Beauty of Her Spring [KNY Reader Insert]

Chapter 3: Company

When you were a tsuguko, you remember how often your master, Haruka, would be out. While he seemed to enjoy being a slayer, he also secretly liked his downtime. You remember how blissful he would look when he finally fell asleep in Riko's lap when he got home from an extended mission. He didn't do it as often anymore, but sometimes you'd catch him sneakily going into Riko's private room, where she would work on her flower arrangements around the usual time, and he took a nap.

And now you were the one to embark on extra-long missions, having to make your way back to the estate from three prefectures down.

You could have waited until you recovered from your fatigue and minor, almost nonexistent, injuries, but you were anxious to return home.

It would seem, though, that the universe had caught hold of your intentions and purposelessly set you to take that recovery period.

"It's a charming garden, Taniguchi-san."

"Ah!" With a frown, she held a finger close to your face, and you swiftly corrected your error. "...Minako-chan."

She dropped her hand and smiled contently, "Much better." The woman turned to look back at the garden the two of you overlooked. "It is, isn't it? It was actually just fixed up not too long ago."

"Really?" You inquired, looking at the green, budding leaves of the plum trees planted at the estate's center.

"Yes," she nodded, tugging at the obi over her kimono. "It was mostly a sand garden until before I got here. I commented about it being painfully bland, and my mother-in-law was mortified. My father-in-law didn't take it to heart, and for Nobu...well, he didn't comment about it, but when I returned one day from a mission, the whole garden was filled with plum trees and koi and..."

You smiled a little, trying to stifle a chuckle from manifesting. "Sounds like Nobu-san was trying to please you."

Minako puffed up slightly, "...It's not like I told him to change the whole garden for my tastes...! Even though it does look ten times prettier now than it did before..." she muttered.

Minako went silent for a few seconds before her vigor returned, snapping her head to look at you with a chastising gaze. "I may be his wife...but I still don't like him!"

Internally, you told her that she was becoming charmed by him but refrained from saying so to spare you from a potential rant.

"Right, I support you, Minako-chan," you said to her instead.

Not the most honest approach, but something told you that she might recognize her potential warming to the man.

She went quiet again, longer this time, and you looked back down at the garden from the second floor. The window was made mainly to allow for looking down at the garden and was even low enough to allow so when sitting at a kotatsu as you did now.

You sipped at the tea that one of the housekeepers had brought up for you earlier, noting that the green tea had a more subtle taste of...something. It had become a game to guess the tea and its origin with the keepers when they brought you a cup, and so far, you had only gotten half of them right. The family Minako had married into owned a few farms that grew green tea and had plenty of it in their stock to enjoy.

"I heard from Rengoku-san that you have a tsuguko now, [Name]-chan."

You hummed between the ceramic on your lips, pulling it away to answer properly.

"Ah, yes, technically," you recalled the day a few weeks ago. "I still haven't made a sound judgment whether I should train him properly, but right now, he's able to master the first form and trying to nail down the second and third. He might be hitting a plateau like I did when I first did all those years ago," you grimaced with a smile. "At the third, it starts getting technical and becomes more difficult."