5
The capital city of Lugunica was divided into five broad “layers.”
The uppermost layer, at the very center of the city, was the royal castle of Lugunica itself. Positioned on a height to allow sweeping views of the city, only the most important nobles as well as the members of the Council of Elders were permitted to reside there. Next came the noble quarter. It was filled to the brim with those of the nobility who were permitted to have houses in the capital. This portion of the city was furnished with the main homes of the lesser nobles and the villas of their superiors, making the place a picture of elegance.
Below the noble quarter came the merchant district, which contributed much to the bustle of the capital, and farther down came the commoners’ district, where more than half the capital’s population resided. Finally, there were the poorer quarters, where the destitute dwelled. Such places were relegated to corners of the commoners’ district or tucked in by the walls that protected the city.
Julius’s home was in the noble quarter. The Juukuliuses were of middling noble status, their reserve and uprightness being their defining traits. However…
“Oh me, oh my, what a lovely house. I think I can expect to be very comfortable here!”
That aloofness was shattered by a particularly loud-voiced guest. Cecils, looking at the front hall as he came in through the main door, seemed thoroughly pleased. He glanced this way and that, his eyes lighting on the servants, all of them much surprised by this unexpected visitor. “Oh! Even the maidservants’ uniforms look different around here! Lugunican women never forget their elegance, even when they’re just serving girls! Ahh, it brings a tear to my eye. Wonderful, most wonderful!”
“Th-thank you for your kind praise, sir. It’s an honor…”
Cecils nodded emphatically. “They even answer me with civility and modesty! Such deference makes the heart leap! Though, I confess, I still believe that cat-eared lass is the greatest beauty in all of Lugunica.” Then he remembered Julius, whom he had left standing at the door, and went flying back to him. “Goodness, what am I doing, leaving the master of the house behind? I was simply overwhelmed—please resume guiding me.”
“I appreciate your consideration, Master Cecils. But surely, a house of this scale is not such a surprise to you? I’m sure you’ve seen serving girls before.”
“Yes, well, of course, my own stipend is not inconsiderable…but I do spend much of it on my own amusements. That leaves me with rather precarious finances, hardly enough to hire maids.” The foreign swordsman gave a dejected shake of his sleeves, and Julius raised an eyebrow. What “amusement” could cost so much money that it left the empire’s greatest combatant with so little money?
“As it happens, I collect swords both ancient and new from around the world,” Cecils explained. “That way, I always have a prop ready to go—it’s my one vice.”
“So you collect blades. I see; that makes sense…,” Julius said, nodding, as his gaze wandered to the two swords at Cecils’s hip. One was in a red scabbard, the other in blue, and he had wondered about them from the moment the men had been reunited in the merchant quarter. It was in no small part because both the blades seemed to radiate an immense cruelty and bloodlust that could still be detected even when they were completely sheathed. This staggering sense of power was proof that these were enchanted or holy blades, nothing ordinary or average.
“The most exceptional pieces in my collection are my number one sword, Murasame, and my number two sword, Masayume. I never had a chance to show them to you back in the empire, but both are enchanted blades with long and storied histories.”
“A hobby that has some practical benefit, I see. That’s very informative.”
“Yes, but acquiring them takes a great deal of money, to say nothing of maintaining them. Not that I’ve ever begrudged it.” As the overpowering aura of the swords threatened to swallow up their owner, Cecils used his own fighter’s spirit to suppress the force emanating from the two weapons. To wield such impressive tools demanded an equally impressive owner. Julius touched his knight’s blade and wondered whether he would be capable of such a thing. His sword had a history itself as a prized heirloom of the Juukulius household. How long he had spent mastering it, learning to use it to the utmost…
“Sir, would you be a visitor?”
The question came from a young man who emerged from inside the house, interrupting their conversation. The young man’s fine facial features gave a soft impression.
“My,” Cecils said, raising an eyebrow as the young man approached. “Now here is one who seems to vaguely resemble you, Master Julius…”
“My younger brother, Joshua. Joshua, this is Master Cecils. He will be staying with us for a few days as my guest. I apologize for the lack of warning…”
“I understand. A friend of my brother’s is a friend of this household.” The purple-haired young man, Joshua Juukulius, smiled faintly and bowed his head.
“Goodness gracious,” Cecils said, shaking his head at being received so politely. “I offer my humblest apologies for such sudden imposition. I’m a very poor planner, you see, and didn’t think to reserve an inn for my little trip. Master Julius here was so kind as to ask if he could help… You have quite a fine older brother, Master Joshua; I’m almost jealous!”
“So you understand, sir?! You see what a wonderful person my older brother is!”
“Ahem?!”
Julius’s younger brother leaned toward Cecils, who had offered a somewhat accurate explanation of the circumstances in lieu of a proper greeting. Joshua, his demeanor having suddenly and completely changed, quite ignored the foreign guest as he passionately clenched his hands into elegant fists.
After a moment, the slim young man continued talking to Cecils with a more familiar tone. “If you’re such a fine judge of character as to see my brother for who he is, then I welcome you with open arms. Please stay as long as you like. Master Cecils, where do you come from? That strange outfit, is it not a kimono from Kararagi? I know them from books, but I’ve never seen one with my own eyes before!”
“Ah, so you recognize this? I fell in love with it at first sight on my first trip to Kararagi. I had one custom-made for me after that. A lead actor must be diligent about his appearance, you know. Such is what The Blue Lightning is determined to be and to do!”
“The Blue Lightning…?” That brought Joshua to a halt, interrupting the fine momentum the conversation had been building.
Julius noticed and coughed pointedly. “Joshua, Master Cecils is tired from traveling. We should let him rest in the guest room before anything else.”
“Oh… Yes, of course. I’m sorry, Elder Brother. I got a little excited…” Joshua scratched his cheek and blushed, embarrassed to have forgotten himself. Julius smiled tightly at his younger brother, then turned to Cecils. “Apologies for my brother’s inconsiderateness, Master Cecils. He isn’t usually this way…”
“My goodness, I don’t mind. We can talk as much as he likes later. I have all the time in the world to indulge him.”
“Y-yes, certainly! Thank you very much, sir. Very well, I’ll retire to my room now, Elder Brother.”
“Good. We’ll see you for dinner.”
Joshua bowed and returned to his own room, accompanied by one of the serving girls. Cecils watched him carefully as he left, and he spoke only after the young man was out of sight.
“Hmm. This little brother of yours—would there be anything the matter with him physically?”
“…You can tell?”
“Call it intuition, based on the way he talks and walks. It doesn’t seem like there’s any one part of him that’s in particularly bad shape; it’s more like he’s weak overall. Born that way, I suspect.” Cecils crossed his arms. Julius was dumbfounded by the keen observation. In just a few minutes, Cecils had deduced the congenital problem that afflicted Joshua.
The younger Juukulius brother possessed a weak body. He struggled to perform even the most basic of daily tasks. He was more capable and energetic these days, but in the past, the young man had been prone to fevers that forced him to spend much of his time sleeping them off. Even in his present state, considerable care was needed any time he traveled very far. And so…
“Master Cecils, if you would be so kind, perhaps you could entertain Joshua with some stories of Volakia.”
“Volakia, you say?”
“My brother has never been outside Lugunica. He has striven to acquire all the knowledge one could hope for from books. Now, I would love for him to learn of things that can’t be found in books alone.”
“I see… You do care for that brother of yours, don’t you?”
Julius answered Cecils’s admiring remark only with a smile.
The spirit mage did indeed care for his younger brother. Joshua was his family, and that made him precious; he was a treasured younger sibling. However, this particular bout of consideration, Julius felt, came from something else. He wanted to widen Joshua’s vision. Perhaps he thought the expectation and envy Joshua sometimes looked at him with were somewhat misplaced. Regardless…
“I’m afraid you’ll be fairly restricted everywhere except in this house, Master Cecils. As such, I believe Joshua would make an excellent conversation partner for you.”
“Ho-ho, what a fine talker you are. If your brother is the bookworm you make him out to be, maybe I’ll learn a little something useful myself. I welcome it!”
“I’m glad to hear that… Out of curiosity, what would you hope to learn?”
“Why, cool speeches and the most striking words with which to see off an enemy—naturally!” The forceful response left Julius at an impasse. Was it supposed to be a joke?
After that, he showed the Volakian, who had come with minimal luggage, to the guest room, laid down a few ground rules for him during his stay, and gave the man a key.
“You are an interesting one, though,” Cecils said softly as he took the key and set down his bags. Julius, not expecting this comment, raised an eyebrow. The Divine General shrugged and replied, “Don’t believe me? You, good Master Julius, are capable of remarkably gutsy action for someone who looks and acts the way you do.”
“Certainly, no more so than yourself, Master Cecils—the one who ran past a guard outpost in order to come here and challenge the Sword Saint to a duel.”
“My actions are meant to stupefy the world. But forget about that.” The kimono-clad man never stopped smiling as he sat on the bed and fixed his eyes on Julius. “The beautiful cat-eared one you were with… Her opinion seemed far more objective and correct. To say nothing of the fact that I take you for one who typically and unswervingly follows the path of righteousness. Am I wrong?”
Julius did not offer an answer.
“That’s just my little personal observation, of course, and it’s always possible you’re simply a more madcap person than you appear… But I have my intuition, and I trust it, even if it doesn’t always work on logic alone.”
Julius let out a small sigh at the way Cecils was speaking. He agreed that the “cat-eared beauty”—Ferris—had the right of it. To the bitter end, Ferris had opposed Julius’s concealing Cecils at his mansion. It was unlike the purple-haired knight to try to talk Ferris into something like this, to beg that he not reveal the Volakian’s presence to the other knights. It was enough to make one doubt Julius’s loyalty to the kingdom—so why had he done it?
“I thought that was the question that might keep you up at night, quite apart from the issue of whether your little friend would report me.”
“…If you were to proceed by force, Master Cecils, neither Ferris nor I could stop you. Did my response at the tea house not clear up any doubts?”
“I’m afraid not. I think you know perfectly well, Master Julius, that with the empire in mind, I could hardly cut the two of you down. These swords are really good for no more than a bit of rattling.”
Julius found himself at a loss for a response to the Divine General’s forceful inquiry. But it was not, of course, because he had closed his heart off, intent on not revealing what was within. It was precisely the opposite.
“ ” The words wouldn’t come out because Julius couldn’t find any. He had no answer for the question Cecils had raised. That was the problem.
“Oops. Have I put you in a spot of trouble? Sorry, sorry. How could I be so thoughtless to the very master of the house I’m staying at?”
Julius found that his peculiar guest saw through his flummoxed state with unsettling alacrity. With that, the imperial swordsman removed his weapons and stretched out on the bed. “Now, I think I’ll do just as you suggested and get some rest—may I? It is something of a trick to run all the way here from the empire…”
“Very well. I hope you’ll soon feel refreshed. I’ll call you when dinner is ready. And I do hope you’ll be careful…”
“To ensure no one finds out I’m the most powerful, most handsome swordsman in the Volakian Empire? I’ll be on my guard.” Cecils waved a dismissive hand at Julius, who nodded. The young knight had just left the room and was about to close the door behind him when he heard Cecils’s voice again.
“I look forward to spending a few days with you—my dear coconspirator.”
It was as fine an exit as if Cecils were the star of a story, and it needled at Julius’s heart.
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