The royal palace had a main building where the bulk of administration took place. Since it was also where foreign visitors were received, it was both heavily guarded and resplendent in design, featuring lavish carpets that absorbed footsteps and sounds. But even those carpets groaned underneath the furious steps of a pair of black boots.
“C-Commander Indolark! You need an appointme—”
“No, I don’t. Out of the way.”
Aresh brushed aside the knight from the Second Royal Order and flung open the office door.
“Well, if it isn’t Commander Indolark. May I ask what urgent matter brought you here without an appointment?”
The man on the other side of the desk must have guessed what the commotion outside was all about, or perhaps he had anticipated that this would happen. Camile, the office’s occupant, leisurely took off his glasses.
The Romany Kingdom’s strongest knight did not relax his glare.
“You know what this is about.”
Even this blunt declaration did nothing to chip away at Camile’s smile. Only his blue-gray eyes flitted away—to look at the man behind the fuming knight.
“Sorry, I couldn’t restrain him,” said Seiichirou, not sounding terribly apologetic as he poked his head out from behind Aresh’s black cloak.
“That’s no good, Seiichirou. You need a proper hand on the reins.” With that mild declaration of exasperation, Camile stood up from his seat.
Seeing this, an attendant ushered Seiichirou and Aresh to the sofa.
“I did try…” Seiichirou said.
“Ugh… Just when I thought you were staying put, you pull this on me! You sly fellow!” Aresh said to Seiichirou.
“Isn’t that slyness his strong suit? Oh, and I’d love to hear about what he did to placate you.” Camile sent an amused yet undeniably lascivious gaze in Seiichirou’s direction.
Aresh’s mouth drew into a tight line, and he put Seiichirou behind him. As Camile’s shoulders shook with uncontainable laughter, he bid the two to sit down once more.
Once they were reluctantly seated, an attendant put tea in front of them. Aresh grabbed Seiichirou’s hand just as he was about to take the cup. Only after Aresh had sniffed the tea and taken a sip did he say, “You can drink it.”
“It’s like you’re testing for poison,” Camile remarked.
“The tea here has made him ill before.”
“Really? Sorry about that, Seiichirou.”
“Oh no, it was quite a while ago,” said Seiichirou, feeling sheepish about the belated apology, “and I was careless at the time.”
It had happened over half a year ago, back when he’d had barely any magicule tolerance to speak of. Now that he’d built up a fair amount of resistance, he was fine with anything barring magicule-heavy indulgences like alcohol and tobacco.
“But, well, I hope you can refrain from such behavior while the visitors are around. It could cause diplomatic issues,” Camile said, steering the conversation back on topic.
Aresh’s eyes reignited with fury. “Does our country possess such a shortage of civil officials that it must dispatch a man with no magic resistance to guide foreign envoys around on a magic observation tour? Bearing in mind that his constitution is so delicate that even his tea drinking must be monitored.”
“Ha-ha-ha, have your dalliances with Seiichirou made you chattier?”
The old Aresh disliked small talk and only engaged in the bare minimum of conversation. Although one could say he lacked the social acumen of a nobleman, he more than made up for it with his martial and magical talents.
“Don’t change the topic. I’m asking why you picked him.” Despite his coarse manner of speaking to a man with an equivalent rank to Japan’s prime minister, their standings were more or less the same in a country where the government and military hierarchies were independent of each other.
“Well, now… I’m sure you understand Seiichirou’s work better than anyone, yes?”
It was all thanks to Seiichirou that the kingdom had started research on movement spells and a system for funding it. In terms of pure credentials, nobody was more suitable for the task. Frankly, if Seiichirou had been in Camile’s position, he would have made the same call.
“I…do understand. Yes.” Aresh shot a glance at Seiichirou.
When Seiichirou gave him a little nod, Aresh was relieved and the tension on his face eased. He understood that Aresh wasn’t trying to slight or underestimate his work. Yes, Seiichirou was the most knowledgeable about the subject at hand, but the issue was about his status as an otherworlder and his incompatibility with magic.
A diplomat—and a prince, no less—had to be met with someone of equal standing. It was strange for the role to be filled by an Accounting Department middle manager with no claim to nobility.
“It doesn’t take much to kill him,” Aresh commented. “Remember that he almost died in that church incident.”
“He’ll have a proper guard this time around,” Camile said.
“I was not aware of that.”
This comment came from Seiichirou.
He had assumed that Zoltan and some assistants from the Sorcery Department would be tagging along, and that was about it. But a guard meant someone from the Second Royal Order, and Seiichirou did not mesh well with that group.
He’d had a nasty run-in with them before, when some of the members exacted their vigilante justice on him for perceived rudeness toward the Holy Maiden. The only positive things to come out of that experience were the damages paid and the political leverage he got out of it. Between that and Commander Radim trying to rope him into supporting a romantic relationship between the prince and Holy Maiden, Seiichirou was much happier staying as far away from them as possible.
“Then I’ll be his guard.”
What on earth was Aresh saying? Seiichirou inadvertently squinted at the man next to him.
Aresh belonged to the Third Royal Order—and he was the commander, no less. Being well-versed in magic, the Third Royal Order occupied a special place among the knighthood. They mainly existed to defend the kingdom against the external threat of magical beasts.
They were frontliners, basically. Not bodyguards for random civil officials.
“You? The commander of the Third Royal Order?” Camile was wide-eyed, too.
“This is a vital matter for the future of our kingdom.” Was Aresh trying to claim that his involvement was justified here?
“Yes, I know that you and the Third Royal Order are magic experts, but you’ve got too many frontline duties to tackle matters inside the palace, too.”
“This tour will have a major effect not just on our kingdom’s plan to develop magic but also our diplomatic relations going forward. The Third Royal Order is indispensable to such important matters of the state.”
“Oh my, and so that’s why you’re offering the Third Royal Order’s full support on this occasion?”
Uh-oh! This is—
Seiichirou tried to grab Aresh’s arm, but the other man answered quicker.
“Of course.”
Oh nooooo…
The curl in Camile’s lips was not lost on Seiichirou.
The man had successfully baited them.
“I won’t accept anything else!” Aresh growled under his breath, his hand on the table clenched tightly into a fist.
Seiichirou could only sigh. In retrospect, Camile had them dancing on his palm the whole time. It didn’t matter whether he handed the role to Seiichirou on Aresh’s day off, because Seiichirou was bound to tell Aresh anyway. It was clear that nothing Seiichirou could have said would mollify the young man.
The job itself was of national importance, and Seiichirou’s necessity was an undisputable fact. Aresh wasn’t so foolish as to argue blindly against that. And so Camile had stoked Aresh’s protective instincts—to manipulate the kingdom’s elite magic knights into taking on a duty outside the frontlines.
Third Royal Order Vice Commander Orjef Rhoda raised his hand. “Nah, I’d say I’m the one who’s unhappiest about this,” he declared as he observed his dejected commander and the sighing Accounting Department official.
They were in Aresh’s office.
“I heard there were Egorovan envoys coming. And I knew that the otherworlder—Kondo—was involved.” Orjef paused there, glancing up again at his cousin and senior officer. “But why do I have to be a guide?”
Come to think of it, the last time Seiichirou had been in Aresh’s office was when everyone apologized for that assault incident. Each commander of the knight order had their own office outside the knights’ station. Aresh’s wasn’t as big as Camile’s, which was devoted to office work, but it still had an impressive-looking desk, bookshelf, and a space for visitors to make themselves comfortable. It was similar to Aresh’s personal room in the sense that it was filled with simple yet high-quality items and decorative swords.
In contrast to such luxury, however, the room’s inhabitant still had his head in his hands. His fists were clenched, and his gaze was downcast. He wasn’t saying a word.
“So…what’s going on here?”
It was fair to say that only Vice Commander Orjef, who had been summoned to the office without warning, had his head held high.