Raga of the Dry Branch

Raga of the Dry Branch 43: 2nd Division after one week (1)

“I was waiting for today. Now, let me tell you this, my friend!”

After a week of a short but long vacation, Sir Alkeris was back. Except for the captain and Sir Amiel, all the other members of the 2nd Division surrounded her with shining eyes.

After seeing him after the short break, they seemed elated looking at Sir Alkeris who the fat below her eyes could notice, locksthought, these people too are turning similar to them and then smiled again. Yet, his smiling face soon began to crack.

As this kept repeating over and over again, she reluctantly opened her mouth to their behavior,

“What are you trying to do?”

Alkeris, whose eyes were shocked and flustered, immediately asked them by using his cold face. Her defenseless face, which looked very cute to look at, didn’t last long.

But still, the staff of the 2nd Division didn’t yield.

“Well, it is because I am curious, a lot.”

“I am sorry that you feel like this as soon as you have returned, but I am a little curious. You are a famous person after all.”

“I wasn’t there, but I heard it from Sir Shun so I am curious too. Let me know.”

Seeing the three people with their dazzling eyes looking at her, Alkeris took a step back. Despite holding the cold expression, the corner of her eyes was subtly trembling.

“Hu? Uh?”

She felt too burdensome to see Shuzlin who was clinging onto her. As if ready to hold her down, he moved ahead which made Alkeris step back and smile like a naughty boy.

“Don’t do that! it isn’t the least bit cute.”

Frowning, Alkeris tried to say something but it didn’t seem like these people would back down until they got an answer.

Alkeris shook her head and let out a sigh. It was a face that meant it couldn’t be helped. At that, the other three smiled as if they won.

“I can’t tell you the full details, but he is someone who happened to be my guardian.”

“Ah, so he really was a guardian!”

“Then the family you live with?”

Following Shuzlin’s admiration, Mino asked.

And Alkeris nodded her head. In the meantime, Ilina, who was in deep thought, clapped her hands and yelled, “Resort!”

“….”

Alkeris sighed as the woman remembered it.

“There is only one person who can bring up a resort and mansion in such a short time like a month!”

Pretending to be an investigator, she pointed her finger at Alkeris. In the end, Alkeris had no choice but to tell the truth about it.

From the first day after the vacation, Alkeris was beaten mentally and was back to the tattered state in an instant.

“Ah, by the way, what happened to that? that scary mansion?”

“Why will you ask him? He is so scared that he can’t even get himself to read the data.”

“Ah, it isn’t like that!”

“Sir Shun just stuttered, you are so bad at lying.”

“It hasn’t been fully revealed yet, but we know that she is cooperating. Most of the bodies within the mansion have been identified and cremated, so there is no need to worry.”

“That is good.”

Although she was expressionless in the eyes of others, there was a slight smile on her white face, which could be noticed by the fat below her eyes. Mino smiled and continued to talk.

“That red-haired lady will be enshrined in her hometown at the request of her acquaintance. That damned baron. He went there to play, and when something happened he seemed to be too scared and ran away, and before he knew it the woman with him disappeared. At first, he said he didn’t report it right away because he thought she might have lost her way while running in fear. And then there was no news from her or about her as time passed, so he got worried, but because of the difference in their status, he was afraid of being ridiculed in the social world for his choices and was embarrassed to be known for a person who lost his party in such a place, so he didn’t speak about it.”

“Then that one… had to be that lady.”

“It seems like as she was running away she was kidnapped and left like that.”

Alkeris nodded her head and thought of the events which she could remember from that time. She was curious, but she had other things to ask before that.

“But are you fine? You were pretty badly hurt.”

“Ah. I am all fine now.”

“Maybe it was the situation that influenced your pain?”

“Well. It is a thing of the past, so I’m fine…”

As if urging her to speak, the three kept staring at Alkeris, with troubled faces, at which Alkeris lowered her gaze and said,“It wasn’t exactly a painful thing, but I think maybe I was getting nervous.”

“I too saw you resting your forehead once in a while as if you were having a headache. You even fell asleep while fainting.”

Shuzlin spoke with a serious face, but then he smiled and tapped her on the shoulder.

“But to come and rescue us in such a state, it must have taken a huge toll on you. For me at the end of the day, you were strong.”

“Huhuhu, we went through a lot of hardships that day and real friendship blossomed. Right, friend?”

“Ugh, look at him.”

Mino who looked at that touched her forehead as if ashamed of it, but Shuzlin didn’t care. Alkeris looked at Shuzlin’s face who was excited and brought up something she didn’t like and decided to divert the topic.

“My head was hurting that day and I felt dizzy. Maybe it was because the place wasn’t good.”

“Uh?”

“Actually, in that hall, I had a dream. To summarize, a man from a slum takes a young woman and locks her in, and feeds her every day. The woman falls in love with the man who brought her and eventually marries him. But there is a misunderstanding and they fight but it was really a misunderstanding. She already had a child inside her.”

“… a slum?”

“Already a child inside?”

“Left behind?”

Was it because they were listening to her seriously, Alkeris looked confident and continued to speak.

“She must have suffered a lot when she was living in the slum. She felt grateful for a glass of milk and hard bread and seemed to think that the man was her savior. But I am not sure of the back story. And my dream ended there.”

Alkeris smiled looking at Shuzlin who was looking at her with his mouth wide open, but that smile didn’t last long due to the strange feeling.

Somehow, the surroundings went silent.

“Coincidence? The culprit in the case came from slums and was saved by the owner of the mansion and eventually got married.”

“… I must have heard it wrong, what did you just say?”

Alkeris’ face was unusually white as he asked what Dame Mino just told him.

Maybe, maybe she just heard it wrong.

Alkeris could feel the sound of her heart beating fast, and as she recalled what Dame Mino said about the case, a chill ran down her spine, but Dame Mino was silent.

“Hahaah… you too. You are trying to pull out leg my finding out what happened during the break, right?”

“…”

Sir Shuzlin too laughed out loud, but the sound of laughter was rather dry.

The effort to somehow change the atmosphere didn’t work. Avoiding their gaze, Sir Alkeris blinked and looked away, she thought it was pitiful and her face was drenched in despair as if the world was coming to an end.

“I don’t think I heard it wrong seeing the reaction. But that dream, while you were with Sir Hilder in the other room… at that time Sir Shuzlin woke me..”

“Me?”

Shuzlin stopped smiling at that.

“N-No way!”

“No, I am right.”

Alkeris said, looking at his face and lowering her face.

“With this incident, we have been through a lot.”

“It is said that people with weak spirits find it easy to see ghosts, so it seems like Sir is the easiest one of us. Then maybe you should take more care of yourself?”

Mino looked at Alkeris with a sad expression when Ilina said.

“But isn’t the culprit still alive? Like inside that very same mansion?”

“Oh my, it could be that.”

“Then maybe… the soul of the woman who died in injustice…”

Shuzlin, who said till then, buried his face on the desk as if collapsed and lost his soul. And Alkeris’ stiff muscles loosened.

“What kind of stories are you saying that you all look so interested in? Oh, did I interrupt you?”

The office door opened and Marquis Drimild entered. They were all taken aback by the sudden unexpected visit, but still they got up and greeted the man.

Shuzlin straightened his limp body in speed, was it because of the rank? And Ilina had a rather stiff face, and Mino asked curiously.

“What are you doing here?”

Given the man’s position, the only people he would wish to meet are the ambassador or the head of each division. Or maybe the famous Amiel?

Because of his splendid origin and abilities, he could be someone anyone would want to visit.

So why was the Marquis in a place where captain Ong or Amiel was not there? That too not in the 1st division but the 2nd Division?