Chapter 108
"Father received the letter, and immediately placed Sister Zandra and the Fifth Consort under house arrest. Apparently, they both denied being involved."
On our way from the Imperial Capital to the Nelve Ritter garrison, I explained this to Elna in the carriage.
I thought Elna might feel relieved, since she probably had no fond memories of Zandra and the Fifth Consort, but her reaction was rather muted.
"I see. That's just what they'd say."
"You don't seem to care."
"I don't. It's just... I can understand why they would deny involvement first after His Majesty came to suspect their own brother and uncle. It's just like them. I can accept it, but I can't understand it."
I wondered whether those two even had a concept of family.
Clearly, their concept of family was different from ours.
Elna certainly couldn't understand it. Neither could I.
"The South is Zandra's most important base of support. If she loses it, she will effectively drop out of the struggle for the throne. That's why Father placed her under house arrest immediately. If she fled to the South and claimed the throne, things would become troublesome."
"His Majesty has a difficult task ahead of him. He has to oversee the Empire while also keeping an eye on the struggle for the throne."
"That's what the struggle for the throne is, isn't it? Just as you said, it's nothing but trouble."
"...Father has been saying something strange lately."
Elna murmured this while gazing out the carriage window.
It was unusual for Elna to bring up the Duke of Valor. He was always flying from place to place, and we rarely had a chance to see him in the first place.
"What did the Duke of Valor say?"
"He said the current struggle for the throne was strange."
"Strange?"
"More precisely, he seemed to mean that it had only become strange recently. From his perspective, things had gone too far."
"Gone too far?"
What did he mean?
Elna didn't seem to have fully grasped it either.
She tilted her head as she answered my question.
"He said that Princess Zandra and Prince Gordon had changed drastically."
"They were only pretending to be decent before. Their true natures have merely begun to show recently."
"I said the same thing. But Father doesn't seem satisfied with that explanation. Even if that is their true nature, he says they should have had the caliber to conceal it."
"The Duke of Valor has known them since childhood. He probably can't believe how much they've changed."
It's common enough for someone who used to be a good child to turn out badly. You never know what might change a person.
Still, the Duke of Valor should know that better than I do.
If he said that, something must have caught his attention.
"I think so too, but... he said they've recently stopped putting the Empire's interests first. It's true that none of the candidates ever did that before. If the Empire were weakened by the time they took the throne, it would be an utter disaster."
"You're right. Now that you mention it, that is strange."
You could say the struggle for the throne had poisoned them, but...
I'll ask the old man next time I see him.
He was the person around us who had seen the struggle for the throne more than anyone. He might know something. Though whether he'd give me a serious answer was another question.
"Let's put that aside for now. We don't have the luxury to analyze their changes."
"That's true... We're already being watched."
With that, Elna swept a sharp gaze across our surroundings.
We were traveling along a single road through the forest.
Were we already being watched from within the forest? What an impressive force.
"Do you think I can persuade them?"
"Have some confidence. You'll be fine, Al."
"Even so... We're dealing with former knights who believe they're in the right."
"That's why you'll be fine. I'm with you, after all. If it comes to it, I'll knock every one of them flat."
"Then the negotiations would be over, and there wouldn't be any point in my coming here..."
As I sighed at Elna's words, the carriage came to a stop.
It seemed we had arrived.
The Imperial Army's only knight order.
The Nelve Ritter garrison.
■■■
The garrison looked unmistakably like a military base.
I stepped inside.
"I thought we'd notified them in advance..."
"It looks like our guide isn't here yet."
The soldiers of the Nelve Ritter stationed there merely watched us from a distance. None approached or seemed inclined to address us.
Being stared at by so many soldiers as though they were appraising us was uncomfortable, to say the least.
"They're pretty rude."
"Let's go."
"Our guide hasn't come yet."
"There won't be one."
If they wanted to look, they could look. If they wanted to search, they could search.
Taking that as their message, I began walking through the garrison.
The facilities were quite good. Since the Emperor had originally created this as a special unit, he must have spent a fair amount on it.
As I was thinking this, someone called out to me from behind.
"Look. That's the Dull Prince everyone talks about."
"Is this some kind of field trip?"
"Pathetic. He can't even go on a field trip without dragging along the daughter of the Duke of Valor."
Two soldiers were pointing at me and laughing.
At that moment, I immediately grabbed Elna by the arm.
Her right hand was already resting on her sword.
"Let go."
"It's fine. I don't care."
"I do care... Just let go."
"If you really want to draw it, just shake me off."
At that, Elna's expression became a mixture of sorrow and anger, and she slowly took her hand off her sword.
If she drew her sword here, it would cause a huge commotion, and negotiations would be out of the question.
Still, they were impressive. They remained unfazed even after seeing Elna angry. They must have known what she was capable of, yet they still had the nerve to remain calm.
No wonder they were former knights who had stood up to their own lord.
"What seems to be the matter, Prince? Do you really need the young lady of the Duke of Valor's house to protect you?"
"My knight was rude. She's a true knight, so she gets angry when anyone makes fun of me. Unlike certain people who don't know the meaning of loyalty."
When I taunted them loudly, the atmosphere in the garrison changed completely.
Until then, the mood had been one of teasing and testing me, but it suddenly became tense.
I had clearly said something taboo, but whatever. They were the ones who had started provoking me.
"Why would you provoke them?"
"It'll be fine. They were the ones who tested me first."
"Then why did you stop me?"
"Because I'm the one being tested."
As we spoke, soldiers began gathering around us.
They were all heavily built men. If they were as well trained as they appeared, they could kill someone like me without magic or weapons.
"What is it? Have you gotten angry?"
"I would ask you to retract that, Prince."
"You mean 'ignorant of loyalty'? Knights who scarred their lord's crest? I think it's a fitting description of you."
I laughed mockingly, and the soldiers closed in, looking unable to contain themselves.
I was completely surrounded. The fact that they dared treat a member of the imperial family this way revealed just how strong-willed each of them was.
They had the kind of spirit that would never bow to anything they could not accept.
They were an interesting bunch.
"Prince... This is your final warning. Retract it."
"If you want me to take it back, show me how you're different. You were the ones who started this. Surely the glorious members of the Nelve Ritter aren't going to mock others without being prepared to take a hit?"
I heard teeth grinding.
Then a young knight stepped forward. At that moment, a voice rang out.
"The Knight Commander's coming through! Make way!"
The instant that voice rang out, every soldier stepped aside and stood rigidly at attention.
What a transformation.
The Knight Commander here seemed to have these men completely under his control.
The soldiers, who had been brimming with fighting spirit only moments earlier, were now tense.
Then a single man walked down the path the soldiers had formed.
He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He was a strikingly handsome man with a mature allure, like a statue carved by an artist.
The man wore a fearless smile and laughed as though he found me amusing.
"I thought a prince who had come on a whim would go home after being intimidated by my subordinates, so I didn't stop them. Please forgive me."
With that, the man saluted.
Following his example, every soldier saluted me.
"I am Colonel Lars Weigle, Knight Commander of the Nelve Ritter. My subordinates were rude, Prince Arnold."
"No, that was quite an entertaining performance, Colonel. If Elna hadn't been here, I would have run home."
"Don't joke. I can tell from your eyes whether you were intimidated. This way. I would like to hear what you have to say."
And so I met the man who led the scarred knights.