Childhood (2)
About twenty minutes later, the time had slipped into a lazy, declining afternoon.
We walked along the road until we’d left the center of the village behind and reached the outskirts, where fruit trees grew thick and abundant. I let go of her hand a little and glanced around, but the fig tree Ria had taken an interest in was nowhere in sight. It seemed we’d have to go deeper in before it came into view.
“Lady Ria, I don’t think there are any fig trees around here. Would you like to keep going?”
“Mm-hm. We’ve come all this way, so we can’t just go back without even seeing the fig tree, can we?”
“I’ll follow your lead, of course, Lady Ria, but are you certain that’s all right? If we’re too late getting back, your mother will worry.”
“Oh, no, that won’t do at all. Cain, what time is it now?”
“It’s 5:40 p.m. You’ve been out for an hour and thirty minutes.”
I slipped the pocket watch back into my pocket and stole a look at Ria’s face.
She’d already been out for an hour and a half, and since it was nearly six o’clock, she seemed to be wavering; she tapped the corner of her lip with a finger, letting out a soft hum in thought.
...Well, I was sorry to Ria, but from my point of view, it would be better if she went back to the manor as things were. The outdoors could hide any number of dangers, and if she slipped up, she might end up caught in some incident and become the villainess after all.
Saying it like that might sound like I was exaggerating, but considering I still didn’t know what the event or trigger that turned Ria into a villainess was, it wasn’t an exaggeration at all.
To put it a little more extremely, she could even trip over a cobblestone over there and become a villainess from that.
So I needed to be careful of everything that caught my eye, and because I had to verify things as well, it was best not to leave even a hint of danger lying around. Better to uproot any seed of risk before it could take hold.
With that sincere conviction, I opened my mouth to ease Ria’s worries.
“Ah, Lady Ria. Did you know something?”
“Hm? Something?”
I cleared my throat and lowered my voice as much as possible before meeting her eyes again.
“I only learned this recently myself, but in this area, monsters are said to appear after sunset.”
“M-monsters…?”
“Yes. Monsters. Extremely terrifying ones.”
When I emphasized the last part, Ria’s shoulders gave a little jolt.
“Huh... monsters, then? What kind of monsters?”
She was trying very hard to look calm, but her eyes were darting around frantically. Looks like scaring her was working.
Now was the time. I needed to drive the point home.
“Well, there isn’t just one kind; there are several. First, the ones that appear most often are wolf monsters with silver manes and eyes so red they look as if blood is pouring from them. They’re so vicious that they attack people on sight, and whenever they see young girls, they go completely mad and rush in with their jaws wide open, slowly tearing them apart starting from the head and chewing them down bit by bit until—”
“C-Cain...! Stop, stop!”
Ria’s face had gone pale, and she shook her head hard from side to side. Apparently she didn’t want to hear any more of my description.
“Why, are you scared?”
“I-I’m not doing this because I’m scared! I know plenty already, so don’t try to frighten me for no reason!”
“You know plenty? Who, you?”
It was kind of fun, teasing her like this, and before I realized it, I’d ended up saying something close to a provocation.
Sure enough, Ria’s brow twitched and then bent into an inverted shape.
“Eek, Cain! I know plenty too, you know! Even if this is the edge of the village, it’s a place where the ambient mana is thin, so I know monsters hardly ever show up here!”
Wait, how did she know that? I’d only said it because she was a properly raised noble lady and I’d assumed she wouldn’t know such a thing.
For some reason, though, she seemed to understand the connection between mana density and monster appearances very well. A tutor wouldn’t have taught her that, so had she learned it from books?
I hadn’t expected Ria to know, so I was a little flustered and could only work my lips silently. She met me with a proud look.
“And besides, even if a monster did appear, I could at least protect myself!”
“Protect yourself? How exactly?”
It sounded as if she had some kind of backup plan, and I was curious what it was, so I asked. Ria promptly shut her mouth.
Her expression was strangely shy.
“...A-anyway! I do have something. So, Cain, let’s hurry farther in and look at the fig tree. If we keep dragging this out, Mother will worry.”
“Yes, then I’ll lead the way.”
What was that about, getting me curious for nothing?
I nearly pressed her further, but her cheeks were a little red, like she might be annoyed, and I figured she probably wouldn’t answer anyway, so I let it go.
We fell silent and moved forward. Crossing over the wild, overgrown brush and passing through dozens of densely packed trees, we finally came upon a small hill with the fig tree Ria had wanted to see standing atop it.
“Ah, found it. Cain, that’s the one, right?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Let’s go closer. I want to look at it in detail.”
I’d expected as much. I nodded and held out my hand to Ria.
“Yes, let’s.”
Ria hesitated and looked down at my outstretched palm. Her face asked why I was suddenly offering my hand, but I absolutely wasn’t doing this for any personal reason. It was simply imperial etiquette.
After all, what was a hill? Just a small rise in the ground. And when a man and a woman climbed one together, it was traditional imperial etiquette for the man to go first and escort the lady.
So I offered my hand to avoid violating proper manners, and perhaps Ria realized that only belatedly, because she carefully extended her fingers and took mine.
“Mm... okay, let’s go.”
“I’ll pull you along, so please just relax and let yourself be guided.”
Holding Ria’s hand, I climbed the hill. Since it was a slightly higher patch of ground than the surrounding area, the view opened up the moment we reached the top, giving a clear, unobstructed feeling.
I was about to sweep the area for anything suspicious when Ria gave my hand a light tug.
“Wow... Cain, look at this. That tree is huge! How tall do you think it is? Three meters? Four?”
“Hmm. It looks about five times your height, Lady Ria, so maybe around seven meters?”
“Cain! What are you saying? I’m not that short!”
Apparently she took offense at the height comment, because she squeezed my hand hard. It didn’t hurt, since it was the strength of a girl, but the very next words she said stabbed straight into my ear.
“And isn’t it actually you who’s shorter than me, Cain?”
“Me? Impossible. Look, I’m clearly much taller than you, Lady Ria.”
“Liar. Did you think I wouldn’t notice you’re always wearing height-increasing boots? The insoles alone are seven centimeters!”
How did she know that?
I jerked in shock, hit right where it hurt. But only for a moment; I quickly rearranged my expression into its usual impassive face. Yet Ria must have caught that fleeting crack, because she narrowed her eyes and stared at me sharply.
“Cain, I saw that. You just broke your poker face, didn’t you?”
“What... what are you talking about?”
“What am I talking about? Don’t play innocent with me, Cain. You are wearing height-increasing boots, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not. I don’t know where you heard such a false rumor, but you must be mistaken...”
“Oh? Then take them off.”
“Take what off?”
“The boots you’re wearing right now. If they aren’t height-increasing boots, then you should be the same height even without them.”
At the moment, with the height-increasing boots on, my eye level was slightly above Ria’s.
But if I took them off, the situation would be reversed, and her eye level would be above mine instead.
Needless to say, I was a man. And a man’s pride came from his height. There was no way, under any circumstance, I could take off my height-increasing boots...
“Cain, if you don’t take your boots off right now, I’m going to tell Mother that you didn’t listen to my orders.”
“......”
How shamelessly underhanded, using the parents card. Ria, you cunning little villainess...!
Imagining with a chill that perhaps Ria had already become a splendid villainess in her own right, I awkwardly took off my boots.
As soon as the heels and insoles came off, my height dropped by more than seven centimeters in an instant, and our eye levels reversed; Ria was now looking down at me.
“What? Cain, you said you weren’t wearing height-increasing boots.”
“My height just shrank a little because it’s the afternoon.”
“Ohhh... I see. Your height shrank because it’s the afternoon?”
Ria seized on my words and smiled brightly. It was a lovely, adorable smile, exactly what you’d expect from a ten-year-old girl.
And yet, for some reason, what I saw in it looked more like a picture-perfect villainess covering her mouth with one hand and laughing in a frivolous, mocking way.
“When’s your birthday, Cain?”
“December.”
“Mine is April, so that means I’m the older one?”
...Older?
My head turned before I could stop it. Ria, still wearing that lovely smile, poked my cheek with her finger.
“Cain, want to call me older sister?”
“......No. That would be an improper address.”
“Mm-mm, don’t be like that. It’s just the two of us here, right? So come on, just once—older sister, older sister. Please? I really want to hear you call me that.”
Even if you doubled Ria’s current age, it still wouldn’t match my age from my previous life, and yet she wanted me, someone far beyond her in age, to call her older sister?
I’d rather bite my own tongue off.
“Just once, okay? Cain, please, just once moooore—”
Clinging to my left arm, Ria kept demanding, in an overly sweet voice, that I call her older sister.
But no amount of cuteness could make me call a girl so much younger than me older sister.
So I simply decided to act as if I hadn’t heard her at all.
“...You know, Cain.”
Ria moved in close, right up to my ear.
Then, in a low voice, she murmured something deeply meaningful.
“Do I really have to order you?”
For me, that sounded like a sort of veiled threat I couldn’t simply brush off.
With a long sigh, I looked at Ria.
“...Understood. But only this once. As your knight escort, I can’t call the lady I serve older sister.”
“Mm-hm, okay. I’ll just listen to it once, and I won’t ask again!”
She looked so delighted that her whole face was blooming with a smile.
......
I would repay this humiliation one day, the day I finally became taller than Ria.
After sighing to myself several times, I drew in a deep breath.
Then, slowly, I parted lips that seemed reluctant to move.
“O-”
Just as I was about to say the rest—
Rustle.
A faint noise came from below the hill where we stood, and instinctively I knew it.
This wasn’t the sound of a branch swaying in the wind. It was the presence of a person.
“...Who’s there?”
I stepped slightly in front of Ria so she would be behind my back, and rested my hand on the hilt, ready to draw my sword at any moment.
From behind me came Ria’s startled voice.
“Ca-Cain. What’s wrong? Your face looked really scary just now...”
“Ah, that’s...”
Before I could explain that I’d sensed someone nearby, though I didn’t yet know exactly where,
whoosh!
Something black and pointed flew toward Ria’s shoulder.
“──Ria!”