Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: Volume 12 [Parts 1 to 2] by Riku Nanano

Author:Riku Nanano
Language: eng
Format: epub

“Sorry you have to put up with this. I wish I knew a nicer place for you to lie low,” said the old otter wearing a jinbei and holding his pipe.

“I went looking with all the other gondoliers, but no such luck,” added an otter-clan girl in a pale-blue yukata. Both hung their heads apologetically. These were the callers I’d been waiting for: Zig, the leader of the city’s beastfolk population, and his gondolier granddaughter Suzu.

“No, I couldn’t ask for better,” I told them, shaking my head. Lydia tenderly stroked Atra’s—the child had nodded off on her lap. “We’re close to every major institution in the city here, and it has a lovely courtyard garden. Only an otter-clan chieftain and gondolier could have found it for us—you know the city like the backs of your hands.”

Zig and Suzu blinked, then beamed.

“You think so?” The old otter chuckled. “I bet you carry on just like this in the eastern capital. No wonder Dag and them are so soft on you. Funny you mention that garden. We open it up to some of the city’s big shots—though not often, mind you. The deputy and Marchesa Carnien took a special liking to it. We’ve got an arrangement from way back so we always tend the garden here, even if it changes hands. My great-grandpa told me it was something to do with ‘atonement,’ but no one knows more than that.”

“Thank you for saying so,” said Suzu.

“You do realize we’re imposing on you?” I asked, cracking a rueful grin while I poured them some of the tea that Suzu had brought.

So, the deputy and Marchesa Carnien have been here too. What an odd combination. And why “atonement”?

I breathed in the refreshing aroma, so reminiscent of the eastern capital, then cut to the chase. “I asked you here purely to discuss local legends. Nick, if you would?”

“O-Of course!” The blue-haired boy shot to his feet. His chair clattered, making Atra fret, but Lydia must have soothed her, because she soon resumed the rhythmic breathing of sleep.

“Deputy Nitti’s second son, Niccolò, at your service,” he said, more uptight than usual—perhaps because Tuna wasn’t with us. “Please permit me to ask you a few questions about the city’s old tales!”

“Well now,” Zig mused. “The deputy’s boy. How’s little Niche these days?”

Niccolò gave a start. “Y-You know my brother?”

The old otter looked just like Dag as he grinned and stuck his pipe in his mouth. He made to light it, then looked at Atra and reconsidered. “Darn right I do. That scamp may act razor sharp now, but you wouldn’t believe the mischief he used to get up to. He was always dropping by Cat Alley and rowing the gondolas with a gang of our whelps. That takes me back.”

Niccolò was left speechless, genuinely stunned.

Niche, crewing a gondola with beastfolk? The thought tickled me.

“So, you’re interested in local legends?” Zig continued, stowing his pipe in a pocket. “What do you want to know? Oh, and don’t bother tiptoeing around the point.

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