Peace for the Cat (3)
- Clunk.
An ordinary day that was, in fact, anything but ordinary.
Apart from the fact that things had gotten quite chaotic early this morning, the day was flowing along uneventfully, much like any other.
Honestly, the children may call me a nun, but that's really nothing more than an act. And while I do live in a church, there's no rigid schedule I'm bound to keep. With only a morning service and an afternoon service to its name, this place is, in essence, an ordinary orphanage wearing the hollow shell of a church. My conscience twinges at that in a rather complicated way, but even so, I'm thoroughly content with my life as it is now.
"Now, is everyone here?"
"Yep."
"Yes, Sister!!"
"Yes."
Counting heads before the afternoon service had become something of a habit. These were remarkably devout children who had never once skipped a service—not a single time—yet even so, I always had to check. After all, children are exactly the sort of creatures who can spring a sudden crisis on you at any moment, in any place.
"Then, let us begin the afternoon service."
At my quiet words, the children straightened up in unison, readying themselves to offer their prayers to Paelia.
And just as I, too, folded my hands together without a second thought and turned toward the statue presumed to be Paelia to pray—
"...Hold on."
Eisen's voice, thoroughly flustered, drifted quietly up from behind me.
"What's going on with everyone...? No, wait, why is everyone acting so natural about this?"
"What's the matter all of a sudden? Did something happen?"
Eisen kept blinking rapidly, apparently unable to collect himself, and Ellie tilted her head at him with a puzzled look.
At that, Eisen furrowed his brow even deeper, his face a portrait of confusion.
"N-no, it's nothing... Is it just me? Am I the only one seeing something wrong here...?"
"Beats me. Why are you acting like that?"
Unable to make any headway with Ellie, Eisen turned and posed the question to Iris instead.
"Iris... Say something, please... You don't feel it either, do you...? That something's off...?"
But Iris gave no answer to Eisen's question. Her gaze was fixed squarely on me, and her eyes were sparkling in a distinctly odd way.
"What's wrong, Eisen?"
Seeing that someone had to intervene, I spoke up carefully—and Eisen, his face drained of all color, began to slowly turn his head toward me.
"Is something the matter?"
"N-no, it's not... I mean, I don't know if 'problem' is the right word... It might just be me..."
"Tell me what's troubling you first. I won't scold you for it."
"......"
He hesitated for a long while, glancing about uneasily, before finally wetting his dry lips and opening his mouth with great care.
"W-well, it's just... You look kind of... strange today, Levie. That's all."
"I'm sorry? Me?"
"Y-yes... You were completely normal this morning, I swear..."
"Hmm... I really can't imagine why. Nothing's changed about me, as far as I know."
"...Huh?"
Nothing about me was any different from this morning. I genuinely had no idea why Eisen was in such a state.
"Ellie, Iris—do I look strange to you?"
"No way!! You look absolutely beautiful!"
"Pretty."
"Hmm... Then what could the problem be?"
All I'd done was put on the clothes Ellie had made for me with her own hands. And even then, she and I had agreed to remove every last bit of the excessive ornamentation, so surely the result wasn't so different from an ordinary nun's habit—
"Look at this, Eisen! I made that outfit myself! Isn't it amazing?"
"The nun just got sexy out of nowhere."
"Ah, crap!! So something IS wrong with it! Why is everyone pretending not to notice?!"
While Ellie and I beamed at each other, Eisen alone was going pale with alarm, cold sweat trickling down his face.
"Her legs are just out there for anyone to see! That's not like Levie at all!"
It seemed the problem lay with this outfit Ellie had personally designed. Granted, that particular detail had thrown me into a panic earlier as well—but by now I'd reached a state of near-total detachment. Caught between awkward options, I'd decided the best course was simply to empty my head and carry on as usual, and things would work out somehow.
"What on earth possessed you to give Levie a gift like THAT?!"
"Why are you getting so worked up...? I just thought it would suit the Sister..."
"Even so, this is way too much. It's indecent!"
By now, Eisen's face had flushed as red as an apple.
"Go change back into your regular clothes right now...! I can't stand to look at—"
Just as he finally lost all reason and began thrashing about in a fury, I seized him by the cheek and stretched it out long and slow, without a shred of hesitation, forcibly cooling the overheated atmosphere.
"Calm down, Eisen. Now that I understand what the problem is."
"Waaagh...!!"
So that was it—my current outfit was, to Eisen's eyes, extremely provocative. In this mountain-valley church, where the only eyes to see me belonged to the children, I'd thought it silly to feel embarrassed. Apparently, I'd been mistaken.
"So are you changing?"
"No? I'm planning to wear this all day long, actually."
At my matter-of-fact reply, Ellie's clouded expression brightened into pure sunshine in an instant.
"Wh-what...?!"
"Ellie stayed up all night working hard on this outfit, you know. Sure, it may not look so different from a nun's habit on the outside, but it's filled to the brim with her devotion."
If I'm being perfectly honest, at this very moment I am experiencing a shame so tremendous that words cannot capture it. Until Eisen brought the outfit up, I'd been doing a fine job of keeping my mind blissfully blank—but the moment it surfaced, all those feelings I'd briefly forgotten came crashing back over me like a tsunami.
"Still, this is going too far..."
"Hmph! You've never given the Sister a single gift, and yet you have so much to say!"
"What?!"
"I simply wanted to express my gratitude to the Sister through this outfit. It was even prettier originally, but she said it was hard to move in, so I had no choice but to tone it down..."
"And what part of THIS, exactly, counts as 'toned down'...?"
"Look at it with your own eyes—isn't it barely any different from the habit she always wears?"
"W-well, yeah, but..."
The outfit had originally been a saint's habit, modified from an old, discarded one—so once the ornamentation came off, it couldn't help but look like an ordinary nun's habit. But had I failed to convince Ellie back then and worn it in its original state, I suspect I'd be feeling an even greater shame right now. Because the truth was, this outfit ran considerably smaller than it appeared.
"All right, that's enough, you two. Please stop fighting. This was never worth getting this worked up over in the first place."
"Mmph..."
"Eisen is right that my current attire doesn't suit a time of worship, when reverence is due. But I'm certain Lady Paelia understands Ellie's pure intentions as well, so I'm sure she'll be gracious enough to forgive us just this one day."
The embarrassment and shame had settled so firmly in a corner of my heart that I found myself almost grateful my reflection didn't show in mirrors. My skin was pale as snow to begin with, so the heat rising in my face would be all too easy to spot...
Worrying, truly. What if Ellie happened to catch even a glimpse of what I was feeling right now—
"Sister."
Just then, having barely managed to calm the two of them down, I was slowly rising from my crouch when Iris, who had been silently observing everything until now, suddenly spoke up.
"I want to give you a present too."
"I'm sorry?"
"But I have nothing right now."
"...Ah. Are you giving me advance notice, then?"
"I want to make an accessory that matches that outfit."
In that instant, a tiny question mark came floating up above my head.
"I really want to make it and give it to you..."
"I-Iris...?"
"Because I'm just as grateful to you as Ellie is..."
I didn't let it show on my face, but inwardly I was floundering in a state of considerable confusion. On the surface, Iris's words sounded like perfectly ordinary, unremarkable ones.
But think about it a little more closely, and you could roughly guess what she really meant.
"D-don't tell me... You want me to wear this outfit tomorrow, too...?"
"......"
Iris gave a small, silent nod.
Faced with a surprise I hadn't anticipated in the slightest, my mind instantly wiped itself clean, a blank white sheet of paper.
"A-ahaha... Well, you see..."
"Is that not okay...?"
"Do I really have to receive it while wearing this outfit...? I could accept it perfectly well dressed normally..."
"But I want to give you something that goes with that outfit..."
Why. How on earth did things come to this? I thought all I had to do was grit my teeth and endure it for one single day. And yet when I came to my senses, there I was, facing the sad reality of having to wear this outfit tomorrow as well.
"That's enough, Iris. You're putting Levie in a tough spot."
And in the middle of it all, from right beside me, came Eisen's words—words of salvation, delivered in a low voice. Without thinking, the corners of my mouth lifted ever so slightly as I gazed at him warmly.
"It's embarrassing enough as it is. What more do you want?"
"Why would the Sister be embarrassing?"
"It's not that Levie is embarrassing—it's the outfit that's embarrassing."
"Why? It's just pretty."
At Iris's utterly resolute response, Eisen couldn't hide his bewilderment and began scratching his head awkwardly.
"I mean, it's not... It's not that it doesn't suit Levie at all... It's just a little hard to look at, that's all..."
"Then just don't look, Eisen. Problem solved."
"Huh? How did we end up at THAT conclusion?"
It seemed I'd been harboring vain hopes where Eisen was concerned. He was barely ten years old—what on earth had I been expecting?
"...Very well, Iris. I'll look forward to your gift tomorrow."
"Wait?! You'll wear it again tomorrow?!"
"Of course... Since it's what you want, Iris..."
"Yay!!"
A flurry of thoughts raced through my head, draining the color from my face bit by bit, but there was nothing I could do. Just as with Ellie, I simply didn't have the heart to turn away Iris as she looked up at me with eyes full of expectation and refuse her.
"J-just to be safe, I have to ask... What kind of accessory are you planning to give me?"
"Secret! I can't tell you yet!"
Iris was resolute. Not a shred of information for me. Perhaps because of that, a wave of unease washed over me, and a single bead of cold sweat rolled down my cheek and dropped to the floor.
"Please look forward to it."