An Old Bond
In the bedroom of the mansion.
Having just returned from months on campaign, Hugo could only stare wide-eyed at the words Eldrina delivered.
"...He laid hands on a prince?"
"That's right, darling."
The moment he heard her, Hugo nearly dropped the glass in his hand.
An act of lèse-majesté against the imperial bloodline.
Confusion carved itself across the face of a man who rarely showed emotion. What Shiron had done was that shocking.
I come home from a campaign and this is the thunderbolt waiting for me.
Hugo drained the whiskey in a single swallow and shoved the glass far aside.
Seeing such an unfamiliar expression on her husband after so long, Eldrina smiled with her eyes.
"I was stunned myself, you know. Who would have thought he'd actually slap His Highness Victor across the face."
She spoke as if recalling something from quite a while ago. The more she thought about it, the more the sheer audacity made her want to laugh.
I never believed it either. Who could have guessed he'd really hit a prince.
To strike the cheek of a prince standing before dozens of knights—even in her wilder youth, Eldrina had found the idea too blasphemous to imagine.
And then, after knocking the prince down, Shiron had hauled him back to his feet and brazenly thrown an arm around his shoulders.
Watching the whole scene through the window, Eldrina had felt a chill race through her body.
"Why didn't you stop him?"
Hugo scrubbed a hand down his face, trying to erase the shadow there.
"You could at least have mediated."
"He showed me an invitation."
"An invitation?"
"Yes. He said he had simply answered a formal invitation... those were His Highness's own words."
She hadn't known what had brought Victor to their gates with a full knight escort, but the young prince had presented a letter stamped with Hugo's own seal and claimed he had been invited.
It hadn't even been a forgery. A decryption spell had confirmed that the flow of mana inscribed on the paper pointed straight to Hugo.
"And the palace...? Did the Emperor say nothing?"
"Not a word."
Eldrina covered her mouth with one hand and laughed softly.
"If anything, His Highness has been coming here himself whenever he can. Ah—yesterday it looked like they were playing tag."
"..."
"The lively shouts echoing through the mansion made for quite a cheerful sight."
It truly had been a cheerful sight.
The four of them—Siriel and Lucia included—playing tag. Of course Shiron was "it." The entire time, he had doggedly chased Victor until the prince was completely exhausted.
"Well... that's a relief, then."
"There's no need to worry so much. Children grow closer by fighting, don't they? If it still bothers you, you could always speak with His Majesty directly."
"...I suppose I'll have to."
Hugo let out a long breath at her words.
I can only laugh.
He remembered his nephew asking permission to play the scoundrel. Hugo himself had been the one to allow that nonsense. He could hardly blame Shiron now—and he didn't want to.
"More importantly... how does it feel after so long?"
Eldrina loosened the sash of her robe and stepped closer. Soft light traced the beautiful lines of her body.
"I've been waiting for you to come home."
"..."
Her fingers traced a wicked path across the broad plane of his chest. But Hugo only turned his head aside, as if avoiding her gaze.
"I'm tired. I should sleep."
"...Darling?"
Hugo turned his back on her and lay down.
The next morning.
Without sending word ahead, Hugo knocked on the gates of the imperial palace.
Unaccompanied by guards and carrying not even a single sword, he passed through the main gates without a search.
That privilege belonged to Hugo alone.
Deeper and deeper his footsteps carried him.
He met no one along the way.
Hugo walked the empty corridors in silence until he reached the audience chamber.
Kuuuung—
The great doors swung open of their own accord, as if welcoming him.
And there, seated on a throne that seemed measured exactly to Hugo's eye level, sat a man.
Franz Bezos de Rihnn.
The supreme ruler of an empire said to possess more gold and more soldiers than any other power on the continent was a middle-aged man wrapped in blue velvet, a platinum crown upon his head.
"Hugo Prien. My old friend. What brings your heavy footsteps to this humble place?"
The Emperor twitched his graying mustache and curved his lips into a smile.
He already knew exactly why Hugo had come, yet he tossed out the pretense of ignorance as a joke.
"Franz."
"Didn't find it amusing, I take it."
"No."
Hugo answered the Emperor's idle joke by simply closing his eyes for a moment.
It was always like this.
Hugo never bothered to hide his discomfort around Franz. And every time Hugo openly trampled on imperial etiquette, Franz answered with another joke that wasn't funny.
Hugo pushed the banter aside and spoke.
"I came today to offer my regrets."
"Oh...?"
Franz let out a sound of genuine interest. A thin crescent of amusement settled into the face resting on his hand.
For a while—
Tap. Tock.
The Emperor drummed his fingers thoughtfully against the armrest of the throne.
To avoid disturbing their sovereign's deliberation, both Captain of the Imperial Guard Zad and Court Mage Arak, standing at his side, kept silent.
A brief stillness filled the audience chamber.
Tap—
The Emperor's hand went still.
The hall grew so quiet one might have heard a leaf fall.
Hugo listened to the heartbeats of the three men before him.
Two were a little fast. One was slow.
Thump— thump—
Sly old snake.
From the Emperor's thoroughly unhurried heartbeat, Hugo could read nothing at all.
"Very well."
It was the Emperor who broke the silence.
"I understand. You may go."
With that casual dismissal he gave Hugo a look of pure disinterest. Hugo twitched his beard and stared back.
"My nephew laid hands on your son. Are you aware of that fact?"
"Of course I am. I just remembered it a moment ago."
The Emperor let out a hearty laugh.
"So what exactly do you expect me to do about it?"
"..."
"I heard you only returned from campaign the day before yesterday. You must be exhausted. I'm not so foolish as to waste a tired man's time with trivial nonsense."
"...Your Majesty. May this humble servant offer a word of counsel?"
The voice came from the Emperor's right. Court Mage Arak. Franz raised one hand in permission.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Receiving leave to speak, Arak bowed his head.
"In this servant's opinion, it would be best if Your Majesty were to lift the burden from his shoulders."
"Indeed."
The Emperor nodded with grave solemnity. Yet the eyes he turned on Arak were utterly empty.
"I have been a fool."
He gestured to a guard standing in the chamber.
"Bring Henry here... and that mage as well."
"..."
Hugo's eyelid twitched. Henry was Franz's second son. What in the world did he intend by summoning his own child?
A short time later—
"Wh-what are you doing?! Let go of me!"
"Your Majesty! Mercy!"
The prince and the mage, seized by the knights, were dragged into the audience chamber.
Second Prince Henry Azani de Rihnn.
Sixth-class Court Mage Andrew Dolphin.
They thrashed and struggled to break free. It was useless. Both wore the faces of livestock being hauled to the slaughterhouse.
They writhed. They spat. Sweat poured from them like rain, and their faces turned a sickly blue.
Thud—
The knights flung the two down at Hugo's feet.
"What's this. The Second Prince and a face I don't know."
Hugo looked down at the pair crawling on the floor like insects.
"I was told my nephew struck the Third Prince. Are you saying you want me to apologize to these two instead?"
"Haha. Look at you, making a funny joke for once."
The Emperor laughed grandly and fixed his gaze on Hugo.
His eyes were full of life.
"My old friend. Would you care to hear what they've been up to?"
"Father! It's a misunderstanding! Please, just listen to me first!"
Meeting his father's icy stare, Henry cried out with desperate force. But the Emperor merely withdrew his gaze from his second son and smiled at Hugo.
"You see? He says it's a misunderstanding. Which means my idiot son has clearly done something."
Finished speaking, the Emperor rose from the throne and approached one of the knights.
Shiiing—
He drew the sword at the knight's hip.
And brought it down toward his son's neck.
Clack—
But the killing stroke was stopped by an enormous hand. Hugo caught the blade barehanded. A sword with neither Aura nor anything else behind it could not wound him.
"Franz. Have you lost your mind?"
"...I count myself truly fortunate to have a friend like you."
The Emperor looked at Hugo with a distant light in his eyes.
"The north of this nation. The demon beasts that pour across the Macal Mountains have been the Empire's headache for generations. From my predecessor, and his predecessor before him—military budgets and all the rest of it. A massive problem."
He slowly looked up at Hugo.
"But twenty years ago, after I formed a bond with you, that entire headache vanished overnight. Isn't it strange? Adding the strength of a single man was enough to erase a threat to the Empire's very existence. And yet..."
The Emperor roared.
"This imbecile!"
"Eek!"
Thud!
"Guh—!"
The Emperor's boot slammed into his son's skull. It was the kick of a middle-aged man already beginning to weaken, but more than enough to split the lips of a worthless son.
"This imbecile incited the court mages to spy on your nephew. What... just what in the hell was going through his head? Because of a halfwit who hasn't even proven his own worth, I nearly earned your hatred."
"Franz."
Hugo spoke as if scolding him.
"There's no need for this. No matter how much you despise him, he is still your child."
"I have two more sons besides this fool. And one can always sire more children."
"If you take Henry's life here, I might start to dislike you."
"...That would be inconvenient."
The Emperor flicked a glance at the knight standing behind Henry.
"Then we'll do this instead."
Thump—
In that instant, the bespectacled mage's head tumbled across the floor. The world of the man who had done nothing but cower and tremble was flipped upside down.
"The audience chamber has gotten filthy."
The uproar eventually settled.
Palace servants scrubbed away the bloodstains, and Hugo left the audience chamber without another word.
The Emperor gazed at the space the Empire's strongest knight had vacated.
"Chamberlain."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Summon Victor."
Obeying the command, the chamberlain brought the Third Prince into the audience chamber.
A boy with slightly wavy golden hair and gentle eyes offered a bright greeting.
"Father. You called for me?"
"Come closer, my son."
Victor took a single step. It was not enough.
Franz kept beckoning him nearer.
"Closer still. Yes—that's it."
He drew Victor all the way to the foot of the throne.
Then he pulled the boy up onto his knee.
Feeling his father's affection for the first time in a long while, Victor flushed.
"I've heard you've been spending time with a certain Shiron Prien lately."
"...Yes, Father."
Victor answered with a faintly awkward smile. Remembering the worthless son he had just kicked, the Emperor beamed.
"Continue to deepen that bond. It will surely become a great strength to the Empire."