Chapter 10

The mine supervisors had their days off determined by rotation, but no such thing as a proper shift schedule existed at Nodon’s company.

So if I wanted a day off, I had no choice but to wait for a festival during which the whole town stopped working.

Still, when it came to work, I found myself thinking that the modern world was actually far closer to slavery, because for all that, there were so many town events that there were plenty of unscheduled holidays.

That day was a fairly large festival celebrating how a magic stone mine had been discovered in Jirenu Territory after an angel had appeared at the bedside of a former lord. Bird-feather ornaments reminiscent of angels had been put up all around town, people had been out in the streets since daytime, and the church bells had been ringing so much it was almost annoying.

“Little Iiria looked unbelievably sullen.”

The church ceremony itself, praising the angel and the devout former lord who was said to have seen the angel in a dream, had ended quickly in the morning. The priest’s blessing in the square before the church, and the candlelit procession praising the angel and the former lord, had actually been quite a sight to see.

After that it had turned into something like a town-wide drinking party, and apparently Iiria had already returned to the mansion, so we were heading there. All I could do was agree with Kengo’s words with a wry smile.

“She reminded me of a relative’s kid sulking through Shichi-Go-San.*”

“Hahaha, yeah, I can see that too.”

In a world where industry was underdeveloped, clothing blatantly revealed a person’s financial means.

Among all the clothes in dull, murky colors where you could not tell whether they were stained or dyed that way, Iiria, dressed in vivid garments that looked like they belonged in a modern stage play, truly did look like a noble.

And yet during the ceremony she had not smiled once, nor had she touched any alcohol.

She was called there as the lord, but apparently the ceremony expenses were actually being paid by the town’s artisan guilds and powerful merchant houses—in other words, people like Nodon.

Iiria had no money, could make no donation, and had only been invited because, as the lord, they had no choice but to invite her.

On top of that, she was not even of the bloodline of the noble who had discovered the mine, but a child born from some casual affair of an important imperial nobleman.

And to make matters worse, half the blood running through her body was that of beastfolk, who were considered second-class citizens.

The guild leaders participating in the festival were, again, greasy middle-aged men with the same sort of oily air as Nodon, and you could plainly see that they mocked Iiria both openly and behind her back. And the townspeople, too, seemed to be enjoying it.

Humans ruled the world, and beastfolk were laborers who handled simple physical work.

With that kind of class consciousness in place, and with even humans who could not use magic also living in hardship, a lordling with beast ears was the perfect toy for the townspeople to mock and use to vent their resentment.

So throughout the ceremony, Iiria and her attendant Kururu had seemed to do nothing but wait for time to pass. No matter how much ridicule and contempt clung to them like flies, they at least seemed to tell themselves that each had one companion, and held each other’s hands.

And yet even Iiria and the others did undeniably possess the position of lord. If that position could be used well, then the current state of affairs ought to be changeable, and by gaining Iiria’s backing, perhaps we could stand against Nodon.

In this merciless world where tomorrow was never guaranteed, we ought to have been able to join hands so that each of us could secure some measure of stability.

“What is this matter you wish to discuss?”

Kururu, already changed out of the clothes she had worn for the ceremony and back into her usual outfit, said that first.

Perhaps Iiria was still changing, because she was not in the courtyard yet.

“If this is about the mine, is it not inconvenient to have him here?”

Kururu spoke only to Kengo the whole time. She would not even look at me.

It seemed Kengo could casually call them little Iiria and little Kururu because he met with them often over the mine’s various problems.

And the improvement of beastfolk working conditions and increased mine output were doubly welcome matters for these girls, who themselves had beastfolk blood. That was probably why they were on such easy terms.

I, on the other hand, was the underling of a corrupt merchant house that falsified the taxes that ought to have been paid to them.

It was only natural that there would be a difference in how she treated Kengo and me.

“It’s not about the mine today. Here.”

Kengo gave me an exaggerated wink.

I really did not understand Kengo’s sense for this kind of thing.

And Kengo had stubbornly insisted that the business proposal should be brought to little Iiria by Yorinobu himself.

“This guy?”

At last Kururu looked at me, but her eyes were still the same ones she used for garbage.

Feeling as though I had gone back to being a timid high school student, I spoke.

“I want to begin… trading in magic stones.”

“Hah?!”

She was cute enough when silent, but once her face twisted, even the fangs visible beneath her lips made her look terrifying.

Kengo gave me a wry smile as I involuntarily sucked in a breath, then took over for me.

“We might be able to make fair magic stone transactions happen.”

“What?”

“We’re talking about paying proper taxes, and turning a profit ourselves too.”

“…”

Kururu fell silent, comparing me and Kengo with her eyes.

“But if we get involved in the magic stone trade, it’s obvious Nodon will interfere.”

Kururu folded her arms and jerked her chin as if to say, So?

Kengo nodded toward me, so with no choice I opened my mouth again.

“And… we don’t have enough capital to buy the magic stones ourselves.”

“In other words, we wanted to ask whether little Iiria and the others would be willing to invest, while also acting as bodyguards.”

Whether Kururu’s face twisted because Kengo had addressed her that way, or because the proposal itself was so outlandish, I could not tell.

At that moment, Iiria appeared.

“There’s no way that could work.”

During the ceremony her expression had been stiff and sullen, but now the tension had drained out of it, leaving her looking even more ill-tempered. Still, with the loose clothes that looked almost like sleepwear and a hammock tucked under one arm, she also looked like a grumpy girl who had just woken up.

“Kururu, tie that up over there.”

“I’ll do it.”

Taking one end of the hammock from Iiria in Kururu’s place, Kengo tied it to a tree.

Kururu sighed at the sight of the two of them, then turned back to face us.

“I agree with Iiria-sama. I cannot imagine that pig bastard letting you off if you encroach on his territory.”

Just as humans looked down on beastfolk, beastfolk did not regard wordless animals as their fellows.

So it felt a little strange, but beastfolk used animals in their insults too.

“Besides, it’s not as though we have any money.”

As she said this, Iiria climbed onto the hammock Kengo was holding steady and promptly lay down.

“From your perspective, it might look like a carefree noble’s life, but whatever money gathers here goes right back out again almost immediately. The people of this town are eager enough to donate to the church, but they show no interest at all in donations to the orphanage attached to it, and they think things like maintaining the harbor, repairing bridges, servicing waterwheels, and cleaning the town ditches are only natural things that someone else should pay for. Oh yes, and I suppose there are also the expenses for the mine supervisor.”

That last remark came with a mean little smile as she looked at Kengo.

“And more importantly, it’s far too poor a bargain to anger someone like Nodon just for your little side business, isn’t it? If you want extra income, why not get yourselves some tenant farming rights outside town and till the fields?”

In this world, civilization was still underdeveloped and agricultural output was not abundant relative to the population.

So agricultural goods sold reliably.

But there was no chemical fertilizer, and the land was not particularly fertile either, so farming was hard mode for amateurs. More to the point, as with the mine, physical labor such as farming and civil engineering was the exclusive domain of beastfolk. There was no way humans could beat beastfolk with labor power when they had three times the muscle mass of even Kengo.

And since beastfolk were not allowed to join the artisan guilds in town, it naturally followed that physical labor ended up being almost entirely their field. Trying to blend in among beastfolk and work in the fields sounded far too frightening, and hopelessly inefficient too.

“Magic stones are profitable. And there’s plenty of room to do things better than Nodon does.”

At those words, Kururu narrowed her eyes.

“So you really do know the secret behind that miser’s scheme?”

Whether or not we should tell them about Nodon’s trick had been one of the concerns Kengo and I had discussed.

For the moment, this was the only weapon we had.

We ought to bring Iiria over to our side, but if we spoke too freely, our own value would disappear.

Judging from the atmosphere, it seemed better to keep silent for now.

“You may not believe me,”

I looked back at Kururu.

“But the world Kengo and I came from had commerce that was far more developed. So I think we can outwit the merchants of this world.”

Whether she sensed the deception in what I said or not, Iiria only smiled sarcastically.

“Wake me up when you’ve outwitted them.”

Then she rolled over in the hammock and gave her tail a swish as though to say goodbye.

Kururu looked at her mistress with an expression that seemed somehow pained, then turned back to us with a look that plainly said, If you understand that, then leave.