Swamp Girl! Chapter 9

“…and there you have it.”

A little later, after having breakfast — a fancy one, of course — with everyone, I brought the three of us to my room and gave them a simple explanation of my exchange and agreement with Leon.

“I understand. I’ll go with whatever you decide, Chris.”

I thought I might meet some kind of opposition, but Palmira nodded so easily it was kind of a letdown.
But the problem was the one burying her head in the bed in agony: Aira.

“Oi oi, Aira, did you hear everything I said?”

“I heard you, okay–!? Ahh, jeez, wuuuh–”

Like I thought, learning that her tale-spinning didn’t fool Leon in the least seemed to have dealt a blow to her delicate heart.
‘Should I keep quiet about that?’ I wondered, but since I couldn’t explain things well, I had to walk them through the whole thing. And this was the result.
She looked pitiful, honestly. How should I put it? Aira is who she is. Will she be alright if I bring her along on this job?
While I mulled it over, she suddenly got up from the bed and came over to me.

“Be that as it may, Big Sister, for lying to Lord Leon… I won’t get the death penalty for disrespecting him, will I? I’ll be okay, right?”

“Well, I think so. I’ve already gone way, way past disrespect, and Palmira didn’t address him properly either.”

‘We’ll all be dead together,’ I said as I gently comforted Aira. Even so, she seemed to have come to terms with it and sat on the bed without a word.

“So, Aira, are you alright with what I just said?”

“Y–Yes. To be honest, I hate the idea of becoming a slave again, but I want the money… Besides, I’m not Palmira, but you saved me, Big Sister. If that’s what you’ve decided, I’m fine with it.”

The sincerity in her words moved me, just a little.
Then, at the same time, I thought,
It’s heavy.
Should I leave both of them behind and go by myself after all?

–

–

“Well, I suppose if you went alone, it would work. However — ”

I asked Leon about it after lunch.
The two of us went out onto the balcony off the dining hall to talk.
Or rather, the dining hall changed depending on whether it was morning, noon, or evening. Lunch was served in a room that looked out onto a balcony. It, too, was s.p.a.cious. But of course.
I didn’t realize it at all, since we arrived by carriage in the night, but the estate was built on high ground. From the balcony, I had an unbroken view of the entire crescent-shaped city and the walls encircling it.
The empty s.p.a.ce in the crescent was the harbor, where two large ships were docked, even now.
From there, sweeping my gaze across the view, I could see the ocean and the horizon.
Perhaps because of today’s clear weather, there was no haze, so I could see far into the distance.

…I came from the other side of that ocean.
Would I return there someday?

“Miss Chris?”

Although I was the one who’d asked to talk, I’d lost myself in the view. Leon’s voice brought me back to the present.
When I turned in a hurry, Leon was looking at me with a peculiar expression on his face.

“Ah, yeah. My bad.”

I apologized for my impoliteness. At which point,
it was Leon, his expression still odd, who stiffened for a moment before he quickly continued speaking. What was that?

“Let me see… about what I wanted to say. Those two agreed so readily to go with you. I wonder if it isn’t a little pitiful for their feelings to be set aside?”

‘I’m saying this as the requester, however,’ he added with a wry smile.

“Is it like that, I wonder.”

“Isn’t it? Then let me put it this way… Would it be fine for the two of them to go without you?”

“No way.”

Fl.u.s.tered, I quickly shot down his unexpected suggestion.
Leon smiled knowingly and said,

“Right? That’s what I mean.”

–

–

In the end, though I was still conflicted, I accepted for all three of us.
It’s not like I was provoked by Leon’s smooth talk, alright?
When I met with the other two later, they were full of a strange kind of fighting spirit, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them I would go alone.
Of course, if I had made up my mind, I would have told them clearly that I was going alone regardless of how they felt.

But I was conflicted.

And this, in particular, wasn’t because Leon’s words had influenced me.
This time, I felt quite intensely that I’d dragged them into it.
If I was going to go alone, I should never have spoken with them in the first place.
Looking back on it now, it seemed like a regretful mistake. The way I discussed it with them, it was vaguely like I was offering them a consultation. Carelessly, before coming to a decision myself.
Frankly, it wasn’t like me. I wasn’t the type who didn’t give a s.h.i.t about taking responsibility.
But on the other hand, I’d be leaving behind two people who’d fought for their lives alongside me. If I went alone, my heart still wouldn’t stay quiet.

…It’s not particularly because of what Leon said.

That afternoon, an explanation of the strategy was presented at the army barracks.

–

–

Compared to the estate that was sickeningly opulent everywhere you looked, the barracks had an appropriate simplicity to their interior design. For some reason, I found it a relief.
Led by Leon, Aira, Palmira, and I pa.s.sed one by one through the foyer, followed by a hall that doubled as a training area. The soldiers engaged in mock swordfights, the soldiers silently training their muscles, practically every one of them was staring at us.
After we got past them, I whispered to Leon,

“Oi, no matter how you look at it, isn’t that rude? Even though you’re the one taking us,”

and he replied,

“Well, everyone here is like part of the family.

“That’s the way it is.”

That’s the way it is?
I mean, suspected n.o.ble Leon was definitely an actual n.o.ble, but were they people like this?
Instead, my first impression the moment I met him was that he was part of the aristocracy, but his informal manner was really conspicuous this morning. It was because the man himself looked like a stereotypical n.o.ble that his behavior left an even stronger impression.

Then again, of course, I’d never been this close to the n.o.bility before either.
Or more precisely, I could count how many times on the fingers of one hand.
My most recent memory was when I partic.i.p.ated in an insurrection as a mercenary. Before the entire army sallied forth, there was one guy who just oozed discipline and total self-importance. A n.o.ble — Sir What’s-his-face, if I remember correctly.
I’d barely heard any of the actual content, but I felt like he said something along the lines of “If you run, you die.”
It wasn’t necessarily something to get angry over. I figured, ‘n.o.bles are just like that.’ So I never intended to follow his orders anyway.

My gaze flicked over to Leon.
If it’s this guy, will he tell us to die?
Well, at least he isn’t saying to go die [there]. Or [here], for that matter. 1
…What’ll it be?
I don’t think he’ll say it. That’s just a hunch, though.
But what about when he has something more important to protect?
Will he tell us, ‘Die’?
Will he kill us?

Proceeding down the pa.s.sageway from the hall led us to the room at the very end.
The war council chamber.
I see, it’s that kind of room.
In the very center of the fairly large room sat a stately table, with big blackboards hanging from the walls. Half of them were already being used to display a map of the city, which was marked with two red circles.

When we entered, there were already several people there ahead of us.
One of them was old man Leopard. I hadn’t seen him around the estate at all, but what had he been up to?
Then, two soldiers… the platoon commanders, maybe? They were already seated and waiting.
Based on my first impressions, one man was the stoic type, and the other, frivolous. See, the frivolous one gave us an appraising sort of look when we came in, which he naturally followed up with a silent wolf whistle. My opinion of him plummeted like a rock.

That left two others.
One of them was a thin, tall man with black hair. Even though it was summer, he was dressed in dark robes.
He looked like a priest. But because of that thin build and the unhealthy cast to his features, the only words that came to mind were ‘ominous’ and ‘gloomy’.
The last person was a woman around twenty years old, sitting idly in her seat. I wondered if she might be a soldier, but unlike the supposed platoon commanders in armor, she was wearing robes inscribed with an insignia.
She might have been a civilian contractor or something. She didn’t seem like a normal girl, and I didn’t get the impression of a soldier from her at all.
But if she was a civilian contractor, why would she be in that seat? It puzzled me.

“Ah, my apologies for keeping you waiting.”

“Everyone has a.s.sembled, young master.”

Leon addressed his subordinates with a natural ease.
He did just declare them all a family earlier. That was probably why.

“Well then, shall we begin? Ah, could you three take a seat in some of those empty chairs?”

At his urging, I sat down. As far away as possible from the frivolous-looking guy.
As I did so, Aira and Palmira took their seats in turn. Considering how they’d been silent this whole time, they seemed to be nervous.
There was an obvious stiffness to Aira’s expression. Palmira was as expressionless as always, but her movements were a little awkward all the same.
It probably wasn’t something I could help them with. When I think about it, it must be their first time receiving an a.s.signment in a place like this. You might say that the imposing atmosphere is affecting them.

“Now, first of all, Regnum. I’ll let you handle the briefing.”

Leon took the seat next to me.
Old man Leopard and the gloomy beanpole stood from their seats. Leopard’s Leopard, so the gloomy guy must be Regnum.

“Very well. I will now explain the current situation.”

Accepting his orders with a bow, Regnum began his explanation. He sounded as glum as he looked.

“Sections Three and Five are currently engaged in active operations. Each of them has ten agents in the field. Section Three is primarily focused on gathering information on the city. Section Five has operatives in place investigating the target. At present, the target does not appear to have discovered us, but his vigilance has increased slightly due to Lord Leon’s arrival. The situation has been deemed dangerous, and therefore part of Section Five has pulled out.”

His report was apparently meant for people in the know. Since we knew nothing, most of it just went over our heads.
Filling in the gaps with my own speculation, this man called Regnum was some kind of spy, and his role was to investigate the current state of the city and Guibenague.
And now that Leon had arrived with so much fanfare, the target — Guibenague, in other words — was getting nervous?

“There are continuing signs, but when we trace them back over the last several months, it appears that a wagon loaded with the marks arrives roughly once every three months. However, because this is only a general rule, there are considerable gaps between shipments. Moreover, the group managing the wagon is different each time. But based on the information we have at present, we estimate that there are four or five groups operating on a rotating basis… Though one of them recently met with an unfortunate accident and was completely destroyed.”

Regnum’s cheerless gaze flicked toward us for a moment. Beside me, Aira clearly flinched. I wanted to tell him not to be such a party p.o.o.per.
The marks he was talking about were the slaves, basically.
And Guibenague had four or five slaver crews working for him. One of them was the group that captured us… He wasn’t wrong, they certainly had been wiped out in a tragic incident.

“Now, there is the location of the marks in question, but this has not been made clear. First, the carriage transporting the marks enters the target’s estate, but according to Section Five’s investigation, its whereabouts are unknown after that. The obvious hypothesis is that they’re being kept underground, but as far as we know, there have been no indications of such confinement. Second, there are no traces of the marks being taken out of the estate. We have, of course, considered the possibility that they have been shipped out by sea, but even though we have a.s.signed surveillance to the ships, we have found no signs of cargo being loaded.”

‘That is all,’ Regnum concluded gloomily.
He really was depressing.
I didn’t know how capable this Regnum guy’s subordinates were, but in conclusion, they still hadn’t found any evidence, nothing other than that.
…Well, that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it.

“Any questions up to this point?”

Leopard, who had been listening in silence, swept his gaze around the room.

Author’s Notes
It’s a strange place to stop, but this chapter was getting long so I cut it here.

Footnotes
1. Literally いや、少なくとも『あの場』では言わないだろう。そして『この場』では。↵