Chapter 108
That night, the festival held in Milet was in full swing, and the soldiers eased the fatigue of their grueling battle.
Many notable figures also gathered at the banquet. There were more dishes than anyone could eat and more drink than anyone could consume, while the music and conversation never ceased.
However, I could not relax at this sort of banquet.
The city's notables came by one after another to offer greetings, while I made small talk with merchants and negotiated business deals. At times, the conversations bordered on secret pacts, and whirlpools of intrigue coiled everywhere.
I dodged trivial schemes like dance steps, slipping between lies and traps.
"Phew..."
Once I had finished one conversation, I took a breather.
Honestly, speaking with people who might be enemies or allies was exhausting. I could have rested more easily on the battlefield.
I could not leisurely enjoy the food, nor the alcohol, since I could not afford to get drunk.
Not that I particularly liked the taste of alcohol; I was mostly drinking fruit juice.
When I looked around the hall, the people I had brought seemed to be enjoying themselves in their own ways.
I had brought the senior soldiers as well, but the Rome unit had recently become well known, and they were popular with the ladies, too.
Perhaps Sensei had taught Al and Ray how to dance, because they were surprisingly competent.
They could not possibly have had time to practice as intensively as I had, so being able to dance that well was quite impressive.
Gran and Ragun were both courting the same woman. She looked perplexed at being wooed from both sides by identical faces, but she did not refuse, perhaps because she did not dislike it.
Unexpectedly, the two of them were attracted to beautiful women and seemed to be womanizers. Courting her one at a time would be one thing, but two against one was unfair. I would have to warn them later.
Otto and Kyle, on the other hand, were not dancing.
Perhaps because of his impressive physique, Otto was surrounded by about three women. The innocent Otto had no idea what to do and stood there rigidly, his face bright red.
The women seemed to find that amusing and teased Otto with somewhat shameless behavior. I felt a little sorry for him, but I would let him consider it an experience. Otto needed to become a little more comfortable around women.
Nearby, Kyle was sipping from a cup. Despite his small frame, he seemed to have a bottomless capacity for drink, tipping back cup after cup and emptying liquor bottles at a satisfying pace. He looked as though he intended to drink every drop of alcohol in the room.
In the center of the hall, Quins-sensei and Velli-sensei were dancing.
Both of them had served as teachers, so they were both excellent dancers. Quins-sensei in particular had sharp steps and crisp movements. She was also unusually dressed up tonight and looked very beautiful.
Velli-sensei, her partner, was also unusually well dressed tonight, and he had even shaved his beard. Still, his dancing seemed to lack some of its usual brilliance. Perhaps his eyes had been drawn to Quins-sensei's daringly exposed neckline.
When I turned my gaze toward the wall, Mia-san was standing there like a wallflower. She probably did not know how to behave at gatherings like this.
I was considering going over to speak with her when a man approached Mia-san.
I did not recognize him at first because he was dressed so elegantly, but it was Graves, one of the veteran soldiers. He was inviting Mia-san to dance with an unbearably suave attitude.
Mia-san seemed confused and unsure what to do. Then another man appeared. This one was Carlman, another healer like Mia-san. He stood between them like a knight protecting her. Then a third man appeared: Mitya, one of the members of the Rome unit. Come to think of it, Mitya had been seriously wounded when we slew the dragon in the Gillier Valley, and Mia-san had treated him. Apparently, he had harbored feelings for her ever since.
Now that I thought about it, Mitya had been unusually fired up during the battle with the antfolk as well. So that was what it had been about.
The three of them glared at one another so fiercely that I could almost see sparks flying.
Mia-san was cute, and having a near-fatal wound treated would naturally inspire affection thanks to the bridge effect. Since Mia-san was cute, she probably had other admirers as well.
But Mia-san herself seemed genuinely troubled by the three men quarreling over her, rather than pleased. Our eyes met for an instant, and she pleaded for help with her gaze, but I looked away and ignored her.
Mia-san stared at me in surprise at being ignored, but what did I care?
Having men quarrel over you was one of the perks of being a woman, wasn't it? If things looked like they were about to get out of hand, I would help, but until then, they could deal with it themselves.
Come to think of it, I could not see Hardy anywhere.
I had seen him try to speak with Sonea-san several times, but she had treated him as though he did not exist, so perhaps he was somewhere cooling his head.
Sonea-san herself seemed to be enjoying the party, chatting merrily with the assembled gentlemen and ladies. She was probably frantic inside, but she seemed calmer than Hardy.
As I kept an eye on my surroundings, a tall, slender man approached, as thin and straight as a cypress.
"Why, if it isn't Romelia-sama. Are you enjoying yourself?"
The cheerful voice belonged to Selyure of the Yarmark Trading Company. He seemed to be unusually drunk, as his face was slightly flushed.
"You seem to be in good spirits."
"Indeed I am. I just received a letter from the head office informing me that I have been put in charge of managing Aileen Port single-handedly."
I could see why he was pleased.
Aileen Port was destined to grow tremendously. No one knew how far it would develop, which meant that the amount of profit it generated would depend on his skill. It was a merchant's dream. No wonder he was in such high spirits.
"Then let us celebrate."
When I raised my glass, Selyure-san raised his as well.
"Romelia-sama, you are the goddess of fortune to me."
"That is far too generous a compliment. I am honored."
"No, if anything, that is an understatement. You are on your way to becoming the saint who will save this country from demonkind."
Selyure-san had seen through my goal.
"Oh, Selyure-sama, you flatter me. I have never entertained such grand ambitions as saving the country from demonkind."
I brushed it off as a social nicety.
"Is that so? Still, please remember this. If you wish for something, this Selyure will lend you as much assistance as you need."
Selyure-san was saying something he did not mean.
"Of course, so long as you expect to make a profit."
I added the part Selyure-san had left unsaid.
"Yes, naturally. You are an excellent investment with promising returns. Chairman Yarmark would probably tell me to follow you until the investment ceased to be profitable."
He was probably just making light remarks because he was drunk.
But there was no way a capable man like Selyure-san would make a blunder at a drinking party. He was pretending to be drunk in order to convey the company's intentions to me.
They intended to support me in recognition of my achievements. Perhaps they simply could not say so openly yet.
"Oh, yes. I also received a letter from Ganze-san. He had nothing but praise for you, Romelia-sama. He said he could do interesting work with you."
He mentioned the name of a rocklike old man who was not present.
"Please reply that I feel the same way. I never expected him to advance the work so quickly."
He had been described as the most skilled man available, and he certainly lived up to that reputation. His own experience was impressive, but so was the skill of the craftsmen he had brought with him.
He had probably earned their respect by doing excellent work and training his apprentices.
"I would like to ask him to handle several other projects as well, not just the port."
Civil engineering was indispensable to war.
It was not limited to building forts and castles. Bridges and roads were also strategically important and could greatly influence the course of a war.
"If I could form a corps of civil engineers, I would want to appoint him as its commander."
"Ha ha! It would be like the return of the Golden Empire."
The Golden Empire, which had flourished long ago, was said to have had its soldiers build roads during peacetime. They were soldiers, but also experts in civil engineering, and the roads they left behind were still in use.
Since their work had survived for hundreds of years, their technical skill must have been genuine.
I wanted to do something similar, even if it could not match the achievements of the Golden Empire.
Besides, we had enough manpower, but too few engineers. It would be helpful to have someone who could train and supervise them. If possible, I would even like him to join the military with the pay and standing of a centurion.
But this was surely too much to ask. A man that skilled had his own work, and plenty of others would surely be eager to hire him.
"That was just a slip of the tongue. Please forget I said it."
I wanted Master Ganze, but I did not want to pressure him. Selyure-san might pull strings unnecessarily to establish a connection between us, so I should make my position clear.
"Hmm... In that case, milady, it might be possible after all."
Some of the sharpness returned to Selyure's drunken expression as he considered the matter.
"No, it is fine. I have no intention of pressuring him."
I declined without pointing out that he was only pretending to be drunk. If we pandered to each other, we would only both end up unhappy.
"Ah, no, that is not what I mean. In a sense, this could be a lucky break for Ganze-san as well."
"What do you mean?"
"Ganze-san has a first apprentice. This man has studied under Ganze-san for many years and has plenty of skill and experience. He could easily have become independent and opened his own workshop by now, but perhaps out of deference, he remains an apprentice even today. Ganze-san apparently wants him to become independent, but the young man has been reluctant to take that step, which has left his master troubled."
There must have been complicated feelings tangled up in the relationship between master and apprentice.
"This time, I was the one who pressed Ganze-san into coming here. He already had another job lined up, but we had his first apprentice take over. Despite the sudden change, the work was apparently completed without a hitch, and his performance was no worse than Ganze-san's. If it is him, he should be able to manage even if Ganze-san does not return."
I began to see where he was going.
"I see. If we keep pressing Ganze-san to stay here, his apprentice would become independent as a result."
If Master Ganze wanted that, it would not be a bad arrangement for either of them.
"But would he really want that? Wouldn't he have regrets?"
Even for his apprentice's sake, it would mean that Master Ganze was withdrawing from the front line. A man with that much skill would surely hate to let it go to waste.
"I cannot know until I speak with him, but he may be eager to do it as well. As I said, he repeatedly praised you in his letter, milady."
"But I cannot pay him very much."
Someone as skilled as Master Ganze must be earning a fortune. I intended to pay him as much as we could afford, but even so, it would probably be a significant reduction.
"A respected job should certainly be paid what it is worth. However, milady, craftsmen are not swayed by money alone. Just as warriors favor great battlefields, craftsmen choose work they find interesting. They can be a handful because of it, but without that quality, they could never become first-rate."
I see. That might be true.
"You think he could do interesting work by staying with me?"
He certainly thought highly of me.
"You are giving me too much credit."
"Neither Ganze-san nor I see it that way. You are the sort of person who uses anything and everything at your disposal."
That made me sound like a terrible person.
"Aileen Port happened to have an inlet in a very convenient location. But even if it had not, you would have thought of some clever solution—or created the solution itself. During this extermination campaign, if Ganze-san had accompanied us as an engineer, wouldn't you have found some use for him?"
His observation made my thoughts shift gears.
Field fortifications would have been difficult in that situation. But what if we had built forts and defensive palisades using the method Ray had used before?
Ray's fort had been a fragile structure built by an amateur, but Master Ganze could have made something much stronger and just as simple.
If we had kept it hidden until just before the battle began, then deployed it the moment the enemy arrived... No, surely it could not be done that quickly. Still, if it had been possible, the front line might have had an easier time.
If we had strengthened our defenses, the antfolk would probably have tunneled around us and tried to get behind our lines. But tunnel warfare had many possible counters. Could we have diverted water from the river and flooded them? That might have been difficult in those circumstances as well. What other options were there?
I searched my mind for ways to use engineers. Even if I could not think of an effective use for them in that particular battle, I thought of a plan that might work in other situations.
As I continued thinking, I noticed Selyure-san watching me.
The sharp-eyed man was looking at me with an expression that seemed to say, See?
I felt embarrassed, as though he had seen straight through my thoughts.
"Whether Ganze-san comes with us is for him to decide. Rather than thinking about it too much, milady, perhaps you should simply consider how to use him if he comes to you."
That was true. If he did not come, that would be the end of it. If he did, I would put Otto and anyone else suited to engineering work under his command.
"Then, milady, have a pleasant evening."
Selyure-san raised his wineglass and left the room.