Riona (2)
"What was it you said again? That you're Christine?"
"..."
"Right, right. Best Maid for how many years running, was it?"
"Five... years."
Christine, Joaquin, and I sat with a single plate set between us.
"Christine."
"Yes, Father."
"His Grace distinctly said he was sending lamb."
"...Yes."
"Then why have you brought us coal?"
On the plate lay a lump of charcoal that could only be presumed to have once been lamb.
"I merely miscalculated the strength of the fire."
"I don't think that part needs explaining."
"Then why did you not explain the forge fire's intensity to me?"
"Wow... so this is my fault, is it."
Joaquin stepped in.
"Master Karon, do not worry. If we simply scrape away the burnt portion and eat..."
He drove his fork into the lamb, but the tines never entered the meat. What rang out instead was the hard clash of fork against plate.
"Must be the smithy... that sounded like hammering, Sir Joaquin."
Rather than answer, Joaquin rose from his seat.
"I shall go and hunt something myself."
"You're leaving just me and Miss Christine alone?"
"Ah."
He sat back down, and Christine opened her mouth again.
"There is no kitchen in the castle with a fire this fierce. I merely cooked the meat according to the manual I have always followed. Even if the outside chars a little, the inside stays moist..."
"All right. That's enough."
"I apologize."
Avoiding her eyes, I picked up a piece of the lamb.
Still, I ought to try it. Courtesy, if nothing else.
I tore the charred exterior away with my fingers and put it straight into my mouth, and the juices trapped inside the lamb came pouring out.
"Oh?"
Just as Christine had said. Unlike the pitch-black crust, the inside of the lamb was moist and perfectly cooked.
"The inside's actually good?"
At that, Christine's shoulders began to rise.
"Ahem. Did I not say so."
"Say what?"
"That even if the outside burns, the inside stays moist."
"The outside, right? I feel like I just peeled half of it off with my hands."
"Please eat, Master Karon."
With one last look from Joaquin, we began quietly chewing the meat.
"It is delicious."
"Yes. It is, Sir Joaquin."
"Remember this."
"Yes?"
"That my daughter is the Best Maid."
"Ah, yes..."
He'd sworn he'd never marry her off to me, so why was he telling me to remember a thing like that?
"By the way, Sir Joaquin, why did you come on your own?"
"I too received an order at this morning's audience. To guard the area around your smithy, Master Karon."
"What did I even..."
"It seems His Grace places a great deal of trust in you. Moreover, young ladies from other territories will be coming here..."
I nodded quietly.
Right. Now that I thought about it, there was a political purpose in this too. Sending Joaquin, of all people...
Knights who had served so long in one place and proven their lord's trust the way Joaquin had were rare. To station a man like that beside a craftsman like me, and set the Best Maid on top of it, might well be a way of showing Olivia's strength to people from other territories.
Well, it isn't all bad for me.
Life was give and take anyway. From the Duke's point of view, we were probably House Olivia's shop window.
"Has His Grace given you any separate orders concerning me?"
"Not for the moment. But I expect there will be soon."
"Soon?"
"In two days. I am told House Person will arrive within the territory."
"What? Already?"
Perhaps because I hadn't expected to hear that name so soon, my voice climbed before I could stop it.
"Do you have some connection to House Person, Master Karon?"
I had none at all. That only made it more frightening.
Aside from the scene where she cast Reflection Magic, the novel had treated her as an extra...
Which meant I knew literally nothing about Lady Riona.
"Ah... I have no connection whatsoever."
"Then why were you so startled?"
"Because it's the first time I've met someone I have no connection to."
"Pardon?"
"In more than a year of living in this territory, this is the first time I'll be meeting people from another house. Hahaha!"
Joaquin nodded.
"I suppose that would be so. There has been little coming and going between houses of late."
"Ah, it wasn't always like that?"
"No. Lady Arie and Lady Riona of House Person are very close."
Huh?
"Close friends?"
"Yes. Their personalities do not suit each other, but whenever there was a gathering from childhood, they were always stuck side by side."
"How do you become close friends if you don't get along?"
"Children grow by fighting."
"Ah."
My thoughts multiplied.
Arie's friend... was the first target of Eris's revenge.
Now that I knew this much, I began to doubt whether the plan Arie had called off could truly be called off.
Can it really be canceled? Did Arie cancel it because she found out the other party was Riona?
Suddenly, something Christine had said earlier came back to me.
She went into the underground chamber together with Lady Eris.
If she had abandoned her dream simply because the girl was her friend, her actions said otherwise.
Ha. She really is going all the way. She could at least drop me a hint.
"Master Karon."
"Uh, yes?"
When I stopped eating, Christine looked at me and said my name.
"You seem to have been deep in thought all day."
"Ah, me?"
Her instincts were damn sharp.
"May I ask what it is about?"
"Well..."
When I trailed off, Christine turned her face back toward the meat.
"If you do not wish to speak of it, you need not."
"No, it isn't that I don't want to..."
"I am sincere."
Maybe because it was the first time I'd been asked something like this, the words didn't come to me right away.
"Miss Christine."
"Yes."
"Have you ever thought about the future?"
It was the first time I had said it aloud. Of course, even I hadn't been thinking about it this seriously for very long. The moment I finished speaking, the sound of chewing stopped, and Joaquin's breathing grew rough in its place.
"Master Karon."
"Yes, Sir Joaquin."
"Surely you are not truly contemplating a future with my daughter."
...?
"No?"
"Then why did you ask her such a thing?"
"I think there's been a misunderstanding. That isn't what I meant."
"...I see."
This clearly wasn't a moment when a normal conversation was going to get through.
"Let's just finish eating and all get some sleep..."
"Would you help me make a simple cot, Master Karon?"
"Yes, Sir Joaquin."
And so, two days later, with Christine and Joaquin's help, I had repaired roughly half of House Olivia's armaments. Christine assisted me and still saw to it that I never went hungry at a meal, while Joaquin had stepped outside the smithy to train his stamina on his own.
"Master Karon. I believe it will be possible starting today."
"What will?"
"Lower-body strengthening training. You no longer appear to have any discomfort in your gait."
"You dislike me, don't you?"
"I am not among those who dislike you."
Perhaps because Christine and I had been stuck together for two full days, we could manage jokes, at least.
"By the way, where has Sir Joaquin gone? I don't see him outside the window today."
"He said he would stop by the castle for a moment."
"And he just left the two of us like this?"
"He seems to trust you to some degree, Master Karon."
Just then, a wind began to stir beyond the door.
"Huh? This wind..."
It was unmistakably the sound of the 3rd Tier wind magic Arie used.
My head was already a tangle over Riona, so this was perfect. I'd haul her into my room and ask her one more time what we were supposed to do.
But when I opened the door, a woman I had never seen was standing in front of me.
"...?"
"Who are you?"
"You are..."
"I'm the owner of this smithy?"
"Ah."
Light brown hair, pale skin, large monolid eyes. Round spectacles, and clothes in shades of violet. At a glance, she was every bit a young lady of a noble house.
No way.
She came right up to me and began studying the sign posted beside the door.
"Ah..."
"Might I ask your name?"
"Riona..."
A bad feeling never failed me.
"Ah. An honor to meet you, Lady Riona of House Person."
I inclined my head slightly, and Riona's shadow sank along with mine.
"R-Riona Person!"
"I'm Karon."
Our shadows froze there.
My back is killing me. Why isn't she getting up first?
Seconds passed, and still Riona did not raise her head.
"My lady."
"Y-yes?"
"You may rise first."
"Ah, you wrote that we should show each other mutual respect..."
Thanks to that, I considered for the first time whether I ought to take that line off the sign.
"You have shown more than enough respect."
"Ah. Y-yes. Thank you."
Only then did Riona's shadow rise.
What an odd person.
She was certainly nothing like the young ladies I had met so far. Eris had the air of a little sister I wanted to thump upside the head, and Arie the air of someone who never stopped toying with words.
Why can't she look me in the eye?
My first impression of Riona was of someone terribly quiet and withdrawn.
"Do you happen to handle magical artifacts here..."
"Yes. I'm in charge of them."
"Ah..."
Instead of answering, she looked down at her own hands.
Wait.
Looking more carefully now, I saw that she held neither a wand nor a staff. Both hands were cupped together, wrapped around something.
"May I see what you're holding?"
"Ah. That. Yes."
Hesitant, she held it out to me.
Cards...?
The backs were violet. The faces were all different.
These don't seem like playing cards. No numbers, no suits — just pictures.
As I examined the cards one by one, Riona spoke.
"Would you take a look at my weapon?"
"I'd need to know what I'm looking at before I could. How would you like me to examine it?"
"My family will be here soon. Then...!"
Right. First, I decided to bring Riona inside.
"Come in, for now."