Chapter 30
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Ferda tilted his head.
“What does that have to do with conspiring to and inciting rebellion?”
“Because you are arming soldiers by relying on a corporation and building a road connecting you to the Empire. Are you not intending to facilitate an invasion?”
There was no more outrageous stretch than this.
Ferda responded calmly.
“I am improving the roads to facilitate supplies and trade, and to make it easier to receive support from the Empire in an emergency. And since I have a contract with the Pascal Trading Company, naturally I need to build roads for them. In a land where the only enemies are fiends and monsters, what do you think we could do with a road that warrants such a ridiculous accusation?”
“The East has defended itself consistently until now, even without roads. Increasing armaments when there is no need to arm yourselves means exactly that.”
“Defense...”
At that moment, Ferda’s calm emotions surged sharply.
“Have you ever even once seen what is happening in the Far East?”
“No.”
“Have you ever set foot in the Far East?”
“No.”
“Then you do not know what is happening in the Far East either.”
Ferda had not known before coming here, either.
Though he had attended the Far Eastern Front Alliance meetings several times, it was only after he arrived that he realized how dire things were.
“From the outset, the Far Eastern border was lacking in everything—budget, troops, even morale. Even now, we have only managed to fill about twenty-five percent of the shortfall. And that looks like excessive armament to you?”
“There have been no problems so far. Increasing armaments when there is no need to arm yourselves means exactly that.”
“Do not twist things. To be frank, the only reason the Grand Duchy of Valdrowa has managed to defend itself against fiends is because of my fiancée, the Grand Duke of Valdrowa. Without her, this place would already be no different from a pile of corpses. The soldiers of the Far East need better weapons.”
“Twist things?!”
Karl raised his voice, seizing on Ferda’s words.
“I have come here in my capacity as an imperial auditor! Do you not know that I am to be treated as though I were the Emperor?”
Karl threatened him with a shout.
He tried to suppress Ferda’s momentum,
“Now.”
Ferda’s quiet voice clamped Karl’s mouth shut.
He merely looked up at Karl while holding his teacup, his legs crossed.
Yet there was something in his blue eyes.
“Did you just raise your voice at me, Sir Karl?”
Something no human could possibly possess.
Karl was not cowed by that aura.
He was the one who could raise his voice.
Ferda was angry as well.
Had Ferda retained his original personality, Karl ought to have been a corpse by now.
No—Ferda would have cruelly torn him apart and smashed him to pieces.
Yet he was still holding back.
‘Had Valdrowa been nothing more than a guard dog all this time?’
The way they treated her was beyond anything he had imagined.
Ferda had sensed it vaguely as well.
They feared her, but it was not the primal fear that came from her essence.
Ferda desperately wanted to send them back to the Western Empire immediately.
But he did not.
Ferda decided to look farther ahead.
All of this was for his fiancée, Valdrowa.
In the end, Karl, who had tried to overpower Ferda through sheer force of presence, tucked his tail between his legs.
“If a full-scale investigation proceeds, the regent may be punished under imperial law.”
Ferda answered as he sipped his tea.
“Then stop it.”
“With our superiors watching closely, I cannot accomplish that on my own.”
“Is that so?”
Ferda waved a hand as if disappointed.
“Then it cannot be helped. I will cooperate fully with the investigation and seek the light of truth.”
Karl finally opened his mouth, wearing a frustrated expression.
“……Once it begins, it cannot be stopped.”
“It is unfortunate, but it cannot be helped. You have done your job. You may return.”
In the end, Karl let out a deep sigh.
“Why are you doing this? Someone of your standing keeps pretending not to understand.”
He stopped his half-hearted act and revealed his true colors.
His murky eyes turned toward Ferda.
“Let’s settle this amicably. As someone from House Rosnova, surely you know what our Purge Unit does?”
“Of course I do. You’re knights who go around robbing lords, aren’t you?”
“That is one way of putting it, yes.”
He wore an expression that suggested insults meant nothing to him.
He formed a circle with his index finger and thumb.
“Just pay the money we need to hand over to our superiors, along with a small commission for me. Then we’ll take a step back.”
“How much?”
He spread all the fingers of the hand he was holding up.
“One hundred thousand goldens should be enough.”
“Hmm, one hundred thousand...”
Ferda nodded and set down his teacup.
Luri approached with the teapot and refilled his cup with hot tea.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“What do I look like to you?”
At Ferda’s question, Karl answered as if he found it absurd.
“You are the regent of Valdrowa, are you not?”
“Do I look like that to you? I think you take me for a dogX.”
“A-a dogX?”
With the profanity hurled at him so bluntly, Karl was flustered.
“What are you talking about? How could I possibly regard the regent that way...?”
“Do not worry. I have already heard plenty about being Valdrowa’s kept man and Rosnova’s useless son. It is only to be expected that I would anticipate you taking me for a dogX.”
The very fact that someone from the Purge Unit had come here in the first place carried that meaning.
“I know everything.”
Ferda liked honorable knights.
Among them, the finest was the Purge Unit, which monitored the corruption of lords.
“I know how you people drive upright lords into ruin.”
So when he realized what they truly were, he was more disappointed than anyone.
“If I give you money, what will that make me? Ah, you will say I paid because I admitted my guilt and wanted to buy your silence. That will create a perfect mark for people like you to keep preying on.”
Once you set foot inside, you become entangled in it.
Like jumping into a thick, sticky swamp, you become unable to escape by your own power.
“And people like you will start gathering one by one. You will come asking me to slip you some money, like children toddling up to their mother to ask for pocket money to buy snacks.”
Similar demands and similar threats would begin flooding in from all around.
A lord’s wealth, no matter how great, was not infinite.
Granting the demands would become unbearable, while cleaning up the mess would require even more money and power.
That was how a lord would begin raising taxes and exploiting those around him.
They drove decent people to the brink and forced them down a path where they had no choice but to become truly corrupt.
That was how corruption in the Empire continued.
“Knowing all that, do you think I am going to give you money?”
Ferda swore.
He swore to protect the things Valdrowa loved and wanted to protect.
He would never let himself be manipulated as a plaything by a bunch of worthless bastards like these.
“So do as you please. Search all you like for that ridiculous conspiracy and incitement of rebellion, and keep raising objections. I have no intention of giving you even one golden, let alone one kupe.”
Ferda’s attitude was firmer than Karl had expected.
Yet Karl was accustomed to situations like this.
How many times had he seen it?
Lords who had tried to hold out without paying the Purge Unit.
“Then I suppose I have no choice but to bring this up.”
But the Purge Unit crushed anyone who opposed it, without exception.
Even if the other party was someone backed by the Grand Duke’s authority, he was still merely a youngster who had just become regent.
“I hear there has recently been talk that you murdered a noble. What do you have to say about that?”
It was about Tesalos Walcher.
He had decided to bring up a real crime, rather than one that did not exist.
“Murder? That is preposterous. Is it the Empire’s law to arrest someone for killing a person in a duel?”
“A death that occurs at the end of a duel is clearly murder. There are people who witnessed it, are there not?”
“They did witness it. One of them is here right now.”
Ferda casually shifted his gaze toward Luri.
“Tell him. Did I commit murder?”
Luri shook her head.
“It was an execution. Since he was secretly researching black magic using fiends, immediate execution was only proper.”
“There you have it.”
“That is a separate charge unrelated to the duel, is it not!? And having your own attendant speak is inadmissible.”
“Then whose testimony should we hear?”
Karl answered with a sardonic smile.
“As it happens, we are bringing that witness here. He should arrive at this castle soon.”
“A witness...”
Ferda merely sipped his tea.
“I would very much like to meet him.”
Ferda gestured as though it made no difference what they did.
Since nothing he did could shake Ferda, Karl could not help but grow irritated.
‘Let’s see how long you can remain so relaxed. You’ll end up groveling at my feet!’
Yet he believed that he would be the one laughing in the end.
Karl smiled with that conviction.
A little while later, the witness Karl had brought in entered the reception room.
He was an elderly lord with a thick, deeply wrinkled white beard.
He was the oldest person in the Far East, and the one with the highest rank after Ferda.
-Ferda Valdrowa is an idiot drunk on his own power, arrogant enough that he may soon incur Valdrowa’s wrath.
He was an oppositionist who despised Ferda Valdrowa, and also the source of the information that had prompted them to decide to mobilize.
“Oh my, welcome, Count Consilius!”
Karl greeted him warmly from the doorway.
But Consilius did not even glance at Karl.
His eyes were fixed on Ferda.
Consilius walked over and respectfully knelt.
“Regent, I hope you have been well.”
Ferda accepted the greeting without ceremony.
“Welcome, Count Consilius.”
It was an ordinary greeting between nobles.
Yet Karl stood there blankly, as though he had been struck over the head, at the sight.
Greetings among nobles were commonplace.
But when they were meeting face-to-face or were not on good terms, it was customary for them to exchange only a bow of the head.
Showing this degree of courtesy, as Consilius had just done, was impossible in noble society unless one truly wished to express respect.
‘He was merely showing courtesy.’
Karl did not let himself look awkward.
For now, the right course was to remain composed to the very end.
‘Count Consilius is on our side.’
Count Consilius was a knight who had sworn loyalty to the emperor of the Empire.
He was an old man who had merely walked a tightrope in the Far East, and until recently had regarded the young regent with disfavor.
‘So had every lord in the Far East.’
That had already been verified.
Ferda was a man who threatened lords with criminal charges and sought to rule by suppressing them through fear.
Fear made people shrink back.
But the moment they found a way to escape it, they could betray you faster than anyone.
He had received even that information from Consilius, so there was no doubt the count would cooperate.
After returning his greeting, Ferda courteously indicated the empty chair with one hand.
“Have a seat. I would rather not keep an elderly man kneeling like this.”
“Yes.”
Count Consilius sat down, and Karl followed suit, clearing his throat.
He tried to take control of the conversation.
“Count Consilius, thank you for coming all this way.”
“Not at all. The timing simply happened to work out perfectly.”
Consilius chuckled and stroked his beard.
Karl laughed along and steered the conversation to its subject.
“Count Consilius, you said that you knew about the Tesalos Walcher incident.”
Consilius nodded.
“I do. I witnessed it as an observer at the time.”
“Exactly. Would you testify here and now about the atrocities committed by the Regent of Valdrowa?”
“That matter? Yes, I asked him to tell you about it...”
“Indeed. Can you give us your testimony about what happened then?”
Count Consilius’s eyes slid toward Ferda.
“To give you the conclusion first, the Regent of Valdrowa...”
He continued.
“...did nothing wrong in that duel.”
“...What?”
It was far from the answer Karl had expected.
“Wh-what do you mean? Haha, I must have misheard you...”
“I will say it again. The Regent of Valdrowa did nothing wrong in that duel.”
Consilius had not chosen the Empire.
“That day, Tesalos Walcher cast a spell formation with the intention of killing Lord Valdrowa, and Lord Valdrowa merely subdued him in response. The regent’s level at the time was first circle. He was a fourth-circle mage. The difference was great enough to make the outcome certain. But that young Walcher did not know when to stop. Even so, he lost.”
“That is true. He lost, but it led to the murder of a noble—and—”
“No, that is not how it can be viewed.”
Count Consilius cut Karl off.
“Even when the duel was over, he might have tried to kill him with magic. There is such a thing as killing intent that only the participants in a duel can sense. The regent may have counterattacked before his opponent launched his attack. The world of mages is that profound. Would you not agree?”
Ferda nodded.
“A mage conceals his final means until the very end. That is what it means to be a mage.”
“Since one noble attempted to kill another, the right to decide life and death must be guaranteed, even if the attempt failed. That was the conclusion reached by the lords.”
What the hell?
That was not what he had said.