Volume 5 - CH 3.10

Afterwards, Bettina finished helping Isaac, and then she came back to the workshop while really skipping this time and humming a tune.

「Oji-sama~?」

Bettina looked into the mailbox and called out to her uncle.

Bettina and Quique passed most of the day in this workshop. Hence, letters were delivered not to their house but here; however, inside the mailbox which she had opened were only letters and memoranda related to Quique’s work, and there was no sign of a letter addressed to Bettina that was delivered from her parents’ home.

「……」

Closing the mailbox with a click, Bettina entered the workshop silently.

Perhaps he had some things to do, there was no figure of Quique in the workshop. Instead, Dimitar was sitting on a barrel at the back of the workshop under the eaves and sharpening his sword.

「Dimi-san!」

「Your voice is too loud」

It should have been less than ten days that they hadn’t met, and yet those extremely cold words of his felt nostalgic for some reason, and Bettina hurriedly went out through the back door.

「I heard that Valeria-sama and Dimi-san left to guard the queen, but you’re so heartless! Couldn’t you have said a few words to me?!」

「Are you an idiot? There’s no way that we could thoughtlessly tell people that we were going out for a top-secret mission, right? Our Eminence also kept this secret from that troublesome father of hers, and even I left the capital without disclosing it to Lucius too. If you have any complaints, tell them to His Majesty who had given us the top-secret mission」

Dimitar, who had put the long sword on the whetstone and was sharpening it lightly, twisted his neck and glanced inside the workshop through the window.

「…The chief engineer hasn’t come back yet?」

「That seems to be the case」

「You weren’t together?」

「I was requested by Isaac-sama to pull a cart」

「A cart? What’s that?」

Dimitar let out a tiny smile as if he had lost interest and stroked the nape of his neck.

「Huh? Come to think of it, Dimi-san is the queen’s guard, right? But I heard that the queen is returning tomorrow though…」

「It’s because of that matter that only I came back first. Her Highness the Queen has already entered the inn for today, and she should be resting leisurely about this time. Our Eminence as well」

「So early?」

Bettina held both hands over the slits of the visor and looked up at the afternoon sun. It was also because the days were becoming longer recently, but omitting that, it was probably an early period of time to cut a day’s journey short and enter an inn. There should still be at least three more hours until the sun set and the gates of the town closed.

「A fast horse from the Minister for Home Affairs came and told us to adjust the time」

「Adjust the time?」

「It’s about holding a garden party to receive Her Highness the Queen tomorrow, and we were requested to arrive at the venue at such and such time without fail. In short, he doesn’t want us to come back too early. After all, it won’t look good enough to be shown publicly if we come back before the preparations are completed」

「Ah, that’s it! I moved flowers because of the preparations for that」

「You were made to help too, huh. I’m also troubled by the whims of the higher-ups」

Dimitar kept the sword in the scabbard and sighed.

「I have to rush to Camuñas-kyou’s place to work out the detailed arrangements and then return to the inn, where Her Highness the Queen is, again after this」

「Huh, you went out of your way to drop by here even though you’re so busy; does that mean that you have some important business with Oji-sama?」

「Though it’s not urgent, it’s slightly about Jagielka. —More importantly, you’re somewhat strange, you know?」

「Pardon?」

「It’s this kind of feeling」

Saying so, Dimitar looked down at Bettina and drew a wavy line with large fluctuations with his fingertip.

「—Just when you came back with noisy skips, you looked into the mailbox and became depressed, and then you were in high spirits as soon as you saw me; you’re mentally strange a little」

「Huh? I’m not strange in particular…」

「Are you not?」

「……」

「It doesn’t matter if you aren’t. I’m also busy, after all」

When Dimitar said so and stood up, Bettina reflexively extended her arm and grabbed the hem of the young man’s shirt.

「U, um!」

「What?」

「M, may I ask you something…?」

「If you feel the urge to urinate, you don’t need to inform me. Go quickly」

「I, it’s not like that—」

Bettina didn’t know whether it was all right to consult Dimitar about this sort of matter or not. If she was going to consult with someone, it’d be easier to talk with Valeria who was of the same sex, but Valeria wasn’t here, and perhaps even if she explained her own situation, it didn’t seem that she’d be able to receive any advice from her. If one were to say who could judge this and that objectively, it went without saying that it’d be Dimitar.

「…Did Dimi-san hear anything about the reason why I’m living together with Oji-sama?」

「No, I have no interest in it in particular. .…Well, I did think it was unnatural though」

「Unnatural?」

「Unlike me whose parents have passed away, both of your parents are alive and well, right? Despite this, you’re not living with your parents but your uncle. That can’t be called natural」

Dimitar folded his arms and sat down on the barrel again. Bettina squatted down next to him and looked up at the blue sky together with him.

「My mother… she’s sick」

「Sick? What kind of illness is it?」

「I don’t know… it seemed that her body had been weak since long ago… but she has a mental illness now. She left this town to recuperate because of that. It has been many years already」

「That’s distressing」

It was typical of Dimitar to not say any consoling words imprudently. If he had strangely said kind words to her, Bettina surely would have cried.

「I wrote a letter to my mother to tell her that I had received a decoration from Isaac-sama, but her reply never come」

「Why? Is her health so poor that she can’t even read a letter?」

「That’s wrong. …Surely even now, a daughter like me probably doesn’t exist in my mother’s heart」

「—」

When Bettina secretly looked up inside her visor, she could tell that Dimitar was looking down at her and knitting his brows.

「—When I was three, my younger sister was born. At that time, is it called puerperal fever; my mother ran a high fever and was hovering between life and death… and though she recovered somehow, she was only concerned about my younger sister who was just born and seldom cared about me any more after that」

「That’s distressing too」

「That’s, well… still good. However, that younger sister of mine died abruptly when she just became two years old—it was at that time that my mother fell ill」

Bettina’s mother continued to cry because of the deep grief, and she continued to cry until she lost consciousness, and when she finally woke up, she had completely forgotten about her other daughter. Although Bettina, who was only five years old, was living in the same house, she was treated as non-existent by her biological mother.

Bettina sniffled and cast her eyes downwards.

「Even though I’m right beside her, my mother wouldn’t look at me. She’d always hold the doll given to my younger sister in her arms and murmured memories of my dead younger sister only… to my mother, her own daughter was just my dead younger sister, and she was sad and sorrowful that the only daughter of hers had died—」

「I see」

Before one knew it, Dimitar had turned his gaze away from Bettina and was looking up at the sky. Bettina raised her visor with a clank during that opportunity and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief.

「Ojii-sama and Obaa-sama looked after me, but because it wasn’t good for my mother and me like this, my father took my mother with him and moved to the countryside—」

「You didn’t meet her even once after that?」

「No…」

Shutting her visor with a snap again, Bettina cried quietly.