Prologue — Name

Lady Douve Sepaeda is my employer and the daughter of House Sepaeda, one of the Four Great Houses of the Arcana Kingdom. After realizing her marriage prospects were beginning to dim, Lady Douve had the fortune to run into Magyan Tahlan, prince of a distant kingdom.

Magyan Tahlan earnestly wishes for me, Sansui Shirokuro, to accept him as my apprentice. I decline on the grounds that I’m not yet considered fully trained by my Master, but rather than giving up, he next asks for an audience with my Master. A few other people mentioned their desire to meet him, so I will be leading them to the woods where my Master resides. However, there’s something I need to take care of before we set out.

With Lady Douve and Blois standing witness, I have a few things to explain to my daughter, Lain.

“Lain, you’re a bright girl. I’m sure you’ve long suspected it...but you and I aren’t related by blood.”

It’s something that’s long been the subject of gossip by House Sepaeda’s household servants, and Lain herself is bright and perceptive. I’m sure she’s already aware that families are ordinarily connected by blood.

What happened before I joined House Sepaeda... Why I’m raising Lain, a girl with whom I’ve no blood relation... These are things I need to explain to her.

“...Yup.”

“Even then, I’ve raised you like you were my own child, and I’ve tried to give you the best life I could. I think you’re aware of that, too.”

“Yup. Papa is Papa.”

If one of Lain’s parents were to show up tomorrow, I think neither of them would have any room for complaint about the life Lain’s led so far. I think she’s grown to be a child who anyone would be proud of, and she behaves like a model young lady. I couldn’t have prepared a better environment for her to grow up in, and I doubt anyone else could have done better. That’s one thing for which I owe House Sepaeda quite a lot.

“I think no one bothered to ask until now, because it was obvious we weren’t actually related...but let me tell you how I came to be your father.”

It’s clear that Lain isn’t my biological child, whether on the basis of my apparent age or by the simple observation that we’re clearly of different ethnicities.

Which is why no one at House Sepaeda asked me for details. Honestly, I wonder what they really thought about it. The fact that they didn’t pry...that’s something I certainly appreciate.

It may have been a consequence of their high opinion of me, based on my strength, my lack of ambition, and my loyalty.

That there were no incidents of missing children within the Arcana Kingdom might also have helped, too.

“...Okay.”

“I had been training with my Master in a forest within the Arcana Kingdom’s current borders, from before the kingdom itself existed all the way up until five years ago.”

Yes, five years ago. It’s been five years since I joined mortal society. Both Lady Douve and Blois show interest in my autobiography.

“Five years ago, as my Master and I were training in the woods, we felt the presence of another human being for the first time in five hundred years. It was you...and another woman.”

Lain seems to be bracing herself for something, but I don’t have enough details to hold back any shocking revelations.

“My Master and I thought that she was a lost traveler and made our way to that presence, but...she had already been attacked by a pack of wolves. By the time we arrived, the woman who had been carrying you had already died of her wounds.”

I refrain from mentioning that, at the time, I felt a little bad for the wolves and that I’d interrupted their meal. In all seriousness, my Master and I had both felt rather uneasy about leaving the wolves hungry, but there was no need to talk about that here.

“I don’t know if that woman was your mother or your nursemaid. All I know is that she died to protect you.”

“...”

“If you’d had the talent to become an Immortal, we might have raised you in those woods, but you didn’t have an Immortal Aura. That is why my Master instructed me to raise you among other mortals.”

“...So, Papa, that means...”

“Yes. I didn’t know anything about you. I decided to become your father to carry on the wishes of the woman who had wandered into the woods, then died to protect you.”

I see Lady Douve and Blois nodding in understanding. It seems the two of them already expected the story to be something along those lines.

“Even if you wanted to learn about your past, I’m afraid that I couldn’t tell you anything you might want to know. I’m sorry...”

I adopted a child I’d found. There was no other reason or connection behind it. Well aware of my lack of desire and ambition, the three of them don’t see any reason to doubt my account. Which squares with them never asking me anything in the past.

“Um...”

“What is it?”

“Well, what about my name? Why is my name Lain?”

“...”

“Papa, why are you looking away?”

Blois and Lady Douve also look faintly irritated.

“Lain...you’re my daughter. I’m the one who named you.”

“Gotcha. So why did you name me Lain?”

Seems my daughter just wants to know where her name comes from.

“Miss Blois’s name means ‘creator of wind.’ And Lady Douve is named for a great person from history, she said...”

“I see. My name...it means ‘plentiful nature.’”

My Master’s name apparently means ‘ink-brush drawing.’

“And what does my name mean? When did you name me?”

“It means ‘the rain’... I named you right before introducing you to House Sepaeda.”

“And why did you name me after the rain? Was it raining that day?”

“It wasn’t raining the day we met, Sansui. Isn’t that right, Blois?”

“Yes, I recall that it was a beautiful cloudless day.”

I feel intense scrutiny behind the gaze Lady Douve and Blois direct my way. I guess they’re of an age where these things are important. I can’t help but reflect a bit on my serenity, or, more precisely, my lack of interest in the finer details or exact reasons.

“...Well, after five hundred years in those woods, I didn’t have a good sense of the mortal world. I’d never met anyone other than my Master, and, well, I had a greater tendency toward a certain obliviousness than I do now.”

“And?”

“I couldn’t think of any nouns other than nature related words.”

Lain is really clearly upset. But I couldn’t help that. After five centuries of doing practice swings, you start losing sight of other human sensibilities like names... To have to name a girl under those circumstances, well... I mean, that’s asking for the impossible.

“I thought it would be better than a variation of Forest, Stone, Cloud, Wolf, Rabbit, Leaf, or Wood...”

“...Did you think it through?”

“No, it’s just what came to mind.”

“Papa, I hate you!”

What do I do? There’s really not any room for further understanding here. I mean, I wasn’t really thinking about a name when I found her, and I named her because I wanted to make sure I could answer the question if asked. And I went through with it quickly because I didn’t want them thinking I was a kidnapper.

Which means, dear daughter of mine, that I had no time to think. Although, it’s an open question as to whether or not I would have thought more carefully if I’d had the time.

“I’m an idiot, sure. But I swear I’ve raised you like I would my own flesh and blood. You’re my daughter. That’s the truth.”

“Now’s not the time!” Lain says tearfully. Seems she’s realized I named her without putting much thought behind the name.

Yes, that’s my daughter. Sharp!

“I figured that it would be something like that. You really are dull.”

“...Frankly, I have to admit that even I’m taken aback by that one, Sansui.”

Thinking about it, I think this is the first time I’ve earned the ire of all three of them at once.

Names are really important, actually. I mean, my name being really old-fashioned was how I wound up dead, after all.

“Uh, so why don’t we say this is your childhood name and rechristen you when you’re grown up?”

“So you’ve been calling me by some random name all this time!”

“...House Sepaeda provided a nursemaid and a tutor, but I still like to think I’ve been able to act like your father all this time.”

“That has nothing to do with giving me a random, throwaway name, does it?”

Still, in spite of us not being related by blood, that we can have this sort of father-daughter like argument is evidence we’re a proper family in spite of it all.

That she had a sense I’d named her without a lot of deep thought, well, that’s a sign that we understand one another really well.

“Papa! You’re thinking up some excuse to defend yourself in your head, aren’t you!”

Ah ha. Despite not being an Immortal, she can read what’s in my heart. That’s my daughter!