kscans

Chapter 6 - Chapter 5. Part One - Primary Information is Crucial

"I saw it. I saw people fleeing, trampling this flower underfoot."

Her beautiful face, clutching the bookmark I had given her, showed nothing but desperation. I was dumbfounded. What in the world was she talking about?

"I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand what you mean, Alfina-sama."

"What!? Um, well... aren't you going to tell me about the prophecy?"

"The prophecy, you say?"

The princess looked at me with bewildered eyes. Reflected in them was my own equally bewildered face. The sudden mention of a prophecy only deepened my confusion. I mean, I understood the word prophecy. And since Alfina was the one saying it, it had to be the one from the New Year's Festival.

There was nothing I could teach her. My knowledge of religious ceremonies was less than that of the average person in this world. I had thought of it as little more than a New Year's fortune slip.

"My apologies. I really don't think there's any way I can be of service."

"But the flower on the bookmark!"

My self preservation instincts began to tingle. Alarms blared in my mind. What have I gotten myself wrapped up in?

This wasn't the princess from the courtyard, who stood with such dignity even when isolated. Before me, under the dim light, was just a classmate, a girl looking at me with pleading eyes.

"This prophecy, is it the one you announced at the New Year's Festival, Alfina-sama?"

"Yes."

"And the flower on the bookmark, you mean the pressed milk vetch."

"Yes."

"Are you saying that flower is related to the prophecy?"

"Yes. Um, wasn't it... a sign for me?"

"No, the milk vetch flowers bloom in a village where my family does business. They haven't bloomed yet this year, but I happened to remember I had some that were already pressed."

The village children had made it for me a long time ago, and I had simply fashioned it into a bookmark.

"...But to approach me in that situation..."

"You did shield me from Dorefano and the young Lord Rowan, Alfina-sama. I don't think you had much to gain by extending a hand to me in that situation, either."

Time for my special move. the 'let's just call it even since we both benefited' play. Someone as socially inept as me lacks the skill to intuitively grasp the delicate balance of interpersonal gains and losses.

"Th-Then, you really were just trying to comfort me..."

Alfina's expression was a mixture of tears and laughter. Ugh, this has taken a strange turn. How am I supposed to answer that?

"Senior, what is this?"

A third voice, filled with its own confusion, cut through our stalemate. I whipped around to see Mia, staring at me with cold eyes.

"So it wasn't that Alfina-sama called you here for a secret rendezvous, then."

"Mia. Alfina-sama was merely trying to fulfill her duty as the Oracle Princess."

After listening to my and Alfina's explanations, Mia spoke. On behalf of the beet red Alfina, I waved my hands and tried to explain.

"Then what, Senior, were you hoping for when you accepted Alfina-sama's invitation?"

"N-No, that's..."

Now Mia turned her cold gaze on me. Cold sweat trickled down my back. Come on, if I'd said something like, 'A princess secretly summoned me to a deserted place, so I'm off,' you'd have thought I'd lost my mind, wouldn't you?

"You were saying that the bookmark Senior carelessly gave away is related to Alfina-sama's prophecy of disaster."

After sighing and looking back and forth between us, Mia brought the conversation back to the main point.

"R-Right. I need you to tell me, in detail, where these flowers bloom."

Alfina placed the bookmark face up on the table. Five small, frail, reddish purple flowers were lined up on it.

The one chosen to be the Oracle Princess secludes herself in a room in the cathedral from four days before the New Year's Festival until the day before. In that place, called the Chamber of Prophecy, she touches a magical artifact, a crystal, and an image appears in her mind. Over three days, the image gradually becomes clearer, and her duty is to report the final image she sees as the prophecy.

And what she saw was a crowd of villagers fleeing, trampling reddish purple flowers underfoot.

Apparently, she couldn't see the disaster itself, and "the west" was just a vague sense of the direction the image came from. It was a prophecy, with all the exquisite frustration that entailed.

"The first thing I saw was the same as last year, a field of wheat, rich with harvest. His Majesty said I should only speak of that."

Alfina said sadly. Mia looked at me. So, she really did go against the king's wishes to announce the prophecy. Getting involved in this carried a considerable risk, no, an outrageous one. I wanted to get out of here right now.

But there were two reasons I couldn't.

The first concerned my own interests, or rather, the Vinder Company's. If, by some chance, the prophecy was true and the epicenter of the disaster was near that village, the Vinder Company would suffer a devastating blow. Everything we had worked so hard to create with our beekeeping would be lost. The second reason was that the village was Mia's hometown.

But, in the first place...

"I will do anything I can to repay you. And of course, I will not tell anyone what you've told me."

She seemed to understand that she was asking me to take on a risk. Indeed, she had summoned me so that no one would know. She didn't have that arrogance I despise, the kind that says, "I'm doing the right thing, so everyone should help me unconditionally."

She had spoken out, knowing her own position would be jeopardized. She took a risk to fulfill a role that was forced upon her, a role no one wanted. I couldn't believe this was just some grandstand play born from her isolated position.

At the very least, she was speaking what she believed to be the truth. I'll believe... no, I'll judge it to be so.

So what now? The safest option would be to answer only what was asked and leave. I could earn a small favor from a princess, though it wasn't worth much. The risk would be drawing attention to that village.

Someone tugged on my sleeve from under the table. I know, if I don't decide soon, this will just get worse. I made my decision.

"Very well. I will tell you where the milk vetch blooms. But may I ask one question?"

"Y-Yes. Please, ask me anything."

Hm? Just now... no, wait, am I wrong? This princess's head is filled with nothing but flowers. That's not nearly enough to earn my cooperation.

"Assuming I tell you the location, what will you do then?"

"Why, I will urge the villagers to evacuate, of course," Alfina replied, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Who will? And how?"

"What! Why, I..."

"How do you intend to persuade them to abandon their fields right before the harvest?"

"W-Well, because the place is dangerous..."

"How is it dangerous?"

"Because, the disaster..."

"What kind of disaster?"

"W-Well, I don't know that, but..."

Alfina's voice grew quieter and quieter.

"Let me rephrase. You say 'evacuate,' but how far do they need to flee? For how long? And how will you arrange for their food and shelter during that time?"

"..."

At my questions, Alfina finally fell silent. A foot kicked me under the table. Hey, I only got a little worked up because she was being so thoughtless.

"Ahem. It would have to be a state led plan, involving the release of food reserves and cooperation from the regional lords and the knight orders."

Alfina would have to persuade the king. But right now, all she had was the vague image she saw. If prophecies were held in such high regard, this situation wouldn't have happened in the first place. It seemed that even in another world, a nation wouldn't act on a vague prophecy. And I think that's how it should be.

I didn't say it, but the question of who would take responsibility if no disaster occurred was also important. And the prime candidate was right in front of me... no, I don't have the luxury of worrying about someone else's self preservation.

"It is only logical that the country will not act on your vague image alone, Alfina-sama."

"But, I..."

Alfina started to say something, then closed her mouth. I stood up. Mia glared at me with a "what are you doing?" look. I know, I should have just answered her question vaguely and left instead of saying all this.

"However, it's not as if there's no way to turn a vague prophecy into concrete information."

I took a map and an illustrated encyclopedia from the bookshelf and returned to my seat. Alfina was surprised that I had come back, and Mia let out another sigh. I can't help it. Now that I've said this much, I have to cooperate. Prophecies are well outside my area of expertise, but if I treat it as just another piece of information, I know the steps to process it.

Besides, regardless of how much I cooperate, I should probably extract a little more information. If the prophecy turns out to be real, that village and Project Renge are finished. I could just get the information and deal with it myself.

Alfina's eyes were fixed on the map and encyclopedia, wondering what was about to begin. But I pushed them to the side of the table and looked straight at the Oracle Princess. The most important thing is primary information. In this case, that was the image of the disaster Alfina saw.

...The fact that a subjective image is my primary information is so contradictory it makes me want to cry.

"May I ask you a few questions?"

"Y-Yes."

Alfina nodded with a serious expression.

"About the flower in the image you saw, are you certain it was milk vetch? Could it have been a similar but different flower? Ah, and you can't look at the bookmark to check. Please describe the color and shape of the flower in the image as specifically as you can."

"...I'm sorry. In the image that appeared in my mind, I couldn't make out such fine details. The color was definitely reddish purple. The shape of the petals wasn't like the flowers that grow in the Royal Capital's gardens, it was more like, um, a carriage wheel..."

Alfina spoke while glancing at the overturned bookmark. Human memory is so easily overwritten. Even without any intent to deceive, the way a question is asked can lead to a completely opposite answer.

The characteristics matched. In this world, the usefulness of leguminous plants isn't widely known. Based on my own experience searching for them, I judged the princess's words to be highly credible.

Time to verify from another angle.

"Then, what kind of clothes were the fleeing people wearing? I imagine they were dressed somewhat differently from those in the Royal Capital."

The princess closed her eyes in silence.

"...The women were all wearing sashes around their waists. They were wide sashes, the kind I've never seen in the capital. There was a pattern of straight lines on them. I believe it was a light blue green sash with a jade green line."

As expected, she remembered the women's clothing better. I looked at Mia. She gave a reluctant nod. Incidentally, that line wasn't a pattern. The women of that village aren't wealthy enough to wear dyed patterns. The women in that region tie a thin cord over a wide sash. The color combination differs for married and unmarried women, and light blue green with blue is the combination for an unmarried woman.

"Were there any other buildings or features that might indicate the region?"

"...I think I may have seen something like a water wheel near the village."

"..." "..."

Mia and I both frowned. Alfina probably didn't think a water wheel was anything special. But in this country where lumber is precious, it's rare for a small village to have a water wheel. The distribution of milk vetch, the people's clothing, and a water wheel. A region where all three of those exist is limited to a single point.

After all, we were the ones who had installed a small water wheel in the village to efficiently collect honey from the hives. I opened the encyclopedia.

"About the sash you mentioned earlier, was it actually something like this...?"

"...That's it!"

Next, I spread out the map. I traced a finger over the plains near the mountain range that formed the western border.

"Milk vetch is distributed in this area. And the characteristics of the sash you mentioned are limited to the southern part of Bergen County. There are three villages there..."

I narrowed down the area. Then, my finger pointed to a single spot.

"...One of them, Leylia, has a water wheel. Therefore... A-Alfina-sama."

A white palm covered my hand on the map. Startled, I looked up at Alfina to see her looking at me with teary eyes.

"That's amazing. I'm so glad I came to you for help. You believe my words, don't you?"

Alfina's hand squeezed mine. Her slender white fingers slipped between my own spread ones. The palm, cool from her nervousness, felt pleasant. Then, the point of contact gradually warmed with our shared heat.

"Ahem. I believe you are misunderstanding Senior, Alfina-sama. Senior is soft, but he does not trust people."

What kind of socially inept wreck is she describing? I'm just a realist who believes that the only person I can truly move is myself... Damn it, she might be right.

"...That's right. What I'm doing now is not because I believe the prophecy, but as a step to verify whether I should believe it."

"Verification? No, but, you're the first person who has truly listened to my story. I still want to thank you..."

"Our time is limited, so I think we should proceed to the next step."

"O-Oh, right."

Noticing Mia's gaze, Alfina quickly let go of my hand. I reflexively pulled my hand back as well. The map started to close. Mia leaned in close beside me, extending a hand to hold the page down.

This is... awkward. Let's just move on to the next step. With this, I had extracted the information of "location" from the "prophecy." Next, I would use this information to narrow down the type of disaster.