The Price of Peace
Through my fading consciousness, I began to feel a vibration.
Since I was likely closer to the ground than anyone else on this street, I could hear the rumbling of the earth faster and more clearly than anyone.
It was the sound of hooves. The rhythmic clatter of horses approaching, carrying soldiers clad in heavy armor.
So you've finally arrived...
Valerian was coming.
Perhaps this is for the best.
Rather than collapsing from exhaustion, it was better to meet Valerian after crawling and crawling to the very end.
But I couldn't stop. There was a world of difference between her finding me lying still and finding me dragging myself forward, even if only by an inch.
I forced my limbs, which were screaming at me to stop, to move. I pushed myself just a little further.
I crawled and crawled. Before I knew it, Valerian, mounted on a massive steed, was looking down at me from right in front of me.
"Edrin Silverline."
"Duke... Valerian."
She was beautiful, but an aura far colder and sharper enveloped her.
Valerian's presence hovered over the street. Her mere existence struck terror into everyone present.
It was Charm. Like most other lords, Valerian possessed a significant amount of Charm.
In Eleonor's case, her Charm manifested in the manner of a 'Leader.'
It was a way of gaining recognition for her seemingly reckless dreams and foolish goodness. Eleonor was like a brilliant light leading the way, someone even those who mocked altruism as stupidity had no choice but to follow.
Valerian, on the other hand, was a literal tyrant. Those who defied her or disobeyed her orders had no choice but to face a gruesome, painful death.
That charisma, born of being a 'symbol of terror,' shrouded her. It dominated the space, making her an entity to whom others could only submit.
Then, she frowned. I put on the most pitiful expression I could muster while letting out a faint, internal chuckle.
My Charm was stronger.
The people in this castle, the onlookers watching us, were looking at me, not Valerian. They were acutely aware of the suffering I was enduring—a level of agony unbelievable for a noble.
Valerian could not fully control this space. She couldn't completely dominate the atmosphere or the flow of the crowd. It must have been an unpleasant and unfamiliar experience for her.
"You have caused quite a stir."
"I was only... carrying out your instructions, Duke Valerian... I had no choice."
"Did I give such instructions?"
"Yes."
I wondered how Duke Valerian would resolve this situation.
She couldn't just leave me like this. Even if the Empire was shaking from civil war and foreign invasions, countless nobles still remained.
And those nobles would never tolerate seeing a peer like Edrin Silverline subjected to such a horrific plight.
She would need to devise an exit strategy. And figuring out how to overcome this situation wasn't my job.
Since she was the one who started this, she had to clean up the mess.
"Tell me. What instructions did I give?"
"You ordered me to crawl. Not to walk on two feet."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. You said if I entered the castle on two feet, you would kill me on the spot..."
Valerian stared down at me with cold eyes, then casually drew her sword.
"Think again."
With those words, she pressed the blade against the back of my neck.
"Ugh..."
It pricked me slightly. But sadly, it didn't even feel that painful.
While the bleeding from my neck was a bit alarming, if it was just blood, it was already pouring freely from my arms and legs anyway.
I didn't have the strength to turn around and check, but there was undoubtedly a smeared trail of blood marking the path I had dragged myself along.
Come on, really? You could show a little more generosity... couldn't you?
In my fading consciousness, I let out a hollow laugh.
"This is a serious matter. Did you hear from my subordinate that I gave such an order? You are exhausted right now, and your mind is clouded. I will not hold it against you if you recant your words."
This was coercion. She was trying to coax a testimony out of me: I never heard such an order, but I was so terrified of Valerian that I felt compelled to act this way.
That way, even if word of this incident spread, she wouldn't lose her reputation. I would simply become a foolish noble paralyzed by fear of Valerian.
It was a strategy that offered her absolute benefit and me absolute ruin. And the weight she placed on the scales to force that answer from me was my life.
The life of Edrin Silverline, currently pricked by her blade, which would vanish in an instant with just a fraction of force. She was demanding a transaction with my very existence on the line.
"Yes. That is what I was told."
But I had gone through all this hell to win. I had no intention of yielding to a petty threat like this.
Though I didn't say it aloud, Valerian must have understood the meaning behind my actions.
You do it. You caused this, so you take responsibility...
She couldn't kill me here. The moment she executed a noble who had gone to such lengths to kneel before her, Valerian would become the public enemy of the entire nobility.
No one would ever surrender to her Black Army again, and the surrounding lords would unite to tear her down.
"Is that so?"
My prediction was correct. Valerian could not kill me.
She sheathed her sword and looked at the knight standing beside her.
"Repeat the order I gave, exactly as it was."
"You instructed that Edrin Silverline must not walk on two feet to meet you, Your Grace."
The crowd began to murmur.
"Wait, so Duke Valerian really ordered this?" they whispered, trying to grasp the truth of the situation.
"Soldier. Speak. Does what you said to Edrin Silverline match the words he just uttered?"
"Yes! I ordered that if Edrin wished to show his repentance, he must crawl on all fours instead of walking on two feet! I told him if he entered the castle on two feet, he would be killed—"
"I see."
Valerian fell silent. A chilling quiet hung over the street.
"Very well."
In a flash, her sword moved. The soldier who had been monitoring me to ensure I didn't walk on two legs gasped, unable to offer even a shred of resistance.
Blood dripped from Valerian's blade, which had pierced straight through the soldier's throat.
"You distorted my orders."
The onlookers gasped. Witnessing a sudden execution right before their eyes, they couldn't help but be shaken.
Yet no one dared voice their unease or ask Valerian why she had killed the soldier. They simply accepted it.
"It is true that I did not wish to see Wilhelm's son standing on his own two feet before me. However, I never said a single word about forbidding him from passing through the castle gates in a carriage."
Valerian feigned ignorance, acting as if this entire ordeal had nothing to do with her.
"Once he entered my courtyard and reached the point where carriages could no longer pass, he would have had to crawl... but I never told him to crawl through the streets like an earthworm."
She let out a wry chuckle, as if mocking me.
Yet, I could sense the irritation and tension lingering in her eyes.
So that's how she plays it...
Of course, it was still a tyrannical act in its own right. But to the eyes of other nobles, it was far better than what I had actually suffered.
In this world, nobles were distinct from commoners. Just as humans and dogs were valued differently on Earth, the worth of a noble and a commoner was fundamentally different here.
A noble might die honorably on the battlefield, but they must never be subjected to senseless humiliation and torture. Just as 'human rights' guaranteed a baseline of dignity on Earth, the nobility of this world possessed a minimum level of respect that was taken for granted.
Crawling before Valerian in the courtyard of her estate was a matter between nobles. But crawling in agony through the public streets under the gaze of countless commoners shattered the dignity of the nobility—it broke the social consensus that nobles were inherently superior to commoners.
Valerian was making an excuse, claiming she had never intended for things to go this far.
"Thank you... for your mercy."
Executing her own subordinate on a whim was not something even Valerian would do lightly.
Her soldiers would now fear acting on unvoiced whims to please her. Valerian would have to give explicit, clear orders to achieve her goals, which would become a weakness.
She had killed her own man despite that drawback. She preferred taking a minor loss over having my humiliation attributed directly to her orders, choosing instead to frame it as an 'unfortunate misunderstanding.'
"Ugh..."
This was manageable. Since I had gone this far, Valerian would no longer be able to invade Arcteria.
But it wasn't over yet. The real persuasion hadn't even begun.
I have to survive.
I had saved Arcteria, but in doing so, I had put Edrin Silverline in mortal danger. If I didn't sway her mind as quickly as possible, I would likely die.
Damn it...
But right now, there was nothing I could do.
My consciousness, pushed to its absolute limit, refused to hold on to reason any longer. My already collapsed body felt as if it were crumbling away.
Stained with fatigue and pain, my body refused to endure any further.