Toward the Imperial Capital (0)
You never know where a person's road will lead. Adras could never have dreamed that the man he had tried to swindle was the Duke's son. Neither had I. Who would have thought I would end up traveling with that hopeless conman?
According to Lucian, Adras had spent the past five years living earnestly indeed. When Lucian wound up his illegal ventures, most of his underlings abandoned him and drifted away, but Adras alone had stayed at his side to the very end, keeping faith. He had supposedly helped Lucian achieve any number of business successes since... Whether any of that would prove useful to me remained to be seen.
That was how the first member of my father's escort was settled.
For the second, Vitten seemed a sound choice. A former adventurer with plenty of travel experience, and cooking skills nearly on par with an Awoken Ability, which was a merit in its own right. But his response to my proposal was not what I expected.
"Take Thalia instead of me."
Thalia reacted before I could.
"I am meant to be supervising the training."
"I can handle the training. But opportunities like this don't come around often."
"You mean the chance to attend the Duke?"
"The chance to match wits with the central nobility."
Vitten shot her a thumbs-up.
"It's exactly the experience a vice-commander of a rising knight order needs. And while you're at it, get a good look at the south. Stay boxed up in the north your whole life and you'll turn into a frog in a well, won't you?"
I won't pretend to understand romance, but even I could tell that Vitten had just scored a rare point and promptly fumbled it away.
In any case, his advice that a vice-commander ought to broaden her experience held water, so the second member was confirmed as Thalia.
I had no intention of naming a third. I was, after all, there merely to assist my father. Then Father made a request of his own.
"That Srudal fellow among your knights strikes me as dependable. I think we should include him in the delegation."
Father had shown particular interest in Srudal for some time. Anyone might marvel at a learned ogre, but his interest seemed to run deeper than simple curiosity.
"One must never let slip the honor of attending His Grace the Duke at close hand."
Srudal accepted my request without hesitation. With him, the escort was complete.
...Or so I thought.
"Squeeeal!"
The moment I returned to the castle after my meeting with Srudal, some enormous creature slammed into me and knocked me flat.
"Oof... wh-what is this?"
A giant lizard, better than three meters long from snout to tail, had climbed on top of me and was slobbering all over my cheek.
"Ruby?"
Having eaten two whole Scarlet Blazes and swelled in every direction, the creature had acquired the makings of a proper earth dragon. The trouble was that its conduct remained exactly what it had been in its baby-lizard days.
"Whoa, hold still, Ruby!"
Ruby was so clingy I could not right myself. I ended up trudging down the corridor with the thing draped over my back, and somewhere along the way it struck me that this would not do. I would snap in half long before I ever starved. The creature had far more growing ahead of it than behind, and I could not keep hauling it around like this.
"This is a mess of your own making."
"Squeak?"
I laid a hand on Ruby's forehead and chanted a long mantra. Applying transformation arts to another living creature was no simple matter, and against a being with qi as potent as Ruby's, the difficulty climbed exponentially. But because Ruby accepted my Daoist arts without the slightest resistance, I was able to complete a technique of considerable difficulty.
Body-Shrinking Art.
With a pop, Ruby shrank to the size of my palm, hardly any bigger than the little wiggler it had once been in the hearth.
"Squeak? Squeee?"
Ruby, seemingly unable to believe its own size, spun in circles chirping.
"Stay in that form for a while. You're too big to bring along otherwise."
Thankfully, Ruby behaved as though it understood. It slithered up onto my shoulder and wound itself around my neck like a scarf. While I was at it, I tied its tail into a neat knot, hoping the people of the capital would take it for fashion.
Over the ten days of recovery, Father tidied away the chaos in the castle city. The mercenaries who had run rampant scattered like sand, and the Rebenshade Trading Company, which had loosed those mercenaries on the market to bleed it dry, saw its power shrink dramatically.
Most of the refugees who had camped outside the outer walls went home as well, aided by large-scale funding. The money had been raised by selling monster materials harvested on the northern front. Father's knights had hauled back mountains of them, high-grade mana sources the Adventurers' Guild would never have handled.
When the recovery period ended, the delegation finally departed for the capital. It was a long journey, a full month at horseback pace. The highway ran straight and true, so there was little fear of losing the way. All we had to do was follow the road that led to the capital...
"Take this road."
Father issued a strange order, pointing to a side road while the highway stretched straight on.
"My lord."
Talon drew his horse close and murmured.
"The capital lies south. This road leads to the Legdar Marquisate."
"I know."
"...Pardon?"
"It isn't as though this road can't take us to the capital."
"It is a detour, so the schedule will slip..."
When Father glared at him, Talon smoothly changed his tune.
"...There's no harm in it, I suppose. I failed to read your intent."
After that curious exchange, the delegation turned toward the Legdar Marquisate.
Crossing the duchy's border for the first time in my life brought a rush of unfamiliar feeling. Beyond my father's lands, no otherworldly panorama unfolded. People lived here too, same as anywhere. The colors differed, though. Perhaps because we had come further south, the trees and grass wore warmer shades.
We were well along the road to the Legdar Marquisate when one of the Steel Guard sidled up to Thalia.
"Thalia. Let's talk."
"State your business, and make it brief, Persi."
This Persi appeared to be a comrade from Thalia's days in the Steel Guard.
"How is it under Lord Iden? Bearable at all?"
Persi kept sneaking glances our way. He apparently believed I could not hear them. The two were talking from a fair distance off, but a Daoist is a creature with remarkably sharp ears.
"It's fine."
"'Fine'? That's all?"
"Why do you keep prying? It's none of your concern."
"I'm not prying... I'm allowed to wonder, aren't I? As someone who remembers what you used to be."
What I used to be. Did she mean the Steel Guard days?
"Back then you were like a demon of vengeance. Don't you remember storming into the vice-commander's office, demanding to be sent to Stormrock Fortress that very day to avenge your family?"
"So?"
"That's not the point. It's just strange. The woman who once raged about slaughtering demons has spent ten years now hunkered down under some third young master, trailing that dim-witted oaf, Bottle? Vittel? How could I not wonder how it's going?"
"Mind your tongue. Sir Vitten is not your friend."
Thalia said, frostily.
"Sorry. That was careless of me."
"Return to your post. You're leaving a gap in the escort as we speak."
Their exchange left a heavy question hanging over me. Thalia had lost her entire family to the demons. I knew a ferocious hatred of demonkind smoldered in her heart. The day Caroi arrived to take up the sword instructor's post, her churning fury had nearly won, and she had almost drawn her blade. And that had been five years ago already... How, then, could she bear to serve under me?
"Haha, is that truly so?"
"Indeed. Is it not remarkable?"
Up ahead, lively voices drifted back to us. It was Father and Srudal. Srudal had been walking at the head of the column, matching the pace of Father's horse, and by some wonder the two conversed with ease.
"And how often does Your Grace visit the capital?"
"At best, once every two or three years. There is nothing to gain from going too often, but leaving it untended for too long is its own problem."
"Does something weigh on Your Grace?"
"The political animals of the central court. They don't wish me too strong, yet they can't abide me too weak either. Keeping time with their tune is wearying work."
It seemed the purpose of this journey was not merely to report to His Majesty the Emperor. If, as Father said, the central nobles wished to test the Esterji Duchy itself, then it was no affair of a bystander like me. I spent the whole ride in the saddle thinking about what might unfold in the capital, and what I had to see done there.
After three full days of travel we reached the marquis's direct domain. The castle city of Marquis Legdar was not as large as Esterji City, but it was a respectable metropolis all the same, home to tens of thousands.
The journey itself had been perfectly pleasant. Who would dare lay hands on a party boasting six Master-rank Awakened and one Grand Master? And of course, I could hardly leave out our adorable magma dragon. Since Ruby was miniaturized anyway, I had brought it along in my coat pocket. All the creature did was shuttle between my pocket and my shoulder, but I judged that sufficient service for sentry duty.
"I never thought I'd set foot here again."
Father said, looking up at the lofty walls.
"Are you well acquainted with the Marquis?"
"A wicked creature. A man best not known at all."
Then why seek out a man not worth knowing? The question climbed to the tip of my tongue.
"This is no place to linger. We depart again tomorrow."
We crossed the moat and made straight for the marquis's manor, which looked to be the ducal residence scaled down a grade.
"Drek! You coming to call on me first? The sun must be rising in the west!"
Marquis Legdar stood waiting before his manor with his household. A man in his prime with graying hair, he cut an imposing figure, his burly frame a match for Father's. His right sleeve hung empty. In a world where divine magic could reattach even a severed limb, a one-armed noble was a rare sight indeed.
"I merely took a wrong turn."
"Can you no longer read a road sign? And here I always said you ought not to hire illiterates for your men."
"If you'd rather not watch unlettered men lose their tempers, you'll want to show proper hospitality."
Legdar roared with laughter.
"Then quit standing about and come inside. I'll set you a generous table."
He used no honorifics even with a Duke, and Father seemed not to mind in the least.
We followed the marquis into the manor. Long tables stood about the hall, and while the servants readied the feast, we found seats suited to our stations.
"By the way..."
Legdar's gaze came to rest on me, seated at Father's side.
"What's that snowflake beside you?"
"Can't you tell? My son."
I bowed to Legdar.
"Iden Esterji. The honor is mine."
"How old are you?"
"Twelve, my lord."
"Now that I look, you're the very image of Ophilia. A mercy you didn't take after your father."
He seemed to know my mother well. That alone stirred my curiosity about him.
"And this is Silva, my eldest. Two years your senior. I trust you two will become good friends."
"Silva Legdar. A pleasure to meet you."
The boy beside the marquis greeted me. He took after his father no more than I took after mine. He was a boy of few words, and he did not readily meet anyone's eyes.
Food soon began to arrive. Father and the marquis put away meat and wine without pause, their talk flowing ceaselessly, most of it circling battles fought long ago. They had once stood shoulder to shoulder against the demons, it seemed, and the arm the marquis had lost likely dated from those days.
Little by little their conversation moved from past to present, and at some point Legdar, well into his cups, declared with swelling pride:
"Not that I say it because he's my son, but our Silva is a truly remarkable lad."
"Father, please...!"
Silva said, looking pained. Legdar laid a hand on his son's shoulder and laughed heartily.
"You may not know it, but when a child is too brilliant, a parent comes to feel a certain dread. I feel it often. I'm never confident I can sustain such genius in this boy."
Father watched him with arms folded, as if to say, go on then, talk. Sitting beside them, I was beginning to feel distinctly uneasy.
"You see that?"
Legdar tipped his chin toward the wall across the hall, where a trophy fashioned from some enormous beast's skull was mounted.
"A Rock Beetle. Grade-4 monster. He took it at fourteen. Imagine my shock when he came home and told me he'd hunted the thing."
"Merely a Rock Beetle."
Father chuckled, and Legdar's face darkened.
"...What did you say?"
Father's hand settled on my shoulder.
"Our Iden here,"
he said, in a swaggering tone I had never once heard from him,
"took down a flame giant at twelve."
That was when I understood why Father had insisted on the detour.