Episode 67. The Road to Philimond (4)
The next day, as the sun rose, the Blue Cat was given the go-ahead to enter the Philimond River.
The rivers of the metropolis were wide.
There are several perfectly fortified ports. Most of the large ships are anchored in ports adjacent to the sea, while smaller ships like the Blue Cat head towards the city center.
“Now we will anchor the ship.”
Acook and Warak were busy. The leisure of last night was nowhere to be found, and the two giants’ faces were clearly tense. After all, they had to successfully go through legal procedures in Philimond to gain ownership of the ship.
After the ship was safely anchored at the ferry, all passengers and crew disembarked from the Blue Cat. As soon as they disembarked, a view of the White City unfolded before them.
From the Naru checkpoint to all the buildings behind it, without a single exception, everything was white. Even the clothing of the residents.
Thud thud.
The white-robed guards approached them as they stood in front of the ship.
“Two groups of passengers and two crew members.”
When we reported about the Blue Cat in a warm and polite manner, the guards reported the fact to the checkpoint. After that, the Blue Cat party was divided into three groups according to the checkpoint procedure.
The Rubin family, the Witherspoons, the bloodthirsty siblings.
The first to enter the checkpoint were Chloe and Celestia.
Chloe walked up the stairs with her blonde hair flowing. Just before entering the building, she looked back at Rubin and his group and waved her hand leisurely.
Was it a minute since Witherspoon and her maid entered?
Suddenly, the area around the checkpoint became noisy as if a fire had broken out. An emergency was declared due to the appearance of an imperial noble, and especially the appearance of a young lady from the family. The people in white who had looked solemn were busy running around in a panic.
“We brought those kinds of people on board.”
“Who would believe me if I told you I played a board game with the Imperial Aristocrat passengers last night?”
Warak and Awoo looked up at the checkpoint with curious eyes. Rubin also smiled as he remembered the noisy night they had last had.
“When I play board games, the humiliation of last night comes to mind.”
Kuze glared at the cat and let out a sharp word. He ground his teeth as he remembered his crushing defeat.
Rubin and Kuze sided with each other, opposing Witherspoon’s side and the giant’s side. Rubin, who had no interest in board games, moved the game pieces indifferently, but Kuze was quite enthusiastic.
The problem, however, was that there was a cat that was training Kuze through messengers.
Tina was the one who practically controlled Kuze, saying things like, “This is a frustrating Roynenser!” and “Oh my, I’m going to die from frustration!”
“Every time I lost my game piece, Lady Celesne would look at me with such contempt… … .”
An unprecedented sleepless night. As Kuze was muttering as he recalled the night before, Celesne, who had entered the checkpoint, strode back towards them.
It would have been fine if Celestia had come alone, but Chloe was with her.
“Miss, I said I would greet you on behalf of the representative.”
Celestia’s persuasion was of no use.
Chloe walked briskly toward the group to greet them. Dozens of people, including the checkpoint chief, rushed out behind her, but Chloe paid no attention, as if she was used to it.
“Goodbye, Luden! Don’t neglect your magic studies!”
Chloe offered her hand for a handshake. Behind her, dozens of white-clad men looked in this direction. Pedestrians on the street also noticed the sight and poked their heads out to look.
-Your Majesty, I have attracted too much attention.
When Rubin tried to reach out to Chloe in return, Kuze sent a message with the assassin’s judgment of the situation.
-It seems that our actions may be restricted in the future.
-No, I think it turned out well.
-yes?
-Thanks to that, they’ll be able to find me a little faster.
Over there? Kuze looked at Rubin with eyes that seemed to be uncomprehending. Does this mean that someone in Philimond will come looking for Rubin? The chaotic atmosphere did not give Kuze the opportunity to immediately resolve his curiosity.
“See you later, Chloe.”
“okay!”
It was a greeting left under the assumption that they might see each other again. Chloe and Celesne seemed to have understood it as a courtesy greeting.
Celestia didn’t forget her bloodthirsty siblings either.
“Wow, cozy. Since Miss Chloe herself has spoken, the legal process will be much simpler.”
“Thank you, Miss! Lady Celestia!”
Chloe smiled and shook her head.
“No, I’m the one thanking you! Thanks to you, I was able to see Actonia too. How wonderful it was!”
It was a fortunate thing for Rubin, too.
Thanks to Chloe’s favor, Rubin’s burden was eased. Originally, Rubin had to step in as a guarantor for the bloodthirsty siblings to be recognized as the owner of the Blue Cat. It must have been a difficult and tedious process. However, thanks to a few words from Chloe, didn’t they buy some time?
“And Mr. Kuze.”
Now all that remained was the farewell between Celestia and Kuze. The cat that was being held flinched and meowed, perhaps because of Kuze’s mood.
“Take this.”
What Celestia was holding in her hand was a small envelope.
“Could this be… a letter?”
“No. It’s a warning.”
“yes?”
“Meow meow meow.”
Tina struggled to escape Kuze’s arms and tried to hug Rubin, but Rubin turned his head away.
“Then we’ll go!”
The chaotic farewell ended with Kuze accepting Celesne’s warning.
Chloe and Celestia walked up the street to transfer to the Poniark, and dozens more people in white swarmed behind them.
“Tina! What on earth have you done? A warning, huh?”
“Meow? Meow?”
“Kuje, it’s our turn now. Let’s go up.”
“Ha. What the heck… … .”
The two men climbed the stairs. Perhaps because it was right after the great event of the appearance of the imperial aristocracy, the checkpoint was unusually eerie.
A single guard sits silently in front of the checkpoint table.
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“… … .”
“Should I fill out an entry document?”
Rubin, standing opposite the guard, asked softly. At the same time, Kuze’s eyes, looking down at the guard, became strange.
-Your Majesty, this guard… … .
-Yeah, he’s the assassin’s swordsman.
The guard was also surprised. He must have just felt the darkness.
The guard’s eyes darted around, then looked back and forth between Rubin and Kuze. He seemed to be trying hard to hide his confusion, perhaps because they were unexpected visitors.
-Did you know?
-I could sense this person’s dark side ever since I got off the boat. But I think he’s only just realized it now.
I had heard that there were several assassins dispatched to Philimond. However, the fact that they were guards was information that even Kuze had difficulty reaching.
Originally, Rubin would have been in the same position, but Rubin had an experience before his return. In reality, they were distributed across various occupations and statuses, and guards and civil servants were no exception.
“… Oh, yes. Please write it here.”
The guard, who had regained his senses, held out a piece of paper in front of Rubin. Rubin picked up the quill and filled in the blanks. Name, affiliation, age, purpose of visit.
at that time.
“… … !”
Kuze gulped. The document he had just finished writing contained something unexpected.
-Rubin Roinen.
That was Rubin’s real name. He should have used the pseudonym Luden Poinen instead.
‘Could it be a mistake?’
No. The Rubin he knows wouldn’t make such a mistake.
Then Kuze thought of what Rubin had said, “They’ll find me sooner.” So was he intentionally revealing his Roinen bloodline?
-Your Majesty, what do you intend?
-Both.
Then he added one more thing.
-Both the Imperial Order and the Assassin Swordsman.
This guard will be faithful to his duty. He will report without fail that an Assassin, and the youngest son of House Roinen, has entered Philimond.
The first report target was other assassins on duty within Philimond. After that, the second report target was the Imperial Commission. The liaison between the Imperial Commission and the Assassin’s Mandate. That would be this vassal’s role.
So where should the people in the imperial commission who received the report report this fact?
The palace?
No. Even if the target was the youngest son of the Roinen family, there was no need to do that. Besides, Rubin was currently on his way to the official annex, so there was nothing to criticize.
However, the royal decree will definitely convey this fact to Mayor Philimond.
‘Mayor of Philimond, and Attorney General of the Empire.’
On the one hand, he was a distant relative of Rubin. He was the very person Rubin had been waiting for to find.
“Please pass through.”
Rubin nodded and passed through the checkpoint and into the street, quickly blending in with the crowd of people dressed entirely in white.
That moment.
Dozens of crows flew up into the sky at once. Passersby looked up at the sky anxiously, wondering what kind of strange omen this was.
Kaaaaaaah.
Grrrrr!
Rubin and Kuze walked silently. The Roinecros’ busy flights continued as new intelligence spread, drawing dozens of black lines across the sky of the White City.
* * *
“Ah, no! What, what, what the hell!”
A scream echoes from the innermost room of the hotel. The letter in my hand trembles.
Rubin closed the book he was reading and looked at Kuze, who was trying to suppress his excitement.
The truth has finally been revealed. Why was Celesne so cold to Kuze, and even despised? What kind of negative feelings did Tina, who transformed into Kuze when she defeated the demon, have for Celesne?
“…Lady Tina? Is this letter full of everything, really true? No? Lady Celesne, are you joking?”
“Hmm… I guess so. That maid Celes, she really doesn’t know how to joke. Did she really write a novel?”
Kuze took a deep breath. Phew. Phew.
“You said that you approached Celestine, who was cooking, and said this? With one hand holding a cherry and the other an apple. ‘When I first got on the boat, my heart was full of cherries, but in a few days, it turned into an apple?’… What kind of nonsense is that!”
“Kuze, it was an inevitable strategy for me. You have to understand.”
“Huh? What strategy!”
“That maid kept saying that she had to check on Rubin’s condition again. You two are out of your minds because of the demon. That’s why I thought we had to take his soul out.”
“So you’re saying you confessed your love?”
“At least we succeeded in taking the soul out, right?”
Kuze was almost sobbing, holding onto the thick front paws of the cat that was on the bed.
Celesne’s heartfelt letter contained a detailed list of facts that Rubin had not yet known. These were each and every one of the antics that Kuze had committed in front of Celesne that day.
Among them, there were some shocking words and actions that went beyond embarrassing and far exceeded Rubin’s expectations.
-Kuze said, ‘If I could dive deep into your heart like the Blue Cat… I would never have to set foot on land again.’
He also used such strange and terrible language. ‘Just wait and see, Celestia. No matter how much you hide your heart with dragon scales, you will slowly be eroded by my permeating charm.
Judging from the content of the letter alone, Kuze was full of pretense, spoke in a very sentimental way, and was no different from a manic patient who used a lot of vulgar humor.
As Tina said, it would have been enough to take Celes’ soul away, but there was nothing that could be done about the image of Kuze as a crazy person.
-… He has said countless other horrible things that are too horrible to even put into words. If you say such things to me again, I will have no choice but to go to Philimond and file a formal complaint for defamation and insult. If that is not enough, I will have no choice but to challenge you to a duel of honor to the death. I warn you earnestly, Mr. Kuze. Remember. Never… … to me again.
Quasi-snap.
Kuze, who had belatedly learned the meaning of Celesne’s ‘warning’, could no longer bear it and tore the letter to shreds. His eyes, filled with hotter resentment than ever before, were turned towards Tina.
Tina hurriedly made an excuse.
“Ku, ku, kooze! Listen carefully. If you were in my shoes, you would understand, right?”
“… … .”
“Oh, no. Just think of it as a blessing. What if, by any chance, that maid had really been seduced? Huh? It would have been a bigger headache.”
This time, Tina even spouted nonsense. Kuze let out a heartless laugh.
“ha ha ha.”
“Ku, Kuze? Why are you laughing? D, have you finally gone crazy?”
“haha……!”
Rubin, judging that it would not lead to bloodshed, left the two bickering and stood up from his seat and headed to the window.
The book he was holding was about the legal procedures for Warak and Awoogi to gain recognition of ownership of the Blue Cat.
Now, the bloodthirsty siblings were resting in the accommodation across the street. The work of going together to the administrative judge to receive the ownership transfer was scheduled to be completed tomorrow.
‘I have to go there.’
There was a place to see before that. A place you absolutely had to see before it got dark.
Tina and Kuze are still arguing. Rubin approaches Kuze and hands him the pure white clothes provided by Philimond City.
“Kuje, Tina. Get ready to go out.”
To get around this city where everything is white, you also have to wear white clothes.
“Rubin, should I go too?”
“Of course. I don’t want another accident to happen.”
“I didn’t mean to cause trouble, I was just fulfilling my role… Okay, okay. I’m hungry, so I’ll go with you. So where should we go?”
Rubin opened the window. A view of the city filled with white unfolded before him.
People in white. White buildings. White carriages running on white roads. White barrels and white flower pots. And white doves.
But there was a spot in the distance. It was a spot that looked pitch black, as if ink had been spilled on a white piece of paper.
“excuse me.”
“excuse me?”
Tina asked as she climbed up onto the windowsill.
By the way, Tina, who is a black cat, also had to be transformed again. A white mouse or a white cat would be appropriate.
“If it’s over there… Could it be the black zone?”
Rubin nodded. Kuze, who had been despairing at Tina’s misdeeds, also turned his head in surprise.
“The black zone? Your Highness, you’re not planning on going in there, are you?”
Rubin nodded, but the words that came out of his mouth were something entirely different.
“Not today.”
“Oh, always, Eun? You, really, why are you doing that? Are you crazy?”
Rubin turned his gaze out the window again.
In this city, which looked like a bucket of white paint had been poured over it, the only area that was completely blackened, otherwise known as the ‘death zone’, was captured in Rubin’s eyes.
