Volume 6 - CH 1.4

Due to his position of a petty Hiera Glaphicos, Dimitar often utilised the library of the Magic Academy. As it couldn’t be utilised by anyone, it wasn’t very crowded and was quiet; it was just right for investigating this and that and thinking over his speculations.

Even today when he was waiting to depart several days later, Dimitar came to the library.

However, it wasn’t for the purpose of memorising Valeria’s newest “magic crest map”Prano Del Hieratika. That work had been completed already.

「……」

Dimitar, who had been opening the books piled up in the surroundings of the bookrest one after another and reading absolutely every little bit that he could lay his hands on, massaged his eyes from the top of his eyelids and sighed deeply.

「—Oi, Dii」

When he looked back at the voice calling out to him in a moderate volume, Lucius who was wearing his chivalric order uniform was coming this way.

「What’s the matter, Lucius? How unusual」

「I had things to do at Haha-ue’s place a little. And then, when I asked her, she said that you’re at the library, so I stopped by to see you」

Unlike Dimitar whose position had never become more than Valeria’s exclusive Hiera Glaphicos, Lucius was an existence that always attracted attention. It could be said that the vice-leader of the Seal Chivalric OrderTempliers Aegis, who was the only son of the “Witch of Sunlight” and was selected by Isaac at a young age, joining the backbone of Ahmad’s government around the time of Isaac’s accession to the throne was seen as a certainty.

Moreover, if it was a showy handsome young man who was still single and, on the contrary, didn’t even have a lover to whom he had promised his future, it was natural that he’d gather public attention, centring around young women especially. Actually even now, many of the magic warriorsMarefikos who were reading quietly in the library were gazing steadily at Lucius, who had appeared unexpectedly.

Seemingly unaware of such gazes, Lucius brought a chair and sat down beside Dimitar. Dimitar then looked at Lucius with a sidelong glance.

「…Were you not told by the head director not to come here too much?」

「? No, what do you mean?」

「The girls who are aiming to become the next Dominas also go in and out of here often, you know」

Lowering his voice, Dimitar raised his lips.

「…You’re a temptation to those sorts of girls. They’re merely girls who have few opportunities to come into contact with men and are ignorant of the ways of the world, after all」

「Even if you tell me that…」

Lucius looked around his surroundings as if he was troubled. Matching that, the girls who had been watching Lucius the whole time lowered their gazes to the books in their hands hurriedly. Their appearances might be innocent from a third person’s point of view, but without a doubt, the people themselves would most likely have distressed feelings for a while.

Clearing his throat slightly, Lucius spoke. 

「…More importantly, what are you investigating? You’re departing the day after tomorrow because of a mission again, right?」

「Have you… heard of “Uruhaimato” before?」

「Uruhaimato?」

「Yes」

The Yururogu officer—Cyril Duevre, whom Dimitar had confronted in the Battle of Delbrück, had certainly said that.

「To what extent is that true, I don’t know. …However, when I questioned those guys closely about the origin of the “Magic Motion Sword”Espada Marefika that they were using, that man called Cyril said so. It seems that those guys’ swords were given by a certain woman, but that woman came from a place called Uruhaimato」

「Uruhaimato… no, it’s a place name that I’ve never heard of, but have you been investigating that the whole time?」

「It might be words spoken without much thought from his mouth to confuse me, but I think perhaps that woman might be Nereida」

「Certainly, strange guys have been operating behind the scenes here and there recently」

Starting from Hokon’s rebellion in Seriba, then Dante Valiente from Villanova, and then the internal discord of Heidelauta and Yururogu—even just the matters that Dimitar and Valeria were involved in, this much was related to magic motion swords.

And then, the origin of the magic motion swords wasn’t clear in all those cases.

「That’s right… I’ll try investigating a little as well」

「You really helped me」

「By the way」

Lucius’s expression, which was serious until then, suddenly broke into a smile, and he patted Dimitar on the shoulder.

「—I heard from Haha-ue, but it seems that Valeria-jou wants to borrow Thial for the royal visit this time, but was that your suggestion?」

「I guess so」

「You also know that Thial is the heart and soul of the maids of my house, right? To intentionally bring that Thial along, you have some motive, right?」

「Thial understands the language on the other side of the mountain, right?」

「…So that’s the reason」

As if he was fully satisfied, Lucius nodded greatly.

When Dimitar started to be taken care of by Orvieto, Thial Krkic was in that mansion already. Dimitar was still four or five at that time, so Thial who was three years older should still have been seven, eight years old, but even now, he remembered that she had blended in with the older maids and had been working since that time.

Dimitar didn’t know due to what circumstances that Thial had to be in Orvieto’s mansion from such an age because he had never heard the detailed story, but judging from the colours of her skin and hair, it was evident that she was born descending from the southern people, and as a matter of fact, Thial could understand Bigelow’s language.

「Caravans of the southern people from the other side of the mountain range often come to Romarikku. Thial might be of some use. —However」

「However?」

Looking at Lucius who had said a conjunction with hidden meaning, Dimitar knitted his brows.

「—You’re unable to get along with Thial at all」

「That’s not my fault in particular. If I had to say, it’s probably yours」

「Mine?」

「…Are you feigning ignorance? Or do you not seriously know?」

Dimitar pressed his temple with a fed-up expression and averted his gaze from his childhood friend, who was staring in puzzlement. The flaw of honour student Lucius who was perfect in everything, which could practically be said to be the one and only, was that he was insensitive towards the affection from women that was directed to himself, to the extent of being heartless.

In short, Thial liked Lucius.

That was precisely why she wasn’t pleased with Lucius being concerned about Dimitar in various ways. This was what was called jealousy.

Perhaps there was that as well, when Dimitar was staying at Orvieto’s house, he was often scolded by Thial because of his manners and way of living. Dimitar himself didn’t think he was undisciplined to that extent though; after all, it was Lucius whom Thial was using as the standard. The other party whom he was compared with was bad.

「—Well, thanks to that, I could manage most of the housework by myself after I started living alone. Aren’t you receiving my portion of scolding from Thial now after I left?」

「It’s not to the extent of scolding—」

「I hit the mark, right?」

Dimitar poked Lucius, who had smiled wryly, in the shoulder and started to put the books away.

「—Setting jokes aside, take more than ample care going there, all right?」

「Yes」

When Dimitar finished returning the books he had taken out in large quantities to the bookshelves, Lucius’s figure wasn’t there already, and the other readers were also regaining their usual calmness.

Dimitar, who had left the library, headed towards the parade ground of the army without going back to the lodging house directly.

Having obtained a sponsor that was the Crown Prince, Quique Albiol’s new workshop was being built in a corner of the parade ground. He was called by that Quique regarding the journey to Romarikku this time.

「—Hey, middle-aged man」

「Oh, you’ve come」

Quique, who had been watching the foundation works of the new workshop being carried out from the shade of a tree, waved his kiseru at Dimitar who had arrived.

「It seems that it’ll be quite wide」

Stones serving as the foundation were being lined up on the ground, which had been firmly tamped down. He didn’t know how many storeys it’d be, but even if it was a single-storey house, it’d be far bigger than the previous workshop.

「It seems that it’ll become quite a huge workshop」

「Right? Neither the First Arsenal nor the Second Arsenal are this huge. I hope that I won’t feel uncomfortable because it’s too huge」

The First Arsenal mainly carried out production of weapons and defensive armaments, and the Second Arsenal carried out production of horse gears and arms. It wasn’t wrong to think of both as large-scale forges. The number of working engineers and blacksmiths would surely add up to dozens of people.

「In the first place, calling that workshop which is used by only you and Gacha Pink the Third Arsenal itself is strange」

「I’ll tell you in advance, but that wasn’t named by me, you know? Originally, my workshop was established with the development of new alloys as its objective, but somehow a name like that was necessary to provide it a budget, and because of that, it was treated as the third arsenal」

「It’s because of that that you have an impressive job title like chief engineerMaestro too, huh. …That won’t change after this, will it?」

「Well… who knows. The minor details haven’t been decided, but it probably can’t be an internal department of the army as it is」

In the present situation, the one who was taking the strongest interest in Quique’s research was Isaac; Minister for Finance Caparros-kyou and Orvieto from the Magic Academy came after that. On the other hand, Minister for Military Affairs Garrido-kyou was sceptical about the thing called magic motion sword even now—or rather, he was finally starting to acknowledge its usefulness.

Therefore, Quique’s research would be spearheaded by the Seal Chivalric Order and the Ministry of Finance from now on; moreover, it’d probably be sped up under the assistance from the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Royal Magic Academy. If that happened, it’d be difficult to keep Quique’s workshop established as a lower branch of the army as it was.

「—The location is rented on this parade ground like it has been until now, but on the organisation chart, is it an independent research institute; otherwise it’ll become a research institution under the direct control of the Crown Prince, won’t it? Well, that sort of slightly difficult matter is inconsequential though」

Quique murmured as if it was other people’s affairs and smoked his kiseru. What was important to this eccentric was the fact that an environment where he could conduct the research, which he wanted to do, as he liked was being prepared; he was hardly interested in which organisation he belonged to and whose subordinate he’d become.

Staring at the carpenters who were working, seemingly busy, Dimitar sighed.

「…Nevertheless, that’s exaggerated」

「Don’t say that. His Highness wishes for it」

「His Highness?」

「Yes. Since Dante Valiente privately built a workshop to that extent behind closed doors, he won’t tolerate it if the workshop that he himself took the lead to have it built is more seedy-looking than that. …Well, even if we set the talk of such honour aside, considering the possibility of the basic technology of the magic motion sword is being leaked to other countries, it’s necessary to adopt a system for full-scale mass production as soon as possible」

「So that means that a forge will also be prepared?」

「Yes. Until now, whenever there’s something, I’ll take the products to Courtois-jiisan’s blacksmith shop and get him to process them, but from now on, the entire process can be carried out here. I intend to get Jii-san to work here too」

If it had been clearly decided that his research would be sped up as a national policy, it wouldn’t be like the time when Quique could personally advance his research any more. As all the things Quique dealt with would become no different from state secrets, the entire work process had to be strictly managed. There was no way he could take a secret into the blacksmith shop of an acquaintance and let them make a little bit of changes to it.

「—So, have the fixed date been decided for you?」

「We’re departing the day after tomorrow」

「I see. Though being Her Eminence’s guard is difficult in various ways, I’m counting on you for my mission too」

「I know. No matter how huge a workshop we build, it’s meaningless unless we can secure the essential material, after all」

Putting his hand on the base of his neck and making it produce a “koki koki” sound, Dimitar sighed, which was unlike a young man.

At that moment, Bettina, who had been keeping the queen company in the royal palace, came back.

「Oji-sama, I’ve returned~♪ —Ah, what, Dimi-san is here too」

「Yes. …Have you heard about the journey to Romarikku?」

「Of course」

Bettina smartly polished the relief of the rose carved on her stomach with the soft cloth in her hand and spoke proudly in some respects.

「—Even at Valeria-sama’s parade a few days ago, this me had grasped the reins of her carriage. The driver’s seat of Valeria-sama’s carriage is already no different from my special seat!」

Due to the size of Bachururus, she couldn’t get into the cabinet of the carriage unless she broke the door, so if they let her accompany them, she could only sit on the driver’s seat. As a matter of fact, it was because of such a simple reason that the opportunities for Bettina to take the reins had been increasing recently, but there was probably no need to thrust the realistic truth at the girl and spoil her motivation. Dimitar gave his responses suitably and interrupted Bettina, who was about to report the contents of her talk with the queen today in detail.

「—It’s a royal visit to a region this time. Since it also contains the meaning of a guard, bring Rucheruku」

「Ah, yes. …Or rather, Dimi-san, did you go out of your way to come to tell me that?」

「I was simply free」

Stifling a big yawn, Dimitar greeted Quique and Bettina in a perfunctory manner and left.