The Northern Kartz Principality (3)
"So what brings a young lady like you out here at this hour?"
"Ah, the snowfield was unusually quiet today, so I wandered around collecting crystals and the like and lost track of time."
At my answer, the people around us began to murmur.
"The snowfield? That dangerous place even the guard hardly sets foot in, and you went there alone?"
"Uh... yes? It was especially still today. Not so much as an ant—perfectly quiet."
The adventurers' murmuring grew a little louder.
"Hold on. If the snowfield's gone quiet, doesn't that mean a Monster Wave might be about to come crashing down?"
"Oh, come on. It's barely been two weeks since the last wave. You think another one's due already?"
"You're making a fuss over nothing, friend. You think those monsters multiply without end? They'll want time to build their strength and get ready, same as anyone."
Of course, they were only airing their own thoughts about why the snowfield was quiet, each in his own way. It never swelled into anything serious—just one more scrap of talk to pass around.
"Ahaha... Still, it never hurts to be careful, so everyone watch yourselves."
It wasn't as if some overwhelming presence had appeared on the snowfield and driven the monsters to hide by instinct, and I hadn't sensed any such being stirring either. If there had been, I would have been the first to know—no one else—so the whole assumption was meaningless. And even if a second Monster Wave did break out, my mind was still sound enough that I would never simply sweep away the places where humans lived.
"Well, fair enough. Let's hope it's nothing, just like the young lady says. Besides, the lord of the north is still alive and well."
"That he is. Order inside the territory's kept pretty well, and how many places even give adventurers like us somewhere livable?"
House Calinix of the north was a house of considerable renown, and they looked after their people well enough that their reputation seemed quite good—all the more so when one remembered the talk of discontent boiling over against the lords of certain marquisates and borderlands.
"By the way, do you happen to have a calendar?"
I studied the fish fillet and stew set carefully before me, asked the question, and lifted a spoonful of stew to my mouth. The deep, well-steeped aroma of beef met the tomato's own gentle sweetness, and the two together made a remarkably fine flavor. The pieces in the bowl were generous, too—several sizable chunks of meat, potato, and onion besides. Carrots weren't especially to my taste, but in an age like this, who was I to complain about a serving so hearty? I kept any dissatisfaction to myself. A single bowl for only ten silver, with this much meat in it—it was fair to call that quite a bargain.
"A calendar? What do you need a calendar for? The new year's exactly two weeks old. Weren't you here for the New Year's festival?"
"Now that you mention it, nobody misses the New Year's festival, but I don't think I saw anyone like you there."
I offered the people eyeing me an awkward smile. Two weeks ago I had still been looking at this world in the form of a game, and my thoughts spun quickly over how best to excuse myself.
"Uh... th-that's because I was tied up with something else for a while, so I didn't even know the festival was happening...?"
"I don't know what kind of work you do, young lady, but there are folks who get buried in it like that now and then."
"Right, it happens. This year it's the fifteenth of January, Imperial Year 1417. But does the date matter?"
"Ah, it's just... there's something I have to time properly."
I smiled through the vague answer and bit into the fried fish fillet—the thing they called a fish cutlet.
"Mmm...!"
It wasn't greasy at all. The crisp bite and savory taste of a batter just the right thickness pleased me immensely.
"You don't look the type, young lady, but you sure eat with gusto."
"...Ah?"
I must have made a sound without realizing it, lost in the food, and hearing them say so sent a flush of embarrassment rising in me for no good reason.
"A-ahem... Well, it's tasty, that's all...?"
Set beside modern cooking, one might wonder how good it could possibly be—but having eaten both, I found it truly better than I had expected. Enough that, had I nothing but leisure, I might have wanted to scrape by on meals here and live out a peaceful life in this world.
Anyway, if this was 1417... roughly nine years before White Snow's Guardian Knight began. In other words, about two years before Aiden Calinix entered the academy, around the time he would be ten or so. Which meant that if I stayed, I might see a side of Aiden's childhood the game's makers had never once shown.
Aiden's childhood...
I couldn't picture it, and that only made me more curious. I found myself wanting very much to see it with my own eyes.
"Asking the time like that—are you interested in the post of private tutor to the young master of House Calinix?"
"...A tutor's post? No, this is the first I've heard of it. They're looking for a tutor? And... at the grand ducal house?"
At my question, the man who had asked me looked even more puzzled.
"You said you had something where the timing mattered, and I thought this was exactly the sort of work that would suit someone like you. Seems I guessed wrong."
"Hmm... I'm getting interested. Could I hear what it's about?"
Even if I failed to become the tutor, I wanted to see the young Aiden at least once, and the notion drew me in. There was no harm in trying—and more than anything, this was a chance to build a rapport with Aiden ahead of time. I would have to approach him while thoroughly hiding the truth that I was Mircania, guardian dragon of the north, but the role of tutor gave me a perfectly workable pretext. If a tutor suddenly announced that she was a dragon, the shock would be obvious.
"Word is the grand duke's son is more of a troublemaker than you'd think. Not so much that he causes a great many accidents—more that he's so full of energy he gives His Grace a bit of a headache."
"Ahaha... Well, that's just how it goes, isn't it? He isn't that old yet."
"You don't look all that old yourself, young lady, and yet you talk as if you've got quite a few years on you."
At the man's words I only smiled awkwardly and nodded.
"How old do I look to you?"
"Let's see. You've the feel of someone who's just turned twenty. Am I wrong?"
"Ahaha..."
In truth the person inside was about twenty-three, and the body that showed on the outside was a dragon's, one that had lived a good two hundred years—something I could absolutely never say. I only laughed it off in silence.
"Haha, see? I hit it right on the mark."
If I simply laughed it off, it would pass naturally enough. Before I knew it I had emptied the stew. I popped the last of the fish fillet into my mouth, then forked up a bite of the oven chicken, served already carved from the bone. The clean spread of charcoal aroma and the crisp bite of the skin harmonized so well that I wanted to order a beer on the spot... but I was about to go enjoy a hot-spring bath, and a certain worry made me swallow the urge. A dragon's body, it seemed, was not so different from a human's. Fortunately, I could rein the impulse in with ease.
"Um... then does the grand ducal house have any particular requirements for people who want to be the tutor?"
"Requirements? They're written out to some extent in the official notice. Let's see... It says it doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman, but it doesn't look like the sort of post a man would apply for."
"Ah... and besides that?"
"Hm? Besides that... room and board are provided by the house, and they say it's enough to teach etiquette, a bit of formal manners, and simple studies. Interested?"
"...Well, since I'm a woman any— ah, no, never mind. I got confused. If that's all it is, I am a little interested."
Right—the body I had now was a woman's, so I met those requirements well enough. And since a tutor was ordinarily a woman, it wouldn't even feel strange.
"The interview's in five days, so prepare well. I'll cheer you on as much as you like."
"Ahaha... Thank you. Then I should be going."
The meal was finished, and I had heard as much as was worth hearing. The harvest had been fairly good. All in all, it hadn't been a bad use of time.
Just as I rose to leave, the clatter of the guard detail entering the guild tavern stopped me, and I turned to look at them. I wasn't the only one startled. Everyone halted mid-motion and mid-sentence and turned to stare.
"Excuse me—has the young master been here?"
"The young master?"
"Guards, has something happened?"
When one of the receptionists asked with a smile, the man at the head of the detail answered quietly.
"The young master left only a note saying he was going for a night walk, and slipped out of the castle in secret. We've come out to look for him."
"Hmm... He hasn't come here yet. If we happen to find him, we'll report to the guard at once."
"No reason the young master would come to a place like this. Nothing but bearded old men around."
"Ahaha...?"
I was only letting out an awkward laugh when one of the guards started toward me.
"Excuse me... you haven't seen the young master, have you? Silver hair, green eyes, and very distinct features."
"...Hmm... Green eyes—I don't think I've ever seen anyone like that."
Distinct features. What a hopelessly vague description. I shook my head. Unfortunately, of everyone in this room, the person who most wanted to meet Aiden was none other than me.
"I see. Doesn't seem to be here. Let's try somewhere else."
I watched the guards disappear with those words, then quietly left the tavern myself. I had just been thinking it was about time for that hot-spring bath, so I ought to go and claim the thing I had been looking forward to.