She paused before quietly following up with an apology. “Okay, then. I’m sorry, Hisui.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it,” I gently reassured her. Cosmos was physically much weaker even than me; the lack of nutrition from having nothing but bread for her meals had clearly taken its toll. I didn’t want her to overexert herself, given that she was mere skin and bones. Father would never allow her to come with me anyway—he must have thought it was safer to limit contact with the ill to just one person.
Considering illnesses tend to have an incubation period, though, even if I visited her alone it was entirely possible I might still contract Armeria’s illness and spread it to others before anyone realized I had it. But in this entire past year, no one in the family had shown any symptoms of the disease afflicting Armeria, so I was pretty certain it wasn’t an airborne illness.
Or maybe there just weren’t enough nutrients in my body to sustain bacteria.
At any rate, I still had to bring Armeria her breakfast. I hurriedly finished my piece of bread and stood up from my seat. Flashing a tender smile at Azalea and Cosmos, who were clearly worried, I grabbed a piece of bread for Armeria and headed to her room.
The nasty smiles plastered on Glenn’s and Mikhail’s faces never faded even as I left, even though their own family was suffering.
☆
I left the dining room and headed upstairs. Armeria’s room was at the end of the hall on the second floor. I softly rapped on her door a couple times, and a feminine, soprano voice issued from the room in response.
“Yes?”
“It’s me, Armeria. I brought you breakfast. Can I come in?”
“Oh my, Hisui? Please do.”
“Sorry for barging in like this.” Having received permission, I turned the doorknob and entered her room. Much like my own, Armeria’s room was bare-bones—its main (and only) remarkable feature was a bed, on which lay a pretty girl with blonde hair and amber-colored eyes. She studied me, cleverness apparent in the depths of her gaze, until she finally spoke.
“Good morning, Hisui. I do apologize—you always have to bring me food like this.” Her tone was polite and delicate.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal. Can you eat?” I asked.
“I can. One can’t live without eating, after all. Even a single piece of bread is an invaluable treasure to each and every one of us. Wouldn’t you agree?” She pulled herself up into a sitting position and quietly giggled. Just like Cosmos, she was all skin and bones—and her illness had made her malnourishment all the more pronounced.
“Yeah, I do. So you really need to eat up, especially since you’re so sick.”
She giggled again, but only briefly. “Thank you. Rather than me, though, you should be the one enjoying the bread.”
“I’m pretty sure we talked about that already, Armeria.” I tried to keep the exasperation from my voice, but I’m not entirely sure I managed it. On one occasion when I’d brought her breakfast, she told me: “I wish you and Cosmos would eat this bread instead. It’d help you two live just a little longer, and besides...it’s wasted on me, seeing as I don’t even know if I’ll live to see tomorrow.”
It was the first time I’d ever snapped at her. Just as she wanted us to survive, we all hoped she would live too, so she’d dropped her usual habit of being self-deprecating. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I’d heard her say something like that in a long time.
“I know, I know,” Armeria said. “I won’t tell you to live in my stead. But I really don’t know how much longer my body will last...” She’d scarcely finished her sentence when she fell into a coughing fit. Clutching her chest, she curled up in agony.
Rubbing her back as she lay wracked with pain, I tried to offer words of comfort as well as I could manage. “Maybe they’ll find a cure someday. You can’t give up, Armeria! If we save up, go to the royal capital, and see a healer, I’m sure they could cure you...”
Honestly, that was a far-off future I wasn’t confident would ever come to pass. There was no guarantee she’d even survive until then, but I wanted to give her hope. I wanted her to smile, even if it was only for a little while.
“Heh heh. You’re right. I mustn’t stay negative about these things forever. Let’s talk about something else then, since you’ve come to visit me after all.”
To change the topic and keep the conversation going, I encouraged her to continue. “What do you want to talk about?”
Armeria brightened up as soon as I asked, and launched into a fairly involved discussion concerning a book about the Clematis lands. The book had once been in father’s study, so it must’ve been a difficult read. Puffing up her chest out in pride, she showed off the depth of her knowledge with a self-satisfied smile. Her confidence was wholly deserved, though—she truly was the brightest person in our entire family. She was only ten years old, but the extent of her knowledge and analytical abilities even put adults to shame.
Precocious as she was, she loved to show off her knowledge. She was the super nerdy type who could talk for ages about a topic that enthralled her, and I listened to her nearly every day. It was the least I could do—lending an ear was my only way of supporting her. Hanging onto her every word, I couldn’t help but notice the way her eyes sparkled merrily as she discussed her opinions and hypotheses. Reflecting on my own thoughts, I planned the rest of my morning under her joyful glow.
☆
Once Armeria had exhausted her list of things to talk about, I left the manor and headed for the outskirts of the forest. This wasn’t a choice I made frivolously—I’d been secretly sneaking out there regularly for my strength-building regime and long-distance runs. I’d give Glenn and Mikhail the beating they deserve one of these days, and to do that, I needed to bulk up.
That wasn’t the only reason, of course—farmwork required physical strength, after all. Whenever I had some free time between working the fields, I’d run into the forest to see if I could find something to eat. The Clematis lands were still untouched by industry, so the forest was bursting with fruit. I’d even found several varieties of herbs that seemed likely to have medicinal uses.
Collecting the bounty of the forest was my daily bread and butter. I had no choice, seeing as my energy would never last if I chose not to go—but of course, the forest was fraught with danger. If I ran into a monster, I’d likely be killed on the spot, seeing as I wasn’t capable of fighting. But since I’d die anyway if I didn’t get enough to eat, the risk of encountering monsters did little to deter me. Besides, with Azalea thinning their ranks on our lands, I’d never seen hide nor hair of one.
So I went about my morning, resolutely searching for fruits and nuts as I worked on building up my body. I was determined to find enough for Cosmos and Armeria too, knowing they were starving.
At times, I ran. At times, I walked. And at other times, I rested. As I repeated this cycle, an hour passed, then two, and the day gradually reached its peak brightness. It was probably about time for lunch now. Slowly and steadily, the day had grown warmer.
Wiping copious amounts of sweat from my face with the ragged cloth I kept on me as a handkerchief, I sat down on a tree root. Looking down at the armful of food I’d managed to gather, I broke into a smile.
“Wow, I really found a lot today. I guess the edge of the forest is getting barren now, though, so I’ll have to go deeper into the woods,” I mused to myself. But going any farther into the forest meant there was a higher risk of encountering monsters. As I sat debating whether I should head deeper, I suddenly heard a voice.
“Oh, what do we have here? There’s a wee child in this forest.”
I gasped in astonishment. What was that just now? I’d heard a feminine voice, but it came from above. There’s no way, I thought, as I looked upward. There, my eyes were met by a woman with light-pink hair...and she was floating.
“What the—?!” I was so shocked that I couldn’t form a cohesive sentence. My mouth flapped open and closed, but no sound came out. All I managed to do was point at the woman with a trembling finger.
The woman’s eyes opened wide when she realized I was gazing at her. Putting a hand to her mouth in surprise, she spoke. “How is this possible? Can you...actually see me?”
Reflexively, I nodded emphatically in response. When I did, the pink-haired woman shouted without an iota of restraint.
“Whaaat?!” Her shrill voice echoed through the surrounding area. “But how? How can you see me?” She alighted, bending her knees to crouch next to me, and stared unblinkingly into my face.
“U-Um, who...are you?” I finally managed to squeeze some words out through my shock.
But the woman didn’t seem to hear me. Instead, she continued her own rapid-fire questions. “You can hear me, and...feel me?! Why? How!” The mysterious woman squished and tugged at my cheeks as she repeated her questions at an uncontrolled volume. I was terribly confused, but it was clear she was just as confused herself.