kscans

Chapter 29 - The Pre-Pilgrimage and the Little One, Part Four

"What’s this?"

"It’s stew-nyo. It’s delicious."

Taking the dish Adonis brought them, the Little One ate with Hyrulia. To ensure the still-unaccustomed girl ate properly, she had asked the men to have their meal at the table outside. The three readily agreed, leaving the two girls alone in the carriage. Warm stew and a fresh vegetable salad. Sliced apples, cut into decorative shapes, were served on the side, adding a nice touch of color. She didn't know how long it had been, but it was likely Hyrulia’s first proper meal in a long time. She swallowed with a gokuri.

"Be careful, it’s hot."

The Little One scooped up a piping hot carrot, blew on it fuu fuu, and moved her mouth hafu hafu.

"So good. Adonis is amazing, as always."

Drawn in by the little girl's blissful smile, Hyrulia also brought a spoonful of stew to her mouth.

And her eyes widened.

She chewed in silence, her eyes still wide, and moved her spoon again and again. The Little One watched Hyrulia gently as she, too, savored Adonis’s cooking.

The meal they were served vanished in an instant, and by the time the spoons were placed down with a karan, there were two girls with beaming smiles. Their faces were relaxed hoyayan, their adorable appearances a picture of contentment.

"That was delicious, wasn’t it?"

Hyrulia nodded koku koku at the Little One’s murmur and moved her lips as well.

"I’ve never eaten anything so delicious. It was the besht."

Not even noticing she had fumbled the end of her sentence, the two satisfied girls were brought tea by Adonis. Two teacups. On each saucer were two cookies.

As he set them on the table, he glanced at Hyrulia and smiled a soft, full smile. He was relieved to see the empty dishes. As long as a person could eat and sleep, they could get through most anything. The worst situation was being unable to eat what was prepared. He couldn't swallow, or he didn't even feel like bringing it to his mouth. Adonis was truly relieved that this wasn't such a situation.

Not eating and not sleeping can lead to death more easily than any minor illness or injury.

The situation seemed grave, but the fact that she could eat like this meant she hadn't given up on living. An unconscious will. Adonis, who came from a poor commoner background, knew this instinct-like drive well.

That night, the twins slept in the same bed, separating Hyrulia from Dorfen and the others. Feeling her back as she lay with her shoulders faintly trembling, Chihiro stayed awake until dawn.

"I’m sorry. It’s because of me…"

The next day, after receiving permission from Count Roullelia, the Little One and her party buried Hyrulia’s foster brothers in the cemetery of a nearby town. Kneeling before the small gravestone, Hyrulia wept harahara, and Chihiro placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You’re wrong. They wouldn’t be at peace if you say that."

A sense of wrongness floated in the little girl’s large, round eyes. Hyrulia didn't understand what she was being told.

"Tears for sending off the dead should only be shed once. After that, you should have a smile. You cried enough to melt yesterday, right? So this time, you have to send them off with a smile. Otherwise, they won’t be able to rest easy-nyo."

With a smile?

When people die, they all become Buddhas. After that, let nature take its course. It is the ones left behind who harbor regrets, tormented by the remnants of what could have been. But the two who were buried would not want that.

"That’s right. With a smile."

Drawn in by the little girl’s bright smile, Hyrulia also raised the corners of her mouth slightly. Something clicked kachiri in her head. Ah, I see. Then the words I should say are indeed different.

"Asbel. Anson. …Thank you."

With a faint smile on her face, Hyrulia clasped her hands and touched them to her forehead as if in prayer.

Well. In a way, they’re still here, though.

The palm-sized lights floated fuyo fuyo around Hyrulia. The final forms of her foster brothers, apparently visible only to Joker and the twins. While playing with the light orbs, which had now become two, Chihaya explained to Chihiro.

"Hyrulia-san is from an old bloodline, they said. Her current parents are her adoptive parents, and her real parents are dead."

Listening closely to the story from the foster brothers’ souls, it seemed Hyrulia’s original parents had died when she was a baby. The ones who became her guardians to raise her, the duchess, were her current parents. Distant relatives. A ducal lady with ancient ties to the Castrato royal family. That was Hyrulia. In Castrato, where bloodline was highly valued, one could inherit a title even if not the firstborn son. Hyrulia, being the only daughter of the Duke, was supposed to inherit the title upon coming of age. But her adoptive parents had raised her while hiding the truth. They cherished her and raised her as their own daughter. All the servants in the mansion were replaced, and the only one left was the wet nurse Hyrulia needed. They had wanted to replace her too, but Hyrulia would not warm up to any other wet nurse. When separated from her, Hyrulia would cry as if on fire, so her adoptive parents, fed up, gave up on replacing the wet nurse. As a result, protected by her two foster brothers, little Hyrulia grew up.

Within the newly arranged ducal household, the adoptive parents acted as if they themselves had inherited the dukedom, while doting on Hyrulia. Thus, none of the servants thought of the foster parents as guardians, and the image of a happy ducal family was presented both internally and externally. Hyrulia had formally become the adoptive parents’ adopted daughter. They were the adoptive parents of the future duchess. They were treated with considerable respect in high society. But Hyrulia herself did not know this. Furthermore, a few years later, the adoptive parents had their own child, and Hyrulia, who had never doubted that she was their child, naturally treated her foster brother as the heir.

"This child will surely become a wonderful duke, won’t he?"

When Hyrulia, the true duchess, said this, a wicked seed sprouted in the hearts of her adoptive parents. An unspeakable hatred for the daughter they had loved as their own began to well up. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. A casual trigger can make it bare its fangs ferociously. Though their children were equally dear, everyone but Hyrulia was an outsider with no title. So they thought about it. Even though they knew it was absurd, they thought about it.

…If only this girl weren’t here.

Without her, they would be mere lower nobles. The adoptive father, the fourth son of an earl distantly related to the ducal family, was scheduled to be granted the title of viscount from a relative. Then, out of the blue, came the offer to be Hyrulia’s guardian. If she were entrusted to someone with a prominent family name, she could get caught up in unnecessary political power struggles. That was why the offer had come to the adoptive parents, who had not yet been ennobled.

Forgetting that reality, they schemed.

Could they somehow legally remove Hyrulia from the ducal family? Even if she were gone, it wasn't as if they could inherit the dukedom. Unable to even grasp such a simple logic, the adoptive parents pushed Hyrulia into the running as a candidate for the Crown Prince’s fiancée. They had naively thought that if she married, their foster son could become the duke. It was not until the trustee told them that even if Hyrulia became the Crown Princess, her child would simply become the new duke, that the adoptive parents realized.

Learning this, they took an even more foolish course of action.

They brought a young monster with them to the inner palace, under the pretext of visiting their daughter. Hyrulia, being a ducal lady among the fiancée candidates, had been given one of the palaces. That palace was a detached one also used to isolate problematic royalty, and it had a prison in the basement for criminals. Spotting this, the adoptive parents released a young monster into the underground prison. Castrato could obtain magic tools through Frontier. At the same time, it was possible to have used gems recharged with magic. It was one of the nobles’ pastimes to raise and train young monsters with these recharged gems.

This was another reason for their hatred of Frontier. Castrato envied and was jealous of Frontier, with its abundant magic.

A young monster feeds on magic, but it also desires blood and flesh. Just as a beast gets its sustenance, it needs food to build its own body.

Into the cage of the starving magic, the adoptive parents threw the fiancée candidates. Deceiving them with clever words, they had them sneak out of their rooms and become prey for the fierce beast. The young ladies, purely raised and thoughtless, were deceived into trying to get on good terms with the ducal family, which had deep ties to the royal family, and one by one, they became mangled corpses. Even though it was a monster, it was young. The blood it sipped and the flesh it ate were limited. If properly examined, doctors would have been able to determine the cause of death and the type of injuries. But the court physicians had never seen a beast’s bite wound before. On top of that, though young, the monster’s fangs were sharp, and the sharply gouged wounds looked like cuts from a dull blade. Unless someone who knew looked closely, it was impossible to tell. Taking advantage of such unenlightened knowledge and the delayed investigation, Hyrulia’s adoptive parents continued their crimes. Their purpose was to eliminate the rival fiancée candidates, but the story took an unexpected turn.

As a result, the rumors and suspicions fell upon her, and her adoptive parents, seizing the opportunity, cut Hyrulia off. As long as her existence could be erased, they did not care what form it took. In fact, they would rather not have Hyrulia’s blame fall upon the ducal family.

With that intention, the adoptive parents severed ties with her.

Now the ducal family is ours.

As the two of them chuckled and raised a toast, the faces of the parents who had once loved and cherished Hyrulia were gone.

It was not until the trustee who visited later informed them of their eviction that they realized. It was because of Hyrulia that they had been able to live in the ducal residence.

It was because she was their adopted daughter that a large sum of child-rearing expenses was paid by the trustee, allowing them to manage the ducal household without any hardship.

Having lost Hyrulia and severed ties, the adoptive parents were left with nothing.

Later, the Castrato royal family would learn the truth from the adoptive parents, who, having lost everything, would confess in a frenzy and begin a search for her, but that was of no concern to the Little One.

The carriage carrying Hyrulia and the Little One was heading straight for the Frontier royal capital.

As if to fill the void of her sorrow, the Little One fed her endless amounts of sweet confections and recalled an old song.

Was it "Heartbreak Restaurant"? There’s also stress eating. Sadness and the stomach are linked, you know. Seriously.

If your stomach is full, your sadness is halved.

Hyrulia’s eyes went wide at the indescribably delicious confections.

"Frontier’s confections are amazing, aren’t they? I have never tasted anything so delicious."

Hyrulia placed a hand over her mouth and let out a sigh of admiration. Her surprise seemed to be overcoming her sadness.

The small lights circled happily around her. The two of them whispered to the Little One that they were relieved she was no longer grieving.

Yep, this is a complaint case for the gods.

Never mind Chihaya with his broken item, why were strange phenomena happening to Chihiro as well?

The little girl, fully intending to have a word with them, would not be able to meet the gods in her dreams until she returned to Frontier. No one had yet realized that more trouble awaited them on the journey.

Go with the flow, follow your heart.

Three new members had joined the Little One Squad's carriage, led by monsters.

Only the Little One thinks that all is well with the world today. She cluelessly presses her hands together in prayer.