Hydrangea.
The Torquetam hideout.
Or, the Tassan family's Hydrangea villa.
Apparently, a noble's villa is something like what you'd call an embassy in modern terms.
Having a residence on land outside your own territory — that's what it means.
And having a villa within your own territory is a kind of status symbol.
A territory where a great noble maintains a villa apparently means that territory has been deemed valuable.
That, well, I more or less get.
In other words, it means Hydrangea, where the Tassan family has a villa, is a valuable place.
The lord of Hydrangea. Or was it a margrave? Of course, naturally, I've never met them.
But I've caused them plenty of trouble. The colosseum, the Hayarn Trading Company, the training grounds…
I really am sorry about that.
Tassan villa. Reception room.
Just me. Across from me sit Dva and Shesh.
Lined up along the wall, the Minosdoor maids stand in neat formation on standby.
A few of them waved at me or smiled alluringly.
Narcissus and Juicy weren't called.
Probably having tea with Munieca.
"Oh, hey. It's been a while, Wof."
"Yes. It's been a while."
Dova smiled softly.
Dova Tassan. Second daughter of the Tassan family.
Silver hair flowing down past her waist, dark skin. In her green left eye—
—a monocle.
She wore one.
She was an elf, and Rel's older sister, so maybe that explained it. She looked like Rel. The owner of this villa.
She was wearing a black suit, which was unusual for her.
"You're still as stiff as a board, aren't you."
The one who spoke so roughly was a wild-looking beauty sitting beside Dova.
Sheshu Tassan. Sixth daughter of the Tassan family.
Rough, wild blond hair with red highlights. Black horns. Sharp blue eyes.
But she was a beauty with delicate features. Three piercings in each ear—right and left.
A red-and-black shirt, torn pants in places, with a chain wrapped around her waist.
She sat with her legs crossed impolitely.
She had the look of a thug for hire. Two swords lay beside the sofa.
A longsword and a sabre. Double-edged and single-edged—an unusual pair.
"Sheshu, you haven't changed either... You're doing well."
"When it comes to energy, you've got me beat. I've heard you've been getting into all sorts of trouble."
She grinned, showing her canines with evident amusement.
I could only manage a wry laugh.
— Oh, yeah. That's right. Wof, I heard about the training grounds.
— Already!?
Wasn't that fast?
— They said you completely destroyed the place. What did you do?
— It was a Relic...
— Oh, yeah. What exactly happened?
I explained.
When I finished, Sheshu burst out laughing.
— Bwahaha, what a Relic that turned out to be!
— Narcissus Utopia. A big shot from one of the Six Houses of Edda. As expected of Wof — between Hiarn and the witch, your connections are anything but normal.
— But they're all women, though.
— Huh, well, I guess... maybe?
I wanted to deny Sheshu's words right away, but I couldn't.
Dova sighed and lightly pushed her hair back.
— At any rate, please try to avoid anything dangerous.
— Understood. I'm sorry.
I bowed my head.
— If you keep rushing from one dangerous thing to the next, there are limits to what I can cover for you as your guardian.
— Yes. Sorry ab... Guardian?
I couldn't help but look up.
"Oh, yeah. That's right."
"So, does that mean you took on the role yourself, Dova?"
"No. It means the Tasan family is serving as guardian."
"...Huh?"
"Hey now. You've got that 'first time hearing this' look on your face."
"It is the first time I've heard this, though..."
I was baffled. What do you mean the Tasan family is my guardian? What was going on here?
Did Rel know about this? Did Juicy know?
The two of them exchanged glances at my reaction.
"Dova. Wasn't that supposed to be your job to tell him?"
"I was told Shesh would be the one to pass along the message."
They glared at each other.
Seriously. Each one had assumed the other would handle it, so neither of them actually said anything.
But there was something else I wanted to know more.
"Um... how did that come about, exactly?"
Once I asked that, the staring contest came to an end.
Shesh shifted her legs and spoke with a sulky tone.
"That came about because of Haiyarn."
"That rabbit had something to do with it?"
Oh, right. That guy.
Dova opened her mouth.
"Yeah, well. I don't know the exact details, but Hiyarn's registered owner ended up being Wof."
"That's what it says. First time hearing that too?"
"Ah... I have a rough idea about that."
It's against my will, but I bear responsibility for awakening Hiyarn.
That responsibility is going to stick with me forever, isn't it.
Being called the owner too... grrrrghhhghh... f-fine. Whatever.
Anyway, I'm hanging that guy later.
"When Hiyarn set up a merchant company, the one that backed them was the Kodaksan Company."
"That's the company Akindura was employed at, right?"
"Yeah. The Kodaksan Company is funded by the Tassan family."
"So it's the kind that has someone backing it. The buttress, huh."
"Shesh. That's vulgar."
"Shut up, it's lighter than your butt."
"Yeah, well. It is lighter than your chest, isn't it."
"It's lighter than your chest."
"Hah?"
"Haaaah?"
They glare at each other again. I wish they'd stop fighting.
"That means the Hayahn Trading Company isn't uninvolved either, huh?"
When I say that, both of them stop glaring at each other.
But are they perhaps targeting Kodaku at Tasan or something?
"Not so much 'uninvolved' as the Tasan family is basically behind the Hayahn Trading Company. It's just that the Noble Law won't let them be an outright backer, so they've made it all complicated."
"The Noble Law?"
"There's a rule that says any noble can only have one trading company as their backer. Having too many trading companies backing you causes all sorts of trouble."
At the words "all sorts," Sheshu flashes a wicked grin.
Every time she smiles, her fangs show—just like Juicy.
They're not a werewolf but a Fawn, yet somehow they still remind me of each other.
If Juicy is a family dog, then Sheshu is a fighting dog.
"So that means they can't do it because they already have Kodaku as their backer?"
"Yeah. But there are plenty of loopholes."
Dova lets out a troubled, wry smile.
"I see. They put the Hayahn Trading Company under the Kodaku Trading Company's umbrella—not as a backer directly, but providing funds through Kodaku."
At my words, Dova gives a faint, wry smile and adjusts his monocle with a flick.
Sheshu is grinning.
You can only choose one backer. However, that backer can own as many trading companies as they want.
Through those companies, they can then funnel funds to subsidiary trading companies.
In my past life memories, wasn't that called a tunnel or something?
Hmm. The Noble Law is full of holes.
It's a lot like the political funding regulation act from my past life.
"Anyway, let's get back on topic. Rabbits can't form a trading company. Period."
"Yeah, that's fair."
Nobody really plans for rabbits to start trading companies.
Well, not so much "plans for" — more like it's just plain impossible for a Hayane to form one.
"So that's where I come in?"
"Right. As Hayane's owner, you're a normal human, so you can form a trading company more easily than a rabbit could. It just means the difficulty is lower than it would be for a rabbit."
"Lower difficulty means… oh, right. I couldn't form one because I'm a minor."
The difficulty was lower than for a rabbit, but he still couldn't form a trading company because he was a minor.
Right. Minors can't form trading companies.
"Well, yeah. That's just how the law works. Nothing you can do about it."
"You could've at least mentioned it to me at that point."
"Yeah, I probably should have brought it up. Since it didn't work out in the end, I just left it alone. Sorry about that."
Though if they had told me, it probably would've just confused things more.
"So what we did was, we sent Akindura — who was outstanding over at the backing Kodakusan Trading Company — and had them set up the Hayane Trading Company."
"Oh, that's an option too, huh."
"Yeah. It's not like we did anything wrong."
That's true enough, but something about it still felt off.
The Tasan family's
backing.
to form a new trading company using people from the Tasan family's connected company to receive [the demand].
It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong.
It'd be unreasonable to say that the Tasan family's connected company couldn't form its own trading company.
If that were prohibited, there'd be no point in having companies, trade, or shops at all.
Still, something about it... I couldn't help feeling it wasn't entirely right.
It didn't violate any logic, but it felt like it crossed an ethical line.
Every noble probably did something like this.
"Even so, they still tried to use you, Wof. That hasn't changed. So as an apology, I explained everything to my father, and the Tasan family agreed to become your guardian. But listen here—"
"No one bothered to tell me, the actual person involved, about any of that."
I was curious what "everything" actually entailed.
"Sorry about that, Wof."
"I'm sorry. Wof-kun."
Both of them bowed their heads at the same time to apologize.
The guardian part was surprising, and I'd thought it was a bit much that they didn't tell me about it, but...
It wasn't worth getting angry over.
If anything, I was more concerned about whether it was okay to have a duke's daughter apologize to me.
"I understand. I accept both of your apologies."
"Thank you."
"Sorry, really."
That's when something suddenly caught my attention.
"So, does that witch actually know about the guardian?"
"Yeah, she knows."
"I know. I even got permission."
That was fine in its own way.
The witch probably hadn't said anything because she figured the two of them had already sorted things out.
She'd never suspect that the message hadn't actually gotten through — even for a witch, that would be too much.
"What about Juicy?"
"Of course. Right?"
"Yeah. Sheshu told me."
"Huh? I told YOU to say it, didn't I?"
"What are you talking about? I left it to Sheshu!"
"Huh?"
"What?"
They glared at each other again.
Good grief. I'd better talk to them about it later.
Meanwhile.
Arc Lab.
Inside the lab hangar.
General-purpose multi-dimensional transit ship Lujieca No. 4 — Etranger.
Residential area, second floor. Nekia's bedroom.
"………"
"…………"
Haiyan and Nekia stared at each other in silence.