Chapter 209
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
The rear gate of the Imperial Palace.
“Orders from above to raise the alert level by one notch.”
“All of a sudden?”
“What happened?”
The guard captain sighed and answered.
“Barney Swallows sent a calling card.”
“You mean those damn petty thieves?”
“They announced they’re going to steal something inside the Empire without fear?”
“They threw it at the Imperial Palace, too. They say they’re going to take a treasure hidden in the palace, and it’s caused quite an uproar.”
“Bold, aren’t they? Just like Barney Swallows……”
“What’s with that tone? You sound like some middle-aged woman bewitched by a heretic.”
“Ahem, it’s not that…… It’s just that kid Pepe kind of looks like my type, so…… well.”
“There’s a wanted poster of you plastered on the wall…… Ah, forget it. Let’s not talk about it. You filthy bastard.”
The guard captain sighed at the pointless conversation.
While they were listening to the security instructions, a cart rolled up to the rear gate of the Imperial Palace.
The cart’s owner was a skinny man with brown hair and a nose covered in freckles.
“Whew, you must have a tough time standing guard.”
“Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”
“Me? You know that fellow named Tom who died last time? They say people called him Tom of the Sewer……”
“Ah, that guy? I wondered why he wasn’t around. So he really did die?”
“That’s right. Anyway, I came in his place. They told me to haul these things away, y’see?”
He casually pointed over his shoulder, but what lay inside the cart was a pile of corpses.
“So what’s your name?”
“Tom.”
“Tom died, and a new Tom came?”
“Isn’t that something? I haven’t even removed the nameplate from the uniform. Haha!”
The gatekeeper spoke with a disgusted expression.
“You’re the amazing one, saying that so calmly.”
“Is it as if only one or two people die in the Empire? I’m sick of it by now, sir. Oof! Get on with your duties! Aren’t you supposed to search it? Search the cart?”
The gatekeeper furtively glanced at the corpses he was hauling away.
Though they were some distance away, the fishy stench rising from the pile of corpses seemed to seep into their bodies.
The man called Tom hadn’t earned the nickname Tom of the Sewer for nothing.
“Enough, go through.”
“Uh…… I don’t need to search it?”
“Search what? If I go digging through the guts of those corpses and get filth on me, it’ll last three days. Enough, so hurry up and get these things out of here.”
“Understood. Then……”
Brown-haired Tom tipped his hat in a gesture of respect.
The gatekeepers brushed their hands off as though warding off bad luck, and the guard captain added one final word.
“Anyway, make sure security is tight so Barney Swallows can’t even set foot in here.”
“Understood, Captain.”
* * *
“Wow…… No one saw through it to the very end.”
By the time they had passed through the Empire’s city gate, brown-haired Tom clicked his tongue and muttered.
Then brown-haired Tom cast a sidelong glance at the pile of corpses and spoke.
“I did a fine job with the disguise, but isn’t it a little disappointing that you didn’t recognize him, Your Grace?”
“That mouth of yours never stops running.”
“It’s my profession. What can I do? Are you going to keep lying there?”
“No, I hope that was the last time I have to pretend to be a corpse.”
A man moved cautiously within the pile of corpses.
Like the others, he was gaunt and his features were hideously distorted, but he unmistakably bore the remnants of the man named Ferri Yurei.
Zed snickered and handed him a bottle.
“It’s medicine for your wounds. By the day after tomorrow, your face should be back to normal.”
“Thanks.”
“The horses I prepared are over there. We’ll travel on horseback.”
“Aren’t we using teleportation magic?”
“Our Regent doesn’t like leaving a trail. We’ve made extensive preparations to avoid pursuit, so we’ll travel slowly on horseback.”
Duke Yurei felt uneasy.
But Duke Yurei had no better option,
so he decided to confirm one thing first.
“Swear to heaven that you have no other intention besides rescuing me.”
“Regent Ferda said he doesn’t want a war, and that to prevent one, Your Grace has to return alive. If I were a traitor, I’d have slit your throat here and now.”
“I said, can you swear it to heaven?”
“That damn heaven. Want me to stake my mother’s name on it too?”
“I understand.”
Duke Yurei decided to stop doubting him.
After they had gone deep into the forest, the horses Zed had prepared came into view.
There were also diversion troops who would escort Yurei while throwing off the pursuers.
Duke Yurei glanced around, wondering whether Ferda might be among those soldiers.
“You……”
Duke Yurei was greatly surprised.
Ferda was not there, but someone he hated nearly as much caught his eye.
“William……”
William, the promising knight.
William, who had accused him before the Golden Council.
He stood there wearing inconspicuous brown leather armor.
“Allow me to escort you.”
He bowed formally, and Yurei clenched his fists and bit his lip.
“Regent Ferda is a truly cruel man. To order me to stay in the same place as the man who accused me.”
“The Regent is not at fault. I volunteered for this.”
“You?”
“Yes. I heard about the operation while speaking with the knight, then went to Regent Ferda and told him I wanted to provide the escort.”
“Why? Do you want to pretend to be a knight after all this?”
“……”
William could not open his mouth.
Duke Yurei did not wait for an answer.
“Enough. You don’t need to say anything. It doesn’t change the fact that you betrayed me.”
“……”
“Do I have nothing to wear? Or do you intend to leave me like this?”
“This way, please.”
When he turned toward Zed and asked, Zed personally led him over.
William quietly inspected everything before their departure.
Then the eight horses began racing across the forest.
* * *
On the night of the second day since Duke Yurei’s escape, they stopped moving and set up a simple campsite.
A mage who had received word came and reported.
“The Empire has officially announced that Duke Yurei has escaped.”
“They were quick.”
The announcement itself was late, but they had probably realized that Duke Yurei was missing sometime that afternoon.
Given the gravity of the matter, they had tried to pass it off quietly as a minor incident, but they had been unable to do so.
Duke Yurei, who had been listening, chuckled as though it were ridiculous.
“They must be furious, claiming that the mongrels of the vile Kingdom of Heinkel sprang me.”
“That would normally have happened, but it won’t.”
The man who contradicted him was Zed, whose appearance resembled a swallow.
“Why?”
“Because Barney Swallows sent a calling card.”
“Barney Swallows…… You mean that gang of petty thieves.”
Barney Swallows was famous throughout the continent of Serdes for appearing and disappearing like a ghost, so even Duke Yurei had heard of them once.
Moreover, it was said that Barney Swallows had provided the decisive evidence that the archbishop’s true identity was that of a Doppler.
“Barney Swallows announced that they would take a treasure hidden by the Empire, and what they stole was Duke Yurei.”
“Am I the Empire’s treasure? That makes no sense……”
“It’s the interpretation that matters, not the dream.”
A band of righteous thieves for the common people.
They exposed corrupt nobles and returned their wealth, and many Imperial citizens praised their righteous deeds.
Moreover, Barney Swallows was famous for always stealing things exactly as announced.
No item had disappeared from the Empire, and only Duke Yurei had vanished.
This would give rise to speculation that the Empire’s treasure might be connected to Duke Yurei.
“Some fools may believe it, but I don’t think that will last long.”
“That’s the point. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong.”
The more commotion there was, the more people learned of them, and the more people who knew them, the more their side grew.
This was a method Garnet, the leader of Black Bandana, had taught them.
‘Truly impressive.’
The Imperial pursuit force was made up of formidable experts.
The fact that they had not even caught sight of the pursuers meant that the diversion operation had anticipated their every move.
They had even laid the groundwork to cause confusion within the Empire, so there was no choice but to admire them.
Zed stretched and got to his feet.
“Anyway, this is our last break. Now we need to spend three full days riding, so get some rest. I’ll go to bed first.”
“Right.”
The members of the escort went off to sleep one by one, leaving only two men before the campfire.
William and Duke Yurei.
An awkward atmosphere hung between them.
They had not exchanged a single word since setting out.
“You said you endured to protect the Heinkel Kingdom until the very end.”
William spoke first.
Duke Yurei did not even pretend to look at him.
“What do you want to say?”
“It was an honorable act for a nobleman.”
“You’re not the one I want to hear that from. My face hurts, too, so I should go back and sleep.”
Duke Yurei turned toward the tent.
“Why did you order all the innocent people to be killed?”
William asked.
He stopped and turned to look at William.
William wore a serious expression.
Duke Yurei realized that this was the purpose behind William’s participation in the escort.
“Do you think they were innocent?”
“They are hungry people.”
“Yes, they are hungry. But they will survive. I ordered them to leave only that many alive.”
“Did you have to leave them to live in such suffering?”
“Then what should I have done? Should I have stripped away all the wealth I had left and fed the commoners as though nothing had happened?”
“Shouldn’t you at least have given them hope?”
Duke Yurei sighed.
“William, you fool. Why are you, someone who was supposed to become a knight, looking at them through a commoner’s eyes?”
“I looked through a knight’s eyes.”
“If you had, you should have made an example of them.”
“How can pointing a sword at commoners be called chivalry?”
“Pointing a sword at commoners? That’s not it. You failed to trust the one who rules. You failed to trust the man who had trampled others for forty-five years and ruled for twenty-seven. What was I until then? A tyrant who indiscriminately killed innocent people?”
That was not the case.
“Or was I an exceedingly benevolent ruler?”
That was not the case either.
He was neither a benevolent ruler nor a tyrant.
Had King Heodret not started a war, he would have remained merely an ordinary lord.
“Do you think being ordinary is easy? Even a river that looks placid on the surface has vicious whirlpools churning below. Once you’re swept in, not even your corpse can be found. I dive into that river every day. To those watching from afar, it looks as though I’ve merely gone under for a moment. That’s what it means to be a lord.”
“……”
“To become the one who rules, such things must come naturally, like breathing.”
Duke Yurei raised his cup. His hand was trembling.
“That damned war changed everything. It was something no one wanted, yet something that was bound to happen.”
“……”
“William.”
“Yes.”
“You know, don’t you? Countless soldiers died for our domain, and even more families shed tears.”
“Yes.”
“Their blood and sweat were sacrifices made to drive out the invaders. I did not want their souls to have been sacrificed in vain. I did everything I could.”
“……”
“But look at them. Those people saying they’ll flee because they can’t endure a hungry winter. Are you saying you took up spears and shields for people who would run away the moment things didn’t go their way?”
“……”
“If punishing one to warn a hundred so they understand the value of that sacrifice makes me a tyrant, then I will gladly be one. That is the respect Lord Ferri Yurei pays to the departed spirits.”
William could understand Duke Yurei’s feelings a little.
When he was a knight cadet, he had crossed battlefields and sometimes shed tears at the horrors that followed.
“But even if you say that, I cannot accept it.”
If anything, that made it even harder to accept.
Pointing a sword at the people of his domain in order to protect them.
It was a terrible contradiction that denied everything he had learned and trampled on the dream he had held.
“William.”
“Yes.”
“Is that the conviction you hold?”
“Yes.”
William answered firmly.
Despite his firm answer, William’s feelings did not seem to reach Duke Yurei, who rose from his seat with a displeased expression.
“Think carefully. Decide whether that’s conviction, or a cowardly excuse for being unable to face reality.”
Duke Yurei entered the tent without another word.
On that sleepless night, his mind whirled as chaotically as the stars in the night sky.
* * *
After Duke Yurei had rested, they changed horses and traveled for three full days.
At last, they crossed the Imperial border and arrived in the buffer zone.
They moved into a wild, undeveloped forest, where a luxurious carriage and a small tent had been set up.
It was barely large enough for one person to sleep in, yet the inside was remarkably spacious and luxurious.
It was so fine that he thought neither he nor even King Heinkel could use such a thing.
Its owner stood in the middle of the spacious interior and welcomed Duke Yurei.
“You have had a hard journey.”
Gray hair and blue eyes.
A dry face devoid of emotion.
“Regent Ferda……”
Complex emotions swirled within Duke Yurei.