The Derailed Plan (3)
Late at night, before the dawn had yet to arrive.
- Drrrrdrrr...
A vibration rising through the bed forced my eyes open.
"Mmmgh?"
I'd been sleeping so soundly. What on earth was this?
I looked around. The room was quiet and calm, as if nothing at all had happened.
I'm exhausted enough as it is — now some random weirdness decides to wake me up.
I closed my eyes again and buried my head in the pillow, and just as I was slowly sinking back into dreams—
- Drrrrdrrr...
The shaking came again. Something was rumbling through the entire building, an unseen force rattling it to its bones.
One ominous thought flashed through my mind.
"Elaine."
Sleep fled in an instant. I shot upright and dashed for the door.
Wait a moment.
But something was different. The princess's telekinesis was under control these days. And the vibration I was feeling now wasn't merely shaking the bed or the building.
- Drrrrdrrr...
This was the feeling of the ground itself trembling, faint but unmistakable.
"Is this... an earthquake?"
I looked out the window, toward the west. The active volcanic region on the continent's western edge.
"It's been quiet for a while, though."
Once every few years, there came a day when the volcano spat its lava into the sky. In the old tongue, they called it the day the Red Dragon rages. And every time, the ripple of that power would reach all the way here to the Crossline Kingdom.
That was probably exactly what this moment was — not Elaine's ability going berserk yet again.
"Whew..."
The tension drained out of me slowly. An earthquake in the western region meant nothing all that serious — not severe enough to deal a direct blow, and its power would likely fade once it had jolted a few people from their sleep.
"Might as well get up."
Worrying over nothing. Between getting chewed out by the Minister yesterday and Elaine practically imprisoning me in the recovery ward, I was worn to the bone.
I turned my gaze toward the clock. Four in the morning. I'd woken far too early, but it was already too late to fall back asleep. Nothing for it — I'd simply have to stay awake until work.
"A cup of tea sounds about right."
Nothing calms a startled heart like something warm to drink. Thinking that, I opened my door.
No — I tried to open it.
- Knock knock knock.
The knock came the very instant my hand touched the handle.
"N-Nathan...? Are you asleep by any chance?"
Erzena's voice. I threw the door open.
- Bang!
"Erzena?"
"Kyaaak!?"
With a strangled shriek, whoever had been standing at my door crumpled to the floor on the spot. There sat Erzena — not in her usual composed attire, but in a thin, gossamer nightgown. What was more, a dense shroud of divine holy power rippled around her whole body, as if she'd wrapped herself in some kind of shell.
I helped her up and asked, "What are you doing here, still awake at this hour?"
"Th-th-th-then what about you, Nathan!?"
"I woke up a little early."
And this is the front of my room, if you'll recall. Yours is the one next door.
"Is something the matter?"
"No, it's just— no, I mean, well..."
It was an Erzena I'd never seen before, fidgeting and restless, her golden eyes darting this way and that without ever holding still.
Ah-ha. I know exactly what she's looking for.
I smiled faintly and pointed down the corridor. "The bathroom is on the other side."
"It's not that!"
She shrieked in a way wholly unlike herself.
"It's... the ground... it started shaking, and... I-I was scared..."
"Ah."
Only then did a fact I'd entirely forgotten resurface. Erzena is from the southern continent.
The south was a land of vast plains meeting an endless sea — a region that, as far as I remembered, almost never saw earthquakes. Chosen woman of the Lord or not, feeling fear before the overwhelming force of nature was only natural. And being shaken awake by the ground in the dead of night could hardly have been a pleasant experience.
I said gently, "Please don't worry. It appears there was volcanic activity in the west — that tremor simply traveled here. It happens from time to time, and it will stop soon."
"I-I see. Whew..."
Erzena relaxed visibly. But she must have been badly frightened, because her legs were still wobbling beneath her.
She hedged, shuffling her feet. "If... if it's not too much trouble, c-could we maybe... talk for a little while...?"
A small wish glittered in her eyes — the simple hope of having someone nearby. There was no reason to refuse.
"Of course. In fact, I'm rather awake myself. Good timing all around."
I stepped back to make room, and she gave a small nod and moved to enter my room.
No — the moment she tried to.
- 'If a marriageable young woman enters the home of a young male civil servant, what will the world think of it?'
The Minister's words flashed through my mind.
- Grab.
I caught her by the shoulder and pulled her upright. "W-wait just a moment, Erzena. Please wait."
"Hiiiek!! An earthquake!? The earthquake grabbed my shoulder!"
"No. It's me."
Goodness, she really must have been terrified.
"Shall we go to the sitting room instead? My room would be a bit, ah, uncomfortable for you right now."
"Whatever do you mean? What's wrong with your room? Hannah cleaned it spotless just yesterday."
She tilted her head as if I were speaking nonsense. I didn't answer.
"Nathan? What is it? Is it that you'd rather I not come into your—"
But then she met my endlessly wavering eyes, glanced down at her own utterly defenseless attire, and—
"Ah."
She caught the unspoken meaning.
"Mmh...!!!"
She whirled around and clutched her nightgown shut. Even with her hair flipped back, I could see her ears burning red to the very tips.
"Th-th-th-that's true! Coming into your room would be... i-inappropriate, wouldn't it? Yes. Right. E-especially at this hour, and in this state of dress...!"
Her divine power surged and billowed wildly, as if to speak for her feelings — flooding the corridor bright as noon and driving the midnight chill away in an instant.
Seeing that, I felt a little relieved myself. "I'm glad. It seems you've grown comfortable here."
"Well, of course — you promised you'd protect it, after all..."
"Pardon?"
"N-nothing at all! Sitting room! Let's go to the sitting room!"
With a thoroughly flustered voice, Erzena shoved me roughly toward the stairs by the back.
But there was an unexpected guest waiting in the sitting room, too.
"Haaaaaaam. Mornin', Central Officer sir..."
Hannah was drawing water into the kettle mid-yawn, her body drooping like taffy.
"Miss Hannah? What are you doing here?"
"Her Highness woke up from the earthquake, so I was gettin'... hm?"
Mid-answer, she looked between the two of us and tilted her head. "Why'd you two... come out of the same room together?"
"Ah, not the same room — we ran into each other in the hallway," I said quickly.
Erzena rushed to back me up. "It's my first time experiencing an earthquake, you see. I was quite startled, that's all."
But there was one small fact the two of us had momentarily forgotten.
"Hmmmph..."
"Wh-why are you looking at us like that?"
Hannah was a girl who had grown up serving as a maid in the royal palace itself. In other words, she'd been raised on a daily diet of schemes, sleights of hand, and every manner of political and psychological maneuvering known to man.
"Central Officer sir... Lady Saint... liars."
She grinned slyly. "It's fine, you know. You can just say you slept together."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Huh?"
Ah. I thought only the Smell Officer and the Taste Officer were like this — turns out we had one more of the breed under my own roof.
"That is not what happened!"
"I-it's not yet, anyway!"
And then—
- Bang! THUD!
Upstairs, a door burst open with tremendous force. Erzena leapt a foot in the air and dove behind my back.
"W-was that an earthquake!?"
"Erzena. A door opening is not an earthquake."
When this woman gets scared of something, she stays scared of it to the very end.
A voice drifted down from the second floor.
"Muuurgh."
A familiar mumble. To me, it came through clearly:
[Nathan, I heard your voice.]
The princess who now called me by name without a shred of hesitation came shuffling out, step by heavy step.
"Elaine. It seems the earthquake woke you as well."
[Is it dangerous?]
"It's safe."
This was our morning greeting these days. Not normal, by any stretch.
"E-Elaine, you said?"
As Elaine came down to the first floor, her eyes met those of Erzena, who was hiding behind me with only her head peeking out.
"Eeh-eah. (=Erzena.)"
"Your Highness. You weren't asleep either, I see."
But instead of answering, the princess stared at the two of us in silence for a long moment. More precisely, at Erzena — who was all but hanging off my back.
[...]
Elaine pointed one fingertip at me, then shuffled slightly to the side.
- Snnngh.
"Wh-what—?"
An unseen force shoved my body, moving me a good meter away from Erzena.
"Elaine?"
[...I'm drinking here too.]
It was the mumble of someone who had made some sort of decision.
Five minutes later, I sat on the sofa and spoke in a voice that said I was very, very troubled.
"Er... everyone? The sofa is quite spacious. You're both welcome to sit comfortably."
At that, Erzena — seated on my left — only adjusted her posture even closer to me. "There may be another earthquake. Just in case, you should stay as close to my holy power as possible. Don't be afraid."
And who was it screeching like a startled bird five minutes ago?
Elaine, on my right, was firing beams of green from her eyes at me as she mumbled, [If there's an earthquake, Nathan will be in danger again. There's no recovery ward here, you know.]
That is not what "protect me" means, either.
"H-haha..."
I didn't say it aloud, but our house was built to withstand earthquakes. Six layers of protective magic, with border guard troops standing watch outside around the clock — what, exactly, was there to be afraid of? Even if an earthquake flattened every building in the region, this one alone would stand untouched.
What am I going to do with these two.
Close. Far too close. Our knees were nearly touching. With the two of them this near — a hair's movement from skin meeting skin — I couldn't so much as budge.
Some old elder's words kept echoing in my head.
- 'In the home of a young male civil servant... you lunatic... what will the world think...'
Minister, forgive me. You may have been right all along.
To break the excruciating atmosphere, I forced my mouth open. "Well then... we have quite some time before dawn. Shall I tell you a few short stories?"
"Stories?"
"It would be rather dull to simply stare at the fireplace in silence, would it not?"
Before either of them could stop me, I began rolling out one tale after another from my days as an immigration officer. If I didn't keep talking, I felt I'd suffocate, wedged between the two of them.
Before long, the steady sound of low, slow breathing drifted from both my sides.
"Snnn..."
"Mmmh..."
I stopped mid-story and said carefully, "Erzena? Elaine?"
"Mmmmh..."
"...Mm-hm."
All my gentle calls brought back was a bit of restless stirring. Erzena slept with her head resting on my shoulder, seated primly with her eyes closed. Elaine had curled up and drifted off with her hand wrapped around my little finger.
"Hm. I suppose the history of foreign-species entry regulations during the sixth millennium of the Elven Republic of the Great Northern Forest is not to everyone's taste."
And that was the best part, too.
Buried regret aside, I simply watched the two of them in silence.
"Still... I'm glad you've both found peace here."
The border. It is a place opened for the oppressed — and at the same time, a wall raised against those who threaten. Nothing more than a heartless line drawn straight across the land, and yet it is where world meets world. A crossroads, a border, and my home.
Watching the two women sleeping soundly within it, a nameless warmth rose from somewhere deep in my chest. I couldn't say for certain whether it came from the cup of tea in my hand, or from something gentler — the quiet strength of two women who had risen on their own feet and changed their own lives.
"Whew..."
So I breathed that warmth out in a single sigh.
"Pull yourself together, Nathan."
With a self-deprecating chuckle, I slowly shook my head. At last, the dawn that had outlasted the night began, gently, to brighten the sky.
Just for today, let there be no trouble.
The next morning.
- Bzzz bzzz.
- Clatter clatter.
The sight that greeted me the moment I arrived at the Immigration Administration Office was nothing short of bewildering.
"...Am I seeing things right now?"
The answer came from within a crowd that had packed the office to bursting.
"C-Central Officer! There are far too many people over he— hyeeek!"
"That's the arrival waiting hall! Departing travelers, please use the left corridor!"
"Ack! Some maniac just stepped on my tail!"
Cries of distress from the Five Senses Officers were erupting everywhere. It was extraordinary. Departing travelers outnumbering arrivals ten to one?
From across the hall, the Hearing Officer — who hadn't had so much as a sip of liquor — called out in an exhausted voice, "Where do you come from?"
"Th-the west! The west!"
"You there. Desert-born?"
"Western, I said!"
Every single one of them came from the same place. The west.
Even if it's because of the earthquake, these numbers are absurd.
Normally, the people heading south were northerners, merchants, or those whose true home was here all along. And yet this crowd even included rat beastfolk and harpies.
Every last one a species acutely sensitive to natural disasters.
An ill feeling began to crawl up my spine.
And then—
"Ah, finally! Central Officer!"
My personal attendant came sprinting toward me, his face twisted with urgency.
"Attendant. What on earth is going on here?"
"I-I don't know, sir. Since before dawn yesterday, people have been flooding in by the thousands. But more importantly — please, take a look at this."
He held something out to me.
- Vmmm. Vmmm.
An orange-glowing crystal orb. The signal for an emergency conference.
I went straight to my private chamber and activated the orb. The face that appeared the moment it lit up belonged to someone I had not expected at all.
- Oh, thank goodness. I'm not too late.
"Director of Intelligence?"
Melanie Lacroix. But instead of her usual confident, mischievous smirk, her eyes fixed on me with visible tension.
- Wait just a moment. We're all still assembling. Honey— no. Central Officer Nathan Kell.
She was even using my formal title.
Before long, other faces began appearing through the orb, one after another.
- Northern Border Chief Dhin Askyrin, answering the call.
- What now? Two emergency conferences in under two months? Hello, Eastern Border here!
- ...Western Border.
The chiefs of every other border. My senior officers.
"Good, we're all here. First, be advised: this emergency conference was ordered by the Foreign Ministry, not by the Intelligence Bureau acting alone."
Melanie's voice was stiff and hard.
- Explain yourself, Director. Is this a serious matter?
- What's going on over there?
- ...
The seniors fired questions at her, demanding to know what was happening. Only Padre Montes, Chief of the Western Border, held his silence.
"Effective immediately, all borders will raise their alert posture to maximum."
Everyone went pale at her words.
- Director, is this some kind of joke? What could possibly justify—
- Code Red... a time of trials, then.
- ...
Maximum alert posture. Code Red. A status declared only for nationwide terrorism, war between states, or disasters of equivalent scale.
"Director. Is this... terrorism?"
There had been no shortage of incidents lately — enough that one more catastrophe would hardly have surprised anyone. But Melanie shook her head.
- No. It's worse than that.
And then, after a long, long hesitation, she spoke.
- The great volcano of the west has collapsed.
Something graver than any terror attack. Nothing less than nature itself, giving way.