The Poisoned Chalice, Served Free of Charge (3)
Lady Karalin had said, “If I’m going to the capital, I won’t be able to eat properly for a while, so I want one last cup of proper Northern-style black tea.”
Hearing that, what else could a servant do? I had no choice but to pour my heart into it.
Ting—
“It’s ready, my lady.”
At last, the tea that carried a fragment of my very soul was complete. I stirred the sugar with a teaspoon and lightly tapped the cup. I hadn’t always been capable of something so domestic. Even a dog at a private academy learns to recite poetry after three years; after nearly ten years as a human, I ought to have reached a level worth being satisfied with.
“…My lady?”
Yet even after I announced that it was ready, Lady Karalin remained silent for a long while. Only the crackle of burning firewood filled her private chambers. I looked at her and quietly drew a breath. I knew her too well.
“My lady, I understand that feeling better than anyone. …You must be furious, aren’t you?”
I knew exactly what battle she had fought. The countless unjust fights she had endured. I had survived them with her, standing at the very front. But she still gave no answer. She only gripped the armrest of her favorite rocking chair with white-knuckled force.
The silence did not last long.
“What should I do, Yohan…?”
It was pure resentment. She had tried to sound calm, but the edges of her voice trembled and crumbled. She hadn’t called me for the tea at all. She had wanted to lean on me, to act spoiled for once. That thought crossed my mind, though I knew she wasn’t the type; perhaps I was overinterpreting.
“I’ve spent my entire life for the territory and the family.”
“Others may not know, but at least I have watched you.”
“Yes. I believe you. It’s just… it feels like everything has gone to waste. I always thought there would come a day when I would be acknowledged again…”
I brought the tea directly to the unhappy lady.
“Haha. And now they’re exiling me.”
“Please drink.”
The territory would burn. Therefore, heading to the Academy as in the original history was undoubtedly the correct choice. But how could I say that to her face? No matter how advantageous it might be, if I told her the truth, she would never be able to accept that her territory was about to fall into ruin.
‘She can reason, but emotions are another matter.’
So I thought it best to keep my mouth shut for now. Yet just as I was wondering how to begin, an unexpected action occurred.
“Hah!”
Gulp—
Suddenly, Lady Karalin lifted the entire scalding cup and drank it down in one go. Without cooling it first. Didn’t that burn?
“That must have been hot, my lady.”
“Ah, well… ugh.”
Yes, of course it was hot.
“I brewed it deeper and hotter than usual. You prefer it astringent, after all…”
“I know that! I’ve seen you brew it for a long time!”
Lady Karalin was not usually so impulsive. She must have been truly enraged this time.
“Here is cold water. Please drink, my lady.”
“…Thank you, Yohan.”
Gulp— Gulp—
She drank the cold water in large, unladylike swallows, though her posture remained proper. After a moment—
“Yohan.”
Her voice had calmed. She called my name.
“Yes, my lady.”
“…I wasn’t wrong, was I?”
The desperate plea for validation in those words was so earnest that even the gods might not have known how much it meant to her. So I answered at once.
“There is no need to doubt. From my perspective, the path you walk is the right one.”
“You really are…”
She gave a pitiful, hollow laugh. Half the rough Northern warrior, half the young girl. The more I looked at her, the more I thought she was a fascinating person, and my admiration for her only grew stronger.
“Then why must I suffer like this?”
Her next words made my heart clench.
‘Speak of the devil and he appears.’
This was the first time she had ever voiced her hardships to someone else, the first time she had asked for comfort and understanding. Until now, she had swallowed every such feeling alone. Even without words, I had known, but hearing her voice crack and nearly shatter…
No matter how strong a person’s core might be, there were moments when they had no choice but to weaken. Perhaps that was why, in the original history, she had fallen.
‘In the original timeline, I didn’t exist. So she must have spent today alone before leaving for the Academy.’
Brewing tea by herself. Lost in thought alone. Quietly accepting exile, going to the Academy, only to be mocked as “a defective product who couldn’t even protect her succession rights,” shattering her spirit once more. The demonic army would have seized that opening and crept in. She would have knelt before them. Because no matter how hard she tried, nothing came back in return.
A pitiful, wretched soul.
But as long as I was here, that future would never come to pass. I would kill anyone who stood in her way. I would drag down anyone who slandered her. Handing the territory over to Shagalor was nothing more than part of the plan I had drawn.
So I slowly approached her and knelt. To keep her from breaking.
“Yohan?”
A faint blush of surprise rose on her face, clouded with worry.
“The world is cruel, my lady,” I said in a low voice. “Even so, please do not give up.”
Her straight, slender white hand twitched slightly.
Yes. Perhaps this was for the best. Since she had opened her heart, the timing was now or never.
“I know full well what it means for you to go to the Academy—no, to leave the territory. But I, Yohan, believe it is an opportunity.”
“…An opportunity?”
Her blue eyes poured over me.
“Yes. Here, you are nothing more than a displaced heir. But at the Academy, you will simply be a ‘student.’ There will be no external pressures or predetermined fates like there are here.”
“Then what is there?”
“As a student, you will be free to shape whatever future you desire. It may sound presumptuous, but now is the time to gather strength and lie low.”
“…Haha.”
“You can always return and reclaim the territory later.”
When I said that, she looked at me with a subtle smile.
“Shall I ask what you mean by that?”
“Exactly as I said. No matter the method, we can always establish legitimacy afterward, can’t we?”
“Yes…”
That benevolent yet venomous gaze was, to me, the greatest honor imaginable.
“How very Northern of you. As expected, you’re still alive and well. I… I kept thinking only of other things.”
“I am your Lord of Steel. That will never change.”
“Mm. …You may be right. That seat is mine. No one else can claim it. Who would dare try to take it away?”
After those words, she fell silent for a while, simply looking down at me.
“…You know, hearing you say that…”
Karalin let out a trembling breath.
“Makes me so happy.”
“…Pardon?”
“Ah, no…! I mean, with just those words, I feel like I can endure a little longer. You really are amazing.”
Ah. So that was what she meant. A faint smile crept onto my lips without my realizing it.
Seeming satisfied, she finally relaxed her grip and leaned back in the chair as if releasing her tension. Moments ago the atmosphere had been as precarious as walking on thin ice, yet now, simply talking like this, my heart felt strangely at ease.
“…By the way, my lady, may I offer one piece of advice?”
“Hm? What is it?”
I told her what I had been thinking.
“From what I know, the allowance you received from the Madam is not particularly generous.”
“No. It’s tight, but if I’m frugal, it should last a few years.”
“How can that be acceptable? The Grand Duke’s only daughter shouldn’t have to say her funds are tight.”
“…Mm. The territory’s situation isn’t good, and since I’m being exiled anyway, I suppose I have to understand why she gave only that much.”
“Even so, I saw a large quantity of gold bars and jewels inside the Madam’s vault.”
For a moment, our eyes met.
“Yohan. My stepmother likes luxury, so she collects those things. Everyone knows that.”
“Still, she doesn’t need to hoard that much. Such things lose their meaning if you simply save them. If it were me, I would have opened the storeroom to send my stepdaughter off properly.”
“Pfft, puhu… You, don’t tell me you’re…”
We hadn’t spoken the words aloud, yet our thoughts were clearly aligned. The sly smiles on both our faces said everything.
“Well, it’s just a thought.”
“…Yes. Now that I think about it, if she won’t give it willingly, we may have no choice but to ‘receive’ it ourselves.”
“I’ve already scouted the back route on the way here.”
“Guide me. We’ll take what we can carry.”
After all, the territory would burn. That meant any wealth left behind would be reduced to ash by the wyverns’ flames. Since we were leaving anyway, it was only proper to take as much as we could. We weren’t doing anything wrong. If the lady of the Grand Ducal house couldn’t even provide a proper allowance for her stepdaughter, then she was the one who had failed in her duties.
***
Shagalor felt as though ten years of indigestion had finally cleared.
“Ohoho…! Her face isn’t ugly, I’ll give her that, but that skinny thorn in my eye… With that stubborn attitude, she was never a match for me.”
After all her painstaking efforts, the project she had poured everything into—“Swallowing the Grand Duchy Whole”—had finally succeeded.
Rexas. That filthy, terrifying old monster was, after all, a simple man who could be brought to heel with a few nights of sleep. Handling him had been easy. The only real obstacles had always been that Karalin girl, who enjoyed popular support, and that bear-like fool who blindly protected her no matter how much one tried to sway him. Who could have guessed that even when thrown onto a battlefield where death was certain, they would survive and then happily leave hand in hand the moment exile to the Academy was suggested?
‘If I’d known it would turn out this way, I should have proposed it much sooner.’
From now on, it was nothing but a flower path. Those wyverns were a headache, but once the remaining matters were dealt with…
‘Surely they won’t come back? Ohoho!’
If they did, she would deal with it then. Shagalor immediately turned to her favorite pastime. Whenever she achieved such a victory, there was one thing she always did: visit the treasures she had been collecting.
The North was a vulgar, filthy backwater, but Vitagarte was still the Grand Duchy. Squeezing the citizens a little harder made gathering such jewels and gold an effortless task. Looking at them always eased her troubled mind completely.
Yes. This was why she schemed and struggled so hard. Humming a tune, she opened the door to the vault.
“My darlings, have you been well…?”
And in that instant, Shagalor’s expression began to rot.
Half the gold bars and jewels that should have been there were gone. If only a few had disappeared, she might not have noticed, but this was far too much.
Why had this happened? Why?
For a moment, blood rushed to her head and her mind went blank. Then the face of the most likely culprit flashed through her thoughts.
“Those two damned bastards…!!”
AAAAAARGH—!!
How should she punish them? How? Shagalor was so enraged that she wanted to drag the pair back from their journey to the capital at once, but that thought was naturally forced to a halt.
“Sh-Shagalor-nim!!”
“Get out!!! Get out right now, and don’t speak to me!!”
“I beg your pardon for the rudeness. However, additional wyverns have appeared in the skies above Vitagarte. Their number… reaches as many as fifty!”
“…Hah, haa?”
“That is the result of the initial scouting party’s report. There may be even more… I will confirm once again and report back immediately!”
After hearing that, how could she possibly summon them back? Shagalor suddenly realized something. She had believed that exiling the two of them had completely secured her control over the Grand Duchy. Perhaps the one who had truly been ruined was herself.
But what could she do? If she had taken it, she had to bear the consequences.