"Your house?"
"Yes. It's so nostalgic that… it's a little painful."
Up until now, Myne's thoughts had been focused solely on books, so I'd been letting things slide without much comment. But she'd said she died once and woke up to find herself as Myne. If that was the case, it made sense she'd have strong feelings about her childhood home.
Still, I couldn't let myself wallow in sentimentality while being dragged along by Myne. I cleared my throat with a deliberate "ahem!" and asked her a question.
"That shelf looks rather eclectic. What's displayed on it?"
"…My mother's 'Okan Art.' She was bursting with curiosity but got bored easily, so after making one or two pieces, she'd lose interest and move on to the next thing. She'd dive in on pure curiosity alone but lacked the skill to back it up, so…"
Myne spoke dismissively, yet reached out her fingers as though touching something infinitely precious.
"This is a lacework 'coaster,' and this is a hair ornament. This hair ornament is being sold as a product by
I recalled the hairpin I'd seen up close during the Knight's Order request and nodded. It did look similar. Myne's had been better made, though.
Myne pointed at a bag. "Mom got bored halfway through, so I was the one who finished them," she said, puffing out her lips. "These doll clothes with questionable taste, and the pile of stuffed toys. This white round one was supposed to be the head of a crocheted 'snowman.' A 'cross-stitch' picture and a 'patchwork' tapestry that were almost done. A ring meant to match a clay silver necklace."
The oddly shaped basket seemed to be filled with abandoned projects. As Myne pulled them out one by one, she thought about when she'd made each one. With every piece, the scene flickered and shifted—changing location and time—showing a black-haired woman saying "I'm stopping here," handing Myne the project to finish, or tugging her hand with "Come on, let's go." The images rose and vanished again and again.
This black-haired woman must be Myne's mother.
"This painting too."
Myne left the room and walked down a narrow corridor. The instant her finger pressed something square, the whole area lit up.
"What is that?!"
"Oh, it's 'electricity.' You saw it at the Bookstore, right?"
Myne looked up and pointed. Compared to what I'd seen at the Bookstore, the white light was far smaller. So that was it—they must have been flowing something like Magic Power into those square devices.
On the now-brightened corridor walls hung several paintings. Myne had said her mother "lacked the skill," and it showed—paintings of all different styles lined up with no cohesion.
"No consistency at all, right? She started with 'watercolor,' then moved to 'oil painting.' When the paintings didn't turn out, she blamed the materials and switched to 'Japanese painting.' Just when I thought she'd finally settle on 'colored pencils,' those didn't work either. She said she could at least handle calligraphy, so that led to 'shodo.' Then she announced 'I'm training to be a bride,' and dragged me into 'tea ceremony' and 'flower arranging.' Mom got bored first, though, so the classes were dropped."
Myne chuckled softly while wiping the corners of her eyes. I could tell her heart was overflowing with a wistfulness and fondness beyond words.
"There was also a time during our frugal, natural-living period when she went all-in on handmade everything. Once she started something, she'd get totally absorbed, and I'd be dragged along—sometimes I was sick of it… but because she dragged me through all of it, I'm able to live as Myne."
She said she'd made rinshan (rice-gruel soup), candles, and soap during that time too, and had also attempted to make her own glue, ink, and paints.
As she talked like this, hot tears welled up in Myne's eyes, warping her vision.
"I'm sorry, Chief Priest. It's been too long since…"
With that, Myne pressed her eyes and darted into the small room.
Myne picked up a cloth with a soft, fluffy texture and stood before a white ceramic fixture with a metal pipe attached, set into a counter. Without hesitation, she twisted the round knob at the top of the metal pipe.
"Wha—!? Water?!"
Water came pouring out of the metal pipe. She splashed it on her face to wash it, then dried off with that fluffy soft cloth from earlier. Apparently this soft cloth served the same purpose as a towel. How pleasant. I wondered if I could take one home.
"Myne, what is this room for?"
"It's the bathroom. That's the bathtub, and that long dangling thing is a 'shower.' The way you use it is…"
The instant Myne said that, I found myself inside a bathtub filled with sweet-scented water. I was soaking in a milky-white, warm bath, and through my hazy vision I could make out a naked body in the milky water.
"Myne?!"
"Whoa! A bath! Ooh, the 'bath salts' smell so nice. I loved this 'peach' scent."
Oblivious to my state of mind, Myne blissfully narrowed her eyes, cupped the sweet-smelling water in both hands, and brought it to her nose.
"Have some shame, you fool! Where has your modesty as a woman, as a lady, gone?!"
Because our consciousness was synchronized, I couldn't even avert my own gaze. I couldn't help but shout, but Myne cheerfully washed her face with the water and shook her head. "It's fine. I don't mind."
"I threw away my sense of shame in the first three days of living as Myne. So don't worry about it, Chief Priest. I'm a kid, so there's nothing embarrassing about it."
In those first three days of living as Myne, she'd apparently been stripped of everything by a man who hadn't yet accepted her as his daughter, forced to change clothes, and even had her toilet needs taken care of. She'd cried from embarrassment and begged them to stop, but when she realized it was useless and she simply had to accept the situation, she'd discarded her modesty as a woman entirely.
"That man and I are completely different!"
"At the time, he wasn't my father yet. You're the Chief Priest, and even if you see a little girl naked, you wouldn't think anything of it, right? There's no problem."
That I wouldn't think anything of Myne's naked body and that Myne herself wouldn't think anything of being naked were two vastly different things. I hadn't expected her to lack not just her wariness but her sense of shame too.
"I am genuinely alarmed by your complete lack of modesty!"
"It'll come back once I grow up. Probably."
Saying that, Myne stepped out of the bathtub and began washing her hair. Once again, she was enveloped in strongly scented foam.
"Ah, these suds! Amazing! This feels so good!"
Trembling with indescribable emotion and satisfaction, Myne reached for the pipe she called the shower. She gave the metal rod on it a push, and a torrent of water burst forth like a downpour.
"Whoa?!"
"I'm rinsing the suds out now."
Humming a tune, Myne used the shower to wash the foam from her hair. It was strange to think she was taking a bath without any Attendant present, but apparently she'd figured out how to wash without one.
"No matter how much you wash in here, it's inside a dream, so it has absolutely no effect on reality."
"My satisfaction is the complete opposite. Hehehe~n."
Myne washed her hair with a liquid called shampoo, applied a conditioner called rinse, and then cleansed her body with a soap that smelled sweet like honey. Judging from the lather, fragrance, and silky texture of the finished result, it seemed like she was using something finer than what even royals or high-ranking Nobility would have.
After washing her entire body and soaking leisurely in the tub, Myne's heart was brimming with blissful satisfaction.
"Myne, you seem quite satisfied. Would you mind if I saw something else?"
"Hm? Oh, like the 'hair dryer'?"
The next instant, I was standing in front of the white ceramic fixture where she'd washed her face. Myne then pulled out some strange object from the shelf. It was blue with a smooth, glossy finish, but the material had an entirely different feel from metal. I couldn't identify it.
"Myne, what is this?"
"It's for drying your hair."
When Myne moved her fingers, the object suddenly started making a loud, unpleasant buzzing sound. Then a blast of heat like a scorching wind blew against my skin.
"What is this?!"
"I told you—it's for drying your hair."
Saying that, Myne stood before a mirror. There was an expensive mirror in both the bathroom and here. It seemed Myne had been a daughter of higher-ranking Nobility than I'd expected.
"Chief Priest, this is a 'hair tie.' It's what you use to tie your hair back."
Having somehow put away the noisy device she called a dryer, Myne was stretching and releasing the elastic band between her fingertips with a bouncy snap.
"Chief Priest, do you have any idea what kind of material this stretchy thing might be?"
"…Not locally, no."
"It exists somewhere far away!? Where is it? How much would the shipping cost be?"
Her mental circuitry had switched to merchant mode. She was probably planning to make a similar product. I'd been shown the process of Myne inventing new products before, and I let out a quiet breath. She was striving to recreate things that were commonplace in a completely different world, developing new products through trial and error. I could tell that sourcing the materials alone was a tremendous effort.
"Unfortunately, it's quite far away, and you'd have to fell a magical tree called a Gummimocha."
"A magical tree?"
"A different species and different felling method, but it refers to a tree with Magic Power like a Trombe. I remember the bark you get from cutting down a Gummimocha having a similar texture."
Myne drooped at the word "Trombe," then casually gathered her long, night-sky-colored hair and tied it back in a loose knot.
To me, the thing Myne used to bind her hair was supposed to be a hairpin, so I couldn't help but feel a sense of disconnect seeing her use this thing called a hair tie.
"Don't you use a hairpin?"
"Ah, the hairpin was a last resort. My hair is so slippery that no matter how tightly I tie it with cord, it comes undone right away. Here, unless I'm wearing traditional Japanese-style clothing, I never use a hairpin."
I'd always associated Myne with hairpins, but apparently that wasn't really the case.
"What is Wasou?"
"Um, I guess a coming-of-age ceremony would show it off best?"
As Myne furrowed her brows in search of her memories, the scenery shifted to a cold wind with drifting snow. A large number of young people dressed in vibrant, unfamiliar garments of various colors stood about.
Since Myne had said coming-of-age ceremony, I guessed this was something like a Noble Academy graduation. Given the beautifully elaborate robes with sleeves long enough to drag on the ground, it was clearly a gathering of Nobility.
"This is a 'furisode.' The pattern I used for the embroidery on the ceremony robe is a 'flowing water' motif that's commonly used on this kind of garment."
"Ah, I see. There is indeed a bit of resemblance."
A woman wearing a red garment adorned with hair ornaments far more elaborate than Myne's hairpin had the same pattern of flowing water curves and flowers that Myne had used on her ceremony robe.
"Myne, is that embroidery?"
"Well, with a 'furisode,' a part might be embroidered, but it's rare for the entire garment to be. With 'Yuzen dyeing,' you paint the design directly onto the fabric."
"Directly on the fabric? How does that work?"
Wouldn't the dye bleed if you tried to paint on fabric? As I pondered this, Myne spoke up in a puzzled tone.
"…They don't have that in the Noble District either?"
"I've never seen it. They change the color of threads when weaving, or they embroider, but I've never heard of painting designs like this."
"Huh. Well then, I bet
Myne chuckled "ufufu," and her heart immediately filled with mental calculations of figures.
"…Is everything you invent based on things from this world?"
"Yes. I want to make the things that exist here, but I don't have the tools to make them, so I've been experimenting and trying to create something that looks close enough."
"I see. So your value lies in the knowledge of this world."
"The origin of most things I've made came from my mother's influence, though."
With a soft laugh, Myne stepped into the narrow corridor and opened another door. It was a strange room packed with things I'd never seen before.
"This is the kitchen. We cook here and eat over there. This is a 'gas stove.' All you do is this and it lights. Convenient, right?"
Myne pressed the square device with the strange pattern on it, and with a soft pop, a flame ignited. Blue fire flickered. So in this world, fire was blue.
What was most surprising was that the flame stayed lit even after Myne let go. I could use magic to start a fire, but keeping it burning would require firewood or a huge amount of Magic Power. I was staring wide-eyed at fire burning with neither wood nor magic when Myne pressed the same spot again. The flame vanished as if it had never been there.
"…Myne, what is that large white box?"
"This? It's a 'refrigerator.' It keeps food inside and stays cold so things don't spoil."
When Myne flung open the door with a clank, a chill wafted out. The contents inside were colorful and unfamiliar, but since I knew objects with the same function, I wasn't as shocked as I had been by the gas stove—though I was still surprised at how small things were.
"Ah, a cold-storage room."
"Huh? You have 'refrigerators'?"
"What are you talking about? The
It seemed Myne hadn't known about the Temple's cold-storage room. Fran had been using it since he served me, so I'd probably just ensured a space for Myne without bothering to mention it.
"Well, it is a Magical Tool, so maybe Fran didn't bother to let her know either."
"I always thought it was strange that the types of milk kept increasing whenever we had visitors. So that's because of the 'refrigerator.'" Myne looked visibly deflated at the realization. "If I'd known, I could have expanded my cooking repertoire so much more," she murmured.
The menu Fran had told me about in Myne's room consisted of things I couldn't identify from the names alone, but it had sounded quite extensive. And she wanted to expand it further?
"…I've heard that the meals in your room are quite varied. Are those all from this world too?"
"Yes. I've been trying to recreate the 'Western food' from here as much as possible… Oh, I might actually be able to eat something delicious right now! What should I do? I'm starting to feel hungry."
Myne's excitement level skyrocketed and she began looking around. Then, as if remembering something, the scenery shifted with a sudden whoosh. She was still in the same room, but she was suddenly standing in a different spot, and behind her came the clattering sounds of dishes.
"If you're hungry, hurry up and eat. It'll get cold, you know."
A woman's voice suddenly rang out from behind. Myne's heart lurched with a thud, and her body froze as if turned to stone.
"Come on, don't just space out. Hurry up."
The scolding voice sounded gentle—whether that was because of Myne's emotions greatly coloring the memory, I couldn't say.
Myne turned around, and the black-haired woman who had appeared so many times in her memories was setting dishes on a table.
"…Mom."
"I made your favorites today, so eat them before they get cold."
"Okay…"
Myne nodded softly and walked to the table set for four.
Just moments ago when she'd been guiding me through this room, there had been nothing here. Myne's memory must have reconstructed it, because now a fully set dinner table stood ready.
For Myne, the sight was so nostalgic and heartwarming that just looking at it brought tears to her eyes. But I had no idea what any of it was. Black things and brown things were laid out, and frankly, it didn't look very appetizing.
"Myne, is this food?"
"Yes. It's everything I wanted to eat. Freshly steamed white 'rice,' 'miso soup' with 'tofu' and 'wakame seaweed' topped with plenty of 'seasoning onions,' 'grilled yellowtail,' Mom's 'nikujaga' and 'gomoku hijiki.' And also the 'pickled vegetables' Mom made."
Myne drew in a breath as if swallowing the nostalgia rising in her chest. With glistening eyes, she quietly pressed her palms together. Lowering her head slightly, she murmured: "Itadakimasu."
Within those few simple words were packed a happiness and gratitude so deep they made one's chest ache.
Deftly manipulating two red-tipped sticks, Myne began to eat. The instant the first bite entered her mouth, tears spilled from her eyes.
"Mm, Mom's cooking…"
Myne chewed slowly and deliberately, savoring each bite from start to finish with care. The gentle flavors that spread warmly through every corner of her being—though I had never tasted them myself—felt delicious and achingly nostalgic. They were the taste of a mother.
"It's so good, Mom."
"Oh my, that's unusual. Is there a book you want?"
When Myne praised her, the woman across from her, who had been eating the same meal, widened her eyes in surprise and then broke into a soft laugh. It was the same look she'd had when dragging Myne along with her hobbies—eyes brimming with love as she watched over her daughter.
"I want plenty of books, but that's not why. …It's truly delicious."
Myne cleaned her plate without leaving a single grain. She pressed her hands together again just as she had before eating and bowed her head. "Gochisousama deshita."
Myne stared fixedly at her mother, who was still eating.
"Mom, I'm sorry."
"Hm? What for?"
As her mother looked up, Myne bowed her head deeply while large tears rolled down her cheeks.
"…I'm sorry for being an ungrateful daughter in the wrong way. I'm sorry for being a fool who didn't realize a parent's love until after she died. You cherished me so much, you let me do everything I wanted to do and raised me with love, and I couldn't give you anything back and just died—I'm sorry."
Every ounce of Myne's regret, self-reproach, nostalgia, and love for her family came flooding through. The tangled, complex emotions were more than I could bear synchronizing with, and I severed the connection without thinking.
I pulled away from the position where I'd been leaning over Myne, moved back, and shook my head hard while still kneeling on the floor.
"…What a terrible feeling."
I'd synchronized with Myne too deeply. I'd been crying along with her. Now that I'd cut the connection, Myne should wake up soon. I immediately wiped my eyes with my sleeve.
Right there, still asleep with her eyes closed, Myne's tear tracks were still wet.
Her long lashes trembled, and Myne's eyes opened slowly. After blinking a few times, she gradually turned her head, noticed me, and gave a sheepish smile.
"Oh, Chief Priest. Good morning."
Myne wiped away the tears still flowing from her waking eyes with her sleeve and slowly sat up. Myne was on the long chair, and I was still kneeling on the floor, so our eyes met at just the right level.
Myne's still-glistening golden eyes narrowed as she beamed a smile of unmistakable joy.
"Chief Priest, thank you."
"…What?"
"While I was living here, my memories were gradually fading, you know."
Because it was a Magical Tool, it could dig up buried memories with vivid clarity. But human memories get buried over time, buried under the passage of years and the routines of daily life. It was only natural that Myne's memories were fading.
"…I never thought I'd be able to eat Mom's food and find it delicious. And even though it was inside a dream, I never thought I'd be able to properly apologize. I'm so happy right now. So thank you, Chief Priest."
Even when stared at straight on and thanked by Myne, I couldn't find words right away. I didn't know what to say or how to say it.
My mind was still tangled up in the complex residue of Myne's emotions, and I had no idea what words, if any, would settle feelings that weren't even my own.
"Um, Chief Priest? Since we were synchronizing consciousness, did all of my emotions get transmitted to you?"
"That's a natural consequence. There's nothing to be done about it."
When I let out a quiet breath, Myne stood up straight.
"Chief Priest, I'm going to give you a hug."
"What? What are you talking about? What's a hug?"
Frowning in confusion, I felt Myne's arms wrap around my neck as she said, "Like this. Hug."
"When I have a dream like this and my feelings are all tangled up, getting a hug helps me calm down. I have
Myne's slightly smug voice echoed in my ear at this unexpected development. "That's entirely unnecessary" would have been easy to say, but I wasn't in the mood to push her away. My emotions were truly churned up, and I was exhausted.
Myne must have been feeling just as messy as I was. As she clung to me, her breathing gradually steadied.
After settling down somewhat, Myne exhaled and loosened the arms she'd wound around my neck.
"Hey, Chief Priest. Will you use this Magical Tool again? I want to read books and eat 'Japanese food' again."
"I flatly refuse. Synchronizing with you once was more than enough."
This time I really did pull Myne off me and removed the Magical Tool from my forehead. I had no intention of undergoing such an emotionally turbulent synchronization repeatedly.
Rejected and peeled away, Myne looked at me with wide eyes as though struck by a bolt from the blue. Then she clutched her head, squatted down, and assumed a defensive posture, refusing to hand over the Magical Tool. "I won't give this back until you promise to synchronize with me again."
Thinking that I'd been jerked around by such a fool made me angry at myself.
…Now then. What on earth should I tell the Lord about this fool?
A book-mad person so thoroughly absorbed in nothing but books that there wasn't even room to think about crime or villainy. To boot, she had no crisis awareness, no sense of shame, no common sense by our standards, and was an unpredictable handful the moment you looked away. Someone was needed who could keep watch and handle her reins.
However, she possessed Magic Power that rivaled the Lord's and knowledge of an entirely different, advanced culture unknown to us—her value was limitless. If used well, as Benno had done until now, she could bring tremendous profit to this land. At the very least, she could not be allowed to fall into anyone else's hands.
"Hmph. Sealing her in is mandatory. The bait is books?"
"Huh? You'll synchronize with me?"
I had no idea how she'd arrived at that conclusion from what I'd said. Looking down coldly at Myne's bright-eyed, cheerful face as she grabbed my sleeve, I immediately took back the Magical Tool.