449 - Rannvald's Search
"This is rather belated, but why is Rannvald-sama in the Fortress Lord's Residence?"
And with a face like it was only natural for him to be here, at that. He showed his face in the room with such an utterly ordinary expression that I was a bit troubled over what to call him. In the capital, I had called him 'Vard' because of the sophistry that 'he might resemble the King's Brother Rannvald, but he is ultimately a different person. His name is Vard, you see.' But in Grenore, there was no need to distinguish between Rannvald and Vard. The person Rannvald wanted to hide from (Ethelbert) was not here.
And for that matter, since he had two Silver-White Knights for both guard and surveillance right behind him, he certainly could not pass for just a plain 'Vard.'
"You really are belated about asking."
"With that Ran-something-or-other-sama's face... from a distance, I suppose I could almost pass for him."
Leonardo explained that since he had needed to leave Grenore in secret for a while, he had had Rannvald act as his body double. And following from that, Rannvald had also taken over his work while he was away from the fortress, so now they were in the middle of the handover.
"...I see. If Rannvald-sama has been helping Leonardo Big Brother with his work, then I should offer Rannvald-sama my hospitality as well."
Since it seemed he had been faithfully doing the work he was asked to do, I straightened my posture toward Rannvald. He had been doing Leonardo's work in his stead. A benefactor to my brother (Leonardo) was a benefactor to me as well.
"Well then, I will specially brew some cocoa for you."
"Please prepare some hot water," I said with a composed face as I called for Mirshe, and Leonardo could not hold back a burst of laughter. It seemed Leonardo had read my intentions accurately.
"Tina, will you brew some for me too?"
"Sure."
When I offered to include the two guards escorting Rannvald as well, they declined, saying they were on guard duty (work). I had thought it was a good chance to consume the excessive amount of instant cocoa, but if they were working, there was nothing for it.
It seemed the me from the time I did not remember had liked instant cocoa, but for the current me, it was a bit lacking. Instant cocoa and coffee have slightly inferior flavor, but their selling point is the ease of just pouring hot water to drink. Conversely, that also means you can drink something more delicious if you put in the effort. And at our home, we had Salisa, a maid skilled at cooking.
...What Salisa brews is overwhelmingly tastier, after all. I only reach for instant cocoa when I want something quick.
Between instant cocoa and the cocoa Salisa brewed, instant cocoa had no advantage except convenience. But it seemed we had brought back a large amount, so I wanted to finish it before it got damp.
For this utterly trivial reason, my current little hobby was 'brewing instant cocoa for people.' Since it was his little sister (me) brewing it, it was a hugely popular hobby with my brother (Leonardo). I think Mirshe and Tabitha also received it relatively well, but Salisa, who could tell the difference in taste, seemed to only value the premium of 'the young lady brewed it for me,' while Bart was making a sour face, saying 'I do not care for sweetness.'
"...Come to think of it, did you find what you were looking for, Rannvald-sama?"
Once I had brewed instant cocoa for everyone, Salisa brought me my snack. She must have judged that it was break time for Leonardo from around when I had Mirshe prepare hot water. A freshly baked, puffed-up souffle was today's snack.
As Rannvald reached for the souffle placed before him as well, I brought up the question that had come to mind. Rannvald should have been searching for something in the capital. After a while, as if he had gotten bored with it, he had disappeared and made Felicia angry. Alf had said he caught Rannvald after he returned to Grenore, but I never imagined he was still in Grenore. I had thought for sure he had been escorted to the capital. I could not have imagined he was seriously working at the residence, and as Leonardo's body double no less.
"It is like... I found it, but now I am not sure?"
"That is a strange answer. What exactly were you searching for?"
"What, you ask... my son?"
"...Your son? Rannvald-sama, you have a child?"
"So it seems."
Behind Rannvald, who had said "I am searching for my son" with a completely straight face, the two guard knights had expressions of extreme shock. Those two had been acting as Rannvald's errand runners in the capital, but it seemed they had not known until now what he was looking for. Their faces looked like they wanted to flank Rannvald from both sides and interrogate him thoroughly.
...And Leonardo-san was also acting kind of strange, huh?
Since Rannvald was across from me, to see Leonardo's expression I needed to turn sideways and look up, but the movements of Leonardo's body I caught in the corner of my eye were odd. The spoon poking at his souffle seemed to have a strange tension in it.
"...'So it seems,' you say. He is your own child, right?"
"I only found out I had a child recently... well, five or six years ago? I was really surprised."
"Surprised... To begin with, you ran away from home, yet you still managed to have a child. Did you elope with someone?"
Having faked his death, Rannvald had abandoned all the obligations of being born into royalty and escaped into the commoner world. To exaggerate, it was absconding. To put it lightly, it was running away from home. It was surprising that such a person had a child. If he had had a partner and eloped that would make sense, but then it would be strange he did not know about the child's existence. Since he was wandering around the capital and Grenore, he certainly did not look like he had a family.
"I will ask just in case, but are you married...?"
"I am single. I threw everything away and ran, you know. If something like 'the King's Brother's child' showed up, it would get complicated, would it not?"
In this country, those counted as royalty extend to the king's grandchildren. The child of Rannvald, who was the son of the former king (Ethelbert), would be the former king's grandchild and thus royalty. However, since his older brother Christoph had inherited the throne, Rannvald's grandchildren would not be royalty. Rannvald's grandchildren would have been granted a Staff Peerage if Rannvald had remained in the capital as a royal.
"Indeed, it would be troubling if they showed up now, would it not."
After all, Rannvald was supposed to have died of illness. Even if Rannvald's child came forward, even if it was the truth, it would be difficult to reinstate them into the royal registry. If the child had been born before his faked death, it might not have been a problem, but knowing of its existence only a few years ago meant it was completely a child from after leaving home.
"As for when the child was conceived... Christina, do you know about the Wemishuvara Church?"
"I was taught a vaguely veiled version at the Menhishumi Church."
At the Wemishuvara Church, which worships the Goddess of Harvest Wemishuvara, temple prostitution is practiced. One might be shocked that prostitution occurs in a sacred place like a temple, but apparently it was practiced in ancient times in my previous life as well. Sexual acts and the birth of new life are inseparably connected. Therefore, the Wemishuvara Church does not deny sexual acts themselves.
However, as it is prostitution conducted by a church that serves a god, it is not the same as buying a prostitute in the red-light district. There are various conditions for purchasing prostitutes or male prostitutes (which the Wemishuvara Church calls 'shrine maidens'), and people sometimes avail themselves of their services for purposes other than sexual acts. If Prince Rannvald had any connection with a shrine maiden of the Wemishuvara Church, it would be through that route.
"Was the mother a shrine maiden of the Wemishuvara Church?"
"I remembered after I went into the commoner world. That I still had not done that, you see."
It seems nobles and wealthy merchants often borrow shrine maidens (prostitutes) from the Wemishuvara Church as teaching materials for sex education. Whether they treat them merely as visual aids or learn through practice depends on the hiring party. The shrine maidens of the Wemishuvara Church are strictly managed by the church, and among the prostitutes who participate in service seeking the protection of the Goddess of Harvest Wemishuvara, there are many newcomers. Therefore, some families use them as teaching materials for children, saying there is less risk of catching strange diseases compared to buying prostitutes in town. Whether because of his own good upbringing or because he could not think of any other method, Rannvald likely availed himself of the Wemishuvara Church's services.
"I never imagined a child would be conceived, nor that the mother would raise it herself. I happened to run into that shrine maiden from back then here in Grenore, and I was shocked to hear a child had been born."
The shrine maidens of the Wemishuvara Church who work as teaching materials for sex education also have the aspect of a sacred rite praying for fertility. Unlike town prostitutes, they do not practice contraception, and abortion when a child is conceived is prohibited. Whether a child would be conceived from a single encounter was something for the gods to decide, and normally, children born at the Wemishuvara Church are either raised as children of the Goddess of Harvest Wemishuvara or taken in as adopted children by childless couples. For a shrine maiden to raise a child as her own was extremely rare.
"If it was true that a child had been conceived, the child born would technically count as royalty. I had the Wemishuvara Church confirm it just to be sure, and it was true."
If the child was managed by the Wemishuvara Church as a child of the Goddess of Harvest Wemishuvara and given up for adoption, there was no problem. Because that child would be a child of the Goddess of Harvest Wemishuvara, not a child of Rannvald, who was a royal of the Ivizia Kingdom. However, having the child mixed into commoner society as Rannvald's child was not ideal. The world is surprisingly small. It was not impossible that through accumulated coincidences, the child would be revealed as Rannvald's. In fact, at that point, the child was not at the Wemishuvara Church, but living in commoner society as a prostitute's child. That Rannvald came to know of this existence was also a frightening coincidence.
...In Rannvald-sama's case, it is said he is favored by spirits, right?
I thought it was too convenient a coincidence, but when it comes to matters involving Rannvald, there might have been some intervention by spirits. If you think about it that way, even the impossible coincidence of a prostitute's child being revealed as Rannvald's might actually be possible.
Knowing he had his own child carrying royal blood, Rannvald apparently thought to entrust him to Ethelbert. He said he had been told never to show his face again when he cut ties with his father, but circumstances were circumstances. He could not just abandon his own child who knew nothing. He could not put Rannvald's child on the public stage now, but if he entrusted the child to Ethelbert, he could be adopted into the royal registry and not have to worry about living expenses.
Having made preparations to take the child in, when Rannvald visited the shrine maiden again, the child had already been sold.
"...What? That shrine maiden sold her child?"
I do not know what reasons she had, but it was her own child, one she had raised until she met Rannvald again. It is hard to imagine she had no love for him, but apparently the shrine maiden had let the child go.
"I heard it was to repay the debts of the man she was living with. ...Christina, you have probably heard this story before."
Rannvald said that when he was investigating the child, my name came up. More precisely, there was a girl that Rannvald's child was bullying, and that girl was apparently me.
"That would be...?"
"You remember the name Teo, do you not? At the Menhishumi Church, I heard that Christina kicked him down and made him cry instead."
"...Fweh!? Rannvald-sama is Teo's father!?"
If we are talking about someone I kicked and made cry, that would be Leonardo and Teo. I wore custom shoes made to protect my toes, but I did not go around kicking just anyone. When it comes to a boy I made cry, I can narrow it down to just Teo.
I let out a strange cry in surprise and hastily covered my mouth with both hands. Teo was, in a sense, a taboo word. Especially a name best not brought up in front of Mirshe.
...Ah, Mirshe.
Thinking 'in front of Mirshe,' I remembered. She was here in this room. Mirshe, who worked at the residence as a maid-in-training, who had just prepared hot water for the cocoa I was brewing for Rannvald.
I could not help but glance over at Mirshe. Sure enough, she seemed surprised by Rannvald's statement too, her eyes wide open and frozen. But when our eyes met, she seemed to remember she was on duty, and tightened her expression with determination. Salisa's maid education seemed to be progressing well.
"...Leonardo Big Brother, were you not tracking Teo's whereabouts?"
I shifted my gaze from Mirshe to Leonardo and tilted my head. I felt like I had heard about Teo's whereabouts from Leonardo before.
"More precisely, it was information Alf investigated. We tracked the slave trader who took Teo, but apparently we lost track of them partway."
"...I see."
It seemed Mirshe had also been told about this beforehand. She showed no more surprise than when Rannvald announced he was Teo's father, standing straight-backed as a maid.
"Teo is not here, but his little sister is in this residence."
"I know. That little maid over there, right? When I was looking into Teo, her name came up too."
Teo and Rannvald were father and son, but Mirshe and Teo had different fathers. Since she was not of his blood, Rannvald seemed to have no particular feelings about Mirshe. To Rannvald, Mirshe was apparently nothing more than 'Teo's little sister.'
"...Well, I do feel like buying her for Teo's sake."
According to Mirshe's story, the person her mother first tried to sell was Mirshe. Teo protected Mirshe and chose to be sold in her place. He would not want to know that the Mirshe he had protected had been sold by their mother anyway. So opening his mouth, Rannvald said he felt like buying Mirshe himself, and keeping her in his care, making sure she was not sold to a brothel, since he had no interest in taking advantage of her either. At this sudden business proposition from Rannvald, I could see Mirshe's body stiffen with tension as she stood by the wall.
"It is a generous offer, but Mirshe is not an object. There is no way I would let her be bought and sold over and over like that."
Besides, Mirshe already had someone coming to pick her up, Leonardo said. It would take a bit of time, but until they came for her, he would protect her properly at his side.
"When you say someone coming for Mirshe... you mean Lusio?"
At the mention of Lusio's name, a faint blush rose on Mirshe's cheeks by the wall. Oh? I thought, but I refrained from pointing it out for now. I had thought before that it was either unrequited love from Lusio, or just him looking after a younger girl, but it seemed something had developed between them without my knowledge. I would need to ask in detail what had happened during those two years I was in the capital.
"...About Lusio, it has been almost three years now, has it not? Can he still not become a Black Knight?"
"Tina, the Virup Fortress is a place where you normally cannot leave in just three years."
"But Leonardo Big Brother managed it in three years, did you not?"
I looked up at Leonardo, saying I had learned that at the Menhishumi Church. In the history lessons right after I started attending the Menhishumi Church, I had been taught that Leonardo had become a knight at the youngest age.
...Well, in Leonardo-san's case, it was a knight, but a Silver-White Knight.
I remembered just as I was about to say why Lusio had not become a Black Knight even after three years. Leonardo was a man with many legends. The first legend he created must have been the one about becoming a knight at the youngest age.
"There is no one else who became a knight in the shortest time and at the youngest age besides me. Black Knights younger than me only started appearing in the last three or four years."
"...Right. Leonardo Big Brother is younger than he looks."
Leonardo had entered the Virup Fortress at the youngest age and was permitted to leave the Virup Fortress in the shortest time. There was probably no one who could become a knight at a younger age than Leonardo was back then. If such a thing did happen, it would only be possible with the same age but a difference in birthday or some such margin of error.
I did not know about the current situation, but back when I first came to Grenore, Leonardo was the lord of Grenore Fortress and simultaneously the youngest knight there. Leonardo had ruled Grenore Fortress as its lord from that time, but Alf and Jean-Jacques were older than him. Under a lord younger than them, orders might not have functioned without the complete meritocracy of the Black Knights.
...When I think about it again, Leonardo-san carries a huge burden in his work, does he not?
I quietly resolved to be a little more considerate toward him from now on, and brought my thoughts back. It would probably be a few more years before Lusio could leave the Virup Fortress.
Tina's criteria for judgment are surprisingly muscle-brained.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.