Chapter 103 - 10
Watching his two companions wolf down an early dinner with ferocious intensity, Franz sighed. Honestly, they were such gluttons.
Kenny and his adjutant, who had been with them until a moment ago, had gone to the joint Yuresla-Luciana military police headquarters to hear the details of the drug case. That was, of course, on Edward's orders.
"You don't have to eat that much…"
That opinion was summarily ignored. Resigned, he silently brought the pot-au-feu to his mouth.
Having taken a light lunch just a few hours ago and then napped soundly until now, Franz didn't have much of an appetite.
Edward, who had been in a similar situation, also seemed to have no appetite and had barely touched his food.
Lef was eating normally, but he sat hunched over in his chair, looking cramped. It couldn't be helped, as it was his first time in a high-class inn's restaurant.
"A couple of starving children, right here."
With a tone that was both exasperated and lightly teasing, Edward brought his wine to his lips.
"Shut up, I missed three meals."
After finally polishing off what looked like three servings, Ritz retorted. A large stack of plates was piled up in front of him.
"No need to make up for it all in one meal, is there?"
Edward said, his tone laced with even more sarcasm. But Ritz, armed with the hardship of being locked in the ship's hold, puffed out his chest.
"How I eat is my business."
"I'm the one paying, you know."
"That was decided from the start, wasn't it?"
He sighed at the childish argument between Edward and Ritz, who, judging by appearance alone, had an age gap like that of a father and son.
It was hard to believe that until just the other day, they were the kingdom's king and minister. It almost felt as if he had been seeing some terrible illusion back in the Royal Capital Sears.
"Fighting is not good. Ritz, Edward. There are other customers here."
Lef, who had been slowly tearing off a piece of bread and bringing it to his mouth, cautioned the two. Unlike Anna, Lef was considerate of his surroundings, which was typical of him.
On top of that, he was more innocent than anyone, and had more knowledge than Anna, so even Ritz couldn't argue back, and seemed to find it too much trouble to try and talk his way out of it.
Perhaps Lef was, in a way, even more formidable than Anna.
"Alright, alright."
With that, Ritz shrugged and raised his hand to call a waiter.
"Rib-eye steak, one more!"
"You're still eating?…"
This time, with a tone of utter exasperation, Edward pressed his forehead.
Franz, too, as he listlessly poked at the sausage submerged in his pot-au-feu, thought the same as Edward, though he didn't say it out loud.
"Franz, are you not eating the sausage?"
He suddenly looked up to see Anna staring intently at his hands. Following her gaze, he saw the sausage that had been prodded around by his spoon.
Looking over, he saw that the plate in front of Anna was already wiped clean, down to the last sprig of parsley garnish.
"…You know."
"What is it?"
Anna smiled innocently. It wasn't the face of someone aiming for the contents of another's plate, but her gaze was squarely fixed on the sausage.
Between Ritz trying to eat and drink three meals' worth on someone else's dime, and Anna eyeing the sausage on another's plate… why were his companions so obsessed with food?
"Don't eye other people's food."
With that, he popped the sausage into his own mouth.
"Aww, you're so mean!"
Anna complained with a dejected slump and pouted.
"That's not it…"
By any measure, Franz simply eating his own food was not something to be criticized for.
"But I had seafood tomato soup. I haven't had any sausage yet."
"Why don't you order some?"
As he said this with a sigh, Ritz, who hadn't seemed to be listening until now, casually placed two sausages on Anna's plate.
It seemed he had helped himself to some from the sausage platter Edward had ordered as a snack with his wine.
"Is this okay, Ritz?"
As Anna's eyes lit up, Ritz glanced at Edward and grinned.
"It's fine. Ed's old, so he doesn't need to eat much. Better for the young ones to have it, right?"
Edward, on the receiving end of these harsh words, offered no rebuttal for once and calmly brought his wine to his lips with a composed expression.
"Is it okay, Ed-san?"
When Anna confirmed with the man himself, Edward smiled brightly, but only at Anna.
"I suppose it's fine. If the old man over there, who is far older than I am, says so. In the first place, I ordered this platter to drink with the old man opposite me after dinner."
In other words, it seemed Ritz had generously given his own portion to Anna.
"…He got me."
As the completely outmaneuvered Ritz slumped his shoulders, Anna gently tried to return the sausages. Ritz himself pushed her hand back.
"You eat it."
"But…"
"I'll order a ton more later."
"Really? Well then, I'll have them!"
Happily, Anna brought the sausage to her mouth.
"Delicious! The skin is crispy, and the inside is so juicy."
Exasperated by her ecstatic murmur, Franz finished the rest of his pot-au-feu. Apart from the enraptured Anna, he could hear the argument between Ritz and Edward.
"Unfortunately, Ritz, that steak is the last of your meal. From here on, it's on your own dime."
"Why? You promised you'd let me eat whatever I wanted, didn't you?"
"Don't be ridiculous! How many meals' worth have you eaten? I won't allow any more."
"Ritz, Edward, please remember we're in a restaurant."
After that commotion finally died down, the information exchange began during post-dinner tea time.
It seemed Ritz and Anna's group in the hold had discovered the crate in question just after dawn.
"That's a considerable amount. They probably gathered all the drugs from Sears."
Ritz, whose appetite seemed to have finally settled, said with a shrug. Anna, mimicking Ritz, continued with a serious expression.
"It was in a pretty big wooden box, and there was a lot inside. You see, there were lots of bottles of drugs in sacks labeled 'soybeans'!"
But from Anna's tone, it was likely not just Franz who felt no sense of gravity. Despite lowering her voice, her face was beaming with the joy of discovery.
It seemed these two had gone through quite a lot of trouble before finding the drugs.
Ritz refused to talk about what kind of trouble it was, and Anna, for once, insisted, 'I won't tell,' so there was no way of knowing.
Franz briefly explained their situation. It had taken a long time, but the explanation was over in an instant.
"After getting off the ship, we confirmed the crate and followed it to find its hiding place."
When he stated this succinctly, Edward gave a wry smile.
"…Simple. Wouldn't it be better to elaborate a little more?"
Even if he said that, there was nothing else that needed to be said.
Watching the ship's cargo from the cafe, Edward pretending to be a retired master, and the fact that only Lef reached the warehouse—none of it seemed particularly important to report.
"What is there to talk about?"
When he asked in return, Edward shrugged and fell silent. Ritz, who had apparently been watching their exchange, chuckled.
"Come to think of it, Orphe-san said the same thing about you. That you're good at summarizing things concisely."
"…You think so?"
His master had indeed often said that. But he didn't know how else to explain it, so it couldn't be helped.
"Well, I guess if you add Anna's and Franz's speaking styles together and divide by two, it'd be just right."
He couldn't help but reply instantly to Ritz's cheerful words.
"It would not."
"Whaaa? Why not?"
He reflexively looked at Anna, who asked with wide eyes, and sighed.
He couldn't even imagine his own speaking style mixed with Anna's explanations, which were short on necessary details but long on useless ones.
"Your explanations are too redundant, Anna."
"Yours are too simple, Franz. You have to give us more of a show!"
"…A show?"
It made no sense. Sensing his confusion, Anna opened her mouth to explain the meaning of 'a show'.
"I think it's better if the listener has fun, too."
"Even for a situation report?"
"Yeah."
So Anna's unnecessarily long and rambling explanations were a service to the listener. But was an explanation that required you to ask, 'And then?' after she finished speaking really a service?
He looked at Anna in disbelief. She was staring into space, thinking about something. Finally, as if she had hit upon an idea, she smiled brightly and began to explain to Franz.
"For example… right, about when we were looking for the drugs. Ritz was on the ship and…"
"Anna!"
Ritz, flustered, cut her off from the side.
"Oh, right. Ehehe."
"Please, don't."
Ritz's sighing words to Anna were a strange sight. It seemed he had been strictly ordered to keep his mouth shut.
What on earth had happened in the ship's hold?
Ritz, having silenced Anna, took a breath. He then took the wine bottle Edward had been drinking, filled his own glass to the brim, and drained it in one go.
But in the end, Anna was still Anna. There was no way she could keep quiet.
"But I want to talk about so many things. Because you were so, so cute, Ritz."
For a moment, time at the table stopped.
"…Huh?"
He instinctively turned his gaze to Ritz and saw Edward looking at Ritz with an expression of utter bewilderment. He was probably making the same face.
The next moment, Ritz choked violently. It seemed to be a secondary effect of him forcefully swallowing the wine he was about to spit out.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Anna, sitting next to him, said nonchalantly as she rubbed the back of the coughing Ritz, as if it had nothing to do with her.
Franz was thoroughly exasperated with her. He thought Anna was the one who caused this, but was that not a concern…?
He couldn't quite grasp Anna's mental structure.
When his coughing finally subsided, Ritz roared at Anna.
"You idiot!"
"Huh? Why am I an idiot?"
"Because you're an idiot, I called you an idiot!"
"I'm not an idiot!"
Their descent into a full-blown children's squabble was so ridiculous that Franz didn't even have the energy to intervene.
He thought, 'Ritz, don't lower yourself to Anna's level,' but he had no intention of voicing that advice.
"Ritz, Anna, we're in a restaurant."
Lef, in a panic, was the only one trying to get between them, but he held back out of consideration for the establishment.
"I asked you to keep that quiet, didn't I?!"
"I did keep quiet about you being super seasick!"
"You're saying it now!"
"Oh, I said it. Heh."
"Don't laugh it off!"
So that was it. He finally understood the reason for their supposed 'great hardship'.
Looking at Edward's profile, he could see an irrepressible smile playing on his lips. With that face, he was definitely plotting something.
"Since I broke my promise to keep quiet, will you not teach me the waltz anymore?"
As Anna looked up at Ritz with a slightly sad expression, Ritz was taken aback and stammered.
"…That's…"
Looking up at Ritz earnestly, Anna continued.
"I'd still like you to teach me, for the part where I let you use my lap as a pillow. Is that no good?"
"D-Don't say that much!"
"Huh? Was that not okay either?"
"Of course it wasn't!"
It seemed that was the final blow for Ritz. Flustered to a degree he had never seen before, Ritz yelled, and Edward, who had been silent until now, burst out laughing.
"I see, Anna. Your explanation is a great service indeed."
Lightly wiping away the tears that came from laughing too hard, Edward said to Anna, who looked up at him resentfully.
"I didn't mean for it to turn out like this…"
Indeed, Anna probably hadn't intended to confess everything from the start.
But it had turned out this way because Ritz had become unusually flustered and snapped at her.
Still, it was the first time he had seen Ritz so flustered. On their journey together so far, no matter how much he yelled, he was always calm somewhere inside. Strange things do happen.
Seeing the continuously laughing Edward, Ritz fell into a sullen silence. It seemed that the moment Edward laughed at him, he had, conversely, calmed down.
"Don't laugh so much."
He said this with a disgruntled expression and, while glaring at Edward, poured more of Edward's wine into his own glass.
Even when told this and glared at by Ritz, Edward couldn't stop laughing for a while. Ritz, on the other hand, as if realizing he could no longer put up a front, let out a deep sigh and said no more.
He turned away and silently tilted his glass.
Anna now seemed to be panicking at Ritz's reaction. She seemed to be aware that she had said something wrong, but she probably didn't know what it was. Franz had no right to say that everything she did was wrong.
Lef was watching the two of them with a flustered expression. Franz was just as clueless as to what to do in this kind of situation. So he decided to remain silent.
Amidst all this, the one person enjoying himself, Edward, summed up the situation in the hold based on his deductions from Anna's words.
"I see. I now have a clear picture of what happened in the hold. You were seasick, Anna came, you used her lap as a pillow, and once you felt better, the two of you searched for the drugs. Then you made her promise to keep it from me and Franz, and offered to teach her the waltz as hush money…"
Ritz being seasick was a surprise, but from Franz's perspective, it didn't seem like something to hide in such a panic.
And as for the lap pillow and all that, considering how much Ritz and Anna trusted each other, it wasn't particularly strange.
Seeing the still-confused Franz, Edward chuckled softly and turned back to Ritz, who was still sulking and looking away.
"Isn't this a dream come true? What are you sulking about?"
"Be quiet."
With that, Ritz quietly stood up from his seat.
"Thanks for the meal. I'm going for a short walk. If Altman comes, tell him I'll be right back and to wait."
Watching the back of Ritz as he left the restaurant without a single glance back, it was clear that he had taken considerable damage.
But as to how and where he had been damaged, Franz, who didn't quite get it, had no way of understanding.
"…What should I do? I made him mad."
Anna muttered. Looking at her, she seemed on the verge of tears.
"I promised I'd keep quiet, but I told everyone."
To the dejected Anna, Edward turned a smile completely different from the one he had shown Ritz earlier.
"Don't worry about it. He's not angry at you, Anna."
"But Ed-san. It's clearly my fault."
Franz also thought it was clearly Anna's fault, but Edward didn't seem to think so.
"That's not it. He's angry at himself for getting flustered."
Edward paused for a moment, then looked towards where Ritz had exited and murmured slowly.
"He still doesn't want to admit that he can only show his weakness to you, Anna. So stubborn."
With those words, which sounded like he was talking to himself, Edward stood up.
"Now then, let's take a break until Altman arrives."
"Then I'll go apologize to Ritz."
As Anna said this and stood up, Edward smiled gently at her.
"It's fine to just leave him be."
"But…"
"Let him be alone for a while."
When Edward said that, even Anna seemed unable to say anything more.
Nodding silently, Anna slumped back into her chair. Gently patting her head, Edward left the restaurant.
The once lively dinner table had fallen silent, as if it had all been a lie. The sheer contrast made Franz feel an indescribable sense of loneliness.
Amidst this, Lef murmured.
"Ritz is a complicated person. Just from what I know, he has so many faces."
That was true. Even among the ones Franz knew, there were several.
It was probably the same for Anna.
With Edward gone, and Lef and Anna looking downcast, it was probably his job to say this.
"Let's go back to our rooms. We should rest for a bit."
Meanwhile, Ritz, having left the restaurant, had nowhere to go and was wandering aimlessly through the city streets.
It had been Edward's treat, and he hadn't planned on leaving the inn, so he had no wallet and was unarmed. He knew wandering around like this was pointless.
He knew, but he couldn't bring himself to go back. He was so frustrated with himself, he wanted to punch himself in the face.
What he regretted most of all was, of course, hurting Anna.
He thought he was treating her calmly, as he always did, but he had no idea why everything was backfiring so spectacularly.
It should have been simple. When Anna started talking, he should have just preempted her and talked her down. But the words that came out of his mouth were, 'You idiot.'
That was practically telling Anna to argue back.
This was no different from his helpless self when he had just set out on his journey forty years ago. He had gained a lot of experience and thought he had grown considerably since then, but if this was all it amounted to, it was pathetic.
"Am I a kid?…"
Not wanting his seasickness to be known was, of course, the truth. But what he wanted to hide even more was his own mental state of being completely reliant on Anna.
When he was alone with Anna, he was more stable than he had ever been, and that stability, conversely, made him anxious.
He was even more flustered because he knew that this stability was, in the end, temporary.
It couldn't stay like this, but he hadn't found a good solution yet.
He needed to find a good position from which he could interact with Anna without getting flustered, or things would eventually fall apart.
The more he rushed to find it, the less he could see what was in front of him.
Wandering around with a muddled feeling, he found himself at the bayside warehouses. He recalled hearing earlier that one of these warehouses was where the drugs had been taken.
"Maybe I'll do some recon."
Muttering under his breath, he moved to the back of the warehouses. The area directly behind them was the sea, and while large ships couldn't dock, something like a cargo-passenger ship probably could.
If they escaped by sea, it would be a pain. Unlike them, their enemies were professionals of the sea. There was no way they could catch up by ship.
The sides of the warehouses were tightly packed, making it impossible for carts or carriages to pass. But a person could escape. In that case, however, the smugglers wouldn't be able to carry their cargo, so recovering the drugs would be easy.
If this was the last of the drugs, they could prevent it from spreading in this country, but that would be meaningless for the military police.
During the raid, the military police would surely secure this location and the sea escape route. It was highly likely they had already prepared small boats in case they escaped by sea.
The Yuresla Kingdom Army's Military Police Third Division didn't have any ships. But this raid wasn't being conducted solely by the Yuresla Kingdom Army, so the sea side would probably be secured by the Lucianan military.
He could think calmly about things like this. Perhaps the only thing he had improved on in thirty-five years was his ability to quickly switch gears. If so, that was a pathetic thought.
Maybe, no matter how long he lived, his mind was proportional to his body, and no matter how hard he tried, he was nothing more than a young man in his mid-twenties.
Thinking that, his long lifespan truly felt wasted.
Perhaps when his appearance caught up to Edward's, he would be as enlightened as him. How many hundreds of years would that take?
As he let out a small sigh, he suddenly felt someone tap his shoulder from behind. He reflexively reached for his sword, only to realize he was unarmed.
"What are you doing?"
The voice that asked made the tension leave his shoulders.
"…Altman?"
Calling his name as he turned, he saw Altman, who had already changed out of his Lucianan military uniform and into simple civilian clothes, standing there, tugging at his prized mustache.
"If it had been anyone else, I think you would have been in trouble."
"You're right."
Indeed, standing around thinking in a corner of the warehouse district where a drug syndicate was likely based was, by any measure, too dangerous.
Perhaps he had unconsciously chosen a dark place; he was now under the eaves of a warehouse, in a blind spot from the main street. It was a perfect spot to be dragged into the shadows and stabbed to death.
"How did you know it was me?"
He said, impressed. Altman gave a wry smile.
"Of course I'd know. I was leaving the warehouse I was watching and heading down the main street towards your inn, and there you were, the man himself, standing there in a daze."
It was true that there was no other way to get to the main street from the warehouse complex but to pass by here. If it hadn't been Altman who passed, it was highly likely it would have been someone from the drug syndicate.
"Did I stand out?"
"You did. To begin with, a man that tall is a rare sight."
"I'm really not cut out for covert operations, am I…"
When he said this from the bottom of his heart, Altman smiled with the corner of his mouth and looked at him with an expression that said, 'What am I to do with you?'
Perhaps he really hadn't matured beyond his apparent age, he realized, looking at the face of Altman, who was in his mid-fifties.
In terms of military experience alone, he should far surpass Altman, but mentally, Altman was clearly the elder.
"What are you doing in a place like this?"
"Hmm… taking a walk."
When he muttered his reply, Altman looked up at Ritz with a thoroughly exasperated expression.
"A place like this? Unarmed?"
"Well, about that…"
He couldn't exactly say he had run away after having various things he wanted to keep secret exposed, so his words trailed off.
"No matter how confident you are in your skills, you can't do much without a sword. You don't think the enemy will wait just because you're bare-handed, do you?"
"I'm good at martial arts, though."
"Can you escape with martial arts if you're surrounded by enemies with swords?"
"…You've got a point."
He had no comeback. With a sigh, he silently turned his feet towards the main street, and Altman silently followed suit.
One step out of the warehouse complex, and the city was still in the midst of its hustle and bustle. Compared to the silence of the warehouses, it was like a different world.
Brightly shining gas lamps, people in colorful clothes coming and going, and though the night was still young, there were already some staggering drunks.
The warm light spilling from the shops was inviting, and people were drawn through the doors as if by a magnet.
It was the time of day Ritz preferred back when he spent his time alone, when he could just blend in with the crowd without a thought.
Now that he had someone to protect, he didn't wander the streets at this hour very often.
"Hey, from your perspective… how do I look?"
As they blended into the crowd, he asked Altman for no particular reason.
"I don't understand the intent of your question, but…"
Intent… there was no particular intent. It was just that he was not a companion, but someone he might never see again after they parted ways in this city, so he had asked.
"In terms of sword skill, probably no one in our military police could match you. Your title is former Minister, and you're one half of a hero who appears in textbooks. You've lived a long time, I'm sure. But, and this may be rude, you seem perfectly ordinary to me."
"Ordinary…?"
It was the first time he had been told that. He was used to being told he was 'not ordinary,' so he was taken aback.
"During the operation to destroy the drug syndicate's headquarters, you certainly were not an ordinary young man. The same goes for when you rescued His Majesty in Sears. But when you are with your companions, you seem like a caring, ordinary young man of your age. I don't know what your intention is in asking me this, but my opinion is neither more nor less than that."
As they made their way through the throng of the nighttime entertainment district, Altman's words still reached Ritz's ears clearly. When he remained silent, Altman chuckled softly and continued.
"I can't imagine what it's like to live a long time. All I know is that even when I have a respectable beer belly in my fifties, your stomach still won't have started to sag."
His long life was dismissed so casually that Ritz couldn't help but smile wryly as he replied.
"That's a rather simple way of putting it."
"It can't be helped. It's no use pretending to understand. That's about the only way I can comprehend the difference between us."
"You're right."
A human's lifespan is less than a hundred years. A thousand years would be unimaginable.
"Did you ask how you appear because you've lost track of how you want to be seen?"
Having something he hadn't even realized himself pointed out so sharply, he couldn't help but stop in his tracks.
That's right. No matter how cool he tried to be about maintaining his position with Anna, in the end, that's what it came down to.
"…You're sharp."
When he turned around, Altman shrugged and smiled.
"I'm in the Military Police. I know how to find the middle ground."
"Well, I'm impressed."
When he feigned exaggerated surprise, Altman laughed.
"I think you're fine as you are. If this is about the long life you mentioned earlier, whether it's long or short, the time we are all spending now is the same, so there's no need to think too deeply about it."
"…Yeah."
Ritz started walking again as he replied. The time we are spending now is all the same—he had never thought of it that way. Perhaps there was wisdom that came with age corresponding to one's appearance. Or was it a way of thinking that only a human, who could view a long lifespan objectively, could possess?
Ritz looked up at the sky and sighed deeply. Thinking about it any more wouldn't get him anywhere.
"So, Altman. Things are about to move, right?"
He abruptly changed the subject back. It would be better to leave the rest until after the drug case was settled. At the sudden change of topic, Altman simply smiled without surprise and answered.
"At dawn. They plan to transfer the goods to other ships and disperse them to various locations."
I see, a reasonable time. They couldn't easily set sail at night.
"Looks like there's time for a nap."
"There should be."
Looking out at the lively night that had just begun, Ritz walked silently down the road back to the inn.