Leave a comment

A man greeted Ciel from his stall, and she lightly waved her hand in reply.
Actually, she just wordlessly raised her hand, but the man waved back cheerily.
As we’ve gotten accustomed to life in Central, we started walking around more, and Ciel has gotten into the habit of eating various kinds of food outside.

She does love eating to begin with, so I suppose it’s just the natural course of things.
Whenever we went to the area full of stalls, Ciel would buy whatever caught her interest and find a bench to eat at.
After repeats of this, the stall keepers gradually began vying for Ciel’s attention, and eventually Ciel also began chatting with them a little.

I thought it was because Ciel is a beautiful child… which isn’t wrong, but apparently it’s simply that Ciel eating from them would make for good advertising.
Apparently, people who have yet to decide what to eat will sometimes choose whatever Ciel is currently eating. As such, they want to borrow some of the Central’s princess’ power, or so they say.
Those living in Central surely have already gone through all the food stalls, so maybe they just wanted some sort of reason for their choice.

In stories, walking unguarded like this usually results in being targeted by punks or kidnappers. But here in Mother Fii’s manor, the Central, those kinds of people barely exist.
After all, they’ve already been eliminated.
Mother is generally apathetic to what the people do and wouldn’t even care if they kill each other—as long as they don’t damage the environment—but it’s different with Ciel walking around now.

A common punk, heck, even professional assassins aren’t any issue for us at all, but dealing with them does take us time, so Mother Fii issued orders for the freeloaders—which is unusual of her—to deal with them.
With Ciel’s display of strength during the manor assault, no one dared to complain, and this resulted in Central becoming probably the safest place on this continent.

While this does put a burden on the town’s upper brass, since it’s related to their town’s public safety and they’ve never paid her any tax, they have no right to complain, she said.
Mother also told them that those with complaints would be expelled to maintain public order, so I’m sure everyone was working hard.

And apparently, thanks to this, the neighborhood has become livelier than before.
I unfortunately don’t know what the previous living conditions here were, so I can’t tell if this is actually true.

『It’s starting to get colder.』
『That’s true. Tell me if it gets unbearable, alright?』
『Sure, but it’s fine.』

Letting out a chilly white breath, Ciel continues conversing with me.
She’s wearing a light crimson coat and a muffler around her neck—full-on winter attire.
Up until now, we’ve simply shut out the cold using my barrier and have always worn the same dreary cloak to avoid being conspicuous, so this is my first time seeing her wearing something like this.

Ciel buried in a navy blue muffler up to her lips is quite cute, to say the least. But, if I have to be honest, she’s the cutest in the world.

As Ciel is able to wear whatever she wants and spend time however she wants in this place, I don’t dislike Central at all.
While I can’t quite deny that we—or rather, Ciel—have already been doing as we pleased in the past, it wasn’t because Ciel was accepted by the people. It was more so because Ciel didn’t care about other people’s opinions at all.

As that went through my mind, I noticed something fall from the sky.
Light and fluttery, it continued descending, and as it landed on the ground, it left only a stain before disappearing.
And now, many of the same things have begun falling here and there.

『It’s snow.』
『It is snow.』

I repeated Ciel’s words.
There isn’t any particular reason, but this made me feel at peace.
It makes me feel like I’m on the same wavelength as Ciel.

Besides, being able to have a laid-back exchange like this is evidence of how peaceful things are.
In our surroundings, at least, things have settled down considerably. In the near future, though, we’ll be going to Ausente, and it’ll probably spell trouble once again.

「Snow, huh… It’s almost time for the winter lock-in…」
「Winter lock-in?」

A person manning a stall nearby said something that caught her interest, so Ciel asked about it.
Her sudden inquiry caused the man to yell “Princess!?” in surprise, but he immediately started explaining.
Mother Fii is not royalty, so we’re not actual princesses per se, but I guess it’s fine for them to just call Ciel that on their own.
It’s basically a term of endearment for them.

「The snow will start piling up from here on, and when that happens, people can’t really leave their house until the snow melts.
We close up shop when it happens, too. That’s why we make preparations beforehand so we don’t need to go out when thick snow comes. Like scraping up enough magic cores for the sorceric hearth and stocking up on long-lasting foodstuff.」
「What do you do at home?」
「I do some work on the side while thinking up new recipes. Being a man, I sometimes get assigned on patrols and stuff, too.」
「I see. Thank you.」

Thanking the man who clumsily spoke in polite speech, Ciel then leaves.
I can’t fault him for not being able to speak it properly. He likely didn’t have the proper education for it, nor did he face many situations that required it.
And in the first place, we don’t care how people talk either way.

Still, winter lock-in, huh?
I knew there was a practice like that, but we fortunately haven’t been affected by it up until now. I think we kept accepting requests regardless of the winter season.
While I did notice that there were fewer requests during the winter and that there weren’t many people going outside, it didn’t seem to me back then that the people were house-confined due to the snow.

Eavesdropping on the conversations nearby, apparently it would be considered lucky if you were only completely locked in, unable to go outside because of the snow, for one day.
And even then, in this world where hearths are the only home heaters available, that’s already big enough trouble.

『This season is really rough, isn’t it? Still, are snow pile-ups really that much trouble?』
『Have you ever seen a thick pile of snow before, Ciel? I can’t recall if we have.』
『I’ve seen some small snow piles before. Like on the side of the road.』
『Then it might be good for you to see the big pile up when it happens.』
『Got it. But we won’t be able to move around for a while, right?』
『Then let’s do what we can while we can still move around.』

Honestly, Ciel would probably be able to move around regardless. However, since there won’t be any stores and stalls open, that would be meaningless.
The Hunter Guild will probably remain open, but there likely won’t be many people present.
They’d probably be happy if we hunted down and brought them some edible monsters, though.

Since there’s also a den here at Central, the hunters would likely hole up in there instead.
As you can consistently hunt monsters in the den regardless of the season, maybe hunters actually thrive during the winter.
I don’t know if we’ll go there or not, but it might be best to at least ask about it.

『Do they also do the winter lock-in at the manor? I’ve never seen anyone preparing, though.』
『It should be alright? There are a lot of spirits, after all, and Mother can probably do something about it with sorcery.』

Even I can protect Ciel from the cold, after all. It should be easy for Mother to do so with the whole manor.
Even if that’s not the case, she likely wouldn’t be stingy with using sorceric tools.

『Now then, what will we do today? Any thoughts, Ain?』
『Let’s see… Why don’t we buy clothes for us to wear at Ausente?
Apparently, the school will provide for the uniform, but we can’t just constantly wear one outfit as we have done up until now, after all.』

The clothing we have right now should be fine to wear as a student’s casual wear, but it isn’t appropriate for either a rookie or a veteran hunter to wear.
And depending on the circumstances, we might need to present ourselves as the daughter of Central’s proprietress as well.

『In that case, why don’t we go to Shusii’s place? After all, you can come out freely there.』

Saying that, Ciel enthusiastically walked off.
I’m absolutely fine with not coming out at all, but since Ciel is excited about it, I decided to keep this sentiment to myself.

And that ends the first half of the this AinCiel fluff interlude! Only a bit of fluff actually, it was mostly world building on Ain’s part, lol.

The image of Ciel just going around and going from stall to stall with a small pile of food in her arms is adorable to visualize, and it’s nice to see that she’s learned to communicate more as well. On the other hand, Fii has been using-abusing her authority more now, lol. All for our adorable daughter. Also also, it’s nice to see continuity regarding Ain considering how she might be depriving Ciel of experiences, so now we have Chilly Snow Ciel wrapped tightly in a muffler, cute. Someone draw burrito AinCiel…

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!