Chapter 61
Feeling the timing couldn’t be better, Hitaon excused himself from those nearby and stepped out of the banquet hall.
“Sir Glair…! Over here.”
From between two pillars, a man with shaggy, unkempt hair and glasses thicker than his eyes approached hesitantly. It was aide Meyer. He held out a letter.
“Since you’ve come, I take it Siss is absent yet again today?”
“Y-Yes. That’s right. His newly appointed position seems to keep him so busy he hardly has a moment to breathe. He’s barely been able to return to the estate as of late.”
“If that’s true, the Countess Pillais must be feeling rather lonely.”
“Don’t even mention it…”
Setting aside the small talk, Hitaon unfolded the letter. The neatly organized handwriting belonged to aide Meyer’s master—the Countess Pillais.
[…As such, the funding has been secured without issue, so you may rest easy.]
Satisfaction settled in his eyes as he read the final paragraph.
The Lille Empire, having weathered countless ages to reach the present day, was now entering a period of transition. New-model firearms were being imported, scholars were ceaselessly discovering scientific technologies through experiment and observation, and merchants were lavishly bringing in foreign innovations and materials.
If the nobility wished not to fall behind in this evolving era, it was time to move shrewdly—looking beyond tradition and custom to secure their authority through diplomacy and information networks instead.
A year before graduating from the Academy, Hitaon had drawn up a list of several investments with high future profitability, aligned with the current state of affairs.
They fell broadly into four categories: a finance fund exclusive to the nobility, the field of plague-related pharmaceuticals, railways and canals along with their gradual expansion into foreign trade, and an electrical current development venture. The selected projects were prepared for funding through the hands of the Countess Pillais—known as an information broker among high society—and were processed as swiftly as he’d hoped.
“Well done. I’ll have to pay a visit to the Countess soon to offer my greetings.”
“Ah…! Then if you could please send word ahead when you plan to visit, I would be most grateful!”
“Why is that?”
“The Count Pillais is eagerly awaiting a chance to meet you, Sir Glair. He says he wishes to repay your kindness in some form… He monitors your movements at every spare moment.”
Hitaon sighed with the face of someone long accustomed to this.
“Tell him he owes me nothing and to just look after his own affairs properly.”
Count Pillais.
His real name was Sissbeth Pillais—called ‘Siss’ by Hitaon and Broil, he’d been their fellow student at the Academy.
Before entering the Academy, Sissbeth had been the only son of Viscount Paphon, from a minor, fallen noble house. He hadn’t been involved in any grave crimes like treason—his family had simply gone bankrupt, unable to overcome financial ruin. Until then, he had been Sissbeth Paphon.
Stripped of his family’s protection and reduced nearly to commoner status, he’d been blessed with a sharp mind and so managed to enter the Academy without difficulty. But he had no money to attend.
It was Lady Pillais who stepped forward to sponsor his expenses. Word was that the moment she laid eyes on Sissbeth—a slender, handsome young man—she’d fallen for him on the spot… but since it wasn’t anything he was particularly curious about, Hitaon had only half-listened.
The condition of her sponsorship, supposedly, was that Sissbeth would marry her upon graduating from the Academy and enter the Pillais household as a live-in son-in-law. Thanks to that, Sissbeth had been able to attend Arnoba Tenbra Academy without worrying about money.
But whether it was because unsavory rumors about this arrangement had spread, or because of his innately timid nature, Sissbeth never adjusted to the Academy and spent his days being tormented in various ways.
By the following year, when Broil and Hitaon enrolled, he’d been living with fresh bruises and wounds on his body almost daily.
Once the two of them, fellow countrymen, had arrived and learned the full story, Hitaon had been the first to look out for him, and Broil had lent a hand as well. The harassment gradually diminished, and thanks to that, Sissbeth had been able to graduate without incident. Perhaps because of that experience, even now, after returning to the capital post-graduation, Sissbeth still regarded Hitaon as a benefactor.
The connection with the Countess Pillais had come about naturally in the process. Fretting endlessly over Sissbeth’s fragile nerves, she had learned of Hitaon and Broil’s existence through letters, and after their return to the capital, she had been formally introduced and began to associate with them. She was now one of his most reliable allies.
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.