The Daughter of Evil - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.23

Chapter 1, Section 2-Chance Meeting of a Sworn Friend; Scene 3
Praeludium of Red, page 44-52

♣ Yukina ~In the Beelzenian Empire, “Northwest Region”~

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After I’d had lunch and left the inn the next day, Gumillia brought me to a garrison for the Beelzenian army in the northwest. I was there to meet a certain someone who was there.

Gumillia had told me she’d arrange for a carriage, but it didn’t look very far until our destination, and I’d been wanting to get a look around Rucolebeni’s rural landscape, so I’d hoped to walk there.

“As long as that’s not a bother to you, Miss Gumillia.”

“I don’t mind. I don’t hate walking.”

The road was very cleanly maintained, so walking on it wasn’t especially hard.

“The mood around you’s changed quite a bit from before, so I didn’t know,” I mentioned to her.

The mood she gave off changing wasn’t from her appearance. In terms of clothes she was wearing mostly the same robe she had five years ago, and her hairstyle was unchanged as well. If anything was different, it was those glasses; she hadn’t worn them before.

But what had really changed was how her speech was much smoother than it had been, and–there was a certain something…I can’t express it well in words, but it felt like she gave off a more womanly glamour than she used to.

“I see you’ve started wearing glasses.”

“Find them odd?”

“No, they actually suit you very well.”

The wind blew, and Gumillia’s hair fluttered faintly. Her green hair was a characteristic of someone from the country of Elphegort–an Elphe.

I had lived in Elphegort, located to the north of Lucifenia, until I was nine years old. The mansion that I’d lived in burned down because of the war five years ago. It was a place that harbored both happy and painful memories for me, and on my journey I’d passed through without stopping to visit.

“I had thought for sure that you weren’t in the Evillious region anymore. You told me that you were heading East.”

Certainly, Beelzenia was situated much farther east than the country of Marlon. But from the way that she’d talked about it five years ago, I’d become convinced on my own that she was talking about a country much farther east than that.

“Truthfully I wanted to do that. But some things happened, and so I have been working as advisor to the Beelzenian Emperor for the last two and a half years.”

“You, an outsider, hold important office in the Beelzenian Empire? That’s amazing.”

“Well, it was from Elluka’s connections.”

Apparently Elluka had a deep bond with the imperial family. Though Gumillia told me shortly that she didn’t know what kind of relationship they had, specifically.

Was Elluka staying with Gumillia in the emperor’s castle?

“Well then, how has Miss Elluka been doing?” I asked.

Gumilia, surprisingly, replied, “Don’t know.”

“What?”

She told me that Elluka had gone missing. She’d gone astray three years ago, and they hadn’t seen each other since. Gumillia had been searching for her, but she wasn’t able to enter Marlon territory because of the “Witch Hunt Order”, so it was hard.

“The ‘Witch Hunt Order’, huh? …Are you alright yourself, Miss Gumillia?”

“As long as I am, in this country.”

Sure enough, Beelzenia, with all of its clear hostility towards Marlon, was probably the safest place in all of Evillious for her to be.

So it seemed that the criminal the country of Marlon was pursuing was her. The Marlon government sent demands to the Beelzenian emperor for Gumillia’s extradition. The emperor immediately turned them down.

…Once more I became interested in the connection between Elluka and the Beelzenian imperial family.

At any rate, unfortunately my hope of perhaps seeing Elluka Clockworker didn’t become a reality. But it was huge that I could meet up with the person closest to her instead. My chances of running into Elluka were far and away much higher if I accompanied Gumillia than just blindly searching.

At the far end of my vision I could see an oxcart carrying two peasants headed our way. The oxcart would pass us by, and from there advance towards town.

Come to think of it, I thought to myself, remembering something and giving a nod of gratitude to Gumillia, “It was you who sent out permission for me to enter the country, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, I remembered your name. Why have you come to a place like this, anyway?”

“Why indeed…I guess you could say I’m on a journey to broaden my horizons.”

I didn’t touch on the vessels of deadly sin. Even if she knew anything regarding that, Elluka’s favored apprentice was hardly likely to tell me about it that easily. It had been written in some book somewhere that a sorcerer never disclosed anything on the traditions relating to their power.

“Well then, ought we to make an appearance at the emperor’s castle after all?” I asked, feeling a little uneasy.

“Ah, there’s little need. I had just thought, that would make meeting up easier. Though you ignored it, like I imagined you would,” Gumillia replied, faintly smiling. Indeed, I could tell that she’d gotten to be much more expressive than she used to be.

“Sorry about that…Oh, what’s that over there?”

I pointed in front of us.

I began to see a lot enclosed by a fence at the other end of the road. Stone monuments of varying shapes like crosses, trapezoids, and humanoid figures stood lined up inside the fence.

“Is this a graveyard?”

“Yes. The garrison is just through this place. The Langley unit is there.”

“It’s in a pretty disturbing location, huh…?”

According to Gumillia, graveyards like this were everywhere in Beelzenia.

“Almost all of these graves are for people who died of the Gula disease.”

The Gula disease was an epidemic that began to spread through all of Evillious about fifteen years ago, and Beelzenia was said to be the place where it started from. A new cure was developed recently, but up until that point it was feared as an incurable illness.

From inside the graveyard I could hear a woman shouting thoughtlessly,

“Oooi! This way, this waaay!”

She was wearing a soldier’s uniform, so she was likely someone from the garrison. Gumillia started walking towards her, so I followed suit.

“Thank you for coming to meet us, Commander Langley.”

“Oh ho and what’s this? This a guest, Master Gumillia?”

“Uh-huh. I’ll introduce you–this is Yukina.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Chartette. I am Yukina Freezis.”

I hesitated for a moment on calling myself by the Freezis surname, but as this wasn’t land belonging to Marlon, and I’d already made it known by coming in here in the first place, at this point there was probably no need to hide it from someone in the military at least.

“…”

Chartette immediately shut her mouth. I became a touch anxious that I had done something rude without realizing it.

“…W-WOOOOOOOAH!”

Chartette suddenly started to scream. Sensing some danger to myself, I took two steps back.

“Mademoiselle Yukina! You’re the super promising new author that had your name added to the report on 'Novelists That Are Hot Right Now!’, aren’t you!?”

“Ch-charmed…”

“Yamiglass and the Three Foxes was so great, yannow! It had such a fresh new style set in a classical element, and what a surprising ending, yannow! The scene at Dandarah Bridge where Yamiglass’ true goals came to light especially was so moving I just had to–GAAH!”

Suddenly a nearby tombstone flew into the air and charged at Chartette. The poor girl was blown back, and she tumbled to the ground at an alarming speed.

When I turned around, I saw Gumillia chanting some kind of spell while holding her left hand palm forward.

That was Gumillia’s “magic” that I hadn’t seen for five years.

“I did that because she was annoying me. Was this any of your concern?”

“Oh n-no…It’s just that it’s still such a dramatic and strange power, this 'magic’.”

Even when viewing it as magic, throwing a tombstone at someone was probably an act that would be frowned on by a pious Levin adherent if they saw it. But Gumillia didn’t seem to care about that at all.

I wanted to ask more about this magic if I could, but as I wasn’t an apprentice myself she was unlikely to teach me her secrets.

“Anyway, is Miss Chartette alright?”

Tumbling about as she was, Chartette had crashed into the graveyard fence; she was now curled up like a worn out, ragged dust-cloth.

“She’s fine. There’s no problem with her. She’s sturdy.”

“I see, well I’m very grateful for that,” I replied with a smile.

“Oops, this won’t do. The introduction wasn’t over. This girl in the curly pigtails crawling on the ground is the commander of the Langley division, Chartette.”

Chartette stood, shaking like a newborn fawn.

“…Chartette Langley…Pleased ta meetcha…”

“It’s true, she’s still alive. Spectacular.”

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From there the three of us ended up heading to the garrison.

“We’ll be there in a minute, yannow.”

Chartette stood at the vanguard, leading all of us.

“I’m honored to meet one of the heroes of the revolution, Miss Chartette Langley,” I said, Chartette looking surprised.

“You know about me?”

“Yes, my father had a hand in that revolution too. I’d looked over his documents and newspaper articles at the time.”

Chartette Langley. The hero who fought in the Lucifenian revolution as one of the revolutionary soldiers and magnificently defeated one of the Three Heroes, Mariam Phatipe, in the “Battle of the Heavenly Yard”.

I asked her if she could tell me a bit more about that some time.

“Collectin’ data huh! Sure, I’ll tell ya all about it toni…Oh, we’re here.”

Chartette raised her head mid-sentence. After making our way through the graveyard I could see a small settlement.

“This is the Langley Unit’s Garrison.”