Chapter 159. I Have No Doubt
Gamo’s reception room.
With a group seated in their places, a quiet silence hung in the air.
Gamo, seated in the place of honor, had her eyes closed, making no attempt to hide her displeasure. Immediately to her left and right sat Aster and Paijin, and beside them sat Ransi and the escort knight of House Tulk, respectively.
Bianca opened her mouth only after the teacup on the table had gone cold.
“Ransi. So the situation right now is….”
“Yes. After the circumstances I previously reported, it ended with Aster-nim making Young Lord Paijin stand before people and deliver a confession….”
“A confession, a confession… ha!”
Bianca let out a laugh because it was so absurd.
Calling it a confession was putting it nicely—it was a written self-reflection.
In other words, Aster had intimidated Paijin, the young lord of House Tulk, made him stand in front of the tailor shop’s employees, and read out a statement of remorse.
And why did it become a written statement at all? Because Aster didn’t like Paijin’s “speech,” handed him pen and paper, and made him organize it.
“You just watched that happen… no, no. There must have been circumstances.”
“…I apologize.”
Ransi didn’t make excuses, only lowering her head.
No matter the reason, causing Lady Gamo worry was something she deserved to die a hundred times for.
That was when Aster raised his hand slightly.
“Um… Lady Gamo. Is it all right if I explain instead?”
“……”
Gamo shot him a sharp look, but Aster didn’t back down and opened his mouth.
“Ransi-ssi…? Ransi-nim? Anyway, she did try to stop me, but I wasn’t the kind of person who could be stopped.”
“……”
“I threatened him by using that lout’s safety against him. So as Ransi-ssi? Ransi-nim? she couldn’t really do anything about it.”
“…Ha.”
Gamo felt dizzy.
Does he not understand how serious this is?
He’s openly confessing, with his own mouth, that he took House Tulk’s young lord hostage!
No—honestly, beyond the small details like that, she couldn’t even get a grip on how to wrap this incident up.
A Black and White Zone vagrant, the guest of Brando’s young lord, took House Tulk’s young lord hostage? And what did he do after taking him hostage?
He beat him under the pretense of “an accident,” then made him stand before people and apologize for every single act of rudeness and wrongdoing he’d committed at the tailor shop.
So it was too heavy to brush off lightly, yet too petty to treat as some major affair.
So what in the world was she supposed to do with it…?
“Whew.”
As she sighed with a stifled heart, Paijin, seated on the left, timidly raised a hand.
“Lady Gamo, I, too, would like the right to speak….”
“Speak.”
“My honor has been thrown into the gutter. This is an issue that I believe directly ties into the honor of House Tulk, and furthermore, the honor of Brando—”
“What did you say?”
Gamo’s blade-sharp voice spread through the room right after that.
“Hic!”
Paijin hiccupped without meaning to at Gamo’s sudden change in temperature. She hadn’t even released any particular pressure, and yet his hands and feet trembled.
“Is the honor of your house—of Brando—so light to you?”
“Th-that is…”
“And one more thing.”
Gamo glared at Paijin and sharply tapped the sofa’s armrest with her finger.
“Did you compare my person to a dog? You’re doing something insolent your own father wouldn’t do, and you do it so brazenly, knowing your place. Did you think that because you’re the small master of House Tulk, because you’re a noble, I would not take issue with your words and actions?”
“L-Lady Gamo, that was only—!”
“If that had been the case, I would have seen it right there. I would not have taken issue with this matter. However, I cannot help that my mood is displeased.”
“……”
At this point, Paijin’s face went white.
How could it not?
Even if she wasn’t making it public, it meant he had fallen out of Gamo’s favor.
“L-Lady Gamo, please show mercy….”
“Mercy? What mercy am I supposed to show? Are you saying I should change how I feel for your sake?”
“……”
Paijin clamped his mouth shut.
Naturally. There was nothing to “show mercy” over.
And even begging her to ease her displeasure was itself overstepping.
“You may withdraw now. As for the insult you suffered, I will speak with your father.”
“……”
Under that cold dismissal, Paijin bowed his head deeply.
He had countless things he wanted to say.
Why did he have to suffer this humiliation over a mere servant, whether the small master of House Tulk was somehow beneath a worm-like woman like that—
But.
“I-I will withdraw.”
In the end, Paijin left without saying a single word and walked out the door.
That was when Bianca turned her gaze to Aster.
“Aster-gun.”
“…Yes?”
“I would like to ask what you were thinking. Did you not consider what comes after? If you did this believing in me or Demian, I will be greatly disappointed.”
Her voice was still sharp, but unlike with Paijin, the tone was considerably gentler.
Her eyes were those of someone sincerely worried about Aster’s recklessness, and between the stern words, a thread of warmth lay hidden.
Until Aster opened his mouth, that is.
“Lady Gamo, I’m fine.”
“What do you mean you’re fine? If this turns serious, it can become as serious as it wants. Didn’t you hear that public opinion within Brando isn’t favorable toward you, Aster-gun?”
“After the rain, the ground hardens.”
What ground?
As Bianca furrowed her brow, Aster continued in a resolute tone.
“Justice is the same. It becomes stronger and is reborn more firmly through harsh oppression and pain. And I have no doubt that everything will flow in the right direction.”
What is this—
While Bianca lost her words, Aster clenched his fist tight with a gaze as intense as a lone warrior facing the world.
“House Tulk might even be grateful to me.”
“What are you—”
“I turned Tulk’s shame, who doesn’t even know honor, into a person without violence. Therefore, Tulk should rightly thank me.”
“……”
“I am the finest reformer on the eastern continent. Ah—of course, he still seems not fully human yet, but you don’t need to worry. Aftercare is waiting.”
At that utterly confident display, Bianca could only fall silent.
Ransi, too, stared with her mouth slightly open.
And then Aster’s voice drove into both of their ears.
“I do not bow to evil.”
“……”
“……”
Bianca looked at Aster for a moment, then tossed her gaze to Ransi.
“Remove him from my sight. Immediately.”
“…Understood.”
The lout—execution—successful.
The results weren’t terrible.
At the same time, Bianca pressed her fingertips to her temples, a throbbing headache pounding.
‘Did I… misjudge the person?’
Perhaps it wasn’t only Demian who changed at the Academy. Just as Demian was influenced by Aster, the reverse was also entirely possible—
‘No. Impossible.’
There are things you can learn to do, and things you can’t do even if you learn.
And that temperament was clearly the latter.
After the talk with Lady Gamo ended, when I stepped outside, the day had already sunk into evening.
No—come to think of it, even when I was “educating” that lout and got caught by the attendant Lady Gamo sent, and dragged here, the sun had already been setting.
Anyway, before I knew it, time had passed into deep night with the moon fully risen, and Ransi showed me to my room, then turned away without hesitation.
“I will send word to Young Master Demian tomorrow morning.”
I watched her back awkwardly, then headed into the room.
‘Tsk. I’m hungry.’
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t even eaten dinner because I was busy “rehabilitating” that lout.
I settled for chewing on some jerky I’d stocked in my subspace, and the taste itself wasn’t bad.
While gnawing on the jerky, I sorted out my thoughts for a bit.
‘For now, I tossed out the bait, but…’
I’d used “carrying out justice” as an excuse, but there were a few aims in “educating” the lout.
No—should I call them aims?
‘There were some parts that felt off.’
There were a few things I needed to confirm.
First.
‘Someone that big, and he just happens to show up at that exact timing? At the tailor shop?’
Of course, since Lady Gamo chose the place, it wouldn’t be some mediocre shop.
She probably selected the best one in Brando’s territory. But even so, running into the lout like that was too convenient.
Even if he came because a banquet was approaching, a vassal house should already have at least one outfit suitable for banquets… no, in the first place, he didn’t even look like he came to shop for clothes.
‘And it didn’t look like he came with some specific objective, either.’
Then why did that lout stop by the tailor shop at that exact time?
In my judgment, it felt like someone had sent him there.
If so, then second.
‘Who?’
The most obvious suspect was someone from that “not typical” vassal house Ransi mentioned.
Well, there was also the possibility it was the Head of House of Tulk, but either way—whichever it was, I’d find out eventually.
But what I was most curious about wasn’t those two points—it was the third question.
“Why?”
Whoever moved that lout around was surely not an ordinary person.
‘If I didn’t notice any particular surveillance, that means they have eyes everywhere without even needing to tail me.’
Why would someone like that take an interest in a mere Black and White Zone vagrant like me?
“It’s strange. Truly strange. There’s no reason for it.”
Put bluntly, if the other party is that “not typical” vassal house, they’d be trying to use me as an issue to squeeze something out of Brando.
Even so, giving me this much attention?
It felt like excessive attention.
Well, anyway.
‘Whatever it is, now that I’ve done this much, they’ll choose for themselves.’
I showed them: I’m a crazy bastard. If it wasn’t that important, they’ll back off on their own.
And if not, then I’ll have to think of another method.
That’s something to think about when it happens.
Well, the best outcome is still them flinching and backing away.
I was pissed off, sure, but the reason I blew things up more than necessary while “rehabilitating” the lout was this.
Anyway.
“Tsk. No matter how I think about it, I’m hungry.”
I shoved a second chunk of jerky into my mouth and grumbled.
That was when a sound came from the window.
Thump, thump.
“…?”
When I turned toward the sound, for a moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“…Breakfast No. 1?”
In the dark night, a familiar silhouette was cast at the window. It was unmistakably Breakfast No. 1, the one I’d left back in faraway Hazen.
Did it somehow know I was hungry and deliver itself like this?
“But… it’s evening right now?”
However, that illusion lasted only a moment.
I quickly realized the silhouette wasn’t Breakfast No. 1.
It was sleeker, and even a bit bigger.
You might ask how something can be sleeker and bigger at the same time, but “sleek” didn’t mean skinny—it meant the lines of its body were long and elegant.
When I got closer to confirm, sure enough, it wasn’t Breakfast No. 1.
“…An eagle?”
Yeah. It was an eagle.
As I stared at the eagle—
Bang! Bang!
Dinner No. 1, pounding like it wanted to smash the window.
With no choice, given that damn personality, I opened the window for it, and in the dispatch tube tied to its ankle, there was a small note.
And the contents of that note were—
See you in the deputy curator’s office of the Magic Studies Hall.
- Your friend, Henji von Brando
“Ah, f*ck.”
How many years apart are we, and you’re calling me a friend? Friends, my ass.
Well, anyway.
Pii, pii, piiiiik.
I stared at Dinner No. 1, crying out with solemn dignity, and as the urge to curse rose up, I didn’t hold it in—no, I held it down, pressing it in hard, and started walking.
Flap-flap!
…With Dinner No. 1 perched right on top of my head.
