Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 21: The Beginning of Stirring (2)
The walking path of Hamelon Main Castle was a landscape completely different from the battlefield.
Well-trimmed gravel path, flower beds blooming ahead of the season, statues arranged at regular intervals.
Only soft friction sounds continued underfoot, and the air was mixed with water and flower scents instead of the smell of soil.
It was a tranquility as if there had never been a war on this land.
Eldmonde, with his hands behind his back, walked leisurely ahead and spoke.
"The western land is truly warm."
It was a tone sounding like an appreciation.
"Unlike other territories of the North, the land here doesn't die even in winter. Grain grows, goods flow, and money gathers."
He pointed to the panoramic view of Hamelon spread far away with a hand gesture.
"This is the reason why this place is wealthy while being a border city. Just as danger is close, opportunity is also close."
I walked watching his profile from half a step behind.
I kept silent.
Because I knew everything he said wasn't explanation or appreciation, but preparation ahead of the main test.
Eldmonde continued.
"So people like this place yet fear it. Knowing that overflowing honey doesn't always attract only bees."
He stopped walking.
And slowly turned his body to look at me.
"But you."
Dark grey pupils fixed on me.
It was a gaze announcing the start of the main test.
"Holding the Wintel family's recommendation letter with which you could aim for status elevation, why did you bother to come to this western city? There would have been safer and more comfortable choices."
The question was calm, but sharp.
He already knew part of the answer.
So he is demanding a more accurate explanation.
I caught my breath for a moment, then opened my mouth carefully.
It was a situation I imagined hundreds of times, and a situation I expected.
Preparation was finished long ago.
"There is information I heard when capturing the Northern Barbarian Chief alive."
Eldmonde's eyebrows moved subtly.
"It was a story that foreign tribes of the North are uniting to grow their power, and words that there is a high possibility the power would move to the west."
"Possibility... meaning it wasn't certainty."
"Yes."
A strange light dwells in Eldmonde's dark grey pupils.
"Why didn't you report the possibility to the upper levels."
It was an expected question.
"The source wasn't clear either, and the expression 'west' itself was excessively broad. I judged it better to move first than to persuade with uncertain information."
Eldmonde didn't say anything and looked at me.
As if telling me to try more.
I continued.
"And if it were Northern foreign tribes, I thought they would target this place even in the west. Fertile land, crossroads where goods come and go endlessly, city where money and honey flow. Because the attack value was too clear."
Eldmonde's gaze deepened.
A moment of silence.
A gaze judging the authenticity of the submitted answer sheet digs into my pupils.
And when the grading of the answer sheet ended.
A faint smile rose on the corner of his mouth.
"Interesting."
Short evaluation.
With that as the end, Eldmonde turned his body again and began to walk ahead.
"The Commander and the Lord."
He spoke calmly.
"After weighing the gravity of their sins, I intend to escort them to the capital Helon in three days."
I understood the weight of those words.
It meant it wasn't something to end in Hamelon.
Judging by the information heard and his moves, Grand Duke Eldmonde is a figure who ensures perfection in the safety of the Northern Territory.
The Lord who drove his people to death blinded by gold coins in front of his eyes and the Commander who instigated it are considered beyond the conclusion of being simply incompetent, as acts destroying the family's long-cherished task of ensuring the Northern Territory's safety.
He will try to make an example, and keep them as teaching materials.
Therefore, judgment will be carried out by his hand in the capital Helon.
Eldmonde advanced a few more steps, then looked back at me once again.
The dark grey pupils were no longer those of an examiner.
"...."
A gap created for a moment.
He asked.
Containing something undeniable.
"Will you follow me."
Practically a command, not a question.
The meaning contained in that one word was too clear.
Meaning the role in Hamelon is over.
Invitation to come to a bigger stage, heavier responsibility, deeper seat.
I looked beyond the walking path for a moment.
The city protected, the repaired castle wall, faces of the Engineering Unit who were covered in dirt together flashed by.
And raising my head, I answered towards Grand Duke Eldmonde.
"Yes."
There was no hesitation.
**
The office of the Engineering Unit main building was no different from before the war.
Piles of documents were still stacked on the desk, and only the scenery of the outer castle visible outside the window was different. The collapsed castle wall was covered with temporary reinforcements, and soldiers and workers were busily coming and going continuing post-war settlement.
In the middle of it, Erwin was sitting at the desk.
And when Iden entered, she raised her head.
Expression like usual, posture like usual.
But only that gaze was a little different.
"I'm back."
"Okay. You worked hard."
Erwin answered receiving the salute, and thought that was the end.
It must have been a plausible award ceremony, and she didn't place big significance on the award ceremony that would have ended ordinarily.
However.
"I have a report to make."
It seemed it wasn't ordinary after all.
And at Iden's words, Erwin intuited.
That the answer to the letter arrived.
Iden began to raise the report with a calm voice.
Northern Grand Duke's visit, suspension of the award ceremony, up to the arrest of the Commander and the Lord.
Erwin listened silently.
The more she heard his report, somewhere in her chest tightened slowly.
It wasn't surprising.
It was a flow she was already expecting, and since she wrote the letter herself accusing her father, she was also prepared for the result.
Nevertheless.
'....'
Her heart wasn't comfortable.
It was her father.
A person with the name of family attached even if formally.
However, before that, he was Hamelon's Lord and the person responsible who abandoned the people's safety.
Erwin inhaled slowly.
"...It was something that should have been done long ago."
She muttered as if speaking to herself.
Self-reproach for being late was greater than regret.
If only she had mustered courage a little earlier, this city, this Engineering Unit would have regained stability faster.
The Lord's vacancy will be filled by one of her siblings, and someone will also sit in the Commander's empty seat.
Dust will rise for a moment, but risen dust settles quickly.
She was just grateful to Iden who added the power called Official Wintel Recommendation Letter to the letter that wouldn't have reached the Northern Grand Duke directly.
Iden, finishing the report, catches his breath for a moment and hesitates.
Because the last report content wouldn't be welcome to the Engineering Captain named Erwin who trusted and relied on him.
But he continued.
"And... in three days, I decided to head to the capital Helon following Your Highness Grand Duke."
The moment those words fell, Erwin's fingertips stiffened subtly.
Helon.
Heart of the North.
Place where power and decisions gather.
Erwin couldn't continue speaking for a moment, then soon nodded.
"...Really? That's good. Congratulations. Really."
There was no falsehood in those words.
It was sincere.
She was feeling it long ago.
That Iden is not a figure to remain in the Engineering Unit.
This place was merely a place he stayed for a moment and passed by,
And that his vessel is too big for this place to hold.
Also, his gaze was always directed further away and always looking at a place one step beyond.
Admitting that fact wasn't difficult.
But when it struck, accepting was a different problem.
Congratulations, knowing that various things should be attached behind those words, strangely her mouth didn't open easily.
Shouldn't she give a congratulatory hug leaning on the time of 1 year spent together.
Shouldn't she hold his hands leaning on the merit of raising the Engineering Unit, Hamelon again.
"Thank you."
While unable to put a period to her thoughts, Iden's answer returned, and Erwin had no choice but to return an answer as Engineering Captain.
"Okay. Rest."
It's not.
It's not a matter to end this easily.
Erwin couldn't bear to hold him, and Iden saluted and withdrew.
"...."
The sound of the door closing echoed clearly in the office.
Erwin became alone.
The office suddenly looked wide.
The seat where someone was definitely standing until just now.
The fact that that place is empty felt strangely big.
'He's leaving.'
That fact was realized belatedly.
Something regretful, and hollow.
Erwin didn't know exactly where this emotion came from.
If as Engineering Captain, it is a thing to be happy about.
Because a capable subordinate advancing to a bigger stage is a thing worthy of being blessed.
Can't we be together.
Suddenly a nonsensical thought brushed by.
Even knowing better than anyone that she couldn't hold him, greed to want to be together still raised its head in one corner of her heart.
Erwin looked down on the desk.
Reports Iden left, organized documents, neat handwriting, those traces still remained here.
She closed her eyes quietly.
Hamelon's Engineering Unit cannot contain him.
That is true.
Nevertheless.
Erwin herself didn't expect that the thought of him leaving would make her heart this heavy.
She sat in that spot without saying anything for a long time, then stood up.
Wearing her military cap and draping her coat, Erwin headed somewhere straight away.
Towards the Main Castle where Your Highness Grand Duke would be.
**
The Main Castle of the capital Helon was quiet even during the day.
In the garden in front of the Wintel family's research building, Vivienne raised her head while organizing medicine bottles used for alchemy.
Someone had come to find her.
"Vivienne?"
Moving her gaze to the calling voice, a woman with short trimmed hair and travel clothes stood there.
Pure white hair texture symbolizing Wintel's bloodline and dark grey pupils.
Northern Grand Duke's daughter, Emiline.
A face that sat in the same lecture room during Academy days.
Although not a relationship mixing words often, they were classmates who couldn't not know each other.
"Uh? Princess Emiline...?"
"I heard you were here. Just returned from a trip to the Southern Territory."
Emiline approached laughing lightly.
Vivienne seemed surprised for a moment, then soon smiled carefully.
"Long time no see."
The two reunited for the first time since Academy graduation.
It was perhaps a natural sequence that the name 'Edom Rivan' rose between the two sharing stories of the meantime briefly.
Especially since Emiline had pitied Vivienne who suffered from his pathological obsession.
"Really, he hasn't come to find you even once since then? Edom?"
"Yes. Since disappearing, not at all...."
"That's a relief, really."
Academy classmate met after a long time.
Stories of that time were blooming.