[V7C22] Reflecting on My Actions
Translated by Jodas 7: To the North“Mister, aren’t you glad you were born in a place where the males were on top?”
The moment Tia said those words, Rukiye’s whole body shuddered. As if someone had poured ice water through all the veins in her body.
As Rukiye unconsciously massaged the goosebumps on her arm, Hütter spoke in a low voice.
“Tia, first, get down from there. Then apologize to Mr. Sorge.”
“……Piyo.”
Tia’s body that had been hunched over to look into Rukiye’s father Doruk’s face, slowly unfolded itself back into a standing position.
Then, like a cat, she leapt back onto the ground.
Doruk had been red in the face earlier, but now he was frozen, completely pale. Just what sort of expression had Tia shown him when she said those words?
With her usual childish demeanor, Tia chirped “Pyofun!” as she bowed her head.
“Mister, I’m sorry for saying mean things to you.”
“……”
Doruk didn’t say anything. Or rather, it felt like he couldn’t say anything.
With the face of a strict teacher, Hütter pointed towards the door to hammer the point home.
“Now go back to your room.”
“Okaaay.”
Tia waddled off and left the dining room. However, she did not close the door behind her.
Once Hütter was satisfied that Tia was out of sight, he lowered his head towards Rukiye’s father.
“I apologize for my student’s rudeness. I’ll make sure to scold her later.”
“……”
Doruk looked like he was about to say something, but then closed his mouth.
Having someone jump onto the back of your chair and stare into your eyes while hunched over you wasn’t the kind of thing you could experience every day. He must have been dripping with cold sweat.
But, without missing a beat, Hütter continued to speak.
“Regarding Rukiye’s engagement, I believe we have already told you our position. Rukiye is currently a member of the Wedge Tower and, as such, any matters of marriage must proceed according to the laws and regulations of the Ihrsen Autonomous Territory.”
Hütter pushed up his glasses and lowered his voice meaningfully.
“If you attempted to drag Rukiye home by force… I suppose the Wedge Tower may file suit with you, Mr. Sorge.”
Rukiye was confident that her father was planning from the beginning to drag her back home no matter what she said.
So long as he could drag her home, then it would be easy for him to force her into a marriage under the laws of their home province. Even if the magistrates raise a fuss about it, so long as they’re in their home territory, her father could solve any issues with a little money placed in the right hands. At least, that was probably how her father was thinking.
Hütter hunched over slightly and placed his hand up to his mouth like he was about to share a secret.
“By the way, did you know? … The Assistant Headmaster of the Wedge Tower is pretty high up in the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy.”
“Eh?”
“We don’t tend to make a big deal of it, but the Wedge Tower and the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy have some pretty strong ties… When it comes to issues of marriage, I bet things would get even more complicated.”
Hütter launched into a discussion of Biblical theory, starting with “According to the teachings of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy…” and continuing to speak unhaltingly.
As he weaved through the particulars of this complicated lecture, he spoke so quickly that it was impossible for anyone to keep up.
Especially because, by the time she managed to parse a sentence and figure out its meaning, Hütter was already halfway through the next sentence.
(…I bet he’s doing this on purpose.)
Whenever Hütter was lecturing in class, he would always rephrase things to make them easier for the listeners to understand and wait until everyone got the meaning before moving on.
A man who was fully capable of giving such a lesson was now speaking fluently at a rate that the person he was talking to’s mind couldn’t hope to keep up with. His whole speech dripped with the nuance that ‘You’re currently in a terrible position. Things are going to get really bad for you real soon.’
Most likely, Doruk interpreted it like so:
—’I don’t know what he’s talking about, but I know it’ll be a real pain to deal with.’
And to drive that point home, Hütter dropped his voice to a stage whisper.
“I’m only the guy the Mage Association sent, so I can’t say this out loud, but… I think there’s a chance the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy already has their fingers in your home region as well.”
Followers of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy were rare in Rukiye’s hometown. After all, that region was added to the Empire through conquest. As a result, they occasionally ended up butting heads with the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy on religious matters.
By this point, Doruk was dripping with sweat. Hütter gave him time to take a breath.
In the space of that one breath, Hütter’s tone shifted dramatically.
Suddenly, he spoke like he was a good friend to Doruk.
“Assistant Headmaster Miriam is very quick to action, you know? The moment she informs the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy, I bet things are going to get real hairy real quick.”
“That’s…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of the report for today myself. I’ll just tell them that ‘Mr. Sorge took one look at his daughter and then went home, relived to see her doing well‘…”
When someone was panicking over how much of a headache they were about to deal with, Hütter’s ‘Don’t worry’ was apparently super effective.
If Rukiye was on the receiving end of this argument, she might have nodded along without thinking.\
Shortly afterwards, Doruk was strung along by Hütter’s words and found himself nodding as well.
Rukiye bowed her head deeply at her Father’s back as he glumly departed the village.
Part of her was thrilled to see someone give her father a run for his money.
Part of her was relieved that she didn’t have to return to her hometown.
…Yet, while she wouldn’t deny those feelings, her heart was gripped by a much larger feeling of guilt.
In Rukiye’s hometown, a daughter was her father’s property. Yet, unlike horses or hoards of wealth, Rukiye understood that her case came with the love of her family.
But Rukiye hadn’t obeyed the rules of her hometown. That left her no choice but to betray her family and run away from home.
Once her father’s silhouette had disappeared from view, Hütter, who came with her to see him off, massaged his temples and spoke.
“Well, that’s that. Once you’ve got your thoughts in order, I think you should send your old man a letter or something.”
“…Yes.”
Rukiye straightened her posture and then bowed again towards Hütter.
“I’m sorry for troubling you with my issues. I truly apologize.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. This kind of stuff is part of the Guidance Office’s job.”
The demeanor of a serious and eloquent man he showed to Rukiye’s father had completely disappeared.
His usual ‘Somewhat irresponsible Mr. Hütter’ face had returned.
Rukiye bowed once more, then reentered the inn.
The inn’s rooms were generally designed to accommodate multiple people staying in a single room.
Rukiye shared a room with Tia and Sevil. Their room was relatively well-furnished compared to the others. They’d probably received preferential treatment because Sevil was the Emperor’s sister.
“Rukiye.”
Halfway up the stairs, she stopped when someone called out to her.
Just on the other side of the landing, Tia sat hunched over at the bottom of the next flight of stairs, just out of view.
Ordinarily, Tia’s expression was extremely carefree. She never put much effort into her facial expressions. Yet now, her brows were furrowed and her lips were puckered; there was effort put into every muscle on her face.
Rukiye wordlessly climbed up the staircase and sat down next to Tia.
Tia made whimpering “Peuu…” noises as she mumbled.
“Sorry… about earlier.”
“…What are you apologizing for?”
“I said mean things to your Dad.”
“You mean that thing about the male Harpies?”
Tia’s white hair flopped up and down as she nodded.
“I was thinking I wanted to put Rukiye’s dad in a bad mood, so I brought that up. That was mean of me.”
Tia’s words came as a bit of a surprise to Rukiye.
Tia always had no filter and just said whatever discourteous thing came to her mind as soon as she thought of it.
Sometimes that habit would rub people the wrong way, but Tia never had any ill will.
But just now, Tia had chosen her words with a clear malicious intent. In order to attack Rukiye’s father with words.
“You don’t need to apologize for that. Honestly, I thought it kinda served him right.”
‘Served him right.’ The moment she said that out loud, something dark sank to the pits of her chest.
Rukiye drew her lips back and admonished herself.
“But really… I’m not the kind of person who can laugh at him getting that kind of comeuppance. After all, Thanks to my father, I’ve lived with so much privilege. I was born in a wealthy home, so I never had to worry about things to wear or food to eat. So long as I called it a ‘hobby,’ he would buy me tools and supplies… The fact that I could not bear to have it end as just a hobby was just my own selfishness.”
She had all sorts of complaints about her father’s attitude, but Rukiye could not deny her father that strongly.
If she was in her father’s shoes, would she have allowed her daughter to remain single and work as an artisan?
Rukiye just happened to be born in a patriarchal society where the father’s word was law, but what if instead she had been born in a place where women ruled supreme? What would she do then?
(I probably wouldn’t be able to let go of that fortune.)
Humans were always reluctant to relinquish that which they thought was guaranteed to them.
If someone told you to change the way you do things or to change the way you live, of course you’d react negatively.
As Rukiye hung her head, Tia grunted “Pefun…”
“I was privileged too. I was born in a group where the females were the strong ones. That’s why I felt like I had to say those things to your father.”
Whether for better or for worse, Tia never thought much about events that have already happened, so it was strange to hear her talking about her past.
Just what kind of environment had Tia grown up in?
She was abysmal at running but her physicality was excellent. She was horrible at outputting mana but she had a detailed knowledge of magical beings and she was outrageously good at singing.
Could she have perhaps grown up among a troupe of traveling performers? In that case, it could make sense that she knew a lot of stories about Monsters.
(…Well, that’s all just my baseless imaginations, though.)
Rukiye hated it when others pried into her business, so she tried not to pry into others either.
Yet, for the first time, she found herself wanting to know a little more about Tia.
“…You said you had a sister, didn’t you?”
“Yep! My sister is big and warm and her singing is wonderful!”
“Big and warm? She sounds like Agniol.”
“Pirorororo… Agniol doesn’t really look like her. If I had to say, she’s more like you or Sevil.”
Rukiye let out a short, soft laugh.
“I’m not big, nor am I good at singing, though?”
“I like your songs, Rukiye! Wanna sing together again?”
“I don’t feel like doing that right now, maybe later?”
“Piyopp!”
After reflecting on their actions, recognizing their own privileges, and making some meaningless small talk, her mood had lifted considerably. Now, she supposed she should think about what to do next.
There still wasn’t much that she could do, but…
“I’m going to go write a letter to my father. I don’t think he’ll agree with me at all, but I’ll write as many letters as it takes.”
“Piyo!” Tia chirped as her eyes widened.
Was what she said really that surprising?
“I see… So singing isn’t the only way to communicate your feelings, huh…”
“Isn’t it way weirder to only be able to communicate your feelings through singing?”
“I wanna try writing a letter too!”
“Then, how about you write one to Sophie? Even if the contents are totally meaningless, I’m sure she’d be so happy she’d do a little dance.”
Now that she was back in good spirits, she stood up from the stairs.
It felt like a small weight had been lifted off of her body.
(…Even though I used to hate meaningless small talk so much.)
Now, it was that small talk that saved her. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but Rukiye decided not to bemoan the ways in which she was changing.
Rukiye wanted change. She wanted to want to change.
That what why she applied to join this journey.