“You… you’re…!” Subaru was trying really hard not to sputter but considering the name given from the figure across from her, she couldn’t be faulted for having such a reaction.
“Su-chan dropped the spoon. Now it’s all dirty,” commented Touma.
“Would you mind cleaning it up, sweetie?”
“Okay, mom!” The young boy took the spoon and went to the lake to clean it up as best as he could, leaving the two young women alone.
“You’re really the last Saint King? Sankt Kaiser Olivie Segbrecht?”
Olivie’s smile never left her face. “I am who I am. It’s up to you whether or not you believe me on that account.”
Subaru paused, choosing her words carefully. “I… really don’t know what to say. History said that you perished to put an end to the Saint King Unification War.”
“So that’s what history says, hm?” The blonde woman closed her eyes for a moment. “It probably would have been true if my original plan had gone as intended. However…”
“If seeing a world with a blue sky, beautiful flowers and free from the ravages of war is what you truly desire, then let this Myrddin grant your wish.”
“I couldn’t understand what he meant at the time but before I knew it, I had arrived in this world.”
Subaru couldn’t believe what she was hearing but she didn’t have a chance to ask more about it as Touma came back with the serving spoon. “All clean!”
“Then let’s dig in!” exclaimed Olivie in that cheerful tone of hers.
The meal passed by before Subaru knew it, with all the miscellaneous chatter that had gone around the table. She had been hoping to use the time to pry some more information from the mother and son pair but somehow she ended up talking more about her job as they were interested in what type of officer work she did. It was somewhat puzzling for her since they were residents of an administrated world and have some basic knowledge about the Bureau’s structure and getting access to services.
Okay, Olivie she could understand, assuming her implied story of being flung to this world from her timeline is true instead of the more likely story in that she was a very well made clone of the last Saint King. But why did Touma not know more about the Bureau?
When she posed that question to the young boy, he replied that it wasn’t something that was commonly talked about in his village. They had more important concerns, such as working on the mine and digging for ore and metals to fulfill their employer’s quota.
‘So he came from the mining village that was destroyed three years ago, the one that was classified as a wide scale accident because of improper mining explosive storage.’ She remembered reading that story one day during her orientation sessions with the Disaster Relief division. But something still nagged at her.
“Ahhh… that was a good meal! You make a mean stew, Su-chan!”
“Eh?!” Upon hearing the young woman’s comment, Subaru’s vision turned towards the pot she had cooked earlier. One look inside the gigantic pot showed that there was pretty much nothing left in there. “Wow, you really polished off a lot of that stuff… and I didn’t even get seconds!”
Olivie giggled slightly. “Hehe… I like to eat healthy when I can!”
Both the mother and the son stayed around to help with the clean up. Touma went back to the lake to rinse the smaller dishes while both Olivie helped with scrubbing down the giant pot. Since they were by themselves, Subaru took the opportunity to try and clear some things. “But when the Bureau investigated the village three years ago, they found no survivors. Why was that?”
“The day I arrived on this world was the same day I found him. Among the wreckage of his ruined home and about to be executed by those two…”
“What?!” Thoughts began racing through Subaru’s head. ‘Was that incident actually a massacre?’
“I don’t know who they were and they had some odd power to them that reduced the impact of my spells. But I was still able to drive them off.”
“I see.” This changed a lot of things. With this woman’s testimony, the case of the destruction of the village could be reopened and re-examined.
“The first year was the hardest. Along with finding a suitable place to live, I had to juggle raising Touma and a plan to sustain ourselves. But eventually, we managed to put together a sense of routine and here we are, doing fine three years after I found him.”
While Olivie went back to scrubbing, Subaru pondered on how she could get this woman back to Mid-Childa so that she would be well guarded in case the culprits behind the village massacre came back with a lot of friends. The Saint Church would undoubtedly go out of the way to be of assistance. And it would be in the Bureau’s best interests to keep her in their sights since in addition to providing insight on the case, if this woman truly had the blood of the Saint King, she could probably trigger Lost Logia just be being in their vicinity. The question was how to go about convincing her to leave this world. It seemed that Olivie and Touma managed to build a life for themselves here.
Then it came to Subaru. Touma would be the key. Olivie had spent the last three years raising Touma as her own son. Therefore, she would want to do what’s best for him. She rapidly formed a plan as she attacked a particularly dirty spot on the pot. “I see you’ve done well for yourself and Touma but…”
“But?”
“To be honest, Vaizen may not be exactly the best world to be raising a child like him.” Subaru reached for the bucket of water that had been gathered earlier by Touma and began to rinse the inside of the pot.
“What do you mean?” asked Olivie curiously.
The other woman went into her explanation. “On one hand, you have the technologically advanced cities. In order to thrive there, you have to be very well educated either in business subjects or the sciences in order to get a job with one of the major employers there. If Touma-kun truly wanted to become a scientist or a business man, then he may be able to adjust to city life in Vaizen but to me, he doesn’t seem to be that type of person.”
“I guess that makes sense…”
“Then you have the smaller towns and cities that are primarily established by the bigger corporations in order to gather natural resources. They’re usually tight knit communities so it might be difficult trying to fit in there if you dropped by one of them with the hopes of settling in. Or you could keep doing what you have been doing, living off the land by yourselves. But living in isolation wouldn’t be healthy.” She paused for a moment before laying out the hook. “Especially for a child like Touma-kun.”
“Eh?”
“He should be growing up with peers to naturally interact with. He needs to make friends and build relationships with those his age.” That should plant some interesting questions in Olivie’s mind.
“That’s true. Then where would you suggest I raise Touma?”
With a calm smile, Subaru made the pitch. “How about coming back with me to Mid-Childa? There are a lot of people raising their families there so Touma will have plenty of kids his age to spend time with.
“That sounds nice…” There was a bit of uncertainty in those green and red eyes of Olivie’s.
“You don’t have to give me an answer right now. I’ll be staying on this world for a few days to train so just take the time to think it over. Okay?”
The blonde woman paused for a moment before smiling. “That’s very kind of you, considering you’ve given me quite a lot to think about.”
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(Posted Sat, 23 Apr 2011 04:36)
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