Suspicious Deal (03): Rakatus's Tests and the Youngest Lady
The encounters with the Rakatus family didn't end there.
The first time they'd returned, Kalen had been flustered, but since Blamia showed no sign of surprise, he had no choice but to go along. Wasn't the deal they'd struck supposed to wrap up everything in one go? Then again, it had felt too easy for that.
The people sent from the Rakatus family were always the same. Precisely, it was those initial three unchanged, with the occasional addition of an apprentice maid around Kalen's age. The requests varied quite a bit in nature and scale. Almost as if they were testing him.
The monsters' levels crept up ever so slightly, and eventually, they even sent him out alone with just an apprentice maid. One day, utterly baffled, Kalen asked her outright.
"What in the world is this?"
"Y-Yes?"
"I can at least understand hunting monsters or standing guard, but why make us do this pointless nonsense?"
"Ah..."
In a carriage heading to the territory outskirts under the pretext of patrol duty, alone with an apprentice maid from the Rakatus family. She said she hadn't even been an apprentice for long. In other words, all the camping and assistance up to now had fallen entirely on Kalen.
He'd spoken out of sheer frustration, but the apprentice maid's eyes welled up with tears, and she bowed her head.
"I-I'm sorry... sob..."
"..."
If anything, Kalen was the one left speechless. He started to say something, but with that reaction, he couldn't bring himself to do anything. In the end, he swallowed his frustration with a sigh and leaned against the carriage window.
Most days dragged on like that. Until the inevitable day when Eban, Brussel, and Dus showed up at the cabin.
By now, Kalen was used to it. He grabbed his pre-packed gear with practiced ease and prepared to head out.
"Brat."
Blamia called him back.
"Don't wanna do it?"
The gruff tone could come off as offensive at first glance. But it wasn't accusatory. When Kalen turned to face him, the old man's stern face had softened a touch. It was a genuine question about Kalen's feelings—not a reprimand for his attitude, but a sincere check-in.
"Not particularly, Master."
Even if it was a hassle, even if it felt meaningless. He knew this tied into some deep wish of Blamia and Sinat's. If he could help with that, Kalen didn't mind.
"Good. Then go see Sinat for a bit."
"...Right now?"
"Now."
They were just about to leave, weren't they? Kalen tilted his head but obediently headed inside. The voices from behind were faint.
"Kal!"
"Master said to come see you."
"Yeah, perfect timing."
Kalen actually felt a bit guilty toward Sinat. He'd put up with something like her clinginess for two years now, so he knew how anxious she got when he was away. She was enduring it solely on the promise with the Rakatus family.
"What's up?"
At Kalen's question, Sinat grinned sheepishly and turned to hand him something. A rectangular box wrapped neatly.
"A gift?"
"Yeah... You can open it."
Kalen took the box and opened it. With a soft click, it revealed a monocle and a jet-black staff.
"...What do you think?"
What did he think? He got the monocle's purpose. But in this era—unlike Blamia's prime—a staff felt a bit outdated.
"The monocle's Grandpa's old one... and the staff's from me."
"Huh?"
"Found some blackthorn wood while walking, and it just screamed 'Kal' to me."
Sinat's face didn't show it outright, but it was plainly the look of someone waiting eagerly. Especially since it was a handmade staff, no less. Kalen couldn't bring himself to disappoint her.
"Thanks, Sinat."
"I'm bored, so come back as fast as you can, Kal."
"Got it."
Kalen and Sinat faced each other and let out soft chuckles.
"Thank you for the gift, sir. I'll be off."
"...Yeah."
After expressing his gratitude for the monocle, Kalen boarded the carriage with the three. Fortunately, no apprentice maid this time, but a lingering unease remained. The disconnect peaked the moment he climbed in.
"This'll be the last one."
Eban's words.
All the built-up questions, the sudden gifts from Blamia and Sinat. And now this.
"Finally going to explain?"
"You knew?"
"How could I not, with you probing like that?"
"Sharp instincts, as expected."
He usually avoided entanglements, but what could demand such prolonged teasing? At first he hadn't realized, but it increasingly felt like a test.
"Ever heard the Grand Duke mention the heirs of various noble houses? Promising youngsters your age, that sort of thing?"
Eban broached the topic cautiously, his expression tinged with regret. When Kalen glanced at Brussel, he outright turned to stare out the window.
"Not in detail, but I've heard of those high in succession lines."
"Right, that's normal. Like Lady Laris or Lady Selasier. Remarkable, exceptional people."
"I've heard of Young Master Dekaum from Rakatus too."
When boasting about their house, don't they usually name their own first? Eban had led with ladies from other families, so Kalen countered with Rakatus's eldest son. But Eban shook his head with a faint sigh.
"Eliana."
"Pardon?"
"Has the Grand Duke mentioned Eliana Rakatus?"
In the lady's etiquette lessons Blamia gave Sinat, names of prominent heirs naturally came up. People she'd need to know by face, at least. And Kalen had always been right there listening.
But he'd never heard of an "Eliana Rakatus." With the surname, he could guess she was from Rakatus, but that was it.
"Well... that's the crux of it. Lady Eliana is the youngest of the Rakatus family."
"Someone connected to my tasks?"
"Spot on. What we're asking is for you to bodyguard the lady."
Everchan Rakatus, the Rakatus head on the cusp of 5th Hierarchy. Kalen knew well how outstanding his eldest son was, and that the family brimmed with talent besides.
A question naturally arose in Kalen's mind.
"Why—"
"That's why we kept repeating similar requests, testing you like that."
But Eban cut him off, refusing to address it directly. Kalen couldn't let that slide easily. Hiding things until now was one thing; continuing here grated even more.
"Why me? I don't think those tests were anything special. Rakatus can't lack someone better than me."
"Hm."
With the Dranus house waning and four pillars rising anew, one of them Rakatus surely boasted high-hierarchy mages. Rare as they were, within a great house, magical training was no barrier. The tests they'd set barely qualified him uniquely. High-hierarchy mages would outclass him at monster hunts, and there was no reason to entrust guarding to an untested boy. He understood the apprentice maid and camping now, but this made even less sense.
"Don't tell me it's because my combat style's unique. You know that wouldn't hold water."
"Tricky."
"If you keep—"
Kalen couldn't finish. Sorrow clouded Eban's face. Sorrow? Not confusion or anything else—pure sorrow. It didn't fit the moment. Like the look Blamia might wear thinking of Sinat...
"To be frank, it's beyond my authority."
"Pardon?"
"Something even I can't speak on."
Kalen could only grow more flustered. Hadn't he introduced himself as the external affairs manager? For this matter, no one in Rakatus outranked him. Well, one person aside.
"You want me to hear it from him directly?"
"...Sharp as ever."
The Rakatus head. Eban was telling him to speak with Everchan Rakatus himself.
Kalen was utterly at a loss for words. The carriage carried that untimely silence onward, quietly toward the southeast.
"They'll arrive soon."
"..."
A mountain of documents—hundreds, maybe thousands. In the antique study, a middle-aged man quietly set down his quill. Following the quill's trail revealed the papers weren't ordinary. Intricate symbols and equations intertwined. Yet they all pointed to one theme. The man had been dissecting hundreds, thousands of treatises on a single subject.
"Soon?"
"Yes. Word just came—they've passed the territory cabinet."
Dark circles hung under his eyes, betraying his exhaustion. But his gaze remained sharp.
He'd exhausted every known method and failed. The most promising—and first to fail—now birthed new hope, arriving any moment.
"...I'll go."
"Pardon? Personally?"
"A freak raised by the old man himself—how could I not be curious?"
The Rakatus head, whose hearty laugh suited him well, rose to his feet.