Finishing Up the First Day in the Capital
Finishing Up the First Day in the Capital
I sank into a bathtub filled with warm water.
Kicking my feet gently beneath the surface, I began sorting through my thoughts.
About Kir, whom I'd met for the first time today.
'...Ultimately, the engagement didn't get broken.'
More precisely, about my engagement to Kir.
At first, I'd planned to make her hate me by spouting all kinds of nasty remarks, but she'd been reluctant about the engagement too, so that hadn't been necessary.
After learning that she was in the same boat as me and our thinking aligned, I'd pestered Mom and the Duchess to call it off... but that didn't work out. Hmm.
"Nggggggh...."
-Yune. What is the matter?
"Nothing!"
The moment I let out a groan from sheer frustration, my mother's voice came through the door at once.
My chest only felt tighter.
"No matter how I look at it, aren't you being too overprotective? It's not like someone's about to storm the place right now."
-Yune. This is for your safety.
Back when she'd declared she'd stay by my side in the capital and protect me, I'd thought it was just something people said. But my mother really was carrying out that declaration to the letter.
As she stood guard outside the door with her ki sense spread wide while I bathed, I sighed despite myself.
I knew she'd started being overprotective after that incident with the Solar Fire Carp's Inner Core, but I hadn't expected it to be to this degree.
"...Anyway. When are you going to wash, Mom? You can't protect me while you're bathing, can you? Are you just not going to wash?"
-When that time comes, I will entrust your guard to Charlotte. Your eldest sister surely possesses the skill to protect someone like you.
"Why go so far...."
-Because you are a precious existence. Incomparable to any treasure in the world. Besides, we still haven't captured the mastermind behind the attempt on your life. I must take every precaution.
Perhaps sensing something in my comment about overprotectiveness, my mother's voice had grown even more serious.
So much so that I felt a sense of mission radiating from her, a determination to protect me no matter what.
'...I appreciate Mom thinking of me, but isn't that way too stiff?'
A mischievous impulse struck me, and I decided to toss a joke her way to loosen up the rigid atmosphere.
"Instead of that, want to bathe together?"
-...!?
"If we just bathed together, you wouldn't have to bother Sis Charl, right? The tub is really spacious too. And, y'know, I might want to try bathing with you?"
Of course, knowing my mother's character, there was no way she'd actually come in. And no matter how I look at it, baring everything down to the groin in front of family is embarrassing, even for me. The "let's bathe together" was, literally, a joke.
Whether she caught the playfulness in my voice, my mother soon answered with a sigh.
-It is wrong to tease your elders, Yune.
"Tch. Fine."
-Honestly. At this rate, you're going to get a real scolding one of these days....
She sounded like she was lamenting.
Even so, I could tell that her voice, which had been stiff beyond belief just moments before, had loosened considerably. Pleased by that, I smiled to myself.
'Mom, really. She's making a big deal out of nothing. We're in the Imperial Capital; weird things aren't going to happen here.'
* * * * * *
After I finished washing, I came out changed into my usual short-sleeved shirt and shorts.
"Young master. We are not at the estate, so such attire is..."
"Ah, Chloe. Thanks."
And as if she'd expected me to come out dressed like this, Chloe approached right away and handed me a cloak.
I didn't refuse and draped it over my shoulders. What Duchess Schmut had said earlier about "not having the proper mindset as a noble" had been nagging at me.
But the cloak was more comfortable than I'd thought. It wasn't stuffy, and I rather liked it because it made me feel like a mage. Well, I am a mage, after all.
'If I just had a pointed hat and a staff here, I might look like a total archmage... Huh?'
-Clink.
As I was happily flapping the hem of the cloak, I felt something hard inside.
While I fumbled around to figure out what it was, Chloe shot me a wink, keeping it a secret from Mom.
Only then did I realize what this was.
'Ah. This must be that thing I asked her to buy from the Everything General Store.'
I'd told her to pass it to me discreetly, and it seemed she'd slipped it into an inside pocket of the cloak. Impressed by Chloe's tact, I grinned.
"What are you grinning about, Yune?"
"Nothing. Wearing the cloak makes me feel like a mage."
"You are a proper mage."
"That's true. Hehe."
After smoothly making that excuse, I gripped the object inside the cloak pocket tightly.
'This... I'll give these out as presents to the people around me after the Founding Festival is over.'
* * * * * *
After that, Mom and I had a meal together with my three sisters, who had somehow found their way to the lodging without issue.
The main dish was Schweinshaxe—a festival food, pork knuckle roasted to a golden crisp. Seeing the hearty meat roasted on the bone made it truly sink in that the Founding Festival was near.
-Munch munch.
"Chloe, when do you eat?"
"After the young master's meal has concluded. I believe I will eat with the members of the merchant company."
"You must be hungry. ...Here! Say aah!"
"...!?"
Feeling sorry that Chloe, my steward, hadn't eaten dinner and was attending to me, I speared a piece of meat with my fork and offered it to her.
There was a bit of a commotion as the people around us grew alarmed and scolded me, telling me I shouldn't do such a thing, but...
Anyway, the meal came to an end after that series of twists and turns.
Afterward, I played chess with Nibuer, bounced around on the bed in the room Charl would be staying in until she pulled my cheek...
As I messed around here and there, it had grown dark outside before I knew it. It was time for bed.
"So... Chloe, you sleep in this room."
"Here, you say? I believe this room is far too fine for a servant such as myself to use alone..."
"It was originally my room, but I have to sleep with Mom. Just use it."
"You mean you will sleep with Her Grace? In the same bed?"
"Yeah."
"...Good heavens."
I gave the room assigned to me to Chloe.
At the mention that I'd be sleeping with Mom, Chloe's eyes grew as wide as lanterns.
...Even if this is an empire with a saying akin to boys and girls not sitting together after seven, I figured sleeping with your mom at age ten was pretty normal. Why is she so shocked?
"Then, Yune. Shall we go to sleep now?"
"Yes. Maybe I'm tired from all that dancing? I'm already a little sleepy."
"Dancing?"
"Ah. With Kir, today."
After that, I headed to the bedroom with Mom, who had been glued to my side the whole time.
I thought I felt Chloe's gaze, filled with some desperate emotion, boring into my back, but it was probably just my imagination.
"Wow, looks like she really is going to sleep with our little brother. Mother."
"No matter what, shouldn't we stop that...? What will the merchant company servants think if they see?"
"I've already set up a protective ward to prevent anyone from coming up to the second floor, but it is still worrying. Mar, why don't you say something?"
"Charl, you're the eldest, so you should be the one to talk to her. Why are you pushing that onto me?"
And from behind me, I could hear the three sisters whispering among themselves as they watched us. I desperately pretended not to hear, though.
'Is sleeping with your mom really that weird...?'
* * * * * *
My mother's bedroom was twice as spacious as my room, and the view was incredible.
The artifacts she'd prepared in advance were giving off mysterious glows from every corner of the room, making the scenery doubly mystical.
"Wow...."
"Yune, you may take off the cloak now."
"Okay."
I took the cloak off, hung it in a corner, and turned back around.
"Lie down, Yune."
I saw that she was already in her undergarments. Wait, how did she change so fast?
I was dumbfounded for a second by her unbelievable changing speed, but I didn't bother asking and just lay down on the bed. Because it wasn't just today or yesterday that my mother was extraordinary.
"Don't we need to close the window?"
"Hmm. I left it open because it was warm. Are you cold?"
"No. I like the cool air too, but I was wondering if people could see in from outside."
"It's fine. The artifact's effect will prevent anything from being visible from the outside."
'Mom really came prepared....'
Chatting idly like that for a moment, I lay with her and looked out at the scenery beyond.
The Imperial Capital, seen for the first time. That fantastical nightscape.
My eyes filled with stars.
"The Imperial Capital is really dazzling. So different from the North."
"Indeed. I find it too crowded, so I don't much like it."
We began to talk animatedly, comparing the capital and the North.
In the middle of that, I suddenly found myself muttering.
"After being practically shut inside the estate every day, getting to come out like this is really wonderful."
"...."
At my words, she suddenly fell silent.
Realizing I'd put my foot in my mouth, I waved my hands.
"No, I didn't mean I was shut in! You were protecting me. It's not that I hated it."
"Yune."
Despite my attempts to remedy the situation, my mother's voice had grown incredibly low. Just like it had been at the bathtub.
She turned onto her side and looked at me with serious eyes.
The stars that had filled my eyes moments ago vanished, replaced by her pretty, sparkling eyes. And within them, I saw a flickering worry reflected back at me.
"This was something I started to say earlier, but stopped. Do you feel as though I am overprotective of you?"
"...To be honest, yes."
"I see. It's inevitable that you'd feel that way."
She stroked my head. Then, she pulled me into a deep embrace against her chest.
"But I want you to know this one thing, at least. It is absolutely not overprotectiveness. The truth is that you are an existence a hundred times, a thousand times more precious than you think you are."
My head was buried deep against her chest. Her unique, soft scent filled my nose, and the sound of her heartbeat tickled my ears.
I could feel her love for me so clearly in that gentle voice.
So I nodded silently.
"Okay."
"Thank you for understanding."
Even if her overprotectiveness felt a little stifling, this was proof that she thought of me more than anyone else.
I decided to accept this as another form of my mother's love.
If this protection continued for my whole life, that would be a problem... but in any case, once it was time for me to enter the Academy, I'd have no choice but to leave her embrace. So I just had to put up with it until then.
"Oh, right. So, about Sir Max and the schedule tomorrow...."
"Oh-ho."
After that, wanting to loosen the rigid mood again, I began chattering to her about this and that. Tomorrow's schedule, what I would do at the ball that would serve as my debut, and so on.
"Come to think of it, Mom. The others seemed to think it was a bit strange that you and I are sleeping together. Is a ten-year-old not supposed to sleep with his mom...?"
"...Not yet. It should be fine for now. Probably."
And also the question that had been bothering me since earlier: whether it was really that strange for a ten-year-old to sleep with his mom.
As I kept babbling like that for a while, drowsiness gradually crept up on me.
"Sleep well, Yune. I love you."
"I... love you t... too......."
At some point, cradled in my mother's arms, I slipped into a happy sleep.
* * * * * *
The second day in the Imperial Capital flew by at lightning speed. Sir Max came, saying he'd look after me one last time, and I spent the time practicing dancing with my sisters nonstop, so time passed quickly.
Another day rolled by just like that, uneventfully. After spending one more night with Mom.
On the third day since arriving in the capital. The day of the Founding Festival dawned.