I. Where the Frost Lingers (4)
I. Where the Frost Lingers (4)
After returning to the manor house and finishing lunch, Keldric immediately sought someone out.
"Mariam."
"Ah! M-Master Keldric."
Mariam bowed demurely at the sound of Keldric's low voice.
Her hair, tinged with a dark blue hue, swayed in its neat braid.
"Do you need something? P-perhaps there is some small way I can help...!"
"Shh. First, it would be best to lower your voice a little."
"Eek! Y-yes..."
Gasp!
Mariam clapped a hand over her own mouth. Keldric's expression grew conflicted.
'To think I had no one else to ask and had to turn to a girl like this...'
The person Keldric trusted most, Yakov, was currently away, helping Hilmer inspect the hunting grounds.
Therefore, if Keldric had to trust someone among the people in the manor house, there was no one but Yakov's second daughter, Mariam.
Despite his unease, Mariam was not especially unreliable or difficult.
She simply acted scatterbrained often enough to have earned a firm reputation as a klutz.
After pressing his forehead for a moment, Keldric lowered his gaze.
Mariam was still looking up at Keldric with glistening eyes.
The difference in height was so great that Mariam had to tilt her head far back.
Yet her face, pure and timid, held not a trace of unease.
"I have something I wish to ask of you."
"Wh-what is it? If you tell me, I will do my very best..."
After all, for this sort of thing, wasn't someone who at least wouldn't stab you in the back the best choice?
Keldric quickly set aside his doubts about her reliability.
Nor, of course, did he harbor any idle expectations.
"You know Joseph has come to the village."
"Yes. I heard he arrived just before noon."
"If by any chance Joseph visits the manor house, could you find out whom he meets?"
"Uh... you mean the person he meets with?"
"Yes."
Mariam was a maid responsible for cleaning window frames and tidying bedding in the manor house.
Which meant, in other words, that she had a valid pretext to go anywhere there was a window.
It was a bonus that she could visit any bedroom in the manor house without attracting the slightest suspicious glance.
"I'm sorry to say this, but wouldn't Master Fritz be the one to receive Joseph...?"
Mariam timidly offered her opinion. It was sound reasoning and exactly the answer Keldric had expected.
"Right. My eldest brother said he'd be inspecting the hunting grounds."
Hilmer was now the head of House Bellaf.
Baron Yaven would therefore visit the hunting grounds soon, partly to meet Hilmer as Sir Volfen's successor.
Hunting grounds held great importance for nobles.
Baron Yaven had not visited Carlton's hunting grounds for several years.
To put it another way, there was a strong possibility it had not been properly maintained.
That was why Hilmer was devoting so much effort to the inspection.
Consequently, the one to take his place in Hilmer's absence would be the second son, Fritz.
'This made me uneasy.'
Keldric had not forgotten Fritz's loaded expression at the funeral a few days earlier.
His instincts also told him that something was about to happen.
"My second brother will receive Joseph, but as you know, he also has to meet Baron Yaven. He'll probably be just as busy as my eldest brother."
"I-I see."
"I trust my second brother, but I worry he may not be able to host a guest properly while he's so busy. I'd like you to watch and make sure nothing goes wrong."
"Ah, ahh...! So that's what you meant! But, hmm..."
Concern entered Mariam's expression as she listened.
But only for the briefest moment; soon, Mariam flashed her rabbit-like front teeth and gave a timid smile.
"I-I'll try..."
"Good. Thank you, Mariam."
"No, it's all right. I'm more worried that I might make a mistake... You trusted me enough to give me this task, Master Keldric..."
In truth, Keldric had no evidence beyond his own suspicions.
A vague suspicion born from the loaded expression Fritz had worn at Sir Volfen's funeral a few days earlier.
But Keldric was not suspecting his second brother, Fritz, for no reason.
From childhood onward, no one in the estate except Keldric and Sir Volfen could challenge Fritz in a fight.
Blessed with the body and martial ability of a knight, Fritz saw no reason to restrain his appetites and became a true brute who committed every sort of abuse.
During the years when Keldric shot up in height, Fritz would also pick quarrels and provoke him into fights.
But after Keldric beat him black and blue, Fritz seemed to make a determined effort to ignore Keldric's existence.
By the same token, Keldric had likewise considered Fritz not much of a concern until now.
Keldric had optimistically assumed that the beating Fritz took in childhood would keep him from going too far astray.
This time, however, he could not comfortably let it slide.
Keldric's animal-like instincts were issuing a sharp warning.
'I had a bad feeling.'
If he merely lounged around waiting for the day he left, chances were he would be completely fucked.
Keldric placed a hand on Mariam's shoulder.
The moment the large hand, more than broad enough to cover her whole shoulder, touched her, Mariam's body flinched of its own accord.
"It's fine if you fail, so don't worry too much. Just don't take any risks that could put you in danger if you're caught. My second brother may take offense."
"I'll keep it in mind...!"
Mariam raised her two tiny clenched fists.
Keldric watched her scurry away for a long time.
"Eek...!"
A twinge of regret washed over him when she tripped over absolutely nothing, but...
'She'd manage.'
At least, it was better than doing nothing at all.
It also looked far better than a man who was about to leave home personally rummaging through the household.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
A peddler visiting a backwater like Carlton Village provided a welcome boost to the local economy.
There was also the advantage that the residents could buy daily necessities and the like that they usually could not readily obtain.
Even hereditary knightly nobles rarely ignored a peddler who came to their village.
There was no problem at all with Fritz receiving Joseph in the absent Hilmer's stead.
However, Fritz receiving Joseph, and Joseph secretly visiting Fritz, were separate matters.
Two days after entrusting the task to Mariam, Keldric learned several things.
"They exchanged something?"
"Yes. Last night, Joseph headed toward the east side of the manor, so I secretly followed... I mean, I happened to go there to clean the windows..."
Joseph visiting the manor house was plausible.
Joseph merely speaking with Fritz was also understandable.
But Joseph secretly meeting Fritz in the middle of the night to exchange something was suspicious.
It was entirely possible that Fritz had ordered something from Joseph.
But the rest of Mariam's account ruled that out.
"There was some sort of... jingling sound. It was too dark to see clearly, but I think it was something like a leather pouch."
"A leather pouch."
"Yes. Roughly the size of a fist."
A leather pouch containing money. Fritz had handed it to Joseph.
"But Joseph didn't give Master Fritz anything."
"Are you certain? My brother handed Joseph what looked like a leather pouch, and that was all?"
"F-from what I saw, yes."
But Joseph had handed Fritz nothing at all.
Ordering goods from a peddler normally meant exchanging money for the goods.
Yet giving only money and receiving nothing was strange. Keldric sank into thought.
'What would someone pay full price for without receiving it in person?'
No matter how dull Fritz might be at study, he wasn't a total fool; he wouldn't have just given money for nothing.
In that case, was it compensation given to an underling for their hard work?
Pondering for a moment, Keldric soon shook his head.
The Fritz he knew was not that sort of man. He'd sooner have extorted money.
'Hm?'
As Keldric continued thinking, the image of Joseph from earlier that day flashed through his mind.
Joseph, who had appeared pulling three or four carts as usual.
The mercenaries, who had looked exceptionally numerous, unlike usual.
The rock troll that had just happened to appear at this particular time.
For ordinary villagers, a rock troll was a calamity.
Its stone-hard skin would not even scratch if scraped with farming tools, and to hunt it, skilled warriors had to take up blunt weapons and smash it, hide and all.
That powerful rock troll had supposedly settled beside the mine, the estate's greatest source of revenue. Baron Yaven would never simply stand by and watch.
If a rock troll truly existed, he would have issued an official notice to each village and gathered a punitive force.
Right.
That is, if the rock troll truly existed.
'If Joseph had been lying.'
Was there any reason for him to bother lying that a rock troll had appeared?
Then another thought occurred to him.
Keldric carried on with his reasoning.
'Using the pretext that a rock troll had appeared, he had brought more mercenaries than usual.'
Mercenaries commanded high wages. Hiring twice as many as usual must have cost Joseph a considerable sum.
The reason to go so far as to hire those mercenaries?
'Because someone had hired them to do something.'
If someone had hired them, who was it?
'The one who had handed over the money... my second brother.'
Fritz, who had temporarily been left in charge of the house while Hilmer was away.
If Fritz paid more than the cost of hiring the mercenaries, Joseph would still make a profit.
Why had Fritz hired mercenaries?
"...Ah, damn it."
Keldric repeatedly scrubbed both hands over his face, restlessness evident in his movements, manner, and gaze.
Mariam, who knew nothing of his reasoning, simply watched Keldric with blinking, bright eyes.
"Mariam. I have one more thing to ask of you."
"Yes! Leave it to me!"
"Starting tonight, for the next several days, you must never, ever leave your room after the evening meal. Do you understand?"
To Mariam's mind, Keldric's request was a strange one.
It was not a request to perform a chore, merely one that restricted a single action.
Tilting her head, Mariam asked Keldric.
"Uh... but tonight, the cellar cleaning..."
"You don't have to clean it. Warn the other servants and maids as well. Use my name if necessary, but make sure they follow my instructions. Understood?"
"Y-yes..."
It was a far from reliable answer. But Keldric paid it no mind.
"Good, I trust you."
He merely patted Mariam's shoulder twice, then hurried away.
Unlike before, this time, he really did seem to trust her.
No, he had to trust her.