489 - Side Story: Leonardo's Perspective - Me and Tina 3
Jean-Jacques, who had been reported to be returning at the end of autumn, came back to the city of Grenore. The gatekeeper of the residence delivered news that Cody's wagon carrying Jean-Jacques and the others had entered the Fortress Lord's Residence, but it was about twenty minutes later when Jean-Jacques showed his face at Grenore Fortress. I had been waiting for him to come report to the fortress immediately, but Jean-Jacques came to the office together with Alf. Alf must have come to the office (here) because he wanted to hear Jean-Jacques's report too.
"Commander, what's up with that? The Tina kid, she got real pretty while I wasn't lookin'."
"...So you stopped by the residence before the fortress, and that's your first line?"
"But her insides were still the same feisty brat, ya know."
Jean-Jacques worried that with her growing into such a beautiful girl, I must be on edge. He said there'd be a line of suitors for Christina.
"Christina already has a fiance recognized by her grandfather. Even if suitors form a line, it's too late for that."
"Who's the lucky bastard? He got properly baptized by the Commander's fist, right?"
Jean-Jacques showed interest in whether there was a man alive who had received my fist, and Alf silently pointed at me. Following that lead, Jean-Jacques seemed to realize who Christina's fiance was.
"That's a crime, Commander, messin' with your own sister."
"...I haven't 'messed' with her."
Don't lump me in with you, I said, bringing up the matter of Giselle from the report. If we're talking about who has or hasn't made a move, the one with undeniable evidence of having done so is Jean-Jacques.
"That's right. Leonardo hasn't laid a hand on Christina."
Rather, he's the one being laid hands on, Alf continued, and Jean-Jacques followed up with a jest about how that was its own problem. Apparently Jean-Jacques felt no guilt whatsoever about having laid hands on Giselle. He completely ignored my remark and kept pressing about the engagement between Christina and me.
"Commander, you got the goods workin' proper? A beauty like that as your fiancee, livin' together, gettin' told she loves you day and night, and you haven't touched her..."
He started lamenting that it was too early for me to be drying up, as if it were someone else's problem, so I glared at him. For my part, I wanted to change the subject quickly and hear about the Zugali Empire report.
"...So, what's the reason you stopped at the residence before reporting to the fortress? Surely you don't have the charm to say you wanted to see the face of the protection target (Tina) first, of all things."
"About that... My wife's pregnant, so I dropped her off somewhere she could rest first."
Laughing, Jean-Jacques's face showed exhaustion, saying he was glad they'd made it to Grenore before she entered her delivery month. Carlotta's letter to Christina had mentioned they seemed to be getting along or that he was courting her, but I had not heard that far from courting. It sounds like the deed was already done. With Giselle being pregnant, various problems came to mind immediately.
"That's why I needed meritorious deeds in a hurry. Anyway, I've got a report that might lead to some, so listen up."
Looking at Jean-Jacques's face grinning with full confidence, only one emotion rose in my chest.
...I want to punch that grin.
The fact that that Jean-Jacques had settled on a single partner was something to be happy about, and I would congratulate him, but the timing with the partner could not be worse. Giselle is a noble's daughter, even if just of the Flower Peerage. Getting a noble's daughter pregnant before marriage is more than a little scandalous. If Giselle were not pregnant, there would be the excuse that they just got the order wrong, but with a pregnancy before marriage, Giselle would be judged as a loose woman. Among commoners it is not that unusual, but for a noblewoman, this is nothing but a disgrace. I have no obligation to act for Jean-Jacques's sake, but Giselle did her best within her means as Christina's guard. I might need to consult with Alf a bit about the timing of their marriage.
"...Anyway, to put it simply, the Empire is in the middle of preparing to pick a fight with us."
That is roughly summarizing Jean-Jacques's report. For a while after I brought Christina back, searches for her were conducted within the Zugali Empire, but with not even a corpse found, apparently the conclusion became that someone must have come as a rescuer and taken Christina out of the country. Christina had been confined to the residence for a year after returning to Grenore, but recently she has started going out very occasionally. They must have spotted her then, through a spy of the Zugali Empire.
With a living Christina confirmed in the city of Grenore, apparently within the Zugali Empire it became 'His Imperial Majesty's personal property was stolen by the Ivizia Kingdom.' I know they are just making an excuse for war, but just hearing it makes me angry.
"Does the Empire not have a word for 'shame'?"
"If they had such a word in the Empire, they would not put a kidnapped girl in a birdcage and display her, nor would they steal her from the side."
Even if a kidnapped girl is recovered, calling it 'His Imperial Majesty's personal property was stolen' is wrong in the first place. A girl is a human being, not a thing to begin with.
"Since the Ivizia Kingdom had already sent a protest letter about the Tina kid's kidnapping, the Uhlenfurt house got crushed real quick."
"Uhlenfurt... that's it. Edgar's house, the one who took Tina."
"Yep. ...So they spun this sophistry that there's no noble house like Uhlenfurt in the Empire that committed a kidnapping, and made it a situation where it's the Ivizia Kingdom's false accusation."
"I'd left the matter of that ring to Alf, but..."
The ring with the crest that Kalisa left as evidence connecting to the criminal apparently was the ring indicating the lord of the Uhlenfurt territory. Edgar was the one who lost the ring, but Carlotta advised that Edgar's relatives would be eager to buy it back. To squeeze them for as much as possible as at least some compensation for Christina's kidnapping, she said.
Alf is better at negotiations, so I left the rest to him. Alf was supposed to have initiated negotiations with the Uhlenfurt house through the Sopdejania Temple in Divine Kingdom Quebia, not the Sopdejania Church in the city of Grenore, but I feel like I stopped hearing about it after the last report that negotiations were starting to get difficult. When I asked about how it went, it seems there was evidence of payment for the ring from the Uhlenfurt house. However, the payment disappeared before it reached Divine Kingdom Quebia, and negotiations stopped there. Apparently the Sopdejania Temple is now using people to track where the lost payment went. It is a temple dedicated to Sopdejania, the god of law and order. This kind of work is right up their alley, so we can leave it to them.
"...Likely the messenger carrying the payment ran off with it, or it disappeared into the pockets of border soldiers, something like that."
Either way, the people of the Sopdejania Temple should investigate it thoroughly. Whatever happened to the payment, it is not something I can do anything about right now from Grenore.
"As for the forts and food supply flows within the Empire, and some of the more notable knights and generals, I looked into various things using Boss Jin's connections."
Boss Jin's connections, that is... that thing. The big mountain bandit group that somehow got formed while I was laying low in the Zugali Empire. I thought I had dismantled it to some extent, but apparently Jean-Jacques had been using it as a good information network within the Zugali Empire. Come to think of it, I asked what happened to the bandits who refused to return to their villages as righteous thieves and followed me until the end, saying they would come with me. I had told them that if they could not return to being villagers in the Zugali Empire, they should come to the Ivizia Kingdom, but maybe they had some resistance to leaving their homeland after all. Most of them apparently stayed with Carlotta. A few of them entered the Ivizia Kingdom along with Jean-Jacques's party this time, and they seem to be quietly staying at Grenore Fortress with wide eyes.
...I will have to find them work too.
Their fighting ability is solid, so I could hire them as soldiers immediately. If they want to live peacefully, I can introduce them to a frontier village as a new home. In a normal village, outsiders would be viewed with suspicion, but frontier villages have special circumstances. More workers are welcomed, and no one asks about their origins.
Jean-Jacques said he had compiled the rest into a report and handed me a thick stack of papers. The occasional pages with different handwriting mixed in must be because the bandits wrote some of the report. The literacy rate within the Zugali Empire is slightly lower than in the Ivizia Kingdom. Having a bandit who could write might have been a stroke of luck for Jean-Jacques.
"So, for yours truly, this here's the real main topic..."
Jean-Jacques said he had obtained an invention made by the reincarnator Camilo from two hundred years ago, and took a cloth bundle from the bag hanging at his waist. When I carefully opened the cloth, inside was a familiar-looking tube. The records said it was described as a 'fire-spouting tube,' but Camille had called it a 'gun.'
"So this is the 'fire-spouting tube' that Camille reproduced. I thought it had sunk into the river along with Edgar, but..."
"I picked it up at the bottom of the valley. Y'know, near where Edgar was nicely impaled..."
"Don't let Tina hear about that."
There is no need for Christina to hear about a man who died impaled. Christina has been saying she barely remembers Edgar anyway. I do not want to provoke her into remembering.
...Still, a gun, huh.
I know how guns work because Tina read Camilo's research materials when we were in the cave. To put it simply, it is a weapon that uses gunpowder to shoot metal bullets. To simplify the structure, it is like a blowgun. Instead of shooting a dart with breath, it shoots a bullet with the explosive force of gunpowder.
"...Without gunpowder, it is just a tube. I have heard that the Empire two hundred years ago also lost its momentum when it lost gunpowder."
"No good? Without the contents, it will not count as meritorious deeds, huh?"
"Whether it counts as meritorious deeds depends on Christoph-sama and Alfred-sama."
Considering how those two would feel about weapons that are too lethal, I have a feeling it might not count as merits. But conversely, we obtained the Empire's weapon first. If we frame it as obtaining a good reference to develop countermeasures against it, there is still a possibility of it counting as merits.
"...Well, depending on how you present it, you might get enough merits to marry Giselle."
I left the negotiation to Alf and cut off my thoughts about the gun. Truth be told, I said it was just a tube without gunpowder, but it is not impossible for me to make gunpowder. The method for making gunpowder was also clearly written among the things Tina read aloud without thinking.
...Though I can also tell this is knowledge better kept locked away in my chest.
The reason the Zugali Kingdom, once only a small country, transformed into a huge nation calling itself an Empire was gunpowder and guns. If something like that appeared now, the calamity that the reincarnator Camilo caused two hundred years ago would envelop this continent again. There is no way King Christoph would allow that.
"Still, I never thought you would choose Giselle."
I cannot talk about this in front of Christina, but I knew Jean-Jacques's taste in women. We sometimes crossed paths at brothels, so I am certain of this. Jean-Jacques liked flashy beauties with big chests, the complete opposite of Giselle. Giselle is a modest, refined lady with what you would call a restrained chest, not totally flat. Thinking about it now, the profession of knight really did not suit Giselle.
"If my wife did not come back, the Tina kid would not be satisfied, right. And while I was persuadin' her to come back to the country, it just turned out this way."
Even Jean-Jacques himself seemed to find it strange when he thought about it calmly. Apparently he was aware that Giselle was the opposite of his usual type.
"...Well, you probably do not need to worry about Giselle. The report has already been given to Alfred-sama. Even if you return to the capital, it should not turn out badly."
In the first place, Giselle had devoted herself to prolonging Tina's life after she was taken. At the time of the kidnapping, she might have been completely useless as a guard, but she protected Tina's life at the critical moment. Even if Jean-Jacques did not force himself to earn merits, she could probably get her peerage extended for at least one generation.
"Oh yeah, old man Camille had a message for you, Commander."
"From Camille?"
"Yeah, he said somethin' weird. Said he saw a kid who looked like you from about twenty years ago gettin' attacked by wolves."
Alf reacted to the words 'twenty years ago.' He must have remembered the content of a casual conversation we had had before. Twenty years ago would be the period that had been problematic before. It would not be exactly twenty years, but subtract twenty from me and you get age ten. Teo disappeared from the city of Grenore at age nine, but Teo was a well-built child. It would not be that strange if a nine-year-old looked ten.
I cannot admit it, but it seems Alf can no longer laugh off the idea as completely off-base.
When I returned to the residence at night, Christina greeted me in the entrance hall. She used to energetically jump at me saying 'welcome home,' but lately, perhaps conscious of behaving like a lady, she only smiles quietly. Christina might get angry if I said I felt a little lonely about that. That I am not a child forever, she would say.
"I was surprised. I thought Giselle had finally come back, but it seems there's a baby in her belly."
Apparently the guest room Giselle had used before was hurriedly warmed up, and she is resting there now. Giselle apparently said she wanted to greet me too, but Christina overruled that. With a heavy body, you should first recover from the fatigue of the long journey, she said.
"...For that reason, I would also ask you to refrain from going to see Giselle, Leonardo-sama."
"I do not need to be told that. I have no hobby of approaching another man's pregnant wife. If she seems well, that is enough."
When I said I would leave Giselle to Tina as a fellow woman, she dutifully corrected me with 'It is Christina.' 'You just will not get it right,' Christina said, pouting slightly, but lately I have been finding that face so cute that I call her 'Tina' on purpose. Christina probably will not notice that for a while.
"She came back safely, but what is going to happen to Giselle from now on?"
Saying she had never heard of a pregnant guard, Tina tilted her head. Indeed, if a knight whose job is guarding were pregnant, she could not do her work. Logically, there is nothing to do but dismiss Giselle as a guard.
"As Ti... Christina's guard, I should send her back to the capital and replace her with a different knight, but..."
"I cannot deny she cannot serve as a guard, but sending Giselle back to the capital is impossible. Winter is coming, and her belly is so big the baby could come any day now."
Whether she returns to guard duty as a knight or goes back to the capital, Giselle cannot be moved anywhere until the child is born safely. If she stays in Grenore, I can keep both mother and child at the residence, but I wonder if Giselle's parents will accept a daughter who got pregnant without marrying. Christina furrowed her brow in worry, so I smoothed it out with my finger. If she grumbles like that, her cute face is wasted.
"I am not sure about getting pregnant while on guard duty, but Giselle will not be treated that badly even if she returns to the capital."
As a knight, she was not useful, but Giselle did her job properly. Above all, the fact that Christina is alive here now is proof of that.
"While in the Empire, Giselle apparently tried to make contact somehow and left letters..."
According to the letter Giselle hid in the Black Dog (Oscar)'s collar, Christina apparently had a head injury right after the kidnapping. She apparently could not see the affected area directly, but she was treated with more than half her face wrapped in leaves, the same as when the Divine King had healed her before. The treatment by spirits seemed to have been done in a moment when no one was looking, but until she fully healed, Christina apparently just kept sleeping, unable to eat or eliminate on her own. It was Giselle who tirelessly cared for Christina through all that. Since Christina returned alive to the Ivizia Kingdom, there is no way Giselle has no merits at all.
If there is a problem, it is Giselle's pregnancy. I cannot keep a knight who cannot continue her duties at the residence as a guard. I could keep her at the residence as Christina's guest, but that treatment cannot continue forever. For the sake of the baby being born, Jean-Jacques and Giselle should get married sooner.
"I will leave informing Giselle's parents to Jean-Jacques..."
I was about to say I would include Jean-Jacques in the winter travel escort, when I remembered I had not told Christina that I wanted her to come with me on this winter's travel. Even if we use a carriage, I have concerns about taking Christina out in winter, but I do not want to be surprised at various forts by Christina welcoming me when she should be staying home in Grenore. The fact that Christina chases after me is something I am happy about, but if she keeps disappearing from the Fortress Lord's Residence without any contact and then coming back, Bart and the others' stress will pile up.
"This winter I am planning to go to Mandez Fortress... Christina, why don't you come too?"
I had thought Christina, who is a homebody, might refuse, but when invited to the city of Mandez, Tina answered casually. She had already heard about it from Salisa and was already in preparations, she said.
"But bringing Jean-Jacques along might be a good idea, but Giselle really cannot be moved."
"No, I am only bringing Jean-Jacques. ...It might be hard for the father to be away during a first childbirth, but Giselle will have to endure that."
Given the circumstances, it would be better to visit Giselle's parents before the child is born. They will just have to accept the discomfort as their own responsibility for getting the order wrong.
Typos and errors to be corrected at a later date.