Swamp Girl! Chapter 20

“To be honest… I find it difficult to talk about myself, but I have a marriage interview with the daughter of a certain n.o.ble.”

“What, because of that?”

Hearing that much was enough for me: my premonition got even worse than last time.
Oh man, I don’t want to listen anymore. My ears and brain vetoed the idea quite firmly, but since I was the one who asked, I reluctantly prodded him to continue.

“Until now, I have refused for various reasons and delayed it, but this past incident was resolved more quickly than I thought. I unfortunately sent a fairly accurate report to the imperial capital, which resulted in a more forceful appeal than any other thus far.”

I see, it’s that thing. The so-called political maneuver whatsit. As expected of Mister Lord n.o.ble, Sir. Compared to us common folk, his troubles sure are on a different level, I thought sarcastically.
His expression serious, Leon’s talk was all very ‘Woe is me’, but whatever, just get to the point.

“However, I don’t wish to marry yet. Therefore — ”

“I refuse.”

Without hearing the last of it, I slammed on the brakes right then and there.

“…Please listen to the end,”

Leon murmured, his face looking sorrowful.

“What, are you an idiot? I already know what you’re getting at. Anyway, you’re thinking of using me as a stand-in to chase off the girl, am I right?”

“How did you know?”

“How could I not!”

Is he making a fool of me? I wondered, but he was so astonished that I’d guessed right. Astounding as it was, he seemed fairly sincere.
Yeah, therefore please marry me. Won’t you? So it wasn’t completely just a joke.
I finally understood, but whether I’d agree was a different story altogether.

“Please. It’s a very troubling matter.”

Leon wore an expression of sincere distress. Strangely, my heart wavered when I saw it.
No, wait. This might just be an act. He was just making fun of me a minute ago.
A desire to help appeared from G.o.d-knows-where, but I swallowed it back.

“Go be as troubled as much as you want! For starters, I’m a guy, you know! A guy! Do you get that?”

“But you are female now, correct? Then that shouldn’t be an issue, should it?”

“I’m saying that I’m a guy on the inside, okay!”

After the words came out of my mouth, I realized that we were going down the same path as before.
Wait. Could he be teasing me again?

“No, I’m completely in earnest this time… In any case, it’s not as if I’m saying that I’m especially serious about wanting to get married. To put it bluntly, it’s the imitation I want. The appearance. In other words, I’m requesting your a.s.sistance in a performance.”

When I easily guessed the exact contents of his thoughts, it left him at a loss for words; he spilled everything as if I were interrogating him.

Request. Request.

In a sense, if it were a request, it couldn’t be helped.
Aira’s lonely ‘How long can we stay?’ resurfaced in my mind.
If I were to accept, we could continue this lifestyle for a little while longer.
Though I’d firmly deny it, the idea had an appeal that was difficult to resist.

“…look, I mean, do you hate marriage that much? Isn’t it fine if you pick up one or two of them here and there?”

Quas.h.i.+ng my growing sense of impropriety, I deliberately switched to a completely different question.
Even if I say so myself, I think I’m talking pretty recklessly. But this guy’s n.o.bility in the first place, so even if he gets married, isn’t it just fine for him to throw in a Concubine A or a Concubine B? Isn’t that what n.o.bles do?

“I don’t know what you think of me, but marriage is still marriage. One for an entire lifetime. I’d like to be married for life to a woman I truly love.”

“Huh.”

A thoughtless question, a serious answer. A little embarra.s.sed, I sighed.
Saying ‘love’ this honestly. Well… you might even say it’s sincerity unbefitting for a n.o.ble.
Look, do I even need to bring up Guibenague? The image I’ve developed of ‘n.o.bles’ thus far, is someone devoted to their l.u.s.ts — even if he has a wife, he’ll still want to build a harem of concubines, and even if he has his concubines, he’ll still put his hands on the maids.
Compared to that, it was impossible for me not to feel a surge of goodwill toward Leon for his very reasonable view on the matter.
I don’t really get it, but whoever marries this guy could become happy, I thought vaguely.
Because of that, I felt some sympathy for his partner in the marriage interview, who he wanted to avoid this badly.

“Do you know about the other person? In the marriage interview, I mean.”

“Well, more or less.”

A political marriage of convenience. Going without even knowing your partner’s face until you meet them for the first time during the wedding.
Right? As expected.

“But is that the part that you dislike so much? Is she incredibly hideous or something?”

“No, that isn’t it, you know?”

Leon fished out a sheet of parchment from somewhere and handed it to me.
On it was drawn a woman around twenty years old, who did look as if she had high social status. She was seated, wearing an expensive-looking dress and holding a folding fan in one hand. It was quite an exquisite picture — simply by looking, I could get a feel for the atmosphere.
The female lead was plenty beautiful. Of the beautiful women I knew, Aira was the most similar to her.
Only, compared to Aira’s indescribably ditzy atmosphere, the woman in the picture was fairly neat, or perhaps demure — that was the impression I got. If we’re just talking impressions, she was closer to Palmira.

“Isn’t she a beautiful woman?”

“Well, that’s true. But you are beautiful, you know.”

My heart jumped in my chest, being told fed that line so smoothly.
But almost immediately, I pulled a face1.
Sure, I think I’m beautiful. I know it sounds like I’m way too full of myself, but that’s an objective evaluation coming from a former man.
That said, hearing it from other people, well… it doesn’t feel bad, but I’m not jumping for joy here either.

“Drop it.”

I made a special effort to be brusque.
Leon grinned the way he always did.
Seeing that p.i.s.sed me off, somehow.

“First off, why me? Palmira… well, even if it wasn’t her, there’s Aira, and if neither of them will work, then there are maids around too.”

Thinking of Palmira’s blunt discourtesy, and excluding Irene as well, I suggested some alternatives. 2
I wasn’t serious when I brought it up, but honestly, wasn’t Aira a suitable choice? The night Leon picked us up, she was chatting away so smoothly, putting on an act.
Well, we did get found out though…

“There is a proper reason for that.”

I bet it’s a total trash reason. But without any other options, I’ll hear him out for now.

“The truth is, it isn’t the appearance or the talent that’s important, but the hair color.”

“Hair color?”

Suddenly, I looked at my own hair.
Silver.
My eyes traced it from where it pooled around the top of my shoulders, to where it flowed down my back like silk. 3
As a matter of fact, silver hair is rare. Rare, or more precisely, I’d never seen it before now.
The closest hair color was white, but the silver of my hair was utterly different from that lifeless color.

“That’s correct. I may not know the particulars of your situation, but it’s reasonable to think that your past prior to the performance will only cause issues. Therefore, you need an increase in your social status. For that reason, it is necessary to act as someone who has the appropriate status… The individual I’d like for the performance is indeed silver-haired…”

In short, it was an impersonation…?
I felt as if things had become complicated all of a sudden.

Social status. Well, sure.

For a n.o.ble like Leon, even if he were to say [I’m going to marry this woman], if said woman was a former slave of mysterious origin, then it didn’t matter matter how much the person himself might insist on it — those around him would definitely refuse to accept it. That was going to be a problem. One hundred percent, no question about it. That was just how the upper cla.s.ses worked.
And so, with my questionable background, a t.i.tle was a must. To that end, Leon found an individual somewhere to provide a subst.i.tute ident.i.ty, but that person’s hair was silver.
As I said, silver hair is so rare it’s practically nonexistent. Aira’s was chestnut-colored, Leon’s was blond. The maids had a variety of hair colors, but only chestnut, blond, red, and black. h.e.l.l, I was a redhead before becoming a woman.

When you get right down to it, the people in this world usually have hair in one of the four colors I just mentioned, or the white hair of the elderly. That was it.
In that respect, Leon’s story made sense. However.

“Silver hair aside, is it okay for me to use this person’s ident.i.ty as their subst.i.tute?”

I voiced a simple doubt.
If there was a cover ident.i.ty that well-defined, then Leon could just go to the person herself to get this whole thing resolved.

“Yes, that’s right. It’s difficult to explain, but… first of all, the woman providing your cover ident.i.ty has already left this world. That’s one. And officially, she is still alive. That’s the other. Do you understand the gist of it?”

That was certainly convenient.
She was already dead, but she hadn’t died.
As for why, there was probably some political motivation behind it.
And dead men tell no tales. If I were to replace a n.o.ble family’s daughter who was, in fact, alive, there might have been loose ends to clean up afterward.
But take someone who’s already dead and give their ident.i.ty to some no-name, and you’ve pretty much cleared that hurdle.

Even if worst came to worst and the ident.i.ty was lost, it wouldn’t matter. The outer persona was dead to begin with. And the inner was never an individual of any consequence.
Of course, this scenario had its various challenges too. However, considering the alternatives, it probably was the least risky by a large margin.

“Please, take this.”

While I was thinking, Leon had taken out another sheet of parchment. Compared to the other, this one was quite a bit older.
Or maybe the question was, where was he pulling out all this paper from? a.s.suming he just had them at the ready all the time, the man brought new meaning to the phrase ‘thoroughly prepared’.
I felt like I’d been played, but I shut my mouth for once and took it.

“…This is — ”

It was the picture of a girl, similarly wearing a dress, but about ten years old and sitting idly on a chair.
Although the colors had faded quite a bit, her hair was definitely silver. And, though her youth stood out more than anything else, her facial features were adorable, just like a doll’s. She would definitely grow into a beautiful woman in the future, no question. And not just beautiful, but a beauty without peer.

— In other words, like me.

“Christine Rouelle Felmiran. If she were still alive, she would have been almost exactly your age. Nickname, Chris… What do you think?”

While I stared at the parchment, unable to take my eyes away, Leon continued blandly,

“Doesn’t it feel like destiny?”

“N–No…”

That was the best I could manage.
I mean, it certainly did feel like destiny. Well, not destiny so much as something more suspect.
I couldn’t really put it into words. But seeing her face, hearing her name, I felt as if she were connected to something important within me. On the other hand, a strong refusal emerged from somewhere inside me — ‘You can’t make that connection.’

This request was dangerous.

To be frank, pus.h.i.+ng my way into the upper cla.s.ses, and the aristocracy even more so, was dangerous enough in itself, but this included impersonation as a freebie. If this got out, worst case scenario, I’d be facing the death penalty. In that respect, it was definitely too risky a request.

But the uneasiness I felt now came from a different threat entirely.

If I had to put it into words, I’d say it threatened to call the nature of my existence into question. I didn’t know the specific reason why. Only, my instincts were screaming at me.

“This is why you’re the only one for this. Please.”

Leon dipped down his head.
A n.o.ble, and he lowered his head to me again. It was that important to him.
But —

“I… can’t…”

In the face of my overwhelming terror, even that wasn’t enough to keep me from refusing.
I clenched my teeth. If I hadn’t, they might have started chattering. The sound of my heartbeat grew too loud, threatening to drown out everything else. I realized that it was hammering away.

Why? Why am I this frightened?
That’s — that’s — definitely–

“…Is that so? In that case, there’s nothing to be done…”

Leon readily backed off.
Before I finish thinking, ‘Eh–‘, the parchment papers were swiped from me in one fluid motion.
The man himself didn’t seem to be particularly shocked.
It really was a face he could turn on and off easily. Or should I say ‘completely’…

“However, might I ask you to accompany me as far as the capital?”

This time it was a negotiation. In an abrupt about-face from his earlier demeanor, he was smiling.

“…Why?”

I didn’t try to hide my doubt. With the lingering effects of my earlier shock, my thoughts weren’t running smoothly at all.

“I have to give you your compensation, but I’ll need to deal with various processing issues first. I’m unable to give it to you at present. Therefore, I will do so upon returning to the capital.”

Compensation… Compensation?
Come to think of it, I had to go collect that money. For me, and for the other two as well.
There was no particular need to get it here. Besides, the capital might prove convenient in planning my next move.

“…Alright, I got it.”

Hearing this, Leon gave me a satisfied nod.

It didn’t mean I was thinking particularly about being able to continue this life for a little while longer.

Footnotes
1. It said Chris made an うはぁ face. I don’t know what that means, though. Some kind of excited exclamation? ↵
2. Really confused by this one: パルミラはいろんな意味で無いなと失礼すぎる事を考えながら、何となくアイリンを言葉から外しつつ提案する Is Palmira the subject? Or the one being rude? What does いろんな意味で無い mean in this context? ↵
3. I think I’m reading this right, but doesn’t this mean Chris has longer hair than in the art? Or am I misreading? 自分の肩口に乗ったそれが、視線を動かすにつれ、さらさらと背中に流れていった ↵

Some of y’all called it.