Chapter 13
I read the lord's official document once more.
I will purchase all the red materials.
"You certainly know how to put things nicely."
I rolled up the parchment and tucked it into my clothes.
"Did you figure something out?"
Bordeaux asked as he set his hammer down on the workbench.
I knew the value of red materials well myself.
The amount of red materials I had gathered was enough to keep four A-rank adventurers busy collecting it, and buying all of it would cost even a noble a great deal of money.
The fact that the price had been intentionally left out of the official document seemed deliberate.
'It could also mean that he's leaving room for negotiation...'
"A noble isn't going to negotiate properly with a commoner, are they?"
"I thought so."
Nobles were the sort of people who viewed commoners as a different species from themselves.
"Still, it's not a bad proposal."
If I could win a noble's favor in the process, I would gain a powerful patron whose influence money couldn't buy.
Darko was a good example.
Darko was a half-baked C-rank adventurer with no practical combat experience.
Even a C-rank adventurer without practical experience would normally lose to a D-rank, yet he had been chosen as a swordsmanship instructor over so many formidable candidates solely because a noble had put in a word for him.
Refusing to recognize Darko as a swordsmanship instructor would be a challenge to the noble's decision.
Adventurers knew better than to poke a ticking time bomb when they had no idea how they might become entangled with the nobility.
Even Eck hated getting involved with nobles.
If this had happened before, I would have gladly accepted, but things were different now.
'I have no intention of letting myself be fleeced quietly.'
Now that I knew so much more, there were plenty of things worth probing, and above all, I needed to stockpile plenty of growth resources if I wanted Elena to reach the ending safely.
The official document said the lord would not hold back on any support I needed.
That was the angle to pursue.
Of course, if the support required money, even the lord would be hard-pressed to provide it. But in an age like this, there was one valuable commodity that could be acquired cheaply.
That commodity was 'manpower.'
If it was manpower, the lord would gladly provide it.
***
After entrusting my demands to Bordeaux, I left the forge.
When I stepped out into the street, the afternoon sunlight poured down.
'The young lady's birthday.'
That event gave me an idea of where the game's storyline was headed.
Time flowed very differently in the game than in reality, so I had to calculate it every time. Reviewing the detailed schedule always gave me a headache.
Fortunately, the broad schedule was easy to follow thanks to the major events, so it was simple to estimate roughly where we were.
The young lady's birthday.
The red-material gathering event.
The adult game used those events to bring Story Chapter 1 to a close.
"Uncle, are you coming from the forge?"
On my way back to the guild, Elena spotted me and came over.
Her clothes were damp with sweat and clung to her body, since she had just finished her teamwork training.
I held out the bundle I had been carrying over my shoulder.
"Here. I picked it up on the way."
"What's this?"
Elena accepted the bundle.
When she felt the armor inside through the bundle, her eyes widened.
"Is this armor?"
"It's light armor made from ogre leather."
Elena untied the bundle and turned the light armor inside over and over.
She ran her fingertips over the seams and felt the finishing. She seemed to have handled similar items before, because she carefully examined the equipment's condition.
"Isn't this incredibly expensive?"
"It is expensive."
"Why are you giving it to me?"
It was a complete set made from the same material, including leather gloves, arm guards, greaves, and boots.
Elena hugged the light armor against her chest.
She pressed her lips tightly together and looked up at me.
She looked overwhelmed, as though she were holding back something she wanted to say.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm giving it to you only because losing you would cost me more than some piece of equipment."
"I'm not getting the wrong idea."
She clearly had the wrong idea.
"Try it on and tell me if anything doesn't fit. I'll have Bordeaux alter it for you."
"Yes!"
Elena hugged the equipment and returned to the lodging where she was staying.
***
The next morning.
Morning sunlight squeezed through the gap in the window.
I got out of bed and cracked my neck, producing a series of pops.
'So Elena's taking her party out to hunt orcs today.'
Just as I finished washing my face in a basin using the water bottle the kid at the lodging had prepared last night and started getting dressed, someone knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
Who could it be?
None of the people who visited my place had ever knocked calmly and waited.
When I opened the door after getting dressed, a neatly attired man was standing there.
At a glance, he was clearly an underling sent by someone important.
He wore an immaculate black suit, a black coat, a formal hat, and white gloves. Every piece was made from high-quality fabric.
There was only one kind of person in the city who dressed like that.
'The lord's steward.'
A steward was the face of a noble.
A noble's refinement lay in waiting with such composure that it came across as gravitas.
The steward was a noble by birth who had received an elite education in precisely those qualities.
Though he lacked a noble title, he was still noble by blood, and thus someone of a status a commoner like me couldn't treat carelessly.
Sending his steward meant the lord was serious.
The steward bowed respectfully.
"I apologize for intruding and calling on you so early in the morning. The lord wishes to meet with you personally, Mr. Eck."
"The lord wants to meet me? Personally?"
"Yes. He requests that you visit the lord's castle this afternoon. If your schedule is inconvenient, we can handle matters on our end instead."
I had expected him to simply send an official document and leave it at that, but he wanted to meet me personally.
'Why?'
As far as I could tell, there was no reason for him to meet me in person.
He might have intended to take a firm hold of the reins, but although A-rank adventurers were impressive, the lord's own knights were all powerful A-rankers backed by his authority.
There was no reason for him to recruit me.
"What time should I come this afternoon?"
"I will send a carriage at three o'clock."
The steward bowed once more and left the lodging, his measured footsteps making a neat, steady sound.
***
When I arrived at the main gate of the lord's castle by carriage, a servant was waiting for me.
A middle-aged servant dressed in a black suit bowed his head.
"Mr. Eck, this way, please."
I followed the servant into the castle.
Candle sconces hung on every wall of the corridor, and a red carpet covered the floor. Wind magic had been cast throughout the stone-walled passage, filling it with fresh air.
'Even Eck has never been here before... Fascinating.'
It felt as though I were personally walking through a game map. I became immersed in the thought that I had really entered the game.
The servant stopped in front of the drawing room.
He knocked twice, and when permission came from inside, the door opened.
"Please come in."
The lord wasn't in the drawing room.
Someone else was there instead.
A woman sat demurely in a chair, enjoying some fragrant tea.
Was she around Elena's age?
Her red hair was tied up, and rather than a dress, she wore a well-tailored riding habit. For a noblewoman, it was unusually active attire.
There were two cups of tea on the table.
The maid attending her ushered me to the empty place setting and seated me.
I recognized her immediately.
'Lisette...'
Lisette van Reator.
The lord's only daughter, his cherished darling, and the main villain introduced in Chapter 2. She would use the power of her position to interfere with Elena's growth.
She was a character who displayed a strong inferiority complex toward Elena and met her downfall after becoming trapped somewhere in a deep dungeon, where she spent the rest of her life as a broodmother for monsters.
She was a villainess built around the refined-lady archetype, but she was a disposable character who appeared once and was discarded by the story, which had always felt like a shame in many ways.
Meeting a villain I wasn't supposed to encounter in Chapter 1 felt strangely novel.
"Have a seat."
Lisette gestured toward the chair across from her.
I had come expecting the lord, so when his daughter appeared instead, I forgot everything I had prepared to say.
I sat down in the chair.
"I'm Lisette. My father had urgent official business come up, so I came in his place. Please bear with any inconvenience."
"How could it be inconvenient when the lord's daughter herself has come to meet me?"
"You're good at flattery."
Lisette lifted her teacup.
She raised her pinky and took an elegant sip of tea.
"I'll get straight to the point. I heard that, instead of accepting a low price for the red materials, you asked for manpower as a condition of the purchase."
"That's right, but is there a problem?"
I had demanded manpower while keeping the price high enough to guarantee at least some profit.
Mages and alchemists.
And their facilities.
If I wanted to use them privately, it would cost more than the profit I had given up.
Since I needed to use them until the world became peaceful, access to professional specialists was more valuable to me than money.
"There is."
"May I ask why?"
What was this audacious young lady's problem?
"Why aren't you asking for companions?"
"Companions?"
"On the day the Red Moon rises, monsters turn savage and new monsters are born. Are you planning to gather that enormous amount of material alone when such evil power descends upon the world?"
"That's right."
I answered firmly.
"Quite the confidence."
Despite her words, her eyes were full of distrust as she glared at me.
"But since this concerns my birthday, I can't blindly trust you and leave it in your hands. I want to rule out every contingency."
Lisette wiped her lips with a handkerchief and picked up a small bell, giving it a shake.
It rang with a clear chime.
The drawing room door opened, and someone entered.
It was a knight in light armor.
"This is Sir Varie. A dependable person who would lay down a life for me. If Varie accompanies you on Red Day, I will accept all the conditions you mentioned."
"...."
I stared at Sir Varie.
Varie had also appeared in the game.
Varie was loyal to Lisette, but secretly picked up Lisette's clothes, smelled them, and masturbated.
"I don't mind Varie accompanying me, but Varie will have to follow my instructions."
"Are you saying Varie lacks skill? Varie is excellent, with skills worthy of bearing my name."
"That's not what I meant. A forest under the Red Moon is much easier to get lost in than usual. If Varie doesn't follow my instructions, even a knight may never find the way back."
Lisette's eyebrows twitched.
"That's an insult to Varie."
"Since you're entrusting the knight to me, order Varie to follow my instructions."
If Lisette disliked that, she could send Varie into the Red Forest alone, without me.
Lisette exhaled and yielded.
"Varie, this may be upsetting, but you'll have to follow Mr. Eck's instructions."
"As you command."
I smiled victoriously to myself.