The marquess's banquet began not with invitations, but with a list.
At the front gate, a clerk called out each guest's name as they arrived.
Marco Beltran. Orban Gray. Dominic Hyrun, head of the Hyrun Medicinal Trading Company.
Whenever a name was called, people smiled, exchanged greetings, and bowed their heads.
And calculated.
A banquet hall was noisier than a ledger, but sometimes it was more honest. People found it hard to hide their expressions.
"The Riorden Barony, Kael Riorden."
The clerk's voice dropped slightly.
That small change alone was enough.
The gazes in the banquet hall turned to Kael. A fallen noble. The man rumored to have put his seal on the Grayden warehouse.
Pale-faced and thin, he was a young noble who suited a document case better than a sword. Yet whenever his gray eyes swept over someone, a few trading company owners gradually stopped smiling.
Rowan followed without surrendering his sword, Edric carried the document case, and Mira stood to Kael's left.
"There is so much money in the air that it makes my nose hurt."
"Is it a good smell?"
"Good money moves quietly. This place reeks of people shouting that they are money."
Kael did not smile.
At the innermost end, the seat set high above the others for Viktor Seradin was empty. Even its owner's absence spoke of his power.
[Banquet Expenses Advanced]
[Primary Evaluation Target: Kael Riorden]
[Hidden Item: Concealment of the Fever-Reducing Distillate Distribution Route]
Just as expected.
This was not a place for eating. It was a public ledger with price tags attached.
Kael looked toward the medicinal trading company owners gathered to the right. They were smiling, but their hands kept stopping.
Dominic Hyrun in particular.
He had a round face and a broad smile. Sweat beaded at the nape of his neck.
[Recent Purchase: 18 Bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate]
[Source Record: Missing]
[Actual Storage: Cold Storage Room in the Northern Annex]
Kael set down his glass.
Mira noticed at once.
"Did you find it?"
"I smell it."
"Money?"
"Medicine."
The playfulness left Mira's face.
"Hyrun has a medicinal distribution network. During the war, it moved faster than the Temple."
"Can they be trusted?"
"A trading company that can be trusted and a trading company that makes money are not the same thing. Hyrun is the latter."
Dominic was talking with Marco, Orban, and Ramun Kael. The mere fact that Ramun stood there made the voices around them grow quieter.
When his eyes met Kael's, he raised his glass just a fraction.
You do not know what you are calculating. The words he had heard that afternoon surfaced again. If I do not know, I will find out.
The inner doors of the banquet hall opened.
Viktor Seradin entered. The conversations dwindled. People lowered their voices of their own accord. That was power.
Viktor walked to the center in formal black attire.
"The East is passing through difficult times. What we need is not emotion, but order."
Order. A word often used when the strong forced their own calculations upon the world.
Viktor looked at Kael.
"At times, we also need the youthful eyes that can read old ledgers anew."
All eyes turned to Kael at once.
"Young Master Kael Riorden. You made an interesting demand this afternoon."
"It was not an interesting demand. It was a claim for the return of unpaid supplies."
A quiet stir ran through the banquet hall.
A claim for return. It carried more clearly amid expensive liquor and perfume.
Viktor smiled.
"Most fallen nobles ask for help. Yet Young Master Riorden presents a claim."
"The person who asks for help lets the other side set the price."
"And the person who presents a claim?"
"At the very least, he knows what is his."
At Viktor's gesture, a clerk placed a document on a small table.
"A provisional settlement proposal concerning the Grayden warehouse."
Settlement proposal. Kael hated that term. It was useful when someone wanted to erase another person's rights.
The clerk read aloud.
"The remaining supplies at the Grayden warehouse will be redistributed under the marquess's mediation, and appropriate compensation will be paid to the Riorden Barony."
Mira said quietly,
"They want to remove our seal first, then give us consolation money set by the thieves."
[Surface Compensation: 300 Gold Coins]
[Actual Rights Relinquished: Eastern Relief 7-B Collateral Rights]
[Supplementary Effect: Release of the Grayden Warehouse Seal]
[Hidden Purpose: Concealment of the Source of 18 Bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate]
Three hundred gold coins. It was a large sum for a fallen Riorden. But what he had to sell for that money was future supply rights and the whereabouts of the medicine.
Kael set the settlement proposal down.
"Cheap."
The banquet hall grew quiet.
Viktor smiled.
"How much did you have in mind?"
"Money will not do."
"Then?"
"Goods."
Kael looked at Dominic Hyrun.
"Eighteen bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate."
Dominic's handkerchief stopped moving.
"You are obsessed with that item."
"Because it is mine."
"That has not been verified yet."
"Then we will verify it."
Kael walked to Dominic.
"Master Hyrun. You recently brought medicine into the cold storage room of the northern annex."
"The marquess's annex is beyond my authority."
"Then why did the cost of the cold storage key come out of your hand?"
[Cold Storage Room Management Fee Paid in Advance]
[Amount: 37 Silver Coins]
[Entry: Perfume Storage Fee]
Mira murmured in admiration, "Hiding medicine as a perfume storage fee. Classic."
Viktor set down his glass.
"Kael Riorden. It is dangerous to insult a trading company owner in public."
"It is not an insult. It is a request for confirmation."
"Do you have the authority to confirm it?"
"I do."
Kael took out the Riorden seal pouch.
"A provisional Riorden seal has been established over the remaining supplies at the Grayden warehouse. The missing supplies were taken out before the seal was placed, and there is no record of them."
Orban interrupted.
"There is room for legal dispute."
"Good. Then write that down."
Orban's face hardened.
Viktor said,
"Very well. Let us confirm it, then. Open the cold storage room in the northern annex."
A stir went through the banquet hall.
Dominic went completely rigid.
Ramun signaled to a servant by the door.
Kael saw the movement. His compliance came too quickly.
If Viktor did not know, he should have been flustered. If he did know, he would not have opened it so easily.
[Risk Cost Recalculated]
[Prediction: Partial Movement of the Medicine Complete]
[Remaining Supplies: Bait]
A trap. But even a trap became an asset once it was entered into a ledger.
"Let us go."
Viktor said,
"Everyone seems curious."
Some nobles and trading company owners followed. They were spectators and witnesses alike.
Mira moved close beside Kael.
"Something is strange."
"It is. We need to see what they left behind."
Rowan looked toward the end of the corridor.
"Two behind the door. Short swords."
"You handle the blades."
"Understood."
The cold storage room had a thick iron door and a small plaque.
`Perfume Storage Room.`
[Surface Use: Perfume Storage]
[Actual Use: Temporary Storage of Temperature-Sensitive Medicine]
[Recently Removed: 14 Bottles]
[Remaining: 4 Bottles]
Four bottles.
Kael's eyes darkened.
Only four of the eighteen bottles remained. The other fourteen had already vanished.
"Open it."
Viktor said.
The iron door opened, and cold air poured out. Inside were boxes of perfume, boxes of medicinal herbs, and a single black wooden box in the corner.
Kael walked toward that box.
Dominic said hurriedly,
"Those are private goods belonging to my trading company."
"Perfume?"
"Yes."
"Then it will smell fragrant when we open it."
Dominic could not answer.
Mira crouched before the box. "The seal has been changed. The old one beneath the Hyrun seal was scraped away in a hurry."
[Original Seal: Grayden Warehouse]
[Resealed By: Hyrun Medicinal Trading Company]
[Contents: 4 Bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate]
Kael opened the box.
Four small glass bottles lay wrapped in cloth. Clear liquid. A faint blue glow.
Fever-Reducing Distillate.
Mira's face hardened.
"Four bottles."
"Where are the other fourteen?"
Dominic did nothing but sweat.
Then red letters appeared above the bottles.
[Destinations Divided]
[7 Bottles: Eastern Border Outpost]
[5 Bottles: Seradin Private Clinic]
[2 Bottles: Temple Healing Account]
[Unpaid Survival Cost Expected]
Kael's hand stopped.
The Eastern Border Outpost.
Memories from his past life rose coldly to the surface. At the end of Frost Month, a fever had broken out at the Eastern Border Outpost. A week later, the number had surpassed three hundred. Beneath the report, Kael had written, `Review additional allocation`, and while he did, the soldiers died.
[Unpaid Survival Cost]
[Target: 312 Soldiers of the Eastern Border Outpost]
[Deadline: 9 Days]
Nine days.
This was not money. No, it was money as well. But before that, it was lives.
"What is it?"
Mira asked quietly.
Kael set down the bottle.
"This medicine is not something to sell."
"Then what is it?"
"Something that has to be sent."
Viktor asked from behind him,
"Where?"
"The Eastern Border Outpost."
Orban spoke at once.
"That place has not requested medicine yet."
"Yet."
Kael seized on that word.
"It is a good word. It has not made a request yet, which means it may make one soon."
The smile vanished from Viktor's eyes.
"How do you know that?"
He cannot speak of his past life or the Eye of Settlement. But a ledger always gives him an excuse.
"Eighteen bottles have been moved. Some toward the border outpost, and the rest divided between a private clinic and the Temple account. If an allocation moved before a request came, someone knew that a request was coming."
Mira drew in a breath.
"Preemption."
"Yes."
"Before the medicine price rises?"
"Before the illness spreads."
The corridor fell silent.
Rowan's expression hardened.
"Will the soldiers die?"
"If we cannot stop it."
Rowan asked no more. He had realized it was something a sword could not stop.
Kael pointed at the four bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate.
"We will seal them here."
Dominic almost screamed.
"Those are my trading company's goods!"
"The original Grayden seal remains."
"They are goods I repurchased."
"The repurchase record."
Dominic closed his mouth.
"Edric. A preservation confirmation for the Fever-Reducing Distillate."
Edric was already taking out a record sheet.
"We will preserve them before they are sold. We can dispute ownership later. Once the soldiers die, ownership of the medicine will mean nothing."
Kael looked in turn at Marco, Orban, Dominic, the medicinal trading company owners, and Viktor.
"If you object, I will write it down. I will write that you opposed the preservation of four bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate."
No one spoke at once.
Viktor finally smiled.
"You are truly dangerous."
"That is the second time I have heard that today."
"It means you have become that much more expensive."
Viktor looked at the record sheet Edric was writing on.
"Fine. Preserve the four bottles."
Dominic looked at Viktor in despair. Viktor did not look at him. He had been discarded.
Kael took out the Riorden seal and pressed it into the wax.
[Temporary Preservation Established]
[4 Bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate Secured]
[Eastern Border Outpost Survival Cost Partially Reduced]
[Remaining Risk: 308 People]
Three hundred and eight.
Still far too many.
Viktor came closer. His voice was low enough that no one else could hear.
"Kael Riorden."
"Yes."
"Do you really read debts?"
Kael looked at him.
"Why do you ask?"
"Then."
Viktor said very softly,
"You can read the price of your family's lives as well."
Kael's hand stopped.
The candle at the end of the corridor flickered. Rowan turned his head, and the color drained from Mira's face.
Viktor smiled again.
As though what he had just said had been a light joke at the banquet.
"Try making your next calculation in that direction."