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I dreamed, and in that dream, Ai Fa was crying. She was angry. She was laughing.
All sorts of Ai Fas showed me all sorts of expressions and then vanished. It was a dream that filled me with both sadness that could split me in half, and joy that could make me burst.
Ai Fa had stared at me with teary eyes. Shot me a chilly glare. Wrapped her arms around me with a warm look.
Stay by my side, forever.
When had that been, exactly?
Ai Fa hugged me close in the dark.
I swear I’ll stay with you my whole life, too.
I’d make that promise over and over, as many times as I had to.
As long as Ai Fa allowed it, and this very world itself didn’t reject me, I would remain with her.
I wouldn’t leave her side until my body gave out.
Until a god or devil or whatever decided to mess with my fate again and throw me back into those flames, I swore I would never be apart from her.
I don’t want to lose anyone again...
On that day, I lost everything.
My old man and my childhood friend Reina, and the precious life I had built up with them was all gone thanks to my rash actions.
I couldn’t bear the thought of feeling such despair again.
So Ai Fa...
Please, don’t let go of this hand...
As the empty space around us wavered, I hugged Ai Fa tight. However, as I did so, her body scattered apart and vanished.
And then I woke up.
◇
“Uugh...?”
When I came to, I found myself lying down and hugging my own body.
It had been such a vivid dream, but as it slipped away from my memory, it left behind nothing but a vague lingering sense of loneliness.
What in the world was I doing in a place like this...?
It was like there was a sort of white haze filling my mind, leaving my thoughts and emotions all murky.
When was it...? Where was I...?
And so, I tried to focus my hazy vision.
The first thing I saw was an unfamiliar plaster ceiling.
And what I was lying on was a bed. It had a thin, fluffy mattress like a futon that felt real pleasant on my back.
“Futon... Futon?!” I questioned, shooting up.
Instantly, I was struck by a powerful sense of vertigo and felt like I was about to faint.
It was a fact that I was atop a bed, and that there was a soft futon laid out under me.
And it wasn’t like the layered thick cloth I had seen at the forest’s edge. No, it was an airy, high-class mattress that supported me gently like a dream.
A sense of terror was creeping in, slowly eating away at me.
There’s just no way, I thought, stricken by the worry that I had been thrust once again into some new unfamiliar world.
As I wiped the cold sweat from my brow, I tried looking about my surroundings.
I really hadn’t seen a room built like this one before after all.
The four walls were built with what looked to be white bricks with a yellowing tint, and there was a double door on the one to my right. There was a tall partitioning screen of some sort blocking my view in the other three directions, but from the size of the ceiling I assumed the room was around 13 square meters. Right next to the bed was a small wooden table with a vase on top, as well as a chair. And that was pretty much it in terms of furnishings.
However, that table and the bed I was sleeping on were adorned with subtle engravings, and in general seemed of high quality. And this fluffy futon had to be stuffed with down or something, plus the surface felt smooth like silk rather than regular cloth.
As for the folding screen blocking my view, it had an indigo-blue background and some sort of unfamiliar bird design embroidered using vibrant thread. It was showy like a peacock or a phoenix, and there were detailed fangs in its beak, making it look like some eerie cross between a bird and a reptile. I had no idea what it was, but regardless, something made with that much gorgeous detail must have cost a fortune.
And then, there was the thick rug spread out atop the floor. I didn’t know if it was more Persian or Turkish in style, but it had a richly-colored, complex geometric pattern to it. That luxury stood out weirdly when put next to crudely-crafted brick walls.
It was a stately, extravagant room overall.
At the very least, it didn’t seem to be any sort of jail.
However... I also wasn’t familiar with this style of room, either.
“What is this place, exactly...?”
It was a brick-built room of a sort not seen in my old world, the settlement at the forest’s edge, or the Genos post town.
I could feel the unease in me building more and more.
With that, I closed my eyes for a moment, gave my cloudy head a light jab, and then made up my mind and tried to get up.
And in the same moment, a voice called out, “Oh, my... You have awoken...?”
I could feel my heart almost leap out of my chest.
When I turned to face the direction the voice had come from, I found a figure casually appearing from beyond the partitioning screen.
“My apologies for failing to have realized... How are you feeling...?”
Her listless, slow way of speaking reminded me just a bit of Vina Ruu. However, naturally this wasn’t her. This young woman was just about as much of a looker, though, and even taller.
Her skin was porcelain white, even paler than folks from Jagar.
As for her hair, it was a beautiful gold like honey, and spiraled all the way down to her hips. Her eyes were purple like amethyst. This was my first time seeing anyone but Kamyua Yoshu with eyes like that.
“I am the one tasked with assisting you, and my name is Chiffon Chel... You are Sir Asuta of the Fa clan, correct...?”
Asuta of the Fa clan... So I was still in a world where someone would use that name, huh?
I placed both hands on the soft bedding and breathed a hearty sigh of relief.
However, that wasn’t all I was feeling. In this case, it meant I had been abducted by some real bastards.
The hazy feeling muddying my thoughts had to be an aftereffect of that drug that was used to knock me out. It must have been some sort of extract made from melemele leaves, which induced sleep.
And as I recalled about Ai Fa, Shin Ruu, and Ludo Ruu with that murky head of mine, I started grinding my teeth. There was no time for being stricken with despair, though. After all, I was in the middle of the enemy camp.
“Are you alright...? If you are not feeling well, then it would be best to rest for a while—”
“No, I’m fine,” I replied, once more facing that girl who had introduced herself as Chiffon Chel.
She really was a beautiful woman. Her facial features were finely chiseled, with a sort of nordic look to them. However, her soft, slender chin gave her a look of elegance and grace.
And she was rather tall, too. In fact, she was probably taller than me. And that tall, curvy body of hers was wrapped in a long, loose white gown.
Plus, she had numerous accessories around her hair, limbs, and neck, so when combined with her golden hair and pale skin, she reminded me of a goddess out of Greek mythology.
How old was she, exactly? She was tall and had a relaxed air about her, but she also wore a somehow cherubic-looking expression.
“Um, where exactly am I? Is this... the Genos castle town?”
She had called me “Asuta of the Fa clan.” Combined with what I was seeing of this room, I couldn’t think of any other answer.
The Genos castle town... The heart of Genos surrounded by thick walls, where only nobles and those they recognized were allowed to come and go.
At that, Chiffon Chel placed her hand over her mouth and giggled.
“My... You weren’t even informed of that much, Sir Asuta...? Still, my apologies. I am not permitted to divulge anything unnecessarily...”
“Then could you call for someone reasonable for me to speak with? I was threatened with knives and brought here against my will, you know.”
“I see... Well then, allow me to lead you downstairs...” Chiffon Chel replied, slowly approaching me.
I braced myself without thinking, but she actually stopped at the table rather than the bed.
Her fingers, pale as icefish, reached down and picked up a silver object from behind the vase. From what I could tell, it looked to be a delicately-adorned handbell. With it she let out a light jingle, and in response the doors to the room opened from the outside.
“Sir Asuta of the Fa clan has awoken... I wish to guide him downstairs...”
There were two soldiers standing outside the doors. Both of them had medium builds, and from what I could tell they looked to be westerners. It wasn’t to the extent of the ducal guard, but their leather armor was noticeably decorated, and they wore narrow longswords at their hips. At the very least, these seemed to be different men than the thugs who kidnapped me.
Sanjura... Was that really you...?
Just before my consciousness cut off I heard his voice, but it wasn’t ever clear to me if that was a dream or not. But that kidnapper was tall and dark skinned, strong enough to overwhelm even Shin Ruu... and he held his knife in his left hand. Sanjura, meanwhile, had injured his right arm.
But why would Sanjura do something like that...? Was he really the sort to take part in such a crooked plot?
Naturally, the answers to those questions remained a mystery.
However, I couldn’t imagine that plot working out without properly grasping the relationship between me and Nail. I mean, we were talking using a mere business acquaintance as a hostage to get me to do what they wanted. You would need to know a decent bit about our characters in order to know that would work.
And Sanjura was both a regular at my stall and had been staying at The Sledgehammer. In that case, it would be easy for him to sense that Nail was a supporter of the people of the forest’s edge, as well as how someone like me would deal with him.
The more I thought on the matter, the tighter the sensation in my chest grew. I had been torn away from my comrades at the forest’s edge and my old man’s precious knife, left with nothing but the clothes on my back in a place like this. And on top of that, it seemed I had been acting out a one-sided friendship only to find myself stabbed in the back.
“Well then, let us be off...” Chiffon Chel stated, gracefully swaying toward the soldiers.
And as I held back the various emotions welling up inside of me, I followed after.
Beyond the door stretched a hallway. Sure enough, the walls were made of brick, while a rug was laid out atop the floor. The ceiling was high, but the passage wasn’t actually all that wide. And the only light source was some small windows set up high, so it was pretty dim.
We walked just ten meters down the hall with soldiers in front of and behind us, and then a stone spiral staircase came into view.
Once we made it downstairs, we stepped into another hallway no better than the last. The place really did have a suffocating feel to it.
“This way...” Chiffon Chel stated, gesturing toward a notably larger door.
One of the soldiers silently pushed it open, only for a lukewarm air to cling to me.
What is this room?
It was a room without any noteworthy furnishings, seriously looking like a jail cell. And the bricks or stone or whatever were bare under my feet, too.
However there was another large door further in, so it must have been an antechamber or something.
So the mastermind behind those ridiculous orders is on the other side, huh?
I couldn’t imagine anyone but Cyclaeus doing such a thing. However, I had heard that the nobles in charge of politics were supposed to be stuck in the castle starting today. I certainly didn’t think this was the heart of the castle itself, but still... Just what exactly was the truth here, anyway?
“Please, come along...” Chiffon Chel said, stepping forward without any hesitation.
The soldiers, meanwhile, stopped on either side of the inner door.
And when Chiffon Chel went ahead and pulled the door open, an abnormal amount of heat and moisture came flowing forth.
“Gyah!” I shouted without thinking, only for cold fingers to grab hold of my wrist.
“Now then, hurry along. The heat will end up escaping, otherwise...”
“Wh-What is this room?”
She had closed the door tight behind us, and we now stood in a room filled to the brim with white steam.
I couldn’t even tell the room’s depth. That was just how thick the steam was.
And also... I could detect a faint whiff of herbs. It was a different smell than lilo, pico, or melemele, and was instead something closer to mugwort. It really wasn’t an unpleasant aroma at all, but still, it put me seriously on guard.
“Is something the matter...?” Chiffon Chel questioned, smiling from beyond the white haze.
With that, her hand circled around to her back, and her white gown slid down to her feet. And so, her naked body even whiter than the steam was now fully exposed before my eyes.
“Wh-Wh-What do you think you’re doing?!”
“I am unsure how to answer that... I was ordered to help with dressing you after all, Sir Asuta...” she replied, now removing the accessories from her limbs. I could just barely make out that she at least seemed to have something like a loincloth around her hips.
However, aside from that, she was stark naked. If it weren’t for the steam being so thick, I probably would have been panicking twice as much as I was now.
“Now then, Sir Asuta, your attire, please...”
Her white, supple arms stretched out toward me like twin snakes.
“Uwaah!” I wailed, my back now up against the closed door.
“B-By dressing, you mean... Is this a bath?!”
“A bath...? Well, it is a bathhouse...”
It turned out my hunch had hit the mark. I was vaguely aware that even back in Japan, steam baths were commonplace instead of bathtubs all the way up to the Edo era. Of course, that response didn’t put me any more at ease.
“At any rate, we must start by cleansing your body. Now then, your attire, please...”
“I-I get that this room is for bathing! And if I have to clean myself, then I’ll do so! But I seriously don’t need any help!”
“Oh, my... But if I do not carry out my duty, then I will be whipped...”
“Duty? This is a duty for you?!”
“Yes... Entertaining guests is the reason for living granted to me...” Chiffon Chel said with a faint smile as she approached me.
She really did seem to be five centimeters or so taller than me.
“I am especially good at scrubbing, so you have nothing to worry about.” Those icefish-like fingers wormed their way under my t-shirt. “Oh, my... Sir Asuta, you have such smooth skin, like a woman’s... It certainly seems like it will be satisfying to polish up...”
I ended up shrieking from the depths of my soul for someone to save me. However, that did nothing but churn about the steam in the bathhouse, and ultimately no help ever came.
◇
Approximately 20 minutes had passed.
I felt like some of my dignity as a human being had been scrubbed away with the filth as I collapsed in the antechamber where the guards were waiting.
“Have you still not fully resuscitated after all...?” Chiffon Chel asked in a concerned tone, peeking out. I had intended to tell her that wasn’t it, but I wasn’t able to form the words.
I had also been forced to wear fresh clothing that had been prepared while I was in the bathhouse. The outfit consisted of a milky white sleeveless vest, and some loose clothing that reminded me of harem pants. The whole ensemble was white from top to bottom, with only the leather shoes standing out by being camel colored instead.
“Well then, shall we be off...? The sun seems to have gone down quite a bit, after all...”
“Ah, hold on. What are you planning on doing with my clothes?”
What I previously had on was now balled up like trash in a woven basket.
“Yes, well, if it is alright, I was intending to dispose of them for you...”
“That’d be an issue. They’re all very precious to me, after all,” I said, pulling the tusk and horn necklace out of the basket and putting it on. “Please make sure not to get rid of any of the rest, either. I’d like to change back into that outfit again when leaving,” I managed to get out a bit forcefully, only for Chiffon Chel to break out in an amused smile.
“Very well... I will assist you again when that time comes...”
“No thank you!” I wailed, rising to my feet.
“Well then, let us be off...”
With that, we met back up with the soldiers and once again started walking down the hallway. And this time, we ignored the spiral staircase and kept on heading straight instead.
Though we ended up making numerous turns as we went, we just weren’t coming to an open space. Not only did the place make me feel like I was locked up just by being there, it also seemed to be built a bit like a labyrinth.
“This is it...” Chiffon Chel stated, stopping before another door.
So this was finally going to be my confrontation with the despicable mastermind, huh?
Kidnapping someone at knifepoint and then making them bathe before even meeting them sure sounded like the sort of ridiculous thing a noble would do. The first thing I had to do was try to get them to consider peacefully returning me to the post town, but I had some serious doubts as to whether or not I’d be able to hold back the defiant rage brewing inside of me.
Even so, I absolutely couldn’t lose my temper. No matter what, I needed to overcome this dilemma and make it back to Ai Fa.
As those thoughts ran through my head, I stepped through the door... only to feel seriously let down.
I suppose I really should have expected a development like this. Rather than an audience chamber with a haughty noble, it was something I was much more familiar with... A kitchen.
“Now then, this is the place where you will be working, Sir Asuta...”
So their reasoning for abducting a chef like me was to have me cook for them after all, huh? Now that I thought about it, that kidnapper I figured had to be Sanjura had said something like, “Please use your skill for the sake of my employer.” Still, it was absolutely ridiculous to ask me to cook before even explaining what was going on.
“What’s the deal here, exactly? I’d like an explanation,” I questioned in a firm tone despite being extremely curious about the kitchen.
The soldiers were still standing by outside and showed no signs of entering the room, so the one to answer cheerfully was of course Chiffon Chel.
“Our employer desires your cooking, Sir Asuta... Please ask Sir Roy for more details if you wish...”
“Roy? Who is that?”
“He is one of the chefs of this palace, and he will be assisting you... Are you there, Sir Roy...?” Chiffon Chel called out, raising her voice a little.
“Yeah, yeah,” a voice roughly answered from the half-opened door on the other side of the kitchen. “So he’s finally here, huh? I’ve got my own work to handle, you know, so this really is a pain,” the voice grumbled as a single young man emerged.
He looked to be about 20 or so and was a westerner. On his head he wore a cylindrical hat, and he had on the same sort of white outfit I did. Yup, he certainly looked the part of a chef.
Dark brown hair spilled out from under his hat, and his skin was lightly freckled. As for his height and build, they weren’t all that different from my own, so he certainly was far from burly.
“Hmph, so you’re today’s last-moment arrival, eh?”
His light brown eyes showed some serious doubt as they started inspecting me up and down. His face had the gentle look of a young man with a good upbringing, but right now, he appeared rather frustrated.
“Well, whatever. Just hurry up and get started already. I can’t get to work on my own tasks till we’re done with yours.”
“Hold on a moment. I was kidnapped against my will, you know? You’ve got to be joking, suddenly going and telling me to cook after something like that,” I objected, only for Roy to turn and shoot Chiffon Chel an annoyed look.
“Hey, you didn’t tell him anything at all? All I was ordered to do was help him cook.”
“My apologies, Sir Roy... Um, Sir Asuta, I was informed that you were told the details of your task...”
“I wasn’t told anything. Like I said before, I was threatened with a knife and dragged here.”
Neither Chiffon Chel or Roy here seemed the types to support such wrongdoing, so I tried making that assertion.
However, Chiffon Chel just politely smiled, while Roy disinterestedly turned away. Apparently even if they didn’t approve of such actions, they also didn’t sympathize with my circumstances.
“Well then, allow me to explain... Our employer desires your cooking, Sir Asuta. If what you make proves satisfactory, then you will be rewarded... This is what I was told.”
“And... if I were to refuse?”
“That... would most likely result in a whipping.”
“Something that outrageous is seriously allowed here in Genos?” I flared up without thinking.
“No...” Chiffon Chel replied with a listless shake of her head. “I would be the one to be whipped... Our employer would surely view such a result as coming from some blunder on my part, after all...”
“What the heck. There’s no logic to hitting you at all.”
“Our employer needs no reason in order to hit me...”
With those words, I had the answer to a question that had been building in the back of my mind.
“You said your name is Chiffon Chel, right? I apologize if I’m wrong, but... are you perhaps from Mahyudra?”
With that, Chiffon Chel gave another amused giggle.
“I am not supposed to speak out of turn, but do I really look like anything but a northerner...?”
I knew it, I thought with a sigh. In the Western Kingdom of Selva, people of the enemy nation of Mahyudra were employed as slaves.
In that case, this really was Cyclaeus’s manor. After all, Kamyua Yoshu had once said that twisted noble was the only one who would buy slaves here in Genos, so far from the border with Mahyudra.
Seriously, just how repulsive can one man be, damn it?
As that girl in those awful circumstances just scratched at her pretty head, I turned to face her once again.
“Well then, if I make some food, I’ll be returned home properly? I believe the men who kidnapped me said something to that effect.”
“Yes... However, you must not hold back when carrying out your work. I am told that if what you present is unsatisfactory, you will be forbidden from doing business in the post town...”
“That doesn’t make any damn sense at all! Um... just to confirm, this is the manor of Count Cyclaeus Turan, isn’t it?”
I got no response.
Chiffon Chel smiled like she was soothing a child, while Roy gave an affected shrug of his shoulders.
“Looking at the circumstances, I figure that has to be the case. I mean, this couldn’t be Duke Marstein Genos’s castle, right...?”
In response, I got back a ridiculing snort and a, “Ha! Genos castle? What are you, stupid? I don’t know if you’re from the forest’s edge or the post town or whatever, but do you really think someone like you would be allowed in a place like that?”
“If I’m wrong, then that’s fine. But Count Turan should be busy in the castle starting from today on, right? So I don’t get how exactly I ended up in these circumstances.”
“Sir Asuta... I am terribly sorry, but we are only permitted to say so much...”
“So I really will need to cook without even getting to know who’s behind this whole farce? And if they’re satisfied I’ll get a reward, while if they’re not they’ll crush my business in the post town?”
“No... The matter of your business relates to a desire to have you give your full effort, from what I was told. As long as your cooking is not excessively poor, I believe you shall not be met with such punishment...”
“But it comes down to the tastes of the person eating a dish to determine how they rate it, right?”
“Yes...” Chiffon Chel replied with a troubled looking tilt of her head. “However, all our employer desires is delicious food... It has nothing to do with you personally, Sir Asuta, and in fact you were invited to this manor in recognition of your skill. So there should be no need for you to worry...”
“So regardless of whether my cooking’s to their tastes or not, they’ll let me go home once that’s done with? And as long as it’s not especially awful, they won’t interfere with my business in the post town?”
“Yes... Or at least, I was told as much...”
“If those words are true, then that does a lot to put my mind at ease.”
However, I couldn’t exactly put much faith in the honesty of someone who wouldn’t even show me their face. And that went even more so for someone who had me abducted by force.
Still... What exactly was the deal with these circumstances? It was true that I’d heard Cyclaeus was a famed gourmand, but would he really try something like this when we were in the middle of trying to expose his old crimes?
Perhaps it was only obvious he’d find someone like me an unacceptable interloper, seeing as I was a foreigner who called himself a person of the forest’s edge and had started doing business in the post town. But I guess if he had such culinary interests, he could have ended up taking note of my skill.
Why now, though? Having bandits dress as hunters of the forest’s edge and attack plantations, going after Milano Mas’s daughter, and suddenly getting guards to start advocating for us... Compared to all those various plots, this one just felt far too sloppy.
Actually, “sloppy” probably wasn’t enough to cover openly abducting me at knife point in the middle of the day and bringing me back to his own home. Between my testimony and Nail’s, we should be able to properly charge him with this crime. And considering Melfried had no less authority than Cyclaeus did, we would definitely be able to avoid having this all swept under the rug by bringing it up with him.
Was Cyclaeus really enough of a fool to commit such a stupid crime when he was already under pressure?
Plus, if all he wanted was a single night’s dinner, why not just tell that to the leading clan heads? He was clearly in a higher position, and if he just accepted the condition of letting us bring guards, they probably wouldn’t be able to stubbornly refuse.
It seemed almost certain that Cyclaeus was involved in this plot somehow, but I couldn’t help but feel something was out of place here.
“Hey, in that case why not just withdraw to your room? I’d seriously appreciate it too, as it’d mean less pointless work for me,” Roy chimed in, his voice dripping with irritation.
I went ahead and gave the thought some serious consideration.
Mikel had warned that I absolutely shouldn’t show my skills to Cyclaeus, no matter what. I had no guarantee that wicked noble was behind all this, but would it be wisest to just hole up in that brick room, at least until five days passed and Melfried was free to act again?
“No, Sir Asuta. I do not wish to say such things, but... I believe an action such as that would prove dangerous...”
“Dangerous?”
“Yes... Today our employer is in a very good mood at the thought of having a long held desire fulfilled. But if you were to upset them with your actions, then you could very well be the one who ends up getting whipped...”
“Hey, if you go speaking out of turn, then you’ll get whipped, right?” Roy sneered with contempt.
The revulsion I had been suppressing was now boiling back up in the pit of my stomach.
“Got it. At any rate, I’ve just got to cook, huh?”
In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.
The other side had my fate in the palm of their hands, anyway.
I believed that the best choice was to meet this head on, trusting that Kamyua Yoshu’s plotting and the leading clan heads’ efforts would eventually take Cyclaeus down. Even if he grew fixated on my cooking, if he fell from power it ultimately wouldn’t matter.
Besides... I don’t think I could stand five whole days apart from Ai Fa.
Plus my clan head would have to spend that time not even knowing where I was taken. Just imagining inflicting that pain and loneliness upon her was enough to cause my heart to break.
I’ll make it back home, no matter what it takes.
And so, I ended up cooking food for a noble in their manor.
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