Volume 5 - CH 3.06

If it was true, Bettina should have finished helping the Crown Prince in the morning and then helped with the moving work in the workshop from the afternoon; however, Bettina didn’t show up at the workshop somehow.

「……」

When Quique returned home, Bettina had already come home and was shutting herself in her own room in the attic without even eating dinner. Although he called out to her several times, her responses were poor. However, only sighs could be heard faintly.

「—Good grief」

Quique also breathed a big sigh as if to compete with her and started the maintenance of Bachururus, which was placed on the work table of his home.

Originally, Quique giving Bachururus to Bettina—to test the fruits of his own research was a matter of course—was to make Bettina be confident. It was an armour prepared for the girl who wanted to be needed by someone and be useful to someone and yet wasn’t very good at facing people directly.

Bettina’s world had certainly expanded because of this armour. But at the same time, this might also become the cause of her getting her feelings hurt again. Bettina was actually deeply worried even now.

Quique, who had generally finished the maintenance, put a pot on the oven and warmed the green pea soup up. Although they had started living here together for more than five years, Bettina’s speciality was eating, and she could hardly cook. On the contrary, Quique was skilful at cooking because he left his parents’ home and had been living alone from an early age. It might be because Quique could do all the housework to a certain extent by himself that he couldn’t get married easily.

Quique filled a wooden tureen with thick soup, put white breads that were lightly toasted with the fire of the oven into a basket, placed them on a tray and then went up the narrow stairs.

「…Bettina?」

Even though there were other empty rooms, Bettina had been living in this room in the attic, saying that the low ceiling calmed her down. Quique suddenly showed up in the attic and observed his niece’s state.

「Oji-sama」

Without even lighting a fire in the lamp, Bettina was sitting on her bed and looking up at the moon through the square skylight, where a part of the roof was cut out.

「Why do I not have magic talent?」

That murmur didn’t seem to be lamenting or resenting the reality where that wasn’t the case; if one had to say, it sounded like it was filled with resignation that was untypical of a thirteen-year-old child.

「Why, you say, that’s because you—」

For the tall and thin Quique, the ceiling of this attic was too low. Quique placed the tray on the floor and sat down on the stairs.

「That sort of talent is something you’re born with… so you can only consider yourself to be unlucky. But why are you asking such a thing again?」

「That’s because if I have magic talent, I might be able to become a Dominas」

「That’s also a dream-like story. The possibility certainly isn’t zero though—」

「Even if becoming a Dominas is impossible, I should be able to help Oji-sama a bit more. If not, even if I don’t have talent, if I’ve been born in the house of a noble at least, then—」

「This is a serious illness…」

Anyone would probably say idle complaints like envying other people’s circumstances, but at the very least, this was the first time that Bettina said such a thing.

「—Eat them before they get cold, all right?」

Leaving these words behind like that, Quique went down the stairs. Naturally, Bettina didn’t reply.

「…I give up」

As expected, Bettina—just imagining it was a discourteous matter—might be harbouring feelings beyond her position towards the handsome Crown Prince Isaac, judging from her murmurs just now. If she could become acquainted with distinguished people, it might somehow be helpful when she left Quique’s side in the future and became independent; thinking so, he recommended Bettina to be Valeria’s attendant, but it backfired this time.

Quique sat down on a chair placed in front of the oven and lit a fire in the kiseru. Today’s tobacco was a high-class item produced in Brabant, which Bettina had brought back yesterday, saying that she received it from Isaac.

However, perhaps it was because he wasn’t used to such a luxury item, or perhaps it was due to his current mental state, he didn’t feel that it was great at all. Quique simply inhaled and exhaled the bitter smoke aimlessly and silently listened to the sound of the firewood in the oven popping.

「……」

Quique actually wanted to ask Dimitar what was Bettina like when she went out on a mission—and what could he interpret from Bettina’s attitude towards Isaac. If it was that boy, and if it became the development that Quique feared, he probably would have seen through it already.

But unfortunately, Dimitar hadn’t come back to the capital yet. That made Quique’s mood even more gloomy.