“So what are you going to do, then? Don’t tell me you’re camping outdoors.”
“Not to worry,” she said, turning with a smile that broke my heart. “I guess I’ll stay at the Adventurers Guild instead. Or maybe the orphanage would be a better place.”
“Don’t.”
“Why not? I’ve stayed there before.”
“The situation is different.”
People were not going to act the same toward a little girl with nowhere else to go as they would toward the granddaughter of one of the most powerful men in town.
“Is there anyone else you know? Like a friend from another rich family?”
“No,” she said sadly. She might have been sweet to me, but to some nasty brat, she would look like a sanctimonious suck-up. Everyone judged others by their own yardstick.
“Then come to our home,” Arwin offered. “We can handle another mouth to feed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course,” she said, glancing in my direction. “I trust you have no complaints?”
“It’s your house.”
I wasn’t paying rent, so I didn’t have any right to argue. We could put her up in an inn, but there was no telling what might happen to her. Some inns were safe, but they also cost more money.
And it wouldn’t cost any money to keep her at our place. At the very least, Arwin wouldn’t accept any. And the guards and Paladins were stationed close by, so it was safer than most places.
However, Arwin and I had our secrets. With a curious young girl around, there was a possibility that a disastrous revelation could occur. Thinking about what I would have to do in that situation churned my bowels. But neither Arwin nor I could leave April out in the cold.
“In that case, let’s get going. You must be tired.”
In just half a day, her grandfather had been arrested, and she’d lost her home. April’s entire life had been turned upside-down, and I was certain she was physically and mentally spent. Arwin had just returned from the dungeon, so she had to be feeling fatigued, too.
As we were about to head home, I felt a strange sensation on my legs. I looked down to see a black-and-white cat rubbing against me. Its ears were black, but white fur covered its face and chin. It was a round and fat little thing, but firm and strong. It was also a bit unsteady on its feet, though. The way it walked suggested it was on the older side.
“Oh, good, you’re safe,” April said, scooping the cat up and scratching its throat. The cat purred contentedly.
“Is this your cat, April?” Arwin asked.
“No, it’s a stray. But sometimes it comes to our door to ask for food.”
It had clearly been a housecat at some point, because it was very friendly.
“Arwin,” I said, “allow me to introduce you to Oliver.”
The old cat in April’s arms meowed softly.
With Arwin’s permission, we took Oliver with us to the house. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of keeping an animal that would cough up hairballs and other things, piss all over the house, and scratch up the walls, but I was concerned about what the old man had said.
April had wanted to keep Oliver as a pet, but the old man hadn’t allowed it. He hates cats, so why did he tell her to “seek out Oliver”? I picked up the cat and examined it for clues, but I didn’t see any particular signs.
“What will we do about your clothes?”
April had been tossed out onto the street, so she didn’t have her wardrobe with her.
“There’s still time for us to go out and buy you some. I’ll pay for them,” said Arwin. They couldn’t get custom-fitted garments, but it was easy enough to buy clothes in standard sizing.
“No, you can’t do that. I still have a bit of money, so I can—”
“Don’t be shy. Think of this as a present from me,” Arwin said generously. “Buy whatever you like. I’ll pick it out for you.”
“Huh?” April and I said together.
Arwin had a unique sense of fashion that was far from typical. April was aware of it, too. She squirmed a little, then looked pleadingly to me.
“Please, Matthew.”
“Say no more.”
The last thing I wanted to do was subject the poor girl to more misery.
Somehow, I managed to talk the princess knight out of selecting bizarre and outlandish designs for April to wear, and we got a proper wardrobe for the girl. Why did she always pick out clothes that made one question the sanity of the designer? The fact that such clothes even existed was the real mystery. Maybe there were more people who shared Arwin’s sensibilities than I imagined. I let April pick her own undergarments.
By the time we got back home, it was evening.
“You go ahead and use my bedroom,” I told her. We had only two beds in the house.
“Huh? Then where will you…oh!”
April came to a realization and suddenly blushed. What was she imagining? The precocious little twerp.
“Exactly. It’s not like Arwin uses it when she’s around, so there’s no problem with—”
Arwin elbowed me in the side and said coldly, “You sleep on the floor.” The bashful creature.
Oliver promptly walked around the house like he owned the place, occasionally stopping to meow. It seemed he had decided this was his home now.
“Well, let’s eat.”
When someone’s hungry, bad thoughts tend to follow. But with a full belly, things start to look up. I went to the kitchen, where April joined me.
“You cook, Matthew?”
“In the castle, the servants prepared dinner.”
“I’ll help you,” April offered.
“Much obliged.”
We stacked up the vegetables from the pantry. There were three of us now, so I’d need to use more than usual.
“Go ahead and slice these veggies.”
“Okay.”
April helped with cooking at the orphanage, so she was used to doing these tasks; she deftly sliced an onion and chopped green peppers. Meanwhile, I heated up a frying pan and put down oil to fry the vegetables. When it was nice and hot, I added some salt and pepper for taste.
“You’re good at this, Matthew. Just like a real chef.”
“You see, there are ranks to being a kept man. The worst of them don’t even cook and force the woman to do all the work, but as you get better, you learn how to surprise her with a feast every now and then.”
“Every now and then?” April repeated. She might be disappointed, but a man who cooked every day was a husband.
“If you ever plan on keeping a man of your own, set your sights high. Don’t settle for the bums. You might like him at first, but you’ll be sick of him soon. A great big oaf of a man lounging around a house, doing nothing? Makes me sick to think about.”
Suddenly, the back of my head hurt.
“Look who’s talking. And don’t fill April’s head with nonsense,” said Arwin, who stood behind me, grumpily wielding a frying pan.
“Also, the kind who use violence are the worst of the worst,” I added. “Never stay with them. And don’t trust them when they come crying and apologizing. They’ll only do the same thing again.”
She hit me a second time. Who was going to teach this naive princess knight that a frying pan was a tool, not a weapon?
April tugged on my sleeve. “Are we going to use this bay leaf, too?”
“For flavor at the end.”
“And the eggplant?”
“Toss it right in.”
I heard a groan over my shoulder, which I ignored. Even the Crimson Princess Knight had her weaknesses. One of them was an aversion to eggplants. For whatever reason, she simply did not like them, despite their delicious flavor.
She probably thought by monitoring the kitchen, she could keep me from using them—but she was wrong.
After frying the eggplant, onion, and green pepper in olive oil and garlic, I added some tomato and spices, then simmered them with wine. It was a summer vegetable stew.
“Are you a picky eater, April?”
“Not really.”
“Very good.”
I wish a certain princess knight would learn from your example.
“…What are your father and mother doing now, Matthew?” asked April curiously.
“Don’t know.”
I hadn’t heard from them since I was sold into slavery at eight. I didn’t know if they were alive or dead. I’d told April this before, which was why she sounded so timid about it.
“Then do you remember what your father’s face looked like?”
“I try not to. Don’t want to start punching things.”
He was the sort of man who chose to get drunk on his own homemade brandy rather than work a real job, and he beat me and my brothers. Before he sold me into slavery, I’d made sure he couldn’t create any new brothers and sisters for me. At least there wouldn’t be any more unfortunate souls to suffer his wrath.