Petal Divination
"It's not been that long... just a little while. Sir Gustav, Knight Commander."
"Good evening, Vice Warden Suhwa Romanov."
"Lord Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek wishes to see me?"
"Yes. If I may be so bold, he instructed me to bring you at once."
Right now? He shot Gustav a look, half-expecting a joke, but the knight's wrinkled face didn't twitch. It seemed he meant it.
"Surely... you're not including me in that as well?"
"Lord Byeon mentioned only you, Vice Warden Suhwa Romanov. Warden Jepeto, please don't worry."
Gustav replied with an understanding expression, as if he were one of the few who'd witnessed the first meeting between Jepeto and Lord Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek. Jepeto mounted his horse with the look of a man who'd just swallowed a fishbone lodged in his throat.
"Heh, looks like the popular one doesn't get a moment's rest. Helena and I will head back to the lodgings first—don't worry about us!"
At the mention that only Suhwa had been summoned, Helena had already swung onto her horse.
"I might have followed Vice Warden Suhwa under normal circumstances... but Warden Jepeto's getting on in years, and nightfall isn't kind to old eyes. You understand, don't you?"
"Who're you calling night-blind?"
They traded pointless banter, but their horsemanship remained flawless. Gustav paid them no mind, his gaze fixed solely on Suhwa.
"I've prepared a carriage."
It was the motion of a man who hadn't even considered refusal. Not confidence, exactly—what was the word? The face of someone stating the obvious, like warning that fire burns if you get too close.
Thus, Gustav stared at Suhwa with incomprehension as he dawdled instead of boarding. "......?"
Suhwa brushed past the knight holding the carriage door and mounted his own horse beside Helena.
One pair of eyes filled with bafflement. Another pair curious about his intent. And a third pair half-lidded in amusement, all fixed on him.
"I know it's rude to Knight Commander Gustav, but I must decline this invitation."
"...I used the word 'invitation,' but I wasn't truly asking your preference."
What position was the Lord of Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek? A hereditary title granting supreme administrative, military, and judicial power over his domain—a king in all but name. And this was the heart of Manrmursk itself.
To refuse such a lord's 'invitation' here? No one would call it wise, even on pain of death.
"I understand perfectly. However!"
"However?"
"However, I drank a bit too much tonight. If I met Lord Byeon Gyeongbaek in this state, I might commit some unintended blunder."
It was a sophistry. Suhwa knew it, and Gustav surely did too. Still, the knight couldn't back down easily and glanced at Helena.
"You did drink quite a bit tonight."
No need to even ask Jepeto. The aging knight commander shut the carriage door with a silent sigh.
"I'll return at first light tomorrow."
"Ah... well, you see, I plan to have another drink in the morning too."
A polite but unmistakable refusal. Gustav now stood in for Lord Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek. A sudden nighttime summons could be declined with leeway, but to say not to come tomorrow either? It crossed the line by miles.
"Drinking from early morning isn't good for your health."
"Lucky for me, I'm still young."
Gustav's gaze had turned icy, stinging like a slap. Suhwa's target was the lord, not the knight commander. Time to open a path.
"Please convey my apologies to Lord Byeon. And ask if he'd care to join me for that morning drink tomorrow."
"...That's what he said."
"In person? He wants me to go myself? Ha!"
A single carriage cleaved through the snowy road with ferocious speed.
"He didn't say to come in person. Merely that..."
"He's not coming, so that means I should go. What's the difference?!"
They said anger beyond a certain point doesn't show on the face? Lord Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek's voice sounded like he was off to kill someone, yet his expression remained impassive.
"There was the formal invitation route."
"That would've just been empty words anyway. Invitation my ass."
"It would've been better than you going in person just to check what empty words Vice Warden Suhwa might say."
"Hrrm..."
Lord Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek averted his gaze with a light cough. As Gustav said, heading to Suhwa now was a gamble, nothing more or less.
How was a prison official supposed to handle the mercenaries the emperor and Duke Sachsen had dumped on them like trash? He hadn't even promised to resolve it directly. Just sounded out how the lord viewed the emperor's inspection tour.
An unwanted guest.
It was bait tossed because he knew the dynamics between the emperor and elector counts checking each other. Unappetizing bait, but he had no choice but to bite.
"Gotta show my face at Palatium again anyway, so I'm stopping by while I'm at it. No other reason."
"I said nothing of the sort."
"Who asked ya?"
He knew Gustav wasn't at fault, but the knight grated anyway. Should've insisted on riding horses separately from the start.
"We're almost there!"
The coachman's timely shout swept away the awkwardness.
As if proclaiming with his whole body, I'm not here because I wanted to see you— the coachman says we've arrived, so I'll grace you with my presence, the lord slowly turned toward the window.
The street's end, where lodgings for travelers clustered. A building with a large, beautiful fried-egg sign drew nearer.
"A man's fueled by food, after all. Never get tired of this place no matter how many times. Right?"
"The taste is good, if they didn't serve the rice in such huge bowls."
"That's the best part! Gwahaha!"
Jepeto emerged with a supremely satisfied look, Helena following. She looked content too, if not quite as much. Suhwa's face was ambiguous by comparison.
"Was breakfast not to your liking, Vice Warden?"
"Pardon? Oh, no. It was fine. Yes..."
Not satisfied or dissatisfied—more like his soul had wandered off. Body here, mind elsewhere. Or perhaps waiting for something.
"If you're that anxious, why not go when he called last night?"
"Anxious? Who, me? Heh..."
His words denied it, but his actions betrayed him. From poking at the breakfast fried egg with chopsticks to his current fidgeting.
Instead of waiting for a better picture, what if he'd just gone yesterday?
What if Lord Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek had no intention of biting Suhwa's bait? What if he'd accepted the emperor and Duke Sachsen's humiliating demand, swallowing an absurd loss?
No. He couldn't. If the info from the 'pigeon' last night was accurate, the lord would never accept it. No elector count would.
Three thousand disarmed mercenaries and mages. The concrete burden the emperor and Duke Sachsen demanded he shoulder.
If they were conscripts, he might've grudgingly absorbed them back into civilian life. But these were professionals—mercenaries and mages honed solely to kill on war's stage. Tools for destruction, not creation. Three thousand literal surplus humans dumped into the domain.
Manrmursk, on the border, already maintained a larger standing army than most nobles. No spare capacity for three thousand more.
"Fine weather today—feels like someone's bound to visit."
"Young buck's already losing it. Tsk tsk."
Before departing for Palatium again, Jepeto lit his pipe. Helena approached from behind, a small flower in her hand for some reason.
She walked straight to Suhwa and extended it without hesitation.
"You look like you could use this."
"I'm not the sentimental type, but I'm not cold-blooded enough to refuse a gift."
Up close, it was less a flower and more rabbit's foot grass, laden with leaves. Puzzled by the meaning, he stared until Helena stifled a laugh.
"Girls waiting for their prince on a white horse used to pluck leaves to divine if he'd come..."
"Even you, Chief Clerk?"
As if to say don't take it seriously, she shrugged lightly. He considered tossing it by the road but felt wrong discarding it in front of her, so he plucked a few innocent leaves.
Ah, but shouldn't he have decided which side to start from first? Assign 'he comes' or 'he doesn't' to the first leaf? Now it was just venting on rabbit grass.
Yet strangely, the mindless repetition distracted him, easing his mood a bit.
Yeah. Don't just think worst-case. It's only been one night.
Gustav would've relayed the message by now. Now it was a battle of patience.
Politics and fishing were sports for those with heavy asses, weren't they?
"Huh?"
"My, you're good at it. Want more?"
His hands had moved mechanically; only the stem remained. Helena watched his dumbfounded chuckle with a subtly pleased blank expression.
"No need. Thanks to you, I'm calmer now."
His mind lighter, he mounted up—but the grass slipped. Tempted to let it fall and be done, something stopped him. He dismounted.
Neigh! Screech—
At that moment, a carriage halted before Suhwa's inn. The door opened, revealing a familiar face.
"Heard you wanted a morning drink, so I came. You wouldn't refuse when I've come in person, right?"
Suhwa stared at Lord Manrmursk Byeon Gyeongbaek, a single leaf remaining on the rabbit grass in his hand.