Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Volume 3, 05: The Supervisor of the Hidden Room

Volume 3, Chapter 05: The Supervisor of the Hidden Room

Even though there is nothing wrong

Is feeling that something is wrong

From being overly self-absorbed?

Point Allocation (Outside World)

?

Mitotsudaira returned home after watching Horizon and Futayo go from Musashi’s outside entrance.

Because the previous days fighting in the Armada Battle had concentrated on the starboard side of the ship, her mansion, which was about four hundred square meters of the town, only had minor fire damage. Nonetheless, considering the fire threat she had, during the last two weeks the outer wall was rebuilt with stone and the roof with tiles uncommon in Europe.

…It could be said to be a new residence.

In the afternoon, towards the evening there were no signs of life at the mansion. Neither in the narrow entrance nor in the connected dining room used for guest reception, nor in the sparsely decorated living room.

The only things in that place were the persisting perfume smell from the curtains and a pale light.

“—”

There were no personal servants. The maid model automaton that had been assigned to her through Musashi’s League of Knights attended to household chores during the day. Mitotsudaira’s afternoon schedule included examining the income and expenditure reports from her agriculture and corporate divisions inside Musashi, granting permissions and giving instructions and also sending her own ideas.

…There were two perfume bottles placed atop the dining room table.

The corporation owned by her had created this new product.

She knew that inside the bottles there was a cream type with the scent of flowers. This was due to her wolf sense of smell.

Mitotsudaira, while thinking about slightly weakening the smell of the flower fragrance, entered the bedroom. She hung the case of silver chains that she had taken with her to the academy on the wall and then headed to the bed.

After this was a short patrol of her small territory and work. She had to change into her street clothing equipment.

That is why she removed her shoes, detached her uniform's skirt and the sleeves of her shirt, fell onto the bed and suddenly sighed.

…What are Horizon and the others doing now?

Kimi and Futayo were with her. Given that she was going to hear the story of her mother from Kimi’s grandmother, she was achieving something significant.

In the same way, …everyone else was as well.

The Tachibana married couple desired a comeback and Mary was aiming for a fulfilling life aboard Musashi.

The rest as well, Masazumi and Tomo, Adele and Naomasa; they were all on-board Musashi currently doing repairs and reinforcing the ship and things like that. They were all doing things that were required of them. However…

“……”

She gazed at the wall.

?

There were two framed documents lined up on the bedroom wall where Mitotsudaira directed her eyes.

The one on the right side was the verification of Mitotsudaira’s inherited name, a parchment with the country crests of the Far East and Hexagone Fran?aise stamped on it. The words which were lined up on the page were about fulfilling her role as both the head of the Mito-Matsudaira clan as well as that of a dispatched knight of Hexagone Fran?aise.

Lined up in the same manner, on the left side was the certification verifying her affiliation with the Musashi's League of Knights. On this was also the proclamation that Mitotsudaira was welcomed into the top position of the entire federation.

“However… that was not a result of my actual ability.”

That was something from almost twelve years ago, when she had been dispatched here and obtained this certification.

“…It was because I was dispatched directly from Hexagone Fran?aise and I had inherited the name of Mito-Matsudaira that they placed a selfish girl in such a position, displaying allegiance to the Testament Union.”

In the past she had not realized this fact and had often pushed her selfishness onto the older knights. She was indignant when they did not listen, however they had soothed her as they were adults.

With the passing of time she had become one of the members of the Chancellor’s Officers which moved Musashi, and actually she should have been an equal to them…

…However at Mikawa she had done it.

She appeared in the place of the confrontation to give victory to the side of the citizens as a representative of the knights' collective, and furthermore she became allied with the side to which she had conducted battle.

Since that time, there had been no notifications about the Knight Federation meetings or anything else. When she was trapped in the cargo vessel for two weeks in England, or during the Battle of the Tower of London, she had no response at all.

She understood that she was being deprived of her role.

However, because of her status, there was no possibility of her being publicly stripped of her position.

She also wanted to ask some of the other knights about the current status of the Federation. However…

“—That is almost as if I am afraid of the reaction of those who are below me, even though I am in a higher position.”

While lowering her hips onto the bed she let out a sigh.

…She understood however, she knew she should not finish her thoughts that way.

She was distancing herself from them by arbitrarily deciding that the other side was avoiding her or not taking her seriously.

Thinking about it deeply, it was the same as with the case of Mary.

She had also unintentionally started to feel down after wrongly guessing that she would be selected as Horizon’s escort.

During inconvenient times like this she wanted to be alone, or if not that, then she wanted to be together with someone.

She was selfish, that was a bad habit.

However she understood quite well when it was when she had become like that.

“It was a long time ago… about the fourth year of elementary school.”

She looked outside the window. Far away, IZUMO’s Kitsuki-Taisha could be seen in the sky, however…

“It was not this IZUMO… That was at Bizen IZUMO.”

Suddenly she dropped her shoulders and collapsed onto the bed.

She thought that her hair would become horribly disheveled, however it would be fine if she set it later. Anyhow, it was because she had abruptly touched a part of herself that she didn’t like. Even though the incident concerning the League of Knights should not matter to her after she had decided to follow her King, once again it had come up.

She thought about sleeping for thirty minutes to refresh herself, so while looking out the window she collapsed backwards.

Her clothing was partially removed and was in a horrid state, however she thought that since she was alone it was fine.

She collapsed.

And immediately following that…

Outside the window, in the yard with the high wall, an idiot carrying a mountain of eroge was sneakily passing through.

“—!?”

?

Mitotsudaira lifted up the vertically-closing window at full speed and jumped out into the garden.

Looking to the right, there was an idiot who with his body drawn back in surprise, had turned one leg in her direction. Mitotsudaira faced her entire body towards there and pointed at the total idiot…

“H-Hey! What are you doing in the yard of another person’s house!?”

“Eh? W-What, Eh? Isn’t that question kind of philosophical? Umm, People are already constantly—”

She slammed the opened window down using one finger, and with that loud noise the idiot stopped his philosophizing.

Ah, the sighing Mitotsudaira bent her body and looked down on the idiot.

“…Chancellor, I will ask once more, okay? —What are you doing in the yard of another person’s house?”

“Ah? Ahh!? —I’m not doing anything in the yard, you know!? I just have business within the storehouse around the back, I do!?”

“T-There is no storehouse at the back of my place!? Look!”

Pointing her finger and looking, there the ground of the yard held a lid which was open.

“Eh? Eeeeeh!? W-What is that!? Why is it that the ground at the back of my yard has a hidden door that has been opened? Is it an illusion!?”

“Are you stupid, obviously I created it of my own accord, okay?”

“It is true that is the only way that it could have happened, however when did you create it!?”

Oi oi oi, the idiot sighed and readjusted his grip on the pile of boxes at his waist.

“When this mansion was remodeled, I struck a deal with the master craftsman to work on it in exchange for fifteen married wife genre eroge. In other words, this is one of my safe houses. Thank you, master craftsman. Thank you, married wives. I’m very blessed, right!?”

Mitotsudaira opened a sign frame with a smile.

"Ah, Tomo? I think that you are currently searching for a person at the moment. I get the feeling that that person is here. Will you come?”

“Yeah, I’m coming! I’m super coming! Hey Adele, please get the dogs to go ahead!”

“Eh? I don’t understand what is going on, but everyone please go on ahead—! Hey Boss, this is an eroge box with the Chancellor’s scent so please remember it, okay?”

“Oh, we will have the remainder after you come back, right?”

Over there the situation appeared terribly chaotic; however Mary seemed to be having fun. That was nice. For a moment she hated herself for thinking that; however, right now the situation in front of her eyes took priority.

Mitotsudaira dropped her shoulders and looked at the man in front of her eyes.

“So, Chancellor, there is not something that you want to say?”

“Eh? Will you grant me forgiveness?”

Mitotsudaira thought about that question. She had already made the arrangements for the cannon priestess and the beast tamer to come. However this was a problem concerning her and him. That is why as for the meantime…

“Do you have the intention to apologize?”

“T-That is…”

The idiot shrunk his body, and after taking a position of servitude offered a pile of about ten eroge in her direction. Then he placed his hand on his cheek and in a flirtatious manner said:

“Could you forgive me with this?”

?

The following moment, the residents of Musashino’s surface section saw a human shaped object break through the wall of Mitotsudaira’s mansion and tumble onto the road. The gale that formed together with the blow made several rectangular goods fall from the sky, but the idiot used that as a distraction and attempted to crawl away. However…

“Yeah, Boss it’s your debut!”

The dogs swarmed on the crawling thing, with people ignoring it after a few seconds as the situation ended.

?

Masazumi had that feeling as she had heard some type of noise coming from the direction of Musashino.

She was currently located on the ground.

She had descended from Musashi and headed in the direction of IZUMO’s marketplace. The location was the northern side, close to Kitsuki-Taisha, the symbol of IZUMO.

In the surroundings were tall fields of greenery which were alternated with shelter-belts.

There accompanying her at her side was a broom in the sky.

“Naito, I’m sorry. Even though you were in the middle of work, I just saw you and summoned you.”

“Yeah, Judge, Judge. Ga-chan said that she would work in my place, and it’s better to have a member of the Chancellor’s Officers as an escort. Ga-chan also said that she would do some shopping in IZUMO later, so this works out fine to meet up.”

So then, the Technohexen said while a doing leisurely horizontal spin on her broom:

“Seijun, isn’t it about time you let me hear what you are going to do in IZUMO?”

Yeah, Masazumi responded.

“It’s a top secret conference. A bit of a story came in via Neshinbara.”

“Neshinbara? Bara-yan is not going, but Seijun? Is it alright for me then?”

“Yeah, if by chance anything happens, then if you're there it will be possible to escape from the scene; and in the worst case scenario, at least you can escape on your own. Also Naito, —at this top secret conference, M.H.R.R. seems to be one of the topics.”

Hearing that, Naito stopped quickly as if her broom had fallen to the ground.

“I’m however not all that knowledgeable… Did you call the others?”

“Judge, I asked Neshinbara and Futayo if they could do some shopping later at the town of IZUMO.”

While she was saying that, they entered the area of the final shelter-belt which was close to the town. In front of her eyes where the wind was flowing through the shadow of the trees were people wearing the short sleeves of summer clothing; and the noises and voices indicating the liveliness of the town could gradually be heard.

It was a different set of noises than on Musashi. Was she just accustomed to Musashi, or was it that she was still observing Musashi as special?

This area positioned on the north side consisted of the northern-side land harbor as well as many diplomatic facilities for the diplomatic ships which came from the side of the northern sea. The wooden five-story inns which were lined up creating massive rectangular shadows was something that you could not normally see on the mainland. Then…

“—They’re there, one of the conference attendees.”

At the entrance to the town there was a giant stone shrine arch which straddled the street. It seemed as if it had become a meeting spot with there being a food stall and people who were doing nothing but waiting around.

Among those people there was a tall man that had noticed them, looked their way and raised one of his hands. That person was wearing the clothing of the Far East, but he was either following the tradition of the country or using it as a disguise. That shadow simply showed a smile full of teeth.

“It’s been a while mate, how about a glass?”

“I have no money. —That’s why I am here as an guest.”

Masazumi said the following to the other party who was bitterly smiling.

“Where is the meeting place? Trumps #9 and England’s Secretary — Ben Jonson.”