[Leila Asprey Vol. 1] Chapter 2 Part 5: A Lively Den of Cats

SEPTEMBER 24, 2022 ~ FLAMETJD

Leila hummed as she strolled down the street.

This’ll let Cyrille down, but I’m not gonna let myself lose any sleep over it. The Regal Brave’s life may sound very sensational, but it was actually pretty dull and lacked the impetus necessary for growth. Hence, Leila wanted to make the most of this trip to experience lots of new and unknown things. After all, who knew when she’d get another chance to leave the Empire?

Hmm. Though she occasionally saw some dressed in foreign garb, the neighborhood didn’t seem too culturally distinct from the Empire—or rather, the continent. Neither the colors nor textures of their clothing felt particularly different from what she was familiar with. Looks like House Astrid, which hailed from the continent, established this district by gathering their compatriots together. They must’ve traded frequently with the mainland all this time, building it up into what we see today.

Ugh, I wish I could go see the other districts too.

However, she did not want to make Cyrille even angrier (leaving aside whether that consideration was even relevant at this point), so she banished the thought.

I’ll just take a leisurely stroll ‘round these parts and go back after that.

She paused in front of a stall which sold goods made of yarn and cloth. It wasn’t novelty which drew her in, but something else—a puppet of a black-haired boy.

It’s not like that thing looked particularly valuable. It was made of cheap material, and its craftsmanship wasn’t anything out of this world either. It was a labor of love, she conceded, and had been made with painstaking care. But as a product to be sold, it probably wasn’t worth much.

However, there were other reasons why that puppet caught her eye. Say, its head of extremely curly, slightly raised hair and world-weary eyes, wise beyond their years. In short, they reminded her of a certain someone. 

Wandering through a foreign country alone must have made me more lax than usual. Or maybe it’s the fever from all those curses that’s causing me to lose my wits. In any case, an impulse that Leila would normally suppress without a second thought swelled up in her heart.

“Mmm.” She looked about, scanning her surroundings aimlessly.

There weren’t any familiar figures in sight. Even after using all the sensory skills at a Brave’s disposal to probe the area around her, she still hadn’t detected any peeking gazes. In other words, now that she had lost Cyrille, she was free to walk about alone in this foreign land. Nothing she did would embarrass her, nor damage the Regal Brave’s image.

“…Alright.”

After hesitating for a few seconds, she made the purchase, using body language to make up for the language barrier between her and the shopkeeper. She handed over a few notes of the local currency in return for the item she’d wanted.

“Yippee.” All smiles, Leila walked away with a spring in her step. All the while, her thoughts lingered on a certain someone whom the puppet bore a striking resemblance to.

I wonder how he’s doing. Despite knowing how pointless it was to worry about the boy in question, she went ahead and started fretting over him anyway. Then again, he is a Quasi Brave now.

The Quasi Braves were candidates fit to be the Regal Brave, but not selected as such by the Church of Holy Light. Accordingly, that boy wasn’t just any weak and ordinary person. In fact, from the average person’s perspective he would appear to be superhuman in his own right. 

Even so, this fact only brought a moment’s comfort. He’s the kind of guy that once he finds something to protect, he’ll leap into danger without a moment’s hesitation. Leila paused, deep in thought. No, there’s no doubt about it.

That guy has always been like that. Even now, he must be acting recklessly  for someone else’s sake. Be it challenging a foe he has no hope of winning against or engaging in some crazy battle; he’d use any means possible to win by the skin of his teeth. Even if, in doing so, he ends up with so many wounds that it’d cause whoever he was protecting to weep. Yes, that must be the case.

It’s like he doesn’t care how much the people around him worry, no matter how many times they plead for him to give up. That’s how he lived his life all this time, and how he’ll probably be in the future too.

Poor Aly. Always having to lose sleep over that idiot…

She hugged the paper bag containing the puppet tightly against her chest—the real deal wasn’t there, so the puppet had to take the fall.

Thud!

“Oh.”

“Wah!”

Leila bumped into a petite passerby, and her sleeve tore slightly with a rip. Uh. I’m clearly not in my right mind. In her reverie, she’d completely lost focus, which was something that normally never happened.

Strictly speaking, they weren’t that much different in terms of body size, after all, the girl she’d collided with was only around her age.  Nonetheless, there was a world of difference in a trained combatant and an average pedestrian’s sense of balance. It would feel akin to them crashing into a huge statue, and sure enough she was unmoved while the girl was sent sprawling.

“Sorry, I wasn’t looking at where I was going—”

Leila hurriedly reached out a hand to help the girl back to her feet. But then, she caught a look at her face and reflexively called out the name of the person she was just thinking about.

“Aly?!”

Of course, that could not have been the case.

“Who is this ‘Aly’?”

“Oh, um… She’s like… the daughter of someone I know?” Right. Daughter… Whose? Obviously, it can only be that guy’s. Anyway, she lives in a (considerably) rural town in the Empire, so there’s no way she’d be here.

Now that I take a closer look, they aren’t really that much alike…

Leila stared unflinchingly at the person before her—a girl in her early teens, probably not far from her own age by the looks of it. Her black hair wasn’t glossy, and though she wasn’t eye-catchingly beautiful, her serene demeanor gave those around her peace of mind. In that sense, I guess she’s like Aly. Leila almost felt as though she could be forgiven for mistaking her for the girl.

Nevertheless, there were some noticeable differences between the two of them. For one, this girl lived in a tropical climate, so her skin had a healthy tan compared to ‘Aly’s’. And besides that—

They’re really beautiful.

The girl had incredible, silvery-green eyes that seemed to shimmer. Usually, one would liken attractive-looking eyes to gemstones, but there was no gem fit to describe hers. If pressed to make a comparison, she’d say their mirror-like shine looked almost metallic, just like a pair of shiny silver ornaments. Or rather, like beads of pure silver themselves.

“So you’re really good friends with her?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess?”

“Hmm…” The girl leaned forward, gazing at Leila’s face. “That someone you know. Is he handsome?”

Wait, what’s she asking?. Did she figure something out?

“…Let’s see. Who knows? I mean, I don’t look that closely at his face.” Leila consciously shifted her eyes away.

“Yep, I see, I see.” The girl nodded teasingly. 

I take it back, this kid’s nothing like Aly. She’d never smile so wickedly.

The girl called herself Emma. According to her, she lived with her family in one of the outlying districts, close to the sea. When they bumped into each other just now, Leila’s sleeve had torn a little, so she’d accepted Emma’s offer to sew it up at her home.

“Sorry, everything’s all over the place. These children are quite unruly.”

I can definitely see that, Leila thought. The house wasn’t big by any means, and the knocked-over chair, disheveled bedsheets and blankets, unspooled balls of yarn and broken wicker baskets made it look quite shabby.

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It almost looks like a storm swept through this place… No, that wouldn’t really be accurate, would it? After all, the storm’s still raging on. A myriad of colored furballs—she spotted white, black, dark brown and spotted ones—were scurrying excitedly about the house.

“Hey, you guys!”

At Emma’s admonishment, the furballs panicked and rushed to their hiding spots. Just like that, the previously rowdy room settled down in an instant. Only a soft meow could be heard from one of them, though Leila wasn’t sure which.

“The ‘family’ you’re referring to is…”

“Yep, I was referring to them. I lost my parents around six years ago, when an epidemic swept through these parts. I also had an older sister too, but she went missing around then as well.”

Are you kidding? That’s not something to say so lightly, and definitely not with a smile.

“Hey, I’m not lonely, you know. As you can see, I have so much of my family all around me.”

Yeah, there are a surprising number of those little guys here. Loneliness isn’t going to be one of her concerns, I guess…

“Doesn’t this country have orphanages or anything like that?”

“Sure they do. They didn’t take me in, though.” Emma hummed as she worked, swiftly sewing up Leila’s sleeve. I’m handy with this kind of stuff, y’see, she noticed Leila admiring her deft needlework and puffed up with pride.

Aaand there goes the aim of my visit. Despite that, Emma started boiling a kettle of water to make tea, as though she wanted to talk with her for a while more. Fine by me.

“See. Isn’t the color of my eyes amazing? It’s an aftereffect of the epidemic I mentioned earlier, and the people in the city don’t really like to see it. Heard it’s not infectious anymore, but I guess it’s not very nice to dig up painful memories for everyone else, right? Ahaha.” As Emma laughed, her silvery-green eyes narrowed and a kitten sprang onto her leg.

“I actually think it’s very pretty.”

“Thank you. I seldom hear people say that. I’m so glad to have met you, Miss Leila.”

So that’s it. Was that why she brought a traveler whom she’d just bumped into on the street to her home?

“Even so, isn’t it difficult for you to live alone?”

“Well… Not really. Dad left a hefty sum of money, and business is pretty good here in the Furuami District, so there’s lots of jobs for a kid like me.”

“I see…”

Leila beheld Emma’s eyes once again. She claims that it’s the aftereffect of some illness, but that just doesn’t quite seem right to me. It reminds me of a half-finished canvas. Like someone wanted to paint an intricate picture, but ran out of colors right after the initial layer.

What is it… Right, it’s almost like the effect of a curse. If someone wanted to turn a human into something else but exhausted their power midway, it would probably result in something like this.

“Lei… Miss Leila, you’re too close!” Suddenly, the kitten was lifted up and pressed against Leila’s face.

“Ah, sorry,” she apologized, with the (very warm) kitten still stuck to her cheek. She’d been too engrossed in those silvery-green eyes and had unknowingly closed the distance between them.

“So, what about you, Miss Leila? You’re not from here, right? Are you accompanying your parents on a business trip?”

“Hmm? Uh…”

She thought for a bit. How should I put it? Her Regal Brave duties were currently on hold, not to mention she wasn’t going to reveal her identity just like that. Besides, even if I did, who’s to say that she’d know what I’m talking about?

“A mercenary, or maybe a bodyguard… something like that.”

“Your father, you mean?”

“No, me.”

“Huh?” Emma looked her over. “But… you’re still a kid, right? I mean, surely you aren’t that much older than me?”

“Yep, that’s right. But if you think about it, wouldn’t you lower your guard when facing a child?”

“Isn’t this kind of job pretty dangerous though?”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m actually really, really strong.” Leila grinned. In her mind, she knew her every word to be true, even if  “really strong” didn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Still fits, though.

“There really are all sorts of people in this world,” Emma commented, impressed. “So, if I’m ever in danger, would you come save me?”

“We-ll, that’s a bit hard to say. I mean, I am still running a business. No such thing as a free lunch, y’know?”

“Ah, I see. Then how much would I have to pay?”

“It’s reeeally pricey, okay?” Leila replied jokingly.

Hmm. Now that you mention it, what would the price be? The duty of the Regal Brave is to eliminate the enemies of humankind, not to protect any specific individual. If I were to collect a protection fee though, how much should I charge?

“No discount for a friend?”

“Uh… Sure. I’ll just knock off a few zeroes when the time comes.”

“Great.”

Another kitten nudged her leg. Hey, what’s the big idea? You think buttering me up like this will clinch a better bargain for your owner? I wasn’t born yesterday, you know. I ain’t falling for these cheap tricks. If you wanna get your discount, you’d best bring out the big guns. C’mon and let me hug you.

The kitten meowed.

“Will you be staying in Basilfeld for the time being?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes, I suppose I am. Not sure how long it’ll take to settle my affairs here.”

Personal grievances aside, she did have faith in Adelaide’s skills. But, since Seniolis was so special, even by Kaliyon standards, she thought it prudent to dial down the optimism for the time being.

“Come over and have a chat with me again. I’d love to hear more about your country.”

“Uh, about that… Hmm.” Though she had her reservations, she still agreed in the end. “Alright, I’ll pay you a visit again soon.”

“That’s a promise.” Emma smiled, the edges of her silvery-green eyes lifted up slightly in delight.

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