"So, I've been abandoned, huh? I'm really starting to hate those idiot nobles more and more. Can't we get a little capitalism around here...?"
Cid walked out of the post office with a complicated expression. He glanced at the letter in his hand, then casually tossed it into the trash. His parents had left it for him at the Midgar Kingdom post office, telling him to come deal with some political matters.
What the letter described was nothing particularly dramatic. Over the past several days, people had been disappearing one after another from the Kagenou family's territory. After the disappearances were discovered and an investigation was conducted, the clues appeared to point toward several high-ranking nobles in the Royal Capital, so his parents had sent him there to report the situation.
"If it were really that simple, that'd be great."
Cid couldn't help complaining. Never mind that the investigation had only produced "suspected" leads. Sending him, the second son who was, in a sense, still a student, to report the situation in their territory to the royal family was unreasonable no matter how he looked at it.
Wasn't this obviously because the people they might offend were too important, so they were sending him to take the fall?
He could understand his parents' reasoning to some extent. Faced with a task guaranteed to offend people in high places, choosing their mediocre second son to take the blame instead of their promising eldest daughter made sense.
But keeping the real situation from him because they were afraid he might realize something was wrong and refuse to come still left him a little speechless.
It wasn't like he cared that much.
"...Okay, maybe a little."
This was a rare vacation, after all.
Just when he had been planning to wander around and enjoy himself, a letter from his parents had summoned him to the Royal Capital. He had originally thought it might be some sort of family gathering, only to get off the ship, arrive at the post office the next day, and discover that he had actually been called here to deal with someone else's mess.
More importantly, this really didn't seem like something a mob character was supposed to be doing.
"Excuse me... are you Cid Kagenou-san?"
Just as Cid was busy complaining to himself, a woman's voice reached his ears and pulled him out of his endless stream of grievances. He turned toward the speaker.
Hmm. She was a cute young woman with long, light red hair styled into two buns. Although she wore fairly casual everyday clothes, her refined speech and elegant demeanor made it obvious that she had received an excellent upbringing.
She was probably the daughter of some prominent House.
"I am. And you are...?"
Cid stopped and readily admitted his identity. He was curious why this unfamiliar young woman, who was obviously of high status at a glance, had approached him.
"So you are Cid. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Christina Hope of the marquis House of Hope. I'm here on behalf of the alliance formed by the territories affected by these large-scale disappearances to invite you to join us."
The Hope House, huh? That sounds kind of familiar. Let me think...
Oh, right.
A while ago, when someone was picking a fight with me, I used the name of one of my former classmates to bluff my way through it. That Suzuki-kun I mentioned was apparently some distant relative of the Hope House.
And Christina...
...!!!
If I remember correctly, Christina is the name of the Hope House's heir.
Wait.
That's not the important part here...
"What do you mean, 'an alliance formed by territories affected by large-scale disappearances'? What does that mean? I thought only people from my sister's territory had gone missing!?"
Cid finally realized the implications and cried out in shock. From what Christina had just revealed, he suddenly had a very bad feeling.
"Eh? Cid, you didn't know?"
Christina was startled by his sudden outburst. Once she understood what he meant, however, her eyes widened and she instinctively questioned him in return.
"Large numbers of people have gone missing from the territories belonging to the main Hope House, its branch Houses, and several other nobles as well. That's why we gathered together. We intend to ask Midgar for assistance and demand an explanation from the Despoht family."
As far as Christina was concerned, Cid had already come to the Royal Capital under orders from his House, so surely he should have known all of this.
Otherwise, how could a low-ranking noble possibly dare to challenge and accuse his superiors? He would probably be killed before he even got started.
"...Ahaha, of course I know. Of course I do. The information I received at the time was just so shocking that I subconsciously overlooked that part. Now that you've mentioned it, Christina, I remember."
Come on, why are you looking at me like I'm the weird one? How am I supposed to admit that my parents sent me here to take the fall?
Fine, then. I'll stake everything on the acting skills I've trained since childhood and bluff my way through this.
"Is... that so?"
Christina sounded doubtful.
She clearly didn't believe him, but since they had only just met, she chose not to press the issue. Instead, she pulled out a business card and handed it to Cid.
"This is where we're meeting. In any case, I'm looking forward to having you join us, Cid. Only by working together can we uncover the cause behind these disappearances across multiple territories and rescue the people who are missing."
She seems like a very serious girl with a strong sense of justice.
After silently reaching that conclusion, Cid accepted the business card.
He had already decided that he would use this organization as an excuse to slack off. He could leave all the attention-grabbing work to these impressive people who would probably become major figures in the kingdom someday.
As a pitiful, weak, and helpless mob character, he could just follow behind them going, 'Nice! Amazing!'
"That's wonderful. Welcome, Cid. Now that you're one of us, I'll take you to our temporary headquarters. We may only be a temporary organization, but we do have a place here in the Royal Capital where we can hold discussions."
Perhaps noticing the strange look in Cid's eyes, Christina added the explanation.
But that wasn't what Cid had been wondering about.
After all, the heir to a marquis House personally taking part in the investigation might offend some people, but it wasn't exactly unthinkable. At the very least, this hardly seemed severe enough to describe what his parents had done as sending him to take the fall.
Had he been overthinking things?
They hailed a taxi.
During the ride, Cid and Christina exchanged the occasional bit of conversation while he pondered the vague sense that something was wrong. At the same time, he stared out the window at scenery that had changed dramatically compared to a year ago.
He had only been away for a little over a year, yet the entire Royal Capital had practically transformed.
The Royal Capital in Cid's memories from over a year ago had resembled a society undergoing an industrial boom after World War II. The current Royal Capital still retained faint traces of what it had once looked like, but overall, it had changed beyond recognition. It now resembled one of the less developed second- or third-tier cities from the modern world.
The construction capabilities of a Supernatural World were genuinely absurd.
Before the world fusion, laying foundations and erecting buildings required enormous amounts of manpower and resources. Gamma and the others, however, could finish that kind of work in a single day.
After the world fusion, they had gone all out to seize the opportunity for rapid development. Even a skyscraper dozens of stories tall could be completed within a few days while still meeting proper standards for both quality and safety.
And that was with a deliberately restricted version of their technology, since they were still hiding part of their true capabilities.
It was honestly terrifying.
Still... an era of rapid development wasn't entirely without a price.
As the taxi sped through the streets, Cid's gaze moved from shop to shop outside the window.
What he saw raised a question in his mind.
Why hasn't the Kingdom of Midgar passed antitrust laws against the Mitsugoshi Company yet?
While Cid marveled at just how much the capital of his own country had changed, time slipped away as his thoughts wandered. By the time he came back to himself, they had already arrived in front of a large building.
"Perfect timing. The others should be in the conference room discussing what to do next right now. Since we're here, I'll introduce you to everyone."
As soon as they arrived, Christina was the first to hop out of the taxi. She turned toward Cid with a bright smile, intending to take him inside and introduce him to the other members of the alliance.
Cid, however, wasn't nearly as relaxed.
He didn't even get out immediately. Instead, he remained silent and stared at the building's glass entrance.
He could sense a large number of people inside, divided into two groups and heading toward the exit.
And one of those groups...
They weren't coming out with friendly intentions.
"What's wrong, Cid?"
Puzzled by his strange reaction, Christina followed his gaze toward the entrance.
At that exact moment, the doors slowly opened.
The first group to emerge was led by an alluringly beautiful woman accompanied by several guards who looked difficult to mess with at first glance.
The other group was unmistakably made up of students.
The apparent leader of those students was a boy with short, dark green hair. At that moment, he was eagerly showering the alluring woman with flattery.
"Eliza?"
The two groups came face-to-face with Cid and Christina at the entrance.
The moment Christina saw the woman, she instinctively called out her name.
"What are you doing here?!"
Christina clearly did not get along with the woman named Eliza.
That much was obvious from the sudden hostility in her voice. She had been speaking to Cid with nothing but warmth and friendliness throughout the trip here.
"Christina? Perfect timing. Let's settle this today."
Eliza, who had been enjoying the dark green-haired boy's flattery, frowned when Christina called out to her. But the moment she saw who it was, her expression quickly relaxed again.
Only her displeased gaze briefly swept over Cid behind Christina.
"Consider this a friendly warning. Don't make trouble for me or my father. That would be better for you, for all of you, and for us."
"So what you're saying, Eliza, is that you want us to drop our accusations against your father? Even setting aside the fact that nothing has been proven yet, this concerns the lives of so many people. It isn't something we can simply sweep under the rug. We have to give the people living in our territories an explanation."
Huh?
Eliza didn't say it out loud, but it was obvious that she genuinely hadn't expected Christina to respond with something she found so ridiculous after she had personally come here to persuade her to give up.
"So you're saying you refuse our offer of cooperation?"
Eliza brushed a hand through her long hair as she addressed Christina with an unfriendly expression. A hint of threat had already crept into her voice.
"Yes. This concerns our..."
"No, no, no! Lady Eliza, don't listen to her. We'd be more than happy to accept your invitation. We'll withdraw the accusations against Uncle Despoht right now. How could we possibly fall out with Marquis Despoht over one or two commoners?"
The boy with short green hair cut Christina off before she could finish. Wearing an ingratiating smile, he stepped around her and accepted Eliza's invitation as though he had just been granted some tremendous honor.
Eliza glanced contemptuously at the dark green-haired boy beside her and gave a derisive snort.
Neither he nor the dozen or so people around him noticed that Christina, who had previously looked at them with at least some degree of friendliness, was now glaring at them so darkly that she seemed ready to kill them on the spot.
"No need. Since the Hope House refuses, we have no need for the rest of you either. Don't start thinking too highly of yourselves."
Eliza withdrew her contemptuous gaze and casually made her group's disdain for the others perfectly clear.
From her perspective, the only person in this bunch worth taking seriously was Christina. As the heir to a marquis House, Christina could at least cause them some trouble.
The others hardly mattered at all.
If any of them could so much as get a word in before the King, that alone would be impressive.
"Let's go. Since you refuse our invitation, Christina, I assume you're prepared to pay the appropriate price. I hope you and this rabble of yours can withstand it. Hahahaha..."
Eliza gave Christina a mocking smile. With more than a dozen members of Christina's own group suddenly turning against her, Christina's expression had already gone completely dark.
Still laughing at her, Eliza led several powerful warriors past Christina and Cid.
"I will. I'll drag you down, along with every last bastard behind you, and kill all of you."
Damn. This one's a lunatic too.
One advantage of standing nearby was that there was always a small chance you might overhear someone muttering under their breath.
Christina stood there as though something inside her had snapped, murmuring such vicious words in the gentlest possible voice.
Cid finally understood why appearances could be deceiving.
"I really picked the perfect time to show up..."
Cid looked down at the gold-plated business card in his hand and the address printed on it.
He couldn't help but find it funny.
He had barely arrived, yet he had already witnessed the supposedly "unbreakable" alliance fall apart right in front of him.
"Still... should I quit?"
Cid rubbed his chin and began to seriously doubt the situation.
He had witnessed such an unreliable mess the moment he arrived. Could his plan of letting his teammates do all the fighting while he slacked off in the back really succeed?
Maybe it would be better to leave right now and pretend none of this had ever happened.
Of course, he was only thinking about it.
From the brief eye contact he had exchanged with Eliza earlier, Cid knew she had already taken note of the low-ranking noble who had arrived with Christina.
Whether he wanted trouble or not, trouble had already found him.
In that case, he might as well join.
Damn it, what kind of lunatic is she? She looks down on low-ranking nobles, but apparently we're important enough for her to hold a grudge.
"Sorry, Cid. We've run into a small problem here. Give me a moment..."
Christina let out a breath and turned an unfriendly gaze toward the surrender faction, which now made up more than half of the group.
Then, in a gentle voice, she spoke to Cid.