Chapter 25
Playing at Nobility (2)
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“A crematorium.”
Even if the whole world was shrouded in smoke, there weren’t any people who could remain indifferent to the stench of burning corpses, so it was located on the outskirts of the city, with few people coming and going.
Even if there were people around, they were too focused on the death of their loved ones in front of them to show any interest in a stranger like me.
It was the perfect place to hide something. In the Aylan Republic, people would foam at the mouth protesting to keep a crematorium from opening near their homes.
But in the Valorn Empire, where everything belonged to the Emperor, it was impossible for public discontent to interfere with the affairs of the state.
“Here it is.”
Someone like me, who used battle gear, wouldn’t fail to sneak into a crematorium, which wasn’t even a barracks or Security Corps station.
“Where was Furnace No. 4 again.”
I checked the furnace numbers and slowly opened it.
Four wasn’t a number that carried any good meaning, so unless all the other furnaces were occupied, this one was usually left unused.
That meant that even if someone had hidden something inside, it was unlikely to be discovered easily.
“Ah, it’s already here. Quick.”
As I rummaged inside the furnace, I succeeded in finding the box.
It went without saying that forging an Imperial noble’s identification card was an extremely difficult task, so the ID itself wasn’t included in this parcel.
But it didn’t matter. If someone demanded an ID from a noble, it already meant they were certain the person wasn’t truly a noble.
I took the items out and examined them carefully.
A double-breasted blazer with brass buttons, a dress shirt, slacks, and castle loafers.
“Good thing I’m young. Really.”
For a young noble under thirty, wearing just this much wouldn’t be considered improper.
Of course, nobles placed great importance on formality and etiquette… but there was something they valued even more.
The Emperor.
“That bastard’s foolishness was useful for this, at least.”
When the current Emperor had been young, he found it extremely bothersome to dress in full formal attire whenever he went out.
In the end, he started dressing similarly to how I was now, then declared, “Young people can dress like this without it being a breach of etiquette!”
Ever since that proclamation, nobles under thirty were allowed to wear this simplified style of clothing.
In other words, whether my disguise succeeded or failed would depend on how precisely and accurately the ordered seal had been crafted.
“This should do…”
I checked the pewter handle at the tip of the cane and let out a small sound of admiration. This was nearly identical to what I had requested.
I hadn’t even drawn a picture as a reference, so I hadn’t expected such a perfect item to arrive.
“House Dmitri.”
The seal was a howling wolf’s head. It had to be made of pewter, with a diagonal scar over the right eye.
If possible, the pair of molars attached to the upper jaw should be emphasized.
The wolf’s eyes were green; direct descendants used emerald, while collateral branches used peridot.
“Time for the performance.”
After leaving the crematorium, I took plenty of time to change the disguise I’d been maintaining, then headed for Saint Deville Station.
“Excuse me, my lord.”
Just the clothes I wore and my posture alone caused a striking change in the Security Corps guard’s demeanor.
“Hmm, are you talking to me?”
I stopped walking and lightly held the cane in my left hand as I looked at the guard.
“I’m sorry, but Saint Deville Station is currently closed to all traffic.”
“So this is Saint Deville Station, is that it? Good. Then it seems I’ve come to the right place. Lead the way.”
I didn’t spare a moment’s attention to what the guard had just said exactly the kind of attitude nobles showed to common folk.
Rather, because I acted this way, the guard was gradually becoming convinced that this insolent young man standing before him really was some noble family’s offspring.
“Where… would you like me to escort you?”
But that conviction did nothing to improve the guard’s mood.
If the other party was a noble, that meant he, guard or not, would end up doing every menial errand this young bastard demanded.
“Where do you think? To the temporary command post of the unit you belong to. Hurry and show the way.”
With a jerk of my chin, I lightly tapped the guard’s backside with the cane I held.
The guard was basically being treated like a dog out for a stroll, but he didn’t have the courage to say anything to me.
As far as I knew, the company commander and platoon leaders were away at the moment due to their schedules.
‘Still, the executive officer must have dealt with situations like this plenty of times.’
The executive officer had been in the Security Corps for over ten years. He’d surely be skilled at humoring nobles. He’d better quickly pass this noble lord off to the executive officer and run for it.
Having reached that conclusion inwardly, the guard obediently guided me into the temporary command post inside Saint Deville Station.
“I’d like to first apologize for the poor reception due to this sudden visit. Therefore…”
While I waited briefly outside, the guard seemed to have gone in to explain the situation.
In less than a few seconds, the door of the command post opened, and a middle-aged man stepped out, bowing as he greeted me, his words trailing off slightly.
He meant he didn’t know my name and was asking me to give it.
“Ralof Dmitri.”
A collateral branch, but an actual member of House Dmitri. If anything, being from a collateral branch was more convenient in this situation.
No matter how clever someone was, it was difficult to memorize all the names of the direct lines of noble families.
In fact, most nobles only bothered to remember the names of heirs and heads of other houses.
If you tried to memorize every name, you’d be overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.
‘If that hadn’t been the case, I’d have made up a false name the moment I left the correctional facility.’
Even the names of the direct line weren’t always known unless they were the heir, and if you went so far as to mention someone from a collateral branch, it wasn’t even possible to think, ‘Does such a person exist?’
Doubt could only arise when you knew at least something. If you knew nothing, there wasn’t even a question to be asked.
“It’s an honor to meet Ralof of the illustrious House Dmitri. My station is hardly fit to receive such a distinguished guest. If it’s not too much trouble, may I ask you to wait a moment?”
If I waited here, a noble would come. The company commander himself was unlikely to appear, but perhaps one of the platoon leaders under him would come.
“Very well. In that case, why don’t you bring me a cup of coffee?”
At my words, the executive officer immediately started preparing coffee.
He had started as a simple guard and survived over ten years to earn the position of executive officer, but in front of a noble, he was still nothing more than a commoner.
I watched his back as he brewed the coffee, and a faintly bitter expression came over my face.
‘Once, I’d thought this attitude was only natural.’
The truth was, there had been a time when I hadn’t even considered commoners to be the same species. More precisely, I’d lived that way all the way up until entering the labor correctional facility.
It had been the common sense I was raised with since birth.
But even now, while I was pretending, a quiet remorse was welling up deep inside me.
‘Eating the same food and shitting the same shit… yet I strutted around so arrogantly.’
As I was thinking that, the coffee was set down before me.
Soon after, the door opened, and a young man who looked to have just passed out of his teens walked in.
“Leave us.”
Seeing how he spoke so casually to the executive officer, who was probably twice his age, it was obvious this fellow was a noble.
Indeed, you could tell a noble just by the way they acted.
As soon as the executive officer greeted him and stepped out, the young man turned to me with a smile.
“First time meeting, isn’t it? I’m Jerome Renegade.”
Of course, nobles only acted rudely toward those of low rank.
“Yes, pleased to meet you. I am Ralof Dmitri.”
I responded to his greeting and took out a handkerchief, offering it to Jerome. Ralof Dmitri’s name was embroidered on it.
“Pleased to meet you.”
Likewise, Jerome Renegade also handed me a handkerchief embroidered with his own name.
They exchanged handkerchiefs so that if they met again later, they would recognize that it wasn’t their first meeting. It was similar to the business cards used in the Aylan Republic.
The handkerchief had to be white. The embroidery was to be black, Imperial standard cursive, size 12 and thickness level 3, stitched into the lower left corner of the cloth.
“I’m glad fate has brought us together like this.”
I folded the handkerchief I’d received as I spoke. A handkerchief received from the other party had to be folded in a prescribed way before being placed in the inner pocket.
Most people trying to impersonate nobles tripped up at this stage.
‘In truth, they call them nobles, but they’re basically a secret society.’
It was etiquette born of the desire to maintain an exclusive status and the greed to never share the privileges that came with it.
The purpose of etiquette itself wasn’t to show respect to the other party, but rather to convey, “Are you really a noble? You’re not just pretending, are you?”
That was why when nobles met for the first time, they spent about twenty minutes going through these verification procedures.
Once, these rituals had been a pleasant way for me to affirm my own nobility, but now, as I went through each motion, there was only one thought in my mind.
‘It’s just like dogs meeting for the first time and sniffing each other’s asses.’
Anyway, once the verification procedure was finished, the etiquette that had to be observed after that was comparatively relaxed.
And since I had performed this process hundreds of times before, I could carry it out automatically, even while my mind wandered elsewhere.
“I’d like to ask what brings you all the way here from House Dmitri.”
Instead of answering, I pressed my thumb to my forehead, then pointed that thumb up toward the ceiling.
It was a gesture meaning an imperial order without an official decree.
If I had an edict, I could openly say that His Majesty the Emperor had commanded it, but when there was no edict, even if the order came from the Emperor, I couldn’t say so.
That way, if something went wrong later, it wouldn’t be His Majesty’s fault.
“You’re referring to the state tax transport train scheduled to pass through Saint Deville?”
When I didn’t respond verbally, Jerome made a small noise of understanding, clicked his tongue softly, and let out a sigh.
“There have been rumors circulating about that.”
By “rumors,” he didn’t mean the idle gossip of drunks in taverns or the trash talk of cheap newspapers.
It meant the talk happening in the clubhouses.
“Surely those who draw the Empire’s salaries wouldn’t stoop to such things.”
Hm? Now what was that supposed to mean? I hadn’t brought this up expecting that sort of reaction.
But since the situation had turned out this way, I had to adjust my plans slightly to fit.
In the field, improvisation was every bit as important as preparation.
“Unfounded rumors can tarnish the reputation of good people. In all things, certainty is best.”
“I agree. It seems the rumors have spread more widely than I thought.”
I had succeeded in passing myself off as a noble dispatched by the Emperor to investigate the truth of these rumors in secret.
It was like letting an enemy, disguised in a general’s uniform, into the command headquarters without even checking his identity.
It was a perfect collaboration between customs that deemed it rude to demand identification and the authoritarian system that protected those customs.
And now, I’d also learned that strange rumors about the Imperial Tax Authority were indeed circulating.
Of course, rumors exchanged among nobles were considered highly credible, but I didn’t have the leisure to care about that right now.
The important thing was that by using this as an excuse, I’d secured permission to remain here until the train arrived.
Even if Jerome started to have doubts about me, it didn’t matter.