Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Wendy whispered to Philip from behind me.
"Why on earth does that baron panic over an ordinary question?"
"Ah."
Philip answered cautiously.
"That one's always been a bit erratic. He was like that at dinner too."
"Oh dear....... So that's what it was......."
Wendy sighed.
To her, the word "erratic" now seemed to be something she would never toss out lightly.
I was also very startled, but I didn't let it show.
Instead, I answered the question honestly.
"To get wheat."
Usually, noble children dropped formal speech with one another when they were young, even if they returned to polite speech as adults.
In particular, since we had been academy classmates, we were comfortable speaking casually to each other.
Just then, the knights I had sent and the intruders came back carrying sack after sack of wheat.
"......Wheat?"
Leopold also seemed taken aback by my answer.
I explained calmly.
"The black mages were trading wheat for people. I didn't want to give them people, but I did want the wheat, so I just came to swindle them."
At that, Leopold replied.
"You seem to have found quite a creative career path since graduation, Brisa. Fraud against black mages, no less."
He looked at me and gave a faint smile.
"How about giving a lecture to the younger academy students later about your new profession?"
"I'd already written a lecture script, but I'll probably have to scrap it tonight."
I raised an eyebrow and answered.
"Since you're shoving all the black mages into the sea, this profession's prospects just went dark. I'll have to look for another way to make a living."
Even in the middle of that, the ships carrying the black mages were steadily sinking into the sea.
It was a talent to attack enemies precisely while conversing so nonchalantly.
I shrugged and said.
"Anyway, I've accomplished my purpose for coming, so I'll be off. Before the Warp's active window expires."
While riding the Illegal Warp here, I had roughly analyzed the spell formula.
From the look of it, it was similar to the Warps installed by the Magic Tower. Except that it had been loaded with large amounts of drugs produced by forbidden experiments.......
"And this wheat isn't western wheat."
The west was a granary region, so it was strange that they were using wheat that had not come from nearby.
"I think it's southern wheat, but investigate it either way."
"Hm?"
"I don't know if it'll be of help, but it's in the revised third edition of <Characteristics of Wheat by Region>. It was written by Asirius Welborn, or a review paper on southern wheat might also be useful."
"A review paper?"
"<Characteristics and Study of Southern Wheat Varieties>. Anyway, that's the only paper dealing solely with southern wheat. And as for this guy."
I pointed with the tip of my foot at a black mage rolling on the ground.
Then I leaned toward Leopold and whispered in a lowered voice.
"He mistook me for Dalia Hawin and said this to me: 'If you bring Brisa Sears, fifty sacks of wheat.'"
Leopold elegantly stepped on the black mage's back with cold eyes and pinned him down.
Despite the chilling atmosphere, the voice he used to whisper to me was perfectly calm.
"The going rate for a twelve-year-old girl was fifty sacks of wheat?"
"No, it wasn't even half a sack."
"Then what makes you worth the other forty-nine and a half sacks?"
"That's exactly what I want you to find out."
I asked Leopold.
"They're criminals caught on your land, so you're the one who has to interrogate them."
I could roughly guess the reason, but still, words coming from a criminal's mouth had their own value.
Leopold seemed to understand exactly what I meant and spoke slowly.
"To sum it up, your safety is in danger."
He pressed down harder on the black mage's back with his military boot.
"Because of the Sebon bastards and the black mages."
"Probably."
I was pretending to be calm, but deep inside, I was trembling.
I had thought that if I just endured these three months without starving, it would be enough.
But from the look of it, that didn't seem to be the case. There were people who were targeting me specifically.
In any case, these were criminals caught in the west. The final authority for interrogation lay with House Nozen.
All I could do was ask.
"Let me know the interrogation results later. I need to be aware of who is targeting me and how."
Leopold wore a complicated expression, but he answered clearly.
"If the criminals of Sebon dare to try to harm a bloodline of Sears, Nozen, as the head of the Founding Five Houses, will never stand idly by. I will stake my honor on sharing everything."
I looked at him with distrustful eyes. He had far too much even without his honor.
"That's not enough."
"I'll stake my face."
If it was a masterpiece of the century, then I could rest easy.
I was satisfied.
"I'll trust you completely and leave it to you."
I had come for wheat only to learn that my life was in danger. Staying in a place swarming with black mages suddenly felt deeply unsettling.
Now that my business was finished, I promptly stepped back and said my farewells.
"Then we'll be on our way."
"Just a moment."
Leopold took a step closer and said.
"I can't just send you off like this. You returned my maternal grandfather safely to the west, after all."
"Of course you can't just send me off."
I nodded seriously.
"Because sending a guest home from the west empty-handed isn't polite."
"You don't seem to be empty-handed already."
Leopold looked at the knights laden with wheat sacks and spoke as if amused.
"Anyway, I can't keep you any longer because of the Warp time, so here. Take it."
What he held out was a Tracking Scent.
"Use it if the Warp goes wrong and you end up wandering in the west."
Was it all right for me to accept this?
I had heard that even in the west, only truly important people possessed these.
The moment I used this in the west, I would receive the unconditional protection of the nearby western knights.
When I hesitated before something so precious, Leopold spoke as if it were no great matter.
"Don't feel burdened. This is entirely for my sake."
He held out the Tracking Scent to me once more and continued nonchalantly.
"You got caught up in a crime in the west. If you were to complain that you were still put in danger even after meeting House Nozen's heir, it would damage my reputation."
"A protest? Don't make me laugh. It wouldn't end with just that."
In the end, I accepted the Tracking Scent and said.
"Don't you know me? If something like that happens, I'll sue you for aiding and abetting murder."
"I'll have the empire's finest lawyer ready."
Leopold replied with composure.
"Because I know you."
Wendy, who had been listening to our conversation, muttered from behind.
"Wow, I've never seen anyone who doesn't lose a battle of words to our young lady."
Philip pointed out curtly.
"All nobles are like that. Got it?"
It was a generalization that other nobles might find a bit unfair if they heard it.
Leopold swept his eyes over the knights I had brought. Then he said in a low voice.
"They wouldn't be your knights, though."
It was a question of whether they were people who could be trusted.
I shrugged and answered.
"They're my brother's knights."
"I heard the news not long ago."
It was a remark asking whether they truly were loyal to me, who had recently become their master's younger sister.
I decided to just show him directly.
"Watch carefully."
Leopold nodded.
I slowly turned around. Then I looked at the people I had brought with me and cleared my throat.
"Everyone, attention."
At that, the people who had been busy with their own tasks looked at me and stood up straight.
I solemnly declared to them.
"Tonight's late-night snack is."
It was a line I had prepared for a long time, but now that I was about to say it, I felt nervous.
Without realizing it, my heart began to pound.
"Bread."
As if my excitement had been conveyed, the knights, including the intruders, shouted.
"Waaaaaah!"
"Hooray! Hooray for the young lady!"
I solemnly declared once more toward them as they held the flour sacks.
"Now let's go back. To divide our spoils."
Leopold's knights were doing all the fighting, but they were spoils nonetheless.
I turned back around and raised an eyebrow at Leopold.
Leopold had thus confirmed the knights' loyalty toward me.
"They have good lungs."
At his acknowledgment, I answered with satisfaction.
"I fed them well."
It was the finest boast of this era.