Chapter 169: Game of Thrones
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 169: Game of Thrones
‘Is he testing me?’
Then again, it made sense for the Duke to be suspicious. With my ties to Dresden severed, I had no reason to remain on the North Continent.
Besides, didn’t I have urgent matters forcing me back to the West Continent?
In such a situation, there was only one excuse I could offer: that I wanted revenge on Erik for his backstabbing. And yet, when I’d rescued the Duke, hadn’t I let Erik go free?
It was highly likely that my contradictory actions had aroused his suspicion.
That I was up to something else. That this something else was none other than the throne of the North Continent. But since he only had suspicions, he was testing the waters like this.
“That’s a meaningless hypothetical. We’re not in a position to waste energy on such things. Deciding how to deal with the Pope and Erik comes first.”
I tried to calmly change the subject. But it seemed the Duke had no intention of letting it go.
“It wouldn’t be a meaningless hypothetical if I were to yield the throne of the North Continent to you, Baron.”
“…What’s your game?”
Concluding this was just another one of the Duke’s ploys to test me, I narrowed my eyes.
As I raised my guard, the Duke calmly walked over to the window. I followed and stood beside him, and he pointed down below.
“As you’ve seen for yourself, my sons are all immature and hopelessly foolish. They would surely be incapable of handling not just the throne, but even the position of Duke.”
In the garden below the window, Isabel was nagging her younger brothers. It seemed they had gotten into some kind of trouble again.
“If Isabel had been a man, I would have named her my successor without a moment’s hesitation.”
“Does gender matter?”
At this point, I began to think this might not be a test, but I didn’t let my guard down.
“It matters a great deal! I’ve heard that in the West and South Continents, women often inherit titles, but that’s impossible here in the North.”
The Duke explained the cultural differences between the continents. According to him, the people of the North Continent would not tolerate a woman ruling over them.
“Then isn’t the only other option to educate your children to be worthy of their station?”
“There is one other way.”
Only then did the Duke turn to look at me.
I had a hunch that everything he’d said so far was just a prelude to what he was about to say next. But what followed was unexpected.
“You, Baron, are truly a hero. You excel in martial prowess, strategy, and even appearance. It would be no exaggeration to call you an incarnation of Zighart the Great Emperor, the first and last man to establish an empire in the North Continent.”
Stunned by the sudden, effusive praise, I was at a loss for words. The Duke continued, looking down at Isabel.
“Compared to a man like you, my daughter is not without her flaws. Still, she is quite fair, and isn’t she clever enough that I would entrust the future of my house to her?”
“Are you proposing a marriage?”
I had considered marrying Isabel. But it would be a little different from what the Duke had in mind. The position I had in mind for her was that of a concubine.
“Marriage is merely a means to an end. What I truly desire is the child of you two, who will certainly be more outstanding than my sons, no matter how you look at it.”
“You want to adopt my child with Isabel?”
I felt an instinctive revulsion. Besides, even if he adopted the child, it would still carry my blood.
In other words, just as I had used Adelaide to get my hands on Dresden, the Duke could use my child as a pretext to swallow whole everything I’ve built.
My heightened wariness must have shown on my face, because the Duke waved his hands dismissively.
“Quite the opposite. I intend for the child of you and Isabel to inherit the Signir family.”
If that was true, it was a completely different story. But it was a difficult thing to believe at face value.
A man of this era, who values his family above his country, is saying he’ll end his own line? I narrowed my eyes and stared at the Duke.
“There must be conditions.”
The Duke grinned.
“There are two conditions. The first is that the one to become king of the North Continent must be Isabel's child.”
He stressed that this first condition was non-negotiable. For me and the Tobalts family, who were nothing but foreigners to the people of the North, we would have no choice but to mix our blood with that of a northerner to sit on the throne.
I compared my existing plan with the Duke’s proposal. The latter was more convenient and would save time.
After all, if I used the Archbishop as originally planned, a conflict with the Duke would be unavoidable. The only problem was that I couldn’t fully trust the Duke.
“A king who hasn’t even been born yet? Then I suppose you’ll be playing king until then.”
“We could leave the throne empty. It’s been vacant for the last five years, what’s the harm in waiting a little longer? You could even send a proxy.”
The Duke answered quickly, as if he had anticipated my concerns from the moment he made the proposal. It was also a concession significant enough to dispel my suspicions.
“And the second condition?”
“One of my grandchild’s children must branch off and re-establish the Signir family.”
The Duke was making it clear that he blatantly wanted to mix my blood into his family line.
In the end, the Duke had two objectives. As he said, to mix our blood, and to skip over his own children who might ruin the family and pass the inheritance on to his great-grandchild.
“It wouldn’t be a bad deal for the great-grandchild who doesn’t inherit the throne, either.”
The Duke was already thinking of his great-grandchild’s son, when his great-grandchild hadn’t even been born.
“Is that all?”
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was looking much, much further into the future.
Hadn’t the Duke become the man closest to the throne of the North Continent because of the minuscule amount of royal blood flowing in his veins?
If we did as the Duke said, the Signir family would gain a legitimate claim to succeed me.
Of course, the Signir family could only press their claim to the throne if there were no legitimate heirs. Which meant there was no telling how long it would take.
But wasn't the Duke himself living proof of such a case?
He didn’t try to hide his intentions.
“Nothing made by man is eternal. The Great Empire that once stretched beyond the North Continent to all four continents was split into several kingdoms, and is now so forgotten that its traces can only be found in history books. The same will be true of the empire you build, Baron.”
When that time comes, the decision to mix our blood will be rewarded. Just as the Duke was now the closest to the throne of the North Continent.
“That’s a matter for the distant future.”
When I let out a chuckle, the Duke, who had been watching my reaction, breathed a sigh of relief.
“Does it not displease you?”
The head of an ordinary family would have been displeased. A person of this era, who held their family in high regard, would react sensitively to talk of another family consuming their own, no matter how far in the future.
“On the contrary, I find it strange that you would sacrifice the present for a future that may or may not come.”
With my memories of the modern era, where the individual was more important, the present was what mattered to me.
“Then…”
Realizing our priorities were different, the Duke’s expression brightened.
“I have a condition of my own.”
My child hadn’t even been born yet, and I had to return to the West Continent soon.
If the Duke revealed his ambitions during that vacuum, could the Archbishop alone stop a man hardened by long years of war? I was skeptical.
‘And a man’s heart is always subject to change.’
The Duke might be sincere now, but I couldn’t ignore the possibility that his mind might change when faced with a North Continent that was now up for grabs.
In other words, if I was to return to the West Continent without dealing with the Duke, I needed a way to ensure he couldn’t betray me.
“When I return to the West Continent, I will take both of your sons with me. I’ll make men out of them.”
They were hostages. As the Duke himself had said, if his sons were disposable cards, he would gladly accept. But if he harbored other intentions, he would have no choice but to refuse.
“You’ll really take those troublemakers off my hands?”
His reaction was the former. He even grabbed my hands with both of his to express his gratitude.
“They might die, though.”
“Men grow by facing hardship and adversity. Besides, I know you will look after them, Baron.”
The Duke’s sons were hostages to prevent him from harboring any ulterior motives, but if something were to happen to them, it would conversely give the Duke a reason to betray me.
The Duke was mentioning that point, demanding that I guarantee his sons’ safety.
“So they’re still your children, no matter how useless.”
“You’ll understand when you have a child of your own, Baron. A parent’s love for their child can never be calculating.”
Aenya’s words suddenly flashed through my mind. That for Adelaide’s sake, I needed to get my reproductive abilities back from the Witch of the Stars before it was too late.
“Baron. Do we have an agreement, then?”
The Duke’s words brought me back to reality, and I nodded. There was no downside for me.
*
News from the capital arrived two weeks later, just as I was preparing to return to the Holy Land. The Duke, having heard a report from his spy, hurriedly stopped me.
“The capital, Aran, has been burned and plundered!”
I frowned.
“By whom? The Pope and Erik, who are occupying Aran, would never have let that happen.”
“It was the Pope’s doing.”
“…What about Erik? Why didn’t he stop it?”
Erik would have known the consequences, so he should have stopped the Pope before he could act.
“No one has seen him recently. The same goes for the people from Dresden.”
“Something’s happened to him?”
A conflict between Erik and the Pope was inevitable, but this was much faster and more intense than I had anticipated.
“The capital is in a state of pandemonium, so we couldn’t find out the details, but it’s almost certain, don’t you think?”
“This is… an opportunity.”
I exchanged a look with the Duke. I couldn’t even guess the exact circumstances, but if the intelligence was true, this was a golden opportunity.
With Erik, the brains of the operation, out of the picture, the only thing left to consider was the army of the undying.
Furthermore, one cannot conduct a siege without the support of the city’s inhabitants; in fact, they would have to worry about them colluding with the enemy. The Pope would be forced into a pitched battle.
‘One time. I just have to win one single time.’
Having lost the support of the people of Aran, the Pope had also lost his final refuge. If he lost a single pitched battle, he would fall for good.
“I will march out at once.”
He was already prepared, having spent the last two weeks getting ready for departure.
The reason I was returning to the Holy Land was because word had arrived from the Archbishop that the recruitment of local nobles and mercenaries was nearly complete.
“I’ll stop by the Holy Land and join you immediately.”
What greeted me at the Holy Land was a force of no less than a thousand men. Combined with the five hundred the Duke had prepared, that made fifteen hundred soldiers.
“About half their number, then.”
The combined forces of Erik and the Pope were estimated to be around four thousand, so our army was less than half that size.
Still, I wasn’t worried. I had never fought with the advantage, yet I had won every time. This time would be no different.
The Archbishop had prepared one more thing.
“This war will be a holy war.”
The troops he had assembled were all wearing surcoats emblazoned with a cross. They looked just like crusaders. He also handed me a document.
“What’s this?”
“He seems to have left his official seal behind in his haste. Thanks to that, I was able to formally draw up a letter of excommunication.”
As expected, the Archbishop was different from the Pope. He used his most powerful weapon at the most opportune time. With this, I now held the strongest justification.
“Now that the Pope has burned and plundered the capital, this letter of excommunication will be even more effective.”
“What? What do you…”
The Archbishop looked utterly bewildered, as if he hadn’t heard the news yet.
“Pray for the people of the capital.”
I patted his shoulder, then raised a spear with a cross banner attached to it. Cynthia, who had been absent from the farewell procession, found me just as I was about to leave the city gates.
“Wait, please.”
She had brought a carriage, and inside, it was filled with waterskins. It was Holy Water.
“It may not be as much as what the Pope has, but it’s better than nothing.”
As she said, the quantity wasn’t large, but considering how little time had passed since she’d escaped from the Pope, she must have put in a tremendous effort.
That’s why I couldn’t help but smile.
“Heh, you must have gone through a lot of trouble to collect all this…?”
An image of her struggling not to miss a single drop of urine naturally came to mind.
Cynthia’s face flushed red in an instant. When I opened one of the waterskins and took a sniff, she turned so red she looked like she might explode.
“Are you joking at a time like this…?!”
She was so upset that her eyes even welled up with tears. I wrapped my arm around her waist and stole a kiss in one swift motion. Her resistance was not strong.
Instead, a sweet moan escaped from between their joined lips. I pulled her even closer, closing the distance until our bodies were pressed together, and whispered in her ear.
“You really are a pervert.”
This public display of affection, in front of all the soldiers departing for battle, had perfectly targeted her particular sexual desires.
“Hmph… Stop talking nonsense and make sure you come back alive. If you don’t, I won’t forgive you.”
I nodded and mounted my horse. Then, I raised the spear with the cross banner toward the soldiers who were watching us.
“We march!”
The final battle on the North Continent was just ahead.