「Hey, but that ash tree thing—weren’t you just making it up to mess with me? I can’t believe a monster like that exists.」
「And spruce and birch are believable?」
「At least plenty of people know about those. You’re the only person I’ve ever met who knows about ash trees.」
「You’ve only lived seventeen years. Try living longer.」
「Is being old something to brag about?」
「Who are you calling old, you slave brat?」
「You are old. Most people your age would have grandkids.」
「You little eunuch bastard!」
「I’m not a eunuch!」
Black Weasel and Silver’s voices kept rising. Watching them, Wolf felt a headache building. What the hell are they saying now? For the love of god, speak Atanian!
Black Weasel and Silver both sprang to their feet, jabbing fingers at each other.
「I told you I’m not a eunuch! I just don’t get hard every morning!」
「That’s proof you are. Do you realize how serious it is not to get morning wood at your age? When I was your age, there was a mountain under the sheets every morning!」
「I never had any trouble jerking off!」
「And you expect me to believe that without seeing it myself?」
「You asshole, why are you so interested in someone else’s dick?! Lifting my blanket every morning to check! That’s disgusting!」
「The fact you still don’t understand why I do that proves you’re an idiot!」
Even to Wolf, who was deaf to the Stol language, it was obvious the two were arguing. What if Silver got whipped for talking back like that? Or maybe assistants didn’t get beaten.
「You called me an idiot again!」
Silver splashed water at Black Weasel. Black Weasel splashed water right back. If a couple of seven- or eight-year-olds did this, it would just look like playful splashing. But these two were a contract killer in his forties and a teenage knife-wielding assistant.
「If I’m an idiot then you’re an idiot too, you stupid old man!」
「You’re the only idiot here, slave brat. Want an example? You can’t even do addition and subtraction.」
「Why should that matter? I’m not becoming a merchant.」
「So you’re confident you’ll never get ripped off in your life?」
「Why would I get ripped off? I’m going to live like you—never paying for anything.」
「An idiot talking idiot nonsense!」
The shouting, finger-pointing, and splashing went on and on. In the end, Black Weasel was the one who stepped back first.
「I’m going to see Director Erem. You handle these morons while I’m gone. If your watch gets sloppy, you’ll regret it.」
「Go fuck yourself!」
The slave boy raised a middle finger at the retreating back of the master. Only after Black Weasel’s footsteps faded did Wolf speak in a tiny voice.
“Hey… is it okay to fight with your master like that? What if you get whipped?”
「Mind your own business.」
“What does that mean? That you won’t get hit?”
“Fuck, are you scared of getting hit or something? Let him try!”
Silver grumbled and sank deeper into the hot spring. Wolf was speechless. From the first impression Silver had seemed fearless and impossible to control, but this was… something else. Unless the master happened to be a forgetful old man, picking a shouting match with a broad-shouldered contract killer would only end badly for you, Silver.
Wolf quickly gathered the thoughts. Whatever the case, Silver had just had a huge fight with the master. The chance to get closer had come sooner than expected.
Hesitating now would be stupid. Time to bake the bread.
But earlier Silver had humiliated Wolf a little. So this time, Wolf pushed the Red Eagle Prince forward. If they wanted to get closer to Silver, the prince—who had honed the art of conversation in the court—might be the better choice. The sharp and calm composure the prince had shown while speaking with Black Weasel inspired confidence.
Wolf gave the prince a subtle nod. The Red Eagle Prince winked back as if to say leave it to me. That’s right—we’re one body!
You know the plan without me saying it, right? Keep it natural. Don’t make it obvious we want Silver on our side. If we show our real intentions too early, it’ll only make Silver suspicious.
“Silver, do you fight with your master often?”
The Red Eagle Prince spoke in the usual gentle tone. Silver glanced sideways at the prince, then abruptly turned the head away. The next words made Wolf doubt the ears.
“You and your master don’t get along, right? Would it be rude if I asked why you argued earlier? Sometimes just talking things out helps you calm down. I’d like to become friends with someone my age. If it bothers you, you can pretend you didn’t hear me.”
That was like throwing flour straight into an oven without preparing anything and burning the bread black. Every word exposed the prince’s obvious ulterior motive. Worst of all was the last line—why even add “pretend you didn’t hear me”? What if Silver actually pretended not to hear?
Of course that’s exactly what happened. Silver demonstratively closed the eyes.
The prince’s face darkened rapidly, clearly realizing the mistake. Since the prince had generously offered the pointless “you can ignore me,” the prince couldn’t say anything else now and simply lowered the head. Maybe we shouldn’t act like one body after all, Prince.
With no other option, Wolf stepped in.
“Hey. Is the old man always like that? Earlier I was seriously shocked. No matter if someone’s a slave, yelling like that at a kid young enough to be your youngest son… seriously! Are all adults in Stol like that? Or is that old man just especially awful?”
Wolf criticized Black Weasel in an angry voice. From Wolf’s experience, when a boy got scolded by an adult, what the boy wanted wasn’t warm comfort but one-sided support. Would Silver be any different? Please don’t be.
“From what I saw, you do a ridiculous amount of work. Rowing! Standing watch! Cooking! Bringing blankets! And that mountain of firewood over there—wasn’t that all you too? Even in Stol, where slaves are treated harshly, that workload is excessive! And you’re still young!”
Silver wasn’t that different from boys in Atania after all. The face that had been stubbornly turned elsewhere slowly turned toward Wolf. Like a cat that stubbornly keeps its back to someone while pricking up one ear.
“And when you splashed water, the old man splashed water back like a child. I don’t know what you did wrong, Silver, but how serious could it be? Even if it was something big, the old man’s at least twice your age. An adult should laugh it off. If you’re an adult, you should act like one!”
Wolf raised the voice, slapping the water with both hands.
Finally Silver opened the eyes.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Silver stared directly at Wolf.
“That Ice-Armored Beast idiot said something stupid, and I simply presented a logical opposing opinion. Or was it a rebuttal? A counterargument? Damn it, I’m mixing them up.”
Silver narrowed the eyes and scratched the chin with the fingertips. Wolf clapped the hands with a loud smack.
“Wow! You can distinguish between opposition, rebuttal, and counterargument? Even people in Atania get those mixed up. That’s impressive! Did you live in Atania for a few years or something?”
“If I had, I wouldn’t have asked what rabbits in Atania are like. I’ve been there several times following Ice-Armored Beast, but never stayed longer than a week. I learned Atanian on my own. Three years? I practiced conversation with Ice-Armored Beast. Ice-Armored Beast lived in Atania for a few years a long time ago.”
“So that’s why the two of you have the same accent. But… self-study for three years?”
Wolf found it hard to believe. Silver was terrible with names and behaved strangely, so Wolf had assumed Silver wasn’t very bright… maybe the real idiot here was Wolf.
The Red Eagle Prince also looked surprised.
“Silver, that’s impressive. If you learned for only three years on your own and reached this level, you must have a natural talent for languages.”
“Exactly, Your Highness. If it were me, even after thirty years I’d still confuse opposition, rebuttal, and counterargument. Silver, you must be really smart. So the old man got angry because he couldn’t argue back?”
Silver shook the head.
“No. I said one thing as a joke and that made him mad.”
“Over a single joke? Wow, that’s petty.”
“Exactly. It wasn’t even a big deal. All I said was, ‘Is being old something to brag about?’”
“That’s…”
That was basically like telling an ugly person, “Is being ugly something to brag about…?”
“Um, Silver. Shouldn’t you tell older people they look young? Wouldn’t that be more polite?”
“It wasn’t even wrong. Ice-Armored Beast mocked me first, saying I’d only lived seventeen years. So asking if being old is something to brag about was completely fair.”
Wolf didn’t like Black Weasel either, but this was something impossible to agree with. Wolf and the Red Eagle Prince fell into chilly silence. Silver added hurriedly,
“Look, if you’d understood the argument between Ice-Armored Beast and me, you would’ve taken my side. What Ice-Armored Beast meant was that I only lived seventeen years, so I know nothing. Dismissing me just because I’m young.”