LETTER 5

Miss March—

My trials have, literally, only just begun.

Yatzil—technically Queen Yatzil, since she was coronated Regent Queen of the Merfolks just a month after the Demon King was defeated, but anyway—was more than happy to oblige my request (and destroy my letter afterwards) after I explained to her the circumstances regarding Sir Tanaka (I suppose this is a decent advantage to loving the same person!), but this did not solve the issue at hand.

Well, issues at hand.

The first was that my request to Yatzil was but a stopgap in the investigation. The Kingdom of Admari stood right next to the Yax Ch’el Yabnal, the undersea palace where the Merkingdom royalty resides. The only thing separating the two were the ports and beaches of Admari, and the Admarians have long agreed with the merfolks that the limits of their kingdom change as the tides do—anything the sea touches belongs to the merfolks, while anything above it belongs to the humans. In other words, what I told the messengers was a warning: their kingdom lies next to a powerful and staunch ally of Sir Tanaka, who wields the power of the seas at her fingertips, who would flip this world over just to find her husband should anything happen to him.

The Admarians and merfolks have assisted each other in many things over many centuries, but they were not, as one would put it, friendly. They aren’t hostile, at least, but they definitely have animosities that have lasted for quite a while. This did not help when the entire Sir Hector debacle occurred. Oh, Yatzil was so angry at the time, and she was Princess to the Merfolks. We almost witnessed diplomatic severance firsthand.

… though, if I were to be fair, we almost witnessed diplomatic severance a few times, the most fatal of which being the Kingdom of Diutiscus … but that’ll be a story for another time.

The second issue was that the Admarian messengers came to the hearing significantly more prepared than I expected.

We were called into the Royal Court two hours before lunchtime. The usual attendance was there: the King’s advisors, heads of noble families relating to various facets of the government, the Holy Empire Ambassador in case this issue escalates to something the Holy Empire would need to intervene in … and the King Himself, looking as calm and crooked as always. I never understood how Miss Colette could be related to this man. He had none of her grace and charm, and whereas Miss Colette was a reassuring presence to have by my side, the presence of Rex Lenamontis was very much that of constant pressure. His eyes were cold and calculating, and the aging lines on His face betrayed His age. One look at him and anyone would know that this was a man who could never sleep soundly at night without being awakened after only two hours thanks to a nightmare Goddess-knows where from.

Coming with me in her blazing red dress that was eclipsed only by her dark hair was Miss Scarlet, dressed to the teeth without forgetting to showcase her membranous wings and dark, thin tail. Her curved horns were in full display as well, as if she wanted to remind everyone that despite being a stunning beauty, she was also still a demon—I wasn’t really sure what she tried to accomplish, but she said that apparently Sir Tanaka praised that look on her once, so she stuck with it for formal occasions.

Such as this hearing.

We arrived at the Court earlier than the Admarian messengers, but it didn’t mean that we had much time to get our stories straight or the like. Apparently, the messengers originally appealed for Sir Tanaka to also appear in Court, but—and I learned of this only after the fact—the King decided to lean upon presumption of innocence, since Sir Tanaka was our Hero. The least they could do was spare him suspicious looks from the Court until it became clear that he was involved.

(I get the feeling that it was more Rex Lenamontis trying to make sure that He could hold anyone back from antagonizing Sir Tanaka until it became absolutely necessary, but there’s really no telling with Him.)

The messengers were definitely not happy with that, because their faces were nothing if not deep red by the time they appeared, as if they’d been holding their breaths for far too long. They were fuming at the mouth and steaming out their ears. I could understand Mister de la Fleuve, since he did seem like the temperamental type from the way he handled our prearrangement, but Lord du Pont’s more experienced messenger? Difficult to imagine. Except, of course, either something went really wrong in the meantime, or that this was a deliberate attempt to make themselves look legitimately angry on behalf of their kingdom.

Either way, after all the preceding procedures, the hearing finally began in earnest.

This time, Lord du Pont’s messenger—whose name I learned was Adrian le Bleu—took the lead in presenting the case. Most of the information he provided was the same as when both messengers visited me, except for one notable difference.

“This is a record of an illegal intrusion into Admarian territory, by means of Loulonge River, by a small, unmarked boat,” Mister le Bleu said, providing a written sheet of testimony with the Admarian Mark stamped there. “Our Safety Commission handled the case as that of intrusion, but upon investigation, we found that the boat belonged to a Lenamontis trader who performed regular, checked shipments into Admari through the same river.”

A Court official retrieved the documents, submitting them to Rex Lenamontis, who read each paper carefully.

“This boat had never before entered Admarian territory under illegal pretenses,” Mister le Bleu continued. “It had always been used as means of business logistics, and nothing more. However, that night, the boat entered Admarian territory with no cargo. The boatman, under our interrogation, refused to disclose any further details, as can be seen from his testimony in that report.”

Mister le Bleu threw me a sharp, menacing look.

“The boatman is presently still in our custody, and we are in the middle of discussing this with the Lenamontis merchant in whose employ the boatman works. However, what made this notable to us was the timing of the incident.”

Mister le Bleu pointed his finger at me, to the slight flinch of everyone in Court. That was rude, but I suppose he really wanted to make a point.

“The boatman arrived at night in Admarian territory the same night that Mister le Clerc’s slave compound was attacked. Being the only thing out of place, it only makes sense that our King suspected the involvement of an individual from Lenamontis in this attack!”

I really wanted to immediately raise my voice—something along the lines of, and why are you pointing at me? Do you mean to say that I was the assailant? But I refrained.

“Your Highness,” I said instead, addressing Rex Lenamontis, “that is circumstantial.”

“It is a reasonable assumption!”

“With no real proof! The boatman hasn’t even admitted to anything!”

“True enough—but compounded with eyewitness reports? Surely Your Highness can understand why we would very much like Hero Tanaka to be here. He could answer with truthful testimony under the Holy Empire’s Veracity Purview, and we could put our King’s suspicions to rest once and for all.”

And, just like that, Miss Scarlet suddenly spoke up: “There will be no need for that.”

Everything suddenly fell quiet.

All eyes were directed at Miss Scarlet, who was smiling her usual confident smile.

Easing the tension, Rex Lenamontis was the first to respond. “And why is that, Lady Darkhide?”

“Your Highness, I must first ask—have you heard of Cataclysm?”

The King nodded. “Yes, I believe it was mentioned in Lady Vanaseid’s thesis for the new foundational magic theory … I believe she called it all the Arcane Arts now?”

Miss Scarlet nodded in affirmation. “A Cataclysm is, in short, a power not unlike a Miracle. It just runs on an entirely different set of rules … probably something akin to the difference between taking a carriage and a boat to the port—they are both means of transportation, and both arrive at the same destination, but they function on very different grounds.”

“Your Highness, I’m very sorry, but—” Mister de la Fleuve extended an arm in Miss Scarlet’s general direction, as if to showcase something, “—why are we listening to a demon?”

Everyone in Court just looked at each other in the eye, shifting uncomfortably. Rex Lenamontis visibly scowled. He cleared His throat.

“I’m not sure whether you’ve heard, Mister de la Fleuve,” He started, “but Lady Scarlet Darkhide is a preeminent scholar with a long list of contributions that can be confirmed with the Sage of the Ages, Lady Dreyhilda Vanaseid, herself.”

The expression on Mister de la Fleuve’s face was indescribable. I could almost see him running through a whole list of responses in his head, ranging from, well that can’t be! to something along the lines of, then Lenamontis is complicit with demonkind this whole time?

I need to be clear about this, Miss March: everyone knows Miss Scarlet. She was the cause of a whole debacle back when Sir Tanaka decided to bring her into the fold—she was in fact the only Archdemon who defected from the Demon King. We never truly knew demonkind, so many of us were very wary (and imagine those of us who lost friends and families to the demons in the War!), but Sir Tanaka helped ease her into our lives; over time, she started showing us sides we never knew demonkind could have, and we learned to trust her. Lady Dreyhilda was especially delighted by Miss Scarlet’s company, both to sate her intellectual curiosity and, as it turned out, as a good friend.

While Mister de la Fleuve still shuffled through his alternatives, Mister le Bleu was quicker on the uptake. “I humbly hope for Your Highness to not consider this as impudence. Mister de la Fleuve is … not truly adjusted to having to directly converse with one of demonkind, of which, I must profess, I am no different.”

Chalking it up to inexperience was a clever dodge. It is true that Sir Tanaka’s longer-term project of truly integrating demonkind into a single civilized race was still a faraway dream, and Miss Scarlet was but the first step there.

She was the only known high-profile demon to defect. Of course nobody else had any experience conversing directly with a demon, we were all taught to either run from them as fast as our legs could take us or just outright kill them on sight.

That’s probably the most reasonable argument they could have to justify Mister de la Fleuve’s outburst, and even I had to begrudgingly admit that it sounded reasonable.

“Lady Darkhide,” Rex Lenamontis signaled, “please continue.”

“As You wish, Your Highness,” Miss Scarlet answered. “As I was saying—Cataclysm is virtually a Miracle, apart from the way their origins manifest. I am a master of such art myself, in manners most similar to the way the Hero wielded his Miracles. One in particular I believe may be helpful with the matter at hand.”

“And what Cataclysm exactly do you wish to talk about, Lady Darkhide?”

“The one system I invented, Your Highness, that made my castle a particularly formidable one—even with my relative lack of fighting power compared to the other Archdemons.”

Miss Scarlet raised her right hand, and a number of tiny red sticks of light—each one probably only a single nail long—appeared mid-air, right in front of her. Surrounding these red lights were lines of blue, each one thinner but also longer, surrounding the red sticks as if—

I recognized those blue lines. “Miss Scarlet … could this be…?”

“Yes, Lady Charlotte,” she purred. “Those red lights are us.”

The blue lines were tracing the shape of the Royal Court. In it were red lights: one positioned higher than the rest was Rex Lenamontis; the lights surrounding that one light in neat lines along both sides had to be the Court attendants and officials; in front of that light were four blips of light, each one for Miss Scarlet, me, Mister de Bleu, and Mister de la Fleuve.

Further away from where our lights were located were lights that represented the Vindex Regis guarding the Court doors.

“And this is … right now?”

“Yes. However—”

Scarlet slowly turned her open right hand into a clenched fist. The red dots began moving—towards the door, then to the corridor, then—

“—the world works in such a way that it never forgets,” Miss Scarlet said. “Everything that is today is a consequence of what happened yesterday, and so on, and so forth. In other words, by knowing the state of today, we can simply ask the world to tell us the state of yesterday.”

I understood where she was going with this. “So if we can ask the world about how it was during the night of the attack—”

“We can know for sure whether the Hero was in Admari, as the messengers had claimed.”

“This is absurd!” Mister de la Fleuve finally spoke up. “This—this entire thing is absurd! That has got to be a lie. What’s to keep you from just manipulating those dots of light? How would we know you were telling the truth at all?”

“Well, my dear messenger, first of all, I would not want to betray the trust His Highness Rex Lenamontis had placed upon me,” Miss Scarlet answered without missing a beat. “That would make Suzuki sad. I do not like making my beloved feel sad.”

Mister de la Fleuve looked stunned. He probably didn’t expect her to so easily discuss her own romance like that. I remember pulling off a similar trick with him back when he confronted me before going here; maybe it’s truly a weakness we could exploit.

“Secondly, we have attendants from the Holy Empire and scholars of the Miracles here, no? I recognize a few faces here. I’m fairly sure they were the collaborators of Sage Vanaseid in the first few papers that helped her establish the basic theory of Arcane Arts,” Miss Scarlet continued. “I should know. I’m a collaborator myself. Should you still doubt, you can have them test the veracity themselves.”

They should know. In exchange for the refusal of his request for the abolition of slavery, Sir Tanaka instead asked the Alliance for the freedom to access the printing press and also a freedom of academic exchange between nations. Both requests were granted, under the strict terms that the freedom of printing be only utilized for academic purposes. One more product came about from it: a worldwide interlink that allowed us to transmit information instantly. It was this academic interlink that became the platform with which Lady Dreyhilda united scholars across nations and races to collaborate together in understanding Arcane Arts, and the Holy Empire was not exempt in this pursuit of greater knowledge.

That request was explicitly approved by the King of Admari during the Alliance meeting to negotiate Sir Tanaka’s wishes as a reward for his victory over the Demon King. There was no way the Admarian messengers did not know of that.

Mister le Bleu thought for a while, but then nodded. The Holy Empire Ambassador nodded to the robed woman next to him, probably an Upper Priestess. A few of the Court Mages also stepped forward, although I was too nervous to count how many of them exactly did. While muttering spells under their breaths, they all started raising an arm in the direction of Miss Scarlet’s Cataclysm.

“Let’s put it this way—I’ve never been to the Kingdom of Admari before,” Miss Scarlet said. “Shall we see where you’ve been just the day before you began your travels to Lenamontis? Maybe some of the sceneries would feel familiar. We can also check where you’ve been during your entire stay in Lenamontis—we can even check where you were just before you came here. Which would you like?”

The messengers paled immediately, but the sorcerers gave each other a look, and then nodded as they let their arms relax.

“She tells the truth,” the Upper Priestess stated. “For one, the Miracle of Truth does not give me any hint of falseness in her words. For another, there is most certainly a connection here to the world—one that does not feel like simple light manipulation. The formula involved also does not include controlled formulation of light, so she couldn’t have faked each bead of light produced here. I will have to observe much more closely to decode everything and truly understand all its functions, but at first glance, it definitely seems to do what it is claimed to.”

A drop of sweat seemed to slowly fall across Mister de la Fleuve’s face. Miss Scarlet gave a satisfied grin.

“With that out of the way,” she proclaimed, “let’s check where my Hero was during the time of the attack. Oh—and during the entire week before and after the attack. Will that be satisfactory to quell any and all doubt regarding his innocence, Your Highness?”

Rex Lenamontis silently extended an open hand to Mister le Bleu, demanding his answer. Gulping nervously, Mister le Bleu nodded. This was Miss Scarlet’s signal.

The lights blurred until it focused on one—this one was yellow rather than red. “Just so he’s easier to follow,” Miss Scarlet explained. The blue lines kept moving, and moving, and moving around as we followed Little Sir Tanaka traversing the area … but they always formed areas I was familiar with.

Sir Tanaka truly did not leave Lenamontis at all in those two weeks.

At the end of the showcase, after Miss Scarlet blew all the Calamitous lights out, Rex Lenamontis handed the testimonial papers to His clerk, who returned it to Mister le Bleu. “Please do not misunderstand,” He said. “The Kingdom of Lenamontis will fully cooperate with the investigation. It is still true that the boat belonged to a business that operates in Lenamontis, and it is still true that a Lenamontese intruded upon your territory the same night Mister le Clerc’s slave quarter was attacked. I agree that it warrants suspicion. However, it seems clear that Sir Tanaka has nothing to do with this, yes?”

Bitterly swallowing their pride, both Mister le Bleu and Mister de la Fleuve nodded. The King nodded in return.

“We shall discuss in further detail regarding how we should proceed with this matter,” He declared. “Once more, the Kingdom of Lenamontis seeks to cooperate with the Kingdom of Admari so that justice can be served to the best of both our interests.”

That was the end of the hearing—but Rex Lenamontis had one more surprise in store, which I recognized immediately.

As soon as the two messengers and the attendants were ushered out, and Miss Scarlet excused to return to the Mansion, Maximillius Rex gestured for me to approach the Throne. I knew full well what He was going to talk about.

“It’s Suzuki’s most frequent location, isn’t it?” I guessed before He opened His mouth.

He nodded. “It’s the Fourth Alley, on the Gold-Laden Strip. That entire strip is a road most central to our merchants, but….”

“The Fourth Alley is mainly populated by slave traders.”

That couldn’t be a coincidence. With the attacks on slaver quarters increasing lately, both our danger senses just flared into full focus. We had to get this under control, somehow.

“I will find ways that we can satisfy his wish,” the King said. “The abolition of slavery seems to be a popular topic among the noble ladies these days, although there is still some strong opposition amongst the men—especially from agricultural dukedoms. I’ll see if we can navigate this without any bloodshed. In the meantime….”

“I need to calm Suzuki down and convince him not to act recklessly,” I finished.

The King nodded, and finally gestured for me to leave the Court.

Sir Tanaka had been frequenting the Capitol’s slave merchantry. That was something we found out by accident, but if Miss Scarlet’s technique really did reveal the truth, then we have a problem on our hands.

How much longer can we hold out before Sir Tanaka decides to do something reckless?

What can I really do to stop that?

Miss March, if you happen to have any ideas, please inform me of it. I’m not sure how quickly I can figure this out on my own.

In eternal gratitude,
Charlotte Valeria de Constantia,
Ducal House Constantius, Kingdom of Lenamontis.

*