Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon - Volume 2 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - And so, I was invited to know

With the important information brought by Ookaito, the Anti-supernatural Unit had decided to strengthen the security around the Forbidden Zone for some time.

An example would be the night patrols.

However, if they made the patrols too frequent, they might attract the attention of the Ministry of the Imperial Household which wanted to hide the fact that the Forbidden Zone had been broken into, to begin with. Therefore, Kiyoka only split them into pairs and have them take turns in making their rounds every night.

"So far, are all we have only eyewitness testimonies?"

Kiyoka's desk was filled with a mountain of submitted reports stacked on top of one another.

The Forbidden Zone was located at the outskirts of the Imperial City, at the foot of a small mountain. In an area shrouded by dense woods laid Oktsuki secretly enclosed behind a stone wall, hidden from the public eye.

Oktsuki was originally a term used to refer to Okutsu Castle—Shinto burial grounds.

However, "Oktsuki" was just a common term and the used here was in reality the graveyard for ability users.

An ability user cannot be buried in a normal cemetery.

The fact that one had the gift of Paranormal Vision and various abilities indicated that they had high spiritual power. As such, because of their strong spiritual power, the souls of these people would not be able to attain enlightenment even if they are sent off the usual way. If left the way they are, these souls would continue to wander the Earth, but they could not leave these souls of the dead unchecked.

Hence, the souls of the ability users that have passed on are sealed and put to sleep in the Forbidden Zone where no one can touch, and they call that area Oktsuki.

There was one Oktsuki on the outskirts of the current Imperial City and another on the outskirts of the Old Capital. After the death of ability users or those with Paranormal Vision, they are mostly buried there with no exception and only a limited number of family members are allowed to enter at the time of the funeral.

This time, with Oktsuki being broken into18, it meant that many of the souls of ability users that were sealed there have now been released.

Many of them died in regret, with hatred and suffering in their hearts. When their spirits have been awakened from their slumber and are set free, they may very well bring harm to innocent people.

And the results they have gotten from their patrols and inquiries show that some spirits have already gotten out of the Forbidden Zone.

(I'm sure the Ministry of the Imperial Household has taken steps to deal with this...)

But it would not be easy to return the spirits moving around outside the Forbidden Zone to Oktsuki and seal them up again. It would inevitably take quite some time to resolve this.

Although it was quite a distance from the nearest village, there's no guarantee that no one would pass by the area at night.

"Why would anyone break into Oktsuki?"

Before he knew it, Godou had entered the office with a hand on his chin as he cocked his head to one side.

"...Godou, don't just come in without permission."

"Eh~ I called you though, didn't you hear me?"

"..."

Kiyoka glared daggers at Godou—that was a carelessness on his part that would've never happened under normal circumstances.

And this Godou, how could he always be so happy-go-lucky when he was his adjutant?

"How rare for Taichou to not even notice someone coming in. As expected, you're tired, aren't you?"

"That's not the case."

"Well, I hope so. Though I've sure you've probably already been warned by Takaihito-sama, please be careful."

"I know."

If this matter is not handled well, some people may lose their lives.

Kiyoka hasn't forgotten Takaihito's words, in fact, it weighs heavily on him. Takaihito did not mention who would lose their life—it could be someone from the platoon, an innocent passer- by... Or even Kiyoka himself.

For as long as they don't know that, they have no choice but to take extra care.

No matter who, he didn't want anyone to lose their life.

Godou looked down indifferently at the grim expression on Kiyoka's face.

"If you feel burdened, just leave it alone. It's not like we have an official order from the ministry or the military so can't you just watch on from the side."

"...I can't do that."

"But..."

"This is also my job."

"Well, I suppose so... It's not like I can do anything, Taichou never listens to me."

"Don't say things like that."

"Ye~s. Ah, here's the document from the Intelligence Department."

Although Godou looked slightly disgruntled, he still gave his usual smile as he left the papers on the desk and went out of the office.

It's not like Kiyoka didn't understand what Godou was saying.

There's no need to stick his head in such troublesome matters when he wasn't even asked to. And there was no point to it if he ended up neglecting the other things. Kiyoka's day to day work was not just about protecting the people of the Imperial City but their homes too. There were so many things to do, so many things to protect.

Even so, now that he knew of the issue, he couldn't just ignore it. He would surely regret it for the rest of his life if someone dies because of his nonaction.

(I wonder if I'm putting too much on my plate.)

He felt that he used to be like this all the time.

It was normal for him to keep working on one thing after another and if he couldn't finish it, he would just stay overnight and not go home. He never questioned or felt that he had too much work.

However, now he had more things he wanted to protect and a home he wanted to go back to, so he can't live sloppily as he used to, nor did he want to. Hence, even if the burden increased, it'd be a burden he would bear20.

Kiyoka sighed deeply and picked up the materials Godou brought.

Those materials were actually not work-related, but rather information regarding an ongoing investigation into the Usuba family that he had personally requested.

Kiyoka's goal was to make contact with the Usuba family. Therefore, he needed to know the residence of the family.

Since he couldn't get that information from asking around or checking official records, he had no choice but to get it through personal relations others had with the Usuba family. As a result, he asked the people from Intelligence to look into the background of Usuba Sumi, Miyo's mother.

That being said, he knew that much of the information about the Usuba family name had been securely kept under wraps and there was nothing he could do about it. So, he asked them to start by looking into a list of girls that went by the name "Sumi" in school.

(There are about 20 people that match huh...)

The document contained an analysis of when Usuba Sumi would've attended girls' school and for now, the list was narrowed down to the Imperial City where the background of every woman by the name "Sumi" was checked once.

Despite that, the results weren't that good.

The physical characteristics of a person weren't that reliable; there were too many people that fit the bill of having black hair and good looks. In the first place, they didn't even have proof that Usuba Sumi had lived in the Imperial City, much less confirm if she attended a girl's school or not.

During his previous investigation, Kiyoka had also looked into the previous head of the Saimori family.

He was the one who pushed for the marriage between his son, Saimori Shinichi and Usuba Sumi so he would naturally be in contact with the Usuba family. However, that was from more than twenty years ago. Little was known about the previous head of the Saimori family and his wife, both of whom had died in an accident soon after their son's marriage.

In the end, Kiyoka still didn't find out anything more.

As it was, the route of trying to find the Usuba family through the Saimori family was virtually cut off.

The search for the Usuba family was bound to be a difficult one—Kiyoka couldn't help but hold his head at the thought of that.

For lunch, Miyo, Yurie, and Hazuki sat around the table and had a light meal.

Miyo took a break from studying and went to the kitchen with Yurie for a change of pace.

They made simple Chazuke. They made use of the leftover rice from breakfast. They took out a serving of rice for each person, topped it with a piece of grilled salmon, and sprinkled some sesame seeds on top. Next, they poured the hot soup stock over the rice, lightly seasoned with soy sauce and salt, and some shredded nori. Lastly, they topped it with Yurie's home- made umeboshi and it was ready to be served.

"Wow~! It looks delicious!"

It was obviously a simple and lazy dish but Hazuki's eyes lit up at the sight of it.

"Miyo-sama is really good at cooking."

"That's not true..."

Miyo shook her head, feeling like running away at Yurie over complimenting her. But Hazuki stared at the contents of the bowl and said "That's very true"

"You're really amazing. I'm ashamed to admit I'm not much of a cook."

Then, the three of them clapped their hands and gave thanks for the meal before picking up their spoons.

Placing a spoonful of rice that was nicely soaked in the broth together with a piece of salmon in one's mouth, rich warmth and savouriness would permeate through their body. And the addition of the umeboshi gave the dish sourness that made it easy to eat even in the summer when appetites tended to drop.

"Mhmm- It's as delicious as I thought it would be."

"I'm glad it's suits your taste."

"Miyo-sama is such a good cook, Yurie can only look up to her."

"T-That's too much of an exaggeration..."

It's too much praise for a dish that's just rice with broth.

And if anything, it made Miyo suspicious if there was some hidden meaning behind their words, but it's hard to imagine Hazuki or Yurie having such nasty thoughts about others.

Hazuki mused as she slowly savoured the chazuke.

"I really can't cook. This ochazuke may be easy for Miyo-chan but I don't think I would be able to recreate it at all."

"Is that so?"

"Mhm. Back when I was still in girls' school, my grade for cooking was so bad it pulled down my other subjects."

As she spoke, Yurie also nodded with a wry smile to say that that really was the case.

"If I grill, it will burn; if I boil, it will turn soggy; if I just do some simple mixing, it will turn all mushy. And if I simply held a knife, my fingers would be cut before I know it!"

"Can you believe that?" Hazuki sighed.

Miyo did not know what to say in response to Hazuki's failure story.

Hazuki continued on to tell Miyo that home economics accounted for a significant portion of the curriculum at the girls' school, and of all, sewing was viewed with most importance. Therefore, most of the students could sew except for but a few.

Cooking, on the other hand, varied considerably from student to student. Although most of the students were ladies from families with the money to spare, not all of them hired someone to do the chores for them. The daughters of families with servants would have no chance to practice the skills she learnt in school so it would be difficult to pick up said skills. While those from families that did not employ servants would naturally acquire it from doing household chores on a daily basis.

And it seemed that Hazuki, the daughter of the Kudou family, was completely the former.

"Ah, but of course, there are exceptions. I once heard of an ohime-sama that came from a very prestigious household that had the hobby of cooking."

"Wow... that's amazing."

"Indeed, but it was ultimately better to be able to do housework. I've often regretted that I didn't practice it more seriously."

"Regret?"

"...Would you like to know?"

Hazuki smiled cheekily at Miyo who looked at her curiously with her head tilted to one side.

It must be the story regarding Hazuki's failed marriage. It must have been very hard for her to get a divorce and she must've faced a lot of hardships before and after the divorce.

Perhaps it shouldn't be something she listened to purely out of curiosity but it was a rare opportunity to hear from a senior in marriage so Miyo wanted to know.

"May I hear about it?"

"Of course, I don't mind."

And thus, Hazuki shared bits of her past experiences with Miyo.