Founding Day Festival – Day One
Their next destination was one of the recommended spots listed in the pamphlet: the Riel Central Museum.
It was a place where the history of the Riel Coalition—from its earliest days to the present—could be taken in at a glance. An annex even housed an aquarium filled with all manner of fish, making it well worth a visit for any foreigner setting foot in the Riel Coalition for the first time.
Meanwhile…
“Hmm…”
Milia let out a low murmur as she peered into the tank before her.
Inside the carefully arranged aquarium, an octopus roughly the size of a human head was resting at its ease.
“So… this is the creature I ate a little while ago? The octopus?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Schwarz nodded as he looked at the tank with her.
“Ugh…”
At the same moment, Milia’s face twisted as though her stomach had turned.
“Somehow I feel… weird inside…”
“You ate it just fine earlier…”
Schwarz let out a soft snort of laughter as he watched her.
Of course, it was hardly something he couldn’t understand. To someone seeing it for the first time, an octopus looked less like ordinary food and more like a monster freshly hauled up from the sea. There were even said to be monsters resembling octopuses in the deep ocean; only someone with a truly stout heart would casually think of eating one.
“Th-that’s completely different! Eating something when you have no idea what it is, and eating it when you know exactly what it is—those are two totally different things!”
“Hmm…”
I think I’ve heard somewhere that when you sneak something kids hate into their food, you hide the fact that the ingredient is in there…
With that thought, Schwarz gave a low hum of his own.
“You just thought I was being childish, didn’t you?”
“N-no… not at all…”
He averted his eyes from Milia’s narrowed gaze and tried to change the subject.
At this point I almost wonder if she can read minds…
“Look me in the eyes and answer properly.”
“Th-there’s a really strange-looking fish over there!”
As he spoke, Milia leaned her face in close. Unable to endure her piercing stare any longer, Schwarz chose the only escape left to him: he made an excuse and fled the spot.
“You little—! Get back here!!”
She shouted after him and started down the aquarium corridor in pursuit. Just then—
“Huh…?”
“My Lady? What’s wrong?”
Milia suddenly stopped walking and stared off in a certain direction. Schwarz approached with a puzzled voice.
“No… just now I felt like someone was watching me…”
“Watching you?”
He turned his head toward the direction she had been looking, but all he could see were ordinary visitors moving along the corridor.
“I don’t see anyone like that… maybe it was just your imagination?”
“Hmm… you think so?”
Milia gave a low murmur as Schwarz tilted his head.
And then, the very next moment—
“Anyway. You weren’t planning to just brush this off and slip away, were you?”
“Ah… ahahahaha…”
Milia seized his arm firmly so he couldn’t escape and gave him a chilly little smile. Schwarz could only offer her an awkward laugh in return.
A pitch-dark space where not even an inch ahead could be seen.
Milia and Schwarz sat in their seats, gazing straight forward.
Then—
Long ago… the seas of the Riel Archipelago were filled with demonic beasts, and storms raged without end.
The narrator’s voice rang out at the same moment the lights rose upon the stage, revealing a storm-tossed sea and the monsters lurking among the waves. Everything was wooden props, yet the dim lighting made them look surprisingly convincing.
The people groaned in suffering, and island after island lay isolated, drifting toward a destined end.
In the next instant the monsters vanished, and a small skiff upon the waves shattered and disappeared beneath the surf.
But one day, a colossal nail fell from the heavens, and everything changed.
The scene shifted at once. From high above the stage descended something shaped much like the great structure that stood at the heart of Bianca Arca. The prop plunged as though driven into the stage itself; then the storm clouds and waves receded, bright lights rose, and the sun began to climb.
The sacred power that flowed from the nail stilled the storms and sealed the demonic beasts that had thronged the seas, sinking them into the deepest abyss.
The raging waves subsided, and the monsters that had shown themselves between the swells slipped beneath the surface and vanished.
The people of the Riel Archipelago named that nail God’s Nail, and around it they began to build a city.
Beneath the bright sun, countless people came by boat and gathered about the nail. A small village took shape around it, grew into a town, and at last became a vast city that completely encircled the sacred relic.
Yet the age of peace did not last long.
At once the stage darkened again, and the city appeared wreathed in flames.
The Avarizia family, who ruled the Kingdom of Riel, coveted the holy power dwelling in the nail for themselves. As a result, storms once more lashed the Riel Archipelago, and the demonic beasts began to awaken.
Screams rose as people fled, pursued by the monsters that hunted them.
In that renewed age of sorrow, it is said a hero appears in the hour of crisis.
With the narrator’s words, a single shaft of light fell upon the darkened stage, illuminating eight figures that had appeared as if from nowhere.
The eight heroes gathered the people and rose against the Avarizia royal house. After years of struggle, the banner of the Avarizia line fell to the earth.
A shattered castle, a rising sun, and a throng of cheering people. The ruined city had grown far greater than before. As the eight figures vanished, a crest that Milia and Schwarz had already seen many times while walking the streets rose upon the stage.
The people raised the eight heroes who had toppled the Avarizia royal house as their leaders. These eight became the first of what would later be known as the 8-Man Council.
With the narrator’s final words the stage lights slowly dimmed, and the curtain began to fall.
A moment later the surrounding darkness lifted as the house lights came up. Taking the cue, the audience rose from their seats and began filing out of the theater.
“How was it?”
“Quite interesting, actually. The staging was solid too.”
By Schwarz’s standards, it ranked among the better plays he had seen in this world—certainly far superior to The Girl and the Dragon he had watched back in Barenberg.
“I thought it was decent enough myself. Still, nothing beats that Girl and the Dragon we saw before.”
“Aha… ahahaha…”
Schwarz gave an awkward laugh at her words.
Every so often the thought struck him that he simply could not share Milia’s artistic tastes. She would declare she liked those dolls that anyone else would call in thoroughly bad taste, or shed tears over a play that was pure melodrama… He could understand most things about her, but that particular streak remained forever beyond him.
“Nnngh… I’m starting to get tired.”
Outside the museum windows the sky had already begun to flush with crimson. They had spent a long time inside.
“Shall we head back, then?”
Schwarz drew a pocket watch from his coat and checked the time as he asked. It was already past five in the afternoon. If they left now they would arrive just in time for dinner.
“That sounds good. I’m starting to worry about the children, too.”
“True enough…”
Given the hotel’s security, nothing was likely to happen—but the children were only about fifteen years old, left on their own. It was impossible not to feel a little anxious.
“Pfft.”
“My Lady? What’s the matter?”
Milia suddenly let out a soft laugh. Schwarz tilted his head, puzzled by her reaction.
“It’s nothing. Just… talking like this made me feel like a married couple who’d left the kids at home.”
“Pardon…?”
“Ah—”
Schwarz’s voice went blank with surprise, and Milia herself seemed to realize the full weight of what she had said, letting out a low, strangled sound.
“N-no, I mean—that’s not—what I meant was—!!”
“…”
Watching her face flush scarlet as she began to babble, Schwarz simply stared at her in silence.
In truth he was in much the same state himself.
She said married couple. My Lady said married couple. Married couple, married couple…!!
The only difference was whether the fluster showed on the outside or stayed locked inside.
How long they stood like that, neither could have said.
“Sh-shall we go…?”
“…Yes.”
Milia hesitantly held out her hand. Schwarz nodded and carefully took it.
And so the two of them began walking down the corridor, the hallway bathed in the red glow of the sunset pouring through the windows.