Crang lifted his wineglass and spoke. Except for the drops of dark red liquid clinging to the inside, nothing remained in the cup he held.
"Ah, this is victory wine. My knight won, so of course we should have a celebratory drink."
He looked as though he had drunk quite a lot. His face was red, and there was force in his tone.
At Crang's smiling words, Valmung let out a hollow laugh. That king really does like provoking people.
It wasn't as though Valmung was fine with losing either, but he suppressed his feelings before the more important matter at hand.
And yet they kept poking at it. That Enkrid bastard did, that Rem bastard did, and now even the king was doing it.
This really is getting under his skin.
If knights fought with their lives on the line, there was no telling how it would turn out. Did they know that and still act this way because they wanted him to make a mistake?
'Or maybe they're just teasing me because they enjoy it.'
If it was the latter, then this really was a strange king with strange knights. Valmung also tossed back the wine in front of him in one gulp.
"Then I suppose this is penalty wine. I said something I shouldn't have. I had Lady Seriana's permission, but I thought it might make it easier to get our feelings across this way. For the record, Lady Seriana tried to stop me, but I figured if I swore an oath, it might be easier for you to trust us, so I stepped in."
He wasn't a politician. He spoke, saying one thing and then another, in a way that was hard to call eloquent.
"This is a situation that would be hard to believe unless the other side were fools. That is not to insult your honor, sir."
Kraiss replied.
That too was subtle. It was a way of saying he respected Valmung's honor, but the situation was what it was.
"His Majesty heard the story of the knight and the king who killed a demon, and wishes to meet that king and speak with him closely."
Lady Seriana spoke again.
"If it's simply a matter of talking, then why not do it through letters or envoys?"
This time, Crang replied.
"He said wanting to see you in person was his own greed."
"Interesting."
"And he also said that if he did not see you in person, you would never believe it, yet would ask that exact question all the same."
"…Now this is truly interesting."
Crang was honestly curious what sort of face this emperor had. Far away in the imperial capital, seated upon his own throne, the man had predicted this conversation between himself and the envoy. Crang wanted to glimpse that wisdom, and he was curious about the intent behind someone who did this sort of thing, appearance included. Nothing whatsoever was known of the emperor of the Empire, not even his age.
Some said the emperor had never once changed. Others said the emperor was in truth a fictional being created by dozens of people.
In reality, even among those who served within the Empire, very few ever met the emperor face to face.
And they neither spoke of the emperor nor discussed him. The emperor took no children and no wife, and simply existed. That was the kind of seat the emperor of the Empire occupied.
Because the emperor hid that thoroughly and revealed nothing, to some he became an incalculable terror, while to others he was revered like a god.
Crang quietly looked at Enkrid. Kraiss lightly shook his head, but that friend of his was anxious by nature.
'If I die.'
Marcus could govern in his place.
He had already arranged things so that the kingdom would keep running even without a king. The timing was peculiar. Even if he were gone now, the kingdom would not stop.
Leaving his place for a while would probably not be that great a matter.
Then another thought came to him: hadn't he already met the king of Aspen and the king of the South?
Why, not long ago, even the king of Evergart had come by with only a single knight, saying he wished to see what kind of men Crang's people were.
'Though the emperor personally summoning me does seem like a matter on a somewhat different scale.'
There was nothing to be done. There was no way of knowing what was in the emperor's heart. If war broke out with the Empire?
'Then fighting the Demon lands goes out the window.'
Even if they won, that would still be true. And if they lost, that went without saying.
Crang had chosen his enemy exactly. Not people, but monsters, and the demons said to stand at the pinnacle of monsters, the lords of the Demon lands. If gambling was necessary in order to fight them, then he would gamble.
Crang made his decision.
"Sir Valmung, I will preserve your honor. Was it Lady Serias? You as well shall complete the duty you were given."
"Your Highness."
A startled Marcus called out to him quickly, but Crang only smiled.
"You all worry too much. If things go bad, we can just pull out. I'll bring my guardian knight. You'll come with me, right?"
The tone of the words he added at the end was infinitely light. He sounded like a man asking whether someone wanted to go drink good liquor somewhere, but Enkrid simply nodded at the question directed at him.
It was obvious.
Crang was a close friend, and a king doing what Enkrid himself could not do. Naturally he would use his sword to protect him.
"If we go to the Empire, will they serve food?"
That was what he asked.
At those words, Valmung burst into hearty laughter.
"Of course!"
It seemed Enkrid had truly won him over.
The Duke of Octo had not particularly intervened up to this point. All he had done was sit, eat, and say a few necessary things.
He had merely said that attendants would guide them and that they should rest comfortably. Aside from revealing who he was, he had spoken very little.
He did not wear a face full of worry. He simply looked like a man with many thoughts.
The next morning, in the audience chamber, the Imperial envoys, the knight, and the mage knelt on one knee, praised the king's dignity and the renown he had achieved across the continent, and presented the letter sent by the Empire.
Crang unrolled the blank scroll, read it, nodded, and then said to everyone,
"I will go to the Empire for talks with the emperor."
Talks, not war.
A great many people let out sighs of relief.
Then all of them took on expressions full of question marks.
"What?"
"Where did you say you're going?"
"You mean you're going there in person?"
"Are you taking troops with you?"
"Is this one of those things written as talks and read as war?"
Those were questions from members of the Council of Ten and the other major nobles.
"I'm going to the Empire, and the Mad Order of Knights will accompany me. Sir Cypress is still busy holding back the Demon lands in the South."
Crang answered as if it were nothing, and some of the nobles went pale.
Now that things had finally stabilized inside and outside the kingdom, this mad king bastard was saying he would walk into the jaws of monsters on his own feet.
It was only natural that they foamed at the mouth.
That uproar among the nobles was suppressed by the Duke of Octo.
"Do you not trust the decision of the king you yourselves trust and follow? I trust him, and agree on this as well. Do you wish to go to war with the Empire right now? If not, then we do not have many choices."
He scolded them and soothed them at once. In the end, by making them praise the king through the king's own sacrifice, he showed that his political senses had not dulled.
Watching all of that, Kraiss remarked that the man really was a sly old serpent.
Come to think of it, they could meet at a midpoint, and there were various possible methods, so what the Duke of Octo said did not entirely line up front to back. But by placing the words I trust the king at the forefront of all of it, he smothered the nobles' outrage while acting the part of a stubborn old man. It really was impressive.
Even so, Kraiss still wore a sullen expression, but after meeting with Crang in private, he nodded and accepted it.
"Trust him. If Enki goes with you, that's more than enough to get one body back out. And you know this too. If the Empire were after me, there'd be no need for a stunt like this. If they wanted me dead, they'd have sent an assassin. Why summon me to the imperial capital under the pretense of meeting? If I die there, what does the Empire gain? Naurillia? No chance. What they'd gain instead is an enemy nation that would fight them until death."
The basis for all that judgment was probably Crang's instincts. Kraiss respected that.
That didn't mean he simply nodded and let it go.
"For Your Highness's safety, I'll call in one more person. Ah, no, to be exact, I'll call in two."
Crang knew well that Kraiss's head was full of thoughts unlike other people's, and that those thoughts worked to his advantage.
"Do as you like. And the salon business preparations?"
"They'll have to wait until this damned war is over."
The king was the biggest investor in the salon business. Kraiss dreamed of the day this big spender would live a long, long time and keep backing his enterprise.
Even aside from that, he knew what a decent person this king was, he knew the man was his commander's close friend, and he knew full well from the way the king treated him that there was real respect there. So he was absolutely determined not to let him die.
After that, while the imperial envoys discussed things like the day of departure and the route they would take into the Empire—
"I wished to speak with you for a moment."
Enkrid came face to face with the man who had requested to see him. It was evening, in a small reception room lit with a few candles.
For some reason, it reminded him of the time Marquis Baisar had called for him while lying in bed.
Younger than that man had been, but the Duke of Octo's hair too was white through and through. Nobles had begun dyeing their hair black with ink or pigment, but he had not entrusted his own hair to that fashion.
"Come in."
The duke said it. On the table in the reception room were the crisp, savory, unsweetened snacks he liked, along with a cup of tea.
Should he ask why he had been called? It had been a sudden summons. But it had not been an order. It had been closer to a request asking whether he could stop by for a moment if he had time.
The request had looked too earnest to ignore, and Enkrid could also sense the consideration in the way the duke had spoken to him while avoiding his training hours.
There were several ways to put it, but if it had to be reduced to one, then there had simply been no reason to refuse.
"Come in."
The duke said again.
A side door opened, and a woman entered. Her face was nearly as beautiful as Kin Baisar's, and the skin revealed above her dress was pale and fine.
"My adopted daughter. What do you think?"
"What am I supposed to think?"
"As a marriage match, not even close? Is it because you have a mage or a fairy by your side? Your standards are too high. Live long enough and you'll learn that looks are not everything."
The Duke of Octo spoke as though he truly found it regrettable. His expression too looked sincere.
In other words, unless someone was a master capable of seeing through the way fairies hid their emotions, his acting was more than good enough to fool them.
Still, Enkrid wondered why he was going out of his way to say such things.
The sharp witted duke saw that Enkrid was not taking the bait and quickly revealed what was really on his mind.
"So you're not fooled. How was Marquis Baisar before he passed?"
At that, a memory surfaced.
"Marry Kin. It is my last wish before I die. Better yet, give me a lovely great grandchild too."
Along with that memory, Enkrid understood why the Duke of Octo had gone out of his way to show him his adopted daughter.
These people really can't help themselves unless they're teasing someone, can they?
"I'm sorry, sir. The truth is, I pressed Father into it. I wanted to see you in person at least once. No matter how many letters I sent, there was never any reply, and even when I went to Border Guard, all I could do was catch a glimpse of your face from far away. So seeing you up close by borrowing Father's authority like this means my wish has come true."
The father had teased Enkrid, and in the meantime the daughter had achieved her own goal.
Should dreams like this be supported too?
In Border Guard, there existed a group of ladies who followed what people called the Enchanting Knight. The duke's adopted daughter was a lady who held a high position in that group.
"He cannot belong to any one person, and so he cannot belong to everyone either. We are satisfied simply to look. You've heard that one, haven't you?"
The adopted daughter said it with a bright smile.
"I've heard it."
Enkrid answered as if it were nothing.
Except for the Black Flower and the Golden Witch, no one could stand at his side, so better that everyone simply admire that handsome face together instead. Hadn't Kraiss heard that and said that the true flower of the salon was the commander?
At any rate, it might have been the sort of thing that would leave a person flustered, but Enkrid remained calm.
On the way to becoming the man he was now, he had worked escorting various ladies and, with only slight exaggeration, had experienced things more mischievous than this over a thousand times.
So he stayed calm.
"Then I've fulfilled my wish, so I'll be going now. You truly are very handsome, sir knight."
Saying that her eyes had had their fill, she departed. Watching her go, the Duke of Octo smiled.
"She's quite an amusing child."
A father who cheered on a daughter even though she went around acting like that.
He was not the sort of man commonly found in noble houses. Then again, had he been ordinary, he would never have risen to the place of duke.
"Do you know what my wish is?"
The Duke of Octo asked.
"What is it?"
When Enkrid asked back, the duke answered with a smile different from the one before.
If the earlier one had been pleasure, this one looked mournful.
"To die and be buried in my own land."
The story was not long. It was simply the wish of an old man who had lived long upon this land, a nobleman, and one person who loved his land and those around him.
"One day, those who called themselves servants of demons approached me. Do you know what they promised me?"
If they had approached every other noble, they would have approached the Duke of Octo too. Why would they leave aside such a large and delicious piece of meat and go after only the small scraps?
Looking at the situation now, the duke had not fallen for the demons' tricks.
That was all, but in the process the duke had done a great deal of thinking.
"They promised me my land. Land no one would ever trespass upon for the rest of my life, land that would remain my possession passed down to my descendants even after I died. Isn't that amusing?"
Joy in land and harvest, that was the Duke of Octo's innate desire. The demons had guaranteed him that, but the duke's thoughts had been different.
"Bring this war to an end."
He had said the same thing to the king. That he was already near his end, and that all he could do now was support and push forward whatever it was the king wanted.
And now, the Duke of Octo asked the king's knight for something.
"I want to die peacefully and be buried in my own land."
He spoke his wish. As always, Enkrid supported everyone's dreams, and so he supported the duke's dream as well.
"That's how it will be."
It was deep at night, and only a brief meeting. He had heard the duke's wish, and Enkrid nodded.
Did all of this press on his shoulders like a burden?
It did not.
Enkrid once again reflected on his resolve and determination.
It was probably because of that state of mind.
In the dream, the Ferryman appeared.