Lady Marlin (2)
For some reason, my heart gave a little stab.
Still, more important than Kim Yeri’s offhand remark was the situation in front of me.
The real problem was this Lady Marlin, who was acting as if we were a long-distance couple meeting again after years apart.
I gently eased her off me while she was still hugging me, and the moment I opened my mouth, her answer came right back.
“It’s truly a pleasure to see you again after so long, Lady Marlin.”
“The pleasure is mine, Lee Kiyoung.”
“I didn’t expect you to come out to meet us in advance.”
“I-I actually received a letter saying you might stop by at some point, and after that, I’ve been waiting for the day you’d come, Lee Kiyoung.”
“Pardon?”
It had only been about fifteen days since I’d sent the letter until we got here. The idea that she’d been waiting here the whole time was a little unsettling.
She’s kind of weird, too….
[Checking Empire citizen Marlin Vera's unique quirk.]
[Obsessive Girl]
[She fixates on whatever catches her interest and becomes consumed by it.]
Shit….
From now on, it’d be better to keep my distance just a little. Marlin Vera was a pure noble daughter through and through.
I’d judged at the time that there shouldn’t be any real problems, but now that I was looking deeper into her, it was a little different.
I couldn’t say exactly what it was, but one thing was certain: she was not normal.
All she had going for her was the fact that she was the daughter of Castle Rock’s lord, so it would be best to push her away at a safe distance.
I don’t want this turning into a headache.
I had no intention of creating a second Jung Hayan.
“I’ve been waiting up in the high castle, always hoping to hear news from Lindel. I believed you would surely come someday.”
“I see….”
“I’ve even been reading the newsletters sent out of Lindel myself.”
“Ah… yes….”
…….
“When I saw a carriage coming from far away this morning, you can’t imagine how happy I was. Ah! Now that I think about it, I’m terribly late greeting the others who came with you. Good day, honored guests of Castle Rock. I’m Marlin Castle Rock. Please, feel free to call me Marlin.”
“It’s a pleasure, Lady Marlin.”
“And this is Kim Hyunsung, the master of the Blue Guild I belong to. Please, do greet the others as well, Lady Marlin. You have met Hayan before, haven’t you?”
“Yes. It’s nice to see you too, Jung Hayan. I’ve heard many things about you. Blue Guild Master.”
“I’ve also heard quite a bit about Lady Marlin. I look forward to being in your care during our short stay here.”
Heard quite a bit, my ass… Don’t say that kind of thing even as politeness.
It was true that I’d spread stories about Kim Hyunsung in the capital several times, but I’d only ever spoken of Lady Marlin to Kim Hyunsung once.
I didn’t think it was a good idea to say she’d “heard quite a bit” for no reason.
Jung Hayan’s expression was getting steadily worse, after all.
Should I make up some excuse?
Just as I was thinking that, another voice came from beside us.
It was a breathless voice, as if he had run all the way here late.
“Huff… huff… Honorable Bishop Lee Kiyoung!”
“Archbishop Yuda! You were at Castle Rock’s temple.”
He was another small connection I’d made at the pope’s office. Well, all we’d done was drink tea together, but our little circle in the Holy Empire was a lot more tightly knit than it looked.
“If you’d contacted me in advance, I would’ve come out to meet you, you know. Hahaha.”
“Hahaha. We couldn’t make a busy man wait, could we? Still, if I’d known Archbishop Yuda was here, I would’ve brought a gift. I never dreamed you’d be in Castle Rock.”
“Hoho. I must have failed to mention it. A gift would have been… ahem. Your goodwill alone is more than enough.”
“By the way, how is Cardinal Basel?”
“Hoho. He remains as ever. He’s been so busy tending to Goddess Benignore that he scarcely has a moment to breathe….”
“I see. Hyunsung. Could I borrow you for a moment…? As I said before, this is Kim Hyunsung, the master of the Blue Guild I’m affiliated with. And this is Sun Heeyoung, the priest of our guild. She has worked tirelessly in service, to the point that people call her the Saint of the Abandoned. She is one of the few priests in Lindel who still proclaim the will of the gods.”
“Ohhh. So this is the famed Kim Hyunsung. And this is Priest Sun Heeyoung….”
“Yes.”
“I’ve heard so much about you, Kim Hyunsung. So much about how fair, righteous, and powerful you are in combat. There’s a reason Lee Kiyoung had nothing but praise for you. Your eyes are remarkably deep.”
“You flatter me, Archbishop Yuda. I’m Kim Hyunsung, master of the Blue Guild.”
“Bishop Victoria! Come over here and greet Priest Sun Heeyoung!”
“Yes, Archbishop Yuda!”
“To think there are priests like this among the commoners as well—it’s a blessed thing.”
“Hahahahahaha.”
Before long, everyone was exchanging greetings and the whole scene grew noisy and lively, which made it easy enough for me to shake Marlin off me, more or less.
Even the people who knew Jung Hayan had rushed over to greet her, but she didn’t seem particularly interested in talking to them.
Instead, she kept clinging to me as if she had nowhere else to be.
The busiest person of all was Kim Hyunsung.
He seemed a little flustered by the sudden barrage of greetings aimed his way.
Connections create connections, and those connections create even more connections.
All I had to do was seed the capital and the Holy Empire with stories about Kim Hyunsung and create a favorable atmosphere around him. That alone was enough to finish the job.
That’s the older brother way.
It wasn’t much, but if you wanted to call it a skill, it was a skill.
The original party members weren’t all that bewildered, but our guild’s newest member, Cho Hyejin, looked as though she wasn’t adapting to this situation very well.
Can’t blame her.
Blue had huge potential.
On the surface, we were allied with the Red Mercenary Guild, the Black Swan, and Kasugano Yuno’s Yozora Guild, and we also held a firm grip on the potion market.
Still, Blue was, at best, a mid-sized guild for now.
Sure, we handled money pretty well, but in a place where force came first, that alone didn’t amount to much.
And yet here we were, being treated like this. It made sense that she’d find it strange.
To put it bluntly, even if Cha Heera and Kasugano Yuno came to Castle Rock arm in arm, the archbishop wouldn’t come out to greet them.
Every major figure in the city seemed to be here, so there was nothing odd about her looking that dumbfounded.
Hyejin, just handle yourself well.
“Rather than standing around out here, we should take our guests inside first.”
“Hohoho. By all means. Lady Marlin, I’m sorry for stealing some of your time because I was so delighted to hear that Honorable Bishop Lee Kiyoung had come.”
“Not at all. I’m simply grateful for your welcome, Archbishop.”
“Our Honorable Bishop Lee Kiyoung’s tongue is still coated in honey, I see. Hoho. Then let’s go inside quickly, as Lady Marlin suggested. You’ll be staying at the lord’s castle for now, so rest first, and you must be sure to visit the temple as well.”
“Of course. Archbishop Yuda.”
“The faithful will be delighted. Hoho.”
The knights cleared a path, and the carriage slowly began to roll in.
The great gate opened, and Castle Rock’s interior came into view. The proportion of Empire citizens was overwhelmingly high, but this was still a place where free-born people had clearly laid down roots, and dark-haired Asians were easy to spot in the crowd.
“I never expected you to come to Castle Rock so suddenly, Lee Kiyoung.”
“I didn’t expect to be reunited with you so soon either, Lady. Didn’t I tell you, Hayan?”
“Yes, Oppa!”
“Ah….”
As she began showing the slightest signs of concern for me, Jung Hayan instantly brightened and started smiling.
Marlin, on the other hand, looked a little deflated.
As for Kim Hyunsung, he was still trapped in conversation by Archbishop Yuda.
Some of the party members were also looking around curiously, clearly fascinated by Castle Rock.
But the ones even more fascinated than our party were the players living in Castle Rock.
Seeing the same expression on their faces as Cho Hyejin’s from earlier made the corners of my mouth lift.
Pfft.
It was obvious what they were thinking.
They were wondering who exactly the people coming in were that they’d arrived escorted by Castle Rock knights and accompanied by the temple’s archbishop.
It probably felt like a spectacle to them as well. They looked pitiful, straining to find out whether some great guests had come to visit.
Tsk.
They all looked shocked once they realized the newcomers were free-born people just like them, but that only lasted a moment.
As we headed toward the lord’s castle, I could see one person after another fixating on a single figure.
Cho Hyejin.
From their perspective, she was the one who’d had no choice but to leave Castle Rock, only to return in glory after a long absence.
Cho Hyejin didn’t look around, probably because the stares were getting to her, but to anyone watching, it was obvious she was aware of the Castle Rock free-born around her.
So it really had been true that she’d left Castle Rock on less than ideal terms.
She seemed anxious that someone she knew might appear in the crowd.
I didn’t know why the woman who’d done the right thing looked like a criminal, but the way she was desperately trying to pretend nothing was wrong was amusing.
“Lady Marlin.”
“Yes, Lee Kiyoung.”
“You remember Cho Hyejin, don’t you? The one I mentioned the other day….”
“Ah! Of course. I’ve heard a lot about you from my father, Hyejin.”
“I see….”
“I was at the academy a few years ago, so I never had the chance to meet you. I heard you worked here in Castle Rock. I was told you performed very impressively….”
“Th-that… it wasn’t anything impressive. I was only doing what any other free-born would do….”
“Isn’t it thanks to free-born people like you and Lee Kiyoung that our Holy Empire can continue to develop? On behalf of the Empire, I’d even like to offer my thanks.”
With Marlin, Castle Rock’s precious jewel, sticking to Cho Hyejin and chatting with her, everyone’s attention seemed to sharpen on them again.
This was getting more and more fun.
Among them were a few people who stood out in particular.
They were the sort who clicked their tongues or frowned. The guild insignia on their chests told me exactly what kind of guild they belonged to.
Little Rock.
That was probably right.
Of the guilds based in Castle Rock, they were the closest thing to a major guild.
And then there were the people our Hyejin accused.
Even as we passed by, our eyes kept meeting. To be precise, I was only glancing at them now and then because I was deliberately keeping them in mind, but they seemed to know it too, because they kept watching us as we headed for the lord’s castle.
What should I say to them?
It was true that I wanted to have a proper conversation with them at least once.
I was very curious about exactly what had happened, exactly what kind of incident had occurred, and what position they had taken in it.
“Lady Marlin.”
“Yes? Lee Kiyoung?”
“I have a small question, if I may… What sort of relationship does Castle Rock maintain with the free-born who reside here?”
“I think it’s probably somewhat amicable. We invite them to the lord’s castle and spend time together from time to time… and from Castle Rock’s perspective, we also receive a lot of help from the free-born staying here. They help reduce the number of monsters, and they take some of the burden off our knights, so we’re very grateful.”
“I see.”
“It’s not quite like Free City Lindel, but here in Castle Rock we also try to accommodate the free-born in various ways and implement all sorts of policies. It would be more accurate to say we’re looking after the welfare not only of the lord’s citizens, but of the free-born as well.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Do you have any other questions?”
“Not at all. More than that, Lady, I do have a sudden favor to ask.”
“Yes?”
“The reason I came to Castle Rock, in fact, was partly to establish contracts with a few guilds here. If we could sell the potions our guild distributes here in Castle Rock as well, I think it would be mutually beneficial.”
“I see.”
“If possible, I’d be grateful if you could introduce me.”
“Yes! Of course! If it’s a request from Lee Kiyoung….”
All right, the contract part is handled….
All that was left was to meet them one by one at my own pace. While I was still drawing up scenarios in my head, a voice came from the front.
“Lady Marlin.”
It was the voice of a man I’d never heard before. He looked a little tall.
What the hell is this guy suddenly…
I figured out who he was almost immediately.
I could see Cho Hyejin’s expression darken.