In the parlor on the first floor, Nina, Tien, and Emily sat down opposite the real captain of the Dark Frost Mercenaries.
“Dear me, what a poor impression we must have made on you,” he said.
“I was awfully surprised to find out you’re the captain,” Nina said.
“I didn’t mean to hide it,” he said. “But I have to train up my successor, you know. Ah, that’s very kind of you.” He accepted the cup of tea Nina offered him with a smile.
“How do you always just pop up with a pot of tea?” Emily asked.
“Any maid would do the same.”
Emily groaned. “I mean, you do make really good tea, but still...”
“Well I’ll be!” the captain said as he took a sip. “This is good tea. The aroma and flavor are quite extraordinary.”
His look of delight contrasted rather strongly with Emily’s frown.
“In any case,” he went on, “I’d like to apologize for all the trouble we made for you young ladies.”
He bowed his head, then proceeded to tell them about the Dark Frost Mercenaries and the future of the company.
His son was, in fact, a fine warrior. He’d tapped him to be the next captain, but in peacetime, the man had turned out to be a good-for-nothing drunk who spent all his time chasing after women. The old man couldn’t bring himself to hand over the reins to such a man. Instead, hoping to encourage him to become more independent, the old man had left the mansion—all, as it turned out, for nothing.
“But maybe it’s for the best,” the old man said.
“Wait, what?! You’re gonna put your drunk son in charge of a mercenary company?”
“Emily, that’s rude!” Nina said, but the old man just chuckled.
“Your mage friend doesn’t mince words. But that wasn’t what I meant. I’m not going to make him captain.”
They looked at him in surprise.
“You mean...there’s another candidate...?”
The old man shook his head. “The job of a mercenary company is to fight wars. Some call us disposable, or nobles’ dogs... Even so, we took pride in our work. We even built this fine mansion. But there hasn’t been a major war for three years now.”
Nina remembered hearing the same thing. As the Yupiter Empire grew stronger, its enemies grew fewer. There were other large nations like the Crecente Kingdom, but such great powers didn’t want to waste resources on a massive conflict.
“That’s three years without drawing our swords, and likely many more to come. And so I wonder—maybe we’ve become unnecessary. Maybe no one needs military might any more. A very fine thing, don’t you agree?”
“I don’t understand...” Nina said. She didn’t know what else to say.
If it were a simple question of need, then yes, perhaps the mercenaries were unnecessary. But what if she were in their place? If there came a time when maids were no longer needed, would she be able to accept it as readily as the old man did? All of a sudden, she didn’t know what to think.
“Lately, I’ve been thinking that it might be best to disband while I’m still alive. Anyone who still wants to be a mercenary can go and join another company or go abroad. They could even become a regular soldier or an adventurer. But the fact is, Thundergard doesn’t need all these mercenary companies any more.”
“But Captain...”
The old man took another sip of tea. “Delicious,” he said with satisfaction. But then a bitter look came over his face. “The trouble is, my son thinks differently. He dressed up those two—Pearly Cloud and Morning Star—as lupalunes to bolster our public image.”
“Dressed up? You mean those two are really—”
“Aye, they’re just humans. Before they joined us, they were slum urchins living on scraps. They had no past, which made them easy to disguise as lupalunes. They played the role well too...” He glanced at Tien. “But not well enough to fool the real thing, eh?”
“They smell wrong,” she said, looking smug. “Chi knew straightaway.”
That reminded Nina—Pearly Cloud had been scratching his arm where his fur met his skin.
“So their fur and ears are all fake?” she asked. “Pearly Cloud seemed to have a rash on his arm.”
“Aye, all fake. We dyed their hair too.”
“Goodness... That’s incredible. I had no idea.”
“And you wouldn’t believe what the dye costs... A silly waste of money, if you ask me.”
The dye had slipped by Nina. Her duties had mostly been household chores, so she hadn’t paid much attention to their hair. She’d have to study even harder going forward.
“That said, my son was right about them. Pearly Cloud and Morning Star distinguished themselves in our last battle three years ago and got everyone’s tongues wagging about the Dark Frost Mercenaries’ lupalunes.”
As a result, people had started to come to the mansion to try and meet them—even nobles. The old man had gone directly to the empress and had the two lupalunes declared off-limits. It was pretty incredible that he’d had such a connection with the empress, but then, he had spent many years leading his mercenaries into battle for the sake of the empire.
“But me? I say that if a mercenary company can only keep its dignity through pretense, it’s better off not existing at all. We should be glad that there’s peace in the empire, and grateful to Her Imperial Majesty for bringing it about.”
Indeed, it was gladness Nina heard in the old man’s voice, not resignation or sorrow.
He really loves his country... Listening to him, Nina couldn’t help but feel happy too.
“Anyway, that’s enough about my mercenaries. What I want to know is what led to this whole kerfuffle!”
“Well, what happened is...”
Nina told him about the incident with the emerald necklace.
The allegations against Nina were cleared up in an instant.
The blue-haired maid came clean and confessed to orchestrating the whole thing. Jealous that Nina, the new girl, had been chosen to wait on Pearly Cloud and Morning Star, she’d stolen Morning Star’s treasured necklace and slipped it with Nina’s things. She figured that if she were the one to find it once Morning Star noticed it was gone, she could both win the lupalune’s regard and get Nina thrown out, killing two birds with one stone.
When she finished talking, Emily sighed.
“How dumb can you get...”
The blue-haired maid should have known that finding the stolen necklace would make her the prime suspect, but Morning Star was just as bad for swallowing her story hook, line, and sinker.
“Are you sure it’s wise to let her off?” the captain asked Nina. “That young lady tried to pin you with a crime.”
“Yeah, people usually get thrown in jail for theft,” Emily added. “And you could have been hurt!”
They’d given Nina the final say in whether to turn the blue-haired maid over to the city guard or deal with her themselves, but to the confusion of both Emily and the mercenary captain, Nina simply forgave her in the end.
“If you’re soft on people like that, they’ll just think they can get away with it again,” Emily protested.
Nina laughed sheepishly. “A-Anyway, Captain, I don’t suppose you know anything that might help us find Tien’s parents?”
That was their real goal, even if the revelation that Pearly Cloud and Morning Star were not lupalunes had made it unattainable.
As Nina had feared, the captain shook his head.
“I wish I did, but no. Lupalunes are rather distinctive with their looks and incredible strength. If there were any news to be had in Thundergard about them, I would’ve heard it... I suppose that’s why you took this job, is it? I can’t tempt you to keep working here?”
Nina shook her head. “I’m terribly sorry...”
“Ah, well. Can’t be helped. Besides, I’m not so shameless that I’d expect you to stay after the ordeal you just went through.”
“Tien, you must be disappointed too,” Nina said. “We didn’t find a single clue about your parents...”
“Hm? Chi is already over it.” Tien turned to Emily. “We should go. Now that Nina is not a maid here, there is no point in us staying any longer.”
“Huh? What’s the big hurry?”
“Indeed. Won’t you at least take a day to rest?” the captain added. “I’d like to make this up to you.”
“That is not necessary.” Tien rose abruptly, took Nina’s hand, and ushered her out of the room.
Emily sighed. “Um, I guess I’ll be going too, then.”
“Just a minute, Miss Mage. Where are you staying?”
“I can tell you, but I don’t think we’ll be sticking around long. We’re traveling around, seeing the sights, you know.”
“Ah, well. In that case, I hope you’ll remember this: If you’re ever in trouble, you can come to me. I’ll do whatever’s in my power to help.”
“Sounds good,” Emily said airily, then she followed Tien and Nina out the door. They weren’t in the corridor outside. It wasn’t until she exited the estate and started down the main street of the city that she caught up to them.
“Tien, slow down a bit!” she called out. “Why’d you hightail it out of there, anyway? If he wanted to give us a free meal, what’s the harm in that?”
“Look at Nina.”
“Huh?”
Emily turned her eyes to Nina. She was paler than usual, her lips purple.
“Nina?! What’s wrong?!”
“I-It’s nothing. You needn’t worry...”
“She would only have gotten worse had we stayed in that place.”
“What’s wrong with her?!”
“R-Really, I’m fine... I just... I remembered when I was thrown out of the Mirkwood Estate...”
Emily’s eyes went wide as she finally understood. Nina hadn’t simply felt physically threatened in the confrontation. She’d had to endure the pain of old wounds reopening. That was why she’d forgiven the blue-haired maid so quickly—she’d wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
“Nina... I’m sorry. I was totally oblivious.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
She’d put on a brave face even as she brewed tea for everyone. Emily had underestimated how stressful the question of how to handle the other maid’s crime would be for Nina. Now that she thought about it, her tea had been cold by the time she drank it. Usually, Nina would have offered to brew her a fresh cup, but she must have been too overwhelmed by that point.
Emily wondered what to say to Nina. Something comforting? Nina definitely needed that. But they had to do something else too. Something to brighten things up. Something they could do together.
Emily pondered for a while, then said, “Hey, we can talk about it properly when Astrid gets back, but I’ve got an idea. What do you say we go kick back at that beach resort down south?”