The Fire Globe
Suetleug stared at Johan in astonishment as well. Of course, he had known for some time that Johan thought quite differently from your average knight.
And yet — to tell the man who had committed that atrocity that he was willing to overlook something he had never actually witnessed?
"Pardon...?"
"It is not my place to say anything. I will not carry this secret elsewhere, so my lord need not torment himself over it."
"N-no, I..."
The lord, utterly flustered, could only stare at Johan in turn.
Are you actually my knight?
Shouldn't the proper response here be something along the lines of 'You have violated the honorable customs — you are a cursed man!' or 'I shall spread this truth far and wide! I can no longer remain under this cursed roof!'?
"Is... is that truly what you mean?"
"There is blood-feud between you and them. How could I, of all people, presume to judge? Judgment belongs to the gods alone — not to a knight such as myself."
The gods were always a convenient excuse. Suetleug could see perfectly well that Johan was improvising, but he saw no reason to point it out.
"The undead were dealt with by myself and the sage. You need trouble yourself over them no longer. From this day forward, simply live a life you need not be ashamed of before the gods."
Johan cut the matter off cleanly and rose to his feet.
There was no reason for him to berate the man — 'And you call yourself a noble after that, you despicable dwarf?!' — and besides, the dead man had been an imperial knight in the first place.
And honestly speaking...
If you were received as a guest and shown hospitality, you ought to have had the sense to know better. Singing the Emperor's praises in front of a noble who harbored a grudge against him — frankly, wasn't that asking to be killed?
In Johan's observation, the people of this world were sometimes hopelessly oblivious. The nobles especially so.
A difference in the values they carried!
No doubt it happened because they believed such words were safe to say — but the moment they ran into a thoroughly unhinged dwarf like this one, they got exactly what was coming to them.
In any case, rather than blame the lord over something that didn't stir a flicker of feeling in him either way, Johan preferred to bank a little goodwill. Whether he would ever see repayment was another question entirely...
"Forgive me for interrupting such a stirring exchange, but we cannot simply walk away."
"?"
Suetleug cleared his throat and addressed the lord directly.
"That the knight here forgave your conduct and left the matter to the gods was a moving thing to witness. However — it is not yet finished. My lord. There is a place where their corpses were buried. You will guide us to it."
"...!"
As they walked after the slave attending the lord, Johan put a question to Suetleug.
"Why the corpses?"
"If they rose as undead, the grudge must have been no ordinary one. And consider — the lord never even saw to the bodies properly. Never gave them a decent burial."
Suetleug's guess proved correct. The corpses had been buried beneath a neglected storeroom — hacked apart so thoroughly that it was impossible to tell one from another.
Johan dug into the earth himself, drew the bodies out, and laid them in a row. Suetleug asked cautiously.
"You needn't use slaves for this, surely?"
"Should I not do such work with my own hands?"
"You should not. That is rather the point of having slaves."
Be that as it may, knights willing to do such work personally were rare indeed.
Suetleug was grateful for one thing at least: the knight before him was one you could actually talk to. If he hadn't been, this would have been several times more tedious.
He'd have raised a storm insisting we summon a priest first...
Suetleug sprinkled blessed water and recited the prayer. Johan caught the words and recited them back in turn. Suetleug had some learning in theology, and Johan had originally trained at a priest's side in the first place.
"That should do it."
"May we bury them now?"
"Not yet. Before that, empty out their belongings. Bury them with their effects and things can grow complicated later. This is meant to ease the dead on their way, so don't take offense at..."
"Pardon?"
Johan was already rifling through the corpses' effects. Suetleug gave a slow nod.
"Search away, then."
There was no famed blade like Seal Retriever, won from Sir Karamap. What they did find was the family signet ring belonging to Lord Gairendel.
Not that this looks particularly useful.
Carrying it invited needless misunderstanding, yet it was too valuable to simply throw away — a delicate sort of thing. Johan resolved to return it to the family if the chance ever arose. If not, so be it.
"And this... is an imperial writ of levy."
"Permission to raise troops from the cities? He must have been in a hurry."
The Emperor maintained his own standing forces, but the troops his vassals brought in person mattered just as much.
The great lords could court renowned mercenary captains by name, but descend a few rungs and the men you found worried more about their next meal than about selling their swords.
Which meant someone had to go out and drum them up personally.
Carrying a writ like this from village to village and city to city, tempting mercenaries and young men into the ranks — that was the work. With the Emperor's seal affixed, a smooth tongue could gather a decent handful for loose coin.
"...And why are you keeping that?"
"Ah — it bears the Emperor's own seal. How could I throw it away? That would be disloyal."
"......"
Suetleug nearly struck him before stopping himself.
You killed Karamap too, and you—
The rest of the baggage held nothing of note.
Then, from the dead knight's breast pocket, Johan pulled out a sphere the size of a palm, made of blue glass. It was rather fine workmanship, and Johan found himself puzzled.
"Where was that?!"
"In this man's breast pocket...?"
"On him? That shouldn't be possible."
Suetleug snatched the glass sphere away as if confiscating it, then examined it once more.
"This is something only a mage can use. Do you happen to know its name?"
"I don't even know what it does. Looks like a ball made of glass."
"This is a Fire Globe."
A Fire Globe — literally, a cup that held fire. Johan found the name strangely mismatched.
"There's no fire in it, and it's no cup either...?"
"You kindle a flame inside the cup and seal it there. Hence the name. It's a relic of the mages of the Ancient Empire — and to find one here, of all places..."
"Is it expensive?"
"Not as expensive as your sword, no — but there are nobles who prize them. Ancient Empire craftsmanship, after all."
Suetleug gazed at the Fire Globe as though it were a marvel no matter how many times he looked.
"How does one get the fire in?"
"By ordinary means, it's impossible. You have to ignite a flame within a sealed sphere — which is to say, only through magic. That's why I told you it's a mage's tool."
"Mages are... rather insufferable people, aren't they."
"There's something to that."
Even in so simple an object, he could feel the mages' pride. The pride of those who alone held the mysteries and the secrets.
"Shall we try lighting it?"
"I cannot."
"Pardon?"
"I have no command over fire... and even if I did, this is not something to ignite carelessly. A Fire Globe is made as a pair. When one cup receives the flame, the other lights as well."
Johan grasped the object's value at once. It was, in effect, a small and convenient beacon. And a knight had been carrying a magical tool this powerful.
"Could it be a grant from the Emperor himself?"
"I doubt it. My guess... is that a mage in the Emperor's circle gave it to him."
"?"
"Among mages with power, some make use of knights. A tool for keeping in touch — that's what it would be."
"Hmm..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing at all. In that case, this object..."
Johan's face went rigid. Whatever mage stood near the Emperor, proximity to the throne meant formidable skill.
"Can this thing be tracked?"
"Hard to say. I've never used one... though perhaps one might follow it by the difference in the flame's light as the distance grows or shrinks."
"Then this hardly seems the moment for leisurely conversation."
"Don't fret. Whoever gave this away, if they wanted it back they would have to tear the whole countryside apart searching. And the Emperor's army hasn't come anywhere near this region. Great a mage as they may be, they'll be stewing in their own frustration."
Suetleug grinned and began winding the Fire Globe in purple cloth embroidered with arcane patterns.
"Well — whoever they are, good for us. Who'd have thought we'd fish something like this out of a grave."
"Didn't you say it was useless to you, Sir Suetleug?"
"I'll hand it to another mage who can use it and be well received for it. Play this right, and I can repay everything I owe you in one stroke."
"...?"
Johan thought to himself.
Is it wise to trade away an object with such a suspicious underside to it? Of course, it benefits me, but...
What Johan did not know was that among mages, deceiving one another about the truth was practically daily bread. To trick a counterpart without ever telling a lie — that, too, was counted a talent.
"What were you two doing since before dawn? I can't imagine the lord asked for a sparring match..."
Marco asked, wearing an expression of pure curiosity. Apparently, it seemed to him that Johan and Suetleug had spent the small hours making noise at the lord over one thing or another.
"He was asking whether Stephan might be married off to a relative of his."
"Ah — that's why you saw him off so courteously."
Marco nodded in understanding. Stephan, who had been listening alongside, jolted and cried out.
"I — I have no intention of marrying a dwarf?"
"Whyever not? Granted, the Balpa family is a lesser house than the Abner family, but you are not the firstborn either, Sir Stephan. Is this not a fine opportunity?"
Marco genuinely could not understand. Had it been him, he would have accepted the lord's proposal on the spot.
A baseborn son with nothing to his name — if the chance came to wed into a legitimate noble house, he would seize it without a second thought. Dwarf, centaur, orc, it made no difference; wasn't the land what mattered?
Besides, the dwarves were famous for the solidarity with which their clans bound themselves to one another and lent aid. Even a modest house could, through them, reach threads that connected to other houses.
"But he's a dwarf!"
"Yes? I'm aware he's a dwarf. You mentioned it."
"......"
Stephan decided that saying anything more would only make himself look like the fool, and shut his mouth.
Johan recalled what the lord had given him before their departure.
"Sir Johan. Please accept this."
It was a knot worked from a strand of trimmed beard.
"Present this knot and speak the name of House Balpa, and no dwarf will treat you with discourtesy."
He had no idea how effective the thing would truly be, but the lord's sincerity came through all the same. The back-and-forth with the Death Knight alongside Suetleug in the dead of night had been worth something after all.
"We should get moving. There is a friend I must meet in the city of Baijen."
Between the western and southern reaches of the Empire lay a vast forest — the one most people simply called the Black Forest.
Stuffed with every manner of danger and mystery, it was a place no one bothered to force a crossing through; travelers doubled north or south around it instead.
Johan had cut straight through it to shake off his pursuers...
and the city on the southern detour route was Baijen. A city straddling a river, where people converged from all directions.
"A friend — a noble, you mean?"
"I have no noble friends. They wouldn't call me one either."
"How sad. Well, I consider you a friend, Sir Suetleug."
"Th — thank you... but the friend I meant is a mage."
"!"
That surprised Johan. Then again, a man like Suetleug knowing other mages was hardly astonishing.
"With the Fire Globe and all the other things we've picked up to trade, I'll have to seek him out. He may be holding something useful."
"Now that sounds promising."
"Don't raise your hopes too high. The treasures mages hoard tend to be mostly useless to anyone else."
But even without Johan's hoping, others were doing the hoping for him. For travelers worn down by the open fields, passing through a city was always something to look forward to. And the mercenaries here had purses to match.
"Marco?"
"Yes."
"Once we enter the city, keep watch so they don't get up to anything foolish."
"Understood."
Reining in and managing the mercenaries' discipline was one of a knight's duties. Marco steeled himself to stand guard over them all so that not one would step out of line while they lodged in the city.
"And Stephan."
"Yes?"
"Keep watch so that one doesn't get up to anything foolish. The mercenaries aren't idiots; they'll manage themselves."
"...Ah. Yes!"
Marco was caught off guard, but he nodded.
"There's no need to worry, anyway. He won't have the time to misbehave."
"?"
"We'll be entering under the banners of House Abner and House Jarpen. Where would he find the time to go carousing elsewhere? The city's nobles will be lining up to pay their respects."