Chapter 45
After lunch, in the languid afternoon.
Kara, who had been sleeping far more these days, was dozing beside me, her breathing soft and even.
Distinct red handprints stood out on my back.
I had teased Kara that she had been sleeping so much because she was eating a lot, and she had hit me once.
‘It hurts....’
Ignoring my sore back, I gently stroked Kara’s sleeping belly and fell into thought.
The warmth of my wife and Yeppi at my fingertips was comforting, but the unease in my chest did not easily subside.
‘Let’s admit it. My mind isn’t anything special.’
The transmigrator’s buff and my knowledge of the original work.
Both were great, but at my core, I was half an ordinary Korean man who had completed his military service and half a barbarian far removed from intrigue.
It was impossible for me to single-handedly unravel and resolve the Empire’s complicated political struggles or the nobles’ decades-old conspiracies.
That was no longer the domain of a guy like me, who found swinging an ax easier.
‘If I stew over this alone, I’ll miss the timing.’
Variables I didn’t know about were cropping up.
Could everything really be resolved just by adding a single line to a letter?
That was just empty talk.
What I needed now was help from an expert smarter and more experienced than me.
‘I have a trustworthy expert, though.’
I made up my mind and stood.
There was no more time to agonize over it alone.
As Kara had said, there was no need to agonize alone.
* * *
At the mansion’s entrance, Eisen had finished preparing to leave and was about to get into his carriage.
“Count, where are you going?”
“Ah, Mr. Varg.”
Eisen turned around as he fastened his coat collar.
“I’m going to Northgard’s lord’s castle regarding Her Highness the Princess’s academy recommendation letter. There are also some additional documents to deliver. The Grand Duke is a difficult person to deal with, but it would be good to establish a connection with Her Highness in advance.”
“That works out.”
Whoosh—!
Before I could even hear his answer, I opened the carriage door.
“I’ll go with you.”
“What? No, wait... ugh!”
Ignoring the count’s attempts to stop me, I forcibly squeezed myself inside.
Crack.
The carriage wheels let out a scream.
A small carriage Eisen had originally planned to ride alone.
The suffocating crampedness I had experienced crossing the border was recreated the moment my huge frame climbed in.
When I tried to take a breath, it was even tighter than before.
My knees were pressing against the count’s knees, and our shoulders were already overlapping.
“Nngh... Mr. Varg, what are you doing all of a sudden? I can barely breathe.”
“I’m sorry. But there’s something I need to tell you right now.”
As soon as I closed the carriage door, I hardened my expression and got straight to the point.
“I’ll be blunt. Grand Young Master Karl is in danger.”
“......What are you talking about?”
Eisen’s expression changed.
His gaze sharpened behind his glasses.
I took a deep breath.
I mustn’t try to explain this logically.
I knew nothing about politics.
A clumsy argument would only arouse suspicion.
My weapons were instinct and sincerity.
And if it were Eisen, the keywords I tossed out would be enough for him to see beyond them.
Even if I merely planted the seed of suspicion in Eisen’s mind, it wouldn’t be something he had never suspected before.
He had simply lacked physical evidence.
Because he was Eisen.
Because he was the intellect I trusted most.
“You said so yourself, Count. Grand Young Master Karl is a man of indomitable will. He succeeded in rehabilitating himself from paralysis of the lower body, yet suddenly collapsed again with an illness of unknown cause.”
I stared directly into Eisen’s eyes.
“I don’t think it’s... an illness.”
“His condition could have worsened. It could be a complication from rehabilitation.”
“But you said he was certainly a diligent man, and he wouldn’t be the sort to neglect rehabilitation even after collapsing again, would he?”
“……That’s right. The Grand Young Master I know is exactly that sort of person.”
“And Young Master Kairen.”
I continued.
“Comparisons aren’t really fair, but... between Grand Young Master Karl and Young Master Kairen, assuming the two were the same age, who would it be more natural to send for early admission?”
“That would be Grand Young Master Karl, who proved his abilities early. Of course, he didn’t enter early.”
Though Eisen answered immediately, he seemed to sense a subtle incongruity and furrowed his brow.
“Yet they’re sending only the still-young Young Master Kairen three years early. As though... someone were pressed for time.”
As though there were something they needed to get out of the way quickly.
I paused for a moment.
Then, staring into Eisen’s eyes, I touched on the most sensitive point in aristocratic society.
“Moreover, Young Master Kairen is... the son of a second wife....”
I deliberately left the sentence unfinished.
Because the silence left afterward makes a listener’s suspicions grow larger than a clear statement ever could.
“Above all... the Grand Duchess’s background troubles me….”
“......!”
Eisen’s pupils wavered.
The force behind the recent attempt to abduct Alina and Her Highness the Princess.
The place the masked man had named was Slokina.
They were a force that had always kept House Northgard in check.
Eisen’s hand began to tremble.
Kairen, the son of Karla, the Grand Duchess who hailed from Slokina’s royal family, was being sent away in haste, while Karl, the son of the first wife and the next Grand Duke, was suffering a sudden decline in health.
Could this really be dismissed as a coincidence?
The ominous suspicion he had desperately ignored and suppressed with thoughts of surely not was suddenly fanned into flame.
Eisen fell silent.
A single terrible possibility was what all these circumstances pointed toward.
I pressed down on my brows and put on a pained expression.
This time, I was going to appeal to emotion.
“I’m sorry. I may be being overly sensitive. But... Kara and I nearly lost our father to an attempted poisoning too, so I can’t help seeing parallels.”
“An... attempted poisoning....”
“You’re far wiser than I am, Count, and you’ve watched over House Northgard for a long time.”
I asked desperately.
“Is this premonition of mine... truly an absurd delusion? Have you never once had such a suspicion, Count?”
Silence fell.
The air inside the carriage settled heavily.
Eisen closed his eyes.
The keywords I had thrown out.
Things he, too, had once suspected in passing.
But there had been no evidence.
And it was a Pandora’s box he had deliberately left untouched, knowing that meddling with it would bring a bloodbath to House Northgard.
But then.
This rough barbarian youth was trying to open that box.
‘......’
Eisen slowly opened his eyes.
Then he looked at me and pushed up his glasses.
With the scrutinizing gaze of a graduate-school professor looking at his student.
“Haa... It’s not that I’ve never considered it. That’s why I tried to leave it buried.”
“Then....”
“But it’s not a bad attitude. Suspicion is a basic political skill.”
Eisen grinned.
“Taking this opportunity to verify Mr. Varg’s suspicions firsthand would make a good lesson as well.”
“Count!”
“Since you were the one who saved Her Highness the Princess and Alina, let’s use this opportunity to leave a definite impression on the Grand Duke. If that suspicion is true... we’ll be saving House Northgard.”
I felt reassured.
With this man, I could turn my clumsy suspicion into certainty.
“I’ll give you ten minutes. Go get ready and come back.”
Eisen opened the cramped carriage door and got out.
Then he ordered the waiting knight.
“Put this carriage away. Bring out that carriage.”
“That carriage... You mean the bed carriage we used at the border?”
“Yes. Right now.”
I cheered inwardly.
“Oh, that would be great. Count, why don’t you buy it outright while you’re at it? Kara really liked it.”
“What?!!!!”
It was then.
The second-floor office window flew open, and Ronas poked his head out.
He had somehow heard the word purchase.
“Buy it?! That expensive thing?! Have you thought about our family’s budget, Father?!”
Ronas’s wail echoed through the garden.
Eisen whispered to me.
“That’s why... I’m planning to buy it secretly next quarter. If I do it after the budget has been set, I’ll get less nagging.”
“As expected of an educated man.”
We shared a little covert plotting and laughed behind Ronas’s back.
But our time to laugh was short.
I caught hold of Eisen.
“Count, I have one more favor to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Please prepare two carriages when we leave.”
“Two? Wouldn’t one for Mr. Varg and me be enough?”
“I’ll explain later. Please bring out the carriage you used at the border as well. We absolutely need it.”
I spoke earnestly.
Eisen was now going to Northgard’s lord’s castle.
What if, as I expected, Eisen fully realized there had been an assassination attempt or threat against Grand Young Master Karl?
The most effective course would be to isolate him.
To bring Karl, whose lower body was impaired, safely to Eisengard, we needed a spacious, comfortable carriage large enough for his wheelchair.
In other words, this second carriage was an ambulance for Karl.
But there was no time to explain that now.
Eisen stared intently into my eyes, then nodded without complaint.
“...Understood. Let’s trust Mr. Varg’s instincts for once. Knight! Bring out Carriage No. 2 as well!”
“Yes!”
“No! Don’t tell me you’re buying that one too?! Father!!!”
Ronas’s scream grew even more anguished from beyond the window.
I sent a silent apology to Ronas and turned around.
There was only one thing left.
To say goodbye to Kara before leaving.
But even the time it would take to return to the entrance and climb the stairs felt too precious to waste.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
I ran across the garden.
Then, without hesitation, I vaulted over the garden wall in one leap and climbed the sturdy garden tree.
Creak.
The branch bent, but I used its recoil to leap to the second-floor bedroom balcony.
Thud!
“......!”
The moment I landed on the balcony, I flung open the window.
Kara, who had been sleeping on the bed, opened her eyes in shock.
“Varg?!”
Watching from below, Eisen stroked his chin.
“Hmm....”
Then he adjusted his glasses and muttered as if to himself.
“If they end up with separate rooms at the academy... continuing to put on displays like that might be one strategy.”
A strategy to make the dean grow so fed up that he gives up and says, ‘Please, you two lunatics, just share a room.’
“Not bad. I should tell Mr. Varg.”
The count waited for the carriage with a satisfied smile.
Meanwhile, Kara was startled to see me enter the bedroom through the window, but soon welcomed me with a smile.
“Kara, this is sudden, but I think I need to go to Northgard’s grand ducal castle for a bit. With the count.”
But how should I explain the reason?
Should I tell her there might be a bloodbath at House Northgard?
Or should I hide it because she might worry?
As I hesitated, opening and closing my mouth, Kara approached and wrapped me in a tight hug.
Then she pressed my face against her abs.
“Yeppi, tell Daddy to have a safe trip~.”
“...You’re not going to ask?”
“Hmm, if I start by asking why you came through the window, it’ll take too long.”
Kara lowered her head and gave my lips a brief kiss.
Smack.
“You finally opened up?”
“...Yeah. I’ll be back.”
Kara had known the old me—stupid but straightforward—for longer.
But lately, she must have been worried after seeing me agonize over things alone.
It was a sudden announcement that I was going out, but I was happy instead.
Because it meant I had finally decided to share with someone the burden I had been trying to shoulder alone.
“Of course, I’m a little jealous that it’s someone other than me... but I’ll tease you plenty when you get back.”
Smiling at Kara’s one and only bout of sulking, I took the Behemoth-leather formal uniform from the wardrobe.
Clothes I had been saving to wear for the first time at the academy entrance ceremony.
Of course, I had ripped them while rescuing Kairen the first time I wore them.
I was also planning to meet the Grand Duke, so I needed to observe proper etiquette.
Above all, if a battle broke out, nothing would serve as sturdier armor than this outfit.
When I put on the formal uniform, Kara came over and tied my necktie.
At first, Kara didn’t know how to tie a necktie.
The Imperial military and formal uniforms she wore had neckwear too, but their style differed from the clumsy men’s necktie I wore.
But Kara had learned separately from the count how to tie a necktie, just for me.
Now, her deft hands had grown quite accustomed to it, tying a neat knot around my neck.
That focused gaze as she looked up at me.
It was so adorable I could hardly stand it.
“The count said he gave you ten minutes, right? There are still three minutes left.”
The moment our clothes were straightened, we embraced each other so tightly we could have crushed one another.
We spent the remaining time doing nothing but feeling each other’s warmth.
No words were necessary.
Just before the ten minutes were up.
I put my regret behind me and stood on the window frame again.
“I’ll be back soon.”
Without hesitation, I jumped out the window.
Thud!
“Huh... Mr. Varg. That formal uniform is extremely special and expensive. It may be sturdy, but please refrain from jumping while wearing it.”
Watching from the carriage, Eisen clicked his tongue.
“I’m sorry.”
I climbed into the carriage with an awkward smile.
And so, the two carriages set off toward the grand ducal castle.