Volume 5 - CH 3.03

Quique, who was born in the old town where his parents’ house was and was renting and living in a house in the old town even now, seldom headed towards the new town. That was because Quique was a workaholic, and as the place where he worked was the third arsenal behind the royal palace—a small workshop with an exaggerated name—, his life was fundamentally completed just inside the old town. Speaking of just these days alone, one could say that Bettina, who had started to work as Valeria’s attendant, had a much wider area of activity.

Such Quique waited for dusk and then went out to the new town. He told Bettina that he was going to the place of blacksmith Courtois-jiisan, who was always helping him with his work. Bettina most likely didn’t doubt those words of his. When he thought of that, his heart hurt a little.

「—」

Stopped by the hustle and bustle which was filled with the smell of alcohol, Quique looked up at a signboard with a design of grapes and ivies intertwining with a tankard. “TANKARD” was engraved on the signboard, which was exposed to wind and rain and had started to get blurred.

Tankard obviously represented a bar, and grapes and ivies meant that there were wine and ale respectively. Recently, Quique had been staying at home completely, but when he was a student, he’d frequent bars here and there together with his friends, so he knew that much.

「TANKARD… here, huh」

Hearty laughter of men and the smell of appetising food leaked out from inside the store. Due to the nature of the locality, bachelors from the neighbourhood would gather after work to search for meal and sake.

When Quique pushed open the creaking door and entered the store, he didn’t head towards an empty seat at a table but the innermost counter seat.

「Which one do you want?」

The storekeeper, who was at the inner part of the counter, suddenly urged Quique, who had sat down, to choose one of the two choices.

「Ah… let’s see」

For a moment, Quique didn’t understand what the storekeeper meant, but he immediately realised that the storekeeper was asking him what he wanted to drink. Wine or ale, it could only be one of those. For bars in this area, one could say that simply having options was still better.

「Then, ale and ham」

Quique, who had ordered a minimum of sake and snack, looked around the store interior again.

The store was about seventy percent full, and all the customers were men. Although there were only guys who seemed to be really rude, everyone’s drunk appearances were cheerful, and they didn’t have gloomy appearances. At the very least, it didn’t seem to be a store that served sake with a lot of adulterants and made excessive profits.

「Ah… is Dimitar here?」

「…Dimitar?」

A deep wrinkle was suddenly carved on the brow of the storekeeper, who seemed to be a few years older than Quique, and he glared at Quique. It was precisely because he had been doing a business where he dealt with drunkards every day that his expression had quite an intensity. Perhaps trained from carrying wine barrels, even his arms which extended from the short sleeves were so thick that they couldn’t possibly be compared with Quique’s. If it became a brawl, Quique probably had no chance of winning.

Although Quique almost spouted the ale instinctively, he hurriedly shook his head.

「I, I’m not a suspicious person in particular. I heard that he’s lodging here… I work in a workshop of the army—」

「That white robe… you’re that “eccentric”, huh」

His brow furrowed as it was, the storekeeper’s stiff expression finally became a smiling face.

「I heard from that brat. —I was told that you’re an eccentric who conducts a slightly difficult research in a workshop」

「Well, it’s not far off the mark to say that I’m an eccentric though…」

It seemed that Dimitar had been calling Quique an eccentric even in other places. Quique didn’t particularly get angry at that. That contrary boy having a sharp tongue was nothing new.

「—If it’s Dimi-san, he’s not here」

Perhaps she had overheard the conversational exchange of Quique and the storekeeper, a girl, who was carrying a big tray in her arms and running around between drunken people, stopped her feet and interrupted.

「She’s the drawing card of this store. Greet him, Mercier」

「I’m Mercier. Dimi-san is always being taken care of by you」

The girl Mercier, who wasn’t good at speaking her lines smoothly, was unexpectedly polite. Looking down at the hair whorl of Mercier who had bowed, Quique absent-mindedly thought that sharp-tongued boy was the type that little girls unexpectedly seemed to become attached to.

「If it’s Dimi-san, he said that he’ll be at work for a while and won’t be coming back」

「Work?」

「Isn’t it Oji-san’s work?」

「Even if you called it work…」

Dimitar’s job was a Hiera Glaphicos. Otherwise, it was the one called “Special Duty Inspector” or something; in any case, it was something that was ordered by the Magic Academy or the king to make a move. Dimitar helping Quique with his research—though there was the recommendation of “Dominas of Eternity”Domina Permanence, Shakira Babel, at the beginning—wasn’t his official job. He was simply just helping when he was free, and if one had to say the order of precedence, it went without saying that his work of a Hiera Glaphicos came first.

「I see… he left the capital because of work, huh」

Hearing that Dimitar wasn’t here, Quique who had returned to reality just a little because of that gulped down the ale and sighed greatly.

「Is it an important business?」

When the storekeeper asked, Quique shook his head with a wry smile.

「I don’t know how he explained to you, but my work is something like an extra. —And on top of that, he has never properly explain to you what kind of work he’s officially doing, right?」

「He’s not a fellow who talks so much, after all… even when he’s eating his meals here, he keeps silent the whole time and seems to be listening attentively to the conversations of the guys in his surroundings」

Polishing the tankard he had just washed, the storekeeper shrugged his shoulders.

「He’s strangely matured though he’s a kid, or perhaps I should say, he takes a cynical attitude… well, when I thought about the kid living by himself, it might be that he always have to put himself on guard so that he won’t be taken advantage of by wicked people…」

「I don’t think that’s the case」

Quique bit a savoury ham clipping and sighed.

Dimitar taking a cynical attitude was simply because his personality was like that. Compared with the swindlers and petty scoundrels around there, Dimitar was much more wicked. In the first place, Dimitar wasn’t a boy with no relatives; although he properly had a backer, which was the House of Richternach, he was just continuing to live alone in the downtown area of his own accord.

However, it seemed that Dimitar didn’t disclose such circumstances to the parent and child of this bar at all. He probably thought they wouldn’t be able to associate with him naturally if he told them that he was a person from the House of Richternach, or that he was the exclusive Hiera Glaphicos of a Dominas.

Therefore, Quique also thought there was no need to say anything unnecessary from his own mouth.

「…I’ve gone on a fool’s errand if he’s not here」

Quique, who had just eaten up the ham and drank up the ale, stood up immediately.

「If you like, how about putting it on the brat’s tab? Why don’t you stay longer a bit more, Master?」

「Don’t call me “Master”」

Quique scratched his hair, which had grown untidily, and put the coin he had taken out from the pocket of his white robe on the counter.

「…There’s something I want to ask of Dimitar a little, but if I arbitrarily drink sake on his tab, it’ll be difficult to ask him afterwards. I’ll leave for today」

「Is that so? Do come when you’re free again next time」

「I’ll do so」

Quique waved his hand lightly, tipped the girl called Mercier one copper coin while he was at it and then left TANKARD.

「Dimitar boy is at work, huh…」

Stopping in the noise reeking of male body odour, Quique looked up at the night sky. Perhaps the stone pavement was releasing the heat it had absorbed during the day now, he felt that air was rising up from under his feet as if steaming him even though there was a night wind.

「However… Bettina didn’t receive any message」

Dimitar was Valeria’s exclusive Hiera Glaphicos; that was to say, him leaving the capital because of work meant that Valeria had also left the capital because of some kind of mission.

However, Bettina who should accompany Valeria as her attendant when she’d similarly leave the royal capital because of a mission was at home. That meant that it was an individual mission of Dimitar, or it was some special mission from which Bettina was omitted—.

In any case, it was pointless to think about this and that since Dimitar wasn’t returning to the lodging house.

Bettina was looking after the house by herself at home. Thinking of buying something delicious as a present and then going back before it got too late, Quique held the kiseru in his mouth and started to walk.