Arc 2 - Chapter 14: Cross-Examination (1/2)

In Rolderhelm, the city guards came to the inn where they were staying and spoke to Lucia, asking about Yu and Yurine.

Yu thought that the city guards were investigating the Sigma Tower and that's why they were looking for them. Yu and Yurine were the only ones who came out of the Sigma Tower and only they could tell what happened there that night.

He could run away from the city guards for fear of being found guilty, but doing so would only make him more suspicious. On Lucia's advice, he and Yurine were to go to the police station and give a statement. So the first thing they did after leaving the guild was to go to the police station.

On the way, Yu was thinking more about the other visitor who arrived yesterday than about what was going to happen at the police station. The strange man, his face covered with bandages and asking about Yurine, scared Yu.

Before talking to Yurine about that man, he realized something.

An hour and a half ago, Yurine's face was the same stoic expression she wore most of the time, almost all day long, even though she would get angry and yell when Yu made her angry. Now that expression was gone, Yurine looked as happy as a child should be.

"Uh-huh, I know why you're so happy. You finally realized how wonderful it is to be with me, didn't you?"

"Stop talking nonsense, it has nothing to do with you."

"You don't have any?"

Yurine scratched her cheek "Maybe there's a little bit."

Even though he didn't realize it, Yu was proud of himself for his part in it. If he had done it earlier, he would have been even more proud of himself.

"Because we signed up for the adventurers' guild?"

When they were looking for a way to make money, the subject of adventuring came up, but Yu refused, even though Yurine wanted to do it. He refused because adventuring was dangerous and Yu didn't want to be put in danger. Although his decision made Yurine sad, it was also for Yurine.

Yurine must have been happy that things were finally going her way, even a little bit, if not completely.

"When I was born, my mother was a member of the adventurers' guild in the Capital Mora," As Yurine walked, she unexpectedly started talking about the past. "I wanted to become a member like my mom, but she didn't let me."

As Yu walked, he felt Yurine moving a little closer to him. Yurine kept talking.

"Then she stopped adventuring, but I always wanted to join."

"An old fancy, huh?" Yu wondered if he had any old fancies of his own. Maybe buying an electric ride on when he was a kid. "I'm sorry. If I'd known that's why you wanted to do it, I would have signed up. I thought being adventurers meant we'd be chasing monsters all the time and putting our lives in danger. That's why I was against it."

Adventuring in anime has always been like that, Yu was against adventuring because he couldn't think otherwise, so he didn't want to risk their lives.

But when Lucia pointed out that not all adventurers had to fight monsters, and talked about cheap accommodation and food, he was attracted to the adventuring profession.

"Even a human being can make progress. Well done, you should realize your mistake and apologize. From now on, remember that I am a supreme being and make an effort to satisfy me."

"It would have been better if you had said thank you in a shy way. With your cheeks flushed and a sweet, sweet demeanor."

"Hmph."

Yurine puffed out her cheeks, crossed her arms over her stomach and turned her head in a sweet way that signaled she was done. Yu had gotten a sweet reaction, even if it wasn't the one he wanted.

"There's something I want to ask you."

"I give you permission to ask questions."

"Do you know a man whose face is wrapped in bandages?"

Yurine's answer would most likely have been no. 'Man whose face covered in bandages' would not have been enough to recognize someone, especially if those bandages had appeared after their last meeting.

"Lucia told me that someone like this came asking for you yesterday. Since he used the name Neko, I thought it might be someone you already knew."

"I wouldn't be friends with such strange people."

"That's what I thought, although you don't need to be friends to know each other."

It was not difficult to understand Yurine's character and the choices she would make. It was easy to grasp what she would like and dislike, especially since she was a child, and children don't like strange-looking people.

"Why would someone like that be looking for me?"

"Is she afraid? No." Yurine was not afraid, she was confident and would not back down from a fight. What she felt was more discomfort than fear.

"You don't have to worry, I'm not going to give my daughter away. Well, maybe that's what you should be worried about."

"I am neither your daughter nor a commodity to be bought and sold."

"Wow, that was hurtful."

She had taken a casual remark and stabbed Yu in the heart again. He lost count of the number of times his heart had been broken.

"Should I tell her my guess?"

Yu thought it was Sharley and he had a clue about it. He wanted to tell Yurine about his guess, but he hesitated because of because of what she just said.

"If Sharley is alive, will she leave me and go to him?"

He was afraid of being alone. He didn't want to be abandoned.

"I thought it might be Sharley, the one who came yesterday." He interjected, watching Yurine's reaction carefully. The girl raised his head and stared at Yu. "Lucia said the person who came had blue eyes. Her relatives at the Wizarding Academy had the same eye color, so maybe Sharley has blue eyes too..."

"It was," Yurine lowered her head.

Neither of them said anything else. Yu was afraid to talk about Sharley and Yurine was silent.

"At the police station," he interjected, changing the subject. They had to plan what they were going to say before they were questioned at the police station. "If nothing surprising happens, I don't think they'll lock us up right away, they'll probably just question us. I hope so."

Things were not supposed to go badly unless they were thrown into the dungeon by a man they didn't know, but who had authority, and there was no evidence against them.

Apart from going to jail, there was another punishment that would interfere with their work, and that was being out of the city. If that happened, they would not be able to fulfill their mission. Either way, they had to get out of there without any punishment and they had to prepare their testimony well.

"They can cross-examine us to see if our statements are contradictory. We have to prepare what we are going to say in advance."

"I see."

"Smart girl."

The fact that Yurine's intelligence level was higher than that of a three-year-old made things easier. Indeed, if she were the same as a three-year-old, his tasks would have been more difficult than now.

"I say let's be honest and tell it like it is, but don't refer to yourself as a fairy, refer to yourself as half human. And if they ask, tell them that your mother adopted you, not created you."

"Why?"

"I don't want them to know."

Yu had a little paranoia that someone who discovered Yurine's identity would want to steal her. That's why he wanted to hide the fact that she was a fairy.

"Let's tell it like it is, what we know, but I'm not sure if we should talk about Rie being a witch, her political position and her ties to academia."

Would Maron Martin's attitude towards them change if they said they had ties to the Wizarding Academy? What would they do if the Academy was likely to be indicted and the second headmaster got angry, or Salerey was arrested by the state before they could question him?

Outside the academy, the fact that she was a witch or a political figure from the Mora as the Cardinal of Virgo could also have been a problem, and it would have been an international problem beyond the case of Yu and Yurine.

"Or, if they insist, you can tell them that too, but if they don't ask, don't tell them. When asked who your mother was, say that she was an adventurer and that you don't know why you went to Sigma Tower either."

Just two months, and if they lasted two more months, then they would no longer be in Rolderhelm, and even if they were called a criminal, it wouldn't matter.

"Also, I don't think you will go to jail because you are a child, but unlike you, I can go to death row. Please don't say strange things about me."

He didn't know if there were children's reformatories in the Second World, but even if there were, Yurine's situation was different from the children in those homes, Yurine was involved against her will with an adult. If someone was found guilty, it would be Yu.

"I don't think it's convincing."

"Did you say something?"

Yu couldn't hear what Yurine was saying because she was mumbling.

"We are going to the tower, but the only person who knows why we are going there is not here right now, and two clowns are attacking us in that tower. Do you think it's a believable story?" Yurine made a good point.

"Not really, but it's the only story we can tell."

They could make something up, but that would not be healthy. If they made up a story instead of telling a story they both knew, they might say different things when they were interrogated and that would attract attention.

"Always say you don't know what you don't know, don't say the assassins are coming for Rie, and if they ask where I come from, say İlonya."

"Why?"

"That stupid human was from another world," is exactly what Yurine would have said. "If you say that, they won't believe it and we'll be suspicious. Say; he said he came from İlonya, I don't know anything else. Also I don't want to involve too many people in the Rie affair."

"Got it."

"Gosh, you're so obedient today."

"Shut up," Yurine replied in a split second.

***

"Hello there," he said as he entered the police station.

"Who is this?"

"Yu Valarfin, some city guards called me yesterday. I didn't know about it today because I wasn't in the city, and the owner of the inn where I was staying told me to go to the police station and show myself."

"Just a minute," said the officer sitting at the desk at the entrance. He left his desk for thirty seconds, went into a room, and when he came back he said, "This way," and led them into the room he had just entered.

It was an office and the sign above the door said Floy Erier. The man who greeted them inside was dressed in a blue uniform and wore a shield pin with three stars on his chest.

The man inside the office came up to them and said, "Commissar Floy Erier," and held out his hand.

"Yu Valarfin."

Floy had done something Yu didn't like at all, squeezing Yu's hand too hard and pulling it towards him as they shook hands. He could have shaken him back, but the fact that he was the commissar spoiled it.

"And the little lady's name was Yurine?"

Yurine did not answer, either because she did not want to talk to him or because she did not accept her name.

"Yes, she's a bit shy with strangers."

"My little boy is like that, you can't get two words out of his mouth."

"I don't care about your son."

Floy Erier was a man in his forties. His blond hair was beginning to gray and his wrinkled eyes showed that he sometimes lacked sleep.

"Here you go," he said, inviting them to sit in the chairs in front of his desk, and he took his own seat.

"She looks a little old for a three-year-old."

He had started on a troubling topic. Apart from sword fairies, what races stayed the same forever? He didn't think the magical boy excuse would work this time.

Still, he had an excuse to save the situation.

"I didn't want her to go to an orphanage, so I decided to adopt him, but since the marriage age in Rolderhelm is fifteen and I was nineteen, I thought that if we registered her real age, I wouldn't be able to adopt her. If we had said nine, I would have had the child when I was ten, which would have been absurd, so we registered her as three."

He couldn't do such a thing in the First World. You couldn't register a ten year old as three years old, but here the civil registration system had just started and luckily they had come across a clerk who was a bit irresponsible. So by calling her a magical girl, they managed to make Yurine look like she was three years old, which she was really.

"Child benefit lasts until the age of fourteen, now you will receive it for longer than usual. Don't you think this is defrauding the state?"

"I don't know." He never thought they would be shot at this point. He never thought it would be a crime because he knew Yurine was really three years old.

"Why did you have to adopt Yurine?"

"As I said, if I hadn't, he would have been given to an orphanage. It was obvious that he was not going to have an easy life there."

"I don't think it should be allowed and it should be criminalized, but since the system is new, you found a loophole."

Yu had nothing to say, the man was right.

"What does Yurine think about this situation? Does she accept Yu Valarfin as her father?"

"No," Yurine replied coldly.

"No?" Floy repeated Yurine.

"No?" Yu repeated Floy.

Did Floy start to think Yu was holding her against her will? Yu wished he had told her to say yes to that question before they came here.

"But it's fine, it's fine."

"So that's how it is."

Floy would talk to Yurine about it later, it wasn't hard for Yu to understand.

"We've been looking for you for the last few days."

"We were out of capital for a few days, that's why you couldn't find us."

"Sigma Tower. The day of the fire, people saw you in a terrible state. There were soot marks on you, indicating that you had come out of the fire, and there were also reports of blood on you. I wonder what happened there." Floy took a notebook out of his drawer to take notes. "May I take you outside, Mr. Valarfin. I'll speak to Yurine first. Do you have a problem with?"

"No, I don't."

Here, too, he would have preferred not to be separated from Yurine, but that was not a question he could answer by saying there was a problem.