In and Out

When Hervena heard that Megan had gone and sat for a job interview, her mouth fell open at the sheer nerve of it.

"The girl is quick and tidy with her work, I'll give her that, but..."

Megan fixed her with a look that said she was not to add another word, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Hervena had no choice but to let the sentence die where it stood.

Whatever anyone else made of it, Blow saw no harm in the thing. He tipped his head toward Megan, easy and offhand.

"I'll speak to Mother about hiring you tomorrow."

"Thank you, Young Master."

Megan caught her skirt and bowed once more.

Jane and Hans, still unsure whether this difficult creature was someone they were meant to like, drank in silence. Hervena stared blankly ahead, as if one of the few friends she could speak to without guarding her tongue had just vanished.

"Didn't you come here to eat?"

"...My appetite is gone."

"It'll come back."

Blow flicked a glance at Melo, and Melo held out what little remained of the Red and Yellow they had been working through earlier.

"Please try this!!"

"This yellow powder is...?"

"Curry powder. Skadi already paid for all of it, so don't worry about the cost."

"Just put it in your mouth, Hervena!"

She hesitated before the first bite. One sausage went down, and after that she started shoveling them in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as if they might disappear.

Light returned to her dying eyes, and she cried out, her voice bright with joy.

"This powder is a complete lunatic!"

"Hervena. The Young Master is right in front of you. You might want to mind your language."

Megan said it quietly, the way one presses a lid down on a pot.

Hervena, struck dumb for a moment, burst out in a sulk.

"You're already doing that?"

"You weren't supposed to talk like that in the first place."

Megan shook her head, perfectly firm. Hervena's mouth pushed out in a pout, and she stuffed a piece of roasted potato into it without another word.

So even Hervena has someone she can't budge.

Blow was still studying that peculiar little food chain when Jane, who had been sitting quietly beside him, spoke as if something had just occurred to her.

"There's something I've been wondering. How did you come up with Red and Yellow?"

"I told you. I drank with a fellow from Parso."

He answered at once, before she had time to doubt him. But Jane knew him better than anyone. She tilted her head and looked at him as if that could not possibly be true.

"Does it matter? What matters is that it's delicious!"

Skadi slid in sideways and held out her beer mug. Blow shouted nice in his head and knocked his own cup against hers.

Red and Yellow — currywurst, in other words — was not a dish he had ever eaten in Germany. He was a man who had never even made it as far as Jeju Island.

The way people back from a trip through Southeast Asia would talk about fruit without end, Private Shin, the senior paired with him, brought up the currywurst he had eaten in Germany whenever he found a gap in the conversation.

He heard it until the words grew calluses on his ears, and on leave he tried making it once himself. It turned out better than he had expected.

Private Shin, of course, shook his head and told him several thousand more times that you had to eat it in Germany for it to be the real thing.

Even so, he had now eaten what Melo made. It would be at least as good as that memory, if not better. It certainly would not be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠worse.

At the moment she had finally spent the last of her strength and was nodding off at the next table.

"Melo."

"Y-yes!? Young Master!"

"Go and sleep. You worked hard today."

"Yes!"

"I'm turning in as well. I was up all of last night."

With that, Blow started to rise along with her.

Hervena and Skadi immediately twisted their faces into every complaint they owned.

"I was up all last night too?!"

"Me too!"

"The two of you were drinking with me."

"I went and did my assignments."

"The customers are still holding the table, and the owner wants to slip off to bed? That's a bit..."

Skadi laid the threat down, but Blow ignored it and got to his feet.

Then five silver landed on the table with a solid clink.

"Drinking-buddy fee."

"......"

Blow pocketed the coins and sat back down.

Megan took Melo upstairs in his place, and Hans went with them. He had cried so much all day there was hardly a drop of water left in him.

These tiresome faces...

What remained at the table were the magic-school regulars, for whom an all-nighter was as natural as breathing. Jane seemed to have had only a drink or two, and already she was tipsy, humming under her breath as if her mood had lifted.

"So, Skadi. What's been eating at you lately?"

"Nothing's eating at me! Oh, right! I'm out of money these days."

"That's your worry?"

"Yep! Guess I ought to get in touch with Dad soon."

He thought, somehow, that he knew the reason, but keeping his mouth shut seemed the wiser course, so he said nothing at all.

Unlike Skadi, who was diligently planting beer in her mouth, Hervena looked to be in poor spirits. She sighed so softly it was hard to tell whether she was sighing at all.

You could not ignore what sat right in front of you. This time Blow turned his eyes on her.

"Hervena. Why do you look so down?"

"Some days are just like that."

"Is it Megan?"

"No. If she's here, I'll get to see her more often. That's better, if anything."

"Then why?"

She hesitated, right on the point of answering — and Jane, beside her, latched on the way she had the day before.

"Our Hervenaaa, whaaat's the matter nooow?"

Through Blow's head flickered what Jane had said earlier: that she was too tired, and couldn't she please rest today.

...I should have put her to bed the moment this ended.

His eyes squeezed shut.

Jane, with no idea what was going on inside him, only clung to Hervena harder.

"Hmm? What's the problem?"

"There isn't one."

"Oh, come on, there is too!"

"It's just... the assignments, I suppose."

"Stress too hard and you'll die!! Drink it and forget it!!"

Jane poured what was left in her own cup into Hervena's, and Hervena's face loosened a little.

Anyone could see it was not the assignments. But she clearly did not want to talk, and prying did not feel right, so Blow sat without a word. What nagged at him more was Skadi, who had gone quiet at some point and was sneaking glances between Hervena and him.

A few days later, in front of the Nyx Inn.

The Nyx Inn crew and Hervena had gathered to see Luce and Romang off.

"I ate far too well these past few days. I've put on weight. Once I'm back in Blanya I'll have to move this body of mine."

"I'm glad it was to your taste."

"I was worried about the day I'd have to send Melo up, but if Megan is coming up with her, I can breathe a little easier."

"Thank you for allowing it, Madam."

The morning after that night, he had brought Megan up with his mother, and her joining them was settled on the spot. The flowers and the paintings had vanished from the manor, and Luce had been left a little adrift.

When those words reached Megan, she bowed her thanks to Luce again and again.

Things are working out very nicely.

Blow's grin was hooked all the way to his ears. Jane saw it, tilted her head, and whispered into the ear of Hans beside her.

"The Young Master looks far too pleased... What do you make of it?"

"Could it be because of Megan?"

"It can't be. For him to be that happy..."

While they whispered, Luce took Hervena's hand and smiled.

"Hervena."

"Yes, my lady."

"If you have something to say, tell me whenever you like."

"...Yes."

Looking at her, the corners of Hervena's eyes grew wet.

Blow was trading his last goodbye with Melo.

"I'll be back!"

"Come up soon. We've got a shop to run."

"The shop matters more to you, doesn't it...?"

"Obviously."

At that, Melo's mouth jutted out again. Blow ruffled her hair and told her he had only been teasing, and then his eyes met those of her mother, Romang.

"Thank you for understanding."

"Not at all, Young Master. I leave her in your care from here on, as well."

"Don't worry. I'll make sure you can hear from her as often as possible."

"Thank you. There was one thing I was curious about, though."

"Ask away."

"The sausages. Did you use the mid-grade ones on purpose?"

"Haha. Use high-grade for the sausages as well, and no one but His Majesty the Emperor could afford to eat them."

He answered with a shrug, and a faint smile spread over Romang's face.

"I knew you had thought it all through."

"We have to sell them, one way or another."

Romang nodded. Melo was still pouting, as if she had not quite forgiven him. To her, in a voice gentler than was usual for him, Blow said:

"Come back soon. I'll be bored."

"Yes."

Only then did Melo's face brighten.

At last the wheels of their carriage began to turn.

"I'll be back before you know it!!!"

Melo waved hard toward them until they were out of sight.

Blow drew one long breath, as if a storm had passed, and nodded to Jane and Hans.

Inside the carriage bound for Blanya.

Melo was dead asleep. Romang watched the world outside, where the city had already fallen away and nothing remained but barren fields.

Luce, who had been embroidering, stopped her needle and spoke.

"Romang, I've grown a little fond of Caipol."

"Have you."

"I ought to grow fonder still. My son is there."

"Do you remember, from before? When Young Master Elcid and Young Master Blow were learning to ride."

"Haha, let me see... That was before Lady Whiteflame came, so Blow would have been seven? Nearly ten years already."

"Yes. Back then Young Master Elcid, the elder, took to a horse right away, and Young Master Blow could not ride at all."

"Strictly speaking, the horse had no intention of moving."

Under a sky sinking into sunset, Elcid rode off toward the setting sun, and Blow shouted at a perfectly innocent horse.

Remembering it, Luce smiled.

"You remember the Baron, from then?"

"Ah. Then."

Baron Slot Deblique. Blow's father, and the man of remarkable skill who had pulled a failing baronial house back from ruin.

He was a man of very few words, and he began and ended things so cleanly that it felt cold. The household staff of those days had found him truly difficult. Busy with his work, he neither played with his sons nor watched their training, and he almost never shared a meal with them.

But the first time his sons learned to ride on the fields of Blanya, the window of his room stood open. He looked down from there, sighing now and then, fretting, turning a walnut over in his fingers as he watched.

Sunk in the memory, Luce let out a long, deep sigh.

"I couldn't fathom the Baron's heart back then. This time, I understood."

"When Melo was cooking?"

"Yes."

What parent wishes for their child to fail?

When Melo came out with the food, no one at that table had been more on edge than she was. What if it did not taste right? What if the girl was too nervous? She had worried herself sick, and the moment she tasted the potato salad she had to hold back tears that wanted to spill all at once. Only then did she finally understand the heart of the baron who had watched his children from behind as they learned to ride.

"Romang, children really do grow up too fast."

"They do."

"The moment you finally have a little room to spare, the moment you can give them love, off they go."

"It doesn't feel like a relief. It only aches."

"I'm the same."

Romang stroked the face of her daughter, asleep like an angel.

A little later a few tears dropped onto that hand, and over the fields where winter was coming, only ragged grass tossed in the wind.

That evening, after Luce's party had gone, Hans and Jane lay sprawled in their chairs like the dead once the first dinner service without Melo was over.

"Without Melo I think I'm going to die."

"Even if we pull a few tables, we can't keep up."

The two of them, collapsed where they sat, answered Blow in one voice when he came back from meeting Rowbedi.

"Young Master, you've worked hard!"

"Youn' Mashter, ya worked sho hard, shir!"

"Yeah. You both worked hard today, filling Melo's place."

"It was rough. Every single day worries me. How are we even supposed to get through this...?"

Jane found herself missing Splas a little — the days when she only had to look after the books, and the hour she could leave was certain.

Unlike her, Blow had been grinning without pause ever since he sent his mother off.

"Did something happen?"

"Of course something happened!"

With the words, a slip landed on the table with a smack.

The moment Jane and Hans saw the figure written there, their eyes went wide, and Blow shot both arms into the air as if he were cheering.