Hide, Audit Department Chief - 1
Waiting for Margeta in the dormitory, I awkwardly fussed with my collar. The uniform that normally felt comfortable seemed strangely foreign today.
Forgot again.
I gave the collar a halfhearted straightening and sighed. Once more I was headed to a banquet in Audit Department uniform instead of proper formal attire.
Of course, attending a banquet in Audit Department uniform was no great crime. The outfit was designed to show a measure of respect, after all.
Still, a uniform was workwear at its core, and Audit Department business tended toward the grim. There were nobles who claimed PTSD just from the sight of it.
So I kept telling myself I ought to buy something else, and every time I forgot.
I have to actually go to banquets first.
If I were a professional banquet-goer I would have stocked up long ago, but my attendance cycle stretched to months at minimum. No urgency meant constant forgetting.
And this time I'm not going alone.
Until now the forgetfulness had never been a real problem. This banquet, though, I was attending with Margeta.
Showing up in uniform beside a lady dressed to the nines? In my old life that would have been the equivalent of arriving at a date in full dress military uniform. Crazy didn't even begin to cover it.
"Karl looks dashing in anything, so don't worry."
A situation where a slap from a lady would have been fully deserved. Broad-hearted Margeta had told me it was fine, yet worry still filled me to the brim.
Right. Once this banquet ends, I am buying something. For the New Year's Audience, please let me show up dressed like a normal person.
"Karl."
While I was making the silent vow, Margeta's voice sounded behind me.
The moment I turned, the vow to buy proper clothes grew even fiercer.
A red dress, ornaments placed just so, and a bracelet set with green jewels that matched her eyes. She had clearly put her whole heart into it.
Compared to her… I…
"I'm sorry. Did I keep you waiting long?"
"Not at all. Just thinking of seeing Mar made my heart race so much that the time flew by."
I was the one who felt worse, so I answered with something pleasant to hear.
"I hurried out because I wanted to see Karl too."
Thankfully it seemed to please her; Margeta answered with a shy little smile.
Which only made the guilt grow. I really am sorry. From now on I'll dress properly…
Thanks to the teleport mage the Duke of Victory had sent, we reached the mansion in no time.
His son-in-law the Crown Prince sent mages to hunt down runaway public slaves; his father-in-law the Duke of Victory sent one so guests could arrive in comfort.
Father-in-law and son-in-law, yet so different. Crown Prince, take notes.
"Quite a crowd."
The moment we dropped at the front gate, a considerable throng filled my sight.
I had clearly been told it would be a small banquet. Had I been misunderstanding the meaning of "small" all this time?
"I heard Her Highness the Crown Princess is frugal, and she really did keep her birthday banquet modest."
Margeta whispered after scanning the surroundings just as I had.
Ah, so it really was small. If I had attended more banquets I might have been able to gauge the scale.
"Simply holding it at a mansion instead of the Imperial Palace already makes it modest enough."
She quietly added the remark, as if reading my doubt.
That was true. A birthday banquet for the Crown Princess could easily have been held at the palace. Choosing an ordinary mansion instead made the claim of modesty fair enough.
Calling the Duke of Victory's mansion "ordinary" felt odd, but compared to the palace it was ordinary indeed.
"Being invited to a modest banquet is something to be grateful for. Let's go pay our respects at once."
"Yes. It would be rude not to greet the host."
I offered Margeta my hand as I spoke, and she took it with a bright smile.
As we walked toward the mansion I felt the gazes gathering. Startled looks at the Audit Department uniform, followed by relief when they noticed Margeta at my side.
"The Audit— Chief— —this place—"
"—the duke's daughter—"
They thought they were whispering quietly, but the snatches that reached me were unmistakably about us.
Perfect for drawing aggro.
With a bitter feeling I tightened my hold on Margeta's hand. I hated the idea that she was drawing extra attention because of me.
I glanced over in worry, yet Margeta walked on with a confident smile, completely unbothered.
She's fine.
Come to think of it, between the Audit Department Chief who rarely showed his face in society and a duke's youngest daughter, who would be more used to stares? Obviously the latter.
I had been worrying too much. Without realizing it I had started treating Margeta only as someone I needed to protect.
I eased my grip a little in contrition; this time Margeta squeezed my hand firmly.
"Mar?"
"I'm nervous, so keep holding it."
Her expression was a world away from anything resembling nerves.
"Understood."
Still, if Margeta wanted it, that was what I would do.
Just as expected. Even if the banquet was held at a mansion rather than the Imperial Palace, it was still for Her Highness the Crown Princess, so every single guest was a heavyweight.
What did scale matter? Fewer people was fine. High society was always controlled by the handful at the very top anyway.
I could feel it even now—the gazes fixed on us, the sidelong glances that pretended not to look.
Good.
Far from burden, an uncontrollable satisfaction swelled inside me.
Look more. Look at us. All of you, see this.
Karl is mine.
Mine. The man holding my hand, the man everyone is watching—he is mine.
I could see them all. Nobles quietly calculating while they watched us, ladies whispering behind their fans.
Heh heh heh…
Exactly the result I wanted, the best possible result. Once this banquet ended, word of my relationship with Karl would spread through those people.
Of course Karl had said he would go to Father the moment the New Year's Audience was over—
This much is fine, isn't it?
I wanted people to know about us a little sooner, a little more widely. That wasn't such a big greed, was it?
And I wasn't forcing marriage-hating Karl into anything. Yes, this much was perfectly all right.
While I desperately fought to keep the corners of my mouth from twitching upward, I felt Karl's hand tremble in mine.
Was he nervous? Because everyone was looking at us?
Cute.
This new side of Karl almost cracked the blank expression I had been holding so carefully. He could say embarrassing things without batting an eye when we were alone, yet the moment others were watching he got shaky.
"You're here."
Only after Father parted the crowd and appeared did I realize it had been a misunderstanding.
…Still, a prospective son-in-law getting nervous at the sight of his future father-in-law was cute in its own way, wasn't it?
From far off I saw an old man a full head taller than everyone else.
He's here.
I closed my eyes without meaning to. Instinctive fear set my hand trembling.
As the old man—honestly he still looked middle-aged no matter how I looked—drew closer, and as the high nobles automatically parted to make a path, the urge to flee surged.
I held it down. Turning your back on a predator only got you eaten.
"You're here."
A heavy voice with no rise or fall. Even on ordinary days it carried overwhelming presence; today it felt like the King of Hell delivering judgment.
"Karl Crassius, heir of House Crassius and Audit Department Chief of the Ministry of Finance, greets the most honorable Iron Blood Duke."
At my greeting the Iron Blood Duke snorted and tossed out a single line.
"Empty honorifics are worthless."
Anyone listening would have heard "I have many grievances with you," and my hand shook again.
I'm screwed.
This was the Iron Blood Duke who had told me that if I wanted to marry Margeta I should come myself and kneel. He was not a man who joked; he meant he would only accept my relationship with Margeta after I had gone down on my knees.
And now I appeared as Margeta's partner at none other than the Crown Princess's birthday banquet? Without having knelt?
He would not be wrong to decide that I was ignoring and slighting him—a duke and Margeta's father.
…Fortunately no fist had flown yet, so he was not at the stage of genuine rage.
"Father."
The moment Margeta spoke, the Iron Blood Duke's thoroughly displeased expression softened at once.
As expected, he was weak to his late-born youngest daughter. Was that the fate of every father?
"Mar. It's been a while."
"Yes, Father. Have you been well?"
He nodded at her polite greeting.
"Since my daughter won't stay by her father's side, I have to look after my own health."
He added the words thick with hurt feelings.
At that, my already closed mouth grew even heavier.
"Father did ask me to go with him…"
The careful words Margeta had spoken yesterday. Sadly, she had already declined the Iron Blood Duke's invitation before I ever asked her to be my partner.
Of course he's hurt.
Last summer break Margeta had stayed at my mansion instead of returning to the territory. For this birthday banquet she had refused her father's invitation and come as my partner.
If I were the Iron Blood Duke my eyes would have rolled back too. The more hurt he felt toward Margeta, the greater his anger toward me would grow.
"I've kept a newly arrived guest too long. Go greet the host first."
The Iron Blood Duke looked at me, frozen in silence, and turned his back with those words.
If the "first" in "greet the host first" sounded like a declaration that he would thrash me later, was that only my imagination?
"Karl."
"Ah—yes."
Margeta's voice let me snatch back the soul that had been trying to leave my body.
"Father is only acting that way because he's a little upset. Don't take it too hard."
I nodded quietly at her comfort.
Right. No need to freeze up completely; pull yourself together. Running into the Iron Blood Duke before I could perform the tearful grand kneel was unfortunate, but at least we had met at a banquet for the Crown Princess. That was lucky.
Even the Iron Blood Duke could not cause a scene where the Crown Princess was the star. If the Audit Department Chief ended up on his knees and a duke started throwing German suplexes in a place where the Crown Princess was supposed to receive all the attention, it would steal every eye in the room.
The Iron Blood Duke isn't the sort of man who wouldn't know that.
Thinking so eased the tension a little.
It had been a long time since I left the Magic Tower for any reason other than work.
I detested complicated places like banquets. The sidelong glances, the whispering conversations, the bothersome approaches.
Yet this banquet was one I had reason to attend even if I had to endure all of that.
Baby.
Aside from the New Year's Audience and the occasional gathering of Imperial Count houses, Baby almost never showed himself. For Baby to attend a banquet was a rare event.
Fortunately my workload had lightened lately, so I could spare the time to go out. Besides, Baby had only just been released from that cold prison. I had to go if only to check that he was all right.
Wait for me.
I had made a new potion just for Baby.
It could not lengthen a lifespan, but it would be good for his health.