Chapter 175

"Young master! Of course, of course! If you'll trust me with it, I'll work myself to the bone for you!"

Sally shot to his feet the moment the words were out. But once he caught the glances people around them were sneaking his way, his face went sheepish and he sat back down.

Mikhail watched him for a beat, smiled, and continued.

"Glad you took to it."

"There's nothing to refuse about it. For someone like me, this is truly an opportunity worth its weight in gold…."

Mikhail nodded easily at the flushed voice.

"All right. I'll handle things on my end and let the right people know. Give me an address where you can be reached and word will come your way. I'll write mine down too—anything comes up along the way, just send it through."

"Yes, young master."

Sally answered promptly and dipped his head. He sat silent for a stretch, then slowly lifted his head and asked in a voice that had gone smaller.

"Sir… is it really all right for me to be handed something this far above my station? All I've done for you is small potatoes…."

Mikhail watched Sally's shoulders and back fold inward, then shook his head.

"Don't think about it that way. Thanks to you, I got through some important things without any trouble."

"……"

"Look at the fight with the magical beasts. When I asked you to call out to everyone—if you hadn't gone along with what I said…"

Mikhail set a beat of breath at the end of the sentence and looked down at his own fingertips, then curled them tight and went on.

"Something I'd rather not think about would have happened."

Mikhail pressed the words flat and called back the scene from the clash with the magical beasts.

The mana fragments that had burst from inside his body and surged up in a torrent.

Across from him, Sally was silent too. He seemed to be picturing the same thing.

Clink.

The food was being set on the table. Mikhail glanced at the plates and let his expression ease as he lifted his head.

"Anyway, the food's here. Let's eat. Someone like you deserves the kindness, Mr. Sally—don't go losing heart over it."

"Yes, young master."

The reply came back willing, pitched a touch higher than before.

Mikhail answered with a smile and looked over the dishes steaming on the table.

Duck roasted with apple sauce, pen-shell mussel soup topped with four kinds of melted cheese. Every plate looked excellent.

Clatter.

The cutlery began moving across the dishes. Mikhail glanced at the clock to gauge how much time he had before heading back to Salvator, and Sally swallowed a mouthful and spoke.

"You've given me this chance, and I'll do right by it. I won't let it reflect badly on your name, young master."

"I trust you'll do well. Once the place is up and running, I'll be sure to come by."

"Yes. I really will work at it. Run it properly, pay the taxes on time, and also…."

Sally tightened a fist as he hunted for what to add. Mikhail tugged the corners of his mouth up softly and picked up the apple juice in front of him.

"Stock up on plenty of stories for me, while you're at it."

"Ah… sorry?"

"The lower gate's a place where people carrying news and rumors from every corner of the continent come and go. There'll be no shortage of interesting things to hear."

Sally's eyes went round and he made a small sound of recognition. Then, nodding as if it had clicked, he thumped his chest and answered.

"Yes! Leave it to me."

---

Meanwhile, at that same hour.

"Yaaawn."

Rain had come down overnight. Lloyd had been up on top of the windmill catching the damp wind, then before long he came back down. He shoved his hands in his pockets and headed for the front gate.

Splash.

The path still held puddles that hadn't dried.

The kind that came pouring out of nowhere and made every step a nuisance.

Lloyd flicked his toes to skip over the standing water, then paused before one that looked unusually deep.

The still surface held the sky. The roof of a nearby building. A cat sitting at a window. And his own face looking down on all of it.

"……"

Lloyd raised a hand to brush his cheek, then dropped his arm and walked on. There was something he hadn't been aware of when he was younger—something he'd come to notice more with each passing year. His face was slowly growing into the younger likeness of the ancestor in the portrait.

Anyway, I wonder if anything came in today.

Lloyd absently mussed his neat bangs. Cutting the thought there, he turned his eyes toward the outlying building that housed Mikhail's dormitory.

The walls were patched with faded color, and the worn ends of the eaves looked particularly rough.

One of the top three shabbiest spots on campus.

An out-of-the-way edge he'd been pushed to, time and again, after one stretch of trouble and underperformance after another.

But it was also a place that no longer suited him.

Well, maybe he's used to it by now… though he himself doesn't look the least bit interested in moving rooms.

In any case, he'd gone four days ago, and three days ago.

But after running into the empty mailbox over and over, he'd gotten petty about it and skipped just yesterday.

Clink.

Lloyd's path took him past a stand near the plaza. He flicked a coin onto the counter, picked up a newspaper, and unfolded it.

Across the wide rectangle of paper, headlines reported news from across the kingdom.

[Another Anomaly… Eastern Open Lands Off-Limits]

— Avoiding forced standoffs and wars of attrition. Recovery to proceed once conditions stabilize.

[Training Facility Applicants Surge Again]

— Guild Defense School past capacity… expansion under review.

Lloyd ran his eyes quickly down the lines. Then his gaze stopped at something tucked off in a corner.

A single line in unusually small print.

[First Movement of the Northern Heir. What Path Lies Ahead?]

A puff of laughter escaped Lloyd's mouth.

Anyone else's family, and this would've been closer to the front page.

Lloyd folded the paper with a trace of amusement still on his face. He rolled it into a tube, tapped his shoulder with it, and walked on.

"Hmm, hm."

He hummed as he went, past the front gate, across the road, all the way to the dormitory. He climbed the steps, stood in front of the wooden door, and tipped his head toward the side.

"Oh, there it is!"

A letter was sitting in the mailbox.

Lloyd's eyes lit up. He reached in, pulled out what was inside, and looked at the front.

Going by the sender, the mail had come from a fairly distant region.

Delporn… Mountains?

A small questioning sound slipped out of him, and his eyes narrowed. The Delporn Mountains were a range in the kingdom's east.

A place where Mikhail, who was rooted in the North, would have no connections, no points of contact at all.

So what kind of news could possibly be coming from somewhere like that?

"……"

Curiosity about the letter's contents flared up in one corner of his chest, but only for a moment.

Lloyd shook his head to dislodge it. With a light smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, he tucked the letter quietly into the inside of his coat.

Right. Wouldn't do. Friends don't pull that on friends.

Lloyd let out a low whistle and turned away from the door. He took a step toward the corridor leading out, then turned back and waved.

"Yip!"

Mikhail's little foxes had stuck their heads out at the windowsill where the morning sun glittered, tails swishing.

"Mikhail will be back soon. See you then."

"Grrn!"

After saying goodbye to his small friends, Lloyd's next destination was another dormitory.

A little over ten minutes from where Mikhail's room was. A building standing along the outer edge, that far off.

Julien Leventia's dormitory.

Third visit, this one.

Lloyd stood in front of the run-down building and ran his fingers along his chin, then moved his feet and stepped inside.

Creak—.

The old floorboards groaned with every step forward. No need to climb any stairs, though. Julien's room was on the first floor.

Lloyd reached Julien's door soon enough. He looked at the worn surface and raised his hand.

"Julien."

Knock, knock.

He pitched his voice clearly and rapped on the door. But nothing came from inside.

Lloyd's brow tightened a little. He raised his voice up a notch and knocked again.

"Julien, you in there? It's me. Lloyd. I wanted to talk to you about something."

Knock, knock. Knock-knock-knock.

Still no answer. Lloyd let out a sigh and dropped the hand he'd been knocking with.

I know he didn't go back to the southern family… but is there any reason to give me the silent treatment like this?

Lloyd folded his arms and tapped his fingers along his sleeve.

At this point, setting aside Mikhail's request, he was getting curious about where Julien was, too. Maybe it was time to ask around some more, even take a look beyond the campus….

Creak.

That was when it happened. A faint sound stirred at the far end of the corridor. Lloyd's shoulders twitched and he turned to look.

What entered his line of sight was a figure that had just appeared.

He recognized the person right away. The very one whose whereabouts he'd just been wondering about.

Julien was approaching with his head hung low, swaying as he walked, a large basket in his left hand.

Creak. Creeeak.

The floorboards groaned louder. Lloyd watched in silence as the figure slowly drew closer.

The gap kept closing. By the time only three or four steps remained between them—

"……"

Julien finally seemed to register Lloyd standing nearby. His shoulders gave a startled twitch and he lifted his head.

Beneath the deep shadows ringing his eyes, his bloodless cheeks were trembling faintly.

"Ah… Lloyd?"

Lloyd looked at him, saying nothing. Julien blinked three or four times when their eyes met, then hurriedly dropped his head and spoke in a voice threaded with an awkward smile.

"S-sorry. I look a mess, don't I? Haven't been able to sleep for a while now… I'm in pretty rough shape."

"Oh, I see. Were you sick?"

"Mm-hm. I had a fever… bad case of body aches, I think."

"That's rough."

Lloyd nodded as he answered, then dropped his gaze to the basket Julien was holding.

Glass bottles, every one of them done up in colorful, varied hues.

Lloyd drew his eyes away from the basket, leaned toward Julien, and asked close to his ear.

"And the strong drinks? That what you got them for?"