Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

After dinner, it was decided that I’ll undergo special training regarding court etiquette inside my office with Cleria and Elna as my instructors. It seems Selena and Sharon were also going to participate.

“First, let us show you how a commoner properly greets a noble.”

It looks like Elna will show me the basics first. Cleria will play the role of a noble.

Elna went up to Cleria and stopped when she was just three meters apart from her. She then knelt down on one knee and gave a greeting salute by placing one hand on her chest.

“It is my honor to be graced by your presence. This one’s name is Elna. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, your Lordship.”

“Hou, so you are called Elna. From whence do you hail?”

“I am of the house of Viscount Norian from the Starveek Kingdom. ……That’s basically how a formal greeting goes. If you are not addressing a particularly high-ranking noble, you can simply use formal speech normally.”

Elna’s way of walking and kneeling posture were devoid of waste and displayed a sense of elegance. It certainly seems that anything less than what she showed me was unacceptable, so I really have to practice hard until I get it down pat.

“Yosh. Let me try it then.”

I knelt before Cleria and repeated the greeting in the same manner.

“It is my honor to be graced by your presence. This one’s name is Alan. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, your Lordship.”

“Alan, from whence do you hail?”

“I come from Trader system’s Lancel, your Lordship.”

Oops. I ended answering the question normally.

“Trader system’s Lancel…… So that is where you were born, Alan.”

“That’s right. But this kind of answer would be bad, right? Maybe I should also announce myself as a person from Starveek.”

“That would be fine. You do sound like a person from Starveek’s capital city. Perhaps that’s because you learned to speak our language from Ria-sama.”

“Hee, I didn’t know that. So, how was it then? My greeting, I mean.”

“It wasn’t that bad for your first time. It was just the basics of how a commoner addresses an aristocrat after all.”

Then, after receiving various suggestions and corrections from Elna, such as the correct posture and the angle of my head when I bow down, I was finally able to get a passing grade from her.

I didn’t think there would be this much to consider when giving a greeting. I’m glad I asked them to train me.

“Next, we are going to practice how to give your greetings to the king. The first thing you need to remember is never to approach within fifteen meters from the king unless you are permitted to. You also cannot look at the king directly before you are given permission. You cannot speak to him directly as well. ”

“Oi, oi. So how am I supposed to give my greeting then?”

“Let’s try it.”

Elna went to the edge of the room and walked toward Cleria. She then knelt down before Cleria when she was five meters away from her.

“Raise your head. I permit you to speak to me directly.”

“Yes. This one is called Elna Norian, Your Majesty.”

“So you are from House Norian. You did well to come today.”

“Yes. ……That’s how it goes, basically. It isn’t good to be long-winded when you address a king. Please be sure to answer only what the king asks and nothing more.”

I see. So that’s how it goes huh. It doesn’t seem all that different from the previous greeting. Let me try it out then.

I knelt down five meters away from Cleria just like Elna and gave my greeting.

“Raise your head.”

“Yes. This one’s name is Alan Corinth, Your Majesty.”

“Alan, I haven’t permitted you to speak to me you know.”

Oh yeah. I looked toward Cleria while maintaining my kneeling position.

“I permit you to speak to me directly.”

“Yes. This one’s name is Alan Corinth, Your Majesty.”

“Fumu, Alan is it? Come closer.”

“Yes.”

“Alan, even if you are invited to come closer, you should respectfully refuse once.”

How troublesome! Do they really go through all this stuff during a royal audience?

“Forgive me, but someone of my station is unworthy to come near Your Majesty……”

“It is fine. Come closer.”

“Yes.”

I moved forward until I was only two meters away from Cleria and knelt down once more.

“It sure is cold today, isn’t it, Alan?”

Just what was she saying all of a sudden? No matter how you slice it, today was a rather hot day. Should I take it as her just simply asking a question?

“Is that so? I rather think it’s a little hot today, Your Majesty.”

“Alan, you basically can’t deny the words of a king.”

What the heck? You gotta be kidding me! I looked at Cleria and saw her desperately trying to hold herself back from laughing. Elna was already giggling in amusement though. It looks like these two just played me huh.

“I see. If it really is gonna be this troublesome, then I would probably embarrass myself if you didn’t teach me.”

“Believe it or not, such seemingly silly things often occur during a royal audience. I heard it’s even worse in some countries compared to Starveek. Fortunately, we still have enough time to teach you. I and Elna will make sure you will be able to deliver the perfect greeting.”

“I see…… I’ll be counting on you guys then.”

And so, my training regarding royal court etiquette continued.

The next day, I was approached by Adjutant Dalshim while we were having our breakfast.

“Alan-sama, we were thinking of undergoing a strict training session today. We’ve already rested enough as it is.”

After saying so, he looked at me with his usual expectant gaze. Hah. It can’t be helped……

“I see. I was planning on checking out the progress of the dismantling work first. We can’t leave everything to the guild just because we were the ones who put up the request after all. Let me participate in the training once I come back.”

“Ooh, that is good! If Alan-sama participates, I’m sure everyone will be greatly encouraged. Thank you very much.”

It’s true that we’ve taken enough rest and we didn’t have anything particularly pressing to do. The dismantling work will probably get wrapped up today as well, so it doesn’t sound bad to join in on the training with everyone every once in a while.

After having breakfast, I brought the rest of the party to the dismantling site.

They’ve already fully disassembled the dragon skeleton and were now in the middle of loading them into wagons for transport to the storage facility. Bones wrapped in cloth were piled one after the other on eight large wagons.

“Good morning, Alan-sama. We’ve finally finished everything.”

“Good morning, Karina-san. I’m glad I left things to the Commerce Guild to take care of.”

It really was a great decision to leave the dismantling to the Commerce Guild. I have no complaints about the measures they’ve taken so far, such as the dismantling process, transportation and storage of the materials, and arranging for the dragon blood to be manufactured into panaceas.

I’m a bit worried about the request fee they were going to charge, but everything was supposed to be settled all at once after holding an auction of the materials.

“Thank you very much. I’m very happy to hear that! Oh, by the way, the date for the auction has finally been decided. It will be held on the twentieth of the month.”

“Hou. If you don’t mind me asking, why is it on the twentieth?”

“It would take us a couple of days to manufacture enough panaceas for the auction, and it would also take an additional number of days for the influential merchants from the neighboring cities to arrive here. The merchants from more distant parts of the kingdom also need some time to prepare agents who would make purchases in their stead.”

Agents huh. So those guys will participate in the auction instead as proxies for some merchants. I wonder how the merchants would get in touch with them.

“How will the merchants contact their representatives?”

“They will make use of our artifact, of course. It isn’t well known to the lower-ranking members, but guild members of A-rank and above are able to make use of the guild’s communication artifact in order to contact members from other branches. The usage fee is, at minimum, 10,000 Guineas, and messages would cost 100 Guineas per character.

Hou, I didn’t know that. I did know the guild had a way to contact other branches, but I wasn’t aware it was available to the general members.

Come to think of it, I was also an A rank member of the guild huh.

“Can I make use of that service as well?”

“Of course you can. Right now, a lot of the well-known merchants in Gantz are taking on the responsibility of being agents with the aim of receiving a commission fee. Also, a lot of merchants are hurriedly exchanging their inventories for cash in order to participate in the auction. Due to that, the commodity prices in Gantz city are at an all-time low, which is quite rare.”

“Hou, that sounds like wonderful news! If they’re all motivated this much, then we can expect for a very successful auction.”

“You can actually make immediate and considerable profits from reselling the dragon materials. Each and every merchant is desperately scrambling to take a piece of the pie. Even Silas-sama is quite serious in participating this time.”

So Silas-san will also participate in the auction huh… But is it really okay for the guild chief to participate himself? Well, the more participants there are, the likelier it is for the bids to shoot up, so this development is more than welcome.

In any case, I was rather curious about that communication artifact of theirs.

“I’m quite curious about the guild’s communication artifact. Is it possible for me to see it directly?”

“Ah, that is something not allowable, even if it’s you, Alan-sama. There are only a handful of people authorized to know the workings of the artifact within the guild after all.”

It’s not allowed, as expected. Well, I’m not one to force the issue.

While I was talking to Karina-san, the guild workers managed to finish loading all the bones into the wagons. They departed for the Commerce Guild building one after the other.

“Well then, Alan-sama. I’ll have to excuse myself now. I have to supervise the transport of the materials.”

Karina-san boarded one wagon as well and headed back to the guild.