Tegami Bachi 19

[Edited 10pm; fixed page 31.]
Thanks to haya5h1 for the raw! Sorry the translation's late this month.

Scanlators / International Translators: You're welcome to use this translation, as long as you credit Niphredil @ MangaHelpers.


Line break: New speech bubble / text box within the same panel
Blank line: New panel
**Asterisked purple lines are ones I'm unsure of
Blue lines are edits
Page numbering is by the raw filenames.

-000-01-
Image text, bottom: Chapter 19: "The Blue Picture Letter"

-000-02-
Text: Wishes
Text: Hopes
Text: Dreams

Text: I want to scoop up the sparkling feelings contained here

-01-
Lag: Hm...

Lag: ......
Lag: Nnnn...

Lag: Nngh~
Lag: Nnngh~
Lag: ...

Lag: I can't write...
Text: The struggling Lag; whom is this letter for?

-02-
Text: Eh...
Sylvette: You don't know how to write a letter?

Lag: I just can't write a good Letter to Gauche... to put in the Letter Bullet...
Lag: Morning, Niche...

Sylvette: A "Letter" is "Heart"! That's what you're always saying, isn't it?
Sylvette: Though I think it'd be fine if you just put your feelings into what you write.

Lag: Yeah... Sylvette...
Lag: But... even though I want to say more and have tons of different thoughts...
Lag: Before I know it, it's like everything I want to say goes right out the window...
Lag: I wonder why...

-03-
Syl: So then, Lag...
Syl: You haven't written that many Letters before?
Lag: Eh?!
Lag: Y... Yeah...
Syl: Even though you're a Letter Bee?

Niche: Niche hasn't either!
Niche: Cuz I'm a Dingo?
Text: Because?
Steak: Nuni~~~nu

Zaji: I've never written any either!!
SFX: Munch Munch
SFX: Munch Crunch Gobble
Connor: I've sent some to my family...
Connor: But it's only ever been greetings. I can't do advice~~~

Syl: Wait a minute!! Why are Zaji and Connor eating breakfast in our house?!
Zaji: I'll pass on the soup, OK?
Syl: WHAT?!

Lag: If the Letter Bullet can make Gauche's Heart ring out
Lag: It might bring back the memories he lost too...

-04-
Lag: But I've got to write a Letter with everything in it
Lag: For the next time I can meet Gauche...
Connor: Sylvette, could you make the eggs softer?
Zaji: We're out of ham, Sylvette!
Syl: Quiet!! ...and eat your soup!
Lag: *Siiiigh*

Lag: I wonder how everyone else writes...
Lag: Wow, there are so many trees!
Lag: What a huge mansion!
Lag: Good morning! Here's your mail!

-05-
Kimidori: Thanks for your hard work!

Lag: You're huge!!!
Kimidori: Tahaha
Lag: Oh... I'm really sorry!
Kimidori: Well, it's true, so it's fine~

Colbasso: Is the Bee here, Kimidori?!
Kimidori: Y-Yes, Ms. Colbasso!!

Colbasso: Please come in, Master Bee.
Colbasso: My Lady wishes to speak with you.
Lag: Eh... With me?

-06-
Colbasso: Kimidori! You aren't needed! I'll bring the Letters.
Kimidori: Y... Yes Ma'am.

Colbasso: ?!
Colbasso: My goodness! What dirty hands you have!
Kimidori: Ah—
Colbasso: What were you thinking, Kimidori?!

Kimidori: I... I-I'm... I... I'm very sorry.
Kimidori: I was just... This is...

Colbasso: Enough!! Get back downstairs!!

Kimidori: I'm very sor—
Kimidori: Uh—
Kimidori: Uh oh—

-07-
Lag: Are... Are you all right?!
Text: Wahhh~

Kimidori: Th... There's no need to worry!

Kimidori: My body at least is strong!!
Kimidori: Tahaha...

Text: Hmph...
Colbasso: That oaf!
Colbasso: Now, this way!!
Lag: ......

Lag: This mansion sure is impressive
Lag: But the atmosphere is nothing like Central's...

Rei: What was that noise just now, Colbasso?
Colbasso: It was just the new maid falling over.
Rei: Is she alright?

-08-
Colbasso: It happens all the time.
Colbasso: Anyway...
Colbasso: Oh, do come in.
Colbasso: Master Bee!!

Lag: S... Sorry for bothering you!

Lag: ......
Lag: Eh?...
Lag: A man?...

-09-
Colbasso: How rude!! What do you think you're saying to Lady Rei!!
Lag: Huh?! ...Lady...
Lag: Owahhh!! I'm sorry!!!

Rei: Don't worry about it... I'm sure I'm the one who made you think that.
Rei: I've often needed to act like a man in the past too.

Rei: I'm the master of this house, Rei Atoly.
Rei: Sorry for interrupting your work...

Lag: Wh... What I meant to say was, you're a very dignified person! I'm sorry!
Lag: I'm Lag Seeing, and here with me is my Dingo Niche, and Steak!
Lag: Hey... she's really pretty!
Lag: S... So...
Lag: What was it you wanted to speak with me about?

Lag: These are...

-10-
Lag: Hand-drawn...
Lag: Picture Letters?...

Rei: These letters with pictures on them have been arriving recently, addressed to me.
Rei: But the sender's name or address isn't written anywhere.
Rei: I thought that you might know something, being a Letter Bee and all...

Lag: They're only addressed to "Lady Rei" too...
Lag: This isn't a regular Letter... It's not one we delivered.
Lag: It must have been dropped off at the mansion directly...

Lag: There isn't a single word on them...
Lag: They're all just pictures of a mountain painted in this one blue colour.

Rei: The mountain in these pictures brings back so many memories.
Lag: Eh?

-11-
Rei: When I was young
Rei: I lived in a country town in the north, which looked just like the scenery in these "Picture Letters".
Rei: That's probably why.

Colbasso: After the Day of the Flicker, 12 years ago!
Text above her: Ahem!
Colbasso: My Lady's parents were promoted by the capital's government!

Colbasso: Due to concerns over the health of my Lady, who had been left behind
Colbasso: She was moved to the mansion conveniently located in Central.

Rei: Since I was a little girl, I've suffered from chest problems
Rei: But in the last few years, I've gotten much better...
Rei: So much so that recently, there have been times when I've felt alive to an almost painful extent.

-12-
Rei: But the pictures in these "Picture Letters"...
Rei: When I look at these pictures that remind me of my hometown, it lifts my heart.
Rei: These Picture Letters have become my support for fighting illness...

Rei: Even though they're hand-made, I've had trouble finding out who sent them...
Rei: So I wondered if I could try asking the Bees for help, since they're Letter experts.

Rei: I want to thank this person with all my heart...
Rei: Lag Seeing...

Rei: Could I ask you
Rei: To find the person I owe my life to, the one who sent these Picture Letters?

Lag: ...!!

-13-
Lag: ......
Lag: Man...
Lag: When I heard her story, I just couldn't refuse...

Lag: But I got called a Letter Expert~~~~
Large grey text: Ehehe~
Text above his head: Miss Rei sure was pretty~
Niche: *stare*

Lag: Right... Where should we start looking...
Niche: Lag!!

Niche: You could fire Akabari?
Niche: We'll see the guy who wrote them!

Lag: That's it!! If I shoot my Heart Bullet at the Picture Letters..!
Lag: Good job, Niche!!
Lag: OK!!

-14-
Lag: ......
Lag: I can't do it.

Lag: If they were proper "Lost Letters", then it'd be no problem, but these ones arrived...
Lag: I can't just look at the Heart contained in a Letter like that.
Lag: I guess we'll just have to find the person who sent them...

Lag: The fact that the Letters were dropped off directly is proof that the person lives nearby!
Lag: If we can find shops near here that sell the writing tools, we should be able to figure something out!
Lag: First, this paper!!
Lag: ...Huh? When I hold it up to the light, there's some kind of picture...

-15-
Box: Paper Store "Axolotls"
**TN: An axolotl is a type of salamander, which this owner resembles ^^;
Lag: That's the design on the watermark!

Owner: The watermark differs depending on the maker and paper ranking.
Lag: Then I'd like to find someone who bought this mark...

Owner: "Howling Axolotl" is our hugely popular original product! Everyone's buyin' it!
Owner: It's world standard!!
Lag: I see...

Lag: Next are the painting tools!
Niche: Next are the pain in tools?
Lag: I said, next are the painting tools!

Box: Paint Store "Paint It Black"
Owner: Hmm...
Owner: These are different materials. They aren't paints we mixed here.

Owner: This is probably hand-made from flowers.
Lag: Nothing here either~~~!!

-16-
Owner: ...Hmm
Owner: This sure is a nice blue though

Owner: It could be Blue Romeo.
Lag: Blue Romeo...?!

Owner: It's a wild flower often found in north Yuusari, which makes a beautiful blue pigment.
Lag: Wh... Where are they?!

Owner: Nowhere in this town!!!

Lag: Haaa~... looks like it was pointless in the end, Niche...
Lag: Let's look a little more for some clues for Miss Rei...

-17-
Lag: Miss Rei's mansion sure is full of trees and plants
Lag: I wonder if there are any spirit amber deposits lying dormant around here.

Lag: Maybe these gardens feel like the woods of her hometown...

-18-
Lag: ......
Lag: Miss Kimidori...

Kimidori: You didn't give up on that long trip, did you?
Kimidori: Tahaha...

Kimidori: You're a nice colour
Kimidori: Thank you

-19-
Lag: Blue flowers...?!

Text: Her fingers
Text: Are stained blue...
Lag: You...

Yako!Lag: You're the culprit!!!
Kimidori: !!
Kimidori: Taha—!!!

-20-
Kimidori: I did it~~~!!!

Lag: S...
Lag: Sorry for calling you a culprit...
Lag: It just slipped out...
Kimidori: No...
Kimidori: It was me too...
Lag: But... it was you, wasn't it? Miss Kimidori...

Lag: You're the one who painted the Picture Letters...
Kimidori: ......

-21-
Kimidori: I wanted to cheer up my Lady
Kimidori: But I can't write...

Kimidori: When I was little, my job was making painting tools.
Kimidori: I taught myself how to paint, but I was always painting for my little brothers and sisters so I got pretty good.

Lag: But... Why didn't you sign them...?
Lag: Miss Rei said they were her support for fighting illness!
Kimidori: R... Really?!
Lag: Yes!

Kimidori: Oh my goodness!!
Text: Uuuu...
Kimidori: Thank goodness
Kimidori: I was useful... I don't deserve it at all

Lag: How about telling her it was you? Miss Rei said she wanted to thank the person too...
Kimidori: I...

-22-
Kimidori: I can't
Kimidori: Be thanked!!!

Kimidori: I want to be useful to my Lady...
Kimidori: But I'm not fit to be named...

Lag: ......
Lag: Not fit...?

Lag: The flower, Blue Romeo, which made up the paint, only grows in the north, right...?
Lag: Could it be that you have some connection to Miss Rei's hometown...?!

Lag: Huh...

Lag: I... I'm sorry!!
Lag: You have your reasons, right?...

-23-
Kimidori: Please don't tell her...
Kimidori: Otherwise... I won't be able to stay by my Lady's side!!
Colbasso: ......
Lag: Huh?!

Kimidori: Please don't tell her, Mr. Letter Bee!!
Kimidori: All this...
Kimidori: Please don't say one word!!

Lag: O...
Lag: Okay...
しょこまでいうのにゃらじえったいいいませんから．．．！
**Lag: Since you told the truth, I won't say a word!
Lag: It's a promise!
Kimidori text: I'm over here...

Kimidori: Thank you, it's a promise!
Lag: Y...Yes!

-24-
Lag: ......
Lag: But what should I tell her...

Lag: I really don't want to disappoint Miss Rei...
Lag: S-Sorry for intruding!

Rei: Lag!
Rei: You're late!

-25-
Rei: I heard about the Picture Letters
Rei: Colbasso told me everything just now!!

Lag: Is... Is that so?!
Lag: She told me to keep quiet about it...
Rei: Fufu... I see that Colbasso told you to keep it a secret...

Rei: I guess she couldn't help wanting to confess to me in person, after telling you everything.

Lag: ......
Lag: What...?

Rei: Colbasso made paint out of flowers from my hometown and painted me the Picture Letters!

Rei: With my favourite blue too...! That's why they brought back so many memories...
Rei: I never thought Colbasso would go that far for me...
Lag: ......

-26-
お嬢様のお役に立てればと
必死になっていただけでございます．．．！！
***Colbasso: I strive with all my breath
***Colbasso: To be of use to my Lady!!

Lag: Wha
Lag: ?!
Rei: I always thought... that you hated me, Colbasso...

Rei: I was wrong. Is there anything I can give you...?
Rei: I want to do whatever I can...
Colbasso: That is entirely unnecessary!!

Colbasso: Ah...
Colbasso: Fufu... However... There is *one* thing...
Colbasso: In the same town as my Lady...

Colbasso: Here in Yuusari Central, if I could but receive some land rich in trees and plants...!
Text: Land rich in trees and plants~~~~?!
Lag: She's so greedy!!

-27-
Lag: Excuse me...!!!
Lag: Miss Rei...
Lag: ......

Text: Please don't say one word!!!
Lag: Ngh...

Rei: ...What is it?
Rei: Lag...?

Text: It's fine..!!
Text: That brat won't spill anything for sure!!

Lag: I can't say anything...!!
Lag: I promised Miss Kimidori...

Lag: I can't say anything
Lag: But...

-28-
Lag: She never said I couldn't
Lag: Shoot a Heart Bullet!

Lag: Deliver the true Heart contained in the Picture Letter

Lag: To Miss Rei...
Rei: ?!

Lag: Akabari!!!

-29-
Voice: ......

Voice: My Lady!!
Voice: Lady Rei!!
Voice: While she was changing her clothes, she left...

Voice: She's supposed to be leaving for Central tomorrow...!
Voice: Lady Rei!!

-30-
Voice: My Lady—

Voice: Lady Rei—
Rei: Cough
Rei: Cough
Text: Shhh~

-31-
Rei: I don't think I could live in Central.
Kimidori: You like living out here in the country?
Rei: I love it!!
Kimidori: Tahaha

Rei: Is this your house...?
Rei: What's that?
Kimidori: I'm making painting tools out of flowers. This is my workshop.
Kimidori: This'll become green...
Kimidori: And this'll be a real nice hydrangea-blue.

Rei: Blue, like hydrangeas!!
Rei: Out of all the colours, that blue's my absolute favourite!!

Kimidori: Taha!
Kimidori: Me too...!

Rei: cough
Rei: cough
Kimidori: Are you okay?
Rei: I forgot to take my medicine...


-32-
Rei: ...Say!
Rei: Let me help you make that!
Kimidori: Huh?... Your hands will get stained!
Rei: Don't worry about it

Kimidori: Oh? That's good!
Rei: Ahaha
Kimidori: Tahaha

SFX: thump thump thump

Colbasso: Someone saw you come into this shed!
Colbasso: We're going home, Lady Rei!!

Rei: So Colbasso came...
Rei: If I don't go back, the servants would get fired, I guess...

Rei: I'm Rei
Rei: What's your name?

-33-
Kimidori: Ki...
Kimidori: Kimidori...

Rei: I've never had this much fun before...!
Rei: This'll be my good memory of this village!
Rei: I really wish I had some way to thank you, but... I don't even have anything with me...
Kimidori: You don't need to...

Rei: Oh yeah!...
Rei: One of my two hairpins

Rei: Take it, Kimidori
Rei: As proof that you're my hometown friend...

-34-
Text: Proof...
Kimidori: .....
Text: That you're my hometown friend...
Kimidori: ......

Kid: Sis~
Kid: Big Sis~
Kimidori: Stop it!!
Guy: If you'd just pay back the money, we wouldn't have to do this
Guy: But really, nothing's worth anything in this house...!!

-35-
Guy: Hm?!
Kimidori: Huh?

Kimidori: Ow!

Guy: This is amazing!!
Guy: This hairpin...
Guy: It's real Lion Silver!!

Guy: If you use this, not only would you be able to pay off your debt, you'd have a bunch left over too!
Guy: What do you want to do? Should I change it for money right now..?

Kimidori: ......
Kimidori: ...
Kimidori: Yeah...

-36-
とびきり高く．．．　買ってくれな．．．
***Kimidori?: It must have cost...
***Kimidori?: A fortune...
Rei: ......

Rei: ...Kimi...dori...

Kimidori: You guys are all grown up now!
Kimidori: Look after Ma and Pa!
Kid: Are you really going, Sis...
Kimidori: Yep!

Kid: Where's this Central place anyway?
Kid: Are there houses?
Kid: What you gonna do there?

Kimidori: I'm not fit to be a friend...
Kimidori: But if there's anything I can do for that person...

-37-
Kimidori: I'll do anything I can
Kimidori: For Lady Rei!

-38-
[no text]

-39-
[no text]

-40-
Rei: That blue's...
Rei: My absolute favourite colour, you know...

Kimidori: L...
Kimidori: Lady Rei...!
Rei: Kimidori...

-41-
Rei: That far away scenery... that I'd started to forget... and that colour...
Rei: Were in the Picture Letters...

Rei: This is the happiest I've ever been...
Rei: Because at the same time, my hometown friend...

Rei: Reached me...!

Lag: Picture Letters, huh...

-42-
Lag: So that's another way
Lag: To include Heart in Letters...!!

Lag: Right! I'm gonna try...
Lag: Writing Gauche a Letter with a picture too!!

Syl: ......
Syl: Lag...
Syl: What is this?
Lag: Gauche

Lag: My picture was a failure, Niche...
Lag: I guess I can't do it like Miss Kimidori...
Text, left: The completion of the Letter Bullet is far off...?
Text, right: Tegami Bachi——To be continued in September's issue

- - - Chapter 19 END - - -

Note: Throughout the chapter, the word ajisai-iro is used to describe the blue colour. Ajisai are hydrangeas.