RAC

Chapter 6 – The Deputy’s Residence

We finished lunch, sat a while to let it settle, and then swayed along in the carriage again until we reached a large town as the light was starting to go. Every town in the ducal domain except the main city is managed by a deputy, and in a small town the deputy’s residence is a modest place, while a large town gets a fairly grand building. The ducal house is the one that builds them, so showing the house’s authority must be part of it. This town’s a large one and the residence is roomy, so there’s apparently plenty of space even with all of us staying.

The carriages went through the town and turned in at the grounds of the residence, and stopped. The valet got down first, then me, then Lord Frederick, in the same order as before. In front of the residence stood a man in slightly grand clothes who looked like the deputy, with a long row of servants behind him.

I heard it in the carriage earlier: the deputy of a large town is generally a third or later son of a lower noble house. Rather than working as officials at the palace, a fair number of them take service with a noble and become deputies. This town’s deputy is one of those, a man who used to be a baron’s third son. A semi-noble, as they say.

The man who’d been bowing in front of the house raised his head. He looks to be in his forties. His belly is enormous. The man is vast.

“We have been waiting for you. To have the family of House Townsend under this roof is a very great honor. We shall entertain you with everything we have, so please pass your time here at your ease.”

He said it with a broad, pleasant smile. He looks tremendously friendly… and there’s something under the smile. I don’t know why I think so. Instinct is all I can call it. If I had to put it into words, it’s a smile that seems like a lie. The kind you fawn on power with. For now, I’ll keep out of his way.

“Morgan. It has been a while. Only the one day, but we are in your hands.”

“My lord. It has been too long, and it is a joy to see you looking so well. Please come in. I shall show you to your rooms.”

We followed Morgan into the house. The way the place is built isn’t much different from the ducal mansion; it’s simply plainer and smaller than that one. This may be the size I find restful, in fact. Not that this house would be anything less than an outright mansion if you dropped it into Japan. I may be getting steeped in this world’s scale of things.

Our guest rooms seem to be on the second floor, and we went up the stairs and Lord Richard and the others were shown into the rooms from the far end.

“My lord, please take this room. The mistress here, and Lord Frederick here.”

I assumed I was next, and my room wasn’t shown to me.

“Morgan, where is Leon’s room? I believe I sent word that Leon was to be treated exactly as we are.”

“I understood it so. However, I am terribly sorry to say that there are only these three guest rooms. Might Master Leon therefore use one of the vacant servants’ rooms?”

“A servant’s room? There are other rooms besides. Are they not guest rooms?”

When Lord Richard asked it, I thought for a moment I saw the barest flicker of panic go across Morgan’s face. I’m still short enough to see up into a face from below, which is the only reason I caught it; nobody else will have.

“Those rooms are used for storage. On no occasion when the family has come here have there been more than three of you, so I thought it better to make good use of the other rooms as storage… I am very sorry to have taken it on myself.”

Rooms that could be guest rooms being used as a storeroom is a strange business. Is that really what happened? I had my doubts, but putting my oar in here looked likely to complicate matters, so I kept quiet.

“Morgan, the rooms exist, so have them properly fitted out as guest rooms. Add another two or three while you are about it. It is chance that has kept us to three or fewer until now.”

“Certainly. I am very sorry.”

“And in the meantime, what to do about tonight…”

Having reproved Morgan, Lord Richard fell to worrying about the sleeping arrangements. I’m a commoner; a servant’s room is honestly fine by me.

“Lord Richard, a servant’s room would not trouble me in the least.”

“But to have you treated in that fashion, Leon, is really…”

“Even so. For me to take a guest room while somebody of rank uses a servant’s room is out of the question, and it is only for the one day.”

Lord Richard seemed to turn it over for some time, but in the end he accepted it.

“Then I am truly sorry, but would you use a servant’s room, Leon?”

“Certainly.”

That closed the matter, and I parted from the family and was shown down to the servants’ rooms with Roger.

“Please use this one.”

Morgan’s at least keeping his words polite, but the eyes he turns on me are contemptuous. That look told me everything. This man will be the sort of noble who looks down on commoners. Not noble; semi-noble. And the business with the guest rooms may simply have been that he didn’t want to put a commoner in a grand one.

“Thank you very much.”

I thanked him for form’s sake, and Morgan gave me a hard glare and left. …Is that man an idiot? Doesn’t he understand at all what it means that Lord Richard went out of his way to ask that I be treated as the family are? Lord Richard hesitated over letting me use a servant’s room a minute ago. Anybody who thought for a moment would guess that this commoner is an important guest.

Turn a look like that on the guest, and doesn’t it occur to him that one word from me to Lord Richard finishes him on the spot? A noble’s son, a semi-noble, may do as he pleases with a commoner. Perhaps that’s what has taken root in him.

Morgan may have hidden it well in front of Lord Richard and the others, but this amounts to his holding the same ideas as the camp that opposes House Townsend. That may be worth telling Lord Richard. One night only, and it’s already looking like a nuisance.

I’d got that far in my thinking when Roger came into the room.

“Master Leon, the servants’ room next door has been lent to me, so I shall sleep there. Please call for me at once if anything is needed.”

“Right. Thanks.”

“Though to put Master Leon, a guest of the ducal house, into a room of this kind.”

Roger was frowning where anybody could see it. Feeling on display is a rare event with him.

“And this room is very dusty. I doubt it has been cleaned.”

“It is, isn’t it. Would you give it a clean? Nothing thorough.”

“Certainly.”

If he makes his spite this obvious, doesn’t it occur to him that he’s backing himself into a corner? It’s so stupid that it becomes hard to get properly angry about. If I told Lord Richard what he said and did and what this room is actually like, Morgan might be dismissed on the spot, but if he’s any good as a deputy then perhaps that’s better not done. That’s the difficult part.

Putting up with one night is no trouble at all to me. Still, Morgan’s way of thinking must collide with the camp House Townsend stands in, and if Lord Richard and the others haven’t noticed it, then reporting it is probably the right thing. Hmm. I still don’t know much about how any of that works in practice. It’s possible that where a man stands and how he does his job are separate matters. For now, watch and see.

After that Roger cleaned the room properly and brought me a pail of hot water to wipe myself down with.

“Master Leon, this room has no bath, so might I ask you to make do with wiping yourself down today?”

“Wiping down is fine, thanks.”

I cleaned myself up with Roger’s help and changed into the clothes I wear indoors. At home it’s a cloth and water every time, so it’s no difficulty whatever. And if it starts to bother me I can make myself clean with Purification.

A while later it was time for dinner, and one of the house’s servants showed me to the dining room. The servants here only seem to be avoiding crossing Morgan; they aren’t actively out to do me any harm. Well, we’re commoners together, and nobody takes on that kind of risk.

When I went in Morgan was already in his seat and none of the family had arrived. Marvelous… Is he about to do something else to me? I braced for it, and was saved by Lord Frederick coming in almost at once. This is exhausting.

Dinner went along in an easy mood from beginning to end, presumably because the family were there. The food was a little below what we eat at the mansion in the capital, but decent and satisfying.

“Leon, how is your room? Is there anything you lack?”

“No. It is a small shame that there is no bath, but I lack nothing in particular.”

“A bath… In that case you had better use mine.”

Use the bath in Lord Richard’s room?! There’s no possible way I could be that brazen!

“No, Roger prepared hot water for me earlier and I have cleaned myself up, so I am quite all right. Thank you for the thought.”

“I see. As long as that is so…”

“Yes. It is only tonight, and there is no difficulty at all.”

“Good. But say so at any time if you find you want a bath.”

“Certainly.”

A bath is a little tempting, but I’m not thick-skinned enough to relax in the bath in Lord Richard’s own room. And doing it would only earn me more of Morgan’s resentment.

“That reminds me, Morgan. On the matter of order in this town…”

Lord Richard moved on from there to talking with Morgan about keeping the peace in the town. Once I’d stopped being the subject I finally settled down and got back to eating. This house is an uncomfortable place. Simply knowing that somebody here means me ill is enough to keep me on edge.

After a while Lady Catherine and Lord Frederick went back to their rooms, so I decided to follow them up. Out of this room at last.

“Then, since I have the road behind me as well, I shall go up ahead of you.”

“Yes. Until tomorrow, Leon.”

“Yes. Please rest well, Lord Richard.”

Successfully out of the dining room at last. That took a good deal out of me. Other people’s ill will really is frightening. It brought home to me all over again how decent every single person I’ve dealt with until now has been.

Back in the room I changed into nightclothes and sat on the edge of the bed. I’m tired; I may as well sleep. I’m not in the mood to enjoy tea in this room either.

“Master Leon, shall I pour you some tea?”

“No, I’m tired today, so I’ll leave it. I’m going to sleep.”

“Certainly. Then I shall withdraw as well.”

“Yeah. Roger, thanks. For everything, always.”

It struck me how much it’s worth that Roger serves a commoner like me in earnest, and the thanks came out of me before I’d decided to say it. Roger’s face eased a very little.

“Serving Master Leon is my work.”

The words are curt, and what comes through them is something like pride in serving me. …That’s a good feeling to have. All the more so now, with somebody’s ill will in the house. I’m glad Roger is my valet.

Then Roger withdrew to his own room and I was alone. There was nothing to do, so I lay down on the bed, and I couldn’t really sleep; I was too surprised that a person could look down on me that far for nothing but being a commoner. Meeting one in the flesh is quite a shock.

I was rolling around on the bed when I heard somebody talking outside. Servants? Young women’s voices, so new maids perhaps. I found myself curious about what they were saying, so I gathered mana in my ears and strengthened my hearing. Using body strengthening magic on the ears does raise your hearing a little. Only a little, so it isn’t much use as a rule, but at a time like this it earns its keep.

“I was on edge thinking the family were going to find out.”

“Me too. Though we can’t relax until they’ve gone.”

“I know. But I don’t know what Morgan thinks he’s doing, selling the furniture out of the guest rooms.”

“About that… Don’t tell anybody, but they say he’s spending the money on himself.”

“What?!”

“Keep your voice down!”

“S-sorry. But is that really true?”

“Yes. There’s a servant who heard Morgan and the butler talking about it.”

“So the butler’s in on it?”

“Apparently not. The way I heard it, the butler tried to stop him. We’re commoners; we can’t go against Morgan, can we.”

“No. I suppose not.”

I managed to hear that much, and then they got too far off and I lost them. …That’s quite a thing to have overheard. I’d assumed he couldn’t lend me a room out of spite, and instead there was this behind it. Morgan is embezzling this town’s money. And if he’s going as far as selling the furniture, is he skimming the taxes too? Whichever it is, this is a straightforward crime.

So Morgan probably isn’t even good at being a deputy. Not merely no good; harmful, more likely. This has to be reported to Lord Richard.

I decided to call Roger so he could find out whether Lord Richard would see me. Normally I’d ring the bell, but from this room there’s a chance it wouldn’t be heard, so the arrangement is that I knock on the wall Roger’s room is on. I knocked lightly, and a few seconds later Roger came in. Which is much too fast, surely?

“Master Leon, what may I do for you?”

“Isn’t that too quick after a knock?”

“I am your valet.”

Is a valet supposed to be superhuman? Well, it’s Roger. Roger is extremely capable.

“The thing is, there’s something I want to tell Lord Richard. Could I see him now, do you think?”

“I would think now discourteous. Would tomorrow present a difficulty?”

“Yeah, I think it’s better told as soon as possible.”

“Certainly. Then I shall go and ask whether he will see you. Please wait here, Master Leon.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

Roger went out at speed and came back a few minutes later.

“Master Leon, he will see you now.”

“Good. Then let’s go straight away and not keep him waiting.”

“Certainly. Let us change your clothes first, however. Going in nightclothes is better avoided.”

At which I looked down at what I was wearing. …Extremely casual nightclothes. I hadn’t noticed at all. Without Roger I’d have walked into Lord Richard’s room in my pajamas.

“Thanks, Roger. My clothes hadn’t even crossed my mind.”

So Roger got me properly dressed, and I went to Lord Richard’s room a little tense. Roger knocked at the door and spoke through it.

“Master Leon is here.”

Lord Richard’s valet opened the door at once. Lord Richard was sitting on the sofa; he seems to have been waiting for me.

“I am sorry to come at such an hour. Thank you for making time for me.”

“Think nothing of it. And coming to see me at this hour means something has happened?”

“Yes. Though I cannot judge whether it is a matter others should hear.”

I said it with my eyes on the valet and the guards in the room.

“Let me see… All of you, withdraw a while.”

At Lord Richard’s word they went out at once and the two of us were alone.

“Now then. What is it?”

“Yes. It concerns Morgan…”

From there I told him the talk I’d overheard. About his looking down on commoners I decided to keep quiet for the moment. For a noble that much may well be nothing worth remarking on.

Lord Richard heard me out, and then his face went difficult and he sat thinking. After a while, in his own time, he spoke.

“Leon, would you keep this from the others for now? I shall work out how to handle it properly. It will have to wait until the actual evidence is in hand, but Morgan will be resigning as deputy. And he will most likely answer for the crime in the royal capital.”

To charge him they apparently need evidence that he actually took the money, and it has to be done carefully so that nothing gets buried. First they’ll look into who bought the furniture, and after that into whatever else he’s been doing. Left with Lord Richard, it should be all right.

“Certainly. I shall keep it between us.”

“Thank you. …We truly have you to thank this time, Leon. I am the one who hired Morgan, so this is my responsibility.”

Lord Richard seems to be blaming himself for not having seen through Morgan. Seeing through people is hard, though. A man can start out honest and be carried off by greed as the work goes on.

“There may indeed be some responsibility of yours in it, but seeing through a person is difficult, so I think what matters is having a system in which a deputy cannot do as he likes.”

I said it without thinking much about it, and Lord Richard seemed to find it interesting.

“Oh? What sort of system would you suggest?”

…I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. Now he’s interested. Hmm. What sort of system would work. It isn’t as though I know anything about this…

“Let me think… What about dividing the power up? You could cut the agricultural districts into several parts, appoint a head within each, and have each district head submit the harvest figures. And if they were submitted in two places, the deputy’s residence and the ducal residence, it would be harder to falsify them. If the deputy were doing something dishonest, it would also be easier for a head to report it.”

In practice it wouldn’t go that smoothly, but as an idea it may just pass.

“There is certainly something in that worth a second look. I shall talk it over with Christophe.”

Well received, surprisingly. I let a quiet breath out in relief.

“Then leave Morgan to me.”

“Certainly. I have no right to put my oar in. It was only that the talk I happened to overhear was not the sort of thing one can ignore.”

I said it with a rueful smile, and Lord Richard answered with one of his own.

“Instead of resting from the road, I have tired you out. I am sorry for it. Go back to your room and rest properly.”

“Thank you. Excuse me, then.”

So I went back to my own room with Roger. Telling Lord Richard must have cleared something out of me, because after that I slept soundly.

Chapter 5 – To the Ducal Domain

The months went by after that and the season came around to the end of autumn. From summer into autumn I spent my time helping at home, teaching Martine, going to tea parties. Then, in the middle of all those quiet days, word came from House Townsend: they were leaving for the ducal domain in three days, so would I come to the house the day after tomorrow.

“Mom, Dad, about going to the ducal domain. They’ve settled on three days from now, so I’ll go over to the ducal house the day after tomorrow.”

My family already know about the trip. They’ve met Lord Frederick in person, and I’ve been going to the ducal house every week lately, so they agreed to it without any fuss.

“So the day’s settled. Take care of yourself, and off you go. Mind you’re not a nuisance to anybody.”

“Yeah, I’ll be careful.”

“Good timing, though, all things considered.”

Dad said it, which suggests something’s going on.

“The truth is we’ve found somebody to work for us. He starts tomorrow, as it happens.”

“Really?! That’s great news!”

With me away Marie has too much to do, and that was the one thing worrying me.

“What sort of person?”

“A boy of fifteen who’s come of age just this year. He’s interested in cooking, and he begged us to teach him between jobs.”

“He looks keen, and he seemed a good lad. Kind sort of face.”

Which is all very well, except… hold on. He’s a man? And he wants to be a cook. Which means, if he plays it right, he wants to take over our restaurant, doesn’t it?! Is Marie in danger here?!

“Listen, have you really gone and hired him?”

“Of course. Why would you ask a thing like that? Mom met him once and he’s a lovely boy.”

“But a man’s a risk to Marie, isn’t he? Wouldn’t a girl be better, somebody her own sort she could be friends with?”

I put the case as hard as I could and neither of them would take me seriously for a second.

“There’s no danger in it, so stop worrying. And who knows, he might do very nicely marrying into the family one day and taking Marie’s name.”

How did we get there? I was arguing the exact opposite of that a moment ago!

“Loana, that really is getting ahead of things.”

Nice, Dad. Hold the line!

“Although it’s true that if the two of them suit each other it might come to that in time. And I’d be glad to have somebody to hand the restaurant on to.”

Dad! I thought you were on my side! Granted, if I’m not taking the restaurant then Marie is, and that does mean somebody has to marry into it… I understand the logic. It still sits badly. Nothing for it: I’ll take the measure of this man myself. If I find one thing about him that isn’t good enough for Marie, I’m opposing the whole business.

That was where I stood when the next day came. Today the man starts work.

“Big Brother, you’re in the way standing there. Come and help me get ready!”

I’d been standing since morning with a hard look on my face, glaring at the door, and Marie told me I was in the way.

“Sorry, Marie. But the first day matters with a new employee. If he decides he can walk over me at the start, that’s it.”

“Honestly, Big Brother, what are you talking about? Hurry up and get ready. Anyway, everybody except you has already met him.”

“What?! Marie, you’ve met him too!”

I asked in a hurry at that shattering revelation, and Marie answered with a touch of temper.

“He came to the house once, so obviously I did. You were out.”

“He didn’t do anything to you? Nothing horrible?”

“He was really nice. He helped with the work that day and he was quick about it. He might be more use around here than you are.”

…For Marie to say a thing like that to me. Is it because I’ve been out so much lately and we haven’t played together as much as we used to? Has Marie hit a rebellious phase? I was standing there rooted, thinking that over, when the restaurant door opened and a kind-faced young man with brown hair and brown eyes came in.

“Hello.”

“Oh, Ian!”

Marie ran off toward the young man. So that’s the new employee?

“Big Brother’s here today, so I’ll introduce you! Big Brother, come here!”

Marie called me over, and when I came up to him he greeted me with a bright, open smile.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Ian.”

Ugh… His first impression’s flawless, isn’t it. A pleasant, well-set-up young man, and he even manages a bit of formal speech. Something in me went sour and I fired my greeting back with both barrels.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Marie’s brother. Leon.”

I put a good deal of weight on the brother, and Marie glared at me. Marie, why…? Have you gone off your big brother? Somewhere close to tears, I set about hunting for a flaw in this Ian person.

“Loana, Jean, I’ll do my best from today!”

“Ian. We’re glad you’re here.”

“Welcome, Ian. For now, would you learn the restaurant work with Marie?”

“Yes. Marie, will you show me?”

“Yes! First you wipe the tables with this cloth, and then…”

Marie set about teaching him the work, never leaving his side. Ian listened seriously, putting in a word here and there. He’s conscientious… And once the explanation was done he got straight to work, cleaning quickly and neatly. He’s being thorough about it, and the place is genuinely coming up. So he can work as well…

Next Mom and Dad called him over to taste today’s lunch menu. He said it was delicious, with a smile all over his face. He’s a good sort… Which means there’s nothing wrong with him!

…No, hang on, this is a good thing. Having a decent person working here is something to be glad about. It only feels as though Marie’s been taken away from me, and that stings.

I drooped, and shuffled off to get back to helping. Then Ian came over toward me. What now? Does he have a complaint about me? Am I about to be told Marie’s his? I was busy building that persecution fantasy in my head when he spoke to me, smiling.

“Leon, you’re really clever, they tell me, and you’re going to the Royal Academy. I was honestly amazed when I heard. I had a little chance to learn some formal speech and my letters, and it was hard enough. School would be beyond me. I’ll work hard and keep this restaurant safe, so don’t worry about the place. Give it everything at school.”

Ugh… What a good person. And I was aiming looks like knives at somebody like this. Sorry, Ian. I lose. Nothing for it, I’m going to have to accept you.

“Thanks, Ian. Look after the restaurant and Marie for me.”

“Sure. Leave it to me.”

Ian smiled a warm smile. He’s so thoroughly decent that I start to look bad by comparison. I’ve got some work to do myself.

After that I put my back into helping properly. I taught Ian some of the work too, and I think we got a bit friendlier. It hasn’t stopped stinging that Marie seems to have outgrown her big brother, though. She’s been talking to Ian rather than me all morning. But there’s nothing to be done about it…

Carrying that tangle around, I somehow got through the work. From now on Ian eats lunch with us, and after lunch he gets his cooking lesson. Only today, for whatever reason, I didn’t want to sit and eat with them, so I said I had an errand and went out. Watching Marie and Ian getting on so well was more than I could take.

Do I have a sister complex? I’m aware that I’m too fond of Marie, granted. She’s a genuinely adorable little sister. But I need to keep it within limits if I don’t want her to end up hating me… I was out the door and shuffling off in the general direction of the square when Marie called after me.

“Big Brother!”

“Marie? What’s wrong?”

I hadn’t expected her to come after me at all, and turned round in surprise. Marie’s face was a little worried.

“It’s just, you went all flat partway through today, so I thought maybe you were feeling ill. Are you okay?”

She was genuinely anxious about me, and she came right up and looked up at me from below with worry all over her face. Marie… To have been watching me closely enough to notice something was off! I was so pleased about it that the whole tangle of a moment ago went straight out of my head. Just plain glad, that’s what I am.

“Marie, thank you. I’m glad I’m your big brother.”

“What’s that about?”

“It means your big brother loves you.”

“Does he? I love you too, Big Brother!”

Marie gave me a beaming smile. I want to keep this smile of hers safe for as long as I live. I can’t always be nearby, so if there’s somebody else to protect Marie then I’ll accept him. I found I meant it. Well, I intend to keep protecting her myself as far as I possibly can.

“Big Brother, are you going out anyway?”

“Hmm. I’ll go later after all. Let’s have lunch at home together.”

“Yes!”

And so Marie and I went back to the house on the best of terms.

Then, the next day. Roger came to fetch me by carriage and I set off for the ducal mansion. When I arrived I was shown up to the usual guest room.

“Master Leon, the clothes ordered from the tailor earlier and everything else thought likely to be needed have been packed, so the preparations are already complete. Please rest at your leisure today.”

Done already. I’d have no idea what to take, so this is a mercy. Which reminds me, and it’s late in the day to be wondering, but where is the ducal domain? I’ve never seen a map of this world at all. I know we’re going by carriage; how long is the journey? It’s the end of autumn now and I was told we’ll be back before winter closes in, so it can’t be all that far.

“Roger, thank you. And this is late to be asking, but do you know where the ducal domain is? I’ve never seen a map of this country, so I don’t really have a picture of it.”

“I have heard that the domain’s main city, where the lord’s residence stands, is about three days by carriage. Maps are classified information, however, so they cannot be shown to anyone without the master’s permission.”

Now that he says it, I remember hearing that maps were military secrets on Earth as well. So I probably won’t be shown one.

“Master Leon might be granted permission, though. The master is at the mansion today, so shall I ask whether a map may be lent to you?”

“Really?! Then, yes, please, if you don’t mind.”

“Certainly. One moment, please.”

Roger bowed and went briskly out of the room. I hope the permission comes. I’ve wanted to see a map of this country for ages. I don’t even know where the country sits, or where the royal capital sits inside it. If I can see a map of the world too, I want that. Is this a large continent?

I was waiting and fidgeting with that in mind when Roger came back with two largish rolled sheets in his hands.

“Thank you for waiting. The master’s permission has been given, so I have brought both: a map including the surrounding countries and a map of this country alone.”

Excellent, permission granted! Very grateful indeed. They trust me a fair amount, then. I should work hard for the ducal house too, so as not to let that trust down.

“This is the map including the surrounding countries. This country, the Kingdom of Lathlasia, is here.”

Roger spread the map on the desk and showed me the map of the world first. Now that I think of it, Roger’s senior enough to be allowed to look at maps himself.

“Thank you.”

The map Roger had spread out had only one continent on it, and the Kingdom of Lathlasia sat at the southwest of that continent. The south and the west of the country face the sea, and to the north there are a great many countries. Ours looks like the largest of them, running long from west to east, and along the eastern side of the country a great forest spreads. That’ll be the monster forest. The whole eastern part of the continent appears to be monster forest, and where the continent ends isn’t marked at all.

Maybe nobody knows any longer how far the monster forest runs. And looking at a map like this, properly, this really isn’t Earth. The thought arrived out of nowhere. Perhaps because I saw world maps often enough in Japan.

I was looking over the map of the world, or of the continent rather, with that in my head, when Roger spread out the map of the country as well.

“This is the map of this country. The royal capital is here, and the ducal domain is around here. And this is Tarzelia, the main city of the ducal domain.”

The map of the country was drawn in far more detail than the map of the continent. The royal capital seems to sit a little southwest of the country’s center. The ducal domain lay off to the southeast of the capital, an enormous stretch of land with a coastline. The main city, Tarzelia, is apparently near the sea as well. Might I get to eat things from the sea? In this world I’ve had a little river fish and otherwise almost nothing but meat. If there’s seafood, I’m going to look forward to this trip a great deal more.

“Roger, have you been anywhere other than the royal capital?”

“No. I was born and raised in the royal capital and have never left this city. I am very grateful to be able to go to the ducal domain this time, accompanying Master Leon.”

Roger’s face loosened slightly as he said it. There! For Roger to make a face like that is a rare event. He must be quite looking forward to it. It’d be good to get closer to him on this trip; we’re going to know each other a long time.

“It sounds like the sea is close, so it’d be nice if we could go and look at it.”

“Yes! …Ah. Er, I beg your pardon. I have an interest in the sea.”

It seems to have come out louder than Roger intended, and he patched himself up, a little embarrassed. Not the usual blank face; there’s feeling showing in it. Roger really is unlike himself today. I prefer him this way, though.

He’s that excited about the sea. I couldn’t help laughing a little.

“Heh… I’ll ask if we can go and see it.”

“…Yes. Thank you very much.”

After that we spent the time drinking tea unhurriedly and getting the maps into my head.

Then, that evening. Dinner in the dining room with the household. Lord Richard, Lady Catherine and Lord Frederick are all here today.

“Leon, we leave early tomorrow morning, so rest properly tonight.”

“Yes, thank you. Who will be going to the ducal domain?”

Nobody had told me who was coming yet.

“Ah, did I not say? Catherine and Frederick and myself, the three of us, are to go.”

“Ah. Is your work all right, though?”

I’d assumed Lord Richard and Lord Frederick couldn’t take time off and that Lady Catherine would be going alone.

“The work is quite all right. In this country one may take an extended leave in order to return to one’s domain. Things should manage without me for a short while.”

“What a convenient arrangement to have.”

“The knights have it too. So I get to come along this time. Doubling as escort, mind you.”

Lord Frederick said it. Escort, though. Is the road actually dangerous? I froze with a piece of meat on my fork.

“Is there some danger?”

“No, hardly any. It is only a precaution.”

Fine, then. Reassured, I put the meat in my mouth. Chew, chew… Delicious.

“We are going to collect Lord Lucien this time, is that right? Is there anything else planned?”

“No, nothing in particular. Only that I should like to show you the domain. Is there anywhere you would like to go?”

He’ll take me where I want to go?! In that case there’s only one answer.

“I should like to go to a town with the sea. I am interested in food from the sea as well.”

“Very well. There is a port town near Tarzelia, the main city, so we shall go there. That town has fresh seafood and the food is very good. I am fond of it myself.”

“So we are going to that town. I am looking forward to it as well. The cooking there is delicious.”

Lady Catherine likes it too. That raises my expectations. Good seafood is a moral good. And if the ice maker spreads, might the royal capital get seafood as well? Presumably packing it in ice for days on end is asking too much. Then again, three days or so by carriage; over that distance, ice ought to hold. It’d be good if the capital could have seafood.

But first, the genuine article at the source. I remembered a seafood barbecue and very nearly started drooling. Careful, careful.

“To have food as good as that, I am very much looking forward to it.”

“Look forward to it, then.”

Dinner ended with the mood as easy as that. I went to bed early that night and dropped off almost at once.

Then the next morning, I was woken earlier than usual.

“Master Leon, we depart early today, so unless you rise soon you will be late.”

“Uuugh… all right. Thanks for waking me.”

I rubbed my eyes and managed to sit up, and it looked to be still dark outside. On the way to the ducal domain we apparently stay at the deputies’ residences in the towns along the road, and the first town we’re due to stay in is a fair way off, so we have to leave early.

I clapped both hands against my cheeks and woke myself up. Ow. Too much enthusiasm… Still, I’m awake, so we’ll call it a success.

“Morning, Roger.”

“Good morning. The luggage has already been loaded by the servants, so please see to your own preparations.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

“Breakfast is being prepared, so please wash your face here and wait.”

So I ate breakfast, changed into the splendid clothes, and got myself ready to go.

“Then let us go.”

Roger led me to the drawing room beside the entrance hall, the sort of room they must use for callers who aren’t staying. Nobody had arrived yet when we went in. I sat on the sofa and took a breather over the tea Roger poured me, and after a while Lord Frederick came in.

“Leon, morning. You’re early.”

“Lord Frederick. Good morning.”

“Nervous, are you?”

Am I? I hadn’t noticed it myself. Though it’s the first time I’ll be with nobility for days on end, so perhaps I am a little. I’ve got used to Lord Richard and the others, but the people at the domain I’ve never met.

“I may be, now that you say so. I have never met your eldest brother before…”

“No need to be nervous about that. My eldest brother and the rest are good people. And they’ve been told about you.”

Hearing that does settle me a bit. Then Lord Frederick and I talked about nothing in particular until Lord Richard and Lady Catherine came down from their rooms.

“Everyone is here. Then let us set off at once. Get into the carriage.”

The four of us got into a carriage that was outstandingly large and grand even by the standards of the ducal house, and two servants rode with us. The other servants are in a second carriage, and there are apparently carriages loaded with luggage as well. Four in all, moving along in a line, with the ducal house’s soldiers ringed around them.

I’m surprised there are this many guards on top of Lord Frederick. Well, it’s a ducal house, so perhaps it’s a matter of course. Some of it must be about showing the house’s authority.

The carriages made good progress and we left the streets of the royal capital behind. I opened the window and looked out at fields spreading away on every side, with houses standing here and there among them. There’s something like a church now and then, so maybe a church gets put in once you’re a certain distance out from the capital’s streets. Out this far you’d certainly never hear the bells. Which raises a question: is this still the royal capital? I put it to Lord Richard.

“Lord Richard, is this place still the royal capital, or something like land held directly by the royal house? Or is it a noble’s domain already?”

“No, this is still the capital’s agricultural belt. A little further on we enter the ducal domain’s agricultural belt.”

So the land around the capital is held directly by the royal house for a good while yet.

“I see. Does the road go on like this the whole way?”

“As far as Tarzelia the road is maintained like this more or less throughout. Leave the main highways, however, and that is no longer the case.”

The road we’re on now is bare earth, but well packed and properly kept. That highway runs on and on, and the agricultural belts and the towns sit along it, and off away from it there are small villages here and there.

I asked Lord Richard about all sorts of things and watched out of the window for a while, but the same view does eventually go on too long, and I got bored and shut the window.

“Leon, is there a food you like?”

Lord Richard asked it out of nowhere. A food I like… Being asked outright makes it a difficult question.

“Let me think… I like most things, generally, but the stewed beef I was given at the mansion was very good indeed.”

“Ah, that. I am fond of it too. The seasoning is a recent creation, and it makes the meat tender as well. Very good.”

It’s beef stewed in a sauce a little different from beef stew but tasting like a relative of it, and it comes out tender and delicious. Of everything I’ve eaten at the ducal house’s dinners it’s my favorite.

“Then let us have lunch today at a place where you can eat beef.”

“We are able to eat lunch at a restaurant?”

“There is a town just inside the ducal domain. Lunch will be somewhat late, but eating at a restaurant is better if we can manage it, would you not say?”

There’s a town on the border with the capital. It does make the boundary easier to see, I suppose.

“I shall look forward to it. It will be the first town other than the royal capital I have ever been to.”

“Look forward to it. The feel of it is a little different from the capital; you should enjoy it.”

We swayed along for a while after that, and it seems we reached the town where we were to eat. Looking out of the window I could see houses packed close together.

“Do towns other than the royal capital have anything like a central district?”

“No, they do not. There is a street where the higher-class shops stand, though.”

So that’s it. There are hardly any nobles in the other towns, so a central district wouldn’t be needed.

The carriage went slowly along the town’s main street. The townspeople look at the carriage as though startled, and then most of them turn away as if they’d rather not be involved. The people of House Townsend aren’t like it, but I hear there are nobles who are simply unjust to commoners, and from a commoner’s side the nobility must be one single thing you don’t want to go near.

I was watching the town go by and swaying along when the carriage stopped after a while, in front of a shop with a polished air about it. I could see Lord Richard’s valet going into the place ahead of us; they must send word ahead to have nobles received properly. Then we waited in the carriage a short while, a man of middle years came out of the shop, and the valet came back to us.

“It appears the preparations are complete.”

“Very well.”

The order of getting down is me, Lord Frederick, Lord Richard, Lady Catherine. Broadly it goes from the lowest in rank upward, and the man who does the escorting gets down before the lady he escorts. Lord Frederick and I got down and waited for the other two, and then followed behind as Lord Richard escorted Lady Catherine to the door.

“The family of House Townsend. Our sincere thanks for coming to us today. Your seats are ready; please come in.”

“You have moved quickly, considering we came without notice. Thank you.”

“It is no more than our duty.”

Inside, the place was built on quite a lavish scale. It can’t match the ducal mansion, of course, but it’s grand enough that even somebody who knows the mansion would think so. We were shown to a private room at the back: a square room with a large round table and four chairs. Lord Richard sat furthest in and I took the chair nearest the door.

“Your menus.”

A server handed a menu to each of us. It looked as though you chose one main from several meat dishes and the rest of the set was fixed. Herb-roasted chicken, beef, pork steak, stewed beef and so on were laid out on it. Stewed beef for me, obviously. Talking about it earlier had made me want it.

“The stewed beef, if you please.”

“I should like the herb-roasted chicken.”

“The pork steak for me.”

Stewed beef for Lord Richard, herb-roasted chicken for Lady Catherine, and the pork steak for Lord Frederick.

“The stewed beef for me as well, please.”

“Certainly. One moment, then.”

The server went out once the ordering was done, leaving the four of us with two valets and the guards in the room. The other valets and guards must be eating in shifts.

“So Leon settled on the stewed beef as well.”

“Yes. Talking about it earlier made me want it.”

Lord Richard had asked, so I answered with a slightly sheepish smile.

“It is certainly delicious. Though it is heavy for me to eat in the middle of the day. Chicken is about right.”

“It may indeed be a little heavy for Catherine.”

We were talking like that when the server came in with a pot of soup on a trolley. Then a valet drank a little of the soup first. So nobles do need a taster after all. Every time I see it in front of me I think how frightening it is.

Once the tasting was done the soup was served out into the dishes. The valet had taken the dishes out of a case, so they may well be brought from home. Thinking about it, this cutlery may be the same as what we always use at the ducal house. …Nobility really is frightening.

Maybe I should get some poison weak enough to upset the stomach and practice healing magic that removes poison. I’m going to have to be wary of poison myself from now on, so it must be worth having. I’ll think about it when we’re home.

“Then let us eat.”

“Itadakimasu.”

I decided to forget about poison for the moment and enjoy the soup in front of me. I spooned some up and got it into my mouth. …That’s good, actually. A rich, thick potage, very smooth on the tongue, and the flavor isn’t cloying. Barely different from the soup we get at the ducal house.

Do the new cooking methods developed in the central district make their way to expensive places like this? Or is this something like a chain?

From there I listened to talk about the ducal domain and gave myself up to a very good meal. The stewed beef was delicious as well and left me thoroughly satisfied. The sauce tasted a little different from the usual, so it was a second stewed-beef dish rather than the same one. If you asked me which I preferred I’d still say the ducal house’s cook, but eating a different version now and then is its own kind of pleasure. That’s part of what travel is for.

Chapter 4 – A Tea Party for Two

By the time I’d given the magic lessons often enough to be used to going up to the palace, Her Highness invited me to a tea party. The official story is a tea party for three, Lady Elisabeth and Her Highness and Lady Catherine, except that Lady Elisabeth and Lady Catherine are having their tea somewhere else, so today’s tea party is apparently me and Her Highness on our own. A few trusted servants set it up, and the party itself is held with the whole place cleared.

Why the two of us, I don’t know, and there was never any question of my refusing an invitation from her, so the day arrived. I rode up to the palace with Lady Catherine as usual, and partway through I alone was shown out to a pavilion in the North Palace garden. Tea and sweets were already laid out there. The servant who’d brought me offered me a chair, so I sat and waited for Her Highness, and she came almost at once with a single guard. When she took her seat the guard withdrew far enough that nothing we said would carry.

“Leon. Thank you for coming today.”

“Your Highness. Thank you for inviting me to such a lovely tea party.”

Her Highness is in a grander dress than usual today, tea-party specification presumably, with a good deal of jewelry on as well. She’s very pretty, and that’s putting it mildly. It suits her enormously. And if she smiles on top of that, I’m finished.

The moment the thought went through my head she gave me a small bright smile. Ugh… I’ve got no defense against that. My heart is banging away where I can hear it. If I’m not careful I’m going to sit here gaping at her like an idiot.

“I wanted to talk with you properly, just the two of us. I am happy about today.”

“I am honored to be able to speak with Your Highness like this.”

At which Her Highness’s face took on a faint look of something not quite satisfied.

“Leon, I keep telling you that you may relax with me. I want to be better friends with you than this.”

“But… Your Highness is a princess. And the palace is a place that makes me nervous.”

“When I am the one saying that it is allowed, there is nothing to mind. And palace or not, there is nobody within hearing of us now.”

Lately she tells me to relax every single time. That she wants us to be closer makes me very happy, and I’d like to be closer too if I could, but the fact that she’s a princess still puts the brakes on me.

“Is it a nuisance to you, my wanting to be better friends with you…”

She dropped her eyes, and she looked lonely. …That’s not the face I want to put on her. I want her smiling, always.

“It is nothing of the kind. To have you think so makes me very glad. It is only that I am conscious of the eyes around us…”

“I see… Then let us do this! When it is only the two of us, you relax with me. How would that be?”

She put it to me with her face lit up, as though she’d just thought of something splendid. It’s true that when there’s nobody but the two of us, nobody can call it disrespect, and if she herself says it’s all right, then perhaps it is.

“Certainly. Then when it is only the two of us, I shall do that.”

“Truly?! I am very glad. Then call me Martine, and no formal speech.”

Her Highness smiled at me, thoroughly delighted. If getting to see that smile is what it takes, I’d do more or less anything… which may be a slightly dangerous state to be in.

“Certain—no… Right. Got it. I’ll call you Martine, then?”

“Oh. It feels as though Leon and I have really become friends. I am glad.”

Her Highness said it, no, Martine said it, and went a little red with embarrassment. When she makes a face like that I’m liable to go red myself.

“So Martine, you’re the same age as me, aren’t you?”

I forced the subject sideways to cover the awkwardness. I heard the other day that we’re the same age.

“I am. And Leon will be in the same year as me at the Royal Academy, so I am very much looking forward to enrolling.”

Right, the same year at the Academy too. I’ll be attending from the ducal house, so I’ll stand out horribly once I enroll. Not in the good way either, definitely the bad way. Since I promised to help build up the ducal house’s camp, there’s nothing to be done about it.

Still, every attribute stays hidden for now, so maybe I can get through it without standing out too much? No, better not to count on that… The last of the time I get to spend hidden and unremarkable runs until I enroll at the Royal Academy. After that I stand out at school as the commoner with a ducal house behind him, and once I graduate the every-attribute business goes public and I stand out as a noble. In short, I look like standing out forever. For now I’ll enjoy being an ordinary commoner while it lasts, because it won’t last.

“That reminds me, at the Royal Academy I’ll have to act like I’m meeting you and Lord Stephane for the first time, won’t I?”

I come here as Lady Catherine’s attendant, so an attendant who’s already on visiting terms with Martine and Lord Stephane would look very odd indeed.

“At the start it will have to be so, yes. But I should be lonely if I could not talk to you, so perhaps I shall make some opening for us to get to know one another quickly.”

Martine said it half to herself and sank into thinking. A commoner with a ducal house behind him who’s on good terms with a princess… That’s quite a position. I can’t make myself believe it’s mine.

“Well, I shall think about it in various ways. Enrolling is still some way off.”

“I haven’t even passed the entrance exam yet.”

“But you will pass, will you not? Leon knows so many things…”

She got that far and then her face went difficult all at once and she stopped speaking.

“What’s wrong? Are you all right…?”

“Yes. …Leon, this is not easy to say, but there is something you are keeping hidden, is there not? I wondered whether you might tell me what it is. I have no wish at all to force it out of you. It is only that I thought you might be suffering with it.”

“Wh… why?”

“When you cured me, and I began to ask you why you had knowledge of that kind, there was a moment when your face looked sad. As though it hurt.”

…Seriously? Was I making a face like that? Though it’s true that remembering Japan still turns me sad. Part of what makes it hard is having nobody I can tell any of it to. Some small ordinary thing will come up in the day and I’ll think, we had these in Japan too, or, my family and I used to eat like this when I was little, and there’s nobody I can say it to. That gets to me badly.

“I cannot even imagine what it is you are carrying, but I can hear it and hold it. And if you tell me to keep it a secret, then of course it will be a secret between the two of us and I shall never speak of it anywhere. If you feel able to trust me, I think telling it would make you lighter.”

Martine finished and smiled at me gently, the way you would to somebody hurt. I felt that smile at my back like a hand pushing me forward. Martine isn’t the sort to break a promise. And she’d listen to it seriously, I know that. We haven’t known each other all that long, but I’ve met her enough times now to know the strength of the core under all that gentleness.

Martine I could tell. That’s what I find I think. And the truth is that carrying it alone any longer had reached its limit. I can never tell my family that I’m a different person inside their son, so telling Martine, who stands at a distance from my family, may be exactly the right thing.

“It’s going to sound absolutely wild. Will you hear it out…?”

“Of course.”

Her smile gave me the courage, and I said the thing I’ve kept secret all this time.

“The truth is… I have memories of living in another world.”

“…Another world. What do you mean by that?”

“How to put it… A country a very long way off, somewhere you couldn’t reach from this one in a whole lifetime. Something like that, I suppose.”

“Then Leon has memories of living in such a distant country.”

“Yeah. And not as Leon, as somebody else. I was born there and lived past being grown, and I think I got caught up in some kind of accident and died. And then I came to and I was the eight-year-old Leon in this world. So all my knowledge is knowledge I got in the world before.”

When I’d got that much out, Martine sat thinking with a serious face, working at it to understand. She didn’t say I was mad, or that it was impossible; that alone, that she was trying to take it seriously, feels like being rescued.

“I cannot picture it. I wonder whether such a thing can really happen. But if Leon has the memories then it must be able to… Is there some connection between those memories of yours and having every attribute?”

“That’s what I keep wondering myself. I think there might be a connection, but there’s no way for me to check.”

“…No. Leon, may I ask you this one question, only once more? You are not the Apostle, are you?”

“No. I’m not the Apostle. I’ve never met the goddess, at the very least.”

“So it is as I thought. It did not seem to me that Leon was lying.”

Martine nodded at my answer with the look of somebody whose mind is settled. If it didn’t seem to Martine that I was lying, then somebody out there thinks I am. Meaning somebody believes I really am the Apostle. Lord Alexis and the others, presumably. From what I’ve heard nobody but the Apostle has ever had every attribute, so being taken for one is fair enough.

“Do Lord Alexis and Lord Richard think I’m the Apostle?”

“It is hard to say it, but Father and the others did seem to think you were. That Leon has knowledge of every sort is because Leon is the Apostle, they said. The records that survive say the Apostle held knowledge of every kind and had the use of every attribute, and Leon is that, exactly.”

Fair enough that they suspect it, then. In fact it makes me start wondering whether I really am not… But if I were the Apostle the goddess would certainly have made some kind of approach to me, so I can’t be. In which case, what am I? Lately I keep going around that question with myself, and one of the things I’ve started thinking is that I might be a foreign body in this world. If that happens to be right, and the goddess finds me, would I get erased? It frightens me a little.

“Martine, there’s no chance of me being publicly announced as the Apostle, is there?”

“The man himself denies it, so that is out of the question. Father and the others merely think it privately.”

Right. Then I needn’t worry too much about it. If they proclaimed me the Apostle, I’d be someone who had taken the Apostle’s name falsely, and that’s what I wanted to avoid. I want to keep from being found by the goddess as long as I can. Whether there really is a goddess I don’t know, but there does seem to have been an Apostle in the past, so caution costs nothing.

“If it’s not going public, then I don’t mind the misunderstanding. Nobody wonders where I got my knowledge that way.”

So that’s why, when I laid out all that knowledge in the magic lessons, not one of them asked where it came from. They thought I was the Apostle.

“Ha, that is quite true. Let Father think whatever he likes.”

The way she laughed when she said it took some of the tightness out of the air.

“Leon, I shall not press you if you would rather not talk. But if you ever want to tell somebody, tell me, as much as you like. About your memories of the world you lived in before, too. I shall hear all of it. I cannot picture it well, but I can listen.”

Why does she keep finding the words that let me off the hook like that? I’m truly glad I met Martine. And glad that I could save her.

“Martine, thank you. Really. …So, will you listen? There’s a lot of it I want to say.”

“Yes, of course.”

Her gentle smile loosened my tongue.

“Where to start… Food, obviously.”

“Was the food of your world before different from this one?”

“Yeah. Some of it was similar, but the world before was further along, I guess. And there were more kinds.”

“How interesting. I should like to eat the food of Leon’s previous world.”

“Actually, pancakes are food from the world before.”

“Are they! Those were truly delicious. If they were as good as that, I am all the more curious about your previous world’s cooking. Is there nothing else you could make?”

Things I could actually make in this world are the difficult part… Things I want to eat come to mind by the dozen. Ramen and sushi, curry, soba, udon, pasta, pizza, fried rice. I want every one of them, and I gave up on making any of them myself long ago.

“It’s just that I’m vague about the methods, so there’s a limit to what I can make on my own.”

“If the rough method and a picture of the finished dish are known, the palace cooks will make it. Is there nothing you know that far?”

If rough is good enough, there might be. Something I could make from what this world has… pasta, surely.

“There’s a dish called pasta I might be able to manage. You don’t have it in this world, do you?”

“It is a dish I have never heard of. I am very curious. Would you write the recipe out for me?”

“Sure, but won’t somebody ask who came up with it?”

“That will be quite all right. I am the First Princess, after all.”

Martine said it with a slightly pleased look. When she makes that face she looks her own age, and that’s cute in a different way. My own memories run to having lived to adulthood, but I’ve been Leon for over a year now and lately my heart feels as though it’s matched itself to my body. I’m still Ryosuke Ichigaya as a person, of course. It’s more as though that same person had been made young again. So nothing feels strange to me any more about being nine years old.

“That’s fair. All right, I’ll write it.”

“Thank you!”

Which is also why Martine doesn’t strike me as a cute child so much as a cute girl, in the ordinary way. And she isn’t only pretty; there’s a great deal in her I can respect, and thinking along those lines is probably dangerous. I shook the thought off and decided to concentrate on remembering how pasta is made.

“Bring me paper and a pen.”

Martine rang a bell, called over the guard standing away from us and gave the order. The guard gave a small nod and withdrew again.

“They will bring paper, so if you would write it on that.”

“Got it. I’d better remember it properly.”

“Ha, but even if there are vague parts, the cooks will bring it out well. It may come out a little different from the one in Leon’s memory, and that would be its own kind of fun.”

“That’s true, yeah.”

What she said took a weight off me. We waited a while, and then the guard came back with paper and a pen, handed them to Martine and withdrew to her place again.

“Leon, on this, if you would.”

“Right.”

Pasta starts with the noodles, and for now I know that wheat flour does the job. Beyond that… it was oil and egg and salt. I made it with my mother exactly once. But I don’t remember a single quantity. I can work it out from the picture I half remember. Flour, four scoops taken up in both hands, near enough. There wasn’t much oil, so let’s say a little under half a spoon. One egg, and a pinch of salt. Can it possibly work as loose as that? I’ll write down that the quantities are for them to try and adjust.

Anyway, mix those four, knead them and let them come together. And the rest of it I remember, because I worked hard at it. Once it’s mixed and holding as one lump, dust it with flour and rest it about ten minutes. After it has rested, roll it with a round wooden rod to a thickness of about two millimeters, dust it with flour again and fold it in three. Then cut it into thin strips at the end. That was it, I’m fairly sure. And the width at the end, about two millimeters will do. After that there’s nothing left but boiling it. Boiling time, call it five minutes or so, and I’ll write that the best boiling time changes with the noodle. That’s the noodles done.

That leaves the sauce, and which pasta to make. The noodles that come out of this will be the slightly thick, chewy fresh sort. In that case tomato suits it better than a plain salt dressing. Or cream.

Hmm. Tomato today. Tomatoes should be in good condition this time of year, so I’ll write that I’d like a tomato sauce with bacon or chicken in it. Then toss the sauce through the pasta and it’s done.

There. Finished. A lot of it is vague, but a professional cook should manage.

“Martine, I’ve written it.”

“Leon, thank you! Next let us have a tea party that doubles as a tasting for this dish. I am looking forward to it.”

“That sounds great. So am I.”

She was so obviously happy about it that I ended up smiling along with her.

“Then, and I am sorry for it, shall we close for today? We are already past the time we were given.”

“Oh, are we. Then that’s today done. See you at the next lesson.”

“Yes. I am looking forward to that as well.”

And that was the end of the tea party. It was so enjoyable, and it took something off my heart, and it was a genuinely happy stretch of time.

⁂

Today, nearly two weeks after that, the second tea party for two is under way. I’ve just this moment taken my seat in the same pavilion as last time. The food is already laid out in front of me. It must have come straight from the kitchen, because a little steam is coming off it and it looks wonderful. There’s a smell coming over that opens a hole in my stomach.

“Your Highness, that looks delicious.”

“Leon, it is only the two of us, so no formal speech.”

Right, of course. There’s been no occasion since to be alone with her, so I forgot.

“Sorry. I use it all the time, so it’s habit.”

“If only we could talk like this with people around as well. It is frustrating.”

“That’d be hard to pull off, yeah…”

There can hardly be anybody in this country who’s entitled to speak to Martine without formal speech, princess that she is.

“No… there cannot.”

Her face changed and went a little lonely, and I opened my mouth in a hurry to get it back to a smile.

“The future’s unknowable, though. And never mind the gloomy stuff, let’s talk about the food first. It’d be a crime to let it go cold.”

She heard that and came back to a smile.

“Ha, that is quite true. Then let us eat without more delay. The head cook was tremendously keen about the new recipe. He said it had come out to his satisfaction. Today is the first time I am eating it as well.”

“Wait, really?”

“I told them not to serve it at any meal until this tea party. Since we had the chance, I wanted to share the surprise with Leon.”

Martine smiled a little shyly as she said it. I’m very glad, and more than that I’m embarrassed, and it makes my ears warm.

“Thanks. That makes me happy.”

“There is no need to thank me for it. This smell. It does open the stomach.”

Martine seemed to have embarrassed herself too, and turned the subject.

“Yeah, the smell’s been getting to me since I sat down. My stomach’s going to start making noises.”

“Then let us eat without more delay.”

“Yeah. Itadakimasu.”

I picked up the fork and spoon that had been set out and wound a mouthful of pasta onto the fork, and got it straight into my mouth. Oh… that’s good. The tomato has its sharpness, and salt and herbs and the rest have brought it into balance. The pasta is chewy and superb. It’s a little different from the taste in Japan, but on its own terms it’s fantastic. The head cook is amazing.

I looked over at Martine, and her face had gone soft, so it must be good for her too. I’m glad she likes it.

“Leon, this is very good!”

“I’m glad. Your cooks really are skilled, aren’t they. It’s pretty close to the taste I remember.”

“Is it. So I am eating the food of Leon’s previous world at this moment. That makes me happy somehow.”

That she should be happy about that fact makes me happy. Martine really is a good girl. Good girl may not be quite the right way to put it, but nothing else comes to mind that fits.

After that we talked a little and gave ourselves up to eating for a while.

“Leon, that was truly delicious. Are there no other recipes you could reproduce?”

“Hmm. There are plenty of dishes I can think of, but once you narrow it to things this world could make right away and that I actually remember the recipe for… there isn’t much.”

“I understand. Leon, do your best and remember more of them!”

Martine said it laughing. I’d like to remember them, but a lot of it is gone and a lot of it I never knew. And there’s too much this world is missing. Soy sauce, miso, noodle broth: without the seasonings it’s difficult. Wait. Which reminds me, I’ve never asked any of the nobility whether soy sauce or miso exists. Could there be a miracle where they turn out to exist and simply be expensive? I asked Martine with a bit too much excitement.

“Martine, does this world have soy sauce or miso? They’re seasonings!”

“Th-that is quite a rush of enthusiasm. Are they so delicious? Hmm. But I have never heard of them. I shall check with the cooks and with Father, just in case.”

“Right… thanks. They’re made from a bean called the soybean.”

“The soybean. I shall ask.”

“Please do!”

Lord Alexis might know, actually. That they exist in some distant country, or something. What would I do. If they exist I want them whatever they cost. I want to go to that country! My heart’s racing about it already.

“Then I shall tell you the result at the next lesson.”

“Yeah!”

So I fidgeted my way through to the day of the next lesson, and at the palace I’d finally reached I was given the answer. That nobody knew of any seasonings called soy sauce or miso.

It knocked me flat. I’d let myself hope a little that they might exist, which made it worse. I have no idea how soy sauce and miso are made! What am I supposed to do!

Chapter 3 – Magic Lessons and Royalty

I’m in the ducal house’s carriage with Lady Catherine, on the road to the royal palace. A few weeks have gone by since I cured Her Highness’s illness. That day I went straight back to the ducal house and home to my family the day after, and then a letter came from the ducal house with the schedule for the princess’s lessons in it, so yesterday I came back here again. She’s recovered steadily, and by all accounts she’s well enough now that a magic lesson won’t do her any harm. Which is the best news there is.

“To be allowed to come along with you. I am honored. You are going to teach me healing magic as well, are you not?”

“I cannot promise it will be of any use to you, Lady Catherine, but I shall do my best to teach you.”

“There is no need to be modest. You cured Her Highness’s illness and Alban’s besides. You are a far better hand at it than I shall ever be. I have been looking forward to today enormously.”

“It means a great deal to hear you say so. Thank you.”

On the day I cured Her Highness, Lord Richard and I sat down with Lady Catherine at the ducal house and took her through the whole course of things. She was overjoyed that the illness was gone, and even more delighted, if anything, at the news that she’d be learning healing magic alongside the princess. Lord Richard says she’s always been like that: curious to a fault and mad for anything new.

And it’s true that Lady Catherine’s eye goes a bit predatory now and then. When it does I want to put some distance between us. Well. She isn’t a bad person.

I swayed along in the carriage with her, and after a while we arrived at the palace. We got down and a palace servant showed us through the building to a drawing room, and Lord Alexis and Her Highness were inside.

“Your Majesty. Your Highness. It has been a long while.”

“Yes, yes. There’s no need to stand on ceremony to that extent. It has been a while, Catherine.”

“Lady Catherine. It has been a long while.”

Lady Catherine did the greeting; I’m officially her attendant, so I stood behind her and waited quietly. There followed a stretch of greetings and pleasant nothings, and at the first gap in the talk Lord Alexis cleared the room.

“Everyone withdraw. The techniques Catherine is to teach must not spread in a garbled form, and for that they had better not be overheard by a crowd.”

“Just so, Your Majesty. Healing magic touches human life directly, and I believe the danger of inaccurate knowledge spreading should be shut out as far as it can be. …However, my attendant is needed for the teaching of magic, so I should be grateful if he were allowed to stay.”

“Very well. Then all of you except Catherine’s attendant may withdraw.”

Whatever they made of that, it satisfied them, and out they went. The door was shut and there were four of us left in the room.

“Leon. You may sit on the sofa.”

“Thank you. Excuse me, then.”

I sat down, a little tense with it. Palaces get to me when it’s been a while.

“Martine, I came myself because today is the first of them, but from the next time you are to clear the room yourself. The reason has been given now, so it should go smoothly enough.”

“Certainly. Thank you, Father.”

Her Highness looks entirely well again. She’s filled out a little and she’s very pretty with it, and she seems a shade older than she did the day she came to our restaurant, with more of that fineness about her. It’s honestly an unfair face to have. And when she smiles, multiply that by ten…

“Leon. Thank you for coming all this way.”

I was in the middle of that idiotic train of thought when Lord Alexis spoke to me. I jumped a little, and turned to him with as level a face as I could manage so nobody would guess what I’d been thinking about. We were on two-seater sofas facing each other, Her Highness across from me, Lord Alexis across from Lady Catherine.

“Not at all. It is no trouble.”

“I should like to ask for about once a week from here on. Will that do? And for you, Catherine?”

“I am free at any time, Your Majesty.”

“The same for me.”

“Then that’s settled. Once a week from now on, and would you come on Healing Day?”

“Certainly.”

A week in this country is five days, if I have it right: Fire Day, Water Day, Wind Day, Earth Day, Healing Day, and around again. So the lessons come once every five days. Now that I think about it, I still don’t know how many days or months make a year here. It’s never once come up. Leon’s own memories and his age tell me a year exists as a unit, and past that I’ve got nothing.

Well, the chance to find out will come along. For now I’ll make sure I have the week straight.

“Then let us have today’s lesson without more delay. May I listen in as well?”

“Of course. Then I shall begin. First of all, are you aware that the mana a spell costs can be brought down by the image you hold?”

“I heard a little of it from Leon the other day, but I did not know it before that. We are certainly taught that a spell will not fire unless the image is firm. That the image improves how efficiently the mana goes, I have never heard.”

That was Her Highness answering.

“Nor have I ever heard such a thing.”

If the King of the country doesn’t know it, then it isn’t known in this country at all.

“Very well. Then, Your Highness, Lady Catherine, you both use magic of the healing attribute to close a wound, I think. Do you know why a wound closes in the first place?”

“Why…? Is it not because magic was used?”

She said it as though it were the plainest thing in the world. Magic exists here and it’s tremendously convenient, so probably nobody’s ever thought hard about why the thing happens at all. The reason is that it was magic, and that closes the question.

“But a wound will heal in time even without healing magic. Have you ever wondered why?”

“A wound heals without healing magic?!”

Er… we’re starting from there?! Royalty and the high nobility must have a magic user standing by who closes so much as a scratch on the spot. I suppose that’d mean never once seeing anything heal on its own. But there are servants and guards about, surely?

“When you were hurt, was it always healed with healing magic?”

“It was cast on me at once, always. And I hardly ever came to any harm to begin with.”

Fair enough, if you never handle a knife. Royalty really is something else.

“What about the guard knights, and the maids?”

“They were all healed at once as well.”

Never to have seen a wound close by itself. What an environment to grow up in… they must be curing genuinely trivial cuts.

“Your Highness, then here is the thing I would ask you to learn today. A wound will close without healing magic. Healing magic is more like a hand held out to help it.”

“I see…”

“Yes. And if you understand the mechanism by which a body heals itself, and hold that as your image while you use healing magic, the mana it costs comes down.”

From there I explained natural healing as far as I understand it myself. They’d almost no idea how a body is put together, so getting it across was hard going, but I think in the end they had it. My knowledge is shabby enough, but next to knowing nothing at all it’s got to be an improvement.

I’d been sure today would be the day somebody asked where I got it from, and I had a whole set of excuses lined up: a traveler told me, I read it in a book. In the event nobody asked, and the lesson went along smoothly.

“I think I have the shape of it!”

“I understood it as well. I should like to try it in earnest.”

“I am glad.”

Over an hour to get them there. Still, it landed. Practice next, and since I can hardly put a cut on royalty or nobility it’ll have to be my own finger…

“I think the best thing would be for me to cut my finger a little and have you try it on that. Does anyone have a blade?”

“I have one.”

Lord Alexis produced a smallish knife from inside his coat, and lent it to me. Is this the hidden blade for when things go wrong? Terrifying. Right. Best not to think about it.

I took the knife gingerly and cut my finger.

“Then, Your Highness, if you would begin. Fix the image firmly first.”

“Leon, does it not hurt?”

She seems genuinely worried about my having cut myself.

“It is quite all right. Though I would be grateful if you healed it sooner rather than later.”

“Yes. I shall do my best.”

Her Highness used Heal, and my fingertip glowed faintly, and when the light went out the cut was gone without a trace.

“How was the mana?”

“Astonishing! It took far less than it usually does. If I could normally use the spell once, I believe I could manage four more times.”

Which makes it about a fifth of what it cost her before. Total success. Lady Catherine tried it after her and brought the cost down the same way.

Both of them managed it, which is the main thing. Though I’m extremely tired. Teaching somebody who knows nothing at all, from the beginning, is this hard. Compulsory schooling back in Japan deserves more credit than I ever gave it. We’ll finish here for today; cramming too much in at one go would only muddle it, and I’ve had enough.

Curing illness starts next time, I suppose. Not that being taught means she can do it. The real problem is mana capacity. With something like a cold, would healing it a little at a time over several goes get there? Well, that’s for next time too.

“Then let us finish here for today. Please practice before the next lesson.”

“I will! Leon, thank you, truly.”

“I am glad Your Highness is pleased.”

“You need not be so distant with me… Leon, will you not call me Martine? And you may leave off the formal speech. Since you are my teacher now, ought I to be calling you sir?”

No, no, no, there’s no possible way of doing that to a princess! And I haven’t done enough to have anybody call me their teacher…

“I could not possibly call Your Highness by name alone. Please let it stay as it has been.”

“…Well. Perhaps that cannot be changed just yet. But we shall become better friends than this, shall we not?”

Her Highness smiled at me, wide and warm. That’s the smile I’ve got no defense against! I felt my face going red and dropped my eyes in a hurry, and just at the right moment Lord Alexis cut into the conversation.

“Leon. Do these images of yours exist for magic besides healing? If you are willing, would you teach me the image for fire magic?”

Now? I’d like to say no, because I’m tired, except I’m going to be in Lord Alexis’s debt for a long time yet, so… right. Nothing for it. A bit more effort.

“Certainly.”

From there I explained the idea of air, and of oxygen. Another hour or so. It was worth the trouble, though, because Lord Alexis appears to have got it thoroughly. Explaining a concept this world simply doesn’t have is genuinely hard work.

“Now, if you would make a small Fireball.”

“Very well. …Ah. That’s remarkable. The mana it costs has come down to something like a tenth.”

Lord Alexis marveled at it, and then his face went difficult and he sat silent. He must be turning over how far this ought to spread. Spreading it carelessly could strengthen an enemy, which is what makes it dangerous.

“Leon. What is your own view on spreading this method?”

“Yes. For the present I do not intend to spread it widely. It would strengthen our enemies as well, and I think that is dangerous. But I do believe it may be taught to people who can be trusted, as it was today.”

Lord Alexis nodded at that as though it settled something, and his face eased a little.

“Good. I’d thought the same. And when Leon graduates from the Royal Academy, I should like you to take up the work of teaching people how to use magic. Only those I trust and those you trust, of course.”

When I graduate from the Royal Academy. I haven’t even enrolled and my career after graduation is being settled?! Honestly, something that far off is beyond me, but it isn’t a bad offer. And I do think Lord Alexis can be trusted.

“It is still a long way off, so I cannot promise anything for certain, but I think I would be glad to take it on.”

“Truly?! Thank you. Then until that time, take care not to let it be widely known.”

“Certainly.”

“Though you say a long way off. It isn’t so very long.”

The Royal Academy runs five years, so it seems fairly long to me…

“The Royal Academy holds a graduation examination at the end of every winter, and the students of every year sit it. Whoever passes graduates, so a first-year who passes graduates in one year. Three or four years is the usual, but there are those who graduate in one. My own opinion is that Leon will graduate in one.”

So that’s how it works. Interesting. But I’d rather he didn’t expect that much of me. I’m not actually clever. All I have is the memory of having studied in Japan and the thinking power of a grown adult. I may have to go at that graduation examination for dear life…

“I had no idea that was the system. I shall work hard.”

“Yes. I can arrange you any number of positions, so put your back into it. My own aide would do… though that’s hardly possible straight away, so perhaps assistant to the Chancellor…”

Somehow my career is being decided in a place I have no part in. I’m grateful, I’m extremely grateful, but this is too sudden and much too early!

“Well, there’s more than a year yet. I shall think about it. To change the subject: my wife and Martine’s twin brother would like to thank you today, and to make you a gift as well. Would you meet them after this? Both of them know everything about your abilities, so there is nothing to worry about.”

The two of them, which means the Queen and the Prince?! And Her Highness is a twin, with an elder brother at that. That’s another thing I never knew. I’ve met so many extraordinary people lately that my sense of it has gone strange. I know perfectly well that it’s extraordinary, and I’m less startled than I was. Which is probably better for my nerves, if anything. Going tense over every single one of them would finish me off.

“I have no objection at all to meeting them. Only, as for thanks, I have already received what Lord Alexis has given me, and that is more than enough…”

“Do not say so. Take it. What I gave you has no shape to it, and she’s been throwing herself into choosing the gift with tremendous energy.”

Lord Alexis said it with a wry smile. A present a royal has thrown themselves into is a frightening thing to be handed. It’ll be something expensive, won’t it? I’ve got a strong feeling I’ll have no idea what to do with it. But there’s no refusing, obviously.

“Certainly. Then, gratefully…”

“Thank you. I shall call my valet in, so would you go back to being Catherine’s attendant?”

“Certainly.”

Once I was in place as Lady Catherine’s attendant again, Lord Alexis rang the bell, called his valet and asked him to fetch the two of them. We waited a while, and then two people came into the room giving off a royal aura you could feel: a woman with very beautiful golden hair and pink eyes, and a cool-looking boy with golden hair and blue eyes. This has to be Her Highness’s twin brother, the elder of the two, though for twins their faces aren’t all that alike. The prince takes after Lord Alexis and Her Highness after the Queen.

The two of them sat down on a sofa and Lord Alexis sent the servants out again, which left the royal family, Lady Catherine and me: a set of people that rather raises the question of what I’m doing among them. The aura is a bit much. My stomach is starting to hurt…

“I am Elisabeth Lathlasia, First Queen.”

“Stephane Lathlasia, First Prince.”

So Martine’s twin brother is the First Prince. Which makes him very likely the next king.

“Lady Elisabeth. Your Highness. It has been a long while.”

“I am honored to meet you. My name is Leon.”

Lady Catherine and I made our greetings in turn, and I sat down again on the sofa I was shown to. I might have been less tense standing.

“There is no need to be so formal. Today is not a public occasion. I wanted very much to thank you myself, Leon. You saved Martine’s life, and I am grateful from the heart. Thank you.”

“Leon. I should like to thank you as well. You saved my younger sister’s life, and I am grateful for it.”

Both of them bowed their heads to me as they said it. Being bowed to by royalty is something I can’t sit still under. All of you, please stop bowing to me!

“Er, please raise your heads. I am truly glad that I could help Her Highness.”

“Yes. Thank you, truly. …I have had a great many gifts prepared for today. I do hope you will like them.”

In front of Lady Elisabeth, as she said it, was the pile of things a maid had carried in a little earlier. That surely can’t all be gifts. If it is, it’s far too much!

“Er… the truth is that I have already received thanks from Lord Alexis…”

“Oh, thanks from Alexis and thanks from me are quite separate things.”

Are they. They look much the same from where I’m sitting. Still, refusing would be the greater discourtesy, so I’d better take them honestly and be glad.

“Then I shall accept them gratefully. To be given gifts by Her Highness the Queen is a very great honor.”

“I am glad they please you. And Leon, you are to call me Elisabeth, too. You use Alexis’s name, and Martine’s.”

“That goes for me as well. You may call me Stephane.”

Why does the royal family of this country all want me using their names? Well, never mind. I’m going to stop thinking about it too hard.

“Certainly. Then I shall call you Lady Elisabeth and Lord Stephane.”

“Do that. Now then, let us begin handing over the gifts!”

Lady Elisabeth’s face as she said it was shining with enjoyment. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

“I chose every one of them with real care, so I shall explain them one at a time.”

Thoroughly pleased with herself, she picked up the gift nearest to hand. She isn’t going to take all of them one at a time, is she?! There’s no telling how many hours that would run to. But a request from the Queen isn’t a thing you refuse.

The only person who can stop Lady Elisabeth is Lord Alexis. I turned my eyes to him on that thought, met his for an instant, and watched them slide casually away. Lord Alexis, you aren’t going to stop her?! Don’t tell me the King of this country is under his wife’s thumb?! No good. There’s nobody here who can stop Lady Elisabeth. It’s an honor, when all is said, so let’s be introduced to them…

“Thank you very much. I am looking forward to seeing what they are.”

I got a pleasant smile onto my face with some effort. It probably came out stiff at the edges…

“This is the first. It is a brooch, but it is made of a magic stone rather than a jewel. A magic stone changes color according to the mana you put into it, which makes it a very fine ornament. And it will cast nothing at all unless it is set into magic iron, so there is no need for concern.”

They turn a precious magic stone into jewelry. I’d rather make it into a magic tool. And this brooch is worth a fortune, probably.

“It is very beautiful. If it turns so many colors, it should be possible to match it to the color of one’s clothes.”

“Just so! You can change the color to suit the mood of the day as well. I do think it is worth having one.”

“Thank you. I shall take it.”

“Yes. Then the next. Next is this clothing. I had it made by our own tailor. The finest thread there is, worked up into something truly splendid.”

Right. That’s very splendid indeed. Isn’t that the sort of thing Lord Stephane wears? Handing it to me is no use to anybody. I can’t picture a single occasion for it: you couldn’t wear anything that splendid even to a formal occasion, and wearing it as ordinary clothes is out of the question…

“I am very grateful, but I cannot think of an occasion where I would wear this…”

“Oh, but Leon is to be given noble standing once he graduates from the Royal Academy, is he not? I heard that you asked it of Alexis as thanks for curing Martine.”

I did say I wanted standing. Is it already settled that I get a noble title?

“Would standing as a noble be given to a commoner as easily as that?”

“Not as easily as that, no. But Leon has an achievement behind him, and he looks likely to leave a great many more. I think standing as a noble is well within reach. Is that not so, Alexis?”

“It is. Once he graduates from the Royal Academy it’ll be possible. To begin with, every attribute alone makes ennoblement possible on graduation. I have a number of things in mind, so look forward to it.”

“Yes… thank you.”

A number of things. I’m pleased, and also a little frightened. In my head I’d been picturing a knighthood, or a baron’s title, something in the lower ranks. Does an outfit like this mean something further up? It’s plainly clothing that would look wrong on anybody below a ducal house.

Standing is worth having, but the duties that come with it must be heavy, and moderate would suit me. Things are going to get difficult from here. No, they’re already difficult…

“You would do well to keep this clothing carefully. It has been made on the large side, so have it altered when the time comes to wear it.”

“Certainly. Thank you very much.”

“Then the next. Next is…”

After that the introduction of the gifts ran on for over an hour. Splendid ornaments and clothes, and cloth not yet made up into anything. Every one of them is a wonderful thing and I’m grateful, but I’m also very tired. Everybody else looks fairly tired too. Lord Alexis, Lord Stephane and Her Highness all had a wry smile on, so Lady Elisabeth running away with herself may well be a regular event. She must simply love clothes and ornaments.

“That is all of them. Have they pleased you?”

“Yes. To be given so many splendid things at once… thank you, truly. I shall use every one of them with care.”

Lady Elisabeth is smiling, thoroughly satisfied. That’s that, at any rate.

“It would look odd for these to have been given to Leon, so shall we box them all up and have Catherine carry them back to the ducal house as gifts from Elisabeth to her? Catherine is to be teaching Martine healing magic, so a gift is nothing out of the way.”

Lord Alexis put that in once he had confirmed that Lady Elisabeth was satisfied.

“Certainly. I shall carry them back on that footing and have them stored carefully in Leon’s room at the ducal house.”

They’ll keep them at the ducal house. That’s a relief. Taking this lot back to my own house would be terrifying, security being what it is. At the ducal house I can be easy about it.

“Is that all right with you as well, Leon?”

“Yes. Storing them at my house would be difficult, so that helps me a great deal.”

“Then let it be done that way.”

With the keeping of the gifts settled, the air finally turned toward an ending.

“Then, since a good deal of time has gone, let us close here. Leon, Catherine, will you come again in a week?”

“Certainly.”

“Thank you. Leon, back to playing Catherine’s attendant.”

I took my place at Lady Catherine’s shoulder as her attendant again, and Lord Alexis rang the bell for the valets and the guards.

“These parcels are to go to the ducal house, so I should like them carried out to the carriage.”

At Lady Catherine’s word several palace servants were brought in and carried the parcels out. I took one myself and followed her out of the room.

“Then we shall take our leave of you all. I shall come again in a week.”

“Yes. We shall expect you.”

We made our way back to the carriage, and I returned to the ducal house with Lady Catherine. Once we were back it was settled that the guest room I’ve always used is to be mine and nobody else’s, and the gifts were all carried into it. I looked the whole pile over again, and it really is nothing but splendid things. I can’t believe this room is my room.

“Roger. These are all extremely fine things, aren’t they.”

“Yes. The quality is such that there would be nothing amiss with them in a ducal house.”

I thought as much. The title I’m going to be given is frightening all over again. I’d better start now on becoming a person who deserves it, even a little.

Then, with the tidying finished, I went home to my family that same day. The next lesson is in a week. Today’s tired me out thoroughly, and until then I mean to take it easy at home.

Chapter 2 – Alexis’s Joy

Even now I catch myself wondering whether what I saw a little while ago was a dream that happened to suit me. My daughter Martine fell ill some time in the winter, and a few days ago I was even told that there was no telling how many days she had left. When I went to her room I saw the truth of it: she had wasted so far that the light of her life looked ready to go out where she lay.

Then Master Leon used healing magic, and a gentle light closed over the whole of her, and by degrees the color came back into her face. A few minutes later, when the light went out, her breathing had steadied and the wasted look was unmistakably gone. Thin she still is, certainly. But the life is back in her, if that is the way to put it.

I was astonished as I watched it, and under the astonishment came a relief that went all the way down. I was not going to lose my daughter after all. I cannot thank Master Leon enough for it. A power of that size will become a seed of conflict sooner or later, and when it does I intend to be of use to him.

“Your Majesty. May we send word to Her Highness the Queen and His Highness the Prince?”

Master Leon had gone from the room by then, and Martine was in the middle of sharing her joy with her servants when her guard put the question to me. She is right. The two of them should be told at once.

“Yes. See to it.”

“Certainly, Your Majesty.”

A few minutes after that came a commotion outside the door, and Elisabeth and Stephane came into Martine’s room. Neither of them is ever noisy, which is the measure of how worried for her they had been.

“Martine! Is it true that you are cured?!”

“Mother. Nothing hurts me any more.”

“Martine… I am glad. Truly, truly glad.”

Elisabeth gathered Martine into her arms and wept. Stephane’s eyes had filled as well. It came right in the end… Without Master Leon these would have been the tears of a family that had lost her, and that they are tears of joy instead is his doing from first to last.

“Martine, are you all right now?”

“Brother, nothing is hard for me any more. I shall be well again very soon.”

“I see… I am truly glad.”

“Yes. It is thanks to Father, who had a celebrated apothecary brought here from another country.”

“A celebrated apothecary…?”

Something in that had snagged on Elisabeth, and she tilted her head.

“Alexis. I have heard nothing of your sending for any such apothecary.”

This is bad… Elisabeth is angry, and I have no idea why. Why? There shouldn’t be a single false note anywhere in the story.

“If it had come to nothing, your hopes would have been raised for nothing, would they not? That is why I said nothing of it.”

“Is that the truth?”

“Of course it is the truth.”

I’ve never been any match for that look of hers when she means to have the truth out of me… Stop. Please stop. I was praying it when she took her eyes off me and turned back to Martine. Hah… Saved.

“Alexis. We shall talk after this.”

The cold voice came almost at once, though. Settle me first, then drop it on me… that’s Elisabeth for you. Since I’d been meaning to tell the family about Master Leon in any case, the timing does me no harm. We shall clear the room afterward and talk it out.

We stayed with Martine a while longer, then left her to her maids, and the three of us went out. The moment we were in the corridor, the Elisabeth who had been smiling so happily a breath before turned on me the face that means business.

“Let us go to your room.”

“Very well. We shall talk there.”

We reached the room, had a valet bring tea and nothing else, and sent every servant out.

“Alexis, tell me the truth. It is not possible that you should send for an apothecary and keep it a secret from me.”

“Yes. I shall tell you all of it. Martine was cured because I asked it of a user of healing magic who can cure illness. His name is Master Leon, and he is the Apostle of God.”

“Surely not… the Apostle has come down to us?”

“He has. It makes a long story. Will you hear it from the beginning?”

“Of course.”

So I told Elisabeth and Stephane the whole course of it, from the first I ever heard that Master Leon existed, and I hid nothing.

“That the Apostle should have come down at this hour of all hours… we must be grateful for it.”

“We must. That Martine was saved at all, I can call nothing but fortune.”

“I should like to thank him.”

“Then I shall make an occasion for it before long. But we are not to treat Master Leon as the Apostle. He says himself that he is not the Apostle, and Richard and I talked it over and settled that pressing the title on him against his own word would not do. He may have reasons of his own for keeping his standing to himself.”

“That is true. I shall be careful.”

Elisabeth nodded, deeply. She had taken the point, which was a relief.

“One thing more. If Master Leon’s ability becomes known the danger of his being made a target is high, so I want it spoken of to nobody until he has noble standing of his own. Stephane, that means you are not to tell a soul either.”

“I understand. But Master Leon is to be in my year, is he not?”

“He is.”

“Then I shall have a good deal to do with him. May I tell him myself that I know what he can do?”

“Of course. That is no trouble at all. When Master Leon next comes to the palace I shall tell him from my side as well, that the two of you know.”

“Thank you, Father. I would be grateful.”

“My dear, what would do for Master Leon’s gift? And when are we to be able to meet him?”

When he next comes up to the palace would do, presumably. The magic lessons will begin once Martine is well again, and that leaves time enough to have a gift prepared besides.

“When Master Leon comes to teach Martine magic, I shall make an occasion after the lesson.”

“Certainly. Then I shall have the gift ready against that day. Do you know of anything Master Leon wants?”

“No, I don’t. Would ornaments or clothes not be safe enough?”

“Oh, that would do very well. I shall have something worthy of Master Leon prepared.”

Elisabeth has thrown herself into it entirely… She’s likely to send something outrageous, but this is the man who saved Martine’s life; however dear the gift, it’ll be cheap at the price.

“When the day he comes is settled, I shall send word.”

“I shall look forward to it.”

“So shall I.”

So our talk ended, the three of us together. That we are able to sit and speak quietly like this is Master Leon’s doing entirely; my family’s smiles have been kept safe, and I am more glad of that than I can say.

Chapter 1 – Healing Magic

I didn’t sleep a wink in the end. Her Highness’s condition sat on me all night. What if the light goes out of her while I’m lying here like this? That was the whole of the night, and there was no sleep anywhere in it. On the other hand, lying flat with my eyes shut has brought a good deal of my mana back. On schedule, then. It should be perfect by this afternoon, and I can go to her.

“Master Leon. It is time to rise.”

“Got it. I’m up.”

Roger had come to call me, so I hauled myself out of bed. Then he looked at my face, and something concerned came into his own.

“…You appear tired. Shall I have breakfast changed to something easier to eat?”

Now that he mentions it, I don’t have much appetite. If meat turns up I might not manage it.

“Yeah. I’m not that hungry, so I’d be grateful if you would.”

“Certainly.”

He is hard to read, but that was worry. Roger already knows I can cure illness with healing magic, and I told him yesterday that I was going to heal Her Highness; Lord Richard said I could tell Roger essentially anything. Which makes him a deeply trusted and very capable servant, doesn’t it. I’m lucky they put someone like that with me.

At first I had him down as expressionless and unfriendly and decided we were never going to get along, and I was completely wrong. He is just bad at showing what he feels, I think. We haven’t known each other long, but I can tell that Roger is looking after me properly.

“I shall go and tell the head cook about the change, so please use these.”

He set a pail of hot water and a cloth on the side table by the bed. I washed my face with it, changed, and got myself ready; the clothes are on loan from the ducal house. Washing with warm water did settle me a little.

“Master Leon, breakfast will be ready in about ten minutes, so please wait a little longer.”

Roger came back with that just as I finished dressing.

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Then may I go over today’s schedule while we wait?”

“Sure. Is something on?”

“The tailor is due to call this morning. If Master Leon would rather decline, I shall arrange it… how would you like to proceed?”

Right, yesterday they did tell me a tailor was coming and I should have some clothes made. So much has happened that I forgot it completely. What to do… I could put it off, except then I would have nothing at all to do this morning and I would spend the whole of it worrying about Her Highness. Better to be busy with something. My mana isn’t going to be back until the afternoon anyway.

“I’ve got nothing else on this morning, so let’s do the clothes. It’ll take my mind off things.”

“Certainly. Then we shall keep to the schedule.”

While we were going through the day there was a knock, and another servant wheeled breakfast in on a trolley. Roger took it from him and laid it out on the table. Not a wasted movement anywhere; it is lovely to watch.

“Master Leon, breakfast is ready.”

“Thanks. I’ll eat.”

Breakfast was a warm bread porridge in a salted broth, with a small omelet beside it. The quantity was exactly right and it was very good, and I got all of it down without forcing anything.

“That was really good. Thank you.”

“I am glad you were able to finish. Then please rest until the tailor arrives. Shall I pour you some tea?”

“Please.”

“Certainly.”

I sat for half an hour or so after that, drinking tea and doing nothing much, and then the tailor arrived. He took proper measurements, and I ordered three outfits at about the level a lower noble would wear, so they would do for the Royal Academy as well; then two sets of nightclothes; then one set of good clothes fit for going to the royal palace. Once they are finished he will deliver them to the ducal house.

While I was thinking about clothes I managed not to think too hard about Her Highness, so I am glad I didn’t send the tailor away. It was a change of air and it steadied me a little.

“Roger, is Lord Richard back yet?”

“Yes. Word came a short while ago that he has returned. He asks that you come to the master’s room once you have finished with the tailor.”

“Right. Let’s go now, then.”

“Certainly. I shall send word, so please wait a moment.”

My mana is very nearly all back, so there should be no problem using healing magic. The rest is just me doing my best, and hoping there’s enough of it.

I waited, not very calmly, for Roger to send word, and then went to Lord Richard’s room. Inside, the room had already been cleared: nobody there but Lord Richard and one valet.

“Leon. Has your mana come back?”

I came in and sat down on the sofa, and that was the first thing he asked. Lord Richard is a little rushed himself. Which tells me how little time Her Highness has…

“Yes. My mana is almost entirely recovered, so I can begin Her Highness’s treatment whenever you wish.”

“That is good to hear. Then, to business. Let me explain how this will go. If you simply come up to the palace in the ordinary way and cure Her Highness, you will certainly be suspected of holding the power to cure illness. That would put you in danger, and I want to avoid it. So His Majesty and I have worked out a way to keep you out of it.”

What he explained came to this: the royal house has chosen someone trustworthy who will come up to the palace as an apothecary from a distant country, and I am to go along as the assistant. A veil over the face, as that country’s custom, so that nobody can tell. And honestly, with all that in place, I can’t see who would connect me to anything.

“So I go out past the central district after this, meet the person playing the apothecary there, and we come up to the palace by carriage. Is that right?”

“Yes. Do it that way, if you please. There are about two hours until the appointed time. Have lunch and take it easy until then.”

“Certainly. I shall do that.”

So Lord Richard and I talked the plan through, and I went back to my room.

“Master Leon, what would you like for lunch? Something light again, as this morning?”

“No, an ordinary lunch is fine.”

Getting measured and moving about had made me hungry. If I let myself get run down I can’t cure anything, and if I can eat properly then I should.

“Certainly. I shall have lunch prepared, so please wait a little.”

What arrived a while later was beef stewed until it fell apart. The sauce was superb, and I dipped bread in it and finished the lot. I even had a second piece of bread. Stomach full, mana full. Not perfect condition, but the best condition available today. If I can cure Her Highness on top of it, that will make it perfect. I am going to cure her. I settled that with myself.

After lunch I rested on the sofa until it was time, and to get the mana efficiency of my healing magic as high as I could, I dragged up whatever medical knowledge I had ever seen or heard in Japan. All I have is manga and TV dramas, but it beats not remembering. I was sitting with my eyes shut, pulling things up, when there was a knock at the door.

“Master Leon. It is Alban.”

Alban! I healed him yesterday and then heard nothing more, so I had been a bit worried.

“Roger, let him in.”

“Certainly.”

“Master Leon, thank you for giving me your time.”

Alban came into the room and bowed low straight away. Good. Set beside the man lying in that bed yesterday, he’s beyond comparison. The weight hasn’t come back yet, but he moves briskly, the way he did when I first met him, and his color is good, and some of the worn-out look has gone out of his face. I’m really glad.

“No, please don’t think of it. Has there been anything strange in how you feel?”

“Nothing of the kind. I feel exceptionally well. I came today because I wished to thank Master Leon again.”

If nothing is off, that’s a relief. He was the worst case I had ever treated and I had been a little worried. And if Alban is fine, then as long as I can cure Her Highness she will be fine too.

“Thank you, truly, for curing my illness yesterday. I could not thank you enough in a lifetime. In truth I had thought I was finished. That I should be this well and able to work again is like a dream. My thanks come from the heart.”

Alban bowed low again. There were tears standing in his eyes. Mine nearly came up to meet them, and I hurried to get him upright.

“I’m glad I could cure you. If anything at all feels wrong, please say so and don’t hold back.”

“Yes. Thank you, truly. I shall be of use to Master Leon without fail from now on, so if there is ever anything, call on me.”

“I will. Thank you.”

And Alban went out, bowing over and over and thanking me deeply the whole way. Getting a power that earns thanks like that: I’m glad of it.

Alban went out just as it came time to leave the house, and Roger and I set off from the ducal house in the carriage they keep for going about unnoticed. It took me as far as the edge of the central district and I walked from there to the meeting point, which was another precaution, so that nobody can tie me to a foreign apothecary.

At the meeting point stood a single carriage, solidly built but dingy and old. As I came up, a man got out of it. Forties, I would guess, with a kind face. Hair color, eye color, height and build all match what Lord Richard described, so this is him.

“You’d be Leon?”

I nodded firmly, and he waved me straight into the carriage. Then we sat facing each other inside.

“Has the Chancellor told you what the plan is?”

“The Chancellor… who would that be?”

“Ah. Lord Richard, the previous Duke of Townsend.”

Lord Richard is the Chancellor? I had absolutely no idea. Though it does add up, when the man can get in to see His Majesty at once and knows the state of Her Highness’s illness. You would have to be very close indeed to the throne for that.

“I had no idea Lord Richard was the Chancellor. He did explain the plan to me.”

“Good. Then let us get started. First, change into these, and put this veil on your head.”

What he handed me was a pair of very wide trousers, gathered tight at the ankle, and a coat that came down to the ankle as well. The coat was a little like a Japanese yukata in shape: you lap the front over and tie it closed with a cord.

“Are these clothes from another country?”

“They are. Worn by people of fairly high standing in a certain small kingdom, apparently. It has almost no dealings with this country, but we import a little of its spices and medicinal herbs.”

“You know a lot about it.”

“His Majesty taught me a great deal, so that I would have answers if anybody asked.”

They have thought even that far. This is a properly built operation.

“How do I put the veil on?”

“Hand it here. I’ll do it.”

“Thank you.”

So I changed, chatting with him as we went, and picked up a bag full of assorted herbs and mixing tools, and that was that. I look like nothing on earth but an apothecary from another country.

“That reminds me, names. Mine is Sunhwan. Yours is Namhee.”

“What? My name’s Leon…”

“False names, obviously. It would be strange for someone from another country to have a name from this one.”

“…That’s fair. So I’m Namhee and you’re Sunhwan. What should I call you? Lord Sunhwan?”

“You’re my apprentice in the story, so ‘Master’ would fit, wouldn’t it.”

“Then, Master Sunhwan, I’ll be in your hands.”

“Right. Same to you. Off we go.”

With even our names for each other settled and the story boiled down, the carriage started and we made for the royal palace. Half an hour or so and we reached the palace entrance.

“Halt. Do you have a crest or an invitation?”

An old carriage with no noble crest on it got stopped by a knight, warily. Naturally enough.

“I am Sunhwan. I have been summoned by the king of this country, an apothecary, come from abroad. This is the invitation, from the king of this country.”

The man’s whole atmosphere had changed. Somewhat difficult, but able: that was the apothecary he was giving off now. He had even made his speech a little halting. In another life this man could have been an actor.

“I shall confirm it. Please wait a moment.”

The atmosphere and the invitation between them changed the knight’s manner, and about ten minutes later he came back, having got his confirmation.

“Thank you for waiting. It is confirmed, so please go in.”

“Thank you.”

The knight saw us off respectfully and we went in through the palace grounds, and after a while more the carriage slowed and stopped. Then somebody knocked at the door.

“Lord Sunhwan. Welcome to the Kingdom of Lathlasia. May I open the door?”

“You may.”

The man playing the apothecary answered, and after a beat the door was opened from outside. A palace servant was standing there.

“Again, our thanks for coming the whole long way to the Kingdom of Lathlasia. I shall take you to His Majesty at once. Is this gentleman your pupil? Will he be coming with you?”

“This is Namhee, my assistant. I want him with me.”

“Certainly. Please come together, then.”

“Thank you.”

So the palace servant led us, and we arrived in front of a magnificent door.

“This is His Majesty’s study. Ordinarily we would show you to the drawing room and His Majesty would receive you in the audience chamber, but the instruction for Lord Sunhwan was the study, so I have brought you here.”

“Understood. Thank you.”

“Then I shall announce you to His Majesty.”

The servant knocked at the study door and called through it, “Lord Sunhwan and his assistant Namhee have arrived.” The door was opened at once from the inside.

“Please go in. I shall take my leave here.”

He stepped back, and we walked into the study. Inside were Lord Richard, somebody in magnificent clothes who was presumably this country’s king, valets to the two of them, and several guards.

“You are Sunhwan?”

“Yes. Thank you for calling upon me on this occasion.”

“I hear you are very skilled. My thanks for coming so far. There is somebody I very much want saved.”

“Yes. I shall give it… everything I have.”

“Thank you. Then to the point: would you mind if we moved? The illness is quite grave and I want her seen as soon as it can be done.”

“I have brought all the herbs and instruments I need, so there is no difficulty. The treatment also requires my assistant, Namhee. Would the two of us be acceptable?”

“Of course. Let us go at once.”

There are still a lot of people about, so the apothecary story has to hold.

We left the study and walked through the palace behind His Majesty. He had told the guards earlier that we were going to the North Palace, so perhaps that is where the royal family live. Is the palace divided up into parts? I am a bit curious, but the mood isn’t one where I can ask.

We walked in silence a while and came to a door. Two knights stood in front of it, and they snapped up a salute as His Majesty approached: the salute I know, right hand flat at the upper right of the face. Bowing, saluting. This world has a great deal in common with Japan, and it makes me wonder whether there is something deliberate in it.

“Open the door.”

At his word the knights opened it immediately. Nobody asked anything about me or about the man playing the apothecary, so presumably whoever His Majesty brings gets through. I had assumed there would be a room on the other side, but it turned out to be a long covered walkway. And there were two more knights on the far side of that same door. This is very heavy security. Perhaps the North Palace is through here.

At the end of the walkway there was another door, and knights opened it for us the same way, and we went through and walked a while and arrived at a very grand door. Two knights stood in front of this room, both of them women, which said it was Her Highness’s.

“Your Majesty! Is something the matter?”

“A celebrated apothecary has come from a distant country to treat Martine. Open the door.”

“At once, Your Majesty!”

The two of them opened it immediately. They gave us a slightly wary look, but nobody stops a person His Majesty has brought. Inside the room were three of Her Highness’s maids and two guard knights, all of them drawn back to the walls with their heads bowed.

“All of you. A celebrated apothecary has come to us from another country. Would you step out a while? You as well.”

His Majesty’s own guards withdrew into the corridor at once, but Her Highness’s looked unhappy about it.

“But to leave Her Highness’s side while a stranger is present…”

“The treatment includes methods held in confidence, so the number of people must be cut to the minimum. Richard and I have been given leave to stay, and there is no danger in this room. It is all right.”

“…Certainly. Then, Her Highness is in your care.”

Her Highness’s guard knight could hardly argue further with His Majesty, and nodded reluctantly and withdrew. Once everyone had gone the door was closed, and that left His Majesty and Lord Richard, me and the man playing the apothecary, and Her Highness lying in the bed. With only the five of us in the room, Lord Richard spoke to me straight away.

“Leon, thank you for coming all this way. Was there any trouble?”

“No. This gentleman did all of the answering, so all I had to do was follow him.”

I said it with a hand toward the man playing the apothecary.

“That is good to hear. And thank you as well.”

“Not at all. Then I shall wait at the edge of the room until the treatment is finished.”

The man shifted his manner again, bowed to His Majesty and Lord Richard, and withdrew to the corner of the room. His whole part really was just getting me here.

“Then, Leon, let me introduce you. This is the king of this country, His Majesty Alexis Lathlasia. He knows everything about you, so you may be easy.”

His Majesty knows everything too. If Lord Richard told him, then he’ll be on my side, and I couldn’t ask for a better person to have there.

“Your Majesty. My name is Leon. I am honored to meet you.”

I made a proper greeting and bowed low, and was told at once to raise my head.

“Richard’s told me about you. And Martine told me she went to Leon’s house to play and enjoyed it enormously… Leon. Please. Please cure Martine. I’m counting on you.”

Perhaps he was remembering Her Highness as she had been; there were tears in His Majesty’s eyes as he bowed his head to me, deeply. Being bowed to by His Majesty is more than I can sit still under, and I got him to lift his head at once.

“Th-that is, please raise your head. I want to see Her Highness smiling again as well. I shall give it everything I have.”

“…Yes. Yes, that is so. I want to see it again as well. I am counting on you.”

Uh-oh. I’ve gone very tense all of a sudden. If it turns out I can’t cure her after this… no. I’m not thinking about that. I’m going to cure her.

“Then I should like to use healing magic straight away.”

“Understood. This way.”

At his prompting I went to the bed where Her Highness was lying. She had been so full of life, and that smile of hers had been so sweet, and now she has grown terribly thin and her face is drawn with the pain of it. Her breathing is very rough as well. His Majesty sat down on the chair at the bedside and took her hand.

“Martine. Are you all right?”

“Fa… ther…?”

At his voice Her Highness opened her eyes a little and got a cracked whisper out. Moving her body even slightly, making even a little sound, is clearly agony. Illness really is a vile thing. It comes down on a child this small with no warning at all. What is this one… can I cure it? Covering her whole body in healing magic and having a look might tell me.

“Leon. My daughter. Martine. I put her in your hands.”

Lord Alexis got up from the chair and asked it of me again, in a voice thick with tears.

“Certainly. I shall give it everything I have.”

I answered with my fist closed tight, and took the chair he had been sitting in.

“Your Highness. It has been a while. It is Leon.”

I looked into her face and gave the greeting slowly, and Her Highness opened her eyes a little more and looked at me. And when our eyes met, the faintest smile came.

“Le… on. You came? I was… hoping… to see you… again.”

Her words and that smile of hers nearly had me in tears. It was a frail thing, a smile that looked as though it might go out at any moment.

“Your Highness, it must be hard for you, so there is no need to force yourself to talk. I am going to cure your illness, so let the strength go out of your body and rest easy.”

When she heard that, Her Highness shut her eyes and tried to let the strength go out of her. The labored breathing did not change. I wanted her out of it as fast as I could, so I covered her whole body in healing magic at once.

And there is a great deal of something bad in there. The response is different from Alban’s, so I don’t think it is a virus. Bad cells, is it? And… they are moving?

The bad cells are moving in a way that looks as though they travel with the flow of the blood. Or is it that the bad cells lie along the blood vessels? I can’t tell exactly, but this is probably a disease of the blood. I have no medical knowledge, so that is as far as I can get. If I had gone to medical school I could have made far better use of this ability.

…But I don’t need to diagnose it. I only need to cure it. All I have to do is put every one of these bad cells back to normal. So I held the image of all of it returning to normal, and used healing magic.

Ngh… this costs a serious amount of mana… The image is too vague, as I thought. But there is no studying medicine at this point, so nothing for it: I’ll settle this with sheer volume. It is probably going to be touch and go whether the mana is enough, though her body is small, so I might just manage… After that I held onto a consciousness that kept trying to slip away, and poured mana in.

I don’t know how long it took. It felt like hours to me, and it may in fact have been only a few minutes. That was how long it took, and then the treatment was done at last. And the instant I registered that it was done, everything in front of me went dark and I lost consciousness.

Wait… where is this? I woke with a ridiculously grand ceiling in front of me. Was I staying at the ducal house? …No! I treated Her Highness and lost consciousness on the spot. What happened? Did it work? I wanted the result badly enough to sit bolt upright, and I was still in Her Highness’s room. I had been laid on a sofa, and on the sofa opposite sat His Majesty and Lord Richard.

“Leon. You are awake?”

“You lost consciousness so suddenly you gave us a fright. We took it for mana exhaustion and let you sleep. Are you all right?”

“Yes, my mana seems to have come back a little, so I think I am all right now. But more to the point, how is Her Highness? I believe I cured her completely…”

“Martine is still asleep. After you lost consciousness we talked a little and she dropped off almost at once. She said her body had become enormously easier, though, so I think she’s probably cured.”

So I did it. Thank goodness… It felt as though the tension had finally been let out of me.

“Leon. Thank you, truly. I couldn’t thank you enough.”

His Majesty bowed his head to me again. How many times has he bowed his head to me today? He isn’t in a position where he ought to be bowing to anybody that often.

“Your Majesty, please do not bow to me like that. I am only a commoner… I am glad I could help.”

“I don’t think of Leon as only a commoner. Every attribute, and healing magic that cures illness on top of it… It’s a truly wonderful power. By rights it’s something to be proclaimed and taken pride in, but the power is simply too strong, and at your present standing, making it public would bring danger on you and on your family. We have you keep it secret because there’s no help for it, not because it’s anything less than a power to be proud of.”

“To have you say so much means a great deal… thank you.”

“It’s fact. Ah, and there’s the other thing, which has been on my mind a while. You need not call me Your Majesty. Alexis will do. You don’t call Richard ‘Chancellor,’ so use my name for me as well.”

“But to call Your Majesty by name…”

“From Leon it’s quite all right. Use my name anywhere that isn’t a public occasion. You saved my daughter’s life.”

Put like that, it is difficult to refuse. Well, it isn’t as though I am going to be seeing him often. All right.

“Then I shall call you Lord Alexis.”

“Yes. Do that.”

Lord Alexis has a slightly childish streak in him, doesn’t he. He is easy to be around, though, and I think I rather like him.

“So, Leon. Is there anything you want? I want to give you something for curing Martine. If it’s in my power I’ll grant whatever I can.”

“…Is that all right?”

“Of course.”

What to do… There are all sorts of things I want, a house full of magic tools and so on, but when the king of this country is offering to grant a wish, it’d be a waste to ask for something I could get for myself. Which makes this quite hard, in fact.

In the end, for protecting myself and my family: standing and power. There’s a limit to how far I can get either of those on my own.

“If it is possible, I would like standing and power, so that I can protect myself and my family. It seems my abilities would be quite dangerous if they became publicly known.”

Lord Alexis heard that and a look of real surprise came over his face. Did I ask for too much? Maybe money on an appropriate scale would have been the thing after all. I noticed it, and I was opening my mouth in a bit of a hurry to change the request when a wry smile came onto his face.

“It was so thoroughly unlike anything a child would say that it startled me a little, that’s all. There’s no need to be so flustered.”

Oh. Is that all. That’s a relief.

“I shall grant what Leon wishes as far as I can. A noble’s standing, however, can’t be given until you have graduated from the Royal Academy, so that will have to come after. As for power, I shall put shadows on Leon and your family as guards, so you need not worry.”

Shadows as guards are very welcome. That does let me relax a bit. I can manage on my own, but I’d been thinking how bad it would be if my family were taken as hostages.

“Thank you very much.”

Just as we got that far there was a sound from the direction of the bed, and Lord Alexis ran straight to Her Highness.

“Martine. Are you awake?”

“Fa… ther…”

Her voice was too cracked to come out properly. Lord Alexis poured water from the jug into a cup and gave it to her slowly. She can drink water, at least.

“…Father. My body, that was hurting so much, so much, does not hurt. And to drink water without feeling sick…”

She got that far and then wept, quietly. Lord Alexis was holding her tight and it looked as though he was crying too. They’re going to set me off as well…

“Martine. Thank goodness. Thank goodness, truly…”

For a while the two of them shared the joy of the illness being gone, father and daughter.

“Father, is Leon here? It was Leon who cured me, was it not?”

“It was. Leon, come here.”

“Yes.”

Lord Alexis called me over, and when I came to the bedside Her Highness was sitting up with a cushion propped behind her back.

“Your Highness, how are you feeling? Is anything hurting?”

“No. There is no pain, as though everything until now had been a lie.”

“I am glad to hear it. Then may I use healing magic once more, to check?”

I had enough mana back to scan her whole body, so I asked, and Her Highness nodded with a smile.

“Of course. Please do.”

“Thank you. Excuse me, then.”

Oh, excellent. Everything bad, and there had been so much of it, is gone. Good. She’s going to be all right now.

“You appear to be completely cured.”

“…Leon. Thank you. Thank you, truly.”

And now Her Highness smiled, prettily, the way a flower opens. …That’s it. That’s the smile I wanted to see again. I’m so glad I could save her, and that this smile is still in the world.

“I am truly glad I could cure you. A smile does suit Your Highness, after all.”

“Now I can come and play at Leon’s house again, and see Marie. I’d thought I might never…”

“If you eat properly from here on and move about a little at a time, you should get back to what you were. Come and visit whenever you like once you are well again. It may be difficult, but I could come here as well.”

“Leon… thank you. I shall work hard at getting well.”

We talked like that, and then the two of us were laughing together. Every time I see Her Highness smile I feel my chest go warm.

“Martine, it’s not good to overdo it yet. Are you sure you don’t want to lie down?”

Lord Alexis asked it anxiously. His child nearly died of an illness, so of course he’s going to be overprotective.

“Yes. Sitting like this does not hurt.”

“Ah. That’s good, then.”

“That reminds me, it was Leon who cured me with healing magic, was it not? I have never heard of magic so extraordinary…”

Her Highness tilted her head, puzzled. Well, she would wonder. But I don’t know how much I am allowed to say, so I decided to leave the judgment to Lord Alexis.

“Lord Alexis, how much may I tell her?”

“Let me see… There’s nothing that needs hiding from Martine. She’ll feel the extraordinariness of Leon’s magic more than anybody, and hiding it clumsily would be the unnatural thing. Martine has been educated as a member of the royal family, so she can keep what must be kept.”

So that’s how it is. Royalty indeed. I hadn’t wanted to keep things from her, so that is welcome.

“Certainly. …Your Highness, the truth is that I am better at magic than most people, or to put it plainly, I can use the magic of every attribute. And with healing magic I can also cure illness.”

“E-every attribute… then, Leon, are you the Apostle?”

Astonishment came over her face. So it really is that startling a fact. And that’s the Apostle question again; I’ve lost count.

“No, I am not the Apostle. But I can use the magic of every attribute. I do not really understand the reason for it myself…”

“That such a thing should be possible… Then why is it that healing magic can cure illness?”

“That is the power of the image, and the fact that I have a great deal of mana. First, for reasons I do not understand, my mana capacity increases the more I use it. It is already several times what any of you have; no, several dozen times. If I bring that much mana to bear, illness can be cured too. And making the image clearer raises the efficiency with which the mana is spent, so the two of them together let me cure Your Highness.”

Once I had explained that much, it wasn’t only Her Highness: Lord Alexis and Lord Richard had astonishment on their faces too.

“Leon’s mana capacity was outside the standard as well…”

Ah. I was so taken up with every attribute that I never mentioned the mana capacity. And I hadn’t noticed it was increasing, to begin with.

“It seems so. The reason for that is as much a mystery to me as the attributes…”

“Leon, what do you mean by the image? For instance, what sort of image do you hold while using magic, to raise the efficiency with which the mana is spent?”

“That… would be difficult to explain here and now. Without the knowledge it rests on, it cannot really be pictured…”

Being told out of nowhere about cells and viruses would be no use to anybody. I don’t understand it well myself…

“Is that so? Then why does Leon have that knowl… no. Please forget what I just said.”

Her Highness glanced past me, then broke off oddly and closed the conversation. But I knew what she had wanted to ask: where I got the knowledge. And it is true that a plain commoner like me having knowledge a princess does not have makes no sense on the face of it.

I had never got as far as that point. Once I told Lord Richard and Lord Alexis about every attribute I thought I had nothing left to hide, and there was still one secret, the biggest one. That I was reincarnated. That is the one thing I don’t want found out… there is no guarantee somebody wouldn’t call it demon possession.

For now she has withdrawn the question, so I’ll ride along with that. And I want to keep the source of the knowledge good and vague. ‘I thought of it myself’ is too much of a stretch, so somebody I met on the road taught me, perhaps? I had better work that excuse out in advance.

“Leon, to change the subject: would you teach me healing magic?”

I was turning all of that over in my head when Her Highness changed the subject for me. And landed something extraordinary again… teaching Her Highness healing magic is far too important a part for me to carry.

“No, I am not in a position to be teaching anybody…”

“That is not so. The achievement of having cured my illness is ability enough by itself.”

“But…”

“Actually, that might be a fine idea. Martine’s mana capacity is five, and she has the healing attribute.”

“Father, you agree as well! I want to be able to cure the sick myself.”

Lord Alexis agrees?! Sure, I saved her life, but is it all right to put a commoner boy that close to a princess?

“Leon. Would you teach Martine magic?”

Asked like that, I can’t refuse… and it isn’t that I don’t want to, only that it is a weight.

“…Then I shall teach you. But please understand that it may not be possible. If anything, I think that is the likelier outcome.”

“That would be the question of mana capacity, I suppose?”

“It is.”

“But if you teach me the image you spoke of, there is at least some chance, is there not?”

“There is certainly a chance that is not zero…”

“Then I should like to ask it of you. Leon, may I?”

“If you understand that it may not be possible, then I have no objection.”

“Leon, thank you! I am very glad.”

Her Highness said it and smiled, delighted. Ugh… I’ve got no defense against that smile. Turn it on me and I want to do anything at all for her.

“Your Majesty, if Leon is to teach magic, where and how are the lessons to be held?”

Lord Richard put the question, and it is a large one.

“What about at House Townsend? There’s no difficulty in Leon going to House Townsend, is there. So we send Martine to the ducal house as well.”

Come on, a princess can’t go out that often.

“Without some reason, Her Highness visiting our house frequently would look odd…”

Just as I thought. Every time I have met Her Highness it has been incognito. Her position must make an official visit anywhere difficult.

“Then how about the pretext of having Catherine teach her magic?”

“Catherine’s healing magic is certainly excellent, but ordinarily it is Catherine who would go to the palace.”

“Hm. Quite so… Then bring Leon along as Catherine’s attendant. There will be male attendants among those who do not wait on her person, will there not?”

“Certainly there will. In that case there should be no difficulty.”

So somehow, without my quite following it, I am to be a regular visitor at the royal palace. Playing Lady Catherine’s attendant this time. Well, I don’t mind what part I play as long as nothing goes wrong.

“Then, Leon. Will you come as Catherine’s attendant and teach Martine magic?”

“Certainly.”

“Leon, I shall be in your hands from now on as well.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Once Martine’s health is back, Leon is to come to the palace. Richard, speak to Catherine about it as well.”

“Certainly. Catherine will be delighted at the chance to see Her Highness.”

That was the end of the talk about my magic. Next came what happens now.

“Then, the order of things from here. We tell Martine’s servants and guards that Martine has recovered thanks to Sunhwan and Namhee. We show everyone how well Martine is, and Sunhwan and Namhee go straight home. I shall have one of my guards see you out of the palace, and from there take the carriage back to the far side of the central district.”

“Certainly.”

“Martine, you are to say that you drank a medicinal decoction Sunhwan brewed and your body became clean and light. Leon is Sunhwan’s assistant, Namhee.”

“So that is the story under which Leon came here. I understand. Sunhwan is the gentleman standing over there?”

“He is.”

“Understood. I shall keep to the story.”

“I am counting on you.”

So we all went over what was to happen, and Lord Richard opened the door of Her Highness’s room and called the guards and servants back in.

“All of you. Thanks to Sunhwan’s treatment, Martine is entirely well.”

“Is, is that true?! Your Highness, you can sit up without any distress?!”

The first to run to her was one of the maids. She looked at Her Highness sitting up and the tears came pouring out of her. Her Highness is loved by the servants too.

“All of you, I am entirely well. That I was in such pain seems like a lie now. It is all thanks to Sunhwan, who is standing there, and to his assistant Namhee. Thank you, truly.”

“Your Highness is too kind.”

“Thank you for saving Her Highness. We are grateful to you.”

Her Highness’s maids and guards bowed low to me and to the man playing the apothecary.

“No, I took a commission and did a job; that is all. Your Majesty, may we take our leave before long? There is another patient we must go to.”

“Yes. With skill like that you will be in demand everywhere. Thank you for your trouble in coming so far on a busy day. Payment has been prepared, so take it with you.”

At Lord Alexis’s word one of his valets brought a magnificent box with the payment in it and handed it to the man playing the apothecary, and then a guard offered to see us to the exit. We followed him out of Her Highness’s room.

“We shall take our leave of you all.”

Then we walked and walked through the palace again and got back to the carriage we had come in.

“We go back the way we came, to where you got in. Change your clothes there and we are done.”

“Understood.”

Talking like that, the carriage rolled out past the central district, and at the place where I first got in I changed and got down. A short walk and Roger was waiting with the ducal house’s unmarked carriage, and I climbed in.

Phew. Now I can relax. I had been tense the whole time, keeping the cover up.

“Welcome back, Master Leon. We return to the ducal house today, if that suits?”

“Yeah. That’s fine.”

“Certainly.”

And so I went back to the ducal house. I was thoroughly tired, but I had cured Her Highness, and my mood was several times brighter than it had been on the way out. I’m so glad I could cure her.

⁂

My body was heavy and hot, and my breath would not come, and I was cold and sick, and I thought that I might be finished. That I might be about to die. All I wanted was to be let out of the pain, and it was while I was wanting only that, that Leon’s face appeared in front of me.

Until then all I ever saw was Mother and Father and my brother, and the apothecary and the maids and the guards, so I wondered why Leon should be here. But the reason did not matter at all. I was simply happy to have seen him one more time. I shall never forget the day I became Leon’s friend, a little by force on my part, and imposed myself on his family’s home. It was a treasure of a time to me. It was the first time I was ever able to enjoy myself with no reserve in front of anyone outside my family, the one stretch of time in which I could forget being a princess.

I had thought that to see Leon’s face at the very end, even if it were only a vision, was enough. And then the Leon I was looking at spoke to me. I was astonished. It had not been a vision after all. And then, immediately, Leon cured this illness of mine.

Being wrapped in something warm, and the pain going out of me and going further out, was a moment I have no words for: happiness and release, and above all the relief of knowing that now I would be saved, that I would not have to hurt any more. And then I slept a little, and when I woke my body was better than I could believe, and it was then that I understood at last that it had not been a dream. And that Leon had saved my life.

If ever Leon is in pain, this time I want to be the one who helps. No. I shall help him, without fail. I settled that inside myself and smiled at Leon, wishing as I smiled that Leon might smile always as well.

Prologue

Yesterday astonished me. To think that I should see a miracle of that kind with my own eyes…

The apothecary had told me Alban might last another four weeks, and perhaps not that. And Master Leon cured him in a single instant. A single instant. He is the Apostle; there is no doubt of it whatsoever. To accomplish something no less than God’s own work… even now I can scarcely believe what my eyes showed me.

Last night, having been permitted to see what Master Leon can do, I lay in the dark on the hope that Her Highness might yet be saved by it, and did not sleep a moment. Her Highness’s condition is said to be very grave. Master Leon’s mana has not yet come back, so there is nothing my impatience can buy, and still I cannot keep from hurrying. Whatever else, I must get to the royal palace and tell His Majesty.

I was out of bed earlier than usual, dressed, and had myself ready to go. His Majesty begins work in his study early every morning, so arriving somewhat ahead of the hour would present no difficulty. I had just told my valet to bring the carriage forward when there was a knock at the door. Who would be about at this hour?

“Master. It is Alban.”

Alban? Recovered enough to be up and moving this early in the morning… the man astonishes me. I had my valet show him in, and there he stood, upright and steady as he had been before the illness, with the color back in his face.

“Good morning, Master. Forgive me for coming to you so early.”

“No, never mind that. How is your health?”

“It is that report I have come to make today. I am entirely well. My strength has not come back yet, but I am fit enough to work from today. Thank you, truly, for troubling yourself over me. From now on I intend to work with all my heart, so that I may repay the kindness.”

Fit enough to work from today, of all things. Yesterday he was as weak as that, and this is the effect of it. What an effect. Master Leon’s power, the Apostle’s power, is a marvel after all.

“No. If you must thank someone, thank Leon. I did nothing.”

“Very good, Master. But it was because you troubled yourself over me and asked Master Leon that I was saved. My gratitude to you as well.”

Alban bowed low. It was only then that the fact of it reached me: Alban had been saved. Yesterday Master Leon’s magic was too great a shock, and I had no attention left over for anything else. I am glad, truly glad, that Alban is well.

“That is fair. Then I shall accept your thanks.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“Alban. I am going to report yesterday’s business to His Majesty, and it is possible he will say he wishes to hear it from you directly. You would have to come up to the palace in that case. Would that suit?”

“Of course, Master. I should have no objection whatever.”

“Thank you. Then hold yourself ready.”

By the time I had finished with Alban it was exactly the hour to leave the house, and I set out for the royal palace.

When I came into His Majesty’s study he had already begun the day’s work as he always does, and his officials were all gathered there with him. The ordinariness of it steadied me a little, and I opened my mouth slowly.

“Good morning, Your Majesty. There is something I must bring to your ear at once, so I would ask that the room be cleared.”

I said it with barely a courtesy in front of it, and surprise came over his face. My haste has the better of me after all; I cannot have managed to seem as I usually do.

“It’s been a long while since I’ve seen Richard in this much of a hurry. Would you all step out a moment? Leave it as it is, no need to tidy.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Excuse us.”

The officials withdrew, and the study held nobody but His Majesty and myself. With the ordinary morning gone out of it and the quiet settling in, my impatience began to climb again. Even so, I could hardly commit the discourtesy of standing to speak, so I first took the sofa His Majesty offered me.

“So what’s happened? In such a rush.”

“Your Majesty, hear this calmly. Master Leon came to the house yesterday, and it appears that with healing magic he can cure… even illness.”

“What? Illness?! Is that true?!”

His Majesty came to his feet in one movement and shouted it. It is no wonder he should be as shaken as that. Until now illness has been met with medicinal herbs and little else, and a great many illnesses could not be cured at all once they had taken hold.

“It is true, Your Majesty. Alban, the ducal house’s butler, had a high fever and a cough that would not stop, and he was wasting away; the apothecary gave him some four weeks. Last night Master Leon was good enough to put healing magic on him, and he came back very nearly to what he was. His strength has not returned, but this morning he was already telling me he could work.”

“To be able to work a miracle like that… The Apostle really is something outside anything we can imagine.”

His Majesty murmured it, and sat down on the sofa all at once, as though the strength had gone out of him.

“Richard. Do you think he might cure Martine… might cure Martine’s illness as well?”

He put the hope into words with expectation in it, and a little fear underneath. It is rare for His Majesty to let so much show, which tells me how dangerous Her Highness’s condition has become…

“I thought of it myself, and I have already asked Master Leon. He says he will treat her with everything he has.”

“Truly?! Thank goodness… thank goodness… Then is Martine going to be saved?”

“I cannot state it as certain, but I believe the chances are good. Beyond that we can only trust Master Leon.”

Having seen what I saw yesterday, one wants to believe he will save Her Highness as well, and still nothing is certain. Even an Apostle cannot be counted on to cure an illness however far it has gone. If only Her Highness’s illness is of the kind that can be cured…

“…That’s so. There is nothing else left to try. We’ll trust Master Leon and leave it with him. So where is Master Leon now, Richard?”

“He is at the Townsend house. Curing Alban yesterday left his mana unrecovered, so I expect he is resting his body. By Master Leon’s own account it will come back this afternoon.”

“Understood. The moment he’s fit, will you bring him to the palace? I want her seen as early as it can be managed.”

“Certainly. Then I shall go back to the house first, and come up to the palace again with Master Leon.”

“Yes. See to it. The trouble is how we’re to keep Master Leon’s existence hidden. He has no rank yet, and while that’s so, it is very dangerous for what he can do to become common knowledge.”

I have feared the same. For Master Leon’s own safety we have had him conceal every attribute, and if it becomes common knowledge that he can cure illness, all of that effort goes for nothing.

“I fear it as well, Your Majesty. I advised Master Leon myself that his being able to cure even illness had better be kept secret, and it must not be allowed to spread through his curing Her Highness. On that we cannot yield.”

“Agreed. We’ll tighten his guard and make him safer, and at root we have to take pains that word of what he can do never travels at all.”

“Yes. And for that, how he is to come to Her Highness is the point.”

If Master Leon visits and Her Highness’s illness is cured immediately afterward, attention falling on him will be unavoidable. Even taking him to her with as little contact as we can manage, meeting some few knights and servants cannot be avoided.

Her Highness is in the North Palace, the royal family’s residence. The royal palace is divided into the Central Palace, which holds His Majesty’s study and the audience chamber; the East Palace, where the officials chiefly work; the West Palace, where the knights chiefly work; and the North Palace. Of the four, the North Palace is closely guarded and its servants do not change much, so a new face stays in the memory.

“It wouldn’t be unnatural for Richard to visit Martine, would it? How would it be to have him attend you as your valet?”

“That is a good thought, certainly, but I expect the room will have to be cleared when Master Leon uses healing magic. To leave only my valet in the room at that point would be unnatural in itself… And if Her Highness is well again immediately afterward, attention will certainly gather on Master Leon.”

“Hm. You’re right, of course… Then how about this. We pick one trustworthy person whose face isn’t known, put them forward as an apothecary, and have Master Leon go along as the assistant. A celebrated apothecary from a distant country, sent for by me because the herbs of that country may answer for Martine. We’ll say that.”

Other countries are said to have all manner of herbs and treatments this one has not, so the story might well hold. And if we explain further that the apothecary did not wish the face known, and went home once the fee was paid, there will be no pursuing it afterward.

“That is certainly a good plan. Who is to take the apothecary’s part?”

“Let me see. I’ll pick one of the royal house’s shadows, one of the most trustworthy of them. There is no trouble in a foreigner going veiled, so we’ll do it that way and cover the face as far as we can. Best of all if nobody sees Master Leon’s face.”

“Certainly. Let us do it that way, then. In which case it would be better for Master Leon to come to the palace by carriage from somewhere other than the ducal house.”

“Good. I’ll have the shadow playing apothecary and a carriage waiting in a back alley near the central district, and Master Leon can make his way there.”

So His Majesty and I fixed the exact place where the carriage would wait, and had everything ready for Master Leon to come up to the palace.

“Your Majesty, I shall go back to the ducal house first. I shall put it to Master Leon, and then return here.”

“Understood. I leave it with you.”

I held my impatience down, and left His Majesty’s study at a fast walk.

Bonus Story – A Sign of Summer

On a fiercely hot summer day I had come to Marcel’s workshop. Whenever I’m not out at the forest or the food stalls with Marie and the others, this is where I am.

“Marcel, it’s been way too hot lately.”

“It’s summer. Nothing to be done about that.”

“Don’t say that, think of something!”

“Sluice yourself down with water, why don’t you?”

“It feels great while I’m doing it, but I’m hot again the second I stop.”

On hot summer days I do sluice myself down often, and it feels wonderful, and I’m drenched in sweat again a minute later. Summer here isn’t as hot as a Japanese one, but there’s no air conditioning. Which makes it worse than Japan on balance.

“You can make ice, can’t you? Make ice and cool the air with it.”

“You’re right!”

Of course. I’ve been so careful to hide having every attribute that I use nothing but healing from day to day, and it simply never occurred to me. In this workshop it should be all right!

But only producing ice is dull… That’s it, shaved ice! Could I make shaved ice? Shaving the ice would take… magic iron, I think. Magic iron takes whatever shape you picture, so I ought to be able to make both the blade and the body. Magic in this world is genuinely convenient, since anything you can picture works so long as you have the mana for it. I had better be grateful to this mana of mine that keeps mysteriously increasing. Anyway, let’s try it right now.

“Marcel, could you lend me some magic iron?”

“That’s fine, but what are you doing with it?”

Marcel was watching me the way you watch something you expect to go wrong. You’re certain I’m about to do something outrageous, aren’t you! I don’t do things that outrageous!

“I thought I’d make shaved ice.”

“Shaved… ice?”

“It’s a dessert. You shave ice and eat it.”

“And that tastes good?”

“It does! You pour syrup over it, and—”

And there I stopped. There’s no syrup! What is syrup made of, anyway? Sugar water? Would that alone really make it that good? Something I could use instead… That’s it, wouldn’t jam work? There should still be some of the raspberry jam we made at home.

“Marcel, I think it would be good with jam over it, and I haven’t brought any jam, so I’ll make it next time I come.”

“Is that so? I don’t follow any of it, but whenever suits you.”

“Next time I’ll definitely make you good shaved ice!”

So a few days later I came back to Marcel’s workshop, properly equipped this time. I have jam with me.

“Marcel, today I really will make shaved ice!”

“Aye. I still don’t follow it, but I’ll look forward to it.”

“Yes! So, could you lend me the magic iron?”

“Use this.”

“Thank you!”

I took the magic iron from Marcel and started on the blade for shaving the ice. The blade in a shaved-ice machine sits in a round iron disc with just a little of its edge standing proud of the surface. Then the ice turns on top of the disc, and the shavings come out underneath.

For turning the ice, I could hold it on something like nails set into a disc above it, and turn that with a handle. That part should sort itself out, since magic iron takes any shape I like.

The problem is the blade. If that isn’t right, I suspect it won’t come out as shaved ice at all. I made a round disc of magic iron and set about testing it, pushing the blade out through the surface a little at a time.

If I can manage it, I’d rather have the fluffy kind that was popular in Japan than the old-fashioned sort. I went and ate that with friends exactly once, and it was extremely good.

To get that fluffiness you let the ice melt a little beforehand, I think. And then the blade only stands proud by a hair. Anyway, trial and error, and let’s get on with it!

First I have to build the body of the machine, and I don’t remember the details. Well, it only has to shave ice, so something roughly right should do.

I started with a sort of small round table standing on four legs. Then I carried those four legs on upward, past the tabletop, and stopped them about thirty centimeters above it. Across their tops, centered between the four, I formed a handle. From the middle of that handle I ran a shaft of iron back down toward the table, and stopped it about twenty centimeters down. On the end of the shaft I made a second disc, and set several short nails into its underside. Fix the ice onto those nails, turn the handle, and the ice should turn with it.

That leaves the blade, which goes into the tabletop disc. I cut a long, narrow slot in it running from the center outward, and formed the blade along the slot. Hmm. Is that about right? It’s standing two or three millimeters proud. Let’s try it and see.

Ah, I have to make the ice first. I looked around the workshop for a vessel of a decent size, and found Marcel staring at the shaved-ice machine as though it might go off.

Why that expression?

“Marcel, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing. Only, you said you were making a food called shaved ice, didn’t you?”

“Yes, that’s right…?”

“And that strange object is for making shaved ice?”

“It is. It’s finished, so all that’s left is to make the ice and fine-tune it.”

“That’s it finished?! I can’t begin to guess how the thing is used.”

“It’s quite a simple mechanism. I’ll show you once the ice is made. Only I haven’t got a good vessel for making the ice in…”

I wanted something the right size for the machine I’d built, and while I was looking around the workshop Marcel gave me a look of pure exasperation.

“You can use earth attribute as well, Leon. Make a vessel.”

Ah… Yes. I could. If anything the question is why it didn’t occur to me. It’s because I keep myself from using magic day to day, so it doesn’t come to me when I need it. What a waste, when I can use every attribute! I have to hide it, but where I can use it, I should use it properly.

“You’re quite right. I’ll make a vessel too.”

I said it and built a cylindrical vessel of the right size out of earth-attribute mana. Then I made ice inside it. Yes, perfectly clean ice. Now I wait until it melts a little, then shave it, and it’s done! I may as well get the bowls ready while I wait.

“Marcel. I’m waiting for the ice to start melting a little, and I’d like to get bowls and so on ready in the meantime. May I borrow some?”

“Aye, go on. They’re in the kitchen upstairs. I’ll fetch them.”

“Can I come with you?”

“I don’t mind.”

So Marcel and I went up to the kitchen, and came back to the workshop with two bowls and two spoons. And the ice seemed to be melting nicely.

“The ice looks about right, so let’s try it.”

I took the ice out of the vessel and set it on the cutting disc. Then I pressed the nailed disc down onto the ice from above so the nails bit and held it, and turned the handle. And I didn’t forget to put a bowl underneath to catch the shaved ice.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

That sound is not encouraging. That is absolutely not fluffy. I pulled the bowl out and looked. Very coarse shaved ice indeed. This is not what I’m after! It’s perfectly good in its own way, of course, but I want fluffy.

The blade must be standing out too far. Let’s bring it in a little more…

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Not the slightest difference! Perhaps it wants to stand out so little you’d wonder whether it could shave anything at all.

After that I went around and around with it, and finally built the shaved-ice machine I wanted! I’m thoroughly worn out… But now I should get good shaved ice out of it! I braced myself, set a new block of ice in place, and turned the handle with a certain amount of tension in me.

Shff. Shff. Shff.

Ohh, that’s perfect! There’s hardly any resistance as it turns, and above all it isn’t crunching. I looked into the bowl, and there it was—proper fluffy shaved ice. I shaved away in a blank sort of trance for a while, and one bowl of shaved ice was done.

“Marcel, it’s finished!”

Marcel had watched with interest at the start, and since nothing worked at all he had gone off to do something else partway through. At my voice he looked over again.

“That’s it finished? It’s certainly very pretty… but you’ve only shaved ice, haven’t you? Is it good?”

“I thought you’d say that, and it tastes wonderful! Pour jam over it and it’s done.”

I poured a generous quantity of raspberry jam over the shaved ice, and it was complete.

“Raspberry jam shaved ice! Try it before it melts!”

“Aye. I’ll have some, then.”

Marcel plainly still doubted it, and he loaded his spoon high and ate it. And then, after one mouthful, he froze without a flicker of reaction. Did he not like it?

“Marcel? Was it bad? Ah! Have you got a headache?!”

Of course. Eat something cold too fast and your head hurts. There’s no reason anybody in this world would know that; they have nothing like a freezer. I should have warned him properly…

“Marcel, I’m sorry… I should have warned you…”

I had gone from cheerful to flattened with nothing in between, and Marcel spoke up in a hurry.

“L-Leon! No! I don’t know where you got that idea, but it was good and I was startled, that’s all. And I’ve never eaten anything this cold, so it surprised me.”

“So your head doesn’t hurt?”

“It does not. Though I’ve no idea how we got onto heads hurting…”

Oh, good. He hasn’t been made ill, at least.

“If you eat something cold all at once, a pain shoots through your head. I hadn’t told you that, so I thought you’d frozen from the pain…”

“That happens, does it. I’ll be careful in the future. It didn’t this time, though. What I meant was that it was good enough to startle me.”

“Really?”

“Aye. There’s nothing special in it, and I can’t work out why it should be so good. A man would want this in summer. And the way it melts away soft in the mouth, you’d not stop at one.”

I’m so glad he thinks so. Summer really is shaved-ice weather! I once tried it in Japan in midwinter, tucked up warm indoors, thinking that sounded good too, and all I confirmed was that shaved ice belongs to summer. In a world like this one with no air conditioning, it must taste better still.

“May I have a mouthful too?”

“Of course you may.”

So I had a mouthful myself. Mmm, that is extremely good! Cold shaved ice on a hot summer day really is the best thing there is! And I’ve reproduced a genuinely fluffy texture. It doesn’t reach what I ate in Japan, but I think I’ve come fairly close. I’m thoroughly satisfied with it.

“I poured raspberry jam over it this time, but you can change the flavor by pouring something else on.”

“So you can. As it happens I’ve honey in the house. Would that suit it?”

“You have honey?! May I try it?!”

“Yes, yes. Go on. That’s quite a pounce.”

“I love sweet things!”

At that, Marcel looked enormously pleased and got straight to his feet.

“I’ll fetch it. Wait there.”

“Thank you!”

So this time I poured the honey Marcel had fetched over a bowl of shaved ice of my own. I’d shaved it industriously while he was away fetching the honey.

Hmm. Honey as it comes is too thick to pour well. It would be better if I could make it more like syrup. Dissolve it in water? Except that would water down the flavor with it.

Come to think of it, in Japan there was honey lemon. Which suggests mixing in lemon juice might do it. No lemon to hand, though… I may as well try it as it is.

So I took a spoonful from where the honey lay thickest and put it in my mouth. Too sweet! It’s good, but this is a great deal too sweet. Which may be exactly why you mix it with lemon.

“It’s good, but it seems to be a bit too sweet for me. Mixing it with lemon or something sour might work.”

“Is that so… Then how about this raspberry jam?”

“You know, that might suit it.”

Raspberry jam has sugar in it and it’s still sweet-sharp, with real tartness, so it might go with honey. I put a reasonable amount of raspberry jam onto the part of the shaved ice where the honey was sitting evenly. And took a mouthful.

Mmm! Delicious!! The sweet-sharpness of the raspberry jam and the sweetness of the honey match perfectly! This combination is exactly right.

“Marcel! Pouring these two on together is wonderful!”

“Is it now? Then I’ll try it myself.”

So Marcel poured the honey on and carried another spoonful of shaved ice to his mouth.

“This is…! Better than the last.”

“Isn’t it!”

After that the two of us savored our shaved ice in silence, and both of us cleared our bowls.

“Haaah. That was very good. And the heat has eased off now that I’m cooler.”

“So it has. This temperature is about right, as it is now.”

“Summer really is shaved-ice weather!”

“It’s a rare luxury, but once a man knows about it he can’t leave it alone.”

“Then let’s do it again sometime!”

“Aye. The magic iron is yours to borrow whenever you like.”

“Thank you!”

After that I spent a while in the workshop, which felt a little cooler now, talking about nothing much with Marcel. The hot summer air and the warm wind were both pleasant now, and I sat there thoroughly content while the time went quietly by.

Side Story – My Son, Changed

I truly thought my heart would stop that day. Leon lost his footing coming down the stairs, fell the whole way from the top, and struck his head hard. I was the one who’d called him down from upstairs, so I saw the whole thing happen. The way he fell went strangely slow, the way things do in a dream, and I couldn’t reach him in time, and he hit his head and lost consciousness where he lay.

I ran to him and called his name and got nothing back at all, and I thought, he’s going to die like this, and I screamed for Jean. Jean came running, and the two of us called to him, and there was no response of any kind. I was starting to think it was hopeless, and I’d got as far as deciding to carry him to the clinic even if it did no good, when Leon opened his eyes. A miracle.

That was the most relieved I have been in my life.

And the next day he woke as usual, and I thought that was the end of it. Except that ever since he woke, Leon has been a little strange.

To begin with, he has become quiet and extremely well-behaved. Until then he was, to put it kindly, a lively child, and I used to wish he would settle a little. Now, all at once, he speaks and behaves like an adult. At first I thought he had taken the fall as a lesson, but that isn’t it. His nature seems to have changed. Could striking his head have changed the sort of person he is?

Then there is how particular he has become about cleanliness. He washes his hands before he cooks, without fail. He washes them before he eats. He washes them when he comes in from outside. He wants to be washing them constantly, and he wants us washing ours too. When I said there was no need to wash hands that weren’t the least bit dirty, he told me there’s a great deal of dirt on them you can’t see. How does Leon know there’s dirt you can’t see? I can’t make sense of it at all.

And he is so gentle with Marie now. The two of them used to squabble constantly, and lately he never answers back at all, so Marie wins every time, after all those years of scrapping over everything. Marie thought it odd at first too, and got used to it very quickly.

There are so many things I don’t understand that I could go on all day. His table manners turned refined overnight. He announces that he’s thought of a recipe and starts cooking. And those pancakes of his turned out to be a marvelous dish you can do all sorts of things with. I was certain at first that anything that gloopy couldn’t possibly taste good, and when I tried it I was genuinely astonished.

That Leon thought of that… I can hardly believe it.

I was thinking about all this when Leon came into the kitchen. What is it this time?

“Mom, I want to hang the bedding out in the courtyard…”

The bedding from the bedroom? Nobody wets the bed any more, so there should be no need to wash it. Unless… did Leon wet the bed? If he did, the kind thing would be to pretend I hadn’t noticed.

“Leon, did you take soup or something up to the bedroom and spill it? I’m always telling you to eat in the living room.”

If he nods to that, the bed-wetting stays hidden. That was the kindness I was offering him, and Leon shook his head.

“No. As if I’d do that. It’s not that, it’s that if you don’t dry them in the sun now and then they get full of tiny insects.”

Well. Not bed-wetting, then. Insects, though? If there are insects in it, catch them and put them outside.

“If there were insects you should have put them outside.”

“Not that kind. There are lots of insects in there you can’t see.”

Things you cannot see, again… Could striking his head have made him see things that aren’t there? Perhaps I really should take him to the clinic after all.

“Leon, has hitting your head made you see strange things? If it has, we’re going to the clinic.”

“It hasn’t! Um…”

Leon’s face went troubled and he fell silent. That happens often lately as well… What’s he thinking about, with a face like that? I really should take him to the clinic…

“That’s it! Don’t you think they’ve smelled a bit lately? So I’ll wash the bedding, and you help me hang it out.”

The subject changed rather suddenly. What became of the insects? Well. Children do say things out of nowhere. Leon has been so oddly settled lately that seeing him like this is a comfort, if anything.

“Then call me when you’ve finished washing. I’ll come and help.”

“Okay! Thanks, Mom!”

We only washed the bedding a few weeks ago, though, and it hadn’t begun to smell. Perhaps children have sharper noses.

After that, once he had washed the bedding within an inch of its life and hung all of it out, he went upstairs with a broom. Wasn’t he sweeping upstairs yesterday as well? He never used to clean unless he was asked…

And the next day again. Today he seemed satisfied with the cleaning at last, and asked for hot water because he wanted to get himself clean. It felt like the first ordinary request in a long while. I got the water boiling right away, before he could change his mind.

“It’s hot, so be careful. Use the washtub to get the temperature right.”

“Okaaay! Thanks!”

Leon laughed like an innocent child for the first time in a while. So it was the fall down the stairs that made him strange for a while after all. Well, whatever it was, I am glad he is back to himself.

I was settling into that relief when Leon came straight back, and asked for more boiling water.

“Mom, could I have one more pot of hot water…?”

Cut the first lot with cold and there would be far more than enough to wipe himself down with a cloth. It made no sense to me, but I made him another pot and handed it over.

“What are you doing with that much hot water?”

“Soaking in it!”

Leon said it beaming and went off to the courtyard. Soaking in it? Puzzled, I went out after him as soon as the work gave me a pause.

And there was Leon, sitting in the washtub of hot water, naked, curled up into as small a shape as he could manage. Well… what is Leon doing, exactly?

“Leon, what is that you’re doing?”

“It’s a bath.”

A bath? Whatever is that? I have never heard of such a thing in my life. This sort of thing happens now and then lately… Where does Leon get these ideas?

“What’s a bath?”

“A bath is when you soak in a lot of hot water with no clothes on.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Why… because it feels good?”

“Does it?”

“Well, really it feels good when you soak in a big one with plenty of hot water in it… but this is better than nothing.”

He talks as though he has soaked in a big one with plenty of hot water. And the expression on his face is a grown man’s. An old man’s, even. My child is only eight years old…

“Oh, do you want to get in too, Mom?”

“No, thank you.”

I have no wish to do anything so ridiculous, and it looks neither enjoyable nor pleasant.

“Well, the tub is too small for you, Mom. Shall we buy a bigger one?”

The size of the tub is not the issue! Since he went strange Leon has been so grown up, and at the same time he is further off the mark than he ever was.

“Wiping myself down with a cloth is quite enough for Mom.”

I said it, and left Leon sitting there in the washtub with his face going soft and satisfied, and went back to the kitchen. For now, let’s say I didn’t see any of that. That’ll be best.

Then the winter ended and spring came on, and Leon is as odd as ever. If anything he is getting worse rather than better…

Jean must think the same. Somehow I have never managed to raise it with him, but surely it’s time. Marie and Leon are both out at the moment… I can’t go on carrying it by myself.

I stopped in the middle of the evening prep and turned to face him.

“Jean, about Leon… you’ve noticed it too, haven’t you?”

At that, Jean glanced over at me, then went back to the prep as he spoke.

“I’ve noticed. Since he hit his head, Leon’s gone serious and settled, like a different person.”

“So you have. It was after he struck his head. I keep wondering whether that injury is still doing him harm.”

“Hmm. Did it, though?”

Jean answered as if it hardly signified, and went on working.

“This is our son! Take it seriously!”

“Sorry, sorry. But Leon has changed, and it isn’t harm. If anything he’s settled down and got clever and grown up, hasn’t he?”

“That’s true, but… he says and does more and more things that are outside anything ordinary. And there are times when Leon doesn’t feel like Leon to me.”

The look that crosses his face when he isn’t thinking about it is strangely lonely—the look of a man who has given something up. It isn’t a face a child makes. And he learned a noble’s bearing and a noble’s formal speech out of nowhere, and built his own connections, and went into the central district, and in the end brought a princess home. None of that is anything like the Leon I know.

“I feel that sometimes too. But Leon is Leon. I can see he loves this family, and he protects Marie the way a brother should. He’s a bit off the mark here and there, but he never does anything that troubles anybody.”

“I know, but…”

“Taking the Leon he is now, all of him—that’s what a parent’s for. Isn’t it?”

That brought me up short. So somewhere inside me I have been refusing the Leon he is now. Setting conditions on loving my own child.

“I’ve failed as a mother…”

“You haven’t. You just worry about him too much, that’s all. There’s no parent alive who doesn’t worry about their child. But believing in them matters too, doesn’t it.”

Jean, you good man. I chose well when I married him.

“Jean, I’m glad I married you.”

At that, Jean gave me a gentle smile and said,

“And I’m glad I married you, Loana. You hold this family so dear.”

What a good man he is. I threw my arms around him for a moment, and then went back to the prep. I’ve got to work, for this family’s sake.

“Jean, let’s put our backs into it today as well!”

“That we will. Let’s get to it.”

Epilogue

The winter ended. About the time the warmth of spring became something you could feel, Anne turned up at the restaurant without warning.

“Anne! What brings you here?”

“I have brought a letter for Master Leon, from the master.”

“From Lord Richard? What would it be about?”

“I do not know myself, but he said he would like you to read it soon.”

“Understood. Thank you for coming all this way. I’ll read it at once.”

“Yes, if you would. Then I shall take my leave.”

And she made to go straight back.

“Anne, won’t you have some lunch? It’s just the right hour for it…”

“Thank you. But I am working at present, so I must go back immediately. I am sorry.”

“No, if that’s how it is, there’s nothing for it. Thank you for bringing the letter.”

“Then I shall excuse myself.”

Anne said it, smiled gently at me, and was gone. Unhurried in manner and very fast in fact. That is a ducal house’s maid for you. More to the point, what is Lord Richard writing to me about? He wanted it read soon, so I had better read it now.

I told Mom and Dad where I was going, went through to the living room, and opened it.

The letter began with what in Japan would be seasonal greetings and ran on through a good deal of ornamented phrasing, but the content came to two things. One was an invitation: they are going to the ducal domain around autumn, and would I come with them. The other was that I should come to the ducal house sometime soon.

Why would I be going to the ducal domain with them? Where is the ducal domain, come to that? I have never seen a map of this world or even of this country, so I have no sense of where anything is in relation to anything else.

Still, an invitation from a ducal house is very nearly an order. I could hardly refuse it, and they’ve done a great deal for me, so I’d rather answer it well if I can. And I’d wanted to go outside the royal capital. The only places I’ve been in this world are the central district and the western outskirts. It might be genuinely enjoyable.

As for the other one, coming to the ducal house soon, what is that about? Something to do with the trip to the domain? Well, that I can find out by going. Sooner is better, so perhaps tomorrow.

I went through to the kitchen and asked Mom.

“Mom, would it be all right if I went to the ducal house tomorrow? The letter says they’d like me to come as soon as I can.”

“Yes, we’ll manage here, so off you go. Mind your manners.”

“I will!”

While Mom and I were talking, Dad had the look of a man turning something over.

“What is it, Dad? Is something worrying you?”

I asked it, and he shook his head slowly as he answered.

“It isn’t that. Not a worry. Only, you’ll be away from home more and more from now on, and once you’re at the Academy you’ll have left home altogether, won’t you. So I thought we might do better to take somebody on.”

“That’s true, isn’t it. It would be hard on Marie by herself, so perhaps we ought to take one person on.”

“That’s true… I’m sorry.”

An ordinary child would help with his parents’ work and then take it over, so this problem would never have come up. I was thinking that and sinking a little when both of them came at me in a rush.

“That’s not it, Leon! Nothing about this is your fault. Dad and Mom ran the place with just the two of us before. It’s only that we’ve more customers now, and taking somebody on is the ordinary thing to do.”

“Of course it isn’t. And thank you for all the help you’ve given us, sweetheart.”

Being told that does lift the weight off. Still, I’ll work properly until the new person is up to speed! Come to that, how do you even advertise for staff? A notice on a wall would be no use when so many people can’t read…

“I’ll work hard until the new person finds their feet. How do you go about hiring, though?”

“You post it at the church. You go and tell them the terms and the wages, and they write it up and pin it to the church’s board. People looking for work go there to look. And for anyone who can’t read, the church people read it out to them. It’s a great convenience, really.”

So that exists. The church really does do everything. It’s a town hall with an orphanage and a hospital attached.

“So that’s how it works. I hope somebody good comes!”

“Wouldn’t that be nice. A hard worker would be such a help.”

“Dad will go and post it soon. Leon, don’t worry about the restaurant. You do what you want to do.”

“I will! Dad, Mom, thank you.”

They are far too good to me… I am absolutely going to be a good son to them.

And the next morning. I took a shared carriage out toward House Townsend, wearing the clothes they gave me the other time. If I’m going to the ducal domain I ought to buy a few more.

I was thinking about that while the carriage rocked along, and then we reached the square where the central district begins. From here it’s on foot. I learned the way when I came before, but it is a fair distance, so I had better get walking. It would be nice if there were some way of getting about other than walking. Teleportation magic, say, or flight magic. This world has no convenient magic of that kind. And the fantasy-world staple, an item box! I would like one of those. It would be enormously useful.

I walked along thinking about that and arrived at the gate of House Townsend.

“Excuse me, I’ve come because I had a letter from Lord Richard. This is the letter.”

“I shall confirm it. Please wait a moment.”

The gatekeeper took the letter and went into what looked like a gatehouse. After a while he came back.

“It is confirmed, so please come in. Someone is being called to collect you, so if you would wait a little longer.”

“Yes. Thank you very much.”

At his prompting I went inside the grounds, and after a short wait Anne came to fetch me. Beside her was a man who looked to be in his late teens, in a servant’s uniform. I don’t remember seeing him before, so perhaps he’s new.

“Master Leon, thank you for coming all this way. This is Roger, one of the servants. For as long as you are at this house, Roger will look after you.”

“My name is Roger. I hope to serve you well.”

“Thank you. I hope you’ll be good to me too, sir.”

Roger gave his greeting without a flicker of expression, and without smiling. That felt rather unpleasant. Does he dislike being made to wait on a commoner? I must have been looking at him with something showing on my face, because Anne gave a small rueful smile and explained.

“Roger is extremely capable, but he is far too serious, and I apologize for his want of warmth. He is like this with everybody. It does not mean he objects to waiting on Master Leon.”

“I see…”

I’d rather have had somebody friendly I could get on with! And his expression hasn’t moved at all, and he can hear every word of this. He looks difficult. This doesn’t bode well.

“Then I shall leave you here. Roger, take care of Master Leon.”

“Certainly. Master Leon, I will show you to your room.”

Anne handed me over to Roger and went off somewhere else. Being alone with Roger is hard going, Anne, come baaack. Roger said he would show me the way and then walked without one further word. Do you have any intention of getting along with me?!

We passed some very uncomfortable minutes like that, and the room he showed me to was the same guest room as before.

“Master Leon. This evening, after dinner, Lord Richard is expected to have something to discuss with you. Until then you may do as you please. However, you will be bathed and changed before dinner, so please plan accordingly.”

“Understood, sir. What should I do about lunch?”

“Lunch will be brought to this room. And I am a servant of this house while Master Leon is a guest, so there is no call to speak to me that way. No formal speech, and no ‘sir’. Roger will do.”

“But you’re older than me, and I’m a commoner.”

“No. That is not relevant. No formal speech, and no ‘sir’, please.”

Ngh… A pair of eyes that won’t take no for an answer is fixed on me, out of a face that had no expression on it a minute ago. Speaking down to somebody older than me is something I’ve never got used to. Then again it may well be necessary from here on, and getting used to it in this house might not be the worst idea.

“All right. Roger, then.”

“Yes. I look forward to working with you.”

“Same here.”

“Master Leon, there is a stretch of time after lunch before dinner. Will you be going out anywhere? If you are, I shall have a carriage prepared. If you would rather rest in your room, I shall arrange tea and something light.”

What shall I do… Sitting in this room with Roger the whole time would be uncomfortable, so perhaps I’ll go out. I did want to go to the bank.

“Then, could I go to the bank?”

“Certainly. I shall have a carriage ready after lunch.”

“Thanks.”

So I ate a still slightly uncomfortable lunch with Roger waiting on me, sat a while to let it settle, and got into the carriage for the bank. Roger was apparently coming along.

My purse had been getting light, which was why I wanted the bank, and I drew out another ten silver coins in case I needed them. That leaves the account at twenty-four platinum coins and three gold, which is about twenty-four million three hundred thousand yen. My purse holds ten silver and eight copper, a hundred and eight thousand. That should last a while. I do have a fair amount of money, but I have no idea what is going to cost what from here, so I want to keep as much of it as I can.

After the bank I had nothing else to do, so I went straight back to the mansion. There were preparations to make for dinner.

“Master Leon, we begin with your bath.”

That was the first thing Roger said when we got back. The man thinks about nothing but efficiency. Would a little small talk kill you? I went along to the bathroom and found a bath waiting at exactly the right temperature. Roger must have arranged it. Perhaps he really is good at the job.

So I bathed with Roger’s help and changed into the lavish clothes that had been laid out.

“Master Leon, I shall set your hair. Please sit here.”

“Sure. Roger, you’re really good at this.”

I want to get on better terms with Roger, since I expect to be dealing with him a great deal from now on, so I decided to start with praise.

“It is my work. Naturally.”

He said it as flatly as ever, and I am fairly sure his mouth softened. The first thing that has crossed that face all day! Straightforward praise, then. That is the way in with him.

“That is done. Let us go to the dining room.”

So I went to the dining room. Lord Richard, his wife Lady Catherine and Lord Frederick were there, the three of them. Lord Julien, Lord Frederick’s elder brother, seemed to be absent.

Lord Frederick ought to be at the knights’ dormitory, and here he is at the ducal house again. Does this concern him as well?

“Thank you for the invitation this evening.”

“It is I who should apologize for summoning you. Let us enjoy dinner first.”

After that the time passed easily, with the sort of conversation that goes nowhere in particular. And as dinner was drawing toward its end, Lord Richard began, without ceremony, on the matter itself.

“What I called you here for, Leon, is what the letter said: I wanted to talk about the journey to the ducal domain. My eldest son, Christophe, has succeeded to the dukedom, and his own eldest, Lucien, is your age. The boy is moving to the house in the royal capital shortly, to be settled before the Royal Academy. So we go to collect Lucien, and I would like you to come with us, meet Christophe, and see the domain. I have already told him about you by letter, so there is nothing to worry about.”

“Yes. Going to the ducal domain is no difficulty at all. I have been wanting to see somewhere other than the royal capital.”

Well, an invitation like that can hardly be refused. I hope Lord Christophe and his family are good people. Given the rest of this house, perhaps I needn’t worry.

“I am glad to hear it. I shall give you the details of the schedule later.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“There is one more thing. Leon, you have no clothes of the kind a noble wears, have you? A tailor is coming tomorrow, so you should take the opportunity to have some made.”

That’s very kind, but what will it cost? Clothes from a tailor who calls at a ducal house sound ferociously expensive. Made to measure, presumably? I’d be perfectly happy with something secondhand…

“That is very kind of you, but if it is too expensive I won’t be able to pay for it…”

“Ah, you need not worry about the money. The ducal house will pay for all of it, so put it out of your mind.”

What?! Having somebody else pay for something that expensive is more frightening than the price on its own.

“I couldn’t. It’s expensive, so I’ll pay for it myself. I do have a little money.”

“No, no. Think nothing of it.”

Being told that doesn’t stop me thinking about it! Then can I do something in return? What have I got to give… I can make magic tools, but I have no materials. Healing magic, perhaps? If somebody were injured or ill, that might do as thanks.

“Then please let me do something in return. I could use healing magic, and if there were materials I could make a magic tool.”

“Wait a moment. You can make magic tools, Leon?! I had assumed Master Marcel was making them…”

Ah! Was that a secret? Marcel has gone to the trouble of keeping me out of it and I have just said it out loud. I clapped a hand over my mouth, too late. Though when I think about it, they already know I have every attribute, so there may be no need to hide it. Marcel, I am sorry! I apologized to him inwardly, and decided to explain about the magic tools.

“I’ve been allowed to make magic tools in Marcel’s workshop. Um, Marcel has done nothing wrong, so please make sure he isn’t charged with anything…?”

“Ah, you need not fear that. But this is a surprise. Then the magic tools registered recently are all things you made?”

“Y-yes. But I can’t register them myself, so he registered them under his name.”

“I see… I had wondered how he could be inventing so much, and from Master Marcel’s name I thought you might be involved, so I put in a word to have them registered smoothly. It seems I was not wrong. Although I had assumed Master Marcel was doing the making and you were advising. That you made them yourself… They are all new techniques, and it is being said that magic tool research has advanced all at once. They are to be made public and put on sale.”

Now that I think of it, Marcel did ask whether I had connections in the upper reaches of the royal palace… So it was Lord Richard. It seems this has become a rather bigger matter than I had understood.

I may be further outside the normal than I think I am… That’s a little depressing. I know about far more convenient machines, so whatever magic tool I come up with never strikes me as much of an achievement. I should be careful.

“Forgive me, I was surprised and we have gone off the subject. Leon, from here on you had better stop developing magic tools for the time being. If you do think of something, I shall arrange the magic stone and magic iron for your own personal use. But hold off registering anything until you have graduated from the Royal Academy.”

“Yes. Marcel said the same, so I was already thinking of stopping for now.”

“Then that is settled. Now, we were speaking of your doing something in return.”

“Yes. But if magic tools are out, all I can really do is use healing magic…”

Although I should be able to cure illness as well, so perhaps that could serve. Is there anybody with a cold about the place?

“I haven’t tested healing magic much, so I don’t know how far it will go, but I was able to cure a cold the other day, so there’s a chance I can cure illness too.”

“What?! Is that true?! Then there is something I would very much like to ask of you… Alban. Would you heal Alban for us?”

By Lord Richard’s account, Alban the butler has been unwell for about six weeks and has been growing steadily weaker. Alban’s son and the other servants are somehow covering his work between them. The old butler had handed none of it over yet, so it has been hard going.

“Alban’s family have served this house as butlers for generations. We think of Alban and his people as family… It does not matter if it fails. Will you look at him?”

“Yes. I don’t know whether I can help, but I’ll do everything I can.”

“Leon. Thank you…”

Lord Richard said it and bowed his head to me. With a man like that bending his head to me, failing is not something I am allowed to do… I felt the whole weight of it settle, and my hand closed into a fist.

Afterward Lord Richard said tomorrow would do, but I thought sooner was better and had them take me to Alban. Lord Richard and Lord Frederick came as well. Alban normally lives in the servants’ quarters, but he has been moved to a guest room to make him easier to care for.

We walked a short way with Roger leading, and reached a guest room. Alban was in here. Roger knocked at the door and called through it.

“Lord Richard, Lord Frederick and Master Leon are here.”

At which there was a short flurry of movement inside, and the door opened. The room reeked of medicinal herbs; they must be using a great many of them. Treatment for illness in this world really has not developed at all.

“Thank you for waiting.”

The one who opened the door seemed to be a servant of the house. Perhaps they take Alban’s care in shifts. When we came in, Alban was in the bed and struggling to sit himself up. He has grown a great deal thinner and more worn than when I last saw him.

“Master, Lord Frederick, Master Leon. Forgive me for letting you see me in such a state. Cough. Cough, cough.”

Alban got himself upright somehow and began to speak, and the effort of it set him coughing.

“Alban. I think nothing of the kind. And you need not force yourself upright. Lie down.”

“Quite so. Better not to put any strain on your body.”

With both of them pressing him, Alban lay back down. It must be very hard on him.

“Leon. How does it look? Can you cure it?”

Lord Frederick asked it quietly. I answered him just as quietly.

“I don’t know yet. But I’ll try.”

I said it and went to Alban’s side.

“Alban, I am going to use healing magic now. I can’t promise it will cure you, but may I try?”

“Yes. If there is even a little chance of a cure, please.”

“Understood. Make yourself comfortable.”

I put a hand to Alban’s forehead and it was very hot. A high fever. And the cough. He was clearly in distress a moment ago and his breathing itself looks like work now. I have no medical knowledge so I can’t say for certain, but perhaps a virus has inflamed his lungs. Working from that guess, I covered Alban’s whole body in healing-attribute mana.

The harmful things are centered on the lungs, as I thought. Marie’s case doesn’t begin to compare with this. If I don’t hold the image properly, the mana may not be enough. An image of destroying the viruses and bacteria doing him harm should serve. My knowledge is thin so I can’t picture it in any real detail, and that on its own is going to cost a great deal of mana. But my capacity has grown, so here’s hoping it’s enough. Lately it has climbed to more than a hundred times what it was when I first started using magic. This should be possible.

I took a deep breath, settled myself, and braced. Then, holding that image in my head, I used healing magic on the harmful things in Alban’s body.

Ugh… it is taking an enormous amount of mana… Not yet, though. The viruses aren’t gone. Strangely, when I use healing magic I can tell, more or less, when a thing is fully healed. Perhaps that is part of my odd ability too. I kept pouring mana in while I thought about it.

Not yet… A little more… Done!

I was breathing like someone who had run a long way. There was almost no mana left in me and I could only just stand. That had taken very nearly all of it. Curing sickness costs far more than I had understood.

I got my breathing under control and spoke to Alban.

“Alban, it’s finished. How do you feel?”

At which Alban sat straight up, easily. Then he got to his feet and began walking about the room.

“This is extraordinary! The breathing that was such a struggle is no trouble at all, and my body feels light. Master Leon, thank you, truly. I will not forget this kindness as long as I live. If ever you need anything, I will help you without fail.”

Alban said it with tears standing in his eyes, and made me a deep bow.

“I’m glad you’re better. It isn’t anything so grand as all that.”

His color is a great deal better and he should be all right now. All that’s left is some recovery work to make up for the weeks in bed. I’m genuinely glad I could cure him.

Thoroughly relieved, I turned to leave the room and found Lord Richard and Lord Frederick standing there, stunned. What? Aren’t you pleased?

“Is something the matter, both of you?”

“Ah, no. It is only that he really is cured, and I am astonished…”

“Leon. You really are something else…”

The two of them were still dazed. I brought them back down to earth somehow and we left the room. Roger’s blank face had cracked too and he looked thoroughly startled, so I may have done something rather far outside the normal… Well. A bit late for that now.

We came out of Alban’s room and I was about to go back to my own when Lord Richard stopped me. His face was very serious indeed.

“Leon, I need to speak with you. Would you come to my room?”

“To speak? Of course, though…”

“Then let us go.”

He said it and set off for his room at a fast walk, so I followed him. When we arrived he had the room cleared, and it was the three of us: me, Lord Frederick and Lord Richard. Both of them look grave. What on earth is this?

“Leon, that you can cure illness must be kept absolutely secret. If it were known, you would be in very great danger. I know that, and even so there is one person I must ask you to heal. I will pay whatever you ask. Will you cure them…?”

So it is better kept secret. And knowing that, he still has somebody he wants healed. His face was deadly serious. If it is something I can do, I want to help.

“Of course, if it is something I am able to do…”

“Truly?! Thank you… Could you see them at once?”

At once? Is it as bad as that?

“I have almost no mana left just now, so I could see them tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, or the day after. But is the illness really so far along?”

“Yes. I am told the condition is very grave…”

“I don’t know whether I should ask this, but… who is it?”

I asked, and Lord Richard’s face took on a look of real pain before he answered.

“It is Princess Martine. Her Highness has been ill since around winter, and they say she has not long…”

What? Princess Martine…? My hands went cold. Then my feet, and then the feeling went out of the whole of me. She was so full of life when I met her. She walked to the forest and back rather than take the carriage. She is still a child.

That I might never see that smile again… Can I cure her? And if I fail, then Princess Martine will…

I had got that far, and my thinking was about to go down into the dark, when Lord Richard spoke.

“There is nobody left who can save her but you. I am asking you.”

That’s right. What is the use of my giving up? If I don’t save her, nobody else is going to. I steadied myself and lifted my head.

“I will save Her Highness. Whatever it takes.”

“Truly. Truly, thank you… Then I shall go to His Majesty first thing tomorrow morning and tell him. Leon, will you rest and recover your mana?”

“Yes. I will.”

At which Lord Frederick, silent until then, spoke.

“Leon. Her Highness is in your hands.”

“Yes. Everything I have.”

So I went back to my room. I lay down on the bed to get my mana back, and lay there a long time without sleeping.