Chapter 12 - On the Boat (1/2)

The flapping of wings could be heard from the distance as a single falcon crossed through the morning fog.

“Hey, Tiel. Good work.”

Coming out to greet that falcon was a young girl with black hair and eyes. She was “Clarina Hamillee”, who was known as the “Witch of Foresight”.

After making three revolutions above Clarina, who had come to meet it on the deck of a ship sailing across the ocean, the falcon transformed into a palm-sized girl.

“I was entrusted with a message from master.”

A cute voice reverberated as the girl that landed in front of Clarina presented a single letter.

She, whose name was “Tieltinkle”, was Alhart’s familiar and a spirit that governed the wind.

“Thanks. I’ll read through it and write a reply immediately, so could you wait for a bit?”

“Of course.”

Only a few moments after she started looking through the letter she had received from Tieltinkle, Clarina’s shoulders began to shake as she laughed out loud.

“Aha..ahahahaha!!! Wow, what a masterpiece. To think that it really was ‘her’!! Ahahahaha!”

“What happened for you to laugh in such a loud voice, Clara-san?”

Rain, who had come out from the cabin, doubtfully asked.

“Ahh, Rain-kun. Look. A letter came from Sylti and Al-kun and, you know, it was just as I thought.”

“Heeh. Then the Saintess knows that this is an ‘Otome game’ world?”

“Yup, she just ‘knows’. By no means does that mean ‘she’ is the ‘protagonist (heroine)’. ‘She’ doesn’t understand that fact. Even though there is no way that everything will go as the game (scenario) did, regardless of the fact that she’s come to a world that is similar to the game’s. To begin with, no matter how hard ‘she’ tries, she can’t become the ‘protagonist (heroine)’.”

As she laughed joyfully, Clarina passed her reply to Tieltinkle.

“What’re you gonna do?”

“What we need to do hasn’t changed. Until Sylti and co. have purified the taint, we need to prevent its expansion. It’s only that how things will ‘end’ has been decided. We have to tell that to everyone else, since we’ll need to arrange things so that they lead to ‘the ending’.”

Seeing Clarina smile brightly, Rain gave her a cramped smile.

“How scary. I wouldn’t want Clara-san to become my enemy.”

“Uwah, how rude. I’m still quite preferable as an enemy compared to some other people. Take Sylti, for example. Even though she knew things would turn out ‘this way’, she still said she wanted to ‘believe in them’. Despite saying that, she still continued to make arrangements behind the scenes so it would be fine no matter how it turned out. In the end, after being betrayed, she made use of everything she had prepared in order to complete her ‘revenge’. How very scary. The number one person you don’t want to make your enemy would be a person like Sylti. If it’s for the sake of her important people of ‘now’, she can even cut off those who were once her important people. She has that kind of strength.”

“Ahh, that’s true. But I also wouldn’t want to make Jin-sama my enemy either.”

“Jin-sama is…yeah. I wouldn’t want to make him my enemy either. He’s dangerous. To protect the people important to him, let alone choosing his means, he’s the sort of person who would consign the rest of the world to oblivion.”

“How he became the ‘Second Prince’ despite being like that is one of the mysteries of the world.”

“If you say that to Jin-sama, then it’ll become impossible to work for a while, Rain-kun.”

“I can’t say something like that! If I were to say it, it’d be to Syl-san at most!!”

“No doubt~. But the fact that Sylti was the ‘former daughter of a ducal house’ despite being like that is truly a world wonder as well.”

“Yeah, Syl-san is seriously strong after all. I’ve never won in a sparring match against her without using magic.”

“That’s, well, truly what you’d call talent. The phrase ‘perseverance is a gift’ would be most suitable in describing her. When Sylti was a ‘duke’s daughter’, she was educated in the basics of fighting, to a certain extent. But that was ‘a duke’s daughter’s experience’ at most. She only started to earnestly practice 2 years ago. Back when she was still just a ‘duke’s daughter’, if I were to give my impression, she was just ‘coming along’ on our requests.”

“Now that you mention it, Clara-san and everyone knew Syl-san back when she was still the daughter of the ducal house, right?”

“That’s right. She’s been with me, Jin-sama, and Al-kun for the longest period of time. Ah, and Master too.”

“Just why would a person from another country – and a duke’s daughter at that – come to know people from this mercenary guild?”

“Ahh, about that……”

At Rain’s question, Clarina made a wry smile and narrowed her eyes in nostalgia.

“Before Jin-sama became Luran Kingdom’s second Prince; Jin-sama, Al-kun and I went to play in Rideiran Kingdom. Um, I think it was probably around 13 years ago?”

“Went to play, you say……rather, 13 years ago…Clara-san and Al-san were still 6 or 7 years old!! Even Jin-sama was still 10……I’m surprised you were able to go to Rideiran Kingdom.”

“About that; if you used my familiar’s, Maira’s, power then it’s literally one flight away.”

“Ahh, Maira-san was a ‘phoenix’, right? Rather, if you can ride Maira-san, then wouldn’t it have been faster to travel using that method instead this time!?”

“Ehh, but Maira is of the fire attribute. Since it’s incompatible with Rain-kun’s lightning and water attributes, she said she didn’t want to. Isn’t travelling by boat fine? Let’s just take our time and travel with leisure!!”

“It’ll be bad if we travel leisurely!!”

At Rain’s retort, Clarina laughed as if she had found it funny.

“Well, going back to the original topic. After going to Rideiran Kingdom like that, we merrily went sightseeing around the capital. And then, we happened to meet with Sylti, who lived there.”

“So that’s how you guys met!”

“……not quite.”

“Eh?”