058: Tops and Grandchildren

November 17, 2020 - 10 minutes read - 2113 words

In a room in the inn that was isolated from the hustle and bustle of the royal capital, the Slowlette family is relaxing after eating breakfast. The only sounds are my mother and father chatting with each other.

At the moment, I’m relaxing on a fine sofa nearby, thinking about what to do today. I’m thinking about possibly making something with the rotating magic tool I purchased yesterday. In a similar vein, a top wouldn’t require any magic tool knowledge. They’re just some string and wood. Maybe in the future I could build a fancy top that uses an internal rotating magic tool?

“Please, enjoy this tea, it’s a famous brand in the capital.” Mina

A tea cup is presented to me with a graceful movement.

“Oh, thank you, Mina” Al

After I thank her, Mina bows down. If Sarah did it, I wouldn’t feel weird, but Sarah is the kind of maid who can anticipate needs ahead of time and have tea ready. Mina has no such ability. After I had that thought, I went to put in sugar while thinking about why Mina doesn’t put sugar in tea even though she loves sweets? She gave it to me neat today.

While I’m drinking the tea, her eyes are on my pocket that I used to conjure cookie during my magic act. She can’t hide that part of her personality. She’s been keeping an eye on my pocket ever since I did my magic act. I’m not sure how long she’ll be paying me this much attention. Well, Mina won’t do this forever, she’s just that way.

“Delicious” Al

While I was tasting the fancy tea, my father and mother have ended their conversation.

“Al, are you leaving soon?” Elna

“To where?” Al

“Remember yesterday, we’re going to my parent’s house today” Elna

Oh, I remember her mentioning that before I went to the magic tool store.

“Sure, just a minute” Al

I produced a cookie from my pocket using Spatial Magic and dipped it into the tea. Mina noticed the trick and cleaned her eyes before helping me prepare for the departure with great respect.

We ride in the carriage north from the inn. After around 20 minutes, the carriage stops in a beautiful area. The streets are as nice as the main street, but with fewer carriages or people moving around. The people moving around are wearing stylish good-quality clothes and their faces look happy. I can see places setup for tea parties in the gardens of the mansions around us. This is what you think about for a noble district.

“Al, we’re here.” Nord

While I was admiring the scenery, Nord let’s us know we’ve arrived.

There’s a two-story mansion with a large garden in front of us, it’s surrounded by an iron fence. I heard that Elna’s parents were from a merchant family, how big is their company?

The garden has many flowers and plants in it. It feels like most of the flowers are red. Is this my grandparent’s hobby?

As we entered through the gate, a servant came out of the mansion to guide us. I wonder if he does double duty as a guard, he looks tough.

When we passed into a living room, we met a smiling woman who appeared to be around thirty and an older man standing up from a chair. These must be my maternal grandparents, but my grandmother looks very young.

My grandmother has the same maroon hair as my mother held in a bun. She appears quite calm. It may not be strange in a world where a 15-year-old can get married, but it still feels a bit weird to call her a grandmother. Maybe I can just call her mother?

My grandfather has wrinkles around his eyes, but not so much that he looks old. His brown hair is still busy, he’s got plenty of life left. However, his first question is a bit annoying.

“Did you bring Eleanora?” Grandfather

He shakes his head while speaking. He even walked behind us to check for her.

“Eleanora didn’t join us for this trip, father-in-law” Nord

“Don’t call me father-in-law” Grandfather

“Ok, old man, calm down. Is Alfred the only child this time?” Grandmother

The woman calms down the old man that was arguing with Nord. She got up from her chair and came over.

“Alfred? Nice to meet you, I’m Elena, Elna’s mother.” Grandmother Elena

Looking at her gentle smile, I could tell she’s the mother of Elna.

“Nice to meet you, Grandma Elena” Al

I replied cheerfully, but Grandma Elena looked into my eyes while saying “Hmmm”.

“His eyes look a bit strange, but he looks fine” Elena

“Eh?” Al

What does she mean? Please let me know in greater detail.

“You must be tired since you just got to the royal capital, but please relax for today. Let’s chat some later?” Elena

Grandma Elena talks while stroking my head. I’ve been in the royal capital for four days now, and I slept well yesterday, didn’t I? I wonder if my eyes look tired today?

“Oh, right. Nord, have you been visiting the royal capital less often the last few years? Is that why we haven’t been able to see Eleanora? Isn’t it important to make connections as an aristocrat?” Grandpa Lazarus

Elna’s father, Grandpa Lazarus, says with his arms crossed. It feels like 30% of his worry is about Nord, and 70% is about Eleanora. To be honest, since our family is only a Baron rank, it may behoove us to attempt to raise the rank. But Nord rarely visits the royal capital to attend aristocratic parties. It may be that he uses the distance as an excuse, but it’s unlikely that would always work. He attends some social gatherings and events, but Grandpa Lazarus thinks he spends too much time in Nord’s territory.

“Father-in-law, well…” Nord

“Don’t call me your father-in-law!” Lazarus

“Father-in-law?” Nord

“I don’t want to hear it” Lazarus

“Daddy?” Nord

“Have you decided to start joking? Nord?” Lazarus

I’m a bit surprised, why did Nord think to call him Daddy? Perhaps this is a normal type of interaction between the two, Elena and Elna are chatting peacefully. They’re sitting on a sofa and catching up with each other. Surely Nord is being derided by my grandfather.

“Well, are you sticking with your previous excuse?” Lazarus

“Yes, my territory is rural, so I was able to use that as an excuse. This worked well for a while, but there’s been more attention to us recently. Like…” Nord

Nord glances at me, followed by my grandfather. Huh? We should have the money to visit more often, but Nord has been staying in the countryside?

“Maybe it’s this kid who made that entertainment equipment that up-and-coming company started to sell. He’s hooked both the commoners and aristocrats.” Lazarus

Hey, don’t be so disrespectful, I have a name, Alfred, right? Besides, Nord was the person who licensed the inventions.

“What do you mean? Is it a habit to take prototypes around and brag about them?” Nord

“So noisy!” Grandma Elena

Nord and Grandpa stop arguing when Elena interjects. She and Elna get back to their conversation. A temporary peace descends.

“I should have looked into signing a contract with your company” Nord

“Well, you did have a connection with the other company.” Lazarus

“Well, I was offered a good deal…” Nord

“Excuse me” Lazarus mutters to clear the air.

“Ah, I wonder if Eleanora will join the knight academy soon. Then she’ll live in the royal capital, so she can live here.” Lazarus

“That’s impossible, since the rule is that trainee knights must sleep in the dormitory.” Nord

“What? How about using your Baron rank?” Lazarus

“We don’t have that kind of power. Even if we did, you’d need special circumstances. Of course, they can leave for holidays.” Nord

The old man, who had his dream crushed by reality, sat down at the table. On the other hand, if Eleanora joins the knights, would she only get a few holidays off? That would be nice for me. It would give me a peaceful life without being harassed by my natural enemy. Should I be kind to Eleanora when I get back? So when she leaves for the academy, I can send her off in a grand manner?

We decided to spend the night at my grandparent’s house. There’s only two days left til the party. Apparently the party will occur over two days, and my family will spend a few days in the royal capital after the party, so I should be able to see the play about Nord without resorting to Transfer magic.

“What are you up to?” Lazarus

My grandfather came up while I was working with some wood in the garden. He’s wearing a white shirt, an indigo vest, and long brown trousers. He’s surprisingly fashionable.

“I’m making toys out of wood” Al

I’ve sat one of my rotating magic tools on the ground and used it to shave wood pieces into the shape of a top. I’m using a polishing stone while rotating the piece at high speed to smooth out the top. It seems that the sound I’m making while smoothing out the top has brought me some spectators.

The work I’m doing requires precision and could be dangerous if I get distracted. Nobody is trying to interrupt me, but it’s weird how everyone is staring at me. If I had a good chisel, I could really finish it off, but I’ve done as much as I can with the tools I have. I could look into borrowing one from Herman when I get back to the village.

“By the way, what is this toy for?” Lazarus

“You can spin it around for fun?” Al

With that answer, my grandmother smiled while my mother and other relatives looked disappointed. My father held his head as if he had a headache. It’s a little clunky, but it should spin well enough. I’ll move over to the stone path and wind the string onto the top. Only my grandfather came over to watch.

While being watched over by the curious grandfather, I released the top as if I was trying to throw it. I heard the sound of the top spinning on the stone path, but then the top fell over and rolled around. It’s embarrassing that I failed to spin it correctly.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Lazarus

“No, I didn’t get it spinning correctly” Al

I’ll carefully rewrap the string around it for the second attempt. I check the shaft, it looks like the string was wrapped correctly. I pull the string again and the top starts spinning. It was a bit unstable at first, but evened out pretty quick.

“Spin!” Al

“Oh! That’s spinning beautifully! Interesting!” Lazarus

I dance around while watching the top spin.

“Hmm, so it’s still spinning after a while? That’s interesting, is there any other way to play with it?” Lazarus

“Another way is to spin two of them in a circular ring to see which one falls down first.” Al

“So they hit each other?! That sounds interesting! Hey, let me play with one!” Lazarus

“No, I’ve only made one” Al

“I’d like to see when two of them are hitting each other.” Lazarus

How can I disappoint this exuberant old man? Ah, if you just want to see two tops hitting each other, I might have a solution.

“Then do you have skewers, scissors, and some cardstock? You could make some quick tops with that.” Al

Grandpa rushed off to the mansion and brought out the things I asked for. I cut the cardstock into two circles and stabbed each with a short skewer.

“That should work” Al

“Can it spin on the path?” Lazarus

I move over to a nearby table since the light paper tops wouldn’t spin well on the path.

“Hold it here, then spin it like this… see” Al

After I demonstrate, my grandfather spins the other one with a strange look.

“Oh! I got it to spin” Lazarus

“Well, somewhat” Al

“The purpose it to have the tops hit each other, right?” Lazarus

“Hah, next time we’ll do that” Al

“Hey, why is your top shaped like that?” Lazarus

“To win?” Al

For the rest of the day, Grandpa kept spinning tops all day long. Being ingenious with paper would win, though I went in a different direction, making creative shapes like flowers or coloring the paper with paint.

“Hey, sell this idea to us” Lazarus

“Ah, yes, yes. I’ll give it to you since you like it…” Al