Blade of Dawn - Chapter 192 — A Fish, What a Huge Fish - 清風書屋

Here was a way Cecil Territory differed from other towns: someone would help you.

Pea made a sound of "ah—ah" and shook her head at Mrs. Malin, indicating that she could manage perfectly well on her own.

"What a good girl," said Mrs. Malin, who loved nothing better than a chat—her fondness for it was so great that she could converse at length even with a mute. "Sir Byron not back yet? Or has he gone off again?"

Pea stood with her bucket and thought for a long while, unable to work out how to answer such a complicated question, and so could only shake her head apologetically.

Mrs. Malin, however, cared nothing whether Pea answered or not, and simply talked on herself: "Ah, I hear he's been poking about the ruins in the mountains. My man went along with him once before, but came back and told me nothing at all. Tsk, tsk—men always have their secrets... Pea, are you off to the castle later to see Miss Betty?"

Although Duke Cecil had never built a "castle" in the traditional sense, everyone, plainly enough, still called the lord's residence the "castle": in their simple notions, wherever the lord lived simply had to be a castle.

At the mention of Betty, Pea finally smiled, nodding happily.

Here was a way Cecil Territory differed from other towns: even the chief maid who lived in the lord's castle was easy to talk to—she had even shown a newcomer like Pea around the territory and shared with her the sweets the lord had rewarded her with.

Though it seemed the lord had only that one maid to his name...

After that Mrs. Malin rattled on about a great many things, from the weather since the onset of winter to the clanging construction sites across the territory, and from those wondrous machines she wandered off into the exceptional harvest this year. Fortunately she still remembered that Pea was bound for the well, so after letting the topic stretch as far as just how big Viscount Rebecca's great fireball could actually grow, she cut herself off decisively: "Oh, once I start I can't stop—hurry off and fetch your water! Come round to my house to eat when you're back!"

So Pea bowed slightly to Mrs. Malin and went briskly off toward the small square with her bucket.

Along the way, person after person greeted her. Most simply called her by name—"Pea"—while a few called her "the Byron girl" or "Miss Kirk," the latter after Byron Kirk's surname. Pea answered every greeting with great care, and a faintly cheerful smile gradually rose to her face.

Here was a way Cecil Territory differed from other towns: the people here called her by her name, and not simply "the mute" or "the useless one."

At first Pea had thought this was because of her "standing"—because she had an adoptive father who served as chief knight, people were obliged to show respect to a little mute. But she soon discovered that such an attitude prevailed throughout the territory, that it was so between all people. And after a time, she heard from her adoptive father a saying that came from Duke Cecil himself:

The great majority of vices and vile customs stem from a shortage of food. When people can eat their fill, they begin to consider morality. This may not be absolute, but it holds in most cases.

Pea could not yet fully understand the lord's wisdom, but she vaguely felt there was sense in those words. Back when she had gone hungry, she too had pilfered small things, and had once been whipped by the constable for stealing a loaf of bread, the constable declaring before all that she had "an inborn thieving nature, bred in her blood." Yet now, when she found something that was not hers, her first thought was to hand it over to the patrolling soldiers.

And she trusted that those soldiers would not pocket for themselves what she turned in—for her adoptive father had told her more than once how strictly the lord governed the army. She trusted her adoptive father utterly.