Chapter 6.3
[previous_page]
[next_page]
Translator: Einbedo
Editor: Weasalopes
Meanwhile, over at Wulls.
「I’ll do anything just please let me see deary’s face one last time.」
「You know what, I think it’s about time I take you up on that offer.」
Said Layotte after some consideration to the girl who had been obsessively repeating those exact words verbatim during every single one of his visits. Due to her… various character flaws she was, for the longest time, seen as too maladjusted to bring out into the light of day, but as of late she’s gotten an opportunity to prove herself when she got paired up with Rayna to eavesdrop on Hiroshi who was making his way to Kalsus and passed with flying colors, thus the change in perspective.
The reason they had her under effective house arrest in one of Wulls castle’s long forgotten rooms wasn’t out of fear of being found out but because of said maladjustment at the time. To get an accurate image of just how untamed she was her knowledge of social customs was nonexistent, she saw others in a darwinistic light – they either conquer or get conquered themselves. Needless to say letting her of her leash was not a viable option.
To the surprise of everyone she proved to be rather cooperate and obedient, so long as they provided her with a routine dose of ‘spiritual sustenance’ which was a fancy way of referring to any of Hiroshi’s used articles, such as towels or the leftover bony bits of a fish, for instance. Even taking two steps back Layotte couldn’t help but find this little idiosyncrasy of hers downright repulsive.
「Would you really do that for me?」
「Under a few conditions.」
There exists a rare few individuals whose body language can convey their emotions much more vividly than any string of words ever could but the look in her eyes trumped all of them, there was no competition to be had. If only she knew the words that would come out of Layotte’s mouth right after.
「What conditions?」
「First and foremost, under no circumstances are you to make direct contact with them without explicit permission.」
「!?」
Her pupils dilated, mouth opened agape and her head tilted forward at the heart-shattering demand.
「At least tell me, why?」
「What did you expect? That they’d welcome you with open arms?」
「No, no I didn’t.」
Layotte let out a despondent sigh at her answer. Although she had grown enough to not completely stand out in a crowd she still lacked in the emotional self-control department, even Fum and Lime were better adjusted in that regard.
「Have you perhaps forgotten how you were out for his blood?」
「I don’t recall anything of the sort.」
「Isn’t that awfully convenient.」
Layotte let out yet another sigh while going through a mini mental breakdown but managed to keep it all internal. On that fated day after being apprehended she would end up double-crossing the Assassin’s guild by spilling the beans on all of their internal affairs and even lent a hand in directing an assault on their base of operations. Once the dust had settled and she got rewarded for her various contributions all of her recollection of what had just went down seemingly vanished into thin air. The only memories that did get permanently etched in her mind were the ones that in some way pertain to Hiroshi because apparently they just left that strong of an impression.
This wasn’t just some sudden onset of amnesia or anything of the sort, the assassin’s guild had fiddled around with her mind in a way that would make her lose all memory of the guild and any of its assignments in case of failure, although for whatever reason it only kicked in once everything was already said and done. She herself was not aware of this and there was no one on their side who had privy to such classified information, so this phenomena was left unexplained.
Now that whatever mechanism that was controlling her memories went off she was finally in a position to begin anew as a fully-fledged human being with no strings attached. The sequence of events that led up to her reformation, however, would require infringing on multiple public broadcasting laws in order to describe in full detail.
「Allow me to jog your memory, you were an assassin who infiltrated this here castle in an attempt to dispose of Haruna and Aearis who were being guarded by Hiroshi at the time. They’re not the type of folk to forgive and forget all willy-nilly.」
「Why would I ever…」
Her expression further contorted with despair. Even this slight fluctuation was immediately noticeable due to her expressionless nature.
「No need to get that down in the dumps, I’ll make sure you get in contact with them somewhere down the line.」
「Can I take your word for it?」
「Naturally. Besides, considering your assigned role it would be unreasonable to keep you away from them forever.」
「My role?」
「I’ll explain later.」
She obediently nodded. While she did want to know what was in store for her it wasn’t a matter of utmost urgency, so she decided to carry on with the conversation. From this little episode alone it was clear just how imbalanced her emotional maturity was in comparison to her logical thinking capabilities, an apparent consequence of her abnormal upbringing.
「Secondly you are to prioritize carrying out orders to the letter except in cases of utmost emergency.」
「Even at the expense of Deary’s life?」
「Depends, if you deem the party incapable of handling the situation put in front of them and your aid happens to be sufficient enough to turn the tides in their favor I’d be willing to turn a blind eye to your digression.」
「Understood.」
「That being said, I don’t expect you to have the judgment necessary to accurately discern these situations when they do happen to come up.」
「I’ve no intent on breaking orders unless doing so would save deary’s or any one of his party members lives, they’re the only exception.」
「I sure hope so.」
Layotte lightly shrugged at her morally questionable remark. To him she was nothing more but a puppet, a puppet who just happened to be a lot more useful than expected and who could potentially make things take a turn for the interesting depending on how they play out. That’s why he decided on getting her properly educated in various aspects of life instead of simply dishing out capital punishment, which he had no qualms in doing had the circumstances been different. If she was to, in any way, work against the interests of Farlane she would be dead in his eyes that very moment.
「Thirdly you are not to speak of our ties under any circumstance. Hiroshi and a few select others will be informed beforehand but you are not to discuss the matter unless spoken to first.」
「Need not be said.」
「Awfully rich coming from the one who spilled the beans just because of some guy but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, for now.」
「You need not worry, nothing is as euphoric as being manhandled by deary.」
「That doesn’t really alleviate any of my concerns…」
Muttered Layotte upon hearing her concerning remark. She was most certainly an entertaining play thing but at the same time there was much room for concern.
「And last but not least you are to report any bit of information you pick up back to me as soon as possible.」
He gracefully side stepped having to linger on a discomforting point by pronouncing the last condition.
「Even details like deary’s favorite sexual play and the g-spots of the female crew members?」
「I don’t know why you’d ever want to gather such information but I’m not going to stop you, just make sure to report it.」
「Understood. Now, what’s my assignment?」
「You are to travel to Darl and get in contact with the underground society, dig up as much relevant intel as you can.」
「She, yet again, was entirely consumed by overwhelming dread.」
「Darl? As in, not the elf village?」
「Firstly even if I was to dispatch you there now you wouldn’t even make it on time for their departure. Secondly you’d have to make your way through the southern forest to make it to the village and your assassin training probably didn’t involve getting around forests, now did it?」
「I’ll find a way.」
「It’s too late for that and besides, forests are their field of specialty there’s nothing that they need you for there.」
The fact that there was no way of refuting his point made it all the more emotionally painful.
「They need you to cover their weak spots, without your expertise in underground affairs they’ll be completely lost, so quit being all sorry for yourself and focus on making their adjustment period as smooth as possible.」
「At your command.」
「Hold on there for a second.」
She tried to immediately head out while Layotte’s helpful advice was still fresh in her mind and got stopped right in her tracks almost as immediately. Her level of air headedness would, under normal circumstances, be plenty a cause of concern but, according to her re-educator from the intelligence department, it was as if she became a completely different person when dealing with underground matters so it wasn’t as cut and dry as it may have initially seemed.
「We’ve prepared equipment and enough money to cover the travelling expenses, you’ll find Ernest waiting for you to receive them.」
「At your command.」
「Also we can’t have you being nameless for much longer as it impedes communication. I’ll be giving you a name and I expect you to assume it.」
「I want deary to do the honors.」
「Don’t be silly, or at least that’s what I would have said had this name I had in mind for you not been suggested by Hiroshi. Feel free to rejoice.」
And so she did. In case anyone found all this to be a little too convenient it was actually all true, the name Layotte had in mind for her was brought up by Hiroshi during one of their talks where they discussed potential code names for fresh intelligence department female recruits.
「Please say it is so.」
「It is, I had predicted you whining over this so I asked Hiroshi for his thoughts well in advance.」
Unable to control her sheer excitement she began to tacitly urge Layotte to get to the point through the use of body language.
「Your name is now officially Rainy Moon.」
「Rainy Moon.」
「Enough talk, get your stuff together and off you go.」
She nodded and left with an unrealistically graceful walking posture. As hard as she may try to blend in with the regular folk little idiosyncratic mannerisms like that would inevitably crop up and give out her true power level to the trained eye.
「I’ve done about all I could do now it’s time to just sit and wait.」
Their journey was bound to have its ups and downs and Layotte felt that having her cushion some of that burden would be a nice, friendly gesture towards the group, a thought process that was a far cry from pure self-interest. That being said he still had Farlane’s best interests in mind but he cared for Hiroshi, who he considered to be one of his best friends, about just as much. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t be doing something as potentially dicey as he was now.
「I would dispatch someone more appropriate if I could, but alas. She’s a real piece of work but I know you’ll make it work somehow, Hiroshi.」
He muttered as he locked the door. At around the same time Hiroshi, who had made a little detour to collect some materials, felt a chilling sensation running down his spine but let’s not infer causation from correlation, shall we?
[previous_page]
[next_page]
Comment (0)