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Hey! I actually put this chapter out in a timely fashion! It's a miracle!!! Don't expect this all the time XD But anyway, yeah. I started this one earlier this morning (and by morning I mean this afternoon) and bam! done. It was about the same length as the others at 20 pages, but there wasn't any jokes I had to translate/re-create so it went super smooth. It literally only took 9 hours during which I also made and ate lunch/dinner, washed and hung the laundry, swept the apartment, watched a bunch of crap on youtube, stared at the ceiling for a while and then walked to the supermarket XD Oh, and there was even a word I didn't know at all and it wasn't in any of the dictionaries I had so I had to ask a Japanese friend and that took a few hours to get a response~ I feel so damn accomplished! And I learned something! :D
ANYWAY, here's the next chapter~~
Chapter 5
He’s lived for a long time, but he never knew a place like this existed.
Using the last bit of strength in his body, Günter von Christ braced his legs in order to not collapse on the bed behind him.
“With this, the first day of your trial period for becoming a monk has ended. The vow of silence is lifted in your personal rooms, so feel free to speak as you wish.”
As soon as he’s told that, he opens his mouth wide like a fish. Next to him is the middle-aged, former soldier, seemingly at peace with his completely different look. This unlucky man’s name is Dacascos. The chance visit to the king’s office with a message was the beginning of his misfortune.
Searching for Yuuri who had disappeared after leaving a letter, they have come to a monastery. Joining the order and becoming monks, the men are in a place where the daily life is nothing but prayer for the peace of the True King’s noble spirit and the future of the Great Demon Kingdom.
Actually, as the royal advisor, Günter has gone to all the ceremonies and blessings at the Shrine of the True King. As such, he has met many people who have come into contact with the True King’s noble spirit and work as priestesses. But, they are all women there. They have long hair and they also have eyebrows.
But the monk standing in front of him is a man and didn’t have hair on his head, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose hair or even ear hair. They have shaved all the hair from their body in order to decrease the amount of different aspects between the True King and themselves as much as possible. Günter was given special consideration, but Dacascos, who he had forced to come along with him, had not been able to escape this. Having all his hair removed, he no longer even vaguely resembled the soldier he once was.
To think that there was a monastery full of men like this just a half day’s ride through the mountains from Blood Pledge Castle.
“Well then, let’s call it a day. Let us carry out tomorrow’s dawn prayer in tranquility, shall we?”
The move he made when he said ‘shall we’ at the end, bending his knees and thrusting one foot’s toes behind him, was the greeting here. It was a pose you see a lot in folk dances, but there’s nothing cute about a monk doing it.
“Th-this was unexpected. To think that this dubious facility existed.”
“More importantly Your Excellency… I don’t think that His Majesty and the girl who attempted to assassinate him are here… I mean, it’s all men here.”
“But the trial period is three days. If we say anything along the lines of quitting on the first day, even if I’m one of the ten noble families, I have no idea how we will be treated.”
“Oh, I forgot something important!”
As he was about to leave, the lead monk turned on his heel and came back. He starts digging out luxury items from Günter’s excessive luggage.
“All pleasures are forbidden at this monastery. The only one allowed to let loose at night is His Majesty the True King. During this trial period, all objects of worldly pleasure will be confiscated. Alcohol, cards, face masks… what is this?”
“Ah, th- that’s-!”
Lord von Christ thrusts out his hand in a panic, but the green, mountain goat leather bound book finds its way into the hands of the lead monk. He flips through the pages. This is an emergency situation.
“A Love Diary Composed in Summer… this is a diary? Don’t worry, I’m not so rude as to read another’s diar… hm?”
If he still had eyebrows, they would have been drawn together in a frown right now.
“… His Majesty blessed me, who has devoted body and spirit to my work as tutor and advisor, with the words, ‘Without you, my country would not be complete. Günter, will you make history with me and never leave my side?’ Unable to suppress my tears of joy, I devote a kiss to His Majesty’s noble feet.”
“Ughyaa! Your Excellency! What the hell kind of things are you writing!?”
The victim is the former soldier. The lead monk continues reading indifferently.
“… My everything belongs to His Majesty if he so commands….”
“Eghhh! Please stop, have mercy!”
“Why are you suffering, Dacascos!?” said the lead monk as he closed the green book. Perhaps because his face is so hairless, it’s practically emotionless.
“I’ll confiscate this as well until the last day. However…”
However?
Both Günter, who’s almost in tears, and Dacascos, who’s covered in tears, freeze while waiting for the next words.
“To record the days between you and His Majesty the Demon King as a love story… I feel this is something that a humble servant and body of one who serves the noble soul of the True King shouldn’t say but…”
‘Then don’t say it!’ Dacascos says in his mind. There wasn’t really a pause for it though and the mental thought overlaps with the lead monk explaining with a pitying face that all life under the True King is equal, but…
“… You’re really a horrible person…”
Dacascos could feel the blood pressure of the beauty next to him shoot through the roof. There’s no time to calm him down or stop him.
“Like a bunch of monks could ever understand the love I have for His Majesty!”
His Excellency Günter von Christ, beautiful hair disheveled, runs away.
*.*.*.*.*
As there are all sorts of types who like animals, if there’s someone who deserted Conrad’s troupe after falling into a sand bear hole, then there’s someone similar who’ll be calmed down by being in this room.
“This is great huh, Greta, it’s a whole bunch of freaky animals.”
From the walls of the room, there are a bunch of beast heads sticking out. The large ones are deer, bear, hippo. The small ones are rabbit, ferret, weasel, mink. They even have them here?
“… This is… a, a mini stegosaurus, right?”
“It’s a zomosagori dragon!”
That’s one of the animals in my limited imitation repertoire. Dinosaurs are popular with children in any world.
Dragged from the tent circus true to its name by the scruffs of our necks, the place we’ve been thrown into is a stuffed animal hell. The cold glass eyes are creepy. It’s like they’re not thinking anything.
The door won’t open even if we ram into it or kick it.
“Who’s there?” A forlorn voice called from farther in the room.
I turn around in the weak light. Huddled together against the curly grained wooden wall are two figures. One is lying down on the floor, obviously not feeling well.
“Izura?”
Red-brown eyes turn to me. The girl lying next to her also opens her eyes slightly to look in my direction. Thinking she looks familiar, I remember she’s the girl I met this afternoon. Instead of a blanket, what’s draped over her is the down jacket I’d lent her. The warmth in my hand leaves me and Greta runs forth and places a hand on Izura’s cheek.
“Why are you here? What happened to your face? Who hit you!?”
“I should be asking about you, mister-”
“It’s Yuuri!”
Surprised, I stare at the back of her instant ramen head. After lowering her voice from a shout, the child repeats my name.
“It’s Yuuri and Greta. Right?”
“Ah, yeah.”
She was so uncharacteristically emotional, my response was a little late. The girl lying down gives a low moan. Coming closer and looking into her face, I see she looked really bad.
“Nina’s cold has gotten worse. I’m fine. I just got hit because I couldn’t find any customers. But, I’ll just be in the way until I can appear in the store again.”
In other words, this is the stuffed animal storeroom for Izura’s store, and the counterfeit money I found is deeply related to these people. As a violent brothel making minors work in the sex trade and creating counterfeit money, they’re like a den of evil.
“Do you have any medicine? Her fever hasn’t gone down since this evening.”
“In a cold place like this, you wouldn’t get any better.”
I end up stripping off another piece of clothing for Izura in her slip dress and placing a hand on Nina’s cheek. Just as I thought with her pale face and dry lips, her skin is hot.
“Yuuri can heal her.”
“Huh?”
Hey hey, I thought you were done speaking. What are you saying now?
“You can heal her right? You healed my fever. You healed it just by holding my hand.”
“Hey now, there’s no way I can perform that kind of spirit healing-type technique. That was due to the anti-fever medicine. You took some medicine, kept yourself warm and got lots of sleep…”
It’s too late. The three girls are staring at me with hope. Well, I might be able to at least give them some peace of mind. If I believe Gisela, it’s not impossible for me. Remembering what she did, I softly grasp Nina’s pale and dry wrist. Was it talk to them and draw out their vitality?
“Um… you have to want to get better. What do you want to do when your fever goes down? It’s winter so, that’s right, how about baseball?”
‘Is that all you think about?’ I berate myself.
“… When I get better… I’ll work and get money.”
Maybe it’s because she hasn’t spoken in a while, but her voice sounds hoarse and stuck in the back of her throat. Her light colored eyes are cloudy with fever.
“I’ll get lots more customers and I’ll even be able to send money back home.”
“No, aren’t there any better jobs? You’re still a middle school student so you should go back home and look for work there. Like at a convenience store or a family restaurant, you’ve gotta find a part-time job suited for girls.”
“There’s nothing in Svelera,” Izura interjects, hugging her knees. It was an empty and cold voice.
“Nina and I have been together since we were little. We were raised in the same village. Until a half a year ago, we worked in the esoteric stone mines, but one day the stones just stopped coming up.”
“Eh…”
I wonder if that’s because our group searching for the Demon Flute laid waste to the mines. There was one place where I definitely destroyed a mine with my own hands. But, that was an internment camp so it shouldn’t have anything to do with their lost place of work.
“B-but rain fell so shouldn’t your daily life have gotten a bit easier?”
“Even though it’s raining we can’t grow crops. There aren’t any seeds. We ate them all. Even if the grass is green, it doesn’t mean the cows and goats will grow fat. We didn’t have any in the first place. With the long drought and food shortage, they died or we ate them. There’s nothing left in Svelera. All there is is water and domineering soldiers! The army doesn’t pay… All the men who came to our village told us that there’s work in Hildyard and if you want us to take your daughters there, we’ll give you a deposit. So, the adults in the village got together and had a meeting… We didn’t want to do this kind of work, but going against the decision of the older women would be a crime…”
“That’s…”
Hearing the end of Izura’s sentence tremble, I swallow my next words.
Doesn’t that mean that their parents sold them? Although they might not have known what kind of work it was. But still, is this all because of the excessive things I did in Svelera?
Damn it.
Didn’t they say they wanted rain? They wanted water. They wanted rain.
“… ow…”
I hadn’t intended to squeeze her hand, but the sick girl twists her body in an effort to escape.
“I’m sorry, I-”
“What kind of work did you want to do?”
Drawing everyone’s gaze at once, the ten year old’s cheeks redden. With her hands pressed to her sides, she sits there, swaying lightly. Like she was going along with some rhythm, she lightly taps her fingernails on the floor.
“Izura has fast legs so she wanted to become a mail deliverer, right? What kind of work did you want to do, Nina? What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I… wanted to be a teacher.”
The sick girl forces a laugh. A crack forms in her fever-dried lips and a thin line of red wells up.
“A teacher, huh? But isn’t being a teacher hard work?”
“But, teachers are awesome. They can write, and they can read books. They can go to school every day.”
“The ones who have to go to school every day are the students, not the teachers.”
“Students hardly ever get to go to school. I mean, they have to work.”
So that’s how it is in Svelera?
The palm I have resting on Nina’s skin gradually begins drawing in the heat. I’m assaulted by waves of pain and my thoughts become blurred by a difficulty to breathe and listlessness. I desperately resist letting my head drop forward by screwing up my eyes.
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