149. Hostile Psychology (4)
149. Hostile Psychology (4)
- 1 -
Elena and Reinhardt.
The two walked side by side toward the inner castle garden.
'Troublesome.'
The spring breeze drifting through the garden was peaceful enough. Elena's heart was not.
"Elena."
A voice that was still soft, yet carried a certain coolness.
Elena figured he was finally about to get down to business.
"Yes."
Answering curtly, Elena let out an inward sigh.
Dealing with this man was exhausting, after all.
"I heard there was an order to allocate troops to you. Might I ask what it concerns?"
'So he's finally asking.'
He had the right to ask.
Not because he was one of the most powerful succession candidates of the Margrave, but because he was a general who legitimately wielded a portion of the Margrave's military authority.
However, Elena had the right to refuse that question as well.
"The matter is still classified. If you wish to hear it, I believe you would need to ask Father."
At Elena's refusal, Reinhardt's face stiffened ever so briefly before returning to his characteristic gentle expression.
But Elena could tell. The look in his eyes had changed.
'This brat...'
Reinhardt did not miss a single fleeting thought.
Because the very fact that Elena was carrying out a military movement involving 'classified matters' meant she had been granted the head of the family's special trust.
'Has she won Father's favor, then...'
His gaze, tinged with an unusual light, settled on Elena.
That stare held complex emotions.
What was reflected in his eyes right now was a younger sibling he needed to draw into his own faction.
And simultaneously, someone who could perhaps become a 'rival's' subordinate.
'How?'
She had clearly been a younger sibling of no particular ability before she fled the territory.
It was true that, being of the Margrave's bloodline, she possessed intelligence above average, but he had considered it merely the strength of an individual knight.
That was what he had assumed.
But having returned so suddenly in a woman's body, claiming to have been cursed, she had begun proving herself in one thing after another.
'Interesting.'
To Reinhardt's eyes, that looked fascinating.
"If you have no further business, I shall take my leave. I am rather busy."
"Of course. ...Elena."
Elena had been about to move to organize her own troops again. Reinhardt's voice caught her by the ankle as she did so.
When she looked back, Reinhardt smiled his charming eye-smile once more and spoke.
"You must be facing a great many difficulties. Feel free to come for advice at any time. I'll be waiting."
"Yes. Thank you."
As she bowed politely and turned away, a chill ran down Elena's spine.
At the same time, the corners of her mouth stiffened with irritation.
'Crazy bastard. He's seriously treating me like a woman.'
Her resolve was already set.
She had no intention of sheltering under Reinhardt's wing.
Even if she did go under Reinhardt, who held so much military power, all she could do was rack up 'stable and unremarkable achievements.'
Her 'ladder' was to be the eldest daughter, Adelaide.
- 2 -
"What sort of person is the Margrave's eldest son?"
At my question, Ran answered while lying on her stomach with her head and arms resting on my thigh.
"As I reported, he is a figure who handles the majority of the large and small military disturbances occurring within the Margrave's territory. They say he is brutal on the battlefield, yet famous for his benevolent conduct in peacetime."
"The ideal type the young noble ladies go for these days."
"Perhaps because of that, letters are said to never cease for him."
According to Elena's half-sister, Mikaela.
In Hysen aristocratic circles these days, a type who appears outwardly perfect but is slightly mad on the inside is apparently all the rage.
It was deeply ironic that the male lead archetype from romance fantasy stories back on Earth had now become the aristocracy's popular man.
'Actually, when you think about it that way, aren't most noblemen targets of that...'
That was how power worked.
From shallow everyday hobbies to deep sexual tastes.
It inevitably twisted a person in some aspect.
For that was what 'omnipotence' did.
Of course, I wasn't claiming to be perfectly sane myself, but I ought to remain vigilant, if only to avoid becoming more grotesquely warped.
'Well, most nobles would be eliminated from "dog fate" anyway.'
Convincing myself of that inwardly, I focused on Ran's next words.
"A political marriage has also been arranged, but they say he has not given his heart to that woman either."
"Is that so...?"
I suddenly grew curious. What would that person's distortion be?
I could not imagine that the 'frenzy he displayed on the battlefield' was the whole of his distortion.
'Because that alone doesn't explain a private life that is ordinarily so impeccable.'
Those who ran mad on the battlefield usually ran mad in daily life as well.
The stress of taking lives could not be resolved with mere frenzied behavior and slaughter.
To put it on the same line.
The future me who would be with my three closest aides was probably a somewhat different person from who I was now.
By that time, I must have long been lost in a 'solitude among the crowd' amidst my summoned creatures.
I would have borne the distortion of heart that came from taking lives all alone, gradually but ever more deeply descending into madness.
'And then, I would have recovered once children arrived to whom I could open my heart.'
At least in the aspect of resigning myself to my own end, that me would be the same as the me of now.
I couldn't claim to be a straight and upright person right now, but it would also be hard to say I wasn't sane, wouldn't it?
'In that same way, that man too will have his own way of comforting himself, his own outlet.'
How rotten was the true face of a person who wouldn't even keep women close?
Whether he was greatly corrupt as I imagined, or, as a twist, truly a clean person.
He was undoubtedly an interesting human type.
Since, for now, he was a 'potential enemy' unrelated to me.
"So. What happened next?"
- I'm curious too!
"I shall tell you now."
While being held in my arms and petted, fidgeting the tail that was being stroked, Ran forced a smile and went on.
But she couldn't help this fluffy tail.
- 3 -
If Reinhardt was seizing military power for the Margraviate's succession, there was one more successor candidate who dominated every aspect outside of military force.
Adelaide En Sandota Ironfield.
Elena's full-blooded sister... no, now her older sister, was that woman's name.
"A fine afternoon. El...ena."
In Adelaide's gaze as she looked upon her former full-blooded brother-now-sister, there was not a speck of warmth to be seen.
She was exactly as her reputation—the Margraviate's 'Cold-blooded Chancellor,' or the 'Iron Rose'—described.
'Truly, still the same.'
Elena smiled bitterly to herself.
Such a person she was.
If Reinhardt was considered outwardly gentle but inwardly fierce, Adelaide was a person assessed as outwardly strong and inwardly strong.
On one side, their Father. On the other, this sister nine years her elder.
To earn the recognition of both, the past Elias had ceaselessly striven.
Not knowing that his growth 'and such' did not matter to her.
[Give Elias a single village to be responsible for. That would suit him. If he has no interest in the succession, drive him out to the frontier. Your Excellency.]
What came back from her was talk of this petition she had sent to their father.
Only then did he realize.
That, to Adelaide, her younger siblings were either allies, or else all competitors.
'But that was then.'
Though she might not have erased all the stains from her heart, she had now found her own place.
And she need only do her best there...
That was what she thought.
But a person's heart was not something so easily controlled.
"Good afternoon. Sister."
"...Honestly, it gives me a headache every time you call me that."
Even a woman called cold-blooded by others could not help but have a headache in the present circumstances, it seemed, as she furrowed her brow and pressed her fingers to her forehead.
Though they had met several times before, she had not yet had time to adjust to Elena's current situation.
There had been no occasion to formally face each other like this, family dinners aside.
"I didn't know you could make that kind of expression, sister."
"What kind of expression?"
"I thought you weren't human because you were always expressionless."
Words tinged with the stains of the past.
Difficulty controlling old traumas was something everyone experienced, being human.
And letting a reopened wound scab over was something that took time.
"It's unexpected, hearing you say such a thing."
"What is? That a guy who was always out and about and stupidly lost in chasing women would say this? You must have thought I finally got my head straight now that I've become a woman."
"..."
Only after she had poured out all those words in an instant, faced with Adelaide's silence, did Elena realize she had made a mistake.
'I didn't mean to bring this up.'
Her objective was solely to gain Adelaide's cooperation and receive supplies to maintain the military forces she had obtained from the Margrave.
And to enter her faction, gnaw away at its power from within, and solidify her own position.
For that purpose, wrecking their relationship like this was unthinkable.
'What should I do...'
Though she had an 'oh no' sort of feeling, words once spoken could not be taken back.
She tried her best to regain her composure and brought the tea to her lips.
Worrying about which of the other siblings to target if not Adelaide.
'It's sweet.'
The tea was very sweet.
Ill-suited to the current situation, and to Adelaide's appearance.
And...
'I feel like I've tasted this somewhere before...'
"Haah."
Elena, who had been trying to recall something, returned her attention to Adelaide at the sound of her sigh and looked at her.
She was looking at Elena with a face that appeared immensely tired in that brief moment.
"You didn't come here to talk about that, I'm sure. State your business."
For Elena, who had been thinking she would be lucky not to be thrown out immediately, this was an extremely unexpected statement.
Since etiquette demanded she finish all the tea served to her, she had figured she would not be kicked out before that, but she had never imagined her original business would come up here.
'Why...?'
"..."
Elena scrutinized her sister's expression.
But nothing could be read from Adelaide's face.
'It's like looking at Master's face.'
Though when she had faced her, Elena had succeeded in reading Libertas's disposition itself.
That had come from reading the aura she wore and her natural posture, not from discerning intent in her changing facial expressions.
From Adelaide, a similar restraint to that of Libertas was striking.
'The nerve.'
That, rather, made Elena uncomfortable.
To demonic beasts and the demon tribe, the Demon King and his successor candidates, the Dungeon Lords, were objects of absolute reverence.
Something that arose from the heart, utterly inborn.
The Demon King had designed and instilled it into the demonic beasts—a soul imprint that some Dungeon Lords who realized this exploited.
Libertas, too, after learning of it, had been using it rather actively.
To kill as few as possible, and to possess as many.
'But for a mere daughter of a Margrave...'
For just the daughter of a human noble to wear an aura similar to that of the person she served.
Of course, her master was a far gentler, crueler, greater, and more affectionate person, but the fact that even a speck of similarity to that master existed in a person she despised was hard to bear.
"If you have nothing to say..."
"You know I received military support from Father."
Spoken words were spoken words.
With a heart half-resigned, Elena spoke of her business.
Even if her presence was unpleasant, Adelaide seemed willing to listen, at least.
"Yes. I know."
"I need support for that."
"...Surely you know what it means to receive my support."
'Huh?'
Elena felt something in that moment.
A certain 'worry' she sensed from Adelaide's words.
At that, she looked at Adelaide's face once more, but not a hint of such emotion showed in Adelaide's expression.
'Was I mistaken?'
"I know. And I know this isn't the time for you to be picking and choosing, sister."
"..."
Though Adelaide's competence was acknowledged inside and outside the territory, that was only half the story at best.
Power without military force was bound to collapse under the present circumstances.
And the majority of the military power the Margrave held was currently concentrated in the hands of her rival, Reinhardt.
Meaning Adelaide was in a position where even the tiny bit of military authority Elena held was desired.
"I am fine. Even without your strength."
A gentle but firm refusal.
Having heard it, Elena looked at her face once more, but Adelaide showed no sign of retracting those words.
But at the same time, Elena also realized that that expression was oddly rigid.
A minute demeanor that would have been imperceptible without the heightened senses gained from becoming a demonic beast.
And simultaneously, the imagined feeling she had sensed earlier.
'No way.'
"Sister. Right now... are you worried about me?"
Elena, who had inwardly tilted her head, threw out that one line with the mindset of, since their relationship had already turned strange, she might as well take a shot.
"..."
And then she discovered Adelaide's pupils minutely widening as she stared this way.
It was a moment when a chink in the emotions she had perfectly concealed for long years revealed itself.