The Spreading Fame (1)
-Knock, knock, knock.
The sound of knocking echoed through the office.
“Your Majesty. It is Gendry.”
“Enter.”
Rex Drago watched as the secretary opened the door and stepped inside.
“What is it?”
Rex asked Gendry, his sharp, dragon-kin eyes glinting.
Secretary Gendry held up the stacks of documents filling both his hands.
“...Requests for aid. The carrier pigeons are arriving day after day.”
Rex rubbed his temples, his voice weary. He swept back his hair, noting the increase in gray strands.
“...Where is it from this time?”
Gendry approached Rex’s desk and slowly set the documents down. He began to list the noble families requesting aid one by one.
“...This time, it is the Tass family, the Otoah family, and the Selenbryen family.”
“Didn’t the Tass family just send troops recently?”
“They say monsters have appeared again.”
“...How many leaders are there?”
“They say there is one—”
-BANG!
Rex slammed his fist onto the desk and shouted.
“—If it’s just one, they can subdue it themselves!”
“...”
Silence flowed through the office. Rex calmed his anger and spoke.
“...These Lizardmen bastards, how much do they look down on the royal family... Send a warning to the Tass family. Tell them not to request aid for such trivial matters.”
“...As you wish.”
Rex picked up the letter from the Tass family and blew a stream of fire from his mouth, burning it to ashes. It seemed to soothe his frustration, if only slightly.
“...What’s next?”
“Otoah is in quite a desperate situation. They have been commissioning mercenary corps left and right, but... it seems no one is accepting. They don’t seem to have the means to provide sufficient compensation.”
“Otoah. I can’t quite recall which family that was...”
“They are a Gnome family living by the Srad River in the south.”
“Ah, that place. So, what is the scale of the monsters?”
“They say two leaders are roaming near the territory. Even that is hard to confirm, so it’s not certain.”
Rex nodded slowly. If there were two, it was worth helping. Even if they weren’t a particularly prestigious noble family, Rex felt the weight of the decision.
Rex asked about the final family.
“And the last one, Selenbryen?”
Selenbryen was a name that could cause quite a stir. Among the families requesting aid today, they boasted the longest history.
“It is the most serious. The entire territory is surrounded by monsters. The nearby trade routes have also become monster habitats... they are essentially waiting for death.”
Rex let out a long sigh. He had never held a high opinion of elves to begin with. Especially the Selenbryen family.
As a long-lived race, they were stubborn and looked down on other races with shorter lifespans. At the same time, they cherished their ancient customs like treasure. Rex had always looked down on such elves.
After all, there was no group that made more foolish choices than those who thought themselves wise.
“...Foolish elf bastards. I advised them so many times to leave that place.”
“...I suppose they cannot abandon the World Tree.”
The King snorted and leaned back in his chair.
“World Tree, my foot. It’s just a big tree they’ve imbued with meaning. It’s laughable that people so obsessed with their own lives cling to that tree. If they had just abandoned that place, they wouldn’t be asking us for aid right now.”
The secretary did not join in the King’s sharp mockery. He knew that letting the King vent his anger was the better choice.
“...So, what do you intend to do?”
When Gendry asked the sighing King, Rex scratched his head and replied.
“...Abandon Selenbryen. Help Otoah.”
“If we leave Selenbryen alone, they might be wiped out.”
“Even if we save them, it’s pointless. They won’t leave that battlefield because they want to protect the World Tree, so what can we do? They’ll just struggle with the same problem again. I don’t want to waste resources. We help Otoah.”
“Understood.”
If one were to consider which family could exert more influence, it would be Selenbryen, but... Rex did not want to sacrifice his own dragon-kin soldiers for the sake of elves.
“Besides, even if we help those elves, they won’t feel any gratitude. Since they’re so wise, let them solve it themselves.”
“...”
“Package the excuse for the Selenbryen family well. Make sure to include that we don’t have the capacity. Tell them we already have a family we’ve committed to helping.”
“Of course.”
Once the choice was made, Rex let out another heavy sigh. He had been rethinking lately whether all these choices were correct.
He had started the aid thinking the war with the Demon King and the demons would end quickly, but as the war dragged on, the burden on the Drago family was increasing exponentially.
Perhaps it would have been right to draw a line from the beginning and only save allied families.
But the path he had walked was already too long to turn back. He had to continue the aid until the war ended.
It was, after all, a fight against the demons.
Even if he didn’t want to, this kind of support was essential if the royal family’s power was to be strong when the war ended.
...To protect his own kingdom, such support was perhaps a necessity.
If the demons won, it would be the King, Rex, who would lose his head.
“...I want to rest. You may go.”
At Rex’s words, Gendry turned to leave. Suddenly, one family name crossed Rex’s mind.
“Ah, Gendry?”
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“...What happened to that family?”
“Which family are you referring to...”
“The one we couldn’t help before... Blackwood.”
The Blackwoods had once requested aid, but Rex had rejected the proposal. It was expected that they would have to face more than three leaders, which was a burden even for Rex.
Subjugation was possible, but distributing that strength to other families would yield greater benefits.
However, it had secretly been weighing on his mind. The Blackwoods were a family that had existed since the founding of the nation.
“They are safe,” Gendry replied.
“...Is that so?”
Rex doubted his ears. It was a situation where they shouldn’t have been safe. The very fact that the wolf-kin had requested aid in the first place showed the severity of the situation.
“How are they safe?”
“It seems a mercenary corps finally accepted the commission. And they resolved it.”
“Hmph... And the reward? What could the Blackwoods possibly offer a mercenary corps...”
“The youngest daughter of the Blackwoods was sold off to a human mercenary.”
Rex stroked his chin.
“...So that’s how it turned out.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s see, if it’s the youngest daughter of the Blackwood family... that would be the child who took the life of the Blackwood matriarch upon her birth.”
“Neir Blackwood.”
“It was a profitable deal for the Blackwoods, then. They traded the youngest daughter they hated for the fate of avoiding annihilation. Still... it’s pitiful. An interspecies marriage, sold to a human... that’s not a reality a young lady would find easy to accept.”
After ruminating on that fact for a moment, Rex chuckled.
“...But the one running that mercenary corps is quite sharp.”
“Indeed.”
Rex had been planning to deal with the exponentially increasing number of mercenary corps once the war ended. But the mercenary corps that had taken the Blackwood daughter would likely avoid that wrath.
Rex thought, as always, that humans were an interesting race. They were cruel, uncivilized, licentious, and knew nothing of honor, yet occasionally, such unique talents appeared one by one. Pearls in the mud.
Of course, he couldn’t be certain that the leader of that mercenary corps was such a person, but it was clear he was no ordinary man.
“Right. You may go.”
Rex, having heard enough, dismissed Gendry again. But perhaps reminded by the conversation, Gendry didn’t leave immediately.
“...Your Majesty?”
“...?”
“...I heard a strange rumor regarding that mercenary corps just now.”
“Speak.”
“It’s about the husband of Neir Blackwood, the vice-captain of that mercenary corps.”
Rex frowned. He scratched the horn on his head and asked.
“Wait, the vice-captain is the husband? Not the captain?”
“Yes.”
“Why on earth... Anyway. Continue.”
“Yes. It’s about that vice-captain... there is talk that his subjugation record is nearing 200.”
“..........”
Rex froze for a moment, observing Gendry’s expression. He wondered if he was being played.
But Gendry did not smile, maintaining a stiff expression.
“...”
“...”
Silence lingered in the office for a while. Rex finally spoke.
“...That’s just human talk. I don’t believe it.”
“...”
“Anyone can inflate their records. Nearing 200, ha. Isn’t that a higher subjugation record than even the Hero?”
If this were the truth, it would be a figure that would surprise countless knights, nobles, soldiers, and heroes of many families.
“Gale is also there, though.”
“Ah. Gale is there. Regardless, it makes no sense for such a prodigy to appear so suddenly.”
“That may be so.”
“Just go, then.”
“Understood.”
Gendry turned to leave. Rex closed his eyes and felt irritated. He couldn’t control his own shifting emotions.
“Ha...”
“...Your Majesty?”
“...So, what is his name?”
No matter how much it was a rumor, it was a subjugation record that was hard to ignore.
“Excuse me?”
“That human vice-captain. What is his name? No, tell me the name of the mercenary corps first.”
Gendry replied to Rex’s whim with a straight face.
“It is the Red Flame Mercenary Corps. The captain is Adam, and the vice-captain’s name is Berg.”
“...I see. Go.”
Gendry bowed and turned to leave for the last time. As he closed the door, Rex sank into deep thought.
A subjugation record nearing 200. Rex didn’t believe it, but the few pieces of evidence he saw made him doubt himself.
They saved the Blackwoods from the leaders. It was a mercenary corps with a captain who had his wits about him. Would a vice-captain in such a place use such ugly lies to inflate his own value?
Perhaps it was more correct to believe that everything was the truth?
It was possible that even the 200-subjugation record was a lie aimed at something. For example, delivering a rumor to the royal family like this.
Rex sighed, muttering to himself as he filed the newly acquired information away.
“...This is exhausting.”