Chapter 122 - How a Social Novice Makes Allies

Ferda hung a black bandana at the highest point of the castle.

It was a place most people would have trouble seeing with the naked eye, and an element no one would pay attention to.

But to someone, it was a clear signal.

As proof, Black Bandana came to him.

Only three hours had passed since he had hung it there.

"It is an honor to see you, Lord Regent. This is the first time we have met since the Dandolo trading company."

Garnet Swallow, who had introduced herself as their representative, had come in person again.

"Is it all right for the head of an organization to wander around like this?"

"Head in name, perhaps, but I am no different from the other executives. Besides, for the time being, I have been keeping an eye on Valdrova Castle... In that sense, please allow me to sincerely congratulate you on the completion of Hestia village's first phase."

"Thank you."

Ferda and Garnet moved on to business.

After hearing Ferda's current situation, Garnet tilted her head.

"This much is nothing more than ordinary gossip... Do you truly need to catch them?"

"I must."

"Given the situation, we may have to poke around the imperial palace, so it will cost quite a lot."

"That doesn't matter."

"Hmm..."

Garnet let out a low hum, then soon nodded.

It was truly trivial to the point of absurdity, but what mattered differed from person to person.

"Understood. We will do our utmost to find the source of that rumor."

"Thank you. How much do you need as an advance?"

At that, Garnet showed him her palm.

"No advance is necessary. Petty criminals like this are actually not easy to catch, so if we succeed, you can pay us then."

They were not confident about catching one petty criminal.

Ferda decided to take that as proof of how frightening gossip was.

It meant it could be anyone.

"I'll pay the fee once it is over. There is one more thing I am curious about; may I ask?"

"Information requires an advance."

Thorough.

Ferda handed over the money.

After confirming that it was an appropriate sum, Garnet gave him a sign of acknowledgment.

"I discussed countermeasures for the scandal with the Princess. Can you verify whether they are sound?"

He told Garnet exactly what Olivia had told him.

As the head of a secret organization, her verification was necessary.

"It is a good idea."

Garnet showed a positive reaction.

"The common people will quickly forget it as they return to their livelihoods, and the nobles are bound to be swept up in a new trend. Leaving even a small question in the flow and letting it fizzle out is a very noble way of handling things."

"Is it?"

"In addition, though it is not visible, it can also be used as a trap. If someone comes out determined to kill both you and the Princess, Lord Regent, they will add more flesh to it from there. If that happens, it will become much easier for us to catch them as well. Either way, it is a good method."

So there had been details like that.

He had thought she was looking at the larger flow, but it was beyond his imagination.

Had Olivia calculated all of this?

"Thank you for confirming it."

"It is nothing. If you have any other favors or commissions, please tell me."

"I have no separate favor to ask, so take this."

Ferda handed her an envelope.

"What is this?"

"An invitation to the Start of Spring Festival."

"So it is the banquet that has the nobles in such an uproar these days. Am I allowed to attend?"

"You are going to infiltrate it anyway. Wouldn't it be better to submit a real invitation instead of causing unnecessary suspicion with a fake one?"

Garnet looked as if she had taken a hit.

"I will move about at the banquet so as not to stand out."

Garnet slipped the invitation into her clothes.

"Since I have received an admission pass to the place every noble is watching, I should provide you with a service as well."

"A service?"

"From what I see, Lord Regent, you appear to be a novice in high society. Am I wrong?"

Ferda gave a small nod.

Garnet smiled faintly.

"It is how a social novice makes allies."

The greatest secret organization on the Serdes Continent, making a living by selling information.

As expected, she brought out information that interesting.

After Ferda finished his usual routine, he called for one man.

"You are good at dancing, aren't you?"

It was Zed Swallow, the handsome man with the brown ponytail.

"Of course. If you can't dance, you can't even make a living as a playboy."

"Then can you teach dance as well?"

"That is a slightly different field. Being good at it and being good at teaching it are..."

"Of course, I will pay the lesson fee."

"I will make you the emperor of the floor, Lord Regent."

Zed raised his thumb.

Seeing that, Ferda wondered if he could really trust him.

"But why are you trying to dance? Are you going to dance at the Start of Spring Festival?"

Ferda nodded.

At that, Zed tilted his head.

"The host usually has no reason to dance, though. Most just sit in their seat for a little while and leave. Besides, the hostess will not be attending either..."

"It is preparation for when I dance with Her Grace the Grand Duchess."

"Oh. Is she coming? I have never seen her before, so I am curious..."

"I do not know that yet."

Wasn't that getting ahead of himself?

Zed could not say that aloud.

Because expectation was clearly swelling in Ferda's eyes.

Ferda began learning dance for Valdrova.

He had heard from Luri that Valdrova was making various preparations for the Start of Spring Festival.

However, even Luri was not certain whether she would attend.

It did not matter.

Just as Zed worked for money, it was Ferda's duty to prepare for when Valdrova came.

Zed sat in the chair across from him and asked Ferda a question.

"Have you ever seen Her Grace the Grand Duchess's face?"

"Exactly once."

"How was it? I am sure she was beautiful, of course, but what sort of expression was she making?"

Her expression.

It did not seem likely to become a very pleasant story, but he answered honestly.

"She was crying."

"Oh."

Ferda raised his head and glared at Zed.

Zed explained, looking flustered.

"Why are you looking at me like that? This is a good thing."

"What is?"

"You said the first face you saw was her crying face, didn't you? There is a superstition that if your partner is crying the first time you see their face, good fortune comes in. And if the next face you see is a smiling face, you will grow old together."

"You are spewing lie after lie that no one would ever believe."

"It is true..."

He muttered that with an embarrassed expression, then stealthily opened a letter placed on the desk and read its contents.

"Who would have thought there would be this many people desperate to enter a new noble's Start of Spring Festival? The Princess's help must really be enormous, no?"

"So it really is an astonishing situation after all."

"It is a marvel. It would be fortunate if even one letter of greeting like this arrived, but they are practically sobbing for you to send them an invitation, aren't they?"

As someone who had watched countless such things, Zed could only find this exceptional situation astonishing.

"Now, let's see who is coming... Gah."

"Do you know someone?"

"I do. The young ladies I quietly abandoned at balls..."

"Ladies?"

Just how many had he abandoned?

When Ferda glared at him, Zed opened his eyes wide with force and said,

"Do not worry. I am already collaborating with an expert, so even if I run into them, I will resolve it amicably."

Speak of the tiger, and the expert he was collaborating with barged in.

"Paaarty!!"

The person who entered the office with that frivolous cry was Penelope.

For whatever reason she was excited, she came walking in with a bounce all by herself.

"I heard you are holding a party!"

"I am."

"And that Princess is coming too?"

"She is."

"Hehehehe..."

Ferda added,

"If you touch her, I will tear your limbs off. Are you confident?"

"Uwaaah...! No matter how much I like women, I am not the kind of bitch who cannot tell shit from soybean paste, okay? Right, Zeze?"

Penelope clung to him familiarly.

Zed placed a hand on her shoulder and said with deep eyes,

"You are exactly that kind of bitch."

"Haha, our Zeze is as mischievous as ever, saying things he doesn't mean."

"I would trust Malcolm before I trusted you."

"You pretty-boy gigolo! Just curse me out instead!"

The moment Malcolm was mentioned, she flew into a rage and began bickering with him.

"Get out already, you bitch. How dare you crawl in here, knowing whose presence this is?! Ugh, how unlucky. Where is the salt? The salt!"

"What are you talking about?! I was summoned too, you know?"

"The Lord Regent called you? Say something that makes sense. If that is true, I will change my surname."

"I did call her."

Ferda drove the nail in before the pointless squabble continued.

"I do not care what you two do, but you will not be enjoying the party."

"What? Then I cannot even hit on women?"

Penelope drooped like a dog with depression.

As if he had no interest, Zed asked Ferda,

"What work do we need to do?"

How a social novice made allies, as Garnet Swallow had told him.

"Find the weaknesses of the young noble ladies and gentlemen visiting Valdrova Castle."

"Weaknesses?"

"What kind of weaknesses?"

Ferda threw out the keyword simply.

"Affairs."

The Start of Spring Festival brought men and women together.

The hot-blooded flowers would tempt the honeybees, and the honeybees would be captivated by them.

And no small number would end up having a one-night fling.

People also treated it as an unwritten rule, calling it a youthful indiscretion.

That was why Garnet had suggested this.

["If there are scandals like that, people will perceive that you too, Lord Ferda, are nothing more than a mere human. Those who are not upright will think you will overlook that much of an unwritten rule."]

But to Ferda, that unwritten rule was nothing more than a cowardly and ugly excuse.

Because Garnet knew of Ferda's pure love, she had suggested a somewhat dirty method to him.

["For those who will not become your allies, you must create a reason why they have no choice but to become your allies."]

What nobles considered important was face.

If it was to protect their face, they would go along with Ferda's will.

He had to become entangled with them that way.

Garnet emphasized that what mattered first was being entangled at all.

"Assuming the Start of Spring Festival proceeds, search for places where people might enjoy secret trysts. And record every affair that happens inside them with recording crystal spheres."

"Even ten bodies would not be enough for that commission. Understood for now."

The people to be used as that ambush were none other than Zed and Penelope.

Unlike others, they could move in secret, and they had experience bewitching people, so they were suitable talents.

"I will do it if you tell me to."

Penelope said that.

Ferda reflexively grew irritated, thinking she was talking back, but that was not it.

"If there is nothing to use as a threat, may I create it myself?"

Penelope asked with sparkling eyes.

Ferda realized he had overlooked one thing.

She was the daughter of Sitri, the demon of lust.

Though she might be called a troublemaker or a dumbass, what flowed through her body was the blood of a demon.

"Do it. I allow it."

Ferda had leaped into the vicious political world of the nobles.

So he needed to become even more vicious.

The cold spring wind melted under the warm sunlight and blew gently.

The flowers that had bloomed in late winter bore fruit, embroidering the forest here and there.

In this land, where the only threat was demonic creatures, there were no starving predators either, so the women were able to forage with ease.

'Spring...'

The season of new birth that came at the end of death.

For Valdrova, it was a season that made her sink into sentiment.

She did not like sentiment.

Because its end always concluded in melancholy.

That was why she moved her body without rest.

On that seasonal day, so perfect for young noble ladies to go on outings, she devoted herself to the labor of carrying and stacking stones to be used for the castle wall.

She preferred the reward of labor to sentiment.

It was lunchtime during her usual routine.

She was sitting among the workers, who had gathered together amicably for their meal.

"You know that building we stopped partway through? I heard it is going to be used as an Altes cathedral."

Ferda had asked the Order of Altes to dispatch priests for the unity of the common people, and a priest had arrived two weeks ago.

"Is that priest who came this time going to take it?"

"Probably."

"I do not really like that priest..."

"Who does? We just want to curse that worthless desert god a little, but he insists on coming over and preaching at us."

"Didn't he say not to call him that? Set! You have to say Set!"

"Set, my ass. You have become the priest's dog now!"

They were the moderates who had been pushed aside by the radicals currently holding real power.

In other words, they were people who did not look down on the worthless desert god in the south and wanted everyone to get along.

Valdrova did not understand their opposition.

'Peace should be a good thing, so why are they so eager to fight?'

Was it no fun unless people were in conflict with each other?

As always, Valdrova only listened silently to their conversation.

"Let us at least try trusting them. They say this Start of Spring Festival is being held together with the south too, don't they? The southern side is also active about exchange, so do not provoke them pointlessly."

"It is obvious what kind of mess it will become without even looking."

He spoke sarcastically and showed displeasure.

No one knew what would happen to a gathering being made for exchange and harmony.

She also grew curious about the lives of the common people.

What kind of events would they hold at the Start of Spring Festival?

Would there be something besides simply drinking, laughing, and making noise?

'I am curious, but...'

She could not see it.

Because that day, she had to participate in the nobles' Start of Spring Festival, not the common people's.

She had heard that preparations had to begin in the morning, so there would be no time to look around.

'Is it one week from now...?'

She felt that time truly passed quickly.

She had started controlling her strength and practicing dance for the Start of Spring Festival, and now there was only one week left.

'I will dance with Mr. Ferda in a splendid room.'

In her excitement, strength unconsciously entered her again.

But perhaps because she had gone through training, it had lessened enough to approach the realm of an ordinary person.

'The pebble is still intact too.'

What she held in her hand was a fragile pebble.

It might hurt Ferda's hand a little, but she was certain there would be no incident where she unconsciously crushed it.

"Come to think of it, things are noisy over in the Empire! They say our lord and the Princess are in that kind of relationship?"

At the topic someone brought up, the workers' mood sank coldly.

Valdrova opened her ears wide and eavesdropped on the conversation.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

"My wife in the Empire said so. She said things were heated even at the Grand Council during the first visit. Including the Princess of the Arken Empire's visit this time, that makes a total of three times. Has the Princess ever met someone around her age more than three times? On top of that, during this procession, they looked exactly like a married coupl—"

A worker who could not bear to watch covered his mouth.

"Ahem! Your problem is that you are always hurrying your own death! Do not talk about such things carelessly anywhere."

"Why? Everyone in Hestia knows."

"You fool! Do you think anyone doesn't know that? Do you think Hestia is keeping quiet about it for no reason? What do you think will happen if the Regent's wife hears that story? Our Regent will end up a corpse."

Valdrova's pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck them.

The pebble held in her hand vanished.

Instead, a heap of sand ground into fine grains was piled there.