469 - I Have Turned Sixteen
As the season changes to summer, my birthday arrives soon after. Although I am still a child in both self-awareness and physique, I have turned sixteen this year.
...Still dealing with this even at sixteen, what should I do?
Thinking deeply about having turned sixteen, the thought suddenly occurs to me.
For a sixteen-year-old, I am far too clingy to my guardian (Leonardo). For a sixteen-year-old, I am far too much of a prankster. For a sixteen-year-old, my inner self hasn't changed at all.
As for my physique, I accept it as something that cannot be helped and let it go. Height is something that cannot be changed by one's own efforts, and the fact that I had stopped growing was likely caused by psychological factors. I believe the cause has been removed, so I hope I will start growing again soon.
...For now, I suppose I need to let my inner self grow a bit more.
As for what to keep in mind for the time being, perhaps it would be to wear my ladyhood (cat) in a way that it doesn't slip off so easily. Ever since Hermine's watchful eye disappeared, my ladyhood (cat) had become something I mostly just draped on lightly, making it easy to escape.
"Good morning, Big Brother Leonardo."
"Good morning, Tina."
I straighten my back, conscious of being a lady, and try to be more careful with my movements than usual. It may be a small thing, but it should be better than doing nothing.
"Did you cut your hair? Just when it had finally grown out..."
"I had it trimmed because the ends were uneven, as if I had once had a short cut."
Since I had been forced to wear a silver wig, it seems my hair was cut short once. Currently, my hair has grown to around my shoulder blades, but I had the ends trimmed to make them even. The hair on the sides is still uneven, so I will probably need to cut it again.
"Happy sixteenth birthday."
"You've finally stopped getting it wrong. Before, you were vague not just about my birthday, but my age as well."
"...That was just because Tina was being mean to me."
The part about me being mean refers to that. For a while after Leonardo took me in, he was busy gathering Words disease patients at the fort and isolating them from the town, and so my age had increased by one without him noticing. When the fort finally settled down and I went to town with Leonardo, I asked him.
If he knew how old I was now.
Of course, Leonardo, who didn't know my birthday, answered "Eight, I suppose," and I believe I answered "I am nine" with a smile. Moreover, there is a continuation to this story. On the last day of my ninth year the following year, I asked Leonardo the same question, "Do you know how old I am now?"
This time, Leonardo had learned.
Since the last time he answered "eight" and it was "nine," he figured he should answer "ten" this time. And so, Leonardo got my age wrong two years in a row. Come to think of it, he hadn't even remembered my birthday.
...Since I was taken in by Leonardo-san toward the end of my eighth year, have I spent almost half my life with Leonardo-san?
I couldn't be with him for about two years in between because I was kidnapped, but it wouldn't be wrong to think that I've spent half my life with Leonardo. Thinking that we've been together for eight years already brings a certain depth of emotion.
As I sat down next to Leonardo, who was relaxing on the living room sofa as usual, Leonardo gave me a small box. When I opened the box, which was palm-sized and had lovely decorations, there was a cloth Enomena brooch inside.
"How cute... Thank you, Big Brother Leonardo."
"Now that you're sixteen, I can't exactly give you rice or seasonings."
He likely thought that I would want some accessories soon, but then reconsidered, thinking I wouldn't want to wear expensive precious metals or jewelry, and thus chose a cloth flower brooch. For Leonardo, it was a choice that matched my tastes. I felt happy and kissed his cheek, which left Leonardo with a face he couldn't show outside. He probably intends to go to work at the fort this morning with that smirking face.
Decorating my chest with the brooch I just received, I saw off Leonardo at the entrance hall as he left for the fort. When I returned from a walk in the backyard, which also served as exercise for Koku-maro the black Shiba, various boxes of different sizes were piled up in the entrance hall.
"Um, what is this...?"
"Birthday presents for Christina-sama."
I peeked at Bart's hand as he was making a list, saying he would deliver the inventory later. Recently, since Rannvald has been working at the mansion as a low-level servant, heavy labor is often passed to Rannvald, and Bart seems to have become a bit more relaxed. When manpower is seriously needed for heavy labor, the two silver knights assigned as Rannvald's supervisors are also deployed, which is kind to the old man's (Bart) waist.
"...There are a lot of jewelry pieces."
"The Spring Flower Festival focuses on fresh flowers, but when it comes to birthday presents for a lady..."
"It means it's about time I started wearing things like this."
Looking at the names of the senders, I could tell they were different in kind from the ones sent along with love letters in the royal capital before. Being birthday presents, the list Bart was making contained the names of people I had a reasonable amount of interaction with.
"I think these are gifts too grand for a shut-in..."
"Even if you stay confined to the mansion, that is no reason for a woman not to adorn herself."
"...Bart, do you also think I should wear things like this?"
"This is something Ms. Hartmann said before, but not just for ladies, when women wear good things, their posture and wording unconsciously improve to match the dignity of what they are wearing."
"...Now that you mention it, on days when I wear my favorite clothes, I do think, maybe I'll spend the day acting a bit more refined?"
I see, that's how it is, I thought, and it made sense. I had received earrings from Basilia before, and that was probably the first step in wearing accessories as a lady. At first, guardians provide them or they are received as gifts from close people to get used to accessories, and by the time one becomes a full-fledged lady, one discerns what suits them and prepares them themselves, or asks a lover for them.
...The first step toward adulthood, huh.
I still look like a child, but age-wise, I will be one year past adulthood. To encourage self-awareness, wearing accessories little by little might be a good method.
"...Even I feel it would be better not to accept gifts from Dietfried-sama."
"Dietfried-sama... that's Basilia-jou's fiancé. Amazing, tributes from a man who has a fiancé."
"That's exactly why I'm saying it would be better not to accept them."
Rannvald brought the inventory Bart had made. The gifts that Bart wondered about were made into a separate list as a blacklist. Mainly, people who sent overly expensive gifts accompanied by love letters were listed, and Dietfried's name was mixed in there. By the way, in terms of sending expensive things, Christoph is also included, but he used a pseudonym, and although expensive, it was within the range of common sense for something given to a newly adult lady, so his name is not on the blacklist.
"As expected of an acquaintance, he understands Christina-sama's tastes. They are all items suitable for a newly adult lady to wear daily."
"I'm honestly happy about that, but isn't the quantity too much...?"
"The other party is also a noble. He probably felt that his name would be tarnished if he only gave accessories of an amount matching Christina-sama's tastes, so he supplemented it with other things."
"That's why there are so many cloths and threads. I understand now."
In other words, each accessory or cloth is appropriate for my age and not that expensive, but by sending a large quantity, the price becomes like a noble's gift. They are gifts that truly understand my personality. I am honestly happy about the cloths and threads, but I also feel guilty. No matter how I think about it, I feel I've received too much.
"And so, my gift is this."
What was handed to me was a large piece of cloth. When I spread it out, it was almost life-sized and had a sketch of Bertrand drawn on it.
"You've already finished drawing it? Since I requested this, I intended to pay you properly..."
"For me, receiving payment for just a sketch is a bit..."
So I decided to make it a gift, Rannvald said with a laugh. Even if he calls it a sketch, anyone who knows Bertrand would surely say this is Bertrand ten out of ten times. It is drawn with that level of precision, yet Rannvald insists it is a sketch. Perhaps it is the difference in perception between those with and without artistic talent. From my perspective as someone without artistic talent, it is a wonderful piece of work at this point, but for Rannvald, it seems not to be something worthy of payment.
...Come to think of it, the picture of me that Rannvald-sama drew before was also amazing.
I remember he drew me as a beautiful girl that even I, if I didn't know my own personality, might have been captivated by. I understand the physical aspect of it being drawn with paints and brushes, but I couldn't even imagine how such a delicate picture could be drawn.
I thanked him sincerely and accepted the sketch, and in return, I told him stories about Teo to the extent I could remember. Strangely, Rannvald wanted to hear stories not just about Teo, but also about times when Leonardo was present. And at the end of the stories, he always said this.
That from Teo's perspective, wouldn't that be a memory of Leonardo?
...When I ask Leonardo-san about his first love, it's strange, but similar stories do come up?
I've heard that he did similar things to Teo and made the girl he liked cry, so he probably really did similar things. I wonder what kind of adult Leonardo's first love has become by now.
...Either way, even if he reunited with Leonardo-san now, it wouldn't develop into a romantic relationship.
Stories I heard in my previous life like "developed into a double affair with a former first love at a reunion after ten-some years" are at most high school reunions. At best, from middle school. Elementary school boys are truly no different from little monkeys, and there's no way it would be a good memory for the girl. At most, they're on a "kill someday" list, or their name is carved in the depths of memory as someone they never want to meet again. I myself wouldn't want to reunite with a boy who bullied me.
...Though I do want to apologize to Teo, saying sorry for saying terrible things.
If he's alive, Teo is also fifteen and an adult. Just as Lusio had somehow secured a promise for the future with Mirshe, Teo is likely at an age where he has fallen in love with someone and made some kind of promise. Our world in this life is small. Marriage to a childhood friend is something I hear more often than in my previous life.
Since the sketch of Bertrand was ready, I immediately began the production of the embroidery painting. Even though I say began, just like last time, it starts with ordering the thread.
"...That said, it wouldn't be interesting to just make it normally, right?"
"What kind of interest is Christina-sama seeking in embroidery?"
Since I had a young Bertrand drawn, I don't know the color of the armor and such. Since he was said to be a Black Knight, the color of the armor is decided as black, but even that has subtle differences in hue for each set of armor. So, I thought I should ask someone who had actually seen him, and I had called out to Rannvald, but the one who came to help me was Bart. I had never heard such a thing until now, but it seems Bart was acquainted with the young Bertrand. He told me several anecdotes that I wasn't taught at the Menhshumi Church, so I think I'll tell Nils when he returns to the town of Grenore.
...I've never heard that he had a love marriage with Grandma before.
Regarding my grandmother, since she was a woman of royal descent, there was a strong nuance of a political marriage, and if I heard stories about Bertrand through others, anyone other than very close people understood their marriage to be a political one. And the fact that Bart knew about the love marriage, which people other than close acquaintances didn't know, means Bart must have been on close terms with Bertrand. I don't know since when Bart has been a servant (Brownie) of the castle lord's mansion, but Bertrand was formerly a Black Knight. It wouldn't be strange if they had some acquaintance, and if they were acquainted, the possibility of becoming close isn't zero.
...Bart and Bertrand-sama. That's a bit of a strange combination, isn't it?
While consulting with Bart, I decided on the colors of the thread, calculated the necessary amount, and placed the order. Since just doing embroidery lacked interest, I decided to add some thickness this time. I felt that the previous embroidery painting looked somewhat three-dimensional by adding drawing. For this portrait of Bertrand, it seems interesting to add thickness by putting cotton or something into the protruding parts, such as the nose, the hand stretched forward, and the sword. Surely, if displayed in a dim room, the three-dimensional Bertrand would be terrifying, and thieves would flee the moment their eyes met.
...Yes, the title is "Portrait of Demon Warding."
Typos and omissions will be fixed later. I want to put in a side story from Leonardo's perspective soon (and then go off on a tangent).