I immediately began the process necessary for preparing the doc.u.ments for the upcoming arrival of the person critical to establishing my knight order, Oscar Terejia. My knight order application needs to go to the central office of the Royal Army"s headquarters stationed in the capital and I must submit some fees as well. Their office is also quite a grand place to behold.

"I"m here on behalf of Earl Terejia. Please give me the necessary doc.u.ments in order to apply for a knight order."

Bellway had taken me here today and was over at the next window, taking care of what we came here to do, but since we went to the trouble of coming to the knight headquarters, I might as well investigate some other things also.

"I would also like to ask a question. I may have heard a rumor that the bandits caught in my Kaldia domain have been executed."

"A bandit group, you say…… Oh, Kaldia domain? Could you be, Viscountess Kaldia……?"

The knight at the window who was talking to me had a tired, bored voice. I couldn"t help but furrow my eyebrows at his lack of manners. What have things come to if a knight working in the main headquarters has an att.i.tude like this, sigh.

I managed to hear the knight saying the word "torture……" to himself quietly under his breath as he looked through some doc.u.ments. My ears may be better than I expected.

"W, what business do you have knowing these matters? The, the methods used to obtain information from them are cla.s.sified as top secret. Where they are and what happened to them is also top secret."

"……Maybe you"ve misunderstood something. I would merely like to see the uncla.s.sified public doc.u.ments available about the information learned from the bandits."

"Oh, ohh, ahh, the public doc.u.ments."

While still talking so slowly like a sloth, the knight got the public doc.u.ments for me. I think that this knight probably thinks I"m a torture maniac or something. I wonder if he"s seen the scars I left on the bandit group for himself.

"Okay, here you are, the public doc.u.ments available about the bandit group."

I took the folder of doc.u.ments he gave to me, and swiftly scanned through them. As I expected, I didn"t see Marquis Nordsturm"s name anywhere, but I did see a low-ranking northern n.o.ble"s name, Viscount Garmstead. Maybe it was impossible for him to hide all connections entirely, and this is just a scapegoat? Either way, I carved Viscount Garmstead"s name into my memory, then I returned the doc.u.ments to the knight.

"Thank you."

"Oh, sure."

As I returned the doc.u.ments, the knight immediately filed them away again. His expression didn"t seem to have fear or curiosity, only boredom, and I decided to leave the window before I heard something unnecessary again.

"Oh, my my. What a coincidence, I never would have thought that I"d meet you here, Viscountess Kaldia."

Suddenly, a raspy voice greeted me. What a place to meet him in.

"……Greetings, Viscount Ogren."

"Hmph, I can"t say that I"m feeling all too well right now. Unlike some barbarians, I prefer to avoid this type of place whenever possible."

I merely laughed mentally at Viscount Ogren who was guffawing like an idiot. I don"t know what he"s here for, but his words have already revealed that he must be here for something that only he personally can do since he hates being here so much.

"By the way, Viscountess Kaldia. How are things going with my request from several days ago?"

"I"ve gotten in contact with the Rogshia family."

"I see. That means, you still haven"t met their daughter yourself? Just what are you doing, you haven"t even met the person herself to take care of the problem!"

Viscount Ogren seemed quite surprised, while I simply stared at him coldly in return. Maybe he was irritated that I would stand up to him, he gave me a look that said he was bored with me.

"Well, I hope you"ll take care of things soon."

He said that as if he had to get the last word in as I continued on my way. Although I must wonder, since he"s still a n.o.ble, is it really okay for him to reveal his emotions and thoughts so easily like that. He seems so easy to take advantage of. Well, he"s just a disposable p.a.w.n.

But just for the sake of hara.s.sing me, Marquis Nordsturm wouldn"t dispose of this p.a.w.n on purpose, would he. He"s definitely inconvenienced me at a time when I should be busy with other matters, but I think that would be careless of him.

"I"ve returned. ……Eliza-sama, what are you been doing?"

Bellway returned with doc.u.ments in hand when he noticed me just standing there tilting my head while thinking.

"Oh, nothing in particular. You"re finished?"

"Yes. I"ve received all the necessary doc.u.ments."

"Then let"s go back to Earl Terejia"s place. Time is of the essence."

"Tea party?"

"Yep. There"s an invitation from the Rogshia family to see if you would like to meet their daughter officially at a tea party."

"Is their daughter coming to the royal capital?"

"She"s already here, as a first-year student in n.o.ble school."

Ahh, I nodded in understanding. So this means that next year will be Feria Rogshia"s coming of age ceremony and debut party.

In Arxia, people are considered adults at 16, and officially enter social circles then. Well, only those from the royal family or duke"s families are able to be well-connected instantly upon reaching adulthood, but it"s still a necessary process for all n.o.bles. ……Or to say, it"s basically a necessity for n.o.bles to attend all sorts of these social events. That"s why even though I"m not an adult yet, I still need to attend so many of these as well.

"Has a date been decided?"

"Not yet."

"Then…… How about leaving it to Bellway?"

"If that"s what you want to do."

I nodded to Earl Terejia, while also catching Bellway"s look of surprise in the corner of my eye as he stood in the corner of the room. Then I turned around and faced Bellway directly.

"Bellway, can I leave it up to you to arrange the date?"

"Eliza-sama……"

Bellway looked back and forth between Earl Terejia and myself with a confused expression. I don"t know what the Earl"s expression was though, I couldn"t see his face from here.

Bellway coughed slightly, then he looked straight at me again.

"……Of course. Thank you, for leaving it up to me."

"No, thank you instead. I"ll trust you to do it, Bellway."