Chapter 12
I offered some tea to Sora, who was currently slumping limply against the sofa.
“Here you go. Thanks for your hard work.”
Sora raised his upper body with a wobbly, unsteady movement. After shooting me a momentarily resentful glare, he knocked back the teacup and returned the empty cup to its saucer. As he set it down rather carelessly, Rif pulled it closer and poured a fresh serving of black tea.
A faint, elegant aroma wafted from the newly filled teacup.
As expected of Rif. Anticipating that Sora would down his first cup in one go, he had likely made the initial tea lukewarm. The slight steam rising from the second cup and the rich aroma bore testament to his thoughtful consideration.
Ah, of course, the one placed in front of me from the very first cup was at the absolute perfect temperature, boasting the magnificent, brilliant aroma of a top-grade muscatel flavor.
Mm, delicious. The tea Rif brews is always the absolute best.
“What the hell is up with that guy?”
Sora spoke while stuffing a tea snack into his mouth, his voice dripping with an unhideable exhaustion. Though he probably had no intention of hiding it anyway.
“Hanzo is strict, you see. Though to that exact same extent, he is endlessly stoic toward himself as well.”
When I replied with a wry smile, I was treated to yet another resentful look.
The reason Sora was so utterly exhausted was none other than the demonic trainingāor rather, the hellish hazingācourtesy of Hanzo.
It was a mandatory rite of passage that the other few subordinates had also gone through (they were former assassins, scouts, and other individuals of the so-called “shadow” profession whom Hanzo had scouted and I had interviewed).
Unlike the others who naturally possessed excellent physical capabilities from the start, Sora had relied entirely on his teleportation ability and hadn’t polished his physical movements at all, which made it feel like double the hell for him. True to form, his movements really were raw and amateurish.
Even if he could teleport, a baseline level of physical movement was still necessary, hence the intense boot camp.
Though considering it’s Hanzo’s definition of a baseline… I bet his absolute minimum standard is terrifyingly high…
Hang in there, Sora!! Even if the only thing I can do is cheer you on from the bottom of my heart.
But seriously, please do your best. An attendant who can teleport is just incredibly convenient, after all. The advantage of being able to rush to Garnest or Beatrix’s side the very instant something goes wrong is massive. So while I sympathize with his hellish training, I have absolutely no intention of stopping it.
I am nothing if not honest with my own heart.
Besides, thanks to the “shadows,” I get real-time updates on my little brother and sister at the academy!!
Sora’s violet-tinted blue eyes wandered idly for a moment.
“…There’s something I wanna ask.”
The eyes that had wandered for a split second darted briefly to steal a glance at Rif. By the way, Hanzo wasn’t here. If he were, Sora’s current attitude would have instantly earned him some educational disciplinary action… though I personally didn’t mind it.
That aside, I could already guess what Sora wanted to ask.
“Rif, would you mind stepping back for a moment?”
“As you wish.”
While he complied submissively to my words, Rif’s gaze smoothly swept toward Sora. I couldn’t help but feel that his usually gentle amber eyes were screaming, ‘If you try anything funny, I will slaughter you on the spot.’
Yet, the expression he directed at me was a peaceful, tender smile. And yet, it was making me break out in a cold sweat. How strange…
Sora stared at Rif as he backed away toward the wall with a visibly twitching face.
And I notice you’re not actually leaving the room, huh? Well, you certainly stepped back, yes.
“Are… Are you a reincarnator, Lord Kaiser?”
Catching the way he almost said “you” before hastily correcting it to my title gave me a brief glimpse into the thorough discipline drilled into him by Hanzo and Rif. And the question, dropped in a voice low enough that it would only reach the two of us, was well within my expectations.
“…Reincarnator?”
I purposefully slurred the pronunciation slightly.
“What exactly does that mean?”
I narrowed my eyes, making a show of looking thoroughly perplexed. While his guess was completely spot-on, I had already resolved to hide it until the very end for my own self-preservation.
“Do you seriously not know? You’re the one who gave that guy his name, right?”
“If you mean the name Hanzo, it was actually thought up by a maid assigned to Beatrix.”
“Is that true?”
Sora’s eyes widened into perfect circles.
The reason he suspected me of being a reincarnator was undoubtedly due to Hanzo’s existence. Because he’s a total ninja, after all.
He probably assumed Hanzo himself was a reincarnator, but when that turned out false, and he discovered that the name “Hanzo” was given to him specifically upon entering our service, he must have concluded that I was the reincarnator…
But let me tell you, Hanzo’s ninja style is entirely his own doing! If anything, it was a case where he was so completely a ninja that the name was retrofitted to match him.
“Apparently, the name ‘Hanzo’ is a name from a certain foreign land, carrying the meaning of ‘one who lives in the darkness, exists in the shadows, and swears absolute loyalty to his master.’ It suits him perfectly, doesn’t it?”
“…”
Sora wore an incredibly salty expression.
“No, I mean, it’s not exactly that it means that…”
“Is it different?”
“Well, it’s not that it’s different… or rather, it’s not that it’s completely wrong, either…”
Sora held his head in his hands, falling deep into thought.
It really is hard to give a definitive answer when asked if it’s different, isn’t it? It doesn’t literally mean that, but you get what they’re trying to say.
“Well, I guess it’s kinda like that…?”
“You’re being awfully vague.”
“The word itself doesn’t possess that meaning. It’s just the name of a very famous man in that line of work whose history is half-legendary.”
“I see. You are quite knowledgeable about foreign lands, Sora. Does that ‘reincarnator’ thing from earlier have something to do with that as well?”
“Never mind that.”
Sora gave a gentle wave of his hand. Pretending to be puzzled, I tilted my head but didn’t press the matter any further.
The moment he meets Lilia, he’ll realize instantly that she is a reincarnator, so the suspicion around me should clear up naturally.
That girl is so refreshingly incapable of keeping secrets. Honestly, it completely blows my mind that she actually thinks she’s successfully hiding it.
After that, we spent the time enjoying our tea while discussing the news from the academy that he had been looking into. Although there had been warning signs since around last year, there was indeed one thing concerning Garnest’s surroundings that weighed on my mind.
Lately, he’s been acting a little distant… Even though he doesn’t need to worry about that sort of thing, I thought, reaching for a financier. While savoring the rich flavor of the dense butter, I washed down the sigh that was about to escape with a sip of black tea.
It wasn’t anyone’s fault, and it wasn’t something anyone needed to distress over. Seeing my cute little brother grow into an adult made me both happy and a little lonely. As an older brother, my feelings on the matter are quite complicated.
“The academy has its own security, yet you go out of your way to assign shadows to them. You’re pretty overprotective.”
“They are precious to me, so it can’t be helped. Besides, given our position, we have plenty of enemies.”
“Nobles sure have it rough.”
“Weren’t you originally one as well?”
When I asked casually, he shrugged as if the idea was absurd.
“I’m just a kid born from a casual fling. They probably didn’t want to bring outside blood into the family to avoid diluting the unique ability bloodline, but they didn’t have any qualms about irresponsibly scattering their seeds outside.”
I see. He’s the type whose ability luckily manifested between a noble and a commoner. With an ability like Sora’s, he could easily return to the nobility if he wanted to… but he clearly has no intention of doing so.
By the way, Sora’s inner voice was currently saying:
‘Everyone around here is ridiculously good-looking, and they’ve all got absurdly overpowered traits and specs. Could it be this is actually the world of a manga or something? Those isekai reincarnation stories are super popular lately. Reincarnation makes no sense, but well, I actually am a reincarnator myself. Could it be that I’m a character in something too?’
Too bad! It’s the world of an otome game!!
He’s the classic case of someone who reincarnated without realizing it. And you are definitely not a character.
My cute little brother and sister, Garnest and Beatrix, are main characters, but the people you’re involved with… Hanzo, the other shadows, and Rif aren’t characters either. I am barely a part of the cast, but I’m just an extra among extras who only gets a brief textual mention in Garnest and Beatrix’s character introductions.
I’m ranked even lower than a foil or a minor throwaway villain, you know?
Because even foils and throwaway villains actually get screen time, unlike me… Oh man, saying it out loud is starting to make me feel miserable.
