Your Lower Body Is Weaker Than I Expected
"The direction is wrong. The smithy yard is not so wide, so you must turn them about and stack them in order."
"But, Miss Christine. Our task was only to haul these as far as the smithy."
Far off, Christine and one of the stewards were locked in a dispute.
"Well. That is not incorrect."
No. The dispute went no further.
Christine gave a small nod, rolled her sleeves, and started toward the cart.
"All of you may return first. I will assist Mr. Karon, then return on my own."
"Christine. Why are you doing this again?"
From behind the steward, a maid who looked a little older stepped forward.
"Head Maid."
Christine dipped her head.
"Why do you always try to take the work on alone?"
"I do not know what instructions the others received, but the order given to me was to deliver these and return with the empty carts."
"What?"
The Head Maid looked over the several carts standing in a row.
"As a servant of His Grace, I am only finishing the work I was given."
The Head Maid let out a small sigh and turned to the other maids lined up behind her.
"All of you, help Christine. Finish quickly and get back. We still have lunch to prepare."
That settled it.
What an... exhausting personality.
Christine, however, went to the cart as if it did not concern her in the least. Then she began setting the arms heaped inside down upon the ground, unloading two pieces by herself in the time it took two others to manage one. Some of the armor was heavy enough that I would have struggled to lift it alone.
How is she unloading that by herself?
I got a few suits onto the ground and promptly sat down hard. Christine's voice came from behind me.
"Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Karon."
"Hah... hah... Not at all, Miss Christine."
"However, your lower body appears weaker than I expected."
…?
"If you require it, I could—"
"Th-that's enough. Please stop, Miss Christine."
There was no telling what might come out of that innocent mouth, so I cut her off in a rush. But the moment I raised my voice, a faint smile spread across her face.
"You can still shout. Then you are not yet at your limit."
"What kind of mad talk is that, Miss Christine?"
"If the work were truly too much, the words would not come."
She stepped closer and held out a hand in a white glove.
"That is enough. Please stand. We are halfway done."
"...Isn't this usually when someone says 'please rest,' or 'let's rest together'?"
"If you require it, I will remember."
"Ah, never mind."
"Please rest, Mr. Karon."
We had been speaking for only a moment when an unexpected voice broke in. It was Joaquin, hauling four suits of armor by himself.
"No, Sir Joaquin. I'll get up."
"No. You will rest."
He set the armor down with a clang and looked at me.
"Instead, rest together with my daughter."
"That will not do, Father."
The answer came from Christine.
"This is a task I brought upon myself. It would not be proper to rest alone while leaving them to the work."
"Propriety is only a matter of making it so."
From inside the smithy, Arie's voice drifted out on a slowly rising breeze.
"Sir Joaquin. You are ready, are you not?"
"Of course, Lady Arie."
Arie took her staff in both hands and began a quiet chant.
"Like a quiet wind."
A small whirlwind rose inside the cart. It did not spill past the rails. It simply lifted the armor and the swords into the air.
Steel hissed free.
Joaquin drew his sword.
"Haaaaah!"
He closed on the cart in a flash and began knocking the floating pieces down one by one with the flat of the blade.
"Whoa..."
The arms dropped to the earth in neat rows, falling exactly along the alignment Christine had set.
"..."
"Hehe. Well? This much is nothing, really..."
"Ha."
With a hand pressed to my brow, I looked at Arie.
"Could you not have come out a little sooner, my lady?"
"Shall I say I wanted to see you flat on the ground?"
"Why do you dislike me so much?"
"Oh my. I happen to be on the side that likes you."
"Yes, yes."
A duke's daughter, and still she says things that invite misunderstanding.
Once the fallen arms had been set back into their lines, Christine sat down beside me, knees drawn neatly together.
Ten minutes.
I was too spent to think of anything at all, and Christine did not offer me a single word. Once my breathing had settled a little, I spoke first.
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
"..."
"I have not yet learned what one ought to say in a situation such as this."
"And what kind of situation is this?"
Christine closed her eyes for a moment.
"It is the first time I have sat with a man who is not a servant of the castle."
Silence fell again.
"And someone like that suggested we make a child?"
"Did I not tell you? I have prepared my heart, to a certain extent."
"You make it sound as if you're being sold off somewhere."
Come to think of it, I had no memory of Christine's story from the original novel. More precisely, the Debutante had begun before her story ever appeared, and with it, Eris's tragedy. She was, in the plainest sense, a supporting character this world had never gotten around to unfolding.
Perhaps that was why. Every word she left behind looked lonely.
"Why are you looking at me with those eyes?"
Sharp as a ghost.
"What?"
"Surely you are not pitying me."
Of this much I was certain. It had not been pity.
"Absolutely not."
"I am relieved. I like the life I have now."
"What about it do you like?"
She shifted a little closer to my side.
"By working, I am able to remain myself."
"I'll hear you out, then."
When I finished, Christine stared straight through me.
"...I mean that working as a maid within this domain is what fills my days."
It was a contradiction.
Isn't that existing as a maid of House Olivia, not as Christine?
I wondered whether to say what I was thinking. In the end, I didn't. Whatever her life had been, it was not something I had any right to decide for her.
"That's admirable."
"So please, do not pity me."
In place of that, I gave a different answer to the question from before.
"I only said it with a little fondness for you, Miss Christine."
"I do not yet have affection for you, Mr. Karon."
"Didn't you worry over my lower body a moment ago?"
Even I thought it was an absurd thing to say.
"Consider that worry fondness."
"You truly are impossible to understand."
"Aren't the two of you sitting a little too close? If someone saw, they might misunderstand~"
Arie's voice came from beside us.
"Here to tease us again."
"This time I came to save you."
Past her shoulder I saw Joaquin. His face was smiling, but he was gripping his sword so tightly that his arm shook.
"...My lady, would you please say that nothing happened?"
"I will. But aren't you a bit too close, Christine?"
Strangely, Arie's eyes were on Christine.
"I am carrying out His Grace's command, little by little."
"Oh my. Were you not my servant, Miss Christine?"
"Ah. Forgive me. Please give me your order."
"I thought it might be better if you moved a little apart."
"Ah. Yes."
At Arie's word, Christine rose.
"Oh my. You may stay seated, Christine. Would you shift a little to the side instead?"
"Yes. Thank you."
She sat again, and a gap wide enough for one person opened between us.
"Oh my, but like this it looks rather cold, doesn't it?"
And into that gap, knees together, Arie sat herself down.
"So. Did the two of you share a great many words?"
"Not so many, yet..."
"Yes."
To the same question, two different answers burst out at once.
"Mr. Karon says otherwise. Miss Christine?"
"I shared a great many words."
We had traded only a handful of sentences, and she called it a great many.
"We barely exchanged a few words."
"The assessment is complete."
"Seriously. What sort of person do you think Mr. Karon is? Won't you tell me, too?"
"Why are you the more excited one, my lady..."
She seemed not to hear me at all. Arm linked through Christine's, Arie asked.
"First, his lower body is inadequate."
"I—I'm sorry?"
Arie stammered, plainly thrown.
"When he was unloading the armor earlier, he could not put the strength of his lower body to use. I had certain expectations, hearing he was a blacksmith, but it seems he has trained only his upper body."
"Saying that openly, right in front of me..."
Is this gossip to my face, or behind my back?
"So from now on, each time we meet, I intend to teach him exercises to strengthen his lower body."
Arie let go of her arm as if startled.
"Exercises... that is what you mean, yes?"
"Yes. There is an exercise my father taught me. I was about to explain it earlier, and Mr. Karon stopped my mouth."
I had only cut her off for fear she would say something strange again. All at once I felt sorry.
"Ah, I'm sor—"
"Oh my. How can you stop a woman's mouth while she is speaking?"
Arie cut me off, her voice rising.
Why does she keep doing this?
"Christine. As expected, Mr. Karon would make a poor husband, wouldn't he? In a little while I'll go in and tell Father—"
"No."
For a moment, silence.
"...What?"
"When I return, I intend to tell His Grace that I am in favor."
At that, Arie lurched to her feet, plainly thrown.
"Wh-why on earth? A man who remodels weapons however he pleases, keeps nothing to eat in the house, doesn't even prepare tea, and at best brings buttered potatoes—what exactly is there to like?"
"That is the reason."
And all of this with the man himself sitting right here. What were they even doing?
"What reason?"
"Mr. Karon offered me a potato."
"And the rest?"
"The weapon modifications will have been done because they were necessary, and I make food and tea better than he does. My lady. I was taught that it is a married couple's role to supply what the other lacks."
For an instant Arie's arm trembled, and then she let out a small sigh.
"How interesting..."
Just like that, she turned and looked at me. Her mouth was smiling. Her eyes were not.
"And you, Mr. Karon?"
"...Why are you gritting your teeth?"
"Would you answer me?"
My thoughts were the same as before.
"We agreed to speak of it after the Debutante is over."
The moment I finished, Arie's eyes began to smile.
"Even more interesting, isn't it? Hmm..."
Arie set off toward the smithy ahead of me.
"Mr. Karon. Shall we talk for a moment?"
"What is this abo—"
Crack.
She kicked the signboard planted in front of the smithy, her foot striking exactly where the words were written.
"I would like you to follow. Quickly."
"Y-yes."