“—What’s this, mister? Enjoying life, I see, having so many cute princesses waiting on you like this. What, are you the illegitimate child of the late emperor?”
While they searched for cover under a bridge, they found that an old man was already set up there, greeting them in a joking manner. This was the first local whom Yuuto and his group interacted with since they moved west of the Nareva territory to a provincial city.
Compared with the capital and the cities in the central areas, Nareva was closer to a remote territory along the border, but since the Vesa territory sat between it and the battlefield, it was still far from the western front.
Of course, with the fronts falling back following the second large-scale offensive, the territory hadn’t received an order to evacuate yet. Perhaps the people here had all left of their own will, then.
“I see you’re living in class despite your age, too. The people here seemed to have evacuated. Were there orders to do that? Or…”
“Oh, thank you, young prince. Yes, one of those scrap monsters, a Morpho, attacked the area. The area here is still safe, but the next town over got bombed, and it scared everyone into running to the capital.”
The bombardment they’d heard of earlier really was a Morpho attack, it seemed. Reports of those bombardments became more frequent on the radio than talk of the Actaeon, so the damage was likely severe. Things were worse than Yuuto imagined, though.
Either way, Yuuto frowned.
“You should probably run, too. A Morpho attack really could blow this town away. Its shots have extremely high velocity, so if it does shoot this town, you’ll have no time to run.”
“The capital might be big, but it’s not big enough for everyone. A woman my age doesn’t have many years left. I may as well stay here.”
…You’re a woman?
Perhaps because of how bony and sunburned she was, Yuuto had assumed she must have been a man. He felt apologetic.
Citri leaned in sheepishly.
“B-but, ma’am, you should still run. If you stay here…you’ll die.”
“True. But I chose to live in this elegance, with snowflakes as my funeral flowers and the crows to sing my eulogy. A fine way to go. Finer than being hanged with a name I discarded.”
The old woman cackled. Her face and lips were tanned and withered, but her eyes alone shone red.
“And it’s all the same for you, isn’t it? You came all the way here, where you might die. I don’t know what pleasure jaunt you’re going on, but you came here of your own choice, eh? Then that’s a fine journey to go on. You may as well enjoy it, sweet princesses and you dashing prince.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nina put on the blackest clothes in her closet and went with her aunt, clad in mourning garments, to the national graveyard on the outskirts of Sankt Jeder, where the war dead slumbered.
They were attending a funeral for the husband of her aunt’s friend from her school days. He’d been drafted into the army and died. Since Sankt Jeder was on the north of the continent, the graves were all covered in snow during December. It was pure white and slightly bright, with a blanket of cold snow hanging over everything, just like that day she visited her brother’s grave and spotted a soldier his age.
Her brother’s friend Marcel said that was another friend of Eugene’s, Shin. Her favorite toy, a big cat doll, was a present from her brother and Shin. She asked Marcel to tell Shin to come visit Eugene’s grave together next time, and her aunt said she’d take them along on his next leave, but that next leave never came.
The Legion’s attacks grew more intense, and the Federacy military finally lost. Ever since, lots of grown-ups had been fighting really hard…and died, just like her brother and the man this funeral was for.
The casket being lowered into the hole in the ground was especially light. There likely wasn’t actually anyone inside. When her beloved brother died last summer, the casket had to remain closed, but now Nina, even as young as she was, realized that they were lucky there was anything left to bury.
“…Why do so many terrible things have to keep happening all at once?”
She heard someone else watching the funeral murmur, and those words hung especially heavy in her ears.