A Princess from a Fairy Tale?
I followed Count Garen around to the rear of the manor. Past the lavishly tended garden, a narrow path appeared, one that saw precious few footsteps, and it felt like stepping into a secret wood known only to the master of the house.
I couldn't have said how long we walked. He came to a stop in a small clearing where the sunlight fell full and bright.
"Here, no one will disturb us."
"So what exactly am I supposed to do?"
At my question he gave a shrug, as if the answer were the simplest thing in the world.
"Simple. Make friends with an animal."
Make friends with an animal? How?
He must have read the doubt packed into my eyes, because he lifted a hand: wait. His gaze had barely turned toward the grass when his body shot forward, leaving an afterimage in its wake. The claim that he was a retired knight-commander was no empty boast. For a man in comfortable everyday clothes, the speed was absurd.
Squeak!
What he came back clutching was a gray rabbit the size of a forearm. It thrashed as if begging for its life, but the grip of a veteran of a hundred battles allowed no escape. Count Garen thrust the wriggling creature out in front of me.
"Your first task is to get along with this rabbit."
"...Forget getting along. I think I've just made an enemy for life."
I said it while watching the thing kick hard enough that its eyes looked ready to pop.
"No, more than that—isn't there some special power involved? An ability to commune with animals, something of that sort."
Count Garen snorted.
"Ha! For that, go ask the Tamer Guild. This is the whole of what I know."
In other words, even he was working off surface knowledge.
I sighed and stepped toward the struggling rabbit. If nothing else, I meant to meet its eyes at least once. The moment our gazes locked head-on—
"...Huh?"
Unbelievably, the frantic thrashing stopped dead. Those black eyes, a moment ago flooded with terror, went perfectly round, as if something had bewitched them, and the four kicking legs went slack, every bit of strength drained out of them.
"It took one look at my face and just stopped."
"Damn it... Bewitching the animals, too?"
Count Garen muttered it as if he had nothing left to say. Still half in a daze, I took the rabbit from him. The creature slipped neatly into my arms and squirmed as if it had claimed the spot for good, then tucked its small head against my chest and looked up at me with the most contented expression in the world.
Was this insane face of mine actually some all-purpose cheat code? I'd thought it only worked on people. Turns out it works on beasts, too.
A scene from a fairy tale rose unbidden—princesses singing, and the animals gathering around them. That was me. Right now. Exactly that.
"This little fellow seems to think I'm some sort of plush sanctuary."
"...Enough. Say no more."
And why was this old man getting prickly again?
That was when it happened. A faint heat bloomed along my left forearm. I turned my head, and beneath the sleeve the brand was giving off a pale light. At the same time, information of an entirely different kind drove into my mind—not mere knowledge, but the feeling of an instinct long forgotten waking up.
"You've gained a power?"
"Yes. I've borrowed a power called Leap."
"...Try it."
"Yes, sir."
I focused my awareness on the brand.
The rabbit's power.
Leap
Rabbit's power — borrowed.
In that instant a sensation tore through me, as if the muscles of my thighs and calves were expanding all at once. It felt like someone had bolted a powerful spring through my whole body. I bent my knees, light and easy, and kicked off the ground.
"Whoa!"
The world dropped away beneath my feet in a blink. My vision shot upward until it dizzied me, then fell, and the landscape streaked past like a painting. Twenty feet, easy—I must have cleared that much. I touched down as lightly as a feather, without a sound. There wasn't the slightest impact.
A sharp thrill raised goosebumps over my whole body. I couldn't hide the excitement as I shouted at Count Garen.
"This is incredible!"
He muttered back in a voice that had completely left him, dumbfounded.
"...Insane."
He looked back and forth between me and the rabbit nestled in my arms, like a man witnessing the single most incomprehensible sight in the world.
"What's wrong? Isn't this about normal?"
At that, Count Garen let out a hollow laugh, the air gone out of him.
"Normal? You're calling that normal? In all my life I have never seen, nor even heard of, anyone borrowing the strength of a single rabbit and leaping three stories into the air."
He fell into thought for a moment, then seemed to reach a conclusion. His eyes narrowed.
"If I had to guess, that rabbit in your arms..."
His gaze settled on the creature, fast asleep against me without a care in the world.
"...has fallen into a state of complete submission. Absolute trust and affection toward its master. Cases like this are exceedingly rare."
Hearing the explanation, it was simple enough. The rabbit's affection had maxed out, and I'd unlocked some kind of hidden bonus.
Talk about a lucky break.
I fought down the smile trying to tug at the corner of my mouth. Just then, the way Count Garen was looking at me shifted—past simple surprise, into the look of a craftsman who had just found a rare ore.
"Hmm... Carve this properly, polish it, and something quite serviceable ought to come of it."
"Please don't talk about a person like an object. And kindly put away that experimenting look."
When I snapped back, he paid me no mind and dropped a shocking proposal.
"You. Any interest in being tempered by the knight order?"
"Out of nowhere?"
"The stronger the body, the greater the sum of power one can borrow. Would you refuse the chance to handle greater strength?"
"Hmm..."
It was a tempting offer. Quietly, I ran the numbers. There was nothing particularly bad about it. A greater total of power meant I could borrow that much stronger an ability. Of course, I wouldn't be formally learning a mana cultivation method, so I couldn't become a superhuman the way a real knight could. At the very least, though, the odds of picking a fight on the road and dying a miserable death would go down.
There was one thing I needed to make clear.
"This wouldn't mean... I have to formally join the knight order, would it?"
I had no intention of letting them put a ring through my nose and nail me to a knight order for life. Count Garen seemed to catch my meaning. He shook his head.
"If you meant to learn a mana cultivation method, that would be another matter. For simple physical conditioning, there's no need to enlist."
"Whew. That's a relief."
As I let the sigh out, he studied me with an even stranger look than before.
"You really are a peculiar one."
"Peculiar how?"
"Every man hungers for strength and power. Yet the way I see you, you look like someone desperately trying to avoid both. Is there a reason?"
It was a fairly serious question. I answered without any playfulness.
"I just don't want to be famous."
"Why?"
"Once your name gets out, it's exhausting. The restrictions pile up. Try to have a romance and you have to watch everyone's eyes, and if your luck's rotten a scandal blows up and the whole town hears about it. I can't stand that sort of thing."
And one thing more.
"Above all, catch the wrong noble lord's eye and your head might come clean off over something like an insult charge. Do I look crazy enough to go anywhere near power?"
Hearing my honest answer, Count Garen was silent for a moment. Then he burst out laughing.
"You really are an eccentric."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It isn't one."
Damn.
All at once he looked at me with a seriousness unlike before, and asked.
"So. How long do you intend to remain an attendant at the Imperial Palace?"
It wasn't a simple question. I might have been imagining it, but a sharpness hid inside the words, as if he were sounding me out and testing something. Fumble around and pretend I had ambition here, and I'd only hand him a handle to grab. I made a show of thinking, then answered as honestly as I could.
"If it were up to me, I'd like to last a month and quit, but..."
"But?"
He pressed me for the rest.
"I am Her Highness the Crown Princess's personal attendant, after all. Quit, and who knows what fault they'd find. I plan to read the room and endure for a few months."
Count Garen stared at me. Then he let out a short laugh.
"Heh. Remarkably honest. Which is precisely why I like you all the more."
At that I reflexively took a step back.
"Um, Count. Allow me to say this in advance—I like women."
"...What?"
For an instant his face froze, utterly dumbfounded.
"That was a remark wide open to misunderstanding. I don't have tastes in that direction."
"What in the world is this man saying...! Do not make a shameless sodomite of me! I like women too!"
Count Garen flushed all the way to his ears and snapped back in dead earnest. The sight was so funny I could hardly stand it. He cleared his throat a few times to reset the mood, then went on, brusque.
"The night is already late. Stay at the manor."
"Understood, Count."
I answered without a second's hesitation, and he looked thoroughly exasperated.
"...Do you not know the meaning of declining?"
"I'm a little shameless. I don't refuse a kindness when it's offered."
I answered with a bright smile. Count Garen shook his head as if he'd truly had enough of me and strode off into the manor without another word. Watching his back, a laugh slipped out of me.
What a tsundere old man.
I accepted his kindness with thanks. A short while later a servant appeared to guide me, and I claimed one of the manor's splendid guest rooms and threw myself onto the plush bed. A tiring day, and a deeply satisfying one all the same.
The next morning, the moment I stepped into the dining room a servant led me to, a gasp escaped me on its own. The long table of solid wood was crowded with dishes still sending up curls of steam—sausages browned to a perfect gold, scrambled eggs the color of sunlight, and the nutty scent of bread fresh from the oven stabbing straight at my nose.
Holy shit... This is a noble's breakfast?
Before I knew it, I swallowed hard. Count Garen, already seated, spotted me and jerked his chin at the chair across from him. I was just about to sit when—
"Oh! Hello!"
A clear, bright voice came from somewhere. I turned, and a girl with pink hair was coming toward me. Her eyes were sharp, like Count Garen's, but full of curiosity and mischief. She didn't even wait for an answer. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she dropped into the seat beside me and spoke.
"What's your name, oppa?"
Oppa?
I was still blinking at the sudden form of address when thunder crashed from the far side of the table.
"Luna! What kind of lady plants herself beside an outside man she's only just met! Get away from him this instant!"
Even under Count Garen's roar, the girl named Luna didn't so much as flinch. If anything, she leaned her arm lightly against mine and looked up at me with sparkling eyes.
"Tell me your name."
Under that persistent gaze, I surrendered first.
"Ethan."
"Ethan! Wow, even your name is wonderful!"
It's just an alias I made up.
I was muttering that inwardly when a ticklish sensation kept brushing my shoulder. This young lady was pretending to talk while sneakily touching me the whole time. When I stared, Luna turned her head a little, as if she were the one who ought to be embarrassed, and smiled.
That was the exact moment Count Garen shot up from his chair and strode over. He seized his daughter by the scruff, peeled her off me, and growled, thoroughly displeased.
"...First, we eat."
And so breakfast began in a murderous atmosphere. Not murderous for me, of course. I savored the food set before me and, for the first time in a while, ate my fill.
When the meal was over, I glanced at the clock on the wall.
Nine-ten, is it?
The Chief Chamberlain had told me to report by eleven, so I still had time to spare. I was about to rise when someone seized my arm.
"Ah—my lady?"
"Hehe."
Luna had locked her arm tight through mine and was smiling as if shy.
Pink hair really is a science... Honestly, she was mischief incarnate.
"Luna!"
"Tch."
At another bellow from Count Garen, Luna clicked her tongue in regret and unwound her arm. Then she looked at my face and smiled brightly.
"See you later, Ethan-oppa!"
With that, she pattered out of the dining room. How to put it—a truly free-spirited soul. Once she was gone, Count Garen warned me in a voice thick with killing intent.
The pressure in his voice sent a cold sweat down my spine. I laughed awkwardly and nodded at once.
"Ha, haha... Of course. I have no intention of approaching her."
I said that first, then added a very important point.
"But, Count—if your daughter approaches me first... what am I supposed to do then?"
This one I absolutely had to pin down. I was a powerless commoner, and she was the young lady of a count's house. She came on that aggressively; I could hardly shove her away coldly. At my request for practical advice, Count Garen seemed at a loss for words, his mouth opening and closing. Then his face went scarlet and he shouted.
"Figure that out yourself!"
With that, he huffed and ordered a servant to escort me out of the manor at once.
Ha... This is why fathers who worship their daughters are terrifying.
A dry laugh escaped me as I was all but chased from the estate. Still, Count Garen's warning had been sincere. From now on, I would keep Lady Luna as far away as possible. Otherwise my personal safety really might be in danger, and that much I had understood with perfect clarity.
Well then. About time I headed in to work.