289 - White Knight Ulrich
"Malo, fetch!"
As my twice-daily walk, I take Kokumaro out into the garden. Even though he's a trained dog, the game of throwing a wooden plate like a frisbee and having him catch it seems fun. The Black Dog (Oscar) also seems to like the frisbee, so I made the twice-daily walks into playtime combined with walking one dog at a time, the Black Dog and Kokumaro. This way, both the dogs and I have fun, and I'm also obeying Alfred and Leonardo's instructions. And in the afternoon, it's time for a walk with Kokumaro.
Kokumaro brings back the wooden plate that rolled on the ground in his mouth. I pet his head for a good long while, praising him, and tried to throw the wooden plate horizontally again, but I misjudged the force.
"...Ah!"
The wooden plate flew far off from the intended direction, hit a garden tree, and changed course. And maybe from the impact of hitting the tree, its horizontal angle changed too, and it stuck into the hedge surrounding the detached palace.
...Huh?
At the very moment I heard the thud of the wooden plate cutting through the hedge, I thought I heard a short cry from the other side. I'd be happy if it was just my imagination, but Kokumaro chased after the plate and disappeared into the base of the hedge, and the next moment, a man's scream rang out at a volume I couldn't ignore even if I wanted to.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!? Wh-what!? W-Wha, what is this dog!? Let go! Let go of me...!"
...Ah, so it wasn't my imagination after all.
Kokumaro is doing his job on the other side of the hedge. I can tell the opponent is a man, but to get any more information than that, I'd need to go around the hedge. I couldn't tell if it was just a White Knight guard who'd become the target of a playful Kokumaro, or a suspicious person like before, but I couldn't ignore this either.
"...Um, are you all right?"
I went out from the nearest gate through the hedge and returned to where the scream had come from. There was a man in a white uniform being pinned down by Kokumaro.
"Do I look all right!? Hurry up and get this ill-mannered dog off me!"
When the man snapped his head up and glared at me, Kokumaro, as if he understood the words, pressed the man's raised head down with his front paws. Watching the man's face twist in humiliation as he was forced to kiss the ground, I wondered how to handle this.
"For now, please apologize to Kokumaro. Kokumaro is a reliable guard dog who has undergone rigorous training at the fortress. If you apologize, he might get off you."
"A fortress dog..."
A dog trained at the fortress. The man's face twisted again upon hearing that. I wondered if he had some unpleasant memories associated with the fortress, and as I observed the man prostrate on the ground, I noticed that the buttons on his cuffs were gold. That meant, although he was wearing a white uniform, this man was a White Knight, not a Silver-White Knight. And moreover, the type of noble who likes to show off.
"Even trained at the fortress, this is all you amount to. What a vulgar dog. You probably just caught some stray dog from around here, didn't you."
"He's not a stray dog. Alfred-sama told me, he seems to be a breed called Absolk. When he was a puppy, he was cute like a little doll."
"An Absolk puppy... you say..."
The man's twisted face colored with shock, and his lips trembled. I'd only heard from Alfred that Absolks are a breed excellent as guard dogs, but seeing this man's face, maybe there's more to it than that. The man I'd identified as a show-off couldn't continue his insults toward Kokumaro. I waited for a while to see what he'd find fault with next, and then he changed targets.
"Say one thing and you have a comeback. This is why lowborn people are..."
...Now he's complaining about the owner, I see.
I wonder if he himself doesn't realize that what he said -- "say one thing and you have a comeback" -- is exactly what he himself is doing right now. If I agreed with his words and said "that's absolutely right," then he himself would be a 'lowborn person.'
...I hardly ever talk to White Knights other than Giselle, but so this is what White Knights are like.
So this is what it means to be too dumbfounded for words, I thought as I looked down at the man being stepped on by Kokumaro. I could tell Kokumaro to get off, but I didn't feel like letting him off right away.
"Pardon me, Christina-sama."
"Rebecca."
Rebecca slipped smoothly between me and the man. A lady's maid doesn't interrupt a conversation unless there's an urgent matter to report or to rescue her master, so it's really rare for Rebecca to cut in. Maybe the man being stepped on by Kokumaro is an acquaintance of Rebecca's. I tilted my head and looked up at Rebecca, who glanced at me and then looked down at the man.
"This man is from a house lower in rank than Christina-sama's, so we cannot allow such rudeness."
"Is that so?"
"Christina-sama's birth family is Merit Peerage, and your brother is also scheduled to receive Merit Peerage. In either case, you have no reason to be called a 'lowborn person' by a fool like this."
As I nodded along with Rebecca's explanation, the man squirmed under Kokumaro.
"Hey, you there! If you're going to teach a child things, teach them correctly! I am a Loyalty Peerage, and compared to that Merit Peerage child, I am higher rank... gah!?"
When the man lifted his face and shouted, Kokumaro pressed his head down again. This time, since he'd been speaking, he didn't just kiss the ground but hit his teeth on it. I felt a little sorry for him, but only a little.
"...He says this, but?"
"This fool's name is Ulrich. He was formerly the second son of a Loyalty Peerage house, but due to personal crimes, his peerage was stripped from him alone."
Since he's not even a noble, there's originally no reason to employ him as a White Knight, but because he has a wife and children, they apparently hesitated to completely cast him out as a commoner, and out of leniency, they've allowed him to work as a gatekeeper at the royal castle.
"Um... so, a connection-based hire?"
It seems there was a man even less worth employing than the White Knights, who already have a reputation for being useless. Having his peerage stripped as punishment and falling to a status where he couldn't continue as a White Knight, yet being given a job out of leniency because he had a wife and children -- can that really be called punishment? I tilted my head, finding it strange, and Ulrich lifted his face for the third time, as if to escape Kokumaro's front paws.
"It's not a connection-based hire! It's just that His Majesty King Christoph has not abandoned me! Just you wait. My honor will soon be restored, and I will become Staff Peerage... gah!?"
Perhaps thinking he wasn't getting anywhere with his front paws, Kokumaro turned around and placed his rear on Ulrich's head. Kokumaro is a clean dog, but as a human, having a dog's rear placed on your head must take a mental toll. Whether he knew that or not, Kokumaro pressed his rear against Ulrich's head.
...I've seen that movement before. When he was a puppy and his poop wasn't cutting cleanly, he would rub his rear on the ground to get it off.
Looking down at Ulrich as he screamed, I reviewed his statements. Having his peerage stripped meant Ulrich could no longer be counted as a noble. And yet he says he'll soon become Staff Peerage. The more I listened, the less sense it made.
"To become Staff Peerage from Loyalty Peerage, one would need to govern their territory stably for several generations, but can someone who isn't even a noble suddenly become Staff Peerage?"
"It's nonsense, not even worth listening to. It might be more accurate to call it delusion..."
So that's how it is, I thought as I accepted Rebecca's explanation, when Ulrich lifted his head with Kokumaro's rear still on it. In a way, he might be a man with some grit.
"There's no way a princess's father could be without peerage, is there."
Princess -- an ambiguous term that didn't specify which princess -- came up, and I understood that listening to Ulrich's words was pointless. How could a man who committed a crime and had his peerage stripped become a princess's father?
"...He really is a man who doesn't listen to reason, isn't he."
"Yes. Merely delusions. There is no need for Christina-sama to take him seriously."
"What do you mean delusions! I am not speaking delusioooooooons!?"
To the incorrigible Ulrich, Kokumaro, who had been sitting on Ulrich's head, bit down hard on the rear that was right in front of his face.
"Ulrich, please stop doing things that degrade the White Knights any further."
"A Flower Peerage daughter like you, don't speak to me so familiarly."
...Even when you glare with teary eyes, it's not scary at all.
Giselle, who I think felt a little sorry for him and gently tried to admonish Ulrich, was dismissed by Ulrich as a Flower Peerage's daughter. According to Rebecca's explanation, right now Ulrich is the 'lowborn person' and Giselle is the one of higher status, but he doesn't seem to understand such class differences.
"Isn't it that you're now below that Flower Peerage (Giselle)?"
Having lost interest in the man called Ulrich, my comebacks came out freely. At my excessively relaxed, usual sort of retort, Giselle smiled a troubled smile, and Kokumaro yawned on top of Ulrich.
"So, if he was a former Loyalty Peerage, does that mean he was a Loyalty Peerage on the verge of becoming Flower Peerage, or something?"
"Ulrich's house dealt with what their son did by disowning him and cutting him off. Whatever the internal circumstances, they have enough sense to at least show remorse, so they'll likely maintain their current peerage for a while yet."
"I see. I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing..."
Either way, this time I truly lost interest in Ulrich. I called Kokumaro's name and had him step off Ulrich, then stated the first matter that had been derailed this whole time.
"...By the way, why are you at the detached palace?"
Waiting for Ulrich to stand up brushing off the dust, I asked why he was near the hedge of the detached palace. If Ulrich was a White Knight assigned to guard the detached palace, then Kokumaro was interfering with his work, and as the owner I would need to apologize. I asked thinking that, but Ulrich's cheek twitched slightly and his black eyes darted about.
...I have a feeling. You were thinking something no good, weren't you?
The two guards seemed to have reached the same conclusion as me. Giselle moved to my side, and Aaron closed the distance slightly, standing in a position where he could apprehend Ulrich at any time.
"What does it matter why I was here? There's nothing wrong with being inside the royal castle that a White Knight should be protecting."
He put on airs with a snort, but his eyes were completely darting around, which was comical. His height might be on the shorter side for a man in this world. His straight shoulder-length hair was the common black. His black eyes were slightly droopy, and after being made to show the disgrace of being pinned down by a dog, his face had a pathetic look that was understandable.
...And this guy has a wife and kids? Why can't my brother find a bride?
Leonardo is a hundred times the man Ulrich is, yet Leonardo has no wife, while Ulrich with his unreliable-looking face apparently has a wife and even children. The world really doesn't go as one wishes.
"That dog bit me and got drool on my clothes. Take responsibility."
"Ah, so your purpose was the extortion and scamming that 'lowborn people' do."
"Would a noble (I) do something like that!?"
I intentionally mixed in the words he'd used earlier, and he reacted splendidly. His eyes had been darting around the whole time, and he was such an easy-to-read man that it was helpful.
"I'm not extorting or scamming you, but do you have any idea how much this uniform costs!?"
"First of all, why were you bitten by the dog?"
He probably wanted to continue by saying "Now pay for the washing," but I interjected a retort right on cue. I couldn't leave a man who looked so suspicious here. To my direct question, Rebecca added a follow-up attack.
"Kokumaro is an excellent guard dog. He likely judged an unfamiliar White Knight as a suspicious person."
"What? Even though he's a White Knight, he can be judged as a suspicious person?"
"This man is not part of the detached palace guard."
Rebecca, who has an excellent memory and was selected to support me as a living noble registry, apparently remembers the faces and names of all the White Knights assigned to guard the detached palace. She said she'd also introduced the dogs to them so the guard dogs wouldn't make mistakes. Therefore, Kokumaro and the others ignore White Knights who are in their properly assigned positions and outside the detached palace, but they treat White Knights who are in places other than where they were taught the same as intruders. In this case, a man who hadn't even been introduced as a guard White Knight was right next to the detached palace, so he was probably apprehended.
"Considering this fool's methods, perhaps he was trying to quickly earn some merit by staging an incident?"
For example, the kidnapping of a girl being carefully hidden by royalty, the arrest of the kidnapper, and the rescue of the girl. I thought it was just a random idea, but at the words that came out of Rebecca's mouth, Ulrich's complexion visibly worsened. Far from just darting, his eyes began to show clearly suspicious behavior, and Kokumaro, who had once returned to my side, began to assume a combat stance.
"...Surely there's no man who would be that foolish when he has a wife and children."
There isn't, right? I asked, looking at the man himself (Ulrich), but naturally, there was no answer. Ulrich silently backed away from Rebecca, and as he stepped back, Kokumaro and Aaron stepped forward.
"What's wrong, Ulrich? Answer Christina-sama why you were near this detached palace. If you don't, you'll be taken away as a suspicious person."
"No, I was just... by chance? Yes, by chance! I just happened to be passing by near the detached palace, tha a a a a a a t's all!?"
I felt something off in my field of vision, but before I could realize what it was, Kokumaro lunged at Ulrich. Kokumaro had bitten Ulrich's left arm, so the sense of wrongness I'd felt was probably Ulrich having moved his left hand. Aaron moved in sync with Kokumaro's movement, and in an instant, Ulrich was apprehended. He was desperately clutching his pocket trying to hide something, but that too was quickly searched.
"...A black handkerchief?"
"It's a black hood. Sometimes used by night thieves to hide their faces."
"Hide their faces..."
At the black hood gripped in Aaron's hand, I couldn't help exchanging a look with Giselle. The talk about kidnapping earlier was just Rebecca's random thought, but things were starting to look strange.
"N-No! I didn't do anything! I'm innocent!"
"That's right. You didn't do anything."
Agreement was returned to his claim of having done nothing, and Ulrich's face relaxed in relief. Then Aaron, wearing that politely insolent smile I'd seen once at the orphanage, delivered the finishing blow.
"If you were about to 'do' it, then indeed, you 'haven't done' anything yet."
He was technically only a suspect, but Ulrich was asked to leave the detached palace.
A good stopping point, so that's all for today.