7 - Men in Black Armor
I make the rounds of the village, seeking firewood left behind in the now-empty houses. It's gradually warming up, so spring must be arriving soon. It was a long winter. It should have been the same length as any other year, but this year's winter felt terribly long.
Nicola died, Marcel died, the village chief died, the villagers died. Mother died too, and the Daltowa couple who were so kind to us also died, and next it will be Father's turn. Compared to the villagers, he's held on longer, but even conversation is difficult now. When he opens his mouth, coughing comes before words, and I couldn't make out what he was saying at all.
...I don't want Father to die.
I'll truly be all alone. I was reincarnated into a different world where I knew nothing of right or left, and I was supposed to learn how to survive in this world while being protected by my parents as their child, but it's only been eight years. I can understand the spoken language, but I can't speak it well enough, and since I hardly used it in the village, I can't read either. I was given a general direction, to rely on an orphanage, but just the thought of leaving the village fills me with anxiety. Do I even know the way? Will monsters like in manga and anime appear? Even if such things don't exist, there must be dangerous animals. And it's entirely possible I might encounter bandits or thieves. The village chief had talked about selling the Daltowa couple's child. Which means children are objects of trade. A child without parents must look like nothing but a duck carrying a leek on its back to a slave trader.
...Leaving the village is impossible. I know too little about what the outside world is like, and I'm too scared to ever go out.
If only my parents could have been healthy for just five more years. If I'm being greedy, maybe this is just the hardest moment, and tomorrow they'll start recovering. If I'm going to wish for even more, maybe when I get home the illness will have vanished without a trace, and when I open the back door Father will be there saying "welcome home" while making soup for dinner.
...Not that any of that could ever come true.
I finish gathering as much firewood as I can carry in both arms, and my gaze drifts toward the village entrance. I felt like something moved at the edge of my vision. In the village now, there's no one who can move freely besides me. Did some small animal pass by? I thought for a moment, but no.
...Huh? Who? What's going on?
At the village entrance were five men on horseback and a man pulling a cart. When I squinted and looked closely, all the men seemed to be clad in armor.
...Western fantasy!? Armor! I've never seen it before!?
It's not full-body covering armor, but simple black armor. They have chest plates and shoulder guards, but it's not the kind of heavy equipment that gets mocked with "actually they have trouble with bodily functions and just let it flow." The man in the center wears a crimson mantle, and the man beside him also wears a mantle of the same color, but his is slightly shorter than the central man's.
...Captain, vice-captain, and the ones without mantles are underlings, I guess?
As I observe the men from a distance, a red-haired man without a mantle points a finger in my direction. Prompted by that, the man with the mantle, who seems to be captain class, turns around.
...Crap. They spotted me!?
I frantically look left and right to hide, but I'm too shaken and my legs won't move. As I stand there flustered, still clutching the firewood, the man with the mantle approaches.
...His face is terrifying!?
He had well-proportioned, rugged features, but that was my first impression. His gaze is too sharp and it's frightening. His black hair is slicked back with some kind of styling product, which makes his expression all the more readable and gives him a severe, piercing impression.
...I'm going to get hit!?
The fierce-faced man now standing before me raises a large hand encased in a gauntlet. I reflexively shrink my neck and squeeze my eyes shut, and then that large hand, with unexpected gentleness, came to rest softly on my head with a pof.
"You're a child of Meiyu Village, right? Where are the adults? I don't see anyone around..."
He pats my head, and I look up in surprise. His features are too sharp and frightening, but his black eyes held a gentle color. At that voice, a gentle tone that was all too natural when speaking to a child, my vision blurred in an instant, and—
"Fueee... eeeeeeeeeeeee... nnn"
—a wailing cry, so loud I couldn't believe it was my own, spilled from my mouth.
For the first time in this life, I cried without thinking about childishness, or acting, or service, or anything at all. Before I knew it, I was crying. I cried and cried. The pride I had as someone who had been an adult in my previous life was blown away somewhere. They were a group of adults who looked frightening at first glance, but they were also the first healthy adults I'd seen in a long time. I should have been on guard, but relief came first.
"What? Why'd you suddenly start crying?"
"Isn't it because your face is scary?"
I feel bad for the men bewildered by my crying, but it doesn't seem like I'll stop easily. It's not intentional crying. Right now, I can't help it.
"Not scary, not scary at all. Look!"
"Hyawah!?"
Without warning, the black-haired man slips his hands under my arms and lifts me up. Thanks to that, all the firewood I'd been holding scattered onto the ground. Startled by my suddenly elevated view and the black-haired man's actions, my tears stop in an instant. As a remnant of having been crying just moments before, a small hiccup escaped me.
...I was treated like a child, and my tears stopped just like a child's... huh?
As a former adult, it's quite a shock. Does a child's body have some kind of forced-stop-crying switch? While I'm confused in various ways, the other young man crouches down slightly to meet my eyes.
"Are you a child of this village?"
"Yeth."
Asked by the young man with the short mantle, I answer reflexively, then immediately cover my mouth.
...That wasn't "yes," it was "yeth." Why can't I pronounce things properly when I'm caught off guard, seriously!
While internally criticizing myself, I knead my cheeks as if to cover up the mistake, and open my mouth again.
"...Yes, that's right."
Good, I said it properly this time. I do an internal victory pose and, while acting childlike, decide to probe the men's situation.
"Mister brothers, are you merchants?"
Though they really don't look like it. I compare the man still holding me and the young man, tilting my head cutely. Since I don't know who they are, I try saying something as childishly nonsensical as possible.
"I'm Leonardo. This is Alf. We're not merchants, we're knights."
"Knights?"
"Knights. K-ni-ghts. Try saying it."
The black-haired man who introduced himself as Leonardo seems to be kind-hearted despite his frightening face. He corrected my "knights" to "knights" several times, and kept at it until I learned the pronunciation.
"The mister brothers are knights. Leonardo-thama... thama? And, Arf..."
"Leonardo. Le-o-nar-do."
"Leonardo."
Every time I mispronounce it, Leonardo corrects me, and we repeat this for a while. From Leonardo, who patiently repeats it no matter how many times I get it wrong, I can tell he's a completely different person from his appearance.
...He doesn't seem like a bad person?
While I'm thinking that, Alf, the blonde young man I was told about, has been picking up the firewood scattered on the ground for me.
"...Just Leo is fine."
Faced with me, who simply cannot pronounce "Leonardo," Leonardo, or rather, Leo, raised the white flag. Maybe he remembered there were more important things to prioritize than making me pronounce his name correctly.
"What's your name?"
"Tina."
"So, Tina. Is the village chief here? I don't seem to see any adults around..."
Still holding me up, Leonardo looks around. We'd been doing our comedy routine for quite a while, so he must have found it strange that not only adults but not even other children showed their faces. Normally, if a village child were talking to unknown adults, the village adults would be on alert and peek out, no matter whose child it was.
"The village chief... the village chief, is..."
Ah, this is bad. Before I can even think it, the back of my nose stings sharply, and the tears that had once stopped begin to overflow again. Once it gets like this, I can't stop it by my own will. Even if my heart is that of an adult, this body is still a child. Unlike fake crying with an adult inside, a child's genuine crying that can't be held back is impossible to control.
"The village chief, and the village people too... everyone, died... died, they died..."
Stumbling over sobs and hiccups at times, I tell them what happened in the village this winter. That at the end of autumn someone fell ill, that their child died, that more and more people took to their beds with the illness, that one after another the villagers died. That our family and the Daltowa couple were fine for a while, but once we started nursing the villagers, Mother took to her bed, the Daltowa couple took to their beds, and now even Father is bedridden.
"...So, Tina's parents and that couple are still alive?"
"Now, just Father... is. Mother and, the uncle and aunt... died."
When I tell them that all the villagers have died, the knights' expressions change. At Leonardo's command, his fellow knights run off to check the village houses for confirmation. Alf calls out to their backs, "Be careful what you touch." After seeing off the other knights who are busy confirming, I'm finally lowered to the ground. Leonardo, having set me down, says he wants me to guide him to my father.
"Father, a knight, came."
When I open the bedroom door and approach the bed, Father is coughing painfully as always. Every breath brings a cough, so he can barely sleep anymore. He's just lying there. At this rate, even without the illness, he'd die from lack of sleep soon. I think that, but there's nothing I can do. There's no medicine and no treatment.
I confirm that Father has opened his eyes slightly, then take the mask-like thing from the drawer. Thinking it would be bad if Father's illness spread to the guest, I turn back toward the entrance to hand over the mask, and Leonardo is frozen at the bedroom entrance. His black eyes are wide open, and an expression of shock is clearly visible on his face.
...Huh?
Before I can think that something seems strange, Leonardo breaks free of his frozen state. Without giving me time to stop him, he approaches the bed, kneels down, lowers his gaze, and stares intently at Father.
"Lord Saromon, why are you in a place like this...!"
...Huh? Lord Saromon, what? Wasn't my father just Saro?
And even aside from that, the knight is addressing him with "-sama." I don't know whether knights in this world simply refer to military men of noble birth, or whether it just means cavalry, but I've never seen a person addressed with "-sama" by someone else before. And what's more, the one being addressed is my father in this life. I decide to ignore my confused thoughts about what's happening for now, and just watch over Leonardo and Father.
"Lord Saromon, Lord Saromon!"
"...A nostalgic name. You are..."
After letting his gaze wander slightly, Father's eyes catch Leonardo. With a face that seems to search his memory for just a moment, Father wears a gentle smile.
"Leonardo, is it. ...You've become a fine knight. I hardly recognized you."
"Yes. It is all thanks to you, Lord Saromon."
"I... did nothing. It is all... the fruit of your own efforts. ...Tina, the mask."
I had moved aside so as not to disturb their conversation, but Father beckons me over. When I hand Father the mask I had taken out intending to give to Leonardo, Father puts it on. Since it's Father who would be scattering saliva and phlegm that likely contain the infectious source through coughing, it's correct for Father to wear the mask. However, Father has been careful to speak in a small voice so as not to irritate his throat and start coughing, so with the mask on, his voice becomes even harder to make out than usual.
"Mask, the guest wears. Father, wears mask, voice can't hear."
"Ah, I see. You were thinking it through properly. I'm sorry."
"...Still have more. Father takes off mask. Guest, I'll get another."
When I try to leave the bed to get a mask, Father grabs my hand and stops me. Unexpectedly, there's strength in Father's grip, and it doesn't seem like I can shake it off easily.
"Father?"
Something seems off. When I look at Father, he's staring at me with a serious expression.
"Tina, he is Leonardo. Long ago, I gave him his name. ...In a sense, I am his name-giver."
"Name-giver...?"
Father, how old are you right now? Such an out-of-place retort floated through my mind. Father, who at most looks like he might be reaching his thirties, and Leonardo, who looks to be in his mid-twenties, don't have an age difference that could be called parent and child.
"If I am to be considered a parent, then you two would be brother and sister."
I think that's a bit of a stretch. That's what I thought, but reading the atmosphere, I decided not to say it. Because I could tell that, even if it was a forced connection, Father was trying to say something very important.
"Leonardo, this child is my daughter. Her name is Tina. My wife and I named her together. As a brother who shares the same parent, would you take care of Tina for me?"
"Yes. Leave it to me."
Without a moment's hesitation, Leonardo accepts Father's unreasonable request. The only one surprised is me, who is being entrusted to a man I just met today. At Leonardo's answer, Father smiles as if relieved.
"Ah, today is... a good day. The boy from back then, just as he promised... has become a fine knight and come to visit me. And not only that, without hesitation, he says he will grant my unreasonable wish..."
"The debt I owe you, Lord Saromon, cannot be repaid with something of this magnitude. And besides, she is... Tina is my little sister, is she not? It is only natural for a brother to protect his sister."
"You were always like that, even in the past. A good brother who protects his little sister..."
If I can entrust her to you, I can rest easy. Smiling that, Father quietly closed his eyelids.
"...Father, did you sleep? In front of a guest, suddenly sleeping, is bad."
Father, who can't get proper sleep because of the coughing, sleeps whenever he can, even during the day. Because if he doesn't, his strength won't hold out. He must have been suddenly overcome by drowsiness again and fallen asleep. Thinking that, but also thinking it's bad to suddenly fall asleep in front of a guest, I reach out to shake Father awake, and Leonardo's large hand envelops mine. Surprised, I look up, and Leonardo has his lips pressed tightly together as if holding something back.
"...Let him sleep. He was relieved to have found someone to entrust you to."
I sense something off in Leonardo's expression and turn my gaze back to Father. I watch for a while, but Father's chest never rose or fell with breath again.
Finally, the other one has appeared, Leo, that is, Leonardo-san. Tina is scheduled to only be able to say "Leonardo" for the time being... with practice, she'll surely be able to say it eventually.