Moron
The middle-aged man lounging on the chair, lazily puffing on his cigarette, spoke up to Haria.
“Oi, Haria. Is this the new commander?”
Haria nodded her head in response.
“Yes. This is the new commander. Gather everyone, Gilbert.”
“Ah. But right now, besides me, only Coyle and Derigan are here.”
“Only three left? You seemed to be expecting quite a few.”
Haria’s genuine surprise made the man called Gilbert laugh, as if to say “how could that be?”
“Derigan finished his mission at dawn and is sleeping. I’m on duty, so I’m guarding the headquarters. Coyle… he doesn’t say it, but that guy probably hit on another married woman again.”
“Garbage.”
I was pressing my fingers on the dusty piano keys, confirming that it was merely decoration and not an actual instrument, when the comment about hitting on a married woman prompted me to give a short evaluation of Coyle.
Gilbert’s face lit up with a smile, and he nodded repeatedly. Judging by his earlier tone, he also didn’t like Coyle much.
“Yeah. Hitting on a woman with a family is garbage. After tearing their limbs off, feed them to pigs. Hmm. Luckily, you have basic common sense, new commander.”
I didn’t remember saying that, but since denying it seemed unnecessary, after watching, I asked the two.
“When there’s no work, you each live as you please, right? So until something happens, I can’t meet my subordinates?”
“Ah, no. Unless there’s a special reason, we all have dinner together in the evening. It’s not forced; if you want, you can skip, but if you want to see faces, come back in the evening.”
Gilbert, who answered, got up saying he should clean. Since I couldn’t see the headquarters often, it was clear he didn’t want to talk more than necessary.
“Then I’ll take my leave for a moment. See you again in the evening.”
After Gilbert left, Haria also left, so I didn’t need to stay alone. Since I knew the location, I could hang out a bit until evening.
As I was about to leave, Haria’s voice came from behind.
“No going to the brothel.”
Tsk.
After hanging out outside a bit, when the sun set, I returned to the headquarters and saw the new ones eating and talking.
Although that conversation was interrupted the moment I entered the headquarters. I didn’t particularly feel hurt as expected.
I leaned against the bar facing the eating people and spoke.
“Isaac Mayer. Ah, now it’s Isaac Blata. The title is Commander. Others are not allowed.”
No answer. Not even a mocking word to the new commander who had just taken over.
The emotions I saw in their eyes were quite familiar to me.
My new subordinates were scared right now. Not of me.
I roughly guessed.
“Well, then, tell me your names one by one. Since I can’t remember faces well, I’ll need to see at least three times to recognize them.”
“Gilbert.”
“………………Coyle.”
“…Damus.”
“Derigan.”
“…Boros.”
“…Gina.”
“…Garel.”
“……Selemin.”
“……Haria.”
In response to the command to call names, the subordinates answered with just the name. I listened to their names and checked if the numbers matched.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And including me, ten. Correct.”
After confirming the number, I looked at their faces for a moment. As I said, it would be hard to remember immediately, but it was better to memorize them as soon as possible.
“Hmmm.”
But those scared faces didn’t sit well with me at all. Let’s play a little prank.
“!”
The reaction came immediately. My new subordinates started flinching as if they were about to pounce on me right away.
It was a bit more than I thought, so the stimulus was strong. Was it a bit too much?
*Clap!*
I changed the atmosphere by lightly clapping once and said.
“Introductions are enough for now. Then I’m going. Eat deliciously and see you later when there’s a mission.”
It was rude to interfere more while eating, so since I introduced myself, we can get to know each other slowly.
That’s why I came out, but someone followed me from behind.
“Wait!”
“? Why?”
Haria, who followed, asked with a lot of anger.
“What did you mean by that just now?”
“What? Introduction? Introduction is a social act and etiquette where people who just met introduce themselves to each other. In some countries, they bow or shake hands. There’s even one where they hug….”
“That’s not what I’m asking!”
Haria shouted, and with frustration, she ruffled her hair. Originally, Haria didn’t even know what she wanted to say to me right now.
I didn’t know what she wanted to ask, but it was frustrating.
In the end, Haria chose a very ordinary question.
“Huu. Where were you going just now?”
“To meet Lilian.”
“…………Who is Lilian?”
“The woman I seduced this afternoon while strolling?”
I boasted that I had properly remembered the name. I don’t know how long I can remember, but.
“Then I’ll go.”
I turned and started walking, and Haria followed me.
I don’t know if she thought I wouldn’t notice or if she didn’t care if she was caught. She probably thought I wasn’t really going to meet a woman.
The Hounds knew my situation exactly. The newly appointed commander was a man who could have his head cut off at any time.
So, logically, I should be struggling to survive right now. So, sticking to me thinking I was planning something was natural.
The first thing that came to mind was using the Hounds. It was absolutely unacceptable for a woman other than the Empress to use herself and her organization members. I had to find out the plan and prepare.
Although I was being followed, I had the confidence not to be caught. In the bright, open imperial palace, I was caught, but now it was different. In the dark, it was impossible unless it was a monster of another dimension.
The place was as expected, sparsely populated. While observing the two people who met at a small stall, Haria eavesdropped on the conversation.
“Why are you so late? I was already out secretly, so my heart was pounding like it would die….”
It seemed the other person was indeed a woman. But coming out secretly clearly meant there was something suspicious. Haria held her breath and focused on the conversation.
“Sorry. I got a bit lost because I wasn’t familiar with the way.”
“Really…… I understand. In return, you have to pay for the anxiety, right?”
“I’ll pay right away.”
Haria’s face listening to the conversation became a bit subtle. The words ‘pay’ and ‘payment’ came out, but judging by the atmosphere of the two talking, it wasn’t about money……
“Hmmm….”
When Isaac and the woman Lilian started passionately kissing, Haria had to admit she was wrong.
He was a real idiot who had given up on living long ago.
Haria, who no longer needed to watch or wanted to see, left when Isaac threw the woman onto the straw pile.
I have to tell the colleagues.
The commander who was newly appointed and would die soon was an irredeemable fool.
“Now you’re gone.”
“Eh? What do you mean by now starting…?”
“Not you. There was a cat-like thing watching from the roof over there.”
“Eek!? That’s gross! Did you really go?”
“Yeah. I went.”
I had a sense of responsibility. Even if they were subordinates I was assigned to regardless of my will, since I entrusted my life to them, some mutual trust was needed.
Well, I’ll tell them slowly. Right now, more than that…
“Ah, Commander Isaac?!”
I have to cut the flower in front of me.
After the new commander finished his introduction and left, the Hounds fell into their own thoughts for a moment. But no one opened their mouths, and the dinner time ended.
The people who finished eating got up from their seats. Some went back to their rooms on the second floor of the headquarters, and some went out again saying they had business.
On the other hand, there were also people left on the first floor. Among the two sitting side by side, deeply thinking about something, the slender-looking young man spoke first.
“……What on earth was that earlier?”
“……I don’t know.”
The one who received the words was the large-built young man. When he answered that he didn’t know either, silence fell again. The silence was broken by Gilbert, who came after washing dishes.
“It’s no worse than seeing two male idiots sulking. So stop it. Especially when you two are sitting there, it looks even more so.”
As Gilbert said, the two sitting were quite contrasting.
One was a slender young man who would make women melt with his elegance. The other was a tough-looking young man with impressive muscles visible even through his robe.
Despite being opposites or perhaps because of that, the two were quite close friends.
“But Gilbert was also about to pounce earlier, right?”
The slender one, Boros’s words, left Gilbert speechless for a moment. Since it’s a job, the Hounds are a group of people with various personalities gathered.
When people gather, fights naturally happen. Especially in the Hounds, there were cases where deaths occurred from fights.
Now, thanks to the civil war, the number has decreased a lot, so such things don’t happen much, but even so, when fights break out, the mediator is always the eldest, Gilbert.
Even Gilbert couldn’t control himself earlier. It was an overwhelming killing intent that pressed down like a giant steel mass.
“Ah, I’m not blaming you, so don’t misunderstand.”
When I answered, but had nothing to say, Boros felt sorry and apologized, and Gilbert shook his head.
“No, actually, that’s what I said. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about the new commander too. When washing dishes, and clearly I ate, but it didn’t look like I ate.”
“Gilbert, you took the bowl you ate earlier and washed it?”
“Tsk! I was hungry!”
Gilbert, the only one in the Hounds who has a family and a house outside the headquarters, but unfortunately, today was his turn, so he couldn’t go back.
“Well, since Haria followed, maybe I can get something….”
“I’m sorry for disappointing your expectations, but I couldn’t get anything.”
The sudden words from behind made the three men jump in surprise. Haria, unfazed by their appearance, went to the kitchen and rummaged through something.
“Hey, Haria! Don’t hide your presence inside the headquarters!”
“Uh.”
Haria, who answered Boros’s indignant shout roughly, picked up a beer bottle from the shelf and took out the dried meat hidden as a side dish and chewed it.
It was Gilbert who stopped Haria, who was about to go up with the desired item.
“Wait a minute. You couldn’t get anything? You failed the pursuit? Is the new commander’s skill that low? And that dried meat was my dinner that I prepared today.”
Excluding non-combatants like Boros, the Hounds’ combat power is naturally high. Among them, Haria was especially excellent.
Finding the Haria who deliberately hid her presence was only possible to the extent of Derigan within the Hounds.
So, some expectation appeared on Boros and Damus’s faces as well, but Haria couldn’t fulfill their expectations.
“No. The pursuit wasn’t noticed. I followed because I thought there might be something, but it turned out to be going to meet a woman. I didn’t want to disturb her pleasant time, so I just came. And please give up on the dried meat. Have a good night.”
Haria, who turned away from the faces of her colleagues who had the same expectation as the one she had just crushed, went up as is.
“A man embracing a woman is a natural thing, but at this point, casually going out to play….”
“……Make a grave later.”
“Okay. If I can find the body, that is.”
The night was deepening.