Revisiting the Past (2)
“Hmm….”
Ellie fell into thought.
She had to secure a source of funds, but it was a little heartbreaking that the source in question was her friend’s allowance.
Besides, Isabel’s allowance wasn’t really a good funding source to begin with, even if the amount was more than enough. In the end, it would just be taking a slice out of money someone else had been given.
What if the Duke got angry and said, “What do you think you’re doing with the money I gave you so you could live comfortably and use it for something meaningful!”?
The orphanage would be in immediate trouble, and Isabel would be utterly devastated in her own right. Especially since it had started with good intentions.
And here, Ellie’s thoughts took a slightly different turn from everyone else’s.
Then wouldn’t it be better to get direct support from the Duke?
That made sense.
The problem was that this orphanage wasn’t in the Shukr Duchy—it was in the territory of Marquis Repeat.
If it were an orphanage within his own lands, there’d be all kinds of social benefits to maintaining it, so he might even establish one on purpose. But helping someone else’s orphanage was just a waste of money.
Then wouldn’t it be better to move the orphanage?
That, too, was easier said than done.
The Shukr Duchy, Isabel’s family line, was made up of the northern demesne and an eastern border territory.
The north was far too distant, but the eastern border territory was only a day’s carriage ride away. If they left the building behind and moved only the children, some of the staff, and a little luggage.
But from the marquis’s point of view, it would look as though the orphans he’d been too afraid to clear out because of his own notorious reputation had “escaped,” and from the duke’s point of view, a bunch of orphans had suddenly arrived demanding land and buildings.
In theory, it was possible.
But who was going to persuade two nobles, and how?
In the end, it was one of those things that sounded simple and sounded right, but couldn’t actually be done.
For ordinary people, at least.
For Ellie, there was the resolve and drive to actually carry it out.
And above all, there was power—and connections.
First I’ll go see the marquis, then I’ll convince Isabel’s father like this… yeah, that should do it.
Ellie finished forming her plan in her head.
Just then, a girl appeared from inside the orphanage. It was Mary, who had always suffered from an eye disease.
“E-Elly, n-nim….”
Of course, her eye condition had been cured by now, and although vision in one eye remained reduced, she was now opening both eyes properly.
“Mary. I told you not to call me that.”
“B-but….”
Mary fidgeted for a moment, then held out a large, thick book from behind her back.
“This… Ellie… you were looking for….”
Written on the cover were the words Complete Compendium of Imperial Nobility.
Ellie didn’t know who had donated it and brought it to the orphanage, but thanks to that book, she’d been able to learn about each noble family even before going to the Academy.
“Thanks.”
“N-no….”
Mary lowered her head deeply.
She had once been one of Ellie’s friends, but after Ellie returned as a mage, she couldn’t even bring herself to look her in the eye.
It was a bitter thing.
Back then, Clea and Stella had instinctively realized that Ellie stood above them in rank.
And then, in their own ways, they had worked to meet Ellie on equal footing. Deep down, they knew they had to if they wanted to remain Ellie’s friends.
By contrast, the children of the orphanage, including Mary, had never even imagined they could dare to do the same.
And Ellie couldn’t blame them.
No matter what circumstances each child had, you couldn’t demand the same standard from noble-born children and from children who had spent their whole lives as orphans, abused by that monster Doloria.
Still, in the end, that difference meant the orphanage children could no longer be Ellie’s friends.
It was, truly, a bitter thing.
But it was unavoidable, so Ellie swallowed the bitterness and smiled.
“Good news will be coming soon. Life’s going to get a lot better too. So I want everyone to stay happy and, someday, find their own paths. Could you pass that on to everyone for me?”
“Yes…!”
“Yeah. Thanks, Mary.”
Ellie took the book from the girl.
It was time to leave. There was nothing left for her to do here.
“Well then.”
“W-wait. Elly, n-nim.”
Mary raised her face again, and tears were streaming down both her eyes.
“I-I pray… every day….”
The girl cried as much as she wanted. Now, even if she cried, her heart might hurt, but her eyes wouldn’t hurt anymore.
“I’ll keep praying for you, forever, Ellie-nim.”
Their paths had split.
They could no longer be friends.
And yet she would love her for life, worship her, and be grateful to her until the end of her days.
“If you ever need a life, please call on me anytime.”
Ellie laughed softly this time.
“Mages don’t take offerings, whether they’re people or not.”
To ordinary commoners who knew nothing of magic, mages were mysterious and fearsome beings, and there were plenty of misunderstandings and prejudices.
It was the kind of thing an ignorant girl could say, and it might even have been rude.
And yet.
“Still, I’m grateful for your feelings.”
Ellie expressed her thanks because Mary had meant it sincerely.
No matter the reason, Ellie could see in her eyes that if Ellie ever truly demanded her life, Mary would really offer it without hesitation.
That feeling, as heavy as a human life, Ellie carefully accepted, faced in return, and thanked her for.
“Ah….”
Mary, whose one and only way of repayment had just been refused, looked crestfallen for a moment before offering a faint smile.
“If you ever change your mind, please let me know.”
It was sincere, but it was also a joke. So Ellie smiled back.
Then Ellie took Isabel, who had burst into fresh tears and was bawling again, and returned to the world of mages far away.
Mary kept waving until Ellie’s figure disappeared. After she was gone, Mary sank to her knees right there and began to pray.
May only glory and joy fill the road ahead of my great savior.
.
.
.
On the way down from the orphanage, Ellie said to the coachman,
“Could you take us to Marquis Repeat’s manor?”
“Sniffle… Ellie…?”
Isabel, sitting beside her, looked puzzled. Why was she suddenly asking to go to that lord’s estate?
...No way.
Isabel’s tears vanished in an instant. She wasn’t planning something utterly absurd again, was she?
And the girl’s prediction was right on the mark.
“Hello! Marquis Repeat, Your Lordship—it’s me, me! Ellie, the one who killed the previous lord and exposed the family’s drug business! I came because I had something to say for a moment, but I’ll go in first!”
“E-eh, e-eh, e-eh, ELLIE!?”
.
.
.
And then Ellie returned to the Academy, wrote a letter, and called Isabel over.
“What?”
“Is your duke your father or your mother?”
“He’s my dad, but….”
“Then I’m going to send this to your father, so write a line here too.”
“Huh? Wh-what am I supposed to write?”
“Hmm… how about, ‘Please help a daughter who loves her dad’?”
“What kind of line is that…? That’s so childish….”
Even as she grumbled, Isabel did exactly what Ellie asked.
.
.
.
Sometimes, to a smart person, the world could look like a giant machine.
If you pressed this here, that part would move. If you turned that over there, this would respond.
So if you wanted a certain result, all you had to do was adjust this and that in the right way. That sort of thing.
The difference between a machine and the world, however, was that every one of those “parts” was a person who thought for themselves.
A letter from the Academy arrived at the splendid palace of Duke Shukr.
“Hmm….”
The duke was a man of exceptional intelligence and profound insight, even among the rest.
Unlike his daughter.
In fact, perhaps because he was such a perceptive and intelligent man, he had also, in a way, simply left his bright, cheerful daughter to her own devices. Wasn’t it said that fools were the happiest people of all?
Maybe he’d left her to her own devices a little too much.
...Still, no matter how smart a person was, raising children was difficult.
In any case, the duke understood at a glance what Ellie was proposing just by skimming the letter once.
In summary, she was asking him to take in some orphans who had ties to her. Build an orphanage, raise his moral reputation, and saddle the marquis with a debt while he was at it—that sort of thing.
Up to that point, it was the kind of idea anyone could think of.
But then the duke read the letter all over again, from the beginning.
Because Ellie’s letter didn’t just neatly organize the cost of relocating the orphanage and the social benefits that would accrue even from the duke’s perspective.
It also mentioned the duke’s own needs, given the characteristics of his territory, specifically that he required a bridgehead in the central region—and it laid out exactly how much debt could be forced onto the current Marquis Repeat. She had even already finished persuading him.
Anyone could say, “Buy cheap, sell expensive.”
But if you specified exactly where you’d buy cheaply, how much you’d buy, where and how you’d sell at a profit, and what the total monthly earnings would be, then it became a business plan. The difference between what anyone could do and what they couldn’t came down to specificity.
And Ellie’s letter was extremely specific.
In other words, she’s telling me money is lying around and I don’t know it, so I should go pick it up.
And in fact, the duke really had been unaware that money was just sitting there waiting for him. From his perspective, it was obvious that following Ellie’s advice would be profitable.
And yet.
This girl is highly capable.
When you saw someone too capable, it was only natural to want to throw a trial at them once.
All the more so for someone in the position of choosing and appointing people.
Machines and people were different.
And yet.
...A daughter who loves her dad, huh.
Machines and people were different.
If the duke hadn’t had a daughter, he wouldn’t have bothered to pick up the money lying around on purpose.
The immediate gain was trivial.
But verifying whether the capable person standing before him was truly a prodigy, or merely someone a little smarter than the rest, was far more important than that.
Would she rise after hardship, or collapse immediately when things didn’t go the way she wanted?
The answer to that was worth more than gold.
And then there was Isabel.
His beloved and proud daughter, yes—but also a source of worry, had asked him too.
Besides, wasn’t it written in the letter itself? That Isabel had been so moved by the orphanage’s condition she had wept bitterly.
She was a child he had perhaps protected a little too much. That she had bawled her eyes out was probably true.
If he refused to support them, she would no doubt start sobbing again. Maybe she’d soak her pillow with tears and shout, “I hate you, Dad! You idiot! You cold-blooded, heartless monster!”
...Did Isabel even know what a cold-blooded monster was?
She probably did, right?
She… would.
Anyway.
“…Hmm.”
The duke’s finger tapped against the desk.
Did she even take this into account and have Isabel write that line?
It was possible.
If so, then she had landed a blow.
“…Heh heh heh.”
Rather than ordering an underling to do it, the duke wrote a response to Ellie himself.
It was full of elaborate flourishes and grandiose rhetoric, but if you interpreted and summarized it, it came down to this:
- He would grant and support the relocation of the orphanage Ellie had ties to, so that it could be moved to their territory. She had better be grateful.
- He also thought she looked capable, so he would give her an allowance separately. She had better be grateful.
- If she came to serve under him after graduation, he would treat her well. Wouldn’t it be better to work with friends?
- Honestly, his daughter was a good kid, but not quite enough to be a duke; it would be nice if Ellie could support her.
- Wouldn’t a kind but slightly lacking ruler be better for someone as capable as Ellie than a ruler who was too capable?
- As long as she didn’t bring the noble house crashing down, she could skim a little off the top if she wanted. Think it over. His territory had plenty of money.
“...An impressive man, in more ways than one.”
After reading the duke’s reply in full, Ellie gave a wry smile.
“Huh? What did Dad say?”
“Hmm… he said that since I’m your friend and poor, he feels bad for me, so he’ll give me allowance, and that I should take good care of his daughter. Looks like your father loves you too.”
“Pfft, what kind of thing is that? Of course my dad loves me.”
“Yeah. You just keep being the way you are now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ellie said nothing and simply mussed Isabel’s hair.
In the end, Duke Shukr not only granted everything Ellie had asked for, but also began giving her a regular allowance.
Perhaps the difference between a machine and a person wasn’t that great after all, if you could only look down from high enough.
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