The Proper Way to Pay a Visit

"……"

Chaison found himself at a loss for words.

The life of an orphan-born maid who had tramped the streets in search of odd jobs. Chaison could see that Nina had always lived in the supporting role, never once in the spotlight, and that Nina herself had grown quite used to it. And yet a strange, nagging unease lingered—something this alone could not explain.

"Is that what they taught you at the Sezac County Estate?"

"Yes, I was fortunate enough to receive the most treasured instruction from my mistress."

At Nina's sunny answer, Chaison's fist clenched beneath the table.

"And you're truly fine with that?"

"Hmm? Is there something I shouldn't be fine with?"

Nina blinked her round eyes and tilted her head.

Chaison silently dragged both hands down his face.

He felt a flush of dismay that he, of all people, was the one who had come down to the parlor with Nina. Any of the other three would have been spared this wretched feeling—they would never have committed the fool's act of asking after Nina's thoughts in the first place, a folly with nothing whatsoever to do with the mission.

Chaison, this is precisely why you'll never amount to anything. That cursed soft heart of yours keeps tripping you up—that's why, at your age, you still haven't landed a senior post and you're still tramping around in the field.

The barb from a training-camp classmate who had risen into management a few years back still stung when he remembered it. As a specialist in planting and dismantling bombs, he worked far removed from the business of deceiving people and extracting information, which was the only reason a sentimental temperament had let him survive this long.

But even that was slowly reaching its limit.

Once he passed forty, the organization would hesitate to deploy a man like him as a field agent. Promotion was an awkward question too, so they would assign him only the relatively safe jobs, and then retire him just like that.

Yet no one alive understood the romance of an explosion better than he did. The promotion might be beyond him, but he wanted to keep doing this work. And for that, he had to hold his head high and show himself grown more seasoned with every year.

A mission this hard to come by. This time, I absolutely must succeed.

Chaison steeled his resolve and tried to focus on the parts that didn't add up.

"Nina. You have truly and finally resigned your post as a maid at the Sezac County Estate, yes?"

"I left that place, so I'm no longer a maid. Though my mistress did say I was welcome back anytime."

Nina's unhesitating answer brought the interview in the parlor to an end.

Chaison rose from his seat as if nothing were the matter, but that spotless, limpid, utterly innocent expression of hers gnawed at him terribly.

Skirts held up slightly, Nina started up the stairs, then stopped and looked back toward the garden.

After leaving the parlor, her uncle Chaison had declared he needed a cigarette and headed for the garden.

Why would Uncle ask me something like that?

The odd feeling had refused to fade ever since she left the parlor.

Asking what I think. Come to think of it, on my first day at this house, the family asked me what I wanted to do, didn't they?

Questions like that were foreign to Nina. Questions about her thoughts or her feelings, above all.

She had run herself ragged on errands all over the shopping district, scrubbed the floors of an inn, and served as a maid entrusted with the cleanliness of a grand estate—and in all that time, not one person had ever asked what Nina thought or how she felt.

She had considered it only natural. Who would be curious how a maid was feeling?

Even I was never curious how I felt.

And yet her uncle kept asking what she thought.

It flustered her terribly, but it didn't feel bad.

Is it because I quit being a maid? Or... could it be...

Nina took another step up the stairs, where the rest of the family was waiting with Joel.

Is that what family is supposed to be? Something that lets you taste, even for a moment, what it feels like to be the main character?

Thinking that, her steps somehow felt lighter, and an inexplicable warmth seemed to spread through her chest.

With a light, brisk tread she climbed the stairs and stopped before the door.

There's family in this room too. How marvelous.

So as not to startle them, Nina rapped gently on the door first.

"It's me—I'm back."

"N-Nina?"

Then came a great clattering and banging, after which Natalisha opened the door halfway.

"Back already, Nina? Where has your uncle gone, that you've come alone?"

She looked tired for some reason, but her tone was as gentle as ever.

"Uncle went out to the garden, saying he ought to have a smoke. He isn't a smoker, so I expect he needs time for quiet reflection. Or perhaps he intends to take up smoking as of today."

At Nina's placid answer, Natalisha flinched and snapped open her fan to hide her mouth.

"How do you know your uncle isn't a smoker?"

"There isn't a single ashtray anywhere in this house, is there? Not even on the little table in the garden. As for cigarette cases, there are only the ornate ones Grandmother keeps for display."

"You have sharp eyes."

"That, too, is part of a maid's training."

Nina answered with a beaming smile, and Natalisha stared at her for a long moment before opening the door the rest of the way.

And stepping into the room, Nina shrieked in fright and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Oh my! J-Joel?"

"You've returned, Nina."

Joel's hair was a mess, and blood was dripping steadily from his nose.

"What on earth happened? Did you suddenly take a turn for the worse?"

"It would seem so. Bleeding brought on by poor condition—please don't concern yourself."

Joel swiped the blood away with his gown sleeve.

This was no fresh nosebleed; the front of his cape was already soaked clean through.

"Oh, what do I do? I should have taken you home before I went down to the parlor."

Feeling as though she had wrongly hauled a sickly man all this way for nothing, Nina fidgeted anxiously and gathered Joel up into her arms.

"One moment. Nina."

Joel's gentle attempt to stop her failed this time, too.

"I'll bring the harpoon gun to your house once you're feeling better."

Shifting Joel lightly in her arms, Nina carried him over in front of Natalisha and Exi.

"Auntie. Exi. Joel. Won't you all greet one another? Uncle taught me that's the proper way to pay a visit."

"……"

Joel squeezed his eyes shut, as if he wished to shut out reality itself, and clamped his gown firmly shut where it threatened to fall open.

"I have caused a great deal of trouble today."

Exi gave up on her eyesight once more and screwed both eyes tightly shut.

"I urge a swift return home."

"Off you go, then, dear Joel."

Fan covering her face, Natalisha scraped together a kindly voice by the barest thread.

"Oh my? But where has Sister Katharina gone?"

Only now noticing Katharina's absence, Nina peered around the room.

And each time she did, the hem of Joel's gown flapped perilously wide, keeping his hands very busy indeed.

Just then, Katharina came hauling herself up over the balcony railing.

"Sister? What are you doing out there?"

"My new hobby. Ho-ho. Pay it no mind."

Katharina's voice trembled as she swallowed her fury, and a thin scratch marked her cheek.

"Oh dear. To think you could injure yourself even during so humble a hobby as climbing up and down a railing. You are ever so fragile, Sister."

"I'm going to go enjoy it one more time."

Heat blazing to the very roots of her hair, Katharina flung herself back down below the railing before she could scream at Nina.

"Then I'll see Joel home and be right back!"

Out of habit, Nina dipped her knees in a small bow to Natalisha and headed for the door.

Greatly flustered, Joel pointed at the balcony.

"Nina. The rope is over there."

"Uncle says guests should come and go through a proper door."

"I consider the balcony a proper door as well. What is the definition of a door, after all? Is it not enough that it be a door by which one may go out and come in?"

Joel spoke with mounting desperation, but Nina was already out of the room and down the stairs.

"Don't worry. Delivering one sickly young master to his home is well within my abilities."

Nina smiled softly, as if to put them at ease, and passed between the servants.

"……"

Joel shut his eyes again, unable to bear their stricken expressions a moment longer.

To modify a body of Nina's build so it could lift me with ease, one would need to install magic stones throughout the musculoskeletal system—

And he forced his mind onto other thoughts.

"To the guest whose time of arrival remains unknown to this day—farewell. Please do enter through the front door next time. And do wear proper clothes. Should you come that way again: sha. me. death."

With Juger Number 4's warm send-off ringing behind them, they stepped out the door, and Joel's house arrived in no time at all.

Nina set Joel down lightly and handed him a handkerchief. The nosebleed seemed to have stopped by now, but it felt like the proper thing to do.

"I'm sorry for everything, Joel."

"It was not an unpleasant experience. I gained something as well."

"You're so kind, Joel."

As Nina heaved a great sigh, he spoke with utter seriousness.

"I have a request, Nina."

"Anything. Just say the word."

"I would like you to help me with my research."

"You mean your magitech research?"

Joel gazed steadily at Nina, his eyes shining brilliant and bright.

"Yes. Research into a magitech device of a most fascinating design."