2
Years passed since Petra found her dream, and now Petra was twelve years old.
At this age, not only the mind changed but the body as well. It was a time when girls began to bloom slowly, not with childish cuteness, but with the beauty of a woman.
Though still a little bud, Petra’s prized charm was alive and well—in fact, she had carefully nurtured it (and her self-awareness) until they grew to impressive new heights.
And this twelve-year-old Petra was still the center of attention in the village. The adults called her clever and cute in turn. But alone in her room, her cheeks puffed with dissatisfaction.
The reason was her dream.
The shock that consumed her by chance that fateful day grew bigger and bigger with every passing month. Two years later, her treasure was still carefully tucked away, every bit as vibrant as before.
And as a once-vague desire took definite shape, Petra realized what her dream was.
When she grew up, she would move to the royal capital and make clothes for a living.
She would drape herself in pretty fabric to her heart’s content and make the cutest and most dashing clothes. The beautiful bolts of fabric that stole her gaze that day had helped Petra realize what her dearest wish was.
Upon further consideration, she might have only disliked the marquis because she didn’t like his fashion sense. It was truly terrible. Textile blasphemy.
Ultimately, her feelings about the marquis and his outfits were inconsequential. The actual source of Petra’s dissatisfaction ran much deeper. When she started practiced sewing, most people around her didn’t seem to approve.
Especially the other children. Their reactions were truly deplorable. Whenever she tried to talk about the future with them, they never said what she wanted to hear.
Luca just dribbled snot out of his nose while declaring he was going to be a lumberjack like his dad, and Mildo thought very hard until his stomach growled. When Dyne and Cain heard that Petra planned to leave the village one day, they fought constantly over who would get to marry her. And she loved Meyna like a sister, but whenever Petra mentioned leaving for the royal capital, she would burst into tears.
That was when Petra had her first real taste of loneliness.
The other children relied on Petra, but Petra had no friends to rely on. And talking to adults about her dream without them laughing at her was a struggle.
What could possibly be the meaning of this? It was so dreadfully lonely being pretty.
To Petra, who had gotten everything she wanted just by being pretty, this was a hard truth to swallow. Finding a hurdle that could not be cleared with prettiness was Petra’s first major setback in life.
In the end, Petra kept her dream and her struggles to herself. Her days were now filled with a new struggle. Maybe when she grew up a little more and got prettier, everything would work out.
She took solace in entrusting this hope on her future self.
Then one day, another strange chance encounter found Petra, at that very difficult age of twelve.
It happened while she and her friends were on their way to the nearby stream to fish for kreyfish. Since she didn’t want to get her clothes dirty, Petra was originally going to watch, but she still loved being with her friends. Though she secretly held her fears for the future in her chest, that was no problem at the moment—
Then it happened.
“Hey, you over there! Yeah, you kids! Do you know where the head of the village might be?!”
A very pushy boy with black hair came out of nowhere, calling to them. He had unsettling eyes and a slack expression. He was grinning like a fool, but he was also dressed well—meaning he was horribly mismatched. His face wasn’t good enough for his nice clothes.
But thanks to his strange appearance, Petra could immediately guess where he was from.
“Oh, are you by any chance the new servant at the marquis’s manor?”
“Yeah, that’s right! Way to go, Petra! So smart! So cute! My favorite villager!”
“Um…did I ever give you my name?”
“Urgh!”
The boy stopped his excited clapping and groaned awkwardly at Petra’s critical stare. A total stranger had just called her by name, which raised all sorts of red flags for Petra. She was also still ticked off by the way his loud voice had startled her. How in the world had he learned her name?
“Uhhh, you know how I know! It’s that thing! You’re the most beautiful girl in the village! Tales of Petra’s bravery echo far and wide outside of Earlham Village! Even in Roswaal Manor! Get it?”
“Oh…in the marquis’s mansion? Oh dear…I’m…I’m so embarrassed…!”
Just moments ago, the boy was unsteady and panicking, but when he saw Petra’s hands shyly snap to her cheeks, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Well, that just makes sense! Totally normal! And let me tell you, you’re a hundred times prettier than the stories say. Ha-ha-ha!”
And as the boy carried on, Petra continued to be embarrassed…on the surface. All the while, she was carefully scrutinizing his reactions.
Though his clothing made him look like a respectable servant at a mansion, she still didn’t trust him. Once, the mansion had a male guest who stared at Petra and her friends a lot. Though that guest had a handsome face and dressed well, something about his gaze had been very unsettling.
And upon a closer glance, that man and this boy wore the same clothes. Though she was startled that the same garment could look so starkly different depending on who wore it, carelessness was her biggest enemy. Her prettiness put her in danger.
“My name is Subaru Natsuki! A plucky butler in training! I started working at Roswaal Manor only yesterday. I hope we all can be good friends!”
Oblivious to Petra’s wariness, the boy—Subaru—introduced himself with much fanfare. There wasn’t even a hint of an adult’s composure in him, and all his excessive jumping around didn’t suggest that he’d had a good upbringing. Petra quickly got the sense that he was messing with her because she was just a child, and the way he casually entered her personal space rubbed her the wrong way.
In brief, Petra’s first impression of Subaru was terrible.
However, perhaps amused by the demeanor that was neither childish nor mature, Luca and Mildo immediately warmed up to him, and to Petra’s dismay, they became fast friends. That meant Petra, as the representative of all the village children, would be obligated to accept him, too.
“So…you want to see the village head? What business do you have?”
“Well, my senior maid asked me to deliver something. So, guess I’m a delivery boy!”
“Hmph. Understood. Then I’ll take you to the village elders.”
With Luca on his back and Mildo and Dyne tugging at his clothes, Subaru smiled awkwardly as Petra showed him the way. Petra couldn’t help thinking he was a pushover for not getting angry at their childish antics like he should have.
Incidentally, the head of the village was technically Elder Milde, but Petra made it a point to bring Subaru to Milde’s younger brother, Lasfume, who looked more like a village chief.
He’ll probably get chewed out at the mansion later for going to the wrong person. Heh, funny.
The next day, the new hire at the mansion was the talk of the town. It was a small village. Nothing scandalous ever happened, but that meant the most trivial of news spread in the blink of an eye. Especially when it came to the servants of Roswaal Manor, who visited the village regularly on shopping trips. This was somebody whom they would be seeing a lot of in the coming months and years, so it was only natural they wanted to know more about him.
“Well, I’m not sure what he’s like, exactly. Oh, but he doesn’t seem like a bad person, at least,” Petra answered vaguely when her parents asked her about him.
Since she had been the one to show him around the day before, quite a few people were coming to her about the rumors. The other children got questions as well, but Petra was the one the adults trusted most.
Subaru hadn’t left a very good impression on her, but it would be bad for her to give a different answer from the other kids. Being pretty sure was difficult. After a day of interrogations, Petra was all sighs.
“Huh…? Haven’t seen her around before.”
After Petra slipped away from the adults and retreated to the outskirts of the village, her eyes widened in surprise. There was a girl with light brown hair in pigtails—this was now her second day in a row encountering a stranger.
“Whatcha doing here all by yourself?” she asked.
“Uh…”
Compared with yesterday’s visitor, Petra felt no hesitation in approaching the unfamiliar girl, who turned around at the sound of Petra’s voice. And in Petra’s eyes, she was a little—or actually very—pretty.
Her clothes were plain, and she wore no decorations in her hair, but her features were easy on the eyes. A desire consumed Petra—she wanted to get her hands on that girl.
After years of polishing and refining her own beauty, Petra paid close attention to the beauty of others. She especially hated wasted beauty, which was why she was a real thorn in her mother’s and Meyna’s sides.
She wanted to instill the spirit of beauty into this little girl—that desire raced through her.
“My name is Meili. Due to family issues, I’ve come to stay at this village for a little while.”
Meili smiled as she introduced herself—she was a very well-behaved girl. She answered immediately whenever anyone talked to her, but she never started conversations. She had a similar personality to Meyna, which triggered Petra’s big sister instincts. She felt compelled to take care of the little girl.
“Come with me! I’ll introduce you to everyone. I’m Petra! Your new friend!”
When Petra dragged the shy Meili back to the village with her, Luca and the others quickly welcomed her into their circle.
When it came to a fellow kid, one short chat was all it took for them to be as good as friends. In no time at all, Meili was one of them. The very same day, they ran around the village and got to know each other better.
“It’s okay, come here,” Meili said coaxingly. “I think this little one’s a girl…”
“Wow, that’s so, so cool, Meili! It’s like you can talk to animals!”
What made Petra and her friends particularly excited was the puppy Meili tamed. The little dark brown ball of fur had come with Meili, and it was rather friendly with people. When it performed tricks at Meili’s command like it understood exactly what she was saying, the children were awestruck.
“Meili! We’re totally playing together again tomorrow, okay?!”
When the sun had set, Petra squeezed Meili’s hand good-bye as they promised to see each other the next day. Meili shyly nodded, and Petra returned home satisfied.
“Listen, I made a new friend today! She was all alone, so I invited her to play.”
When Petra shared at the dinner table how her day had gone, her parents smiled warmly and praised her. That was yet another thing that satisfied Petra’s ego.
Meili was a good girl, sure, but Petra was the one who had reached out to her when Meili was all alone. Not only was Petra pretty, she was kind, too. That had to count for something. It felt like she was one step closer to the royal capital.
And with these slightly calculated thoughts buoying her smiling cheeks, Petra happily fell asleep that night.
The next day, Petra woke up and went out to play as she normally would. It seemed like just another ordinary day. Little did she know that momentous days sometimes masquerade as ordinary ones.
“I’m here! What do you wanna do today?”
When the sun was high in the sky, she met up with Luca and the others and then proceeded to the village outskirts to see Meili. And as they discussed what they were going to do that day—
“Oh! It’s Subaru!”
“Huh?! Subaru?!”
“Yay! Subaru’s here!”
The boys’ faces lit up and they ran in a pack toward the young man who never looked good in a uniform. Surprised by their eagerness, Subaru cried out and said, “Whoa! Hey! Bring it…oof!”
He spread his arms wide to catch them and epically failed. Luca, Mildo, Dyne, and Cain all slammed into him, and the five of them tumbled straight to the ground.
Petra called out as the uniformed boy fell on his butt. “You guys! Stop being so stupid! Subaru, are you okay?”
Subaru smirked sheepishly and scratched his head. Petra was a little confused by this. This was her second time seeing him, and for some reason, he gave off a very different impression this time. Last time, he seemed oddly flustered and foolish.
“Subaru, did something happen to you yesterday?”
“Huh?! N-no-no-no-not really?! If you think I cried my eyes out on the lap of my crush, then made it worse by dribbling snot and falling asleep, you’re totally wrong!”
“Hmmm…”
He denied a claim she’d never made. For the time being, she could assume he didn’t cry on someone’s lap, get snotty, and fall asleep. But something quite similar might have happened.
“Well, whatever,” Petra said with a shrug.
Petra much preferred this Subaru to the earlier model. She didn’t know how the boys felt, but she got the sense she could be a little friendlier with him now.
“So are you making another delivery?” she asked Subaru.
“Yeah, but I’m on break at the moment. I was just exploring the village and— Hey! Don’t climb on my back! Wipe your nose! When did I say you could wipe your snot on me?!”
“Uhh…do you need help?” Petra asked.
“……Yes, please.”
Petra felt a bit sorry for Subaru as he tried to walk while the boys clung onto him. They decided to take him on a tour of the village and introduce him to the adults.
This tour included the “village chief” Lasfume, the actual village chief Milde, and Makiji, who was the de facto leader of all the village youths and sometimes wore a mask.
And as they took Subaru around the village to meet and greet everyone, he mused, “You know, maybe it would make more sense to gather everyone so I could get up on a soapbox and introduce myself.”
“What’s a sope-box?”
“I just mean I’m gonna give everyone a big ol’ greeting, basically.” Subaru grinned impishly.
And when Petra saw his harmless smile, that was the first time she found herself liking him.
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