Obedient Only to Me! Sir Knight - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

If not for the voice that suddenly rang out, that peaceful moment might have continued.

The man who opened the door and entered was a gentle-looking fellow with long navy-blue hair neatly tied back. Startled by the unexpected intrusion, Ban instinctively tightened his grip on the dessert knife in his hand. Lowie, however, paid no mind at all—his spoon never once paused.

The sudden visitor, Seilan, knew exactly how to capture Lowie’s attention.

“Here. This isn’t on the menu, so I figured you wouldn’t have ordered it. Mango smoothie.”
“Mango smoothie!”

Lowie brightened immediately and reached out. Seilan placed the mango smoothie straight into his hand. Watching Lowie latch onto the straw and slurp enthusiastically, Seilan grinned and took a seat in the empty chair.

“You really haven’t changed at all.”
“And who are you?”

Lowie asked without even looking at him. At that, Ban turned pale and swiftly snatched the mango smoothie out of Lowie’s hand.

“Is this someone you know?”
“Give it back!”
“You can’t just accept food from someone you don’t know so readily.”

Having barely tasted it before it was taken away, Lowie reached out insistently. Ban shook his head, firm.

“Why are you nagging me?”

Lowie stabbed his fork into the plate with irritation. A sharp, unpleasant screech echoed through the room. Ban didn’t budge.

“And why are you ignoring me?”

Seilan seized that opening and smoothly cut in, but Lowie still looked utterly clueless. Who are you, anyway?

“How can you not know me! You, Josef, and I—we ate together back at the Academy!”
“…Huh?”

At the familiar name Josef, Lowie paused. Seeing that the name worked, Seilan raised his voice further.

“You know me! Seilan! Well… we only ate together once, but we did eat, didn’t we?”

Seilan lifted his chin shamelessly.

“I heard you were in the city, so I came to give you an invitation.”
“I hate balls.”
“Who said anything about inviting you to a ball!”

After causing a scandal at his coming-of-age ceremony, Lowie was effectively banned from attending formal balls. Of course, no one had invited him even before that—but Lowie himself was blissfully unaware.

“Anyway, that’s not it. There’s an auction coming up, so I brought you an invitation.”
“An auction?”
“Yeah. You’re in the city for fun, right? I heard you bought a slave.”

Seilan’s grin turned mischievous. Lowie recalled the slave merchant’s chatter. Talkative mouth, loose lips. A merciless assessment. Still, buying a slave wasn’t exactly a secret, so Lowie nodded vaguely.

“I heard it was a bed slave too. And apparently he’s huge—”

Seilan’s gaze drifted unmistakably toward Ban’s lower half. Startled by the direction of the conversation, Ban stabbed his pie a little too hard.

A bed slave? Not a combat slave?

The shock made Ban’s eyes shake violently. He hurriedly glanced at Lowie, but Lowie was, as expected, calmly rummaging through his ice cream with not a care in the world.

“Well, I’m not particularly interested in your private life,”

Seilan leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.

“A massive mana stone came in.”
“Mana stone…”

Only then did Lowie realize why this man had bothered approaching him.

An unprocessed mana stone.

If it was an auction item, then within this city, Lowie really was the only plausible buyer.

Only mages could refine raw mana stones into usable, processed forms. Usually, mage towers bought them in bulk, refined them, and sold them onward.

However, unprocessed mana stones occasionally appeared at auctions like this. Especially large ones—because selling them directly to individuals fetched a far higher price than selling them to the mage tower.

“But refining mana stones is annoying.”

Lowie’s expression instantly dulled. He had more than enough money to buy processed ones—why would he bother refining one himself? And besides… at the moment, he truly couldn’t refine one anyway.

Seeing Lowie lose interest and return to poking at his ice cream, Seilan quickly stepped closer and flipped open a catalog beside him.

“Just listen, sir customer! It’s as big as a fist! Mana stones of this size are incredibly rare!”
“So what would I even use it for?”
“How could it be useless? It’s perfect for demon summoning—the thing you love so much!”

Demon summoning? Had he heard that right? Ban’s ears rang at the shocking words.

“Demon summoning, demon summoning!”

Seilan even began waving his arms around to some strange rhythm, as if reenacting a summoning ritual. Ban’s expression shifted from confusion to outright exasperation.

“Hmmm…”

It was painful to watch. Only then did Lowie finally recognize him. He had seen him a few times at the Academy.

“I remember now.”
“Finally?”
“You’re a scammer.”

A scammer? Ban’s gaze snapped back to Seilan. Having personally been ruined by swindlers, Ban’s wariness doubled. The man’s kindly face really did look suspicious. He’d been fooled by faces like that far too many times.

“A scammer?! Do you know how bad that sounds?”
“It’s true. You scammed me.”
“What are you talking about!”

Seilan raised his voice—then hurriedly glanced around. Even though they were in a private room, a dessert café frequented by young noble ladies didn’t exactly boast excellent soundproofing. And without question, those young ladies were far more important customers than Lowie. Losing them over one unsold mana stone would be disastrous.

“Watch what you say. Our trading company operates on trust—”
“You sold me a mushroom and said it was a demon’s claw.”
“The problem is you actually believed it was a real demon’s claw!”

…Why would anyone even need a real demon’s claw? Ban’s shaken gaze drifted back to Lowie.

“Anyway, I don’t need mana stones. They’re annoying. And I’m not that interested in demons anymore.”
“You used to sing nonstop about demons—what changed all of a sudden?”

Lowie didn’t answer, burying his face back into the ice cream. Tch. Can’t sell it after all, huh. I’ll starve at this rate… I even bought you a mango smoothie… Seilan muttered pitifully to himself. Lowie ignored him completely.

“Honestly, it’s my fault for expecting anything from you. Shouldn’t have taken on that mana stone in the first place.”

Seilan let out a long sigh.

“Still, come by sometime. I brought in some interesting things. It was nice seeing you again—glad you seem to be doing well.”

The unexpected farewell made Lowie glance up at him. But Seilan, as if he’d never been clinging just moments ago, turned around and left without hesitation. Only the catalog remained where he’d been sitting. Somehow, Lowie lost his appetite and set his fork down.

“Was that a friend of yours?”
“Uh… yeah. I guess so.”

At Lowie’s vague answer, Ban tilted his head. Lowie picked up the catalog and unfolded it. Right there was the mana stone. Meticulous to the very end.

Lowie laid the catalog on the table and reached out to Ban again. Ban placed the mango smoothie back into his hand and skimmed the catalog himself.

Just as Seilan had said, it was a mana stone the size of an adult man’s fist. Even a shard the size of a fingernail could power minor daily magic almost permanently—so something like this would be worth a fortune. That was, of course, if it could be refined.

Had Seilan truly believed Lowie could process something like this? Or had he, as Lowie claimed, been attempting a scam?

“Ugh.”

Lowie greedily slurped the smoothie, then winced and clutched his head. Ban immediately reached out and gently rubbed it. Lowie whined like a child.

“A mage, then,” Ban murmured.
“Mmh. But it’s too big. I can’t process it…”

For certain reasons, Lowie was currently unable to use magical tools. With the mana he could wield right now, refining a stone of that size was impossible. Ban nodded, finding it entirely reasonable. No ordinary mage could manage that. And demon summoning, on top of that—surely not?

“…You don’t want to summon demons, do you?”
“Huh? No.”

Thank goodness. Ban breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“Even if he’s a friend, buying something you don’t need is a waste. If you don’t need it, there’s no reason to purchase it.”
“Mmh.”

Barely listening, Lowie’s attention was already stolen by the cake again. The chocolate-dipped strawberries must have suited his taste—the cake was left bald, stripped of nothing but its strawberries.

A mage…

Ban had suspected there was something more to this noble youth who wandered about with no protection at all. If he was a mage, that made sense. Even if his own strength was lacking, artifacts crafted by high-ranking mages would be enough to protect him.

Though when Ban had changed his clothes earlier, he hadn’t seen a single artifact—nor even a magic tool.

The image of Lowie’s bare body flashed through his mind, and Ban swallowed hard without realizing it. At the time, he’d been too busy calming a crying man to think anything of it—but apparently, his brain had remembered.

I was bought as a bed slave, huh.