Voluntary Exile
“Here’s the organized meeting minutes you requested.”
I, who had been lost in thought, raised my head. A man around my age stood properly holding a file folder, waiting for a response.
“I compiled information that would help you gauge the typical supplies and manpower provided to regional lords. However, you’ll need to consider that the title Your Imperial Majesty will receive is Grand Duke, and that you’re going to a rugged area.”
“Mm.”
“I’ve marked sections that might need further review.”
I even liked the additional explanation that all documents were copies, so there was no need to return them separately. I nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Good. Well done.”
“Then I’ll be going now…….”
“Are you busy?”
He, who was about to turn and leave, hesitated.
“If not, why don’t you sit for a moment.”
An emotion of suspicion flashed very briefly in the man’s brown eyes. However, he soon nodded and sat down across from me.
The man who introduced himself as Albert was a janitor at the Imperial Library. He was recommended by the annex servant when I said I wanted to find someone capable to help me search for materials in the library, and his abilities were far more outstanding than expected.
‘I thought he just gave him a casual push because he’s his older brother.’
Those brothers weren’t characters who played particularly important roles in Pavane for a Dead Princess. Perhaps they were insignificant figures whose names were never even mentioned once in the original work.
“I’d like to seek more advice.”
Albert replied quietly.
“Are you sure it’s all right to ask a mere janitor, not someone of noble blood?”
“Is that a problem?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Being raised preciously doesn’t make you smart. I need a smart person, not a precious person.”
“…….”
“You must have read through these materials once before handing them to me. So what do you think?”
I tapped the documents I was holding and asked.
“With just this, do you think I could become a good lord too?”
After a brief silence, Albert spoke.
“It will be a good start. You’ll receive fairly decent support. His Majesty wanted to send Your Imperial Majesty far away, and since he’s sending out imperial blood, I think he won’t treat you poorly, if only considering others’ gazes.”
Albert’s words didn’t stop there.
“But that’s all. That one moment alone won’t make you a good lord. Life isn’t about fleeting moments but continuous flow, and people don’t live on just one day’s meals.”
“Say more.”
“You won’t be able to operate the territory with just initial support. You’ll need transactions with merchant guilds for periodic supply distribution.”
Albert’s serious explanation continued.
“It would be good to establish a main trading guild to overcome regional limitations as well. It would be even better if you guaranteed the safety of their commerce and transferred monopoly rights to northern specialties.”
“Do you have any recommendations?”
“I’ll organize and report to you.”
I nodded with satisfaction.
Indeed, he was a talent far too valuable to waste doing odd jobs at the library. Not only was he simply smart, but he had good insight, and above all, he was prudent. I especially liked that he wasn’t intimidated even before me, who had a notorious reputation as a scoundrel.
So.
“Albert. Do you feel a calling toward library cleaning?”
“Pardon?”
He stared at me blankly, then belatedly came to his senses.
“……How could I feel a calling toward cleaning? I just do it to receive wages.”
“That’s good.”
If it’s not a calling, it’ll be easy to pull him away. I must definitely include this guy in my moving luggage.
“Come with me. I’m willing to give you a suitable position. I’ll pay you wages incomparably better than what you’re working for now.”
Winter will be a bit cold, but still, it won’t be so unbearable. Most importantly, if I say I’ll send him wherever he wants after working for a few years, there’s no reason for him to refuse either…….
“I apologize.”
“Huh?”
I was rejected in one blow.
“No, why? Do you happen to dislike cold weather?”
“I don’t like cold weather, but more than that…….”
Albert, who hesitated briefly, answered.
“I have younger siblings I need to feed.”
Billy, the annex servant who recommended Albert to me, was his younger brother. Though he was clumsy whenever doing physical work, he was fairly meticulous and cheerful in his own way. Surely he wouldn’t prevent me from taking one more kid.
“Would it work if I use Billy as my errand boy too?”
“I have…… more siblings.”
“How many more?”
“Five more below him.”
That’s quite a lot. Billy looked like he had barely turned twenty, so that meant the ones below were all children.
“Bring them all. Seven people or so should work out somehow.”
If it really doesn’t work, I’ll have to lie down and protest until they give me at least one jewel so I’ll leave. If I sell that, wouldn’t it cover the cost of clothes for seven people?
“Will you still apologize?”
“No. It’s not different wherever I work, so I’ll do as you command. However…….”
Albert looked at me with a dazed expression.
“I never expected you to take care of even us lowly people, so I was a bit surprised.”
It seemed he was moved by my choice while simultaneously suspecting what wind suddenly blew through that Achille to make him act like this.
As if to prove it, system windows began floating up diligently, blocking between the two of us.
[Current Chaos Meter: 80%]
[Current Chaos Meter: 77%]
[Current Chaos Meter: 75%]
“……Ah, damn it.”
My nose grew hot and eventually blood dripped down. Even living virtuously causes chaos.
My head already throbbed thinking about what strange things I’d have to do to restore this number. I didn’t know living as a scoundrel required creativity too. It was enough to drive me crazy and make me jump.
As I was pressing my nose firmly with the handkerchief Albert urgently handed me, there was a polite knock on the door.
“Your Imperial Majesty. May I bring in tea?”
“Come in.”
If I throw the teacup somewhere, would it restore about 1 percent? I was having such thoughts while pressing my nose with a bit more force when Billy, who had brought tea and refreshments on a trolley, entered the room.
He looked back and forth between his brother and me, who had grown gaunt and was stopping a nosebleed, with a surprised expression.
“Hyungnim, are you all right?”
Strange. Billy doesn’t call me Hyungnim. Besides, this childish voice is…….
“You’re bleeding so much!”
Lenox, who popped up from behind the trolley, came running to me with quick steps.
“I told you to bring tea, who told you to bring that brat?”
Billy replied shamelessly.
“I didn’t escort him. The Young Imperial Prince came here on his own two feet.”
“What’s the difference?”
Startled Lenox quickly rushed to me and clasped his hands over mine. They were warm and soft hands.
“I heard you collapsed last time, and now even a nosebleed…….”
It happened unintentionally. My reputation within the Imperial Palace might have changed from ‘pretty trash’ to ‘pretty and sickly trash.’
“What will you do if you’re this sick even after going to the North?”
“Well, I won’t die anyway, so…….”
“As I thought, it’ll be solved if you take me with you!”
“What are you talking about? It won’t be solved. And I didn’t call for you, so get out.”
What would be solved exactly? How would it be solved? Should I keep him nearby to bask in good energy or something?
I shook my hands vigorously to shake off Lenox. Lenox, who was pretending to step back a few paces, quickly sat down across from me as soon as Albert vacated the spot. For an uninvited guest, he was quite brazen.
“Why are you moving aside? We’ll finish the remaining conversation after tea…… Why did you bring out another teacup?”
“Were you going to drink alone, Hyungnim? I want to eat cookies too…….”
“Children shouldn’t drink tea.”
Where does this kid, still wet behind the ears, think he’s going to drink caffeine?
“I knew that would happen, so I prepared warm milk too.”
“You said you didn’t escort him, so why did you prepare that?”
“Serving the splendid Imperial Prince with a reed-like temperament, I’ve developed the habit of preparing this and that…….”
Lenox placed his elbow on the table, rested his chin on his hand, and sparkled his eyes.
“Are you going to chase me out, Hyungnim?”
“…….”
“The cookies look really delicious…… I couldn’t even eat lunch…….”
This left me with no choice.
“……Just eat that and leave.”
The kid is hungry.
Lenox ate the cookies with a face like he owned the world. When he stuffed cookies into both cheeks and even held warm milk, his cheeks puffed up round.
Over some baked flour dough and a glass of milk, why is he so happy? Seeing how simple he was, nine years old was indeed nine years old. Except he terribly doesn’t listen.
At this point, I became curious.
“Lenox.”
“Can’t you call me Lenny? It’s the pet name my mother used to call me when I was little…….”
“Why on earth do you want to follow me?”
Four days since I said I was leaving. Lenox had stuck to me like gum. If I tried to go anywhere, he’d follow me around of course, and like this, he’d barge into the annex at all hours and say the same thing every time.
‘Hyungnim. I want to go too.’
‘Please take me too. I like cold weather!’
‘Please don’t abandon me, Hyungnim! I only have you! I won’t cry and I’ll be mature!’
“Unlike me, you have a good personality and are cute.”
“Hehe. Thank you, Hyungnim. So please take me, who has a good personality and is cute, to the North!”
“No, I won’t take…… hey, don’t cry. If you cry, I won’t take you.”
Of course, even if you don’t cry, I won’t take you. I had to.
“Saying you only have me is too strange. Even without me, this Imperial Palace is full of people who would dote on you.”
At those words, Lenox, who was about to put a new cookie in his mouth, froze. His blue eyes, which had been looking at me to the point of being burdensome the whole time, slowly rolled to the side.
Billy, who was pouring new milk into Lenox’s cup, said quietly.
“This is a very regretful story for the Young Imperial Prince…… but in fact, it’s not like that. There are probably very few people who take care of or feel close to the Young Imperial Prince.”
“……Yes.”
How many people live in this vast Imperial Palace, and how many work here? Among all those people, there are almost none who dote on Lenox?
“Why?”
……Are their eyes just decorations?
