69 - Nonsense and a Little Girl's Claim
Author's note. Please understand that lines with swapped hiragana and katakana are being spoken in Japanese pronunciation. Example: "I WANNA EAT PUDDING"
If a child who came back from what should have been a fun night festival shuts herself in her room immediately after coming home, any adult with proper sense would worry that something had happened. The tutor the master of the residence recently hired is out of the question, but Tabitha and Bart, who have served in the residence since before Leonardo, are that type. I could not even bring myself to lift my head, so I pretended to be asleep and unaware, but Tabitha and the others came to check on me several times during the night. I knew they were being considerate, so the next morning I got out of bed with a face that said nothing was wrong. But even after a night's sleep, that lonely, craving-for-company feeling just would not leave me, so I went downstairs in my jinbei without even combing my hair.
"Good mor-ning, shama."
"Good morning, Tina-sama. ...You look a mess. Let us start with your hair."
I decided to unreservedly let myself depend on Tabitha, who beckoned me over. Normally I sit in a chair by myself and comb my own hair, but today I was in full leave-it-to-her mode. Right now I just wanted to be coddled to pieces.
She picked me up, sat me in a chair, and patiently fixed my hair. Sitting still, a mischievous urge to move my head started itching at me, but I held back on that at least. I was in the mood to be spoiled, but not to interfere with someone's work.
Having Tabitha fix my hair made me feel like that lonely feeling eased a little. I could not honestly say I was as energetic as always, but I was not in as terrible a state as when I had come home. After taking a bath and changing clothes, I felt even better.
As I was munching on my breakfast bread, Leonardo came home. Apparently he had not come back last night.
...Now then, how should I bring this up?
I studied Leonardo as he sat across from me drinking coffee. To me, it was the truth as I saw and felt it, but depending on who heard it, it could be taken as gossip or slander. I should probably choose my words carefully.
...Huh? Come to think of it, Leonardo-san is acting weird today.
Normally, on mornings after he stays at the fortress, he hugs me as soon as he gets back to the residence, either out of guilt for leaving me alone here or something. He does hold back to some degree, but honestly, being hugged by a knight clad in thick muscle armor is hot, stuffy, and painful. At first I endure it and let Leonardo do what he wants, but when I decide he is probably satisfied, the routine is to pat his face and pull away. That has not happened yet today.
...Something is weird, is it not? He looks like he wants to say something... keeps glancing at me?
I tilted my head, not understanding why he kept stealing glances at me. Then I searched my mind for what Leonardo might have to discuss with me.
"If it is the thweet and thavory dumplings, I ate them all, you know?"
"...No, it is not about the dumplings."
"It is not?"
Then what else could it be? As I started thinking, Leonardo moved his coffee cup aside. It seemed he had something serious to discuss with me.
"Let us talk about last night."
"Latht night... you mean the night fethival?"
My mood, which had been just starting to recover, began sinking again the moment last night was brought up. Even recalling it now, it was quite a terrible night. I went into a tavern to kill time, the shopkeeper helped me each time, but I got harassed by drunks, I did get to see Leonardo's rites, but once the festival was over, Kaya dumped me saying I could go home by myself. I managed to get safely back to the residence by talking to the knights and soldiers standing on street corners and only taking well-lit roads, but if I had been unlucky, it could have been dangerous enough to get caught up in a crime.
...A normal child would have cried.
Since I was not a normal child, I just went to bed sulking. If I were a truly young child, it would have been mildly traumatic for sure.
Now then, how should I bring up the matter of Kaya, I thought, pushing my breakfast plate aside and turning to face Leonardo. If Leonardo had something to tell me, I had things to tell him too.
"Yesterday, Pearl reported that you came back alone, Tina."
"Yes. I came back alone."
Oh, that is what this is about, I thought, relaxing the tension I had not realized I had been holding. The serious atmosphere had made me wonder what was going on. Since I had been about to bring up the same topic, this was convenient. Now I just had to figure out how to explain it without it sounding like tattling.
As I was thinking that, for some reason I got scolded.
"Walking alone on a night road is dangerous, you know. What do you think we assigned Kaya to you for?"
I could understand and process what he was saying, but I was so baffled by how absurd it was that I just stared blankly at Leonardo's face. The serious tone, the tension visible on Leonardo's face... I had thought it would be some important topic, but it turned out to be nothing of the sort. It was exactly the same thing I wanted to say.
"...So, Leonyaldo-san, you are mad that I came home alone?"
"What else would I be talking about?"
"...I thee."
With a heave-ho, I got down from my chair. Then I picked up the chair, which was too big for me to carry, and started moving it. Bart reached out to help me along the way, but I silently refused. This was not something I could leave to someone else. This was something I had to do myself.
"Tina...?"
Leonardo's anger did not seem to hold as I dragged the chair, sometimes setting it down to rest, and moved around the table to his side. With a face tinged with confusion and bewilderment, he looked up at me standing on the chair... bad manners and all. With Leonardo sitting on a chair and me standing on mine, our eye levels were reversed from usual. Looking down at Leonardo was quite a novel feeling.
"Leonyaldo, you idiot!!"
I swung up the cushion that had been stacked for height adjustment and slammed it into Leonardo's face with all my might. I was attacking with full force, but since my weapon was a cushion, the sound was inevitably light. Probably not much damage done. I knew that. But still, I kept slamming the cushion into Leonardo's face over and over again.
"I WATH THCARED OF THE NIGHT ROAD, YOU KNOW! WHY DO YOU THINK A LITTLE GIRL WALKED HOME ALONE ON A NIGHT ROAD!? YOU THINK I WOULD DO THCARY THTUFF LIKE THAT FOR FUN!? HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERTHAND THAT!? ITH ALL BECAUTHE OF KAYA, WHO YOU FORTHED ON ME, ITHNT IT!?"
The anger I had swallowed once came rushing back as I let it out through my voice. But at the same time, my heart started feeling lighter from having put it into words. I spat out all the dissatisfaction that had been building up, waving both arms and protesting at full force to Leonardo.
A child walking alone on a night road is dangerous. It was right for Leonardo, as a guardian, to be angry about that.
But at the root of it, he was wrong.
The reason I ended up walking home alone on a night road was, in the first place, because of the tutor Leonardo had chosen. Which meant it was also Leonardo's fault.
"Leonyaldo, you idiot! You are tho off-bathe! You moron!"
Leonardo, surprised by the sudden attack, had been letting it happen, but he reacted when a cry of "It is not my fault!" slipped out of my mouth. He grabbed the cushion that kept swinging down and threw it away behind him.
"There is no way you are blameless, Tina! I am saying that walking alone at night is ba..."
"THHUT UP! THHUT UP AND LET ME HIT YOU!!"
I accidentally blurted out my true feelings in Japanese and hit Leonardo's face. I was trying to hit him as hard as I could, but the fact that he was taking it calmly only annoyed me more. When my nails caught Leonardo's cheek, damage that seemed like real damage finally got through. Even if I hit him as hard as I could, it would not damage Leonardo at all, but scratch attacks seemed effective. Judging that, I started deliberately using my nails, but then he caught both my hands. Once that happened, I could not move my hands or feet... except that was not true. I swung my leg up to kick him in the stomach with my toe-reinforced shoes, and my knee unintentionally landed in his solar plexus.
"Guhf."
"S-sorry..."
Leonardo's hands, which should have been holding both of mine, came loose, and seeing Leonardo doubled over, my anger cooled in an instant. I had meant to attack, but I had not meant to knee him in the solar plexus. I had heard that the solar plexus was a vital point on the human body. I had kicked that spot, even if unintentionally. There was no way it would not hurt, even for an adult man.
"Does it hurt? Does it hurt? It hurtth, right? I am thorry, I did not mean to go that far..."
I reflexively rubbed Leonardo's back, but then Leonardo, apparently recovered from the pain, caught me again. This time, perhaps to keep me from struggling, he kindly pulled me in and restrained me on his lap. The pose, clearly meant for restraint, looked from a postural perspective like I was being seated on his lap and hugged from behind.
"Tina, I will say it again. Violence is not good. If you have something to say, tell me with words."
"When it is about Kaya, I have thaid it many timeth already. The reathon I hit you now ith becauthe you are tho completely off-bathe, Leonyaldo-tham."
I had not aimed for it, but the clean hit to the solar plexus had an effect. On both Leonardo and me. I had not meant to deal that much damage, but having my attack land on a spot I knew was a vital point hurt. I had gone too far, and I could not continue being angry anymore.
...I had been hoping to let out a lot of my true feelings while fueled by anger, though!
It was frustrating and I was still angry, but I could not resort to violence anymore. All I could do to express my remaining dissatisfaction was pout with pursed lips.
"Tina, talk to me slowly. When you are angry, you talk too fast and I can not catch what you are saying."
"I am not the one at fault hethe."
"No, you are at fault, Tina. Walking alone on a night roa..."
"If you do not lithen, I will hit you again."
Even as I said "hit," my hand was posed like a cat's paw. Contrary to my words, I was fully ready to scratch.
"I wath thcared of the night road, you know. But Kaya, who you thaid I had to go with, told me to go home alone. She thaid thinthe the fethival wath over, my job wath done too, and she dumped me halfway."
So it is not my fault. I did not come home alone by choice either, I asserted slowly this time. Hearing my words, Leonardo's face contorted with confusion.
"...There is no way a tutor would say something so ridiculous."
A normal adult would not and could not tell a child to walk home alone on a night road. If they had normal sense, that is. Leonardo was also an adult with normal sense, so he probably could not believe there was an adult who would act so unreasonably. Even though I was telling him exactly what I had heard, he still seemed unable to fully believe it.
"I have been telling you all along that thhe wath that bad of a tutor, have not I?"
For the first week, Kaya had come every two days as scheduled, so we had done something resembling lessons. She said I needed to learn feminine mannerisms, so Kaya acted as a model for me to watch and learn deportment and posture from. She primarily made use of the servant (Tabitha), scattered the tea and sweets that were served, and her manners were nowhere near praiseworthy. At first I wondered if maybe my common sense from my past life was different from this country's common sense, but when Kaya stepped on Tabitha's hand under the guise of "disciplining servants," I became certain. This was definitely wrong. This was not education for learning feminine mannerisms.
"Every time I felt thomething wath wrong, I told you, Leonyaldo-tham. Why do you believe Kaya and not me?"
"I heard you two got along quite well? You were wearing a hair ornament I bought you, saying Tina gave it to you."
"Hair ornament...?"
That word had been coming up a lot lately. Tabitha had been looking for one, and I had thought it suspicious and consulted Alf about it.
"Bart-tham, do you remember what the hair ornament Tabitha-tham wath looking for looked like?"
"It was a silver dove design decorated with a clover made of jade."
Perhaps Bart also had something he recalled, as the answer came immediately. And then it was Leonardo's turn to furrow his brow.
"...Did you not give it to Kaya, Tina?"
"How could I give her thomething when I do not even know where it ith kept?"
Aside from the ribbon Aurelia gave me, frankly I did not even know where most things were put away. The sheer quantity was one reason. But even so, while they were just gifts I had been given, I would not give things I had received as gifts for me to another person. Especially not things given by Leonardo, who had accepted me as his sister even though we were not blood-related.
There was no reason for me to give something like that to Kaya, whom I disliked.
The next chapter is planned to be an interlude from the perspective of a heartbroken Leonardo after getting scolded with full force by his cute little sister, but Leonardo might be so heartbroken that the update takes a break (not really).
I will fix typos and misspellings another day. Jokes aside, tomorrow's update is a break.
Typos and misspellings I found have been corrected.