The Secret Wrapped In Quilts

“Lady Noi, I was discourteous earlier. I am Aidoni. Please accept my regards.”

Kardia narrowed his eyes at Aidoni’s well-measured bow.

“Hello, Aidoni. You’ve grown.”

“Lord Kardia—how reassuring that you had not forgotten me.”

“Oh? Are you sulking because I’ve been away? Forgive me, pretty one.”

So saying, Kardia patted Aidoni’s head twice—pon, pon. Noi’s chest tightened of its own accord, ignoring her will. It seemed true that Aidoni had been close with Kardia, just as she’d said earlier.

Aidoni smiled with a beauty to make even a goddess jealous.

“Hehe, since there’s no helping it, I shall forgive you, Lord Kardia.”

With greetings done, Aidoni led the two to the great hall.

Sensing that Noi—gnawing on turnips and corn—was hungry, the people of the enclave had hurried to prepare dinner. The kitchens must have been frantic since then.

The meal was luxurious, but Kukuvaya did not join them. She had surely reached her limit; it seemed she would rest in her room.

Instead, a woman named Tsera—renowned as the next head of the house—hosted Noi and the others.

From the moment she stepped into the estate, Noi had felt it: men seemed few in this Weavers’ Enclave. Roughly one man to five women.

It felt odd; in the Weavers’ Enclave where Noi had been raised by her grandfather, men had been more numerous.

Once Kardia finished savoring his boiled eggs, they were shown to the baths. Having traveled all day across the surface, Noi gratefully accepted the hot water.

Fitting a great enclave, it was a grand bath—and open-air to boot.

The pool marked “Women’s Bath” was large as a pond. A tub circled by pillars could fit any number of adults, and water fell into it in cascading sheets like waterfalls.

Curious about the round stone tables, Noi learned from Aidoni that they were for warming the stone and lying upon it.

“What about the others?”

“It is our custom that guests bathe first.”

In the changing room, Noi stripped bare; behind her, Aidoni followed in only her underclothes.

No sooner had they entered the bath than Aidoni spoke to Noi.

“I behaved rudely earlier. Allow me to apologize properly.”

Aidoni spread her hands and crossed her fingers, bowing her head.

Her manner the very opposite of the daytime, Aidoni left Noi blinking.

“What made you want to apologize?”

People generally apologize only when they wish to—and that desire is not limited to moments of reflection or remorse.

Noi held Aidoni’s gaze and asked. Aidoni flinched for a heartbeat under that look, then dropped her voice to answer.

“…Because you are Lord Kardia’s bride.”

Because Noi now had backing, she wished to ingratiate herself? Even so, it had been a frank, upright bow.

“Because I am his bride?”

“—Please, spare me from saying more.”

Aidoni averted her eyes and lowered her gaze.

Perhaps she hated to say it, perhaps she couldn’t put it into words, or both.

(Aidoni is still a girl.)

Seventeen-year-old Aidoni. Though Noi looked the more childlike, she was, inside, a grown woman. Watching a young girl grow was no hardship.

“…All right. Then say it when you want to.”

With a faint smile, Noi reached out to pat Aidoni’s head—pon, pon. Aidoni’s eyes flew wide; her lips parted in a small, vacant “oh.”

“Come now. You came intending to look after me, didn’t you? Since we have the chance, I’ll count on you.”

Without an occasion like this, she would hardly receive a noble’s treatment. Noi felt a little thrill—how would they pamper her?

“Even if you say ‘since we have the chance’… I only know ordinary ways of washing.”

“Then wash me ordinarily!”

“I thought you were oddly mature… but in that part, you’re no different from the enclave girls.”

Aidoni seated Noi on a stool, then picked up a palm-sized, double-shelled clam tool stacked nearby. She twisted, then pulled the halves apart; as the shell parted, water blossomed in its center. Pressing a shell-half to either side of Noi’s head, Aidoni wetted her hair.

Aidoni’s slim fingers traced Noi’s scalp, gathering her hair. Noi’s hair sank entirely into the water Aidoni held aloft. Aidoni plunged her hands into that water and washed Noi’s head.

“Amazing… so you don’t have to scoop hot water.”

“My. What decade are you speaking from?”

In the mountains and on the floating isle, they had used bath-buckets for rinsing; Noi had never handled such up-to-date magical tools.

“You’re deft at spinning mana.”

“My, even without mana—ah, forgive me. Can you tell such a thing as well?”

“Haha. No need to be so formal now. Yes. Vaguely, but I can tell.”

Magical tools in common use were made so that ordinary folk without magic could use them easily; most activated with a fixed amount of mana.

But tools found only in a mage’s household were a little more finicky. Like the shell Aidoni used—keeping water floating in place—such tools required live mana control during use.

Surely they used this tool not just for convenience.

From childhood, the enclave trained children’s mana control by weaving such drills into daily life.

“…This much is only natural. I was supposed to become Lord Kardia’s disciple, after all.”

Aidoni muttered as she washed Noi’s hair.

“Oh my. Isn’t that Ornis-san, whom Lord Kardia kindly took on as a disciple?”

Those were the words she had flung at Ornis when they met. It would be a lie to say they hadn’t stuck with Noi. But not knowing the facts, she could neither scold nor defend.

Aidoni said nothing beyond that murmur and continued washing.

Since hair and body could be washed without special tools, Noi handled the rest herself. Once she was clean all over, she slid into the bath with satisfaction.

“Aidoni, come in too.”

“But…”

“We can keep quiet, can’t we? It’s fine. My lips are sealed.”

Noi set her elbows on the pool’s edge, pressed her mouth into a flat line, and slid a finger from right to left—zipping it. Seeing that, Aidoni reluctantly stepped into the bath.

Even the way she knelt, pressed down the hem of her underclothes with one hand, and cautiously tested the water with her fingertips was picturesque. The thin fabric darkened against water, enticing; even an angel might be tempted astray.

“Do you often care for younger children?”

“Eh?”

Easing into the bath foot-first, Aidoni looked at Noi.

“You washed hair very well.”

“…The children just… attach themselves to me.”

Perhaps shy to admit she tended children of her own accord, Aidoni turned aside to answer.

Her hands as she tended Noi had been gentle. Hands practiced in touching others, with pressure chosen for the one being touched.

“You’re a kind girl, Aidoni.”

“…I’m… kind?”

Sky-blue eyes opened wide. The small lips, flushed ripe by the bath’s steam, parted.

Aidoni stared, blank; then she hurriedly averted her gaze.

“K-kind aside, what’s this ‘girl’ business. ‘Girl.’ I am older than you.”

“Then you’re a kind big sister.”

“N-not that I wanted you to rephrase it…”

Aidoni sank to her shoulders, mumbling.

The cool smile that looked prickly to the touch, the calm and demure mask—perhaps the bath had melted them all away.

The hem of her underclothes spread across the surface, fluttering.

“…I only do what must be done. As an elder among the younger ones—and as Kukuvaya’s great-granddaughter.”

Noi blinked—so Aidoni was of Kukuvaya’s blood. No wonder she felt such poise from her; however distant, royal blood ran through her.

Soft moonlight fell upon the rippling surface and lit Aidoni.

“If I keep doing so, then someday surely… Mother will…”

Curling her face down to rest upon her raised knees, Aidoni let the words slip. They dissolved into the hot water before the end, but the profile of her face carried something like a fervent prayer.

Startled back to herself, Aidoni straightened her back and, as if to cover it, changed the subject.

“—M-more importantly. Are you always… that close?”

“Kardia? Well, yes. Most of the time—”

“With Ornis.”

“Huh?”