The Fortress Battle (3)
The Fortress Battle (3)
Aside from a backpack, there was nothing else of note inside the luxurious viscount's carriage.
With time short, I immediately checked what was inside the backpack.
But when I opened it, I couldn't see the bottom or the interior. All I could see was a black space.
"Could it be..."
I'd seen this kind of black space somewhere before.
It was the artifact pouch I owned.
Swallowing nervously, I carefully reached inside the backpack.
Several items came to mind: the potions and liquor bottles the deceased viscount had mentioned, as well as old utensils that looked like artifacts.
Unfortunately, the artifacts didn't seem to be intact.
Still, they weren't useless. There was someone in the capital waiting for broken artifacts.
"Ah, now that I think about it, there were the artifacts the Viscount had on him."
They were the artifacts that had blocked the monsters' attacks and even killed a few of them.
But those artifacts would be difficult to take.
I needed proof that the corpse was indeed the Viscount's, and taking those artifacts could lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.
It was a shame, but I decided to leave behind the items the Viscount had been carrying.
As for the items that weren't on him, I could simply say they'd burned along with the fortress.
Since I'd obtained a precious backpack, I planned to burn the carriage down as well.
"I'd been wondering how he planned to move the looted goods in the fortress to the capital. I guess this is the answer."
I stared at the backpack. It had a capacity on a completely different level from my pouch, yet it was almost empty.
It was clear he'd emptied it on purpose.
An artifact backpack...
I wondered how the Viscount had obtained something that seemed fit for the royal palace. But with this backpack, I could carry all the stolen goods in the fortress.
Once I'd made that decision, I got even busier.
Taking the backpack with me, I entered the warehouse and scooped up the items that looked expensive.
The heroes or champions in novels would probably return these items to their original owners, but I wasn't that nice.
I hadn't come here to do good deeds in the first place.
I left some of the stolen goods in the warehouse so that traces would remain even after it burned down.
Finally, I checked that the monsters' corpses and the Viscount's were somewhere the fire wouldn't reach.
Everything looked fine.
I heated my dagger and set fire to the warehouse and the Viscount's carriage.
The carriage caught fire just as easily as the warehouse.
Unfortunately, the wooden palisade wasn't made of easily flammable wood.
I wandered all over the fortress, setting as many fires as I could.
In any case, the wooden palisade surrounding the fortress wouldn't burn, and the fortress was some distance from the forest.
Even if the inside of the fortress burned to the ground, there was no danger of the fire spreading to the forest.
Before leaving the fortress, I took one last look at the monsters' corpses and the Viscount's, lying amidst the flames.
'The fortress was raided by the monsters brought by the Viscount, and a fire broke out during the raid, leaving nothing of the fortress.'
It looked no different from that scenario.
I slung the backpack over my shoulders and left the fortress.
The backpack was very light, but thinking about what was inside made it feel heavy for some reason.
With the heavy-feeling backpack on, I ran through the forest, chasing after the group that had gone ahead.
After sprinting through the forest, I reached the designated meeting spot and found the knights and soldiers waiting for me.
"I was worried because it took so long for the smoke to rise."
At Miguel's words, I looked back and saw black smoke billowing above the forest.
"By any chance, did you see the Viscount arrive?"
I shook my head at Miguel's question.
Not even Miguel could know that I'd met the Viscount.
Depending on who heard the story, the timing of the fortress fire and the Viscount's death might get a little muddled. But since there was no forensics team in this era, it wouldn't be a big problem.
I mounted my horse as well.
Now it was time to return.
We'd only wiped out the bandits once, but we'd accomplished more than enough to satisfy the Duke.
After being told we could enter other territories, we'd crossed more than half of the Viscount's territory and even burned down his fortress.
On top of that, though no one else would know, I'd also left the Viscount to die.
There were no more achievements to be made now.
"What's that backpack?"
"A souvenir!"
After answering Miguel's question one last time, I shouted to everyone.
"Let's head back!"
At my words, everyone's faces brightened with joy.
We crossed the Viscount's territory once again.
On the way back, we saw neither monsters nor bandits.
I'd killed the monsters that had gone out on patrol at the fortress, and once the deserters lost contact with their superiors, they abandoned their work and returned to their main unit.
It would take time for the heir in the lord's castle to find out that the fortress had burned down and the Viscount was dead.
Fortunately, the patrolling monsters were dead too, so the heir would have some time to take over the family.
By then, we'd already have returned to the Duchy, and the burning of the fortress and the Viscount's death would remain an unsolved mystery.
And just as I'd thought, the matter was settled.
Nothing happened before we returned to the mansion.
There was no news that the heir had succeeded the Viscount as head of the family, nor any news of a Wave occurring and monsters invading on a massive scale.
We were the third group to return.
It seemed the groups that had departed to the east and west had crossed into other territories while hunting bandits and monsters, leading to heated arguments with the neighboring territory's knights.
So, just as originally planned, those two groups returned after demonstrating the power of the Gracia Dukedom to the neighboring territories.
The other two groups had already given their reports, and it was my turn to report to the Duke on behalf of ours.
Since I'd led the party, it was only natural.
After washing up and changing my clothes, I headed to the Duke's office.
As I walked toward the office, I recalled the first time I'd visited it as a child.
I'd sought out the office without an appointment, guided by Flora, just to survive.
Now I was visiting formally, without anyone to guide me.
The office door was no different from the one I'd seen as a child.
But the door that had once seemed so massive now looked small, probably because I'd grown so much.
I knocked, and a voice told me to enter. It was the Duke's.
I opened the door and stepped inside.
Only the Duke was in the office.
Since the Knights Order had moved, it would have made sense for the Commander of the Knights to listen in as well, but he hadn't returned yet.
The Northern Mountain Range was said to be extremely rugged, so I wondered if he was all right.
The Duke, seated behind his desk as usual, saw me and pushed aside the documents he'd been writing.
The contrast with how things had been when I was young was quite amusing.
Back then, even after I'd entered, he'd stared at his documents for a long time without paying me any attention.
The fact that I remembered it so vividly even now showed how strong an impression the incident had made on me.
Unlike me, I wondered if the Duke even remembered that day.
With those thoughts in mind, I walked up to the desk.
"Is this the report from the unit that went to the Lansarot Territory?"
"Yes."
Though his attitude toward me had changed, the Duke's core personality remained the same.
That same cold, bleak demeanor.
With him like this, no matter how much time passed, I could never think of him as a father.
I recounted the events in a calm tone.
First, we'd encountered the bandits, dealt with them, and interrogated them to understand the situation in the territory.
Then, after learning they were the Viscount's soldiers pretending to be deserters, we'd followed the supply chain to find the fortress.
And finally, we'd smashed the fortress and burned down the warehouse.
The Duke listened in silence.
His expression didn't change until the very end, but I could see his eyebrows twitch as he listened to my account of the fortress.
That little movement meant he must have been quite surprised.
I could have surprised him even more by mentioning the Viscount's death, but for my own safety, I couldn't bring it up.
Even after my report ended, the Duke remained silent for a long time.
At first, he glared at me, but then he closed his eyes and fell into thought.
Since he didn't tell me to leave, I had to keep waiting in front of the desk.
Only after a long while did I hear the Duke speak.
"You did well. And burning down the fortress... you did a good job."
At last, the Duke offered words of praise.
It was the first praise I'd ever received.
I hadn't particularly wanted his praise or expected it, but hearing it stirred a peculiar wave of emotion in me.
Is this why they say praise from a bad boy is dangerous?
Still, I wasn't proud or deeply moved. The moment I heard those words, a flood of mixed emotions washed over me.
I bowed my head without expression and stepped out of the office.
The knights and soldiers returned to their original posts, and a short while later, the Commander of the Knights and Manuel, who had headed to the Northern Mountain Range, returned.
It seemed they'd suffered more than expected.
There had been casualties among the soldiers, and some of the knights were injured.
Manuel also looked visibly exhausted.
That night, after the Commander of the Knights returned, the Duke listened to the Commander's report in his office.
"The monsters were stronger than expected. Their numbers have increased, and besides mutant monsters, we also saw many monsters that crossed over from the Seal Grounds. If we manage things as we usually do, it might become difficult to handle."
"You've worked hard."
The Duke commended the Commander for his report.
As he spoke, the Duke recalled what had happened a few days earlier. That day, he'd struggled to offer praise, yet today the words came easily.
The Duke couldn't help chuckling bitterly to himself.
After the Duke's praise, the Chief Butler, who had remained in the office, spoke up.
"If the monsters of the Northern Mountain Range have changed from before, then perhaps Viscount Lansarot didn't make a blunder."
The Duke nodded at the Chief Butler's words.
Even though he'd gathered his forces in the center, Viscount Lansarot had been pushed back by the monsters too easily.
He'd thought the Viscount had made a blunder all this time, but it seemed the monsters' movements were stranger than any mistake the Viscount could have made.
If so...
"If the Viscount hadn't died, he might have gone to the capital whether the fortress burned down or not."
"We were lucky."
Only that day, the Duke and the Chief Butler had heard the news that Viscount Lansarot had died in the burned fortress.
The Duke and the Chief Butler had been extremely surprised by the unexpected news.
At first, they'd simply been surprised. But on reflection, the Viscount's death was helpful beyond words.
At the Chief Butler's remark that they were lucky, the Duke tapped his fingers on the desk.
"Luck... No matter how I think about it, we've been far too lucky. To think the Viscount was attacked by monsters while visiting the fortress, then went to the burning fortress and died without receiving any help..."
"It seems those on the Viscount's side believe the fortress was raided by monsters, leading to both the Viscount's death and the fire."
"It's also strange that they think that way."
"But if we don't consider it good luck..."
If it wasn't luck, there was only one thing that came to mind. In the end, it would mean someone had killed him.
But what they'd heard from the knights and soldiers, along with the wounds on the Viscount's body, pointed to something completely different from what had just come to mind.
The Viscount had been killed by a monster.
"Let's just call it good luck."
In the end, the Duke agreed with the Chief Butler.
In any case, he had no intention of letting the Viscount's heir find out who had burned down the fortress.
If so, it was best to leave it as a stroke of good luck.