Hugh chuckled a little and set his cup down on the table beside his chair.
“How naive you are, Kat. The Earl of Downing is more thorough than that. I’ll be lucky if prison is all I get. Worst case, my head will roll.”
“If you know that, then why are you sitting here leisurely having a cup of tea?!”
“Are you trying to tell me to run away?”
Suddenly, Kat grabbed Hugh by the lapels. “Why’d you go and do something like this?!”
Salim put his hand on the hilt of his sword, but Hugh stopped him with a glance. Then he looked up at Kat. “Take your hands off me, Kat.”
“Answer me!”
“Let me go,” Hugh ordered. There was a dignity in his voice, and Kat looked infuriated, but he pushed him away and let go.
Hugh fixed his collar. “In order to train silver sugar fairies, we require the cooperation of the fairy dealers. If Stowe is killed now, the fairy merchants will never agree to work with us no matter what we do. Obviously, we can’t have that.”
“Why are you so hung up on the idea of training silver sugar fairies?” asked Keith, despite himself. “This is about a royal order. The Earl of Downing is the royal family’s most trusted adviser. Shouldn’t we just do what he says?”
Hugh replied with another question. “When you saw Lulu’s techniques with your own eyes, what did you think? Ever since I learned of her existence, I’ve dreamed of seeing what fairies can do as candy crafters. With their help, we could create a new kind of sugar candy, something humans could never create on their own. I’m sure of it. That’s why I want to train them. That was impossible while the techniques remained the secret property of the royal family, but that ban has been lifted. His Majesty the King has made his decree. I don’t think we’ll ever have another chance like this.”
“But if you go against the earl in your position as the Silver Sugar Viscount—”
“I’m doing it because I’m the Viscount. Why do you think I accepted this position? I did it for the sake of the candy. What would I do if I lost my opportunity to transform sugar candy into something even greater?”
“You bastard. Why…?” Kat grumbled haltingly. “When you became the Silver Sugar Viscount, you never said anything about it being for the candy… Not a word… The only thing you ever told me was that it felt great being a noble, but… I was so sure…”
“I didn’t?” said Hugh, casually feigning ignorance.
“Never!”
“Well, I think I know what happened. You were so funny yowling and kicking up a fuss that I deliberately kept it from you. That must be it,” he said dismissively.
This only made Kat angrier. “You jerk! Back then, you turned down my invitation and accepted the post of Silver Sugar Viscount, right?! Are you tellin’ me you were foolin’ around even at such a crucial moment?! And let me just say, I’ve never once, in my whole life, ‘yowled’ at you or anyone else!”
“You’re yowling right now.”
“Now yer just messin’ with me!”
Hugh stuck his finger in Kat’s face, and Kat slapped it to the side as hard as he could.
With a puzzled expression, Keith interrupted their ridiculous argument. “You invited the Viscount to join you in something? You really did that, Mr. Hingley?”
Kat shut his mouth, caught out. Hugh was smirking.
“Doesn’t matter what it was for, does it?” Kat said uncomfortably. “I just didn’t like the idea of a good crafter lockin’ himself into a boring job and not bein’ able to use his skills, that’s all.”
“Whether you liked it or not, this was a position I wanted. I chose to live my life this way and to involve myself with sugar candy as the Silver Sugar Viscount. But I can’t do much if my head gets separated from my body,” Hugh said jokingly and shrugged. “My replacement will be one of the five crafters who studied with Lulu. I have every faith that one of them will take over for me, but they’ll need a mediator to help secure their position. Keith, Kat—and Anne, too, I suppose—you all are my only hope. Especially Kat. You’ve got more experience than the others. Take over for me. I’m not telling you to spend your whole life working away at a boring job like I did. Just a few months, a few years at most. That’s all I ask of you, for the sake of sugar candy.”
“Is being the Silver Sugar Viscount boring?” asked Kat.
“To be honest, it is.”
“If you think so, then why’d you choose to do it?”
“My little sister liked sugar candy. That’s why.” Hugh looked up at the ceiling and stopped talking.
It was the first any of them had heard about him having a little sister. Keith, the son of the former Silver Sugar Viscount, knew all about Hugh’s career ever since he’d entered the world of candy crafting. He’d been certain Hugh didn’t have any relatives.
That means before he became a crafter, his sister must have…
Hugh was an orphan and had lived on the streets in downtown Westol when he was young. It wasn’t unusual for homeless children to pass away. It was a harsh environment, especially for weak girls and small children.
However, Hugh had managed to escape life on the streets. One day, he knocked on the front door of the Mercury Workshop and asked them to take him in as an apprentice. Normally, a workshop would never take on some nameless child without a guarantor. But Hugh had been saved by the deep pockets of the former Mercury Workshop maestro and had become an apprentice there.
After that, he’d rapidly improved his skills as an artisan.
But why had Hugh chosen to be a candy crafter, and later the Silver Sugar Viscount?
“She saw the candy sculptures lined up outside the church on Pure Soul Day and said she wanted one like them. Though in the end, I was never able to buy her one. It made me happy to see her in such high spirits after seeing the beautiful candy. I wanted to make her even happier. That’s why I want to create beautiful sugar candy sculptures. It doesn’t matter if I’m the one who makes them or not. And so I chose a job that would let me do that.”
Kat hung his head and clenched his fists. “Why do ya have to punish yourself like this?”
“It’s my decision,” Hugh answered with a smile.
We have to protect the Viscount.
Keith felt this intensely. Hugh was a worthy person to be the Silver Sugar Viscount, and if his future ended here, it would be a loss for sugar candy and for candy crafters everywhere. None of the five candidates could measure up to him. At the moment, there was no one who could take his place.