The Turning Point Came in Indigo

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/2/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

I had been tossed on the waves for some ten days after the ship set out, I suppose.
At last, I arrived at the Demon King’s island.
I was put ashore at the harbor, along with more than ten other girls who seemed to share my circumstances.
The official from the Demon King’s side who had come to meet us wore a hood, but the shape of the head beneath it was clearly not human.
The moment the sailors had handed us over, they put back out, in a hurry to leave.
They did not want to spend so much as a minute, so much as a second, on this island; I had never seen work done with such impressive efficiency.

The Demon King’s official watched their frantic departure, and the lips visible beneath the hood twisted into a shape of contempt.
For a while the official simply watched the fleeing ship. Then, after a single sigh, they turned to face us.

“Ah… Welcome, after your long journey—I imagine being told you are welcome would be either a bother to you, or a matter of complete indifference.
I sympathize with your circumstances, and I also think I cannot possibly guess at how you feel.
No—forgive me. If anyone took that sympathy for contempt, I apologize.
That is not what I meant. It is simply the only way I can put it.”

To my surprise, the voice I heard was a woman’s.
When the official removed the hood, long indigo hair fanned out and danced in the wind.
A well-formed face. Kind, shining eyes, a deep indigo in the same family as her hair.
Her eyes were a little sharp at the corners, and her face suggested a strong will; the expression on it was a complicated mix of slight bewilderment and sympathy.
Two horns grew from her head. Scales covered patches of her cheeks and the nape of her neck.
A fine pair of wings grew from her back as well—though they were shaped very much like a bat’s.

“…A half-dragon…?”

I muttered it before I could stop myself.
I started, and clapped both hands over my mouth.
A half-dragon: the child of a human and a dragon.
Like half-elves and others of that kind, some were discriminated against for their origins, and some, I had heard, despised being called “half.”

If the official in front of me were one of those… even a light brush from an enraged half-dragon would be enough to send someone like me flying.
The thought froze me in place. I kept my mouth covered and peeked at her, terrified.

But.

“Oh! Yes, that’s right!
You know it well! It’s been some time since anyone named it at a first meeting!”

She was, if anything, delighted.

I later learned from her that this was her first time being entrusted with receiving new arrivals, and that she had been worrying over how to put us even a little at ease.
She thanked me, saying that my reaction had given the conversation somewhere to go, and that it had truly helped.
I thought it was rather we who ought to be thanking her.

“Ah, no, I, um, I just happened to read it in a book… I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”
“No, no, it is no problem at all—not for me!
I am honored, if anything. I am glad you knew!”

Her voice as she laughed so brightly, and the look on her face—
I—we—
felt something cold and heavy that had been clenched around us slowly come undone.

“I am Gertrude. A knight of this country, and the one who will receive you and guide you to the Demon King’s castle.
And the one who will protect you.
I guarantee your safety. Please, be at ease.”

Gallant, and yet gentle.
At the tone of her voice, at the meaning of her words, and more than anything at her frankness—
we could only let our eyes grow wet. We could not even make a sound.

“That’s right. If you like, please call me Gerda.
And later, I would be glad if you would tell me all of your names as well.”

The smile that bloomed on her face was something I had not seen in a long time… perhaps something none of us had.
After grinding our nerves down wondering what would become of us, to have such a thing turned on us was apparently more than we could bear.
I heard a wet sniffle. Then another, and another, spreading.
When almost all of us had broken into tears, she panicked at once.

“Wh—w-what is the matter!?
N-no, if you disliked it that much, I will not force you!
That’s it, isn’t it—forgive me. Being treated familiarly by a demonfolk would be unpleasant, of course…”
“That’s not it. It isn’t that.”

Somehow, I still had enough of a voice to speak for everyone.
Even if that voice had gone thick with tears.
Even so, I tried to return the sincerity she had shown us with sincerity of my own, and I smiled.

“I think—we’re happy. We’re relieved.
We thought we had no idea what would happen to us, and then you said that, and we felt safe.”

At my words, the other girls nodded hard.
Seeing that, she too smiled, looking relieved.

“I-I see. Then I am glad as well.
Your hardships… I can only begin to imagine them. If anything I said or did was of even a little help, I am glad.”

How kind could one person be?
Told that, even more of the girls were overcome and started crying.
The sight of her immediately going into a fluster made several of them giggle.
I was one of them.

And I found myself wanting, just a little, to meet this person who was trying so hard to reach us halfway.

“Um. My name is Asha.
If I may take you up on that—may I call you Gerda?”
“Ah, by all means! Asha, is it? A pleasure!”

The smile she showed in that instant was so, so happy that I could not forget it.
I found myself staring. The other girls probably did too.
And then, the next instant.

“I’m Chris! Gerda, please look after me!”
“Ah, me too!”

One after another they rushed to give their names, and she faltered before them, even as she answered.

“A-ah, a pleasure!
But—forgive me, once more, slowly… I am not very good at remembering.”

Gerda said it with an embarrassed smile.
That, however, seemed only to egg the girls on further. They crowded in even more.

“…That’s having the opposite effect, Gerda.”

Pushed aside by the cluster of girls, I could not help but mutter it.
She probably did not hear me.