Chapter 7: At the Border Province

 

 

 

Chapter 7: At the Border Province

 

DEAR Ed,

How are you?

It’s already been ten days since I arrived at my grandfather’s house. Tigger’s gotten pretty used to everything here—there are fewer and fewer new places for him to explore in the house. But there’s still so much for us to discover when we go outside for a walk every day.

Our favorite place right now is the rocky coast by the sea. There are these tiny fish and sea anemones that live in the tidepools there, and Tigger tries to catch them, but he hasn’t been able to yet. He looks into the pools with such intense concentration, and he tries his best, but the fish are really good at swimming away.

He was a little scared of going up to the water’s edge at first, but he’s fine with it now. Cats are supposed to hate getting wet, but it doesn’t seem to bother Tigger—he bats his front paws at the waves. He was doing it yesterday, too, but then a huge wave suddenly crashed right into us! Yes… We both had to walk back to the house sopping wet…

My mother just laughed and said, “You’re already wet—why not just go for a swim?”

Tigger was really shocked that the seawater was salty. He made such a funny face when he tried licking himself clean! Don’t worry, though. We went inside right away and washed it all off.

I found another pretty seashell, though. I put it in my glass bottle. I’ll collect a lot of them to show you when I get back to the royal capital.

My father hasn’t been able to come yet, but my brother and my magic teacher should be arriving shortly, so things should be getting a little less boring soon!

You told me in your last letter that you hoped I’d write more casually, so I tried to tone things down in this letter. Is this casual? It probably just sounds weird, doesn’t it?

Sincerely,

Amy

🐾🐱🐾

AMY Northland folded and rolled up her letter, written on slightly thinner paper than usual, stuffed it securely into the cylinder tied to Roodle’s leg, and fastened the cylinder’s cap.

Roodle had finished eating and resting and was practically bouncing with excitement to fly again. Amy gave him a thank-you forehead scratch. The bird hooted in response and swiftly took off.

“Ah… Another beautiful day for flying.”

From the second-story veranda, Amy watched Roodle as he seemed to shrink smaller and smaller, finally getting swallowed up by the blue skies around him. Tigger sat beside Amy, watching the sky, too.

“Well, Tigger, Harold should be getting here any moment now. Shall we go outside?”

The cat squeaked out a meow and followed Amy out of the room.

Amy and Isabelle were staying in the scenic, bustling seaside town of Wallum, which was governed by Amy’s grandfather, the Margrave of Wallum.

Ever since Amy was little, they had come to her mother’s hometown once a year, usually for about two months, although sometimes they ended up staying for three or more. Amy looked forward to the trip every year.

With seas to its northern and western borders and a massive roadway connecting the major inland areas, the Kingdom of Luducia was often in contact with other kingdoms and was an international trade hub. They also had flourishing agriculture and processing industries, but trade was the cornerstone of their economy.

That was largely the reason why the royal family had married most of their children off to nobles from foreign kingdoms for many generations. Even Prince Edward’s two older brothers were arranged to marry royalty from allied kingdoms.

Maritime trade held considerable influence and leverage among the international trade routes, and Wallum was one of the vital seaside cities in Luducia. Although it was located in a remote region, Wallum had one of the highest populations in the kingdom and was overseen by Isabelle’s father, Rudolf.

However, the people of Wallum were very different from the citizens of the royal capital. They were incredibly open and unreserved, with almost no perceptible differences between the nobles and the commoners.

Storms occurred seasonally every year, and in the past, there had been several huge disasters. Given its location, many seamen and merchants from foreign kingdoms made their homes in Wallum, and there was simply no time to fret over titles or nationalities each time a disaster occurred.

These circumstances—paired with the unconventionally forthright and rough personality of its feudal lord—made Wallum an unpretentious, lively gateway to trade in the region.

The margrave’s estate was built on a cliff by the sea. At the highest point on the grounds was a tower with a light at the very top, which could function as a lighthouse when needed.

Wallum had its own private, small army both for defense and to assist during natural disasters. Lodgings and facilities for it were located on the adjacent plot, where they also conducted exercises, but the margrave’s estate was frequently used for meetings and briefing sessions.

As Amy was going down the stairs, her grandfather and some of his commanding officers were just coming out of one of the meeting rooms, right beside the grand house’s exit.

“Oh, Amy! Heading outside?” her grandfather asked brightly.

“Yes, Grandpa. Harold and everyone from his school are about to arrive any momen—”

Amy had assumed he was merely walking up to her, but then he suddenly grabbed both of her arms. One second she was standing on the floor—the next, she was hoisted above his head.

Amy couldn’t tell whether his hair was silver-blond or just gray, but his short hair was very shiny. His skin was tanned and weathered, hardened by the sea air and sun. Despite his advanced age, his body was strong, and his rolled-up sleeves revealed scars from a lifetime of battles. He looked quite frightening and could easily pass as the captain of a pirate ship, but to Amy, he was just Grandpa.

Although he was very similar to Marvin physically, they had very different personalities—where Marvin was all subdued teasing and politeness, her grandfather was bombastic and direct.

“Grandpa! I-I’m not a little kid anymo— Ahhh!”

“Bahaha! Oh, don’t say that!”

Amy was much heavier than she ever had been before, but he still managed to hoist and twirl her around with ease.

Rudolf, who doted on his granddaughter, was just happy to have Amy’s arms around him, dizzy and frazzled though she may be. One of the soldiers looked taken aback by the show of affection, but many other subordinates, including some commanding officers, looked on with smiles on their faces, as if this happened all the time.

It was true that the feudal lord was as fierce as a demon in times of crisis, but he was just a regular old man in front of his grandchildren.

“G-Grandpa! Aren’t your arms tired?”

“I would be able to carry you even if you were ten times heavier! You used to be so skinny I’d worry about you blowing away in the wind!”

“I told you last time, I won’t be blown away!”

When he finally put her down, Amy wobbled over to Tigger and hugged him. She dearly loved her grandfather, and she usually loved running into him randomly like that, but it was very nauseating getting suddenly and quickly spun around. Amy was very grateful she hadn’t just eaten.

“Oh, Tigger… Your fluffiness is so soothing…”

Just as she buried her face in the cat’s neck, her grandfather noticed a commotion outside. Harold and the others had arrived.

“Harold’s carriage is here. Are you two coming, too?”

“Yeah! The wait is over, Tigger!”

And with that, everyone finally filed outside.

Every year, students from the Royal Academy came to this town as part of a special field trip. They came to get hands-on experience with their chosen field of study, be it international trade, ship making, navigation and steering, or foreign languages. Many of the sons of high-ranking nobles visited to study territorial governance or disaster preparedness. Welcoming these students was one part of the margrave’s job.

Any student who wanted to, regardless of their rank in society, could come study in Wallum as long as they passed their exams. The cost depended on the length of their stay, but participation was pretty cheap, so many students came every year.

Amy didn’t know any of the students personally in the prior years, but this year was a little different. This year Harold was visiting Wallum not as the margrave’s grandson but as one of the students on a field trip.

Carriages bearing students had already pulled up as the welcoming party fanned out onto the wide front lawn of the estate. Harold, barely able to contain his impatience, got off the first carriage.

“WOO-HOO! Here we are!”

“Hal, take it down a notch…”

“That’s not a very warm welcome, dear sister! And after all the injuries I suffered to help you get Tigger…”

“That has nothing to do with anything! And you shouldn’t have been so reckless, anyway!”

“I know, I know. Mother’s scolding is much worse than any magical beast… Right, Tigger?” he added, reaching out to pet him.

Tigger deftly avoided his hand. Harold had only stayed at the Northland house on the occasional weekend, so the cat hadn’t yet acknowledged him as part of the family.

Harold was soberly stunned at Tigger’s aversion, but he had no time to prolong his heartbreak over it—a terrifying laugh rang out from behind his back.

“What was that you were saying about me again?”

Both siblings jumped. It was like their mother had appeared out of thin air. Isabelle crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Harold, who turned around and immediately apologized.

“I come all the way out here to welcome you, just to hear you speaking so rudely of your mother. I came to tell you a kraken has appeared, but I’m sure you’d rather stay home, wouldn’t you, Hal?”

“What?! Wait—that’s not true! I came all the way here to test my skills!”

Currents from the open ocean flowed into the Sea of Wallum, so fishing was a thriving industry in Wallum. Trade was paramount, though, so large fishing vessels were prohibited; a sizeable chunk of the population went out on small boats instead. But both small fishing boats and large merchant vessels shared a common grievance—aquatic magical beasts. And wherever you found magical beasts, whether in the ocean, on land, or deep in dungeons, you were sure to also find a type of adventurer called hunters.

Harold came here this year as part of a hunter field trip.

Amy glanced at her brother, still pleading with Isabelle, then looked around. Her grandfather and the teacher chaperones were introducing the students filing out of the carriages to their mentors in Wallum. They were explaining the standard order of business, like if anything happened to them, they could always come to Margrave Wallum, and that the teachers would be periodically dropping in during the students’ practicums. The students listened with excited faces, nodding along, before dispersing to the places where they were staying.

After a while, all the students had left, and only two students besides Harold remained. These three were the only ones who came here as hunters, whose lodgings were the barracks on the adjacent plot of land.

Amy knew the two other students because Harold had often brought them over to the Northland house. They were kind, unassuming identical twin brothers, Gilbert and Nicholas.

“A kraken, huh? I wonder what size it is. What do you think, Gil?”

“I hope it’s a big one, anyhow,” Gil said. Even their voices sounded the same. “Those are the ones really worth hunting. But I heard they’ll let us join up with the Frontier Army Hunting Unit. Right, Harold?”

Harold had finally escaped from Isabelle’s scolding and joined in on the conversation.

“That’s right. I heard we’ll be heading out first thing tomorrow. You too, Amy. You’ll wait on the beach on standby in case we need healing.”

Amy’s eyebrows shot up.

“Wait—are you serious? I mean, I guess that’s fine, but…please don’t get hurt if you don’t have to.”

This was the first she was hearing of this, but if they thought her healing magic would help, she didn’t see a reason to refuse. She nodded.

“Your healing magic is really good—it doesn’t hurt at all,” Nick said.

“Yeah, you’re even better than the doctors at school,” added Gil. “You’d be a big help.”

As Gil and Nick took turns giving her a pat on the head and thanking her for helping them out, Tigger, who was practically glued to her ankles, tapped her with his tail. He seemed to be getting bored.

Now that the reception was over, Amy wondered if they could go on a walk before the sun set. But before she finished her thought, she suddenly felt like someone was looking at her.

Amy twitched in surprise and slowly turned her eyes to where Tigger was looking.

Huh…?

In front of the estate was a road lined with trees. Someone was standing in the shade of those trees, looking at her.

Then, perhaps noticing that Amy and Tigger were looking back, they spun around and ran off.

“Hm? Is something wrong, Amy?”

“Oh— No, it’s nothing… Probably.”

I wonder why they were there… My heart’s beating so fast…

She couldn’t see their face because they were so far away, but Amy was pretty sure it was a girl around the same age as her (judging by her height), wearing a plain dress.

“She had such beautiful pink blonde hair…”

She had clearly seen the girl’s long hair, down to her back, fluttering in the wind…

That was the hair color of a heroine.

🐾🐱🐾

AMY had intended on going down to the beach for a leisurely stroll, but she ended up turning around and heading back inside.

In her room, sitting at her vanity, her fist clenched over her erratically beating heart. She let out a deep breath and stared at herself in the mirror. The weight she had recently put on had altered her appearance a little, but her naturally chilly, sharp features were still visible. Not to mention, of course, her golden eyes and dark straight hair…

She grabbed some of this hair with a chubby hand.

“I can’t delude myself anymore—I’m the villainess.”

Pink blonde. That was how the heroine’s hair was often described in the villainess-style novels Amy used to read. All she needed was blue or green eyes to check all the boxes.

The heroine would start out as a commoner. But then she’d get adopted by an aristocrat because of her incredible magical prowess or something like that, and then it would later be revealed that she was actually their long-lost daughter or granddaughter! The cliché was so overdone that Amy didn’t find it strange that the girl had been standing there in commoner’s clothing.

But…

Amy shook her head.

Everyone in town knew that the students were going to arrive today. People come to watch them arrive every year. She might have just been passing by as I looked up.

Isabelle would take every opportunity to tell her that her life here had nothing to do with the games and stories in her head, but Amy just couldn’t totally convince herself of that yet. Not when Harold, Edward, and Alexander were irrefutable carbon copies of the illustrations of the characters in that game.

Not only that, but Amy was born with a naturally high magical aptitude and was a noblewoman in the running to become engaged to a prince. These were common features of villainess characters. Incidentally, because the prince had not yet officially decided on a fiancée, Amy was still considered a candidate.

Amy thought she and Edward had developed a good relationship as friends over their conversations about animals. As things were now, Edward had already started conducting official business as the Third Prince and was also limited in what he could do in his free time, so they had mostly been exchanging letters instead of meeting in person.

She hadn’t had much contact with Alexander, either, but she would sometimes meet him when she’d take Tigger to the duke’s estate to play. He’d offer her sweets and they’d spend time together in their private, pretend cat café, just like they always did.

Far from when he had first accosted her with his condescending attitude, Amy now felt like she had gained another older brother. They talked to each other so comfortably, she was sure he didn’t harbor any hatred or revulsion toward her.

There was also her brother, Harold, potentially the secret character from the game…

Amy hadn’t broken off contact with the suspected love interests of the game, but her relationships with them were actually pretty good. As long as she looked at only her objective reality, there was no reason for her to feel anxious or uneasy. The problem was that she couldn’t shake off her lingering worries…

Her shadow stretched under the setting sun streaming in through the window. She had been sitting at her vanity for quite some time. Tigger put his front paws on her lap, trying to get her attention.

“Oh, Tigger! I’m sorry. You wanted to play in the waves, didn’t you?”

When Amy put her arms around the cat’s neck and hugged him, he nuzzled his fluffy head against her cheek.

She tried focusing on her objective reality.

Tigger’s soft fur. His alert ears. His twitching whiskers. His warm body. The weight of his paws on her lap…

Tears began to spill out of Amy’s eyes.

“Tigger… What should I do?”

She couldn’t help it—she was terrified.

There were a few terrifying “family downfall” tropes that she remembered, but what scared her more than anything else was the thought of the people around her suddenly changing because of the “invisible hand of the game.”

The people she considered her friends—even her family—might one day do an about-face and turn their backs on her. And if their hearts could be changed by an outside force, would all of this have been for nothing?

Amy was so scared she couldn’t stop crying.

She sobbed to herself, trying in vain to catch her breath. Then something large, rough, and damp rubbed against her cheek.

“Huh?”

She felt it again.

“Tigger…”

She blinked in surprise. Tigger was licking away her tears. Carefully, he licked at her other cheek, too.

Tigger’s sandpaper tongue was slightly painful against her skin. But Amy didn’t push him away—being licked by a cat is an act of love.

They lick when they’re grooming their babies, when they’re doting on something, when they’re concerned and giving comfort…

Humans have thin skin around their eyes, after all, so it really did start to hurt a little. But Amy could see herself reflected in Tigger’s gold eyes, and she laughed despite her puffy, red eyes.

“…Thank you, Tigger. I love you so much.”

Pain is an unmistakable reminder of reality.

She didn’t know what the future would hold, but the present was here and now, with Amy and Tigger together.

Amy suddenly lapsed into silence as she realized…her fear came from her lack of confidence.

She was ashamed at her own weakness, at a single glimpse of pink blonde hair sending her into such distress. One person having pink blonde hair didn’t make anything final.

What had she seen and heard with her own eyes and ears so far?

She had always been so frightened of the thought that it might be the world from her otome game, she had only been able to halfheartedly accept anything else—her mother’s insistence that it wasn’t true, the genuine feelings of her family, the behavior of Edward and Alexander…

Under all those circumstances, it would be absurd to make assumptions or predictions about the future.

“All right… I’ll try to keep my chin up, Tigger.”

I want to get stronger.

She wanted to come to grips with this world and live her life to the fullest in the present.

But to do that, Amy first had to shape up.

Because whether it was an otome game or not, anything she could objectively feel was her personal reality.

Amy recalled her mother’s words again.

“So, Amy… What do you want to do?”

I want a cat. I want a bird and a dog, too… I want animals.

Because that had been the dream from her previous life, which she had never been able to fulfill.

And what about her life now? Was she really all right using this life just to satisfy every regret from the last one?

What did Amy—not her previous self—want to do?

“I…”

A torrent of questions flooded her mind.

Just what am I? Why am I here, living again? Why do I have these memories of my previous life?

But she was sure her mother would just laugh at her and say, “What are you getting so worked up about? Surely you don’t need a reason for being alive or for wanting to be happy, do you?”

Amy’s tears had stopped. She snuggled her cheeks against Tigger and hugged him tightly.

Fluffy…warm…soft… His sweet voice. His shyness. His tail. Amy loved everything about him.

Her thoughts spun in circles, but they always came back to the same places. Her previous life. Villainesses. Bad endings. Reverse harems.

I’d rather have a cat!

🐾🐱🐾

WITH her heart thus decided, the switch was quick. If Hannah were there and knew what had happened, she would think, Like mother, like daughter…

I want animals—that was Amy’s greatest desire, and she wouldn’t make it play second fiddle to anything else anymore.

Amy had changed her body to sabotage her chances of being the prince’s fiancée. But in the end, she still maintained a friendship with the prince, and Edward didn’t seem to be the type who cared what weight his friends were.

It was a bit of a letdown, but in the unlikely event she became his fiancée, she was sure the civil officials and the other aristocrats would loudly voice their opposition to it. But even if the prince weren’t involved, Amy didn’t want to return to being skinnier than a stick.

“I mean…my magical power is a lot more stable the way I am now, isn’t it?” Amy asked Tigger.

She was still sitting in front of the vanity, hugging the cat. One arm still wrapped around him, she stretched the other out in front of her.

When she turned her palm upward and started imbuing her hand with magic, small droplets—almost like a fine mist—started to gather and faintly glow over her palm. The next moment, they softly swirled and circled into a ball the color of the sun.

As Amy held it out in front of Tigger, he watched it with sparkling eyes. She smiled.

“We missed our chance to go to the beach today because of me, so let’s play with this!”

Amy tossed the ball toward a corner of the room with a playful shout, and Tigger dashed nimbly after it.

The ball of light landed with a plop on the rug, then started scuttling around the floor like a mouse, winding under the bed, flitting in and out of the curtains, darting behind the chest…

The glowing ball moved here and there at the direction of Amy’s fingertips, its speed oscillating between slow and fast. The afterimage left from the light resembled a tail, making it really look like some sort of living creature.

Amy’s magic teacher—Professor Pop-Pop (Sir Dion)—was the one who taught Amy how to create the photosphere, but the first time he had seen her playing with it like this, he had been rendered speechless.

When it finally dawned on him that she really had been using the photosphere as a cat toy, though, he had roared with laughter. Her creativity and playfulness were some of the things he liked most about her.

Just creating a photosphere was possible for a ten-year-old like Amy. But the magic power required to sustain it—and further, to control it with ease—was difficult to generate for bodies that were still growing. You needed a sturdy body to amass more magic power.

Healing and purification magic both consumed a fair amount of magic power, too.

Her father, who had the same predisposition to allergies as Amy, had one day mentioned how his nose itched when he was around Tigger when he was being brushed. This was luckily a false positive—not an actual allergic reaction, but memories of his past life making him feel like he had an itchy nose. But even so, in a world with few doctors, Amy thought it would be incredibly useful to be able to cure slight maladies on her own.

Then she could help the servants when they got colds, or the seemingly never-ending injuries on Harold. She also wanted to be able to heal animals like Roodle with magic whenever it was needed.

Amy’s healing magic had a reputation among the servants for being particularly effective.

“Things might be different when I’m older, but right now I need my body like this… Tigger—take that!” she said, redirecting the ball.

At long last, Tigger finally caught the photosphere under his front paw. The sun-colored light fizzled out. Tigger looked up at Amy with a mixture of satisfaction and regret.

Amy ran up to him and gave him a tight hug.

“You got it, Tigger! You’re so good at this game!”

“…Well now, they really are two peas in a pod…”

Isabelle, curious about the strange sounds coming from Amy’s room, had peeked inside. She smiled warmly at the charming scene.

Amy and Tigger were holding each other, but she wasn’t petting or fawning over him… No, they were rolling around the floor as they clung to each other, Amy squealing and giggling with pure delight.