Victor Mort (3)

Before long, the three of them began roaming all over the place together every day.

Mort was a border region without much entertainment, but Kaltz always came back after picking up all sorts of rumors from the surrounding area. The stories he brought were more than enough to pique the young knights’ interest.

The three of them bought some unidentified grilled meat in the plaza and ended up with stomachaches, and they broke a ferryboat while trying to spear fish. They even returned covered in mud after romping through a swamp to see a swamp golem.

The people around them looked leniently upon the young lord, who was causing trouble with companions his own age for the first time.

There was only one occasion when he was scolded. It was when they climbed a mountain in winter to pluck griffin feathers.

They easily managed to find a griffin nest and hunt one down, but honestly, who could have known that griffin meat was poisonous? The three of them roasted the griffin over a campfire and ate it, only to roll around in agony from stomach cramps. In the end, they had to be carried back on the backs of the search party that came to find them.

Morteon, who had led the search party all the way into the mountains, personally carried Victor down on his back while lecturing him.

“How could you do something this reckless in the middle of winter?”

“Sorry, brother.”

Morteon sighed at his younger brother’s words.

“I’m not saying this to make you apologize.”

His voice was warm. His brother admonished him.

“Even if you were fine, your friends could have been put in danger. You have to protect your people, Victor. Your comrades, your friends, and your allies. That is the duty of someone as strong as you.”

Victor remained silent for a moment, then quietly nodded. Morteon hitched him higher on his back and let out a deep sigh.

“When did you get this big? You’re too heavy for me to carry.”

“Next time, I’ll carry you, brother.”

At Victor’s words, Morteon burst out laughing.

“Just stop causing trouble, you little menace.”

Victor giggled and clung tightly to his brother’s back.

Every day was like that. Surrounded by the boundless affection of his brother, the knights, and his friends, Victor Mort gradually learned how to laugh more loudly.

Several more years passed, and he grew into a fairly cheerful young man. Everyone loved the young lord with his great height, sturdy physique, and overwhelming skill. The newly admitted knight candidates admired Victor as though he were a god.

Watching the trainees secretly observing Victor’s practice from a corner, Kaltz became nostalgic.

“I had a time like that too…….”

“When exactly? You were always rude to me.”

“Rude? I was being friendly.”

Kaltz leisurely picked at the dried fruit the attendants had brought. Leonard, who had been diligently swinging his sword, clicked his tongue as though he found him pathetic.

“You do realize the formal entrance examination is coming up soon, don’t you?”

“Leonard, do you honestly think we’re going to fail?”

Kaltz replied indifferently.

The senior knight examination of Mort had different subjects every year, and it usually assigned a task involving the resolution of an important problem in the territory. This year’s task happened to be a griffin hunt. The griffin flock in the mountain behind the castle had multiplied so much that it had become difficult for people to pass through the area.

Kaltz shrugged.

“As long as we don’t roast and eat them, we can probably come back without a scratch.”

“Did you forget that Victor was the one who killed the griffin back then?”

“That was years ago! And the young lord is coming with us this time too. If things go wrong, he’ll kill them all for us, right?”

Kaltz raised his eyebrows slyly. Victor remained silent for a moment before answering.

“I’m not going.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, brother…… seems to think I don’t need to take the examination.”

Leonard and Kaltz tilted their heads in unison.

Morteon disliked special treatment, and he had made sure Victor could enter the knight order by following the same process as the other knights as much as possible. It was strange for someone like him to exempt his younger brother from the entrance examination.

However, Victor’s skill was beyond question, so they merely shrugged.

“Well, if you came with us, it wouldn’t be much of an examination.”

“We probably wouldn’t even get the chance to draw our swords.”

Then they started chattering noisily again.

Victor swallowed a sigh and lowered his sword. There was another reason he would not be taking the entrance examination, but he could not reveal it even to his friends.

He had already passed the examination in another way. By defeating Morteon.

─On the day the entrance examination notice was posted, his brother asked him whether he wanted to try a method that would allow him to become a senior knight without taking the examination. Victor nodded without thinking deeply about it, and he sparred with Morteon using real swords for the first time in a long while.

After their swords clashed several times, he realized it. His brother was no longer stronger than him.

‘So this is how it is.’

Realizing that Victor was deliberately holding back, Morteon lowered his sword.

‘Amazing, Victor.’

Victor looked at his brother.

His brother was smiling, but an unavoidable bitterness lingered around his eyes. Morteon was the next grand duke and Victor’s elder brother, but before all else, he was a knight. There was no such thing as a knight who enjoyed defeat.

Victor sheathed his sword and cautiously asked,

‘Are you angry?’

‘Of course not.’

Morteon shook his head. The bitterness that had lingered around his eyes had already disappeared. He spoke clearly.

‘I’m proud of you. I always will be.’

‘…….’

‘You defeated the acting commander, so you are now a senior knight of the Mort Knight Order. Congratulations, little brother.’

His brother’s hand gripped his shoulder. Victor stared at Morteon, overwhelmed by an indescribable feeling.

Now that they were nearly the same height, his brother looked smaller than before. Even so, the hand around his shoulder was large and warm. It was the hand that had practically raised him.

Swallowing the emotion swelling in his chest, Victor nodded.

‘Thank you, brother.’

─Victor concealed Morteon’s defeat, and the apprentice knights departed to hunt griffins without him. Leonard and Kaltz returned after achieving the best results among all the candidates.

Not long afterward, the three of them were formally knighted.

Feeling the blade of his lord—Morteon—touch his shoulder, Victor made a firm resolution.

From now on, he will protect his brother.

However, the days of peace did not last very long. Talk of war had slowly begun to spread from the capital. From what they had heard, the trade dispute with the Southern Kingdom had grown severe, and the southern nobles who mainly traded with that kingdom had begun voicing their dissatisfaction.

Kaltz commented crookedly,

“They’re disgustingly greedy. They’ve been trading under an unequal treaty from the start, so of course the other side isn’t being cooperative.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Every part of the trade treaty with the Southern Kingdom favors the Empire. Because we’re the stronger nation. So why would the Southern Kingdom want to trade with us?”

He clicked his tongue irritably.

“Even now, look at us. We just call that country the Southern Kingdom, even though its official name is Indigo Land. From their perspective, how obnoxious do you think Imperials must seem?”

Victor and Leonard looked at Kaltz in surprise. They knew he possessed all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge, but they had not expected such a sophisticated explanation.

Seeing their expressions, Kaltz raised his eyebrows.

“What? I’m from the south.”

“I thought you just lazed around and enjoyed yourself there.”

“Hey! I’m still a count’s son!”

The argument veered off topic again. Victor barely managed to steer their conversation back to the original subject.

“Do you think a war will break out?”

Their expressions immediately became somber at the question.

“I believe it is highly likely. A mobilization order has already been issued to knights throughout the country.”

“An expeditionary force will probably be organized once the harvest season ends.”

“Do you think it will be very dangerous?”

Both of them turned their eyes toward Victor.

Victor did his best to keep his expression blank, but in truth, he was worried. If an expeditionary force was assembled, its commander would be Grand Duke Mort, who was currently in the capital. No matter how distant their relationship was, the grand duke was still his father. He could not help but worry.

As though reading Victor’s thoughts, Leonard said,

“It’ll be fine. The difference in military strength is overwhelming. The Mort Knight Order may not even need to fight.”

Kaltz chimed in as well.

“Well, personally, I don’t think they’re such an easy opponent, but…… what could possibly happen? Your father is an incredibly strong knight!”

“……I suppose so.”

Victor quietly agreed. Although he had never witnessed it himself, he had heard that his father was a remarkably strong knight, roughly on par with Morteon. He might not have been as strong as Victor, but at that level, there was little chance he would die to a stray blade.

Victor cast the thought aside and silently swung his sword. This was the only thing he could do right now. Train diligently and become even more overwhelmingly powerful. Then, if he ever had to go to war, protect his people.

That was all he wished for.