The Three-a-Day Decree
Time slipped by quickly.
A week had already passed since I hurtled into the past. Long if you called it long, short if you called it short.
And that week, unexpectedly, went by without a single incident.
The Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia never came to blows. Neither Meteria nor Cranel ever showed up at the abandoned church basement.
Even the Freya Familia, my biggest worry, stayed quiet and unremarkable. They weren't even scheming anything, as far as I could tell.
Honestly, I couldn't quite tell you how that week passed at all. No matter how much time went by, the sense of reality I'd lost never came back, leaving my mind suspended somewhere in a haze.
My head understood it, but my heart refused to accept it — or maybe I should put it another way. Maybe I was still there, in that moment. Whether now was the past or the future, perhaps nothing held any meaning for me unless it was that instant, that moment.
"Vesta. What are you thinking about?"
"...Nothing. Nothing at all."
The only thing I'd done all week was keep Ais company during her training.
Future Sword Princess or not, Ais was growing at a frightening pace with each passing day, chasing at my heels.
Of course, it would still take decades before that bud ever bloomed, but the moment I poured water onto such a promising seed, I felt a satisfaction so complete I could almost feel myself being alive.
Come to think of it, this isn't so bad. Once I return to my own time, maybe I'll take on a disciple of my own. The black dragon may be dead, but monsters still remain — surely it would help.
"Hwaaah..."
"Ah."
In the past... no, the future? Either way, in the days to come, when she and I trained together — no wait, she was younger now, so she yawned even more than she had back then.
Some days, her naps outnumbered the training sessions. Frankly speaking, that was how most of our training ended anyway.
"...I'm sorry."
"It's fine, really."
Lady Riveria, who had insisted on observing out of concern for Ais, watched her charge's behavior and turned red with embarrassment, apologizing as if she herself were the one at fault.
Ais always slept with her head in my lap. She claimed she simply couldn't fall asleep any other way.
Riveria had come to keep an eye on a suspicious stranger, only to watch her own child disgrace herself — no wonder a parent would be mortified. That aside, judging by the jealous glances she kept shooting my way, I couldn't help but wonder if Lady Riveria had once tried offering a lap pillow of her own and failed.
There's no way she can only sleep on my lap... right?
They say assumptions trip you up, but surely it couldn't be true. Being unable to sleep anywhere but my lap — at that point it would be an illness.
"Tch..."
Lady Riveria was looking at me like a man whose lover had been stolen away. Please, stop looking at me like that, it's making me uncomfortable.
Training usually wrapped up around dinnertime. That was when Ais's stomach started growling.
"Jagamarukun."
I heard that ever since that day, Ais had eaten nothing but Jagamarukun.
She'd been moving around without eating anything at all before, so when Lady Riveria first learned that Ais had a food she actually wanted, she'd been delighted. But now that the girl ate nothing else day after day, the worry had set in. Bad for her health, apparently.
Frankly, I shared that concern. Even if it were good for her, eating only one thing wasn't healthy.
And unlike in the future, the stalls here only sold the plain, original Jagamarukun — no variations yet — which made it worse.
Watching Ais head toward the Jagamarukun stall with that expectant look on her face, I finally decided to take the drastic measure I'd been mulling over all this time.
"Ais. Ais."
"Hmm...? What?"
"I hate to say this, but... from now on, you may only have three Jagamarukun a day."
KWA-GA-GANG—!
The lightning of despair crackled above Ais's head. She was so shocked she dropped the wallet she'd been holding.
With a soft thump, the coins inside came jingling and spilling out onto the ground. Lady Riveria sighed and bent down to gather up the wallet and the scattered coins.
I hadn't coordinated this with Lady Riveria beforehand, but no rebuttal came. Then again, her opinion was my opinion to begin with.
After watching her stuff herself with Jagamarukun three meals a day for an entire week, there was no way I could stay silent.
Truthfully, I'd wanted to limit her to one a day, but I had a feeling that would drive her into a genuine rampage, so I settled on three. Apparently, even that felt insufficient to her.
No, seriously — three Jagamarukun is roughly one meal's worth. She's only substituting one meal a day with them, so why is she this upset?
"Wh-why...?"
Despair settled over her face.
...Seriously? Being denied Jagamarukun hurts that much? Anyone watching would think a parent had just passed away, her expression was that gloomy.
"...Ais, that—"
Unable to bear the sight, Lady Riveria stepped in to reason with her, but I stopped her.
Whatever anyone said, Ais was still a little kid. Talk of nutrition would go right over her head, and she had no intention of understanding anyway.
The moment you tried to persuade her, you'd already lost. What was needed here wasn't persuasion — it was acceptance.
Similar, but different. Persuasion meant turning her heart around. Acceptance meant she understood, even if her heart never came around.
"It's the law."
"Huh...?!"
"Yeah...?"
"There's a law — a certain law that says if you eat three Jagamarukun in one day, you're barred from entering the Dungeon."
"Th-that can't be...!"
Ais whipped her head around to look at Lady Riveria. She probably couldn't bring herself to believe my words outright.
Naturally so. It was Ais, after all — with her, it ended at doubt. A normal person would have laughed in my face and asked what nonsense I was spouting.
But it worked on Ais. Especially on the young Ais.
"Uh... um..."
Lady Riveria seemed to be deliberating. The noble high elf was extremely reluctant to lie to a young girl, even for her own good.
But what else are you going to do? If you don't lie here, what then?
If you don't lie right now, Ais will eat nothing but Jagamarukun for the rest of her life and transform into the very spirit of Jagamarukun itself. What exactly do you plan to do about that?
A lie. It has to be done, doesn't it?
"Th-that's right. There is such a law."
"No, it can't be..."
With even the high elf saying so, the despair on Ais's face deepened.
My conscience stung a little, but I couldn't just let this go on. It was a barrier that would have to be crossed someday, one way or another.
Come to think of it, how did future Ais ever quit her Jagamarukun habit?
Quit was too strong a word, but she ate less of them than she did now, at least. Looking at her current state, the result honestly baffled me.
Did she naturally learn moderation as she grew older? Then maybe I just meddled for nothing?
"Eeeh..."
...Yeah, I don't think that's it.
One look at Ais's face after receiving the Three Jagamarukun Per Day Maximum verdict told me there was no chance of that at all.
Capped at three a day she may have been, but that didn't stop Ais from coming for her Jagamarukun.
Well, sure. She was exactly the kind of girl who'd forced me to set a limit in the first place. She clearly lacked the willpower to quit over something this minor.
"Three Jagamarukun... please."
"Oh, it's the little lady again. Just three today, huh?"
The shopkeeper greeted his young regular with obvious disappointment. These days, she accounted for a good forty percent of his income. A whale customer who bought dozens a day now buying a measly three — of course he'd be bummed.
All the more so given this was the man who'd taken her orders while brazenly ignoring both my glare and the high elf's.
He could've just made up some excuse about running out of stock. Why did he have to grudgingly accept the order and hand me this whole ordeal?
"Uuu..."
Ais's face was still dark. Had the three-a-day verdict really wounded her that deeply?
But it couldn't be helped. Living on nothing but Jagamarukun was a problem. Someone had to hit the brakes.
Why that someone had to be me... I felt nothing but unfairly put-upon.
Watching Ais mope like this dragged my mood down with her, and the fact that I was the culprit made it sting all the more.
Which was why — in the end, I crossed the river that should never be crossed.
"Sir, could you put this and this into the Jagamarukun?"
"Eh? No, no — if you put those in, there's no way it'll taste good."
"Trust me."
"Geez... you shouldn't play with your food, kid..."
Grumbling all the while, the owner still obliged my request, folding a certain special ingredient into the Jagamarukun before handing them over.
This ought to perk her up a little. I presented Ais with a custom-made, well-crafted Jagamarukun.
"...Why?"
"I had them made with things I thought you'd like. Try a bite."
"Wait, hold on. Didn't you just put something weird in there?"
"I did, yes."
Lady Riveria was right — I had added a very special ingredient.
The filling of the Jagamarukun that Ais — or rather, the Ais of the future — had loved most of all.
Jagamarukun filled with jewel-like red bean paste and pure white cream.
Her number-one pick from the future: red bean cream–flavored Jagamarukun.
"...Is that stuff even good?"
"Hard to say?"
I hated sweets, so it was a flavor I could never understand — but the her of the future had adored it.
Since she didn't eat them now, I'd assumed her tastes had simply changed... Only it turned out the flavor hadn't been invented yet.
I felt like I'd crossed yet another line I was never meant to cross... but eh, come on. What could possibly happen from a little snack?
"Hmm..."
Ais eyed me with deep suspicion. She'd grown intensely picky about her Jagamarukun lately, and she fixed an even colder gaze on this one, stuffed with who-knew-what.
Those were not the eyes of a little girl at all. In them, I could see the Sword Princess staring down a monster.
Granted, she was a little girl, and what stood before her was a Jagamarukun.
"If you don't like it, I'll eat it myself. Just one bite."
At those words, Ais reluctantly picked up the special-order Jagamarukun.
It had only been a week, but in that time she'd toured every Jagamarukun stall in the city and tasted every variety on offer. She was already a certified Jagamarukun expert, holding the snack to an extremely rigorous standard.
And now this Jagamarukun had red bean paste and cream in it? Her brow furrowed.
I thought he was a good person. Was he the kind of man who treated food carelessly all along?
Out of the bond they'd built, she would grant him one bite — but her future was already easy to picture.
The worst imaginable outcome: raging at this insult to Jagamarukun itself, and forcing the offending morsel back into his hands.
Ais bit into the Jagamarukun, her face twisted in a full scowl.
Crunch—
.
.
.
"...?"
Tap.
At the sound that echoed a split second later, a hook snapped taut in Ais's mind.
That sound was, no matter how she turned it over, not the sound of eating a Jagamarukun.
Something hard striking something hard. More precisely — the sound of teeth hitting teeth.
No, wait. Worse than that: the Jagamarukun had vanished from her hand. When she came back to her senses, there was nothing in Ais's grip at all.
"Huh...?"
"What's wrong, Ais?"
"The Jagamarukun... is gone?"
"Gone? You just wolfed it down in one bite."
Hadn't she devoured the thing using nothing less than the fabled speed — the very talent that would one day earn her the name Sword Princess?
"No. I didn't."
Ais could not comprehend it. The instant that Jagamarukun touched her lips, every memory of the moment had been blown away.
She had no memory of eating the Jagamarukun. Therefore, she had not eaten the Jagamarukun.
Therefore, she needed to eat the Jagamarukun again. That was simply how it was.
Swooosh—
Ais turned her head, her gaze locking onto the Jagamarukun cradled in the man's arms.
Swooosh—
The man turned his head, avoiding her eyes.
Squeeze, squeeze—
But it was useless. Ais had no intention of compromising. No intention of negotiating.
"Hand it over."
Sharp golden eyes bored straight through the man.
That day, Ais ate six Jagamarukun.