With an expression devoid of any enthusiasm,
Rakkan
gazed at the flickering lantern light from atop the city wall. Banquets by day, banquets by night—the real festivities were the nighttime affair.
"Wow, looks like so much fun,"
said the junior officer sitting beside him.
The boy had only just come of age, but passing the examination to become a military officer—even as a apprentice—meant he had considerable skill.
Among those who had entered this year, Rakkan thought the boy had potential, something worth—no, someone worth shaping up.
Tonight, Rakkan was staying at the fortress. A certain number of military officers were always kept stationed within the walls. Now that he had risen in rank, there was no particular need to go out and stand watch,
but desk work
didn't suit his temperament either, so here he was, keeping watch with the new recruits.
The formal banquets were held from morning through the afternoon, but after that, one could say the real entertainment awaited in the evening.
Naturally, it was the festival-loving high officials who hosted them. The northern side of the capital was home to an upscale residential district where those officials lived. Several of the larger estates among them seemed to be enjoying themselves without a care for the cost of oil, their lights clearly visible even from atop the city wall.
"Fun, my foot,"
Rakkan had been dragged along to several such banquets by his superiors, but he didn't find them particularly enjoyable. The only ones who had a good time were the handful of officials who could hold their liquor. For a low-ranking officer, that place meant you had to be on your best behavior around the high officials.
Still, Rakkan had it comparatively easy—because of who his host was. Or rather, perhaps it was precisely because of who his host was that it wasn't fun.
The banquet Rakkan had been invited to was hosted by Rakan, a senior figure in the military ministry, a man equally famous for being an eccentric. When you were summoned to that man's home, what awaited you was, of all things, a hidden talent competition.
Thanks to that, Rakkan—who at the time still had sparse facial hair—ended up draped in women's clothing, his face powdered white with rouge applied to his cheeks, forced to dance. His body had been fully developed by then, so it must have been a truly grotesque sight.
However, it was also thanks to that incident that he had attained his current position. Rakkan's father had been a provincial official, which meant he had essentially no backing of any kind for serving as a military officer in the royal capital. While clearly less capable men were commanding him purely on the basis of family connections, that man Rakan had taken one look at one such superior at a banquet and, without hesitation, picked up a brush and recommended he transfer to the civil service.
Rakkan had thought, "What on earth?"—but the superior actually did leave the military ministry the very next day and was now thriving as a civil official, which only deepened his bewilderment.
It was also at Rakan's recommendation that Rakkan himself eventually rose to a commanding officer's position.
The man's thoughts were inscrutable, and his personality was a constant nuisance, but he did have an eye for people, and that had produced results.
In Rakan's case, it had turned out this way, but at any other banquet, it would surely have been a gathering of scheming foxes with hidden agendas on full display.
Foul-smelling business was a pain, but one could never tell where those sparks might ignite.
Come to think of it, Rakkan leaned against the wall and began counting on his fingers.
"First, the warehouse's
small fire
"
According to Maomao, it was an accident, but Li Bai couldn't shake the nagging feeling about it. He still had the ivory smoking pipe he'd borrowed from Maomao back then.
The burn he'd gotten at the time still left a bit of
bald patch
on his head — and that was Li Bai's secret. He swore to himself, for no particular reason, that next time he visited the Rokuyoukan, he was definitely going to have Shiruzu pet him there.
"Next, those guys we ran into at the tavern"
Who were they, anyway?
In the end, the days went by with him none the wiser.
Li Bai had been hung up on that person he'd met that day, but he still couldn't place them.
And one more thing.
"The attempted poisoning of an official"
It had initially been treated as mere food poisoning, so the whole affair had caused quite a stir. The victim was a high-ranking official with ties to the military, and Li Bai had met him before.
Just the other day, the official's younger brother had been thrown into prison. It was a shame that it turned out to be family.
Perhaps because treatment for the poison had come too late, the man had survived but was left a virtual wreck, unable to carry out his duties as before.
He remembered an official handling the same case, tearing his hair out and snapping at his subordinates, "What are we supposed to do about this?" It must have been a matter of considerable importance.
The official's brother had been saying some strange things, Li Bai thought. Claims of being instigated, proclamations of innocence — anyone locked up would pull that. And since the prison was underground beneath military headquarters, Li Bai frequently ran into criminals there.
Few — you could say few. Many — you could say many.
It was something that had been on Li Bai's mind lately.
He prided himself on having a fairly decent intuition, and he was convinced it would continue to serve him well.
And so, without dismissing it as overthinking, a passing remark had brought it all flooding back.
In the end, he figured there was no point dwelling on it.
Li Bai yawned and rolled his neck around. He realized that if he kept this up, he'd end up falling asleep.
"Well then, I'm heading back."
"Aw, you're leaving already? Come on, let's hang out a bit longer."
"Who the hell wants to have fun hanging around with you bastards?"
With that, he was about to head down the stairs toward the nap room.
Just then.
There was a racket — someone was running noisily through the stone-paved corridor.
A man in white official robes was being hauled along while a frantic voice urged him to "hurry up." He was probably a court physician.
"What's going on?"
Li Bai asked, keeping pace alongside them.
The man briefly wore an extremely irritated expression, but once he checked the jade ornament and tassel color at Li Bai's waist, he spoke in a whisper.
"A c-criminal. He collapsed and he's foaming at the mouth."
Saying that, he dragged the stumbling physician down the stairs leading underground.
Li Bai stopped in his tracks and scratched the back of his head with a long sigh.
"He's not foaming at the mouth."
No matter how he thought about it, this smelled like a false alarm.