Chapter 4: 4

Volume 1 Chapter 4: The Silver-Haired Celesti and the Black-Haired Melody

Two days after Celesti left Anavares, two men came to the mayor’s office.

Although the traveling clothes they wore appeared plain, the atmosphere hanging around the men suggested the two were anything but commoners.

Of the two, the man with long, blue hair wore a serious expression as he considered the situation. His red-haired companion, on the other hand, had a sleepy look, but a hard glint in his eyes suggested he was carefully watching the mayor. Under the watchful gaze, the mayor began to grow nervous.

After a brief moment, the blue-haired man began speaking.

“Please excuse us for the sudden visit, Mister Mayor. I am Sevre, and my companion is Lect.”

When Sevre introduced himself and Lect as knights serving under Count Reginbars, the mayor audibly gulped in nervousness.

For what purpose did someone as powerful as Count Reginbars, the prime minister’s assistant and close confidant to the king, send knights to the small town of a foreign country?

“In truth, this is a top secret mission… by direct order of His Excellency the Count, we are searching for a certain person.”

The man calling himself Sevre withdraws a palm-sized picture frame from his pocket to present to the mayor – it is a portrat of a beautiful, brown-haired woman. The mayor becomes entranced for a brief moment but recognizes the woman to be…

“…Celena?”

“Do you know who this is!?”

“Y-yes, I do. She is a little younger in this picture, but I am certain this is Celena.”

“At last, we have found her! We finally have good news for His Excellency!”

Sevre leapt excitedly from his seat, his face exuberant. The lands of Count Reginbar were close to the royal capital, so the knights must have traveled a great distance in search of their objective. Knowing of their long journey, the mayor had an uncomfortable look on his face.

“…Is there a problem? Was there something else, mayor?”

Lect, noticing the hesitant expression, quietly questions the mayor. Sevre soon calmed down to follow-up.

“…Mister Mayor?”

“Ah, um… Celena… has already passed on.”

“–Wha?!”

“It was about half a year ago. She became sick from the epidemic and died.”

Sevre fell back onto the couch as though all his strength had disappeared.

“Um… with all due respect, why is our esteemd Count searching for Celena?”

The indisposed Sevre was unable to answer; instead, it was Lect who responded.

“This is another confidential matter. It seems His Excellency the Count and Lady Celena were lovers for a time. However, His Excellency’s father, the previous Count, refused to accept their union on account of their difference in status and separated the lovers. It was only after his father’s death five years ago that His Excellency inherited the Count title and began his search for Celena, but… it seems we were too late.”

The mayor’s eyes widened in shock but not because he learned of the tragic love between Celena and the Count.

“How could this be?! That would mean Celesti is..!”

“Celesti? Who is this Celesti?”

“She is Celena’s daughter.”

” “Celena’s daughter?!” “

Sevre and Lect shouted in surprise at the mayor’s unexpected announcement.

“Was Lady Celena married?”

The mayor shook his head to refute Sevre’s question.

“She wasn’t married? Then her daughter must be.. It can’t be?!”

“She first arrived here about thirteen years ago, with Celesti in her arms.

“Th-then how old is she now?! And how does she look?! What kind of girl is she?!”

“Celesti turns fifteen this year. She is a lovely girl with her mother’s lapis eyes, and her silver hair, swaying as she walks, glimmers beautifully in the light.

” “‘Silver hair, you say?!” “

Celena’s hair was brown, so Celesti must have inherited her silver hair from her father.

Silver hair was extremely rare in this country, and considering the remaining factors, Celesti’s father would have to be..”

“Where can we find Lady Celesti? We must meet with her at once!”

“She left on a lone journey to heal from the grief of losing her mother. She said she would be heading west, to the neighboring country.”

“What in the world?! A young woman traveling alone is just asking for danger, no matter the destination!”

“We all tried to talk her out of it, but in the end, we couldn’t change her mind. She left two days ago, so by now she must have already departed Trendivars on the regular carriage service to the next country.

Shortly thereafter, Sevre and Lect departed from the mayor’s residence to begin their search for Celesti.

“I’ll head westward to the neighboring country in pursuit of the young mistress. Lect, you should return to the Count immediately and report our findings!”

“…I am reluctant for us to move separately, but it seems we are out of options. I’m entrusting the search to you, Sevre.”

“You can leave it to me!”

The two mounted their horses and set off in opposite directions: Sevre at a furious pace westward and Lect towards the eastern road to the royal capital

But before he left the city, Lect noticed a petite, black-haired girl carrying a travel bag.

The girl wore a green dress as new to her as she is to walking; her anxious glances and worried looks all but gave away how unfamiliar she was with traveling

Because of her nervousness, or perhaps because it was actually a quirk of fate, Lect called out to the girl.

“Are you lost, little la… dy?”

Lect felt his words catch in his throat when the girl turned to look back at him; her stunning beauty had caught him off-guard, and a single observation overtook his thoughts: “she’s beautiful.”

Raven hair framed her well-shaped face, and pupils like large black pearls in her eye glinted against the light. Her youthful features hinted at her age, and she seemed to be at the ephemeral border of flourishing womanhood. Lect, reeling from an unexpected beauty, felt his heart skip a beat.

“U-um… could you tell me where I should be going for the carriage service headed to the royal capital?”

“O-oh, for that, its over there.”

Lect pointed to a sign that read “Regular Carriage Service: Royal Capital”.

“Oh, you’re right! Thank you so much for showing me! You really helped me out!”

A big smile spread across the girl’s face as she bowed her thanks to Lect, and she quickly ran off to board her carriage.

“…Is she traveling alone? The carriage service’s public transit system should be safe, but…”

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Lect lost sight of the girl as her figure quickly disappeared into the crowd, but her innocent, unguarded smile from a moment ago resurfaced in his mind.

He cannot help but worry about the girl, but he could not afford to let his personal thoughts distract him from his urgent mission.

“…I should return to the capital. I need to report back to His Excellency as soon as possible.”

Thus Lectias Frodo, age twenty-one, began his return journey to the royal capital before the carriage service departs.

He took another quick backward glance at the carriage, hoping to spot the girl from before, but to no avail.

After one final sigh, Lect recomposed his thoughts and looked towards his destination.

The state-owned ‘Regular Carriage Service’ project started seven years ago. This public transit system was designed to ease the burdens of long-distance travel, listing out departure and arrival schedules and standardizing transportation fare. The government would even arrange overnight lodging, camping accomodations, and even security escorts where necessary – a very convenient service for travelers, indeed.

“The carriage service is truly helpful. Without it, I would have had go on foot because I don’t have the kind of money to rent a carriage for myself! Did you say it was the current crown prince that came up with this system?”

“The project officially began seven years ago, but the proposal for it happened about a year before.”

“I believe the crown prince and I are about the same age, so… he would’ve been six years old! There are some really amazing people in this world, aren’t there?”

“Heh, that’s true.”

“Thank you for sharing such an interesting story with me, Max.”

“Not at all, I also enjoyed talking with you, Melody.

While riding the capital-bound carriage, Celesti had struck up a conversation with her fellow passenger, a young man named Max.

As an aside, it was here that Celesti first took on her new name: “Melody Wave”.

Of course, “Melody Wave” is a name adapted from “Mizunami Ritsuko”: “Melody” refers to the meaning of senritsu, a word sharing the ritsu character of her given name, while “Wave” is the definition of the nami character of her family name. Thus, “Mizunami Ritsuko” becomes “Melody Wave”.

Today marked the third day of the estimated ten days of travel. The journey thus far has been quite peaceful; the only notable event had been on the first day, when Melody had gotten lost and could not find her carriage’s boarding area.

For having shown her the way, Melody felt immense gratitude toward the kind, red-haired stranger.

“Now that I think about it, the carriage driver seems to be quite skilled. It’s amazing, really.”

Max muttered such an observation quietly to himself. Sitting beside Melody, Max’s profile was on full display, and it seems some of the other female passengers have fallen victim to his looks.

The sixteen-year-old Max was only a year older than Melody, yet his looks – his beautifully androgynous face, tied-back honey-blonde hair, and soft emerald eyes – would inevitably draw the attention of women around him.

“Is something the matter?”

“It’s this carriage: this whole time we’ve felt nary a shake since the journey began, and the road to the capital should still be incomplete.”

As Max stated, the carriage was traveling along an unpaved dirt road. The ground itself showed signs of use, and the old wheel ruts and scattered bits of rock dotting the path should have caused quite the uncomfortable experience.

With a road in this condition, how did the carriage keep from jostling its passengers this way and that? Max could not help but wonder.

“… The road is in quite rough, isn’t it? Oh, it seems I have to recast it. Cease the quaking, Even GroundOrizontale.”

Were you aware of suspension, specifically of the automobile sort? A vehicle’s suspension is what dampens the shock of movement, including the up-down impact when going over road bumps, the front-back impact from applying brakes, and the left-right impact when making a turn.

However, vehicular suspension was a modern invention; if one were to inquire as to whether European carriages in the Middle Ages came equipped with such a system, the answer would be a most definitely “no”.

That being said, the road on the first day of travel was fine; it seemed the Margraviate of Avarenton performed regular maintaince to keep their throughfare well-prepared in case of emergencies.

However, starting on the second day, after leaving the demesne of the margrave, it seemed as though the carriage had entered a special sort of roadway hell – a real culture shock for any unexperienced traveler.

Beyond the margrave’s territory, unpaved roads marked the carriage’s travel path.

The carriage would not stop violently shaking and bumping its passengers around. Naturally, all this jostling about had caused Melody to become motion sick.

(Th-this… isn’t good. If we keep moving like this, my dignity as a fair maiden will… Urp…)

And so Melody secretly used magic to compensate for the lack of suspension.

Her new spell used gravity-type magic to act as a shock absorber and buffer the carriage against the bumping and jolting. As the spell only affected the riding experience, the carriage continued to appear as normal from the outside.

Melody herself does not quite know the mechanics and theory behind her spell, but what did it matter? The important part was, Melody just wanted to alleviate her motion sickness.

After ten days of travel, the carriage arrived as scheduled at Partesia, the royal capital.

“You showed some amazing driving skills! Thanks for the smooth trip!”

“H-huh? Uh, thank you, I think?”

While Melody’s magic had shielded the carriage’s interior from the shaking and bouncing of traveling the unpaved roads, the coachman’s seat had been outside that protective influence. The journey was, as a result, no different for the driver than it usually was, and he could only express confusion when receiving praise.

It seems this particular driver is going to experience some hardship once word of his skills and unshaking carriage spreads…

Meanwhile, Melody, oblivious to the misfortune she has unknowingly sown, was sharing parting words with Max.

“Melody, your goal is to become a maid, correct? Your next step should be to visit the Commerce Guild. Even if you don’t have a letter of reference, they can still help you find work as a servant for a middle-class family.

“Thank you for your help, Max. I’ll be doing just that, then.”

“You made the trip quite enjoyable for me, Melody, so consider this my thanks.”

“Not at all, the pleasure was all mine! Well then, until our next meeting, be well, Max!”

With a large smile on her face, Melody waved her goodbye as she set off. Max smiled back, continuing to watch over Melody as her figure disappeared into the distance.

“…If I could, I would’ve hired you myself, but father would never allow it.”

Once Melody was out of sight, Max turned around.

“I’ve kept you waiting.”

“I am pleased to welcome you back, Lord Maxwell.”

A butler-like valet was standing behind Max, having materialized without notice. After a polite bow in greeting, the man led Max to a splendid carriage.

“Then, if you would excuse my boldness, what did you make of the situation?”

“It was so-so, I suppose. For the time being, let us return home. I have a report on highway maintenance in the west for the crown prince.”

“Before you do that, the master wishes to know of your plans regarding the upcoming Spring Ball and the partner you intend to escort.”

“I don’t intend to escort anyone.”

“Be that as it may, it is inadvisable that the young Lord Maxwell, the eldest son of His Lordship the esteemed prime minister, attend a social event by his lonesome.”

“…Your concerns are unnecessary. If by chance I find a suitable partner to escort, I will make the proper arranagements.”

Thus Maxwell Lycents, the son of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Theolas, began the final leg of his journey home. As an afterthought, he noticed the carriage he had just disembarked was more comfortable than the one he currently rode.

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