Chapter 5

 

 

 

Chapter 5

 

INFORMATION Broker Mage Rifaenotis. Yuki wasn’t sure what that meant. She racked her fever-fried brain for the answer and glanced at Est who forced a smile.

“Don’t worry about it. Just sleep. Sleep and then think about it after you wake up.”

He pushed her shoulder back until her head touched the pillow. Dropping his hands from her shoulder, he pulled the blanket crumpled in a heap at her stomach up to her chest and finished by patting her on the head.

I’m being treated like a child again.

Yuki held back her desire to tell him she was actually older than him, and obediently shut her eyes instead. She was so feverish she felt like crying. A cold chill battered her body into exhaustion. Her breath came out hot and she wondered if she was turning into a fire-breathing dragon.

I don’t have the time to sleep. I have so many things I need to think about. Like how everyone is doing, what I’m going to do from here, where everyone is, how I’m going to find them, and what an information broker is. I need to think about who Rifaenotis is. Is Luca healthy? Is Ain safe? Where did Vivi go? The Ten Day Fever. My own fever. The Buibui.

The fever turned her thoughts delirious until her mind fell into the embrace of Morpheus.

***

THERE are times when you can wake up fully refreshed and feeling great. Such perfect rest comes out of nowhere, surprising those blessed by it. Yuki often felt as if she lost something whenever she woke up several hours earlier than she needed to. But the refreshing, early-morning air told her she gained something as well.

For the first time in a long while Yuki woke up feeling refreshed. Her mind quickly became alert and she opened her eyes.

“…It’s dark.”

Her eyes were open, but the room was pitch-black.

What time is it? How long have I been asleep?

She sat up in bed, her sweat-soaked shirt clinging to her skin with the movement—she sweated out the fever while she slept. Something slid from her head and plopped onto her hand. She touched it and dangled it right in front of her eyes until she could tell it was a wet cloth.

Who put this on me?

The faces of the cabin’s residents crossed her mind. Was it Rifae who gently smiled at her? Or did Est do it despite the rude attitude he took toward her? Either way, she knew she had to thank them.

I feel amazingly refreshed. I felt so sick several hours ago and now my mind has completely cleared.

Yuki began pondering all the things that had made little sense to her during the feverish haze.

***

AFTER mulling over her friends’ well-being and her own circumstances, Yuki found herself standing in front of a door with faint light seeping between the cracks into the hallway. The door was located at the deepest part of Rifae’s house at the end of the hallway. She knocked softly on the knobby wooden door.

“Come in.”

She slowly opened the door. Rifae sat inside the room in front of a large crystal. Someone’s reflection whirled in the crystal, but the image vanished in an instant. The brief moment she glimpsed the shadowy figure gave her a strange feeling she couldn’t put her finger on.

“Ah, do you have some time for me right now?” she asked.

“Sure, dear,” Rifae said and moved a chair from a corner of the room into the center for her.

The windowless room was much smaller than the room Yuki slept in. Furthermore, every other space in the room, aside from the table the crystal sat on and the two chairs, was covered from floor to ceiling with filled shelves. This must have been the room Rifae kept going to for ingredients while preparing Yuki’s medicine—an innumerable amount of vials, herbs, and tools lined the wooden shelves.

“Are you feeling better now?” Rifae asked, concern lacing his tone.

“Yes, thanks to the medicine you made me, Rifaenotis,” Yuki replied with a grin.

“Hehe, you’re a skilled flatterer, sweetie.” Rifae asked, “So? What is it that you need?”

“…Well, I’ve been thinking things over.” Yuki looked at Rifae where he sat on the other side of the table. “You told me that ignorance isn’t an excuse, right?”

“I did.”

“I couldn’t say anything back when you said that to me.”

“You don’t know anything.”

Many people had pointed out Yuki’s ignorance since she arrived in Aridol.

And yet I’ve only continued to complain and fret about not knowing anything. I know nothing about this world or the people who live in it. There’s just so much I don’t know, I can’t even guess what’s going on. In that case…

“So, Information Broker Rifaenotis, please provide me with information.”

Rifae’s calm eyes wavered for a moment. “…Est told you.”

Yuki nodded. He examined Yuki’s face for a period of time before sighing as if he gave in.

“Good heavens…this is why children are problematic. You’re all so earnest and set in your ways,” he commented with a soft and slightly playful smile before his expression shifted instantly to a serious businessman. “Very well. However, I expect information in return for payment.”

Yuki paused for a moment.

Information? I don’t have any valuable information.

She bit her lower lip. “Fine. If there is something I can tell you.”

Rifae flashed her a magnificent smile. “We have a deal then. So, dear, what is it you want to know?”

“Umm…” Yuki went through the information she mentally organized earlier. “What is the state of the war between Adolunde and Maruk right now?”

“Where should I start?”

Does he mean his fee will skyrocket based on how much information I ask for? Is he going to rip me off?

Yuki glared at him with accusing eyes. He returned her glare with an unreadable expression and beautiful smile.

“From beginning to end!”

“Someone’s rich with information.” Rifae grinned. “Until just the other day, Maruk’s Western Border was a battlefield between Maruk and Adolunde’s prisoners of war from Rvydom. The battle ended in a standstill when some unknown person took command a few days ago. Not long afterward the frontlines of the war all but vanished.”

Rvydom’s people stopped killing each other? Orga mentioned forcing Rvydom’s prisoners of war to kill each other. But I had no idea the battle stopped.

“And the Legendary Witch was executed in Maruk just the other day.”

Yuki was startled by him bringing up the execution, but she feigned indifference.

“Adolunde was under the suspicion that the Witch was actually Rvydom’s princess and sent reinforcements out to aid her—under the orders of Adolunde’s first prince—Prince Orga.”

“Orga…” she growled with disgust.

There wasn’t a day Yuki didn’t remember his hate-filled eyes as he burned her flesh with the branding iron like cattle. She had to stop herself from shivering with disgust at his name. Her nails dug crescents into her palms to keep the bile down as she recalled the acrid scent of her seared flesh.

“And directly after he sent reinforcements to the frontlines, Prince Curtis collapsed with a fever as if it were all some conspiracy. Before long, fear of the Ten Day Fever spread throughout the land and the war became the least of everyone’s worries. Adolunde’s reinforcements should be on standby at the Eastern Border if they aren’t already dying from the fever.”

Adolunde’s army is on standby… Yuki pondered Rifae’s information. In other words, the armies aren’t slaughtering each other yet.

“…Do you know anything else?” Rifae’s expression still held that unreadable smile. Yuki took his lack of answer as a sign she had to ask specific questions. “Um, about the Ten Day Fever you keep mentioning…are there any preventive measures people can take to keep from catching it?”