An Unexpected Guest
"I haven't done anything to deserve a stake on top of it... I'm fine."
Blow passed the contract to Marchen as if there were nothing left to think about. Yulia, however, already wore the face of someone who had expected exactly that.
"Hear me out, young master. First of all, Cunsai is opening a branch in the Dusk Block—in the Nyx Inn building, no less..."
"What? Come again?"
Caught off guard by the unexpected turn, Blow cut her off before he knew he was doing it. The moment he realized the breach, he bowed his head.
"I'm sorry, senior. That was rude of me..."
"It's all right. Haha. So even young master Blow knows how to be flustered?"
"It was just so unexpected."
"We've decided to open the shop at the Nyx Inn. I acquired the building myself."
The sheer scale of her move left Blow unable to close his mouth. Yulia smiled as if she found him adorable and went on.
"After all, it's where you first started in business. I thought it would mean something."
"It does. Just as you said."
"I knew you'd say that. We're remodeling the inn to make it a little more comfortable. The upper floors will be lodgings, and the first floor will be the donut shop."
"The upper floors, as lodgings?"
"Yes. A few more of the beastkin have agreed to come up."
"That really is good news."
The Nyx had been fine in every other way, but the facilities had been so poor that worry always came first. Blow pressed a hand to his chest in relief.
"To come back to the shares. I think you understand the Nyx Inn's location better than anyone. The truth is, I've never done business in the Dusk Block myself."
"That may be, but..."
"And then there's the idea of putting a hole in the donut. You were the one who told Cunsai about that, weren't you?"
"Yes. That was me."
"Honestly, that idea alone is worth giving you a stake. I never would have thought of it."
"Even so... ten percent is still too much."
As someone already in the trade, he couldn't help but feel the weight of it. Blow scratched his head.
Cunsai cleared his throat and spoke in a clear voice.
"Young master, this is not only my opinion and Lady Yulia's. It was decided at the village representatives' council."
"The representatives' council?"
"Yes. You could call it a decision made by our people as a whole."
Blow turned it over carefully, drawing a finger once along his jaw, and Cunsai went on, pressing his sincerity into every word.
"It isn't only me. Our entire people received a kindness as deep as the sea, and even this falls short of repaying it."
"Hmm... you don't have to go that far..."
A brief silence followed. Then Cunsai smiled softly and, together with Luta, dropped to one knee.
The place where they knelt was neither the solemn heart of a palace nor the parlor of some grand estate. It was only a cramped restaurant, noisy at that. And perhaps because of that, the feeling that reached Blow ran all the deeper.
Feeling it, he rose from his seat and looked back over everything since he had come up to the capital. The Nyx Inn—the place where he had first dreamed. If someone else's dream could go on in the very place where he had dreamed his own, that would be a fine thing to see. And if he could help it along, it would mean something.
The shares they were giving him were not a gift. They were a responsibility: the duty to help them with everything he had, just as others had helped him. Having reached that conclusion, Blow spoke in a serious tone.
"I'll keep doing everything I can to help."
"Your words alone are thanks enough."
Skadi, watching the scene with warm satisfaction, began to clap, and the applause passed to Herbena, then to Hans, Megan, and Melo. From there it spread to the customers around them, until for a while the restaurant was full of nothing but the sound of hands.
"...What's going on?"
"No idea. It's nice to watch, though. That's all."
Snippets of the customers' talk wove through the clapping. Late-afternoon sunlight, still warm with the day's remaining heat, fell across Blow's face and Yulia's.
A short while later, once Cunsai had taken his seat again, Yulia watched Blow sign the contract and spoke up in a bright voice.
"Well, young master? How was the gift I prepared?"
"It was the best, senior."
"There is one part I feel a little sorry about, toward you."
"What would that be?"
"The truth is, Cunsai wanted to cut their own share further to fill yours out more. I talked him out of it."
"You did exactly the right thing."
"As I thought... I knew you'd say that."
"Even this is plenty. And until Cunsai finds his footing, I won't take the returns that correspond to my share."
Cunsai's eyes went round with surprise. He shook his head at once, calling out.
"Young master! I'm truly all right!"
"No. A business eats money at the start."
"All right. Then I'll do the same."
"L-Lady..."
Cunsai couldn't get the rest of his thanks out. Blow set a light hand on his shoulder.
"Use my share and try plenty of experiments. I'll advise you."
"Yes. I'll give it everything I have."
As Cunsai nodded with a resolute face, Yulia, who had been watching them a moment, quietly opened the next thought.
"I'm lucky."
"What do you..."
"Because I got to see you again."
There was something subtle in Yulia's words. Blow answered with a smile held at the corner of his mouth.
"I'm glad too. That we're on the same team."
"Let's keep doing well together, young master."
Yulia raised her glass to him, and everyone at the table knocked theirs together with bright faces. Off to the side, the expressions of Skadi and Herbena, who had been watching, stiffened just a little.
Compared with Yulia, striding straight toward Blow, they felt as if they were standing still, and a thin irritation rose out of that feeling. Without realizing it, Herbena clenched the glass in her hand. Skadi muttered, bitterness in her voice.
"I should've bought it. The Nyx."
"......"
"...Let's have a drink too."
The two of them were clinking glasses in that small, quiet way when the restaurant door burst open. An unexpected figure swept a look across the room.
"What is this? A place this decent, this tidy, this warm—doesn't suit Blow Deblique at all."
She said it that way, and yet she was smiling as if she found it quite all right: a girl with sky-blue hair in twin tails. Cindy Whiteglass, Head of Finance.
"I really didn't think you'd come."
"You told me to."
Cindy answered flatly and took a seat at Skadi's table alongside Yulia. It was thanks to Cunsai's consideration—he had thought it better for the academy people to sit together.
Cindy's smile, wrapped around a beer mug, was nothing short of sinister.
"Heh heh heh... tonight I'm going all the way."
"Chief, did you finish all your work?"
"Yep. Dumped the whole pile on Indoor and came."
"Indoor must have it rough."
The moment she heard Yulia, Cindy's brow pinched. She shook her head.
"Haha, that bastard—no, my adorable deputy, Indoor Fuss? He spent the whole weekend on dates and only just walked in."
"You mean..."
"That's right. All weekend! Right up until just now! Alone! I've been working!!"
Cindy's eyes were dyed in rage and something like madness. Hearing that voice, wound tight with spite, Blow burst out laughing.
"Well, well. You worked like that and still came all the way here? Thanks."
"Yeah. Wanted to see you. And it's been forever since I saw our Skadi!"
"It really has been forever! Seeing you out here, I'm twice as glad!"
Skadi said it with a bright, beaming smile. Seeing her hair tied up, Cindy snorted a laugh.
"That back-to-basics mop of yours makes me even gladder. Or should I say it feels like home?"
"What, you don't like it?"
"Nah. Makes me think of the old days, and I like that. Drink?"
Without another word, Cindy thrust a beer at her, and the two of them knocked it back with gusto. Blow's eye caught Herbena, sitting with her mouth quietly shut.
"Herbena, why so quiet?"
"Me? When have I ever..."
"Now that I think about it... you're the class below us, aren't you? Things with Cindy must be a little awkward."
"......"
Herbena had skipped a grade, so their years at the academy lined up, but their ages did not. Hearing that, Cindy shot Skadi a sharp glare and shook her head in displeasure.
"You're the problem!"
"Why!"
"Because you go around making friends with everybody and it gets all tangled!"
"Yeah? Then you just make friends with Herbena too."
Skadi said it as if it were nothing. Cindy clutched her temple and answered through clenched teeth.
"You think friendship just pops out like a spell?"
"How big's the age gap, anyway."
"Haa... fine, make friends with everyone. Why not be friends with Linne over there while you're at it?"
"That's a bit much."
Skadi cut it off flat. Cindy let out a long breath, then jabbed a forefinger at Blow.
"This is all your fault, Blow Deblique."
"Out of nowhere?"
"It's because she caught it from you. Our Skadi used to be such a calm kid, back at the start..."
The instant the words left her mouth, Skadi's face went scarlet. She shoved a potato into Cindy's mouth and shouted.
"Cindy!!! If you need a side dish, just say so!!"
"Mmph!!"
"It was just getting good. Why're you stuffing the kid's mouth?"
At Blow's words, Skadi avoided Cindy's glaring eyes and forced out a smile.
"How is it, Cindy! Potatoes are good, right?"
"You jammed it straight down my throat—how am I supposed to taste it!"
"Haha..."
"Anyway... thanks to your friend Herbena, I got to focus a bit more on Finance work."
"Because of me?"
It was the first she had heard of it, and Herbena's eyes went round. Cindy clicked her tongue.
"You skipped a grade, and I got shoved out of second place because of it."
"Ah. I'm sorry."
"You've got nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who couldn't cut it."
Cindy said it flatly. Blow nodded and cut in.
"Right. Herbena, you've got nothing to apologize for. And Cindy, second or third, what's the difference? It's not even first."
"You bastard, second place still has a feel to it! Is third place even a thing?"
"Who's second now? Why don't you go try to assassinate them?"
"Second is Rebecca. Assassination? Are you saying that because you want to watch the Northern Grand Duke tear me apart?"
"Let's move on to the next topic."
They kept bickering like that for a good while, until Megan approached Blow with care.
"Young master."
"Yeah, Megan. What is it?"
"You have a guest."
"A guest?"
"Yes. The mage from House Campbell who came once before."
The mage who had come last time to deliver the invitation to the Black Bridge Gathering was already offering a bow to Blow and Yulia. The moment he saw her, Blow felt his heart drop.
Right. Get in touch around next week.
A monster's dying scream, and Rachel's voice, rang vivid in his ears. Between the stall and the contract, his head had been nowhere, and he had completely forgotten to contact her. The color drained from his face.
I'm dead.
As he swallowed dryly, the mage was already summoning a communication circle.
"Well, well. What kind of show is this?"
With Cindy at the front of a thoroughly entertained crowd, the circle began to blaze with orange light, and from the far side came the sound of hoofbeats.
"Blow Deblique!! You son of a bitch!"
"Have you been well, my lady."
"I waited on your call until my neck nearly fell off."
"I'm sorry."
"Sophia, what do you think. The great Ra-chel Camp-bell, waiting on someone else's call?"
And from beside her, a murmuring voice. Cindy and Skadi, watching the thoroughly tense Blow, were doing their best not to laugh. Against that backdrop, a voice flowed from the circle once more.
"Sophia says it's unprecedented. What do you think, Blow Deblique."
"Which is why I'm receiving this on my knees right now."
"Don't lie. You want me to check with Haghia, who's right there?"
Blow glanced once at the mage, then made a rough show of kneeling as he spoke.
"I'm sorry. Shall I kneel now, at least?"
"You're actually dead. You son of a bitch!"
Reading the playfulness in her voice, Blow managed to relax, if only a little.
"I was taught that an apology isn't something you express with feelings alone, so the next time I see you, I'll show my sincerity properly."
"What're you giving me? You gonna go buy Drenor back?"
"That's a bit..."
"I feel like that's about what it'd take to cool this Rachel off. Hey, hold on..."
She's going to hunt monsters again...!
Even so, he couldn't let his customers hear monsters being carved apart and screaming. Blow hurriedly pointed the guests out to the mage, and Haghia, quick on the uptake, turned down the sound coming through the spell for a moment. While Blow offered her his thanks, Cindy, who had been watching with great interest, opened her mouth in a teasing tone.
"Well, look at Blow, moving up in the world. Skadi, the Head of Publicity... and now he's even getting chewed out by Rachel Campbell herself."
"Can I compare to you, who dated Julbert Mertios and now has His Highness the Prince's favor?"
"You little bastard..."
She had swung and been paid back tenfold. Before Cindy could get another word out, the circle began to glow orange again.
"You ready? The Black Bridge Gathering."
"I'm preparing diligently."
"I'm looking forward to it. You're not borrowing something off that Yulia girl or anything, are you?"
"I'm not."
At the sudden sound of her own name, Yulia's eyes narrowed as she waited for whatever would come next from the circle.
"Good. Don't you go anywhere near her! I've got a proposal for you."
"What kind?"
"What else. Business. I'm planning to sell your food in the Imperial Capital, and this Black Bridge Gathering too..."
Having heard that much, Yulia covered her mouth with a hand and stepped up before the circle.
"Lady Rachel?"
"Yulia?"
Rachel's voice was full of a fluster that didn't suit her at all. Blow bit his lower lip and held in a laugh.
"Yes. This is Yulia Edfolk. My lady?"
"...Why are you there?"
"Today is the opening day of my co.part.ner's restaurant. Young master Blow's."
"What?"
To a Rachel startled to her core, Yulia recited it once more, one careful syllable at a time.
"The day he opened his restaurant. The young master. And why are you casting communication magic just anywhere?"
"That's my business, not yours to know. Say the first part of what you just said again."
Yulia linked arms with Blow, who had been standing there awkwardly, and answered with her head high.
"Business partners. Young master Blow and I, that is. What a shame for you, isn't it, Lady Rachel?"
Cindy and Skadi, eyes locked on the fascinating scene, put potatoes and beer into their mouths. While flames lit in Herbena's eyes at the sight of the two of them arm in arm, from the far side of the communication spell there came, for a time, only the sound of hooves striking the ground.