13 (80)

At the center was a woman. Her long neck and delicate face somehow carried piled-up worry. On her hand was a ring said to be wearable only by the head of the house. Before the woman, armed men in rough armor stood in a long line. Most of them were young.

“What will you do, Lady Boarne Lorene?”

Lorene looked at the face of the man who had spoken to her. He was the only one who was fairly old. She said,

“I will hear your opinions.”

“If I may state my humble opinion, Pontina Louis is clearly trying to weaken House Boarne’s power even further. Therefore, the troops he demanded must be kept to the minimum. I judge that it would be best to stop at a level where we can provide rear support.”

When his words stopped, the man standing beside him stepped forward and spoke. His skin was taut enough to make his young age obvious.

“That absolutely cannot be. We must do everything we can to gain the king’s trust. If we establish military merit, we can certainly gain his trust. If this chance passes by, we do not know when another will come.”

“The usurper will go to war again, boy. And king, you say? Have you forgotten your father, who died to Louis at the Rhine River?”

“Watch your words. If I submit a petition to the king, your head will hang just like that. War is war. Anything could have happened. Though my father died in war, he would have wanted the house to continue prospering. I want to live up to that expectation.”

“What did you say? Even after seeing this obvious ploy to pressure us and make us lose strength, you are saying we must answer the king’s command with all our power?”

“That is correct. He will win this war as well.”

He suddenly shouted in a loud voice.

“Is there anyone here who thinks the king will lose the war against Ruderwin?”

The surroundings fell quiet.

“Tell me. Do you think the king will lose?”

“Damn it. He’ll win. The problem is that he will drive us into a deathtrap. If we suffer losses again this time, when a territorial war breaks out, we will have to hand over part of the salt region to another house.”

“That is why, even if we suffer losses, we must prove ourselves in that deathtrap. Lady Boarne Lorene. Appoint me as the commander of the army and send me to the king. Even if the king sends us into a deathtrap, I will show you that I can escape it. This is the time to gain trust. Think about this salt matter. We had no choice but to helplessly accept the king’s demand, and we could not make any of the profits we normally would have made on a large scale. If things continue this way, we will fall behind the other houses. And the greatest factor is that if Ruderwin is conquered, the king will distribute that land according to achievements. If the gap with the other houses widens, our past glory will be no more.”

The surroundings became quiet. Even the middle-aged noble who had opposed him was like that. It was eloquence. Boarne Lorene seemed to have decided. She held out her hand, and he knelt and kissed Lorene’s ring.

“Carter of House Frank. I will follow your opinion. However, I will not force it. The houses that agree with Carter’s opinion may combine their troops with his and answer the king’s summons. Now, those among you who will not go, please say so.”

Silence followed again. The middle-aged noble stepped forward and told Lorene that he would not go. However, even after waiting for a long time, except for him, not a single noble wished not to participate.

At the starting point of the mountain range where gemstones and gold were mined, mines were being formed. Perhaps because the sun was about to set, everything was gradually being dyed by the sunset. Two places on the cliff and about eight places beneath the ground were gradually being dug out. The ones fixed in place with braces and rebar and digging into the ground below were gem mines. They were intensively digging through the softest areas. The ones expanding the wide holes were people.

At the very bottom, they dug up the soil and ground and packed it in piles into round barrels, and in the middle, those were hauled upward. The people above received the barrels and loaded them onto carts, and several carts filled with barrels were carrying them somewhere. At the end of that route was a special sorting device. It was a device built from long rectangular stones. Two long ladders had been placed there.

Several carts were waiting as well. One man was carrying a barrel and climbing upward. Another man had already climbed up and was pouring out a barrel. The woman below was picking out large gemstones from the filtered gravel. One basket was full of gemstones. To the left, a cart loaded with gemstones was departing, and its destination was the temporary campsite all the way to the left. The place, which had once consisted only of simple tents, now had brick houses appearing one by one. To prepare for the night, campfires were blazing here and there. The largest was the campfire in the center.

About eight women were placing wood on it to light it now. Pots were already boiling over heated campfires throughout the campsite. Smoke filled with a fragrant smell swirled up from the pots. The faces of the young women stirring them were bright. Behind them, two young men who seemed to have finished work were laughing as they joked around, and farther behind, perhaps growing hungry, groups of people were walking over after finishing their work.

Among them was a man carrying something wrapped in cloth and hurrying somewhere. He stood before the largest brick house and knocked on the door several times, and when permission was given, he immediately entered. The inside was cozy. There was little furniture, but long pieces of leather had been draped several times to cover various places, and wood was quietly burning against one wall.

In the chair sat a young woman writing something. It was Christina. Christina greeted the man who had just entered. The man gave a brief greeting, hurried over to her, and placed something wrapped in cloth before her.

The heavy thing was about the size of a person’s forearm. When Christina peeled back the rolled cloth, a gemstone emitting dazzling light revealed itself. It was a diamond. Though it had not yet been polished, it shone transparently and clearly, making one’s mouth water on its own.

“I-it’s an incredible size.”

“Yes. It is the largest item found today.”

“Are there that many gemstones?”

“There are many! We will be able to raise the city up quickly.”

“What about gold?”

“It has not yet been dug as much as expected, but if we go farther inside, there seems to be a considerable amount buried there. I am truly grateful to you, Princess. To think you discovered such a place.”

“Ah. You seem to have misunderstood something. I did not discover it.”

“…Pardon?”

“Lord Louis… I mean, His Majesty seemed to know that something was buried here.”

“Thank God. So that was it. Then I think it is right to present this to the king. For the first harvest to be this large, heaven must surely be helping us.”

The corners of Christina’s mouth rose.

“Yes. It would be right to present this. May I take it personally?”

“Of course.”

“I plan to return to Roswaf tomorrow to report on the work here.”

“I will have horses prepared.”

Roswaf, the city that House Rose had owned until recently, was changing faster than it had changed over the past dozen years. After reaching the brink of destruction, the flame of life was burning again. The city was slowly being repaired, and a market was gradually forming. There was not yet a large volume of trade, but compared to the terrible situation not long ago, it was a considerable upward trend.

In front of the city, a group of people had set up formation. Hundreds of cavalry were lined up precisely. Before them, thousands of infantry, enough to make such cavalry seem laughable, were arranged. Every infantryman was sharp and well-armed. At the very front of the ordinary infantry standing like upright trees, centurions had their chests puffed out, and farther ahead, a small number of chiliarchs were standing.

And farther ahead, riding well-groomed horses, were two men. One was a sleek man with wavy hair, wearing a long cloak and leather clothes, and the other was a young noble mage with a pale impression, wearing a mixture of robes and high-quality linen.

The two were anxiously waiting for someone to come from inside the city. The two who had come to participate in the war as representatives of their respective houses were Parse Akiteia and Orsini Spessart. As expected, the two powerful houses that were firm allies of Louis and supporters of House Pontina had sent troops first.

“Ruderwin, huh. Is this a dream or reality?”

“We have not occupied it yet, Akiteia.”

“I was right, wasn’t I? Do you remember? That moment when we were wondering whether or not to support House Pontina.”

“……….”

“I knew it at once. The moment I saw him and his army entering Lebledna from atop the wall. I knew I had to follow him. Whether in army, background, or political position, House Parse was superior in every way, but I thought that man alone was impossible to estimate.”

“I thought that way to some extent as well.”

“You did? Do you remember arguing for a long time in front of the castle with that Batenberg scoundrel?”

“……..I do not remember.”

“Kkik-kik.”

“Phew. The difference has become enormous. Time has flowed equally for us, and yet. I envy Louis. It is a tremendous talent. Dazzling talent, I tell you. I am starting to doubt whether Louis is human or not.”

“Hey, watch your mouth.”

“Are you going to inform on me…?”

“Maybe.”

“Hah. You bastard. No more support for you from now on.”

“You know I was joking, right? Since he beat down a demon, he can’t be on that side, can he?”

“Ah… Now that I think of it, I also spoke with the holy knights because of that incident. After talking to them, I became even more curious, so I visited the place where Nestor had done those bizarre things….”

“…….”

“That place was hell.”

“…….What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. At my level, I would have found it hard to survive there for even ten minutes.”

“……….What about me?”

“You, about 0.5 seconds.”

A trumpet sounded long. The two stopped chatting and looked ahead. The castle gate opened, and one man was riding out on horseback. His distinctive presence was still the same, so the two immediately recognized Louis.

If Louis had not spoken first, perhaps the two would have found it difficult even to address him. Mana flowed around Louis to a degree they could hardly imagine. The flow was so vast that even the soldiers nearby could perceive it.

‘H-he has grown far more than back then.’

As a mage, Orsini Spessart quickly realized how much mana Louis had gathered. He also realized that Louis had already surpassed Sword Master Kaban Ferdinand.

“Good to see you. Thank you all for coming.”

“Parse Akiteia has arrived here with all the troops of my house to fulfill my duty upon receiving the king’s command.”

Louis nodded. Then he looked at Orsini Spessart. Orsini was so shocked by Louis’s growth that he was staring blankly. When Akiteia beside him warned him, he spoke hurriedly as if convulsing.

“H-House Orsini has arrived here to carry out its duty upon receiving the command.”

Louis nodded in the same way. Then he rode his horse toward the soldiers. The soldiers gathered like a mountain all grew tense at Louis’s appearance. One infantryman at the very front swallowed, and his Adam’s apple could be seen bobbing.

Even the chiliarchs who were seeing Louis for the first time could not dare look at the king, turning their eyes that had been staring into the air and fumbling while looking only at the empty sky. Because Louis was before an army, he was not suppressing his mana as he usually did, so he was truly like a great mountain. Before long, as if checking the condition of the soldiers, he rode around and looked over them, then shouted with mana in his voice.

“Thank you for coming. I am Pontina Louis, king of the Duchy of Eron. I am grateful that we will fight a glorious war together. We will soon attack Ruderwin. Soldiers, eat and rest sufficiently. Whether you wish to establish merit or earn money, the opportunity is before your eyes. Grasp this chance well. I have already devised a strategy to easily bring down Ruderwin. Do you believe in me?”

A tremendous roar poured out. It was loud enough to make one’s ears feel as if they would fall off. Spessart and Akiteia looked amazed that their own soldiers were this excited. Louis continued speaking.

“Good. Build a temporary encampment here.”