Chapter Five: Countess Quartierlatin
Paladin, Ray Starling
Thus began our second day in Quartierlatin.
The skies were pleasantly clear, and the morning sunlight leaking through the window was gently warming the room. It was the perfect day for an outing, but sadly, we would be heading for the ruins buried deep inside a mountain.
“How regrettable,” said Nemesis. “This day is far better suited for sunbathing, picnics, or barbeques.”
Two of those are food-related, which says a lot about you, I thought.
“Well, I got an unhealthy amount of sunlight just the day before yesterday, so I’m perfectly fine with not getting to sunbathe,” I said.
“I’m not quite sure I can see that as a joke,” she shot back.
Too soon, huh? I guess you’re right. Our battle with Monochrome was just two days ago.
For all I knew, if Miss Aberration hadn’t fixed me up right then and there, I might still be getting essential medical care at right this very moment.
Ah, speaking of Monochrome... I’ll have to get some light magic Gems before I go to the ruins.
“That’s certainly important,” said Nemesis. “But first, we must have breakfast!”
I sighed. “I knew you’d say that.”
All the food she’d eaten last night had done nothing to lower her appetite for today’s breakfast. How very like her.
I sighed at my partner’s gluttonous nature, and we both left for the cafeteria in the main building.
Once done with breakfast, we went to the lobby to wait for Azurite.
However, she wasn’t showing up, even when it was past the time we’d agreed to meet.
“Did something happen?” I wondered.
“She is a girl, after all,” said Nemesis. “Perhaps she needs time to work on her appearance?”
“Well, I guess that makes... wait, no, hold on.”
She wears a mask. What good would make-up do?
Right as I thought that... speak of the devil... Azurite walked into the lobby.
“Sorry for the wait,” she said.
“That’s fine,” I replied. “What took you so long, though?”
“...I slept in.”
Now that was a shocking truth. I hadn’t known her for long, but she definitely didn’t look like the type to do that.
“Ahem.” She cleared her throat. “Now, about our plans for today... would you mind postponing the exploration a bit?”
“I don’t mind, but why? You got something going on?”
“I must report my arrival to Countess Quartierlatin and tell her that I will be investigating the ruins. I intended to take care of that yesterday, but things did not go as planned.”
She’d just casually said that she would meet the noble in charge of this area.
“It’s really easy to meet up with nobility and royalty in Gideon, so I guess the same goes for other counties too, huh?” I commented.
“Of course not,” she shot back. “What nonsense are you saying?”
“Hold on...” I said. “You know how the second princess is in Gideon right now, right? Well, she constantly escapes the place she’s staying at and runs around town.”
And I worked directly for Count Gideon as a de-curser.
Azurite made an expression I found hard to describe, and it wasn’t because I couldn’t see half of her face.
Having been taught by Mr. Langley Grandria, just like Liliana, she’d probably had to deal with Elizabeth’s escapes, too.
On the way to the count’s residence, I asked her, “Why did you sleep in, anyway?”
“I’m not accustomed to using bedding you spread on the floor, so it took a while for me to fall asleep.”
“Ohh...”
The kingdom almost exclusively used beds, so that had to be a way bigger deal than just switching your type of pillow.
“The hot spring was magnificent, but getting used to Tenchi-style sleeping would take a while,” she went on. “It’s mildly odd, considering that I had no trouble sleeping in Granvaloa-style beds.”
“Granvaloa uses hammocks, right?”
From what I’d heard, they had proper beds, but since the people there constantly used ships, they often had to sleep in hammocks.
The idea makes me kinda giddy.
“Yes,” Azurite nodded. “I’ve learned about them through my mentor. He was from Granvaloa.”
“Basically, bedding can be really different across countries, huh?” I asked.
“Indeed. You would be especially surprised by Legendarian beds.”
Legendaria was the country south of Altar, and it was the most fantastical place in this whole world.
I recalled Marie saying that their Superiors were the weirdest people of all.
...Was it even possible to get weirder than our bear-suited KoD, the mild-mannered meathead Over Gladiator, and the High Priestess, AKA Miss Aberration?
“The beds there are that strange?” I asked.
“Oh yes,” said Azurite. “They sleep on large flowers or floating clouds.”
“That’s straight out of a fairy tale!”
So you can’t even sleep there without being immersed in fantasy.
“The country is rich in natural magic, so everyday life there is drastically different from here or in any other country,” she said. “That’s why they use such magical beds.”
“Why does it feel like anything goes as long as you add ‘magic’ before it...?” I muttered, then noticed something up ahead. “Hm?”
It was a cat. Not just any cat, but a bipedal cat sìth.
“That’s...” Azurite said as she eyed it. “It’s immune to Reveal, so it must be an Embryo.”
Seeing a cat Embryo reminded me of Tom, but his Grimalkin looked like a common, quadrupedal cat. I’d never seen it walk, either. It was always on Tom’s head.
Also, this cat sìth had another special quality — it was carrying a flute.
“Hm?” I murmured. A cat sìth with an instrument? That seems familiar, but I can’t remember why.
“Meow... meow,” it meowed as it walked around.
It reminded me of that one children’s song.
“‘Oh, little kitty, lost on the road. Where, oh, where is your home?’ and all that, I guess.”
Come to think of it, I remembered having thought about this song in Dendro before. Nemesis hadn’t liked the fact that it ended without the problem being solved. I’d thought something like, “Well, it asked for directions from a crow and a sparrow. Of course it wouldn’t find its way.”
That had happened at the arena, right before Figaro and Xunyu’s Clash of the Superiors, and...
“Ah,” I exclaimed as it came back to me. This cat sìth had been one of the animals playing music in the plaza outside of the arena.
The one conducting the orchestra had been an elderly Master with a bird-like hat, but he was nowhere in sight here.
The way the Embryo walked helplessly around made it pretty clear that it was actually a lost kitten.
Ignoring that would leave a bad taste in my mouth.
“Hey,” I called out to it. “Where’s your Master?”
“We got se-pa-ra-ted,” it replied, not by voice, but by the music it nimbly played on its flute.
Was that a skill or something?
Some might wonder if it was even possible for a Master and Embryo to get separated, but I could assure them — it was.
Nemesis would sometimes wander off by herself to go on eating sprees in restaurants and the like.
It would help to have a GPS-like way of knowing where your Embryo was, but apparently, that required a separate skill. If all Embryos had come with such abilities, I’d never have walked in on Nemesis and Azurite bathing.
“Do you know where your owner... I mean... Master went?” I asked.
“He said he was called by the count-ess,” it replied.
What a coincidence. We had the same destination.
I turned to Azurite. “Then I guess there’s no reason not to take it there, right?”
“True,” she replied.
“Then it’s decided. We’re going to the countess, too. We’ll take you there.”
“Thank you ver-y much.”
And so, led by Azurite, we all made our way to the countess’s residence.
The Quartierlatin mansion was quite unlike the Gideon mansion, which was the only other count’s residence that I knew of.
The Gideon residence was split into a simple, sturdy-looking main building and a luxurious guest house, while the Quartierlatin residence was somewhere in between.
The building was refined, but it didn’t put luxury above all else, and it was nowhere near as noteworthy as the gardens.
Even from the outside, I could see a wide assortment of colorful flowers and trees, gardened so harmoniously that it was almost fantastical.
I’d already thought that this town was in harmony with flora, and it seemed like the countess’s residence was the prime representative of this unity.
“As I said when we arrived at the town, this is all due to the countess’ tastes,” explained Azurite. “I hear that she’s been working to make this garden and the town the way they are now ever since becoming the ruler of the county thirty years ago.”
“Thirty years...” I murmured. That must’ve required a lot of labor and passion.
Does the countess have a reason for making this town as vibrant as it is?
Azurite talked to the guards at the gate, and, following some verifications, we were all let inside.
White pavement was leading the way from the gate to the building, but everything besides that was the garden I’d seen from the outside.
There were many people here.
Most of them were children. They looked somewhat unkempt, but they were having lots of fun. Some were eating sweets they’d been handed, some were playing around the fountains, while others were just looking at the flowers.
The adults here, however, didn’t have a uniform look. Many were masters, and many looked exactly like you’d expect “travelers” to look.
“Who are they?” I asked.
“The children are from the town’s orphanages, while the adults are guests from outside of town,” Azurite explained. “I hear the countess invites people to such tea parties every now and then.”
Was this all just philanthropic work?
Even if it wasn’t, the garden, town, and the faces of the children here made it hard to imagine that the countess was a bad person.
Suddenly, the mansion’s main door opened up, and a gentle-looking, middle-aged, noble lady walked out.
“Oh, my. Thank you so much for coming here all the way from the capital,” she said, as she walked up to Azurite and bowed.
Huh? She’s enough of a big deal to have a countess bow to her?
“Hey, Azurite, you—”
“No,” she cut my words short. “I’m only getting respect because I represent a certain someone. Am I right, Countess Quartierlatin?”
“Eh...? Oh, certainly. Ohohoh...”
It seemed kinda fishy, but if they insisted that was how it was, I had no choice but to leave it at that.
Anyway, Azurite and the countess’s talk needed to include confidential matters. Even though I was a cooperator, I was still an outsider, so I was told to wait in the waiting room until they were done. But...
“Can I wait in the garden, instead?” I asked. “It’s really magnificent, so I’d like to look around.”
“I see,” said Azurite, as she turned to the countess. “Would that be all right with you?”
“Certainly,” the lady said. “Look at it to your heart’s content.”
The countess gladly approved, and so it was decided that Nemesis, the lost cat, and I would stay outside.
Right after the two of them entered the building, we went to the garden that was full of playing children.
Oh, I almost forgot! I realized. The lost cat’s Master should be somewhere here.
I walked up to a nearby servant and said, “Excuse me, this cat is—”
“Wind!” Someone off to the side cut my words short. “Where were you?”
It was an old man accompanied by a centaur, kobold, and a harpy. They looked like Embryos, and they all had instruments in their hands.
I could remember seeing the two besides the harpy back in Gideon, so there was little doubt that this man was the cat sìth’s Master. Also, unlike in Gideon, the man wasn’t wearing a mask this time.
“Meow!” The cat named Wind meowed and leapt over to the old man.
Well, I’m glad to see the search didn’t take long, I thought.
Then the man and his Embryos walked over to me.
“Are you the ones who brought Wind to us?” he asked. “Thank you very much for that. Wind is quite curious, you see. It’s not rare for him to get lost.”
“No need to thank us. We just happened to have the same destination,” I said.
“I’m still grateful, though. We almost started to perform without a wind instrument.”
“Perform?”
“Oh, we are a group of traveling musicians. We were performing on the streets of the town this morning, and a servant of the countess invited us over to play for the orphans she’d invited for a tea party.”
I see, I thought. From what I’ve heard back in Gideon, he and his Embryo play music that’s first-class. It’s sure to make for a great tea party.
“Although my forte is composition, rather than performing, I couldn’t refuse the request of someone enchanted by my music...” he said. “Oh, where are my manners? I am Veldorbell, a wandering composer without a country. And these are my Embryo — Wind, Clavier, Percussion, and Strings.”
He gestured to each in turn, introducing the cat sìth, harpy, kobold, and centaur, in that order.
Names based on music... a group consisting of a cat, bird, dog, and horse... I mean, donkey... I guess the Embryo was based on the Town Musicians of Bremen musical.
“Ah, I’m Ray Starling.” I introduced myself, too. “And this is my Embryo, Nemesis.”
“Indeed!” she said. “I’ll be looking forward to your performance!”
“Heh heh, as you should... Hm?” Mr. Veldorbell seemed to realize something, looking at me curiously. “Ray Starling...? Are you the one they call ‘Unbreakable’?”
“Yes, that would be me.”
Man, I sure am used to that nickname by now...
“I see. I was there during the incident at Gideon, but I was given the death penalty before you entered the stage and shone. Such a shame I didn’t get to see it.”
“Oh, uh... that’s unfortunate,” I said and thought, Man, yet another victim of the lab coat shithead.
Oddly, Veldorbell’s reaction to my words was strange. He looked surprised, then made a wry grin.
He muttered something that I couldn’t make out. “She didn’t tell anyone? Well, neither my name nor face was on the wanted list, and I could use the save point without an issue, so I thought that was the case, but...”
“Um, is something wrong?” I asked.
Residence of Countess Quartierlatin, study
Deep inside the mansion, in the countess’s study, Azurite and the lady were having a conversation.
“So you will be exploring those ruins, then?” asked the countess.
“Indeed. I wish to find out what kind of facility it is as soon as possible,” replied Azurite as she examined a set of documents handed to her by the countess. They contained all the information on the ruins that had been gathered since the ruins’ surfacing three days ago. “It seems like there hasn’t been much progress beyond the hall with the job change crystal.”
“Yes. They say there are lots of monsters beyond it... the mechanical sort, specifically.”
“Golems, I assume? Ruins are often full of them. What are they called?”
Normally, monsters had their names displayed above their heads. That was one of the laws of this world, which was the reason why Azurite was asking that. But...
“Apparently, their names are... varied,” said the countess with a hint of awkwardness.
“Hm?” Azurite raised an eyebrow as she turned a few pages on the documents.
She quickly saw that there had been encounters with machines called “Little Goblin” and “Teal Wolf,” among other things, and that they didn’t vanish when beaten.
“What could that mean?” she wondered. “Perhaps this is linked to the nature of these ruins. I’ll investigate that, as well.”
“That’s great to know,” said the countess. “Thank you very much.”
“No need to thank me or bow your head,” replied Azurite. “I’m only doing what I must. After all, I am the one who hopes that these ruins will have something that can turn the tide in the second war with Dryfe.”
Her eyes as she said that were full of either sorrow or resolution — it was unclear which.
“Then, will you involve Maste—?”
“I have no intention of using them in the war, countess,” Azurite cut her words short.
“But your companion is—”
“H-He’s...!” she roughened her voice for a moment before regaining her composure. “He is merely a cooperator in this investigation. That and the war are entirely different matters.”
Then, as though to gloss over the subject, she shifted her gaze back at the documents.
“I see,” said the countess as she looked at Azurite with gentle eyes. “But you trust him, do you not?”
“N-No! This isn’t trust!” she denied, as the small part of her cheeks visible below the mask turned red. She didn’t intend it, but the words that followed came out as bashful muttering. “It’s only that... I owe him a lot, so I had no choice but to accept his offer to cooperate. That’s all there is to it.”
The countess observed the blushing girl, with a smile on her face.
Paladin, Ray Starling
Veldorbell continued his performance, filling the children’s little hearts with endless glee.
But man, there sure are a lot of children. I’m quite sure the number exceeds fifty.
I asked a servant about it, and was told, “These tea parties are a once-a-month event, and we invite all the children living in the town’s two orphanages.”
“There are a lot of orphans here?”
“Yes... many of them lost their fathers in the war, then lost their mothers some other way.”
War again, huh?
According to what Lefty had told me yesterday, Shirley’s father, the owner of the inn, had been a soldier in the war, too. So the knights definitely weren’t the only ones who’d suffered in the war.
“Oh? We can go indoors, too?” I muttered, as I discovered that the tea party’s area was not only restricted to the garden outside, but also contained a spacious room connected to it.
There was a sofa, a table, chairs, and so on. The children, who were tired from being out in the sun for too long, were cooling off here.
Curious about the interior, I walked inside.
There were lots of flowers growing within luxurious-looking vases, making the place feel both calming and gaudy. The walls had a number of portraits on them.
My guess was that the people portrayed in the portraits were the heads of this family, lined up in a chronological order. They had a sense of intimidation unique to such portraits, and some of the children were staring at them with both fear and respect in their eyes.
“Hm?” I murmured.
The portrait at one edge — likely the newest one — was different from the rest.
Instead of displaying only the head of the family, it displayed three people — a man in his twenties or thirties, and a younger-looking lady with a baby in her arms.
After a moment, I realized that the lady was the countess when she was young.
“What’s this portrait?” I asked the servant in the room.
“That is a portrait from thirty years ago, when Lady Zermina was still young. The ones with her are her husband and their son.”
So the countess’s name is “Zermina,” huh? I thought.
That aside, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the servant found it hard to talk about this.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“Shortly after this portrait was made... her husband and son both passed away.”
“That’s just... How?”
“Apologies,” he said. “I cannot say anything more about their death.”
“It’s fine. Sorry for being presumptuous.”
So now I knew that Countess Quartierlatin’s husband and son were gone, and that she was controlling this region all by herself.
“That might be why she’s so kind to the orphans,” commented Nemesis.
“True...”
Perhaps her fixation on gardening had something to do with that, as well.
A few dozen minutes later, we were joined by Azurite and the countess.
The children instantly ran up to the lady, thanking her and chattering to her, all smiles, making it very clear just how loved she really was.
Later on, Azurite and the countess began a tea party and, as Azurite’s cooperators, Nemesis and I were invited to join.
It was held on a second-floor balcony from which we could see the entire garden. Naturally, the balcony was covered in flowers, too.
Veldorbell was still playing, and we could hear the performance from here. He didn’t even take breaks between songs. He would finish one child’s request and then instantly answer some other child’s request, making it obvious that he was enjoying this immensely.
Though, I didn’t know how to feel whenever he started playing some anime song, or the BGM of some famous movie.
The tea party with the countess consisted of her thanking us for cooperating with Azurite and explaining the inner structure of the ruins, based on the explorers’ accounts.
But when that was all done, we started to have an idle chat, and Nemesis, still curious about what we’d learned in the room, soon asked, “Why do you invite the orphans to these tea parties?”
The countess showed no aversion to giving an honest answer, and said, “I call the little ones here to distract myself from my loneliness. I once had a son — Emilio. While I was ill, my husband took him on a trip, only to be attacked by monsters.”
I was silent.
“I lost Emilio before he was old enough to run around... so seeing healthy children always soothes my heart,” she went on as she looked at the orphans in the garden. “It’s also the reason behind this garden. My husband was an Altarian diplomat, but he had gardening as a hobby, so being surrounded by flowers helps me remember him. The large tree at the center of the garden was transplanted there while he was still alive and well.”
The children... the garden... all of it was just a means of dealing with the loneliness from losing her family.
As saddening as it was, that wasn’t something anyone could fault her for.
As she looked at the orphans, I looked into her eyes, which made me realize something.
“Heterochromia...?” I murmured.
Her eyes had slightly different colors — the right was blue, while the left was green.
Hearing my mutter, the countess faintly smiled and spoke, “These eyes are quite common in the Quartierlatin bloodline. My son had them, as well.”
“Really?”
“Yes... They’re actually the reason why I also invite travelers to my tea parties.”
“You invite them because of heterochromia?”
How are those two things linked?
“After my husband and Emilio were attacked by monsters, my husband’s body was brought back to me, but they couldn’t find Emilio’s. He was but a baby, so maybe there was nothing left, but a part of me believes that he might’ve been saved, and that he is still alive and well somewhere...”
I was silent.
“That’s why I ask travelers whether they’ve seen a man with eyes like mine. It’s been thirty years since then, though, so I’ve half-given up on this.” She formed a listless smile.
I couldn’t help but open my mouth. “The possibility may be low, but as long as it isn’t zero, you should continue doing it. I think that, if you give up only half-certain about what became of him, the regret will haunt you far longer than it would otherwise.”
I was merely speaking my mind. We’d met each other today, so I probably wasn’t in a position to say something like that, but I didn’t care if I came off as impertinent. I honestly thought that the regret would be far worse if she gave up.
“That’s true,” she said, agreeing with me. “You are absolutely right. As his mother, I can’t give up on the possibility of him being alive. Thank you, Mr. Starling. You are exactly as the rumors say you are.”
“It’s nothing, really...” Honestly, I was mildly curious about what the rumors said about me.
I hope I’m not as infamous as Miss Aberration, at least.
“Now that we are on the subject,” she spoke up again, “have you seen a man with eyes like mine? He should be over thirty now.”
“Well, I’d be happy to tell you if I did, but you are the first tian with heterochromia I’ve ever met...”
It was a pretty common thing to see among us Masters, though. Some people — like Juliet, for instance — went out of their way to give heterochromia to their avatars during character creation.
Tians are a different matter, though. I’ve never seen a tian with eyes like hers... hold on a second.
“Now that I think about it, I think I know someone with the same right eye color,” I said slowly.
“If you mean me, then that is only obvious,” said Azurite. “My mother had Quartierlatin blood in her.”
“Ohh, I see what you mean.”
Sure enough, Azurite’s and the countess’s eyes were much alike.
However, the person I had in mind had the exact same right eye color as the countess.
“But there’s no way, right?” I murmured.
I mean, both of his eyes were blue.
The tea party ended shortly afterwards, and we left the residence grounds to head to the ruins.
“Thanks,” said Azurite, right after we left.
“For what?” I raised an eyebrow.
“For what you said to the countess. She has been searching for her son for thirty years, and despite appearances, she seemed quite exhausted. Hearing your sincere words must’ve been uplifting for her.”
Oh, that.
“I just said what I thought. I don’t deserve any thanks for that.”
“Indeed,” said Nemesis. “Ray says exactly what he thinks far too often. Just yesterday, after the bath incide-mghmghmh...”
I shut her mouth before she could tell Azurite about what had happened after my waking up from Fainting. I’d been so straightforward, back then, that even I was embarrassed about it now. I didn’t want it dug up.
“Well, anyway,” I said. “It’s finally ruin time, right?”
“Yes,” nodded Azurite, starting to walk. “Let’s head to the— Hm?”
She noticed something and stopped.
I followed her gaze to find someone I was acquainted with.
“Dr. Mario?”
It was the archeologist we’d met yesterday.
He seemed to be looking through the fence surrounding the countess’s residence, to watch the magnificent garden beyond.
Many would find the fact that he was looking at a place full of children to be... questionable, to say the least.
However, the way he looked at the garden made it obvious that he was lost in deep thought, and not even his thick glasses detracted from that impression. It seemed as though he was trying hard to... remember something.
“Ah. Oh. If it isn’t-a young Ray and the young lady,” he noticed and greeted us. “Oh, and who is this dark little ragazza, hm?”
“Oh, she’s my Embryo, Nemesis.”
“Mm-hm,” Nemesis nodded. “I must say, you have quite a dubious manner of speech.”
“I get-a that a lot! Ha ha ha!” Dr. Mario was speaking the same way as yesterday — like a fake, cheerful foreigner. And yet, for some reason, it felt somewhat different.
“Why were you looking at the garden like that?” Azurite asked him, with a slightly harsh tone.
“Mi dispiace! Forgive me!” he bowed his head. “The garden is so beautiful. I couldn’t-a help but stare. Forgive my lack of manners...”
“I see,” she said suspiciously. “Be careful. Stare too much, and you’ll be arrested.”
“Oh... Molto paurosi! That would be scary. I’ll-a take my leave!” he said, then turned around and started to hurry away.
While Azurite simply glared at his back, I couldn’t help but ask him, “Dr. Mario, are you acquainted with the countess?”
My question made Azurite and Nemesis raise their eyebrows.
Honestly, I wasn’t too sure why I’d asked that, either.
If I had to name a reason, I’d point to what the countess had told me during the tea party and what I’d seen yesterday.
A part of me expected my question to hold no meaning to him. However, he stopped walking and, after a moment of silence, said, “No. There’s no connection between us. Of that, I am certain,” and then resumed walking away.
Oddly enough, he spoke without any of the unusual accent. As he left, I caught a glimpse of what was behind the thick lenses of his glasses.
His eyes, still as exhausted-looking as when I’d seen them yesterday, were of a blue highly similar to the countess’s right eye.
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