The Road to the Capital (6)
Before leaving Bacon Castle, there was one more thing Roy wanted to confirm.
The Count already knows about it, so hiding it would only limit my options going forward.
Golden Eyes.
Many people in this castle had already laid eyes on Roy’s Golden Eyes. Revealing them again now would hardly cause a problem.
“I have a request.”
“A request? Of me?”
He couldn’t simply activate the Golden Eyes out in the open. He needed a pretext—and he judged it best to make the whole thing look as natural as possible.
“Yes. If it wouldn’t be an imposition, I would like to see Your Lordship’s spirit once.”
“My spirit?”
“Yes.”
He was not the least bit curious, but the preparatory work mattered.
“Very well. That much is easily done.”
Accepting Roy’s request, the Count gladly summoned his spirit. The mighty earth spirit was enormous, its presence thoroughly intimidating. Roy put on a face of delighted surprise, and the Count, growing even more animated, demonstrated various ways of employing it.
“Then show me yours as well. A spirit I’ve never even heard of—I’m most curious.”
Of course. Everything was proceeding exactly as Roy had planned.
In the vast training ground behind the castle, the Count and several of his knights fixed their gazes on Roy. He felt no reluctance about revealing the Golden Eyes here. On the contrary, it was better that word spread of a spirit’s power rather than something unnatural.
Far better than rumors about a demon’s eyes, that’s for sure.
Roy’s irises flooded with gold. The Count, the knights watching from a distance, and even Chloe—who had already seen them the night before—stared in fascination. Every face registered some degree of astonishment.
Yet the one most startled of all was Roy himself.
The reason he had engineered this moment and activated the Golden Eyes was to measure Count Bacon’s mana. More precisely, he wanted to know whether the lord of such a great territory had ever drunk Dragon’s Breath.
I knew it!
Roy’s golden eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. The mana surging within Count Bacon far exceeded anything he had imagined.
How much Dragon’s Breath did he drink? Or was it simply that his innate talent was so high the effect was magnified?
Thoughts raced through his mind. Compared to the Count’s eldest son or Chloe, the volume of mana he detected was nearly three times greater. Roy forgot even to manage his expression and simply locked his gaze on the Count.
“Ho… Golden eyes. Truly remarkable. To think such a spirit exists. A spirit of light, perhaps?”
“That is a secret.”
“Is it? Hahaha! Well, there are times when concealing one’s strength works in one’s favor. I won’t pry.”
A lord was expected to display his power. Without overwhelming might, people would not follow; the greater one’s strength, the more widely it should be known so as to secure one’s position. That was Count Bacon’s view. Even so, he understood Roy’s stance. Experience had taught him that the weaker one was, the more necessary it became to keep various means hidden—like an ace up the sleeve.
In the Count’s eyes Roy was a frail existence. Yet he also held treasures in his hands: his master Geren, the technique of crafting amulets, and now this spirit.
Remarkable skill for one so young. Sharp mind as well—raising his own value while never giving away anything important.
The Count began to covet the boy.
If only he were a son of House Bacon, I would make him my son-in-law…
He clicked his tongue at the waste of it.
Meanwhile, the boy coveted something from the Count even more.
How on earth am I supposed to dig out the information?
Judging by the Count’s current mana, it was certain he had consumed at least one elixir. Roy would have to extract that knowledge by any means necessary, yet nothing useful came to mind at the moment.
Hmm… Is there no way?
He could not so much as hint that he knew. That would raise an uproar about how he had learned it. Planting spies inside the castle was impractical as well. He lacked the resources for it, and given that both the daughter’s and the eldest son’s mana were roughly the same, the probability was high that—like Baron Greenhilt—the Count alone kept the secret.
Should I stay another day and search for a hidden chamber?
He turned over every possibility, yet no method presented itself. In the end Roy accomplished nothing, and time simply passed until he climbed once more into the carriage bound for the capital.
Chloe Bacon.
Roy looked at the girl seated across from him in the carriage, his thoughts a tangle. By his standards she already passed. That meant she possessed more than enough capability to become a companion in the party he intended to form someday.
Of course, for the son of a baron to take the daughter of a high-ranking noble as a comrade was nearly impossible. But “nearly” and “completely impossible” were different things.
In my previous life that famous hero was born to a count’s house and kept knights and mages of marquis, duke, and even imperial blood as his subordinates.
If Roy himself demonstrated ability superior to Chloe’s, it would never be out of the question. Others would have called him mad or arrogant for thinking so, yet Roy was confident. He possessed his unique techniques of magic enchantment and rune inscription, and the world still held the hidden card known as Dragon’s Breath.
And the one currently holding that hidden card was the father of the girl sitting before him.
No harm in getting closer.
The immediate priority was clear: establish a friendship with Chloe. Mere casual acquaintance would not do. He needed a situation in which returning to Bacon Castle would seem entirely natural—and to return multiple times until he obtained information about the Dragon’s Breath…
This is driving me crazy. Do we have to become lovers or something?
Roy was at a loss as to how, exactly, he should grow closer to her.
“You don’t want to ride in the same carriage as me?”
“Huh? Ah, no. I was just thinking about something. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. More importantly, this carriage is amazing. My backside hurts way less than in ours. The leather on the seats doesn’t look any different—weird.”
Of course it did. He had installed a magic circle that reduced the carriage’s jostling. But that was still a secret.
“Probably the same. Just your imagination?”
Damn. That tone again… I should try to be a little kinder, right?
Originally he had planned to raise his own value slowly and draw her in as a companion naturally. The situation had changed. He needed to become closer to her than to anyone else—right away. Yet he had no desire to fawn and flutter around her like some sly courtier, and he doubted such methods would work on her anyway.
“You think so? No, this one’s definitely better.”
“Then ride with me in this one. Or shall I just swap the carriages entirely?”
“What? All of a sudden?”
“You said this one is more comfortable.”
“Forget it. People would gossip. I’d look completely strange. Taking another family’s carriage just because I didn’t like mine—even saying it out loud is embarrassing.”
As expected, it hadn’t worked.
She was happy enough when I offered her an amulet… Hmm. Money or gifts don’t seem likely to win her over either…
In his previous life Roy had never particularly liked children. He also kept his distance from people with whom conversation simply did not work. Reincarnation had not changed that. Consequently he had no real sense of how to handle Chloe.
Isn’t there some way to put her in my debt?
While he turned the thought over, the carriage rolled on without pause, and darkness fell almost before he noticed.
They arrived at the village where they had planned to lodge. Having calculated the travel time before departure, they reached it right on schedule. It was no city, yet a reasonably large village, and Roy and Chloe were put up together at the manor of a minor lord—one of the viscount houses that served as vassals of House Bacon.
Though Roy was the son of a great territorial lord, in terms of rank he still had to observe every courtesy.
This sort of thing really doesn’t suit me…
After an uncomfortable meal he returned to his room, body stiff and heavy. More than ten days of hard travel by carriage had left both body and mind thoroughly exhausted. To that weary Roy, Noah made a strange remark.
“There’s a delicious scent nearby.”
“Huh? I don’t smell anything.”
“Not that kind. The scent of mana. Very dense mana.”
“You can tell that from inside a room? Of course there’s mana—this is a viscount’s household.”
“I am not speaking of such trifling mana.”
“Then what?”
Noah’s tail swished rapidly.
“A scent delicious enough that my tail grows longer.”
Roy’s eyes, which had been drifting shut after the heavy meal, snapped wide open.
“You mean there’s a mana vein nearby?!”
Noah smiled and slowly nodded.
“That dungeon we heard about earlier must be closer than I thought…?”
Indeed, during the meal just now they had been told of a dungeon in the vicinity—more precisely, an ancient city buried underground, currently under excavation. It was said to be immensely deep and wide, crawling with powerful monsters that made casual entry impossible. Excavation had been underway for years, yet they still could not even estimate the city’s full size. The quantity of relics already brought out was mountainous.
“Less than the cave last time, yet still quite dense. Master, you’ll draw another picture for me, won’t you?”
Noah suddenly pressed close, wrapping arms around Roy’s side and nuzzling against him with shameless affection. Roy stroked Noah’s head as a matter of course; it had already become habit. Whether the creature was more dog or cat, it absolutely loved being petted.
“A magic circle? Why?”
“Without it I cannot absorb the mana.”
“Ah, so that was the circle’s effect back then? You want to go out and do it now?”
“Is that not allowed?”
Still clinging, Noah looked up with large, pleading eyes. Such looks never worked on Roy.
“Of course not. It’s the middle of the night, and that circle has to be used at the center of a mana vein. Besides, if the vein suddenly vanishes, every monster inside the dungeon will pour out onto the surface, won’t they?”
“…Then you simply hunt them all.”
“By myself? Do you have any idea how many there would be? Ridiculous. And I need to get to the Knight Academy without delay.”
“Hing… How cruel. To leave prey right in front of me and do nothing.”
“The schedule’s tight right now, but we’ll come back soon. Let’s go together then. The academy doesn’t stay open all year.”
“Very well. You must keep this promise.”
Besides the Dragon’s Breath, Roy now had one more reason to visit this territory again.