Time to Go Collect Our Players (2)
The heavy armor pressed down on his shoulders. His legs had gone stiff and wooden after another full day of patrol, and the walk home felt longer than ever.
The title of Velos City Guardsman looked respectable enough from the outside. Keepers of the city's peace, the people its citizens trusted and leaned on. But behind that flattering honor hid the reality of a perpetually light wallet.
His name was Kalian.
"Kalian! You're skipping the staff dinner again tonight?"
"Yeah. I don't think I can make it."
"Still, every once in a while—"
"Hey, hey, leave him be. The man's got a sister to look after. Dragging him along would just be rude."
"Then why not bring the sister with him to the dinner?"
"Heh, now that's actually a clever idea."
Somewhere along the way, his fellow guards had gathered around him.
"Anyway, if you ever need help, you say the word. You've had a look on your face lately, you know."
"Wait, do you have a crush on Kalian or something? I mean, the man is disgustingly handsome, I'll give you that. Still can't figure out why he ended up a guard, though."
"I'll admit he's good-looking, but I am absolutely not into him, okay?!"
"Denying it that hard just makes it more suspicious."
Listening to his colleagues banter, Kalian forced a smile.
"Thanks for worrying about me. If I need help, I'll be sure to ask."
The words came out even and calm, but inside, they cut. The truth was, he needed help right now, this very moment. The medicine bills kept piling up, and the debt collectors had begun sniffing around the alley in front of his house. It was a situation his guardsman's salary could never hope to cover.
"Ha..."
He changed out of his uniform and dragged his heavy feet toward home, where his sister was waiting. He would have to stop by the apothecary again today and plead his case. He had lost count of how many times he'd repeated the same excuse — I'll pay it all back next month.
Kalian clenched his fist. More than the weight of the armor bearing down on his shoulders, it was the weight of reality that grew heavier by the day. For his sister, he could do anything — but he didn't want to explain his circumstances to his colleagues. Did that reluctance come from not wanting to burden them? Or from wanting to protect his honor as a guardsman? Either way, what a pathetic creature I am, he thought.
With a long sigh, Kalian arrived in front of his house — and immediately felt something wrong.
The front door hung half-shattered, broken jars and tangled ledger papers scattered across the ground. Anyone could see what had happened here. Debt collectors. But that wasn't the most pressing problem.
"S-Sophia!"
His sister's safety. If they'd made a mess this bad, they might have laid hands on her too. The instant that thought crossed his mind, Kalian's vision went red. He dug his nails into his palms, fists clenched so hard they trembled, and rushed inside.
The moment he stepped through the door, a strange man entered his view. Gold braid ran down the shoulders of a fine blue coat, and the man wore an odd, faint smile. And seated beside him, side by side, was his sister.
His blood pressure spiked. Kalian instinctively mistook the man for a debt collector and lunged.
"How dare you—! How dare you barge into my home?!"
He seized the man roughly by the collar and drew back his fist without a word of warning. But something moved faster.
Shing—
Before he knew it, the cold tip of a blade rested against the back of his neck. Kalian stole a glance sideways and met the cool, unblinking eyes of the man holding a sword to his throat.
"That's far enough. Do not cross the line with him any further."
Kalian's eyes wavered wildly. As a city guardsman, his martial skill was hardly weak — people often remarked on his sharp reflexes in particular. And yet he hadn't managed even a reaction. No — he hadn't even sensed the man's presence. That could only mean the gap between himself and this red-haired swordsman was the distance between heaven and earth.
In that moment, Kalian understood. These people were no ordinary debt collectors.
"...Who are you people?"
Then came a faint cough, and a desperate voice.
"Orabeoni...! Please, stop! And you too, Lord Louis!"
A pale-faced girl rose from her seat and placed herself between Kalian and Louis. Only then did Kalian release the man's collar, and Louis, taking in the scene, slowly slid his sword back into its sheath.
"Orabeoni... these people aren't debt collectors. If anything, they helped me."
Kalian listened to his sister's explanation in a daze, then turned to glare at the two men once more. And to the man who seemed to sit at the center of it all, he muttered in a low voice:
"...Damn it all. You're going to explain exactly what's going on here."
At that, the man — no, Eugene — gave a short laugh and adjusted his collar.
"You still don't seem to grasp your own position."
"What...?"
"No ability to pay your debts. Debt collectors ransacking your home while you were away. Your sister, of all people, threatened. I do wonder what might have happened if we hadn't happened to stop by."
On and on it went. The calm, matter-of-fact facts spilling from Eugene's mouth made Kalian's face burn red. His fists shook, but no rebuttal would come.
"And what would you know—!"
"Everything," Eugene said, cutting him off without a flicker.
"That your swordsmanship is excellent. That you're deeply respected among your colleagues. And that your honor and your principles are tearing you apart from the inside."
Kalian's eyes widened — but Eugene's gaze remained perfectly straight and cold.
"I'm simply an ordinary businessman. I'm not here to threaten you — quite the opposite. I'm here to offer you an attractive choice. Keep living like this, hounded by debt collectors, remaining a powerless knight in front of your sister. Or take my hand, earn real money, and protect her properly."
"Honor? Of course it matters. But honor has never once put food on the table. It doesn't make life abundant. In front of the family you hold dear, what good is honor, really?"
"..."
For a moment, the air in the room grew strangely heavy. Kalian's throat closed up, his lips moving soundlessly. And through that opening, Eugene continued in a tone that was gentle yet firm.
"Sir Knight, I'm looking to hire a number of male employees with a wide range of charms. And from what I've seen, a man like you would be worth quite a lot to me."
At Eugene's explanation, Louis chuckled and chimed in.
"And the rewards are guaranteed to match your own ability. Do well, and your sister's medicine bills will be settled before you can blink — with plenty to spare."
Kalian didn't believe a word of it. Strangers showing up out of nowhere, promising to make him rich? Besides, he was a guardsman. He had sworn never to stray down any other path. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to reject the man before him.
But then a small cough sounded behind his back — and swallowed every one of those screams. Honestly speaking, there was nothing wrong in what the man had said. Honor never fed anyone. Puffing up his petty pride would change nothing about the situation he and his sister were in.
Sensing that flicker of hesitation within him, Eugene smiled faintly, walked over to Sophia — who was wearing a sorrowful expression — and gently took her hand, pressing something into it.
Two gold coins.
A guardsman who worked a full, diligent year earned three gold coins. Measured against that, it was an enormous sum, handed over without a moment's hesitation.
"W-why would you give me this much...?"
"I felt a little guilty about being so harsh with your brother. Take this and buy yourselves something delicious. Ah — and Kalian?"
"..."
"If you're interested in my offer, come find us. We usually spend our evenings relaxing at the tavern by the main harbor."
With those parting words, Eugene patted Sophia's head and walked toward the door without another word. Louis followed him out, and Kalian could only stare blankly at their retreating backs.
"Orabeoni..."
Sophia held out the two gold coins to Kalian. The hard weight he felt at his fingertips was not simply the weight of metal — it was the weight of all the time he had endured collapsing in on itself at once.
"Those people... when frightening men broke into our home, they protected me. They comforted me."
At the truth his sister relayed, Kalian bit down hard on his lip. Countless thoughts tangled in his head. His honor as a guardsman. His colleagues' trust. And the one person above all he had to protect — his sister. The coins in his hand felt heavy all over again.
Money he would have scraped together over half a year of desperate scrambling, passed over lightly with a few words. But there was no such thing as a free lunch, and Kalian knew exactly why the man had handed over the coins. This was, without a doubt, an investment — their way of buying his trust.
"...Damn it."
Kalian dropped his head. The man was right. Clinging to his pride in his current situation would only make things worse. So no matter what state that suddenly-dropped rope was in, he had to grab it. But the moment he spoke that choice aloud, it felt as though every belief he had clung to until now would shatter to pieces.
And so he didn't give his answer right away. No — he couldn't. He simply looked at his sister with an apologetic expression, let out a small sigh, and clenched the hand holding the coins.
...He did say it was a gift. For now, I'll take it at his word.
Rationalizing it to himself, every step of the way.
"Truly diabolical, sir."
"Huh... are you talking about me?"
"I am. To us, two gold coins are pocket change — but to a debtor, it's an enormous sum. And a sudden windfall, even a small one, makes life feel abundant, if only for a moment."
In other words, those two casually handed-over coins would deliver a staggering jolt of cognitive dissonance to Kalian. It wouldn't drive him past the point of no return — but it would be more than enough to stir a hunger for money.
Except Eugene's intention was nothing like what Louis imagined.
"No, I just gave it to her because Sophia is a cute kid. That's all."
"...I beg your pardon?"
Before Kalian had arrived, Eugene had managed a brief conversation with Sophia. Her health was poor, but she was a remarkably bright and cheerful girl — and she carried a quiet guilt toward her brother. Because in a way, her very existence was a burden weighing him down.
But this was what Eugene had said to her:
—Perhaps it's because you exist that your brother keeps holding on so hard.
—...I'm sorry?
What I mean is, never think of yourself as a burden. Your sadness would wound him far more deeply than anything else.
—Then what should I do?
Hmm... just keep smiling, bright and always. The smile of someone precious can become the very reason another person keeps going. Shall we try one? As an experiment?
At those words, Sophia had beamed Eugene her brightest smile — and it stayed with him for a long time after.
"She's what, fifteen? Sixteen by now? And so terribly thin. Put a little more meat on those bones, restore her health, and I think she'd make a truly wonderful maid."
"?"
"And she has a lovely face, and such a pleasant voice... One thought led to another, and before I knew it, I'd gone and invested... Damn it all."
"..."
Louis turned his eyes away from Eugene and walked on ahead with a blank, distant stare. And then, unbidden, the thought occurred to him:
Does that man see every single person in this world as nothing but a future 'player' or a future 'maid'...?