Someone with a slightly unusual personality, but an exceptionally brilliant genius, you might say?
While I was listening to Jayden talk, Sylvienne checked the clock and quietly stepped back.
“I have other business to attend to. I’ll take my leave now. Please, enjoy your conversation.”
She bowed with movements that had not a trace of excess, then slipped out of the room like the wind. I bowed lightly to her retreating back as well, then turned my attention back to Jayden.
“How nice, getting a letter from your brother. Have you read it yet?”
“No, not yet! But I already decided what to write back.”
“Really? Already?”
Unlike me, puzzled by this, Jayden’s eyes were sparkling. He seemed to have so many things he wanted to tell his brother right away.
I didn’t know he had this side to him.
How cute. Was exchanging letters with his brother really that wonderful?
When I smiled warmly, Jayden puffed out his chest with a triumphant look.
“Actually, I already wrote it all out! I just gave it to Sylvienne to send to him.”
Hm? Wouldn’t that mean they weren’t really exchanging letters at all, just firing off letters at each other without waiting for a reply?
I wondered if any real conversation was happening between the two, but seeing him this excited, I decided it didn’t much matter either way.
“Young Lord Noah will be so pleased, getting your letter.”
“Maybe! It’s been a while since I wrote such a long one!”
Jayden giggled. What on earth had he written to be this excited?
A small curiosity stirred in me, but before I could even ask, Jayden scrunched his eyes mischievously.
“What it says is a secret, even from Viola!”
A few days later.
At the Academy, where the empire’s brightest gathered to study together.
Sitting on the sofa in the dormitory lounge, Noah Asheln frowned at the letter that had come from his younger brother.
“…What is this?”
For some reason, he was having an unusually hard time making sense of the letter today.
What on earth was this supposed to mean?
His brother Jayden’s letters always tended to just say whatever was on his mind rather than actually answer anything, but Noah had never particularly minded that until now.
After all, he did much the same thing himself, writing only whatever he pleased.
The subject of the letter he’d sent this time had been “Reflections on the Ecology of Hyperplastic-Horned Mutant Oryctes Rhinoceros Beetles.”
He hadn’t given the slightest thought to the recipient’s taste, but it was, in its own way, a scholarly letter written with great care.
But the reply had come back unusually quickly, and—
Did he even read my letter?
There wasn’t a single line about the rhinoceros beetles in Jayden’s letter, not a thought, not a question. Instead, it was filled with a name he’d never seen before.
Noah looked down at the letter again.
[Viola says I’m not going to be sick anymore at all! As long as I take my medicine properly! I’m so glad I met Viola.
You know, brother. Viola’s hair is soft like cotton candy and her face is so, so pretty… you know?
She’s so kind-hearted too, she never even gets mad at me. Isn’t this exactly what you’d call an angel? You think so too, don’t you, brother?]
Reading the sentence at the end asking for his agreement, Noah’s brows drew together.
No, how am I supposed to agree about someone I’ve never even seen?
Being the top student he’d always been at the Academy, Noah calmly worked to grasp the situation.
It was rambling, but summarizing it roughly, it seemed they’d finally found a treatment for Jayden’s Tamutar disease.
That much was cause for celebration, at least. That an illness thought incurable was showing improvement—there was no way such a miracle wasn’t welcome.
But Noah still couldn’t smooth out the crease in his brow.
Because the single most fundamental question remained unresolved.
No, but seriously.
Who on earth is Viola?
However many times he read the letter from start to finish, all it contained was praise and nonsensical adoration for Viola.
There wasn’t a shred of explanation for who she actually was, what her status was, or where she’d come from.
She surely hadn’t sprung up out of the ground or fallen from the sky.
So this is how theories of spontaneous generation came about.
For the first time in his life, Noah found himself able to understand, if only a little, the mindset of the ancient scholars who’d argued that life could arise spontaneously.
What does she even do? Not only has she completely enchanted Jayden, she’s turned him into a fool…
He was grateful she’d cured his only brother, but to think she’d disarmed that boy so completely—a boy who’d always put up walls and acted prickly with everyone else.
She was clearly no ordinary person. Noah snapped the letter shut and got up from his seat.
“I suppose I’ll have to head back to the residence the moment this break starts.”
He’d developed a scholarly curiosity about just what sort of person she was.
Since the treatment began, Jayden’s condition had improved to a degree hardly believable for such a short period of taking the medicine.
It was thanks not only to the main treatment—the medicine combining gamjong herb and spikeleaf—but also to several supplementary treatments.
“Young Master, how are you feeling today?”
“Great! Lately my body doesn’t hurt at all when I sleep!”
“Wonderful! That’s thanks to you taking your medicine so diligently, Young Master.”
I was carefully recording Jayden’s condition on the report I held when—
Jayden, beside me, looked up at me with bright, earnest eyes.
“Viola, Viola.”
“Yes? What is it?”
That sparkling look seemed to be hoping for something from me, however I looked at it…
Sure enough, Jayden carefully voiced his wish.
“Can I start learning swordsmanship again? Please? Now that I’m healthy.”
It had barely been any time at all since his condition had eased, and already he wanted to go back to sword training.
Just what you’d expect from a small human bursting with energy.
But… unfortunately, my answer had already been decided.
“No.”
“What? Why!”
“It’s still a little too soon.”
Tch. Jayden pushed out his lips, upset. He even looked up at me pleadingly again with those cat-like eyes.
Still not happening!
“Your condition looks stable right now, but we need to keep watching it for about three more weeks.”
Since medicine was forcibly suppressing his dragon’s power, putting excessive strain on his body was dangerous.
“Then can I do it in three weeks?”
“If you keep taking your medicine properly, maybe some light training? Of course, we’ll have to see how you’re doing then.”
At even that somewhat positive answer, Jayden’s expression relaxed. So cute. His feelings were written all over his face.
“By the way, Young Master, do you like swordsmanship?”
“Yeah, yeah! Because you get strong if you do swordsmanship. You know what, I’m going to grow up fast and become really strong! I’ll protect Viola too, once I’m grown up!”
What an admirable thing to say, for a six-year-old. I gave him a warm smile, and Jayden added hastily:
“Oh, but swordsmanship itself is great, but the lessons are kind of not great. My instructor’s a little scary… I mean, not!”
Jayden, who had been chirping away like a little chick, suddenly clapped a hand over his own mouth, startled. Seeming to hate having shown any weakness, he added, as if to make excuses:
“D-don’t get the wrong idea! He’s definitely not scary! He’s just strict… But my instructor’s really strong!”
“Really?”
“Yeah, yeah! He’s our house’s Knight Commander! Oh, but he’s probably weaker than His Grace the Duke…”
“Then wouldn’t it be better to learn swordsmanship from His Grace instead?”
Children usually looked up to whoever was strongest, after all.
“His Grace is, um… I-I don’t know!”
As if the very thought sent a shiver down his spine, Jayden trembled all over for a moment.
Hmm. I made a small sound of thought. I knew Jayden was quite afraid of Cain, but to be this frightened just from mentioning him…
This won’t do, as it is.
Children needed a guardian. Not simply as a legal matter, but as a matter of trust.
For a tender sprout to grow, it needed a great tree to shield it from the wind and rain.
Looking awkward, Jayden hurriedly changed the subject.
“M-more importantly! The weather’s been nice lately! Once I’m a little better, I’d love to go outside and stuff.”
“Go outside… you say?”
An idea came to me. I smiled slyly, without Jayden noticing.
