The phrase “drinking communication” had existed in my previous life too, and it seemed feasts really did have a way of rapidly bringing people closer together.
Apparently, the Gazania Family’s social gathering remained extremely lively even after I withdrew. The Family members scattered money through Maypool’s gambling dens and brothels, or stormed famous sweet shops as gangs of intimidating men. They seemed to be socializing warmly too. First thing in the morning, someone would say, “Hey, brother. I brought the goods,” and hand over homemade cookies.
How nice for them.
Then, early that morning, the girl I’d met yesterday appeared in the hotel lobby, which was already crowded with yakuza.
“A moment, if you please. My name is Garnet Gazania, daughter of Gaccha Gazania, head of the Cineraria Family’s Maypool branch. In accordance with the terms of the duel, I shall join the lowest rank among the wives of Crow Amaryllis, candidate for the next underboss. I humbly ask for your favor from this day forward.”
Garnet, the alchemist with young-leaf-green hair tied into a bun. Twelve years old.
Her appearance was simpler than yesterday. The bottle-bottom glasses remained unchanged, but she now wore the robes of a low-ranking alchemist. Also, for some reason, a backpack stuffed with all kinds of alchemical equipment had toppled over on the floor beside her.
“Um… Garnet. I’m fairly sure I asked to receive you as a subordinate, not as a wife.”
“Y-yes. That was my understanding too, but Father was somehow overjoyed. He said it was a miracle that his unalluring daughter, whom he’d expected would struggle to find a husband, had caught the eye of the future underboss… and that yesterday’s discourtesy was overlooked because we’re the family of a woman you favor.”
“…For now, I completely understand that misunderstandings have piled on top of more misunderstandings until they’ve caused an avalanche. But why?”
Hmm. Had my words in that situation really sounded as though I were demanding his daughter as a bride? Was that truly it? Perhaps there was some hidden scheme, and they were trying to force her into the position of my wife by letting events carry us along. Hmm.
“For now, I should discuss this with Resina.”
“Um, I received the young miss’s permission yesterday. She said that as long as I never disturbed the hierarchy among your wives and cooperated in constructing the… encirclement around you, Underboss Candidate, she would permit me to join at the lowest rank.”
“I see. I mostly understand now.”
Resina was the mastermind who’d proposed Garnet’s marriage to the branch head, wasn’t she? Absolutely.
In the first place, the people permitted to have multiple wives were nobles, the wealthy, and others with the financial means and sense of responsibility to support them. You see, in this world, men were often made to stand on the front line of violent situations, so women tended to outnumber them.
But an irresponsible person like me—someone planning to run away and enjoy a frontier slow life—had no business taking several wives.
In other words, Resina’s plan was… to deliberately give me multiple wives, make me feel guilty about fleeing to the frontier, quietly slip in the claim that “Resina is the principal wife” to establish it as fact, and ensnare me no matter what.
That was it.
Good. I understood.
I understood, but… what was I supposed to do about this?
“Ah… I’m still a ten-year-old child, so let’s put all talk of marriage on hold. Nothing is scheduled. Everything is blank. For now, think only of working as an alchemist under my command.”
“Y-yes. As long as I’m given an environment where I can devote myself to alchemical research, I honestly don’t care very much about anything else. Do as you please.”
“Good. We’ll set Resina’s maneuvering aside for now and talk about alchemy. Somehow, I’m already tired this early in the morning.”
In any case, this was how Garnet the alchemist became one of my subordinates.
Why did Resina keep advancing all sorts of plans outside my knowledge? It was quite troubling.
◆ ◆ ◆
Appearing before me as Garnet departed was Penne, whose pink twin-tails somehow looked deflated. What happened? What was wrong?
“I was still underestimating you, Crow. You’re just ridiculously strong. I never thought Steel Galio would be treated like some little brat.”
Ah, yes. Penne had been the only person who tried to stop the duel, hadn’t she?
Ultimately, nothing had gone wrong, but I was still happy she’d felt that way. Thank you.
After a short silence, Penne awkwardly began to speak.
“Crow… will you train me?”
“Penne?”
“I know I’m saying something awfully convenient. But watching you finally made me understand. The strength of the mana someone is born with is really a minor issue. I’d only been using it as an excuse to give up. So… I’m swallowing my pride to ask you. Will you teach me how to train?”
Goodness.
Perhaps… I’d been the one underestimating Penne.
Without anyone telling her to do so, she’d thought about how to change herself and lowered her head of her own accord… Well, she hadn’t physically lowered her head even slightly… but she was still a girl capable of humbly asking for help like this.
How admirable.
“I don’t mind training you, but let me ask one thing. What are you trying to become stronger for, Penne?”
“Do I… have to tell you?”
“In my case, I had the goal of living a frontier slow life, and that allowed me to keep training even when it was difficult. I think you need something similar—a core to support you.”
When I asked, she fidgeted for a while, clearly finding it difficult to speak, before answering in a small voice.
“Well… I want to be friends with the young miss too.”
“Penne…”
“It’s pathetic, but her mana still nearly makes me piss myself. If I train properly, I’ll become able to handle it like you, right? So… please. I want to stand beside the young miss with my head held high and call myself her friend.”
Having said that, her face boiled bright red.
Ahh. She really was a good girl.
Mr. Serge, you were right. This child possesses a wonderfully kind heart.
As I delivered that report to the chief administrator inside my mind, I silently offered Penne her favorite dried persimmons. I’d made plenty, so she could eat as many as she liked.
“Dried persimmons are so good… Oh, right. How much mana do you actually have, Crow? I understand that it’s seriously insane, but…”
“Would you like to probe it? Here, take my hand.”
“…I was still underestimating you, Crow.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Resina and I were staying at a hotel in one of Maypool’s finest districts. A night’s stay cost two silver coins per person. An ordinary person earned only a few silver coins a month, so it was fair to call this a rather expensive hotel.
Thanks to Resina’s schemes, the two of us were staying together under the lukewarm gazes of the Family members. Naturally, we were both ten years old, so nothing would happen between us. I thought I would be safe for another few years.
Probably.
After engaging in one high-calorie conversation after another with Garnet and Penne since early morning, I returned to our room hoping to relax a little. There, I found Resina sitting in unusual silence with a difficult expression.
“What’s wrong, Resina? Is something troubling you?”
“Yes. I received a letter from Father—the underboss.”
Letters in this world were generally delivered at a leisurely pace, but powerful figures such as nobles and yakuza often retained monster tamers who trained magical birds to carry correspondence.
It wasn’t quite as fast as email in my previous life, but information traveled surprisingly quickly.
“…It concerns several things related to the purification barriers.”
“Ah, I see.”
Replacing purification-barrier cores was, in the first place, a vested interest belonging to the Spirit Temple.
Our “let’s secretly replace them” plan would be difficult to discover while it remained small, but expanding it on a large scale would probably introduce all sorts of complications. Perhaps our present actions had been too hasty.
“Did the underboss send an official order to stop?”
“No. Quite the opposite—he told us to press ahead at full speed. Before winter ends, replace every purification barrier throughout the Cineraria Family’s territory with the new model. Those are his orders. On top of that, he’s left every detail of the deployment entirely to us.”
“What…?”
That was an awful amount of responsibility to dump on us…
Still, perhaps it couldn’t be helped. The underboss had remained in the imperial capital, and the situation there was apparently quite chaotic, with several yakuza organizations and noble houses all entangled. He probably couldn’t spare the attention for the empire’s western region.
This was also likely intended as a trial to train the next underboss. If Resina accumulated accomplishments, she would pull far ahead of the other candidates…
No, wait. Would these accomplishments be counted as mine rather than Resina’s?
That was no good.
“By the way, Crow. I never properly confirmed how many new purification-barrier cores you can produce… Given enough materials, you can easily make about a hundred in a single night, can’t you?”
“Hmm? With enough materials, a hundred in ten minutes would be easy.”
When I said that, Resina froze, speechless. Her face had become rather amusing.
“Crow… There are twenty cities of various sizes in the empire’s western region and around six hundred villages. Allowing some leeway and including spares, we’ll need roughly four thousand cores. How long would it take you to make them?”
“I can prepare that many in a single night.”
“I see… Then let’s make major changes to the plan. It will be faster to produce all the replacements we need at once.”
From what she told me, Resina’s plan was simple.
The additional personnel dispatched from headquarters would reach Maypool in about seven days. We would hand them the replacement purification-barrier cores and teach them the procedure. Then they would scatter throughout the region and replace every purification-barrier core in our territory with the new model while avoiding attention.
Naturally, we expected problems to arise from operating on such a large scale.
“By the way, Resina. How did you recruit the additional people from headquarters? What conditions did you give the administrative office?”
“Hehehe… Their histories and abilities are completely irrelevant. Send as many volunteers as possible. We’ll handle the selection here, so the administrative office must not interfere. In fact, anyone suspected of betrayal should be sent to us especially eagerly… That was what I told them.”
“I see. That’s good. We’re sure to gather a great many traitors.”
At my words, the corners of Resina’s mouth rose into a grin. It would be more convenient for us if as many traitors as possible came this time.
“By the way, can you quickly finish the magic tool for replacing barrier cores that you mentioned before, Crow?”
“Yes. Development is complete, so all that remains is mass production. What about that derivative magic of yours?”
“I believe I created the magic we intended, but I want to conduct a few more experiments.”
For now, we had devised measures for most problems we could predict. From there, we would simply have to put the plan into practice and keep thinking as each new issue appeared.
I hoped it would go well.