Chapter 4
"Giddy-up!"
The hunting grounds on the outskirts of the domain were densely packed with towering old trees.
Father mounted a sturdy black horse and took hold of the reins.
He wore hunting gear, with a massive longbow and a full quiver slung across his back.
'Who goes on an outing to the hunting grounds?'
Watching Father's back ahead of me, I stifled a snicker.
Even if they were father and son, it seemed awkward for two men to stroll together cozily.
"Let's go together, Father."
I pulled the reins tight and kicked the horse in the flank.
I quickly rode up alongside Father.
Father gave me a sidelong glance, then turned his eyes forward again.
"You handle a horse well."
"It's basic horsemanship."
"You were the one who couldn't even manage that basic skill."
"Come now. Bringing up old stories?"
If I couldn't ride, we would have walked together or I would have climbed onto Father's horse behind him.
No matter how much I missed him, the latter would have been a bit awkward. Like father, like son, I suppose.
"I didn't know you had it in you. Until recently, you couldn't even hold a sword properly."
Father remained expressionless throughout.
"You've grown a great deal in a short time. Did something happen to bring this about?"
"I'm a Cardenos too. I was a sapling destined to become an ancient tree. Perhaps my talent simply arrived late."
Father had a record of defeating ten full-fledged knights in succession before he had even undergone his coming-of-age ceremony.
It was no wonder he was considered one of the Empire's foremost individual combat powers.
I had inherited that bloodline in its entirety.
That should provide at least some justification for my sudden improvement, I thought.
Father still studied me with doubtful eyes.
"The swordsmanship you showed can't be explained that way. It bears the mark of experience and years. That's not something you can accomplish in a short time."
"I merely trained alone in secret. Rather intensely."
"To impress Azeline?"
Azeline had harbored fantasies about becoming a knight's beloved.
Julian, was it? I remembered that adulterer had also been formally knighted.
"Hardly. If there's someone I want to impress..."
I raised the corner of my mouth like a sly old snake.
"It would be you, Father, not Azeline."
"...."
Father said nothing. He merely let out a faint breath.
Wouldn't it be natural for him to offer at least a word of praise for his changed son?
The me of the past would have grumbled as much.
Valdemar von Cardenos.
My father had always been that sort of man.
A stubborn man, blunt as a boulder, who never revealed what was in his heart.
Because he was so poor at expressing himself, I had mistaken his silence for having given up on me entirely.
That was why I had left the family. Because Father's neglect had hurt me.
When I returned to the family years later, it was already a bloodbath.
I had been forced to face Father's body, split in half.
Only his upper body remained, and Father's right hand was tightly clutching something. He hadn't let go of it even at the moment of death.
When I pried open Father's clenched hand and discovered that it was a locket.
When I saw the portrait of myself as a child inside it.
I felt the weight of my sins.
I had stayed by Father's side throughout the night, keeping watch without leaving him. It was a pitiful form of atonement.
'I'm glad I came back.'
I hadn't regressed solely to save the world.
I had returned to correct the mistakes of those I had let go, protect my people, and give them peace.
I believed that without a doubt.
"It's not just your swordsmanship. Your mindset has changed."
Father quietly opened his mouth.
"Becoming the lord of knights isn't something secured by an investiture alone. Knights have a duty to protect their lord with their lives, and a lord has a duty to maintain a dignity worthy of respect. He must thereby earn his knights' respect and goodwill."
Thump.
A rough palm settled around my shoulder.
"That was how you were today."
"...."
"You are a Cardenos as well. I'm proud of you, my son."
It was the first time.
The first time Father had ever revealed what was in his heart.
I tried to answer, but pressed my lips tightly shut.
Men understood one another through their hearts more than through words.
To change the subject, I brought up the matter I had been keeping to myself.
"Father. I intend to discard my core."
Father's contemplative eyes widened.
"Discard your core? What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
A core was like a mana heart or a dantian.
Knights opened their mana circuits through their cores and stored aura within them.
Even I had built a core and opened two mana circuits. That was thanks to being force-fed elixirs since childhood.
Yet I was saying I wanted to smash apart a path that had already been fully cultivated. Anyone would have considered it insane.
Father, who had been looking at me fondly, was now staring at me as though I were crazy.
"More precisely, I intend to rebuild my core from the very beginning."
A knight's aura was divided into two types.
Solar, from the sun.
Lunar, from the full moon.
"Don't tell me you're planning to weave a solar ring?"
"That's right. I will weave a solar ring."
"Huh."
I had naturally assumed he wouldn't understand.
Some twenty years ago, more or less.
The brilliant light of the sun had set by the current generation.
More than ninety percent of knights had accepted Luna into their cores, and solar-ring knights were now treated like old men put out to pasture.
Solar had a higher ceiling than Luna. That was all.
Each time one wove a solar ring, one had to risk one's life.
You had to endure the pain of your entire body burning away, imprison an inextinguishable flame in your heart, and tend its ember every moment.
It was dangerous and inefficient, and the painstakingly cultivated flame could be snuffed out in an instant.
Luna, on the other hand, was safe and efficient, and the mana circuits one accumulated would not simply vanish.
For a young knight to abandon Luna and choose Solar was practically an act of suicide.
'In truth, it's the opposite.'
A mad Moon Goddess, my ass.
An Outer God that devoured planets was closer to the truth.
The doctrine of the Moon and Luna had appeared abruptly twenty years ago and begun spreading its influence.
Built on the existing Sun religion, its far freer doctrine and Luna's ability to let people grow without trials were revolutionary.
But the people who first preached the doctrine of the Moon and Luna? They had all been pawns of an Outer God.
Luna was an invisible thread planted to make puppets of humanity.
A game I had enjoyed in my past life provided a clear example.
A race that worshiped Kala. The nerve cord that served as Kala's source. The nerve cord was an impure organ that placed its host under the mind control of an evil god.
Luna was the same.
Once you housed Luna in your body, you inevitably fell under the control of the Outer God.
Just as Celine had.
"Why choose the difficult path when you have an easy one?"
My ultimate ambition was to save the world.
In the process, I would have to sever Luna—not only for myself, but so that everyone could weave a solar ring.
"If I took the easy path, I'd become nothing more than an easy knight. So I'll take the difficult one."
A knight was a boulder. A boulder that grew harder the more it was broken and carved.
A true knight would gladly follow the path I walked.
"I think growing strong without trials is a shortcut. A proper amount of stimulation is needed for a flower to bloom. The stems of flowers that bloom that way are much sturdier."
"I thought it was bluster, but I see you mean it. You've changed a great deal."
Father paused, then continued.
"It is certainly an admirable thought, but it is dangerous. Most of the knights in my day died in the flames. There is no guarantee the same won't happen to you."
"Thank you for your concern. Even so, now that you believe in me, please believe in me to the end."
Father silently looked into my eyes. I held his gaze with my chin held high.
The father I knew in this life had accepted Luna and opened his mana circuits.
Before long, he would change his mind.
"Do as you see fit. As your father, I will not suppress your freedom."
"Thank you, Father."
Father belonged to a generation that remembered the old glory.
He clearly hadn't been able to forget that era.
It was obvious that this was why he had agreed to my decision without obstructing it.
At that point, I changed direction and pointed toward a side path.
"Father. Let's take this path."
"The gamekeeper scattered bait along the path over there. No beasts will appear if we go that way."
"I know. That's why I'm suggesting this way."
"You certainly do love the difficult path. Very well. I'll humor you."
Father turned his horse toward me.
Father's interpretation was wrong, but I had no desire to correct him.
I simply wanted to hunt longer. Just the two of us, Father and son.
How could I possibly say that aloud?
***
Three or four hours passed in the blink of an eye.
On the way back, dusk descended and dyed the sky vermilion.
The hunt had been quite successful.
We loaded a house-sized horned boar onto a cart, and three or four servants struggled to pull it along.
"You shoot well too. I should have given you a longbow instead of a crossbow."
"What's the big deal? It wasn't even a moving target. It was just wiggling its butt, distracted by the grain scraps."
I rode alongside Father, chatting with him.
It wasn't a particularly meaningful conversation.
We made small talk about my shooting form and how tough the beast's hide had been.
Even that alone was overwhelming.
In all my past life, I had never once spoken so comfortably with Father.
It was then that we reached the outer gate of the estate.
"Huh?"
A familiar figure was loitering in front of the outer gate.
A young girl with pale platinum-blond hair braided into two pigtails. It was Celine.
"O-oh, welcome back, my lord. Older Brother."
As I stared blankly, Celine timidly approached.
She was carrying a silver tray filled with cool water.
"Have you been waiting here all this time?"
How long had she been standing beneath the sun?
Beads of sweat had formed on Celine's forehead, and her cheeks were flushed bright red.
"Here, Older Brother. Have some ice water."
"The ice has all melted."
"...What? Ah! I just changed it, but it melted already!"
Pfft. I laughed without meaning to.
Normally, this was something the maids would do.
After hearing that Father and I were out hunting, she had volunteered herself, wanting to do something commendable.
"A-and there's one more thing I wanted to give you...."
Celine was that kind of girl.
A timid younger sister who feared me yet edged closer because she wanted to befriend me. She was both admirable and pitiful.
As a sign that she had worked hard, I lightly placed a hand on top of Celine's head.
"......!"
Celine flinched in surprise and hunched her shoulders.
Given all the abuse I had inflicted on her until now, it was a natural reaction.
"Um, Older Brother."
Celine spoke in a tiny, low voice.
"Yeah. What is it?"
"Is my head really that hard?"
"What?"
All of a sudden?
Taking her words literally, I couldn't understand. Why was she bringing up having a hard head in this situation?
"My lord! Did you return safely!"
Just then, the chief butler appeared and bowed respectfully.
He straightened his back and beamed at me.
What's with that expression? Creepy.
"I have some wonderful news for you, Young Master."
"What is it?"
"A guest has arrived. It seems she came to wish you a happy birthday."
"Who came?"
"Lady Azeline of House Rosenthal is here. She is waiting in the reception room to meet you."
My facial muscles immediately twisted into a grimace.
A carefree hunt with Father. A thoughtful welcome from my younger sister.
It was the first perfect, warm everyday life I had enjoyed since regressing.
Everything had been wonderful until now, damn it.
'And now she had to ruin my mood at the very end. Fuck.'
***
Creak—
The reception room door opened.
Valdemar and Astin entered.
Sip—
There was already a guest inside.
Azeline sat on the sofa, sipping tea.
Upon seeing the two of them, she rose with an elegant bearing.
"I pay my respects to the Black Lion of Cardenos. I trust you have been well."
She wore a flawless, sunlike smile, and even her every movement, from politely lifting her skirt onward, adhered to etiquette.
She certainly lived up to her reputation as a young lady who monopolized the love of countless men.
"Yes."
Duke Valdemar gestured brusquely for her to sit.
Azeline calmly took her seat.
Though this was a visit from his fiancée to celebrate his birthday, a deep furrow had formed between Valdemar's brows.
His heart felt as though a boulder had been placed upon it.
'How shamelessly my son will wag his tail again.'
He wondered how that inscrutable young lady would coax his son into making unreasonable demands this time.
Valdemar concealed his thoughts and took the seat of honor.
"What brings you here without notice?"
"I only learned today that it was Astin's birthday. As his betrothed, I felt ashamed that I had been so thoughtless, so I hurried here at once despite my embarrassment."
Her emerald eyes curved like crescent moons.
Azeline set down her teacup and continued speaking gently.
"If it isn't an imposition, might we move elsewhere? There is something I'd like to discuss with Astin alone for a moment."
It sounded like a polite request, but it carried another meaning.
She was indirectly asking Valdemar to leave.
Valdemar rose with a bitter expression.
He would have preferred to end the meeting immediately.
He found it extremely displeasing that his son was so hopelessly infatuated with a woman.
But what could he do at this point? It was a political marriage arranged between the two families.
Worse, Astin could no longer give Azeline up even if he died.
"Why move?"
Astin spoke for the first time.
That brief tone sounded strange to Azeline.
"Astin?"
"Let's do it here. Right here. There's no reason to drag it out."
The atmosphere in the reception room froze.
Azeline's eyes trembled with confusion.
"What's wrong, Astin? Is this about what happened yesterday?"
Astin sometimes acted arrogant and indifferent in front of Azeline.
It was nothing serious. He was sulking and throwing a childish fit in his own way.
Before long, he would be watching her expression again, desperate to win her favor.
"You came to talk about breaking off the engagement anyway. It's what we both wanted, so let's get it over with."
"......!"
Azeline's eyes widened unnaturally, and even Valdemar drew a startled breath.
Yet a moment later, Azeline clicked her tongue inwardly.
"Why are you acting like this again, Astin?"
This was not the first time Astin had brought up breaking off the engagement to her face.
"That's not why I came. I came to wish you a happy birthday. I even prepared a present!"
Whenever Azeline laughed and chatted with another man, or met Astin without wearing the jewelry he had given her,
Astin would impulsively shout that they should break off the engagement.
Then, before half a day had passed, he would rush over, tearfully begging her to forgive him.
It was an utterly predictable pattern.
'Something must have happened yesterday, then.'
Valdemar's feelings had not changed much either.
After watching them from the sidelines, he understood the pattern behind all of Astin's actions.
In a situation they had both casually dismissed and misunderstood,
Astin crossed his legs with remarkable composure.
"Did you prepare the papers to break off the engagement as my birthday present? Great. It's what we both wanted."
"Astin!"
"You've already had an affair with Julian. Why would I stay engaged to an adulteress? We should break it off at once."
"...What?"
As if time had stopped, Azeline's body froze.
Valdemar flinched and stared at Astin.
"H-how could you make such a false accusation...."
Azeline lowered her head.
When she slowly raised her face, it was wet with tears.
Azeline desperately acted as though she had been wounded.
"Julian and I are nothing but friends! How could you bear such a grudge just because I turned down your date...? How can you sully my honor like this? Apologize to me properly, Astin!"
"Oh. Your mask is thicker than your makeup."