The Unfrozen Port (4)
Torres's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Only one noble in the entire duchy held the authority to reward the heroes of Andrassy.
Any ordinary man would have dropped to his knees and begged for mercy at this point. Groll certainly would have.
But Torres was built differently.
"Kill this bastard!" Torres shrieked at his knights. "He's an impostor pretending to be the Duke! Kill him right now!"
Torres was quick to do the math. Aside from the fishermen, the only one present was Uld, who was nothing more than a sixteen-year-old girl. If he killed me, the loose ends would be tied up just like that.
The knights exchanged glances. I had my back turned to them completely. It wouldn't be hard at all. All they had to do was drive a sword into a small boy's back. No doubt they'd done as much countless times before.
"Charge!"
The knights bellowed the order and rushed at me.
The last thing they ever saw was a girl with a black bob of hair.
There was no scream. No blood sprayed. The knights crumpled like marionettes with their strings cut.
All Uld had done was point her leveled blade at them. That single gesture was enough to put every one of those grown men to death.
Only I understood what she had done. The knights hadn't been cut by a sword — they'd been cut by Uld's ki. Piercing the soul with sheer spirit — that was the essence of Soul Pierce.
Perfect stillness.
I truly could not sense her breathing. Even the wind seemed to have halted for her sake. The beauty of her form was so breathtaking it stole the air from my lungs.
"Th-this must be a dream..." Torres muttered, hollow-eyed with disbelief. I reached out and seized the man by the collar, then hauled him up with all my strength.
"It's no dream, Torres."
I stared up at him as he choked and sputtered, my voice cold as ice.
"Impersonating my hero of Andrassy, defiling my direct holdings, threatening my subjects — every last one of those crimes was committed of your own free will."
"Y-Your Grace... p-please, spare m—"
How quickly the begging comes. This was the same bastard who'd been shouting this bastard and that bastard while trying to murder me not five minutes ago.
"Your Grace!"
My honor guard came huffing and puffing from the distance. I tossed Torres in a heap at their feet.
"Escort him to the capital."
If my only aim had been to teach one insolent low-ranking noble a lesson, I could have simply punished him — or killed him — on the spot.
But I wanted an example.
I wanted to send a message: the times had changed since my father's day, and the new Duke intended to take firm control of his own territory.
A letter arrived from Count Andrassy. It was an apology for neglecting the governance of Baron Torres, his direct vassal.
I accepted his apology graciously.
I wanted to remain on good terms with the count, and besides, personally supervising every minor noble was a practical impossibility.
The message was all I had wanted. So long as it had been delivered, there was no need to manufacture further conflict.
It was ten days after my arrival at Miren Port when Opils returned from the capital, his wagon loaded to the brim with firestones and construction materials.
"Any trouble in the capital?"
"A few merchant guilds have withdrawn from the duchy, and one of the Empire's spies was caught spreading slander about Your Grace."
Just another ordinary day in the duchy, then.
"What about the Groll matter?"
"I combed through every record in the Treasury. There is no information whatsoever regarding Groll's identity."
"Lucian didn't have anything either?"
"President Gray did share something interesting. Ten years ago, the Sirakos Kingdom issued a wanted notice for a pirate with a bounty of over five million bhat. She says Groll's appearance and manner of dress match the description very closely."
"What on earth did this man do to warrant a five million bounty on a mere pirate's head?"
The highest bounty I had ever posted as a lord was twenty thousand bhat — for a serial killer.
"He is accused of plundering a ship owned by the King's younger brother of Sirakos, and abducting the prince's second wife."
"..."
I was struck speechless by the sheer scale of this pirate.
"The King's brother was furious to his very marrow and assembled a fleet of a hundred ships. For five years he combed three great oceans, yet he never managed to find either of them."
"I take it the pirate never demanded a ransom?"
"No. Which is why people say the pirate and the noblewoman fell in love. There are countless works of fiction about their romance — though I hear the Sirakos Kingdom fines anyone who so much as mentions them in public."
A royal woman of the court falling for a pirate and fleeing into a life of outlawry — that would truly be the romance of the century.
Assuming the rumors were true, of course. If he'd actually kidnapped a noblewoman, he was nothing but the worst dregs of humanity.
"...Hm."
If Groll really was that pirate, every piece of the puzzle fit perfectly.
The only port beyond the reach of the surveillance of Sirakos, the great maritime power.
A harbor that was no harbor at all — Miren Port, frozen in the northern permafrost. The perfect hiding place.
— I will accept my punishment gladly. Only spare my wife and children.
And Groll had a family. If he truly was that pirate, his wife would be a woman of the Sirakos royal house.
So that was why he'd tried to hide his identity? Even at the cost of showing open discomfort to me, the Duke?
Once the firestones had all been moved into position, I summoned the fishermen and laborers to the shore.
There was a mountain of work ahead. But every last task depended on first melting the frozen sea.
"What is he planning to do?"
The fishermen had never been told the details of my plan. The laborers were another story. They knew exactly what was about to happen.
"He really means to melt the sea, they say."
"But even if he is the Grand Duke... can such a thing truly be done?"
The laborers regarded me with eyes caught somewhere between hope and doubt. Before them stood a platform built of timber — an altar, erected with the fishermen's help.
I had never been taught the art of altering the weather.
The Dao my master passed on to me was, at its heart, the way of humankind. Arts of that ilk were never considered powers granted to mortal men.
And yet I stepped forward to change the weather — because it had to be done as Duke, and because as a Daoist, I believed I could.
"Let us begin."
Whoosh-whoosh-crackle!
The mountain of firestones burst into flame. I climbed onto the altar and began to recite the invocation.
Heaven and man.
They seem immeasurably far apart, yet seen from the vantage of the cosmos, they are one and the same. All things under creation revolve and revolve again within the law of the Five Elements.
The sea of the north freezes because the qi of water, laden with the qi of fire, rises up into the sky. Reverse that flow, and melting the sea became entirely within reach.
The Wind Spirit Art —
The Rite of Wind-Calling.
...It was not enough.
I threw open every ounce of my Daoist power I possessed. A force like a raging typhoon shook heaven and earth.
The Wind Spirit Art —
Summoning the Wind God.
The winds reversed direction, and the clouds tore apart into a thousand shreds. Furious waves crashed over the embankment, and trees bent as though their trunks would snap in two.
"The — the sky!"
"The wind is blowing backwards!"
But it was not over yet. Wind is, in the end, only a wanderer. I needed a barrier to bind it to this land.
The Demon-Sealing Formation.
— was far too weak.
I needed a prison without bars — one that could contain even the power of the Five Elements themselves.
I named this sealing art the Coiling Dragon Formation.
A mighty barrier spread to swallow the entire port. The heat pouring from the firestones circulated ceaselessly within the barrier, unable to escape. The frenzied winds gradually subsided, and the temperature climbed until it was warm enough to feel on the skin.
Of course, all of this was possible only because the immortal currently known as me had been utterly worked to the bone.
Even my master probably never knew. That even a Daoist of the Ascension Realm's vision can go yellow at the edges if he burns too much power.
Three hours that felt like three days had passed when it happened.
CRRAAACK——!
I flinched. Even I had never heard that sound before in my life. As it turned out, that was the noise thick ice makes when it splits apart.
"That'll do for now."
I stepped down from the altar on trembling legs.
"Give it a few days, and most of it will be melted through."
No one answered. All three hundred of them stood there with their souls sucked clean out of their faces.
"He... he really melted the sea."
"Is he truly the incarnation of Solitas?"
I understood why they were staring at me with such burning eyes. Really, I did. It was a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. Of course I'd look like a god to them.
...But you, Opils, do not get to look at me like that too. You're supposed to be my aide.
It was that evening when Groll came to my quarters.
"What brings you here?"
"Well, the thing is — the day before yesterday, I caught a five-colored conch."
Groll scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"You know the five-colored lobster, don't you? The one they call a delicacy of the sea..."
"I know it."
The five-colored lobster was classified as a sea monster. Its flavor was extraordinary, but it was rare enough that it seldom even graced my own table.
"If you'd permit me, I'd like to serve it to you properly."
"I won't refuse."
"At my house, that is."
"Shall I come now, then?"
I didn't hesitate. I had spent far too much power that day, and my stomach was gnawing at me like a mad beast. Besides, a five-colored lobster wasn't the kind of dish one turns down.
"Though I'll warn you — we've got no fine silverware, no fancy cooking skills to speak of. It'll be nothing befitting a Grand Duke's table, I'm afraid."
I glanced over at Uld.
"He says so, Uld."
"I'm fine with that."
Uld smiled gently.
"Then it's settled."
We made our way together to Groll's house, where we found the little tyke I'd met recently, along with a woman who was presumably Groll's wife.
Having heard Opils's intriguing tale that afternoon, I stole a discreet sidelong glance at her.
Was this a royal fugitive fleeing across the sea with a pirate worth five million bhat?
Or simply the wife of a village headman, nothing more?
"My name is Mariella, Your Grace."
Mariella was a modest woman with braided brown hair. Like every woman in this village, she was sturdy to the bone, her nails cracked from years of grueling labor.
Had I not heard all those stories from Opils, I never would have given her identity a second thought.
"We'll be in your care, Mariella."
"Five-colored lobster. My skills are nothing special, but I hope you'll enjoy it."
Mariella brought out the boiled lobster in a great iron pot. It was a massive creature, well over a meter long. A rich, savory aroma wafted deep into my nose.
For a while, we all devoted ourselves entirely to eating. Feasting on five-colored lobster piled up like this was a luxury even by my standards.
"I hear you're planning to open up sea trade."
We were well into a mound of lobster shells by then. Groll's voice was cautious and measured.
"Riding the currents out of Miren would take you straight to the Sirakos Kingdom, I'd imagine."
"That's the idea."
Groll clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, as if steeling his nerve, then asked as casually as he could manage.
"Have you found your sailors yet?"
"The sailors, yes. The captain is the hard part."
Opils had plastered the capital with recruitment notices for sailors when he went. The sailors had come easily enough, he said — but not a single soul had volunteered for captain.
"The North Sea is full of drifting glaciers. A captain needs to be seasoned and know the waters."
I waited for Groll's next words. He hadn't gotten to the point yet.
"Which is why I wanted to ask..."
His voice lacked confidence.
"Would you take a man like me, even with an unclear past?"
"You're hired."
I answered before he could change his mind.
"...Huh?"
Groll looked flustered. He clearly hadn't expected me to answer that fast.
"That is, if you don't mind commanding a privateer vessel."
At the word privateer, Groll's brow twitched.
"The thing is, I don't exactly intend to behave myself and stick to trade."
As if the Emperor would leave my ships alone if all I sent out were merchantmen.
"That's right... we're actively recruiting pirates."
I set down my fork and smiled.
The Northern Grand Duke's Daoist Arts Are No Joke — Chapter 107