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Chapter 3: The Dispossessed - Chinatown

Perhaps it is because of a strong sense of solidarity, or perhaps it is because they want a community to belong to apart from the outside world, Chinese people who go abroad form Chinatowns. Whether in the U.S., the U.K., Japan, or even in other worlds.

　In the evening, Asians who have finished their work gather in this area. When the sun goes down completely and night falls, the area is filled with the heat of people passing by and stalls appearing out of nowhere, and the whole town is filled with hustle and bustle.

　Vanayara, the capital of the Kingdom of Verity, Agiri - known in Chinese as the "Henei North Sea People's Segregation Zone" - is in this country but not of this country, a "small China" if you will.

　At first glance, the streets are reminiscent of Southeast Asia's Chinatown, with signs protruding from the walls of buildings that read "Henai Chinese Street" and "Longkou Grand Hotel" in traditional Chinese characters. However, this is not Indonesia, Malaysia, or perhaps even Earth. Asians, a.k.a. "North Sea People," who have drifted into the world of the Southern Ocean's Lodune Dumuuh due to the supernatural phenomenon of Avara, which twists time and space, are used as slaves, "budakem," and enjoy limited freedom in this special place surrounded by stone walls on all sides.

　At night, torches and lanterns were lit all over the town.

　One evening in July, Seiji Hodaka, who worked at a factory in a remote district, stopped by the beach after work as usual and took a short swim on the shore. Afterwards, he went to his favorite stall along the main street and quietly sipped on some rice noodles while Mandarin or Cantonese dialects were flying around him. Seiji had some money to spare that day, so he ordered some grilled meat skewers along with the beef. As he was not very greedy, food was the only luxury he could afford.

　Japanese were rare here, and he was probably the only one in the neighborhood. On this day, too, most of the customers sitting at the tables in front of the stalls were Chinese, and if he kept quiet, they would not notice that he was Japanese. He hated to stand out, so he came to this place where he could naturally blend in with his surroundings.

　Next to Seiji, a young Chinese man was occupying a table at a food stall, playing mahjong and chatting. It was hot, and they were all naked.

　Eventually, two or three people started to gather around the four men, and as they got excited, they started to dance around the table in some kind of unfamiliar way, with different rhythms and choreography. They laughed at each other's strange movements and even started to tango to the rhythm of Little Apple.

　They were all friends of this small Chinatown, and it was a very peaceful and tranquil scene if I could isolate it here.

　Eventually, two girls sat down at an empty seat. One was from the North and the other from the South. Unusually for this world, the two girls were not slave and master, but friends.

They were friends rather than slaves and masters, which was unusual in this world. "But still, beating a girl with a stick is unacceptable!　She's still such a child."

　The South Sea girl said, and the North Sea girl soothed her while they ate.

"Isn't that the way it always is?"

　But the South Sea girl expressed her regret sadly.

"I still feel sorry for her!　I wish I could have helped her somehow. ......"

　Feeling annoyed by the two girls chatting in front of him, Seiji cleaned up the dishes and was about to leave.

"Now, let's go home. ......

　Seiji said to himself in Japanese, thinking that no one would be listening.

　Then the North American girl glanced at Seiji. They looked at each other for a moment. She was also East Asian, about the same age as Seiji, and if she hadn't said anything, she would have looked Japanese.

　Perhaps it was because he had been surrounded by non-Japanese Asians for so long that he harbored a faint hope of finding a friend, but Seiji had unconsciously developed a habit of assuming that people who looked like Japanese people were Japanese.

　However.

　-- "intelligence officer". So, there is no way that ...... you can hear Japanese.

　Giving up, Seiji stood up. But this time, a South Sea girl approached him.

"That ......, by any chance have we met before?"

　Seiji took another good look at the South Sea girl. She looked to be about the same age as Seiji, and her face still had a childlike quality to it, perhaps because of her large eyes. Certainly, this face and this long black hair were familiar to him.

　But he was tired from work and wanted to go home and sleep.

"I don't know ....... You've got the wrong guy."

　Seiji turned his back on the Veri girl and strode away.

　Seiji's birthday is July 4th, and he will turn twenty-three this year.

　Since he was about twenty years old, Seiji had stopped befriending others unnecessarily. Since then, he has closed his mind and has always been unsociable no matter who he meets.

"Gone ......"

　The Veri girl muttered regretfully as she gazed into the distance in the direction Seiji had walked off in. Seiji walked away as if he refused to talk to her.

　By the light of the red lanterns, the Veri girl was seated with her escort, the North Sea girl. An occasional breeze blew through the air, shaking her long, slightly wavy hair and the North Sea girl's ponytail.

　Not long after, the North American girl asked her, "Do you happen to know if that boy is here?

"Is that by any chance the boy you've been wanting me to meet for a while now?　He looked pretty bad somehow.

　She held her chopsticks in her hand and looked at the Veri girl with a dubious expression.

"'...... Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, the boy also said that he was not from China. His pronunciation of Veri didn't sound Chinese, maybe he was like Tsubasa.

　The Veri girl made a strong argument with a rich expression, moving her hands busily. But the North American girl called Tsubasa hurriedly got up from her seat, moved as close as she could to the Veri girl, and whispered in her ear, "Don't say that too loudly.

"Don't say things like that too loudly.

"Oh, I'm sorry!

　The Veri girl apologized with an apologetic look on her face. The Veri girl apologized with an apologetic look on her face, but Tsubasa kept talking, trying not to be heard.

"...... But that doesn't mean you're Japanese like me, does it?　As I said before, there are many countries other than China in the North Sea.

　The Veri girl seemed to be convinced and made a disappointed face again.

"That's true. I thought Tsubasa-chan would finally have a friend from the same country. ......"

　Tsubasa moved away from her and returned to his original position.

"'Oh well, you can introduce me again.

　She faked a social grin. Then the Veri girl said something like this.

"I remember that boy was pretty good at speaking Verity. Oh, but Tsubasa is much better than him.

　The Veri girl hurriedly added. Tsubasa laughed a little, finding it funny.

"Chahaya is always so kind.

　She was always trying to be considerate of people's feelings, trying not to hurt anyone. She was always trying to avoid hurting people, and that made Tsubasa worry for her at times. But still, Tsubasa liked her genuineness.

　Tsubasa thanked her anyway.

"I'll try to talk to him next time I see him. Thank you for just feeling that way."

　Tsubasa smiled lightly and stroked her hair back, which had grown out of the knot. She smiled lightly and stroked her hair back, but her fingertips were a little uneasy.

　--The way she looked, even if they bumped into each other again, they wouldn't talk to each other.

　As "agents", Kanzaki and Tsubasa were well aware of the fact that they were not well-liked in the Separate Wards. That's why he always spoke only with certain acquaintances who understood him in the Segregation District.

The "Intelligence Corps"-Northwesterners who acted as spies for the Kingdom's government and followed officials in and out of the Segregation District, acting as interpreters and guards-were called "dem meel," from the plural of "meel," which means "eye" in the Verity language, and Tsubasa was one of these "eyes of the Kingdom.

　However, being Northwesterners themselves, they pledged allegiance to the Kingdom of Verity and sold out their friends, and were naturally treated as traitors by the other Northwesterners, who called them "Hanjian" (traitors to the Chinese nation). However, the Japanese Tsubasa, who is not even a traitor to the Chinese people, is a minority among minorities in this world, and lives by hiding the fact that he is Japanese.

　And the Veri girl Tsubasa works with, Chahaya, is a government official who comes and goes in every other district and is also a sorceress. She was from the Namargon tribe, a venerable family in the kingdom of Alahanna, and had a strong magical bloodline, which allowed her to use the powerful magic of yaridi. She was expected to become a member of the elite "Righteous Magicians" in the future, but at the moment she was working as an employee of the Administration Department of the Ministry of Public Administration.

　It was only by chance that the three of them met, and it was only for a few minutes. Their fates were never to cross again.　

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)