Chapter 2:
Story
NOW THEN, where should I start? Ah, I know. It’s important to talk about the relationship between myself and Aisha.
She’s my aunt. Aisha’s mother was a maid for the Greyrat family, you see. I was told the head of the house at the time took her as a mistress, resulting in Aisha’s birth. That said, though Aisha’s mother started as a mistress, she eventually married Paul—the head of the house back then—and became one of his official wives. She was never treated like a mistress.
By the time I was born, Paul had already passed away… His first wife was no longer of sound mind, but that didn’t mean that Aisha’s mom suddenly held all the power in the family or anything.
Hmm, when I say it out loud like this, it’s pretty complicated, huh? Long story short, Aisha was in a complicated position within a complicated family.
There was a period of time when I was unsure of how to interact with her. When I was born, Aisha was there as the maid. She was my aunt, but she was also our family maid. Nevertheless, my father never treated her like a maid. She was his little sister.
Either way, she was there from the day I was born, looking after me long before I knew what was going on. That’s why she was less my aunt or a maid and more like a much older sister. Either that or like a fourth mother, perhaps.
That’s right: a fourth mother.
You see, our family had three mothers. We called them White Mama, Blue Mama, and Red Mama. Named after the color of their hair, of course. My mothers taught me all sorts of things. White Mama taught me knowledge and how to make friends. Blue Mama taught me wisdom and how to study. Red Mama taught me swordplay and how to protect someone. Our three mothers treated and loved us equally, and we never questioned the fact that we had three of them.
But this wasn’t how the nobility in Asura usually took on lovers, so, looking back on it now, it was a pretty unique situation.
Just like my mothers did, Aisha taught me all kinds of things. Well, it was less that she taught me, and more like she helped me experience firsthand the things I didn’t understand about my mothers’ teachings. Now that I think about it, she really was more like a big sister, but she wasn’t my actual big sister.
I have two of those. One is Lucie—Henry, that’s your grandmother. She was always a smart cookie. She followed what our mothers taught her, took school seriously, and acted like a typical big sister. She was constantly telling me to study or exercise. My other big sister is Lara. You might not have ever met her. She was a lazy one back then, let me tell you. She broke the rules, skipped school, and came up with all kinds of tricks for the two of us to play together. We were good friends. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I got yelled at for participating in one of her schemes.
Aisha was nothing like them. She was nothing like my mothers or older sisters. She was a completely unique person. Just herself.
If I asked her, she’d do anything for me. No matter how selfish I got, she’d make it happen, all the while saying, “Gosh, you’re hopeless.” She could be pretty strict with me, but she never scolded me unfairly. Whenever I was sad, she’d hold me in her arms and tell me what to do. No matter how awful I felt, whenever she held me like that, my negative feelings flew out the window.
When I was much younger, there was a time when I thought she was too clingy. But Aisha was always right. Pretty much every time I acted out and did anything other than what she said, I failed. Then she would show up and say, “See? Now do you get it?” Every time, I frowned and nodded my head.
When I was younger, I had the vague feeling I’d live my entire life being protected by Aisha and doing what she said. It felt like the natural thing to do. Looking back on it, it might’ve been a form of brainwashing. Aisha’s style of teaching robbed me of my ability to think, making it seem as though everything would turn out great as long as I did what she said.
I don’t really know if that was intentional on her part… No, I don’t think it was. She was just the sort of person to act in that way. It was one of her few fatal flaws.
Anyway, when I turned ten, my family gave me all sorts of gifts. Among them was a sword, a shinken. Red Mama told me to use it to protect the person dear to me. When I heard that, it was Aisha’s face that came to mind.
I instinctively looked at her. She gazed back at me as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and when our eyes met, she smiled brightly. I remember feeling shy and looking away.
Maybe that was the moment I realized that I loved Aisha, but I didn’t say it out loud back then. It was too embarrassing.
Or maybe it was because my big sister Lara was still really childish, and Lucie had just started to advance her relationship with her childhood friend Clive. I thought romance like that was much further into the future for me.
Even at the time, I had a vague feeling that I was special to her too. It would’ve been impossible not to be drawn together, don’t you think? I mean, maybe Aisha planned for things to go like they did…but even if that was true, I was in love with her. She was my first love, and those were my true feelings.
Isn’t love just a series of mind games at the end of the day? Once I realized how I felt, I moved quickly.
What did I do next?
Ah, I remember. Right, right. This was a little after my tenth birthday. Back then, my father told me something, and… Well, let’s just say I was naive.
I’d gotten a book from Lord Orsted, and it was written in a language I couldn’t read, so I had Aisha read it for me. If I remember correctly, it went something like this…