Villain? Young Lady - 2
For a moment I wondered if today was the weekend, or if club time had already rolled around. Strange—this was definitely class time. Why was a student here? Was the vice president allowed to skip class like that?
When I looked at Margeta with eyes full of doubt and flat denial of reality, she tilted her head.
"Young Master Karl. Do you intend to keep your guest standing forever? You've grown quite rough since I last saw you."
The tone was reproachful, yet she made no effort to hide the laughter threaded through it. Her head tilted with exaggerated playfulness, and her eyes curved into crescent moons. I nearly let out a hollow laugh at the sudden visit and the teasing, but a guest was still a guest.
"Nonsense. Please, have a seat. I'll fetch some tea."
"No need. I'll be leaving shortly."
"Is that so?"
That is excellent news.
I nodded at her words and sat across from her. Fortunately she planned to leave soon; it seemed she intended to state her business and nothing more. I had no idea why Margeta had come at this hour, but I had been meaning to seek her out anyway. Startling as the visit was, it was hardly a bad thing.
I looked at her. She still wore that smile and said nothing. No—if she had come as a guest, shouldn't she be the one to speak first?
"I didn't expect to see you at this hour, Mar. Has something urgent come up?"
"Must we only meet when something is urgent?"
"I wouldn't call a relationship that last saw each other a year ago especially close."
"Once marriage talks have been exchanged, it's hardly an ordinary relationship."
I flinched at the sudden attack. Margeta laughed softly and said she was only joking. The young lady might toss such stones without a thought, but a poor civil servant could die from one of them. I only hoped the young lady before me understood that.
I sighed quietly, and a soft chuckle reached my ears. She hadn't been like this when we first met; at some point she had started teasing me and playing around. It was the teasing of a duke's daughter who received the Iron Blood Duke's full affection—I could neither ignore it nor strike back.
Margeta would never know with what feelings I had refused the marriage proposal the Iron Blood Duke himself had offered. I used to fear that the smiling Margeta might suddenly change and choke me while screaming, "How dare the likes of you refuse!"
I even dreamed, now and then, of being beheaded in front of the ducal residence by the Iron Blood Duke's enraged hand. Horrifying. Thankfully nothing of the sort had happened so far.
"Actually, I came because I have a favor to ask of you, Young Master Karl."
"I'm listening."
"You know the Club Expo is coming up soon, don't you?"
I did. Even if I was only an advisor in name, I was still the Baking Club's advisor; I kept track of that much of the schedule.
Besides, for days now Luise had been declaring, loud enough to make my ears ring, that she would bake this and that for the expo and show it all off. It was impossible not to know. Recalling her voice that still seemed to linger in my ears, I nodded, and Margeta continued.
"The Club Expo isn't simply an internal Academy event. Through the clubs, graduated nobles make contact with the nobles still enrolled—it's practically a social gathering."
I don't understand it myself, she added with a shrug. I had to agree. They would spend decades colliding in high society anyway; was there any real need to crawl into clubs as well? I understood the desire to solidify factions and scout talent early, but still.
"That's why preparing for the Club Expo every year is exhausting work for the Student Council. The budget we handle isn't small, and we never really know if we're managing it properly."
"You've been through a great deal."
"So if Young Master Karl helped us, it would be such a relief."
"Pardon?"
The brazen request made a vacant sound slip out of me. Help? Me?
"Me?"
"Yes. Last year, checking whether the budget had been allocated correctly took the longest time. With you here, I feel it would be finished in no time."
"I have no connection to the Student Council."
"But you are the Academy Inspector, aren't you?"
The more I listened, the more my sense of reality seemed to flee the premises. She wanted me to check whether the budget had moved properly? Because I was the Academy Inspector?
"This is the first time anyone has ever volunteered for an audit."
It was a request I had never imagined. Novel, certainly. Everyone else tried every means to avoid an audit, yet here she was requesting one first. Even under my dubious stare, Margeta kept her smile.
"We haven't committed any corruption, so what is there to fear? We simply want an expert's eye to confirm the budget was handled correctly. Would that be possible, Chief of the Audit Department?"
I felt sorry for the expectant look in Margeta's eyes, but I had not risen to the post of chief by the ability she wanted. The minister and I had both been promoted by rather unusual routes; we were a fair distance from the typical Minister of Finance or Audit Department Chief.
Right after I took the title, I had been so busy cutting down the Second Prince's faction outside and the Finance Ministry's old mainstream inside that I barely had time to breathe. Even now the memory of those days made my vision darken.
...No, but Margeta should know that. How thoroughly the Ministry of Finance had been a mess back then was famous enough that a member of a ducal house would hear it whether she wanted to or not. And knowing that, she still wanted my help?
Perhaps my gaze was thick with negativity, for Margeta pressed the fan she held to her cheek and tilted her head as if troubled.
"Was it an unreasonable request?"
"If my name gets mixed into the Student Council's achievements for no good reason, it will only dilute their meaning."
"What a pity."
She let out a soft sigh at my refusal, looking ready to give up quietly. That was unexpected. I had thought she had come in person at this hour because she was determined. Then again, she said they had managed last year as well, so they probably did not truly need the help.
"Well, there's no telling how long it might take. I don't know how deeply I'll have to throw myself into this either."
"You'll handle it well, Mar. You managed last year, didn't you?"
"Even so, doing it among ourselves is a headache. Some of the council members would step out for 'a breath of air' and then wander around for ages. If Young Master Karl were there, they would quietly focus on the work."
"……"
At Margeta's blatant words I quietly closed my eyes.
She's raising this as a bargaining chip.
On the surface it sounded like "Work is hard, please help me, please," but peel back a single layer and the real intent was plain.
= You don't want me hunting Luise down, do you? Help me, and I'll stay put.
If I cooperated obediently, she would not go hunting Luise wherever she might be in the Academy and would instead sit quietly in the Student Council room doing her work. Good heavens—what a crude deal. Admiration rose unbidden.
And precisely because of that, effective.
It seemed yesterday's sniping at Luise had been the build-up for this moment. By showing herself as a threat to Luise and the club, she could demand that I listen if I wanted that threat removed.
The ploy was transparent, but if I refused here, the sniping that had only been build-up would transform into something far more spectacular and crash down on Luise. That would be troublesome.
Having sorted my thoughts, I opened my eyes again with a light smile.
"Hearing that Mar is having a hard time, I can't simply sit still. If you'll have me, I'll help."
"Thank you, Young Master Karl. I knew I could count on you."
"Hahaha."
From the start, I had entered a fight whose outcome was already decided.
I had agreed to help, yet I never expected her to drag me off at once. Even a duke's daughter was still a student; shouldn't she be returning to class?
"The Student Council is in the council room preparing for the expo. I only stepped out briefly to fetch you, Young Master Karl."
Ah. In that case there was no helping it. Sometimes things more important than class simply existed.
With the heart of a slave being sold off, I followed Margeta to the Student Council room. Right—better to finish this quickly. If it wasn't club time, there was no reason to stay cooped up in the club room anyway.
Before I knew it we had arrived. Margeta knocked a few times for form's sake, then flung the door open before any answer came. If she was going to do that, what was the point of knocking?
I peeked inside and saw six people already gathered. So the Student Council, counting Margeta, made seven. I had never paid them any attention since I had no connection, yet here I was meeting them all at once. This felt extremely awkward.
"Vice President. Who is that outside?"
The male student seated at the head of the table—likely the president—looked toward me with equal awkwardness. What was this? The side that had asked for help acting like that? If Margeta, who had gone to fetch me, had returned, of course she would have brought me with her.
"This is Inspector Karl Crassius, advisor to the Baking Club. I've brought him to seek advice regarding the expo budget."
At those words, my eyes met those of the president who had just watched me enter. Only then did he truly see my face; his pupils shook so hard he could barely control them. Looking around, the other five reacted much the same.
Hey. Don't tell me.
"Mar. Listening to my advice was something the entire Student Council agreed upon, was it not?"
"No."
That single "No" seemed to carry the meaning, Why would I need agreement for a decision I made? Ah. Right. She was that sort of person. I had momentarily forgotten the Valenti ducal house's go-my-own-way temperament.
Under Margeta's gaze, which seemed genuinely curious why I would even ask such a thing, I quietly turned my eyes toward the president at the head of the table.
His face was paper-white; his body had gone rigid as stone. From the president's perspective this must have been a bolt from the blue. The vice president—already difficult enough to deal with because she was a duke's daughter—had suddenly brought an inspector. Interpreting it as "I don't like you, so I've brought him to drag you down" would be entirely understandable.
But it was a misunderstanding. Until now I had stayed buried in the club room precisely because I feared my mere presence would threaten the students. Aside from club members I had met no one, living like a hermit. If I had known this was Margeta's unilateral decision, I would never have come with such a light heart...
Out of apology I gave a small nod. The president squeezed his eyes shut.
Whatever you're thinking, that's not it.
I almost sighed and barely held it back. If I sighed in this situation, the president looked ready to slam his forehead into the table on the spot.