Chapter 47
A storage room cluttered with old furniture.
Though it was far too shabby a place for the young master of the Grand Ducal House to kneel in.
“Hic... sob....”
Yet its squalor only helped conceal the boy's misery.
We said nothing until Kairen's sobs subsided.
We simply waited.
Until the young boy could bring down the emotions he had suppressed in his heart and breathe again amid their ruins.
A small glass vial lying on the floor caught the faint lamplight.
The weight contained in that little vial was bearing down on the Grand Ducal House.
After a long while.
When Kairen's shoulders no longer shook.
Count Eisen cautiously reached out and patted his disciple's back.
Pat, pat.
“...Are you feeling a little calmer?”
“......Yes. I'm sorry. I made a spectacle of myself.”
Kairen roughly wiped his reddened eyes with his sleeve.
His face was a tear-streaked mess.
Even so, the light in those red eyes was much clearer than before.
Count Eisen adjusted his glasses and broke the heavy silence.
“Young Master. Now... please tell us everything. We need to know so we can help. Don't try to bear it alone. Let us share your burden.”
Kairen moved his lips as though hesitating.
This was the family's shame.
The fact that his mother had tried to kill his brother and that he had concealed it.
The moment he spoke it aloud, he would cross an irreversible river.
But.
Kairen raised his head.
He looked into my eyes, then Count Eisen's.
The person who had given him the foundation for his life.
The person who had already saved his life once.
Eisen and me—the only people who could now save his brother's and mother's lives.
“......I'll tell you.”
The story was longer and more horrifying than I had expected.
The Kingdom of Slokina's threats.
The contempt his mother Karla had endured, being called a “tin vessel,” and the mistaken belief that she had only been acknowledged after giving birth to Kairen.
And the cruel demand that held that happiness hostage.
“Mother... believed that I would die if she didn't kill my brother.”
Kairen's voice cracked.
“So she mixed poison into the tart. Not an acute, fast-acting poison, but a neurotoxin that slowly destroys the body....”
And then.
“Mother ate the remaining tart herself....”
“What?”
Eisen was aghast.
“Because of her guilt... she said that if my brother died, she would follow him. She has been swallowing that poison every day.”
“Hah....”
I, too, was at a loss for words.
It was madness.
A mad form of love in which they killed one another and themselves.
“And... I ate it too today.”
“......!”
“I was trying to stop my brother from eating it... I had to confirm it. That's how I learned it was poison.”
The boy who had swallowed poison for his brother and chosen silence for his mother.
I couldn't even begin to imagine how great the fear and loneliness he had been forced to bear must have been.
The only remotely similar feeling I had ever experienced was the momentary numbness when my father Gorgon had been struck by a poisoned arrow.
“Good heavens....”
Eisen let out a deep sigh.
“You carried all this burden alone on those young shoulders?”
Tears welled in the count's eyes.
Compassion for the suffering his disciple must have endured, and guilt at failing to notice it as his master.
Before he could wipe away his tears, he suddenly grasped Kairen's hand.
“Thank you, Young Master.”
“Master....?”
“For trusting this old man enough to tell me everything. And... thank you, truly, for enduring without giving up.”
Eisen bowed his head sincerely.
“Because you endured, Young Master, we have a chance to prevent the crisis that nearly brought down the Grand Ducal House. You are... already a fine 「Northgard」.”
Kairen's eyes reddened again at those words.
Northgard.
The child who had always been protected had finally lived up to the worth of the surname he had inherited.
Eisen composed himself and turned to look at me.
“Mr. Varg.”
“Yes.”
“Could it be... that you foresaw all of this?”
I was silent for a moment.
I couldn't tell him the truth.
That I knew what happened in the novel.
But the situation was too grave for me to lie about it, either.
“...No.”
I answered with half the truth and half a lie.
“I didn't know it would go this far, either. I just... felt as though I'd caught the scent of something ominous....”
‘That isn't a lie….’
Even with knowledge of the original novel, the future had changed once I intervened.
I hadn't known Kairen would be hurt this badly or sink this deeply into the mire.
“That instinct... saved us all.”
Eisen did not ask anything more.
He merely nodded, his eyes showing that he trusted me.
The emotional outpouring was over.
Now it was time to find a solution with cold reason.
The air inside the storage room changed.
Eisen began analyzing the problem like a professor standing at a lectern.
“Then, Young Master. When you learned the truth, what plan did you have?”
“......”
Kairen thought for a moment, then forced himself to open his mouth.
“I intended to separate them.”
“Isolate them?”
“Yes. The only way to protect both Mother, who is the link to the Kingdom of Slokina, and my brother, the target, is to physically separate them.”
His judgment was sound.
Leaving the poisoner and her victim beneath the same roof was tantamount to suicide, and Karla would be pressured again.
But.
“But... I have no justification.”
Kairen lowered his head.
“Father is ashamed to let my brother leave the grand ducal castle. He considers him a blemish on the family. And my brother... doesn't want to burden others because of his physical condition.”
The biggest problems.
The stubbornness of the Northgard Grand Duke.
Karl's inferiority complex.
Unless they overcame these two walls, getting Karl out of the grand ducal castle would be impossible.
“A justification....”
Eisen folded his arms and fell into thought.
“Simple recuperation or an inspection won't be enough. We need a justification His Grace the Grand Duke will find convincing—or one he cannot refuse.”
He turned his gaze to me.
“If it were you, Mr. Varg, what justification comes to mind in this situation?”
At the sudden question, I folded my arms and thought hard.
A justification.
A justification that would send Karl outside, and far away to somewhere safe, without even the Grand Duke being able to object.
A sick person.
A person in need of treatment.
But ordinary treatment wouldn't do.
The Grand Ducal House already had excellent physicians.
Then we needed something on a higher level, something more overwhelming.
‘Ah.’
“Treatment.”
I opened my mouth.
“What if it were highly advanced treatment?”
“Advanced treatment?”
“Yes. The physicians at the grand ducal castle have already reached their limits. Of course, that was because of the continuous administration of poison, but publicly, it's known as a worsening of an illness of unknown cause.”
I laid out my reasoning.
“Then what if we argued that he needed to go somewhere better—where the Empire's greatest minds gathered, and new magic and medical treatments were being researched?”
“The Imperial Academy.”
At Count Eisen's answer, I smiled in satisfaction and continued.
“The academy medical center has the Empire's finest medical staff. What if we established that he was going there for specialized rehabilitation treatment?”
“The academy....”
“And the Young Master is enrolling there, too. We could say the brothers would stay together, with the younger brother caring for his elder and the elder helping his younger brother with his studies. An image of close brotherly affection would also benefit the family's honor.”
Silence lingered for a moment after they heard my proposal.
And then.
“......!”
Kairen's eyes grew round.
He stared at me with red eyes so intense they were intimidating just to look at.
‘That... that mass of muscle came up with something like this?’
Kairen was shocked.
The Varg he had seen in the borderlands was a symbol of overwhelming might.
A warrior who smashed through everything with a single ax.
But now?
He had seen through the complicated political situation of the Empire, his father's psychology, and even the academy's system, offering the most suitable justification.
Martial might and intellect.
A man who possessed both in perfect measure.
‘He's perfect….’
Kairen's heart swelled.
The ideal he had dreamed of seemed far greater and more magnificent than he had imagined.
‘Just as I thought... he's my ideal....’
‘...No, don't look at me with such shining eyes. It's making me uncomfortable....’
I deliberately avoided his gaze and cleared my throat.
It wasn't even some incredible scheme....
To a modern person, ‘If you're sick, go to a university hospital’ was common sense.
Besides, my mind was simply clear because I wasn't the person involved.
If Kara or my father had faced something similar....
I would have been in much the same state as Kairen.
Or I might have made an irreversible choice.
“What do you think, Count?”
“...An excellent proposal.”
Eisen nodded.
“It is perfect in both justification and practical benefit. His Grace the Grand Duke won't be able to dismiss the academy medical center out of hand. Besides, having Young Master Kairen by his side would be the best safeguard.”
But.
The count's expression remained grave.
“But... the problem is still His Grace the Grand Duke.”
He soon sighed and explained.
“The Northgard Grand Duke is a northern ruler who worships strength. He considers his eldest son's disability a disgrace to the family and wants to conceal it completely from the outside world. But sending him to a public place like the academy, and for treatment at that? His pride won't permit it.”
“......”
“Moreover, we have already come here to ask a favor in the form of 「Her Highness the Princess's letter of recommendation」. If we additionally ask for 「the eldest son's recuperation」... we might offend him and ruin both matters. What's more, His Grace is due back at dawn, so he'll be tired.”
Eisen slipped a bit of instruction into the pause as he considered an alternative, adding an aside for Kairen and me.
“A ruler's reverse scale normally refers to a single fixed scale, but that's only true when the dragon is in a painting. A living person's emotions are always shifting like waves, so even the slightest change can create a new reverse scale. We might end up touching that reverse scale by mistake.”
Logic could be perfect, but it was useless without overcoming the other person's emotions.
They needed not only persuasive power, but the power to compel.
Just as the atmosphere was about to grow heavy.
A strange smile appeared at the corner of Eisen's mouth.
“However....”
“Yes?”
“Whether we call it luck or not... we've gained an unexpected companion—someone capable of both persuasion and coercion.”
“Someone capable of persuasion and coercion?”
Kairen looked back and forth between Eisen and me.
“At first, I was wary of an unannounced companion as well, but in our current situation, he is our greatest ally.”
Eisen gestured toward me.
The man who had tried to follow us from the annex entrance earlier, only to be left behind.
“Ah... His Highness Prince Radiance....”
“Precisely.”
Eisen nodded.
“What? His Highness the prince is here?”
Kairen cried out in surprise.
“Where is he? When did he arrive?”
“......”
Count Eisen and I were rendered speechless.
“We saw him earlier... in front of the annex, didn't we? He was right behind Mr. Varg.”
“Behind him? I didn't see him.”
Kairen genuinely seemed not to know.
‘......’
I clicked my tongue.
Even if my large body had hidden him, how could Kairen have failed to see the prince right behind me, needling us with, “I’m here too?”
He had even tried to sling an arm around me.
‘How bad must his condition have been...’
Pity outweighed my bewilderment.
“In any case, His Highness the prince is here. In his capacity as Grand Young Master Karl's friend.”
Eisen summarized the situation.
“If His Highness the prince intervenes, His Grace the Grand Duke won't be able to ignore him. But... it's not enough. We need a decisive blow that will break the Grand Duke's pride.”
Then, after thinking for a moment, he clasped Kairen's hand tightly.
“Young Master. I know you've already pushed yourself far enough... but may I ask one last favor?”
“Please tell me.... If it can save my brother and mother, I'll do anything.”
Count Eisen drew a deep breath and played his final card.
“Please have the Grand Duchess put in a word with His Grace the Grand Duke.”
“......What?”
Kairen's eyes widened.
“And have her say it when the two of them are in the same bedroom.”
“What do you mean....”