Most Lives Are Not Smooth
Most Lives Are Not Smooth
After eating the trifle and leaving the dessert shop, Daniel began sightseeing in earnest.
He wandered through the tourist spots of the port city Tentarbahém, ate grilled squid butter—a local delicacy—bought fresh oysters, and strolled leisurely through the streets.
Just as he was savoring this peaceful life to his heart's content, a man in a tailcoat suddenly approached.
"Are you Lord Rivelard?"
When Daniel stared at him, wondering who it was, the middle-aged man placed a hand on his chest and spoke respectfully.
"I am Vanbresh, the butler serving Lady Ref. I understand that Lord Rivelard has been invited to Lady Ref's dinner, and I have come to escort you. Are you that gentleman?"
"Ah. Yes, I am."
When Daniel confirmed, Vanbresh smiled and pulled an eye patch from his breast pocket.
"I apologize for the trouble, but could you please put this on?"
"An eye patch, you say?"
"Yes. Lady Ref's mansion requires high security clearance, so access by ordinary persons is extremely restricted. I ask for your understanding."
Daniel was dumbfounded, but knowing that nobles often had eccentricities, he decided to understand.
When Daniel nodded, removed his sunglasses, and put on the eye patch, Vanbresh took hold of Daniel's hand.
"Just follow me."
Daniel, seeing no reason to refuse, followed Vanbresh's steps.
Before long, he heard the sound of a car door opening.
"Please get in."
Daniel nodded and climbed into the back seat, and the car moved off with a smooth exhaust note.
About thirty minutes had passed when Daniel's senses, which had been tracing the car's route as he leaned back in the rear seat, sharpened keenly.
'It's going around in circles. To disorient the passenger's sense of direction.'
Why were they so obsessed with security?
A sense of unease, beyond mere bafflement, began to rear its head.
But anxious or not, once inside the car, he was in no position to get out on his own.
Just as he resolved to endure it and see how long it went on, the vehicle moved to a certain location.
Then came the sound of an iron gate opening, and the car drove inside before gradually coming to a stop.
After waiting a moment, the car door opened and someone took his hand.
"I will guide you to the dining room."
Judging by the voice, it was Vanbresh.
'Does she even want to hide the look of the mansion?'
It was enough to make him laugh in disbelief, but Daniel followed Vanbresh without a word.
After entering the mansion and walking down a corridor for quite some time, Vanbresh finally stopped in front of a certain door.
Adjusting his attire, Vanbresh knocked on the door.
"Lady Ref. I have brought the gentleman you met at the tavern the other day."
"Alright, so hurry and open it."
Having obtained permission, Vanbresh opened the door and gently pushed Daniel's back.
"You may enter and remove your eye patch."
Daniel walked into the room as Vanbresh had said, and raised a hand to lower the eye patch.
What appeared before his eyes was a lavish spread of delicacies arrayed across a long dining table.
Amidst the soft glow of candles mounted on ornate candlesticks, Ref, wearing a black dress and a red brooch at her neck, sat at the head of the table.
One strange thing was that even though it was a dinner setting, no one besides Ref could be seen.
Ref seemed delighted to see Daniel again, and raised a hand to express her welcome.
"Rivelard! I thought the food was going to get completely cold! Come over here, quickly."
Daniel, somewhat flustered, approached Ref.
He pulled out a chair, sat down, glanced around once, and then looked at Ref.
"This is unexpected. Since it was a dinner invitation, I thought I would be dining with your family, my lady."
At the word 'family', Ref's eyebrows twitched subtly.
"That's unexpected for me too, you know? Since I didn't know you'd be looking for my family. You and I aren't about to get married, so what would be the point of seeing my family?"
"I didn't mean it that way......."
"Whatever, just keep telling your past stories. That's the reason I called you here today. If the stories are satisfying, I'll give you as much money as you want."
The way she changed the subject was suspicious, no matter how he looked at it.
Thinking he shouldn't just let this slide, Daniel frowned.
"I am displeased. I came here strictly as an invited guest. Yet you, my lady, had your butler blindfold me, and on top of that, you are unilaterally demanding stories."
"......So?"
"If you truly consider me a guest on equal footing with yourself, shouldn't you tell me at the very least who you are and what your family does?"
When Daniel took a firm stance, Ref looked a little apologetic, as if pricked by her conscience.
After all, it was true that she had been acting overbearingly despite calling him an invited guest.
After a brief deliberation, Ref finally seemed to make up her mind and let out a low sigh.
"Fine. There's no real problem with revealing my identity to you. Even if you were to go around talking about it, there's no one who'd believe the words of an illegal immigrant like yourself, after all."
At the mention of illegal immigrant, Daniel had a quiet realization.
'She investigated me.'
This was the reason the dinner invitation had been postponed to a few days later rather than that same day.
'It must have been to find out whether I was a person who could be safely invited to the mansion.'
The name Rivelard was an alias, so naturally it wouldn't be in the registry of the port city Tentarbahém.
Even if there were someone with the same name, their age and appearance clearly wouldn't match.
Having confirmed this, the butler would have reported to Ref that 'he appears to be an illegal immigrant.'
As Ref had said, no one would seriously believe the words of an illegal immigrant.
'So she must have thought, even if the secret leaks out, it would be fine, and that's why she invited me to the mansion.'
Ref's tomboyish personality must have played a part, too.
As far as Daniel could tell, Ref was a person far from cautious.
"There are many complicated circumstances, but to explain simply......."
Ref, who couldn't possibly know Daniel's inner thoughts, shrugged her shoulders once.
"I'm a bastard child. You can think of me as the bloodline that my father, that bastard, most wants to hide."
At the word 'bastard', Daniel put on a show of surprise.
But he soon regained his composure.
'Ah. So that's why.......'
It was a moment where the reason for the strict security, even for an invited guest to the mansion, became comprehensible.
"Meeting you is, in a way, a miracle. My damned father doesn't want me wandering outside the mansion. Still, I do sneak out occasionally without Father knowing. That's when I happened to meet you."
Ref, having spoken as if it were nothing, picked up a nearby wine glass and raised it.
A sense of unease began to amplify.
Amidst a strange tension, Daniel opened his mouth.
"May I ask who your father is?"
At Daniel's question, Ref took a sip of wine and set the glass down.
"Hmm. Should I say he's a large rat sitting at the top of this shitty country?"
Ref let out a low laugh and looked at Daniel playfully.
"Lowell Tailwiss. That's my father's name."
That left Daniel aghast, his mouth hanging open in a daze.
Lowell Tailwiss.
Because he was the Prime Minister who effectively governed the neutral nation of Bellanos.
*
'Damn it. Just when the hell are the Allies sending someone?'
In the back seat of a military vehicle, Colonel Edvol, the Defense Commander of the Bellanos Navy's 12th District, gritted his teeth fiercely.
'Didn't they clearly say that if I opened the territorial waters to the Allied submarines, they would grant me asylum in Edria, a permanent member state......!'
He had opened the territorial waters trusting Kaledra's proposal, but the Allies were not sending anyone.
'Even if I had escaped Bellanos as fast as possible, it still wouldn't have been enough......!'
The Allies were dragging their feet, and the anxiety was burning him up inside.
According to what Edvol had heard, the Empire was launching a large-scale search operation and had notified Bellanos to open its territorial waters while deploying its fleet.
The moment the Imperial fleet arrived in Bellanos, it was only a matter of time before Edvol was identified as the culprit.
That was why he had been desperately waiting for contact from the Allies, but it had been in vain.
For now, the Allies were merely maintaining their silence, as if the terrorist incident had nothing to do with them.
As Edvol broke into a cold sweat and clenched his fist, the military jeep gradually came to a halt.
"We have arrived, Colonel."
When he looked out the window, a house with a large yard came into view.
Thinking he should go inside and sort out his thoughts for now, Edvol opened the door and got out.
'I should pack first. My family too must.......'
He had to prepare so that he could flee at any time.
Worrying about what to grab first, Edvol opened the front door and then faltered.
'......Why are the lights off?'
He found it odd that the lights were off when it wasn't yet time for the housekeeper to leave.
Nevertheless, not thinking much of it, he flipped the light switch and froze on the spot.
Because under the lit lamp, a black man in a black suit was seated.
"Come over here and sit."
At Hamtal's words, delivered while wearing a fedora on his head, Edvol broke out in a cold sweat.
He was clearly not someone sent by the Allies, no matter how one looked at it.
Furthermore, the atmosphere Hamtal exuded was so menacing that Edvol was loath to approach.
'I have to run.......'
Just as Edvol, sensing danger, took a step backward—
Cheolkeok─
He felt something cold and hard touch his back.
When Edvol, realizing it was the muzzle of a handgun, glanced behind him, the soldier who had accompanied him here was staring at him with threatening eyes.
He was a member of the Black Bird, disguised as a soldier.
'W-when did......?'
Just as Edvol felt he had been had and his breath quickened,
Hamtal, with a casual gesture, removed his fedora and placed it on the table.
"I'm telling you this in case you misunderstand......."
Hamtal turned back to Edvol and narrowed his eyes sharply.
"Sitting down is an order, not a request."
At that icy voice, Edvol realized that he could not resist them.