Chapter 35 - No Eternal Allies, No Eternal Enemies
No Eternal Allies, No Eternal Enemies
Translator : Elizabeth
Taking advantage of the brief lull in the banquet hall's commotion, a strange sense of victory flowed among the three people who moved to a corner.
Lorraine was still looking at Danel with a flushed face, and Kailey was holding the blank note Danel handed her as if it were a treasure.
"Ah, Kailey. You can throw that away now."
"What……?"
Danel chuckled.
"It was a huge help. Thanks."
"……? Don't know what's what."
Even so, Danel beating Julia's guard knight Ferik was an unbelievable feat.
Because Ferik was a powerhouse whose skill was already proven.
"To think you'd really win…… How on earth did you do it?"
As Kailey tilted her head in confusion, Danel giggled.
"Well, mostly things work out somehow if you prepare."
"Does that make sense? Because you prepare, a beginning Ascendant beats a high-level Ascendant?"
Danel shrugged.
"Well, are high-level knights immune to swords? If their minds are shaken and they can't show their true skills, they lose."
"……You are really……."
Then Lorraine quietly intervened.
"Really…… will Lady Julia take the bait? She is a shrewd and calculating woman."
Worry lingered fully in Lorraine's voice.
Before entering the banquet, Danel had already shared the plan on how to cook Julia Helmon.
"She will bite. That woman has very big ambitions. Not the type to be satisfied with simply maintaining family reputation. Such humans instinctively choose one of two options when they meet an opponent holding a fatal card that could ruin them. Completely bury the opponent, or win them over as a definite ally. But Julia can't bury the Lady. Then only one option remains."
Despite Danel's confident words, Lorraine's face was still full of worry.
"But I'm still afraid. Julia is too dangerous an existence to make an ally. Because she's a person you never know when she'll stab you in the back."
Danel flicked his finger leisurely and continued.
"Don't worry. As long as you hold an appropriate leash, there are no guys as reliable as them when considered allies. An accomplice relationship sharing each other's ugly shameful parts is much more solid and lasts longer than a relationship united by clumsy goodwill or loyalty."
"A, an ally. Such an expression is a bit unfamiliar to me."
"You must face reality, Lady. The political utility you can gain with that single request form the Lady holds has clear limits. Helmon is an influential Marquis family in the North. Even if the fact that they colluded with a bandit group is revealed, they will be very skilled at cutting the tail. They just need to make a suitable lower vassal a scapegoat and excuse it as a practical error. If that happens, without even touching Helmon's roots, it just results in increasing one more giant enemy."
Danel said putting strength into his words.
"There are no eternal allies, no eternal enemies. You must admit that."
Lorraine nodded slowly.
Danel's realistic sense always made her feel cold yet eventually convinced her.
"But what I'm really worried about is…… Danel, you."
At Lorraine's words, Danel made a puzzled expression.
"Ah, me? I'll have no particular problem. Even looking like this, I'm confident in running away."
Lorraine bit her dry lips.
What she was worried about wasn't just Danel's safety.
She knew Julia Helmon's extraordinary male history very well.
Julia was a woman who was only satisfied when she put a man she liked into her collection regardless of status or nationality.
The gaze Julia threw at Danel in the duel arena earlier was mixed with blatant interest along with anger.
But Danel, who only lived a rough mercenary life, couldn't possibly know such a noble lady's secret taste.
Click, clack.
"You were here, Lady Lorraine."
As expected, it was Julia Helmon who approached Lorraine's group in the corner of the banquet hall.
She didn't hide her unpleasant look yet threw a strangely flashing gaze at Danel.
"You plotted this, right? Doesn't seem like Lady Lorraine planned such a cheeky act alone."
Julia's low voice, clearly mixed with an emotion of interest, stuck in everyone's ears.
Danel shrugged and responded leisurely.
"Well. Isn't the matter a bit sensitive to talk about in such a public place? Let's make a quiet place separately, Lady Julia."
Julia's eyebrow twitched as if interested.
She slowly scanned Danel from head to toe.
"I'm certain. It's you. You bastard seduced Lady Lorraine and set up this crude play. Dare you, a mere mercenary origin, handle the aftermath? Seems you think you can fully bear the weight of Helmon?"
Danel smiled, shrugging his shoulders lightly.
"Such threats don't work well on me though. Ah, come to think of it, you know the Ice Bear scented candle Lady Julia cherishes so much? Did you know I actually made that?"
"What……?"
Julia's expression stiffened in an instant.
"Meaning I'm a quite versatile mercenary. Status is good, but isn't a capable person more attractive."
At Danel's sly yet confident attitude, Julia finally burst into a hollow laugh.
"Ha!?"
An attitude arrogant beyond measure, but that composure without a bit of shrinking when facing her came as a fresh stimulation.
Felt like discovering a really fun toy after a long time.
Don't know if the opponent's intention is to grab and shake her, but since she decided to board the same boat to avoid ruin, there was no reason for Julia to refuse.
"But do you know? The things I do might be poison to Ashuhalt. Seems a guy who is a Lady's guard doesn't care about the family's safety?"
Danel laughed it off leisurely.
"Will it necessarily be poison? Sometimes creating tension is good for the organization's health."
This was Danel's true feeling that even Lorraine didn't know.
Danel's final goal was far from Ashuhalt's revival.
Solidifying his foundation and building strength here using Lorraine as a shield, and ultimately finding Leorel Piace to put a period to revenge.
When that work is done, he intended to return to a free mercenary's life again.
Julia looked at Lorraine as if dumbfounded.
"Ha? Lady Lorraine, a subordinate guard speaks close to treason yet you don't restrain him at all?"
Lorraine faced Julia with indifferent eyes.
"Because Danel's words cannot be seen as wrong. Isn't the fact that the current Ashuhalt is not like before a fact we all feel on our skin?"
"Didn't know the Lady had such a rebellious temperament."
"Fufu, it's hard to know a person's inside. Just as I completely didn't know Lady Julia was setting up such a gloomy plan."
The gazes of the two women clashed, sparking in the air. Outwardly wearing elegant smiles, but underneath, sharp blades aiming at each other's necks seemed to be felt. Danel intervened between them and tossed a word calmly.
"Seeing you two, you look quite close? Seem to match better than thought."
At that sound, Julia and Lorraine blushed simultaneously and shouted angrily.
"Who is close!"
"Who is close!!"
Danel picked his ear and muttered small.
"……See. Best friends."
Promised to hold a quiet tea party with Julia soon to coordinate specific cooperation conditions.
The moment the atmosphere was about to heat up again with the fever of friendly duels, the massive doors of the banquet hall opened roughly.
A messenger covered in dirt all over his body ran in gasping for breath roughly.
All gazes in the banquet hall stuck to him in an instant.
The appearance of a dirty soldier amidst fancy dresses and tuxedos was enough to draw out a giant ominosity.
"W, what…… what's going on?"
"A soldier just enters the Duke family's banquet? Seems something big happened?"
"S, surely beasts moved?"
Nobles' speculations ran rampant.
Regardless, the soldier ran to Veron at the seat of honor without hesitation and knelt.
"I, I have an urgent report!"
Veron's thick eyebrows distorted severely.
Although famous for usually being cool-headed, he intuited that the situation was urgent enough to allow such a rude report during a banquet.
"Speak."
The soldier shouted desperately with a trembling voice, but loud enough for the entire banquet hall to hear.
"R, reporting! It's news that Ronkes territory of the Evelin Kingdom has fallen to barbarians!"
"!!!!!"
Silence like pouring cold water hovered over the banquet hall in an instant.
Ronkes territory.
A core military strategic point at the northern edge of the Evelin Kingdom and bordering the permanent frozen soil.
That place falling meant one axis of the Northern defense line completely collapsed.
Danel narrowed his eyes hearing that report.
'Ronkes fell……?'
Ronkes was a natural fortress surrounded by mountains.
Moreover, to go there, one cannot move without passing through Ashuhalt's territory.
Thinking up to there, goosebumps rose on the back of Danel's neck.
'Crazy! Hireion……! Does it mean they crossed Hireion!'