Tea Party with a Noble
After buying fabric at the market, I spent a full week sewing clothes in every spare moment. Growing a little greedy, I spent still more money and bought additional bolts of cloth.
And then… finished!
For the upper body I made a light white tank and wore a white shirt over it. For the lower body, gray underclothes, and long trousers cut from brown base fabric. Finally the robe—a large-hooded style pieced together from fabric that was almost black and scraps of the old leather robe I had recycled.
Taking Alberic’s leather armor as a model, I fashioned shoulder guards, bracers, knee guards, a chest piece, and gloves from tanned leather and tried them on.
Wow… it gave exactly the look of a light-armor adventurer straight out of a fantasy game.
"Blanc, what do you think?"
"Pong!!? Pong!!!"
At last… finally… real cloth clothes…
I went back to the market, bought extra green fabric, and sewed a blanket so that sleeping outdoors would be at least a little softer. Blankets ought to be green, after all.
I was still wondering what else I might make when noisy voices rose from the corridor.
This wing was supposed to be the nobles’ resting quarters. With only myself, Alberic, and two nameless nobles staying here, it should have been dead quiet…
I opened the door. Maids and footmen hurried back and forth; a butler-like man bustled about issuing sharp orders.
"Hurry and check! What about the luxury suite?"
"We’re cleaning it as fast as we can, sir."
"What?! Why hadn’t it been cleaned already!"
"We’re polishing it at this very moment."
"Ah… I thought… Phew… That’s a relief. Well done."
Even butlers could get that high-strung, it seemed.
Luxury suite, though? There were better rooms than this?
The bottomless wealth of the nobility never ceased to amaze me…
According to Alberic, even if the emperor himself lodged here, the other nobles were not required to come out and pay their respects. On the road, if you were not already acquainted, pretending not to notice one another was the unspoken rule—so it had nothing to do with me.
Since I was already out, I decided to look in on Alberic.
But… he wasn’t there. No answer to my knock, either.
Just in case, I asked a servant who happened to be nearby.
"Ah! You must be the companion of Sir Alberic Bemil!"
"Yes. Did he leave any message?"
"He said he would be away for a short while and that you should spend the day alone."
This fellow must have been thoroughly tormented already; he understood Alberic’s way of speaking at once…
If my friend wanted a little private time, I would simply return to my room and start on a tent.
Some time later the inn had fallen quiet again. I opened the wooden window to check the hour… night already?
I had sewn the tent without stopping for a meal, and my whole body ached.
Everything I meant to make was finished. There was no longer any real reason to stay, and I had already imposed far too much on Alberic.
That fellow had simply said, in his usual fashion:
“O Golden Wind… the brilliant jewel you bestowed upon me is worth as many stars as I can count; a gift of this measure cannot even raise a ripple upon the lake of my heart.”
He had insisted it was fine, yet there was truly nothing left for me to do at the inn…
Stay and drink with Alberic?
This body could get drunk, but the effect burned off almost at once; unless I kept pouring without pause I could never get properly wasted. Still, it was a relief that I could at least feel a little tipsy…
I checked my coin.
The silver was heavy and plentiful—more than ten gold pieces if exchanged. It took up too much space in the pack; I should convert half of it to gold.
That meant the city, of course…
Money was the real problem, though. Even here a few small purchases drained the purse at an alarming rate. Salt and pepper alone were enough to make me shudder; what would a real city be like?
They said goods poured in, so prices were lower—yet I knew myself well enough to fear impulse buying would empty my purse just the same.
Tomorrow I would ask Alberic where the nearest city lay.
My stomach was starting to growl; time to head down to the dining hall.
"Hmm-hmm~ What’s for dinner tonight?"
"H… Golden Wind… why are you here?"
"Hmm?"
I stepped into the dining hall and found Alberic seated across from a woman who was clearly a noble. Behind her stood a cluster of people who looked for all the world like hired toughs.
The moment he saw me, Alberic’s face twisted in dismay and he squeezed his eyes shut.
The woman…
"Oh my, oh my……"
She flushed scarlet and covered her mouth with both hands. The people behind her stared at my face in open surprise.
First things first—I would go to Alberic. Turning my back and fleeing while they were already so interested would only leave my friend in a worse spot.
I offered the noblewoman a polite bow.
"Greetings, my lady. I am Haren, Alberic’s friend and a traveler. Unfamiliar with noble etiquette, I can only greet you thus."
"Haha… it’s quite all right. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Haren."
She waved a hand in greeting, and one of the stiff-backed men behind her stepped forward to explain.
"This is Lady Amerin Devimeris, daughter of the Marquisate of Devimeris and its rightful heir."
A marquisate?!
The next marquis, no less?!
Then why on earth was someone like that sitting with Alberic?
I glanced at him; he refused to meet my eyes, looking thoroughly ashamed. What crime had he committed that he had to hide his face…
"I look forward to knowing you, Mr. Haren."
"Y-yes… Lady Amerin…"
Wait—then were the people behind her bodyguards? Almost none of them looked like trained warriors, and their clothes were a mismatched assortment.
"Do sit beside Alberic, Mr. Haren~"
"Yes, of course, Lady Amerin."
Alberic at my side… why did he look so angry?
"Only moments ago you spat insolence at the Golden Wind…"
"Oh my? Young Master Alberic? I never did any such thing."
"Hah? Do not address me as young master."
Alberic, you idiot…
You’re the third son of a viscount. Mouthing off to the heir of a marquisate is how you get yourself erased…
"Hehe, and what of it, Mr. Alberic?"
"Hmph!"
Huh? Lady Amerin looked positively delighted.
"Well then~ conversation with the Golden Wind—friend of that Alberic Bemil—promises to be most entertaining!"
Alberic… what exactly had he done in the past…
He had only ever said he used to be a capable man; he never went into detail.
One of the women standing rigidly behind leaned in and whispered something to Lady Amerin.
"Oh? Sir Haren, were you a knight?"
The people behind her…
Definitely not bodyguards. Feeding information to their mistress… then they were her vassals?
I studied Amerin Devimeris. Brilliant wavy gold hair, violet eyes—a genuine beauty.
I needed to answer.
"No. I am merely a traveler."
"Ah~ I see! So these days a traveler can cut down thirty bandits with a wooden sword? How fascinating."
She didn’t believe a single word…
"Come to think of it, you told the most interesting stories—the trolley dilemma, the riddle of the moving stones…"
Amerin dropped a teaspoon into her cup and stirred slowly.
"And last of all, the doll that fell into hell and the coin toss."
How did she know all of that?
The only people who had heard those tales were…
Ah. Baira’s party must have talked.
"Mr. Haren, I simply adore stories!"
"Stories… you say?"
"Yes! Stories! The tales of the Golden Wind that put a smile on that Alberic’s face… I simply must hear them."
With me he had laughed so freely; in the past he must have been the cold, city-hardened type. The heir competition must have been brutal—tsk tsk…
In front of me sat the vassals of Marquisate Devimeris and its heir apparent.
Every last one of them a noble.
Refusal was not an option.
Nobles monopolized not only wealth but knowledge itself—they were this world’s intellectuals. Perhaps this was actually a stroke of luck.
Time to have a proper conversation with one of them.
"One of my vassals will first propose a topic. You and I will then discuss it~"
"I see."
"O Golden Wind."
"Hmm?"
"I have already slipped, yet you who are the wind will fare differently."
What on earth had Amerin and Alberic been doing before I arrived?
"Well then~ shall we begin?"
The first vassal was a woman who kept blushing and stealing glances at me.
"Ahem! The first topic is… meetings."
"Oh~ did you choose that because meeting Mr. Haren felt like destiny, Kimerin?"
"What?!?! Absolutely not!!!"
Watching them bicker, it was clear the bond between mistress and vassals was genuinely warm… so why was I sitting here?
I glanced at Alberic; he was sipping tea with an expression of pure tragic sorrow.
"Meetings… what are your thoughts, Mr. Haren?"
Since they were choosing the topics, I couldn’t simply launch into one of the good stories I already had prepared. I would have to stitch together fragments of things I knew.
"To meet someone and convey your heart to them is a truly wonderful thing."
"Indeed~ one need only look at a certain red-faced person behind me."
"Yet sometimes a residue remains."
"Residue…?"
"The residue called resentment."
The heir of Marquisate Devimeris leaned forward, intrigued.
"And why does resentment arise?"
"From the absence of communication—that is, from a failure of understanding."
"Aha…"
Clack…
A waiter set a cup of warm tea before me.
"And so…"
"Just a moment, Mr. Haren?"
"Yes?"
"Let us move to the next topic."
Huh? Hadn’t she said she wanted to hear my stories?
Lady Amerin only smiled brightly.
"If that is Lady Amerin’s wish, then by all means."
I had no real choice in the matter…
Thereafter the topics kept coming: love, gods, fate, heaven, happiness—an endless cascade.
"Next topic, please~"
The instant I offered even a brief opening remark she would nod and move on. Once I realized she was not actually after full stories and switched to short answers, the number of topics became countless.
Time dragged on. The vassals themselves began to run dry and broke out in cold sweat. It was pure hot-potato; every one of them was visibly praying the turn would skip them. At last one vassal found a topic and stepped forward with forced confidence.
"I shall propose this one. ‘Results.’"
"Mr. Haren! What are your thoughts on results?"
Ugh… my brain had stalled. No choice but to borrow a scene that had once struck me deeply.
"I do not look only at results."
"But… in the end, results are all that remain, are they not?"
"When people pursue results alone, they inevitably seek shortcuts."
"Then the process is more important than the result?"
"More important still is the will to face the truth squarely. Everyone here will reach that place someday—because you are already looking straight at it."
"Hee… the truth… Thank you for the compliment! Next topic, then!"
Clack.
The waiter refilled our cups once more.
"I… would like to propose the next topic myself."
A vassal jumped the queue. The one whose turn it actually was squeezed her eyes shut in relief that someone else had bought her time.
"My topic is the doctrine of original evil versus original good."
"Oh! Sirin! You studied theology, didn’t you?"
"Yes, my lady."
"A profound subject indeed! What do you think, Mr. Haren?"
"I think it is meaningless."
"What?!?!"
"W-wait just a moment!"
The female vassal named Sirin rounded on me, face flushed with anger.
"Meaningless?! This is a vital inquiry into the very essence of humanity!!"
"Exactly why it is meaningless."
"W… what?"
Sirin looked stunned. Amerin, by contrast, watched us with sparkling interest.
"Hmm… would you care to explain the doctrines of original good and original evil?"
Original good… original evil…
The theories that humans are born good or born evil—people still fought over them even in the modern world. The content here was almost identical…
"Do you understand?! This is a truly important debate! It is not meaningless!!"
"Wait! Calm yourself, Sirin~"
"Yes? Oh…! Yes… forgive me."
"Mr. Haren surely has a reason for saying so. Do share it with us~"
"I do not believe humans are born either evil or good."
I favored the Chinese thinkers’ doctrines of neither good nor evil, and of good and evil mixed. The moment I began explaining the theory of neither good nor evil, Sirin’s face turned scarlet and she made strangled noises of protest.
"Ahahaha!!! So humans are born with nothing but ‘lust’ and ‘appetite’!! Ahahaha!!!"
Amerin Devimeris burst out laughing.