Teaching a Cat to Read (3)
That evening.
The day had felt unusually long for some reason, but I had dutifully finished my preparations since midday anyway, so I could head to the village.
Preparation, in this case, meant nothing more than gathering the various materials I'd obtained from hunting monsters lately.
"...Do you really have to go now?"
Ellie wore an oddly anxious expression. It seemed the idea of me heading to the village at night rather than in daylight worried her.
"Don't worry, Ellie. I'll be back within three days at the very latest."
"I know you don't like sunlight, Sister... but still, going at such a late hour is..."
"I told you already, didn't I? Goddess Paelia is always watching over us. Nothing Ellie needs to worry about will ever happen."
Half true, half false.
No one could say for certain whether Goddess Paelia was actually watching over us.
Even so, short of an actual act of God, there was no chance whatsoever of me being ambushed by anyone.
"That's enough, Ellie. You're putting Lev on the spot."
"...So Eisen doesn't worry at all?"
"Of course I worry. But it's Lev we're talking about. She'll manage somehow."
"What's that supposed to mean...?"
"Lev's always roamed around just fine at night. Even when she ran into demons, she came back without a scratch."
That offhand remark from Eisen made me flinch for a moment.
Come to think of it — she came back from a confrontation with actual demons without a single wound, and no one had ever questioned it?
"That just proves Goddess Paelia really is always watching over us. So there's nothing to worry about."
"I-is that so...?"
"Lev is living proof, right there."
The question that had bloomed in my mind found its answer within mere seconds and vanished just as neatly.
Thanks to the goddess Paelia I kept invoking out of habit, everything up until now apparently made enough sense to satisfy the children.
Not that I'd planned it that far ahead—
"...Sister, hug."
Just as Eisen was calming Ellie down and things were finally settling.
Iris, who had kept her mouth firmly shut and merely observed until now, seized the moment of confusion to abruptly start clinging to me.
"Oh my, how unexpected. Iris, asking for affection?"
"She's leaving because of me."
"Hm. You kept pretending not to care, but it must have been quietly eating at you."
"You have to come back safe."
"Of course."
At those words, I scooped Iris up into my arms, hands spread wide to catch her.
Only then did Eisen and Ellie, who had been locked in their heated debate, belatedly start flashing their eyes.
"Uuu... Iris, that's so unfair..."
"Sister, you're cold."
"Hug me too, Sister...!"
What was it they said about the meek cat claiming the hearth first?
That proverb seemed to fit this situation perfectly.
"I'll hug you next time, Ellie. If this keeps up we'll be here all night."
"Uuu..."
"I'm sorry, Ellie. Instead, when I come back, you'll be first in line. Can you bear with that for now?"
"R-really?!"
"Yes. I'll hold you for a long, long time."
"Okay! Got it!"
Ellie's slightly sulky expression brightened in an instant.
Maybe it was because her nature was so genuinely sweet, but the way she could be appeased by such a trivial promise struck me as both refreshingly novel and unbearably cute.
"Well then, everyone — I'm leaving the church in your hands."
At my matter-of-fact words, the children all nodded vigorously with beaming smiles.
This time I'd be away from the church for more than a day, so I'd scattered more blood than usual throughout the building.
That part, at least, I had no worries about.
Whether the children could actually keep up a regular routine on their own, though, was a slightly different question.
I did give Eisen a very stern warning, but...
"Just trust me, Lev!"
That dependable voice paired with a mischievous grin somehow left me with an ambiguous feeling.
"...I'm off, then."
Still — well, all I could do was trust them for now.
Seeing the children off, I left the church and set out along the road toward the nearest village.
According to what I knew, another village existed beside the one the children had originally lived in.
Neighbor or not, it was far enough that it would take quite a long walk just to arrive.
My plan was to reach it before dawn tonight, though.
Since the route cut straight through dense forest, things might not go quite as intended.
If daybreak caught me on the way, I'd have to hide myself beneath the largest tree I could find and wait for darkness to fall again.
Every time something like this happened, I was reminded: being a vampire really was inconvenient.
—Step, step.
How long had I been walking?
The dark forest remained as silent and bleak as ever, but for some reason, the presences I sensed around me today felt vaguely off.
How should I put it — I could faintly hear signs of people.
Ordinarily I'd have dismissed it as monsters or wild beasts.
But following this unusually well-trodden path, that impression kept growing stronger.
Could they actually be human—
"P-please, save me...!"
Barely had the thought crossed my mind when someone's anguished voice rang out clearly nearby.
I turned my head reflexively toward the sound.
A hazy glow I hadn't noticed before was flickering faintly beyond the underbrush.
"Looks like some kind of traveling merchant."
"I don't see anything worth money."
"Figured as much. Only an idiot would haul expensive goods around at this hour."
A lone wagon traveling at a wildly inappropriate hour, an elderly man.
And a strange-looking pack of men surrounding him on all sides.
"......"
Bandits.
From the look of it, they were shaking down a merchant reckless enough to travel through the dead of night, extorting him for his valuables.
What's more, the merchant was groveling flat on the ground before a burly man who appeared to be their leader.
It seemed his life was under threat as well.
"P-please, I beg you — just spare my life..."
"Ha. Honestly, you've collected nothing but junk. Who on earth were you planning to sell this to?"
"As you can see... I'm a merchant, but a poor one... so please, I beg you..."
"Take whatever's useful and burn the rest. Burn him with it."
"Hiiiek—!!"
The leader spoke flatly, in a tone that was almost dignified.
But in the vast, silence-draped forest, no one was going to oblige that command as he expected.
Because—
"...Hey, didn't you hear? Burn everything useless..."
they were already cold, dead corpses.
The merchant hauling his goods around at such a late hour was certainly at fault too.
But the ones committing banditry this close to the church were far more at fault.
Left alone, they might eventually wander right up to the church — so having found them, it was best to deal with them quickly.
—Tap, tap.
Having wrapped up my business, I prodded the merchant, who was still flattened against the ground and trembling like a leaf, until he stirred.
Even so, the plump little man refused to raise himself from the ground.
His mind seemed to have descended into such colossal confusion that he was no longer remotely sane — he'd been muttering nothing but pleas for his life this whole time.
"You can get up now."
When I sighed softly and spoke in a low voice, the merchant finally registered that something had changed, his whole body jolting violently.
He carefully lifted his head, which had been rubbing against the dirt over and over, and met my eyes.
"Uh, uh...? A-a nun...?"
"I don't know your circumstances, but dragging a wagon into the forest at this hour is practically suicide."
"Why would a nun be here... no, wait, the bandits...?"
Up close he was even plumper than he'd looked from afar, which caught me slightly off guard.
Still, nothing about him gave off the slightest whiff of a bad person, so I could speak to him fairly comfortably.
Something like a harmless teddy bear of a man?
"Bandits?"
"They were scattered all over this spot just moments ago...?"
"Who can say. There wasn't a soul here when I arrived."
The forest, pitch dark, showed no trace of the bandits — no trace of a single person at all.
The moment the merchant took in the suddenly empty surroundings, he began glancing around in bewilderment.
"How on earth did this..."
"Well, whatever happened, happened. If you really don't want to meet any more bandits, I'd turn right back toward the village, if I were you."
"...Y-yes... that's probably... for the best..."
The merchant's face still showed that he couldn't make sense of it at all.
But he'd never find the bandits' corpses even if he died and came back to life — I'd disposed of them far too thoroughly.
Though he might, perhaps, come across a scrap or two of their clothing.
"By the way, Sister, why are you out at this hour..."
"I'm on my way to the village. Unavoidable circumstances have me rushing along the road at this late hour."
"Ah, I see... I know this is terribly rude of me, but perhaps it was the moonlight — your skin looks so mysteriously, impossibly white that I couldn't help asking."
"Not at all. Now then, I'm afraid I must be going."
"Of course. Forgive all the imposition of a first meeting."
Just as I brought my brief encounter with the elderly merchant to a close and was about to set off again—
the bandits' words began surfacing in my mind, one by one.
"...Would you happen to be a peddler?"
"Yes? Ah — yes, that's right. As you can see, I mostly deal in modest little wares."
"Then would you, by any chance, also carry books for learning beginner magic...?"
"Hmm, if you mean spellbooks, I have them. Not just beginner ones — intermediate as well."
At the merchant's easygoing answer, delivered with a warm, genial expression, my eyes went perfectly round.
Who would have thought I'd stumble into unexpected good fortune in a place like this?
If so, there was no need to go all the way to the village at all.
I could buy everything I needed right here from this merchant.
"Perfect timing, actually. The whole reason I was heading to the village was to buy those spellbooks. One of the children I look after has taken an interest in magic."
"Oh, is that so? Well, what an absolutely miraculous coincidence!"
"If you don't mind, could you show me those spellbooks right away..."
Grateful for the fortuitous luck, I was just about to purchase the spellbooks on the spot when—
it belatedly dawned on me that I didn't have a single coin to my name.
The plan had been to sell the monster materials and buy the spellbooks with the proceeds—
honestly, my luck really was wretched.
"Ah... now that I think of it, I don't have any money on me at the moment."
"I'm sorry — then how exactly were you planning to purchase the spellbooks?"
"I was going to sell materials from the monsters I'd hunted. But I haven't reached the village yet, so..."
"...Might I take a look at these materials, by any chance?"
"Yes. Of course."
The moment the subject of materials came up, I sensed the merchant's voice rise slightly for some reason.
Almost as if he were brimming with expectation.
"...What is all this?"
"Monster materials, as you can see."
"I can see that... but why would a nun be carrying materials of this caliber..."
"Is something the matter?"
"No, no, not at all...! Forget trudging all over the place making a nuisance of yourself — trade with me instead!"
Frankly speaking, I had no idea whatsoever how much the materials I was carrying were actually worth.
Since coming to this world, the only places I'd ever roamed were the immediate surroundings of the church.
So I'd simply picked out the ones that looked expensive by eye and brought them along.
Judging by the merchant's behavior, they were certainly valuable — my instincts had been right.
But with no idea of their exact worth, I hesitated a little.
"Let me show you the spellbooks first. One moment, please."
Before I'd even made any decision, the merchant ducked into his wagon and began rummaging for them.
By the time he emerged, his arms weren't holding spellbooks alone — they were piled high with clothing and all manner of other goods.
"Here, these are the spellbooks."
"...Why are you carrying so much, though?"
"Ah, these are clothes for the children. You mentioned earlier that you look after some children, so I thought, just in case."
Despite his warm appearance, the merchant was a shrewd salesman through and through.
Who knew he'd try to coax me into buying things this way?
But fat chance.
For all my appearance, I had the kind of ears that let other people's words flow right past me — no ordinary sales patter was going to work on me easily.
"Well... I appreciate the gesture, at least."
"This dress is the very latest fashion from the royal capital. It's not the genuine article, mind you, but it's quite popular among the young ladies. The star of the show is this light, airy, adorable frillwork here."
"Oh...? That would suit Ellie perfectly..."
The instant that remark slipped out of me unbidden, the merchant pounced, and began rapidly showing me his wares one after another.
This merchant was a tougher customer than I'd given him credit for.
Even though I had zero intention of listening, he was bewitching people with his dazzling gift of gab — and what's more,
of all things, he'd led with the one outfit that would suit Ellie best of all—
Cheater.
Fine, I'd buy that one. But every other article of clothing, I absolutely would not.
That last moment had been nothing but a fluke, after all.
"And this outfit would suit a child dreaming of becoming a mage perfectly. If we're talking about this one, this pointed hat actually comes free as part of the set, and..."
"I'll take it."
That outfit had to have been made with Iris in mind — anyone could see it.
And I'd get the pointed hat thrown in for free, no less.
Not buying it would be the real loss here.
"Now show me the boys' clothes too."