“So I agreed to take on the investigation of Principal Carla.”
Frondier gave a situational report in the room.
Since their lives had stabilized, his room had somehow become a kind of operations briefing room. The others had begun to take it for granted that they would gather here.
Only, while gathering was natural, what Frondier said was not.
“...You’re going to investigate Carla?”
Elodie asked with a cool look.
“Yeah. We were going to look into Carla anyway, and since it came in the form of a request, the timing worked out.”
Frondier answered.
“They say Carla is an incredible beauty.”
Lirih asked with a cool look.
“I checked the photo, and she’s startlingly beautiful. Thanks to that, there won’t be any confusion. Finding her got easier.”
Frondier answered.
“You said it was a plan where you seduce her, Mr. Frondier.”
Selena asked with a cool look.
“Not ‘seduce’—I mean to learn her face and then, over time, get closer. If the target is unmarried men, she might even suggest an information deal to me.”
Frondier answered.
“......”
“......”
“......”
And then there was silence.
Reading the room, Arald and Pielot quietly edged away. That left Frondier to receive the chilly gazes of three women all by himself.
“...Why are your faces like that?”
Frondier asked, but no one answered.
After he blinked a few times, he knit his brows and asked,
“Don’t tell me you think I’ll get led around by Carla?”
Carla was a beautiful woman who made information deals targeting unmarried men. Of course, they still didn’t know how those deals were conducted.
Did they think Frondier would ruin things, bewitched by Carla’s beauty?
On that point, Frondier had some confidence.
“Don’t worry. I’ve handled that sort of thing reasonably well.”
Selena had originally approached to seduce Frondier, and Lirih had even used her power of “Charm.”
Frondier knew he was under the influence of Charm, but his response was very different from what Lirih had expected.
“...It’s the opposite, you idiot.”
Elodie sighed.
“The opposite?”
“You. What if things go too well?”
Things go too well?
Frondier tilted his head, as if wondering how that could be a problem.
“If they go well, that’s good. We complete the request, get the reward, and head off whatever unknown threat is lurking in Atlas.”
“Not that part.”
Lirih shook her head, and Selena took a step closer to Frondier.
“Mr. Frondier.”
Selena’s face was beyond serious—it was grim.
“Uh, yeah?”
Pressed by that intensity, Frondier asked back, and Selena said,
“If this operation goes well, it means Atlas’s Principal Carla opens her heart to you.”
“Uh, ah—okay. That’s a loaded way to put it.”
“In that case, even after the request is over, your relationship with Carla will remain. What will you do then? If Carla develops a deep interest in you, and things become more troublesome than before the request?”
Thanks to Bael’s help, Frondier’s identity had been prepared with thorough care, but it wasn’t perfect.
It was a false identity from the start. If someone decided to dig in, contradictions would be found. All the more so if that someone was the principal of Atlas.
Being drawn to someone means taking an interest in them. You want to know more, to see more. The closer a clear outsider like Carla gets, the more dangerous Frondier’s personal background becomes.
Frondier answered,
“There’s no way she’s going to get that interested in me.”
Selena drooped her head with a soft thud. Her unease simply would not reach Frondier.
“There’s something I’ve wanted to say for a long time.”
Elodie spoke up.
“Frondier, are you weak to women?”
“...What?”
Frondier stared at Elodie, blindsided.
Weak to women? He could swear to the heavens that wasn’t the case.
“Elodie, you don’t know—but if you knew how I’ve dealt with women I designated as enemies—”
For some reason, Selena shivered when «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» Frondier said that.
Elodie shot back without yielding,
“But in the end, they’re all alive. Selena, and Ms. Lirih too.”
Their first meetings and circumstances had been far from pleasant. But now they were on Frondier’s side.
Then Lirih, as if reminded, said,
“...Come to think of it, I heard you joined hands with the Empire’s First Princess Elysia. She once threatened all of Constel.”
“The girl named Kian who raided the classroom at Constel—she was part of Indus, wasn’t she? Why did you treat her so gentlemanly in the classroom? You subdued her with Heukcheon and ended it without a scratch.”
Elodie launched a small doubt, and the other two, remembering as well, hurried to add their opinions.
Unable to listen any longer, Frondier sighed and said,
“That’s because you’re thinking about it like that.”
“Then how are you thinking about it!”
“I don’t want to kill people—men or women! Do I look like some murder fiend to you?”
Ah. Elodie made a sound of understanding at that point.
With a weary air, Frondier closed his eyes and said,
“I almost died to Senior Edwin too, but he’s someone I can trust now. Gregory was an enemy, but he’s on my side. I caused a ruckus at Arald’s company, yet Arald is helping me now. I only finish off enemies that absolutely can’t be improved.”
He didn’t say it, but Pro Eden Hamelot was also one of the people Frondier made use of. You couldn’t exactly call that a relationship of trust.
Also, even Renzo once went along with Frondier’s plan. That wasn’t about trust so much as a situation gone completely off the rails.
“I didn’t want to say this in front of you, but I’ll make it clear while we’re here.”
When Frondier opened his eyes again, that look—familiar to them, and always chilling—was there.
“The fact that the ones I’ve dealt with so far have been men is a coincidence. If a woman did something that warranted it, I’d kill her. In my way. I don’t ‘just’ kill those who oppose me.”
At those words, not only the three women but Arald and Pielot widened their eyes.
As the mood grew heavy, Frondier glanced around and said,
“See? This is why I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Lirih scratched her cheek.
“...W-well. Point taken. If necessary, you’ll handle Carla coldly too, right?”
“That was the plan from the start. Whether it’s Carla or anyone else, I’ll handle it coldly. I already said it—I’m not aiming to seduce her, and that phrasing is off anyway. I’ll just learn her face and listen to what she says.”
Liberto had told him not to overdo it, and Frondier had no intention of making this investigation dangerous.
His current stance was to build familiarity with Carla as if the request didn’t exist. Exactly that much.
Above all, Frondier had a strict command from his mother, Malia: do not put yourself in danger that would leave a scar. He had no intention of doing anything reckless.
“Do you know the location?”
Once the women’s chill subsided, Arald finally asked.
“Yeah. Looks like she’ll attend a social gathering in a few days. She’s focusing on contact with nobles—that figures. All I have to do is spend a little time there, say hello, and come back. Nothing will happen.”
At Frondier’s words, the others’ unease eased a little.
Hearing that Frondier didn’t plan to seduce anyone, only to build familiarity, made it feel like nothing strange would happen.
As the atmosphere softened, Lirih asked,
“By the way, do you have clothes to wear to a social event?”
“I do. Only one set.”
Saying that, Frondier stood up. Step, step—his feet headed for the wardrobe, as if to show them what he would wear.
Watching that, Lirih suddenly remembered and spoke.
“...Only one set—don’t tell me, that outfit.”
“Ah, you would’ve seen it, Lirih.”
Frondier opened the wardrobe and showed the clothes.
From jacket to trousers, complete black. The design was fittingly House Roach—neat yet weighty, a formal suit whose restraint produced a refined austerity.
The others tried to picture what Frondier would look like in it, and Lirih, who already knew, felt the corner of her eye twitch.
Looking at his clothes, Frondier said,
“These were dyed pitch-black with care by House Roach so I wouldn’t stand out at banquets. It’s annoyingly uncomfortable to wear, which is a flaw, but it’s perfect for this request.”
Then Frondier nodded as if satisfied.
Seeing that, the three women felt their anxiety rising anew.
They were convinced.
Frondier’s lack of self-objectivity—bordering on self-serving—was probably in his bloodline.
***
And so Frondier attended the banquet, believing he wouldn’t stand out.
Where he got the idea—that dressing in pitch black would make him less visible—might be the thinking of some assassin from somewhere, but naturally, that expectation missed the mark.
'Right. I’m a new face, that’s all.'
Settling on that conclusion, Frondier tuned out the stares. It would only be like this today. He was sure of it.
To Frondier, the first day of the request felt like a kind of rest.
He had little interest in banquets, of course, but he had been overburdened with work for too long—teaching, the three-dimensional map, the mana crystals. Recently, even a student had begged to become his disciple, which was enough to give him a headache.
Right now, he needed an excuse—any excuse—to rest his mind.
'The people’s clamor, the smell of wine and food, the glances of passersby and their whispering voices. As if all gathered solely to sabotage my focus.'
Absolutely perfect.
He couldn’t focus at all.
Frondier poured wine into a glass and took a light sip.
He’d heard that Carla would appear here today, but for the first day, it honestly didn’t matter whether she showed or not.
There was no time limit on this investigation, and there was no need to step into dangerous territory. If something like that popped up during the process, that would be a different issue, but at least until then, it was peace itself.
'Then I’ll take it easy and look around. If I don’t see her, that’s fine too.'
Frondier enjoyed fully legitimate leisure. He wasn’t doing any of the things one does at a banquet, but he was starting to rather like this thing called the social scene.
Only, from time to time, people came up to talk to him, which was a bit of a nuisance.
In the Terst Empire, for better or worse, there wasn’t a single person at a banquet who didn’t know him, but here he had to explain who he was every time.
On the continent of Agoris, there are a great many noble houses. That’s because the conditions for founding a house aren’t as strict as in Terst.
So unless a house is famous, it’s unfamiliar to almost everyone. The house “Roach” doesn’t even exist on this continent, and there are already many houses similar to it.
But not being famous also means the house’s prestige isn’t much. Because of that, a fair number of people lost interest once they heard Frondier’s full name.
As a result, Frondier ended up spending oddly longer talking with women.
'...I felt this at the Empire’s banquet too.'
From Frondier’s perspective, it was time to part ways, but the nobles didn’t leave—they stayed. What was their intent? The conversation kept going despite not being at a point where it should, and the content was so everyday that it was hard to detect any ulterior motive.
'At this rate I’ll get stuck here and miss Carla.'
Well, does it really matter? Today, Frondier had time to spare.
He spent a while chatting with the nobles around him. It was neither interesting nor dull. The words came out without much thought, all static phrases that did nothing more than observe courtesy.
While Frondier was passing the time like that—
—Found her.
Frondier spotted her.
Atlas’s principal, Carla. He’d brought the photo just in case, but there was no need to double-check.
Within this banquet, her looks shone to an extreme. Even without a photo, you could have found her by saying, “Look for the most beautiful person—that’s Carla.” She was plainly on a different level.
'With beauty like that, I didn’t need to make the effort to look.'
Even if he hadn’t, most eyes turned to Carla the moment she appeared. Men and women alike. There was no need to think about where she was.
'Shall I go say hello?'
Frondier started to move toward Carla—and stopped.
'A bit inconvenient right now.'
At the moment, too many eyes were fixed on Carla. And plenty were fixed on him, too.
Frondier wanted to learn each other’s faces and build familiarity, not to parade that process around for the whole neighborhood to see.
So, later. Frondier nodded to himself.
Carla walked with a face full of composure. Her smile was gentle yet unwavering, and in her soft gaze there overflowed a clear confidence.
Then her eyes turned to Frondier.
She halted.
“...?”
Puzzled by that action, Frondier drank his wine. He assumed it was a coincidence.
“...Ah.”
But Carla let out a small sound. The proud smile and composure vanished, her pupils opened wide, and her mouth hung slightly ajar.
Her eyes, as if being drawn in, fixed on Frondier and wouldn’t budge. Her throat bobbed once.
'...No, right?'
Frondier forced the thought away and focused on talking to other people—say, the nobles beside him.
In the meantime, Carla bowed her head once, took a deep breath, and then, with slightly trembling eyes, slowly walked toward Frondier.
By then, the nobles who’d been talking with Frondier had shifted their gazes to Carla as well, and naturally, Frondier could no longer continue the conversation.
He took it out on the wine, staring fixedly in that direction.
'No, don’t. Don’t do that.'
The worries and voices of those three women suddenly resurfaced.
—You. What if things go too well?
As expected, in terms of prudence, they were women Frondier could never hope to catch up to.
