<– Previous Chapter | Glossary | ToC | Next Chapter –> | Jump to Volume 19 –>>
“Lisa-san, a letter has been delivered for you.”
“Thank you, Amalie-san. It must be from my family…”
On a certain day, Amalie-san distributed the letters that had been delivered to the Baumeister mansion. Lisa got one as well, and according to her, it was from her family.
Lisa often received letters from her former adventurer partners, but it was rare for her family to write to her. I heard that she told them about her marriage with me and the birth of our child, but since her family lives far away from here, I never met them so far.
She mentioned still having both parents and a little brother, but I wonder what kind of people they are. As I was pondering about all that, Lisa called out to me after finishing reading her letter.
“Wendelin, I’d like to show Laura to my parents, if possible…”
“I see. Your parents are living far away, so it’d be best to prepare for such an occasion at least once.”
“Lisa-san, where is your hometown located?”
“It’s a small village situated roughly in the middle between the capital and the northern border. It lies in the territory of a tiny Associate Baron,” explained Lisa to Amalie-san.
I’ve heard about it before, but her environment wasn’t all that different from Amalie-san’s, was it? In regards to the birthplace being the sticks, neither of them can win against Katia and me, though.
“I’d prefer my parents to come here since I don’t want Laura to leave the mansion yet. Of course, my brother, too.”
“I suppose the quickest method would be me picking them up then.”
Since I don’t know the exact location of Lisa’s hometown, I’ll 『Teleport』 as far as possible, before traveling the rest of the way normally. Then I’ll bring her parents and brother back with me. This method should be the best.
“Wendelin, sorry for all the troubles.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it.”
After the birth of my children, the relatives and family members of my other wives had come to take a look at the babies’ faces. Because of that, it’s absolutely no problem for me to do the same for Lisa, too.
“So, where exactly can I find your village?”
“Umm, it’s here,” Lisa pointed at a spot on the map.
“Oh, I’ve visited a nearby noble’s fief in the past, so I’ll be able to get there easily with 『Flight』 after using 『Teleport』. Afterwards, I’ll just need to come back here with 『Teleport』.”
Because I’ll be able to directly 『Teleport』 to Lisa’s hometown afterwards, I think it’ll be okay for her to regularly visit her parents later on.
“Okay, with that settled, we’ll be gone for a bit.”
Lisa and I put our plans in practice, and safely arrived at her hometown.
◆◇◆
“We’ve arrived. Quite the rural area, isn’t it?”
“Well, my home was similar as well, so…”
Lisa’s birthplace had the feel of a peaceful, rural, farm village. Guided by her, we headed to her family’s home, but no matter where I looked, I could only see farmers.
Once Lisa knocked on the door, a young man answered, “On my waaaay,” through the door, before opening it and stepping out. He had the same hair color as Lisa. Given that his features also resembled her more or less, I suspected him to be her little brother.
“Umm…we don’t need anything.”
“Eehhh───! We’re family!”
For some reason, Lisa’s brother apparently didn’t recognize his big sister. Mistaking us for door vendors, he almost closed the door in front of our nose.
“Huh? Family?”
“I’m Lisa.”
“Aa───ah! Now that you mention it, you do look like Lisa-neesan! If I remember correctly, it’s been fifteen years…I didn’t realize it’s you because you’re not wearing that amazing outfit anymore”
“I see…”
As might be expected, even Lisa shouldn’t have worn that eccentric getup during her early childhood. I think that’s only natural…
And since she’s come back in a normal outfit after a long time, her brother didn’t recognize her.
“I wouldn’t wear such an outfit after marrying and giving birth to a child, Lidl.”
“Okay, that makes sense. I’m gradually remembering my Lisa-neesan who was normal before she left home. Back when you visited us before starting to work as an adventurer for real after entering and graduating the adventurer prep school…we got totally shocked by that outfit. Mum even fainted after seeing it.”
“…Ah, such things happened, didn’t they…?”
Well, anyone would react like that if their daughter left home, and then came back one year later, wearing such a crazy getup.
“So, why did you visit today?”
“I was planning to show Laura to Mum and Dad.”
“Seriously, for you to have really married Earl Baumeister-sama and given birth to his child…that’s quite unbelievable.”
That’s the part you doubt, little brother?
Lying about something like marrying a high-ranking noble and giving birth to his daughter…would be quite gutsy, to say the least… If you were to lie about it, it’d be normal to keep things vague by saying that you’ve married some commoner.
“Since we can’t take Laura outside yet, I wanted them to come to Baulburg with us.”
“So that’s how it is… I’ll call them over. …Dad! Mum! Lisa-neesan really got married! It’s no lie! Someone looking like Earl Baumeister-sama is with her!”
“…”
Her brother shouted inside the house to inform their parents, but his words clearly proved that not only did he doubt Lisa’s marriage and childbirth, but her parents did so as well.
Maybe it’s just reasonable, considering her previous appearance and behavior?
“Lisa…umm…if you actually let them see Laura…”
“…”
Although it was an outcome of the seeds she had sown herself, for her parents to have even doubted her letter about her marriage… I seriously started to worry about the best method to comfort Lisa.
＊ ＊ ＊
“A daughter, huh…? Grandchildren sure are adorable.”
“Indeed, dear. I have nothing but words of gratitude for Earl Baumeister-sama.”
“No kidding. Earl Baumeister-sama is the savior of our family.”
“…(It’s been that bad?)”
Lisa definitely hadn’t expected them to doubt her marriage, let alone her childbirth. Still, once we showed them Laura after I took them to the Baumeister mansion with 『Teleport』, they happily held and cuddled her.
A grandpa and grandma dotting on their grandchild was an universal rule, going beyond worlds.
“Maaan, it’s great that I could come here today. I got some nice gifts as well.”
“This fruit wine tastes very good!” Doushi exclaimed.
I ended up bringing Burkhart-san, and for some reason Doushi, with me as well, but this only happened because it matched our schedules by chance. As far as I was told, they had some business over here.
Lisa’s family were farmers, but their farming was flourishing quite decently, and nowadays they were managing many fields while employing others to work for them. They also expanded their business by brewing fruit wine after growing fruits such as crimson glory vines on mountain slopes. The two old men drank up the fruit wine, which Lisa’s parents had brought along as a celebratory gift, without even telling me in advance.
It’s not like it’s a problem or anything, but…
“Lidl already has two children, but just as we worried that Lisa might remain single for the rest of her life…we cannot thank you enough, Earl Baumeister-sama.”
“After all, the past Lisa…with that outfit and her conduct…”
Lisa had occasionally visited her home, but it sounds like she met her family while wearing that outfit.
Wouldn’t it have been smarter for her to adapt and put that outfit back on only after leaving her hometown? is something I asked myself.
“In the past, Lisa-neesan couldn’t talk with any guys except for me and Dad…”
Come to think of it, he’s got a point. Lisa has stopped with that eccentric outfit, but I remember that she couldn’t talk to any men other than me at first. Is it because I defeated her in a battle of magic? And her brother and father were alright because they’re family, huh?
“Before leaving our home, Lisa-neesan was a star of hope as a genius in magic. But, with her being unable to talk to any men except Dad and me…”
No matter how talented in magic she might have been, this trait was certainly something that would inhibit her everyday life.
“I’m one year younger than Lisa-neesan, but I remember how she always hid behind me in the past,” her brother began to recount Lisa’s past. “It’s normal for children of similar age to play together, isn’t it? Of course, Lisa-neesan and I joined the other children as well, but Lisa-neesan couldn’t talk to other boys. So I had to serve as her interpreter.”
The neighborhood boys playing with them told her brother what they wanted to say to Lisa. And her brother then passed it on to Lisa. Afterwards, Lisa replied through her brother.
“That must have been quite troublesome. There exists a similar game, though.”
“You’re right, but without me doing that, she wouldn’t have been able to chat with any boys other than me, so…”
Luise identified it as a variation of the telephone game, which Lisa’s brother confirmed.
“Things were proceeding like that when we were small children, and once we became a bit older…”
“It improved a bit?”
“No, it got worse,” Lisa’s brother clearly denied Ina’s question. “Instead, she started to have trouble being in the same place with men other than Dad and me… Around that time, Lisa-neesan became aware of her talent in magic and started to practice it. People who can properly use magic are rare, aren’t they…?”
“Whenever Lisa-neesan trained her magic, many curious onlookers started to gather. Of course it’d have been no problem if she were used to guys, but in her case it was the opposite. When she practiced her magic during the day, men would gather…women as well, but half of the spectators were men, nonetheless. Thus she started to train her magic at night.”
“Fortunately, if you can call it that, our family is growing fruits on mountain slopes to use them for our fruit wine. Given that harmful beasts appear to devour those, Lisa continued her magic practice while killing them at the same time. For us it was a benefit as the damage to our produce decreased on top of us obtaining pelts and meat, but gradually the villagers started to call her 『Midnight Witch』.”
“I see…”
I guess the source for 『Liza the Blizzard』 was 『Midnight Witch』, huh? She secretly unleashed her spells deep in the night, and at dawn, the whole area was littered with corpses of animals, albeit harmful ones… People would appreciate it, sure, but no doubt, it must have been slightly scary.
“Once Lisa-neesan turned fourteen years old, she started to beg to be allowed to study magic at the capital’s prep school. Given that our home is out in the woods, we don’t have an adventurer prep school, so she said that she wanted to study at the capital where the most magicians gathered, if she had to choose a place anyway.”
“Half of the magician students are men as well, aren’t they?”
“There exist exams and interviews for scholarship students. Moreover, the exams are being held at the capital’s prep school. Something like examiners wandering the lands doesn’t exist.”
It’s just as Elise and Wilma said.
So just how the heck did Lisa travel to the adventurer prep school in the capital and took her scholarship exams there?
“Over there…since she was the 『Midnight Witch』…”
According to her brother, Lisa hid herself under a robe, left her home in the dead of the night, and headed over to the capital. The people on her way…or rather, because she moved at night, she didn’t run into men, and during the day she camped out in places with no people.
It’d have been safer and more comfortable to stay in some inn…no, I guess that was not an option either since there would be men among the inn’s staff. I feel like camping out alone would be dangerous in itself, but…when it comes to a magician of Lisa’s level, anyone assaulting her would actually be in danger of losing their life.
“She arrived at the capital after several days and trespassed into the prep school at night. As for the examinations’ interviewers: we had informed the school about Lisa-neesan’s condition in advance, so the school had female interviewers handle her examination on that day.”
“The prep school sure handled it flexibly.”
“That is only reasonable! She was an excellent magician rookie after all!” Doushi answered Erw.
Magicians, and especially those with the potential to become high-ranking ones, are treated as precious.
“The examiners must have been surprised by Big Sis suddenly trespassing the school deep in the night and showing up for the exam.”
“Because she seemed more like a spy or assassin than a magician?”
“That’s the kind of image you’d get from her actions, I’d expect.”
Deep down in our hearts, we all agreed with Katia and Ina’s opinions.
“But, even if she were to pass the exam by doing all this, life as a student should still be quite difficult, no?” Amalie-san commented when she brought us some tea since the conversation had dragged out for quite a bit.
“That’s why the outfit from before. She was wearing a robe with the hood deeply lowered over her face, but Lisa-neesan couldn’t handle men being close to her to begin with. Physically shutting them out showed no effect and thus the only option was to keep a distance, but that would have interfered with the school’s lessons. And even scholarship students wouldn’t be able to graduate if they didn’t reach the necessary number of completed lessons.”
Splitting up the magician class by gender wasn’t realistic, and it was impossible to take the lessons online like it was done on Earth. After thinking it over for a while, Lisa came up with that flashy outfit.
Her brother further explained, “Having said that, when Lisa-neesan left home to enroll at the prep school, she still wore her robe outfit.”
That clearly bolstered her reputation as 『Midnight Witch』 ── though I gotta say it’s quite the chuunibyou-like name. Lisa had apparently left her home deep in the night while being seen off by her family, but…
“She came back only once before graduating from the prep school, but at that time she already wore her flashy outfit…of course, it caused us to draw back from her…and even the villagers…well, it’s only understandable, right…?” Her brother told us with a somewhat drained and lifeless expression while recalling the events of back then.
Well, if you consider that ‘this’ had been his sister’s outfit after reuniting for the first time in a year…
“Ever since then, she always wore that outfit… It’s truly ironic that she became able to talk with men other than Dad and me because of that. Mom was devastated by it though, repeatedly complaining, 『Lisa won’t ever manage to marry when looking like that』.”
With her robe she had issues getting close to men and with her eccentric getup and character men actually drew back from her, both making a marriage impossible. I feel like I can fully understand her mother’s distress back then.
Right now she’s happily cradling her granddaughter, though.
“For all those reasons, I’m deeply moved now after confirming it with my own eyes! It’s not just a wild delusion! Lisa-neesan has really married and given birth to a child! Earl Baumeister-sama! With your deep compassion you’re truly close to being a 『Saint』 who ought to be worshiped at the church!”
“Now listen…I get that you’re happy, but if you keep talking like this…”
In contrast to Lisa’s brother, who was becoming exaggeratedly emotional all by himself, in addition to her parents joyfully cuddling Laura, Erw began to warn them to not make such a grandiose fuss out of it.
“Right now, Lisa is behaving, but since there’s a limit to everything, pissing her off too much is, well…” Erw cautioned her brother while being concerned about his safety.
“No, there’s nothing as delightful for me as her brother as this! If Lisa-neesan had become thirty and then forty while still wearing that embarrassing, pathetic outfit…even if she might be a magician, that kind of outfit after reaching a certain age is too hard to look at! Each time she came back home, it pained me when looking at her from the side! Even my wife put me on the spot with evasive phrasing like 『You see, sister-in-law…』! But, now it’s alright. That’s why I’m so extremely happy. I’ll make sure that Earl Baumeister-sama’s achievement will be passed on in our hometown for a long time to come! Telling all villagers that he turned the 『Midnight Witch』 back into a decent human! Wait! Aaahh! My feet!”
“I warned you, didn’t I…?” Erw sighed after seeing her brother’s predicament.
Certainly, nowadays Lisa has stopped to fly into rage at a beck’s call, but that doesn’t mean she won’t get angry anymore either. Her boiling point had decreased drastically, but it’s not that she won’t become mad no matter what.
“If anything, it’s become more difficult to tell that she’s angry. Wendelin, are thou going to help him?”
“No thanks. That’d be too scary.”
“Figures… Dear father and mother of Lisa, please feel free to stay the night…her brother probably won’t be able to move for a while…”
“My feet are cold! Aaahh! It’s the same cold I suffered when I threw a frog into Lisa-neesan’s bed during our childhood!”
I guess Lisa reacted like this because he completely exposed her dark past. At a glance, Lisa was merely hanging her head in deep shame, but she had apparently crossed her boiling point. Her brother’s feet had been frozen solid.
Since he likely wouldn’t go anywhere for a while, Therese told Lisa’s parents to stay over.
“Thank you very much for being so considerate of us.”
“Lisa has completely become like a mother.”
I think even Lisa’s parents thought that her brother had run his mouth too much. Deliberately ignoring him, they headed over to the living room. We also disregarded him, following Lisa’s parents.
“Kyaakya!”
“Wauu───”
“A───u───”
“My feet are cold, but there’s so many babies here. How cute…I’m happy to see you enjoy yourselves.”
Lisa’s brother ended up standing there as an object of amusement for Friedrich and the other babies until the ice at his feet melted away.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Earl Baumeister-sama, magic is definitely something convenient to have.”
“Really. Being able to travel that much of a distance in an instant is wonderful.”
“Lisa-neesan is an incredible magician as well, but Earl Baumeister-sama, you’re even above her.”
On the next day, I sent Lisa’s family back home, but they were surprised by the greatness of 『Teleport』 which Lisa couldn’t use.
Usually, one would only be able to travel by foot, carriage, or magic airship. And those would take time and money. Thus, they highly praised 『Teleport』 which didn’t require any of that.
“Next time, please visit our humble home by all means.”
“We will let you taste some of our cooled fruit wine.”
After having such a light chat in front of their home, I was about to teleport back home, but at that moment a noble visited the house of Lisa’s family.
Come to think of it, Lisa’s family lived in the territory of an Associate Baron, so I guess it wouldn’t be odd for a noble to be around. Since he looked like he was about the same age as Lisa, he might be the lord of this place or his heir.
“Oh my, oh my…Earl Baumeister-dono, I’ve heard rumors of you. My name is Lodonnei. I’m the heir of the Associate Baron Brennen House.”
Because the family heads out in the countryside didn’t retire until they became quite advanced in age, it wasn’t rare for people like him to still be heirs at his age.
“Lodonnei-sama, how may we help you today?”
It’s about the tax collection for this year. I wanted to check the state of the crops and confirm the quality and estimate for the fruit wine. Or in short, I’d like to get an approximate prediction on the expected tax due.”
In case of noble territories which mainly focused on agriculture and its processed goods, the tax revenue often changed greatly depending on the quality and market price of crops. If they didn’t get an approximate estimate on the tax yield in advance, it could lead to various troublesome situations.
In that regard, I’d assess Lodonnei-dono as excellent for the heir of a countryside lord. He didn’t act unnecessarily pushy towards the tax-paying farmers, nor did he belittle them. Above all, him wanting to get a tax estimate as soon as possible meant that he wanted to decide the budget allotments to a certain extent in advance.
The more rural the lord, the more they think about the taxes after they flow in…though that refers to my experience from the previous Knight Baumeister House.
“Did you travel somewhere?”
“Yes, I believe you are already aware of it, Lodonnei-sama, but Lisa has married Earl Baumeister-sama and given birth to a daughter, so we went to see her.”
“Lisa-dono has…yeah, I’ve heard about it…(so it was true…? There’s no reason for it to be a lie, but for that Lisa-dono…). That’s wonderful news then.”
Lodonnei-dono…even his muttered comment was audible to everyone… Or rather, he’s sweating quite obviously. Did something happen between him and Lisa?
“(Ah! Maybe it’s that!)”
Lodonnei-dono might be the man who used to be Lisa’s fiancé in the past, or maybe he offered to marry her. Given Lisa’s superb magic abilities, she would be extremely convenient to have around for this territory. In that case, it’d mean I stole Lodonnei-dono’s fiancée?
“(Isn’t that bad? He might demand me to hand over Laura as a wife for his child as an apology. But Laura’s fiancé is already decided. Though it’s nothing I can say out loud here…)”
My children, who are born with mana, have their marriage partners already decided thanks to the underhanded plotting of the Kingdom’s higher-ups.
If Lodonnei-dono starts to make some weird demands here ─ of course I won’t have any other choice but to turn it all down, although I won’t be able to explain the circumstances ─ I’ll have drawn the short end of the stick here…
“Umm…about Lisa…”
“Lisa-dono? No, you do not mind me! It’s just that such a possibility came up in the past, but I don’t really mind!” Noticing my plight, Lodonnei-dono fervently assured me to not worry about anything.
I’m grateful about that, but I feel like his face is getting paler by the second and the amount of sweat on his face is starting to make me worry too… Does he possibly…want to stay clear from Lisa as much as he can?
“(Lidl-dono, Lodonnei-dono and Lisa…)”
“(Ah, you mean the story about the engagement? It’s true)”
If you consider Lisa’s abilities as a magician, I think it’s only natural for that possibility to crop up.
According to her brother, Lodonnei-dono’s father brought up the talk of an engagement with Lisa after she graduated the prep school and had made a name for herself as adventurer.
“(Since His Lordship and Lodonnei-sama are both rational and gentle men, they had requested to just meet with her first. I warned Lisa-neesan many times over in my letters…telling her that the flashy outfit would be a bad idea for a marriage interview with the heir of His Lordship and begging her to absolutely come back home in normal clothes)”
But, with her brother’s pleading in vain, Lisa came home in her flashy outfit and attended the marriage interview with Lodonnei-dono just like that, it seems.
“(It couldn’t be helped since Lisa couldn’t talk to men in normal clothes, right?)”
“(In that case, it’d have been fine for her to conduct herself gracefully…but since Lisa-neesan was still wearing that outfit while acting out that flashy character…)”
According to her brother, she took out wine as soon as she saw tea being served and started to drink after complaining about wanting to get some booze. Then she bickered about there being only tea cakes and no snacks to go with her wine, just to take out jerky from her magic bag and start to wolf it down on the spot.
Any child would realize that the marriage interview wouldn’t succeed at this rate.
“(Because of that, Lodonnei-dono has his fair share of trouble in handling Lisa-neesan)”
“(I see…)”
It’s good that I didn’t bring Lisa with me as she had to look after Laura. Still, I ended up discovering another chapter of her dark past…
“…Earl Baumeister-dono, you are truly a hero.”
“You think so?”
I think this conversation only came to be because of the huge difference between the Lisa I know and Lisa Lodonnei-dono knows. Or rather, Lisa’s family is quite lucky for not having been banished from the territory after Lisa pulled such a stunt. I think that alone already speaks for the characters of Lodonnei-dono and his father.
“Our territory’s special product is fruit wine. Please feel free to visit again if you find some time.”
“By all means.”
“…Even without Lisa-dono…no, if possible, her not coming with you would be…I guess that’s unreasonable to ask…please come to visit without fail.”
“Okay…”
I won’t probe any deeper, but it looks like Lodonnei-dono’s heart has been deeply hurt.
We were able to give Lisa’s family a peace of mind by showing them Laura, but I fully understood that it’d still take a long time for Lisa to redeem herself.
<– Previous Chapter | Glossary | ToC | Next Chapter –> | Jump to Volume 19 –>>
Translation Notes:
