Outbreak Company: Volume 11

by Ichiro Sakaki

  Granted, Petralka was an empress, whereas Angelica was technically a princess. But Angelica was supposed to be on the small side, so Petralka fit her that way, too. The only noticeable difference was that their eye colors didn’t match, but the costume itself was so arresting that your hey-that’s-not-quite-right sense took a vacation. As for Angelica’s distinctive thick eyebrows, Petralka must have gotten help with makeup from Minori-san or Hikaru-san.

  Hmm. Petralka as Angelica. It was so perfect, I wished my dad could see it.

  “If you say so, Shinichi, then we assume it is true.” Petralka put her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction. Behind her, I could see several female knights. Her bodyguards, presumably, along just on the off chance anything happened.

  “The box isn’t too heavy?” I asked. I assumed it was made of packing foam or something; I was sure it was empty.

  “It’s quite light. Look.” Petralka spun another half-turn, as if to emphasize just how easily she could move.

  “Eek!”

  But as she turned, the box caught someone passing by.

  “Hrk—our apologies,” she said politely, turning to the person she had knocked over. It was Myusel. “Are you quite all right, Myusel?”

  “Y-Yes, thank you. It was just a gentle tap... I’m the one who should apologize.” She took a proffered hand and stood up.

  “Hrm?” Petralka blinked. She was looking—not at Myusel, but at the other maid, who had offered Myusel her hand. It looked like they were just on their way back to the kitchen to get tea and snacks for everybody. “This would be...?”

  “Oh, that’s the girl we mentioned.” Inside, I was terrified, but I forced myself to act calm. “Myusel’s distant relation, the one who’s staying with us to learn to become a maid? Her name is Clara.” We had settled on using Clara’s real name so she would react immediately when someone called to her.

  “A pleasure to meet you.” The new maid bowed her head to Petralka, virtually expressionless.

  “So she’s the one...” Petralka eyed Clara up and down. My heart was pounding in my chest every moment she spent looking at our “new maid.” Could she possibly see the beast ears hidden by the headdress? Were the elf ears too obviously fake? Myusel seemed to be having the same thoughts; I could see her watching Petralka uneasily.

  “Can’t say she looks much like Myusel,” Petralka murmured.

  “W-Well, she’s a distant relation. They won’t look that much alike.”

  “Is she also a half-elf?”

  “N-No. She... She’s from my mother’s side, so...” Myusel answered awkwardly.

  It couldn’t be easy for her to lie to Petralka. We had agreed that our story would be that Clara was Myusel’s relative on her mother’s side, but to help keep Myusel from getting in trouble if we should be discovered, we had also claimed that Myusel herself had never met Clara before. Considering how long it had been since Myusel had had any contact with her mother’s side of the family, it was plausible. But if Clara was ever found out, I was prepared to swear that I had been tricking Myusel, too.

  “Hmm...”

  Could Petralka tell how anxious we were? Whether she could or not, she kept up her study of Clara. The beast girl remained expressionless, but I thought she looked even stiffer than usual, so maybe she was anxious, too. To be fair, Petralka was technically the leader of an enemy nation from Clara’s point of view, not someone she would normally get such a close look at.

  “Clara, was that your name?” Petralka asked suddenly.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Shinichi is a most perverted man. Be careful.”

  “H-How can you say that?!” I exclaimed, frazzled; Petralka looked at me and laughed.

  It didn’t look like she had seen through Clara’s disguise. In fact, Petralka had her hands on her hips and was looking at me in what seemed to be high spirits. “Considering your predilections, Shinichi, we thought perhaps you had chosen your maid based on bust size again.”

  “You’re just imagining that, Your Majesty...”

  Sure I like big boobs, but I’m a huge fan of small racks, too! Wait—how long is she going to keep going back to that, anyway?!

  “We are relieved to know that not everyone around you is necessarily well-endowed.”

  I gathered that Petralka felt a certain kinship with Clara when she discovered that they had the same body type—by which I mean that they were both pretty flat. I guessed that made a certain kind of sense: back in Bahairam, Clara had been chosen to take care of me on the basis that she looked young, like Petralka. Over there, they thought I was Petralka’s official concubine.

  “Hmm, so a large bust is not an absolute precondition for you, Shinichi?”

  “I’ve been telling you. I’m perfectly happy with boobs of any size.”

  “Indeed, indeed.” Petralka nodded, pleased. Was she happy to have found someone to be Flat Friends with? “More importantly, Shinichi, are you enjoying yourself?!”

  “Sure I am. Heck, this photography party was my idea. What about you, Petralka?”

  “We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves!” Petralka made an expansive gesture with her hands, one of which was still holding the digital camera.

  As we had discovered when shooting the movie, cosplay seemed like a good stress relief valve for Petralka, a chance to be someone else. It helped her escape, just for a short while, the pressures of being a young empress. If it could do that, then this cosplay-photo party was taking care of two birds with one stone. In fact, make that three.

  Petralka glanced at a student walking by. “Hm, is that costume not from Rose Princess?” she asked excitedly.

  She was looking at someone who was indeed dressed like a character from the anime Rose Princess. Come to think of it, back when Hikaru-san had first showed up, Petralka had been excited about his costume, which was from the same show. I guess she really liked Rose Princess.

  “You there!” she exclaimed. “Allow us to photograph you, please! Shinichi, we will see you later!” she added, then she rushed off, eyes shining, after her potential photographic subject. Her bodyguards hurriedly chased after her.

  I guess Petralka was enjoying the party just as much as she said.

  “I’m so glad Petralka seems to be having fun,” I said, turning to Myusel. And then I added, “You okay?” She still looked deeply worried. It couldn’t have been easy for her to lie to Petralka.

  “...Yes, somehow...”

  “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t easy...”

  “No...” Myusel forced a smile onto her face.

  Hmm. It looked like we had the empress fooled so far, but I didn’t expect to be able to keep this up forever. Was there any way I could talk to Petralka about exactly what was going on, and somehow get her to spare Amatena’s and Clara’s lives?

  “Are you having fun, Clara?” I asked, hoping to diffuse the situation just a little.

  “This is the first time I’ve been present at such an event... I feel a little lost,” Clara said, almost in a whisper.

  When I really thought about it, I realized that while Clara might have picked up a little bit about anime and manga from handling the otaku goods I sent with Amatena, she couldn’t know that much about them. To go from there to being thrown into a cosplay party must have been pretty disorienting, like an average guy-off-the-street who stumbled into Comiket.

  “Hard to enjoy it, huh?”

  “No, that is not the case,” Clara said confidently.

  “That’s good to hear.” For better or for worse, she never showed much expression, so I had to trust that what she said was the truth. “I know this is rough on you, Myusel, but just try to roll with it for today.”

  “Oh, uh, th—the photo-graphy party itself is very pleasant,” she said, sounding slightly frantic. “Everyone is wearing the most wonderful costumes and having such a good time... I’m having fun just watching them.”

  “Hey,” I said suddenly, “what about you, Myusel? Do you want a costume?
”

  “O-Oh, no, I... I couldn’t possibly...”

  Maybe she was reluctant to mingle with the students, all of whom came from nobility or wealth.

  “You absolutely could!”

  “Eep?!” Myusel squeaked at the sudden interjection. “Hikaru-sama...”

  I turned and saw Hikaru-san standing there, grinning. “Cute girls should wear cute costumes,” he said. “I mean, so should guys, but especially girls.”

  “It sounds downright convincing coming from you, Hikaru-san.”

  “Hush your mouth,” he said with a glare at me.

  Gee, uh, I thought it was a compliment.

  “The point is, we’ve gone to all this trouble to put on a party, and you simply must join us.”

  “Huh? What? Er...”

  “Here, change into this. Quickly, now.”

  Myusel, cowed by the force of Hikaru-san’s personality, took the costume from him. It was a dress in a very light shade of red. “What’s this?” she asked.

  “It’s the costume Viktorika wears in Angelica—The Burdened Princess. And here, Clara, this is for you.”

  “Me, too?” She blinked at the dress and wig Hikaru-san pushed into her hands.

  “You’re Red Angelica, Clara-san. I’ll handle your makeup and Minori-san will do the photos, so hurry up and change.”

  “Huh? What...?”

  “Even Elvia’s out there getting her cosplay on. You should jump in, have fun.” Hikaru-san pointed, directing our attention to Elvia, who was dressed in costume and mingling with the students.

  Now, as I saw her out there, I understood. With her costume and her ponytailed wig, she was obviously Akane, the ninja from Angelica. Right now she was posing with Petralka as Minori-san took a flurry of photos.

  “It’s like a cast reunion for Angelica!” Hikaru-san said with a big grin. “...Hey, Shinichi-san. Don’t act too thrilled.”

  “No, it’s cool. It’s just, it’s my dad’s, and it... feels a little weird.” I smiled weakly.

  Yes, I had read the novels and the manga, but the way I could see my old man’s face hovering behind each of the characters made it hard to feel moe about them. Judging from Hikaru-san’s expression, he’d planned this “cast reunion” just to get a rise out of me, but that made me even less sure how to react.

  “So, Shinichi-san, you’re not curious what Myusel would look like as Viktorika?”

  “Ermgh...?”

  Viktorika, one of the characters of The Burdened Princess, was designed as your typical rich-chick character. Openly and unabashedly selfish, her personality was the exact opposite of Myusel’s, but that could make it all the more interesting to see Myusel take on her persona...!

  “Uh, maybe I d—”

  “You see?” Still grinning from ear to ear, Hikaru-san turned toward Myusel. She looked a little overwhelmed for a second, then her shoulders sagged.

  “I-If that’s what you wish, Shinichi-sama,” she said, nodding.

  “I also have no objection,” Clara said.

  “And I have a little something for you, Shinichi-san,” Hikaru-san said.

  “Is it Soru, by any chance?”

  Soru was the main character (also a ninja) of Angelica—The Burdened Princess.

  “Hardly. You really think you’re cut out for that?” Hikaru-san said. “No, you’re going to be Saizensen-kun.”

  “But why?!”

  “I’ve got a horizontally-striped shirt and a black rucksack ready to go here.”

  “Not what I was asking.” Did that even count as cosplay?

  “We are at a cosplay party here. Don’t just sulk in the corner, get out there and stalk amongst the other cosplayers with your camera around your neck, eyes glinting like a hungry wolf, a battlefield correspondent looking for his next great shot!” Hikaru-san gave me a triumphant look.

  Er... I don’t think any battlefield correspondents would be taking pictures of cosplayers...

  But anyway...

  “The point is, you want me to get off my duff and mix, right?”

  “Yes indeed,” Hikaru-san said.

  There was a certain logic to what he was saying—I understood that just standing off to the side while everyone else was having fun could make me a bit of a killjoy. If I wasn’t going to put on a costume, I should at least be taking pictures. So I reached into my pocket for my phone.

  “Huh?” I couldn’t feel it. I must have forgotten it in my room—today of all days. “Looks like I forgot my phone. I’ll go get it while you two are changing.”

  “Excellent. Right this way, ladies,” Hikaru-san said, ushering them over to a changing area. I watched them go, then darted for my room.

  Ten minutes later. I was walking back down the hall toward the yard, phone in my hand. I wondered if Myusel and Clara had finished changing yet. Maybe not. Ten minutes just wasn’t long enough. Images of them in their cosplay outfits (purely hypothetical) drifted through my mind. Myusel bashfully wearing her rich-girl dress; Clara looking expressionless and somehow pleased at the same time.

  Oooh, I could hardly stand it. Even just in my mind’s eye, it was almost more than I could process. Well, I wouldn’t know for sure what they looked like until I saw them, but Hikaru-san had picked out their outfits personally, and he knew his cosplay. I didn’t expect to be disappointed. Besides, girls that pretty would look good no matter what they wore.

  I was striding down the hallway, grinning to myself, when...

  “Huh?”

  I spotted a door that was slightly ajar. That wasn’t necessarily a problem—the problem was that the door in question was the one to Amatena and Clara’s room. And Amatena must have been in there at that moment. With Elvia at the party, she could hardly be outside.

  “Not very cautious of her...”

  I had given the students strict instructions not to go into her room, or any of the rooms except the ones with outlets and otaku stuff. They would probably pass this one by anyway, just a guestroom that normally wasn’t used. I understood all that, but even so, what if somebody happened by, happened to look in? Especially with the door hanging open like that.

  Maybe she just forgot to close it, or maybe she wanted to get a little air—she sure couldn’t open the window that fronted the yard—but whatever it was, I would have to tell Amatena to be careful.

  I poked my head in the door and was about to call Amatena’s name, when I stopped.

  There was Amatena, in Elvia’s clothes and with Elvia’s hair color, studying herself intently in the mirror. The expression her reflection wore was the picture of seriousness—I mean, she was always serious, but now even more than usual—and I hesitated to interrupt her. I felt like I shouldn’t bother her.

  “Hm?” Amatena herself turned, though—maybe she saw me in the mirror. “What is it, Shinichi?”

  “Oh, uh, it’s just, the door was open a little so... just be careful about that...”

  After a moment, she nodded. “I see. I wanted to change the air in the room, but I admit that was incautious of me. My apologies.”

  “What are you up to?” I came into the room and shut the door behind me.

  Amatena glanced away from me uncomfortably at first, but then she looked at a desk in the corner of the room. I followed her gaze, and saw two photographs sitting on the desk. Minori-san or Hikaru-san must have brought her hard copies of some of their photos.

  “Can I see them?”

  Beat. “Go ahead.”

  I walked over to the desk and looked at the photos. Both of them were of Amatena pretending to be Elvia. One of them showed her caught by surprise, the picture taken without warning. In the other, she had been told there was going to be a photo, and she wore her usual flat look.

  “What are these about?”

  She looked pretty good in both of them.

  Amatena exhaled shortly. “I think it might be just as you said.”

  “As I said?” I’d talked a lot with Amatena; I wondered what exactly she was referring to
.

  “The armor I wear to protect myself, the mask that hides my inner feelings... It might itself be what has me cornered.” As she spoke, Amatena turned back toward the mirror. She was the spitting image of Elvia, yet you could tell immediately that it wasn’t her, that it was Amatena. “What Hikaru said—I understand that, too.” She paused for an instant, almost hesitant. “Being with someone they can’t read is intensely uncomfortable for people—or maybe I should say, makes them nervous. So much so that they might want to be rid of her.”

  “Well, that’s...”

  ...not true—was something I couldn’t say.

  “I was so sure that I had to hide my vulnerabilities. Or rather... That it was best to have no vulnerabilities, which I still believe. But to erase my expression, keep the emotion from my voice, and wear an iron mask... I’ve begun to doubt whether that’s the best way to hide such weaknesses.”

  I looked at the photographs again. If you asked me which of the two Amatenas I would rather be friends with, I would pick the one who looked surprised. The emotion on her face made her look approachable, like someone you could talk to.

  And that... that was Elvia’s forte. I wondered if Amatena had been like her sister once, bubbling with feeling. But if you wore your heart on your sleeve too much, there was no shortage of bad guys willing to take advantage of it. Amatena resisted that by suppressing those feelings, but that took its toll, too.

  “Not that I want to be spilling my emotions out everywhere like Elvia,” Amatena added, as if she could read my thoughts.

  “Fair enough...”

  Elvia’s footloose and fancy free attitude would definitely do more harm than good to a soldier or a spy. Not to mention that if she ever were actually captured by the Eldant side, it would make her all too prone to saying something she shouldn’t. But at the same time, when it came to someone who was cold, hard, close to the vest with everyone, not just her enemies—would I want to work with a person like that? I wouldn’t be too eager.

  There had to be a balance to strike, I thought. Or maybe I was just being naïve.

  “I may need to soften myself to a certain extent.” Amatena’s lips softened into something like a wry smile.