50 - First Outing 1
I slipped my arms into the one-piece dress Tabitha had tailored for me.
The fabric was a bit thin, not because it was a worn-out secondhand garment, but because early summer had just arrived.
It was the end of winter when I lost my parents to death and was taken in by Leonardo.
I spent the beginning of spring in Waiyakku Valley with Aurelia, and from mid-spring through early summer, I was helping in the quarantine section of the fortress.
So while today is my first outing with Leonardo, the seasons have already changed.
Leonardo really did take me in a whole season ago and then just left me alone.
"The sheasons have changed, guardian-shan."
"My apologies."
The number of recovering infected patients had been increasing since the end of spring, but he still had various other duties as the lord of the fortress, and today was finally the day he could take some time to relax.
Personally, I thought it would be fine to take it easy for a few more days, but as soon as breakfast was over, he invited me to go to the city, and I ended up leaving the mansion with him.
Apparently, he thought that if he didn't take me to the city himself soon, Jean-Jacques, who had run out of patience, would steal my first outing.
...Not that I haven't been to the market before, following Tabitha-san on her shopping trips.
Since I understand that Leonardo had no choice but to leave me alone because of work, I don't bother making unnecessary jabs.
I'm a former Japanese person who can read the room, after all.
Leonardo seemed bothered that I only ever wore the red shoes he gave me on the day I arrived at the fortress, so it seemed he planned to go to a shoe shop first.
Since this also served as a tour of the city, we weren't using horses or carriages, but since his stride didn't match mine as a child, Leonardo soon picked me up.
Moving while being carried by Leonardo was a bit fun because the view was higher.
At a child's height on a crowded street, all I could see were people, but when I was carried by the tall Leonardo, I could get a view close to an adult's.
When I said, "That's a big road," looking at the main street stretching toward the fortress, he told me it was built wide so that soldiers and knights could line up and supplies could be transported to the fortress during wartime.
"Have you... made any friends?"
After ordering several pairs of shoes, we left the shop.
Having changed me into the newly bought shoes, Leonardo picked me up again and muttered as if talking in his sleep.
Incidentally, his black eyes were wide open.
"I'm pretty sure you forbade me from going out alone becaush it's dangeroush for a girl, Leonyaldo-shan..."
"Forbade...? Did I go that far?"
"You did."
I could accept that he left me alone because of important work, but it was a problem if he forgot even what he himself said.
I didn't particularly want to go outside on my own, but even so, it was Leonardo who forbade it.
He said I mustn't go outside the mansion alone.
Since the only caretakers of the mansion were Tabitha and Bart, if I took one of them with me, it would disrupt the management of the mansion.
Knowing that, I found it hard to ask to be taken outside when I didn't have any particular purpose.
As a result, I faithfully obeyed Leonardo's going-out ban and found myself with too much time on my hands inside the mansion.
Alf bringing me to help in the quarantine section was, I think, a truly meaningful use of my time.
"Your self-proclaimed guardian, Leonyaldo-shan."
A mischievous feeling welled up inside me.
I pulled my body away from his chest, where I'd been resting my weight, and looked up at Leonardo again.
Ignoring his correction that he wasn't self-proclaimed, I set a trap.
"...Do you know how old I am now?"
"I remember well.
Tina is eight now."
"I'm nine."
Born in summer, I'd just had my birthday a few days ago.
It was only natural that Leonardo didn't know that, but I was saying it on purpose, so I'll skip that part.
I just wanted to get a little payback.
"...When was your birthday?
I was busy, so I couldn't celebrate it.
If you'd told me, I could have done something for you."
Leonardo slumped for a moment, feeling like a failed guardian, but immediately lifted his face and revived.
I quickly drove the nail in.
"I don't need any celebration."
If I left Leonardo to his own devices now, I felt he'd celebrate in a way that would make me feel bad.
I was probably not wrong about that.
My parents in this life also wanted to celebrate my birthday, but because of our household finances, it was just things like having a fried egg with dinner or the meal being a little more luxurious.
Even if he was my guardian, I didn't want a stranger like Leonardo to go that far for me.
...Well, it would be nice to be congratulated, though.
I'd be happy, but I didn't need anything special.
Just having a roof over my head and meals provided was enough.
"Speaking of which, you shaid you'd look for my relatives...?"
I tilted my head, wondering what had happened.
Caught by my gaze, Leonardo quietly looked away.
That figured.
He must have been too busy, or had more important matters to deal with, and hadn't gotten around to it at all.
"You're completely at a losh with me, aren't you?
How about putting me in an orphanage?"
Going to an orphanage was also the plan my father had laid out before Leonardo came.
He said to attach myself to some adult passing through the village and move to a town to seek an orphanage.
But even when I explained that it was originally my father's idea, Leonardo wouldn't agree to let me go to an orphanage.
"Sir Saromon probably just didn't know the reality of orphanages well.
Running an orphanage requires considerable funds.
Children who look marketable..."
He cut himself off there, and his gaze returned to me.
"If you say a cute kid like Tina is an orphan and leave her there, she'll just be sold off to whatever place will buy her."
I could tell he was being euphemistic.
When it came to where cute little girls got sold, it would be to brothels or perverts with a taste for young girls.
I was surprised that orphanages would sell orphans, but when I thought about it, it might happen.
If it were a state-run institution or part of a church charity, they probably wouldn't sell children to shady establishments, but I didn't know how orphanages in this country were run.
Taking in orphans and caring for them would inevitably cost money.
I couldn't even imagine where that money would come from.
But I understood why Leonardo didn't think it was a good idea to put me in an orphanage.
"So orphanages sell people?"
"Of course orphanages have to think about their finances.
Maintenance costs and food expenses that increase with the number of orphans are no joke.
If there's a child they can sell, they'll sell them."
Leonardo continued, saying that since an orphan was originally an orphan, there was no relative to complain if they were sold off.
"And on top of that, orphans have trouble finding jobs when they grow up.
With no guarantors and no relatives, there are very few who can find decent work."
"Marriage is hard too," he added, and I sensed a hint of something in his words.
On the very first day I arrived in the city, Bart and the others had told me not to bring up Leonardo's marriage.
"...People like me are rare."
"Were you an orphan, Leonyaldo-shan?"
"Didn't you hear it from someone?"
"I heard you're the shtrongesht and greatesht in the forstressh."
Actually, I'd heard a bit more.
I heard from Bart that he was in something called the Silver Knights in the capital for several years, and there was talk of an engagement with a noble princess, but apparently it fell through.
However, I was told not to let him find out about that, so I'd pretend I didn't know and not bring it up now.
As for other things I knew about Leonardo... he was sold by his parents and was about to be made a slave when my father Saro saved him.
...Huh?
Come to think of it, after Leonardo was saved by my father, didn't he go back home?
I supposed it was normal not to want to return to parents who sold you, but it was hard for a child to survive alone.
Even if you hated it and had to endure it, I'd think you'd have no choice but to go home to survive.
"I told you about how Sir Saromon... your father saved me, right?"
"I heard."
"I was spared being sold to the Empire as a slave, but I really didn't want to go back to the parents who sold me.
So when I consulted Sir Saromon about it, he introduced me to an orphanage in the capital."
Apparently, that's where he learned the reality of orphanages.
Children with good features, whether boys or girls, were sold to brothels.
Almost none of those who grew up in the same orphanage managed to find decent work.
Even the girls who somehow made it to adulthood without being sold ended up having no choice but to become prostitutes.
As for boys, most of them were forced into grueling labor for low wages and ruined their health.
Even if an orphan managed to survive to adulthood, it was hard for them to obtain even the smallest happiness.
"The only reason I became a knight was sheer luck.
I was big and healthy."
Because he met the conditions, he was allowed to take the soldier recruitment exam.
And by even greater luck, he had talent, so the path to knighthood opened up for him.
"There's hardly been an orphan who rose as high as I have."
Leonardo said that with a bitter smile.
It wasn't that no one rose high, but rather that no one lived long enough to do so.
That's how I interpreted the reality of orphanages as Leonardo described it.
"So that's why I have no intention of putting Tina, Sir Saromon's daughter, in an orphanage.
I'm sure there must be relatives somewhere, so wait a little longer.
I know I've been busy with Wards disease and other things lately and couldn't look after Tina, but the fortress is finally settling down."
"You really like my father, don't you, Leonyaldo-shan?"
It might seem like he was just incidentally saved and then sent to an orphanage, but he seemed to feel deeply indebted to my father.
Having heard the reality of orphanages, I'd almost feel like resenting my father for sending him to a place like that.
"Sir Saromon gave me the name 'Leonardo.'
He's like a second father to me."
"A name-giver, you shaid, right?"
At death's door, looking at Leonardo's face as he came to his bedside, my father said, "Through the bond of a name-giver, you are brother and sister."
That influence was strong. Leonardo had completely accepted me as his little sister.
I was sorry, but to me, he still felt like that guy I know and provisional guardian.
It was hard for me to accept him entirely as big brother and act spoiled with him.
"Why did you get a name from my father, Leonyaldo-shan?
You had a real name, right?"
"I didn't want to use the name my parents who sold me gave me.
When I consulted about it when entering the orphanage, Sir Saromon gave me a name."
And so, he said, looking a bit embarrassed, he unilaterally regarded my father as a parent.
He also said that when we met in Meiyu Village, he was happy that someone remembered him when he'd only looked after me a little over ten years ago.
It got long, so I'll split it into two parts.
Congratulations on reaching Chapter 50.
Well, it's not like I'm particularly celebrating or anything.
Considering that at this point in the story count I should have finished three chapters already, this might be something to be depressed about, but I'm fine.