Entering the Royal Capital (2)
To anyone watching, Roy and Anna’s behavior would have looked like nothing more than that of affectionate siblings.
The servants, however, saw it a little differently.
A young brother and sister embracing was perfectly understandable. The real problem was something else entirely.
Just who is the older one here?
The servants of the capital residence, seeing Roy for the first time, watched the two of them and frowned. Anna was clearly a year older. Yet the way they carried on, she looked more like Roy’s little sister than anything else.
Anna had already spent a full year at the Knight Academy. Even inside that rigidly disciplined school, behaving like this could cause any number of awkward problems. One might think a mere first-year was nothing to worry about, but to the second-year seniors, a freshman acting so carelessly could easily seem to have crossed a line.
And those seniors were no ordinary students. They were the children of the Steel Kingdom’s great territorial lords and of the central palace bureaucrats who held the fate of the nation in their hands.
Even without this, a baronial house already sat at the very bottom of the Knight Academy’s hierarchy. Reading the room was a matter of survival—not only for Anna and Roy, who would be attending the academy, but for the servants who had to support them from behind as well.
Watching the pair, the servants muttered among themselves.
Shouldn’t someone say something?
Us? On what authority?
But if this keeps up, something bad could happen.
The old man will handle it. It’s not our place to step in. If it really becomes a problem, just drop a quiet word to that Marek fellow over there.
The tendency was especially strong among those who had left Greenhilt long ago, or who had been hired in the capital from the start.
In the end the talk reached Marek’s ears.
“There’s no need to worry yourselves so much. Young Master Roy is not that sort of person.”
No one had watched the boy more closely than Marek. Roy was forever coming up with outrageous plans—yet not once had any of those plans failed to be carried out. Trust was inevitable. It was not simply the loyalty of a personal attendant speaking; it was the natural confidence of someone who had seen the boy’s extraordinary talent, genius intellect, and terrifying force of execution up close.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say he both respected and feared him.
“You only say that because you don’t understand. This place is a completely different world from Greenhilt! Back there the lord keeps a firm grip on the territory. Here, that isn’t the case!”
The servant who had long drunk the waters of the capital would not be persuaded so easily. In the end Marek was forced to drag out a story known only to a select few even within the mansion.
“The reason the two of them are like that right now is the result of a little duel that took place a year ago.”
“A duel?”
“Yes.”
Barely a year earlier, on the day before she left for the Knight Academy, Anna had challenged Roy to a duel. She had badgered Geren endlessly and trained hard, yet in magic she was simply no match for him. Losing that day was only natural.
But that same day, Roy had challenged Anna in turn. Fresh from intensive sword training and still smarting from a loss to the baron, he had chosen Anna as the opponent on whom to vent his frustration.
Anna had been full of confidence.
“I may not know magic, but it’s still too early for you to face me with a sword, Roy!”
Unfortunately, she lost with the sword as well. It was the day the last shred of pride she still held against Roy was crushed without mercy. She had barely managed to hold back her tears.
Four years earlier, on Wolf Tail Hill, the two of them had made a promise: if Anna beat Roy with magic, he would grant her a wish; if Roy beat Anna with the sword, she would grant his.
Having won with the blade, the wish Roy wanted was this:
“I won, right? Then from now on, Anna is my little sister.”
“What!? That’s ridiculous!”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to break your promise, Anna. Is that the kind of person you are?”
“……”
And so Anna became Roy’s younger sister—unofficially, of course, and only between the two of them.
“That is what happened. So please don’t worry. Young Master Roy is more discerning than anyone. He will never make a mistake in front of other nobles.”
Roy and Anna’s shopping trip began. The retinue trailing behind them numbered a full ten people. Every servant currently attached to the capital residence had been pressed into service, along with Marek and Misha. Their arms were already piled so high with packages they could barely carry more.
“There’s no need for all of you to keep following. Take the packages back to the mansion first.”
Roy sent everyone except Marek home. There were simply too many parcels. He had bought gifts for each of the servants, as well as a great many things he himself needed. The promised presents for Anna filled an entire bundle of their own.
On the way back the servants, as if they had never been wary at all, could not stop praising Roy. A boy who casually handed out gifts that would have cost them months—or years—of wages had completely captivated them at first sight.
“I’ve worked at this residence for ten years, and I’ve never seen a master so generous with the servants.”
“Have we ever received anything besides our wages to begin with?”
“Shh. Who dares compare the masters?”
“I—I’m sorry.”
A senior servant tried to mediate, but in the end everyone felt the same. In a single day since Roy’s arrival at the capital residence, the entire staff had been bought and paid for.
“But Roy… is it really all right to spend this much money?”
Watching from close range, Anna could not help feeling anxious.
“It’s fine. I haven’t even finished one of the gold-coin purses I brought out. Right, Marek?”
“That is correct.”
The reason Roy had kept only Marek with him was simple: he needed someone to carry the heavy gold and silver coins. Even after buying more than a full carriage-load of odds and ends, Roy’s shopping spree was far from over.
“Just… where did you get that much money?”
“What do you think? It’s the money I earned helping Master Geren.”
“Tch. Always the two of you disappearing into the basement without me.”
“In exchange I gave you plenty of pocket money, didn’t I? Was it not enough?”
“No. I still have a lot left.”
Roy had given Anna a generous sum of gold when she left for the Knight Academy. He had also enchanted the sword the baron gave her and crafted her an amulet. Fortunately, from what she said, the amulet had never needed to activate over the past year. People had treated her surprisingly well.
It can’t be just because of the food supplies… so it really is the magically enhanced weapons?
Greenhilt was a rising territory; plenty of people wanted to get closer in one way or another. But the current baron was far too stubborn, so they seemed to be trying the roundabout route of using Anna, who had entered the Knight Academy. That was Roy’s conclusion, at least.
“Ah—there’s a general store. Over there.”
Under Anna’s guidance Roy visited three general stores in succession. This would be the fourth. From the sheer size and grandeur of the building alone, it was clearly the most prosperous establishment of them all.
The closer you get to the noble district, the more different everything feels.
Roy pushed open the door with Marek and Anna in tow.
“Hmm. We really should have come here first.”
Anna leaned in and whispered into his ear.
“Doesn’t this place look insanely expensive?”
“It’s fine. I didn’t come to buy anything.”
“Really?”
At last Roy found what he had been looking for.
Potions.
And not just any potions—high-grade elixirs that a couple of gold coins could never hope to purchase.
Having heard that Roy had no intention of buying anything, the clerk did not even glance his way. Even so, the boy’s clothing clearly marked him as a noble. Was the man looking down on him simply because he was young?
“May I ask just one question?”
“Of course.”
“These potions—were they delivered on consignment, or did you purchase them separately for display?”
“Why do you wish to know?”
The clerk’s eyes sharpened. Asking about suppliers was clearly unwelcome.
“Nothing important. I’m looking for an alchemist. If you would introduce me to a good one, I’ll give you a gold coin.”
The clerk’s expression changed at once. Roy smiled with satisfaction, while Anna and Marek behind him could only click their tongues at the way he threw money around like water.
In the end Roy received the name of an alchemist.
“Hm?”
Just as he was about to leave, something else caught his eye.
“This is…”
“Spectacles, young master.”
“I can see that. I mean the ones next to them.”
“Ah—those are tinted spectacles made with colored glass.”
Roy immediately decided to buy several pairs of the tinted glasses.
What? These existed?
In his previous life there had been no technique for grinding colored crystal this thin. Encountering the novelty for the first time, Roy found himself recalling something his grandfather had once said.
A city where a king lives truly is different.
If he had known such things existed, he would have bought them long ago. Learning so late of a way to hide his Golden Eyes left him deeply regretful.
“I thought you said you weren’t buying anything, Roy.”
“Yeah. That was the plan at first, but once I saw these I just couldn’t help myself. Aren’t they cool?”
“What even are those… They look completely weird.”
“Really? Then what about this pair? This one’s better, right? The color’s pretty.”
“No… they’re all weird! Why do you even want to wear glasses? Did you ruin your eyes staring at books in your room all day? Or is there some other reason you’re trying to put on something so old-fashioned?”
“There is a reason… but old-fashioned?”
He had wanted to wear them every day, yet apparently they looked terrible to a girl’s eyes.
Well, nothing for it. I’ll just carry them around and put them on only when I need to activate the Golden Eyes.
“Want me to buy you a pair too, Anna?”
“No! Absolutely not!”
“Marek?”
“I am fine as well, young master.”
“……”
Roy thought to himself.
Are they really that bad…?
He had even planned to enchant them with a protective amulet effect, but it seemed he would have to put that idea on hold for now.