kscans

Chapter 13 - The Kobito-san in the Secret Base

"How did it come to this..."

Chihiro was wrapped in a blanket, shivering. Her whole body ached, her muscles and joints screaming in protest. A terrible fever had made her body stiffen, and she trembled so hard her teeth chattered. With teary eyes and ragged breaths, Chihiro was curled up, unable to move.

The incident began yesterday morning.

"Hmm? Do I feel a little hot?"

It was mid-autumn, a time when the evening chill lingered into the next day. She placed a hand on her own forehead for a moment, but she couldn't really tell and decided it was probably her imagination. Chihiro hopped vigorously out of bed.

"Well, it's probably nothing. Sasha, breakfast!"

An unremarkable day was about to begin. ...Or so it should have.

"Aaaahhhhh!"

For some reason, the Kobito-san was sprinting out of the kitchen at full speed.

Behind her, several adults were in pursuit.

"Wait! We know you hold the rights to the Dwarf-san brand sweets! Present them to Lady Anastasia!"

"Stand back! This is a summons from Her Majesty the Queen! Baron's daughter, Her Majesty wishes to have lunch with you! Please come with us!"

"All of you, stop! Run, Lady Chihiro, quickly!"

How did it come to this??

That day, as Chihiro was eating her staff meal in the kitchen as usual, several attendants suddenly appeared before her.

...Is there some rule in the royal palace to aim for staff mealtime?

Chihiro's eyes narrowed, but it was simply that people had come to recognize that she was certain to be in the kitchen at that time.

From what she could gather from their rough explanations, it seemed she was being summoned by both the queen and the first consort. The two groups were glaring at each other, sparks flying between them. As she stared blankly up at the men squabbling over who would speak first, Dolphen entered the kitchen with a quizzical look on his face.

Since the honey incident, he had become the Kobito-san's personal guard and was always by Chihiro's side.

There had already been plans to assign a dedicated attendant to Chihiro, and then that incident happened. The Kobito-san was quite attached to him, and with Dolphen's own fervent request, the role of guard was informally decided to be his. The selection for others was still underway, apparently.

"What is all this noise? If it is between the queen and the first consort, the queen takes precedence, does she not?"

Dolphen glanced sternly at the attendants. From behind him came several more voices. There stood ladies dressed in fine dresses. They must have been uniforms, but they had a different air of elegance from the usual maid outfits.

Are they ladies-in-waiting or court ladies?

At the sight of a type of woman she had never seen before, the Kobito-san's interest was slightly piqued.

"This is troubling. If our business overlaps, Lady Anastasia will be angry with us."

"And we will be scolded by the queen."

Ugh? How many of them are there? This is bad, isn't it?

More maids and ladies-in-waiting appeared in droves after the main attendants, and the Kobito-san instinctively bolted. Dolphen, who was right behind her, let her escape and became a wall in the narrow passage.

However, he was outnumbered, and he couldn't hold them all back.

Pushing through the crowd of people, Dolphen emerged to find the attendants looking around in confusion. The people who had been chasing Chihiro had lost her at the usual spot.

"Huh... huh? Where did she go?"

"My lady?? Where are you??"

"Aaargh, Lady Anastasia is going to be so angry!"

"What will I tell the queen..."

Watching the frantic people search for the Kobito-san, Dolphen headed back to the kitchen.

He thought that if things quieted down, the Kobito-san would surely return to finish her meal.

Little did he know that this would become a decision of bitter regret, as Dolphen turned on his heel and left.

"This is a problem."

Listening to the voices of the people still searching for her, Chihiro lay down wearily on the bed in her secret base.

Seriously, I'm so glad I have this place.

Wrapped in a warm blanket, Chihiro drifted in and out of sleep. She hadn't been feeling well since the morning, her meal had been interrupted, and she was exhausted from the full-on sprint. Cocooned in the cozy blanket, she comfortably surrendered to her drowsiness.

Little did she know that the Giorge barony would be in an uproar that night.

"Chihiro hasn't come back??"

Nodding at lightning speed were Naya, Sasha, and Dolphen, lined up in the mansion's drawing room. All three were pale as ghosts.

A search party was immediately formed, and they searched high and low, but Chihiro could not be found.

To search this much and not find her, for her not to come out. It was impossible. This was an abnormal situation.

All involved were deathly pale. But none of them imagined that the Kobito-san was sleeping soundly, supi supi, in her secret base.

And so we return to the beginning.

Chihiro, who had carelessly fallen asleep, was unable to move the next morning due to a high fever. A terrifying chill had seized her, and her shivering body refused to obey. The cold was so intense that her breath came in gasps. Her whole body was curled up, and she could barely breathe.

Still, somehow trying to get out from behind the stairs, Chihiro crawled out of her blanket. But just lifting the blanket a little bit brought a freezing chill that assaulted her.

Whoa, no no no no!!

She thought about trying to roll out, blanket and all, but the blanket was surprisingly heavy and she couldn't do it well. It was an old-fashioned cotton blanket. Compared to modern ones, it was twice as thick. And since it was folded and crumpled, it was extremely difficult to roll in.

Ah... I'm stuck.

Having used up what little strength she had, Chihiro sobbed quietly. If I can get out of here, I'll work on building up my stamina. As such useless thoughts crossed her mind, a faint shout reached Chihiro's ears.

"Chihiroooo!! Where are you!!"

It was the rampaging Papa Bear.

Due to the emergency, the kitchen had been left to the other cooks, and Drago had been running around all night. Behind him ran Dolphen. Two burly men, their eyes wide as they ran about. Onlookers were taken aback, but their faces turned sympathetic when they learned the reason. It was not uncommon for a child to go missing. Most of them were never found, or were discovered later as corpses. If no body was found, one could guess what happened. They were no longer in this country. Kidnapping was also common.

The voices of the two men, running on without a care for the pitying looks, grew closer and closer.

Papa's nearby!!

"Papaaa, ahh, I'm here!"

Chihiro mustered all her strength and shouted. Perhaps they heard her, as a booming voice was followed by the sound of thudding footsteps. Dosu dosu.

"Here... Papa."

Panting heavily, Chihiro called for Drago again and again. But her voice was drowned out by Drago's shouts, and though they were close, they couldn't hear her.

"Chihiroooo!! Where are you!!"

"That's strange. I thought I heard a voice."

"Chihiroooo!!"

Papa, you're so loud!

Cursing him in her mind, the Kobito-san flicked a plate with her hand. The small wooden plate moved with little effort. A high-pitched clatter, kararan, echoed, and the two men snapped their heads toward the stairs.

"Chihiro??"

As if in response, the clattering sound came again. Karan.

"Where are you, Chihiro? What's wrong? Did something happen??"

The two men rushed around the stairs. Every time their footsteps passed by, Chihiro called out.

"Papa... here. Behind the stairs."

The two men, who had been listening intently for the faint voice, hurriedly searched behind the stairs. They found a gap between the wall and the stairs and peered into the darkness beyond.

"Chihiro!! Why are you in a place like that?!"

Chihiro was at the farthest point from the gap. Her face was flushed red and she was on the verge of tears, wrapped in a blanket and shivering violently.

"Papa... I'm cold."

She managed to drag herself a tiny bit closer, but her strength gave out and she curled up again. It was cold. Her hands were numb, and she couldn't stretch out her body. Chihiro didn't realize it, but her body, which had been shivering all night, had been robbed of its strength by the high fever. Confused by her trembling fingers, Chihiro cursed her own toddler body.

"Chihiro! This, grrr!!"

Just hang on, Papa's gonna save you!

Drago tried to force his way into the gap, but the less than thirty-centimeter opening would not let an adult pass. It was a tight squeeze even for Chihiro these days. There was no way Drago could get through.

Papa... your face is scraped. Stop...

Delirious with fever, Chihiro's consciousness began to fade again.

Seeing this, Drago's mind went completely blank.

"Chihiro!! Don't sleep! Wake up!"

He called out desperately, but in vain. The Kobito-san's head lolled to the side. Kotori. The bone-chilling cold of the stone enclosure mercilessly sapped the warmth from Chihiro's body. Her complexion gradually turned pale, and her lips slowly turned purple.

"Uwaaaah, Chihiro!!"

Attracted by the commotion from Drago and the others, people from the kitchen and outside gathered around. The place erupted into chaos when they learned that Chihiro was trapped in the gap behind the stairs.

"Let's break the stairs!"

"Don't be a fool! What if the fragments hit the Kobito-san?!"

"If we mess up and it collapses, she'll be crushed under the stones!"

"Then what are we supposed to do?!"

Romel, who had been informed of the situation, arrived at the chaotic back entrance.

"They found her?"

Romel, who had been overjoyed to hear that Chihiro had been found, turned pale when he was told the situation.

Why is she in a place like that!

Seeing Chihiro lying unconscious, delirious with fever, Romel knew there was not a moment to spare and ordered the wall of the adjacent room to be broken down. They were to chip away at it little by little so as not to endanger Chihiro. The gap between the wall and the stairs was about a meter deep. It would be an incredibly difficult task to widen it enough for an adult to pass through. To avoid sending fragments flying, they had to chip away at it, and progress was slow.

As the people stared at the slowly chipping wall, several black objects shot into their field of view. Shat.

What was that?

The wriggling things, mozo mozo, slipped through the gap in the blink of an eye and began to drag the Kobito-san out from inside.

"Chihiro!!"

Clutching the Kobito-san who had been brought to him, Drago stared in disbelief at the things that had saved Chihiro. The other people's faces also froze.

There, clustered together, were several plump, giant honeybees.

The bees buzzed, bu bu bu, and looked up at the people as if in accusation. And then, they noticed a large shadow at the back entrance.

"...Queen Merda."

Staring at Romel who was holding his breath, Merda's rage-filled compound eyes flickered with undisguised hatred. Noshin noshin, Merda entered through the back door, stood before the familiar King's brother, and glared down at him with open disgust.

"I sensed Lady Chihiro's magic fluctuating wildly... What in the world are you people doing?"

Merda's wings buzzed sharply. However, Merda's words did not reach anyone but Chihiro. Realizing this, she scrawled her thoughts onto the wall. Gari gari. Her sharp claws easily carved words into the stone. The people, who had been tilting their heads in confusion, read the words on the wall and hung their heads with faces that were a mixture of astonishment and shame.

The sight of people being lectured by a giant honeybee was quite surreal. The optional extra was the King's younger brother, struck dumb and trembling.

She instructed Drago to take the Kobito-san to a physician at once, and Merda's lecture continued until the King, who had been informed of the situation, arrived. Incidentally, Merda's wrath extended to the King as well, and His Majesty the King, who was lectured by Merda in a different location, was on the verge of tears.

It was known that the Forest Master was an intelligent magical beast, but no one had thought it was proficient enough to write. This new discovery sent the scholars into a frenzy of delight, but that is a trivial side story.

It goes without saying that when the King heard from Dolphen that the origin of the incident was the commotion in the kitchen, his thunder fell upon the queen and the first consort.

In a chain reaction, the fact that the Kobito-san was the Golden Queen was also revealed, and after being lectured by Merda, Romel, who was then lectured by the King, was probably the biggest victim.

It is a charming anecdote that a few days later, when a rash appeared all over Chihiro's body, there was a Papa Bear who let out another roar and ran around.

Roseola... that explains the high fever.

It was a common ailment in infants, but it occasionally appeared in young children.

I seem to be doing whatever I want, but I guess I'm actually accumulating a lot of stress, Chihiro thought, patting her own head.

Oh well, kids get sick. That's just how it is. I'll work on building up my stamina so I can still move around even when I'm sick.

And so the Kobito-san was positive, but in a completely different direction.

She didn't know it yet, but a few days later, iron bars would be installed in the gaps of all the stairs, and she would hang her head in dejection.

She gets sick, makes people worry, and gets lectured, but... The Kobito-san is her cheerful self today, running around the castle.