7 — He’s Getting Transferred

Mr. Fisalis blurted out that he was getting transferred as soon as he got home from work!

I knew he’d been promoted back at the repatriation ceremony, but that’s different from getting transferred, isn’t it? What does he mean, then? Is he just moving up the ladder? He was already the commander of a division, so what would that make him now? I have no idea how the military works.

I was shocked by his sudden announcement, but Rohtas and the other servants looked equally surprised. So even Rohtas hadn’t heard!?

You could just see the “ask me more!” aura radiating from Mr. Fisalis as we all stared at him blankly.

“So you’re, uh, leaving the special ops division?” Calming myself down, I asked the question that must have been at the forefront of all our minds.

“That’s right! I’ll be moving to the royal guards.”

“Huh? Royal guards?”

The royal guards were responsible for the defense of the palace—mainly guarding the King and his family—so it would be quite different from the special ops division and front line work he’d been doing previously. They protected important figures and were literally the palace’s last line of defense, so they were an elite squad chosen not only for their fighting skills, but for their brains too. Even I knew that, despite my lack of care—I mean, lack of knowledge about all that complicated stuff.

So he was moving up! All of his subordinates said his work was exemplary, so apparently they’d been telling the truth.

“I’ve actually been named Vice Captain of the Royal Guard.”

So he’s gone from Commander of the Special Ops Division to Vice Captain of the Royal Guard, huh! I still don’t really get ranks and stuff, but I guess that means he’s more important now, right? Hmm... I’ll have to ask Rohtas later.

“I see. But this is all quite sudden.” The transfer seemed like a big decision to make on his first day back, so I had to ask.

“Not exactly. I requested this immediately after I returned from the war.”

“Huh?” He stunned us all again.

“I asked His Majesty and my superiors for a transfer before we left on holiday. Whew—I’m glad I put up with going to that banquet after all!” He laughed, flashing his pearly whites at us.

He means the events he actually went to for once after returning from the war, right? Before, he’d always say he was too tired and bow out, but that day he shocked all of us by attending like a good boy. We’d all thought he’d grown up after the war, but he was only trying to angle for a transfer!!

“With the Royal Guard, I won’t have to leave Rozhe, or you, nearly as often!” He said it so brightly as I stared at him, dumbfounded, but...

“I already told you, but...”

We moved to the salon for now. Assuming our usual position on the sofa—yep, sitting right up close with Mr. Fisalis—he was going to give us an explanation. So, you asked for a transfer to the Royal Guard just because you didn’t want to leave home!? Ah, yes. That was the exact kind of person Mr. Fisalis was.

“Seriously, though—our special ops division did a lot of work deep in enemy territory during the war, so there’s a chance people remember our faces. I mean, I don’t think we’d actually make a mistake like that, but warned the higher-ups about the possibility in any case. I also said that even if we hadn’t blown our cover, it wouldn’t make sense to keep the same undercover team for too long. Once we’d considered the potential risks, we all decided to suggest it might be time for a transfer.”

Looking slightly more serious than usual, Mr. Fisalis actually gave us a proper answer for once. Thank goodness. I thought he really did ask the higher-ups just because he didn’t want to leave home.

Hm? Wait. ‘All of us’? So he’s not the only one getting transferred?

“Everyone in the special ops division asked?”

“Yep! We’ve all been together for a pretty long time. Our request went through smoothly, and His Majesty, the Minister of War, and the Commander of the Chivalric Order all agreed.”

I wonder why I immediately imagined the whole division plying their superiors with alcohol during the banquet. They wouldn’t do that... right!?

“I see.”

“Yes. So everyone in the division has joined the Royal Guard. They made a new section specially for us. Our job will be investigating internal affairs. So instead of facing foreign enemies, we’ll just be dealing with ones closer to home.”

“So Corydalis and the lady knights will all be transferring too?”

“Yes, we’ll all be together. ...We’re basically inseparable now...”

“Okay!” I’d been a bit sad that I wouldn’t get to see much of his fun subordinates anymore, but I was worrying over nothing! And Mr. Fisalis might have been complaining, but he was probably happy too. He was smiling, after all.

While I was sitting there, relieved that the former special ops division would be sticking together, Mr. Fisalis spoke up again.

“But we can’t do much investigating publicly, so the official story is that we’re on palace defense. All of what I said is a secret, alright?” His smile is so dark! Are you blabbing nearly everything to me again, Mr. Fisalis!? Seriously!?

“W-Wait! Isn’t this super classified?”

“Oh, you should be fine.”

“No, this is too much for me to deal with!”

I mean, I’m glad you trust me so much, but you really don’t have to tell me everything! But while I was already exhausted by all this, he was still cheery.

“So, since we’ll be working from the Royal Palace, we won’t be going on any expeditions or business trips, so I’ll never have to leave you alone again! Oh, I’m so glad I actually did my job like a good boy.”

“This... isn’t it...”

“Hm?”

“N-nothing.”

“But I need to stay the course if I’m going to become Minister of War someday.”

What? He’s actually talking about the future? So he’s already thinking about his next step! Amazing! And Father Fisalis was the Minister of War before he retired, wasn’t he? Now he’s just an unofficial margrave, though.

It seemed that the Fisalis family supported the kingdom in military affairs. The Argenteia family supported it in domestic affairs, for the record. Celosia, Verbena’s father and the current head of the house, was also the prime minister.

“Wouldn’t being the prime minister or a civil official also let you avoid travel?” I asked, thinking he could have just changed careers if he really didn’t want to leave the manor.

“If I was the prime minister or an official, I’d have to suck up to His Majesty. It’d be too much of a pain. I’m much better suited to being Minister of War, since I’d still be important without having to do anything annoying. And to become the Minister of War, I need to move up the ranks in the Chivalric Order. Besides, if I became an official, the only higher rank available would be prime minister. No thanks. I’ll leave that to Celosia,” Mr. Fisalis scoffed.

Isn’t he being a bit too honest?

He continued on. “Let’s leave aside the topic of my transfer. I’m sorry this is happening so soon after we got back from our trip, but we’re going to have to go to a party at the Argenteia manor.” Since we’d reached a stopping point regarding his transfer and I seemed to have gotten the point, he brought up another topic.

“What?”

Seriously? First a transfer, now a party? We certainly weren’t gonna run out of things to talk about tonight.

“I didn’t actually want to go this time, but Celosia insisted on it to announce my transfer...” Mr. Fisalis smiled bitterly when I visibly twitched at the mention of attending a party.

I see... We can’t do much about it if it’ll be for the announcement of his new job transfer. Especially since Celosia himself invited us....

“...We can’t turn that down, I guess.” I reluctantly agreed.

“Nope! I don’t really care about announcing my transfer, but I’ve decided we’ll debut the Viola Sapphires there too!” He was just waiting to say that. He was giving me one of his beautiful smiles.

“...Okay.” I got even more dejected.

That was the part you really wanted to mention, wasn’t it?

He was going on about how he didn’t want to go, but in the same breath he added, “It’ll be in three weeks. We’ll have lots of time to have your gown and jewelry made! I’ve been in contact with Madame Fleur since we were away, so she should be able to start immediately. She can come by tomorrow. And after that we can go to our usual jeweler to have the sample Viola Sapphires prepared. Rohtas, make it so!” He was happily issuing orders to Rohtas now. Are you sure you don’t want to go? Because you really don’t seem that unhappy about it.

“As you wish.”

“Also, tell the mines to send any ‘Viola Eyes’ they find directly to us.”

“Already done.”

“Great work!”

Damn, these two work fast.

The next day...

Madame came to see me wearing her usual calm smile. I thought this every time I saw her, but she really wasn’t greedy or stuck up at all, despite being the most exclusive seamstress in the capital. Working with her was wonderful.

“The Duke has requested that I make you a dress that will accent sapphires as beautiful as Madam’s eyes.”

What the heck is he doing, making an embarrassing request like that!? Mr. Fisalis, please just order things like a normal person!

While I was soaking up all that psychic damage and blushing beet red from Mr. Fisalis’s mortifying request, Dahlia calmly showed off the gems in question.

“These are the sapphires he mentioned. They’re called ‘Viola Sapphires,’ and will be debuted at the minister’s upcoming party.”

She’s going to end up spreading it further...

Carefully picking up one of the gems, Madam exclaimed, “These are such wonderful sapphires! You almost never see them so large and finely shaped. Just as you’d expect from something named after Madam!”

Rave reviews. I couldn’t stand hearing much more of this.

I mean yeah, the sapphires are beautiful. I’m not arguing about that. But naming them after me just ruins any enjoyment I could get out of them. Someone, please stop them already!

Today, we were having a meeting about the design of the gown with the maids. Mimosa was especially tenacious about these kinds of things, after all!

“A blue dress... The first dress I ever made for Madam was blue, wasn’t it?”

Ah~ that palace party where I talked about them being optional. That was the one where I made friends with Miss Iris and the others, huh?

“Yes! I absolutely loved that outfit!” Mimosa looked positively spellbound by the thought of it.

It really had been a wonderful dress. It enhanced my flat physique and made it look like I actually had a figure!

“Why not use sapphire blue as an accent this time, rather than the main color?” Stellaria suggested, thinking. She must have been practically constructing the whole dress in her head.

“Good idea, Miss Ria! Ah, sorry!” Poor Mimosa just couldn’t stop being overly polite to the junior she admired so much. She cringed when both Dahlia and Stellaria herself glared at her.

“Madam prefers simple dresses, and since that’s such a fresh viewpoint, I’ve been getting many requests for dresses just like the Duchess’s lately,” Madame told us, laughing.

“Showy dresses—flowy, frilly things with tons of lace—have been in fashion for quite some time after, all.”

Just what you’d expect from a former palace lady-in-waiting. Stellaria knows all about high society’s trends.

“The complete opposite of Madam’s preferences, huh~” Mimosa continued, looking at me. I nodded in agreement.

“Oh, everyone is paying attention to Madam’s fashion choices these days.”

I tried to shake my head no at Stellaria this time, but...

“Clean, simple dresses are certainly in fashion now,” Madame told me as she sketched a dress design onto some paper. I was amazed by how she could draw and talk at the same time.

I didn’t really like big fancy dresses anyway, so putting aside all this talk about my personal fashion choices, I was actually pretty happy that simple was in.

“But I always want to dress this way, no matter what’s fashionable.”

“Oh my! Ohohoho!”

She was laughing at me. Why?

After everyone but me got into a discussion about it, it was decided that the dress would be mostly white with sapphire blue accents. For the actual design, they decided the simpler the better, of course.

“The bodice will be a bit lower-cut, but I assure you it’s necessary to show off your necklace, Madam.”

“The skirt will have lots of draping, accented with blue flowers. Let’s go with a big, cute ribbon in the back~!”

“I’ll do my best to bring out all of Madam’s charm points.”

Madame skillfully drew up her design blueprint as Mimosa and Stellaria advised. Once the design was finished, she left—only to be immediately replaced by the jeweler! He was even happier than Madame had been.

“It’s such an honor that you’d allow me to work with these valuable sapphires, especially since they haven’t even been shown to the general public yet!” he said before taking the gems from Dahlia. “These are... Oh, what fine gems! If they’re named after Madam, surely the demand will be unprecedented!”

Giving the gemstones a much more detailed inspection than Madame had, the jeweler sighed, spellbound.

“There are plans to seek out even finer sapphires,” Dahlia announced with a straight face. Oh no no, you can’t say that when we haven’t actually dug any up yet!

“Better quality than even these? I’ll look forward to the day I get to see something like that!” His eyes widened happily.

That’s all still in progress! Dahlia, you shouldn’t get his hopes up like that!

“Because of that, we may request some changes to your designs in the future.”

“I’ll be happy to accept them!”

An immediate okay from the jeweler on that. Really?

The jewelry was to be made to match the dress’s design rather than the other way around. Or rather, this time the jewelry itself would be the focal point.

When he heard that, the owner cried, “This is a serious responsibility, then! I’ll pour my entire heart and soul into making them!” and very carefully wrapped the sapphires up before putting them in his bag and leaving in high spirits.

I still hated going out in public, but I couldn’t say no anymore, so I just had to suck it up and do my best. It was specifically optional back when we first got married... I stared off into the distance and tried to think of something else.