My name is
I'm a man who loves his beautiful, adorable wife Corina more than anyone else in the world.
She has cream-colored hair and gray eyes. Her overall pale coloring is pure and suits her gentle demeanor perfectly.
She's self-conscious about her slightly baby-faced look due to her rounded cheeks, even though her nose bridge is straight and refined. I find that adorable.
She sighs and calls me hopeless, but she always accepts me with a smile. That's what makes her so precious.
Her ample bosom is immediately obvious, and when you hold her, she's soft and smells wonderful. Corina is the absolute best.
Shout it from the center of the world—my Corina is number one!
Today, I met a boy named
"I'm home, Corina. Just got back.
"Welcome home. ...To think you can come back with that kind of smile after bullying a child before his
"That pouty face of yours is cute too."
When I blurted out what I was really thinking, Corina let out an exasperated sigh.
Realizing she was genuinely fed up with me, I gave a light shrug and offered my defense. It wasn't like I bullied him on purpose. I just told a fairy tale-dreaming kid the truth.
"Can't be helped. There's nothing good about becoming a Traveling Merchant. Sure, I crushed his hopes to pieces, but that's better for him in the long run."
"I suppose you're right, but..."
Corina's gray eyes drooped, and her brows furrowed with a pained expression. Even if it was just a child she'd never met, seeing her worry over someone else's behalf made my heart stir just a little.
"Corina, you're too kind. Aching over a child you've never even met..."
"Move it, Otto. Hurry up and get inside."
Just as I put my arm around her shoulder and leaned in to kiss her cheek, Benno kicked me square in the back from behind.
Flustered, Corina pushed me aside and welcomed Benno in.
"Welcome, Benno brother. ...You look quite sour. Is it guilt from canceling on someone?"
Looking at Benno with the deep furrow between his brows and not a trace of his usual warmth, Corina made that comment—but Benno hadn't actually canceled on Lutz, so of course he felt no guilt whatsoever.
"Corina, no, no. Lutz said he wanted to be a merchant apprentice, and Benno tried to scare him off, but not only did he fail, he ended up having to swallow the conditions Mine laid out. He got outmaneuvered by Mine. That's why he's in a foul mood."
"Otto."
Benno growled in a low voice, but I ignored him and walked into the house with Corina.
He must feel like he got played by a kid. Good. He should savor the feeling plenty—since I'm the one who's constantly being caught off guard by Mine.
With my arm around Corina's waist, pressing my lips again and again to her cream-colored hair as we headed for the sitting room, I took a fist to the back from Benno with a "Do it when I'm not here."
I'd like to tell him not to interrupt a couple's quality time, but if I said that in front of Corina, I'd get scolded with "Enough already," so I held my tongue.
The sitting room was normally where Corina conducted business with clients. It was always kept tidy so it would be ready for visitors at any moment.
Unlike the dining room, a round wooden table sat at the center of the room with four chairs arranged around it. Using cloth for anything besides clothing was a sign of wealth, so this sitting room had more fabric than anywhere else in the house.
For example, on the right wall there was a shelf displaying sample garments to showcase the patterns Corina designed, and on the left wall hung a tapestry sewn together from leftover fabric scraps, vibrant with color.
I rarely had reason to enter this sitting room, but just looking at Corina's work on display here put me in a pleasant mood.
I sat down in one of the chairs and grinned at Benno, who was seated across from me.
"Man, that was a surprise. I never thought Benno would be the one making concessions..."
"Huh? Benno brother? Tell me all about it, Otto."
Corina's gray eyes lit up, and she coaxed me to spill the details. Adorable.
Then, after sitting in the chair next to mine, she scooted it a little closer to me. Truly adorable.
Corina so rarely asked me like this that I silently sent Mine a round of applause in my mind, then casually recounted the day's events.
When I finished, Corina's eyes went wide as she stared at Benno.
"Dressing up as best he could to meet people, waiting in the plaza long before the bell even rang... Benno brother, you were completely beaten from the very start, weren't you?"
"Shut up."
Benno's mood only worsened. Even after taking a swig of the drink Corina offered, the crease between his brows didn't ease in the slightest.
The basics of a merchant's manners—presenting yourself properly and arriving early to the meeting spot ahead of the person you asked to meet—were things a merchant was expected to do. I wanted to gauge his attitude by whether he could handle both. Lutz had cleared both.
Mine probably guided him, of course.
Thinking about Mine's reaction when the two of them found her in the plaza, that was the only conclusion.
Today's winner was undoubtedly Mine. And thanks to that, I got to witness Benno being forced to concede.
"Man, thanks to Mine, that meeting was far more entertaining than I expected."
"Mine—that's the foreman's daughter, right? The one you said was incredibly smart?"
"Yeah, that's her. But even though she's been my assistant for over half a year, I still can't get a full read on her. She's so different that I wonder how a child like her even grew up."
As a Traveling Merchant who had dealt with people of various classes across many lands, Mine's abnormality stood out to me like a sore thumb.
And it seemed to be the same for Benno, who had accompanied me today. As a merchant, Benno also knew people of all classes. Where I had shallow, broad knowledge, Benno had deep, narrow knowledge.
"Hey, Otto. What's the deal with her?"
"I already told you. She's my assistant."
"Don't play dumb when you know what I mean. Is she really a soldier's daughter?"
"That much is certain. But I think she's weird too."
"What do you mean?"
Corina tilted her head in confusion.
I'd told her about Mine—how she was smart, how she was frail, weaving in anecdotes from the day—but I'd never told her Mine was strange. I figured you had to see Mine's abnormality firsthand to understand it.
"First off, she looks wrong. Mine is always impeccably neat—not what you'd expect from a soldier's daughter. The clothes she wears are no different from any other kid's around here. Rags covered in patches, yet her skin and hair have an absurdly glossy sheen. The foreman looks like your typical rough-around-the-edges soldier, but both his daughters have clean skin and lustrous hair."
"Maybe their mother grooms them?"
Corina, raised as the daughter of a wealthy merchant, might know about the lives of the poor, but she didn't truly understand. Grooming skin and hair took time, money, and supplies. The poor had no margin for such things.
"...I saw them in winter, and the mother didn't seem to be doing any particular grooming. She was a beauty wasted on the foreman, though."
Mine had been left at the Gate while Paru were gathered during a break in the winter weather. I saw her mother when she came to pick her up, but she didn't leave a particularly notable impression of being well-groomed.
Still, she did resemble Mine, and I thought she was pretty.
"Hmm, really?"
Since I so rarely praised other women, Corina's gray eyes gleamed with interest.
"Of course, you're number one to me, Corina. That will never change."
"Yeah, yeah. Enough of that. ...So, does Mine seem strange to you too, Benno brother?"
Addressed by Corina, Benno set down his cup and gazed up at the ceiling beam before slowly letting out a breath.
"Yeah. Her hair had a glossy sheen like light rising off it, pitch-black and lustrous. Her skin was pure white without a speck of dirt, and her hands showed no sign of labor or daily life. Her teeth were white too. Everything about her was at odds with those tattered clothes—completely unnatural."
"Glossy enough that light seems to rise off it!? What does she do to get that!?"
"Huh? Corina, you're perfectly fine just as you are."
"Quiet, Otto. I'm asking Benno brother."
It seemed that hair luster was a matter of great concern for women. It was rare for Corina to show this much interest in anything outside of sewing.
"She seems to be applying something or doing some kind of grooming, but she wouldn't tell me what."
"She told me it was a secret too, Benno."
"Does she tell you, Otto?"
"...Probably not anymore. I imagine she'll be on guard from now on."
For Corina's sake, who wanted to know Mine's secret to lustrous hair, I'd try asking Mine next time I saw her—though it was probably a long shot.
"Forget the hair. The reason her hands are clean is that she's so small and weak she can't do much manual labor. And I think her pale skin is because she's sickly and spends so little time outside in the sun. She only started going outside regularly after spring, really."
"...Come to think of it, last time the meeting got canceled because the girl had a fever, right?"
I remembered how the foreman had been a bundle of nerves when Mine's fever hadn't broken for five days, and I couldn't hide my weariness as I nodded.
"So Mine's appearance is just because she's sickly? That doesn't sound so unusual."
Having listened, Corina seemed to have concluded it was no big deal. She shrugged as if losing interest, but Benno shook his head.
"No, it's not just her appearance. What caught my attention was her posture and her way of speaking. ...That sort of thing doesn't develop without proper discipline. Surely her parents aren't fallen nobility with strict upbringing?"
I didn't know the details of the foreman's family situation, but looking at the rest of Mine's family besides her, you could tell whether they had any ties to the Nobility.
"The foreman has another daughter, and she's completely ordinary. Glossy hair, relatively clean skin, but that's it. Nothing that makes her stand out from those around her, unlike Mine."
Benno gave a light nod at my words, then fixed his gaze on Corina.
"Corina, that girl's abnormality isn't just appearance. The guts to not avert her eyes even when I'm glaring at her, the quick thinking to withhold information about her hair in order to negotiate from a position of advantage, the audacity to bluff without even having the goods, the negotiation tactics with conditions attached... Every single one of it is beyond a pre-Baptism child."
"A child who doesn't avert her eyes when Benno brother glares at her!? That girl is strange. Definitely strange."
Corina's eyes went wide and she exclaimed.
When Benno turned intimidating, his eyes took on the sharp edge of a carnivore. As the eldest son with Corina being the youngest, and with their father having passed away when Corina was little, Benno had served as her surrogate father. Having been scolded by him since childhood, Corina knew full well just how frightening Benno could be—enough to make adults want to look away.
"Oh, and her calculating ability and memory are incredible too. Come to think of it, I was shocked when I gave her the slate too. Without anyone teaching her, she held the stone stylus correctly and started writing. Like she already knew how."
"Didn't you show her a demonstration?"
Corina tilted her head, then noticed my cup was empty and refilled it.
Sure, I did show her, I replied, taking a sip of the drink she'd poured. Moistening my mouth with alcohol, I hesitated over how to put this.
"Just watching and then immediately writing smoothly—most people can't do that easily. I teach the apprentice soldiers who come in each season, so I know. You have to show them how to hold the stone stylus, and they can't even draw lines properly before they start learning letters."
"That's true..."
Corina, who also frequently taught apprentices, probably knew well that just showing someone something didn't mean they'd pick it up.
"Mine's calculation ability is strange too. She said she learned numbers from her mother at the Market, but just learning numbers shouldn't make someone able to do calculations."
"Well, even the apprentices who come to us can do basic arithmetic. If a parent does it, kids pick up on it eventually?"
The merchant apprentices who came to us were generally children of merchants themselves, so some could already read and write and do basic calculations by the time of their Baptism Ceremony. I'd been the same—tagging along with my Traveling Merchant parents since I was small, I learned both calculations and letters.
But the calculations Mine could do were on a completely different level.
"Not just basic arithmetic. The accounting reports use the numbers for supplies and prices at the South Gate, right? It's not just small numbers like you'd see at the Market—once you start adding totals, you get into pretty big figures. And she does all of that naturally. Without even using a Calculator—just lining up numbers on a slate."
"...So she really is pulling her weight as an assistant. Having a kid like that help with accounting reports..."
I shot an amused Benno a light glare, then decided to drop the bombshell I'd never told anyone before.
"This is just between us, but she can handle about seventy percent of the paperwork."
"...What!?"
"...Seventy percent, you said..."
They were more shocked than I expected. Their eyes went wide and their faces froze for a moment, and they looked so much alike I couldn't help but laugh.
"Her vocabulary is still limited, so there's that. But she's frightening. When I was out, she handled a noble's letter of introduction perfectly without a hitch."
That one had genuinely surprised me.
It was the day of the Baptism Ceremony for the daughter the foreman doted on, and he was anxious because there was a meeting scheduled. While fretting over his nervousness, I finished the meeting and received a report from Mine: a merchant with a letter of introduction from a minor noble was waiting.
Normally, when a guest had been introduced from one noble to another, you were supposed to provide them with passage to the City Wall as quickly as possible once the introduction was confirmed. Even commoner guests were to be treated like minor nobility.
That particular day happened to be a meeting called by a high-ranking noble. If you asked which to prioritize, obviously it was the high-ranking noble.
But if mishandled, the guest might fly into a rage about being treated rudely, or try to throw their weight around behind the minor noble's letter of introduction, or barge into the meeting and earn the fury of the high-ranking noble—any number of disasters could unfold.
In the midst of all that, Mine had used the minor noble's waiting room to soothe the merchant's pride, explained that a meeting had been called by a high-ranking noble to gain his understanding, and then had me informed immediately after the meeting ended. That way, she avoided a scheduling conflict with the chief guard and handled everything smoothly.
As a bonus, she even spurred into action a new recruit who had been running around in a panic, made him realize he shouldn't need a child to teach him. Perfection.
"So she really is something special?"
"Something special... she's abnormal. Weird. But I think her father, Captain
"Good thing he's so oblivious. It wouldn't be unheard of for a parent to find that creepy and throw the kid away."
Corina's brows furrowed sadly at Benno's words.
"Don't even joke about that. I don't want to imagine it."
"Don't worry, Corina. Even if her parents found her creepy and threw her away, Benno would pick her up. Mine is capable enough to outmaneuver Benno, after all."
When I laughed and said that, Corina giggled softly.
Yeah, Corina really is cuter when she's smiling.
"Hey, do you think that girl will actually come through?"
Benno lightly tapped the table with his fingertip, his gaze fixed on me. His reddish-brown eyes had taken on the look of a merchant trying to read the future.
"Parchment—you mean paper, right? She'll definitely do it."
"You seem to put a lot of trust in her."
"Hmm... She said she wanted it desperately and wanted to make it, but she didn't have the power to do it herself. I told her: if you can't do it alone, get someone else to do it for you. If Lutz becomes the pair of hands Mine needs, she'll deliver."
She'd said it so bitterly—that she lacked the strength and stamina. But that meant she understood the process. Mine had said she would make the actual product because she believed she could win. It was probably no bluff.
"...If this actually comes to pass, the Market will be turned upside down. How are you going to handle that girl?"
"Don't tell me you're planning to scoop up Mine too?"
Reading between Benno's words, I realized he intended to take on not just Lutz but Mine as an apprentice as well, and I pressed him.
Benno's eyes went wide.
"Of course! How could I let someone like that go elsewhere!? Do you have any idea how many products a single girl like that could produce? That hairpin, the hair treatment, the paper that isn't parchment... That's just what I found out about today, but she's definitely hiding more. She'll become a disaster that flips the Market on its head."
"Hold on! She's my assistant. Don't just go snatching her away!"
Benno's argument wasn't wrong, but I had my rebuttal.
Mine was the invaluable asset I'd spent half a year nurturing for the settlement season. There was no way I could just stand by and watch someone swipe her from under my nose.
But Benno snorted through his nose and curled the corner of his lip.
"Her second choice is to be a merchant. She has no interest in being an assistant. You only invested half a year. Try somewhere else."
"There's no way anyone else becomes that useful in just half a year! If Mine does the planning and Lutz does the execution, Mine can still work at the Gate without any problems!"
Settlement season was the one thing I absolutely could not compromise on. I glared with everything I had, but Benno wasn't yielding an inch.
He set down his cup and leaned forward aggressively.
"No deal! She'll sign a contract with the commercial guild. I can't risk losing her to someone else."
"With Mine's stamina, the commercial guild is impossible!"
"Stamina?"
Benno faltered as if I'd caught him off guard.
Seizing the opening, I pressed my advantage.
"She's shockingly frail and sickly! She can't do physical work!"
"...She's that fragile?"
"Yeah. When she went to a village for hog processing, she collapsed on the spot. That was the first time the foreman brought her to the guardroom, and it was actually the first time I interacted with her properly. I figured the room with the hearth would be fine, so I gave her a slate to pass the time and left her alone for the length of one bell. When I went to check on her, she'd collapsed with a fever."
"Huh?"
I had to stand watch, so I left her in the room with the hearth. But when I went to check on her, she'd collapsed with a fever. The foreman who came to pick her up said "Don't worry about it. It happens all the time." So for that family, her frailty was just business as usual.
"She was terrible when spring first started. She couldn't even walk from the house to the Gate."
"To the Gate? That's not far at all."
"The city wall encircles the whole town. The city itself wasn't that big. A child should have been able to walk from the West Gate to the East Gate within one bell's time."
"Right. The foreman's house isn't far from the South Gate. But she couldn't make it. She'd collapse partway there, the foreman would have to carry her the rest of the way, and then she'd pass out in the guardroom and be bedridden until noon. On top of that, she'd be out of commission for two to three days for sure."
"Hey, is she really going to be okay? She might die if you put her to work."
That fear wasn't entirely unfounded.
Especially since Benno's current workplace was bustling and busy. I couldn't imagine Mine having the stamina for it.
"Hmm... Around mid-spring she could finally walk to the Gate on her own, and the number of days she had to stay in bed decreased. By the end of spring she could go into the forest, but I still don't think she has the stamina for normal work. That's exactly why I was thinking of the Gate taking care of her specifically for desk work..."
"Hmm..."
He probably hadn't expected her to be that fragile even when told she was sickly. Benno pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, thinking hard. He'd have to change the direction of whatever plan he'd been formulating.
In that case, maybe I should give him one more piece of information.
"The one who's been looking after that fragile Mine this whole time is Lutz. He accompanies her through the forest even though she lags behind the other kids. He did get a small allowance from the foreman, but he's dedicated and responsible."
Here was a boy at the age when all he'd want to do was run around, yet he accompanied the frail Mine. That wasn't something just anyone would do.
For the record, I had no intention of being devoted to anyone besides Corina, barring some extraordinary obligation.
"...Hidden behind that girl's abnormality, it's easy to overlook, but that boy is pretty weird too."
"Hmm?"
Benno, gently stroking his chin as if trying to recall something, slowly took on a bitter expression.
"I'm saying he didn't just stand by the girl. He also stood up to my glare and stated his opinion—just like she did. Besides, if you've been looking after a girl that sickly, she should be your ward, right? Normally you'd step forward more assertively, trying to protect her from me. But when Mine started negotiating, the boy naturally took a step back."
"Yeah, now that you mention it..."
He was right. After making his position clear, Lutz had ceded the floor to Mine. You wouldn't see that kind of dynamic between a typical guardian and their ward. What kind of relationship was that, exactly?
"Kids who know when to step forward and when to step back are rare. And here's the thing—that girl who wouldn't give me any information? She has that boy make the things she designs. If it were just the girl alone, I couldn't extract her secrets, so she'd be useless. If it was just the boy alone, the girl would go have someone else make things, so he'd be useless too. Those two should be kept together as a pair."
I could only laugh at Benno's sharp merchant's instincts.
He had taken one look at Lutz—a boy who would appear to be nothing more than Mine's appendage from a merchant's perspective—and immediately recognized his value. That was more than just being shrewd.
"Your nose for this stuff is as sharp as ever... The foreman trusts Lutz too, apparently. He says Lutz is the best at managing Mine. He knows just how far to push her before she collapses, how to help her through the things she wants to do but can't handle alone, how to redirect her—apparently he's really good at it."
"Hmm. So Mine's confidence that 'Lutz will make everything I design' actually has a foundation behind it."
That was the impression I'd gotten from everything she said. There must have been things she'd done together with Lutz beyond what even I knew about.
"They apparently made something weird together. Something called a 'clay tablet,' I think?"
"...Something weird? Damn it, I have no idea what's coming next! Bottom line, they're a pair. I'm taking them both. I'm not giving up either one to you."
And with that, the matter was settled. Corina stood up from the table to prepare dinner.
On the table remained a lamp, a small barrel for refills, and a plate of dried meat to accompany the drinks.
I gnawed on the slightly too salty dried meat while watching Benno refill his cup.
"Hey, Benno. Do you know anything about that disease Mine mentioned—where heat writhes inside your body?"
"..."
"A disease where heat runs wild inside your body, and you feel like you're being devored from within. I've never heard of anything like that."
The way Mine had reacted when she asked me about it made me think maybe Benno knew. Apparently he did. He was wrestling with whether to say it, his gaze drifting upward slightly.
After thinking it over, Benno murmured in a voice so quiet it was hard to catch—unusual for him.
"It might be Self-Eating. But I'm not certain."
"...Self-Eating? What's that?"
"It's not a disease, exactly. Magic Power accumulates inside you, and when it increases too much and there's nothing you can do about it, the Magic Power devours you."
"Wha—!? I thought Magic Power was something only nobles had?"
A word I'd never encountered in daily life came out of nowhere, and my eyes went wide.
Magic Power was supposedly a mysterious, powerful force that commoners didn't possess. It was rarely seen, so I didn't know much about it, but it was said that without Magic Power, you couldn't run a country.
That was precisely why nobles who possessed Magic Power stood above the citizenry and governed.
"...There aren't many, but there are people besides nobles who have Magic Power. The catch is that the Magical Tools needed to release it are expensive, so non-nobles basically can't use their Magic Power. That's the more accurate way to put it."
Benno, whose trading house had risen to the point of dealing with nobles, had deeper knowledge of the country's workings than I did.
"Hmm. So Mine had Magic Power. Is that why she's so unusual?"
"I told you, I'm not certain. But if it is Self-Eating, it would explain why that girl is so small for her age and collapses so easily."
"Is Magic Power... dangerous?"
I'd vaguely thought it was something wondrous and useful, but if Mine's frailty was caused by Magic Power, it sounded pretty dangerous.
"If, hypothetically, it is Self-Eating... without a Magical Tool, that girl would... die before long."
"Wh—!?"
The image of the doting foreman flashed through my mind, and I felt as though cold water had been thrown over me as I stared at Benno.
His expression was serious. He wasn't joking or teasing.
"They say the Magic Power that grows with you eventually devours your mind. Commoners without Magical Tools often don't survive to their Baptism Ceremony."
"Isn't there anything that can be done?"
Surely Benno must know of some solution. I asked with something close to desperation, and he ran a hand roughly through his hair and sighed.
"With a noble sponsor, you can borrow a Magical Tool, so death can be avoided. ...But you'd spend your entire life as a kept pet. Forced to use your power for that noble's benefit, existing for their sake alone. Whether it's better to die here with your family or live a life as a kept pet—I honestly can't say."
"..."
Benno's words were no comfort at all.
He was right—I couldn't tell which was better either. I didn't want Mine to die, but being kept as a noble's pet sounded equally miserable.
"They say the amount of power you can suppress depends on your willpower, so I don't know how long she'd last, but a child's mental strength probably wouldn't hold out that long. ...How do you think that girl is?"
"..."
Looking at Mine, she seemed strong-willed for a child. But whether that was enough to suppress Self-Eating—her own Magic Power—was impossible to say.
Even if she could hold it back now, as she grew her Magic Power would only grow stronger. When her breaking point came, no one would be able to predict it.
"Otto, don't take it too hard. It hasn't been confirmed as Self-Eating yet. Besides, if it really were Self-Eating, she'd be close to dying by now. She wouldn't have the kind of body that can walk around outside like that."
"Oh, right..."
A small measure of relief and an enormous wave of anxiety surged through my chest at the same time.
That's right—Mine had nearly died multiple times.
She'd only recently gained the ability to walk around outside, thanks to her efforts since spring. Before that, she'd been a child who could barely leave the house.
Was she really going to be okay?
Should I report this to the foreman?
The indescribable emotions swirling inside me, I washed down into my gut with a drink.