[V10C26] Special Late-Night Assignment
Translated by Jodas 10: A Job for a Con Man“Tia.”
Sevil called out to Tia.
‘How do I respond? What do I say? Why is this so hard?’ Unable to form any words, Tia froze as Wren swiftly closed the distance.
“Hey Tia, which do you like, vertical or horizontal? Pick one!”
“Peuuuuu……… Horizontal……”
“Say no more!” Wren grabbed Tia’s right arm and Sevil grabbed her left, pressing their bodies towards her. Tia liked it when she was squeezed on both sides like this. It reminded her of a flock of Harpies huddled together in a claustrophobic cavern — Thinking along those lines brought forth memories of the days she spent huddled with her sister.
Tia’s rainbow feathers layered on top of her sister’s beautiful red and orange feathers. Everyone joining in when one of them started to sing.
Those days that she would never see again.
“Pevuvu, uu… Uuu…”
Wren and Sevil walked slowly on either side of Tia, leading her away from the buildings. Then, they took a seat on a simple bench on the edge of a field.
“I… met Sis.”
As those words softly fell from her mouth, she could feel both of their bodies tensing up.
She’d gone out to do some scouting, and there met with her sister. The two of them could intuit that their reunion was not a joyous one.
Tia’s sister, Charonlala, had fallen in love with a human, and thus wished to be human.
She had hoped to bear a human child and, as a human, grow old and die a happy grandma.
Tia would not speak of those things to these two. She just had a feeling that it would be improper to expose such details.
Because, after all, Tia had never once had even a shred of a thought about wanting to be human.
Because, Tia could get an inkling that Wren found that fact disappointing.
“Sis said ‘Get out of my sight!’ … She said I was a traitor.”
Now that she had a human appearance, Tia would no longer be accepted by her sister. That was the truth.
After losing her wings to fly and now being disowned by her sister, where should Tia go from here? There weren’t any of her Harpy compatriots left in Breakneck Gorge.
Tia the Harpy wished for nothing more than to return to Breakneck Gorge, fly through the sky, and sing all the songs her heart desired… That alone and she would have been satisfied, and yet…
Now that her kin were dead and the only survivor, her sister, had shunned her, there was nothing left to entice her to return to Breakneck Gorge.
Feeling a sense of loss even greater than when she lost her flight feathers, Tia’s stared blankly into the distance.
As Tia zoned out, Wren grabbed her arm tightly and spoke to her.
“Tia, don’t you remember what you said to me? You said I could become anything. That I was the kind of creature who could become the strongest, most beloved, happiest pretty boy out there, or anything else I wanted!”
Wren must have been talking about the time his mother died.
Without a doubt, Tia had such hopes for Wren. Because Wren wasn’t a Harpy, he was a human. And humans were creatures that could become anything they wanted.
“I want you to do the same. I want you to become the happiest creature out there.”
Wren smiled confidently. That forced smile of a person suppressing their unease was unmistakably human. It fit Wren, the pretty boy who always tried to act tough, rather nicely.
“So why don’t we put our heads together and thing of a way for you to be the happiest creature out there, okay Tia?”
Those were some very Wren-y words.
Wren wouldn’t say something like ‘Why don’t you just live on as a human from now on?’ Wren was surely kind enough to know not to say that.
Sevil spoke next, quietly, still facing straight ahead.
“We won’t force you to fight to retake the Wedge Tower.”
“I’m going. I gonna be part of the mission.”
Apparently Tia’s response came as a bit of a surprise to Sevil and Wren.
Nevertheless, this was the one thing Tia had decided for certain.
“I have to go and find some answers.”
There was the messenger that had shown up in Hütter’s story who broke the ties between the previous Emperor and the Wedge Tower.
And there was the one who tried to set Tia up.
She had all kinds of ideas, but she had a feeling these two were directly tied to each other. Tia had a faint inkling as to the one who was pulling all the strings.
As one of the surviving Harpies, she had to know for certain. She had to know what this person was really after. She had to know the truth behind this malice.
(I’m a Harpy, and my talons will tear apart any who show malice toward Harpies…… Kai.)
Curling her toes inward, Tia declared:
“After this is done, I’ll think about how I’ll live from now on.”
Sevil let out a laugh — a short one, like exhaling sharply — at Tia’s statement.
“It seems you’ve already made up your mind, have you?”
“Pefu! I guess it’s thanks to Rukiye?”
Seeing Tia smiling proudly, Wren looked on in shock.
“Rukiye? You’re saying Rukiye gave you advice? Seriously?”
“Rukiye res-pects you when you think about something on your own and make up your own mind, you know?”
“I didn’t know you and Rukiye were so close…”
Wren pursed his lips.
If you asked Tia, she’d say she was close with Wren and Sevil, but Rukiye was… Well, she and Tia just had similar thought processes.
She also thought sometimes that maybe that way of thinking might make it hard for Rukiye to live among humans.
All of a sudden, Tia’s ears picked up on a familiar set of footsteps. With a chirp like “Pyofun!” Tia whirled around to look behind them.
“Mr. Hütter!”
A lazily bobbing lantern approached towards them in the dark of night.
Holding said lantern with one hand and a large paper bag in the other was Tia’s instructor, Caspar Hütter.
When he noticed Tia’s presence, Hütter made his way in their direction.
“…What are you guys doing out at this time? I get that no one’s stopping you from doing whatever you want, but can’t you at least try to be a little more subtle about it…”
Hütter complained, but Sevil replied without a hint of shame.
“It is precisely our intention to be subtle! That is why we chose to take this walk in the middle of night!”
Hütter muttered “That’s not subtle at all though?” but soon made a face like a new thought just hit him. “Actually, you guys have some energy left, don’t you?”
“Of course we do! We’re young and in our prime!”
Hütter smirked at Wren’s cheeky response.
“A~ll right then, in that case I’ve got a special assignment for you.”
“Huh? An assignment? Now?”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but we are rather occupied at the moment.”
“Piyo! Is it a hard assignment?”
Wren, Sevil, and Tia’s reactions only deepened the smirk on Hütter’s face.
It almost look like the smirk of a bad, bad man.
“It’s the perfect assignment for you guys. One hundred percent up your alleys. You’ll love it. It turns out that tomorrow—”
After seeing off Tia in Wren and Sevil’s care, Rukiye hefted the Magical Flying Device and dashed back to the room in the village hall where the Apprentices were staying.
What she was about to do was a taboo for an artisan. Fully aware of that, Rukiye was resolved to do it nonetheless.
Inside the room, Ella was the only one awake. The others — Rose, Julius, Gerald, Roswitha, and Sophie — were all asleep.
It looked like Tia, Wren, and Sevil hadn’t made it back quite yet. Perfect.
“Rukiye, what’s wrong?”
Ella’s pen halted mid-sentence and she looked up at Rukiye.
Ella must have been writing down the reconnaissance report Tia had relayed to her when she got back.
(I knew it, Tia was acting strange when she got back from her scouting mission… Which means…)
Rukiye looked down at the Magical Flying Device in her hands.
While it was the Management Office Director, Old Man Kappel, who invented this, she took pride in the fact that it was herself who had adjusted it thus far to best suit Tia’s needs.
“Ella, wake everyone up, as quietly as you can. I’ve got something I need to tell the group, and it has to be fast.”
Rukiye prided herself as an artisan.
And yet, she was about to commit one of the greatest taboos an artisan could.