Chapter 141
Since the Duchess was not from Eternia, the formal departure ceremony would be held in Rigbed.
The escort duty wasn't overly burdensome work for a mere student. Since the event was meaningful just for the exchange itself, they didn't go to the trouble of sending off students.
So the departure was quiet.
It was an external event seen only as 'building recognition while having fun’. Thus, even achieving great results wouldn't translate into top-grade evaluations.
I boarded a carriage matched entirely in black from the horses to the door panels and spokes, to join the Duchess Bibi's guard.
As the wheels began to roll slowly, I heard a familiar bird sound.
– Ppiyak!
The fire spirit flew laboriously to the carriage window with its chubby body. Something was tied to its leg.
I quickly opened the window and untied the object from the spirit's leg.
It was a small hand-knitted wool pouch. Inside was a charm carved from a flat stone. It was a lucky charm popular in Rigbed's antique shops. Though it had no real effect, I could understand the intention behind it.
I couldn't possibly be unaware of who played with my spirit every day now. I hadn't even properly thanked her after the circulatory system practice ended.
The horses picked up pace and Eternia's scenery flowed past quickly. Then suddenly, a blonde girl appeared in the distant window view.
How did she know to come out?
She waved shyly at the carriage.
Right, I have one more friend besides Trisha and Cecil.
However, we couldn't act like friends yet. Despite not being able to talk directly, a single light gesture left a deeper impression than a hundred words.
I waved back in response.
***
The Yulisia Principality shared a border with Eternia, so once you safely cross the Grace Mountains, you enter Principality territory. However, one shouldn't assume the journey would be smooth just because of easy border entry.
After traveling along the border region with Eternia for a while, one would reach the Barbisia region.
A vast wetland called a natural barrier. Rivers frequently flooded, the weather was extremely unpredictable, boiling swamps emitted poison gas, and even the relatively normal areas were so muddy that heavy Planteras and thick plate armor became useless in such extreme conditions.
Moreover, most of it was unsuitable for farming, and large-scale supply operations were practically impossible.
Thus, Barbisia only had small groups of freemen and villages, with no governing lord and they weren’t under Principality rule. In fact, the border guard's base was located far behind the actual borderline.
Barbisia was Principality territory only on maps.
"Can't I know exactly where we're going?"
"You don't have the authority. Your job is to sit quietly in the carriage."
Only the Duchess' closest confidants knew which route she would take. I didn't even know the approximate stopover points. It seemed to be for security. Considering the tight schedule, crossing the Barbisia region as the shortest route was certain.
I checked the location of our final destination, the Principality's capital city Sharnian. Then my eyes traced an imaginary line to the Holy City, three days' journey to the southwest.
The place Silveryn currently was. A distance reachable within two days if riding horseback day and night.
If this mission ended safely, that would be my second destination.
After a simple departure ceremony in Rigbed, the long journey began with six carriages, two supply wagons, and about fifty guards.
Though I received guard status when contracting with the Duchess, the actual treatment differed from expectations. While guards moved alongside the line of carriages either on horseback or foot, I was ordered into a carriage.
I thought they were showing me favor, but soon understood my position when I saw who I'd be riding with.
They crammed five young maids into the four-person carriage with me. They were the lowest-ranked among the group.
Fortunately, the maids were mostly young and small—if they'd been any bigger, we'd have been packed like sardines with barely any room to breathe.
Even pressing myself against the door couldn't avoid the awkward closeness with the maids.
"S-sorry."
One young maid fidgeted, pressed against me.
When I tried to leave the carriage, a guard knight issued a stern order, "The captain orders you to keep your position. You must not leave your assigned place during transit."
They seemed to treat me not as a guard member but as cargo to be protected.
"I wish to meet the Duchess."
Why would someone who repeatedly summoned me and gladly accepted my oath treat me this way?
The low-ranking knight's answer was cold, "You don't have the authority to see the Duchess directly."
Though she was just three carriages ahead, they cut off my request citing procedure.
I began to understand the situation. They didn't trust my abilities at all and wouldn't assign me any tasks.
It seemed more than just hazing, as an Eternia third-year senior who joined the guard this time proudly rode alongside the guards on horseback.
Perhaps I was marked unfavorably for repeatedly rejecting the Principality's offers and showing an arrogant attitude.
The guard wall was loose around rear carriages carrying low-priority people and tightest around the Duchess' carriage. The problem was, the people chasing us in my dream were the very ones guarding the Duchess' carriage.
If I wasn’t losing my mind and kidnapping the Duchess, rebellion, and betrayal seemed the most plausible scenario. My theory was that they might plan to assassinate the Duchess by moving her somewhere they couldn't request reinforcements.
I had no idea when or how the dream situation would materialize. Maybe it wouldn't happen at all. My prophetic dreams had only been realized exactly as shown once.
I couldn't know what would happen. So I needed to stay beside the Duchess' carriage to be ready to respond at any time.
The accompanying maids exchanged uncomfortable glances with their companions.
They seemed more cautious seeing my dissatisfaction with this position.
I shouldn't complain since I brought this on myself. My job was to accept the situation and make the best moves each moment.
"Circumstances led to me riding here. I wonder if I alone should enjoy such luxury."
"W-we're fine!"
The maids laughed awkwardly. Half forced laughter to break the awkwardness, half genuine friendliness.
I didn't miss that thread of goodwill. That could be very useful.
***
The quiet, boring journey paused as the sunset.
The guard set up camp on a hill overlooking the surroundings, past the winding path around the Grace Mountains.
Everyone was busy preparing dinner, lighting bonfires everywhere, and boiling water in iron pots.
Bibi's direct advisor Gerald quietly watched a distant tent. It was a shabby tent gathering the youngest maids.
A man's voice and several girls' pure laughter echoed from there.
Damian seemed to have become friends with the maids in less than half a day. As the saying went about living up to one's looks, the boy who had appeared taciturn, serious, and sometimes even gloomy suddenly seemed blinded by female company.
Had he misread the person? Or was there some strategy? The boy had become a different type of person in just one day.
He watched the place with a serious expression before heading straight to the Duchess' tent.
In the luxurious camp, Bibi soaked her feet in a bucket while a maid busily washed them.
"Damian has requested to be appointed as your direct guard four times today alone."
The Duchess chuckled and stirred her teacup leisurely.
"I know."
"My lady, is it alright to ignore his requests?"
"Well, how is he now? Is he trembling from unworthiness? Sharpening his sword while waiting for his chance to shine?"
Gerald reported exactly what he'd seen earlier.
"He seems to have given up and decided to mingle with the maids. He's so smooth that even the surrounding soldiers find it distasteful. I think he may have changed his mind."
"Then have him do laundry and wash dishes with the maids. It seems he's willing to bear the rumor of being a lecher who ended up doing menial work like dishwashing after playing around. I wouldn’t expect anything less of an Archmage's disciple. Good that he's found his path."
"..."
If Damian were a clueless fool, he would finish his mission playing around shoulder-to-shoulder with the maids. But the Damian that Gerald had seen wasn't such a simple character.
The Duchess apparently had no intention of letting this slide.
"He'll take action soon. Let him act beyond his station."
"Understood."
It was a strategy of starving him until he took the poisoned bait. If they kept suppressing and denying opportunities like this, he would eventually either recklessly create trouble or eagerly take on dangerous missions to prove his worth.
If he couldn't completely finish the task he volunteered for, he would collapse entirely.
Bibi was waiting for that moment.
She smiled and said, "I hear many citizens in the Barbisia region suffer from magic creatures."
"..."
Gerald felt a strange sense of dissonance.
Can we tame Damian this way?
Silveryn was absolutely not someone to be trifled with.
Numerous powerful figures had tried every means to persuade her for her power, but she was never tamed.
This was the first disciple that such a strong-willed woman had personally accepted. Would a boy who had won a position coveted by countless mages really be led around by such bait?
***
I went down to the stream with the maids to wash potatoes for dinner. Perhaps because they were around my age, they were softer than the guards, making it easy to become friendly.
Misha, one of the five maids, kindly answered my question, "Sir Fenril commands the First Unit of knights, and Lady Alixia commands the Second Unit of mages. Lady Nielin, winner of the Floral Tournament, oversees both units."
I already remembered all their faces. Nielin, a middle-aged knight with bear-like muscles and wolf-like eyes, always lingered closest to the Duchess.
And he was also one of the pursuers in my dream. The person I should be most wary of.
"How strong is Lady Nielin?"
"She's ranked among the top hundred swordsmen in the entire Principality. Naturally the strongest in the guard. She can freely use sword aura and cut down century-old dead trees with a single strike."
Someone among a country's top hundred means... definitely not an easy opponent.
"And... maybe because she's from the Imperial Royal Academy, she didn't seem very happy about visiting Eternia."
"What does background have to do with it?"
"Oh my, I thought Eternia and the Royal Academy were rivals, am I wrong?"
I think I've heard something about that. Well, Eternia doesn't seem to care much. However, the Royal Academy might think differently.
"I'm still a first-year, so I don't know well."
"Ah, r-right? That's why Lady Nielin seems to view Eternia somewhat suspiciously. Oh, I mean... not that she's narrow-minded..."
"I wouldn't readily trust and employ outsiders either. I understand what you mean. Then what kind of person is the Duchess?"
The maid hesitated briefly.
"I'm asking to avoid any inadvertent disrespect to the Duchess."
"Um... Lady Bibi is merciful."
I thought it might be empty praise, but hearing what followed, it wasn't forced flattery.
Another maid joined in, "That's right! If you follow orders and prove loyalty, she embraces you like her own limbs and gives great rewards. We were all orphans without families, but she took us in. If not for the Duchess, we would have been sold somewhere. That's why we all follow her with respect and gratitude. However, if you upset her or disobey, she never forgets. She even remembers and takes revenge for slight incidents from ten years ago... sometimes it's scary."
"Clear rewards and punishments, then."
That's putting it nicely—more bluntly, it means she's petty.
Having declined the Principality's offers several times and shown arrogant behavior, Duchess Bibi had plenty of reason to dislike me. Maybe there were other reasons I didn't know about.
It seemed the only way to rise from this position was to earn the qualification myself.
"Ah, besides that... are there more Imperial Royal Academy graduates among the guards?"
***
Returning to camp, the maids went around distributing ingredients washed in the stream. Since I moved with the maids, I helped distribute portions to each unit with a basket in hand.
And I could clearly feel how the guard knights viewed me.
Hostile, burning gazes.
"Damn bastard. hack spit"
Some would hack up phlegm and spit as I passed by.
The whistling like catcalling was relatively mild.
"Misha, come here. Don't play with strange friends."
"Ah, haha, I still have work to do..."
Perhaps their antipathy grew because I approached the young maids they'd been eyeing.
"I want to fondle some women too. That might cool this 'hot head' of mine."
"Bwahahaha!"
They openly mocked me from behind, letting out huge laughs meant for me to hear.
I had become unwelcome to everyone, perhaps because they strongly disliked how I had been disrespectful to the Duchess.
I didn't react to each incident. I silently focused on distributing food.
"These are stew ingredients. Add them when the water boils."
As I tried to pass after distributing to the last unit, one knight subtly stuck out his foot in front of me.
Thinking this was perfect, I deliberately tripped over that foot.
Splash!
I fell hard. Not only did I crash to the ground, but I dropped the basket, spilling carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms that rolled across the ground.
My body was covered in dirt as the knights burst into uproarious laughter.
"Ahahahaha!"
"Kukukuk, ahahahaha!"
"Ahahahaha! What an absolute idiot!"
They laughed so hard it seemed they might choke.
The maids fretted, unable to decide how to react.
I slowly got up and calmly dusted off the dirt.
Then I glanced at the scabbard of the knight who had tripped me. A golden lion with open jaws was solemnly embedded—I'd heard it was like a symbol of Imperial Academy honors graduates.
I shouted at the knight who had tripped me, still busy laughing, "So this is Imperial Academy etiquette."
The laughter quickly died down. Everyone stared at me with round eyes.
They all glared at me with looks that seemed to say, “Did I hear that wrong?”
I shouted again to the subdued crowd, "Unable to fight honorably, you bite and mock from behind. Is this uniquely Imperial Academy etiquette?"
"What did you say, you bastard?"
The knight who had tripped me grabbed his sword and jumped up, approaching me. He shoved my shoulder with his tree trunk-like arm.
"Do you know what you're messing with?"
"If you have complaints, speak with skill like a proper knight. Don't act so petty."
"Get your weapon, you bastard."
Those who had been laughing at me now all glared with killing intent.
A third of them were Imperial Academy graduates. Including even the commander.
Asking if I know what I'm messing with? Oh, I know well.
It's not me who picked a fight against the wrong opponent, it’s you all.