The approaching evening darkened the sky, dimming Takumi’s path as he walked through the aquamarine garden. The glossy marble under his feet kept reflecting a faint light even in the sunset.
“Why, are you not a bit late?”
Eluria’s words reached Takumi when he entered the gazebo. Her gaze was wandering in the darkening sky.
“I’ve had to babysit your article and now she’s taking a nap. Do you mind it?”
The Queen looked at Lise and smiled happily as she stretched her hand to caress the child’s sleeping face.
“Ehehe… She is adorable even now, is she not?”
“Yeeeah, whatever. Let’s get down to business.”
Takumi lay the child nearby his customer and took a document off his breast pocket.
“This is Lise’s contract. I usually want the buyer to treat their slaves like human beings, but since this is quite a special case, there’s more stuff you’re bound to follow. Read this carefully before accepting.”
“There is no need to, I already understand what this is about. It goes along the lines of ‘this contract binds Queen Eluria to ensure the safety of Lise Crest and her mother Serena Crest. She also have to take care of the latter’s medical treatment fees’, right?”
She tittered and Takumi shrugged his shoulders.
“Do not worry, it was my intent from the start. Now that Lise belongs to me, I will do whatever it takes to protect her and her family. This is my moral duty, and if someone will dare to tarnish my vow, I shall act brazenly.”
“Right… the overlords hold the real power of the country in their hands, but they fear your dreadful amount of political power. However, as the embodiment of the city’s symbol and direct descendant of our Goddess, you can’t move around too much… but with Lise, now you can work around the problem.”
“Exactly. No matter how a showpiece of a Queen I am, I cannot let my country twist without lifting a finger.”
Her beaming grin betrayed the flaming rage in her eyes.
“I was enthroned when my predecessor, my mother, perished. Given my age at the time, the power of the country had to be split between the three overlords… thus I was robbed of my freedom.”
She didn’t own any executive power despite being the city’s living symbol and its Queen—her current condition was the mere product of the plan a third party had put into action.
No matter her authority or influential speeches, the overlords had the last word on the majority of the decisions.
“However, I shall now act through Lise and Lux. Especially against Elvis, that crafty man. Otherwise I will never be satisfied.”
“Good. Let us know if we can help. You can use Lise now, so stop sending us secret letters and strange invitations, okay?”
A request was written in the invitation to the buffet addressed to Suzuran: save a certain someone. That short message was the reason behind Takumi’s actions since the day he had read them.
“By the way, is Lux gonna join us too?”
“Yes. He is afraid of the power Fortesea is gathering, so we are collaborating to keep them under control.”
“Well, I made a profit from it last time, so I don’t mind it. By the way, can you answer one of my questions?”
Eluria nodded at him as he slightly changed his tone of voice.
“How did you notice that Kiad was mirroring information like that?”
The Archbishop would have never betrayed Kiad by telling someone the truth.
If Lise, who had magic tools that could mirror information with her, was to talk to Eluria, everything she’d hear would’ve been mirrored.
“You sent me a letter because you couldn’t ask it out loud, huh? And you even took into consideration that writing too much would’ve alerted the listeners by the prolonged sound of the brush on the paper, that’s why you kept the message short, right?”
“Exactly. I knew someone as observant as you could get what Lise was going through… after all, you have based your information network on the slaves you bind with those contracts, right?”
The slave merchant squinted his eyes—that was a top-secret information.
Only Takumi, Karin, Kunon and a part of the demi-human unit knew it. None of their closest and most intimate friends did.
The specific words ‘information network’ were just too specific even for someone like Killfer, who was very sharp and also part of the web. Only someone who already knew about it could have been that precise.
“The contracts you created are very interesting. The letters are positioned in specific ways, the overall layout is constant, everything is within edges or frames, you use different kinds of ink for different kinds of paper… there are various reasons behind it, right?”
She looked straight at Takumi, who had lowered his head lost in thought, as another titter slept from her lips. She had just addressed the true essence of his contracts.
A few instants later he reached the answer to his question and rose his head back, then faced the Queen’s gaze.
“I see… You got everything from looking at the law formula I created, huh?”
“Eheheh, you get full marks~! Or rather, I wish you had, but you only got half right.”
“I guess the other half is gonna be a secret, right?”
“It sure will. In exchange, no one will know the truth behind your contracts. Sharing a secret with your Queen sounds fun, does it not?”
“I’m about to ask you to spare me this link, oh wicked Queen…”
“Why, older women do not fit your taste?”
“They absolutely do. I’m still in time for a certain slave quite some times older than me, though.”
“Aww… not even I can match the beauty of an elf, huh…?”
Takumi couldn’t help but smile wryly in front of the dejected Queen who sadly brought a hand to her cheek.
“Anyhow, you did great this time. I really think you did, so do not doubt my words.”
“Well, that’s somewhat a reward. I mean, I’ve picked quite a hard fight for a single child.”
He pointed at Lise and Eluria stroke her head gently.
“She is not very different from me… used by adults since our childhood, left alone as our heart is worn down by loneliness… I want to save her from all of this.”
The sweet smile on her face was pure like the words she was speaking.
“Also, she is sooo adorable! Look! Look how she mumbles in her sleep! Her very existence is soothing for my heart… ugh!”
“Keep fooling around and she’s gonna wake up. I got that you’re like her stupid soft-hearted doting parent, but can’t you behave like a proper queen for once?”
“Why, are you not the soft-hearted one? You even put aside your objective to fulfill my request and save this child.”
Eluria squinted her eyes slightly as she took a deep breath.
“You planned to make magic lose its worth to strip Richtert of the deterrent keeping the other countries at bay… and no one have noticed any of this.”
Takumi shrugged his shoulders in silence.
“I only included Lise in my plan because I thought it’d be fun in the future.”
“Oww, you do not need to be that embarrassed.”
“I’m not saying this to hide my embarrassment. Also, it’s evident that I’m soft-hearted.”
A smile cracked Takumi’s face as he looked his Queen in the eyes.
“I am the Soft-hearted slave merchant, after all.”
The approaching evening darkened the sky, dimming Takumi’s path as he walked through the aquamarine garden. The glossy marble under his feet kept reflecting a faint light even in the sunset.
“Why, are you not a bit late?”
Eluria’s words reached Takumi when he entered the gazebo. Her gaze was wandering in the darkening sky.
“I’ve had to babysit your article and now she’s taking a nap. Do you mind it?”
The Queen looked at Lise and smiled happily as she stretched her hand to caress the child’s sleeping face.
“Ehehe… She is adorable even now, is she not?”
“Yeeeah, whatever. Let’s get down to business.”
Takumi lay the child nearby his customer and took a document off his breast pocket.
“This is Lise’s contract. I usually want the buyer to treat their slaves like human beings, but since this is quite a special case, there’s more stuff you’re bound to follow. Read this carefully before accepting.”
“There is no need to, I already understand what this is about. It goes along the lines of ‘this contract binds Queen Eluria to ensure the safety of Lise Crest and her mother Serena Crest. She also have to take care of the latter’s medical treatment fees’, right?”
She tittered and Takumi shrugged his shoulders.
“Do not worry, it was my intent from the start. Now that Lise belongs to me, I will do whatever it takes to protect her and her family. This is my moral duty, and if someone will dare to tarnish my vow, I shall act brazenly.”
“Right… the overlords hold the real power of the country in their hands, but they fear your dreadful amount of political power. However, as the embodiment of the city’s symbol and direct descendant of our Goddess, you can’t move around too much… but with Lise, now you can work around the problem.”
“Exactly. No matter how a showpiece of a Queen I am, I cannot let my country twist without lifting a finger.”
Her beaming grin betrayed the flaming rage in her eyes.
“I was enthroned when my predecessor, my mother, perished. Given my age at the time, the power of the country had to be split between the three overlords… thus I was robbed of my freedom.”
She didn’t own any executive power despite being the city’s living symbol and its Queen—her current condition was the mere product of the plan a third party had put into action.
No matter her authority or influential speeches, the overlords had the last word on the majority of the decisions.
“However, I shall now act through Lise and Lux. Especially against Elvis, that crafty man. Otherwise I will never be satisfied.”
“Good. Let us know if we can help. You can use Lise now, so stop sending us secret letters and strange invitations, okay?”
A request was written in the invitation to the buffet addressed to Suzuran: save a certain someone. That short message was the reason behind Takumi’s actions since the day he had read them.
“By the way, is Lux gonna join us too?”
“Yes. He is afraid of the power Fortesea is gathering, so we are collaborating to keep them under control.”
“Well, I made a profit from it last time, so I don’t mind it. By the way, can you answer one of my questions?”
Eluria nodded at him as he slightly changed his tone of voice.
“How did you notice that Kiad was mirroring information like that?”
The Archbishop would have never betrayed Kiad by telling someone the truth.
If Lise, who had magic tools that could mirror information with her, was to talk to Eluria, everything she’d hear would’ve been mirrored.
“You sent me a letter because you couldn’t ask it out loud, huh? And you even took into consideration that writing too much would’ve alerted the listeners by the prolonged sound of the brush on the paper, that’s why you kept the message short, right?”
“Exactly. I knew someone as observant as you could get what Lise was going through… after all, you have based your information network on the slaves you bind with those contracts, right?”
The slave merchant squinted his eyes—that was a top-secret information.
Only Takumi, Karin, Kunon and a part of the demi-human unit knew it. None of their closest and most intimate friends did.
The specific words ‘information network’ were just too specific even for someone like Killfer, who was very sharp and also part of the web. Only someone who already knew about it could have been that precise.
“The contracts you created are very interesting. The letters are positioned in specific ways, the overall layout is constant, everything is within edges or frames, you use different kinds of ink for different kinds of paper… there are various reasons behind it, right?”
She looked straight at Takumi, who had lowered his head lost in thought, as another titter slept from her lips. She had just addressed the true essence of his contracts.
A few instants later he reached the answer to his question and rose his head back, then faced the Queen’s gaze.
“I see… You got everything from looking at the law formula I created, huh?”
“Eheheh, you get full marks~! Or rather, I wish you had, but you only got half right.”
“I guess the other half is gonna be a secret, right?”
“It sure will. In exchange, no one will know the truth behind your contracts. Sharing a secret with your Queen sounds fun, does it not?”
“I’m about to ask you to spare me this link, oh wicked Queen…”
“Why, older women do not fit your taste?”
“They absolutely do. I’m still in time for a certain slave quite some times older than me, though.”
“Aww… not even I can match the beauty of an elf, huh…?”
Takumi couldn’t help but smile wryly in front of the dejected Queen who sadly brought a hand to her cheek.
“Anyhow, you did great this time. I really think you did, so do not doubt my words.”
“Well, that’s somewhat a reward. I mean, I’ve picked quite a hard fight for a single child.”
He pointed at Lise and Eluria stroke her head gently.
“She is not very different from me… used by adults since our childhood, left alone as our heart is worn down by loneliness… I want to save her from all of this.”
The sweet smile on her face was pure like the words she was speaking.
“Also, she is sooo adorable! Look! Look how she mumbles in her sleep! Her very existence is soothing for my heart… ugh!”
“Keep fooling around and she’s gonna wake up. I got that you’re like her stupid soft-hearted doting parent, but can’t you behave like a proper queen for once?”
“Why, are you not the soft-hearted one? You even put aside your objective to fulfill my request and save this child.”
Eluria squinted her eyes slightly as she took a deep breath.
“You planned to make magic lose its worth to strip Richtert of the deterrent keeping the other countries at bay… and no one have noticed any of this.”
Takumi shrugged his shoulders in silence.
“I only included Lise in my plan because I thought it’d be fun in the future.”
“Oww, you do not need to be that embarrassed.”
“I’m not saying this to hide my embarrassment. Also, it’s evident that I’m soft-hearted.”
A smile cracked Takumi’s face as he looked his Queen in the eyes.
“I am the Soft-hearted slave merchant, after all.”
