The Plan.

The Plan.

The castle lord had folded his long legs into a hunched, twisted angle and propped them across the tree root opposite, but not so much as a flicker of complaint or discontent crossed his face, and so Aspara never noticed the man’s discomfort.

The faint rustle of leaves and the cries of distant birds filled the air.

Time seemed to slow, and the bird did not take flight.

“Mm….”

Bit by bit, Aspara’s breathing settled into a steady, slowing rhythm.

《—!》

The castle lord gave a small start, then at once forced his shoulders to keep from twitching. Aspara had leaned her head against his shoulder and fallen asleep on him.

The man looked down at his wife in her sleep. The long lashes that were the mark of southern folk swayed in the gentle breeze like the buds of wildflowers.

《My lady… —, my lady…!》

“…Ah… yes? Ah!”

A hand was shaking her shoulder gently but firmly, and Aspara woke from her sleep. The lady opened her eyes and let out a small exclamation.

“Oh, my.”

What lay before her opened eyes was a burning shade of scarlet.

Scarlet plumage. A truly beautiful bird was perched upon her knee.

“Since when….”

The little bird hopped over towards Aspara’s thigh and tilted its head to one side, then the other.

“Hee hee — what an unwary little thing you are.”

The lady turned to the man at her side and beamed at him.

“Look. Surely this is more auspicious than chasing the bird off by shaking the tree, no?”

《—.》

The castle lord said nothing; he only looked at the bird. Without meeting Aspara’s eyes, he simply gazed at it, quietly. Just quietly.

After staring at it like that for some time, the man opened his mouth.

《My lady.》

“Yes?”

Aspara turned her head towards Gus.

But the castle lord did not turn his eyes to his wife; he kept them fixed on the bird and went on speaking.

《… — —.》

“…Yes?”

《Sha… sa-mo—.》

“Sha….”

“…. Sha-mo-ka-mi-ta.”

What on earth is he saying.

What word it was, what verb-ending it took, none of it did she understand. But it was, beyond any doubt, a word touched with faint affection and a flutter of the heart, and Aspara could feel as much.

The lady gave a small shrug. It was some unfathomable phrase of the north, but a phrase one might say upon seeing this beautiful bird; that much she could roughly guess.

Something of the order of, ‘How pretty the bird is.’ Or perhaps, ‘What good fortune.’

“Yes, I think so too. Sha-mo… Sha-mo-ka-mi-ta.”

The castle lord had never much believed the saying that the scarlet bird was an auspicious omen. Auspicious indeed. There had been a day when that bird took flight, and Gus had taken a spear deep through his thigh.

But today alone was different. Yes, the scarlet bird was, beyond any doubt, the auspicious omen that called down happiness.

《Well done…!》

When the bird at last came down from the tree, he was, if anything, disappointed. It meant the time had come to wake the wife who had fallen asleep against his shoulder.

《…My lady. My lady.》

“Mm….”

《I say, my lady!》

“…Ah… yes? Ah!”

When he carefully shook her shoulder, his wife woke from her sleep.

“Oh, my.”

Aspara seemed delighted and astonished at the bird before her eyes. The little bird sat upon the lady’s knee and tilted its head from side to side in a charming little gesture.

“Hee hee, — — —.”

《—.》

The lady gave him a charming little laugh and said something to him, but the castle lord, his mind taken up entirely with his own thoughts, only gazed at the bird in silence.

Now is the moment.

This was the moment, the very one. Gus had braced his heart and held it firm.

Now. Now, at long last, was the time to deliver that one phrase he had been practicing for so long.

The castle lord, gazing quietly at the bird without a word, opened his nervous, tight-pressed mouth slowly, carefully.

《My lady.》

Aspara turned her head towards Gus. Feeling her eyes on the side of his face, the castle lord shut his own eyes tight and spoke.

“…I adore you.”

Good. The pronunciation had come out just as he had practiced it. Delivering that sentence at last had Gus more on edge than he had ever been on any battlefield.

The startled look on his wife’s face was clearly there to be felt, even past his shut and clenched eyes.

“…Yes?”

“Sha… I adore you.”

“Sha….”

The lady let out a soft laugh, then leaned her head once more against the man’s shoulder and said:

“Yes, I, too—.”

The castle lord steadied his breath. Hoo, haa. He drew breath after breath to settle his heart, doing his best.

For if his heart were to burst now, with Aspara resting her head on his shoulder, he was afraid it might damage the lady’s delicate ear.

“I, too. I adore you.”

From that moment on, Gus began to believe in the superstition that the scarlet bird carried happiness in its wake.

Two days had passed since the three of them had returned from the head of the merchant house’s residence.

《His lordship’s been in awfully high spirits lately, hasn’t he.》

《Or maybe he’s in an awful mood?》

《Why do you have to start something — anyone can see he’s in a good mood.》

The castle workers wondered with one voice what on earth had happened during the meeting with the head of the merchant house. Gus’s spirits were soaring, unprecedentedly high, fit to scrape the heavens.

To be sure, the castle lord remained a man whose emotions did not show on his face, and so most of the people about him did not realize precisely how elated he was.

But because Gus was, on an ordinary day, more still than the surface of water in a bucket, even his very smallest stirring was enough to set tongues wagging.

The ones who felt most strongly that something about the man was different from the usual were his close confidants.

《Your lordship, the budget on this matter is….》

The castle lord had unilaterally pushed through a permit for a tunnel-construction project that required a considerable budget. It was the sort of thing he, in his usual state, would absolutely never have done.

The monthly officers’ council was held without fail. One of the officers cautiously pointed out the unilateral nature of that permit.

《The budget being requested is rather large to pass through on your lordship’s authority alone. Would it not be more proper to put it through after the council has reviewed it?》

Objectively speaking, it was not a bad deal. But the fact remained that most northerners were, to begin with, opposed to the very idea that that woman’s debts should be repaid out of the national treasury.

《It is a venture that would have had to be taken up sooner or later.》

《Matters of business are not my field of expertise. The one thing I can say with certainty is that this construction is not a sound choice for the safety of the nation.》

The first to raise an objection was the general in charge of the troops, the commander of the Defense Corps. She was a woman with a mane of stark white hair, one of the few talented people who did not particularly fear the castle lord.

《That mountain is, beyond doubt, an obstacle to the flow of trade. But it is also useful as a natural rampart against invaders.》

A confident voice rang through the meeting room.

《With trade as inactive as it is at present, I see no need to go to the trouble of cutting a road through our rampart. The losses on this venture outweigh the gains.》

《This is a long-term matter.》

《But—》

《It is not that the road is unnecessary because trade is inactive. It is because there is no road that trade has not become active.》

The castle lord repeated, word for word, what he had himself heard from the head of the merchant house. The elderly woman, unable to refute him, sat back down, though her face was set with displeasure.

《Is there anyone else who objects?》

Gus called out in a firm voice. It was less a question than a declaration.

《If there is one who objects, let him stand up and speak now.》

The room fell silent.

The officers were watching one another’s eyes for who would dare stand up and raise a complaint.

《….》

《Unanimous, then.》

The meeting came to a safe close, in an aggressive sort of peace.

When the meeting ended, most of the officers returned to their posts to see to their own duties.

Only two people were left in the room. Ugli, running his eye over the minutes one more time, and Gus, tidying up the chairs.

It was the kind of scene that might, to an outside eye, suggest the two of them had somehow swapped roles.

Halfway through arranging the chairs, Gus opened his mouth.

《Ugli.》

《Yes, my lord — what is it?》

He cleared his throat with a sound like he was holding back a laugh.

《Now that I think on it, much has happened….》

Ugh — I sense the start of bullshit. Should not have asked.

《Do you remember when I first met my wife? It feels like only the other day she was stepping down from that carriage, that small body trembling in the cold….》

《Yes, I remember.》

Ugli remembered, all right. He remembered a cute little boy stepping down from that carriage, shivering and falling flat on his face.

《I think she and I have… grown much closer. Emotionally, I mean.》

《That is a relief.》

Whatever it was, it seemed something good had come of his trip to the head of the merchant house’s place. Ugli resolved not to ask after the particulars. Annoyance had won out over curiosity.

Gus, having no close friends to speak of, seemed to have only Ugli to talk to about matters of romance, and once he had started in on the subject, his words ran on, uncharacteristically long for him.

《How are you faring these days?》

《Me? Oh, well….》

《I speak now not as your superior but as a friend. You, too, ought to settle down before long.》

《Hah… right….》

《From of old, a warrior should have a household to defend.》

《You must have had a very fine time at the residence.》

Watching the castle lord smile bashfully, his face brimming over with the wish to brag, Ugli jabbed at his side with his elbow.

《So — what exactly happened?》

《It is not a matter to share lightly with another.》

《There’s only the two of us here right now. I, too, speak as a friend, you see?》

The castle lord drew the moment out as though debating with himself, and answered.

《My wife and I… my wife and I had some time alone together in the woods.》

《In the woods?!》