Justus’s Grand Lower City Infiltration
“Justus, have you ever been to the lower city?” Ferdinand asked. It was the start of summer the previous year, and he had summoned Eckhart and I together.
“I’ve disguised myself as a traveler and visited farming towns to gather materials many times in the past, but I have never visited Ehrenfest’s lower city since there is nothing to find there. Why do you ask? Is there something there after all?” I asked in response.
“A Devouring child by the name of Myne shall be entering the temple as an apprentice blue shrine maiden. I would like for you to gather as much information on her as possible. Here is what we know from the Merchant’s Guild,” Ferdinand said, holding out some boards. “Everything here concerns her workshop, rather than Myne herself.”
I took the reports from Ferdinand and skimmed them. There were copies of monthly financial reports, the forewoman’s bank statements with the Merchant’s Guild, and a list of business partners.
“Myne’s the forewoman, huh? As for employees... None. It says they belong to the Plant Paper Guild, but does such a guild even exist?”
“It is precisely to answer that sort of question that I need you to gather information on Myne and her activities. Here is what I know myself: Myne has blue hair as dark as the night sky, golden eyes, and a destitute constitution that causes her to appear five at best despite having been baptized. Despite being so weak that she cannot even visit the temple each day, she is such a fervent bookworm that she was willing to spend a large gold and ignore all common sense to directly ask the High Bishop to make her an apprentice shrine maiden. In short, she is a bizarre, incomprehensible child. All information on her will be valuable. Gather it all.”
...A child who would spend a large gold to force her way into the temple, all just to read books? Nah, that can’t be right.
As a noble, it was hard to believe that anyone would ever want to go to the temple, so I didn’t know how to react to Ferdinand’s claims. But at the same time, I was intrigued. I didn’t know a single child who was anywhere near as interesting as this Myne seemed to be. And here Ferdinand was, asking for any information on her at all.
I smiled. My heart was telling me that things were about to get interesting.
“You will need a servant or guard when entering the Merchant’s Guild and the store that does business with the Myne Workshop. To that end, I would like to ask for your assistance, Eckhart. Would you be willing to enter the lower city?”
“If you command it, Lord Ferdinand,” Eckhart said, wearing a smile as he knelt. He had been working with a dead expression ever since his wife Heidemarie had passed away. This was the first time in ages that I’d seen him look so motivated, and as his coworker, that was nice to see.
“In that case, prepare for the infiltration at once. You will be riding my carriage to the temple, then changing clothes there and exiting into the city through the servant door. One of my temple attendants will take you there,” Ferdinand said.
“Thank you very much.”
It was difficult for nobles to stealthily enter the lower city. Noble carriages couldn’t stop there, and when it came to purchases, merchants were simply summoned to the Noble’s Quarter. Anyone would find it strange if a poorly dressed man exited from a fine carriage that had departed from the Noble’s Quarter, so having Ferdinand engineer our entry through the temple’s servant door made things a lot easier.
I headed home, then took out the clothes I had gathered across all of my journeys spent collecting materials. Some were for farming, others for traveling. I added a few garments I had gotten from a merchant who came to the Noble’s Quarter, and the final result wasn’t too far from the clothes a noble who had dropped ranks would wear.
I also sent an ordonnanz to Eckhart, telling him to take inspiration from the clothes of the merchants who visited his estate.
On the day of the infiltration, I entered Ferdinand’s estate wearing noble clothes, and then had his attendant Lasfam change me into merchant attire.
“Ah, by the way—Lasfam, did you prepare a bag with a random assortment of vegetables?”
“Yes, Lord Justus. I was quite confused when the ordonnanz arrived with that message.”
With the bag of vegetables and a bag of clothes from Lasfam in hand, I climbed into the carriage, which slowly started heading off.
“Justus, Eckhart—here are your funds for this mission,” Ferdinand said, handing over a small bag. “You may use this money for whatever you like, whether that be gathering information or—as fifth bell is about to ring—renting a room at an inn.”
Inside the bag were six small golds and six large silvers. That was far more than one would need to rent a room, but it was a fair payment for work such as infiltrating the lower city. I accepted the amount and gave half to Eckhart.
The carriage arrived at the Noble’s Gate, at which point I entered the temple. I had never visited before since Ferdinand had always forbidden me from going near it, so I was more than a little excited to finally go inside and see what it was like. But Ferdinand had dropped us off at the back gate, saying it would be problematic if the High Bishop, Bezewanst, found us. Oh well.
“Guard, take these two to the foot door of the back gate,” Ferdinand said, and the guard who had opened the door to the carriage guided us to where we needed to go.
“This is the gate to the lower city,” he said.
We passed through into the lower city just as fifth bell started to ring. The horrible smell and visible filth immediately made me grimace; not even the farming towns I had visited smelled this bad, and they weren’t this dirty, either.
“This is several times worse than riding through in a carriage, Justus. You sure you’re up for this?” Eckhart asked.
“Ngh... Not like I have a choice. This is an order from Lord Ferdinand himself.”
I first wanted to go to the south gate where Myne’s father supposedly worked. Thanks to flying over the lower city and analyzing its infrastructure, I had a reasonable grasp of where everything was.
Eckhart and I started moving south down the main street. Unlike the Noble’s Quarter, there were towering buildings of all sorts of colors and designs on either side of the road, with wagons and carriages traveling every which way. There were a shocking amount of pedestrians too, and not a trace of the order seen in the Noble’s Quarter.
“Hm. I see that the lower city is similar in how the further south you go, the lower in status the people get,” I mused upon reaching the central plaza and its fountain.
There were a wide range of people here, from those wearing the attire of travelers to those in the raggedy clothing of the poor. We had worn merchant clothes to blend in, but in reality we stuck out more than anyone.
“...Looks like we should change our clothes. Let’s get an inn,” I suggested.
“Agreed. The foul smell is giving me a headache,” Eckhart complained. “This mission is harder than camping outside to gather materials.”
It would probably be difficult to bring him to the south gate. He didn’t have any cheaper clothes than what he currently had on, nor was he capable of changing his noble attitude enough to blend in. For that reason, he would be stuck operating in the north part of the city.
We decided to get a room in an inn located close to the central plaza on the east side of town, where most travelers were. Once inside, the female head of the inn looked us over head to toe with wide eyes.
“Can’t say any fancy-looking customers like yourselves have ever come here not on a carriage. Looks to me like you’re all dressed to visit some nobles. Did yer carriage break down?” she asked.
...I see. Merchants wear different clothes when going to the Noble’s Quarter than what they usually wear.
I had visited farming towns here and there more than a few times, but now it was painfully apparent that having never walked in the lower city before was a problem. The commoner facade I had developed during my time at farming towns might not prove too useful.
While I was thinking about that, I strode forward and handled matters with the lady. “Our carriage had some problems and our normal clothes got dirty during the incident, so we had to put on our best outfits. I would like to order a large room suitable for my master’s stature.”
“I see, I see. You’ve got my sympathies. Go ahead and use the nearby well to clean your clothes if you need to; at this time of year, they’ll be dry by morning. But if you need something to wear right away, go out the back door and travel two blocks. There’s a used clothes store right there.”
“Much appreciated. We’ll check it out later,” I said, thanking the woman as I took the key from her and headed to our room. Despite having ordered a large one, it was still fairly small. Guess we couldn’t expect much more from a commoner inn.
“Eckhart, once we put our stuff down, let’s do something about our clothes,” I said.
We rushed to the used clothing store that the inn mistress had informed us of and each asked for a set of business clothes we could wear in place of our best suits, which we had been forced to put on when our normal clothes got dirty.
The store owner looked us over with a raised eyebrow. “I’m surprised you were willing to walk through town in those clothes at all. Would’ve been better to keep on the dirty ones,” he said, clearly bemused, before speedily picking out some clothes.
Once we had changed into them, we could finally walk around the city without worrying about drawing attention to ourselves.
“Hey, mister. Ever heard of the Myne Workshop? It apparently belongs to the Plant Paper Guild, but I don’t even know what that is.”
“...Myne Workshop? Sorry, pal. Can’t help you there. Never heard of it in my life.”
It was no surprise that a clothing seller didn’t know about it. I shrugged and returned to the inn with Eckhart.
“Eckhart, now that we’ve got some normal merchant clothes, how about we head to the Gilberta Company?”
“I’m too sick to move. Give me some time to rest,” Eckhart replied. The foul smell of the lower city was so overwhelming that he’d used cleansing magic to clean his stinking clothes, but that just ended up undoing all the adapting that his nose had done. He pinched his nostrils shut with a groan, saying that he was about to throw up.
I watched him from the corner of my eye while speedily changing into farmer clothes. “I’ll go ahead to the south gate, then. Try to get used to the smell by tomorrow.”
“Forgive me.”
I grabbed the bag of vegetables and exited the inn. My plan was to search for Gunther at the south gate and then follow him home to find out where Myne lived. That way, I could get information on how she acted when she was somewhere she felt more relaxed.
As I walked down the main street, I kept an eye on my surroundings, adapting my walking speed and posture to match what I saw. The south side of the city seems to speak a lot rougher, but what I learned in the farming towns should do me well here.
Maybe because I had been keeping such a close eye on my surroundings, it was almost closing time when I eventually neared the south gate. The first thing I saw was a group of about ten kids with baskets on their backs returning to the lower city. This was the perfect opportunity to gather information on Myne.
I walked up to the group, pretending to be a farmer wanting to repay Myne for a favor with some vegetables from his farm. “Heya, kids. Any of you know a girl with dark-blue hair called Myne? She did me a huge favor the other day, and I wanna pay her back,” I said, raising the bag of vegetables so they could see.
“Nope. Never heard that name before. She’s not from our neighborhood,” one replied.
Another group soon came through the gate. I asked them the same question, but this time, they seemed to know her.
“Myne? You mean Tuuli, right?” one kid asked, cocking their head.
“Tuuli?”
“That’s Myne’s older sister. If she was nice to you, it was definitely Tuuli. You’re definitely mixing them up, mister.”
Thus, I learned that Myne had an older sister named Tuuli. And from that point on, I learned a lot more about Tuuli. She was kind, considerate, and took care of everyone, especially her sick little sister. She was the only one they wanted to talk about, though; not a single kid said anything about Myne. In fact, they said so little about her that I honestly wanted to ask whether the two really were sisters.
“...Uh, and what kinda girl is Myne?”
“Dunno. She’s always sick in bed. I’ve, like, never talked to her,” another kid said.
And thus, I learned that they knew Myne was incredibly sickly. That all but confirmed we were talking about the same person, which was nice, but I already knew she was sick from what Ferdinand had told me. I wanted new information.
“If you want to know about her that much, why not ask Tuuli?” one girl asked. “Look, she’s right over there. Tuuli!”
At that, a green-haired girl holding the hand of a small child started to walk over, blinking in confusion. Her clothes were covered in patches and were a little dirty due to her having just come from the forest, but she looked cleaner than everyone else thanks to her hair being glossy for some reason.
“I’m looking for a girl named Myne. She did me a favor, and I wanted to give her these vegetables. Everyone’s saying she’s your little sister,” I said.
“Myne is my little sister, but are you sure she helped you? I think you’re probably mistaking her for someone else,” Tuuli said, looking very confused despite being Myne’s older sister. Was it really that unthinkable for Myne to help out a farmer?
All the signs were pointing to Myne having an awful personality, and now I was real worried about Ferdinand taking her into the temple as an apprentice blue shrine maiden.
“...I might’ve misheard her name, but I’m pretty sure she said it was Myne. What, is your little sister, like... a rotten girl who never helps anyone?”
“No. It’s just... When you met Myne, was she with anyone?” Tuuli asked.
Since making up lies here would complicate things in the future, I said she was alone, just to keep things simple.
The moment Tuuli heard that, she smiled. “Then you’re definitely mixing her up with someone else. Myne never goes outside alone. We don’t let her, ’cause she’s so sick that it’d be dangerous for her to walk around by herself.”
And so, I learned that Myne was in fact so sickly that she couldn’t even go outside alone. But again, I was looking for information not related to her health. It’d be hard to keep gathering info using this cover story now that Tuuli had concluded I wasn’t actually talking about her little sister, so I’d need to change my battle plan.
“Alright, know anything about the Myne Workshop, then? I hear she’s the forewoman over there.”
“Never heard about it,” one kid answered. “What kinda workshop is it? It’s not around here, right?”
It seemed that none of the kids knew about it, but Tuuli gave me a visibly guarded look. This must have been information that only her family knew about, so just asking about it was enough to make them suspicious.
“I heard it’s a paper workshop, but I dunno the details. Nobody I’ve met knows anything, either. I musta just misheard her. My bad for stopping you. Here, have some veggies for the journey home,” I said, handing out the vegetables to the kids before continuing toward the south gate. I could feel Tuuli’s eyes on my back more than a few times as I went.
After a short while I turned around, just in time to see them disappearing into an alley. From there, I tracked the group to confirm where Myne lived. Suffice to say, it wasn’t the kind of building that a girl who had a large gold to spare would be living in.
After that I went to the south gate, where I learned that Gunther was absent due to being on morning duty. I tried asking the guards about Gunther’s daughter instead, but all I learned was that he was head over heels for his family.
“Don’t go digging into Gunther’s family if you know what’s good for you. He’ll either rave about his wife and cute daughters until your ears fall off, or threaten the crap out of you if he thinks you’re trying to hurt them,” one guard said with a genuinely concerned look. Everyone else there seemed to agree with him.
...That told me all I needed to know about how her family worked, but I still didn’t have anything about Myne herself. What kinda life did she live to run a workshop without basically anyone knowing about it?
“So you learned where she lives and what her family’s like, then?” Eckhart asked.
“Yeah. I never would have thought that the people around Myne would know so little about her. She barely leaves her house, and when she does, she’s so weak that she needs someone to come with her no matter what. It’s pretty clear that we’ll learn nothing if we keep trying to play by the book.”
“What’s your plan, then?”
“We’ll sneak into the Merchant’s Guild at night. They should have plenty of documents on the Myne Workshop,” I replied, looking out the window as I changed from my farmer attire into merchant clothes. If the people around her didn’t know anything, then I’d have to check out her place of work.
I agreed with Eckhart not wanting to eat food from such a filthy place, so we had some of our Knight’s Order field rations and then took naps.
Seventh bell rang some time later, and gradually, the loud bustle of the main street calmed down. The clatter and yells of arguing drunks and soldiers maintaining order faded, by which time Eckhart’s nose had readjusted to the air.
We ran through the now quiet lower city, making our way to the Merchant’s Guild. A drunkard blocked our path halfway through, but Eckhart quickly drove him away.
“There’s a magic lock, but it seems like a fairly weak one. What’s even the point in it?” Eckhart asked once we’d arrived.
“Commoners don’t have any mana, so I’d guess any magic lock would stop them in their tracks,” I replied. The plan had been for Eckhart to just smash the lock in the case that it was a normal metal one, but this required a different approach.
...Seems like this is the work of a layscholar. Should be easy to unlock.
I whipped out my schtappe and unlocked the door in no time, then slid inside and used a candle with light-amplifying magic to illuminate the floor as I climbed the stairs.
We found another magic tool on our way up; it seemed this Merchant’s Guild used a few of them. The magic tools supplied to commoner organizations such as this one were often maintained with feystones containing layscholar mana, and this demand was a fairly important source of income for the poorer nobles.
“Justus, what magic tool is this?” Eckhart asked.
I touched the feystone part of the tool with my schtappe and carefully looked at the magic circle carved within. “Seems like it has a simple identification function. All we have to do to pass is register our mana,” I replied.
We registered our mana, causing a gate that was blocking the staircase to fade away. It seemed the upper level was just for the richer merchants, and there was a thick carpet spread across the floor, which was more spacious than the last one. We opened a door to the side in search of a file room and began looking through the documents within. They were organized by the name of the workshop, and our search progressed relatively quickly thanks to how tidy it all was. Whoever worked here must have been fairly talented.
“The Myne Workshop mainly deals with the Gilberta Company, but I see some transactions with a lumberyard and a craftsman. Let’s check around the Gilberta Company tomorrow,” I suggested.
The next day, we headed to the Gilberta Company dressed as merchants. A guard standing outside by the door swiftly went inside as we approached, and not long after, a narrow-eyed servant with dark-brown hair came outside and pressed his right fist against the palm of his left hand.
“I am Mark, of the Gilberta Company. May I ask what business you have with our humble store?” he asked. His smile was peaceful, but I could tell he was on guard; his wary eyes reminded me of Tuuli from yesterday. At the very least, it was clear that he didn’t intend to accept us inside as customers. It was possible that he had been informed we were investigating the Myne Workshop.
I glanced at the Gilberta Company behind him. I had thought they would be selling plant paper, but it seemed they mainly dealt in clothing and apparel.
Guess the used clothing store from yesterday sold us out.
Either way, it would be better to find information elsewhere than to push matters and put them more on the defensive.
“I just saw some strange hairpins from outside and got curious. We’ll be staying out here.”
“I see. Take your time, then.”
We watched for a short while as customers and employees filtered in and out of the Gilberta Company, then left.
“Are you sure we didn’t need to go inside, Justus?” Eckhart asked.
“The Gilberta Company’s on guard against us. Let’s try somewhere else,” I replied.
There was no harm in going to the various craftsmen that Myne had ordered from. People who had actually done business with her would naturally have more information for me.
“Myne? Who’s that? Can’t say I know that name,” a guy from the lumberyard said with a hand on his chin.
“She’s a weird little girl with connections to the Gilberta Company. Pretty sure she’s a forewoman who’s done business here before,” I explained, trying to jog his memory.
“Ah, the tiny girl from Benno’s place! They don’t really say her name much so it slipped right by me.”
“That’s just because you don’t like to do paperwork,” a passing worker mentioned, clearly exasperated.
“Shut it! Get back to work!” the foreman shouted back before shaking his head. “Whaddaya wanna know about her?”
“She came to us with a business deal too, but we don’t know if she’s actually a proper forewoman or not. We just don’t feel comfortable doing business with a girl that small,” I said with a faux worried tone.
The foreman nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I get how you feel. But you don’t got anything to worry about. Benno’s backing her, and she knows exactly what she needs. She don’t talk or act like a kid her age, but she’s good at what she does. Even saw her write a supply order right in front of me, no problem at all. She can do business just like an adult. No need to worry about the pay, either. It’ll come,” he said confidently, giving me the most meaningful information yet.
It seemed like it would be a good idea to refer to her as “the weird little girl backed by the Gilberta Company” to her other business partners.
And my instincts were right. When I went to the stores and spoke to those she did business with, all I needed to do was bring up this weird little girl and say I was worried about how young she was to get people to talk.
She looked young enough to be pre-baptism, but ordered things that people had never seen or heard of before. She spent money in an abnormal way. She was clumsy with her hands. She bought a ton of string. She passed out on the street and had a Gilberta Company worker hurriedly carry her home. All in all, I was getting so much easy information that it felt like all of my struggling before had been a joke.
“Everywhere I go, people call her a weird girl, but it sounds to me that she’s more extraordinarily talented and knowledgeable than weird,” I said. “A smart child capable of doing skilled work sounds like the perfect apprentice blue shrine maiden for Lord Ferdinand to take in.”
Eckhart nodded. “Agreed. It seems we will have a positive report for Lord Ferdinand now.”
I nodded as well and looked over the market, in a good mood. It was market day by the west gate, and there were a ton of interesting-looking stands lined up. No markets were ever held in the Noble’s Quarter, and I had never seen this many stands set up together during my time in farming towns.
“Want to take this opportunity to look around?” I asked Eckhart.
“...You don’t want to leave as soon as possible?”
I shrugged and told him to go back to the inn to get our stuff together, then started wandering around. The market was filled with miscellaneous stands that stocked all sorts of things I didn’t recognize or understand. One had a fancy case with an actual book inside it for some reason—a book that was a lot fancier than what you would expect to see around these parts.
“Hey, shopkeep. What’s with the book? This isn’t the place for something like that, right?” I asked, pointing at the book.
The shopkeep looked at it and shook his head. As it turned out, the guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild had apparently called for him out of nowhere and told him to go and visit a laynoble, mentioning that they were interested in funding a store for him. The shopkeep of course ran over with a ton of money, overjoyed at his opportunity. But once there, he was asked whether he was going to be lending them money, and was then promptly ordered by the noble to hand over his coin.
The book had apparently been forced onto him as collateral for the loan, and when the due date for the return came, the shopkeep visited the noble... only for the house to have since changed hands. A noble he didn’t recognize at all came out, said he didn’t know the merchant, and then kicked him out.
“In short, they go out of their way to call merchants like me over to fund their escapes. The owners of big stores can afford contract magic, so they target poor merchants like me looking to start our own stores,” the man continued.
The financial hit was apparently severe enough that the man had petitioned the guildmaster for payment, but he had simply responded that it was a necessary step in the process of getting a noble-funded store and paid only a small consolation fee.
“Nobles teaming up to trick commoners, huh? That’s not uncommon, but you’ve got my sympathy,” I replied. Despite being a noble myself, I didn’t feel the need to defend their actions at all. I absent-mindedly replied to his complaining while looking at the book’s cover.
...Still, a laynoble had this book? It’s way too fancy for a laynoble.
It had an elaborate cover that one would expect to see on the book of an archnoble, and most books with that sort of cover were usually about magic. That was strange, though, since a noble with money problems selling a magic-related book to a commoner would really need to buy it back. They tended to have the crest of the noble that owned it emblazoned inside, so one look would have likely been enough to tell me exactly who had pulled such a dirty trick to rip off the shopkeep.
“Hey, shopkeep. My boss is a real booklover, and he’s got a bit of a collection. Mind letting me look at the book? You can hold this for insurance,” I said, setting a small gold on the table since I knew he’d be afraid of me stealing the book otherwise.
His face lit up as though he had finally found hope, at which point he unlocked the case and delicately took out the book. “I’m just gonna pray that it’s a book your boss doesn’t already own. The only other person who’s wanted to see it was this weird little girl who crossed my stand way back when I was still holding it as collateral.”
“A weird little girl? What kinda girl?” I asked on instinct, since I had been asking people for information on a weird little girl over and over all day.
“At first she asked to look at the book, but then she suddenly threw herself on the ground and started begging to smell it and rub her cheeks against it. That was as surprised as I’ve ever been. Never met a kid that weird in my life.”
I couldn’t help but snort. That was exactly how Ferdinand said Myne always acted.
...Wait, is he talking about Myne? Is this Myne here? I wanna see this. I wanna see this weird girl.
“What, do you know this girl?” the shopkeep asked.
“Nah, but I’ve heard of another weirdo just like her. Not sure whether it’s the same person, but I know of a girl who was trying to pay a large gold to the temple just to see a book.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me. That’s just ridiculous. With that much money, you could just buy a bunch of books yourself.”
“I didn’t hear her mentioning the smell of ink or anything, though. Probably a different person,” I said, exchanging another chuckle with the shopkeep.
But in reality, I was confident they were the same person. No way were there two kids in the world who were so desperate for books that they would lose their minds over them.
“Alright, let’s take a look,” I said, picking up the book and opening it carefully. The last page, which normally had the noble crest on it, had been sliced off—a sign that whoever had sold the book didn’t want it being seen. There was a chance it was a stolen book, but either way, it was indeed a book about magic, which wasn’t something best left with commoners.
I wanna buy this, but the price might be a little high.
I glanced at the pouch of money that Ferdinand had given me. I had two more small golds on top of the small gold I had handed over as collateral, but that wasn’t enough to buy a book with a cover this elaborate.
“So? Does your boss own it?”
“Nope, this is a new book. I’d like to buy it, but this is all I can offer you,” I said, taking out the other two small golds. I would have liked to cover all the money that the trickster noble had taken from him, but I would need to go back to the Noble’s Quarter to get more for that. “This stand only goes up on market day, right? I’m gonna be leaving the city today, so...”
“Nah, that’s more than enough! I never thought I’d get the opportunity to sell it at all, so yeah...” the shopkeep replied.
Considering the quality of the book, buying it for three small golds was an incredible steal, but the shopkeep seemed more than happy with the exchange.
The next day, I was summoned to Lord Ferdinand’s estate to report what I had learned in the lower city.
“...And so, the only thing I learned from the people around her was how weak she is. But those who have done business with the Myne Workshop all recognized her as a weird but talented child,” I said.
“I knew that she was weird from the first time I met her,” Ferdinand murmured in response.
“Furthermore, I believe that this is the book she said she wished to smell the ink of,” I said, explaining how the shopkeep of the stand had mentioned a weird little girl interested in the book.
Ferdinand had a distant look in his eyes. “Now that you mention it, when first faced with the bible, she leaned forward and smelled its ink.”
...She did the same thing in front of Ferdinand?! What kind of mad girl is this Myne?
“Lord Ferdinand, shall I bring this book to the temple library?”
“You said yourself that it is a magic book. Deliver it to the library in my estate,” Ferdinand said, placing three small golds in front of me.
And so the book I had purchased from the lower city was stored on one of Lord Ferdinand’s bookshelves, forever escaping Myne’s ink-sniffing clutches.
“So you’re the tax official assigned to Rozemyne, Justus? Impressive, considering that you are Lord Ferdinand’s attendant, not a scholar,” Eckhart said with an exasperated tone.
I snorted and shook my head. “I’ve got scholar qualifications, and I’ve been doing scholar work in the castle ever since Lord Ferdinand entered the temple. He said that he doesn’t have any other scholars he can trust, and with the aub’s orders backing me, there’s nobody who can argue with me being here. Especially when Rozemyne’s father, Lord Karstedt, agreed to it.”
Eckhart and I were waiting in a meeting room for Ferdinand and Rozemyne to arrive. This would be my first time meeting her. My first time meeting the fabled Myne, who had risen from a commoner to a blue shrine maiden thanks to her mana, only to then displace Bezewanst the High Bishop and be adopted by the archduke.
I know she’s a weird kid, but let’s see just what kinda fancy noble girl she’s turned into.
“Information on her was considerably hard to find, and she’s so special that Lord Ferdinand willingly took her into his custody. I’m real interested in seeing just what kind of a kid she is. Whaddaya think about her, Eckhart? Now that you’re her big brother and all.”
“I am just glad that Lord Ferdinand seems to be enjoying himself. Though personally, I would rather never go to the lower city again,” he replied with a scrunched up face. And that was when the door opened.
“Eckhart, Justus—I appreciate you both waiting for us.”
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