Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: The Indefinite Contractor Returns (5)
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The banquet came to a hasty end.
It had to. What Baron Karon had stirred up was a major incident.
Rainer ordered the baron back to his lodgings for some quiet reflection.
It was house arrest in all but name.
Surrounded by Kazan’s knights, Baron Karon left the banquet hall without a word.
No sooner had the banquet ended than Rainer summoned his trusted aides and close confidants to his office.
The air in the office hung heavy.
And amid it all sat one outsider.
“Explain yourself, Lady Elena.”
Rainer’s voice brimmed with barely contained anger and irritation.
Elena, who had attended as a witness, spoke up.
“Sir Daniel came to around dawn. It had been two weeks since he last regained consciousness, so he was starving. I guided him to the all-night diner we run. That’s where he ran into Baron Karon.”
She continued her account.
The closer the story drew to its conclusion, the stonier the listeners’ faces grew.
“A dinner oath?!”
“Yes.”
“Damn it all!”
Rainer bit his lip and slammed the desk.
Now that he thought about it, the problem ran deeper than he’d realized.
“Of all things, a dinner oath.”
The North’s winters stretched long, and grain was always scarce.
Food held incomparable value and weight compared to other regions.
In the North, food symbolized life itself, and sharing a meal meant sharing one’s very life force.
This culture had invested the dinner oath with a meaning unimaginable elsewhere.
[I’ll buy you a meal]
Equated to:
[I’m willing to do anything for you]
Northerners never made such oaths lightly.
A dinner oath was as binding as any vow—a sacred pledge that demanded fulfillment.
The people in the room, only now learning that Daniel had made such an oath, were stunned into silence.
‘This isn’t something we can resolve just by exiling Baron Karon!’
The causality had flipped.
It wasn’t that Daniel had permitted the baron’s rudeness.
The baron had been rude because Daniel permitted it.
That changed everything.
“Syril. Any ideas?”
Syril couldn’t respond to Rainer’s call.
No matter how she racked her brain, no solution emerged.
“I’m sorry.”
“I see. Damn it.”
Rainer’s face twisted.
The culprit being Baron Karon only compounded the issue.
He was a key figure in the neutral faction.
If they sent Daniel as he demanded?
“Why help the neutrals first, young lord? Are they more important than us, who’ve sworn our loyalty?”
Cracks would form in his own faction’s unity, shaking its foundation.
Refuse to dispatch him?
‘That’s even worse. Daniel’s a knight of Carta now!’
Knighted by the family, Daniel served the Northern Archduke’s house.
For such a man to make a dinner oath—and for the oath’s beneficiary to now request aid—only to deny it?
Daniel would be branded not a true knight of Carta, but a dishonorable rogue, pointed at by every Northerner.
That disgrace would taint the archduke’s house itself.
Choosing one side crippled faction management.
Choosing the other jeopardized his position as heir.
‘Damn it all!’
A devilish dilemma where one loss was inevitable.
Rainer grimaced, gnawing at his nails.
Elena watched quietly.
‘Pity there’s no wine.’
Her eyes gleamed wickedly, like a hunter gazing at prey trapped in her snare.
The office air refused to lighten.
Silence only thickened it.
Everyone present ached to speak.
But no one could.
No fitting words came to mind, no matter how they strained.
In the end, Rainer broke the quiet first.
“What if we say he hasn’t recovered fully?”
His words reeked of desperation—a political stall for time.
“That won’t work.”
“......!”
Elena cut in before his aides could reply.
“Lady Elena. You were called here solely as a witness. You have no standing in this meeting...”
“I know that full well. But with you losing your composure, young lord, I had no choice but to interject.”
“Losing composure? Me?”
Rainer glared.
“I’m as cool-headed as ever. Are you insulting me?”
“Perish the thought. I’m merely stating facts.”
“Still harping on that...”
“Young lord. Have you forgotten the archduke’s announcement?”
“What? What are you—?!”
“There. You remember.”
Elena pressed on in an utterly calm tone.
“The Magic Tower provided Blue Jäger to aid Hero Daniel’s recovery. And the archduke proclaimed it publicly. It’s been a week already.”
“.......”
The office air turned icy.
The North rewarded merit openly.
Daniel had earned honors, so the archduke had broadcast his reward to all.
Kazan’s people had rejoiced, deeming it fitting for their hero. Rainer had too.
He’d never dreamed it would now snare his own ankle.
“Announce that Sir Daniel hasn’t recovered as you claim, young lord, and two scandals erupt.”
Her voice rose steadily.
All eyes fixed on her.
“First: doubts that the hero who felled twelve wyverns—the Dragonslayer—is just some mortal who can’t even digest an elixir’s essence.”
“……!”
“Second: the Magic Tower lied.”
Elena paused, locking eyes with Rainer.
“Or perhaps the archduke did.”
“Gasp!”
“...!?!?”
The room froze.
Someone’s swallow echoed sharply.
Utterly irreverent words.
Yet Rainer couldn’t retort.
He’d thought the same.
“I may know naught of war, but this I do know: suspicion and distrust among allies is a deadly poison. Am I wrong?”
No one could refute her.
She was irrefutably right.
“...You’re correct. I lost my objectivity.”
Rainer finally voiced an apology.
Anger, self-reproach, and shame mingled in it.
‘My greed for Daniel clouded my vision. To forget something so basic...’
Elena smirked inwardly.
Rainer had admitted his mistake.
Politicians never owned up to errors.
Yet he had. Proof of weakness.
Excellent news for anyone facing him.
“...No other options?”
His voice lacked strength.
She sensed the moment to drive the wedge home.
“None, young lord. If I may be bold: dispatching Sir Daniel is the only path.”
Not a suggestion—a command. Rainer had no reply.
“Haa.”
He rubbed his brow.
He had no choice but to accept it.
This dilemma had never been solvable.
The answer was set from the start.
He’d merely denied it.
Now, he had to decide.
Send Daniel, and his faction crumbled.
Refuse, and the archduke’s honor—and his own future—shattered.
In the end, only one choice remained.
“I...”
“No, young lord!”
A rebuttal cut him off for the first time.
“If Sir Daniel leaves, Kazan’s defenses will have a gap! You’re Kazan’s lord, are you not? You must prioritize the city’s best protection. Please reconsider!”
“Sir Rood.”
All eyes turned to Rood.
Only a soldier untainted by politics could speak so.
Rood’s outburst left Rainer in a bind.
For his political survival, dispatching Daniel was the sole option.
But pushing ahead ignored Rood’s stance.
Rood led Kazan’s forces, revered and trusted by knights and officers alike.
With his faction already fracturing, alienating Rood was the last thing he needed.
“Worry not on that score.”
Elena interjected again.
“What do you mean?”
“Have you forgotten? The Magic Tower’s mages aren’t limited to Sir Daniel.”
“……!”
“Sir Daniel’s absence can be filled by me and the four mages under my command.”
Rood frowned at her claim.
“...I hardly see you lot replacing Sir Daniel.”
“We know we can’t match his feats. And we don’t claim to.”
Elena countered without hesitation.
“But what if we handle what he can’t?”
“Hm?”
Not a whip-crack rebuttal this time.
For the first time, she dangled a carrot, smiling with her eyes.
“Strange talk.”
Rood crossed his arms.
“You admit you’re inferior to Sir Daniel, yet claim you’ll do what he can’t? I’m not fond of word games.”
“No games, I assure you.”
Elena replied.
“The mages I brought are all 4th Circle masters. Official black mages, able to summon imps.”
Rood sneered.
“You’re not saying they can wield imps as freely as Sir Daniel, are you?”
“Of course not. Where would we find another mage like him?”
“Then what...”
“But we can make them practical.”
“...Practical?”
“Yes.”
Rood furrowed his brow.
What was she getting at?
Elena’s unwavering gaze met his squarely.
“Scouting via imps. Downing wyverns via imps. Tactical implementation thereof. Don’t you need it?”
“What?!”
“……!!!”
Rood shot to his feet.
Everyone in the office stared at Elena, breaths held.
She beamed.
“Sometimes, numbers of the ordinary outshine singular brilliance. Analyzing feats only the exceptional can perform, then finding ways for all to replicate them, for instance.”
“......”
“Hee hee.”
No one spoke.
Daniel’s exploits were legendary, yes.
But most believed only he could achieve them.
Elena refuted that. Denied it.
She vowed to turn his miracles into repeatable tactics for all.
“Tactics to intercept Steel Scale Tribe across every battlefield.”
She whispered softly.
“Tempting, no?”
Rood’s eyes trembled faintly.
“Perfecting a tactical manual demands vast data. Conveniently, we have four mages who can gather it. We offer them. Insufficient?”
“Th-that’s...”
Rood faltered.
Elena turned to her next mark.
“Moreover, this aids you greatly, short-term and long.”
“...What now?”
Rainer’s shaken gaze pierced her.
“What if we prioritize these insights for your faction?”
“……!”
Her sharp eyes bored into Rainer’s white-knuckled grip on his chair.
“Won’t that mute complaints over Sir Daniel’s dispatch?”
“......”
“Long-term? The North need fear Steel Scale dive-bombings no more. How much that benefits you... hee. Too crass to spell out.”
Silence fell as she finished.
‘It’s shifted at last.’
The air had changed—not as before, but fundamentally.
Elena sensed it.
Their minds had turned.
Hers wasn’t mere logic.
A complete plan: short-term pain for long-term gain. A realistic alternative.
“Dispatching Daniel is a loss” had flipped to “a gain.”
Rainer had no counter.
Only one reply possible.
“No other way.”
Rainer sighed heavily.
“We’ll... dispatch Sir Daniel.”
“Thank you for considering my view, young lord.”
Elena bowed, smiling.
A victor’s smile.
No one knew then.
The seismic change this choice would bring to the North one day.