92 — 10 (2)

The square was silent. Everyone held their breath, watching Conrad’s next move. Louis watched Conrad’s body trembling violently. So the killing intent got through cleanly. As expected, he’s nothing special—that was Louis’s judgment.

He caught sight of Anok, his face flushed with excitement like a man who’d just gained the whole world, even though he hadn’t had a drop to drink. Don’t cry. Then you won’t be able to properly watch the banner burn, will you? Louis jerked his chin. It was the signal to bring the stolen house banner together with a torch. Because Louis had explained this beforehand, Anok understood perfectly from that single gesture. He lifted his chin, squared his shoulders, lit the empty torch, and walked over to Louis.

That alone was enough to make the citizens realize something was about to happen, and they gasped. The nobles’ mouths fell open, their pupils dilating. They had realized he meant to burn the house standard.

“Ghhk…”

Haidek Conrad kneeled before Louis. For a man of his temperament, this was a situation painful enough to leave a lifelong trauma, and it was unfolding right in front of Louis’s eyes. Louis looked down at the kneeling Conrad and took the blazing torch from Anok.

“I, Pontina Louis, lost my elder brother to Marquis Haidek Gangpireu. And so I sent you a blood-letter vowing revenge for my family. What I am about to do now is something I already announced. You surely laughed off my warning back then, but I was serious then, and I am serious now.”

With those words, Louis set the banner alight right in front of Conrad’s eyes. The flames wrapped around the crest in an instant and began to devour it. In a state of shock, Conrad watched as his family’s emblem burned.

It didn’t take long. Soon there was nothing beneath but a patch of black ash. Louis was satisfied. He had fulfilled his oath in front of everyone. He decided there would be no problems going forward.

Killing them would be an act in defiance of the prince-king’s order, so that was out of the question. But it seemed he had succeeded in branding them with a humiliation and disgrace they would never wash away for the rest of their lives.

Louis had scored a deep crack across the pride of Ophus, the city that had stood for six hundred years without ever being occupied. He sensed that this scar would be talked about for generations, even if the Principality of Aeron itself someday fell.

If the ancestors of House Pontina could see him, they would be singing his praises. How could they not, when they had spent so many long years locked in rivalry with House Haidek? It was as good as over now.

Even after the banner was reduced to ash and the fire writhed a little longer on the ground before dying out entirely, Haidek Conrad and the nobles who held power in Ophus were so shocked that they could not take their eyes off it. They would probably bear a lifelong grudge against Louis, but Louis almost looked forward to that.

“Stand up. The oath has been fulfilled.”

Whether he heard or not, Conrad still couldn’t get up. Strictly speaking, he had heard. But he had just experienced the most humiliating moment of his entire life. When he saw the unfair terms Louis would soon put before him, he would foam at the mouth all the more—but Louis ignored him and flicked his hand. It was the signal to clear the square.

Whether stunned or elated, the spectators who had watched so fervently were now dispersing. Louis mounted his horse. He intended to enter the lord’s manor and discuss what resources he would be taking from Ophus.

A few nobles came forward, grabbed Conrad by both arms, and finally managed to haul him to his feet.

“Please compose yourself, my lord! What comes next is even more important. You must pull yourself together.”

“……………”

Inside the manor, in the seat where Haidek Gangpireu had always conducted his business, Louis now sat. In front of him sat Conrad, who looked as if he had aged a dozen years in an instant, and standing without even a chair were Raud of House Reukeu—the same man who had conveyed the surrender to Louis earlier—and six others, each representing a core noble house of the city.

Naturally, Louis’s officers Anok, Boromir, Calben, Gaion, and Jordan were present as well, along with a handful of soldiers. The audience chamber was fairly spacious, but somehow it felt cramped. Perhaps it was the murderous atmosphere radiating from Louis’s side; no one even reached for the fruit or the alcohol set out on the table.

Raud of House Reukeu, who had been watching the rigid Haidek Conrad out of the corner of his eye, was worried.

‘My lord has to relax a little. Just how far are you going to push him, Duke Louis?’

Watching Louis calmly proceed step by step through each stage, Raud felt he now understood why Marquis Haidek had lost the war. Whatever had happened, someone should have stopped the marquis’s greed.

But the dice had already been cast. At this point, there was nothing Raud could do. All he could do was hope that Conrad, son of Marquis Haidek, would somehow manage to handle things well.

“Now, read it.”

Until he had met Louis, Conrad had been swollen with pride. Now, cowed and beaten down, he read through the document Louis handed him. His face quickly darkened.

“This is far too excessive.”

“What part is excessive? Speak concretely.”

“If we have to send this many young people to you every year, we won’t have anyone left to defend this place.”

“And, go on.”

“Secondly, the grain tribute… Twenty percent of total output is far too large a figure.”

“Next.”

“The amount of compensation we must pay…”

Louis cut him off.

“Clause one is absolutely non-negotiable. You either accept it, or…”

Louis stared straight at Conrad, and Conrad swallowed without meaning to.

“…you’d best be prepared to face what comes after.”

No one understood better than Conrad what Louis’s words implied. This was the very method Conrad himself had liked to use when expanding his own power. And how had he done it? He had never even offered a choice. Now he was the one on the other side of that tactic, and the thought plunged him into depression and despair. Yet he knew perfectly well what would happen if he refused. Just like the elder brother he had recently assassinated, he would end up missing and dead, his corpse buried in some out-of-the-way place.

Normally, when a family crest was burned, a lord would fly into a rage. But Conrad didn’t even dare dream of defying Louis. The fact that Louis had already burned the Haidek crest was proof enough that he was willing to do even worse things without batting an eye.

It was an act that broke the unwritten rules of the nobility, and something only a man with the connections and ambition to handle the aftermath could do. Seeing Louis carry it out so confidently, Conrad concluded that he might even have ties reaching all the way to the prince-king. It was an overestimation in some ways, but that was just how shocking Louis’s behavior had been—a bold move that would be talked about for centuries.

“Speak. I’m tired. I want to wrap up this negotiation quickly. If you annoy me, I won’t bother leaving you any choice at all.”

Inside, Louis was laughing at Conrad, son of Marquis Haidek Gangpireu. This was the exact negotiation style Gangpireu himself had favored. Using a technique he had learned from the father on the son felt strange, but not in an unpleasant way.

When Louis tapped the table with his fingertips, the atmosphere, already bleak, grew even heavier. Perhaps because of that weight, the six nobles might as well have been props. If there had been anyone of real character among them, this would have been the moment to risk his life and protest, but unfortunately there was no one left with that kind of courage and sense of honor.

There had been exactly one man with such honor and skill: Ottomar. But Ottomar had lost his head to Anok in single combat when Marquis Haidek went to war with Fred.

The nervous nobles were drenched in cold sweat. If we agree to this, we’re done for… Someone help Conrad, quickly… They exchanged a flurry of such thoughts through their eyes, but time passed all the same.

Conrad was taking Louis’s aura head-on. Though there were many people in the room, he felt as if he were alone, set in front of a predator.

Born the son of a regional strongman, he had never once met anyone from a position lower than his own. That might have been why he had absolutely no resistance to this sort of pressure. In the end, his choice was number three.

“…We’ll go with option three.”

“Good. Then from now on, House Haidek will send a yearly tribute of young men fit to be used as new recruits, and will deliver twenty percent of its total production to House Pontina.”

Louis extended his hand. He was asking for a handshake. Conrad flinched on reflex, but managed to regain his senses and take Louis’s hand. Louis immediately asked, “Any objections?”

Conrad did not answer.

Saying nothing, in this situation, was as good as consent. Anok, being a warrior, did not quite grasp what Louis was doing, but Calben, Boromir, and especially Gaion and Jordan, all men with some head on their shoulders, shivered at Louis.

He’s done something few people could pull off, and he’s done it so boldly.

‘My lord… Fred, please forgive me for thinking this, but House Pontina is going to become terrifyingly powerful.’

Gaion could not help letting his joy show on his face as he watched the document being finalized. This was a grave occasion, and given that he had so recently been a commander under Pontina Fred, he ought not to have done so—but the very figure he had longed for in a lord was standing right before his eyes. He was simply too happy.

Jordan, who had been hiding his emotions completely, was quietly surprised by Gaion’s change of heart. Even so, there was nothing in Louis’s conduct thus far that looked wrong; it was flawless.

There were quite a few people present, and a storm of emotions crossed their faces in a way that invited comparison. At the center of it all, Louis signed the document, and with that, everything was over. Knowing what growth meant, Louis had pushed this hard for one reason only.

Securing human resources. As long as he could forcibly draw that much from this marquisate, House Haidek would never again be able to raise a rebellious hand against him.

In truth, clauses two and three meant little to Louis. They were there to disguise clause one. This way, the Haidek side could tell themselves they had at least avoided the worst-case scenario, while Louis legally bound them to the one condition that truly mattered.

Had they been a little bolder, had they pushed a little harder, Louis had even been prepared to drop clauses two and three entirely. But as he had already judged, the sons of Marquis Haidek Gangpireu were mongrels who did not measure up to half of their father’s caliber.

As he toured the four newly seized cities, Louis carried out a thorough purge of the local power structures. Existing noble elites were either killed or forcibly exiled, and the lesser nobles who had never even dared to breathe freely under them were made to swear oaths of loyalty. Even Louis had to admit the method was extremely effective.

With rumors already rampant that he had burned the crest of House Haidek, there was not a single mid- or low-ranking noble brave enough to reject Louis’s proposal. In the second city and beyond, nobles who had managed to glean some information about his approach would rush to him the moment he arrived, slam their heads against the floor, and beg.

In the midst of all this, a letter arrived. Jordan, who had now effectively become Louis’s chief of staff, happily accepted it. The seal on it was so distinctive that anyone could tell at a glance who had sent it. The Principality of Aeron’s prince-king, Gridio Orphendius. A royal letter.

Louis took the lavishly decorated missive from Jordan and opened it without much reaction. He did feel a faint worry that his recent unrestrained behavior might have caused trouble with the crown, but the contents of the letter turned out to be simple.

“Hah.”

Louis let out a short laugh, and Jordan, eyes round with curiosity, asked,

“What is it, my lord?”

“They say they’ll be holding a grand banquet in the capital to celebrate my formal succession.”