Swamp Girl! Chapter 16

After a little bit of this, a little bit of that, I was rescued and returned to Leon’s estate. Having arrived earlier, Aira and Palmira were waiting for me, alongside the slaves who had probably been rescued with them.
When the two of them saw me, they ran up to me and pulled me into a hug.

“B–Big Sisteeeeeeer!”

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

Welcoming me back in their respective fas.h.i.+ons, they buried their faces against my chest and stomach.
Aira was clearly crying, and even Palmira had something of a quaver in her voice.
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
I gently stroked their heads.

Still, where were they found?
I looked around, but for the time being, there were only a few soldiers around. I didn’t catch sight of any familiar faces. Just when I was about to contact Irene telepathically, it occurred to me that she might be busy at the moment and stopped myself.
Sure, our part of the work was done.
But there was still the post-operation cleanup. And as far as I could tell, there weren’t many soldiers on duty here. Maybe they were right in the middle of wrapping up.
Now that Aira and Palmira had calmed down, I asked them, “So where’d you end up?”

“By the time we noticed, we were in a completely unfamiliar room…”

“Looking around, it was full of slaves.”

To summarize, it seemed they were teleported into a holding pen prepared ahead of time on the suspect s.h.i.+p.
I was surprised. I hadn’t expected the door to be a one-way trip straight into the holding pen. How should I put it, that operation really stressed efficiency.

Anyway, while they were panicking because I’d been left behind and they couldn’t reach me, they contacted Irene with their position. Apparently waiting in the area on standby, Rupert and the Second Platoon quickly stormed the s.h.i.+p. That was how they were rescued.
In other words, at least that part went according to plan. And then some. 1
I thought back calmly. If I hadn’t resisted so conspicuously back then, I might have been sent with them and saved myself some pain.

…What’s done is done. I decided not to dwell too much on it.

“Oh yeah, have you guys seen Leon? Leon — ”

The other slaves were clearly in a weaker state than us, their expressions half joyful, half anxious. Watching the soldiers and maids lead them into the mansion in groups, I suddenly remembered about Leon, and I turned to the other two.
My rescue from the mansion had been the work of Vyde and the First Platoon.
And that was all, so in the end, I didn’t see Leon either.
Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t just Leon, but Leopard and Regnum too. Contact with Irene had been voice-only; she wasn’t around either.

“I don’t see him around here.”

Palmira shook her head.

“But with all the commotion going on, he might have been here.”

Basically, she was saying she didn’t really know.
Just what exactly is that guy doing? Even though I thought he would protect me when push came to shove.
…Nah, well, what can you do, right?

“You three, please come inside too!”

Before I knew it, the transfer of the other slaves was basically finished.
A maid called to us from the other side.
For now, it was all over… A lot had happened.

“Well… I did my best. You guys too. With this, our work here is done.”

Bap. I settled my hands on their shoulders as I spoke.
The two looked relieved by my words, and they both gave me small nods.

“Okay then, shall we?”

I didn’t know how long I’d stay, but even though I hadn’t spent more than two days here, I felt that it was a place I could go home to.
And so, when I pa.s.sed through the foyer at the maid’s urging, the thought came to me. ‘I managed to come home safely.’ I felt it from the bottom of my heart.

–

–

Herded into the baths with the other slaves, I scrubbed myself clean again.
By the time I finished changing into the plain clothing provided by the mansion, the sun had already set. So, in the s.p.a.cious dining hall of a different barracks than before, I had my meal together with the slaves. It wasn’t as sumptuous as yesterday’s, but modest, like everyone else’s.
Nothing I could do about that.
Unlike us, the other slaves were in a weak enough state that maybe they couldn’t stomach richer food. Of course, the usual concern of money might’ve been the restricting factor here.
After all, the lavish spread we had was meant for guests. So considering our social position, rather than modest, this was a luxurious feast.
Given the lives we, too, had led until yesterday, it wasn’t as if I thought of this as a step down. So the meal, perfectly appetizing by normal standards, I finished without complaint.

After that, bedtime.
Because there was no s.p.a.ce, each person received one thin blanket, and then everyone huddled together in the barracks.
Unsurprisingly, it was nowhere near as comfortable as the bed I slept in yesterday, but even so, it was no problem at all.
There was something nostalgic about it. When I was an adventurer, I almost always slept like this. Actually, just having a roof was an improvement.
About that — I’d probably be leaving this place tomorrow, or possibly the day after, and get back to my life.
It would be a little lonely, but that was fine.
Rather, it was better this way; it meant leaving no attachments behind.

It’s just, I want to see Leon one more time so I can tell him all my grievances against him.

Well, I’ll be able to sooner or later. I haven’t collected my pay yet.
Not worrying about it too much, I covered myself with the blanket and slipped into darkness.

–

–

“…Alright, what the h.e.l.l.”

Waking up, that was the first thing out of my mouth.
I was lying in, you guessed it, the bed I’d been using until yesterday. I could see the usual canopy above me.
When my thoughts got that far, I sat up in the bed.
Then, I turned to look there.

“Good morning.”

“…Yeah, mornin’.”

As I should probably have expected, Leon was sitting in his usual seat as if his presence was totally normal. Looking a little tired, he greeted me brightly.
I gave him the proper greeting back. More or less.
Then, I sat cross-legged, turned to Leon, and began to interrogate him.

“…First of all, how about you kindly explain to me why I’m sleeping here?”

I wasn’t going to ask him the dumb question ‘Why are you here?’ anymore.
But even so, Leon had a slightly surprised look on his face, as if my question came out of nowhere.

“Oh. I was so sure that you’d ask why you were left to sleep in a place like that.”

In other words, it was like this:

It seemed that yesterday, the maids simply made a mistake and treated us like the other slaves. Then, as a result of increasing miscommunications, things played out the way they did.
In particular, he wanted to make it up to us, but it wasn’t like we got a cold reception. From that point of view, you could even say that we were the ones taking unfair advantage.

“You three played the most crucial roles in this operation in the first place. There’s no reason to treat you that way.”

“You say that, but the fact is, we got treated that way. So it couldn’t be helped, I guess.” 2

“I certainly owe you an apology for that… However, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little more faith in me.”

It wasn’t as if I didn’t understand the feeling, but it would take a lot of guts to be the only ones there who would ask a ridiculous question like ‘Why are you treating us like this’, I think.
The other slaves were there, and they didn’t know our situation in the first place.

“When you put it that way, I see your point… You truly have my deepest apologies. I didn’t show enough forethought.”

Leon honestly apologized.
Well, that might have been unavoidable too. Considering how busy yesterday must have been for him, even he would lose track of a few arrangements here and there.

“It’s not really that big a deal. The food was tasty too.”

Since it really didn’t bother me, I said that for now.
About that last bit I tacked on — honestly, half of it was good. The meat half. I can say that much, can’t I?

“No, I am truly sorry. As breakfast has already been prepared, why don’t we go together?”

‘With the other two, of course,’ he added.
I figured that for now, even if I bullied Leon some more, it wouldn’t accomplish anything. So I obediently nodded and got out of bed.

–

–

“Ahh, somehow, it seems like we won’t be able to go back to how things used to be.”

Because ‘the weather’s good’ and other a.s.sorted reasons, we had breakfast on the terrace.
Bread and soup. All kinds of eggs. Bacon. Cheese.
And of course they were all first-cla.s.s, worlds away from the food I had the night before. After Aira ate more than her fill, her musings slipped out.
Her expression all but said ‘I’m satisfied!’, and there wasn’t a trace of anxiety on her face.

“If you can eat, eat. It’s principle.”

Palmira turned completely serious, still chewing away.
She certainly had a point.
In the end, it was better not to think too deeply about it.
Actually, the other slaves were on the opposite side of the terrace, eating the same food as yesterday. When my thoughts drifted in their direction, I lost a good chunk of my appet.i.te.
All of this could simply be chalked up to luck.
If we’d arrived a little later, perhaps we would have been over there right now, eating with the other slaves. And let’s not forget the decidedly nonzero probability of the sting operation failing to make it in time, which would have then doomed us to set sail for some distant country.
Of course, even if I thought about such things, there was nothing I could do about it; even if I worried, it couldn’t be helped.

Rising from my seat, I leaned against the terrace railing and looked down at the city.
Today, there was only one s.h.i.+p in port. The suspect s.h.i.+p would be my guess.
I could see tiny soldiers busily boarding and disembarking.

“Hey, what’re you going to do with that?”

Sensing a presence behind me, I posed the question without turning my face.

“Mm, well… For the time being, we’ll recover all the evidence on board, seize the s.h.i.+p, and get her back out on the water. We’ll deal with the crew over time.”

Leon’s voice came from behind me.
Though I was the one who asked, I responded with a disinterested grunt.
Because honestly, I didn’t have much interest. I just wanted to ask because it had some relation to me, more or less.
Still, thinking it through, it could be considered quite severe treatment. 3

“And the lord of the city?”

Turning my gaze, I saw the mansion where we had been held yesterday.
I wasn’t surprised to find that from this distance, I couldn’t see what was going on over there. But I was sure, all the same, that either Vyde or Rupert was leading the men in a similar task.

“At present, Guibenague has been summoned to the imperial capital. His status as a n.o.ble has been revoked. For now, that’s the extent of his punishment. How the rest will go depends on his home country.”

So Guibenague didn’t die…?
Afterward, I was whisked out of that room in the blink of an eye, so I had no idea what became of the man.
Was it a good thing that he didn’t die, or would it have been better if he had? That was up to the person in question. Frankly, I didn’t care either way.
Although I certainly had been humiliated to death, I didn’t bear much of a grudge, oddly enough. I just didn’t care.
Not even particularly for my rear end, which was still swollen today. It simply made me realize how st.u.r.dy this body was all over again.
If I didn’t tell anyone these things, not one person would know. And I had no intention of telling anyone.

“A support force of three thousand from the capital will be arriving in the next few days. The city lord’s private army has been placed under restrictions, so for the time being, the support force will maintain public order. The new lord will come after.”

“And those slaves?”

Ignoring Leon’s unsolicited information, I looked last at the barracks and asked about how the slaves would be handled.
Because we’d shared the same lot with each other, however briefly, their fate weighed on my mind.

“Ah, that’s right. If they have a place to return to, we will make the necessary arrangements. If not, we may a.s.sist them in finding employment in this city. The Lord’s mansion is short-staffed, so it might be good to place them there for a while.”

“Oh? You’re handling it pretty well.”

“Having rescued them, we’ll take responsibility for their welfare.”

At those words, I finally turned around to face Leon.
As I thought, he was someone worth trusting.
Even if it were a lie, there weren’t many out there who could declare that they’d take responsibility.
The higher the position, the greater the weight of those words.

So I made my decision.

“So, right now — ”

Leon, Aira, Palmira. I looked at each of them in turn.

” — as I promised, how about I tell you my story?”

Footnotes
1. というか、それ以上に進んだことになる ↵
2. そうは言うが、実際そーいう扱いされたのだからしょうが無いだろ ↵
3. Confused by the reasoning. Is property seizure that severe for the crime of slavery? I couldn’t pa.r.s.e the first half, is that what I’m missing? それでも少し踏み込んで考えると、結構苛烈な処置だと言える ↵