Chapter 105: Greeting His Grandmother
Hearing that his grandmother had come, Ren felt oddly tense. Something deep in his chest turned strangely heavy.
His grandmother, Isabella. His father’s mother.
It had been a very long time since he had seen her. What remained in his memory was, he thought, from around the time of his eldest brother Ryan’s Blessing Ceremony. Ren had been four.
He didn’t remember talking with her much, but his impression was that whenever his grandmother was there the air somehow tightened, went taut.
He knew he had to go and greet her, and made his feet move, but his heart was heavy about it.
In the sitting room an elderly lady in sumptuous clothes sat in a chair.
Yuan was beside her.
His grandmother listened to Yuan talk and nodded in satisfaction. There was even a smile on her face. In Ren’s memory her expression had always been stern, so he found it a little unexpected.
“Say, Grandmother, isn’t Grandfather coming?”
Yuan asked.
“…Well, who can say.”
His grandmother left a small pause, then shrugged.
“That man has always pleased himself…”
The air seemed to cool a fraction.
The subject of his grandfather ended there.
His mother had seated herself on the long couch opposite his grandmother, but she said nothing either.
Ren stepped into the sitting room and bowed his head.
“Grandmother, it’s been a long time.”
His grandmother’s gaze turned to Ren. She blinked, and her face took on a faintly puzzled look.
“You are… Ren, or would it be Royce?”
“I’m Ren.”
“I see… And your skill?”
That came before any greeting.
Ren hesitated a little.
“…Small Box.”
“…I see.”
His grandmother said nothing further. She only glanced at his mother.
His mother started, and lowered her eyes uncomfortably.
“My apologies.”
Ren’s eyes widened before he could stop them.
Eh? Why is she apologising?
He didn’t understand what his mother had to apologise for. But he couldn’t ask.
His grandmother was no longer looking at Ren. Her profile was cool.
At that moment the door opened.
His father came in.
“Mother.”
“Ah. You took your time.”
“I had something to see to.”
After exchanging words with his grandmother, his father noticed Ren standing there.
“Ren.”
“Yes.”
“Go back to your room.”
That was all. There was nothing especially angry in his father’s voice. It was flat, matter-of-fact.
Ren bowed his head in silence.
He left the sitting room.
Behind him he could hear Yuan talking on.
Nobody called Ren back.
At dinner too, the centre of the conversation was his grandmother and Yuan. The subject was Yuan’s celebration.
“The relatives will arrive in their turn. They’re coming from distant territories, so some will be early and some will be only just in time.”
His grandmother said.
“Yes.”
His mother answered in a quiet, slightly heavy tone.
“I came early for the sake of the preparations… though by rights I should have been told a good deal sooner.”
His grandmother’s gaze turned to his mother.
“…My apologies.”
Again his mother apologised.
The sudden increase in servants, it seemed, was because his grandmother had arranged them for the celebration.
Will there be more cooks as well…
Ren drank his soup in silence, thinking.
The unfamiliar servants had surprised him at first. But when he thought about it, the Cream baronial house had few servants. He didn’t know how many relatives had been invited, but extra hands would certainly be needed, Ren thought.
After dinner, Ren went back to his own room and took out the “small box” with the branches in it.
“Small Box Divide!”
The small box divided into even portions. Boards of the same thickness, the same width and height, were finished all at once.
They were for the letter boards the guild had asked for.
The boards, their cut faces clean and sharp, were stacked up neatly. His mood lifted a little. And realising that his mood had lifted, he realised that until then it had been sinking.
He took up the stacked boards and set about writing on them. The front was easy, being a single letter, but the back took a while — lines to match the number, or a picture for a hint.
His hands moved.
But his heart wouldn’t settle.
Being recognised a little at the guild today.
Being paid for it.
That happy feeling had gone off somewhere.
Even when the work was done he didn’t feel like sleeping.
Ren took out the book he had borrowed from the study room.
He began copying the words across onto boards.
The scratching sound carried in the quiet.
He had to hurry. He had to get it copied out quickly.
Somehow that was how he had come to feel.
The next morning Ren left the mansion earlier than usual. He couldn’t face training in the back garden, so he went out early instead.
He entered the forest and looked for bird-type magical beasts. His aim was a Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird, but failing rainbow feathers, the object was to bring down bird-type magical beasts with feathers as fine as he could get.
They had asked him for more char-core quill pens as well as letter boards.
So he meant to lay in as many good feathers as he could for the making of them.
In the forest at early morning the calls of bird-type magical beasts seemed livelier than at midday or evening.
Guided by the calls, he loosed simple arrows. When one came down he put it into the “small box” and finished it off.
Sometimes his arrows wouldn’t reach a bird-type magical beast high up in the branches. It struck him suddenly that when Ryan shot, he wrapped mana around his shoulders and arms.
Ren worked his mana, concentrating on gathering it at his shoulders and arms, then let it flow into bow and arrow.
Whish.
Snap!
Crash—
There was a sound of something falling out of a tree and plunging into the undergrowth below. But it hadn’t struck the bird-type magical beast he was aiming at; the shot had gone wide. The arrow seemed to have hit something beyond it.
What did I hit? I hope it’s all right…
Simple spear in hand, Ren ran off towards where the thing had fallen.
He looked into the depths of the undergrowth, and his eyes went wide.
The bird-type magical beast thrashing with an arrow in its back had tail feathers that glittered.
“Ah!”
This is—! he thought, even as he put it into the “small box” with practised ease. His heart hammered as he finished it, and his hand shook a little. Tail feathers that shone rainbow at certain angles. Flight feathers green at the base, shading to blue towards the tips.
“A Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird!”
Ren’s mouth curved into a smile.
He spent a while longer running about the forest after that, hunting bird-type magical beasts. When the sun was high he set off for the guild.
He opened the door of the Adventurers’ Guild. The moment he did, he felt something different in the air.
There was a man near the counter he didn’t know.
He didn’t look like an adventurer. He stood differently. His clothes were neat, and the cloth of them looked to be of good quality.
His back was straight, and he was taking in his surroundings.
There was something of the knight about him.
The adventurers in the hall seemed conscious of the man.
Ren was curious too, and was watching him out of the corner of his eye when his eyes met the man’s. As he flinched, Mikaila noticed that he had come in and called over to him.
“Oh, Ren-kun. You’re here.”
Having smiled at Ren, Mikaila turned her gaze to the man.
Then she said something to him in a low voice.
The man’s eyes came round to Ren again. He smiled.
He left the counter and came slowly over.
“Hello there.”
His voice was composed.
“You’re the boy who made all those things, aren’t you?”
Ren blinked in spite of himself.