The Land Erased from History
Ed turned on his heel the moment he heard my answer.
And the instant he stepped out of the room, the furball whispered to me.
"Yes?"
"The aide?"
"……."
Well, well.
He noticed Ed has beastfolk blood, apparently. Beast sniffing out beast, was it? Well, he does love sniffing around.
I tapped the furball on the bridge of his nose and smiled. "You're right. He's beastfolk. Snake-type, I think, but he's the real power behind the Grand Duke's household, so we'd best stay on his good side."
"Oh?"
So he really was a wolf? I'd assumed fox or snake, but a genuine wolf.
I spoke to the furball once more. "No causing trouble while I'm gone."
"And get along nicely with that wolf."
"Why?"
"Technically he's not a dog, he's a person. He just has a very, very little bit of wolf blood, that's all."
"There, there. I'll put in a good word for you."
"What if I told you he'd let you eat meat—every meal, as much as you want?"
At the word meat, the furball went perfectly docile.
Just as I thought. This little creature takes after me.
The next day — a bleak dawn with no sunrise in sight, not even the moon willing to emerge from behind the clouds.
Tap, tap. Kadrian knocked twice on the gem of my dog-collar necklace and said, "Your second outing, butler."
"Yes, Your Highness. I shall serve you just as comfortably this time as well."
Kadrian gave a faint smile as he climbed into the carriage.
Before boarding myself, I glanced back over my shoulder — and met eyes with the furball.
"……."
I'll be good and cause no trouble, okay?!
Snug in Ed's arms, the furball gazed at me with the most pitiful eyes imaginable.
"Take good care of the furball — I mean, Byeol-i, please," I told Ed.
"Rest assured. He shall be served red meat three meals a day, along with an assortment of snacks of every variety."
The furball's ears shot straight up.
"……."
That little traitor.
I answered with a smile instead of words and boarded the carriage.
This carriage was a touch grander and larger than the one we'd taken to meet the High Priest. They only bring this one out for important business at the imperial palace, I recall.
Settling into my seat, I carefully looked around the interior. The outside alone had been dazzling enough, draped as it was in the Grand Duke family's gold-embroidered crest like a suit of armor — but inside was something else entirely.
For one thing, it was enormous. You could hardly call it a carriage; it was more like a bedroom mounted onto wheels. Ornate patterned curtains hung from every large window, the chairs were upholstered in fine russet velvet, and thanks to the quality carpet laid across the floor — by that carpet-obsessed aide, no doubt — the whole space felt luxurious and warm.
And flanking the windows on either side were small lamps reminiscent of chandeliers.
Mana-stone lamps.
Unlike ordinary lamps, these drew their light purely from the mana stored within the stone. They were convenient, too — no tedious refueling, just swap out the stone — and the brightness could even be adjusted, which is why they were supposedly all the rage among the nobility.
Typical of the Grand Duke's household.
It was a moment when the family's wealth made itself felt right through my skin.
The carriage set off slowly.
Through the window I could see the furball cradled in Ed's arms. At first he'd complained the man smelled like a dog and refused to be held — and now he was kneading his front paws against Ed's chest like a pair of cushions.
"……."
Had he already been corrupted by materialism, or was he simply that friendly?
I was still watching the Grand Duke's estate recede into the distance when a strange thought struck me.
Wait. This isn't the road to the imperial palace.
The carriage was traveling in the opposite direction from the route we'd taken to see the High Priest.
I stared out the window a moment, then turned to look at the Grand Duke. As ever, he sat with his arms crossed and his legs folded, eyes shut.
"Your Highness."
He answered without opening them. "What."
"The carriage seems to be headed in a different direction."
"……."
Only then did Kadrian open his eyes. Through eyelids rising at an achingly slow pace, sunlit violet eyes turned toward me — and for a heartbeat I was reminded of that galaxy of purple I'd once seen spread across the night sky. Deep and still, mysterious and bewitching as a mirage.
While I was momentarily lost in those eyes, the Grand Duke spoke. "We have a stop to make."
"Ah."
Just as I was about to ask where, he closed his eyes again — a clear declaration that no further questions would be entertained.
Tch.
The carriage kept rolling for a long while after that. If we'd gone straight to the imperial palace, we'd have arrived long ago, with hours to spare.
By the time I noticed, the sky beyond the window had brightened. With the sun up, the passing scenery came into sharper focus.
I whiled away the time watching the landscape, and gradually realized that far more time had passed than the trip to the palace had ever taken. Whenever hunger threatened, we stopped at a village for a proper meal and bought snacks to eat in the carriage. For all the hours of travel, I never once had the chance to go hungry.
The scenery outside changed from moment to moment, and I took it all in, popping one dried fruit after another into my mouth.
Then I felt a gaze on me, and when I turned my head, the Grand Duke and I locked eyes.
"……."
"……."
He looked from my face to the dried fruit in my hand, and back again.
I wordlessly held one out. "Would you like some?"
"……."
The Grand Duke stared at the offered fruit for a moment before speaking. "So you do eat things other than meat."
"……Then don't eat it."
I snatched my hand back.
The utter nerve of this man. Around his subordinates, he carried himself with such restraint and economy of words — but the moment it was just the two of us, that insufferable mouth of his spewed nothing but insufferable remarks.
Something about this feels familiar, though…
Oh.
It dawned on me all at once. He was like this on the battlefield, wasn't he?
I wasn't Sia now, and this was no battlefield. And yet the Grand Duke was being just as maddening — treating me exactly the way he'd once treated Sia, like the Grand Duke of the front lines.
But he did buy me food, so I'll let it slide.
Perhaps he knew that if he kept my stomach full, my temper would soften along with it.
Pursing my lips, I put another dried fruit in my mouth — sweet, tangy, and satisfyingly chewy. A true delicacy. As I chewed it thoroughly, I reached into the paper bag for the next one.
And that was when it happened.
Click.
The Grand Duke drew out his pocket watch.
That pocket watch!
With my hand still buried in the bag, I fixed my eyes on it. N-no good. I can't see it from here. From this angle, the inside of the lid was impossible to make out. Forget the lid — his large hand wrapped around the thing obscured the entire watch from view.
There's no way to check it like this.
After a brief glance at the time, the Grand Duke clicked the lid shut again and slipped the watch into the inner pocket of his jacket. In the same breath, I turned my head as though nothing had happened, fished a dried fruit out of the bag, and popped it into my mouth.
The Grand Duke pushed the curtain aside to check outside, then murmured quietly, "We're here."
We're here? My eyes went wide as I looked out the window.
In that instant, something strange and subtle washed over my whole body. No — more accurately, I had just pressed forward into a space saturated with that strange energy.
A boundary spell.
The moment we passed through it, a village that hadn't existed moments before appeared before us.
Hm?
But something was off. Fields and buildings that looked untouched by human hands for ages…
It was too orderly to be called a ruin, yet far too devoid of any trace of living people to be called a village.
When I looked up at him with questioning eyes, the Grand Duke answered.
"This is the Kentrow Fief."
The Kentrow Fief?
I searched my memory of all the books I'd read while studying the Cadea Empire — but nothing about the Kentrow Fief came to mind.
As I sat lost in thought, the Grand Duke went on.
"It likely wouldn't appear in any of the books or maps you've read, butler."
"No, my lord. I've never heard the name before."
He nodded. His gaze remained fixed on the desolate fief outside the window.
"This land… was erased from history, along with the family that once ruled it."
"……."
At his words, I turned to look out the window as well. Erased…?
Not vanished — erased?
One thing was clear from his choice of words. It was hidden deliberately.
Even in the Tenasis Empire, there had been occasional cases of families struck from the historical record. Most of them were traitors guilty of high treason.
But even then, they might blot out the family's name — never the land itself.
In such cases, the territory would have been granted to another noble, or seized by the imperial family and put to some use or other. Yet that family's affairs had been discarded so thoroughly that even their land was abandoned.
In the Cadea Empire, of all places — blessed by the World Tree, fertile and prosperous wherever one might go.
I asked cautiously, "Who was the original owner of this land?"