Ch.107[Chapter 107] Remy VS Hime

“Huh?”

Unryu Hime opened her eyes with a start and sat up.

Where am I? She looked around.

An unfamiliar space.

No, come to think of it, this was the shop she visited yesterday.

Clutching her pounding head that felt like it would split from the hangover, Hime thought.

“You’re awake?”

“What an amazing recovery speed. Compared to the doctor, that is.”

What are they talking about?

Hime turned her head toward the voices.

And there was a girl with long, fluffy hair like a sheep, drinking strawberry milk.

Next to the girl stood an android adorned with platinum and gold, standing guard-like beside the person called doctor.

As everyone knows, these two were Doremi and Code Back Zero.

Hime finally managed to trace her memories back to what happened before everything went blank yesterday.

‘Sir Dominic is an idiot…’

‘My brother is not an idiot.’

Brother?

Among the scattered fragments of her memory, Hime caught an surprisingly important piece of information.

With ninja-like perception, Hime began examining Doremi.

Brown hair, emerald eyes.

Though their overall appearance and atmosphere didn’t seem enough to call them siblings, if someone told you Sir Dominic and Doremi were brother and sister, it would be somewhat believable.

Was it because she realized Doremi was Sir Dominic’s sister?

Hime saw Sir Dominic’s face overlapping with Doremi’s.

Even at a time like this, she was thinking about Sir Dominic.

Hime laughed self-deprecatingly.

There would be no future between her and Sir Dominic anyway.

Hime took a sip of the water half-remaining in front of her.

“By the way—”

Doremi, sitting next to Hime who was lost in her own world, set down her glass of strawberry milk with a thud.

“Why were you calling out my brother’s name so desperately?”

Pfft— Hime turned her head and spat out the water she was drinking.

Fortunately, she had turned away from Doremi, avoiding a disaster.

“D-d-d-d-desperately? What are you talking about—”

An excuse that clearly showed her embarrassment to anyone watching.

“You don’t have to hide it.”

Doremi jabbed at her strawberry milk with the straw.

“Actually, I’m asking because I want to know about my brother too.”

Would you like me to tell you about my brother first if you want? Doremi whispered.

Hime was momentarily tempted by Doremi’s offer but soon shook her head.

What information did she need when she was trying to get over Sir Dominic?

Hmm— After observing Hime’s reaction, Doremi suddenly spoke up.

“When my brother was young, he liked zelkova trees. He said he liked how they swayed gracefully.”

I think he also said the bark gets soft when you’re hungry, so it’s good to eat? Doremi concluded.

Hime’s ears perked up instantly.

Bingo.

Deliberately throwing out irrelevant information had been the right move.

Doremi continued casting her bait.

“The next thing he likes… probably sweet things. He loves honey so much that he once spent all day climbing mountains.”

Hime’s ears perked up even more.

“And something I found out recently while following him is that these days, he’s interested in—”

Just as Doremi was about to reveal important information, she abruptly stopped.

Then she smiled mischievously while sipping her strawberry milk.

Having cast the bait, it was now time to wait for a bite.

“He’s interested in…?”

And Hime was magnificently taking the bait.

Hime realized that despite thinking about Sir Dominic all this time, she didn’t really know much about him.

Doremi’s words were the only channel to satisfy Hime’s current curiosity, and as Hime followed that channel, she felt desperate when it seemed the door of communication might close.

What could Hime, who had lived as the daughter of a faction leader, have ever lacked?

She could get whatever she wanted and do whatever she pleased.

That’s why even Hime would eagerly bite at such simple bait.

“First, would you tell me why you were calling out for my brother so desperately?”

Seeing Hime anxiously tapping the table with her fingertips, Doremi thought the time was ripe and opened her mouth.

She believed Hime would accept the deal to hear her answer.

And that calculation was exactly right.

“…Actually, you might find it funny. But if that’s okay…”

“Not at all. I haven’t lived well enough to laugh at someone else’s story.”

Hime was silent for a moment.

She just held the glass of water with both hands, fidgeting with it.

Finally, as if she had sorted out her thoughts, Hime drank all the water in one go and said:

“I… I… loved Sir Dominic.”

“Oh my.”

Doremi was surprised.

Someone who liked that clueless brother of hers?

It was the first time Doremi had heard this since she was seven years old.

But Doremi soon realized that the Sir Dominic she remembered was from when she was young, before he was conscripted.

Who knows what the current, experienced Sir Dominic might be like.

Doremi nodded to herself, accepting this reasoning.

“But you used past tense. ‘Loved.'”

Doremi was sharp enough to have earned multiple doctoral degrees.

She could distinguish such subtle differences.

“…I’m trying to get over him now.”

“Why?”

And among those degrees was one in psychology, needless to say.

Of course, it was psychology related to canines, but still.

“I saw another woman by Sir Dominic’s side. I was too late.”

Hime said, slumping her shoulders.

For a moment, it seemed like drooping fox ears appeared on top of her head.

“That can’t be right.”

Doremi was confused.

If her brother’s essential nature hadn’t changed, Sir Dominic was a hopeless klutz.

He definitely wasn’t someone who knew how to “properly” date.

When she was young, the village chief’s daughter Beth and the mill owner’s daughter Lucy had a fight.

And Doremi knew the reason.

The argument about who would confess to her brother first had escalated into a fight.

In the end, mill owner’s Lucy won and confessed to Sir Dominic first, but Sir Dominic responded to Lucy’s confession like this:

‘I don’t like fighting, Lucy. I don’t dislike you, but your methods are wrong.’

And the hour-and-a-half lecture on the evils of violence that followed was enough to make not only Lucy but also Beth sick of him.

After that, no woman confessed to Sir Dominic.

At least not until he was conscripted.

The important thing in this story was Sir Dominic’s essential nature.

Sir Dominic was a klutz with a different perspective from others, and this wouldn’t have changed even if his values had changed now.

Oh my.

Suddenly, a thought crossed Doremi’s mind.

Since her brother was such a klutz, wouldn’t anyone dating him be just as much of a klutz?

That thought.

Having reached this conclusion, Doremi hurriedly asked Hime:

“What kind of person was she, the other woman?”

“The other woman?”

Hime tilted her head.

But with her excellent observational skills befitting a ninja, Hime could answer Doremi’s question sufficiently.

“Well… she called Sir Dominic ‘Master.'”

“Her hair was a chilling silver color… with a bit of blue mixed in, I think.”

“Overall, she was like a beauty carved from eternal snow.”

“But she had a somewhat… childish aspect to her.”

Having said that, Hime pressed her lips together as if remembering that moment.

“I see…”

Doremi began combining the information in her head.

And the conclusion she reached:

First, contrary to what Hime said, her brother didn’t have a “lover.”

The reason was very simple and also quite old.

It was because Doremi knew her brother’s ideal type from when he was young.

And according to that list of ideal types, the woman Hime described would absolutely not appeal to her brother.

Then who was this woman by Sir Dominic’s side?

Doremi kept racking her brain, but the information wouldn’t come together, as if something was missing.

Finally, Doremi asked Hime another question.

“Is there any additional information? Like her clothing—”

“Ah.”

Hime exclaimed.

It was an exclamation meaning she had omitted the simplest and most important information.

“She was wearing chain mail and a tunic. Standing next to Sir Dominic, they looked like a well-matched pair of knights.”

Bingo.

The final puzzle piece appeared in Doremi’s mind, and everything fell into place.

Doremi looked at Hime with a broad smile.

“The woman you saw probably isn’t his lover.”

“What?”

“My brother is a knight. And in Feralant, knights have the right to take squires. Which means…”

Doremi felt dizzy from thinking too hard.

She must be lacking sugar.

After sucking up more strawberry milk through the straw, Doremi felt her blood sugar returning to normal and said to Hime:

“She’s my brother’s… squire.”

“Squire?”

Hime suddenly remembered hearing that word before.

At that time, she had understood it to mean Sir Dominic had impregnated the woman, but it seemed there was another meaning Hime didn’t know.

In fact, Hime didn’t know the word “squire.”

Ninja ranks were Jonin (upper ninja), Chunin (middle ninja), and Genin (lower ninja).

The rank corresponding to squire would be Genin, or lower ninja.

“A squire is someone who serves a knight and learns chivalry and martial arts. That’s probably who you saw.”

“Squire…”

Having lived in a ninja village, Hime couldn’t have imagined that “squire” meant someone who served a knight.

Hime kept repeating the word “squire.”

Until she finally realized what situation she had found herself in.