Outside the Academy Is Dangerous - 3
My conversation with the Golden Duke ended far more satisfactorily than I had feared.
First, at the earnest request of His Grace the Golden Duke, I would be dealing with a single baby Kraken. Fortunately, I could bring the entire three-kingdom contingent along, so I could hand off the escort duty for a while and enjoy a little boating. And the Duke was tossing in an extra thirty percent on the reward? How was anyone supposed to refuse that? Anyone who could would have to be some kind of ideological freak.
No matter how I looked at it, it felt a bit like cleaning up a victim that had lost its home because humans wrecked the ecosystem—but that wasn’t important. What mattered to me wasn’t some “Tears of the Kraken” trilogy; it was the thirty-percent-up event on my glittering gold-colored sincerity.
Besides, wouldn’t even a baby Kraken rather go to its parents’ side than keep living in this world of nothing but pain? I was simply helping it reach that result a little faster. How many people were as considerate as me?
“Come to the casino first. We’ll talk in detail there.”
And once I arrived in Boyar, I already had a place I needed to run straight to. Meeting at the casino instead of the ducal castle was a little unexpected, but nothing worth fretting over. Apparently VIP rooms at the casino were used for meetings often enough.
Anyway, I was glad I could deliver good news to Villar tomorrow. Once he heard the entire three-kingdom force could move to Boyar, he would be thrilled.
I can also tell him I’ll be stepping out for a bit then.
Villar had already said he would try to keep the situations that required me to step forward to a minimum. When I was bringing him glad tidings like this, he wasn’t going to raise a fuss about me stepping away. If anything, he might shove a floatie into my hands and tell me to go rest properly.
Ah, right—I still needed cookies to offer Villar. Today I had eaten better than usual, so the supply was short. I would have to ask Luise for more.
Oppa asked for cookies again today. It wasn’t difficult work, but even if I thought of them as being for the young lady, the amount was still far too large. Anything left over would go soft and lose its texture—would that be all right?
“Sir Villar is coming, you see. Yesterday the amount felt a little short.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“Sorry. I ate so well I wanted to make sure he got some too.”
“Hehe, it’s fine.”
I opened the oven with a small smile for Oppa, who was apologizing.
Sir Villar. A knight from Armein, same as Ryutis. He met with Oppa fairly often, and we had already owed him a great deal at the expo, so I knew his face well enough. Being a knight, he would certainly eat well. In that case, making plenty would be fine.
Everyone eats so well.
Lately the cookies I made were ordinary ones, unlike the ones I usually gave Oppa. If the cookies Oppa served his guests tasted terrible, it would damage his dignity.
Still, it was a little regrettable. I had always been slipping all sorts of things said to be good for the body into the cookies for Oppa, who always looked so tired, but these days I couldn’t do any of that, so I had no time to look after him. At best I was giving him tea leaves said to be healthy, but I had no idea how much effect they even had.
When I snuck a glance at Oppa’s complexion, the faint dark circles stood out as usual. So there was no real effect? Even so, he didn’t look as if he were struggling too badly.
I should have kept giving him the usual ones.
After learning at the expo that Oppa’s sense of taste wasn’t normal, I had started packing in ingredients focused on efficacy rather than flavor. It was only possible because, sadly, Oppa couldn’t properly taste things.
If those ingredients improved Oppa’s body and his taste recovered as well, he would notice that my cookies were strange, and then I could just apologize for making them wrong. Oppa would give a little laugh and let it go. I had thought it wasn’t a bad method.
But if the health cookies meant for Oppa went into anyone else’s mouth it would be a disaster, so lately I simply couldn’t give them to him. What good was a not-bad method if I couldn’t actually use it?
Should I make something else?
I turned over the desserts I could make in my head. Something that couldn’t be handed out as casually as cookies. Something that, if Oppa received it, he would eat alone out of sheer courtesy if nothing else.
What was there… Ah, cake? Should I try making a big cake?
The closer the school-trip date drew, the more haggard the student council president’s face became, and Margeta’s smile grew a little fainter by the day. It was a pity—these were children still in the middle of growing.
Unfortunately there was nothing I could do to help, so becoming Margeta’s conversation partner was all I had. Even so, she seemed glad of that much; while talking about work she appeared to be venting the worries she had been bottling up.
The problem was that as time passed, a faint catch of tears began to edge into Margeta’s voice. It was so slight that you wouldn’t notice unless you were paying close attention.
“We have to secure carriages for hundreds of people, confirm the routes those carriages will take, make sure there are cities for rest stops along the way, find lodging that matches our station…”
“You’re really working hard.”
The more I listened, the more a queasy feeling rose. From the sound of it alone, she was practically drawing up a military march route. That was exactly why the student council had wanted to go to a nearby territory in the first place.
“Mar, have you been sleeping properly these days?”
“I sleep whenever I have a free moment. Don’t worry.”
I couldn’t help the pity that welled up at her bashful smile. Sleep wasn’t something you grabbed when you had spare time; it was an essential act you had to secure even when you didn’t. This young lady, already tasting civil-service life in advance, had already had her way of thinking twisted.
Not long ago I had stepped into the vice-president’s office and found her asleep face-down on the desk. I hadn’t wanted to wake her by moving her to the sofa, so I had draped my coat over her and waited; before long she had woken on her own. Understanding both the wish that she sleep even a little and the fact that every minute asleep only piled the work higher, I hadn’t been able to say a word.
I had pretended not to see Margeta startle when she looked at me with still-dazed eyes. I had also pretended not to notice that the coat she said she would wash and return after dropping it on the floor had come back as an entirely new one.
“Even so, I can’t tell you how much comfort Young Master Karl gives me.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
I gave a light nod at Margeta’s smiling face and casually pushed Luise’s cookies toward her. She immediately picked one up and ate it—an all-too-familiar sight.
Exactly how the deputy chief used to do it.
Not eating for the taste so much as cramming something in for the nutrients. Yet I couldn’t understand why Margeta was showing me that same look. This was a young lady? The young ladies I knew weren’t this pitiful.
“It would be nice if next year were somewhere close.”
I had meant it as comfort—that I hoped next year would be easier—but Margeta seemed to catch herself; her chewing mouth stopped. She finished chewing and swallowing in silence, then carefully opened her mouth.
“…I think the school-trip destination will keep being Boyar from now on.”
“Ah.”
The Golden Duke clearly had no intention of letting this school-trip windfall be a one-off. So Boyar was becoming this world’s Gyeongju or Jeju Island.
Watching Margeta reach for another cookie with an even gloomier air, I was reminded of a certain red-haired woman fleeing the student council.
Poor thing.
I quietly refilled Margeta’s teacup. I only hoped her heart wouldn’t break and that she would pull through well.
At the southern tip of the empire someone’s laughter, and at the Academy someone’s sigh, heralded the morning of the school trip.
Somehow she actually managed to get them all.
The sight of well over a hundred carriages lined up in a row made my chest swell of its own accord. With the entire first, second, and third years plus the faculty having to move, this many were necessary.
But thinking about it, it was strange. What kind of school trip took every grade together? Of course, from the student council’s standpoint, packing everyone into one trip was more convenient than drawing up the schedule three separate times.
“Young Master Karl. If you change your mind, please tell me anytime.”
“Haha, understood.”
Margeta approached from behind me as I was admiring the imposing carriages. Seeing her keep this up to the very end, she clearly still regretted it, but I had my own circumstances and hoped she would understand.
Each four-person carriage had been assigned four people, or sometimes three. Margeta’s carriage had been assigned three, and she had been inviting me to ride with them since yesterday. But I already had a carriage of my own.
It’s more comfortable being next to Luise.
Fortunately Luise’s carriage had also been assigned three, so I could slip into that one. The school trip itself was an event, but incidents could break out on the way there too. Thinking of that, it was simply more peaceful for the mind to stick close by her side.
There was just one minor problem: one of the members riding with Luise bothered me quite a bit. Still, there was nothing to be done. This was official business.
“What? You’re in this carriage too, hyung?”
“That’s how it turned out.”
After parting from Margeta and heading to Luise’s carriage, Erich greeted me. Sorry—without me, he would have been the only male member in this carriage. On the way he could have made some progress with Luise…
No.
Progress, my foot. For a moment I had overestimated the kid far too much.
Shaking off that absurd thought, I climbed into the carriage—and found no one but Erich. What? Why was only he here?
“Aren’t there two more?”
“They’ll be here soon. Said they were chatting with some of the others first.”
“That so?”
As expected of the pink capybara who stood at the center of people. Even in this fleeting moment she was naturally deepening her friendships.
Before long a noisy air rose outside the carriage, and the door opened. Pink hair thrust itself in; she must have come running in a hurry.
“Sorry! I’m so la— Huh? Oppa?”
“I’m coming along too.”
I gave a light wave toward Luise, whose eyes had gone wide in surprise; a smile began to bloom on her blank face. Nice of her to welcome me.
So they came together.
Shifting my gaze past the brightly smiling Luise, I saw a head of golden hair swaying this way and that. Her body was hidden behind Luise so that only her hair stuck out, as if she were trying to hide from my sight—of course it had no effect.
“Hello. It’s been a while.”
“Ah, y-yes, h-hello.”
Since we were going to share a carriage, I offered a greeting; the way she answered while trembling all over was simply pitiful.
“Irina? What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?”
“I’m fine, it’s nothing.”
Irina answered Luise’s worried question with an awkward smile. Sorry—I hadn’t wanted to put her through this if I could help it either.
Seeing the faint fear settle in Irina’s blue eyes, I almost sighed.