“I’d also like to use Ash’s work in regards to finances too... Renge, could I leave that to you?” Lady Maika asked.
“Of course, I’ll take on the task. However...do we need this many accomplishments?” I wonder why we need to gather up so much of Ash’s accomplishments. I couldn’t imagine what it was for. I mean, when it came to Ash, he had pretty much made everything we needed... As I pondered over that, Lady Maika spoke with a smile.
“He needs to obtain a gold service medal. Once he has that, he can ask the king for anything he wants. One time use only, though.” Right, I see. I realized he was putting a lot together since they had yet to decide on a successor to take over the Yanga territory. He needed that so he could have a direct audience with the king. Even though I understood why now, something seemed strange about Lady Maika’s smile. She seemed really happy, like a child who had finally gotten a toy they wanted, or that her lifelong wish had finally been granted. It was Chief Reina who managed to work out exactly what her expression meant, though.
“It’s not really all that simple, though, is it?” Chief Reina asked.
“Heh heh, I can’t tell you anything more! Please look forward to it!”
“Maika... Ash can surprise us without any tricks, but now you’re trying to surprise us too? Is this like a married couple hobby of yours? Playing with people’s hearts like this?”
“W-We’re not married yet.” Lady Maika always gets shy when teased like that. I wondered if Lady Maika had picked up on Chief Reina’s subtle glare telling her to be a little more discreet. She seemingly hadn’t. Chief Reina smiled wryly. It seemed Lady Maika was all lovey-dovey with her and Ash being referred to as a married couple. It was troubling but cute. Her feelings for Ash were so straightforward, so bright and deep. While I probably couldn’t shine as bright as her, I wanted to focus that energy into my work.
The conversation slowly came to an end and everyone set out to do their individual tasks. Deputy Chief Hermes faced Lady Maika. “When we were talking about tomatoes and the royal capital, I remembered something. Is Ash still on good terms with Arthur? He’s in the capital, right?” A nostalgic name, yet one I had seen many times on documents before. I recognized him as someone that had helped with my work one winter, but looking at Chief Reina, who was a classmate of his at the military academy, her smile seemed deep.
“That reminds me, Arthur likes tomatoes, doesn’t he? Especially on pizza. He would often be hanging around at the research laboratory’s cooking pot. Well, back then it wasn’t the research laboratory, though,” Chief Reina recalled.
“That’s right, we were just working in a repurposed shack for prisoners... Ah, it was forbidden to eat tomatoes, wasn’t it? The dormitory supervisor, Rihn, didn’t let us.”
“He he, that takes me back. It definitely feels like we were lied to about tomatoes having poison. Ash was eating them like it was nothing.” Chief Reina fired off an accusatory glare toward Maika and laughed. Clearly Ash wasn’t the only one.
“Now that you mention it, weren’t you also eating them in secret, Reina?”
“Arthur too. Everyone in the study group, to be honest. All of us just went against the dormitory supervisor’s rules.” Suiren and I exchanged glances. This was a secret conversation between some of the military academy’s greatest students. I can’t believe they broke the rules.
“Okay, so the talk of tomatoes reminded you of my accomplice, Arthur,” Chief Reina remarked.
“We were talking about the royal capital, right? Is Arthur ever gonna come back? I know he’s probably got a lot on his plate, but I have so much stuff I wanna show him,” Deputy Chief Hermes responded.
“You two were quite close, huh.”
“He had no reason to dislike my love of airplanes.” Chief Reina and Deputy Chief Hermes continued reminiscing about old times together. “I’m excited,” mumbled Lady Maika, looking like she was having the most fun. She looked exactly like Ash did when he was about to do something.
・・・
As I was working on political sabotage in the royal capital, I bumped into Father Folke.
“Yo, Ash.”
“What is it, Father Folke? I am quite busy today, so I am not available to receive guests.” I opened the door and welcomed Father Folke into the office Count Gentoh had let me use. I was busy writing replies to letters and whatever else needed doing. What’s that, I never actually invited Father Folke out loud? Well, you see, this is actually how me and Father Folke greet one another. I would have actually turned him away otherwise.
“I’m also busy running the orphanage you know, but I was sent here by the Church. I’ll be leaving once I’m done here,” Father Folke responded.
“Then hurry up and say what you need. I shall prepare us some tea.” This was not just me welcoming him, this was actually me being very welcoming.
“No need. The maid who escorted me here said she would prepare some for us.”
“No, no, this is tea prepared especially for you, Father Folke.”
“By ‘especially,’ do you mean especially bad?” Of course, it is. We don’t have a relationship where I would prepare especially good tea for you. As we playfully exchanged jabs, he handed me a letter with the head priest’s seal. “When he handed me this letter, Head Priest Father Birkan told me that you needed a ‘merit’?” Father Folke asked, unable to hide his suspicions. “You’ve never really cared about stuff like that, so why the change of heart?”
“Hmm?” I responded in an uninterested way.
Father Folke carried on, remembering something. “I also heard that the whole deal with the successor to the Yanga territory is a mess. Could this possibly be related to that?”
“There’s something eerily strange about you being aware of what is going on in the world. Are you an impostor?”
“Enough of the impostor jokes already,” Father Folke retorted. I wasn’t joking though. This really was eerily strange. Father Folke sighed and grumbled that he would not get involved in my jokes.
Then he nodded. “If you need proof of your achievements, I can put in a good word for you. Stuff like the Fenix Orphanage, deciphering ancient languages, and so on.”
“You really are an impostor, there is no doubt about it.”
“I said stop with the impostor jokes, you brat!”
I continued to confirm that the middle-aged man swearing like a sailor in front of me was actually Father Folke while we waited for the maid to bring the tea.
“You’re too old to be talking like such a brat,” Father Folke continued to grumble to himself as he relaxed his shoulders and took a sip of tea.
“All I said was that you are not acting like your normal self. I will take you to see Doctor Lusus. There is definitely something wrong with your head. No doubt about it. When did you hit it?”
“You try to be nice to someone for once and this happens. You do know I’m not going to put in a good word for free.”
“You should have begun with that. Now that is something the real Father Folke would say.”
He wanted knowledge in exchange for saying nice things about me. “Have you heard the words ‘self-propagating nanobots’ before?” Father Folke asked.
“Nanobots?” They were cutting-edge technology used by the society in my past life. To put it in layman’s terms, they were nanometer-sized machines that users could manipulate at will. They were incredibly useful items, being used in artificial intelligence. For example, nanobots used in healthcare could completely cure a cold or the flu in just a few hours. You would make a full recovery without feeling any side effects. When used as a vaccination, as long as the nanobots were working, you could expect to never catch a cold at all. Other iterations of the nanobots were strengthening people’s immune systems.
“I do remember reading about something like that in the early civilization legends, yes,” I responded.
“As I thought. I had an idea that you would probably know something about it, but I’m still surprised that you do.”
Father Folke mumbled to himself about it being an ancient artifact and then looked up at the ceiling with a bewildered expression. “Back when I was deciphering ancient texts, I came across that word. I didn’t know what it meant, so I was at a bit of a loss.”
Father Folke thanked me for my help and then promised that he would put in a good word for me. “Well, it would be less of me putting in a good word since, well, you came up with the study plans at the orphanage, and you always helped out with deciphering ancient texts. So, if anything, I’m simply reporting your achievements.”
“That will be a great help,” I responded. Father Birkan’s letter said more or less the same things. He had promised to include various reports from Sacula’s church, how I helped organize book lists for temples in many territories, and other such accomplishments. Sacula had also replied saying that they would gather together all my accomplishments from the Territory Reform Promotion Office and the results of the battle with the werewolves too. The leaders of the Frontier Alliance had also sent correspondence promising to mention my work within the alliance. Okay, this should be enough to display my various accomplishments. All for a gold service medal that would allow me to marry the princess.