Be My Eyes
"Be my eyes."
[Eyes?]
I pointed with my fingertip, first at my own eyes, then at the ball of fluff's.
That's right. I had decided to take the fur ball under my wing — and put it to work as an information network, too.
Confined to the Duke's residence as I was, I needed someone who could roam in and out and play watchman for me. And that someone was the fur ball.
First things first — nurse it back to health and fatten it up a little.
It was far too gaunt right now to be any use. Feeding it felt like an indulgence my conscience could barely justify, but that was exactly why it had to be done.
Come to think of it, this might actually be the perfect opportunity.
Who on earth would ever suspect that a cat could understand human speech and repeat it, word for word, to someone else?
If this were wartime, it would've been even more useful.
Slip it into the enemy's barracks, and the fur ball could have extracted battle plans along with everything else.
But it was too early for disappointment.
In truth, this ducal residence was no different from a battlefield to me. There was an enemy right in front of me, and this very place was the enemy's stronghold — if that wasn't a war zone, what was?
I looked down at the fur ball with eyes brimming over with expectation.
With this little thing, I could eavesdrop on the conversations the Duke has with his aide, or the rumors whispered furtively in back alleys.
I put on my friendliest smile.
"Got it. Is there anything special you want to eat?"
Mmm. The fur ball deliberated for a moment, then answered.
"Meat! Lamb today, butler!"
…
That thing really might not be a cat at all.
The Grand Temple of the Tenasis Empire. In the temple's great hall, Crown Prince Serhin stood motionless, staring blankly at the statue before him.
It was a statue of the goddess said to guard the empire — but there was not a trace of reverence in the eyes that gazed upon it.
It was then that his chief aide, Reonel, approached and stood at his side.
"You'll collapse if you keep this up, Your Highness. You must at least eat something."
No answer came at once. A stretch of silence passed before Serhin spoke, his eyes still fixed on the statue.
"Perhaps it would be better to simply die."
"Your Highness, how can you say something so unbearable?"
"What point is there in my living on alone? Not when that child is gone."
"Your Highness…"
Reonel let out a sigh heavy with frustration.
"It is time — you must… let her go at last."
Then, slowly, Serhin's head — which had been tilted up toward the statue — turned toward Reonel.
Those dull, hollow eyes gave off an impression that was, in some indefinable way, chilling.
"You think so too, then. That I should forget that child."
"It has been over two years. Even Sir Sia would not wish to see you like this—"
Then it happened.
Shing—! Before Reonel could finish, Serhin drew the sword at Reonel's hip.
The movement was so swift that no one would have believed the man had been standing there drained of all strength only a moment before.
And the scream burst out from somewhere entirely unexpected.
Gaaak—!
Serhin, sword in hand, had cut down without a moment's hesitation the knight who had accompanied Reonel.
"Your Highness!"
Reonel cried out in alarm. Yet Serhin spoke with the same indifferent expression he'd worn before severing the knight's neck.
"He died in your place."
"…"
"Having lost that child, I cannot afford to lose you as well."
"Y-Your Highness…"
"You are one of the few I cherish — not as much as that child, but cherished all the same."
"…"
"However."
Serhin pressed the bloodied blade lightly against the tip of Reonel's chin and said, quite softly,
"If you ever let that child's death cross your tongue again, it will be your head that flies off next. So do take care."
"…"
Clang—! Serhin flung Reonel's sword to the floor, then walked back toward the statue and gazed up at it with the same expression, the same hollow stare.
"Did I ever ask for anything so grand?"
All he had ever wanted was to keep that child at his side. That was all. From the very beginning.
From the moment I first saw you, I knew I had to have you beside me.
And so that child had become his sword and his shadow, guarding him faithfully at his side.
Yes. Up to that point, everything was perfect.
Then why had it come to this?
Where did it go wrong? What exactly went wrong?
He didn't know.
A hundred times, a thousand times, I've turned it over in my mind, and still I don't understand. I don't know how it came to this.
Because this had never been part of his plan.
"Sia."
Serhin murmured the beloved name.
"Sia…"
He turned his gaze away from the statue and looked out through the glass window. A flawless blue sky spread out before him like a painting.
A blue sky so like that child.
Gazing up at it, Serhin spoke to the aide behind him.
"That place is all that remains now, isn't it?"
"…Yes, Your Highness."
"Then there's nothing to be done. I must go. I must go and see for myself."
"…"
Serhin pulled his eyes from the sky and turned around.
"Come, Reonel. We must bring her here — quickly."
A shiver ran down my spine.
Hm?
I whipped my head around.
What was that?
Rubbing the back of my neck, I tilted my head. A sudden wave of cold air had brushed past it, out of nowhere.
That's strange.
As I clutched my neck and glanced about, Sir Allen, who was walking beside me, asked,
"Is something the matter?"
"No, it's nothing. I just felt a bit of a chill."
"Surely you haven't caught a cold?"
Sir Allen's face went taut with alarm. I shook my head.
"Not at all. You know how sturdy I am."
Haha, I laughed softly.
Sir Allen had returned from the front and resumed his post as my escort. And did that mean Ed — who had been watching me in Allen's absence — had gone back to his duties? Not a chance.
The master, Sir Allen, and now Chief Aide Ed as well.
Just how many people does it take to keep an eye on me?
I'd become the butler, yet the number of my watchers hadn't shrunk one bit.
So he still doesn't quite trust me, does he, the Duke?
Not that I could think of a single position in this house that came with more trust than butler…
While I was lost in these weighty reflections, Sir Allen and I arrived at the laundry.
"The bed linens first. Sort them properly so nothing bleeds color onto anything else."
"Yes, I'll see to it."
From there we made a thorough circuit — the gardens, the smithy, the infirmary, the stables.
It was my first time receiving an escort since becoming butler, and Sir Allen followed me around with no small look of astonishment.
We had just finished helping a mare through a difficult foaling when Sir Allen spoke up.
"Is this really the sort of work a butler does?"
"Well, I couldn't say. I don't know what other houses' butlers get up to. But… I do."
"…"
"This, too, is the work of House Ballot."
It was a fairly convincing answer — especially with Sir Allen standing right there in his capacity as my monitor.
Now, go straight to the Duke and give your report, Sir Allen.
That he'd never seen or heard of a butler like me — and that he could trust me by now.
Just pour out all the good things about me in front of the Duke, Sir Allen.
I turned back with a satisfied smile — and that was when the front gates of the ducal residence swung open, and an ornate carriage rolled through.
Sir Allen recognized the crest on its door and murmured,
"An imperial carriage."
"Imperial?"
Sir Allen went on.
"There's a red flag mounted on it."
I nodded.
"Yes. That means an urgent report."
The flags flown on imperial carriages came in three colors. Red meant urgent news, blue meant matters of diplomacy or imperial ceremony, and black meant a death in the family.
Watching the carriage come to a halt before the main residence, I hurried toward it. Greeting a royal envoy and delivering correspondence to the Duke were both butler's duties, after all.
From behind me, as I walked toward the carriage, Sir Allen's voice carried.
"Come back safely."
I glanced back at him briefly and nodded.
"Yes."
And somehow, a sense of foreboding settled over me.
"I'm sorry — an alliance?!"
Chief Aide Ed all but bellowed.
The news the envoy from the imperial palace had brought concerned an alliance request — one that had come from the Tenasis Empire.
Once the palace messenger had departed, the three of us gathered straightaway in the study.
The Duke said,
"No need for all the fuss. Nothing has been decided yet."
Ed nodded at that.
"That's true. It's hardly a decision to be made lightly. Still — what insufferable nerve on their part. A request for an alliance now, this late in the day? Did they think we'd throw our hands up and welcome them with open arms?!"
Ed let out a contemptuous ha! Then, as the Duke quietly studied me, he said,
"You may go."
"…Yes, Your Grace."
I alone was dismissed.
Tch. It wouldn't hurt to let me stay and hear this.
So the butler's work here was done, was it?
And I was so curious…
Concealing my true feelings, I left the study. For a moment I was tempted to press my ear against the door, but I quickly gave up on the idea.
There was no way the Duke wouldn't notice.
Still, though…
An alliance…
My mind churned the whole length of the corridor.
The man who had hated and despised the Cadea Empire more than anyone alive was none other than Crown Prince Serhin of the Tenasis Empire.
And now an alliance — proposed by the Tenasis Empire itself, no less?
Ah.
A single thought flashed through my mind.
Could Serhin actually be dead?!