Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Office Takes Shape (2)
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The office repairs were finished.
However, we waited in the hallway for a bit.
The architect had advised us to ventilate for thirty minutes before he left.
While waiting, my senior took out her cigarette case.
She tapped it lightly and asked me,
"Veil, tell me straight. You really don't have any connections?"
Miya's eyes narrowed into thin slits.
Her gaze was full of suspicion.
"Yes, really. If I had backing, would I have come here as a defense knight?"
"Hmm..."
She tapped the cigarette case against her lips as she held it.
"Well... A noble wouldn't have any reason to come here. Guarding the princesses would be way more comfortable."
Not comfortable at all.
Not only do you guard them, but you have to fetch books they want to read, and sometimes even go to the market with them.
I wanted to tell this young knight lady that fact, but I just smirked and held back.
"Sigh, who won't pick me up... I can pull my weight pretty well too."
Miya threw her head back dramatically.
Then, hearing footsteps from the first floor, she muttered,
"Today's got a lot of visitors even in this out-of-the-way spot."
She soon lifted her head with a bored expression.
However, her senior's face soon turned pale.
The visitors coming up from the first floor.
They were all servants of Lydia, the ruler of the East.
"The Third Imperial Princess's chief secretary too...?!"
Miya hurriedly hid her cigarette case behind her back.
Then, she bowed her head hastily in greeting.
But because she bent over, her back was fully exposed.
In the end, the cigarette case she'd tried to hide was blatantly revealed.
"Sir Veil Mikhail?"
A splendid turban embroidered with jewels.
Beneath it, a wrinkled middle-aged man asked me.
He paid no attention to Miya's cigarette.
"Yes, that's me."
Confirming my identity, he approached leisurely.
Then, he took out an elegant edict sealed with hardened wax from his inner pocket.
"Sign here."
I took the luxurious paper in a daze.
"Receipt confirmation...?"
I furrowed my brow and looked at the man.
"It's proof that you've received Lady Lydia's gift."
The chief secretary stepped aside demonstratively.
Then, bizarre luxuries from the East I'd never seen before filled the hallway.
Samid panther hide from the desert tyrant.
Even a stuffed fire bear, ruler of the eastern mountains.
Utterly useless items that wouldn't help with work at all.
"What kind of gift is this...?"
Miya, watching from the side.
She poked my side while forcing a smile.
"Hey, smile..."
Thanks to her, I forcibly pulled up the corners of my mouth.
Lydia.
Her gifts were as eccentric as her personality.
"I'm sorry, but can I really accept such precious items? Maybe I should return them..."
"Are you refusing the gift that Her Highness the Princess personally chose after much deliberation?"
The chief secretary was clearly smiling.
However, it was almost coercive.
"No. I'll gratefully accept."
In the end, I signed the edict.
I'd finally escaped Irina... but somehow things felt more tangled.
"Haa..."
Holding the unwanted fire bear, I opened the office door.
And the moment I sighed heavily as I entered.
"What is this...?"
My eyes widened at the completely transformed office.
A chandelier so ostentatious it didn't suit a lowly knight's workspace.
Even a golden table fit for a knight order captain's room.
"Flowers too."
I snorted at the vase decorating the table.
Inside it was a rose made of gold.
The moment I saw that rose, a chill ran down my spine.
The golden rose was Leah's symbol.
It felt like a strange signal marking me as her target.
Miya sauntered into the office, draped in the panther hide.
Then, she slowly sat on the luxurious sofa.
"Hey—this is too much treatment for a patriot, isn't it?"
My senior giggled while fiddling with the panther's paw.
"Yeah. Ha... where do I stash this?"
I carefully set down the fire bear so as not to crack the marble tiles.
Then, I sighed deeply while staring at its overwhelming bulk.
"Just dump it in the warehouse?"
I muttered with a bored expression.
Miya shook her head, her round eyes flashing.
"You can't shove Her Highness's gift in the warehouse!"
Miya stood from the sofa with a confident look.
"Give it here. Your senior will decorate it herself."
She grabbed the fire bear's waist demonstratively.
And to show senior dignity, she tried to lift it with all her might.
"..."
But the fire bear didn't budge an inch.
In the end, Miya turned to me with an awkward expression.
"Can't you see your senior struggling alone right now?"
I snorted in disbelief.
Then, I leisurely approached and placed my hand on the fire bear's waist alongside hers.
"Where to?"
"Against the leather sofa. Guests can admire it while waiting, right?"
I lifted the fire bear easily.
In the process, I ended up lifting the short senior too.
"Eek...!"
Miya, clinging to the fire bear's leg like a cat.
She glanced up at me while dangling.
"Could you... put me down?"
I calmly lowered her slowly.
Then, my senior covered her mouth with her fist in embarrassment and cleared her throat.
"Ahem. Next, this panther hide."
Miya headed to the office entrance with the hide draped like a cape.
Then, she laid it carefully on the floor like a carpet.
"There, how's that?"
"Uh... is it okay to step on a gift like that?"
When I asked, Miya half-closed her eyes.
Then, she wagged her finger and said confidently.
"My junior, you don't know much about the East, do you?"
Seeing my puzzled expression, Miya strode confidently out of the office.
Then, she stepped lightly on the hide and came back in.
"Stepping on precious panther hide when entering. It makes guests feel like they've become rulers of the East, right?"
She placed her hand on her waist, mimicking the Third Imperial Princess.
"Plus, Samid panther hide has the property of reflecting mana."
Information even I didn't know in my past life.
"So the eastern royal family lays them at entrances to prevent intruders' concealment magic—"
"How do you know all that, senior?"
At my question, Miya's smile froze.
She soon made a bitter expression.
"I studied up beforehand. I was originally selected for Lady Lydia's guard."
Miya clasped her hands behind her back calmly.
Then, she gazed steadily at the fire bear standing by the sofa.
"But I got pushed out soon. There was a duke's son among my peers."
Miya smiled faintly with her eyes closed.
As if it didn't bother her anymore.
"But it's fine. Staying in the capital means I avoided the worst, right?"
However, I know.
The reality of fallen nobles who can't cry or rage.
That my senior's smile was a fake one crafted to adapt to that reality.
I approached her.
Maybe because I'd served Irina.
Naturally, I knelt down and removed a single strand of panther fur from her forehead.
"That must have been tough."
The close distance.
She looked up at me blankly.
"Uh...?"
Her black eyes wavered.
She made a flustered, dazed expression.
"You don't have to force a smile in front of me. I understand."
My shadow loomed over her as comfort.
Thanks to it, Miya's black eyes sparkled even more.
Soon, she bit her lip lightly.
Then, she suddenly ruffled my bowed head.
"Worry about yourself, newbie."
Miya hurriedly stood up.
And as she was about to handle the remaining chores.
She stared at the office entrance as if entranced.
"Someone's here? Why..."
I turned my head following her gaze.
Then I realized.
Why Miya's face had turned pale.
"What the hell are you two doing?"
Luper.
He was staring at us blankly while trampling the panther hide.
Having seen our situation just now, his thick eyelids were stretched wide.
"Ah, senior... Veil removed some dust from my hair."
Miya, knowing Luper's jealousy well, hurriedly defended me.
But that only backfired.
From Luper's view, it looked like Miya was protecting me.
"Why's this guy removing it for you?"
He glared at me, fuming.
Somehow, the situation was getting more awkward.
"I'm sorry. I grew up with a little sister my whole life, so I did it without thinking..."
Actually, not a sister but a princess.
"Is senior your sister? This guy's totally crazy."
Miya wasn't saying anything, so why was he acting like this?
"And what's with this office? A lowly knight daring to gild everything?"
He snorted at the fire bear seeming to bow on its front paws.
A commoner decorating the office so luxuriously.
He apparently couldn't stand it.
"Ha, I was gonna let your first day slide, but you're pissing me off."
Luper rolled up his uniform sleeves.
And began enveloping his body in mana.
"Se, senior..."
Seeing that, Miya urgently tried to stop him.
But at that moment.
"You shut up too. First-year newbie doing romance crap!"
Luper yelled and concentrated mana in his legs.
He slammed his military boot down hard, infused with rage.
And at that spot...
Was the mana-reflecting panther hide.
―――!
Luper's mana touched the hide.
Then, with a strange sound, the reflected mana surged toward us.
At insanely fast speed.
Fatal to a commoner.
Even a knight would suffer severe injury.
Soon, sharp mana shards were about to hit Miya's face.
In that urgent split-second.
I instinctively concentrated mana in my left arm.
And instead of the unreacting Miya...
I grabbed the shards right in front of me.
Crackle-crackle―――!
Our manas clashed and frictioned violently.
I calmly absorbed his masterless mana into my palm.
"You okay, senior?"
Miya was stunned from the near-death situation.
She collapsed weakly onto the table.
"Uh..."
I dusted my palm and glared at Luper.
He seemed oblivious to what he'd done, his face dazed.
I walked toward him calmly.
Soon, Luper blankly looked up at the black shadow looming over him.
"Luper, was it?"
A short word.
Pierced by it, he stammered a reply.
"Wh-what. Did you just talk down to me?"
Instead of answering, I grabbed his collar.
Then, shoving my face close, I said,
"Should I call a guy who can't even control his own mana or emotions my senior?"
Luper's feet dangled in the air.
His trembling transmitted directly through my grip.
"Y-you think you can be a knight acting like this? Get your hand off now!"
I hoisted the yapping guy higher.
Then, slammed him down hard on the floor demonstratively.
Hard enough to crack the new tiles.
"Ah, why's a knight guy so noisy."
I squatted beside the sprawled guy.
Then, gazing at the panther hide he was lying on, I smiled faintly.
"You think you can ruin Her Highness the Princess's gifts and survive?"
At the word 'princess', he jerked his head up.
"What...? P-princess?"
He looked down at the panther hide he'd trampled.
The hide was cleanly torn.
His black boot print remained perfectly on it.
"This crap is Her Highness's...?!"