After the incident, the bond between me and Tytte grew stronger.
Hello, I'm Marie Regalya, six years old.
Very quickly, three years have passed since then, and I've been healthily growing up. For a long life! No events! A good lii~ife! However, as the years have passed, I've started to worry about something.
⁂
Crack!
During a tranquil early afternoon, in a corner of the garden. I'm enjoying a cup of black tea when the handle of the cup cracks apart with a noise.
"Are you alright, ojousama?"
Tytte who's by my side waiting on me stares at me and asks if I'm injured.
"I'm fine, Tytte. I was just careless and put too much strength to it when I put the cup down."
To convince her I show her my hand. Tytte lets out a sigh of relief when she sees my porcelain white slender fingers still beautiful and without a wound.
"Haa~, I was worried. Moreover, again, ojousama? Breaking the cup just by putting some strength into your fingers, as expected of ojousama indeed. Or could it be a technique from the memories of that previous world ojousama talked about?"
"Hey, there's no such technique."
Tytte's very skilled in taking away the broken cup and giving me a new one while she's talking. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she's familiar with doing it. As a matter of fact, I couldn't keep it a secret from her who would always be helping me, so I ended up telling her all about my current situation. From my strength to the memories of my previous world…
I hated keeping secrets from her so —even though I was worried whether she'd believe me or not— when I told my secret to Tytte she just went:
"Huh~, memories of a previous world, that is amazing! As expected of ojousama."
(Yeah, I have no idea just what was "as expected" about it, but maybe I should just be happy that she didn't seem to doubt me at all.)
Back to the topic at hand, after that incident I came to realize the surprising strength I have. And once I became conscious of it, it turned into a real problem. I broke a lot of things by accidentally using too much strength.
Things that I used to be able to do without thinking and with ease became something that I couldn't do without effort, is how I would describe it.
Having to think things like: "how much strength should I use to grip the handle on this door?" I became, as a result, kind of awkward and a beat slower in my actions than anyone else.
Had I trained my body and strength from the start, I would be self-aware of it, and maybe even holding it back would be possible. But unfortunately, before I knew it I came to possess an absurd power, so there's no self-awareness or sense of my strength. With a dangerous weapon like this, my mental state has been as if I was pointing a gun that I didn't when it would discharge at a friend.
Because of this I thought I would ask my father to teach me martial arts, so that by putting all my effort to moving my body I could get a sense of my strength or before it became a deadly problem.
But then when I told father I wanted to learn self-defense, he said: "Martial arts doesn't suit your cuteness. Besides, if there were people who wanted to harm you then I'd find out that bunch beforehand, and with all my men, slaughter them all♪" with an eloquent smile, so I couldn't find anything to say to my dangerous daddy. And that's that.
So I thought in that case I would just train by myself, but that was naive of me. Maybe it's just usual for a daughter of the duke, but I found myself always basking in the attention of someone: family members, employees, guests invited to the mansion, and so on.
"Ojousama's presence is, to put it lightly, eye-catching. To the extent that it's mysteriously transient. Please keep that in mind."
That's what Tytte said about it. My face flushed, but I refrained from asking why she was so entranced.
And so I had no countermeasures to make. Every day I've been acting under the fear of accidentally breaking something, and I've had Tytte help me with most things. You could say I've turned into quite a dainty being. Also, as unpleasant as my previous life was, because I was a patient who had to rely on others every day I didn't feel opposed to the idea, and that contributed to the situation.
When my samurai-spirited father saw my so-called weakness, there was not even a mention of training. On the contrary, he came to love and care for me, who seemed fragile and fine like glass, even more. His protection became so excessive, that before I knew it, he could say dangerous things like that one earlier with a calm look on his face.
"Sigh…How troubling. To think that holding back was this difficult."
"Not everything was built with ojousama in mind, you see."
"More importantly, next year will be the rite of revelation. Meeting with other children could turn into a huge disaster, as with ojousama's strength all of the children there would be smashed into dust with a single flick on the forehead."
"Please don't talk about other people like they're monsters. I don't have that much strength…probably…"
The rite of revelation.
When children turn seven, they go to the temple to receive a revelation from the gods. It's an important event where one can be informed of the potential within one's body. Apparently, there children receive hints on things like their potential physical strength, wisdom, magical power, and they decide where they should focus on in their studies.
(In that case, would mine be physical strength? If it were, that'd be my chance to have an excuse for father to teach me martial arts.)
I looked forward to the big event next year. But at this time, I had no idea just what a unimaginably frightening revelation I was looking forward to.
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