad and said, "Leo, you pervert." The amount she eats has increased compared to when we first came to the cave, so once Tina, who is in her growth period, starts heading toward recovery, the rest should be quick.
The problem is her mind.
According to the spirits, it seems parts of her contents are hiding somewhere else, and she is still acting strange. She talks more now, but that has also revealed some things. Tina's memories from the time she was kidnapped until I retrieved her are fuzzy. For recent things, she has no memory of being put on display in a birdcage, and for older things, she has no memory of Giselle, who should have been by her side all along. She seemed to think Giselle was in Grenore. But when I brought up Carlotta's name to see if she did not remember her either, she said she did remember Carlotta, so what criteria Tina's memories are being lost by is a mystery.
...But the fact that Tina kept wanting to go on walks even after we finished looking for Kalisa was a happy miscalculation.
I had been wondering how to convince Tina to keep walking, but there was no need. Or rather, it seemed Tina was the one who had been thinking about it.
"We have not destroyed the 'Spirit Seats' in the rooms we visited at the beginning yet."
I felt a sense of wrongness at Tina's words as she puffed out her chest as if continuing the walks was only natural. I had confirmed the locations of the spirit crystals in the other rooms, but I had not destroyed any of them. At least, all the spirit crystals other than the ones in this room should be intact.
"I confirmed the spirit crystals, but I did not destroy them, right?"
"Leo destroyed them properly. Because you drained all the contents, what is left is just like regular stones."
"...So that prickling sensation I felt was because something had been drained out."
When Tina told me to touch them, I obediently did, but it seems it was not a meaningless act. I had thought she was just amused by me being in pain, but it seems Tina was completely serious.
"When Leo strokes them, it feels like something like a shadow comes out of the 'Spirit Seat' and the inside becomes empty?"
"In that case, where does the drained content go?"
"Umm... into Leo?"
"Huh?" - at that point, Tina finally seemed to notice. If the contents had been drained, then where did they go?
"Huh? Leo, are you okay? You are not going to become the Divine King or something, are you?"
"That is a rather belated concern. Did you not notice when I was draining them?"
I soothed Tina, who had suddenly started panicking, by stroking her head. Seeing her compare my face and stomach area, I wondered if the shadow or whatever was accumulating in my stomach.
...The contents were the Divine King's remains, were they not? Does that mean I have consumed the Divine King...?
The expression "eaten" is not quite right, but if the shadow is staying inside me, it is still concerning. Even if I did it unknowingly, taking the Divine King's remains into my body might be as barbaric as chopping up the Divine King's coffin.
What do you think? - as I turned my gaze to the spirit that was generously spreading jam on the pancake Tina had left behind, the spirit blinked in surprise for a moment, then seemed to lose interest. It laughed, "Too late, too late," while opening its mouth wide and stuffing the pancake in.
...Too late? Indeed, several days have passed since I first stroked the spirit crystal, and I have not experienced any particular physical changes.
I do not know if it is okay to just leave it be with a "too late." Tina was told to destroy the 'Spirit Seats'. Having their contents inside me probably is not a good situation.
...At least, if I could know that I am only helping the contents get drained, and they are not accumulating inside me...
The spirits did not seem particularly concerned, so maybe there is no point in me worrying about it either. Thinking positively, the spirits did not lend their aid to Camille, who carved the 'Spirit Seats', but they still helped me, guiding me through the cave and putting Tina to sleep. That means the spirits do not dislike me. If I had really taken in the Divine King, they should hate me as much as they hate Camille.
...Yeah, no. There is no way the Divine King's remains are staying inside me.
I switched my thinking to looking on the bright side. If it is possible to remove only the property of containing the Divine King's remains while keeping the spirit crystal's shape intact, then that is for the best. If I can destroy the 'Spirit Seats' without Camille noticing, without having to worry about him confirming the crystals' integrity, then this should be a good method. At the very least, it means I can destroy all the spirit crystals I have found while we are in this cave.
After the meal, I went around the rooms in the cave with Tina pulling me by the hand. When she saw soldiers coming from the opposite end of the corridor, she hid behind my back, but she was recovered enough mentally to at least stick her face out and greet them. If she adds some charm to that, a full recovery should be soon.
...She has gotten completely used to Camille.
Having read the research notes left by the reincarnator Camilo, Tina learned about their usefulness and danger, and seemed relieved and trusting when Camille said he had no intention of making them. Whenever she saw him, she would call out "Grandpa Camille" and tag along, watching him do his experiments. Camille did not seem to mind being latched onto by a child, and he fusses over Tina quite a bit.
...No, it might be because when he has Tina hold things, the spirits get interested and lend their aid sometimes.
When Tina held the mechanisms with spirit crystals embedded in them, the spirits sometimes whimsically lent their power and made the mechanisms move. Camille might be aiming for this coincidence by having Tina hold the mechanisms. He should have the sense that his research progresses faster when me or Tina are around.
...Well, I think he does realize that if he carelessly shows Tina a spirit crystal, she will destroy it.
Bandages are wrapped over the covered areas where spirit crystals are presumably embedded below, so that Tina cannot open them. He probably thinks that even if Tina tries to destroy the spirit crystals when his attention is elsewhere, he can take back the mechanisms before she removes all the bandages. In his own way, Camille was also on guard against Tina.
"Grandpa Camille, what are you doing today?"
Spotting Camille in an area called the plant section, Tina let go of my hand and ran over. It looked like she was choosing Camille over me, but that was not it. It was because the area where Camille was happened to be where the fruits were being cultivated. While running over asking what he was doing, she was probably planning to get some fruit from him. In other words, I had not lost to Camille, I had lost to Tina's appetite.
...But it is still lush and green in here, as always.
Watching as Tina received a small basket from Camille, I surveyed the plant section. Despite being in a cave with no sunlight, the plants here looked healthy. It was strange enough that leaves grew so lushly in a cave without sunlight, but the abnormality of this place did not end there. Vegetables that should be difficult to grow in Zugall Empire soil, and fruit trees that only bore fruit in certain areas of the Divine King's territory of Quebia, were all there as if it were the most natural thing. When I peeked in last time, a soldier guarding the plant section explained that Camille had ordered plants from various regions and was cultivating them by adjusting the climate and soil. As for sunlight, he apparently used lighting with special mechanisms, but I could not understand it at all.
...Tina seemed to vaguely understand it as something like a greenhouse.
If you said "greenhouse," I could understand it a bit too, but a greenhouse capable of growing such a diverse range of plants would have been incredibly difficult to regulate. Just being able to grow plants inside a cave was already amazing.
...But if I think about it, the reason we always get freshly made jam... it was Psal berries grown here.
The bread served with meals was still hard black bread, but the pancakes and omurettes offered for Tina's sake had warm jam that was clearly freshly made, along with honey. I thought they were just warming up jarred preserves, but since fresh Psal berries were available, it was probably made in the kitchen.
...Oh, Tina is sneaking a taste.
Harvesting Psal berries into her small basket, Tina, apparently having succumbed to temptation, brought one berry to her mouth and grimaced at the unexpected sourness. Psal berries are sweet and sour, but I think it is better to cook them with sugar into jam for Tina to eat. Tina likes sweet things, but she seems to dislike things that are too sour.
"She has regained so much energy, it is like a different person."
"...Not even close. My Tina is not that well-behaved."
Compared to when she was first brought into the cave, she certainly looks like she has regained her energy. But from my perspective, knowing the original Tina, she has only just started to get her spirit back. Tina was not the type of child who played outside much, but that did not mean she was a demure little girl either. Thanks to Hermine's ladyship education, she had polished her skill at putting on a cat face, but conversely, that just meant she was tomboyish enough to need to put on a cat face.
"But it should be fine to leave the cave soon. I will call some trustworthy people from outside. You should take their carriage and go."
"And these trustworthy people would be...?"
"A rare type of noble in the Empire. They hate anything that goes against reason, and I suppose you could say for them, power is everything?"
"...Can we really trust them?"
Rather, would not the part about "hating things that go against reason" be what trips us up? Tina was kidnapped from the Ivizia Kingdom, she is a victim of something that goes against reason. In that sense, they might indeed cooperate. But if they "hate things that go against reason," then regardless of the root cause, would they not dislike helping fugitives being pursued by the Emperor? They might even say exactly that, "I hate things that go against reason."
"It will be fine. He has a very simple way of thinking. He is still technically an Empire noble, so he has the foundation to swallow a certain amount of unreasonable circumstances. If we explain the situation, I am sure he will help us."
Camille smiled wryly and said that if I was worried, I could just beat him in a spar or whatever. The "power" in Camille's "power is everything" apparently did not mean political power. It meant "power" as in physical strength, military force. He planned to call someone who, if they recognized someone as stronger than themselves, would swallow even a bit of unreasonableness and listen, thinking "there must be a reason for it."
"Well, that is its own kind of worrying, but I have some confidence in a direct confrontation."
I am the man who was called "Jin the Bear Killer" not so long ago. I do not think I will fall behind against an ordinary person.
"If you are confident in a direct confrontation, then it is fine. He lives in a very convenient location. His flexible personality is appealing, but the Leberan territory is in a convenient direction geographically."
"Leberan, you say... That is the territory around the middle point between Umburk and Potsdahl Fort, toward the Ivizia Kingdom side. That territory is... hmm?"
The word "Leberan territory" triggered something. The name had come up when I was searching for the west-facing Adorutoru crest, but there was something else too.
...Was it not Leberan territory that Bertrand-dono went to, under the guise of traveling?
I felt like I had heard something like that in the information Alfred brought back from the capital. If Bertrand was in Leberan territory, where a noble who could converse through fists supposedly lived, I also had a guess about the name of the noble Camille was calling. It was Albert, the knight of the Zugall Empire who had made a name for himself as Bertrand's rival in his active days. If Albert was still alive, then the acquaintance Bertrand visited would be him. They should have been trying to kill each other on the battlefield, but even I have one or two friends in the Saenard Kingdom. Even if Bertrand and Albert were friends outside of battle, it would not be that strange. Rather, having faced each other with their lives on the line on the battlefield, in a sense they could be said to know each other's hearts.
We decided that we could ask guests from Leberan about the situation outside the cave, and began preparing for departure. For me, as long as I could replenish my emergency rations, I could manage, but it was not that simple for Tina, who was not used to traveling. Besides, Tina is a girl. I could not let her take clothes made with lots of fabric, but I wanted to at least give her spare underwear and simple clothes to take.
"Tina, I will carry the food, so leave the instant cocoa behind."
"No. Emergency rations are important."
It seemed Tina had grown quite fond of the easily-made cocoa during our stay in the cave. She wanted to bring the cocoa, and shoved the cocoa jar into a small backpack packed with minimal luggage. When the bag would not close, instead of the cocoa jar, she took out the spare clothes. It seemed for Tina, cocoa was more important than spare clothes. It is true that lacking spare clothes would just be inconvenient, but if food runs out, you die. I could not exactly say cocoa was not more important in terms of priority, but this was just Tina being greedy. As for food, if we ran out, we could pick nuts or hunt birds and animals. I had no intention of letting things reach a point where emergency rations were needed.
"You can reduce one shirt, but do not reduce the underwear. And also reduce the cocoa jars."
When I pointed out that the number of jars she was trying to pack was clearly too many for the size of the bag, Tina pouted. It was my fault for making the backpack too small.
...I did not make it, though.
When I faced the treadle sewing machine to make a bag that Tina could carry without burden, the spirits swarmed around as they always did. When I told the spirits, who asked what I was making, that I wanted simple clothes and a bag for Tina, they busily started working. The spare clothes Tina was now deciding to leave behind for cocoa were the new clothes the spirits had made at that time. The fact that Tina prioritized her appetite over the spirits' goodwill showed that something was still missing in her. The old Tina would have listened to my words and been able to think for herself. That cocoa jars were lighter than spare clothes, and that when traveling, the luggage she should carry was spare clothes.
...Hmm?
As Tina was conflicted, comparing spare clothes and cocoa jars, an imp was putting another cocoa jar into a pocket made on the side of the backpack. Cocoa jars are cylindrical, but the side pocket was flat, though with some thickness. Logically, a cocoa jar should not fit in that pocket. It should not, but the imp was putting the cocoa jar into the pocket. And not just one cocoa jar, but two, three disappearing into the pocket one after another.
...That is right. It was a bag made by spirits.
There should be stories in fairy tales too. I felt like there was a tale about a traveler who could put as much as he wanted into a bag given by spirits, and used it to safely cross a river by pouring the swollen river water into the bag. Tina's bag was made by spirits. Even if it had similar effects to the fairy tale, it would be strange, but not unbelievable.
"Tina, want to bring some instant coffee too?"
I got a little greedy, thinking that if Tina's backpack could hold any amount of luggage. If Tina was bringing back cocoa, I wanted to bring back instant coffee that let me drink Ihoku just by adding hot water too.
"Ihoku is bitter, so no. If you want to bring it, put it in your own luggage, Leo."
"I am busy thinking about whether to choose spare clothes or cocoa," Tina said, sticking her tongue out at me, probably as a jab. The imp that had been trying to stuff an instant coffee jar into the pocket behind Tina's back returned the jar to the shelf at her response.