Mort (4)

The next day, the knights assigned to guard the door arrived as soon as the sun rose. They had youthful faces and seemed to be squires, but the man commanding them was familiar.

“I greet Her Highness, the guardian of swordsmen and drunkards.”

“Sir Raul!”

I welcomed him with a bright smile. Raul of Radan, carrying his fearsome axe, bowed with a comical flourish. When he raised his head, he pressed dramatically against his temple.

“Are you feeling all right? I thought I was going to die from my hangover yesterday.”

“Really? I felt fine.”

“As expected, Madam, you are my idol!”

Raul laughed heartily. The squires looked somewhat nervous at the enormous knight’s laughter, but surprisingly, none of the maids seemed frightened. Then again, they had probably seen more knights than wild rabbits, so that was only natural.

Yet it was strange that those same people were frightened by every little thing Victor did. Pushing the question from my mind once again, I asked Sir Raul,

“Then are you going to be my escort?”

“Yes. I volunteered when I heard the duty was to attend Madam.”

Raul shrugged shamelessly.

“What danger could possibly befall you, Madam? Even if a pack of chimeras charged at you, you probably would not care. So this is quite literally a post where I can laze around, eat, and still get paid.”

“I see…….”

I nodded ambiguously.

Somehow, I felt as though I understood why Sir Raul had quit being a mercenary. Mercenaries earned as much as they worked, but no matter how I looked at him, Sir Raul seemed like the kind of person who preferred leaving work precisely on time to chasing prey through the night. Though his personality was unmistakably that of a mercenary.

After finishing my light morning preparations, I offered Sir Raul some refreshments. However, he politely declined.

“I would accept if you gave me alcohol instead of cake, Madam.”

He then asked what today’s schedule was.

There was nothing that could really be called a schedule.

I answered awkwardly.

“I was simply thinking of looking around the castle.”

“Excellent! I wanted to look around as well. I told you this is my first time in Mort too, didn’t I?”

He grinned and escorted me toward the door.

The maids and squires followed us in a crowd. Several of the knights glanced at one another and asked cautiously,

“Sir, our lord ordered us to guard the door……. Is it truly all right for everyone to leave their posts like this?”

Raul whipped his head around and narrowed his eyes. He looked as though he were wondering whether he truly had to go through with such a pointless task.

He soon selected two young knights and stationed them in front of the door.

“You two stay here. If you get tired, go downstairs and drink some ale or something…… Take it easy, understood?”

Then he quickly hurried after me.

“Where shall we begin?”

Mary took charge of guiding us. The other maids were still far too stiff with fear. Just as Dideric had done before, Mary said she would show me the rooms on the upper floors first, one by one.

As we walked toward the top floor, Raul suddenly asked,

“Did you request the escort knights, Madam?”

“No, Victor suggested it, so I agreed.”

“I see…….”

His voice trailed off as he frowned. Such an expression was rare on the usually cheerful Sir Raul.

I tilted my head.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, it merely seems a little strange.”

Raul stroked his chin with a rough hand.

“It is not unusual to guard the lady of the castle even inside, but in truth, are you not stronger than any of us, Madam?”

“Y-Yes…….”

I answered vaguely because I did not want to sound arrogant. But Sir Raul did not seem concerned.

“And yet, to station guards anyway……. This feels less like protection and more like…….”

He abruptly stopped speaking. We had already arrived at our destination.

“I shall begin by showing you this area, Madam.”

Mary first introduced the rooms that the lady of the castle needed to know.

There was the banquet hall, guest bedrooms, a salon for hosting tea gatherings, and even a separate drawing room reserved solely for the lady’s guests.

Every room was white and beautiful. Since it was a cold region, the windows were not large, but enormous chandeliers hung overhead, and white carpets and curtains decorated the rooms, making everything bright as though we had entered a temple.

Sir Raul clicked his tongue in amazement.

“Do you clean all of this every day?”

“Not every day, but at least once a week. Dust gathers easily on the carpets.”

“Good heavens……. You should raise their wages, Madam.”

I nodded gravely.

Thinking of all the effort required to keep these rooms clean left me speechless. Cleaning the entire castle would already be difficult enough, but everything was white. If it were up to me, I would have changed all of it to colors that were easier to clean.

As though reading my thoughts, Sir Raul grinned.

“Order them to remove these fabrics immediately and replace them with draka hide, Madam. Then they will not need cleaning for the next hundred years.”

“How could I possibly dare to do that?”

“What do you mean, ‘dare’? His Highness would be delighted even if you said you wanted to tear down the castle and rebuild it.”

My face reddened on its own. Even after the knights had teased me throughout the journey about how affectionate we were, I still felt embarrassed. I quickly turned toward Mary.

“Where does His Highness work?”

“He is usually in his study, but today, I heard that he entered the first-floor meeting room early in the morning accompanied by the knights.”

I see. I nodded.

He had been so busy even in the capital, so he must be even busier here after being absent for several years. I wished there were something I could do to help…….

Victor had told me not to concern myself with work, but it still weighed on me. Should I finish learning how to manage ledgers after all? At the very least, I might be able to assist Dideric with the castle accounts…….

As I pondered, Mary opened a large, ornate wooden door.

“This is the library, Madam.”

“Wow…….”

I entered the room in admiration.

The library was astonishing. I had never visited it, but I wondered whether the library in the Imperial Palace felt like this. The room was even larger than the library in the capital residence and filled with tall oak bookshelves and more books than I could imagine. High-quality oil candles brightly illuminated every corner. The shelves held books from countless fields I had never seen before, including history, geography, astronomy, music, and swordsmanship.

I soon found the shelves containing knightly novels. Surprisingly, <The Adventures of Doldopin, the Wandering Knight>, which I had been reading, was a long series with three volumes. I took out the second volume and checked the title page.

[……Doldopin, a knight serving Princess Rapier, falls in love with Grand Princess Flamberge, who is imprisoned in a tower, and confesses his love during his travels. However, the cruel Grand Princess Flamberge tells him that if he wishes to win her heart, he must fulfill three requests…….]

Below it was another ridiculous illustration of Doldopin and the beautiful Flamberge.

I would ask them to bring it to me once I finished the first volume. I returned the book to its place and turned away.

At the entrance, Sir Raul was waiting for me while speaking with the maids. Even the maids who had been frozen stiff seemed to have relaxed somewhat while talking with Sir Raul. Seeing that made me feel more at ease as well.

In truth, my nerves had remained on edge ever since arriving in Mort. The atmosphere of the castle was strangely desolate, and the servants openly behaved as though they were frightened. I had even been told that the castle had neither a head maid nor an underbutler. That could not possibly be normal in a castle this large.

Mort somehow felt empty in places. Just like Amari after monsters had swept through it.

But after eating delicious food and seeing familiar faces, my frayed nerves seemed to settle somewhat. It was probably merely because I was tense. Once I adjusted, I would surely be able to live happily with Victor and the servants, just as before.

I sincerely wanted that.

Steadying myself, I approached them. Sir Raul was greatly exaggerating a trivial quarrel he had experienced during his mercenary days. I laughed with the maids as we walked down the corridor.

The afternoon sunlight streamed dazzlingly through the snow-white curtains.

Victor’s meeting had still not ended by dinnertime. Since it was rare for him to miss dinner with me, I finished my meal alone with concern.

The venison steamed with herbs, potatoes roasted with generous amounts of butter, and pudding topped with wild raspberry jam were astonishingly delicious. But even delicious food could not stop me from worrying. As I headed back toward my room with a grave expression, Mary cautiously asked,

“Madam, was the food not to your liking?”

“No, it was truly, truly delicious!”

I answered immediately. Startled, Mary widened her eyes and nodded.

Had I answered too quickly? Feeling slightly embarrassed, I asked,

“Has His Highness eaten?”

“No. I heard that bread and cheese were brought into the meeting room so that he could eat something light.”

How could that be?

A sigh escaped me. It pained me that even though there was no shortage of food, he was too busy to eat anything better than such a meager meal. After all, I was someone who believed eating was the most important thing in the world.

After thinking, I made a request.

“Please tell them to send fruit, pastries, and roast meat into the meeting room as well.”

“Yes, Madam.”

“Oh, and one more thing.”

I suddenly added something that had occurred to me.

“If anyone comes to the castle gates asking for ‘Skinny,’ please tell them to notify me.”

“Skin……ny?”

“Yes. That is my…… nickname.”

Unable to think of how to explain mercenary customs, I answered awkwardly.

Mercenaries normally used aliases while working. They worried that if their true names became known, their families or hometowns might suffer retaliation.

Since I usually hired mercenaries as a lord’s representative, I rarely needed aliases the way mercenaries did, but when necessary, I simply said whatever came to mind. Staff, Ice Pick, Waterwheel, Wine Barrel……. Compared to those, Skinny was a fairly respectable name.

But Mary looked conflicted. She stared at my wrist for a moment. Unlike the pale, plump hands of noblewomen, mine were thin and rough. As though making up her mind, she clenched her small fists.

“I shall tell them to prepare even more delicious food tomorrow, Madam.”

Not understanding why, I nodded.

How could it possibly become more delicious than that?

The minor question lingered in my mind.