On the garden path stood a woman I didn't know. Barely twenty steps between us, a distance close enough to be deadly in battle. Had she been a Tarachian mage killer, my head would've been rolling on the ground before I ever knew it. My sensory abilities may have been weakened, but becoming so immersed in training that I'd forget to watch my back…What an embarrassing blunder.
To be fair, the stranger didn't seem very dangerous.
She had no weapons, dressed in a short mocha jacket, light cotton trousers, and exquisitely engraved leather boots. Not much muscle to speak of. A sharp, wary scowl on a clean, pretty face, but no open hostility, or traces of mana. She appeared to be an ordinary civilian in every respect. One of those beings I'd put in the same category with mice and sheep in the past, though I wasn't so different right now myself.
She'd asked me who I was.
"I'd like to ask you the same," I answered, reassembling my obliterated composure. "This is private property, and I don't remember seeing you before."
I made an improvised effort to act like a noble heiress. I'd seen my share of aristocracy among the RA officers, and the only common denominator seemed to be that almost child-like faith in oneself, as if there was nothing in the world that could touch you. But imitating elitism came easy for me. I was elite as a mage, after all.
The frown darkening the woman's face deepened.
"You mean, you live here?" she asked.
"That's correct."
"Why?"
Another bizarre question.
"Why? Because it's my home? I'm the daughter of Countess Ruthford, the owner of this estate. Why else would I be here?"
"Daughter?" she repeated. Her eyes rounded, face fell pale, and she reeled, as if struck by a heavy blow. "No way! My sister had a child…!?"
"Adopted daughter," I reflexively added. A needless correction, maybe, but imagining I came out of that person's there—it was getting too awkward already.
More importantly…
"Sister?" I repeated. "So you're the General's…"
"Yes," the stranger affirmed. She pulled herself together after the shock with authentic noble dignity, and defiantly crossed her arms. "I'm Asseylum Ruthford. That woman's younger sister. Born in this very household."
Ah. The prodigal child of the Ruthfords.
Now that she said it, I could see the resemblance. She had the same dark hair tone as her sister, though Asseylum's locks had a brighter sheen, and she'd had them cut trendily short above the shoulders. The same sharp, dark eyes with a hint of gemstone purple. And the same prideful presence and bearing, suggesting a similarly strict upbringing.
But I could only find the timing of her return a bit strange.
She glanced at the fountain behind me.
"…You're a magician?"
"Of sorts, yes," I admitted.
Nobody seeing the performance just now could think I was anything but a total amateur. But Lady Ruthford didn't laugh at my lacking skills. She looked away under a sardonic air.
"Figures. That heartless woman wouldn't help a soul unless she had something to gain from it."
Hearing it, I burst into spontaneous laughter, causing the lady to scowl at me.
"What's so funny…?"
"You and I have a very different image of the General," I said, wiping the corner of my eye
Heartless? Profit-seeking? Despite her harsh reputation, I'd always thought the Iron Valkyrie was much too naive and soft to be in charge of a nation's armed forces.
Those who treated her like a dragon just didn't know her.
Even in the inferno of war, the General strictly maintained that there were things you couldn't do, even in the name of victory or survival. That there were things holy and inviolable, as there were things vile and unforgivable, and a clear-cut line in between. She would never say usefulness was the only measure of life, and in that, she was like an alien from another dimension in this Kingdom, always at odds with her colleagues.
Because of her chivalrous nature—that woman really hated me in the beginning. What I'd done, what I stood for. I embodied practically every evil in the world that Liesebeth Ruthford had vowed to vanquish as a soldier.
But in the end, even such an evil she chose to embrace as her family. Though acceptance was not to be confused with forgiveness. No, there was certainly a part of her that despised me even now. I wasn't going to tell that to her sister, though.
Lady Asseylum drew her own conclusions about my reaction, waving her hand with a cynical snort.
"If you want to tell me about my sister's good points and how people can change, spare me. I didn't come back home to play family with such a sorry excuse of a human being."
Then, appraising me again with more care, she resumed in a softer tone,
"Anyway, what is your name?"
"It's Hope," I said, still not quite used to the sound of it.
"Hope," she repeated, nodding. "Alright. You can call me Asia. I never use my full name these days. I'm still a little in shock at suddenly having a niece after eight years abroad, but I guess I can live with that. When I first saw you here, I thought you were some ghost of the estate's bloody past come back to haunt us. I think I like it better this way."
"Why, are you scared of ghosts?" I asked and smiled at her. "Personally, it's a pleasant surprise to find I have such a cute aunt."
Ms Asia blinked, turning a little pink.
"Oi. Don't mess with your elders. I don't know how my sister has been raising you, but kids who play adult games get their fingers burned."
"Wah. Scary. You'll have to teach me all about those games sometime."
Yes, very cute.
It didn't look like I could get any more training done tonight, and was too tired to keep chatting, so I waved Ms Asia farewell and left the garden. Somehow, I imagined she would vanish as quickly as she'd appeared, and we wouldn't see each other again. Had I known what I was in for, I would've been more careful with my act.
She wasn't vanishing. From that day on, I no longer had to sit alone in silence at meal times. Our next meeting was at the breakfast table the very next day. Having confirmed with the staff that I wasn't a ghost or a trespasser, Ms Asia's attitude towards me warmed up considerably. And, as we talked, I was surprised to learn my aunt and I had the same destination.
"I left home at sixteen and moved to the technostate of Aschstelt to study magitech," she explained, a giant mug of coffee in hand. Her 'breakfast.' "I graduated from the college there with a degree in engineering, and worked on developing new types of information systems for businesses, before starting my own company."
"I see. Sounds impressive."
I didn't really understand half of what she was talking about.
All I knew about magitech was that it was a science to apply magical functions to mechanical components and make them work together to accomplish more complex tasks without a human mage. The automobile being one notable example.
"Aschstelt is a wonderland of innovation," Ms Asia proudly explained. "I had no plans to ever come back to Calidea again, until an agent from Belmesion approached me last October. Apparently, they plan to open a course on magitech this year to test the waters, and wanted me as a guest lecturer and technical supervisor. If there's sufficient demand from students, they might create a dedicated department for engineering, even. The pay was simply too good to pass."
"Oh?"
To be personally scouted by Belmesion—could it be that Ms Asia was super smart?
Not that her sister was stupid either, but…there were different types of intelligences. Some excelled at putting things together and others at cutting them apart. The latter type could easily and understandably be confused with sheer savagery. I thought I began to see the root cause of the family feud.
"So, Hope?" Ms Asia tossed the ball into my corner. "What's your story?"
About me.
I told her the officially approved cover story: I was a war orphan with magical potential, the General met me in Lakeland, and kindly took me under her wing. It was technically not a lie, even if skipping a lot of chapters in between. If you want to deceive someone, you have to mix verifiable facts among the falsehoods. Straight from the CI guidebook.
"How terrible," Ms Asia muttered at the end of the tale when I was finished.
I thought she was being sarcastic. With her naturally impassive demeanor and deadpan face, it was difficult to say for sure. But no, she actually dried the corner of her eye with a napkin, before telling me,
"I'm sorry you had to go through such a tragedy, Hope. But it's all right now. My sister aside, I promise I will take good care of you. If there's anything you need, anything at all, you be sure to let me know, all right?"
"Ehh, thank you."
Please doubt people a little more…
Ms Asia left the dining hall first, saying she had business in town, gently patting my head as she passed my seat. I followed her departing presence with my sense down the hallway for a time, before speaking to the maid standing behind.
"So? Is she actually who she claims to be?"
"So it would appear," Charlotte reported reservedly, with a touch of remorse. "Due to her close relation to the General, Lady Ruthford was assigned personal protection during the war, though without her awareness of it. The Bureau has been keeping an eye on her from a safe distance for quite some time. The academy did approach her regarding a lecturer's position, and her arrival was expected. But...she uses a customized, high-power vehicle called 'motorcycle' to move around, which is difficult to follow, even with an auto. She lost her followers shortly after arriving in the Kingdom, and we had trouble telling when she would reach Canelon."
Motor-what?
"The Lady had an advance reservation at Hotel Regent," Charlotte continued, "which she apparently disregarded on a whim, and came to the manor instead. The guard at the gate was a senior staff member who recognized her and let her in without informing me first. I believe she only meant to make a quick visit, perhaps to reminisce, but plans were changed. She told me last night she'll cancel her hotel reservation and move in. Her change of mind is most likely due to—well, you, Miss."
She changed her mind more often than I changed my underwear.
But that wasn't the problem.
"She saw me use magic."
It wasn't uncommon for witches and wizards to kill outsiders on their turf to protect their secrets. Beyond that, I was obligated by the state to hide my abilities, since they were considered military assets. The fault was half my own, and I wasn't going to kill the General's sister, of course. She saw nothing of importance, but—that shouldn't have happened.
"I'm terribly sorry, Miss," Charlotte said, bowing. "She had to have come directly to the garden after entering the premises. I didn't have a chance to warn you. We will bring in additional personnel to watch the perimeter, as soon as possible."
"Don't!" I groaned. "The last thing we need is even more gorillas loitering around. The whole city will start to wonder what we're doing here that's so secret. Just tell the gate guys not to let any more long-lost relatives through. God, who was that idiot?"
"I'll...give them a refresher. Please do not be concerned, it won't happen again."
I wasn't concerned about intruders so much as what the General would do when she would hear. I did call her gentle before, for a soldier, but everything was relative. The Iron Valkyrie got mighty scary when she was upset, and few things upset her more than people not doing their jobs right.