The Ordinary Man's Resolve
After returning to the castle, Ethan stayed awake all night.
It was only when the dawn rooster began to crow that he finally reached a decision.
He was always that kind of man.
When he had first met Laurent through his father’s introduction, Ethan had thought the boy would not be easy to handle. The Laurent of that time had been far too free-spirited.
Ethan had viewed him unfavorably. It was not simply because his own status was lower.
Rather, it stemmed from an instinctive sense of distance, a wariness toward someone who stood at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from himself.
If it were Laurent, it would not have seemed strange for him to abandon the castle and flee. The man was impossible to predict; whatever choice he made, it would never feel out of character.
Whether Laurent ran or not was none of Ethan’s concern, yet the fact still needed to be reported. Only then could they prepare for any sudden developments.
After long deliberation over whether to inform Jeanne of the previous night’s events, Ethan made up his mind and acted at once.
Jeanne received the knight who had come to her at dawn without the slightest sign of displeasure.
“Sir Laurent Peale left the castle during the night.”
“He left the castle?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know the reason?”
“I do not.”
“Hmm.”
What possible business could the lord have that required him to slip out of his own castle in the dead of night?
If this was not one of the future actions Jeanne already knew about, if it was not the death that came while defending these walls, then the act was suspicious enough to suggest collusion with the enemy.
“The castle will fall into chaos if the lord is absent.”
“That much is obvious. I shall have to speak sharply with him when he returns.”
“Do you believe he will return?”
Jeanne looked up at Ethan with eyes full of incomprehension.
“Then do you believe he will not?”
What sort of man was Laurent, truly? Even Ethan, who had known him for many years, found it difficult to define him in a single phrase. Still, he answered according to the Laurent he remembered.
“He is a ne’er-do-well. It would not be strange at all if he simply abandoned the castle like this.”
“That is rather different from what I know.”
“I cannot say how much the commander knows of him, but the Laurent I remember is exactly that.”
“I understand. I will keep it in mind.”
Ethan was not a man who spoke empty words. Even if Laurent had once died defending Peale Castle to the very end, this time might be different. The future could change according to the present.
Perhaps Jeanne’s early arrival had already altered his heart.
Jeanne therefore chose to remember Ethan’s words. The knight bowed to her and withdrew.
Dawn had fully broken.
Contrary to Ethan’s expectation that the castle would be thrown into uproar by the lord’s disappearance, the morning within Peale’s walls remained quiet and peaceful.
He had begun to wonder whether the people here simply took their lord’s absences for granted because such things happened often. Then he caught sight of Laurent conversing with the butler and nearly jumped in surprise.
“What is it, Ethan?”
“It is nothing, Knight Fabian.”
Ethan wondered why Fabian had suddenly addressed him.
“Ethan. Am I still your master?”
“You are.”
“Then, as your master, I shall offer you one piece of advice.”
“What is it?”
“Do not look at people while trapped too deeply in your own prejudices.”
“……”
Prejudice. Ethan turned the word over in his mind. Perhaps, he thought, the old knight was right.
Just to be certain, Ethan patrolled the area around the castle walls again that evening.
Though he chose a different route and moved more cautiously than the night before, Laurent caught him once more.
“Another night stroll?”
“Ah, tonight it really is just a stroll. Care to join me?”
Ethan nodded at the invitation.
The path they took was familiar to him as well. He and Laurent had spent many years together as noble heir and knight from childhood; what one knew, the other knew.
“From the way you move, yesterday was clearly not the first time.”
“It is a place you know well, too.”
Laurent walked to a large elm tree standing a short distance outside the castle. Ethan’s eyes widened the moment he recognized the spot. Laurent ran toward it with the excitement of a child returning to his boyhood.
In front of the elm whose base held a hole wide enough for an arm, Ethan gazed up at the tree with eyes full of memory.
While he did so, Laurent knelt, dirtying his trousers, and drew a box from the hollow.
The box was roughly the size of a noblewoman’s jewelry case, crude and streaked with dirt. It was an object Ethan recognized at once.
“That was still there?”
“It has always been here. When it broke, I repaired it. When it grew dirty, I cleaned it.”
Laurent wiped the old box with his own sleeve.
“Nina is well.”
“What is your purpose in telling me that now?”
“Denying it is pointless. Every adult in the castle knows that you and I confessed to Nina at the same time.”
Ethan and Laurent had once been rivals for the same woman.
Whether by coincidence or because of that very rivalry, when Nina chose Laurent, Ethan had left Peale and gone to the capital.
“…To show interest in a woman who has already found a husband is not the conduct of a knight.”
“I dislike it when another man shows interest in my wife, as well. But as a friend, I thought you should at least know.”
Before he was a rival in love, Laurent had always treated Ethan as the childhood companion who had grown up beside him.
Laurent opened the box. The rusty hinges creaked as the lid rose, revealing several neatly folded notes.
He took one out and unfolded it.
To Nina.
I meant to make time this spring, but circumstances have made it impossible. I’m sorry. I miss you.
Laurent read the opening of the letter he himself had written.
The carefully stacked sheets already numbered more than ten; the box would soon be full.
Were all of these letters written to his wife? Then the thing he had gone out to do every night was simply to leave another letter here?
At the truth he had learned, Ethan let out a hollow laugh. It was exactly the sort of thing a romantic like Laurent would do.
“Why show this to me?”
“I thought that if I left them here, Nina could read them whenever she wished. But one never knows what might happen.”
“Where is Nina now?”
“Corhart. She is at her family home. It should be far safer than here.”
Was any place in Bluisol truly safe? Even so, it would be better than Peale, where the enemy would soon come in force.
“So even though we have grown somewhat distant, I still believe you are the person I can trust most. Therefore—”
Laurent kept the rest of the sentence to himself. Yet somehow Ethan felt he already knew what the man wanted to say. His heart grew heavy.
Jeanne spent time catching up with the members of the 2nd Knight Order whom she had not seen in a long while. She had parted from Nael and Dane only recently, but it felt like far longer since she had last seen those who had left her in Ileang.
She greeted each face warmly until she stopped in front of Luca.
“Why are you carrying a gun, Knight Luca?”
“Ah, this? Mr. Hughes improved it. It looks usable in actual combat now.”
Luca carried a firearm of a slightly different shape from Rotinzel’s matchlock across his shoulder. He unslung it and offered the weapon to Jeanne.
“He gave me the very first piece. Isn’t it impressive?”
Luca shouldered the stock and mimed aiming and firing. The way he closed one eye to sight along the barrel looked surprisingly convincing.
“Have you actually used it?”
“Of course. It fits my hand perfectly. I daresay even Rotinzel’s finest marksman couldn’t shoot better than I can.”
Luca slung the gun back over his shoulder.
“It would be good if we could mass-produce them. The facilities and materials are still inadequate, however. Most of all, we need a skilled artisan capable of making the ignition mechanism. Mr. Hughes has been worrying over it.”
“That problem might be solvable.”
“Really? How?”
“I sent someone to Shellan through Ines in Gironde.”
“Shellan? Where is that?”
At Luca’s question, Jeanne realized her mistake.
Ah, of course.
At this point in time, Shellan had not yet been discovered.
Even in the previous timeline, the city would have remained hidden for a long while had the Rotinzel forces that later occupied the region not torn the entire area apart.
“It is a place where the descendants of dwarves live.”
“Hmm? So dwarves truly exist?”
“I cannot say whether they are real. Only that their stature is small and their craftsmanship outstanding, so people speculated that dwarven blood might run in their distant ancestors.”
Luca’s eyes sparkled with interest.
“In any case, that’s excellent news. If we can mass-produce guns and issue them to the soldiers, it would be a great help. They seem far easier to learn than swords or spears.”
“I know the strengths of firearms well. What I do not understand is why you in particular insist on using one.”
“Because bullets are made of metal as well.”
Jeanne gave him a questioning look. Luca smiled brightly.
“Did you know? It is possible to manifest aura on bullets, too.”
Luca whispered the words into Jeanne’s ear as though sharing a secret. Her eyes widened.
After concluding her meeting with the 2nd Knight Order, Jeanne went to find Laurent.
His office was neatly arranged, in contrast to his unpredictable personality. The moment Jeanne opened the door, she saw him standing motionless before his desk, gazing at something.
The light pouring through the large window made his expression difficult to read, but she did not wish to disturb him. Jeanne paused where she was and waited for him to turn.
“Ah, you’ve come?”
When Laurent finally faced her, he held a small framed portrait in his hands.
Jeanne stared at it quietly. Laurent smiled and continued.
“I have a child. February has passed, so he must be six years old by now.”
Laurent’s expression softened.
“I do not know if every child of that age is the same, but my son was endlessly curious. The last time I saw him, he seemed to live with the words ‘why’ and ‘what’ constantly on his lips. It could be tiresome, yet at the same time there was nothing more lovable.”
“You speak as though it has been a long time since you last saw him.”
“It has been quite a while. At this rate I may forget his face entirely. Haha.”
“When was the last time you saw your son?”
“June of last year.”
As soon as he learned that the war between Rotinzel and Bluisol had begun, Laurent had sent his wife Nina and their son to her family home.
“More than half a year, then. Do you not miss him?”
“I do. I miss Nina as well. Ah, Nina is my wife.”
Laurent opened the locket that hung at his neck. Inside was a miniature portrait of a beautiful woman, painted slightly larger than a thumbnail.
“My son’s sibling will be born soon. If the timing is right, someone may arrive any day now bearing the news that the child has already come into the world.”
It had been more than nine months since he last lay with Nina. The letter informing him of the pregnancy had arrived half a year earlier; the time of birth was near.
“My wife has endured a great deal. I can only feel sorry that I cannot be at her side.”
“Could you not call them back?”
“I could not ask a woman heavy with child to undertake such a difficult journey. Besides, Peale is a dangerous place. And…”
Laurent closed the locket and hung it around his neck once more.
“I am the lord of Peale Castle. If I do not defend it, who will?”
Jeanne listened to his words in silence.
“Several times a day I think the same thing—that Bluisol is already finished.”
Realistically, the chance of Bluisol’s victory was nearly zero. Mathias had fought for others despite knowing that truth, and Laurent, ever the romantic, had chosen to look away from it.
“If I fled to Blesk or hid deep in the mountains, could I not preserve my life? Would that not be the better choice for my wife’s sake? If I were alone, I might truly have done so.”
Laurent lowered his head.
“I am afraid. I fear fighting the enemy. I fear watching people die before my eyes. I fear leaving my wife, and I fear death itself.”
A tremor ran through his voice.
So this was the kind of man Laurent truly was. Not a great hero, but an ordinary person who feared death and dreaded leaving those he loved. For the first time, Jeanne felt she understood him.
“Yet if I do not protect this place, my wife—no, the countless Ninas across this kingdom—will be cruelly trampled beneath the enemy’s boots.”
What Laurent wished to protect was not merely one woman named Nina. He wished to protect every person who was someone’s beloved.
“Therefore you need not worry that I will run. Please convey the same to Ethan.”
A warm smile rose to Laurent’s lips.