Chapter 5
“Do you know who I am?!”
“Let go of me! I’ll break that bastard’s neck!!”
In the North’s parade ground, shouts rang out.
Yet very few soldiers or knights paid them any mind.
It happened all the time, after all.
The soldiers and knights stationed in the North could even tell how many days had passed by those shouts.
The Empire’s hopeless wastrels were herded here from every corner.
Gathered in one place for different reasons—or, more accurately, against their will—their grievances had no way of being vented.
Thus, their anger could only be directed at one another.
Two wastrels from some nameless baronial house grabbed each other by the collars and began rolling around the parade ground.
Since they had only thrown punches within their own territories, their blows were clumsy, and they couldn’t even assume a proper stance.
But to the knights, that made it an even better show.
Fights between weaklings were the most entertaining, after all.
Through the cluster of knights snickering as they watched the two wastrels’ bloody duel, Asilie walked, letting out a small breath.
“Break it up before either of them gets seriously hurt.”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
But they couldn’t simply be left to their own devices, because their families would never stand for it.
Of course, she could have crushed them beneath the authority of the grand ducal house, but the individual complaints of those insignificant families could pile up and delay supplies even further.
Besides, once their children were sent here, those families would send supplies whether they liked it or not.
Asilie shook her head and began walking.
She had no intention of continuing to watch their ugly fight.
The knights and soldiers used spectacles like that to relieve stress, but Asilie wasn’t that sort of person.
If anything, the supply situation was enough to make her head throb.
‘The escort knights they brought can be attached to the troops, at least.’
This time, the amount of supplies was woefully small.
She didn’t know if only the wastrels their families had properly sent had come, but the supplies were pitifully inadequate compared to the number of escorts they had brought.
More supplies were needed to accommodate their nasty habit of refusing even to touch the food and clothing supplied to the military because they were cheap.
‘What a headache.’
Though she appeared unshaken on the outside, Asilie was still young.
She was still too young and inexperienced to command the entire North, at least. She had somehow managed to keep things moving until now, but...
The later and scarcer the supplies became, the more her anxiety grew.
‘No.’
But that lasted only a moment.
Shaking her head, Asilie slowly walked on, casting off that anxiety.
As a member of the grand ducal house that ruled the North, this was no time for her to make such a weak complaint.
She could not show weakness to anyone.
She couldn’t shift the heavy burden on her shoulders onto someone else.
Thinking that as she walked, Asilie spotted something and had no choice but to stop.
“G-Grand Duchess!!”
“...What is it?”
A great many wagons, along with a substantial number of loads piled onto them.
When Asilie frowned at the clearly unusual situation and asked, the soldier who came running up, panting for breath, hurriedly opened his mouth.
“S-Supplies... The Imperial Palace has sent supplies!”
“...Supplies?”
The Imperial Palace had sent supplies.
“Did they send a year’s worth all at once?”
Supplies came at regular intervals, but there was enough here to reasonably call it a year’s supply.
Asilie murmured in a dazed voice, then composed her expression when she spotted a knight at the head of the supply convoy.
“Commander of the North, I greet Your Grace.”
“Welcome. What is the meaning of this all of a sudden?”
“These are supplies sent by Her Highness, the First Princess.”
“...Her Highness, the First Princess?”
At the knight’s words, Asilie’s expression twisted grotesquely.
Supplies personally sent by a princess, rather than the Imperial Family?
Why had the princess, who had never even shown interest in the North until now, suddenly done this?
At Asilie’s bewildered question, the knight continued speaking with due formality.
“I have a message from Her Highness the Princess.”
“Speak.”
“With boundless gratitude and praise for your service to those responsible for the Empire’s front line, she sends the supplies necessary to maintain the front.”
Even though Asilie was the commander of the North, the person before her was a member of the imperial family.
As Asilie placed her hand over her left breast, atop the Imperial crest, the knight solemnly opened his mouth.
“These supplies were selected and sent at the request of Young Master Debert of House Debert, who is heading to the front lines. May God bless the eternal Empire and your path ahead.”
“...Debert? Is the young master of House Debert here?”
“He isn’t.”
Asilie couldn’t make sense of the princess’s message at all.
These weren’t the supplies that came at regular intervals; the princess had personally sent aid to the North, and it had been done at the request of the young master of House Debert?
And the young master of House Debert wasn’t even here?
‘...What in the world is this?’
Was the world playing some trick on her?
Asilie thought that, then soon exhaled deeply and shook the thought away.
“Adjutant.”
“Yes.”
“Organize the supplies. Since such a large amount has arrived, make certain that no items are missing, and provide quarters for the Imperial Knights.”
“Understood.”
“You’ve worked hard coming all this way. Go inside and rest comfortably.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
She couldn’t understand the reason, but the arrival of supplies was quite hopeful, for the moment.
She could investigate the matter of the young master of House Debert and the princess in due course.
It was then, as Asilie narrowed her eyes and checked the supplies streaming in one after another, that...
Clop, clop.
A single horse was casually walking in among the supplies.
A man mounted on a black stallion, with no escort or carriage following behind him, was calmly passing through the fortress gates.
“...Who is that?”
At a glance,
he was clearly no ordinary man.
From his posture in the saddle to the air he gave off, everything about him.
Amid the wastrels’ shouts and the bustle of the soldiers, he slowly entered through the gate, looking around as he removed the hood of his robe.
His blond hair gleamed, reflecting the northern sunlight. As he surveyed his surroundings with narrowed blue eyes, he stood still, noticed Asilie watching him, and smiled with a sharp grin.
“I’ve finally arrived.”
Allen Debert brushed snow from his shoulders, then hopped down from the black stallion.
Landing lightly, he patted the horse’s flank a couple of times and slowly approached her.
Asilie frowned as she watched him.
He was an unfamiliar face. Yet no one seemed inclined to stop him.
In a way, that was only natural. Allen was walking so casually, and with the surroundings so noisy, no one could find his presence strange.
Moreover, the natural pressure emanating from him weighed down on everyone around him.
His aura made him difficult to approach, and everyone was unconsciously giving him a wide berth.
Everyone except Asilie, who stood at the end of his path.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Commander.”
“Who are you?”
Upon reaching Asilie, Allen naturally offered a salute by placing his hand over his left chest and answered her question.
“I’m Allen Debert, the young master of House Debert, and I’ve volunteered for service in the North this time.”
From his graceful movements to his smooth manner of speaking, as though he had buttered his tongue.
“I received no report of that.”
But Asilie’s words remained cold.
After all, Asilie had seen plenty of that sort of person here.
Men who showed up later than everyone else because they didn’t want to come to the North,
yet tried to deceive her with their polished words, claiming they had volunteered to enlist—empty husks polished only on the outside.
Such people generally had only one goal.
More than a few had put on this act to win the heart of Asilie, a member of the grand ducal house and the future Grand Duchess of the North.
And most of them tended to flee the North before anyone else.
It was only natural that they couldn’t survive in this harsh North: they looked polished on the outside, but were empty inside.
Perhaps noticing Asilie’s gaze, Allen shrugged and calmly pulled a letter from inside his coat.
“This came directly from the Imperial Palace. Please see for yourself.”
“…….”
Asilie unfolded the documents he handed her.
The document, stamped with the imperial seal, proved that Allen Debert had been assigned to the North, the front line.
“...Welcome to the North.”
Asilie was still displeased, but she slowly spoke words of welcome nonetheless.
For Asilie, the most troublesome sort were not the wastrels who did nothing but brawl.
The ones who constantly strained to win her favor from right beside her were more troublesome.
People like that didn’t give up easily.
Even so, there was nothing she could do.
She couldn’t drive him out based on mere suspicion.
But if...
If he showed even the slightest sign of trying something.
‘I’ll have to teach him a lesson.’
The North was not a place to take lightly, after all.