53話 買い物しましょう
――いやいやいや、ちょっと待って!
「いえ、わざわざ寄ってもらわなくても、宿へ入った後で自分で買いに行きますから」
やんわりと断ろうとする雨妹に、太子が笑みを浮かべた。
「雨妹の個室への引っ越し祝いを、私からはなにも渡せていないからね。
確かに立彬からはおねだりしていた小さな棚を貰ったし、簪だって受け取っている。
小さなものを言えば飴玉も買ってもらったか。
でも太子がそれに対抗する必要がどこにあるのだろう。
しかし太子は微笑んだまま自分の意見を下げず。
結果「街へ着いたらまず買い物」が決定となった。
――え、本気で?
太子同伴でお買い物とか、心臓に悪過ぎる。
けれど残念ながら、立勇は外を走る馬上であった。
それから軒車は順調に進み、予定通りに宿泊予定の宿場町へ入る。
この国では街道沿いの一定距離で宿場町があるのだが、ここはその中でも一際規模が大きそうだ。
「へぇ、賑やかですねぇ」
雨妹が軒車の窓から、大通りの街並みを眺めていると。
「そうだ雨妹、守ってほしい決まりがあるんだけれどね」
太子がそんなことを言ってきた。
「なんでしょうか?」
尋ねる雨妹に、太子がにっこり微笑む。
でもこの微笑みが曲者だと、この短い道中で学んでいたりする。
「ここでの私はただの
要するに、「太子」と呼ぶなということらしい。
「......ええと、明様?」
「ああ、それでいい」
太子が良くても他は良くないかもしれないもので。
雨妹は街に入ってからは軒車の横にぴったりと付いている立勇に、小窓越しに尋ねる。
「あの、ああ仰っていますけど、いいんですか?」
軒車に乗っている雨妹と目線が同じになっている立勇は、軽く肩を竦めた。
「......道楽に付き合って差し上げろ」
それは諦めの滲み出る言葉だった。
太子のお供とは、実は無茶ぶりに対する苦労が多いのかもしれない。
こんなやり取りをしていると、やがて軒車がとある建物の前で停まった。
その建物は外観が少しお洒落というか、西洋風なデザインが混ざっていて、周囲の建物と明らかに違う。
「......ここですか?」
軒車から降りて建物を見上げる雨妹は、頬が引き攣りそうになっていた。
自分で行くつもりだった店とは、明らかになにかが違うように思えるのだが。
「ここは舶来物も扱っているから、珍しい品も置いてあると思うよ」
けれど太子はそんなことに頓着せず、さっさと建物の中に入ろうとする。
それに続く雨妹の隣を、馬を軒車と一緒に置いて来た立勇が歩く。
「......た、じゃない明様ってお詳しいんですね」
雨妹が立勇を見上げて小声で尋ねると、眉をひそめて見下ろされた。
「元々、あまり宮に閉じ籠られる方ではないからな。
なるほど、太子は元来行動派な人のようだ。
それが最近は後宮に引き籠っていたと。
――私のフォローのせい、とかじゃないよね?
なにかと立彬にお世話になっている自覚のある雨妹は、ちょっと冷や汗を掻きそうになった。
それはともあれ、雨妹もここまで来てしまったら、開き直って買い物をすることにした。
雨妹だって女の端くれ、買い物は好きだ。
後宮でたまに開かれる市では、装飾品が多くて実用的な品ではないため興味がわかないだけで、普段使いの品で可愛いものがあれば買いたい。
そんな気持ちで店内を見渡すと、雨妹の目に飛び込んできた品があった。
――あ、ヘアピン発見!
今世でヘアピンそのものを初めて見た。
しかも大小さまざまな種類の造花の飾りがついているのが可愛い。
掃除の際に髪をまとめる雨妹としては、簪よりもヘアピンの方が髪留め効果が期待できそうに思える。
なので小ぶりな造花が付いているヘアピンを一揃い選ぶと、太子の手によって大ぶりの造花がついたものまで追加された。
続いて当初の目的である櫛に手巾、下着である
この国にしては新しく、雨妹としてはどこか懐かしい品だった。
しかもそのどれもが手触りが良く、明らかに高級品だが、そこは目をつぶることにする。
さらには。
「雨妹はせっかく綺麗な髪なんだから」
太子にそう言われて、洗髪の粉洗剤を買ってもらうこととなり。
布地を探していると言うと、絹の布地を選ばれてしまった。
そうこうしている内にも買い物を終えると、荷物を抱えて店を出れば再び軒車に乗り、今夜の宿へと向かう。
そしてやがて到着したのは、民間の宿だった。
――役人用の宿じゃないんだ。
この国の宿は役人用と民間用の二種類の宿がある。
それに比べて大抵の民間の宿だと、食事は自炊になる。
安宿になれば、部屋を貸すだけという場所もあるくらいだ。
実際に雨妹が辺境から出て来た際に泊まった安宿では、炊事道具さえ借りれなかった時すらあった。
故に旅に出る際は大量の食材や日常の細々とした道具も一緒に移動となり、引っ越しなみの荷物を持っての移動となる。
だから荷物の少ない様子を見て、てっきり役人用の宿へ行くものと思っていたのだが。
それでも太子の選んだ宿は高級感の溢れる建物なので、民間でも富裕層向けの宿なのだろう。
Chapter 53
'No, no, no, wait a moment!'
"No, thank you, but you don't have to go out of your way, I'll go buy some things on my own after we reached the inn."
Yui Mei politely declined, but the crown prince just smiled.
"I haven't given you any housewarming gift after you moved to your own room, even though Libin was prepared and he also bought you some things."
Indeed, Libin gave her a small shelf as requested, and she also got a hairpin from him.
Speaking of small things - he also bought her candies.
But there's no need for the crown prince to compete with him, though.
However, the crown prince beamed, refusing to back down.
As a result, it was decided that they would 'go shopping first after reaching the town'.
'Eh, seriously?'
Shopping with him would be bad for her heart.
Unfortunately, Li Yong was outside, riding on horseback.
Afterward, the carriage travelled on smoothly and they reached the city where the inn they're going to stay was located soon enough, just as scheduled.
In this country, inn towns were located at a standardized distance from the town roads, but this inn town had a remarkably larger scale compared to the others.
"Oh, it's really bustling, huh."
Yui Mei peered at the cityscape of the main street from the window of their carriage.
"Oh right, I have a rule I wanted you to keep, Yui Mei."
The crown prince then said.
"What might this be?"
The crown prince grinned at Yui Mei's question.
Yui Mei already learned during this short journey that he had something up his sleeve behind those smiles.
"I'm just 'Ming' here, do you understand?"
In short, he was hinting that she shouldn't call him 'Crown Prince'.
"...Ahm, Lord Ming?"
"Yes, that's fine."
Even if the crown prince was alright with it, others wouldn't be.
Yui Mei asked Li Yong, who had been sticking to the side of the carriage since they entered the town, through the small window.
"Ahm, that's what he said, but is it really okay?"
They were at the same eye level since Yui Mei was riding in the carriage. Li Yong lightly shrugged.
"...Just go along with his hobby."
His tone was oozing with helplessness.
Maybe the crown prince's attendants had to put up with a lot of unreasonable demands.
As they conversed, the carriage finally stopped in front of a building.
The building stood out from the rest, probably because of the western-style elements mixed in the exterior design, rather than its impressive style.
"...Is it here?"
Yui Mei's jaw dropped as she looked up to the building after alighting from the carriage.
It was clearly different from the kind of shops she planned to go to.
"They also handle imported goods here, so I think you can find rare items here."
The crown prince didn't mind that one bit, and he immediately entered.
Li Yong left the horse, then he walked beside Yui Mei as they followed after the crown prince.
"...Cr, er, Lord Ming's well-acquainted with this."
Yui Mie looked up to Li Yong and said that, and he raised his brow as he looked down back at her.
"In the first place, he's not the kind of person that liked being confined inside the palace. Perhaps his pent-up frustrations accumulated since he couldn't go anywhere these days."
So that's how it was. The crown prince was originally a proactive person.
However, he had been holed up inside that palace recently .
'Don't tell me it's because of covering up for me?'
Cold sweat ran down Yui Mei's back when she recalled how she had been in the care of Libin.
Nevertheless, they were already here, so Yui Mei decided to focus on shopping.
Even if Yui Mei wasn't girly, she still loved shopping.
Most of the goods sold in the Inner Palace consisted of ornaments and decorations, and only few of them had practical use, so she wasn't interested in them. But if there were cute items for everyday use, she would like to buy them.
She looked around the shop with that thought, when something caught her eye.
'Ah, there's a hairpin!'
She found something that looked like a modern hairpin for the first time.
Moreover, it had differently-sized artificial flowers, so it was really cute.
They would probably hold her hair longer compared to the hairpins here, since Yui Mei always tied her hair up when cleaning.
And so, she chose a set with small decorative flowers, but the crown prince insisted and gave her a set with large flowers, too.
After that, she also got a comb and hand towels. She looked for the undergarments called yufu, but since this shop handled imported goods, only western-style clothes were available here.
They were something new in this country, but for Yui Mei, they were nostalgic clothes.
Moreover, every single one of them had a premium feel, so they were definitely high quality goods, so she had no choice but to turn a blind eye.
Furthermore -
"Yui Mei's hair is a rare beauty."
The crown prince gave her some powdered shampoo for her hair.
When she told him she was looking for cloth, he also gave her silk.
Afterward, they finished shopping and left the shop with the goods in their arms. They then rode the carriage once again, and headed towards the inn they would stay in for tonight.
When they finally arrived, it was a commoner's inn.
'So it isn't the official's inn.'
There were two types of inns in this country - one for government officials, and one for the commoners. Officials were part of the privileged class, so of course their inns would be better. Just like the modern Japanese hotels, there were several facilities so a person could stay even if he's alone.
Compared to that, you had to cook your own food in ordinary commoner's inns.
Cheaper inns would also have rooms for rent only.
When Yui Mei left the borderlands, the inn they stopped in didn't even let them use kitchen tools.
Therefore, they had to pack a lot of ingredients and daily necessities and tools on their journey, so it somehow became something akin to moving house.
Because of the small amount of baggage they brought with them, Yui Mei thought they would be staying in an official's inn.
Regardless, the inn that the crown prince chose was excuding an air of luxury, so maybe they targeted those well-to-do commoners.
Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace
百花宮のお掃除係～転生した新米宮女、後宮のお悩み解決します。
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/housekeeper-of-the-hundred-blossom-palace/
Fantasy Romance Shoujo Slice of Life
Adapted to Manga Ancient China Complex Family Relationships Different Social Status Female Protagonist Imperial Harem Love Interest Falls in Love First Reincarnated in Another World Royalty
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4104ev/
黒辺あゆみ