8 - Father's Burial and the Knights' Purpose
Strangely, no tears came.
I had been prepared to some extent from the beginning, and today, upon meeting healthy adults for the first time in a long while, the tension had broken and I had already wept my eyes out.
I had now lost both parents of this life, but crying wouldn't help anything.
Perhaps reassured that I showed no signs of weeping or falling apart, Leonardo began preparations for the burial.
When I told him that Father had already dug a grave, Leonardo made a complicated expression and headed to the graveyard to confirm the grave.
...I wonder?
I searched the bedroom for anything to bury with Father.
Since it was my parents' room, and since valuables were hidden there, I had never searched the bedroom before.
I had thought it wasn't a child's place.
But now that both parents were dead, young as I was, I was the head of this household.
That being the case, I needed to know what was in the house, and if there were items serving as seals or ledgers, I couldn't leave them unaddressed.
I opened a drawer with a lock and checked its contents.
Naturally, there were no seals or ledgers, but a single small box had been placed inside.
It didn't seem to be locked, and the lid opened easily.
...Two rings?
Inside the small box were a golden adult's ring with a jewel and a small wooden ring, one of each.
I picked up the golden ring and examined it closely.
...Is this a real gem? Why would something like this be...?
Given our lifestyle, which was almost entirely disconnected from luxury, I had never imagined that jewelry existed in our home.
...It looks like something is engraved... characters? What do they say?
I could make out that there were engraved characters, but unfortunately, in this life, I still couldn't read.
For living in the village tilling fields, literacy was hardly necessary.
Within the village, those who could read were the exception.
...Which means, Father really wasn't just Villager A, huh? He could read, and Leonardo-san called him "Lord Saromon" too.
I returned the golden ring to the box and examined the other, wooden ring.
This one also had characters engraved on the inside of the band.
...A wedding ring sort of thing? There are two of them.
Since there were two, they were probably wedding rings.
Thinking simply like that, I returned the wooden ring to the box.
It was only conjecture, but I felt like Father and Mother were an elopement couple.
Perhaps there was a story behind it, like a penniless Father hand-making a ring for Mother.
"...Tina, did you find anything to bury with your father?"
"This?"
To Leonardo, who seemed to have finished checking the grave, I held out the box I had just found.
Leonardo checked the contents of the box and pulled out the wooden ring.
"You should hold onto this one, Tina. It's your ring."
"Mine?"
"Your name is engraved on the inside of the band."
Taking the offered wooden ring, I gazed once more at the characters engraved on the inside.
I couldn't read them, but apparently this string of characters was my name.
"Thought it was Mother's ring."
"What's your mother's name?"
"Chloe."
"Chloe... that's a name I haven't heard before. There's no such name among the missing..."
As Leonardo began to mutter and think, I took the box still held in his hand and returned the wooden ring to it.
"Tina? This other ring is..."
"I'm still alive. So my ring, bury with Father."
My custody had been entrusted to Leonardo by Father.
That meant that, in this village where all the villagers had died out, I could at least avoid starving to death.
Whether I'd be sheltered by Leonardo or sent to an orphanage, I wouldn't be sleeping alongside my parents in the village graveyard.
He must have understood what I was trying to say.
Leonardo closed his eyes for a moment, then smiled faintly.
"...I understand. We'll mark it and bury it together."
"Mark?"
"So that someday, when Tina needs it, we can dig it up right away."
Would a wooden ring of no value ever become necessary in the future?
I thought that, but I am a Japanese person who can read the room.
I didn't make any clumsy retorts and simply accepted Leonardo's suggestion.
When we buried Father next to Mother's grave, Leonardo performed a simple funeral rite for us.
This winter must have seen many funerals, but I hadn't attended any of them.
I didn't know the funeral customs of this world, so I had thought I could do no more than bury Father, but having Leonardo know them was a relief.
It seems that knights sometimes perform simple funerals immediately after battle, and it's apparently included in the general education of the knight class.
...What's that, kind of scary. So this world has wars.
As I was lining up somewhat larger stones as markers atop Father's grave at Leonardo's suggestion, Alf, having finished patrolling the village, came over.
"The investigation of the village is complete. There truly are no other survivors. A few heads of livestock survived, but we can't rule out the possibility of infection. We'll have no choice but to dispose of them all."
"I see. A village wiped out by an epidemic. We'll have to burn down every house, but... with six people that's rough. Should we return to the fort once?"
"Indeed. We can post a guard on the road leading to the village and put up a rope with a no-entry sign."
At the end of the conversation, Alf offered a brief silent prayer toward the villagers' graves.
It seems the knights of this world, at least Leonardo and Alf, possess the spirit to mourn the deaths of villagers whose names they don't even know.
...Even in manga and anime, there are all sorts of knights. The arrogant, unpleasant types, or the chivalrous, too-earnest and slightly troublesome ones.
At the very least, neither of them is an unpleasant person.
Though for now, that's all I can say.
...Huh? Come to think of it, why did knights come to such a remote village? In the middle of some job?
If it were a single knight, various possibilities could be considered, like returning to the countryside, and so on.
But seeing that they were moving in a group of some size, it's natural to think they stopped by in the middle of some kind of work.
They happened to stop at a village, the village happened to be completely wiped out by a mysterious disease, they happened to reunite with an old benefactor, they happened to end up taking in his daughter. Leonardo and the others have been held up quite a bit, haven't they?
Suddenly worried, I looked up at Leonardo, and just then, my eyes met his dark gaze as he looked down.
"By the way, Tina. Were there any unusual people in Meiyu Village?"
"Unusual people?"
Hm? Who could that be? I thought for a moment. By "unusual people," I imagine things like a hero using public facilities in cosplay, or a perverted gentleman wearing nothing but a coat over his naked body.
Naturally, there were no such heroes or gentlemen in this village.
If there had been such a person, they would have been ostracized without question even more than our family.
"You came looking for unusual people?"
"Whether they were unusual or not, I don't know..."
Maybe asking Tina wouldn't help, Leonardo seemed to think, and he scratched his hair as if working through irritation.
His hair, which had been neatly held in place with some kind of styling product, became disheveled, his bangs falling slightly.
...Ah, he looks a bit younger.
With his bangs falling and hiding his eyebrows, Leonardo looked slightly younger than his initial impression.
He didn't look so far apart in age from Father, who had been his name-giver, but Leonardo might actually be younger than he appeared.
He was starting to look like he was in his early twenties.
"There was a purchase request for a reincarnator from Meiyu Village's chief, Jacob..."
"Purchase request for a reincarnator...? Knights are human traffickers!?"
I stepped back several paces, putting distance between myself and Leonardo.
Realizing he was being regarded with caution, or perhaps thinking he had caused unease in the child who was supposed to become his ward, Leonardo hurriedly crouched down to meet my eyes.
"Nothing of the sort. A knight's job isn't human trafficking. I won't do anything like selling you, Tina, so you can rest easy."
I dodged Leonardo's smoothly extending hand and put several more steps of distance between us.
When I fixed him with a cold stare, Leonardo withdrew his hand with a troubled expression and scratched his head.
...That aside, that village chief.
So he really was planning to sell someone off without permission, I thought, recalling all the warnings the Daltowa couple had repeatedly given me, and I felt a growing anger.
...There was no need to think "I'm sorry for wishing he'd die." Seriously, good riddance, that shitty old man.
What did he think other people's human rights were, I cursed the deceased inwardly, when I suddenly noticed something.
Leonardo's words had contained a term I was hearing for the first time in this life.
"...Reincarnator, what's that?"
It must mean someone with memories of a past life.
I could tell that much from the characters, but was "reincarnator" a commonly known existence in this world?
If so, that would mean there are delusional people in this world who openly proclaim, "I have memories of my past life!"
In most cases, since occult stories of this sort are hard to believe, if it were true, one would think it's something to keep secret so as not to be treated as abnormal.
Was it different in this world?
I was overwhelmingly short on material to make a judgment.
"A reincarnator is... a person who has memories of a past life."
Perhaps trying to ease my wariness, Leonardo straightforwardly answered what I asked.
"Normally, reincarnation is just a dubious story about having past-life memories... but occasionally, there are people who have memories of living in another world."
...The other-world reincarnation thing, huh. You see that a lot these days.
"And these people who were from another world in their past lives possess all sorts of knowledge that doesn't exist in this world. Since that knowledge can be valuable, reincarnators are given special regard."
"I've heard that Meiyu Village produced a reincarnator once before, about twenty years ago. Most likely, the village chief got a taste for it and planned to pass off some convenient child as a reincarnator and sell them. Five fakes turn up every year."
"It's not yet decided that the village chief was lying."
"If there had been a truly beneficial reincarnator, the village couldn't possibly have been annihilated. A reincarnator who brings benefit would at the very least keep themselves and the people around them..."
He cut off his words there, and Leonardo and Alf turned their gazes toward me.
They must have realized that someone matching the conditions they were listing was right here.
Indeed, from the flow of their conversation, I was the person who had survived in a destroyed village.
And although I hadn't said so yet, I was also a reincarnator possessing, as they put it, knowledge from another world.
"...Tina, why aren't you infected?"
It's strange that a single person survived a mysterious disease that wiped out an entire village.
They seemed to have noticed that. As the two knights furrowed their brows suspiciously, I did my best to act as childlike as possible.
"I was an outcast?"
"Outcast? Now that you mention it, you did say that from time to time."
"The village chief's harassment. My family was outcast. Village funerals and things, not invited."
Because I had no opportunities to come into contact with the infected villagers, I had been spared from infection.
I had also done some self-protection, such as making and wearing masks, though how effective they were was dubious.
"...So being an outcast not invited to village gatherings was a blessing that kept you from infection. In that case, how Lord Saromon and the others got infected was..."
"Lots of people bedridden. Father and Mother took care of them. Then the illness spread."
Before tending to the villagers, both my parents had been in good health.
The Daltowa couple's home and ours had maintained a certain level of cleanliness, and we wore masks too.
However, whether due to the difference in physical strength between men and women, or because Mother often found masks bothersome and took hers off, Mother was the first to be infected.
After that, it was the same as with the other villagers.
Once one person in a household was infected, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the family caught it.
"...Why was Tina's family made into outcasts?"
"Because we were on good terms with Oban-san and the others?"
It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't exactly correct either.
Since I was growing uncertain about whether they were good people or whether I could trust them, I deliberately reversed the before-and-after relationship in my answer, keeping a measure of caution.
The correct order was that after we were made outcasts in the village because of the chief, our interactions with the Daltowa couple increased.
"Oban-san and the others, you said?"
"Oban-san and Aunt Ulary. Um... long ago, village chief sold their child, I heard."
Answering that, I realized for the first time.
The child the Daltowa couple had been sold by the village chief, that must have been the reincarnator.
...Huh? If that's the case, could Oban-san and the others have noticed that I'm a reincarnator?
They had doted on me as if I were their own child, and they had shielded me, hiding me from the village chief.
Perhaps their cleanliness, which was a bit different from the other villagers, was a hygiene concept instilled by their child who had been a reincarnator.
"Oban-san and the others, their child was sold by the village chief, they're angry. Always angry, so with the village people, not on good terms."
"So because they associated with the village troublemakers, Tina's family was made outcasts. Is that it?"
It was a phrasing that gave me a subtle feeling of something being off, but since I had deliberately led him to that misunderstanding, I couldn't correct it.
For our family, the village troublemaker was the chief, not the Daltowa couple.
"...Which means, the existence of a reincarnator was either the village chief's delusion, or they died in this epidemic."
Leonardo raised himself up with a huge sigh, as if wondering what to do now, and I did feel slightly guilty.
But since I didn't know how reincarnators were treated, it was probably better not to tell the truth.
...At the very least, it seems like once you're identified as a reincarnator, you get bought and sold.
While I was thinking that, Leonardo's hand was held out before me.
Perhaps because I had evaded him once before, he didn't seem inclined to touch me of his own accord.
I compared his large hand with Leonardo's face, then grasped the offered hand.
Relieved, I could see the tension leave Leonardo's shoulders.
As we walked in silence for a while on the path back to the village, Leonardo suddenly spoke.
"...Tina, did you hear anything from Lord Saromon about your birth?"
"Birth? Um... I thought Father and Mother were an elopement couple, but...?"
For the time being, I had never heard anything about Father's birth.
To me, Father was just "Saro." He wasn't supposed to be someone whom knights would address as "Lord Saromon" with an honorific like "-sama."
In the village, he was a newcomer, and had been burdened with various disadvantages.
"Have you ever heard about relatives? Like a grandfather or grandmother?"
"Grandfather...?"
Hmm? I searched my memories and thought.
Just once, there should have been a conversation with Father where my grandfather came up.
"...Grandfather and me, same hair color, I heard."
"Which means black hair. A black-haired middle-aged man, former knight... if we investigate, it seems like we'll find him quickly."
As if candidates were coming to mind the moment he spoke, several names came up.
All of them were names I had never once heard before.
That said, since I had never heard my grandfather's name from Father either, even if my grandfather was among the names Leonardo listed, there was no way I would know.
"Looking for Grandfather, to leave me with him?"
We might have been forcibly pushed together by Father. He was my name-giver, we share the same parent so you two are brother and sister, and so on.
But Leonardo had no real obligation to seriously look after me.
If there were relatives, he would leave me with them. If none could be found, he would probably put me in an orphanage or something.
For now, at least I wouldn't have to worry about tonight onward, and if he could show me a direction for the future, I had no complaints.
Or so I thought, but Leonardo's thinking was something I found hard to comprehend.
"Even if we don't find any relatives, I'll look after Tina until you come of age, or until you get married, so you can rest easy."
"...Huh?"
At the "for now" "caretaking period" he proposed, I was so shocked I inadvertently let my true self slip out.
I stopped and stared up intently at Leonardo, and he grinned, the corner of his mouth lifting.
It was probably meant to reassure me in my small child's form, but unfortunately, with the mind of an adult inside, I instead grew wary, suspecting there might be some ulterior motive.
...I get that, unlike his first impression, he's a good person, but still.
"You've decided to take her in, that's fine, but first we have to clear her of suspicion of infection, or we can't let this child into town."
Additionally, Alf said, since Leonardo had picked me up the moment we arrived in the village, and had spoken with my infected father, Leonardo himself also needed to be checked for infection.
After all, it was a mysterious disease that had wiped out an entire village.
It couldn't be carelessly brought into a town or any place with many people.
"...Which means, shall we head to the Wise Woman of Waiyakku Valley for a while? There might be medicine there, and if by any chance we are infected, we can serve as specimens."
"Not a witch. A wise woman. Considering how much she has contributed to this country..."
Reacting to the word "witch," Alf furrowed his brow and immediately corrected him.
As he then proceeded to earnestly list the many contributions the wise woman, not witch, had made to this country, Leonardo shrugged his shoulders.
"...Your wise woman devotion is quite something."
"The wise woman is my lifesaver. Even you would take in a young child or two if your benefactor asked."
The "young child" in this case must be me.
Alf's gaze didn't come down to me, but Leonardo's gaze fell upon my face.
"...Hm? What is it, Tina?"
The light banter with Alf having ended, Leonardo seemed to finally notice my expression.
As for me, I was comparing Leonardo's and Alf's faces with an excitement I knew I couldn't hide.
"A witch means a magic-using old lady? Can use magic?"
If I've been reincarnated into another world, I'd like to at least try using magic.
Isn't it fine to have that kind of hope?
Unconcerned with the words I couldn't pronounce properly, I looked up at Leonardo with my face bright with anticipation, and having received my fervent gaze, Leonardo exchanged a look with Alf once, then burst out laughing.
...You don't have to laugh that much, jeez.
Apparently, magic doesn't exist.
That was a little disappointing.
Chapter 1 ends with this story. We're leaving the village, after all. Next, I'll do about two installments from Leonardo's perspective as side stories.