462 - Visitor
A few days after Alfred came to give his greetings upon his return, he truly departed for the royal capital. Since it is not a distance one can travel back and forth lightly, if nothing happens, the next time we meet will be when I turn twenty. I feel a bit lonely, but "if something happens" means after being caught up in some incident or accident. Regarding this matter, it is better to pray that no such unexpected reunion occurs.
...My life has had quite a few kidnappings, kidnappings, and attempted kidnappings, after all.
If I include kidnappings by non-humans, such as spirits or the God King, the number increases even more. I intend to live peacefully with little adventurous spirit, but since the incidents (troubles) come to me, it cannot be helped.
Whether to call it a blessing in disguise, the danger of kidnappings by humans drops significantly as long as I do not go outside. The fact that I have trauma regarding going outside was just right for avoiding danger.
...Alright, I have accepted this positively. This is not a psychological wound. It is learning. Wisdom for living to dwell in peace.
It is not that I cannot go outside due to trauma. Once I started thinking that I am refraining from going outside of my own accord to avoid danger, I became able to greet Leonardo near the front door when he returned home. Since I was taught by Hermine that a lady does not go outside but greets guests in the entrance hall, I will accept this positively as well. Most things show completely different sides depending on how one accepts and thinks about them. I intend to absorb my outing trauma as a good thing.
"Still, are you really the former Alfred-sama, Alf-san? The Alfred-sama-ness has completely vanished... hiryairesu"
When I let it slip that the typhoon-like Alfred and the quiet Alf did not match, my cheek was pinched. While the quiet atmosphere of Alf and Alfred do not match, the one who pulls my cheek without hesitation is indeed the Alf who is Alfred.
"Are you dissatisfied that I am Alf, Christina?"
"I am not dissatisfied-resu, but when I think the inside is the former Alfred-sama, my Affinity Level drops a little"
"...Affinity Level?"
"Friendship Value is also fine"
Since he asked what on earth I was talking about, I answered that it was a numerical value like in a game. Simply put, there is a difference in the "familiarity" within me between the current Alfred, whom I have known for years, and the current Alf, who only showed his face occasionally or looked after me a bit in the royal capital. A wall called consciousness is inevitably created, and it is difficult to become attached in exactly the same way as I was to the previous Alf.
"As long as you did not know we had swapped, you would have become attached in exactly the same way. There should not be that much difference between me and Alfred-sama"
"Rather than there not being that much difference, it is scary because there is almost no sense of incongruity"
Even though the people have completely swapped, there is no incongruity between Alf and Alfred. Conversely, that is also scary, but Alf only tilts his head in confusion.
"...If there is no incongruity, then is that not fine?"
"I wonder if it is...?"
Alf, who swapped with Alfred without any incongruity, increased his visits to the lord's mansion. Rather than increasing, perhaps he had been holding back while Alfred was here. The previous Alf had behaved as if he disliked and avoided Alfred. Therefore, even though the insides had swapped, he probably could not cling closely to Alfred.
...Well, it seems the real Alf-san is not that obsessed with Alfred-sama anyway...?
The current Alf seems somewhat more composed than the previous Alf. Whether to call him quiet, he did not look at all like the person who had been playing the role of Alfred.
...I feel like I have finally returned to my original life.
There are new faces like Mirsche and Lanvald, and there is a change in that the maid attending me is Salisa and not Kalisa, but for the most part, I think it is my previous life. I was not the type to actively go outside from the start, and I must have spent all day making embroidery and bobbin lace while waiting for Leonardo's return.
...The fact that my height has hardly grown is also, if you call it returning to normal, returning to normal?
I had ordered furniture matched to my body's growth before I was kidnapped, but it seems I have hardly grown in these two years, so they are furniture perfectly suited for the current me. I want to accept this positively, thinking it was good that they did not go to waste, but since I want to at least have an average height, my feelings are complicated. I want to believe in my potential, that my growth period is just late and I can still grow taller by far.
"In the end, Salisa, who did you give the Spring Flower Festival embroidery to?"
"Are you curious? In that case, next year I shall ask Tina-ojousama to be the Cupid"
"I am not at an age to be playing Cupid anymore"
If it is just actual age, I am fifteen, so far from playing Cupid, I should be the one being played upon. Unfortunately, I do not even look thirteen, and perhaps due to the influence of having regressed to an infant for a while, Tabitha and the others' way of addressing me had returned to the same child-like treatment as before, "Tina-ojousama."
...When I returned from the royal capital, they treated me a bit like an adult and called me "Christina," though.
I still think my name is "Tina," but I have gradually become accustomed to being called "Christina." If I think of it as something like a pen name or a handle name, I can feel that "Christina" is also me.
...Besides, people who call me "Christina" are at least trying to treat me as an adult.
Considering this, Tabitha and the others, who can change the way they call me at any time, are not a problem. The problem is Leonardo, who seems likely to treat me as a child forever. Whether I remain a younger sister or seriously become a wife, being treated as a child forever is not acceptable. I am basically a shut-in. If Leonardo continues to treat me as a child, I will misinterpret it as being fine as I am and feel like I will remain a child forever.
...It seems I need to have Leonardo-san call me "Christina" little by little. ...Hm? Huh?
It seems I need to make Leonardo call me "Christina." Having realized that, I tried to imagine Leonardo calling me "Christina," but I somehow cannot imagine it well. I can imagine Leonardo calling me "Tina" with his usual slack face that says I cannot go outside, but whether it is the same face, a tightened face, or even a troubled face, I could not imagine Leonardo calling me "Christina."
...Hmm?
I wonder if I can somehow imagine it, and I try to challenge myself to make him call me "Christina" by recalling various expressions of Leonardo, but every expression is a crushing defeat. I have heard Leonardo's voice introducing me as "Christina" in formal settings, but I simply could not imagine Leonardo calling me "Christina" as a direct address to me.
...Alright, I will stop forcing myself to think about it. Since Leonardo-san is also an adult, he will probably stop treating me as a child once I become an adult.
There should be no need to forcibly change the way he calls me, I change my mind and return the needle to the needle cushion. The break time ends with this. After this, I will do afternoon translation work for about an hour, eat a snack, and go to the backyard to play with Koku-maro. After that, I will do a bit of exercise, and while confirming my afternoon schedule which has too many break times, I prepare the transcription of the research materials of Saint Yuta Hiraga. In the meantime, Salisa had prepared paper and a pen, a blackboard, and chalk on the desk.
...Ah.
When I opened the locked drawer to take out the transcription, an envelope that had also been stored inside spread out. I did not intend to open the drawer with such force, but it seems it spread out haphazardly inside the drawer.
...Come to think of it, Basilia-chan got engaged. That was fast.
When I picked up the envelope that had spread in the drawer to tidy it up, there was a letter from Basilia on top. In Basilia's letters, care is taken not only for the stationery but even for the envelope. The envelope I now hold has the lid part cut into a flower pattern, and a thin piece of colored paper is layered inside. If it were dark-colored paper, I would know it was for the unromantic purpose of preventing transparency, but this is likely a production aimed at being stylish.
In these two years, there were six letters in total from Basilia. Judging from the dates, one arrived every month for half a year. The first three were mostly ordinary reports of recent events or topics about delicious sweets found in town, but perhaps she grew impatient with the lack of a reply, as the wording began to pout from the fourth letter. The last sixth letter was one where she heard the rumor that I had been kidnapped and worried about my safety, wondering if that was why there was no reply.
...After reading the sixth one (this), I sent a reply immediately. Naturally.
I started thinking about looking through the letters after hearing from Alfred that there was contact from Aurelia's acquaintance regarding the bobbin lace guidebook. After looking through the letters from them and writing replies, I finally remembered Basilia. I thought that if it were the diligent Basilia, there is no way no letters would have arrived in these two years. When I asked Bart, he brought the letters, so I informed her of my safety along with a letter congratulating her on her engagement.
...I wonder if the reply will come soon?
Whether it was bad to think that, all my afternoon plans will be ruined. After tidying the envelopes spread in the drawer and taking out the transcription, after a modest knock, Mirsche came to tell me that I had a visitor. I have few friends who would visit me, so I put away the transcription I had just taken out and locked the drawer. While tilting my head, I went down to the entrance hall, and a girl who should not be in Grenore was standing there.
"Big!"
"I am still small!!"
The moment we saw each other, impressions about each other flew out of our mouths. Standing in the entrance hall was Basilia, who had grown into a completely maidenly appearance with her limbs extended.
Basilia after two years has a significantly changed impression. While the slightly strong-willed look around her eyes remains, the maidenly roundness has vanished from her cheeks, she has grown slender and tall, and her waist is tight and thin. Her grown hair is tied in a half-up style, but what flows down her back are magnificent vertical rolls. When I see "vertical rolls" in text, it seems like nothing but a gag, but in Basilia's case, it suits her, so it is wonderful. Her appearance has changed a lot, but the ribbon decorating the half-up is still the one I gave her, so Basilia is still Basilia.
By the way, the reason I was surprised and said "Big" as my first word was about Basilia's chest. Not as much as Salisa, but it is more than enough. I felt that because her chest is large, her thin waist looks even thinner.
"What do you eat to be able to stay that small? It is unfair!!"
To Basilia, being small seems to be "unfair." I think it is "unfair" because I envy Basilia's growth according to her age, but I have swallowed it as something that cannot be helped. Perhaps to commit to being a doll, during the two years I was kidnapped, I seemed to have stopped even growing. Rather, facing Basilia who grew like a daughter, I can even think that it was good I did not grow according to my age under the kidnapper. I do not know what would have been done to a beautiful girl of an age whose free will could be stolen by a kidnapper.
...Ugh!?
Imagining the case where I, having grown to a suitable age, was kidnapped, my thoughts flew to the gruesome acts that would likely be performed there, and something like nausea came to the back of my throat. Thanks to forcibly terminating the stray thoughts immediately, I was able to endure the nausea, but I realized something I did not want to realize. Rather than something I did not want to realize, it was something so obvious I had not even thought about it.
...Doing that is impossible.
This is a story for when I eventually marry, but if I marry, I will naturally be asked to bear children thereafter. The act for that purpose can only seem gruesome to me. I know it as knowledge, but the child-making with a future husband whose face I cannot even imagine and what was done to Kalisa are identical as acts. The nature of child-making between a married couple and ravishment are likely different, but whether it is a husband or anyone else, I do not feel I could maintain my sanity while being pinned down by a man.
...Yeah. I will either never marry for the rest of my life, or I will become Leonardo-san's wife.
If I have the reward money from translation, I can eat even alone, and if it is the sister-fool Leonardo, he would not do anything I seriously dislike. There is no need to forcibly marry elsewhere. I can slowly face this trauma of mine at my own pace by Leonardo's side. I do not want to make efforts for a husband (someone) I will meet in a future whose face I cannot even imagine, but for Leonardo, I feel I can face this trauma.
...I am also quite the brother-complex, after all.
This is the generator result from when I made Lady Basilia.
"Basilia Pena's hair color is brown, hair quality is curly, hairstyle is short, eye color is black, chest circumference is super size, height is large."
The grown chest size was decided before she appeared! It is absolutely not my preference!! It is the generator!!!
...I wonder if it is because of the heat.
Typos and omissions will be handled at a later date.