“This doesn’t make any sense!”
Viscount Tomrein couldn’t hide his reddened face as he raised his voice.
He didn’t want to behave this way toward none other than the Hero of humanity if he could avoid it. That’s why he had been enduring and accommodating the Hero’s somewhat inconsiderate behavior, but this was going too far.
“I told you, I’m not feeling well.”
Despite Viscount Tomrein’s expression, the Hero Arthur remained composed.
Viscount Tomrein was already in a foul mood. Despite being visited by someone much older than himself, Arthur hadn’t even bothered to rise from his couch. Still, because the other party was the Hero, he suppressed his discomfort.
However, his patience was for naught, and as their conversation continued, Viscount Tomrein’s face grew increasingly red beyond its initial discomfort.
“When I asked last week, you said it would definitely be possible! So many people have entered the tournament to see you, and others have come to watch!”
“I didn’t know my condition would suddenly worsen. It’s not like I want this to happen.”
Arthur’s expression was shameless as he claimed to be ill while looking perfectly fine.
How did it come to this?
A tournament had been heavily promoted to be held next week, with the grand prize being a friendly match with the hero himself, but now the protagonist, Arthur, had declared he wouldn’t participate due to poor health.
The main attraction of the promotion was the hero’s participation, and if the hero didn’t show up…
He couldn’t imagine how to deal with the aftermath. Viscount Tomrein’s vision blurred.
What angered him even more was Arthur’s brazen attitude, even if he truly wasn’t feeling well.
Despite causing so much trouble, he didn’t even offer a single word of apology.
But the other party was the Hero whose status reached the heavens. He had even received a title.
There was a faint voice in his mind saying that even if the Hero was being difficult, there was nothing he could really do about it.
In the end, Viscount Tomrein, his face alternating between red and blue, couldn’t strongly rebuke Arthur and left. He needed to move quickly to salvage the situation now.
After Viscount Tomrein left, Arthur, who had been so relaxed, leaned back on the couch, his expression slightly hardening.
“Hmm.”
He never intended to participate in the tournament from the beginning.
He had initially accepted because they asked repeatedly and he had no good reason to refuse, planning to use an injury as an excuse later, but the matter had grown larger than expected.
Apparently, tourism in the Empire had increased with people hoping to see the famous Hero.
Arthur objectively knew his own abilities. Thanks to his adventuring days, he was quite skilled, but fell short of deserving the title of world-saving Hero.
His skills couldn’t even touch the tip of Augustine’s abilities, let alone Ketron’s.
To continue his charade as a Hero, he needed to play a long game, but he couldn’t sustain it this way.
If skill wasn’t enough, he had to use other means.
He didn’t stage this massive fraud just to be satisfied with a mere Count title, after all.
Perhaps he should have a fake holy sword made, claiming it was the one he lost.
Having often looked enviously at Ketron’s sword and secretly handled it, he knew its shape better than anyone.
If he asked Boram, she could probably make a convincing one…
While thinking this, he heard someone knocking on the door.
They won’t even give me time to think.
Irritably messing up his hair, Arthur said, “Come in.”
The person who opened the door immediately was someone Arthur could never have imagined.
“…! Marquis Rivalt.”
“Ah, stay seated.”
A black-haired man entered Arthur’s room with a friendly smile.
He gestured for Arthur to remain seated, but of course that wasn’t possible. Arthur rose with a tense expression.
This wasn’t a small fry like Viscount Tomrein. This was none other than the man called the Emperor’s right hand, who led the imperial faction of nobles and served as the court magician.
Arthur Fontaine, merely one of the Empire’s subjects—a newly ennobled count, despite being the Hero—was in no position to disrespectfully treat a man who had the authority to use the imperial seal as the Emperor’s proxy in emergencies.
“I heard you were ill.”
Though he had a naturally cold appearance, his constant smile masked it well. His blue eyes curved pleasantly as he looked Arthur over.
Though nothing of the sort had been said, those words felt like they were piercing Arthur with the question: “Are you really sick?”
“Ah, y-yes. It doesn’t show on the outside… but I think the tournament might be difficult.”
“I can heal most ailments, you know?”
“Ah, it’s not an external wound.”
Even to his own ears, it sounded like an excuse. Though he had pulled off a massive fraud deceiving the entire world, Arthur wasn’t yet accustomed to personally facing such figures. After all, it was usually Ketron or Augustine who stepped forward in such situations.
“Hmm.”
The blue eyes, whose thoughts were inscrutable, looked Arthur up and down, and then he smirked. A hand came to rest on Arthur’s shoulder.
“We have high expectations of you.”
Though there was no force in the hand patting his shoulder, somehow Arthur wanted to sink to the floor immediately.
While patting the awkwardly standing Arthur’s shoulder, Marquis Rivalt suddenly said as if just remembering,
“Ah, right. I know you’re busy, but he said he wanted to see you.”
These were the words of someone who surely knew that despite being supposedly “busy,” Arthur rarely left his quarters in the imperial palace. Arthur’s face tensed up.
“Who?”
Arthur cut himself off and closed his mouth. Who else could it be? Who would the Marquis Rivalt refer to with honorifics while delivering a message?
Sure enough, Marquis Rivalt added with a smile,
“His Majesty the Emperor Licrius.”
At the news that the Emperor was looking for him, Arthur’s face turned deathly pale.
* * *
“Hello! I’m Sebastian!”
Sebastian shouted in a loud voice. It was because the heart of this newly employed rookie was filled with expectations.
“What? You got a job?”
Sebastian’s mother didn’t look particularly happy at the news of his employment.
Rather, she looked dubious, as if wondering whether it was really okay to send her son to a workplace.
“Oh, Mom! How can you make that face?”
Of course, Sebastian made it abundantly clear how hurt he felt.
“It’s what you deserve, you rascal. You’re not working somewhere suspicious, are you?”
“It’s not suspicious! It’s Eddie’s Inn, the one in the central square!”
“Ah, that inn.”
Fortunately, Sebastian’s mother seemed to know about the inn that had recently gained a strange sort of fame. She tilted her head.
She seemed satisfied that her son wasn’t working somewhere suspicious or dangerous, but there seemed to be one thing she found unfortunate as she clicked her tongue.
“I heard rumors that suspiciously handsome men work there.”
“…”
“I guess that rumor will disappear soon.”
Her voice was genuinely regretful.
What’s wrong with me!
Sebastian felt indignant, but the conscience buried deep within him asserted itself, preventing him from protesting.
And today, he was finally starting his first day at work. Setting aside the wounds inflicted by his mother, he made his first proud appearance at work.
“Nice to meet you.”
The inn owner Eddie looked the same as on the interview day. The still-dazzling man greeted Sebastian with a smile and offered his hand. Sebastian took it. The inside of the hand he grasped was quite soft.
Hmm, how can a hand be this silky smooth? I guess the rumor about him being a noble young master is true. Come to think of it, his pronunciation is also aristocratic.
Unaware of Sebastian’s inner thoughts, Eddie introduced the man behind him with a smile.
“We have another rookie here.”
Eddie said this while lightly holding the man’s hand. Unlike the pale Eddie, it was a large, firm hand. If he wanted, he could easily break free from Eddie’s grasp, but of course, the man didn’t.
“This is Ketron.”
He was a stern-looking man. He didn’t say anything special, but due to the unique intimidating presence that emanated from him even while standing still, Sebastian couldn’t look directly at him. In his life, he had never met someone like Eddie before, but he had also never met someone like Ketron.
Eddie continued his explanation without paying attention to Sebastian’s reaction.
“Ket is someone who helps me, so you’ll learn the overall work from Gerold here.”
“Ah, yes!”
Finally, Sebastian’s gaze turned to the man called Gerold.
A man with a cold impression. With black hair and strikingly blue eyes, this handsome man seemed taciturn in a different way from the man called Ketron or whatever.
…So, I’m supposed to learn from him? Under this person?