The Beggar (4)
“H-here’s the black tea I prepared…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Silence hung heavy over the reception room.
Theodore was glaring at the Dark King, while the Dark King simply smiled without a word, rolling a black pebble between his fingers with a soft clatter.
Clack.
Dolf, carefully reading the room, set the tea down at the seat of honor.
Evan offered his thanks.
“Thank you, Dolf.”
“……Ah, n-not at all! Young Master!”
Slurp. Evan calmly sipped his tea.
Such composure in this atmosphere was almost unbelievable.
Dolf praised him inwardly.
As expected of the Young Master! To maintain such calm even in this situation……!
Did this mean Theodore was no longer even a rival?
A faint respect settled in Dolf’s eyes.
……Please stop looking at me like that. It’s not like that at all.
Evan, who felt it with his entire body, set down his homemade decaf zero black tea and clutched his heart inwardly.
His heart felt ready to burst from the tension.
A hair-trigger situation.
If Theodore committed even a single rudeness, his neck could go snick! and get sliced clean off.
No wonder my sleep’s been restless lately!
Luck had been against him in every way.
Theodore, who had been secluding himself ever since the runaway incident, had chosen today of all days to end his isolation.
And of course, the Dark King had arrived at exactly the same time.
—What the hell is this beggar? Who let a beggar like this in?
—Th-that…… is Young Master Evan’s guest…….
—……What? Elder Brother’s?
Guests visiting the mansion were hardly rare.
To a noble, guests were a means of flaunting one’s connections.
They might not come every day, but they were invited with steady regularity.
Evan, of course, was the exception.
He had neither friends nor a fiancée.
It was the disastrous result of the family head’s indifference combined with the original Evan’s shut-in tendencies before the possession.
So when that same Evan suddenly invited a guest, aggro was inevitable.
Evan had anticipated as much.
That was why he had tried to wrap things up quickly.
……Ugh, that stare is vicious.
Theodore was sending Evan an extremely heated look.
He could understand why.
Guests were rather important.
A family’s reputation rose or fell depending on who they invited.
A family that hosted the crown prince versus a family that hosted a serial-killer beggar.
Anyone who stopped to consider which reputation would be higher would arrive at the obvious conclusion.
The Alcarte Duchy was a prestigious house of long and lofty standing.
And that house had invited a beggar?
Unless the beggar turned out to be a shrine maiden who could divine the future or some spirit-possessed fortune-teller, it was an act that lowered the family’s dignity.
……Thankfully he’s not saying anything out loud?
Small mercies—he was only cursing with his eyes for now.
Evan prayed desperately inside.
Please don’t pick a fight.
You’ll die!
The Dark King’s danger level was low enough, true.
But only under the condition that proper courtesy was observed.
Act rudely?
Then the roulette of death would start spinning at once.
And that roulette was, of course, the black pebble.
It wouldn’t be a bang like Russian roulette—it would be a wet snick! and you were dead.
Other people simply didn’t know that.
I need to end this meeting as soon as possible.
Evan steeled himself and opened his mouth, doing his best not to let the trembling show.
……Not because he was scared, of course. Just nervous.
“Thank you for visiting my mansion today.”
“Keh-heh! It is I who should thank the Young Master for the magnanimity of inviting this old man.”
The Dark King expressed his gratitude with exaggerated, theatrical movements, like a master of ceremonies stepping onto a stage.
“Is it truly all right to admit a geezer like me into such a luxurious mansion?”
“……Inviting guests is my prerogative. No one may take issue with it. Moreover, we are here to exchange what each of us possesses, so there is purpose as well.”
Evan continued in a calm voice.
“If the elder would simply grant me sufficient time, that should be enough…….”
That was when it happened.
“I cannot accept what I’m hearing. Exchange?”
Theodore opened his mouth, eyes flashing wide.
“Is our family so insignificant that we must exchange with an old man like that, Elder Brother?”
Ah, please! You’re going to die!
The past week had been the worst days of Theodore’s life.
—Repent.
—What? What the hell does that even…….
He had been kidnapped and ordered to repent.
Repent.
To acknowledge one’s sins, confess them to God, and wash them clean.
What sin have I even committed?
To an atheist who had done nothing wrong, it was absurd.
—I have committed no sin.
Even Theodore’s rebuttal left the kidnappers unmoved.
They had locked him in a place where no sunlight reached and used expensive artifacts to play hymns all day long.
No physical torture—only pure psychological torment.
Suffering under that mental torture, he had thought long and hard.
Just what did I do wrong?
Wrong?
Nothing.
He had studied diligently and worked hard to fulfill a noble’s duties.
The only thing he had done was ignore his incompetent elder brother.
An elder brother who sat in the position of second son, received their father’s attention, and still lived like a wastrel.
A shameful blood relative who looked exactly like the duke yet behaved nothing like him.
A wastrel who had run wild claiming he would revive his mother, who had been a concubine.
He never even left his room, so high society had taken to calling him “the Hermit.”
Considering how reputation shifted depending on one’s nicknames and connections, it was a truly humiliating title.
And ignoring a guy like that was a sin?
Fine.
He hadn’t just used words—he had employed a bit of violence as well.
Afterward he had been beaten several times harder by a golem, but still.
He simply could not understand it.
So he had refused to repent, yet Theodore—raised as the coddled youngest—did not possess a particularly strong mind.
In the end, at the last moment:
—I repent, I repent! You fucking bastards! I repent!
—At last you regret your sins. Do not forget. That person is someone the likes of you must never lay a hand on.
Even after being rescued by a strange golem that had appeared by chance, the questions remained unresolved.
Just what was that guy supposed to be!
The kidnappers, the duke—everyone wanted him!
“……O God…….”
Every night in his secluded room, Theodore prayed.
“Please…… kill Evan Alcarte……. Why do You give me such trials…… If only he were gone, I could stand in a higher place, so what on earth does Father see in him……!”
All the grievances and complaints that had piled up.
Mixed in among them was jealousy.
Jealousy toward the talent Evan Alcarte possessed.
An alchemist had to be one of the chosen.
It was similar to magic. Magic, too, required not only innate mana but also inborn talent.
Alchemy did not stop at simply manufacturing potions.
It took any substance it touched through the three processes of Understanding, Decomposition, and Reconstruction, and remade it at will.
Evan had been born with that power.
Only one year after learning alchemy, he had made a name for himself in the underworld.
And it wasn’t as if he had been particularly active.
Just twice.
With only two activities he had earned a title.
An achievement even the duke’s eldest son had failed to accomplish.
That made him so hateful, so jealous.
A coward who hid in the corner of his room and couldn’t even meet people’s eyes properly—how could he be such a great man?
The change hadn’t even taken long.
It had flipped overnight.
He started using that strange polite speech, met people’s eyes, and then began truly mastering alchemy and achieving greatness with it.
At this rate he might actually succeed in performing the taboo of Dead Resurrection.
The emotion that rose at that thought.
It was a faint fear that went beyond jealousy.
So today he had intended to stay quiet…….
Why is he acting so subservient to a beggar old man like that?
He could not understand it.
If that beggar were truly a “big shot,” their father would have stepped forward.
But he hadn’t.
A worthless old man.
Exactly what he appeared to be.
So why was he bowing his head?
Lowering the family’s reputation?
Theodore was still young.
Controlling his impulses was beyond him.
So the words had slipped out before he knew it.
But in that instant, Theodore regretted the past.
“…….”
The gaze fixed on Evan.
His entire body felt as if it were freezing solid.
Eyes that held not a single emotion.
If they had contained anger or contempt, he might at least have understood.
But there was no emotion at all.
“……I have never said our family is insignificant.”
An even tone.
A dry voice that revealed not the slightest feeling.
“This person is a guest I invited unilaterally. I have staked neither my family’s name nor its reputation. It is, as the word implies, for the sake of exchange. I will receive the techniques he leaves behind, and I will give him compensation in return.”
“……I cannot understand. What technique could that old man possibly—”
“Experience and history are precisely that sort of thing. Even if they are not grand, once they accumulate, they come to possess corresponding weight and power.”
Softly, gently.
As if admonishing a child, Evan continued.
“Behaving as you are now is considerably rude, Theodore.”
“……!”
The first time he had been called by name.
Goosebumps rose over his entire body.
It felt as if he were being told that crossing the “line” even once more would exact a price.
“Do you understand?”
“……I under. stand. Elder Brother.”
“……It seems I handled that excessively. You may rest.”
His breath came free with a sudden rush.
Only then did Theodore’s eyes take in Evan’s clothes.
Leather armor that squirmed as if alive.
He hadn’t realized because of the material, but that too was a golem.
The staff leaning against the chair.
Familiar.
That was a golem as well.
All of them golems.
From the very beginning, the reception room itself had been crawling with golems.
Th-that…….
The gaze that regarded Theodore steadily.
It was the golden color that perfectly resembled the duke.
A pressure greater than when he had been subjected to mental torture and ordered to repent.
Just as he was thinking he ought to leave at once—
Knock knock!
“Evan. May I come in for a moment?”
“You may enter.”
The door opened.
A mysterious-looking little girl with white hair and red eyes came bustling in.
The girl spoke in a lively voice.
“Evan! I finally got to try the improved potatoes this time!”
“Improved potatoes?”
“Yes! They got really big and had mana in them so they were delicious……! Especially when I steamed them, they were even better……!”
The bright voice of a little girl that lightened the entire atmosphere.
The emotionless gaze turned toward the child.
Theodore felt relief inside.
I-I’m alive.
“……That’s good news, Lapis. Greet our guest.”
“Ah! The person I saw yesterday……! Hello!”
“Keh-heh. Nice to meet you, little miss.”
Lapis?
The name was familiar.
The new slave Evan had taken in, wasn’t she?
But that looked less like a slave and more like…….
A cherished little sister…… isn’t she?
“Lapis. What did you eat today?”
“Carrots and…… potatoes and…… salad!”
“Meat?”
“I still don’t want to eat it…….”
A slave talking back?
At the sight of her refusing her master’s order, noble blood boiled.
Should he step forward bravely even now?
Just then Lapis clasped her hands together.
Threads shot out with a swish and gathered themselves into a pretty shape all on their own.
“……Your cat’s-cradle skill has improved further. Well done.”
“Ehehe.”
Theodore bravely swallowed his dissatisfaction.
In the meantime, the Dark King, who had been watching him with interest, opened his mouth.
“So then, when would this old man be able to teach you? Heh-heh. Given how little time this old man has left, lingering too long would be a bit awkward.”
“Would it be possible for you to explain in advance what technique you intend to teach?”
“Nothing special. Just a bit of moving the body about.”
Confirming that the pebble remained docile, Evan spoke.
“In that case, rather than teaching that technique to me—”
Whoosh.
Evan carefully took hold of Lapis’s shoulders and moved her in front of himself.
“Would you be able to teach it to this child instead?”
“?!”
“?!”
Handing over an opportunity like this to a mere slave?
Their eyes went round.
Looking at them, Evan thought inwardly.
No, how am I supposed to learn a technique?
What the Dark King possessed was technique.
Assassination technique, naturally.
Or perhaps footwork.
But.
If I try to learn that, my whole body will be wrecked.
Evan was congenitally frail.
Extremely so.
He’d be lucky if he didn’t twist an ankle just trying.
It wouldn’t even be strange if his cartilage gave out entirely.
Leaving it to Lapis is a bit worrying, but…….
If it were the cowardly Lee Han-ol of old, maybe not—but this was a choice only Evan, the man who had survived a year in this world, could make!
She can deliver letters for me and fight for me too. Isn’t that killing two birds with one stone?
“……Keh-heh! Are you certain it’s all right to pass an opportunity like this to a slave?”
A tone that seemed to grant him one more chance to choose.
Evan nodded.
“Yes. It is fine. It is better that it go to someone more suited than I.”
“Keh-heh! Excellent. You are a sage ruler.”
Apparently pleased, the pebble remained as docile as ever.
The Dark King approached Lapis, crouched down, and met her eyes.
“Little one. Shall this grandfather have a short talk with you?”
“Yes!”
“Let’s see, yes. You have talent. Quite outstanding. At this level you would make a Heavenly Slaughter Star. And what you like is…… vegetables? ……A Heavenly Slaughter Star? Heh, heh-heh…… This is something that has never existed even in history…….”
……It would work out fine, right?