Chapter 55: A Knight does not play along

The carriage came to a halt in front of a grand estate.

The mansion, surrounded by a wide garden filled with holly trees and camellias, was as large and splendid as any blue-blood noble residence.

“Didn’t you say we were going to the red-light district?”

I asked Scantilla, feeling more than a little confused.

“This street is the red-light district. Look.”

The glass lanterns hanging at the magnificent main gate glowed red.

“Then this place is a brothel?”

Scantilla gave me an odd look.

“Have you really never been to one before?”

“No matter how precocious someone is, they can’t start frequenting places like this before fifteen. Until last year I was penniless, and ever since then I’ve been busy every single day with training and missions.”

“As a pureblood, you have a duty to prosper, don’t you? Even if you were a cripple for a time, surely there must have been one or two young ladies at banquets eyeing your blood.”

Managing noble bastards was also part of the nameless families’ work.

Perhaps because of that, Scantilla showed no hesitation at all in prying into my private life.

As we walked along the stepping stones laid across the lawn, I answered.

“That may be true for purebloods in general. But if someone from the direct line with inheritance rights goes around doing that, it always comes back to bite them later.”

In the history of houses and the Empire alike, nobles who misbehaved below the waist had brought trouble upon themselves for centuries at a time.

There was even a tale of a house head who, upon ascending to power, was immediately undermined by a rival family parading his father’s illegitimate children, delaying his firm grasp on authority by more than two hundred years.

“Then I suppose you have nothing holding you back now. No one could criticize you for coming here.”

I could only nod.

With a trace of lingering reluctance, I asked,

“Does the Camellia Pavilion not handle male courtesans? There’s really no need for me to go inside—”

“They do. The problem is that the spy we’re here to take in is named Chunhui. She doesn’t accept women.”

***

In a dimly lit room bathed in the glow of soft red lanterns, I sat on a wide bed wearing only a robe.

It was larger, broader, and softer than even the bed in my own quarters at the main estate.

Something — medicine or incense — had been placed in the lantern stand, filling the room with a faint, sweet floral scent.

The door opened quietly, and a woman in a splendid red dress stepped inside.

Her brown hair was swept up, and a glossy black corset was cinched tightly over her dress.

I hadn’t known anyone actually dressed like that.

She smiled brightly when she saw me.

“I heard you were a splendid knight, but the stories don’t quite do your face justice.”

The cover story was that my benevolent superior, Scantilla, was giving a young knight who had completed his mission a fine experience at an expensive establishment.

“Oh my. There’s no need to be nervous. I’ll take care of everything.”

She sat down beside me.

I was used to the vitality unique to blue bloods, but even by those standards, she was beautiful.

So this was the level required for a chunhui who attended blue-blood banquets — culture and allure in equal measure.

“You don’t seem like red blood. You feel more like the people I usually serve.”

I played the role of a young knight, tense yet visibly excited, encountering a chunhui who entertained only blue bloods for the first time.

Perhaps accustomed to such reactions, she laughed.

“You may call me whatever name you like. Tonight, I’ll become the person you could only gaze at from afar.”

“I heard women don’t like that sort of thing.”

“Becoming a substitute for someone else isn’t pleasant. But being treated like a lady by a fine knight is.”

She placed a hand on my thigh and asked,

“Shall I act the part for you? Sir. Tell me your name.”

The moment she spoke the word Sir, I heard something snap inside me.

I wasn’t born a knight — I chose to become one.

I wasn’t built to enjoy the sense of taboo that came from flaunting status.

“Anplus. Anplus Intezeron Intezeruto.”

“What?”

A distinct spasm crossed her face, clearly visible even in the darkness.

“I’m here to capture a spy who infiltrated the Camellia Pavilion, catered to Intezeron’s high-blood nobles, and leaked military intelligence.”

“!”

Clenching her teeth, she slipped a hand inside the folds of her dress.

She drew a sharp dagger with a blue-gleaming edge, gripping it in reverse.

I seized her wrist.

When I twisted with force, she screamed and dropped the dagger.

That should have been enough to make her give up, but she pulled a second dagger with her other hand.

I twisted the already-grabbed wrist further, yet she groaned and still stabbed toward my chest.

I wrenched the other wrist as well, but the dagger’s tip scraped along my forearm.

The skin didn’t tear.

With no time to dwell on it, I forced her down with brute strength and struck the back of her neck with the edge of my hand, knocking her unconscious.

“Haa.”

I slung the limp spy over my shoulder and left the room.

Walking down the carpeted corridor and descending the stairs, I found Scantilla waiting in the hall, looking up at me in confusion.

“Why are you out so soon? You should’ve enjoyed yourself properly. I paid real money, you know.”

I shook the two daggers in my hand.

Scantilla fell silent.

“I nearly got stabbed in the side while trying to have a ‘good experience.’”

A middle-aged woman in a dress standing beside Scantilla turned pale.

“I have no idea where she even got those. We clean the rooms every day.”

Scantilla shot her a sharp look.

“Madam.”

“Eek! Y-yes.”

“Just how carelessly did you check your girls’ backgrounds, that a spy could stockpile weapons without you knowing? What if she’d drawn a blade at a banquet? Do you have any idea how much classified information may have leaked through her? You know that responsibility is borne by the results, don’t you?”

The madam looked as though she were about to faint.

When blue bloods spoke of responsibility, they meant responsibility measured in lives.

Scantilla clicked her tongue.

“That said, the Intezeron blue bloods who babbled to a chunhui aren’t blameless either. After all, part of a chunhui’s price includes listening to house heads complain about how hard their work is.”

“Y-yes.”

“I’ll overlook today’s incident. In return, make a generous donation under the Camellia Pavilion’s name during the next recruitment drive. Understood?”

Scantilla formed a circle with her thumb and index finger.

The madam hurriedly produced several palm-sized sheets of paper and a leather pouch.

“Of course. Thank you for visiting us today. If you come again, we’ll provide excellent service to both the knight and my lady.”

“You didn’t have to give us all this.”

Scantilla accepted them with a smile.

***

“For nameless family work, that was rather lenient.”

“If we smashed the Camellia Pavilion, quite a few officer-mages on First Street would be in tears.”

After handing the chunhui spy over to the guards to be sent to the main fortress, we boarded the carriage again.

Scantilla fanned herself with the papers she’d received, smiling.

“Since I got something like this, isn’t it fine to be a little generous?”

“What’s that?”

“Designation vouchers. Each one lets me pick a chunhui to come in with some simple drinks and snacks. One gold coin per voucher. I’ll give you half.”

“I don’t need it. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. I’m not even twenty yet. I’m not so starved or broken that I’d skip all the excitement between men and women and settle my lust with money.”

Scantilla looked genuinely surprised.

“That’s not very blue-blood of you.”

“You were surely the same at my age.”

Whether she heard me or not, she muttered in a peculiar tone,

“But someone like you, Sir Anplus, should be able to afford that kind of indulgence. In that case, I’ll take this — I’ve got no excitement left, only desire.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“No, it’s fine. When you do nameless work, you learn things you’d rather not know. Like discovering that the brother or sister you admired growing up has a whole brood of bastards, all with the same face.”

“Ugh.”

I groaned.

Scantilla burst into laughter.

“I’ll have half the gold sent to you separately.”

“Fine. Thanks. How much farther to the merchant guild?”

“We’ll arrive shortly.”

“Was more information leaking from the slums, or from the Camellia Pavilion?”

Scantilla narrowed her eyes.

“Honestly, the Camellia Pavilion was more dangerous. Even blue bloods tend to loosen their tongues in front of alcohol and an attractive partner.”

“That figures.”

“They had deep ties with powerful dark-blood figures, so we couldn’t just burn it down like the slums. We had to track them for months. We’ve caught over twenty spies from the red-light district alone.”

“Any chance there are more?”

“We’ve caught as many as we can. The madams have started policing themselves, so things should stay quiet for a while.”

I nodded.

“If we have to come back, we’ll just arrest them outright. There’s no need for me to go into the rooms again.”

“The knights I’ve escorted before all tried to at least hold hands one more time, you know.”

“It’s harder to put on and take off plate armor alone than you think. Tying gauntlet straps is the same. Trying to fasten one side with the other hand makes you want to lose your mind.”

Scantilla laughed, sadistic and playful.

“Hehe. I had no idea.”

“No wonder knights envy comrades who tie knots better than those who swing swords.”

“Give me your arm. I’ll tie it for you again.”

“Thanks.”

A moment later, I ground my teeth.

“Thanks for tying it tight, but—”

“Oh my. Is there a problem?”

“Did you really have to lace it in heart shapes? And the right side looks like a turtle shell.”

“Hehe. Isn’t that better?”

I sighed.

“Enough of that. Ah! We’re here. Let’s get out.”

It was a different kind of exhaustion from dealing with Trichitas.

***

The merchant house we visited was a wealthy one dealing in high-grade spices.

Their warehouse was on the city outskirts, but their administrative and retail headquarters sat in the most prime location of an expensive commercial district.

Sirina had mentioned investing in a merchant house around here — this wasn’t it, was it?

“Welcome. I am Yuligo, the deputy head of this merchant house.”

A well-built man in a brown suit led us inside.

The air and walls carried a blend of familiar fragrances I often smelled at banquets.

“Is that cinnamon? Judging by how thin the bark is, it must be from the Vertigula family.”

“You recognized it at a glance. As you said, it’s this spring’s finest harvest. We just moved it from the warehouse.”

A large sack nearby was filled with expensive cinnamon.

Yuligo rang a bell in the reception room, where curtains hung between pillars, and summoned a staff member.

“Bring refreshments for our honored guests.”

A servant arrived with a teapot and snacks.

The pot was cool enough for condensation to bead on its surface.

“It’s a tea currently popular among Vertigula high society. Please, have a cup.”

A reddish-brown liquid was poured into thin porcelain cups.

Scantilla took a sip and made an intrigued expression.

“It grows on you. Sweet, spicy, and gently fragrant.”

I took a sip as well.

It tasted like sujeonggwa from my previous life.

A nostalgic flavor.

“Indeed. It clings pleasantly to the palate.”

Yuligo smiled in visible relief.

Scantilla nodded, urging him to continue.

“As I mentioned before, I wish to report our merchant head. I believe he may be a spy for the Imperial Family.”

It was a thunderbolt of a statement, yet Scantilla didn’t even blink.

“What makes you think that?”

Yuligo let out a small sigh.

“As you know, when we import goods from the Imperial Family and sell Intezeruto goods, we conduct triangular trade through the territories of the Drakasis or Vertigula families.”

Due to inter-house conflict, direct trade between the Imperial Family and Intezeruto had ceased a century ago.

“I’ve seen our merchant head acting overly familiar with imperial merchants there on multiple occasions.”

Scantilla replied coolly.

“That alone isn’t proof. One could just as easily think you’re framing him to seize the merchant house. Continue.”

“Our merchant head documents Intezeruto’s grain flows, spice usage for dried meats, and even logging rights in the great forest on a weekly basis. He brings those documents every time he travels to Vertigula.”

“Go on.”

“I saw him hide something beneath the container used for the cinnamon sacks.”

He pointed to the cinnamon sack near the entrance.

“When I secretly removed the container and checked, I found this.”

Interlocked steel gears and a steel frame.

The core of a high-tension, pulley-type medium crossbow.

Scantilla smiled in satisfaction.

If true, it was irrefutable evidence.

Possession of a pulley crossbow was a capital crime, even without the charge of espionage.

I raised one hand lightly.

Both of them looked at me.

I pointed toward the gap between the curtains hanging between the pillars.

“Then is the crossbow aimed at us from over there also something your merchant head brought in?”

Deputy head Yuligo’s face stiffened.

Scantilla laughed sadistically.

“When did you notice?”

“A little while ago. Don’t play dumb. You noticed too.”

“There are two more over there. Close range. Can you block them all?”

I drew the shorter knight’s sword.

“My specialty. Leave it to me.”