— Morning.
Novem, having finished washing the manor’s laundry, had stepped out into the garden.
The basket held a mountain of laundry.
There was the accumulated laundry from while they were away, but the dungeon-run laundry was more than that on its own.
“Lovely weather today… I wonder if Lord Lyle’s all right.”
Going by what she’d seen of him that morning, he wouldn’t be all right.
Novem knew that — but if he himself said he would go, that settled it.
The decision was Lyle’s, in the end. That was how Novem thought of it.
Looking around the garden — weeds and unkempt grass, neglected before they’d left.
Novem looked around once and snapped the fingers of her right hand.
While she set to hanging laundry, the weeds yanked themselves out, the grass straightened neatly, and the cuttings gathered into a single pile.
A matter of seconds.
“I don’t like to use it for this…”
She knew this kind of magic-use was frowned upon, but a manor this size, kept by one person, didn’t leave much time.
Today she intended to keep going — clean the manor, prepare lunch.
“Miranda-san and Shannon-chan are returning today as well, and we’re indebted to them — I’d like to put a little extra into the meal… but I wonder how much reward Lord Lyle will bring back.”
Tilting her head, Novem rested briefly in the garden.
A cat walking along the top of the wall met her eyes.
Novem smiled and stepped closer — and the cat puffed up its fur with a “FSHAAA!!” and bolted in panic.
Novem looked at her extended hand and thought for a moment.
“No good after all, is it.”
She switched gears, reached for the basket — needed to clean the kitchen.
A voice called out.
Shannon.
“Heh — alone, are you.”
Even seeing Shannon with a different air than usual, Novem wasn’t surprised.
“How can I help? I don’t sense Miranda-san’s presence.”
Shannon said:
“She left me behind and went off to the academy. Something about a problem there. — What did your companions do, I wonder.”
Shannon laughed under her breath, eyes — without question — on Novem.
She was seeing — Novem had noticed. But Shannon kept up the pretense of not seeing, so Novem chose to play along and offered to walk her inside.
“It’s dangerous out here, let me show you to your room. — A problem at the academy, you said?”
She considered the possibility something had happened to Lyle.
She could also imagine Damian doing something.
She believed Lyle could pull through, and reached a hand toward Shannon.
Shannon gave her a vulgar smile.
”…You should stop with that smile, Shannon-chan.”
When she warned her, Shannon said:
“I don’t know what’s going on, but Nee-chan’s resisting me hard. I try to reach her heart and I can’t… so. I’ll manipulate you instead. You’re like Lyle’s little doll.”
Lyle’s doll.
Hearing that, Novem thought briefly.
It wasn’t wrong.
She acted for Lyle. She existed for Lyle.
But she also knew it wasn’t a thing one ought to say aloud to a person.
So she warned her.
“You shouldn’t say things like that to people. Let’s go to your room.”
Shannon gripped Novem’s right arm.
A clearly seeing action.
”…Shouldn’t you be more careful? You’ve been keeping up the not-seeing act so well until now.”
Up till now, Shannon had played her blind-act faithfully.
She didn’t make moves this obvious.
(Flustered, perhaps.)
Hearing Miranda had resisted, Novem felt something like impatience in Shannon.
The doll she’d been on the verge of acquiring — being snatched away — had pushed her into uncharacteristic action.
Something of Shannon’s touched Novem.
“Don’t act so composed! You’re my doll now! Weaker than Nee-chan, so a you like you… a you…”
Something wrong with Shannon.
Novem spoke in a gentle tone.
“Please let go, Shannon-chan. Now, let’s go to your room.”
Shannon’s eyes went wide. She looked at Novem.
Released the hand hurriedly, fell backwards onto her seat.
She didn’t look hurt.
She didn’t take her eyes off Novem. Her hands and feet trembled.
“Are you all right?”
When Novem stepped closer, Shannon let out a “Hii!” from her throat and scooted back without breaking position.
“Your clothes will get dirty? Let me wash them — let’s change.”
For Novem, an ordinary motion — for Shannon, in her current state, very much not.
“What… what are you… you’re not human. You — there’s no way you’re human…”
For an instant Novem reacted to the eyes-wide words and stilled.
Then she touched her own expressionless face.
(…Not human. Said again, then.)
A bothersome thing. Even as she thought it, Novem rebuilt her expression.
For the frightened Shannon she struggled for how to speak —
“Shannon-chan, your eyes… they’re very lovely. I thought they were yellow, but right now they look gold. I wonder what kind of world they see. — I’d like to know.”
She already knew that what Shannon saw was different, that she had the ability.
She knew, but Novem had been keeping up the act of not knowing.
Now that Shannon had stopped pretending, she’d tried to play interested. She’d raised the topic, but —
How Shannon would feel hearing that?
She hadn’t thought that through.
“Hii! Don’t come — don’t come close, don’t come close!!”
Shannon screamed, and at Novem’s approach, fainted on the spot.
Novem, watching her —
“This result again…”
Sighed quietly, and stroked Shannon’s hair.
She gathered Shannon up.
A princess-carry.
Then, she felt something approaching the manor at tremendous speed.
“Lord Lyle?”
Novem looked over the wall — and Lyle came flying over it —
“Are you all right, NOVEM!!”
A Skill I’d happened to use.
It had let me sense across a wider area than I’d imagined — and there’d been a red response right next to Novem.
I’d bolted out of the academy and run the Fourth’s [Speed] full out.
I’d vaulted the Sirclay garden wall — and on landing, slid through the pile of pulled weeds at the spot I’d come down on.
A slip-and-roll — like a slide tackle, I’d ended up at Novem’s feet.
I had thoughts about the fall, but I felt the pose I’d struck in front of Novem had been, in its own way, splendid.
”…A-are you all right, Lord Lyle?”
I stood up, brushed myself off.
“Fine. Frightened myself by inventing a new landing form. — More importantly, were you all right, Novem?”
Looking at Shannon in her arms, I figured it had ended without incident.
I asked just in case.
“Yes. She seems to have been a bit startled, that’s all. — And, why are you holding a bug?”
She’d seen the bug clenched in my right hand, and looked puzzled.
I’d spotted it while running and caught it.
I couldn’t very well hit Shannon, so I’d planned to discipline her with the bugs she hated.
“Punishment for Shannon!”
I held out the bug in front of Novem —
“Ow! It bit me!”
It bit my finger; I flung it.
The bug flew off, and Novem laughed.
“W-what’s funny?”
“Because, Lord Lyle… you look just like a boy teasing the girl he likes.”
I swept my hair back.
“A man carries the heart of a boy his whole life. — Well? Falling for me all over again?”
In the Jewel, the sound of tables being struck.
Several of them at once, laughter and table-pounding —
But —
(Hmph — at my current power, however much my ancestors carry on, it’s nothing. The mana welling up in me… truly magnificent.)
I was almost frightened by my own talent, when Novem looked at me and nodded.
“I’ve fallen for you all over again, Lord Lyle. Now — let’s carry Shannon-chan to her room together. — Oh, and the materials and the reward?”
She’d asked about the reward.
“Ah — the maid started saying it was good stuff, so we ended up storing it. The buyer’s price was only slightly over the Guild’s, anyway.”
We could have sold it, but the maid had launched into a lecture on its splendid heft, we’d hit it off, and the conversation had landed at keep it.
Damian liked the activated maid, so as long as we visited periodically, storage was on the house.
The maid had been working an angle.
“Maid? Not the automaton? And the magic?”
“Don’t worry! I was taught the magic [Golem]. — But yes, that maid will get angry. It’s the kind anyone can use but takes talent to use well.”
“Ah — I see.”
Novem accepted that.
The taught [Golem] magic was — in fact — easy.
Easy, but — to put it plainly — hard to use.
You don’t operate it from the doll’s perspective.
You think about how to move it from your own viewpoint, and on top of that, the moment your line of sight is blocked, you have no idea what to do.
To handle it like Damian does — yes, takes talent.
Even for me, two was the limit for simultaneous control.
“Then you did receive the reward. I heard Miranda-san rushed off to the academy — was there something?”
“Oh — you’d heard? The automaton I got as reward became a sensation. Crystallization of ancient tech — whatever. Academy students came to gawk. It’s amazing, you know — she’s like a real human!”
I started gleefully explaining. The Fourth cut in.
“Oi, you bastard. Skip the explanation — how long are you going to make Novem-chan keep holding Shannon-chan? Carry her to her room already, idiot.”
The Third too.
“He’s right. While you’re at it, hold her and give Novem-chan a line.”
Asked for a line, I figured why not, and said to Novem:
“Oh — sorry. I’ll take her.”
“Please do.”
I took Shannon into my arms and, looking at her face, said —
For whatever reason, her eyes had gone white, her mouth was open, and she was drooling.
A pretty girl wasted.
“Hmph… it seems I’m tied to sleeping princesses today.”
But this is where I shine — not letting that waste her.
“Sleeping princess?”
“Yes. Wake them with a kiss. The automaton woke up that way too.”
”…A kiss? Is that so…”
The Sixth chimed in.
“Today’s Lyle has razor-sharp cutting edge!!”
The Seventh:
“This one’s for the ages, Lyle! You — what a guy… yes, more, please.”
The Second was in pain.
“Stop already!! My abs can’t take any more!!”
What were they all making a fuss about.
I entered the manor.
Novem, walking behind —
“Lord Lyle, what do you think of Shannon-chan?”
I said:
“Hm? I think she’s cute. Cute enough to eat. — A pity, though. She isn’t a maiden trapped by a curse, so I can’t very well wake her with a kiss.”
Novem thought for a moment.
”…She seems sturdy of body, doesn’t fall ill, apparently. Her eyes… well — pass. The Walt family blood is in her, but it’s distant — no issue. Understood. I’ll figure something out.”
“Right, leave it to you. — Oh, I left Aria back there. I’ll have to go fetch her.”
“Yes.”
A small laugh from Novem.
A softer impression than usual.
I felt better for it.
(Me — making Novem smile like that… too amazing — frightening!)