Servants' Gossip

Dinner proceeded in a peaceful atmosphere from beginning to end, perhaps because the members of the ducal family were present. The food was slightly inferior to what we ate at the residence in the royal capital, but it was still quite delicious and satisfying.

"Leon-kun, how is your room? Is there anything inconvenient?"

"Yes. It's a little disappointing that there's no bath, but otherwise I have no complaints."

"A bath... In that case, you can use the one in my room."

Huh? Was he saying I'd be allowed to use the bath in Richard-sama's room? There was no way I could be that presumptuous!!

"No, thank you. Roger prepared some hot water for me earlier, and I was able to clean myself, so I'm fine. Thank you for your concern."

"Is that so? Well, if you're all right..."

"Yes. It's only for tonight, so there's no problem at all."

"That's good, then."

Phew... It seemed he understood. There was no way I could relax in the bath in Richard-sama's room.

After that, Richard-sama seemed to move on to discussing the town's finances with Morgan-san.

I was a little tired, so maybe I could go rest first. Richard-sama's conversation looked like it would continue for a while, and I didn't really want to stay in the same room as Morgan-san.

As I was thinking that, Catherine-sama and Frederick-sama returned to their rooms first, so I decided to follow suit and return to my room.

"I'm tired from the journey, so please excuse me while I return to my room first."

"All right, Leon-kun. See you tomorrow."

"Yes. Please get some rest as well, Richard-sama."

I said that and left the dining hall. For some reason, I couldn't relax in this residence, and it was exhausting. As expected, other people's malice was frightening. I was reminded all over again of just how kind the people I had met so far really were.

I returned to my room and changed into my nightclothes.

Phew... I think I'll go to bed.

"Leon-sama, shall I make you some tea?"

"Hmm... I'm tired today, so I'll pass. I'm going to bed now."

"Understood. Then I shall take my leave as well."

"Yes. Roger, thank you as always."

I realized how truly fortunate I was to have Roger, who faithfully served me despite my being a commoner, and thanked him without thinking.

Roger's expression softened just slightly.

"Serving Leon-sama is my job."

His words were curt, though. Well, that was just Roger, so I no longer worried about it.

But I really was grateful that he served me without ever showing the slightest displeasure.

After Roger left the room, I lay down on the bed. I was so shocked that there were nobles who looked down on people that much simply for being commoners that I couldn't quite fall asleep.

Meeting someone like that in person really drove home the difference in status. It was shocking.

While I was thinking about that and tossing and turning on the bed, I heard people talking outside.

Could they be servants? It sounded like a young woman's voice, so maybe she was a new maid.

I found myself curious about what they were saying, so I gathered mana in my ears and enhanced my hearing. Using body enhancement magic on my ears could improve my hearing a little. It wasn't very useful since the improvement was so slight, but it was effective in situations like this.

Oh... Now I can hear them.

"I was so worried the members of the ducal family would find out."

"Me too. But we can't let our guard down until they leave."

"That's true. But I don't understand what Morgan-sama could have been thinking, selling off the furniture in the guest rooms."

"Well... Don't tell anyone, but apparently Morgan-sama uses the money from selling the furniture himself."

"What!?"

"You're too loud!"

"S-sorry. But is that really true?"

"Yes. Apparently, there's a servant who overheard Morgan-sama talking with the steward."

"So the steward is in on it too?"

"No, from what I heard, the steward tried to stop Morgan-sama. We commoners can't go against him."

"I suppose that's true."

I could hear them up to that point, but then the voices grew distant, and I couldn't hear them anymore.

I had just heard something incredible...

I had thought Morgan-san had refused to give me a room just to harass me, but apparently there had been another reason.

So Morgan-san was embezzling money from the town. If he was even selling the furniture, could he be pocketing part of the tax revenue too?

How would he even do that?

I wasn't really sure, but perhaps he reported smaller harvests and pocketed the difference. In any case, it was a crime.

And that meant Morgan-san wasn't competent as a magistrate, either. He wasn't merely incompetent—he was actively harmful.

I should report this to Richard-sama.

I decided to call Roger so he could find out whether I could meet with Richard-sama. Normally, I would just ring the bell, but the sound might not carry from this room, so I had to knock on the wall on the side where Roger's room was.

Knock, knock. When I knocked, Roger came to my room a few seconds later. That was fast!

"Leon-sama, is something wrong?"

"There's something I'd like to tell Richard-sama about. Could I see him now?"

"It may be disrespectful to visit at this hour. Couldn't it wait until tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but I think it's better to tell him as soon as possible."

"Understood. I will ask whether he can see you, so please wait here, Leon-sama."

"All right."

Roger said that and left the room. If I couldn't see him, I'd have to tell him tomorrow, but I thought it would probably be better to do it sooner.

A few minutes later, Roger returned to the room.

"Leon-sama, he says he will see you. He said you may come whenever you are ready. Shall we go now?"

"Yes. Let's go right away."

"Understood."

Feeling slightly nervous, I followed Roger to Richard-sama's room.

Knock, knock.

"Leon-sama is here."

When Roger said that, one of Richard-sama's attendants opened the door. Richard-sama was sitting on the sofa, apparently waiting for me.

"Richard-sama, I'm sorry to come at such a late hour. Thank you for seeing me."

"Not at all. Don't worry about it. So, if you've come to see me at this hour, did something happen?"

"Yes. However, I can't tell whether it's something I should discuss in front of the others."

I said that and looked toward the attendants and guards in the room.

"Indeed... Everyone, please step out for a moment."

At Richard-sama's words, everyone withdrew as though they knew exactly what was expected of them. I've always thought this, but the people who worked for the ducal family were incredibly capable.

"So, what did you want to discuss?"

"Yes. It's about Morgan-san..."

I told him about the gossip I'd heard and my own speculation.

I decided to leave out the way Morgan-san looked down on commoners for now. For a noble, that might not be considered especially problematic.

After listening to everything I had to say, Richard-sama fell silent, wearing a troubled expression as he thought.

After a while, he finally spoke.

"Leon-kun, could you keep this to yourself for now and not tell anyone else? I'll carefully consider how to deal with it. Once we have actual evidence, Morgan will probably have to step down as magistrate and face charges in the royal capital."

Apparently, they needed actual evidence that he had embezzled money in order to prosecute him, so they had to proceed carefully.

First, they would investigate where the furniture had been sold, and then look into any other crimes he might have committed.

For now, I figured everything would be fine if I left it to Richard-sama.

"You were a great help this time, Leon-kun. Thank you. It was my responsibility that I failed to see Morgan's true nature..."

Richard-sama seemed to be blaming himself for failing to see Morgan-san's true nature.

But it was difficult to see through people's true natures. Someone might be sincere at first, only to be led astray by greed as they continued working.

"It may be partly your responsibility, Richard-sama, but it is difficult to see through someone's true nature. I think what's important is creating a system that prevents a magistrate from doing whatever he wants."

When I said that, Richard-sama seemed interested.

"Oh? What sort of system would work, for example?"

Oh no... Richard-sama had taken an interest.

What sort of system could I suggest? I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about things like this. I shouldn't have said anything so casually!

Hmm...

"Well, how about distributing authority? We could divide the agricultural region into several areas and appoint a head for each one. Then we could have each head submit their area's harvest figures. If they had to submit them to both the magistrate's residence and the ducal residence in the territorial capital, they wouldn't be able to falsify them."

Would something like that really work? It was just a rather random idea that had occurred to me...

Besides, wasn't something like that already being done?

"That may be worth considering. I'll discuss it with Christophe."

Oh! He seemed to like the idea more than I expected. Relieved, I quietly let out a breath.

"Then leave Morgan to me."

"Yes. I have no right to interfere. It's just that the rumor I overheard wasn't something I could ignore."

I said that with a wry smile, and Richard-sama responded with a faint smile of his own.

"I'm sorry. Instead of giving you a chance to recover from the fatigue of the journey, I've only made you more tired. Return to your room and get some rest."

"Yes. Please excuse me."

Soon afterward, Richard-sama called the servants back, and I returned to my room with Roger.

Perhaps because I felt a little better after telling Richard-sama, I slept soundly for the rest of the night.