The Daughter of Evil - Volume 4 - Chapter 2.11

chapter 2, section 1-hometown of misgivings; scene 1
Praefacio of Blue, page 50-53

♣ Yukina ~The Country of Marlon, “Capital Bariti”~

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It wasn’t raining, but the sky was pretty cloudy. The black-roofed carriage that we rode in advanced along the thin, crudely cobbled road.

The carriage frequently swayed, probably because Marlon highways were so much more poorly maintained than those on the mainland. I was alright for the most part, but there was someone I was worried about.

Is Miss Germaine alright?

I stuck my head out the window and peered into the carriage next to mine. As I thought, in there right then was a swordswoman whose face was pale as death, and a composed sorceress who didn’t look the least bit concerned.

I hadn’t paid any mind to how poorly laid out the stonework on the highways was before going out on my journey. Even that much showed to me how much discernment I’d gained in that year-and-a-half.

“How’s Bariti? It’s been a while for you,” my brother asked, sitting in the seat next to me.

How was it? I had no answer for him. Bariti’s townscape, the drab red brick shops, the broken state of the black bar signs, and the enormous clocktower of the great church that I could see looming in the northern sky, had not changed at all from one year ago.

Despite having asked the question, Shaw himself didn’t seem terribly interested in my answer. His gaze looked to be directed past me and more at Gumillia, who he could see through the window in the neighboring carriage. In my head I muttered, That precocious brat! , but out loud I merely replied “It’s pretty nostalgic~”

Three carriages were on their way to my home, the Freezis estate. Bariti was divided into north and a south by the Methis river that flowed through the center, and the Freezis estate was in the north.

In the carriage I was riding in, aside from Shaw there were two of the attendant men in black sitting in the seat behind me. In the carriage moving along to our left there was Germaine and Gumillia, as well as two men in black uniforms like with us. In the remaining carriage there were only men in black.

One other carriage had traveled with us until we’d arrived in Bariti. It was the carriage King Kyle was riding in. That carriage had separated from us halfway through, and headed for the Marlon castle in the west. The navymen, on the other hand, were probably in the middle of a party at the port right about now.

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We gradually approached the clocktower of the great church that I had seen from a distance. As this was a church of the Levia sect I wasn’t terribly familiar with it, me and my whole family being members of the Held sect and all.

It hadn’t always been like that, but the Levia sect was becoming mainstream even in Marlon. There were no longer any churches to Held in the country, so the Freezis family had no custom of going to a church to pray.

Only my mother, who was the most devout member of my entire family, would sometimes walk to far off towns or even other countries to attend a Held church.

What…what is this?

A line had formed before the church. It was composed of old and young, men and women–various people.

“They’re getting medicine,” Shaw began to explain, before I could ask. He’d promptly noticed that I was interested. As one might expect of a pair of siblings. “They’re sufferers of the Gula disease. Seems the church is dispensing medicine for free.”

So the Gula disease had spread even to Marlon. Apparently it was only in the last year or so, so it had begun to take hold after I had already set out on my journey.

The Gula disease–I remembered what happened in the Beelzenian Empire, and shuddered.

“Are there a lot of people dying from it?” I timidly asked Shaw.

“In Bariti, medicine is pretty well circulated. And the church manages poor people like they’re doing over there. I’ve hardly heard any talk of anyone dying from the disease. Except…”

“Except what?”

“I’ve heard there are some places out in the countryside where things have gotten to be pretty terrible. Especially in the area around Castle Hedgehog to the northwest.

I had no wish to encounter those dead soldiers again, but as I couldn’t deny the possibility that the owner of the Glass of Conchita–Ney–was in Marlon, I had to be prepared for that.

The people in the line were thin, and had lost their vitality. I prayed for their full recovery from inside the carriage as it passed by the church.