A New Hobby
Yamudochi looked like a man with a card still up his sleeve.
Which was precisely why I had taken him off Grandfather's hands and brought him back to Crescent's temporary manor.
If I didn't speak to him, Yamudochi would run his mouth without end.
True to the moniker Knight Hunter, Aida had the look of a thoroughly unpleasant opponent.
Why call her the Knight Hunter, of all things? The answer lay in the magic she used.
Without meaning to, Yamudochi had called Aida's fighting style to mind.
Yeah. That's going to be a pain.
Aida fought by taking the swordsmanship of the knights she had hunted and reproducing it through Telekinetic Flying Swords. Far more irritating than Yamudochi, who just launched blades like cannonballs. Like being stared down by Masters from every direction at once?
A secret sword technique was less a skill than a finishing move — the kind that killed you if you didn't know it was coming. And swords carrying those secrets would come for your throat from every angle. An ordinary Knight wouldn't stand a chance. He would simply die. It was magic worthy of the name Knight Hunter, no question.
Wouldn't Dispel just end it, though?
Yamudochi seemed to believe he had lost unfairly — that he had prepared a magic riddled with openings and been ambushed for it. Which was why he had convinced himself he wouldn't lose to Aida, who used magic with far fewer gaps.
Harvest usually began in late September and ran into early October. Which meant I had roughly a month before Aida reached Crescent.
She's a pain, so I wish she'd just hurry up and get here.
If she was weaker than Yamudochi, she was already off the table as a threat. This was a man who had lost inside a mage's workshop — a place treated as an impregnable fortress. I was not about to start worrying that I would lose to his number two, a mere courier.
All right. Time to start handing out winter prep orders.
This was the season when the monsters began preparing for winter as well. Anyone wandering into the forest would be in danger, which meant it was finally time for my friends in the Crescent Knight Order to shine again.
Pull thirty people off duty and security becomes a problem. I should start putting together a standing army too....
There was more to do than I had expected. I was working through it all, piece by piece, when a familiar set of footsteps approached from beyond the door.
Knock, knock.
"This is Olivia. May I come in, my lord?"
"Come in."
Olivia. The gloomy air I had seen on her before was gone without a trace. She stepped into the office wearing a bright, radiant smile. Apparently it was already teatime.
"I'll prepare the tea."
"Please do."
I breathed in the aroma of the tea she was steeping and reviewed the last of the problems that still needed attention.
Once the population grows, things are going to get a lot busier.
When the harvest ended, a huge number of idle hands would appear. If all of them threw themselves into Crescent's public works, the water and sewer construction would wrap up in no time, and buildings would start going up in earnest. Traffic between Howard and Crescent would drop off, and from then on this place would finally start looking like a proper territory. Lord's work that currently took two or three days would get seriously busy from that point on.
Training people up is going to be essential....
Keeping an eye on the Empire's movements would mean leaving Crescent territory, obviously. I would need someone to manage the place in my absence while it got a lot busier. The problem was I couldn't just drop anyone into that seat.
Is Grandfather going to have to step up?
He had only just retired from a lord's duties, and it hadn't even been a year. Asking him to take them up again... even I had to admit I was a truly devilish grandson.
Clink.
"Thank you, Olivia."
Olivia offered a gentle smile and dipped her head, nothing more.
She really does brew a fine cup of tea.
I wet my throat with what she had poured and studied her eyes, which looked a little tired.
"Are you not getting enough sleep, Olivia?"
"Pardon? Ah, no...!"
Olivia shook her head in a hurry. But the traces of sleeplessness lingered around her eyes all the same. She looked as though she hadn't slept properly in at least two or three days.
I do get up rather early.
"You don't need to wake me at dawn. I tend to rise at a set time anyway."
"It's all right. That's a maid's duty, after all."
Olivia shook her head, insisting she was fine. The way she clenched her fist and lifted it a little made her look remarkably energetic.
"All right. Do as you please. I'm not forcing you."
"Yes, my lord."
Olivia just nodded, beaming as if something had made her very happy indeed.
I'll have to leave the territory for at least two weeks anyway.
From now on, the forest needed a thorough sweep for winter preparations. This area sat a fair distance from Howard, so plenty of monsters would be living in the woods, and the subjugation would take some time. She would get plenty of rest in the meantime. I didn't think I needed to worry too much.
"I'll be away for a while. Rest easy while I'm gone."
When I said that over my tea, Olivia's brow furrowed slightly.
"Are you... going far?"
Her face had gone oddly downcast. The only person she could rely on in a place that wasn't her hometown was disappearing, and she seemed quite afraid of that.
"Just right around the corner. Autumn's coming, so it's time to start preparing for winter."
"Ah! Ah, I see.... Winter preparations...."
Monsters had brains enough not to loiter around a territory. But Crescent was a settlement on the frontier, which meant a great many monsters that had never been hunted still roamed the area. If we didn't hunt them in advance, even gathering firewood could become a hassle.
She was a city girl, in her own way, wasn't she?
Weiden Countship was practically a city by the standards of this region, so the mountains nearby had been all but stripped of monsters. She probably knew very little about the circumstances of a backwater like this, where winter prep was such a struggle.
"I'll leave the manor in your care in the meantime."
Olivia blinked at my words, then bowed her head with a bright expression.
"Yes, I understand...!"
Did she enjoy working that much? Between Eric and Dame Scarlet, it was starting to feel as though my inner circle was overflowing with workaholics.
By the time I get back from the subjugation, Yamudochi's friend should be about due to arrive.
I wasn't particularly worried. Yamudochi was leaking his comrade's combat power in real time, after all.
Secret-technique outlet store, this way please.
The Knight Hunter, who hunted knights and collected secret arts of every kind. A terrifying mage who spammed finishing moves that killed you if you didn't know them. But for someone who already knew them in advance, it was basically a secret-technique fire sale.
I had thought swordsmanship was lacking compared to magic or divine authority — and here she was, kindly delivering a swordsmanship EXP buff all on her own. Truly, I was grateful.
Lloyd gathered his soldiers and prepared a large-scale monster sweep. The hunt had to go well if Crescent's residents were going to log the forest in peace, which meant it had to be finished as quickly as possible. On top of that, the existence of a courier mage named Aida left him with no choice but to hurry.
My birthday is coming up soon.... Hehe.
Olivia, however, interpreted it a little differently. October, when the Harvest Festival was held, was Olivia's birthday. It looked to her as if Lloyd was putting in all this effort for her sake. That was getting ahead of herself by a country mile — drinking the soup before the pot was even on the fire — but to Olivia, it was the most natural way of thinking in the world.
This year too....
Every year, Lloyd had prepared a splendid gift for Olivia's birthday, along with a slightly embarrassing poem. So it was only natural that she would look forward to it.
I need to prepare something in return....
Ordinarily, a birthday was a day when the person themselves received congratulations. But Olivia decided to prepare a return gift for whatever Lloyd would give her.
I couldn't take care of him this year...!
This was not a strange thing. Every June she had prepared a birthday gift — but last year and this year, she hadn't been able to. So this was by no means strange.
A handkerchief would be nice, wouldn't it?
A handkerchief was a perfectly ordinary birthday gift. But depending on the time and the place, its meaning could change. Olivia gently ran her fingers over the handkerchief Lloyd had given her.
Yes. There's nothing strange about this.
She had received a handkerchief, so she would give a handkerchief in return. On the surface, there was nothing special about it at all. But between a man and a woman, exchanging handkerchiefs was a rather special affair. It was the sort of thing only lovers did. And so Olivia, a smile on her lips, began preparing a handkerchief for Lloyd.
As she embroidered it, she thought of the materials he had gifted her.
Later, I could even prepare clothes for him....
She would give Lloyd clothes she had made with her own hands. And Lloyd would smile and put them on. Just imagining that scene drew a smile to her lips before she knew it.
Ah — look at the time!
She had been lost in one daydream after another, and before she knew it, noon had come and gone. Olivia had a simple lunch, then decided to tidy Lloyd's office.
Inhale. Exhale.
Lloyd was such a busy man that he spent little time in the office to begin with. It wasn't particularly dirty, and his scent didn't linger much. All she could smell was the musty odor of old books and documents of unknowable origin. Feeling somehow disappointed, Olivia neatly organized the room.
Next, the bedroom....
Gulp.
Olivia swallowed dryly and gazed at Lloyd's bedroom, its owner currently away. Then she pressed a hand lightly to her chest and glanced around. This manor was a temporary residence for the lord until the castle was built, and there were so few servants that no one was around to witness her eccentricities.
Olivia carefully opened the door to Lloyd's bedroom.
A scent that was cool and yet somehow cozy tickled her nostrils. She breathed it in as if intoxicated — then startled and hurriedly shut the wide-open door.
Ventilation first.
Ventilation was essential for cleaning. So she needed to open the windows — but Olivia hesitated. If the windows opened, Lloyd's scent might escape. That felt somehow regrettable.
"Haaah...."
Fatigue had piled up, and it hadn't been long since she'd eaten, so drowsiness washed over her. Olivia let out a long yawn, blinked, and let her gaze fall on the long object laid out in Lloyd's bedroom.
It was a bed.
Lloyd had told her to rest whenever she was tired. And right now, she was tired. Therefore, she should rest.
Armed with this miraculous chain of reasoning, Olivia carefully ran her hand over Lloyd's bed.
"Ah."
Lloyd's scent. Olivia glanced around out of habit, then carefully lay down on his bed.
It was cozy. And warm. Olivia grinned, savoring the scent that clung to the sheets. It was the scent that brought back the memory of Lloyd's warm, thick arms scooping her up when she had been coughing blood.
She grinned and tossed and turned this way and that. She had lain down because she was tired, but strangely, sleep would not come. She tossed and turned for quite a while — and then, without realizing it, she drifted off.
That was the moment Olivia acquired a new hobby.