The Knight Commander Quits Twice (Part 2)
Perdan Aitana.
A student at Farnike Academy’s Mage Faculty.
Student Council President.
Overall academy student council president as well.
Successor to the Noche Magic Tower.
Even if I think of him as a character in a novel, he’s an incredibly flashy character.
Plus his face was fairly handsome.
His subtly platinum-blonde hair gave off a halo-like glow that made me think, even though I was looking, that he was flawless.
Let me summarize the explanation so far simply.
He’s too perfect, making him a boring character.
Of course, he has a slightly unrefined personality, but I can’t call that a real flaw.
How many unrefined people are there in the world compared to him?
First impression: a young master.
Living the life of someone who always gets served within the tower or estate.
Yet.
“Why is he standing there like that?”
Even as successor to the tower, he holds a status independent of nobility.
At least above the level of a minor aristocrat.
Naturally he should be able to live without ever getting his hands dirty.
And show himself to be superior to anyone else.
So why was he here in this rundown, stinking, shabby market?
Even coming this deep into the gloomy corner.
“…This will be the last time.
If no more stock comes in, I won’t be able to take any more requests from you here.”
“Yes, yes. Of course.
This time I’ll definitely report to the higher-ups that you said to get it.
So this time I’ll definitely get it for you.”
From the pocket Perdan pulled out came gold coins that didn’t match this place at all.
I couldn’t figure out what he was doing here that made such a large amount of money pass hands.
The burly man accepted the money Perdan handed over and stepped inside.
Perdan bowed his head deeply.
His expression frowned as he wondered if something wasn’t going right.
“Ah.”
I had run into him.
Our yellow eyes and sky-blue eyes met.
Both of us blinked as if we’d suddenly frozen.
“…Should I pretend not to notice and ignore him?
He looks like he’s in trouble too.”
Our positions were awkward.
It was like we’d caught each other stealing something we weren’t supposed to.
I didn’t know how to react.
Perdan looked the same way.
After blinking at each other for a very short moment, his brain stopped.
Then he turned and walked away down his own path.
“Lir Ostrein?”
“Tsk.”
With an implicit agreement to just walk away, he had to go out of his way to say my name.
Snap.
I clicked my tongue, stopped my steps, and looked at Perdan.
From his mouth came the words I expected.
“Why are you here?”
“Conversely, Student Council President, what business brings you here?”
Perdan’s tone and voice had changed from earlier.
Actually, the voice I’d heard when speaking to the merchant man was different from usual.
Looking at the situation, it seemed like that was probably his real voice and tone.
At school he must have been acting a bit.
“I came because I had something to see.
Mages naturally have to dabble in alchemy, right?”
“I came because I had something to see too.
There’s no law that knights should stay away from alchemy.”
Our atmospheres were subtly tense.
It wasn’t that he thought I was here because of personal grudges or regulations.
I could tell he was just being cautious because he didn’t want to have his own private life exposed.
After the duel, I didn’t have much personal grudge either.
I still thought he was a bit unrefined, but.
Seeing him fumble like that in front of the shop earlier made it a little amusing.
“Perdan, I saw you paying with gold coins.”
“The expensive herbs are worth that much, right?”
I wasn’t talking about that.
Of course Perdan knew it, and his usual demeanor seemed slightly relaxed.
Seeing that, I thought I could really seize the initiative.
I rested my chin on my hand, leaned in, and gave an energetic smile.
“Perdan, you must be tired of showing such seriousness at school.
Has it been like this since you were successor to the Noche Tower?
Anyway, it must be tiring.”
He was keeping his expression blank, but I could see his eyes wavering.
And I could feel his grip tightening without him noticing.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter what you think.
But I’m going to be here all day today.
Instead of being this uncomfortable, it’s better to just keep quiet with each other, don’t you think?”
“…Haah, I never thought I’d see an academy student here.
Especially this deep into the alleys.”
Perdan let out a sigh.
With the constant strength on his face gone, his expression looked a bit softer than before.
His eyes also drooped slightly, and the image of the always serious, strict elite vanished.
He looked like a face fitting his age.
I pulled back my face, smiled broadly, and nodded.
Yeah, it was always hard to keep up such a mask.
I knew that feeling too well.
“I hope Perdan Aitana isn’t really like this in character.”
“At the time, as a mage faculty student, I had no choice.
I didn’t want to give you a harsh punishment on the spot, so I chose the best option.”
“You lost with your best choice, after all.”
I deliberately poked at the part where, as a man, victory or defeat in this matters as much as life itself.
Perdan probably wouldn’t have reacted much if he saw me at the academy, but his eyes started burning slightly.
Before his answer came, I diverted the conversation before he could push back.
“So why is the high young master here?”
“I already said it.
Mages naturally have to dabble in alchemy.”
“No, that’s not what I’m asking.
Why are you here?
You didn’t need to come.
If you’re a mage faculty student, they’ll prepare the materials through the academy.
Or if it’s personal materials, you can get them through the Noche Tower, right?”
As a mage faculty student, either buy through the academy.
Or get alchemy materials through the Noche Tower as much as you want.
And even if you didn’t have to come here, with personal connections you could get whatever you wanted, right?
“The Noche Tower always supplies high-quality, impurity-free materials on hand.
That’s why there’s a problem.
The materials I’m getting now aren’t just high-quality ones.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
As he started listing long-winded reasons, I tilted my head.
High-quality materials were enough.
Was there anything more I wanted than that?
“Impure, contaminated things.
I need to get sufficient results even using them as catalysts.
Unexpected results during the process are fine.”
“Simply put, training in a bad environment.
That’s it.”
A strange reason.
I wondered why he needed bad materials.
But since I couldn’t always get good materials, I understood that he had to get some results with bad ones too.
That meant the young master had come into the middle of the market alley on purpose to get bad materials.
“What are you planning to do with the gold coins here?
Didn’t all the expensive materials get swept up by the tower?”
“There are rare materials here too.
The tower snatches up good-quality materials first, so in places like this, even if they’re rare, they only get low-quality ones.”
At the time, it looked like he hadn’t been able to buy even with money.
Well, that’s not my business.
“Then what’s your reason for coming here, Lir Ostrein?”
“It’s a hobby.
I’m not interested in alchemy.
Knights need to know about herbs well, after all.”
“The knight faculty has medicine classes, so that makes sense.”
***
We talked to Perdan moderately.
But there was nothing more to say.
The herbs we wanted didn’t overlap.
No reason to accompany each other unnecessarily, so we decided to keep quiet about this matter and parted ways.
After that, there were no further problems.
After entering a rundown shop on the roadside.
I asked about the condition and price of the herbs I wanted.
And walked around the area for a long time, comparing prices.
In the meantime, the money I earned was quite comfortable, but I had no income source.
At least until the elixir was completed, there was no money to earn.
So my balance kept decreasing.
I had to save as much as I could.
It was a thought that came to me when I saw my balance shrinking recently.
Anyway, after checking all the shops on the main road.
Confirmed that there were many shops in the alley.
And I went inside.
Thanks to that, I found items of decent quality and price.
But the problem was.
“Where am I?”
The issue was that I’d lost my way.
I wasn’t good at directions.
Actually, my sense of direction was well-known to be good, yet the inside was so complex that I couldn’t find the way inside the alley.
“What should I do?”
I was holding the bundled materials in both hands.
The alley was dark and dim, and every direction looked the same.
Of course, since it was a limited space, I’d eventually escape by walking.
But the problem was that by the time the sun set, an hour or two would have passed.
For now, I’d walk as much as possible.
If I couldn’t escape after sunset, I’d think about it then.
While thinking that, I was walking.
“…There it is.”
After ten minutes or so, only rundown shops.
No people walking around.
But a voice came from somewhere.
I followed the voice.
Thinking maybe if I was familiar with the internal layout, I might know the way.
I walked slowly, just before turning the corner into the alley where the voice was coming from.
A word hit my ear and made me stop.
“Hey, that platinum-blonde young master gave us this too.”
“How much money does he have?
Even giving gold coins?!”
“This is nothing.
Do you know what I saw in my pocket?
Gold coins piled up high.
That’s why I gathered you all.”
The voice of the man I’d talked to, Perdan.
And the voices of other men.
I hid my body beside the corner and eavesdropped on the conversation.
“Eh?
What’s that?”
“That young master must have sensed something too.
He’s trying not to do business anymore.
So…”
“It’s obvious, right?
He’s trying to run away with the money!”
“As expected, you’re the one!
I knew you’d talk well.”
They let out sinister laughter.
“He’s still here?”
“It’s confirmed.
One of them is already following.”
“Whoo, it’s been a while since I hunted a fearless rich mage.”
“He’s still a kid.
Plan A will be fine.
Let’s bring the equipment!”
A gang of thugs.
Just from the voices, they looked like delinquents, and they exploded with laughter as they disappeared behind the alley.
Hearing what had just been said to my ear, I nodded.
“…He’s tailing Perdan.”
Ha, hahaha.
I let out a shallow laugh and smiled.
And following the sound of the thugs walking, I began to quietly follow from behind without being noticed.
I thought I could see something interesting.