Holiday.

A holiday.

And yet the man fought on regardless.

‘If only there had been some proper cause for this fight, it might have made rather a splendid battle.’

“Ngh…!”

The man lost his balance and staggered, though it happened so fast that to Aspara’s eyes it looked only as if Volmo had abruptly tipped sideways.

Gus’s foot had risen as high as his own head; he must have kicked the blunt weapon straight out of the man’s hand.

The chunk of beef went flying and struck the hard ground with a clang-clang before tumbling to a stop.

“To use your feet in a sword fight — how cowar—”

Volmo’s sentence was cut off mid-word by a sharp crack.

Gus’s heel, raised high, had come snapping down to stamp squarely onto the crown of Volmo’s head.

“Keuk…!”

The man collapsed face-first onto the ground, and a dark, massive shadow fell over him.

The King of Barbarians.

Tip of his short sword pointed downward, he looked down at Volmo like a predator standing over its prey.

《Today’s work — done!》

Having rushed through her tasks, Star was on her way to find Ugli about the wager she had laid down some time ago.

Strictly speaking, it was only an idle test of pride between colleagues, so there was no real need to stand guard over the outcome. But in a grey castle with so few amusements, diversions were slim pickings for a young maid.

‘I’ll have to tell the older girls all about it later — really draw it out for them.’

At the end of the trail she had pattered down, the star of the wager turned out to be stuck fast to the side of a certain knight.

《Ah! Already?》

Thinking the wager had ended the moment the holiday began, Star felt the wind let out of her and cried out before she could stop herself. At the sound, the young knight sprang back like a cat that had seen a snake.

“—Ah, no…! — ——!”

Watching him startle, shove the other party away, and leap clear, Star felt a pang of mild apology, the kind you feel after spooking an animal mid-meal.

The sordid wager’s other party, shoved off by a startled Jack, lost his balance and plopped lightly to the ground. Jack tried to pull him up, failed, toppled over along with him, and then, flailing about in disarray, fled to the opposite side of the courtyard.

By the time Star came up to him, the knight had already darted off into the distance and vanished.

《Master Ugli, you just got dumped.》

《I did not get dumped.》

《You literally got dumped. On the ground.》

The older attendant glared down at the girl.

《You shouldn’t butt in on the middle of a wager.》

《Excuses.》

Star giggled and pulled him upright by the hand.

《Miss Star, what are you doing wandering around at this hour? There’s a market on, you could be off enjoying it.》

《I’m going. Just had to cover someone’s shift for a bit.》

Star briefly explained the castle lord’s return and how she’d ended up stuck with gate duty.

《Nothing much came of it. Just had one shipment of fresh produce brought in to move into place….》

《Fresh produce?》

《Yes, meat. A gift for the madam.》

《Meat as a gift—》

Ugli, who had been dusting off his knees, paused in mid-motion.

《Meat… the kind the castle lord prepared? Holiday gift?》

《Yep.》

《So he went ahead and cut it off after all?》

《No, not yet. It only means something if the madam does it.》

《He’s even making the madam do it?》

《That’s the whole point, isn’t it.》

In the end, the man has gone mad over a woman and is about to throw away a finger of his own, the castle lord’s confidant sighed.

《I’d better hurry and talk him out of it. Who in this world is that gift even meant to please?》

《Isn’t it nice, though? Revenge against one’s darling delivered as a present — it’s so romantic.》

《Revenge.》

For a moment Ugli felt something not quite fitting together, and thought it over carefully.

《Ahh, that’s it. No wonder — his choice of destination felt fishy somehow.》

《Isn’t it fabulous?》

《It’s on the same level as cutting off his finger.》

《But I really do think he took your advice seriously, Master Ugli. He’d even prepared a lot of things so the madam wouldn’t be frightened.》

Star bragged, looking as if she were somehow the one being praised.

《Preparations such as…?》

《A proper gift-wrap ribbon had been tied on.》

《On meat?》

《A really cute ribbon, at that.》

《Uh huh… sure….》

Ugli squeezed his eyes shut.

《Sure… just, look… sure… before you go doing anything, ask me first, I keep saying….》

《Master Ugli, every time we do anything, you come down on us.》

《Was I not supposed to come down on you?》

He fussed irritably for a moment, then realized he had just snapped at his lord and fell silent.

《So…》

Ugli went on.

《So where did you put him?》

《Sorry?》

《You’d need my authorization to take the key to the prison room.》

《Ah, the prison room.》

So there was such a place, thought the young attendant. A post-war-generation girl, she had known nothing about it.

《You didn’t come to get the key from me, then?》

《Hmmm.》

《Where did you put him, that man?》

《Hmmm.》

《…Where did you put him.》

The man lay collapsed on the cold ground, swearing inwardly.

When some furry little rodent in the storehouse had chewed through his ropes, he could easily have escaped on his own, and yet he had not fled.

No. He had thought, rather, that this was his opportunity.

A birth that was itself a disgrace to the family, and that family itself now fallen. A chance at heroism, granted to his despairing self.

A chance to rescue the grieving princess and return in glory: that was what Volmo had thought.

‘I was arrogant….’

Brief as it had been, he had dreamed broad-daylight dreams of rescuing the princess from the villain’s hands and escorting her home to her native land. He had dreamed a full twelve-volume epic of being welcomed home as the next heir and live-in son-in-law, blessed by a king and queen weeping with joy and gratitude.

‘This is my punishment for dreaming such an arrogant, empty dream.’

“Ahh, O barbarian! I shall accept an honorable death!”

Kill me, end this wretched life with your hand,

and Ara…fu…su…? Princess, please, live on in good health. I had even thought of marriage. Paru… um… Princess.

Rattling off a hole-ridden monologue inside his head, Volmo lay down resolutely, spread his arms wide, and shut his eyes tight.

Before this man who had just steeled himself for so noble a resolve, Gus was at a loss.

《— –…? —… — – – —….》

He glanced repeatedly at his wife hiding behind him, like a child who didn’t know what to do. However seasoned a warrior of a hundred battles one might be, when the defeated opponent started reciting a monologue in stage-actor fashion to hurry along his own death, one was bound to feel a little flustered.

“Come! Kill me! End my filthy life with your yet filthier hand. Though my life has not been one fit for a hero, its ending at the hand of a demon king — that at least shall befit one!”

《——… —….》

“Ahh, my bones — at least bury them in my true homeland, the central kingdom, Princess!”

For a moment Gus’s circuits of thought went blank at a spectacle the likes of which he had never seen in his life. Scratching his neck, he quietly extended the hilt of his short sword toward Aspara.

But at Aspara’s what on earth am I supposed to do with that expression, he wilted back down, left to stand stock-still in front of Volmo, not knowing what to do.

“Come now, kil— kuk!”

“You can’t die!”

In that instant, something like a blond flying squirrel came hurtling through the air and slammed down onto Volmo.

The castle lord and Aspara were both beginning to think they would very much like to go back to their room now.

The pig-of-a-baron had been a man with tremendous pride in noble culture.

That his son Volmo grew up obsessed with the same was only natural.

However, he had been born onto the carpet of disgrace.

A concealed child, a bastard son. A bloodline probably with a barbarian’s blood mixed in.

For this reason, Volmo had grown into an adult obsessed with “the sort of nobility one could enjoy even without a noble birth.”

That was, of all things, knightly culture.

An escape hatch from the caste system: a world where, however humble one’s birth and however illegitimate one’s status, so long as one bore honor in one’s bearing and skill in one’s sword, one could hold one’s head up high.

He nursed a powerful fantasy of living as a brave knight, of rescuing a princess from some distant land and becoming her rightful heir in a small but peaceful kingdom.

That was why he went around with a longsword at his waist and wearing blood-proof armor and the like, a guise that invited misunderstandings. In truth, he was a man who had never so much as seen a knight up close.

“Sir Knight….”

No. Or rather, up until just moments ago.

At the very instant he had steeled himself for death, Volmo had witnessed the paragon of knighthood.

“Are you all right, Princess? That barbarian has finally shown his true colors right in front of you!”

“It is nothing of the sort.”

The man who had come flying in valiantly to stand before the King of Barbarians appeared to be the kidnapped princess’s knight.

A blond knight standing against a backdrop of white backlight. Unlike himself, who had trembled and collapsed so ungracefully, this was the stance of a man whose brain did not seem to contain any such thing as fear.

‘What a relaxed posture. To face off against such a dangerous opponent in such an easy stance, at a moment like this.’

He instinctively surmised that the backlit knight must be a figure of tremendous skill.

Precisely what had just happened, he could not tell. But one thing was certain: the man had come charging in front of the King of Barbarians for the sake of his own mistress.

《— –….》

Gus let out a sigh that mingled puzzlement and confusion.

Tension still lingered, but his will to fight had all but vanished; before long, he was looking down with a pathetic expression at the chunk of meat Jack had, at some point, scooped up and was clutching tightly.

“Here, let that go, would you.”

“One must not let one’s guard go!”

“Not your guard — the meat, let go of the meat.”

“No.”

“You left your sword in your room again, didn’t you.”

“N…o.”

Aspara straightened her posture and pressed a hand to her aching head.

“Let us just… take a moment to sort this out.”

Aspara turned her head in turn and pointed to the man nearest her.