Chapter 9
“No matter what they give you, bring it to me without a word. And never open what is inside.”
Two days after sending Lucian to the Kanzail shop, Ioreth sent him there again. When Lucian returned, he was carrying a box about three times larger than the one he had taken. Whether he sensed something unusual or not, his expression was already grim from the moment he entered the bedroom.
“I will open it. Please step back.”
“No, I’ll do it.”
Ioreth snatched the dagger from Lucian. Then, she cut the rope tightly binding the box in one stroke. Once the string was severed, the box began to shake on its own.
“Princess, get behind—”
The moment Lucian hurriedly stepped in front of Ioreth, the box burst open in all directions as if it had exploded.
“…!”
Someone stood up tall from inside the wide-open box. Almost simultaneously, Lucian drew his sword.
“Sir Ferrain, stop!”
The blade rushing toward the intruder’s neck faltered and stopped. It wasn’t just because Ioreth had stayed his hand.
‘A human? No, more importantly, she blocked it?’
What emerged from the box was a young girl with dark golden-brown hair. The girl was blocking Lucian’s sword with a pair of tailoring scissors held in her hand.
‘There was definitely no presence. I didn’t even hear the sound of breathing…!’
He could tell just by the feel of the blade. This girl was neither a hidden expert nor a trained spy. However, her arm strength was absurdly powerful. Veins stood out on the back of the girl’s hand as she gripped the scissors.
The girl struck Lucian’s sword away with terrifying brute force. Then, she immediately lunged toward Ioreth.
“Tch!”
Lucian swung his sword toward the girl’s defenselessly exposed neck. If Ioreth hadn’t shouted, he would have taken her head right then and there.
“Stop, Sir Ferrain! This child is my friend!”
The girl, who had leaped into Ioreth’s arms, rubbed her face vigorously against Ioreth’s cheek. Her behavior was exactly like a puppy acting spoiled toward its mother.
“Bara, it’s you, isn’t it? You’ve grown so much.”
The girl nodded her head vigorously. Then, she began to frantically rummage through a stack of cards hanging around her neck.
[Princess][Bara] [Remembers][Happy][Thank you][I missed you][I waited][Happiness][!]
The girl, wearing a broad smile, mouthed words silently. ‘Princess, Bara remembers. I’m happy. Thank you.’
“Likewise.”
Ioreth cleared her trembling throat. An awkward voice came out.
“So you remembered me, too.”
The Kanzail couple were some of her mother’s few close aides. Their daughter, Bara, had also frequented the Queen’s palace with her parents since she was a baby in swaddling clothes. One day in the past, her mother had cured Bara when she was on the verge of death from a fever.
It was a treatment unlike anything ever heard of. The dying child’s body was covered in pitch-black scales, which only peeled off like a husk after several days had passed. When the child opened her eyes again, they were stained blood-red, and the fever was completely gone.
“If I had known just a little sooner, I wouldn’t have had to use such a method. I am sorry to say this to you both, but this child is no longer an ordinary human. She will likely be unable to speak for the rest of her life.””What does it matter that she paid with her voice! Whether she is a human or a monster, it doesn’t matter as long as she is alive. Besides, now our Bara has become much stronger than most grown men, so it’s perfect if she protects the Queen and the Princess for the rest of her life.””Thank you for saying that. Did you hear that, Ioreth? You have gained a reliable lifelong friend.”
Ioreth still clearly remembered the warm smiles of the Kanzail couple that day, the precious warmth of young Bara, and her mother’s relieved laughter.
‘Mother must have known something like this would happen in advance. Ever since she passed her lifespan on to me.’
She thought there was no one on her side in this world, but she was wrong. Her mother’s teachings, as well as the numerous connections her mother left behind during her life, were all the inheritance she had received. Ioreth gently stroked the girl clinging to her waist.
Bara Kanzail. This child was the real guard who would be responsible for Ioreth’s safety from now on.
“Bara, did you bring the items I asked for?”
[Yes][!][The items you ordered are ready]
Bara, triumphantly showing her word cards, hoisted a bundle from the box and placed it on the table. Ioreth had asked the Kanzail couple for two things. The first was to send Bara as her maid, and the other was inside this bundle.
The wedding dress Ioreth had sent to the Kanzail shop flowed down to her feet like a wave. No, it was that dress, but it was no longer the same. Lucian, who was watching, let out an involuntary groan.
“Princess. I think I am seeing things.”
“No, you’re seeing it correctly.”
“Then… surely you don’t mean you intend to wear this? That isn’t what you mean, right?”
Lucian looked down at the Princess as if he were looking at a madwoman. Then, he forgot everything he was supposed to say. Ioreth was smiling brightly with a face he had never seen before.
As expected, the teachings of her wise mother never led her astray. Feeling refreshed, Ioreth gave an order to the dazed Lucian.
“Now, Sir, go steal the list of the foreign delegations attending tomorrow’s banquet for me.”
Chapter 2
The next day, the curtain rose on the Foundation Festival of the Elobis Kingdom.
On the first day, the day of the foundation itself, a celebratory banquet was held.
It was a national event where congratulatory delegations from other countries and the nobles of Elobis gathered in one place. While it was framed under the graceful pretext of strengthening alliances between friendly nations, the banquet hall was, in reality, a stage for meticulous diplomatic strategy.
The status and reputation of the leader heading a delegation represented that country’s diplomatic stance toward Elobis. In that sense, there was one person who captured everyone’s attention.
“The Kingdom of Calande sent that famous bastard, I see.”
Whispers spread among the envoys who had already taken their seats in the banquet hall. A man of massive build sitting at the edge of the front row was the subject of the talk.
“You mean Commander Winterbark? No matter how great his achievements are, to send a lowly bastard as an envoy…”
“Well, thanks to that, we get to see the famous man in person.”
The infighting within the Calande Royal Family was already famous internationally.
For over a decade, the three princes of Calande had been engaged in a power struggle over the next throne. Then, out of nowhere, a bastard who had been exiled to the border as a child rose to power at a terrifying pace within the last few years.The area north of Calande’s northern border was a long-standing frontier with the demon race—an unregistered territory belonging to no nation.
He had built a massive fortress there and, for the first time in history, blocked the demon invasion. The name of the border village where that northern fortress was built was Winterbark.
The royal bastard was instantly reborn as the “Commander of Winterbark.”
The news spread like wildfire. Not only did the Calande Royal Family enter a state of emergency as their power structure began to shake, but the sparks even flew toward the unrelated Elobis.
This was because the northern fortress in question faced the northwestern border of Elobis across the unregistered territory.
Previously, Calande and Elobis had maintained a peaceful relationship because they shared a common enemy in the demons. However, now that Calande had achieved an overwhelming victory over the demons, Elobis could not help but feel a sense of crisis. Consequently, a strange military tension had flowed between Elobis and Calande for the past few years, leading to a significant waste of military spending.
“For a peace treaty to be formed, one of the two countries must bow.
That is why Calande sent the bastard. They want him to get the intent for peace, even if he has to kneel before the King of Elobis.”“Are you saying the Calande Royal Family has discarded the Commander?”
“Exactly. From their perspective, what good is it for a bastard to gain power?”
“I see. He has no honor left to lose anyway… They break his spirit by making him kneel humiliatingly before the King of another country. They are killing two birds with one stone.”
“Indeed. He was practically thrown out as a sacrifice.”
The envoys swallowed hard. Just what kind of disgrace would Elobis inflict upon the bastard of Calande? That was one of the spectacles of the Foundation Festival.
Another was the wedding of Princess Ioreth.“Now that I think about it, was the second princess’s wedding postponed? I heard the fiancé is bedridden.”
“So she won’t be attending at all?”
“Well, I haven’t heard anything officially, but that’s a shame. No matter how she appeared, it would have been quite a rare sight to behold—”
SLAM!
The envoys, who were getting heated in their conversation, were startled out of their wits. Someone had struck the table with immense force.“You seem to be having a pleasant conversation?”
A smiling man plopped down in the seat right next to them. He was the one who, just a moment ago, had definitely been sitting in the very front row.
“W-Winterbark?”
When did he get here without a sound…!
The famous bastard of Calande, the Commander of Winterbark, was a man who looked as if he were carved from the very North he protected. His cold silver hair, looking as if the frozen earth itself had been transplanted onto him, caught the eye. As if to boast his status as a warrior, his height and build far exceeded that of an ordinary man.
The man, leaning his chin on his hand, spoke in a low, playful voice.
“You all looked so friendly, I thought I’d join the conversation.”
