The Valentina Sisters (2)
The mystery of what had happened that morning was finally solved.
Angela hadn’t been lying.
The person Lawrence had met that morning had not been her.
It had been her older sister, Francois.
“Come out here, Sis. Aren’t you even going to say hello? This is Lawrence. He’s the pilgrim who arrived at the monastery a few days ago.”
“N-no, he’s a man. Why is there a man here?”
“Obviously because I brought him.”
“Why would you bring a man to a convent!”
The two sisters bickered with a bookshelf between them.
Angela tugged at Francois to come outside, while Francois clung to the shelf and refused to budge.
Watching them strain and struggle like that, Lawrence couldn’t have said which one was the younger sister and which the elder.
“More importantly, did you know Sister Helen has been looking for you?”
“Sister Helen? Why?”
“How should I know? Do I look like I know everything?”
“Oh no. I can already think of too many reasons.”
“Angela.”
“Hahaha.”
Angela gave an awkward laugh.
“What should I do, Sis?”
“Honestly…. Just go in and show your face first. Don’t forget to apologize. If you’re sincere, she won’t lecture you too badly.”
“Okay. I’ll do what you say.”
She let go of the bookshelf and came over to Lawrence.
“Please take care of my sister, then. And don’t forget your promise.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. You said you’d tell me stories, didn’t you?”
Lawrence didn’t even have time to stop her.
With that, she left the library behind.
“......”
“......”
A cold silence settled between the two of them.
He could even hear their eyes rolling.
Still using the bookshelf as a shield, Francois glanced warily at Lawrence. When she shifted experimentally, she vanished back behind it.
So what was he supposed to do in a situation like this?
“Um…. I’m sorry. Angela was rude to you.”
Her voice was so soft it sounded like an ant crawling across paper.
It was so faint that at first he thought he’d misheard.
“She dragged you here without really explaining anything, didn’t she? I’ll have a proper word with her later, so please forgive her.”
For better or worse, she really did seem to be the older sister.
Still, the sight of her peeking out from behind the bookshelf like that was a little… odd.
After some thought, Lawrence gathered his resolve.
In any case, he had no way of leaving the convent on his own.
Like it or not, he would have to wait here for Angela.
“You seem to like books.”
Lawrence looked over the spot where she had been sitting.
Books ringed by lamplight were stacked around her like a sturdy fortress.
They came in all kinds too.
Tears of the Ulbazar Swamp, The Northern Reaches of the Unknown World, The Human Heart You Don’t Know, Horseback Riding Made Easy…
A mess of titles with no discernible unifying theme caught his eye.
“Huh? Of course I do. If a title catches your interest, then you’ve already got your hand on the door. Books are entrances to new worlds.”
Francois’s voice quickened.
“Do you like books?”
“I’d like to like them, but I’ve always had a hard time getting close to them.”
“Pilgrims always carry a Bible, don’t they?”
“Even that Bible was something I only managed to read after a lot of hardship.”
For the clergy of the Order, the Bible was more precious than life itself.
Even pilgrims making the long, grueling journey were not supposed to part with it.
Lawrence was a little different, of course.
Instead of a Bible, the thing that had traveled with him was the Key of the Spirit World.
“Then how about novels? I can recommend plenty. Books only gain real value when someone reads them. They’re entertaining, and they’re very easy to read.”
At some point, her tone shifted into the casual register.
“Songs, maybe not, but novels are surprisingly hard to get your hands on.”
Printed books were expensive, but beyond that, they were rare.
Unless one was literally a noble, there was no easy way to obtain them.
“Ah…. I’m sorry. I was being thoughtless.”
As though she had woken from a dream, Francois looked away.
“How many of the books here have you read?”
“All of them.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ve read all of them.”
Lawrence stared at her blankly.
Was she really saying she had read every single book in this library?
“You read every book in the library?”
“Y-yes. Is that a problem?”
Had his voice risen without him realizing it?
Francois, who had finally begun to sound a little more comfortable, shrank back.
He had misstepped.
It wasn’t as if he were dealing with some skittish cat.
He would have to be careful with every little movement if he didn’t want to startle her.
A moment later, she spoke again.
“Angela’s gone too. Could you leave now?”
“That would be difficult. I made a promise to your sister. I said I’d tell her stories about the outside world.”
“Stories about the outside world?”
Her eyes glittered with curiosity.
But Francois immediately shook her head.
“No. It’s all right. You don’t have to tell me anything.”
But Lawrence had no intention of leaving empty-handed.
“I’m a pilgrim. I’ve traveled all over the kingdom in search of holy places. The Spider Forest in Horos Village. The border city of Rombamel. Rival Plains. And the Ulbazar Swamp is one of those places too.”
“Goodness. The Ulbazar Swamp?”
Francois’s voice rose.
“Wait, wait. Does the Ulbazar Swamp really have separate dry and wet seasons?”
“Yes. Whether it’s the dry season or the rainy season, it’s unbearably hot.”
Once she heard about the swamp, she came out from behind the bookshelf.
Her glossy blonde hair shimmered in the lamplight.
Balanced features, white skin.
As she stepped closer, he caught a fragrance he couldn’t identify.
Francois looked just like Angela.
The difference was that Angela had sharp, cutting eyes, while Francois’s eyes sloped down slightly, giving her a puppy-like look.
“I heard that when the rains come, the Ulbazar Swamp turns into a marsh.”
“In the dry season, places that are perfectly usable roads get swallowed by water in the wet season. It’s no exaggeration to say that every danger there comes from the water. But the people of Remington Village prefer the rainy season, when life falls from the sky, over the dry season, when everything is parched and dust blows everywhere.”
“Wow. So it was all true.”
Her voice carried genuine admiration.
“Do you want to go to the Ulbazar Swamp?”
“Huh? I guess I do, in a way. It’s not the sort of place you can just decide to visit. I want to see it, but I’m sure it would be miserable too. No, but if you ask whether I don’t want to go at all, then….”
As she trailed off, her voice seemed to lose strength, becoming so small by the end that it was almost inaudible.
Their eyes met suddenly.
Francois blinked, dazed.
Her expression seemed to say: why is Lawrence here?
Then she seemed to realize she had stepped outside on her own.
She hurried back behind the bookshelf.
“If, if you’re done talking, could you please go now?”
“Done? We’ve barely begun. If I really started telling you about the swamp, we’d be at it for more than a month.”
“A month…? You have that much to talk about?”
“A month wouldn’t even be enough.”
“......”
Francois’s eyes darted uneasily back and forth.
“But even if you tell me stories, I don’t have anything to give you.”
“Why not? Story for story. We can exchange the things we know.”
“Exchange stories…?”
“Yes. You said you’d read every book in the library, didn’t you? I’d like to hear about a novel you enjoyed, or any other stories you might have.”
Lawrence had already made up his mind.
Fate had a way of appearing in the most unexpected places.
In the first place, the reason he had gone along with this was because he wanted a glimpse into noble society through Angela.
He hadn’t expected a meeting like this.
He had only spoken a few words with Francois, and yet he could already tell.
Even though they were sisters,
Francois and Angela were very different.
Shy Francois, outgoing Angela.
For the kind of person Lawrence was looking for, Francois suited him better.
She was an educated intellectual who had read every book in the library.
If she were willing to help him, he might be able to learn not only about noble society, but all kinds of other things as well.
He’d learned that much at the Magic Tower.
To be honest, Lawrence’s knowledge was shallow.
What depth of learning could there really be in an orphan who had started as a complete nobody?
He might be fine for now, but eventually his lack of foundation would show.
Lawrence was a mage.
He didn’t want to be called ignorant, not even as a joke.
“It’s something you can learn just by reading books. Would that really help?”
“I’d rather ask why you think it wouldn’t help. Knowledge is understanding the world. Learning doesn’t lie. I think Francois, who’s read every book in the library, understands that better than I do.”
Maybe she had heard the earnestness in his voice.
Francois’s cheeks turned faintly red, and the corners of her mouth twitched.
“O-okay. I’m good at stories too.”
With a shy smile, she nodded.
“I’m late in introducing myself. I’m Lawrence.”
Lawrence held out his hand, but it never met hers.
“I’m Francois Valentina. Please take care of me, Lawrence.”
Francois answered while still hiding behind the bookshelf.
* * *
Lawrence adapted to life at the monastery quickly.
In the mornings, he attended mass and practiced magic.
He listened to the teachings of the Order, and once mass was over, he shut himself in his room and devoted himself to magical training.
The guest room was not an ideal place to practice magic.
The room was cramped, and the range of spells he could use there was limited.
It made him realize all over again just how blessed the Magic Tower’s workshops had been.
Still, it was fine.
What he needed urgently now wasn’t attack magic, but worm magic.
If he wanted to train other kinds of magic, he could always make use of the extermination requests he had been looking into through the mercenary guild.
Magic grew most visibly in the field, after all.
He also made sure to stop by the monastery stable whenever he could.
The horse Emily had given him was remarkably intelligent.
Whenever Lawrence came by, it would nuzzle him with easy affection.
It was enough to make every coin he’d tipped the stableman for special care feel well spent.
When he headed north, he planned to ride this one.
He could take a carriage as far as Winterglen, but it would not hurt to get used to riding a horse along the way.
Thanks to that, he had also become familiar with the stableman.
The man taught Lawrence a few riding tricks.
That day too, Lawrence was putting what he’d learned into practice when he spotted Angela approaching from beyond the grassland.
“What is it?”
“I’m sorry I left you alone with my sister last time.”
Lawrence, dismounting, gave a wry smile.
She was fidgeting, which meant she knew she’d done something wrong.
She had been like this at their first meeting too: always quick to apologize.
She didn’t look like it, but perhaps she was simply conscientious.
He couldn’t tell what she was like in front of people, but behind their backs she might be the sort who worried over everything.
“I didn’t expect you to just leave like that.”
“That’s why I’m apologizing, isn’t it?”
She held out what she had brought with a little flourish.
The fruit, red and delicious-looking, was an apple.
“These are apples. It wasn’t easy finding ones that were already cut up. Since I heard horses like them, take this and let it go, all right?”
That horses liked apples didn’t sound like a lie.
The horse twitched its tail at the smell of the fruit.
When Lawrence tried offering it one, the animal devoured the apple in an instant.
“You know more than I expected.”
“My older sister—the cutest in the world—taught me. She said not to apologize empty-handed, but to bring an apple.”
Was that supposed to be a play on words because apology and apple sounded alike?
It was the kind of joke that didn’t even earn a laugh.
“My sister told me. She said you’d be willing to keep talking with me.”
“It’s more that we’ll be exchanging stories with each other. I’ll get something out of it, and your sister will too.”
Francois would gain experience that could not be found in books.
Lawrence would gain knowledge that could not be found through experience alone.
In that sense, the arrangement served both their interests.
“Good. My sister needs to get used to men anyway.”
But then Angela said, with each word weighted carefully,
“If you touch my sister, I won’t let you off.”
As if I would dare.
Looking at her suddenly fierce expression, Lawrence gave a small laugh.
In the afternoon, he visited the mercenary guild.
Before heading north, he wanted to gather as much information as he could.
The mercenary guild, especially, was the expert on monsters.
“You’re back again today.”
“I’m sorry if I’m making extra work for you.”
“Not at all. Please don’t think of it that way. Helping mercenaries is what our guild is here for. If we can be of use, then that’s a good thing. Would you like me to give you more information about the north today as well?”
“I’d appreciate that, Dorothea.”
“Understood. Please wait just a moment.”
The receptionist Dorothea smiled.
She was the very same receptionist his fellow guild clerk had spoken of.
He had shown up there every day, and now he and Dorothea were close enough to exchange small talk.
“By the way, the extermination request you asked about last time will be starting soon. It’s a periodic request to cull gnolls. Would that be all right?”
“Yes. That’s fine. Gnolls aren’t bad.”
Thanks to that, it was easier to get information there than at other branches.
Or maybe it was simply that the Mistra branch was well organized.
At night, he visited the convent library.
Francois was always there.
Angela had been the first one he’d gotten to know, but as time went on, he had grown much closer to Francois.
Still, there was always a bookshelf between them.
Whenever Francois heard an interesting story, she would step out from behind it, only to flee back there again not long after.
“In noble society, manners matter most. First manners, second manners, third manners. Wealth and power come with responsibility and obligation. A noble must engrave that in their heart and live it.”
Francois lifted her chin high.
She seemed to be trying for a haughty expression in her own way, but her pretty face only made it amusing.
“That’s different from the nobles I know.”
With a few exceptions like Lurizisa, the nobles Lawrence knew were full of vanity.
“There aren’t many nobles these days who truly pursue honor and glory. Reality and ideals are clearly different things.”
Francois went on,
“But no matter how far a house may decline, there are still nobles who never abandon their duty. The families people call great houses. If you’re naming famous families in the kingdom, the Raynald Family is the first one that comes to mind.”
“Is the Raynald Family really that impressive?”
“There’s no need to say more than that. Every noble in the kingdom grows up hearing that name. Honor is what remains unbroken even when all else breaks. Conviction is stronger than the sword. A knight who keeps the chivalry that no longer exists on the battlefield. The Raynald Family, with Sword Saint Lady Sevitia in its midst, is a great house anyone would acknowledge.”
She joined her hands together and spun in place.
“A brilliant commander who led countless battlefields to victory alongside the Four Knights of the Promise. A hero who saved the kingdom and will never appear again. Ah, if only I could see her once more….”
Francois’s eyes grew hazy as she let her imagination run.
It would take a while before she came back to earth.
Lawrence looked toward Angela, perched on the windowsill.
“What do you think of Angela?”
“About what?”
“The great houses.”
“I’m not interested. Honor, pride—those sorts of things. No one praises you for clinging to them. If people don’t just laugh at you for not understanding reality, you should count yourself lucky.”
There was even a faint edge of cynicism in her answer.
“So you think differently from your sister.”
“I understand reality now. Don’t you, Lawrence?”
As though the time for dreaming had already passed, Angela shook her head.