Meanwhile, at the camp on the edge of the forest, the girls who had been denied the chance to go on the hunt were doing their best to cheer up Marion, who was very out of sorts after the matter.
“Cheer up, Lady Marion...” Francesca said, gently stroking Marion’s back.
“Thank you, Lady Francesca. I know. I’d already realized deep down that it would be difficult for a noblewoman to become a knight...” Marion had wanted to be a knight since she was very young. However, as she’d grown older and her dream seemed more achievable, people protested her choices even more strongly than before.
“A girl can’t be a knight! You’re the daughter of a duke!”
“What if you got hurt?”
“What if it left scars?”
“Wouldn’t that harm your prospects for marriage?”
“You don’t have to do a job that puts you in danger.”
Even when she’d gotten permission to go on the field trip, her father had made sure to take a jab at her. “You’re a grown woman. You should understand what’s right and wrong by now.”
“I guess...the dream is over.” Marion sighed, unusually pessimistic.
“I heard knights were into meritocracy, aren’t they, Caitlyn?”
“Why, Lady Marion’s stronger than any of the boys! I just know if she were to take the exam, she’d pass in a heartbeat! Right, Catherine?”
The twins couldn’t understand how the dream could be over when Marion was so strong. Everyone in the school knew Marion could hold her own against any of her male classmates. Any boy who thought she was an easy target because she was a girl would get their butts handed to them easily.
The problem was the knights’ upper brass, who were responsible for picking who among the applicants would become knights. The vast majority of them were people with connections to the Bell family. The captain of the knights was the Bell family patriarch: in other words, Marion’s father. As long as he didn’t want Marion to join, it didn’t matter how strong she was. It was likely he would deliberately choose to keep her out. No matter how many times Marion tried to convince her father, he wouldn’t listen to a word she said. He’d stubbornly rejected her over and over again. Lately, they hadn’t even been able to look each other in the eye, and the awful atmosphere hanging over the manor was making the servants feel like they had to walk on eggshells.
“It’s just...a bit difficult, that’s all. I’m sorry, everyone. You can’t just keep chasing your dreams forever, I suppose...” Marion was seventeen years old, the age where she had to start thinking about marriage. She understood that she had a duty to fulfill as a noblewoman. Yet even now, there was a part of her that simply couldn’t just throw away her dream. Unfortunately, those days seemed to be coming to an end.
Emma reached over to her friend. “Lady Marion. I will always be here to listen. Please don’t say your dreams are over. We can think of how to get you knighted together. You’re still so young. I just think it’s a shame to give up this early.” As Marion gave a feeble smile, Emma squeezed her hand. Marion’s hand was much firmer than hers, far closer to her father’s or her brother George’s. They were the hands of a trained swordswoman. Even just her hands told the story of how hard she’d worked to get this far.
“Lady Emma. I’m already seventeen.” While she appreciated Emma being so considerate, Emma was younger than her, so it served to complicate Marion’s feelings even more. Putting it bluntly, seventeen was too old to still be chasing dreams. She was now of marriageable age. Most of her peers already had fiancés or were already married...and some even already had children of their own. Most noble girls had no dreams other than getting married in the first place, and if her husband wasn’t suitably open-minded enough, it would be impossible to do any kind of outside work. Just looking at the way of the world, it was hard to say that Marion’s dream was realistic at all.
“What do you mean, ‘already’? Lady Marion, you’re not already seventeen. You’re only seventeen! You still have a whole world of possibilities ahead of you!” While Marion could only give a self-derisive smile, Emma was there to shake her head. Emma still had her previous memories, and for her, seventeen was an age where you still couldn’t drink, smoke, vote, or even get a driver’s license. It was far too soon to give up on her dreams; her life was only just getting started.
“Hee hee. That certainly makes me feel a bit better too.” Francesca, who was the same age as Marion, felt a weight lift from her shoulders at the idea that seventeen was still an age with many possibilities. After she’d failed the “baptism” for the firstborn prince, the man who’d been moments away from being her fiancé had refused to seal the deal. She’d had to start completely from scratch to find a new partner, and at her age, she might have to settle for becoming an older man’s second wife.
“You too, Lady Francesca? You’re all so young, you still have the whole world at your fingertips... Besides, it’s not like it’s that important to get marr—”
“Emma?”
“Eek! Mother?!”
Emma was going to say that there are plenty of fun and exciting things one could do without getting married, but then her mother, who was supposed to be inside the tent stewing meat, was suddenly standing behind her.
“What were you about to say, sweetheart?” Melsa’s hearing was scarily good. While she was smiling because she was in front of Emma’s school friends, it looked like the devil incarnate was grinning down upon her.
“Huh?”
“It certainly sounded like you were having a conversation I wouldn’t want to miss.”
“Uh... Er... W-Well...”
“Now, I should hope you’re not trying to say you aren’t going to give me any grandbabies.” Again.
“Eep! I-Is that what it sounded like I was saying? I swear, I didn’t! I-I was, uh...just trying to help cheer up Lady Marion by telling her marria— Eeek!”
I want to tell her that marriage can wait, but the look on mother’s face is so scary...
Melsa’s intimidation was enough to make Emma crack. “Mar... Er, uh...meowage! Yeah! I was telling her about meowage! So she could meet General Kongming!”
“General Kongming?” The twins felt like they’d heard that name before. They both went into thought, then raised their heads at the same time.
“Oh! Wasn’t that the name of Lady Emma’s kitty, Caitlyn?”
“Yes! It’s the name of the little calico kitty cat Lady Emma embroiders onto our class projects, Catherine!”
Whether it was cuff links, handkerchiefs, or place mats, Emma embroidered a lot of cats in class. The twins remembered that Emma would always gleefully tell them that they were the pets she had at home.
“Y-Yeah, sure is, Lady Catherine. I sure was just talking about General Kongming, right, Lady Caitlyn? I mean, there’s nothing better for a sad day than getting a fluffy hug, right? I mean, there’s nothing more healing than soft, fluffy fur, right?!” Emma was desperate to get her mother’s thoughts away from marriage and grandchildren, because otherwise, she was in for a long lecture.
“I-Is that so? Don’t you think showing them Kongming out of the blue would be quite the shock to them?” Melsa was worried the surprise would be far too much for such delicate noble girls.
“It’s okay, mother! I talk about the kitties all the time at school!” Emma chuckled to herself. She’d successfully gotten her mother’s attention away from the whole marriage talk.
“Lady Emma, are you telling us that you brought General Kongming with you to the campgrounds?” Marion’s eyes were sparkling, as she adored fluffy animals.
“Eeee! I wanna pet General Kongming, don’t you, Caitlyn?!”
“Eeee! I wanna pet General Kongming too, Catherine!”
The twins, who were always bundles of curiosity, were starry-eyed with excitement too.
“Oh, but...is it really okay to have brought a cat all the way to these campgrounds?” Francesca, ever the worrywart, knew just how valuable cats were, so she was a bit more hesitant. Cats were very rare in this world, and the cost of even just one was enough to purchase a whole mansion.
“Hmm... You’re right. As much as I’d love to pet a cat, there’s a high chance someone might want to steal your beloved furred family. Lady Emma, you mustn’t trouble yourself so much for my sake. The sentiment is enough for me.” Marion was now growing cautious as well. A cat was precious enough that it wouldn’t be easy to compensate someone if something were to happen to it.
“Not to worry, Lady Marion! It’d be pretty hard to steal our cats! Remember how I said in Embroidery how General Kongming was a bit bigger than other cats?” Emma giggled with a proud grin. You wouldn’t have been able to find a single person in the entire kingdom who would have been capable of stealing Kongming. They’d be felled by a single kitty bap.
“I highly doubt a cat being slightly bigger would be enough to prevent them from being stolen...” Marion warned Emma, knowing that differences in size didn’t change how rare cats were, but Emma was riding on the high of having successfully distracted her mother and called for Kongming, who was napping in the carriage.
“General Kongmiiing! C’mere! I wanna introduce you to my friends!” Though Marion and Francesca were very worried her cat might get stolen and were attempting to dissuade her, Emma had never been very good at reading the room.
“Mrooowr?” A cat’s voice came from inside the carriage.
“Oh, you’ll need to open the door...”
Creeeak.
Francesca realized the door to the carriage was closed and went to open it, thinking a cat wouldn’t be able to open it on her own, the Stewart family carriage started to creak loudly. All four of the girls were confused.
The girls wondered if maybe there was something else in the carriage with the cat, a very large thing that made the carriage creak so loudly. But just as they had the thought, the creature deftly used its front paw to open the door and poke its head out.
“Myah!”
The giant creature let out a cry, then went to Emma’s side and rubbed its giant body against her.
“Mroooowr?”
“General Kongming, these are my friends from school. This is Lady Marion, Lady Francesca, Lady Catherine, and Lady Caitlyn.” Emma introduced them all as Kongming rubbed her cheek against Emma.
“Wha...”
“Myaaah!”
“Kongming said she’s heard a lot about you all from us, and that she’s grateful for you all being my friends!”
“Wha...?”
Just as Emma said Kongming was “grateful,” the giant creature lowered its head in thanks. Or...at least that was what it looked like.
“Wha... Huh?”