Chapter 53
After finishing a peaceful(?) meeting with Lord Lois, Calix headed to the adjoining room.
Calix asked Rana to handle the aftermath involving Lord Lois and Beric.
One was foaming at the mouth, and the other seemed half-mad, but Calix thought Rana would be able to sort everything out.
When Calix entered the adjoining room, he found an old man with an impressive long beard sitting there.
Calix addressed Roan, who was seated calmly in the seat of honor.
“I’m sorry for causing a commotion so late in the evening, Elder Roan.”
His name was 『Roan Klaus』.
He was the former lord of Klaus and the head of House Klaus.
In response to Calix’s words, Patriarch Roan calmly replied.
“Rather, I’m sorry, Lord Calix, for failing to raise my son properly.”
“No, Elder.”
Roan had had a son at a very late age.
As a result, he had doted on his son and raised him indulgently, and Lois had grown into an arrogant noble young master who believed he was above everyone else.
Thinking that Lois would completely ruin the family and territory if he inherited them as things stood, Roan had handed him the position of lord somewhat early and retired as patriarch himself.
He had thought that once Lois experienced firsthand how difficult it was to manage a territory, he would grow at least a little.
And to prevent Lois from obtaining unchecked power and running wild, Roan had personally taken charge of some of the garrison’s affairs so that he could stop Lois if he tried to do anything wrong.
That was what Roan had thought… but he had never imagined that Lois would pull off something so insane while evading his watchful eye.
Beric, Lois’s chief steward, had played a major role in Roan realizing what was happening so late.
Knowing that he first had to deceive his father in order to launch the food attack, Lois had ordered Beric to begin falsifying the reports and documents sent to his father.
Beric, however, possessed an extraordinary talent for forging official documents and manipulating information, mixing truth and lies into the documents Roan saw until they appeared completely flawless.
As a result, Roan did not realize that something had gone wrong until after the Desert Flood began, and by then, it was already too late.
“So… what do you intend to do with House Klaus now?”
Roan felt troubled.
Although Calix was treating him respectfully as an elder, it was Calix who now held House Klaus’s lifeline in his hands.
No matter how much the Platinum Council prohibited invasions without a declaration of war, its authority was not absolute.
If a house had done enough to deserve punishment, and an invader like Kron had sufficient reason and bribes to justify an invasion, the Platinum Council would likely simply observe from the sidelines.
Calix was effectively free to do anything except take the worst possible measure: wiping out House Klaus entirely.
He could threaten Roan, strip Lois of his position as lord by means of the patriarch’s authority, and install a descendant of House Klaus who would obey Kron as a puppet lord.
Alternatively, he could impose an astronomical indemnity and turn Klaus into an economic vassal.
Roan recalled the countless endings he had witnessed throughout his life and worried about what Calix would do to them.
But the words that came from Calix’s mouth were completely unexpected.
Calix…
“I will do nothing.“
”…Are you serious?“
Roan could not believe Calix’s words.
Having occupied their capital, he intended to do nothing?
Just as Roan was thinking that Calix had said something absurd, Calix continued.
”More precisely, we’ll take only the wheat we were promised and the penalty arising from the breach of contract, then leave. We will not plunder the subjects in any way.“
”Is that possible? No matter how kind and just you are, the soldiers won’t be.“
”We are capable of that.“
At that very moment, the Kron Knights were maintaining order in the heart of Klaus.
They were standing at their assigned posts in perfect order and were committing no acts of looting or violence.
That was because she stood at their center.
”Anyone who commits an unjust act dies by my hand! Understood!!“
[ “Yes! Understood!” ]
With a greenish sword aura pouring from her blade, Azel was leading the Kron Knights.
Although she belonged to the Golden Knights, she was treated as a deputy commander in the Kron Knights.
At Calix’s strong recommendation, she had been placed in charge of overseeing the Kron Knights, and she was doing an excellent job.
She was the sort of person who could even stab her own lord in the chest if she became enraged after witnessing an unjust act.
It was obvious what would happen to unjust subordinates, and the Kron Knights had learned that from living alongside Azel.
Thus, Calix continued his conversation with Roan without any worries.
“Patriarch Roan, it is very unfortunate that things have come to this, but we truly intend to leave. And from now on, we wish to be good neighbors to House Klaus.”
Roan’s eyebrows twitched at Calix’s words.
Roan was certain that Calix had some sort of plan.
‘He would never be leaving for no reason.’
Patriarch Roan had watched the Empire for several decades.
No action was ever meaningless, and every action concealed some dark ulterior motive.
As he sorted through the situation, he reached one conclusion.
‘Could it be… Lord Calix intends to make House Klaus a buffer zone!?‘
To the north of Klaus lay territories ruled by houses belonging to the Northern Grand Duke faction.
If Kron directly swallowed House Klaus, it would create a confrontation between the Northern Grand Duke faction moving south and Kron moving north, leading to a direct clash.
Moreover, forcibly occupying House Klaus for the sake of expansion could sour Kron’s relationship with the Platinum Council.
But if Kron returned as things stood, this incident could end as nothing more than a minor clash between two houses.
On the surface, at least.
From House Klaus’s perspective, its capital had already been occupied by Kron once.
Roan had heard that a traitor had opened the gates, and given the tendency of people to follow the strong, there was a high chance that even more people were secretly colluding with Kron.
Dealing with them would require a massive purge. But if that happened, Kron would almost certainly invade once again, just as it had when dealing with Hadem, under the pretext of punishing a corrupt lord by order of an imperial prince or princess, and appoint a noble from another branch of House Klaus as a puppet lord.
But if they surrendered to the Northern Grand Duke faction or another power, Roan had no idea what the internal traitors might do to them.
House Dreihart had supposedly been wiped out by assassins overnight.
At first, Roan had believed that the assassins had truly been members of the Blood Kin, but now that he looked back on it, it seemed increasingly likely that Kron had been involved.
Kron could have sent assassins to manufacture the situation needed to seize Dreihart, then publicly announced that it too had been attacked by Blood Kin assassins.
There could be no more perfect alibi.
After putting all the circumstances together, Roan reached the conclusion that only one path remained to him, and for the second time in his life, a chill ran down his spine.
”Lord Calix… do you know our family motto?“
”I do, Elder. A good house…“
”has good neighbors. If we become good neighbors, will Kron help Klaus?“
Roan asked Calix.
Even if it was only a verbal agreement, and even if he had no other options, Roan wanted to hear the answer directly from Calix’s own lips.
“Of course. Elder, Kron does not abandon its friends.”
Calix answered Roan’s question without hesitation.
To Roan, Calix’s voice contained no hint of ulterior motive and sounded completely sincere.
If becoming a buffer zone for House Kron meant suffering a meaningless sacrifice, Roan was prepared to resist, even if it led to House Klaus’s destruction.
But if that was not the case, and they could receive benefits as one of Kron’s good neighbors, like Dreihart and Ryan, Roan thought that joining hands with Kron on this occasion might not be such a bad idea.
“I understand, and thank you for giving Klaus another chance.”
Roan bowed to Calix.
Calix cried out in confusion, as though the Confucian Dragon in his heart had reared its head.
“Please raise your head, Elder.”
“I’ll make sure my son receives a proper education. Don’t worry.”
Calix was flustered when he saw the determination in Roan’s eyes.
Why was the old man reacting so strongly to a simple suggestion that they become good neighbors?
What a strange elder.
Thus, despite that small(?) misunderstanding, the matter between the two houses ended on a positive note.
When the conversation was over and Calix was about to leave the room, Roan spoke.
“By the way, Lord Calix… Have you ever been told that you resemble someone?“
”I have never heard that. Whom do I resemble?“
”I see… It is an old man’s reminiscence. No need to worry about it.“
As he spoke with Calix, Roan was reminded of someone.
That person had blocked every avenue of escape with meticulous schemes, then thrown Roan a lifeline in a warm voice.
Roan could not tell whether the lifeline was rotten or sturdy, but he had no choice but to grasp it.
That person was the current emperor of the Empire, the first person ever to send a chill down Roan’s spine.
In Roan’s eyes, Calix greatly resembled the emperor as he had been in his youth.