To Britain in Search of an Enemy (9)

House Aldion's estate was made up of four buildings in all: a castle-like great house seven stories high, one old-fashioned manor set apart from the rest, and two modern residences built to the current fashion.

Several kinds of training grounds had been laid out near the houses, so that, I figured, was the knight order's training camp. From the outside alone, you would never have taken it for the seat of a fallen raid team. Solemn years and history were carved into the place; it had the weight of a high noble's estate.

"The castle in the center is Round Castle, where His Lordship and the household dwell. And that old-fashioned manor standing apart at the mouth of the hill on the right — that is where Lady Shinomiya used to live!"

I looked where Franc was pointing. Lights burned bright in all four houses, and the lower we descended, the more the town slipped into the range of my Spatial Perception, until the city's vitality began to make itself felt. We must have been flying too high, and I'd been too sunk in my own mood, for the place to have felt so desolate.

Franc seemed to have felt the same. The moment we landed on a night street in East Redfin, where people were still coming and going at a lively clip, and started walking, her face brightened noticeably.

It was past ten, the sun long gone past the horizon, and still plenty of citizens were out strolling, or playing at exercise. Back home, buildings of five stories and up would have been packed in shoulder to shoulder, but perhaps because the land was so broad, I didn't see a single structure over three floors — and maybe because of that, the village felt overflowing with human warmth. The villagers' faces were bright, too.

At an outdoor tavern off to one side, a crowd had gathered, talking and drinking in high spirits. Others were sweating through a game of street basketball, and men and women in uniform-style formal wear, with nothing but a breastplate over it, walked in twos and threes, chatting, bright-faced, headed somewhere or other.

Franc's eyes grew moist as she watched them.

"Those are the Middle Knights of the regular knight order......"

"Middle Knights? F-Class ability users, then."

"Yes...... A raid team is made up only of regular knights, and by their record and class they are appointed Lower Knight, Middle Knight, or Upper Knight. A Lower Knight must be E- to F-Class, and a Middle Knight C- to D-Class."

She'd said she was an escort knight attached to the common knights, hadn't she? Watching her send those passing knights a faintly envious look, I figured she'd held something like a dream about the regular knight order.

"I heard that when the raid team was annihilated, the formal knight order was disbanded as well......"

She murmured it in a slightly choked voice, eyes on the knights' retreating backs. When I took her hand, she flinched in surprise, then looked at me and smiled, radiant.

Knights and townsfolk who caught the sight sent whistles and jeers flying our way. Not jeers sprung from ill will — the congratulatory kind, the kind that meant they liked what they were seeing.

"The mood's bright. I don't feel any darkness in people's faces."

"No. The knights are all bright-faced as well."

The current head of House Aldion had to be quite capable. Otherwise he could never have revived a ruined raid team to this extent.

But...... the person Franc was looking for didn't seem to be in the mansion.

I'd been sweeping all four of Aldion's houses with Spatial Perception for a while now, and I couldn't find a single East Asian special-type ability user approaching a hundred years old. No — even setting age aside, there wasn't a single woman who was both East Asian and a special-type. She might not be at the mansion at all. A nursing home, or a hospital. Would I have to go and ask in person, then?

The closer we drew to the estate, the more the expression drained from Franc's face, little by little. By the time we were near enough that even Franc's Spatial Perception could take in the whole of the grounds, every emotion had vanished from her.

At last she stopped, and simply stood staring blankly at the mansion in the distance.

I watched her standing there as if her soul had left her, then took her hand and led her to a bench beneath the street tree right beside us. She followed, strengthless.

"Did you... find something?"

I sat her down, sat beside her, held her hand tight, and asked — and a tear slipped from her azure eyes.

"...There... is."

There is? I hadn't seen anyone. And if there was, why did she look so grief-stricken? I was about to fire off the question when Franc's next words stopped my mouth cold.

"In the family's... graveyard. On a headstone. Lady Chise's... name is... there. Hrk."

I swept the estate again. Behind the castle-like mansion lay a neatly tended graveyard. I ran through the thirty-seven headstones there, and the instant I found one standing apart from the rest, I drew Franc in — head bowed, shoulders shaking.

She leaned weakly against my shoulder, buried her face, and swallowed her sobs.

"Hrk. Hhhk......"

I read the words carved on the stone.

And on the back of the stone...... a short line had been cut in intaglio.

December of Year 215...... three months before I was forcibly summoned to the Phase World. So this was what Franc had seen.

The skin beneath my eyes stung, and my chest felt stopped up tight. I pulled her shoulders in harder, and the sobs she'd been choking down broke at last. She wept aloud.

"Waaaaah. Mother, Mother......!"

I held her tight as she cried in my arms, and looking at the words carved on the back of the stone, I sighed to myself.

If only she'd held on a little longer. Then at least she could have seen Franc's face before she went......

Shinomiya Chise seemed to have been unable to forget Franc until the day she drew her last breath. Otherwise she would never have had words like those cut into the back of her stone.

Franc couldn't stop her tears. Trembling finely in my arms, she apologized over and over.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

I had no way of knowing the thoughts buried deep in her heart, but after she'd come back alive from the forced summoning, she had shown me a face detached from the question of whether Shinomiya Chise lived or died. Right after her return, once I'd heard the story of her past, I'd asked. Didn't she want to see her?

Back then she'd said that a bond meant to meet would meet somehow, and a bond not meant to meet would not meet no matter how quickly one went. Just as she'd said, Chise had departed for heaven three months before I was forcibly summoned to the Phase World.

I don't know. Franc had shown me nothing but composure all this time — had she foreseen something like this? Whether the grief she'd buried in her chest had burst at the sight of the headstone, or whether she hated herself for having erased Shinomiya Chise from her mind and was weeping out of guilt toward the woman who had kept her as a daughter until the day she died, I couldn't really tell.

What mattered was that seeing Franc shed tears and grieve closed my own throat and ached in my chest. Because of that I couldn't even comfort her properly. All I could do was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stroke her hair in silence and rub her back.

Night deepened, and people began returning to their homes one by one, and only then did Franc's sobbing stop. But the faint trembling that went on suggested she was still swallowing her tears on the inside.

"Cry. They say once the tears start, you have to keep crying until they stop, or the grief knots up inside you."

"I'm sorry...... hrk......"

"Sorry for what. The way I see it, she'd be glad, if anything."

"...Pardon?"

I looked at her face, wrecked with tears, took out a handkerchief, and carefully wiped them away as I spoke.

"Because the daughter she loves is alive, like this. Because she's doing well. Wouldn't she be watching from heaven, and rejoicing? If it were me, and the daughter I thought was dead turned out to be alive, I think I'd be happy. She's even got a solid boyfriend right beside her."

"......"

"No, wait. If I saw my daughter with a boyfriend, I might get angry. He's a thief, making off with my precious girl."

"......"

Franc looked up at me with a face caught between tears and a smile, then buried herself in my chest again and didn't move for a long while.

What was I supposed to do now. If Franc wanted it, I was prepared to build a working partnership between Grand Bleu and Aldion. But she didn't seem particularly interested in House Aldion.

They said the house's main force had been annihilated in a failed raid on a Peak-Rank aberrant, and its world ranking had been shoved clean out past the thousandth place. But recalling the atmosphere I'd seen today, it seemed to be steadily coming back to life through stubborn effort. The city, of course, and the faces of the people inside the Aldion mansion too — bright, busy, full of vigor.

Whoever had grown a once-ruined village, a city, to this extent — whether the head of the house or a vassal — House Aldion's future was bright. A few more decades like this, and the odds were high they'd recover their old standing.

I stroked Franc's hair and looked through all four mansions. From the interior furnishings to the exteriors, there were clear signs of considerable care taken so that nothing looked worn. They were working not to be seen as a raid team that had once been wiped out. And while keeping up an effort on that scale, the place that looked like a secret vault underground held a fair stack of mid- to upper-mid-grade Phase Stones, sealed so that neither the precious metals nor the Phase Power could leak out. The house's wealth was considerable.

"Seoha. Let us go back."

"...You sure?"

"Yes. It does not look difficult enough that you need extend a hand. And besides......"

"No. I meant, are you sure it's all right to leave without seeing her grave yourself."

At that, Franc's moist eyes turned toward House Aldion.

"......"

"Since we've come all this way, let's pay our respects at your mother's grave and go."

"Yes......"

I took the hand of Franc, still unable to settle on an answer, and led her on. They might not have a culture of visiting graves the way we did back home, but we ought to go and offer a moment of silence.

Following the estate wall around, the Aldion family graveyard drew near. I searched with Spatial Perception for a security system. Surveillance cameras stood only near the mansion and along the wall; nothing at all had been done about the graveyard. Shinomiya Chise's headstone, standing apart, looked lonelier still, steeped in silence.

We slipped past the cameras without a sound, over the wall, and up to the stone, and tears spilled again from Franc's large eyes. Weeping quietly, she stood before the headstone, bowed her head, and remained there a long while.

On a night of thin-fallen moonlight, in East Redfin where she had been born, before Shinomiya Chise's headstone, she made a vow — to live looking toward the present and the future, and not cling to the past.

"Seoha. May I ask one favor?"

"Whatever you want, I'll grant it. What is it?"

"You needn't grant me whatever I want. Just...... when House Aldion is in peril, I would like you to help them. Only once."

"I will."

We went looking, after that, for the graveyard where her birth mother slept, and found a cathedral standing where the village cemetery had been. It was late. From the priest cleaning the cathedral's interior, we heard that an aberrant out of the next village over had crossed into this one and clashed with a raid team, and the cemetery had been blown away wholesale.

When we left East Redfin with a downcast Franc, she cast one last look at the Aldion mansion, and didn't speak the whole way back. Better to let her sort through her thoughts as she was.

When we reached the hotel, the bedroom window was open just as it had been when I left, so we went in that way. The moment we entered the bedroom, the sensory ability user in the living room flinched and pointed toward it, and two bodyguards came charging in after.

"Working hard, I see."

"Ah—! I-I beg your pardon!"

The bodyguards who confirmed it was me bowed in a hurry and turned straight back out, and from beyond the door came the scolding of the woman, the sensory ability user.

"You can't even recognize the Master?!"

"Good grief. You hopeless airhead."

I'd run a long way there and back, and I was a mess of dust and sweat. I couldn't sleep like this. A wash first.

The bathroom off the bedroom held a wide, expensive-looking tub, marble in texture, pure white within. I drew hot water, and when Franc and I got in together, it sloshed and spilled over the rim. I reached out and stroked her large, moist, soft breasts, and all the mental fatigue piled up through the day seemed to come undone.

Franc leaned her back against my chest and sank into the water. Watching her platinum-blonde hair floating on the surface, I murmured.

"So now, if we just look into Alastor's Terrible Dark Castle, is that the end of it......?"

"Mm...... Do you not have any other premonition about that?"

Franc looked down at her own breast caught in my hand, reached out, stroked my thigh, and asked. I couldn't take my eyes off her long hair drifting through the tub. I turned my thoughts to the people tied to Buckingham Palace, but no particular premonition came.

"No."

"If a bad premonition comes to you, you must tell me beforehand, yes?"

"Yeah. And even if there's no premonition, the moment you see any sign they're going to try something strange with you, run. Far. No exceptions. I'll blow away the rest in that opening."

"Aah. That isn't what I meant!"

The moment the words about blowing Buckingham Palace away left my mouth, Franc startled, flipped herself over, and climbed onto my chest.

"Her Majesty the Queen and Duke Tempest were friendly toward you, were they not? And now that they know your strength and your wisdom, they will keep to a policy of peace, without picking a fight. So if — and this is truly, truly only an if!"

"I know, I know. If, really if, something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like that happens, I'm saying I'll smash the whole thing anyway."

Seeing me snicker as I parroted her, Franc shot me a pouty glare, then suddenly broke into a laugh, took my cheeks, and kissed me.

"If a situation like that truly comes to pass, I will not borrow your hand. I will blow it away myself."

Her eyes were serious. She really seemed to mean it. As she met my gaze and opened her mouth in that soft voice, this time I took her face and kissed her.

I held Franc, who was deliberately showing me a strong face as if she were perfectly fine, and did what I could to bury her sorrow — and in the end we didn't sleep a wink, and saw the night through. Thanks to that, she was able to fall into a deep, thoughtless sleep, and I acquired fatigue as my reward. But fatigue comes undone easily through the Mana Sieve, so not sleeping didn't particularly matter.

I pulled the blanket up to the peacefully sleeping Franc's shoulders and looked around with Spatial Perception. Dad had already gone out.

"It's only six in the morning, and he's out already."

I watched her sleeping with soft breaths, threw on the clothes hanging over the chair, went out to the living room, and turned on the Certifier. It would be two in the afternoon in Seoul by now. A call should be fine.

I called Hwayeon and Yeongeun and told them what had happened after we'd caught Sophia. Yeongeun stroked her smooth chin and nodded.

"You know Aaron Tempest?"

"He certainly looked like a decent man, next to a queen who's keeping a few sly snakes."

At the talk of sly snakes, Yeongeun shoved her face up against the screen.

When I shot back that she, of all people, ought to know that better than anyone, she pouted and thrust her lips out, protesting that I was being too cruel.

The more I looked, the more it seemed Yeongeun was keeping one or two more sly snakes than the Queen.

"They're trying to get along with me, so there's no need to deliberately act prickly, right?"

"Oh, nice work. Did you ask Miss Meldios why she ran?"

She'd passed along, word for word, what the woman had told the branch chief. With a look that said she couldn't understand the genius-researcher breed at all, Yeongeun folded her arms, sighed, and asked me again.

"It's galling that she tried to backstab me with a contract, but I'll count it as revenge to drag her to the institute we're going to build and grind her to death under a millstone. So persuade her properly, Yeongeun, and have her go to the branch chief on her own. We'll scout her formally later. Spiriting her away like this won't be a good move for us."

At the story of the contract aimed at the back of my head, Hwayeon's and Yeongeun's eyes flashed fierce for an instant — but it was, truly, only an instant.

I'd told them to look into her after Altina Meldios vanished, and we'd learned she was a considerably outstanding researcher on the reproduction side. So there was no need to offer up Miho's and Hiarid's eggs as test material. The woman seemed likely to be happy with any aberrant at all; catch a suitable one in the Phase World, set her to reproduction research, and she'd be satisfied too.

"And compile the circumstances of House Edelberg as well, and spread it worldwide — the dirty tricks played on the ability users Japan dispatched during the Ability Crisis. Enough to drop Japan's credit rating straight into the abyss."

Yeongeun looked at me with a satisfied eye and nodded, mm, mm.

"I can't say House Edelberg committed no sin against me, either. The head of the house is an outstanding researcher, and his love for his child seems extreme, so...... you know?"

"My sister said she'd take the institute side, so talk to her. And Hwayeon, keep an eye on Britain's House Aldion for me. No need to help them or anything like that. Just recording what sort of activities they're up to is enough."

I'd brought up Aldion out of nowhere, and Hwayeon wore a puzzled look ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— then, as if Franc's past had come back to her, she nodded.

Six hours — so around lunch, then.

"Yeah."

As the talk was winding down, Franc woke and came up behind me, wrapped in nothing but a bedsheet. Hwayeon and Yeongeun watched with envious faces. Then Franc smiled a soft, provocative smile, kissed my cheek, and sat down on my lap, and Yeongeun and Franc broke into a shrieking fuss.

"Hehehe. Then I suppose I ought to enjoy at least this moment."

Franc was the one who did the provoking, so why were the two of them looking at me with shining eyes?

I was going to catch it once I got home.