24-Hour Hwaebinghwan Consultation Office
Episode 8
Ding-a-ling—
The smell of alcohol wafted to the tip of Rora's nose as she stepped inside.
‘Same as ever. This place.’
Though it was broad daylight, the tavern was already filled with the smell of alcohol and food.
A tavern on the outskirts of the mercenary district.
That was Rora's destination.
"Whoa, is that a noble?"
"Shh. Don't go running your mouth! Getting involved with nobles is nothing but trouble!"
"...I've never seen a noble come to a place like this."
The whispering voices were too low to properly reach Rora, but she hadn't intended to listen in the first place.
"...Hmm."
Rora approached the bartender—the owner of this tavern—who was sighing as he looked at her.
"Tom."
The employee who had last left the Count Rien household.
It was the butler, Tom.
In his late twenties, he was the son of the previous butler, Peurijia.
"I heard you went to the Tree of Glory?"
"You heard already?"
Rora sat at the bar and met Tom's gaze.
"A drink?"
"Who'd you hear it from?"
"Something strong?"
"I asked who you heard it from."
"...I heard it from the brats. Something strong?"
Rora realized that the brats Tom spoke of were the children of employees working in noble houses.
Unbeknownst to others, Tom had been building his own information network in this manner for several years now.
It was no grand information guild.
It was merely a small hobby of Tom's, born from a desire to know about the goings-on in the noble district.
‘As expected, Tom has to come back.’
With certainty, Rora spoke to Tom.
"I have to go right now. Jaek is waiting outside."
"I thought you'd at least have a free meal before leaving."
"I'd planned to, but I think it's better to just go."
"Then have at least a glass of water."
Tom sloppily poured a glass of water and set it down before Rora.
Had other nobles seen that, they would have raised hell calling him insolent.
"Oh, the water's cold."
Rora didn't particularly mind.
"Tom!"
It was then.
A person popped out from the kitchen's back door and whispered something to Tom.
"...Really?"
Tom's eyes widened for a moment before returning to normal.
"Thanks for letting me know."
When Tom handed over a silver coin, the other party grinned and disappeared again.
"Hmm."
Tom pondered for a moment, then leaned toward Rora. And he whispered so the others couldn't hear.
"Breaking news. It'll spread throughout the capital soon."
"What news?"
"The Crown Prince—"
The Crown Prince?
"—has reportedly awakened."
"...Hmm."
Rora let out a murmur.
"The capital will be in an uproar. The upper crust will be in chaos."
The 'upper crust' Tom spoke of were likely the imperial palace and the noble council.
"Hmm."
Rora murmured once more.
"Is something the matter?"
Only then did Tom realize something was different about Rora compared to usual.
Truthfully, it had been odd from the start that Rora came here.
Though on the other hand, he could understand.
"Tom. Why do you think I came here?"
"...Well."
After a very brief hesitation, Tom answered calmly.
"After coming back from the noble council, you had nowhere to set your mind at ease, so you came to drink? To get drunk and make a scene."
"Haah."
Rora let out a sigh. Just what kind of image did she have in this man's head?
"That's not it."
"...Then."
Tom whispered with a grave expression.
"Have you perhaps decided to take the mercenary path? I do think you'd succeed, though."
"No..."
Rora answered weakly.
Only then did Tom make a puzzled expression as he looked at Rora, dressed in the family head's attire.
He was the only one who knew there was a bundle of daggers hidden inside that coat.
He hesitated, then opened his mouth.
"Someone... to kill..."
"I said no!"
Bang!
Rora struck the bar with her palm.
A loud noise rang out, and the tavern fell silent for a moment.
Everyone looked at Rora, then turned their gazes away at Tom's gesture.
"Looks like the prickly owner's friend. Guess weirdos stick together."
"Right. I thought she was a noble, but seeing how she acts, she's nothing but the bartender's friend."
The murmuring voices didn't reach Rora and Tom.
"Then why did you come here?"
At Tom's question, delivered dryly and in a rather puzzled tone, Rora swallowed a sigh.
‘Tom... will this guy be okay?’
Tom was tight-lipped, and he was the person Rora trusted above all others.
As Rora worried, Tom watched her for a moment, then seemingly lost interest and began wiping a glass.
Scrub, scrub.
Just as the glass was being wiped clean.
"Tom, a customer has appeared."
Crash.
Tom lost his grip on the glass in his hand.
Once again, the surrounding gazes gathered on them, but Tom looked only at Rora.
The butlers of the Rien household had known the secrets of the Rien household for generations.
Without even thinking of picking up the fallen glass, Tom met Rora's eyes and soon opened his mouth.
"I shall return."
"Good."
"...I must hurry, then."
"Indeed."
After that, no further words were exchanged. Rora left the tavern without a word, and Tom likewise offered her no particular farewell.
Instead, he pulled out a piece of paper and sent a letter off somewhere.
* * *
"Um, Countess?"
Rora couldn't bring herself to answer the coachman Jaek's call.
She didn't have the presence of mind.
‘...What?’
A very large mansion, yet a shabby one that could be told by its old walls. The nameplate on the main gate of that Rien household.
[Hwaebinghwan Specialized Consultation Office]
Beneath it, some man was sitting slumped.
‘...Ah, seriously.’
Rora felt a headache coming on.
The man had long hair.
His clothes were fine, too.
Furthermore, he had black hair.
Slowly, the man raised his head. His eyes were red.
It was indeed him.
The madman of the neighboring ducal house, Sorinte Cheoseu.
‘Why is he here doing this?’
Just as Rora's brow furrowed, the long-haired man looked at her with sorrow-drenched eyes and opened his mouth.
His voice was badly hoarse.
"...Is it you?"
Rora thought.
"...Is the master of this house you?"
Has this madman gone crazy?
Where does he get off using this kind of speech toward a countess?
Was it possible because he was a madman?
Rora agonized over how to peacefully deal with that madman and send him back home in this situation, where the surrounding noble houses were obviously watching.
Countless thoughts flashed by in a brief instant.
But those thoughts didn't last long.
"Hwaebinghwan...?"
At those words the long-haired man uttered as he looked up at the nameplate.
"The person the dream said to meet... I think it is you—"
Rora's mind went blank for a moment.
‘...How can the duke household's eldest son read the characters Hwaebinghwan?’
Strangely, Rora's shoulders grew cold. Even though it was spring with no chilly wind blowing, it suddenly felt as though winter had come.
But Rora had no time to feel this bleak chill.
‘No, this makes no sense?’
Customers are supposed to appear only one per era.
‘Another customer has appeared?’
It's absurd.
Chapter 2: The Customer Is Not the Only One!
‘What should I do?’
As Rora's mind grew complicated.
The madman young master—said to be the equal of the pure Crown Prince in the capital's pantheon of handsome men—looked at Rora with an expression unable to hide his confusion.
"You— meeting you seems to be right—"
His decadent beauty, overflowing with ruined elegance, somehow brimmed with an even deeper tragic sorrow thanks to his slightly haggard face.
"For now."
Rora gestured for Coachman Jaek to leave quickly, then opened the main gate.
"Please come in."
"...Very well."
The madman, swaying as if he had received a severe shock, stood up and followed Rora without hesitation through the main gate.
Clank.
Soon, the main gate closed.
"Ah, Miss—!"
Coachman Jaek flusteredly tried to speak to Rora, but she merely answered calmly.
"Jaek, if it's all right, could you go and deliver a word to Tom?"
"Yes, yes! Miss, anything!"
The flustered Jaek didn't realize he had addressed Rora by the title from her childhood.
Rora didn't realize either. That was how out of it she was.
‘Deep breath!’
Hoo. Rora took a small, deep breath and pulled herself together.
"Deliver this to Tom."
Rora whispered quietly through the iron gate to Tom, so that the madman young master wouldn't hear.
"One more."
"...Is that all?"
"Yes. Then Tom will take care of the rest."
"Yes! Understood!"
Jaek hurriedly moved his old frame and drove the carriage.
"Hiyah!"
The carriage headed toward the mercenary district at high speed.
After confirming Jaek had disappeared, Rora looked around her surroundings.
Click.
Clack.
Windows in several places of the noble district hurriedly closed.
‘A madman young master of another meritorious family has visited the Count Rien household!’
Rumors like this would spread in all directions like wildfire.
‘What a headache.’
Our Crown Prince customer at least visited secretly late at night!
Rora hid her troubled thoughts and approached Sorinte, standing face-to-face with him.
‘He's big.’
He was even taller than the Crown Prince.
She raised her head to meet Sorinte's gaze.
"Lord Cheoseu. Might I ask you just one thing?"
"Very well."
Rora asked.
"Hoe, Bing, Hwan. Which of the three is it?"
"...Regression."
Only now did she realize that the corners of Sorinte's eyes were red and swollen.
But that realization didn't even sink into her mind. Rather, it bounced right off.
"Pardon?"
"The problem I am experiencing is 'regression'."