Volume 8 - Chapter 4 – All at Once, No Elsa (1/2)
08-04 All at Once, No Elsa
The next day, Jin was woken up by the hallway being noisy.
He put on his clothes in a hurry, went to the hallway to see what’s going on, and there were several men in military uniforms going back and forth.
One of them noticed Jin and approached.
“Excuse me. But I’d like you to show me your room.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly getting asked to show his room, Jin was surprised. But the man continued,
“Okay? If you’re not going to say no then I’ll go see it by myself.”
He said and pushed Jin aside, then entered the room Jin was staying in.
“…What.”
Jin didn’t have anything to feel particularly guilty about in the slightest, but the man’s attitude displeased him a little. The soldier soon came back out and,
“Hmm, nothing unusual. Sorry for the trouble.”
He said and walked back into the hallway.
“Really, what.”
Jin returned to his room. There Ann said,
“Master, I got the feeling that he was looking for someone.”
Jin listened to Ann’s report while thinking about pointless things like that Ann pronouncing the word ‘master’ with an extreme lisp could’ve been to the original creator’s tastes.
“He ignored places like the built-in drawers of the desk, while searching under the bed and in the wardrobe, and so he must’ve searched for something large, most likely a person I think.”
Ann’s report was rather outstanding in its insights.
“Someone, but who?”
“Well, to that extent I–”
At that moment there was a knock on the door. Jin told them to come in, and it was Reinhardt.
“Good morning, Jin.”
“Good morning.”
Reinhardt said and looked around the room. Jin noticed that and,
“Even you’re involved, what’s the matter?”
He asked. With a complicated look on his face, Reinhardt then said,
“Elsa is…gone.”
“What’s that you say?”
Jin was astonished. In that case, the earlier soldier must’ve been Fritz’s subordinate or something, looking for Elsa.
“Elsa didn’t seem to wake up and get out of her room even though it was morning. Mine who’d usually be awake by then couldn’t be found either. I tried going to her room, but somehow the two seem to have disappeared.”
“And so Fritz is going around looking for her.”
“That’s right. Did they also come here?”
“Yeah.”
Jin looked out of the window. The soldiers who appeared to be Fritz’s subordinates seemed to be splitting into groups to search. They must’ve been all together looking for her through the whole town.
“What a mess.”
Jin muttered but he could somehow sympathize with the reason behind Elsa’s disappearance.
“If we assume she’s together with Mine, those guys probably won’t find them.”
Reinhardt said subduedly.
“In the first place, Mine is from a town near this Ikasanaato. She must be familiar with the terrain, and probably has acquaintances too. If Mine’s seriously running away with Elsa, then there’s no way they’d be found just like that.”
The tone of his voice carried the feeling that it would be better if they weren’t found.
“How do you feel about this, Reinhardt?”
Jin suddenly wanted to ask.
“About what? About Elsa’s marriage? Or about her disappearance?”
“About both.”
Jin said, and Reinhardt began to speak with a low voice.
“I don’t think that marriage is a particularly bad thing. Bear in mind when thinking about it that in the case of a marrying a noble who manages territory, he’s got butlers and stewards to assist him. For chores he has maids, so to put it bluntly being a decorative figure is enough. That’s a nobleman’s wife. And for children, it’s enough to hire a wet nurse.”
After all that, he grinned widely and,
“But that’s just in the case of old nobles.”
He said and carried on.
“It’s much different for Elsa, who wants to build a warm home. Her ideal is to marry a partner with mutual liking for each other, although there’s also people who say that love grows after marriage.”
After saying that, for a brief moment Reinhardt had a lonely look on his face. But the next second he returned to his normal expression and continued talking.
“Well, I can’t say I don’t understand their running away. Jin, have you noticed? Mine’s and Elsa’s relation.”
“Mmh, a little. So that means you have too? Well, I guess that’s obvious.”
“Yeah. It’s just a guess, but Mine is probably Elsa’s real mother. It’s a guess because that’s something that even if I asked no one would tell.”
That was probably the case. There’s no way you could hear about it from Elsa’s father. Much less the from person in question herself.