By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 18

Special: Eleonora’s Long Night

I woke up in my assigned housing. It was still late in the evening before midnight. Moonlight shone in through the window by my head, illuminating the room designed solely to be slept in.

There’s no need to turn on the lights. I climbed out of bed, boiled water with a magical item I brought in, and activated a soundproofing magical item. I waited for the water to boil without thinking of anything in particular.

Once it was ready, I steeped cheap tea in the hot water and sat on the edge of the bed. Breathing in the refreshing steam already warmed my body and relaxed my mind a little...but it didn’t last long. After I drank the warm cup of tea, any lingering drowsiness was taken over by boredom.

“Five hours until dawn. Seven hours until the day really starts... What to do?”

Any diurnal species should have been asleep at this hour. If I could fall asleep again I wouldn’t feel so bored, but that wasn’t in the cards for me. The majority of people could sleep through most of the night, but I didn’t need more than three hours. If I slept any longer, I would wake up groggy from oversleeping.

People often seemed concerned about my sleep pattern when I shared it with them, even though it wasn’t due to any illness, but something that has been part of my life since I was a child, perhaps due to habit. I didn’t even need to sleep three hours consecutively. If I were too busy for that, I just needed to take quick fifteen or thirty-minute naps several times. Even if I sleep less than three hours a night, I could go a week without feeling tired, and I could stay up for a few days in a row without sleeping at all. It was safe to say that I was a night owl.

I did not know why I was this way, but I’d read records of other people like me, including beastkin who lived a similar lifestyle as I did. My guess was that one of my ancestors was a beatskin of that kind. When I was younger, being different from my peers bothered me. Now, it didn’t bother me much at all. It only bored me.

“I think I’ve read all the books I’ve brought in...four times? A day or two is one thing, but it doesn’t take long to read them all when I have this much time on my hands.” Spending the extra time at night was the real challenge for me. Even if we were back in the city, walking outside would have been dangerous, and I wasn’t the type to wander around without a purpose. Since most of my neighbors were asleep, I had to refrain from using too much light or making too much sound.

In that sense, I was grateful for the structure of these rooms Master Takebayashi had built. Everyone was given their own room to improve our morale and quality of living, and each room came with its own bathroom. Bored as I was, I could at least move freely around my room.

“It’s much better than pretending to sleep until morning in a shared room... But I really don’t have anything to do. I used to have too much work, but now there’s not enough.”

Back in school, I spent the time studying. Even when I joined the military after marriage, there was an endless list of paperwork I could do. That’s why I’d brought in a magical item that could light up the room, keep the light within the room, and also soundproof it...but I hadn’t had much opportunity to use it yet. I appreciated my new boss, Master Takebayashi, for his kindness, but— No, I couldn’t dare complain when I’d been treated so well.

I, Eleonora Ransor, was once married to Baron Reefled. My family was a core participant in the attack on Gimul at the end of last year. My divorce would have been dishonorable enough without it, but my family’s scandal only made matters worse. By all laws of high society, my future was looking grim.

Fortunately, I had been spared by Duke Jamil. Because of my mistreatment by the baron, I was absolved from his part in the scandal and treated as an unwilling hostage. Even though I was still made to pay out restitutions, none of my family members were arrested, and we were allowed to keep our title, though that was all we had left. That decision, however, was made out of political calculation—the duke thought it would be beneficial for House Ransor to remain standing. Otherwise, regardless of my treatment in my marriage, my entire family would have been prosecuted.

If only we had, rather than be spared as a shell of our former state. My grip tightened on my mug, nearly spilling over its contents. “This won’t do... My feelings keep turning melancholy when I have nothing to do at night...” Pouring tea down my throat, I washed away the gloom.

It was fortunate that I was taken in by the duke and given a post as Master Takebayashi’s secretary. Considering my standing, my treatment was beyond generous. So much so that I’d often wondered the reason for it.

Master Takebayashi’s generosity extended beyond my living accommodations and into my work. Most recently, when I suggested that he should first consider his appearance as the duke’s engineer, he immediately agreed. If I had made a suggestion in the same manner to my ex-husband or his family, the fact that I had spoken my opinion alone would have irritated them, earning nothing but a sharp reminder to keep my mouth shut. I’d learned to accept no more than that as a wife, but it was a different story when I joined the military. As captain of a unit, I could not hold my tongue or sense when my soldiers’ lives hung in the balance. The Reefleds still attempted to refuse any suggestions I’d made, but they couldn’t ignore me as they usually did when it came to military business. As a result, it became routine for my suggestions to be torn apart, rejected over and over again, only to make me go through a meaningless revision before it was finally accepted. It wasn’t uncommon for me to turn in paperwork after revising a section I’d been told to correct, only for them to demand I reverse the correction and turn it in again.

These were different circumstances. Master Takebayashi wasn’t a monster like my ex-husband, and his organization had little room for middlemen. Still, he took my suggestion into action with decisive speed.

“I only made the suggestion last night. By this morning, changes had been made to the schedule, and he went to inspect the site this afternoon. So many things have happened in less than a day.”

Carme had told me that Master Takebayashi was quick to take action, but I hadn’t expected this. No one else could have—or even thought to—shorten his studies and practice of hexes to a single day. In addition, he used the spare time he carved out to build these lodgings and even cook for himself. After I gave him those documents, he not only read them overnight but returned them to me with a summary page (complete with cited page numbers) and a map of the mountain that marked important locations from the survey.

This afternoon, he followed Lord Veldoole to inspect the planned locations of new roads and the well. While there, he experimentally deforested part of the flatland to build a barracks for the goblins, which went far faster than I expected. In preparation, Master Takebayashi planned out each step with caution and attention to detail. Some may mistake it for stagnation, but once plans were set into motion, they were completed with astonishing speed. Now, I understood what Carme had told me when he said that I needed to become acclimated to Master Takebayashi’s work style—he meant the drastic shift in work speed.

“This isn’t something I could have prepared for. If I take a step back and think that we’re not progressing, I’ll fall behind in no time.” His rapid mastery of magic, instantaneous construction projects, not to mention his various objects research and developments... Those were all abilities that would easily prove his worth as the duke’s engineer in their own right. “I’ll go over plans for tomorrow.” I couldn’t sleep anyway. Instead of letting my thoughts get the better of me, I’d be better off doing something useful.

I stood from the bed and turned on the magical item I placed on the desk, which immediately brightened the room while coating the window in darkness to keep the light from spilling out. The same item also kept any sound contained in the room. While my eyes adjusted, I fetched my writing utensils and sat at the desk.

As Master Takebayashi’s assistant and secretary, I was ready to perform any task demanded of me. So far, I was finding the job even more rewarding than I’d hoped. I knew I wasn’t good at showing or speaking my emotions. I would show my gratitude through my work. If he completed work twice as fast as expected, I would calculate that into my preparations for the next task.

Writing out plans, calculating time frames, brainstorming what else needed to be done... This was how I spent another long night, occasionally stopping to pour a fresh cup of tea.