Chapter 34 - 3-11
Yugis regained consciousness through a shift in brightness that felt like surfacing from the bottom of a confused black swamp and approaching a shimmering water surface of light. There was a discomfort on his cheek. Before his eyes was the grim, angular face of Sedias Thora. He had been grabbed by the collar and slapped across the cheek.
"Commander-in-Chief, Order, Your Excellency."
Because he was being slapped with a rhythmic pan-pan, he couldn't speak properly.
The Commander-in-Chief, with the hand that had gripped his collar, violently shoved Yugis away. There was a chair where he was thrown. Yugis was forced to sit, handled like a sailor tossing luggage.
"Give him some water."
Looking back, a soldier wearing the short cloak of the Royal Army left the office.
Marquis Delroy, without sparing Yugis another glance, headed to the window and gazed outside.
While feeling a feverish heat throughout his body, Yugis dropped his gaze to the floor. There were ropes that had been severed by a sword or something similar. They lay coiled powerlessly, as if the fact that they had once bound Yugis so tightly were a lie.
Yugis, along with his attendant Dash, had been hiding in a brothel in the pleasure district of Malfa City. A man from the Royal School's attendant group named Zeal Androsh was an acquaintance of the brothel's proprietress.
"He'll get bored, after all."
Zeal said to the old woman who managed the place. Zeal was a visible delinquent with a blade scar on his chin. He was only two years older than Yugis, but he seemed far more adult.
"Provide some sisters and entertain these guys for me."
"No, I..." Dash panicked,
"Such consideration is unnecessary," Yugis followed.
Since both of their faces had turned bright red, they ended up being laughed at by the proprietress and Zeal.
Not limited to Zeal Androsh, the attendants each demonstrated their own talents.
The attendant group from the east cooperated with Yugis's scheme—to make the Royal Army's tyranny public and bring shame upon the Thora family. If there had been even one opponent, he intended to cancel the plan. No opponents emerged. Without a single dropout or defector, the plan pushed forward, accelerating.
The obese Kashu Coil was well-versed in eating establishments, and the handsome Raidi Mengel and his serious, devout younger brother Zett Mengel steadily collected scorched debts.
The powerfully built and tall Udoh Renne took on the role of keeping the tavern thugs in check. The one who plied the officials with alcohol and egged them on to issue military notes was Haider. It could be said that Cloden served as the general supervisor for the attendants.
Only Yugis had too much free time.
"Don't do anything," Cloden had told him. "Stay still and don't go outside. I'm buying debts in your name. Your job is to take all the responsibility."
Surely it doesn't have to be "my" name, Yugis thought, while answering,
"I feel somewhat sorry."
The training under Instructor Norbert Kabert was not half-hearted. Everyone, dragging bodies that felt like cotton soaked in fatigue, would go around the drinking dens after training ended. To take over the Royal Army's debts and gather evidence of their misdeeds.
"You're a carefree bastard. Your life will be targeted."
"Sedias Thora won't kill me."
"Maybe. But there's a possibility. When that time comes, we'll help you. Go into hiding."
Yugis nodded.
During his idle time, Yugis spent his days teaching letters to Udoh Renne or acting as a swordplay partner for the son of a wealthy noble named Raslaf Dravar.
One day toward the end of summer, Zeal Androsh arrived and hid Yugis and his attendant Dash in a room of the brothel.
"Let the sisters dote on you. However, absolutely do not go outside."
Androsh had shown a smile that looked decayed and degenerate.
On the third day of holding his breath in a dark small room without a single window.
Royal Army soldiers arrived in a swarm, and he was captured instantly.
Thrown into a carriage and taken to Malfa Castle, he was first placed in the dungeon. He was not alone. There were five soldiers in the cell. Yugis might have underestimated the situation. When he took the first blow, he felt a psychological shock more than physical pain. Within a single minute, that shock was replaced by the fear of death.
'The Thora family likely won't create any precedent of allowing themselves to be made fools of.'
'If I'm found, I'll be killed.'
His comrades had all spoken in such a way, but during the hiding period, Yugis had been calm. There was no killing, and everything done in Yugis's name was a kind of commercial transaction and had no criminal charge. It was too ambiguous even to inflict lynching, let alone kill him.
—Everyone was too terrified of the Thora family.
If he had to say, Laicanel Thora or Ness Syllabus were scarier. They lacked discretion and might come to dispose of Yugis.
—However, Sedias Thora will not kill me.
He believed that.
Rolled around in the dungeon and surrounded by soldiers, Yugis's entire body trembled. To protect his life, he clutched his head. He curled up to ward off the pain. Wanting to soften the hostility, he wore a smile as if showing coquetry.
Yugis had not been stripped of his weapon.
There was a sword at his waist. He thought many times about drawing it. If he pulled this out, the soldiers would immediately draw their swords too. His own corpse would roll in the dungeon.
Yugis endured the temptation to fight back. Despair arrived every single moment.
—Next. I'll be killed in the next moment.
But once he survived that moment, hope would soar high into the sky.
I won't be killed.
—These guys can't kill me. They've received such orders.
—No, carelessness is forbidden. I'll be killed. Right now, these guys are just enjoying themselves.
Between hope and despair, Yugis didn't remember when he lost consciousness.
Even when he woke up to his cheek being slapped,
—I won the bet.
That joy did not well up.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Army was looking outside from the window.
A soldier brought water. Yugis drank it all and thrust the cup back.
The soldier holding the empty cup closed the door, leaving him alone with Sedias Thora. It was strangely quiet, and Yugis heard the voice of a bird.
"It's the end, Yugis Necrat," the Commander-in-Chief said while keeping his back turned. "You are expelled from the Royal School. Pack your things and return to your territory."
—Am I allowed to return? Alive? Breathing? Walking on my own feet?
Yugis wanted to press him.
"Your Excellency cannot do that." However, his tongue tripped due to the pain in his mouth, and he said something else. "The Royal School is, if I may say, His Majesty's."
"A child must not speak of His Majesty."
The Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Army spoke calmly. It was a resonance of voice that seemed intended to make Yugis feel ashamed.
"I have been entrusted with the management of the Royal School," the old commander said, leaving the window and sitting on a long chair by the wall. "I will give you another option. I will incorporate you into the Third Army."
"The Third Army?"
Did I hit my head? Yugis thought.
"That's right. I didn't tighten the screws on you to squeeze out the names of your comrades. Do you know why? Because there was no need to ask. If I just drag out everyone under Norbert Kabert's charge, there'll likely be no misses. All the noble children of the east, right? You brought those people together. Most likely, for the purpose of trapping me. This is, you know, clear rebellious intent."
Sedias Thora stood towering before Yugis.
"However. Just as you predicted, I will not punish you. The blunders on this side cannot be overlooked. No, on the contrary, I shall admit that there were points where I myself was lacking. It's not just the misconduct of the Royal Army. The fact that rebellious intent toward me is treason against the Royal Army and goes against His Majesty's will—you were not made to understand that. This is likely due to my own immaturity. Therefore, I have decided to take into account the dissatisfaction of you attendants."
The conversation was proceeding in an unexpected direction. Yugis felt as if he were being led around by a rope and felt dizzy.
"Actually. An urgent need has arisen to establish an Eastern Regional Army. You will be the center and create it. In the end, that is what you all desired, is it not? Yugis, you certainly did enough to make me make such a decision. Your point of focus was good, and your leadership was splendid. Above all, you had guts."
It's a trap. A transparent trap.
Yugis told himself.
"If you refuse—" Marquis Delroy continued flatly. "I will crush the east, then use my elites to establish the Eastern Regional Army. I'm not lying. I will certainly carry it out, no matter what means I use. I am serious."
Yugis looked down and tried to make his head spin.
Even the inside of his head felt feverish. He shook his head, intending to let the wind hit his face.
"Do you refuse?"
"Your Excellency, I..." Yugis raised his face and reached an answer.