Bonus Story 3:
Misunderstanding
(Claire François)
“SO THE THING IS…Rae and I got into a fight.”
“Oh my. How unusual.”
Some time had passed since the Bauer Kingdom’s revolution. I sat across from Lene in a restaurant meant for ordinary citizens, not nobles. The building had been damaged by the eruption of Mt. Sassal, but Lene’s business—Frater—had financed its restoration. The interior was tidy, and the chairs and tables—also supplied by Frater—were all neatly arranged.
Frater mainly operated in the Alpes, but they were thinking of expanding business to Bauer as part of the restoration efforts. For both moral and financial reasons, it sounded like a good plan and a wise move on Lene’s part. She was staying in Bauer for the time being to help with restoration efforts.
As for me, I lost my status of nobility and was rendered a common citizen. Or at least, common enough. People seemed to celebrate me as one of the key figures of the revolution for some reason. That aside, I worked behind the scenes with the new government to draft their new constitution, acted as a middleman between citizens and government, and was kept overall quite busy these days.
Rae made herself useful in her own way. Being a dual-caster with high aptitude in earth and water magic, she was often called upon to help with restoration efforts. Her earth magic could be used to remove volcanic ash and rock, as well as restore buildings; and her water magic was crucial for healing the wounded. These days, she was often seen running this way and that around the capital with a mana potion in hand.
As a result of our new busy lives, Rae and I hadn’t had much time to spend together. We’d made our feelings clear to one another and were planning to have a wedding ceremony one day with people from our inner circle present, but as one would expect, not being able to see each other much had put some strain on our relationship. Things wouldn’t be so bad if we talked it out, but instead, we were both pretending not to be stressed out by the situation. This caused us to misunderstand one another, each believing the other didn’t care about spending time together…until things hit a boiling point three days ago.
“I can see you getting cranky, but it’s quite a surprise to hear even Rae got like that,” Lene said.
“Excuse me? I do not get cranky.”
“If you say so. You can be rather blunt when expressing your qualms, though.”
“That’s not… Well… Okay, I suppose you’re right.” She had me there. I was not one to mince my words, and that was a fact. There weren’t many who understood me as well as Lene. Perhaps Rae and my father, but that was it.
“On the other hand, Rae isn’t one to openly show how she feels,” Lene said. “The way she expresses her affection for you may make her seem unreserved, but I get the impression that’s all calculated.”
“Really?” I said, uncertain. It was my opinion that her fawning over me was made to look calculated to hide how much she truly adored me, as strange as that sounded. But I did agree on Rae not being one to openly show her true self. “But what happened this time is all Rae’s fault! I heard from Lilly herself that Rae gave her her first, if you’d believe it.”
“Whaaaaaaat?!” Naturally, this news came as a surprise to Lene. She and I were both on the conservative side when it came to sexual mores. Personally, I believed one only ever gave their first experience to the one they married. “Is that true?” Lene asked. “I mean, I find that a little hard to believe…”
“I asked Rae and she denied it. But do you really think that Lilly would lie?”
“Erm, well… I don’t really know Miss Lilly myself, so I can’t comment there.”
Come to think of it, Lene and Lilly had only met at what was to be my public execution, and that was when Lilly was Alter too. They were hardly acquainted.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I do not think Lilly is someone who would lie. She’s a pious follower of the Spiritual Church,” I said. The Spiritual Church forbade deceit, and it was hard to think Lilly would break its tenets.
“But Rae denied the claim, right?” Lene asked.
“She tried to, yes.”
“Then don’t you think there might be some misunderstanding in play?”
“Do you really think so? You said yourself moments ago that Rae was a woman who liked to keep secrets, didn’t you?”
“That wasn’t quite how I put it…” Lene frowned, unconvinced.
“Lene, I am not angry that Rae didn’t keep her chastity. I could find it in me to forgive her for sleeping with Lilly. But I cannot forgive her for keeping me in the dark and lying about it. Such behavior is unacceptable.”
“All right, I understand how you feel on the matter. Anyone would be hurt if their significant other lied to them.”
Rae once told me she came from another world. That being the case, it wouldn’t be strange for her values regarding sex mores to be different from mine. I was willing to overlook some of her more eccentric beliefs—after all, it wasn’t even all that uncommon for nobles to have to make compromises to respect the culture of foreign dignitaries. But I could not overlook her lying about her actions.
“That being said, I still think there’s some misunderstanding at play here,” Lene said. “But let’s keep things moving along for now. As things stand, what do you want to do, Miss Claire?”
“…I’d like to make up with her, I suppose,” I muttered in a tiny voice. “I got angry at her because of what the lie was about, but I do think I overreacted. If she, of all people, lied to me, then she must have had a good reason. Or maybe she just didn’t want to hurt me.”
I loathed lies, but as someone who was intimately familiar with the politics of noble society, I knew that lying could be necessary at times. The fact that Rae felt she needed to lie about her fidelity did hurt me, but now that I was calmer, I understood she might not have had any ill intent.
“Are you going to apologize, then?” Lene asked.
“I already did. But she didn’t accept my apology.”
“Huh? Wait, Rae didn’t accept your apology?” she said incredulously. I expected such a reaction.
It was crude to sing one’s own praises, but Rae was—beyond any doubt—head over heels for me. We’d had arguments before, but Rae was almost always the one to fold first, and she always accepted my apologies. And yet, she’d been cross with me for the past three days.
At first, I was livid she would dare take such an attitude when she had been the unfaithful one. But by the second day, I realized she meant it. We’d never been this distant with each other for more than a day. On day three, my worry peaked, and I hurriedly made Lene take time out of her busy schedule to talk with me. That brought us to the present moment.
“What do I do, Lene? What if Rae leaves me?”
“That’ll never happen, don’t worry.”
“But—”
“Not even if hell were to freeze over and pigs were to fly,” she asserted. “Miss Claire, I understand you’re worried, but this is Rae we’re talking about. Do you really think she would leave you? After all the devotion she’s shown you?”
“…No.” I knew better than anyone how deep Rae’s love and loyalty ran. Even if she had made a slip in judgment with Lilly, I doubted she would ever forsake me. “But then why won’t she forgive me?”
“That, I don’t know. But, well…”
“Yes? Do you have an idea or something?”
“I suppose you could call it that…” Lene thoughtfully closed her eyes, her expression shifting as she tried to recall something. Eventually, she opened her eyes and said, “There is this one thing I’ve heard from Rae that you could try.”
“What is it? Tell me.”
“It’s a bit difficult for me to fully grasp, but apparently it’s the highest form of respect one can show a significant other.”
“That’s perfect! You simply must tell me what this is, Lene!” I felt elated, like I was seeing storm clouds give way to rays of sunshine.
Lene frowned and said, “Oh, I don’t know… This might be a bit too much for you.”
“Nonsense. If it means Rae and I can make amends, then I’m willing to do anything.”
“…If you say so. So, it’s a little something like this…” She drew close for some reason, then whispered in my ear.
“Whaaaat?!”
Her suggestion was nonsensical—no, downright lunacy! And yet…