Chapter 81 - <3>
The time after dinner, which should have been a leisurely way to spend a long winter's night, had been forcibly transformed by Ritz into a hectic one.
Anna sighed at the dining room, which had become a familiar sight filled only with the sound of rustling papers.
Four days had already passed since the day Ritz had returned after a long absence.
She couldn't forget that day. When Anna, who had been preparing dinner, noticed, a small mountain of documents had formed in a corner of the dining room. Just as she and Joe were exchanging glances, wondering what on earth was going on, Ritz appeared, changed into his casual clothes, and deliberately, with a look of disgust, flipped through the papers.
She hadn't been looking because she was so surprised by the documents, but the promised cake had also been piled on top of the small mountain. She felt sorry for Ritz, but Anna was so happy about the cake he had remembered to buy that she had forgotten the hassle of the documents that would follow and had celebrated excitedly.
Having a guest for dinner, plus a table full of delicacies and cake, made that evening's meal very enjoyable. Even after the meal, Altman entertained Anna and Joe with a comically exaggerated account of how much Ritz had accomplished in the operation to destroy the drug cartel's headquarters.
Ritz himself had never told her that story, so it was very fresh and she was happy. Besides, Altman, with his neatly trimmed, almost fake-looking mustache, was mischievous, approachable, and chubby, and he never bored them.
Both Anna and Joe took a great liking to Altman, whom they had met for the first time, and arranged for him to visit again. Between the two of them, Altman was secretly called "the mustache gentleman."
But such a fun night passed in a flash, and from the next day, the time after dinner turned into a hell for Ritz and Franz.
The name of that hell was "paperwork organization."
Even though four days had passed since the days of hell began, the number of documents they had sorted was still less than half. As expected, two and a half weeks' worth of documents was no small amount.
Anna brewed a new pot of tea to replace the one that had already gone cold and silently placed it in front of her two companions, who were submerged in a heavy silence.
It was already late at night. Annie and Evans had long since returned to the servants' house, and Joe was asleep.
Anna, being their companion, was powerless at times like these. As a small help, she had made it a habit to brew tea for the two of them every night.
Besides, tonight she had something she wanted to consult with them about. She had thought she would wait until their work had reached a stopping point, but so far, there was no sign of it ending.
Ritz, noticing the warm steam and the aroma of tea, looked up from his documents with a sigh.
"Sorry, Anna."
"No, no. Making progress?"
"Not at all."
Ritz's eyes were vacant.
"I see…"
From his face, she could tell he was truly fed up. Ritz was always complaining about how much he hated administrative work, and this situation made it clear.
"It's just not getting any smaller, you know."
With the tea Anna had brewed in one hand, Ritz flipped through the large pile of documents he had brought with a resigned expression. Beside him, Franz rubbed his shoulders and looked up.
"That looks like a bad shoulder ache, Franz."
At Ritz's teasing words, Franz, who was sitting next to him with a pen in hand, shot him an exasperated look.
"Whose fault do you think it is?"
A large pile of documents was also stacked in front of the complaining Franz.
"…Mine?"
"Exactly."
"Yep, it's Ritz's fault."
Assailed by his two companions, Ritz slumped his head in dejection.
"My bad."
"If you think it's your bad, then look at them properly."
"…Yeah."
Anna picked up a bundle of documents within her reach. On it was written 'Report on the Establishment of the Royal Army Special Officer Academy.' Below that was something called 'Opinion Paper on Regular Army Equipment.'
"Wow… these are all long documents…"
"They're long…"
On the cover of the document Ritz grumbled and tossed aside were the words 'Military Expenditure Report on the Year-End Work Closing Party.' She was impressed that the military made documents for things like this.
"I wish Shasta would just take care of these documents with a flick of his wrist."
Ritz grumbled, stretching wide and not returning to his original posture. Franz, while casting a cold gaze at Ritz, dismissed his words.
"The Prime Minister is in the political affairs department. You are the minister in charge of the military. If you don't process them properly and hand them over to him, he can't do his job."
"Ugh…"
"It's your fault for not doing your job properly, Ritz."
"…Are you on Shasta's side?"
"I'm speaking the truth."
At Franz's direct gaze, Ritz fell silent. It was a complete defeat for Ritz, who, taking advantage of the king's silence, had apparently been neglecting his own work and doing as he pleased.
Besides, as far as Anna could see, Franz was processing the documents at a much faster rate than Ritz. While Ritz was slowly complaining, Franz was quickly scanning through the documents. In this situation, there was no way Ritz could defy Franz.
In just a few days of organizing documents, Franz's skill had progressed to that of a seasoned professional. It seemed to suit his nature.
Now, fed up with the inefficient Ritz, Franz had switched to a more efficient method he had devised himself. He would summarize the main points of the documents and read them aloud, then have Ritz decide on the minister's approval.
While Ritz was slow at processing documents, he was quick at making decisions, so this method was fast. And in a notebook placed at his side, he would meticulously write down the contents of the processed documents so that one could see at a glance what had happened to what.
In the time it took Ritz to read one document and sign it, Franz had processed at least three or more. According to Franz, since all the decision-making was left to Ritz, he was just doing the administrative work, so there was no way it could be slow.
Even so, that administrative ability was, according to Ritz, a tremendous talent. Incidentally, according to them, Anna did not have that talent. It was their unanimous opinion, but for Anna, that was a little regrettable.
She was confident she could help if they just taught her, not just because she lacked the knowledge. But according to Franz, it was more an ability to process than to understand, and for Anna, who wanted to understand the content of everything, there could be nothing more unsuitable.
Also, Franz's handwriting had originally been poor, but as he signed Ritz's name in his place over and over again, he had gradually become adept at imitating Ritz's signature. Ritz's was as beautiful as a model, so Franz had also become able to write Ritz's name very beautifully.
'There's no point in getting good at forging signatures,' Franz would sometimes complain when a batch of documents was finished, but from Anna's perspective, Franz seemed to be enjoying himself.
After all, Anna was extremely dissatisfied that she couldn't join in with her two companions. She was envious of Franz for just having work to do.
Anna wanted to help with something too, but she knew that was out of the question. She would undoubtedly bombard them with a parade of questions, queries, and confusions, and obstruct their document processing.
It was a given, so Anna didn't even say she wanted to help from the beginning.
For that reason, Anna, though she didn't show it on her face, was subtly bored. She would watch the two of them sorting documents, propping her chin on her hands and sighing secretly every night.
She would vaguely think, is this what it feels like to be left out?, then remember her foster father's words, 'a person of the cloth must not envy others,' and repent.
But why was she envious of Franz, who was having such a hard time? If she told Franz, he would definitely say, "Then trade with me."
Sometimes, just a little, her chest ached. She felt a kind of impatience at not being useful. It was a strange emotion she was feeling for the first time.
Brought back to her senses by the warm steam, Anna brought the tea she had cleverly brewed for herself to her lips. She watched the profile of Franz, who was seriously sorting documents, and the face of Ritz, who picked up the previous document and, with his tall frame hunched over, sipped his tea with a sigh while flipping through the document, a slightly old-man-like gesture.
Sometimes Ritz looked like a very old person. Ritz's claim that he was the same age as Edward on the inside might not be a lie after all.
Amidst the sound of rustling paper and the crackling of firewood in the fireplace that faintly reached her ears, the large grandfather clock in the dining room ticked away the time with a particularly loud tick-tock. Suddenly looking up at the sound of the clock, she saw that it was already past midnight.
At this rate, it might be impossible to have them listen to her tonight.
Now what should she do?
Thinking so, Anna let out a small sigh so as not to be heard by the two of them.
The consultation was, of course, about Dan's sister, Jinny, whom she had met the other day. As a result of Joe's investigation, that rumor seemed to be true. The number of girls who had gone to work as maids in that house was close to ten so far. All of those girls had red hair without exception and had long hair.
None of them had returned home, and there had been no contact from them. All of them were missing. And about a month after they lost contact with a girl, a recruitment ad would be put out from the same house again.
And now, a recruitment ad for a maid had been put out from that house again. Joe had confirmed it, so there was no mistake. The recruitment poster was put up in the port district and the slums this evening. If she was going to slip in, it might have to be tomorrow.
If she didn't hurry, another girl would be chosen. Then she couldn't go and investigate.
Anna had already decided to go into that house as a maid herself. But if she did something on her own, Ritz, who was her guardian, might get angry. He wasn't the type to oppose things without reason, but it would be better to get his permission first.
Without taking her eyes off the documents, Anna stole a glance at Ritz's face as he ran a hand through his hair. He looked listless as usual.
Come to think of it, she hadn't spoken to Ritz one-on-one since they talked on the cliff at the castle. She had thought he was busy and didn't have time for idle chat, but could that not be the case?
Anna felt a momentary surge of anxiety. Maybe he was avoiding her. Had she done something to offend Ritz? Had she said something unnecessary at that time and hurt him?
But at that time, Ritz hadn't seemed angry at all.
She shook her head slightly, brushing away the anxiety in her heart. Thinking about it wouldn't help. The chance was only tomorrow. If so, she had no choice but to say it today, right now. She wouldn't bother the two busy people; she just had to manage it herself.
Having made her decision, she downed the lukewarm tea in one gulp.
She stood up with the same momentum. In the quiet dining room, the sound of the cup being placed on the table and the chair moving echoed surprisingly loudly. Surprised, the two of them looked up.
"What's wrong, Anna?"
Ritz, still holding a document, and Franz, who had stopped his incessantly moving hand, both looked at her, and she hesitated for a moment. But if she stayed silent now, what would happen to the poor Dan who was looking for his sister?
Anna, having made up her mind, declared boldly.
"I'm… going to be a maid!"
Her voice echoed in the quieter-than-expected dining room. At the same time, the document Ritz was holding slipped from his hand with a rustle.
"…Huh?"
A dumbfounded sound escaped Ritz's lips. Looking at Franz, he had an exasperated expression.
After a moment of silence from all three, Anna, flustered by the larger-than-expected reaction, smiled at the two and continued.
"You see, so I was just thinking of getting your permission…"
Ritz, who had hurriedly stood up from his chair, came close and placed a hand on the shoulder of Anna, who was trying to explain.
"…Are you short on allowance?"
It seemed she had been misunderstood.
"That's not it…"
As Anna tried to explain again, Ritz asked her even more seriously.
"Is there something you want? If it's something too expensive, that might be a problem, but it's almost payday, and I think it's an option to ask Franz to get it for you."
"That's not it!"
At Ritz's old-man-like words, Anna protested with puffed cheeks. But Ritz continued in all seriousness.
"Then what is it? I can't give you permission if you don't explain."
"That's right."
When she noticed, Franz had also put down his pen and was staring at Anna. The two of them were now completely in a position to listen to Anna's story. She had intended to at least get permission, but in the end, it had turned into talking about it as originally planned.
"…I'll go make some tea."
Franz stood up, rolling his shoulders.
"I'll do it."
"It's fine. I want to move a little."
Franz said so and disappeared into the pantry, stretching widely. It seemed he was expecting a long night. It was true that Anna wasn't good at explaining, so it would likely be long. She thought so herself.
Besides, Franz was quite good at making tea. He had heard that his master, Orphe, bought various kinds of tea, so he had gotten good at it whether he liked it or not. He probably also thought that his own authentic tea would be more delicious than the random tea Anna brewed.
Left behind in the silent dining room, Anna returned to her seat and watched Ritz silently sorting documents.
"A maid, huh…"
After placing all the documents on the low chest behind the table, Ritz murmured and turned around. From his expression, she had a feeling that Ritz had somehow read her thoughts.
"…It's about helping someone, isn't it? Someone asked you to?"
As he sat down in his seat, Ritz murmured with a sigh, without looking up.
"Wow! How did you know?"
Though she had expected it, she was surprised by his answer, and Ritz gave a wry smile, holding the cold tea.
"Hey now, how many months do you think it's been since I became your guardian?"
When asked, Anna counted on her fingers. It had already been nearly half a year since they started traveling together.
"Wow, half a year…"
"That's right, half a year. In half a year, I've figured out your general behavior patterns. When you suddenly say something like that, it's usually when someone's in trouble."
When he said that, she thought back and realized it was true. When the medicinal herbs were stolen, she had stuck her nose into the incident herself, and the duel騒ぎ in Faldina was, at its root, because Anna had asked Ritz to help Heath.
When she was trapped in the labyrinth, she used up all her power and almost died….
"Ehehehe, you're right about that."
When she laughed shyly, Anna waited for Ritz's usual joke in return.
But Ritz didn't reply with a joke as he usually did. The words 'You idiot…' or 'Don't be stupid' didn't come back either.
She waited with her head down, and after a moment of silence, she saw Ritz slowly reclasp his hands.
"That's right. That's why I'm against you becoming a maid."
"…Huh?"
In a calm, adult tone, Ritz said so to Anna. Surprised, she looked up, and Ritz wasn't smiling at all.
"Um, Ritz?"
Anna, who had been expecting the usual Ritz who would listen to her story with an amused yet exasperated expression and finally laugh and give her permission, was bewildered.
She had never been conscious of their age difference before, but his calm, low voice was so adult that for the first time, she felt a distance from Ritz.
"Hey Anna, you always stick your nose in and get into dangerous situations, don't you?"
"…Yeah."
She couldn't deny that. She was always jumping into danger without a second thought, and sometimes her hands would tremble afterwards. She did regret that herself.
"You've managed somehow until now, but that might not always be the case, right? So maybe it would be good to think about that a little before you act? If you decided to become a maid on a whim, it would be a nuisance to the other party too."
When she fell silent, unable to reply, Ritz continued to speak to her in a preachy tone. At his overly formal, guardian-like attitude, Anna became fiercely angry.
It was true that she was Ritz's ward. Her foster father had entrusted her to Ritz, so she understood that.
But they were supposed to be companions.
They had been doing things that way until now, so if he suddenly took this attitude, she couldn't accept it at all.
Could it be that the thing from the other day really bothered him, and he was still angry?
But even so, she hated this attitude. And what she was trying to do shouldn't be something bad that would be opposed without reason like this.
"…A girl who is friends with Joe has gone missing from the house where she went to work as a maid. She's the tenth girl to go missing, they say."
With her head down, Anna began to tell Ritz the details of the incident in a flat tone.
"Anna?"
Ignoring Ritz's bewildered voice, Anna continued to speak.
"A new recruitment ad came out from that house. They're looking for a girl with long red hair. So I decided to go."
"That's why I said I'm against it…"
"I know."
Anna muttered in a low voice and quietly stood up.
"Anna? Do you really understand…"
"That's enough! I'll do it on my own!"
She had shouted without meaning to. Ritz hurriedly stood up.
"Wait, Anna."
"No!"
"Just listen!"
Brushing off Ritz's arm as he hurriedly grabbed her shoulder, Anna glared at him.
"I'm not Ritz's daughter. I'm his companion!"
"Ah…"
For a moment, Ritz gasped. The hand Anna had brushed off was clenched helplessly and then slowly lowered.
"That's why I can rebel, you know!"
His deep, dark brown eyes stared intently at Anna's. The color of regret was clearly visible in them.
"That's not what I meant…"
Ritz murmured in confusion and suddenly averted his gaze from Anna. For some reason, this hesitant attitude of Ritz's was also irritating.
"What's wrong with helping people? Even if you tell me not to without listening, I'm not going to listen!"
As she said that, tears started to well up. When she thought that this person still didn't recognize her as a companion, she felt unbearably frustrated.
Even though she had thought their hearts had connected at that time.
"I never said helping people was wrong!"
Without looking at Anna's eyes, Ritz raised his voice in irritation.
"You did!"
"You're just thinking that on your own! I'm telling you to just listen to what I have to say!"
"No!"
Just then, Franz's figure came into the corner of her vision.
"…What time do you think it is?"
The cold words were thrown at the two who were half-shouting at each other. Normally, this would have been enough to stop them, but Anna roughly wiped her tears with her fist and turned on her heel. With the same momentum, she put her hand on the doorknob.
"Wait, Anna!"
She felt Ritz's presence behind her as he rushed to her. But she absolutely couldn't back down here. If she gave in here, she would surely not be recognized as she was.
Anna turned around and glared up at Ritz's face, which was far above her, and shouted.
"I hate you, Ritz…!"
She felt like she could see Ritz standing there, stunned, on the other side of the door that had slammed shut with a loud bang, but she had no desire to look back now.
Anna ran up the stairs. She would have to get ready for tomorrow. In any case, she would carry out what she had decided on her own.
There should still be plenty of time to prepare.
Meanwhile, the two left behind in the dining room stared blankly at the closed door. He knew he was in the wrong, which only filled him with more guilt. He sat down and sighed.
"'I hate you,' huh… that hurts…"
To have this happen the first time they had talked alone in a long time was truly discouraging. What on earth was he supposed to do? In front of Ritz, who had collapsed onto the table with a sigh, Franz placed a cup of tea.
"It's rare to see you argue with Anna."
"Yeah…"
How should he act around Anna… Before he could decide, Anna's sudden declaration of 'I'm becoming a maid!' had thrown him off, and he hadn't been able to react properly.
His feelings of being a guardian had been too prominent, and he had ended up angering Anna. Once he calmed down, he understood that well.
"I was really… surprised."
Franz unconsciously dropped a sugar cube into his cup and murmured. He didn't show it on his face, but he was quite shaken, and that was the fifth sugar cube he had dropped in as far as Ritz could see.
Anna and Franz. The time they had met Ritz was only ten days apart. But Franz believed that there was some kind of intimacy between Anna and Ritz that was greater than his own.
It was true that when he first met Franz, Ritz and Anna were already together, and on their journey, it was always Anna and Ritz who talked, leaving behind the Franz who found it difficult to speak. It was only natural that he would think so.
That's why in a situation like this, he seemed even more at a loss as to how to deal with it than Ritz.
"It's tough, being a guardian."
Without lifting his head from the table, Ritz turned his face to Franz. Franz silently took a sip of his tea and frowned. He must have realized he had added too much sugar.
As if nothing had happened, he poured a new cup of tea into the cup he had brought for Anna and placed it in front of himself. In the meantime, Ritz let out a grumble like a soliloquy.
"I mean, I'm a single guy. I'm an only child with no siblings. My parents are weirdos… And I'm a mercenary who drifts around without a steady job. How am I supposed to be a guardian… And Anna's a girl. What am I supposed to do?"
Franz, who had silently added just one sugar cube this time, took a sip of his tea and looked satisfied. Ritz watched him, not looking at anything in particular. In the silence where only the clock ticked, Franz finally opened his mouth.
"…I don't think of you as a guardian, Ritz."
Ritz couldn't say anything to those words, not knowing how to take them. Franz's words continued.
"It's true that on a journey, it's dangerous without you, and we two are in a position to be protected. But I think that protection is in the sense of being protected from danger."
Franz was more comfortable speaking if he wasn't interrupted. So Ritz remained silent.
"The position of guardian that you were just talking about, and the position of Ritz as a guardian that we are thinking of are probably different. I intended to become a companion to the pair of Ritz and Anna. It's only His Majesty the King, the Prime Minister, and the other adults who lump me and Anna together and call us Ritz's wards. I feel like ever since you headed to the capital with Edward-san, you've started treating us not as companions, but as wards."
After saying that much, Franz fell silent again. Looking at the clock, it was already past one. Ritz slowly got up and took the tea Franz had brewed.
Come to think of it, that might be true. If so, the attitude he had just taken towards Anna must have been incredibly frustrating for her.
At the very least, it was not the attitude to take towards Anna, who had reached out and saved his mental state when it had hit rock bottom.
Anna had always been Ritz's companion. Yet, in response to that, he had become too conscious of being a guardian and had taken a high-handed attitude. He was still not a very developed person.
"I'm no good, I'm not just a bad guardian, I'm a failure as a person…"
To Ritz's self-deprecating words, Franz said without a smile.
"That's right."
The direct sarcasm pierced his heart.
"…You know, you could deny it or comfort me, or something, right?"
As he collapsed back onto the table, Franz's painfully cold gaze pierced him.
"Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of consideration. That's Anna's role."
"…Yeah, you're right."
In Ritz's mind, the image of Anna smiling cheerfully and saying, 'That's not true, Ritz,' appeared and disappeared.
"I'm… no good, am I?"
As Ritz ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, Franz looked away from him and took a bundle of documents from the low chest with a practiced hand.
"That's right. I'm well aware that you're a useless person from this mountain of documents."
"That hurts…"
It was true that he couldn't deny it. He was the one who had created this mountain, and it was none other than Franz who was helping him sort through it.
In the end, being the three of them wasn't a matter of being a guardian or a ward or anything like that.
"I'm going to bed. There's no point in getting any more depressed."
Ritz stood up and headed for the door. He had to somehow manage things within himself so that he could handle it well.
"Ritz, apologize to Anna."
At the voice calling to his back, Ritz nodded silently. He would apologize, and then he would listen to her story again. That was all he could do. It was obvious that he was in the wrong.
But how should he start….
Silently closing the door behind him, Ritz sighed. In his confused state, there was nothing he could do. He would leave everything for tomorrow.
But Ritz's chance to apologize had already vanished far away. He didn't realize that until the next day.