It wasn't the smoothest passage to write, no. It's weird. All of the SDM characters we've seen, in their UF incarnations anyway, have pretty brutal things in their past, and in one sense or another they've all been alone in the world for a time. I suppose if nothing else, that makes the happiness they've lately arrived at even more of a pleasure to give them, if that makes any sense.

>It definitely explains the roots of
>her fierce loyalty to the Scarlet family though.

That it does.

>I do wonder, did Victor never tell his daughter where her maid came
>from? She noted to G that she never knew why Sakuya had a Fuso name
>despite not being from that country, which is something this lays out
>plainly enough.

He did not. He intended to, one day, when Sakuya was older, but keep in mind that at the point where this story ends Count Victor and Lady Remilia the Elder have only a little less than four years left. :/

As for Sakuya's name, Remilia also noted that she didn't know it was Fusōnese until sometime in the 1860s—i.e., after the Liberion Navy "persuaded" Fusō to open to the outside world. She herself knew very little about the place before then. Again, she meant to ask about it sometime, but the Right Moment never arrived, and then Sakuya disappeared in 1870.

The lesson here for the House of Scarlet is that "putting this stuff off until later because what the hell, you're immortal" can and will bite you on the ass...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.