Chapter 17 - 2-7
"Dash!"
A loud voice rang out, startling the people at the boarding house.
As Dash hurried down the stairs, he found his master beating his shoes with a glove to knock off the mud.
"Welcome back, sir."
"Dash, it's a disaster. The allowance has been cut off."
Yugis Necrat carelessly tossed the glove, and Dash caught it against his chest.
The master then unfastened the clasp at his shoulder, removed his cloak, and threw it toward Dash.
"What is it?"
"We're penniless."
"Oh. Penniless. Broke, are we? Just what on earth happened?"
"My father told me the allowance from home is gone."
"I see." Dash swallowed the psychological shock. "I'm sure he has a most distinguished reason. After all, he's ruining not just me, but your own future as well. I'm sure we'll be told a wonderful reason that would convince a thousand people even if only a hundred heard it."
"Don't get so angry. Let's talk upstairs." Yugis was already more than halfway up the stairs. "And also..."
"What?"
"No, never mind. Hurry up."
Dash did not follow immediately. When the master returned, the first thing to be provided was cold water.
Passing through the dining room and into the kitchen, he picked up a cup made from an animal horn and squeezed his plump body through the back door into the hallway.
Halfway down the hall was a small door.
Before going to the well, he should have informed the landlady of this boarding house about the shocking fact he had just heard. Dash sighed.
The person who appeared in response to his knock was a young girl.
"Meel-san..."
Meel was the niece of the landlady and was said to be fifteen years old. She was a beautiful person with fair skin, and her eyes were kind, resembling her mother's. Those eyes were currently smiling.
"I heard everything. You were speaking so loudly."
"Hah."
"I'll tell my mother myself. As for the rent payment, I can wait a little while."
Kneading the cloak against his chest, Dash bowed. Meel closed the door, leaving a stifled giggle and the scent of flowers in the hallway.
"Why is it that I..."
...have to be the one with a flushed face apologizing?
He wondered this while drawing water from the well.
Dash had been taught that a servant is one who attends to a knight's side and handles the various small chores of daily life.
Yugis Necrat was by no means a good master. It wasn't that he raised his hand or treated Dash harshly. He was slovenly. He was poor at giving orders.
As a noble, one must move everything from aides and vassals down to servants and maids to get things done. Without a single lapse from one to ten, they must teach their subordinates what needs to be done, and while watching the progress of events, they must either hurry them or let them rest, keeping the whole moving in a single direction.
He had heard that many nobles even specify and have prepared the clothes they wear that day. A noble is a master; their job is to think. Everyone else moves their bodies.
Yugis Necrat does not think. He leaves things to others. Yet, he does not move his body either.
At first,
—This is easy,
he had thought.
When he first started working, he tried doing the shoe maintenance, room cleaning, meals, and laundry all in a generally half-hearted manner. The youngest son of the Necrat family did not complain. He didn't even seem to notice. Dash thought he could take it easy.
However, it didn't work out that way.
It soon became clear that whenever Yugis looked slovenly or half-dressed, it was Dash who drew the criticism. From then on, it was tough. He always had to be attentive so that his foolish master would not appear before people wearing shoes with holes or clothes with straw clinging to them. In just five years, Dash had acquired a dignity as a servant that was unbecoming of a youth.
What would happen after another five years?
He might become an old man.
"So, what exactly does 'penniless' mean?"
Going to the room and handing water to his young master, Dash asked so that he could tackle the new pressing concern.
The master sat on the bed, his throat clicking.
"What do you mean 'what'? I embraced Princess Lucy, and I got punished by the old man." He wiped his mouth with one sleeve and returned the cup with the other hand.
"...That's cruel."
"Not really."
"It's too much. Why would you embrace a princess—did you really do such a thing? What, why, I won't be surprised, please tell me honestly, have you gone mad in the head?"
"Perhaps. There is no man who would not fall in love upon seeing her. Moreover, I saw that beautiful face from a distance so close I could almost touch it. I was likely driven mad."
"My life has been driven mad too. We're bankrupt from day one—so, what do we do?"
"What else is there to do? I said I wanted to marry her, but the old man just laughed through his nose. Something seems off. I might pass as a young scion if I return home, but apparently, in Malfa City, I'm something like trash."
Yugis Necrat's black eyes moved with a strange happiness. His moist eyes were like flames continuing to writhe in the dark night.
Dash had seen this light in his eyes before.
"What I'm talking about isn't that, but the expenses for our future livelihood..."
"Now wait. Listen first. I don't think the status of my Necrat family is particularly superior. However, it shouldn't be a one-sided relationship where we allow the Thora family to hold the power of life and death over us. And yet, judging by the old man's tone, it seems they're doing whatever they please. I suspect the lineage of the King's Army Commander has become too high, and perhaps his footing is shaking a bit."
"What are you talking about?"
"Who knows."
The young scion fell silent after that.
—This is bad.
Dash went down to the first floor to prepare the meal.
When he was still just a child, Dash had seen that sparkle in his master's eyes. Yugis spent his childhood with his maternal grandfather, Marquis Kraff Laiel Gilmond.
Count Urgil Necrat frequently visited Adaberta Castle, the residence of Marquis Kraff, riding a white horse. For some reason, Yugis decided he wanted to steal the white horse his father rode.
Dash was nine years old at the time and had been Yugis's servant since then. He remembered it well.
"I'll steal that and participate in the southern war."
Yugis had spoken with eyes wide, as if he were already seeing a desert mirage.
In fact, he even stole the white horse from the dining hall where the Count of Carossa always stopped. If he hadn't fallen off the horse on the road, he would have departed for the south.
Old man Gilmond, upon hearing the details, shook his white beard in anger, and Yugis was chained in the dungeon for seven days.
Undeterred, Yugis often became obsessed with trivial things. When he hunted a giant red boar, or when he climbed a rocky mountain to catch a hawk for hawking, his eyes had gleamed.
Normally he was so slovenly he walked with his socks dragging, but when he found something he wanted, he acted in a way that was unrecognizable. He didn't know how much he had been troubled...
Suddenly, Dash stopped his hand from cutting the turnips.
Speaking of old man Gilmond.
His Excellency Marquis Laiel Gilmond should be in the royal capital now. If he explained the situation, the Marquis would surely lend them money. Old man Gilmond was a terrifying person when angered, but when he wasn't, he was soft on Yugis.
His Excellency Count Necrat was also at the mansion in Malfa City.
Should he notify him that the young scion seemed likely to pull something?
—But, what on earth would he do?
Until he knew that, it was too early.
—That said, it will be too late once it's already started.
Dash continued to worry all that day, but as the days passed, he began to believe that he was overthinking it.
Life in the capital began peacefully. There was no sign of the things he had worried about occurring.
The flame dwelling in Yugis's eyes grew dark and cold with each passing day. It was a good trend.