As Tutor to the Grand Ducal House (1)
Creeak—
Only a few steps remained to the door of the second-floor study when Miguel paused and turned back to me.
"Mm... Is something the matter?"
"Miss Kana, I say this only out of worry, before you are presented to the young master. I would beg you not to let a single word of his wound you too deeply. His tongue may be sharp, but he is an upright boy at heart."
"Oh, if that's all it is, I'm perfectly fine. A few words aren't going to hurt me badly enough to break my resolve. If they could, I wouldn't be fit to work here as a tutor in the first place."
It was the truth. Of everything I could do without anyone knowing, this post was the one that best secured my own safety, and if I meant to carry it out perfectly, I could endure any words and any attack. A will frail enough to snap over so little would already have crumbled the moment I opened my eyes in this place and understood that I was fated to die. Perhaps I was only deceiving myself—thrashing at the very brink of collapse and mistaking the struggle for strength. Even so, I had not stepped into this role with a light heart.
"Then... all this old man can do is trust you."
Knock, knock.
With that, Miguel rapped lightly on the door of the reception room.
"Head Butler Hart Miguel, Your Grace. Might you be within?"
"Ah, the head butler. Come in."
Creeeak—
At the Grand Duke's voice Miguel opened the door, and I saw them again: the blue-eyed Grand Duke, and with him the young boy with green eyes—Aiden.
"I have come to present Miss Kana to the young master. He is always here once his sword lessons are finished, you see."
"Ah, so that is the reason. If that is your errand, you are more than welcome. I was just telling my son that I had found him a tutor."
I steadied my breath and quietly leaned past the doorframe, taking the room in once more. Antique wooden furniture stood exactly where it was needed, arranged for efficiency rather than show, and a small wall clock hung in the reception room. In the seat of honor Caid sat writing across a sheaf of documents, and beside him Aiden stared straight at me. I held the sight in both eyes, then stepped slowly out before the door.
"Hello. I'm Kana de Glacia. I've come to serve as tutor. I hope you'll look kindly on me."
"...Father, that person is the tutor?"
"Yes. I cannot say how you will take it, but having spoken with her, I judged her a rather gentle person, and so I chose her. Do not be too displeased."
At Caid's words Aiden's expression shifted, subtly. He hardly looked pleased, and yet he seemed to know he could not overturn his father's decision.
"...I'd like to speak with him for a moment, if that's all right. Since this is our first proper meeting, I hoped to leave as good a first impression as I could—but that isn't possible if we don't talk at all."
"Hm. I do not think it a bad suggestion. What do you say, my son?"
"...If it is only a conversation, that is perfectly fine."
With that small assent, Caid rose at once.
"Son, shall we go to your room? Or would the study I had simply prepared serve better?"
Aiden hesitated at his father's question, then seemed to decide and looked up at him.
"My room would be better. The soundproofing is far superior, and at the very least it is furnished with the means for me to protect myself—a call bell, and the like."
"Ahaha... Am I trusted so little as that...?"
"On a first meeting, isn't suspicion wiser than trusting like a fool who doesn't know any better?"
The sharp remark was not wrong, so I could only nod, a little abashed. Even so, the edge in it was plain, and I found myself hoping that sharpness would someday be set aside. I was also rather troubled over what I ought to say, and how we ought to speak, if Aiden was ever to grow into the shape I hoped for. For him to change in the direction I thought ideal would take no small amount of time and effort, and it was hardly certain he would change that way at all. Quietly, I rose.
"Then... I'll go and talk with him for a little while."
Caid seemed to find nothing amiss in that and nodded. Aiden only watched me in silence. He was nine years old at most, and yet a child who could wear a look like that already told me the road I meant to walk would not be an easy one. I watched him move, offered a light bow of my own, and followed.
Click—
The door eased shut, and Aiden turned those characteristically sharp eyes on me. The Aiden of the original story, whose nature had been remarkably gentle, was later praised for a charming imbalance—looks keen and swift, set against a temperament that was not. Seeing him now, with nothing friendly in his manner toward me, that already sharp face felt colder still.
"Hah... First, I would like to ask what it is you are after, approaching me like this."
"It isn't that I'm after anything. I simply hoped you might grow kinder, and that is the only reason I came here to serve as your tutor."
"...Do not lie. You know better than anyone that it will not work, trying to hide an intention that is already plain in your eyes."
His suspicion seemed planted deep. I quietly took a chair and looked at him. Whatever I said, I would look suspect in his eyes just now. At that earlier meeting, too, from his point of view I had shown him goodwill for no reason at all, and the shape of that goodwill had been a promise not to tell the guards where he had gone. In the end I never met the guards afterward, so the whole exchange had amounted to nothing. Even so, Aiden, who did not know that, had every cause to find me deeply suspicious. I understood as much.
"Mm... Then could you at least tell me what I would have to do for you to believe me? Whatever I say, you're going to dismiss it as sophistry anyway."
"...No matter what you do, I will not trust you. Of course, now that you have come to this mansion as my tutor, I will respect your lessons and the manner in which you teach."
"Even that much, I'm grateful for. The faces we showed each other at first meeting weren't particularly good ones, and I imagine this may be quite uncomfortable for you."
However sharply he had spoken, what Aiden showed now was hardly childish. He had taken a step back and was acknowledging both their positions. So I only returned a thanks to match, and smiled.
"But if you deceived my father, slipped in while pretending to be pure, and then turned your eyes toward my mother's place..."
"I—I have no such thought. None at all! I truly haven't the slightest interest in His Grace!"
I waved my hands as I said it, and it was Aiden who looked startled. I had been speaking calmly all the while, and the moment the Grand Duke entered the conversation I had denied it with sudden force.
"...My father is not so bad a man as that. For you to react in such a way seems a little strange."
"Mm... Since you suspect me so much, I'll speak plainly. First: I did not come here because I wanted a connection with His Grace, or anything in that direction. Absolutely not."
I watched Aiden nod, then went on. For now, clearing the misunderstanding and coming to understand each other's positions had to come first.
"Second: it is entirely true that I came here to carry out the post of tutor. The reason is that, a few days ago, in the way you showed yourself to me, I felt a little danger."
"...Danger? What do you mean by that?"
Aiden stared as if he could not make sense of my words at all, but he said nothing more, as though he meant to hear me out. Slowly, I opened my mouth.
"Caid Calinix, the present Grand Duke of Kartz, is a man who renders keen judgment exactly where it is needed, and who is nevertheless gentle with the people around him and with the folk of his domain. I hoped that side of him would continue."
"And what connection does that have with your becoming a tutor?"
At his question I smiled and quietly laid a finger against my lips.
"Someday, once you've sat through my lessons and gone on living your days—once time has passed that way—I think you'll come to understand naturally. That part, at least."
He listened and went blank for a moment. Then, perhaps a little ashamed that I had touched something he did not know, or startled that he himself had missed it—only he could have said which—he flushed and drew back from me.
"...B-be quiet, and go finish hearing from Father what you are supposed to do. Please leave my room now."
"Mm... Am I being shown the door? Understood, Young Master."
I had come to this mansion as a tutor. I had no intention of putting him in a difficult spot.
"...And you may call me by my name, so do not address me in a way that is uncomfortable."
His voice reached me just as I opened the door to step out. I gave him a small smile and quietly left.