“Tuuli, would you please peel these potatoffels for me?”
“Okaaay.” At her mother’s request, Tuuli took a seat and readied her knife. They were preparing lunch. While peeling the potatoffel skin, she glanced at the door that Myne had left through.
Apparently, she was introducing Lutz to one of their father’s coworkers. They left a lot earlier than the planned meeting time of third bell, but regardless, Tuuli didn’t think that the introduction would go well.
“She’s trying really hard to make this happen, but it’s just gonna be impossible, right? Shouldn’t you have stopped her, Mom?”
“I don’t think Lutz will become a traveling merchant, but he needs to learn that for himself. And it’s rare for Myne to get this enthusiastic about something, so I don’t see the issue.” Effa, also peeling potatoffels, shrugged and explained that in the first place she wasn’t expecting much from Myne’s efforts. Her expression said that she was dead confident that Myne would fail.
It was only the day before yesterday that Myne learned that introducing a friend to your father’s coworker was the same thing as asking for an introduction to apprentice work. She had hurriedly prepared and went to the forest yesterday to get Lutz cleaned up. His hair ended up shockingly blonde and silky, but when it came to taking on an apprentice, there were more important things than looks.
Tuuli really didn’t expect that anyone would hire Lutz through trust in Myne alone. That said, she felt kind of weird seeing Myne work as hard as she had been lately. Her sister hadn’t been this hard of a worker a year ago.
“...It feels like Myne isn’t Myne lately. She still gets sick and passes out all the time, but she doesn’t cry about things being unfair anymore. Though I guess she does cry about not being able to do things, and then gets all upset if someone tries to do them for her.”
At one point, Tuuli’s little sister had spent all her time getting mad at her for being healthy and getting to go outside while she was stuck in the house, but that was a thing of the past. Myne was still getting sick, but she was also doing what she wanted to do, challenging the world and getting depressed when she failed.
“Oh sweetie, that’s just what happens when a child grows up. Babies have to be taken care of, but over time they grow to dislike that and want to take care of themselves. But they aren’t prepared to do that yet, so they get upset. You acted the same way when you were turning three.” Effa smiled, remembering the past.
Tuuli herself didn’t remember how she acted all that time ago. She got a little embarrassed at the thought of her trying to take care of herself, failing, and getting upset. But there was something about Effa’s statement that felt off. Tuuli compared herself to Myne and tilted her head in thought.
“You said I acted like that while I was turning three, right? Doesn’t that mean Myne’s growing up late?”
“She is. But when you think about how she’s physically stunted, well, I suppose it makes sense that emotional growth would be stunted too. Now that she’s finally gotten more healthy, she has the room to grow up. It might be difficult for you, Tuuli, but please let Myne do as she wishes for now. She’ll become more capable over time, more understanding of her limits, and eventually she’ll stop pushing herself too far.”
“...That reminds me, she was trying to get strong enough to gather and draw water in my place after my baptism. She got really depressed when she couldn’t manage it at all.” Tuuli thought back to Myne’s recent behavior. She was asking for all sorts of bizarre things like usual, but she could change on her own, and she could both relieve herself and clean up after herself without any help. Tuuli definitely had less of a burden on her shoulders than back when Myne would spend all day throwing tantrums.
Gathering was a more complex story. The first day she walked to the forest on her own, she stealthily made clay tablets with Lutz’s help, which Fey and his cronies then crushed. She got so mad her eyes flashed like a rainbow. But nowadays she didn’t cause any problems at the forest. She was too weak to do much gathering, but when compared to a three year old going to the forest for the first time, that was reasonable.
“She really can do a lot more than she used to. I hope she’ll keep getting more healthy.”
“I can imagine that the interview will fail and she’ll come home depressed. When that happens, cheer her up for me. Myne did her best here,” said Effa, standing up with her peeled potatoffels.
Tuuli gathered the skins and stood up as well to help prepare the rest of lunch. At the time, she didn’t expect in even her wildest dreams that Myne had actually paved the way toward being a merchant apprentice, albeit with a few conditions to overcome.
