Chapter 16 – The Conjurer Knights’ Dubious Renown

But, be that as it may…

The bandits’ capture proceeded without a hitch.

It was nothing short of ironic that their attempt to drag Count Alhena down with them had, in fact, tightened the noose around their own necks.

With everyone in attendance that day serving as witnesses, the capture of all the bandits would surely be recorded as an undeniable achievement.

And as for the suspicions surrounding Count Alhena being the mastermind, and Count Wasat’s negligence of duty… well, a passable excuse had been cobbled together for those.

Truth be told, since the Knightly Order arrived and resolved the matter by the next day, it wasn’t entirely out of line to call it a speedy resolution from the perspective of the overall incident.

At the very least, the actual perpetrators were caught, so the victims found some solace.

They couldn’t tell if the Count was the mastermind or not, so they were likely satisfied as long as the direct culprits were punished.

And so, the martial renown of ‘Gaikaku Hikume’s Conjurer Knights’’ echoed throughout both regions.

Whether it was truly “martial” renown was questionable, but it echoed nonetheless.

※

Now, then, there were the three individuals directly involved.

Count Alhena, Count Wasat, and Commander Gaikaku were gathered together in a private room.

A single cask of sake rested there, but the atmosphere was far from celebratory.

It was somewhat stiff, and awkward.

“First, well, um… Yes, Count Wasat, I was wrong. I know this isn’t an issue that can be resolved by me bowing my head to you, but even so, I wish to properly bow my head to you.”

Count Alhena, while realizing the futility of bowing his head to the man, was apologizing in front of Gaikaku.

“I looked down on you. I was the shishou, and you were the disciple. That’s why I believed I would always win, at least when it came to the path of sake… I looked down on you with such thoughts. As a result, I lost. No, losing wasn’t the result. I, who felt humiliated by defeat, ultimately resorted to insidious harassment, to criminal acts.”

Count Alhena confessed frankly.

He was admitting his defeat to the very person he hadn’t wanted to lose to, even while knowing this wasn’t the person he truly ought to be confessing to.

“Earlier, in front of everyone, I called it a ‘childish reason,’ and that was entirely true. To think I could say such a thing before the very citizens who were victims of it… I am truly a shameful man.”

“…That applies to me as well.”

Count Wasat still found it difficult to accept.

He, too, acknowledged his own negligence.

“I wanted to put on airs. I tried to have an ‘adult response’ to your harassment. But it was a stuck-up adult response. If my people were suffering, I should have been able to protest strongly, or crack down severely. Since I neglected to do so, I cannot accept an apology from you.”

If he had done his best, it wouldn’t have come to this.

At the very least, he wouldn’t have told such blatant lies to his people.

He had pinned all the blame on the bandits themselves, but that didn’t mean he himself was blameless.

“…Lord Gaikaku, allow me to apologize once more. You resolved this incident while preserving our dignity.”

“To have troubled you, busy as you are, with such a worthless incident… I offer my deepest apologies.”

Gyeh heh heh!

“Now what’s all this! I’m quite satisfied to have gained an easy achievement!”

Only Gaikaku laughed suspiciously.

His clownish theatrics did not surprise the two men.

They knew, precisely because they were the parties involved, that mediating between the two of them in this situation would have been difficult.

The man who had accomplished it so easily was, indeed, no ordinary person.

“Besides, I did get to see Count Alhena’s flustered state. That was quite a treat for the eyes, it was!”

“Hmph… True, that was also unsightly of me.”

“No, had I been in that situation, I likely would have been just as flustered.”

Count Wasat glanced at the sake cask.

A single cask, filled with the sake Count Alhena insisted was “genuine Carrara.”

Its mere “discovery” was a huge commotion, but the fact that an equal amount of Carrara had been served to oblivious guests was far beyond a mere commotion.

“The phantom vintage, Carrara. To see guests unknowingly drinking it, one can’t help but lose composure. Besides… Lord Gaikaku, did it not bother you? That your prized sake was mistaken for a common souvenir.”

Gyeh gyeh gyeh!

“Count Wasat, you say the most comical things!”

Hadn’t it been a waste, even if it was for the sake of the performance?

Gaikaku laughed at Count Wasat, who was lamenting this.

“To be blunt, it’s a sake I made solely for my own enjoyment. It’s likely a good few notches below the ‘genuine Carrara’ made by artisans. To insist it’s the legendary vintage would, frankly, make me blush.”

“…Indeed, my men and I thought as much. Or rather, that’s precisely why no one other than myself noticed. If it had possessed the legendary taste, surely some guests with a refined palate would have thought, ‘Could this be Carrara?'”

It was precisely because the guests had discerning palates that they had been able to see it was an amateur-made sake.

That’s why, even if told it was Carrara, they would have disbelieved, thinking something like, ‘You jest, this is clearly amateur-made, isn’t it?’

It was only because Count Alhena had tasted the real thing that he must have thought, ‘Hm, this resembles Carrara. No, it is Carrara!! It’s sake made by an amateur using a Carrara wood cask!’

“Besides… as the one who produced it, I find it more pleasing to have everyone enjoy it together, saying ‘This is delicious,’ than to have them get all formal about it being sake made from legendary wood.”

Gaikaku’s simple joy.

Because his usual clownish demeanor was absent, it was clear this was his true sentiment.

At this “refinement,” both Count Wasat and Count Alhena couldn’t help but clear their throats.

“S-So then… this Carrara could become several degrees more delicious?”

“I should think so. It’s a difference an amateur might not discern in a taste comparison… but for a connoisseur, the difference would be significant.”

“What a story filled with such allure… No, of course, I would also like to enjoy the Carrara that you created, Lord Commander.”

A tree thought to be extinct was, in fact, still in existence.

Using it, a legendary sake could be recreated.

It was truly a story filled with such allure… and the idea of a hobbyist secretly enjoying this was also brimming with allure.

And, having thought that far, both Counts looked at each other.

They had arrived at a single, hopeful possibility.

“Lord Gaikaku! Could it be that you also… the remaining two rare sakes, Namakaki and Dyarthur?!”

“Lord Gaikaku! Your newly established Knightly Order, might it be seeking patrons? Count Alhena and I could…”

If they maintained a relationship with this man, might they not be able to savor even more of this allure?

The two of them, their eyes shining with such expectations…

“Gentlemen.”

At Gaikaku’s firm words, they fell silent.

“Thank you very much for your cooperation in my mission this time. What I have learned, and what you both have spoken of, I shall never divulge. Not even to Tistria-sama.”

Gaikaku spoke gently, yet in a tone that brooked no interruption.

“However, be warned. I am Tistria-sama’s faithful servant; I will never disobey her orders.”

In short, it was contempt and rejection.

“Even if another problem arises in this domain, it is not guaranteed that we will be dispatched. Furthermore, if Tistria-sama orders me to strike you both down, I will carry it out without hesitation.”

As promised, he would hand over the cask.

But he was warning them not to expect anything beyond that.

“Be careful, be careful. To ruin oneself with alcohol is unbecoming of gentlemen. All the more so for you, who are lords… Do not forget that your conduct affects your people…”

He left the legendary sake and exited the private room.

“Be careful, be careful… Gyehihihihi!”

He departed, casting a warning and a curse.

The two “sake lovers” left behind looked as if they’d had cold water thrown on them.

“…He was a more formidable Knight Commander than I thought.”

“Yes, just as you say.”

I’ll let you off this time, but don’t think I’m your ally. I only mediated because it was the fastest way to solve things, don’t get any funny ideas. If I got mixed up with fools like you, I’d end up ruined myself.

The two were not so foolish as to be unable to read this from his demeanor.

And they possessed enough self-awareness not to argue back.

“…When I smelled the Carrara, the face of my late father came to mind. I was surprised, but it was a very happy memory.”

Count Alhena looked as though he had taken ill.

“But from now on, whenever I smell this sake, I’ll likely be reminded of him.”

“Me too… I thought I had learned my lesson, but I hadn’t learned a thing. I’m starting to hate myself.”

The sake was not to blame, nor was the wood of its cask, and Gaikaku was mostly blameless.

The blame lay with these two. That was why, for these two, the aroma of Carrara had become something that brought guilt to mind. Their memories had become linked in such a way.

※

Gaikaku, taking the Beastkin, Dark Elves, and human infantry who had participated in this operation, quickly began the journey back to the Knights’ Headquarters.

That in itself probably indicated how disagreeable these recent events had been for him as well.

“What a load of crap.”

It truly was, utterly and completely, a load of crap.

What was so crappy about it was them asking about other sakes.

He really wished they would say something like, “From now on, we’ll abstain from alcohol.”

“Um, Commander… What are the other two of the Three Lost Rarities?”

“…”

Just as he was thinking that, a question came from one of the human infantrywomen.

If they were the ones asking, well, that was probably fine.

Gaikaku, without any particular admonishment, began to explain.

“Along with this Carrara, there’s Namakaki and Dyarthur. Of course, the remaining two are also sakes whose production was banned.”

“Are they delicious?”

“Yeah, pretty damn good.”

Even if its production were banned by law, if it wasn’t very tasty, it wouldn’t be remembered as one of the “Three Lost Rarities” or anything like that.

It was precisely because it was quite delicious and regrettably disappeared that it was counted among the Three Lost Rarities.

“Namakaki was banned because it’s difficult to preserve. Just transporting it a short distance ruins it, and drinking it causes food poisoning.”

“Even though it’s sake?!”

“It has a low alcohol content, too… Well, for that reason, at first, only its transport was banned, and drinking it on the spot was permitted. But, well… everyone who wants to drink such a fine sake is a sake lover. People sneaking it out kept popping up, and eventually, its production was banned, and the recipe disappeared. It’s a sad sake, vanished because of sake lovers.”

There are quite a number of foods that are difficult to store or transport. In fact, most foods are probably like that.

Even so, examples of them being banned are few… but if something is exceptionally popular, it paradoxically might have to be banned.

“The last one, Dyarthur. This one’s circumstances are a little different from the other two. The production of the sake itself wasn’t banned.”

“Then why?”

“It turned out that one of its raw ingredients was a material for a dangerous drug. The country moved to eradicate that dangerous drug, one of the ingredients became unusable… and as a result, that sake also disappeared.”

“…So, it’s because of people like you, Commander.”

“Pretty much!!”

Gaikaku was an Illegal Mage and had deep ties to illegal drugs.

If anything, he produced them himself and consumed them himself.

“For the record, I can make the other two as well. Namakaki can’t be made without a cool, dark place, but I’ve already made Dyarthur. The ingredients are homegrown, too; it’s the surplus from what I make for drug production, though.”

“…I think I get why you chose Carrara.”

“Right?”

Push come to shove, Carrara could be explained away as, ‘I made a sake cask from a tree in my garden.’ It harms no one, so even if it’s an illegal act, no one would likely try to seriously prosecute.

It wasn’t as if he’d stolen it from someone else.

But Namakaki, which easily causes food poisoning, and Dyarthur, which contains an ingredient for illegal drugs, seemed like they would be very problematic if discovered.

“By the way… all Three Lost Rarities are unusual and tasty, but not so much that your eyes would pop out. Besides, they’re not that popular with non-humans.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Depending on the race, some have no alcohol tolerance at all. If you don’t dilute it or distill it for them, they end up getting angry and saying it’s awful. Still, the price alone is eye-popping. Funny, isn’t it?”

The human infantrywoman who heard about the price made a slightly vulgar face.

“Um, Commander. Perhaps you might treat us to that sake or…”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

“Awesome! Then, if we sell it, our debts will be cleared…”

“If it doesn’t have a brand name or anything, it won’t fetch a price, in a bad way.”

“R-Right…”

“Besides, in that case, it would mean you sold my property… You’re prepared for that, I take it?”

Items supplied to slaves remain the property of the master.

Selling them would normally be a crime, embezzlement most likely.

“…I’ll drink the sake myself and use it as fuel to work hard.”

“Yep, that’s the spirit. I like clever people.”

What he had said to the two Counts was not a lie.