New Year's Audience - 1
Historically, the heart of the continent has always been the Empire, and the heart of the Empire is the Imperial Capital. Thus it is no exaggeration to say that the capital represents the continent of its age and stands as living proof of the Mandate of Heaven. Today's capital, Ausen, is likewise a city of unending light that never sleeps—a glorious metropolis that embodies prosperity itself.
Year's end is when the capital grows especially lively. Every titled noble of the Empire gathers for the New Year's Audience, and the retinues that accompany them pour in as well, making the already bustling capital even more chaotic.
Even a simple increase in population would leave its mark, but these newcomers are nobles and their attendants—big spenders one and all. Naturally, the capital's merchants scream with delight at the sudden flood of deep pockets. It is chaos of the most welcome kind.
Even the usually quiet noble residential district warms once more as it welcomes its long-absent masters.
Just like right now.
"To meet the Audit Department Chief the moment I set foot in the capital—what a happy occasion."
"I am glad I could bring Your Excellency joy."
I bowed my head in greeting toward Marquis Iones, whose face looked as though the word "happiness" had been written across it. The sight only delighted him further.
So this is how we meet.
A rather awkward situation—running into my prospective father-in-law at my lover's mansion. Still, it would be a stretch to call this a surprise attack by the marquis.
The Masalo family mansion might serve as Section Chief Eri's private residence, but the true owner of the house remained the family head, Marquis Iones. There was nothing strange about the master of the house dropping by.
The problem was that this meeting had never been on the schedule. Eri had said nothing, so I had naturally assumed he would arrive later. I never imagined he would show up today.
What a sneaky little trick.
I shot a sidelong glance at Eri, who awkwardly averted her eyes. She had suddenly insisted we have a meal at the mansion, and I had wondered what she was up to—only to discover she had prepared this little surprise.
The way she avoided my gaze confirmed it. She had known the marquis was coming and kept her mouth shut. No doubt she feared I would decline the invitation if I knew. Given her personality, she would have raised hell and pecked the marquis half to death if he had interrupted a lunch date.
It wouldn't have mattered even if I'd known.
I looked at Eri with a touch of pity for her pointless scheming. What did it matter if I met a little early someone I was going to see at the New Year's Audience anyway? If the marquis had been like the Iron Blood Duke—brimming with open displeasure toward me—it might have been different. But with Marquis Iones, there was no awkwardness between us. If anything, we were on friendly terms.
Privately I was his daughter's superior; publicly I was the admirable official who had thoroughly demolished the Aessilon Marquisate, once the foremost of the marquis houses. The Masalo Marquisate had thoroughly farmed the rights and interests spilled by Aessilon's collapse, so of course I looked adorable in his eyes.
"Well? Aren't you happy to see your future son-in-law?"
Breaking her silence, Eri casually linked arms with me as she spoke. From the marquis's perspective, he was watching his precious daughter exchange affection with some thief right before his eyes—yet his expression remained perfectly mild.
No—if anything, he looked like a man who had just fulfilled his life's greatest wish.
"Yes. Seeing that my daughter has finally found a match... it brings a lump to my throat."
Those words, spoken with utter sincerity, left both me and Eri—the person in question—speechless.
It was only a short remark, yet it carried every ounce of the heartache the marquis must have endured all these years. Even a cold, emotionless weapon of war would have shed tears upon hearing it.
And he had every right to feel that way. I was twenty-one myself and still dancing on the edge of marriageable age; how much worse must it have been for Eri? The marquis had probably started burning with anxiety the moment she turned twenty, and by the time she reached her current age he must have been coughing up blood and rolling on the floor.
Worse still, his daughter past her prime worked for the Audit Department? Separate from the sheer misery of it, he might well have given up on marriage entirely in his head.
"I worried endlessly that she had no match, but if all that time was simply so she could meet the Audit Department Chief—then so be it. Yes, so be it."
The marquis before me now seemed to have cast off every shred of that misery, worry, and resignation. Even if his daughter had spent a long time without a lover, he could gladly smile it away by thinking of those years as a patient wait to secure an SSR-tier husband.
"Thank you, Audit Department Chief. Truly, thank you for not forgetting my request."
"Pardon?"
Overcome with emotion, the marquis took my hand with trembling fingers. The words forced a reflexive question from me.
A request? I barely ever met the marquis; I had never received any request from him. At most there was the usual "take good care of my daughter—"
...?
Wait. Surely not.
Had that "take good care of her" been spoken not as a superior, but as a man?
"I have lived a life that lacked for nothing, yet the one thing that always weighed on my heart was that child."
Fortunately or not, the marquis paid my question no mind and continued pouring out a father's feelings. A lofty station as marquis, a flourishing house, grown and diligent children—yet the sole worry of a daughter who had never found a match.
At that tearful appeal, even Eri lowered her eyes, at a complete loss. So she does know how much her family cherishes her... she really is weak when it comes to family. Had anyone else said such things, she would have brushed it off with a remark about forging one's own life.
"It is a pity she will not be the first wife, but I trust you will treat her without lack."
"I will live up to that trust."
At my reply the marquis smiled a heartwarming smile and patted my hand several times.
It felt strange. After dealing with the Iron Blood Duke—the spicy flavor of father-in-law—this mild version left me thoroughly disoriented...
Two more to go.
And the instinctive thought of the other fathers-in-law (whom I had never even met) nearly made me close my eyes. One baron father-in-law with whom I shared not a single point of contact, and one count father-in-law with whom I did share contact—except that contact had been an attempt to wipe out his house.
This New Year's Audience was going to be lively indeed.
Thanks to a marquis who could not simply let his son-in-law leave empty-handed, I had to return with both hands heavily laden. The gifts themselves were small in size, yet their value was crushing. Was this what it meant to be a house that contended for first or second among the marquisates? Who hands over land deeds while still seated at the table?
The Iron Blood Duke had already stuffed the bridal gifts until his purse burst; these days, did nobles express their feelings through real estate? A rather terrifying trend. By the time my own children married, I would be cleaned out of everything I had saved.
"Isn't it fortunate that you are a beloved son-in-law?"
"With a post like mine, it feels a little conspicuous."
I answered Mar's soft smile with a playful tone.
Still, there was a grain of sincerity in it. As head of the Audit Department I had received plenty of "friendship fees" from various nobles, but those usually arrived twisted and knotted through so many channels that I could just barely accept them. Direct gifts like this were extremely rare. It left me with the sensation of having received something I ought not to have.
Fortunately I had the precedent of bridal gifts from the Iron Blood Duke. Without that experience, I might well have refused a father-in-law's kindness out of sheer burden.
"Heh. You'll have to get used to it. I've heard that wanting to spoil a reliable son-in-law with this and that is simply the heart of parents-in-law."
Was it just my imagination that her words sounded like, You now have four sets of parents-in-law, so brace yourself?
...Still, Mar was not wrong. Unless it was outright, flagrant corruption, the back-and-forth of gifts among blood relations was simply custom. When trouble arose, one's eyes turned to family; when something good came one's way, one wanted to share it with family—that sort of thing.
"Yes, I suppose I must. I am a noble before I am a civil servant, after all."
Not a bureaucrat who moved like a machine at imperial command, but a noble who formed and broke alliances according to the interests of house and territory.
The civil servant nameplate could be removed... well, honestly it did not seem removable, but still—compared to something acquired later in life, the noble nameplate was something one was born with. With the name Crassius attached to me, I needed to grow accustomed to the noble style of married life.
"If it's you, Karl, you'll adapt in no time."
"Thank you for saying so, at least."
I smiled at Mar's words and casually surveyed our surroundings.
An ordinary meal, servants standing by in case of any unexpected incident. Yet one thing differed from the usual: Luise and Irina, who ought to have been dining with us, were absent. Having people who were always present suddenly gone certainly felt strange.
But it could not be helped. Luise's father, Baron Artini, and Irina's father, Count Planbel, had both come up to the capital. From a father's perspective, how hurt would he feel if a daughter nearby failed even to pay her respects? And neither of those two was cold-blooded enough to ignore family so close at hand.
"Already feeling lonely?"
Noticing the direction of my gaze, Mar asked with a small laugh. A little embarrassing. Had my look been that obvious?
"Well, yes. Even the disappearance of a single familiar object leaves things feeling foreign—how much more so with people?"
There was no reason to deny it, so I answered honestly. And these were not mere acquaintances I knew in passing; they were lovers who shared split rings with me. Claiming otherwise would have been stranger still.
"Be sure to say that at the New Year's Audience. Both of them will love it."
"If I forget, please say it in my place, Mar."
It was a dull joke, yet Mar laughed anyway. As always, a joke's success depended not on the content but on the person telling it.
The New Year's Audience, huh.
Watching Mar, my thoughts drifted toward the ceremony. Luise and Irina, who had gone to their families, would not simply exchange greetings and return; they had decided to attend the New Year's Audience itself.
It's not exactly a fun event.
Having attended before, I wanted to dissuade them. With every titled noble gathered and the Emperor appearing, the occasion was grand and splendid—but hardly the sort of thing flower-like young ladies would enjoy. Why else would the young masters and misses who came to the capital with their titled parents hold separate banquets of their own? If they wanted to enjoy a party, I would have recommended going there.
But Mar had insisted so firmly on their attendance that the effort failed.
"The fact that I and Her Excellency the Demon Duke are bound to Karl will spread as rumor no matter how still we stay. The same goes for the two of you who are officials—you are active in the capital, after all."
"But Lady Luise and Lady Irina are at the Academy, so the reach of rumor is limited. Of course if the students inform their houses it will spread through those families, yet that is nothing compared to being seen in person."
"So this is the opportunity. A chance to show yourselves proudly before every titled noble."
A few days earlier, at the dinner table, Mar had earnestly argued the necessity of attendance. Her persuasive words had held both Luise and Irina rapt, as if spellbound.
She was not wrong. And to be blunt, the ordinary baronial house of Naiad and the house of Yoren—which focused more on commerce than central politics—lacked the power to lead high society. If the two of them simply remained at the Academy, there was no effective way to publicize how deeply they were bound to me.
"To do it perfectly, of course, they should attend not only the New Year's Audience but also the banquet held by the young nobles..."
"...I'll consider that. Let's get through the New Year's Audience first."
And once she said even that, what counterargument remained? It had been pressure of the "If those two don't come to the New Year's Audience, you will absolutely have to go to the kids' gathering" variety.
"Don't worry too much. I may not match Karl, but I have attended before. I'll help with all my strength."
With Mar finally declaring her own intention to participate as well, I had no remaining grounds to stop them.
It looked as though this was going to be a truly delightful New Year's Audience...