Yesterday, I cried and cried and cried until I couldn't cry anymore. Even when I was told it was time to eat, even when I got scolded for knocking my parents' futon onto the floor, I could barely muster a reaction and just kept sobbing.
And this morning, my eyes were swollen and hot from all the crying, and my head was pounding.
However, the fever seemed to have dropped completely, and I didn't feel the slightest bit of fatigue. On top of that, bawling my eyes out had left me feeling surprisingly refreshed.
The family treated me with kid gloves at breakfast, though.
"Your fever's come down, hasn't it?"
Mother pressed her cold hand — fresh from finishing the dishes — against my forehead. She also gently pressed around my swollen eyes.
Cold and wonderfully soothing.
"Say, Mine, if you're feeling better, why don't we go shopping together today?"
"Huh? Mom, what about work? Is it okay for me to be off even though my fever's down?"
Wasn't it something like, "Dyeing work is at its busiest right now, so even if Mine gets a high fever, I still have to go to work"? And now she's taking a day off? What kind of working adult does that make her?
Seeing me tilt my head, Mother's eyes drooped sadly.
"Turi has been doing nothing but nursing you, and it wouldn't be fair to keep her cooped up inside. Plus, yesterday you wouldn't stop crying and Turi was at her wit's end. She said she was worried you might be crying because you felt lonely, so I asked around and managed to get the day off."
At her words, I sucked in a sharp breath. A twenty-two-year-old mind crying all day without a care for who was watching — what an utterly humiliating display. Now that I'd calmed down, I was mortified by my own behavior.
"I-I'm sorry."
"You don't have anything to apologize for, Mine. When you're sick, you feel vulnerable."
Mother stroked my head gently and comforted me, but the kinder she was, the more the guilt threatened to crush me.
I'm sorry. I was despairing over the lack of books and crying my eyes out, but I never once felt lonely because Mom wasn't here. She was so worried and took such good care of me, and yet I was standing here thinking, "If only Turi would hurry up and get out, I could go find books." I'm really, truly sorry.
"Turi is going to the forest nearby with everyone else, but you're still recovering, so that's a bit much for you. How about you go shopping with Mom instead?"
"Sure!"
"My, aren't you suddenly full of energy."
Mother smiled happily, apparently thinking it was because she wanted to stay with Mom. I wasn't about to correct that misunderstanding, but really, the instant I thought about the fact that I might find books once I got outside, my mood had shot straight up.
Today, I'm going along on the shopping trip, and I'm going to get a book.
It didn't have to be a thick one. I just needed something to help me learn the characters. At this point, even a children's workbook would do. An abc chart, an alphabet chart — anything like that.
I'd charm them with something like, "I won't be lonely if I have a book. I'll happily stay home and watch the house all day," and surely, if my sickly little daughter asked ever so sweetly, they'd buy me at least one picture book.
Hehehe, I can't wait.
"Well then, Mom. I'm heading out!"
Turi popped her head through the bedroom door with a beaming smile. Since Mom had the day off today, Turi was also being freed from her babysitting duties.
"You're going with everyone, right? Be careful!"
"Okaaay."
Turi hoisted a large basket onto her back and ran off with a spring in her step. She looked like she was heading out to play, but this was legitimate helping-out work. Gathering firewood. She'd apparently also be looking for nuts and mushrooms along the way. Whether tonight's dinner would be affordable and delicious depended entirely on Turi.
Do your best, Turi! Add some color to my diet!
In this world that seemed to be made entirely of nothing, there apparently wasn't any school either. All the children were either helping out or working. At least, in the memories I'd seen and heard, there was nothing equivalent to school. Children a little older than Turi started as apprentices.
If I could, I wanted to be a Librarian apprentice or a Bookstore apprentice. Today's outing was for gathering intel on that front. I'd scout out the location of the Bookstore, get friendly with the people there, and become an apprentice.
Go ahead and praise me as a calculating little girl, won't you? Mmf.
"Alright, Mine. Shall we head out shopping too?"
This was the first time I'd gone anywhere since becoming Mine.
It was the first time I'd worn clothes that weren't pajamas. They were the usual hand-me-downs in tatters, but Mother layered several thick garments on top of me. Apparently, it was cold outside.
Puffed up to the point of barely being able to move, I held Mother's hand and took my very first step outside the house.
Cold!!
Cramped!!
Smelly!!
Because the buildings were all made of stone, they seemed to radiate cold air from the very walls themselves, and the chill seeped through all the layers of clothing I'd been bundled into.
I desperately needed something like HeatTech, fleece, or a disposable heat pack.
And while we're at it, I'd also like a mask to block the stench and keep from catching cold.
Right outside the house was a staircase. With my body the size of a three-year-old's, the steps were terrifyingly narrow and steep.
Holding Mother's hand, I descended, turning corner after corner on the creaking wooden stairs. Only the lower floors had sturdy, well-built stone staircases.
Same building, but what's with this disparity?
As I furrowed my brow, we finally made it outside. I counted the floors, and it turned out our home was on the fifth floor of a seven-story building.
Honestly, for someone as frail, tiny, and stamina-challenged as me, just going outside was quite the heavy labor. I couldn't blame my memories for showing me staying home most of the time.
"Hah... hah... Mom, I can't... catch my breath. Hold on."
I was already winded. Without any stamina to speak of, I was in danger of collapsing before even reaching our destination.
"We've barely stepped out the door. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Mm. I'm fine. Let's go."
At the very least, I wanted to scope out the Bookstore's location. I took deep breaths to steady myself and looked around.
Outside the apartment building was a small square, with a communal well at its center.
Only the area around the well was paved with stone, and several women could be seen chatting while doing laundry. This must be where Turi came to wash dishes and draw water from the water jug every morning.
"Mom, did you do the laundry?"
"Yes, I finished already."
The clothes all looked grimy, but apparently the washing had been done. Maybe the quality of the soap was poor. Perhaps I should look into improving the soap-making process.
The square was surrounded on all sides by tall apartment-like buildings, with a single path leading out to the main street. Through that decidedly narrow passage, we emerged onto a wide avenue.
Whoa, it's like a European city.
An unfamiliar cityscape spread out before me. Horse-drawn carts and animals that looked like donkeys clip-clopped along the cobblestones, and shops lined both sides of the broad road.
I was completely in sightseeing mode now. I craned my head around, scanning for a Bookstore.
"Mom, which shop are we going to?"
"Well, Mine, what are you saying? We're going to the Market, of course. We have no business with most of these shops."
It seemed that the shops properly set up on the ground floor of buildings were mostly for people with a decent amount of money. They had nothing to do with poor commoners, who did their daily shopping on Market days.
...So the Bookstore would be among these ground-floor shops too?
I scanned the area looking for a Bookstore, and one building caught my eye — it was conspicuously large. Built from whitish stone, it was simple yet dignified, standing out as remarkably impressive.
"Is that a castle?"
"That's the
Ah, the Temple. The Temple. I didn't like the idea of forced religion at all. I'd try to stay away from it on my own.
With my Japanese sensibilities, I instinctively wanted to keep my distance from religion. I wasn't sure if saying that out loud would be accepted in this world, so I kept my lips sealed and shifted my gaze to the wall behind the Temple.
"Mom, what's that wall?"
"That's the City Wall. Inside there's the castle where the Lord lives and the mansions of the Nobility. It doesn't have much to do with us, really."
"Huh."
Rather than a castle, I could only see a tall stone wall, giving off more of a prison vibe. I supposed fortifying your defenses would produce that kind of look. I'd always vaguely imagined Western castles as something more lavish. Then again, I vaguely remembered that Western castles used as fortresses back in the day did look something like that.
"And that wall over there?"
"That's the Outer Wall. It protects the city. If you go straight down this road, you'll reach the Gate where your father works, remember?"
"...Father works there?"
From Mine's memories, I knew he was a Soldier, but he'd been a gatekeeper? I didn't know that.
Still, the fact that there was a castle with a Lord inside, surrounded by a City Wall and an Outer Wall — did that technically make this a city? A metropolis of sorts?
Even looking at the area enclosed by the Outer Wall, and at the throngs of people passing through the streets, it didn't seem like much of a big city. But maybe that was because I was basing my standards on Tokyo and Yokohama.
Ohhhh, the scale of the city should affect the scale of the Bookstore, but I had no idea what the baseline was!
Is this city big or small?!
Tell me, someone in charge!
"Mine, let's get to the Market. The good stuff will sell out."
"Okay."
On the way to the Market, I desperately scanned the surroundings for a Bookstore, but the signs on the shops lining both sides of the road were almost entirely illustrations. They were either paintings on wooden boards or designs carved into metal — there wasn't a single character-like symbol to be found.
That made them easy to understand even for someone like me who couldn't read, and it was handy for spotting a Bookstore, but a chill of unease crept over me.
Wait a second? Not just at home — there are no written words anywhere in the city? Is the literacy rate that low? Could it be that writing itself doesn't exist?
The blood drained from my face as that thought flashed through my mind.
I'd never considered the possibility that writing itself didn't exist. If there were no written words, then books couldn't possibly exist either.
"Mine, there are a lot of people, so don't wander away from me."
"...Mm."
Still reeling from my own prediction, I kept my feet moving, and before I knew it, we'd arrived at the Market.
I raised my head at the clamor assaulting my ears and saw lively stalls crammed together tightly, with throngs of people milling about. The bustle reminded me of festival stalls in
I couldn't help but beam as I peeked into a nearby fruit stand, and spotting something unexpected, I tugged hard on Mother's skirt.
"Mom, look! There's something written on that!"
A board with some kind of symbol was stuck into each display of goods. I couldn't read them, but numbers or characters did, in fact, exist in this world.
Just knowing that made my cheeks flush with color. I was starving for printed words.
"Oh, those are the prices. They tell you how much you can buy something for."
"What does it say?!"
Mother looked surprised at her daughter's sudden burst of energy, but I couldn't care less.
If I had her read every number I could see, I'd start connecting the symbols in front of me with the numbers I already knew in my head.
Come on, come on, hang in there! My synaptic pathways!
"So this is 30 rion?"
After having Mother read out a whole bunch of numbers, I tried reading one myself and watched for her reaction.
I'd apparently gotten it right, because Mother looked down at me with wide eyes, blinking repeatedly.
"You remembered so quickly, Mine. That's amazing."
"Mmfh~"
The number-like symbols came in ten varieties, so the counting system was almost certainly decimal. Thank goodness it wasn't binary or base-sixty. Once I memorized the symbols that corresponded to numbers, I should be able to do math without a problem.
Wait — did I just set off a genius flag? The kind that goes, "Prodigious at ten, gifted at fifteen, and just ordinary past twenty"?
I hope the atmosphere of the city came across well enough. That's the part I'm a little worried about.
And I do feel a bit sorry for Mine, finding numbers and being overjoyed about them.
Next time, we'll continue on to the Market.
Stay tuned.