After magic training, it was time to stare down some paperwork. I’d assumed that I’d just be looking over some documents sent my way and then stamping them with my seal. You know, simple work. Unfortunately, I was terribly wrong.
A lot of the expenditures in the ledgers were a mess, many of the reports were barely written up properly, and it seemed like nothing had been checked over. The people in charge of things were clearly taking advantage of the fact that Weiss was unprepared for this job.
Well, too bad for them, I paid attention in school and played a ton of games, so I quickly noticed that things were all wrong.
“All right. I need you to correct the documents pertaining to this particular matter and have them to me by tomorrow.”
“Y-yes, of course!”
I immediately handed back a pile of documents to one of the men who’d brought them to me. He was probably racking his brain over how to make the contradictions in it make sense. Then, I used my shadow to grab a new pile of documents that were sitting just out of reach.
To be clear, this wasn’t a matter of not wanting to get up and walk to the papers. Rosalia and everyone here had no way of knowing this, but in Valhalla Tactics, you gained more experience the more you used magic, so I was trying to use my shadow hand daily.
These kinds of spells could only ever be used during combat in the game, so there was something fun and refreshing about being able to use them for daily chores and the like. Plus, I’d seen tons of dark magic in the game, so once I got a handle on the basics, I could imagine different techniques pretty easily. That being said, my magic power was limited.
“Man, these are so gross. I should probably eat something soon.”
I rang the bell on my desk as I sipped another magic recovery potion that tasted like muddy water. It wasn’t long before a maid knocked at the door and came in with a ham and vegetable sandwich and hot coffee on a silver tray. Since sandwiches didn’t exist in this world, I had specifically instructed her on how to make it for me.
Rosalia must have been busy because the maid serving me was Meg, the girl with the chestnut-colored hair who’d been bad-mouthing me when I first woke up.
“Lord Weiss, pardon me. I have brought your food.”
I wasn’t imagining that her voice was ever so slightly trembling. She had a smile on her face, but I could see the fear in her eyes. Weiss must have truly done a number on her…
“Thanks! Let me grab that from you,” I said with a warm smile, trying to calm her nerves.
However, she screamed from shock and dropped the tray, staining her apron with hot coffee. Crap, I had used my shadow hand without considering how she might react.
“I am so sorry! Please have mercy!”
“Nah, I’m the one who should be apologizing for using magic out of nowhere. I’m sure you must’ve been scared,” I said, standing in a bit of a panic and rushing over to her with a handkerchief in hand. That coffee seemed terribly hot, so I was worried that she might have hurt herself. “Are you okay? Don’t worry about my food. Go and get changed, then make sure you haven’t been burned. I’ll fetch my own food.”
But instead of taking my handkerchief, she stared at my face in complete disbelief. Huh? Did she want me to wipe her off myself? Wouldn’t that be borderline sexual harassment?
“Lord Weiss?” she asked.
“Hmm? What’s the matter?”
“No, I just…was wondering if you were going to yell at me.”
“Of course not. More importantly, you haven’t burned yourself, have you?”
Meg seemed baffled by my words, but I was completely at fault for what happened here. Magic could be a devastating weapon, which was probably why people didn’t use it for chores in their daily lives.
“Um, thank you for your concern,” she said hesitantly. “I’ll go get changed, just to be safe. As for your food…what should I do?”
“Like I said, since I’m already up, I’ll go grab something myself,” I said. “Once you get changed, feel free to get back to work.”
“All right, I will! Um, thank you for being so worried about me!”
Meg left the room in a hurry, but her steps were lighter than when she entered. After watching her leave, I stretched my arms up into the air. I’d been sitting down for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity to move my body a little bit.
“Lord Weiss really has changed.”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear what she whispered to herself after she left.
That night, I randomly checked my status and found that my loyalty score had raised by eleven whole points. What had happened?