A New Life At The Natò Residence (I)

After arriving in the city just right when the night had captured the totality of the sun in its gentle yet mortal embrace, Priscilla pawed him the way to the local inn, without giving Akira the time to look around the city, an activity that he could have done in the next days anyways. During the time they passed while arriving to the city, Akira discovered a bit more about Priscilla: she was 19 years old, she was born away from that city and, apparently, she really liked hearing about other cultures, because she pestered him with questions about his homeland, which really gave him no time to ask about that world. As they got in front of the inn, Priscilla gave him some money for the room, saying that if she entered with him people could have gotten the wrong idea, as her family was well-known in that city, and, after saying goodnight to him, she started heading back home, while Akira followed her with his eyes until she disappeared in the darkness. Then, he observed the façade of the inn, a plain white wall with a sign to indicate the presence of an inn that still gave off an idea of a clean environment. Then, he entered, wanting to get on a bed as soon as possible, quickly got a room at the reception at a reasonable price and, before going up to his room, ate something at the ground floor, boar meat with a special sauce, which awed him for how good it was. Then, he quickly got to his room: a really simple room with one big bed at the centre, some pine-wood furniture around the room, placed like it was following a strange principle which succeeded in giving the guest an idea of harmony and complete peace, and there was even a bathroom, with something that resembled a toilet and even a little shower, which meant that they had running water in this world. However, he didn’t really care about the room: he just wanted to think. Or to sleep. Actually, he didn’t even know what he really wanted: did he want to think about what happened today or sleep and try to cope with it the next day? He settled to lay on the bed and start thinking, and then, if sleep had prevailed on him, so be it: if not, he would have tried to figure out something new from what happened to him in that odd day. As he got on the mattress, he was welcomed by tiredness and the comfort that the bed offered him, which quickly made him give up thinking about what had happened to him until that moment. The only thought he had before sleeping was “I have a new opportunity, a new life… I need to use it well, for those few who really wanted me to have a better life…”.

The next day, he ate breakfast at the inn – a German-like breakfast, with sausages and cold cuts, making it look more like a lunch than a breakfast – and then got out to explore the city a bit. Priscilla said him before leaving that she would have gone take him a bit after lunch, so he had plenty of time to at least explore the city to a surface level. What he found out during that period was a lovely city, with buildings that looked like those famous Scandinavian houses painted in those bright yet not annoying colours that made the city look alive, like it was ready for a party. Plus, a market was held in the main plaza of the city – or so he thought, as it was the biggest out of those that he had seen until that moment - and it was very lively, with a lot of woman, man and children who went up and down, right and left in that labyrinth of stands that seemed to sold everything that a human being should ever desire, apart from love, happiness, and death, that is. He also passed in front of what he though was a council building but that turned out to be a public library: as it was a really big building, characterized only by a portico with columns that could resemble those of the Corinthian style, Akira thought that it should have also contained a wide selection of books. He marked the place in his mind, thinking that it could have been useful to him in order to learn more about the world or even just as a place where to pass some time alone. The entire city was covered up in snow, more than what Akira saw in the forest yesterday, meaning probably that during the night it snowed a lot. He also observed the people in the city: they acted exactly like humans, they didn’t seem to have social norms that were too different from those of Akira’s world, but he also wasn’t sure about that. After all, when you encounter a new civilization, there are some subtle things that a foreigner cannot comprehend, and, in order to supply for that, he needed to study the culture of that society, before hoping to have relationships with other people in it. But also another minor thing struck him: no one ever inquired him about his clothes. He still had his suit on and he thought that It was strange to be in a suit when the other people had a more casual dress code, with clothes that fiercely showed the hand of traditions, which were probably different from Japan, as Akira until that moment didn’t even see once a kimono or something else that could have traced back to his land. Still, no one asked him about his clothes at all, and children didn’t even look at him even once with amazed or horrified eyes: maybe because he looked elegant and so like a middle class self-made man, but, if even the children didn’t have a reaction in their eyes, then it meant that either what he wore was really common or that simply they didn’t care. Still, he had to change his clothes: they were too formal for him, plus they limited his movements, like it happened in that cave.

As he got around the town time slowly passed and noon arrived. As Akira wasn’t really hungry, he just returned to the inn and stayed outside, waiting for Priscilla to come and get him. After a short while, a red head started appearing from south and Akira focused his eyes on that figure: it was the one of a young lady, that this time wore a simple white dress with some embroidery on the lower part, made with a shade of grey that a normal person would have probably called white too, and an azure cardigan, probably to protect her against the cold, an object that probably also the high-knee white translucent socks served to, as well as the shoes that she had on her, a pair of elegant shoes that seemed to have been reinforced in order to offer a better protection against the cold. As Priscilla got near him, he saw that, unlike yesterday, she wasn’t wearing any make-up, which made her face look more natural and genuine. And probably a lot cuter for some of her suitors, thought Akira, remembering her background and her personality, suited for those middle-high families that weren’t part of the real middle-class nor of the aristocracy, making them look like streetwise children who were trying to associate themselves with people out of their league. In a word: ridiculous.

“’Morning” said Akira, as Priscilla got near him.

“Good morning to you too” replied Priscilla “Have you slept well? This inn is one of the best in town, so I hope you had a pleasant experience”

“The food was great; the bed was great… I couldn’t have asked more for a night” replied Akira. He would have also liked to add that also a girl wouldn’t have been bad, but he restrained himself from saying that: it was just a teasing and it would have been of bad taste.

“Oh, I see… would you have enjoyed perhaps the company of a female presence?” asked Priscilla, smiling maliciously, as if to make him understand that she knew what he was thinking or that she would have gladly been the female presence. Either cases, Akira didn’t expect that, and laughed hard when she suggested the hypothesis, while Priscilla also started laughing, as if to hide the embarrassment that that bold statement had brought visible on her cheeks.

“No, thanks, but glad to know that you could have provided that too” said Akira, still laughing, while Priscilla was replying that it was obviously a joke: they marketed in books, not in prostitution. Also because that was illegal.

"Aren't you cold with that clothes?" asked Priscilla, after the both of them stopped laughing, "They don't really seem like they can protet you well from the cold"

At that concern for his health he smiled and said "Nah, this is literally nothing. I lived a bit in a part of the world that was way colder than this, so I am used to it. If I want, I could easily go around shirtless without any problem".

"Yeah... I remeber vaguely that you fought shirtless in that cave..." said Priscilla, hesitant, with a bit of red appearing on her face.

"What? You enjoyed the spectacle back then?" teased her Akira, at which they both started laughing again.   

After a while they both stopped laughing and, after a bit of chit-chat, they started walking towards the Natò residence, where Akira would have started his job right away. While they were walking, Akira asked her “Why did you went to the inn walking? I was expecting that you would have come pick me up in a… carriage, or something like that”. 

At that question Priscilla replied “Yeah, we have one, but I like walking: I don’t really like to take the carriage, like my mother does. Under this aspect I am more similar to my father: we both love walking. Plus, my house is not that far from here, so it was an ulterior motive as to why I did come by feet”. 

As she said that, Akira remembered that she said that she ended up in the cave because she was walking in the city: probably that habit of hers was the one that made her die in there, but she probably didn’t link the two things. Or at least, not for now. Still, Priscilla was really a strange woman: she had that mighty attitude that she showed him the first time they met, but at the same time she liked walking, an activity that nobles – and so the middle class - think only the plebs should practice, and she could joke about decorum and other things like it was nothing. How many masks did she hide in there? How many more Priscillas were in there? He probably would have known more about her after having been with her for a little longer, and, being her teacher, understanding her was also part of his job.

They quickly arrived at the Natò residence, a villa that really resembled those of the middle-high class that Akira saw during his life in his reality: a mixture of arts, rubbish and beauty that created a grotesque feeling in those that didn’t inhabit it. Still, it was efefctively a great work of art: the outside was painted of a bright aquamarine colour, with a lot of white columns to decorate the façade of the house and with a not so big garden in front of it that made Akira presume that behind the house there was a bigger one that had more privacy than the front one. There were a lot of windows, all of which were closed, and a little portico encircled the house perimeter, creating a place where to rest under the shadow when the sun was too strong. The intern of the house was instead a more rubbish environment, what you would expect from a family that wants to make them appear like cultured people but that only shows their lack of style and culture: an incredible amount of pieces of art put together in a confused way, without criteria, just to show off. A thing that Akira founded disgusting: when Priscilla saw his face in that moment, a mixture of disgust and uneasiness, she asked him “Do you not like what you see?”

“Honestly? No” replied sincerely Akira, looking at her “these works of arts are surely masterpieces, at least some of them, but their composition is lacking in sense and in culture: what I see is just a jumble of things that makes even those few diamonds in the mud lose their shining and transforms all in an obscure bunch of useless items, making them lose all of their artistic and cultural value”. Priscilla looked at him in the eyes, then, looking away, said “My mother arranged them like these”. “Then your mother has no taste at all” said Akira, just conveying his honest feeling, knowing that they could have hurt someone close to them, but, when Priscilla averted her eyes from him, it seemed not like she was angry with what he said, rather she agreed with him, just that she hadn’t the possibility to express her disagreement with what her mother did. A really sad thing, thought Akira, while Priscilla was looking back at him and silently nodded. “My mother is… rather particular. But, seeing how you are dressed, she is probably going to at least consider you a human being, let’s just say that”. “Oh, God, please no” I whispered, understanding where did Priscilla got that mighty side of her: so it was her mother who wanted to become a noble, uh? He felt a feeling of sympathy with Priscilla: having a mother like that can be toxic for a child, he knew that well enough.

Priscilla brought Akira to a great hall, and there three persons were waiting for them: a rather old man, well-built, with grey hair that had still a sprinkle of black in them, dark eyes that were facing what was in front of him like he was going to fight for his future and the face of a man who worked hard all of his life to give his family what to eat, which made Akira respect him from the start; another man, way younger than the other – probably the brother of Priscilla, or even her fiancé - that looked totally different from the man near him, with chestnut brown hair, blue eyes, a slim body which seemed not to have even a muscle, and a face that reminded Akira of those student of the Tokyo university that were arrogantly acting like they were the future of Japan, like they had to be respected by everyone just because they entered a damn university. In other words, he seemed like an arrogant brat who did nothing for all of his life and now wanted to gain things he should not have been able to obtain alone. But the one that really left a displeasing impression on him was Priscilla’s mother: her red hair were organized in a complex and futile hairstyle which tried to give her dignity but failed miserably, her grey eyes seemed to be emitting a snobbish aura that one could feel from a kilometre away for how strong it was, her face had aristocratic traits but was starting quickly to age, and the quantity of make-up on her was the useless answer to that natural and inexorable fact. Plus, she wore a frilly dress that reminded him the one that you see in the French painting of when France was still a monarchy, so one of those that nobles wore, just to clarify that she was trying to challenge with the nobles but was miserably failing. Plus, it was trying to valorise her body forms, as if she was nineteen years old: a really pitiful spectacle. It seemed like she just got out of a Moravia's or Gadda's novel. She quickly gave him a look from head to toes and then looked away for the entire duration of the meeting, showing him a disrespect that if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was going to work for them would have gladly made him punch her until she started praying for her life, offering whatever she could have had in order to save her life. Not that he would have gone that far, that is. Maybe. First, they introduced each other, except for the mother, which was introduced by her husband: the father was Giorgio Natò, the young man, who presented himself as Priscilla’s brother, was Leon Natò and the mother was Cassandra Valeriè Natò, even though when the husband said Natò she looked at him with angry eyes, as if she hated being called with her husband’s surname. Then, discussions began and it all ended pretty quickly: they had already agreed taking him as Priscilla’s teacher, or better, the father agreed to that, as Akira understood that he was the one who had took the decision and also that he loved Priscilla enough to indulge all of her wishes, or at least the realistic ones, and they gave him more information on the job. Basically, Akira had to train Priscilla for some hours each day, then he had the free day, unless Priscilla wanted to train more, in that case he had to practice with her. For his services, they would have given him a salary – that, if compared to the price that he had to pay at the inn for a night and for what he ate, was high enough to enable him to live a decent life in that city – and a place where to stay: he would have slept in the servant wing of the house. When she heard that, Priscilla went pale, and Akira probably understood why: he thought that probably the other teachers had a better accommodation, as they were teaching her intellectual stuff, and that they thought that a fighting teacher had to be considered like a servant, not as a teacher. But he was okay with that, he didn’t want to share any space with those intellectuals that didn’t know what life was all about and just passed time hiding between their books, saying that they were reflecting while the only thing they were doing was escaping from reality, so he immediately agreed with that, while Priscilla stayed silent but with a look of reprimand towards her father and brother. After all, he liked more being surrounded by normal people; at least he knew how to relationship with them, and he could form real relationship, not just some fake thing to exhibit to the others in order to glorify yourself. Still, they offered to make him eat with the other teachers, but he refused, saying that he would have eaten with the servants, as he didn’t want to make anybody the displeasure to ruin the atmosphere that those intellectuals had created between them. As he said that, Giorgio laughed, making obvious two things: that he had a sense of humour and that he didn’t like those intellectual beings as much as Akira did. The other reactions were pretty mild: Leon smiled weakly, as if he understood what Akira meant, and Priscilla tried to maintain a serious façade, even though it was obvious that inside she was laughing a bit, while the mother simply gave him a scornful look and then started looking away again, like she was dreaming of a lost past in which she was at the centre of the attention. But time moves forward, people that are entrapped in the past are destined to suffer from their inability to understand that. He knew that, after all. Too well. After agreeing to a few other things, Akira and Giorgio shook hands and then, just to be sure, they also signed a contract, where the basic elements of their agreement were written. Then, Priscilla and Akira quickly got out of the room.

“So, how did it go for your family standards?” asked Akira, curious to hear what Priscilla had to say about that meeting

“Well… it was alright, I guess. However, they made you feel like a servant and I am sorry for that. If you want, I can give a better room and make you sleep in anot-“

“That won’t be necessary” said Akira, interrupting her, “I wouldn’t find myself in a comfortable position together with those intellectuals, so I am happy to stay with other people. Plus, you don’t need to excuse yourself: you gave me this opportunity. If someone needs to say “sorry”, that is your family, but you did nothing wrong. Don’t go blaming yourself for things where you have no fault: continue like this and one day you’ll break.”

“…Understood” said Priscilla, looking towards the ground, a bit embarrassed. Even though she shouldn’t be: she was just trying to help him.

“Still, thank you for your concern, I really appreciate it” said Akira, smiling a bit towards her. In the meanwhile, Priscilla had lifted her head and, seeing him smiling, she responded with a natural smile that really suited her face.

“Hey, do you know where I can buy a pair of trousers? These really limit my movements, so I’d need to have a more elastic pair, if we really want to start with our training” asked Akira, wanting to temper the mood that they created. Or maybe to increase it, he didn’t know.

“Oh yes. There is a shop in the centre that sells a lot of quality clothes, but if you want something specific for battle then I think I know the right person. That is, one of our servants: he has a passion for whatever concerns battle, and he is also an expert in sewing. If you want, we can make him make some trousers for you, okay?” replied she, interested by that specific request.

“If it is all right with him, then yeah, why not?”

“Perfect. Then, we need to head to the servants wing: that’ll also give me the opportunity to make you see where your room is. Then, shall we go?”

“Yeah, let’s do this” replied Akira “But then, we have to start training, you know?”

“I know, I know. I’m ready for that. So bring it on!”

“Hmm, enthusiastic, aren’t you? Just give me a few days and that enthusiasm will disappear” said Akira, laughing.

And so, while talking about their future training, those two immersed themselves in the Natò residence, marking the start of a new life for Akira.