Chapter 24

A masterful magician had taken up residence in Iiria’s mansion.

It did not take long at all for such talk to start being whispered even at the Nodon Company.

Some said the person had originally been a court magician in the imperial capital; no, no, others said the person had served as an inquisitor in the Church’s Ministry of Orthodoxy and Heresy; others claimed the person had led a suppression force against a rebellion on the edge of the province, but had been demoted after turning the entire province into a sea of flames. Everyone talked as they pleased.

Jirenu Territory prospered from its mine and, though it had a fairly lively town with a decent population, it was still tucked away in the furthest corner of corners within the network that was the Empire, so magicians were rarely ever seen there, and with daily life offering no change, the people were starved for excitement. The appearance of a wandering magician had stirred the sort of reaction one would get from carp in a pond after tossing in feed.

Thinking of it that way, I figured the reason I had not drawn much attention from the people around me even after waking up in the mine was probably thanks to Kengo. In my case, at most, the talk had only been that a corpse had come back to life in the mine again, but apparently did not seem to be a bad person.

But a magician was different.

Seeing how the company looked outwardly no different than usual, yet everyone seemed somehow restless, I too began to feel uneasy.

“Vahh…”

Meanwhile, Nodon was fast asleep in the back of the accounting room, snoring in a way that made listening to it painful. He seemed to have been drinking heavily for several days in a row now, and he had been especially irritable at the company.

If the magician who had appeared at Iiria’s place had merely borrowed a bit of space under the eaves while passing through on a journey, that would have been one thing, but if the person had even helped with prospecting work, then this had to be a dangerous sign. Nodon, who had far too many skeletons in his closet, surely could not stop his bad predictions from coming.

After all, a skilled magician possessed enough power to become a noble purely on that basis. Such people were the very beings who directly supported the structure of this world, in which humans stood above beastfolk.

Could such a being really have stopped by the land on a whim while wandering? Was this not instead the doing of Iiria’s father, who was supposedly in the provincial capital or perhaps even the imperial capital?

Nodon had more than enough reason to be anxious.

What made it worse was that even the heads of groups like the artisans’ guild, whose standing in town had been low, were now diligently making visits to Iiria’s mansion, perhaps hoping for a change in power.

The incident in which Iiria had wrested the prospecting work away from the Nodon Company and accomplished it splendidly had thus been taken as a sign that the town’s power structure was about to change.

However, the influential figures who had until now mocked Iiria as nothing more than a decorative lord and had controlled Jirenu Territory’s economy by joining hands with Nodon were the very ones who could not possibly bring themselves to go to Iiria’s mansion now and try to curry favor. Among them surely were indecent men, the sort whom even Marks kept a wary eye on, who had tried to lay hands on Iiria and Kururu.

And as for Nodon, foremost among them, the question was what sort of face he could possibly wear when going to see Iiria. Naturally, unless he drank himself into a stupor, he would not be able to sleep properly at all.

The world was cruel.

It truly was possible for a position thought to be unshakable to collapse all at once.

Just like that morning when I went to the company and was introduced to my new boss!

And Nodon had gone too far.

In any world, those who had maneuvered themselves too skillfully could not easily change course even when the black ships appeared.

“Yorinobu-sama.”

Yoshu called out to me.

“The approval for this month’s magic stone transaction.”

Yoshu was one of Marks’s so-called little brothers, and even now he still lived and slept at the orphanage.

So he probably knew a fair amount, but true to his sharp mind, the boy never joined in with this sort of talk at the company. Even now, he only cast me a brief glance full of expectation, then handed over the compiled documents and silently returned to his work.

Still, that small back of his overflowed with curiosity and anticipation. He could sense that atmosphere, like the season when winter was about to turn into spring, that feeling that something was about to happen.

The approval for the magic stone transaction gave me an excuse to visit Iiria’s mansion for the first time in a while. Leaving a note on the sleeping Nodon’s desk, I headed for Iiria’s mansion.

Surely both Iiria and Kururu were overflowing with hope.

That was the scene I had imagined, so when I stepped into the mansion and saw what was actually there, I was left dumbfounded.

I had already thought something was strange when I saw that Marks’s glare in front of the mansion had become about four times sharper than usual, but the dustiness inside the mansion only deepened that suspicion.

I could tell immediately that the place had not been cleaned very well, and when I went out into the courtyard, I found Iiria collapsed face-down with only her upper body in a hammock, like some drunken vagrant who had keeled over on the roadside.

“Iiria-sama?”

When I called out to her, her shaggy tail twitched for just an instant, and that was all.

Her hair was even shaggier than her tail, and it reminded me of the time when Kururu had gotten utterly absorbed in magic stone processing.

“…Yorinobu, is that… you…?”

Hearing a hoarse voice, I looked over and saw Kururu, with huge dark circles under her eyes.

That too reminded me of the magic stone processing days, but unlike then, there was no sense of grim desperation about her now, and at least Kururu’s appearance was still somewhat presentable.

“Um… what in the world happened?”

Kururu let out a long sigh, then beckoned for me to come over and disappeared deeper into the mansion.

I wondered whether it was really alright to leave Iiria as she was, but when I looked at her again, a little sparrow had just fluttered down onto the top of her messy hair. The sparrow settled itself atop the fluffy hair and puffed out its chest with satisfaction.

The image was so absurdly peaceful that I decided there was probably no need to worry and hurried after Kururu.

As for Kururu, she was in the mansion’s dining hall, looking as though she might melt while still seated in her chair.

“There was… one slight… oversight in the plan…”

Kururu, looking as though her soul might leave through her mouth, turned her gaze toward me from behind sleepy eyes.

“Until yesterday, we had guests coming without pause…”

“The important people who had not really been able to do much in town until now, right? I know a lot of gift goods have been selling.”

I said it as if it were someone else’s problem, but it was Kururu and the others who had chosen to accept that.

And whether it was the custom of this land or simply the conduct expected of nobles, I also remembered that it was customary to serve meals to guests, and that it was Kururu who had to make them.

“So, Kururu-san, you were just cooking the entire time?”

“…For a while, I do not want to beat eggs ever again…”

I could not see the kitchen from the dining hall, but I thought I might have to poke my head in later and help with the cleaning.

The finances here were not quite at the point of being in flames, but neither were they good enough to comfortably hire servants. More than anything, I had been told that no respectable servant existed who would willingly work at the mansion of a half-blood outcast with beastfolk blood, especially when that lord was only a little girl.

Which meant that while Iiria dealt with the guests, Kururu had been handling the entire backstage operation by herself.

“Couldn’t you have asked Marks-san and the others to help? I think they would have.”

“…If I had those swindlers working like servants in the mansion, then what would this place be, their hideout?”

I supposed appearances mattered.

“Still… Iiria-sama had been working hard too. There was no way I could be the one to complain…”

“That same Iiria-sama looks pretty worn out too, though.”

I thought Iiria was a bright and intelligent girl, especially considering everything she had gone through so far. But she was somewhat dependent on Kururu, and when it came to adult men, she seemed more tense than necessary.

The visitors over the last few days were probably not like the people from when the two of them had first come to this land, the sort who saw them as weak girls and directed malice at them, but even so, the strain of having to deal with them had to have been immense.

The fact that she had collapsed into the hammock and was not moving, with both tail and hair all disheveled, likely meant she had somehow managed to get herself out of bed, only to run out of strength there.

And both Iiria and Kururu, after finishing their daytime duties as lord and attendant, had probably spent their nights wrestling with unfamiliar numbers in order to take back this town’s taxes. They were both utterly exhausted.

“Um… then what about the Eder Company matter?”

According to the original plan, today was supposed to be the day we confronted the Eder Company over the tax issue.

But for that, the existence of the wandering magician was indispensable.

Just as I was thinking that with Kururu in this state… she suddenly pushed herself upright like a zombie.

“Of course we are doing it. I endured all of this because I thought I would get my revenge on that bastard.”

According to Torun, the master of the Eder Company was also fairly true to his own desires, a lowlife of the first order, and five years ago he had crossed the threshold of this mansion and apparently tried to sink his fangs into both Iiria and Kururu.

Even though Marks and the others had been there, allowing them to escape real harm, they must still have had to endure more than enough disgust.

“More importantly, the fire has already been lit. Because of the prospecting work, the beastfolk all know that I am a magician. Iiria-sama spoke to them of the future, and in return for their great expectations, they have kept silent about this. If we stop now, they will be disappointed in Iiria-sama forever. And if that happens, Iiria-sama will never be able to smile in this mansion again!”

Kururu had survived alongside Iiria, just the two of them. She must have experienced countless horrors like the one that had chilled me when I saw the accident at the loading dock.

And at last, she had glimpsed the shadow of a star of hope that might let her sleep in peace.

“If Kururu-san is willing to do it, then it will be fine. Let’s do it.”

Hot iron must not be allowed to cool.

If Kururu was tired, then I would just have to support her that much more.

But when I happened to look up, Kururu was staring at me as if taken aback.

I panicked, wondering whether I had answered wrongly somehow, but Kururu was smiling in a troubled way.

“I had braced myself for a bit more arguing from you.”

For a moment I thought that was an odd thing to say, but then I realized it was because Kururu herself knew she was completely worn out. Considering what we were about to do, we should have faced it in perfect condition.

But Kururu did not want to stop moving forward, so even though she was sleep-deprived and exhausted, she still wanted to push the plan onward today. If I, worrying about her condition, had insisted we proceed more cautiously, then she had apparently intended to fight me on it to the bitter end.

“I won’t.”

That was how I answered, with a small smile.

“In the first place, I can’t exactly go against you, Kururu-san.”

Kururu was shorter than me and looked delicate as well, but her canine teeth were sharp like fangs, and above all, the force in her gaze was incredible. More than that, the weight she carried was altogether different, and I had never thought of her as the sort of girl who would say things lightly.

Since Kururu said it could be done, that was reason enough for me to believe we could do it.

“You…”

Kururu began, then closed her mouth.

I thought perhaps my self-deprecating joke had rubbed her the wrong way, but after clearing her throat, Kururu smiled while biting her lip.

“You trust me so easily.”

It was an unguarded smile.

“Yes, we can do it. I can do it.”

Kururu rubbed at the corners of her eyes near her wrists and looked at me. Perhaps she had been born into a weak position, and had lived a life in which she was constantly made to understand only her own powerlessness.

Kururu’s expression was, since the moment I had first stepped into this mansion, the clearest and most refreshingly severe I had ever seen it.

“I’m going to change clothes. You get yourself ready too.”

Only after she pointed at me did I come back to myself and realize that now it was my turn to face reality.

“Ah… right.”

Of course I knew what she meant by getting ready.

But while my spirits were sinking, Kururu said this.

“If you want, I can do it for you.”

It probably was not a joke.

The smiling Kururu was undoubtedly serious.

“Huh… no, um, maybe Marks-san and the others…”

“Really? I think I could punch you pretty well myself.”

Kururu swung her fist a few times, but if Kururu punched me, I felt like I might awaken to some strange new taste.

After seeing the slightly dissatisfied Kururu go off to change, I called over Marks, who was loitering in front of the mansion, and had him punch me once in the shadow of the building.

It felt less painful than simply a bit hot, and perhaps because he made a living doing shady work, he managed to split my lip quite nicely for the amount of pain involved.

“You’ve got a soft face. Punching you felt like hitting a noble.”

I was a frail civilized person, so I wished he would cut me some slack there.

“But as the face of a man who got scared after being beaten and spilled everything, it’s top-class.”

Marks was laughing gleefully.

And that was, more or less, exactly what we were about to do.

The Eder Company was collecting lawless taxes from the town, but where that money ultimately went was the same place most of the town’s wealth went: into Nodon’s pocket.

And I was the one entrusted with the accounting of the money going in and out of Nodon’s coffers, so if that very treasurer showed up with a beaten face beside the magician helping Iiria, then from Eder’s perspective, it would not be hard to imagine what had happened.

“Heh, Yorinobu, you’ve got quite a good face now.”

Kururu returned, no longer in her usual servant’s clothes, but dressed in a long robe with frayed hems and a deep hood that hid even her eyes, looking every bit like some rootless wandering traveler.

“So then, Yorinobu. Are you truly ready for this? Eder is Nodon’s lapdog. Once we start prodding him, there will be no turning back. Whether the operation fails or succeeds, you will no longer have a place in that company.”

Though Kururu could seem reckless, it appeared she was properly concerned about me as well.

“I do feel a certain amount of gratitude for being hired by the Nodon Company, but I’ve done more than enough work for my wages. I’ve been beaten plenty too, so honestly, getting thrown out would be a relief.”

And if this plan failed to change anything, then one way or another, all of us were destined eventually to have our lives ruined over something petty and end up dying in a ditch. Even if rebelling against Nodon failed and left me with nowhere to go, that would only be a matter of sooner rather than later.

Besides, if everything truly became hopeless, and Kururu had the option of blowing everything away with a synthetic magic stone, then not taking this gamble was the riskier choice.

“More importantly, what should I call our wandering magician-sama?”

I wiped the blood from my lip roughly away, then rubbed dust from the window frame onto my face and shoulders so it would look like I had been knocked to the ground.

“Dorasutel. Sounds strong, doesn’t it?”

“That’s just the magician from children’s fairy tales.”

Kururu shot an icy glare at the exasperated Marks.

“It’s fine. That’s my ideal magician.”

With one hand on her hip, standing there with smug pride, Kururu looked several years younger than usual.

But since she normally looked unnaturally older than her years, that felt just about right to me.

“Now then, drag forth the sinner. The great magician Dorasutel-sama shall expose the giant evil!”

After flinging her robe dramatically and making that declaration, Kururu suddenly looked toward the courtyard and said this.

“Ah, wait a moment. I’m going to put a blanket over Iiria-sama. She’ll catch a cold like that.”

At the fussy, caring Kururu, Marks and I looked at each other.

It was a departure lacking any real dignity, but that relaxed air lasted only until we stepped out of the mansion.