Chapter 24: She (12)
The carriage rattled and jolted along. It was clearly a fine carriage, but the road leading out of Penrin Village was hardly a road at all; jutting stones kept getting in the way, and the whole ride felt as though the path itself were resisting their departure.
Even so, the teacher spoke in a calm voice from within the carriage. “My disciple, are you truly all right leaving like this? Shouldn’t you spend a little more time with your family?”
“...I’m all right. If I stay in the village any longer, it’ll only make things harder for all of us.”
I understood why my mother had sent me off today, just like that. She knew that the longer we spent together, the harder it would be to let go, and so she had forced a smile all the way through my departure.
“Hmm... yes. If that’s your choice, then I’ll respect it.” With a gentle smile, the teacher patted my head. Only after she saw my heart had finally settled did she get to the point.
“Right. Then I suppose it’s time I told you.”
“Yes.”
“As I hinted in the letter I sent two years ago, you’ll be living as my adopted daughter from now on. Your name will remain Aria, but Hopenberg will be added to it.”
Aria Hopenberg.
That was my new name.
For someone born in a tiny mountain village and raised with nothing, it was a name far too grand for me.
“I wanted to come and take you in much sooner, but I couldn’t until now because I was preparing to adopt you properly. I hope you can understand.”
“...I know. I thought that might be the case.”
“Yes, that’s exactly why I like you, my clever disciple.”
From the moment she had given me the surname Hopenberg at the end of her letters, I had already guessed.
“So from now on, you’ll live as a noblewoman and fulfill the duties and responsibilities that come with it. Have you learned the noble etiquette and social rules I taught you before I left?”
“...”
I quietly lowered my head to her in the noble way of greeting.
Showing her like this would be more convincing than saying yes.
“...Aria Hopenberg pays her respects to the head of the house.”
And the teacher smiled, looking satisfied.
“I knew taking you in as my daughter was the right choice. Ah, and from now on, I’ll just call you Aria.”
“...”
“Then, Aria, assuming you carry out your role properly, I’ll do my utmost to help you achieve what you want. Now, did you understand everything I’ve said so far?”
At her question, clearly asking whether I understood, I answered, “Yes, I understand.”
“Good.”
The teacher smiled.
To hide my unease, I held tightly to the lunchbox my mother had packed for me and closed my eyes.
The carriage rolled on toward the capital.
And then, a few days later, I set foot in Vinkelite, the capital of the Empire of Aion.
The sights were nothing like the mountain village I had known, and the grandeur spilling out from the city left me staring blankly, stunned by all of it.
“Pfft, I thought Aria would be surprised. Seeing you this shocked, maybe I should take you out sightseeing together sometime.”
I could not even answer her. I only stood there, dazed, looking around.
When I arrived at the manor, I trailed after the teacher like a little duckling.
A garden as wide as Penrin Village stretched out before us, and beyond it stood an old, elegant building that seemed to swallow my gaze whole.
Everything I saw was strange and unfamiliar, and every few steps I flinched like a child encountering the world for the first time.
When people we passed bowed their heads, I bowed mine too.
When someone addressed the teacher, I kept my mouth shut and stayed quiet.
And that made me an easy target.
“Pfft. Aria, that’s a new look on you.”
I frowned and muttered back, “...Please don’t tease me.”
It couldn’t be helped. I had left behind the village where I had spent thirteen years of my life and stepped into a vast world all at once. It would have been absurd to expect myself not to feel intimidated from the very beginning.
“But it really is adorable. Aria, you look just like a child like this.”
“...I am thirteen, for now.”
“Exactly. You really do look your age, and that makes it lovely.”
With a warm smile, the teacher said that and pushed open the manor doors.
The moment they opened, the inside of the manor lay exposed before me.
A line of butlers and maids stood in orderly rows from the entrance onward.
Then a man approached and bowed.
“Your Grace.”
“Head butler, I told you not to wait around like this.”
“But today is the young lady’s first arrival.”
“Exactly. You gathered everyone here in such a huge crowd that now they’re all hiding behind my back.”
“Hmm, it seems I may have made a mistake.”
“You think? Then send everyone away and leave only a few maids who are actually good at their jobs.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
While that conversation went on, I simply hid quietly behind the teacher.
Seeing me like that, the teacher smiled.
“Get used to it, Aria. They’re the people who’ll be taking care of your life from here on out.”
“...Yes.”
I had struggled so hard to find you, and yet meeting new people in a new place was still frightening.
I wanted to find you quickly and stand beside you.
I always woke before dawn.
In Penrin Village, it had been unbearable simply letting time pass me by. So I woke as early as I could, wanting to do something—anything.
That habit continued even now that I lived in the manor.
The manor was enormous.
And because it was so large, there were all sorts of things I had never seen before.
There was a bathroom bigger than the shack I had grown up in.
There was a kitchen where several people could cook at once.
There was a vast garden full of flowers in every color imaginable.
There was the magnificent view of Vinkelite beyond the garden.
And there was a training yard where I could practice magic.
So after waking, I always headed there.
No one seemed to train at that hour, so I practiced magic in the quiet, empty yard as always.
I would unleash bursts of light to strike targets in the distance, then try out the various training devices set up around the yard one by one.
“Haaam... Aria... children are supposed to be asleep right now, so why are you awake this early...?”
“...”
The teacher came looking for me at the training yard.
Still looking half-asleep, she wandered over with a yawn and wrapped me in a hug.
“Aria, it’s best to rest properly when you can... yawn. Mm. Ah, I’m sleepy.”
“I’ve rested enough. I was only planning to do a little more before going back in, so the head of the house can—ack.”
Her sleepy state only made me want to tell her to go back inside and sleep, but she held on more tightly and, before I knew it, had even lifted me into her arms, cutting off my words.
“I can’t let that happen... My disciple will have to sleep with me from now on.”
“Head of the house, that’s enough... Please put me down, no.”
“Haaam, hm. First of all, I’m not the head of the house right now, I’m your teacher. And you need to play a little more like a child. Sleep a bit longer with me, and let’s go out together later too.”
“Ah, come on.”
I was still only a fragile thirteen-year-old girl, and against the difference in strength, I had no chance at all. Before I knew it, the teacher had dragged me away and forced me down to lie beside her.
By the time noon approached, she was still holding my hand and had hauled me outside the manor.
“Does it make sense that you’d see a view like this and still say you want to go back?”
At that, I looked at her quietly.
“...I didn’t follow you here to do this, Teacher.”
I had followed the teacher only to find you.
Compared to staying alive in Penrin Village, following the teacher and stepping into a larger world had seemed like a better way to search for you.
Still, my teacher was a bit of an oddball.
“I know. I do know that. But as I said in the carriage, Aria, you have to fulfill your duties as a noble.”
“What does sightseeing in the capital have to do with my duties?”
I had no idea how walking around the capital could possibly be related to a noble’s duty.
“A great deal, actually.”
“For example?”
“First, as my adopted daughter, you have the duty of keeping me, the head of the house, from being bored.”
“...”
“And as a member of the imperial nobility, you also have the duty of becoming well acquainted with the geography of Vinkelite.”
“That’s pure nonsense...”
“And even if it is nonsense, you still have the duty to obey the head of the house, Aria Hopenberg.”
She smiled as she said it, then gently tugged at my hand and pointed to the restaurant across from us.
“For now, I think we should start by fulfilling your duty to eat lunch at that restaurant.”
Looking at that sly smile, I let out a sigh.
“Haah... just this once.”
“No? You have the duty to come out like this at least once a week.”
“...”
Honestly.
The teacher kept throwing around the word duty as an excuse and dragged me all over the place.
She took me to the capital’s most famous tailor and, without warning, bought me a dress to wear.
She wandered through the market streets, found a wide-brimmed hat, and put it on my head too.
“Mm, maybe because you’re so pretty. Everything looks good on you.”
And whenever the teacher said things like that, I found myself thinking of you again.
The dates we went on together had all been fun.
On weekends, we met early and walked through the park together.
When our hands were clasped and our eyes met, we would smile shyly at each other.
And whenever we got hungry during those walks, we’d toss a coin, go into whichever restaurant we happened to choose, and eat there.
Sometimes we found a hidden gem and giggled together, delighted at our luck.
Sometimes the food was terrible, and we laughed weakly at our failure.
After lunch, we always wandered through the market alleys.
At first it had been something I did for you out of consideration, but before long we had begun enjoying the whole ritual as though it were only natural.
We’d hold up some clumsy little doll that cost five thousand won and smile.
We’d pick up hats for less than ten thousand won, put them on each other’s heads, and burst out laughing at how happy it all made us.
“You’re pretty, so anything looks good on you.”
You always said things like that.
You would look at me with eyes full of love and say it shyly, even four years later.
Those moments had been so lovely.
So lovely that I had dared to wish they might last forever.
And so I was still searching for you.
The sky was turning red.
Before I knew it, I had spent so many hours out here, half dragged along by the teacher’s hand.
Just beyond the shopping district, I stood there blankly and watched the world around me.
The setting sun washed over everything, painting the buildings a deep red.
Scenes like that always brought you to mind.
Even though I was always thinking only of you, when I looked at the sky at dusk, those nightmare memories surfaced again.
The blood that had poured from your body.
Your smile, even as you were dying.
Whenever I saw the sunset, it all came back to me.
And so...
“...”
“Aria, did you enjoy it?”
I heard the teacher’s voice, but...
“...”
I simply kept my silence and watched the landscape, its colors deepening along with the sunset.
“Hm, our disciple is always too lost in thought for her own good.”
And then, even in the scenery I had been staring at blankly, my gaze...
...rested for a moment on a man standing with a woman in the distance.
Black hair fluttered in the wind.
He looked aloof, yet a faint smile touched the corners of his mouth.
He stood there amid the reddening light.
Something.
For some reason I could not quite name, my heart began to pound.
But at the sound of the voice that followed, my gaze returned to the teacher.
“What is it? Was there something over there?”
“...No. Nothing.”
Saying that, I turned away.
“Do you want to head back now?”
“Yes. It’s late.”
“All right. Let’s go back.”
“...Yes.”
Only afterward did I turn my head again, but by then the figure had vanished between the buildings.