13 (33)

“My Lord Duke.”

“Stop warming up and follow me. I plan to move a little earlier.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Bread of House Grey deeply furrowed his brow. The wrinkles spread frightfully, proving his age. He was already over ninety years old. He had never known comfortable days, but now he was facing the greatest crisis of his life. Bread leaned his back deep into the hard chair. Beneath his waist, a young woman was moving.

The woman was kneeling between his legs, working her small tongue. She licked and sucked, and only her two round black eyes were visible. She looked like a sex slave, but this woman was Bread’s wife. More precisely, she was a concubine, his twenty-first concubine. Their age gap alone was close to eighty years. It had not even been three months since they had married, so let alone being pregnant, her skin was still firm.

Naturally, she was quite poor at using her tongue. It looked like it would take a long time for her to satisfy Bread’s desires. Besides, Bread’s mind was completely elsewhere. Around Bread, his young wives were each doing different things. Some were holding water, others were holding grapes.

One woman was cutting warm lamb into easy-to-eat pieces. Two of them were simply watching this embarrassing scene and whispering to one another, just barely audibly. He did not know who the target was, but it was surely malicious gossip. Since the atmosphere was like this, the twenty-first concubine carrying out the task was drenched in sweat.

A warm signal began to rise from below, where he was gradually becoming aroused. Bread closed his eyes. Then the door burst open like thunder, and his five sons entered. Since the eldest and second son were already dead, the eldest was, astonishingly, actually the third son. The children who entered also all differed wildly in age. The third son, who had the right to speak, was a middle-aged man over fifty. He should originally have inherited the house, but because his father simply refused to die, he still held no formal title. The concubine glanced back once and her face turned red. Then she retied Bread’s waistcloth. Smacking his lips, Bread opened his eyes halfway.

“What is it?”

“Duke Louis is coming! Is this really the time for this?!”

“I know.”

“You say you know! He’s coming right now! This is no time to speak vaguely!!!”

Bread beckoned for his son to come closer. The son glanced around a little, then carefully stepped nearer. Bread gestured again, as if telling him to come closer still. The son came nearer, and Bread slapped him across the cheek. Smack. Though old, he was still vigorous enough that the sound was fairly loud. The son was about to ask what in the world that was for, but he was struck once more. Smack. After being hit twice in the same spot, his cheek turned red.

“How dare you raise your voice! Insolent brat! Do you know who I am! I am Bread! I have always protected this house, not some impudent fool like you! Do I seem unable to tell right from wrong just because I’ve grown old! I am still perfectly strong! That young slut will soon carry my child! I could easily take on one more concubine! In any case, I am still the master of this house! Just look at the sorry lot of you. Do you even know where this is, to come barging in so boldly!”

The son’s face quickly darkened, and his eyes filled with fear.

“F-Father. It was just… because it was so urgent……. I am sorry.”

“Know your place! If the first and second sons had not died, you would have gone to your grave never even knowing that position! And what have you done? Nothing! You’ve done absolutely nothing!”

Bread was certainly growing old. He lost his reason even over small things and flew into a fiery rage. After he hurled abuse for a few more minutes, the surroundings had turned colder than cold. The third son, utterly cowed, looked back. His younger brothers shook their heads and mouthed that this had to be said. With his cheek continuing to swell, he spoke to Bread again.

“Duke Louis is no ordinary man. Father! You must now accept our opinion. We must surrender to Duke Louis. We must pledge loyalty to him.”

“You idiot! What could that stripling not even thirty years old possibly do! And is that what you should be saying right now? How dare you side with a traitor! You honorless vermin!”

Once his opinion was made unmistakably clear, the faces of the six sons hardened. One of the other sons spoke.

“In that case…. should we not prepare for war? We should ask House Boarne and His Majesty for help as well.”

“That is why you are a fool. This is practically an opportunity.”

“…………..”

“We invite him in and offer him my daughter. As though we had surrendered. Once he comes inside and his soldiers are well soaked in wine, we poison the food and kill him and his men.”

“It was an assassination even the King failed at…! The rumor said it was Chilbosa.”

“And did the messenger eat it?”

“That….”

“Fool. That is why you are a fool. There was a traitor among the inspection party. That loose-tongued fool must have babbled it to the messenger. Even for those who have trained mana, poison is equal to all.”

“Ah….”

“What do you think will happen to our house if we seize this opportunity?”

“Th-that….”

“The King will grant us the territory possessed by House Pontina. That wide and fertile land will all become mine. I know the King well. I watched that brat from when he was a little boy sucking his fingers. If I ask it, Orpendius will give me a reward fitting for it.”

All the sons lowered their heads. Once Bread had stated his opinion, all that remained was to make the preparations. Though they all remained bowed, they looked at one another, and it seemed the sons had more or less come to an agreement among themselves. After all, their father would not live past a hundred, and the house’s enormous wealth and land would be divided among the sons….

Louis’s horse gave a long cry, then stopped. Louis looked out at the sturdy city from atop a hill where the grass grew long and evenly. Louis’s army was busily moving about, reorganizing and taking up positions. The city before Louis belonged to House Grey and was ruled by its head, Bread.

Louis took in both the old wall and the drifting clouds at once. There were only a scattering of soldiers on the wall, so it did not look hostile. In any case, he had not clearly stated whether he would stand with Louis or with Orpendius. To pass this position, Louis had to ask his intentions one way or another.

Louis looked at the wall, then lowered his gaze. One armed man on horseback was dashing diligently down the hill. A messenger. Even though the horse was running at that speed, the ground was moist enough that no dust rose. The cities held by House Grey were few in number, but their lands were fertile. That was why they had a decent population. If House Grey began defending the city, their advance might be delayed a little. But Louis did not think that. If they were hostile, the wall should have been packed with archers and mages.

Louis knew that House Grey would cooperate with him. They would make room for him to pass through. They would not provide troops, but even that alone could count as a declaration of their ambiguous position. General Gaion stroked his beard beside Louis. He looked worried. Louis remembered the story General Gaion had hinted at. It seemed they had known each other in the past, but they did not appear to have been on good terms. The only official information Louis knew about him was that he had dozens of children and an unusually large number of wives.

In any case, while Louis was thinking about this and that, the armed man arrived. He carried a flag rather than a weapon, and shouted while waving it. Soon silence followed, and then a man above, who seemed to be commanding the archers, exchanged signals. When he instructed the soldier beside him, the archers moved like a wave. The messenger began to return, and the great gate was slowly rising upward.

“It seems things went well. Well, at his age, he cannot make a reckless decision. I myself am fairly old, but that man is about twenty years older than I am.”

Gaion spoke in a much-relieved voice. Louis gave a short nod. The armed man carrying the flag drew closer and closer. Swiftly riding up before Louis, he jumped down. He immediately knelt on one knee and spoke in a firm voice.

“House Grey has sent word of its intent to cooperate. They also say they very much wish to see Duke Louis. I hear his vitality has weakened somewhat. There is food and sufficient water prepared inside, and they hope you will come in just as you are and rest.”

“Understood.”

Gaion added with a smile.

“He is certainly an ordinary man who has not trained mana. Reaching ninety itself is already rare. It does not seem likely that anything will happen.”

Louis agreed. Even if they were attacked from within, Louis’s forces had already reached a level where a single house could not endure after opening its gates. Louis moved his troops. The soldiers began to enter through the gate. Once it was confirmed there was no particular problem, Louis also moved his horse. As Louis, mounted on horseback, drew near the gate, every archer on the wall knelt on one knee before him.

Once he passed through the gate, the city inside came into view. The roads were better maintained than expected, with rubble laid tightly together without gaps. And they were wide. On the right, brick houses stretched in a long row, neither particularly shabby nor especially developed, just moderate. The enormous number of citizens who had come out were all craning their necks and waiting. The moment Louis appeared, they burst into cheers. Some simply stood there with mouths open, staring blankly at Louis.

When the troops passed through, the place had been tense and quiet, but when Louis passed through, it was so noisy it felt as if a festival had broken out. At least the citizens were on his side. A young maiden and an old woman approached Louis from the left as though clinging to him. The woman held flowers in her hand, and Louis accepted them. The flowers had not lost their freshness, as though they had been picked that morning.

Louis walked through Bread’s castle. Around him were nobles and Bread’s soldiers. Seeing Louis and the armed men following behind him, all of them were cowed and could not raise their heads. Louis continued walking inside.

Meanwhile, Grey Bread was preparing to receive Louis. Before him, two attendants were adjusting his clothes. He thought, ‘What a fuss over some brat of flesh and blood.’ In his view, Louis was an arrogant young punk whose conceit reached the heavens. A lucky youth who had won wars by luck, had several things conveniently fall into place by luck, and had risen smoothly up to now by luck, no more than that. Looking at the girl before him, he smacked his lips. She seemed to be a newly brought-in one.

She was a jar of honey still sealed even though she held honey within. ‘Tch, if only I were ten years younger, I could have had the taste of one or two more girls like this.’ Then he thought of his daughters, whose number he was beginning to confuse. Since he would die today or tomorrow anyway, he figured it would be fine to offer five or six at once.

At that moment, the front door carefully opened, and a man with a thoroughly tense face appeared. It was his son. In a trembling voice, he slowly said,

“F-Father. The messenger is coming.”

“Yes. I know. Tch.”

Disappointed in the son, whose voice shook and who looked frozen stiff, he swallowed the rest of his words. Even though the man was over fifty, he was still like that, which made him impossible to trust. He suddenly thought of his eldest son, who had died at twenty after falling from a horse during a hunt.