CH 17

A short time before the final banquet, Sera went to Maki and Chiharu’s room to help them prepare. As the two did not take long to prepare, she would only have to give a little advice and quickly fix their hair. Sera wished that she could help them more, but they tended to be a little reserved when it came to help, so there wasn’t much she could do.

However, there was no answer when she knocked. Everyone in the castle was quite disturbed about the events of the previous day, but the two had acted normally. Perhaps they were tired, Sera thought.

Even so, she needed to help them get ready. She slowly opened the door and went inside. But the only movement from within the room was the gentle swaying of the balcony curtains. There was no one here. And the bed was neatly made.

“Did they go outside?”

“No one has left through this door.”

The guard replied, and Sera inspected the room again. She discovered that a sheet of paper had been left on the table. There were no bags inside of the closet. Sera had a bad feeling about this. She rushed to the king’s study.

“Your Majesty, Saintess Maki and Saintess Chiharu are nowhere to be found! And this was left in their room!”

It looked like a note. Arthur and Aeris both looked at it carefully.

“What does it say!”

“Give it to me! What, it is a foreign language that I cannot read!”

“Call a scholar! It is likely something very simple. Bring a character table. Also, search any places that Maki and Chiharu are likely to go!”

The king barked, but Sera replied fearfully.

“It seems that they did not leave through the door. But the bags that they always use are missing, and the balcony window was wide open…”

“Call the birdfolk too! It is possible that they went out into the city.”

The castle was in an uproar. First, Sauro and Saikania were called.

“Arthur, you wanted to see us?”

“Sauro, Saikania. Did you carry Maki and Chiharu while they were disguised as boys today?”

“No, we have not.”

Sauro said. Saikania nodded.

“Maybe they aren’t disguised? Or they could have mingled with the civilians and gone out of the castle gates…”

The time for the banquet had already arrived.

“We brought one!’

A scholar who was in a festive mood over the banquet arrived.

“Oh, this is all hiragana characters. Hiragana is the what their children first learn in their country.”

“Nevermind that! Translate it immediately.”

“Yes-yes. Uh, from Maki and Chiharu. Yes, it was definitely authored by them.”

“And the contents!?”

“Yes-yes. Uh, ‘chotto’ which mean ‘a little’, and uh, ‘tabini.’ It is a suffix word, meaning ‘socks.’”

“Socks?”

“Or maybe it means to travel.”

“Travel…” “Travel…” “Travel…”

“‘Demasu,’ ‘tabi ni demasu.’ I think it means that they will go on a journey.”

“My god…”

“‘Shinpai, shinaide, kudasai’ that means they do not want you to worry.”

“How could we not worry! Where did they go!”

“That is all that they wrote.”

Arthur slammed his fist on the table.

“Those inland bastards. We should have done better to shield them from them!”

“Maki and Chiharu were so calm and collected… It seemed as if they were not bothered. I am sorry.”

Edwy said with a dark expression.

“But we did know that something was not normal with the way they were acting recently!”

“Sera, had you not heard anything?”

“They seemed very annoyed by the inland people, but, they laughed and said ‘we can’t be bothered by such small things as adults. It’s like taxes.’ At least until yesterday. But it did not seem like they were disturbed enough to want to leave.”

“Arthur, what will you do about the banquet?”

“We will have to say that they are tired and resting. After that, we must have a meeting with only representatives.”

“But, where could they be traveling… Maki and Chiharu would never break their word…”

Edwy looked up with realization on his face.

“The train. Father, the trains! Maki and Chiharu would immediately try to leave this country. But two noble boys without guards will surely draw attention. We should send someone out immediately.”

“Yes. Chancellor, send out people to investigate!”

“Right away!”

It was then announced to the others that the Saintesses were tired, and so while the guests were disappointed, the banquet continued and ended without the Saintesses ever appearing. The only thing left for them to do was finish their work as diplomats, sightsee, and leave.

But after the banquet, representatives from each country were called to an emergency meeting.

And unlike during dinner, Arthur was here with a severe expression.

“I am sorry to keep you here at this hour. Let me be frank with you all. The Saintesses have vanished.”

Silence spread.

“They left a note saying that they will be traveling. We now know that they have taken a train. They are headed for the dwarf country now. However, we are not sure where they are exactly at this moment.”

“There was an official visit planned soon after this very ceremony, so why…”

The elf representative mumbled.

“Perhaps they didn’t want to stay here another minute.”

“Chief of the birdfolk.”

“My son was insulted by them as well. But I hear that their attitude towards the Saintesses was most extreme. Especially yesterday.”

Miragaia said as he gave the inland people a meaningful stare.

“Afterall, the people who caused the uproar are still here.”

If Chiharu were still here, she would have been quite surprised at how thoughtful the birdman seemed at this moment.

“Hmph. Arthur, perhaps it is this country that has not treated the Saintesses adequately.”

“What did you say!”

It was the beastfolk and elves who stood up from their seats.

“Even if they are gone now, God will just bring down another one. Why are you all so worried?”

“You. Were you not listening to Maki when she shouted yesterday? Saintesses or not, they have families, they have their own lives. And yet they are forcefully torn from all of that when they come here. Even if it is the will of God, it is a grave thing. You should know that well after yesterday.”

But…”

“It took six months for these Saintesses to arrive. And for some reason, it was two that came. They say that God created this world on a whim. How can you not understand that he may destroy it on a whim as well?”

“…”

Arthur looked at everyone and continued.

“We will, of course, search and if possible, bring them back and start their journey again properly. But there is no guarantee that something like this won’t happen again. These Saintesses are active, and we do not know when or where they will appear in a different country. And so I wanted to tell you now. Also…”

He looked harshly at the inland people.

“There is one country that needs to reconsider its stance on God and the Saintesses. You are therefore banned from entering this country until there is an official apology. Tell that to your king.”

“The people will not stand for this.”

“The dwarf lands.”

“The beastlands.”

“And the elven lands. We will all break off with any relations with the inlands. This will continue until Arthur accepts your apology.”

“Hmph. There was hardly a relationship between our countries to begin with. We will be leaving then.”

The inland people said as they stormed out of the room.

“I can only hope that their king understands the impact of delayed imports of magic gems. Should we send some bird people to tell him?”

“I am not that kind. It will take them 10 days to return. It will then take several days to fix this problem, supposing that they understand the message properly. It will be hard for their people, but it has to be like this, or they will just repeat the same mistakes. They need to suffer a little for once. Also, Sauro and Saikania.”

Arthur sighed.

“Didn’t you two say that you didn’t carry the Saintesses?”

“We didn’t carry any Saintesses dressed like boys. If you meant Saintesses dressed like girls, we did carry someone like that.”

“Such trickery. We could have moved much faster had we known this.”

“Maki and Chiharu needed their freedom. That is what we thought.”

“It seems that you two may have already grasped the root of the problem then.”

During this time, Maki and Chiharu were already inside the inland region of the dwarf country.

“Maki-chan, I just realized something.”

They were pretending to be siblings who were traveling to meet relatives that were adventurers. Chiharu, the younger of the two spoke sadly.

“What?”

“I won’t be able to drink alcohol in this disguise.”

“Ah.”

Their journey had only just begun.