Volume 1 - CH 6

Alme left the real estate office and start walking down the street again. Her steps are now much lighter than they were when she was heading to the library.

She is already feeling light on her feet, because her next appointment – the third of the day – is lunch with a friend. This is the main event of the day.

After walking along the main street for a while, she walked to an open plaza. The square, with a fountain in the center, was crowded with people today.

The music and singing of street performers were pleasant to the ears. The first song was a staple of the city, “Life is Easy, Love is True”.

The smell of delicious food wafted from the stalls lined up in a row. Since it was lunchtime, the area in front of the stalls was crowded with people.

With her heart floating from the pleasant atmosphere, she hurried toward the fountain.

In the center of the fountain was a statue of a graceful goddess, and right in front of it, the person Alme was looking for was waiting for her.

That person – a good friend of hers – waved to her.

“Alme! Over here! Over here!”

“Ena, sorry to keep you waiting!”

Her friend’s name is Ena Cole. She is a childhood friend and best friend the same age as Alme.

Her blond hair, trimmed around her shoulders, seems to reflect her bright and energetic personality, and it suits her well.

Ena is a woman in contrast with the plain-looking Alme, but perhaps it was the fact that they fit together like a puzzle, or perhaps it was the fact that we were strangely compatible since they were small children.

They have been good friends ever since they first met at the age of six, when they first entered elementary school.

Even after they became adults, they had lunch together regularly and reported on what was going on with each other. Today, too, Alme would like to report on various matters without hesitation.

Ena walked over to her with her cheerful blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes.

“I’m hungry already~! What do you want to eat, Alme?”

“I don’t mind anything. I’ll leave it to Ena today.”

“Then, are you okay with the kebab place over there? I was watching the whole time while I was waiting, so I’m already in the mood to eat kebabs.”

“Haha, what a mouthful.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at Ena as she began to blabber on and on. Her unpretentious personality is refreshing and pleasant. Ena also has a fiancé, whose name is Aiden. He is also a childhood friend of Alme.

Alme, Ena and Aiden are good friends who started interacting with each other because they happened to be seated near each other at the elementary school. They are all still good friends, and she thinks that she must be blessed to meet such good people.

They both stopped at a food stand and bought kebabs with lots of vegetables, meat and sauce. They looked around and secured an empty table.

When Ena went to buy some juice and came back, they started their lunch time today.

As soon as they were done with the kebabs, Ena asked her a question without any hesitation.

“How did the gift for Mr. Julio go? Was he happy with the scarf?”

“Hmph, gosh ……”

From the beginning, the topic of a fastball was brought out, and she couldn’t help but choke. She was going to talk about it, so it’s fine, but she wanted at least one cushion. She started talking while coughing with teary eyes.

“You know, Ena… Actually, I couldn’t give him the scarf. Before I gave it to him, there was a bit of a dispute…”

“Eh, what’s wrong? Was there a fight?”

“Well, if it’s a fight, it might be a fight… Don’t be surprised, listen. Surprisingly, I encountered him cheating, and the engagement was canceled on the spot.”

After saying it all in one breath, Ena paused mid-bite into the kebab.

“Huh…? Huh…?!”

“He brought his lover into his office at work and was having a blast.”

“Isn’t it a misunderstanding or something…?”

“They were already exchanging kisses…passionately.”

When Alme responded with a disappointed half-smile, Ena stopped eating her kebab and gave her the sternest look she could muster.

“What in the world?! He’s such an idiot! I can’t believe it…!!”

“Yeah…I couldn’t believe it either, but when I stopped by the library this morning, both of them were flirting with each other. Also Julio and his lover are now engaged.”

“Huh! How is that possible…? That’s the worst…”

Ena let out a deep sigh. Alme continued her story while turning her embarrassed face to her who has become quiet.

“I’m sorry I asked you to help me choose a scarf as a gift.”

“That’s fine, but…”

The light blue scarf that was planned to be given to Julio was the one that Ena had chosen together.

Alme wasn’t sure about choosing a gift for a man, so she asked Ena to accompany her shopping.

“Don’t worry! he’ll definitely be pleased!” Ena pushed her to give it to him, but she’s feels sorry she couldn’t in the end…

Ena looked at her with a concerned look.

“Aside from the scarf, are you okay? Didn’t you have trouble sleeping from the shock?”

“Yeah, I’m fine…Looking back, I feel like it didn’t go so well to begin with. The damage was less than I thought. Well, it was still a shock.”

As they talked, she thought back to her days with Julio. In fact, she had been feeling a rift between Julio and her for some time.

It all started in the carriage that took them home after their first meeting.

“I was too ashamed to tell Ena about it, but on the day of my first meeting with Julio, he almost kissed me in the carriage when we were alone together. I was so surprised that I refused. After that he became a bit prickly…We started out with a rift in our relationship, so I guess I can’t blame him for it ending up like this.”

After the meeting, which had already made her nervous, he suddenly put his arm around her in the carriage and almost kissed her.

She made an exaggerated move and pushed Julio’s body away. Since then, they had maintained a delicate relationship. Julio no longer tried to kiss her, or even touch her.

The reason she tried to give him the six-month engagement gift was to bridge the gap and get to know him a little better.

“So that’s how the rift ended up not being bridged, but I think, well, maybe it’s for the best.”

“…I see, that’s what happened…you should have told me.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry ……Ena and Aiden are good friends, so I have to do my best too. I’m going to take it a little easier from now on. My plans for my life have been wiped out by the breakup, so I’ll be free to do what I want to do for a while.”

She said it with a smile and drank the juice. Ena smiled as she exhaled vigorously.

“Yes, that’s the spirit! –Have you decided what you want to do yet?”

“Yes! I’m thinking of opening another store on the first floor of my house. I’m going to make ice desserts. I’m going to prepare iced desserts with strawberries, apples, and all kinds of fruits.”

“Oh, that sounds great! The previous juice shop was very popular, and I’m sure we’ll have lots of customers! If you need more help, I’ll come and help you.”

The topic changed, and they started chatting happily as usual. She resumed her meal and muttered while biting into the kebab.

“I’m happy you offered to help, but aren’t you and Aiden getting married this year, and aren’t you busy?”

“I’m not going to help them yet, and even if they do get married, I’m just going to take care of the formalities, so I have time to spare. I’m going to have a party with my family, so please come….Well, depending on Aiden’s work schedule, it may be rescheduled.”

Ena’s fiancé, Aiden, is a soldier. He is a fighter in the black foggy battlefield infested with demons.

There are things called demons in this world. They are things that start to move when a black fog forms and gathers around them. They are pitch black and take the form of giant birds, insects, and beasts.

This phenomenon is unthinkable in the sense of Alme’s previous life, but in the sense of this world, it is like a “bad weather disaster”.

The saints have set up strong barriers in major cities, so they can’t enter inside, but small towns and farming villages sometimes suffer great damage.

Upon receiving the news of the monster’s appearance, the nearby army was ordered to clear it. Since monsters often appear around here in Luorio, Aiden is sent to the battlefield every time an order is given.

There is no knowing when the monsters will appear, so Ena and Aiden’s wedding will also depend on the monsters.

“I’ll pray to the Gods every day to keep the demons out when the time is near. It’s your wedding, let’s definitely have a party!”

“Yes, please! –Oh, that’s right. I just remembered something.”

Suddenly, Ena brought up another topic.

She asked, “Did you see that guy, Alme?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

She was taken aback by the topic was suddenly changed. Alme wondered who she was talking about. She couldn’t think of anyone.

Ena started to speak as if to say, “Oh dear.”

“I thought that was the case after all. It’s the person that everyone in the city is talking about. Mr. Falkert Raltoze, the ‘White Falcon of the Far North’!”

“I-I’m sorry… who is that…?”

It was someone she didn’t know, even though his name was given.

Alme is weak on this kind of topic – the trendy stuff of the world. Especially when it comes to people, she can’t keep up at all. Things like that haven’t changed since her previous life.

In a previous life, she had no idea who the celebrities were, or even who the members of a trendy idol groups were. She had no idea what was going on in the world, and was completely behind the times.

In contrast to such Alme, Ena began to speak proudly, like a girl who knows all the latest news.

“Mr. Raltoze is a high-ranking priest who moved to Luorio from a city in the far north about half a month ago. Everyone calls him by the nickname Mr. Shirotaka.”

A priest is a person with a status similar to that of a doctor in her previous life. However, the decisive difference between a priest here and a doctor in her previous life is the priest’s ability to use healing magic.

Unlike ordinary magic that one is born with, healing magic is a special kind of magic that one can use only after making a contract with a God of Medicine.

It is said that only those who have mastered medicine, pharmacy, and all other studies and have been approved by the god can go through the contracting ceremony. Priesthood is truly an elite position.

A high-ranking priest is a person above the clouds. Patients served by the higher priests include royalty, high-ranking dignitaries, and the country’s top officials.

Incidentally, when ordinary people receive treatment at the temple, they are mainly served by subordinate or apprentice priests.

After graduating from specialized academies, there are many people who practice as town doctors without signing a contract with a medical god. Medical treatment from priests in temples is expensive, so many commoners use town doctors.

“Oh, so a new high priest has arrived, has he? But aren’t the high priests the kind of people you find in castles? Is it something for common people to make a fuss about?”

“You see, Mr. Shirotaka doesn’t work at the castle, he’s a military priest on his way to the battlefield!”

“Oh, that’s very unusual.”

A military priest is a priest who stands at the front line of battle with Luorio’s army and heals the soldiers.

If a soldier is bitten by a demon, he will immediately send out healing magic to save their life – quite a difficult task.

A skilled military priest would pick up the head of a soldier who had been bitten off by a demon, connect it to the torso, and revive him. –she has heard of such a story…though she didn’t know if it’s true or not.

She’s never seen it in action, but she is sure it’s some kind of amazing work.

“When the Luorio army marches out, the military priests join the procession, don’t they? Since the departure of the army so soon after he came to this city, he has become very popular among the people who are seeing him off. I hear he even has a fan club.”

In this city, when the military goes off to war, a procession marches down the main street in the center of town, both to inspire morale and to see off the troops.

The procession of soldiers is so impressive that it has become half of an event. Of course, it is also very popular with tourists.

Naturally, the gorgeous looking soldiers are extremely popular in this marching event.

The common people have their own “favorites,” and they call out to them from the streets, wave to them, and gawk at them.

Apparently, Shirotaka had gained a lot of fans as soon as he moved to this city.

“A fan club is amazing… Is he really that handsome? Have you seen him Ena?”

“Yes, of course! He’s amazingly beautiful. His hair is as silvery white as the snow in the far north, and his golden eyes are as sharp as eagle eyes. There’s a story going around that if their eyes meet with him, women will faint and fall over.”

“This is scary… what kind of curse is that?”

The actuality that they will fall over if their eyes meet is something that makes me suspect a curse.

After a quick laugh, Ena smiles, but with serious eyes, she says.

“Well, let’s leave his looks aside. It’s good that someone with ability came. I’ve heard that the “White Falcon of the Far North” has been quite famous among soldiers for a long time, and that not a single soldier has died in battle in the city of the Far North since Master Shirotaka became a military priest.”

Alme was surprised to hear that Ena had muttered these words.

Whenever Aiden, her boyfriend, goes off to war, she goes to church every day to pray to God until he comes back. She is a bit of a wimp and tries not to show it to others, but she must be very anxious.

If the “White Falcon of the Far North” can bring her peace of mind, then Alme, too, would like to rejoice in his visit.

“Ena, if there is an army dispatch next time, I wonder if I can go with you. I would like to send my thanks and support to Mr. Shirotaka for coming to our town.”

“Yes, let’s go! Don’t forget to cheer for Aiden, too.”

“Sure, of course. Aiden will sulk if I don’t wave to him.”

As she was eating while she was talking, her kebab fell into her stomach.

When she was discussing whether to buy some dessert, she heard the energetic voice of her clerk from a stall near her.

“Yes! One banana drink and two Shirotaka drinks!”

She gulped lightly at the words she heard. She didn’t know she’d hear the name she just learned just now in another place.

“What is Shirotaka drink!?”

“I’m curious, would you like to take a look?”　

Grinning with curiosity, Ena led me to the stall. As we peeked into the drink store, an old man cheerfully chatted with us.

“Ladies, do you have an order?”

“Ah, umm, what is a Shirotaka drink?”

“It’s a coconut milk drink. Because it’s white, it’s called Shirotaka!”

The clerk laughed heartily. Ena also smiles while looking a little disgusted.

“Right now, white flowers are selling really well. My family’s flower shop also receives a large amount of white flowers and sells them.”

“You have a strong business spirit…”

It seems that business people in the world are already riding the Shirotaka boom. As Alme rolled her eyes, Ena poked her with her elbow.

“Alme is also going to open a shop, right? In that case, you should get on board with the world’s boom.”

“I wonder if I should make Shirotaka ice cream too.”

She meant it as a joke, but she had an idea. In her previous life, there must have been pure white ice cream.

“–That’s right, I think I’ll try making milk ice cream.”

Her heart pounded at the idea she came up with. Unconsciously, she remembered the face of her first guest the other day – Falk. 　

“If I make milk ice cream, will that customer’s eyes sparkle again?” 

――Thinking about such a thing made her unintentionally excited.

The happy faces of customers are the owner’s greatest strength.

~❆~

T/N: Shirotaka means white falcon. I decided to let his nickname stay this way since it’s easier than Mr. White Falcon.