Chapter 33 - 3-10
Like a ghost outlined in white phosphorescence, Krisina Mcgillis sat with her knees together on a long couch in the dimness of the maids' waiting room. Beside her was the princess's maid, Elnona. The latter was a twelve-year-old with blonde hair, looking like an angel draped in light. Krisina was making clothes while teaching the angel how to sew.
It was then that one of the maids, Wilma, arrived.
Wilma was a seductive beauty with long black hair and sharply upturned corners of her eyes. She sat down beside Krisina and let out a sigh.
"Is something wrong?" Krisina asked, without looking up from Elnona's clumsy handiwork.
"I heard something strange." In Wilma's voice, the usual playful tone was missing.
Yugis Necrat—the boy who had nearly been killed by Ness Syllabus and had been punched in the face by Commander Sedias Thora—had reportedly been missing for three days.
He had been absent from the royal school's lectures for the past three days, and he was not at his boarding house. It seemed the royal army was searching for him frantically.
"Apparently, he defied the royal army."
The fellow maid gave her the detailed story. Krisina gazed at her troubled face. There were no signs that her story was a joke.
If the details Wilma spoke of were true, Yugis Necrat had used a large-scale scheme to drive Sedias Thora into a predicament.
Krisina was stunned. Her heart pounded with anxiety.
"And so..."
"It's alright. Yugis-sama is the only name mentioned. It seems your fiancé is not involved."
"Hey, Krisina. I've reached the edge."
The young blonde maid, Elnona, held up the garment she had been sewing.
Krisina spoke while showing her a sample.
"I will be the one to tell the princess. Is that alright?"
"Please do." Wilma placed her hand on her chest. "I don't know how Her Highness will react; I don't have the confidence to do it myself."
The Supreme Commander of the royal army, Sedias Thora, returns to his territory of Delroy for a period in early spring, but Count Carossa Urgil Necrat returns to his territory temporarily every year around the beginning of autumn.
It is a long journey of ten days to Carossa. This year, on the fifth day after departing the capital, he was overtaken by a fast horse from His Excellency the Prime Minister. It was a notice telling him to return. Fast horses arrive via the relay stations. Though it was only for the highways, it was the Eber man, Gilma, who had organized the relay system.
—There are fewer and fewer places to escape to in Siddim every year.
The Margrave of the Eastern Border, Necrat, felt such a sentiment.
Ordering his attendants to catch up later, the Count of Carossa hurried back to the royal capital, kicking up withered leaves as he changed horses at the stations. Urgil Necrat is known as a man of strategy now, but in his youth, he was renowned for his bravery. He could still keep up with a fast horse, even if he had declined.
Upon entering the capital, he felt eyes on him. Intuitively sensing he was being tailed, he had no choice but to enter Malfa Castle without stopping anywhere. It was early morning.
When he visited Gilma Rigardie's office, the Prime Minister was absent.
"I shall wait in the room."
He informed a man who looked like a typical bureaucrat and, while he was at it, ordered some wine.
After draining the wine that was brought to him, Necrat laid his dust-covered body upon a clean long couch. He was exhausted and lacked sleep. The moment he rested his head on the armrest, he fell asleep.
It was around noon when he woke up, poked in the shoulder.
Gilma Rigardie was there. He was with Sedias Thora. The two were looking down at Necrat. Gilma was smiling, and Sedias Thora was angry, tension held in his squared jaw.
Necrat burst out laughing.
"Is something funny, Necrat?" the Marquis of Delroy said.
"Your face is."
"This is no time for laughter."
"It's Yugis, isn't it? Is it not your own spawn?"
Since the Marquis of Delroy opened his mouth in surprise, Necrat laughed again, his bushy mustache fluttering.
He pushed himself up and sat on the couch.
Before leaving Malfa City, Necrat had received a report from his son's attendant, Dash. He believed he understood what his son had done.
"Shall I bring you some water?" Gilma Rigardie asked, a smile still lingering around his eyes.
"Where is my son?"
Necrat asked, prepared for his son to be brought in in a wretched state, covered in lumps, bruises, and blood.
A few seconds passed.
"That is exactly what I intend to ask you now," Sedias Thora said with a sour expression.
That Yugis fellow escaped, huh. Surprisingly nimble.
—Or did that Dash fellow let him escape.
"Now, Necrat. You—"
"I request the convening of a Council of Lords." Necrat lightly slapped his sleepy eyes.
"You are intelligent—what?"
"I request the convening of a Council of Lords."
Now, no one was laughing.
"Why?"
"Marquis Delroy, you know as well. They are Kosa people."
Sedias narrowed his eyes. The internal disgust could be seen in the wrinkles gathered around his lion-like nose.
Facing this wunderkind who had raced up the invisible stairs of the Kingdom of Siddim, Necrat felt like a delinquent youth. Sedias was positive to the core. Even when executing a wicked plot, he remained brazen and somehow bright. To Necrat, this man sometimes seemed dazzling.
As a sense of distortion toward the Thora family threatened to rear its head, Necrat paused for a breath. He had to hold his ground here.
Yugis had lit the fire. If Necrat fanned it and turned it into a conflagration,
—he could push it as far as a Council of Lords.
To ensure he didn't lose in spirit, Necrat decided on a policy of repeating his demand.
"Regardless, please convene the Council of Lords."
"What is this about Kosa people? No such talk has been had."
"What on earth is the royal army doing? Yugis simply cleaned up what those people had eaten and drunk haphazardly. Exactly which part of that violates the law? I have great doubts as to whether the Siddim army, in its current pathetic state, can oppose the barbarians of the East. I request a Council of Lords."
For the first time, a pleased smile appeared on Sedias Thora's face. "As I thought, it was you. Yugis Necrat acted under your instructions, didn't he?"
"You may think so if you wish. The Council of Lords—"
"Count Carossa, how much do you know?"
Gilma Rigardie pulled over two chairs and placed them in front of the couch where Necrat sat. The Supreme Commander sat with his arms crossed, and the Prime Minister sat in a way that seemed to embrace the backrest.
"We are also aware of the information that the hegemonic nation of Byo in the East and a tribe of Kosa are engaged in conflict."
"That is old information." Necrat revealed a portion of the trump card in his hand. "The nation of Byo has surrendered."
"Surrendered? With ten thousand cavalry? Impossible." Sedias crossed his legs.
"They surrendered. Next, those people will engage in conflict with the nomadic Tawaru tribe, and they will likely be victorious. The nation of Kosa is on the eve of its founding. With the defeat of the nation of Byo, one leg of the tripod has broken. The equilibrium has collapsed. Attaik, Vidan, Koroi, and the southern nations will be taken down in order. If that happens..."
"There will be nothing to stop them from coming to Siddim." Gilma flared his large nose. "You are well-informed, Urgil."
"I have been paying attention to the movements of Kosa. If war breaks out, the East will become the battlefield."
"It seems you even have a countermeasure."
"I wish to discuss that matter. Let us submit the request to convene the Council of Lords as a coalition of the East." Necrat stood up and stretched his back. "I shall scold my son severely, Sedias, is that acceptable? Now is not the time for private feuds, is it?"
Necrat said this with the intention of teasing.
Far from getting angry, Sedias showed a smile.
"Finally, we agree on something, Necrat. I am also opposed to private feuds. Very well, let us confirm here that there shall be no private feuds."
While clicking his tongue inwardly, Necrat had no choice but to nod.
A failure.
A private feud was the exercise of the right to revenge. If a family member was killed, the clan could surround the house of the killer and demand the handover of the culprit. It was an unwritten customary law.
He had let his guard down and said something foolish. Even if his son were killed in the shadows, did this not mean he could no longer retaliate?
Having finished the unpleasant meeting with Count Carossa, Sedias returned to his office.
—Damn it!
There were no other words. The "convening of a Council of Lords" asserted by Necrat could not be ignored.
He had to respond to the Kosa people; even if they didn't attack, if he took no measures, Sedias would be declaring his own lack of strategy. Since he had to respond, he would be forced to listen to the opinions of eastern Siddim. The Kosa people would come from the east.
On the floor of the office, the body of a boy lay sprawled.
He seemed to have lost consciousness after being beaten by soldiers.
Two hours before Urgil Necrat woke up in the Prime Minister's office, royal army soldiers had found him in a room of a brothel.
—Yugis Necrat.
Yugis's face was swollen black from being punched. Even so, hiding out in a brothel was slightly enviable.
—I wonder if this brat slept with a woman.
Sedias thought that he probably hadn't.
He was a lad who looked like he truly believed that knights should be martyrs for platonic love.
Sedias Thora placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and hesitated for a moment. A second later, he drew the blade in a single breath.
Her Highness Luchentin Alish did not move a single finger.
Sitting in her chair, she wore a mysterious smile, blinking occasionally.
The white-haired maid, Krisina, stood at the entrance of the princess's private reception room, observing the scene for a while.
"Princess, let us take a break."
Eventually, she entered the room and called out.
Krisina smiled at the person standing opposite the princess.
He was a man in his late twenties with a sturdy build. He was a painter who held a brush with fingertips dyed in various colors.
Princess Lucy was having a "portrait" painted.
This painter, Ludo Matinee, possessed the hand of a god. Krisina had been allowed to see several of his works. They were so lifelike it felt as if the subjects themselves were there. Even the luster of the skin was present, as if they were emerging from the canvas. It was realistic to an almost immoral degree.
—This painting method,
the stout painter had once murmured.
—was taught to me by three mysterious old men in Karnain City. They say that this method will eventually become the mainstream. I believe so as well.
Nona, one of Princess Lucy's maids, was also waiting in the reception room.
Nona was a plump, maternal girl. She led the painter Matinee out of the reception room. She would likely serve drinks and play the part of the painter's companion skillfully.
Once they were alone, Krisina knelt on the floor and met Princess Lucy's gaze.
The princess frowned as if inconvenienced. "The painter had just started drawing, you know? That man just stares at me for a long time before he actually begins."
Krisina began to speak of the Yugis Necrat incident in a low voice.
Princess Lucy was not a taciturn person. If she felt like it, she was a skilled conversationalist who could hijack a topic whenever she pleased without making the other party uncomfortable.
However, at this time, even after Krisina finished her explanation, Princess Lucy remained silent, directing her light-blue eyes toward her. The princess's breathing became shallow.
"It is my fault."
Krisina was surprised. "Why is that?"
"Because of my trivial retaliation, and so, that person..."
"That is not the case," she said instinctively. "Yugis-sama is the one at fault. That person was indeed punched by Sedias-sama. Is what happened after that not that person's own responsibility?"
"Grandfather, you see," the princess said, referring to Sedias Thora-sama.
Sedias-sama was the princess's maternal grandfather and a very close relative who would soon become her father-in-law.
"Grandfather will surely find Yugis. I think he will find him and kill him."
That was true. Yugis-sama had defiled Sedias-sama's military prestige. It was equivalent to defiling the military prestige of the nation. He could not be left alive.
"That is Sedias-sama's judgment; we cannot interfere."
"I cannot be so detached. Yugis Necrat is going to die, isn't he? Because of me."
"It is not your fault, Princess. Yugis-sama simply dislikes the Thora family."
Krisina tried to convince her that thinking everything moves because of oneself was merely being over-self-conscious.
"No," the princess shook her head. "Why don't you understand? Someone like Grandfather doesn't matter to that person. That hateful person—Yugis hates me. He loathes me. While resenting me, he will be killed."
Krisina started to argue back, but her words stopped. Princess Lucy's devastated face was the most beautiful she had ever seen. Like the glow of a sunset at twilight, as the sky changes colors in gradations from day to night—a similar divine transformation existed within the princess, and that change bled onto the surface, covering every single strand of hair. She felt as if her breath had stopped. Krisina found herself standing up.
The princess was staring intently at the floor.
Just then, the painter Ludo Matinee returned. The painter faced the canvas in silence.
Comparing the canvas and the princess,
"Oh," the painter exclaimed. "Your expression has changed. It is as if..."
Krisina was seized by anxiety.
"As if what?"
The well-built painter blushed and hesitated. "As if you have suddenly become an adult."
Ludo Matinee said no more and began to swing his brush like a sword. It was an obsession as if he were possessed.
Krisina had no choice but to leave. As she departed, she looked back at the princess.
—It was not a mistake.
In that single moment, the princess had certainly become more beautiful. She had changed. Had she become an adult? Perhaps. But that change, which was almost bewitchingly beautiful, was something different.
Carrying that anxiety, Krisina left the reception room.