Chapter 10 – House Townsend
For a few days after that, nothing out of the ordinary happened. I went out to the forest with Marie and Nikola and Luke, and otherwise the days went by the way days do. Right now we’re in the middle of the lunch service, though the customers have thinned out, so we’ll be closing soon. Man, I’m starving. I want my lunch.
I was thinking exactly that when one more customer came through the door.
“Welcome! …Wait, Lord Frederick?”
It was Lord Frederick, but not as I’d ever seen him. He was in plain, simple clothes with an easy smile on his face, and anyone who didn’t know better would have taken him for a commoner who’d done a little better than most.
“Leon. I came to talk to you today.”
“May I ask why you’re dressed like that?”
“In my usual clothes everyone is frightened of me. Nobody will treat me like a person.”
Nobles do not, as a rule, put on commoner clothes over a complaint like that. Which reminds me. It’s a little late to be noticing, but this man doesn’t act much like a noble at all. He smiled at me the day I ran headlong into him in the street, and with any other noble I’d have been cut down where I stood for the insolence and nobody would have thought it strange.
Then again, maybe the class system here isn’t as rigid as I’ve been assuming. Commoners can take the Royal Academy entrance exam. Commoners can open an account at the bank. When you actually stop and think about it, that’s an extraordinary thing.
While I was thinking it over, Lord Frederick bent down and peered into my face, plainly puzzled.
“Something wrong, Leon? Don’t tell me it doesn’t suit me.”
“N-no, nothing like that! I only thought that nobles must dress this way sometimes as well.”
“Leon. The fact that I am a noble is not public knowledge.”
“Y-yes!”
I slapped a hand over my mouth and nodded as hard as I could.
“Anyway, you’re still open, aren’t you? May I have lunch?”
“Please do. We have steak or stir-fried vegetables with pork. Which would you prefer?”
“Steak, I think.”
“Certainly. One moment, please.”
I went to the counter, called the steak set through to Mom and Dad, and was on my way to clear a table a customer had just left when Marie stopped me.
“Big Brother, come here a second.”
She had her voice down to a whisper. What was that about? I went over, puzzled.
“What is it, Marie?”
“Do you know that man?”
“That man? You mean the one I was just talking to?”
“Uh-huh. You were talking all different from normal, so I thought maybe something was wrong.”
Because I was using polite speech with him? Marie, you are a very kind little girl. I had to fight my face back down to something like neutral first. Then I had to work out what I could safely tell her.
His being a noble is supposed to be a secret, after all.
“He’s a friend of mine, Marie, so it’s fine. He’s just somebody important, and I was being careful not to be rude to him. That’s all it was. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Ohhh. Well, that’s good then.”
“You have to be careful not to be rude to him too, all right? I’ll look after him, so you take the other customers.”
“Got it!”
I don’t think Lord Frederick is a bad person. I just don’t know him well enough yet, so I’d rather do the looking-after myself. If someone in my family said the wrong thing and it got called disrespect, that isn’t a problem I could fix afterward.
While we were talking, the steak came up.
“Leon, the steak, please.”
“Yep! Taking it now.”
I carried the steak set over to Lord Frederick’s table.
“Thank you for waiting. Your steak set. Please take your time.”
“Thank you. I’ll eat, then.”
He worked through the steak with nothing but a wooden fork and looked graceful doing it all the same. Maybe it’s only that I know what he is. But whatever that quality is, it comes from somewhere inside, and a change of clothes doesn’t cover it.
A while later he finished his meal.
“Thank you for the meal. Leon, do you have a moment?”
“Yes. What can I do for you?”
“I told my family about you, and it turns out they would very much like to meet you. Would you let me invite you to dinner tonight? I thought I might hand over the study materials afterward.”
Dinner. At Lord Frederick’s house. Which means House Townsend?! Why me?! Maybe I really am under suspicion… Is it something I’ve said, or something I’ve done? Not that I could start acting like a normal eight-year-old at this stage.
And it’s not as if I could refuse, however long I sat here worrying about it. I’m going. There’s nothing else on the table. So I’m going, then… and my stomach already hurts.
“Yes. Um, may I go and ask my parents whether I’m allowed out?”
“By all means. I’ll come with you.”
“Oh, but isn’t your being a noble supposed to be a secret?”
“It is a secret from people at large. Your family is another matter. I can hardly take custody of a child without disclosing my station.”
“That is… thank you very much.”
So the two of us went to the counter, and I called Mom and Dad over. There was nobody else left in the restaurant by then.
“Dad, Mom, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Leon? What is it, sweetheart?”
“Is something the matter, Leon?”
“So, um, this is Lord Frederick, and he’s invited me to his house today. Can I go out?”
The two of them looked at him, and their faces went guarded.
“Is this man a friend of yours, Leon? Mom’s never seen him before.”
“Who might you be, sir?”
“Forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. My name is Frederick Townsend. I serve with the Royal Guard at the royal palace. This is my proof of that.”
He drew something like a badge out of his coat. Mom and Dad listened to him, then looked at the badge, and the color drained out of both of their faces while I watched.
“W-we are terribly sorry, sir, truly, we had no idea—”
“Our apologies. Forgive us.”
They got the words out in a rush and dropped to their knees where they stood.
“Please, raise your heads. There is no need to be frightened, and I am not going to call anything here disrespect. The truth is that I became acquainted with Leon a few days ago, and I would like to invite him to dinner tonight. Would you permit it? Since it is dinner, he would stay at the house overnight, and I will see him home to this door myself tomorrow without fail.”
“W-why would you invite Leon to dinner…?”
Mom asked it, and she was frightened.
“I spoke of Leon to my family, and they said they would like to meet him. So I decided to invite him. It is simple curiosity on their part, nothing more, and I would ask you not to worry over it. I am sorry for the trouble I have brought to your door.”
Lord Frederick answered so courteously that there was no arguing with it. Or perhaps they’d decided you don’t refuse a noble. Either way, Mom and Dad gave their permission, and neither of them looked easy about it.
“Then, um. Dad and Mom would be grateful if you’d take good care of him.”
“Certainly. Please be easy about it. Right then, Leon, can we go just as you are?”
“Yes, I’m ready. Mom, Dad, I’m off. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
“Be careful, sweetheart.”
“I will. I’m going, then.”
And with that Lord Frederick took me out of the restaurant. I said I’d be fine, but honestly I’m pretty worried. Why would the ducal family want to meet me? Simple curiosity, he says. Curious about what, exactly? Lord Frederick seems like a good person, but I still don’t really know him. And a whole ducal house frightens me more than I can say…
“Leon, we’re taking that carriage.”
A single carriage was standing a little way down from our restaurant. Solidly built, from the look of it, but plain. A closed box on wheels and nothing more.
“What sort of carriage is that?”
“The ducal house’s. It’s what we use when we want to go about unnoticed.”
“So you have carriages for that as well.”
As we came up to it the driver opened the door for us.
“Go on, you first.”
“I-is that all right?”
“Of course it is. In you go.”
“Thank you very much.”
I climbed in, half afraid to touch anything, and the inside was nothing like the outside. Thick carpet underfoot. Chairs with real cushioning in them. Light orbs that lit the whole interior bright as day.
“Whoa!”
“Ha! We do count as a ducal house. Though as these things go, this one is on the modest side.”
“S-sorry!”
“Nothing to apologize for. Sit down.”
“Yes. Excuse me.”
A ducal house really is something else. The seats are soft enough to sink into, and the jolting of the road never comes up through them, so riding in it is no work at all. I spent a while enjoying the luxury before I remembered that I had rather more pressing things to think about.
I’m on my way to a ducal house. What are they going to say to me? Am I so obviously strange for a commoner child that they’ve decided to look into it? The more I turned it over, the worse it got.
“There’s no need to look so anxious.”
“But why have I been called for?”
“My parents simply want to meet you.”
“Lord Frederick’s parents… that would be the duke, wouldn’t it?”
“No. My eldest brother has already succeeded to the title, so my father is the previous duke. The custom in this country is that a man hands the title to his son the year the boy turns fifteen, and goes to serve at the royal palace himself.”
Good to know. Although whether he’s the duke or the previous duke makes no difference at all from where I’m standing. Either way he’s a noble, and a very highly placed one.
And a noble like that wants to meet me. Which brings me back to being certain I’ve done something.
“Have I committed some offense? Is that what this is about? And why is it that you take such an interest in me, Lord Frederick?”
“That is…”
What was that gap! Excruciating! So there is something he’d rather not say.
“If I want your trust, I’d do better to be honest. I suspected you at the start. A spy out of another country, I thought. Then we talked, and it stopped fitting. I had you looked into and found nothing out of place. That settled it. Which leaves the other problem. If you are not a spy, then you are far too able for a commoner. You’re clever. You think quickly, you pitch yourself differently for every person you speak to, and your manners are sound. The ducal house would like you on our side. Does that answer you?”
So I was under suspicion. And investigated, and I never once noticed. But now the suspicion has been cleared, or mostly cleared, and what’s left is a duke’s son telling me I’m worth having.
Which means I ought to be building this friendship on purpose. If I’m going to walk into the world of the nobility, the backing of a high-ranking noble isn’t optional. With a ducal house behind me, everything ahead of me gets easier. Maybe I should even be showing off a little more than I have been.
“I’m glad the suspicion is cleared, and I’m very happy that you think so well of my abilities. Thank you.”
After that we talked about nothing in particular and let the ride carry us. Knowing that Lord Frederick had his own calculations in coming to me actually let me relax; it’s when you can’t work out why somebody is being kind to you that you can’t sit still. I rode along hoping, as hard as I could hope, that the rest of his family were as easy to talk to as he is.
And so, at the end of a very elegant stretch of time in a very fine carriage, we arrived at House Townsend. The first thing that astonished me was the size of the grounds: it is far enough from the gate to the house that you cover the distance by carriage. On the way I got a look at garden after garden, every one of them beautiful.
The house astonished me too. I only caught a glimpse of it through the window, but it was enormous, something like three stories high and above all impossibly wide.
“Leon. Stay behind me.”
“Y-yes! Understood.”
The moment he said it my nerves came back, and a strange sweat with them. Whatever happens, I must not blunder.
The carriage stopped, the door opened at once from outside, and Lord Frederick stepped down first. I followed him out.
“Welcome home, Lord Frederick.”
“Alban. I’m back. Leon, this is Alban, our butler.”
“My name is Alban. I hope to serve you well.”
“H-how do you do. My name is Leon, and I hope you’ll be good to me as well.”
When I gave my greeting back, something like surprise crossed Alban’s face, and then he bowed to me. People in this world really do bow, exactly the way we do at home. As a Japanese person I find it comfortable, but why does so much here line up with Japan? Does it have something to do with how I ended up here…?
“Leon, you have been invited as a guest, so if there is anything you need, say so to Alban or to any of the servants without hesitating.”
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
“Then I shall have a maid show him to the guest room.”
“Yes, do that. Leon, I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Yes. At dinner.”
I got the pleasant smile out on cue, but wait, Lord Frederick is leaving?! Being left here alone is nothing but terrifying!
“Master Leon. I am Anne, one of the maids. I will show you to your room.”
“I’m Leon. It’s good to meet you.”
I ducked my head to her. Anne looks to be somewhere in her forties, and she has the warm, unhurried air of the sort of woman you’d want to call Auntie.
“Oh, no, no. Please raise your head. Master Leon is our guest, and a guest has no cause to bow to a servant.”
“But I’m a commoner.”
“That does not make you any less our guest. Now then, your room is this way.”
Anne led me through the house, and the walk to the guest room was one shock after another.
The entrance hall was vast, and an enormous chandelier hung from the middle of the ceiling. Every single arm of the thing held a light orb, which means that switching the lights on in here, and off again at night, must be an ordeal. There’s presumably some mechanism for lowering the chandelier. Even so, that is an awful lot of orbs to get through one at a time.
Past the hall and up the stairs, carpet ran over every inch of the floor, deep enough that walking on it was a pleasure in itself. Vases of flowers stood all down the second-floor corridor, with paintings hung on the wall between them, and the whole of it was ridiculously grand.
So we walked on through a house of a kind I’d only ever seen inside a story, even back in Japan, and came to the guest room.
“Master Leon. Here we are.”
“Thank you very much.”
Anne held the door open and waited, so I stepped inside. The space just past the door had a low table and a sofa, and the left side of the room was hidden behind a screen. Behind the screen were a bed, a small table, and two more doors.
“Master Leon, may I go over your schedule with you?”
“Y-yes!”
I hurried back to where Anne was standing near the entrance.
“Please, sit on the sofa.”
“Thank you. Aren’t you going to sit, Anne?”
“I am a servant. I cannot sit on the sofa in a guest’s room.”
“Of course. I understand.”
Being a noble’s servant really does sound like hard work.
“Now then, your schedule. The dinner is about an hour from now, so between now and then you will take your bath, have your hair arranged, and be changed into fresh clothes.”
Hold on. How does she know it’s an hour from now? Does this world have clocks?!
“Excuse me, may I ask one thing before the schedule? Do you have clocks here?”
“Clocks? Of course we do. There is a clock in every room of this house. The servants also carry small ones about with them.”
Seriously?! I’d assumed this world simply didn’t have them. We don’t have one at home and they do have them here, which means clocks are expensive. Wait. This means I can finally find out how many hours there are in a day!
“Which one is this room’s clock?”
“This is it, sir.”
Anne fetched the little clock that had been sitting on the small table by the bed. It was exactly, precisely a clock from Earth. Numbers from one to twelve, an hour hand, a minute hand, a second hand. Another thing this world has in common with Japan. Which makes me wonder whether a day here runs twenty-four hours as well.
“It’s sixteen-oh-five just now. Am I right?”
“You are, sir. Quite right.”
“And a day is twenty-four hours?”
“It is, but… you can read a clock, Master Leon. And there is nothing the least bit off about your formal speech. That is wonderful. Those two things are what every new servant hired into this house struggles with first.”
“I was very lucky. There is someone near my home who taught me. Forgive me, clocks are a rarity where I come from and I got carried away.”
Phew. A clock. I honestly did not expect a clock. There is so much here that matches Japan, and I may be reading too much into it, but it’s hard not to feel that somebody arranged it that way. Nothing I can do about that today, though.
What matters is that clocks exist. I want one as soon as I can possibly buy one.
“If anything puzzles you, please ask without hesitating.”
“Thank you. I’m all right for the moment.”
“Very good. Then shall we begin with your bath?”
“Yes. Where would I bathe?”
“The door on the left, there, is the bath. The one on the right is the lavatory.”
“A bath?! There’s a bath?!”
“There is indeed, sir.”
“And I’m allowed in it?!”
“I should be in some difficulty if you were not. It is preparation for the dinner.”
Yesss! A bath at last! My first bath in another world!
“Of course it is. I’m sorry. I’ll go in, then.”
“Yes. I shall assist you.”
Assist? Assist how? She doesn’t mean she’s going to wash me?
“N-no, thank you, I can manage on my own!”
“There is the matter of how our bath is used, however. I could hardly leave you to it.”
Ugh. Put like that, I have no idea how a bath works in this world…
“Then, please. Thank you.”
“Yes. I shall assist you.”
Anne opened the door onto what turned out to be a changing room, with a long bench and a table in it, and the door beyond that led to the bath itself. I undressed and went through. Anne put on something like a heavy apron to keep her uniform dry and rolled her sleeves back.
Oooh, a real bath, it’s been forever! The tub was big enough for several people to stretch out in, with something like stone laid all around it, and it stood full to the brim with hot water, the whole room fogged with steam.
“Anne, how do you heat the water?”
“We fill the tub from the tap, and then one of the staff who can use fire magic warms it to the proper temperature.”
“Ah, so that’s how it’s done.”
So they do it with magic. But heating this much water would take a fire capacity of at least three, which makes me wonder whether they keep a servant purely for the bath. I did try making hot water myself, on the theory that if I can make water a hair off freezing I ought to be able to go the other way, and I never got it above room temperature. I think mana of the water attribute simply can’t heat things. Magic. I have given up expecting it to make sense.
“Do you have a servant just for the bath?”
“Not at all. When nobles take on staff, the lower staff above all, they favor those at level three or higher in fire magic. Fire magic cannot be put into a magic tool, you see.”
They hire for it on purpose. Nobles really do love their baths. Not that I can argue, since I would also like a bath every single day!
With water magic and fire magic I could have hot water in seconds. What I don’t have is a tub. And even if I made one, there’s nowhere in our house to put it, so a bath at home is out of the question. My whole family would tell me they didn’t want the enormous thing in the way, too.
While I was thinking all this, Anne brought a chair over.
“Master Leon, please sit here.”
It was about the size of a chair at a dining table, so I sat, and Anne dipped a pail into the tub and poured the water over my head and body a little at a time.
Ohhh, that’s good. There’s no shower, so it has to be done with a pail, and it’s true that this would be hard work without someone to help. You’d be fetching water over and over, and that pail can’t be light.
“Anne, do all nobles bathe with a maid helping them?”
“Everyone is attended, sir, but from around eight years old the men are attended by a valet and the ladies by a maid. Children are all attended by maids.”
“I’m eight…”
“I am aware. But no valet happened to be free, and you are only just eight, so I was given to you instead. Would you have preferred a valet?”
“No. This is fine.”
I’d assumed she was simply one of the older maids. It turns out this is the work that calls for one.
“Now I shall soap your hair and wash it. Please close your eyes.”
“Yes.”
Oh, this is bad. This is far too good. It’s exactly like having your hair washed at a salon…
“Is that comfortable, sir?”
“It’s wonderful.”
“I am glad to hear it. I shall rinse now.”
Haaah. That was so good…
“Will you wash yourself, sir?”
“Yes. I’ll do that part.”
“Then I shall wait outside. Please take as long as you like.”
Once Anne had gone I wet a cloth, worked the soap into it, and scrubbed every inch of myself. I use Purification now and then, but actually washing is a completely different animal. When I’d gone over myself properly I filled the pail, rinsed off clean, and lowered myself into the tub.
“Aaah, this is too gooood…”
That is not a noise an eight-year-old makes. I couldn’t help it. Sinking into that much hot water is just… Being able to bathe every day. Nobles have it made.
I stayed in until I’d had my fill and then went back to the changing room, where Anne had towels and a glass of water waiting. I dried off, drank the water, put on the thing that seemed to be a bathrobe, and came out.
“Did that ease you, sir?”
“Yes. It was wonderful.”
“I am glad. Then may I dress you and set your hair?”
“That’s fine, only… I don’t have any other clothes with me.”
“Lord Frederick has had clothes prepared for you to wear at the dinner, Master Leon. You are to change into those.”
Clothes as well?! They have thought of so much that it has come back around to frightening. I’m not sure I’m a useful enough person to be worth this much trouble… But it isn’t as though I have anything else to wear, so the right move is to be grateful and borrow them.
“Thank you very much.”
“No, sir. Give your thanks to Lord Frederick. Now, before we dress you, may I dry your hair? Please sit in that chair.”
She was right, it was still wet. I did as I was told and sat, and the chair turned out to belong to a dressing table, so my own face came up in the mirror in front of me. I’ve never had a proper look at it before. I’ve seen my reflection in water any number of times, but never this clearly.
That really is beautiful blond hair and amber eyes. The features are all in the right places, too. I can’t believe this is my face. For better and for worse, Japanese me had the kind of face you could pass on any street and never once look at twice, so the gap is honestly staggering. I was still staring at myself when Anne set something down on the table.
“I shall dry your hair with this blower.”
I’d been wondering how one dries hair here, and the answer is a blower. Anne stood a small platform on the dressing table, set the blower on top of it, and fitted a magic stone into place, and a fairly stiff wind came up into my face. It seems you dry the hair in the wind while lifting the water out with a cloth. Very pleasant in summer. Freezing in winter.
Anne worked at my hair for a while and stopped once it was nearly dry. I’d been beautifully warm coming out of the bath and now I was chilled through. I want to go back in. I was thinking exactly that when she handed me the clothes.
“Now then, if you would change into these.”
What she gave me was brilliantly colored, generous with its fabric, superb against the skin, and unmistakably expensive. I am too frightened to ask what it cost. I decided not to think about the price and put it on, and it was as comfortable as it looked and sat on me as though it had been built there. How does it fit when nobody ever asked my measurements? Come to that, I don’t know my own measurements…
“It suits you beautifully. Now, if you would sit in this chair again.”
“Yes.”
“I shall set your hair with a little wax.”
“Please do.”
Anne swept my bangs up and back and parted them, and put the whole thing in order.
“That is everything. It is nearly time, so I shall take you down to the dining room.”
“Thank you.”
I was more than a little nervous about the people I was about to meet, but I gathered up my courage and got to my feet.
Anne walked me through that enormous house to the dining room, and when we went in, the family was already seated. I very nearly panicked at the thought that I’d kept them waiting, got hold of myself, bowed properly, and gave them my best pleasant greeting.
“How do you do. My name is Leon. I am very glad to have been invited to dinner this evening.”
That was the line. First impressions matter, so I’d spent the last stretch tearing through my memory for the right way to say it. For a moment every face at the table showed surprise, and then the smiles came back, and the man seated furthest in, a man in his prime, returned my greeting.
“Leon. Thank you for coming to us. Do not stand there being nervous. Sit down.”
That will be Lord Frederick’s father, then. Anne showed me to my place and drew the chair out for me, and I sat as gracefully as I knew how.
Telling me not to be nervous is all very well, but it can’t be done. There is too much rank in this room, and my spine straightened all on its own. I need to be paying attention to everything so I don’t blunder.
“Then let us make our introductions before we eat. Myself first. I am the previous head of House Townsend, Richard Townsend. Beside me is my wife, Catherine.”
Called it. That is Lord Frederick’s father, and he carries himself like it.
“Catherine Townsend, Richard’s wife. I am very glad you have come to us, Leon.”
“I’m glad to know you as well.”
She looks far too young to be Lord Frederick’s mother. Perhaps the nobility have their own methods for that sort of thing.
“And these are my second son, Julien, and my third son, Frederick. My eldest has taken the dukedom and is at the domain, so he is not with us. My eldest daughter is married and likewise absent. I shall introduce them when the chance comes.”
“Julien Townsend. The second son. I trust we shall become acquainted.”
“Yes. I hope so too.”
“You know me well enough by now, but: Frederick Townsend, the third son. Good to see you again.”
“And you.”
Every one of them gives off enough rank to keep a person at arm’s length, but they are smiling at me kindly, so perhaps they really are good people. Then again, a noble is bound to have an excellent poker face. I’d better not extend too much trust just yet.
“Now that the introductions are done, let us enjoy the meal.”
At Lord Richard’s word, the servants brought the food in. Soup first, and bread in a basket.
“Then let us give thanks and eat.”
“Itadakimasu.”
Everyone said it together after him, and that was the signal to begin. I was half a beat behind, so I got my own Itadakimasu out under my breath and started.
Only bread and soup so far, which suggests that a noble’s dinner in this world runs like a full course. There was cutlery laid out on both sides of my plate, exactly like the French place my dad took me to once, back in Japan.
I watched out of the corner of my eye to confirm that everyone was starting from the outermost piece, picked up the same one, and had a mouthful of the soup. Delicious! Something very close to pumpkin potage. I could drink this all night.
I took my time over the soup, and then the bread. I tore off a bite-sized piece and put it in my mouth. Ohhh, it’s soft, it’s wonderful, this is happiness. Bread has to be soft. That’s all there is to it.
From there we talked about nothing in particular between courses and I worked my way happily through the meal. Every dish was excellent, and it was easy to believe what they say about noble cooking advancing by the year.
“Leon. Did we satisfy you?”
Lord Richard put the question to me.
“Yes! It was delicious.”
“I am glad to hear it. Then may we turn to something rather more serious?”
His face went grave as he said it. Right. I’d been so busy enjoying the food that I still hadn’t heard why I’d been brought here at all. My nerves came back all at once.
“Yes. Please go ahead.”
“Leon, there is a favor I wish to ask of you.”
“A favor, sir?”
What could a noble possibly want from me? He could surely get hold of anything he liked without coming to me for it…
“There are a great many nobles in this country, and at present they are split precisely down the middle. One is the camp we belong to: that noble and commoner should help one another, and that a capable person should be raised up whatever their birth. The other holds that the great houses and their histories must be preserved, and that the line between noble and commoner should be drawn far more strictly than it is.”
So that’s what has been going on over my head. It is very much not in my interest for the second camp to win.
“The order of this country was laid down several hundred years ago by the Apostle, and certain important rules were fixed at that time. One: that in return for their privileges, nobles guarantee commoners a minimum standard of living and their safety. Another: that nobles do not rule commoners, but that the two live by helping one another. The country was built with those rules underneath it. Of late, however, fewer and fewer people revere Micheline, and the voices saying the rules need no longer be kept grow louder every year.”
The Apostle again. Every attribute, apparently, which makes the whole subject hard to leave alone.
More to the point, it’s because of those rules that this whole family is dealing honestly with a commoner boy at their own table. Which means I owe the Apostle a certain amount of gratitude.
“Frederick tells me you are a remarkably able commoner. And I have been watching you since you arrived. Your speech and your table manners are very nearly complete. Where you learned them is a mystery to me, but I do not intend to pursue it. In return for that, I ask you to lend your strength to our camp. What matters is the plain fact that commoners of talent exist. That there has been no commoner of any real distinction for decades is part of what has given the other side its confidence. Leon. I am asking you.”
And Lord Richard bowed his head to me. A noble, bowing his head to me! I scrambled to say something, anything, that would get him to lift it again.
“Um, please, raise your head!”
Right. Sort it out. One side wants the classes drawn hard, the other wants talented commoners pulled up, and the nobility is split between them. Long ago God’s Apostle set it down that nobles were not to rule commoners but to live by helping them, and now that hardly anyone has any faith left, more and more people are saying that rule can go.
That’s the shape of it. Except… wait. Wouldn’t a noble ordinarily want commoners under his thumb and his own power increased? Why is the nobility divided over it at all?
“Um, may I ask one thing? Why are you in the camp that protects commoners, Lord Richard? Wouldn’t a noble ordinarily want the nobility made stronger?”
“Because I believe that holding people down by force is bad for the future of this country. A country is built out of people in the end, and most of those people are commoners. If noble power grows past what it already is and commoners are pressed under it, the country will rot in time. Nearly everyone in our camp thinks as I do.”
That is a genuinely good answer. He isn’t thinking about making himself stronger, he’s thinking about what this country will be later. The nobles here are not all bad after all. For a man like this I’d like to be of use. And from my side of it, having a ducal house lend me its strength is about as reassuring as anything I could ask for.
“Um. I don’t know how much help I can be, but please let me help you.”
“Truly?! Leon, thank you.”
He bowed his head to me a second time. I’d been carrying around this idea that nobles were all black-hearted and looked down their noses at commoners, and apparently that isn’t so. House Townsend surely has its share of that somewhere. But they don’t hold a commoner cheap for the sake of it.
These people, I might actually be able to trust.
Which raises the question of whether I could tell these people about my attributes. They’re putting their faith in me, and lying to them sits badly. And beyond that there’s a calculation in it: I want to be protected by people who know.
“Leon, I would have you enter the Royal Academy first, and take good marks while you are there. You should attend from this house. Everyone around you will understand at once that you stand under the protection of a ducal house. And once you graduate, I would have you serve the country at the royal palace.”
Attend from this house. As in live here?! My nerves would put me on the floor daily. Is there no way at all to get out of this…
“I couldn’t impose on you by living in the house. I’ll rent a room in the central district, so please don’t trouble yourself.”
“There is no call to hold back. Both to make your backing plain to everyone and for your own safety, you had better attend from here.”
Once he’s put it like that, refusing isn’t on the table. I’ll simply have to get used to it…
“Yes… Thank you very much.”
“Think nothing of it. Tell me, Leon, have you had your mana measured yet?”
“Yes, I have. My mana capacity is five, and my attribute is…”
What do I do here. Do I say every attribute? Hiding it in this room would be easy, and if I hide it now I may end up hiding it for the rest of my life. And if it came out later by some accident, I could lose their trust. No. I should say it now…
“Leon? What’s the matter?”
“Um. My attribute is… every attribute.”
“What? What did you say?”
“Every attribute. I can use magic of all of them.”
Every single person at that table let their mouth fall open and simply froze. So nobles can make that face too.
I waited, and one by one they thawed out.
“Every attribute, you say. Is that… is that the truth?”
“Yes. Shall I show you?”
“Do. I cannot believe it on hearing alone.”
“Of course.”
So I ran through a simple spell of every attribute, right there at the table.
“You truly can. Then… might you be the Apostle?”
Here we go again. I’m not the Apostle. I have never met God in my life, and an Apostle who has never met God is a contradiction. Although the business of having every attribute is a genuine thing we have in common, and I do keep circling back to it.
“I’m not the Apostle! From everything I’ve been told I have a great deal in common with the Apostle, but I have never met God.”
At that Lord Richard sank into thought again, and it was some time before he seemed to arrive anywhere.
“Leon. Will you keep it from the people around you that you hold every attribute? It is better that this is not widely known. What attribute did you show at the measuring?”
“Healing.”
“Then let it be healing for the time being. Once you hold a position of your own, I think it may safely be announced. For now, it stays a secret until you graduate the Royal Academy at the very least.”
“Understood. I’ll be careful not to let it slip. Ah, but… I’ve already told Marcel.”
“Master Marcel. Yes, he is an acquaintance of yours. Did he say anything to you?”
“Yes. He said to keep it secret for now, and that if I found someone I could truly trust, I could tell them and no one else.”
“Then there is no difficulty there.”
“I’m glad. …There is one more thing, about my family. Would it be all right if I told them, and only them? I haven’t said anything to them yet, but keeping it from them forever would be hard, and more than that, I don’t want to keep things from them if I can help it…”
Ever since I found out about the attributes I’ve been going back and forth about telling my family. But I don’t want secrets in that house. I can’t tell them everything, obviously. Telling a ducal family and hiding it from my own family, though, is something I can’t stomach.
I keep thinking they might be frightened of me, or find something uncanny in me. And I want to tell them anyway.
“Hm. Well, a family finds these things out by accident in the end. You may tell them. But be certain you have their silence. And I shall send Frederick to explain matters to them. They will want the Royal Academy and your living here explained as well, will they not?”
I can tell them, then. Good. All that’s left is for me to work up the nerve. It’s frightening, but I’ll tell them all when I get home.
Having Lord Frederick there will make the whole conversation go more smoothly, which I’m grateful for. If I walked in on my own and announced I was going to live in a ducal mansion, I don’t think anyone at home would believe a word of it.
“Yes. If he would come, I’d be very grateful.”
“Good. Frederick, I leave it to you.”
“Certainly, Father.”
That brought the business to a close, and the room settled into the feeling of an evening ending.
“Let us leave today’s talk there. Leon, I shall be counting on you.”
“Yes. And I on you.”
With that, Lord Richard, Lady Catherine and Lord Julien withdrew from the dining room. Lord Frederick stayed behind and came over to me.
“Leon. Thank you for lending the house your strength.”
“Not at all. It’s to my own advantage as well.”
“Even so. I truly did not expect every attribute.”
“I’m sorry for keeping it from you… I thought it was better not to tell many people. And please do explain things to my family.”
“No, that was good thinking. Going forward, keep it to your family and nobody else, and stay quiet about it until you graduate. Leave the explaining to me.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“When should I come to your house?”
Let me see. I’m going home tomorrow and I want to sit everyone down, but the part about every attribute I want to say in my own words. So I’d rather Lord Frederick arrived afterward.
“I’d like to tell them about the attributes myself. Once I have, would you explain the Royal Academy and my living at the house?”
“Understood. You’re going home tomorrow, aren’t you?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Then I’ll go with you. I’ll wait in the carriage while you talk to your family, so call me in when you’re finished.”
“Certainly. Thank you very much.”
Mom and Dad are going to be badly shaken when Lord Frederick turns up on the doorstep a second time. And that’s before they hear what he came to say. I hope shaken is all they end up being, and that nothing about me frightens them…
“Ah, that reminds me. I’d like to hand over the study materials now, if that suits you.”
That’s right, the materials. So much has happened that I’d lost track of the thing I originally came for.
“Yes, please.”
“Then let’s move to the drawing room.”
The materials, at last. Imagining the conversation with my family had put my mood on the floor, and this lifted it a little. Getting hold of information in this world is desperately hard, so being handed something to learn from is genuinely exciting. In Japan I hated studying with a passion.
We walked a good way from the dining room to the drawing room, and four of us went in: me, Lord Frederick, Anne, who has been assigned to me as my maid, and Lord Frederick’s valet.
Once we were seated, Lord Frederick asked Anne to bring tea and sent the valet for the materials. Watching him use people as easily as breathing is a reminder of exactly what he is. It makes me feel vaguely guilty, and I have to fight down the urge to go and fetch the tea myself.
Before long the tea was poured and the materials were laid out.
“Leon, this is the study you’ll need for the Royal Academy entrance exam. Reading and writing, arithmetic, and a little history, in the main.”
“May I look inside?”
“Go ahead. Ask me if anything puzzles you.”
The materials Lord Frederick handed over turned out to be three books. The first was a basic language reader, and more than half of its pages were given to learning to write the characters, with the back half devoted to reading comprehension. I don’t need this one. I read and write this world’s language exactly as I read and write Japanese, and I went all the way through university back home, so being handed a first-grader’s language book isn’t going to do much for me.
The second was simple arithmetic. Addition and subtraction, straightforward multiplication and division, and that was the whole of it. No fractions, no decimals, nothing geometric. Perhaps those come after you’re admitted. Either way, nothing here I need to study.
The third was the history of this kingdom. The distant past is covered in broad strokes and the recent past in a good deal of detail. This one I want! I ought to study it, and I’ve been wanting to know about this country since the day I arrived.
“Well? Can you follow them?”
“Yes. I can already read, write and do the arithmetic, so I don’t need those two. May I borrow the history?”
“You don’t need the reading or the arithmetic?! Truly?”
“Yes. The history on its own is plenty.”
Perhaps I should have taken all three and made a show of studying them. Though it feels far too late for that now. I expect to be dealing with House Townsend for a long time to come, and I’m starting to think I don’t need to hide very much from them.
“Well. If you say you’re all right, then you’re all right. The history is yours to borrow. Bring it back whenever the exam is behind you.”
“Thank you, truly. I’ll work hard, so that I’m of use to all of you!”
“Yes. Work hard.”
“I will!”
I picked up the history and was about to head back to the guest room when Lord Frederick stopped me.
“Actually, there’s one more thing.”
“What would that be?”
“The date for Her Highness’s visit to your restaurant.”
That! I’d forgotten completely! Between being invited here and everything that followed, it had fallen straight out of my head. I sat back down properly, got myself ready to listen, and prompted him to go on.
“Has the date been decided?”
“It has. One week from today, at ten in the morning.”
A week?! I’d assumed it would be much further off than that! That’s far too soon. Is there anything I’m supposed to have ready?
“…That is very soon, isn’t it. Is there anything I need to prepare?”
“Her Highness insisted she wanted to go quickly. My apologies. There shouldn’t be anything in particular to prepare. She wants to see commoner life exactly as it is. She also said she wants to play with you.”
Play with me! What is a person supposed to do with that! The things we normally do are going into the forest and buying food off the stalls. Cook something together, maybe? Go to the forest, pick raspberries, come back and make pancakes?
No. Pancakes that taste the way ours taste are not something you set in front of Princess Martine. If I had sugar they’d be better… That’s it. I can buy sugar in the central district.
“Um. Would it be out of the question to take Her Highness into the forest, pick raspberries, bring them back and cook with them? It’s what we do most days…”
“Hm. Her Highness would enjoy that. Let’s have it as the plan.”
“Certainly. And… would I be allowed sugar, just as a special case on the day?”
“Yes. There is no need to be that strict about keeping everything to a commoner’s life. Her Highness’s first object is playing with you, and she loves sweet things, so she’ll be delighted.”
“That’s a relief. Then that’s what we’ll do.”
Is there anything else I should be settling… That’s right, I need to ask how much I’m allowed to tell my family.
“Um, how much of this may I tell my family?”
“Let me see… There’s no harm in it getting about afterward that Her Highness visited your restaurant. It’s word getting out beforehand that raises the danger. So until the day, could you pass her off as the child of a distant relative of mine? On the morning itself you may tell them the truth.”
True enough. As long as it doesn’t travel ahead of her, it’s fine.
“Understood. That’s what I’ll do. There’s one more thing, though. Apart from me, nobody in my family has the first idea about polite speech or manners. Will that be all right?”
“Yes. They’re commoners, and nobody expects otherwise. You’re the strange one, Leon. We know what we’re walking into, so put it out of your head.”
Oh, good… That had been sitting on me rather heavily.
“Thank you. Will it be only Her Highness and yourself coming to the restaurant?”
“Yes, and one maid. Someone has to look after her. Officially it will be the three of us so as not to draw eyes, but take it as read that there will be a good many guards concealed around you. Every one of them will have been briefed, so nobody is going to start shouting about disrespect. You can be easy on that count.”
Of course there are. Guards are only sensible. And the good news is that we don’t have to think about them, and nobody is going to call anything disrespect, so we’ll plan for three visitors and leave it there.
“Understood. I’ll tell them that three people are coming.”
“Yes. I’m grateful.”
And with that the talk was over, and I went back to the guest room.
Everyone in House Townsend seems to be a good sort, and in exchange for helping their camp it looks as though they’ll stand as my backing, so I think today can be called a good result.
Right at the end, of course, the next impossible problem landed on my head. Well. I’ll go into it planning to enjoy playing with her; Princess Martine will probably have a better time of it that way too. While remembering my manners, obviously.
It must have been the nerves. The moment I got back to the guest room and let my shoulders down I was too sleepy to think, so I did the barest minimum to get ready for bed and went straight under.