“Oh, that makes sense.”
The fact that Seiichirou was a man from a different world and had gotten caught up in the Holy Maiden Summoning was still only known to very few people. The royal palace probably couldn’t have offhandedly let it out that an ordinary person had gotten involved.
Now that Seiichirou thought about it, the commander of the Third Royal Order was there during the summoning. If he hadn’t known of Seiichirou’s subsequent request for a job, it made sense that, upon seeing Seiichirou loitering around the royal palace in a civil official’s uniform, the commander would grow suspicious and call out to him.
“I heard he is ruthless, but I guess he’s got a soft side, too!”
I’m not so sure…, Seiichirou thought, tilting his head.
When Seiichirou and the girl had been in a panic after having been forcibly summoned from their former world, the commander of the Third Royal Order had looked at them as if he couldn’t have cared less. Before, too, the man had looked at Seiichirou as if he didn’t trust him at all.
“In any event, what is the Third Royal Order?”
“You don’t have to be so polite with me! Anyway, it’s an order composed of knights who fight using both swords and magic.”
“Magic?” Seiichirou repeated instinctively. This was the first he had heard of it since coming here.
“Yep! The First Royal Order is okay at it, but the Third Royal Order is a group of elite knights who can use magic and are super good at swordfighting! Especially that guy from before, Commander Aresh Indolark. He’s incredible!”
Norbert explained that there were three in total in the kingdom.
The First Royal Order guarded the royal palace and the town.
The Second Royal Order protected the royal family and other very important people.
The Third Royal Order hunted magical beasts and other creatures outside of the town using their superior magic skills and swordplay.
The black-haired man from before was the commander of the last one, and black was apparently their color. That would explain why he had been dressed in that shade from head to toe.
The commander’s skills were second to none and had landed him the position at an exceptionally young age. He also came from an upstanding marquess family, to boot. Good looks, a good family, physically powerful, incredible success… What more could the heavens possibly give this man that could make him happy?
But according to rumors, Norbert continued to explain, because of his incredible skill, the commander of the Third Royal Order had no interest in anything and was perpetually listless.
Yet that was part of his appeal and fame.
“Wow, that’s incredible.”
Norbert explained how he, too, had been born to a family with some measure of nobility, and those connections had gotten him his job in the Accounting Department.
“Stuff like that happens everywhere, huh?”
They then met up with Helmut, who arrived exactly on time. He first showed Seiichirou to the Accounting Department.
The royal palace was very large, but the floors used by the royal family and visitors were securely sectioned off. The Accounting Department, where Seiichirou was to work, was in a building that also housed the servants, like the personal attendants and maids.
Helmut showed him to a room that was about the size of a classroom with six desks inside.
“Is this…all?”
Seiichirou was shocked that only six people made up the Accounting Department for the royal palace, the heart of the kingdom. But Helmut replied saying that it was actually five, and that included Seiichirou.
“Well, we should ease you into the work here little by little. For now, why don’t we have some tea?”
“What?”
They hadn’t even started working yet, but Helmut cheerfully bustled off to prepare the tea.
“Wha…? That’s… I-I’ll help!
As the lowest-ranking employee, he could only offer his assistance and hurry after his boss.
In the end, all Seiichirou did that morning was drink tea and introduce himself to the other employees.
Just when Seiichirou had thought he was finally going to start work, he was told to go to the dining hall because it was lunchtime, and as he stood there in astonishment, he was ushered out. The employee dining hall was quite big. The knights and servants worked in shifts, but there was room for all the civil officials to eat together at the same time. The food was offered buffet-style here, too—you could grab a tray and take as much food as you pleased.
“I had this thought yesterday, too, but…don’t you think you’re not eating enough, Sei?” asked Norbert.
“You think so?”
Norbert had sat across from him like it was only natural, but Seiichirou didn’t particularly want to be lumped together with the young man. Seiichirou was well aware that his stomach had gotten smaller because of his irregular meals. More than anything, most of the foods in this kingdom were very fatty, and given his weak stomach, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to finish eating them.
“We can understand each other, and we look similar, but I guess there’s something different about us, after all,” Seiichirou muttered as he ate his vegetable soup.
Their lunch break lasted for the entire Fire hour… In other words, it was 120 minutes. Seiichirou had been told in advance that their working hours were from Light hour in the day until Wind hour in the evening. Since that would be from ten in the morning until six in the evening, Seiichirou had been sure their lunch would have been an hour at most. However, “hours” in this world were 120 minutes, so perhaps it would have been too much of an annoyance to split it in half.
At any rate, Seiichirou was amazed at how short the workday was—eight hours, two of which were eaten up by lunch. Seiichirou wondered if he might have been given those working hours because he was new, and because he was more of a “helper” than an official employee, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Everyone started to tidy up a few minutes before the Wind hour was over, and the moment the clock hand struck, they all left en masse.
Seiichirou had never seen something like that before. He stood there, gaping in shock. But he came back to his senses when Helmut returned, handed him a small, heavy cloth bag, and said, “We have tomorrow off, so please go into town and buy whatever you need.”
“Oh! Are you going shopping, Sei? I’m heading into town, too. Let’s go together!”
“Perfect, you can have Norbert show you around.”
“O-okay.”
The smooth flow of their conversation made Seiichirou wonder if Norbert was really going to be keeping an eye on him, but he agreed.
The fact remained, however, that Seiichirou didn’t know the way into town, where the stores were, or what to even expect when going out in this world. It would be best to have an escort with him.
“I appreciate your kind assistance.”
“I told you—you don’t gotta be so polite with me!”
Σ Σ Σ
The castle town was within walking distance of Seiichirou’s lodgings.
The money Helmut had given Seiichirou the other day was separate from the monthly pay he would receive from the government—it seemed more like an initial stipend. He had been told to use it to buy whatever necessities he required.
Inside the bag were thirty silver coins that were roughly the size of a ten-yen coin. Norbert had told him the coin’s currency value, but Seiichirou could only be sure about the market rates by going into town.
The currency consisted of gold, silver, and bronze coins, and there were three different sizes of gold and silver coins.
The monetary unit was R. One bronze coin amounted to one rula. One large gold coin amounted to one million rula.
Helmut had given Seiichirou silver coins, so he currently had three thousand rula.
The castle town… So this is the royal capital?
The town, situated under the purview of the royal palace, was bustling with activity.
Seiichirou’s eyes were drawn to the brick buildings, but there were also houses made of wood. Norbert first took him to a market lined with street vendors.
It was bursting with color and energy—numerous things were arranged for sale, ranging from items of colors and shapes that Seiichirou had never seen before to produce that vaguely resembled Japanese vegetables. One in particular that looked like a zucchini happened to catch his eye. He inquired about it and was informed it cost four rula. If he was to buy a zucchini in Japan, it would probably cost around one hundred to 250 yen. The other items were largely similar in price, depending on the scarcity of the thing in question, so Seiichirou converted the money under the assumption that four rula was roughly one hundred yen.
In which case, the amount that Seiichirou had been paid would amount to around seventy-five thousand yen. That was quite a lot of money for a stipend to cover necessities when his living arrangements were already taken care of. Seiichirou wondered if perhaps this was a wealthy country.
As Seiichirou searched high and low though the stalls, deep in thought, Norbert (today wearing a blue shirt with gold embroidery) came up to him. His chest was, as usual, exposed, but the cloth of his shirt seemed to be of higher quality than the rest of the townsfolk. He had mentioned that he was from a high-ranking family, and it seemed like he was a bit spoiled.
“Is there something you want to look for, Sei?”
“There is. Fresh produce is just going to be bulky and get bruised, so I’ll buy that last. I’d like to take a look at some clothes and stationery.”
“You should have told me that earlier!” Norbert said, even though he was the one who had brought Seiichirou to the market without asking him beforehand.
“It was helpful for getting a feel of the town and the prices first.”
That much was true, but Norbert still looked embarrassed.
Just as Seiichirou started walking away from the street vendors, he noticed some small, nonfood items arranged on a cloth that had been laid out on the ground.
“Excuse me, could I have a look at these?”
The young boy, who may have been the shopkeeper, looked up in surprise.
“…I don’t have anything that would be up to snuff for a civil servant working at the royal palace.”