With the help of Micchan and her father — Marquis Mitchell — and members of Society, information was gathered about a man named Enrud. Thus, as expected from the daughters of high-ranking nobles and the head of a marquis family, the results of the investigation were delivered to me fairly quickly.
Enrud de Stolberg. The fourth son of a local baronial family. Since he had three older brothers, the possibility of him inheriting the title was almost zero. As a result, he had become close to Keidith, the third son of the neighboring Count Kurvarich family and hoped that in the future he might be hired as an officer in the Kurvarich territory's army or be introduced to the daughter of a viscount or baron.
...Of course, if someone was to be involved, it would have been better to have the eldest son rather than the third son, Keidith, but the eldest and second sons of Count Kurvarich family were far apart in age from Enrud, so Keidith was the only person who he could get involved. The same was true for the other three entourage members.
Why did he get such an important connection for his future involved in something like this? This investigation did not reveal much. ...However, one of the Society members brought some interesting information.
"One of Enrud's sisters studied abroad in Mileisha's home country, Norveth Kingdom. And she returned home much earlier than planned."
"Dear Sister, let's narrow it down to that and reinvestigate!" (Sabine)
"Loud and clear!!" (Mitsuha)
That was my cheerful response to Sabine-chan's instructions...
"Hmm. His sister was said to be the daughter of a poor baron who was nobility in name only, went to study at Norveth Kingdom in the hope of getting the chance to marry the heir to a noble family somewhere... Although her family's title is different, her goal is the same as Mileisha-chan..." (Mitsuha)
"If you can make a name for yourself among the nobles of Norveth Kingdom and gain favor with the future lords and lord wives, it will be easier to bring in marriage proposals to a baron or a viscount family of this country, who do a lot of business with that country. Also, she may become the bride of a noble family over there who is looking to deepen their ties with this country." (Sabine)
"I see..." (Mitsuha)
As Sabine-chan says, there were eyes over there too, huh... Well, that would be the case if the person had a lot of friends here.
"Then, for some reason, less than a year later, she returned home. Since then, she has continued looking for a marriage partner, up to the present day... When one of our members asked his sister, almost everyone who knew her said, 'Don't get involved with that woman'..." (Mitsuha)
"Ahh..." (Sabine)
Sabine-chan looked as if she had realized everything.
"What happened to his sister who was studying abroad in Norveth Kingdom? Let's go investigate again." (Mtisuha)
"Yeah!" (Sabine)
You look happy, Sabine-chan... Well, regardless of the reason for going to Norveth Kingdom, I think she's just happy to be traveling with me. This will probably be an overnight stay, so make sure you get permission from His Majesty to stay out overnight.
We had once again arrived at Mileisha-chan's home country, Norveth Kingdom. This time, we were not conducting interviews with people associated with Mileisha-chan, but with people who might know about the exchange students from Kingdom of Vanell from a few years ago. So, although there were some people who overlap with those interviewed in the previous interview survey, the majority were new people. The survey subjects were from a generation several years older than Mileisha-chan.
I wonder if they would be willing to casually share gossip about international students with me, a person from another country... When it came to the information about Mileisha-chan before, I had introduced myself as her friend from her place of study and had only conveyed positive stories of her happiness and efforts. However, this time seemed to involve less-than-pleasant narratives regarding a stranger...
This isn't about the nobility of this country, but about the nobility of another country, so will it be okay? I brought along a variety of alcoholic beverages, delicacies, and sweets from Earth, so I hope this will help open up their mouths...
Well, today I'm going shopping and eating with Sabine-chan, and work starts tomorrow. That's it, that's it! As they say in Spanish, "Tomorrow will be fine!"
"It took a little time to track down the people involved at the time, but the interview process itself was fairly easy." (Sabine)
"Y-yeah..." (Mitsuha)
That's all thanks to Sabine-chan's storytelling skills... ...And the power of Japanese alcohol and snacks.
In addition to the souvenirs we gave them, we also provided them with food and drinks to drink while we talked. For older men, strong spirits. For young women, a cocktail-style drink that was sweet and easy to drink like juice, but had a high alcohol content, would be recommended. This was not a souvenir, but something we would take home after cleaning up any leftovers. ...In other words, if they didn't drink a lot now, they would be missing out. The system worked by having them drink more and more, then Sabine-chan found out various things.
Of course, they were not all stupid. If this were a national policy or a scandal involving the country's nobles, no one would have loosened their lips, even if we were just young girls...or so we seemed...underage.
…Still, they had probably thought that there wouldn’t have been any issues in sharing what they had known about a daughter from another country, especially one from a lower-ranking noble family, as something they had only heard as gossip. It had been a story from several years ago. Moreover, since the person in question was no longer in this country, there wouldn’t be any chance for complaints. In that case, as compensation for enjoying fine liquor, rare delicacies, and pleasant conversations with a charming girl while hearing the latest news from a neighboring country, telling them that much had been practically free… No, in fact, it had been entirely free.
Well, there were still some modest people who felt it was a bit strange to talk about the nobles of other countries, but that could be solved by asking a lot of people. However, there were far more talkative people than reserved people. So, just as Sabine-chan said, the desired information was gathered quite easily. And the information that was gathered was...
...Just as rumored. No, it was exactly the same as the rumor about Mileisha-chan that was being spread among the daughters of aristocrats in Kingdom of Vanell. It was about the mischief of a daughter of a noble who came to study abroad from a neighboring country... The only differences were that the person was not Mileisha-chan but the older sister of that man named Enrud, furthermore, it was not a malicious rumor but the truth.
"...I think I understand the situation somehow..." (Mitsuha)
"Yeah, me too!" (Sabine)
Sabine-chan replied to my helpless murmur. Yeah, well, that's how it is...
"Well then, let's just check on that man's older sister's current situation... Is it okay if I only have one day tomorrow to hangout in this town?" (Mitsuha)
"Yeah!" (Sabine)
Yes, Sabine-chan replied cheerfully.
This time, in order to move forward quickly, I hadn't brought along either Colette-chan or Beatrice-chan. It seems like they have fun walking around a foreign city with me, but maybe they feel a little guilty, like they're getting a sneak peak at them? Once this is all settled, maybe we should all go on a trip somewhere in Japan again. The only language outside the Old Continent that Beatrice-chan can speak is broken Japanese...