Chapter 117: Sir from the Great South
MARIUS
I dreamed.
In my dream, I was a child again. It seemed to be one of those winter mountain training sessions I had to endure. I was alone on the dark, cold mountain, looking for a suitable cave to use as shelter for the night. The trees looked like towering beasts, and the howling sound of the wind, dangerously, masked the actual beasts out in the wild.
With some good luck, I managed to find a cave. I threw a stone inside to awaken whatever was in there, fully prepared to run away at the first opportunity in the not-so-unlikely event that I ended up awakening something actually dangerous.
Instead, from inside the cave, I heard a human voice.
"Yeek!"
Intrigued, but feeling guilty, I could neither peek inside nor run away.
Then I heard footsteps, distinctly human, approaching the cave entrance where I stood.
"Who’s there?"
I knew this voice, for sure, but in my dream I couldn’t really tell. It was as if I knew the voice from my present time, but the child that I was in my dream couldn’t recognize it.
So I just stood there, waiting for the man to come out, foolishly—because I had no reason to—hoping that he was a kind enough person to share the cave with me for the night.
"Oh, there you are!"
The man said as he came out of the cave and saw me.
The boy-me didn’t recognize him, but I knew who it was.
It was Skylark.
"I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t mean to disturb you," I said.
A stupid thing to say for someone who had just, quite deliberately, thrown a rock into the cave.
"It’s okay, kid. What are you doing alone in a place like this so late?"
"I... am training, Sir."
In my dream, Skylark looked so tall compared to the child-me. He seemed kind, welcoming, and reliable.
"Eh? Training?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Well... I don’t know what kind of training it could be, but a child certainly shouldn’t be spending the night alone in the wild in such weather! Come in!"
With that, he took me inside.
There were many curves and paths that forked inside the cave—to the extent that I wondered how I had even managed to hit Skylark—so he led me deeper inside while holding my hand. His hand felt big and warm.
Reassuring.
"Here we are. Make yourself comfortable," he said once we reached a spot where he had set up a little fire.
"Is it really okay, Sir?"
"Sure! Make yourself at home!"
After that, we sat by the fire. He asked me many things, like how I had ended up alone on the mountain—again. But I somehow felt like I shouldn’t tell him the whole truth, that Father made me do this and Mother didn’t seem interested in stopping him, and neither did I particularly think that this was too much for a child. Skylark was getting a little shocked and seemed to feel sorry for me, though, and kept saying this was no way to treat a kid.
Nevertheless, he told me stories.
He told me stories of the Great South, where potatoes were double the size of those grown elsewhere in the Empire, where giant fish swam in the river, and where travelers from outside the Empire visited frequently and people held festivals throughout the year.
I wished that I could go to the Great South as well someday—that I was going to grow up to be an adventurer and see all these wonderful things with my own eyes, and that my training now, which should toughen me up, would not be in vain.
Skylark continued to tell me about his life in the Great South, in this village called Erdville, his loving parents, friends, and—
As he told me all this, the little child-me in the dream began to feel sleepy, sinking into slumber and then eventually falling asleep, leaning against his shoulder.
Then I woke up.
’What kind of dream was that?’
I asked myself, shaking my head, in my bed in the Academy’s dormitory.
I thought about the night before.
Fireworks.
That’s right.
I watched fireworks with Skylark.
We lay on the ground holding ha—
I shook my head again.
I got out of bed, left my room, then headed toward the common room. It seemed too early for breakfast, so I thought I’d make myself some strong tea to get my head in the right place before the full day started again.
Then I saw the boy—no, the man—standing there, humming, making tea for himself.
"Oh, good morning, Mario!"
He turned to greet me as he heard me enter the room.
"Good... Good morning, Sir."
"Eh? Sir?"
I felt so stupid.
"I meant Skylark."
"Hah! You must still be dreaming!"
I was.
Or more like, I was living the dream.
"Why are you up so early?" I asked him.
"It’s the second day of the festival! There are still so many things that I want to do," he said enthusiastically.
"I suppose."
"Will you be busy again today?" he asked me.
"Probably not as much as yesterday," I said.
"Oh, cool! Then let’s go around and check out the festival together!"
Skylark’s happy face now overlapped with the face I had seen in my dream.
Why does he look so small now? He was so big in my dream.
"I suppose we could do that."
"Heh, that’s great!"
After that, he handed me a cup of tea. We sat at the table and drank, not talking much. But Skylark was humming the whole time and seemed to be in a particularly good mood. Skylark also suggested that we skip breakfast at the dormitory and visit Thomas’s cooking stall again to grab some beef patty buns, which made me think of the previous day and how the Second Consort seemed to be really enjoying them. Apparently, Skylark had eaten an obscene amount of them too and wasn’t sick of them yet. Despite having visited the stall, I hadn’t tried one, so I agreed to his suggestion.
When we arrived at the stall in the main festival area, we found that we were still a little early. The cooking club members were still preparing their first batch of food for the day. Skylark then spotted Thomas grilling the beef patties and said he wanted to go help him out. I wasn’t completely sure whether I should join in, so I opted to stay out of it for the time being.
It was then, when I was alone for a moment, that someone tapped me on the shoulder.
"Marius."
I turned to find a blond lady in a rather shabby dress standing in front of me.
She didn’t seem to be any noble from the Capital.
Some peasant who had heard about the festival at the Royal Knights Academy and come to visit?
"Yes, Ma’am. How may I help you?"
I asked, wondering how she even knew my name.
"It’s me," she said.
I studied her face again, trying to see if I could recognize her. There was a very vague familiarity about her eyes, but other than that, I had no idea.
"The Second Consort. Although I hate that title," she said.
It was only then that it clicked—the lady in front of me was, indeed, Her Imperial Highness.
"I’m terribly sorry, Your Imperial—"
"Shhhh! Don’t say it out loud!" She put a hand over my mouth, literally.
I was shocked and didn’t know what to do.
"I didn’t disguise myself for no reason, you know?" she said, smiling.
"Your—"
"I said don’t!"
"Then how—how may I address Your Im—"
"Maria."
"I couldn’t possibly—"
"It’s an order from Your Imperial Whatever. Call me Maria. For today."
"Yes, Ma’am."
Seeing that there was no way I was actually going to call her by her name, she sighed and just accepted that this was the best I could do.
"How may I help you?" I asked again. Her being in disguise didn’t change the fact that she was the Second Consort whom I had to serve.
"I want to see the festival today. Not as anyone special, but just as a regular visitor."
"Certainly, Ma’am."
"Would you be so kind as to show me around?"
Her eyes were glittering.
I couldn’t say no.
For many reasons.
"Yes."
"Thank you so much!"
With that, she held her hand up in front of me. I had no idea what she meant by that, so I stood there, dumbfounded.
Then Skylark turned up, looked at me, looked at her, then raised his hand to high-five the Second Consort.
"Hi!" Skylark said to her.
"Oh, hi!" the Second Consort greeted Skylark excitedly.
"My name is Leo. Are you Mario’s friend?" Skylark asked.
"No, we just met," the Second Consort answered, not quite able to lie outright to Skylark.
"Ah, I see. Would you like some buns? I got one because I helped them out. It will still take some time before they are ready to sell them," Skylark said.
"That’s very nice of you. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!"
"It’s beef, though," Skylark joked, ripped the beef patty bun in half, and handed one half over to the Second Consort.
"Dig in!" he said, and the two started chomping on the food.
What in the world is happening...?