Chapter 177 - A Story of the Past, an Insider

The history of the Military State went hand in hand with clothing packets.

Refined over two generations, clothing packets were a truly revolutionary invention. Convenient, durable clothing that wrapped around the body in an instant with nothing more than an infusion of mana. For soldiers, whose food, clothing, and shelter were all part of their work, their convenience was irresistible.

But the salons and tailors that set the fashions of the day resented the very existence of clothing packets. What they lacked in technology, they made up for in money and connections. They approached the knights with a chest of gold.

The results were decisive. Mere weeks later, a ban on clothing packets was issued throughout the Kingdom. Ostensibly, it was meant to curb luxury and dissipation among the soldiers. In reality, the knights in power had simply weighed a chest of gold against the soldiers’ “minor” inconvenience.

Furthermore, Seamless Heavenly Garments received a challenge to a duel from an unidentified knight. The heir who was to become its third head lost that duel—without ever having the right to refuse.

Had the knight who accepted that chest of gold survived to this day, he would have bitterly regretted it.

That incident might not have been the sole cause of the coup, but without it, the coup would have come several years later.

“... The second head of Seamless Heavenly Garments devoted herself to the Military State. Thanks to her material and moral support for our soldiers, none of them had to go cold, even when the state was strapped for funds. We are deeply grateful for that, but...”

Peto looked distinctly uncomfortable as he answered.

“Even so, the affairs of a holding company are beyond our jurisdiction. We are public affairs and morale soldiers. We handle all manner of chores, including household matters great and small, but corporate succession is not something we can deal with.”

Even the girl who had stood so bravely among strangers could not hide her disappointment at Peto’s words.

“B-but I was told to come here if I wanted help!”

“Who on earth told you that?”

“A friend said a rich, fearless girl like me should just go to a host bar! Then I could have a man on my arm who would help me!”

Stop being friends with that person immediately.

Everyone listening nearly blurted it out, then swallowed the words. Until they knew the whole story, casually dispensing advice about someone else’s private life was taboo.

Deeper conversations came only after building an equally deep relationship. That was an ironclad rule for public affairs soldiers.

“Hmm. This sounds fascinating.”

It happened then. Hughes, who had been unusually quiet and attentive, straightened up with an expression every bit as fascinated as his words suggested.

Just as Peto muttered, “Surely not...”

“Let me help her, sir.”

The unthinkable became reality.

“What? You?”

“You told me to look after the kids. Well, since I’ve just been demoted anyway, I might as well lend Miss Bakia a hand.”

Hughes stepped forward with unhesitating confidence, as though his involvement alone would solve everything. The granddaughter of Seamless Heavenly Garments’ head brightened.

Peto spoke, fighting the urge to tear out his own sideburns.

“How exactly are you going to help? We may go around grandly calling ourselves public affairs soldiers, but we’re no different from a host bar!”

“So you admit it yourself.”

“When something needs admitting, I admit it! What have we got besides our looks and our gift of gab?”

With every sentence Peto finished, Sephier’s briefly brightened expression grew visibly darker. Feeling his guest’s displeasure with his entire body, Peto dragged Hughes close by the collar and whispered in his ear.

“Know your place, Hughes. You and I are nothing but empty husks with pretty exteriors. If we want to keep even this host bar, we have to keep our heads down!”

“So we should just send her away? The heir to Seamless Heavenly Garments, the Military State’s greatest holding company, has come asking for help, and we should turn a blind eye? Is that something a proud soldier of the Military State should say?”

“We feel sorry for her too. But what can we do? We’re just useless layabouts! We have neither the ability nor the authority to meddle in something this big!”

Separating public duty from private affairs was a virtue demanded of every public servant, but public affairs soldiers bore that obligation several times over.

Theirs was an unholy union of two professions: soldiers, who could die in the line of duty, and hosts, who could die over private affairs. The responsibility was greater than anyone could imagine. They had to exercise discretion if they wanted to prevent an enraged officer from storming in with a sword.

With that attitude ingrained in him, Peto did his utmost to dissuade Hughes. In the end, Hughes conceded.

“Ah. That won’t work, then.”

“Right? I’m glad you’ve thought it throu—”

Hughes deactivated his packet. All the ornaments plastered over his uniform fell to the floor, leaving him in a simple shirt.

Having shed his uniform in an instant, he handed the uniform packet to Peto.

“I’ve always wanted to say this. As of today, I quit.”

“You crazy bastard...”

“You’re not my senior anymore. Watch how you speak to me, Mr. Peto.”

“You absolute lunatic...”

Hughes pushed the packet into the arms of the dumbstruck Peto and approached Sephier. Trying to conceal her disappointment, she looked up at the young man who had come over.

“An interesting story. May I help you, Miss Sephier?”

“... Thank you. But...”

His ornate uniform had hidden it until now, but without it, Hughes looked less like an adult and more like one of Sephier’s peers, only a few years older. She gave Peto a doubtful look and asked,

“Is this man a public affairs soldier too?”

Peto squeezed his eyes shut before answering.

“Not anymore.”

“So he used to be?”

“Only as a stand-in, but yes.”

He had the tall, thin build of a boy fresh from a growth spurt. His face still retained its boyishness. It was so young that even “young man” felt a little too old for him.

Sephier looked him up and down, tilting her head.

“He’s not just a child who borrowed an impressive-looking uniform?”

“Pwahahaha! Hey, Hughes! She says you borrowed it!”

For the first time that year, Peto roared with laughter, clapping his hands.

They say a drowning person will clutch at a straw, but shove an actual straw in their face and their expression will sour. That was exactly how Sephier looked now.

She eyed Hughes doubtfully before turning away. Whether he understood her feelings or not, Hughes walked beside her with a broad smile.

“So, to put it simply...”

Hughes neatly summed up the situation.

“Your other relatives are taking advantage of the second head’s worsening chronic illness to try to claim your position as heir, Miss Sephier?”

“... Yes. Essentially.”

“Essentially?”

Sephier tightened her grip on the clothing packet in her hand as she answered.

“Grandmother and I are the only people in the Military State who can make Arche Avatars. When she was still healthy, she taught me and looked out for me. But...”

Once the second head’s health deteriorated and she could no longer exert her influence, no one remained who could protect Sephier.

As her words trailed off, Hughes asked,

“That’s strange. I’ve heard Arche Avatars are essential tools for making clothing packets. What do they intend to do if you stop working altogether?”

Sephier hesitated before answering.

“... Unless I want Seamless Heavenly Garments to cease to exist, I can’t stop making Arche Avatars.”

“Aha. No matter how unfair it is, you don’t want to destroy the company. And they know that too.”

“Seamless Heavenly Garments is a cloth shop with a long and distinguished history. After years of hardship, it has only recently begun to flourish again. Ruining it just for my own selfish desires... I couldn’t.”

“Hmm. What to do?”

Sephier spoke gravely, but Hughes’s response could not have been more lighthearted. Unable to find him reassuring no matter how she looked at it, she ventured a question.

“... Let me ask you something this time. How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“Only two years older than me...”

“Age doesn’t matter much when you’re doing something great.”

“Do you even have a plan?”

Instead of answering, Hughes gave her an ominous smile. A shiver ran down Sephier’s spine.

It was a smile that could have belonged to a mischievous brat who didn’t know his place—or to the greatest strategist of the century. It filled her with an inexplicable sense of foreboding and relief at once.

It wasn’t relief at having him on her side. It was relief at knowing that a man whose next move she couldn’t begin to predict was, at least, not her enemy...

“Miss, can you trust me?”

... But humoring him now would somehow feel like losing. Sephier swallowed hard and answered.

“No. I can’t possibly trust you.”

“Very wise. But you’ll have to.”

“Why?”

“Because...”

By then, they had arrived at the headquarters of Seamless Heavenly Garments in District 3. The company occupied an entire seven-story building, and hired guards stood glaring at its main entrance.

Hughes pointed toward it as he answered.

“I’m going to tell on you. Everything.”

Alexei Bakia, the acting president managing the company in place of its second head, who was bedridden with the ailments of old age, was receiving an unexpected visitor.

After Hughes explained the circumstances, Alexei laughed until his sides hurt. Here at the end of the year, he had been brought the funniest news of all.

“Bwahahaha! The stupid girl! Of all the places to go, she went to the public affairs soldiers! Men who are nothing more than hosts! A child will always be a child!”

“Considering she knew nothing and went straight to a host bar... wouldn’t that make her precocious instead? Heh heh heh!”

“Hahahaha! I like you! Your way with words, your attitude!”

After laughing for a good while, Alexei continued with a nasty smile.

“... And the quick wits that brought you straight to me.”

Was it true that petty men recognized their own kind? Hughes answered him with a similar smile.

“So you did have a rough idea of her whereabouts?”

“Ah, of course. That little girl has never set foot in another district. There are only so many places she could go around here... Though I lost track of her because I never imagined she would visit a host bar.”

“But that means she walked into an even more dangerous place of her own accord. A place full of empty-headed good-for-nothings with nothing on their minds but making a quick score... Heh heh heh.”

“Bwahahahaha! What a terrible joke!”

“Heh heh heh heh heh!”

The two laughed like mirror images of one another for several minutes before finally getting down to business.

Alexei, who had been laughing so merrily a moment earlier, grew serious. With a thoroughly guarded, reluctant expression, he asked Hughes about his reward.

“So. What do you want from me?”

“I’m a host. To be precise, my job is to converse with women and keep them so unsettled they don’t dare think of anything else in my presence.”

“Oh? And?”

The mention of keeping women unsettled drew a favorable response. Sensing success, Hughes rubbed his hands together and spoke.

“It would be inconvenient for you too, Mr. President, if that little miss kept scurrying around, wouldn’t it? Especially once she registers as a citizen in two years. Who knows where she might run off to? Don’t you need someone by her side to watch her?”

“You’ll keep her under surveillance?”

“Surveillance sounds rather harsh. I meant she might need a private tutor, Mr. President.”

More than anything else, it was clearly the choice of the words “Mr. President” that pleased Alexei. With a much heartier, more genuine laugh than before, he extended a hand to Hughes.

“I’m counting on you. Starting today, you are Sephier’s private tutor. She won’t be attending secondary school because of her training as heir, so finding her a tutor is the least I can do as her godfather!”

Hughes bowed obsequiously as he took the offered hand. His attitude pleased Alexei all the more.

“Leave it to me. I’ll push her so hard she’ll never even think of rebelling again. She won’t be able to do anything but make Arche Avatars!”

If Sephier had possessed a gun at that moment, she would have shot Hughes. Unfortunately, she had no gun then.

Sephier paid dearly for trusting another human being so readily.

And so a year passed.