MaruMA:Volume04:Chapter 5

Chapter 5

He’s lived for a long time, but he never knew a place like this existed.

Using the last bit of strength in his body, Günter von Christ braced his legs in order to not collapse on the bed behind him.

“With this, the first day of your trial period for becoming a monk has ended. The vow of silence is lifted in your personal rooms, so feel free to speak as you wish.”

As soon as he’s told that, he opens his mouth wide like a fish. Next to him is the middle-aged, former soldier, seemingly at peace with his completely different look. This unlucky man’s name is Dacascos. The chance visit to the king’s office with a message was the beginning of his misfortune.

Searching for Yuuri who had disappeared after leaving a letter, they have come to a monastery. Joining the order and becoming monks, the men are in a place where the daily life is nothing but prayer for the peace of the True King’s noble spirit and the future of the Great Demon Kingdom. Actually, as the royal advisor, Günter has gone to all the ceremonies and blessings at the Shrine of the True King. As such, he has met many people who have come into contact with the True King’s noble spirit and work as priestesses. But, they are all women there. They have long hair and they also have eyebrows.

But the monk standing in front of him is a man and didn’t have hair on his head, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose hair or even ear hair. They have shaved all the hair from their body in order to decrease the amount of different aspects between the True King and themselves as much as possible. Günter was given special consideration, but Dacascos, who he had forced to come along with him, had not been able to escape this. Having all his hair removed, he no longer even vaguely resembled the soldier he once was.

To think that there was a monastery full of men like this just a half day’s ride through the mountains from Blood Pledge Castle.

“Well then, let’s call it a day. Let us carry out tomorrow’s dawn prayer in tranquility, shall we?”

The move he made when he said ‘shall we’ at the end, bending his knees and thrusting one foot’s toes behind him, was the greeting here. It was a pose you see a lot in folk dances, but there’s nothing cute about a monk doing it.

“Th-this was unexpected. To think that this dubious facility existed.”

“More importantly Your Excellency… I don’t think that His Majesty and the girl who attempted to assassinate him are here… I mean, it’s all men here.”

“But the trial period is three days. If we say anything along the lines of quitting on the first day, even if I’m one of the ten noble families, I have no idea how we will be treated.”

“Oh, I forgot something important!”

As he was about to leave, the lead monk turned on his heel and came back. He starts digging out luxury items from Günter’s excessive luggage.

“All pleasures are forbidden at this monastery. The only one allowed to let loose at night is His Majesty the True King. During this trial period, all objects of worldly pleasure will be confiscated. Alcohol, cards, face masks… what is this?”

“Ah, th- that’s-!”

Lord von Christ thrusts out his hand in a panic, but the green, mountain goat leather bound book finds its way into the hands of the lead monk. He flips through the pages. This is an emergency situation.

“A Love Diary Composed in Summer… this is a diary? Don’t worry, I’m not so rude as to read another’s diar… hm?”

If he still had eyebrows, they would have been drawn together in a frown right now.

“… His Majesty blessed me, who has devoted body and spirit to my work as tutor and advisor, with the words, ‘Without you, my country would not be complete. Günter, will you make history with me and never leave my side?’ Unable to suppress my tears of joy, I devote a kiss to His Majesty’s noble feet.”

“Ughyaa! Your Excellency! What the hell kind of things are you writing!?”

The victim is the former soldier. The lead monk continues reading indifferently.

“… My everything belongs to His Majesty if he so commands….”

“Eghhh! Please stop, have mercy!”

“Why are you suffering, Dacascos!?” said the lead monk as he closed the green book. Perhaps because his face is so hairless, it’s practically emotionless.

“I’ll confiscate this as well until the last day. However…” However?

Both Günter, who’s almost in tears, and Dacascos, who’s covered in tears, freeze while waiting for the next words.

“To record the days between you and His Majesty the Demon King as a love story… I feel this is something that a humble servant and body of one who serves the noble soul of the True King shouldn’t say but…”

‘Then don’t say it!’ Dacascos says in his mind. There wasn’t really a pause for it though and the mental thought overlaps with the lead monk explaining with a pitying face that all life under the True King is equal, but…

“… You’re really a horrible person…”

Dacascos could feel the blood pressure of the beauty next to him shoot through the roof. There’s no time to calm him down or stop him.

“Like a bunch of monks could ever understand the love I have for His Majesty!”

His Excellency Günter von Christ, beautiful hair disheveled, runs away.

As there are all sorts of types who like animals, if there’s someone who deserted Conrad’s troupe after falling into a sand bear hole, then there’s someone similar who’ll be calmed down by being in this room.

“This is great huh, Greta, it’s a whole bunch of freaky animals.”

From the walls of the room, there are a bunch of beast heads sticking out. The large ones are deer, bear, hippo. The small ones are rabbit, ferret, weasel, mink. They even have them here?

“… This is… a, a mini stegosaurus, right?”

“It’s a zomosagori dragon!”

That’s one of the animals in my limited imitation repertoire. Dinosaurs are popular with children in any world.

Dragged from the tent circus true to its name by the scruffs of our necks, the place we’ve been thrown into is a stuffed animal hell. The cold glass eyes are creepy. It’s like they’re not thinking anything.

The door won’t open even if we ram into it or kick it.

“Who’s there?” A forlorn voice called from farther in the room.

I turn around in the weak light. Huddled together against the curly grained wooden wall are two figures. One is lying down on the floor, obviously not feeling well.

“Izura?”

Red-brown eyes turn to me. The girl lying next to her also opens her eyes slightly to look in my direction. Thinking she looks familiar, I remember she’s the girl I met this afternoon. Instead of a blanket, what’s draped over her is the down jacket I’d lent her. The warmth in my hand leaves me and Greta runs forth and places a hand on Izura’s cheek.

“Why are you here? What happened to your face? Who hit you!?”

“I should be asking about you, mister-”

“It’s Yuuri!”

Surprised, I stare at the back of her instant ramen head. After lowering her voice from a shout, the child repeats my name.

“It’s Yuuri and Greta. Right?”

“Ah, yeah.”

She was so uncharacteristically emotional, my response was a little late. The girl lying down gives a low moan. Coming closer and looking into her face, I see she looked really bad.

“Nina’s cold has gotten worse. I’m fine. I just got hit because I couldn’t find any customers. But, I’ll just be in the way until I can appear in the store again.”

In other words, this is the stuffed animal storeroom for Izura’s store, and the counterfeit money I found is deeply related to these people. As a violent brothel making minors work in the sex trade and creating counterfeit money, they’re like a den of evil.

“Do you have any medicine? Her fever hasn’t gone down since this evening.”

“In a cold place like this, you wouldn’t get any better.”

I end up stripping off another piece of clothing for Izura in her slip dress and placing a hand on Nina’s cheek. Just as I thought with her pale face and dry lips, her skin is hot.

“Yuuri can heal her.”

“Huh?”

Hey hey, I thought you were done speaking. What are you saying now?

“You can heal her right? You healed my fever. You healed it just by holding my hand.”

“Hey now, there’s no way I can perform that kind of spirit healing-type technique. That was due to the anti-fever medicine. You took some medicine, kept yourself warm and got lots of sleep…”

It’s too late. The three girls are staring at me with hope. Well, I might be able to at least give them some peace of mind. If I believe Gisela, it’s not impossible for me. Remembering what she did, I softly grasp Nina’s pale and dry wrist. Was it talk to them and draw out their vitality? “Um… you have to want to get better. What do you want to do when your fever goes down? It’s winter so, that’s right, how about baseball?”

‘Is that all you think about?’ I berate myself.

“… When I get better… I’ll work and get money.” Maybe it’s because she hasn’t spoken in a while, but her voice sounds hoarse and stuck in the back of her throat. Her light colored eyes are cloudy with fever.

“I’ll get lots more customers and I’ll even be able to send money back home.”

“No, aren’t there any better jobs? You’re still a middle school student so you should go back home and look for work there. Like at a convenience store or a family restaurant, you’ve gotta find a part-time job suited for girls.”

“There’s nothing in Svelera,” Izura interjects, hugging her knees. It was an empty and cold voice.

“Nina and I have been together since we were little. We were raised in the same village. Until a half a year ago, we worked in the esoteric stone mines, but one day the stones just stopped coming up.”

“Eh…”

I wonder if that’s because our group searching for the Demon Flute laid waste to the mines. There was one place where I definitely destroyed a mine with my own hands. But, that was an internment camp so it shouldn’t have anything to do with their lost place of work.

“B-but rain fell so shouldn’t your daily life have gotten a bit easier?”

“Even though it’s raining we can’t grow crops. There aren’t any seeds. We ate them all. Even if the grass is green, it doesn’t mean the cows and goats will grow fat. We didn’t have any in the first place. With the long drought and food shortage, they died or we ate them. There’s nothing left in Svelera. All there is is water and domineering soldiers! The army doesn’t pay… All the men who came to our village told us that there’s work in Hildyard and if you want us to take your daughters there, we’ll give you a deposit. So, the adults in the village got together and had a meeting… We didn’t want to do this kind of work, but going against the decision of the older women would be a crime…”

“That’s…”

Hearing the end of Izura’s sentence tremble, I swallow my next words.

Doesn’t that mean that their parents sold them? Although they might not have known what kind of work it was. But still, is this all because of the excessive things I did in Svelera?

Damn it.

Didn’t they say they wanted rain? They wanted water. They wanted rain.

“… ow…”

I hadn’t intended to squeeze her hand, but the sick girl twists her body in an effort to escape.

“I’m sorry, I-”

“What kind of work did you want to do?”

Drawing everyone’s gaze at once, the ten year old’s cheeks redden. With her hands pressed to her sides, she sits there, swaying lightly. Like she was going along with some rhythm, she lightly taps her fingernails on the floor.

“Izura has fast legs so she wanted to become a mail deliverer, right? What kind of work did you want to do, Nina? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I… wanted to be a teacher.”

The sick girl forces a laugh. A crack forms in her fever-dried lips and a thin line of red wells up.

“A teacher, huh? But isn’t being a teacher hard work?”

“But, teachers are awesome. They can write, and they can read books. They can go to school every day.”

“The ones who have to go to school every day are the students, not the teachers.”

“Students hardly ever get to go to school. I mean, they have to work.”

So that’s how it is in Svelera?

The palm I have resting on Nina’s skin gradually begins drawing in the heat. I’m assaulted by waves of pain and my thoughts become blurred by a difficulty to breathe and listlessness. I desperately resist letting my head drop forward by screwing up my eyes.

“What do you want to be, Greta?” Izura asks the younger girl while unconsciously stroking her swollen cheek.

“I…”

Like when I was on the boat, pain and heat run through my body and disperse along my medulla. And then like nothing happened, the heat and weight subside. Did that heal Nina’s cold?

“I wanted to be a child.”

“But you are a child!” everyone yells.

“No. I wanted to be someone’s child, a child with a mother and father.”

Greta’s voice goes back to being young and innocent from the voice low for her age in which I couldn’t read any emotion. Threading her fingers behind her back, she continues tapping on the floor.

“I lived in Svelera’s palace. But I wasn’t a child from there. The last day I saw her, mother told me ‘Greta, from now on you’re a child of Svelera. But those two over there might not raise you as their child. So from now on, you can’t trust anyone. You have to live trusting only in yourself.’” Her mother told her that on their last day together… Hearing her confession, I think of my own mother.

What was the last thing we talked about? It feels like a really long time ago. It was a summer morning. It was the morning of July 28th. The cicadas were buzzing noisily. On my way out to Sea World, my mother handed me a milk pack and said:

“Hey Yuu-chan, is it a girlfriend? A girlfriend? You have to properly introduce her to Mama!”

“No, it’s Murata. Ken Murata.”

“Ah, Murata. Is Murata well? That’s right, while love is important, friendship is even more important.”

I didn’t say goodbye or even see you later. I didn’t even think that I might not ever see her again. My father had left for work and my brother was out camping with his club. I should have at least said a proper farewell.

My nose started to sting. Trying to cover it up, I push my sunglasses back up.

Then I hear the rest of Greta’s words.

“Like my mother said, His Majesty and Her Royal Highness of Svelera didn’t make me their daughter. We didn’t talk and we didn’t even see each other much. But I wanted to be a child of Svelera. So I thought if I did something that they’d like, they would be happy and praise me and make me a child of the country.”

At the topic of the king and queen, Izura and Nina, common citizens, freeze up. Greta’s manly eyebrows are drawn together and her eyelashes are trembling as if she might start crying.

“Four months ago in the castle, there was suddenly a lot of bad talk about the demons. Whenever I happened to meet with His Majesty and Her Royal Highness, all they would talk about was how the demons infuriated them. So I thought if I killed the king in the demon country, His Majesty and Her Royal Highness would be happy and tell me how great I was. I thought they’d make me a child of Svelera.”

A child this young thought of such things.

“So, I made a deal with a demon in the dungeon and we escaped the castle together. They brought me to the castle in the Great Demon Kingdom, and I tried to kill Yuuri.”

She thought up these horrible things with all of her might.

“… I didn’t think he was a good person… They said so many bad things about him, so it didn’t even occur to me that Yuuri could have been a good person. I don’t need to be anyone’s child anymore.”

Tears fall on olive skin.

“I’m sorry, Yuuri.”

“What are you saying!?”

There isn’t really a reason I’m about to cry. The deer and bears and hippos would be crying too if they had tear ducts. In other words, it’s the atmosphere. Yes, the atmosphere is dragging me along.

“What are you saying, Greta!? You’re my hidden child, right!? In other words, you’re not anyone’s kid, you’re already, definitely my child!”

“… Really?”

“Really!”

And I have been dragged along to this.

If my overprotective tutor heard this, it would definitely make him faint. Becoming a father so young… An unmarried, single father and, due to my age, a fashionable daddy. Wait, I’m not fashionable. But please for now, let this be a onetime thing. If I keep on getting kids, I’ll be in trouble. I’m disturbed by my own proclamation. In this situation, I feel inexperienced as both a Demon King and a father.

This emotional scene of becoming a new father was cut off by an unpleasant shriek.

Nina, despite having been in so much pain, threw off my hand and backed up to the wall.

“A demon!? He’s a demon!?”

“Calm down! Calm down, Nina!”

“What do I do!? A demon touched me! A demon touched me! I’ll be cursed! God will definitely punish me!”

Maybe because of the excitement, her complexion is better than a little while ago. It seems that I’ve succeeded in drawing out her will to live. Nina keeps screaming hysterically and hitting the wooden walls with all her might.

“Somebody come! There’s a demon here, a demon! I’m gonna get killed!”

“Why!?”

Standing with her feet apart, Greta enters battle-mode. She has a determined and cool look just like when she came running at me with only a cheap knife in the office at Blood Pledge Castle.

“Why!? He helped you! He was kind to you! Why are you saying that!?”

“… It’s okay, Greta. I’m used to it. You don’t have to get mad.”

“But…”

In Hildyard’s pleasure town, no matter who the person, if they’re a paying customer, they’re accepted. But these girls are citizens of Svelera. Since they’re from a place where you can be thrown into an internment camp just for falling in love with a demon, then I can understand the excessive reaction.

“It’s pretty much always like this. More importantly, if the guards open the door from all this commotion, we can use that opportunity to escape.”

The child gives me a face as if to ask ‘are you okay with that?’ I am okay with that, I’m your dad. Before she can tell me she understands, a presence comes close and stops nearby. After the sound of a key being violently turned in a lock, the door bursts open.

“You guys are noisy-”

“Now!”

We tried to slip past him on both sides, but maybe because I was trying to protect my right ankle, my dash forward was a moment late. A little bit faster than me, the man’s hand grabs the hem of my shirt and I stumble. I pointlessly swing around Windpipe No.1, but it hits nothing but air.

“Yuuri!”

The young but brave child moves to bite the guard’s arm.

“You brat!”

“Greta run! Go back to the hotel and get Conrad-”

Bam! After a dull noise, the man’s eyes roll back into his head and he falls to his knees. From there, he slowly falls forward.

“Go!”

The girl shamelessly exposing her long, sun-tanned legs and wearing the sweater I lent her, is standing there holding a stuffed animal head with both hands.

“Izura… did you hit him with that?”

It doesn’t have a heart, but there are tears in the deer’s eyes as well.

“It’s alright, go. Get away.”

“But then you… Hey, come with us.”

Wild Goat Girl shakes her head.

“Nina’s here.”

That friend is clinging to Izura’s legs, repeatedly asking why she’s helping a demon.

“Because I know he’s a good person. Go, hurry! It’s alright. I’ll just say that this fell.”

“Izura…”

“My mother-”

Greta shouts to the older girl as she lets go of my hand.

“I think my mother would be happy that there’s a just and brave girl who has her name.”

Now that I think about it, the tattoo on Greta’s shoulder was the name of her beloved mother.

Catching the girl’s faint smile in the corner of my eye, we step over the guard’s body and start running. We need to get back to the hotel and rethink our plans. Conrad and Wolfram will definitely lend me their wisdom.

From my first impressions, this building wasn’t all that big. In order to be called a store, they wouldn’t be able to brazenly pursue us in front of other clueless customers.

We run through winding hallways. There were times where we were cut off by people that seemed to be pursuing us, but we got through without any problems after a hit from Windpipe No.1. At first glance, it seemed to be just an old man’s walking stick, but it’s more suited for a career as a weapon than a walking aid. Gisela would grieve if she knew.

Running so many steps I want to look at a pedometer and after going down three staircases, we finally come out into a store-like area. There’s a sparkling chandelier on the high ceiling and more than twenty girls are idling around on a platform.

On sofas set out on the floor, there are customers checking them out and customers who have already decided and are laughing and whispering together.

“… they’re all minors.”

The girls are letting out forced laughs or are silent and staring at the floor or using another of many self-defense techniques. In order for their own hearts to not be broken in this humiliating and unforgiveable act. In order to deal with this for their families.

“Greta, don’t look.”

We pass in front of an old man who’s not even trying to hide his triumphant smile as he sets a girl who’s still a seventh-grader on his knees. He sees the two of us and says something to an employee. A small and weak looking boy tells him that no, they are not from our store. Old man, no way were you looking at my kid like that. If you were, I’ll beat you so hard with this cane that no one will recognize you.

My mood is completely that of a father.

Around a few meters from the exit, I notice some men in black. Of course in reality, they don’t have the guts to wear black and are instead wearing ivory tops and bottoms. I was almost fooled by their pleasant masks, but judging from the bulging shoulders and thick necks, they’re quite the able-bodied bodyguards. And there’s two of them on each side smiling and greeting customers. We’ve got to get by them somehow.

Trying to seem like we’ve finished with our business and are heading home, Greta and I hold hands and walk towards the exit looking like we might just start whistling at any second. Because there’s no way that someone would bring a child into a store like this, maybe I should pretend that I paid for a girl and am bringing them home? But Greta’s looks are the problem. She’s only about ten years old no matter which way you look at her. Now that we’ve come this far, there’s nothing we can do, so I pull out my trump card.

“It was lucky they let us use the bathroom, right, Greta?”

“Yeah.”

“But you were in there so long, Daddy got tired of waiting.”

“It wasn’t that long.”

“Excuse me, sir.”

I jump about four centimeters. With a superficial laugh, the man in ‘black’ calmly steps in front of us, blocking our way.

“Wh-wh-wh -what!?”

“One of the employees says you forgot something.”

There’s nothing to be done. And that was a great idea with the bathroom thing. Our pursuers slowly come up behind us. It probably wasn’t the guard who got hit with the deer head, but I expect a member from some brutish group. No matter which way we run, we’ll be met with defeat. If I could at least get Greta out of here…

Then, in order to greet an incoming customer, the man in black makes a small opening. It’s too small for me, but for a child…

“Now, Greta! Jump over my corpse and go!”

“Oh, that voice…”

At the head of the group of three people overflowing with dignity that just entered, a solidly built man stoops forward to peer at us. He’s an elegantly dressed, middle-aged gentleman.

There’s an intrepid smile under his beige mustache as he grabs my hand with callused fingers.

“Gya!”

Just as I was thinking that he was going to pull it in for a kiss, he rubs his mustache on the back of my hand. That’s just incredibly creepy for an entirely different reason.

“Just as I thought, it’s the man we owe our lives to.”

He kneels while putting his right hand on his hair that's the same color as his mustache.

“Eh!?”

He whips off his wig. Greta raises her voice in wonder. This is the perfect opportunity to understand foreign cultures.

A bald head shining in the light of the chandelier. It’s a foreign country’s elegant greeting of the rich and powerful.

“It’s been a while, Mr. Mitsuemon.”

“… Mr. Shiny..?”

Hyscliff from Misshinai, proudly displaying his polished head, is standing in a model pose with his right foot forward. I’m disoriented by the strong glare.

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