Chapter 23
Chapter 23
* * *
With the situation wrapped up like that, Alpheus and the elite unit were racing toward the marquisate.
Alpheus glanced at a small bag.
"Ah...... since I'm in the capital anyway, I should buy Bribri a present or something."
Thinking about playing with soap bubbles on the hill with Brisa put him in a good mood.
Along with the soap bubbles, the bag also held balloons. He had gotten them at a stationery shop in the capital.
'But still.'
His rational thoughts caught up a little late.
'Was there anything to eat in that territory?'
Crossing half the empire from east to west had made one thing clear to him: distribution was a mess throughout the entire empire.
That was only natural since Warp wasn't working. With western grain and the like not circulating, everyone was on edge about food.
'At least the east is a region that's fairly self-sufficient...... but the Sears Marquisate wouldn't be, would it?'
But he had left Rangsi behind, so he believed Rangsi would somehow manage.
They had probably bought something on credit from a neighboring territory. Since he had left the knights behind, they should have been able to cross a small hill even with monsters on it.
'Or didn't they say there were relatives? That an uncle lives nearby...... I think that lawyer said something like that. The uncle would have helped out a bit, right?'
Even so, in Alpheus's imagination, Brisa sat upright and starving. It was a sight he had seen often while crossing the empire.
The knights would be suffering too.......
Of course, being former mercenaries, they'd be used to hunger.
"But we've really almost arrived now."
They too were running while going hungry.
They had dried fish and seaweed brought from the east, but they couldn't eat their fill. The villagers whose supply lines had been cut were not particularly generous.
It got worse the further they came into the central region, which hadn't secured large-scale farmland.
They had no choice but to sell off the gold items the Second Imperial Prince had given them at low prices, just to stave off hunger.
After running like that for so long, the end of this journey truly began to come into view.
"Everyone probably thinks we'll only arrive once the Warps are all fixed, right?"
Alpheus grinned.
"How thrilled they'll be to see us show up a whole month early! They'll all jump up and down like they never imagined we'd reunite this soon!"
Only then did the elite unit commander let out a short laugh and speak up.
"Won't Rangsi say, 'Did you come back as ghosts?'"
They were drained from not eating properly and doing nothing but running, but still, the thought of meeting their comrades made their hearts flutter.
Alpheus grinned and winked cheerfully as he said,
"Now then, everyone, we've rested enough, right?"
The war hero's wink was so lively that the elite unit simply sighed.
"Then shall we set off again! Our precious Bribri, Big Bro Alphi is coming!"
With a resounding shout, the young man began running toward the territory.
* * *
"Leo!"
Baron Forman stared at his grandson with a horrified expression.
"Why in the world are you here...... don't tell me, you were...... nearby?"
I had heard about Baron Forman from Sylvia, Leopold's maternal cousin.
"My grandfather uses formal speech with Leopold in public settings. I'll probably end up doing the same when I get older, right?"
So Sylvia's grandfather was Baron Forman.
"But my grandfather also speaks comfortably in private settings. So when I get older, I plan to only meet Leopold in private. Just thinking about using formal speech with him is already agonizing."
So Baron Forman had to use formal speech with Leopold when other people were present, as was the case now.
But he had undoubtedly been so shocked that he'd spoken as he normally did.
"Good heavens, Leo. To run into you here."
I truly hadn't expected to run into Leopold here either.
Leopold, too, looked back and forth between me and Baron Forman as if quite taken aback.
"Well, now."
Even in the midst of this, blood was splattering behind him.
Without even looking back, he unleashed Air Severing, and it struck precisely the boat the black mages were hurriedly boarding. Just like that, the white-masked figures were sent plunging into the water en masse.
Without even confirming the result of that wide-area attack, the boy spoke elegantly.
"This is a situation that piques one's curiosity."
In the parlance of western nobles, that meant: 'Everything is so unexpected that I'm utterly dumbfounded, and I'm so curious about the circumstances of this incident from start to finish that I'm about to go mad, so explain immediately.'
Of course, I had no intention of explaining.
So I looked at Baron Forman with eyes full of betrayal.
"Grandfather......? Then could it be...... you are Baron Forman?"
I had passed the problem off to someone else.
The reason I had pretended not to recognize his identity all this time was simple.
'Because Baron Forman is a capable intelligence operative.'
That meant there was a high chance he would ask me all sorts of sharp questions.
In contrast, I was only twelve years old.
Even if I had matured early, I was still young enough to fall for a veteran intelligence operative's leading questions.
'What if I accidentally let slip that I know the future.......'
Then I would literally look like a crazy kid.
'......That's too horrifying.'
So I didn't want to have deep conversations with Baron Forman if I could help it. Because if I let on that I'd noticed his identity, I would then have an obligation to answer him.
Setting aside his title, he was an elder and the maternal grandfather of the next Nozen heir.
But as long as I kept pretending not to notice, the maids and Philip would naturally steer things so I didn't have to answer him.
'But it turned out I could use it like this too.'
I blinked with a shocked expression.
"Didn't you say you were detained because a relative of yours was in the Hawin Barony?"
At my murmur, Leopold raised an eyebrow.
His gaze swept over his grandfather's shabby clothes.
"Not knowing you were Baron Forman...... I have been most rude."
I removed the hood attached to my robe and gave a proper, polite greeting.
Then I added, as if at a loss.
"I just...... since you said you were from the west, I was going to send you off now that you'd been caught eavesdropping......."
The goal was to make sure he knew he had benefited from my kindness.
"In case Baron Hawin recognized your face and took revenge on your relative, I had you disguised."
The showing off continued.
"And I treated you to dinner......."
Baron Forman, now cast as an old man who had deceived a kind child all along and even eaten her food, grew flustered.
"I, I am, I mean."
Leopold's eyes gradually narrowed.
His expression turned subtly complicated, as though he were weighing something.
"The reason my grandfather suddenly went to the central region."
Even as he said that, he blew up several more ships behind him.
"Is probably a matter concerning the west."
That was meant for me to hear.
It meant: 'I can roughly guess the reason, but this is a matter you must never know, so don't dig any further.'
A thoroughly aristocratic way of speaking that left no opening for anyone to fault him.
The basic stance of rejecting factional politics without making enemies.
The determination never to break his composed, rational demeanor.
There was a reason western culture had developed that way.
'Because the west is the wealthiest land.'
A place where nothing was ever lacking and everyone always had room to spare. There was no desperation.
They never directly asked or demanded anything of anyone. After all, they could obtain or learn anything they wanted on their own.
I could hear Philip whispering to Wendy from behind.
"Why does that young lord only say obvious things? A westerner would have gone because of western business—what, did he come for some other reason?"
"Right? Earlier too, he just said he was curious about this situation and doesn't seem to be focusing on the conversation. Well, I guess it makes sense, since he's tossing black mages around like that."
The northern mercenaries didn't understand Western-Style Speech in the slightest.
'Well, of course.'
I recalled the original novel.
'That's why it takes Alpheus a very long time to cooperate with Leopold.'
Because Alpheus and Leopold couldn't communicate at all.
Baron Forman, having collected himself, also answered in the noble speech of the west.
"The story I have to convey is so long that I would have to speak until dawn."
That meant: 'Let's send these people away later and talk.'
Then he looked at me and smiled awkwardly.
"I have been most discourteous, Lady Sears. In truth, I did not intend to hide it to the very end......."
That meant he had desperately tried to hide it.
"I will not forget the kindness the Lady showed to an old country man from the west."
"It is my honor to have been able to invite Baron Forman to the modest Sears dinner table."
I bowed elegantly.
That was when it happened. Leopold stared straight at me and asked.
"So why did you come here?"
How could this be.
Both Baron Forman and I were startled.
For Leopold to ask such a direct question.
'I was planning to just muddle through it somehow.'
Baron Forman brought both hands to his mouth and drew a sharp breath. He seemed extremely excited.