“L-Lady Shihono, Lord Endo, please don’t joke around,” Lieselotte said. “We were going to reminisce on the past, were we not?! If I’m not mistaken, the water spell you’re referring to is the one I cast on Fiene, isn’t it?” She was likely trying to change the subject out of embarrassment.
“Yep, and then you and Sieg went on a shopping date to find an apology gift for her!” Lady Kobayashi said with a radiant smile.
Indeed. Lieselotte may remember it as the day she committed a horrible transgression, but the gods and I see it as a sweet memory of her adorable ways.
────
It was May, around the time when the greenery was making more of an impression than the flowers, and the lingering cold of winter was more or less gone.
One day after class, I was walking down a corridor to go to the school library when I heard what sounded like a large quantity of water splashing onto something with great force. A woman’s scream rang out at almost the same time.
“Eeek!”
What happened?
I looked in the direction of the scream and the splash, the source of which wound up being the courtyard. One of my friends, Fiene, was standing there dumbfounded, holding a wand while she was completely drenched in water. Behind her was my fiancée, Lieselotte, also holding a wand and looking stunned. Even though she herself wasn’t wet, she had a much more horrified expression on her face as she looked at the poor soaked girl.
I froze for a few moments as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.
“Hey, what was that noise?!”
The student shouting as he rushed to the scene from behind me was Baldur Riefenstahl, Lieselotte’s cousin and a knight-in-training.
Lieselotte seemed to regain her composure upon seeing her cousin’s face. She straightened her back and announced, rather brazenly, “I splashed water on Fiene.”
“Why would you do that, Liese?!” Baldur asked, approaching her as if he were going to grab her.
She didn’t flinch as she glared back at him.
They were being so hostile that I intervened without thinking. “H-Hey!”
The two extremely loyal Riefenstahls immediately bowed to me, startled.
“At ease. Now, what happened here? Seeing as Miss Fiene and Lieselotte both have their wands out, may I assume they were sparring?”
Baldur’s fury vanished in an instant. If they had been having a mock duel, then Lieselotte had done nothing wrong. He could accept that. Unfortunately...
“No? Why would I be sparring with Miss Fiene? As you can see, there is no referee here either. Miss Fiene is holding her wand because she was practicing magic by herself. Then I surprised her by splashing her with a water spell,” Lieselotte declared, with an air of nonchalance.
“Why would you be so mean?!” Baldur shouted, his deep voice steeped in rage.
“A-Ahhh, please calm down, Sir Bal. I’m sure Lady Lieselotte had a reason for— Achoo!” Fiene, terrified by his threatening attitude, tried to smooth things over, but her sneezing prevented her from speaking properly.
It was still spring, the sun was setting, and she was drenched in water. It was only natural for her to be cold. In fact, she was visibly shivering.
“I’m sorry, Miss Fiene. I should’ve prioritized protecting you,” Baldur said, lowering his head in sincere apology. He took off his robe and put it on Fiene.
Well, “put it on” was a bit of an understatement. Due to the difference in their physiques, it was more like she was being...covered? Wrapped up like a cocoon? At any rate, she probably couldn’t move her arms under its weight.
“Oh! Huh? What are you— Ahhh!”
Baldur picked up the wrapped girl, cradling her in his arms. Her shocked scream was much louder than the one we’d heard a few minutes ago.
“And he goes for the bridal carry without hesitation! That’s Baldur for you! His muscles aren’t just for show!”
“Oh, how exciting! Every maiden in the world dreams of being carried like that!”
Lord Endoh and Lady Kobayashee’s cheerful voices rang out. Apparently the gods had been watching. I let out a sigh of relief. Baldur would be taking care of Fiene, and the gods surely knew the truth behind this incident. I predicted the chaos would settle down soon.
However...
“Wait, stop! Why are you carrying me?! I appreciate you lending me your robe, but I can walk by myself!”
Fiene, who was not relieved and very much still in a state of chaos, squirmed in Baldur’s arms, trying to free herself from his grasp.
“But...” Baldur suddenly grabbed one of Fiene’s ankle boots, took it off, and turned it over with a splash. The reason it made a splash was because it had been full of water. “Are you going to walk in these shoes? I think it’d be pretty uncomfortable. Even if we pretend that isn’t a problem, wet clothes are heavy and stick to the skin. It’d be hard for you to walk in them. Letting me carry you would be faster. I’m also worried that you’d get too cold from walking in the wind,” he explained matter-of-factly as he dumped the water out of her other boot. He didn’t seem to be straining himself. It was probably easy for him to carry someone as light as Fiene.
I did wonder where his sense of shame went, though. I suppose he sees it as rescue work? Perhaps he thinks if he lets her walk on her own, the robe that’s tightly wrapped around her will probably loosen, letting wind in through the gaps?
“Um, maybe, I guess?” Fiene said. “I do think I might end up tracking water all over the place if I walk by myself, and it is warm like this. Well, it’s not just warm because of the robe, your body heat helps. But it’s pretty embarrassing, so I still want you to put me down. Then again, everyone else is acting like nothing’s happening... Am I being overly self-conscious?” Fiene was muttering, looking unconvinced. At this point, she had already curled up into a ball.
To be honest, I thought her reaction was normal. Since the gods had mentioned before they wanted the two of them to grow closer, I had simply been watching with a calm face that suggested nothing unusual was taking place. I didn’t know what my fiancée was thinking, but she wasn’t stopping Baldur either.
“I’d say Bal’s opinion makes more sense. Really, instead of standing around and asking questions, why don’t you hurry up and go inside?” Lieselotte suggested with a nonchalant air. Forget stopping him; she was encouraging him.
Does the Riefenstahl family consider carrying people perfectly normal? Lady Kobayashee did say it was a maiden’s dream. I wonder if that means I should do the same to Lieselotte... I think I’d have to train some more first, though. Yes, I’ll work on that. Should the need ever arise, I want to be able to walk with ease while carrying her.
I didn’t let my inner thoughts show on my face.
“Hmm...well, all right, then. Sorry, Sir Bal, but could you carry me inside?” Fiene finally relented, seemingly won over by the majority opinion of those present.
“Yes, of course.” Baldur gave a satisfied nod. With that settled, he turned around to lower his head to me. “I’m sorry, Your Highness. Due to the urgent situation, I must take my leave with only a short bow.” He then looked at my fiancée. “Liese, I’ll ask you for the details later. Figure out what you’re going to say when you apologize to Miss Fiene.”
He turned and walked away with Fiene in his arms.
“Hmph, I’m not going to make excuses. I already explained it in full just now. I do believe the situation calls for atonement and compensation, not an apology,” Lieselotte said.
Baldur looked back with an angry scowl. However, at that moment, Fiene sneezed thrice in a row, prompting him to prioritize the girl he was carrying. He held back his annoyance and continued to walk.
“Oh, wait, Sir Bal. Instead of going this way, could we stop by the classroom first?” Fiene asked.
“This is the faster route to the dorms. I’ll pick up your things and bring them to you afterwards. You need to get changed first.”
“Yes, but if I’m going to change into my sports uniform, I’ll need to get it from the classroom.”
“Huh? School is over for the day. Why would you change into the school’s sports uniform instead of your regular clothes?”
I heard Fiene and Baldur have that puzzling exchange as they left the courtyard. Their conversation was soon overlaid by the Voices of the Gods, who were speaking much more rapidly than usual.
“All right, Sieg, before you say anything to Liese-tan, listen to what we have to say first,” Lady Kobayashee said. “Liese-tan did splash water on Fiene, but right before that, Fiene lost control of a fire spell and the flame spread to her school uniform skirt. Liese-tan tried to put it out...”
“But since she was panicking, she summoned a big, flashy surge of water,” Lord Endoh continued.
“She was only supposed to extinguish the flame, so she feels pretty ashamed of herself for drenching Fiene from head to toe in her haste. In Lieselotte’s Memoir, she wrote that she deserved to be blamed.”
“She wanted to be punished, which is why she played the villainess just now.”
I see. My fiancée is far too good-natured and awkward.
I nodded to Lord Endoh and Lady Kobayashee, who seemed to have been speaking quickly because they wanted to convey the situation as fast as possible. They sighed and continued, now in a relaxed manner.
“She could’ve just said she was putting out a fire, or at least that she didn’t mean to go that far,” Lady Kobayashee said.
“I respect that she doesn’t make excuses, but Sieg’s the one who’d feel bad if he accused her and found out the truth afterwards,” Lord Endoh said.