Chapter 78
What happened to Yulgen?!
Upon returning to the estate, Sis Liese asked that first thing.
Yulgen, who should have been there, was nowhere to be seen.
"The duke has already set out with the knights."
"Set out?!"
As expected, he had acted quickly.
But it was too soon.
Taking only the knights who could move would hardly amount to much.
"Call him back at once! We don't even know what's happening in the south! Why did you let him go?!"
"Of course, I tried to stop him, but... the duke said he would clear the way for Your Highness..."
"Clear the way?! Just what did Yulgen go there to do?!"
"The duke went to subjugate the monsters along the route..."
I see.
If that was the case, I could understand why he had taken only the knights who were able to move.
But it was still dangerous, and getting to the south from here would be extremely difficult.
There was quite a distance to cover, and the route south was mostly forest. There were no paved roads, and forests generally had monsters in them.
"Sis, what about the units currently training?"
"The recruits are no use. We'll have no choice but to take the cavalry regiment we brought as their training opponents."
A regiment consisted of five companies. Each company had roughly two hundred men, which meant a cavalry regiment contained a thousand. Of course, there would probably be wounded soldiers and vacancies, so it wouldn't be exactly a thousand, but it should be around that number.
"Only one regiment...? That's not many."
"It would be more than enough if we were simply rushing there, but... even if we arrived, there wouldn't be much we could do."
The purple smoke signal meant a national emergency.
Leo had probably raised it. At present, the only people in the south with the authority to raise a purple signal were the general guarding the southern border or Leo, the inspector.
That was how significant the purple signal was.
I didn't know whether to feel relieved, but it was not a signal that would be raised merely because Leo had died.
The fact that it had been raised meant the situation was that serious.
"At most, it's reconnaissance in force."
"Even so, it's necessary to get a grasp of the situation. Depending on what we find, we'll mobilize the southern army. In any case, we must go there ourselves."
Sis was brimming with determination as she said that.
That was Sis in her role as Imperial Marshal.
Now, what should I do?
Teleporting to the south would be easy, and taking Sis with me would be easy as well. However, a precise teleportation was impossible. We didn't know where the trouble was occurring in the south. Was it Linfia's village, or some city? Or was it somewhere without even a landmark to use as a reference?
At worst, I might have to reveal my identity as Silver and transport Sis and the cavalry regiment to the south. This was one of those situations.
But transporting a thousand people to the south would consume a tremendous amount of mana. It was nothing like moving alone.
If I was going to create a teleportation gate, I wanted to use it at a more strategically useful location.
"In any case, all we can do is wait for the regiment to arrive."
"Yes..."
Sis's expression was worried.
■■■
"Your Excellency. The Seventh Cavalry Regiment has answered the summons and reports for duty."
"Good work, Regimental Commander."
The middle-aged regimental commander raised a hand to his forehead in salute, and Sis returned it.
Seeing scenes like this made me feel that I really was in the military.
"What happened to the recruits?"
"They're waiting at the training grounds. I've sent a messenger to the eastern border, but the eastern border will likely dispatch reinforcements before the messenger arrives, so we should hurry to the front now."
The Imperial Army generally concentrated its forces along the borders.
Of course, there were forces in the central regions as well, but each territory had its lord's knights, and the Imperial Capital had the Imperial Guard.
That was why the Imperial Army's primary role was preparing for foreign enemies.
The forces stationed at the eastern and western borders, in particular, were elite armies whose marshals held full authority over border defense. They even had enough forces to send reinforcements if trouble arose at another border. They had probably practiced this many times during training.
Once, the Crown Prince had been caught up in an accidental battle while inspecting the northern front and died while directing the fight. Sis regretted that she hadn't been there to rush to his aid.
The eastern border's quick response was the result of that lesson.
However.
"It's already this late. We can't travel very fast, can we?"
"It can't be helped. We can only advance as best we can."
It was already growing dim outside.
It would only grow darker from here on.
Marching at night was dangerous. Taking a shortcut would mean passing through the forest, but many monsters were active at night as well.
A detour would let us avoid them, but that would take even more time.
I thought it over for a while.
Should I reveal that I was Silver and teleport?
But if I teleported to a city in the south, I'd have to explain myself to that city's lord; if it were far from the site, we'd just have to march through the night anyway.
As I hesitated, the duke's steward came running toward us, out of breath.
"What happened?"
"N-no... huff, huff... I came to inform you that preparations are complete..."
"Preparations? What kind?"
"You haven't heard...?"
The steward stared at Sis with an expression of disbelief.
Sis, in turn, looked puzzled, but the steward quickly came to his senses.
"That's just like the duke... This way."
With that, the steward led us to the upper floor of the estate.
Then an astonishing sight came into view.
"Is that... a road?"
A glowing road stretched toward the south.
It continued far, far into the distance.
"It is the 〝Path of Light〟, which the duke built in cooperation with the surrounding lords over the past three years. It is still unfinished, but it is planned to extend north and south, becoming a highway that runs in a straight line all the way to the borders."
"Why would he build something like this...?"
"Officially, it is to secure a transportation route for merchants, but..."
"The true goal was to make it possible for Sis to rush to the south and north...?"
The steward nodded silently.
That day, three years ago.
If only there had been a road like this. That must have been what Yulgen thought.
So he had built it in case the same thing happened again, so Sis wouldn't have to live with regret.
"He's quite a remarkable man..."
"Your Excellency! With this, we can reach the south as quickly as possible!"
"Yes... Have everything prepared at once."
Sis gave her orders, and the regimental commander ran off. Seeing that, the steward quietly left as well.
After gazing at the Path of Light for a while, Sis muttered,
"What a fool... Don't you think so, Al?"
"Indeed. The Rheinfeld Duchy is already prosperous enough. Once this road is finished, the surrounding lords will be the greater beneficiaries."
Of course, the Rheinfeld Duchy would benefit as well. But considering the scale of a project like this, it would probably be a huge net loss.
How many years would it take to recoup the cost?
The territories around here were not particularly large. Yulgen had probably borne most of the construction costs himself.
"Why... would he go this far?"
"Who knows? I have no idea. We'd have to ask him himself."
That was a lie.
I could guess the answer.
I love you. To remain true to those words, the duke had built this road.
So that the person he loved could go help the people she wanted to help. So that she would never regret it again.
Perhaps Yulgen had sensed the changes in Sis that had begun three years ago. No—perhaps he, more than anyone, had sensed them.
"...Al."
"What is it?"
"What should I do...?"
"I don't know that either. But you should remain yourself, Sis. If you agreed to the marriage out of guilt, the duke would probably be disappointed. He'd think, 'This isn't the person I fell in love with.'"
"What a troublesome man..."
"He certainly is. I think he's one of the three most troublesome people in the Empire. What's troublesome is that after doing all this, he hasn't told you a single thing. If he were the sort of man who said, 'I've done all this, so marry me,' he would be easy to deal with."
He wasn't doing any of this in the hope that it would earn him a marriage. He wasn't doing it to be loved.
He was doing it not for himself, but for the person he loved.
When he said he wanted to be true to his love, I thought it was a weighty thing to say, but now I understood.
At this point, I almost wanted to praise him.
He was frighteningly steadfast.
"Rather than acting out of guilt, if you simply think he's the person you want to marry, then that's when you should say yes, don't you think?"
"No. Yulgen will always be a good friend, no matter what."
"I see. Well, it's your decision, so I think you should decide for yourself. However..."
"However?"
I stayed silent for a while, then turned on my heel.
The cavalry regiment should be ready soon.
Seeing me do so, Sis followed me.
"What is it?"
"Are you curious?"
"Of course I am. Tell me already."
"Well... I was just thinking that if I were going to call someone my brother-in-law, I'd want him to be a man like that. At the very least, I wouldn't recognize anyone as my brother-in-law unless he were as good as that man."
"Heh... I see."
Sis gave a light laugh, then swirled her blue cloak around and began walking briskly.
She cut an imposing figure, brimming with fighting spirit.
She looked just like the Sis I knew.
"Let's go—to Leo."
"Yes."
And so Sis Liese and I headed straight for the south.