94 - Ginger for a Cold
Once I sneezed, I was given an extra layer of underwear.
Twice I sneezed, a winter coat was handed to me.
Three times I sneezed, I was told to skip class.
The fourth sneeze got no reaction, but by the fifth, it was decided I had a cold.
And so, having been judged by Leonardo to have caught a cold, I was rolled up in a blanket and forcibly evicted from the attic room.
"No~ wa~y~!"
Is this any way to treat a child who obediently went to sleep when told to rest because she caught a cold? Holding me under his arm, me wrapped in a blanket like a caterpillar and unable to move, Leonardo tried to carry me out of the attic. My wish to use the attic room was completely ignored.
"The attic is what the servants use, and in this house it's treated as storage. It's not a room for Tina to live in."
"I like how cramped it is, reshu! It's calming!!"
"The attic's cold, isn't it? And as it happens, Tina caught a cold."
As if I'd let myself be dragged out, I grabbed the headboard of the bed to resist, but I couldn't win against an adult's strength. My fingers were easily pried off the headboard, and I was carried away. End of story.
"Then let's put a stove in the attic!!"
I suggested that if we did that, it wouldn't be cold, but Leonardo's opinion didn't change. Mercilessly, the attic was locked, and the key was stowed away in Leonardo's pocket.
"There's no way I can let a child use a stove alone, right?"
He was worried about fires from carelessness, but also afraid of accidents like burns. In this world, there are no electric heaters that automatically turn off after a set time, so if you brought a stove into a child's room, the child would naturally be the one managing it. He probably couldn't just entrust fire management to me, thinking 'she's usually an obedient child.'
I puffed out my cheeks in an obvious protest at Leonardo, who repositioned me in his arms as if to soothe my mood. I understood not being able to entrust fire management to a child, but having the attic confiscated wasn't fun.
"...Let's all live in the attic."
I suggested that if an adult was there too, it'd be fine to bring a stove. Leonardo gave a wry smile at my proposal and added a condition of no entering until next spring.
"It was originally a promise until you got used to the city, wasn't it?"
"I'm not used to the city yet, mashen yo."
I couldn't go out alone, and the places I went were either the fortress or the Menhishumi Church. Recently I'd been making something like detours after class, but only on the main street during the day when it was deemed safe for a child to walk alone. If I tried to enter narrow paths like alleys, that Black Dog would come right away, so I still wasn't all that used to the city itself.
"I think you've gotten used to it plenty."
"You've started making selfish demands," Leonardo said with a laugh. In what way was I being selfish? As someone being looked after, I thought I was behaving reasonably well.
"...This isn't me being selfish, nyo?"
Thinking that maybe he was calling me 'selfish' for saying I wanted to use the attic, I corrected Leonardo's assumption. Wanting to use the attic wasn't selfish. Well, no, in terms of preferring the attic because it was cramped and calming, maybe it was selfish.
"This is saving on heating costs, reshu."
"Big Brother earns enough that my little sister doesn't need to worry about that."
Leonardo poked my puffed-out cheeks. When he pressed them with his finger, the air I'd stored in my mouth was easily expelled.
"There's no way I can keep letting my cute little sister sleep in the attic forever."
"It's your cute little sister's wish, reshu. I want the attic."
After that, the same conversation as before repeated. Apart from it looking bad to others, the attic was cold, and he couldn't let me use a stove in a child's room alone. Even I, never mind my actual age, I couldn't truly be called a child, understood what was explained to me, and I was convinced.
"...Can I really use it again when spring comes, reshu ka?"
"Once it warms up."
"Can we promise not to ban it again in winter, mashen ka?"
"Just living there gives you a cold... seems like winter comes early to only that attic."
He really didn't seem willing to give in today. I was a bit displeased, so I wanted to kick him like usual, but unfortunately I wasn't wearing shoes since I'd been carried out while sleeping wrapped in a blanket. As I stared intently at Leonardo's face, wondering if there was something I could do to retaliate, Leonardo probably understood my aim. He furrowed his brow with a troubled look and moved his face slightly away from me.
"A guest will be coming to the residence soon and staying for a while, so for my reputation's sake, it'd help if you lived on the third floor."
"A guest, reshu ka?"
Come to think of it, I felt like I'd heard something about that from Jasper. He'd asked if I'd heard about a guest coming from the capital. Was this that matter?
"I wouldn't want the guest to think I'm some scoundrel who makes his own little sister live in the attic, would I?"
"Leonyaldo-san isn't a scoundrel, nyo?"
He spoiled me to the point of being a bit troublesome, but he wasn't a scoundrel. I thought so.
"...He's just a pervert who eavesdrops on a maiden's secrets, reshu."
"I'm not a pervert. Okay, I did eavesdrop, but that wasn't on purpose. Tina was crying about how lonely she was, so I was watching over you from nearby... gwoh!"
He brought up that embarrassing story of how he'd actually heard everything I reported to my parents at the Memorial Service, and my instinctive action to shut his mouth was a headbutt. My forehead hurt a little, but since Leonardo went quiet, I counted it as a win.
"I can use it again when spring comes, right, reshu ne?"
I stared at Leonardo with a look that said 'Just try saying something unnecessary again' and he, while rubbing his chin where I'd headbutted him, reluctantly replied, "Fine."
The third-floor room I'd been forcibly moved to because it was getting cold was indeed warm. First of all, the layout was good and the daytime sunlight was excellent, and since it had originally been prepared as living space for the residence master's family, heating facilities were also provided. The fireplace was as splendid as the one in Leonardo's room, and if I wanted, they'd even get me a stove.
...If they had a small stove, I feel like I could have used the attic a bit more.
But since the reason was that they were worried about letting a child tend the fire, I had no choice but to obediently give up on it. The reason I could use the stove and fireplace in the third-floor room was because either Tabitha or Bart tended the fire.
Thanks to the warm room and attentive care, my cold was completely gone by the third day, and I resumed going to the Menhishumi Church. A hooded coat was also prepared for me so I wouldn't catch another cold, but this was probably entirely Leonardo's taste. The hood had cat ears attached, so when I put it on, it looked like cat ears were sprouting through the hood.
Wearing the cat-ear coat, I followed Tabitha to the market. I'd been avoiding it lately because I'd seen the Black Dog there, but since I'd learned that it didn't show itself when I was with adults and that it seemed to be protecting me, I'd come to think that maybe I didn't need to be so scared.
The market, which I was visiting for the first time in a while, was bustling, probably thanks to the fruitful autumn. More fresh vegetables and fruits than usual were piled up at the storefronts.
"There's a lot of fruit, reshu ne."
There were no Japanese pears or large grapes like you'd see at a Japanese supermarket in autumn, but I did see slightly smaller apples, small grapes, and pears. There were also fruits and vegetables I'd never seen before, so browsing the market was quite enjoyable.
"Ah, those nuts! We picked them in the village."
I spotted the nuts I used to gather in the mountains during autumn and pointed at them. They'd been a precious snack during winter, but apparently they were sold in the city. It was a strange sight, seeing things I could pick for free in the mountain behind Mey Village being sold here.
"Shall we buy a little?"
"It'll mess up the shopping plan, so I'm fine, reshu."
Mother probably hadn't used them in cooking either. In the village, they were just snacks for the children. If I bought some and brought them home, and I was the only one eating them at the residence, it'd be a complete waste.
...Besides, the snacks Tabitha-san makes are tastier anyway.
The nuts had a unique flavor and were decently tasty, but they couldn't compare to the sweets Tabitha made. Even if they were nostalgic, they weren't worth buying extra.
I pushed Tabitha, who had stopped at the nut stall, and moved on to another shop. Thanks to Leonardo's influence, Tabitha also had a tendency to immediately try to buy anything I showed interest in. It was best to distract her early.
The autumn harvest was unusual, so I peeked into various stalls while holding hands with Tabitha. There were shops selling large piles of chestnuts, and shops selling fruit already processed into preserved foods. Among them, I found a shop selling tree roots and dried leaves that didn't seem like food ingredients.
...Ah, those leaves. I'd seen those at Aurelia-san's house.
Was it a dried goods shop? There were a lot of dried items that seemed to be for preservation. Yellow seeds, red berries, bone-dry leaves, pleasantly scented branches, and colorful powders arranged in small bottles lined the stall.
"Ah, that! I want that, reshu!"
"Huh? Which one?"
I thought it was a dried goods shop, but it felt more accurate to call it a spice shop. Among the items on display, there was what looked unmistakably like ginger root being sold.
"This one, reshu. This... aguoya...?"
"It's read as aguoyasu (ginger). It's a medicinal ingredient, you know?"
"Aguoyasu, aguoyasu... I'll remember it, mashira."
I committed it to memory by repeating the spelling and pronunciation, then tilted my head at Tabitha's words.
"...Isn't it food, reshu ka?"
"This shop sells ingredients for simple medicines."
According to Tabitha's explanation, it was apparently a shop selling herbs for treating and preventing mild symptoms that weren't serious enough to warrant going to the Sedovara Church. In other words, a folk medicine shop.
...Come to think of it, was ginger technically a herb?
I only ever thought of it for cooking, so I felt like tilting my head when it was called a herb, but in the sense of a fragrant plant, ginger was indeed a type of herb. It felt strange to call it a herb in Japanese, but if I called it 'ginger' it fit perfectly. That just goes to show how much word associations vary.
When Tabitha seemed hesitant, saying it was a medicinal ingredient, I brought out my black cat wallet saying I'd buy it myself, and my seriousness seemed to get through to her. Muttering about how I wanted strange things, Tabitha kept tilting her head but bought the ginger.
...Yes! Now I can have my revenge with miso-ni! I can do all sorts of other things too!!
Holding the ginger I'd had bought for me carefully, I let my thoughts drift to simple recipes I could make using ginger. As I hummed a tune, looking cheerful the whole time, Tabitha gave me a wry smile.
After the Memorial Service, perhaps because she cried her heart out and felt refreshed, Tina seems to have become a little less reserved.
Typos and errors to be fixed another day (it's always this lately).
Typos and errors I found have been corrected.