The Holy Grail of Eris – Chapter 2.8

―――Randolph Ulster?

Sir Ulster who’s renowned as Lord Hades? That Randolph Ulster, who once confronted Scarlet as the Crown Prince’s friend and later married Lily Orlamunde?

All Blood drained from Connie’s face at once. ‘Did he see me? No, he shouldn’t have.’ She was so shaken, her eyes swam all around the place. She almost unconsciously looked at the icon, when ―――『Look to the front. He’ll notice it』

Randolph Ulster, whom Connie came to confront in this way, was tall enough that she had to look up at him. Toned body and masculine face. Clad in long black military uniform with a stand-up collar, he was carrying a bouquet of funeral flowers, white lilies. After he noticed Connie, his azure eyes narrowed, as if trying to determine something.

“…My apologies. Are you from the Maurice Orphanage?”

It was a low voice with no inflection that was used to ordering people. Chills went down Connie’s spine.

“…Yes.”

“How nostalgic. My wife brought me there many times…Is this the first time we’ve met?”

“I’m Letty. I, uh, only started working there recently.”

“I see. By the way, at that time, there was a red-haired boy I used to play with――― George was his name, I think. Is he well?”

―――There was no way Connie could have known that!

Of course, she couldn’t possibly answer so honestly, so although lost for words for a second, she still hesitantly opened her mouth.

“O-of cou-“

『Wait a minute. He’s talking about the orphanage we were in, right? George was a brunette. The only red-haired boy among his peers was Tony. 』

Connie reflexively looked at Scarlet. The latter had a serious expression on her face. Looking at those amethyst eyes that seemed to suck her in, Connie’s rampaging heart gradually regained its calm.

“Do you, perhaps, mean Tony? There is a boy called George, but his hair color is more on the darker side.”

Randolph blinked as if he was told something unexpected.

“…Right, it was Tony. I’m sorry for that.”

“A-anyone can make a mistake. Well then, I will be taking my leave now…”

As Connie tried to leave, “Sister”, she was called out to while she was passing Randolph.

 “It’s dangerous for women to walk alone. If you are okay with it, I could escort you to the orphanage.”

Connie screamed in her heart.

“”—N-no need! I have somewhere else to stop by and um, it’s not long distance away either! However, thank you for your consideration. Well then, I bid you adieu!”

Just before opening the door, Connie turned back, lifted the hems of her habit and lightly bowed. Then, she quickly left the chapel.

Connie cut through the garden with a stride so fast it could almost be called a sprint and flew out from the mansion without even glancing at the guard. After that, she ran to the small path with less people around, put her hand on the hedge and exhaled.

“That was so scary..! what was that, so frightening…! …H-he didn’t suspect me, right?”

『I wonder. I don’t think you said anything that could put him on our trail, but―――』

Scarlet looked up at the Orlamunde Mansion.

『that man has always had a uselessly keen nose. 』

◇◇◇

There were white Gypsophilas and a bundle of clumsily written letters on the altar.

Randolph also left his funeral flowers there and turned back on his heels without offering any prayers. That was when he felt that something was out of place and turned his gaze towards the icon hung on the wall. Looking closely, he noticed that it was slightly crooked. Randolph unhesitatingly reached for the icon. The exposed wall didn’t look like it had anything done to it. In that case ――― he turned over the frame. As expected, there were traces of something being glued to the right side of it. It was about the size of an envelope. Judging from the color of the leftover parchment, it was probably only peeled off recently. And quite forcibly at that. Just like that, he looked at the floor. And as he found the scrap of the paper that was the size of a fingernail, he frowned and sighed slightly.

“I heard the sister was here?”

In the reception room of the main residence, Kyle called out to him with the same frivolous tone as his appearance would suggest. He was also wearing military uniform and had its collar open casually to the degree that wouldn’t be considered vulgar.

“She did look like one, at least.”

Randolph sat down on the sofa and shrugged. Marchioness Orlamunde still hadn’t shown herself.

“Oh?”

“She spoke without accent, her hands were unblemished and, on her way out, the supposed nun gave me a noble lady’s curtsy.”

“…I getcha now.”

Sloppily leaning on the table, Kyle munched on the baked sweets for the guests.

“Be it the evening party at Grand Meryl-Anne the other day or this, things just ain’t peaceful recently.”

“Actually, about that…did you already find out the identity of the noble lady, who broke off her engagement that night?”

When he first heard about it, he wasn’t very interested so he didn’t look into it. However, his gossip-loving colleague was bound to know something. As expected, the young man before him smirked.

“Don’t be surprised when you hear this ――― it was apparently a girl from that Grail family, of all people.”

“Grail? The sincere ones?”

Kyle laughed at Randolph when the latter inadvertently frowned.

“Yup, the sincere ones.”

Sincere Grails were exemplary nobles who everybody in the high society knew.

“…Are you acquittanced with that noble lady?”

“Hmm, we haven’t talked but I have seen her from a distance several times.”

“Does she have hazelnut-colored hair and bright green eyes?”

“Eh? Yeah, that sounds about right. What, did you meet her before?”

Randolph slowly turned his eyes towards the window. This reception room was designed with several long and narrows windows stretching in a row, enabling the garden Orlamunde family was so proud of to come in a view as one whole picture. He could slightly see the stone chapel that looked like it was weaving its way through the trees.

“―――I did. Just now, in fact.”

◇◇◇

Although she was told to throw out her nun uniform, Connie still hesitated. She felt like she would be trampling all over the good people of that orphanage that way. That being said, since she was lying about her identity, she couldn’t possibly return it directly. As the last resort, she decided to leave it at the door along with a copper coin as the laundry payment.

“…Big sis, what’re you doing?”

While Connie was trying to push the uniform through the bars of the iron gate that was unusually thick for the orphanage, somebody called out to Connie from behind. Turning around, she found some familiar faces before her. There were all boys and part of the older group, who that wrote the letters. Judging from the fact that they were holding soldering irons and hammers, they were probably coming back from a study at some workshop.

That was when Connie noticed the strange expression on the children’s faces. All of them looked scared. They were afraid…of Connie. It was the same before too. Connie remembered what happened just a short while ago. At that time―――when she asked the younger group about Lily, those children were obviously looking at her nervously. Just what were they so afraid of?

The boy with a fiery red-hair stepped forward as if protecting his friends. With a slightly stiff expression, he glared at Connie and opened his mouth.

“―――Killiki Killikuk.”

What?
Connie noticed that the children were looking at her with bated breath. Were those words something important? Connie was confused. She had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

“…Kirreycook?

Was it some kind of foreign language? Was Connie’s confusion conveyed? The tense atmosphere gradually melted away. With relieved faces, the children started quibbling with each other. “See? Just as I thought”, “You’re such a worrywart, Tony”, “Shaddup, I can’t help it.” One of them ran to Connie.

“Big sis, did you really give our letters to Lady Lily?”

“Yup.”

Yay, the black-haired boy cheered. The atmosphere from before seemed like a lie. Even Connie smiled as her mood improved. After that, she called out to the red-haired boy who was awkwardly scratching his head.

“Hey, what was that?”

After hesitating a little, the boy took a long look at Connie’s face and muttered quietly.

“…A spell.”

“A spell?!”

What the hell, that’s so scary. Were modern children able to use spells?!

“Mhm. You can spot bad guys with it. ――― Lady Lily taught it to us.”

Connie gasped and blinked slowly.

“…When?”

“Before she died.”

The red-haired boy — Tony, tilted his head as if somehow puzzled.

“Lady Lily said that if something happened to her in the future and somebody came to ask about her, we should ask them this.”

The Sun long passed its summit and was slowly going down, bleeding with fiery color.

“And if they reacted, that would mean that they were very bad guys.”

The bell of St. Mark was ringing in distance. It was a sound announcing that the gates of the Royal Castle had closed. It was still too early for the sunset. The half-circular setting sun stood right behind the children. Their growing shadows would eventually melt in the darkness.

―――The night was only about to come.

With a face that was on the verge of crying, Tony said.

“And when that happens, we should take everyone and run away as fast as we can.”

Martha seemed very surprised to see Connie in a wet maid uniform. Connie did explain that she fell on the way home, but it was probably not enough to convince here. Connie felt that the latter had something to say, but there was no way she could answer her. Today’s Constance Grail wasn’t sincere at anything from start to finish. Connie returned to her room silently. She felt really tired.

Connie had the envelope in her hand. Scarlet, who had stayed silent until now, opened her mouth.

『―――Let’s open it. 』

Connie nodded. She wouldn’t throw a tantrum when they had already come so far.

When she broke the seal, she saw something shining with a dull light inside. It was a key. It was something for actual use, with no superficial decoration on it. Its head was a hollow circle and its body looked like a protuberance with a gear cut off.

『There’s still something left inside. 』

Hearing Scarlet’s words, Connie turned the envelope upside down. Then, something white fluttered down on the floor. It was a piece of paper. Since there were small letters printed on it, this paper was probably torn from a book or something similar. Something was written down on it with a pen. Connie squinted. The letters were in a disorder, as if they were written in a hurry. Although some was smeared in places, they were mostly readable.

A clue left by Lily Orlamunde. Written on it was a single sentence.

―――Destroy the holy grail of Eris.

“The holy grail…of Eris?”

Connie’s voice reverberated in the silent room.

—
Notes: 
the flowers probably looks something like this

Well then, this concludes chapter 2 of Eris. Next chapter is an interlude (Emilia Gordwin’s POV) and then comes chapter 3. If I’m motivated enough, I might try to do the whole chapter at once. We’ll see.

Anyway, notify me about mistranslations, typos and awkward grammar.

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