The Lady Of The Red Moon (20)

Kaiston spoke coaxingly to the terrified Liris.

“So be honest even now. If you become my bride, I’ll take you everywhere I go, and you won’t gain any of the comforts of a duchess. You’ll live the same stifling life as now.”

“Master…”

Liris quietly looked up at him. It felt strange. He seemed to be scaring her so thoroughly that she’d want to run. He claimed to like her. If he did, wouldn’t he be trying with all manner of sweet talk to make her choose him now, regardless of what comes later?

Yet somehow it also felt like a wounded beast baring its teeth to threaten. Was he afraid of getting hopes up? Pushing her away in case she trusted him and was horribly betrayed?

“As long as you don’t betray me?”

“…What do you mean?”

“Master doesn’t know much about me either. My present self might have lies mixed in.”

Kaiston silently stared at her. For a moment she thought he was frightened, then he met her eyes again, a deliberately dangerous air in him.

“…Alright. Just don’t betray me.”

“Good!”

“…What?”

“I’ll marry you, Master!”

A crease formed between his brows.

“You. Are you sure you understood everything I said just now?”

“Of course. If I marry you, Master, aren’t we able to be together for life?”

“That’s… true.”

Liris’s amber eyes brightened as she beamed.

“That’s enough for me.”

“Liris.”

“I love you, Master. Very much.”

Kaiston’s face hardened.

“Ha.”

A hollow laugh of disbelief. He nervously swept back his hair and stared straight into Liris’s amber eyes. After a long moment, he admitted it.

He had lost, to this small woman.

“Alright. I’ll believe you.”

Kaiston took her wrist and helped her up. He lifted her slight frame and, without even drying the moisture, carried her from the bath to the bed and laid her down. The sheet darkened and grew damp, but no one cared.

“Master…”

Her body, still heated—or perhaps made hotter by speaking with him—ached and longed desperately for his body.

A faint smile touched his mouth.

“We must finish what we started, my ‘lady’.”

His violet eyes softened and his tone became oddly gentle. Liris felt something inside her lurch with a thud and stared at him in a daze.

He, who had held her beneath him, cradled her cheek and slowly pressed his lips to hers. Hot breaths mingled and sweet saliva passed between them. Smooth and soft, each consumed the other as if pleading.

Perhaps because he had finally seized the heart that had eluded him, Kaiston, and Liris, ravenously sought one another. From sunset’s hush in the chamber until the deep of night, as if this moment were both the first and the last.

Saik, curious that the Commander had disappeared into his office after barely touching breakfast, read through the sheets that had been prepared over and over.

“W-what is this?”

“A dispatch to Sinal.”

“No. I’m not asking because I don’t know that.”

Saik felt like grabbing the Commander’s collar if he could. He didn’t act because he was certain he’d be tossed aside the moment he reached out.

“You’re marrying the suspicious female slave the Emperor sent, after only a month of knowing her?”

Kaiston, who had tilted his head at Saik’s long-winded question, soon nodded.

“It’s been a little over a month, I think. Yes.”

“Commander!”

Kaiston snorted at Saik, who looked as if he wanted to ball up the papers and throw them.

“It’s fine.”

“What do you mean by ‘fine’?!”

Kaiston took the papers from Saik’s hand and said, “I’ve really thought hard. Whether that damn man has anything left to take from me.”

He placed the sheets into the transmitter one by one. Saik watched in a daze as the mana-stone lit and each paper was drawn in.

“Now there’s nothing left of me but this body, then.”

Watching the final sheet finish sending, Saik imagined for a moment how grandly Sinal would be thrown into uproar.

“So it’ll be fine. Probably.”

“…What’s with that ‘probably’?”

Feigning not to notice Saik’s unusually serious face, Kaiston rummaged a drawer. Saik, clicking his tongue in disbelief, pulled from the top shelf a box hidden away. Seeing Kaiston seek this, Saik realized the Commander must be near the end of his rope and couldn’t scold him further.

“Ah. Thanks, Saik.”

Kaiston, unusually grateful, took a few lozenges from the box and popped them into his mouth. The sweetness eased his mood; the tightening anxiety in his chest seemed to lessen. He’d told Saik it was fine, but in truth it wasn’t.

The Emperor had destroyed his nation, taken his parents hostage, and kept him in the Red Moon for twelve long years. How could he not be uneasy now that he’d lost his heart completely to someone sent by that Emperor? No matter how he thought about it, there seemed nothing left for that man to take from him, but one never truly knew.

Kaiston closed the box, hid it again, sighed, and turned away.

“Has a reply come from the Imperial Palace?”

“Not yet, but it should soon. It’s customary to go to Sinal at the start of the year.”

“I can’t trust that bastard to be careless.”

“Ha. Yes. Who can know the Emperor’s mind.”

Kaiston folded his arms and lowered his eyes in thought, briefly frowning.

“Saik.”

“Yes. Speak.”

“You mentioned having a younger sister?”

“…Why do you ask?”

Kaiston opened his eyes and fixed him with a steady gaze. It was clear he’d been too lenient with his subordinates lately, answering back at every turn.

“Ugh. Yes, I do.”

“Good.”

Kaiston allowed a faint smile.

“Find out what women in their early twenties like.”

“Commander!”

Kaiston waved him away as Saik shouted until his ears could have split.

“Don’t speak about it until you’ve found out.”

Saik dashed out of the office with a silent scream; Kaiston clicked his tongue.

“Even so, he wasn’t the sort to go that far off the rails.”

While chaos spread across the Empire over Duke Kaiston Crunel’s bizarre actions, the Emperor himself was also deeply troubled with a grave expression.

“A banquet…”

The man who’d been quiet for over a decade suddenly announced a banquet at the Sinal lord’s castle. The only notable change in his situation was the Crown Princess. The Emperor couldn’t guess his intent.

“Gern.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

A man with a gray robe pulled up with his head bowed.

“You said you’d be going to Sinal soon, yes?”

“Yes. I’ll go personally to collect rare ingredients.”

Gern, one of the Mage Towers’ masters, had established the tower’s branch in Sinal. Sinal, where the remains of the Red Moon’s monsters first came through, was a treasure trove for enchanters.

“Then on your way, deliver a few things to Duke Crunel.”

“Will he even meet me?”

“You developed a new artifact, didn’t you? An improved version of the boundary stones.”

Gern blinked.

“You want me to supply that to Sinal first? We don’t have much stock yet.”

“Yes. That much is necessary to make him find time to meet you.”

The Duke, who knew the Mage’s Tower acted as the Emperor’s hand, also knew how to separate public and private matters.

“Yes. Understood.”

Gern accepted the supreme magic bag the Emperor handed him and bowed politely.

“Ah, and.”

He paused, cleared his throat a few times, and continued.

“If possible, attend the banquet as well.”

“Me? Attend?”

“Yes. The tower will send people to oversee security anyway. You could go then.”

It felt odd for a tower master to take on such a role, but Gern nodded. It wouldn’t hurt to make a good impression on Sinal’s duke.

“Understood. I will report back after I return.”

The Emperor smiled faintly.

“Good. Do well.”

Liris looked puzzled at Kaiston, who watched her silently with his arms crossed. He seemed very uncomfortable.

“Master? Is something troubling you?”

“Liris. Today is the final day of the knights’ martial contests. Will you go see them?”

“R-really? Will you show me?”

It was a decision he’d made after several days of deliberation.

“You said you like me, so I’m going to try trusting you.”

“Yes?”

She didn’t quite see the link between watching the contests and his trust, but she was happy he said he’d trust her.

“Don’t worry. I won’t cause trouble.”

Kaiston sighed softly and suddenly took Liris’s hand.

“Let’s go.”

Liris’s eyes widened as he walked holding her hand. Was he really going to act like this even in front of the knights?

The final day’s duels of the seven-day contest took place only in the single central arena. Kaiston sat Liris in the chair he’d prepared in the best spot to view the arena.

Over four hundred knights watched them without a sound as Kaiston led Liris out and seated her. Only after he turned toward them did they drop to one knee with a thud to pay his respects.

After Kaiston received their salute, Saik stepped forward to announce the day’s matches. Liris was startled to learn that the four captains of the knightly orders could change each year by the results. She thought a captain needed more than mere martial skill: leadership to guide knights, quick and accurate judgment, and flexible tactics in any situation.

Kaiston answered her curiosity. The Red Moon’s knights operate in squads of twenty; when a squad leader is appointed, they receive training fitting that role. They also scout among their nineteen members for potential future leaders to gradually replace themselves.

It was desperate effort to avoid annihilation should a captain fall in battle. Thus, what a captain leading five squad leaders must overwhelmingly possess was martial power. In other words, the captain of the Red Moon’s knights was meant to be the frontline soldier who stood in the most dangerous places.

Liris wondered why anyone would fight so desperately for such a perilous post. She understood the Red Moon’s knights weren’t particularly obsessed with ‘honor.’

“What’s good about becoming a captain?”

It was Saik, not Kaiston, who answered Liris’s question.

“Even serving just one year as captain earns you a lifetime pension upon retirement. Also, only captains and above can use a single-person chamber, and that chamber even has a bathtub.”

“Ah… I see.”

“But the greatest privilege is being personally trained in swordsmanship by Commander Kaiston. The skill of captains who endure that year becomes incomparable to before.”

As expected, even the youngest-looking captain, Zik, was taking the lead in the duels without much difficulty.

“It seems no surprises will occur this year either. The squad leaders’ skills are nothing like last year’s.”

Kaiston clicked his tongue at Saik’s remark.

“How do you surpass men who know nothing but fighting? From next year I might put first-ranked squad leaders into training as well. The rest of the squad leaders you’ll help instruct.”

“Yes. Understood.”

After Zik, Ban, who fought last, also won without much difficulty. The four confirmed captains stood before their orders and a thunderous cheer rose. The captains’ overwhelming prowess was a source of pride for their knights.

“Then now, it’s time to select the knight order that will accompany us to Sinal.”

“Will the captains fight each other?”

“They will compete, yes, but the method differs each year.”

“How so?”

Saik shrugged at Liris’s question.

“It’s the Commander’s decision.”

Kaiston stepped forward. Silence fell over the training ground. The four captains came and stood before him. He looked over Haris, Zik, Nel, and Ban in turn and spoke.

“What I always demand of you is survival. So, today…”

In Kaiston’s hand gleamed the famed sword Pluto.

“The task is to endure for as long as possible.”