Father Has Turned Into a Good-for-Nothing Old Man!?

The morning after bringing Hildegard into my citadel, I concluded the formal contract with her in my office.

On the parchment contract Eliza brought in, the terms read: [Hildegard Pechter hereby swears her loyalty to Katerina, Lady of the Eisenmark Grand Duchy, as envoy and member of her personal guard……]

"You've added the title of envoy, I see."

Hildegard asked as she read over the document.

"That was included with your Imperial origins in mind. Should negotiations with the Empire ever arise, you may well be the one standing at the forefront."

Hildegard considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"A sound idea. Having the standing of an envoy of the Grand Duchy will be useful in any number of ways when I need to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠move in and out of Imperial territory."

"Furthermore, you are free to come and go as you please and tend to personal matters. You need only perform your duties when I summon you."

As she pressed her seal to the contract, a smile touched the corners of Hildegard's mouth.

"I set those conditions at the start, but given the present circumstances, I would have had no grounds to complain even if you refused to grant them. Thank you, truly."

Just as she said, I could have negotiated far more favorable terms for myself. Unlike that first conversation at the inn, she was now a woman formally indicted for treason by the Empire.

But I chose not to. According to Katerina's instincts, Hildegard was something of a……

a feline type, no?

What I mean by that is this: if anyone tried to bind her against her will, Hildegard would squirm and claw however she had to until she wrenched her freedom back.

But what if, instead, you left her free to roam? Far from leaving my side, she would simply keep staying on.

And in any case, Hildegard has no choice but to lean on my protection. I may have granted her freedom on paper, but in practice she won't be free at all.

Without me shielding her, the Imperial noble factions who had made an enemy of Hildegard would sooner or later bring the blade of retribution down on her again.

In the end, the extent of her freedom would be bounded by the borders of the Eisenmark Grand Duchy itself.

She might evade pursuit if she changed her name and appearance entirely and lived in permanent hiding, but I doubt she'd want to live like that.

With the contract concluded to everyone's satisfaction, we stepped out to find Bielka waiting for us in the corridor, wearing an anxious expression. The moment she saw Hildegard and me walking out together with smiles on our faces, it bloomed into a bright one.

"Is Lady Hilde really joining us now?"

"…Hilde?"

Hildegard looked at Bielka with faint bewilderment. Apparently she was taken aback by the girl slapping a pet name on her of her own accord. And much like Hildegard, I was rather surprised myself.

What's gotten into her?

Well, I couldn't be certain, but let me attempt a rough deduction.

To Bielka, Katerina the Lady of the Grand Duchy is someone who stands impossibly high above her. Difficult to get close ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to.

Eliza, on the other hand, must feel like a kind but demanding teacher whose expectations are hard to live up to. So that road is equally hard to walk.

Might it be that Bielka, being a commoner herself, feels a strange kinship with Hildegard — a woman of comparatively low standing who wields a weapon much like her own?

Bielka, you…… And here I thought I treated you so well. Are you still scared of me?

Despite the inference being my own, I felt a tiny flicker of offense.

Had I been the pure, original Katerina, I might well have slapped those breasts bigger than Bielka's own head while crying, 'How dare you, you ungrateful maid!'

"That's right. Hildegard is now a member of my personal guard. She'll be able to help with your halberd training as well, Bielka."

Bielka gazed up at Hildegard with the thrilled expression of a puppy that had just made a new friend.

"Wow! I get to learn polearm techniques from Lady Hilde herself! This feels like a dream!"

Watching Bielka spin her nonexistent tail like a helicopter rotor, Hildegard gave a wry smile.

"The woldo and the halberd are a little different, but the same principles apply to any long weapon. I'll teach you everything I can, Bielka."

Just when it seemed the business ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with Hildegard's contract had wrapped up, a commotion broke out at the citadel's main gate that very afternoon.

The men claiming to be Imperial special magistrates had appeared before the citadel gate once more, dragging a retinue along with them. They launched into an argument with Woldin, captain of the guard.

"I will say this once more. Hand over Hildegard Pechter, the wanted woman indicted for treason against the Empire. We have received intelligence that she is here."

Woldin needed no order from me to respond like the commander of northern soldiers that he was.

"You show up out of nowhere, make an absurd demand with no warning whatsoever, and now you have the gall to come back? This is the Grand Duchy of Eisenmark. Imperial magistrate or not, no one lays hands on anyone here without the Grand Duke's leave!"

As I watched the scene from a window, Hildegard came to stand beside me and observed it as well.

"My lady, if my presence ever brings trouble upon the Grand Duchy, please tell me at once.

I won't turn myself over to the Empire, but if I travel north and take a ship far across the sea, I can at least save my own life――"

"Worry yourself with no such thing. You are my people now. Would you have me send away one of my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠own out of fear of Imperial pressure? That would be an insult to me, plain and simple."

When I cut her off with firm resolve, Hildegard bowed her head in gratitude.

Meanwhile, the Imperial magistrate and his retinue, cowed by the presence of Woldin and the citadel guards, withdrew.

"A grand duchy sheltering a traitor will not reflect well on relations with the Empire. I will report this to my superiors without fail!"

"Go piss yourselves, you Imperial brats!"

"Want a fight? Step right up!"

Even in retreat they hurled their hollow threats, and several of the citadel guards sent them off with a volley of crude insults and fist-potatoes to match.

I drafted an official document on the spot and banished them from Eisenfels. The document expressly cited their crimes as 'unauthorized infringement upon the sovereign authority of the Grand Duchy, and the assertion of judicial power under a falsified identity.'

That bit at the end about the 'falsified identity' had no concrete evidence behind it — I had added it deliberately.

Unless the Imperial government wanted a diplomatic dispute with the Grand Duchy, they would understand my message — 'Those troublemakers who kicked up a fuss in our capital… they weren't real Imperial magistrates, were they? Impostors, surely? Yes. Well then, let's all be good and move along.' — and quietly let the matter drop.

……………

Some time passed after that.

The sky over Eisenfels beyond my window seemed to sink lower by the day. Now and then gray clouds rolled in thick enough to swallow the citadel's spires whole. Autumn was deepening, and the breath of winter could already be felt stirring in the air.

My father, Grand Duke Chadomir Gigant Eisenmark, had decided to stall the dispute with Sergen for as long as humanly possible. Since the promise was that 'the Grand Duke would answer upon his return to Eisenfels,' his solution was simply not to return for the time being.

……He's not about to announce an abdication at this rate, is he?

Reading my father's letter left me breaking out in a cold sweat.

This man, no matter how I looked at it, was growing accustomed to living off the fat of the land. Surely he wasn't methodically progressing from short-term unemployment to long-term unemployment to a permanent surrender of the job market, was he?

Is Mother all I have left to believe in……?

Mother, the blessed maiden of the thunder god, was in a mutual-love relationship with Father and, as a rule, indulged his whims fairly readily.

But however much she loved him, Mother was not the sort to stand by while he abandoned his duties.

Above all, the threat from Sergen was real, so this state of affairs could not last forever. Once Father was forced back to his post, his boredom with the work would vanish along with it.

The preparations for winter were proceeding more smoothly than expected. The new system for setting food reserves and ration quotas based on the census had settled in stably, and the construction of the underground storehouses was trundling along at a decent pace as well.

"My lady, how was training today?"

As I sat lost in thought, Bielka came over to me, drenched in sweat.

Bielka's halberd training was coming along quite well too. Instructor Nikolai had taught her the fundamentals at first, but once she'd mastered the basics, Hildegard took over and personally drilled her in the handling of long weapons.

"You've grown enormously, Bielka. The way you rotate the halberd especially — it's become far more fluid."

Bielka's face lit up.

"It's all thanks to Lady Hilde! At first I wasn't sure about the methods she taught me, but they really do work!"

"They're nothing more than the basic drills taught in any martial hall. With a long weapon, center of gravity and balance are everything."

At first, Hildegard had seemed a bit flustered by Bielka pushing in with such overeager intensity, but as time passed, the two of them became like a puppy and a kitten raised together since birth.

In other words, a strange bond had formed between them, and they'd grown close.

"Correspondence from Volkov County and Sokolov County, my lady."

When I returned to the office, Eliza was waiting with a stack of letters in hand.