Chapter 179. The Dragoons' Naive Girl (4)
In front of a wooden stall set up in a slightly secluded corner among the street vendors lining the middle of an alleyway.
The street was welcoming a visitor entirely different from the usual shabby alleys of the outsourcing district.
A strikingly beautiful girl, dressed in a Dragoon uniform and a short skirt, was squatting there.
“Hmmmm~”
The slender girl, with her long, luscious ash-brown hair cascading down her back, was leaning in close to the sprouts displayed on the stall, her bright blue eyes sparkling with interest.
Passersby from the outsourcing district would glance at her as they walked by.
This was because a large, mechanically designed Bombardment Lance, made of black metal, was strapped to the back of the squatting girl.
- Hey, isn't that a Dragoon?
- I don't know. No idea why she's here.
However, the girl herself was so purely engrossed in the fresh sprouts displayed on the stall before her that she didn't even seem to notice.
It was the only item on the stall made of rotten wooden planks, contained within an acrylic case.
“How is it, seeing it in person, miss?”
Just then, as the sunlight was blocked by a shadow next to her as she sat with her hands on her knees, the stall owner approached her.
The Dragoon girl looked up at him and exclaimed.
“Ah! Mister shopkeeper!”
A man with a scar on his face, wearing a dirty robe and a monocle on one eye, had a nasty impression.
He looked like a stereotypical con man.
The man, who introduced himself as a street vendor from the outsourcing district, spoke in an unfittingly gentle voice.
“Ah, just to confirm. The clothes you’re wearing, miss. Isn’t that the uniform and magic gear of the famous Royal Dragoons?”
At that, the girl politely bowed her head to him in gratitude.
“Yes! You said you’d help me since I was lost earlier, but thank you so much for even letting me look around your shop.”
“Of course. We should all help each other out.”
The man, with the hood of his dirty robe pulled down, smirked and casually suggested to the girl.
“Besides, even if the Dragoons don’t know about the mysterious items distributed in the outsourcing district, it would be a shame to pass by without recognizing the specialty of this 19th outsourcing district, the improved seeds. Would you like to buy one?”
Hearing that, the Dragoon girl’s eyes widened.
“This is a specialty of this place, you say?”
“That’s right, and it’s incredibly expensive for that reason. To be precise, this seed is no different from an artifact designed by the best researchers.”
“Ooh, an artifact! So that’s what it is?”
On the wooden stall, a small sprouted potato was displayed in a transparent acrylic case.
The Dragoon girl, who was staring at it with an innocent expression, her eyes wide, tilted her head for a moment.
As Alicia wore a puzzled expression, the merchant quickly moved to her side and whispered in a cunning voice.
“That’s right, you said your name was ‘Alicia’, miss?”
“Yes! That’s my name!”
“Miss Alicia. Let me ask first, you do have money, right? The Dragoons must get a hefty salary.”
The girl called Alicia, still squatting, looked up at him and smiled brightly.
“Yes. Actually, it hasn’t been long since I graduated from the Royal Military Academy and was commissioned. I’m not wealthy, but I earn enough to send money home regularly!”
To the proudly speaking Alicia, the merchant urged her on in a coaxing tone, as if things were going well.
“Then that’s great. This potato is a special variety bred in the Columbia Kazimieśi Domain, which governs the biological magic related to agriculture.”
“Special variety breeding?”
“Exactly! Have you ever heard of a praise potato?”
“A praise potato?”
The man skillfully began a long speech.
“If you water it diligently and give it praise with good words and songs every time it grows, it will absorb the nutrients and its roots will grow long enough to reach the sky, you see? With just one of these, countless people can eat their fill for a year.”
“Ah, a praise potato?! I-is there such a potato?”
At the merchant's words, Alicia's eyes sparkled, and she thrust her head towards him and asked urgently.
“I've never heard of such a potato before! We didn't have such a crop in my hometown either. I guess there are many new varieties in the world that people in the countryside don't know about?”
“……Hmm??”
The street vendor’s mouth fell slightly open for a moment with a look of disbelief, but he quickly shook his head and started adding to his bluff.
“That’s right. It’s a product made by the brilliant researchers of Columbia. Just one word of praise and it will grow well. If you take off this case and praise it, you’ll see a little reaction right away, you see?”
“Ah! Is that so?”
Then Alicia stood up in admiration and suddenly turned to look at the people around her.
Perhaps because of her conspicuous Dragoon uniform, a considerable number of citizens from the outsourcing district were glancing at her.
“That's great! Then, mister!”
She spread her arms wide and, with her back to the onlookers, her eyes shining, she exclaimed to the street vendor.
“Can you show the others here how the praise potato grows, just once?”
“What?”
For a moment, the street vendor’s eyes twitched. Other onlookers had gathered around by then.
Alicia, with a look of perfect timing, fumbled in her uniform pocket and proudly took out a cute plush coin purse, exclaiming.
“It’s okay! I’ll pay for it right away!”
“Miss, why are you doing this?”
“Of course. It would be much better to promote such an outstanding variety of potato to others! My hometown is also a farming village, so I know very well!”
Alicia, as if stating the obvious, looked around and added in a proud tone.
“If there’s such an amazing potato, everyone won’t need to grow potatoes. With just this one, they can harvest a huge amount of crops! We have to let many people know about such a groundbreaking potato!”
The man, flustered for a moment, looked around.
The onlookers who had gathered while passing by, hearing Alicia's words, were now looking at the street vendor and booing the con man as if he deserved it.
- That trick won't work more than once, you idiot.
- Ha, he finally met his match. That scamming bastard.
Having been instantly turned into a public spectacle by Alicia's actions, he gritted his teeth at the innocent Dragoon girl before him and yelled.
“Ha! This damn girl!”
“Ye-yes?”
Alicia, completely oblivious as to why he was suddenly yelling, tilted her head with a bewildered expression.
The man who had introduced himself as the stall owner glared at her as if he wanted to kill her and ground his teeth.
“You, who knows everything, are playing with me? You dare to insult me openly!”
“Playing? What are you talking about?”
“Stop playing dumb, coming all this way!”
He seemed to have truly lost his temper. He grabbed the staff-shaped magic gear that was propped up behind the stall and immediately aimed it at Alicia.
At the store owner's finally revealed true colors, Alicia raised her small hands and took a step back.
“Wh-why are you doing this?”
“Because you’re from the noble Dragoons, you’re looking down on a commoner from the outsourcing district even though you know everything?”
“Huh? That's not…!”
Alicia clenched her fists as if to clear up the misunderstanding and was about to say something, but the man laughed menacingly and added before she could.
“I already know. Since you’re from the prestigious Royal Dragoons, you’re probably forbidden from using violence even in a place like this outsourcing district, right? By some military law or whatever.”
“Th-that’s!”
Alicia, flustered for a moment, took a few steps back, but the merchant sneered, pointing at the onlookers who had gathered around him with his arms spread wide.
“Go ahead and let loose with that proud lance of yours with so many eyes watching. Let’s see you do it if you have the guts.”
At that sudden ferocity, Alicia waved her hands frantically and cried out urgently.
“I-I don’t want to hurt you!”
“Like I care!!”
The man lunged at Alicia, still gripping his magic gear, and began to draw on his mana.
In a situation hurtling towards a desperate climax, just as Alicia squeezed her eyes shut, unable to do anything, the next moment.
“K-keoheoook!!”
Suddenly, with a whooshing sound of the merchant being thrown by someone in a judo throw, the single scream of the lunging man echoed as he was sent flying into the distance.
At the loud clatter of wooden planks and junk colliding, Alicia’s eyes shot open in surprise.
“Ah…!”
The man, who had been sent flying, knocking over wooden boxes and stalls in the alley like bowling pins, was stuck in a tin trash can with his butt in the air.
And when Alicia turned her eyes.
The image of a black-haired boy standing there was reflected in her bright blue eyes.
“No, I’ve been watching from the side for a while.”
The boy, dressed in a light black uniform who had casually walked out from the crowd, glanced at Alicia with his dark blue eyes, then hesitated slightly before adding.
“There’s no such thing as a crazy potato like that.”
Alicia’s eyes widened as if she had realized what had happened, seeing the merchant who had been sent flying along with his stall and was now embedded in the ground.
She then held the coin purse in her hand tightly towards Enoch and bowed her head deeply.
“Th-thank you for helping me!”
“It’s nothing. I was actually looking for you.”
“Huh? For me?”
Enoch looked at the flustered Alicia before him, nodded, and introduced himself.
“Enoch Elsyde. I have been dispatched on a mission.”
A moment of silence fell between the two.
“……Huh?”
Alicia, who had been staring blankly at Enoch, parted her glossy lips slightly.
Soon, her two eyes, slightly hidden by her bangs, widened dramatically, and with a startled face, she exclaimed.
“E-eh, Enoch? If it’s Lord Enoch, could it be that??”
“That's right.”
“Ah, th-that’s!”
Flustered, Alicia blinked her eyes rapidly, and as if she had finally recognized Enoch, she waved her arms frantically in the air.
Then, she raised her slender, gloved hand and snapped a salute by her eye.
“I-I am Alicia Light! Second Lieutenant of the 1st Royal Dragoon Regiment!”
Enoch also turned for a moment to look at her properly.
A red, extremely short flared skirt that revealed her slender yet full thighs. And black over-the-knee-stocking-style stockings that emphasized the slight bulge of her white thighs.
The top of her uniform, black with a red pattern, which was worn to accentuate her well-developed chest, billowed in the wind.
The white Dragoon insignia was attached to the side of her arm. It was exactly the Alicia that Enoch had been looking for.
She faced Enoch, still saluting.
“It is an honor to meet the direct lineage member of the Elsyde family!”
As Enoch stared at her somewhat flustered report of her rank and name, Alicia soon asked cautiously with an innocent expression.
“B-but, by the way?”
“…?”
“What on earth did you mean by what you said just now…?”
Wondering what she was asking, Enoch tilted his head. Alicia, still with a puzzled expression, pointed her finger at the seed the street vendor had been selling.
“According to what the merchant said, that’s clearly a rare potato that has undergone tremendous variety breeding…?”
To Alicia, who was asking with an innocent tilt of her head, Enoch added simply.
“…No, it’s just obviously a scam.”
“Huh? A scam……?”
Alicia blinked her round eyes a few times, and then, with a look of someone who had just realized she had been betrayed, she pointed at the street vendor and let out a final scream.
“Aaaah—!!”
…Took her long enough to notice. Really.
***
“K-keuk! W-what is this all of a sudden…”
The con man, who had been sent flying by Enoch, began to stumble to his feet.
Enoch stared at the merchant.
He had successfully been guided here by the non-mage children of the outsourcing district along with Nano, but how should he resolve this situation?
There was a possibility he would attack again, but unfortunately, he had neither Sirocco nor April, who were combat personnel, with him.
There were too many people around to draw his sword.
But fortunately, the shop owner, perhaps because he had landed headfirst when he was sent flying, was still staggering around, unable to get his bearings even after getting up.
Should I consider this a relief?
Just then, Enoch noticed a change in Alicia's demeanor and glanced at her.
She had briefly hung her head low, but soon, she clenched her fists and began to tremble.
Then, in an instant, she snapped her head up, her blue eyes shining, and shouted at the shop owner.
“I-I really can’t believe it-sa! To think of scamming someone with something like this, do ya have any conscience at all-na?”
For a moment, her unique dialect made all the other onlookers freeze.
It was a dialect that was hard to imagine coming from a member of the Dragoons, who had to graduate from the Royal Military Academy and be commissioned.
But Alicia, not caring at all, strode up to the man who had tricked her and pointed a finger at herself as she argued.
“And! No matter what, to think I would fall for such an obvious lie! That in itself is a huge insult-jana!”
“Y-you were about to fall for it, weren't you!”
“B-be quiet-sa!”
She was clearly agitated and angry, but her cute way of speaking mixed with her dialect and her clear voice contributed to making her arguments not at all intimidating.
Thanks to that, not only the onlookers but even the con man who was arguing back at her were all staring at her blankly with incredibly ambiguous expressions.
Just then, Nano, who had peeked out from among the crowd, assessed the situation and approached Enoch, exclaiming.
“Ah, Direct Lineage Member! Are you alright-mka?”
Enoch looked at Nano and nodded slightly.
“No problem. You can come out now.”
“Ph-phew. That's a relief-mda! To be honest, I was a little nervous when you said you were going to go out bare-handed without any magic gear-mda!”
Nano let out a sigh of relief and, along with her drone, pushed through the crowd and ran over to them.
Then, she glanced at Alicia, who was standing beside her with an angry expression, and, standing next to Enoch, she began to think deeply about something.
“Ah, but…. I think I’ve heard that somewhere before-mda.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ah! That person's way of speaking-mda!”
At Nano’s words, as Enoch tilted his head, Alicia, who was standing beside them with her arms crossed and her lips pouting, reacted to Nano’s words.
“Way of speaking…? What are ya talkin’ about-na?”
Alicia turned her head sharply towards Nano with a sulky expression. Then Nano, as if she had just remembered, smiled brightly and exclaimed.
“Ah! By any chance, judging by that dialect! Miss Dragoon member, aren’t you from the countryside of the Victoria Kazimieśi Domain-mka!”
“D-dialect?”
At those words, Alicia instantly slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide, and then,
“Aaaah~!!”
She clutched her own cheeks, which had turned beet red, and bowed her head low.
Watching her silky ash-brown hair cascade down beside her ears, which were flushed with embarrassment as if she could die, Enoch let out a small sigh.
「Alicia Light」
A Dragoon girl who had come to the capital from a rural farming village in the Victoria Kazimieśi Domain and enrolled in the Royal Military Academy.
She was usually ashamed to use her hometown dialect openly and tried to hide it, but when she got excited or let her guard down with someone, her hometown accent would slip out.
Then, her standard language and dialect would mix strangely, creating a unique way of speaking that was neither here nor there, her identity as a young lady from a rural farming family and a regular soldier.
Therefore, the fact that Alicia's appearance was so spectacular in many ways from the very beginning was perhaps a foregone conclusion, considering her unique background.
“Ugh……. My accent again…….”
Enoch glanced down at Alicia, who was still clutching her cheeks that looked like they were steaming, and smiled faintly.
The Dragoon girl he had been searching for all this time, and had missed several times.
And the one who would become the last powerful piece on the chessboard he had envisioned for this operation in the outsourcing district.
This was the chaotic first meeting with Alicia, who absolutely had to become a key part of Enoch’s squad.