An Inspector? What's That Supposed to Mean?
When had it started? When had Reus grown so large inside her heart that he refused to leave?
When a boy her own age had shown up claiming to be the new lord, she had honestly thought it was absurd.
"You're my chief aide, right? Looking forward to working with you."
"...Yes."
Her first impression: a pampered young master who had never known hardship a single day of his life. To Laura, forcibly bound to this place by the former lord's contract, he was nothing more than an object of contempt.
Looking at Reus's face—clearly the face of someone who had drifted through life without a single worry or anxiety—made irritation rise in her for no reason at all.
Most of what he did rubbed her the wrong way, but what she hated most was the way he kept shoving his face into every big and small matter of the village.
Why would a man who was supposedly a lord care so much about the village's daily affairs? If he was a lord, then he ought to act like one and do lordly work, that was all.
She had entertained the idea countless times—sneaking into his office, digging up the unfair contract the former lord had written, burning it, and running away.
And yet, ironically, it was also Reus who had kept those thoughts of hers from ever turning into action.
"You did all this by yourself? Incredible."
"Wow, you're a genius. You actually remember all of this?"
"If it weren't for you, I honestly couldn't have lasted two weeks."
It was that side of him—genuinely marveling at and praising whatever Laura accomplished—that held her in place.
The former lord had never once done such a thing. No—beyond him, nobody ever had.
To Laura, who believed that she had merely done what was her duty and had no reason to be praised for it—
"Thank you, Laura!"
Reus was the first person to ever express heartfelt gratitude to her. How deeply that sincere, unadorned thank you had resonated within her—Reus himself probably had no idea.
If I leave this fool alone, this place will fall apart in no time. So I'll stay. Under the pretense of responsibility, an excuse dressed up as duty, she kept staying on.
And as she did, her prejudice against Reus slowly began to lift, and his true self started to come into view.
Slowly, admittedly, but steadily, he learned the work of governance piece by piece, easing her burden little by little.
Because he so often mingled among the farmers, people grew comfortable bringing him requests and complaints without hesitation.
And whenever something strange happened within the territory, it somehow always resolved itself quickly whenever Reus stepped in.
From the closest possible vantage, she watched a man her own age shoulder responsibility bit by bit.
There was a stretch of years when he wasted time with Nerga building some odd thing or other, and she had nearly been disappointed—
But the product of that effort had upended not only this region but the entire continent. With Reus's own name proudly stamped upon it, no less.
"Couldn't you show yourself off a little more? Considering everything you've done, my lord, it's more than deserved..."
"Why bother? I'm perfectly satisfied as things are."
Even so, he never once grew greedy or sought to flaunt anything. From that point on—maybe even before—Laura had perhaps been falling for him, little by little.
"Look at that, Laura."
Twenty-year-old Reus, sitting on the hillside for the longest while, gazing out over the farmland rippling in waves of gold thanks to a bountiful harvest.
"Magnificent, isn't it?"
The moment she saw him say that with a bright smile, teeth bared in a grin, Laura understood.
She understood that at some point, she had been unable to tear her eyes away from his profile.
What had driven the final wedge into her already-floundering heart was the Friendly Exchange. She had been a little angry when she learned he had staked her on the contest, but—
"You're my precious chief aide."
"There's no way I'd ever stake you on anything with a light heart."
"Handing you over to that bastard is never going to happen."
The words that followed one after another drove into her heart with a cruelty of intensity. At that point, Laura was already... beyond any hope of turning back.
"How on earth did I end up falling for this fool...?"
"Hm? What was that?"
"Nothing. I said nothing, my lord."
"Sounded an awful lot like something about a fool to me."
"You are a fool."
Swallowing the rest—because you don't even know how I feel—she buried her burning face against Reus's back.
Let me put off acknowledging and facing this heart-fluttering feeling for as long as possible. That was the resolution she made to herself, alone.
By the time I lumbered back into Crow's Head Valley with Laura on my back, Hans came rushing over with news.
"My lord, we have a visitor."
"A visitor?"
Of all the times to have someone show up, it had to be while I was away. First, I gently woke the girl sleeping on my back.
"Laura? Laura, we're here. Wake up."
"Mmhyeh...? We're here already? Wher—...?"
Having been in deep sleep, she woke, looked around—and suddenly began pounding my back with fists and palms alike. Why, though?
"A-are you insane? What is wrong with you?!"
"Whoa, hold on—why are you hitting me? I carried you ever so carefully so you wouldn't wake up, and it was a real struggle, you know!"
"Then you should have woken me up before we entered the manor and put me down, you—!!"
"Well, if that's how you feel, why'd you climb on at all! I offered my back and you happily hopped on!"
I felt bad thinking she'd been dragged into my business and made to suffer, so I'd deliberately slowed my steps as much as I could—which is why it took even longer! What an injustice!
Hans, watching our little scuffle, wore an oddly delighted expression. What was that? Was he laughing at us? Should I demonstrate my authority as lord?
In any case, I set Laura down and heard the rest of the explanation. When even that failed to click on the first pass, she switched back into chief-aide mode and walked me through it again.
"You're aware that the land you govern, my lord, lies within the county ruled by Count Jorden?"
"Nope, that's news to me as of right now."
"Well, now you know, so let's pretend you always did. In any case, in principle, His Majesty the Emperor should rule every territory directly—but given the sheer size of the Empire, that's practically impossible."
"So he issues commands to those holding noble titles beneath him, and they govern in his place. That's the system, right?"
"Exactly. Those with ties to the imperial family—dukes and marquesses—act as the Emperor's proxies, selecting capable individuals from among the counts and barons below them and granting them the authority to administer the minor estates, like yours, that are governed by regional lords."
"So in a word... what you're telling me is that my direct superior just sent someone to me."
"You hit the nail on the head."
Once Laura's explanation was done, the very first thought to surface in my head was a simple why? Why? Why would a man of that caliber send someone to me?
I was fairly sure I'd paid every quota on time and in full... No, don't tell me something went wrong somewhere along the way?
If something had slipped through before Luena came on as treasurer, and this visit was because of that...? Oh, we're doomed.
"Let's go, Laura. Quickly."
"Yes, my lord."
Count Jorden, was it. That was at least two full ranks above Baron Karaton, the first titled lord I'd ever met. That alone was burden enough.
And on top of that—though I'd only just learned it—the fact that our land had apparently been sitting under that man's governance the whole time planted yet another weight on my mind.
"Let's just hope he isn't here over anything bad."
"This is only a hunch, but I don't believe that's the case."
"Hm? How can you tell?"
"I've heard that Count Jorden is a man who acts only after weighing profit down to the finest detail. If there's nothing in it for him, he won't spare so much as a subordinate's time."
"So what you're saying is, he came because he thinks there's something to be gained from us?"
"That's most likely, yes."
"Gain what, exactly?"
"That much, I couldn't say..."
Hurrying up the stairs, I ran through the situation with Laura at speed, but no answer came easily.
Standing before the office door, a tension I didn't need crept over me. The lake matter was still far from resolved, and now the Count's attention had to land on us too.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, Luena—who was balancing the ledgers—looked up and greeted me. And then...
Someone stood in the middle of the room with their back turned. The first thing I noticed was neatly groomed blond hair, gathered and tied at the back of the head.
The gently curved figure made it clear even from behind that this was a woman. After standing there for the longest while, the stranger turned around to face us.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Reus."
Narrow, horizontally slitted eyes. A sharp nose bridge. And when she smiled, jagged teeth like the edge of a saw.
A woman with the presence of a shark risen from the deep bowed with formal precision.
"I am Elaine, inspector dispatched by Count Jorden."
"An inspector, then."
"Yes. An inspector."
Elaine was smiling away with the friendliest expression imaginable, but those shark teeth of hers kept surfacing, and no amount of smiling made her look friendly in the slightest.
"Well, this is... rather sudden."
"Sudden, you say? That's fair enough."
When a Count whose existence I hadn't even known about until recently sends an inspector without a word of advance notice, of course that's sudden. What else would it be?
"The Empire finds itself in turmoil on many fronts, as I'm sure you know. That is why the Count had no leisure to spare—only recently has he finally been able to breathe again and turn his eyes toward those around him."
Hearing her start in on imperial affairs, I decided this conversation was going to be a long one and took a seat first.
"Shall we sit and talk, then?"
"By all means."
The office carried a faint but unmistakable tension, as though the temperature had dropped a degree or two below normal.
"Crow's Head Valley... a place the Count himself has kept tucked away in a corner of his heart. Along with your name as well, naturally."
"I am deeply honored that the Count would remember a worthless nobody such as myself."
"Worthless? Your name is stamped on goods spreading across the entire continent! If that counts as worthless, then no achievement in this world has any meaning at all."
That damn fertilizer again! For as long as I remain lord, it's become a shackle I can never shed. Nerga... you should have consulted me before you went and named it, damn it all!
"We can discuss that matter at length another time—may I move on to the business at hand?"
"The business at hand. Of course."
I cut in quickly before the topic could drift toward my name and my reputation again.
"As I mentioned, the Count has recently found himself with breathing room, and he has issued directives across the board: ascertain whether anything is amiss within the county, and if something is, resolve it with all haste."
"I see."
"And so an inspector has been dispatched to every manor under the county's jurisdiction, without exception. There is no need for undue alarm."
You weren't singled out, so relax—is that what this was? Even so, for someone being inspected for the very first time in his life, a fellow doesn't exactly settle his nerves that easily.
"In fact, before you two arrived, I spoke briefly with your treasurer and took an early look at the estate's financial standing. And..."
And...? Don't tell me she found some kind of problem? Anxiety gripped me, and my hand closed hard around my quill without my meaning to.
"It was astonishingly clean. Not a single coin leaking out or slipping through anywhere. In fact, it was settled so neatly that it made me suspicious instead."
"If you're doubting Treasurer Luena's competence, I'll tell you right now that your suspicion is misplaced."
"No, nothing of the sort. I have simply never met anyone so devoted—so scrupulously devoted—to running an estate and nothing else."
"It's where I live. And before that, it's where everyone here lives."
"Oh ho."
Perhaps the textbook answer had pleased her—Elaine's smile deepened slightly... which, thanks to those shark teeth, looked less like a smile and more like a predator eyeing its prey.
Apparently satisfied that the treasurer was beyond reproach, she raised no further questions on finances. If Luena had arrived even a few days later, I dread to think what nit she might have picked...
"Incidentally, my lord—where might you have been off to at this hour, together with your chief aide?"
"The two of us paid a short visit to the lake."
"The lake? ...Ah, so that's what it was? Of course. Entirely understandable. Still, one really ought to refrain from such... activities during working hours..."
Excuse me? Entirely understandable? Refrain from such activities? What on earth was she implying? At that moment Laura slammed her hands on the desk and shot to her feet.
"Th-that is not what happened! We weren't doing anything of the... ah, in any case, it's a misunderstanding! What I mean is—we heard something had happened out there, so we went to, er, yes! We simply stopped by to c-check on it! You would do well not to misread the situation!"
Laura, who had apparently been about to say something and then caught my eye, fumbled through a jumble of words before finally managing to string a sentence together. What was that about? Had I fumbled something myself, and she was covering for me?
"Y-yes, of course. Perfectly understood. Though—this 'something that happened'—might I ask what exactly it refers to?"
"A series of grisly murders has occurred, one after another, at the lake near our estate. We went in hopes of finding some clue as to their cause."
Not so much a clue as a certainty, but that was how I put it. It's not as if I could announce, a monster's the culprit!
"Hm... that is a very grim business indeed. To think people could be butchered so mercilessly."
When I handed over the documents concerning the incidents, Elaine skimmed them quickly and frowned faintly. So even the shark woman had found it a bit much, had she?
"Very well. Then, seeing as things have come to this, allow me to contribute what little strength I have until this case is solved."
"I'm sorry—what do you mean by that?"
"I mean that I intend to lodge here for some time as a guest. I look forward to your hospitality, Lord Reus."
The inspector had just become part of our little estate family. Let's just hope this doesn't cause any problems...