The Belated Birthday Gift (8)
Once again, this was no fault of Karsein's.
His reason for going out had been perfectly legitimate, and it should have been enough — more than enough — to earn a full measure of understanding.
And yet, words that should never have been spoken had slipped past his lips.
“You cause so much trouble all the time, of course people are going to raise questions about you. This is your own karma catching up.”
You cause so much trouble.
So of course people will raise questions.
It's your own karma that makes you suspect — so don't talk back.
Like a fool, that was exactly how he had responded.
A slip of the tongue.
A stupid misjudgment, and an unmistakable wrong.
After the whole mess with the Kelvia allergy, he had known full well that rash judgment was the one thing to avoid — and he had gone and made the mistake anyway.
If that had been all, Karsein might have simply been hurt and left it at that... but he had done something far worse.
This couldn't end with hurt feelings.
It went beyond that. He had left a wound.
A vicious, deep wound — a wound to the heart so large it was frightening.
It's not too late yet...!
After delivering a sharp warning to Emma and entering the estate, Claire hurried down the corridor with quick, purposeful strides.
A birthday present? She would make it as lavish as the delay demanded.
She would give generously — as much as the time she'd forgotten, and then some.
She would tell the whole family, and they would throw him a party grander than anything she could manage alone.
Late, yes. But still.
As his older sister, she intended to give him everything in her power to give.
Until Karsein was satisfied.
*Knock, knock.*
“Karsein. You're not asleep yet, are you? Could you open the door for a moment?”
Claire knocked on his door, telling herself that a chance to make amends still remained.
No voice answered from within. At the utter stillness inside, Claire began knocking harder.
“Come on, open up. I know you were upset. So let's talk face to face, okay?”
Even so, the room stayed silent.
Thud, thud!
Impatience getting the better of her, Claire started pounding on the door.
“Karsein! I said open the door!”
After several more rounds of pleading, the door finally opened.
Claire's heart leapt — at last, she could talk to him. But the figure that emerged from the room was not Karsein. It was his maid.
Bowing her head with perfect courtesy, Camilla relayed Karsein's message.
“The young master says he has no wish to speak with you, Lady Claire.”
“What...?”
“He also said that you know the reason better than anyone.”
Claire had already been rehearsing what she would say the moment she stepped inside.
She had planned to promise that whatever he needed this time, she would grant it without a trace of doubt.
She had meant to propose erasing today from his memory entirely — to plan him the happiest birthday party imaginable, on whatever day he chose, in whatever style he wanted.
But at Camilla's single sentence, all of Claire's bright excitement went cold in an instant.
She had nothing to say.
To that resolute dismissal — the flat declaration that he simply wasn't in the mood to talk.
Claire's lips trembled, and then she ventured a careful question to the maid who had delivered Karsein's words.
“...Is he very angry?”
Just as Camilla had said — the reason was something Claire herself understood best of all.
His heart must have already been full of wounds. Not a single word of acknowledgment on his birthday, not even a gift — and then, for the paltry present of an outing permit, he'd been met with suspicion.
And from none other than the very family who should have been celebrating his birthday with him.
Camilla did not answer. No — it would be more accurate to say she couldn't bring herself to answer. Claire had plainly noticed the flicker of displeasure cross the girl's face.
“I see. I'll... come back another time, then.”
Rarely, if ever, had Claire's shoulders hung as low as they did that day.
*Ring!*
*Whew.*
In her study, Isabella pressed a hand to her aching forehead and sighed.
For her children's peaceful daily lives.
For days of comfort and plenty, she had always driven her pen without rest.
Yet today, the work refused to come to hand at all.
There was an absurd mountain of duties waiting for the lady of the duchy, the acting head of the house.
*Sigh.*
...
*Tap.*
Isabella's pen came to rest on the desk. As though her fingers simply would not hold it any longer, she turned her gaze, unfocused, toward the sofa.
A ghost of the past flickered there — Karsein, who had always come at this very hour. Every day, claiming he had something to say, he would seek her out under the pretext of paying his morning respects.
She had always assumed it was simply her duty to indulge the young boy's small fussing. She had treated it as one more item on the day's routine, something to be endured without much thought.
But now that the seat was empty, the absence felt strangely, achingly wrong.
I will no longer be visiting for the morning greetings.
At some point, he had announced he would never come again for morning visits.
She hadn't paid it much mind.
She'd assumed it was a bluff — and if not, then surely some other reason would bring him round soon enough.
She had expected that before long he would return, just as before, showing up at her door nearly every day.
Yet contrary to every obvious expectation, Karsein truly had not come. Days and days passed, and still no morning greetings.
Even after the Kelvia allergy incident, when she had been certain beyond any doubt that this time he would surely come — Karsein never once appeared before Isabella.
*Sigh.*
“Why won't you come to me, Karsein.”
With a troubled heart, Isabella ran her finger over December 31st on last year's calendar.
Yes.
The reason she had set down her pen was Karsein, and Karsein alone.
Noticing his birthday late was bad enough, and even after giving him a present, her heart remained entirely unsettled. If it were up to her, she would have sent him gifts enough to fill him to overflowing —
The young master does not wish for any further birthday presents.
That was how Heron had answered, advising her to let the matter of that day rest entirely.
Then what choice was there but to wait? Until Karsein came to her of his own accord.
Setting aside everything in the past, she had been certain that this, at least, would bring him to her door. But... Karsein had defied Isabella's expectations once again and never shown himself.
Even though three days had now passed since the day he went out.
“Well, there's the matter of his betrothed as well. I'll simply have to summon him and talk things through.”
Setting aside how the work refused to come to hand, she could hardly leave Karsein as he was. Whether it was the secret meetings with his betrothed or the birthday gift, a place and time had to be made.
The breakfast table.
That much, surely, would be the perfect setting in which to call for Karsein.
Isabella was reaching for the bell to summon Heron when —
“Mom? Can I come in?”
Her outstretched hand stopped. That voice belonged to her second daughter, Claire.
“Come in, dear.”
The door opened lightly.
But something about Claire's expression looked anything but light. Isabella asked her at once what was on her mind.
“What is it, coming to see me at this hour?”
“Umm. Well... Mom, I made a mistake.”
“A mistake?”
“Yeah. Kind of... a really big one...”
Her second daughter, after a long, hesitant pause, seemed unable to untangle the mess in her head no matter how she tried, and finally confessed her errand like an outpouring of grievance.
“It's that Karsein hasn't come out of his room for three days now... and I think... it might be because I forgot his birthday, and then I even suspected him about going out...”
“So...” Claire trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly before pressing on.
“Honestly, um — nothing even happened, right? He went out that day and no stories came back from anywhere. So about Karsein going out... couldn't I talk to Arina nicely, and, you know... lift the ban now?”
“...”
“I'm sorry, Mom. It's my fault, but I just can't work up the nerve to fix it myself. So I came to ask for your help.”
At Claire's plea for help, it was Isabella, instead, who fell silent.
The truth was, the moment Karsein's birthday had been mentioned, she herself had flinched. She was in no position to help anyone.
“I'm sorry, dear. I only realized Karsein's birthday had passed... after the fact, so I can't help you on that front either.”
“You too, Mom?”
*Nod.*
She, too, had noticed the birthday far too late.
She had tried to give him a present, only for Heron to point out that her gesture had missed the mark entirely.
Neither of them had any ground to stand on proudly.
But Claire's proposal — lifting the ban on Karsein's outings — held genuine appeal.
“Would you call Arina and Flora for me first?”
It was a family council, the first in a long while.
“You called for us.”
Arina and Flora entered the study together. Perhaps because they'd been told it was a family council, Arina's expression had soured before she'd even taken a seat.
Sinking onto the sofa, she came straight to the point.
“So Karsein has gone and caused trouble again, I take it.”
Whenever a family council was called in this fashion, the discussion was almost always about Karsein's problems. She had assumed this would be no different.
“It's true that I called you both because of Karsein — but not because that child did anything wrong.”
“What do you mean by that, Mother?”
Claire was still sheepishly scratching her cheek, and Flora's face had curdled the instant Karsein's name was spoken. Into that atmosphere, Isabella raised the day's agenda.
“I intend to lift the ban on Karsein's outings.”
“I beg your pardon?!”
“M... Mom?”
Arina and Flora were dumbstruck.
And then the two of them pushed back.
“With respect, Mother, I cannot agree. Do you not see? That would be leaving Karsein free to blunder about the capital, stirring up incidents wherever he pleases, heedless of the consequences!”
“That's right, Mom! He even brought something terrifying back from outside once and threatened me with it, remember?!”
“The truth is, I was on edge only yesterday. When I learned Karsein had gone out, do you have any idea how far and wide I went asking after him?”
It was hardly a one-time occurrence. Given that history, their extreme sensitivity to his outings was entirely understandable.
But they could not simply keep him locked in forever. Isabella added her reasoning, calm and reasonable. It stung a little, but she had to say it with her own mouth.
“It was his birthday present.”
“I'm sorry?”
“That outing — I permitted it as Karsein's birthday gift.”
A sudden stillness settled over the council chamber.
It was Isabella who broke it.
“December 31st. I had forgotten it completely — that the day was Karsein's birthday. And so I granted him the outing.”
“...”
“Arina. Flora. What birthday presents did the two of you give him?”
At those words, the two sisters fell silent as well.
They hadn't even known when his birthday was, let alone prepared a gift — there was no possible way they could open their mouths.
Claire seized the opening and spoke up carefully.
“Honestly, a single day out yesterday — it's a stretch to even call that a birthday present. So... that's why we want the ban lifted. Nothing happened yesterday, after all.”
“I feel the same.”
Even Isabella's agreement.
Only one step remained to lift the ban.
“I know how you and Flora feel, Arina. But Karsein's made up his mind not to accept a single one of our presents. So this is all we can give him.”
“...Hah.”
Arina let out a long, heavy sigh.
This arrangement was unmistakably like leaving a cat in charge of the fish.
Loosen Karsein's leash carelessly, and it was obvious he would run riot through every corner of the empire.
But she had her own sins to answer for, and she could not deny it. Worse, with his cunning refusal to accept any of their gifts, no better alternative came to mind.
In the end, Arina chose to seek the middle ground.
“Then let us do it this way. Since we must verify whether his character has matured enough to deserve the ban's removal, let us observe him with our own eyes first, and then decide.”
“Observe him ourselves?”
“Yes. As it happens, the imperial family is already preparing for it. You know best of all what I mean, Claire.”
“Oh. That. The Snowflower Festival.”
The other seasons had festivals in abundance, but winter was bitter and brutal, and people's vitality inevitably sagged with the cold.
And yet whenever the snow fell, children could be seen running and playing, laughing with delight. Even in the chill-drained atmosphere, the children never lost their smiles, hurling snowballs at one another in play.
Observing this, the Emperor of the empire decreed a festival period to fill the winter streets with life as well, and it came to be called the Snowflower Festival.
Devised largely from watching children frolic outdoors from early January, when the snows typically began, it was one of the empire's annual traditions.
“They say this year's Snowflower Festival will be exceptionally grand. The autumn harvest was so bountiful that the crowds will be far greater than usual. The nobles all have their eyes on it as well.”
“...So the test is whether Karsein causes trouble amid all those people. That is what you propose.”
“Yes. The ban need not be lifted until then.”
No better compromise than this would be found.
Isabella accepted Arina's proposal, and the family resolved to prepare for the festival together.
Meanwhile.
Karsein, who had not left his room for three days now, was staring at his Status Window.
The Snowflower Festival Begins!
Spend an ordinary festival together with your family!
[ Reward: Arina's outing ban will be PERMANENTLY lifted! ]
“So it's finally here.”