Chapter 76
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Chapter 76 - 뜻밖의 여정 (3)
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Could that be considered a misunderstanding?
Anyone could see that the atmosphere was just moments away from a kiss. Even if Ekaterina had no experience with men, she knew what that kind of atmosphere meant.
On the terrace at night, where a deep darkness had fallen, the only thing visible was the glittering night view. A woman in a dress, and the red wine in her hand.
"So, it really was a misunderstanding. I was trying to explain our unit's operational details, and..."
"Hmm, then let's take it as that. You are insisting on it so strongly, Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Ekaterina-nim."
"It's no wonder you were unfazed by all the attention from the young ladies, if you had a wife."
Enok Levandel supported his forehead with his hand, feeling as though he couldn't fix the situation no matter what he did. Watching this, Jack Pedro burst into a hearty laugh.
"A hero like this naturally has no lack of women who are drawn to him."
In the reception room set up inside the banquet hall.
The reason Ekaterina had come to the terrace was that her father, Jack Pedro, wanted to speak with Enok Levandel alone as the banquet reached its peak.
"Anyway, we can finally meet at our leisure."
Jack Pedro.
The honorary lord of Byaltok and former border margrave.
With his platinum-blond hair, the same color as Ekaterina's, neatly combed back, he carried an imposing presence despite being past forty.
"I am truly grateful for your kindness, not only permitting an audience but also preparing such a lavish banquet."
"Hahaha, even for a junior officer, your spirit is dignified. It's admirable. Were you originally from a noble family?"
"I humbly report that I was raised in an ordinary commoner household."
"Well... nobles aren't what they used to be, either. At least, as long as you know how to observe the proper etiquette, there's no major problem."
Count Jack Pedro said this. Just as Bell had said, he was obsessed with etiquette. Enok Levandel found it fascinating but also grew more tense.
At least he was showing a favorable attitude for now, so he had to be extra careful not to do anything that could be criticized.
Watching Enok sit up straight and properly, the Count continued leisurely.
"But for a young officer like you to specifically seek out a mere local honorary lord like me..."
His eyes flashed.
"...is it to ask me to become your patron?"
"...You are amazing."
"I was an officer in the Ukran army myself, you see. The Pedro family has been a military family for generations."
He was not only capable in the logic of nobility but also in the logic of a soldier.
The title of Count was indeed not for show. He had already seen right through what Enok Levandel truly wanted.
"I heard you even received personal congratulations from His Highness, Prince Orlando. There is no reason for us to refuse the patronage of a promising officer."
Before Enok could even make his proposal, the Count had pierced right to the core and accepted it willingly.
Enok Levandel, though surprised, bowed his head and expressed his sincere gratitude.
"Thank you."
"Of course, I have also added the price of my daughter's life."
If he had seen through Enok's intentions, it meant he had anticipated this level of proposal from the moment he planned this celebration feast.
But there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Since he said he had also added the price of his daughter's life, he would not offer his patronage without any conditions.
So, what condition would Count Pedro set?
Enok lent an ear to his next words.
"The Pedro family has managed Byaltok, a frontline territory, for generations. After the first king, Orlando, firmly established himself as Prince, all that remains for our family is honor."
In short, it was about access to the central power. Without having to hear the rest, Enok could roughly guess the Count's true intentions.
"Everyone in the duchy knows that Colonel Soni Chepelin and the current Prince have a very close relationship. But I am looking for a more promising possibility than Soni Chepelin."
"You think that would be me."
"My family has no more hope. If things continue like this, the Pedro family will decline into a mere local honorary lord."
The Count looked at his daughter with a bitter expression. Ekaterina's face was also not entirely comfortable.
"The reason this child fell into such danger was to secure the support of the local populace. As the eldest daughter of the Pedro family, it was an action for the revival of our house."
"Hmm..."
Enok had also thought that Ekaterina hadn't moved to the village purely out of compassion.
Since the regional administration had already failed to subjugate the Modor village, she had tried to put pressure on the administrators by taking action herself as the honorary lord's daughter.
It was a form of check. The meaning that Ekaterina Pedro holds in Byaltok is more than that of an ordinary noble lady.
However, before she could even reach the village, she was captured by bandits, leading to the not-so-good current result.
When he heard the story, it hadn't been more than a few days since she was captured, so he wasn't even sure if she had been kidnapped.
The Count must have been quite surprised that his daughter, who had set out on a journey, was suddenly rescued and returned.
"Even if we say the result is good because all the bandits were subjugated, there is no benefit to our family from Ekaterina risking her life to go there. Rather, it's a loss, if anything."
"I am sorry, Father."
"There is no need to apologize. When has life ever gone according to plan?"
Count Pedro tapped the table with his finger and added, looking at Enok with a firm gaze.
"In return, I get to support such a promising officer. Perhaps one could say I've gained an even more valuable connection than the support of ordinary residents?"
"I will make a clear promise to you, Count. In five years, the Pedro family will be able to re-enter the central power."
"...Oh, without a moment's hesitation."
"I am that confident."
Five years later.
The Ukran Duchy will be engulfed in the flames of war.
The Sovye Empire will push its forces through Byaltok in the far north and the northeastern region of Chernaos (the area where Chernograd exists).
If Enok Levandel's plan unfolds as intended, the Byaltok garrison will succeed in completely blocking the Sovye forces in the north, based on the Mchensk fortress.
They will preserve their forces as much as possible and, with the reserves launching a counterattack, will become the spearhead of Ukran.
'As long as we succeed in blocking them, all the military功劳 will go to the Pedro family, the honorary lords of Byaltok. The Prince will never be able to cast them aside.'
That was a natural assumption. 'To discard the hunting dog after the hunt' can only be done when one has leisure. The Ukran royal family, which would have surely consumed a tremendous amount of national power just by blocking the Sovye Empire's offensive, would absolutely not be able to discard the Pedro family.
"But there is one part that is a bit difficult to understand. Even if you climb the ladder of promotion, how much can you advance in five years?"
He was sharp, for sure. As a former military man, he knew at least how the army worked. Enok Levandel was still a young and promising officer, but five years was not a very long time. It was a natural question.
Then, what card should he show here?
Enok Levandel started to think quickly.
'It was something I had to explain eventually. The story about the world war.'
The full-scale invasion of the Sovye Empire could not be stopped by Enok Levandel alone. From Soni Chepelin to Prince Orlando Ruth III.
It was a future tragedy that should not be known to many people, but at the same time, the core personnel absolutely had to know about it.
Was there any need to keep such a plan completely hidden? From today on, Count Pedro and Enok Levandel were becoming proper 'business partners.'
'I need to dress this up and tell it well.'
Enok Levandel glanced at the door as if to be on guard.
Then he approached with an attitude that was far more serious and tinged with concern than ever before.
"Count Jack Pedro, I will be rude, but... I ask you to take my faith and promise not to speak of this content to anyone."
"I will gladly do so. Speak."
"I ask the same of you, Ekaterina Pedro-nim."
"I-I promise as well. I give you my word."
Enok Levandel took a deep breath. Then he threw out a shocking prophecy.
"Ukran will be subject to a massive invasion by the Sovye Empire."
As if it was an answer they never expected, the eyes of the Pedro father and daughter widened.
"Father... Is it really true what that officer said?"
In the late hours, after all the banquets were over and all the guests had returned to their lodgings. In Count Pedro's bedroom, where candlelight and moonlight softly illuminated the space.
Ekaterina Pedro still had an expression that showed she couldn't understand.
"Weren't we originally a nation that broke away from the Sovye Empire? I thought our international relations weren't that bad..."
Ukran, which now possessed its own autonomous administrative rights, was once a territory of the Sovye Empire just a few hundred years ago.
To be precise, the Ukran Duchy began when the 'Rus Tsar Empire', the predecessor of the Sovye Empire, collapsed, and the newly established Sovye Empire guaranteed its rights as an independent nation and a vassal state.
So there was no particular reason for the relationship with the Sovye Empire to be bad. Occasionally, the Empire would interfere in its internal affairs, but it did not directly use force or pursue aggressive pressure policies.
Different from the highly skeptical Ekaterina, Count Jack Pedro found the claim very plausible. He pondered for a moment how to explain it to his daughter, who still lacked in insight, and then brought up a Western political theory that had been actively discussed recently.
"Expansionism."
"You mean Expansionism...?"
"The international situation has changed a great deal in the past few years. Even the Frey Democratic Republic and the Bretton United Kingdom, which were like bitter rivals, have formed an alliance."
"I know that much."
Ideology.
The world, while experiencing both the development of magic and technology simultaneously, has achieved a tremendous level of civilizational development.
The authority of the nobles, which was once distributed all over the world, has disappeared at a terrifying speed.
Most countries have developed strong centralized systems and have come to play a significant role in the practical lives of their citizens, in all areas: economy, military, and politics.
As a result, nations have formed special forms of alliances for their mutual benefit.
The Imperial Alliance, centered on the Sovye Empire and the Reinhardt Empire.
On the other side, the Free Alliance, centered on the Bretton United Kingdom and the Frey Democratic Republic, was formed, divided East and West, with Ukran as the border.
Several countries, including Ukran, which were caught in between, were in a state of remaining neutral, calling themselves a 'political buffer zone'.
The balance had been maintained precariously until now, but Jack Pedro was certain that the time for the scales of peace to tilt to one side was not far off.
"Peace makes people prosperous. But resources are finite. Then, naturally, nations will seek expansion. The same is true of territories, is it not?"
"That's true..."
"Ekaterina, think carefully about why our ancestors took over most of Ukran's northern regions. That too was the result of expansionism."
Only then did Ekaterina realize what her father was talking about. The ancestor of the Pedro family was a conquering lord. Later, he swore loyalty to the Emperor of the Rus Tsar Empire, but the fact that he expanded his land by raiding and plundering weak territories remained unchanged.
In other words, the larger the country becomes, the more it will covet the resources of its neighbors.
"If that's really the case, then our Ukran should join an alliance right now..."
"We can't. If we did, we wouldn't be able to exist as an equal allied nation."
Joining now would only get us treated as an unwelcome guest. At best, we would be a satellite state maintaining a certain degree of autonomy. Otherwise, there was a high chance our national identity would be forcibly assimilated, and we would remain not as the Ukran Duchy, but as part of the Sovye Empire.
Perhaps Ukran had already crossed the Rubicon.
"...An officer who foresees and prepares for the nation's dreadful future in an era steeped in peace."
At first, the Count had approached out of curiosity and to show his gratitude. But now, he was seriously pondering whether he should marry his daughter to Enok Levandel.