With that, Lady Roxy fled. I was worried. Had I said something out of line? But Lady Aisha smiled at me pleasantly.
“It would seem Roxy is tired from your long journey,” she said. “She’s certainly kept busy with her duties in the kingdom. But please don’t worry. I’m sure after a rest she’ll be back to her usual self.”
“I hope so…”
Lady Roxy’s abrupt exit had left me stranded. Fortunately, Lady Aisha was a talented conversationalist, and she told me all about the various work presently involved in developing new varieties of grape, as well as stories of Lady Roxy as a young girl.
“That really happened?” I asked after one such tale.
“Yes, indeed,” said Lady Aisha. “When she was young, Roxy was every bit the crybaby. She sobbed even at the sight of a tiny little insect. It’s nigh unbelievable to think that little girl grew up to be the holy knight she is now.”
A flash of sadness crossed Lady Aisha’s face. She’d recently lost her beloved husband, and the burden of his responsibilities had fallen on the shoulders of their daughter’s shoulders. Lady Aisha had to be worried, so I plucked up my courage to speak.
“Lady Roxy is a truly admirable holy knight,” I said. “The citizens of Seifort gladly place their trust in her, and I believe she’ll carry out her duties as head of the Hart family with greatest honor.”
“Is that so…? I’m relieved, then. Thank you, Fate.”
There were tears in Lady Aisha’s eyes. Losing the head of the family had been a great wound for the Harts, and I had the feeling it still wasn’t healed.
Our teatime concluded on this melancholy note as the maids who had lingered in the corner of the room came forward to inform Lady Aisha that it was time for her rest. Her health was at the foremost of their responsibilities. I thanked the lady for the tea, and because I had nothing else to do with my time, I decided to explore the estate. I asked a maid whether I could go for a walk on the grounds, and she requested only that I not get lost.
“Don’t worry, I won’t go far,” I said. Then I passed her the black sword Greed for safekeeping, and I headed out of the mansion.
***
The Hart estate’s vineyards were vast, and their sweet scent tickled deep in my nose. There was a breathtaking contrast between the blue sky and green-covered lands. I wandered as villagers in the vineyards worked earnestly at the harvest. They looked incredibly busy.
I remembered then that Lady Roxy and I would take part in the grape picking the following day, together with the people of the estate. I’d never picked grapes before, and I didn’t know the particulars. If I went into it without any preparation and did a poor job, I would shame my master. This might be a good chance to do a practice run. Swallowing my fear, I approached the grape pickers.
“Hello, there,” I said. “My name’s Fate Graphite, and I’m a new servant of the Hart family. Would you mind teaching me how to pick grapes?”
There was a long silence.
Uh oh. Did I just put my foot in my mouth? Is this not allowed?
“Oh ho! Are you saying you’ll give us a hand?” one of them asked. “We could use the help! You Hart family servants are all so conscientious!”
The men and women stopped working for a moment and gathered around. They kindly showed me the proper way to pick the grapes, and where to take those I harvested. As I should have expected of people living on the Hart estate, everyone was kind and friendly. Soon enough, I realized I had been working like a packhorse right up until sunset. Still, nobody stopped, so there was no chance for me to slip away unnoticed.
As I took a short break at the edge of the field, villagers came up to me, offering freshly squeezed grape juice.
“You really did us a big favor! Here, drink this, it’ll help wash away the weariness of work!”
“Thank you.”
They weren’t joking. The sweet grape juice expanded in my mouth with just a touch of acidity, easing my exhaustion. I’d never drunk anything like it.
“This is incredible,” I said.
The villagers laughed.
“We know! We’re very proud of it. In the past, we weren’t able to harvest nearly this much.”
“Is that so?”
“It is. The old head of the Hart family, gods rest his soul, he put everything into developing the land. He called in experts from other territories, and all the villagers came together to learn from them. It’s a bit nostalgic to think back on. Anyway, that’s the reason we’ve got these vineyards now.”
The men and women fell into sadness for a moment, drinking their grape juice as though nursing their hearts with wine.
“Anyway, how’s Lady Roxy doing? We’ve been worried ever since the news of her father’s passing in Galia. She’s a kind one, that girl, and surely her heart must be hurting.”
“It was a shock for her, I’m sure,” I said, “but Lady Roxy is strong. She performs her duties for the kingdom flawlessly, and I’m sure she’ll be fine. She’ll rise above this loss.”
I tried my best to tell the villagers what I felt in my heart. Everyone looked surprised by my earnestness, but their faces quickly brightened as they poured more juice into my cup.
“Wait,” I said. “I-I can’t drink this much!”
“You’ll be fine! Drink up, boy! Drink!”
I indulged in a little more time with the warmth of their conversation and hospitality before heading back to the Hart family mansion.
The setting sun was at my back, and as I walked back toward the main house, I noticed an unfamiliar young girl walking through the field toward me. She had messy white hair and tan skin. It was clear she wasn’t from these parts—that much was evident from the giant axe she carried on her shoulder. Not the sort of thing you expected to see a young girl lugging around! And her body was covered in white markings, perhaps tattoos? They struck me as ritualistic, somehow, or ceremonial.
The girl drew to a stop by my side, her face entirely expressionless.
“Hey. You,” she said in a sweet, childlike voice.
When she turned to face me, her eyes were so red I almost couldn’t hold her gaze. I’d seen such eyes before, but… How was that possible? I used Identify to check, but…
What? That’s weird… I can’t see anything. This has never happened before. Why?
“Hey. Are you listening?” The girl’s voice cut through my thoughts. In contrast to her meek appearance, she held herself like a person of terrible strength. Her cool eyes seemed to glare at me.
“Do you want something from me?” I asked.
“No… It’s nothing. It seems I’m still too early.”
“What?”
The girl ignored my questions; it was like she was having a one-sided conversation.
“I came here to hunt kobolds, but you can have them. That’s one you owe me,” she said.
“Wait—what?”
“We’ll meet again. Bye.”
The conversation was over as quickly as it started, and the girl left.
Who was that…?
Her red eyes were identical to my own when my Gluttony was starving. My heart rate picked up, beating ever faster. Is that girl like me? If she is, shouldn’t I chase her down and stop her?
I stared after the girl as she faded into the setting sun, until I heard a voice call me from behind.
I turned to find Lady Roxy. “I’ve been searching all over for you, Fay. What happened? You look worried.”
“Oh, really? Ha ha…ha.”
I smiled and pushed my worries away. Whatever this was, it was my problem, and it had nothing to do with Lady Roxy. She was the one person I didn’t want to know about red eyes and soul-eating skills. I would ask Greed later instead.
Lady Roxy’s head tilted slightly, and her curious gaze followed my own toward the girl in the distance.
“What’s a Galian doing here?” she asked, surprised.
“Galian? You mean, she’s…”
Monsters were out of control
on the continent of Galia, where they ran rampant. But the story went that, long ago, a country of unparalleled martial prowess had thrived there. That country’s people, known as Galians, were a race with hair as white as snow and healthy tanned skin. For reasons not entirely clear, they’d perished following a sharp increase in monsters in the area.
The Galian civilization’s few remaining survivors had joined other races, and over the following generations, pureblooded Galians faded out of existence.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen anybody of Galian descent who still retains so many of their unique characteristics. Do you know her, Fay?”
“No, she just stopped to talk to me for a moment.”
“I see…”
We stood there for a time, watching the girl until she vanished over the horizon.
“It’s a mysterious world out there,” Lady Roxy said, smiling. “What have you been doing, Fay?”
“I asked the people of the estate to teach me how to pick grapes… And then they kind of roped me into helping them out all day.”
Lady Roxy giggled. “Is that so? Well, I hope you didn’t overdo it. We’ve still got tomorrow ahead of us, too. Come, let’s return to the mansion, shall we?”
Chapter 16:
To Pluck and to Eat
U PON OUR RETURN to the Hart family’s mansion, we found everyone busy with dinner preparations. I asked the maids what I could do to help but was promptly rejected. Instead, the maids pointed to my muddy clothes and told me to take a bath.
I was a mess, which was only natural, considering I’d worked hard harvesting grapes all day. A lovely maid named Maya led me to the servants’ bathing quarters. The small bath was just large enough for one person. The warm water flowing from it smelled different from the fresh water I was used to.
“Wait,” I said. “Is this…?”
“It’s a hot spring,” Maya said, giggling. “A few sources are located across the Hart estate. The bathwater’s drawn from one such location. It’s a perk of being a servant of the family here.”
“It’s amazing. So this is one of those hot springs everyone talks about.”
I’d never seen a hot-spring bath in my life. I scooped up some water in my hand.
“It’s transparent, yet there’s a kind of weight to it. A thickness.”
“That’s right,” said Maya. “The water’s good for your skin, and your dirty body will sparkle once you bathe in it. Put your clothes in the basket there, and I’ll leave your change of clothes here.”
“Thank you very much.”
Once Maya had taught me the workings of the bath, she left, and I quickly stripped off my clothes.
Hm?
I realized the door to the bath was slightly ajar, and behind it was Maya, peeking into the bathroom with a smile.
“Can I help you?!” I asked.
“Shall I wash your back for you?”
“I…I’ll be fine, thank you! I can do it myself!” I cried, flinching in surprise.
A bored look crossed Maya’s otherwise sweet-faced features and she closed the door.
What a shock… Perhaps she was just being thoughtful?
In any case, I was glad the servants here could make jokes. This estate had the same warm, considerate atmosphere I felt at Hart Manor in Seifort. I washed the mud and dirt from my body and entered the bathtub.
Wow… This feels like coming back to life.
The temperature was just right, and it enveloped my body. I melted away, wishing I could live at the mansion like a family member, all while knowing that was a pipe dream…
***
After my bath, I headed to the dining room to help with dinner preparations only to find they were already finished. I stopped one maid and asked what I could do to help, but she told me not to worry. It was like she was treating me as a guest Lady Roxy had brought to the mansion. As a Hart family servant, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
Finally, a maid approached me with a message.
“Lady Roxy has called for you. Please head to the large room at the end of the hall.”
“Understood.”
I went where I was told and found a massive door, which I opened. Inside was a dining table spilling over with an incredible variety of beautiful foods. Lady Roxy sat at the end of the table, alone. In the corner stood a line of maids, ready to serve at any moment.
Ah, I see. So it’s like that, huh?
Without missing a beat, I joined the maids. Even if they treated me as a guest, I was still Lady Roxy’s servant, and my role was to serve my master. This was a chance to demonstrate the skills I had acquired at the manor in Seifort! It didn’t matter whether my task was pouring wine or serving soup, I’d be on it in a flash. The time had come to show my true skill as a servant of the family!
Then Lady Roxy pointed to the seat to her right. “Fate, you sit here. Not over there, here.”
“Eh?!”
Is that…even okay?
Nervously, I glanced at the line of maids. In one synchronous movement, they all pointed at the empty seat to Lady Roxy’s right. The gesture spoke for them: Sit, dummy!
I surrendered and took the empty seat, but I couldn’t relax. This was unprecedented; at the manor in the kingdom, I always ate with the other servants. Here I was, for the first time ever, having dinner in a spacious, luxurious hall, surrounded by maids. Sure, I knew table manners, but as a server, not a diner. I couldn’t believe this was happening. My head whirled as Lady Roxy, who looked pleased with herself, leaned over and spoke to me.
“You don’t have to mind your manners here,” she said. “You eat just the way you like.”
“Is that all right?!”
“I know your appetite, Fay, and worrying about your table manners is only going to slow you down.”
It was true, I was ravenous, so I took a slice of bread and placed it in my mouth. The luxurious fat of butter spread and filled my cheeks. It was exquisite! I began stuffing myself with bread as a maid arrived to top my glass with wine. Perhaps she was worried I’d need something to wash down all the bread…or perhaps I was eating too quickly? I emptied the wine glass in a single gulp.
“Wow, this is delicious,” I said.
“I’m so happy to hear you like it. But you haven’t touched a thing aside from the bread, Fay.”
“Oh, really?”
Next, I ate a river-fish sauté Lady Roxy recommended. It was savory, rich, and flaked like a dream. In fact, this whole meal was like a dream, and yet one thing bothered me.
“Lady Roxy,” I said, “I see Lady Aisha is absent.”
Lady Roxy sighed. “It’s always like this. Whenever I come home, she gets all excited and rushes out to greet me, but it’s so exhausting she spends the rest of the day in bed.” Realizing I had stopped eating, she smiled. “It’s nothing for you to worry about, Fay. Like I said, it’s always like this. She’ll be fine come tomorrow.”
I got the feeling Lady Roxy wasn’t being entirely honest. If I touched her hand, I could read her true thoughts with Telepathy, and I wanted to know. However, as I was about to reach out, I reconsidered. What could I even do for her with that private knowledge? I retracted my fingers.
“Well, let’s not let this food go to waste,” Lady Roxy said. “I’m counting on you to take care of my mother’s share, too. So eat up!”
“Even with my appetite, all this might be a little too much for me.”
“I said, eat up!”
Lady Roxy seemed to find the act of feeding me amusing. She put plate after plate in front of me, and my stomach ballooned to its very limits, grumbling audibly. I had never in my life consumed so much food.
Eventually, Roxy’s fun-filled feeding frenzy came to an end, and Maya showed me to my guest room.
“I’m grateful you came,” she said on the way. “It’s been too long since we’ve seen Lady Roxy look so alive.”
Given all the hardships in Lady Roxy’s life—her father’s sudden death in battle, her mother’s illnes
s, and her demanding new duties in the kingdom—the maids were fretting about her return and whether she was in good health. Seeing her delight for themselves was a powerful relief.
“Rest well, Fate,” Maya said.
“Thank you,” I said. “Goodnight.”
I bowed politely to Maya and closed the door. My first day of work on the estate as a Hart family servant had ended without issue. It was time for my other job. I reached out and grasped what Maya brought to my room for me earlier: the black sword Greed.
“Well, well, someone looks happy. You big softie. Better get your game face on if you don’t want to end up as dinner for kobolds.”
“From what I’ve heard, kobolds are a level up from goblins, but nothing crazy. With my current stats, they shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Pride goeth before the fall, my friend. But you did your research, didn’t you?”
“I did. Thoroughly.”
During the day, while helping the people of the estate with grape picking, I had casually brought up kobolds. They were dangerous monsters that wrecked farmlands and attacked villagers at whim, so they were well-known to all.
Every year, the kobolds moved from a ravine to the north down to the estate. Just yesterday, someone had scouted the ravine and discovered a kobold group on the hunt. When I remarked on how dangerous it was to search such a place, a villager said it was actually quite safe, because the wind traveled from north to south. As long as you were careful, the kobolds wouldn’t pick up your scent.
The people of the estate had spent years dealing with damage and loss wrought by kobolds. I suspected they were even more knowledgeable than seasoned adventurers when it came to these particular monsters.
With Greed in hand, I waited for midnight.
“It’s time,” he said.
“Let’s go.”
I padded out of the Hart mansion into a cloudless night. The moon shone full-faced on the ground below, the perfect conditions for a night hunt. I proceeded north up a narrow mountain path.
“Hey, Greed,” I said. “I met a strange Galian today. A girl. She had the same eyes I do when Gluttony is starving.”
Berserk of Gluttony (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Page 12
