The Witch Is Out on Business
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Through the window I could see an imperial knight pounding once more on the door of our shop. When no answer came from inside, the knight who had been knocking spoke up.
"Looks like they've caught on. Shall we break down the gate and go in?"
Parting the ranks of silver-armored knights, another figure strode forward. Her uniform fell in lines so sharp they might have been cut with a blade; her dark-blue hair was pulled up into a neat, no-nonsense ponytail; and her black eyes looked as if nothing short of catastrophe could rattle them. The aura she carried could have frozen the entire slum solid in an instant.
Imperial Knight Commander Valentina…? Why on earth would the Knight Commander herself be here…?
Behind me I felt Beatrice Conti tense as she stepped up to the window and stared out beside me. Come to think of it, hadn't the Bell family joined hands with the Imperial House to destroy the Conti family? Then the person they were after was Beatrice…?
Beatrice was already braced for a fight. One wrong move and she looked ready to draw her sword and cleave the entire Imperial Knight Order in two.
"Don't do anything rash. Harm the Imperial Knights and there will truly be no going back."
I spoke the words low, for her ears alone. Even if they demanded I hand Beatrice over, I had no intention of giving her up cleanly. Still, I needed to find out exactly what business had brought them here first.
"The two of you stay put and don't move an inch."
After giving Kkamagi and Beatrice strict orders, I went downstairs and opened the door.
"What business brings the noble knights of the Empire to a humble shop in the slums?"
I deliberately layered on the cool, mysterious aura of a mastermind so I wouldn't look like an easy mark.
I felt Knight Commander Valentina's gaze settle on me. She glanced over my face, then pulled a document stamped with a golden imperial seal from her coat and thrust it under my nose.
"Celia, proprietress of the Skill Rental Shop. As of this moment, you are under arrest on charges of being a witch who has disturbed the order of the Empire through wicked magic."
"……What?"
My eyes went so wide they nearly popped out of my head. They had come for me, not Beatrice? I honestly hadn't seen that coming. Wicked magic? Disturbing imperial order? What the hell was she talking about?
……Wait. Don't tell me I'm getting witch-hunted right now…?
Cold sweat slid down my back. So what if the Wi-Fi was blazing fast? The medieval mind-set was still every bit as barbaric as ever. This was pure fabrication, a blatant frame-up. Running alone wasn't an option anymore, and fighting the Imperial Knight Order was even less of one. Just what were these people scheming?
I pressed a finger to my brow, pretending to stay calm, and asked,
"……Very well. I'll go. But, Commander, how long am I expected to remain in custody?"
"That depends entirely on how 'cooperative' you choose to be with the Empire."
The Knight Commander answered with a cold little smile. The reply was as vague as it was threatening—basically a promise to let me rot forever if I didn't play along.
"In that case I'll need a moment to prepare. May I at least take a few personal belongings?"
One of the Commander's eyebrows twitched at the request. Valentina gripped her sword hilt roughly and growled under her breath.
"Celia, you still haven't grasped your situation. You're being taken into custody by the Imperial Knights—do you think this is some picnic?"
"Why so hostile? I was under the impression personal effects were usually allowed. Why am I the only exception?"
I fired back without yielding an inch. The Knight Commander let out a sigh of pure exasperation. Sparks crackled between us. Even while being arrested, there were some things I simply refused to concede.
In the end Valentina pressed a hand to her forehead.
"……One item. No more."
"I'll go fetch it. Give me a moment."
"Don't even think of running. You have exactly one minute. If you're not out by then, we break the door down and enter."
"Tch. Fine."
I shut the door and raced upstairs. In the living room Beatrice stood with her sword half-drawn, looking ready to leap down the stairs at any second, while Kkamagi cowered behind her, its silly feather trembling violently.
"Lady Celia! I'll cut down every last one of those imperial dogs myself! They've clearly come for me!"
"Beatrice, calm down. Their target is me, not you. They have some scheme in mind, so under no circumstances are you to do anything rash."
I pressed down hard on her shoulders until she settled. Then I pulled the key to the vault from my coat and pressed it into her hand.
"Listen carefully. While I'm gone, do not open the door for anyone you don't know. Stay inside the shop as much as possible. If you open the magic vault over there, you'll find a hundred thousand gold automatically deposited every day. Use that to buy yourselves something tasty and wait quietly with Kkamagi. Understood?"
"Lady Celia……."
Tears welled in Beatrice's eyes. She was clearly convinced I was being taken away in her place. Scanning the room, I snatched the smartphone that had been lying on the bed. If I was allowed only one item, of course it was going to be the phone. I shoved it deep into my coat, then hastily scrawled a few words on a scrap of paper.
[Out on Business]
I taped the notice neatly to the front door on the first floor, then held out both hands without resistance and let the Imperial Knights take me into custody. And so I left Ashvalley, bound for a solitary cell in the infamous imperial prison that stood at the Empire's far northern edge.
"……Truly, an inscrutable witch."
Watching Celia's retreating figure as the carriage carried her away under guard, Knight Commander Valentina sank into thought.
On the night of Graul's duel with Beatrice, she had followed imperial orders and dispatched a subordinate skilled in infiltration to tail the giant crow. In no time at all she had confirmed that Celia was sheltering and protecting Beatrice Conti, the sole survivor of the Conti family.
Just what is that witch plotting…?
She had taken an unawakened, incompetent young lady of a ruined house and raised her overnight into an S-class powerhouse. As if that weren't enough, she had overturned the betting tables and walked away with a fortune by perfectly legal means.
She had to be either a vast, meticulous mastermind dreaming of overthrowing the Empire, or a genius strategist who laughed at imperial authority itself.
Even at the moment of her arrest she hadn't so much as blinked; instead she had calmly insisted on packing personal belongings as if she were heading off on a picnic—that arrogant, brazen composure…
Is she laughing at the entire Imperial Knight Order while holding us in the palm of her hand? What enormous conspiracy is she weaving?
Valentina's mind flashed back to two nights earlier, when she had been summoned in secret to the Imperial Palace. Beyond a thick curtain, before a figure who never revealed their face, she had knelt and delivered her report.
"I beg your pardon, but the annihilation of Graul and the Hound Pack by Lady Conti was the result of a formally requested and perfectly legal duel. There is no legal basis upon which to punish Beatrice Conti."
A low chuckle drifted from behind the curtain—a voice soft as silk yet cold enough to freeze the spine.
"Which is precisely why you do not catch the dog. You catch the master who released and raised it, Knight Commander. An incompetent young lady from a ruined house becomes S-class overnight? The circumstances pointing to that witch are more than sufficient. Seize the witch first, and the disposal of the Conti family becomes complete—along with every last scrap of that suspicious power becoming ours."
"However, we lack a suitable charge to apply to the witch. No clear illegal act has been confirmed."
"A charge? We simply invent one."
The shadow behind the curtain gave a languid wave of the hand.
"Unauthorized skill distribution, illegal rearing of a dangerous magical beast—whatever. The judiciary will gladly lay out whatever charges are needed for a witch. Isn't that exactly the craft old Balthasar has spent a lifetime honing? All you need do is drag the witch in and force her to her knees at the Empire's feet."
"……I receive your command."
That had been the order she was given.
Just invent a charge…
She was a knight sworn to obey, yet a corner of Valentina's chest remained uneasy. She was a knight. She was one who cut down sin with the sword; fabricating crimes that did not exist was not her duty. Even so, her suspicions only deepened. A slippery witch like that was more than capable of plotting something far larger.
But if that witch truly is innocent……
Valentina hastily banished the disquieting hypothesis that had risen in her mind. Orders were absolute. They were never to be doubted.
"Ahh… so boring…"
The solitary cell of the imperial prison was damp and pitch-dark. After rolling around on the floor doing bare-handed calisthenics for a while, I eventually grew tired of it and flopped onto the bed.
"Just what did I do wrong for them to slap such a ridiculous charge on me?"
Exactly. As I'd said before, this was blatant framing no matter how you looked at it. All I'd done was put on a mastermind-high-level act, and now they were treating me like the real thing. What a cold world. All I needed was a decent lawyer and my innocence would be proven; that would be the end of it. The problem was getting one hired quickly…
"…I wonder if those two are doing all right."
Beatrice and Kkamagi suddenly came to mind. They had watched me get hauled away in a complete panic, so they were probably still in quite a state themselves. I switched on the phone screen and activated the vision-sync streaming function linked to Kkamagi. A loading circle spun for a moment, then the image cleared.
Kkamagi and Beatrice were on the second floor of the shop. On the other side of the screen I saw Beatrice tearing off a piece of pizza she must have bought from a street stall and feeding it into Kkamagi's waiting beak.
"Ha… why is she still wearing that maid uniform instead of throwing it away…?"
Kkamagi gaped its beak wide and eagerly accepted every bite Beatrice offered, just like a baby bird being fed by its mother. Beside the pizza sat a few crepes that looked freshly purchased from the old street vendor.
"You little brats—your master's eating prison food while the two of you throw a sweet-and-savory party!?"
A snort of laughter escaped me. Seeing them safe and sound was a genuine relief.
"…Maybe I'll browse the gallery for a while."
I pulled the blanket all the way over my head and busily worked my fingers. Sure enough, the gallery was plastered with posts about me.
……And one of them snapped the last thread of my sanity.