PAGE 7. My Friend, My—

[To the excellent liar

To deceive a teacher with writing—what remarkable talent.

I’ve said it many times. I like what you write, and what looks good to me will look good to others too.

My eye isn’t so terrible that it would confuse copper with gold. Right, Sha? Just this once, even if you think ‘no,’ please say ‘yes.’

If you knew how much I love your sentences, you wouldn’t have done the cruel thing of only telling me what you wrote without showing me the result.

Sha, even if you don’t trust my eye, will you trust my sincerity? I hope the next letter envelope will be thick. Thick enough to leave a stinging mark on my forehead.

You’d refuse, but I wish your writing could be read by more people. I don’t mean become a writer of the century right away. I hear that in slightly larger cities, people buy and read multiple newspapers—there are hardly any in Kasoche, and even when they come in, they’re days old—but novels and poems are sometimes published in those pages.

They also accept reader submissions. If newspapers feel burdensome, there are monthly or quarterly magazines too, and it wouldn’t hurt to try sending something? Though I am a bit worried about your wrist having to write pieces that fit the required length.

Think about it positively.

Writing and books are no longer symbols of wealth and power. Thanks to that, I living in the mountains and you living on an island can read the same books and share our thoughts.

I’m glad to be born now. Of course, if I were a bit greedier and this was an era where such distances didn’t matter at all, that would be even better.

Even when we’re in different places, it feels like we’re together.

Will such a day come? If I told my brother, he’d sneer saying it’s a futile delusion, but if I told grandmother, she might nod quite seriously. She’s someone who says the world changes surprisingly quickly.

If you become an excellent writer—purely hypothetical—would I become an assistant beside you, bringing tea and writing replies to the invitations pouring in for you?

Playing the role of elegantly refusing with ‘The writer is busy right now. Please come back next time.’ Wearing a monocle with a silver chain hanging down, dressed in a well-fitted vest, asking ‘Shall I pour you more tea?’

Then you’d rebuke me saying ‘The tea keeps getting more bitter. Are you brewing it while dozing?’ Oh, to hear unpleasant words even in imagination. What imagination I have!

If you were to scold me, it wouldn’t be over something like tea at least. Unless I spilled tea on a manuscript you’d written all night—if you could stay sane past midnight—or confused drafts to keep with ones to discard and used them as kindling.

Isn’t it fun?

I can picture you chuckling while saying ‘That’s ridiculous.’ I don’t know what you look like, but I feel like I can hear light laughter like air softly escaping near my ear.

Today our whole family gathered for a meal. Including my older brother from the capital.

My brother who usually only came during summer vacation came at such an odd time! Everyone was puzzled. It wasn’t even a very long vacation, just ten days.

It must have been difficult to get time off as a low-ranking guard, but ten days meant he had to ride frantically to reach Kasoche and return to the capital again.

As expected, my second brother used the horsemanship he’d honed during academy days to cross treacherous mountains. How exhausted his beloved horse—named Spotty—looked when he barely arrived in the village!

After appearing like the wind, what he said was, ‘I’m getting married soon!’ Not ‘planning to’ but ‘am getting married.’¹

That’s basically an announcement, right? Not just me, but even mom, who usually says ‘you handle it yourself’ about most things, scolded him saying ‘How can you announce such a major matter like you’re quitting your job?’ Though I think giving up a royal guard position is also a major matter.

Anyway, my brother said he’d already submitted the marriage contract—second shock there—and the wedding ceremony would be held in the capital in two weeks with just the two of them—third shock there.

Still, since it was marriage, he felt he should come tell us face to face, so he rushed here.

Good heavens!

Both of them find wedding ceremonies bothersome, so they plan to keep the ceremony very simple. He said the other party had severed ties with their family.

She was a royal servant who he’d grown familiar with from seeing her every time he went to and from work. He’d never lived thinking he lacked anything—I felt envious there. He always tells me I’m the carefree youngest, but I think the truly carefree one is my second brother—but the moment he saw her, he felt something was missing.

My brother persistently courted her—when it was just the two of us, he said he won her over with his face and thigh muscles—and she completely fell for him. My brother expressed it as ‘she let herself fall.’

Sha, people become blind when they fall in love, I guess. You asked if they become bothersome, but not everyone seems to be that way. Rather, my brother swept away all the ‘incredibly bothersome things’ surrounding the two of them and charged straight toward ‘marriage’ alone.

Dad was furious asking where there’s such a thing as making decisions by announcement, big brother was calm saying ‘I knew you’d pull something like this.’ Grandmother and grandfather are making a fuss about needing to meet the marriage partner as soon as possible.

Mom is……

Pressuring me to send a wedding gift that’s second to none. It would be cleaner to just give money, since they’re newlyweds who find even ceremonies bothersome.

Thanks to that, I ended up having to organize the gift list. I’ll have to call artisans and merchants from nearby cities too. She plans to have nice clothes tailored and sent as well.

After bringing such tremendous news, my brother just had one meal and tea each, then immediately returned. Riding Marquise—dad’s horse that only gets occasional walks—instead of Spotty.

Oh, Sha. Please take pity on me, won’t you? That d*mn brother just dropped this on us and left, but thanks to him, I can’t sleep and have to worry about what items to choose.

From the patterns and materials of tea sets to the color and thickness of carpets!

My replies might be late for a while since I’ll be meeting with merchants. Though when haven’t they been late recently—I ask for your generous understanding.

Carol, who is running around the estate busily

P.S. Haven’t you suddenly fainted or anything recently? You said it gets harder when it’s cold in its own way, and when it gets hot it gets even worse.

[To Carol

Busy, busy Carol. Luckily my body is still okay. Yes, I was really lucky. No one knows my body as well as I do, but at the same time, there are parts that must be left somewhat to heaven’s jurisdiction.

If I couldn’t accept that point, I’d only be frustrated or irritated about everything, right? I’ve played the role of a bad-tempered girl quite enough, so I shouldn’t do that anymore.

We’ll both be twenty next year.

What do you want to do when you become an adult as defined by the kingdom? You once grumbled about adults gathering to drink together.

If that’s the case, I should prepare very, very expensive and precious alcohol. I don’t know much about alcohol, but if I were to drink, I’d want something sweet enough to make my tongue tingle and fizzy.

Or you could go outside Kasoche. Who would stop you once you’re an adult? Even if they tried to stop you, you could bravely—perhaps sluggishly—step outside the village. Together with the horse you often ride.

I…… Well, I’m not sure.

Still, as you said, imagination is enjoyable. Being completely immersed in a different world. Yellow peaches growing even in winter, pockets full of fruit-flavored candy.

The water is cold, the air is soft, and the transparent sea clearly reflects all the way to its bottom. When you cut through the rippling surface, pure white light pours through, and when you emerge from the sea, snow falls.