A Dragon Tutor? (1)
"Haa..."
Quietly, I dabbed a touch of the perfume I had bought at the general goods shop onto my wrist and set my hair in order.
I had not thought the hour could already have grown so late, and yet the day of the tutor interview had drawn up before my eyes before I knew it. The arrangement had struck me as rather peculiar, but when I considered that the Grand Duke Caid Calinix of the original conducted his affairs along a single line — swift, and efficient — the strangeness was not so hard to understand.
The notice had clearly stated that interviews would be held from one in the afternoon today, so if I made my way to the grand ducal house at an easy pace, I would not be late. What set it apart from a modern job posting was the complete absence of the usual particulars: when an acceptance would be sent, when one would be expected to begin, what the wages might come to. Not one of those details had been written down, and for a moment I wondered whether the whole thing might be a swindle. Still, the people I had seen in the tavern on the guild's first floor had not looked like the sort to lie, and so I set off at a walk toward the grand ducal residence.
"Mmm... I did study etiquette and deportment to some extent... but I'm nervous all the same..."
When I arrived at a leisurely pace before the gardens of the residence, the guards keeping the entrance came into view.
"Halt, if you please. What business brings you here?"
"Oh, nothing else. The notice said the tutor interviews would begin today, so I came hoping to be interviewed... Should I have sent a letter ahead?"
"No. Please wait a moment. You there — go and tell His Grace there's someone who wishes to interview, won't you?"
"Right. Wait here a moment."
After that brief exchange, one of the guards turned and went in toward the residence. I watched him go for a little while, then quietly looked away. If these men were keeping the front of the grand ducal house, they would surely have seen any other applicants as well. So I put the question, lightly, to the guard still standing before me.
"Were there any applicants besides me? It's the young master's tutor post, so I was thinking quite a few people would come from all over."
"Hard to say. No one has come yet, so you would be the first."
"...Is that so? How unexpected. I thought a post like this would draw people from everywhere to interview."
Come to think of it, they had only put the notice up quietly. Perhaps they had never meant for word of it to travel beyond Kartz. The truth of that would be better heard from the grand duke's own mouth, but for the moment, the news that I was the only one sat strangely with me. Why were there so few applicants? No particular reason came to mind.
Well... being the only one just makes me more nervous. If I fail, that means I'm lacking to that degree...
I was still turning it over with an awkward smile when a guard who had returned from the residence beckoned me over.
"Please follow me straight this way. His Grace instructed me to guide you."
"Ah, yes. I understand."
At the offer of an escort I gave a small nod and quietly set off. Looking around, I saw a flower garden thick with roses and a scatter of other blooms, and a groundskeeper tending the grass. Trees swayed at their ease in the breeze, and the whole of it felt unhurried. There was an awkwardness to it, as if I alone were strangely out of place in a setting like this — and yet I, too, was someone living in this world now.
"Go straight this way and follow the garden path, and you'll come to it before long. If your legs begin to ache, please bear with it just a little."
"Ahaha... this much is nothing. You really don't need to worry."
I had briefly wondered whether I ought to show at least a hint of strain, but I was not tired in the least, and the thought of lying for no reason pricked my conscience, so I told him I was fine. A dragon's body seemed to keep its peculiar stamina and hardiness even after Polymorph. No — was stamina even the right word for it? What mattered, in any case, was that I did not feel particularly tired. The way to the residence was neither especially short nor long; after some seven minutes of walking, the path leading inside came into view.
"Go in from here and you'll find the annex reception room. His Grace will be waiting inside."
"Ah, yes. Thank you for guiding me."
I inclined my head lightly, and the guard returned a small bow before turning back to keep the garden entrance. I watched his retreating back, steadied my breath, and quietly knocked on the door of the annex reception room.
Knock, knock.
The light tap against the wooden door was answered by the scrape of a chair from within, and before long the door opened. There in the doorway stood the Northern Grand Duke, Caid Calinix.
"Please, come in. You have come for the tutor interview, have you not?"
I had already seen him as an NPC in the game, but seeing him in person was another matter entirely, and I took his appearance in slowly. Closer still to youth than to middle age — about thirty-five — he looked considerably young, far younger than he had in the game. The face, the silver hair, and those distinctive blue eyes made it plain enough where Aiden's looks had come from. Aiden's eyes were an emerald green; Caid's, by contrast, were a clear, piercing blue.
"Ah, yes. That's right. Then, excuse me."
I offered a light bow and quietly entered the reception room, taking the seat across from him.
"Hmm... Do you care for tea?"
"Yes. I'm not particular."
Even before I had opened my eyes in this place again, brewing and drinking black tea had been a hobby of mine. Tea was one of the things I liked, and that, surely, had not changed.
"Miguel, have two cups of tea brought. She says any sort will do, so let it be something unlikely to divide opinion."
"Yes. I shall have it ready at once."
Hart Miguel — head butler of the mansion, and a gentleman of impeccably neat style — nodded and withdrew to brew the tea. Once it was plain that the two of us were alone, Caid quietly put a question to me.
"Then let me begin with your name."
I had thought we might ease into things until the tea arrived, and only then go on with the conversation over a sip or two. This felt hastier than I had expected. Just as I had thought: Caid was showing, plainly enough, that he was not particularly adept at conversation, or at people. He was almost certainly a good man, and his nature itself was deeply kind, but he was someone marked by a peculiar want of expression. It was a trait I could see clear as day — not only in the game, but now, when that game had become reality.
But a name. I could hardly give him Mircania, so I turned my thoughts over as hard as I could and produced something plausible.
"Kana. My name is Kana de Glacia."
"Kana... Yes. Miss Kana. And your age?"
"Twenty-one... I am."
Before I came here, when I had still been Harang, I had been twenty-three, and saying a little less than that age left me oddly self-conscious for no good reason. Caid, though, seemed to read my hesitation as something else. He smiled and spoke again.
"At twenty-one you might pursue any number of other callings. Why become a tutor at so young an age?"
"Of the things I can do at once... this seemed the most worthwhile."
"Hmm... Then, setting aside the etiquette and deportment we specified in the notice, what else are you able to do, Miss Kana?"
"...If cooking should be required, I can cook. And simple counseling — psychological counsel — I can offer that as well, as much as might be needed."
The knowledge from the path I had studied, and meant to follow, in my former life still remained with me, so it was well within my reach. All the more so if the work before me amounted to looking after a boy of only nine.
"Hmm... Do you happen to know why we are seeking to hire a tutor?"
I considered the question a moment, then shook my head. However fond I had been of Icarus Chronicle, however much more attention I had given it than any other game, I could not remember details so small. And now that this place had become real, I had no wish to deceive the people living that reality beside me.
"No. I don't know the precise reason. But I came to this interview because I, too, hope to serve the grand ducal house as a tutor, so I can't say I'm without questions on that point."
As I finished, Miguel came quietly in, set down a plate of cookies and two cups of tea, and just as quietly withdrew from the reception room. It was courtesy, I supposed — a wish not to intrude upon the conversation.
"...Then this may take a little while. Will that be all right?"
"Yes. That's quite all right."
At my assent, Caid nodded, took a careful sip of his tea, and set the cup down. I only went on waiting, watching him quietly through my nerves, wondering what story was about to unfold.