Aren't You Surprised?

Thwack. A sharp, discarded blade sank deep into the wood.

A slender branch was mercilessly cleaved away by the hand axe of a tiny girl.

"Mmm…"

Cream set down the axe and shook out her stinging hands before picking up the fallen branch. The look on her face was far from satisfied.

Judging by the trail she had left behind, severed branches lay scattered at regular intervals — a growing list of casualties.

It wasn't that she had grown tired of eating wild game and decided to start devouring trees as well. She was simply searching for wood of just the right thickness, springiness, and hardness.

The material, after all, for a gift that would leave a certain someone thoroughly astonished!

The problem was that none of them quite measured up.

"Haa…"

As she sighed, the sound of footsteps approached from a distance — tramp, tramp.

The wary little girl instinctively ducked behind a tree.

"…Hm? Is someone there?"

"…"

A rather familiar voice.

Peeking out carefully, she found Albet the butler.

Cream ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did not fully drop her guard, but she quickly composed her expression.

"Butler Grandpa?"

"Oh, Lady Cream. Up and industrious from the crack of dawn, I see."

"What are you doing out here, Grandpa?"

"This old man was simply taking his morning stroll. A leisurely climb is excellent for the joints, you know. Hmm — did you cut all these branches, my lady?"

"Ah, um, I've taken an interest in woodworking!"

Cream hastily gathered the branches at her feet and tossed them behind her.

"Heh heh. Though it seems the materials haven't quite met your standards."

"Hehe…"

"The trees on this side are rather old. I'd recommend looking lower down the slope — the trunks there grow straighter, with fewer knots."

"Thanks for the tip!"

"Not at all. Well then, I shall be on my way."

With his greeting complete, Albet resumed his climb, hopping lightly up the mountain. For a grandfather, he ascended with surprising ease — and through the gap in his casual clothes, a necklace briefly clinked into view.

Three inverted water-droplet emblems.

Cream narrowed her eyes and watched him go. Once he had put enough distance between them, she picked up her axe once more.

And then, without relocating at all, she stubbornly went right back to chopping wood — the same unyielding, people-distrusting young lady as ever.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

A man in a black hood stood holding a tree branch.

Before him sat a single jar — an object wreathed in pitch-black energy, radiating a sinister aura.

He waved the branch at it like a conductor's baton.

Flash—!

Light burst from the tip, enveloping the space and wrapping around the jar until it was scrubbed clean.

The purification was over in an instant, and the client hurried over.

"Oh, Teacher, thank you… Thank you so very much."

"The curse has been safely lifted. You needn't worry any longer."

"I suppose one really shouldn't pick up abandoned objects. These past few days, I truly thought I was going to die. A curse of kidney stones — how utterly dreadful…"

"Ah — well, I'll be taking my leave now."

Andy fled the client's house in a hurry. Of all the curses he had ever encountered, this one had been the most horrifying in content, and a chill ran involuntarily down his spine.

Well then, next commission…

At any rate, here was a home tutor busily on the move from the crack of dawn.

He would have loved nothing more than to toss the tree branch aside and be done with it, but the young lady he served had adamantly forbidden him — "You must not commission a staff!" — so for the time being he was making do with this makeshift wand, pretending it was something mystical.

Just what was she plotting?

Between the script she had written that day and the way she was stepping forward herself, he found her rather admirable — so long as she didn't push herself too hard.

In the first timeline, she had always overexerted herself trying to live up to her family's expectations.

Even with her personality changed, he couldn't help worrying that the same tendency still lingered.

Daddy's home.

After a morning of modest money-making, he returned to the Holybell Mansion.

He had assigned her a book report before leaving — he wondered how she had done.

With that thought, he headed to Cream's room, only to find no sign of her.

"My lady?"

On the desk sat the picture book Andy had made, along with a sheet of paper densely filled with writing. Fortunately, it seemed she had finished the book report and gone out to play.

Cream's room held very few storybooks. Whether the Count had misjudged her age or not, every gift he brought was some difficult work of high culture.

Cream could have read them if she wanted to, but she was still only twelve. At that age, nothing beat richly illustrated pages and heartwarming tales.

So Andy had made a picture book himself.

It wasn't an original creation, of course — he had simply transcribed stories from the world he once lived in onto paper and drawn illustrations beside them.

Writing a report on it would nurture both her composition skills and her emotional sensitivity.

With high hopes, he began reading her review.

Book read: The Little Mermaid.

Review: A woman of unparalleled foolishness. The product of dressing up sheer spinelessness in the pretty packaging of "love."

The willpower to abandon her voice and rise to the surface is admirable, but her subsequent conduct is nothing short of disappointing.

She acts as though she would do anything to monopolize the prince's existence — and yet when a rival young lady appears, all she does is stand by and watch.

If one truly desires something, one must seize it by any means necessary. A detestable wench of that sort ought to have been dealt with in a single stroke of the blade.

First, scout out secluded locations free of people, then confirm the duty rosters of the castle servants—

"Oh."

He decided to save the rest of this emotionally overflowing book report for later. He simply… found himself wanting to read it later.

It meant she had immersed herself thoroughly in the story, so all's well that ends well.

He headed toward the kitchen garden and, sure enough, spotted the young lady passing by.

But what on earth was she holding?

"My lady. Just how deeply did you immerse yourself in The Little Mermaid?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I understand the blood is boiling, but please calm yourself."

An adorable face and a pristine white dress. A thoroughly battered yet somehow charming little dog plushie.

And a hand axe.

Its edge was so keenly sharpened that her face might well have been reflected in it like a mirror.

As he continued to stare, Cream went "Ah" and hid the axe behind her back.

"This is… nothing important."

"I'll take your word for it."

"I-it really is nothing. I w-went to dig up some herbs, but it turned out not to be the right ones, so I came back."

Stumbling over her words, she returned the axe to the gardener's shed, then came back with two pairs of gloves and two trowels.

Watching her head toward the rear mountain, it seemed she really was going to dig for herbs after all.

Andy trailed after her with little pattering steps.

"Why are you following me?"

"Because I am your tutor, my lady."

"If anyone saw us, they'd think you were a servant."

"As one who serves my lady, there is little difference."

"You never lose an argument even once… Fine. If you really have nothing better to do, help me out a little."

"I do not lack for things to do. I have lessons to conduct."

"Then today's lesson can be replaced with this."

Catching her breath, Cream roughly set down a trowel and pulled a book from her plushie — the herbal encyclopedia Andy had bought for her some time ago.

Flip-flip-flip — she turned the pages and stopped at one particular spot.

"Here. This plant. Please dig up the Wild Clinging Grass around us. You have to pull it up by the roots."

Reading the description of what medicinal preparations it went into, it seemed to be a base ingredient for fatigue recovery potions and a host of other remedies. Perhaps it was the same one Andy had taken once before.

Today's lesson: nature experience and potion-making…

It seemed like a fine activity. He had never actually watched Cream make medicine before.

She had once whipped something up on the spot at Mrs. Welina's house, but at the time Andy had been busy decorating the storage room and hadn't gotten a proper look.

This child's specialty and hobby. Grasping it thoroughly was part of a tutor's duty as well.

"Is that why you packed two pairs of gloves and two trowels in advance?"

"…I packed extras for myself as spares, but since things turned out this way, you can use them, Teacher."

He decided to accept that explanation and took the tools.

After that, the two of them squatted down side by side and lost themselves in the art of herb-gathering.

Carefully, carefully, the trowel sank into the earth so as not to damage the roots. The soft soil parted easily.

"Ah, that's not the right plant."

"Pardon?"

"The shape of the leaf tips is different. That's just a weed. It's easy to confuse with Wild Clinging Grass, so be careful."

"Ah, I see."

Andy nodded at Cream's correction. Comparing it to the illustration in the encyclopedia as she had said, the shapes were indeed different.

"You know a great deal about medicinal herbs, my lady. Well done."

"…I've known this much since I was little."

"…Did you learn it there?"

"I suppose so. It was such a poor place… You had to eat something, but you couldn't just eat any old plant, so I picked it up somewhere along the way."

Andy thought back to the Cream of the first timeline.

A poor young lady who foraged for medicinal herbs in the slums.

Drawing on that knowledge, she had continued making small remedies even at the mansion. She was a child who, too self-conscious to call a doctor when she fell ill, would brew her own medicine and endure alone.

"…My lady."

"Yes?"

"If you ever feel unwell later on, you must tell me at once. You must not endure it alone."

"Why? So you can wait for that moment and try something on me?"

"No. So that I may personally brush your teeth, wash your hair, tuck you into bed, pull a cozy blanket all the way up to your chin, and rock you to sleep with a lullaby—"

"Aaah, stop, stop!"

Cream's face flushed bright red as she flailed her arms wildly.

. . .

After gathering the herbs, they headed together to Cream's room.

She plucked the leaves from the stems, rinsed them in a basin of water, and pounded the damp fresh leaves to extract their juice. The roots would be dried separately later and ground into powder.

Seated at the desk, Cream wiped her forehead as she pounded the leaves with a small mortar — thump, thump, thump.

"Whew… This becomes the base, and then you add other ingredients."

"Other ingredients?"

"If you need to stay up all night, or want a bit more energy, you add something with a stimulant effect. If your body aches, you add something with pain-relieving properties. For reference, stimulants have a rebound, so you have to be ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠careful."

She volunteered all sorts of information without even being asked. She was like a little child coming home from school to chatter excitedly at her parents about everything she had ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠learned.

As he listened quietly, she brought a box from the drawer. Inside were several brown glass bottles; she took one out and scooped its contents with a tiny wooden spoon no bigger than a cotton swab.

"Leftover materials from a previous commission. Powdered Great Multiberry."

She added about three spoonfuls of the brownish powder to the mortar and stirred slowly with a glass rod so as not to create foam.

After that came a few more spoonfuls of other powders, and several drops of some unidentifiable liquid, as the work continued.

Finally, she poured it carefully into a glass without spilling a drop — and it seemed to be complete.

"Here."

"Pardon?"

"Drink it. It's for you, Teacher."

She held it out casually, her gaze fixed on some distant point rather than on Andy.

"You've been busy with commissions from early morning lately. And that means… well, you might not be able to teach my lessons properly. That's why I'm giving it to you."

"…"

"…If you don't want to drink it, fine. I'll just dri—"

Andy hastily reached out. He clasped the glass — and her hand along with it — making her squeak with a little "Hik!"

"Thank you, my lady."

"…"

Cream shook out her hand and stole a glance at Andy.

She watched intently as the contents of the glass at his lips dwindled, and as his Adam's apple bobbed.

"It's a bit bitter, but it's good. I feel a sense of ease spreading from my chest."

"…Hmph."

Having confirmed he had drunk every last drop, Cream took the glass away. She coughed nonchalantly, but the corners of her mouth twitched ever so slightly.

"Ah — is it possible to make this kind of medicine in pill form as well?"

"You dry the leaves, grind them into powder, and knead them with honey. But why do you ask?"

"Aren't we going to assist with a cathedral mission next week?"

"…"

Not long ago, Andy and Cream had formed a connection with the priests of the Horizon Sect.

They had learned that day of an important annual event that gathered every priest in the region — and that Andrew and Assistant Remi would be joining as well.

"I thought it would be nice to distribute them to the others that day."

"As if I'd make something for the sake of those clergy—"

Cream's face, which had looked so pleased, crumpled in an instant — then she suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

"…"

She quietly looked up at Andy.

Half-lidded pale pink eyes, staring fixedly.

It was a peculiar gaze — as though she were expecting something, or as though curiosity had taken hold.

"…Fine. I'll do it."

"Truly?"

"Yes. I'll make them for you."

And just like that, a ready affirmation.

As she spoke, she locked eyes with Andy. Blinking her eyelids demurely while staring straight through him, she prompted Andy to ask carefully: