Young Man And Boy

Now that Rudel was a third-year, he had begun taking elective classes. But problems arose here as well. Students took classes in order to become knights, but noble children had already received a certain amount of education beforehand. As a result, they had more free time than commoners.

For nobles, the thought of being able to relax and enjoy themselves during their student years was a welcome one… but Rudel wanted to become a Dragoon as quickly as possible. He had to make use of every bit of free time he had. And because students with top grades already had plenty of credits to spare, they had even more time on their hands.

“So you’ve come to consult me about what you should do from now on… But are you sure about this, Rudel-sama? You’re finally at a stage where you have some freedom, and yet you want to spend it all studying and training?”

Rudel had come to consult Basil. Even at the academy, Basil was one of the people with the greatest amount of real combat experience. There was no reason not to ask her advice! That was Rudel’s reasoning, but… Basil was privately thinking about putting him to work.

Work… specifically, the sort of jobs she took as an adventurer, earning money in exchange for her abilities as a mercenary or bodyguard. Naturally, many of those jobs were dangerous, and one wrong move could cost someone their life. But with Rudel’s current strength, he could handle most things.

“Do you have any good ideas? If possible, I’d like something I can only do now… I feel like I’ll be busy once I graduate…”

As Rudel pondered the matter, Basil made him a proposal. Naturally, it was about work.

“In that case, I know of some good jobs… No, why don’t you gain some real combat experience? Not defensive work like last year. I can arrange more difficult assignments, such as monster subjugation.”

Basil’s mind was already filled with thoughts of what jobs she could find and how much they would pay. Completely unaware of that, Rudel accepted with a smile.

“Can I leave it to you? Thanks, Basil.”

…Hearing that, Basil felt just a little guilty.

Basil had come to a familiar shop… the same one where she had sold boar tusks several years ago. She intended to rely on the elderly shopkeeper who had warned her about the danger after she made enemies of the information brokers. This time, with her position as a retainer of House Arses making her difficult to interfere with, Basil entered the shop openly.

“You want work? I already had to pull strings for that escort job last year… Besides, you don’t exactly need work anymore, do you?”

The old man spoke with Basil while continuing his appraisal work. Inside the shop, there was only the old man examining items brought in for appraisal and Basil browsing the merchandise as they talked.

“My employer wants it. So, are you going to help me or not? If you do, I’ll pay you something for it.”

“I’m not a job broker. But there is one thing I want to ask… the truth behind that incident involving the princess last year. We haven’t been able to gather any information at all, so the information brokers are starving for anything related to it. They’re convinced something must be going on behind the scenes.”

Basil had access to the academy. More accurately, she lived there while working. Information of that sort reached her quickly. And since her employer had been deeply involved, naturally she had looked into it as well.

“It’s not an interesting story, you know? …I suppose the truth is that the succession dispute within House Arses complicated everything. It seems my employer’s younger brother and parents twisted the truth about what happened. Then a genius Dragoon knight got involved and made it even messier.”

Basil gave him a simple account of the incident… though whenever Rudel himself came up, she subtly obscured the details or dodged the subject. Apparently even Basil was careful about protecting her employer’s personal information.

“I thought it might be something dangerous… but I guess reality’s usually like that. So, who took responsibility?”

“House Arses has kept quiet. I heard the younger brother was forced to graduate in his second year and is being sent off to the frontier as a knight. It feels light considering a knight-in-training abandoned a princess… but even so, sending someone from such a prestigious noble house to the frontier has damaged House Arses’s reputation even further.”

Basil was not especially concerned about that. After all, thanks to Rudel, House Arses’s reputation was actually improving now. Rudel… the next Grand Duke acknowledged by the king himself had become a subject of discussion among the nobles. Within the bitter factional struggles surrounding the Three Dukes, an exceptional heir naturally drew attention.

“So the idiot son of House Arses is now being hailed as a prodigy… Never thought you’d end up connected to him. Well, I’d heard the rumors.”

“He’s already monstrously strong. I don’t stand a chance against him anymore…”

Basil spoke with obvious pride… but deep down, she felt a little lonely. Perhaps it felt as though the younger brother who had always relied on her had finally become independent…

“Is that also why Cattleya the Dragoon dropped out of the competition for promotion? People are talking about how Cattleya, who hadn’t made any notable mistakes, was sent to the frontier.”

“You know a lot. Has that already spread?”

“Of course it has. If Cattleya the Dragoon gets sent to the frontier, people are going to assume something happened. Things have suddenly gotten restless lately, too. Apparently Gaia has been reinforcing its forces along the border, and the information brokers are making noise about monsters becoming more active. …Maybe being sent to the frontier isn’t such a light punishment after all.”

As they spoke, the shopkeeper finished his work and wrote down what Basil had told him in a memo. He was probably recording it so he could sell the information to the brokers… Basil assumed as much and paid it no attention.

“Wait until next week about the work. I’ll look around for something by then. And I’ll tell the information brokers that this came from you. …Just because you’re a servant of House Arses doesn’t mean you can afford to be this careless. Nothing good comes from underestimating those people.”

Basil was surprised by the shopkeeper’s concern. She certainly had been careless, but… the information she had just given him was worth a fair amount. He could probably have sold it for a decent price… The shopkeeper looked at her expression and said,

“I’m not so hard up that I need a side business to make ends meet.”

After thanking him, Basil left the shop. Before she went, however, she bought one of the items on display.

After becoming a third-year, Rudel began spending most of his time with Luecke and Unias. Rudel had been required to take classes in territorial management and other subjects necessary for becoming a Grand Duke, and naturally, taking those classes meant studying alongside the legitimate heirs of the other two ducal houses.

The three of them had begun moving around together almost as a matter of course. One day, while the three were eating in the cafeteria with Izumi—who lately had often been acting separately from them—the subject came up.

“You asked that big sis to find you some work?”

Unias took an interest in Rudel’s story while eating an extra-large set meal from the academy cafeteria.

“If you’re a student, I think it’s safer to focus on studying at the academy.”

Unlike Unias, Luecke warned Rudel against it while continuing to read a book. There were certainly things that could only be learned at the academy.

“But this is the only time we’ll have, right? Once we graduate, we’ll be busy… Basil said it’s also a good opportunity to see more of the outside world.”

Luecke admitted that Rudel had a point, put down his book, and decided to hear him out.

“That woman… Rudel, may I come too? It would be dangerous to leave that woman unwatched.”

“That’s fine, but will your classes be all right, Izumi? If you’re aiming to become a Senior Knight, shouldn’t you have a lot of mandatory subjects?”

“Ugh… I-I’ll manage somehow!”

Watching Rudel and Izumi, Luecke and Unias both thought, Just start dating already, but neither said it aloud. As they continued talking, Unias finished his meal and announced that he would join them too.

“Then I’m coming too! It’s a rare opportunity, and it sounds fun!”

“…It’s impressive that you can say that when you’re hopeless at classroom studies… Well, I have enough room in my schedule, so I suppose I can participate too.”

While the four of them were getting excited over the idea, one of the students who had overheard them in the cafeteria suddenly stood up with a loud scrape. He turned his gaze toward Rudel and the others… and that gaze was filled with hostility.

When the four noticed and looked over at him, the students around the boy desperately tried to calm him down, telling him to sit and relax. But the student who had stood up refused to look away.

“Must be nice, living like that. Some of us are working ourselves to the bone just to attend this academy, and our families are making sacrifices for us… yet the heir of House Arses would rather hunt monsters than manage his territory? You don’t even know how many people in your lands are suffering, and you can still do something like that. No… you can do it precisely because you don’t know, can’t you?”

His words were filled with barbs aimed directly at Rudel. The boy who had stood up had brown hair and blue eyes, with no particularly striking features, but he was still quite handsome. And since his friends were so desperately trying to restrain him, he did not seem like a bad person.

“Fritz, stop! You’re picking the worst possible opponents. Those are upperclassmen from the Three Dukes!”

As the voices around him grew louder, Rudel ignored the boy. It was not because he disliked him or had no interest in what he was saying. The boy’s accusations were true, and Rudel understood that he himself had problems in that regard. More than that, Rudel had always known that someone would eventually say something like this to him.

And precisely because he had expected it, Rudel believed there was nothing he could say that would reach someone like this boy. If he said he would become Grand Duke and save the people, the boy would not believe him. If he simply shrugged it off, that would only make matters worse. Besides… Rudel’s dream led him down a path that ran directly opposite to what the boy had just demanded of him.

“Say something! Don’t you feel any guilt toward the people suffering because of you?!”

As the boy shouted, Luecke and Unias began to rise, ready to answer him, but Rudel stopped them. Izumi tugged on Rudel’s clothes, worried that he might cause trouble.

Rudel quietly told Izumi not to worry, then stood and looked at the boy. From his clothes, it was obvious that he was not a noble, but a commoner. He had probably endured considerable hardship just to come here from his hometown and attend the academy. Perhaps he was even a resident of the Arses territory.

Then I should play the villain here. If I become the enemy he hates, maybe he’ll push himself even harder… That was what Rudel decided.

“Sorry… If I say that, will you forgive me? If shouting is enough to solve things, then shout as much as you want. Scream all you like. Once the basic course ends, there’s an individual tournament for third- through fifth-years. Make it that far, and I’ll at least listen to what you have to say.”

With that, Rudel left the cafeteria. Luecke and the others followed after him… and just as they were leaving, Aleist entered the cafeteria with two friends.

“W-What is with this heavy atmosphere?!”

He and his friends could only stare in surprise at the indescribably tense mood hanging over the cafeteria.