9 - Side Story：Leonardo's Perspective, His Benefactor's Daughter, Part 1
—We want you to buy a reincarnator.
A letter bearing that brief message, delivered to Gurnol Fort from a remote village, was, after its contents were confirmed, promptly sent onward to the royal capital. When it comes to the handling of reincarnators, reporting to the state guarantees the same response in every case. Do not make arbitrary judgments on-site. Even if the truth cannot be determined, first report to the royal capital, it is ordered. If the reincarnator possesses beneficial knowledge, it concerns the national interest deeply, so they must be secured before being sold off to another country. If the reincarnator spreads harm and throws the world into chaos, they must be swiftly quarantined. Such judgments are made by the king and his chief ministers who bear the governance of the nation, and thus all matters concerning reincarnators must be referred to the royal capital for decision. Not even the lord who holds the fort may act arbitrarily. And once a reply comes from the royal capital, it must be acted upon with priority over all else.
"...Because the requested amount is too low, verification of authenticity may be deferred. Secure the person alleged to be a reincarnator with all haste, is it."
Precisely because it is too cheap, it seems suspicious instead, I think. I confirm the chancellor's signature appended at the end of the directive and shrug my shoulders.
"Meiyu Village, speaking of which, that one, isn't it. About twenty years ago, a reincarnator appeared there once, too. The cause of the Sedovara Church's continued clamor even now."
Seeing no need to hide it from Alf as he peered at the directive from beside me, I handed it over as it was. Alf skimmed through the directive, then toyed with it, his eyes openly filled with contempt. He handled it as though he might roll it up and toss it into the waste bin.
"If it really is a reincarnator, the request is too cheap. High-nutrition milk, fresh vegetables and fruit, beef, pork, meat of any kind, meat, meat. Various medicinal herbs for strengthening the body, fever reducers, anti-diarrheals, pain relievers, itch remedies... Is there an epidemic going around the village? Clean cloth... this one's for injured people?"
It would be natural to think that some unusual event occurred in the village, and they urgently needed money to deal with it, so they fabricated a reincarnator. Reincarnators are not something that appear so frequently. Even less so if they are ones who possess beneficial knowledge. Because the rumored reincarnator from twenty years ago was sold off to another country, whether they were genuine cannot be confirmed, but the last reincarnator to appear in a neighboring country was two hundred years ago, the reincarnator whom the Sedovara Church reveres as a saint appeared in this country three hundred years ago, and for reincarnators with verifiable beneficial contributions, one must go back even further in the ages. There is no precedent for the next reincarnator being found after a period as short as a mere twenty years. Of course, since there may be reincarnators who never revealed themselves and quietly lived out their lives, it could not be said to be absolutely impossible.
"...Well, with this level of demand, even if the reincarnator is a fake, it's not an amount they couldn't repay by working for free for the rest of their lives."
"Judging that way, the instruction to put off verifying authenticity and send supplies first, that's likely it. A king who does not abandon his people is a good king."
"Sometimes I envy that simple thinking of yours."
When Alf let out a deep sigh, his golden hair swayed slightly. Blonde hair is a color that appears often among the nobility. Alf is a knight stationed at the fort clad in black armor, but his birth is likely from those circles. In fact, he had a friend of noble lineage who bore a resemblance to Alf. Perhaps they share a relative, or a distant common ancestor. That said, as long as he is stationed at the fort as a knight, Alf's birth holds no value whatsoever.
"Did you read all the way to the end before saying that?"
"You mean the annotation? It's the sort of thing the second prince would say."
Secure the reincarnator with all haste. On the directive bearing those words, in handwriting clearly from a different person, an annotation had been added.
—Should the reincarnator prove to be a fraud, apply appropriate sanctions to the village so that they never again attempt such a deception to waste the time and effort of the king and his chief ministers.
So read the text stamped with the seal of the second prince, a member of the royal family. Harsh words, but a necessary measure. Several fake reincarnators appear each year. If they are truly reincarnators who bring beneficial knowledge, the nation wants to secure them at all costs, but fakes hold no value whatsoever. Deliberately deceiving the nation to obtain a large sum of money is not a deed that can be forgiven.
"...Well, I don't think the second prince's 'sanctions' are necessary, but they've gone so far as to fabricate a fake reincarnator. The village chief must be prepared for the consequences. At any rate, the king's approval has been given. Assemble the payment in goods, and we head to Meiyu Village."
If the reincarnator is a fraud, sanctions must be applied so that they never again attempt to deceive the nation. The second prince, who has a taste for bloodshed, would likely gleefully carry out something like burning the village down, but I don't wish for that much, and the king is not that severe a person. In particular, judging by the goods requested this time, it can be inferred that some unusual event has occurred in the village. It will probably be settled with a stern warning and a bit of intimidation.
"...Though by the time you go, it won't be 'a bit' of intimidation."
I surveyed the knights with the most intimidating faces in the fort, whom I had selected as my companions, and was nodding in satisfaction at their truly terrifying faces, when Alf's retort came from the side.
"My face isn't on their level, is it?"
"In your case, it's not your face."
Tap-tap, Alf struck his cloak clasp to indicate it. On Alf's clasp was the ornament of the three-headed dog Cerberus, the symbol of the Gurnol Knight Order. As it is the symbol of the knight order we belong to, it is naturally used on my clasp as well. However, on my clasp, three additional monsters resided.
"...Should I take it off?"
"If it comes out that you removed it, that'll be more troublesome. Keep it on."
I proposed this regarding the clasp that inspires nothing but shuddering in those who understand its meaning, but Alf dismissed it without a second thought.
"Those accompanying you will be me, Jean-Jacques, Teddy, Lorenz, and Randle for carrying the supplies, that works?"
"Yeah, if four out of six Black Knights have intimidating faces, that should be sufficient intimidation."
"I did say the cloak clasp serves as more intimidation than the face, but your face is plenty intimidating too, you know. A child would cry seeing it."
The Alf who declared that with a cool expression had features so handsome it was vexing. I had thought from his blonde hair that he must be of noble blood, but even from the structure of his face, Alf is clearly different from the common folk around here. He seems to have learned to loosen his speech somewhat since coming to the fort, but before, he spoke in a much more formal manner. "It's like a prince wandered into a pigsty!" was the remark made by the daughter of the merchant who supplies bread to the fort.
"...We're going to intimidate them, so this is fine."
Strong knights are the dream profession for commoner boys, but they have a bad reputation with girls for having scary faces. Once, a subordinate's wife came to the fort holding a baby, and the moment I peered at the baby's face, it burst into tears, and it seems my face is unpopular with infants too. I am aware that if I wore my bangs down, my intimidating face would be partly hidden and I would look my age, but then the knights at the fort would look down on me for my appearance, which would be troublesome.
...Well, in that case, I can just shut them up with my fists.
When we headed to Meiyu Village with our select group of intimidating knights, the village's unusual state was apparent at a glance. Though it was midday, no villagers could be seen, and there was no sound. Sensing a vague unease, I surveyed the surroundings carefully and saw unmelted snow remaining along the walls of the houses.
"...There's no sign of people coming or going."
The first to notice was Alf. I looked where he directed me and saw that snow remained even on the doorways. Snow along walls and in places out of the sun can sometimes persist for a long time, but for snow on doorways to remain along the walls is strange. That is because snow is pushed aside when doors are opened and closed, and it is always displaced to the side.
"Commander, over there! There's a brat over there!"
The next to notice was Jean-Jacques. When I turned my face in the direction he was pointing straight at, a black-haired young girl stood there, clutching an armful of firewood.
...Ah, this is bad.
I realized my blunder the moment the young girl's startled, frozen face turned to visible terror. Surrounded by knights gathered specifically for their intimidating faces, even someone who wasn't a young girl would feel like crying. I called out to her as I approached, hoping to reassure her even a little, but the young girl, had her legs given out while still standing? Only her expression was frightened as if wanting to flee, yet her feet did not budge in the slightest.
...Convenient, yet also sad.
Do I really have such a terrifying face? To the young girl who was too frightened to speak, trembling and shaking, I decided to try patting her head to get her to calm down, at least. I lightly placed my hand on her soft hair, which I could feel even through the gauntlet. Pomf-pomf, I patted her head, and the young girl's face crumpled.
...Ah, she's going to cry.
By the time I thought that, it was too late.
"Fueee... eeeeeeeeeeeee... nnn."
Where in that small body could such a loud voice come from? With an unbelievably loud voice, the young girl cried. She cried and cried. She cried with such force that it threw us into confusion and brought our thoughts to a halt.
"...Isn't that because your face is scary?"
At Alf's observation, having moved beside me, I dropped my gaze. I was aware that my face was somewhat intimidating, but I hadn't thought it was enough to make a young girl of an age beginning to develop reason suddenly burst into tears, though I could understand if it were a baby.
"Not scary, not scaaary~"
At a complete loss with the sobbing young girl, I tried treating her the same way one would a baby. There are individual differences, but sometimes young children stop crying in surprise when their line of sight suddenly changes.
"Up!"
"Hyaah!?"
I slid my hands under the young girl's arms and lifted her high, and just as I had aimed for, the young girl's crying stopped at once. She blinked rapidly and let out a small, cute hiccup.
"...Are you a child of this village?"
Having already frightened her and made her cry, I left the conversation with the young girl to Alf. The beautiful young man, the sole exception in a group gathered for their intimidating faces, seemed to stir something in the young girl's heart. She shyly hid her cheeks with both hands. I adjusted my hold, shifting her from being supported under her arms to sitting on my arm, and observed the young girl, who showed no signs of crying at Alf. She was a cute young girl with something unsettling about her. Her soft black hair curled gently at the ends, looking utterly childlike. For a farming village child, she was not suntanned, and her skin was pale. Her blue eyes, still wet with tears, combined with her well-formed features to look almost like jewels.
...Her shabby clothes don't match what's inside.
A beautiful young girl with a promising future, clad in rags unbefitting her appearance. That was the source of the unease. She was a girl so incongruous as a village child that if one were told she was a noble's daughter who had been abducted from somewhere and raised in a remote village without anyone knowing her origins, one might believe it.
"The big brothers are knights. Leo...nyaldo... shama? And, A...ryuf..."
The young girl seemed to struggle with speaking. The moment a word grew slightly long, she immediately tripped over her tongue. However, her pronunciation was clear. She had little of the local dialect and was close to Alf's pronunciation. Even the way she spoke with a slight lisp, as if finding it hard to say, was endearing, and young girls really are unfair creatures. If Jean-Jacques or someone spoke the same way, I have no confidence I could refrain from punching him.
"...Just Leo is fine."
I gave in, defeated by the young girl who kept turning it into 'Leonyaldo' no matter how many times I had her try again. Right now, there are things that should take priority over getting her to say my name correctly. When I let out a deep sigh, it felt like the young girl had grown slightly heavier. Wondering what was going on, I looked at her, and the young girl was staring intently at my face with her blue eyes. On that face, the fear that had been there until moments ago was no longer present.
...Has she come to trust me a little?
At the very least, she must have judged me to be someone she could entrust her weight to. The young girl's body, slightly relaxed, made me happy, and something warm lit within my chest.
As for the cloak clasp, I think Tina will explain it in the main story eventually, so I'll gloss over it here.
Jean-Jacques is... the result of generating a name with a name generator... something like this.
'Jean-Jacques' seems to be a given name. The surname came up separately.
I don't understand the rules for Western-style names.