Chapter 123: A Reunion in an Unexpected Place

Having come upon Eugene in the back garden of the mansion, Ren glanced round him as though making sure where he was, then looked at Eugene again.

“Eugene-san……. Why are you here……”

“That’s my line, Ren-kun……. I was invited. ……Are you a son of this house?”

Eugene’s face showed surprise at first, but he was back at once to his usual composed expression, and asked Ren in a gentle tone. Being seen through by Eugene, Ren gave a small start at the shoulders before he nodded.

“Yes……. I’m the third son of this house. ……Ren Cream……”

“So that’s how it was. As a matter of fact, I’m your mother’s younger brother.”

“Ehh?!”

“I’m Eugene Sucre. That makes me your uncle.”

Ren was so astonished that his mouth fell open. He could understand what Eugene’s words meant, but he couldn’t take them in easily.

“Eh? Eh? Eugene-san is Mother’s younger brother? My uncle? Ehh……?”

“It isn’t that I was keeping it from you. I never thought that the boy who always came to the Adventurers’ Guild by himself was my nephew.

Not giving one’s house name at the guild is a custom, to make it easier to work. There are people among the adventurers who put their guard up, or shrink back, if they know someone is a noble.”

“……I didn’t give my house name either……”

Ren hadn’t minded Eugene’s not giving a house name, since he had registered without one himself. Only, he felt bewildered, as though the house and the Adventurers’ Guild had suddenly been joined together.

His mother’s face came into his mind, and he caught his breath.

“……Were you invited to the celebration?”

He remembered Eugene saying, when they first met, that he had come from a town some way off. It occurred to him that Eugene had come from a distant guild because he had been invited to the celebration.

“Yes. My elder sister — your mother — got in touch with me for the first time in some years. I thought I would see my sister and my nephews and nieces. My work with the Adventurers’ Guild takes me about from place to place, so I did some work along the way. And that’s how I came to meet you, Ren-kun.”

Eugene smiled wryly, and then looked steadily at Ren.

“……Ren-kun, is there anything troubling you?”

“……Ah!”

Asked that, Ren remembered with a start.

“There’s something…… I wanted to ask about feathers……. May I?”

“Ah, ah……. Of course.”

Eugene nodded with a rather deflated, puzzled look.

“I put feathers on something I made yesterday……. I wanted to ask whether using azure feathers was a bad idea……”

“……Azure feathers? Quill pens?”

“No. Acorns.”

“Acorns?”

“Ah, it might be easier if you saw them……”

Ren pointed at the annexe building.

When they came back to the annexe with Eugene, faint voices could be heard; the guests staying there had begun to get up, perhaps.

As he stepped into the annexe, Ren looked carefully about him. He had remembered the time his grandmother told him to “go and change”. He braced himself against being told something about his clothes again. Of what Ren had on, only the shirt had been changed from what he wore yesterday. The collar was large and there were frills at the breast, which made him feel a little self-conscious.

His grandmother was nowhere about, and he was relieved. But once he had it in mind he couldn’t help thinking of it, and he tried asking Eugene.

“……Do my clothes look odd?”

“……Odd…… no? ……Hand-me-downs, are they?”

“Yes. They came out of the wardrobe room……. They may be Father’s or Grandfather’s hand-me-downs.”

“I see……”

He led Eugene along the corridor, the morning light coming in at the windows, and on the way they passed the foot of the stairs up to the guest rooms.

“……And so, since you can’t play ‘the squares game’ in a carriage, I thought it would be nice to have something to play, and tried making one.”

“I’m curious about ‘the squares game’ as well……. But you’ve made a new plaything, is that it?”

On the way to the room Ren explained how he had come to make the Acorn Feather Drop. Eugene showed an interest in this new plaything Ren said he had made.

When the door opened, the bed made itself very much felt in the room. Ren went in, took up one of the feathered acorns from the cloth spread out on the bed, checked that the part near the base of the acorn where the feathers were glued had dried hard, and put it into the spinning box. He checked another with feathers of a different colour and put that in as well.

“It’s this……”

Ren showed Eugene the Acorn Feather Drop set.

The acorns with their brightly coloured feathers rolled over in the box.

“I see……, azure feathers……”

Four Azure Wind Swift feathers were fixed to the base of the acorn. They weren’t the size of feather used for a quill pen, but the impression the vivid azure gave was the same as a quill pen’s.

“There was someone at the guild who wanted azure feathers, wasn’t there? I was thinking, if they saw this they might say they wanted the quill-pen ones, or want it just because it’s azure feathers……”

“Yes……. The colour does seem to be sought after, so they might well want it.”

“I thought so……. In that case, perhaps I’d better not bring the azure ones out.”

“Mmm……. But first — how do you play this?”

Eugene gazed in puzzlement at the cloth laid inside the box with its lines drawn out from the middle. The feathered acorns drew him too. They looked bright and the shape was charming. He wanted to know how on earth the thing was used.

“It’s a very simple game.”

Ren set the spinning box on the bed, took a feathered acorn in his hand, and asked Eugene:

“Eugene-san, which colour would you like, the azure or the orange?”

“The azure, I think?”

“Then here you are. Hold this. When I give the word, we drop them into the box together.”

Ren handed Eugene the acorn with the Azure Wind Swift feathers, took the one with the Flame Finch feathers himself, and held it up over the box. Eugene brought the azure-feathered acorn up over the box in the same way.

Ren took hold of the edge of the box and set it turning.

“Now!”

At Ren’s word he dropped his feathered acorn into the box. Eugene, his attention taken by the box’s turning, was a beat behind.

Roll.

When the box stopped turning, the acorns rolled over and came to rest.

Ren pointed at the tips of the acorns.

“The azure feathers are on ‘two’. The orange feathers are on ‘five’, so orange wins!”

“Oh ho……”

Eugene looked hard at the numbers the acorns pointed to.

“……So the one who shows the larger number wins……”

“Ah……. I didn’t give the rules first……! Yes! I thought of it with the rule that the larger number wins, but depending on who’s playing I think it would be all right to make the smaller number win. You could play several rounds and settle it on the total, too……. Anyway, there are three kinds, so up to three can play.”

Ren fetched the acorn with the deep green feathers from the shelf and dropped all three into the box at once.

Eugene picked up one of the feathered acorns and stared at the part where the feathers were fixed. Then at the cloth laid inside the box. He lifted up the box with its hole in it.

“……Ren-kun, this…… it isn’t only a question of the azure feathers.”

“Eh?”

“I think a great many people will want the thing itself. It’s amusing, and it looks charming. Like the char-core quill pen, if you don’t get a contract or something drawn up at the guild, people may start copying it, and it could lead to trouble.”

“Ehh?”

Ren was aghast at Eugene’s words, and stared at the Acorn Feather Drop.

“……But I wanted to give them to everyone when they leave……. Is it no good?”

“It isn’t that it’s no good — I’m saying you’d be easier in your mind for having the formalities seen to. Giving them to the children of other noble houses means they’ll be taken off to other territories, doesn’t it. If people in one territory and another start saying ‘this is amusing, let’s make something like it’, then somebody unscrupulous will begin claiming ‘we made it first’. Trouble might break out in the very place you gave your present.

With the char-core quill pen, the Adventurers’ Guilds all over the country declare ‘made at the Adventurers’ Guild’, so disputes can be held down to some extent.

……Shall we make a provisional contract for this too?”

“A provisional contract……, now?”

“Yes. If it’s to be done, I think it had better be done before you hand them out. Whether you make the contract or not is for you to decide, Ren-kun. ……Let me see……. It’s sudden, so of course you’re anxious. Shall we put a line into the provisional contract saying it may be cancelled within seven days? How would that be……”

Ren blinked at him. He was bewildered that it had suddenly come round to contracts. But he had been worried about the azure feathers, so it began to seem to him that it might be better to do the same as with the char-core quill pen.

Eugene dropped a feathered acorn into the box with a light roll and watched the feathers sway.

“……I think being able to play it in a carriage is very good indeed. Quite apart from that, I expect everyone will want to try it. Only……”

Eugene raised his face. He glanced round the room.

“Ren-kun, what are your thoughts about whether to say you made this yourself?”

“Eh?”

Ren tilted his head.