57 - Let's Go to the Menhishumi Church 1
Every morning I slip my arms into the clothes Tabitha prepares for me. As always, there is plenty of frills, but the fabric being used has gotten considerably thinner. Since the climate is not as humid as Japan, I do not really feel it, but I suppose the height of summer has arrived.
...If there are not any rules about clothing, I would like to wear shorts or something. The frills get in the way a bit.
I have been observing while tagging along with Tabitha to peek at the market, and it seems pretty much confirmed that there are not any rules about clothing in this world. When I go outside the mansion, I see people wearing all sorts of different outfits. So why did I not notice this before? The answer is simple.
...The richer people are, the weirder their clothes are, in this city.
In short, wealthy people who can spend money on fashion prefer unique clothing, while places like Meiyu Village where there are only poor villagers do not have the leeway to put money and effort into fashion. Even during the God King Festival, people in the city apparently dress up in animal costumes, but in Meiyu Village, it was only at the level of relatives gathering for a banquet. This difference probably has the same reason behind it.
After finishing breakfast and seeing Leonardo off to the fortress, I circle around the mansion and head toward the back gate. The back gate leading to the fortress should only be used in emergencies, but when I started going to the quarantine zone with Leonardo's permission, he gave me the go-ahead saying it was fine to use. Leonardo, who is basically lenient with me, immediately granted permission when I argued that going back and forth between the fortress main gate and the mansion main gate on my own feet was tiring. Though there is a time limit attached, saying it is only while I am going to the quarantine zone.
...Today is the last time I will come to the quarantine zone, huh.
All the patients besides Jean-Jacques who did not receive the medicine in time have died. The ones who survived are only those who were infected in the later period when the medicine was being administered, and the Black Knights who received the medicine early. The source of infection, the small animals (Ushiri), were disposed of as soon as they were discovered, so no further spread of infection occurred. No new infected patients were brought to the quarantine zone either, and the fates of those who would recover and those who would not diverged. The quarantine zone has finished its role, and it has been decided that it will be opened once the Sedovara Church finishes cleaning and disinfecting the facility.
...So I am out of a job too, I guess.
I wonder if I was able to help even a little. Looking back, I feel like all I did was laundry. Other than that, I just sat next to patients who were choking and having trouble eating, keeping watch over them.
...Maybe I was not very helpful after all.
I pass through the back gate and extend my steps toward the quarantine zone in the north wing. Today is the last day I can come, so my goal is to say goodbye to the residents of the quarantine zone.
According to the Sedovara Church, the saliva and scabs of infected people still seem to carry infectiousness, and they said it would be better to quarantine them for at least a year. Those who have recovered from Ward's disease will never be infected again, but those who have never been infected with Ward's disease are at risk of infection. Until the infectiousness completely disappears, letting them live in the city as before poses a high risk of infecting others. In that case, the recovered patients cannot be released into the city, but confining them in the fortress for an entire year is difficult in many ways.
Considering all those circumstances, Leonardo, who oversees the fortress and the city together, decided to move the infected patients to a village that was wiped out by this disease. If all the residents are former infected patients, there is no need to worry about new infections, and since several villages have been wiped out, there is plenty of land. He said they would gather the infected patients there and have them spend the one-year quarantine period. Of course, they plan to station Black Knights as guards in case anyone tries to escape, saying they do not want to live in some remote village. A pharmacist from the Sedovara Church will also accompany them. The pharmacist's main job will be to make sure they do not neglect bathing and handwashing, even when living in a village with inconvenient water access.
...I hope the bath culture takes root in that village too. Then next time, there would be even fewer infected people.
It is not a final farewell, but a farewell for a while. Each time I meet someone, I exchange parting words, promise to meet again "someday," and finish saying goodbye. I help a bit with packing in one room, then go to another room and exchange more parting words.
...The ones doing the sending-off are pretty busy, huh.
After all, I have become acquainted with everyone in the quarantine zone. Even if I only intend to say a brief farewell, from the first floor to the third floor, there is no one I do not know. I cannot just greet only one person or skip greeting only one person.
"Jean-Chack, I came to shay goodbye."
I peeked into Jean-Jacques's room on the third floor, but Jean-Jacques, who should be packing, was lounging on the bed as usual. By the way, he is still a mummy-man.
"...Huh? Isn't Jean-Chack going to the plesant village?"
"It is frontier village, fron-tier vil-lage. What is this 'plesant village' business? If it had sexy meanings, I would not mind living in a pleasure village."
"I made a mishtake. Frontier village."
The village where patients recovered from Ward's disease will live seems to be treated as a frontier village. Since the houses where the original residents lived were burned down due to this Ward's outbreak, they need to be built anew. Most of the fields from before can still be used as they are, so maybe it cannot really be called a frontier village in the true sense, but considering it is a village that will be rebuilt from scratch, it is not entirely wrong either.
"So, you are not going to the frontier village, Jean-Chack? You have not packed."
"I have got a month of house arrest, see. But when I say house arrest, I got demoted over this whole thing and kicked out of the mansion, and the barracks will not let me in 'cause I would bring the infection, and I cannot rent a room in the city either. So I will be staying in this room for a while."
Jean-Jacques, who had been sentenced to every punishment imaginable in place of execution, apparently has all sorts of complications just from changing his residence. I had heard he was the third strongest in the fortress, but Jean-Jacques had also been given a mansion like Leonardo. Due to this incident, he was demoted, and another knight will move into the house Jean-Jacques had been using. The servants are the same as Leonardo's mansion. They were hired as managers for the fortress's mansions, so they continue to maintain and manage the mansion even when the master changes. And Jean-Jacques, kicked out of the mansion, had his eye on the barracks where lower-ranking Black Knights live, but given the circumstances, it seems he was turned down.
"Inshtead of houshe arrest, it would be better if you went to the frontier village for a month and worked like a horshie to build everyone's houshes."
"You are saying some terrifying things while stammering all over the place, Tina-ko."
While saying things like "Working like a horse, what are you, a demon," Jean-Jacques started thinking that maybe that would not be so bad. Rather than spending a month shut up in a room doing nothing, it would be more constructive to go to the frontier village a month early and work a month longer.
"...Might as well mention it to Alf."
Jean-Jacques's proposal, after some modifications by Alf, seemed to have been delivered to Leonardo. Moving together with the other patients was impossible due to the sudden change, but it seems the one-month house arrest period will be absorbed into a one-year labor period.
"Tina, what are your plans for tomorrow?"
Leonardo says to me, who no longer needs to go to the quarantine zone and has returned to days of every day being Sunday. Lately the fortress has really calmed down, so there does not seem to be any fixed schedule, but Leonardo has been coming back to the mansion almost every day now. The times he is at the mansion vary, morning or night, but I can tell he is making an effort to sit at the same table with me at least once during breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
"I do not have any plans today, tomorrow, or the day after that."
I do not have any friends yet, so I have no plans to go out and play, and there is little I am allowed to help with, so most of my time is free time. With no need to go to the quarantine zone anymore, my main pastimes are... in the morning, peeking at Tabitha as she prepares lunch and preps dinner, at noon, taking a lunchbox to the back gatekeeper, and in the afternoon, rummaging through the boxes moved next to the attic room I use as my personal quarters. If I could read characters, maybe I could read the books in the study from cover to cover. Anyway, I am that bored.
"...Then how about we go take a look at the Menhishumi Church?"
"The Menhishumi Church, ish that the plathe that teaches shtudy?"
"That is right. Most of the children in the city learn their letters and arithmetic at the Menhishumi Church."
"Mosht, you shay? Are there kids who do not?"
"Children of nobles and wealthy families often call teachers to their homes, so they do not attend the Menhishumi Church."
...So the children of nobles and rich folks do not want to study together with other kids, is that it?
When I wrapped my thoughts in a gentler tone and asked, practical reasons came up. Concerns about kidnapping on the way to and from school, too much difference in lifestyle making conversation difficult, and there being no meaning in nobles' children becoming acquainted with poor children.
"...Will I be okay regarding kidnapping and stuff?"
I was born as just a village girl from a poor village, but wearing the clothes Leonardo buys for me, I probably look like a wealthy young lady. If I go to the Menhishumi Church like this, would I not be at risk of being kidnapped?
"We will have someone escort you to and from, so it will be fine. We could hire a private tutor, but I think you need friends your own age more, Tina. ...That is what I believe."
In other words, rather than the quality of study time, it seems he is choosing based on concern for my emotional development. It is true that in my current daily life, I have no time to interact with children my age. Everyone around me is a grown adult.
...But can I really play with real children?
I will assert it as many times as I need, but I do have memories of my past life where I was technically an adult. The thought of mixing in with real children as a child now is more than a little off-putting.
...Will I stand out? Can I act childishly enough?
I look back at myself in Meiyu Village and furrow my brow. In the village, I avoided interacting with children as much as possible, thinking "I am an adult inside, how could I play with children?" But I did reflect once on whether the reason I am bad at speaking might be because I did not sing lullabies with Mother during my childhood. I still feel some resistance, but right now I really am a child, so maybe it would be good to honestly throw myself into being a child and mingle with the other children.
...I hope there is not a kid like Marcel.
There is no doubt he had feelings for me, but a boy's way of showing affection is almost harassment or just violence from a girl's perspective. To him (Marcel), they might have been treasures, but to me, he gave me insects I could only find grotesque, and whenever he caught a big frog, he would bring it to show me. I know it is just what kids do, but I dislike what I dislike.
...I want to hang out only with girls.
Thinking that I do not want to be in the same space as boys, I suddenly find it strange. I know it is a biased view, but in this country, it seems girls are ordinarily given the opportunity to study as well. It is strange to say "ordinarily," but even in modern Japan, it was not until the modern era that women gained opportunities to learn. Before that, with ideas like "women do not need education," only privileged classes like nobles or only men could receive education. At least in this country, I do not feel that kind of male-centric discrimination. I can see some division of household labor, but it is not labor forced only on women like in Japan. Men and women both handle housework cooperatively, as if it is only natural from the start.
...After all, I should go to the Menhishumi Church.
The memories of my past life and the experiences of this life were too different. Knowledge that would normally be acquired naturally while growing up. I feel like I have not absorbed any of it at all because I have been holed up in my own world thinking "my past life, my past life." This will not do, I have reflected on that many times since leaving Meiyu Village.
Just reflecting is not enough.
[Author's Note]
See, I did not quite reach where I planned to.
Typos and missing characters will be dealt with later... orz
I found and fixed typos and missing characters where I spotted them.