Chapter 122

Chapter 122: How a Social Novice Makes Allies

How a Social Novice Makes Allies
Chapter 122. How a Social Novice Makes Allies
Ferda had hung a black hood at the highest point of the castle.
It was a place difficult to see with the naked eye for common people, and an item not worth paying attention to.
However, for someone, it was a clear signal.
As proof, the Black Band came looking for him.
Only three hours had passed since he had hung it.
— I pay my respects to Regent-nim. It is our first meeting since the Dandolo Company.
Garnet Swallow, who had introduced herself as the representative, had come in person again.
— Can the leader of an organization really wander around like this?
— I may be called the leader, but I am no different from the other executives. Besides, for the moment, I am watching over the Valdrova Castle side… in that regard, my sincerest congratulations on the completion of the first phase of Hestia Village.
— Thank you.
Ferda and Garnet moved on to talk business.
Garnet tilted her head after hearing Ferda’s current situation.
— This is nothing more than obvious gossip… Do you really have to catch them?
— I must.
— Given the situation, we might have to bother the Imperial House, so the cost will be quite high.
— It doesn’t matter.
— Mmm…
Garnet let out a stifled groan and then nodded.
It was truly trivial, but what is important differs from person to person.
— Understood. We will investigate the origin of that rumor as much as we can.
— Thank you. How much for the advance?
At that, Garnet extended her palm.
— No advance is needed. These petty criminals are actually harder to catch, so if we succeed, you can pay us then.
No confidence in catching a single small-time criminal.
He took it as gossip being that terrifying.
Because it means anyone could be the culprit.
— Let’s make the reward payment upon completion. One more thing that intrigues me, may I ask?
— Information has an advance fee.
Thorough.
Ferda handed over the money.
Garnet, confirming it was an appropriate amount, sent a confirmation signal.
— We discussed countermeasures regarding the scandal with the Princess… can you verify how it turned out?
He told Garnet exactly what Olivia had said.
As the leader of a secret organization, verification was necessary.
— Good thinking.
Garnet showed a positive reaction.
— Commoners return to their lives and forget quickly, and nobles are swept away by new trends. Leaving a small doubt in the flow so that it dissipates is a noble way to handle things.
— Is that so?
— Besides that, even if not seen, it can also be used as a trap. If someone appears determined to kill both Regent-nim and the Princess, they will come out with more meat on their bones. If that happens, it will be much easier for us to catch them too. Either way, it’s a good method.
So there was that detail.
He thought he had seen the big picture, but it was beyond imagination.
Had Olivia calculated all of this?
— Thank you for verifying.
— It’s fine. If you have any other request or commission, please say so.
— No separate request, I will just take this.
Ferda handed over an envelope.
— What is this?
— An invitation to the Spring Festival.
— The banquet that is trendy among nobles these days. Am I permitted to attend?
— Since you will infiltrate anyway, wouldn’t it be better to present a real one instead of creating suspicion with a fake invitation?
Garnet made a face as if she had been struck.
— I will move so as not to stand out at the banquet.
Garnet stored the invitation in her chest.
— Since I obtained an entrance ticket to a place where all the nobles are watching, I should also offer a service.
— Service?
— Seeing you, Regent-nim seems like a novice in high society. Am I wrong?
Ferda nodded slightly.
Garnet smiled faintly.
— How a social novice makes allies.
The continent’s premier secret organization that makes a living selling information.
She had brought out such interesting information.
After finishing his usual daily routine, Ferda called a man.
— You dance well, right?
A handsome man with a brown ponytail, Jed Swallow.
— Of course. If I couldn’t dance, I couldn’t pass for a fellow of the Swallow Tribe.
— Then, can you also teach dancing?
— That is a slightly different area. Being good doesn’t mean being good at teaching…
— Of course I will pay the lesson fee.
— I will turn Regent-nim into the Emperor of the Dance Floor.
Jed gave a thumbs up.
Ferda wondered if he could trust that image.
— But do you want to learn to dance? For the Spring Festival?
Ferda nodded.
Jed tilted his head.
— The host doesn’t usually have an occasion to dance. Mostly just sits for a while and then leaves. Besides, the hostess won’t attend either…
— Preparation for when I dance with the Grand Duchess-nim.
— Oh~. Is she coming? I have never seen her, so I was curious…
— That is still unknown.
Then isn’t that counting your chickens before they hatch?
Jed couldn’t say that.
Because expectation clearly swelled in his eyes.
Ferda began learning to dance for Valdrova.
He had heard from Ruri that Valdrova was preparing several things for the Spring Festival.
However, not even Ruri was certain of her attendance.
It didn’t matter.
Just as Jed takes money and works, preparing for when Valdrova came was Ferda’s duty.
Jed sat in the opposite chair and asked Ferda.
— Have you ever seen the Grand Duchess-nim’s face?
— Only once.
— How was it? Being pretty is a given, but what expression did she make?
“Expression, huh.”
It didn’t seem like a pleasant story, but he answered honestly.
— She was crying.
— Oh~.
Ferda raised his head, staring at Jed.
Jed explained with a bewildered expression.
— Why are you looking at me like that? This is a good thing.
— What thing?
— You said you saw her crying face for the first time, right? There is a superstition that says if your partner’s face is crying when you see it for the first time, good fortune comes. If the next face you see is smiling, you will grow old together.
— Spouting nonsensical lies one after another.
— But it’s true…
Muttering with an embarrassed expression, he casually unfolded the letter on the desk and read its content.
— Who would have thought so many people would be dying to enter a new noble’s Spring Festival. The Princess’s help is really enormous, huh?
— It seems like quite a remarkable situation.
— It is wonderful. Receiving even a greeting letter would be lucky, but they are lamenting, begging for invitations to be sent to them.
For Jed, who had seen such things countless times, this unprecedented situation was just astonishing.
— Let’s see who is coming… ahem!
— Someone you know?
— Yes, there are. Young ladies who abandoned me at balls…
— Young ladies?
“How many had he abandoned?”
While Ferda stared at him, Jed opened his eyes and said.
— Do not worry. I am already collaborating with an expert, so even if we run into them, it will be resolved smoothly.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear—that expert collaborator barged in.
— Stooop!!
The person who entered the office making a frivolous sound was Penelope.
She entered skipping alone, apparently excited about something.
— I heard you are throwing a party!
— Yes.
— Is that Princess also coming?
— She is coming.
— Hehehehe…
Ferda added.
— If you touch her, I will crush your limbs, are you sure?
— Aaaaah…! Even if I like women, I’m not a bitch who can’t tell shit from soybean paste, right, Jeje?
Penelope acting familiarly.
Jed put his hand on her shoulder and said with deep eyes.
— You are exactly that kind of bitch.
— Haha, our Jeje is so mean, saying things he doesn’t feel.
— I would trust Malcolm before you.
— Gigolo! Just insult me properly!
At the mention of Malcolm, she fired up and they began to argue.
— Get out, bitch! What safe place do you think this is to crawl into? Ugh, disgusting. Where is the salt, the salt?!
— What are you talking about?! I was also summoned, you know?
— Regent-nim called you? Say something that makes sense. If that is true, I will change my last name.
— I did call her.
He settled it to stop the useless dispute.
— I don’t care what you two do, but you will have no chance to enjoy the party.
— Eh? Then I can’t flirt with women either?
Penelope grew dejected like a depressed dog.
Jed asked Ferda with an uninterested look.
— What do I need to do?
How a social novice makes allies, taught by Garnet Swallow.
— Find the weaknesses of the young lords and ladies visiting Valdrova Castle.
— Weaknesses?
— What kind of weaknesses?
Ferda threw keywords simply.
— Adultery.
The Spring Festival brings men and women together.
Flowers brimming with vitality tempt bees, and bees let themselves be bewitched.
Before you realize it, a one-night stand is a common thing.
They call it youthful indiscretion and cover it up with unwritten rules.
That is why Garnet proposed this.
— If there is such a scandal, they will also perceive Ferda-nim as a mere human. They will think a shameless person would turn a blind eye to such unwritten rules.
But for Ferda, those unwritten rules were nothing more than cowardly and ugly excuses.
Knowing Ferda’s pure devotion, Garnet proposed a somewhat dirty method to him.
— For those who will not become allies, you must create reasons so they have no choice but to become allies.
What nobles value is reputation.
To save their reputation, they will align with Ferda’s will.
They must be entangled in that way.
Garnet emphasized that the important thing was entangling them in the first place.
— Assuming the Spring Festival takes place, scout suitable locations for secret rendezvous. And record all adultery that occurs inside through magical recording orbs.
— A commission where not even ten bodies would be enough. Understood for now.
Those who would be used as that trump card were precisely Jed and Penelope.
They could move in secret unlike others, and they had experience bewitching people, which made them suitable talents.
— I will do it if you ask me to.
Penelope said that.
Thinking it was insolence, irritation arose reflexively, but it wasn’t that.
— If there is no blackmail material, can I just create it myself?
Penelope asked with shining eyes.
Ferda realized that he had overlooked one thing.
She was the daughter of Sitri, the Demon of Lust.
Troublesome, scatterbrained, whatever; what flows in her body is demon blood.
— Do it. I permit it.
Ferda threw himself into the terrible political circles of nobles.
So he needed to become even more terrible.
The cold spring wind melted with the warm sunlight, blowing freshly.
Flowers that bloomed in late winter bore fruit, embroidering the forest here and there.
In this land where the only threats were monsters, there were no hungry predators, so the women’s gathering went smoothly.
“Spring…”
The season of new birth arriving at the end of death.
For Valdrova, it was a season that made her sentimental.
She did not like sentimentality.
Because the end was always bleak.
That is why she moved her body relentlessly.
On that day of the season when young ladies went out for walks, she immersed herself in the labor of carrying and stacking stones for the castle walls.
She preferred the reward of work over sentimentality.
Lunchtime during her usual routine.
She was sitting among the workers, eating together in a circle.
— That building we were constructing that got halted? They say it will be used as the Cathedral of Alte.
For the unity of the commoners, Ferda had requested the Order of Alte to send priests, and two weeks ago, a priest arrived.
— Is that new priest taking charge?
— Probably.
— I didn’t like that priest very much…
— Who would like him? We are trying to curse that minor desert god a bit, but he comes and preaches to us.
— Didn’t they say not to speak like that? Set! You have to say Set!
— Set my ass. You’ve become the priest’s dog!
They were the moderates displaced by the radicals currently in power.
In other words, those who do not look down on the minor god of the southern desert and wish to get along.
Valdrova could not understand their rebellion.
“Peace is good, so why do they want to fight so much?”
Isn’t it fun if they don’t come into conflict with each other?
As always, Valdrova only listened silently to their story.
— Let’s believe it a bit. This Spring Festival is also with the south, right? The south is also active in exchange, so don’t provoke them unnecessarily.
— What kind of dog shit will happen is obvious without looking.
He sneered, showing disgust.
No one knew how the gathering made for exchange and harmony would turn out.
She also felt curious about the life of commoners.
What events would there be at the Spring Festival?
Besides just drinking, laughing, and chatting, is there anything else?
“Curious, but…”
She could not watch.
Because on that day she had to participate in the nobles’ Spring Festival, not the commoners’.
She heard preparation started in the morning, so she would have no time to observe.
“In a week…”
Time felt really fast.
She had started power control and dance practice for the Spring Festival, and now one week remained.
“Dancing with Ferda-san in a splendid hall.”
The excitement made her tense up unconsciously again.
But thanks to training, it had been reduced to levels of almost an ordinary person.
“The stone is still intact.”
What she held in her hand was a fragile stone.
It might hurt Ferda’s hand a little, but she was sure that the situation of crushing it unconsciously would not happen.
— Come to think of it, the Empire’s side is in an uproar! Our Lord and the Princess supposedly have that kind of relationship?
At someone’s topic, the workers’ atmosphere froze.
Valdrova opened her ears wide and eavesdropped on that conversation.
— What nonsense are you talking about.
— A woman from the Empire said it. She said it was heated in the Great Council even during the first visit. The Princess of the Arken Empire has visited a total of three times, including this procession. When has a Princess met with someone of similar age three times or more? And in this procession, they were practically a married couple…
A worker who couldn’t stand it covered his mouth.
— Hey! You’re really asking for an early death! Don’t go around blurting that out anywhere.
— Why? Everyone in Hestia knows.
— Idiot! Who doesn’t know? Do you think they stay quiet in Hestia for no reason? What if the Regent’s wife hears that story? Our Regent-nim would be a corpse!
Valdrova’s pupils shook like an earthquake.
The stone in her hand disappeared.
In its place, fine sand ground into particles piled up.