Call Me Lia
Even after Lady Celia returned, my daily life remained largely unchanged.
I rose in that gray hour between dawn and morning and made my way to the library.
"Good morning, Lisa!"
"Mm..! Morning, Abel!"
Inside a library that no longer needed much organizing, I spent my time reading alongside Lisa.
"I brought some snacks..."
"Oh! Nice~! What'd you make today, Abel?"
"Sandwiches — fish, steak, and chicken!"
"Whoa— hearty and loaded~!"
I stopped by the empty kitchen and prepared snacks for the knights and the workshop servants.
Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!
"Listen well, Abel! Some folks say smithing is all about the hammer! But in the end, what matters in the forge is the fire!"
"Yes, sir!"
"The fire's dying! Don't stop working that bellows!"
"Yes, sir!"
In the afternoons I visited the smithy, learning the arts of polishing and refining arms from the dwarven craftsman, Old Man Gadolph.
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
"Hooo..."
Or I stepped out into the garden and used leftover timber to craft household furniture and toys for play.
Aside from going fishing with Duke Dryunain every weekend, my days repeated themselves in much the same fashion, without any great change.
Yes. My days... kept repeating.
And yet—
"My lady..."
"Hm?"
When I looked down and asked, the young lady squatting nearby tipped her face up at me and tilted her head.
Violet eyes and mysterious sky-blue hair.
The first time I saw her, she had looked like a fresh-faced adventurer just setting out on a journey. When she returned, she had seemed like a seasoned swordswoman.
But now, with her hair loose in long waves and a white dress with straps over her shoulders, she looked for all the world like the innocent young lady of a noble house.
The kind of person one felt almost too awkward even to look at...
"Why are you following me around...?"
She kept watching me from nearby.
In the library. While I cooked. At the smithy. And now, even here in the garden.
"If there's something you need me to do, please just say so."
As a servant, and as a man who owed her his life, I was prepared to carry out whatever Lady Celia asked of me — even if it meant staking everything I had.
"Hmm..."
She rose to her feet with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Abel. Speak casually with me."
"Pardon?"
She had ordered something both extremely simple and extremely difficult.
"...I can't. I'm a butler of House Valstein, and you are my benefactor, my lady. How could I possibly address you so rudely?"
"Aww~ I'm the one telling you to speak casually so you'll be comfortable. And Abel won't even listen to me~"
She turned her back and muttered just loud enough for me to hear.
"Abel! You said you owed me a debt, didn't you?"
She spun back around with a face full of mischief.
This woman...
I'd only known her a few days, but she had a surprisingly tomboyish streak.
"Yes... You saved me when I was on the brink of death, my lady."
At the time I'd been rescued, gratitude for having my life spared had tangled with resentment over being kept alive. But that was no longer the case.
Thanks to her, I had lived long enough to remember the people who had cherished me, and to reclaim a reason to go on.
"Right! So as repayment for that debt — when it's just the two of us, speak casually with me, and call me 'Lia.'"
On the surface it sounded like she was loosening the rules for private moments, but she had casually slipped in the condition that I call her by a nickname.
"That..!! I can't! If anyone were to overhear..!"
"Oh my, so Abel isn't grateful to me at all? You say you owe me your life, but you won't do a single thing I ask... How cruel."
She shot me a sidelong glance, putting on a wounded expression.
But the corners of her mouth were trembling as she fought back a smile.
Wasn't she the one who had told me several times that I didn't need to repay the debt?
Of course, that didn't mean I had any intention of leaving it unpaid...
"Haa... All right."
"Yes! I win!"
True to the hero who hadn't yielded an inch against the Demon King, she claimed her victory over me and bounced on her feet with delight.
"Come on, come on! Hurry! Hurry!"
She thumped her ample chest with her fists, urging me on as if to say, Go on, try it.
"All right..."
"...And?"
"All right."
"Good. Good. Next?"
...So she was demanding that, too.
I had only ever called one person by a nickname before.
"...Lia."
My face burned so hot I couldn't bear to look at her. I turned my head aside and spoke the name carefully.
But when no answer came no matter how long I waited, I turned back to look at her—
"Pfft... Puhuhu—!"
—and found her covering her mouth with her hand, barely holding in her laughter.
Right. I'd been had. Tricked by a noble young lady's prank into daring to drop her name like that.
"...My lady."
"Sorry, sorry! Sorry for laughing.. Okay? Keep calling me Lia. So what are you making, Abel?"
"..."
She smoothly changed the subject to the square wooden board I had been working on.
"It's a go board, my lady."
I answered without looking at her either.
Swoosh.
"...?!"
"I told you to call me Lia."
She silently gripped my shoulder, leaned her face in close, and whispered — and I froze solid.
"A..all right. Lia."
"What's a go board, Abel?"
After startling me, she pulled away as if nothing had happened.
Right... So this was the kind of person she was.
"It's a tool the adults in our village use for a game they enjoy..."
A few generations back, Magiavell had seen many immigrants arrive from various nations and groups.
The cultures they left behind had remained intact, so Magiavell had many pastimes rarely found on the continent.
"I know chess and othello, but I've never heard of go."
"When I learned it, they said it was a traditional game from the southern kingdoms. So it's not strange that you wouldn't know it, Lia."
"Is this almost done?"
At Lia's question, I looked at the go board.
The square shape was already perfect — all that remained was to draw the horizontal and vertical lines.
As for the stones... I had already finished them, polishing black and white ore I'd collected while visiting the smithy.
"Yeah. Just need to draw the lines. Should be done soon."
"Really?! Then can I try it too?"
She clapped her hands as she cried out, and I looked at her face.
She was as excited as a little girl.
I wasn't sure a rural village game could entertain a noble young lady.
"Sure. It's a two-player game, so let's play together."
If there was something she wanted, I wanted to grant it as much as I could.
And so... once the go board was finished, we enjoyed not only go but also games like omok and alkkagi.
Clack—!
"Yaaay—! I won! I flipped it and knocked your stone out?!"
"Wow.. I almost had that. You're no joke, Lia."
"Heh! Right? This is the true power of Celia de Valstein!"
There was no boredom, no disappointment — she threw herself into every game with total focus and genuine delight.
Thank goodness... If I had managed to give her some joy.
"Go was a little hard.. but yeah! Omok and alkkagi are fun! They're different from chess or othello somehow?"
"They happen on the same board, but the rules are different. Feels like a completely different battlefield."
"To invent games like these with just a few simple tools... The people who thought of them must have been geniuses!"
I chatted with the excited Lia as I packed up the go board.
"Uuugh—!"
Lia stretched, then—
"Huh? The sky's... turning orange."
—looked up at a sky where the sun had already sunk halfway toward evening.
"It's dinnertime. Shall we head back for a meal, Lady Celia?"
"No... It's still just the two of us."
She puffed out her cheeks and grumbled at my butler-like behavior.
"Once the workday returns, a butler attending his lady is only natural. It means it's time to work."
"Is that how it is?"
"That's how it is."
She was only passing the time with someone like me because she was briefly bored — but she was, without question, the young lady and heir of a high noble house.
And a great hero who had helped defeat the Demon King.
So if an ordinary person like me grew too close to her, it would look strange to those around us, and it would do nothing for her reputation.
Staying in my place and supporting her in every way I could — that alone, I believed, was how I repaid her kindness.
"I'll clean these up and head back, so you go on ahead, Lia. If you're late, the Duke and the knights will worry."
I deliberately turned my back and began gathering the scattered go stones, tidying the board, when—
Rustle—
...Hm?
I felt a presence right behind me — someone who should have already walked away — and turned my head.
Rustle.. rustle...
Lia, who should have left, was crouching down, both hands busily rummaging through something.
At her fingertips sat the basket holding the leftover sandwiches from lunch — the ones remaining after I'd given some to the knights and servants.
"Abel! There are exactly two left!"
Lia held a sandwich in each hand, beaming at me with a sunny smile.
"Why are you...?"
I asked, bewildered that Lia — who ought to be eating Chef Hans's fine cuisine in the castle dining hall — was holding something as humble as my sandwiches.
"Let's have these for dinner. It'd be a waste to leave them."
"No.. those are just sandwiches I threw together roughly."
"I like these. I wanted one earlier too, but I didn't say anything because I was worried there wouldn't be any left. Ah! Which one do you want, Abel? Fish? Chicken?"
As if she truly meant it, Lia unwrapped the paper around a sandwich and offered it to me.
Ah... Lia really was a strange young lady.
The image of a noble lady I'd held in my head was crumbling apart.
"You pick first, Lia."
"Really? No take-backs! I want chicken! I'm sick of fish — Father brings home a catch every week."
Given the Duke's personality, he would never throw away fish he'd caught himself.
"Mmm— delicious! What is this?! This is actually amazing!"
After one bite, Lia's eyes went wide with surprise, then lit up as she began devouring the sandwich with abandon.
I watched her, wondering if one might not be enough.
Ah.. there's a crumb on her cheek.
Reflexively, I reached out and brushed the bit of bread from her face—
"..."
"Ah."
—then froze at the dazed look on Lia's face as she stared at me, and realized what I had just done.
A mere servant had touched the face of a noble young lady.
"I..I'm sorry! No — I apologize! It was force of habit..!"
How was I supposed to explain that it was the habit of wiping Selpi's mouth whenever something stuck while she ate?
Thinking I might face serious punishment, I set down my sandwich and started to correct my posture when—
"Mmm... so this is what it felt like."
The soft murmur she let slip as she touched the spot on her cheek I had brushed, her eyes somehow damp, stopped me cold.
What this felt like..? What did she mean?
"It's fine. You didn't do anything wrong, Abel. If anything — take care of me like this next time, too."
"What..?"
"You're my butler, after all."
Because I was her butler.. so it was all right?
"Ah! Right! That would be perfect!"
Lia exclaimed as if something had just occurred to her.
"What do you mean?"
I asked, a vague unease rising in me.
"Mmm—!"
But Lia only kept eating her sandwich, offering no answer to my question.
And the next day—
"L..Lady Celia is here!"
"Kyaa—! My lady! What brings you here?!"
Celia had come to visit the workshop where the servants were gathered.
The servants who owed her their gratitude all abandoned their work at once and rushed out.
A scene I'd only ever witnessed when a famous theater troupe or a popular bard arrived now unfolded inside the normally solemn workshop.
"Has everyone been working hard?"
"Yeees—! We worked hard thinking of you, my lady!"
"Hehe— is that so? Thank you, Elise."
She called each of the servants by name and exchanged a few light words, then looked my way, smiled with her eyes, and approached.
"Abel!"
Ah.. no, she didn't need to do it like that..!
She could have just come over and spoken, but she waved her arms wide and ran toward me so cheerfully that everyone was sure to notice.
"My la—"
Grab—!
"Starting today, Abel is my exclusive butler!"
Lia seized both of my hands as I rose and announced it for all to hear.
Sharp, prickling gazes gathered on me — the kind that said, Who does this guy think he is?
"W..what are you talking about?! No — what do you mean, my lady?! Exclusive butler?"
"From now on, you work right by my side, Abel! You know exclusive butlers get rooms assigned near their master's chambers, right?"
She kept saying things that were bound to cause misunderstandings..!!
"That's.. impossible. I don't have the ability to serve as an exclusive butler..! I can't arrange social schedules, and with this body of mine, I couldn't even guard you in an emergency!"
What I'd learned while working as a butler was that butlers had ranks of their own — and that the exclusive butler to a family's heir sat just below the head butler, a position of extraordinary difficulty.
I was ignorant of noble society, half-blind in one eye, and lame in one leg. It was impossible for me.
"Then there's no problem at all! I don't enjoy tea parties or banquets, so there's no need to arrange schedules — and I'm Celia of the Ice Sword, one of the heroes who defeated the Demon King, remember? If anything, I'd be the one protecting you, Abel."
"My lady... I fall far short of the competence needed for an exclusive butler's duties."
As I voiced my refusal again and again, the surroundings fell quiet.
It wasn't the condemning stare of people thinking, How dare the likes of you refuse the lady.
What filled my colleagues' eyes was sympathy.
They were eyes that understood how I felt, because they too lived in bodies marked by disability.
"No. Only Abel can do it."
But Lia looked at me with boundless trust in those violet eyes, like Pluto crystals, and spoke once more.
"Only Abel can be in charge of my playtime."
"What? In charge of playtime?"
Had I misheard? Was there such a thing as a playtime butler?
"Abel is my exclusive play companion butler."
"Lia.. where in the world is there an exclusive butler like that...?"
I was so flustered I called her by name as I asked.
"Ha? Are you looking down on the job of playing with me? I am Celia de Valstein! Since I was little, I've tasted every form of high culture this kingdom has to offer — every performance, every circus, every grand party!"
Well.. that was true. As the sole heir of a ducal house, she would have experienced every enjoyable and entertaining thing there was.
"Abel! Do you really think you can satisfy me as my exclusive playtime butler?!"
Barely holding back her laughter, she put on a thoroughly provocative expression as if performing on stage, pointed a finger at me, and declared it for all to hear.