Chapter Eighty-Eight: Flashback to a Girl Named Sai Cutrettola
I blinked open my eyes. This is…the sky above Centoria?
The next thing I knew, my body was drawn like a magnet toward a carriage. Inside were two people who set off a whirlwind of nostalgic emotion in my heart. Father… Mother…! Next to them sat a small girl in a black dress.
The moment I realized the child was me, Sai Cutrettola, I was sucked into the scenery of the past.
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THE Cutrettola lands located near the border of the Orient Empire were a remote backwater far from the royal capital. Thus, the journey between the two places was lengthy—the Cutrettola family had already endured four days in the carriage after receiving the summons from the Order demanding their presence in the capital. Yet Sai, the couple’s only daughter, displayed not even a shred of exhaustion on her face as she stared out the window for the entire trip.
Sae Cutrettola was a woman with raven eyes and long black hair swept into an updo. “What should we do with our girl…?” she wondered in an undertone.
Dyth Cutrettola, on the other hand, had umber eyes and ruffled brown hair with a slight curl. “Well, Sai has nothing to do with the summons,” he said, “but I brought her along because it’ll be a good opportunity for her to experience the royal capital.”
They were Sai’s parents and the governors of the Cutrettola demesne—though the latter designation was more decorative.
“There’s a library, right?” Sai asked. “While you do adult talk, I want to go to the library!”
The parents glanced at each other.
Dyth was the first to speak up. “Sai, I know that you can already read difficult books for adults, but… Will the library staff believe that such a young child is already that literate?” he questioned his wife.
Sae thinned her lips. “That might be a struggle.”
“Booooks!” Sai insisted.
“Okay, okay.” Dyth smiled. “How about this? We can go read together later on.”
Sae nodded. “In that case, I’ll give you some homework. Listen well.”
“What might it be?” Sai said in a stern voice as she straightened her back like a soldier. The two adults traded grins.
Sae retied her daughter’s crooked ribbon as she relayed her task. “Inside the fort walls that surround the royal palace, there are a lot of places. Embassies, libraries, the barracks for the Order of Holy Knights, the courthouse, dining halls, and so on.”
Sai blinked her big innocent eyes. “Lots of places…”
“Today, I want you to go around and greet the gate guards in all kinds of places. Then, memorize what kinds of buildings there are and tell us when we come back. Look at the clothes that people are wearing, and at the work they are doing too, but don’t disturb them. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes.”
Hearing the “homework” his wife assigned their child, Dyth inclined his head somewhat. “Is that really okay? Couldn’t she get lost or be seen as suspicious if she does that by herself? That won’t happen…right?”
“Oh, our girl is fine. She knows to introduce herself as the Wagtail Priestess and can even use her magic to produce a deafening sound like a keychain alarm. Within the fort walls at least, she should be safe. I’ll also keep an eye on her mana signature so that she doesn’t get too far away.”
“Keychain…alarm?” Dyth raised an eyebrow. “I swear, sometimes you come up with the weirdest words in the world.”
“Hee-hee-hee-hee.” Sae laughed, glossing over the matter.
The carriage gradually slowed to a stop.
Sae nodded to her child. “Okay then, have fun!”
“I will! Father, Mother, take care!” Sai sprinted off alone.
For a while, the couple gazed after her from behind. Then the softness faded from the faces of the peaceful parents, replaced by grim determination.
“For the sake of her smile…we can’t join the Order no matter what happens,” Sae whispered.
“Let’s resist to the end, Sae.” Dyth hugged his wife’s slender shoulders.
Sae closed her eyes in silence before pressing her cheek against his chest. “Yes…let’s do everything we can.”
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IT was Sai’s first time in the capital.
Trimmed grass was everywhere. She saw knights in incomparably shiny armor. Maids clutched their skirts as they bustled about to complete their work. Countless carriages came and went through the streets. She noted noblewomen with entourages of attendants and watched gentlemen wearing vibrant clothing the likes of which she had never seen.
As a girl from the countryside, Sai found it all marvelous. The varied range of attitudes passerby had toward her as she walked around was also intriguing. Some frowned in disapproval, others appeared bewildered, and many smiled. Unlike in her hometown, however, no one spoke to her. In the village, she probably would have been swarmed by curious people in seconds.
She spotted a dark alley lined with many small buildings. The street was in a blind spot from the main thoroughfare. She turned onto it. The first place she stopped was a washhouse. In the corner of the establishment, she noticed an elderly washerwoman massaging her fingers.
Sai ran over, her tiny feet tapping lightly on the ground. She halted abruptly, and before the woman could meet her eyes, she straightened her back and curtsied.
“Oh my, who do we have here? A young noble girl?” the woman asked.
“My name is Sai Cutrettola,” the girl reported. “Good day, madam. Does your hand hurt?”
“…Your father and mother will scold you for coming to a place like this. You should go back.”
“It is okay! They will not get mad. They told me to go around and greet people.” Sai beamed at the woman.
The woman looked taken aback. “That’s… I really don’t think they mean people of my status…”
“More importantly. Madam, may I touch your hands? They look like they hurt, and I was worried.”
“Are…you sure? My hands are dirty.”
Sai tilted her head quizzically. She understood the washerwoman’s individual words but not their meaning. Although the daughter of a governor, she had still been raised in a rural village, not to mention the fact that she was the current Wagtail Priestess. She often got muddy because of farmwork and even sometimes helped clean medicine containers with wet rags. To her, a washerwoman was essentially a clean and tidy grandma.
With her small hands, Sai gently lifted the washerwoman’s bigger ones. Decades of work had worn down the woman’s aching joints. Even medicine can’t cure this… It’s a pain that will hurt forever, she thought.
Sai recalled all the knowledge her mother had taught her and started to think. She looked up at the stunned washerwoman. “Madam, I am Sai. Sorry for the sudden request, but may I know your name?”
The woman blinked. “S..ai, you said? That’s quite an unusual name… I’m Aria.”
“Madam Aria, okay…” Sai took a deep breath. “Madam Aria, your hands are so warm, so nice, as if a heated towel is wrapped around them, and the pain flies away.”
A warm light enveloped the woman’s hands, and color returned to her pale fingertips. Her perplexed expression morphed into shock. “Wow, that was amazing! You know how to use magic, young miss?”
“Yep! Ah, no, I mean… Yes, madam!”
“Thank you very much.” The woman paused. “If you are this good at magic, you might end up marrying a Holy Knight one day.”
“I will not marry a Holy Knight. I want to marry a doctor like my father!” chirped Sai merrily.
The washerwoman’s eyes widened in realization. As if nothing had happened, she softly kneaded the young girl’s hands with a kind smile. “Ah, I see. In that case, you need to hide your powers carefully so that you don’t end up marrying a Holy Knight.”
“I will!” Sai nodded obediently before bidding farewell to Aria and returning to her exploration.
In truth, Sai knew that she shouldn’t heal people. Her mother was stricter than anyone else about Sai’s magic usage, and she would give her daughter an earful.
But Sai didn’t understand. What was so wrong about helping someone in pain? If possible, Sai thought it best that no one suffer. At the same time, she didn’t want to make her mother mad. Therefore, she had decided to heal people in secret where her mother couldn’t see her.
Sai cast her eyes down and muttered, “I need to live properly as the Wagtail Priestess. I need to, or else I…”
A chill ran down her spine. Ever since her abilities as the Wagtail Priestess had awoken, Sai’s nights had been plagued by nightmares.