Chapter 34
“Is this guy insane?”
After Kate left the office to handle another task, I looked over the list she had transcribed for me and muttered a curse.
“Monster subjugation? From House Lucilante?”
I let out a hollow laugh and muttered.
House Lucilante was a high-ranking noble house. They had private soldiers in abundance, and every member of the family was a renowned magic knight.
And yet a house full of knights like that had put in a request for the mere task of subjugating monsters near its territory?
That was ridiculous.
This was a message for me. I didn't know what they thought of my having rescued Kate, but the fact that I had become involved in their affairs was already a foregone conclusion.
Choosing which mission the Practical Class students would undertake was entirely the instructor's prerogative. You could say they had put some thought into it.
If they had wanted to meet me with negative intentions, they wouldn't have needed to use a method like this. They could have sent an assassin under House Lucilante's name, or used any number of dirty methods to deliver a ‘warning.’
Therefore, the fact that they had gone out of their way to contact me through the roundabout method of a request could be interpreted to mean that, at least for now, they didn't want to make an enemy of me.
There could be any number of reasons they had summoned me. The first thing that came to mind was a veiled threat asking me to keep quiet about Kate. The last thing they wanted was for any more of House Lucilante's shame regarding Kate to come to light.
And another reason could be… Kalud, who was suspected of being a possessor. He wanted to learn something from me, an irregular. But considering how he had subtly leaked information about me to Rex, my impression of him wasn't very good. To be honest, I found him unpleasant. If he was so curious, he should have acted himself. Getting Rex to move according to his own plans by leaking information to him was nothing short of underhanded.
Of course, any other instructor would have taken this opportunity without hesitation. Whatever the circumstances, chances to forge connections with a high-ranking noble house like House Lucilante were rare.
But if there was one thing they had gotten wrong…
“What a joke.”
The thing was, I wasn't particularly interested in matters like that.
I wasn't particularly interested in getting ahead or anything like that. Of course, when it came to money, having more than enough was far better than having none, but I had no desire to stake my life on something as hollow as honor.
And I already had enough connections. I had ties to House Rozis, built over the course of the Seven Years' War. I wasn't in desperate need of House Lucilante's backing.
“Do you think I'll play along with your dirty tricks?”
I snorted and muttered before banishing all thoughts of their proposal from my mind.
Then I devoted myself to picking a mission from the list that the students in Class E could undertake as their first practical assignment.
Until then, I had assumed that House Lucilante would simply think, ‘We'll test the waters, and if it doesn't work, we'll drop it.’
But apparently, that wasn't the case.
Because the very next day, a letter arrived for me.
The sender was Kalud Lucilante.
House Lucilante was far more persistent than I had expected.
=
“To briefly summarize the letter, they were asking our Class E to resolve an issue for House Lucilante.”
“A request?”
“Yes, a request.”
I nodded.
“Even House Lucilante, a high-ranking noble house, can't force us. In this country, magic knights are above nobles in terms of status.”
That wasn't actually how things worked. I muttered this as an afterthought before continuing.
“That's why I brought this request to you. Since House Lucilante specifically named me and all of you, the choice is yours.”
I set the letter down on the desk and looked around at the children.
“What do you think we should do about this request?”
“…First of all, there's a good chance the request itself is nothing major.”
Kariya was the first to speak.
“The southern region where House Lucilante is located is famous for its monster population swelling and receding dramatically with the regularly alternating dry and rainy seasons. And now it's February, the dry season when the number of monsters is greatly reduced.”
“Oh….”
“It is the tail end of the dry season, so the number of monsters may have begun to rise little by little…. But I can't help doubting that the territory is suffering from monsters right now.”
Kariya laid out his reasons one by one. Charlotte nodded along with him.
“I agree. Besides, there are three people in Class E connected to ‘that incident’… Considering that, it's hard to see House Lucilante's interest in us in a positive light.”
“Hmm, but…”
At that moment, Miriam tilted her head and spoke.
“Is House Lucilante's proposal necessarily a bad thing?”
“…What do you mean?”
“No, think about it.”
Miriam shook her head.
“Why do you think House Lucilante wants to summon Instructor Haru and the two of you by any means necessary?”
“…Maybe they want to make us keep quiet about what happened that day?”
“Well, if you think about it simply, that would be it.”
Miriam folded her arms and tapped her index finger lightly as she spoke.
“Couldn't they have silenced us in any number of unsavory ways…? That's what I mean.”
“What do you mean by an unsavory way…?”
“They could have sent an underworld figure bearing a bribe. They could have sent an assassin to threaten us. Or they could have sent a threatening letter enchanted to explode after the recipient finished reading it….”
Miriam counted off the possibilities on her fingers.
“…That's the point. If they had wanted to silence us by underhanded means, they could have made things as ugly as they wanted. Instead, they deliberately went the long way around by openly summoning us under the pretext of a request, trying to settle things amicably without getting confrontational.”
“Now that you mention it….”
“Besides, the person most deeply involved in this isn't Roxanna or Charlotte. It's Instructor Haru, isn't it?”
Charlotte crossed her arms and fell into deep thought. In the meantime, Miriam glanced at me and continued.
“Charlotte and Roxanna are both nobles, but Instructor Haru isn't. They'd have no compunction about using those unpleasant methods against Instructor Haru.”
“That's right.”
I nodded.
“No matter how strong Instructor Haru is, making an enemy of an entire noble house isn't an option.”
Miriam finished speaking with a shrug. I gave her an awkward smile as I looked at her.
Strictly speaking, I did have House Rozis as a sort of patron backing me. But there was no way for Miriam to know that.
But setting that part aside, Miriam's deduction was quite reasonable.
The most important reason I found House Lucilante unpleasant wasn't the matter of Kate… it was that they had used it as an excuse to manipulate Rex into digging into me.
If you thought about it, the very reason things had recently become strained between Rex and me was that the man named Kalud from that house had been pulling strings.
If I set aside my personal dislike, House Lucilante's actions were actually fairly sensible.
“…I think Miriam is right.”
Roxanna timidly nodded.
“When you think about it, we haven't actually suffered any harm… We were just startled because we got caught up in it.”
“Roxy… no. If Roxanna thinks so, I agree.”
Charlotte agreed as well.
“It might not be a bad idea to accept the request.”
“…But I oppose accepting this as our first request.”
Kariya spoke.
“As far as I know, in this situation at least, we're the ones with the upper hand. I'm not saying we should abuse that position…. But there's no reason for us to snap up the bait like trained dogs, either. If we accept this as our third mission, it would feel like we're making them wait a little.”
“If we accept this as the third mission, the timing would be….”
“February.”
Kariya answered Miriam, who had muttered to herself.
“And February is the beginning of the rainy season. It's not the time when the number of monsters increases to a dramatic degree, but there will certainly be far more than there are now. That would give it an appropriate level of difficulty for a proper mission.”
“Kariya knows a lot.”
Miriam muttered in admiration. Kariya seemed a little pleased with himself as he folded his arms and pulled up the corners of his mouth.
“Of course. What do you take me for…?”
“It would be nice if you had a little more tact.”
“What did you say!”
“Now, now, everyone.”
I clapped my hands to draw the children's attention.
“Then, as you all suggested, I'll send a reply saying that we'll accept House Lucilante's request as our third mission.”
“But will that be all right? What if they refuse…?”
“That won't happen. The important thing isn't the request itself but the fact that they're inviting us. Whether they withdraw the request or do something else, that's for them to decide.”
Kariya answered Roxanna's question in my place.
And I added a word of caution.
“And this is just my personal wish, but… please think only about your first mission. I'll handle the adults' behind-the-scenes matters.”
“If that's what you say, Instructor.”
“Okay, got it!”
Miriam and Charlotte answered one after the other. The remaining two simply nodded silently instead of replying.
“Thank you. Then let's return to the two requests we left as candidates earlier….”
“I-I!”
At that moment, Roxanna raised her hand and cried out in a shrill voice.
“Yes, Miss Roxanna?”
“I-I think we should put off the mission to track down the debtor….”
“The debt-collection mission?”
Charlotte asked, and Miriam answered in her place.
“I know! A debtor can be caught no matter how far they run, so long as they don't cross the border, but if we don't subjugate the manticore right away, more people will be harmed!”
“O-of course, Miss Miriam is right, but… that's not the only reason.”
Roxanna glanced at Miriam, shook her head, and continued.
“The distance a debtor can flee is limited regardless. Someone who has incurred enough debt to be chased down generally can't use facilities like relay stations. In most cases, they have no way to prove their identity or creditworthiness… Besides, if their face is on wanted posters, they wouldn't travel in broad daylight where everyone could see them… In the end, their method and time of travel would be limited to walking and the dead of night, when it would be difficult to make out their face. And using inns would be difficult, too. It would take time to find somewhere to hide, so the distance they could actually travel would be even shorter….”
Though her voice was fairly quiet and her pitch rose and fell sharply as she spoke at a rapid pace, Roxanna somehow calmly laid out a detailed explanation.
Kariya watched her with interest and merely nodded. Charlotte stared at Miriam in surprise. Miriam also blinked, apparently startled.
“To conclude… even if a debtor were given a great deal of time, they probably couldn't get more than one village away from the royal capital… If you deliberately narrow the search area and track them, you can catch them quickly at any time.”
“…Impressive.”
Kariya muttered.
“Have you ever worked in debt collection?”
“N-no. I've never collected a debt, but I have been on the receiving end of….”
“Roxy.”
At that moment, Charlotte tapped Roxanna on the shoulder.
“…Ah, okay.”
Seeing Charlotte silently shake her head, Roxanna belatedly nodded and fell silent. Kariya also realized what was going on and quickly changed the subject.
“Well. If Roxanna says so, I agree. Let's make the manticore subjugation our first mission.”
“I'm fine with either!”
Miriam readily exclaimed, as if she had no preference.
“A manticore….”
I murmured quietly and looked over at the children.
A manticore. It was by no means something to take lightly.
Even among lower-rank magic knights who had just graduated from the training camp, there were often cases where a three-person team had to retreat after failing to subjugate a subadult manticore. Manticores were powerful and dangerous monsters.
During the Seven Years' War, we had also struggled when the Ains used a tactic of releasing manticores tamed with narcotic herbs into enemy lines.
But according to the details of the request, there was only one manticore.
With this many people…
“All right.”
I nodded.
“Then our Class E's first mission will be the subjugation of a manticore in Suseok Forest, which lies northeast of the royal capital.”