Remnants of Malice (5)

At Pitea Gelgeton's voice, the people waiting in the antechamber began filing in one by one.

Every one of them was a companion of the young ladies who had received invitations. As Flora's own companion, I was bound to follow them in, just as she had said.

Before I stepped through that door, I ran through my checks one last time. I had everything I needed. I'd confirmed the looks being thrown at Karsein in the antechamber, too, and steered clear of the choices most likely to cause trouble. The real choices, it was clear, would present themselves in there.

But then, one line of text caught my eye.

The moment I drew near, a zone indicator flashing with a danger rating sprang up out of nowhere, and beneath it was a sentence charged with the system's power to constrain the player's actions.

So I have to walk into a warning-rated zone, in a situation where extra choices are obviously going to spawn the moment I do.

And skipping the gathering altogether wasn't even an option on the table.

If it were only a matter of losing some Intimacy with Arina and Flora, that might have been worth risking — but confinement or a territorial ban could spiral straight into a bad ending.

So what about clearing the episode, then? The conditions for clearing it were every bit as tight.

There was no way out, in other words — I had to see the episode through to the very end. That's what it all boiled down to.

But...

There's no penalty anywhere for leaving here legitimately, is there?

Not a single one.

A failure penalty existed, sure — but the only condition for clearing the episode was finishing the tea party, wasn't it? Then it wouldn't be all that hard.

With that thought, the corner of my mouth curled up into a grin.

As time passed, guests began arriving one after another. Seats filled up steadily, and the young ladies' voices grew brighter with anticipation by the day.

Enough people had gathered. Everyone who had issued invitations was in attendance, and with the other companions joining in as well, there would be that many more eyes watching.

A tea party, by its nature, doesn't usually draw a huge crowd — after all, it's nothing more than an occasion to sip tea and trade small talk. But this one was no ordinary tea party. There would be a spectacle here, a most fascinating one, that could be seen nowhere else. It promised to be a rare and delightful gathering indeed.

Once everyone on the list had arrived, the hostess, Pitea Gelgeton, rose from her seat.

"Now then, shall we bring in our guests?"

""Yes~!""

At last. Finally. The young ladies, brimming with an anticipation that words like those could hardly contain, answered in unanimous agreement. Among them was—

"Yes~!"

—Flora, who had brought Karsein along.

"It would be best to introduce them slowly, so let's have them enter one at a time."

At that, one of the young ladies raised her hand. "Why must they come in one at a time?"

"If we receive all the guests at once at a gathering like this, how are we to get to know one another? Slowly. If we're here to deepen our friendships, I think we need to learn more than simply which lady brought whom."

Which was why it was better to have each guest come out and be introduced individually, rather than having them all crowd in at once. That was the reason Pitea Gelgeton gave, one person at a time.

"The guests waiting outside have been given lots marked with their order, and they'll come out in that sequence. Wouldn't it also be fun to guess whose companion each one is?"

"Good point. So it's an introduction with a light game woven in."

"Guessing aside, we'll also hold a vote for the most memorable guest, and the one who receives the most votes will receive a gift."

"Really? That sounds like so much fun!"

"I can't wait. I wonder what sort of people everyone has brought?"

With that, the young ladies laughed and tittered away. But behind the masks they wore while laughing, there was only the sly smile of women nodding along as if to say, ah, now we understand.

Flora, entirely oblivious to this, was busy chiming in about how fun it all sounded.

"Now, our first guest. Would you come out, please?"

"Thank you for the invitation. I am—"

And so, one by one, the introductions began.

Being companions of nobles, they boasted a dazzling lineup. A family name attached to every introduction went without saying, and there was no shortage of skilled boutique owners, artisans, and appraisers brought in for business reasons.

Not a single commoner among them, though. Even the humblest was of untitled noble stock, and it would have been fair to call every last one of them part of the empire's upper class — people who held land, or commanded servants.

One introduction finished, the guest took their seat, and at last only a single place remained empty.

The young ladies, glancing at the vacant chair with shining eyes, waited for the final number.

"Number thirty — would you come out, please?"

Pitea Gelgeton called the last number with a dazzling smile. But number thirty did not appear.

"Number thirty? Number thirty...?"

For whatever reason, the man who was supposed to come out last — that Karsein Bagrand — was not coming out.

The first to rise when a murmur began to spread through the hall was Flora.

Don't tell me— don't tell me...!

She bit her lip hard and slipped into the antechamber, wondering if he'd already gone back to the duchy. And there, absurdly, she found him — Karsein, still leaning against one wall with a book in his hands, though his number had surely been called.

Relief washed over her first — he hadn't gone back to the ducal house. But irritation bubbled up right behind it. She had to ask what on earth he was doing in here. Why he was just standing around like this.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm reading."

Flora scrunched up her face as Karsein shamelessly turned another page.

"That's not what I mean — why are you doing this?! You're number thirty! Here, look, this is your lot right here! All you have to do is walk in — so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠why won't you go in?!"

Given how everyone else had entered the moment their number was called, there was no way Karsein hadn't heard his. He'd even been told beforehand that all he had to do was come through that door. She couldn't for the life of her understand why he hadn't gone in.

Thump.

The book Flora had been watching was shut by her own hand. Then she grabbed Karsein's arm, fully intending to haul him up out of his seat and drag him there herself.

"Get up. Get uuup!"

"What's gotten into you?"

"You have to get up and go in there!"

"Honestly? I think the right thing to do is just head back to the duchy."

"Hey!"

At last, her patience ran dry and Flora's voice cracked upward.

"If you just walk off from here, I'm telling Arina! I'll tell her everything — that you didn't look after me properly!"

You only came because Arina asked you to anyway.

The moment the words "you failed to look after me properly" leave my mouth, your right to attend the Eastern Noble Conference goes straight down the drain. So you have to look good to me. You have to do what I say.

At some point, that was all Flora's head had filled with — without her ever realizing how close those words came to an outright threat.

Perhaps her threat had landed after all, because Karsein unfolded his arms and rose from his seat.

"Well, fine. All right. I'll do as you ask — for now."

Flora's scrunched face smoothed over at once.

"Really? You're not going back to the duchy?"

"Nope."

It struck her as odd, how abruptly Karsein's attitude had shifted to this strangely docile compliance — but what did that matter? Soon, every gaze in that room would turn on Karsein in a whole new light. He was probably in for quite the shock himself. With that future already visible before her eyes, she was starting to look forward to seeing how he'd react.

"Come on, hurry! I have to introduce you properly!"

Flora, her bright, springy smile fully restored, strode into the tea party hall ahead of him.

And then.

Watching her go, Karsein let out a soft snort of laughter.

"You really believe my place is in there, don't you."

He murmured it under his breath. His expression was smiling — but it was a smile in name only.

"Yes. This will do nicely, in fact. For teaching you how the world really works."

Two people wearing utterly opposite smiles walked together toward the tea party hall.

As we drew close to the hall, they were chattering away quite freely — apparently too absorbed in their own excitement to care much how I reacted. Rather than dwelling on the fact that number thirty still hadn't entered long after being called, the mood felt, if anything, perfectly natural.

Natural, that is — until I shattered it myself, starting now.

Click.

"So anyway, that bastard of ours—"

"Hey. Hey."

"Hm? What's gotten into you all of a sud— ...Oh."

The moment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the door opened, every gaze in the room converged on us.

"Who... is that man?"

"My lady. Listen."

"...Oh!"

Just as with the knights, the reactions ran a beat behind. Man or woman, precious few could properly recognize Karsein on sight.

Which meant that only a handful of people had laid eyes on Karsein since that tea party, so extreme had his reluctance to leave the house become.

The Flora I saw in the Memorial was still quite young. Factoring that in, it's hardly strange that no one recognizes me at a glance.

It had likely been well over a year since I last set foot in a place like this.

"How exciting."

"Isn't it just?"

"But why is he dressed so plainly?"

Still, word of Karsein's presence spread through their ranks in the blink of an eye. In that brief sliver of time, everyone already knew exactly who I was.

Ding!

And with it, the choices appeared.

Not a chance.

The time constraint of a curfew was deadly serious business for me. I had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to justify my every action with reasonable grounds, which meant a fight with these people was to be avoided at all costs. And of course, that was never going to go my way.

This was precisely the kind of situation where the system's grip was at its strongest.

"Our thirtieth guest has finally arrived. Please give us a brief self-introduction. Oh — and which lady's companion you are must not be revealed, so do be careful on that point."

So said the hostess of the tea party, Pitea Gelgeton, with a light gesture of her hand.

Frankly, I doubted there was a single soul here who didn't know who I was — but as a matter of form, I supposed that was the proper way to do things.

At the same moment, the choices appeared.

The choices aside, the hostility here is just shamelessly blatant.

They had honed this particular craft to perfection, and my instincts rang out loud and clear. Those expectant glinting eyes were no different from prowling beasts licking their lips, biding their time.

In a room composed exclusively of high nobles and the empire's upper crust, a tackle of one kind or another was bound to come flying at Karsein — the lone lowborn among them — from every direction.

Crush them with the power of House Bagrand? Impossible. This was a tea party, a special setting, and I would simply be buried alive under the weight of their collective opinion.

And now, in this situation, fourteen choices had popped up at once. It was hard enough just guessing which one was the "right" answer. A thoroughly Fucked situation, you could honestly call it.

But I knew.

I knew that the textbook move, at a moment like this, was to act in a way no one could possibly have predicted.

Convenient excuse, too. This should be more than enough.

I had no idea which of those options was the correct one.

But I could twist the choices themselves and forge a right answer of my own.

Under gazes so piercing they practically stung, I moved toward one side of the room.

"I have come solely as the escort knight of Flora Bagrand."

At those words, the expressions of the nobles shifted in strange and varied ways — and the one who looked most discomforted by the whole situation was Flora, her eyes stretched wide open in disbelief.