The Torn Dispatch
"Zamber Arkhansiel... that miserable bastard...!"
Ain caught the words Er muttered under her breath after hearing Seren Karpe out. He stepped forward in her place.
"How is that man supposed to have any influence over the expedition... sir? The one leading this black mage subjugation is the Viscounty of Karpe..."
"If you're going to make it that obvious you'd rather not, you don't need to bother with the formalities."
"...Fine. I won't."
"Well, well. A man honest with himself. So — you asked how Count Arkhansiel can exert influence over the expedition?"
Seren Karpe pointed toward a banner standing in the corner of the office.
"Simple. His backer is the Crown Prince."
What he indicated was the flag of the kingdom to which he had sworn his loyalty. Ain grasped the meaning easily enough — a sun blazoned across the royal standard — and his voice came out faintly dazed.
"That's convenient. Being Crown Prince, I mean. Works for just about everything."
"Isn't that obvious? He's the one who'll take the throne soon enough."
The reigning king was old and frail, of an age where collapsing at any moment would surprise no one. Rumor had it he was already swallowing medicines by the handful and dragging himself through one petty illness after another. That the current Crown Prince had stepped in to fill the resulting vacuum in state affairs was something every noble in the kingdom knew.
"That's why I called you here. The Crown Prince's confidant demanded that you — Miss Er in particular — be removed from the expedition. An urgent dispatch that arrived last night."
"He'd go that far...?"
"What's written is that he doesn't want his only blood relative caught up in something dangerous."
"...Bullshit."
Er's teeth ground together. The look in her eyes was murderous.
"He has nothing to do with me."
"That makes it worse. You know an ordinary adventurer's word doesn't carry the same weight as a count's, don't you?"
It was a matter of power and station. No matter how fiercely Er refused, so long as the other party was a noble, resistance meant nothing. He had already failed to drag her away by force — Ain's rosary had seen to that — but if he leveraged the authority of the peerage, blocking her from joining an expedition or taking a request would be trivial.
Er understood at once that this was the opening move. Her teeth clenched again.
"So you called us here to tell us to go home?"
"I'm a noble with one foot in politics. I can't simply ignore it."
Seren Karpe met her green eyes as he spoke. For a moment he studied her face — the rage, and every other feeling packed behind it — and then:
"But if I'd never received such a message in the first place, there wouldn't be a problem."
"...What?"
He rose from his seat, took back the official document he had handed her, and —
Riiip.
So saying, Seren Karpe tore the dispatch that had been delivered to him and tossed the scraps into the unlit fireplace.
"...Why?"
"I could give you countless reasons. The first that comes to mind: I don't want to send a capable Silver-rank adventurer party packing."
It was a party that included not one but two Silver-rank adventurers. One was a veteran who had completed more guild-direct requests than anyone could count. The other had awakened to mana at a young age and had nowhere to go but up. Adventurers who reached Silver before their twenties were rare even if you scoured the entire continent — and having two of them together was reason enough not to let them go.
"Another reason: the Karpe Adventurer Guild put in a strong recommendation."
There was only one person who would have recommended them that forcefully. The Adventurer Guild almost certainly meant Lize. The thought of her granting a demand that had been little better than a tantrum left a bitter taste in Ain's mouth — and then Seren Karpe's voice reached him again.
"And if I had to name another substantial reason, well."
The corner of Seren's eye twitched.
"I don't like some nobody telling me what to do."
"...That's a pretty fiery reason."
"I'm a knight loyal to the royal family and His Majesty the King. I'm not some bootlicker who wipes the ass of an idiot running wild on the Crown Prince's borrowed authority. Tell him to ask his own mother for that."
It was language no one would believe was being directed at a superior in rank — and a close aide of the Crown Prince, no less. The old butler who served him was equally aghast. The white-haired man pressed a palm to his wrinkled brow.
"...My lord, please maintain your dignity."
"Did I say something untrue? Crown Prince Stern himself is a problem, but the sycophants around him are worse. Not a single one of them has any real ability..."
"My lord. We have guests."
"...My apologies. I let the conversation wander."
He drew a long breath, as if forcing the heat out of himself, and the businesslike expression settled back into place.
"That concludes the official business. Or rather — since no dispatch ever arrived, this meeting never happened. You understand?"
"...Yes. I think we do."
"Then from here on, this is a personal matter. Steward, bring what I prepared."
"At once."
The old butler retrieved a box from one side of the room and approached. Ain and the others tilted their heads, unsure what it was, as Seren held it out to them. A faint smile touched a face that until now had been nothing but official.
"Potions. Various trap potions, and a few healing potions as well. Take them."
"Potions?"
Er's eyes went wide. She opened the box with careful hands. Just as Seren had said, the interior was packed with clear glass vials. Bottles of every color sat nestled among padding so they wouldn't break, and the party could not help the stunned murmurs that slipped out of them.
"Good heavens..."
"How much is all this even worth?"
"Th-there are healing potions too?"
"...This is insane."
"I heard rumors you'd been buying a great many potions of that sort, so I had these prepared. It's nothing special. Just a few supplies pulled from the knight order's stores."
Did that mean a knight order with proper backing from a noble house could throw potions around like this? No — almost certainly not. What Seren meant was that he had no intention of making a show of it, and that he wanted them to accept the gift without feeling indebted.
"...Why go this far?"
A viscount had no reason to do this much for a handful of ordinary adventurers. If it had been the knights he had summoned from the capital and the provinces, or the other adventurers already under his banner, it might have made sense. But this party's affiliation was with the Adventurer Guild and nowhere else. Strictly speaking they were not even his subordinates — just personnel dispatched by a cooperating organization. There was no cause to press something this expensive into their hands.
Seren seemed to read the question on their faces. A very small smile touched his mouth.
"I told you. Leftover supplies. Don't read too much into it. Consider it a token of goodwill."
"Goodwill? We've barely known each other."
"Ain!"
Er yelped, horrified that he would talk that way to a noble's face. And in that same moment —
"Heh. Quite the prickly one. You're right, our acquaintance hasn't been long. But do you know the best way to stretch a short connection into a long one?"
Bringing that up at a time like this meant the answer was already decided.
"Wealth and gold. Gold fills a person's heart."
"..."
"So take them. I simply want to maintain a good relationship with you. I've heard a great deal about your accomplishments."
Seren spoke as though turning over reports he had received some time ago.
"You purified a catacomb crawling with undead. You brought down a Chimera. You rooted out the black mage hideouts lurking inside Karpe. Feats of that order would not look out of place on heroes who saved a territory. If the royal court weren't a complete mess, you would have been given a considerable reward."
As it stood, the royal family was in turmoil for any number of reasons, and two members of the party belonged to the temple the court regarded with such wariness — so the matter had simply fizzled out.
"A great many people were helped by what you did. I look forward to working with you going forward."
All of it was gratitude, and a reward, for people who had done what he as lord had been unable to do himself. The party, finally catching a glimpse of what lay behind his words, looked faintly moved — and then Ain shrugged.
"Nobody ordered us to do any of that. It just... happened that way."
"Then it was fate. That you went through those things — and that you met me."
He offered a handshake to each of the four of them in turn.
"I hope you'll distinguish yourselves on this expedition as well. Sweep those black mages away. Every last one of them."
Once the adventurers had left the office, Seren dropped into the chair and let out a thin sigh.
"Hah... not easy."
"My lord, I cannot help wondering whether you truly needed to go that far."
"That far?"
"Yes. You were up all night as it is, and the ring's mana is nearly gone. And yet..."
The old butler held out a glass of water as he spoke. Seren drained it in a single swallow, dragged a thumb across the moisture on his lips, and answered.
"It had to be done. I needed to deal with that idiot's dispatch, and I wanted to reward the adventurers who saved my territory."
"But that is not something you needed to handle personally..."
"And there was something I wanted to confirm."
What he had wanted to see was not a human being reduced to words on a page. He had wanted to look at someone who drew breath in the same room, and to see what her eyes held.
"Ersia Arkhansiel. Just as I expected — her hatred for her uncle is enormous."
"He is her parents' murderer. That is only natural."
"There are plenty of bastards in this world who refuse to accept what's natural as natural."
"My lord..."
"Haha. Sorry. I've been on the battlefield so much lately my mouth's gone filthy."
Seren smiled as he said it, then sank deeper into the chair.
"But Ersia Arkhansiel is someone who treats the natural as natural, and that's a relief. Handled well, she'll be a great help."
"She is merely a dispossessed duke's daughter. You would do well not to expect too much..."
"She's already Silver-rank at that age. And she has a thirst for revenge. The person who puts a sword in her hand to stab her enemy can ask anything of her."
And if the sword he placed there succeeded in piercing her enemy —
"The royal court is noisy enough as it is. One more incident will drop into their laps. We should prepare as well. Proceed as I discussed with you before."
"...Understood, my lord."
"Ah, and..."
"Is there something else you require?"
Seren seemed to consider it for a moment. Then he shook his head.
"No. It's nothing."
"Understood. I will come for you once the departure time is set."
The old butler withdrew so that his master might rest properly until then. Seren waved him off — and the instant the office door clicked shut, he pulled the ring from his finger and set it on the desk.
Then, working open the buttons that had grown tight across her chest, she loosened the front of her clothes and let out a long, deep breath.
"So much to do."
Thanks to all of it, Seren had not closed her eyes once the night before. If she could steal even a little sleep in this brief window of rest, she might yet avoid making a mistake in the subjugation to come.
She was just about to let her eyes fall shut when something surfaced in her mind.
Right beside Ersia Arkhansiel. A man who had pulled his hood down as if he had no wish to show his face, and who had spoken with such brazen frankness.
Those mysterious golden eyes, which had not lost their light even in shadow. Seren found herself murmuring before she knew it.