Note: Words in full caps were originally in English. Sorry to make them sound like they"re yelling all the time orz.

“And I thought this big brother here is just a bodyguard…”

The woman called Hazel Graces is narrowing her hazel eyes, just like her name.

“…How unexpected, why would you call me using that name?”

She shakes her filthy white hair, throwing dry fuel into the roaring flames. Judging from the emanating stench, that should be some sort of animal droppings, but it’s best not to confirm anything.

“What on earth are you people? I just heard that a king came from a faraway mazoku country, who’d have thought that people like you who seem to be the Maou and his party look so normal, and can speak a language that doesn’t exist in this world. Even more unexpected is that one of the bodyguards actually knows the name I rarely use!”

A language that doesn’t exist?

I instinctively move my hand to my throat, asking no one in particular,

“…Just now, what language was I speaking…”

The old lady scrutinizes Conrad and me with a look of disbelief.

“It’s English, you know. It’s all because I accidentally said ‘COMEON. Your English is very authentic, just that you have a unique p.r.o.nunciation, so I can’t place your accent. I think it sounds a lot like Boston or Trenton, but it’s also a lot like a strange rabbit with a watch, huh.”

“You said Englis.h.!.+? How can that be! Old lady… No, sorry, MISS… No, it’s MiSS Venera, right? I know I CAN’T SPEAK ENGLIs.h.!.+’

c.r.a.p, the more conscious I am, the more I’ll see the stiff English from the textbooks. Because my junior high English teacher couldn’t speak English, so if I can speak fluent English, then that would really be a miracle. For all you know I could even say ‘This IS APPLE’ and not be aware of it.

The old lady puts her wrinkly hands on her hips, and brushes away our confusion with a hearty laugh.

“What a polite young man, didn’t I say this before? There’s no need to be so courteous. No matter how tough I am, I was already over sixty years old when I came to this country, if I still look like a young lady, then that’d be too weird.”

From the way she’s talking she shouldn’t be a s.h.i.+nzoku born on this land, but someone who came over here from elsewhere. Judging from the color of her eyes, it is rather hard to say she’s a local s.h.i.+nzoku.

“But little buddy, you sure have an interesting way of talking! Mixing a toddler’s stiff single words, and the everyday talk of young people, it’s just like listening to Mother Goose and a soap opera at the same time!”

“Actually the things you’re saying are equally intriguing.”

The previously silent Lord Weller finally speaks up, his voice unexpectedly solemn.

“Bodyguards, Mother Goose, soap operas, these are all words this place doesn’t have. Hazel, I know where you’re from. But I hope you can tell me, how you got to be here.”

“The person who asked first was me, you know!”

She raises her chin slightly, looking down at Conrad. Underneath the firelight her red-brown eyes sparkle behind the completely whitened fringe. Although she’s pet.i.te, her solemn tone emanates the aura of a challenge.

“So I am Hazel Graves, sure, but I never used that name in Seisakoku. Because slaves don’t have names. But how would you foreign visitors know it? Even if Yels.h.i.+ sent you guys to lure me out, you shouldn’t know, right?”

The fire lightens up the little hut, the bracken diminis.h.i.+ng as it burns and bursts apart, sparks and crackles leaping in unison.

“Who the h.e.l.l are you guys? You shouldn’t just be this little buddy’s guards, right?”

“Don’t simply point at him!”

When Hazel points at me with her pointer finger, the previously wordless Josak suddenly says this short and simple line. Although he’s speaking in the common language that’s unknown in Seisakoku, we can still here the threat in his tone. She immediately puts her hand down, and stares at Josak, who’s making himself very clearly heard.

“I don’t know what relations.h.i.+p you have with Lord Weller, but I can’t tolerate a slave being so rude to our Majesty!”

“Josak! This person saved us. Don’t make it sound so bad!”

The unhappy spy explains to me, who’s scolding him,

“But it’s not like I’m wrong, Young Master. Even if she helped us escape, she’s still just an old lady who pulls the manure cart, y’know. Even if you don’t want her to kneel down and lick your feet, isn"t it too rude of her to point at Your Majesty with her finger?”

A bit of Gurrier’s personality comes through in those words.

Hazel Graves, on the other hand, smiles rather interestedly and talks with Lord Weller, with whom she can communicate. Looks she can tell from Josak’s att.i.tude alone that he’s mad.

“He’s mad now, huh.”

“He’s angry because his master was insulted. Although His Majesty is an open-minded monarch, and doesn’t harp on status, but to a minister who’s sworn loyalty to the king, it’s another matter altogether.”

Listening to this spine-tickling explanation, I feel so awkward I don’t even know where to direct my gaze. When I look at the line where the rotting wooden walls meet the ceiling, Hazel uses a tone completely different from before to say,

“Little buddy, so you really are His Majesty the Maou, then? Even if you’re dressed like peasants, you really are the bona fide s.h.i.+n Makoku emissary? c.r.a.p, then it looks like I can’t call you little buddy anymore.”

She suddenly falls to one knee, holding up my right hand like a knight.

“Your Majesty.”

“Waa! W-wait a sec!”

Seeing the way she respectfully bows to me, I hastily crouch down with her. The two of us are like young girls in prayer.

“Please forgive my previous rudeness.”

“Didn’t I say this before--- you acting like this makes me feel awkward! I’m the worst at dealing with this sort of thing—it’s up to you if you want to call me Your Majesty or Dai Maou or simply Yuuri, but I’m begging you, don’t act all careful around me like you’re touching a b.u.mp where you hit yourself!”

Hazel curves the corners of her mouth lightly, smiling in a fearless way that’s completely unlike an old lady. She changes to shaking my hand, gripping my right hand forcefully as she says,

“Please take care of me, Your Majesty. After hiding in the graves for so long, it’s my first time meeting a current king, heh.”

“Hiding in the graves… Grandma Hazel, are you a grave robber?”

“If I really was a grave robber, I’d want to leave more valuables for my descendants!”

She tsks her tongue with a look of regret, and then covers her mouth jokingly. Slowly she stands up, asking me what these two young men’s names are.

“So you’re Lord Weller and Gurrier. How exciting, I haven’t known any man with a name for a long time. But in the middle of your discussions, there seems to have been some conflicts. Even if you can’t save yourselves, there will be helpers appearing in the unlikeliest places. Seems like you were set up by Yels.h.i.+… the Emperor, it’s not wrong for me to a.s.sume that?”

“NO!”

The “NO” I yell is surprisingly loud, taking even me by surprise. Turn my head to the side, thinking back to the young emperor of Seiakoku sitting on the throne, and the older twin brother leaning on him. Although it only happened a few hours ago, but just thinking about it, gives my brain an intense feeling of numbness.

“We weren’t set up by Yels.h.i.+. I… We were fooled by Saralegui… that is, Yels.h.i.+’s older brother, Saralegui. Who’d have thought they were brothers.”

I never thought that Saralegui, who was so friendly to me, was lying to me from the start.

“I took half a year to realize that most s.h.i.+nzoku are twins, too. Such as, ‘why did the guy I just saw appear here, maybe he’s a master sprinter’. Besides, no one could have guessed, that the king of Shou s.h.i.+maron and the Emperor here would be twins!

Hazel nods in sympathy, continuing to ask,

“But why would the Maou’s party only bring so few people all the way to Seisakoku? Could I have gotten it wrong? I heard that the people at Dejima and the palace are almost all Shou s.h.i.+maron men, and there are only two, three mazoku who disembarked.”

“Before discussing that, please verify your ident.i.ty.”

Lord Weller suddenly interrupts our conversation. He’s right, it’s great to have someone who can think calmly by my side.

“I have countless questions regarding Hazel Graves. But since you have another name, then we also have a lot of questions to ask ‘Venera’.”

“That’s right, Venera, Miss Venera! This Mrs… Mn—Ma’am, since you’re Venera, that means the one we’re looking for is you. Please tell me, do you know two girls called Jason and Freddy? Where are they now? I received the letter they wrote to me.”

Logically they should have returned to the hometown they left when they were young, and have missed dearly, living their days happily in Seisakoku. But from the contents of the letter I received, there isn’t a single word with anything to do with ‘happy’. Instead, after needless suffering, the only words we can understand are these—

Venera, hope, save.

“Please tell me, what kind of situation am I supposed to save you from? What’s happened to those children!? Grandma Hazel please tell me, since you call yourself Venera…”

Just as I grab Hazel’s arm, there are barks in the distance—looks like our pursuers have discovered this place.

“We still have things to discuss, right?”

Without waiting for our reply, Hazel turns around and walks into the hut, reaching out her hand to open a door.

“If so, let’s have a change of location.”

She grabs the handle, and wooden shards rain down. Once she opens this door that seems like it’ll fall apart once you apply force to it, a little room around a foot in square area appears before us.

I really don’t know if I should call it a little room, or a closet you can’t go in, but there’s a square manmade hole in the center…

“Is it a toilet?”

Hazel takes away a few of the floorboards.

“A-and it’s a cesspit…”

Otherwise known as the ‘ker-ploomp’ toilet. I’ve only seen these at my grandfather’s house in the countryside, and that’s not even in use anymore.

“Relax, nothing to be worried about. This place hasn’t been used as a toilet. Get in there!”

Holding the wooden planks in one arm, she waves at us to go over. Conrad squirms inside first, while Josak pushes my arm from behind—because the sound of dogs is rapidly approaching.

There’s a thin ladder as narrow as the opening underneath the hole. If it was an adult with wider shoulders, they might knock into the walls on both sides.

“Using the toilet for transport brings back not-too-nice memories… Pardon me for asking, but has this place really never been used as a toilet?”

Hazel, putting the planks back in place, replies without turning back,

“Only very few soldiers who get lost and wander in here, mistake it for a toilet and relieve themselves a little.”

In that moment, I don’t know if I should translate that line for the broad-shouldered spy.