[V4C23] Hot Leaf Water
Translated by Jodas 4: Flying Through the SkyThis happened a long time ago.
Sophie, who rarely ever left the estate, rode a carriage to town to help her grandmother on an errand.
Sophie was ecstatic. Before they set out, she tied ribbons in her hair and on her blouse. It was the best that the little Sophie could manage in terms of fashion.
This was her first time in town. She wondered if there were any kids her age around. Would they want to be her friends? What would she do if someone said ‘you look so cute!’?
Her heart pounded as she stepped off the carriage, and instantly the attitude of the people around shifted.
Those were not the eyes of someone looking at something cute. Those eyes were looking at something terrifying and inhuman.
“It’s the Schwarzenbergs…”
“They’re a family of murderers. One wrong look and they’ll curse you to death.”
Her grandmother’s face showed no reaction, but Sophie was afraid.
Why was everyone making such scary faces at her?
Sophie nervously looked around, desperate to find someone who would take her side. She ended up making eye contact with a boy around her age.
“Don’t look at me, weirdo!”
Even though he was slinging insults, that boy was afraid of Sophie.
She never asked to be a Shaman. She never wanted to be a killer.
And yet, she wanted to think that she had an amazing power that nobody else had. That was why she had talked about it with Wren. Why she’d proudly said that she could use five curses.
She didn’t want to use curses at all. But, if she wiped her hands clean of them, then she would be lost, wondering what had been the point of her whole life up to then.
After all, curses were the only thing Sophie could do. That was all she had.
—I don’t want to use curses. But I’m afraid to let go of my curses.
—I don’t want to be a Shaman. But I want someone to tell me I’m special.
Every time a Shaman went to town, the people would only welcome them with fear and insults.
“The Schwarzenberg Family of murderers…”
“Don’t make eye contact, or they’ll curse you to death!”
“Don’t come to our town, you wretched bastards…”
(Shut up, shut up, you dummies, dummies! All of you are big fat dummies! I’m special, okay! I can do something amazing that none of you can do. I have a special power! You’ll regret this some day!)
No matter how much she tried to act tough and whisper those words in her mind, somewhere deep within the depths of the depths of her heart, Sophie had only one wish.
(…Let me be like you.)
At the Wedge Tower, one day a week was a rest day.
Naturally, if everyone at the Wedge Tower took the same day off, various duties, namely defense, would suffer, so depending on the Office, different members would have different rest days. In the Guidance Office, however, all Apprentices and Instructors rested on the same day.
On that day, Sophie Schwarzenberg skipped breakfast and spend the whole day in her bed.
(…I don’t wanna get out of bed.)
Last night, at a meeting with all of the Apprentices, she broke out into tears. Everyone absolutely had to have been appalled by that.
After the meeting ended, Sophie kept crying, and Ella tried to console her as they walked back to the dorm and she dove right into her bed.
Even though her roommate was Rukiye, it was Ella who walked her back. She thought times like this were a real test of personality. And Rukiye was not a nice person.
While knowing when to leave someone alone when they were sad was a sort of kindness of its own, Sophie was the type who wanted people to pay attention to her when she was sad.
When she was sad, she wanted people to sweetly pamper her. Like a princess. If she was ever reincarnated, she wanted to be born as a princess… As such escapist thoughts came to her mind, the voice of a real-life princess came to her ears.
“Excuse me, coming in! Is Sophie awake yet!?”
A princess with a thundering, powerful voice, that is.
Next, she heard a spritely, joyous singing voice.
“Tinkertot, tinkertot! Tinkerdudu, tinkerdu! ….Piyo. It’s not morning, it’s almost noon!”
For whatever reason, Sevil and Tia had barged into her room.
Sheesh, you barge in like that and Rukiye’s gonna get mad at you. She thought, but soon something clicked.
(Hold on, where even is Rukiye right now…?)
Sophie slept on the top bunk of their bunkbed, and Rukiye was on the bottom.
Unlike Sophie, who slept in on rest days, Rukiye silently made something, drew blueprints, or read books even on her days off.
Sophie covered her head with her blanket and inched over the edge to take a peek at the bottom bunk, only to make eye contact with Tia.
Tia repeated the song she was just singing.
“Tinkertot, tinkertot! Tinkerdudu, tinkerdu!” …Piyopp, good morning!”
“… ‘Morning.”
She’d intended to make a voice befitting of a frail, heartbroken girl, but after all the crying she’d done overnight, the voice that came out was awfully haggard and croaky like a grandma’s.
She’d never be a princess with that kind of voice.
(…It’s embarrassing.)
Sophie pulled the blanket further up to hide her face, when suddenly Ella and Roswitha entered the room as well. Both of them carried trays in their hands.
Resting on those trays were a teapot and teacups.
“Good morning, Sophie.”
“Hey, where should I put this tea? Ah, yikes, this desk is filthy…”
“In that case, let’s borrow this desk.”
The two of them kept talking as they placed the trays on Rukiye’s desk. That of course meant that the one that Roswitha called ‘filthy’ was Sophie’s desk. She usually just left stuff laying out on it.
In a panic, Sophie jumped out from under her blanket.
“Wa-wa-wa- Wait a second! What are you guys all doing here? …Hold on, I didn’t even get the chance to clean my room….”
If she knew people were coming over, she’d have at least tried to clean her room a bit more. Probably.
Sophie fretted, to which Sevil answered with a magnanimous attitude.
“Indeed, sorry for barging in unannounced!”
Her voice didn’t sound very ‘sorry.’
However, plenty of people would take issue if she were to say something like that to Sevil, the Imperial Princess.
Sophie’s lips twisted and she fell silent. Ella looked up at Sophie with a smile.
“Sophie.”
“W- What is it…?”
“Since we have the day off, would you like to have a girl’s party?”
A girl’s party. When a group of girls bring tea and snacks and chat about irrelevant things. This was one of the things Sophie had looked forward to more than anything.
“Wa-wa-wa…” Sophie’s lips trembled.
She wanted to do it. She wanted to do it so bad. A girl’s party! The girl’s party she’d always dreamed of!
“I- I’ll do it! But, why all of a sudden…. Oh! Is this because of yesterday’s… y’know….”
Since Sophie cried so much yesterday, Ella must have taken pity on her and suggested this girl’s party. Ella really was so kind. She was so glad Ella got picked as the representative— As she thought that, Roswitha quietly told her otherwise.
“Rukiye suggested it. You’ve been nagging Rukiye about it every day, haven’t you? That you want to do a girl’s party and all.”
“I- I did say that, but…”
She did remember telling Rukiye that she’d like to do a girl’s party some day.
But Rukiye’s responses were always dismissive.
“I thought Rukiye didn’t like that kind of thing…”
“I don’t.”
She heard a familiar, dismissive voice.
Walking in to the room, carrying a large basket, was Rukiye.
“But you like it, don’t you?”
Elaborating no further, Rukiye set the basket on the desk and called out to Tia.
“I borrowed two folding chairs. I set them out in the hallway, could you get them and set them up?”
“Piyopp! Got it!”
There were too chairs that Sophie and Rukiye normally used, plus two folding chairs. That already filled up the available space in the cramped room, so the remaining two had to sit on the lower bunk— on Rukiye’s bed.
Almost immediately, Tia and Sevil occupied the bed. They didn’t hesitate for a second even though it was someone else’s bed.
Sophie shakily slipped down from the top bunk and sat in her usual chair.
Rukiye also sat in her own chair, so Ella and Roswitha ended up using the folding chairs.
(Uuu, since it’s a day off, everyone else is so stylish… I think.)
Sevil tied her hair in a loose braid and let it dangle over her side. She usually wore clothes that resembled a military uniform, but today she was dressed more lightly with a vest over a button-down shirt and a pair of slacks. However, while she may be dressed lightly, those clothes all looked high quality, and the scarf around her collar added an extra touch of style.
Rukiye wore a one-piece dress with looser sleeves than usual. She made countess narrow braids in her hair and tied them all together at the base of her head. A very elaborate hairstyle.
Ella wore a blouse and a skirt, with a stole draped over her shoulders. Her sand-colored hair was tied in its usual braid, which was a bit of a relief.
Roswitha wore a blouse with ribbons on top of a skirt with layered frills. Cute. Frilly. Sophie had always thought that Roswitha had the best taste in casual clothes.
Her fluffy orange hair, which she usually tied in two low tails, was now tied a little higher because she wasn’t wearing her pointy hat today.
(Wait, I’m the only one who just rolled out of bed!!! …..If we’re doing a girl’s party, I wanna look fancy toooooo!!)
As Sophie groaned, she realized something. Tia looked just like she always did. With her neck-length white hair, her simple shirt, and her short pants.
Thank goodness. As long as there’s one person like that, I can relax.… As she thought that, she locked eyes with Tia.
“You know, me and Sevil got the sweets!”
“Eek… Did you… go to the sales kiosk? Isn’t that place super crowded….”
“Yep. Sevil’s amazing! She just moved through that crowd so fast like boom-boom-boom-boom! But…”
At that point, Tia’s eyes darkened a little.
“I couldn’t do anything… pefu… I was powerless… super powerless…”
“Tia, if you want to run through crowds, the secret is to learn how to read the flow of people.”
“That flock of people was amazing… It was a battle of strong creatures, all fighting over the same prey…”
What sort of princess ran through crowds to get sweets?
The spoils of Sevil’s victory smelled delicious. It was a cake baked with layers of thin apple slices on top. That absolutely had to be tasty.
While Sophie stared at the cake, Sevil smiled.
“Forgive me, I was only able to procure sweets for today. If we have time, I would like to go hunt a boar as well…”
“Don’t do that! Then it wouldn’t be a girl’s party! The sweets are plenty….!”
Then, Sophie’s stomach growled. It was only natural, since she hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday.
“Hmm.” Sevil rested a finger on her chin.
“You must be famished, then. As I thought, a boar or a bear might…”
“Stoppp ittt!”
Sophie screamed, and Ella addressed her with a restrained voice.
“Sophie, are you thirsty at all? I’ve brought some tea.”
“Yes please…”
Now that she mentioned it, she hadn’t had anything to drink since yesterday either. Her throat was bone dry.
Ella poured a cup of tea from the pot and handed it to Sophie.
The tea had a strangely muddy color to it. Regardless, Ella made it, so it was probably okay. So Sophie brought the cup up to her mouth….
“Pweh!?”
And spat it out.
“Eugh, bitter! What is this, it’s so bitter…!? This tastes really weird!?”
In response to Sophie’s screaming, Ella — that serious, diligent honor student Ella — averted her eyes.
“Sorry, I’m not actually very good at brewing tea, so…”
“And I’m the daughter of the proud Ohlendorf Family! I can make magical remedies, but brewing tea is a servant’s job!”
Sophie now understood why two people couldn’t brew a cup of tea between them.
Both of them were truly pampered rich girls.
Of course, Sophie herself was from the famous Schwarzenberg Family, but it was hard to call them ‘rich,’ even as a compliment.
(Is it okay to serve tea this gross to a real princess…?)
Mayhaps her highness might be perturbed by this offense… Sophie glanced over at Sevil.
Sevil puffed out her chest.
“No worries. For tea, just throw the leaves in and boil it!”
“Eek… The Princess is the most careless of all…”
“So long as I have milk, I can drink just about anything! Someone, bring me some milk!”
“S- Sorry, I couldn’t find any milk, so…”
Ella apologized profusely.
Rukiye, who’d been silent this whole time, tasted one sip of the tea, and tensed her face.
“I never expected Ella, the hardest-working of us all, to mess it up this badly.”
“I’m sorry… I don’t have much interest in tea, so…”
“Piyo? Everyone likes this hot leaf water, huh?”
Two rich girls who couldn’t even brew a cup of tea, a Princess who was too carefree, and Tia who called it ‘hot leaf water.’
Terrifying. There wasn’t a single person here who could actually make a cup of tea.
Sophie usually didn’t criticize people too much, but she reckoned it would actually be pretty difficult to recreate just how terrible this tea tasted.
Rukiye set the cup back on the tray, and sighed deeply.
“…I’ve learned a good lesson on what things I can’t trust you people with. I’m gonna come back with some actual tea.”