3
Nebulis Sovereignty. Fourth State Zahlfahlen.
Zahl International Airport. Closest airport to the central state.
“All right. I tried to keep my morale up in front of Lady Alice, but now that we’re about to board the plane, I feel so down…,” murmured Rin gravely.
“Huh? What’s wrong? Why did you stop all of a sudden?” Iska abruptly whipped around.
Rin was in her perfectly pressed suit with her luggage in hand. She looked like a businesswoman heading out on a work trip in another country.
“We’re supposed to keep from arousing suspicions in the airport. You were the one who told us that, Rin.”
“……Iska.”
Rin glared at him bitterly. The only reason she hadn’t called him Imperial swordsman, her usual address for him, was because they were in a Sovereign airport. They couldn’t risk anyone overhearing.
“There’s no way you could understand how I feel. How could you possibly comprehend the agony of leaving Lady Alice’s side, along with the grief of being forced to set foot in the vile territory of an enemy nation?!”
“I—I guess I don’t, but…”
The long and short of it was that she didn’t want to go to the Empire. Although it was Iska’s birthplace, Rin saw it as both a malevolent superpower and the pioneer of the derogatory terms witch and sorcerer, which referred to astral mages.
“So now you see.”
Rin began to walk off unsteadily. She wasn’t heading to the plane’s boarding gate but rather to the shopping area behind it.
“At the very least, I shall buy reminders of my motherland…souvenirs from the Sovereignty. Oh, they have Sovereign cookies with faces of past queens on them. I was always dubious about who would possibly want to purchase these things, but now even they feel nostalgic to me. I suppose I’ll get one.”
“But, um, Rin.”
“What?”
“We’re heading to the Empire. If you bring Sovereign cookies there, I’m pretty sure you’ll look fishy.”
“…………” She stopped in her tracks. Still clutching the small box of cookies, she felt her shoulders start to quiver. On top of that, her face turned red. “Stupid!”
“Whoa?! Wait, Rin, throwing souvenir boxes around is rude!”
“Shut up! Shut up! You should just be grateful that these weren’t knives!”
Iska caught the boxes she’d hurled, then snuck them back onto the display shelf, trying to avoid being seen by the shop employees.
“Besides, it won’t be a long trip,” he reminded her.
“…Obviously. As if I could stand being in the Empire for two whole weeks or, God forbid, three.”
It seemed she had finally accepted it. Her breathing was steady as she continued into the airport.
That was when Commander Mismis made it to them as well. Nene and Jhin were behind her.
“Oh, there you are! Iska, Miss Rin, please hurry,” Mismis said. “It looks like boarding has already started, and the airplane is about to take off!”
“There’s no need to panic,” Rin replied flatly. “It’s right after the baggage inspection.”
“But the inspection line goes on forever! Just look over there,” Nene said. “All the other economy customers are in a huge queue!”
“That’s not where we’re going. It’s farther back.”
Rin opened an employee-only door and headed inside. Or so it seemed…
Once they passed through the entrance, they came upon a corridor without a single worker in sight.
“It’s a passageway for the royal family,” Rin explained. “We can go right past the baggage inspection to the boarding gate. This hallway is specifically used by the Lou family, so we need not fear the Zoa or Hydra seeing us.”
“What?!”
“That’s unfair!”
“There’s nothing untoward about it. If we went through the regular line, there’s no way we would be able to pass through the baggage inspection. We’d cause a huge scene merely brushing up against the metal detector.”
Rin’s suit jacket was lined with sharp knives, and her business-card case held thin, needlelike assassination tools.
“Obviously. Otherwise, I’d never have been able to carry my guns onto the plane.” Jhin nodded, shouldering his golf bag.
“I guess that applies to my firearms, and the commander’s, too,” Nene said. “And Iska’s swords.”
“…But this isn’t all good.” Rin looked straight ahead as she walked down the deserted hallway. “Lady Sisbell must have been abducted using this same method. Surely her captors boarded a plane using the royal passageway as brazenly as we are now.”
She removed from her pocket an earring crafted in the image of a sun. If they were to trust the confidential files Princess Mizerhyby had called the Gregorian Descant—and the supposed intel about Sisbell’s whereabouts was to be believed—Sisbell was already in the Empire.
“Iska.” Rin, who was in front of everyone else, turned to look at him. “The world treaty has provisions detailing the humane treatment of prisoners. Torture and human experimentation are forbidden. Both the Sovereignty and the Empire have ratified the document. Is that correct?”
“…It is.”
Inhumane treatment was indeed forbidden. Every nation without exception had agreed upon the clauses Rin had mentioned.
…At least for appearances.
…They only agreed for political reasons, so the other countries wouldn’t condemn them.
But behind the scenes?
The Empire conducting experiments on captured witches. The Sovereignty enslaving detained Imperial soldiers. Both seemed plausible, but he honestly didn’t know whether either was really going on.
Unit 907 was merely a collection of foot soldiers in the much larger entity known as the Empire. Whether they liked it or not, the number of secrets that were kept from them overwhelmingly outweighed the ones they were privy to.
“I’m sure you won’t like me saying this, but I’ll still put it out there anyway: I don’t believe the Empire would honor stipulations requiring them to treat their prisoners humanely.”
“…………”
“Because the Sovereignty doesn’t, either.” Rin could say that now because the lady she served wasn’t present at the moment. “The reigning sovereign has been called a moderate comparatively, but as for the rest of the royal family… Well, you’ve seen the Hydra. They’re the types who would dare to plot the queen’s assassination if they had to. They’ll dirty their hands by whatever means necessary to achieve their goals.”
“Even when it involves Sisbell?”
“That’s exactly what I am saying. We’ll be too late if they do something to her.”
That was why they were hurrying. They didn’t have the time to travel by car or by train from the Sovereignty to Imperial territory, which would have taken several days.
Torture, human experimentation…
They could not fathom what the Empire and the Hydra family would do with a Founder’s descendant, one of the best witch samples they could hope for.
“The battle will be brief but decisive.”
The sun earring disappeared back into Rin’s pocket.
Then she declared firmly, “We will retrieve Lady Sisbell within a week, and I will bring her back home. Then this will all be over.”
However…
Her sojourn in the Empire would not last a week as expected.
Neither Iska nor Rin knew the future that awaited them—a future tied to the discord that would envelop the world.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login