v2c3 - 1

BLUENESS OF DRAGOON CAVALIER

For now, Toru put on a feigned expression and tone of surprise.  

“Out here…?”  

He wasn’t particularly skilled at acting, but he could manage this much.  

The goal was to make her think Toru and his group were mere passersby who were attacked by Feyra while crossing the forest and saved at the last moment.  

“Well, once you get used to it it’s actually quite pleasant, free of hassles.”  

Turning back with a bright smile, the woman—Dominica—offered her assessment.  

She didn’t seem to notice Toru’s subtle performance.  

“Cities are full of entanglements, you know. They feel like such a bother.”  

In an age shaped by a long era of warring states, most lords’ mansions were constructed with fortress-like functions in mind. More often than not, the entire city was integrated into the estate’s design—outer walls and inner ramparts enclosing not just soldiers and nobles, but also the commoners’ homes, like tenants tucked into the spaces between.

But Dominica Škoda’s mansion was different.

There were no outer walls. No moat. No inner ramparts. It stood alone—almost carelessly defenseless in a clearing deep within the forest.

Yet upon reflection… this mansion didn’t need any of those things.

The forest itself served as both wall and moat. As Toru’s group had learned the hard way from the Orthrus attack, venturing into this forest without caution could mean total annihilation for even a half-baked army. And given that this was the residence of a dragoon cavalier—someone immune to attacks from other Feyra—it was as if an invisible barrier surrounded the place, daring any foolish enough to cross it.

(Hard to get in, hard to get out as well—huh. Gotta think about escape routes too.)  

As Toru gazed at the dense forest surrounding them, pondering—  

“—Anii-sama.”  

Akari whispered to him.  

Following the direction she pointed, Toru narrowed his eyes.  

Dominica, walking ahead, seemed to shimmer.  

The silvery armor she wore began to glow with a pale blue phosphorescence… a magical light. It slowly lost its shape, its boundaries blurring, flowing over her body as if melting. Eventually, it changed color, transforming into simple, flaxen-colored clothing.  

(This is… the magic of a dragoon…)  

He’d heard of it, but this was the first time he’d seen it.  

“No servants around, so I can’t offer much hospitality, but bear with me.”  

Dominica said, personally opening the mansion’s entrance to invite Toru and the others inside.  

But noticing Chaika, who’d stopped with wide eyes, and Toru, deliberately not hiding his surprise, she turned back, furrowing her brow in puzzlement.  

“What’s wrong?”  

“Just a bit shocked.”  

Toru answered on behalf of the group.  

“Not that. It’s—”  

“Shock. Transformation.”  

Chaika nodded, adding her comment.  

Only then did Dominica seem to realize.  

“Hm? Oh...right, right.”  

Dominica nodded with an expression of understanding.  

“Fair enough. I am sorry as I tend to forget.”  

That “change of clothes” was, to her, apparently that was  nothing special in her case. She showed no pride in it, as if she’d merely taken off a cloak upon entering the house, barely conscious of the act itself.  

“Sorry for startling you...living alone I guess I’ve gotten careless about how my magic appears to others.”  

Dominica said with a wry smile.  

The air inside the mansion was cold, with no sense of human presence. Not even sounds reached them. If someone wandered in unaware, they might mistake it for a ruin. The lack of servants—that no one but Dominica lived here—seemed true.  

“Ah no, you saved us and even offered shelter. We’re grateful for that.”  

Toru said, putting on a polite demeanor.  

(For now… how do we approach this?)  

Inwardly, he was trembling with apprehension.  

Dominica likely possessed the “remains.”  

That meant Toru’s group might have to fight to take them from her. But against a dragoon cavalier with overwhelming defensive power, a surprise attack was typically the most reliable method. A full-force strike before the opponent could ready their defenses, ideally incapacitating them. Preferably, the opponent wouldn’t even know they were there.  

But having met face to face like this, a surprise attack was severely limited.  

(Or maybe use a more indirect approach…?)  

Surprise attacks came in many forms. Beyond simply striking from a temporal or angular blind spot, there was also exploiting psychological blind spots. Befriending Dominica here and striking when her guard was down, like slitting her throat in her sleep, was a viable option.  

Saboteurs had no qualms about being called cowardly.  

Sacrificing fame or pride for the sake of the goal—that was a saboteur’s strength.  

“Toru, Toru.”  

As he weighed possible tactics, a hand tugged at his sleeve.  

It was Chaika's hand.  

“Luck. Sound sleep.”  

Chaika said, genuinely delighted. But Toru, slightly—careful not to let Dominica notice—grimaced just a bit and whispered to the innocent girl.  

“…You.”  

“Mui?”  

“How the hell can you be so carefree? I’m struggling to understand. Chaika Trabant, remember your goal?”  

Lowering his voice as much as possible to avoid Dominica’s notice, Toru asked.  

“…Mui?”  

“That dragoon cavalier might have the remains! Got it? A surprise attack’s off the table for now as we’re practically in the middle of enemy territory!”  

“…Oh.”  

Chaika smacked her right fist into her left palm and nodded.  

“Memory. Of course memory. Unforgettable.”  

“You absolutely forgot, didn’t you?”  

Toru said, feeling exasperated.  

They’d been on a grueling march lately, without a proper room to sleep soundly in, so he could understand Chaika’s joy at the prospect of a good night’s rest. And the inn they’d taken in the last city was abandoned quickly after spotting Gillette’s group.  

“But Toru.”  

“What?”  

“Negotiation. Possibility. Your words.”  

“…Ah.”  

Toru let out a dumb sound.  

That’s right—he’d told Chaika that himself that they didn’t necessarily have to fight or steal to get the remains.  

Seeing Dominica drive off the Orthrus pack without even drawing her sword had somehow trapped Toru’s mind in “how to defeat this powerful enemy.” If a saboteur was supposed to choose any means to achieve their goal—unbound by methods—then in that sense, Toru was still half-baked.  

“‘You absolutely forgot, didn’t you?’”  

Chaika smugly parroted his exact words back at him.  

“Don’t get all fluent just for this!”  

“Ow, ow, not allowed, abuse!”  

Chaika yelped as Toru ground his knuckles into her temple.  

“That’s right, Anii-sama.” Interjecting was Akari. “Only I get to be bullied by Anii-sama, and only I get to bully Anii-sama.”  

“What the hell are you even saying?”  

“For you to have skin to skin contact with a complete stranger, bypassing your little sister.”  

Akari said expressionlessly.  

She seemed indignant but, as usual, her emotions were so subtle, barely surfacing, that they were hard to read.  

“It’s the height of humiliation. My pride as a little sister is deeply wounded... I demand an apology and compensation right now.”  

“Where the hell do you even place your pride? And what’s this about apology and compensation?”  

“Specifically, you whisper, ‘You idiot, the most important person to me is you, Akari,’ followed by clingy, lovey dovey, giggly, mushy, intimate contact.”  

She might have been dead serious, but her flat, document-reading tone made it—well, pretty damn creepy.  

“That’s neither an apology nor compensation!”  

Toru glared at his stepsister with narrowed eyes.  

Turning back to them—  

“By the way, what’s the relationship between you all?”  

Dominica asked.  

“…”  

Toru and the others exchanged glances.  

“You don’t look like a merchant caravan and merchants wouldn’t venture this deep into the forest anyway.”  

Come to think of it, their unexpected encounter with Dominica meant they hadn’t prepared a “cover story” to deflect suspicion. Toru had thought up a few ideas on the way here, but he hadn’t had the chance to share any false backstory with Chaika and Akari.  

(…What do we do now?)  

Being in a forest that locals avoided as dangerous already marked them as unusual. Excuses like “Oh, we were just passing through” or “We got lost” wouldn’t hold up. Their weapons, while not uncommon for travelers in the frontier for self-defense, could be explained away if noticed—  

“—Actually.” Opening her mouth toward Dominica was Akari meeting Toru’s shocked gaze with an expressionless profile, she continued in a calm tone.  “We’re siblings.”  

“…Well, that’s obvious.”  

Given that Akari had been openly calling Toru “Anii-sama” without lowering her voice, it hardly needed explaining.  

And then Akari continued—  

“Unbelievably, we are real blood-related siblings who have fallen into a forbidden, illicit love.”  

—Spouted such an utterly deranged line with complete confidence.  

“Wha—!?”  

Toru’s face paled, but Akari continued—still deadpan, still expressionless—  

“Such a perverse romance could never be tolerated by family or kin, yet the flames of our burning love cannot be extinguished by anyone. They just blaze up more. Roaring, raging, meramera bobo.” 

(TN: here it's an onomatopoeia with メラメラ - meramera is the visual or emotional image of flames burning intensely or flickering strongly with ボーボー bobo is the sound of fire blazing or roaring. Well yeah the burning love's blaze that is to Akari.)

Akari spoke fluently, as if water flowing over a board. Still expressionless, of course.  

Chaika standing beside her stared wide-eyed at the sudden tale of “a forbidden sibling love story,” but Akari still continued calmly, unfazed.  

“We even thought, ‘Shall we be together in the next life?’ But, deciding that eloping was better than dying together, we took each other’s hands and resolved to run away. To evade our family’s pursuers, we deliberately chose to pass through this dangerous forest.”  

“…I see.”  

Dominica stopped.  

Instead of glancing over her shoulder, she turned fully to face them.  

Her eyes narrowed, as if seeing through something.  

<You idiot, what the hell kind of nonsense are you spouting out of nowhere my damn Imouto!> 

Toru interrogated Akari with barely moving lips.  

<It’s convincing, isn’t it?>

Akari replied.  

For some reason, she seemed faintly smug.  

<A forbidden love’s escape makes forcing our way through this dangerous forest completely natural.>

<It’s not natural at all! And how the hell do you come up with such bullshit so smoothly on the spot!>

<It’s actually the draft of a romance novel I’ve been working on daily.>

<Since when!>

Toru hadn’t even known Akari had such a hobby.  

<The concept for thirty volumes is already mostly set.>

<That’s fucking long! No, wait—can’t you see she’s totally suspicious of us now!>

They were already in a tough spot for a surprise attack… Alerting her further would only make things unnecessarily worse. Toru frantically searched his mind for words to smooth it over, like “No, she’s got a delusion problem” or something—  

“—I see, so that’s how it is.”  

Dominica nodded deeply, as if deeply moved.  

“…Hah?”  

Toru froze, eyes wide.  

She nodded repeatedly, saying - 

“That must have been tough…”  

Her tone was heartfelt.  

“No, uh…”  

“Rest easy. I’m not so boorish as to oppose your way of love.”  

Contrary to expectations—Dominica had apparently bought Akari’s nonsense outright.  

Far from doubting, she spoke in a strong, encouraging tone, as if to uplift them.  

“Stay as long as you need to shake off your pursuers.”  

“Eh…Uh… Thank you very much.”  

Toru bowed, for now.  

He wasn’t thrilled, but with things like this, he had no choice but to play along with Akari’s delusional setup.  

That said—  

“But then…” Dominica shifted her gaze to Chaika, who was still blinking, not quite grasping the situation. “What about this girl?”  

“Uh… well…”  

Toru gave Akari a nudge with his elbow, forcing a vague smile.  

<How’re you gonna explain Chaika?>  

Yes, the problem was Chaika.  

Abandoning hometown, family, and friends for a sibling love escape—just conceding that for argument’s sake—would naturally make Chaika’s presence seem extraneous or unnatural. They couldn’t exactly brush it off with “Oh, she’s another sister.”  

<Muu. Trouble.>

Akari grimaced.  

<My story is basically just scenes of a brother and sister giggling and flirting, so there’s no room for other characters.>

<That’s absolutely a shitty novel.>

Cutting her off with lip movements alone, Toru turned to Dominica and said:  

“Please understand. She, too… was driven from her home.”  

For now, telling the truth was less likely to fall apart than spinning a hasty lie.  

The key was to blur the critical details.  

“We’ve been traveling together by chance.”  

“…I see.”  

Dominica looked at Chaika and the coffin she carried so preciously on her back—and then nodded.  

“Everyone has their circumstances… Some things can’t be spoken to strangers without resolve.”  

“Your understanding is much appreciated.”  

Toru bowed.  

Even without knowing the details, a “girl carrying a coffin on her back” was obviously far from normal. Dominica seemed to have imagined some complex, unspeakable situation on her own. Fortunately or not, having heard Akari’s delusional novel setup first likely made her imagination run wild more easily.  

At any rate… it seemed they’d have to keep playing the part of “eloping siblings in forbidden love, plus their extra” for a while.  

<—Anii-sama.>

Akari said, faintly smug again.  

<What?>

<This is what they call a fait accompli.>

(TN : A French Phrase in english it refers to something that has already been done and cannot be changed, often presented to others as a decision or outcome they have to accept, even if they don't like it.)

<Shut up!>

Toru was deeply frustrated that he couldn’t yell at the top of his lungs.