Outside the Academy Is Dangerous – 2
Who was the biggest victim of this school trip fiasco? Me, the man who'd accidentally opened fire on a Golden Duke-line house this year and was now stuck going to the Golden Duke's own territory? The Student Council, who'd originally planned to pick some quiet, convenient fief and take it easy? Regrettably, neither. The true victims were someone else entirely.
"I heard it was the Boyar Duchy."
"Yes. That's how it turned out."
Namely, the escort forces of the three kingdoms, who spent every day praying that nothing would happen to their charges. And regrettably, the gods of this world were not the sort to answer prayers with any particular zeal. Go all-in on the prayer meta and you'd go under unless you were someone on Tanian's level.
"Boyar Duchy… I've heard of it myself. A place with beautiful seas, is it not? It will be a special experience for the students living inland at the Academy."
"I agree."
Villar spoke calmly, but what he was really screaming inside was, Why in the world are we going from the inland Academy all the way to coastal Boyar? I understood. If the decision to go to Boyar had been an internal Academy matter, I would have steered them somewhere else myself. But this was what the Golden Duke wanted. There was no stopping it.
"As this is the first school trip ever held, there are quite a few people watching with interest. It will become one of the Academy's major annual events, so of course it's intriguing."
= This is already beyond anything I can influence. If I force the issue, I'm the one who gets crushed.
"I can fully sympathize. Travel that breaks the monotony of daily life is a joy, after all. Still, as it is the first school trip, I can't help but worry there may be many growing pains."
= I understand going on a school trip. But is Boyar really the best choice? Is nowhere else possible?
"Haha, I was worried myself, but the Academy has put in a truly remarkable amount of work. I think it will be a delightful trip."
= Not a chance. It's Boyar, no matter what.
The conversation was exchanged with bright smiles, but the atmosphere underneath was anything but pleasant. This wasn't a dialogue I was steering in the direction I wanted—it was me delivering news of something I myself hated to the other party. Sorry, Villar. Everyone at the Academy was simply the one getting notified by the Golden Duke.
"They say Boyar's seas are captivating. Some places are emerald, others like sapphire. I hope Sir Villar will take the chance to enjoy himself as well."
"Just hearing about it makes my heart race. Thank you."
Only then did Villar's expression, darkened by the unexpected disaster, brighten a little. With those words of mine, he had just confirmed that the three kingdoms' escort forces—or at worst, Villar himself—would at least be allowed into the Boyar Duchy.
If the school trip destination had been a fief near the Academy as originally planned, none of this fretting would have been necessary. The three kingdoms' forces could have waited at the Academy and rushed out in an emergency, or at least used the bizarre excuse that they just happened to be passing through the area at a faculty member's request.
But Boyar, at the southernmost tip? Waiting at the Academy was out of the question, and no excuse would hold water there. Even a nearby fief would have been a stretch—Boyar was beyond discussion. So of course he felt relieved when I said I would put in a word.
Without you lot, I'm finished too.
Even during the expo held inside the Academy, I had pulled the three kingdoms' forces in as booth staff just to cover variables. This time it was outside the Academy entirely—a resort packed with countless crowds. I had no confidence I could watch over the clubs alone.
The problem was that I still hadn't received the Golden Duke's permission for the three kingdoms' forces to enter. Still, the Golden Duke wasn't the type to let words go in one ear and out the other. Frame it as escort for important foreign personages, and he would understand well enough.
The only real inconvenience was that I would have to contact him myself to get that permission. I still felt awkward facing the Golden Duke after the whole Yorun Count House affair.
"I hope the Chief Auditor will also use this trip to rest and recover from his fatigue."
"That's kind of you to say."
When I fell silent for a moment, Villar offered the remark carefully. I hope you can rest was code for I'll do everything I can to keep you from having to step in during the school trip. Getting this kind of consideration every time trouble broke out made me want to say something nice in return.
Unfortunately, with Villar's limited authority, the best he could do was reduce the number of things I had to worry about. Still, even that was something. At least he wasn't just taking and wiping his mouth clean afterward.
Just go home already.
Honestly, if he truly wanted to do me a favor, he didn't need anything else. Please, just take your prince and go home as soon as possible.
After returning to my quarters, I sat for a long time just turning the communication crystal over in my hands. My head knew it was better to call quickly and state my business quickly. My heart just hadn't caught up yet.
He's going to dump something else on me. I can feel it.
That feeling was back—the sense that if I called to make a request, I would end up receiving something instead. Last time, the Yorun incident had been patched up somehow through the Third Section Chief's tearful grand kowtow, but the fact remained that I had beaten a count house of the ducal line to within an inch of its life. He would probably bring that up and casually toss me a quest.
Of course, the Golden Duke was a man of strict give-and-take. Even if he forced a quest on me by dredging up the past, the reward for success would be substantial. Still—sometimes it was better not to work and not get paid than to do annoying work and get paid for it. And that time was now.
I can't exactly get promoted to duke by being a pain in the ass, either.
After long hesitation, I finally let out a sigh and placed the call to the Golden Duke. Annoy a minister and you might become a minister someday—but annoy a duke and you might as well bite your tongue and die. What choice did I have? If you were born below a duke, you lived by adapting.
"Audit Department Chief, is it? I've been waiting."
Before long, the Golden Duke's face appeared. A middle-aged man with neatly kept salt-and-pepper hair set down the cigar from his mouth. Papers near his chin suggested he had taken the call mid-work.
I was about to bow my head in greeting according to protocol when the Golden Duke spoke first.
"Let's get straight to the point. I understand there are escort forces from the three kingdoms present."
"Yes, there are."
"They may enter. All of them, if they wish—just let me know the numbers."
"Understood, Your Grace. Thank you."
"It's for a loyal subject of the Empire. This much is only proper, is it not?"
He laughed lightly, as if it were nothing—the Golden Duke, living emblem of clean deals. He had granted exactly what I wanted before I even opened my mouth.
"Ah. This is a personal request of mine, however."
And then, as expected, came the Golden Duke's Forced Quest Hour. A duke's "personal request"? Call it a request all you like—who could refuse?
"Please speak. I am listening carefully."
"Hmm."
Rarely, the Golden Duke paused and rested his chin on one hand. He sometimes twisted his words into elaborate roundabouts, but I had seldom seen him hesitate over speaking itself. Not a good sign.
"Have you heard of the Kraken?"
"Yes, I have hea—"
Wait. Surely not.
"…ard of it, yes."
"Good. Now you'll have the chance to see one yourself."
You son of a bitch.
How could he say something like that as if it were good news?
The Kraken—a giant squid that roamed the seas smashing warships like so much soft biscuit. Not a common sight, but not something you wanted to see either, and something you absolutely should not see. And "a chance to see one yourself" was pure nonsense.
If a peer of mine at the department-chief level had said that, I would have unloaded every curse I knew. Losing my words at the remark, the Golden Duke seemed a bit sheepish and laughed lightly. All right—so he still had a conscience.
"There happened to be a Kraken habitat near the resort we recently finished constructing."
Or not. Did he?
"Don't misunderstand. We only began construction after determining it was safe. The creatures were so deep that we only noticed after everything was already built."
"I am concerned whether it is truly suitable as a resort destination."
"The habitat has been thoroughly cleared. Every adult Kraken has been subjugated."
The problem was that one juvenile had escaped, the Golden Duke added, and I rubbed my chin for a moment. From the way he phrased it as "escaped," it sounded like a single cub had barely survived and staged a tearful getaway. At least the resort safety issue was resolved.
"But that juvenile is no ordinary cunning little thing. Having watched its own kind get subjugated, it's extremely cautious. Even when we finally find its hiding place, it refuses to surface. We have to fire lightning magic into the sea just to get it to come up for a moment."
"A troublesome situation indeed."
Normally, Krakens knew they were overwhelmingly larger and stronger than humans, so they appeared boldly whenever a ship floated by.
Of course, they never expected that ship to be carrying the duchy's elite mage corps. The moment they broke the surface they got hammered and evolved into whole steamed squid. Wait—was that evolution or devolution? At least in terms of flavor, it counted as an evolution.
Anyway, the juvenile that had watched its parents meet that fate in real time was now stubbornly enduring underwater, teeth gritted. How deep must it have hidden if even getting electrocuted only made it pop up briefly before diving again?
"So I need someone who can subjugate the Kraken in that brief moment it surfaces."
As soon as the Golden Duke finished speaking, I understood why he had paused so uncharacteristically.
As if anyone knows when that thing will show itself.
Given that he was making this request of me as I came for the school trip, he had at least narrowed down the appearance zone. He wasn't so tactless as to chain me to a completely open-ended job. The problem was that I had no guarantee how long I would be stuck on a ship while we combed that entire zone.
For all I knew, I might spend the entire school trip on the sea and only catch it on the last day. That would be extremely not ideal.
"I'm asking a busy Audit Department Chief, so of course I can put in this much effort myself."
As he spoke, the Golden Duke held up three fingers—meaning he would add thirty percent on top of the funds he usually funneled to the Audit Department.
Hmmm.
"It is a creature that must be subjugated for the safety of the people and the students."
After a brief deliberation, I nodded firmly.
Of course, it was the Golden Duke who had suddenly destroyed the habitat of a Kraken family living so quietly that no one noticed until after the resort was built, and who had killed every last one of its relatives. But what could you do? If you didn't like it, you should have reincarnated as a human. The only good monster was a dead monster.
"As expected, the Chief Auditor's patriotism is on another level. This duke will remember the Chief Auditor's efforts on behalf of the people."
"It is an honor, Your Grace."
And so ended a conversation that left everyone satisfied.
A Kraken wandering the very seas where students were supposed to play? Utterly intolerable. This wicked Kraken—I would send it to join its parents.