Chapter 7 – A Cute Little Girl
Marcel and I talked about nothing much as we walked back toward the plaza where the public carriages waited, and the moment it came into view I let my guard down. My foot caught. There was a child coming the other way and I was going straight into them, and then, half a step before the crash, a man cut into the gap. I hit him instead, full force.
“Owww.”
I’d taken it forehead-first, and the noise was out of me before I could stop it.
“You all right? I moved a beat too late, so stopping you came out rough.”
I looked up through the pain, and the second I saw his face I froze solid.
“Wait… aren’t you the boy from the restaurant? Leon, wasn’t it? What are you doing out here?”
That unstuck me. The man I’d just headbutted was the knight I’d walked into outside our restaurant on my very first day in this world.
“From that day. You’re… Frederick?”
“You remembered.”
Thank goodness the name surfaced in time. I’d half let it go, honestly. I never expected to see him again.
“Sorry for running into you a second time.”
“Don’t worry about it. This one’s on me.”
He wasn’t wrong. I’d been about to flatten some other kid and he stepped in to take the hit himself. Which reminds me, where did that kid go?
I was still wondering when a girl about my own age peeked out from behind him. …Sh-she’s. She’s unbelievably cute. Soft, beautiful blonde hair and eyes a pale pink. What is she, a doll? No, dolls don’t have faces that move like that, which puts her several rungs above a doll.
“Frederick, is something the matter? Do you know this boy?”
“Lady Martine. The boy I collided with just now happens to be a slight acquaintance of mine. Forgive me for keeping you waiting.”
“There is nothing to forgive. I am the one who nearly walked into him, so I am the one who ought to apologize. What is your name?”
“My name is Leon.”
“Leon. I am Martine. I am sorry for very nearly walking into you. That is why you collided with Frederick instead, is it not?”
“N-no, I’m the one who stumbled, so the fault is mine. I’m very sorry.”
Somewhere in the middle of that exchange I noticed something alarming. Her face had knocked everything else out of my head at first, but the girl’s clothes were seriously expensive. And Frederick had called her ‘Lady Martine.’
If Frederick’s a knight, then anyone a knight calls ‘Lady’ is nobility, no question about it. She’s a noble’s daughter! Thank goodness I didn’t actually hit her. Frederick, sir, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I was quietly going to pieces over that when Marcel doubled back for me. He’d been a few paces ahead, so it had taken him a while to notice I’d run into anyone at all.
“Leon, what’s the trouble?”
“Marcel, I ran into this gentleman.”
“Sorry for the trouble… Eh?”
He’d started apologizing along with me, then looked at Frederick, then at Lady Martine, and stopped dead. So they really are a big deal. Why did I have to trip! Marcel, I’m so sorry.
“You are Master Marcel, if I am not mistaken?”
“Y-yes. Marcel Roncoli, sir. It is an honor to meet you.”
Marcel was greeting the two of them in the most courteous voice I’d ever heard out of him. I coped by fleeing into trivia. Huh. So Marcel’s family name is Roncoli.
“Frederick.”
One word from Lady Martine, and apparently he understood the whole sentence, because he bent down and murmured something in her ear. Then she turned to Marcel with a bright smile.
“Master Marcel, we have not met before. My name is Martine. Please, address me as Martine and nothing else.”
She leaned on the name, very slightly, and smiled again. Something settled behind Marcel’s face, and he bowed his head.
“As you wish, Lady Martine.”
That exchange had a second floor to it. What was that about? Maybe Marcel knows who she actually is, and she was telling him not to say it out loud.
Come to think of it, if she’s placed that high, her walking around out here is strange in the first place. Maybe she’s out incognito.
“You as well, Leon. Martine, please.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Being handed the conversation out of nowhere startled me, but I got the words out steadily enough.
“Are you a commoner, Leon? What brings you to the central district?”
“I am. Marcel was showing me around today.”
“Is this your first time here?”
“Yes. It’s so lively, and I’ve had a wonderful time. The food we had earlier was delicious. It honestly moved me.”
“Walking through town is a pleasure, is it not? I love it too. What did you eat?”
“French toast! It was so sweet, and it was so good!”
The taste of pure happiness came back to me and my volume went up before I could stop it. Oh no. That’s a lot of energy to throw at somebody that highly placed. Was that rude? I was scrambling for an apology when she laughed first, a small delighted sound.
“It was that good, then. Do you like sweet things?”
“Y-yes. Sweet things make me happy…”
“I understand completely! So do I.”
“You like them too, Lady Martine?”
“I adore them!”
She said it beaming, and the sheer wattage of that smile ought to be regulated. Then, still beaming, she leaned in over the space between us and asked me for something.
“Leon, I have a favor to ask. Please be my friend!”
…Huh? Hold on, how did we get here? We have literally only just met. I was still floundering in the wreckage of the conversation when Frederick stepped in.
“Lady Martine, you cannot simply befriend a stranger on the spot. He could be dangerous.”
“I know that, but there is hardly a commoner alive who will talk to me like a normal person, and he loves sweet things exactly as I do besides… I want to be his friend. The merchants bring their children sometimes and not one of them will even meet my eyes. Leon looks straight at me when he speaks. It made me so happy! And he cannot possibly be dangerous. He is an acquaintance of yours, and of Master Marcel’s as well.”
“That is so, but… Leon and I have spoken exactly once.”
Go, Frederick! Look, of course I want to be friends with an unbelievably cute girl. What I do not want is a highly placed girl in my life! Every instinct I have says this ends in trouble!
And Lady Martine, for the record, I’m fairly sure every child you’ve ever met was either frozen stiff with nerves or too dazzled by your face to form a sentence. It’s one or the other. I can hold a conversation with you purely because I’m a lot older on the inside than I look!
“That may be true of you, Frederick, but he and Master Marcel are plainly close. They are out walking together, after all. Or is Master Marcel not to be trusted?”
“Master Marcel is trustworthy, but…”
Frederick’s losing! Hold the line!
“Then there is no difficulty at all. Let us find a cafe and talk a while, so that we may come to know one another!”
“…A conversation in a cafe. Very well. That much is acceptable.”
He lost! And now I’m supposed to make conversation in a cafe, with no idea on earth what to say. Haaah. My stomach hurts.
So the four of us filed into a stylish cafe a few doors along and took a table for four. Lady Martine sat across from me with Frederick beside her, and Marcel took the chair next to mine. We each ordered a drink, and over those drinks the talking began.
Lady Martine spoke first, which made sense, since she was presumably the highest-ranked person at the table. Natural enough, I suppose. That’s how a world with ranks works. It still takes some getting used to, watching a little girl address grown men by name alone and sit at the top of the table while she does it.
“How is it that you and Leon know one another, Master Marcel?”
“I keep a magic tool workshop near his home, my lady. He came knocking at my door one day, and that was that.”
“I see. And whereabouts is your home, Leon?”
“The western edge of the royal capital. My parents run a restaurant there.”
“Oh, your family keeps a restaurant! I should love to visit one day!”
She said it with a completely innocent smile. If she ever actually turned up at our place my stomach would not survive it. Please, no. Anything but that. Something up there must have heard me, because Frederick shut it down.
“Lady Martine, that is out of the question. The agreement is that your outings end at the central district.”
“I know that, but… I have only just made a friend…”
Her whole face fell at once. Watching somebody deflate like that makes you feel like the villain even when you’ve done nothing.
Only just made a friend. What does that mean? Setting aside that I’d apparently been promoted to friend without a vote, does she not have any others? I’d pictured a girl like her with a pile of noble friends and a calendar full of elegant tea parties. Maybe that isn’t how it actually works.
If it isn’t, turning her down starts to feel cruel. What do I do… She doesn’t strike me as one of the bad nobles, and honestly, her dropping by the restaurant for a day wouldn’t kill me. Oh. Or would it be better if I went to her? A moment ago I was calling this connection a liability, and now a girl looks sad and I want to fix it for her. That’s my Japanese pushover streak, activating right on schedule. Haaah. But if I do nothing I don’t think I’ll ever get that face out of my head.
I wanted the smile back, so my mouth opened on its own.
“Um. I don’t really understand the circumstances, but I don’t mind at all if you come to the restaurant. Or would it be better if I called on you instead?”
The smile came back the instant the words were out, spreading until it had taken over her whole face.
“Is that truly all right!? Then I shall come to you!”
“Lady Martine! It is not all right. Leon, I’m sorry, but Lady Martine is not in a position to go out wherever she pleases.”
You can tell that at a glance. Still, a girl of about eight who can’t even go and play with a friend is a sad thing… Surely one day of fresh air wouldn’t hurt anybody.
Except Frederick is never going to sign off on it as it stands. There has to be a better reason somewhere… Wait. That might actually work.
“Lady Martine, you’ve never visited a commoner’s home, have you?”
“No. I have studied how the common people live, but I have never seen it for myself.”
“Then would you come to my home as fieldwork? A practical study, seeing a commoner’s life firsthand.”
“That is a wonderful idea! I should very much like to! Frederick, on those terms it is acceptable, is it not?”
“No. Leaving the central district is still…”
“Frederick, Father says it constantly. It is important to know how the common people live. Only by knowing how they live can one govern them well. Is that not so?”
Frederick’s face went pained at that. Amazing, she’s really pushing! One more shove ought to do it.
“Am I not to be allowed to learn?”
“O-of course you must. It would be a problem if you did not.”
“Then I may go and study. Yes?”
He let out a long, defeated sigh and gave in.
“As you wish. I will make the arrangements so that you may visit Leon’s home on those grounds.”
“Thank you, Frederick! I am so pleased!”
One visit to my house and she was over the moon about it, and the smile she turned on me was small and unguarded and worth every bit of the trouble ahead. If that’s all it took to make her this happy, I’m glad I bothered thinking. The day itself is going to be brutal, but for a smile like that I can put in the work.
With the visit settled, she turned to Frederick in high spirits.
“How did you come to know Leon, Frederick? You called him a slight acquaintance earlier.”
“On a day off some while ago I happened to be out near his home, and I collided with a child in front of the restaurant. That child was Leon.”
“I see. Though I notice you go outside the central district as a matter of course. You tell me I may not, every single time. That is unfair.”
She pushed her lips out, just slightly, and looked up at him.
“Th-that is because your position and mine are not the same, my lady.”
“I understand that, and it is still unfair. From now on I shall forgive you provided you bring me back a souvenir.”
“As you wish.”
He answered with the look of a man swallowing a laugh, then cleared his throat and changed the subject. Anything to stop being cross-examined.
“That reminds me. Master Marcel said he’d been showing you around. What brought the two of you to the central district? Sightseeing?”
I had to think about that one. If I told him we’d gone to the bank he’d ask why, and answering that means explaining that I’m going to be designing magic tools. Something tells me that’s information I should keep to myself. Marcel did say it’s better not to show people the parts of me that don’t fit.
So I went with sightseeing.
“Sightseeing. I mentioned I’d never been to the central district and Marcel brought me along. The food at the cafe was wonderful!”
“Glad to hear it. Come to think of it, the bruschetta here is very good. Room for some?”
“I-I’ve got room, but I’m fine, really!”
I turned it down as fast as I could and he ordered it anyway, smiling the whole time. Now I look like a kid who can’t stop eating… That’s a little embarrassing. I ducked my head to keep anyone from seeing the heat climbing up my face, and that was when Lady Martine picked up the menu.
“Frederick, I should like to order as well. One chouet.”
“As you wish.”
After she gave him the order she glanced at me and smiled, small enough that nobody else at the table would have caught it. Wait. Did she pick up that I was embarrassed and order something so I wouldn’t be the only one eating?
Beautiful and kind on top of it. She’s sitting right in front of me and I still half doubt she’s a real person.
I wanted to thank her, except thanking her out loud would wreck the whole point of doing it quietly. So I asked about the food instead.
“What sort of dish is a chouet?”
The name hadn’t come through in Japanese, which means it belongs to this world and has no equivalent back home. Either that or it’s something I simply never ran into. I’d been curious about it on the menu earlier and too nervous to order it.
“You do not know what a chouet is, Leon?”
“No, my lady. It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
“I see. I am very fond of chouet. Tasting it will be quicker than any explanation, so I shall give you half of mine.”
“N-no, I couldn’t possibly…”
“Think nothing of it. In exchange, may I have one of your bruschetta?”
“Of course you can!”
“Then it is a trade.”
She beamed at me. There’s nothing childlike about the way this girl runs a table… I can’t tell whether that’s noble education or simply her, but either way she’s genuinely kind. I found myself smiling back.
“Then I accept. Thank you very much.”
A short wait later the bruschetta and the chouet arrived.
He’d ordered two plates of the bruschetta, one set between Lady Martine and me, the other between him and Marcel. The chouet went in front of her. We were each handed a small plate, a knife, and a fork.
The chouet looked like a boiled egg. Sliced into rounds and arranged elegantly on the dish, but a boiled egg. Salted, maybe? Well, finding out is the fun part.
“Leon, try it, the bruschetta here really is good. You as well, Master Marcel. Lady Martine, a moment, if you would.”
Then he drew her plates across, cut a piece from the bruschetta and ate it, and did the same with the chouet. Only after that, and after a pause long enough to matter, did he set them back down in front of her.
Was that a taste test for poison? So nobles really do that… Nobles are terrifying. I’ve been saying I want to be one, but the job clearly has parts I hadn’t budgeted for. Maybe the dream is a nice low rank, nobody bothering to poison me, a quiet life somewhere…
“Let us eat, then.”
Lady Martine said it with a smile, which finally snapped me back, and I hurried a piece of bruschetta onto my plate. Knife and fork, as neatly as I could manage. Delicious! The tomato and the cheese hit exactly right together. This is superb.
“It is good, truly.”
“I’m glad it’s to your taste, my lady.”
“It really is. This is so good…”
“Told you. It’s a favorite of mine. What about you, Master Marcel? To your liking?”
“It is very good indeed. The sort of thing that brings a man back.”
“I’m glad to hear you say so.”
That bruschetta really was that good. I’d have been a regular back in Japan too. Eating something delicious just makes a person happy.
The four of us worked through it in fine spirits, and because it was that good it vanished fast. I’m coming back here every time I’m in the central district. I was sitting in that warm, full feeling when Lady Martine spoke to me.
“Leon, have you room for more?”
Right. The chouet.
“Yes, I do have room. But are you truly sure about sharing it?”
“Of course. Please.”
She held the plate out to me, and I took about a third of what was on it.
“Let us eat together, then.”
Up close it’s a boiled egg, no argument. Except there’s something drizzled over the top… What is that? Olive oil? I was still guessing when I put it in my mouth, and I froze mid-bite.
It’s a dessert! It’s sweet! The drizzle is honey, I think, and the egg itself is gently sweetened as well. My head had boiled eggs filed under savory, so this was a genuine shock.
The surprise drowned out the flavor the first time, so I took another bite.
Yes. This is good. Simple, sweet in exactly the right amount, and I could probably eat it forever. We really didn’t have anything like this in Japan. Or we did and I never met it, but it wasn’t anywhere in my range.
Learning a new food is fun.
“Well, Leon?”
“It’s wonderful. I didn’t expect a dessert, so the first bite surprised me, but it really is wonderful. It’s simple and it isn’t heavy at all. I feel as though I could keep eating it forever.”
“Precisely! I would happily eat it forever as well, but too much is bad for the body, so I am permitted only one a day.”
“Too much of anything isn’t good for you, I suppose.”
“I understand that perfectly well, and I still want more!”
That right there is a perfectly ordinary eight-year-old, and it’s adorable. I worked through my share of the chouet, thoroughly charmed.
The chouet went the way of the bruschetta, and afterward we sat over our tea in a comfortable, unhurried quiet. Frederick broke it first.
“So, Leon. Will you be taking over the restaurant one day?”
Out of nowhere. I hesitated over the answer, then decided it was safe enough. Commoners do take the Royal Academy exam, whether or not they pass. So I told him the truth.
“I’m planning to take the entrance exam for the Royal Academy. I don’t know whether I’ll pass…”
Lady Martine’s reaction was somewhat out of proportion.
“Truly!? Then you will be coming to the Royal Academy!”
“Yes. Ah, if I pass, that is.”
“You will pass! Oh, now I am looking forward to enrolling!”
She was thrilled, for reasons I couldn’t follow. I don’t get it, but if she’s happy, good.
“Why the Royal Academy, Leon? Plenty of commoners take the exam, granted. Do you have a particular reason?”
“Yes. I saw the magic tools in Marcel’s workshop and thought they were wonderful, and I heard that officials are given dormitories with magic tools in them, so…”
“Ha! They are convenient, I’ll grant you that. You really are an interesting one, Leon. Not like the usual commoner. Ask most of them and you get two answers and never a third. I want to rise, and I want money.”
He was laughing pretty hard. Was my answer strange? Anyone would want magic tools! They’re incredibly useful!
“I have certainly never met a child like Leon before. As I said earlier, every commoner child I have met simply stared into space and would not hold a conversation. Noble children will converse, but one can see straight through them, all that trying to be liked. I do not care for it.”
I’m fairly sure those commoner children were staring at you, Lady Martine. Anyone would. As for the noble children, if a boy thinks there’s a marriage at the end of this he’s going to work every angle he has, isn’t he? And the girls will do the same if being your friend means a safe position later on. So they’re all spinning their wheels. Trying so hard to be liked that they end up disliked instead.
“Am I strange, then?”
“Of course you are not! I like you far better than any of the others!”
She said it with a radiant smile. D-don’t tell somebody you like them with eyes that clear. I’m twenty on the inside and I’m still going red, so please stop! That face of hers has genuine offensive capability!
Her and that smile had me quietly falling apart, and it was Frederick who pulled the conversation back.
“Sorry for laughing, Leon. You’re not strange. You’re just a little different from other children, and not in a bad direction, so don’t let it bother you.”
Is that right? Well. If he says so, I’ll try not to worry about it.
“Back to the point. You want into the Royal Academy. Are you keeping up with your studies?”
“No, that’s the trouble. I don’t know anyone who could teach me. I’ve been hoping to at least get hold of the study materials somehow.”
“You don’t need a teacher? Wait. Can you already read and write?”
Ah! I’ve said too much again. I clapped a hand over my own mouth, far too late. Better not to make it worse with a clumsy lie.
“Yes. I can read and write, but I don’t know what the exam is even like, so I want the materials.”
“Where did you learn your letters? The same person who taught you to speak politely, the one you mentioned before?”
“That’s right. An old man who lived nearby taught me.”
“You’ve had real luck, Leon. Teaching you to handle polite speech that naturally, and your letters on top of it. He must have been quite a teacher.”
“Yes. I’m very grateful to him.”
I’ve been running that story since day one, but does anybody actually believe it? Nothing in Frederick’s face gives him away. Nobles and their poker faces. All the same, I get the feeling he isn’t finished wondering about me. Which is fair, honestly. We’re near enough strangers.
I was busy thinking rude things about him when Lady Martine spoke up.
“Frederick. Surely we may give him as many study materials as he needs?”
“My lady, I was on the point of saying the same. Leon, I’ll see that you get them.”
Huh? Really!? I had no route to those books at all, so I’m genuinely grateful, but is that all right, for somebody he’s only just met?
“Are you truly sure?”
“Of course. Study materials aren’t that expensive.”
Take the offer. If I let this one go I don’t think it comes around again.
“Then, may I ask you to?”
“Sure. Next day off I get, I’ll bring them by the restaurant.”
“Thank you so much!”
By then the tea was gone and the table had the feel of a gathering about to break up.
“We should be starting back, my lady.”
“Must we already? Surely a little longer would do no harm.”
“We are past our allotted time as it is. If we do not return promptly, permission will not be granted next time.”
“That would be a disaster. Very well, we shall go home today. Leon, I am looking forward to visiting the restaurant! Until we meet again.”
She stood, smiling. I scrambled up to see her off.
“I’ll be looking forward to seeing you again as well.”
“Leon. I’ll bring those materials by.”
“Yes. Thank you, I’d be grateful.”
And with that the two of them left. I must have been holding myself together the whole time, because the moment they were out of sight I let out an enormous breath and sank back into my chair.
I stretched hard, trying to work the stiffness out of me, and that was when I noticed something odd. Huh? The customers are gone. This place was full a minute ago!?
That frightened me enough to look up at Marcel. His jaw had not loosened at all. I picked my words carefully.
“…Um. Marcel?”
“What is it?”
Just getting an answer out of him made me sigh with relief.
“Why is there nobody else in here?”
“You didn’t notice? Within a few minutes of us walking in, every customer in the place had been swapped out for guards.”
Huh… Guards. Hers? Frederick wasn’t the only one!?
If walking through town takes that much security, who on earth is she?
“Marcel, you know Frederick and Lady Martine, don’t you? Who are they? I’d worked out they were high-ranking nobles, at least.”
“Those two are Lady Martine Lathlasia and Lord Frederick Townsend.”
Lathlasia. I’ve heard that somewhere. Where was it… It’s in Leon’s memories somewhere… That’s it! It’s the name of the country. The Kingdom of Lathlasia.
Wait. Which would make her… Is Lady Martine a princess!?
“M-Marcel! Is Lady Martine possibly…”
“Aye. Her Royal Highness the First Princess.”
Forget high-ranking nobles! She’s a princess!
Was I all right back there? Did I do anything disrespectful? Hold on. If Lord Frederick is the one guarding her, that makes him nobility too. High-ranking nobility, even?
“Marcel, is House Townsend one of the upper ranks?”
“They’re a ducal house. Lord Frederick is the third son of the previous Duke of Townsend. He won’t inherit the dukedom, but he’s an excellent knight and they say he’ll be granted a knighthood of his own. A duke’s house behind him and a title of his own ahead of him, so he’s a well-known man among the nobility. And he’s eighteen and already serving in the Royal Guard, which is close to unheard of.”
So he’s a monumentally big deal. And I’d been calling him plain Frederick all afternoon, hadn’t I. It’s Lord Frederick, you idiot!
“Marcel, what do I do? I had no idea they were that important! Could I be accused of disrespect? Oh no, I took food off a princess’s plate. And she’s coming to our restaurant! Marcel, what do I do!”
“Settle down. The pair of them plainly took to you, so nobody’s going to call it disrespect. The restaurant visit surprised me as well, and all I can tell you there is good luck. Lady Martine told me with a look not to call her Your Highness, so I’d say the thing to do is treat her normally and not pile the deference on.”
“That’s easy to say, but it’s difficult now that I know! Wait. She told you not to say it. Was it all right to tell me?”
“Aye. Lord Frederick took me aside as the two of them were leaving and asked me to let you know who she was.”
“I see. Honestly, I’d have been much more comfortable not knowing!”
Haaah. A wave of exhaustion rolled over me. All right: they’re enormously important people. But going by the afternoon I’ve just spent with them they’re also good people, so I think I’ll stop worrying about it. Yes. No more thinking. Lady Martine really is lovely, and if that’s what the royal family is like, this kingdom is in good hands. Let’s go with that.
“I’m worn out myself. Let’s get home.”
“Same here. And I’m sorry for dragging you into that.”
“Think nothing of it. Better it happened with me there than with you on your own.”
“You’re right. I’m glad you were with me.”
Marcel and I rode the public carriage home with barely a word between us. Get home, and rest first. Rattling along in the back of the carriage, that was as far as I got.