The God Hands Down an Oracle #1

“That's enough!!”

At the referee's call, two figures stopped moving.

One was a well-trained adult man.

The other was a girl one could fairly call lovely.

Her beautiful, wavy gray hair was tied back in a single ponytail, fluttering in the wind.

Both of them held practice swords with blunted edges.

In other words, this was a swordsmanship lesson.

A scene from the daily routine of the lovely girl...... Mereucce Runtart.

But make no mistake.

Mereucce was not being taught.

She was doing the teaching.

As proof, Mereucce held her sword at her opponent's throat with a cool look on her face...... while her opponent...... a Runtart house soldier by the name of Siemen, was sweating buckets and panting hard.

“......Kaaaah! Can't win! Like I figured, there's no beating the young miiiiss!”

Perhaps his stamina had run out: Siemen toppled straight over backward and lay spread-eagled, lamenting his own feebleness.

“Ufufu! But Siemen, compared with two years ago, you've improved beyond recognition! Keep it up; there's nothing for it but practice!”

Mereucce sheathed her sword and gave an adorable laugh.

Then, she spoke to the soldiers who had been watching the mock battle.

“And the same goes for all of you! Let's keep working hard together! Together, to protect the people of Runtart!”

“““““OOOOOOOH!!!”””””

Cheers erupted from the surrounding soldiers.

Runtart County was a peaceful land.

Damage from monsters and thieves was minimal, and until a while ago these soldiers had gone a little soft from the peace, with no great passion for their duties.

But Mereucce had changed that.

At first, everyone had just eyed her as a curiosity: the count's eccentric daughter, who had turned up at the training ground wanting to learn swordsmanship.

However, as soon as this girl began to swing a sword, she mastered the techniques in no time, built up her strength, and became stronger than anyone.

An astonishing rate of growth.

That is why she is the Fledgling Phoenix.

And even after becoming stronger than anyone, she did not grow arrogant.

She said she wanted to protect the people.

And that it was for their sake she swung her sword.

Those straightforward words, that humble attitude, fanned the flame called aspiration—which had been dying out in the hearts of Siemen and the others—into a roaring blaze!

Their daily training, once so often slacked off, gradually grew heated, and though they were no match for Mereucce, the soldiers of the Runtart house had now become famous throughout the country for their might!

“Young miss.”

Right then, someone called out to Mereucce from behind.

She had appeared out of nowhere, without anyone noticing: a tall, bespectacled woman in a maid's uniform that was out of place on a training ground.

“M, muu! Viola! That thing where you just appear out of nowhere, it startles me, so I keep telling you to stop, don't I!”

“My apologies.”

For all her words, the maid looked not the least bit sorry as she took a water bottle from the bag on her shoulder and handed it to Mereucce.

The contents of the bottle were memon water.

Memon is a sour blue citrus that tastes rather like lemon, and it is good for relieving fatigue, too.

Taking a break, Mereucce moistened her throat with a sip or two of memon water.

“You may listen as you drink. Regarding today's talks with the Sapara Trading Company: there are no particular problems with the weather or otherwise, so the company president will arrive at this mansion two hours from now.”

“Oh my! Then I can practice for one more hour!”

“Young miss.”

Viola's glasses flashed white, and she gave off killing intent!

“Eep!”

“That will not do, young miss. Surely you, the daughter of the House of Count Runtart, do not intend to appear before a guest in such a sweaty, muddy state? I would ask you to return to your room at once and change.”

“N, no, but, if there's a whole hour, y'know, that's plenty of time to get ready, isn't it?”

“Young miss.”

Viola's glasses flashed white, and she gave off killing intent once more!

“S, sorry, okay! I was joking! I'm going to change right nooow!”

“Your language.”

“Do forgive me! U, um...... anyway, I shall go and change at oooonce!”

Siemen and the other soldiers smiled as they watched Mereucce dash out of the training ground in a fluster, and Viola, seeing it, let out a sigh.

“Hahaha, even the young miss is no match for Viola-san!”

“No doubt!”

The soldiers laughed among themselves and waved to Mereucce, then glanced over at the maid, who ought to have still been standing in the training ground.

But then.

By that time, Viola was already gone from the training ground, vanished as if she had been a phantom.

“......The young miss is amazing, but that maid-san, I can't make her out either......”

Siemen muttered softly while wiping away his sweat.

◇ ◇ ◇

Now, having wiped away her sweat, changed her clothes, and gathered the materials and prototypes for the business talks, Mereucce's preparations were complete.

She was now in the Runtart house's conference room, going over the final details with the mansion's staff.

Mereucce was famed as the Fledgling Phoenix, but even so, she was still a 9-year-old girl.

However brilliant the flashes of genius that let her come up with novel products, she still lacked the experience to take on battle-hardened merchants and sell to them.

The support of the servants, starting with Viola, was indispensable.

“......And, as one would expect, what demands attention is thorough hygiene. This seasoning uses eggs......”

But just then, Viola, who had been sorting through the information with documents in hand, gave a sudden twitch of the shoulder.

“Viola? What's wrong?”

“......My apologies, young miss.”

“Eh?”

“About the talks to come: I have remembered that I cannot attend. I had completely forgotten that the master charged me with work I absolutely cannot put off.”

“EEEEH!?”

A sudden apology.

Viola normally did her work to a T, but she had a “bad habit” of suddenly remembering some other job, just like this, and drifting off.

“Hey, Viola! Even if it's Father's orders, that's just not right, is it!?”

“My apologies.”

Without a shred of sincerity, Viola put a hand to her chest and bowed at the waist, to show Mereucce she was sorry.

“However, there is no need for concern. Everything is already prepared. Even without me, with your abilities, young miss, the negotiations over this seasoning will surely go well. Isn't that so, Head Chef?”

“Of course, Viola-san! And young miss, don't just trust Viola-san, trust us a bit more too, would ya!”

Incidentally, this head chef was the person who had actually created the seasoning they planned to pitch in these talks, based on Mereucce's idea.

“Mu, mu, muu...... Fine, I get it! In exchange, have cake ready for today's snack! We're having a victory party with sweets, you hear!”

“No, you'll get fat.”

“EEEEH!?”

Viola bowed to Mereucce, who had grudgingly let her go, and left the conference room without a sound.

◇ ◇ ◇

Now, this “bad habit” of Viola's.

Isn't that a little too unnatural to write off as a mere “bad habit”?

Orders from her master or not...... she would suddenly drop her work and vanish.

No one knew what Viola was doing during that time.

And no one, Mereucce included, ever made an issue of that unnaturalness.

Why?

To put it simply, it was because a “great power” beyond human understanding was at work.

It was a power that kept the “story” moving smoothly along.

Viola was one of the performers in that “story,” and a stagehand as well.

In other words, Viola was the apostle of the god who spun Mereucce's story, and her “master” was not Count Runtart but a god.

Whenever she drifted off and vanished...... it was to receive an oracle from the god and carry out her work as a stagehand, moving the story along.

“............”

Making no sound and noticed by no one, Viola moved down the corridor and entered the storeroom on the first floor of the Runtart mansion.

There, she unhurriedly pressed hard on one of the wall panels...... and a magic-tool mechanism activated, revealing a secret staircase that led deep underground.

This hidden staircase had existed since the Runtart mansion was built, but now it was hidden by the “great power,” and no one but Viola ever noticed it was there.

And so the basement beyond was where Viola could commune with her god without worrying about prying eyes...... and what's more, it had become her hobby room, where she could indulge the urges she had to hide from the world.

At the end of the cold stone stairs lit by magic lamps was another small stone room.

With a gigii, Viola pushed open the rusted iron door and stepped into the basement.

Then, she took a deep breath.

What tickled her nostrils was...... the smell of blood.

“............Ahaa.”

As she smelled it, a sultry sigh leaked from her lips.

This smell was the smell of yesterday's kill.

......Irresistible.

<<<Hey, Viola...... sorry to interrupt while you're enjoying yourself, but would you come over here already?>>>

“......Yeah, yeah, yeah...... tch, I know, damn it.”

Now, something had been speaking to Viola.

It was a full-length mirror, the one lone object in this basement.

To be more precise, what ought to have been a mirror reflected not Viola, standing in front of it, but a floating cube, and it was that cube that was speaking to her.

<<<Don't click your tongue at me. Same as ever, your attitude's bad even with me. Be more polite with me, like you are with Mereucce-chan. You're my apostle, aren't you?>>>

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorryyy.”

Shifting its color at random, from green to yellow, purple, blue, red and more, the cube complained to Viola.

As for Viola, her usual polite, occasionally insolent attitude vanished; she slammed the iron door shut and sat cross-legged in front of the full-length mirror.

Then, in that position, resting her cheek on her right hand, she stared at the cube and spoke.

“So? Calling me out of nowhere, what do you want...... Cube God Kakushii.”

At last, this arc's god appears!

Her name: “Cube God Kakushii”!

......What the heck is that!?