Swamp Girl! Chapter 10

| | 11: Girls’ Talk/Heavy Conversation
Raws:

Author’s Notes
Aira and Palmira do pretty much nothing.

“Yes.”

The frivolous man raised his hand with a flippancy that clashed with the room’s solemnity. No surprise there. What, couldn’t he read the mood?

“What, Rupert?”

Leopard’s expression had ‘What, you again?’ stamped all over it.
It’s always like that, I bet. Yeah, I can totally see that.

“Well, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make such a face. I mean, I should know what there is to know, right? This being an important task and all, I want to get things straight in my head.”

“I get it already. So what is it?”

Even Rupert’s tone was flippant. Looking fed up, Leopard stopped his frivolous request in its tracks. That said, he didn’t dismiss the comment out of hand.
Rupert’s request might not have been made in all seriousness, but it did have some logic to it.
It was probably only his tone that sounded bored. Leopard and Rupert. The names were similar, but their personalities couldn’t be more different. Maybe they were completely incapable of getting along.
Like they understood but irritated each other.
Paying no particular attention to the exasperated Leopard, Rupert lazily leaned back in his chair with a creaking sound.

“I was just thinking, if you already know this much, shouldn’t you make a move on the s.h.i.+ps? In the end, it’ll be obvious what cargo they’re being loaded with.”

Tone and att.i.tude aside, it was a relatively sensible opinion.
It was certainly like he said. I was stuck on it too. If the estate wouldn’t work, then they should just search the s.h.i.+ps.
However, since Rupert and I had thought things out that far, there was no way this gloomy guy hadn’t already.
If he wasn’t doing it, then there had to be some kind of reason behind it.

“Regarding that, I have something to add.”

As I thought, or rather, Regnum followed up before Leopard could say anything.

“While the Telaberan harbor sees a considerable number of trading vessels going in and out, most of them are bound for domestic destinations. The inspection of all these vessels has been completed, and they have subsequently been cleared. In other words, the culprit is an ocean-going s.h.i.+p.”

Cutting off his words here, Regnum pulled a piece of paper from his breast pocket and stuck it to one of the blackboards.
On it was a six-row list labelled [Date] and [Name]. Beside those were [Lumber], [Fish], and so on. And even further along… there was the name of the country.
Among them, the first and last entries bore the same name.

“This is the record of all inbound and outbound foreign vessels for the last five months. As you can see, there are six such vessels. The bottom two are currently docked — in other words, the question is which of them we want. According to our a.n.a.lysis, it’s this one.”

Taking a pen out of his breast pocket, Regnum circled the first and last entries.

“Belgars. Nationality, the Holy Kingdom of Lugaldi. We have concluded that this is the guilty party.”

“Well, if I’m understanding it so far — ”

Rupert cut in again. Leopard stopped him: ‘Shut up and listen.’
But it was true that Rupert’s question hadn’t been answered yet.
Actually, Aira and Palmira looked like they couldn’t follow at all. Which parts and how much, I didn’t know.
But I had a general idea of the answer.
The Holy Kingdom of Lugaldi. The Holy Kingdom.
Secretly, I grit my teeth so hard they creaked. That was a name I didn’t want to get tangled up with a second time.

“Then shall I explain?”

It was Leon, who had been sitting in patient silence until that point, who spoke.
Leisurely leaning forward in his chair, he planted both elbows on the table and linked his fingers together, looking around at everyone in the room.

“In essence, the problem here is that this s.h.i.+p’s destination and nationality are both the Holy Kingdom. We haven’t conducted a compulsory search of the estate for a similar reason, but this s.h.i.+p not only belongs to another country, it’s a government vessel. That makes it even nastier to approach.”

Ending there, he turned his gaze to Rupert, then each of us, in turn.
Apparently we were the only ones who didn’t know.

“If we don’t turn up anything at the end of the search, at worst it may spark a war between the Holy Kingdom and us. Of course, that’s inevitable, but as the Empire, we want to avoid a conflict of that appearance if possible.”

A light s.h.i.+ver ran through me when Leon casually dropped the word ‘inevitable’.
But considering the gap between the two countries’ power, it might be a natural remark to make. The Empire, one of the world’s three superpowers, and the small, remote nation known as the Holy Kingdom of Lugaldi. In terms of national and military power, they differed by orders of magnitude.

“Of course, it’s a prediction that there might be war. However, in this case, we have the initiative. There’s a huge discrepancy between us. To put it bluntly, we can choose to do as we please. Right.”

Leon grinned broadly.
Unlike the gentle smile he’d worn until now, it was a grin of terrifying ferocity.

“Like whether or not to send them all to h.e.l.l.”

When his speech took a turn for the vulgar, I felt the air instantly freeze.
Aira, who took it at basically point-blank range, had gone completely rigid. Palmira looked a little pale too.
So the man wasn’t lax after all. He wasn’t, but conversely, I felt relieved.
Until now, it was because of his ever-gentle expression that I harbored a distrust toward him I didn’t quite understand. Just a little, but enough.
For that very reason, seeing Leon show a new side of himself put me at ease.
Our upcoming mission to return to slavery would be extremely brutal. At its heart was the fundamental premise that we depended on our collaborators, that we trusted them.
Even though I didn’t know whether everything was out in the open, still, I felt that Leon deserved to be trusted after revealing a different side of himself to us.

“Any more questions?”

–

–

Seeing as no one had any outstanding questions, the discussion of strategy began in earnest.
Or rather, I would have been amazed if anyone had raised another question in that atmosphere.
Anyway, it was mostly Leopard who explained the plan.
Perhaps thinking that his turn was pretty much done, Regnum sat back down in his chair.
Right, after this, it would our turn to take the stage.

“Now then, I’ll explain.”

Leopard’s explanation could be summed up like this:
First, we would follow part of the First Platoon through a secret pa.s.sageway leading from the estate and emerge outside the city at the other end.
Disguised as slavers, the First Platoon would once again pa.s.s through the gate and deliver us to the lord.
After that, we would look for other slaves and ascertain their location.
As soon as we discovered where they were being held, the soldiers would break in. Liberate the marks. Apprehend the target.
…Something along those lines. As plans go, it was relatively simple.

“Hey, wait a sec. Mind if I ask something?”

It was because it was simple that several things had been left out. Once the explanation seemed to be over, I couldn’t take it anymore and stood to ask a question.
After I spoke, I realized that my words and behavior are informal, but there was no point crying over spilled milk.

“Wh–What is it?”

It wasn’t just old man Leopard, Rupert and the inconspicuous platoon commander next to him, and even the robed woman were drawn in… You know what? I don’t care.

“When we’ve been delivered to the lord as slaves, we should be taken to the same place as the others, but how are you going to keep track of us once we’re inside? And we should know what to do after that, too.”

Actually, I had other questions too — we’d be disguised as slaves, but what were they going to do about the contracts? And before that, wouldn’t it be better to capture the next caravan? But since those issues weren’t directly related to us, my complaint focused on the very rough explanation of [what we would do after being captured].

“Ah, it’s true that we haven’t explained that part yet. Irene.”

“Yes.”

It was Leon who responded, but he called on the bored-looking robed woman who’d been simply sitting quietly.
Apparently, she didn’t expect to be brought into the discussion right now. Hearing her name all of a sudden, Irene all but jumped out of her chair in surprise.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Irene Barnest. I’m an enchantment magus.”

Irene bobbed her head to us.
On the other hand, we only looked at her, taken aback.

…Magus. In basic terms, a magic-user.
A rare sight in real life.
I don’t know much about the details myself, but the first step in becoming a magic-user is apparently some kind of foundation.
Foundation.
Talent, to put it another way.
A natural gift. It can’t be acquired, so the number of people able to become magi is limited. Rumor has it that even at this stage, the probability is just one in ten thousand. It’s clear just how few of these people there are.

Plus, it’s difficult to determine whether or not someone has a mage’s foundation.
Not much is known about the method, but identifying a foundation through artificial means appears to require an appropriately complex process. The only other way is to manifest it yourself by chance.
What this ‘by chance’ really means is that there are those who have the ability, but for various reasons, never realize it.
Actually, there have even been people who only manifested their magic after the age of sixty.

On the other hand, artificial identification is a method anyone can use.
As long as they have the money.
In a city of this scale, the local adventurers’ guild will perform the service on very rare occasions. And if not the adventurers’ guild, then there are some national organizations a person can go to as well.
Though their doors are open, as I said earlier, the identification is pretty complicated. Because of this, the expenses are paid in the form of money.
And a lot of it.
So, a.s.suming you were that one among ten thousand, unless you spontaneously manifested your magic, or had the fortune of being a merchant or n.o.ble with too much money on your hands, then you wouldn’t be able to get past the first hurdle.
That’s why the number of magi just keeps decreasing.

Who would have thought that the idle girl sitting there would be one of these seldom-seen magic-users, no, magi?
Frankly, even I had only ever met one magus during my life as an adventurer. It was a old man past his fifties.
But considering the circ.u.mstances, that might not be all that rare.
As long as your talent can be identified, it doesn’t particularly matter if you’re under ten or over sixty. You’ll still have a chance to become a magus.

“She’ll be in charge of communications and identifying the location. Please check in with her later. Oh, and come to think of it, we still haven’t introduced the other members yet.”

…You’re saying this now? But I obediently perked up my ears anyway.

First, Leopard. Full name, Leopard Galles.
Apparently the commander of this entire company. Then what does that make Leon… well, he’s the young master, I guess.

Next up, Regnum. Regnum Bransheria.
He seemed to be an officer from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau. I thought as much. You could say that it was the right place for him.

Vyde Rouche.
…An un.o.btrusive guy who hadn’t said a thing for the entire meeting. Commander of the First Platoon.
To sum up, we were going to stick with him until we entered Guibenague’s residence. He wasn’t much of a talker. Even when he was introduced, he simply gave a bow. By the end of the meeting, I never got to hear his voice once.

Then there was that frivolous man, Rupert Belgraf.
Commander of the Second Platoon. Were they going to be okay with someone like this at the top? It seemed like he was in charge of final decisions. Seriously, would they be okay?

“Let’s call it here. You three, be sure to listen well to Irene after this.”

Leopard wrapped things up. Tomorrow, the operation would commence.

Author’s Notes
Sorry, it got pretty long, so I had to cut it down.
I plan to go into the magic of this world in the next chapter.
It’s taking some time to get the story moving, isn’t it? I’d like to proceed a bit more quickly, though.

I’m as happy as can be to see the story’s evaluation and bookmarks steadily increasing.
By the way, I’ve updated all at once these past few days, but that was basically because of Golden Week, so after tomorrow, the update schedule might fall a bit.