Sugar-Pickled Tomatoes
The Black Bridge Gathering was in full swing in the ballroom of the Edfolk Hotel, yet Rachel's table, where Blow and Yulia sat, held nothing but silence, quite unlike the easy warmth at every other.
Rachel propped her chin on one hand and spoke to Blow, who had gone quiet, turning her words over.
"So Parso won't sit still. Word is they may seize part of the beastkin villages before long."
"They're going too far."
"They're afraid that if they give up one thing, they'll lose the lot."
Yulia drew a long breath at that.
"I knew they wouldn't stay quiet, but this is faster than I expected. I didn't think they'd be this sensitive."
"I only heard it myself, out on this expedition."
"Do you know where the Imperial Palace stands?"
"You know as well as I do. They call it a palace, but the factions are split clean down the middle."
"That's true, but..."
"There'll be debate. What's certain is that the Palace will not invade Parso over something as small as a crossing into a beastkin village."
"I agree with that completely."
"Here's my read. In the end the Palace lets Parso keep its grip on cash crops like sugar, and in exchange Parso lowers the price of what it supplies."
"Then who actually profits? Even then it would still cost more than brown sugar."
Blow asked it on a thin sigh, and Rachel, as if the sigh were catching, sighed herself before she answered.
"Parso, obviously. Half the Palace thinks keeping the present order is the best we can do. From a thoroughly conservative point of view."
"......"
Yulia took up the thread.
"You know how it is, young master. The Empire has already granted a measure of autonomy, to the North and to Parso in the South alike. Something like this was bound to happen eventually."
"Because the beastkin villages were originally Parso's territory?"
"To put it coldly, from the Palace's seat the beastkin are just one bargaining chip against Parso."
Cunsai's people, nothing more than a card laid on the table. Blow did not like it. It was, all the same, an unyielding fact, and once he had steadied himself he set his mind on solving the problem in front of him.
"You know it too. The only thing everyone in the Palace agrees on, where Parso is concerned, is that sugar costs too much. Far more of them couldn't care less about Parso or the beastkin."
"So long as the outcome looks good, the status quo is best. That's how they'll see it."
"Right. The goods got cheaper, didn't they? That's the thought most of them will land on."
"In the end this happens because the beastkin villages sit far too close to Parso. When they were split off during the Unification War, the backlash from Parso was enormous."
"True. If not for that Pitch-Black Mage, even now we'd still be... Hm. That was a slip."
Rachel cut herself off and drained the drink set before her. Yulia had no room to dwell on it, and pressed on.
"If the beastkin gather and grow, they'll be a thorn in Parso's throat. The trouble the elves are stirring up right now makes that plain enough."
"The more you know the history, the less you can dismiss them. They've got real strength, you know."
"A difficult situation. First, our house will have to move."
"My lady, when you say move?"
"I'll dispatch knights of our house. To the beastkin villages."
"If you send knights, that would be a real help."
"Young master, the volume of sugar I trade with them is substantial. The house will permit that much."
Listening, Blow found something that would not sit right, and tilted his head at her.
"But Parso must already know you trade with the beastkin. Would the thing we're worried about still happen?"
"Even so, our house alone can do nothing to Parso. Once talk starts circulating in the Palace, matters drag and stall... That's probably what they want."
"Even if they know, they'll likely swear they didn't. It's not as if the Edfolk banner is flying over the beastkin villages this very moment."
"Honestly. Cover their eyes and call it nothing?"
"For profit they'll stop their ears as well as their eyes. Isn't that most people, Blow Deblique?"
Yulia and Blow smiled bitterly at that. But something Yulia had just said had sparked a thought in him.
"Then, Lady Rachel, when you go south on expedition, could you stop by a beastkin village, even once?"
"Why?"
"Your movements are among the things the Empire watches most closely. People will read them in all sorts of ways, and I think that reading would work in our favor."
That Rachel Campbell had stopped at a beastkin village would certainly travel from mouth to mouth. Some would guess she was a coexistence advocate, taking an interest in the demi-human question. Some would say House Campbell meant to stretch its influence all the way into the South. Some would crow that House Campbell and House Edfolk had at last joined hands. But along with all of that, the great majority would finally have to face the beastkin problem they had ignored until now, and their eyes, if only for a while, would turn south. Of that he was certain.
"An interesting notion, Blow Deblique. Even so, it'll take time. What if Parso simply seizes the villages before then?"
Yulia, reading what lay between the two of them, shook her head.
"As I see it, if you move in person the pretext is far too thin. Most people will fix on Rachel of House Campbell, not on Rachel Campbell, president of the Imperial Knight Academy's student council."
"No pretext?"
"Yes. It risks looking far too political. Unlike us, House Campbell is keeping its neutrality inside the Palace."
Rachel chewed on that, then chuckled low and dropped her voice as she looked at Yulia.
"Yulia. Do you happen to know this?"
"Know what?"
"Before I became student council president, the cadets of our great Serdia Imperial Knight Academy had never once gone on expedition beyond the capital's outskirts."
"I don't believe I've ever heard that for certain."
"The reason's simple. Too far. Too many variables. Knights, of all people, talking like that. Shameful."
Rachel shook her head as if the very thought disgusted her. There was something almost eerie in the straightness of that conviction, and Blow felt it.
"You mean..."
Rachel's eyes flashed. Blow swallowed dryly, and Yulia nodded her thanks.
"Thank you, Lady Rachel. Even so, there'll be noise."
"This much is the least I ought to do, isn't it? So long as Blow makes Straight Rachel properly. Haha."
"I'll take the responsibility and make it right."
"Don't strain so hard. You'll go strange if you do. But the problem of time remains, doesn't it, Yulia Edfolk?"
"It does. If we assume the knights of our house nearest the south set out that way..."
While the two of them talked it through and ran the numbers, Blow was working his head as hard as he could.
Until now he had thought Cunsai's coming to find him, and the days Cunsai had spent just to meet him, were nothing but good luck. When Cunsai had gone down on one knee before him on the day Hills opened, he had only been embarrassed. He had put nothing in, he had told himself, and taken everything out. Then from here on it was his turn to do something for Cunsai, or for his kin in the South.
Just then Sinclair came into view, talking with his classmates, and Blow's head cleared in an instant.
"...Did you know?"
The two who had been talking stopped and looked at him, puzzled.
"Know what?"
"What is it, young master?"
Blow beckoned a passing server, and the server came to their table. All the while he went on, smiling.
"That raw tomato tossed with sugar is quite a delicacy."
"Of course I must help!"
Through the communication circle Haghia had summoned, the voice of Christopher, lord of Cypress, sounded sturdier than ever.
"If you only ask, I'll lead my knights and throw myself into the sea!"
"Thank you, my lord. I, Yulia, speak as representative of House Edfolk."
"I myself will go to Chert, the beastkin village!"
Yulia let out a breath of relief, looked at Blow as if he were too lovely to bear, and went on.
"Please think of it as pressure only. Do not, under any circumstances, start a fight."
"To begin with, so long as I am there they will not cross over! However recklessly they run, they can hardly strike me, the lord of Cypress, can they?"
This was the scheme Blow had put forward. Until the knights of House Edfolk reached beastkin territory, Christopher, lord of Cypress—just above Parso, and close to beastkin land—would check them. No more and no less. Only a check. Once he had bought them a reasonable stretch of time, the Edfolk knights would stop by once, and after that Rachel would stop by once. Every calculation Parso had made until now would tangle beyond repair, and they would not be able to move troops as easily as they could now.
Blow decided to add one more seasoning to the scheme, the way one stirs a spoon of sugar into pasta.
"My lord, this is Blow Deblique."
"Ah, yes. Please, go on."
"My lord, there is no need to take every knight with you."
"Hm. What do you mean?"
"It would be better if you went to the beastkin village as if on a journey, or to foster goodwill. The distance is close enough for that story to hold, isn't it? Between the Cypress domain and the beastkin villages."
"You mean my mere presence in the village is enough?"
"Yes, my lord. All we want is restraint. Better that than something whose intent shows too clearly."
"Hah... Well. Was it you, young master, who thought of moving us as well?"
Blow glanced at Yulia and Rachel beside him. They nodded.
"Yes. I saw Sinclair in the hall, and it made me think of you."
"Aha. I'll be counting on you in many ways from here on, Young Master Blow!"
"Thank you."
"I'd like to come see you soon. I worry this business will delay my trip to Caipol a little further. The goods will still go out on time!"
"That's quite all right. This helps us far more."
"Yes, understood. And..."
Christopher paused, then added in a suggestive tone.
"My son Sinclair is good at his work, so if you ever have something that needs doing, please put him to it!"
"I will. Thank you for taking us so late at night."
A little later the link cut, and Sinclair, who had been standing beside them, asked Blow in a trembling voice.
"Was I a help?"
"Of course you were! I feel ten years younger."
"Haha, I'm glad!"
"I'll be counting on you from here on."
Feeling steadier, Blow clapped him on the shoulder. Yulia, who had been beaming at him for some time, caught his hand tight.
"Young master, truly...! Thank you so much. I never even thought of it. Cypress."
"Not at all. You'd surely have thought of it tonight, or tomorrow. And even if you hadn't, what of it? Partnership is gathering more than one person's thoughts."
"How do you always say exactly what I want to hear! Thank you, truly, young master!"
Yulia's smile reached her ears. Watching them, Rachel snorted a laugh and lifted her cup.
"To think it would resolve this easily... Everyone take a glass, for now?"
"Gladly."
While they took a glass from her, from Blow through Sinclair, the tomatoes tossed in sugar at last made their appearance upon the table: sugar-pickled tomatoes.
Yulia admired them at a glance. Rachel, by contrast, tilted her head and looked at Blow full of doubt.
"This is actually good?"
"Yes. You had a heavy meal earlier, so as a dessert it should be just the thing."
A moment later Rachel speared a tomato on her fork and put it in her mouth. The fresh sweet-sour of the fruit met the gentle sweetness of the sugar, and together they cleared the heaviness from her mouth.
"Sweet, and tart!"
"Yes. Cypress tomatoes are fresh enough to eat this way."
"Does that matter?"
"If the tomato isn't fresh, the taste turns unpleasant."
"Is that so? It's far better than I expected."
Yulia took a bite at once, her eyes going round, and nodded at Blow.
"Truly. Even eaten just like this, it's delicious, young master!"
"Tomato and sugar suit each other very well. Very."
Hearing that, Rachel glanced at Sinclair, burst out laughing, and turned to Blow.
"Rather literary of you, isn't it, Blow Deblique?"
"I didn't know it myself, but it seems so."
"There's no one harder to praise than you, Blow Deblique. But this time, I'll grant it."
With that their table grew brighter than the rest. After a short exchange, Rachel asked him as if she truly wanted to know.
"Hey, Blow. You're good with your body. Why'd a fellow like you go to a magic school?"
"Magic is simply more impressive, isn't it?"
"Take that back, Blow Deblique."
Unable to stomach it, Rachel went dead serious and looked at Sinclair, a knight cadet like herself.
"What do you think of that outrage, first-year?"
"Ah—yes! On this, at least, I believe Young Master Blow is wrong!"
The answer did not please Yulia. She wrinkled her nose. Reading the air, Blow had no choice but to concede.
"I'll take it back."
"And don't say it again!"
"Yes, as you command. But why ask that all of a sudden?"
"The way you turn a problem over. I think you'd have done well handling troops, that's all."
"Hardly. It's just petty cleverness."
"And now you play humble. Anyway, as you said, on the next expedition I'll drop by as if by chance. All I have to do is be treated to beastkin cooking once, isn't it?"
"If you do that, I'll bear the entire research cost of Straight Rachel."
If that Rachel Campbell was going to work for a stable supply of sugar, this much he ought to give. But she smiled and shook her head.
"You do listen well. But there's no need. Later, just grant me one request."
Blow narrowed his eyes.
"How am I supposed to know what the request is?"
"I'll pick something you're able to do."
Listening, Yulia quietly linked her arm through his.
"My partner is rather capable, isn't he, Lady Rachel?"
"He's my partner now too, you know?"
"Hmm, is he? You haven't even signed a contract. Do you know how particular the young master is?"
Watching Yulia tighten her grip, Rachel smiled a wicked smile.
"I truly think of Blow as a part-ner. Yulia Edfolk."
"What is that supposed to mean, all of a sudden?"
"I'm telling you, I think of Blow as a part-ner."
"Honestly, I feel the sa—same, you know?"
"Haha, listen to you stumble!"
"Because you're saying something out of nowhere!"
While the two of them bickered, several people came to the table and asked Yulia and Rachel to dance. By the etiquette of the floor, dancing with only one partner would cause trouble, so while Yulia chose among them, Rachel called to Sinclair, who sat beside her rigid with tension.
"Hey, first-year."
"Yes, my lady!"
"Dance with me, will you?"
"Is it all right to give an honor like that to me?"
"You helped my friend, so it's hardly an honor! Call it something you earned!"
"It's an honor all the same!"
And then Sinclair went out with Rachel.
Lady Rachel is putting her stamp on Sinclair once more, good and firm.
The sight alone was satisfying, and a smile spread across Blow's mouth. Yulia's voice reached him.
"Young master."
"Yes, my lady."
"I'll dance with Sinclair next time as well."
"Do as your heart pleases."
"Where my heart goes is the same direction as yours."
Yulia went out into the hall with a partner whose expression had turned complicated. Blow tilted his head, then rose and walked back to his own table.
While Rachel was still appraising the sugar-pickled tomatoes, Blow's table stood without Blow.
"I've already danced all I mean to dance today, and my shoe has broken besides."
"Ah, your shoe... I understand!"
Thus Skadi was refusing the fifth man who had approached her on the ballroom floor. Watching her, Jane let out a faint sigh, as if it were a waste.
"Lady Skadi, even so, you might have danced with one or two more... To go and break a shoe that fine."
"I'm completely satisfied today, so what!!"
Even now Skadi was still inside the afterglow of the dance she had shared with Blow. When he drew near, she drew away; when she stepped in, he drew away for a moment. A feeling as if, for an instant, even the music had stopped. For no good reason she kept brushing the waist, and the hand, where his had rested however briefly.
Meanwhile Herbena, back from the other tables, took the seat beside her.
"Herbena? Where is Lady Renerit?"
"She went to dance."
"Ah, so she did. There, beside Rebecca."
Rebecca was dancing with Mikelan, who had come to Skadi earlier, and Renerit with Rokan, who looked about six times her size. Watching them, Jane and Skadi were drinking Ropert Rose.
"Jane! You drink well."
"Of course. It suits my taste perfectly."
"If Blow had forbidden it, that would've been a disaster!"
While Skadi let out a hearty laugh at Jane, Herbena was staring at her hard enough to bore a hole. Unable to ignore it, Skadi asked her lightly.
"Herbena. What? Something to say?"
"Lady Skadi."
"Hm?"
"Do you like Young Master Blow?"