A New Life At The Natò Residence (II)

Some days passed since when Akira first arrived at the Natò residence. After having his measures taken by a servant, a really girlish boy called Koya, and being shown his room by Priscilla – a simple room with a large bed, some pine-wood furniture, just like those that Akira saw at the inn where he stayed, and also a personal bath -, Akira passed the next days getting to know the layout of the house in his free time: he had already started training with Priscilla, even though he didn’t fight with her. What he did was just giving her some advices and saw if she was able to applicate them to her style. They trained in the rear garden, a very big place in which plants and flowers alternated themselves with fountains, benches and a gazebo that was right at the centre of it. Priscilla wasn’t really that good, but still, he saw in her the potential to make her become at least somewhat decent in battle: decent enough to land a blow on him, but after that, he saw no possibility for her to improve more. Maybe with a sword she was better than with her fists, but for the moment, that was the impression that she left on Akira: a good potential, but one that had strong limits in its development. Still, he had taken a liking to her - he didn’t know why – and so he was willing to lend her a hand until she needed. While he wasn’t training her, Akira looked around the house and discovered that it was even bigger than what it seemed at first: there was the central building, where there was a dining hall, a welcome hall where the Natò family met other persons, the kitchen, which was between those two rooms, a cellar for the wines and, right where one could go from the central building to the family rooms wing, there was a big hot spring, just like those that Japan has. Plus, there was also a library, which was natural, considering that the Natò family traded in books. Then there were the servant wing, where there were only the rooms of the servants and a little hot spring too, as if to provide at least a method with which the servants could relax themselves without having to go out in the town; the teachers wing, where Akira rarely went, as there was nothing interesting apart from another library where those intellectuals could study by their own, but, apart from that, it was like the servant wing, making Akira understand how teachers were considered by that family. Not that he could really criticize them. Then there was a wing which was completely unused, probably because that family didn’t really need that much space and just constructed more just so that they could praise the enormous size of their house, and finally the family wing, probably the biggest of the house, where Akira hadn’t put his feet in because it would have been like an invasion of privacy, and he wasn’t curious enough to try and sneak in. Plus, there were some guards guarding their private apartments, so it would have been practically impossible to sneak in. Still, those guards were only normal servants that had to take turns doing that, and, apart from them, there weren’t any guards in the residence: it was completely defenceless. A strange idea, considering that the Natò were a rich family: how could they not have even a single guard to protect them against thieves, assassins and things like that? Akira was sure someone already tried to assassinate one of them: you are not a man of power if someone now and then just doesn't try to casually kill you.

In those days Akira also read a lot, trying to get to grasp some knowledge about the world he was in, both thanks to the Natò library, at which he had access and where there were a lot of specialized texts, and thanks to the public library, which had a lot of easier books that still said the same things as the most complicated ones out there. Akira always hated specialized books: they were difficult only for the sake of being difficult to read and for the sake of showing a useless erudition that was kind of pointless, as one is really knowledgeable when he can explain a concept in an easy way rather than with long and complicated words. At least, that was the idea that Akira had of conceptual knowledge, and that was also why he passed more time in the public library rather than in the Natò library. Thanks to his effort and the help of Priscilla, who fulfilled her part of the deal by talking about her country and culture, he got to understand where he was and the world he was in. Its name was Eàrèthya, supposedly an Irgundàh word that meant “the land of the light” and that was composed of a big continent with a lot of islands, some bigger than Greenland, which had their own nation, and some of the same surface of the Cayman Islands, except for a part in the east, bigger than Japan, Korea and the South East Asia combined, that was connected to the mainland by only a narrow strip of land and that was considered a continent on its own: the bigger one was called Airehpa, the eastern one was called Rèzenkal, and the quantity of nations in those two continents was astonishing, as they were probably more than the countries in the reality from which Akira came from. Still, as Meilìs said him, all of them had a common language, plus an infinity of dialects that were sometimes more predominant than the official language itself. However, at the moment Akira wasn’t interested in getting to know all of the world, but more to understand the places that were near him and the nation in which he was. The nation in which he was, he discovered during his search, was in the mainland and was called “Noràkjaele”, which apparently came from the dialect of its ancient inhabitants and meant a particular expression that was considered as “The wolf at the north of the dead”, a particular expression that historians still hadn’t understood what really meant. Its territory was mainly covered by forest and mountains, but it still had various plains, rivers and lakes, which could be found both on the mountains or in the plains and that provided for the absence of opening on the sea. It was a monarchy, held by the queen Aryn Hen Vettelja, and, as the name suggested, it was a northern nation that bordered a lot of small countries between the south and the east, which were more like satellite states and which created a sort of buffer in order to defend the country from any likely or unlikely south-east invasion, Hreinleika to the west, a pacific reign that occasionally had contacts with Noràkjaele but that was like a sealed chest, as no one really knew something about that country, and Budkieryn to the north. These two countries were separated only by a chain of mountains and were a bit hostile one towards the other, even though in recent years they had been in a sort of cold peace, but, also thanks to the fact that those two countries were separated by a natural barrier all along their border, there had been no incident at all between the two nations in the last one hundred years. This also gave Akira the opportunity to learn the year he was in: 923, according to the mainland calendar, that all the nations shared thanks to the Gahyà conference in the capital of one of the nations and that served as the year 0 of that calendar, and 1934 for the eastern nations, which started counting years since the separation of Fòhlmahn, an event that created the separation between the mainland and the east and that started the development of significant differences between those eastern countries and the western ones. The city he was in, Zuvaskja, was a border city, the last of the Noràkjaele cities before the chain of mountains that separated that country from Budkieryn, and was renowned for the resistance of their inhabitants to the cold and also because of the fantastic boar culture that the city had, which Akira had experienced first-hand without knowing it. He then learned about the economy of the country, which was mainly sustained by wood and metallurgical industry (he could have gone a lot deeper in that, but he never really liked economy, so he just left it there), and about the culture, discovering that it was a mix of eastern aspects, which however were really few and derived from the fact that Noràkjaele was one of the last countries of the mainland, making it have a lot of contacts with eastern nations, and many western aspects, like individualism and directness, which he really appreciated. He also tried to find some books about Irgundàh, as he wanted to know more about that language, but apparently that language got lost a lot of time ago and really few people were still able to speak it: it was seemingly a really impossible language to learn as a grown-up, even though it was not clear why it was like that. He also searched for books about gods and such, wanting to see if Meilìs, the one who self-proclaimed to be a goddess, was effectively a divinity, but he discovered a sour yet strange truth: in that world there was no dominant religion, or, if there was, it disappeared together with Irgundàh, a very likely possibility, as humans are not capable to evolve without before having developed a religion in which to mix all the things that they didn’t know together with omen of good fortune personified in gods with human features. As such, he also searched books about magic, wanting to understand if it really existed in that world or not, and what he discovered was confusing: no such thing as magic existed and the only books that talk about it were children’s book, which left Akira confused. Then, who was Meilìs? Was she seriously a goddess? In any case, he had no info on which to base his answer on, so he just gave up, understanding how useless it would have been to find an answer without any evidence apart from a self-proclaim. He also searched information about the state of technology, in order to understand at what point that world was in that field: he discovered that running water was everywhere, they had an idea of what electricity was, as well as magnetism, even though this was more unknown than the electricity, and someone seemingly had also invented an engine prototype which didn’t work with oil but with a strange mixture of elements he never even heard of. Surely, that world wasn’t as advanced in that field as his reality, but still, what he discovered was still a surprise to him, considering that the more he looked around, the more it seemed like he lived in a medieval world. He wanted to search for more, but the public library wasn’t really supplied with those types of books and the ones that there were at the Natò library made his head hurt for how bad they were written, so he settled to wait and discover with his eyes the real state of technology in that world. He had many more questions and wanted to discover more about that fascinating yet unknown world, but he said to himself that he hadn’t to rush things, unless he wanted to neglect his role as Priscilla’s teacher and pass hours in that library, trying to uncover the mysteries that this world offered him.

In those few days he also got to know the servants, many of which held him at distance because of his role as a teacher, which made him look like he didn’t belong to them, and the teacher, which held him at distance for the same reason: in other words, he was just like those middle-high people that he despised, neither flesh nor flown. He didn’t like all the teachers, from the first to the last, and they seemed to return his feelings, while the servants slowly came to accept him, at least some: between them there were some elements that Akira would have gladly avoided, like the butcher and one of the chefs, two good for nothing that had risked their life many times for them being assholes every time they could, but there were also a lot of good people that worked in order to sustain their family or just because life made them do so. He got to know some of the servants superficially, like Kjeo, the library custody that had a bit of a past in the fighting circle of the reign, Wahlia, a maid at the dependences of Priscilla that was like her shadow, following her everywhere and that was rumoured to have been an assassin in her past, and others, though they were surely the minority and many of those were also lonely souls just like Akira, so maybe it was that that made them know each other. Still, there were also those who couldn’t sustain him: for example, there was a maid that, when he got in her vision range, immediately ran away, as if she was scared of him, or for her life. Did he look that dangerous? After that happened to him like five times in a day, he asked Kjeo if she knew who she was and if he heard anything about her being scared of him. “Oh, no, don’t mind her. Samai is really frightened of strangers, so just give her the time to habituate to your presence: eventually she’ll open up to you, she’s not a bad girl” replied him, adding “She is one of Priscilla’s attendants, so you will have the opportunity to see her a lot: try to be gentle with her and all will go downhill from there”. 

Thanking him for the info, Akira just got out of the library when the same Samai showed up turning around the angle. Their eyes met, and in that instant Akira could observe better who was the person that was really scared of him: she was tall, yet not as tall as Akira, and was wearing a maid uniform formed by a white blouse, a black long skirt and a black jacket that gave him an idea of order. Her black hair were long and one could see that they were being accurately taken care of and crowned a simple face with natural and popular traits, where two small amber eyes found their place like their presence was only natural, a small mouth with no trace of lipstick was wide open in surprise, letting her white teeth be seen, a nose that served to point out the sense of peace that the whole of her face emanated, even though in that moment it seemed like she had just seen a ghost. She was going to quickly run away, but Akira, with the gentlest tone of voice he was able to reach, said to her “Hey, are you perhaps Samai?” 

Hearing those words, she suddenly stopped, slowly turned around and slowly nodded, her face as red as if she was found out having a relationship or having done a mistake on the work. Then, Akira continued “I just wanted to say that probably you and me are going to see each other a lot, since I teach to Priscilla and you are one of her attendants, so… I just wanted to tell you that I hope you are going to accept me, eventually, and that, if you ever feel like talking, I’m here, okay?” That last line came out of his mouth like it was nothing, but he asked himself why did he said that: he didn’t even know her, and he was offering her assistance? A normal person would have insulted him, and he would have done the same. Instead, Samai tried to look at him in the eyes, slowly, yet succeeding in that difficult task, and just said two words, her face still red like a tomato “Thank…you…”. Then, she quickly went away and returned to her tasks. Akira saw her going away, yet he felt a strange warm feeling inside him: not knowing what that could have been, he just ignored it and started heading back to his room.

This happened in about the first two or so weeks he passed at the Natò residence: every day he trained Priscilla, still not fighting her, then went to the city, read some books and sightsaw the parts of the city that he still hadn’t visited, then returned to the mansion, ate and sometimes he talked with the others, sometimes he just retired to his room, or sometimes he went out and did some training alone. Then, his trousers were ready: it took a lot of time, also because of the material that Koya used, which had to arrive from far away, as it wasn't available in the city. He provided Akira with four pairs of trousers, two black pair and two grey pair, and, when he tried them on, Akira could see how Koya was so high-considered by Priscilla: his tailor’s skills were really outstanding. He succeeded in creating a pair of trousers which could be elegant, probably based on the suit that Akira had when he first arrived there and that he still got as a memento of his reality and of his past, but at the same time didn’t limit his movements, permitting him to unleash his full force. That also meant a thing: it was time that Priscilla started getting the hang of using what he taught her in a real fight and not only alone, on a training camp. But, before he could even head to her, wanting to tell her that now it was the time to be serious, a voice reached him from behind 

“Akira Demoni, I have something to ask you”.