Our Daughter Is the Best
Under the warm sunlight, the scent of tea drifted out, soft and faint.
"...This is nice."
Now this was a real life. I still couldn't get over how lucky I was to have transmigrated into a noble.
"Young master. I've brought Miss Arca."
"Come in, Arca. Alia, thanks for going to the trouble."
While Alia poured the tea, I nudged the plate of cookies toward Arca. The grateful little promise to enjoy them, the one I usually got, never came.
"Arca?"
She sat with the teacup cradled in both hands, watching me. Beneath those golden lashes her blue eyes glittered, far too bright. It was an uncomfortable stare—half fanatic receiving a god, half loyal hound waiting on a treat.
"...Arca?"
"Yes, Lord Heizen!"
The answer came back so briskly I nearly choked.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"
"No. It's only... I was thinking that you are, as ever, a truly great man, Lord Heizen."
"Pfft—!"
From behind me, Alia quietly offered a napkin. I dabbed at my mouth and stared at Arca, utterly at a loss.
"Great? What am I suddenly so great for? I'm nothing but the count's house's number-one idle son."
"Not in the least. Lord Heizen... you see straight through even the parts of the world no one else can see."
There wasn't a shred of doubt in her voice.
Right. The business with the second son of House Castiel.
The bit of advice I'd flung out in a fit of temper had, by some joke of fate, landed dead on the mark, and in Arca's eyes it seemed to have looked magnificent. I swallowed a hollow cough and put on what I hoped was a mature smile.
"Did you involve yourself on purpose, so you could learn more about the second son?"
"Ahem. Well. Live long enough, and now and then your gut just kicks in. Types like that can strut around shouting with their whole body about how incredible they are, and they still can't hide the stink."
I wanted to tell her, honestly, that I'd gotten the whole thing wrong. But with those sparkling eyes fixed on me, my lips wouldn't move. More than that, Arca was a treasure who would someday be a solid wall at my back, and I found myself wanting, just a little, to look impressive in front of her.
"You knew everything, Lord Heizen. Of course. That's why you were able to offer that advice to the priests of the Order!"
"More or less... shall we leave it at that?"
Beside us, Alia narrowed her eyes as she poured. The look asked whether any of that was actually true. I answered it with thorough, absolute silence.
"You're incredible. As expected, Lord Heizen, you really are an incredible man."
"Ahem. Don't build me up too much, Arca."
Take away the title of a count's son, and the truth was that I felt uneasy. Arca was fated to take flight in splendor before long. If I meant to stay beside her, being her benefactor was well and good, but I had the feeling I needed something more.
"Miss Arca, your tea is going cold. Do try the cookies the young master gave you."
I shot Alia a thumbs-up for stepping in at exactly the right moment. Any more of that and I was going to die of embarrassment.
"Lord Heizen."
Arca, having finished her share of the cookies, wore the face of someone who had made up her mind.
"Want another cookie?"
"There's something more important than that."
More important?
"I want to help you too, Lord Heizen."
Help with my work. The moment I heard it, only one thought came to mind.
What work?
I wasn't exactly sprawled around doing nothing, like some worthless deadbeat. That didn't mean I was marching toward any grand ambition, either. Saving the world from a foreordained apocalypse. Cracking the skulls of the male leads in a romance fantasy. None of that. My goal was one thing only: to enjoy this noble life I'd lucked into, safely and happily.
"Arca? I'm not sure I follow."
I split a freshly baked scone in half, spread strawberry jam on thick, and set it on her plate.
"Please believe me, Lord Heizen. I can do it well."
"So what exactly are you—"
I looked at her, ready to ask again what on earth she was talking about.
"..."
I shouldn't have looked. Her eyes were far too desperate.
Ah. This is the sort of thing that makes me weak.
Fine. It wasn't as if I was doing anything remarkable. If Arca wanted to help with the things I did in order to stay alive, I decided to take it in good part.
"All right, Arca. Let's have your help."
"You're truly giving me permission?"
"But you have to do it well. Understand?"
"I'll remember!"
I stroked the head of the girl who had answered so vigorously.
"Then what you'll need to do is..."
As expected, this was probably going to be the main of it.
"Running the orphanage?"
"You're clever, Arca, and sharp. You'll do fine. I'd like to keep at it myself, but I've got other things, and if any stranger rumors start going around, it'll put me in a spot. I'm sorry, but I'd like you to take it on."
"..."
"I'm not telling you to do all of it, of course. When I'm away for a bit, or when I'm too busy—I'd like you to fill in the parts I don't manage to check."
A girl who had been helped, now helping children in the same straits she had once been in. I could say with confidence there wasn't a finer picture than that.
"Gathering the children in Lord Heizen's stead..."
"Arca?"
"I see. I understand. I understand exactly what it is you intend, Lord Heizen."
I'd worried the offer might drag up hard times. If she understood, that was a relief.
"Aside from running the orphanage, are there no other orders?"
"Orders? Arca, don't talk like that. I've never once thought of you that way."
It might be like this now, but someday our positions would flip. If I wanted to benefit from Arca then, I had to do right by her starting now.
"Young master. And what about me?"
"You get paid handsomely, don't you, Alia?"
As if she had nothing to say to that, Alia quietly took up the teapot and stood off to the side.
"If I were to ask a favor, though... Arca. Just supposing. If a blue-haired girl ever shows up saying she absolutely has to take revenge, will you treat her kindly?"
"Revenge. Blue hair. I see. So it's revenge. Understood."
I half considered telling her everything I'd seen in the walkthrough. I decided against it. I had no confidence they'd all end up gathered at my orphanage.
"But, young master. Until now you've looked after the orphanage even more carefully than your own birthday. Why entrust it to Miss Arca all of a sudden?"
"Because there's something I need to get started on."
I had transmigrated. I knew the broad shape of the story, and I knew the order in which to recruit them. I hadn't flailed. The first thing I'd done was set my priorities.
I've locked down the funds I need to operate, and with Arca at my side the minimum guarantee on the future is settled. I can move on to the next step.
Money and connections alone weren't everything. I had to be able to protect my own hide. This world was full of frightening things—black magic, curses—and even that wasn't the end of it.
The Remnants of the Evil God. That was it, wasn't it?
A phrase that had shown up here and there in the character section of the strategy posts. The name reeked of a final boss, which was why it had stuck. I didn't know it perfectly, or precisely, but one thing was certain. If the Remnants of the Evil God existed, then the Evil God's resurrection was all but confirmed. Anyone could have guessed that much without ever reading a guide.
If I wanted to survive, I was better off with both hands full. A return home, or a happy life in another world—either one was only possible if I lived through it first.
"Alia."
"Yes. Go on."
"How are things coming along with the Treasure Hunter Guild?"
"As you instructed last time, I conveyed the terms of the contract. They also reported that they've found the man you named."
"And how long did they say it would take?"
"I expect he'll arrive within the next week."
"Good."
A hidden piece. And a legendary-grade item.
Time to go treasure hunting.
A tragic incident had occurred at the Castiel ducal house. At first, everyone thought it was merely the wreckage left after misfortune had swept through. Then word came that an aura of evil had been found, and the castle turned upside down.
The guards on duty that day were driven out for failing to notice an intrusion from outside. The ducal knights were never scolded to their faces, but they had to watch their step all the same. So thoroughly did the house believe the second son's death had been murder—until the shocking truth came after.
"A hidden chamber appeared in the young master's bedroom. He had been researching black magic there."
At that ghastly truth, the duchess fainted. Duke Castiel bit his lip until it bled. The whole of the ducal house sank into a profound gloom, and the knights of House Castiel felt it most of all.
"How could something like this happen..."
"Our honor..."
The reason was perfectly clear. That bastard of a second son had been studying black magic. They could hardly go around saying so out loud, though. House Castiel was still the ground they stood on, and this knight order was the foothold their futures rested on.
"How did Lord Heizen know of this?"
"Might Solaris have granted him a glimpse?"
A man with anger that has nowhere to go goes blind, and a blind man, in the end, goes looking for an innocent scapegoat.
"House Valentite."
"That Heizen bastard said something he never should have!!"
The knights still in their right minds clicked their tongues and called it nonsense, blaming someone else for no reason at all. They shook their heads and told the rest to go train quietly instead of wasting the hour. Even so, a handful of them would not stop their groundless censure.
Hecate Valentite. A woman, and yet she ground them under her heel every single time—that damned woman. The inferiority they felt toward her had been piling up, layer on layer, and that was the reason.
"Must be nice, Hecate. Your family did a real fine deed."
"And His Grace thought so highly of that talent he even held the knighting ceremony himself."
Hecate gave no answer to the blind abuse aimed at her. As if it weren't worth hearing in the slightest, she only kept swinging her sword in the training yard. Remarks about House Valentite, or about the count, she ignored just the same. Now and then she passed right in front of them with a smile, as if to say that the more they ran their mouths, the more they showed how low they really were.
"Ghk—!"
"That damned woman!!"
One knight opened his mouth at Hecate as she walked past them.
"That Heizen brat, running his mouth just because he has one, without even knowing his place. I wish he'd just drop dead—"
The words never got any further. With a thin metallic shing, a cold length of steel was already resting against the side of his neck.
"Wh-what are you—"
"Draw. Your sword."
She flung her glove down at his feet and went on, face blank. Those red eyes, always so still, were pouring out a killing intent dreadful enough to turn the stomach.