Chapter 18.1

Chapter 18.1

「You are both so cruel…」

At Aearis’ tea party, the hostess mumbled this, as she glared at Hiroshi and Haruna, while picking at her pudding a la mode.

「Well, ya ate ‘em a bunch when ya were back at the workshop, ya highne-」

「No, Hiroshi-sama. Please still address me as Elle. Just as before.」

Aearis, further offended by Hiroshi’s counter, had taken to giving an order under the guise of asking for a favor. In desperation they look at the Head Priest and servant , who were both nodding with a mischievous smile. Mark, who was also in attendance amidst his busy day, simply sipped on his tea, as if he saw nothing.

「…I mean, if ya insist…」

Hiroshi said, squirming at the contentious smiles around the room. Haruna watched on with a chuckle. The remaining members of the tea party were Douga and Rayna, although Rayna was standing back, on guard. They still had not figured out their friends and enemies in court, so only the safe bets with an availability were invited. Needless to say, Eavesdropping precautions were thorough. Makoto, Mio, and Tatsuya were each distributing the puddings in various locations.

Some politics with the important members of the court, combined with the distribution of the Japanese delicacy had almost given them a clear picture of friends and enemies in court. Still, not everyone (who wasn’t their enemy to begin with) could be won over so easily. Not to mention the large number of people who would flip-flop their alliance to suit their predicament at the moment. Especially for Aearis, whose reputation was quickly being rebuilt thanks to the ball the other night, it was a crucial time to keep that trend going.

The servant here was relatively of age. Since ill rumors of Aearis had surfaced, she had approached Aearis twice, and was leaning her allegiance towards Aearis. She had been seen isolated from those around Katrina because of it, and had been hired to be Aearis’ full-time attendant.

「Yeah, we didn’t bring ‘em to ya right away, but you can eat all the puddin’s ya want at your beck n’ call…」

「That’s not the only reason Aearis-sama is upset.」

The Head Priest chimed in with a gentle smile to Hiroshi’s complaint. He had quite the sweet tooth. The majority of the Japanese-style donuts they had brought along was consumed by this man. His healthy appetite for his age, along with his body, toned enough to keep him slender posed an odd contrast to his occupation as the Head Priest, which seemed more on the gentle side.

「I do not believe either of you have seen Aearis-sama since the ball on your first night here.」

「Oh… That’s right.」

「We were runnin’ around all over the place…」

The other members of the Japanese party had seen Aearis here and there, but Haruna, who had been on her own a lot, and Hiroshi, who had been constantly solicited by the doctors and potion makers in the castle when he wasn’t in combat training, had not had a single conversation with Aearis all week.

「I know that you are both busy. I know that it would be a burden of me to ask… And I knew that we wouldn’t be able to see each other as much. But I do get very lonely without you two…」

「Ya say that…」

「We’re even going to leave this country, eventually…」

「I know. That’s exactly why I want to see you as often as I can, while I can.」

Aearis said, as she looked at them (mostly Hiroshi) intently. Seeing a certain flare in Aearis’ eyes, Haruna sighed internally.

「I’ll do the best I can, but…」

「I still got a chance, but it might be tough for ya, Haruna-san.」

「Yeah, it’s going to be easy, to be honest.」

Haruna answered with a frown, as she subconsciously twirled her golden hair. Now that everyone knew about her receiving Alfemina’s blessing (on top of her performance at the ball) she had garnered nearly as much attention as Aearis throughout Farlane. This had caused her to be invited to all sorts of events from all sorts of people, to where there was just not enough time in the day for Haruna. The silver lining was that most people had seemed to forget about Hiroshi, and there had been no invitations for the entire party, all together, to their relief.

Under the consensus that things would hit the fan if Haruna were to trigger anything else from the forbidden section of the library, she had been dismissed from the library research team, so that wasn’t a concern, but Haruna did not have the disposition to use her femininity as a tool. Her strengths were her observant eyes and quick wit, but even she wasn’t sure how many blatant attempts of sexual harassment she could take.

She had rescinded any invitations from obviously dangerous (male-only) events, and even tea parties that were mostly female if a suspicious name was on the guest lists. For other events, she honored them first-come first-serve without consideration of the host’s clout. Because she kept her strict first-come first-serve policy, she was forced to turn down Elena and Aearis. For this tea party, they had used the servants’ grapevine to their advantage, making sure that Haruna was available.

「Putting Elena-sama or Elle-chan at a priority won’t bode well for us or the royal family…」

「I understand. That’s why we had to tie your hands, today.」

「In either case, we’ll have to spend some time to make sure that no one would be there to hurt you, Elle-chan. Hang time until then, okay?」

Aearis nodded, reluctantly. Of course, she knew all along how hard Haruna had been working for her.

「Well, Hiroshi-kun. You should hang out with Elle-chan as much as you can.」

「Sure thin’. The problem is, though…」

「What is it?」

「You’re probably the prime target right now, Haruna-san.」

Haruna returned a determined nod. She had enough self-awareness for that.

「You watch your back, too. I would feel better if you could stick with Makoto-san or Mio-chan for awhile…」

「I mean, you’re a great decoy for keepin’ folks away from messin’ with me. That’s the silver linin’, I guess.」

「Surprisingly few members of the opposition seem to understand the gravity of your ability to craft class-3 and all-purpose potions.」

The Head Priest aptly explained Hiroshi’s situation. Despite serving a crucial role, potions were just not flashy, especially since potion-making in Farlane was fairly advanced. They were a step or two behind Lorren, which held Rufius (the city of academia) but potion makers in Farlane could regularly produce up to class-5 potions, which was more than sufficient, even for members of the Knights’ Order. It was only natural for many people to consider class-2s and class-3s unnecessary, when just gathering ingredients for them could cause mass-casualties.

Now, class-1 potions could literally cure anything except death. This would have caused many more people to try and obtain these potions through any means (like a honeypot or false accusations of crimes, for example) but Hiroshi had only crafted a class-3. He could craft class-1 potions in reality, but a larger portion of the opposition didn’t bother themselves with the class-3 potions since they were nearly impossible to make due to the lack of ingredients, rather than consider the possibility that Hiroshi had the capabilities to craft class-1s. On the other hand, those who rightfully recognized Hiroshi’s potential most considered the risk to outweigh the benefits.

And so, there was only one occasion when the whole party was called to an event, and it was by an ally to the royal family. This was mostly to provide minor advice to small problems, and Hiroshi had been excused from the party. After that, there were no real invitations for Hiroshi, leaving him in the eye of the storm.

「Right, I almost forgot.」

Hiroshi blurted out.

「You think the Crown Prince got an openin’ in his schedule comin’ up?」

「Layotte? He should be available after dinner.」

「He wouldn’t mind seeing you, but what for?」

Aearis and Mark turned, curious to what Hiroshi had to say to Layotte. The Crown Prince was working underground here and there to eliminate potential enemies. It would only mean trouble for the Japanese party to meet him out in the open, so they had not seen each other during the day, so far.

Hiroshi understood why Layotte was avoiding them, so this question seemed peculiar to Aearis. What important matter could he have to discuss amidst the chaos right now?

「I mean, it ain’t a big deal, but when I re-did the poleax, I made a longsword with the leftover Magical Steel and Mithril while I was at it.」

「And you’re going to give to the Prince?」

「Was thinkin’ ‘bout it. The thin’ is, I balanced it from memory, from when he showed me the sword he had before. I gotta have him swing it so I can make adjustments.」

No one in their party used a longsword. He might have had just enough materials to work with, but the members of the court were confused as to why he decided to make such a thing for someone he didn’t need to earn anymore favors from.

「Seriously, I made it ‘cus I was already there, it ain’t much work. They gave us the materials anyway, so I thought I’d make a so-so product to give back to the royal family.」

Hiroshi explained, chuckling.

「So-so…?」

「So-so. The materials for my best stuff are pretty hard to come by.」

A so-so product using Magical Steel and Mithril…? They couldn’t, and didn’t even want to imagine Hiroshi’s “best work.”

「You couldn’t have just made an axe or pickaxe?」

「Those wouldn’t have been much better than the ones with normal steel. It wouldn’t have used up all the ingredients anyways, and thinkin’ that I won’t be usin’ them in combat as much, I thought I’d just give back where it came from. Carryin’ them around as-is didn’t make too much sense who knows when we’ll come across Magical Steel next?」

In fact, a steel pickaxe could be used to mine anything up to Orichalcum, as long as they were still ores. The true potential of these minerals were only realized upon refining them. While there were a few tricks to mining them, the ores themselves were just rocks.

The same went for wood, where some felling may be more trickier than others, but the durability required of the axe didn’t fluctuate as much. With a few rare exceptions that couldn’t even be scratched with a steel axe (or could only be cut with a specific metal) nearly all trees could be cut down with steel.

So, there was almost no benefit to using Magical Steel to craft Harvesting tools.

「I see why you made it. But what’s the rush? Why risk seeing Layotte now?」

Mark asked.

「To tell ya the truth, even the rumors I’ve been hearin’ ‘bout are pretty spooky. It won’t hurt the most hated member of the royal family to have the best equipment he can.」

「…You have a point. If we are right about who’s behind all this, I can’t deny that they’ll be some violent attempts coming soon.」

「Cleansing the mineral veins this completely has set them back behind square one, I’d imagine.」

Douga and the Head Priest added. Brows tightening, the other four nodded. According to Layotte, it would only take one more push until the enemy will lose their patience. That was why they had (almost obviously) orchestrated a fake internal conflict. The last thing they wanted was to waste all of that effort.