Unwanted Gathering of Protagonists - 5
Thanks to the Empire’s vile schemes, their nations’ key figures had fallen under the surveillance of a cunning imperial bureaucrat. That was the suspicion currently gnawing at the three kingdoms.
What a load of crap.
For the cunning bureaucrat himself, now under that suspicion, it was nothing but an infuriating misunderstanding that made his guts churn. He rather wanted to turn the question back on those three kingdoms. Did they really think it was that easy to steer the actions of royal family members or saint candidates—people of that caliber? If he could pull something like that off, he would have been working at the Ministry of Special Affairs, not the Ministry of Finance.
Of course, he could understand the three kingdoms’ seething insides and their suspicions. Common sense said the odds of them joining a club because they were smitten with a girl were microscopically lower than the odds of an imperial plot. Both possibilities were scraping the bottom of the barrel, which was the real problem—except one of them had actually happened.
“Please tell them they may come to the clubroom sometime tomorrow morning.”
After a moment’s thought, he spoke to the vice principal. Leave a misunderstanding like this to fester and it was bound to grow in strange directions. Right now they only thought the Empire was keeping major figures under watch; before long they might decide the Empire was using those figures as bait for some monstrous scheme against the three kingdoms.
The vice principal, knowing how important swift contact with the three kingdoms was, accepted without protest. In truth, even if he had been unhappy about it, he was in no position to refuse Karl’s words. Karl felt a little guilty about continuing to use the man as a messenger, but if he started talking to ordinary faculty members they would probably drop dead of fright on the spot.
“Yes, I shall convey it at once.”
“Thank you. I’ll leave it in your hands.”
With a touch of apology, Karl sent the vice principal on his way and stepped back into the clubroom. Luise was still in the middle of being swarmed. Even allowing for the fact that she was an original-work heroine, it was amazing that a mere baron’s daughter was holding up so well in that company.
Still, the longer Luise kept those five pinned down by herself, the easier life was for him, so he wasn’t complaining. Maybe Luise actually had a talent for tanking?
“Ah, Oppa!”
The instant the thought crossed his mind, the aggro bounced. Luise’s diverted gaze pulled all five pairs of eyes onto him as well. Seriously, those stares were way too heated. Reacting to the word “Oppa” was overdoing it. What was he supposed to do about having been born a little earlier than them?
Luise somehow wormed her way out of the human wall and looked up at him.
“Where did you go? I didn’t even notice you’d left.”
“Just someone I needed to find for a moment. Nothing important.”
He could not bring himself to say, The men you charmed gathered in one place and flipped several countries upside down. Luise nodded at his answer, gave him a bright little smile, and headed for the shelves.
“Perfect timing—I was just about to share the cookies left over from yesterday. We’ve got new members, so it’s a celebration!”
She opened the cookie tin on the shelf and tilted her head.
“Huh? Was this all that was left?”
That would be the handful he had snuck earlier. Getting hit with a triple combo had left him so light-headed he desperately needed sugar. Sorry. He’d figured he was going to be the only one eating them anyway.
Karl watched Luise’s back a little awkwardly as she handed out what remained to the members.
The next day—after the three new members had thoroughly proven themselves to be high-class gourmets with full stomachs—
“I am Villar Garineli of the Royal Knights of the Armein Kingdom.”
The three kingdoms’ representative had come to the clubroom. A man with a blunt face; when he closed his mouth he looked like a tightly shut castle gate. A knight of the Armein royal knight order, he ranked among the higher-tier forces the three kingdoms had stationed at the Academy. Roughly fourth or fifth seat in the entire royal knight order, if Karl remembered correctly.
“A pleasure, Sir Villar. Thank you for coming in person.”
“We were the ones who requested an audience with the Inspector, so it is only proper.”
They exchanged brief greetings and a handshake, and Karl seated him. Only one person had come to represent all three kingdoms…
So the three kingdoms have already decided to cooperate.
He had guessed as much from the single letter delivered through the vice principal, but seeing only one man arrive confirmed it: the three kingdoms had already agreed to march in step. Fair enough—fighting a four-way free-for-all of 1:1:1:1 on imperial soil was worse than a 1:3 arrangement. That was why an Armein man, whose country led the three in national power, had come as representative.
If the person who would keep appearing as the three kingdoms’ face was only a fourth- or fifth-seat royal knight, Karl could handle him at his own level. Tossing him—an Audit Department chief—into the Academy as an inspector had partly been meant to crush ordinary foreign dignitaries by rank alone. As expected, the title of Audit Department Chief really did not suit his lot in life. What kind of suffering was this, all because of that cursed post?
“We’ll be neighbors of a sort for a while, yet with everything so hectic this is the first time we’ve met face to face. Without your letter, Sir Villar, who knows when we might have crossed paths.”
= You people crawling into the Academy has been a chaotic, exhausting pain. Honestly I would have been fine never meeting you, but since you asked, here we are.
“As the guests, it was only proper that we request the meeting first. Until now we dared not impose for fear of interfering with the Inspector’s duties.”
= We’re sorry we had to come this far too. But you’ve been doing some suspicious things with that inspector badge on, haven’t you?
A light probe produced a smooth enough answer. They were wary of the phenomenon of major figures flocking to a club advised by an imperial inspector, but otherwise seemed free of complaints. They also appeared to regard their own permanent presence at the Academy as a problem in itself.
Classic knight type.
From the three kingdoms’ perspective the enrollment of their key figures had been a sudden decision, and the dispatch of escort forces had been a hard-won prize after fierce tug-of-war. They had been forced to assemble the escort detail in a rush, making it difficult to send someone who combined raw strength, rank, eloquence, and negotiating skill all at once. The result sat in front of him: a rough-hewn knight. As a conversation partner, that made things easier.
Of course Karl himself was not exactly a man who possessed all four either. The difference was that the combination of department chief and inspector gave him a wide range of authority, and he was always ready to toss any emergency straight up to the minister. At any rate, it was fortunate. The three kingdoms’ representative he was likely to see often from now on was someone easy to deal with.
Karl immediately hung a smile on his face and opened his mouth. Great—let’s be friends for life.
“I’m grateful for the consideration. As you said, things have been busy lately. Club work especially is completely new to me, so it still feels awkward.”
A gleam lit Villar’s eyes at that. The club had been the real business, but he clearly had not expected Karl to bring it up so directly. After a brief silence Villar seemed to decide to match the directness.
Yeah, this style of talk was probably more comfortable for him too. He looked the type.
“I have heard the news. An imperial young lady founded a baking club, yes? To make snacks for her fellow students—I have not met the young lady myself, yet I can tell she must be warm-hearted. His Highness the prince of my own country must have thought the same, for he joined as well.”
“Yes, and there were also members from the Uven Alliance and the Holy Kingdom. I was a little surprised, to be honest.”
“I heard that as well. You must have your hands full.”
“Well, it is a club open to all, so is it really so strange that anyone might join? I just need to be a little tense, so I would not call it real hardship.”
With that, Karl stated that the three kingdoms’ figures joining had been an unforeseen pure coincidence. Villar noticed that Karl had chosen not to beat around the bush and speak frankly. Still, he seemed to be wrestling with whether to take the words at face value or keep suspecting.
In that case, better to give the decision a little help.
“The enthusiasm those distinguished guests show for the club is astonishing to watch.”
If they tried to cancel the memberships late or smash the club itself, there was no telling how those men, already smitten with Luise, would react.
“I am also constantly on edge wondering whether some incident might break out.”
If something happened to the three kingdoms’ personnel, Karl would be in just as much trouble—if not more. As the club advisor he might be the first one to catch a beating.
“I’d love to hand the whole thing off to someone else, but… ha-ha. Impossible, so I am managing somehow.”
If I quit, one of you people might end up stuck with it. Want to try being the group-project leader?
Karl gave the conflicted Villar a gentle push in the back, and Villar squeezed his eyes shut.
Wrapped up cleanly enough.
In the end Villar accepted the situation at a reasonable level and left. He was already being squeezed from above through long-distance communication orbs and struggling to manage the subordinates stationed with him at the Academy. On top of that he had suddenly become the representative of all three kingdoms rather than just Armein. From now on the other two nations would probably hound him with “Why only this much? Is this the best you can do?”
Moreover, as Karl had pointed out, simply undoing the club memberships or shutting the club down was impossible. If the underlings’ meddling destroyed a hobby space that was really a romance space for their exalted personages, the resulting fury would be beyond imagination.
The only way to keep the club intact while removing the Empire’s eyes from it would be for Karl to step down as advisor—and then what? The faculty would grit their teeth and dodge the job, and there was a real chance the three kingdoms would be forced to take over as punishment for ousting a perfectly fine imperial advisor.
Yes: if a successor appeared, the high-probability candidate was Villar himself. He was already being run ragged; now he would also have to serve as hellish group-project leader.
For that mix of reasons, Villar raised no particular objection to the recent club catastrophe and departed. He still did not seem to understand why so many major figures had flocked to the club, yet he had accepted that the situation could not be reversed. That was enough.
Truth be told, Karl still did not understand why five of them had fallen for Luise and piled into the club either. If he had not been a transmigrator, he would have assumed some other imperial plot was underway with him as the only exception. Those heavyweight figures simply fell for a girl? Don’t talk nonsense.
“What a life.”
He tossed one of the cookies Luise had baked fresh yesterday into his mouth. Of course they were handmade cookies that the five members had essentially only watched her make.
Multiple sets of footsteps sounded from a distance. Club time already, apparently.
Did those kids even know how hard he was working behind the scenes?