Dimwit

Even in the North, spring was spring. Once March was past and the snows had begun to melt, on into May, clean water came trickling even along the streams. Midday climbed no higher than five degrees or so, granted, but even June, which passed for high summer here, saw few days climb past ten, and so the Northerners came outdoors to make the most of the bright weather.

“They say this year’s Victory Festival is to be held on a grander scale than usual.”

“So they do. I know a man who supplies the castle with foodstuffs, and they bought twice what they took last year!”

“Isn’t that just throwing the money about with no thought for after? What do we do come winter, sit sucking our fingers?”

“Worrying is a calling with you. The folk up top will see to that sort of thing themselves.”

“I just can’t bring myself to trust it. The man was off playing at mercenary and turned into His Grace overnight. Would he even properly know the domain?”

“Lord Elrod appointed him Regent Duke himself, didn’t he. It’s his judgment we’re putting our faith in.”

The Northerners were fond of Elrod Paragon. So even while they trusted the Keith Paragon he had hand-picked, they worried about him in the same breath.

The Victory Festival in May would be a proving ground and an opportunity at once, a chance for Keith to show his quality as Regent Duke and set people’s minds at rest.

That was precisely why Keith was hoping the snow elk would show itself.

“Why? What about the snow elk?”

Ardine asked, sprawled out on the ground and fiddling with her staff. Her magic lesson was over and she was in the middle of practicing privately with Pai when Homer the stablehand came by, slipped Reni a treat, and brought up the Victory Festival.

“Yip-yip!”

Reni’s tail spun like a windmill. Ardine poked at it with her birch staff and steadied her breathing. Homer spoke up.

“A snow elk is a beast you might happen across if you go into the forest, but the great silver snow elk is another matter. That one is a spirit-beast, said to have lived a thousand years.”

“What’s a spirit-beast?”

“It means an animal that has lived so long it has come to hold a sacred power. My lady, mind the staff.”

That was Pai, who had plumped herself down on the bare ground as well. Homer stole a glance at her, sitting there in trousers, and went on.

“Ahem. It is because a legend has come down that a leader who touches that creature’s antlers will bring about an age of peace. Ah, and an age of peace means…”

“Ari knows what an age of peace is.”

Ardine answered primly, snatching up Reni, who was on the point of picking up a small pebble to eat.

Over the past month, Reni had grown to about the size of a child’s forearm. Anna and Homer, who had taken the creature for a dog, were only now beginning to suspect Reni’s true identity (?).

Dimwits…

Pai was fond of these hopelessly dim people. To give Ardine a lesson, she put a question to Homer.

“How did a legend like that come about?”

“It is a legend handed down from the first head of the house, Aki Paragon, who touched that elk.”

Pai nodded and turned to Ardine.

“It’s passed down by word of mouth and written in no record, and that is what makes it a legend.”

“So then the big silver snow elk doesn’t exist?”

“It exists.”

Homer took the question up.

“It sheds in early spring, and the cast-off antler is used as a precious medicine. So around this time of year, apothecaries will hire people on to gather up the shed antlers.”

They were so rare that most such ventures came back empty-handed, but a find fetched quite literally whatever price the finder cared to name, and so the teams were put together every year.

Pai, too, was quietly hoping the hunting contest might hand her a chance at one.

That happens to be the main ingredient of the Elixir, you see.

Even Hamel, who owned every mysterious and outlandish ingredient going, had his eye on that particular raw material. Developing a new medicine meant trial after trial until something came of it, so shortening the road to the Elixir started with keeping the materials coming in steadily.

“Ari wants to see it too. A snow elk that’s lived a thousand years!”

“Perhaps you really will get to see one at this hunting contest.”

“Ari hopes mister tames it. Then mister shores up his standering—”

“Standing, my lady.”

“That’s what Ari said. He shores up his standing, and I get to see a snow elk. Two stones with one bird.”

“…And where did you pick that one up, may I ask.”

Ardine gave a grown-up shrug, patted the dirt off her bottom and got to her feet. Reni was moved safely into Pai’s arms.

“Will you be going on?”

“Mm-hm.”

Ardine glared at the blocks of wood set out some twenty meters off, squared-off elongated things ranged in a long row at even intervals. She took up the staff Hamel had given her and steadied her breath.

Her aim was to gather magic power at the tip of the staff and strike the wooden blocks that served as her targets. Pai’s part was to keep the ever-scampering Reni out of harm’s way and to clear up whatever blocks toppled or burst.

“One, twooo…!”

— Bang!

A hazy golden beam shot from the slender tip of the staff, caught one of the wooden blocks a glancing blow, and dissolved.

“Good heavens!”

Homer took one look at the burst block and, badly startled, bolted from the drill ground for dear life.

On the third Monday of May, the curtain officially rose on the Victory Festival. In the plaza of Heliaria, Keith Paragon declared the event open and made a short speech.

“As the old saying goes, a respected leader is sparing with his words and open with his storehouses. May the abundance of this land carry on for generations to come. Long live Paragon.”

“Long, long live Paragon!”

“Whoaaaah!”

Pai had been the one insisting so strenuously that the shorter an edifying address the better, but Keith had all but grazed past the dais on his way through. He came down with his black robe flaring and gave Pai a look that said, ‘Did I do well?’

“I kept it short, just as Miss Pai said, and the people seem to like it.”

He looked so thoroughly pleased with himself, and so foolish about it, that Pai burst out laughing.

“Long live Paragon! The young lady is with Hamel. Her staff broke, so they said they were going to buy a new one.”

“And Miss Pai did not go with them.”

“A non-mage is not the least bit of help in choosing a good staff, apparently? I was thrown out for getting underfoot.”

“I see. Then at the moment you are… on your own.”

Keith cast his eyes about him and swallowed a quick breath. He watched quietly for her reaction, and Pai answered, her face equal parts apology and regret.

“I, ah — I’ve arranged to take a turn about the plaza with Anna.”

“Ah.”

“Um… Mr. Keith will be busy right through, I imagine?”

“Ah, I…”

“Waaait! …a moment.”

Just then Anna appeared with a scarf wound around her, heaving for breath.

“Good day to you, Your Grace. Might I borrow her for just a moment?”

Anna bent her knee to Keith in a hasty greeting, then smacked Pai’s forearm and hauled her away.

“Anna! What is it…!”

“What is it, she says! You dimwit!”

To be scolded as a dimwit by a dimwit. Pai’s pride was stung, and she grumbled.

“Hitting a person out of nowhere… I am against violence.”

“When you carry on this maddeningly, how am I meant to not hit you?! That is him asking you on a date!”

“But I made a prior arrangement with you first, Anna.”

Anna thumped her own chest like a gorilla, cut her eyes toward Keith, then jabbed Pai’s shoulder with an index finger.

“Now listen, Pai. I have a grand ambition. To go on as a maid of the White Castle, small and steady, for a very long while. This is a good place to work.”

Pai agreed that the White Castle was a good place to work. Anna went on.

“And for that, I mustn’t end up in His Grace’s bad books, must I?”

“Well… I don’t know what it is you’ve done wrong, Anna, but if it’s a matter that can’t be settled at Miss Bishe’s level, then certainly…”

“Hopeless.”

— Thwack!

The forehead flick came out of nowhere and snapped Pai back to her senses. Dazed, she rubbed at her reddened brow.

“Pull yourself together and repeat after me.”

“…”

“Anna has to go and meet her boyfriend, so I suddenly find myself free…”

“Anna, you have a boyfriend?”

“Repeat it.”

“…Anna has to go and meet her boyfriend, so I suddenly find myself free…”

Anna smiled contentedly and stuck up a thumb.

“And don’t forget to blink prettily when you get to ‘find myself free.’ Right, off you go. Pai Deluosa!”

Anna gave Pai a shove in the back. Sent sailing like a dandelion seed, Pai came to a halt in front of Keith and just stood there, at a loss.

Keith looked down at her, a dispirited air coming off him in waves.

— Gulp.

“So… Anna’s gone off to meet her boyfriend, so… I-I find myself free.”

“…”

There was no reaction.

That’s right. Blink prettily.

Pai blinked in a flustered scramble. Whether it counted as prettily she could not have said, but that it had worked on Keith was beyond doubt.

“Th-then. If Miss Pai has no objection, how would it be to take a turn about the plaza with me.”

Because his cheeks had turned pink.