One unexpected event had followed another, but at last, the time came for us to leave Maypool.
Including the additional personnel, the chivalrous band I’d entrusted to Jairo had grown to roughly fifty members. They’d only departed yesterday, but… everyone’s enthusiasm had far exceeded my imagination. Apparently, chivalrous bandits were every man’s dream.
Gatango, the second son of the Maypool branch head, was among them. It seemed he’d crawled before Jairo and begged to work under him. Now, he primarily supported Jairo through administrative duties.
And so, the members continuing the Winter Tour had changed dramatically. The remaining original travelers were me, Resina, and Penne. Garnet, the branch head’s eldest daughter and an alchemist, had joined us, while additional personnel from headquarters filled the holes left by Jairo and his group.
Branch Head Gaccha, who’d come to see us off, looked around repeatedly.
“Underboss Candidate. My daughter… Where is Garnet?”
“Garnet is right here.”
“What is… that?”
I pointed to a cube-shaped wooden box with two knight-doll legs sprouting from its underside.
You see, after I gave Garnet the magic tool containing my subspace magic, she moved her alchemy workshop inside and became a complete shut-in. She was probably devouring books borrowed from Library. She’d become rather excited and begun speaking at tremendous speed.
Carrying Garnet’s workshop around every time would have been troublesome, so I hastily gave it legs and made it walk. It was quite convenient. Like a knight doll, it required manual control, but not having to repeatedly move it into and out of subspace was much easier.
“G-Garnet… changed beyond all recognition.”
“Really? I don’t think she’s changed that much.”
“If you say so, Underboss Candidate… She is already a daughter I’ve married off. If she’s satisfied with her present situation, then as her parent, I have nothing to say. Please continue to take good care of Garnet.”
Hmm?
There was no need to sound so tragic. Also, I was taking her in as a subordinate for the moment. Marriage remained on hold. No matter how many times I said it, no one listened.
“Underboss Candidate!”
The person calling out energetically was Galio, who’d become so cheerful he seemed like a different person. Yes, his spirit came through wonderfully, but his voice was too loud.
“Thank you so much for everything! Your guidance struck me deeply, Underboss Candidate. I’ll continue polishing myself so that one day I can show you how much I’ve grown… and support the next underboss!”
“Yes. You can consult me about your training anytime. Just send me a letter by magical bird.”
“Yes, sir! I’ll take you up on that and send all sorts of letters. Please have a safe journey!”
Ah, yes. His voice really was loud.
And… should I call this “Good Galio”? Compared to the beginning, he seemed like an entirely different person.
His attitude had changed this drastically after we’d explained the purification-barrier matter to the Gazania Family’s senior members. Apparently, the younger members led by Galio had been profoundly moved by Jairo’s Chivalrous Band. For some reason, they’d begun worshipping me as though I were a living god.
I wished they would stop.
“…Thank you for everything. See you again.”
I boarded the carriage with an extremely arrogant air, then hurried away from Maypool.
An absurd number of things seemed to have happened during our short stay, but the Silva Frontier Territory was still far away.
◆ ◆ ◆
Roughly speaking, the subspace I controlled was magic that created “depth.”
It added a fourth-dimensional depth to a space that possessed only the three dimensions of length, width, and height, thereby expanding it. Naturally, this created an extremely unnatural state, so merely maintaining a subspace consumed considerable mana. From the standpoint of efficiency, it ranked among the worst kinds of magic.
“That’s why, even though I have a large amount of mana, I’d prefer to conserve it by eliminating unnecessary subspaces.”
As I spoke, I removed a man from a subspace inside the carriage.
His name was… Hyadal Something-or-Other. A twenty-year-old man whose full name was so long that everyone shortened it to Hyadal.
The subspace where I’d stored him measured two cubes: one meter long, one meter wide, and two meters tall, like a cleaning-supply closet.
From his perspective, he’d arrived as one of the additional personnel from headquarters, only to be confined without explanation inside a narrow, dark space for a very long time. It must have been incredibly painful, but it couldn’t be helped.
—Because he was the man who’d put wolfsbane poison in Resina’s soup.
“Now then. I think you understand already, but Resina can use magic that detects lies. If you give false testimony out of loyalty to someone, or provide distorted information as part of some scheme… then I’ll store you inside that narrow subspace again.”
“P-please don’t store me… I’ll tell you everything honestly…”
“Well, I’m not the one judging that. What do you think, Resina? Has his spirit broken yet?”
When I looked at her, Resina thrust up her thumb.
“As expected of the next underboss. Your methods are excellent.”
“You can praise me, but add ‘candidate.’”
“It seems your spirit hasn’t broken yet, Crow.”
As if I’d let it break. I could keep going for a long time.
That aside, I hadn’t wanted to believe Hyadal was a traitor. He’d been my senior as Resina’s personal attendant… Well, he’d clicked his tongue at me before, but I thought our working relationship had been reasonably successful.
More importantly, Hyadal was the grandson of Chief Administrator Serge and Penne’s cousin.
“Hey, Crow. I was thinking.”
“Yes? What is it, Penne?”
“He’s been locked in subspace all this time, so he’s probably pretty thirsty. If we want him to talk quickly, shouldn’t we give him some water first?”
I see. As expected of kindhearted Penne.
When I nodded repeatedly, she approached him enthusiastically.
“Here. Mercy from the next underboss.”
With that, she removed the plug from a barrel and began pouring water over Hyadal’s head.
Wait, wait. He couldn’t breathe.
Forget talking—he had far more immediate problems.
Also, you needed to add “candidate” to next underboss too.
“Well done, Penne.”
“Hah! This ain’t nearly enough. He threw his weight around at headquarters because he was the young miss’s personal attendant and got special treatment. Then, of all things, the bastard put poison in her food.”
Penne drew a hand axe from the holder at her waist and began swinging it around.
Um, that was only a threat, right? A performance to make Hyadal promptly confess everything?
I knew it was.
“Penne, wait.”
“Young miss?”
“He isn’t merely thirsty. He must be hungry too. If I recall correctly, the goblin sausages we couldn’t finish are stored in Crow’s subspace.”
Please don’t do that to him.
Goblin sausage wasn’t a torture instrument. It was food—valuable provisions containing the accumulated survival wisdom of a poor village.
Even if not one of us was willing to eat it.
“Resina, Penne, calm down. If you become too excited, I’ll have to store Hyadal for a little longer.”
“Please don’t store me! I’ll say anything! I’ll tell you everything! Please, anything but storage!”
“Hehehe. As expected of the next underboss. You’re merciless.”
“I was still underestimating you, Crow.”
Huh?
What?
Why was I being treated like the cruelest monster here?
I couldn’t accept this at all.
And stop calling me the next underboss. At least add “candidate.”
Seriously.