Chapter 5

This continent was made up of four countries. Ryukoku, Makoku, Shoukoku, and Gikoku.

The dragon users were in Ryukoku.

I had lived in Ryukoku ever since I was born, but my father was originally from Makoku.

He said that he came to Ryukoku when he was the same age as I was now.

The ruler of this country was Queen Savane.

Her proper name was Savane Lucustra.

She was a direct descendent of the royal Lucustra lineage, and could also control dragons.

Her dragon was called the White Princess.

And everyone in the country knew that name.

The White Princess was apparently a slender dragon that was pure white, but I had never seen it myself.

It stayed in a special dragon house within the castle. But the people of the capital could occasionally see it flying in the sky above.

This was because the dragon needed exercise. And so it just flew in a circle, not really doing anything else.

And yet, even such a stroll in the sky required two hundred dragon-riding knights as escorts. So it must have been quite a sight.

You could destroy a city with two-hundred dragon knights.

Queen Savane had a group of people that worked for her from behind the scenes that were called ‘Shadows.’

As the name implied, their existence was not known to the general public.

‘Shadows’ gathered information, spread rumors, acquired evidence, and even assassinated targets.

They could affect history.

And among the Shadows, it was the ‘Right Hands’ that were good at combat.

I once fought with a Right Hand in the capital. I thought I was going to die.

That being said, I was a Right Hand myself.

The Right Hand of Sol.

I didn’t think that there was any grudge between me and the Right Hands in the capital.

It had been an unfortunate misunderstanding.

However, I never wanted to repeat that again. That was how strong they were.

By the way, my brother-in-law, Christan, was a Right Foot. They were good at traveling and delivering messages.

It was their job to give me my orders as well.

After all, Her Majesty couldn’t just write me a letter. That would be bad.

It was the same with regards to reports about mission success and failure. Everything was carried by the Right Feet.

So, we just gave the reports to them. It was easy.

There were also Shadows who were used for long-term infiltration missions. They were called Right Ears. Sometimes, they were made to stay in one location for decades.

Usually, they were sent to other countries.

Christan had met a few of them.

But I’ve yet to meet one.

“They’ll never be rewarded for their work. It’s a mission without end.”

He had said.

Right Ears gathered rumors and spread them.

I thought of them as people who just blended in with the populace. Not really as Shadows.

In any case, while we were all different, we Shadows worked for Her Majesty.

And just a moment ago, a certain baker’s son was just about to carry out an order.

Well, it was me. Oh, wait…I still had to finish my report.

“…Aggh… It’s so much trouble!”

The sky was starting to grow brighter. But I still hadn’t finished it.

“What? You didn’t sleep?”

Father said as he poked out his head.

His name was Harui Fenard. He was the owner of ‘Fluffy Fenard.’ My dad.

He was retired now, but he was once an assassin for the queen. They called him the ‘Grim Reaper.’

And he was Sol’s Right Hand before I was.

He retired three years ago and gave the position to me so he could live leisurely.

Being able to relax and bake bread like that. It was my ideal life.

“Huh? You’re up already, father?”

“Already… It’s time to prepare the dough!”

“Really? … But I haven’t even finished half of this yet!”

“I should have trained your brain instead of your body first. It’s not easy being a muscle head.”

“It’s too late for that. You raised me this way.”

“…Nevermind that. You’re in a hurry, right? I’ll do the bread and you finish up your work.”

“What!? I’d rather do the bread.”

“This was your last order in this town. You should at least finish the report perfectly for once.”

“…Fine.”

“And in exchange, you can help bake the bread after breakfast. I’ll let you tend the fire.”

“I can finish it by then…probably.”

“Don’t despair even if you make any mistakes.”

Then he chuckled and headed off to the kitchen.

Father called me a muscle head, but I didn’t think I was… I hoped not, anyway.

As for missions from the queen, they came several times a year.

I also got help from other Shadows as well.

As there were twelve months in a year, I acted as a ‘Shadow’ maybe once every other month.

There hadn’t been any complicated orders ever since I took up the position, so the reports had been pretty easy to finish.

However, with a mission that went on for ten days, I didn’t know what to write or what to leave out.

I was good at infiltrating…but was I really a muscle head?

No, it just meant that the town of Sol was very peaceful.

“Father made it peaceful.”

Even the general public knew of The ‘Great Purge of the town of Sol.’ It was still pretty recent.

Many people knew what had happened, even if they didn’t know father’s name.

Many people died and even more were arrested.

In a way, it was thanks to my father that this town enjoyed the peace it did right now.

It was that father, that baked bread today.