Chapter 58
“I heard about it, Charlotte.”
….”
An old man with a long, snow-white beard said to the girl seated across from him.
“I hear you used violence against commoner children from the lower village.”
“I didn’t!”
Charlotte lifted her head and shouted.
“You didn’t?”
“It’s not that I didn’t….”
Charlotte muttered, then glanced away and made an excuse.
“They… were the ones who did something wrong first.”
“What did they do wrong?”
“I saw them surround another child in a group… and take his money.”
In response to her grandfather Ricardo Valliere’s calm question, Charlotte answered cautiously.
“So I was trying to help the child they’d robbed….”
“….”
Ricardo silently looked into Charlotte’s eyes.
Normally kind and gentle, her grandfather frightened Charlotte at times like this.
He never shouted at her or scolded her. He never struck her or picked up a cane.
Yet those eyes seemed capable of uncovering every secret in the world, and her grandfather always exposed Charlotte’s lies.
After a few thoughtless lies were exposed on the spot, Charlotte never again tried to lie in front of her grandfather, no matter what.
“…So.”
Ricardo said.
“You just threw the first punch?”
“…Yes.”
Charlotte nodded dejectedly.
“…Charlotte.”
“Yes.”
Hearing the weight in Ricardo’s voice, Charlotte answered in a thoroughly dejected tone.
“What do you think a noble is?”
“A noble…?”
But instead of a lecture, she got a question in response. Charlotte tilted her head and answered.
“Someone with lots of money…?”
That was the best answer young Charlotte could come up with. After all, for a five-year-old girl, the distinction between nobles and commoners probably came down to a simple difference in wealth.
She knew nothing yet of unusual cases like Roxanna, so she genuinely believed that.
“If you look at it that way, that’s a correct answer, too.”
Ricardo nodded.
“Then, Charlotte, why do you think nobles have so much money?”
“…Because Father works hard?”
At Charlotte’s answer, Ricardo smiled faintly and said,
“Yes, that’s true as well. Your father is a truly diligent man… but that isn’t a hundred-percent correct answer, either.”
“Then what is it…?”
“The correct answer is the duty corresponding to everything one possesses.”
Ricardo said quietly.
“Great wealth, high status, immense honor. As people who stand above others, this country’s nobles are born with the honor of having those things guaranteed to them.”
“….”
“Do you think they are given those things for free?”
At Ricardo’s question, Charlotte silently shook her head.
“That’s right. In exchange for inheriting so many things at birth, nobles must live while bearing duties commensurate with them.”
“Duties…?”
“They must strive to present themselves perfectly at all times. They must keep body and mind in order so they can always set an example for others, never look down on others without cause, and never wield their power as they please.”
“But there are lots of nobles who don’t do that.”
Charlotte asked out of genuine confusion. Ricardo answered with a calm smile.
“Such people are unworthy of being nobles. They’re no different from street thugs.”
Ricardo clicked his tongue and continued.
“But… what this old man says is nothing more than an empty theory. There are far too many nobles who aren’t noble, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“…What does ‘empty theory’ mean?”
“It means saying things that have no basis in reality.”
Ricardo said to Charlotte, who tilted her head.
“So, Charlotte, could you make one promise to your grandfather? Promise that you’ll become a noble worthy of the name and live a life that always sets an example for others.”
=
“Kate…?”
Calude Lucilante asked in return, unable to hide his fluster.
Apparently, even he had not expected to come under attack like this in a setting such as this.
“You do know—I’m only asking to confirm—that she is an unequivocally dangerous individual who was even referred to the academy’s disciplinary committee, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
But Charlotte’s expression was serious.
“That is precisely why I say House Lucilante must take responsibility all the more. Isn’t she a monster born of House Lucilante?”
“….”
“For fulfilling the duties one is given is a noble’s responsibility.”
Charlotte finished speaking calmly and looked at Calude.
“…Good heavens.”
Calude groaned, looking troubled.
I glanced at Charlotte as she silently sipped from her teacup and thought.
‘Did something happen…?’
Charlotte’s attitude was certainly somewhat excessive, but the situation was not exactly favorable for criticizing her outright.
Above all, Calude had been the one to raise the subject of Kate first. He had even gone so far as to make it clear that he was taking responsibility for the matter by apologizing ‘on their behalf’ to me and the Class E students, who had been caught up in the incident she caused.
Of course, this was nothing more than a formal courtesy; an ordinary person would generally respond with some stock pleasantry such as ‘Not at all’ or ‘That’s all in the past,’ then let the matter pass.
Even so, it was an undeniable fact that Charlotte’s reaction was somewhat excessively radical.
‘Could this be because of me?’
Come to think of it, Charlotte had not been particularly pleased with this mission from the very beginning.
Perhaps she disliked that the real reason Calude had requested this mission had to do with me, not monster extermination. Or perhaps she genuinely could not look favorably on Calude for ‘failing to fulfill his responsibilities as a noble.’
Or perhaps it was both.
‘Well, I’ll have to talk to Charlotte separately later….’
Even as I thought that, I watched Calude’s expression rather than rashly opening my mouth.
I was curious how he would respond to Charlotte’s sudden attack, after all.
“…Of course, Miss Charlotte is right.”
Calude finally opened his mouth.
“However, we have our own circumstances, so it is difficult for us to take action right now. Above all, regardless of our wishes, I’m not sure whether she would be willing to accept us.”
In the end, it was a suitably evasive excuse—the most textbook way to respond to Charlotte’s aggressive words.
Looking around the table, Calude said in a more rigid voice,
“If you have finished your meal, the servants will escort you to your rooms upstairs. I’ll tell you the details tomorrow before you set out on the mission.”
=
“…I’m sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
Upstairs in an annex of the Lucilante estate.
Charlotte lowered her head before I could even say anything, so I asked her in a deliberately teasing tone.
“There are things one can say in some situations and things one can’t, and I knew that, but I couldn’t hold myself back.”
Charlotte answered in a tense voice.
“So… because of me, the atmosphere….”
“I was just joking.”
I shook my head, reached up, and patted Charlotte on the head.
“It’s all right. It’s not as though you said anything wrong, is it?”
“But we are bona fide magic knights carrying out an official mission….”
“…Before you’re magic knights, you’re academy students.”
I cut Charlotte off.
“It’s all right to make mistakes. You’re still students. If you recognize your own mistake, that’s enough.”
I lowered the hand I had raised.
“Hey, you. I thought I was going to die of fright just now.”
Miriam, passing by, chided her. Charlotte shot her a sharp glare, but given the circumstances, she did not say anything else.
“Mind your own business.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sticking her tongue out at Kariya, who muttered as she passed, Miriam slipped into her own room. Charlotte, who had stared silently at her, also turned to me and bid me good night.
“…Then. I’ll head in too.”
“Okay. Sleep well.”
“Good night, Instructor.”
With her usual stiff attitude, Charlotte gave me a crisp bow and turned away.
“Oh, right.”
I said quietly to her back,
“Thank you. For snapping at him on my behalf.”
“…I didn’t do it for any particular reason.”
“Actually, I wanted to say something to that bastard, too.”
I said with a faint laugh, then turned away from her.
‘…Come to think of it.’
I thought back to the moment just now when I had patted Charlotte on the head.
‘She’s really tall.’
If she had been just a little taller, I might really have had to stand on tiptoe.
If that had happened, I would have looked incredibly awkward.
‘…Do people keep growing taller even after turning thirty?’
I had heard people say they had grown taller after turning twenty, even while serving in the military… but surely the chances of that happening into one’s late twenties were low. I sighed inwardly, opened my door, and stepped inside.
The number written on the key the estate servant had given me was 5. Of the rooms lining both sides of the corridor, it was the one farthest in.
“Let’s see… It’s cleaner than I expected.”
I looked around the room, and it really felt like a perfectly standard guest room.
Outside the tightly shut double windows, a snowstorm was raging, and the quilt was a thick winter one.
There was a sliding door on one wall. When I opened it, I found a wardrobe. Other than a bathrobe, it held nothing but empty hangers.
And in the corner opposite the wardrobe, that small closed door must lead to the bathroom.
“…Come out.”
I spoke quietly toward the firmly closed door.
“If you keep staying in there, I can’t take a bath.”
-Creeeak.
Just as expected.
No sooner had I finished speaking than the faint sound of hinges turning echoed through the room.