Morning.
As I went down to the living room a little later than usual, for some reason I found two men sitting at the dining table.
"Oh, good morning! Second-san."
"Hmph..."
A cheerful young dog-beast man greeted me, and next to him a beautiful elf with light-blue hair only spared me a nihilistic glance. They were Capito and Nil.
That's right, come to think about it, I remember they were drinking way too much last night.
...No, no, no no no. Let's not remember that.
"Morning, Capito-kun. And that's quite a horrible greeting, don't you think, Nil?"
"Hey. Why are you already dropping the honorifics with me?"
"Yeah sure. You're the little master of the Weissroy family, Aren't you? Yet I heard you did quite the number on one of my toilets to the point it won't be usable for seven days. You bet I'm dropping honorifics."
"Bastard...Are you trying to mock my household?"
"You're making it quite easy."
"Both of you, please stop fighting this early in the morning. It's annoying."
While I was sarcastically commenting on Nil's terrible attitude, Silvia also came downstairs without me noticing her, and proceeded to stop us. Sure, I suppose we were being quite noisy this early in the morning.
Still, you're wrong Silvia. This is my house. I'll just say it outright. Aren't you being a little too harsh on me? After all, you also know what this guy did last night, right? Yeah, this guy――
"――Ahh! The pukey elf!"
Eko, who had just come back from her morning walk, pointed at Nil as soon as she walked into the living room, and loudly called him out.
That's right, this guy is the 'pukey elf'.
"...You little shit. You're not talking about me, are you?"
"Uhh...Oopsie."
Eko, who seemed to have spoken out involuntarily, tried to now feign ignorance, her gaze swimming up to a corner as if to say, "it wasn't me".
"You're lying! Didn't you totally point at me!? And I am the only elf here! How dare you! How dare you, a beastfolk call out a proud elf!? Apologize!"
...Huh? There's no way, right...?
Immediately after that concern came to mind, Capito, who sat right next to Nil, spoke out.
"Nil-san...Don't you remember?"
"Remember what?"
"About last night, you..."
"Last night?"
Yeah, seems like he doesn't remember.
Oh god...I can see where this attitude is coming from if he doesn't remember that.
...Ohh, you poor thing.
"Nil, last night you were so shocked that Alpha had ignored you that you drank to the point of getting totally smashed, cried your heart out to every single participant in the party. You also pushed away every servant who rushed to help you, vomited all over the party venue, and finally blacked out atop a table."
I'll tell you everything in detail, don't worry.
"...Y-You're joking..."
"Nope, everyone in the party remembers it very clearly."
"......"
He suddenly became very quiet.
Most likely he was starting to remember bits and pieces. His complexion slowly grew paler and paler.
"As for me, I'm glad I drank a potion..."
I remember Capito muttering similar words yesterday after drinking a detox potion before he got too drunk, and just after seeing Nil totally smashed. As for Nil, his expression grew into one of despair.
"...In any case, let's have breakfast."
＊ ＊ ＊
"See you later guys, take care."
"Thank you for inviting us! Let's meet again, Second-san!
"..."
Second saw Capito and Nil off, after having eaten breakfast.
While Capito bowed and exchanged words with Second, a smile on his face, Nil, on the other hand, remained silent.
...Nil was deep in thought. Going back home? Where?
The Weissroy household had no place for someone like Nil. The Weissroys had no need for a weak man who was defeated by the daughter of the 'fresh-off-the-farm' Promenade household, legitimate heir or not.
In that case, what should he do after leaving his home?
His personality into account, Nil's reputation in the public eye was extremely bad.
But even so, it was hard for him to easily abandon his high pride, built over 128 years of being raised in a famous family, highly respected for its magic.
He wasn't sure anyone would even hire him. In fact, Nil's pride wouldn't allow him to be hired by others. Then, should he use his skills in [Magic] and register with the Adventurer's guild and live his life as an adventurer? Nil considered this the greatest shame. To him, adventurers were hermits. Fighting monsters in the dirt, covered with sweat and mud. It wasn't something a noble elf like him would do.
"...Damn."
Nil felt disgusted.
Disgusted by his house, by society... And more than anything, by himself.
The false pretenses he had been putting up until now would no longer work after last night's incident. No, he was slightly aware that even before then they weren't really working.
How should he live from now on?
While he felt troubled by such problems, Second said a few words to him.
"Hey."
What are you going to say now? Nil braced himself.
He had caused him a great deal of trouble with last night's incident, so he was prepared to hear a complaint or two.
"You can come to visit us anytime. You're free anyway, right?"
"...Ugh."
Nil opened his eyes wide in surprise at the too unexpected words.
'You can come to visit'. This was the first time in his life that he received such words.
Most of the time, those who Nil had to deal with were just all smiles and tried buttering up to him with social pleasantries while deep down thinking "let's not meet him again". Nil always looked at them with cold eyes.
But the case with Second was very different from the rest. With his hands in his pockets, he casually said "come visit us anytime" so out of nowhere that Nil had trouble thinking how to react.
If he intended to be kind or sympathetic, there were better words for that. He could've said something like "I can help you get a job," or "why don't you become an adventurer?" Or even "what are you going to do now? Are you going to be alright?". That would've been fake kindness, of course.
If he has said something along those lines, Nil would've no doubt exploded with rage. He still had his tiny sliver of pride to protect and would've exposed his misplaced hostility towards Second.
But what about those? The words Second said were clearly meant with true intention.
'You're free anyways', if anything, those words were rather mocking.
Nil should've been furious at that mockery, saying something like "screw you".
However, for some reason. Nil felt a surge of excitement.
The unpretentious promise to simply come to visit felt somehow comfortable, like something one would say to a friend.
"...Yeah..."
Barely a single word.
Nil simply replied with a yeah and a nod.
Turning his back to Second, who was seeing him off, he tried to hide his reddened face.
...It's okay to come again.
With these thoughts in mind, Nil set out on a journey to a new daily life.
＊ ＊ ＊
"Master. As for your schedule for today――"
Immediately after Capito and Nil went back, Yukari came to talk to me in a matter-of-fact tone.
Did I have any plans for today? I suddenly remember while listening to her.
Muratti is coming in the morning. He wants to hear about Lightning Attribute magic and Magical Magic.
Alpha apparently left a message saying that she will definitely visit House Firstest when the mess with her house is cleared. Klaus said he will visit when he qualifies for the Issenza tournament; and Alfredo and the Mix sisters said they would visit tomorrow afternoon, again, this too was left as a message. Why were all messages given to Yukari instead of me? Am I really that forgetful?
"First of all, I would like to report on the current situation of Caramelia in the capital. Since the enactment of the Caramelia Control Law, the Third Knight Order has intensified its patrols and a considerable number of distributors have been terminated. No signs of smuggling have been discovered so far."
"What about the addicts?"
"Although the source of their addiction has been eliminated, they still seem to exist in large numbers. No effective treatment has been established as of yet."
"Is that so?"
I guess it wouldn't be that easy. Considering that our head chef Sovra has yet to recover, it seems finding a treatment is hard.
"Next, it's about the investigation on the survivors of the R6."
"Are you having trouble with it?"
"Yeah. But there's a lead. We got an inside clue from the investigation of the Yve corps, led by Windfield. Seems that during the suppression of the righteous bandits, one of them crossed over to the Sacred Country Kamel.
"Really? That was a long time ago."
"Yes. We still don't know if she's alive or dead. Her name is Rei, 18 years old. She's the only daughter of the boss, Rimusuma."
"A woman...?"
And to the Sacred Country Kamel, of all places. Most women in that country live as nuns. It would also be impossible for her to escape the strict surveillance of the Kamel church unless she was extremely fierce. If she's alive, she is probably still in Kamel.
"Alright. This time, I will investigate."
"As you wish."
While I'm at it, let's look for Rei in addition to the saint. I still owe it to Cubero and Besaid.
"And last but not least, this month's expenses were 389,310,000 CL. The current balance is 5,646,930,000 CL."
"Eh, isn't that a lot more than usual? I guess Silvia and Eko's special training, alongside the triple crown celebration party, cost a lot of money after all."
"In addition, there's also the potions and equipment purchased for the servants at the top ranks, and the expansion and renovation of the servants' quarters."
"Ahh, right. Forgot about that."
"Please don't forget something that costs over 100 million."
Seems she's angry.
Since the servants themselves are motivated to earn experience points, there is no reason for me not to invest in them. The servants' mansion was also getting a little cramped, so we enlarge it to now accommodate about 500 people. I think the total cost was about 180 million CL. And since it costs a little less than 200 million a month for salaries, food, maintenance, and various other expenses, I'd say the expenses for this month were within a reasonable margin.
Looks like I still can take it easy and not make money for a while, but I don't know what the future holds. Maybe I should find some free time and earn a lot of money.
"――Second-shi! Second-shiiiiiii!"
Oops, seems like the stuffy-looking guy came.
He's banging on the front door and calling out my name loudly.
"Quiet down! I'm coming now, just wait!"
"Sorry! I'll wait!"
Having finished my conversation with Yukari, I went to the front door.
Sure enough, there was a sweaty fat guy with glasses waiting for me. Former Eishou, Muratti Tricolori.()
"Come on! Let's go inside! I'm so excited, I've been looking forward! I haven't gotten a wink of sleep for a week!"
"Overdramatic..."
Muratti, was in high spirits, as usual, his glasses fogged up and a huge smile on his face as steam came out of his body and up the cold winter sky.
He's rude, overfamiliar, annoying, and there shouldn't be anything good about him, but for some reason, I just can't seem to hate him.
I guided Muratti to the living room and had him sit opposite to me.
Yukari served tea to Muratti in an experienced-looking manner.
"Well then. Which one do you want to hear about?"
When I suddenly cut to the chase, Muratti drank the tea in one gulp and opened his mouth.
"Fufufufu. Then, let's talk about Lightning Attribute magic."