The Daughter of Evil - Volume 4 - Chapter 3.12

chapter 3, section 1-the inside story on the girl; scene 2
Praefacio of Blue, page 134-149

✥ Kyle Marlon ~The Country of Marlon, “Marlon Castle/Right Palace”~

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The U-shaped “Right Palace”, almost immediately inside the castle gates, served as Marlon Castle’s foyer, drawing room, and residential area.

Outsiders generally never entered anywhere in the castle outside of Right Palace. In actuality, audiences and dinner parties took place here, as this was the only place those tasks could be carried out.

Compared to the dreariness in other areas, the interior design here was comparatively luxurious. My mother’s Gine Doll collection was set out everywhere.

Gine doll was the general term for dolls made using Nechuha wood; lately they’d come into fashion among older and young women. For a long time now my mother had been collecting Gine dolls as a hobby, so she owned quite a few.

The Right Palace used to have many paintings decorating its walls, but nowadays they had mostly been taken down. The one remaining was of the previous king, deep in the audience hall–A portrait of my father.

In that audience hall were three people: Keel, his son Shaw, and a middle-aged woman holding a large package, who was likely their attendant.

Shaw and the woman kneeled once they saw me coming, but Keel remained standing at attention, and said to me with a disappointed expression, “You’ve kept me waiting quite a while, Kyle.”

I tried to make the excuse that I had been caught up in my work, but he was having none of it.

“Oh, and was your work so terribly busy that you had to ignore my summons for well over a week?”

I passed by him and took a seat in the throne at the highest spot in the room. “Don’t get on my case about that. I have my own status to think about. I can’t just do whatever I like in the mainland.”

“Your status, huh…Well, fine. We’ve finally managed to meet up, anyhow. It’s been some time, Kyle.”

 Keel smiled.

“Yes, I’m glad above all that we both seem to be doing well.”

Keel looked around him, but his eyes stopped on Shaw and the woman, who were still kneeling. After that, he again looked at me and made a suggestion.

“Is it alright if these two wait outside? With you, redhead, if possible.” Pointing at Arkatoir. “I’d like to speak alone with Kyle if I can. In private, as fellows and friends.”

“…I suppose that’s fine.” I moved my gaze to Shaw. “This is your first time visiting Marlon Castle, isn’t it Shaw? Arkatoir, since he’s here anyway how about you give him a tour?”

“Yes, of course.”

When he did, Keel smirked and clapped the woman on the shoulder.

“You can leave our luggage in here, Gerda, so go along with them. You two haven’t been able to see each other in a while, have you? You should fawn all over him.”

“Huh!?”

The woman named Gerda and Arkatoir both turned bright red for some reason.

“L-let’s go!”

Arkatoir hurriedly headed outside with Gerda and Shaw in tow.

“…What sort of relationship do those two have?”

He seemed to delight in my inability to comprehend the situation. Keel only responded, grinning, “It’s exactly as it looks.”

“…They’re not parent and child, are they?”

“You’re way off. To tell you the truth, they are a madly in love May-December romance.”

“I see…Well, to each his own I guess.”

Keel took off his glasses, wiped off some dirt with a piece of cloth, and put them back on again. Then, with a serious expression, he said, “Well then, let’s get to the main crux of the matter.”

“Shall we move to a different room?”

If we were having a confidential discussion, then a smaller room would probably be more convenient.

But Keel refused my proposal, saying there was no need. “This is a conversation between a king and a citizen. This room is fine.”

He was paying mind to my status. I was grateful for that, but…

“That’s not like you to be so conscientious.”

“…Mikina brought it to my attention. Told me to keep my manners in mind while in the castle.”

Ah, so that’s how it was.

 .

A short while after that we ended up talking with each other–a bit of rambling about our mutual circumstances, a bit about economic policy such as dealing with the trade embargo towards Elphegort, and after that about the circumstances inside Marlon.

I had thought I would be hit with a barrage of questions about the trouble with Yukina and Germaine, but Keel hardly touched on that topic. When I asked him why, myself, he responded that it was because he’d heard the main details on that from Germaine and Yukina.

“…In that case then there wasn’t any reason for us to go to the trouble of meeting like this, was there?”

When I grumbled that complaint, Keel gazed at me with his usual smile and replied, “What do you mean? I just wanted to make sure you were fine.”

That was a smooth way of putting it. In other words he wanted to properly make sure that I had been released from the demon.

“Well, Keel. …How much do you know?”

“Before I answer that, I want you to tell me about the current situation.”

“…What situation?”

“Don’t play dumb. The situation regarding the Empress Dowager Prim and Ney Phatipe.”

That was likely not just evidence from Germaine and Yukina, but from his own personal investigation too.

I knew from experience there was no point in trying to hide it from him. I decided to speak honestly.

“…The two of them are in Castle Hedgehog right now.”

“The royal family’s villa? What are they doing there?”

I explained to him that my mother had gone to Castle Hedgehog to bolster her ailing health and had yet to return, and for that reason I had not met with her at all since returning to Marlon.

“I don’t know about Ney. I have no positive proof that she’s there.”

“If you don’t have any proof, then why do you think she is?”

“Dead soldiers were seen in the surrounding area. …Ah, sorry, dead soldiers are–”

Keel interrupted me by shoving his palm out. “I know. The monsters that Ney can control, yes? I heard about them from my daughter…So such things are roaming around inside Marlon, hm?”

“Only the northern region right now. If we let them loose it’ll become a problem sooner or later. You know that’s why I’ve been busy, right?”

“…That sounds like an excuse to me, but I’ll forgive you. Even so, with this…” Keel wandered about a little and dropped his gaze, appearing to be sorting some information in his mind. “…So the Empress Dowager is the mastermind after all, hm.”

Finally, I quietly murmured, “Mastermind? Mastermind of what?”

“This entire chain of events.”

“And I’m asking what that chain of events is!”

I knew the gist of it already. But I still had to ask.

“What an unreasonably stubborn fool you are. In that case, I’ll tell you my whole reasoning.”

Keel leaned forward a step before the throne, and began his speech.

“The Empress Dowager Prim wanted to expand Marlon’s territory. For that reason she needed to weaken the might of the country of Elphegort and the Kingdom of Lucifenia, who had equal or greater power to Marlon. So she allied with a sorceress, made preparations behind the scenes, and induced both countries to come to blows.”

I was the only one listening to this speech. But Keel continued to speak with a very willful voice, as though he were a politician addressing a great number of citizenry.

“You, and even myself, both got caught up in the machinations of her scheme. When both countries had lost their strength due to the war and the revolution afterwards, you, Kyle, were possessed by a demon, and you became a slave to your lust for power. And now Marlon has become the most powerful country in Evillious. The Empress Dowager must be pleased with that!”

There was anger in Keel’s tone. I had a little trouble understanding that. The ones who had gained the most due to Marlon’s expanse of influence and the wartime demand that accompanied it were none other than himself and the merchants.

Was it out of a sense of justice? Couldn’t be. Keel wasn’t the type.

“Why are you so upset, Keel? This isn’t like you.”

Keel replied, deadly serious and the loudest he’d been all day, “Isn’t it obvious? It’s thanks to all that that Yukina’s been put in danger!”

…Every now and then I was unable to tell if he was a sharp and able man or just a simpleton.

Seeming to have realized that he was getting too worked up, Keel cleared his throat as though to remonstrate himself.

“…Well, and there’s the fact that even I am a devout man, as far as things go. I can’t really stomach the thought that the country’s prosperity and the success of my merchants was brought about by a contract with a demon.”

“But isn’t all what you’ve said merely conjecture on your part?”

“What? Do you still deny the existence of the demon that had been possessing you, even now? With all the witnesses?”

“Well, that…I accept. But you don’t have any certain proof that this was all my mother’s doing.”

I knew that was a bit of a stretch. The hand mirror that the demon had possessed was something my mother gave me. That was proof, more than anything.

But perhaps my mother was merely deceived by Abyss I.R.

Abyss was dead now.

My mother could have snapped out of it, and was avoiding me out of regret for all the crimes that she’d committed up until now. …There was that possibility, wasn’t there?

Or–perhaps my mother had been locked away in Castle Hedgehog by Ney, having gone out of control, or maybe even Elluka.

There was a basis for that too. If my mother’s aim was Marlon’s prosperity, then would she really allow dead soldiers to rampage in her own country?

Yes, there was a large contradiction forming here. It was natural to think then that Ney had summoned the dead soldiers of her own judgement.

Perhaps Arkatoir’s earlier words had been on the mark. If those dead soldiers had been summoned to aim for my mother’s life–

In any case, we needed to hurry over there.

“Anyway, until I can meet my mother and ask her the truth directly, I can’t believe all of your theory.”

“Ask her directly? Are you planning to go to Castle Hedgehog?” When I replied in the affirmative, Keel scratched his head, combing his fingers through his hair. “Aren’t dead soldiers roaming around there? I can’t imagine you’d get through so easily.”

“I have been preparing soldiers for that. We have to suppress the dead soldiers anyhow.”

Dead soldiers–this would be the Marlon soldiers’ first experience fighting them as enemies. But there were some people who had experience actually fighting them staying in the Freezis estate. It’d be a great help if I were able to get some advice from them.

After Keel sighed out distractedly that I could do as I liked, he turned around.          

“Ah, that’s right. I forgot I’d brought this with me.” And then he began to unwrap the package that Gerda had been carrying earlier. “See, look here. Do you remember this painting, Kyle?”

What Keel had brought was a picture that depicted a golden-haired girl standing with the coast on the background. Beneath it was written the pen-name, “Karchess Crim”.

Of course I hadn’t forgotten. This was the sole remaining picture I had painted. I had made it when I was a child, so I was a little embarrassed at how conspicuous its technical childishness was, looking at it now.

Embarrassed? What do I have to be embarrassed about?

I had already given up on painting. There was no reason at all for me to be embarrassed about it.

As I’d been unable to bear discarding it in spite of myself, Keel had bought it off me.

“Why did you bring that painting here?”

“Well now, there’s something a little interesting about it.” Keel tapped on the girl in the picture. “I wanted to talk to you about the girl that you used as a model for the one in this painting.”

The girl I’d used as a model?

I had only met her once. She was a girl that my mother had brought to the castle when I was fourteen, saying she was the child of a relative. I had been left as her playmate.

She was a very quiet girl, and told me nothing about herself. After she’d stayed in the castle a short time, she’d left without saying goodbye.

I’d begun this painting with casual feelings, as it had started out as a way to kill time. As the girl who I’d modeled it off of had left midway through, I’d had to complete it by painting the rest from memory.

But a good event came out of that painting. Though be that as it may, if it hadn’t been praised by Mrs. Margaret, I might have disposed of it ahead of time.

Anyway, I knew nothing about that girl except for my mother’s statement that she was the daughter of a relative. I didn’t even know her name.

…No, perhaps I had heard her name. But I’d forgotten it.

“What about the girl I’d used as a model?”

Frankly, I had no idea what connection she could have to our current conversation, and I didn’t know why Keel had deliberately brought that painting here either.

“Well, I have some information that I’d gotten my hands on by chance during my various investigations…It might be quite shocking to you.”

“Just tell it to me straight.”

It seems he’d brought the painting with the intent to talk about it.

“Well then. Kyle, this happened about twenty three years ago…”

“By that you mean when I was four.”

“No, when you were eight. Why are you trying to hide your age so casually?”

“Sorry, bad habit…”

“Well, leave that sort of thing for when you’re flirting with women… Let’s get back on track. Back then, the Empress Dowager Prim left the public eye for a short time. As for the reason why–I presume it goes without saying?”

“Yes…In that case, I remember. I only properly understood a great deal later what had happened.”

At that time, my mother had gotten pregnant. By all rights I should have a brother or sister related to me by blood, but in the end it had been a stillbirth.

I had heard that due to that my mother had become unable to bear any more children. After that, my mother concentrated all of her affections and hopes on me.

“You weren’t present for her delivery, were you?” As he asked his question, Keel’s usual smile vanished from his face.

“Of course I wasn’t.”

“I see…The thing is, I heard the story from the son of the midwife who worked at the time–though she herself is dead now. According to him, the Empress Dowager Prim did not truly have a stillbirth back then.”

Without thinking I stood up from my throne. “Are you saying that the child was still alive!?”

“Indeed. But to the public she made the baby out to be dead, and hid their existence. Though I don’t know why she did that.“

“Wait a minute. So you’re saying—“

“Yes. The girl in this painting is the baby from back then…Your little sister.”

It was all too incomprehensible for me; I grew dizzy. I fell back in the throne.

“Why would…Mother do such a thing…?”

"That I don’t know. I’m not some dictionary that knows everything.”

“…What happened to her? Is she still alive!?”

Keel nodded. “Yeah, she’s still alive.”

I stood up once more. I approached Keel and gripped his left arm.

“Where is she? If I can I want to meet her.”

Keel replied, while brushing off my hand, “…She’s in Castle Hedgehog. You just said that yourself.”

“What are you…!?”

It couldn’t be.

I couldn’t stand any more. I fell to my knees on the spot and hung my head.

“Have you finally figured it out?”

I could hear Keel speaking from above me. To keep on talking without hesitation on something like this was a sign of his cold-heartedness. But right now wasn’t the time for me to take offense to that.

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Ney Phatipe.

Mariam’s adopted daughter.

The head of the Special Maneuvers Task Force.

A cruel and nasty woman.

She was my–little sister!?

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Even after Keel and the others went home, I had not moved from the audience hall.

Arkatoir had stayed by my side out of concern for a little bit, but after I ordered him to leave he headed out of the room, only saying “Please take it easy from working today and get some rest soon”.

I got to my feet, and stood before the portrait of my dead father in the background.

My father who had been timid and weak in constitution. The man who had been my mother’s puppet, just like me.

I guess you didn’t know about this either.

I hit the surface of the painting with my fist as hard as I could.

We’ve been such blockheads. You, and I…!