Chapter 7

I somehow managed to write gratitude to His Majesty the King for sending me a letter, some sarcastic remarks, insights of my misdeeds and a request that he refrain from visiting; revising them several times, and by the time I asked Karl to send it back, it was well past midnight.

I bathed in hot water while dragging my sluggish body, and after collapsing into bed, I seemed to have lost consciousness immediately. I had no memory from there. When I languidly woke up after a dreamless sleep, I checked the clock and found out that it was already noon.

…I couldn’t even say that it was okay for someone to wake me up. The reason was because the previous old butler was killed on a whim when he woke up Heinreid one day just as usual, and was told, “You disturbed my sleep, didn’t you? Execute him.” His successor, Karl, was probably aware of the incident; so, unless there was a very important matter, he never woke up Heinreid, and supported the estate by taking over the work that had been accumulated due to his oversleeping.

Hmm… If I went to bed early or have some sort of alarm clock, I could settle my affairs (work) in the morning. But if I go to bed early, it doesn’t change the amount of time I can work in the end. …Do we keep chickens?

I finished changing my clothes while nodding off. Yesterday, I dressed according to Heinreid’s memory since I hadn’t decided what I was going to do; but today, I planned on working at my desk to free hostages in Prison Two once a day, so I dressed lightly.

A black shirt, black pants, and a dark green vest on top. For some reason, I only had dark clothes in my closet, so the result somehow looked sinister despite the light clothing. I tried to at least open my stuffy neck a bit to give it a cool biz feeling, but it was a drop in the ocean. No matter how good-looking you were, you wouldn’t be able to hide how warped you were inside…

I walked out of the room, admiring the strangeness of it all, and found the guard, Craig, standing by next to the door as he was yesterday.

“Good morning, my lord.”

It wasn’t exactly the time to say good morning, though. Well, maybe it was an implicit understanding, or it was just like in one of the part-time jobs I had used to say, “When you are at work, be it morning, afternoon, night, or any time, good morning should be your greetings!”

More importantly. I had a feeling that I was being rudely stared at?

“Good morning. What, if you have something to say, say it.”

“No… You’re dressed quite lightly today.”

“I don’t even have plans to go out. Is that strange?”

Huh. Could it be that this was a terribly lame combination in this world or something? Do I have no taste? I guess the noble fashion was too much for someone poor after all… It’s not like I care, but I’m a little bit shocked.

But that didn’t seem to be the point, and Craig quickly denied it.

“Not at all. …It’s just that if your clothes are too thin, there will be a problem in terms of defense.”

D-Defense?

He said it with an extremely serious face, and I almost laughed a little.

Yeah, no. I knew it was an important aspect in this world, but I had lived in a peaceful Japan until recently, so it was quite an interesting viewpoint for me… Ah, this is bad, don’t laugh!

I mean, Craig was so competent that he noticed those things first, as expected of the guard!

“I’m not going out and you’re here to guard me to begin with, so it’s fine. …Though, you have dark circles under your eyes… Are you not getting enough sleep?”

A closer look revealed the faint dark circles under Craig’s eyes. I didn’t know if he was just being professional since fatigue wasn’t showing on his face, but his appearance was getting a bit worse. Hey, come on. I just gave you a compliment (inside my head) just now, but then I find a problem with your health management right away.

“…Pardon me. I was leading the matters of Elmer Kisch last night.”

…Oh, it was because of my orders. Then, there was no helping it.

I see, I guess you proceeded with that one after escorting me back to my office. Well, I rushed you quite a bit there, sorry.

“So, when will it be ready?”

I inquired him with something like, ‘Perhaps, as early as this week?’ but the answer that came back betrayed my expectations.

“He already left last night.”

…Huh, last night? By last night, you mean, last night? Like yesterday, at night? Wait a minute, it was already over without my knowledge? Tell me the details, tell me!

“I thought it wouldn’t be possible to do it right away?”

“I didn’t say that doing it on the same day wasn’t possible. You ordered us to return him as soon as possible, so we prepared a blindfold and sent them out immediately after the sun went down. I’ve just received a report that the escorts I dispatched have returned and completed their mission.”

…Indeed. I was the one who took the liberty of saying something like, ‘even if today won’t do’. But even Craig didn’t deny it, so there was no helping that I assumed things, right…?

Huh, don’t tell me, I got played? By Craig?!

“…Is that so. Why report it just now?”

“I visited you once after Elmer left, but I was told you were working.”

Yes, lies. Your eyes wandered. You just gave yourself away!

Well, I was sure he came while I was working (to reply to a cursed letter), but still, it was a complete ex post facto report. He could’ve reported it a little earlier. Even if he couldn’t come himself, he could’ve asked one of the servants to pass on as many messages as he wanted.

The fact that he dared to come and report to me after everything was over, was it to stop Heinreid from changing his mind and giving an order like, “I won’t send him home, after all”?

Well, it was a risky move, but Heinreid had a tendency to leave some things behind once they were out of his hands, unexpectedly. I guess it was a gamble where the odds weren’t too bad, since once Elmer had been sent home, there would be a whole bunch of troublesome formalities involved in getting him back.

Mhmm, this Craig. I reviewed for a moment the fact that he managed to survive in this estate for some reason or another and that he was a man who does things when he has to.

“Good work. As expected of my head knight.”

At any rate, I was honestly impressed so I praised him, but he gave me a suspicious look as much as he could. Now, now, that’s rude, hey.

But being the head knight was also a tough job. He had been up all night long under my reckless orders, and even the next day, with dark circles in his eyes, he was still doing his duties like this… Hm?

“Craig, you’ll be the one guarding me for a while, right?”

“…Yes. I was away last night by your orders, but for the time being I won’t, except for when I take my nap.”

I see, I see! That’s a good thing to hear!

“If that’s the case, then do me a favor. Every morning… Yes, seven o’clock. Wake me up at seven.”

I would’ve liked to say some time earlier in the morning, but lack of sleep would do the contrary and likely to reduce my efficiency. I work better at night, so that was just about right.

…And, I was thinking for my own convenience, but Craig frowned when he heard the details. Well, of course, he wouldn’t want to.

“…Is it okay for me to do it? For that kind of duty, wouldn’t the butler be more suitable?

…Did you just sell out Karl right now? I wonder if you are on bad terms. With this, my conspiracy theory is almost put to its end. What a shame.

Hmm, well, it’s a reasonable opinion that it’s a butler who wakes up their lord, and I’m fine with Karl. But honestly speaking, isn’t that going to be a waste of effort? Craig’s going to be at the door in the morning anyway, so it would be convenient.

“I’ve got other work for Karl to do right now. …You don’t have to worry, I asked you to do it, so I won’t order your execution when you wake me up.”

When I persisted, Craig seemed to give in. He cast down his eyes and bowed.

“…I respectfully submit to your wishes.”

That’s right, obedience is the best.

Immediately after I (had) settled one of my affairs, I went to work at my desk in a reasonably good mood.

Well, I didn’t know what would happen, but it went more smoothly than I thought. It was only because Craig was good at what he did, but weren’t my plans surprisingly going too smoothly? Even if there was the fear of Karl and the final boss King’s surveillance, it was on me anyway.

However, it wasn’t possible to return all the hostages suddenly like we did to Elmer yesterday.

Whatever the reason, I had to send out a letter beforehand to announce it and check the timing, else it would cause inconveniences.

For example, let’s say we brought all the hostages home at once. The influential people who had become free from their shackles would gather together and cause a rebellion, or something.

If they could win, that would be fine with me, but that wasn’t probably going to happen. With the kind of intelligence the King has, he would notice the rebellion in no time at all. They would get beaten before they could even take action.

In the novel, Sieg returned from the neighboring country, bringing in with him his comrades and fellow soldiers, working together in creating chaos from the outside; and taking advantage of it to defeat the King. It wasn’t possible to do it by the country’s forces alone, so it was definitely necessary to wait for the beginning of the original work. So, the only way I’d be able to return the hostages was to get the protagonists into the country and… Right, they could either confront me then, or in the worst case scenario, do so after rumors start to circulate.

Well, I was pretty sure the King will soon know what I was doing once I send the hostages home (I mean, I didn’t even know how it happened, but it seemed that he already found out that I had sent Elmer home), and there would be some sort of questioning coming up soon, but… I had already prepared an excuse for that, so in any case, I should start writing the letters for the hostages on the list now.

Alright, let’s do it!

—Thus, I had begun to work with great enthusiasm.

I had just finished writing the first letter when I noticed something strange.

…It’s a bit noisy. I mean, I heard screams and angry voices. This room was supposed to be soundproof since it was an office, but what was going on there that I could hear through it? …I wondered if there were cockroaches.

Ah, geez, and I was just about to get on with writing.

I sighed and placed my pen down.

At that time, I didn’t know.

This estate was Heinreid’s. If he found a single bug, the cleaning lady of that day would lose her job. Even if there were a large number of pests, the servants, who knew the fear of death, wouldn’t have made a fuss when they saw it.

If I just had thought about it for a little, I would’ve known… I should’ve known, and yet.

“It’s noisy, what’s all the commotion…?”

“M-My lord, please stand back!”

The first thing I saw as I stepped out into the hallway was a large sword thrown on the floor. The servants who had been watching us from afar and… the eyes of a man that Craig had been holding down, flickering with hatred.