Two weeks after visiting the headquarters of the Imperial Army, Westalia and Leonardo headed to the Elizabeth Pink dye factory. The former Lanchester territory, only a short distance from the imperial capital, was surrounded by mountains and rich in nature. There were only a few houses here and there, and the rest was just fields and pastureland. The center of the territory was apparently prosperous, but the dye factory was tucked away on a hill in the countryside.
“So this is where they manufacture Elizabeth Pink,” Westalia said.
“Most likely. Let’s go inside.”
“Wait!” Westalia grabbed Leonardo’s arm. She took a piece of cloth out of her pocket. “Elizabeth Pink releases toxins into the air. It will make you sick if you inhale too much of it.”
They covered their mouths with the pieces of cloth Westalia had brought with her and then headed toward the building. Covering their faces not only protected them from the poison of the agisakuragi petals but also concealed their identities.
Those men... Two guards were posted outside of the entrance of what was supposed to be a simple dye factory. They, too, covered their mouths, and they wore gloves. Westalia smiled softly at Leonardo.
“Shall we help them sleep?” she asked.
“All right.”
Westalia handed Leonardo one of her poison needles and then walked right up to the guards. They were clearly alarmed by the pair’s appearance.
“Who are you? Show us your permit or we can’t let you pass.”
“Oh, yes, our permit. Of course I have one.” With an amiable smile, Westalia pulled out from inside her cloak not a permit but a poisoned needle. Both she and Leonardo moved with such fluid motions that neither of the guards reacted quick enough. Taking advantage of the moment, Westalia and Leonardo pressed the needles into the men’s bodies and injected the drug. The men’s eyes rolled backward and they immediately fell to the ground, unconscious.
Westalia took the spent needle back from Leonardo and wiped the moist tips of both on a guard’s clothes. “You did quite well. Not as well as someone experienced, though,” she said, looking up at Leonardo from her crouched position.
“You don’t say,” Leonardo replied, clearly remembering how she’d stuck him with a poison needle on their first meeting. And after he’d saved her life, no less.
With the two guards taken care of, they were able to enter the factory.
“This is terrible!” Westalia was appalled by what she saw. Inside the main room were large containers filled with dye solution, tables, and other work equipment. Above her head was a pole hung with a huge amount of dyed threads. Five girls were working in the factory and although they all wore protective clothing, the quintet still suffered the effects of severe poisoning.
The girls worked silently, dipping bundles of yarn into the steamy dye solution. There was no one to watch or guard the room except for the workers. That made sense—anyone who stayed in the room for too long was likely to be affected by the poison.
“You, show me your hand,” Westalia ordered one of the girls who was hanging thread on the pole.
The girl shrieked in surprise. Westalia grabbed her hand and inspected it. Not only did she have a rash spreading from her fingertips up her arms, but her skin was covered in broken and oozing blisters.
“I-I’m sorry! I’ll work harder, so please...” the girl stuttered. She was shivering and clearly frightened, but her eyes were moving unnaturally and she wouldn’t meet Westalia’s gaze.
Leonardo had been silent, but he finally spoke up. “Don’t be afraid. We won’t hurt you. Are you blind?”
“Y-Yes...”
“Were you born that way?”
“Yes.”
Leonardo crouched down and looked at the blind girl. Reassured by his calming voice, the girl slowly let her guard down.
“Why are you working in a place like this?” Leonardo asked.
“I was...kidnapped. All the kids here were. They take all the orphans in town and punish us if we don’t work properly.”
“Kidnapped? So you’re an orphan?”
“No,” the girl said calmly, shaking her head. Leonardo felt a sense of déjà vu at her behavior.
This calmness...it reminds me of someone, he thought. He couldn’t help but think of a certain apothecary who was always doing things his own way and getting lost in his medical research. Although she was emaciated, the girl looked like the portrait Daniel had shown him.
“Is your name Remilena, by any chance?” Leonardo asked.
“That’s right.”
“And your last name?”
“Rossi...?”
Westalia’s eyes widened at the puzzled girl’s answer. Daniel’s last name was Rossi. She knew that from when she’d worked at his apothecary part-time. The daughter he’d been looking for was named Remilena, and she, too, had been blind from birth.
“And your father’s name is...?” Westalia asked.
“Um, it’s Daniel?”
Oh my goodness! Westalia pulled the girl in for a sudden, quick hug. Remilena let out a gasp.
“You are Daniel’s daughter.”
“Um, do you know my dad?”
“Yes, I know him well. He’s been looking and looking for you this whole time. He quit his job in the Imperial Court and became an apothecary. He’s devoted to his work in the imperial capital, but he goes out into the city every day to look for you,” Westalia said. She’d only recently learned that he’d quit his position in the court because of Remilena’s kidnapping. His position had kept him very busy, and it hadn’t left him with much free time to search for his daughter. Daniel had wanted to devote all of his time, other than when he was doing his research, to finding her.
Even when Westalia had worked there, Daniel would go out and roam the city early in the mornings and in the evenings, looking for his daughter, and would spend his days off traveling farther away from the capital in his search.
“Oh. Then you also help dad with the peach tree in the garden, right?”
“The peach tree...” Westalia remembered seeing Daniel watering the withered tree in the garden of the apothecary. His living quarters were in the back of the shop, and that was where Remilena had grown up.
“A long time ago I planted a peach seed there that I’d gotten from a relative. It’s grown the sweetest peaches ever since!”
Westalia and Leonardo shared a look. According to Daniel, the tree had never borne fruit. Perhaps Daniel had gone out of his way to buy peaches and given them to his blind daughter as if they had been picked from the garden. Westalia’s heart tightened for the smiling girl. Remilena, who should’ve been living happily with her father, was soaked in agisakuragi poison, emaciated and ragged.
Now really isn’t a good time to say, “Isn’t it great we found her?” Westalia thought. Daniel believed his daughter to be alive, but how could Westalia tell him the state Remilena was in? It would be too cruel.
“So I’ll be able to see daddy now?”
“Yes, you will. And you’ll be together from now on,” Westalia said.
“Okay...” Remilena looked down, her lips quivering slightly. Westalia could tell she was trying to hold back tears.
When Westalia and Leonardo asked the other four girls about their circumstances, they said that they were orphans who’d been living inconspicuously in the back alleys of the city and that they’d all been kidnapped and forced to work in this factory. Remilena wasn’t an orphan, but because she was blind and had fallen in a puddle of water during a walk, she’d been mistaken for one because of her dirty clothes and taken away.
When girls were no longer useful due to the effects of the poison, they were taken outside the factory, but none of the current girls knew what happened to them after that. However, it was easy for Westalia to imagine that they’d been disposed of, in light of the fact that the Rias Corporation couldn’t allow anyone who knew the inner workings of the dye factory to go free.
Girls had tried escaping many times, but when they were inevitably caught they were beaten as an example to others, and some of them had even died from it. Additionally, there was only one way in and out of the building, and someone was always watching it. The girls had finally given up and stopped trying to escape. They were allowed to go outside for exercise, to bathe in the nearby river, or to do laundry, supervised, if necessary, but only for a short amount of time. The sightings of Remilena that Leonardo had been informed of were probably from those limited outings.
Based on the amount of Elizabeth Pink items that ended up on the market, Westalia could guess that there were other factories like this one.
“Who are you, nice lady?” one of the girls asked.
“She must be the boss! She’s come to get rid of us!” another said. The girls were surrounding Westalia.
“I’m on your side,” Westalia said. “I’m one of the two final candidates for empress of the Archaites Empire. My name is Westalia Lejainne.”
“Final candidate for empress?” the girls asked, their voices overlapping. Westalia guessed that the factory girls must have been largely cut off from the outside world and its news, so she explained to them what the empress selection process was.
“Wow! So that means you might be empress some day!”
“What a rare honor!”
“Shake my hand!”
Westalia, embarrassed, was swarmed by the high-spirited girls. The Archaitian empress selection was open to all young women in the country. Whoever was chosen in the end would be the object of admiration and envy. Westalia had always dreamed of being respected and loved by the people, but she found herself unable to rejoice in this moment. She wondered if she was even qualified to call herself a candidate for empress when she couldn’t even protect the minimum standard of living for these girls.
Then, one of the girls tugged on Westalia’s sleeve. “Please, empress candidate, help us! We can’t live like this anymore,” the girl pleaded.
Westalia grabbed the girl’s outstretched hand. The would-be empress had declared in front of the emperor that she would not give up on anyone who was reaching out for help. She gripped the girl’s hand tightly as she answered. “Of course. That is my duty as future empress.”
Westalia took the girls under her protection and brought them back to Le Chantier Palace for the time being.
Leonardo bound the two guards from outside the factory and brought them back to the palace as well. And then the Elizabeth Pink dye factory was banned from operation, and seized, in the name of the crown prince.