"Raising a ruckus is one thing, but do try to stop yourselves from breaking things."
"I'm so sorry…"
"Grandpa, I'm sorry."
The two who had rampaged through the dining hall had caused two chairs and one table in damages. Since the chairs were beyond repair, they were taken apart to be used as firewood, but the table had only lost one leg, so it was sent off to be repaired.
"Lord Merlin, please don't hesitate to place a new order for chairs. I'll report the cost to Lady Maria and have it deducted from Chris's salary."
"There's no need to go that far. There should be spare chairs in one of the empty rooms somewhere—just bring those over."
We kept quite a few spare chairs and tables on hand for when the people of Kukuri Village came to visit, so one or two replacement chairs could be produced at a moment's notice. Incidentally, whenever acquaintances gathered at our place, a feast broke out almost immediately, so damaged furniture wasn't exactly uncommon and we were quite used to it. If anything, the person who broke the most things in the house was Grandpa himself—dementia episodes included—so we couldn't exactly come down too hard on Chris. On top of that, I myself had only recently destroyed the staircase banister with a Golem, so a few chairs didn't really seem like a big deal. As for Aura, she hadn't even gotten around to breaking anything before being struck by the first wave of Chris's fury and knocked flat, so she hadn't been scolded nearly as much as the other two.
"So, Chris, how long are you on break for?"
I figured that if she didn't have any time off for the next one or two months, then there was no way she'd only get a single day of rest, so I asked—and:
"I was given three days off, so I was hoping to impose on you for that time… Would that be too much to ask?"
"Hmm, I refuse!"
"Well, three days should be fine, I suppose… But following from that, wouldn't the King—or even if Lady Maria stopped him—wouldn't Lord Lyle or Lord Ernest end up showing up?"
"Lord Tenma, I doubt that would… happen, but just in case, I'll report it to Lady Maria, so please rest assured."
As far as I was concerned, they were welcome to come visit, but given the current political situation, having the Minister of Military Affairs or His Grace the Duke show up could become a problem—and Aina promised to put a stop to it through Lady Maria.
"Well then, since I've got Tenma's permission too, I'll go ahead and take a bath. Amour, Aura, the two of you broke a sweat as well, so come along."
For some reason, Chris was issuing orders to our maid and our freeloader, trying to herd them off to the bath… It had been a normal sight until recently, so Grandpa and I let it slide without a second thought—but Aina planted herself squarely in front of the three of them as they headed for the bathhouse.
"Before all three of you get in the bath and wash off, how about we clean up the dining hall first? Even if you wash off your sweat in the tub, it'll be pointless if you get dirty again right after… Right?"
And so I ended up heading back up to the second floor where Primera and the others were—this time with Grandpa and Slarin's lot in tow.
"So, Chris, how are things at the Royal Castle right now?"
"Hmm? Hmmmm… well, I don't think there'll be any issues as long as Tenma's around. The Reformist Faction currently stationed at the Royal Castle hasn't made any noticeable moves. The upper echelons of the castle's officials are mostly controlled by the Royalist Faction, so it'd be hard to topple them easily. On top of that, the knights—including the Royal Guard—are almost entirely under their grip, so the chances of a sudden internal coup are extremely slim. That said, their oversight thins out the further down you go, so we can't afford to be overly optimistic."
It had been quite a while since we fled to the second floor—so long that not only had the dining hall cleanup been skipped, but Chris and the others had already finished their baths, as Aina came to inform us. So we all gathered in the dining hall.
Chris and the others were lounging about in a relaxed post-bath stupor, but the moment we walked in, they straightened up immediately. More than seeing Grandpa or me, I imagine it was Aina looming behind us that scared them straight.
The question had been asked at just the right moment. After thinking for a moment, Chris laid out the current situation for us. The information seemed to be of considerably high classification, but since Aina said nothing, it was possible she'd intended to relay it to me herself had Chris not spoken up.
"Have we not received any information on the Housest Borderland beyond what Albert and Cain already have?"
"That's what I'd assume. I mean, it's possible I simply haven't been informed, but if things were really that dire, Lion would've already come running to you, Tenma. Besides, if anything were to happen, the captain's take is that it'd be around the time the snow thaws. So the message is probably to enjoy the vacation while we can… Dammit!"
Chris was fired up, grumbling: "When I get back, I'm going to work them to the bone! And yet they only gave me three days off—isn't that just cruel?"
"Chris, it is what it is—it's the job. In the meantime, I'll keep Shiromaru and the others company for you."
If only he'd left it at that. But Amur teased Chris while she was already wound up like that, and her mood started to turn dangerous again… though before that happened, Aina stepped in to restrain Chris, and Grandpa scolded Amur, so things settled down.
"Come to think of it, Tenma, if you happen to have any spare swords, could you let me have about three? Of course, I'll pay for them."
It was an unusual request from Chris, but since the Otori household had gathered a large stockpile of weaponry from the territories where the Reformists resided, I agreed to sell them at a steep discount.
"But still, why go out of your way to get yours from us? Someone like you could get quality, reliable gear through the Knights, couldn't you?"
"Chris must be thinking that if she asks Tenma, she can get them cheaper than through the Knights, and then use the difference to cook up something no good!"
"The weapons coming into the Royal Capital lately have dropped in both quantity and quality. The ones issued by the Knights for missions are still decent, but once you're trying to get something for personal use, it's hard to find anything good. And it's expensive, too."
I led Chris toward the room where we kept the bags of weapons, and Amur trailed after us, shouting teasing remarks. Chris, naturally, ignored him.
The shortage of weapons was largely tied to the war in the Borderland and, secondly, to the Reformist nobles restricting the export of arms and materials from their own territories. So it seemed she'd come to me—a commoner who happened to own a large number of weapons, could likely sell them cheap, and was easy to negotiate with—to borrow some swords.
"Well, I did collect several hundred swords not too long ago, so three wouldn't be a problem… but even as spares, do you really need that many?"
"Tenma, Chris is definitely going to buy them cheap from you and then resell them to someone else at a huge markup!"
"As for my share, I just need two swords in a different size for backups. The third one is for Jean. He usually uses a greatsword, but those are even harder to come by than regular swords these days, so he asked me to let him know if I spot one in town."
Once again, Chris ignored Amur and explained the reason for needing three swords. For the record, I told Chris I'd "collected several hundred swords," but in truth, I'd easily gathered closer to a thousand. That wasn't an attempt to deceive Chris—what I meant was that there were "several hundred swords currently usable." When we withdrew from the Reformists' territory, I'd left behind anything that was obviously poor quality or unusable, but even among what we'd kept, some pieces looked fine at first glance but were actually useless.
So, if none of the several hundred swords whose quality I could guarantee caught Chris's eye, it might be worth showing her the rest of the collection as well. That way, if we happened to spot any duds in the process, I could reject them on the spot and save myself some trouble.
"Chris, if that's the case, you should have Jean pick out his own greatsword."
"Hmm... that might be true. I think I have a rough idea of which swords would suit Jean, but only he would know the finer details. So here's what I'd like to do, Tenma — I'll narrow down the greatswords to just candidates, and then have him make the final choice himself. Would it be all right to call him over later?"
It wouldn't be a problem to summon Jean even at night, but wouldn't he have his own things to attend to...? As it turned out, Jean had been granted leave at the same time as Chris. So today, Jean was apparently busy indulging in some much-needed family time.
"Tenma, I'll be taking these two. Also, I picked out three candidates for Jean's greatsword, but I might end up taking all of them."
After that, Chris selected one sword from the ones I could vouch for and another from the unverified pile, then paid thirty thousand gold for the pair. That worked out to fifteen thousand gold apiece. They were secondhand but in excellent condition, so thirty thousand was actually below market value — yet even so, Chris was getting an incredible deal. The first sword she'd chosen was made of magisteel, which alone would normally set you back nearly thirty thousand gold. But the other sword was an even bigger find. Honestly, I couldn't believe I'd let it slip past me — there were gems like that mixed in with the rest.
The second sword Chris had chosen was a mithril blade. It was on the short side, with a cutting edge of only about forty centimeters, but the hilt was crafted entirely from mithril as well, making it absolutely not the kind of thing you could buy for fifteen thousand gold.
When Chris found this mithril sword and brought it over,
"Chris, if you want that sword, you should have at least fifty thousand gold ready."
...was the kind of thing Amur said. Well, we'd already settled the prices before the selection, and missing the mithril sword was entirely my own fault, so I handed over the two originally agreed-upon swords for thirty thousand gold as planned... but it still stung a little, given how good the finds were. The reason I'd missed it was probably that the mithril sword was slightly short and got buried among the surrounding blades, and since everything had been gathered together somewhat haphazardly on my behalf, I'd completely let my guard down.
"As it stands, this sword would end up chipped and stained and unusable, so you really should leave it with Kelly for some maintenance!"
Chris was in high spirits, testing the grip of the mithril sword. Seeing this, Amur started claiming there might be more buried treasures yet to be found and began examining the swords that still hadn't been sorted. So when I casually asked him to help with some of the sorting as well, Amur had initially seemed reluctant, but the moment I told him I'd give him a sword of his choice depending on how many he sorted, he eagerly took on the job.
"Well then, Tenma. I'm going to take this sword over to Kelly, so I'll be borrowing Shiromaru. While I'm at it, I'll swing by and tell Jean about the greatswords."
I wondered why Shiromaru had suddenly come into the picture, but it turned out she planned to take him for a walk while she was at it. I wasn't sure about walking a tamed Monster through town without a leash, but as far as I knew there were no clear laws on the matter, and as long as it was a tamed Monster that didn't cause any trouble, it wouldn't be seized. So I decided to let Shiromaru go if that was what she wanted. Of course, if Chris was the one handling him and Shiromaru did cause a problem, that would ultimately become my responsibility.
That evening, Jean came by the estate after hearing the news from Chris. Since I'd heard from Chris that today was Jean's family day, I'd expected him not to show up until nightfall, but apparently he'd managed to free up enough time before dinner. I didn't know exactly when Jean typically ate, but whether he headed home now or later, he was either going to keep his wife and daughter waiting a long while, or risk there being no dinner left for him.
Perhaps he was well aware of that, because Jean hurried through looking at the greatswords and ultimately selected two from among the candidates Chris had identified. It seemed even he recognized that three would be overkill. As it happened, one of the two was a gift from Chris, so for the remaining sword I received ten thousand gold.
That was an even bigger bargain than what Chris had paid, but it made sense since this sword needed more maintenance than hers had. On top of that, as a bonus, he got homemade sweets and a carriage ride home courtesy of Raiden. Without that, Jean would definitely be in trouble with his wife and daughter. Even though he'd hurried, he'd still taken the time to properly test the grip and balance, so it had ended up taking longer than even he had expected.
"I hope Jean doesn't get chewed out by his wife... though he probably will."
After seeing Jean off and finishing a slightly late dinner, I was relaxing when Chris murmured those words. His wife had been all smiles on the surface when I'd delivered Jean back, but he'd come home late — and on top of that, the whole thing had started because he'd snuck out on what was supposed to be family day to come see me. It wouldn't be at all surprising if she'd let him have it after I left.
"Well, I'm sure it'll work out. At the end of the day, Jean and his wife have a wonderful relationship!"
Chris ended the conversation in a tone that seemed aimed at convincing himself. Probably because it was Chris who had brokered the deal so Jean could buy the greatsword, he was worried his wife would be angry with him.
"But Chris, don't go spreading the word that you can buy weapons from me, okay? It's fine with people like Edgar and such, but it's a hassle if strangers show up."
The fact that I'm on good terms with the royal family is common knowledge among nobles and those connected to the castle, so I don't think I'll be pestered incessantly. But in Chris's case, he'd probably brag to colleagues about the mithril sword he'd luckily acquired, and from there, word would spread to their acquaintances... and somewhere along the line, it might turn into the mistaken information that I sell weapons to anyone through personal connections. I had to make sure he understood clearly.
"You understand... right?"
"Tenma, it's too late."
He'd apparently already bragged to at least one acquaintance.
When I pressed Chris for details a bit, he admitted that on his way to Kelly's workshop, he'd run into a colleague on a date and, caught up in the moment, ended up bragging about his mithril sword.
The other person wasn't in the Royal Guard but was one of his closer colleagues from the academy, and he said it was fine because she knew various things about the Ootori household. Still, while I knew about Chris's colleague, I had no information whatsoever about her boyfriend, which worried me a little.
Sending Aina a look filled with that concern, she nodded quietly. By tomorrow or the day after, she'd have investigated that boyfriend thoroughly and would handle the situation if anything arose.
"Because of Chris, an innocent couple might break up..."
"Birth of the Couple Crusher Chris!"
Aura and Amour, who had noticed the exchange between Aina and me, were teasing Chris, already convinced his colleague's relationship was over.
Chris was glaring at them, but he was in the wrong this time, and Aina was also giving them a sharp look, so he didn't push the issue.
"Anyway, just be careful from now on, alright? As long as it's harmless, the Ootori household won't do anything to Chris's acquaintances or make them do anything, so you can relax about that. And you two, ease up on the teasing a bit."
It was pitiful for them to come visit just to build up stress and go home, and even if they had the upper hand now, it could flip at any time with Amour and Aura. If that happened, setting Amour aside, Aura would be in for a rough time... in the literal sense. Besides, if the Ootori household stated their position clearly, Chris would feel more at ease, and the Moor twins wouldn't tease him about it any further... they wouldn't go too far, at least.
And so, the day passed without incident. But the next day, as if forgetting all that, the three of them made a commotion—the first in a while—and Chris's vacation came to an end.
Incidentally, I later learned through Aina that, just as Chris had feared, Jean had been quite angry that day after I left. Even though he was supposed to be on vacation, he reportedly showed up with a tired expression. As for Chris's colleague's boyfriend, he was a knight serving in the Royal Capital, so the investigation was quick and it was soon determined there was no problem. Moreover, on that matter, Chris's colleague had apparently talked some sense into her boyfriend, having taken preemptive measures. However, on his first day back from vacation, Chris was called out by colleagues at work and received a considerable scolding.
"It's a good thing the border near the Boundary Count's estate is quiet... but it's also eerie."
About ten days had passed since the letter arrived saying there had been unrest in Marquis Samons's territory, but no further information had come since. Whether that was an isolated incident or a prelude to an invasion of the marquis's domain couldn't be determined yet, so those connected to the Marquis Samons household staying in the Royal Capital, including Cain, were wrapped in a tense atmosphere.
"Even as you say that, Tenma, what are you making? It looks like a model of a wheelchair?"
Recently, with nothing to do but stand by for when the time came, I'd been virtually idle during my stay at the mansion, so I got to thinking about the future and
decided to make—
some—
—thing.
What I'm working on now is a model of the finished product.
"Ah, I know it looks like a wheelchair, but this is actually a baby carriage."
"Well now, the shape is quite different from the ones you see around town."
Grandpa picked up the model I was working on, turning it this way and that as he examined it with great interest.
Baby carriages in this world are quite different from the ones I knew in my previous life — most are modified hand carts. The reason, I think, is that commoners found it cheaper to use what they had at home rather than building something dedicated solely for children, while nobles primarily traveled by carriage and had dedicated nurses or retainers who would carry special cradles along when on the move. So there was never anyone who tried to build baby carriages like the ones from my previous life.
"That one I'm still working on is a three-wheeled baby carriage, and this one is a four-wheeled baby carriage."
"Oh my, these are splendidly made! So then, what's the difference between three wheels and four? Apart from the number of wheels, I don't see any big differences."
Grandpa compared the completed four-wheeled carriage with the three-wheeled one still in progress, trying to spot the differences.
"Well, since these are just models, they're almost identical apart from the number of wheels. But the four-wheeled one feels more stable, while the three-wheeled one moves more smoothly, I'd say."
This is only based on the models, so I'm not sure how the real thing would turn out, but I don't think I'm too far off.
"If that's the case, wouldn't the steadier one be better?"
"That's true, but we won't know how it turns out until we actually build one. A baby carriage is only worth anything if you can put a child in it and push it around."
If all you need is stability while stationary, there's no need for wheels at all — I've even heard that triangles are more stable than rectangles.
"At any rate, I could build both and go with whichever turns out better, or improve each one a few times before deciding. Some of our acquaintances would probably want one too, and it could even work as a little business."
At the very least, Albert and Cain would probably want one. And if the Ootori household, a duke's family, and a marquis's family were all using them, other people would surely want one too. That alone would be enough for a business, but if baby carriages actually prove practical, they could spread among commoners as well.
"If we're thinking long-term, we'll probably need several different types of baby carriages."
Stability and safety are a given, of course, but it also needs to be easy to move and sturdy. Trying to satisfy everything at once would make the price skyrocket.
"Maybe we should just go ahead and start a trading company within the Ootori household, honestly."
"That sounds like too much of a hassle. Besides, I don't think anyone in our family has a head for business. Thinking long-term, it'd be better to provide the name and technology and receive ongoing payments."
A patent-like system would be ideal, but since nothing like that exists, entrusting it to someone reliable would be the next best thing. If I could receive money on an ongoing basis, it would mean more to leave behind for my children if something happened to me.
When I told Grandpa all of this,
"You haven't even had a child yet, and you're already a splendid fool of a father."
he laughed at me. Well, someone who would say something like that would absolutely become a splendid grandpa fool... no, not that—
Great-grandfather
fool, without a doubt.
Incidentally, Primera and the others, who had come over upon hearing Grandpa's laughter, were laughing just the same. Aina, who had come to see what was going on, was completely fixated on the model, and from there word apparently reached Lady Maria and the others, because the very next day a letter arrived from Lord Zain expressing his desire "to cooperate with the production of baby carriages."