After the tumultuous interviews at Count Lingard’s estate were finally and completely over, a few hours later,
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
I was admiring the sight of the final recruits lined up neatly in the garden when I heard Lady Meredia’s sigh-laced voice beside me and listened quietly.
“I’m not trying to interfere with your authority or anything, but…”
“I don’t mind if you interfere?”
“…Right, thanks a lot.”
The fact that Lady Meredia was now adding prefaces to words she would have simply said in the past felt strangely nostalgic.
Because of that, I found myself smiling broadly without realizing it, and Lady Meredia, glancing at me from the side, sighed and spoke again.
“Anyway, don’t you think the number of knights is too small?”
Just as she said, there were only three people lined up in the garden.
The ones who passed in the early round: Johan and the wolf beastkin Ferris, and Evangeline, Runiel’s younger sibling, who was picked later.
“Like you said, selecting a small elite group might be efficient, but sometimes you need numbers in a knight order.”
“Hm…”
“With just three people, the possibilities are too limited. Are you planning to use mercenaries? If so, I sincerely advise against it.”
Yeah, even though I decided on a small elite force, three was definitely too few.
But as Lady Meredia advised, hiring mercenaries would be a high-risk move.
It would be like outsourcing our family’s security and strength to outsiders. That’s something I must avoid.
“Then…”
“Don’t worry! Master has it all planned out!”
While I was pondering that, Parsha, who had been scribbling on paperwork this whole time, suddenly stood up from the table with sparkling eyes and began to speak.
“Master has already chosen three captains to lead the knights! Right?”
“Huh?”
“Just passing the first interview against Sir Runiel is qualification enough to become a knight. So the second interview was probably to select those with especially outstanding abilities.”
At Parsha’s cheerful inquiry as she looked at me, I subconsciously nodded and muttered.
“See? I’m the only one who truly understands Master!”
“…Haha. Parsha really is smart.”
“Hehe. With such an irregular and inefficient interview process, the intention is pretty obvious.”
I had thought it was a decent plan myself, but to call it irregular and inefficient—was that how it looked to her? For some reason, my face felt hot.
“Really…?”
Even Lady Meredia was now giving me a suspicious sidelong glance.
I’d better move on before I get found out.
“Then, let’s start preparing to select from the second-round dropouts…”
“Oh, I’ve already done all that.”
“Huh?”
As I hurried to get the list of those who failed the second round, Parsha, as if expecting this, held out the documents she had and began speaking.
“I’ve been observing each interviewee’s behavior and response patterns from earlier.”
“Ah…”
“And I’ve already analyzed which department each one is best suited for. Here, take this.”
Today, Parsha seemed especially commendable. Well, she was always commendable, but today she felt like a thousand troops by my side.
“Good job.”
“Ah, hehe.”
Before I knew it, I was patting Parsha’s head and praising her, and she flinched momentarily before smiling shyly and lowering her head.
Just seeing her like this, she really seems no different from other girls her age. Well, sometimes she makes suspicious expressions, but that’s okay.
“…Tsk.”
Then I felt Lady Meredia’s sharp gaze again from the side, and I instinctively turned my eyes away and called for Sasha.
“Sasha.”
“Yes?”
“Bring the people on this list.”
Even timid Sasha, as head maid, should be able to handle this.
“Pardon?”
“…?”
“You want me to bring them back?”
But Sasha’s reaction was strange. It wasn’t her usual scared look—she seemed genuinely flustered.
“I, I had the maids dig holes in the ground…”
“What for…?”
“I thought we were going to bury all the dropouts?”
What in the world is she talking about? They’re not seeds—you can’t just bury valuable human resources in the ground.
“What do you even think of me?”
“Eek. I-I’m sorry…”
“Never mind, just go get them quickly. And fix the garden you dug up.”
Thinking it was just a misunderstanding, I ordered the garden restored, and Sasha bowed frantically and ran off in the opposite direction.
“She’s got potential.”
But Lady Meredia, quietly watching Sasha, suddenly let out a chuckle and murmured.
“If you bury them in the garden, you won’t need fertilizer.”
“That’s a joke, right?”
“Did it not sound like one?”
As she whispered and smiled at me, a chill ran down my spine.
Sometimes I really don’t understand why she seems scary when she looks at me like that.
But that thing she just said—was that really a joke?
“Honestly, I think you’ve narrowly avoided being buried in my garden several times.”
“Ahaha…”
“Everyone, attention.”
Once Parsha’s assignments were complete, the newly formed Lingard Knight Order finally started to look legitimate.
***
“Salute your master.”
And Runiel, now officially in command of the knight order, led them with a solemn and emotional expression.
“…I’m a captain?”
“Sigh, I never planned on holding an important post…”
The three newly appointed captains at the front of the knight order all looked bewildered or sighed in resignation.
“…With this, we should be ready for most local wars.”
Still, for a newly founded group, Lady Meredia’s words proved it was a successful launch.
“Really?”
“If we can last even one day, the Embergreen Duke’s knights will arrive. Isn’t that obvious?”
“…Ah.”
Though Lady Meredia had casually included the Duke’s forces in her calculation, this was still an impressive feat for a nearly ruined house.
“If only my parents could see this with their own eyes…”
“… …”
“Oh, sorry. It’s nothing.”
Whitney, gazing at the knights with a wistful expression, mumbled that aloud.
And when he mentioned his parents, Meredia slightly flinched and glanced at him nervously, then stood up.
“I’ll go take a closer look at the knight order.”
“…Do as you like.”
“Haha. Then, please excuse me for a moment…”
Thus, a brief silence settled around the interview table, which was now scheduled to be dismantled soon.
“Hey, you.”
“…Hm?”
“Can we talk for a moment?”
In that silence, for some reason, Meredia moved quietly to sit beside Parsha and spoke to her.
“Oh, are you going to kidnap me because I’m too competent?”
“……”
“Or are you going to eliminate me without me realizing? That would be a problem.”
Parsha, with a stiff smile, then began chattering freely, saying things highly likely to upset Meredia’s mood.
“I’m not someone like your master.”
“No! You were actually the most similar one…”
Though Meredia firmly cut off her words, Parsha didn’t back down and continued with a serious tone.
“Well, not anymore it seems.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“There’s not a demon king here, just a love-struck teenage girl.”
But that sharpness soon disappeared, and Parsha, shaking her head weakly, changed her words.
“If you weren’t Whitney’s subordinate, your head would’ve flown just now.”
“Ha! A few months ago, that might’ve actually happened.”
As Meredia whispered coldly with a murderous glare in her eyes, Parsha replied without flinching.
“But not anymore, right?”
“…You really do have similar abilities to me.”
Finally, Meredia sighed and muttered as she let go of the forced hostility in her gaze.
“You heard Whitney whisper the emperor’s secret earlier, didn’t you?”
“…He was whispering like a tiny ant—how could I have heard that?”
As Meredia glared and pressed her, Parsha averted her gaze slightly and made an excuse.
“For someone who didn’t hear, your eyeballs sure were rolling around. Did you analyze the movement of his lips through your fingers?”
“……”
“And for that, your expression wasn’t very surprised either.”
But as Meredia hit the nail on the head, Parsha turned her gaze back toward her and gave a sheepish smile.
“You already knew the emperor’s secret, didn’t you?”
“…Ha ha.”
“Alright. Then let me ask you just one thing.”
And in the next moment, Meredia leaned close to Parsha’s ear with a very serious expression and whispered a question.
“How much do you know about your master’s secret?”
“…Secret, you say?”
“You’ve already figured out what I’m talking about.”
Though Parsha pretended not to understand, Meredia persistently pressed her with more questions.
“Like knowing something that’s absolutely impossible to know with the current information network.”
“Or having a vague idea of what might happen in the future. Something like that…”
“That’s…”
Just as Parsha, now looking quite troubled, was about to speak—
“Are you curious about my secret?”
Whitney suddenly whispered into Meredia’s other ear in a low voice.
“Eek.”
Meredia’s eyes widened and she recoiled, letting out a feeble sound.
“I didn’t think you’d be that startled.”
Whitney, surprised at her reaction, scratched his head awkwardly and muttered.
“Didn’t know Milady could make such a cute squeal… Oof!”
As he added one unnecessary comment, he ended up getting smacked on the back of the head by Meredia, whose face had turned slightly red.
“Ow, my head…”
“…What are you looking at? You brought it on yourself.”
***
After returning from inspecting the knight order led by Runiel, I rubbed the back of my still-tingling head and got back to the main topic.
“Anyway, shouldn’t we be focusing on someone else’s secret rather than mine right now?”
“…You mean the emperor. Right. But do we really have a way?”
At that, Lady Meredia finally let go of her guarded expression and responded to me.
Judging by her now serious look, she had already begun to think hard about how to help me again.
“I understand the secret you know about the emperor is dangerous. But depending on how you use that information…”
“I already know how I’ll use it.”
But this time, it seemed Lady Meredia didn’t need to put in the effort.
“I’m going to threaten her one-on-one.”
“What?”
Because I knew a way to meet the emperor personally, even without going through the imperial court.
“Before I attend the Shadow Summit, I need to reduce as many risks as possible.”
“Wait, how exactly…?”
Naturally, Lady Meredia seemed very curious, so I glanced around and whispered some information.
“I know the emperor’s secret routes for sneaking out.”
“…What?”
“So, with that in mind…”
The more I spoke, the stranger Lady Meredia’s expression became, but it couldn’t be helped.
“…Tomorrow night, I plan to buy one night with the emperor.”
At this point, unless I dealt with the emperor somehow, I wouldn’t be able to leave my post for the Shadow Summit.
Cliche Novel 