Chapter 19
The uninvited visitors who had arrived early in the morning made Vieta’s office bustle with activity.
Grand Priest Theodore and Fulcare were the ones who had shattered Vieta’s peaceful morning.
The instant the sound of their conversation echoed through the open window, Vieta sensed that something was amiss and attempted to escape the office without a moment’s hesitation, but unfortunately, she failed.
“Who do you think made the magical device installed at that exit? And you’re trying to run away?”
Vieta glared at Fulcare, who was shrugging behind Theodore.
They say the sister-in-law who stops the mother-in-law from hitting you is more hateful than the mother-in-law herself, and that was exactly how it was.
“You’ve packed nothing but jerky again for your rations. How many times have I told you? You can’t do this.”
After successfully raiding the office, Theodore was checking Vieta’s bag item by item.
According to Fulcare, Theodore had come looking for him that morning and dragged him straight to the office.
“…Isn’t this enough?”
“No. We don’t know how long it’ll take, so you need to pack properly.”
“Still, I heard most of the basic supplies are provided….”
Vieta looked at Fulcare with a pleading expression.
More than an hour had already passed since she began listening to the Grand Priest’s nagging. Vieta knew perfectly well that Theodore was nagging because he was worried about her, but she couldn’t endure it any longer.
But Fulcare merely grinned and hid behind Theodore.
“The more prepared you are, the better. Besides, neither I nor Iseria will be there this time.”
Vieta began packing her things again in front of Theodore.
She couldn’t simply ignore Theodore, either, since she had packed so carelessly only because she hated carrying too much luggage.
“You too, punk. Did you pack properly? Hand over the list of support supplies.”
“Ugh!”
The rebuke came flying back at Fulcare, making him stumble backward.
In public, Theodore always maintained a proper and serious demeanor, but in truth, he was the most relentless nagger among Vieta’s companions.
He was so fussy that even Iseria often failed to satisfy his exacting standards, and she would sneak away whenever she happened to make eye contact with Theodore.
“Why haven’t you prepared yet, either?”
At Fulcare’s halfhearted attitude, Theodore smiled brightly and summoned his personal club in midair.
Vieta shuddered when she saw the crude silver club for the first time in a while.
True to his role as a Grand Priest, Theodore usually supported the others from the rear rather than directly confronting monsters or enemies.
Still, whenever an enormous number of enemies charged at them, he would join the battle himself, imbue that brutal club with holy power, and mercilessly bludgeon the monsters.
“…Here’s the list of supplies for now.”
Fulcare also became obedient the moment he saw the club.
A parchment slipped through the air amid a faint light and fell into Theodore’s hand.
“We can pack according to this. By the way, Fulcare, what about your luggage?”
….”
When Fulcare silently avoided Theodore’s gaze, Theodore began twirling the club around.
At the sight of that frightening display, Vieta instinctively realized that it was time to leave.
“Theo, I’m going to tidy things up inside and come back.”
Sure enough, the moment Vieta entered the consultation room, she heard something shattering with a loud crash through the slightly open door.
“Isn’t that why the captain’s like that?”
“No, it’s true that I couldn’t prepare because of overtime, but let’s get one thing straight. I didn’t ruin the captain—our captain was always like that!”
“Then you should have taken better care of her.”
Vieta shook her head, praying for Fulcare’s soul.
Theodore’s nagging was frightening for more than just his fussiness.
If the poor scapegoat showed even the slightest sign of exhaustion, Theodore would use holy power to forcibly restore them.
Then he would resume nagging at his now perfectly healthy target.
No one could ever say that they wanted to stop because they were tired in front of Theodore.
“I should start sorting through the scrap paper too.”
Vieta fiddled with the waist-high pile of scrap paper.
She had collected it little by little while imagining a capable-looking office interior filled with piles of documents.
As she had expected, even customers who looked somewhat displeased often changed their attitude toward Vieta the moment they saw the countless sheets of paper piled up in the consultation room.
Still, dust accumulated at a ridiculous rate. It would be manageable if she came in every day to clean, but she was going to be away for a long time, so she figured she might as well clear everything out now.
“Please put that club down!”
“If you didn’t want to get hit, you should have prepared properly ahead of time!”
Rip. Rip.
Sitting in front of a large sack, Vieta began tearing the scrap paper into small pieces, using the two men’s banter as background music.
***
“Captain, then how come there aren’t any drawings of us?”
“Uh, who knows?”
Vieta scratched her cheek awkwardly under Fulcare’s questioning.
The trouble began when Fulcare and Theodore entered the consultation room after their little tussle and found the doodles Vieta had scribbled among the scrap paper.
“Who drew this? Did a client draw it for you?”
Fulcare, who was helping Vieta organize the scrap paper, held out a sheet. It showed a magnificent building and people walking past it—a sketch of No. 18 that Vieta had drawn herself.
Vieta replied that she had drawn it herself without giving it any thought, and the surprised Theodore and Fulcare began rummaging through the scrap paper and finding her drawings one by one.
Embarrassed as if a diary chronicling her embarrassing past had been discovered, Vieta hurriedly tried to stop them, but her pleas had no effect whatsoever.
“But Captain, you really only drew Iseria.”
Fulcare stood with both hands braced on the desk, his face filled with dissatisfaction. Understandably so, since among the more than twenty drawings on the desk, there wasn’t a single picture of Fulcare or Theodore.
“I’m starting to feel a little left out.”
“Surely you’re not playing favorites with Iseria, are you?”
“…I’m not.”
There were two main reasons Vieta mostly drew Iseria.
First, because she was pretty. Second, because she was a pretty woman.
However, it felt too embarrassing to admit that honestly.
“But why don’t you have any pictures of us?”
“I can draw some for you, can’t I!”
In the end, Vieta could not withstand the four eyes persistently fixed on her and raised her voice.
“If you’re going to draw them for us, Captain, then I suppose we should prepare.”
As though he had been waiting for those exact words, Theodore ran outside, bought pencils and a complete set of watercolor supplies, and Vieta found herself picking up a pencil again after a long while.
The scratch-scratch of the pencil filled the small office.
***
Vieta said she had drawn them roughly, but Fulcare thought her pictures possessed considerable artistic value.
Theodore must have thought so too, because he treated her to a meal at Restaurant Mama Maria in return, while Fulcare gave her a dessert from a nearby shop.
After the eventful day ended, Fulcare returned to the study in the estate and took three sheets of paper out of his subspace.
They were the drawings he had received from Vieta that day.
One was a portrait of himself smiling by a window, and the other two depicted the scene at the hut during the incident.
They were nothing more than simple black sketches with watercolor brushed onto a few points for emphasis, but their delicate, distinctive atmosphere immediately captured the viewer’s eye.
“I’d like you to have a frame made to suit this drawing.”
Fulcare summoned a servant and sent his portrait off to be framed, then began studying the remaining sheet closely.
The key to the elf disappearance case was identifying the third force.
If the dissident elves had joined hands with a third force, the situation could become a threat to the Empire, but there was woefully little evidence from which to identify that third force.
To be precise, they had a hunch, but no hard evidence.
The fact that a mage had set fire to the hut was a problem, but those who worked in the shadows generally wore all kinds of spells on their bodies to conceal evidence.
This case had been no different. Even though Fulcare had rushed to put out the fire, most of the culprits’ bodies and clothing had already burned away.
The hut itself did not appear to have suffered much damage, which made it clear that some unknown spell had been activated.
“I had no idea the captain could draw so well….”
Fulcare smiled faintly at the unexpected discovery.
Remembering what happened within her territory was Vieta’s specialty.
Even if Vieta did not consciously try to remember, her red threads retained everything they sensed, exactly as it was, for a certain amount of time.
With Vieta’s drawing skills added to that, the hut’s appearance at the time had been vividly recreated on paper.
Although it was only a drawing and could not be trusted completely, it would still provide them with some kind of lead.
Fulcare quietly began examining every corner of the drawing.
I used gender-neutral “them” for the unspecified scapegoat and removed the draft’s awkward repeated use of Theodore’s name in the drawing-reward sentence.