First Mission
"That will be all for today. I'll speak with the Captain myself."
"Yes, my lady. Once everything is sorted, I'll report back."
The knights who handled the Order's administrative work moved with crisp efficiency. It had originally been a meeting the Knight Captain was meant to attend, but Karen knew just how busy he had been of late. The agenda hadn't been particularly urgent, and she had wanted to spare him the trouble.
"Hah. Time I headed back."
Karen rose, working the stiffness from her shoulders. Then something occurred to her.
Where on earth has he gone off to, and what is he doing?
He had said he had business at the Knight Order. She had been too tired at the time to really listen, but thinking back on it now, it was strange. What business could he possibly have with the Order?
"Knowing him, it's nothing worth fretting over."
Karen shook her head. Dwelling on whatever he was up to would only wear her out. Still, he was her guard knight in name if nothing else — she ought to bring him along when she left.
"I should grab him something good to eat on the way."
What had happened that morning still nagged at her. He was that rarest of men in this age — someone whose outside matched his inside. So of course she knew he hadn't been lying. She had simply wanted to tease him.
"Heh. I can already picture how delighted he'll look."
Leon's beaming face floated into her mind. His simple-heartedness tugged a smile onto her lips before she could stop it. Karen's eyes curved into crescents as she chuckled under her breath.
And then—
KRA-KOOM—!!!!!
A tremendous crash thundered through the building. Everyone in the meeting room ducked on instinct. Moments later the door burst open and a knight stumbled in, shouting.
"M-My lady!!!"
He was gasping so hard he could barely get the words out, as if he had sprinted the whole way.
"What is it? Calm yourself and speak."
The knight jabbed a finger toward the outside, looking as though calm was the last thing he could manage.
"Th-The training ground wall has collapsed!!!"
"What?"
Karen's delicate brow furrowed. This was no man inventing a story.
"Lead the way. I'll see it myself."
"Y-Yes, my lady!"
The training ground walls were harder than those elsewhere on the grounds. Given that weapons and firearms were used there, they had been built with that in mind — reinforced and solid. And yet one of them had come down.
Some kind of attack?
Karen hurried after the knight toward the scene.
"What happened?"
"No idea — it just came down all of a sudden."
Murmurs rippled through the gathered knights. Karen addressed them.
"What exactly happened here?"
The knights who noticed her belatedly bowed and offered what they had seen.
"There was a huge crash, and when we came out, this is what we found!"
"The sound came from over that way!"
Karen followed the direction they indicated. A roughly circular hole about a meter across had been punched clean through the wall. The surrounding masonry had lost its balance and crumbled inward. That hole had been made deliberately. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been a serious matter.
Fortunately — or unfortunately — the culprit was immediately obvious.
A man stood in front of the wrecked wall.
"Ah, crap. What do I do about this? Think glue would hold it?"
It was Leon.
He was picking up chunks of stone and stacking them one by one. As if that were ever going to work. Before long the whole pile went clatter and collapsed again.
"Hey, could you give me a hand here? …Huh? What the— where'd you go!?"
He turned, looking for a colleague. Naturally, no one was there. Then he caught the sound of footsteps behind him.
"Oh, what — you were behind me the whole ti—"
His mouth snapped shut. Leon's pupils began to tremble like leaves in a gale.
"You. I trust you understand precisely what you've done."
Her voice was low enough to raise gooseflesh. Her eyes were smiling, and yet they were not smiling at all. A vein stood out on her forehead.
To Leon, she was more terrifying than any mana beast over three meters tall. He scratched the back of his head and managed, in a quavering voice:
"Ah—ahaha. I just thought, as your guard knight, I ought to get a little stronger, so I was doing some training. But there were, uh, some unexpected variables along the way, and things got a bit out of h—"
Karen said nothing. She simply pinned him with a gaze that could have bored holes through stone.
Leon dropped his eyes.
"W-Well, you know how it is. Life throws all kinds of things at you, right?"
His voice dwindled with every word. He snuck a glance at her face. There was no sign of improvement. Only one course of action remained.
To hell with it.
"I'm out of here—!!!!!"
Karen, now thoroughly enraged, roared from the depths of her core.
"Stop right there—!!!"
"Somebody help me—!!!!"
In the end, she caught him.
Somehow, the two of them made it back.
They were in her office. A heavy silence filled the room — silent, and yet not silent at all. The only sounds were the ticking of the clock and the rustle of papers as she turned them over.
They had not exchanged a single word in the carriage. The atmosphere had plummeted past the floor and was still falling into the abyss.
At last Leon could take no more. He stood — not to open the door and flee, but to walk around to the chair where she sat.
"Aww, come on, I'm sorry. Time to stop being mad, yeah?"
He worked his hands over her slender shoulders. Controlling his strength was child's play.
"Your shoulders are really tight~ Here? Or here?"
Karen considered his behavior. Whatever his true motives, the fact that he had trained of his own accord to grow stronger as her guard knight was commendable. Choosing to do something he hadn't needed to do at all deserved praise — especially coming from someone who was lazy about nearly everything.
She let out a sigh.
"Haa. Fine. I forgive you."
"Oh — for real?"
"Would I say it if I didn't mean it?"
Leon's eyes went wide, as though he had expected the chill to last much longer. Karen tapped her own shoulder and continued.
"But finish what you started."
"Yes, yes~"
Honestly, his massage technique was remarkable. She could feel the accumulated fatigue melting away.
At any rate.
"There is a condition, however."
"What!?"
That was that, and this was this. She had simply had no interest in petty emotional games — but when it came to profit and loss, she was thorough.
"First: one month's pay docked."
Considering the cost of repairing the wall and the labor involved, it was a generous settlement. Leon's grip tightened.
"That hurts. Shall we make it three months instead?"
His hands returned to a normal pressure.
"No, no~ Perfectly fair punishment."
A month was nothing. These days even minor negligence could land you a hefty fine. Leon decided to look on the bright side.
"There's one more thing."
"Huh?"
Karen pointed to the reception sofa.
"That's enough. Sit down."
And so they sat facing each other. Leon wore a sullen expression, but he had no real choice in the matter.
"This is your first mission."
Karen held out a sheet of paper. It looked something like a report.
"What's this? Did you interview the territory folk or something?"
It was a patchwork of people's testimonies. Karen crossed her legs, propped her chin on her hand, and asked:
"Where do you think information comes from?"
"Information? Uh… information brokers?"
"Hmm. There are people who do that sort of work professionally, yes."
Her tone made it clear that wasn't the answer she wanted.
"It's nothing complicated. When I need specific information, I make inquiries and dig it up myself. But when I don't even know what I need, I simply listen — secondhand, thirdhand — to what the people of the territory are saying among themselves."
"Oh. Now that you mention it, that makes sense."
If a market were holding a sale, you would go looking for where it was and how to get there. But if you didn't even know a sale was happening, you would never think to look in the first place.
"Information travels by word of mouth. And one particular piece of it has reached my ears."
"What is it?"
"Intelligence concerning the mana beasts beyond the walls."
"Come on, all that buildup for that? You could just ask the Guild and be done with it."
Unlike the Knight Order, which conducted regular mana beast subjugations once or twice a month, Guild members crossed the northern walls nearly every day. When it came to mana beasts, the Guild knew best.
"You're not wrong. But only when those people actually report what they find to the Guild."
Leon nodded, seeing her point.
"The people registered with the Guild are registered, nothing more — they aren't subordinates. Each of them takes commissions and hunts mana beasts as an individual."
That was true enough. And now a question formed in his mind. He couldn't recall ever seeing Guild members report anything back to the Guild. And yet most of the commissions had pinpointed exactly what was needed. The person who issued those commissions was sitting right in front of him.
"Hmm. So where exactly does that information come from, then? Stop dragging it out and just tell me."
"The Red-Light District."
"…What?"
Not the answer he had expected.
"The Red-Light District?"
"It's where Guild people go more than anywhere else. Of course it is."
"And they just spill their guts while they're drunk or something?"
"You don't even have to ask. They volunteer it. And when someone's in the grip of more… carnal pleasures, self-control tends to go out the window. Every so often I even hear about the neighbor's affair."
"Holy—"
So that was another reason she had sanctioned the Red-Light District. Killing two birds with one stone. Terrifying woman.
"So what exactly do you want me to do?"
"Nothing difficult. Go inspect the place marked on the map and come back."
Karen held out a map. A single location had been circled.
"Hmm. Easy enough, I guess. Something going on there?"
"Word is the mana beast population has spiked."
"And if it's a lie?"
"Even a false rumor is something a lord cannot simply ignore. One must prepare for every possibility, however remote."
Leon nodded. He had lived outside the walls to begin with. Honestly, this was more comfortable work than riding around in a carriage — though having to take one to get there was a downside.
"Understood. I'll head out at first light tomorrow and be back before you know it."
"I'm grateful."
"For something this small? Don't mention it."
Been a while since I stretched my legs properly.
I've been wanting to try out Aura, too. Perfect timing.