Guest.

Guest.

Aspara turned around to speak up in defense of the youngest of the castle’s attendants, who by herself handled dozens of small, scattered duties. But she was no longer in her spot.

“When did she slip off, without so much as saying goodbye.”

“…She’s simply a diligent one. Besides, words don’t pass between us anyway, so what use would a farewell be.”

“The truth is…”

Seven opened her mouth hesitantly.

“When I was entering the castle, you see, the guards at the gate, on seeing my carriage, were quite flustered and running about in a panic…”

Like a daughter trying to bid farewell without giving injury, Seven chose her words with care.

“But the moment I made it known that I was Lady Aspara’s guest, the handling of their duties suddenly grew very leisurely. How to put it — it felt as though I were being treated as… not particularly important.”

“A strange carriage rolling in flustered them, and then they were put at ease. Compared to your homeland it’s twice the welcome, so please don’t worry yourself about it.”

Isn’t that right? Aspara turned to her knight, as if seeking his agreement.

But Jack, rather than answering straight away, shuffled and hesitated.

“Of course—”

Yes, that’s right, he opened his mouth to reply, then paused, hesitating once more.

The truth was that, as far as he was concerned, he could not say for sure.

The very cause of their practical isolation, and a con artist to boot. What he knew of the surroundings was, for the most part, information filtered through his single accomplice, Ugli. And so Jack’s field of view was no wider than his lady’s.

He racked his small brain as hard as he could, but in the end all he came to realize, belatedly, was that the sole attendant directly waiting on Aspara, the lady of the castle, was Star, a single person doing the rounds of every imaginable odd job.

“—There are a great many good people here.”

He answered without meeting the eyes of either woman, his gaze fixed instead on a diagonal point above them.

“I thank you, but there is nothing for you to be concerned about.”

“Is that so?”

Seven tilted her head, her expression one of worry.

“I’m sorry, I suppose I couldn’t help fretting a little, wondering whether my dear close friend from the precious ‘Lord Flower’s Ladies’ Circle’ might be in some difficulty…”

“I’ve never joined any such circle.”

“—If I may, my lady.”

Volmo, who had been sitting in a daze under the onslaught of one shocking piece of information after another, rejoined the conversation with his face a little recovered.

“The sun has slipped behind the mountain. Since my lady is not accustomed to the northern climate, it would be better to step inside and speak there…”

As he spoke, Volmo opened the veranda door that connected the inner courtyard to the room. In that instant, he felt a faint sense of wrongness.

Her door opens easily.

Houses in the north were built, by tradition, with high ceilings and low rooms. There was a depression hollowed into the floor, and on top of it bricks were piled; inside, a fire was lit to warm the air, an efficient heating structure, but with one drawback.

Every time a door was opened, the difference in air pressure sent a great gust of wind blowing through. For outsiders like Volmo and Jack, the experience of being smacked in the face by a door panel every morning was one they had already had more than a few times.

And yet, Aspara’s door had opened without so much as a breath of wind, and all too easily.

“Right, it seems a graver conversation than I’d thought — shall we have it inside, then. One of you, go and fetch some firewood.”

“Is the stove not lit in the morning, my lady?”

“It’s a room rather too wide for me alone. Since it’s wasteful and a nuisance, I simply don’t run it often.”

“You use the room by yourself?”

Aspara did not answer Seven’s question. She only wiped the dust from a small round table she had never once used, then stacked the stove’s covers into a makeshift cushion.

“I shall offer what counsel I can, but please don’t expect too much of it. It does you no good to call here often, so once we’re done speaking, please head straight back.”

Sebinya nodded carefully and replied.

“Yes — I shall stay here so quietly no one will know I ever came, and then take my leave!”

[15.]

《A terribly pretty young lady has come from the south!》

《I know already.》

The attendants’ rest area, the empty washroom next to the kitchen, had a few more people than usual huddled in it, taking their ease. A rare bit of good fortune was to thank: rumor had it that some sort of gift had arrived.

Having learned that the owner of that dazzling carriage was the madam’s guest, the gatekeepers had let their shoulders down and set to their duties at an easy pace. If it was her guest, then there was nothing to hurry over.

It wasn’t that they deliberately looked down on that woman. But it could not be denied that she was a superior whom one could handle a little sloppily without fear of a scolding.

Sebinya’s coachman soon caught on that the gatekeepers were loafing about, and with a “here, this is a little gift,” handed over one of the sacks that had been loaded in the cargo compartment.

A clear-cut bribe. But the frontier gatekeepers, who had never once received a bribe in their lives, took it simply as a kind present and brought it in to share with everyone.

How kind of her, to share food with us. She can’t be a bad person — let her through! — and so they had finished the inspection in a quick slurp and waved the carriage through, which meant that in effect the bribe had done its work after all.

《She’s a kind one. Sisters, perhaps?》

《I hear she’s a friend of the madam’s. Now, come on, take one each. What kind of fruit is this?》

《Isn’t it a date? They apparently look like this when they’re not dried — I saw it in a book.》

The attendants laid the ‘gifts’ from the sack out on the table.

Fresh white bread, sugar beets, every sort of fresh fruit. There were spices and new-wine too. All of them goods from the south, rarely seen in this region.

Ugli would be aghast if he learned these had come in without so much as a customs inspection, but to the young servants gathered here, that sort of thing was none of their concern.

《Let’s set some aside for the ones who couldn’t come. The farriers and the gamekeepers and… where’s Master Ugli gone?》

《He hasn’t been seen since the carriage arrived. Set aside just one basket of figs. He seems to love them to bits.》

《He really seems to love them, so let’s give him two baskets and eat all the bread and wine ourselves.》

Apart from the two large baskets of figs, the gifts that had filled the sack began, little by little, to disappear into everyone’s pockets and stomachs.

《Later, let’s go by the madam’s room pretending to thank her and try to strike up a conversation. That half-and-half one and the surly fellow are in there with her too.》

《She’s in the madam’s room, that kind lady?》

One of the men cried out, startled.

《The stove won’t be running in there right now. Forgot to light a fire.》

《Again?》

《Slipped my mind.》

《Well, she neither rebukes you nor rewards you no matter what you do for her, so you do end up a bit slack about it.》

Chewing aggressively on white bread, the farrier spoke. Nobody said so out loud, but it was a sentiment they all shared.

There was no ill will in them. But it is hard, as a rule, to throw oneself with passion into a task for which there is neither reward nor punishment, not even recognition.

《The stove can wait till we’ve finished eating. All that’ll come of it is the guest feeling sorry and pressing another handful of crumbs into our hands anyway, isn’t it?》

Aspara had, without quite realizing it, been searching for the reason she couldn’t grow close to the people around her.

Back home it had been because of her birth; after her marriage it had been her husband’s fault; and from her second marriage onward she had thought it was because neither culture nor language carried across between them.

“Turns out the problem was simply me.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind — it just struck me what an extraordinary gift for making friends she has.”

“Ah, yes indeed.”

Only moments ago she had clearly been having a two-person romantic consultation with her ‘old friend,’ and yet before she’d known it the room was buzzing with a crowd the likes of which it had never seen. At the center of the gathered throng was Sebinya.

It had all happened a few minutes earlier.

Realizing that the room was no warmer than the outdoors, Volmo had bolted out the door to fetch firewood. When he came back, quickly, what he had brought was not firewood alone.

How heavy could that bit of firewood possibly be, for him to need a whole pack of people.

…! Of course I could have carried it alone. It’s only that these fellows insisted on helping of their own accord and came trailing along behind me…

A handful of workers who must have been in the washroom (in this season, most of the spare firewood is kept there) had followed him along. Supposedly they had come to help carry the load, but please.

No doubt they’d gathered to get a look at the flashy guest. The workers did not leave at once, but shuffled and fidgeted, and before anyone knew it had taken up seats to offer their own counsel alongside.

“Why don’t you go over and join in, too.”

“Um, no, thank you, I’ll pass.”

“No need to mind me. It’s easier for me this way, so all the better.”

“Honestly, I find that young lady a little hard to be around. My forehead hurts somehow, just looking at her.”

Jack rubbed his forehead as though fiddling with a bruise.

“Suit yourself, then.”

Among those present, the owner of the room was an afterthought. The visitors, who had gathered like a flock of birds, were busy chattering with the unfamiliar guest and Volmo as their pivot.

I hadn’t realized there were always this many people with spare hands, Aspara thought.

“I may as well not be here. I’ll go to my room.”

“This is your room, my lady.”

“So it is.”

Aspara leaned quietly back against her chair and let her eyes softly close.

“…It puts me in a nostalgic frame of mind, somehow.”

The carriage house of Fang Castle was very old.

On its ceiling, tough cloth had originally been tacked in place to serve as insulation, but now most of it had torn half free and hung down like the wattles under an old rooster’s jaw.

Thanks to these drooping rags, the upper loft of the carriage house was almost invisible from the ground floor.

《Really should set aside a day sometime and fix this.》

Ugli muttered to himself, fiddling with an especially badly-drooping strip of rag.

The existence of the upper loft was known only to a handful who had worked here since the castle’s very founding. There was no particularly important reason or secret behind keeping it out of sight. To borrow a vulgar turn of phrase, it could be looked at as the ideal space for lying low.