A Festival Outing
Before we left, I checked my clothes. I'd meant to throw on something casual, the way I always did—but for some reason Emma and Sister Mary decided to interfere.
"Julian, I've been thinking this for a while, but don't you dress a little too carelessly?"
"What's wrong with that?"
Clothes were supposed to be comfortable, weren't they? I wasn't a girl. There was no reason for me to put in the labor of dressing up.
Ah. Right. I was in a girl's body, at least for now.
"You look too much like a boy."
"W-what?"
"I said you look like a boy."
That stung a little. My height was nowhere near a grown man's, and I was in a woman's body besides… not that my chest had any presence to speak of.
So how did I look, then, dressed in men's clothes?
"D-do I really look that much like a kid?"
Sister Mary couldn't quite meet my eyes.
"Uh… Emma?"
"Yeah. Like a little kid."
Ugh! The blow landed harder than I expected. On any other day I wouldn't have cared. If it had just been Emma, I definitely wouldn't have cared.
But now? Sister Mary was right there, and Maximilian was coming with us. That made it harder to shrug off.
"I-is it really that bad?"
"Which is why you should put on something proper."
Sister Mary rummaged through my bag and let out a long sigh.
"As I thought. Nothing usable in here."
"Ahaha…"
Everything in my bag was pants and free-cut clothes that didn't care about gender. I still thought of myself as a man, so even if I could stomach the underthings, I had no intention of putting on a skirt.
I'd worn a nun's habit at the temple, of course—but that had been unavoidable.
"We'll have to put you in my clothes, or Emma's."
"D-do we really have to? If there's nothing, I can just wear pants…"
I didn't want to look like a little boy, but that didn't mean I had to force myself into a skirt, did it?
"Mine'll fit better."
Sister Mary was so tall that hemming anything of hers would have been a nightmare. Emma was smaller, at least… though she still cleared a hundred and sixty centimeters, so the difference wasn't huge.
"This'll do."
Before I knew it, Emma had pulled out one of her own skirts and was shortening the hem with a needle. Wait—where had she even gotten a sewing kit?
"Um…"
Saying I simply wouldn't wear it felt impossible under the force of their combined will.
"Excellent work."
I never would have guessed someone who seemed so rough around the edges had a delicate side like that. We were family, and somehow I'd never really seen her.
"Here."
I stared blankly at the skirt Emma held out. I was supposed to put this on?
"You're not going to wear it?"
"A s-skirt is a bit…"
"Are you worried it won't suit you?"
Well…
I had no idea how Sister Mary always managed to read me so cleanly. A man wearing a skirt was weird, wasn't it?
"You needn't worry."
"Nngh…"
I couldn't win against the two of them. They dressed me by force.
"I-I can put it on myself…!"
"You need to be properly put together."
Why did I need to be put together at all?! Caught between Emma and Sister Mary, my clothes and hair were arranged whether I liked it or not.
"It suits you wonderfully."
"D-does it?"
There was no mirror, so I couldn't check for myself.
"We're just going to watch a play. Do we really need to go this far?"
"You ought to consider a gentleman's pride as well."
A gentleman's?
"What do you mean?"
"Anyway, Maximilian will be pleased, I'm sure."
Maximilian would be pleased… just because I'd dressed up a little?
I wasn't exactly thrilled, but I was already fully dressed. Might as well go out like this. I didn't understand why he'd like it, but if this was enough to make him happy… I could swallow my pride that far.
"This too."
Emma gently swept my bangs to the side and pinned them with a hairpin.
"Yeah. Looks good."
"Hairpins are such a pain…"
I'd have to be careful not to mess up the set of my hair…
"Have a good time."
"We'll be back."
After that endless, exhausting, miserable preparation, I left the room and went downstairs.
"There you are."
Maximilian lit up the moment he saw me and came over with a bright smile.
"We're late, aren't we?"
I dipped my head a little, feeling guilty.
"N-no, not at all!"
For some reason he couldn't quite look at me.
"It looks weird after all, doesn't it?"
I almost never dressed up. Of course it would feel strange.
"N-no. It suits you very well."
Hmm…
"Shall we go, then?"
I left him standing there and headed out of the inn first.
Outside, the streets were noisy. It wasn't just a play—there seemed to be all sorts of events going on.
"Miss Julian, your hand."
Well, with this many people, holding hands made sense. I grabbed the hand he offered without thinking.
"Y-you don't have to grip it quite so firmly…"
"I-is that so?"
There was apparently some kind of escort etiquette I didn't know. I'd just seized his hand, so of course he was flustered.
"It's all right."
Maximilian smiled gently and adjusted the way our hands met.
"Just rest your hand lightly, like this."
"I-I see."
Why was he so considerate? Something felt strange—a ticklish, warm feeling… not bad, maybe…
We carefully worked our way through the thinner parts of the crowd toward the center.
"There are so many people."
This many for a simple play?
As we drew closer to the square, stalls came into view.
"They've set up food stalls too."
You couldn't have a festival without stalls. Spreading delicious smells from morning like this—just how serious a festival was this?
"Is there anything you'd like?"
"Mm, not really? I'm not hungry."
Something to nibble during the play would have been nice, but it wasn't necessary. And we still needed to reach the center of the square and actually see the stage…
"There are too many people…"
It wasn't a theater. It was a play staged in an open square. The stage itself wasn't even properly built, and with the crowd packed in, someone as short as me couldn't see a thing.
No chairs, either—everyone was standing. For a short person like me, a proper view was impossible. That was probably why so many people were clustered at the upper windows of the taller buildings around the square.
Charging for the view, no doubt.
"The play hasn't started yet. Let's find a decent spot."
Maximilian led me around. It wasn't only the play—there was plenty else to look at. Someone was showing off with something like a feats-of-strength act, though it didn't strike me as particularly impressive…
Well, in a world with magic and mana, flexing and lifting heavy things wasn't exactly miraculous. Anyone with mana could do that sort of thing.
"There's no good place to stand."
"Well, nothing we can do about it."
We settled into a corner. The minor problem was that from where I stood, the stage was completely invisible…
"It seems the play is starting."
"I-is it?"
I'd need to see something before I could react… Once the play began, the noisy crowd gradually quieted, and the actors' voices carried. But only for a moment. As soon as the performance got going, the audience started responding to the acting, and as the spectators grew louder, the actors' voices disappeared under the din.
"Aah, I can't hear anything either…"
"I-I'm sorry."
What did Maximilian have to apologize for?
"It's fine. I was late getting ready too."
I'd been held hostage by Emma and Sister Mary for a forced makeover, and that had delayed us. If I hadn't given in to their hands, we might have gotten out earlier and claimed a better spot…
"N-no. It truly suits you."
"D-does it?"
What I was wearing was Emma's clothes. Emma's clothes—what did that mean?
Utterly ordinary clothes that ordinary commoners wore. And he said they suited me…
"So the clothes I usually wear were the problem, then?"
Maximilian said nothing. Emma and Sister Mary had gone so far as to call me a boy—a child, even. Other people had probably seen me the same way.
"Hmm… maybe wearing a skirt really is better…?"
My identity as a man was the sticking point, but… my body was a woman's, wasn't it? Wearing women's clothes was the correct choice, technically.
"N-no! Even usually, you were, um… dashing! Very dashing."
Could he at least lie more convincingly…? Saying it like that just made it obvious it wasn't true…
"Forget it."
Tch. Maybe I really would have to start wearing skirts every day…
I drifted out of the square in a daze. Maximilian, flustered, hurried after me.
"There's really nothing to see."
"I-is that so?"
I'd hoped for a proper festival…
"Aren't festivals all like this?"
"I-is that so?"
Had my expectations been too high? Thinking about it, the standard I'd been measuring against was from my previous life…
"I-it's my first time, so I didn't really know."
Our village's festivals were less festivals and more just everyone gathering to mess around, so I'd never really thought of them as festivals. Compared to that, this one definitely felt more like the real thing.
"Now that you say that, it suddenly seems all right."
Mm. Once I shifted my perspective, there did seem to be things worth enjoying.
We wandered the stalls, bought and ate food, watched little shows, and let the time pass. And I picked up one useful piece of information.
"The play isn't only once…"
They were doing the same performance again in the afternoon. Next time, I'd get a front-row spot.
"Let's walk around until then."
Whenever I held out my hand, Maximilian smiled softly, took it, and led me along.
We'd been enjoying ourselves for a good while when someone suddenly seized my hand hard.
"Mia?! Who are you with, leaving me behind?!"
Ugh! The force yanked my arm, and a sharp twinge of pain shot through it.
"You're—? You're not Mia."
Realizing I wasn't the person he was looking for, the man flung my hand away. I staggered, unable to brace against the force.
"Julian?!"
Fortunately Maximilian was right there to catch me, so I didn't end up on the ground.
I lifted my head to see who'd done it, and—
There stood that rude noble from a few days ago.
"Tch. Where did Mia go?"
Without so much as an apology, the noble moved off again in search of someone else.
"You—"
I swallowed the curse that had been about to leave my throat.
"You must endure it."
Ah. Maximilian seemed to know who that man was.
Once the noble was far enough away, Maximilian guided me into a quieter side street.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah, more or less."
I quietly used Holy Magic on my stinging arm and healed it.
"So who was that?"
"Ahem… a prince. Reinhardt Barga, the Second Prince."
My brow furrowed on the spot. That arrogant man was a prince?
"This country is a mess."
"Haha…"
Thinking back on what I'd heard about the Second Prince, he certainly seemed to come with a long list of problems. And who was this Mia woman he was chasing so desperately?
More than that—what did people see in a man like that, that they'd pin their hopes on him and support him? Pure gambling?
"Ugh."
"He's not someone you want to get involved with. Best to be careful."
"Yeah…"
Surely we wouldn't run into him again.