Horizon:GT2 Chapter7

Chapter 7: Morning and Future

Good morning, Western flavor

But are to-may-toes…

Fruits or vegetables?

Point Allocation (They’re Vegetables)

●

Masazumi was pretty sure it was still predawn.

After locking up at her old home and falling asleep next to the bag of tomatoes, she awoke to a sound.

It came from out front. Someone was rapping on the closed rain shutter.

She had gone to sleep with her inner suit partially removed, so she had no intention of opening the shutter right away. She did have a cleaning charm, but she couldn’t keep them waiting until she was done with that.

So she grabbed the knife her father had given her, noted with relief that the sign frame was still up, and…

“Who is it?”

“Honda-sama, I am here to greet you properly.”

It was the bodyguard girl. Her voice and some light arrived through the gaps in the rain shutter. That light was moonlight.

So it was still night. But after the span of a breath…

“I do not detect anyone suspicious in the area,” said the bodyguard.

“Judge,” replied Masazumi. “You said my father arranged this?”

“Judge. I was sent by Honda-sama.”

That response told Masazumi something.

…She’s from the Far East.

Last night, she had assumed this girl was foreign because she appeared to be long-lived with blonde hair and blue eyes.

“May I ask where you’re from?”

“Well.” The girl took a breath before responding. “I am sorry, Masazumi-sama, but I would prefer to wait until you are aboard the Musashi for that.”

“Hm? I can still board the Musashi during the day.”

“Let me rephrase: I would prefer to wait until your move is complete.”

Was she implying their relationship would be a long one?

…Hard to say.

If Masazumi’s father had arranged this, the circumstances were probably complicated. He had been involved in politics for nearly 20 years, after all. If he viewed her as another piece on the political board, then inquiring further here wouldn’t do any good.

If anything, it could interfere with her father’s plans.

○

Horizey: “Masazumi-sama used to be a much more restrained person, didn’t she?”

Silver Wolf: “Um, Horizon? There’s a mirror right over there…”

●

After some thought, Masazumi decided to accept her father’s assistance. So for confirmation…

“Will you be acting as my bodyguard until I can move to Musashi?”

“Judge. But…”

“But what?”

“Judge,” the girl said through the shutter. “But it would be more certain with one more to help.”

…More certain?

That phrasing seemed a bit odd to Masazumi. Maybe because this girl wasn’t a native speaker.

No, Masazumi was probably nitpicking because she was upset with her circumstances here. And this girl was doing her best to protect her.

“Were you separated from your partner?”

“Judge. But I hope to fix that before you officially board the Musashi.”

“Should I ask my father for assistance?”

“Oh, um, no need.”

The way the girl stammered told Masazumi something.

“Has he already set something up?”

“Judge. I believe so. …Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I wasn’t accusing you of anything.”

The girl was definitely older. She knew that much.

The battle last night was enough to know that girl was well trained. Even if the girl was her bodyguard, Masazumi didn’t want to act like her superior.

…Is that because I don’t want to be like my father?

Thinking back, that had more to do with the image of my father I’d built up in my head, but that was how I saw it at the time.

“Masazumi, why don’t you give us such juicy material more often?”

She imagined a Technohexen’s voice in the distance.

But anyway, there was one thing she wanted to ask.

“Can I at least ask your name?”

“Protasius.”

Masazumi knew that name. If she remembered right…

“Isn’t that the name of a Catholic saint?”

“You are familiar with that?”

“Eh? Um, yes, I am.”

She was a bit hesitant to explain why, so she decided to change the subject.

“Thanks for last night. Whether or not I can board the Musashi is honestly out of my hands, but I’m planning to try in the morning because there’s someone I want to thank. Thanks in advance for your protection then too.”

“Judge. I will be as your shadow.”

After thanking her for that response, Masazumi went back to sleep.

●

“So Toori-kun and Tenzou-kun aren’t here, but is everyone else awake?”

Asama looked out at a scene where everyone had to be awake. They were below the open sky in an open-air cafeteria with all the tables removed, leaving only the chairs.

They were mid port on Asakusa. The open-air cafeteria was located below the edge of the ship where gantry cranes moved back and forth.

Currently, lodging facilities and festival stands were being constructed across Asakusa for the end-of-school-year festival.

That said, most of the construction had been completed yesterday, so they were spending this morning on cleanup and clearing out equipment. The festival was scheduled to finally begin that evening. So at the moment…

“I was hoping to get everyone’s opinions on the incident down at Mikawa. I will be returning to Mikawa today to investigate further, so I would appreciate it if some of you would accompany me. And I would also like to exchange what information we have.”

She did have one slight concern.

…It’s kind of bad that no one managed to snag Toori-kun.

According to Kimi, he had gone off somewhere early in the morning and was now asleep. He had returned just before their mother left for the Blue Thunder and he had sleepily said something about making some kind of deal. But for their purposes…

“This morning, Toori-kun contacted me via divine transmission to ask about Honda Masazumi-san. He said he had a delivery for Honda Masanobu-san’s address under a different name.”

“Oh, To-chan is well-liked by the politicians, so they often use him as a go-between,” said Naito.

“I told him Honda Masanobu-san had a family member named Masazumi.”

It was a bit of a problem that he wasn’t here now.

…He’s really perceptive to the “mood” and “atmosphere” aboard the Musashi as a whole, so I was hoping he would have some insight for us.

She was reluctant to wake him while he was sleeping, but was that going too easy on him?

“Heh heh. You secretly want to watch him sleep, don’t you!? Don’t you!?”

“Kimi, stop reading my thoughts.”

Asama regulated her breathing and opened a map of the area around Mikawa and the Musashi for everyone.

The sign frame displayed an X over the red ribbon line extending from Mikawa to the Musashi.

“We currently have a bit of a problem. Tres España has frozen all change of residence requests from Mikawa, but they have actually also prevented any visitors from spending the night on the Musashi. Now, the nights are the highlight of the end-of-school-year festival and trade from Mikawa is greatly hindered when the traders can’t continue working through the night. So I would like to get to the bottom of this murder case before the festival begins today.”

“Ohh, that explains why ticket sales to the people of Mikawa are doing great for tomorrow morning, but not for tonight.”

There wasn’t any kind of partition, but their group was gathered in one corner of the cafeteria where Heidi didn’t even bother hiding the account book sign frame she was working on.

“So Tres España is essentially proposing a deal,” said Shirojiro by her side. “Solve the murder case and we will allow your festival to succeed.”

“They can’t say it out loud, but that does seem to be the situation.”

“Heh heh. Asama, how is this a problem for your shrine?”

“Another nation has people contracted with us trapped in Mikawa. It isn’t a great feeling.”

“But,” said Urquiaga, raising his right hand. “Why isn’t Mikawa doing anything?”

“Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure.”

“Explain the situation,” bluntly asked Noriki, so Asama opened a sign frame.

Due to the open-air location, she applied a voice stealth field and gave the displayed images a directional setting for only those within the field.

“There. Okay, Mito, you can field this one.”

“M-me!?”

“You proved you are the better investigator during our inspection of the crime scene yesterday.”

“Please, Mitotsudaira-sama!”

“Horizon, aren’t you still at the Blue Thunder?”

“Very well,” sighed Mitotsudaira, turning to look at the others. “There were two victims. The estimated time of death is two nights ago.”

And…

“The two bodies have already been retrieved. One was male and one was female.”

●

“Huh?”

Mitotsudaira saw Adele tilt her head. Mitotsudaira knew what she wanted to ask. Because it was the obvious question.

“You said the bodies have already been retrieved?”

“Judge. But we were given data on them and their scent remained at the crime scene.”

Something had remained at the site of the fire.

“There were pools of blood. They died from having their throats slit, so they spilled quite a bit of blood. That, well, made it obvious where the bodies were, but it also told me that one was male and one female.”

“You can tell them apart by the smell?”

With a careful sniff, she could tell what blood was more likely to be male and more likely to be female. There were general trends based on food, physical constitution, the amounts of bodily fluids dissolved in the blood, etc. But she had been able to tell one thing from this blood without even getting down to that level.

“A lot of it was mixed together, but at the center of the two pools, it was still only half-dried and I could detect a distinct scent in one of them. See, the blood dripped down from the neck like this…”

She moved her thumb horizontally across her neck and then dropped the finger down from the center of her neck to her chest. The girls reacted with understanding, but all the boys expect one reacted with…

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ha ha ha. You smelled perfume, didn’t you!?”

The only boy who understood was Itoken. Leave it to an incubus to be familiar with women’s fashion.

After Mitotsudaira’s nod of confirmation, he raised his right index finger and explained.

“The blood dripping down from the neck took in the perfume sprayed on her chest. Isn’t that right?”

“Judge. Exactly. To keep in line with the history recreation, the perfume wasn’t very strong. The Testament only refers to perfume for eliminating body odor.”

“In that case,” said Ohiroshiki, raising his hand and pulling his breakfast of miso katsudon from a paper container. “Were the victims foreigners? I heard something about them being from Tres España.”

“With a man and a woman, they could have been eloping lovers,” suggested Neshinbara, crossing his arms and then crossing his legs in his chair. “If you ask me, they must have been a royal-”

Before he could finish, Naruze tapped roughly at her Magie Figur, producing a buzzer sound.

“Nope you’re wrong. Tooooo bad. So who’s next?”

“Naruze-kun, did you just have that buzzer ready to go!?”

“Not really. I drew it up really quick and gave it an auto-assessment function.”

She had drawn it as a picture, but the drawing had become real. There were legends of Technohexen drawing wolves that then attacked people or redrawing the weather. It sounded like Naruze was reaching the level of pulling that off.

…Well, we will be 2nd years next month.

Their skills were improving.

Mitotsudaira would soon hold an official position, but she was still nowhere near strong enough to stand up to her mother. Also…

…What will my king do about all this?

He had been a bit negligent since they started high school. But she knew something big would happen once he finally made his move and she was a little afraid of leading him to that point herself. She wasn’t sure if she could carry out her king’s demands.

○

Gold Mar: “Umm, so does that mean you were planning to carry out every one of the Chancellor’s demands, Mito-tsan?”

Unturning: “Are you sure you don’t want to rephrase that?”

Silver Wolf: “Th-this is fine…probably.”

●

And so Mitotsudaira, who thought this was fine, explained what they knew about the victims’ identities.

“Maybe they were a married couple, maybe they were lovers, or maybe they were siblings.”

Urquiaga stood up so fast his chair shook and looked like he wanted some clarification about that last one, but…

“No, never mind. Continue. That is for the best.”

He quietly sat back down like he had found some source of calm.

“Anyway.” Mitotsudaira cleared her throat. “We can speculate about some other things as well. Perhaps they were brought here, failed in some kind of trade negotiation, and were killed for it.”

Naomasa raised her prosthetic arm.

“Did they not remain as ghosts?”

“Their regrets have not been discovered as of yet,” said Asama. “That is a bit of a mystery. The scene of the crime didn’t appear to have been purified, but I did not detect any regrets.”

That was the first thing Shrine Maiden Asama had done upon arriving on the scene.

“In that case,” said Naomasa. “Are their regrets attached to one of their possessions?”

“You know a lot about this, Naomasa.”

“Hah,” laughed the engine division’s ace.

○

Smoking Girl: “Don’t call me that. It makes me want to take a deep puff.”

Scarred: “And you aren’t even smoking your usual kiseru because we’re working with food.”

Smoking Girl: “It isn’t quite the same as a ghost attaching itself to an object, but I am familiar with similar situation. And the engine division has a lot of stories about spirits residing in things.”

●

“Their possessions were left with Mikawa’s Chancellor’s Officers.”

Asama tapped her sign frame while Mitotsudaira provided that response.

The screen displayed a diagram of the inn.

“The victims were killed in the back room. The fire spread quickly there and the floor burned away, but that room didn’t have tatami mats, so the blood dripped down and remained for us to find. Also, the entrance is located front and center and the 1st floor has five rooms.”

Asama added a red circle to five places on the diagram.

The back left room, the back right room, the front right room, the front left room, and the entrance room made for five.

“The fire started in these five locations. Last night, Tenzou-kun checked the pillars that were being disposed of and worked out their likely locations from how they were burned and the direction of the joints.”

“That’s odd,” said Gin. “Did the murderer start the fire in the front entranceway and then kill the victims?”

“Wow. I think we would have figured this case out a lot faster if Gin-san had been here. But you weren’t…”

“Oh, my apologies. Please delete that.”

We can leave that as the Catholic god or a Catholic saint commenting from the sky.

Then Naruze raised her hand with a tilt of her head.

“Where did the victims come from?”

“We were told they came from P.A. Oda territory to the west. A group of traders working for Matsunaga arrived at around the same time, so they may have been a part of that group.”

“Has that been confirmed?”

It was being worked on, but…

“Mikawa is short on personnel at the moment, so the checkpoints are operating on a one-way system.”

“Oh, right.” Naito looked up into the sky before looking back down. “That’s where they only allow people in through the Mikawa checkpoint and only allow them out through the P.A. Oda checkpoint.”

“The real threat is an attacker getting in using the immigration system. So for now, they’re cutting down on costs by splitting up the arrival and departure management, but that also means anyone who leaves for P.A. Oda does so under P.A. Oda’s protection. That means P.A. Oda could alter their paperwork. Now, I don’t know if this is true or not, but they claim the trader group had the exact same number of people on arrival and departure.”

“Which means the P.A. Oda checkpoint could have fudged the numbers even if their numbers went down by two in Mikawa, huh?”

“A-again, I don’t know if that happened or not. There are ways to sneak into Mikawa, after all. Yes, and I hear the chaos in Kitabatake territory is still ongoing.”

“That is true,” said Neshinbara. “P.A. Oda has been making bigger moves of late. M.H.H.R.’s Hashiba pretends to be independent from P.A. Oda, but they just finished up their invasion of Kyushu and have started fighting the Thirty Years’ War in earnest. …There are even stories of the mysterious Logismoi Oplo being used in battle, so it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the effects arrive at our collective doorstep.”

“When you heard about the murder in Mikawa yesterday, didn’t you tremble and go ‘Eh!? Really!? The murderer won’t try to escape here, will they!?’ ”

“I-it’s called being careful! I have to bolster my defenses first! That’s all!”

Fine, we can pretend that’s all it was. But Kimi tilted her head and raised her right hand.

“Okay, I need someone to sum this up so someone as clever as me can understand it! You’re up, Adele!”

“Eh!? Um, a man and woman from P.A. Oda were killed in an abandoned Mikawa inn. And the inn was set on fire. Their belongings are being held by Mikawa’s Chancellor’s Officers, but Tres España is preventing anyone from moving to Musashi because they don’t want the murderer escaping here. Mikawa is being pressured into not investigating the case if they want to preserve their impartiality as neutral land and Mikawa is mostly going along with it. And, um…”

“What about the local god?” asked Neshinbara. “Wouldn’t you check with them about a crime before amateurs like us start investigating? So what happened with that?”

●

…Yes, you would ordinarily start there.

Asama nodded and responded to Neshinbara’s question.

“It’s true. In Shinto, you would normally check with the local god first even when the problem was caused by an outsider and the god would intervene in an emergency. But there are ways of preventing that.”

“There are?” asked Heidi. “You mean not everyone gets something shoved up their butt or urethra the instant they do something bad?”

“It isn’t instantaneous. The god does have to check over the situation first.”

“Is that really so different?” everyone commented, but the shrine maiden didn’t seem to notice. She opened her sign frame, and…

“The Atsuta Shrine is currently the top Shinto shrine in Mikawa, but they belong to both P.A. Oda and Mikawa. When I contacted them, they simply said this incident is ‘under investigation’.”

“That means their Chancellor’s Officers are cooperating with Tres España on this? …So from a general perspective, how much would their Shinto be tracking this?”

“The two victims were outsiders, but they still participated in the festival and registered with the shrine. That means the local god was aware of them and should have been tracking them. But with that locked down, none of the data is reaching us.”

A mood of “what a pain” settled in, but Naruze raised her pen.

“What about using a video spell?” asked the Weiss Hexen. “There are illusion spells that can replay what happened in a location from the residual ether, right? And wouldn’t the information terminals posted around the city be monitoring their surroundings?”

“Mikawa’s Chancellor’s Officers have all of that locked down too,” said Mitotsudaira.

“And replaying the residual ether wouldn’t be accepted as evidence because all the mysterious phenomena in Mikawa can alter what is replayed,” said Asama.

Mitotsudaira knew complaining about that wouldn’t do any good, but there was one thing they understood here.

“With all the obstruction, we barely have any of the evidence we would normally have.”

Asama was right.

“Normally, if you were committing a crime like this, you would forcibly interfere with the local god’s detection to hide yourself, but that isn’t what happened this time. If anything it’s like the murderer’s identity should be obvious but it’s being hidden after the fact,” said Mitotsudaira.

“Was the murder done to get some kind of message out and that’s being covered up?”

“Judge. You could see it that way. Besides, with nothing known about the murderer’s identity, we keep having to ask ‘why’, which is honestly expanding the possibilities of this case too far to really do anything.”

Mitotsudaira shrugged and Noriki nodded.

“This case really is nothing but unknowns.”

He stopped speaking there, but that had to be what everyone was thinking. Asama and Mitotsudaira had sent their report to Musashi’s Chancellor’s Officers and Student Council, but they still hadn’t received any clear instructions back, which likely meant they were having a hard time deciding what to do.

…What is the deal with this case?

“We need to think about the meaning of this case. Like what advantages it provides.”

●

Adele saw Mitotsudaira sit on a nearby bench. Then the wolf hung her thoughtful head and began speaking.

“Two outsiders arrived in Mikawa, registered with the local shrine, and were killed.”

“They specifically came from Matsunaga clan territory.”

“Judge,” replied Mitotsudaira. “But if they were European, they must have had some reason to pass through Matsunaga clan territory and arrive in Mikawa.”

“Does Matsunaga gain anything from their deaths in Mikawa?” asked Naomasa.

“I don’t know, but they wouldn’t have let those two pass through if it didn’t benefit them in some way. Even if it was a Matsunaga who killed them.”

If so, what did that mean?

Tenzou-san is really useful with these things, thought Adele. He was excellent at gathering information, so he could draw on information the rest of them didn’t already have. But he wasn’t here at the moment, so it was her job to organize the information since she had to report to her superiors so often.

She had written up an overview of the case earlier and she drew on that understanding to ask a question here.

“Do you think whoever benefits from this case has already received their benefit?”

“No, I don’t think so. This case is not over yet. Because…” The wolf pointed her thumb south. “Tres España called an inquisition ship to their landport and they’re still refusing to release the information and otherwise interfering with our efforts. My guess is they won’t consider this a win until the Musashi departs.”

When Adele heard that…

…Huh?

Something about Mitotsudaira’s statement felt off to her.

“Um, can I ask something? Why would the Musashi’s departure give them a win?”

“Well…”

Mitotsudaira was hesitant to explain. It was probably a touchy subject, which may have been why Nenji chose to sum it up quickly.

“Tres España probably hopes to let this case go unresolved.”

“Yes, probably. Which is why they froze the change of residence requests.” Asama nodded. “Mikawa is as much a homebase for Musashi as IZUMO is. IZUMO is a homebase for the ship itself, but Mikawa is more the homebase for the residents and government. So the frozen requests are a real problem for Musashi.”

Adele knew what Asama was trying to say. Because…

“Those requests are also used to get permission for outsiders to spend the night on the Musashi, right?”

Adele knew all about that because she would train with the vassals and knights of the nations the Musashi visited. And…

“When we spend the night somewhere, we get registered as temporary residents because it can cause problems if we aren’t authorized to use the divine protections we’re used to. For example, in strict Catholic or Protestant cities, there are times people can’t use the spells and divine protections of another religion, which makes passage through the city impossible, to say nothing of spending the night.

“So all this stuff about change of residence, spending the night, and passage probably has nothing to do with Shinto culture. It’s probably related to a European history recreation where cities don’t allow in people from different religions or even different sects.”

“But forcibly letting them in can be a problem if they can’t use the local divine protections,” pointed out Naomasa.

“Yeah,” said Naruze, scratching her head with her pen. “In my homeland, there were times a suppressed-but-not-wiped-out disease would spread after someone couldn’t use the appropriate divine protections at a travel destination. So the movement of people can cause problems at the destination and the origin point. And even without that, people will make unnecessary policies for their own peace of mind just because they believe some silly rumors. …But in that case, this case is probably related to the origin point.”

“Probably so,” agreed Mitotsudaira.

The Musashi knight crossed her legs on the bench and sighed.

“They froze all change of residence requests to Musashi because the murderer might still be in Mikawa. For Mikawa, that decision is nothing but trouble. And when the only way to end that is based on Musashi’s own investigation, the Musashi residents have two reasons to complain.”

“The first is that the Musashi seems to be inconveniencing the people of Mikawa, right?” said Adele.

“Judge,” confirmed Mitotsudaira. “A lot of Musashi’s residents are from Mikawa, so when there’s reason to worry about the city, there will be a lot of people here who want something done about it. And…”

Mitotsudaira viewed her surroundings and the sky. Construction of the end-of-school-year festival stage was nearly complete. The large stage was surrounded by lodgings and a few transport ships flew through the sky.

“For Mikawa residents to visit the festival and for trade negotiations and trade work with Mikawa, outsiders need to be able to spend the night here. That’s been stopped for now, so the festival and all trade with Mikawa has to occur during the day, which is inconvenient and could lead to failure.”

“So there’s a lot of pressure to get this solved fast, huh?” said Naomasa.

Everyone smiled a little.

Adele joined the smiling when she realized something. Because…

“None of us is thinking about leaving this unresolved, are we?”

●

Of course not, thought Naomasa.

…'Letting a powerful nation push us around isn’t any fun.

Deciding it was hopeless and giving up was an option, but for Far Easterners, the three years of high school were a crucial time. They were about to enter their second year, so…

“I don’t like the way they’re taking Mikawa and Musashi hostage.”

And aside from that, something else had caught her attention.

“But anyway. Adele, it sounded like you still had something on your mind.”

“Eh!? D-did I realize something important!?”

“It sure seemed like it. And if my memory serves, you go on to mention a concern you had about the case.”

“Eh? Did I? Huh, that’s weird. I don’t remember that at all…”

Naito and Naruze exchanged a glance.

“Does this still count as a flashback?”

“I’m not sure. But it definitely doesn’t if they take it any further.”

Something isn’t right about this. Oh, well. At least I remember more or less what she said back then.

“Adele, you’re thinking that this case is hard to grasp because it’s on such a large scale, aren’t you?”

●

Adele still didn’t remember.

…Did I say that? Or…no, did I think that?

She saw Asama with a whistle in her mouth and a yellow card raised in her hand, so she needed to be careful.

“I did not do that.”

You did. I saw it with my third eye!

“Oh, sorry, Adele. I tried to draw up a storyboard using my third eye, but it didn’t work.”

“Th-that just means you have an impure heart! Probably anyway!”

“Wouldn’t it mean she was more impure if it did work?” asked Naito.

Probably so, but that didn’t solve any of the problems.

“Um, what was I thinking at the time again?”

She murmured “um” again and tilted her head while everyone stared at her.

What was Tres España after? What was that powerful western nation thinking?

The situation was clear.

They were using the frozen requests to pressure Musashi and Mikawa into leaving the case unresolved.

Their stated reason was to prevent the murderer from escaping onto the Musashi.

What they were doing and what they wanted out of it were both clear.

So what about it concerned her or felt off to her?

…I’m not sure.

“I do feel like something about this is weird, though.”

She suddenly looked to Asama in front of her.

The shrine maiden had her whistle and yellow card at the ready. Adele thought about what she saw between Asama’s arms.

…When Asama-san holds her chest between her arms and leans forward, you can’t see her stomach at all.

In other words…

“When things are too big, they cover up other things, don’t they?”

●

Adele’s comment led Mitotsudaira to a realization.

…Oh.

Once it came to her, it was so obvious.

“Tomo.”

She gave a wave of thanks to Adele before speaking.

“I agree with Adele. In other words, the size of one thing can hide something else.”

Yes. In this case, it was Tres España and their treatment of Mikawa.

The pressure applied by the frozen requests was such a large thing that it had to be hiding other things. But they hadn’t noticed because…

“The problem is the sheer size of the things right in front of us. It hides anything else we might want to see. Right, Tomo?”

●

Asama wasn’t sure what Mitotsudaira was talking about.

…U-umm?

Also, weren’t they supposed to be hearing from Adele here?

…The problem is size? Because it hides things?

She repeated that in her mind and looked to Adele, who was staring back at her. Specifically at…

“Um…”

…Adele is looking at my chest while I lean forward.

Then it clicked for her. Yes, her chest did create quite a large blind spot for her. So…

“I can see…how you might view that as a problem.”

●

Mitotsudaira was relieved Asama had grasped her concern.

Good, she thought with a sigh.

What was Tres España after here?

“Judge. The size of the things right in front of us may be hiding something else. But we can only guess what that might be.”

“No, it’s not that bad!” Asama shook her head. “But once they reach a certain size, you can’t see the ground below your feet, which can make you careless.”

“The ground!?”

Mitotsudaira had only been concerned about what Tres España might be after in all this. She had only been suggesting they make sure they hadn’t overlooked anything. But Asama seemed to have a more concrete idea of what that might be. In other words…

“How bad would you say it is?”

●

…Odd. She’s really interested in this.

Asama was a little disturbed by how eagerly Mitotsudaira leaned forward.

Was she that curious about the size of Asama’s chest? But on second thought, she had taken over for Adele on that topic. So there were two of them to worry about. But that aside…

…How bad is it?

She had always had trouble seeing the ground below her feet because of her chest. As for how much they covered up…

“W-well, it’s kind of like you’re holding something too big? Something so big it kind of overflows from your arms?”

“Overflows!?”

Mitotsudaira and Adele exchanged a glance and a nod.

Then Mitotsudaira looked back to Asama.

“Judge. I can see how this would be too much to handle easily.”

Is it that obvious? glumly thought Asama, but she couldn’t let that get her down. Because…

“It’s been like that since we were in the 4th grade.”

“The 4th grade!?” Mitotsudaira rose from her seat a bit. “This started all the way back then!?”

“I thought it was pretty obvious at the time… But I guess it isn’t something you really talk about.”

“Judge. This would be something to keep quiet about.”

“Right?” Asama nodded. “But I didn’t realize you were so worried about this, Mito.”

“O-of course I am. It’s an important issue.”

Because…

“I mean, come on. These things are a matter of life and death.”

●

It’s that serious for her!? thought Asama.

…She’s willing to die for bigger boobs!?

“N-now, wait just a second. This isn’t going to kill anyone. Although I guess you do have less defensive power with a smaller size.”

“True. The smaller ones can be pressured by the bigger ones, leading to situations like this one.”

…Yeah, sorry.

Asama recalled how, when passing each other in a narrow passageway or moving between their desks, her chest would end up pushing Mitotsudaira out of the way. Is that what you call a high pressure interaction? No, that’s not right.

But she still didn’t see how anyone was going to die from chest size.

…Could I have misheard that part?

She decided to omit the “are a matter of life and death” part since that wasn’t making any sense, which left her with just the first six words starting with “I mean”. Could that part mean anything meaningful in reference to boobs?

●

Mitotsudaira watched as Asama suddenly smiled with her eyebrows raised and slapped her on her shoulders.

Asama was also blushing.

“Mito! Mito! That isn’t something to discuss out in public!”

“Eh? Wh-why not?”

Asama briefly froze, but then she slapped Mitotsudaira’s shoulders even harder.

“I-I just about said it out loud! It doesn’t work like salmon spawning!”

Mitotsudaira wasn’t sure what was going on, but she had heard the source of her inherited name liked grilled salmon.

But it was true this incident was a matter of life and death. And if Asama understood that…

“Judge. You’re right, Tomo. This is a dangerous topic, isn’t it?”

“To say the least!? You shouldn’t even speak it out loud. But just for reference, who were you thinking of when you said that?”

That’s a good question, thought Mitotsudaira.

She thought of saying “Musashi” or “everyone”, but she served her king as a knight. His life would be the one she had to protect above all others. So if she was going to be protecting someone’s life in this dangerous situation…

“Wouldn’t it be my king?”

Asama held her hands down hard on Mitotsudaira’s shoulders.

“I never knew you were so imaginative, Mito.”

“R-really? I think about this all the time.”

“All the time!?”

“Yes. I-I am my king’s knight, after all.”

Hearing that, Asama held out her right palm and turned around.

With her back turned, Asama pulled a tissue from her pocket, rubbed her nose with it, had Hanami activate a body tuning spell, tapped the back of her neck, and waited a few seconds. Finally, she turned back around.

“I understand completely. And if you do it that frequently, I will need to increase my own average,” she said. “And I now see how dangerous it is to not consider what effects big ones can have!”

“Yes,” agreed Mitotsudaira. “We must check to make sure the big ones are not hiding anything important!”

○

Asama: “…”

Silver Wolf: “…”

Asama: “I get the feeling…Mito and I…weren’t talking about the same thing back then.”

Art-Ga: “Every time this happens, I have to wonder how you two ever manage to hold a conversation.”

'Silver Wolf: “I was completely serious there and it all went to waste!! Tomo! What were you imagining my king and I doing together!?”

Flat Vassal: “Now I finally understand why I couldn’t remember being the one who thought up the topic that led to the solution! All I did was see Asama-san’s boobs and mention how big they are!”

Gold Mar: “And Mito-tsan thought you were talking about large nations and sprinted straight toward the goal line on her own?”

Horizey: “This means Adele-sama and Asama-sama were running on the same wavelength!”

Silver Wolf: “Are you saying this was my fault!? Is that really your takeaway!?”

Unturning: “I don’t think this is really an issue of being at fault or not.”

Wise Sister: “Heh heh heh. It’s about being an idiot or not!!”

Vice President: “Imagine being Tres España and finding out this is why Musashi ended up investigating further.”

Tachibana Wife: “Telling us back at the Armada battle probably would have made for a devastating attack…”

●

At any rate, they had a plan – or a concern to look into. Naito took a breath and spoke.

“So a bigger issue could be hiding a smaller one?”

“Judge. The frozen requests draw a lot of attention, but we should suspect they have some other goal related to the murder case.”

“That’s right,” replied Heidi.

She looked up at the transport ships flying through the sky. Naito understood since she worked in the delivery business.

…The transports have been delayed since yesterday.

Their concern here was an immediate problem for the merchants engaging in trade. And Heidi took a breath before continuing.

“Tres España made a point of freezing the requests, but the Provisional Council and the Commerce and Industry Guild are doing what they can to fight it. Which means money isn’t enough here. …And since Tres España isn’t working to resolve the issue, they probably aren’t in it for money.”

“And?” asked Adele, so Heidi waved her hands side to side.

“What is it merchants can’t do much about? Politics.”

●

That’s right, thought Naruze while drawing up a storyboard based on Mitotsudaira’s earlier comments.

…That’s our weakest point.

They had an idiot, so they could come up with an overall policy to follow.

They had a knight, a strategist, and a vassal, so they could fight.

They had a shrine maiden, an inquisitor, and two Technohexen, so they had religion and infrastructure covered.

They had a ninja, so they could gather intelligence. They had a laborer and a god of war too.

They had two merchants, so they could make business decisions. They had access to a restaurant, curry, and a bath. They had access to a bakery, which currently came with a crazy person. But…

“We don’t have a politician.”

They didn’t know what to do in these cases. Or rather…

“We can’t even decide or make an educated guess what is even happening.

“But, Naruze-kun. We can fill in enough unknowns to make an educated guess that leads to the truth.”

“Didn’t you write a novel about an imaginary nation in your daily journal in middle school? Is that your idea of the truth?”

“Th-that demonstrated the greatest realism I could manage at the time!”

“Did realism mean something different back then?”

Naruze thought she heard a voice from all the way in Date, but decided to let it slide.

Regardless, the situation was not looking good. Because…

…I wish we could have caught that idiot.

They always looked to that idiot when deciding what to do. But today he was asleep and apparently the others didn’t want to wake him.

…Kimi and Asama spoil him too much.

“That’s for sure.”

Adele agreed with Naruze’s thought, but she decided not to worry about it. But without their policy maker here, all they could do was gather whatever information they could. And then compile it all.

“How about we have another meeting in the midafternoon? If we don’t make a decision by then, responsibility for the progress of the festival and whatever else will fall on the Asama Shrine and the Chancellor’s Officers, won’t it?”

“Yes,” confirmed Asama. There was no hesitation on her face, so Naruze decided to ask something else out of curiosity.

“Why do this? Is it really worth the risk?”

The answer came from Mitotsudaira.

“When we visited the crime scene yesterday, the representative of the Mikawa Chancellor’s Officers wasn’t exactly welcoming.”

“Did they tell you to leave?”

“Judge. More or less.” The wolf smiled. “But they still allowed us to investigate. All this political pressure is coming from Tres España. If Mikawa really agreed with them, they could have ended our investigation and made us leave. But instead, they said they couldn’t make the decision for us.”

Naruze knew what that meant. It was exactly what she had said herself earlier.

…It isn’t that they don’t understand what this case is about.

“Mikawa is working with Tres España, but they told you they can’t make a political decision. Which leaves Musashi as the only part of the Far East capable of acting here.”

●

I see, thought Adele.

She had thought the Extra Special Duty Officer and Asama were so fixated on this case because something about it was bothering them, but…

“What if there is a hidden political aspect to this?”

“I don’t know,” said Mitotsudaira. “Whether it is related to their policies or to the history recreation, it must not be something they can’t accomplish through brute force.”

Adele and everyone else expressed agreement with that. And…

“Heh heh. This is coming together well. We’re basically 2nd years now. This would be boring without a project to work on, don’t you think?”

Kimi stood from the bench and stretched her back. Then she rotated to the side.

“Asama? To change the subject, you heard my foolish brother’s discussion with our mom this morning, didn’t you? You seem to be in charge of a fairly unusual girl among those waiting on the frozen change of residence requests. Could she have a connection to all of this or not?”

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