The Black Sky Pirate Laughs Beneath the Moon. The Crimson Mage Howls at the Stars (22)

We huddled over the two letters that had arrived at Muge-san's company.

One was a summons. It said that a discrepancy had arisen in the testimony regarding a business deal involving 1,000 Imperial gold coins between "Rororo Company" and "Muge Company" (Muge-san's company was named exactly that), and demanded that the matter be explained.

It was effectively a lawsuit. Rororo Company had brazenly filed suit, despite being thieves themselves. They had even added that they were willing to settle out of court.

The other was a sealed letter from Her Highness Anastasia. It was protected by both magic that prevented anyone from reading it and magic that revealed whether the seal had been opened. When we received it, there was no sign that anyone had looked inside.

'I have delivered the bag to His Majesty the Emperor. His Majesty promised to reinvestigate the matter, but the problem is that even if Rurusha is found innocent, she probably will not be able to return to her former position. She lost many comrades, and the expedition failed. Still, I am deeply grateful for all your efforts. I have no assets I can freely dispose of at present, but to repay you, I am sending you a lock of my hair. You have my permission to use it as a magical catalyst or sell it.'

This was definitely something we had to keep strictly hidden. Mimino-san had let out an absurd shriek of "A High Elf royal's hair?!" and frozen in place for several minutes.

The High Elves who lead the elves possess unusual magical power, apparently something that cannot be replaced. High Elf hair is said to be particularly useful when activating ancient elven magical devices.

There are also connoisseurs who collect all sorts of things, and nobody knows how much the hair might fetch if we sold it to them. In the first place, this world has no established market price for it.

But... I couldn't bring myself to use either option.

Compared to modern Japan, this world is far behind when it comes to jewelry and cosmetics. On the other hand, people here seem to take pride in the quality of their natural materials—in their own bodies. That was fine. But the problem was that hair was still incredibly important to women. The fact that Her Highness Anastasia had cut that perfectly arranged hair weighed on my heart like lead...