Arc 2 - Chapter 20: Happy Birthday, I Guess (1/2)

Sir Thomas Chember, an evil knight,

Sir Bethany Bellon, a young knight, and his two squire, Meny and Jack,

Harold Landa, a farmer,

Sir George Fulton, a retired knight

Another ordinary citizen, Felaio

The female knight, Dame Fiona Cotin,

Uta Meenee, a merchant, and Juveny, the maid in her house, and several other citizens on the list were the names they had been searching for three days.

"We are only halfway there."

On the day that Lylphia and the others left for the trip, Yu had investigated the murder of Thomas Chember, the following days they continued to investigate other murders, and today they had spent the whole day investigating their murders again.

In the afternoon, they had one last house to inspect for the day. Then they finalized their plans for the day.

"Sir Veir Matan, this man was a knight. There was another person killed with him in his house, a common cook."

They went to a farmhouse on the outskirts of town. It reminded Yu of the ranch houses in the American western movies that are on TV on Sundays. Of course, because they were worlds with different standards, the ranch here was a bit fantastical.

Behind the farm's tall hedges roamed huge, frighteningly long komodo dragons, as tall as a horse. Yurine called them komodors, if he remembered correctly.

There were sheep and cows, chickens and ducks, but it was these dragons that caught Yu's attention the most. There were two reasons for this, firstly because he was unfamiliar with this new species and secondly because of the terrifying appearance of the komodors.

Since this was a house on the outskirts of town, it would have taken too long to walk there. So they hired a carriage to bring them here.

When the carriage stopped in front of the farm gate, Yu got down first, then Yurine.

"Wait for us here," he said to the driver. Then he opened the door to the farm and went inside.

The komodors looked up at the intruders entering the farm. They stuck out their tongues and locked their yellow eyes on Yu and Yurine. Their tough, black skin absorbed the sunlight that barely managed to penetrate through the clouds.

"These things are looking at us, are you sure they're not aggressors?"

"I'm not. After all, these creatures are mainly used in warfare, they should be trained to bite people."

"Hey, hey! It's wrong to teach farm animals to bite people!"

Komodo dragons were scary enough, but komodors, which were several times bigger, were even scarier. They could take Yu's head off in one bite.

To begin with, Yu was not a person who was good with animals. He didn't call himself an animal lover, maybe he liked cats a bit, but he didn't like other animals. He didn't know how to get along with a giant komodo dragon when he couldn't get along with normal animals yet.

"You can't get along with these animals."

"Th-this thing coming to us..."

The two dragons who had been watching Yu and Yurine waddled towards them, followed by the other dragons who saw their friends walking. They clicked their tongues and lowered their heads, squinting at their prey.

"Yurine, do something…"

"What should I do?"

"Aren't you a cat and a wizard? Maybe you can deal or kill."

"I don't like animals!"

"It's nice to find out that we have things in common, but I would have preferred not to find out at a moment like this."

While it would have made them feel a little more comfortable to learn that Yurine, like him, had a distaste for animals, this was not the moment he wanted to find out such a thing.

"Can they feel fear?"

The distance between them had become so short that the commodores could reach Yu and Yurine in a single leap. So they both had to stop, both lacking the courage to take a step forward.

"What stupid son of a bitch left them out in the open like this? Couldn't they have put them in a barn or something?"

The sour odor emanating from the animals' mouths began to reach their noses.

"Human."

"Yes?"

"Do something?"

"If I could do something, would I ask you for help?" Yu looked at Yurine hopefully, but she didn't look any different from him. "You shit your pants and want me to change your diaper?"

"I don't want to hear that from you, look how you squeeze my shoulder. You said you quit at nine, but at nineteen you're still going on."

Yurine responded to Yu's taunt with a harsh retaliation. Not expecting a sudden response, he couldn't hide his face, which fell in surprise.

"Melo! Filo! Shenjo! Rago! Felix! Leave them alone!"

As an adult and a supreme being pondered what to do, a little boy's thin voice was enough to draw the dragons away from Yu and Yurine.

Coming towards them from the farmhouse up ahead was a half-human child, no more than ten years old, wagging his fluffy tail.

"I never thought I'd see a half-human living here."

Easthelm was a human-dominated island where other races were disliked. With Yu by her side, the attitude of the people towards Yurine was nothing more than dislike, but the few examples he had seen were enough to make him realize how bad the people here could be towards the stray half-humans.

"Were they bothering you? I'm sorry. We can't put them with the others because their training is incomplete, they cause disturbances."

"You lined them up in one sentence and this is the incomplete version of their training..." Yu shuddered as the reality suddenly dawned on him. "Wait a minute! What do you mean their training is incomplete? You mean they could have attacked us?"

"Eh... They don't know strangers after all." The boy scratched the back of his head. "But since it didn't happen, it's okay, right?"

"Is everything okay? Yurine's shit her pants here."

"HE!?" Yurine grabbed Yu's arm and tugged. "You are the one who shit! You were scared too!"

"Afraid? Don't make me laugh, Yurine, do you think I'm afraid of a few animals? I was just testing you to see what you would do."

"YURINE! DO SOMETHING!"

Yu froze.

Yurine had imitated Yu's voice unsuccessfully, but that wasn't why Yu froze in place.

Yurine stopped, realizing why Yu was frozen with surprise. Normally she would have hid her blushing face, but since she herself was surprised by what she had said, she waited, not knowing what to do.

"Yurine, yes. This is the name I gave you."

A brief spark flickered in Yu's deep amethyst eyes. The tips of his lips moved up slightly as he gave a gentle smile that could easily melt a heart.

"You're both so full of shit. You've both shit your pants, you can wear diapers if you want."

The half-human boy scoffed with folded arms. Yurine could take Yu's taunts, but she wasn't going to have the same tolerance for a person she didn't know.

"None of your business, stupid half-human!"

"Stupid half-human? Hahaha, that's the part where should I laugh? As if you so different. At least I'm not a cat."

"That's enough, shut up. I can't waste my time with kids like you, take us to your father or something."

"I can't do that even if I wanted to, he's been looking for milk somewhere since I was a baby."

"That wasn't funny." Yu interrupted the two arguing child. Even though the boy whose name he didn't know had handled the situation, inside he must have been missing it. "Who is the current owner of this farm? There is something we want to talk to him about."

"The owner of the farm is Verti Matan. What will you talk to him?"

"It's none of your business, take us to him."

In the face of Yurine's rude behavior, the boy just shrugged.

"We are investigating murders that happened here two years ago. So we need to talk to Mr. Matan, can you take us to him?"

"That's what you get for being polite like this big brother, young lady. All right, I'll escort you home."

Yurine turned her head with an 'hmph' sound, the boy turned on his heel and started moving forward.

The setting sun painted the world in shades of orange and red. Although many people liked the sunset, Yu did not like it. The sun painting the world orange gave him melancholic feelings and brought back the night he disliked.

When they arrived at the gate of the farmhouse, they were met by another half-human, a servant. She had red hair, round ears on top of her head and a fluffy tail.

"Megail, did you feed them?"

"Not yet, mommy. I met this little lady and the big brother up ahead. The big brother wants to talk to Mr. Matan."

The maid turned gracefully to Yu and bowed her head, holding her skirt, "Welcome. I am Yumy, one of the maids of the Matan house. What did you want to talk to my master about?"

"The murders that happened here two years ago."

Unlike Megail, Yumy was surprised by the reason for their arrival, but she did not let her surprise distract her.

"I see. Master will be here soon, you can wait in the hall."

Yumy let them into the house and they went to the living room in her company.

"Would you like a drink or a snack? The tea brewed in this house is really good."

"No, thank you."

He did not like hot drinks in general, especially tea and coffee. He was not used to drinking hot things, so when he tried to drink it, he could not stand the heat.

Apart from the heat, there was a special reason why he didn't like coffee, Yu was disgusted by its taste and even the smell of it made him nauseous.

Yu was not one to drink the drinks offered to him to avoid shame, so even if Yumy brought them, he would not drink them.

Yumy's offer of a treat on the way back to Yurine reminded Yu of a memory from high school.

One of his friends insisted on buying him tea and he refused, saying again and again that he did not like tea.

Nevertheless, his friend bought him a cup of tea and forced it into Yu's hand. Yu couldn't force himself to drink something he didn't like, and when he gave the tea to someone else, he and his friend got into an argument.

"I said I don't like it, I said I don't want it. I don't have to drink something I don't like just because it's a treat."

The maid asked Yurine the same question. When Yurine refused, she disappeared to attend to her own affairs. Shortly afterwards, a young man with blue hair came in with Megail.

"I assume you are the guests Megail mentioned, welcome."

"Mr. Matan, right?"

"Yes." The blue-haired man held out his hand to Yu. "Verti Matan."

Yu shook the extended hand. "Yu Valarfin, my daughter Yurine Valarfin."

"Hmm... You look so young to have a daughter at your age."

Yurine hadn't said anything about her age, but from the way she looked he could guess that she was eight or nine years old. So Yu, who was not yet twenty, gave him the impression of being young.

"I take care of myself," he said with a smile.

"I met the driver waiting outside. If you like, he can join you for dinner."

"Thank you for the offer, but we want to get our business done and leave immediately. We have other plans for the evening."

Yurine didn't know what plans they had for the evening, but she continued to listen to the conversation without interrupting.

"Well, would you like a drink? It's good for talking."

"What is this love of treats? Anyway, at least they are polite."

But in trying to be polite, people could offend the other person.

"Thank you, we don't want anything."

"So, Megail, can you get me some tea?"

"Right away, sir."

After Megail's departure, Verti interjected, clapping her hands.

"I heard you came to talk about what happened to my uncle."

"We also wonder what happened to the cook."

They had not come here for a single murder. Veir Matan was the more prominent of the two, but the cook at the farm was killed with him the same night.

"Who was your uncle? What was he like?"

"My uncle was a knight. When he was fifty-five he was retired and given this farm. Unfortunately he didn't get to spend much time here, it happened in the third year of his retirement."

One of the motivations for joining the army in Rolderhelm was the good retirement opportunities. Those who had spent a long time in the army and achieved rank could retire with a plot of land and a good amount of money.

In their retirement, these knights or soldiers would leave the city and settle in their villages to spend the rest of their time working the land or raising livestock.

Especially since knighthood was a difficult and long-working job, many knights did not have the opportunity to marry or have children. It was therefore not uncommon for the knight's relatives to inherit the remaining lands, as in Verti's case.

"I don't know if I can say anything negative about him. He spent his life as an honest man, he didn't deserve to die like that."

Sir Veir Matan, like many of the killer's victims, was tortured to death.

"What about the cook?"

"I don't know him, he was probably no different from any other person trying to survive in this world."

"Can Mrs. Yumy say something about him?"

As they talked, Megail brought his master's tea. "Thank you, Megail," Verti said after taking a sip of tea. "Will you call me your mother?"

At Verti's request, Megail ran to the kitchen and called her mother. Yumy came to her master without delay.

"Here you are, sir."

"Mr. Valarfin has a few questions for you, would you answer them?"

"Of course." Yumy curtsied to Yu, holding the hem of her skirt. "What do you want to know?"

"I want you to tell me about the cook who was killed. What kind of person was him?"

"She was my friend, a good girl. I don't think I know anything about her that would interest you. She was just an ordinary person trying to live."

"Did Veir and the cook exhibit any strange behavior near the time of their deaths?"

He had asked the question to both Verti and Yumy. They both answered no.

Yu decided that was enough, after getting a few bits of information that he thought would be useless.

"I guess there's nothing more we can learn. Thank you for your help."