Hakushaku to Yousei Vol 6 Chapter 2

P. 44

    The candle he held in his hand flickered from the wind blowing from an opening somewhere and his shadow jerked and twitched like it was an animal with a will of its own.

    When he entered, there was another door at the end.

    It was the jewel that possessed fairy magic, and went by the name Merrow’s star, and the sword that had the jewel framed was a gift bestowed by the King of England along with a peerage to a man named Lord Blue Knight who later became the Earl of Ibrazel.

    It was thanks to the fairy doctor Lydia’s help that he was able to get his hands on the sword that was protected by the merrows and be able to survive.

P. 45

    From the beginning, the merrows knew that Edgar wasn’t born from the Ashenbert family, and yet they granted him the sword. 

    However, Edgar only inherited the peerage and name of earl. He didn’t have the magical power that every lord of the house in this family possessed as the Earl of the Fairy world.

    The organization which was headed by a man named Prince had murdered Edgar’s family and kidnapped him as a child and robed his freedom.

    Nevertheless Edgar had survived, obtained the peerage of earl and was secured his foothold and organized his revenge against Prince, but his most biggest concern was a man named Ulysses who worked as the henchman for Prince.

    Despite that, Edgar wasn’t even able to perceive fairies with his eyes.

    Picking up the sword, he unsheathed it.

    “Hmm, so this is the sword of the Blue Knight Earl. Goodness, it is a magnificent work of craftsmanship.”

    “Coblynau? Don’t you stay at Lydia’s house when it’s dark?”

    A wine bottle cork, which shouldn’t be in this room, was twirling around in a circle on the table where he set down his candle. That was where the coblynau was standing.

    “If I am correct, you are quite the expert in jewels. What is your opinion about this star sapphire? Normally, the star inside the stone should be three lines of light crossing over each other in the middle, but because I became earl, it has turned into a simple cross. It’s said that the star sapphire’s three lines of light represent hope, trust and destiny. With one of those lights missing, would that mean this sword and I are missing something.”

P. 47

    Now that Edgar had thought about it, he remembered that this sword wasn’t able to draw blood from any of the descendants of the Blue Knight Earl. And during the middle ages, a sword was considered sacred. There was superstition that when you lay a sword against your injuries, it would heal the wounds.

    The surface of his skin was punctured through and a small dew of blood came oozing out.

    However, Edgar didn’t care if this sword didn’t acknowledge him. More importantly, there was something he wanted to know.

    “Well, yes of course. It’s said that past generation Blue Knight Earls had driven out evil fairies from his lands with it.”

    “Would do let me practice with you?”
    After Edgar said that, the bottle cork immediately fell down and the presence of the coblynau disappeared.

    There had been times in the past when Lydia felt awkward around Edgar, but she couldn’t allow that awkwardness to make her skip work.

    Because she was accompanied him to Windsor yesterday, she couldn’t continue her work, now she needed to quickly investigate about the troubling changeling case. 

    The butler Tomkins spread out a map over the table.

    She felt terrible for giving extra work to Tomkins, who took care of all the business affairs of the Ashenbert family and managing all the household servants, and open up his schedule for her, but he show any unpleasantness and gathered all of the necessary paperwork Lydia needed.

    “Is it a very particular place?” she asked.

    Most likely, this place had many fairy clan residents as well, and those residents were the cause behind the troubles, but that might not be the only reason.

    “So normal gems can still be found. But there hasn’t been any shipments of them for more than ten years,” said Lydia as she read the records.

    “Why is there a limit on the amount that can be mined?”

harvest. You couldn’t call it a wealthy town, but it hadn’t suffered from any famine. If they were allowed to extract as much as they pleased, I’m sure that the stones would have dug out long ago, so that could have been the cause of discord between the fairies.”

P. 50

    And ever since Lydia had been employed, she was also surprised that this was the first contact from this town asking for help.

    While Lydia was in deep thought, the door slammed open and Nico came racing in.

    Even if he was in a panic, Nico hadn’t forgotten to run on his hind legs.

    The one who came following in after him was Edgar. And for some odd reason, he had the merrow’s sword in his hand.

    As Nico cradled his fluffy tail in his arms, he went diving under the table cloth.

    “I will never trade my tail for food!”

    “I’m not a lizard!”

P. 51

    “H-help me! Lydia!”

    “Edgar, please don’t go waving around a weapon in my office.”

    “Good morning, Lydia. How was your injury from yesterday? Does it still hurt?”

    No, most likely not. He is not that kind of man.

    Huh? What are you thinking?

    “Then will you forgive me as well?”

    When Lydia fell silent, he made a little troubled face and tilted his head.

    He held up the sword in front of himself.

    He turned back over towards Nico again, but the gray-haired fairy cat had already disappeared.

    As he tutted his tongue, Edgar thought for a bit and turned his focus. His target was Tomkins, whose shoulders flinched.

    “Yes, but even if you say that, that was generations ago, and my lifespan is the same as a human and if I fall into the sea I will drown…..”

    Having those characteristics, he panicked and tried to step back but behind him was a wall.

    What! if it was an order, you would listen?

    “I said stop that, Edgar!”

    The one who said that and entered through the window was a black, wavy-haired young man.

    Edgar turned to Kelpie’s direction, like he had found a new prey.

    “Huh?”

    All of a sudden, Edgar swung the merrow’s sword.

    “Hey there, Earl, a mere human won’t be able to kill me.”

    “It’s impossible for you. If it was a previous Blue Knight Earl, then he might have been able to bring out that sword’s real power.”

    “Are you all right? Are you really not hurt?”

    Kelpie stood up from the windowsill and Lydia pressed her hands against his chest to make sure.

    Even if she inspected his strong, hard muscular body underneath the shirt, her sense were the same as when she was stroking an elegant horse’s velvet fur. 

    However, Edgar tugged Lydia’s shoulder in an irritated manner. 

    “D-don’t say it like its improper like that.”

    “You’re the one who is to blame for trying to go and harm Kelpie in the first place. What if you really did hurt him! It’s the merrow’s sword, it could have killed Kelpie!”

    “O-…..of course, he’s my friend.”

    Isn’t that a twisted comparison?

    “I don’t think so. If a peacock were to open up its feathers to court you, I would shoot it dead.”

    “That’s why, this creature is a nuisance.”

    “Hey, Earl, why don’t you give it a rest. Don’t tie Lydia down with your possessiveness.”

    How on earth was that natural.

    He goes and kisses a woman I don’t know, then to top it off, he could have been trying to marry the granddaughter of the Grand Duke of Cremona, and yet he’s still openly treating Lydia as his fiancée.

    “Kelpie, would you mind leaving us for a moment? There’s something I need to discuss to Edgar with.”

    Because if she were to say something that would deny their engagement in front of Kelpie, then things would become complicated later on.

    That is never going to happen, were the words that was about to pop out of her mouth, but she waited until Kelpie took his leave.

    She angrily clenched her fist.

    “I will not wait. It is a big mistake if you think that you can make everything run as you please….”

    Lydia finally remembered that the butler was still there, and felt completely embarrassed and her body went frozen as she remained clenching her fists.

    The door closed quietly, but before Lydia could remember what she was going to say, Edgar wrapped his hands around her fists gently.

    “You are out of your mind. You’re purposefully doing things so that I wouldn’t be able to trust you.”

    “T-that’s a completely different matter from this. You know that.”

    “This isn’t different. If you would feel jealous, then that means we’re in love with each other.”

    “But you’re also a liar. You’re getting angry because you are starting to fall in love with me, and yet you won’t accept those feelings.”

    She wanted to say that wasn’t so, but no words came out of her. 

    “Please accept it and face me.”

    “Then you wouldn’t have to be in doubt. I intend to make my resolve,” continued Edgar.

    “Wh-what does that mean? Are you saying that you’re still undecided about actually marrying me? So that means that although I have my use, you really need a strong resolve in order to tie yourself down to one woman!”

    Why are you saying such a thing with such a serious face?

    Or else, she had a feeling she might be convinced by Edgar’s argument.

P. 58

    Raven carefully took the merrow’s sword that had been thrown aside and put it back into its sheath. Feeling his movement in the corner of his view, Edgar opened his mouth as he remained standing in the same spot in the room that Lydia went running out of.

    Because, he couldn’t use the sword.

    Even if he made that resolve, that didn’t mean Edgar would be able to see fairies and there was no guarantee that he would be able to face Ulysses equally.

    In the corner of his heart, as he was feeling that the only way to protect Lydia was to distance her away from him, he continued to seduce her like a useless struggle. 

    “Are you planning on silently watching that if it were to happen?”
    No, I couldn’t, Edgar thought as he let out a deep sigh.

    It was a book illustrated with beautiful pictures about a fairy story.

    Edgar thought it was unbelieveable childish of him to learn about fairies from a picture book.

    The story of the picture book was a fairytale that anyone would have heard about when they were a child.

     It was just a small trigger, but Edgar felt that would also take away Lydia from him and he fell depressed and closed the book.

    Just because that boy had the power of a fairy doctor, Edgar had to be put through melancholy about not being related to in blood with the Blue Knight Earl.

 P. 60

    He wanted to beat the living daylights out of that man, who at one glance, appeared fifteen or six with an overbearing attitude.

    His only worry was that he wasn’t able to anticipate what Ulysses’ movements where recently.

    Edgar felt that he was just keeping quiet somewhere and waiting for the right time. 

    He didn’t have any information as to when that would be and if they intended to set some sort of trap before that, and so for Edgar, the situation of him not being able to decide and move continued.

    To how far he was going to battle with Prince.

    He didn’t know if Lydia would come along with him all that way.

    But, when the moment something like that were to even be close to happening, he would rush to go and try to stop her, and even he himself thought that it was incoherent.

    That was because he knew it was a letter that should be passed on to Lydia.

    Changeling.

    “….Please forgive me for sending you one letter after another. I was unaware that the Lord Earl had said not to attempt to retrieve your changed child and I became worried if my lord was put through discomfort at my letter asking for help. I had married into this family from another land, hence, I had not learned of the ways of this town, and was only in dismay at having my child stolen away from me. If it was the biddings of my lord earl that all of our town has our trust in, then there must be some meaning behind it that we common people could not imagine, but to have one’s child taken away, as a parent, I feel heartbroken. I cannot understand why I must be put through this….”

    He had no recollection about saying to leave the changeling alone. He wondered if this town was loyally obeying the words that were spoken by the earl from many hundreds of years ago.

P. 62

    And, at that same time, he recalled about the Cremona Grand Duke’s granddaughter was taken by the works of a changeling as the bride of the Blue Knight Earl. 

    If that person didn’t have the merrow’s sword, he wouldn’t be acknowledged by the nation as the Earl of Ibrazel, but if it was just to use the name, then it was possible.

    Just at the moment when Edgar was nearly going to stand up, his butler appeared.

    “Who is it?”

    From behind Tomkins who had on a completely lost look, Raven came into the room and went to Edgar’s side and whispered something to him. 

    “Tomkins, I will have the dirty guests leave immediately, so there is no need for tea. Don’t let anyone approach the drawing room.”

P. 63

    Even if he thought it suspicious, the butler didn’t let that appear on his face and strictly obeyed the instructions he was ordered.

    “Raven, let’s go.”

    The girl had her coffee-colored hair tied up in one without any intention of looking fancy, looked over to Edgar with her slightly slant eyes and opened her mouth.

    “If you don’t mind, call me Edgar. And one more thing, it isn’t Sir, it’s Lord.”

    The young gal made a smile, and on her cheek there was a cute dimple made. However, with her attitude on taking over the whole sofa and sitting back overbearingly, was far from cute.

     Setting himself down to sit on a chair, Edgar looked at both of them one at a time.

    The huge young boy, must have been trying to act like he was in a bad mood, as he only replied “Thanks.”

P. 64

    “Then, what is your business? Such proud pirates like yourselves didn’t come to your old acquaintance just to seep some change from him, right?”

    “You can’t figure out why we’re here?”

    “You remember Betty.”

    “If I can remember, we first met you just after our old Captain had passed away. Betty, Pino and I, all three of us were raised by the Captain like we were siblings. Although, we aren’t related by blood.”

    “It would have been fine if that was how things remained. But, she met you, and that corrupted Betty’s life.”

    “It was best if she didn’t learn about the crest. If she was targeted because she was a princess….”

    Like there was a fire whipping and twirling inside it, it was a fluorite that gave a mysterious yellowish-mixed glow that appeared to sweep out from the darkness.

    With one look at the crest, or coat of arms that represented the family, one would be able to know the historical background of their ancestor. Not only your own family, but it was necessary for one to learn the coat of arms of foreign countries. He thought it was at those kind of circumstances when he was told about that family.

    However, from that day forward, Betty began to go around proclaiming that she was a princess and talked about what had happened in her life. 

     Leaving Lota and Pino, who were like her siblings, Betty should have headed to the Netherlands to where her grandfather should have fled to.

    If it meant that that wasn’t what happened, then it was just like how the Grand Duke of Cremona who he met yesterday at Windsor had been talking about. 

P. 66

    Lota must have found that out when the real person who was hired by the Grand Duke had come to investigate the town that Betty was in.

    “It seems like the culprit of the group who lied about being working for the Grand Duke and took away Betty was called Blue Knight Earl. We had come to investigate about that person….”

    “Yeah, about that, John……uhh, I mean, Edgar, you are quite the shrewd tactician. It’s a mystery of what kind of methods you used to become an earl, and if you were able to do something like that, then I thought there was a possibility of you having a hand in the reason why Betty disappeared.”

    “Well, I never expected that you would tell us just because we are old acquaintances. But, you know, it would be troublesome for a man like yourself who became a peer and lives in such a grand estate like this, to be revealed to be a great thief who was supposed to be executed in America, wouldn’t it?”

    “It’s bargaining.”

P. 67

P. 68

    “I’m quite a busy man, so you should leave while I can still take it as a joke. I don’t want to make an old acquaintance garbage floating in the Thames River.”

    There was a knife gripped in Lota’s hand. 

    Expecting him to go for Lota, surprisingly, he charged at Pino, and punched him and knocked him down with his legs. He pinned down the huge man who fell to the floor and twisted his arm so that Pino couldn’t move.

    “While Raven was trying to stop you, was your plan to have Pino attack me? How unfortunate.”

    “Now that I think about it, Lota, the two of us haven’t even held hands together.”

    “You were always so indifferent.”

    “But I was immediately jilted.”

P. 69

    "That’s twisting the truth. Let me explain that in detail, in my bed chamber.”

    “If you dare to do something to Lota, our crew isn’t going to remain silent about it!”

    The voice who interrupted them was Ermine.

    “It seems Miss Carlton has departed to Yorkshire on the first morning ship.”

    “Yorkshire? Why did she go to such a place?”

    When Edgar realized that that was the small estate mentioned in the letter earlier, he felt a strange panic.

    “I didn’t hear about that. Besides, there is no way that I would allow Lydia to go there by herself.”

    “Can you count him as one person?”

P. 70

    And it was a cat that only had interest in his fur coat, whiskers and necktie or thinking about food.

    Watching that out of the corner of his eye, Edgar thought if there was a connection between the Blue Knight Earl who kidnapped Betty and the Earl who ordered the townspeople to remain silent about the changeling that happened in the small town of Yorkshire. 

     “Tomkins! Do you have documents in regards to the town of Wallcave?”

    “Their local products are fluorites? Occasionally, there are rare red and yellow colored stones that are dug up?”

    “It seems like that mining vein has dried out presently. More importantly, my lord, I have remembered that I didn’t have a good impression when it came to this town. At the time when I had sent out word that my lord would be inheriting as the Earl of Ibrazel, there was no reply from only this town.”

    Even for Edgar, there were still many estates that he hadn’t visited yet. 

    And it was there, that Lydia was heading to.

    What would happen if she were to come in contact with the Blue Knight Earl that kidnapped Betty?

    “Yes, since Mister Nico dislikes railroads, she said that if it wasn’t that seriously inconvenient, then she would use a ship. Since, well, fairies do loathe iron.”

    Tomkins hurried and left so that he could find that out.

    “At the bay of The Wash. Since the Thames River is managed with a strict entry code.”

    “Huuhh? Don’t make fun of us. Even a clipper couldn’t catch up to it.”

P. 72

    “Shut up!”
    “Oh, well. We’re not going after a clipper. If you want to find out about Betty, I think it’s best if we join forces.”

    It was a ship that bore a flag she never saw before.

    The narrow neck of the thin ship went ripping through the waters, like it was gliding on top of it.

    She could see the tiny crew members in the distance as they moved about accurately to move the sails so that they wouldn’t miss any gust of wind.

    “Isn’t it a pirate ship?”

    And, just when she giggled, there was the blast of a gun that ran through the air.

P. 73

    Like the gunfire was a cue, everyone could see that the other ship came drastically close to their ship and there were screams that erupted from the crowd around Lydia.

    There was nothing Lydia could do and so as she remained near the railing of the deck, she looked around for Nico who should have been right there with her. 

    Oh, geesh, he’s so quite when it comes to escaping.

    It was because of the wave that was created by the unknown ship that came right up next to the ship she was on.

    Ropes with hooks tied on their ends of them were thrown up onto this side, and the ship she was rocked by another wave, making her unable to stand up.

    That was because this was a passenger liner that sailed along the coastline. The ship guard’s jobs only required them to break-apart the fights between passengers or catch pickpockets, so they couldn’t possibly go against pirates who were armed with weapons.

P. 74

    Standing on top of the tallest place, it was a young girl who rested the riffle on her should and let her voice be heard.

    A female pirate. Lydia stood in amazement at learning that one actually existed, and then her eyes met the pirate girl.

    Her eyes were a little slanted, but probably because of her nose that pointed up and her one dimple, she gave a friendly impression. Even her height wasn’t that different from Lydia.

    “Your name?”

    “Lydia Carlton….”

    Huh?

P. 75

    “Wh-what are you doing!”

    All the other pirates also left the passenger ship and cut off the rope so that the pirate ship picked up speed to quickly leave that sight.

    The man who had carried Lydia over his shoulder put her down without saying a word and left. 

     I wonder if this is that girl’s room. But, why is she after me?

    But rather, although she didn’t want to believe it, Lydia felt a familiarity to this theatrical and coercive method.

    The one who opened the door and appeared was, as she might have expected, a young man with prominent blond hair and wore a brimming happy smile on his face. 

    “It was so horrible of you to silently leave me like that.”

    “Let’s have a good talk about both of our future one more time.”

    “Did you attack the ship just so that you could say that? If the ship I was on just now made a report at the next port, then you’ll be hunted after again as a criminal.”

    So, that mean’s, you’ve bribed them with money?

    “Didn’t you know that?”

    Her strength left her body and her shoulders slumped down.

    “You have to understand, Lydia, a young lady going on a trip by herself that is truly senseless.”

    “If you’re saying its work, then I would prefer if you wouldn’t ignore your employer’s will. This is regarding one of my lands. Don’t you think it’s strange to go without asking one word of advice?”

P. 77

    She was upset and frustrated by Edgar, but this was a completely different matter from that.

    When she realized that she caused him trouble, she began to feel guilty.

    She became confused at this relieved smile.

    It was a surprise and frightening experience for her to be attacked by pirates. She thought that her shock wouldn’t normally be forgotten just by a happy smile, and yet, Lydia had already lost the will to be angry. 

    The girl from earlier appeared again. She carried a dangling long-haired gray cat by its neck hair.

    “Nico!”

    “Oh, yes, Lydia, I’ll introduce you to her. This is the captain of this ship, Lota.”

    The girl held out her hand, and Lydia, who was still at a complete lost as to what to do, ended up shaking hands with a pirate.

    “This here is Pino. He’s like a little brother to me.”

    She couldn’t help but make that comment, which the man replied with an even more infuriated expression and scowled at Lydia.

    Being informed by Edgar, Lydia’s eyes opened wide. When she was able to get a glance over at Raven who was standing by the doorway, she couldn’t believe it all the more. 

    Pino made a more irritated face and twisted his lips.

    “Lord Edgar, would you allow me to strike him?”

    In the instant he said that, the huge man went crashing down to the floor.

    “Pino, you better not try. You know you’re no match for him.”

    ‘Yes Sir,’ said Raven earnestly, lowering his fists, while Pino tutted his tongue as he quickly got back up on his feet.

    “Guys like us get underestimated just because of our looks, don’t we.”
    Lydia wasn’t able to guess what Raven was thinking by his expression when he was put in the same category as a fairy, who appeared like a cat no-matter-how you looked at him.

Chapter end