Only With Your Heart Chapter 9

Chapter 09 - 'Encounter Pt . 3'

The cries of the birds announced the presence of morning tickled her ears, the sun leaked out from the windows s.h.i.+nes brightly into the room .  

Chizuru tried to lift her eyelids gently, the sun glaring straight to her face, it was so bright that she had to blink for a few times .

The morning . . . . . . has come .

The first morning since I came back to this world .

She stretched out her body on the carpet, rolled over the blankets and stood up slowly, and Chizuru immediately looked around the small room . But on the bed, it was empty and Dorothy was nowhere to be seen . Instead, she heard a moving sound somewhere in the house, she carefully sniff around(?)and smelled the sweet aromas of food wafting from below .

(T/N: It was written as '注意深く神経を研ぎ澄ませてみると' so, it's kinda weird when it was translated as "sharpen your nerves", so I changed it to something that makes sense with the situation . Please help and correct me if you have a better translations)

Her body was honest as her stomach was growling from sniffing the sweet smells .

Chizuru came near the closed doors and with a doubt she pushes the doors forward . Since the wooden doors were decayed and rotting, it creaked and opens up without any particular resistance .

「Oh, um . . . . . . Can I go out?」

Chizuru finally broke into silence and speak out . There is no answer .  

In other words, there were no any objection, so Chizuru went out of the room in fear because she was hungry . The dark mansion that she saw last night was now lit by the light that leaks into the window .

To tell you the truth, Rodolgo's mansion was horrendous .

It looks terrible . It's a little bit surprising to her since she've been saying that twice now . The building itself was made from stone, but the surface was rough and not polished properly, so many things were missing, even the floor and the walls are uneven . There's really no purpose for the wooden doors to be attached to the room since the doors are rotting and falling apart .

(Speaking of which . . . . . . Lukrov . . . . . . I was only told to do it, or I'll be driven away by someone)(?)

(T/N: I tried my best really TT_TT, but I'm not sure what this sentences mean author-san :( - "そういえば……ルクロフ……かもしれない人に追い払われて、細々やってるだけって言ってたっけ")

Of course, she knows that there a lot of people living in this world is much more poor, but the fact somehow made Chizuru feel a little responsible .

The mansion was not that large enough to wander around here and there, Chizuru could easily find the stairs to go down .

When Chizuru showed up, Dorothy was drinking something that looked like a light gray soup on the wooden table . Dorothy looks up at Chizuru .

「You're finally up……」

「Ah, Yes」

「As I said last night, there's hardly anything to eat here except for potatoes . There's this in the kitchen, if you want it you'll bring it yourself……」

Dorothy said while holding the soup dish .

From what Dorothy said and the sweet smells, it must be some sweet potato soup . It was a bit of a shock to Chizuru, who had been used to j.a.panese food .

「I will . Is there Rodolgo-san?」

「He's already eaten and went out the first thing in the morning . It takes three days from here to the Duke's house on a horse……」

Three days……

So to say, if you're going back and forth, you'll be able to meet the Duke, who may be Lukrov, at least six days later . Perhaps until then, she and Dorothy might have to live alone with this sweet potato soup .  

Chizuru sighed and went into the hallway which she thought would continue to the kitchen .

And there was a small room that looks like a kitchen, of course there was no fridge, and there was a pile of potatoes with dirt on the stone worktops, and the iron pot was just hanging over the fire like a Kamado(!) . Chizuru took the soup from the pot and put in into her wooden bowl and returned back to Dorothy .

(T/N: For those who knows Kamado, yay good for you (/o_o)/ But for those who don't know, Kamado is a traditional j.a.panese wood-or-charcoal-fueled cook stove . )

Dorothy is silently sipping on her soup without raising her face when Chizuru returns .

For the time being, Chizuru decided to follow her . Fortunately, there seems to be plenty of time . After taking a long time to finish her unexpectedly delicious food, Chizuru faced Dorothy .

「Um . . . . . May I ask you a little?」

Chizuru asked, after she finis.h.i.+ng her meal . Dorothy put the bowl on the desk in silence and turned towards Dorothy with her gloomy eyes . Even if Chizuru tries to run away now, she won't follow her . It was such a dry gaze .

「About the Duke . According to Rodolgo-san, he was a national hero, but the king's order has brought him to this area…… Such a thing」

「Huh, are you worried?」

Dorothy's face was distorted, there was a glimpse of her teeth between the gaps of her lips .

「Well~ That might be true…… Because you might be sold to that guy」

Will she be sold?

It's a very disturbed statement, but if she think about the price, will it be that kind of thing? As she breathed a sigh, Chizuru nodded at Dorothy's words .

Dorothy suddenly looked away from Chizuru and turned her gaze to see somewhere in the air . And began to speak in a slow tone .  

「There used to be bad dragons in this country not very long ago…… . Do you know that」

「Yes . It's a dragon with black scales, with horrible sharp fangs and claws, and five heads . It's a dragon that flew around in the middle of the night killing people」

Chizuru trembled, remembering the time when she had seen the huge beast before her .  

This world is slightly different from the world 「Sword and Magic」, as in the book I borrowed from Mai . There was no so-called magic at all . It's a medieval world, of course there are swords as weapons, but it's not a magic sword . From the perspective of a person from modern era like Chizuru - the dubious traditions, customs and people were nothing but ordinary people . Neither animals nor plants are much different from the original world . The only exception was the beast . . . . . . and there was a shrine maiden summoned from a different worlds to get rid of it .  

Chizuru .  

The evil dragon doesn't belong to this world, it is said that the dragon could only be killed by the hands of humans from different worlds - Chizuru, who was protected by the knights such as Lukrov, struck the heart of the dragon with a sword and ended it all .  

However, Chizuku's existence was a secret among the Knights and the king, and the evil dragon was supposed to be killed by Lukrov and the Knights .

In fact, Chizuru was only reaching, and until then she was just being protected . . . . . .

「If you know that much, you know the rumors about the man who defeated the evil dragon」

Chizuru nodded .

「In other words, the duke was the result of this man . Although he was admired as a hero, he was dazzled by gold and women . . . . . . he kept his hands dirty resembling an a.s.sasin . Four or five years ago, I've had enough, I was tired and decided to retire to the countryside . I'm going to get the King's rights to take control of this area . 」

Dorothy raises her tone a little, 「It's like a mouth-watering fee . He's been doing pretty dirty stuff . 」

「…………」

Chizuru was lost for words, she stared into the wrinkles carved under Dorothy's eyes .

It is still unclear where and what the truth is .

However, it seemed quite impossible for her to lie completely .

Dorothy smiled brightly as she glanced back to Chizuru, who remained speechless .

「That's not all . Only a few people know it, but he had a odd characteristics, and a woman with black hair, dark eyes and a slightly exotic face . . . . If you have this type of woman, you can go all over the country and will get you a lot of money . . . . . 」

She stared at Chizuru who look exactly like what she described . Dorothy let out a creepy laugh, hihihi (ヒヒヒ) .

「Well, that type of woman is rare…… It's like an angel . After settling down to the countryside, I seemed to have stopped looking for that woman . . . . . But that Rodolgo fool found you and there was a bit of a tinge . . . . Maybe, the Duke might still pay the money . 」

Chizuru's life these past few days has been very monotonous .  

Despite how dark the rumors were, the duke was still likely to be Lukrov, so she couldn't bring herself to run away . . . . . she was just living quietly with Dorothy .

Everday, it started a sweet potato soup, followed by a sweet potato soup for lunch, and then ended up with a sweet potato soup for dinner . In between, they're digging potatoes in the fields behind the mansion . About three days later, Chizuru felt like as if she had an allergy to potatoes, but after four days, she don't feel like that's the case .

She met the rest of the people in the village, but they were all equally impoverished old woman like Dorothy, or a man who seemed to be drinking from days to days, and they were not much to talk about . Perhaps the decent young mens from escaped from here .

On the morning of the sixth day, the news arrived .

「I was surprised! The duke himself was coming with Rodolgo to see you!」

In response to the announcement carried by the herald(!), Dorothy let out a rare voice in excitement .  

(T/N: Herald - an official crier or messenger . )

And she began to talk about Chizuru's appearance which she never seemed to have a problem before . She's bringing a a plain white and green dress that was washed from somewhere and put it on Chizuru, she also brushes her hair using a comb .  

Of course Chizuru was having difficulty with her high spirits .

Maybe she can meet Lukrov from now on . . . . . . !

And that evening, the sun was setting and the sky was tainted with purple and orange, Rodolgo finally returned to the village with a fine-looking knight .

Dorothy and Chizuru stood in front of the mansion, waiting for the arrivals of the two men who were swayed by the horses from across the horizon .  

「Women! I'm back now!」

As he approached the mansion, Rodolgo raised his voice loudly, but the knight remained silent .

The knight is wearing a chain and a silver armor from his head . His face can't be seen in the shadows since it's too dark to see .

But . . . . . .

Straight back . Broad and wide shoulder .

Its tall figure that can be tell by riding on a horseback .

Rodolgo continue to shout something, but it didn't reach to Chizuru's ears .  

It was the same for the knight, the two were locked up in a bond as they're looking at each other's eyes silently on the land where the sun was setting .