“No.”
Right there in front of the dumbfounded crowd, Ist’s drowsy eyes blinked multiple times in succession.
“Huh? Really? Why not?”
His expression said that it hadn’t occurred to him that he could get shot down, but this wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation. There was no way Seiichirou would say “yes” without a second thought. He was surprised that Ist was surprised.
The bigger issue was that this was not one of Seiichirou’s routine visits to the Sorcery Department.
“Waaah! Stop it, Ist! Have you forgotten that we have important guests from a foreign country today?!” cried a familiar brown-haired boy behind Ist.
Zoltan was the first to recover his wits. “I-IIIIIIIst! You…you cur! First, you come late, and now you… Aaaaargh! Forget it! Greet the guests from Egorova!”
He barged right up to Ist, fully prepared to give him a piece of his mind, only to change his tune and shove the sorcerer from behind. This was the smart choice. Ist never listened to lectures.
“Huh? What…? Oh, right. Okay. So, uh, I’m Ist, assistant director of the Royal Sorcery Department.”
As Ist made a bow that would pass absolutely nobody’s muster, Zoltan shook behind him. He was clearly one second away from exploding.
“I am Lars Eric Egorova, from Egorova.” Lars took the lead.
“A-and I’m Luciano Delidov!” Luciano hurried to chime in. Donato and Georgi then introduced themselves in turn.
Although the Egorovans were surprised, they didn’t seem affronted, fortunately. Luciano’s eyes in particular were sparkling. Lars gave the boy a subtle nudge, bringing him back to earth so he spotted the person behind Ist.
It was Sigma, and he seemed more uncomfortable than anyone else in the room.
“Er, um…”
Sigma flinched in response to Luciano’s voice. This seemed to galvanize Luciano further, because he stepped right up to the other boy.
“I-I apologize for my rudeness to you the other day.”
“Huh? Um?” The sudden apology from a noble had Sigma in disbelief.
“I was jealous that you got to work with Ist, and I was cruel to you when you did nothing to deserve it. I am really sorry.”
“Wha—?! Er, um, it’s not a big de—”
“Can you forgive me?”
Meeting the upturned eyes of a pretty young boy oozing with class, Sigma’s face turned bright red. He nodded several times over.
“Well, now that that’s all settled… Kondo, give me money.”
“I said no.”
Meanwhile, the adult who had entered the room made another demand, only to get shot down again.
“Huh? What?” said Ist.
“Don’t go ‘Huh? What?’! You think you can ignore the Egorovans just because you’ve said hello?! They have gone through a lot of trouble to meet you!” Zoltan was normally unafraid to resort to his fists, though he kept his hands at his sides in front of the Egorovan delegation. He was, however, still visibly shaking.
“Oh, but it’s rare for Kondo to show up here. And I need money quick,” Ist argued vehemently.
“Yes, and I’ve told you on many occasions that you need to explain what you plan to use the money on.” Sensing that Ist had a concrete goal in mind this time instead of his usual “I need a bigger budget” sentiment, Seiichirou did a quick bow to the Egorovans and approached the sorcerer.
Whenever Ist got like this, talking to him about anything was pointless. Seiichirou had to address the root of whatever was on his mind, or else the situation would get further out of hand. Seiichirou would have liked him to submit a written proposal, but that was asking a bit much of Ist, so he generally heard the man out verbally.
“I saw this useful-looking magic tool in town, so I bought it,” said Ist.
“When you were on that inspection yesterday? What would it be useful for?”
Ist would have been away in a rural town, ostensibly for an inspection but mainly to keep him away from the Egorovan delegation.
“Movement spells,” said Ist.
It was as if a sudden chill filled the room. Seiichirou did not have to look over his shoulder to know that the Egorovans were staring right at them.
“We can talk about this later, Ist…”
“Aww, but you’re always so busy, Kondo. If I don’t ask you about it now, you’ll never hear me out. So, yeah, you use the tool as a substitute for the medium in dimension-crossing magic. I figure it could send you back to your original world.”
Seiichirou sputtered.
This was his mistake. He should have at least taken Ist to a different room. Then again, would their eager guests have allowed Seiichirou to peel Ist away?
Now what? The wheels turned frantically in Seiichirou’s mind, but before he could figure something out, someone else interjected.
“Seiichirou, are you from a different world?”
Lars’s words resounded throughout the Sorcery Department.
Crap. How am I supposed to answer that? Given that an honest answer would reveal the Romany Kingdom’s mistake, it wasn’t for Seiichirou to decide. A part of him thought, They summoned me without asking. Why should I have to cover for their screw-up? but he suppressed that thought, knowing that he’d have to deal with the fallout.
As this internal war raged in Seiichirou’s head, a certain somebody answered the question without a care in the world.
“Yep. Kondo got summoned here alongside the Holy Maiden. He knows a lot of interesting things. Has plenty of neat ideas, too!”
Even if it was futile, they really, really should have prepped Ist before throwing him into the fray. Seiichirou’s entire group felt this deeply in their souls.
Alas, the scheme was foiled, and they would have to make do.
As much as that sounded like a villain’s line, it perfectly encapsulated Seiichirou’s mindset. As difficult as it was to accept on a personal level, Seiichirou’s summoning was treated simply as “an unforeseen accident.” The kingdom offered its “cordial protection,” and Seiichirou was working entirely of his own volition.
So he remained unmoving in the face of the Egorovans’ barrage of questions.
“I am simply a palace official, and I cannot answer your questions without the state’s permission. Please direct your queries to the higher authorities.”
A public servant couldn’t answer questions on a topic he wasn’t authorized to speak about. Seiichirou could trot out that excuse to salvage the situation.
Indeed. The tour would end the next day. Even if the Egorovans did rush to make a request, they would not get permission immediately. Besides, if they left the Sorcery Department now, they would be cutting short their time with the celebrity sorcerer they were so eager to meet.
“In any case, I believe there was something you wished to ask Ist?” said Seiichirou.
“Oh, r-right!” Luciano was the first to approach Ist, with Donato on his heels.
For his part, Ist was probably satisfied after saying his piece, because he accepted the two sorcerers’ presence. Well, he probably assumed Seiichirou had approved the funds without them actually talking about it. But Seiichirou did not want to correct him on that here, lest Ist’s mind swing back in that direction. Let sleeping dogs lie, he decided.