“We need to work hard enough that Mom doesn’t need to do any chores herself. She’ll be sick for a long time if we let her push herself too soon. Myne, we’ll be needing your help.”
“Okay.”
That night, I woke up each time Kamil began crying. It was just really hard to sleep through a baby crying in the same room as you. In the end, I was sure I had seen Mom breastfeeding Kamil through blurry eyes on four separate occasions that night. Suffice it to say, I was sleep deprived. My head felt fuzzy when I finally woke up for real.
“I think it’ll only take a few days for you to get used to sleeping through the crying,” Mom said while stroking my head with a worried smile. I replied that I definitely wouldn’t get used to it that easily, but by the second night I managed to make it to morning while barely even registering the crying in the corner of my mind.
“...Mmm. I feel like I’m way better at adjusting to things than I thought.”
“You’re just like Dad,” said Tuuli while glaring at me through narrowed, sleep-deprived eyes. She pointed at Dad, who was still sound asleep.
The Abandoned Child
With all the special celebratory events in the neighborhood over, everybody’s daily lives returned to normal. I myself would be going back to the temple starting today. Once Damuel and Fran came to get me, I first made my way to the Gilberta Company; I needed to thank them for the gift and inform Benno about how cute Kamil was. If time permitted, I could talk about the printing business too.
“He really is super tiny because he was just born. He gets all red when he cries, he’s all wrinkly, and he’s really just super cute. I never expected my own little brother would be so cute,” I doted, telling Benno exactly what I had told Lutz, Fran, and Damuel on the way here.
Benno was grimacing and rubbing his temples. “Enough already. I’ve already heard what feels like a lifetime of this junk from Otto. Get to the printing business already.”
“Wha? Corinna gave birth too? I didn’t hear about this! When did that happen?!” I exclaimed with wide eyes.
Benno furrowed his brows. “I didn’t mention it? I probably forgot to since it happened while you were stuck in the temple. Otto’s been raving about his kid for so long I figured you would’ve heard about it from your dad, Lutz, or maybe Leon,” Benno explained as his dark-red eyes shifted to Lutz, who offered a shrug in response.
“Leon said it wasn’t our place to break the news in your stead, so I decided not to mention it.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true. I did meet with Myne after the baby was born but, well... there was never a good time to bring it up. There was the finished metal types, and then the blue priest’s tour...” Benno said, a distant look in his eyes. He had been pretty occupied on both occasions, and neither really presented a good opportunity for him to say that Corinna had given birth.
“Guess it’s better late than never. The baby was born at the end of winter. Her name’s Renate and she’ll be inheriting the Gilberta Company. Be nice to her and all that,” Benno said, his tone so flat that I couldn’t help but tilt my head in confusion. He was like the exact opposite of Dad here.
“You don’t seem very excited about this, Benno. Didn’t you really want a successor?”
“Yeah. Otto’s being more than excited enough for the both of us. He’s going to spoil the girl like a complete idiot; if I don’t whip her into shape, the Gilberta Company will fall apart the day I leave,” muttered Benno with a derisive grin. It was easy for me to imagine that he would spoil her too, even while claiming to be whipping her into shape.
“What’s with that look?”
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking you’ll spoil her just as much as he will.”
“Careful now,” Benno said with a glare.
But I just shrugged. “Renate will be fine with Corinna raising her. She’ll grow up to be a businesswoman that keeps a calm, gentle look on her face while securing as much profit as she can in any given situation.”
It was easy to be fooled by Corinna’s gentle demeanor, but thinking back there had been a lot of times where she’d led me to spill valuable information without me realizing it. Benno would point out when I was being naive and dropped hints to help me realize when I was being tricked, but Corinna did nothing of the sort. She wrung me dry with a disarming smile. When it came to business, Freida was forward to the point of being kind of off-putting, but Corinna got her information through casual chats.
...In terms of business, she’s actually scarier than Freida.
Honestly, when it came to merchants, Benno was definitely the softest one of them all. The parental sense of responsibility he had developed when training me as his apprentice was probably still lingering in the back of his mind and encouraging him to be kinder with me.
“I’m the one who raised Corinna, y’know?”
“Then the Gilberta Company will be safe for a long time yet.”
“Of course,” replied Benno with a nod before cutting to the chase. “But anyway, you said you had some news about the printing business?”
“The High Priest told me to hold off on movable type printing for now. If we charge forward, we’ll end up clashing with the vested interests—the nobility. It’s a fight we have no chance of winning.”
“...The vested interests are nobles? Yeah, the winning move here is to not play.”
Benno loved to pick fights
