As Iris Lune entered Catherine’s bedroom, Catherine was already completely ready and waiting.
On the table beside the bed were two cups of steaming hot milk.
“Now then, will you tell me your stories again tonight?”
“Haha…”
–With just a small trigger, she’s become quite fond of me, hasn’t she.
The daily routine of shuffling the real one and the body double. As a bonus, Iris Lune telling stories to Catherine had become an additional daily event.
Iris Lune was no longer needed as a body double, and there was no real need for the two to be in the same room, but Catherine still wanted to continue the nighttime chat time.
“Don’t you ask Benedict?”
“I want to hear stories now… and I want to hear them from you.”
“Okay. Well, today’s story is about the time I fought goblins that had taken up residence in an old castle in the Arawen Marquisate.”
Nodding, Iris Lune sat down opposite Catherine.
The hot milk seemed to have just the right amount of sugar and honey in it, making it sweet and warm.
There was no shortage of stories to tell.
Renée, who was possessing Iris, could access and read Iris’s memories.
Being a Fourth-Class Guard adventurer meant being a more than adequate “ordinary adventurer.” Iris had experienced everything expected of an adventurer: battles with named monsters (naturally, much weaker than the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”), exploration of uncharted paths, and dungeon crawls.
–Adventurer knowledge might be useful in the future, after all. Salvaging as much as possible isn’t a bad thing for me either.
The memories and knowledge read during possession become fixed in Renée’s mind, but memories and knowledge not read are lost upon the release of possession.
Browsing through Iris’s memories as much as possible was linked to increasing Renée’s knowledge.
“…So. It was obviously a trap, but Hugh suggested that it might be a decoy designed to attract attention because it was so obviously a trap.
Since there was nothing else for it, I lit it from a distance with the magic spell <Ignition>… boom.”
“Oh, my. How silly.”
“Goblin groups with magical goblins use surprisingly sophisticated traps… I think they were just trying to imitate them in form only.”
Catherine always listened intently to Iris Lune’s stories.
But, even while putting on a calm facade, Iris Lune’s emotion-sensing ability could detect that her heart was fluttering whenever the conversation turned to magic… especially when Iris talked about using magic.
“Do you dislike talking about magic?”
“Eh…”
When Iris Lune asked the question straight out, Catherine flinched, her shoulders twitching, and showed obvious signs of agitation at Iris Lune’s sudden attack.
“Um, hey, Iris. Can you tell me frankly? Am I making such an obvious reaction?”
“It’s not that, but somehow…”
I can’t exactly say, “I’m reading your emotions with the Abyss Spirit’s ability.”
Catherine frowned with her eyebrows furrowed, but then, as if resigned, she shouted.
“Yes, that’s right! I can’t use magic like my mother!
Even my brothers can all use magic, at least to aid their swordsmanship, but I can’t do it at all.
So, every time I hear a story about you using magic, I hate myself for not having the talent… that’s all. It’s not that I dislike Iris’s stories.”
It seemed that Iris Lune’s stories were hitting Catherine’s complex head-on.
–It’s a peaceful worry, though…
Just a little envious, and a little unpleasant.
Catherine sensitively perceived Iris Lune’s thoughts.
“…What is that look in your eyes?”
“It’s nothing.”
“If you have something to say, say it clearly!”
Catherine grabbed Iris Lune’s face, which was trying to look away, and forcibly turned it toward herself.
Iris Lune resigned herself and decided to say what she thought without reservation.
“I just thought you were lucky to have a mother.”
Those were the words of both Iris and Renée.
Iris was a war orphan. She had lost her parents and lived in an orphanage run by the temple, but Diana happened to visit and recognized her magical talent, and she was entrusted to a magician with whom Diana was acquainted to train.
As for Renée, well, it goes without saying.
Iris Lune’s straightforward words.
Because it was simple, it was sharp.
Catherine made a “whoops” face and then became dejected.
“I see… that’s right. I think Iris lost her parents… Maybe it was a luxurious worry to talk about such a thing in front of you.”
But Iris Lune shook her head.
“Not really… I think I’m unhappier than you, but I don’t deny your unhappiness because of that. The degree and direction may be different. But everyone is different, and everyone is unhappy.”
“Iris…”
This was not an Iris performance, but rather Renée’s words.
Renée is a revenger. She laments her own misfortune and plots revenge on those who brought it about.
That’s why Renée doesn’t deny the misfortune of others.
If he were to say to someone else’s misfortune, “Don’t worry about it,” Renée might end up denying her own misfortune.
“Somehow, thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I just said what I thought.”
Catherine, who had been wearing a relieved expression, suddenly became serious and stared at her.
“Um, is something wrong?”
“Iris, the adventure stories can wait. Will you properly tell me about you?”
“Does that mean, like, stories about my past?”
“No! I don’t get any sense from Iris that you want me to ‘understand you.’ It’s like you’ve given up on becoming friends from the start, which makes me feel a little bad!”
“U… um, that’s…”
Iris Lune was at a loss for words.
…She’s sharp.
–But what can I do…! What am I supposed to say that you can understand about my true situation!
Even if I did talk about Iris herself, I’m afraid I’d let something slip!
That’s why she had been careful not to go too deep, but it seemed that this defensive attitude had been seen through.
“See, there you go again! That habit of shuffling your feet when you’re troubled.”
“Ah. S-sorry… Somehow, when I have something stuck in my chest, it feels like my body is unstable…”
“‘Correct that. I do not have such a habit,’… I said that about three times, didn’t I?”
Catherine pointed sharply at Iris Lune’s feet in the tone of a manners teacher.
–Man, this is bad. If I accidentally show the “Dragon’s Throat” members a habit that “Iris” doesn’t have, they might get suspicious. We’re acting separately now, so it should be okay, but I need to be careful…
Undercover investigations aren’t easy.
“Iris… You know I’m going to the royal capital soon, right?”
“Yeah.”
Iris Lune had heard about this situation.
Apparently, Hilbert had ordered the feudal lords to have their families live in the royal capital. The notice was issued relatively soon after Hilbert seized power.
The reasons given were various, but anyone who knew a little history would know what he was aiming for. He was holding the feudal lords’ families hostage to prevent rebellion. In the Edo shogunate, it was called the daimyo hostage system.
Translator’s Note
The Sankin-kōtai system in the Edo period required daimyos to spend every other year in Edo (modern Tokyo), essentially keeping their families as hostages to prevent rebellion.
Oswald probably wanted to refuse, but doing so would be seen as “having rebellious intentions.” He had been delaying his reply, using the fight against Night Python as a reason to stall, but he could no longer delay it, and he had heard that he was scheduled to depart around the day after tomorrow.
“Then we won’t be able to chat every night. A brief farewell until Iris comes to visit.”
“…Did you just decide that I’m going to visit?”
“Come. I’ll at least treat you to tea and sweets. I’ll tell Benedict to make sure you come to my place.”
Catherine made a triumphant face, as if this was checkmate.
But unfortunately, that was an impossible future. By that time, Iris would probably no longer exist in this world.
“It’s not like we’ll never see each other again, but before we say goodbye, I want to know a little bit about you.”
Catherine leaned forward, peering into Iris Lune’s face.
Iris’s face was reflected in her large gray and crimson eyes.
–Fire-like crimson, and the color of ash…
It reminds me of cremation. It’s not a good omen for me as an undead.
“Iris. Do you have any friends?”
Catherine asked such a thing out of the blue.
“Friends…”
Suddenly, Iris Lune thought.
Chojiro, the previous life who lived on Earth. Renée, the soul. Iris, the body.
It was a word that was a little distant to all of them.
Chojiro had become estranged from his friends from his student days after becoming a working adult. He didn’t have any relationships with the people at his workplace that could be called “friends.”
Renée was often bullied because of his silver hair and silver eyes, and his mother lived in a way that avoided the public eye, so he didn’t have any friends that could be called friends.
And Iris was…
“The members of “Dragon’s Throat” are comrades, and there are quite a few acquaintances from work, I guess.”
“In other words, you don’t have any.”
Iris Lune was a little hurt by being told so clearly.
“…What about you, Lady Catherine?”
“I do have some… but I wonder if I can call them friends.”
Unable to understand what she meant, Catherine shrugged her shoulders in resignation.
“Because it’s tiring! Even if I make one mistake in etiquette, everyone will definitely make fun of me behind my back. When I’m being careful not to make mistakes in etiquette, I can’t even taste the sweets I’m eating together.
Also, everyone wants to create an order based on my father’s title and family status… Making friends is a battle!”
It seemed that various things had been accumulating in Catherine’s words, and Iris Lune gave a wry smile.
It seems that relationships among the upper classes, even among children, involve troublesome political infighting.
Even she, the count’s daughter who lives a glamorous life isolated from the common people, has worries because of her status.
“You’re right, everyone is different, and everyone is unhappy.”
“That’s right. But that’s why I think it’s important to have friends who aren’t unhappy.”
Gray and crimson eyes looked at Iris Lune.
“Shall we be friends?”
The words were like a bittersweet confession of love from a girl.
Catherine seemed a little nervous.
–Now, how do I answer?
Iris Lune thought about how she should answer.
Right now, she’s just borrowing Iris’s body to do a job to slaughter Night Python. Once everything is over, she will disappear and that will be the end of it.
In the first place, Catherine wants to be friends with Iris, but the person talking to Catherine now is just the vengeful spirit Renée possessing Iris.
So, there’s no way she can really become friends with Catherine.
…There’s no way she can.
If that’s the case, then she just needs to prepare a temporary answer until she parts ways with Catherine.
But what kind of answer would be appropriate?
As she was pondering, there was a knock on the bedroom door.
“Lady Catherine, it’s time.”
The maid had come to pick her up, having timed it.
The chat time was over. It was time for Catherine to sleep, and for Iris Lune to become a mysterious ninja. Iris Lune was still using the guest bedroom instead of the party room because she might be called upon as a body double if anything happened. It was fortunate that it was easy to slip out.
“Oh dear, what terrible timing… Iris. Let’s talk about this tomorrow. Please think about your answer.”
“Um… okay.”
–That’s just as well. I’ll think about what to say by tomorrow.
No, even if it was an answer that stepped on a landmine, Catherine would be leaving soon anyway, so it would be fine either way, Iris Lune thought, being calculating.
“Well… see you tomorrow then.”
“Yeah.”
When Iris Lune replied, Catherine saw Iris Lune off to the entrance of the room with a cheerful, bouncy step.
And that was their farewell.