Chapter 20
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
“Is this a monster?”
Jedd looked down at something with a disgusted expression.
It was the monster Count Consilius’s soldiers had dragged in.
A bear monster stuffed into a sturdy, thick-walled stone container.
They had bound it tightly with chains and bent and sealed its joints, completely incapacitating it so that even if it recovered, it could not exert its full strength.
“Yes.”
“This is my first time seeing a monster. Since I’ve had no occasion to encounter one, I had no idea they were such grotesque creatures.”
“You sound like a noble young lady.”
“Even if I look like this, I was raised in comfort. Among the Red-Eyed people……”
Jedd made a bitter face as he uttered “Red-Eyed people.”
Jedd’s eyes turned toward Ferda.
“Then why did you summon me?”
“I summoned you to serve as my attendant.”
“Is it related to this bear?”
Ferda nodded toward the monster and looked down at it.
“……What do you intend to do with this thing?”
“Even bound like this, it keeps growing in volume. I’ve put the brakes on it, so it looks harmless for now, but its heart will start beating again in about an hour.”
“Good heavens…….”
“And if it feels its life is threatened, as it does now, it will grow several times faster than usual.”
“So?”
Ferda sliced a sharp line through the air with his index finger.
“We have to cut away its flesh every three hours. All the way down to the tendons and nerves.”
Ferda patted Jedd’s shoulder.
“You’re going to do it.”
“……We have to keep cutting it every three hours? How am I supposed to sleep?”
Ferda answered his question.
“I hear the believers in the southern provinces pray every three hours. Without missing a single day.”
“But I’m not even from there. How is anyone supposed to do that every three hours?”
“They pray every three hours, so you can do it too.”
“Um…… Couldn’t I take turns with the little maid?”
“As I said, she is not my loyal attendant. If you can persuade her, I won’t stop you.”
“……”
Jedd pressed his lips tightly shut.
Even Jedd, who thought he could charm women as easily as eating cake, found a dragon spawn troublesome.
“There’s no need to worry. I’m not telling you to do it for the rest of your life. You only need to continue until Vernel produces a research result.”
“Until he produces results……. How many days will that take?”
“It could take several months.”
“Several months……”
A hollow laugh escaped him automatically.
He was supposed to keep cutting up a monster every three hours?
-Grrk, grrk
The bear monster huffed out disgusting breaths.
He had not even cut its flesh yet—not even started—but he could already smell something foul rising.
“Is this why you recruited me?”
“If not for something like this, when would I ever use you?”
“Phew…… All right. I just have to somehow manage it until the research is finished?”
He asked in a meaningful voice.
“Of course.”
“Haha, I appreciate that.”
Though he said he was grateful, anger burned in his eyes.
His eyes had turned red, radiating a fierce light.
Even Ferda could not know what kind of future awaited Vernel.
And he was not interested.
Vernel would manage somehow.
* * *
Two days later, a horse carrying a person returned to Valdrowa Castle.
It was Vernel, who had recuperated under Count Consilius.
After coming close to death from Mana Burnout, he had returned.
‘Today, I am different from who I was yesterday.’
Vernel was filled with exhilaration.
He believed that a new experience had led him one step higher.
‘From now on, I will conduct my research with my life on the line.’
If he wanted power capable of changing the world, he would work just as hard.
He resolved to cast aside his complacent self and burn his own body away.
He was looking toward a slightly higher place.
After leaving his horse at the stable, Vernel spotted someone standing in front of the castle gate.
Apart from Luri and Ferda, this was the first stranger he had seen at Valdrowa Castle.
‘He’s handsome…….’
A tall man with brown hair tied in a short ponytail.
He was a strikingly handsome man, enough to draw admiration even from other men.
Realizing the man was smiling at him, he approached.
From up close, he noticed something he had not been able to see from a distance.
‘He looks a little tired…….’
There were faint dark circles under his eyes.
He had clearly been troubled by something until recently.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Jedd.”
The man introduced himself with a refreshing smile.
“Ah, hello. I’m Vernel.”
“Yes, I’ve heard of you. How old are you, by any chance?”
“Uh, well, I’m t-twenty-seven…….”
“Ah, then you’re older than me. I’ll call you Big Brother, then.”
“Ah, sure.”
“Let’s go to the laboratory, Big Brother.”
Jedd showed him the way.
‘I can’t believe someone that cool called me Big Brother!’
But hadn’t they said hardship was followed by happiness?
After being tormented a little by the bear monster and escaping death, he was now proudly being called Big Brother.
The resentment he had felt upon first coming here seemed to vanish completely.
“Here is the captured bear monster.”
“Ah, yes, it is. Alive and well cared for…….”
“Of course. Who do you think has been caring for it?”
“You have, Mr. Jedd? Thank you.”
“Haha, there’s no need to thank me.”
Jedd smiled and dragged over a nearby chair.
Drrrrrrk
For some reason, the sound was eerie, like an executioner rising from hell.
He seemed to be dragging it somewhere, but then placed it in front of the entrance.
He simply plopped down, folded his arms, and crossed his legs.
As if blocking the entrance.
“Go ahead. Begin.”
No, he really was blocking it.
“Pardon?”
“Your research. Time is precious, so hurry up and begin.”
His figure was briefly illuminated by candlelight.
He had not noticed it under the sunlight, but the dark circles had settled heavily beneath his eyes.
“Thanks to your research, Big Brother, this little brother has to wake up every three hours and use this dagger to—”
Bang!
“Eek!”
“—slice up that monster bastard, is that right?”
“Uh, um…… I-I’m sorry……!”
“Oh, there’s no need to apologize. If this little brother needs anything, just say the word. I’ll bring you ‘anything.’ So don’t worry and devote yourself to your research, Big Brother.”
In Jedd’s eyes, the scorching hell blazed, while the dagger embedded in the table exuded the frost of the frozen hell.
“And I’m supposed to sleep when I drop dead?”
One word echoed in Vernel’s mind.
No takebacks!
* * *
An army was moving along the main road.
Two knights rode at the front, and immediately behind them, a standard-bearer waved a flagpole bearing the family crest.
In the midst of the army, a lavish carriage moved slowly.
Baron Giyot was traveling on official business.
His destination was Valdrowa Castle.
Its silhouette midway up a lonely mountain in the east was visible from afar.
“Nghhh…….”
Baron Giyot felt his stomach twist.
It worsened the closer he got to the castle.
“Damn it. My father said we had no reason to go there, but he was lying through his teeth……”
“Master, take deep breaths.”
“Yes, deep breaths. Hoo…… As the third son of House Giyot, I can’t be frightened by something like this.”
“That’s right. Exactly!”
Baron Giyot took a deep breath.
Although he was now so fat that he was clumsy beyond belief, he had once been a knight.
However, he had been a knight in name only, having never set foot on a battlefield.
With no tales of valor and no medals, it was only natural that he had been relegated to the post of a borderland baron.
“Don’t be so frightened just because you’re the fiancé of that red lizard bastard. House Giyot has solid connections, doesn’t it? Blood is thicker than water!”
“B-But that bastard even killed someone from House Wolcher, didn’t he?”
“House Wolcher has no one left to cause trouble, does it? It would have been strange if the house hadn’t been wiped out in the first place. House Giyot is not someone he can trifle with.”
“I suppose so, right? Yes, that’s how it’ll be.”
Baron Giyot desperately tried to convince himself with his servant’s words.
In the meantime, the carriage had entered the castle.
The carriage door opened, and a red carpet was spread out before Baron Giyot.
A tiny silver maid stood in its center.
She was Valdrowa’s dragon spawn.
“Have you arrived?”
“Y-Yes, I have.”
“This way.”
Luri took the lead.
Baron Giyot walked along the red carpet with his attending knights.
The castle was well maintained, so no eerie atmosphere emanated from it.
However, the castle grounds, which should have been full of attendants and soldiers, were deserted, and that made Baron Giyot even more uneasy.
It felt as though he were crawling into Leviathan’s belly.
‘Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it…….’
And then a door loomed before him.
A grand gate engraved with tales of the dragon’s exploits.
At human eye level, the following words were clearly carved into it.
-Stand in awe before the primordial flame and master of power.
The door opened.
Inside, a man rose from his seat to welcome Baron Giyot.
Baron Giyot flinched and trembled.
“You went to a lot of trouble to come here.”
Gray hair and blue eyes.
Those eyes were like gazing into the depths of a deep, deep lake, making it hard to breathe.
It was Ferda Valdrowa.
“You’re sweating quite a bit. Was the journey difficult?”
“Ah, n-no. Haha……”
“I see. Then it seems you lack exercise. Try losing some weight. Obesity makes an early death more likely, after all.”
“Thank you for taking an interest in my health.”
“Come this way.”
Ferda indicated the seat opposite the table and had Baron Giyot sit there.
The sweat pouring from Baron Giyot showed no sign of stopping.
“You are having quite a difficult time in the Far East.”
“It is hardly difficult at all! Compared to the burden His Highness the Grand Duke bears, it is no more than a drop in the bucket.”
“Indeed. Your work is no more than a drop in the bucket.”
For the first time, Ferda’s smoothly flowing words faltered.
The atmosphere changed.
Baron Giyot understood perfectly well.
He had fallen right into Ferda’s trap.
“I had no particular desire to investigate, but after taking the position of Regent, I’ve found myself quite interested. So I took a brief look at your documents.”
Thud!
He pushed the documents he had looked over just a little toward Baron Giyot.
“There are a great many signs of forgery.”
Baron Giyot’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
It would have been natural for him to get angry and ask why Ferda was bringing this up now, but Baron Giyot could not.
He let Ferda continue speaking.
“There isn’t just one or two discrepancies. Do you know how much money has disappeared this way in total?”
Ferda pointed to the figure in the section he had compiled.
“Three thousand goldens.”
A golden was a unit used to count gold coins.
“It says you swallowed three thousand gold coins that the people of your territory might struggle to touch even once in their entire lives.”
“Th-That wasn’t written by me……”
“Of course it wasn’t. How could someone like you produce handwriting like this?”
The elegant handwriting plainly said, ‘I had someone else write it for me.’
Ferda already knew this.
“You must have taken only a little for yourself and given some to the people beneath you, making them accomplices. Those below them would have distributed some to their own subordinates as well, so naturally what you actually pocketed would have been less than three thousand goldens. But what are nobles? The more lavishly they live, the more responsibility they must bear.”
Ferda immediately moved on to the next document and began listing the charges one by one.
“The charges are embezzlement, forgery of official documents, conduct unbecoming……”
Each word he recited seemed to add another year to Baron Giyot’s face.
“……According to the Imperial Criminal Code, depending on the severity of the crime, a minimum fine of ten thousand goldens may be imposed……”
Ferda’s blue eyes fixed on him.
“At worst, you could be hanged and displayed at the castle gate.”
Suddenly, the final fate of Thessalos Wolcher flashed through Baron Giyot’s mind.
Baron Giyot fell to his knees, his face turning deathly pale.
“Please, have mercy just this once! Never again! I swear this will never happen again, Regent!”
“Hmm.”
Ferda rose from his seat and patted his shoulder.
“Listen to me carefully. I am not saying you must never do things like this.”
“Y-Yes?”
“I told you I don’t care if you fill your belly. No matter how much you’ve actually lined your pockets, I have no interest in it.”
“Th-Then why bring it up……?”
“What I consider important is ability.”
“A-Ability……?”
“I would rather have someone capable, even if they are a little corrupt, than someone clean but incompetent. I don’t care about minor deviations for the sake of the whole. Whether you eat delicious food or roll around with a whore named Rosemary, I don’t care in the slightest.”
Ferda whispered into his ear.
“Prove your competence. Resolve the food shortage and monster issues promptly and contribute to stability among the people. Otherwise……”
Ferda lightly waved the paper.
“This official document might happen to fly all the way to the Imperial capital. The emperor, not to mention your parents and siblings, will learn of your corruption. Then a fierce race will unfold over who gets here first to cut off your head—the Imperial executioner or your family’s knights. Do you understand?”
“I-I understand! I’ll prove it without fail!”
“Good. We’re done here. You may go.”
Baron Giyot hurried away as if he had stuck his head into a guillotine and pulled it back out.
Ferda checked Baron Giyot’s name off the interview list with a satisfied expression.
‘It’s convenient having someone else do the thinking for me.’
No matter how Ferda had reached the ranks of archmages, he was not well versed in such bothersome paperwork.
To point out which parts had been written how, he needed relevant knowledge and experience, and Ferda had neither.
The one who had served as Ferda’s brain was none other than Mori.
She looked like a vacant-minded girl, but inside her head was the Library of All Things.
Ferda had given Mori the following instruction:
-From now on, review everything written in the ledgers and reports and summarize every discrepancy. Also determine the sentence under the Imperial Criminal Code.
Mori nodded and rapidly skimmed through the contents of the ledgers.
Frrrap—!
It was speed-reading so absurdly fast that one might have thought she was only pretending to read the book.
She was quickly completing work that would have taken several people a week.
Thus, she documented the corruption of fourteen lords one by one, and Ferda met with them one at a time based on those documents.
‘Corruption did not matter either way.’
Just as there are no fish without a fishy smell, there are no nobles without corruption.
Ferda merely intended to cut down those who were incompetent.
All they had to do was prove that they had earned their positions through ability, rather than merely sitting heavily in them.
“So you sent even Baron Giyot out wailing like a child.”
Luri said, having watched quietly.
“There are still about five more.”
“You only intimidate them. Are you planning to become a tyrant?”
“Only intimidate them? This is the first time I’ve cracked the whip.”
“The whip……?”
“The carrot and the stick. The key is to alternate between the two.”
Luri tilted her head as she recalled the series of events she had experienced with Ferda.
“You have done nothing but cruelly wield the whip until now.”
“Have I?”
“Yes. You look as if you intend to crush them completely through fear. Or have you grown so accustomed to pain that your threshold has risen?”
“Hmm…….”
Ferda genuinely had not realized that he had been doing nothing but wielding the whip.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Even if Luri was right and he had been wielding only the whip, he had no intention of offering them a carrot just yet.
“They have been useless donkeys who have done nothing but consume the carrot storehouses all this time. Shouldn’t I put them to work?”
“That is also true.”
Luri acknowledged the point and nodded.
Ferda Valdrowa.
He wields the whip diligently today as well, for the development of the Grand Duchy.