Chapter 98 – I Refuse!

"A move... that means changing where one lives, yes?"

Letaria looked at Milea with a slight undercurrent of unease.

For a girl who had lived her entire previous life as a duke's daughter in a vast estate, the concept of "moving" was something she knew the meaning of, in the abstract -- and nothing more.

"Yes. That kind of move."

"But why? I am perfectly fond of that room!"

The room Letaria had been given was not, by any generous measure, large. A bed, a small sofa, a low table, one chair, and a simple kitchen along one wall -- a rather cramped space altogether. But it was also the first place, in this ocean of unfamiliar stars, where she had learned to live by her own hands. A small bunker of a room, and one she had come to feel at home in.

"I'm glad you've grown fond of it -- but Letaria, the block you're currently living in is what the Bureau designates as a 'protected zone.'"

At Milea's words, Letaria found herself thinking back to the day she had first arrived in Seldia. Grain had brought her to that room and explained it then: "A place to protect you until we can establish your identity." A single sealed room in a row of heavy, identical doors that never opened, with nothing but a shared shower facility. In that cold, isolated corner of the station, she had begun her life here, alone.

"Things kept getting pushed back with everything that happened -- but you are now an essential part of Seldia. And officially, you're registered in my family as my sister. So the Bureau's office sent a formal request: 'the purpose of a protected zone no longer fits her situation, and we ask that she be housed somewhere appropriate.'"

The reasoning itself was clear enough to Letaria once Milea laid it out. But there was still a small, stubborn reluctance in her at the thought of leaving the narrow, familiar room she had settled into.

"I refuse! ...And what happens if I say that?"

"No."

"I refuse!!"

She put every last ounce of ladylike willfulness into her protest -- and was ultimately overruled completely by Milea's calm, irrefutable logic. The move was happening.

◆◆◆

The scene shifted to Letaria's current room.

"Here -- this is the autonomous moving Bot. You pack your things into this container. Give it instructions through the terminal and it will automatically sort and stow everything in the most efficient arrangement."

Following Milea's matter-of-fact directions from behind her, Letaria reluctantly began feeding her belongings into the Bot.

She had grumbled at first, as was her nature -- but she had also learned well enough by now that there were systems in this world of advanced science that simply could not be argued with. The beautiful dress she had been wearing when she fell into this world, and all the civilian clothes Sora and the others had since put together for her -- they were drawn smoothly into the metal container and arranged without a crease.

"This..."

Letaria's fingers stopped on a small cloth bundle.

In her palm: the letter Chiara, her lady's maid from home, had entrusted to her -- and beside it, the small pouch of Fluara seeds, the same flowers now blooming in full in the bio-farm.

"If it's not too large, you can carry it yourself rather than putting it in the Bot."

Milea read her without needing to be told, and spoke in a voice pitched a shade quieter than usual. Letaria held the bundle to her chest as though it were something precious, and looked up.

"Then I shall carry this with my own hands."

Letaria had never kept much in her room to begin with. Getting everything moved out took very little time.

The two of them left the featureless protected zone behind and rode the elevator up two levels.

The door slid open with a soft electronic tone.

"This is the block where your new room is."

The space Milea led her into was unlike anything Letaria had visited before -- orderly and composed in a way the white, utilitarian corridors she was used to were not. The walls were lined with decorative panels in warm, subdued tones that gave them the quiet texture of wood grain.

"This feels... rather different."

"It's a proper mid-level residential block. The area is used by senior Administration Bureau officials and executive-level staff from Syn-Fibra and affiliated organizations."

"Oh. Then -- is your room here as well, Milea?"

"Yes. Quite close by. Two minutes on foot at most, I'd say."

Milea glanced in the direction she meant as she said it. A corridor ran off that way, and somewhere along it, presumably, was her private space.

Letaria's face lit up in one instant, completely.

"That is excellent news! I shall come and visit every single day!"

"Ah -- that's actually... the thing is, there isn't really anything interesting to see in my room. And it's, well. Things get a bit... scattered. Clothes and so on."

The always-composed, always-immaculate Milea shifted her gaze to one side in a fleeting, uncharacteristic flutter and changed the subject with slightly more speed than usual.

"Never mind that -- look, here we are. Your room. The Bot has already gone ahead and arrived, so let's go in."

She indicated the Bot waiting by the electronic lock. Letaria turned toward the door of her brand-new room, her chest full of anticipation.