Interlude:
Parental Woes
FLASHBACK TO RIGHT AFTER Illy and Plum fought.
“I can’t believe you.”
They were at the Scythia Transportation headquarters. Tisalia was scolding Illy after collecting her from Sapphee.
“You were fighting with the Lady of the Murdrac family! Do you know how much it could hurt our business if we fall out of Lord Murdrac’s graces?”
“Er, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you trouble, my lady, but—”
“But what?”
“She’s the one who started the fight!” Illy folded her wings, eyes downcast.
Tisalia let out a sigh. “Yes, from what I’ve heard, the young Lady Murdrac does cause problems.”
“That’s right! She just said whatever she wanted, like that I should drop out as a candidate if I don’t want to go, which she knows nothing about!”
“Hey now, settle down.” Tisalia let out another sigh.
She’d recommended Illy in the first place so that Illy could overcome her difficulties with humans. In that regard, Tisalia was also to blame for the incident.
“Then again, there’s some truth to what she’s saying.”
“Lady?”
“My father and I forced this on you, even though you didn’t want it. I’m sorry, Illy. You should drop out of the ambassador race.”
“No!” Illy cried out, her crest feathers standing up straight. “It’s true that I didn’t really want to go to the human realm…but I’m not going to quit just because someone else tells me to! And I hate the way she said it!”
Tisalia nodded understandingly. “You’re right. I don’t want to fall out of Lord Murdrac’s graces, but this is a completely different issue! You can’t just let her pick a fight and then walk all over you. Smash her to the ground!”
“I-I never said that!” Illy squeaked, frightened. This former-mercenary attitude was too harsh for her.
“Well, peacefully, then.”
“How am I supposed to peacefully smash her into the ground? This is crazy!”
“I just mean…go for it, in your own way. You can talk it out if that works. Like, what is your opponent thinking? Why did she pick a fight with you? It doesn’t matter how you resolve it, as long as you can clear up these uncertainties.”
“Ohh, so the rumors are true! Scythia really was once a wild mercenary tribe!”
“How dare you say such a thing about my noble family!” Tisalia raged. “Former wild mercenaries or not, if you start acting like nobles, then your hearts naturally follow. You might be a contracted employee, but you’re still a member of Scythia. You need to think about what’s happened.”
“I understand, Lady.” Illy nodded, trusting the words of Tisalia, who was like a sister to her.
Ever since they’d first met, Tisalia had taken it upon herself to look after Illy. Now she was playing the role of her guardian.
“But…if I do fight with Plum again, won’t Lord Murdrac get angry?” Illy asked.
“Well, it wouldn’t be great, but we have arrangements in place for that. Sapphee made them.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.” Tisalia smiled and winked.
I hope it’s going well on your side, Arahnia, Tisalia thought to herself. The arachne was probably in the graveyard district as they spoke.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why do I hafta be here, doin’ this?”
Arahnia was at the Deadlich Hotel, in Plum’s room. The interior was luxuriously appointed, and there were loads of clothes and accessories throughout. Plum was a self-proclaimed fan of Arahnia, and most of the garments had been designed by her mentor.
“Waaah! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to make you come all the way out here!”
“You should be grateful I did. I even convinced your father, ya know? Tellin’ him it’s just a little playground scuffle so he’d let it go.”
“All I do is create problems.” Plum clutched Arahnia, tears in her eyes.
Arahnia let her, albeit with an annoyed look on her face. Plum sobbed and carried on, but she was grateful to Arahnia for coming all the way to the hotel.
“I had to be convincing enough for the entire council. Damn, that was nerve-racking. I can’t believe Lord Murdrac was even willing to listen to me.”
“Because you’re my mentor! I always tell Daddy about you! I bet that’s why he listened!”
“He really spoils you. But all I know is what Sapphee told me.”
Murdrac learning about the fight between Illy and Plum could start a war with Scythia Transportation. Furthermore, Hephthal, the head of transport, was no match for Murdrac. This was why Arahnia had gone all the way to the hotel, so that the issue was kept between those directly involved, without reaching those in power.
It was the first time Arahnia had ever met Lord Murdrac, but apparently, he’d heard about her from Plum. He greeted her so politely that for a moment, she forgot how powerful he was.
“I’m humbled that you would welcome this mere designer into your home,” Arahnia said, smiling, even though she immediately worried that her tone made her sound sarcastic. It was hard to switch off the villain veneer that Sapphee and Tisalia always gave her a hard time about.
If I’m gonna marry the Doc, I gotta work on that, Arahnia thought to herself.
“Anyway, Plum, I’ve talked to your father, so now you’ve gotta make up with Illy.”
“’Kaay…” Plum averted her eyes.
Arahnia stared straight at her, unblinking, as she nursed a glass of strawberry juice. “Hello? Did you hear what I said?”
“Whaaa!” Plum cried. “Memé, help me!”
Memé, seated next to her, screamed but didn’t budge. She might have been frozen with fear.
“Memé, you come, too. You’re good at looking after ’em,” Arahnia said with a chuckle. She liked Memé. She had sympathy for anyone with trouble setting boundaries.
“I-I can’t leave her.” Memé said through tears. “Her claws are so scary. Let go of me!”
“You’re on my side, right, Memé? Right?!”
“I’m not on anyone’s side! Why did you start that fight anyway?!” Memé stared at Plum with her large eye.
Plum put on a brave face when she walked around town, but she melted into a puddle of weakness with those she was close to. Only Memé and Arahnia ever saw this side of her. In front of Illy, she would act tough again. That was part of the reason she and Illy couldn’t get along.
“After I worked so hard to look good enough to finally go out on the town… It ticks me off that she says she doesn’t need anything but her wings to look good!”
“So what?”
“And Daddy’s always telling me to look tough in front of the other species!”
“It’s the way you say it!” Memé cried. “You’re no good at speaking, so you need to be careful how you word things!”
“If I could do that, then I wouldn’t be bad at speaking! Waaah!” Plum sobbed into Memé’s chest, unsure if she was sad or angry.
“Getting along with people really is hard,” Arahnia said, exasperated. But even she couldn’t bring herself to abandon Plum. She could see herself both in Memé, who had trouble getting along with people, and Plum, with her dual nature. She couldn’t just ignore them. That’s why she’d come all the way to the Deadlich Hotel.
“There’s no way that I can be an ambassador to the human realm! I’ve never even been there before! Memé, you go!”
“What?! After you tore into Illy like that, now you’re scared?! I already dropped out!”
“It’s because Daddy signed me up without asking! I never wanted to go.” Plum lamented her lack of control over the situation.
“In that case, don’t go around starting fights!”
“Oooh!”
Arahnia could relate to saying things that she didn’t mean. For example, testing a friendship by saying mean things about the man her best friend loved. Back then, she’d spent so much time teasing the doctor, and now here she was engaged to him. Life really was unpredictable.
“Crying isn’t going to help anything. Now that you’ve said you’re going to aim to become the ambassador, you have to work hard to get popular, yeah?”
“Mentor, you’re so harsh!”
“You brought this on yourself.” Arahnia sighed.
Plum had an unenviable need to expend effort on her external appearance so she wouldn’t come off as uncool. It was only natural that she wouldn’t get along with someone like Illy, who didn’t care about appearances.
“What a ridiculous fight between ridiculous little girls.” Arahnia looked out the hotel window. She wondered how things were going at Scythia Transportation, and hoped Tisalia had taken care of things with Illy.
“Waaah! What should I do, Memé?!”
“I’m the one who should be crying!”
Plum and Memé both cried, clutching each other.
“That’s enough. Both of you.” Arahnia propped her elbows on the table, exasperated. She had no idea how to settle things amicably between the two young women.