The next day, I terminated my contract with the Blazing Valkyries and checked out of the inn. I made sure to give them a nice bonus on their payout after taking their actions the previous night into consideration. I then said my goodbyes at the Hunter’s Guild, at Commerce Guild, and to Darsen at the Oris Trade Company, and finally left town. My destination was, of course...a nearby forest, where Reiko and I did some hunting. I figured getting experience hunting under Reiko’s coaching could come in handy down the line. Come to think of it, I’d only hunted horn rabbits ever since I’d arrived in this world.
We were just killing time, though—we’d contacted Kyoko last night and asked her to pick us up in her dinghy, so we were just waiting for her to show up. We couldn’t have her ship flying in right in the middle of the day, so our rendezvous would be later, after it got dark out.
“What?! That’s so messed up!”
Kyoko had been at her shop during our whole ordeal, and she was predictably super upset when we told her what had happened.
We’d originally planned for one of us three to be at Little Silver at all times, but we’d decided to do away with that rule once the kids had gotten used to living there, since no one in town would dare mess with Little Silver’s personnel anymore, and everyone from the Hunter’s Guild, the Commerce Guild, the townspeople, the local lord, and his people including his army and guards, were looking out for them. Apparently, Muno’s Tavolas Trade Company had been checking in on them from time to time too.
So, the kids had been handling the work at Little Silver all by themselves for the past few days. The concern about them getting emotionally unstable without us there had been mostly resolved, and they could now go ten days or so by themselves without problems. They probably understood by now that we weren’t going to suddenly abandon them...or maybe they figured we wouldn’t just disappear while leaving Hang and Scary there. As orphans, they may not have seen value in themselves, but they could confidently say we wouldn’t abandon two prize horses. Their reasoning may have been flawed, but at least it put their minds at ease.
With all of us assembled on the second floor of Kyoko’s shop, we gave her the rundown of what had happened, and sure enough, she got mad. I couldn’t blame her; I would’ve been upset too. So one might wonder: Why had we left her out of our plan? Simply put, neither Reiko nor I wanted people to die or have their lives ruined unnecessarily. We’d had no choice, really.
I wanted to move the discussion along, so I said, “Kyoko, we think it’s about time we make our move to the royal capital. What do you think?”
“Oh? Yeah, I think that’s a good idea!” she said.
I knew she’d agree. She’d been secluded because of her work at the shop, so she’d probably been itching for our reunion and to move Little Silver to the royal capital.
Sorry for everything until now, Kyoko.
“Is your shop gonna be okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I set up a new management structure by hiring some adults who grew up in orphanages, and things are running just fine. Even if they got any funny ideas about taking over my business, they wouldn’t be able to keep it running without me supplying products, and no one would ever want to hire people from orphanages again if they did that, so those are powerful deterrents. Barring any extreme unforeseen trouble, the shop will run itself as long as they keep up the product deliveries. Besides, even if something happens while I’m not there, the orphanage personnel and people who grew up in orphanages should give the shop their full support. My business is like a test case for former orphans working as managers and employees, so they’ll probably put their lives on the line to protect it for the sake of orphans who will look for work in the future. If some thug tries to mess with them, they’ll probably take them out,” Kyoko said.
“That’s terrifying! You’d better teach them not to do anything stupid like that!”
She really was something... This was exactly why I couldn’t trust Kyoko as an educator for children. Well, she did have her employees to take care of now, so she couldn’t afford to let her business go under. Not to mention, she’d bought her shop outright instead of leasing it.
Anyway, even without her constantly being there, her business would probably be fine if she quietly restocked her products at night, ran some operational audits every now and then, and gave out orders to her crew. She could let her orphan team run things as long as she supplied the inventory as the owner and didn’t need to be running the day-to-day tasks as a manager. The Commerce Guild in that town was very cooperative and had been checking up on them to make sure the employees didn’t cause issues and other shops didn’t try to mess with them. She seemed to have picked a good town.
“So, from now on...” I said.
“In the royal capital, with Little Silver...”
“We’re starting part two of KKR’s base operations!” the three of us concluded in unison.
“Einherjar has departed. That is, ‘Musclehead Falsetto,’ who’s said to be the closest to the original, the one true heir out of the members of the fifth generation, has ridden off on the prize horse Flat. It seems the Fearsome One has not given up the divine sword Exgram. Falsetto’s destination is the east coast of the continent, where the Angel is said to have been sighted.”
An old man rose from his chair upon hearing the report from the information division.
“What the hell?! We’ve been sitting here holding back, and Fran just goes and does this?! Rally the officers from the information division, combat division, and development division. All of the elders too! We’re having an emergency meeting!”
“Yes, sir!”
“...But Kaoru probably wouldn’t want a huge commotion and doesn’t like drawing attention to herself. Besides, we’re not the weak people who need her protection anymore. We’re the ones taking in orphans, giving them an education, and protecting them. So what we can do for her now is...” mused an old man; he looked far younger than his actual age, much like Francette. “Maybe we could make a branch store for the Tears of the Goddess and leak fake info claiming the potions with extraordinary effects came from us? We could have the staff at that branch tell people they already sold the one bottle they had, and that they get the potions from the main store, so they don’t know any details. No one would bother crossing the continent to investigate here, and even if they did, I could educate them on all there is to know about the Order of the Goddess Kaoru. Come to think of it, I think we could start up a branch of our order on the east coast...”
“The Goddess has appeared?!”
“Yes! She’s being called an Angel there, but judging by Fearsome Fran’s reaction and everything else going on, it’s highly probable that this is the coming of the Goddess we worship.”
Upon hearing his subordinate’s report, tears rolled down the old man’s face as he lay in bed.
“It all happened back when I was still sixteen... Backed into a corner, our empire took a gamble on a plan to ambush the Kingdom of Balmore from two sides at once. I was still just a new recruit back then, and...”
The old man had started recounting tales from his past, and they had a tendency to be rather long.
“And that’s what happened,” he said, finally done with his story. “Summon the commander in chief of the navy and the chairmen of the major shipping companies. Tell them it’s for the expansion of trade routes to the eastern coast of the continent. Now is the time to repay my country’s savior, Lady Kaoru! Ah, to think I would be blessed with such a godsend while I was still alive. O Goddess! Ah! Ahhh!”
Suddenly, the old man’s face turned sober. “I’ve heard the Goddess dislikes appearing in public... Perhaps I should be very careful about this and protect her from the shadows.”
“We’ve received a message from headquarters.”
An old woman gave a dubious look as she heard the report from her butler.
“Hm? It’s not yet time for our regular communication, and no shipment is scheduled to arrive. What is it about?”
“It seems to be an emergency.”
“What?! Read it to me at once!”
Unlike the members of the Tears of the Goddess, the woman had only consumed a potion that improved her abilities without applying any sort of health-bolstering effect when she was a little girl. Therefore, she had aged like any normal person and was often compared to a wizard or supernatural being from folklore.
Since her vision had diminished, she had her butler read anything written in small print for her. Other than “the message” that had been sent to her several months ago, it had been many years since the last time she had gotten emergency mail from headquarters, which went to show just how rare it was.
The butler began reading aloud. “From General Director Emile Nagase, addressed to Countess Raphael. We’ve confirmed the location of She Who Has Come For Her Second Vacation. The Fearsome One has pulled a fast one on us and sent out the young Einherjar on horseback. We are to dispatch the ‘eyes,’ ‘ears,’ and ‘mouth,’ and build a branch store at said location. Do refrain from any conspicuous action. That is all.”