Chapter V - Big Momma

The peaceful sanctity of Sanbi's economical department was once again perturbed! This tall figure with a certain aura stood in front of Eiri, like many times before. Except this time seemed unusual. This royal figure had no letter to hand off!

Looking at this mirage of machinations in the shape of a human, Eiri slipped out a simple, "Hi?" Her mind was devoid of what to think of this, yet another encounter with her, for it didn't matter what she did or did not do; she would surely get in the way of whatever the queen of Sanbi was trying to do.

"Your precious Harry is defaulting on his obligations." Neferteri, the queen of Sanbi, spoke monotonously, but one could still sense the venom in her dull, firm tone.

"Hmmmm—why is that my fault?" Eiri furrowed her brow towards Neferteri. Feeling the last remains of the peacefulness of her safe space evaporating, her hand flew towards the half-eaten jar cake and shoved a spoonful into her mouth. The dark, stingy taste of the chocolate with coffee cream between the cake layers was still far sweeter than Neferteri had ever said or done to Eiri.

"I shall ask this only once." Neferteri came one step closer, looking down on Eiri even more than before, "Why do you keep insisting on trying to communicate with him?"

With a mouthful, Eiri blurted out, "Wha—?" With a gulp, she continued, "I sent him like three sanbi mail and one winga mail! He never replied—"

Neferteri closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, waiting until Eiri stopped her vapid blabbering.

With a slight smile on the corner of her mouth, Neferteri continued speaking softly with her eyes closed, "My dearest King-maid." She opened her eyes and stared deeply into Eiri's soul with a piercing intensity almost no one could muster. "Harry's last letter, in the fifty-second, stated that he was approached in Green Sea by a stranger who asked him three questions. How was he feeling? Did he need any help? And last, did he hate the King-maid?"

Eiri's eyes shone wide as she chewed on another spoonful of jar cake. It wasn't the fantastic contrasting taste of the bitter, dark creamy against the sweet milky cake that surprised me; it was the string of words that just came out of Neferteri's mouth. She chewed and gulped as her brain tried to find any string of words combo to defend herself. "—I—I didn't do it!" That was the best thing her brain could snap back. "What do you want from me?" She blinked with an open stare towards this invasive species tainting what was supposed to be a calm Sunnohigh—late afternoon.

Neferteri stepped back, inhaling deeply. Her thumb and forefinger pressed against the bridge of her nose, grounding herself for a moment of silence.

"What? That's the truth!" Eiri cleaned out the jar and shoved the last remnants of the deliciously bitter but milky cake into her mouth, softly enjoying the last remnants of peace she could find.

Neferteri took her time, then stared back at Eiri, "If that is truly the case, then please indulge me in an in-depth explanation as to why the Sanbi-eye disappeared without a trace after leaving Green Sea towards Depoint. I requested an update from Chief Manbola, and she stated Harry had never arrived. Chief Tupinamba stated that Harry did indeed leave towards Depoint. Furthermore!" Her tone became sharper, just like her intense staring, "The Sanbi-eye left such a positive impression on Chief Tupinamba that he sent a search party composed of locals and two guards without requesting funding to do so. The mere mention that Harry did not arrive at Depoint was enough of a trigger for the other chief to partake in the search. Truly, the Sanbi-eye position is of utmost importance to keep these people in check.” Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes to regain her composure, Neferteri continued. “Regardless, despite all knowing they wouldn't be as thorough as a high-ranking adventurer, they found absolutely no traces. No attacks from wild animals. No attacks from bandits. No corpse. With that said, indulge me in proving you were not involved."

A bitter silence enveloped the room. I—I—what can I even say? Eiri hung her head, looking for answers. Tears broke through as her chest pained at the thought of leaving the maids on their own, and imagining a rotting Harry corpse in the middle of nowhere, all because of what she said to him that odd night, and helped him sign the contract.

"It has been twenty-six days since his last letter." Neferteri broke the silence. "What will other kingdoms think of the Sanbi Royals' abilities when we cannot even protect one of our contractors?"

"I—I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY!" Eiri felt her chest and throat tighten. "That wasn't me! Yes! I wanted to contact Harry, I even requested my friends at Half-cruro to let me know where he was, but I didn't ask them to make contact! I know you would bitch about it if I did!" Eiri stood up, tears running down her cheeks as she pointed her yellow gloves towards Neferteri, "YOU KNOW WHAT? I'm getting sick of you blaming me for everything! I should have contacted him after all! You pushed him to sign something he couldn't grasp! I'm the King-maid! I'm supposed to stand on the same level as you, but all I've been doing this past year is getting stepped on!" She pointed towards a painting on the wall of her mother, Coema, "No wonder she was sick of you shit too!" A moment of realization came through as if something had finally clicked deep inside Eiri. "So what now? Just fire me already! Then what? Who are you replacing me with?"

Neferteri stood there, silently standing up, stoically observing the outburst.

"Just like my mom! There's a reason why I am here! Because I know this shit better than anybody out there!" With a deflating breath, Eiri sat back down, her voice growing weaker, "Why can't I get some deserved respect?" Despite the turmoil of emotions, a weirdly good vibe took over. It was like slicing open an infected wound and forcing out the pus. It was still hurting, but that pressure was no longer there. *Argh! Sanbi shit—*a tinge of remorse now struck Eiri right at the pit of her stomach.

A simple nod came out of Neferteri, closing her eyes to, one would guess, chew through the details of Eiri's ramble. A few short nods later, a simple statement came out of her, "That is the proof I was seeking from you."

With a raised eyebrow, Eiri replied with a brittle voice, "What? That I'm done for?"

"On the contrary. You're truly Coema's daughter. For better or for worse." Neferteri glanced over at the smirky-looking portrait of a seasoned woman, "You two have a certain way with words that I can always derive the truth out of you, regardless of the situation.” Looking back at Eiri, she continued with a soft smile, “With that said, I do request that you not intervene in my operations. Unlike Coema, I can find a replacement for you in due time." With a very slight bow, Neferteri turned towards the door.

"What about Harry? What will happen to him?" Eiri took out a fancy-looking flannel from the desk drawer to wipe away her tears.

"I am currently assessing options. I will inform you of what I decide." Without looking back, Neferteri walked towards the door and opened it to a familiar red-haired maid, nervously sweating and shallow breathing by the door. "My dear Sora, indeed great timing! Come on in!"

Sora walked into the room as if she were walking towards a public beheading—her own beheading.

"Times such as these require transparency to purge the uncertainty." Neferteri extended her hand towards Sora.

Sora's sweat filled the room with a distinct smell, a sweeter variety, but not pungent. Visibly shaking, she handed Neferteri the envelope with a broken seal with both hands. One would think her beheading was nearly about to happen by looking at her tearing up even more than Eiri, but alas, it was just her trembling even more seeing Neferteri retrieving the letter from inside and perusing through the contents with the same stoic expression as usual.

With a slow, silent nod, Neferteri folded the letter and handed it to Eiri. "This does not seem to be a product of mere happenstance."

Eiri flapped open the handwritten letter; it was a bit hard to read as the lines were not smooth, but it was still doable if you focused on it.

Sora,

This is the village elder writing on their behalf since they can't read. They haven't talked to their daughter for more than a year, ever since she told them she went to work as a maid for your Kingdom. She didn't even stay with us on her way to Sanbi. She never replied to our letters either. We only knew she was alive because a friend merchant did me a favor, but she blew him off. We think that she sees us as beneath her! We know it's not much, but it's honest work! Despite all that happened, please tell her that we all miss her very much, and she has a home to come to if she ever needs it. We’re family, and we can help build her a new home if she finds the one.

Tomanius

"Hmmm—wait a chunk." Eiri looked at the back of the envelope; it was a letter written to Sora. The words she just read did not seem real at all. It felt like it was all a prank. "So she disappeared as well?" A sinking feeling pulled at Eiri's heart; her mind was in turmoil, trying to understand everything happening at once. Everything felt so weird that the peaceful sanctity of the economical office felt like it had been thoroughly violated, like a girl in a tentacle porn. Eiri stared back at the calendar, seeing today as Paulin's 77th, with Arukia leaving on PTO on the 68th and returning on the 82nd. Her voice grew brittler again, "But she told me she would write when she arrived! Maybe Sora's letter had arrived before she had arrived! Hmmm—Maybe she did something around town and took longer? I mean!" Her gloved hands crumpled the edges of the letter. "What if Arukia is visiting someone else first? She was always too shy to talk about herself!"

"Spare me your delusions." Neferteri focused her dagger stare on Sora, making her recoil into her own shell, even more afraid that she sounded like she had stopped breathing, "Sora, I appreciate your proactive investigative skills. On this front, you're far better suited to the King-Maid role."

"T—thank you, my queen!" The words slipped out quickly from Sora; her feet appeared to be in a struggle between being frozen solid to the ground and wanting to take off running at full speed.

"That is not all you have to say—right, my dear? Safe to presume you ran to her home and enquired with people as to when she left?" A soft, pleasing smile shone on Neferteri like a mother seeing a daughter take a step on her own into womanhood.

With a gulp, Sora nodded several times quickly, then kept switching her focus between the Queen and the King-maid. A slightly broken murmur came out of her first, turning into words, "I did, my Queen! I—I got the letter early today and did that! Her roommates did not see her at all after the 67th! Nobody knows she actually left!" Sora rapped through the words so quickly it was like playing at 2x speed.

"Maybe she went to Forway first before going to her parents' place! I mean!" Eiri's eyes kept on searching for an answer, "She spent a few years at Forway, after all! We all have friends there! Maybe she has a boyfriend we don't know about!" Eiri stood up firmly, "I know it! Maybe Harry and Arukia fell in love and decided to flee their contracts with Sanbi! I mean, Harry is clearly not Arukia's type! He doesn't even have a single ball to his name! But love is love!" She tapped the yellow glove on her breast as her face saddened at another possible realization, "Or maybe she just needed some personal space like Harry! I'm sorry that I can be too much sometimes! I don't blame them! I did the same to my mom!" She looked at Coema's sassy-looking portrait, then made the same sassy-looking face as if suddenly possessed by her spirit when she looked back at Neferteri, "Now she's doing that to you too!"

A crack surfaced on Neferteri's stoic face. It looked like she was trying to hold a cough inside her, but you could see her muscles tense up, holding back something that wasn't a cough. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath to reset herself. "Regardless of what is happening, we shall not take a spur-of-the-moment action, for we do not truly know if this is a mere act of coincidence, or correlated by these two acting together, or a third party acting by sequestering these two. This matter is now under my department to investigate in coordination with the courtroom scientist."

"Wait! Like abducting them? But! but—" Eiri stopped herself, Why would someone do that for? What would mom do? Get Half-cruro involved?

"No exceptions. We have a kingdom to run, and we do not need another fiasco to our public image as it stands. Until I state otherwise, this conversation shall not leave this room, for we do not know the source and the reasoning behind this." Neferteri turned and walked towards the door, closing it softly on her way out.

Like an exploding grenade, Sora fell on her knees and started sobbing loudly.

Eiri rushed to her, hugging and sobbing as well. So much to say, yet nothing came out at that moment. Only tears.

Some time has passed since Neferteri had left the room, letting the peaceful sanctity of the economical room slowly begin to regenerate—or it was Sora's cuteness masking it all. Either way, it was working, as Eiri could feel a bit of respite as her mind tried to go over the details of what had just happened. Her eyes re-read the words of the same letter again, maybe expecting to read something else after the third time, but alas, it was still the same wobbly writing saying the same thing. "Why would someone abduct them for? It can't be for ransom since we got nothing in the mail! And, like, they aren't even Sanbi Royals! That doesn't make sense!"

Sora kept looking at the calendar with detailed plans for all the maids' scheduling. The neatly tied colored buttons representing each maid popped the grid columns and rows with a shower of colors. It was a complex imagery, but after a few seconds, that sea of colors was as straightforward as a Jackson Pollock piece once you accept he was just flinging paint like a caffeinated madman.

Eiri's racing thoughts seemed to calm down somewhat as she kept inhaling the sweetish, sweaty smell from Sora—her tender warmth as she sat between her legs also helped. "This whole month has been weird, and I don't know what to do!"

"M—maybe—" an inaudible ramble came out of Sora.

"What?" Eiri gave up on the letter and rested it on the table.

Sora's tiny hands covered her mouth, funneling the words of her mouth towards Eiri.

Eiri put her ear closer to it and heard a string of words so clearly it felt like her heart stopped beating for a second. Her body froze briefly as the words rattled in her brain, Maybe it was Neferteri all along? These words spoken by a sweet, fast-paced girl felt way more profound than it was supposed to be. She whispered back in her ears, "How? How would we know?"

Sora put her small hands up in the air, making a slight shrug while also recoiling inwards.

What would Mom do? Eiri looked back again at the sassy portrait, but it still didn't offer any insights back at her. "I—just don't know what to do! Like, I could get Half-cruro involved, but not like they can help that much searching for people! Most of them can't even tell Wozefaries and Humans apart!"

Sora replied softly, "I can take PTO and search for Arukia, then Harry!"

Eiri squeezed Sora tightly, imprisoning her between her arms. "Absolutely not!" She whispered loudly.

With a strained voice, Sora rapped back, "What if we put a search quest?"

"We can't! Neferteri said so!" Eiri continued hugging Sora. "What if we—" An ideation seemed to want to form in her brain, but like having something stuck on the tip of the tongue, it just got stuck in the cogs and never fully formed. "I don't know! Something! We gotta do something!"

"What if one of the other maids posts the quest?" Sora held Eiri's hands as her arms squished her, not letting go of each other.

You know what? Like lightning in thunder, something about that moment struck Eiri. A clear memory of Coema, on many occasions, saying the exact two words over and over, came to her mind. Every time she heard it growing up, she understood what it meant, but for the first time, she truly understood what Coema meant with it. She let go of the hug and patted Sora on the head. "Fuck it!"

Sora's eyes bulged wide, and a slack jaw opened towards Eiri.

"Yes! Fuck it!" Eiri took a determined breath, "I will even use the department budget for the search quests! Fuck it! If she fires us, I will come out in public and say she refused to help search for them. Let's go to the embassy tomorrow and talk to Lofinghy!"

A small, nervous, girly giggle came out of Sora, but then it became deadly serious, "Me too?"

"But of course!” Eiri put her hands up in the air, “You were the one who sparked a fire under my butt! And I'm a Sanbi Royal, after all! We can go straight to his ears!" Eiri sounded resolute in her reply.

Sora fainted like clapping near a wooden-legged goat. Her limp body fell forward, and her head hit the table with a loud thud.

A restless night gave way to a bright new day. Eiri now faced eye-to-eye with a man she did not know much about in a place she rarely visited. The black decor gave an intense, unwelcoming vibe—for some people, but Eiri knew better to understand it was just the eccentric Forway culture doing their own thing. She sat up straight and looked at this armor-plated bald guy with baggy eyes and sallow cheeks. Her dulled expression was the opposite of where her mind stood. A fortified fortress of answers to any kind of what-if question she could think of. A grand action was about to commence, her heart ticking in her chest with the silence brewing.

"Neferteri now sending her lackeys to do her bidding?" The captain of the Forway embassy in Sanbi spoke resolutely and with the same intensity as its decor. His black cap had his name, Lofinghy, inscribed in a red plaque, with aquamarine balls decorating it.

Sora's trembling hands gave way to a body growing soft like she was about to pass out—again. At least that was the case until Eiri gave a slight kick into her hanging feet under the table, making her body shake up like she had just done a cold plunge. Her eyes remained tightly closed as her soul attempted to fight its way out of her mortal body—a sort of demonic possession or trance happening. Or perhaps a side effect of nari gel dependence. She kept holding the cup of tea in her mouth, stuck sipping it indefinitely.

"Yep!" Eiri took a deep, forced breath as she kept a tensed-up posture. "Our—our maid Arukia went missing on the way to visit her parents in Long Bridge." She pointed to both letters in front of the captain, "And Sanbi-eye—sanbi-eye Harry went missing too." She fought herself from showing any odd signs, but her shaking feet began disobeying her.

“Hm.” A short hum came out of the captain, moving his hand and pounding the door twice. The vibration nearly shook the place down.

"Yes, Cap!" A guard swiftly opened the door.

Glancing at the names on the envelopes, Lofinghy demanded, "Logs for Arukia Long-Bridge, maid at Sanbi Kingdom, and Harry Sanbi, working as Sanbi-eye." He waved his hand towards the guard without looking.

"Yes, Cap!" The guard just as swiftly closed the door.

Lofhinghy silently read through the letters.

Eiri looked up and down on this tall, muscular, absolute unit of utter balding manliness. Part of her brain tickled nicely with feeling up his arm, but the seriousness of it all also kept her imagination at bay. So, they keep logs? That's news! Eiri glanced towards Sora, her hands firmly holding the cup on the table as her face was tilted forward. Aside from the shaking, Sora appeared like a live statue, frozen in time. C'mon girl! Help me here! You're the one who had this crazy idea! Eiri kicked Sora gently again, but it was like kicking a bag of rice as she refused to unfreeze.

Lofinghy ignored looking at the live statue and instead focused straight on Eiri. "Level three or four?"

Feeling his gaze like facing a strong headwind, Eiri did a small gulp, "Current cost?"

"Level three kingdom alert is one aquamarine to post plus reward. Level four emergency is one sapphire to post plus reward." Lofinghy stated plainly.

There's no way I can do level four! That's like an entire district worth of tax revenue for the year! A cold ran down her spine as the reality of the expenditure became more real. Her quick mental calculations tried to juggle how much money to put on it versus how much trouble she was in, coming up with a firm answer, "Level three for both, with reward set at one aquamarine per each? Four aquamarines in total?"

"Deal." Lofinghy pounded the door again. Exactly the same way as before, even the space between the two pounds was the same.

"Yes, Cap!" A guard swiftly opened the door.

"We got two level threes!" Lofinghy did not look towards the guard, giving the same hand wave as before.

"Yes, Cap!" The guard just as swiftly closed the door.

Lofinghy placed his hand on one of the letters. "Arukia. Any desertion behavior?" The captain did not even blink with the amount of focus he seemed to be putting into this matter.

"Hmmmm—no?" Eiri, feeling the afrontal headwind from this behemoth of a manly man, avoided his gaze and looked toward the letters before him. "The only thing different is that she never took PTO before. I mean, she did, but only when I insisted. This is the first time she actually asked for it! But I guess it makes total sense after seeing Gabiro's soul die. Even I thought about finding a way to visit my mom in Newland."

The captain touched the other letter, "And no romantic or other kind of relation between these two?"

A girly cough came out of Sora, drowning in her own tea at the apparent salacious thought. The status came alive! Then, she went back to frozen when she started breathing again.

Meanwhile, a constrained laughter came from Eiri, "I don't think he was her type. Actually—" Something did not stir right within Eiri, "Now that I think about it—I don't even know what her type was. I guess she was playful and—"

Two knocks followed by a guard entering and handing over a thick tome of a black book, "Here, Cap!" The guard closed the door just as swiftly.

Lofinghy opened the tome right on the first large black feather bookmark, opening the book about three-fourths of the way. Quickly glancing through the logs, he demanded an answer: "Emelia Lakeeye Rich-Flower. Do you know of her?"

A name completely foreign invaded Eiri's ears. "No? Who's that?"

"Someone Arukia was often communicating with, and the last message she picked up from this embassy on Paulin 66th." Picking up a small black note from within the tome, he brought it up to his eyes, "Emelia is the owner of Emelia's Flowery Paradise in Southwest Forway."

"Sora?" Eiri questioned the living statue. Her mind blanked on that fact—no memories of that at all.

A quick, silent denial came out of Sora with a quick headshake, still not daring to open her eyes.

"Arukia's kingdom alert will be published after we've established contact with Emelia." Lofinghy stated, then continued, "Arukia never replied to her parents either. We will make contact with them."

"Hmm—" Something wanted to slip out of Eiri's mouth, but she was abruptly interrupted.

"Half-backed requests beget half-backed searches." Lofinghy further stated, now placing his hand on the other letter neatly placed in front of him. "Sanbi-eye. What is the expected arrangement between adventurers and Sanbi guards?"

"Ahhh—" Many words surged to come out, but not a single one wanted to be the first thing out of Eiri's mouth.

"Figure it out and get me in writing from your courtroom scientist." Lofinghy then asked straight, "Anything else?"

Eiri shook her head. "Thank you, Captain!"

Lofinghy stood up and placed his hands behind his back, making his aura and chest even more pronounced. However, his tone seemed less formal, more like his authentic voice, "Tell Kibe I have an apprentice lined up for him. He's a nitpicky asshole, but he's a good kid! He will fix these lazy guards of yours." He paused for a bit, "Coema still in Newland?"

"Yep. No plans to come back." Eiri took a sip of her tea. It was cold, but still had a good, green, herbal taste. Her hands were slightly shaking. “Haven’t heard from her in a while.”

"You have her blood. You know what to do! Make Neferteri ease up on log requests!" Captain Lofinghy walked out and closed the door with a good bang.

Sora's body limply plunged forward as her soul freed itself from this mortal plane. Her empty tea cup bounced forward, bounded on the table, then shattered into a million pieces against the ground.

Relaxing her shoulders and letting out a loud sigh, Eiri placed her hand on Sora, still shaking atop the table with a white, pale face and trembling eyes, in a half-conscious, half-passed-out state. "We actually did it. Sanbi shit!"

A quiet sobbing came out of Sora, still pale white, but more conscious than before! Although her upper body was glued to the table.

*Now Neferteri has something to complain about—*Eiri kept patting Sora, "Thanks, Sora. I know we spent all night figuring out all these possible things to say to convince him to do the searches, but it was for nothing!" A strained laugh came from Eiri, "Hmmm—he just did it!"

Sora reacted as well, but it was indescribable if she was laughing, sobbing, celebrating, terrified, or having a moment of reprieve—maybe all of that at the same time.