“I appreciate the warning,” Benno said sincerely before letting out a sigh and slumping his shoulders. “Still, I thought we had at least two years to prepare for this. Life sure comes at you fast.”
“What?! Master Benno! Myne’s gone! An archnoble took her and she can’t see her family as family anymore! What’re you saying?!” Lutz yelled, shocked by Benno’s attitude. But all he got was a cold look from him.
“Listen up, Lutz. That weirdo didn’t die. She’s gonna keep on living as Rozemyne. You think that weirdo’s gonna change as a person just ’cause she went from being a commoner to an archnoble’s daughter? No! The only thing that’s changed is how much more terrifying her rampages are gonna be now that she has actual authority!” Benno roared.
Myne’s stomping around was scary enough already, but now that she had the authority of an archnoble, there would be nobody who could stop her.
“Not to mention, if she’s only changed her name, then Rozemyne is still going to be a partner in the Italian restaurant. The Gilberta Company just finally managed to get some business from mednobles after years of serving laynobles, and now we’re suddenly co-owning a business with an archnoble? If you’ve got the time to be all weepy, get to work instead! Whether her name’s ‘Myne’ or ‘Rozemyne,’ what’s that weirdo gonna want?!”
A bookworm whose obsession had survived an actual death and reincarnation wouldn’t change her ways just from becoming an archnoble named “Rozemyne.” There was only one thing she would want more than anything else:
“Books!”
“That’s right. She’s higher in status now and we’re gonna have to make some changes, but we’re still a business doing trade, and with the archduke’s approval we’re gonna be doing business with Rozemyne whether we like it or not,” Benno said, and all of Myne’s family shot their heads in his direction. “You all might not be able to meet or talk to an archnoble, but we can talk to Rozemyne as business partners. We’ve got paperwork to exchange, and it’ll be more than easy to slip some letters in amid all the papers. I predicted this would happen and already had Lutz and Myne sign a magic contract together; all else fails, we’ll still be able to stay in written contact with her.”
They couldn’t face Myne and call her their family, but nothing stopped them from writing letters to her. Benno gave a pained grin as he explained that even magic contracts had loopholes.
“Is that true, Lutz? If I write Myne a letter, will you give it to her for me?” Tuuli asked, pulling Lutz back to his senses. There were still things he could do for Myne. As long as she was alive, it wasn’t too late—he could make books and act as the bridge between her and her family, and with that in mind, he gave a big nod.
“You can count on me.”
They left the store together and started on their way home. Myne was, for all intents and purposes, dead to the world; they would have to hold a funeral for her as soon as they got back.
“Lutz, Myne was killed by the noble that broke into town. Tell that to your family. We’ve got our own preparations to take care of,” Gunther said, his brow tightly furrowed as he looked up at the sky. In a way, that explanation wasn’t dishonest. After all, it was because of the noble who had broken into town that Myne had become a noble herself.
“Alright.”
After getting home, Lutz told his parents about Myne’s funeral, and they all hurried to finish their dinner. His parents were the first to rush outside, each wearing black cloth around one arm. Lutz and his brother Ralph followed suit, each wrapping black cloth around one arm to signify that they were involved with the funeral.
“...Hey, Lutz. Why did Myne die? She was doing better lately, wasn’t she?”
“Mr. Gunther said a noble killed her. I don’t know anything else since I wasn’t there.”
Neighbors wearing black cloth wrapped around their arms gathered by the well in the plaza. Normally the corpse would be rested on a board to be carried to the graveyard, but without a corpse they couldn’t do that for Myne. Instead, there was just a tiny box. Inside were Myne’s clothes and the hair stick she usually wore. Nothing else.
“What’s going on here? Where’s the body?” one of the neighbors asked. Everyone was surprised by the unusual funeral.
Gunther, who was leading the funeral, grimaced and looked at the ground. There was clear pain in his eyes. “Myne was attacked by a noble from another duchy. They killed her and stole her body.”
“...That’s, uh... That’s real tragic. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Anything that was stolen by nobles would never come back. Everyone in the neighborhood knew how deep Gunther’s love was for his kids, and how much he doted on Myne despite her sickly nature. They knew without even asking how much it hurt him to not even get her body back, and since nobles were involved, nobody asked him about anything else.
“It’s a real shame, too. She was finally getting healthy again.”
The neighbors looked at the wooden box and thought back to how Myne had been during her baptism and Kamil’s birth, and began sharing stories and the like.
It was said that the door to the land of the dead opened only at dawn, when the God of Darkness and the Goddess of Light met, and that the husband and wife gods would guide the recently deceased there when the morning sun had risen. Those who knew the deceased would share
