A few days before Yuri and the others were to meet the Margravine of Ishurias.
In a dim room where the wavering flame of a candle made light and shadow dance, a man knelt on one knee with his head bowed before Gideon, who lounged in a lavish chair.
"You did thoroughly tamper with the viscount's daughter's dress, I trust?"
Gideon asked the man with a vulgar grin.
Honestly, this man looks like an orc someone squashed flat. He's revolting...
Though inwardly lamenting his fate, the man answered.
"Yes, exactly as instructed."
"Heh-heh-heh. I can hardly wait for the next ball."
He's going this far just to ruin a tailor's workshop...?
The man felt guilty for having tampered with the viscount's daughter's gown, but he could not defy Gideon. All he could do was pray that the young lady would not be too deeply hurt by it.
Yet Gideon paid no heed to what the man felt and went on speaking.
"Now then, your next order. You will infiltrate this place and rescue my wife."
He picked up a sheet of parchment from the side table and dropped it carelessly at the man's feet.
Concealing his surprise, the man bent down and picked it up.
"I was under the impression Your Excellency was not yet married. To whom does 'wife' refer?"
Has he finally gotten married in his own delusions or something?
He kept that thought to himself and asked the question evenly.
"Why, Princess Lieselotte, naturally."
At Gideon's answer, the man stiffened.
Don't tell me he's about to order me to sneak into the royal palace...
Then he lowered his eyes to the parchment.
Written across it were the words:
"Recruitment Guidelines for Harem Maids Serving the Baron-Consort of Reberk"
As he read through the listed requirements, his eyebrows shot upward.
You want me to slip in as one of the baron-consort's maids...? And these conditions are obviously for women!
He could only give a bitter inward laugh as his eyes moved from line to line.
"Eligibility: Women in their late teens to early twenties. No prior maid experience required."
No, no, no. By any sane standard, I'm out.
"Etiquette, embroidery, musical performance, literacy."
Etiquette...? I don't know the first thing about noble manners. How am I supposed to pull that off?
Then he came to the part about living on site and swearing loyalty to the master's house, and his face twitched.
I can swear loyalty for the job, sure... but live in the harem? Seriously?
He glanced at Gideon, only to find the man still wearing the same oily grin.
Come on, this is just insane. Or is it a trap to make a fool of me?
Suppressing the sigh that nearly escaped him, the man asked,
"Your Excellency... no matter how I look at this, it seems to be work intended for women..."
"In that case, you need only go in dressed as one."
Are you an idiot? No—of course you are. I knew that already. What is this orc even saying?
The man swallowed the retort that nearly leapt from his mouth, took a deep breath, and forced himself to appear calm.
"Heh-heh-heh. It will be fine. Once you change into this splendid doll of mine, you'll be unstoppable!"
So saying, Gideon reached deep into a shelf and produced an automaton.
It must once have been modeled after the pretty shopgirl on a tailor's signboard, but rust had bloomed over parts of it, and one of its eyes was half detached.
Worst of all, it wore a thin little smile that made the whole thing unbearably creepy.
No, no, no, no. Forget turning into a woman—this thing looks like nothing but a cursed doll!
With a triumphant look on his face, Gideon set the automaton on the table and began stripping off its clothes as casually as if he were dressing and undressing a paper doll.
"This skin here! If you wrap yourself in this magnificent female skin, anyone and everyone will mistake you for a woman! Perfect from top to bottom!"
Gideon declared it proudly.
From his hand hung a supple material that looked unnervingly like human skin.
What is this orc doing? To anyone else, this looks like a criminal who attacked someone and peeled off their skin! He'd get arrested. This is completely out of line!
The man instinctively took a step back.
"What are you worried about? This skin I made is the finest disguise magical device in the world! Its elegance and suppleness are enough to make nobles jealous!"
Jealous? They'd faint dead away if they saw this. Every last one of them would start screaming...
His instincts were screaming that the moment he touched that thing, it would all be over.
"What is it now? You'll understand once you try it on! Feel this soft texture, this modest line! I've used it many times myself, so of course it will be fine! No matter who sees you, they'll think you're a noble young lady!"
Grinning from ear to ear, Gideon held the "skin" up against himself.
There is absolutely nothing fine about this. What do you mean, you've used it? And right now you're the creepiest thing in the room! You're a hundred times more suspicious than any disguise could ever fix!
Cold sweat beading on his brow, the man edged even farther away.
"Come now, hurry and try it on! Look—these minute pores, the way the veins show through! It's true art! Just like the skin of a living noble young lady!"
Gideon tried to force the skin on him.
No, no—if the skin of a living noble young lady were really here, that would be an actual incident! Somebody stop this man!
In Gideon's hands was a glossy piece of skin from the neck down, and its texture was so disturbingly real that it looked almost human.
"A-all right, I understand! I'll use it at the interview!"
With a strained smile, the man reluctantly accepted the disguise device from Gideon. He set it down beside him and took his hands off it as quickly as possible, as though touching it any longer were dangerous in itself.
Is this really a magical device? Are magical devices supposed to feel this... visceral?
The sensation lingering on his fingertips felt so horribly real that he had to fight the urge to wipe his hands.
It's soft, and warm... no way. This isn't actual human skin, is it? What the hell has Gideon been doing behind the scenes...?
He shook his head and hastily cut off the thought.
No. Don't go there. If I think about it too hard, I lose.
Silently repeating that to himself, he somehow managed to keep up a calm front.
"And what exactly do you mean by 'rescue'?"
Trying to steer the conversation elsewhere, he asked Gideon in as steady a voice as he could manage.
"You fool. 'Rescue' means taking Lieselotte out of that harem, obviously."
You're the fool!
The man barely managed to suppress the urge to scream it aloud.
"This is a rescue operation. Lieselotte is being forced to live in that harem with an incompetent hapless noble named Yuri. She must be freed and returned to the place she truly belongs!"
Gideon leaned back in his chair, puffed out his chest, and proclaimed it grandly.
Hearing those words, the kneeling man could not help grimacing. The idea that Lieselotte was in the harem against her will was plainly nothing more than Gideon's one-sided delusion.
But if he dared object here, it was obvious he would ruin Gideon's mood. And if that happened, it was easy enough to imagine what kind of punishment would fall on him.
No matter how much his life resembled drinking muddy water, the man still had his reasons for wanting to go on living.
"By when must this rescue operation be carried out?"
Perhaps satisfied by the man's obedient response, Gideon twisted his mouth into a grin and slowly opened it to answer.
"Why the hell do I have to wear something like this..."
When he arrived in the Reberk Barony's capital, the man climbed down from the shared coach at the stop, muttering his complaints under his breath.
The disguise magical device Gideon had given him worked absurdly well.
It smoothed the lines of his body, gave him a pair of modest but convincingly soft breasts, and even concealed the distinctly male parts of him so thoroughly that it could likely pass a physical inspection.
It's too perfect... no, that's exactly why it's disgusting!
A creepy prickling sensation lingered over him as though the thing were constantly draining the mana from inside his body, and the skin-clinging feel of it was deeply unsettling.
Worse still, when he wore it, he had the eerie sensation that Gideon himself was somehow embracing him.
...If I could take this thing off, I'd do it right now. But then the mission would be over before it even started...
Letting out a deep sigh, he looked around.
"This is worse than I heard... I was told the farmers were fleeing, but this place really is falling apart."
Ahead of him, some of the farmland lay overgrown with weeds, stretching out in broad, neglected patches.
"I just hope they at least feed people properly..."
Praying inwardly that he would at least be able to get one decent meal a day, the man set off toward the manor on the hill.
After walking for a while, he came upon an open area and saw a strange building unlike anything around it.
On the site that had likely once been the central square stood a magnificent structure roofed entirely in glass. At the front, two colossal statues had been worked into the façade as though they were supporting the roof itself.
"What the hell is this...? Galerie de Ginza? 'All who pass through this gate, abandon every hope'... what's that supposed to mean?"
The difference between the structure before him and the surrounding buildings was so stark that it left him bewildered.
The other buildings nearby were of the usual kind—stone on the first floor, timber on the second and third, with the upper stories jutting out a little over the street.
But the thing before him did not even seem to be made of stone. He had no idea what material it was.
And that glass—clear enough to be almost unreal—was the sort of precious luxury he had seen only in the most exclusive residential districts of the Republic.
"Wasn't this supposed to be some backwater barony? What the hell is going on here?"
As he stood there dumbfounded, an elderly passerby called out to him from behind.