Chapter 35 The Red Name
It was the first time Delphine had ever heard of such a thing being produced in a factory.
“All the water around here is contaminated and rotten, that’s why it smells like this.”
Suddenly, she remembered the words the black-clad men had shouted in District 2.
“Children are dying!”
She also remembered scooping up water from a fountain she didn’t think was potable.
“Are you kidding me…, you don’t even have water to drink?”
“Ha!”
She asked cautiously, and was met with another sneer.
The man looked incredulous and didn’t even answer anymore.
She felt like she could see the look on his face even though he was wearing an eye patch.
‘No drinking water…? In this beautiful city of water?’
The capital of the Astrax Empire had an abundance of water sources.
Even between the opulent mansions of the nobility in District 1, there was always a trickle of fresh water.
In District 2, the water from the fountains that dotted the landscape glistened iridescently in the bright sunlight.
This was the capital city Delphine remembered.
The carriage sped along with her in shock.
The clatter of hooves, the rattling of the carriage, the occasional rustle of a man’s clothes.
She concentrates on the sounds, trying to make the best guess as to where they are, when the carriage comes to an abrupt halt.
“Don’t take off your eye patch yet. Here, take my hand.”
A large, warm hand grasped Delphine’s before she could protest.
Rough, callused here and there.
Ioannes’s hands, Delphine thought, and then wondered who she was comparing them to.
“What’s wrong?”
“… Nothing.”
“Oh, right, excuse me.”
“What kind of excuse…?”
Delphine exclaimed, startled by the sensation of a large hand gripping her waist.
“What are you doing!”
“Getting out of the carriage in that skimpy thing, what if you break your nose?”
The man replied in a fairly nonchalant voice, but despite his tone, he set her back down on the ground with great care.
Were commoners supposed to be so uncomfortable with physical contact?
Delphine thought in confusion, brushing her hair out of his grasp.
The man snatched her hand back and led her away.
There was the sound of footsteps on the wooden floor, and the bustle of a crowd around them.
“Lynn, is that her?”
“What is she, with a man in front of her?”
“Hmm. Well, what shall I say?”
“Hey, man! Lady, lady. Don’t you know such things?”
“They say there are many beauties within the walls of… It must be true.”
“Then it’s true that Glasscok is dead?”
The shouting.
Delphine unconsciously clutched the man’s hand, uneasy about walking with her eyes closed.
Then she felt the rough-textured hand flinch.
“Just a little further… I’ll have your eye patch off in a moment.”
The man muttered in a stifled voice.
Soon after, she heard a door open and close, followed by the man’s voice.
“You may remove the eye patch now.”
Delphine cautiously lifted her hand and removed the blindfold.
The sudden rush of light blinded her and she flinched, but soon a strange sight came into focus.
She was in a small, windowless wooden room.
Rustic wooden tables and chairs scattered about.
And at one end of the room, a blonde man and a woman with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail were staring at her.
Delphine’s eyes widened in surprise as she realised that the woman was wearing baggy trousers and leather armour.
‘She’s wearing… armour?’
Born and raised in District 1, she had never even seen a woman in trousers before.
Delphine hadn’t even had a chance to say hello before the woman called out playfully.
“Hey, Lynn, how long are we going to hold hands?”
The teasing remark caused the man to immediately let go of her hand.
“… I just forgot, Marianne.”
The man muttered, and slowly removed his mask.
His jet-black hair fell away, revealing unusually dark skin.
He was handsome, with a masculine jawline, contrary to Delphine’s expectations of a very crude appearance.
‘Black hair, black eyes…’
The man walked briskly over to them and plonked himself down on an unoccupied wooden chair.
Delphine instantly recognised the three of them as the key figures in this mysterious gathering.
“Lady Pride.”
The blond man sitting in the centre smiled gently.
He was shabbily dressed, but beautiful in appearance, as if an angel had descended upon this shabby room.
“We, La Rouge, would like to welcome you.”
“… La Rouge?”
The blond man smiled angelically, ignoring Delphine’s half-question for further explanation.
“On that radio, you said you wanted to know the truth.”
“The Truth. How dangerous and sweet.”
The woman in armour, Marianne, added, smirking.
“I wonder what kind of truth the beautiful lady wanted that brought her all the way to this shabby place.”
Delphine bit her lower lip tightly at their relaxed demeanor.
She’d come prepared, but she found herself at a loss for words when the questions came.
She wasn’t sure if she could trust them to answer all her questions.
“Of course, we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to answer all of your questions.”
She wondered if they’d noticed her concern.
The blond man smiled and struck first.
“I’m sure you’re still finding it hard to trust us, my lady, so how about this?”
“What…”
“We’ll exchange questions, one by one, to be fair.”
One by one?
It was a more trustworthy suggestion than the irresponsible one of asking her anything.
The man smiled angelically at Delphine’s slightly guarded face.
“As it happens, we have two questions for you, too.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Delphine nodded.
And so the question and answer began.
They began.
“Firstly, we would like to hear the details of Glasscok’s death during the madness.”
The first question was somewhat expected.
Delphine sat down calmly and explained what happened when they were trapped in the blizzard, how Callie and Glasscok died, and that only Glasscok had no pupils.
“… That’s how it happened.”
As she finished, the armoured woman muttered bitterly.
“Glynn must be dead.”
The man who had brought her here, the one she called Lynn, was equally grim.
“Damn it… I warned you it was dangerous…”
Unlike them, however, the blond man’s face was not one of grief, but of great interest.
“So you’re telling me that you saw the eyes of the corpse yourself?”
His expression was a far cry from before, when he had seemed somewhat suspicious.
Delphine nodded awkwardly, choosing her words carefully.
Now it was her turn to ask.
She had a long list of questions, but only two.
Glasscok had clearly said he was investigating Ioannes. If so, then…
“And ‘why’ are you investigating Lord Pride?”
At Delphine’s carefully worded question, the blond man smiled wryly.
He looked almost amused.
“That’s a good question, because the why requires a lot of explanation.”
“…”
“Simply put, because the man is the greatest threat to our organisation’s purpose.”
“Belly.”
The man called Lynn spoke the name as if in warning.
But the man who had been called out responded with a smile.
“It’s okay, I’m betting our future on this lady. So I’d better give her an honest answer.”
The corners of his eyes curved up, but the pupils within them were not smiling.
The man asked, his beautiful face somehow cold.
“Your ladyship, this is probably your first time in the District 3, where noble loyalty does not usually tread.”
Hesitantly, Delphine nodded.
“What did you see and feel?”
“…”
Delphine didn’t say anything, but her expression must have answered the question.
The man nodded in understanding and continued.
“Just to be clear, we’re organising a movement to liberate the barrier.”
Delphine was not surprised.
“We want clean water in District 3!”
“Children are dying from drinking factory effluent! You pig-headed aristocrats!”
“Open the barriers!”
The last time she heard the chants in District 2, she didn’t understand who was making these claims and why.
To be honest, she didn’t even think to look into it.
But once she got to District 3, she realised that she didn’t need to be told what was going on.
“The main idea is to open the central barrier that separates the three districts and give the people of District 3 the right to live as human beings.”
“Believe it or not, our plan was going pretty well.”
A woman named Marianne interrupted the conversation in a gruff tone.
“We’re in it to win it… because we’re just dying a slow death here anyway.”
“But suddenly we’re faced with a major obstacle.”
The Veliran calmly picked up the woman’s story.
“It was the Marquis of Pride, who appeared out of nowhere a year ago.”
Delphine’s heart sank with a thud at the mention of his name.
