Chapter 55 - 5-6
Cloden Danforth pushed aside a clump of fibers that could hardly be called a blanket and climbed down from the wooden bed.
Three walls of the cell, the ceiling, and the floor were made of coarsely polished stone; the remaining side was iron bars. He was given bread of a size that could fit through the gaps in those bars. It seemed to serve as both breakfast and lunch. Or perhaps dinner as well.
"Captain of the Thora family, you still alive?"
"...Yeah."
A small voice came from the neighboring cell.
The only lighting was a torch located toward the back. Perhaps because this torch created a convection current, a chilly draft blew into the dungeon.
The sound of creaking hinges echoed through the prison. Zeal Androsh passed by, accompanied by a guard.
"Yo, you're still alive," Zeal said in a sleepy voice.
Following him, Kashu Coil was also brought in by a guard. "Where's Yugis?"
Cloden shook his head.
Both of them were radiating the scent of sweet liquor.
As soon as the door closed, Kashu's snoring immediately echoed through the dungeon. That was the only sound. No one spoke. From inside the solitary cells, it wasn't even clear whether the guard was still there.
His sense of time vanished, and just as he was thinking it must be around noon based on his level of hunger, footsteps approached and the sound of a door opening followed.
The footsteps stopped in front of Laicanel's cell.
"You, why—" It was Haider Skyner's voice.
"Please exchange this for gold coins," Haider said. Was he speaking to the guard? "It is a trivial ring, but it should be worth some gold coins. With that money, I want you to provide this gentleman with clean clothes and a blanket."
"You were hiding this? That's a rule violation."
"It is a special item, so I asked for your indulgence. Please take the change for yourself. As a token of my gratitude."
"Is that the only thing you can offer? ...I'll go out of my way for you just this once."
"I leave it in your hands."
Haider passed in front of Cloden's cell and showed a smile.
"Where's Yugis?"
"Haven't seen him."
Haider seemed to enter a cell further back. As soon as the sound of the iron door closing echoed, he spoke in a bright voice.
"Let us take roll call. Who is here?"
"Stop it, don't just start talking on your own."
The guard, who had been turning to leave, stopped.
"Preventing us from taking roll call is unjust. We are not here because we are being punished for evil deeds."
"I'm the one who decides what's just or unjust."
The guard looked to be around twenty. He was short in stature and seemed to possess physical strength.
"Please tell me the just reason for preventing the roll call."
"Stop it, stop it, this is ridiculous." The voice echoed in the dungeon. "Zeal Androsh."
"Kashu Coil. I saw Raslaf Dravar leave the city."
"Cloden Danforth." Cloden responded reluctantly.
"Haider Skyner. Anyone else?"
"Udoh should be here," Zeal's voice said. "I saw him being taken away."
"Udoh, Udoh!"
Haider's call was vainly swallowed by the darkness.
"Guard, please check the other cells and look for a man named Udoh Renne."
"I refuse."
"I wish to know if the man named Udoh Renne is safe. Please look for him."
"Shut up."
"Guard, first, could you tell me your name?"
"Just shut up."
"We will be released soon. After leaving prison, it would be problematic if I wanted to thank a kind guard but didn't know his name."
The guard clicked his tongue and left the dungeon.
Darkness and silence covered the underground.
"Haider, what happened? Why did it turn out like this?" Zeal asked in a shrill voice.
"Marquis Anavis of Ganlord, Marquis Gilmond of Kraff, and Count Necrat of Carossa. It is said there was a conspiracy of treason by these three. According to information up until this morning, it seems Count Necrat was killed."
"What about Yugis?"
Kashu asked.
"I don't know. I looked for him."
"What's this about a conspiracy?"
"Probably something the Prime Minister's spy, whom I mentioned before, dug up," Haider answered Zeal's question. "I don't know for certain. There are rumors in the city that the East was colluding with the Kosa people behind the scenes. Also, that the location of the newly built fortress might sever the connection between the West and the Capital."
Cloden lay sprawled on his bed, listening half-heartedly to his companions' conversation. He didn't care. It was already over. However, when Kashu Coil asked, "What about His Majesty?" he actually pricked up his ears.
"What about His Majesty? We were captured by the Royal Army."
"The detached palace is silent. At least until before noon, there has been no announcement."
A sigh of relief reached his ears. If they were condemned by King Siddim, the East would undoubtedly suffer a shock from which it could not recover.
"But the Royal Army is going to suppress the East, right?"
Cloden interjected coldly.
"Yes. I saw the first wave depart with my own eyes."
"The Royal Army is His Majesty's army. His Majesty will subjugate our homeland. That fact doesn't change."
"Stop it, Cloden," Zeal said. "Everyone here knows who is actually controlling the Royal Army."
The dungeon fell silent. The consciousness of the companions concentrated on the cell next to Cloden.
Laicanel Thora remained silent.
Soon, the guard returned. The iron door of Laicanel's cell creaked.
"Clothes and a blanket. Deliveries."
Faintly, the sound of a person moving could be heard. Laicanel seemed still able to move.
The guard was intentionally treating Laicanel roughly. That was the impression he received. Perhaps he had been ordered to do so by Sedias Thora.
"Guard—" Haider started to speak.
The guard interrupted.
"I confirmed the prisoner named Udoh. He is in a different cell." The guard further added, "I have a message. There is no man named Yugis. He says no companions other than himself have been imprisoned."
Meals were twice a day. Breakfast was water and bread. Dinner included porridge or soup in addition to that. Though he wasn't familiar with prisons, this was likely on the better side of treatment.
He avoided drinking the provided water as much as possible, saving it in the built-in tub. He used that water to wash his face as a small luxury.
Excrement went into a container like a deep dish. If placed near the entrance of the iron bars, the guard would dispose of it once a day.
He wiped his backside with bundles of straw. Since that straw was used many times, he washed it with the saved water and spread it on the floor to dry.
Thanks to this, the entire dungeon smelled like a cesspool. Though, one got used to it in two days.
—Like this.
Cloden thought that this is how one gets used to it.
To having things taken away. To being suppressed.
A lifetime of getting used to such things would likely begin from this cesspool.
"You've learned patience, good boy, good boy." Would the people of the West, who would become his owners, pat Cloden on the head like that?
If asked if he was depressed, it wasn't quite that; Cloden felt a kind of exhilaration. It was the desperate sense of liberation that is the privilege of the defeated. With a part of his heart paralyzed by self-deprecating pain, Cloden became a nasty-tongued cynic in just a few days.
"Someone like Yugis," Cloden said day after day. "Believing in a guy like that was where it all started to go wrong."
"Again? I'm really fed up with you."
"Do you realize that you're the one most obsessed with him?"
Kashu and Zeal raised voices of condemnation one after another.
"That guy didn't do anything. He was all talk and couldn't do a thing."
"That's true. Except for establishing the Fourth Army and pulling us up from the recruit group."
Cloden laughed off Kashu's opinion with a snort. "Wasn't that achieved through the strength of all of us? No, whatever. Where did that Fourth Army go? It doesn't exist anywhere anymore."
"Didn't you know that if you drop an egg, it breaks?" Zeal mocked. "How long are you going to keep saying 'it broke, it broke,' you're so annoying. Besides, Yugis was the one who laid the egg."
"I'm saying an egg is meaningless if it doesn't hatch, you fucking idiots."
"What was that, hey, you fucking shrimp!"
A shadow fell into Cloden's dim solitary cell. The short guard was standing there. "Danforth! If you don't stay quiet, it's the whip for you!"
The guard shouted, and Cloden fell silent. He thought that this is how one gets used to days where they cannot even say what they want to say.
However, by the next day, he would completely forget and start all over again.
"Where the hell is that bastard Necrat, anyway?"
"I imagine he was caught and is imprisoned somewhere in this castle."
Cloden snorted at Kashu's prediction. "Shut it, I'm not listening to the opinion of a pig."
"I wonder if gold coins spill out when you speak from that mouth of yours."
"I'm saying nothing but things worse than shit, though."
Kashu and Zeal laughed together.
"Even if you look away, reality doesn't change. He ran away. He abandoned the East and ran. He ran, leaving us behind. He ran, leaving his father to die. Tell me, in this great crisis of the East, where is he?"
There was no answer. The air turned heavy.
Cloden didn't care.
"Haider, how long are you going to stay cowardly and silent? You're the one who recommended him to me. That blockhead. Tell me, Haider. Where is Necrat?"
"He probably fled somewhere," Haider said. "Isn't that far more meaningful than putting up with your complaining here? What are you so angry about?"
"Because Western soldiers are right now trampling my homeland, stealing gold, killing men, and raping women."
"Because the East is being torn apart because you and Yugis let the Prime Minister's spy escape. You're angry about that, aren't you?"
"Wrong! It's not about someone like Lian Belghiyo!" Cloden shouted back. "That bastard Necrat betrayed us! He abandoned the East! No, wait, he's probably already dead! He was killed!"
A shadow cast into Cloden's cell. "Danforth!"
"Guard," Haider called out. "Guard, Cloden will be quiet. He'll be quiet. Cloden, Cloden."
"...My apologies, Mr. Guard."
Cloden reluctantly looked up at the guard.
The guard frowned and glared at Cloden for a while, but eventually returned to the guardhouse near the entrance.
"Cloden, why don't we make a bet?" Haider said. "Yugis is alive somewhere and—"
"He's dead. It's Sedias Thora. He won't leave him alive. It's treason; the Necrat family will be slaughtered."
"He sensed that and fled. And he will return before us. I—"
"You're betting? Why?"
"There are parts of your opinion I can agree with. Yugis is neither great nor honorable. However, I cannot believe he would die here. If he's going to do something, being alive is essential. If he's alive, he will surely return. He has at least that much manliness."
"...What are you betting?"
"That's the problem. I don't possess anything of great value."
"Haider, if you lose, spit on Yugis's grave. Insult Yugis right in front of me."
"I'm appalled by you. Cloden, friendship cannot be bet."
"It can. It's just spitting on a grave and badmouthing the bastard."
"And you? What will you bet?"
"Who knows."
"If I win, if Yugis returns alive, please believe in him once more."
Before Cloden could open his mouth, Zeal cut in. "I'm in."
"Then me too," Kashu also said. His tone was serious.
"Yugis is dead. Even if he were alive, he wouldn't return. Even if he did return—"
He can't do anything, Cloden spoke as if to himself.
Why Yugis was chosen as the leader of the recruits. One reason was that his family rank was just right. The Necrat family's rank wasn't so high that they had to be overly humble. Nor was it so low as to be looked down upon. It was well known that Urgil Necrat worked hard for the East, and there was a foundation where it wouldn't be unnatural for his son to stand at the top.
That Necrat family was to be crushed.
"Yugis will lose his background. He'll become just a man."
Cloden stopped talking.
He didn't care anymore.
When prison life reached two weeks, Krisina McGillis came to the dungeon alone. At first, he didn't notice and thought she was a new prisoner. The newcomer stopped in front of Laicanel Thora's cell.
"Laicanel-sama. I have come bearing a message from the Princess."
Hearing a woman's voice unexpectedly, Cloden pressed his cheek against the iron bars so hard his face distorted and looked toward the corridor. A part of a woman's clothing was visible.
Laicanel Thora said something in a low voice.
"Pardon?"
The woman asked back. Cloden felt his heart stop as he became certain. It was Krisina's voice.
This time, Laicanel spoke in a somewhat clearer voice.
"I said, please go home."
"I have been ordered by Her Highness to deliver this message no matter what."
Krisina! There was a part of him that could not scream. He didn't want his fiancée to see him as he was now. Even so, he kept his face against the iron bars, wanting to be as close to Krisina as possible.
"Princess Luchentin Alish will enter the Euryas Convent. She intends to spend the rest of her life there. She says she bears no grudge against you. She only says that it is deeply regrettable."
"Does Lucy, does the Princess know of my crimes?"
"...Only that it was embezzlement of public funds."
Laicanel let out a sound as if unable to suppress laughter, and eventually burst into a loud laugh. He continued to laugh maniacally. A miserable laughter echoed in the dungeon.
He could understand the feeling. He was a brilliant prince who carried the next generation of the Thora family. There was no way he would embezzle public funds. He probably had gold enough to rot.
"To the Princess, to Lucy..." Laicanel said after he finished laughing. "Please tell Lucy I am sorry. I have one request. Please tell her to consider reconsidering her entry into the convent, thinking that the engagement never existed from the start. Please tell her that."
"I understand." He felt Krisina bow.
"Laicanel-sama, please stay well. Sedias-sama's anger will eventually subside—by the way, Guard, over here."
"Krisina!"
Cloden screamed. The fear of being seen in his miserable state and the fear of Krisina leaving clashed, and the latter fear made him scream. "Krisina, Krisina!"
"Cloden!"
The white-haired beauty, her face overflowing with joy, came to Cloden's iron bars.
She was as beautiful as ever. Beautiful, as if glowing white.
"Cloden, I knew we would surely meet—your beard is quite something."
"Krisina, I've... I've become like this. I still can't believe it myself. I've turned into this."
"Like this? How so?"
"So shabby, so miserable, and my already ugly face is even more so. And this smell of shit has soaked into my body, for the rest of my life—"
"Let me smell it, what kind of smell is it?"
"This smell will never leave me for the rest of my life."
Krisina rubbed her nose against Cloden's fingers gripping the iron bars.
There was a frighteningly sensual stimulation, and Cloden fell silent.
"Even if there is a smell, I can't tell. But Cloden, if it's me, I'll make any smell disappear in three days. I'll let you eat things that smell wonderful every day. In three days, I'll remove the stench and make you smell wonderful to the marrow of your bones."
Krisina lowered her voice. "—Cloden, I plan to be in the care of your family home, the castle in Dint. I will wait for your release there."
What did this mean? It meant the talk of the engagement wasn't dead yet.
Cloden was entranced. He tried to tighten his resolve and pull himself together, but every time, his face broke into a grin. However, he noticed immediately.
"What about Dint?"
Krisina shook her head. "The house is safe. Your family as well. However—"
The guard standing with a hand-lamp interfered. "McGillis-sama, you must not speak of the situation outside."
"I understand. Cloden—"
"Surely—"
"I'll be waiting."
The dungeon door closed with a sound.
Cloden lay back on his bed. Had Highness Castle in Dint fallen? Even though only two weeks had passed?
—No, that's impossible.
Dint had surrendered without fighting.
Cloden felt bitter.
The Anavis family, the Gilmond family, the Necrat family. If there were to be a fight, it would only be these three families. The others would not oppose His Majesty's army. The East wasn't even given time to form a coordination.
—If that's the case, the East is fragmented.
The pride they leaned on was shattered. From that day, Cloden stopped complaining.
About a week after Krisina's visit, the four of them—Cloden, Haider, Zeal, and Kashu—were told by the guard that they were being transferred from the dungeon to the prison tower.
"What about Laicanel-dono?"
The guard ignored Haider's question.
The prison tower was within the grounds of Malfa Castle, and the environment was not bad compared to before. Above all, it was bright, and the voices of students from the King's School could reach them from outside. They spent about four months there, and first, Kashu Coil was released.
As for why the Royal Army had captured Cloden and the others, it was likely as hostages prior to the war. They were being released. In other words, the war had probably completely ended. There was no longer any meaning in holding the children of the East.
"Haider, Zeal. Let's meet again. Definitely," Kashu said upon parting. "Cloden, I won't let that bet end as a mere game of the moment."
Kashu Coil had become quite thin. With a dirty beard and disheveled hair, he looked like a beggar. Though, in terms of appearance, they were all much the same.
A week later Zeal left prison, and next was Cloden.
"See ya, Haider."
"Yes. Let's meet again when Yugis returns."
"Give it up already. You're the only one saying things like that."
"Yugis will become necessary," Haider laughed, moving his grown beard.
"He won't. Even if he returns, there's nothing the bastard can do. Why do you think he'll be necessary?"
"To borrow your way of thinking, it's because Yugis is a man of the Necrat family who carries the bloodline of the Marquis Kraff family." The sparkle in Haider's eyes had not dimmed at all. "The wind will change soon. Urgil-sama's death will be remembered like that of a martyr. When that time comes, everyone will have no choice but to long for someone."
—Like I'd care about that.
Though he thought so, Cloden felt his blood stir with excitement.
His clothes and belongings were returned by the jailer. His gold coins and valuables had not been stolen. He felt as if the scent of the rain from that day remained on his clothes.
While savoring the freedom of being outside, he first headed to the bureaucracy building where his older brother, Meinrat Danforth, worked. Meinrat was not there, and he heard the circumstances from his brother's colleagues. His brother had also been imprisoned, but it seemed he had already been released and returned to Dint.
Exposing his bearded face and disheveled hair, Cloden went out into the city. He had intended to head to the tavern on Withered Leaf Slope, but his feet turned another way. It was an inn called the Black Feather House. The place where Yugis had been lodging.
Peering inside from the open entrance, he saw a plump man wearing an apron sweeping the floor. It was Dash. Yugis's attendant. It seemed that after being abandoned by his master, he had simply stayed and lived at the inn.
He had intended to call out, but decided against it.
Dash surely wanted to forget about Yugis. It would be cruel to remind him.
As he turned on his heel, he was called.
"Master!"
He ignored him and walked away, but the man chased after him.
"Master! Master Danforth!"
Dash ran in front of Cloden and took Cloden's hand.
"I knew it. It's me! You can't be so distant. Come this way. Anyway, inside. Please, this way."
Meel! Meel!
With surprisingly strong force, Dash pulled Cloden indoors and called someone. The one who came out from the back was a still-young, fair-skinned woman.
"Meel, we have a guest. Please prepare the bath."
"Coming!" the reply echoed against the ceiling.
"What's with you," Cloden laughed. "You've really made yourself at home."
"Well, yes, that's how it turned out," Dash scratched his head. "I have to wait here for the young master's return, after all."
"—Is he alive?"
Dash nodded. "The detailed story can wait until tonight. First, let me bring you a drink."