It wasn’t like Seiichirou wasn’t upset.
Seiichirou didn’t know if he was really in another world or what, but even setting that aside, he had been carried off without his consent for the sake of this strange land. Even worse, the kingdom’s target had been an underage girl. Although Seiichirou himself had only been caught up in it, he still thought it only made sense for the one responsible to come apologize first. But the person before him, if he believed what the man said, was a minister. Neither a king nor a prime minister—just a regular minister.
Seiichirou’s way of thinking, however, placed the greatest importance on efficiency. You could call him an efficiency freak. After graduating college—no, even before that—Seiichirou prioritized achieving results in the shortest amount of time over his own feelings. Consequently, when Seiichirou was asked what he wanted, instead of picking a useless argument with the minister, he simply gave his response, and his answer came from his deep-seated corporate-slave nature—a job.
The minister was also in a bit of a pickle.
They were fortunate to have been able to summon the Holy Maiden from the other world safely with the secret art, but this unnecessary tagalong had come with her.
Moreover, the firstborn prince, who had been in charge of the summoning, had swiftly left with just the Holy Maiden, leaving behind this tired-looking man. When the minister stopped to consider the prince’s position and personality, he might have expected this. This man was left for the remaining members to deal with, but the commander of the First Royal Order and His Excellency the Prime Minister were both glaring at him, and the commander of the Third Royal Order was acting as if the man were completely invisible.
Viscount Adalbrecht, who usually ended up getting the short end of the stick in part due to his status as a viscount, held back his sigh.
The man before him wore silver-framed glasses and strange gray garments. Unlike the Holy Maiden, he was very slender with dull skin and dark circles under his eyes. When they asked about his relationship to the Holy Maiden, the man said they were complete strangers. The viscount began to feel a slight kinship with the man—he seemed to also have his own fair share of bad luck.
However, they couldn’t just leave him to his own devices.
Even if no one was at fault for this, they had still accidentally summoned a random person. Depending on what the man said or did, the civilians might begin to criticize the royal palace, but most importantly, the man, though a stranger to the Holy Maiden, was from her town. Although it had been said for many generations that the Holy Maiden was known to be merciful, their treatment of this man could displease her.
The prime minister had directed them in advance that no expense would be spared to provide for the man’s living costs, and that for now, they would keep him as one would a pet. The minister had also been instructed to fulfill some of his requests to secure this otherworlder’s trust. The viscount and the others speculated about what he’d ask for: money, women, a house, something like that… But he had answered with blank, lifeless eyes.
“Please give me a job.”
And so the room in which they had been offering the captive an apology (of sorts) metamorphosed into an interview room.
“A job…? Look, ki—I mean, sir… What can you do?”
This jerk almost called me kid!
Seiichirou felt a slight twinge of annoyance, but he suppressed it and reminded himself that he was talking to an aristocrat.
If this were modern Japan, Seiichirou would tell them his class and grade rankings for all the qualifications he had, such as Grade 2 Eiken English, office suite software specialist, or abacus certifications, but these people wouldn’t understand any of that. Seiichirou was the assistant section chief for the Accounting Department. His strong suit had always been doing calculations on the abacus, but he had no idea what was even considered general knowledge in this world. He wasn’t even sure if the numbers were the same Arabic numerals. But no…, Seiichirou realized. Mathematics is a concept. If I remember the rules of math, implementing them should be the same.
“I’m good at doing calculations and accounting.”
So Seiichirou was assigned to the Accounting Department of the royal palace.
After waiting in the reception room, Seiichirou was introduced to a mild-mannered man in his thirties with gray-streaked hair.
“I’m in charge of the Royal Accounting Department. My name’s Helmut Somaria.”
“I’m Kondou Seiichirou. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Kondo?”
This world appeared to resemble Europe, so they probably said their given names first. It seemed like it was difficult to say the last sound of Seiichirou’s surname. Even the ministers, who had not asked for Seiichirou’s name before then, were all muttering as if they were struggling to say it.
“Kondou is my family name, and Seiichirou is my given name. Please call me however you’d like.”
“Kondo… Kon… Got it. I’ll call you Kondo, then.”
Seiichirou wasn’t so childish as to make a fuss over what he was called, so he nodded without correcting Helmut’s pronunciation.
They were then seen off by the ministers, who looked as though they were finally being set free, and Seiichirou left the royal palace with Helmut. As Seiichirou couldn’t start working the very day he was abducted (summoned), he was led to a room that had been prepared for him.
“This ordeal must have been terrible,” Helmut said.
Terrible or otherwise, Seiichirou would never have been in this situation if they hadn’t performed the summoning, but he just smiled awkwardly in response.
“I heard that you are good at calculations, Kondo.”
“Oh, well, that was back in my world. I’m not sure if my skills will transfer over to this world yet,” Seiichirou answered honestly.
Helmut smiled for some reason and nodded.
“Is that right? You don’t need to worry about that.”
Seiichirou tilted his head, wondering why Helmut was smiling when he had just been forced to take on a stranger who might be of no use to him. Then he asked Helmut if he could look at books about this world’s basic mathematics and similar topics. Helmut smiled and nodded, promising to bring some to his room later. Despite his situation, Seiichirou grew a little excited at the thought of possibly seeing new theorems and formulas.
Then Helmut led him to a massive brick structure just a few minutes’ walk from the royal palace. It resembled a European apartment building. It looked more like company housing than a dormitory. This was where many civil officials who worked at the royal palace lived. Helmut had a wife and children, so he had a house in the castle town, but most of the unmarried civil officials lived here. The knights, apparently, had other accommodations. The room was equipped with a kitchen and toilet, but bathing was communal in a large public bath. Seiichirou could either cook his own meals or eat in the dining hall. His company housing, food, and other expenses were also covered.
Seiichirou walked through the front entrance into a spacious lobby. An old man entered the lobby from a room with a reception window.
“I heard about everything. I’ll show you to your room.”
The petite man introduced himself as Dusan, the caretaker of the building.
“I’m Kondou Seiichirou. Thank you for letting me stay here.”
“Kondo?”
“That’s fine.”
Dusan led him to a room that was roughly two hundred square feet. There was even a futon laid out on the bed. Seiichirou was relieved the wooden floors didn’t squeak when he walked on them and that he didn’t smell any dust or mold. The room was cleaner and bigger than he had anticipated. As someone who had been accustomed to the clean spaces of modern Japan, he had been a little concerned.
Dusan told Seiichirou he would give him a call when dinner was ready, so he ought to rest. Once Seiichirou was alone, he took him up on that and sat on the bed. He felt the soft cotton and was once again surprised at how well he was being treated.
He had accidentally said “Please give me a job” on instinct, but he worried whether he could actually do it.
His seven years as a corporate slave, however, propelled him to work.
“That’s right. There’s also that girl…”
They had no relationship or connection—the only thing linking them was that she had asked him for help when he had been passing by. But as she was an underage girl from his town, he couldn’t just abandon her.
They had said that she would clear the miasma as the Holy Maiden, but they ought to make sure such a thing was really possible—and see if it would be safe. At any rate, this girl was young and had probably never worked before in her life. They had abducted her with the intent to use her, so naturally she had to be careful she was not being treated badly.
“When things settle down…maybe they’ll let me see her.”
It felt impossible for some reason, but Seiichirou had been abducted from another world, too. He would try to work on them to be that accommodating, at least.
But Seiichirou had to secure his own foothold before doing anything else.
Feeling exhausted from the strain of the day’s extraordinary events so far, and lacking sleep, Seiichirou dozed off on his bed.
Knock, knock, knock!!
What?! This thought had barely crossed his mind before he had jumped up in a panic at the violent hammering at the door.
Seiichirou looked around and was relieved he hadn’t slept for very long. It was still bright outside his window. The noise from the other side of the door, however, did not stop.