The Daughter of Evil - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.13

Chapter 1, Section 1-The Star Fortress; Scene 3
Praeludium of Red, page 16-24

♣ Yukina ~In the Former Lucifenia Territory, “Town of Retasan/The Half Moon Pavilion”~

 .

The “Half Moon Pavilion” was a two story inn with seven rooms in all; right now, there were guests staying in five of the rooms.

After I’d somewhat awkwardly explained the situation, having already checked out once before, the petite, middle-aged owner let me check in again, grinning.

“Ain’t got no reason to refuse. Filling up a room deserves a warm welcome.”

All of the guest rooms were upstairs–the downstairs was for the owner’s room, and the bar. The bar also functioned as a dining hall, so the residents would take their meals there.

I was hungry, so I decided to have some lunch. For now I would think about what I was going to do next while I was eating. The food was charged separately, so I took out two coins from my pocket and handed it to the skinny employee. After replying cheerfully to me, he called to the kitchen,

“Get me one white Rollam Bird paella!”

That was the most delicious out of the dishes they served there. That was the conclusion I’d come to. Their omelets weren’t bad either, but they were very salty, so they were a little much to eat every day.

The bar was quiet. It was still midday, so while I knew there were hardly any guests drinking, it wouldn’t have been out of place for there to be others looking to catch a meal like me. But there were only about five people there, including me.

It was always like this when I ate, so I imagined it wasn’t a very popular dining hall. It would get fairly crowded at night, so perhaps the locals thought of it more strongly as a bar.

Hm? That woman…

I saw a face I recognized amongst the guests. It was the female soldier. The one who’d picked up my hat for me just a short while ago.

“Hey, uh–Thank you very much for earlier,” I said boldly. I thought that taking my meal with someone else might be more fun, and I also had the ulterior motive that, since she was a soldier, I might be able to get her to tell me the reason for why I couldn’t pass through the gate.

“Ah, you’re the…Well, no thanks needed.”

“Do you mind if I join you?”

She was sitting alone at a table for four. When I pointed to the chair across from her, she nodded agreeably.

“Go ahead. How ‘bout we eat together while you’re here, huh?”

She talked a little bit like a man, perhaps because she was a member of the military. I thought it a bit unsuited to how pretty her face looked, at the same time. If she were to attend a dinner party wearing a dress, she would probably be popular with the men there.

Once I sat down she said, “You a traveler?”

“Yes, how could you tell?”

“Never seen your face around here, and you’ve got that huge honking suitcase. Whaddya think of the town?”

“I think it’s very nice. Although the walls encompassing its surroundings feel a little constraining.”

“Yeah, it’s sorta like a prison isn’t it?”

After a short while of rambling conversation, finally the employee brought out our food.

“Your white Rollam bird paella, thank you for waiting!”

 It seemed she’d ordered the same thing as me, as there were two dishes of paella lined up on the table.

“This is the stuff,” she said, smiling and bringing the food to her mouth.

“I agree. Bon appétit.” I returned a laugh and began eating, myself.

After we went through the meal for a short while, she asked me frankly, “Hey, weren’t you heading to the fortress gate before? How come you’re back here?”

“Well, I’d been wanting to head out of the country to go to the Empire of Beelzenia, but I don’t have permission to leave. …I’ve had to just come back here for now.”

“Oh, so that’s it, huh? …What’s yer name?”

“My name is Yukina.”

During my travels I had taken to only telling people my first name when asked. Considering the influence that the “Freezis” name held, I wanted to avoid declaring it as often as I could.

She didn’t seem to pay much mind to the fact that I had withheld my last name.

“Yukina, it sucks but you might have a hard time getting to Beelzenia. Things are pretty tense between them and Lucifenia right now.”

“Things are tense?”

“Yeah. The country of Lucifenia originally got so big out of stealing territory from the Empire of Beelzenia, after all. The two countries have never been on great terms.”

“But Lucifenia’s not a kingdom anymore.”

“Doesn’t matter. The head might be different, but the country’s body is still the same. On a fundamental level.” She set the spoon she was holding in her right hand down on the table. “Even after becoming governed by Marlon, Lucifenia and Beelzenia still had their skirmishes for one thing or another. On that point, I recently got some information from the higher ups in the military; that Beelzenia’s harboring a fearsome criminal that’s done harm to the Marlon royal family.”

“A criminal, you say? Who in the world is that?” I asked, leaning in.

“Ah–as you might expect, that’s confidential. Sorry.” Perhaps realizing that she’d said too much, she raised her hands to her chest and gestured as though to rein me in. “Anyway, there’s a pretty high chance of some kind of fight breaking out between the two countries from all this. So we’re to restrict all movement in and out of the country.”

“You mean the territory of Lucifenia might invade Beelzenia?”

 "If they don’t hand over the criminal to us, yeah.“

A war could start over just one criminal. What a grandiose idea. I’d become intrigued as to just what kind of criminal this was, but going off of what happened just now there wasn’t any chance she’d tell.

Even so, she had spoken more concretely on it with me than the soldiers at the gate. The important point was that I couldn’t go to Beelzenia due to some arbitrary circumstances with both countries. Irritated, I hit the table. The silverware rattled slightly as I knocked on the wood.

"Good grief, can’t these people stop recklessly starting wars for their own interests?! It’s obvious this criminal is just an excuse to expand their territory!”

I had raised my voice without thinking, but I quickly realized that was a blunder for two reasons. The first being that it was uncouth for a lady to shout during her meal, and the second being that I had just criticized the country right in front of someone who was related to the military.

But she didn’t look displeased or angry–rather, she laughed loudly. “Ha ha ha! Exactly. Marlon’s current policy of military expansion doesn’t sit well with the public. And I agree.”

That was a little surprising. Normally someone in the military wouldn’t voice such overt criticism of the government. Depending on the circumstance they could be charged with treason and imprisoned.

Maybe because she’s a woman she isn’t very high ranking?  

The yellow uniform that she was wearing was of the old Lucifenian military. Most of the soldiers for the current Lucifenian territory wore the blue uniforms of Marlon. Maybe she was being made to wear an old uniform due to not being very distinguished.

Having received such unexpected endorsement, against my better judgment I spoke more excitedly.

“I’m glad you understand! I was treated so coldly by some soldiers at the gate a little while ago. The top brass are so unreliable, they probably don’t even bother to train their troops properly!”

In truth it was just the younger soldier at the gate’s behavior that I’d had a problem with, but from the flow of conversation I had moved into criticisms of the military higher ups.

“Heh heh heh, I guess so.”

“After all, isn’t this fortress’ Commander Mouchet a good for nothing bum too? You…I’m sorry, I haven’t asked your name.”

“Name? Uh, Lily.”

“Lily. That’s a very nice name. Naturally, you know about this Commander Mouchet person, don’t you Miss Lily?”

“Haha, well, yeah.”

Lily seemed to be holding back a smile. Judging by her behavior, this Commander Mouchet wasn’t very popular after all.

“The guards at the gate told me that Commander Mouchet is frightening like an ogre, cruel like a demon, and works the soldiers like slaves. It must be such a burden on you to have to work under such a person as that.”

“Oh, they said that, did they?”

“Here’s what I think. The current Lucifenian Territory’s army ought to be headed by someone like you, who understands how things work–”

Right then, the door to the bar opened and in came a tall soldier.

“This is where you’ve been?” The soldier walked up to Lily and saluted her. “General Ausdin is here from his country. He’s currently waiting in your room.”

“Got it. I’ll go in a minute, once I’m done eating. By the by, who were the soldiers charged with guarding the gate today?”

“Ah. I think it was Bonnard and Oudinot.”

“Bonnard and Oudinot, huh? Right. I’ll keep that in mind, heheh…”

“Well then, please come at your earliest convenience, Commander Mouchet.”

The tall soldier bowed once, and then left the bar.

“Um—uh, Ms. Lily?” I asked timidly, “Is it alright if I ask what your—your full name is?”

“Mhm, yep. Riliane Mouchet. But I don’t care for being called ‘Riliane’ so I usually go by Lily.”

“Um, I…A thousand apologies.”

“Come on, eat up. Before the food gets cold.”

The paella there was delicious. But I can’t remember what it tasted like that day.