What Changes, What Remains (7)

Rules exist in virtually any place or situation.

Even if one lives alone in the forest, rules still exist, though being bound by laws is only natural when living in a town.

For example, if an ordinary person built a house in a relatively safe forest and lived there alone, they would have to sleep at night and be active during the day.

That might seem obvious—a matter that predates rules—but in a town, as long as they did not have to worry about the cost of lamp oil, they could drink late into the night or lose themselves in a book.

In the forest, however, obtaining fuel is a fairly serious matter of survival, so one cannot casually waste it by staying up late.

The trees in the forest also block the moonlight, and there are no well-maintained paths, making activity in the forest at night dangerous unless one has exceptionally good night vision.

In other words, the necessities of daily life bind us to the movement of the sun.

Beasts have rules, too.

They do not enter territory marked by the scent of another beast unless they have a clear intention of taking it over.

Even if they won a fight, should they be wounded in the process, another beast might hunt them down.

Thus, unless driven by necessity, they avoid taking unnecessary risks.

Rules have a purpose; that is why they exist and are obeyed.

But, of course, any rule can be broken if one is willing to accept the risk.

And at times, those willing to break the rules can seize control of a situation and gain the upper hand.

Zieden's invasion of the Duchy of Karkoym broke the tacit understanding that served as a rule.

The Duchy of Karkoym had ties to every neighboring country while favoring none of them. When conflicts intensified, it acted as a mediator; otherwise, it helped maintain the ties among the nations.

I remember well that Paurogia, although it had already ceased to exist as a country, had long engaged in repeated skirmishes with the Republic of Vilestrika.

But in fact, there had apparently been a small amount of trade between Paurogia and the Republic of Vilestrika.

It was not conducted directly between the two countries, however, but through the Duchy of Karkoym.

That slight connection was probably what enabled the Republic of Vilestrika, after destroying Paurogia, to have its surviving nobles establish a new country and make it a vassal state instead of occupying and ruling the land itself.

Of course, there must have been some intervention through the Duchy of Karkoym at the time.

But the Duchy of Karkoym, which had served as such a diplomatic channel, could no longer fulfill that role.

In an outrageous turn of events, it had lost half its territory to Zieden through a surprise invasion, then become a vassal state of the Republic of Vilestrika in order to survive.

This was something that should never have happened. Having lost the links between them, the means of mediation, and the tacit understanding that had served as a rule, the countries had fallen into a state of mutual suspicion.

The church organization headquartered in Radrenia was said to be doing everything it could to ease the growing tensions in the central part of the continent, but for now, there was no sign of the conflict abating.

Perhaps it was precisely because the situation was like this that the proposal had arisen.

After about four weeks in town, having finished a fair number of spears and short swords, I was apparently approached through the Smiths' Guild with a request from the royal palace that I enter royal service.

Fifty years ago, the first request had been an invitation to an audience with the king, but compared to that, this felt considerably more hasty.

Well, I could more or less guess their reasoning.

The Duchy of Travoia likely wanted an elf in its service more than it wanted a skilled blacksmith.

The elf caravan's mutual aid to elves living in human countries was not particularly publicized, but anyone who paid close attention to its movements would quickly realize it.

In other words, they had probably concluded that if they took an elf into their service, they could receive aid from other elves, even if only indirectly.

The elf caravan moved from country to country while also holding an official position, allowing it to venture into areas ordinary merchants could not. It must have possessed detailed information about the situation in the central part of the continent.

It was that information, I surmised, that the Duchy of Travoia desired amid this chaotic situation.

Naturally, I politely declined the proposal.

If they had wanted to hire me for my skills as a blacksmith, that would have been one thing, but I wanted no part of such a restrictive position in royal service. All the more so if their purpose was to establish a connection with the elves.

If I were taken into their service... the elves would go out of their way to help me far beyond what the Duchy of Travoia imagined.

The effects of that could become much greater than I expected.

The chain of events it set in motion might bring misfortune either to the elves as a race or to the Duchy of Travoia itself.

Perhaps it was about time to leave town.

I was reluctant to leave behind such masterpieces that could serve as examples of smithing, as well as the chance to make a treasured sword, but I had no desire to remain and become a source of trouble.

All the more so because I had grown attached to the town of Janpemon and wanted to visit it again.

But how should I tell Aina, with whom I had recently grown so close, that I was leaving on a journey?

As the inn's daughter, she might simply see me off without much fuss, but, being a child her age, she might also dislike losing her playmate.

Then again, being sent off without much of a reaction would leave me a little lonely, too...

How much would she have grown by the next time we met?

The wooden sword I had carved to fit her current size surely would no longer fit her hand by then.

When I looked up at the sky, the clouds were flowing northward on the wind from the south.

As if pushing me forward.

Though Zieden's movements worried me, staying in this town would not reveal anything.

For now, I would head north... or, more precisely, northeast, toward Odine.

The place where I had learned magic from Kaushman and made a magic sword together with him.

Once that was done, I would head west, pass through Zieden, and make my way to the Kingdom of Rudria.

Of course, it was questionable whether I could pass through present-day Zieden without trouble, but as long as I did not visit human settlements, ordinary humans would be unable to stop me from crossing forests and rivers.

The quickest way to learn what was happening in Zieden was still to investigate it from within.

I had no idea what I would see there.