375 - Giselle's Perspective: The Useless White One 1
This chapter contains mild gore for some readers.
"......ngh"
The wheel must have hit a stone. The carriage gave a sharp jolt, and my drifting consciousness was pulled back. Whether my eyes are open or closed, there is almost no change in the world I can see. A tiny bit of light filters in through the hole opened for air intake, but that is all. It is nowhere near bright enough to look around.
I tried to shift my body slightly, but all I managed was a tremor in my shoulders. My limbs are tied, and my body is fastened to the floorboards, so I cannot even turn over.
"......, ......"
I wondered if I could manage a voice yet, and opened my mouth a little, but my tongue was numb from the medicine they make me drink whenever we approach a checkpoint, so no sound came out. Even if I could speak, there is no way I could call for help, so it is mostly meaningless. Still, not being able to see, not being able to move, not being able to speak... it is hard. If even one of those were possible, I think it would distract me, but they are probably keeping me unable to do anything deliberately, to sap the target's willpower. I remember my idiot older brother boastfully explaining that such methods exist when we conducted the undercover investigation into the staged kidnapping targeting Christina. Back then, Petrona was the one kidnapped as bait, but now that I am in the same situation myself, I can feel how effective it really is. I do not know where I am, where I am going, whether it is day or night. I cannot find any hope ahead.
...What about Christina-sama?
I strained my eyes toward the darkness in the back, relying on the faint light. Since the kidnapping targeted Christina herself, she is being treated somewhat better than me. Her body is wrapped in blankets to keep her from catching cold, and her gag has been removed to make breathing easier. Whether it was the kidnappers who removed that gag is questionable. Christina is the Spirit's Favored Child. Loved by spirits, receiving their protection, sometimes taken but also sometimes saved. It would not surprise me at all if the spirits had undone Christina's gag.
...It has increased again.
On Christina's face, sleeping as if dead, green things are stuck to her to the point where I can barely make out her expression. When I first noticed it, I was startled enough to scream, but when the kidnappers came to check what the commotion was and their light illuminated Christina's face, I felt relieved. The green things stuck to Christina's face were plant leaves. I have seen this phenomenon of leaves sticking to Christina's body once before, in the capital.
...Spirit treatment is happening, which means Christina-sama should be safe.
All those many cuts healed without leaving a trace back then. I want to believe that Christina will be healed this time too.
...Last time it took about ten days for all the leaves to fall...
I wonder how it will be this time. The first leaves appeared on Christina's face after I lost consciousness the first time. I kept watching Christina, determined not to look away, until I lost consciousness. Then when I came to, the leaves were stuck to Christina's face. I have been confined under the carriage floor this whole time, so I do not know how much time has passed since the kidnapping, but once I realized that the spirit's treatment seemed to happen when I was not looking at Christina, I decided to keep my eyes closed even while awake. Even watching with half-open eyes, the number of leaves does not increase, but they can increase just from blinking. Spirits really do not want their forms seen by humans, I suppose.
...The scent of flowers. I feel like I have smelled this scent in the capital too.
I do not know what kind of beings spirits are, but the spirit that is continuing to treat Christina now might be the same spirit that was around Christina in the capital. This should be a small enclosed space full of odors, but a floral scent was coming from Christina.
Finding no change in Christina within the range I could see, I closed my eyes again. I thought that if I was watching, the spirits could not tend to Christina.
After I closed my eyes for a while, the floral scent seemed to grow stronger. I sometimes felt like I heard a small, high-pitched voice, but it must be my imagination. I am not the Spirit's Favored Child. There is no way I could hear the spirits' voices.
...Where did things go wrong?
I remember the lessons on what to do when kidnapped, because I overheard Aaron's lectures to Petrona. Keep thinking, no matter how trivial the thoughts, to avoid being swallowed by despair. That way, when an opportunity eventually comes, you will not freeze up and be unable to move.
I feel like it all started when Christina was taken during the Harvest Festival. Even Aaron's attention was diverted by the commotion across the street, and in that gap, an arm reached out from the side. Fortunately, we were able to get Christina back immediately that time, but the problem came after.
The anomaly happened at the Sedovara Church, where we stopped to treat Christina's scraped knees.
The treatment itself ended quickly, but Leonardo, Christina's older brother, needed to take command to settle the disturbance. So Leonardo, who could no longer send Christina to the residence, decided to leave her at the Sedovara Church until he could come for her.
Lately Christina had been coming to the Sedovara Church often, so she accepted the proposal. Christina can be shy around strangers, but she was used to Jasper, who would be the one mainly keeping her company at the Sedovara Church, so waiting for Leonardo there was no trouble at all.
As usual, Aaron guarded outside the door, while I guarded inside. This is not because I am more trusted. It is the opposite. Attackers always come from outside. Aaron is the defense for that, and I stand inside the door as a liaison in case something happens in the room. As a guard for Christina, even a maid would be far more useful than me. I am really just decoration. It is common knowledge among the Black Knights that White Knights can only be trusted with gatekeeping, but actually serving as a guard for an important person made me keenly feel that those words are not just slander. They are the truth.
"Come to think of it, the soap from the other day should be dry by now... Want to take a look?"
"I want to see!"
At Jasper's invitation, Christina shot her hand up and rose from her chair. She jumped down to the floor with such force that her freshly treated knees must have hurt. She gritted her teeth, enduring the pain. It rather ruins the image of a beautiful girl.
This mistress Christina, her appearance is doll-like, refined, and lovely. I think without a doubt anyone would see her as a beautiful girl, but you can only perceive that mysterious, spirit-like beauty when viewing her from a distance. Once you get inside and have the chance to interact with her up close, Christina shows all kinds of expressions. The face she shows her brother Leonardo is that of a clingy, mischievous little sister, but when faced with beautiful women or girls, her expression softens. On the other hand, she shows no reaction to beautiful boys or young men. You would be tempted to be fooled by her beautiful girl appearance, but I feel like her insides are almost entirely those of a little boy. Even now, if she had sat down quietly, her knees probably would not have hurt, but she jumped up energetically and hurt them.
...I feel like since she left Ms. Hermine's care, her tomboy tendencies have gotten worse.
Kalisa followed Christina as she proceeded to the back of the room after Jasper. When I entered the connecting room, Jasper was searching a shelf against the wall, and Christina was settling into the chair she had been sitting in often lately.
"Was the soap made properly?"
"It seems to be fine, for the most part. The procedure was the same as what is preserved at the Sedovara Church. With that translation, it should work as a soap-making method."
Here, Jasper said, placing two bars of soap in front of Christina. Christina had been making soap alongside having Mirshe make it, but compared to Mirshe's soap, Christina's was somewhat more grayish. She said she wanted to add color and mixed in red flowers, but it seems that failed. On the day she made it, it was a light pink soap, but now that it is dried and finished, the light pink has vanished somewhere, leaving gray.
"The colored water did not make it red at all."
"Rather than the color fading, it is more like it dulled. If you seriously want to color it, I think you would need to add pigment..."
"I do not know if that would be good for the body either, so it is fine. I was just testing."
Saying that dried flowers might make for a cuter finish than using petals for colored water, Christina compared her own soap with Mirshe's. Mirshe's soap was closer to what commoners often use. It had many impurities mixed in, making its color somewhat cloudy.
"Want to compare them with the ones sold at the Sedovara Church?"
Jasper spoke to Christina, who had not taken her eyes off the soap, and headed back to the shelf. I was wondering if he really kept the soap he used daily in a place like that, as opposed to soap he had prepared in advance to show Christina, when I turned my gaze to Jasper rummaging through the shelf lined with glass containers. A small vial was knocked off the shelf by the back of Jasper's hand. By the time I thought "ah," the vial had struck the floor and shattered with a sharp sound.
"What are you doing, Jasper... and, that stinks."
"It is the scent of flowers. Cover your nose and mouth with this."
At the scent that wafted into the room, I reflexively pinched my nose. Christina reacted quickly too, pinching her nose and protesting to Jasper. As for Jasper himself, he had already prepared a white cloth to cover his nose and mouth, concealing them. He sprayed something onto the white cloth and tossed it to Christina, but before she could fail to catch it, Kalisa intercepted and pressed the cloth over Christina's nose and mouth. While that was happening, cloths for the rest of us were also prepared and tossed to us by Jasper. In the cloying floral scent, a strange space was created where every person standing there was covering their nose and mouth with white cloth.
"...What did you drop?"
"A medicine I was experimenting with. If it leaked or if I forgot to close the lid and it vaporized, that would be bad, so I added a scent to it..."
"I think adding a scent was a wise decision."
When Christina suggested ventilating the room, Kalisa moved. Jasper stopped her. Do not let this gas escape outside, he said.
"I am neutralizing it now, so keep the cloth on and wait."
"If it is a dangerous enough medicine to need immediate neutralization, you should have prepared the neutralizer in advance."
"If I did that, the freshness would deteriorate."
Does neutralizer even have freshness? That was my last memory.
The next thing I knew, I was tied hand and foot, rolled out on the ground. That alone was enough to understand that something serious had happened to me.
...Um, where is this? Tied up... kidnapped?
I did not know why I, who should have been at the Sedovara Church, was lying in such a dark place, but given the completely changed circumstances, it was certain there was no time to be lying around leisurely. I tried moving my bound arms slightly, but the ropes seemed tightly tied, with no sign of loosening.
...Calm down, me. What to do in times like this... Aaron-dono must have taught Petrona...
When conducting the undercover investigation in the capital, Petrona was used as a substitute for Christina. Aaron drilled as many lessons as he could think of into Petrona, who would actually be kidnapped. One of those must have included what to do if captured.
...Right, do not panic, do not make noise, stay quiet. Act compliant enough not to provoke the criminals, and while waiting for help, gather information while watching for an opportunity to escape.
While recalling the lecture content, my head cooled a little. First, following Aaron's teaching, I tried to gather information by sensing the surroundings. I could tell there were people around, but they did not seem to be very close.
...No guards?
I slowly sat up, but no one called me out for it. The surroundings were dim, but not completely dark, so it did not seem to be night yet.
...A mountain of wooden crates... so I am in a warehouse or something?
The crates were stacked like a cage confining me, and while I could not see the surroundings, I was also grateful for them. If I could not see anything from my position, it meant the kidnappers could not see me either. Still, just because they could not see me did not mean I could hide forever. Gathering information about my situation was the priority. Holding my breath to avoid making noise, I peered through the gaps in the crates. It seemed a lantern was being used on the other side of the crates, making it easy to confirm the situation.
The first thing I noticed was Christina. She was sitting properly on a stack of wooden crates against the wall like a chair, and beside her was a bald, filthy-looking man. Beyond Christina's line of sight were two men with their pants down, somehow moving their hips. Squinting to see what was happening, I realized the flesh-colored thing I had thought was a man's arm was actually a woman's leg.
There was no need to think about what was happening.
With Christina as a hostage, Kalisa was being used as their plaything. Christina's face looked like she was about to cry at any moment, but it was striking that she still did not look away, keeping her eyes fixed on the scene.
"Hey, are not you done yet? Hurry up and switch."
"Shut up, I am at a good part. There is another one hidden in the back, right? Use that one."
At the men's conversation about "another one in the back," a chill ran down my spine. There was only one other person in the back. Me. And I realized I had been "hidden" there, rather than just tossed there. The men must have needed to hide me.
"That one is a nobleman's daughter, right? I hear nobles pay for their daughters' hymens, so if we use her, she will not be worth any money."
"You do not know if she is unused or not unless you try!"
As the men laughed together, I understood why I had been left there. The goal was Christina's kidnapping, but they were probably also planning to demand a ransom from my family, using me, a noble's daughter, as a hostage. With Christina as the main objective and me, a noble who would be a nice bonus if they could make extra money, the only one they could toy with was Kalisa the maid.
"If the noble's daughter in the back is no good, what about this one?"
"I have been wanting to try sticking it in a kid."
The conversation started flowing in an ominous direction, and the men's gazes gathered on Christina. Christina was still at an age that could only be called a little girl, but that probably did not matter to these men. The gazes of everyone except the man on top of Kalisa focused on her, and Christina lifted her face dully.
For a moment, I felt our eyes meet.
Christina's lips moved slightly, saying something, but I could not hear her voice. Still, I somehow understood what she said.
-- Useless.
I think that is what she said. That is what I want to believe she said.
I felt I had to go save Christina, but my legs were trembling and would not move. My limbs were tied, so there was no way I could protect Christina from the men.
I cannot do anything.
I was searching for reasons I could not act, and feeling relieved that there were reasons I could not. I felt like Christina's blue eyes saw right through that, and I could not look away.
The man who had been waiting his turn approached Christina. Perhaps they thought a child could not do anything. Christina's limbs did not seem to be bound. Christina got down from the crates to face the approaching man. The moment when Christina completely disappeared from my view was just an instant. I thought she had been hidden by the approaching man's shadow, but then the man's posture wavered.
"You little shit!!"
With the furious shout, the man's arm swung wide, and Christina was punched away. She slammed into the wall and fell to the ground with a wet splat, and after that, she did not move a muscle.
"You little brat! Let me teach you what happens when you defy an adult!!"
"Hey, stop that. Without that kid, we cannot make any money."
"Shut up!"
The man approached Christina, who lay motionless after being smashed into the wall, to finish her off. The man who had been thrusting on top of Kalisa pulled away to stop him.
...Ah.
It was when the man had completely withdrawn from on top of Kalisa. Kalisa rose unsteadily and reached across the ground. There seemed to be a blade there. She picked up something like a hatchet that reflected the lantern light dully, and swung it down at the man whose back was turned to her.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaah...!?"
The scream only lasted partway. Caught off guard by a sudden attack from behind, the man had his head severed helplessly. With his throat separated from his neck, he could not even make a sound. Perhaps from the force of the decapitation, the headless body flailed its arms wildly, spraying blood and thrashing, and Kalisa kicked the body toward the bald man. The bald man caught his headless comrade's body, getting his face stained with fresh blood, but quickly regained his stance. He reached out both hands to subdue Kalisa, and had his arms cut off by her. The man who had been trying to capture Christina hesitated between helping the bald man or going for Christina, apparently choosing to take Christina hostage again. As he took a step toward Christina, Kalisa closed the distance, ignoring the bald man. She seemed to have no intention of letting Christina be taken hostage a second time. There was no hesitation in the hand swinging the hatchet.
The hatchet sank deep into the man's left thigh, and the blade caught on bone. Unable to pull it free in time, Kalisa was kicked down from the side by the bald man. Kalisa tried to regain her footing immediately, but slipped on the blood the headless man had sprayed everywhere. As she stumbled and fell on the spot, the bald man and the man who had pulled the hatchet from his thigh swarmed her and subdued her. Just as I was about to give up, thinking this was the end of the counterattack, a familiar voice reached me.
"What is all this commotion!"
At the sight of two new men entering through the doorway, I lifted my drooping face. I did not recognize the well-dressed man behind them, but the face of the man who had shouted was one I knew.
...Why is Jasper here?
The big cleaning is not finished yet. Updates will continue to be irregular for a while.