Tensei Shoujo no Rirekisho - Volume 3 - Chapter 72

72. Extra Chapter 1 – Salome Montes

I was born the eldest daughter of the Montes knight family in Genesis. Since the Count of Genesis had a girl my age named Katerina, my family decided to move to the mansion’s premises to raise me as a knight of the same age as her.

I first met Miss Katerina when I was four years old. I still remember it. Miss Katerina was a soft, sugar-white girl who looked younger than me. At the time, I didn’t understand what “service” meant, so I thought my father had brought me a playmate. There were no girls my age around, so I thought of how fun it would be every day to make friends with a such a cute, sweet girl. Fortunately, Miss Katerina seemed to feel the same way, and we soon became good friends. Everyday we played together as long as we could. The grounds of Miss Katerina’s mansion were very large, with a forest-like grove of trees and a little pond, so it was a nice place to play. We played in the dirt, chased each other through the forest, and wove flowers.

Miss Katerina was born a few months after me, so I was taller by about a hand, and faster and more talkative. I think I probably grew up faster than other children. So in those days I thought of Miss Katerina more like a younger sister who wouldn’t leave her elder sister’s side than a friend of the same age. Miss Katerina also looked up to me like an elder sister, and followed me with a smile wherever I went and whatever I did.

For a time, we were engrossed in playing princesses. When playing princesses, we’d always pretend to be sister princesses. I was the elder sister and Miss Katerina was the younger sister. Thinking back, I don’t know what was so fun about it, but we loved playing princesses every day. Partly because of that, I would proudly call her simply “Katerina”, and Miss Katerina would at the time call me “Sister Salome”. Every day was fun in those days. I feel like Miss Katerina and I had a ridiculously fun time together. But when we were having fun together I wasn’t afraid of anything and felt like I could do anything.

At four, Miss Katerina already knew a little magic and could create a breeze. I thought it was amazing she could use magic, and I was envious, but it didn’t bother me much. Because I was faster and stronger than Miss Katerina, I didn’t think magicians were special just because they could make a wind I could make with any fan.

But one day when I was playing by the pond, Miss Katerina, who had followed me, slipped and fell in. She didn’t drown—the pond was shallow—but she rubbed her leg and started crying. It didn’t seem like a major injury, but I decided we should go home just in case. We went home and I treated it easily since it wasn’t a big wound. Katerina had already stopped crying, so I said we should change our clothes and go out to play again. But my mother saw what state we were in. When she saw Miss Katerina soaked, wounded, and covered in mud, she was furious.

“You got Miss Katerina injured! What were you doing?! That girl is a magician, and the next Countess! She’s different from you, how can you get her injured like that!”

I think it was something like that: actually she was more abusive and foul-mouthed, but I was seven and didn’t understand it, so I don’t remember exactly. That day I was separated from Katerina and fed my mother’s lectures. And my father came home at night and talked to me about various things. They told me a lot, but I can’t remember it all because there was so much of it. Only these words my father said have stuck strangely in my mind:

“You and Miss Katerina are different. She’s a special person who can use magic. Don’t think of yourself as her equal. Speaking Miss Katerina’s name without an honorific is unthinkable.”

At the time, I still didn’t care what my parents were saying. Miss Katerina came to see me again the next day, as she missed me. So I kept calling her “Katerina”, without an honorific, and she still called me “Sister Salome”. However, since my parents were watching, we couldn’t go out. So basically, Miss Katerina came to stay and play at my house. Miss Katerina’s parents, the Genesis family, were extremely strict and apparently forced Miss Katerina to do difficult tasks in those days. Miss Katerina, who couldn’t handle her strict parents, came to my house to escape. The way Miss Katerina depended on me was cute, and I comforted and spoiled my little sister. I have to admit, Miss Katerina might have seen her strict relationship with her parents as strange because she saw how gentle I was with her.

We enjoyed playing at home at first but after a while we got tired of it and Miss Katerina began to say, “I want to go outside.” My parents wouldn’t let me leave, but I also wanted to go outside, so when Miss Katerina asked we stole away from my parents and snuck out. After all, even if we were playing outside it was still on the mansion’s premises. I’d never been in danger before and thought my parents were overprotective. So I must have just been really unlucky that day.

We were in the depths of the woods on the premises, playing and making wreaths, when we heard something like a beast roaring. When I turned toward the source of the sound, I immediately saw a slavering wild dog. My first thought when I saw the wild dog was to ask why it was in such a place. However, I thought I’d better do something about the situation fast and got on guard. I looked around for anything I could use as a weapon and found a thick branch a little ways away. I got Miss Katerina up and put her behind me, then moved toward the branch. I was really scared, but Miss Katerina was a sweet little girl, so I really thought that if I didn’t do my best she’d be eaten. My fear was secondary to my burning sense of purpose as the only one who could protect this child.

As we slowly backed away, the wild dog, ready to bite, rushed to close the distance. I distracted the dog with a surprise attack, hitting it with the wreath I was holding, and picked up the fallen stick. Then, before I knew it, the wild dog was upon me, so I swung the branch as best I could at its mouth. The branch lodged directly in the dog’s mouth and prevented it from biting me, but a sharp claw on its forefoot scratched my arm. But I knew I’d lose my weapon and the wild dog would attack me with its fangs if I released my hand in pain, so I just swung it with all my willpower. I have never been happier to have learned swordsmanship than that day. When I swung the branch, the wild dog was thrown some distance away. However, the attack didn’t do much as the dog landed cleanly. Still, it gave a guttural roar and turned toward me with a resentful eye.

Then, a whirlwind of petals blew in the dog’s face, and it shut its eyes, irritated, and scratched at the air with a front paw. As soon as I realized Miss Katerina was using her magic, I made use of the break to strike at the dog’s snout while it was struggling not to keep its eyes closed. The wild dog gave a pitiful “Yelp!”, immediately jumped back, and ran away.

Although I had been hurt by the wild dog and my arm was covered in blood, my excitement was stronger than my pain. The fact that Miss Katerina and I were able to drive off a wild dog was a grand adventure to me. Miss Katerina and I had survived the hardship of a special event, and I felt more and more strongly that she and I were friends joined by a special bond. It seemed like Miss Katerina felt the same way, and although she took one look at my bloody arm and turned pale with anxiety, we regaled each other about our adventure with excitement as we hurried home to treat my injury. Looking back on it, all I’d done was drive away one stray dog, but at the time it felt to me like I had defeated a mighty monster.

After Miss Katerina and I got back from our adventure, my mother scolded me harshly while treating my arm. It was bleeding, but it wasn’t a big wound. But that night I got a fever. It’s said that you can get a fever occasionally when you get injured, so I probably got the fever from the wild dog’s scratch.

Apparently that day the adults killed the wild dog who had been our opponent on Katrina’s and my first big adventure. It was a beast that had come in through a small gap in the hedge that surrounded the place, and though at the time it had looked very large, it was actually a very small creature.

As I lay feverish and nightmare-laden from the little beast, my mother yelled at everyone, magician and aristocrat alike, who couldn’t help me. But I didn’t remember it well, since my consciousness was going in and out from the fever. At the time it seemed like she was angry at me for selfishly taking Miss Katerina outside. And my father scolded me, too. My father seemed angry that I still considered Miss Katerina my “friend”. My father’s words, “Think of her as someone from a different world,” echoed forcefully in me as I was weakened by the fever. After all, my mother was more anxious about Miss Katerina than about her own daughter, even when she’s suffering from a fever. That’s surely because Miss Katerina is a magician. Magicians are special, I thought obediently in my fever dream.

The fever subsided in a few days, but I stopped meeting with Miss Katerina. The time I had spent playing with Miss Katerina was spent studying. In a few years, I had to take the school entrance exam, so I studied little by little. However, after the day of my adventure, I started studying the history of magic. My mother taught me. I was very eager. How wonderful magicians are, how lucky we were to follow magicians, and how we ourselves came from magicians. My mother was an enthusiastic devotee of magicians. And when my mother’s magic history class had progressed somewhat, I finally got to meet Miss Katerina. Until then we weren’t allowed to meet in case she caught my fever.

After such a long time, Miss Katerina still looked like a candy-sweet girl, but although she was cute, I just couldn’t see her as my special friend or younger sister anymore. After all, I finally understood that she was a magician and I wasn’t.

Miss Katerina looked at me with a bright smile and called, “Sister Salome,” bowing politely at me.

“Miss Katerina, it’s been a while. Let’s refrain from playing outside until we enter school; we can study together instead.”

I spoke slowly and deliberately, in a soft tone, to flatter her. Miss Katerina’s eyes widened when she heard me, and she spoke with an uneasy voice.

“Call me like you usually do.” She said.

I didn’t want to say her name informally like usual. Seeing her nervous face and voice, I felt a little childish joy. I might have been glad that Miss Katerina was upset by my words. Miss Katerina was a magician, but I couldn’t give up wanting her to think of me as special, too. I couldn’t get my parents’ words, “Magicians are special and different from us,” out of my head. One day Miss Katerina would understand that, and would only see me as an ordinary human. No matter how much I wanted to live seeing eye to eye with Miss Katerina, she might throw me away.

If so, I’d rather it be like this, I thought.

As I looked at Miss Katerina’s anxious face, although I would have liked to say without much thought, “I’m sorry, that was a lie, Katerina! Let’s go play!” I was no longer a child who could say such a carefree thing. Because I already knew. I had to stand on the same stage as Miss Katerina. I can’t be her special friend. So I put a perfect smile on my face and spoke. With a flattering voice.

“Miss Katerina is a magician. I am my lady’s knight. Please forgive me for my former rudeness. For that matter, please call me simply ‘Salome’.”

When I said that, Miss Katerina gave me an incredulous look. Betrayed, disappointed. Even though my words were a result of my stance, I still remember that look on Miss Katerina’s face. Then I stopped looking at her. When I thought of what kind of look she was giving me, I was so scared I couldn’t look at her anymore.

After that, Miss Katerina stopped coming out to play with me and apparently received a strict home education from her harsh parents to become a magician. Then she would beat the servants harshly for doing a poor job, and fly into a rage when a magician in the territory made a small mistake. The sweet girl I knew has gone away. And the relationship between Miss Katerina and I is simply that of a master and servant. We didn’t especially avoid one another, but we didn’t especially talk to one another either. I was just an ornament for a magician to bear. But that’s the natural relationship. Because I’m not a magician and Miss Katerina is.

I continued training to become Miss Katerina’s knight, managed to pass the school entrance exam, and somehow followed the path of a knight, always walking a step behind Miss Katerina, as my parents wanted. Miss Katerina remained the same at school, getting irritated by Miss Charlotte’s failings and being strict with her. Miss Katerina is severe on herself and strives for perfection, and she extends that characteristic to everyone around her. She overlooks people who can’t use magic, but she’s tough on aristocrats and magicians like herself.

As for the problem with Charlotte, she fell in with an unusual little girl named Ryou, and her poor performance disappeared. Apparently, Miss Ryou was teaching her after school. She saw Miss Katerina clashing with Miss Charlotte and separated them. Miss Katerina seemed worried about the unusual Miss Ryou. She would watch Miss Ryou and pretend to be concerned about Miss Charlotte.

Miss Ryou was an unusual young lady. First, she had a mysterious origin: according to rumors, she was from a pioneer village and had been adopted by the Count of Rubyfallen for some reason, even though she wasn’t a magician. It’s such an incredible story that few people believed it. I didn’t believe it either.

Miss Ryou was always surrounded by magical friends. The son of Count Rainforest (as well as Miss Charlotte, of course) was a magician. They called each other by nicknames, and their friendly relationship was certainly astonishing. Because Miss Ryou wasn’t a magician. No matter how you think about it, you can’t be equal to magicians.

Miss Katerina seemed to be irritated by Miss Ryou’s behavior, and glared at her. However, I sometimes wonder when I see Miss Katerina like that. Whether the gaze that she points at Miss Ryou might be turned toward me. That it might be resentment toward me from that time I built a wall against Miss Katerina.

If so, I wonder if Miss Katerina still wants a relationship with me where we can play together and go on adventures, regardless of whether she is or isn’t a magician. But I’m sure that’s just my own desire. It’s a wall I built myself, so I’m disgusted at myself for expecting Miss Katerina to tear it down. Since that day, I hate myself for being afraid to look Miss Katerina in the eye.

I don’t know what Miss Katerina is thinking when she looks at Miss Ryou. But when I look at Miss Ryou, my chest hurts. Maybe if I’d told Miss Katerina, “I’m sorry, that was a lie, Katerina, let’s go play together!” then I could have been like Miss Ryou.