Two weeks had passed since Kieza began working for House Razgrim.
During his first few days, no matter what task was assigned to him, the man had offered only listless replies like, "If it's just so-so, sure." By now, however, he had completely settled into the estate. His primary duties were drilling the soldiers, conducting interviews with newcomers, and sorting personnel to decide who went where.
Whenever Vain foisted paperwork upon him out of necessity, Kieza pulled an openly disgusted face, but ultimately finished it properly. Personally, though, it seemed he was far better suited to reading people's expressions and maneuvering troops than sitting at a desk.
Shortly before noon that day, Kieza returned to the office after wrapping up morning drills.
"Morning training is done. Also, about the five people we interviewed yesterday—I think one of them would be better off dealing with merchants rather than working in the warehouse. He was paying close attention to his conversation partner's face the whole time he spoke."
"That's the first thing you say the second you walk through the door? You really do watch people like a hawk."
"From my perspective, I'm just looking at them normally."
Vain was left at a loss for words and dropped his gaze to the paperwork in front of him. Going strictly by the results, the personnel placements Kieza had weighed in on had caused virtually no problems so far. In fact, Clarice had even gone so far as to admit, "It's infuriating, but he's useful."
He had zero motivation, yet he got the job done. The more Vain looked at him, the more irritating he found the man. Right then, a modest knock came at the door, and Mylene entered carrying a tray with tea.
"Pardon the intrusion. My Lord, I have brought your tea. Master Kieza, for you as well."
"Thank you, Miss Mylene. You look lovely today, as always."
With Kieza beaming a smile at her, Mylene's cheek twitched ever so slightly.
"...Thank you very much. However, as I have mentioned before, my heart is already set on someone else."
"I know, I know. I was only paying you a compliment today. I haven't tried asking you out in a way that troubles you since then, have I?"
"I-Indeed. My apologies..."
Mylene lowered her head with a slightly embarrassed look, set the teacup down in front of Vain, and quietly exited the room.
Once the door clicked shut, Kieza casually glanced in that direction with a quiet chuckle.
"...What is it?"
"Oh, nothing in particular. More importantly, Vain, there's something I've been a little curious about for a while now."
"It's not another bothersome topic, is it?"
"Back in the royal capital, you said your dream was a life of decadence, right?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
Kieza studied Vain's face for a moment before turning his gaze toward the door. Over the past two weeks, there were people he had crossed paths with numerous times just within this mansion. At first he had assumed it was pure coincidence, but counting them up now, the distribution was strangely skewed.
"...Hasn't that dream pretty much already come true?"
Vain's hand froze.
"Huh? Where on earth do you get that idea?"
"I mean, think about it. There's Miss Mylene, and your aide, Miss Clarice. Miss Serena is here too. If you head over to the military, Miss Raisa is there, and even Miss Lydia. Plus, there's Lady Alecia, isn't there? From what I've seen these past two weeks, aren't you surrounded by nothing but gorgeous women?"
Kieza counted them off on his fingers one by one. On top of that, they weren't just physically attractive. Mylene kept the mansion running seamlessly, Clarice processed mountains of administrative work, and Serena, while normally a quiet maid, possessed physical grace and reflexes that were clearly beyond ordinary. Raisa commanded the army, and Lydia's prowess was something Kieza knew all too well from the Military Tournament.
"When you return to the mansion, there are beauties. When you step out for work, there are more beauties. And when you show your face at the military grounds, they're there too. If you claim this isn't a life of decadence, wouldn't the men of the world tear you apart?"
"You're dead wrong!"
Vain denied it almost on reflex.
"They're all work colleagues! Not a single one of them is my woman... Where in the world is the decadence in that? If having pretty women nearby were enough to fulfill my dream, I'd have been satisfied ages ago!"
"It seems the conditions for a life of decadence in your mind are far stricter than I imagined...?"
"Of course they are! What I want is a life where money rolls in without having to work, where I can drink booze and eat meat whenever I want, surrounded by beauties, living entirely as I please. Right now, I'm buried in paperwork from dawn till dusk! That's the exact opposite of my dream!"
"I'd say that dream of yours is more than lavish enough on its own..."
"That's why it's a dream."
Because Vain stated it with such unyielding confidence, Kieza couldn't help but laugh. It was true that, just as Vain said, simply having many female subordinates couldn't be called a life of decadence. However, that wasn't the only thing catching Kieza's interest.
"Is that so? Personally, I think all of them are..."
Kieza began to say, but cut himself off.
He had already noticed the way Mylene looked at Vain on his very first day. Clarice, too, was far too unreserved for a mere master and aide, watching Vain with constant, attentive care. Lydia's demeanor was also somehow different from how it had been during the Military Tournament. He didn't think they all harbored the exact same feelings, but at the very least, things certainly didn't seem as cleanly compartmentalized into pure business as Vain believed.
"...Well, that would be rather tactless of me."
"What? If it's on your mind, just say it."
"Nooope, it's nothing. Forget I said anything."
"Don't stop after saying that much! That just makes me even more curious!"
Watching the disgruntled Vain, Kieza allowed a smile to tug at the corners of his mouth. At least to my eyes, it doesn't seem like any of them are opposed to the idea.
Then again, it would be a shame to spell it out for the man right here and now. Leaving him completely oblivious would be far more entertaining to watch from the sidelines.
◇
Come afternoon, Mylene entered the office once more. This time, instead of tea, she held a single wax-sealed letter in both hands.
"My Lord. An official missive has arrived from House Perkin..."
The moment he heard that name, Vain scowled sourly. Across from him, Kieza, who had been glancing through documents, looked up as well.
"...It's from your old man, isn't it?"
"Two weeks have passed. I figured it was about time."
"Why are you so calm about it? It's your fault for running away from home with nothing but a single note left behind."
Taking the letter from Mylene, Vain checked the wax seal and opened it. Inside were several sheets of paper, written in an exceedingly formal tone right from the opening line.
"To His Grace, Duke Razgrim.
I wish to offer my deepest apologies as a father for my foolish son, Kieza, visiting your territory without prior notice and furthermore requesting to enter your service.
Under normal circumstances, he should have followed the proper procedures befitting a member of a marquis household. I humbly beg your forgiveness for this breach of protocol."
"...It's ridiculously polite," Vain muttered under his breath.
Showing no particular surprise, Kieza merely gave a small shrug from his chair.
"My father is a marquis, after all. He's meticulous about these kinds of formalities. Besides, you're a duke, so my father is lower in rank. For an official missive, this is only natural."
"Then you should learn a thing or two from his example."
"Right now, I'm not standing before you as the son of a marquis household. Besides, weren't you the one who told me to drop the honorifics?"
Vain had no retort for that. Feeling vaguely defeated, he read on.
The letter stated that Marquis Perkin himself had been surprised to learn Kieza had headed for House Razgrim. Ever since his youth, when handed a sword, he handled it passably well, and when tasked with leading men, he fulfilled his duty. Whatever he was taught, he picked up without issue, and when entrusted with household affairs, he rarely failed.
However, he had never once desired to achieve anything on his own initiative, nor did he possess any real attachment to the positions given to him. Despite being capable of so much, he personally desired nothing.
It seemed Marquis Perkin had been troubled by this for a long time.
"To my knowledge, this is the very first time my foolish son has chosen on his own whom to serve and left home for that purpose.
Should my foolish son prove useful to Your Grace, I would be most delighted if you would keep him by your side for a time. If he should fall short in any way, please do not hesitate to reprimand him.
Furthermore, he has a bad habit of avoiding even what he is capable of out of sheer laziness. Should he prove bothersome to Your Grace, please feel free to put him to work without restraint."
Upon reading up to that point, the corners of Vain's mouth slowly curled upward.
Kieza, sitting opposite him, made a distasteful face.
"...Vain. Could you please wipe that look off your face?"
"Man, what a great father you have! He says I can work you to the bone without restraint! Now I can make you work without a shred of hesitation."
"You certainly look thrilled reading just that one part... Personally, I would prefer it if you pretended not to see that single sentence."
"Not a chance. That's practically the most important part, isn't it? Even if you try to slack off because you hate paperwork, your own father said to make sure you work properly."
"I don't believe he wrote it quite so bluntly... Good grief, Father just had to add such unnecessary details."
Though grumbling, Kieza didn't seem genuinely displeased.
Vain shifted his gaze from the letter back to Kieza.
"...Your old man watches you much more closely than I thought."
"Well, he is my father. I think he was always bothered by the fact that even though I could manage whatever was handed to me, I never wanted anything beyond that."
"Then all the more reason: why didn't you ever say you wanted to do something until now?"
Kieza pondered for a brief moment, then leaned back into his chair.
"Because there wasn't anything. Whether it was the work of a marquis household, swordsmanship, or commanding troops, if I was told to do it, I did it. It wasn't that I couldn't. But I never once wanted any of it for myself. From Father's perspective, a son who showed no ambition no matter what he was given must have been hard to handle."
"What a luxury of a problem... If it were me, I'd gladly welcome competent people taking the initiative to work."
"I figured you would say that."
Kieza laughed, but after a moment, he cast his eyes down toward the letter from his father sitting on the desk.
"Maybe that's why I came here... You tell people to do what they can, but you don't tell them they have to spend their entire lives doing only that just because they're capable of it. It's only been two weeks, but I've come to understand at least that much."
Vain furrowed his brow slightly. It felt like he was being praised, but in the end, he was simply assigning capable people to roles where they could be useful because he wanted an easier life for himself. Dressing it up into something so strangely noble made him uncomfortable.
"Don't overthink it. You give useful jobs to useful people, and if it doesn't fit, you have them do something else, right? Having someone quit and having to search for a replacement is way more of a pain."
"...You really are amusing in that regard."
"Not this again... Anyway, since you chose to come here of your own accord, work properly. Your old man wrote the same thing, after all."
"So you loop right back to that in the end..."
Having finished reading the letter to the very end, Vain set it down on the desk. While detailed discussions regarding his official employment would still be necessary, at the very least, it seemed Marquis Perkin had no intention of dragging his son back immediately. That meant one less headache to deal with, and a capable hand could be kept around as is.
"Well, if your old man is giving the green light, stay as long as you like. I'm not about to go out of my way to kick out someone useful. Just make sure you work properly, got it?"
Kieza narrowed his eyes for a fraction of a second, then offered his usual light smile.
"I understand. Over these past two weeks, I've grown a bit more interested in this place myself. At the very least, it doesn't look like I'll be bored like I was back home."
"Glad to hear it. I've got more than enough work to keep you from ever getting bored."
The instant he heard those words, Kieza's smile twitched slightly.
"...Perhaps I shouldn't have said that just now."
Vain looked over the remaining documents on the desk and, this time, let out a genuinely amused laugh. A listless man who had run away from a marquis household on a whim.
It seemed that, for the foreseeable future, having too much free time on his hands in Razgrim was the one thing he wouldn't have to worry about.