It had been several months since we purchased the land, and snow was now falling in the Royal Capital. The grass seeds we had planted had sprouted and were growing, but the cold had halted their progress, and stepping inside was off-limits for fear of damaging the roots. The farmland could still be accessed from the original land side, so there was no worry about trampling the grass. However, perhaps because we had started the fields in an in-between season and the soil preparation hadn't gone well, not much had grown.
"They're having fun~"
What I was watching from afar was Amy, Tida, and Luna—the three of them scooping up the few centimeters of accumulated snow and having a snowball fight. Though calling it a "fight" was generous—it was really just the simple pastime of hurling snowballs at whoever was nearby. But Shiromaru would occasionally dart between the three of them, using his full Fenrir physical abilities to dodge the snowballs, and whenever he got close to one of them, it sparked the kind of excitement you'd see when everyone's gunning for a bonus character.
I'd heard that the bullying Amy had been dealing with stopped cold the moment the Three Idiots sided with her. That was partly because the trio enjoyed something of an idol-like status at the academy, which had an influence in itself, but the main reason was that someone at the academy had subtly informed the parents of the problematic students that the Three Idiots were close friends with Amy.
Most of those parents, upon learning the truth, apparently didn't believe their own children had been involved in such behavior—or even if they did, they'd figured it was just a case of their kids not getting along with commoner students. Some even came to me personally to apologize. Among those involved, however, there were students who had been acting on their parents' instructions, and the ringleader turned out to be one of them.
That parent came across as though they were only going through the motions because everyone else was apologizing, with a terrible attitude the entire time. They looked down their nose at me the whole way, radiating an "I apologized, so that should be enough" vibe before leaving. However, karma caught up with them not long after.
It turned out that at the time of their visit, several nobles had come to my home, and a worried King and Maria had come to check on things. Their Majesties hadn't shown themselves to that parent directly, but afterward, they told people close to them—Caesar-sama, the Prime Minister, and others—about the incident. From there, it spread to their respective acquaintances "just between us," and by the next day, half the staff working in the castle knew, and the day after that, people outside the castle did too… and so the circle of awareness kept expanding.
Afterward, that parent learned of the situation from a superior noble and hurried over to apologize to me, but Maria had told me not to engage with them, so I turned them away at the gate.
I don't think any direct punishment was handed down, but Albert and the others—who happened to be visiting at the time—told me that until Tida abdicated, that family would likely never be appointed to any important position. With this, the students bullying Amy should disappear for good. However, they also mentioned that some of the parents who learned of Amy's influence through this incident might try to push their own children into positions as concubines or the like…
For reference, the parent of the student who had been doing the bullying was a viscount working at the royal castle. Apparently, the parent, their children, and their siblings all had ordinary abilities at best, and if the royal family's disfavor persisted for years, they might lose even the viscount title.
While reminiscing about all this as I watched the three of them playing in the yard, I realized I hadn't taken on any quests lately. But it wasn't just me—this was the season when most adventurers based in the Royal Capital essentially shut down operations. That wasn't only because nobody wanted to brave the cold for work, but more importantly, in certain areas, the Monsters that served as prey all but disappeared.
On the other hand, places like Seigen, the Dungeon City, saw their populations swell, with more than double the usual number of adventurers gathering there. That said, most of the adventurers who showed up were dead broke, and Seigen's public order tended to get worse than usual during this time.
Also, a certain percentage of adventurers who set out during this season,
heading for the Dungeon City,
would end up dropping out along the way. The reason was that even if they were broke, they still had minimum-level equipment, which made them prime targets for bandits and the like.
On top of that, for Monsters starving from lack of food, adventurers traveling on roads with little traffic were often seen as easy prey. Most deaths among new adventurers during winter were said to be caused by bandit or Monster attacks while traveling. In other words, the journey to the Dungeon City was more dangerous than actually delving into the dungeon itself.
That was why Grandpa and I decided to take it easy in the Royal Capital. There was no need to operate during a season that was more dangerous and harsh, and we weren't strapped for cash anyway, so this year, we'd spend our time lounging about as lazybones.
For reference, up until last year, I hadn't even been an adventurer, so when I'd hole up in an inn for extended periods, the staff had grown quite suspicious of me even though I'd paid in advance. Things only became relaxing once I was able to stay at Manpokutei, though at first, the old man and the proprietress were still suspicious—but that was because they suspected I might have stolen money from my family and run away. Once the worried old man used his old connections to gather information about me—that I'd been making a living by selling monster drops at the Guild—they started treating me as a normal guest. When I asked whether they hadn't suspected I'd obtained the money through crime, they said that because I was well-mannered and well-groomed, I was more likely a noble's child than a criminal, and that's why they'd investigated on that angle.
"Hey, you three! Wrap it up and come back soon—you'll catch a cold~"
As I was thinking about all that, I noticed that a good amount of time had passed since the three had started playing, so I told them to take a break and warm up. At first, the three of them wore disappointed expressions, but once their concentration was broken, perhaps they finally felt the cold—they hurried back to the mansion in short order. Shiromaru, noticing that the three had returned, also scrambled back inside. He probably saw all three coming back at the same time and got the mistaken idea that he'd get something. He must have been panicking over the thought that he might miss out.
"You three, dry yourselves off and go change. And Shiromaru, let Jeanne and Aura dry you off."
The three of them plus one had been running around in the snow, so they were completely soaked. Aina and the others had been standing by at the entrance, but just wiping them down would probably give them a cold, so I had them return to their rooms to change.
As it happened, the three of them had each claimed a room inside the mansion for themselves.
At first, since Amy was going to stay in the Royal Capital over winter break, I'd offered our room as a secondary base outside the student dormitory. But when that proposal came up, Tida and Luna had cleverly secured rooms of their own as well. Of course, the two of them lived close to the Royal Castle, so the rooms were really only for use when they happened to be at our place—they almost never actually stayed the night. Still, having rooms of their own meant they'd been coming over practically every day since. Well, the rooms were originally ones the King and the others used when they came to check on Grandpa—we'd just tidied them up and repurposed them (two rooms, one for each gender)—but even so, the two of them were delighted to have extra space they could use freely. Although, maybe Tida was just happy that he now had an excuse to see Amy even during the break…
Because of all that, Tida and Luna intended to stay late today as well. But even though they were children, they were royalty, and royalty had their share of duties. So:
"Tida-sama, Luna-sama. Maria-sama has asked that you return earlier than usual today, as royal duties await starting tomorrow."
Just after they'd changed and warmed themselves with hot milk, Aina delivered Maria-sama's
order.
Even these two couldn't defy Maria-sama's command, and they were reluctantly made to prepare to leave (Tida especially so).
"Tenma, we have a visitor. It seems they have business with Amour."
While the two were getting ready, Jeanne came from the direction of the front entrance to announce a guest. Apparently, the visitor's purpose was to see Amour, and Jeanne wasn't sure whether she should let them into the mansion, so she'd come to ask me.
"Go ahead and call Amour over. I don't think there'll be any problems, but I'll be there just in case."
"Understood."
Jeanne nodded and was about to head toward Amour's room (which was in the opposite direction from my room and Grandpa's, next to the room Jeanne and Aura shared), but Aina, who had been watching us, whispered something in her ear. Jeanne then bowed her head repeatedly, apologizing for something.
"Aina, what did you say to Jeanne?"
"Oh, nothing of great importance. I simply reminded her that, given her current status as a slave and a maid, she should be careful not to fall into the habit of speaking to you so casually without permission. I am, of course, aware that you have given her leave to do so, Tenma-sama. But whether it's inside the mansion or out, keeping up that habit wouldn't be good for her in the long run."
Aina said that, but judging by Jeanne's reaction, she may have said rather more than that. Still, she had a point—if that habit took root and Jeanne ended up speaking to a noble in the same casual tone, it might be fine with acquaintances, but with strangers, there was no telling what kind of trouble she could land in.
"You're right. I can't always be nearby, so it is something she needs to watch. Thank you, Aina."
"Not at all. Their upbringing is part of my job as well."
It was something I didn't usually pay much mind, so when I thanked her for pointing it out, Aina turned uncharacteristically shy for some reason. I didn't know why, but I decided I'd witnessed a rare sight.
"Tenma, who's the visitor?"
"Well, I didn't recognize them, so I called Amour over, but... maybe she's still half asleep?"
While I was watching Aina's unusual demeanor, Amour arrived looking sleepy. There was probably no chance Jeanne had forgotten to explain, so I figured Amour hadn't been listening very well... However, given that it was well past midday and she still looked half-asleep, she must have gone back to sleep after breakfast. Come to think of it, I had seen her at breakfast since we ate together, but I hadn't even sensed her coming down for lunch. Incidentally, at our household, when we're all at the mansion, breakfast and dinner are basically eaten together by everyone, but lunch tends to be separate. The reason is that each of us often goes out during the day for various errands. For example, Amour and I take requests as adventurers, Grandpa goes out for leisurely walks (you must never call him a wandering old man), and Jeanne and Aura do maid training at the royal castle, so our schedules rarely align, making it more efficient to eat separately.
I try to make sure someone stays at the mansion as much as possible, but worst case, the Golems are there, so there are almost no security concerns. There's also the option of asking someone from Kukuri Village to watch the place, but I hadn't done that since coming to the mansion.
Well, for those reasons, if there was nothing pressing, I would never notice even if Amour slept through the entire afternoon. Sometimes I oversleep during naps too and can't fall asleep at night, so...
"Anyway, we've got a guest waiting outside, so hurry up."
"Okaaay... yawn!"
Amour had been faithfully following behind me even while staggering along, but the cold air outside seemed to wake her up all at once, and she let out a strange yelp.
"It's over there."
"Mmm... Oh! Lanitan!"
When Amour spotted the visitor waiting at the gate, she seemed to ponder for a moment before calling out an adorable-sounding name. Incidentally, despite the "tan" suffix, the visitor was a portly man.
"My Lady, I've told you many times, but my name is Rani Tantan."
Apparently, Lanitan was a nickname Amour had given him, and his real name was Rani Tantan... Well, it was basically the same with just an extra "tan" added on.
"So, what brings Lanitan here?"
"No, it's Rani Tantan... I stopped by the Royal Capital on my way back from a trading trip, so I came to pay my respects. From now on, Miss Hana's dealings with you will increasingly go through us, and for us, it's a chance to develop new business partnerships."
Amour and the man... Mr. Rani seemed to be acquaintances. The fact that he brought up Miss Hana's name suggested they were fairly close. Apparently, he had come to introduce himself once before, but we had been in the south at the time and weren't able to meet.
"Amour, let him in for now. It's rude to keep someone we might be seeing more of standing out in the cold indefinitely... and I'm cold too."
"Got it."
"Thank you very much for your hospitality."
I escorted Rani to the parlor. Since there were things I didn't want overheard, I'd intended to make it just Amour and me, but Rani said she had business with me as well and asked if I could spare some time to hear her out.
When Rani removed her coat and scarf — the scarf was long enough to cover her entire face, though when we'd first met she'd had it wrapped around her head and neck — I couldn't help but think, "So that's why she's so flat." But blurting that out would've been rude, so I kept my mouth shut.
"The reason I came to visit is as follows: first, to pay my respects. Second, I was told to inquire about the young lady's well-being and whether there's anything she might need. And last, to introduce Tenma-sama to products from the south and other regions."
"So in short, you're acting as a go-between for Hana and Amour, and using that as an excuse to do some shopping for us?"
"That's exactly right. Since I'm not doing this exclusively for you, I can't promise to bring whatever you request right away. But I can get southern goods that are hard to find in the Royal Capital at a reasonable price."
Her main offerings were southern products, and she mentioned some might take time to procure. Rani seemed to know I was fond of southern cuisine and was pretty sure I wouldn't turn her down. Even if I did, her primary purpose was serving as a messenger between Hana and Amour, so she figured there was nothing to lose.
And she was right. I had no reason to refuse. The fact that Hana trusted her enough to use her as a go-between meant that, as far as I knew, Rani was the most reliable person dealing in southern goods. Of course, from Rani's perspective, I was the most important person Hana wanted her to prioritize, so she couldn't let her guard down completely. But as long as she didn't do anything to work against Hana, I figured she was harmless.
"Among the items I currently have on hand, this one I think is quite rare."
Rani, who apparently took my silence as permission, produced what looked like a white, board-like object from her Magic Bag and set it on the table. It was...
"Sake lees?"
"You've heard of them? They're not exactly rare in the south, but you don't come across them much in other regions... Come to think of it, you did purchase quite a large quantity of sake down there, didn't you?"
At her words, I explained that the shopkeeper had told me about them when I bought the sake. I couldn't exactly say I knew from my past life's experience. I added that the shopkeeper had also mentioned the uses, but they'd just run out of stock, so I wasn't able to buy any back then.
"Then, why not try purchasing some now? I happened to have an order from a regular customer I'm meeting with after this, so I can't part with all of it, but I could spare a little."
So saying, Rani pulled out five one-kilogram boards of sake lees and said they were 200 gold each. Just then,
"Rani, no point lying. 'I can spare a little' — what you really mean is 'this is all I have.' I can't imagine this stuff selling well outside the south. So bring out the rest."
Amour glared at Rani and slammed the table. Every time Rani tried to protest, Amour slammed the table again to shut her up, until finally Rani resigned herself to it and produced the rest of the sake lees.
"The rest is just over four and a half boards... Just as the young lady said, I brought about ten kilograms as samples of a new product. People were curious enough to taste it, but nobody wanted to buy."
"Hmph! You can't fool my eyes! I'll take the lot for a thousand gold!"
With that smug grin, Amour paid a thousand gold, collected nearly ten kilograms of sake lees, and carried them off to the kitchen. The moment Amour left the parlor,
"By the way, Rani. I heard before that sake lees go for less than 100 gold per kilogram at most..."
"Yes, I won't be selling. Somewhere around fifty to eighty G, I'd say? Even factoring in the transport costs of bringing it this far, I'd make plenty of profit if I could get a hundred G... something like that."
Just as I'd suspected. Earlier, when Amour had pointed it out and Rani brought out the remaining sake lees, she'd said she'd brought ten kilograms — and even for a sample run, ten kilograms seemed awfully low for peddling. Even if it didn't sell, storing it in a Magic Bag would prevent deterioration, and in the Royal Capital, simply being a rare product from the south should make it easy to move several dozen kilograms. After all, if you told showy, image-conscious rich people that this was "something ordinary people could hardly ever taste," plenty of buyers would snap it up just for bragging rights, even if they didn't enjoy the taste.
"Just as I'd heard, Tenma-sama, you truly can't be let your guard down around you. And yet, the young lady was just the same... I'll have to report all of this to Hana-sama properly. By the way, there are still about forty kilograms of sake lees left — would you like to buy them? Naturally, I'll offer a lower price than what I sold them for to Amour-sama."
And so, I agreed to buy the remainder at ninety G per kilogram. The ten G discount off the asking price was described as a first-time-customer courtesy.
While the payment was being made, I asked, "Could this be payback for calling you 'Ranitan' — is that why you're reporting to Hana?" Rani just smiled sweetly. Apparently she was angry enough at Amour to relish getting a bit of revenge behind his back.
When the clueless Amour returned to the parlor, the sake lees I'd purchased had already been stowed away in the Magic Bag, so he remained completely oblivious, still wearing that smug grin on his face.
The parlor at that moment was filled with a rather peculiar atmosphere: I was pleased about scoring cheap sake lees, Rani was pleased about clearing out inventory and, as a bonus, getting her revenge, and Amour was pleased thinking he'd put one over on Rani — all three of us in high spirits.
Rani asked if there was anything I needed, and I told her that while I didn't have any requests at the moment, I might ask for things like miso or soy sauce around the time of my next visit. She said that next time she'd bring a wide variety of items as samples.
"Tenma-sama, you have a visitor."
"Another visitor? Or rather — did they never actually leave? Could it be that Luna threw a tantrum?"
Aina stepped into the parlor to announce the new arrival just as my discussion with Rani had wrapped up. I'd assumed she'd already left with Tida and the others, so Aina's appearance caught me slightly off guard.
"No, she didn't throw a tantrum — she was just agonizingly slow about changing clothes, kept forgetting things, locked herself in the bathroom... that sort of thing. She simply showed her usual refusal to cooperate."
Luna's behavior was exactly what you'd expect from someone who was the King's granddaughter after all. Even the composed Aina seemed to have lost her patience — she maintained a calm exterior, but inwardly she was clearly furious. The moment Aina brought up Luna, I could swear the room temperature plummeted to below freezing from the sheer intensity of her irritation.
I wasn't the only one who felt Aina's fury. Amour and Rani had both inched toward the far ends of the sofa, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and Aina.
"Well, let's go greet the visitor for now."
"They're waiting at the front entrance."
Since Aina had come inside the compound, it meant this was someone close to me. People connected to Kukuri Village or the King and his entourage would have come straight to me on their own, so this had to be someone else.
"Could it be Albert and the others?"
"No, it's not Albert-sama — it's your father, Duke Sanga."
Hurrying to the entrance with a sense of curiosity, I found Duke Sanga and his escort — Steel — waiting there with their coats removed.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting."
"No, no — we're the ones who showed up unannounced, so you have nothing to apologize for. Besides, we haven't been waiting long."
Since Rani was in the parlor, I was about to guide them to another room, but I could see Amour and Rani heading our way from that direction.
"Tenma, Rani-tan says she's going home."
"I told you, it's Rani-tan-tan!"
As we went through this now-familiar exchange,
"Rani-tan-tan, you say?! Has the South sent their spies?!"
The one who reacted to Rani's name was Steel, who had been quietly lurking until just moments ago.
"And you're the shadow of the Duke's household!"
Steel's voice and his killing-intent-level fury prompted Rani to drop into a fighting stance. But —
"Steel!"
"Rani-tan!"
Each was stopped by their master and
liege lord,
and backed off. But both remained poised to spring at a moment's notice, glaring each other down. For the record, Steel was stopped by Duke Sanga physically blocking his path, while Rani was stopped by Amour clocking her upside the head.
"You Southern tanuki..."
"You lapdog of the Duke's house..."
Even as they retreated, they kept trading insults. Perhaps they were more alike than they realized. For the record, Rani is a tanuki beastkin. The reason "tan-tan" had felt so fitting to me earlier was that it reminded me of that "Tan-tan Tanuki's..." song. Also, Steel is not a dog beastkin — he's an ordinary human. Rani probably just couldn't think of any other insult to hurl. She said it while rubbing the spot on her head where Amour had smacked her.