Under the protection of the Undine’s healing powers, Fuuka made rapid progress on the treatment. She coordinated with those among the retinue who had knowledge of healing. Fuuka kept watch over the entire scene and delivered appropriate orders as the situation developed.
As Miyako had a contract with an Undine, her role was to summon the water spirit’s power and direct it towards Fuuka. The cool, blue light enveloping her crimson dress gave Miyako an air of divinity.
The Reinhardt family’s head butler called out to her nervously.
“Excuse me, Lady Miyako?”
“Hmm? What is it? I’m a little busy burning Fuuka acting all heroic into my memory, if you don’t mind.”
“Nyahaa.”
“Oh my! The water spirit speaks? I-I’m terribly sorry!”
“Come on, there’s no need to grovel! So, what do you want?”
“R-Right... It would very much please me if you would give some more thought to an engagement with Klaus.”
“Oh, this again? I’m fed up with hearing about it!! You might not have noticed, but I have a thing going with Fuuka-chan?!”
“But now that you’ve formed a contract with an Undine, one of the four great spirits, you will be given the title of Exceptional Noble!”
“Oh?”
“Exceptional Noble is a glorious title bestowed upon individuals who have displayed great power or skill, regardless of their lineage. You can’t pass the title on to your children, but you have the potential to stand on even footing with the Six Great Noble Families, including the Reinhardt family... In fact, in some circumstances you might attain more honor than even that...”
“So?”
“Please, I beg you, reconsider an engagement into the Reinhardt family! The truth is, Klaus views Lady Fuuka Hamilton affectionately.”
“What??!!”
What’s so affectionate about dragging her out to a ritual in the freezing rain and making her a living sacrifice?
“And he’s making arrangements to begin negotiations for a marriage between her and the head of the most-esteemed Hickes family, foremost of the Six Great Noble Families and the most glorious of all.”
“You mean the same head of the Hickes family who turned sixty-nine this year?! The one famous for being a lecherous old freak?!?!”
That’s it, I’m done. This is going nowhere. If Fuuka ever married that old lech, I think I’d fly into a rage so fierce that I wouldn’t just stop at flooding the capital. I’m already pissed even hearing it said. They treat people like objects.
Just as Miyako was about to shout “How dare you do that to my Fuuka-chan?”, she heard Fuuka calling her name.
“Miyako!”
“Wh-What’s wrong, Fuuka-chan? Need a hand?”
“Yes. I’ve dealt with the people who didn’t have symptoms, but the ones with symptoms... It might be too late for them.”
“...Your father?”
“Yes,” nodded Fuuka.
To Miyako’s surprise, Fuuka’s expression was calm.
Dan Hamilton lay moaning, covered in mud. There was no longer any trace of the dignity a proud head of a noble family ought to have.
“No, please... Fuuka, hhhelb me... I raised you eben though you were a basdard... Hhhave you forgodden thad?”
“That’s not some trump card you can pull out whenever you feel like it!” Miyako said.
“Wh-What?!”
Miyako remembered how he’d mistreated Fuuka, as well as her innocent attempts to satisfy him, and the words rose up unbeckoned.
“She said she can’t treat you. And even if Fuuka-chan could, it’s up to her whether she does or not.”
“...Miyako.”
Fuuka mouthed a word of thanks. Her voice was the faintest of whispers, but it reached Miyako.
“Besides, I’m not sure whether we can effectively keep others from developing it. At least here we have Umi; Undines are the embodiment of healing, so thanks to her protection it’s not so bad, but elsewhere...”
“So what’s the plan?”
“If only we had the all-purpose medicinal herb we found in the Atika region. If we had moonlight grass...”
Fuuka clenched her fists. I want to save the people here. If only we had the herb that grew where Miyako and I stayed—moonlight grass, the panacea that cured Shan Li’s daughter Aisha of her illness.
At that moment, Miyako broke into a smile.
“...Heh heh.”
“Miyako, it’s not funny.”
This is serious... We’re trying to figure out how to stop a pandemic, thought Fuuka, losing her temper.
“That’s not it. Listen, Fuuka-chan.”
“Listen to what?”
Fuuka pricked up her ears, which heard a slight vibration.
“Heeeey, little SIS-ter!”
From the distance—
“Yippee! Strapping ten fast horses to a carriage really gets you places quick!” shouted Shan Li.
—came the beating of hooves and the rumbling of wheels.
“Look, Mom, Mama! There’s Miyako-sama and Fuuka-sama!”
“Keep your head inside the carriage, Aisha, it’s dangerous,” warned Maria.
Fuuka recognized their voices. Odina Florence waved his hand from inside the carriage heading towards them with thundering hoofbeats.
“Is that Shan Li-san?! And Odina-san too!”
“Heh heh. The truth is, I called them out to help with our escape. In exchange, I offered them all the moonlight grass you picked last time.”
Odina held the letter Miyako wrote for him. Black bags rested beneath his eyes, the result of a full-speed mad dash in a ten-horse carriage from the Atika region to the Enot River. They parked the carriage a little distance away to prevent the rough waters from scaring the horses.
“Odinaaa!! How much moonlight grass did you get inside the carriage?!”
Shan Li answered Miyako instead.
“This much!” she said, raising a hand and stretching out her fingers.
Miyako felt her hopes fade away.
“Five? That’s all?”
“As if! You obviously don’t know many dependable Continental merchants like me!” said Shan Li with a cat-like smile. “Fifty plants, roots and all!”
Fuuka almost bit through her tongue in her rush to answer, her voice shrill with excitement.
“I’ll purchase them all!!!”
“Oh yeah? ◎×％＄＃＃＊＃〜?!”
Shan Li said something in Continental—
“Really now, ×◎＆＄!”
—and Fuuka answered her fluently.
A smile crept across Shan Li’s face.
“Deal. I’ll throw in some extras too.”
“Thank you very much... I can make more than enough medicine now,” said Fuuka, clutching her chest in relief.
Behind them, Klaus caught sight of Odina and raised his voice.
“You? What’s my spy doing here?!”
“Oh God, he’s here too!”
“Hey, is that any way to talk to your boss?!”
The pitiful working man Odina Florence looked at his boss with disdain. It’s your fault for being here, he thought.
“Oh, hold on... Klaus-sama,” said Odina, hesitantly pointing a finger at Klaus’s neck, “You’ve got a rash.”
“What??!!”
The first symptom of decapitation fever, a red rash, circled Klaus’s neck.
“Oh no! Spy, do something!!”
“Uhh, do what, exactly? Oh, by the way, I’m quitting, is that okay? And since I’m quitting, I don’t really have any obligation to do what you say...”
“Excuse me?! Do you mean to say you’re betraying the Reinhardt family?!”
“Well, come on, the pay isn’t all that great...”
“Compared to what? If you can’t handle working for us, you won’t be able to work anywhere...”
Hearing that, Shan Li raised her hand.
“Over here! He’s working for us.”
“Who the hell are you? From your outfit... a merchant from the Continent?!”
“That’s right. Where I come from, we have a saying: ‘Put your money where your mouth is. If you don’t pay up, then shut up. If you do pay up, still shut up.’ Or something like that. So, are you paying enough to butt in about your spy changing jobs?”
Shan Li put on her business smile. By her side, the voluptuous beauty Maria spoke between sighs.
“...Sorry to tell you, but my wife has bought and paid for that man.”
“She, er... what?”
“And she paid about this much.”
Klaus balked at the amount paid and let out a scream.
“This is ridiculous! Sure, he’s a spy, but he’s still just a servant!”
“No, no, no! He’s quick on his feet, and there’s no greater virtue than that. Plus, he’s built well enough to handle whatever we can throw at him, and most of all, he’s so loveable!”
“I’ll concede to that, he is loveable! B-But...”
“I’m sorry, but that’s how it is, Klaus-sama. So I don’t have any particular reason to help you with your disease anymore... I couldn’t say no to the high wages and plentiful vacation time!! So long, Klaus-sama. Be well.”
“S-Spy?! Do you see my neck? What part of it looks well to you?! Help me! Ah, that’s right, there’s the medicinal herb!”
Handed a curt rejection first by the woman he desired, then by his own servant, Klaus Reinhardt screamed in vain.
“I’ve decocted the moonlight grass. I’ll be administering it in order, so line up! Klaus-sama, Father, that goes for the both of you too.”
After Fuuka’s final sharp rebuke, Dan Hamilton and Klaus Reinhardt joined the servants in the line and awaited their medicine. Dan crawled, while Klaus walked with sunken shoulders.
“Please hhhelb me, Fuuka... Hhhelb your father...” said Dan.
But however much he grasped at Fuuka’s dress or kissed Miyako’s shoes, nobody took any notice. Dan Hamilton’s abusive treatment of Fuuka had, over time, lost him the trust of his servants.
Fuuka carried on with the treatments.
“Hopefully we’ve reduced the risk of any more people developing symptoms quite considerably.”
Dan Hamilton kissed boots, prostrated himself, and finally wept and begged for forgiveness. They flung some medicine at him and finished his treatment. Now all that’s left is for me and Fuuka-chan to kiss this place goodbye, thought Miyako with relief.
But just then...
“Wh-Whoa! Miyako, watch out!!” yelled Fuuka.
“Huh?”
Oomph.
Something struck her.
“Nyo, m-master!”
“Miyako!!”
Miyako’s feet left the ground. Turned upside down, she fell from the precipice towards the river Umi had frozen in place.
“If you won’t side with the Reinhardts... then we can’t tolerate the creation of a new Exceptional Noble!”
Confused, Miyako scanned the bank as she fell and saw a man screaming hysterically. Behind his ghastly expression, she recognized him as the Reinhardts’ head butler.
No, this can’t be happening... Mine and Fuuka-chan’s bright and sunny life on the run and our slow days together were just getting started!!!
Collision with the water simultaneously cut short Miyako’s desperate cries and her consciousness.
✦ ✦ ✦
The voice of Miyako’s beloved villainess penetrated her fading consciousness.
“Miyako, I... Being with you, all those days we spent together, I felt so very happy.”
I had two weeks to make you say you’re happy. When’s the last day? Come to think of it, isn’t it...