Chapter 50
Karl took a deep breath, then prepared to leave the office.
He reached for the wheels, but he couldn't muster the strength, and they spun uselessly.
“Ngh....”
Karl's face flushed.
His mind was made up, but his body still would not follow.
Swish.
I quietly approached and took hold of the wheelchair handles.
“Allow me to escort you.”
“Ah... Thank you, Sir Wintersword. I seem to keep going into your debt.”
“Debt? You're on your way to help my family, aren't you? It is my honor.”
I said it sincerely.
Karl nodded as though relieved by my words.
I started to push the wheelchair, then paused.
A piece of red tart had fallen beneath the desk.
“Kairen dropped that earlier, and there was so much going on that I didn't get around to clearing it away.”
‘...So this is the poison-laced tart.’
The bitter version.
Evidence that Karla had tried to kill her stepson.
Karl hurriedly tried to pick it up, but I was faster.
I calmly picked up the piece of tart.
And then.
Chomp.
Without hesitation, I tossed it into my mouth.
“!! Sir Wintersword? That fell on the floor....”
“It would be a waste. Besides....”
I chewed and swallowed the tart as if nothing were wrong.
Behind the bitter grapefruit flavor, I sensed a faint trace of poison pricking the tip of my tongue.
‘At this tiny dose, it wouldn't even register in my body.’
This much neurotoxin was no more than a mildly intoxicating snack.
If anything....
‘It clears my head.’
The poison jolted my mind awake.
My muddled thoughts cleared as if I had smoked a strong cigarette.
Destroying the evidence was an added benefit.
This last piece had to be dealt with perfectly for every trace of Karla's poisoned tart to disappear.
That way, I could ease Kairen's burden, even if only a little.
“Hmm, it's bitter, but it does clear my head.”
When I smacked my lips, Karl looked dumbfounded, then let out a quiet laugh.
“Ha ha... The count's earlier proposal was so outrageous that your eccentricity seems like a minor indiscretion.”
“I'll take that as a compliment.”
“Thanks to you, I feel less tense.”
I grinned and pushed the wheelchair.
Eisen, who was walking ahead, kept pursing and parting his lips as though he wanted to say something about my antics.
* * *
As the Grand Duke entered the lord's castle, he spotted us waiting for him and stopped.
His eyes were red, but his cold gaze first turned toward Eisen and Radiance, then settled on Karl behind me.
“Eisen. And... His Highness Prince Radiance.”
His voice was slightly hoarse, perhaps from having been out on patrol.
“What brings you here without notice?”
Then he glanced at me and frowned.
“And you brought an unwelcome guest along.”
‘Wintersword... That must be the fellow from the Winterclaw tribe.’
The Grand Duke recognized me at once.
His past plan to incite war between the tribes, eliminate their leaders, and absorb the outlander races.
I was the one who had derailed that plan.
There was no way he would look kindly on me.
He looked ready to thunder at me and throw me out.
But.
His gaze stopped at my hands.
At the handles of the wheelchair I was holding.
And at his eldest son, Karl, sitting in it.
Was I holding the Grand Ducal heir hostage?
Or was I attending to him?
This strange tableau made the Grand Duke click his tongue and hold back his words.
Eisen stepped forward and bowed politely.
“Forgive this sudden visit. I came without notice because I have an urgent matter to discuss.”
“What is it?”
“First, there is an urgent procedural matter requiring Your Grace's guarantee....”
“Could it not have been handled by correspondence?”
“An unfortunate incident occurred, so I came in person. And this is Sir Wintersword. Since he once saved Young Master Kairen in the borderlands, I asked him to accompany me so he could formally pay his respects to Your Grace.”
The Grand Duke stared at me.
I met his red eyes without looking away.
“...I will hear the details inside.”
The Grand Duke spoke briefly, turned, and led the way to his office.
Just as we were about to follow him.
“Karl.”
The Grand Duke stopped and looked back.
His cold gaze stabbed toward his son.
“Why are you following us?”
“......!”
“I have no need of your help with state affairs. Even when I tell you to go rest in your room, you refuse to listen.”
It was the same cruel remark he always made, so habitual that he uttered it even with outsiders present.
Normally, Karl would bow his head and withdraw, saying, “I'm sorry.”
He believed his father's word was law and that he had no right to defy it.
But this time was different.
“It concerns Karl as well, Grand Duke.”
Prince Radiance suddenly cut in from behind the Grand Duke.
“...What do you mean, Your Highness?”
“Karl is my academy classmate and my close friend.”
Radiance naturally placed a hand on Karl's shoulder.
“Isn't it rather heartless to keep a friend who has come to visit after so long from joining the conversation? I'm starting to feel hurt.”
The prince's protection.
The Grand Duke's brow twitched.
He shot Karl a sharp look.
‘How dare you use the prince as a shield to defy me.’
But Karl gripped the wheelchair handles tightly.
I stood firm behind him.
I didn't know whether I was helping.
His friend Radiance stood beside him.
And in his heart was the desperate desire to watch his younger brother Kairen grow for longer and from closer at hand.
‘I will not back down.’
In the past, that look alone would have frozen his heart and sent him running.
Karl's habit of retreating had likewise frozen into place under the Grand Duke's coldness.
But now, he did not want to retreat.
With his habitually trembling voice, Karl spoke firmly for the first time.
“I... have something to say as well.”
“......”
“I have something to add regarding my future.”
The Grand Duke stared at his son for a moment, seemingly surprised.
His son, who had always shrunk back, was meeting his eyes for the first time without looking away.
“...Very well.”
The Grand Duke abruptly turned and opened the office door.
He did not refuse.
‘We did it.’
The entire group entered the Grand Duke's office.
The door closed, and heavy air filled the room.
We could not pour everything out at once.
We had to proceed in stages, as Eisen's strategy dictated.
First, we would set the stage by obtaining Princess Elysia's letter of recommendation.
Then, using that letter as a link, we would propose that Karl recuperate at the academy and share a dormitory with Kairen.
For the first stage, Eisen placed the princess's letter of recommendation on the table.
“First, this concerns Her Highness Princess Elysia's letter of recommendation for admission to the academy. The procedure requires Your Grace's guarantee....”
“An illegitimate princess....”
The Grand Duke toyed with his teacup and asked sharply.
“Is she not a child the imperial family has cast aside? Is she worth lending Northgard's name to?”
His blatant dismissal of the princess made me grow tense despite myself.
I glanced at Radiance, sitting beside me.
‘Surely he can't say something like that in front of an imperial prince.’
But Radiance remained composed.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, he leaned slightly toward me and whispered.
“Don't worry. It's milder than what Ellie used to hear in the imperial palace.”
“......”
“If anything, this is among the more polite versions. I'm used to it.”
The prince moistened his lips with tea, still hiding their tremble.
“An illegitimate princess visiting Northgard.... The fact that she needs a letter of recommendation is surely just childish infighting within the imperial family. They would be reluctant to send the princess to another principality to obtain a recommendation.”
The Grand Duke clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, whoever recommended that the princess go to Northgard is truly spiteful.”
“Hot!”
Radiance, sitting beside me, let out a scream.
Perhaps the remark had hit home, he hurriedly brought the teacup to his lips and burned himself.
“Your Highness? Are you all right?”
“Ah, no, I'm fine. The tea was just a little hot. Spring really is spring, Count Eisen. Tea doesn't cool right away, ha ha....”
Radiance cooled his reddened lips and awkwardly looked away.
He was the one who had told Elysia to obtain the Grand Duke's recommendation through Eisen.
“Your Grace, that is precisely why it is worthwhile.”
Eisen calmly countered amid the commotion Radiance had created.
“The imperial family is wary of Her Highness the Princess, but they have also decided how to use her. That is why they are enrolling her in the academy rather than hiding her away completely.”
“How will she be used?”
The Grand Duke's brow twitched.
“As a pawn in a political marriage. She is destined to be sent to another principality or an influential family that needs imperial blood. If we extend a hand and establish a connection now, we will gain a powerful ally when negotiating with the family that eventually becomes related to Her Highness the Princess.”
“Hmm.”
“Moreover, His Highness Prince Radiance is here as well. Helping the princess would also bolster the prince's standing.”
The Grand Duke stole a glance at Radiance sitting beside him.
“......”
The Grand Duke briefly ran the calculations.
There was nothing to lose.
He was only lending them the name, after all.
“However.”
The Grand Duke's gaze turned to Eisen.
“I hear that your daughter suffered an unfortunate incident.”
‘He already knows?’
It was only natural. Even if Elysia's identity was not widely known, news that Count Eisen's daughter had been kidnapped in his territory must have spread faster than the wind.
“Yes. Fortunately, she was rescued safely thanks to Sir Varg.”
“Was the princess involved in that incident?”
“She was. The details, including the identity of those behind the kidnapping, will be included in the report being submitted this time.”
“Oh?”
The Grand Duke's eyes changed.
Kidnapping. The people behind it. The princess.
The wolf of the North had caught a scent.
“Even food one would normally find uninteresting becomes interesting when someone else reaches for it first.”
The Grand Duke picked up a pen and signed the letter of recommendation.
He had finished calculating that the benefits outweighed the risks.
“Take it.”
“Thank you.”
Eisen collected the letter of recommendation.
For now, stage one had succeeded.
But now the real matter began.
As Eisen tried to speak again, the Grand Duke raised a hand to stop him.
“Now, I've written the recommendation.”
The Grand Duke's gaze passed over Eisen and Radiance before fixing on Karl in the wheelchair.
“Now tell me what you really came for. Not you, Eisen, nor Your Highness.”
“......!”
“Karl. You tell me. You said earlier that you had something to say, didn't you?”
The Grand Duke had quickly realized that their true purpose was not some mere letter of recommendation.
Everyone's eyes focused on Karl.
Karl steadied his breathing.
The days after his legs were injured, when he had always shrunk before his father, flashed through his mind.
Ugly.
Useless.
He filled the chest those dagger-like words had slashed apart with the oppressive air of the Grand Duke's office.
Today was different.
Behind him stood his benefactor, beside him stood his friend, and in his heart was the resolve to protect his younger brother.
“...I want to go to the academy.”
Karl opened his mouth.
“I want to receive treatment at its medical center. And... I want to stay by Kairen's side, watch over him, and teach him until he finishes his studies.”
The Grand Duke's expression hardened into coldness.
The expected reaction had begun.
“Treatment?”
The Grand Duke snorted.
“You think the academy's doctors can cure what Northgard's physicians could not? That is a foolish hope.”
“......”
“And Northgard is the shield of the Empire. It is a symbol of the strength that once fought against monsters. And now you want my eldest son, sitting in a wheelchair, to go to an academy packed with the Empire's most prominent families? Do you want to parade the family's shame?”
The Grand Duke's gaze shifted to me.
‘That barbarian can stand on his own two feet and hold his head high, while my son....’
Contempt and disappointment flickered in the Grand Duke's eyes.
“No. Stay quietly within the lord's castle. That is best for you, and for the family.”
The atmosphere froze solid.
“Your Grace....”
Eisen tried to step forward, but Karl spoke first.
“Father.”
Karl gripped the wheelchair handles tightly.
“A shattered ice wall... is difficult to mend. But it is not impossible.”
“What are you talking about?”
“What did His Majesty the First Emperor and our ancestors do... in that desperate age when monsters poured forth? When everyone had lost their homes and families, they stood up again upon the ruins.”
The tremor Karl had instinctively held in his voice subsided.
“The birth of the Empire... was like the sun and moon rising again to the people. Rising again from the ruins—that is the true strength Northgard and our ancestors showed the Empire, is it not?”
“......”
“I want to show that I, too... can rise again. Not hide away, but move forward even in this broken body. I want to prove that I am not the family's shame, but its pride.”
Karl swallowed back tears and looked straight at his father.
“Once again.... I want to be your proud son, Father....”
A son's plea and a man's desperate cry carried beyond the office.
Kairen, who had been listening through the crack in the door, bit his lip.
He bit down on his lip to hold back his sobs.
His brother's sincerity and desperate courage pierced him to the bone.
The Grand Duke stared at Karl without a change in expression.