Fair Trade (1)
“We need at least twenty to… wait, what did you just say?”
Catherine, who had been tallying up gold coins like a woman possessed, suddenly snapped back to her senses.
“I said I will find a way to obtain a horse.”
“Pardon? You will, Nanny? How?”
“Somehow or another.” I gave a casual shrug. “If all else fails, I’ll just carry Prince Edwin on my back and run.”
“…Excuse me?” Catherine’s face instantly drained of color in horror.
“I’ve already crawled around on all fours with Princess Emilia riding on my back, haven’t I? There’s no reason I couldn’t do the same for Prince Edwin.”
Because I said it in the deadpan, utterly serious tone of an imperial magistrate reciting law, she seemed genuinely thrown. Catherine furrowed her brows, staring at me with laser-sharp suspicion.
“…Y-You’re joking, right?”
“Of course I am. No matter how fast on my feet I might be, how could a mere human outrun an actual horse?”
“Ugh, you scared me half to death! When you say it like that, Nanny, you sound completely serious!”
What an odd woman. In what world could a human being realistically outrace a horse? She seemed sharp and formidable at times, only to act utterly gullible in the strangest moments.
“In any case, I know someone who might be of help. Leave it to me.”
Catherine let out a low, troubled sigh. Yet, no matter how hard she racked her brain, no better solution seemed to present itself.
“…Very well. I’ll leave the matter of the horse in your hands, Nanny.”
“Then that’s one problem settled. What was the other?”
“Finding an instructor to teach His Highness how to hunt, of course.” To participate in a royal hunt, one needed a respectable mastery of both horsemanship and archery.
“That matter should also be much easier to resolve than you think.”
“Huh? Truly?” At my words, Catherine’s eyes opened wide as saucers. “What is the solution?”
“I can teach him myself.”
Catherine rested her chin in her hands and blinked slowly, processing what she had just heard.
“…You, Nanny?”
“I am, in name at least, the daughter of a noble house.”
I didn’t actually know the true extent of Count Brown’s power or prestige. Even so, since they were technically aristocracy, surely an adopted daughter would have received at least basic instruction in hunting.
“Mmm…” Catherine appeared to wrestle with the thought for a long moment, but in the end, she acquiesced. “Fine. Beggars can’t be choosers right now, after all.”
…She didn’t just mentally classify me as the beggar's choice, did she?
She walked over to a heavy wooden chest resting in the corner of the office. Unlocking the sturdy iron padlock, she revealed stacks of ledgers alongside an assortment of trinkets and jewelry.
“It doesn’t look like we’re in dire poverty, after all.”
“For the operating expenses of an imperial prince’s palace, this is pitifully inadequate. Here, take this.”
Catherine had once mentioned that after her father squandered his fortune on gambling, she had taken over the management of her household’s finances herself. Perhaps because of that experience, she was exceptionally meticulous and high-strung whenever it came to money. And excessively tightfisted, to boot.
“It’s twenty Noma.” With trembling hands, Catherine offered me a heavy pouch. “I believe that should be enough to purchase a steed of fine breeding or better at the horse market.”
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly as the pouch of gold settled into my palms, looking for all the world like someone who couldn't bear to watch such a fortune slip through her fingers.
“Even if it isn’t enough, you’ll have to make it work within that limit. That is the absolute maximum we can manage.”
“Worry not. It is more than enough,” I answered with supreme confidence.
After all, a shortage of funds had never posed the slightest problem for me anyway.
“Long time no see. We’re already acquainted, aren’t we?”
Leaning casually against a timber post in the stables, I flicked my fingers in a languid greeting.
“Y-Y-You!”
Gale—page to the 2nd Prince, and the very bully who had tormented Edwin. The youth, who had been brushing a horse’s mane, dropped his comb the instant he laid eyes on me.
“C-Crazy wench!” Gale glanced wildly around the stables before hissing in a frantic, lowered snarl. “Where do you think you are, barging in here?! Get the hell out before I throw you out!”
The blood hadn't even dried behind his ears, and here he was, immediately dropping all honorifics. I had known from the start that he was rotten to the core, but to behave with such brazen insolence even when cornered alone? Aristocratic tempers truly were something else.
“How unexpected. For an apprentice to the master carriage craftsman, why are you grooming horsehair in a common stable? Do noble-born scions engage in such menial labor? Or are you being punished because your skills are woefully lacking?”
Gale’s face flushed crimson at my taunt, and he ground his teeth audibly.
“Don’t make me laugh! Apprentices are supposed to start with the fundamentals—wait, why am I even explaining this to you?! Piss off already!”
“I merely asked out of simple curiosity; there's no need to flare up like that. You’re making me blush.”
When I offered my protest with an aggrieved air, his scowl contorted even further.
“More importantly, how the hell did you even know I was here?” Only then did Gale seem to realize how bizarre my presence was, taking a hesitant step back. “These are the Imperial Stables.”
“I am well aware.” Smiling faintly at his response, I pushed myself off the support post. “The reason I came is to conduct a little business with you.”
“What? Business?”
Just as Gale was about to bark at me for talking nonsense—
“What is all the racket about, Gale?”
“M-Master!”
Master, is it? Then that man must be the renowned imperial carriage craftsman.
“Gale, you insolent rascal! Didn’t I warn you that if you caused one more disturbance, I’d kick you out on your ear?”
“It wasn’t me, Master! It was this woman—!”
“A woman? Where in blazes do you see a woman?!”
“Huh?” Gale whipped his head about in pure bewilderment. “She was right here! That lunatic woman!”
“Have you gone so mad you’re seeing phantoms of skirts now?! Didn’t I tell you to quit chasing after women every waking hour?!”
“Master! You misunderstand!”
“You still haven’t come to your senses! That’s it! You will have this entire stable swept and shoveled spotless by nightfall!”
“B-But that’s work for the stable hands, not me—!”
“An apprentice who lounges about doing nothing but wasting good bread ought to be put to menial chores! Don’t think for a second I’ll cater to your whims just because your sire is a Count! Keep your mouth shut and finish it before sundown!”
Every syllable dripped with the fiery pride and tempestuous temper typical of veteran artisans. Gale’s master bellowed his final order and stomped out of the stable.
“Master!” Gale called out in desperation, but the master didn't spare him so much as a backward glance.
“Damn it all to hell…”
“Is that your esteemed master? The legendary craftsman who builds carriages for His Imperial Majesty?”
“Gaaahh!”
Gale shrieked at the top of his lungs, as if he had just witnessed an apparition rising from the grave. Startled by his piercing screech, several horses stomped their hooves nervously against the straw.
“Keep your voice down. Don’t you know horses are sensitive to noise?”
As I reached out nonchalantly to stroke the flank of an agitated steed, coaxing it back to calm, Gale’s face twisted in sheer disbelief.
“No… you weren’t there a second ago! What the hell are you—?!”
“I’ve been right here the entire time.”
Well, granted, I had been clinging to the stable rafters for a brief moment. But failing to look up was entirely his fault.
“Why the hell are you doing this to me?! What do you want from me?!”
“Didn’t I tell you already? I came because I wish to strike a deal.”
“And what kind of deal?!”
“What kind of deal does one make in a stable?” Scratching the underside of the jaw of a curious horse that nudged against my shoulder, I flashed a thin smile. “A horse trade, of course.”
It took Gale an agonizingly long moment to comprehend my words. He stood blank-faced for what felt like an eternity before suddenly roaring out:
“Hah! A horse? What kind of bullshit is that?! Every single beast in this stable is the personal property of His Majesty the Emperor!”
“I know.” I gave Gale a dazzling, cheerful smile. “And isn’t the very estate that breeds and supplies these imperial pedigree steeds your own family’s estate?”
How the hell does a mere nanny know about that? Gale let out an incredulous bark of dry laughter, as if dumbfounded by my knowledge.
“Ha! And so what? Are you trying to blackmail me right now?” Assuming an imposing posture, he took an aggressive step toward me.
How utterly daring—and profoundly stupid.
“Blackmail? Don't make me laugh! What could a nobody like you even do to me?! You're just a girl from some third-rate family who attends to that Penniless Prince—!”
Spitting saliva as his voice rose in arrogance, Gale abruptly slammed face-first onto the dirt. He lay sprawled across the stable floor, dry-heaving and gasping for breath as though his lungs had caved in. A natural consequence of taking a clean, solid blow right to the solar plexus.
“There. I gave you the briefest demonstration of what I can do.” I shook out my wrist lightly and inquired, “I wonder if you've developed a slight inclination to do business with me now?”
Gale wheezed in ragged gasps, looking up at me. His pupils trembled with a chaotic mix of bewilderment and sheer terror.
“Y-You… what kind of monster are you…?”
“Of course, if you still feel reluctant, I will simply keep persuading you until you agree.”
“W-What?!”
“By any and all means necessary.”
At that, the little color remaining in Gale’s face vanished completely.
“L-Look here! I’m just an ordinary apprentice! It’s true my family breeds horses, but they are exclusively reserved for imperial supply, and my father oversees them personally! A second son like me doesn’t even have the authority to lay a finger on them!”
I snorted at his desperate excuses.
“I already know you've been skimming imperial horses and fencing them on the black market. Are you going to play innocent now?”
Hearing my words, Gale turned as pale as a corpse and clenched his trembling fists. He shook so violently it seemed he might collapse back into the dirt at any second.
“H-How… how could you possibly know that…?”
“Leave a tail trailing long enough, and someone is bound to step on it.”
Was it because noble arrogance ran in his blood? For someone claiming to be a mere humble apprentice, Gale possessed an audacious streak of recklessness. I had already known as much ever since learning that, even if following the 2nd Prince’s orders, he had brazenly barged into the 3rd Prince’s Palace as though strolling through his own backyard.
“Catherine, do you happen to know anyone named Gale?”
“Gale? The name sounds familiar…”
“He is said to be a page serving the Second Prince and an apprentice to the imperial carriage craftsman.”
“Ah, you mean that burly young nobleman? I don’t know much about him personally, but should I ask around among the staff?”
Catherine had eagerly set out to resolve my inquiry, discreetly gathering gossip about Gale from her wide network of acquaintances across the imperial palace. Stable hands, maids, even gamekeepers—her innate sociability, effortlessly befriending anyone she met, had truly shone.
“To think you dared omit horses destined for the imperial stables from the ledgers and divert them straight onto the black market… You truly have remarkable gall.”