To him, this must’ve looked like a rare accessory the likes of which he’d never seen before.
A large sneer crossed the man’s face. “I’ll just go ahead and hold onto it, if it’s so important.”
He snatched the watch from me as I tried resisting him before shoving it into his breast pocket.
Heheh, I totally just made bank on that one! I still have to split it with these guys since they saw it, but still...
The leader of the group just couldn’t stop smiling.
Of course, I couldn’t stop grinning on the inside, either.
The group ended up bringing me all the way to the governor’s estate. Even if the baron was on the bottom of the aristocracy’s totem pole, he was still nobility, and the most powerful individual in this small domain. Maybe he was just compensating for something, but I had to admit he had quite impressive digs.
Nobody asked who I was as they brought me inside, and I ended up being led to some sort of parlor room. I was passed off to one of the servants waiting outside, and the group of thugs took their leave.
“I have brought Miss Kaoru with me.”
After making that announcement to the room, the servant ushered me inside.
Sitting at the table inside, I saw a portly man—who I assumed to be the baron himself—a woman who was probably his wife, and three others who I’d bet were their children: a guy who looked to be around twenty; a boy who was probably about sixteen; and a girl who seemed somewhere between thirteen and fourteen years old. Everyone seemed like they were a bit on the plump side (probably due to a lifestyle of no exercise and rich food). And I didn’t know if it was hereditary or something they’d acquired later, but the whole family had this sort of... malicious look in their eyes.
...I should stop judging them based on their eyes. It was making me sad for some reason. Right, it was time to switch to a different train of thought. Yeah.
Okay, so Rodolph is the eldest son, and the daughter and next oldest son are... Agh, I forgot!
Man, I really wasn’t good when it came to remembering foreign names.
One thing I remembered the hunters telling me about the eldest son Rodolph was his horrible reputation. Apparently, there were plenty of incidents, ones where he acted like he’d already inherited his father’s baronial title. I thought that might come in handy later, so I made sure to keep that in mind when I heard it.
The second son was supposed to be pretty decent compared to his older brother, and smart, too. I tried asking around about the daughter, but I didn’t manage to wrangle any decent info. An aristocrat’s daughter wouldn’t really just wander about town, so I guess it made sense there wouldn’t be as many rumors about her when compared to the sons.
“Glad to have you here, my dear Kaoru.”
The baron gave me a nice broad smile. It was pretty gross having him grin at me like that. Still, this was probably a huge service for me. I mean, not only did someone from the nobility come to greet me with his entire family, he was also being welcoming about it. Not to mention, this particular baron didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about the common folk. I was willing to bet something like this wasn’t exactly an everyday occurrence here.
“My humblest gratitude for your invitation, Baron.” I gave a small curtsey, something I’d learned from watching movies.
“Oho, now would you have a look at that...” The elated baron wore a smile that stretched across his entire face. “Please, have a seat. Allow me to welcome you on behalf of my household.”
Baron Renie was absolutely over the moon. He’d been very displeased at first when one of the hunters who worked under him came at an ungodly hour late last night, but was utterly floored after hearing what they had to say: There existed some sort of magical medicine that could heal wounds in an instant. Not only that, but the one who brought them was a little girl with no one around to protect her. It was hard for him to believe, but, if it were true, then he could be making more money than he knew what to do with! No, not just something as small-minded as that—becoming an earl, nay, a marquis, may not just be a dream anymore!
This enigmatic medicine was said to be able to bring a person back from the jaws of death in the blink of an eye. Not only was this something he desired for himself, but all the nobility would want some of this miracle medicine. Who knew when they would need it for friends and family who might be injured in battle or other unforeseen accidents? He could scarcely even imagine how much money they would pay for it, or what sort of conditions they would accept just to have it... He might even be able to get the royal family in his debt! The baron couldn’t believe what good luck he had for this girl to have appeared within his domain. Fortune certainly seemed like it was smiling upon him...
And so, he turned his attention to the girl who had been brought before him. She had well-defined features, and an absolutely dastardly look in her eyes. She reminded him of one of his cousins who used to bully him when he was a child... He showed no fear, however, and feigned being a gracious, aristocratic host as he sat in his chair.
He heard there’d been four vials of this medicine in total. Not just one, but a whopping four. Not only that, but she’d tried selling them, and at an absurdly low price. That meant there was more of this medicine somewhere, and she was able to get it very easily. If he could get a hold of the person who made it, then he could have a monopoly on production of this miracle cure-all!
Forcing her to spill everything she knew was definitely an option, but there was a chance this girl might not have enough information to go off of. It would be a problem for him if she went and died too easily. There was also the possibility that one of the girl’s relatives was making this medicine, and he’d be in trouble if they flat-out refused to listen to him. His best bet here would be to act as friendly as possible to try and appease her. She may have been a petty commoner girl, but he’d made sure to urge his family to feign being as kind as possible to her. Everything should go off without a hitch.
Kaoru felt like she had a rough idea of what the baron was thinking, judging by his suspiciously pleasant attitude. To her credit, she was mostly right.
He introduced her to his family, then they spent some time enjoying tea and expensive snacks while making idle chit-chat. Eventually, while taking great care not to be too impatient, the baron got to the matter at hand.
“By the way, Kaoru, about that medicine you had... Well, just how did you get a hold of it? Was there someone who made it that you got it from, perhaps?”
There it was, the real reason she was here.
And so, Kaoru gave her answer: “Oh, I made that myself.”
“““WHAAAAAAT?!”””
It wasn’t just the baron who had yelled in surprise, but his entire family as well.
“B-By yourself... Does that mean...”
“Correct. I lived together with my father, who worked as an apothecary up in the mountains, where resources were abundant and plentiful. We made and researched medicine together all the time. After he passed away, I tried making my way back to town, but since I’ve been living in the mountains since I was five, I couldn’t seem to figure it out at all...”
The baron thought he was going to fall over, he was so pleased. She was the one who made the medicine! This little girl, who had no one around to support her! All with a method that hadn’t been made available to the public as of yet!
“Th-Then, do you suppose...you could make it here?” The baron’s voice trembled ever so slightly as he asked.
Kaoru, however, flatly gave her response: “That’d be impossible.”
“Wh-Why not?!”
“It’s because someone stole the device I need to make the medicine,” Kaoru calmly answered the screaming baron.
“Wh-When was this, and who?!”
“Just a little while ago, by the man who brought me here.”
“Call Riche here, NOW!!!” the baron thundered.
Alrighty, if I’m gonna mess up security around here, then I think I’ll stir things up a little bit more... Kaoru silently thought to herself.
The man called Riche—the leader of the thugs who’d brought Kaoru here—was brought to the room in response to the baron’s summons.
“What can I do for you, Bar—”
“Silence! Return what you stole from this young girl immediately!”
His jackpot find was about to be taken away. The man glared at the little girl who ran her mouth too much, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. Riche reluctantly took what he stole from her earlier from his chest pocket and handed it to the baron.
“There! How about it, is this it?!”
Kaoru took the wristwatch from the baron, inspecting it carefully before she opened her mouth again.
“Ahh... While this is certainly my device, it appears to be broken.”
“Wh... Wha...”
Though a nice shade of red just moments earlier, the baron’s face had suddenly gone pale. Riche didn’t know what was going on, and just stared blankly, stupefied. After all, the accessory in question wasn’t broken; he hadn’t taken any parts from it, either. That’s when Kaoru threw down another bombshell.
“There are plenty of people in the world who wouldn’t want you to have my medicine. Not only did he steal it from me, he even made sure to break it as well. What kind of horrible person wouldn’t want you to recover in case you were injured? I wonder if there are any people out there who would even benefit from something like that...”
Kaoru casually sent a glance toward Rodolph as she threw that out there. Meeting her gaze, he stared blankly back at her, before the color drained from his face once he realized the meaning behind her words.
“Wh-What are you...?” the baron let out.
By the time the baron looked over at Rodolph, his once dazed expression was already long gone, along with all the color in his face. The only thing to see was the baron’s eldest son, looking like he’d completely lost his composure. It was almost as if the reason Rodolph seemed so nervous...was because Kaoru’s words had found their mark.