“You had all this extra time before the meeting and you’re still late! What in the blazes were you doing?” Zoltan barked at him.
After that conversation with Yurius, the prince kept pressing Seiichirou for advice about proposing to Yua all the way until lunch. By the time Seiichirou met up with Orjef and the other tour guides, everyone else was already there waiting for him. Since he couldn’t very well say that His Highness had accosted him for dating advice, he simply apologized. He said sorry to Qusta as well, who was trying to placate Zoltan.
Zoltan’s breath was ragged; he was probably on edge right before an important job. He was the one in charge, after all.
When Seiichirou turned his head to apologize to Orjef, he noticed the man looked worn out before the job had even started. He must have stayed late at last night’s dinner party.
“Are you all right?” Seiichirou asked.
“Yeah, but no thanks to a certain somebody.”
Orjef glared at him. Strange. Seiichirou had no idea what he did wrong, but if it had something to do with him, then Aresh was their point of commonality.
“Let’s have a chat later,” Orjef said.
“……Okay.” Seiichirou nodded after a pause. He knew this was throwing his work schedule increasingly out of whack, but it was best to own up to whatever his mistake was. Plus, he was curious about how Aresh was doing.
“Oh dear, have you been waiting long?” A scant few minutes after the tour guides had assembled in the room, the Egorovan envoys made their appearance.
Lars led the group, dressed in a plain black outfit that could not have been more different from the formal clothes he wore the day before. Simple though it was, the quality of the fabric was plain to see. It suited the stylish and regal Lars very well.
The other members of the group, save for the bodyguard knights, wore matching cloaks—likely a uniform of sorts.
“Oh no, you have nothing to worry about. Now then, make yourselves at home.” As Zoltan ushered the group to their seats, everyone on the Romany side stood up. They only sat back down again after the Egorovans were seated.
“Thank you for preparing such magnificent seats for us yesterday,” Lars said.
“By all means! I am glad that you feel welcome in our country.”
As Lars and Zoltan were talking, the other members of the Egorovan delegation looked around without much interest. They all seemed to be scholarly types.
“Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Lars Eric Egorova, and I am participating in this tour as a representative of Egorova. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
The Egorovans had already said their hellos the day before, but the other three members reluctantly reintroduced themselves with Lars’s urging. Zoltan and Orjef responded politely in turn.
Zoltan introduced Qusta and Seiichirou next.
“This is Qusta Rein, my subordinate and a highly skilled sorcerer. I hope that his insights will be useful to you all.” Then he glanced at Seiichirou before turning back to the Egorovans. “This is Kondo from the Accounting Department. He will be assisting in miscellaneous matters, so feel free to ask him anything.”
So that was how he chose to spin it.
Seiichirou did not meet the eyes of the worried-looking Qusta or Orjef, who was glancing at him for his reaction. He merely kept his gaze ahead, unruffled.
Zoltan must really not have liked that Camile reached out to Seiichirou directly. Even though Seiichirou had created eighty percent of the paperwork for this job, he was relegated to “miscellaneous matters.”
“Has he no family name?” the nervous-looking sorcerer—Donato, if Seiichirou recalled correctly—asked the obvious question.
It had been a deliberate move not to introduce Seiichirou by his full name. Although Kondo—well, Kondou, to be specific—was his family name, anyone who was introduced by first name alone was practically guaranteed to be seen as a commoner.
But Seiichirou was fine with that.
“My name is Kondou. I hope that I can be of some assistance to you on this tour. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
The name “Seiichirou” had an unfamiliar ring to the people of this world. Although the neighboring countries were aware that Romany had summoned its Holy Maiden from another world, it was a secret that another person was summoned along with her. It would be a bad look if it came to light that a random person got involved through no volition of his own—hence why the kingdom’s initial plan was to keep Seiichirou confined as a pet of sorts. It was only because he had asked for a job and achieved stellar results that Prime Minister Camile increasingly trusted him with more work.
But Camile was still worried about how other countries would perceive it. It was his job to worry about that—especially when Seiichirou’s existence was hardly known in other countries. If Seiichirou introduced himself as an otherworlder to these foreigners when they had come to observe the kingdom’s movement spells, it would inevitably cause a major hassle. Zoltan’s idea to downplay him was for the best.
Donato’s eyes flickered with disdain, although Lars and Luciano looked at Seiichirou with interest.
“Can commoners rise to an administrative position in Romany?” asked Lars.
“Um, not really… I mean, well, yes, I suppose so.” Zoltan was about to deny it until he remembered that his own department’s assistant director was himself a commoner. With painfully gritted teeth, he answered in the affirmative.
“Ah, please don’t take my question as an expression of offense. I was simply impressed.”
True to Lars’s words, nobody besides Donato looked displeased. Although perhaps it was more accurate to say that Georgi, the magic tool expert, was disinterested in the conversation altogether.
So the members of the royal family and their inner circle aren’t elitists? No, maybe it’s just those two.
Although Seiichirou knew nothing about Egorova’s political circumstances, he felt the need to understand what the other side was thinking, if only for the sake of making this tour run smoothly. Hopefully, it would improve diplomatic relations, which would make it easier to import magic stones.
With the introductions out of the way, the meeting began in earnest.
Because this was the diplomats’ first day of being shown around, the idea was to answer their questions in the reception room. Seiichirou had prepared a whole stack of documents for this purpose, and Qusta had done the same.
However, before they had gotten through even half the pile, Georgi began to tap his thick fingers against the table impatiently.
“How long do you plan to dawdle? I’d rather take a look around than waste time on endless papers.”
The delegation would be staying for just seven days. Given that they had arrived yesterday, that left six days—today included.
So yes, Georgi was right in saying that their time was limited, although Seiichirou thought that he was rather quick to jump the gun given that the entire itinerary of the trip was currently being explained to him. But the other members seemed to share Geogi’s opinion.
“Yeah!” Luciano chimed in agreement. “We came here to learn about movement spells!”
“Quite so,” said Donato. “We don’t need this much detail about numbers and logistics.”
This was apparently a boring topic for magic scholars.
“My apologies, everyone,” Lars said politely before turning to his own people. “Would you cut it out, you lot? They put in a lot of work to plan this visit.”