Chapter 15
A few days later, in a secret office where not a single ray of sunlight entered, Simon sat alone at his desk, fiddling with the tie pin that Ariel had given him.
“Are you sure this is all right?”
Then, it felt as if that clear, melodious voice echoed in his ears.
“I guess you want to see the face of that person smiling sincerely.”
Following that was a slightly shy, somewhat sentimental voice.
Simon’s lips stiffened.
‘How did I smile at that time?’
Simon had chosen a tie pin even while knowing the meaning of giving such a gift to a man.
There was nothing particularly special about the reason.
He simply wanted it at the time.
Then Ariel said she could afford to buy something like that and even asked for gift wrapping before handing the tie pin to Simon.
And Simon…
‘It feels like I did smile.’
He couldn’t remember properly.
For him, raising the corners of his lips was something so natural and habitual that it was done almost unconsciously.
Leaving the tie pin aside, Simon leaned deeply into his chair and reached for the official document sent by the commander.
The content of the document was roughly as follows:
Although Victor was successfully captured based on the information provided by Raymond Knight, information about the sponsor was not obtained.
It is presumed that a magic was placed preventing certain contractual information from being spoken.
Victor was later executed, and the organization under his command was successfully purged.
The information provided by the nameless boy was confirmed to contain no falsehood, and the alert status was lifted.
“Got played in the end.”
Clicking his tongue, Simon tossed the document onto the desk.
There were several strange things about this case.
The involvement of many types of magic despite it not being an organized operation, and the unclear purpose of the so-called “sponsor” were among them.
Above all, no one in the kingdom possessed both such capital and the magic that prevented specific words from being spoken.
Even if one wanted to use such a person as a pawn, it was impossible.
The only person who had used that magic was already recorded as missing and presumed dead…
Although he couldn’t clearly determine what was happening, his gut feeling told him that this matter should not be ignored.
‘For the time being, I should keep watch over noble families that possess mages.’
Simon, who had been deeply lost in thought, picked up the document again.
‘Still, it’s not all bad news.’
Unconsciously, he smiled, then paused and looked at his own face through the mirror.
‘Is this not it?’
As expected, Ariel’s words were still incomprehensible to him.
Simon looked away from the mirror, put on his outer coat, and left the office.
He intended to inform that guy’s news before he became annoying again.
* * *
The familiar sound of the shop bell rang.
“Welcome!”
I reflexively stood up.
Even though it was probably Simon and not a customer, I greeted energetically to perform my manager role properly.
And just in case—maybe today it would really be a customer!
“Big sister!”
But what in the world…
I stared blankly at the green eyes that were more precious to me than anything else.
Black hair, green eyes, and someone who called me “big sister” was definitely…
Only my younger brother Matthias.
I ran to the shop entrance to check again.
“Matthias? When did you grow so tall?”
I waved my hand above Matthias’s head, comparing his height to when I saw him during last vacation.
Matthias, seeing my carefree reaction, bit his lip and suddenly exploded in anger.
“Is my height the important thing right now? Big sister, what are you doing? Why didn’t you tell me you were kicked out of the mansion?”
The words Matthias poured out sounded like he was hitting me repeatedly.
“Why are you so angry? More importantly, school? There’s no way you could be outside at this time.”
“Hah!”
Matthias exhaled sharply and pulled a letter from inside his chest and showed it to me roughly.
“I read this letter and the money and immediately took the train here. Why!”
Wait a moment. That means he abandoned class and came all the way here?
There was one thing I absolutely could not accept from my normally carefree and optimistic personality.
That was skipping school.
In the end, I also raised my voice like my younger brother.
“What were you thinking, running out of school like that if you can’t keep up with the studies? Do you think I send tuition money for you to do that?”
“Yeah, that tuition! I told you not to push yourself just because of my tuition! What is my school that you would go this far!”
“What? Just school? With that kind of mindset, you want to become a doctor? You said you would definitely succeed for Mother’s sake!”
As I raged incoherently, the word “Mother” made my eyes suddenly fill with tears.
“You… don’t even know what I gave up…”
“W, wait, big sister! It’s not like that…”
When I showed tears, Matthias quickly lost his momentum and panicked.
At that moment, I heard the shop door open.
Wiping my tears, I looked toward the entrance and saw Simon staring at me with wide eyes.
‘Good, it wasn’t a customer.’
I quickly wiped my tears and greeted him.
“You came early today?”
Then Simon walked straight toward me and stood between my brother and me.
“I thought I said it would be fine to eject rude guests.”
His words instantly made my tears disappear.
I immediately stopped him and explained.
“It’s not like that. You did background investigation on me anyway, so you know, right? That kid is my younger brother Matthias.”
“…Ah. I see.”
“What? Background investigation? Then this guy did something horrible to big sister…!”
While I was explaining to Simon, Matthias, who got angry at a strange point again, suddenly grabbed Simon by the collar.
“Matthias, what are you doing?”
“How dare you use an innocent person…”
Simon didn’t react much and simply looked down at Matthias.
It was clear that Matthias had completely misunderstood something.
In the end, I had no choice but to give Matthias a hard knock on the head.
“Ow!”
“Calm down and listen!”
After barely calming Matthias down through violence, the three of us sat at the shop table and began talking slowly.
Matthias still had a very dissatisfied face, but after getting hit on the head, he sat quietly and drank tea.
I introduced Simon to him first.
“This is the owner of this shop. He took me in when I was abandoned in the mansion with nowhere to go.”
“I have entrusted Ariel with the overall management of this shop. As the owner, I’m rather poor at running the business.”
Leaving out any mention of Utis or magic, I explained simply, and Simon smoothly added the rest.
‘He really is good at lying.’
While marveling at his natural acting, Matthias spoke in a wary voice.
“Is it normal to pay such an enormous salary to a regular employee?”
“Regular employee? Miss April is in charge of shop cleanliness, inventory management, and customer service. She is practically a high-level worker who is more like the shop owner than I am. Therefore, the high wage is appropriate compensation for her.”
At Simon’s eloquent explanation, Matthias only narrowed his eyes and could not argue further.
By the way, “such an enormous salary”…
I only sent Matthias a small portion of the money I earned as living expenses compared to what I received…
It seemed that I had failed to control the sudden large income.
No, more importantly, that wasn’t the important issue right now.
‘Why did he come here in such a rage?’
I calmly recalled Matthias’s words.
Come to think of it, he said he ran here after reading the letter I sent.
‘What did I write?’
Something like: I found good work, so don’t worry about money anymore and focus on your studies. Maybe I might even buy a house in the capital someday…
I unfolded the letter Matthias handed me and skimmed the contents.
I met a benefactor and now don’t have to worry about money. So don’t worry about me and focus on your studies! I might even get a house in the capital someday.
…Did I omit too much?
I wrote it while excited after receiving my first salary, so it seemed a bit off the mark.
And I couldn’t explain the work in detail either.
‘This looks like someone who got scammed or trapped into dangerous work.’
At last, I understood why Matthias took the train, even abandoning school.
To clear the misunderstanding, I said with a bright smile,
“That’s right. The benefactor was referring to the boss. He even gave me a room since I had nowhere to go. Thanks to that, I almost had to go around staying in inns…”
Clink—
However, Matthias accidentally dropped the teacup he was holding.
“You… gave you a room?”
Uh, was that not the point?
