Chapter 85

Information transmission via familiars is truly convenient. For simple messages, the familiar learns and speaks them directly, so there’s no need for even a scrap of paper. That morning, I—disguised as Orcus—secretly received a report from a familiar perched by my window.

According to the report, a “tracking professional” was coming to meet me, and they wanted me to wander around outdoors. Listening to this vague, essentially “figure it out yourself” instruction, I realized that Caliban, the sender, was steadily starting to adapt to the ways of the Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights.

A tracking professional. More accurately, a professional tracker, but the question that naturally arises for anyone hearing that for the first time is: “What kind of professional?”

“What kind of person is this ‘pro,’ exactly?”

“A dog.”

“A dog!?”

Technically, it was a wolf. I felt bad for the lack of explanation to Koruka-san, but information regarding familiars is fundamentally classified and cannot be shared with ordinary citizens who aren’t mission collaborators. Well, those well-versed in magic already know about familiar technology, so I don’t think there’s much point to this secrecy… but that’s just standard bureaucratic procedure. Since it was a rule decided by the Council, there’s no point in us commoner knights complaining; nothing would change.

Thinking about it calmly, it’s rotten that the knight order provides lightning-fast responses to the citizens, yet ignores the complaints of its own members.

Considering we’re the only ones operating familiars in the knight order, could this be an indirect form of harassment? It’s not impossible, but maybe those geezers who think they can run the country from behind a desk simply can’t distinguish between what’s useless and what’s useful.

“I wish they would consider our position, having to follow the orders of those senile geezers.”

“Orcus-kun, you’re unusually harsh toward the people in the Kingdom Council. To me, they’re just kind old men who visit our mansion to play… except for the marriage proposals they bring every single time without fail.”

“That’s totally aiming for a political marriage! They’re definitely just being nice to try and get on your good side!”

“But my family has had a long-standing house rule that romance is basically up to the individual, so I just ignore all of it.”

“Th-that’s a unique house rule, Sedona-chan’s family…”

Koruka-san’s smile twitched for some reason, but I had heard rumors that Sedona’s family—the Scuderia clan—had some strange aspects to them. There were countless nobles who brought marriage proposals seeking money and merchant connections, but only a handful of those proposals ever bore fruit, and most of them ended up being love marriages with commoners or merchants. Even though mixing noble blood would bring them closer to the power of the Kingdom Council in both name and reality, they apparently had little interest in national politics.

“House rules are nice, aren’t they? You can just say ‘it’s the house rule’ and most things get settled… well, even if it’s not the house rule, you can just pretend it is.”

Sedona muttered this with difficulty, looking like a child tormented by the guilt of having done something wrong. I gathered that this was her last resort when she couldn’t say no. Defying a house rule was enough of an act to catch her father’s eye, and in a sense, it was a powerful “ultimate weapon” and deterrent.

I dubbed it the “Papa-mic Bomb.” Its power might rival my own trump card, the Astraea Bomb. The Astraea Bomb is political power, but the Papa-mic Bomb is money power. If handled poorly, its impact could trigger a massive tsunami in the economy, so I’d very much like for them to keep it mothballed.

But I digress.

At any rate, since we had some free time, we were out in town. I figured that once we caught the imposter, we wouldn’t have much time to relax, so this was sightseeing. Though, I needed to be careful not to wander too far from the motive carriage.

I had a rough grasp of the town’s structure, but there was no way I could know what kind of shops were where without the help of Koruka-san, a local. And so, we were walking through town together. Calypso didn’t have any major tourist attractions, but the town itself had a large economic scale. It wasn’t quite at the level of the Royal Capital, but the streets were beautiful, and if you looked closely, emblems decorated with flowers were displayed all over the town.

Feeling curious, I asked Koruka-san.

“Is that emblem the symbol of this town?”

“That’s right! Lord Floyine, who governs this town, apparently loves gardens and flower fields, so several flower fields on the outskirts of town are open to the public as tourist and dating spots. The reason this town’s honey is such high quality is because Lord Floyine encouraged beekeeping, saying, ‘Bees help with flower pollination!’ Hey, hey, if we have time, why don’t we go together? Orcus-san!”

“Hm… um, well, if I have time, I wouldn’t mind…”

Koruka-san grabbed my hand tightly and looked excited, and feeling her warm body temperature, I swallowed the words, “It might be difficult,” that were on the tip of my tongue. Even though Koruka-san was older than me, a childlike innocence suited her, and somehow, remembering the first time she clung to me, I felt fidgety. It was the same when we first met—was Koruka-san just someone who didn’t have much resistance to physical contact with men?

I had been the type to be avoided until now, so I was a bit weak when people got close. If I were being aggressively pursued, I’d resist, of course—like that time I was sold off by the bearded geezer and accosted by a merchant madam. Well, that was a resistance that barely saved me from losing my first kiss. That battle had been more grueling than fighting an Orc.

As I was reminiscing about that harrowing past, a different, energetic voice jumped in from my side.

“Oh, then I want to go too! I love looking at gardens, and I want to make memories with you!”

“Eh! Oh, is that so… Y-yeah, right. No, of course I meant I was inviting both of you!?”

“……? You’re acting suspicious, Koruka-san.”

“As for me, I’d like to refrain from walking around with three people at once.”

“Eeeh!? Does that mean you hate being with a freckled girl like me!?”

Koruka-san, now with teary eyes, clung tightly to my arm. While desperately trying to look away from the very soft sensation I felt near my upper arm, I deeply regretted my poor choice of words. Now that I thought about it, I was playing a character who was in unrequited love with Sedona, so what I said must have sounded like I was trying to exclude Koruka-san.

“You’re the worst, Orcus-kun! Depending on how you take that statement, it could be a really big deal!? You lecher! Enemy of women! One of the Three Problem Children of the academy!!”

“You’re one of those three people too!! No, no, that’s not it! It’s not that! The thing is, the stares I’m getting from everyone while walking with the two of you are brutal…!”

Yes, honestly, the looks from the people around us for a while now hadn’t been gentle.

Koruka-san was a popular woman in these parts, to begin with, and now she was accompanied by a noble lady. The various kinds of glares directed at me, with a beauty on each arm, made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

“Damn it, I thought Koruka-chan had finally left the hands of that piece-of-trash knight, but now another knight is taking her? And he’s got another woman on his arm, too… what is this world where knights are so popular!!”

“I thought he was a good man when he saved Koruka-chan, but to think he was with another woman… that’s just like a man for you!”

“Is it by mutual consent? Could it be they’re fighting over him!? I’m curious… I’m incredibly curious about that part!!”

“So envious… this is disgraceful! Where have the good old days gone, when a man loved only one woman!!”

“The era is all about the harem life, uncle. These days, a man’s worth is measured by how many women he’s tangled up with, right?”

“That’s just because you’re into those popular adventure stories, nii-ni. Sheesh… Look, hurry up and get to the lord’s estate. It’s embarrassing for us if we’re seen as idiots by the general public, you know?”

Just like that, while the two of them didn’t seem to care, they were standing out in the worst way possible—and entirely making me look like the villain. I don’t have the time to make a girlfriend, nor do I have anyone to date. When I let that slip at the tavern, I got a venomous retort from the crowd: “You could do it if you really wanted to, so don’t act like you can’t.” I think that’s a total frame-up.

“Actually, we aren’t lovers or anything. Dealing with public perception is so difficult.”

“More importantly, the people who said they were going to the lord’s estate earlier were those workers from the Rosie Bee Farm. Did something happen to them?”

“Maybe something did. After all, it seems ‘something’ is going on at the honey shop we were aiming for, too.”

I turned my gaze toward the honey shop I’d been heading to because the tavern master spoke highly of it. In front of the door, a clerk-looking man had put up a “Closed” sign, his shoulders slumped as he let out a deep, heavy sigh. Since it was still morning and he was already closing up shop and sighing, it wasn’t hard to imagine that something had happened.

The question was the details of that “something.”

The clerk noticed our approaching group and turned around.

He was young, perhaps around the same age as Koruka-san.

His expression was haggard, radiating a sense of deep depression and a lost, tragic air.

“What’s wrong, Gyatt-kun… You look even worse than you did the day after I turned you down?”

“Ah, Koruka-chan. It’s sudden, but I’m going to die tomorrow.”

“Eh… well, you certainly look desperate enough to die, but what happened all of a sudden?”

“It’s fine. I was only ever a man of this much worth. By tomorrow morning, my bludgeoned corpse will surely be lying in a back alley thanks to the master. Hey, living twenty years or a hundred years is all the same in the end.”

With hollow eyes and a suspicious, weak smile, he looked like a man on the verge of selling his soul to despair. I tilted my head, wondering what could have happened, but then I remembered having an expression like that once.

…I had made a massive mistake in ordering necessary tools, ordering two hundred parts when I only needed twenty. The memory of Senior Senega stabbing me with sarcasm over it until my stomach hurt still made me cringe. All I felt back then was the insurmountable regret of having messed up and a sense of guilt so deep I wished I’d just been fired.

Being forgiven and feeling responsible are two different things.

Incidentally, the loss from that incident was covered by Captain Akina, who looked at the massive pile of leftover parts, shouted “I’ve got it!”, and converted them into convenience goods to sell. She may have bad hobbies, but she’s top-tier when it comes to making money. Well, thinking back on it, even if I had said I wanted to quit, the bearded geezer probably would have used his silver tongue to keep me on. Just to squeeze every last drop of labor out of me. In short, damn that old man.

However, there’s a saying that once you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. Even in a desolate land, there’s usually a drop of hope left. Sedona peered into the face of Gyatt, who was slumped over so far his back was hunched.

“You shouldn’t give up on life so easily! Most of the world’s problems can be solved if you have companions, even if you can’t do it alone! We’ll help you in any way we can, so let’s take one step forward, okay?”

“Please, I beg for your cooperation, my beautiful young lady!!”

‘Wow, this guy is a pushover.’

‘Well, Gyatt-kun is the type to fall in love easily and get dumped just as fast.’

Perhaps shaken by Sedona’s encouragement—which seemed earnest but was actually just how she treated everyone—Gyatt straightened his posture, his expression transforming instantly. His cheeks flushed slightly, and his gaze was locked onto Sedona’s face.

But he didn’t know.

He didn’t know that Sedona had led many men to misunderstand her and then crushed their hearts with this same behavior. I just hoped his excitement was only temporary. If he accidentally confessed and got dumped, the cause of death for the next day might end up being something else entirely.

Anyway, Gyatt, having regained his composure, began to speak.

He explained why he had claimed he would die tomorrow.

“Actually, my master headed off to a distant market to buy stock, and I was supposed to mind the shop while he was gone. Since he was entrusting the shop to me, even if it was temporary, it was proof that he acknowledged me, so I was naturally motivated… but this morning, something unthinkable happened that betrayed the master’s trust.”

“That has to be related to why you were closing the shop, right?”

“Of course. After all… our best-selling product, the honey, was stolen!!”

“Eh!? So the shop doesn’t have any honey now!? But there were honey barrels here just a while ago!!”

“They took the barrels and all!! And to make matters worse, they even took the Royal Jelly, the highest-grade honey that only we carry!!”

Seething with regret, Gyatt gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and shouted. Apparently, this shop sold honey by packing the requested amount into jars, so the disappearance of the barrels meant the disappearance of the honey.

Having his best-selling products taken away by the barrel was fatal for the business. Considering the loss in honey, it was understandable why he’d lament that the master would kill him.

“Damn it, damn it all… That bastard, Knight Varna!! He pointed his sword at me and told me to hand over all the honey, and I… I was too scared to defy him!! I had no choice but to throw all the barrels into his carriage…!”

“……Eh?”

“……What?”

Just now, a vital piece of information I couldn’t ignore had dropped.

“Wait, this Knight Varna… was he a large man with a menacing face, wearing slightly gaudy clothing with a sword dangling at his waist?”

“Yeah, that’s him! If someone with arms that thick started swinging a sword around, I’d be cut in two easily—what the hell kind of strongest knight of the kingdom is he!? What kind of ‘ally of the commoners’ is he!? What are the big shots thinking, putting scum like that at the top of the knight order!!”

“……Gyatt-kun, that’s an imposter, you know?”

“Yeah, I’m sure of that! That he’s an imposter, I believe… wait? An imposter?”

Gyatt’s expression froze, click.

I stepped forward, casually emphasizing the sword at my waist to explain the situation.

“Ah… I’m sorry to hear that, but there’s currently a scoundrel impersonating Knight Varna lurking in this town of Calypso. That man matches the description you just gave.”

“E-eh, you’re a knight… I mean, an imposter…?”

“Whaaaat!?”

And so, another entry was carved into the misdeeds of the Fake Varna.

However, a major doubt had arisen for me—and perhaps for Sedona, who was resting her chin on her fingers as if deep in thought.

“A knight is wandering around town, loading multiple barrels of honey onto a carriage…? Why would he do something that conspicuous, and with honey, which is difficult to transport, rather than gold or valuables? It’s not like he’s going to drink it all himself, so where on earth does he plan to hide such a large haul, and what does he intend to use it for?”

It was hard to imagine the Fake Varna just driving out of town in a carriage.

The news that a motive carriage was parked on the outskirts of town had likely already spread, and the Holy Shield Knights were marking the town’s entrances. If I were the Fake Varna, I would lie low until at least the Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights left the town.

That meant the Fake Varna had hidden the honey barrels somewhere in this town.

He couldn’t possibly be a honey addict, and I didn’t think he was stupid enough to think he could survive just on honey while hiding out. In short, I didn’t understand why he had taken the risk of stealing the honey barrels.

“Hey, you! Honey is valuable too, you know! Royal Jelly is a super-precious item that we even offer to the Royal Family! Well, Royal Jelly is treated as a longevity food because of its overwhelming nutritional value, not for its taste… but regardless, the privileged class buys it too, so it’s definitely worth money!”

Gyatt-san snapped at my doubt. I didn’t know much about this “Royal Jelly,” but I assumed it was wonderful honey, worthy of the name “Royal.”

I’m quietly curious about how it tastes. Would Astraea know?

Anyway, I understood it was a valuable item. But I still wasn’t convinced.

“If you want something valuable, it’s far more efficient to break into a jewelry store and steal precious metals or gems. After all, the volume and weight of the items would be far lighter, and they’re harder to track. In fact, he even went out of his way to prepare a carriage when he took the barrels, right? You don’t need such heavy preparations for jewelry.”

“U-uh, now that you mention it… b-but! I’ve had my honey stolen by the barrel! That fact doesn’t change!?”

“That’s true, but if that’s the case, that fake must have a reason for needing that honey.”

I didn’t know. What could he possibly need massive amounts of honey for?

However, in any case, it’s unlikely the stolen honey has already left town.

If so, I might be able to recover the honey while capturing the Fake Varna.

I asked for a small bottle of the Royal Jelly and honey left in the shop as a clue, and our group decided to wait for the arrival of the professional.

‘…Somehow, I’ve felt since earlier that the person the Holy Shield Knights (us) and Varna-kun’s group are looking for aren’t quite matching up, but is it my imagination? But if he has the honey, it must be the same person, right? Hmm…’

—Leaving that faint sense of discomfort tucked away in Sedona’s heart.