Chapter 99 – The next Hokage
Soft knocking sound woke Lord Belmont from his thinking.
"Come in." Said Lord Belmont and a moment later the door to his cabin was opened.
"My Lord, you asked us to keep an eye on the McDaniel and McAlister families. I have just received the report." Said Knight Frost coming inside the cabin.
"Anything interesting?" Asked Lord Belmont, straightening his back and leaning on the table.
"It looks like the business of the two families is not going quite well. A few factories belonging to them had a fire. Also the caravans they organized lately had bad luck with bandits, being robbed several times in succession. As to the relationship between the two families, there seems to be some tension." Reported Sir Frost.
"Tension?" Asked Lord Belmont rubbing his chin.
"Yes, My Lord. Many of the servants under both families were noticed spreading rumors against each other and a few fights between vassal knights of two families happening in the bars and brothels were reported."
"The engagement wasn't called off?"
"No. It looks like there is no mention of the ceremony being called off as of yet."
"I see." Said Lord Belmont sinking back into his chair. "Very interesting. It seems my hunch might be true. The chance of these two families having connections to the dark society are high. We must watch them carefully. But still…are there no news of the McDaniel family heir? Has Madam announced anything?"
"She did spout some excuse about him going away for some time for training. But there has been no reliable information about him as of yet."
"I see. Is this all?" Asked Lord Belmont.
"Yes, My Lord." Answered Sir Frost and Lord Belmont dismissed him.
Once his knight left the cabin, Lord Belmont stood up from the chair and came over to the big window, looking down at the green forest flying by under the flying ship. He watched the scene, sinking into deep thoughts again in total silence that was occasionally mixed with soft creaks and squeaks of wood inside the ship's frame.
"Where the hell could the young Count McDaniels be?" He muttered quietly.
******
Madam McDaniels sat in the office room of the McDaniels family mansion reading the papers in her hands with her eyebrows creased together in an angry look.
"These fucking bastards!" She exclaimed, slamming the papers on the table. "Why are they targeting us like that? Shouldn't they blame that fucking McAlister idiot for not being able to do his damn task well." She said biting at her thumbs fingernail in frustration while tapping her foot.
"Sofia? Sofia!" Screamed Madam after a few minutes of thinking.
"Yes, madam?" Said the maid entering the office.
"Order a carriage, I am going to our shop myself to check the leftover stock and see what can be done to save our business."
"Yes, Madam." Answered the maid bowing slightly.
"Is there any news from the people we hired?" Asked Madam when the maid started to walk away.
"Nothing useful, madam. They haven't found any trace of him at all." Said the maid before walking out.
"Damn it!" Exclaimed the Madam slapping the table with anger when the maid was gone. "Where the fuck is that little bastard hiding?"
She sat in her chair nervously biting her fingernail for some time again.
"Could that bastard McAlister be behind it? What if that's his plan? Is he holding that little rat Noah somewhere captured?" She muttered.
A few minutes later the maid returned knocking at the door before entering.
"Carriage is ready, Madam." Said Sofia.
"Good. Now contact those bastards we hired for an investigation and ask them to change target. Let them investigate McAlister. I have a hunch they have planned behind my back." Said Madam standing up from behind the table and walking out of the room.
"Yes, Madam." Said Sofia bowing and then followed behind the Madam.
At the main door, the Countess stopped letting her maid open the door for her and came out of the mansion into the heavy rain only when Sofia opened an umbrella for her. They both walked to the carriage with Maid holding an umbrella to cover the madam and came up to a servant that stood in the rain holding the door open for her and offered her a hand to help the Madam get inside, before closing the door behind her.
Once the servant hopped into the coach's seat he ordered the horses to start moving.
When the carriage started to ride away, Sofia bowed in a respectful gesture, sending her master off and kept standing in place for a minute until the carriage passed the gates to the mansion's territory and rode off.
Sofia watched the carriage with an emotionless face for some time before a wicked smile grew on her lips.
"It looks like everything goes as the society planned." She muttered before turning away and walking back inside the mansion.
*****
Young girl with an almost childish face and black hair in a bob cut sat on the richly decorated sofa in the huge room full of intricate marble decorations and flowers standing in the colorful vases. She sat meekly on the very edge of the sofa as if afraid to ruin it by sitting down on it, while nervously looking around the room with her unnaturally narrow eyes. She gazed at the two women standing in knights armor at the door with straight postures without even slightest movement as if they were statues and gulped what seemed to her a hundredth time while she sat here.
"You don't need to be so nervous." Said the Young Lady dressed in the rich noble lady dress with lots of shining stones inside the trinkets that she was adorned with all over, while holding a small tea cup in her fingers. She had beautiful and shiny bracelets on both her wrists, rings in different sizes and styles adorned her every finger, a necklace with a massive blue stone that complemented her blue eyes hung around her neck and a platinum colored tiara with many transparent stones lay on her blond hair. However none of these rich accessories could hide one single fact - her chest was so flat it was almost nonexistant.
"It…it is easy for you to say…your majesty." Said the young girl with a stutter looking at the noble lady, before quickly turning her gaze away.
A few moments later they both heard the clacking of the heels against the marble floors, coming from behind the massive wooden door leading to the room they sat in and the young girl sharply jumped up from her seat and stood in place nervously clutching one hand with another in front of herself. The noble lady slightly smiled at her companion and slowly stood up from her seat while placing down the tea cup.
When the clacking of heels stopped behind the door, the massive wooden door opened with a soft sound and an incredibly beautiful woman with red as wildfire hair and white as snow long dress entered the room with maids following behind her. She looked at the knights at the door and without a word both of them walked out of the room as if reading her mind, before the maids closed the door behind them.
The Holy Lady walked up to the two young women that waited for her and smiled after seeing the nervous little girl that seemed to forget how to breathe when the Holy Lady entered.
"Greeting Your Holiness." Said the noble lady bowing in a noble manner before slightly pushing the young girl in the side.
"G..g…greephingf." Started to say the young girl with a stutter after being woken from her reverie, but bit her tongue half way.
"I welcome you to the Central Cathedral Queen Alexandra." Said Holy Lady without paying attention to the fail of the young girl at the side. Then she turned to that girl, seeing her gaze down into the floor with embarrassment and took her hand into her own while gently lifting her head up with the finger of her other hand.
"I welcome you in Central Cathedral and our World, Great Hero." She said softly while gently looking in her eyes. "Thank you for coming to our world to save it. Please don't be so nervous in my presence. I would be happy if you and I could become as close as sisters in the future."
"Umm" Said the young girl nodding quickly in reply still not trusting her own mouth to not stutter or bite the tongue.
"Let us sit and have a chat." Said Holy Lady sitting down on the sofa where the Hero girl sat while still holding her small hand and pulled her to sit down with her.
Queen Alexandra followed them sitting back on the sofa that she sat on before.
Two maids quickly poured all three of them some tea. Filling Alexandra's cup while taking away the still full cup with already half cold tea of a young Hero girl that she was too nervous to drink and put a new cup with hot tea in front of her.
Then they served the pastries, cakes and cookies filling the table in front of the three women to the brim and walked off to stand at the wall.
"Please feel at home within my house." Said Holy Lady, gently patting the hand of the girl and pointed at the full table with her eyes.
"Thank you, your Holiness" Quietly muttered the young girl lifting her eyes for a second to look at the Holy Lady before gently pulling her hands away from her and picking her cup of tea, when Holy Lady moved to pick her own cup. However when two women held their cups with elegance and grace with just a few fingers, her cup seemed to tremble even though she held it with two hands making Holy Lady smile.
"I am Holy Lady of the Church, everyone call me Your Holiness, but I would like you to call me Lyra."
"I…I am Fumiko…Fumiko Kobayashi, Lady Lyra." Said the girl.
"Just Lyra is fine. What an interesting name you have, Fumiko, also your eyes are very uncommon, but very beautiful. Is this a common trait of your original world?"
"Umm…" Voiced the girl glancing at Queen Alexandra at the side for a moment seeing her drink the tea leisurely. "It is Asian trait. You could say it is a common trait of Asians."
"Asia? Is this your country name?" Asked the Holy Lady, watching the girl with an interest.
"No..It..it is the name of the part of our world where my country 'Japan' is situated." Said Fumiko meekly.
"I see. Only part of the world, eh? Are there people with different traits in different parts of your world?" Asked the Holy Lady, sipping her tea.
"Umm, yeah. There are blond people with beautiful eyes like Her Majesty Alexandra. There are also countries with lots of people with the same hair like you…"
"Lyra. Don'r be shy just call me by the name. This is a very interesting world you came from."
"May I…May I call you Lyra-sama?"
"Sama?" Does it have some meaning?"
"It is a respectful way of calling someone's name in my country. In my country we are unused to being…too familiar with people." Said Fumiko.
The Holy Lady looked at the noble lady at the side and saw her shrug her shoulders.
"Even after a month, she still calls me 'your majesty' instead of calling me by the name, Your Holiness." Said Queen Alexandra.
"I see." Said the Holy Lady turning to the young girl. "In that case call me anything you like as long as it's not over officious. I Would like to be friends with you, Fumiko."
"Then…umm..Fumi is okay with me…my friends called me Fumi."
Holy Lady smiled happily at her.
"Alright, Fumi. Has Alexandra explained to you who I am?"
"Ummm, yes. Her majesty said that you are the…ruler of this country. And leader of the church…also the strongest person…in the world."
"To explain it better, I am the de facto ruler of the human race." Said Holy Lady to the young girl and then moved her eyes to the noble lady at the side. "All Kings and Queens ruling the neighboring countries, including Queen Alexandra are in fact my subordinates." Said Holy Lady making Fumiko open her mouth wide in surprise looking quickly between two ladies.
"Unlike your world, Fumi, the humans that are living on this single continent, are the only ones that are left alive. The entire human race lives around the Central Cathedral and I stand at the very center of it. Not because I have conquered this continent. But because only the people I have managed to protect are the only ones alive. As the strongest human and the Saintess system holder, I am the only person that is capable of holding the demons at bay." Explained the Holy Lady.
"However there are times when even I am not capable of protecting the people anymore." Said Holy Lady, sighing heavily. "You see, Fumi, sometime among the demons, one special demon is being born. He is the only demon that possesses the system just like the humans in this world. This demon is called The Demon Lord and he is the champion of the Great Evil God that wished to destroy our world."
"The Demon Lord is usually so powerful that even with all the people combined, humanity can't defeat him. So the Gods send us the champion of our own. They send us a Hero. And this time they sent us you, Fumiko. Just as I am the protector of humanity, you are its savior. Just as no one dares to disrespect me if they wish to stay alive in this world, they would have to be idiots to disrespect you as well Fumi, be they common people or Kings. The moment you have come to our world on behalf of the Gods, your status here is higher than any nobles or royalty. So there is no need to be meek and shy. You are our savior, Fumi our hope."
"Umm…I understand that, I would have to fight, but…I…I have never fought someone. In our world, we have no demons and only heard of magic in fantasy stories. Will I really be able to…"
"You need not worry, dear. We will be helping you with everything we have. My servants…" said Holy Lady clapping her hands and suddenly out of the shadows on the floor a figure covered in black have appeared. "...are the strongest warriors on this continent. They will teach you everyt…"
"Ninja?!" Interrupted her Fumiko exclaiming an unusual word all of a sudden with opened wide eyes.
"Umm…nin..what?" Asked Holy Lady
"Ninja! They are shadow warriors of my country. Shinobi! Real shinobi have appeared!" Screamed Fumiko jumping up from the sofa running to the warrior in black clothes and spinning around her with eyes shining like diamonds.
"Lyra, Lyra! Can they use ninjutsu? Do they have sharingan? Rasengan? Kagebunshin?"
"Shari…kage…what?" Asked the Holy Lady, turning to look at Queen Alexandra but saw the same questioning look on her face.
"Lyra!" Exclaimed Fumiko running over to the Holy Lady and grabbing her hands. "Are you Hokage? No! Daimyo!"
"I don't…understand what…"
"Lyra has to be Daimyo! I am going to become the next Hokage, I promise! Don't worry Lyra! Leave it to me!"
Two women looked at each other with strange faces while the girl ran around the black clothed warrior with excitement, screaming some kind of untranslatable words that even her language proficiency skill could not translate well.