The Young Master's Birthday Party (1)
After the child had gone, I finished my training the way I always did.
"Huuuh...! Heeeeh..."
I had kept at it without fail, always chasing a today better than yesterday, and the result was a body of truly formidable might — seven push-ups, fifteen sit-ups, ten squats, and a minute and a half of running.
And if I so much as swung a wooden sword on top of that...
"I can't... anymore..."
...I could at least let my body go slack and wobble my way along.
In a body like that, I would go see the head butler, help a little with the work, and eat a proper meal, and somewhere in the course of it the lively footsteps would thin away until the soft chirring of insects began to rise from the grass. Then, keeping time with that splendid performance, I would lay my tired body on the bed and sink into the dark within the dark. Into a comfortable rest...
Pa-ram. Pa-ram-pa. Pa-ram-ram-pa. Pa-pa-ra-bam-pa. Pa-ram-pa. Pa-ram-pa...
Damn it... Was it morning already?
The whole mood, ruined. Truly, this was the Devil's own music.
A blaring trumpet had started up, trampling without mercy over the insects' quiet song. That relentless noise hauled me upright as if the ache running through my body were no concern of its.
Cheep!
Even so, the little bird perched in the gap of the open window seemed to be telling me to take heart again today.
Right. I had to take heart. Today was going to be a rather important day...
"One... two... lift!!"
"Coming through, just for a moment!!"
"Faster, faster!!"
The mansion had been noisy enough of late, but today it was caught in an uproar greater still.
For commoners, a birthday party is nothing more than a gathering of close ones to celebrate a birth. For nobles, a birthday is nowhere near that simple.
"His Majesty the Emperor himself may attend today, so not a single gap is to be permitted!"
To the nobility, a birthday is merely a pretext for a social stage. And when the hosts are House Blake — the Empire's one and only ducal family, the highest stratum in the realm? It is, in effect, no different from a small affair of state. The Empire holds the tenth, fifteenth, and twentieth birthdays especially dear, besides, and throws feasts far grander then than at any other time.
So what of the tenth birthday of a ducal house's only heir?
One had only to listen to the cries of horses pouring in from outside to know.
Truly, it was far too loud... I opened my sense and walled the noise away.
And if you were to ask what I had been doing — I, who had spent a comfortable week in the middle of all this commotion — well.
"This one... passes. This one, too... passes."
I was sorting gifts.
Everyone was so buried in their own work that no one paid me any mind, but wouldn't it have been even more unsettling to stand around blankly while the rest of them labored? So I looked for something I could reasonably do, and what I happened upon was the job of sitting and checking the presents.
Of course, one might wonder what sense it made to entrust such work to a blind girl. But after a week of wandering the place and lending a hand here and there, my face had gotten around well enough that they took me on without much comment.
Jewelry, this one... a ring, this one... and this... Melion chocolate? That was genuinely difficult to come by. Lucky them...
There would be a separate gift-opening later, they said, so the presents were checked ahead of time against whatever mishap might be waiting inside.
"There's still a long way to go, all of you! Pick up the pace!"
"Yes!!"
Someone might ask why they hadn't simply opened them beforehand, but some of the gifts carried preservation magic and could not be opened carelessly. Thanks to that, I had managed to find quiet work that I could actually do.
I was bent diligently over the task when a new shape entered the range of my sense.
"So this is where you were."
"My lord? You must be in the thick of things — what brings you here?"
"Pay us no mind, the rest of you. Ruanes, come with me a moment."
A tall man, a little over six feet, with a voice like cold steel. So it was Eluis.
"Yes. Excuse me for a moment."
I begged the other servants' pardon and followed Eluis into a quiet room.
"It is nothing much. As you know, the gift-opening is set to begin around three. Come in through the rear door of the banquet hall at half past two."
"Hm...? Don't tell me I'm to be introduced along with the gifts."
"That is the idea."
"No, that's far too much pressure. I'm not actually a gift."
"Become a gift, you say...?"
Eluis began, all at once, to tap the desk with one finger.
Why was he doing that? It was making me uneasy.
"Not a bad thought. Would you care to climb into a gift box?"
"You're joking."
"I am quite serious."
"No."
"I thought it a fine idea... If you refuse, there is nothing to be done."
His sense of humor was as monstrous as ever, and always in the strangest places.
"Even so, do not take it too heavily. The master of ceremonies will not introduce you as though you were a gift. I intend to hand you over quietly, near the end of the introductions."
"That's a relief, at least... but 'hand me over'? Aren't you treating me a little too much like a present?"
"Then how about becoming a gift after all?"
"That's not funny."
"A shame."
And what, exactly, was the shameful part...
"Then is that the end of your business?"
"Yes. It seemed there would be no other time to say it, if not now."
"I see. I'll be going, then. Everyone looks extremely busy."
"Diligent, aren't you. I don't recall ever telling you to work."
"This is for my own sake, too."
Right. It wasn't as though I were helping anyone out of kindness. There was no downside to looking good in front of my fellow workers, so I was simply making use of them.
"Is that so..."
"That's how it is."
That was how it was.
"Then I shall take it as such. Shall we be getting up..."
I was about to rise with those words when he went on.
"Ah. I nearly forgot. We have also decided to keep it secret from Elaine that you are a slave."
"What? A secret? I thought you would hand over even the master's brand."
He had bought a slave so that no harm could be done — I had been sure he would transfer the brand as well.
"That was my intention at first, but I have changed my mind. If Elaine receives the brand, there is no telling what she might demand of you, so it is on hold for the present."
"She's only ten. What could she possibly make me do?"
"A great many things, I imagine. She might use you to skip her meals, have you help her cut her lessons, or enlist you in sneaking out of the estate. Troublesome matters of that sort."
"Er... that does sound very ten years old of her."
"And from what I have observed this past week, you are quite a trustworthy person."
"What...? Trustworthy? That's an awfully irrational thing for you to say."
"No. It is perfectly rational. In this field, I have been wrong only once in my life."
He trusts me?
"Don't say things you don't mean. How long have you even watched me, to talk about trust?"
Don't lie.
In the end, you never believed me.
"One need not watch a person for long. The fine details are enough to read them. You are quite trustworthy."
"Please don't say things like that so lightly. I... don't trust you."
No. Don't pretend to believe me. And don't trust me. I came here to take your lives.
"It does not matter. Trusting you was my judgment. Whether you trust me is yours to decide."
"......"
Right... This is going according to plan. Things are working out.
Now I only have to lead them into lifting the Geas placed on me.
Then...
"And I doubt you wish to be ordered about by Elaine however she pleases, either."
Would that be enough, then...?
"Even so..."
"I cannot tell why you are suddenly like this, but if it troubles you, I can also place a command forbidding you from attacking Elaine."
Yes... maybe it would be better if it went that way...
No! That isn't it...!
"But spend enough time with Elaine and you will find yourself wanting to smack her. Do that, and the brand's control will keep surging up. Will you be all right?"
Right. Even talking to the page makes me want to hit him once — and if it's Elencia's child, I'll want to cut her down every time the feeling strikes.
Then anything like normal work would be impossible.
So I have absolutely no need for a Geas like that. Absolutely not!
"I understand... I'll keep that in mind, then."
My heart was still far too impatient. Better to think it through slowly. The Geas was still there, and at the least, five years remained.
"Good. Then we are both busy, so let us be on our way."
"Yes. I'll see you later."
Nothing shakes off a tangled heart quite like repetitive labor.
This was... jewelry again. And this... a giant bear's gallbladder?
They said it was good for a man's vigor. Why give something like that to a child...?
Yes. For a fool like me, labor of this sort suited far better than complicated thoughts...
...
Whew... I could finally see the end.
Aside from finding one cursed ornament partway through, nothing much had happened. Or was that, in fact, something? At any rate, they had said they would look into who sent it, so it had nothing to do with me.
I sent that irrelevant matter on its way, and when the last gift box in my hands followed after it, a satisfying sense of accomplishment welled up. Saving people and cutting down enemies were not the only worthwhile things. Small errands like this were plenty rewarding, too.
"Thank you for the help, miss."
Being thanked felt much the same... if you left out the part where they called me miss.
"Not at all. I needed something to do myself."
"Even so, gratitude is gratitude. Here — a token of our thanks."
What she held out was small and round, wrapped in paper.
Candy?
"Night Candy, made with honey from the darkbees that live only on the western continent. I hope it suits you."
"Is it sweet?"
"Terribly sweet."
"Thank you!!"
Sweet things were always welcome. Ever since I had ended up in this body, I had fallen completely for them.
I bowed, popped the candy into my mouth, and headed outside all smiles.
"Remarkable child, for one so young."
"Isn't she? A heart as lovely as her face — the marriage proposals will come pouring in later."
Setting the embarrassment aside, of course.
I came out from among the piles of gifts and checked the time. One hand at eleven, the other at two. Judging by the lack of people, things had already begun.
The banquet hall would be a battlefield by now. I ought to hurry and go help.
I was quickening my steps when I sensed a child who seemed about four inches shorter than me.
She appeared to be staring straight at me. Did she have some business here? No — before that, why was a child alone in a place like this?
"Is there something you need?"
"H-huh...? Ah... n-no... th-that's... um..."
A child who stammered terribly. A short bob cut to her shoulders, a dress all aflutter — a girl, then. Children this age are difficult to tell apart by voice alone.
"I... I called to you... but you didn't answer..."
"Ah, I'm sorry. When I'm concentrating, I can't hear unless you speak from close by. I'm blind, so I can't see what's in front of me, either."
"B-blind...?! I-I'm... s-so sorry..."
The girl fidgeted with her hands, unable to settle. Quite the timid child, it seemed.
"I'm all right. That aside, why are you here by yourself?"
"I... I was with my father... and I went looking for my brother, and the way..."
"The way?"
"I lost it..."
So she was simply lost.
"Do you know where you need to go?"
"They said my brother was in the banquet hall... I tried to go on ahead, and..."
"I see. But how did you end up all the way out here? The banquet hall is in the opposite direction."
"Ah...! S-so that's why... there weren't any people..."
Realizing her mistake, the girl started biting her nails. A habit like that would follow her to eighty.
"Stop biting your nails. Shall I guide you to the banquet hall?"
"Y-yes... what?! Aren't you blind...?"
"I can walk the inside of the mansion with my eyes closed now."
"Th-that's amazing... th-then, may I ask you to...?"
"Yes. I'll lead, so follow m—?"
"Huh...? Huh?!"
"Yaaaaaah!!!"
A black-haired boy came bursting in from who knows where. And what was this kid doing all the way out here?
"Hey! Found you at last! What are you doing in a place like this!!"
"That's what I'd like to ask. Why did you come looking all the way out here?"
"Well, you see!!!"
Well, I see?
"B... Brother?"
Brother?
"Huh? Celis?"
Celis?
She called him brother? This timid girl is that immature little page's sister...?
Half-siblings? Children of different mothers?
Ah... ack! A slip of the tongue!!