Chapter 80
Chapter 80
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Royal Graces Rain Down (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
At the same time, the royals overlooking the plaza from within the palace were discussing the newly formed cavalry brigade and its young commander.
"His Majesty couldn't possibly intend to rebuild the Bluecoats with them, could he?"
"Considering the symbolism of the Bluecoats, it's not entirely incomprehensible that His Majesty made such a decision. But when you think about the situations in Astoria and Kazan, one has to wonder if there's really any reason to bear that kind of expense."
The First Prince Vasily and Second Prince Hurian wore perpetually displeased expressions.
"Seven hundred suits of plate armor and seven hundred warhorses. That's enough to form two elite infantry legions and sustain them for a year."
"His Majesty seems to think the royal treasury is an inexhaustible spring. Otherwise, how could he make such a choice? A modest sum of silver would have sufficed."
Both princes already acted as if the royal wealth were their own, their faces pale with distress.
"And Garadnayan on top of that. It may not be vast, but among the confiscated noble territories, it was a prime piece."
"I just can't fathom how His Majesty plans to cover those costs..."
Princess Yeniche Trakieri rose silently from her seat as the two princes bantered back and forth.
"Yen. Sit back down. This is a discussion about the royal family's future. If you have any sense of being a royal, you should share your thoughts."
"Oh my. I had no idea my brothers thought of me that way. How delightful."
The two princes scowled at her radiant smile.
"But what can I do? I can't bear to sit any longer."
Her face remained smiling throughout.
"Before I go, let me say one thing to you, Brother Hurian."
Hurian's discomfort was plain at those words.
"Right now, Hurian, you're being played for a fool by Vasily. You don't actually believe he's agreeing with you out of conviction, do you?"
Oh! Please don't think so little of him.
My pride in the Trakieri blood running through my veins would diminish just a bit.
"You...! Watch your words."
"You should be the one watching yours, Hurian. It wasn't long ago that His Majesty warned you. It's fine to play along with Vasily's games, but please don't go poking around and upsetting His Majesty's mood."
With that, Princess Yeniche gathered her skirts and offered a graceful curtsy.
"Lewd, dull, and greedy brothers. Your little sister has business at His Majesty's command, so she'll take her leave."
Without waiting for a reply, she departed promptly.
-That impudent...!
-After all this time, still getting so worked up...
The princess's smile faded from her expression.
Langrid Guldiv, waiting outside, could tell from her demeanor that the conversation inside hadn't been fruitful.
"Vasily is egging Hurian on. That fool Hurian looks ready to join forces with those nobles outside at any moment."
Langrid's face grew cautious at the blatant contempt directed at the second prince.
"His Majesty warned him so sternly, yet he's already forgotten."
"If the Second Prince makes a mistake, it wouldn't benefit him..."
"Hurian can't fall yet. I'm not ready to face Vasily's faction without him."
The princess quickened her pace.
"Come spring, the real contest will begin. For a while, I'll have to stick with Hurian, like it or not. Whether that dimwit can hold out that long is another question."
The king had warned his children at their gathering that no contests of any kind would be tolerated before spring. Yet from what she'd seen today, if left unchecked, her second brother would fall out of favor before the real struggle even started.
"If only he were still under my command, I could have leisurely watched that fool Hurian throw himself into the fire pit. What a pity."
Langrid instantly knew whom she meant.
Her lady often expressed regret over losing him in such moments, and lately, complaints about him had become far more frequent.
"Many have distinguished themselves in this war. I'll arrange a meeting soon."
"Who could possibly fill his shoes?"
She hesitated to speak plainly, mindful of having once upset her lady by defending him in the past.
"Still, not everything that fool Hurian said was wrong."
As they reached her palace, the princess spoke as if struck by a sudden thought.
"His Majesty is granting him far too much power. Even his blood kin regard him warily."
"...Perhaps it's simply that he possesses the talent and achievements to warrant such favor from our just and righteous king."
She added that his rewards were modest compared to his merits.
Langrid defended the king's decision as one meant to boost army morale and motivate the troops.
"You may be right, Langrid. But I can't shake this thought."
The princess sighed deeply.
"It almost seems like His Majesty is clinging to him. Like a woman in love courting her beloved. Ridiculous, of course."
Her face flushed with embarrassment, as if she herself found the notion absurd.
"Of course. What could Thracia's sovereign possibly lack?"
Langrid nearly voiced her retort as the princess chuckled wryly.
And you, my lady? Aren't you just as fixated on a mere soldier?
"Pretend you didn't hear that."
Langrid said nothing. No response was needed.
"How did it go with the task?"
"I selected female officers of marriageable age stationed in the north, and instructed all without disqualifications to attend the victory banquet."
"Good. I've separately picked out royal maids and servants, so there should be plenty to pair with the eligible bachelors."
The princess let out a long sigh.
"Even if it's His Majesty's command, it's too much. An unmarried princess playing matchmaker? His Majesty goes too far."
"But thanks to it, you've seized a third of the palace administration."
"True. If not now, when else could I place Dariya in a key position? Had she remarried, I might have even made her Mistress of the Household."
The princess furrowed her brow at that.
Evidently, memories of Dariya's failure to sway him last year had resurfaced.
"It's no longer surprising that every one of my recent failures ties back to him."
Langrid gazed steadily at the princess.
Her lingering attachment to him bordered on obsession now.
It worried her greatly.
Yet she couldn't deny understanding it.
The inner sanctum, barred to all but the Royal Guard.
"Your Highness. His Majesty has entered the Glass Garden with General Yannick."
And the Glass Garden, permitted only to the king.
He who entered such a taboo sanctuary as if it were routine.
"This round of rewards has emptied no small part of the royal coffers. The future worries me."
I let King Igor's feigned lament slide in one ear and out the other.
I'd heard before even arriving in the capital that dozens of noble houses had been stripped bare.
Most who fled south with their belongings as the Astoria army advanced had surrendered prime estates to the crown and donated substantial sums.
Officially, unlike the nobles who dispatched troops north, they contributed what they could financially.
But I knew those weren't voluntary donations.
I could say with certainty.
At least half the royal expenditures this time would be covered by the nobles' "goodwill."
Even the unheard-of southern city granted to me might be one such.
"And there's still the final promise left. How can you speak so weakly...?"
I replied indifferently.
"Your tone has changed a bit."
"Just your imagination."
"...It doesn't seem like it."
Igor narrowed his eyes at me.
What? What do you want me to do?
I met his gaze steadily without flinching.
"Were you dissatisfied with the earldom and generalship?"
He let out a hollow laugh.
"Is there anyone else in the world who receives prime lands, a title, entry into the general's ranks, and reacts like this?"
"Why not give them to those who want or need them?"
I ended up responding in a sullen tone after all.
We'd discussed cavalry scale beforehand: regiment-sized.
A colonel sufficed for regimental command.
I'd neither wanted nor expected a generalship or earldom.
Yet Igor had unilaterally made me an earl and general.
Something he wouldn't do unless he planned to keep me under his thumb forever.
Despair washed over me, but I soon accepted my fate.
Just as I'd humbly embraced the intertwined misfortune and fortune Asha foretold.
Ah, jealous? Then just kick me out.
So you accept it too, Igor.
"But it was necessary. Colonel and knight wouldn't suffice."
This was essential to fulfill the final promise.
"Of course it was."
Igor's eyes widened at my reply, then he burst into hollow laughter again.
Ah, so if you don't want this attitude, just exile me already.
I expressed my feelings with my face and body, but it fell on deaf ears.
"Soon, the Trakieris will begin their contest in earnest."
Igor glanced at me with resigned eyes and spoke again.
"It ends only when one of the three remains. Whoever it is, the fallout won't be light."
Casual tone, grave words.
"The ten, twenty years you risked your life for could be squandered on Trakieri infighting. That's my greatest fear. That Thracia's hard-won peace slips away meaninglessly, that in ten or twenty years, this nation stagnates."
I straightened up, no longer slouching.
"Thus, I entrust you with a burden."
Igor removed a ring from his finger and offered it to me.
"If the Trakieri contest goes too far..."
Before he finished, I boldly rose and dropped to my knees.
"I cannot accept it."
I didn't even glance at the ring.
Obsidian among the rings symbolizing the king's ten virtues: temperance.
At face value, perhaps a reminder to live frugally despite my rise.
Had I not known obsidian's other meaning, I might have thought so.
"Purification."
Handed over amid talk of the Power Struggle, with the king's bastard daughter present.
Ignorance would make me an idiot.
"As long as Your Majesty endures, the princes' and princess's contest will remain under Your Majesty's watchful eye."
And I wasn't an idiot, so I refused the ring.
"The Trakieri who ascends after me might turn you into an enemy."
Igor sighed as I held firm.
"I've already received the sapphire ring from you to ensure the Trakieris show me mercy in such a case."
Igor suddenly burst into laughter at my words.
"You've got it backwards."
Backwards?
So it wasn't for them to show me mercy, but for me to show them mercy?
Oh. Damn. He's right.
I grimaced upon seeing Igor's expression.
"Head of the Foreign Dukes' Jesters. Crown Slayer Yannick."
Of all times to bring up that moniker.
"Kazan, Malta, and Astoria's royals know what you've done. Over a dozen princes whose fates you twisted by your hand, dozens of royals who met their end."
"Your Majesty... That was all in service of ducal missions, by command, not personal grudge..."
"No need to explain. I'm not blaming you."
Is this revenge for my earlier prodding?
"I agonized for days. Tell the Trakieris about you? Would they believe me? If they did, how would they react?"
How? With a dagger at their throat, they'd scramble to remove it.
I knew it. He knew it.
But we never said it outright.
"Had I not witnessed it myself, I wouldn't have believed such a person existed."
Igor helped me to my feet.
"I'll take back the Ring of Temperance. But this one, you must accept."
He reclaimed the obsidian and offered another ring.
Fortunately, a standard(?) royal ring this time.
Garnets symbolized loyalty and unwavering friendship—no room for misunderstanding.
Whether anyone had ever received two royal rings, I couldn't say.
"Stand tall. Make the Trakieris choose you as ally over enemy."
With Kazan and Astoria neutralized for the next decade or two.
I couldn't guess what future he envisioned.
I learned soon enough.
Why he fretted today like an old man who'd seen it all.
At the victory banquet.
"The Western Hegemon, Supreme Commander of the Hermann Eastern Army overseeing two provinces and four duchies, Captain of the Shattering Knights! Victorious Duke of Hermann and Grand Duke of Zikseil, His Highness Gerhard von Zikseil has come to celebrate Thracia's victory—give him a round of applause!"
The early evening victory banquet began, and an emissary from the great Hermann Empire appeared.
Striding forward.
Ignoring protocol, heading straight for the dais—his face brimming with arrogance and insolence.
I think I instinctively knew it then.
The tenacious bad blood linking Gerhard and me.