Seiichirou wondered how the boy had figured out he was a civil servant, but it seemed the insignia on his belt that had been provided for him was a dead giveaway. Perhaps working at the royal palace was highly regarded. To Seiichirou, the young boy’s servile attitude didn’t really matter one way or the other, so he crouched down, unfazed, and reached out for the object that had caught his interest.
It was an instrument with multiple flat stones strung onto three chords.
“This is…”
“Oh! That’s a, um…a toy! It’s a toy!”
The young boy avoided Seiichirou’s eye and answered evasively, but Seiichirou just stared at the instrument, paying him no mind.
“An abacus…”
He had seen the calculators used in this world at the Royal Accounting Department—they were incredibly large and looked more like scales than a calculator. They were also lavishly decorated, which was incredibly burdensome, and when Seiichirou asked the others, they confessed that they didn’t use them much. Instead, they did their calculations by hand on paper.
“Did you make this?”
“Huh? I mean… I did, but…”
For the second time, Seiichirou felt gratitude toward Norbert.
“I have a request for you…”
“There you are!! Where did you go, Sei?! I looked all over for you!” Norbert shouted.
“I was at one of the vendors. You just went off on your own,” Seiichirou replied, as if nothing had happened.
Seiichirou had finished negotiating with the young boy and had just started heading in the direction Norbert had walked off toward when the man reappeared. Seiichirou had truly just been doing a little shopping, and Norbert had been the one who had plowed on ahead without looking back.
“Guh! That’s true, but… It’s only your second day here. It’s dangerous being by yourself for too long, okay?”
With it being the royal capital, the town was peaceful in terms of public security, but there were some dangerous areas.
But the real reason was probably that if Seiichirou, a person who had accidentally come along in the Holy Maiden Summoning, acted too much of his own volition, it would probably cause trouble for the kingdom.
“Okay. I understand.”
“Hmmm… I feel like I’m starting to understand you more, Sei…”
Seiichirou had given Norbert a very appropriate response, but Norbert looked at him uneasily.
How rude.
Afterward, Seiichirou looked at clothes, and they ate lunch at a small restaurant Norbert recommended. Next, Seiichirou purchased a pen and some paper amid Norbert’s curious looks. Then Seiichirou bought simple cooking tools, drinks, and finally, some fresh food before they made their way home.
“We’re provided pens and paper at the royal palace.”
“I wanted one for my own use.”
Matching perfectly with the aesthetics of this world, the vendors had been selling feather pens, but there had been one magic feather pen that never needed to be refilled with ink. It had been quite expensive, but Seiichirou had jumped at it. He would never have to think about ink, which, as a recurring cost, would be economical in the long run. Best of all, he could turn the feather pen, which was totally unfamiliar to him, into a fountain pen without worrying about ink spills.
“Can you cook, Sei?”
“I’m not totally hopeless at it.”
Norbert was carrying the heavy cooking tools and drinks for him. Norbert had not handed over the bags when Seiichirou had initially bought them because he had assumed from the unhealthy color of Seiichirou’s face that he probably wouldn’t have been able to carry them himself. It was true that Seiichirou hadn’t been cooking recently because he had been so busy, but he hadn’t lived alone for eleven years since his college days with nothing to show for it. Because his working hours were so short, and it seemed like he’d have quite a bit of time on his hands, Seiichirou thought it might be a good idea to start again. Above all else, he wasn’t fond of the dishes in this world.
When they arrived back at their lodgings, it was already the evening Earth hour. They brought Seiichirou’s things up to his room where Seiichirou thanked Norbert, and they parted ways. Even after Seiichirou ate dinner in the dining hall, took a bath, and put away his new items, it was only Wood hour. It wasn’t even ten o’clock at night.
“I don’t know what to do with myself…”
Seiichirou had always been so busy with work that he didn’t have any hobbies. He had no idea how to use his free time.
“Maybe I’ll sleep?”
Even though Norbert had carried most of his bags, Seiichirou hadn’t taken a trip out of the house like that for a while—and in another world, at that. Seiichirou quickly got ready for bed and went to sleep.
The next morning, Seiichirou again left Norbert behind and set out for work first. When Helmut walked into the Accounting Department and saw him, his eyes widened.
“Good morning,” Seiichirou said.
“G-good morning… Um, what are you doing?”
Seiichirou put down the feather duster he had been holding.
“The room was a little messy, so I cleaned it up.”
That much was true. There were few people employed in the Accounting Department compared to the size of the office, but despite this, it had been in a state of…disarray, to say the least. Seiichirou had been concerned about the stacks of important documents, and so he had left for work early that morning to tidy up just a bit.
“I… I see…”
In the face of Seiichirou’s nonchalant attitude, Helmut couldn’t say anything more. Then, just barely before the start of work, Norbert and the other employees arrived at the office.
On his second day of work, Seiichirou was given the job of organizing documents. He was to file the papers according to their content.
“Sei, did you get enough sleep last night?”
Norbert spoke without any regard for the fact that Seiichirou was in the middle of work. Seiichirou simply answered yes without lifting his head. In fact, he had slept twice as long as he used to sleep.
“Reeeally? Your dark circles are massive, though, so you still look kind of tired.”
“When you get older, even with sleep, you can’t shake off your fatigue,” Seiichirou said honestly.
Norbert, however, was still going on about something. Seiichirou carried on with his work, thinking, Maybe he can’t understand because he’s young.
“You can have this, Sei.”
Seiichirou had been ignoring Norbert when he placed a tiny bottle on his desk.
Not that I care, but when is he going to start working? Seiichirou wondered as he finally looked up.
He saw the small, palm-size bottle with light-blue liquid inside.
“What is this?”
When Seiichirou took it in his hand and shook it, he heard it splash against the container.
“It’s a nutritional tonic. You look exhausted, so drink it and have a good night’s sleep tonight.”
Seiichirou had already told Norbert that he had been sleeping enough, but since it was a nutritional tonic, he gratefully accepted it. He thanked Norbert and put the bottle away in his bag.
However, certain developments later that day only exacerbated Seiichirou’s fatigue even more.
“Kondo, the Holy Maiden is calling for you.”
The announcement came not long into Seiichirou’s afternoon work hours. Seiichirou looked up in shock. He never thought he’d be able to see the girl so soon.
However, he was in the middle of his workday.
“I can go during a break or after work.”
Seiichirou’s boss, Helmut, flew into a panic.
“K-Kondo! This is an invitation from the Holy Maiden! Your work can wait, so please hurry!!”
At his boss’s insistence, Seiichirou left with the man who had come to retrieve him. The man wore a green knight’s uniform underneath a set of armor, and he led Seiichirou inside the main tower of the royal palace. As the most secure and heavily guarded part of a castle, the main tower would generally house the private chambers of the lord—that is to say, the members of the royal family.
And there, in the tower, was the Holy Maiden.
Two knights stood in the front of the room—and another man wearing black clothes that seemed familiar.
I’m pretty sure that’s the commander of the Third Royal Order, um…
Seiichirou struggled to remember foreign names on the first attempt. Was it…something India? He could probably get by with calling him Commander if he was asked. Seiichirou looked over at the other knights, who wore green uniforms under their armor, and figured they probably belonged to the Second Royal Order, whose members chiefly acted as security for the royal family and other important people.
The commander’s face was as beautiful as ever, but it was expressionless. He spared Seiichirou a fleeting glance before silently opening the door to the room.
The interior of the room was decorated so ornately that it looked like something out of a movie. There was a silver decorative desk in the center of the room, and next to it, wearing a dress from this world, sat the high school girl who was summoned. At her side was a handsome young man with white-silver hair… Seiichirou had seen him before. He was the important-looking man who had taken just the girl with him after the Holy Maiden Summoning.
“You sure took your time.”
Seiichirou did not show any distress that the first words this man said to him, after having been so abruptly called here, were rude. Seiichirou gave a respectful bow in apology. Perhaps he should have knelt, but it was just his third day since arriving in this world, so maybe it could be overlooked.
“Please don’t, Yurius. I was being selfish and called for him because I wanted to talk to him,” the girl explained, admonishing the haughty man.
The girl wore a pale yellow dress, and her flowing hair was shinier than the last time they had met.
“I’m so sorry, um…,” she continued.
Seiichirou guessed that the girl was trying to address him but didn’t know his name, so he introduced himself.
“Seiichirou Kondou.”
“Kondou. I’m Yua Shiraishi.”
As the girl—Yua—introduced herself, her deep-pink lips curved into a smile.
“I wanted to talk to you sooner, but I had so much to do, so it’s taken me a while.”
Yua asked Seiichirou to take a seat, so he sat down on the leather sofa and gave her his full attention.
“Please have a seat, too, Aresh.”
“I’m fine.”