Reunion
Yerna Risphind's expression darkened as she held her phone.
The text message glowing on the screen was what cast that shadow across her face.
There was no need to check the sender. It was Serena.
She was clearly intending to say something about what had happened last time.
A little late, perhaps — but still.
"Haa…"
The thought alone drew a sigh from her.
Luke.
Sensing Yerna's emotions, Pai called out to Luke, who had been reading a book.
"Ah, Pai. What is it?"
Yerna.
Luke looked up from the page toward Yerna, who sat with a deeply troubled face. Yerna glanced at her phone once more and let out another heavy sigh.
Sensing something amiss, Luke approached and asked,
"Is something wrong?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
"It doesn't look like nothing. Your expression is grim."
In truth, there was no hiding it.
The message itself said as much.
Come with Luke.
"The truth is… last time at the hospital… do you remember? That boy we met, and the lady."
"Shirud and Serena, you mean. Of course I remember."
An albino high-elf mixed-blood child who possessed a Circle.
There was no forgetting a child that special.
When Luke nodded, Yerna sighed heavily once more and spoke.
"She says she wants to meet me. With you."
"I thought as much."
He had had a feeling they would meet again.
Or rather, a feeling that the other party would want to meet again.
Luke, for his part, welcomed a reunion.
In truth, he had been somewhat worried about Shirud's unstable Circle.
It was only the First Circle, so some instability was only natural.
But what bothered Luke was that Shirud's temperament had proven less resilient than expected.
A mage that emotional… that child is bound to remain in danger going forward.
A poorly inscribed First Circle was poison.
And the First Circle Luke had briefly sensed in Shirud had absolutely not been properly inscribed.
What he had felt while personally stabilizing the Circle was that, despite already being seated in the child's heart, it was far too unstable.
I did touch up the form a little while forcibly stabilizing his heart, so the frequency of seizures should have dropped considerably…
Checking on it again in person would put his mind at ease.
After all, this was the first Circle mage he had encountered in this era.
A Circle, fundamentally, could not be inscribed without the person's own earnest wish. There were cases where it was inscribed by accident due to excessively high mana sensitivity, but Shirud's Circle had far too much presence for that to be the case.
His mana capacity was more than double the average…
Nothing compared to Luke's own body, but the boy was still highly gifted in sensitivity. Had this been the era of five thousand years ago, he would almost certainly have been able to reach the Eighth Circle.
Of course, the Ninth Circle and beyond was a realm unto itself.
But that was not something to think about now.
"Then when is the appointment?"
"This Sunday. Happens to be a day I can take off, so I was thinking of going… will you be okay with that, Lu?"
"Of course. No problem."
Luke nodded, then a sudden curiosity rose.
"Come to think of it, Serena was a high-elf, wasn't she?"
"That's right. How did you know?"
"The surname Tripind is one granted only to high-elves, is it not? That's common knowledge."
"Is it…?"
Luke had spoken as if it were obvious, but Yerna thought it was hardly the sort of common knowledge a child of about ten would know.
Children didn't usually pay attention to family names and the like.
"Then is Serena a noble?"
High-elves were the bloodline of the leadership class among elves.
Possessing superior abilities, they naturally held higher positions.
The World Trees had always been managed by high-elves who surpassed other elves in capability, and to handle a World Tree was to handle the divine.
In elven society, simply being closest to the World Trees — which were like their gods — conferred the authority of royalty or a divine clan.
So it was only natural that high-elves became nobles.
But that was a story from five thousand years ago.
"A noble…? Well… you could look at it that way…?"
The Tripind family, which held considerable influence in both political and corporate circles, could certainly be called "nobles" in the modern sense.
But what "noble" meant to Luke was…
Then I'll need to mind the etiquette.
As far as Luke knew, nobles required their own forms of etiquette.
Elven noble greeting etiquette was definitely…
As the etiquette came to mind, Luke suddenly realized that this knowledge was already five thousand years out of date.
Five thousand years was no short span of time.
It would not be strange at all if the etiquette had long since changed.
Etiquette among nobles was the most important act of reconnaissance that determined first impressions.
And of course, it applied to commoners as well.
A commoner who failed to perform the proper etiquette was invariably ignored and scorned.
A commoner's right to speak, if they failed to match the etiquette, was effectively nonexistent.
That was why village chiefs of the past had no choice but to be thoroughly versed in etiquette.
So Luke wanted confirmation.
And conveniently, there was an elf right in front of him.
"Yerna, would you watch for a moment?"
When Luke called to her, Yerna looked down at him with a face full of curiosity.
"What for?"
Feeling Yerna's gaze, Luke raised his right hand and placed it on his left shoulder.
With the other hand, he pinched the hem of his left pajama side as if lightly gathering a skirt.
Then he bowed his body lightly forward, lowering the hand that had been on his shoulder.
The trajectory had to describe an elegant curve, like an exponential function graph.
At the same time, he slightly lifted the hand pinching the pajama hem and drew one foot back.
It was important that the toes lift as if performing ballet.
I remember the female etiquette being like this…
It was awkward, but he could not perform the male etiquette.
Women used female etiquette; men used male etiquette.
That, too, was manners and law.
He currently accepted the fact that his "body" was biologically female.
That being the case, even if it felt awkward and unpleasant, observing female etiquette was the mark of a noble who respected the rules.
But then again, female etiquette was something he had only ever seen with his eyes.
Performing it with his own body was a first, so it was bound to look awkward.
Thinking this, he raised his head to check Yerna's expression — and Luke's body went rigid.
Her expression looked extremely unsettled.
"W-well? How was it…? Did I get it completely wrong?"
Luke instinctively knew his etiquette had not landed at all.
Was it the difference of eras, or had the female etiquette simply been a mess?
Pai, caught between them, made squeaking sounds as she looked rapidly back and forth between the two.
"That…"
Yerna had been thoroughly flustered at first.
Honestly, the sudden striking of a pose had even struck her as cute.
To be frank, she had been thinking lightly that the child was about to put on some little performance.
But that thought changed the moment Luke moved.
Too elegant.
It was a motion refined far too elegantly for a ten-year-old child to perform.
It felt completely mismatched with the age — as if it carried "experience."
This was not the level of roughly watching and imitating.
A sincere, proper greeting, full of heart.
How much blood and sweat would it take to pour that much sincerity into a single motion?
Why would one have needed to put in such effort?
There was no need to think deeply about that.
Grind. She felt her teeth grit.
Then Luke called her name with a worried expression.
"Yerna?"
"Ah."
Relax the face.
This child had done nothing wrong.
Yerna smoothed out her expression and continued.
"It's nothing. That… it was good, but you won't need a greeting like that with Serena. Just a simple bow of the head will do."
"Ah, I see."
……!
Hearing Pai make a sound like a whistle of relief put his mind somewhat at ease.
So the etiquette of this era has been considerably simplified.
With that thought, Luke suddenly felt a little embarrassed about performing female etiquette with his own body and about having done something unnecessary. He scratched his cheek with an awkward expression.
Luke, dummy!
"…You really are irritating today."
"I'm so sorry — am I late?"
"Ah, no! We haven't been waiting long at all—!"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Yerna Risphind."
"The pleasure is mine, Ms. Serena Tripind."
As Serena exchanged greetings with Yerna and approached with a gentle smile, Luke also offered a light bow of the head in greeting.
Then the silver-haired, red-eyed elf who had been brought along at her side — Shirud — pointed a finger at Luke and cried out.
"You…!"
He had observed proper etiquette on this side, and that was the reaction from the other.
It was not to his liking, but Luke could overlook a child's finger-pointing in a setting like this without much concern.
"I'm glad to see you again, Shirud."
Luke smiled lightly.
Shirud recoiled in horror.
Why is the stalker here…?
Shirud had been too embarrassed to ever say that a girl had forcibly groped his chest.
Honestly, he found Luke creepy and off-putting.
"Uh, Mom. I want to go home."
Seeing Shirud trembling, Serena assumed it was from shyness and chuckled as she spoke.
"What's wrong? This is a good chance to talk properly. Mom has things to discuss with this lady, so go play together in the play area over there."
Serena pointed to the children's play area in the corner of the café.
Shirud really did not want to go, but since his mother was a busy person and they wouldn't need to stay long, he reluctantly answered.
"Okay…"
Well, he could just mess around on his phone…
I won't just take it lying down this time.
Being groped on the chest by a girl really did feel weird, after all.