Warm Southern Territory - 6
His Excellency the Golden Duke — just, upright, and worthy of every ounce of respect — had declared that the support funds allocated to the Audit Department would increase by fifty percent.
Fifty percent for a single spear throw.
For a fleeting second, a miraculous calculation flashed through my mind: if I'd thrown all three spears, that would have been a one-hundred-fifty-percent boost. Of course, saying that out loud would have flooded high society with rumors that the Audit Department Chief was short a few brain cells.
Still, the reward was enormous compared to the effort involved. It was the kind of payout that would have made riding a ship for the entire school trip bearable — and yet the subjugation had succeeded in less than a day. A gift from heaven for a man who'd suffered nothing but hardship until now?
One female student had taken a deep wound to the heart in the process, but at least she hadn't been physically hurt.
"I'm glad it seems to have pleased you."
"I can only thank you for such generous consideration."
The Golden Duke's hearty laugh was the very picture of a great man's magnanimity and a sage's generosity. As expected, when life gets hard and exhausting, financial therapy is the best medicine. Suddenly the whole world looked different.
"Come by the casino when you have the chance. Sending everything to the Audit Department is a hassle, so you should take a portion for yourself."
Ah.
His suggestion that I come to the casino to collect it made me realize, a beat too late, what I'd forgotten. The surprise fifty-percent windfall had made me overlook the truly important part.
"Could you promise me just one thing?"
Margeta, carefully holding out her pinky, looking at me with dewy eyes. At the time I'd made that promise intending never to get caught — but thinking about it now, trying to slip past her notice was a risky business.
The absurd probability that Irina would be waiting on some remote stretch of beach had already exploded in my face; I no longer trusted my luck. And I didn't believe for a second that every Academy student was so diligent they'd never set foot in a casino. Word that I'd visited one could easily hop from person to person until it reached Margeta's ears.
If it were Margeta, she'd get angry and then forgive me in the end. Even so, I didn't want to disappoint her. It would feel like taking advantage of her goodwill.
"Your Excellency, if I may be so bold — would it be possible to send the full amount to the Audit Department?"
"It isn't a small sum. Without going through the casino, it will take some time. Are you sure that's all right?"
"If Your Excellency doesn't mind, I would be grateful."
At that, the Golden Duke fell silent for a moment, then let out a small laugh.
"You're already living under the thumb, and you aren't even engaged yet."
The Golden Duke's casual remark shut my mouth this time. My brain briefly froze at the sudden turn.
I have nothing to say to that.
Come to think of it, the place where I'd made the promise with Margeta had been the resort lobby. With the Golden Duke's eyes and ears everywhere, he would have had every chance to know already.
"A harmonious marriage is important, of course. But living completely under someone's thumb is also a problem. Even between husband and wife, a little autonomy ought to be guaranteed, don't you think?"
"I'll take that to heart."
Coming from a man with twelve wives, the argument had a strangely devastating persuasiveness.
"Well, if that's your situation, it can't be helped. Let me know if you change your mind along the way."
"Thank you for your consideration, Your Excellency."
In the end, the Golden Duke accepted a little extra bother and agreed to send everything to the Audit Department. The fact that he granted even this request suggested there was still a bit of change left over from the Kraken subjugation.
I set aside the communication orb whose connection had cut out and lay down on the bed. Right. I just needed to get through this once. I'd visited casinos plenty of times before, but this was the first time Margeta had caught me.
Getting caught this time was the fault of being in Boyar together and the wild card known as Tanian. Next visit, I wouldn't have to sweat like this. There was no reason for me and Margeta to come all the way to Boyar again — and even less reason to do so with that bastard Tanian.
Now I can finally rest a little.
The only real assignment — the Kraken subjugation — was done, and the matter of the reward was settled. As for the club members, who were always liable to go flying off in some unpredictable direction, Villar and the combined power of three kingdoms would be watching them with eyes ablaze.
Wow. How long had it been since I'd been able to rest this easy? When I'd first heard we were going to Boyar, I'd thought I was going to lose my mind — but now that I was here, there was nowhere better.
A man who rules a single club is fated to have a peaceful heart and an unpeaceful body. A tragic destiny.
I glanced back, and Luise, who had just stepped down from the carriage, came up beside me with a bright smile.
"They say it's a forest laid out like a maze. The flowers are arranged by season, so it's supposed to be beautiful."
"That sounds great. You managed to find a place like that?"
"Hehe. One of the staff told me about it."
A little past evening, there had been a knock, and Luise had come in. While I'd been away, she'd apparently found places for us to go together. Watching her eyes sparkle as she insisted she'd only picked the best spots and that I'd be satisfied, I simply couldn't refuse.
I'd never had children — I'd never even been married — but I imagined a kid looking forward to going to an amusement park with Dad on Children's Day would look exactly like that. How crushed would she be if I said no? I didn't want to become the pitiful club advisor who threw himself into club work and failed to look after his own members.
Right. We'd come all the way to Boyar; touring around a bit would be nice. I'd never even heard of a maze forest before. Was it a recent addition?
"They say people sometimes can't find the exit."
"What a vicious place."
Just how determined had they been when they built it that you could get stuck inside and never come out?
Fortunately, they handed you a map and a signal flare before you entered, and firing the flare would bring a rescue team — but was that really fortunate? Having to call a rescue team because you couldn't escape something like this sounded deeply embarrassing.
"I thought only the beaches were famous, but they've got all kinds of things."
Before long, Erich, who'd followed Luise down from the carriage, came over. The guy had been sprawled out in his room after stuffing himself full, yet the moment Luise said they should go, he'd come down at impressive speed. The other four had been the same.
"The duchy is huge, after all. The inland regions are broad too, so there are plenty of tourist spots besides the beaches."
It was so extensive that even the wine famous as the most expensive in the Empire was produced in Boyar — one of the duchy's specialties. Frankly, even if the Golden Duke couldn't make wine, he seemed like the sort of man who'd try to sell seawater by declaring, "This is emerald water!"
Anyway, I shifted a little to leave the spot beside Luise free, and Erich took it. When our eyes met, he nodded. He was getting pretty good at reading the room. Please grow about five times faster on that front. Watching him is driving me crazy.
"The days are long, but if we don't hurry, it will get dark."
The devil's mouth — no, Tanian — surveyed the surroundings and spoke. True, the days had grown longer as summer approached, but if we played around too mindlessly, night could fall before we knew it. Wandering a maze after dark didn't sound ideal.
"Since we're here, shouldn't we look around a bit?"
"It's a tourist site to begin with. It should be laid out so you can take it in at a leisurely pace. If it doesn't feel right, we can pick up the speed then."
Ryutis and Ainter were in favor of a relaxed tour. That way they could stick a little closer to Luise for that much longer. They'd already played to their hearts' content during the day; they were a greedy bunch.
"That's true. I suppose I spoke unnecessarily."
Even Tanian quickly dropped his objection and threw his weight behind a long tour. It looked as though we'd be walking back to the resort under the stars.
Meanwhile, Luise was turning the signal flare over in her hands, fascinated by the thing, and the map ended up in Later's. He claimed he'd find the optimal path and guide us, so he could handle it however he liked.
"Mages really are smart!"
Ryutis's laughing voice was booming as ever today. But a map was something anyone could read, mage or not.
Dwelling on it only costs me.
My deliberation was short and my judgment swift. Right — maybe the map was surprisingly hard to read. Ryutis was a man of action; he might be weak at orienteering. You didn't need orienteering for a tourist maze map, but still. That was the story I was going with.
Naturally, the sun set in no time. It was already past evening to begin with, and there were five of them determined to drag things out. What chance did daylight have?
Useless brats.
They were remarkably united in the strangest places. They spent their time checking one another at every turn, so why did their hearts beat as one for this?
"It's so cool and nice!"
I turned toward the light footsteps and saw Luise wandering here and there. Far from being frightened by the dark forest, she seemed even more lively. Were capybaras nocturnal? Still, it was cooler once the sun went down.
"We barely got to see the flowers, though."
The regrettable part was that the flowers the maze forest boasted of were hard to see properly once it grew dark.
"It's fine. I see flowers all the time anyway."
"Then why did we come here?"
A laugh slipped out at her sunny answer. Then again, Luise was the sort who prowled the flowerbeds at the Academy constantly. Unless the forest were carpeted in flowers carved from gold, the scenery wouldn't be that novel. She simply seemed happy to walk around with people.
"This atmosphere is perfect for a ghost to show up."
"Ghosts, huh. With the next Saint here, even if there were any, they couldn't come out."
"Haha. Still, I almost hope one does. I've never seen a ghost."
The dark forest seemed to have stimulated the sensibilities of high-spirited teenagers, because strange chatter began to surface. Left to themselves, they started pulling out ghost stories they'd half-heard, as if they meant to film a summer horror special right there.
"—So the answer, apparently, is to overwhelm them with pure physical force before they even have time to lay a curse."
"I see. So this is how one learns."
What on earth are you people talking about?
"……"
"Luise?"
Watching the members put on this insane school-trip reenactment of midnight ghost-story sharing, I realized Luise had quietly drifted up beside me.
Ah. Her face had gone stiff. She was weak to this kind of talk.
"Later, don't you know anything?"
"Let's go through them one by one. We can decide whose story ranks first."
Regardless, the teenagers hooked on ghost stories made Later their next target. He had been quiet for a while, walking with his eyes fixed on the map.
"Is a personal experience all right?"
"Oh, even better."
Only then did Later lift his eyes from the map and speak in a low voice.
"We're lost."
"What."
"We've been circling the same place for a while. I have no idea where we are."
Luise's face grew even paler. Rescue team or not, the thought of being lost in a pitch-black forest while under siege by ghost stories seemed to make her dizzy.
A breathless silence settled over us for a moment, and Later nodded as if satisfied.
"That was a joke."
"…You win."
First place in ghost stories was awarded to Later by unanimous vote.
And until we returned to the resort, Luise carefully avoided looking in Later's direction.