Chapter 114: After the Noble Left

In the end the azure feathers of the Azure Wind Swift were delivered to that noble-looking man with Ren’s name kept out of it. Word of how it had gone reached Ren afterwards, even at work in the back of the workshop.

“They haven’t been worked into quill pens?”

That, apparently, was the dissatisfied remark he came out with when he was told that a small quantity of the azure feathers he had asked so pressingly for had been found. Mikaila only laughed and let it pass.

“The request was to secure azure feathers, wasn’t it? This isn’t a quill-pen maker’s workshop.”

In the end the man seemed to like the colour of the azure feathers he was given, and left the guild in good humour.

Ren watched him go for a moment from behind a pillar at the back of the counter.

A fine leather quiver. And a bow polished to a shine.

(The Archery skill, perhaps.)

His brother Ryan came to mind. Bows both, but that one had looked far more expensive.

(I wonder how Ryan-niiue is. I wonder if he has arrows enough.)

Should he send some more? He found himself thinking about it. Then the guild door closed, and once the noble was out of sight, a strange thing happened.

The guild hall, deserted until a moment ago, suddenly began to fill with people.

Wondering what was going on, Ren went out into the hall, and saw the reference room door open and Victor put his face quietly round it.

Victor looked about him, and when his eyes met Ren’s he broke into a relieved smile.

He came bursting out of the reference room at a run.

“Has the noble gone yet?”

“Eh?”

Ren’s eyes went wide.

After Victor came Loren and Fred, and Colette, and then the members of the Black Wolf Band as well.

They came trooping out like animals waking from hibernation.

“Were you all in the reference room?”

“I was in the storehouse.”

“We were at the training ground.”

It seemed everyone had made themselves scarce while that noble was there.

“Is it bad if you don’t hide?”

Ren asked before he could help it. Victor gave a wry smile.

“Not bad, so much as a nuisance, they say. I don’t really know myself.”

“Earlier, when that noble turned up, everyone round us was saying to hide.”

“Didn’t really follow it, but I hid anyway.”

Larc of the Black Wolf Band folded his arms and nodded too.

“They say it’s a nuisance, so isn’t it best not to get involved?”

“I see…”

Ren was stuck for an answer. He was, after all, a noble himself, of a sort. The third son of a baronial house.

(Are nobles as much of a nuisance as all that…)

It left him feeling rather mixed. But then he remembered being told to clear out of his room because nobles — people from the Margrave’s house among them — were coming to his house as guests invited to the celebration.

It might be much the same as the feeling he had had then, he thought.

After that, the Young Branch Squad and the Black Wolf Band went off to the training ground, saying they were going to have a letter-board contest.

Ren went back to the workshop and set about making char-core quill pens.

He had material in plenty today.

The tail feathers of the Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird, shining in seven colours. The vivid azure feathers of the Azure Wind Swift.

The sunset-orange feathers of the Flame Finch. The feathers of the three-eyed eagle.

The finished char-core quill pens were many-coloured, showy enough to look like a noble’s belongings. The three-eyed eagle feathers were plain, but among the bright ones they looked tight and understated, and drew the rest together.

Ren himself was satisfied with the work.

“They’re finished.”

He went to call Mikaila and Eugene, and laid the char-core quill pens he had made out on the workbench.

Mikaila came to look and froze for an instant. Then her face stiffened slightly.

“…They’re lovely.”

“Thank you very much!”

Ren felt his cheeks grow a little warm.

“They really are lovely.”

Mikaila carefully picked up one of the char-core quill pens.

The Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird’s tail feather glittered.

“Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird…”

“Mm! It looks splendid, doesn’t it!”

“Yes… it’s beautiful.”

Mikaila’s smile was a little stiff.

“Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird tail feathers are rare, you know.”

“Are they?”

Now that she said it, and thinking it over, it was true that he hardly ever came across one even when he went into the forest.

“And then there’s this…”

Next Mikaila picked up the quill pen with the azure feather. The Azure Wind Swift’s azure feather caught the light and shone.

“If the timing had been a little earlier, it would have been a catastrophe.”

She let out a sigh. Ren didn’t follow her and tilted his head. Mikaila gave a wry smile.

“You might have been writing with a pen trimmed with those very azure feathers, right in front of the noble who wanted azure feathers. Do you see?”

“Ah…”

He tried to imagine it. He might have been told to hand the feathers over; or, failing that, an awkward silence might have settled on the room.

Ren’s face stiffened too.

“…That could have been bad…”

“Indeed it could.”

Mikaila sighed deeply.

“…Apparently azure quill pens are in fashion in the Royal Capital just now.”

“Are they?”

“We get enquiries from merchants, and requests as well. I can see why they’d catch on — they’re lovely.”

She looked at the feather as she said it. It was the colour of a piece of the blue sky cut out and turned into a feather just as it was.

“The price will likely go up before long, too.”

“Eh? These as well?”

“If plain quill pens go up, it would hardly make sense for these not to go higher still.”

Mikaila shrugged.

Ren looked at the azure feathers on the bench.

(I wonder if Ryan-niiue is using the Azure Wind Swift quill pen. I’d like to send him a char-core quill pen as well.)

Thinking such things, Ren set about making the next char-core quill pen.