Volume 2Chapter 13

Chapter 13 – The Founding Festival

The Founding Festival starts tomorrow at last. The whole capital has been in a rush over the preparations for days. Our restaurant is no exception; we’ve been busy with one thing and another for days. We put a stall up in front of the restaurant on the first day of the Founding Festival and on the fourth. As a rule the families who run restaurants close the shop for the festival and run a stall instead.

Our stall this year is rolled omelet. Egg seasoned with salt and herbs, with finely chopped vegetables and meat worked in for a lavish version, sold on a bamboo skewer. The whole-cabbage stew is generally made and eaten at home, so stalls mostly sell other things.

“Big Brother! Dad says come and help him put the stall together!”

“Coming. On my way.”

Marie called me from the restaurant side. The lunch service has just finished, and Marie is wiping the tables while Mom and I wash the dishes and put them away. Dad is on the stall.

“Mom, is it all right if I go?”

“There’s hardly any left, so go on. Jean’s probably struggling to get the stall together, so give him a hand.”

“Right.”

Coming out of the kitchen into the restaurant, the front door was open and I could see Dad outside. Struggling badly, from the look of him.

“Dad, are you managing?”

“Ah, Leon. Could you hold this board for me? Keeping it steady while I tie the rope is the hard part.”

A Founding Festival stall gets used once a year, so building a simple one each year is the normal way. It goes together with rope alone and no nails. There are holes bored in the boards, and you pass the rope through them and pull the knots tight. It isn’t especially strong, but it’s only for a few days and nothing heavy goes on it, so this is apparently good enough.

“Do I hold it here?”

“Yes. If you would.”

I held the board while Dad passed the rope through, wound it round and pulled it tight. Being able to build it by tying is a good thing. Drive nails in and taking it apart is a job too.

“Now hold this side.”

“Right.”

So Dad and I put the stall together. It has a roof of sorts, so rain won’t stop it. Getting this built is what makes it feel as though the festival has started.

“Is that it finished?”

“That’s it. Now I’ve got to get the things to sell ready. There won’t be enough eggs yet, so I’ll go and buy more, and I need to put an order in for meat so we can collect it early tomorrow.”

“Right. Is there anything else I can help with?”

“That reminds me, Leon, you’re going to the ducal house. When do you have to be there?”

“Nothing’s fixed. I’m only going today and staying the night so I can be at the festival tomorrow. But earlier would be better if it saves a rush. It gets cold once it’s dark.”

“It does at that. Loana! There’s nothing else you need Leon for, is there?”

Dad called through to Mom as he came into the restaurant, and Mom came out carrying a basket.

“No, we’ll manage from here on our own. I was just about to go and buy the eggs.”

“Then let’s go together. Marie, are you coming?”

“Yes!”

“Then Leon, get ready and we’ll all leave together. You can pick up the shared carriage on the way.”

The time for going to the central district wasn’t fixed today, so I’m taking the shared carriage.

“I’ll do that, then.”

“Big Brother, you won’t be here tomorrow, will you?”

“No. Tomorrow I’m in the central district. But the day after I’ll go round the stalls with you, so look after our stall tomorrow.”

“…All right. Leave it to me!”

Marie looked a shade lonely about it, but I’ve been going up to the central district practically every week lately, so she may be a little used to it, because she nodded with a smile.

“Right, let’s go.”

So I got ready and left the house with the others, and took the shared carriage up to the central district. I got down at the plaza at the entrance to the central district, and after that it’s on foot. Walking slowly along a road I usually take in a ducal carriage. The central district is busier than usual today too. Stalls are going up everywhere, and some places are converting the terrace seating outside a shop into something stall-shaped.

With a festival, the preparation is sometimes the best part rather than the day itself. I’m fairly firmly that type. So walking through the streets the day before is enormously enjoyable. Where is the plaza they set the stage up in, I wonder. There was nothing that looked like a stage in the plaza where I got off the carriage. Perhaps it’s a plaza a bit further into the district. I was walking along and arrived at the ducal house in no time. It shouldn’t be that close, and when you’re enjoying yourself it goes in a moment.

I walked up to the gatekeeper and he spotted me at once. I know a good many more of the ducal house’s people by sight now. I showed the crest and he let me straight in.

“Master Leon. I have been waiting for you.”

“Roger, isn’t that far too early to come and meet me?”

The moment I was inside the grounds Roger came out to meet me. That’s too fast even coming from the house. Don’t tell me he was waiting at the gate.

“I thought it about the hour Master Leon would arrive, so I waited in the gatekeeper’s lodge.”

“Really? …Well, thank you. But I don’t mind waiting, so there’s no need to go that far. You’ve got other work, haven’t you?”

“No. I am Master Leon’s valet, so there is no difficulty in making Master Leon my first priority.”

So that’s it. Well, that is what a valet is, I suppose.

“If that’s all right then. But don’t push yourself.”

“Certainly. Then I shall show you to the house.”

So I went up to the house with Roger. After that I had dinner with Lord Richard and the others, rested in that enormous bath and went to sleep.

Then, the first day of the Founding Festival at last. I’m in the plaza where I arranged to meet Martine. It’s a wide, handsome plaza inside the central district, and it’s the one with the stage. The palace orchestra is playing at the moment, so it’s tremendously lively. The sword dance is scheduled for the afternoon.

“Roger, have you ever been to the Founding Festival?”

Roger is with me today as well. Martine will have at least a maid and one guard with her, so I’m with Roger to match. I’d have thought a princess walking about the central district was a problem, and apparently if she keeps her clothes restrained and the guards and attendants to a minimum, she isn’t recognized.

Martine’s face isn’t all that widely known in the first place, and central-district festival or not, nobles hardly attend, so there’s no need to worry about being spotted. The main people at the central district’s festival are the commoners and semi-nobles who work there, and their families. Nobles apparently spend the Founding Festival enjoying parties and large tea parties at home. Martine has several tea parties she’s committed to as well.

“I have attended, when it was work.”

“Right. So you’ve never taken a day off and enjoyed the Founding Festival?”

“I have not.”

“I see. Then today’s work, but let’s forget that as far as we can and enjoy it!”

“…Forget the work. That may be a little difficult.”

I’ve worked it out over the time I’ve known him: Roger is a complete creature of work, the type who wouldn’t know what to do with himself if you took the work away. Or rather, most people in this world are broadly like that. The idea of not having days off is the thing that gets me. They only take time off work when something makes it unavoidable, or when their health gives out.

“I won’t press it, but enjoy yourself too, Roger.”

“Certainly.”

We were talking when a carriage pulled up in the plaza and Martine got down from it. The guard is Lord Frederick, and the maid is the same one who came to our restaurant. The carriage is an ordinary one and Martine’s clothes are several grades quieter than they are at the palace, so nobody would take her for a princess.

“Leon, good morning.”

Martine gave her greeting with a thoroughly delighted smile.

“Your Highness. Good morning.”

“Ah, no formal speech today. I have had Frederick and Masha allow Leon to leave it off. You know Frederick, I think, and Masha is somebody I can trust as well, so it is quite all right. She has been my maid since I was small.”

“Is that all right…?”

I asked it with a look at Lord Frederick and at the maid who’d been called Masha.

“Yes, no difficulty. There’s nobody here to make a fuss about it.”

Lord Frederick gave me a broad grin. Masha nodded at the words as well.

“I am grateful to you for being a friend to Her Highness. What matters most to me is that Her Highness passes her time happily and with a quiet mind.”

“The two of them say so, so it is all right. Yes?”

“Then I’ll do that. Lord Frederick, and Masha, is that all right? Thank you, both of you.”

“I have not greeted you properly yet. Forgive the lateness: I have the honor of serving as Her Highness’s maid. My name is Masha. I am glad to make your acquaintance.”

“I’m Leon. Glad to know you. Oh, then let me introduce my valet too. This is Roger.”

I introduced Roger as the moment offered, and Roger bowed beautifully from his place at my shoulder without moving from it.

“I have the honor of serving as Master Leon’s valet. My name is Roger. I am glad to make your acquaintance.”

“So Leon’s valet is called Roger. I have never had the chance to meet him.”

“Right, because when I come to see you I go as Lady Catherine’s attendant. Oh, does Masha know about my…”

I checked with Martine in a low voice and she nodded.

“She knows. She is always with me and she can be trusted, so I told her. Hiding it would be harder, and unnatural, I thought.”

“Right. That’s good. Thanks.”

Hiding a thing too stubbornly starts to show, and telling the people you can trust sometimes makes it easier to hide. Martine is badly placed for sending maids and guards away, so having one ally there must make it enormously easier.

“Yes. …Then, since we have introduced everybody, shall we start enjoying the Founding Festival?”

“Yeah. Where shall we go first?”

“What would Leon like? Is there anywhere you absolutely want to go, or anything you want to do?”

“I want to see the sword dance! I’ve been really curious about it.”

“That is a fine idea. I should like to see it as well. What hour does the sword dance begin?”

“The sword dance is due to begin in this plaza at two in the afternoon, Your Highness.”

“Masha, thank you. Then let us be back here by two. About three hours from now.”

Three hours. Then let’s spend them going round the stalls and eating. Eating your way along at a time like this is genuinely fun.

“Then shall we go round the stalls and eat until the sword dance? Are you allowed to eat things we buy, Martine?”

“Masha is with me, so it is quite all right. Then let us eat our way along!”

So we made our way from the plaza toward the main street. There are stalls in the plaza as well, but the plaza has benches and tables set out in numbers and works as a place to rest while watching the stage, so the main street has overwhelmingly more of them. Everything from food stalls to stalls selling trinkets and clothes.

“Martine, what do you suppose that stall is selling?”

The one that caught my eye was a stall hung with a great many cut flowers. I wondered whether plain cut flowers would sell at the Founding Festival. And seeing this many flowers in winter is unusual.

“Cut flowers, is it? I should think few people buy those at the Founding Festival…”

“It is a bit odd. Shall we go and look?”

“Let us.”

Coming up to the stall, the keeper was a calm woman in her thirties. She noticed us and spoke to us pleasantly.

“Welcome. My stall sells flower ornaments made from cut flowers. Choose the flowers as you like and I can make one up in a few minutes.”

She makes the ornament up here and now. That hadn’t occurred to me. This is a stall that could only work in a central district with money in it.

“Oh, you make them here? How lovely. And there are so many kinds, in winter.”

“I grow flowers that bloom in winter, every year, for the Founding Festival.”

“Is that so. It really is lovely.”

Martine said it looking over the flowers with her eyes shining. Which makes having one made the only option.

“Then let’s have one made. Could you make something to suit her?”

“Leon, may I?”

“Of course. It’ll suit you, definitely.”

“Thank you.”

The smile she gave saying it was so genuinely happy that it warmed something in me too. Being with Martine is enjoyable and puts a smile on my face without my arranging it.

“Then I shall make something to suit. Is there a flower you are fond of?”

“Let me see…”

Then a few minutes of agonizing over kinds of flower and colors, and a very pretty ornament that suits Martine was finished. This woman is extremely quick about it and has taste.

“Masha, would you put it on for me?”

“Certainly. I shall touch your hair, then.”

Masha set the ornament in Martine’s hair in a perfect position. Masha is a professional too.

“Leon, how is it?”

“It’s very pretty. It suits you.”

“Truly? I am glad.”

Martine colored a little in the cheeks and smiled, delighted.

“Then let us go on!”

And with the flower ornament on and Martine that much prettier for it, back to the stalls. Martine genuinely looks as though she’s shining. Even in a crowd like this I can find Martine at once. Whether that’s a royal aura she can’t hide or whether she only shines to my eyes, I have no idea.

“Leon, let us go to that stall next!”

Martine pulled me by the hand. There’s no need to think about anything difficult right now. Let’s simply enjoy today.

“Yeah! What’s that stall?”

“The whole-cabbage stew. You have to eat this if it is the Founding Festival.”

“So it’s the same in the central district. I’d wondered whether it was only a commoners’ custom.”

“It is not. Cabbage is difficult to grow well, apparently. So stewing a whole cabbage and eating it counts as a luxury, and that is how it became the festival’s dish. And there is a sense of celebrating a good harvest in it as well, because if the cabbage crop is good the other vegetables should be good too.”

Among commoners it only ever came down as the Founding Festival’s famous dish, so I never knew. I’ll pass that on to the others.

“So that’s what it means. Among commoners the whole-cabbage stew gets made at home so the stalls don’t sell much of it. Do they sell a lot of it in the central district?”

“There are a great many stalls for it. Each is a little different in flavor, and comparing them is part of the fun.”

“Right. Then let’s eat a lot of it.”

“Let us!”

So we made for a stall selling the whole-cabbage stew. Simply coming near it, the smell is wonderful.

“Excuse me. Could we have two?”

“Certainly. One moment, please.”

The stall had a good many customers and a bit of a queue, so we joined it and bought two whole-cabbage stews. Two of them means a whole stewed cabbage broken up and divided, so it comes as two servings in smallish deep dishes. The meat at this stall looks like chicken. The meat is where each shop plants its flag: some use beef, some pork, and among the beef ones the cut differs, and so on.

“That looks wonderful.”

“It does! Then let us eat at once.”

“Your Highness, I have secured a bench, so please come this way.”

“Masha, thank you.”

“Master Leon, I shall take the food for a moment.”

“Thanks.”

We handed the food to Roger and Masha for a moment and went to the bench they’d secured. There are places to sit and rest built here and there along the main street as well. When we sat down Masha tasted Martine’s portion. It looks like a nuisance, but there’s no avoiding it. Roger handed mine straight to me.

Dishes and cutlery are brought from home as a rule under this country’s stall etiquette, so Roger and Masha served ours into the dishes they’d carried. At commoners’ stalls there are places that put the food into the stall’s own dishes, and in that case the rule is to eat there and give the dish straight back. Then it gets a quick rinse under water and goes to the next customer. I can’t stand that, so when I go to a stall I always take my own bowl. If I’ve forgotten it I don’t buy anything with soup in it.

“There is nothing amiss, so please go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

The tasting is done. Masha handed Martine her portion.

“Then, Leon, shall we eat?”

“Yeah! Itadakimasu.”

“Itadakimasu.”

I spooned up a mouthful of the whole-cabbage stew and got it into my mouth. Oh. This stall is a good one. The chicken stock has come out nicely and it’s extremely good. The cabbage has stewed down to something that melts. Sweet, and superb.

“It’s good.”

“It is. It is extremely good. Eating this makes it feel like winter.”

“Ha. It might, at that.”

Martine and I talked like that and enjoyed our whole-cabbage stew.

“Then shall we go to the next stall!”

“Yeah!”

So we went round a great many stalls after that and made the most of the Founding Festival. I’m full and thoroughly satisfied.

“Martine, shall we head back to the plaza? The sword dance starts in about ten minutes, doesn’t it.”

“So it does. Then let us go back.”

“Yeah. I wonder who does the sword dance.”

“I do not know either. Frederick, do you know?”

“Yes. Three of the Royal Guard are due to perform as well.”

“Are they. Something to look forward to!”

“What does a sword dance actually involve? I’ve never seen one, so I can’t picture it.”

My vague image is dancing while holding a sword, and I don’t even know how many people do it.

“I have only seen it once myself, but there was one person dancing as though flowing, and two clashing swords together, and something with about five of them dancing in unison. Every one of them was beautiful, without exception, and splendid.”

“Right! That’s making me look forward to it even more.”

A bit different from what I’d pictured. So there’s sword-clashing in it too. Stage combat, then? When we got to the plaza a considerable crowd had already gathered. A lot of people want to see the sword dance. Which may mean nowhere to sit…

“The seats are full already.”

“They are. Then shall we go to the front of the standing area? From there even we should be able to see without difficulty.”

“Right. Let’s move.”

Whether because we’re children or because we had a valet and a guard with us, we got to the very front without trouble. It’s a little far off, but the stage itself is clearly visible, so it should be enjoyable.

“A few minutes to go? I’m thoroughly excited!”

This is the first entertainment of this sort I’ve seen since coming to this world, so I’m looking forward to it enormously. Put on a stage show in this world and the house would be packed, surely.

“Oh, the music has started.”

The orchestra that was playing on the stage in the morning is playing below it now. As the playing began, a single woman knight appeared on the stage. And she began to dance, swinging the sword in flowing lines with the music. That really is extraordinary. I don’t know how to put it; simply beautiful. I can’t look away.

“That’s very beautiful.”

“It is…”

We said it in murmurs without taking our eyes off the stage. When the dance, which felt like something out of a dream, was over, the music changed to something forceful. This time two men came up onto the stage. Their swords met with a great ring of noise. That was the signal, and the music turned fierce and their sword dance turned fierce with it. It looks less like a sword dance than a straight fight. One step wrong and somebody would be badly hurt. I was watching in a state of nerves when their dance finished. That was tense.

“That was tremendous. It made me nervous.”

“It did. I could not look away, in a different way from the woman knight.”

“Do you suppose all of that is decided in advance?”

“Frederick, you look as though you know.”

“Those movements are settled beforehand. Otherwise they would be badly hurt. They learn the movements and the two of them practice a great deal to bring it into shape.”

“So I was right, then.”

Well, of course. Nobody could do that unrehearsed. How much work does it take to get to a sword dance that good? I’m starting to want to learn the sword myself.

“Five knights have come out this time.”

I looked at the stage at that and three men and two women knights were up on it. This time the music that came was exciting, like something out of a Japanese game. And to it, the five of them gave a sword dance without a hair out of place. This one is forceful and it isn’t a fight; it’s more like a form. This one is really cool as well.

Then my heart was carried off by the sword dance for a while, and when it finished I was applauding without having decided to. It was genuinely splendid. Beautiful, and so cool.

“Martine, knights are cool, and a sword dance is extraordinary…”

I was too moved for vocabulary and that was all I could get out.

“It is. I am moved by it however many times I see it.”

“It’s made me want to learn the sword.”

“I am learning it.”

“What? You are!”

“I am. One has to exercise, to build up one’s stamina. And the Royal Academy has swordsmanship among its classes.”

So this country has men and women both doing swordsmanship. And Martine swinging a sword. That would be cool and beautiful, no question.

“I’m looking forward to the Royal Academy’s swordsmanship classes.”

“Yes. If Leon works at it, you will come to be able to do a sword dance too.”

“Do you think? I’ll work at it.”

Her saying that got me thoroughly fired up. I’ll put my back into the swordsmanship classes. I do the strength work and the stamina work properly these days, so all that should be left is handling a sword.

“I shall look forward to the day I can watch Leon’s sword dance.”

“Yeah!”

“…Then, shall we go? I am sorry for it, but the time has come.”

“Right. Is it that time already.”

It really did go in a moment. There must have been hours in it, and it feels like less than one. Because it was so enjoyable. I want to go out with Martine like this again.

“Today was genuinely enjoyable. Thank you for coming to the central district.”

“I enjoyed it enormously too. Thank you for inviting me. If the chance comes again I’d like to go out with you like this.”

“So would I. Let us certainly go somewhere again. What I can reach is generally no further than inside the central district, though…”

“Then I’ll come to the central district. There are still plenty of places in it I’ve never been.”

“Then I shall show you.”

“Thanks. I’ll look forward to it.”

Neither Martine nor I wanted this stretch of time to end, so we talked on and stretched it out a little longer.

“Your Highness, unless you leave soon your time will be past.”

“Yes… Then, Leon, until next time. And thank you for the lessons.”

“Yeah! Until next time.”

We made our farewells brightly at the end, and I parted from Martine. Watching her get into the carriage and go back to the palace, I felt a loneliness I couldn’t put a name to. Martine is my age, and because she has been educated as a member of the royal family she is very grown-up. So we can talk, and we simply suit each other. Being with her is comfortable.

I turned to Roger as though shaking off the loneliness of parting from her.

“Roger, you’re taking me all the way home today, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I shall take you by carriage.”

“Is there still a little time to enjoy the festival?”

“There is, but was there somewhere you wished to see?”

“No, it’s that you haven’t eaten anything all day, have you? So let’s eat now.”

The three of them besides Martine and me have had nothing all day except the tasting, because they were working. They must be starving. They couldn’t eat because there was nobody outside to relieve them, and part of the cause of that is me.

“No, I am quite all right, so please do not trouble yourself.”

“Don’t hold back. Or do you not want any?”

“No, it is not that…”

“Then let’s eat. Won’t you keep me company a bit longer?”

“…Certainly. Then I shall accompany you.”

Roger’s face eased a very little as he answered.

“Right, let’s go!”

So after that I enjoyed the stalls with Roger, made the most of the central district’s festival and went home. It was a genuinely enjoyable, happy day.