The Light Tower Chapter 5
The Light Tower loomed far to the northwest, extending north and south along the eastern half of the Rotia Kingdom like a spine of the nation. It was the easternmost tip of the Rio Grande mountain range that branched westward from that mighty range, sitting precisely at the border between the Lordship of Valentino and the Lordship of Valua. This early morning. Sylvia and Cloud had carefully bypassed the checkpoint manned by Valua soldiers lining the main road, slipping quietly into the Valentino territory. Up to this point, everything had gone smoothly. They had dismounted and were walking through the thick underbrush of the forest when they suddenly ran into a patrol unit from Valentino. “What do we do? What should we do, Cloud?” Sylvia sat astride her horse with her hood drawn up. Cloud was walking beside the horse, gripping the reins in one hand. Three armed soldiers approached them with alert eyes. “Why are you traveling this forest instead of the good road? What business do you have in these woods?” One soldier had a bow slung over his back, and the other two carried swords at their hips. Among them, the horn slung at the waist of the man standing in the middle stood out noticeably. “Are you on patrol?” Cloud relaxed his face and offered a merchant-like bow with a smile. “I heard there were good herbs growing in this sparsely populated forest, so I came to take a look.” The soldiers’ gazes all turned toward Sylvia, who sat atop the horse. They seemed to be examining the bags hanging from the saddle and other things as well. Then the middle soldier looked back at Cloud. “Where are you from? Are you a local from our estate?” “No, I’m from Valua.” “You Valua people dare to trespass on someone else’s territory like this?” The soldier’s tone was blunt and sullen. Added to that was the icy glare that already treated them like criminals. “This is a forbidden zone. Also, you don’t know that there’s a heretic village nearby?” “Hehe, of course we know all about it.” Sweat broke out on his palms from the uneasy handshake. His mind raced without stopping to figure out how to escape the situation. “You have one water skin and two swords.” The soldier with the bow and the bags looked over the items hanging from Sylvia’s saddle, opened one of the sacks, and said, “Nothing else.” Suddenly the soldier standing on the right pressed a knife to his throat. “Eek.” Cloud raised both hands in panic. The middle soldier with the horn glared at Cloud’s two eyes and said mockingly, “You said you came to collect herbs. Where are the baskets or tools you’re supposed to use? Where did you leave them?” Even with a knife pressed to his neck, Cloud didn’t lose his bright smile. “Herbs? You just pull them out by hand and put them in a sack, right? Do you really need special tools? As long as you have nimble fingers, that’s plenty. Hehe.” “Then what about this woman? She doesn’t look like she’s here to pick herbs at all. What were you thinking bringing her along? A maid? Or were you going to use her for… you know, satisfying that urge in case she suddenly got hot after collecting herbs?” The soldiers burst out laughing. Up until then, Sylvia had sat silently on the horse, but she was seething inside. She simply lowered her head and held back her temper, wondering how Cloud would handle this situation. She secretly hoped for it. Cloud was different from her. He wasn’t skilled with swords or possessed any special magic. It was practically impossible to knock out these three by brute force. So what would he do? She wanted to know that trick. Cloud always escaped danger with clever speed and had somehow stayed alive this long, even though he seemed like an ordinary man living his life. So she was hoping. If they couldn’t defeat these men, they couldn’t pass this way, and then she wouldn’t be able to save Cecil. How would he get through this? Sylvia decided to watch quietly without getting angry. “All right, stop pretending to be noble and show your faces.” The soldier who had been rummaging through the bags reached for the robe Sylvia wore, thinking to strip it off her. Then Cloud suddenly tensed his neck and shouted loudly. “You insolent bastards! Take your hands away right now!” The hand reaching for Sylvia’s robe froze in shock. All three soldiers’ gazes shot toward Cloud. He planted his hands on his hips and shouted with an angry face. “You scoundrels! Do you know who this noble lady sitting here is and still act so rudely!” “Is she some grand duke or something?” The middle soldier sneered with a laugh. “Exactly! This noble lady is none other than the young lady of the Lord of Valua!” At Cloud’s bold shout, Sylvia was shocked inside. She hadn’t expected him to reveal her identity at all. On the other hand, she felt a little regret. Was this the only way? Her intuition told her that revealing her identity wouldn’t completely escape the situation. She still couldn’t go to the heretic village to get the herbs for Cecil. “Please remove your hood, young lady! Remove your hood and let these rude scoundrels see your faces clearly!” Sylvia slowly pulled her hood back. Even though she wore a plain robe instead of fancy clothes, the soldiers immediately recognized her noble blood from her refined, glowing appearance. Sylvia went further by pulling out the Valua family crest pendant around her neck and holding it out as if to show it. “Oh my!” “W-we’ve committed such a grave offense!” “Please forgive us!” The panicked soldiers all dropped to their knees on the ground, bowing their heads until their foreheads touched the dirt. The middle soldier said in a trembling voice, “W-we sincerely apologize for daring to speak to the young lady of the Valua family like this! Please forgive us! Lately we’ve been on edge because of the heretics, so we couldn’t think clearly! Please spare our lives!” Instead of Sylvia, Cloud crossed his arms and looked down menacingly. “Lie down and grovel, you bastards.” “Yes yes!” “We understand!” “We’ll lie down! Please spare our lives!” The soldiers stopped bowing and hurriedly threw themselves down and groveled. Cloud picked up a thick wooden club from nearby and started beating the soldiers’ buttocks. “How dare you speak to the young lady like that?” Whack! “Ouch!” “What? Hot?” Slap! “Kyahk!” Watching Cloud beat the soldiers so casually, Sylvia felt oddly relieved inside. Most of all, she was thrilled that he was getting angry on her behalf. ‘Even good people have their dark sides, but back then why…….’ Without a care, Cloud was happily grinning to himself. “What? You were going to satisfy that urge or something?” Whack whack! “Aaaah!” Whacking them thirty times each at once made even Cloud’s arms ache. With that, he called it enough, tossed the club aside, and dusted his hands. “If you’ve learned your lesson, get out of our way right now. The young lady has somewhere urgent to go.” Sylvia bit her lip at those words. She already knew how the soldiers would respond. “I’m sorry, but even if you are the young lady of the Valua family, we cannot allow you to pass through here……” The middle soldier was rubbing his sore backside and sobbing when Cloud cocked his head in suspicion. “You want to get beaten again?” “N-no!” The soldier waved his hands. “We are soldiers of the Valentino family. We would normally show respect to the young lady of the Valua family, but since we are not direct superiors, we cannot receive orders. Moreover, this area is dangerous and often infested with heretics. And if the young lady gets hurt, Lord Valentino will find out and severely punish us.” In short, they would treat a noble with respect but could not follow orders because they were from a different house. ‘What now, Cloud? There seems to be no way out…….’ While thinking that, Sylvia glanced at Cloud. However, Cloud said without a moment’s hesitation, “Don’t worry about that. The conversation between the young lady of the Valua family, Lady Sylvia, and Lord Valentino’s son, Lord Carlos, is already over.” “Huh? W-what do you mean?” “You don’t know? The stories about the heretic purge have been exchanged between our two houses.” Cloud spoke confidently. “The young lady of our Valua family, Lady Sylvia, has decided to cooperate in this heretic purge! So while she was on reconnaissance for the upcoming battle, she met some soldiers in the forest! Just the two of us!” Hearing that, Sylvia was more shocked than the soldiers. It was a story she had never heard before. Even so, Cloud said to the kneeling soldiers as if bestowing a favor. “Good. Though you were rude to our young lady, you tried hard to do your duty and made a mistake. Our young lady will understand you generously, and with her kind heart, she will give you a very good opportunity.” “An opportunity?” The middle soldier tilted his head, blinking. “Go right now to your superior and tell him that the young lady of the Valua family, Lady Sylvia, is conducting reconnaissance here. This news of the reconnaissance has not been reported to the Valentino family, so it will be a fine opportunity to do your job diligently. Got it?” “Yes!” “Y-yes!” “Four!” The soldiers nodded vigorously and answered. And at that moment, Sylvia was extremely confused by this unexpected twist. She was trying to hide her identity, yet he was deliberately revealing it? She had no idea what he was thinking. ‘What on earth is he thinking, Cloud……?’ Cloud looked at Sylvia. He was poking his lips at the soldiers as if asking for her to say something. She decided to go along with him. “Tell him I met Lord Carlos in the forest and that the soldiers I met there were very impressive. That I will bestow a great favor upon you.” “Thank you!” “We won’t forget this kindness!” “Ugh! Really, really thank you!” After that, the soldiers left with pleasant expressions. When only the two remained in the forest after they disappeared, Sylvia spoke as if she had been waiting. “Cloud. What on earth were you thinking, escalating things like this? If Carlos finds out I came here, he might come looking for me?” “Don’t worry. That’s exactly what I want.” “What……?” Cloud gave a meaningful smile. “I’m going to use Carlos in this matter.”