Common Sense of a Warrior

Phew, finally a chapter that isn"t obscenely long…. ?

And then, a few days later.

Since it had been a while since I last saw Father, I headed towards Father"s study.

Lately it seems that Father has been quite busy, and since I was visiting the Armelia Ducal House almost every day, we didn"t have that many opportunities to meet each other.

Today I also had lessons with Aurelisama, but Father had a rare day off.

"……Father. Are you free right now?"

After knocking on the door I opened it, and poked my head in while asking.

Normally, even though we are family, I should send an announcement prior to visiting……doing so would be the polite thing to do according to manners, but our house has always been like this.

For Father who usually spends large amounts of time in the army, sending a prior announcement was just a waste of time.

It is true that during wartime, where the situation can change by the hour, constantly waiting to send an announcement prior to visiting to give a report would cause military intelligence to arrive late.

He had become completely accustomed to that, so before we knew it we even stopped giving prior announcements in the house.

I had been used to doing things this way up until now, so it was a fact that I was not aware of until after taking the lessons in manners with Aurelisama.

Incidentally, the Armelia House also does not send announcements prior to arrival when visiting inside of the house.

That was in order for each of the generations of family heads who were constantly pressed for time due to their official duties to make the most efficient use of their time.

"……enter."

"Please excuse me."

When I entered the room, Father was unusually surrounded by doc.u.ments.

If it was his usual desk, then they would be reports from the territory or doc.u.ments about the army.

"What"s wrong? Melly."

"I had a question."

Saying that, Father stood up from his seat and moved to the seat across from my own.

"Why……was Father so committed to promote the engagement with the Armelia Ducal House?"

"That"s outta the blue."

"I"ve always been curious about that. Father was being so forcible about pushing things forward. Since Father is not the sort to pay heed to doing things for the sake of the House."

"How can you be so certain about that? I am still an aristocrat myself, you know?"

"……even if you say that, Father. As expected, I cannot connect the Father I know to such behaviours. I am sure that you had some sort of reason behind it."

"There"s not any particular reason. It"s just that I believed that I could leave you to Romel"s son…….that"s all I thought."

"……really?"

"You"re being persistent. Or what, are you dissatisfied with your betrothal to Rui-dono?"

"By no means! I am anxiously waiting for my marriage with him."

At my words, Father gave a relieved sigh and opened his mouth.

"Then, is it not fine? ……regardless of what the trigger was, a man that is capable of making you have that sort of face will become your partner."

Just what sort of face does he mean by "that sort of face"?

As such a doubt arose in my mind, I touched my face all over.

However, just touching my face is……as expected, I have to look at a mirror or I won"t know what sort of expression I was making.

"Now that I think of it, Father. I will be popping my head in training again."

"What are you saying? That sort of……"

"Rui approved of it. He said……that it was fine for me to be myself. As such, I will be going to training as Mel again for the first time in a while."

"I can"t beat Rui-dono. The only one who"d approve of something like that would be Rui-dono, you know?"

"That is probably true……"

For a high-ranking n.o.ble girl to be wielding a sword, I haven"t heard of anyone except myself.

Setting aside the Anderson Marquis House that values the military arts, I can"t imagine it being permitted in the Armelia Ducal House.

"……could it be that you antic.i.p.ated that and recommended the engagement with Rui?"

"You"re still stuck on that? The answer is no. To begin with, I didn"t know about Rui. Now that I think of it, when did Melly meet Rui-dono? It seems like you knew him beforehand."

"I met him around the time I came to the Capital. You know, around that time……I had a slump, right? I kept on losing my practice matches, and the results of my training weren"t very good. During that gloomy time, I blew up after losing to Donaldy……and I ran out from the house to town. I met him at that time."

"Hou, so he got to know Melly as "Mel"?"

"Well, yes."

"I see……..I"m sure Romel was aware of that. That ill-natured guy."

Though he was speaking badly of him, Father was laughing enjoyably.

"About the training, if Rui-dono has allowed it than it is fine. However, Aurelisama is taking great pains to teach you. By no means are you to neglect her teachings."

"I understand that."

"……well, if it"s you then it should be fine. Since you are someone who has inherited half of Melilda"s blood."

Father"s eyes seemed to be a little lonely.

"……how did Father meet Mother?"

"What is with you today? Asking all these pointless questions……"

"Isn"t it fine? With my own engagement having been decided, I"ve become curious about the story of how my parents got together that I"ve yet to hear."

"……sure. My first meeting with Melilda was at the site of the battlefield. I was taking care of the processing of the aftermath of the war, and the one who was aiding the wounded people at that territory was Melilda."

"……the daughter of a baron was aiding the wounded people?"

"Yeah……even though she had not studied medicine before. Even so, she helped with changing bandages, settling meals, and all sorts of tasks. Going to the scene itself and helping out was something that she had taken the initiative to do herself. Without caring about putting on make-up, she earnestly nursed the wounded, and without being told by anyone, she would stay by the side of those who had nightmares. Before I knew it, I found my eyes chasing after Melilda. In those days, I didn"t have such an exaggerated t.i.tle like General, and would often go to visit my injured group members as the squad head. I ended up talking about various things with her. Even amongst my group members, there were a few that got pretty heated up about Melilda."

"So you then confessed to Mother?"

"No, I didn"t confess, I proposed."

"My, how a.s.sertive……!"

"I could only think of Melilda after all. Melilda also accepted, and we safely became betrothed…….however after that, when I returned I was officially appointed as General, and there were talks about me succeeding the Anderson Marquis House, so some people trying to interfere with my marriage with Melilda started to appear and it was quite a disaster. The opposition by this house was particularly fierce. Well, at that time the Anderson Marquis House had quite a brutal internal conflict."

Though Father spoke about it quite lightly, the subject was rather heavy.

"……to her, the Anderson name was just a set of heavy shackles, and the Marquis house was like a tight prison. She had been living relaxed and free, and I dragged her into such a world……however, even so she chose to walk down the path together with me. And in order to shut them all up, she worked hard so that she would not become an embarra.s.sment as the marchioness."

Father gently pat my head.

His hand was kind, and his smile sorrowful.

"You possess half of that Melilda"s blood. You have an unreasonably strong desire to not lose that charmed me, and half of that kind and beautiful woman"s blood…….that is why, it will be fine. From here on out, no matter how difficult things get, if it is you then you will be able to overcome it. I am confident of that."

"Thank you very much, Father."

……in the end I didn"t get to ask about the thing I really wanted to learn about, but even so I was satisfied with hearing a bit about a story of Mother that I didn"t know.