Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 190: Arc 4, Act I, - 35: An Unexpected Reply
"A letter!?" Daiyu stood up on the bed and leapt down.
"From the Trailon Regime!?" Feyan picked himself up.
"They, actually replied?" Jotou got back up—everyone now turning to face that one Royal Guard.
"Yes, it seems so. The contents of the letter are unread and uhm-" the guard only now noticed the scene in the room... "-And, Archduke Guuraj has been informed as well."
"Uh, fantastic," Feyan shook his head. "Brilliant, uh," he looked back. "Please, clean yourselves up... We have crucial matters to attend to," Feyan rushed out the door, ushering the guard along.
"You’re cleaning this up Jotou," Hotaru walked in, picking up the pancakes off the floor.
"What!? I didn’t run into our room flinging pies!"
"I’ll get a cleaner, don’t worry. This is important shit, I’m going to my room," with her brows furrowed, Daiyu rushed out without shoes, "Go, get ready!"
"You’re all too much," Hotaru chuckled at the other three in the room. "You’re in a palace as guests of the princess; to deal with matters of war and governmental issues no less."
"Yeah, yeah, no need to lecture us," Fumeko sneered, picking up the remains of a pie off of the floor—a devious grin curled up her lips. "SPLAT!" She blinked ahead and smushed it into the wolf-girl’s face.
Asobi looked in terror whilst Jotou snorted in a shrug. Hotaru stood like a statue, before blinking with her cream-covered lashes, "You little...!"
_
"There was a private carriage that had arrived and delivered the letter at the gates your majesty," another guard at the foyer reported, handing the letter to a cleaned up Daiyu.
"Well, where’s the carriage?" Daiyu took the brownish-black envelope in her hands. The dark magenta wax seal depicted a ship’s helm, surrounded by three five-pointed stars.
"The admiral has gone to investigate, I believe it’s parked somewhere near the vicinity of the palace," she replied, standing next to the open palace doors.
"Any more details, descriptions of the people who handed this to you, how a private carriage carrying such an important letter had not been reported across several borders?" Feyan knitted his brows, panic in his breaths.
"I was in the foyer and I was just handed the letter is all; from what I could see, the woman who handed it to the guard at the gates had a scar going over her right eye and nose. She was dressed in a blue-ish gown, she, looked sort of posh."
"Alright." Feyan leaned closer to Daiyu, "Princess, I am going to go investigate at the gates on this matter."
"I’ll join you on that."
"Please keep the letter safe my lady, it is perhaps more valuable than coin at the moment."
"Sorry we’re late, I had to get ready as well," the scorn in Hotaru’s voice projected down the foyer as the four rushed their way down, all cleaned up.
"Jotou, come on, apparently someone sent this letter and we don’t know who," Daiyu turned.
"Kay, what’s in the letter?" Jotou glanced at Daiyu’s hands.
"Haven’t opened it yet, I think I should save it for the Royal Ministry meeting," to which she had dressed more opulently for.
"If you all would not mind?" Feyan stared, raring to go.
"Ai, ai, ai, no need to panic alright. One thing at a time," Jotou rushed forward, followed by the others out the door.
"Hey, can you like, make this letter invisible?" Daiyu whispered.
"Sure, sure!" Asobi pointed her wand; with a wink and a little light the letter was thin air which Daiyu held.
Down the perfect brown bricks and streetlights of bronze they went—the topiaries and shrubs trimmed and the fountain enchanted to spew golden water still flowed under the—"BOOM!"—darkened clouds which thundered.
At the pair of gates that gleamed of bronze hue, guarded by horses and weaponry, the Royal Guard stood; under the symbol of Cravolta inlayed with gold upon each gate atop a blooming lotus.
A carriage with horsaroaches was parked to the side of the inclined path which led towards the city. Made up of mostly cloth material, the carriage was mostly brown, but the roof was white.
At first glance, "The carriage seems western, they are not from this province," Feyan spoke before the Ashen Whisper came into view, standing outside with another guard by her side.
They spoke to three individuals; one man with sandy skin, dressed in plated armour which shined an orange-ish hue—enchanted no doubt. He seemed to be a private guard.
Another was a young man dressed in a suit and a top hat—dark skin and a tired frown. And lastly, the woman described; much older, black hair and had the same eyes as the man next to her. She spoke with a soft smile.
The six approached into the conversation before the guard next to Arabella turned to the noise; her chainmail clanked, "Your majesty," she bowed.
"Greetings, greetings, what is occurring here?" Daiyu flapped her hand in the air. The three guests all bowed deeply, the man in armour completely kneeling as his greeting.
The Royal Guard raised her head; stringy bright red hair drifted around her neck, tan skin with a helmet over her head, "These people are the ones who delivered the letter from Trailon.
The admiral and I were requesting their information, passports and such."
"Thank you uhm-"
"Oh, my apologies your majesty, Shaira, Captain of the Exterior Guard, front portion," she spoke faster than a train, bringing her halberd down.
"Alright," Daiyu turned to the guests and stood tall with an imposing presence, "Go on then, explain yourselves. Who are you? Why are you the ones delivering this precious information and how did you arrive so discreetly?"
"Of course your majesty," the woman bowed deeper.
"Enough, raise your head and answer," Daiyu began tapping her foot.
"Y-yes your majesty," the woman got up. "I am Lady Calish, you would not know me, I am not part of the council for, I am but a," she paused. "Lesser, noble," she hid a scowl of pained pride.
"This is my first son and this is my guard who accompanied me through this journey. We hail from Evantia, Galuvit. This letter was given to us in secret by an unknown individual.
Alongside it, was a letter for us and a large sum of armite which we were, ’gifted’ if we were to send this letter to Tamara Palace. Otherwise, they threatened to take our lives in the night...
We were meant to travel without notifying of what we held and we were told that we would be watched constantly on our journey.
So, we travelled as tourists till we reached the palace and our passports and other documents are inside the carriage. This, kept us ’discreet’, but once we neared the palace, we obviously could not."
Arabella signed something to the captain.
"Yes admiral," Shaira turned to Daiyu, "We believe that this was the most secure way for Trailon to deliver this letter to the palace. It was safe within indifference."
"Alright," Daiyu furrowed her brows. "Search their documents," she glanced to the captain and Arabella. Arabella nodded and the captain bowed before escorting the three to the carriage.
"A lot of suspicious activity," Fumeko held a hand to her chin.
"Everything they said was true, except one thing," Daiyu faced up, "They weren’t threatened with death. I don’t know what with, but at least that was a lie," her princess-act now dropped.
Lightning flashed purple above them, the rainforest trees in the distance began swaying; the clouds changed to darker shades as drizzle began pouring before the thunder boomed.
The wind picked up, swaying the flowering shrubs and short grass around them. The palace gardeners had another batch of thundering blitzes they’d have to pick by the end of the storm.
"Why lie about that?" Asobi held her hat down.
"Well, if everything else they said was true, her face when she said she was a ’lesser noble’ should be... Feyan, what’s with the lesser noble not being in the council- Bleh, Gh, GAH!" all her hair whipped the front of her face, her twin-tails slapping her.
Feyan held a hand to his eyes, "Lesser nobles are just, nobles with less land, maybe an estate or two. They do not aid in governmental affairs; usually due to their riches not being enough."
"Exactly as I- GAH!" brown locks whipped at her face again.
Jotou grabbed Fumeko’s hair and held it back, another hand holding down her own ponytail, "Say it already, I like the rain, but I don’t like getting wet in it."
"Thanks," Fumeko groaned. "Exactly as I thought, she wanted to look like they had no other choice but to do as Trailon said. In reality, they just wanted the money and did it for that."
"So, no harm," Jotou summarized before letting go of Fumeko’s hair.
"AH!" only for it to whip back forward.
"That’s what you get for not keeping your hair less messy," Hotaru held hers down easily. "They did still lie to you, harm or no harm."
"It is true my lady; do you want to do anything about it?" Feyan raised a brow.
"I don’t really care. I know they do have their documents in there," Daiyu held onto the invisible letter tighter.
"You should keep a copy of their documents in case of anything," Hotaru’s ears twitched, sensing the rain closing in.
"Feyan?"
"It will be done; I will take it to the printer in the palace, which, I advise we all go inside of?" Feyan gazed to the sky.
"Ask Ara to bring their horses in and let them stay till the rain goes away," Daiyu sighed. All of them rushed into the palace, followed by Feyan who informed Arabella.
Jotou pulled Daiyu and Hotaru aside once they were within, while Asobi patted down the untameable mane of dark brown; though they did not escape Fumeko’s gaze.
"What?" Daiyu cocked her head.
Jotou took a breath, "I should’ve told you this sooner, but I don’t think I’m the person that should be by your side during the meetings, and anything to do with the council really."
"What? Don’t back out now!" Daiyu half-closed her right eye before shaking her head, "You did great, don’t let your anxiety get to you. I mean, you made them speechless!"
"That was one good day Daiyu, you can’t expect that from me every time."
"I can and I will! You can do it Jotou-"
"Will you shut up and let me finish!?"
"NO!"
"I don’t need your motivational crap! I’m letting someone else take my place!"
"Oh," Daiyu blinked a few times, "Who?"
"Hello," Hotaru slowly raised her hand.
"Oh, you wanna do it?" Daiyu raised a brow.
"Jotou had to convince me, but yes," her ears spiked.
Daiyu’s face crumpled, "Okay, don’t let this loser put his responsibilities on you because he lacks self-esteem."
"I’m right here you bitch..."
"Jotou," Hotaru side-eyed.
"Sorry." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"It’s something I want to do as well, Jotou just had to run the idea by me is all," Hotaru glanced to Daiyu.
Daiyu let out a long sigh, "Seriously?" she faced the blonde.
"Yes, seriously. Look, I’m gonna argue to prove people wrong and one day I’m gonna slip and then rip in pieces everything. I think Hotaru’s better suited for this kinda thing.
I’ve seen her at work, she’s amazing. She knows how to deal with difficult people and she’d make them speechless too, I’ve seen it happen.
With diplomatic opinions and council arguments, not to mention with the afterparties, she has the talent and the experience. I’ll still help obviously, just not like that," Jotou’s voice never wavered.
Hotaru’s ears folded and tail wagged as she blushed, enough not to be noticed. Her fangs glistened as she looked at Daiyu, "I’m Hotaru Kinoshita, ex-legal adviser. I can aid you, if you would accept my help that is."
"Why does that sound like a contract...?" Daiyu sighed, "Alright," she perked up, "Since Jotou’s worse than you, I’ll accept."
"Hey, that’s not what I said!"
"Well, it may have not been your exact words, but the implication does not leave much in the air. I believe your words were, ’I believe Hotaru’s better for this kinda thing’, and with the topic at hand, meaning better than you, correct?"
Jotou glared at Hotaru, "I don’t keep regrets, but if I did..."
"Wow." Daiyu clasped her hands together, "You are worse than her, come on Hotaru!" she hooked a smirking Hotaru by the arm and both giggled off back to the rest.
"I hate everything..."
