The Chain of Rings
When the Academy dispatch work ends, what comes next? Reporting for duty at the Audit Department, of course.
Regrettably, civil servants do not get vacations. There was none in summer, so one was hardly going to appear just because it was winter. Not that I particularly hated going to work. I didn't hate it, but…
They're already bringing this out.
I stood blankly in front of the Ministry of Finance building and stared up at it, a case tied with a red ribbon in one hand.
According to the original plan, this case was not supposed to see the light of day for another week or two. In the proper order, the 1st Department Head came after Irina, and I had intended to give her an answer only after the New Year's Audience was over.
But I had momentarily forgotten that whenever I make a plan, it gets catastrophically wrecked. That was simply my lot in life.
Of all things, only one left.
It was a headache. If two or three rings had remained, I would not have agonized like this. That would have meant several people still waiting for answers; I could have claimed it was the mainstream faction or something of the sort.
But only one ring was left. Only a single person had yet to receive an answer. If I were misunderstood as deliberately snubbing the 1st Department Head alone, I would have no defense.
Of course the 1st Department Head might not know about Luise or Irina, but I did. Having answered everyone else while only putting her off would leave my conscience far from easy.
The chain of rings.
A hollow laugh escaped me. When I had been the one receiving confessions, the Magic Lord had started the cascade and they had followed one after another; now I was repeating the exact same process.
But what else was I supposed to do? Having already decided on the answer and then deliberately delaying would be toying with someone's heart. Even if I had more than one leg to stand on, I had no intention of running a fish farm.
Unconvincing justification, but there it was.
"So please, just once—give me just one chance…"
Having seen the 1st Department Head plead so desperately, I simply could not make only her wait.
And if—if—I suppressed my conscience, passed her over, and she later learned she alone had received no answer, what would she think? She would conclude she had never been given a chance at all, and collapse.
This is my fate.
In the end I sighed and entered the building.
It was a greedy thought, but since I was going to accept the confessions anyway, could I not have spaced them out every couple of months? Then I would not be wrestling with this timing problem.
When I opened the office door, the department heads were chewing on bread. Had these people come to work without even eating breakfast?
"Oh, Director. You've arrived?"
And of course the first person I locked eyes with was the 2nd Department Head standing nearest the door.
Greeting the 2nd Department Head first thing upon arriving at work. Today's fortune was clearly the worst.
"Yeah, I'm here."
I gave a rough nod and quickly scanned the interior. The 3rd Department Head was bobbing his head with a mouth stuffed full of bread; the 5th Department Head swallowed what was in his mouth and bowed at the waist.
The Vice Director would be buried under documents in his own office, so I skipped him.
"Ah, Director!"
Last of all, the 1st Department Head came running over with a sunny smile.
A perfectly normal greeting—standing in front of me and bowing her head. Sparkling eyes. A gentle smile. An appearance utterly removed from her usual madness.
Unfamiliar. The 1st Department Head I knew was not this normal.
"It's been a while, Erzebet."
Knowing exactly what feelings lay behind her cosplay of sanity, I accepted it calmly. I did not forget to pat her shoulder and call her by name either.
The effect was excellent. The moment she heard her name, the 1st Department Head's eyes went round and she broke into a foolish, beaming grin. Had I known it would work this well, I would have started calling her that two years ago.
"What is this? Are we using first names now?"
The 2nd Department Head, who had been watching, opened his mouth with a sly grin.
He looked briefly flustered at the sudden use of a given name, but the way he immediately turned it into teasing showed how quick he was at reading a room. The problem was that he was quick in the wrong direction.
"No. For you, '2nd Department Head' suits better than Lafayette."
"That's too much. Making me abandon the name my parents gave me."
He said so, yet he did not look particularly put out. Well, a man would hardly get excited being called by name by another man.
If anything, calling him Lafayette would make him cringe so hard he would throw a fit asking what was wrong with me.
"If the Director says so, then that's how it is. From today, live as 2nd Department Head Baron."
"I'm going crazy."
At the words of the 1st Department Head, who had fully evolved into a loyal retainer, the 2nd Department Head only shrugged and snickered.
"That would be troublesome. I'd have to make new business cards."
"Then there's no choice…"
Anyway, as I patted the 1st Department Head's head while speaking, she murmured in a languid voice.
Still so unfamiliar. That this particular 1st Department Head would become such a docile, loyal subordinate. What exactly had those two years of my suffering been for?
The other executives seemed to feel the same; the 3rd Department Head shook his head, and the 5th Department Head quietly closed his eyes. It was the reaction of men who simply could not accept what they were seeing.
"Erzebet."
Seeing those devastated reactions, I felt the need to extract the 1st Department Head from the room.
Giving her a ring in front of everyone was already embarrassing enough, but from the watching department heads' perspective it would be pure cosmic horror. A superior slipping a ring onto a subordinate was indistinguishable from a workplace harassment performance.
"Shall we get some air for a bit?"
"Yes!"
At my invitation the 1st Department Head beamed and stuck herself right to my side.
"…Why was I crawling around."
Just before we left the office I caught the 5th Department Head's extremely depressed mutter, but I let it pass.
If the 5th Department Head was lamenting that much, it was probably no small matter—but unfortunately, disasters that explode while I am away are difficult to help with or comfort after the fact.
Hang in there, 5th Department Head.
The small garden attached to the Ministry of Finance building. It had been made as a place to catch one's breath when work grew tiring, yet in practice people were extremely rare. Bureaucrats with enough leisure to visit a garden were few and far between. Who went outside for air during working hours?
Of course the Director was an exception. In the Ministry of Finance, the only person who could say anything to the Director was roughly the Minister.
"The wind is cold. Stick closer."
The moment we stepped into the garden, the Director caught my arm and linked it with his.
His sudden display of affection hit me like a wave. Satisfaction surged so sharply that the corners of my mouth twitched.
Endure it.
There were so many things I wanted to say. Things like asking whether this noona had been that badly missed, or how he had managed to hold back when he clearly wanted skinship this much. My mouth itched to spit them all out at once.
But I could not. I had promised not to mess with the Director, to listen well. A promise had to be kept. How hard had I worked to earn this chance?
"Act comfortably."
"Yes?"
"Act like usual. Don't restrain yourself for no reason."
And at the Director's words, spoken with a little smile as if he had read my mind, I felt a flicker of confusion.
Why…? Wasn't being demure the correct thing? Not teasing the Director, really acting like a modest lady—wasn't that better? Senior Aria had been like that.
"I want to be with Erzebet, not a doll that watches for cues."
The Director said it so offhandedly that my heart pounded.
Unfair. A younger guy saying such sweet things. Declaring that he liked me as I was, and doing it so roughly.
"Hehe, so playing fun with noona is still the best after all?"
I forced the fluttering down and spoke. If I showed embarrassment now, I felt certain I would be led around by the nose.
"I'm just comforting a noona who cries easily."
At those words I clamped my mouth shut.
Coward… If he brought that up, I had nothing to say…
"You cry so well I'll have to comfort you for the rest of my life."
Even so, the hand patting my head melted my heart at once.
I was not an easy woman, but I was making a special exception because it was the Director. Any other man would never have dared to lay a hand on me.
"Then I'll have to cry every day. You'll comfort me every day, right?"
"I shouldn't have said that."
It was ordinary conversation, yet laughter burst out of me.
I was happy. Because it felt as though we were together not simply as superior and subordinate, but as a man and a woman. An emotion I had never once felt in two whole years of being at the Director's side.
There had been no special trigger for falling for him. I had simply begun to feel interest and fondness for his reliable figure, his steadfast figure, his firm figure, the way he took responsibility and pressed forward.
Honestly, when a young and handsome younger man acted like that, how could anyone not be interested?
The problem is that only I fell for him.
…Unfortunately it had been one-sided, so I had never expressed it.
Besides, knowing what state the Director was in, how could I have pushed myself on him? I had never believed I could replace Lady Hecate.
But I'm happy now.
Yes. I was happy now. Thanks to Lady Margeta, the shadow that had covered the Director had thinned, and only then had I been able to show my true feelings. Fortunately, the Director had received those feelings kindly.
I still had not heard the answer to my confession, but wasn't this as good as confirmed? The Director was not trash enough to go on a date like this with a woman he intended to reject. He was not the 2nd Department Head, after all.
"I'll be meeting Marquis Iones soon as well."
While we walked arm in arm in that intimate fashion, the Director mentioned my father.
"Every time he sees me he worries so much about you."
"I'm a grown lady. The interference is too much."
At his words my lips puffed out.
Father was too much as well. A lady past twenty would manage perfectly well on her own.
"He's doing it because you are grown. A twenty-five-year-old with no thoughts of marriage."
"Could you please rephrase that as 'she kept pure love until twenty-five'?"
"Didn't you already pass twenty before you even met me?"
Counterattacking with facts was just cowardly.
When I lowered my gaze a little from the fresh hurt, I heard the Director chuckling.
Bad little brother. Someday I would have to show him the dignity of a proper noona.
"Here. If you show him this, His Lordship won't say a word."
At that I slowly raised my head.
The mere prospect of Father's silence was welcome, yet if a father who constantly pressured her about marriage said nothing, the reason was obvious.
Sure enough. When I looked up, a small case rested in the Director's hand.
"I actually meant to give it with all sorts of confession lines… but you don't need those, do you?"
"Yes."
I answered firmly. Confession lines? What did those matter? The only thing that mattered was whether a ring was on my finger right now or not.
Ever since that night when I had cried and wailed in front of the Director, I had let go of everything. Looking for romance or atmosphere now was meaningless. Efficiency alone remained.
"I thought so."
The Director smiled again and untied the red ribbon around the case. I liked the ribbon first. Red truly was the prettiest color.
The ribbon slipping free, the case carefully opening, and the ring emerging from inside.
I was happy. So happy. Truly happy, truly overjoyed, and yet…
"Um, Director."
"What?"
"…Why is it half?"
I simply could not suppress the fundamental question.
No—I had heard that Lady Margeta had also received a half ring. Since that was how things had begun, I had expected to receive half as well.
But expectation and understanding were different things. Why cut a perfectly good ring in half…?
A ring that becomes one between two people?
The justification sounded plausible. If I had heard it from anyone else I would have nodded and called it romantic.
But I had known the Director for more than a day or two. He was not a man who would pursue that kind of romance of his own free will. He was the type who would buy whatever was nearest at a neighborhood shop.
"Isn't it unique?"
Yet—was it my imagination? At the pointed question about why it was half, the Director seemed rather pleased.
Why…?
Enen had not abandoned Unni yet.
Master had not abandoned Unni either!
—Yuris. Have you been well?
"Unni!"
While I was in the middle of work after Master had left for the office, the butler called me. Someone from outside was looking for me, he said.
The moment I heard that, I knew. If someone outside was seeking me, there could be only one person. Only Penelia Unni.
"Why did you only contact me now!"
The instant I saw Unni's face through the communication crystal, resentment and tears burst out together.
Do you know how worried I was! Every time I watched people who came later than Unni push ahead, my insides twisted! I kept fretting that something might have happened to you!
—I'm sorry. I truly had no time.
Her voice was firm yet somehow drained of strength. I examined Unni's face carefully.
…It's true?
Unni's expression was as blank as always, but the eyes are windows to the heart.
Those eyes were overflowing with fatigue. That steel-hard Unni was showing exhaustion in her gaze.
Just what on earth had happened…?