The Daughter of Evil - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.11

Chapter 1, Section 1-The Star Fortress; Scene 1
Praeludium of Red, page 10-14

♣ Yukina ~In the Former Lucifenia Territory, “Town of Retasan/Main Street”~

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The fortified city of Retasan.

To me this town was just a transitional stop on my journey; it wasn’t an area with any special meaning to it.

Once I’d crossed the border from here and headed east, I’d arrive in the Empire of Beelzenia. My destination was there. I had arrived here only three days ago, but I intended to get my departure permissions soon and leave town.

I wasn’t in any real hurry. But having said that, the town’s only real notable features were the fort walls that enclosed its surroundings in the shape of a star. And I had almost no interest in military installations.

I left the inn where I was staying, “The Half Moon Pavilion”, and walked along the main street that led to the fort gate. The road had a large stream of people walking on it, and it was overflowing with energy. When I looked around I saw several different shops lined up; hardware stores, tailors, fruit sellers, general goods stores, and spice merchants. I advanced quickly along while holding my brown suitcase in both hands.

The suitcase was of sturdy make. Thanks to that it hadn’t broken once during the entire one year trip, but as I was a fourteen year old girl it was a little heavy for me to carry. Even so, that was something I’d already grown accustomed to.

Right then, a slightly strong wind blew through.

“Ah!”

The hat with a ribbon tied around it that I was wearing flew into the air. After passing by overhead of the pedestrians, it touched down in front of a locksmith. When I dashed over to get it, a woman who was passing by picked it up first.

She looked to be in her mid-twenties. The blonde haired woman smiled and set my hat back down on my head.

Looking closely, the woman was wearing a soldier’s uniform. She wore the national emblem of the old Lucifenian kingdom on her left breast. I had been able to see a considerable number of soldiers among the people walking along the road. It wasn’t that unusual–the town was right along the country’s border, and it was pretty strongly considered to be a fortress.

“You have my thanks,” I nodded, expressing my gratitude. Still smiling, she waved her hand and started heading in the opposite direction to me.

I didn’t think it was a bad town. It was just that I wanted to leave it as soon as I could–to speak more frankly, I wanted to leave the country as soon as I could.

It had been over one year since I’d left Marlon against my parents’ wishes.

When I’d first begun my trip, I had been a sheltered girl who didn’t know anything. I was ignorant of the ways of the world, not even knowing how to shop or reserve an inn.

I saw snow for the first time in Levianta to the north. I was taught how to use a sword for self-defense by mercenaries in Beelzenia to the east. Although, I had no knack for it at all, so I hadn’t picked up a sword since then. Personally I thought that I was far more suited to wielding a pen than a sword after all.

And then the place that I went next was here, in Lucifenia.

Up until five years ago, Lucifenia had been one fully fledged country called the “Kingdom of Lucifenia”. But due to the revolution brought about by the people who were sick of the tyranny of the princess at the time, Riliane Lucifen d'Autriche, the Lucifen dynasty was destroyed.

Without a leader, Lucifenia ended up being under the proxy rule of the country of Marlon in the west. That had been internationally recognized as a temporary matter to the last, but four years ago the king of Marlon, Kyle Marlon, had forced Lucifena to be annexed as Marlon’s territory.

There came criticism towards this from both inside and outside the country, but the Marlon royal family ignored it, and furthermore ended up waging war against the neighboring countries using Lucifenia as its starting point.

And in that way, with barely a break, the state of affairs once again descended into instability.

Frankly, I’d have to say that stepping foot in Lucifenia in the middle of all that had been terrible.

The soldiers of this country didn’t look kindly on a foreigner who wouldn’t reveal her social status, and I often had my movements restricted. That wasn’t even the worst of it–One time I was even falsely suspected of something and imprisoned.

At that point, in the end I’d been able to escape hardship by using my last resort. To make a long explanation short, my father was a wealthy merchant who was well known in all of Evillious, and he had a lot of acquaintances among Lucifenia’s elite. Or to sum up, I used my connections.

In any case, fed up with all the complications, I decided to quickly get out of the country; thus I ended up coming to this town that was along the border with the eastern Beelzenian Empire.

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Truthfully I would have liked to stay here and see more of the places related to the “Three Heroes” and “Daughter of Evil”.

It was regrettable but there was nothing to be done about it. I’d resolved that I would come back to this country again someday after the situation had calmed down.

After walking on a short while, finally I came to see a large iron door before me, and an earth colored fortification wall that towered over it.

Once I’d passed through this Retasan Fortress gate, I would be able to head to the Empire of Beelzenia beyond it.