Trampled #3
The battle of wills between the guest and the pest had come to an end.
The pest who had tried to grind the guest underfoot stormed off in a fury.
The guest remained where he was and finished the work still left to him.
My eye for quality, is it…
Hidden in the shadow of the wall, Freesia turned Edgar’s words over and over in her mind. The satisfaction went all the way down to her bones.
It hadn’t been Louis himself, but she had thoroughly crushed the pride of his younger brother, Brodie.
“Hmm…”
A shadow crossed the face that had been bright with pleasure only a moment before. It was hard to believe that Brodie—who looked so much like Louis—would simply back down and leave it at that.
She folded her arms, groaned under the weight of the problem, then snapped her eyes open wide. The thought that she ought to take responsibility pushed her forward.
“Is that true?”
“Yes. The story is spreading quietly through every corner of the palace.”
As the sun began to sink, Louis frowned and let out a long sigh. The servant who had accompanied him had brought unpleasant news.
“Tch. Of all people, to be humiliated by a human of no standing whatsoever.”
The open disgust in his voice filled the room; the servant took a careful step back and lowered his head. Serving at such close range had taught him exactly when he must not become a nuisance. And this was one of those moments.
Lived through another day.
The servant watched for his chance and slipped out of the room at once. The instant he escaped that stifling space, a sigh of pure relief escaped him.
Alone now, Louis tapped the tabletop with his fingertips and sank into thought. The human man the princess herself had brought and appointed as an appraiser. Judging by the way he had made a fool of Brodie, the fellow clearly had ability—yet he was still intensely irritating. A human not even worth treating with respect had dared to put on airs.
What should I do about…
“Chief. The princess has arrived.”
Louis had been completely sealed inside his own world when the servant’s voice from beyond the door dragged him back to reality. The princess? Why?
He erased every thought of Edgar and rose to his feet. To him, Freesia came first—far ahead of a worthless creature like Edgar.
“Show her in.”
“Yes.”
The servant’s respectful reply had barely left his lips when the door opened. Freesia appeared, standing straight and tall.
“Princess. What brings you all the way here?”
“I have something short to say.”
“I understand. Please, take a seat first.”
Louis lifted his head and offered her a chair, but Freesia stepped forward without hesitation and shook her head.
“It’s fine. It isn’t a long enough conversation to need sitting.”
“Ah… very well. I am listening.”
What on earth was this?
Louis studied the princess—so different from the woman he had seen that afternoon—and knitted his brow. At noon she had simply kept her place in silence; now…
“You already know something happened this afternoon, I assume. You have ears.”
“…Yes. I know.”
Louis dropped his gaze and sighed. Being confronted so openly left a sour taste in his mouth.
“I’ve already spoken with your younger brother. I told him not to lay a finger on my guest.”
“What?”
He made no attempt to hide his surprise; he had not expected her to have already visited Brodie. Freesia so rarely took the initiative herself.
And her first step is for the sake of a mere human…
To Louis the whole thing was galling in the extreme. It felt exactly like watching a woman thrash about to protect a man. As if she harbored special feelings for him.
“He is my guest. Do you understand?”
Freesia put particular force into the word “guest,” her eyes cold and settled. The princess’s guest. Louis was not so ignorant that he failed to grasp the meaning. It was a clear order to stop making trouble. And that only made it more irritating.
“May I ask just one thing?”
“Go ahead.”
“Does that human man… truly hold that much value?”
“Of course he does.”
Value? More than enough. That was why she had considered appointing him appraiser in the first place. Yet she no longer thought of Edgar solely in terms of useful ability. That was a recent realization, but still.
Freesia deliberately swallowed the rest of what she might have said and bowed her head—a silent farewell that meant she had nothing further to discuss and would leave at once.
Louis watched her retreating back, then spoke toward the servant waiting outside. The matter had grown far too large to handle according to his own mood.
“Go and fetch Brodie.”
“Yes. At once.”
The servant bowed to Louis and headed straight for the hall where Brodie would be found.
“What did you need me for?”
Brodie arrived with the servant and looked at Louis. Resentment still sat plain on his face—clearly the scolding from Freesia still rankled.
“Sit down first.”
“Yes.”
Brodie took a seat; Louis settled opposite him. Outside, the servant quietly closed the door.
“The princess was just here.”
“The princess… came to see even you, Brother?”
Brodie’s voice rose a little, as though startled.
“She did. She told me not to touch that man. Called him her person.”
“Even if she is the princess, to dare go as far as you—”
“That’s enough of that. In any case, if you were thinking of doing something, drop it. That’s why I called you.”
“What?”
Back down just because the princess had scolded him? The decision made no sense to Brodie. And after the humiliation he had suffered, simply to swallow it?
“But Brother…”
Brodie, choked with defiance and grievance, began to raise his voice—then shut his mouth. Louis’s open palm had cut across his vision.
“It wasn’t anyone else. The princess came in person.”
“I know that. It only means she dotes on the human that much. But even so, a worthless human is still only—”
“You idiot. Have you forgotten the Hundred Yo Beheading?”
The moment Louis growled the words in a low voice, every trace of resentment melted from Brodie’s face like snow. He had recalled the disastrous incident his clearly displeased brother had just named.
“U-uhmm…”
Brodie gave an embarrassed little cough; Louis continued.
“Good. I’m glad you remember. If you’d been stupid enough to forget, it would have been a pain for my mouth.”
Even though his own older brother had openly scorned him, Brodie could not utter a single protest. He might be the sort who was weak before the strong and strong before the weak, but the shock of the Hundred Yo Beheading had been enormous. Nearly ten years later it still remained vivid, impossible to forget.
“…Yes. I remember.”
“Then forget this whole affair. Wipe that human from your mind as well. Understood?”
Louis’s eyes flashed as he asked. All Brodie could do was nod.
“You worked hard.”
The day after Edgar finally finished appraising the tribute goods, Freesia came to his room. He welcomed her and served tea—deodeok tea made from the leftovers of the roots they had eaten and used for wine.
“Thank you.”
“The western lot have always been a bit strange. Not all of them—just some.”
Ugh…!
The instant Freesia took a sip of the deodeok tea her face crumpled. The fragrance was pleasant, but the earthy bitterness that lingered on the tongue was another matter.
“It was fine when we roasted it with seasoning… this is just wrong.”
“You still have to drink it. Especially someone of your high station, Princess.”
The dry remark from Edgar made Freesia’s brow crease even tighter. She gripped the teacup she had set on the table, squeezed both eyes shut, and tossed the rest of the deodeok tea down in one gulp.
“Ugh… so bitter!”
“It is, isn’t it. Bitter.”
Edgar found the bitterness of the deodeok tea every bit as unfamiliar; he simply didn’t show it the way she did.
“From now on, when I need to torture someone I’ll just make them drink this tea. Humane and effective.”
Freesia shook her head as she looked down at the empty cup. The joke must have been fairly amusing, because a faint smile touched the corner of Edgar’s mouth.
“Using such expensive tea for torture would be a waste of money.”
“Price is something buyers and sellers decide, and there isn’t a single person around who’ll do that. So for now, call it free.”
Even while claiming the deodeok had no value, Freesia still set a high price on it. The head cook and the people working in the medicine store all valued deodeok highly. Of course the high worth came from the fact that these roots were fifty years old; not every deodeok was expensive.
“Anyway. You really went through a lot this time. That damned bastard made himself a real nuisance, didn’t he?”
“That damned bastard…?”
“Brodie. The black-haired guy. He’s the western chief’s younger brother, so his nose is stuck pretty high in the air—no, extremely high.”
“Western chief” meant the chief of the western territories. Edgar knew that much, so he didn’t bother asking what the title meant. No wonder.
He knew who the chiefs ruling the lands of the Yo clan were, and which figures carried weight in the story. But the name Brodie had only brushed past him in passing. That meant Brodie held almost no importance in the main plot.
“Ah… no wonder.”
“No wonder it felt off, right? You don’t even have to say it.”
Freesia looked at Edgar with something like pity and gave a short sigh.
“I’ve given him a solid warning for now, but if that bastard picks another fight, tell me. I won’t let it slide next time.”
“You… gave him a warning?”
Edgar tilted his head; Freesia nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Of course. You’re my guest.”
“Even so… are you all right? It won’t cause you any trouble?”
Worry filled every note of Edgar’s voice as he asked again.
Honestly…
Other people worried about her as well. Given her exalted station, that was only natural. Yet the only person who had ever worried purely for Freesia herself had been Iris. Everyone else’s concern had always been mixed with the fear that she might somehow make a mistake.
But the look in Edgar’s eyes and the tone of his voice were exactly like Iris’s. That confused Freesia. Even after all the kindness she had shown him, she had never expected a human to worry for her with such pure sincerity.
“I’m fine. I may not look like much, but I’m a princess. The Great Chief’s one and only daughter. The next Great Chief.”
I already know that.
She was broad-minded enough even to consider contact with humans. Edgar recalled the Freesia he had seen in the story and nodded. Meeting her in person had revealed a personality somewhat different from the descriptions… yet moments like this showed that the foundation had not changed.
Ah. Recalling the past, a thought suddenly brushed through his mind, and he spoke it aloud.
“Um… Princess. How do the people of the Yo clan conduct trade?”