Hasgard as Usual
“Hmph. Is that so. The Magic Tower, then. Hasgard does come up with the most interesting ideas.”
Amelia gave a short snort of laughter and passed the letter to Kairon.
“So the Magic Tower is the enemy.”
She turned her gaze to the haft of the massive war hammer propped carelessly against the sofa.
“What do you think, Brother? Hasgard has finally handed us something worth doing for once. We can get there a step ahead this time, can’t we?”
“The Magic Tower…”
Kairon finished reading the letter, his expression clouded and complicated.
“That Magic Tower… is dangerous…”
“Hah. As if anything ever isn’t. Just coming home was already a life-threatening risk. Anything’s better than a daily life where you never know when you’ll be poisoned.”
“I’ll… protect you.”
“Ugh…”
Amelia hurled the cushion she’d been resting her head on.
“Damn it, Brother! I told you not to say things like that with that face!”
The cushion smacked dead center into Kairon’s head—Daywin’s face—with a solid thud.
Hasgard Manor.
In the middle of dinner, the middle Hasgard son, Romons, tossed out a topic.
“Father, have you heard the news? The youngest is coming home.”
“He said he’s taking the train right away, so he might arrive today or tomorrow.”
Romons spoke with bright excitement, but the rest of the family’s faces stayed cold.
“Uh… why is everyone…?”
Just as the unexpected reaction left Romons flustered—
Thump.
The eldest Hasgard, Diar, clamped a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder.
“That’s enough, Romons.”
“Why? Why is everyone like this? Daywin is coming home!”
“Shh.”
Diar leaned in and whispered against his brother’s ear.
“Father is furious because of Daywin. Watch your tongue. Best not to mention Daywin at all for a while.”
“What…?”
Romons turned to his brother with an expression of pure disbelief.
“No, why… What did the youngest even do to deserve that?”
Romons lowered his own voice and whispered back.
“It’s not as if he became the boss of some criminal guild or committed some crime…”
“No. It’s the opposite, actually.”
“The opposite?”
“You read the papers too. You know what Daywin’s been up to lately.”
“Ah.”
Romons gave his knee a small slap as something clicked into place.
“The royal knight… you mean? That he became the Seventh Princess’s knight and is helping her claim the succession…”
“Exactly.”
Diar answered, then shook his head.
“He’s been like this ever since that news spread.”
“Isn’t that happy news? A royal knight coming out of our house is a blessing for the family…”
“Romons. Do you still not get it? Father first heard that happy news from the newspaper.”
“Ah…”
Romons finally nodded in understanding—only for Countess Hasgard’s sharp gaze to pin both brothers in place.
“It is mealtime. Stop the idle chatter.”
“Y-yes, Mother. Understood.”
When the Countess flexed the forearm gripping her knife for emphasis, the two brothers creaked like rusty hinges and returned their eyes to their plates.
“Please let go of your anger now.”
Soon after, the Countess carefully addressed the head of the house, Kalinder.
“You’ve been furious from start to finish. It’s making the children uncomfortable.”
“No, Mother, that’s—”
“Diar.”
“Yes…”
Clink—
The eldest Hasgard returned his attention to his food.
“I’m sure Daywin didn’t do it on purpose. Of course he would have wanted to tell us first. But being a royal knight—wouldn’t that keep anyone swamped? He might simply have forgotten.”
“Not a single letter.”
At last Kalinder opened his mouth.
“Not a single one. After all the letters I sent! Not one reply! I wrote ten of them!”
“He did write to ask whether Father was well. When those masked men scaled the wall, he somehow knew and…”
“Diar, is that true?”
“Yes, Mother. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to worry you, but a letter arrived as if he’d been watching the whole time. Haha…”
“You heard that? Daywin is looking after the family.”
“Why does he only write to the two of you! Even this news that he’s coming home went to the second son…”
It backfired completely.
Learning that Daywin had been in contact with his brothers only made Kalinder more irritable.
“Why must this father hear of such a joyous occasion from the newspaper…”
“Father, when the youngest comes home you should welcome him warmly. How long are you going to sulk like—”
“Sulk? You little—!”
“…be angry, then?”
“Romons is right, Father. Daywin is coming home after so long. If he saw you like this, how shocked would he be?”
As the brothers ganged up on him, the Countess nodded with quiet satisfaction.
“Perhaps Daywin didn’t send word because he didn’t feel it was enough yet.”
“Not enough?”
“Even if he became a royal knight, it is still the Seventh Princess. Daywin seems to be working hard, but compared to the other candidates her strength is lacking. After two years away from the royal court, she won’t have many supporters.”
“Hmph. Supporters? Daywin alone is more than enough…”
Kalinder found himself taking Daywin’s side without thinking.
“So he may not have told us. For us it might be a celebration, but Daywin probably thought he still had a long way to go.”
“Mmm. So it wasn’t satisfactory enough, is that it…”
“Yes, I’m certain of it. You know Daywin’s personality better than anyone.”
“Ahem…”
Kalinder nodded as if forced to concede and reached for his fork.
At that moment—
“Young Master Daywin has arrived.”
Creak—
The great doors opened and Daywin appeared.
“Daywin!”
“Youngest!”
Both brothers shot up from their seats in surprise.
“I hope you’ve all been well.”
Daywin glanced briefly at his brothers, then bowed his head to his parents.
Sensing the atmosphere was far from usual, he quickly flicked his eyes toward his older brothers for help.
“D-Daywin. I heard the news that you became the Seventh Princess’s knight. H-haha. Congratulations.”
Diar caught that look and scrambled to speak.
“I was just about to tell you myself, but it seems you already know.”
“That’s exactly the important point. That is today’s very important point!”
“?”
“Daywin, why didn’t you inform the family first?”
“Well, there was no real need to…”
“Ah! No. I already know without you saying it.”
The eldest cut Daywin off in a rush.
“The Seventh Princess lacks a foundation, so you wanted to hide the fact that it was her and not some other candidate. You didn’t think it was a big enough achievement to report to the family, did you?”
“No? It may look that way now, but Amelia is actually fairly—”
“No! That’s not it! I already know, so you don’t have to say anything. You weren’t satisfied! That’s why you didn’t write first!”
“Yes… well… I suppose so.”
“Father, did you hear that? My guess was right!”
As if refusing to hear another word, Diar slung an arm around Daywin’s shoulders and sat him down at the table.
Daywin, still half-dazed, took his seat and waited for the servants to bring the food.
At last, it was the Hasgard family as usual.
I ate my fill of delicious food for the first time in ages and caught up on everything we’d missed.
If there was one minor problem, it was that even after I’d eaten a reasonable amount, Mother kept ordering the chef to bring more dishes just for me.
In her eyes I looked thin, so I read the room and ended up eating twice my usual portion.
And this despite the fact that I’ve been training hard to rebuild the body I had right before the regression.
I’m not quite at Laward’s level, but I push myself intensely.
Coming home after so long, I almost felt like a guest.
As we were finishing dinner, the matchbox in my inner pocket buzzed.
A message from Houndry.
Had they found something?
When I slipped the matchbox out and started to rise, Romons’s eyes went wide and he whispered to me.
“Youngest, why the matches after the meal? Don’t tell me you’re smoking—”
“It’s nothing like that.”
Despite the strange misunderstanding along the way, I returned to my room and struck a match.
“I’m listening.”
I transferred the flame into the lantern and spoke.
“—Lord Karma, we tracked the fox’s trail as ordered. But this place…”
One of the four tilted the match this way and that so the scenery would show clearly.
“—It appears to be the Magic Tower.”
Just as he said, a pure white tower came into view.
The place that had conducted those horrific experiments on Rebecca, the place where Akikira had once worked.
“—The ground around the tower is open flatland. Infiltration looks difficult.”
“There’ll be underground facilities. Find a way in through the basement.”
“—Yes, but if it’s the Magic Tower, the barrier…”
While the Houndry agent was still speaking—
“—There is no barrier.”
A frivolous voice cut in.
My ears twitched at the sound.
I reacted on pure reflex to a voice I knew.
“—When the Tower Master died, everything vanished with him. You can walk right in through the front gate.”
The owner of that voice approached as well, fox ears pricking forward.
The flame that had been showing the Magic Tower wavered, then began to illuminate a man’s figure.
A man in roughly thrown-on ragged clothes, his white tails swaying in greeting.
Nine tails.
“—Turning away a guest is rude. Come in, come in.”
One tail flicked back and forth.
Beyond the flame, the Houndry agents’ voices had gone silent.
They seemed to be waiting for my orders on how to handle this mysterious man who had appeared so suddenly.
So that’s how it is.
Time to decide.
I had sent Houndry after the fox and Kairon to investigate the Magic Tower.
Two separate objectives—yet here they had merged into one.
One of the five lanterns of the Death God Cult was inside the Magic Tower.
Had the Tower Master died… or been killed?
“—You look like you’re thinking hard.”
Thud. Thud.
Footsteps rang out as he closed the distance one step at a time.
When one of the Houndry agents reached for his waist at the approaching fox—
Shhk—
The fox’s fist punched straight through the man’s chest.
Pierced.
In a single motion.
“—Looks like you’re not guests after all. Everyone brought something scary.”
As their comrade collapsed in an instant, the remaining three froze where they stood and could only track the fox’s movements with their eyes.
The fox walked up to the one holding the match and thrust his own eyes right up to the flame.
“—Right?”
He spoke as if addressing me.
Even though I had made sure my own reflection never appeared in the flame.
Thud—!
The fox punched through another man and spoke again.
“—I said you look like you’re thinking hard. You.”
Thud—!
One more.
When the last one still clutching the match sank trembling to the ground, his terrified face floated in the lantern light.
Crunch!
The fox kicked him as if stomping his head.
In the blink of an eye Houndry was wiped out, and the match fell to the floor.
Afterward the fox picked up the match, held it to light his own face, and spoke to me.
“—What were you hoping to accomplish by sending people all the way here? Just who is sitting on the other end of this? Hey, say something. Or are you so shocked your precious subordinates died that—”
“Found you.”
“—…What?”
“I finally found you.”
Huff—
I snuffed out the lantern flame.
“Haaahhh—!”
After the fox left, the Houndry elites rose one by one.
Faint black sigils glowed on their foreheads.
The spell Karma had placed on them before sending them out.
Guardian Sigil
Effect: Returns the bearer from the brink of death
Its effect activated and pulled them back from the threshold of death.
The one who still carried the matchbox hurriedly struck a light.
“L-Lord Karma.”
“—Is everyone alive?”
“Y-yes. Thanks to you…”
“—That bastard seems to think you died for real. Get back before he notices.”
“C-come back…?”
“—This is enough. The mission is over, so return. I’ll pay the agreed fee.”
With that, the match flame went out.
Meanwhile, Daywin finished the call and returned to the dinner table.
Romons approached and gave a few experimental sniffs of Daywin’s clothes.
“What are you…?”
“No, nothing.”
“Come to think of it, Brother.”
“Hm?”
“Last time you suggested we go hunting together, didn’t you?”
“Ah! That’s right. I said I’d prepared a horse for you and we should go fox hunting together…”
“You did. Fox hunting.”
Daywin’s eyes lit up.
“I’d like to hear how it’s done.”
“That’s great! Don’t tell me you want to go with this older brother this time!”
“No.”
He gave a faint smile and cast his gaze out the window.
“I’m just curious.”