First night in the capital.
I sat on the window sill, gazing out vacantly.
The moon was pretty. I wanted to look at it.
The Third called.
“Quite the marinade. Was the parting that hard?”
I looked down and smiled a little.
In the room, Novem and Aria were sleeping in the same bed. I’d considered two rooms, but every inn had been full.
If there’d been four of us, we could’ve split it pair-to-pair, two rooms.
“It was hard. Right after I’d been acknowledged, at that.”
The teasing tone dropped from the Third.
“If Lyle remembers him, the First will be glad. — Also, you’ve gotten a little more together lately.”
“A little?”
His evaluation, as harsh as ever. Wry smile.
But I bought it inside. Even thought it was higher than my own self-evaluation.
“Yes — a little. But Growth, clearly. So the First’s actions weren’t pointless. That’s a relief.”
In other words, if I’d kept moping forever after the First’s departure, the ancestors wouldn’t have forgiven me.
”…I still don’t know what to aim for. Aria’s been pushed onto me too, and I’m planning to take care of her. Even if we part ways eventually, until she can stand on her own at least.”
“Oh? Not in favor of Novem-chan’s harem plan? Most men would jump at it… well, I get it.”
Sure, men dream of harems.
But in practice? Mixed feelings.
I wasn’t even sure I could make Novem alone happy.
She’d sold her bridal-prep household goods to put up the funds.
Would I ever be able to repay that?
“For now, I’ll travel as an adventurer and see the world. The answer might come on the way… I don’t know enough.”
The Third agreed.
“Humans don’t know enough about anything. The feeling of knowing-it-all is the mistake. So you keep learning a lifetime. Some knowledge isn’t in books either. I’m with you on this.”
“Thank you, Third.”
“Oop — talked too much. The princess woke up. Conversation ends here.”
The Third went quiet. Aria woke.
She sat up. The red gem at her throat seemed to glint.
”…Still up?”
Sleepy Aria, completely unguarded. She rubbed her eyes and looked at me.
I would’ve liked her to view me a little more as a man, but given how I’d been so far, that was on me — I let it slide.
She got out of bed and came over.
She looked at my necklace.
“You have a lot of Skills too, right? That’s a family-heirloom kind of thing, too?”
I nodded at the blue gem.
I hadn’t really been hiding it — my fragile build apparently made multi-Skill use seem impossible. Even with the blue gem on, no one had thought I could use it.
”…Generations of House Walt heads have carried it. Important heirloom.”
She sat in a nearby chair, touched her red gem.
“I see. Mine’s the same, but treated a little awkwardly. …It was popular in the old days, but the technique to make new ones has been lost. And now people don’t bother with them because of the balance is bad excuse.”
When Magic Implements appeared, Gems had been pushed out fast.
The reason: you couldn’t load intended Skills into them.
They were seen as devices that merely recorded the Skills the carrier happened to develop.
Aria was talkative tonight — in a good mood, maybe.
“Heheh.”
“What?”
“Just remembering. The red gem the Rockward women have passed down — it actually has a kind of funny origin story.”
“Funny story?”
I was interested. She told me.
It started with a woman who’d married into House Rockward.
“When gems were first becoming popular, all the available ones were blank — no Skills recorded yet.”
”…Right.”
I remembered the First learning that later, regretting it.
The way House Walt started — told today, it was a joke story.
“And the ancestor of mine who married in — she had a blank one. But House Rockward already had one too. Nobody knew why she’d brought it.”
When the woman brought the red gem, House Rockward already had one.
Multi-use being an issue, the gem had stayed with the woman.
“That ancestor passed it down through the Rockward women. Along with the failure story from that time.”
“Failure story?”
“Funny — or a touch of sorrow? Before marrying in, that ancestor of mine had someone she loved. She’d paid a huge sum to buy the gem for him.”
A romance, up to here.
But by the flow of the story, the husband and the loved one were different people.
“Doesn’t sound like a story to tease.”
Aria said, here’s where it gets good.
“That ancestor was bad at talking, apparently. Never told him her feelings. And they’d never had a single conversation! She watched him from far off and was satisfied with that. Stupid, right?”
I didn’t know what to say.
Not even being able to call out did seem off — but our First was much the same.
”…Well — that’s, uh, awkward.”
“Right?! Then years went by without her giving it to him, marriage talks came up, she couldn’t refuse. So she at least brought the red gem with her. She even had information that he wanted a red one — and couldn’t speak up. Pathetic, no?”
I started to wonder.
The man she’d loved — I wanted to know.
“What kind of man was he?”
“Not in detail, but lots of young people were going off pioneering back then. He was apparently leading a pioneer corps far from the capital. She bought it to at least convey her feelings, and never delivered it. Bad, right?”
I wondered if — and decided to ask.
I knew similar men were a dime a dozen in that era, but I had to confirm.
“Th-the man’s name. You know it? — Or his look?”
I leaned in. Aria recoiled.
“Look, no… maybe name.”
She hadn’t expected this much interest. She looked a little flustered.
She thought, then said:
“Right… Barj, or Basil, a name like that. He was a knight-rank house’s third son — a cross-station love, apparently. The ancestor was a baron’s daughter; even if she’d spoken up it might not have worked. — Name was Alice.”
“I see…”
The feelings had been mutual.
I felt — unspeakable.
If one of them had spoken… but then I and Aria wouldn’t exist.
The ancestors, who’d been listening, offered opinions.
The Second, brief.
“Tie, those two.”
The Third.
“Honestly — maybe that was fate. Never got the chance to know up to the end… what to say. Characteristically First, you could call it.”
The Fourth, a bit frustrated.
“Sad, sure, but a touch enviable.”
The Fifth, cold.
“No connection between them, that’s all. If there’d been a connection, they’d be together.”
The Sixth.
“Cross-station love rarely makes anyone happy even if it works…”
The Seventh, the same — a little different.
“Depends on circumstances. If this Alice had many sisters, she might have gone with the First on his pioneering. The era had just come out of chaos and wasn’t as strict on station as today. Marrying off a daughter to an independent figure isn’t a bad strategy.”
Court-nobles, unlike rural nobles, couldn’t maintain serious force.
They lived on the crown’s stipend.
Neither was strictly superior, but on that axis, ties to rural nobles mattered.
(They genuinely could have ended up together… right — Aria and me meeting may have been fate, First.)
When I thought that, Aria called.
“What’s the matter? You suddenly look sad… it is sad, but that’s a warning story for Rockward women. Speak your mind properly — though the official line is be appropriate to a martial-house daughter. Beneath, this kind of maiden-trouble story. Funny, right?”
”…Hah. The gap is rough, yeah.”
I wished I’d heard it earlier — but realized hearing it earlier changed nothing.
It was past.
Aria noticed I wasn’t myself.
“Are you really okay? You’ve been weird.”
“No — I’m thinking fate is a real thing.”
“Fate?”
I told her.
“The founder of my family, House Walt… he was named Basil Walt. He tried to become a lord so he could bring the woman he loved home.”
Her eyes went wide.
“E-eh — that’s not—”
“At the time he couldn’t even speak to her. He worked to get land and prepare, planning to bring her home once he was ready.”
A man who, seriously for the sake of one woman, joined a dangerous pioneer corps and cleared forest.
“When he came back, she’d already married. Name was Alice.”
Aria’s face went indescribable.
After a while, she opened her mouth.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what to say. — But if fate is a thing, then maybe us meeting like this is something too.”
She gave a wry smile. I nodded.
“Yeah — hope so.”
I looked away and gazed at the moon.
A clean round moon. If I could have told the First this story… — still slogging through that, a touch pathetic.
I switched my mind. Just the moon.
Words came on their own.
“Tonight’s moon is shining.”
For some reason, Aria went red.
The Fourth.
“He did it. Unconsciously, he did it!!”
The Fifth, baffled.
“What are you yelling about. The moon is shining — what’s wrong with that?”
The Second the same.
“Tonight’s moon is, in fact, shining beautifully.”
The Fourth was getting angry at us.
“Why don’t you get it?! Lyle, you like books, right?! Never read it?! NEVER?!”
I thought they’re loud one last time, said I was going to bed, and went to bed.
(No, the moon is shining — what’s wrong with that? It just is.)
Aria, in turn, started looking at the moon.
(Did Aria want to look too? Well, whatever… sleep.)
“Going to sleep first. Night.”
Without meeting my eyes, she murmured:
“G-good… night…”