Chapter 23. Liam Is. (4)
Eshir was just as loud as ever when I saw her again after four years, and just as much of a nuisance.
“You really are a terrible bastard, you know that?”
“I know, I know. So stop talking already.”
“Look at you! You clearly don’t know at all!”
Even when I made a gesture that plainly meant stop talking since I get it, she only puffed out her lips and swatted my back with a loud smack.
“That means you should reflect on how late you are! I’m reflecting right now.”
“With a face that doesn’t look sorry at all?”
Of course.
I was reflecting very deeply, after all.
“Yeah, I should’ve come up with a better excuse. I’m reflecting on the fact that I still failed to make it past five years like this.”
What I had really hoped for was that we would meet again after I became an adult.
So I was reflecting on my own lack of foresight.
And once Eshir finally understood what I’d meant, she exploded.
“YAH!! I’m really going to tell Father on you!”
Then she darted past me and ran straight into the manor first.
No, wait. That’s a problem.
Eshir’s father was obviously His Grace the Duke, but was she seriously planning to have me killed?
Thinking that, I hurried after her.
And that was how I set foot inside the Bricht Ducal Manor.
Life in the ducal residence wasn’t inconvenient at all.
I’d heard that His Grace and my family had once been connected by the battlefield, and I’d worried he might turn out to be the sort of person my mother was.
“Young Lord Nirheim, think of this as your own home and make yourself comfortable.”
Instead, His Grace was far more normal, and far kinder than I expected.
He had none of my mother’s madness, and none of my father’s taciturn hardness.
He was just an ordinary middle-aged man growing older with a gentle smile he knew how to wear well.
Somehow, I found myself asking him how he’d become close with someone like my mother.
How he’d built a friendship with someone as silent as my father.
At that, the Duke burst into laughter and answered, “Puh, that was the charm of them both. A woman who never lost her smile even on the battlefield, and a marquis who never spared himself in order to protect his people—they were quite memorable.”
“Ah, um… yes.”
“You’ll understand one day too, when you stand with those two on the battlefield, young man. Your parents are truly wonderful people.”
As if recalling those days of war, he smiled again.
Just as my mother had said, the ducal manor had a training ground so fine it couldn’t be compared to the one at our house.
The Bricht family was a house of mages, so most of the facilities were related to magic.
Even so, there was still more than enough space for knights to train and for swords to be swung freely.
So I did.
Every dawn, once I woke up, I went to the training ground and swung my sword.
Hup—hup.
My breathing echoed through the hall.
Since no one else was swinging a sword at that hour, I spent those mornings alone in the training ground.
Ah.
There was one other person.
“You’re seriously impossible… Even when you come to visit, you still want to swing that sword?”
Whenever I was at it like that, Eshir would eventually come up beside me and mutter those words.
She’d crouch there as if she’d forgotten she was wearing a dress, resting her chin in both hands as she watched me.
“...Busy. Don’t talk to me.”
I didn’t even look at her, just kept swinging my sword in silence.
By now, swinging a sword and conditioning my body had become part of my ordinary routine.
“Honestly… so when are you going to stop?”
“Hup. Before dinner.”
“Are you insane?”
At that, Eshir scoffed in disbelief.
Then she sprang up and held out her hand toward me.
A burst of light flashed.
It was magic.
The sword I’d been swinging lifted into the air, then clattered down behind Eshir with a sharp clang.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing…?”
“No matter what, you should at least spare one day out of the week for me! You’ve been in the manor for a whole month now, and all you do is train!”
“...No. I mean, that’s true, but I still need to finish what I was doing.”
Just as she said, I had done nothing but train ever since I’d come to the ducal house.
“Are you avoiding me?”
I wasn’t avoiding Eshir.
I simply liked the training that repeated itself day after day.
I liked that dazed feeling, the way idle thoughts slowly vanished when I kept swinging my sword.
I liked how, once my body grew tired, there was no room left for my mind to become tangled up.
Just not thinking about anything.
Just being able to swing my sword.
That was all I needed to feel at ease.
“Haah… of course not.”
“Then spend some time with me too! I even bragged about it to the other young ladies!”
Eshir said that in an irritated voice.
But what exactly was there to brag about?
“What did you brag about?”
“Uh… um. That my childhood fr-friend came to visit…?”
At my question, Eshir answered with a faint blush on her face.
And I thought I could guess, at least a little, what that blush meant.
For some reason, my chest tightened with a dull, pricking pain deep inside.
“...I don’t really get why that would be something to brag about.”
“It could be something to brag about…! Anyway, today you’re training only until morning, and in the afternoon you’re coming out with me!”
“Haa… fine. I get it, so give me the sword.”
I nodded as if I had no choice.
Eshir pouted in dissatisfaction as she handed my sword back to me.
And I swung it even harder than before.
In the training ground, the sound of the sword cutting through the air echoed until even lunchtime had passed.
Once my training finally ended, I was dragged outside the manor at last by Eshir’s hand.
“You’ve been locked up in the training ground every single day, so you still don’t really know what the capital is like, do you?”
“Do I really need to state the obvious?”
Just as she said, since entering the ducal manor I hadn’t once stepped outside and had stayed shut away in the training ground the whole time.
Even after my snide answer, Eshir lifted her chin proudly and placed a hand over her chest.
“Heh, today I, Eshir von Bricht, will personally guide you through the capital city of Vinkelite and show you a whole new world!”
“My, my, what an honor.”
“Right? So hurry up, Liam!”
Beaming, Eshir took my hand.
Following her, I made my way toward a wider world.
Who would believe that the moment we stepped out of the manor, her speech and manners became so perfectly ladylike?
She led the way with elegant steps, explaining every sight we passed.
“This is an art museum. Mostly, it displays works by young ladies who’ve entered high society. Of course, only those with real artistic talent are allowed to exhibit.”
As we walked along calmly and looked at the works on display, Eshir smiled faintly from beneath the brim of her wide hat.
“And this one is something I painted. What do you think?”
Following the direction she pointed with a smile, I found a painting hanging there that showed a landscape I knew well.
“...Harden.”
“Yeah. It was pretty fun back then, so I wanted to keep it as a painting.”
Inside the painting, along with the rough outlines of that city, two children were sitting on a spread-out mat.
“...You painted it well.”
“Right? I do have a bit of talent in a lot of ways.”
...
I remembered that you’d been quite good at painting too.
You didn’t paint often, but on days when you were free, you’d sometimes call me over and make me sit still while you worked.
What you mostly painted were things that contained me.
You said you wanted to paint only the things you liked.
You painted the places we’d gone together, and the way I had laughed there.
The beaches and valleys we visited together.
The amusement park we went to together, and….
And…
Where else had we gone?
And then.
Where had we been?
...
My thoughts, which had been sinking deeper and deeper, scattered at Eshir’s voice.
“Let’s look around a little more, then go to a famous restaurant.”
“...Sure.”
I simply walked along after Eshir.
Even once we arrived at an elegant restaurant, it seemed her mouth had no intention of resting.
“This place has really good seafood dishes. You don’t hate seafood, do you?”
“No.”
“Then anything we order should be delicious, but let’s see… salmon steak and….”
She chatted on and on while calling over the waiter to place our order.
She handled it all with the easy confidence of someone used to places like this, smiling leisurely as her fingers toyed with the knife on the table.
Just like you.
She treated things I was only now slowly growing used to as though they were the most natural thing in the world.
Then Eshir turned to me again.
“Liam, where do you want to go after dinner?”
Only one thing came to mind.
“...The market.”
The market alleys with their rough, familiar flavor were still the most comfortable thing to me.
Though.
Eshir smiled awkwardly and answered, “I figured you’d say the market. But Vinkelite doesn’t really have a five-day market or anything like that.”
As a capital, I supposed it wouldn’t be a place that held onto slightly faded traditions like a five-day market.
And yet I’d still said market anyway, even knowing that.
“...Such a backward city.”
“Hey! Harden is way more backward if you ask me! Maybe you just haven’t seen the merchant street in Vinkelite yet, so hurry up and follow me after we eat!”
At her incredulous outburst, I let out a snort of laughter.
Even after the food arrived and dinner was over, Eshir kept urging me to eat faster so we could get to the shopping district.
The sky was turning red.
Time kept flowing until, after trailing behind Eshir, I finally found myself facing the sunset.
As we wandered through the merchant streets and looked at one thing after another, I lifted my gaze to the sky.
It grew more and more crimson.
Then it trembled with a distant, wistful shimmer.
The sunset always made me think of you.
I didn’t think about it that often anymore, but every evening when the glow returned, it dragged those memories up whether I wanted them or not.
“...Liam, what do you think of this?”
Eshir’s voice reached me, but….
“Looks nice.”
I only muttered an answer while watching the sun slowly sink.
“Hey, at least look at me when you talk.”
And then.
My gaze, which had been following the descending sun, drifted lower with it.
...
Far away.
It lingered for a moment on a woman standing at the very edge of that sunset.
Golden hair fluttering in the wind.
Even with a wide-brimmed hat on her head, sorrow poured from her so clearly it was impossible to miss.
That woman stood beneath the sunset.
Something.
For some reason, my heart pounded hard.
But then a voice came to me.
“What is it? Is there something over there?”
“...No, nothing.”
I turned back toward Eshir.
“How about this one? Would Father like it?”
“...If His Grace the Duke were going to like that, I think he’d need to get hit hard on the head five times first.”
“...What does that mean?”
“It means he’d hate it.”
“Hey. You think you can’t hit me out here?”
I laughed softly.
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