Chapter 7
“Let’s get you inside first. I’ll serve you some warm tea with antler velvet in it.”
“Ah, ah... th-thank you... I-I’m saved....”
Count Eisen waddled toward the tent with my support, like a penguin.
No, he tried to.
Crash!
“Urgh!”
Even with my support, he lost his balance after only a few steps and fell face-first into the snow.
His thick furs may have made his limbs sluggish, but fundamentally, his lower body was far too weak.
Flap, flap.
With his nose buried in the snow, he wriggled and reached out a hand in a pitiful voice.
“E-excuse me... c-could you... p-please... h-help me...?”
I stared down at him blankly.
A round ball of fur flapping around in the snow.
‘He really is a penguin.’
The Empire’s greatest administrator? A cold intellectual?
It was all bullshit.
All I saw before me was a single fat penguin frozen stiff by the cold.
Suppressing a hollow laugh, I grabbed him by the scruff and hoisted him up like a piece of luggage.
“Th-th-thank you... Lord Varg....”
Inside the warm yurt.
Firewood blazed in the brazier.
Count Eisen crouched before the brazier, warming his trembling hands.
Gorgon clicked his tongue and stood up.
“Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll bring out some snacks.”
Once Gorgon went outside, only three of us remained inside the yurt: Kara, Count Eisen, and me.
That was when.
Swish.
Count Eisen, who had been facing away from the brazier, suddenly stood up.
And then.
Rustle!
He instantly shed the three thick fur coats he had worn like a penguin, as though stripping off armor.
I doubted my eyes.
Because a sleek gentleman in a formal suit sprang from the round fur bundle, like a cicada emerging from its shell.
He removed his glasses, fogged white with steam, and wiped them with a handkerchief he pulled from his breast pocket.
Then, using the droplets of condensation on his hair from the change in temperature like hair gel, he combed his disheveled hair back with his fingers in one smooth motion.
Perfectly slicked-back hair achieved.
Putting his glasses back on, he spoke in a low, clear voice that made it hard to believe he was the same man whose teeth had been chattering moments ago.
“Whew. I finally feel alive.”
“......”
Kara and I stared at him with dazed expressions.
What was this, a transforming robot?
Count Eisen bowed courteously.
“I’m sorry for startling you. It’s been twenty years since I last visited Norheim, so I can hardly adjust to the northern cold.”
The penguin’s eyes were no longer vacant.
They were the sharp, intelligent eyes I knew from the original novel.
The Grand Duke of Northgard’s finest administrator.
Count Eisen had returned.
“First, Kara... no, Lady Kara of Norheim. My sincere congratulations on your pregnancy. His Grace the Grand Duke was also delighted to hear the news.”
Kara nodded awkwardly at his polite greeting.
Calling her 「Lady Kara of Norheim」 rather than 「Wintersword」 followed the traditional naming customs of the barbarians in Norheim.
At the same time, it was a subtle courtesy acknowledging that the surname 「Wintersword」 bestowed by the Grand Duke was not an act of pure goodwill.
It was a declaration that he intended to treat her as a dignified member of a tribe, not as a political tool of the Empire.
As expected, he was not a man who tossed out a single word carelessly.
Then his gaze turned toward me.
“And Lord Varg of Norheim. I heard that Chieftain Gorgon adopted you, but... you really look just like him. Your sturdy build, even the shape of your eyes.”
An alarm bell rang inside me.
‘Wait... this man knows I’m adopted?’
The delegation leader from before had assumed I was Gorgon’s biological son and handwaved the matter.
But this man knew.
He knew that I was adopted, and even that Gorgon and I were not related by blood.
I immediately sensed that Count Eisen’s intelligence network was no ordinary one.
The frightening part was that he remembered this information.
The barbarian customs and tribal genealogy he had learned twenty years ago, when he visited Norheim as a rookie envoy.
He had not forgotten even such a trivial detail.
The previous envoys probably had access to information as well.
They had simply decided that a barbarian genealogy was not worth remembering and forgotten it.
But this man was different.
He added with a genial smile,
“Ah, of course, I mean that as a compliment. I mean that you possess the spirit of a northern warrior... not a barbarian.”
He had smoothly swallowed the word ‘barbarian.’
Was it a mistake?
No.
Considering the meticulous memory and information-gathering ability he had displayed, even that slip of the tongue might have been calculated.
He was subtly letting the Imperial view of ‘we see you as barbarians’ show, while simultaneously making a sophisticated display of superiority by saying, ‘but I’ll correct myself.’
It was a high-level rhetorical maneuver meant to test our reactions.
In fact, the moment that word came out, Kara’s brow furrowed slightly, and my eyebrow twitched as well.
His eyes, peering over his lenses, did not miss that brief reaction.
‘Whether we respond emotionally or handle it rationally.’
A test to gauge our personalities.
‘He’s no pushover.’
It left a bad taste in my mouth, but paradoxically, I felt our trust growing.
At least he was not dismissing us as stupid barbarians. He regarded us as ‘subjects’ he needed to analyze and understand.
Count Eisen pulled a briefcase from inside his coat and placed it on the table.
Then he rested his chin on his interlaced fingers and spoke with a serious expression.
“Before we begin the enrollment process, there’s something I’d like to apologize for.”
“Apologize?”
“Yes. I was also aware of the 「dishonorable plan」 His Grace the Grand Duke attempted against the Winterclaw Tribe last time.”
The dishonorable plan.
The attempt to assassinate Gorgon.
The gazes of Kara and me turned fierce.
But Count Eisen did not look away. He stared straight at us.
“Of course, I opposed it... but as a powerless vassal, I failed to stop my lord. I sincerely apologize for my cowardice in condoning it.”
He stood and bowed deeply at the waist, a full ninety degrees.
A high-ranking Imperial noble trusted by the Grand Duke had bowed his head to barbarians.
It was unimaginable.
Before Kara and I could even say anything in our confusion, he raised his head and immediately pulled another document from his case.
“An apology shouldn’t consist of words alone. Shouldn’t it be demonstrated through action?”
His eyes flashed.
“As an apology, and as a vassal loyal to the Grand Duke... I wish to reduce the trial and error the two of you will face at the academy.”
He pushed two densely written sheets of parchment across the table.
This time, they were different from the enrollment documents.
They were...
A schedule from hell.
“This is a schedule for Lord Varg. Until enrollment, you’ll stay in my territory and learn Imperial etiquette, ballroom dancing, table manners... Ah, it also includes an accent-correction class.”
“......What?”
“And this is a special week-by-week pregnancy care schedule for Lady Kara. From listening to prenatal music to maternal yoga and a nutritional diet... I had it prepared with advice from the Empire’s finest obstetricians.”
I stared blankly down at the schedule.
【6:00 a.m. Wake-up - Standard Imperial Pronunciation Correction】
【8:00 a.m. - How to Use a Fork and Knife (Beginner)】
【2:00 p.m. - Waltz Steps (Partner: Heinkel von Eisen)】
“......”
My gaze stopped at the final item.
Heinkel von Eisen.
That was the name of the man standing before me.
When I stared at him with a flustered expression, Count Eisen adjusted his glasses and added,
“Ah, of course, Lady Kara will be your partner at first.”
“Phew....”
I sighed in relief.
No matter how likable a character he was, he was still a man.
Dancing with my beloved wife was a hundred, a thousand times better than waltzing with this sweaty middle-aged man.
But my relief did not last long.
“However.”
He added an ominous caveat.
“The medical staff believe Lady Kara will need to begin convalescing in three weeks. It will be time for her to rest.”
“Th-then...?”
“From then on, I’ll be in charge.”
“......”
“You have much to improve, so I’ll instruct you myself. I’ll prepare to have my feet stepped on.”
He smiled.
It was the smile of a devil.
In three weeks, I would have to hold this fussy middle-aged man by the waist, exchange soulful looks with him, and waltz.
Just imagining it made my stomach churn.
‘This man... is scary.’
Not content with switching into work mode immediately after apologizing, he had even prepared everything this meticulously.
He really was the ‘administrator with the world’s toughest job’ from the original novel.
He smiled faintly and added,
“At the academy, you’ll often be looked down on as 「foreign nationals」. Especially you, Lord Varg. If you want to avoid giving those high-nosed nobles an excuse to pick on you... you’ll need to make a bone-crushing effort from now on.”
There was not a single thing wrong with what he said.
But.
“Um... could you leave out the waltz steps? I’m rather large....”
“No. Do you intend to step on Lady Kara’s feet at the ball?”
He was firm.
Once he had made a decision, he had not the slightest intention of changing it.
I sighed and lowered my head.
I felt as though I had encountered an enemy more terrifying than a snowfield wolf or a snow bear.
Just as this was about to become the tragic prelude to my life in the Empire.
“Hey! Have you been waiting long? This is the finest liquor in our tribe!”
The tent flap flew open, and Gorgon burst inside.
In one hand, he held a tray of steaming smoked meat, and in the other, a huge horn cup the size of an adult’s head.
Gorgon laughed heartily and slammed the horn cup down on the table.
“It’s snowbrew! The legendary liquor the Imperial bastards supposedly line up to taste!”
Bang!
The heavy vibration traveled through the table and reached Count Eisen.
Flinch.
Count Eisen’s shoulders jolted violently, despite having maintained a perfect poker face until that moment.
He had been so startled that his glasses were askew.
“Well? Have you warmed up now? Not cold anymore?”
Gorgon casually thumped Eisen on the shoulder.
There was no malice in it. It was simply a sign of familiarity.
But at that single touch, Count Eisen’s body wobbled like a paper doll.
“I-I-I’m... n-not... c-cold... G-Gorgon....”
“......?”
I doubted my ears.
His stutter had started again.
The cool, eloquent speaker from before had vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a hunched, meek lamb of a man who had shriveled at a single touch from Gorgon.
Gorgon chuckled and poured the liquor, pretending not to notice Count Eisen’s cold sweat—or perhaps genuinely failing to notice it.
“Here, have a drink! Brings back memories, huh?”
“Y-yeah... m-memories....”
Count Eisen accepted the horn cup with a deathly pale face, trembling all over.
Gorgon had served Kara warm winter honey tea with a tender smile, but to Eisen, he was nothing short of a tiger instructor—or rather, a gangster.
‘What’s with this reaction?’
He wasn’t trembling from the cold.
That was pure fear of Gorgon.
Like a herbivore that had encountered its natural enemy.
What on earth had happened between the two of them when they were young?
‘Come to think of it...’
I rested my chin on my hand and watched the two of them with interest.
The reason Gorgon, a barbarian to the bone, had unexpectedly come to dream of ‘coexistence with the Empire’ might have been his encounter with this man, who had been coming and going as an envoy for the past twenty years.
If he had been capable of changing the thoughts of a powerhouse like Gorgon despite being in that stuttering state—or after whatever incident had caused it—then Count Eisen was certainly no ordinary man.
Though he was now reduced to a shrinking wallflower beneath Gorgon’s presence, the depth within him was genuine.
I chuckled as I watched Count Eisen drink while trembling and my father-in-law and father laugh as though his friend were too adorable for words.
‘And...’
My gaze turned toward the 「schedule from hell」 on the table.
That meticulousness and wealth of information.
And the negotiating ability that had persuaded even Gorgon, at the height of his vigor twenty years ago.
‘He might make a pretty good mentor for me, too.’
Though I would rather pass on having him as a waltz partner.
Crackle, crackle.
The campfire burned warmly through the night.
And so, the eve of our journey to the Empire deepened.