Short Story 8: Pantile Defies All Vice 5
*
“So? When are you going to die?”
After finishing breakfast, Shin asked while sipping the tea Chako had brewed at the table.
He saw Chako, who was pouring tea into Jenniferlin’s cup, give him a terrible look, and Shin nodded back with a feeling that conveyed, Leave it to me.
Chako’s expression became even more terrible.
Why? Shin almost tilted his head inwardly.
He had immediately noticed that Jenniferlin had been acting strangely since morning.
That Jenniferlin Pantile—the one Shin thought wouldn’t be surprising if, even before being born and letting out her first cry, she had apologized first, saying “Excuse me, I’m about to cry loudly, please be advised”—had opened her mouth as if to say something, only to stop herself multiple times.
If there was nothing wrong after all that, it would be nothing short of fraud.
Shin, having no memory of being so elaborately deceived by his friend, understood. Ah, so she’s worried about when her friend will die but can’t bring herself to ask.
Jenniferlin looked at Shin, surprised.
Leave it to me. Shin nodded back at Jenniferlin, and seeing this, Chako made an indescribable face.
“What a thing to ask an old woman whose time is short,” Cokes Candelight said in an exasperated voice, gently placing her cup back on its saucer.
“You don’t seem like the type to worry about such things,” Shin retorted nonchalantly. I get the same vibe from you, old lady.
“This is why adventurers… are unpopular with women.”
“Hey, stop that. Seriously, stop saying that to a thirteen-year-old boy. That’s a treaty violation, I’m sorry!”
As Shin instantly surrendered, Cokes let out a cackling laugh like a monstrous bird, “Keh keh keh.”
“You’ve still got a ways to go if you can’t respond with a smile. The man who was my husband, oh, he wooed me with such a wonderful smile.”
Jenniferlin spoke up as Cokes reminisced, implicitly boasting about being courted by such a man. Her voice was small, as if stunned.
“You were married?”
Seeing the girl’s anxious face, the old woman smiled quietly, while the boy tilted his head inwardly, unable to grasp the girl’s anxiety.
“It was a long time ago,” Cokes said, placing her clasped hands on the table and gazing at Jenniferlin. “So long ago that it would have decayed on its own without even needing to be thrown away.”
“Come to think of it, I never told you, did I?”
There wasn’t a shred of malice in her voice; on the contrary, it was undoubtedly filled with kindness.
But what she conveyed was terribly harsh.
In essence, no matter how many long years they had spent together as friends, there were plenty of stories left unheard, countless feelings left unshared.
Hearing this from a friend who was telling her she would die soon was hard to bear.
Though, from the perspective of Shin, an adventurer for whom it wasn’t unusual for someone you said ‘see you tomorrow’ to be dead the next day, this seemed quite gentle.
Shin gave a wry smile as his understanding caught up with Jen’s anxiety over the obvious fact that people, whether family or friends, could never truly talk everything out.
That aside.
He looked at his friend, who was showing her anxiety with unusual frankness.
“So, when are you going to die? Old lady,” Shin said irritably. Don’t torment my friend too much.
He decisively cut through the atmosphere where something important was clearly being exchanged between Jenniferlin and Cokes.
Oi, hag, do that kind of thing when you’re alone.
He conveyed the unspoken words with his gaze.
If you’re going to tell your companion something important, don’t drag another companion into it as an escape route.
“My, don’t you look rather cool even when you’re looking listless?”
Being teased by an old woman wasn’t pleasing.
Shin just shrugged it off.
Okay, got it, bro.
The old woman replied in a low voice, in the manner of adventurers.
“Three days from now.”
As the old woman stated the day of her death as if it were nothing, Shin frowned suspiciously.
Then, seeing Jenniferlin’s blatantly relieved expression, he cursed inwardly, Ah damn it, this old hag!
*
“I’m just stepping out to gather some firewood. I need help, so I’ll be borrowing Longdagger-sama.”
Saying this, Chako Candelight dragged Shin out without allowing any argument.
Her attitude was so commanding that not only Jenniferlin but even Cokes, and indeed Shin himself, simply went along with it as if it were perfectly normal.
Shin was even fired up, thinking, Alright, I’ll gather enough firewood to last the whole winter!
“Were you listening to me? Shin Longdagger-sama?”
Pushing Shin against a tree a short distance from the cabin, Chako placed both hands on either side of his head to prevent escape.
Perhaps due to anger, she seemed to use a bit too much force, and the tree groaned softly.
“Gathering firewood.”
Shin, inevitably looking up at her face close to his, answered succinctly.
This guy! Chako felt the sensation of wood crushing in her palm and took a deep breath to calm herself.
“I asked you! To please! Take care of! Young Lady Jenniferlin! Didn’t I!?”
“Ah,” the boy murmured.
Did it get through? Did he understand? Chako felt relieved.
If he hadn’t understood at this stage, it would mean she had made a huge mistake in choosing him.
“I handled it well, didn’t I?”
It didn’t get through!
She stopped herself just short of screaming from the sensation of her fingertips sinking into the raw wood.
Pulling her fingertips from the tree, Chako wriggled her hands, hoping this hard-to-express emotion would somehow reach the boy.
“That was the worst!”
The words that came out were less than a hundredth of her feelings.
“What is wrong with you!? How could you possibly think that was handling it well!? You’re a noble, right? You are a noble? Can nobles really live trampling over sensitivity like that? Do you have some kind of grudge against sensitivity!?”
“Why does everyone want to make me the enemy of sensitivity?”
“Because a normal person, if told all this, wouldn’t question it and would have enough sensitivity to be at least a little hurt!”
Shin’s face looked so purely puzzled that Chako’s voice came out unexpectedly calm.
Those words do sting a little, Shin said, leaning his head back against the tree behind him. Chako took a step back in response.
“But I was just skillfully used by the old lady.”
Seeing Shin looking exasperated, almost as if claiming he was the victim, Chako couldn’t help tilting her head.
“What do you mean?”
Shin didn’t seem like he was just putting on a victim act to escape blame, so Chako asked impulsively.
At her voice, Shin looked displeased, yet spoke with a face that seemed to accept something.
“It means it looks like I’ll have to keep my promise right away.”