Tales of Translations

The chapter is structured like this: Natalia during the night before the final battle - flashback about Largo - back to present with Natalia.

During the first part, Natalia is back at the inn and alone (she shares her room with Tear but Tear is still out with Luke), so she thinks a bit about Largo and what could have been. She then falls asleep and has a dream about how life would be if she hadn't been separated from her parents.

In this dream, 'Badaq' is escorting a caravan through the desert, and 'Meryl' accompanies him, like she does from time to time. She wishes she could come along more often, because she loves the desert.

They have stopped for the day, and they are watching the sunset together. There's nothing really revelant in this part, but it was a very sweet father-daughter moment.

The rest of the chapter focuses on Largo when he was younger - how he met Sylvia, how Meryl was taken from him etc. His real name was Badaq Oakland. 

Killy Quente is a doctor in Baticul and Badaq's best friend. He has a wife, Nolene, and a little boy, Cal. He's also Sylvia's doctor.

Sylvia is frail and often falls ill, and it happened one day (on her 21st birthday) when Badaq was visiting his friend, and that's how they met. It was love at first site for Badaq, who found her really pretty. (He also notices how light she is (lighter than his sword, he thinks).) But he didn't think he'd ever have a chance, because he's so big and impressive and that often makes people scared/wary of him. Nevertheless, he still wishes her a happy birthday, which... draws a strange reaction of surprise from her and her mother. 

You could say she is overly dependent on the Score. That's because it predicted accurately all the major events of her life - her being born frail, her never getting close to her dad, that she would work as a maid in the castle etc etc. Because of that, she never tries to do anything on her own anymore - she just lets things happen. Funnily enough, what makes her take her life in her hands again is the Score itself.

Before becoming ill and going to the doctor that day, she had had her birthday Score read, and one part read:

This gives her hope: she had resigned herself to never get married because she was so frail and so wouldn't make a good wife/mother, but the Score predicted her marriage, so that makes her happy and ready to believe in herself again. She decides on her own to go and meet Badaq too talk about it.
She is still following the Score, of course, but in this case she acts to make it happen, rather than wait and let it happen. This is a big difference. 

Killy and his wife later heard from Maggie about that Score, but Badaq hadn't heard about that yet, so when they met again a few days later, the Quente were all like "Congratulations for your engagement" and he's like "Bwuh? What engagement?" "Yours with Sylvia!" "wth? I'm not engaged to Sylvia" "But the Score said you'll get married!". And he's completely confused.

They explain about the contents of the Score, and he objects at first, saying he's probably not the only one who wished her a happy birthday that day - but Killy argues that she wants to meet him, and that since he liked her (he guessed, but he guessed right, haha) too, he should at least try. So Badaq agrees to go and meet her.

Also:

So they spend some time together, agree they're made for each other, and get married. 

Killy had been clear: no children, she wouldn't survive the birth. And yet Badaq's birthday Score read:

This, of course, gave her hope again (she had resigned herself not to have children, but now the Score tells her she can). Badaq was opposed at first, because he remembers Killy's warning, but eventually gave in (he'd like a baby too, after all). 

So Silvia becomes pregnant, she's currently in good health and things are looking good.

The Queen became pregnant too at more or less the same time, and that perturbed things a little.

Firstly, the doctor that was supposed to help Silvia give birth was assigned to the queen, so he didn't have time for her anymore. That shouldn't really be a problem, because Sylvia's baby was supposed to be born after the princess, though she ended up being born earlier and Killy ended up being the one to help Silvia give birth. Despite their fears, the birth went perfectly fine.

Secondly, Maggie was to be the queen's wet nurse. She herself had no idea why she was chosen, but of course there was a reason it could only be her. 

The switching was foretold by the Closed Score, so Mohs did everything to make it happen: he's responsible for Maggie being chosen as the wet nurse, and sent two Oracle Knights to supervise things. Note that he was already a sneaking bastard, because one of them was being blackmailed a bit like Anise later, and the other... well it's not exactly clear, but it seems he was disposed of once the deed was done. Anyway, they both knew of the Score and were to ensure everything happened like it should - they had Silvia move into the castle after her baby was born, had her drugged the day the switch would happen, made sure Maggie was alone (well, they were there too) when the princess was born, and instructed her to switch the babies.

When Silvia woke up, she couldn't find her baby and went looking for her, first through the castle and then the city. She was completely panicked and still half-drugged, so she had hallucinations and that's how she ended up falling into the water - though to witnesses it looked like a suicide. At first, Badaq thought Meryl had been with her and had drowned too (he didn't know what had happened). He resented the Score because it's what made them have a child, and Silvia wouldn't have died like this if they hadn't had one. Van later explained how everything had been detailed in the Closed Score, and that made him hate it more and he decided to join Van in his quest to get rid of it.

The chapter ends with Natalia, back to the present: