Encounter
Encounter
Was I the weird one here?
The person who dropped that bombshell was so utterly calm that I felt a sense of cognitive dissonance. Seeing Duke Lesrom let out a short laugh, apparently amused by my reaction, my hand unconsciously went to the teacup placed before me.
Well, he certainly brewed tea well enough to be proud of it.
"Oh. You're drinking this time, are you?"
"You told me a story that made my throat dry, so my hand moved on its own."
"You needn't be so tense. I don't have a hobby of forcing people onto my boat after unilaterally notifying them."
"I'd have let it go if it were anything else, but honestly, I can't bring myself to believe this."
Hearing a story that could shake the very foundation of the kingdom's political landscape and staying calm would be the weird thing. I openly glared at Duke Lesrom with utter disbelief, but he just maintained his unwaveringly relaxed attitude.
"You can say that directly to His Majesty the King later. I merely spoke because he told me it was acceptable to do so."
"For someone of your stature, Your Excellency, blaming others is remarkably irresponsible."
"It's a royal command, is it not? A subject must naturally obey."
As if we were simply exchanging amusing jokes, Duke Lesrom smiled to himself, set down his teacup, and continued.
"In any case. I only told you because knowing this fact does our side no harm. At the same time, it is the reason I am helping you with the boar hunt. Now, speak."
"...Your Excellency, did you just..."
"If you were about to ask whether I'm merely pretending to help His Majesty to lower your guard, he told me to show you the letter he wrote personally. Would you like to see it?"
"...I see no reason for you to deceive me, so I respectfully decline."
A handwritten letter from the king. That kind of thing is best kept at a distance. My head already ached enough from the problems I had right now. Just in case he actually pulled it out, I hurriedly handed him the document I had received from Zikmel and decided to change the subject.
"You likely know this already, but it seems the boar has been secretly diverting private soldiers to increase its scale. The training camps appear to be operating legally, so it's not really my place to step in, but the mercenary corps they're running with those diverted soldiers doesn't seem so legitimate, so I intend to deal with them."
"Hm? This sounds a bit unfamiliar. I'll take a look for a moment."
Seeing him not even frown once while reading the document, his eyesight seemed to be quite healthy for his age. Since it had come to this, I decided to just relax and wait while drinking my tea, and soon Duke Lesrom slowly nodded and spoke up.
"We missed the mercenary corps. The training camp was established a few years ago to compensate for the declining quality of private soldiers caused by the prolonged war... but I had no idea they were diverting troops like this. We may need a shake-up."
It felt like he just read 'purge' when he said 'shake-up,' but since it had nothing to do with me, I decided to feign ignorance.
"It seems you came because you needed help resolving this mercenary corps issue. Specifically, what kind of help do you want?"
"The wyvern pilot Gies, who came forward as a witness, and his wyvern. I'd like to borrow them for a moment."
"So the location has already been pinpointed."
"Not precisely, but roughly, yes."
Duke Lesrom hesitated for a moment, about to return the document, but since it held no meaning for me to keep it any longer, I decided to let him have it for his report.
"Moving today will be difficult anyway, and tomorrow he must appear as a witness, so the day after tomorrow is the earliest you can move. I'll prepare the documents and send them to the Ogatorf manor."
I'd acted out of a vague hope that offering something might make him more willing to lend me a wyvern, but seeing Duke Lesrom's reaction, it seemed he would have readily agreed even without any of that.
As for me, whatever the case, as long as I could borrow the wyvern, it didn't matter. Thinking the conversation was over, I moved to stand, but he gestured for me to stay seated and spoke.
"Your business seems to be settled, so now it's my turn."
It was nothing more than a sudden intrusion without any prior notice, yet I had absolutely no clue what business he could possibly have with me. But I couldn't exactly say I wasn't interested and walk out, so I had no choice but to awkwardly sit my half-risen body back down.
"Did you have something to say?"
"Rather than something to say, I wanted to give you a heads-up about the schedule after this matter is resolved."
"Schedule...?"
Wasn't it supposed to end with Count Bosha getting the shit beaten out of him to near-death or death, and Ragnis being acquitted and awarded compensation? Even if that wasn't the end, there shouldn't be anything I particularly needed to know.
"Surely you didn't think everything would be neatly wrapped up after the boar hunt, with the Margrave of Levien being acquitted and compensated?"
Was this old man some kind of fortune teller? Since that was exactly what I had thought, I sat there unable to say a word, and once again, Duke Lesrom smiled.
"Amity with the Empire, the hidden contributor to the traitor's execution, the hero who even thwarted the Demonfolk's schemes through adventurer activities. With so many achievements piled upon you, did you truly believe things would end just like that?"
"...Come to think of it, the Abandoned Dungeon incident was commissioned by the royal family, wasn't it."
"Though I didn't expect you to be involved in that. The royal family wishes to reward you appropriately and present you as a hero."
"I'd like to rudely refuse."
This was strange. Even considering I had a justification, I was sure I had rampaged enough, beheading people to a point that seemed excessive. And yet I was still being mentioned? Was there such a lack of talent in Itisel?
"I expected as much. That is why I acted so freely—to distance myself from it. And I still ended up on the list of figurehead heroes?"
"Killing a few people in the capital for honor's sake isn't so trivial an achievement that it can just be hushed up."
"It's also a fact that I carried out excessive revenge to be called a hero."
"Even quelling and distorting such rumors is part of politics."
My throat was exceptionally dry today. I refilled the teacup that had emptied without my noticing, wet my throat, and could only sigh inwardly.
The thought that instantly flashed through my mind was, 'Should I really ask Esmue to let me defect to the Empire or something?' Once you become a chess piece tossed around on the political board, you can't even do the things you're capable of. Even now, I was already in far too deep just helping Ragnis.
The reason I'd acted as I had so far was because I had in mind gaining the Wandering Knight title in a few months and then leaving the capital entirely for the front lines. In a world where recklessly challenging customs and traditions is difficult, once I leave like that, they can't really hold me back for any ordinary reason until I voluntarily return.
In my own way, I'd set it up as a perfect plan. The problem was, it no longer seemed so perfect.
Getting any more entangled with the royal family here meant I couldn't even begin to guess how far they might interfere and intervene, a future I had to avoid at all costs. They were the ones who treated Ragnis, who had just returned after losing everything, this harshly—what could I possibly trust them with?
Whether my distrust showed outwardly or not, Duke Lesrom's explanation continued.
"This proposal is not about using you to suit the royal family's tastes. If necessary, I can even put that part in writing as an official document, so I wish you wouldn't look at it so negatively."
"I learned to always be wary of goodwill without compensation. This situation feels exactly like that."
"It's not entirely without compensation. Merely keeping a figure like you under the royal family's protection generates secondary benefits. Conversely, don't you roughly expect that if we clumsily tried to suppress you and ended up losing you to another country, the resulting headaches would be more than one or two?"
How could I not expect that? It's precisely because people in politics always find something that surpasses those expectations that I wanted to stay apart from them entirely.
"I don't know what impression the royal family has given you so far, but as you can see from the fact that they haven't lost the kingdom or their power while maintaining a seven-year war against the Demon King's Army, they are not incompetent. They know how to make rational choices and contracts. It's not a decided matter yet, nor am I telling you to decide. I am merely saying that when you get a moment to catch your breath, I want you to seriously consider it."
It was an unwelcome topic, but facing an elder who had treated me with boundless goodwill from our very first meeting, it was not at all easy to declare absolute opposition. Even if the old man made his living by meticulously calculating gains and losses.
It was even harder because he had personally brewed me high-grade tea and granted my one-sided request for help.
"I will... consider it."
"That is sufficient for now. Once matters are settled, a proper occasion to discuss this calmly will be arranged."
Duke Lesrom smiled, seemingly satisfied with even my short answer.
Honestly, I'd be far more at ease dealing with hundreds of bastards who just pick a fight out of nowhere and swing their swords first.