The Sleeping Devil

I asked her like a normal child, "What do you usually do for fun?" She smiled and asked, "Do you really want to know?"

I really didn\'t want to know.

I want to watch anime. I want to watch dramas. I want to read manga. With just those, even in the devil\'s den, I could lead a reasonably comfortable NEET life.

But I knew there was nothing like that here. Still, I had hoped there might be novels or some kind of melodramatic love-hate story set in aristocratic society.

Life isn\'t that sweet, it seems.

They said theater performances were at night, so I would have to wait until I became an adult. I couldn\'t help but wonder what the children in this world were doing to pass their time, almost getting angry as I thought about it.

Nevertheless, Didier\'s story was very informative. Although he didn\'t learn magic in that time, he remembered cramming languages, history, and social skills like a machine.

Unfortunately, he didn\'t remember the specifics of what he learned. It meant I couldn\'t slack off at all.

If I could see dreams of the future, I wish it could be me studying rather than dying.

The next day, after finishing a late breakfast as usual, I took a short break before being dressed in an outdoor dress.

To prevent any accidents, I was given thick stockings and bloomers. The dress had a bit more volume and was easier to walk in.

Just as everything was ready, the door opened with a light sound, as if timed perfectly.

"I\'ve come to pick you up, Sheriel."

"Nice to see you, Didier-sama."

Even Sheriel, with her reclusive tendencies, couldn\'t help but be excited. After all, it wasn\'t just an ordinary backyard.

From my previous life\'s perspective, it was like visiting a splendid garden on a foreign trip. Even just looking out the window, there were flowers of various colors blooming.

Being carried by Mary, I followed along with the servants and moved through the spacious castle.

The entrance had a high ceiling, and when we descended the staircase that split into two, it opened up into a space as large as a dance hall.

The grand doors, so big that one person alone couldn\'t open them, were already open, allowing the pleasant breeze and abundant sunlight to pour in.

"Ah! The sun!"

Didier, who was walking in front, stopped and turned around with a questioning look.

"Is this your first time outside?"

"The room I was in before was in the basement, and we moved at night, packed inside a wooden box, so this is my first time coming outside like this."

"I see... Aren\'t you scared?"

"As long as there aren\'t any strange things."

Didier tilted his head and asked, "What do you mean by \'strange things\'?" then resumed walking.

It seemed like he was slowing down his pace so that I could take in the surroundings.

Mary, with slightly red eyes, choked up as she said, "My lady... From now on, you\'ll surely be able to play a lot in the garden." The surrounding servants also had glistening eyes.

The neatly trimmed hedges had formed a maze-like pattern, with flowers carefully arranged in a balanced color scheme.

"When you look closely, it\'s amazing... and it smells so nice."

"Yes, it\'s said that the Beriard Marquis\'s garden is second only to the royal palace in beauty."

"Wow, the gardeners here must be incredible. What\'s the name of this flower?"

Then, Didier, who was supposed to be walking ahead, had somehow ended up walking next to me.

"This is a type of Coreopsis. It looks a bit similar, but those pink flowers over there are Dahlias."

I had thought they were just impressive dandelions, but it turned out to be a specific breed. I knew about Dahlias, and plants in this world might be similar to the ones from my previous life... Come to think of it, there were squirrels and cats too.

"Didier-sama, are you knowledgeable about flowers as well?"

"I didn\'t learn about them because I liked them. It\'s something you learn in social circles because it becomes necessary as you grow older."

Didier shook his head as if he was fed up, but he still had the names of flowers, their toxicities, and their meanings stored in his head. When he pointed out various flowers, occasionally there were some suspicious ones, but he would teach me properly. Didier\'s attitude had softened considerably since the day we first met.

"There\'s a gazebo up ahead. Let\'s have some tea there."

Beyond the hedge, I could see a white domed roof. As we got closer, the beautifully carved patterns on the pillars came into view, and in the center, there was a marble table.

The maids swiftly started preparing tea and light snacks.

"It\'s like a stylish picnic..."

"...? I brought some tea sweets today. Don\'t worry, they\'re not made from potatoes."

I had the leisure to laugh at Didier\'s joke. In front of us were small white sculptures of animals.

Encouraged to try one, I put it in my mouth, and it melted on my tongue like snow, stimulating my brain with the first taste of sweetness I had ever experienced in this world.

"Mmm~! This is amazing!"

"Do you like it? It\'s your first time eating it, right? You can\'t have chocolate or honey yet, and sugar confections are not accessible to commoners."

"It\'s my first time! It\'s delicious!"

...T-This is... Was this... Wasanbon?

My brain was on the verge of being overwhelmed by the pure sweetness. Didier was an angel, or so I felt, to the point of confusion.

But then, after a brief pause, Didier uttered in a slightly concerned voice.

"You know, until now, I purposely didn\'t add sugar to your tea. And yet, you\'ve been drinking it without any issues. Isn\'t it bitter?"

In an instant, my sugar-filled brain went cold. Didier was indeed Didier, after all. I had completely let my guard down.

However, I casually replied, "Maybe it\'s because Mary\'s brewing technique is excellent. It tastes delicious."

Didier chuckled and said, "You really know about the quality of brewing, don\'t you?"

...Is that how you\'re going to approach it? Aren\'t you supposed to wait until we become closer, Didier-sama?

"I\'ve had bitter tea before."

"Well, whatever. If you like it, feel free to eat plenty."

His smile was too perfect, sending chills down my spine. But while his probing was severe, he hadn\'t done anything harmful to Mary or me since then. Maybe he\'s actually a good brother. I\'m starting to think it might be okay to talk to him... I\'m eighty percent tired, ten percent uncertain about how things will turn out, and the remaining ten percent is due to the improvement in my evaluation thanks to the sweetness.

When I use my brain, I crave sugar. I put the potentially trap-like confections in my mouth, warming my spine that had cooled with a sip of warm tea.

"By the way, everything here is so white."

Not only the gazebo itself but also the table, tea set, tablecloth, and lap blanket were arranged predominantly in white.

"Did you notice? As part of the social etiquette study, nobles incorporate the guest\'s colors into their hospitality."

The guest\'s colors refer to the colors associated with their magical attributes, but Sheriel doesn\'t possess such colors. However, Didier deliberately chose white as the "guest color" and entertained me with it.

Understanding that, I smiled softly and continued the conversation. "What do you do when you have many guests?"

Didier seemed to understand and widened his eyes with a happy smile, returning to his usual brotherly expression as if nothing happened.

"For tea parties and such, they decorate with roses and tulips, each representing the colors of all the guests. This unification with a single color for one person is the highest form of hospitality. Even the confections can be colored, but I decided to make them white since we had the opportunity."

"Hehe, it feels like cannibalism, doesn\'t it?"

"Ahahaha! What\'s that? You\'re definitely a Beriard!"

"If you\'re going to be mean, we won\'t get along!"

Didier found something incredibly funny and continued laughing for a while.

"Haah, sorry, sorry. It\'s been a while since I laughed this much. My own color... Haha, the confections, cannibalism..."

"Enough!"

"Hahaha, we\'ve become quite friendly, haven\'t we?"

"Where do you see that?"

"Come on, cheer up. I brought the mythological scriptures."

Saying that, Didier tidied up the table a bit and opened the book of myths. However, I was surprised when I looked at the book.

"Didier-sama, I can\'t read these characters..."

"Well, of course not!"

Didier started laughing again, but despair was the only thing on my mind. I had always assumed that being able to read characters was common knowledge, as I had a vague understanding of conventional things as general knowledge. I also vaguely remembered the atmosphere of written documents, including the hellish script written in ridiculously small letters due to the scarcity of paper... So how could I not know how to read?

"Come here, I\'ll read it for you. You\'ll learn it quickly because you\'re a Beriard," Didier reassured Sheriel, who was on the verge of tears.

I reluctantly moved next to Didier and followed along with my eyes as he slowly recited the characters while tracing them with his finger.

...Huh? Maybe it\'s not as difficult as I thought. The sentence structure seems similar to English. Well, most languages are somewhat like this.

"The Goddess of Fire, the God of Water, the Goddess of Earth, the Wind Goddess...?" I tried pointing at and reading the words I learned on the new page, and Didier\'s eyes widened as he exclaimed,

"You\'ve already learned it? That\'s amazing! How about this one?"

"To bestow blessings."

"That\'s right!"

Feeling completely engrossed, Sheriel and Didier lay down side by side on the grass, playing a game where they read aloud the words they had learned from each page.

"How are you memorizing them?"

"I understand the words themselves, so once I grasp the phonetic rules of the characters, I can somehow... "

By extracting common symbols and associating them with sounds, I could somewhat read the words because I already understood their meanings.

That\'s because my brain, which acquired cognitive abilities from the moment I was born, had further enhanced its specifications. My memory and processing abilities were off the charts.

Once I saw something, I could memorize it if I wanted to.

So, by grasping the symbols and learning the spellings or sounds of a few words, I could assemble the rest automatically.

However, Didier didn\'t find it surprising since it was something Beriards would naturally be capable of.

"Oh, that\'s interesting. It must feel strange to only know the words without the characters."

"Well, I memorized all the words and characters together from the beginning, so it felt natural to me. It might have been difficult at first, not understanding the meanings and all, but by the time I turned three, I could read and write at a similar level to now."

Wow, he\'s a true genius. What kind of brain does Didier have? How can he do all that?

I was thinking about how to hide the fact that I\'m a reincarnated person with cheat-like dreams of the future, but maybe I\'m actually inferior as a Beriard?

Even though I have memories of being filled with knowledge like a machine, I don\'t remember the process, so I don\'t know what Beriard\'s education was like, but it sounds terrifying and unpleasant.

...I guess I\'m not really fond of studying.