Chapter 36: Honorary Count Deon Hart (1)
Chapter 36: Honorary Count Deon Hart (1)
The actions taken to facilitate the natural spread of information produced a hypothesis that might as well have been a more detailed unraveling of social circles' rumors.
──That Deon Hart, who held a grudge against his family for some reason, had wished for the extermination of the Hart household in exchange for giving up all other interests; and that the Emperor, wanting to give something to this rare talent who had appeared after so long, had forced upon him the title of honorary count and money, which he had half-accepted.
Of course, such a monumental decision could not be made on that basis alone, so the attached condition was his participation in the journey to defeat the Demon King as a comrade of the Hero.
'And the official recognition as a Hero was delayed too.'
This was an action with little significance.
Deon Hart had already acquired the title of hero through eight years of war. Regardless of whether the Emperor acknowledged him or not, he was already a hero.
The delay was because he was the only one among the war heroes not to possess a Hero's Fragment.
'Not as discrimination, but he probably intended to award it later after making him accumulate more merit, to silence any others who might protest by bringing up that reason.'
Whether the Hero succeeded or failed, merely returning alive would be merit enough for Deon Hart.
As if he knew the Emperor's true intentions, Deon Hart accepted even this, and no sooner had he received the title than he departed once more as the Hero's comrade.
This was the result of the Emperor weighing the Hart household, which had been loyal to the Desert dynasty for generations, against Deon Hart, who had burst onto the scene like a comet and left a strong impression in a relatively short time.
'Normally, he would have chosen the former without a second thought, but since the current Emperor rose to the throne through a coup, he couldn't trust their loyalty. That made the scales roughly even.'
Thus, the Emperor's decisions would have varied according to the outcome of the journey.
Had he merely returned alive, the Emperor would still have valued him greatly, but as it turned out, Deon Hart exceeded expectations by recovering the Hero's corpse. The Emperor gladly accepted his conditions──
──That was the hypothesis Stave had pieced together by gathering all sorts of rumors and information using Cruel.
And the one who had observed the entire process of formulating this hypothesis from start to finish was none other than Cruel Hart.
'What was his expression like back then?'
Stave glanced sideways at Deon Hart sitting off to one side and Cruel Hart approaching him, then turned his head back and smiled brightly at those who were looking at him in silence.
"Still, I would ask that you watch your mouths in here. The protagonist of this banquet is, after all, a member of the Hart household."
"Y-yes! We've been rude!"
***
They said life was meant to be lived alone.
We come alone and we go alone, so was there any real need to build connections?
......Yeah, that was all bullshit.
'I want to have a conversation with someone too! But no one comes!'
Worse, when I approached them, they ran away, goddamn it.......
By this point, even the most dense person would have caught on. I was unmistakably being shunned by everyone.
Ah, shunned wasn't the word. Every gaze in the room had fixed on me the moment I entered the banquet hall. It was just that they didn't approach, and when I approached them, they fled.
'Let's just browse the food. There's plenty that looks good.......'
I carelessly sat down in a nearby chair, propped my chin on my hand, and ran my eyes over the desserts laid out close to me.
Starting from the most basic cookies, to macarons, cakes, puddings...... Oh, that pudding looked delicious. Was it strawberry pudding?
The vivid yet translucent red color made me want to try it at least once.
'......I can eat it, right?'
After all, it was put out there for people to eat.
I rose slowly from my seat and headed toward it, when I heard a voice calling me from somewhere.
At a glance, it sounded like they were calling 'Count Hart'... Nah, must have been my imagination. The fact that the voice sounded familiar was likely my imagination too.
No one was approaching me in this place, after all.
"Count Hart!"
"......Huh?"
It wasn't my imagination! There was someone calling me!
Delighted, I turned my head, pudding in hand, and my eyes met those of a knight striding briskly toward me from the other side.
She reached me in an instant with her long strides, placed a fist over her heart, and offered a knight's salute with propriety.
"Rien Rainer pays her respects to the Count."
"Lady Rien!"
My goodness, I'd never been so glad to see anyone!
Lady Rien was the knight commander under my command.
There was a single knight order under my command, but honestly, it could never be called a knight order. It was just a gathering of mad dogs.
'The conclusion got weird?'
......My thoughts had wandered off in a strange direction, but anyway, a knight order with the lousy name 'Lofty Knight Order' existed under my command.
Knight order in name only. Originally, it was nothing more than the vanguard unit that fought alongside me during the Eight-Year War being recognized and elevated to the status of a knight order, so it would be a mistake to picture the upright image of a typical knight order.
Consider the fact that they used to be called the 'Murder Demon Unit.'
Actually, even now they were called the 'Murderer Knight Order' instead of the 'Lofty Knight Order,' which said everything that needed to be said.
Anyway, why was I so happy to see Lady Rien?
'Because she's a parachute!'
Meaning she was an utterly normal person, completely different from those bastards who laughed like maniacs while tearing the enemy to shreds during the Eight-Year War.
But my delighted welcome must have seemed strange to her. Lady Rien tilted her head slightly and began speaking in a more cautious tone.
"You look unwell. Could it be, are you not feeling well?"
"......No."
Just what did my expression look like?
"Please, have a seat here. It would be troublesome if you were to collapse."
She even pulled out a chair for me, leaving me no way to refuse.
I discreetly set the spoon and strawberry pudding down on the table and sat down in the chair.
Then, with the intention of changing the subject, I opened my mouth to address Lady Rien, who was still examining my complexion.
"But what's this banquet for, all of a sudden?"
"Pardon me? Are you pretending...... you don't know?"
"......?"
"It is a joke, isn't it? Hahaha, excellent denial of reality."
Lady Rien, who had been laughing and clapping, gradually hardened her expression as she looked at my still puzzled face.
"Surely, you truly...... didn't know?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
She hesitated, gauging my reaction, and then finally let out a sigh as if there was nothing for it and slowly spoke.
"To celebrate the birth and debut of a new Hero......"
"Deon."
A cool voice interjected, cutting off Lady Rien's words.
A voice both unfamiliar and disgustingly familiar.
My mood soured instantly, and as I turned my head, I found myself meeting a pair of hard green eyes that seemed nothing but cold.
......Ah-ha.
I'd grasped the situation now. I could roughly tell what was going on without needing to hear the rest of Lady Rien's words.
With a knight who was normally so confident openly gauging my reaction, and the infuriating man before me so brazenly broadcasting that he was the main character of this banquet.
─How could I not know?
"......Wondering who you were."
Even in the face of my words, which were laced with clear hostility, the green eyes did not waver.
That only irritated me more. I frowned sharply and, both to mask my expression and to suppress the emotions surging up in an instant, slowly swept my hair back.
My eyes probably held undisguisable killing intent right now.
Having no intention of revealing eyes that would be gleaming dangerously, I ostentatiously folded them into a bright smile.
"It's been a long time, Hyung-nim."
Green eyes, black hair—different from my own.
The symbol of the Hart household, which I thought I'd never have to see again.
The face I faced after a truly long time had not changed in the slightest from the one in my memory.
Cruel, who had stiffened his face briefly as if flustered by the unexpected bright smile, soon nodded slowly.
"Right. It's been a long time."
"I heard you became a Hero."
"I was lucky. I obtained a Hero's Fragment."
"I remember you were skilled with a sword from long before, Hyung-nim. You would have become a Hero someday even without the Hero's Fragment. Congratulations."
"......On the battlefield, I once faced off against the 0th Legion Commander."
My flinch lasted only a moment before a smile returned to my lips.
That wasn't a remark made because something had hit a nerve; he was just changing the subject.
He must have found the sham flattery and smile revolting. Or maybe he felt a prickle at the mention of his swordsmanship.
"And so?"
"More than the fight itself, the trouble was that the soldiers' morale plummeted."
"Oh dear. Still, it was resolved well, wasn't it?"
If it hadn't been, he wouldn't be here, and this banquet wouldn't have been held in the first place.
"I heard you're good at handling morale. If you had been there......."
"Ahahaha, Hyung-nim!"
Cruel shut his mouth.
I could tell what he was going to say without needing to hear it.
No doubt he was about to say something like, 'If you had been there, I wouldn't have struggled so much.'
Bullshit.
"There's no need for such hypotheticals. There's no way I would fight alongside you, Hyung-nim, is there?"
Unless it was pretending to fight together while trying to kill him, anyway.
Although, the Emperor knew our relationship well enough that he would never have sent us to fight together in the first place.
"......."
Even through all this, those solid green eyes showed no sign of cracking.
Far from cracking, they didn't even waver. I pouted inwardly and stirred the pudding on the table with my spoon, then scooped up a large spoonful.
He ought to leave on his own by now.
Seeing each other's faces was mutually unpleasant, so I wished he'd just get lost already.
My mood was already ruined beyond repair, but I couldn't exactly start a scene here. I had no choice but to calm my stomach by eating pudding.
"......I heard you went monster subjugation."
I didn't know what he stood to gain by continuously trying to make conversation.
I tilted my spoon and plopped the pudding that had been on it down onto the plate, then nodded with an expression of utter annoyance.
At that, Cruel slowly moved his lips as he looked me up and down.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
"......Pfft─"
Ah, oops. I was so dumbfounded that I accidentally let that slip.
After being the one to shove me onto the battlefield, now he was pretending to worry. Was it belated regret?
It was utterly ridiculous.
Who was it that pushed me, a mere 14-year-old, onto the battlefield? Who were the ones who sent me, with my weak body, off to war while leaving behind my three-year elder brother, who was not only healthy but excelled at swordsmanship?
And who was the one who just stood by and watched all of that?
Cruel Hart.
My own blood brother, whom I had once cherished so dearly.
That's you.
"Why are you asking such things out of the blue? I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my own body. There's no need to pretend to care now. At least in front of you, Hyung-nim, I'll be perfectly fine."
I won't show you my pain even if I am hurt.
Because I can't afford the stupid act of revealing a weakness to the enemy.
Cruel's expression faintly hardened, as if he had grasped most of my meaning even if not all of it.
Finding that rather pleasant, I smiled roundly and added,
"So I'd be grateful if you would simply just watch, Hyung-nim. As you always do."
Like you did when I was dragged off to the battlefield. Just like that.
"......."
"......."
No reply came back.
In the uncomfortable silence, Cruel looked at me with an unreadable expression, and I glared right back into his eyes without backing down.
People nearby who had sensed the unusual atmosphere had already distanced themselves long ago.
Only Lady Rien, who had unintentionally ended up witnessing a family dispute among her superiors, could neither bring herself to leave nor to intervene, and was simply alternating her gaze between me and Cruel.
......What are you doing, Lady Rien. Hurry up and stop this.
'My eyes sting like hell.'
My pride prevented me from looking away first, but it already seemed my limit—my eyes were smarting.
The moment I inwardly called out to Lady Rien once more, Cruel's gaze, which had been on me, shifted to look over my shoulder.
His face reverted to its original expressionlessness, as if he had spotted something.
Lady Rien also fixed her eyes on somewhere and wore a thoroughly rigid expression. Now that I noticed, the gazes of everyone else around us were also directed at a single point.
'......What is it?'
The question subsided quickly.
Whatever it was, it probably wasn't related to me.
If it had been about me, they would have looked at me—there would be no need for them to stare elsewhere like that.
I mostly tuned it out, and seizing the opening when the surrounding gazes dropped away, I shoved the large spoonful of pudding into my mouth.
'Ah, it was cherry, not strawberry. No wonder the color was so intensely red.'
The tangy taste and aroma swirling in my mouth weren't bad at all.
I was moving my mouth to mush up and swallow the pudding when, from somewhere...... right, from the place where everyone's gazes were directed, an unfamiliar voice drifted over.
"A most impressive display of brotherly affection."
"......?"
The first thing I saw was the purple hair loosely tied to one side and let down.
An uncommon color for hair. Which household's symbol was purple again?
Ah, the Duke of Illustar's house.
......Huh? A ducal house?
"......?!"
It was an actual duke! Duke Stave Illustar!
Startled, I shot up from my seat.
I subtly pushed the pudding far away to the side and tried to somehow manage a hurried greeting.......
'I haven't swallowed the pudding yet!'
I couldn't speak.
I couldn't very well openly mumble in front of a duke, betraying that I was chewing something, and the size was a bit too much to just swallow whole. Cold sweat ran down my back.
'What do I do......?'