Short Story: In the Black Garden of Law
Short Story 1: “In the Black Garden of Law”
The Faltar Kingdom is a constitutional state.
Not only its citizens, but also its King and nobles live bound by the law.
Though sometimes called the land of Barbarians, the Demon Realm, or even a hell where the weak, including Monsters, cannot survive by other countries, its form of governance was that of a constitutional state.
While it was the royalty and nobility who created the laws, and power was not dispersed as in a legislature, there was no doubt that the Faltar Kingdom was an unusual nation.
In such a Faltar Kingdom, serving the Royal Court in a capacity entwined with the law was considered quite a status symbol among the nobility.
The Legal Court (Hōmutei)—a department named for the first King of Faltar’s preference for holding meetings with his subordinates in a garden—alongside the Treasury Court, was a gathering of intellectual elites among the nobles serving in the palace, and it wielded immense power.
Even within the Legal Court, there was a department distinct from the others, commonly known as the Black Garden, where a certain young man was sighing.
Why was someone as inexperienced as him sitting in a position bearing such grave responsibility?
The young man, with pale blond hair, slanted blue eyes, and a mouth that suggested a gentle demeanor, let out a sigh he couldn’t count how many times since being assigned to this Black Garden.
The Black Garden of the Legal Court was a department granted the Authority to unilaterally reject bills submitted by nobles or the King.
Normally, in the Faltar Kingdom, a bill would be adopted as law through approval by the Noble Council and the King. However, the prerequisite condition was that it must not be rejected by this Black Garden beforehand. If the Black Garden judged a submitted bill to be inappropriate, it would be rejected without even reaching the adoption stage.
It was an abnormally strong authority.
Naturally, this authority was not exercised unless absolutely necessary, and being assigned to the Black Garden was said to be recognition of one’s competence in itself.
Furthermore, it also meant that the individual was seen as someone who would not yield to any bribes, flattery, or threats.
Before the desk assigned to him, the young man almost tilted his head.
He didn’t think himself incompetent, but nevertheless, he couldn’t bring himself to be conceited enough to think his abilities were entirely sufficient.
His colleagues were all much older, possessed ample presence and capability, and were individuals who seemed impeccable in terms of character.
Among them, he, a mere youngster who had only graduated from the academy three years prior, held a position in the Black Garden.
Although two years had already passed since his assignment, he still found himself tilting his head.
“Sorry to bother you when you’re busy.”
As the young man was tilting his head, an apologetic-sounding voice called out from behind.
“No, I don’t have any particularly urgent work right now.”
The young man hurriedly corrected his posture; he had given his workplace senior a strange misunderstanding.
“Oh, really?” The older man who had spoken offered a gentle smile and handed the young man a stack of documents on a tray. They were bills submitted by nobles of the Faltar Kingdom.
Even though he was a noble himself, the young man often thought it was amazing how they managed to come up with some sort of law every single day. Only the head of a noble house could submit a bill, but it was probably too naive to think the heads thought up everything themselves.
Although the young man was from a lower noble household, he was the eldest son and knew he would eventually have to succeed the position of head, which made him weary just imagining all the things attached to that seat.
As he received the tray from the man, the young man asked,
“Is this for the preliminary reading of the bills?”
Preliminary reading referred to the act of filtering out submissions that clearly didn’t even take the form of a proper bill before other colleagues read them. In other words, it was work entrusted to the lowest-ranking members in the Black Garden, and such work was necessary precisely because so many worthless bills arrived daily.
“No, today you can go ahead and make the final judgment yourself.”
I see. The young man looked at the stack of paper and understood this was also the “usual” situation.
Essentially, it was likely a collection of bills submitted by lower-ranking nobles.
Ostensibly, the status of the submitter was not considered when reviewing bills.
The submitted bundles of documents were all placed in unmarked envelopes, supposedly making it impossible to know which noble house submitted which bill, but that was clearly just a facade.
Since his seniors clearly seemed to know, there was probably a way to tell that he simply hadn’t been informed about.
The young man suspected the envelopes themselves were one such method as he took the tray from his colleague.
Although he held some doubts about his own department’s fairness, the reviews were undoubtedly conducted.
It was just that the one conducting the review was a junior like himself.
The young man lined up the envelopes containing the bills on his desk.
His seniors must indeed be distinguishing the submitting noble houses by the envelopes. The young man thought his idea was probably correct.
What stood out were the Black Envelopes. Whenever he was entrusted with making the final judgment, there were always several of these Black Envelopes included.
While most bills came in plain-colored envelopes, these Black Envelopes stood out so much they stuck in his memory whether he liked it or not.
Well, whatever. It’s work.
The young man picked up a Black Envelope, broke the seal, and checked the contents.
“Nobles whose family names contain the name of a weapon shall have an audience with the Royal Family once a week.”
Reading the proposal aloud in a low voice so as not to disturb his colleagues, the young man rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment.
This was not a bill. Absolutely not.
Following the self-proclaimed bill was an argument for why such a law should be enacted, but the young man mercilessly skipped over it.
The young man returned the document to the envelope and tossed it into the rejection box.
He moved onto the second envelope. The one he picked up without looking was, yet again, a Black Envelope.
After making an indescribable expression, the young man broke the seal.
“To renew daily gratitude towards weaponry and contemplate its development, noble houses with weapon types in their family names shall gather and hold a meeting with the Royal Family once a week—no, once a month is sufficient.”
Don’t correct the bill within the submitted proposal!
The young man groaned quietly and tossed it into the rejection box. He didn’t even glance at the reason provided for submitting the bill.
For some reason, he suddenly felt like going home. He was intensely tired just from checking two bills.
He would go home, play with his much younger little brother, and then go see the face of his beloved fiancée.
He thought he’d probably feel very soothed by that.
With his innate earnestness, the young man pulled the envelopes closer. This time, he intentionally chose a Black Envelope. He had the disposition to get unpleasant things over with first.
Without noticing his colleagues peeking at him from afar as he processed the Black Envelopes consecutively, the young man murmured a small “Alright” and broke the seal.
“Those whose given name begins with S and whose family name contains the name of a bladed weapon shall be designated friends of the Royal Family.”
What do they take our kingdom’s Royal Family for?!
The young man shouted inwardly. The sender of this Black Envelope was definitely making fun of their kingdom’s Royal Family. Probably, they were taking advantage of the ability to submit bills anonymously to vent their frustrations by proposing laws that mocked the Royal Family.
They never expected the bill to pass the Black Garden in the first place.
Being made to read something like this… as a member of the Faltar Kingdom’s nobility, it was extremely infuriating. Even as the eldest son of an Impoverished Viscount Household, he had his pride.
It was infuriating that among nobles like himself, there were individuals who would anonymously mock the Royal Family like this; if they had grievances with the Royal Family, he thought, they should state them directly.
What came to the young man’s mind was his other younger brother.
His younger brother, the second son of the Impoverished Viscount Household, was an odd fellow who became an adventurer despite being a noble, but he was surely far more noble-like than the sender of this black envelope.
Although he had left home now due to various circumstances, was he doing well? No, there’s no way he wasn’t doing well.
If that guy had a complaint, he would voice it head-on, whether it was to the Royal Family or anyone else.
Compared to him, the person behind this black envelope…
Feeling irritated again, the young man
“Does he… truly not know the meaning of the Black Envelope?”
To that question, the Head Gardener offered a vague smile, saying, “I wonder?”
“Well, even if he did know, I doubt the outcome would change much.”
“Ah, but, well, the other envelopes were also quite clearly from very prominent noble families.”
The Head Gardener laughed at the man, who muttered apprehensively while looking down at the rejection box he held.
“Everyone from that household is like that. My former colleague was the same.”
The Head Gardener said this while recalling the man who was once his colleague, now transferred to a different department.
“Whether it’s their family way or something else, I don’t know. For some reason, the members of that family don’t see much value in being nobles. It doesn’t matter if it’s their own family or another.”
Hearing the Head Gardener’s words, the man momentarily thought, ‘Are there really nobles like that?’ but didn’t voice it. Although he came from an Earl’s family, being the second son unable to inherit the title, he had entered service at the castle. This was because his father, the head of the family, had strictly ordered him never to speak carelessly about anyone from that household within the palace. According to his father, they apparently have “ardent fans.”
What on earth are ‘ardent fans’ of the Impoverished Viscount Household? Oh well, it’s undoubtedly nothing good.
The man suppressed all his inner thoughts, bowed his head to the Head Gardener, and returned to his work.
The Head Gardener watched with satisfaction as the man, acting befitting a noble, held his tongue and left. Then, thinking he should also get back to work, he turned towards his desk.
Suddenly, he stopped midway and thought.
Hmm, perhaps I should invite my old colleague out for a drink after all this time. If I say I’m treating, that man won’t refuse. Well, he’d probably refuse if I invited him to my home, so maybe we should dress like commoners and head out into town like we used to.
The Head Gardener chuckled silently, thinking about the cheap sake he would likely be drinking with his old friend for the first time in a while.
*** Afterword ***
Thank you very much for your patience.
I am steadily progressing on the main story as well.
Therefore, here is a short story by way of apology.
This is a story about the eldest son of the Longdagger Family, who has only been mentioned by name in the main story.
I also thought about featuring Jen.
However, bringing Jenniferlin in here would definitely send the writing of the main story flying off course, so I brought out the protagonist’s older brother instead.
Please scold me as a good-for-nothing author who ended up writing a short story simply to buy time.
Also, I haven’t been replying to comments for a long time, but I assure you I have read all of them, so I wanted to state that clearly.
Well then, I’ll keep doing my best on the main story too.