The Nirva Orphanage’s madeleines tugged on the heartstrings of the kindhearted people of Galé and became a smash hit. They could last for two months at room temperature, so some people sent them as gifts to distant locations.
That meant it was time to develop the second product in the Nirva Orphanage lineup: matcha madeleines! All we had to do was take a bit of the flour out and replace it with matcha. Using matcha from Marsche was a good way to represent the union of the two nations!
However, we had to adjust production. We couldn’t flood the market. It was important to maintain the image that the children were producing as much as they possibly could. That was why demand was so high that there was a long line into the orphanage every morning.
Once a week, Arthur and I would take a walk around the kitchen, backyard, and storefront. We made sure that the kids were working hard and making progress, and it had the secondary effect of keeping the kids on their toes and putting pressure on our customers, suppliers, and competitors. It got the message across that the store was backed by people who could hurt them if they complained.
“Ms. Director, Mr. President, how do they taste today?” One of the girls in the kitchen looked up at us anxiously as we tried the madeleines.
“They taste great.” Arthur smiled and blushed. But not the director!
“The taste is fine, Tanya, but the browning is uneven on the edges. Are you keeping the oven at the right temperature?”
“Nils has a cold today, so Colin is in charge of the oven, but he’s not as good at fire magic as Nils is...”
“Tell Colin to come see me after he’s done with work. I’ll check on his progress with magic.”
“Nobody will notice that. You’re being too strict,” Arthur chided.
“People won’t give us charity forever, Arthur. If we don’t have something that can stand on its own as a product, then it’ll just be a passing fad.”
“That’s true...”
I was just trying to insure us.
“Can I advertise that the kids have the emperor’s second-in-command Arthur behind them?”
“Why?”
“Well, I’m sure there will be people who see their success and try to trick them, thinking they can get away with it because they’re kids. They might try to overcharge for ingredients. Also, the brand can have more prestige if people associate it with a marquis family!”
“Why don’t you stand behind them?!”
“I mean, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be alive. That’s how it is being human... I could die tomorrow. If I died, would you protect Gillain for me?”
Arthur had become more open-minded recently. I hoped that he would grow as close to Gillain as Sakaki already was.
His face hardened. “I can’t. I’m not as strong as you. I’d be dead long before you are.”
“What?! You should man up and tell me you’ll take care of it!”
He’d turned down the request, but I felt like I could hold onto some hope.
I took the defective madeleines that we couldn’t sell out into the orphanage yard. The kids who I’d assigned to watch over the orphanage were doing laundry as the little kids played.
“Director!” The kids surrounded me. The two who had been looking after them were about to come over, but I signaled for them to keep working.
“Who wants madeleines?” I called out.
“We’re tired of them!”
Of course... You’ve been eating them every day. I sat down on a bench and started snacking on some with Lou. Personally, I preferred them a little burnt.
“Would you mind sharing some with me, Lady Serephione?”
I looked up to see Regueid in a casual outfit—a button-down and dark brown pants. Arthur knelt next to the bench, and Lou stood on guard on my shoulder.
“What brings you here?”
“I’m here to inspect the orphanage, of course. I have Arthur’s permission. I see I have a lot to learn.” He turned to the children. “Come here, and I’ll give you some snacks as thanks for the madeleines.”
The kids gathered around the wooden box that Regueid opened and excitedly began to eat. It looked like dried fruits.
“I see you’re rather good with children.”
“I would hope so, since I happen to be a grandfather.”
Jeez, what brave woman married this guy? Regueid made sure that everyone had gotten some fruit and sat down next to me, greeting Lou with a smile.
“About the order you gave Arthur to protect the emperor in the event of your death...”
“That wasn’t an order.”
“Any request you make of a vassal is an order. You’re on the same level as the emperor. I overheard what you said and came to have a chat with you.”
“A chat about what?”
“About the emperor’s upbringing.”
I met eyes with Lou. Gillain didn’t talk about himself. I had just been guessing based on the lonely, icy-eyed Gillain I knew in the book. I nodded to Regueid to indicate he should go on.
Regueid happily ate a burnt madeleine and began to speak.
Gillain had been born in the nick of time just when his mother, the emperor’s third consort, was stabbed to death. The attacker was under orders from the second consort, who had already given birth to a prince. His mother died, and Gillain alone survived, born into a bloodbath.
He had no mother to protect him, and his wet nurse only came as often as she needed to breastfeed him, afraid that she herself would be killed. He grew up ignored and abused, deemed not to be of political importance.
When he took his magic examination and it was revealed that his magic ability was one of the greatest in known history, his own father, the emperor, sent an assassin after him, fearing that his position would be stolen.
Gillain’s eyes froze over. Having felt the touch of danger, he taught himself barrier magic and kept it active at all times. This allowed him to widen his scope of activity, which was when he learned about Asu.
He was about seven or eight when he made Galé’s bird spirit Asu into his servant. He then studied magic and martial arts under Asu. When the emperor found out about this, although frightened, he decided to wait and see and sent Gillain to a magic school in the country.
Other students often pretended to befriend him and then slipped poison into his food. Behind the scenes, he had numerous brothers vying with him for the throne. The attacks escalated when others underestimated him because he couldn’t fight back much while at school. When his arm was wounded, he sent a rain of fiery arrows upon the school; teachers and students ran away in confusion as they were hit. Despite his severe counterattack, he wasn’t able to stop the hired attacker.
He was sent to the magic academy in Judore to study abroad because, they said, he had no more magic to learn in Galé. Basically, he was driven out of the country for a time because people didn’t want to see him.
That was when Gillain met me—his equal, who also had a holy beast companion. He probably didn’t love me from the beginning; he was mostly just intrigued. But he sought me single-mindedly.
“He was different when he came back from Judore. Before, he was indifferent to everything and just struck back mercilessly at anyone who attacked him...but he came back with a focused goal to win the throne. I assumed he was on the offensive to keep from being killed, but then I noticed him smiling with Asu at times...” Regueid smiled nostalgically as he recalled it.
As he kicked his brothers to the curb, crushed rival factions, and gradually gained influence, he was attacked by his younger brother, the fifth prince, and nearly died.