Vol 3 Chapter 5 (1/2)

Chapter 5: Conference

Part 1

Ax Bazgan had received the notice while in Taúlia’s Memorial Shrine.

“A request for an audience from Mephius’ Prince Gil, you say?”

“Yes.”

“Did he send a messenger? I won’t receive such a notice!”

Ax glared at the surrounding soldiers and slaves. He had little patience for when things progressed without his involvement.

“No,” the soldier delivering the message answered palely, faster than the slaves could tremble in fear at having roused their master’s anger. “Amongst the soldiers imprisoned, several have been freed. They carry a message from the prince.”

Say that sooner, Ax’s blatantly showed on his face as he angrily took the letter from the soldier.

Ax Bazgan. Now aged at forty-one and as the seventeenth head of the Bazgan House, he stubbornly named himself the eighth Zer Tauran king succeeding after Yasch Bazgan, and it went without saying that he was the acting governor general of Taúlia.

With a large build and veins constantly bulging across his wide forehead, his eyes, characteristic of those of mixed Zerdian and Mephian blood, were a metallic grey, and though his eyes held vitality, there was a certain dimness to them.

“A conference in the Gajira Plains, is it. Hmph, not a single mention of our attack. I’m being underestimated here.”

Staring at the kneeling soldiers as if he blamed them for their defeat in the first battle, Ax tossed away the letter. Promptly catching it was the the strategist Ravan Dol, who waited behind him. Ax gave a sharp stare at the old man whose eyes followed along the letter’s words.

“Your strategy also came to nothing. Looks like you couldn’t predict that Garbera would conspire with Mephius to set up a cowardly trap for us. Thanks to that, I’ve lost soldiers and even had two precious long-range cannons stolen!”

“I believe I warned you it was too early.” Not the least bit perturbed by his lord’s anger, Ravan continued to scan the letter. “But the one who willed it saying this was a chance that wouldn’t come again was you, Lord Ax, despite me saying we should wait at least a week after Garbera withdrew. Because the enemy numbers are clearly so few, we wouldn’t know where they’d set ambush in wait. I had warned you over and over that if we didn’t carefully scout them out, the possibility we would be caught in a trap was high.”

“You must be satisfied, having my honour sullied like this in front of my men.”

Ax’s mouth bent in irritation. And shortly after, his simmering eyes softened a little.

“...Well? What do you think the Mephian prince’s aim is?” he asked in a surrept.i.tious voice.

The old man, whose dark-brown wrinkled body was wrapped over by a single rudimentary cloth, replied,“I highly doubt he has hidden his soldiers to perform a surprise attack. It might be to restrain us or to ascertain the extent of our damages from the defeat by seeing it with his own eyes.”

“Hmph, I’ve also considered those. That d.a.m.ned greenhorn who was only able to win thanks to Garbera’s timely aid is getting ahead of himself.”

“Garbera also has to tend to its affairs with Ende, so I suspect they will not stay for much longer. Short of soldiers, Prince Gil should be wanting to temporarily settle everything with his victory. Thinking along these lines, there likely won’t be any reprimands on our attack at the conference. Instead, he should be offering to negotiate with us.”

“Won’t there be any reinforcements from Mephius?”

“They did display movements almost as if they had predicted our attack, but the one to arrive to aid them was the Garberan army. It appears the reports describing the friction between Guhl Mephius and his son can be trusted.”

“Hmmm.”

Ax paced around the shrine’s hall. Step. Step. The irritation dying his face disappeared with the echoing of each footstep. Inside the Historical Memorial Shrine were the remains, doc.u.ments and treasures acc.u.mulated over the Bazgan House generations shrined in a circle: mountains of jewels, models of temples, golden armours, and coffins engraved with pictured hieroglyphs. Even now, they told not only Zer Tauran’s, but also the Bazgan House’s splendour and brief glory. However these were not his ancestors’ bearings but rather mostly items plundered from province storehouses or those they bought back with money.

“Gil that coward...looks like he went crying to Garbera because he knew he had no backing.”

Ax bashed his fan against his palm. That too was an item handed down the Zer Tauran generations and furthermore, an item more important than anything else that could be found in the Memorial Shrine. Encased in its relatively thick handle was the Dragon’s Claw, the one item the Bazgan House brought with them when they fled Zer Illias. Ax held dearly onto this relic that was also known as the sovereign’s seal of the magic dynasty, and never allowed it to part from him.

He dreamed to take back the Bazgan House’s glory and power within his generation, no matter the cost. Ax drilled his soldiers, bought weapons from the north, and devoted himself to training the dragons everyday. Although many years had been spent repeatedly skirmis.h.i.+ng with the other Tauran provinces, he had finally completed preparations to carry out large-scale military operations together with the northern Eimen. Eimen was one of the few comrades that valued the Bazgan House even after Zer Tauran’s dissolution and the country Ax’s older sister married into.

But half a month earlier, reports coming from Eimen suddenly ceased. According to the rumours that travelled past the desert and gra.s.slands, three provincial states including Eimen had been integrated into an emerging power. The leader of this emerging force named himself a magician who could control the ancient arts, even referring himself by some blasphemic name and using some ridiculous power. But it was a fact his influence was spreading. And this magician had declared he would revive the former Zer Tauran with himself as centre. He had also decreed that, in accordance to the past oath, ‘all Zerdians are destined to gather under me’.

That the likes of a magician dares to resurrect a country that rightfully belongs to the Bazgan House!

Ax nearly lost himself in his rage. The other fortress cities were also shaken. Some feared this mysterious power that could overthrow three cities in the blink of an eye, while some burned with ambition that if they owned this power they would be able to revive the Zerdian’s country and leave behind their names amongst the rivalling lords. However, Ax belonged to neither group.

This much was as Noue foresaw. Ax wanted to immediately mobilise his army and destroy this abominable magician himself. However,

“This is a chance that won’t come again, my lord.”

Ravan Dol had whispered to his ears.

Naturally, many states would try to resist this magician. But they would also have doubts whether this was an opponent they could face off alone. This was where the Bazgan House’s legitimate successor, Ax Bazgan, was meant to bring the forces togethers as its central figure through an alliance and rout the magician. Then he would permanently seal the impromptu alliance and declare the birth of a new Zer Tauran.

“However, in order to do that, Lord Ax,” Ravan sternly cautioned him, “you must make a show of power. Lineage may denote your n.o.ble origins, but that alone will not make people follow you in these turbulent times. First, you need power. Unwavering power exemplifying the creation of a new Zer Tauran.”

It was for this reason Ax set his sights on Apta. He would first take the fortress through sheer might, and then form alliances with the remaining Zerdian provinces. With their combined might, they could fend off any attack from Mephius while resolving the course of action to best engage the magician’s forces. Or, it was possible the Zerdians that became the magician’s subordinates would, at that time, be incited by the Bazgan House’s strong spirit and rebel against him.

“Certainly, if Garbera and Ende break out into war, it would throw the continent centre into disorder which is favourable for us. It is a time that won’t come again. Still, those Mephian curs. I thought they’d definitely aid Garbera and move their army towards Ende, but they haven’t even sent a single platoon out from Solon yet. Aren’t they being too cautious with us?”

“I wonder. In any case, there’s nothing in Apta but Prince Gil’s own forces. It’s already the third day, but scouts have reported no movements from Solon. Ax-dono, you should agree to the conference. It would do well if we also directly probe the enemy’s intentions.”

“All right.”

It was his occasional display of irritation and anger on his face that Ax demonstrated the great trust he placed in this old man. He made a generous nod.

“Regardless of the conference’s outcome, we have to continue preparations for war. Ravan, the new breed of dragons you mentioned, if we use—”

And before he could finish speaking, a piercing scream rang out. Fast as Ax drew the sword from his waist, a single maid came running into the Memorial Shrine.

“My lords.h.i.+p! The princess...Esmena-sama is!”

Hearing the pale maid’s frantic cries, Ax stopped in alarm.

“After me!”

Ordering the soldiers, he left the Memorial Shrine and travelled the inner castle walkways with haste. He wrenched his way through two, and then three bronze doors, leading into a garden surrounded by tall walls. A young girl was moving falteringly through a ceilinged pa.s.sage that connected into the garden. What was bizarre about the scene was how despite there being three maids desperately clinging onto her legs and back, her strides were adamant and the girl continued walking, easily pulling them along as though unaffected.

“Esmena.”

Ax called her name sharply. However Esmena Bazgan did not respond. Her unkempt figure dressed in a thin nightgown unsteadily and insistently advanced forward, her gaze wandering absentmindedly.

“My lord!”

As Ax began running over to his daughter, his soldiers pinned his arms from behind.

“It’s dangerous! That b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s foul magic may have caused this. We don’t know what danger—”

“Eei, let go of me! I don’t care! Hold her down by brute force if you have to!”

Receiving this order, the fearless soldiers, adding onto the maids, held down Esmena. This time, being pinned by armoured adult men, even Esmena could not move. Ax had also shaken off the soldiers’ restraints in that interval and went running over to his daughter kneeling down on the pavement.

“Esmena, get a hold of yourself! Esmena!”

“...sama. …..sama”

Her normally faintly rose coloured lips were pale, and she continued speaking in delirium.

“Yes, your father’s[1] right here. Esmena, get a hold—”

“...r, da-sama, gar, da, sama, Garda-sama!”

Roughly alongside his daughter’s raised cries, the soldiers and maids also raised unsettled screams.

Impossible!

Gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth, Ax grabbed his daughter with both hands. Her face was in contrast a crimson red, her eyes were narrowed in ecstasy, and her breaths came in ragged gasps. The nineteen year old Esmena, as if to bely her usual innocence, was now plastered in a bewitchingly feminine aroma.

“Garda-sama, Esmena is here. Garda-sama, won’t you come see me?! —Garda-sama!”

“That’s enough!”

In an outburst of anger and alongside some hint of jealousy, Ax slapped his daughter on the cheek. Esmena blinked with a start as if something had been knocked out of her, and placed one hand against her throbbing cheek.

“F-Father? I—Why am I...?”

Returning to her usual self, she stared at her father who gripped her by the shoulders. Ax breathed a deep sigh of relief. Oppositely, unease filled those eyes of hers whose colour mimicked her father’s.

“Could it be...that I...again...? Ahh, th-that’s right. I saw that dream again. Within the deep darkness, a voice from within a dreadful whirlpool layered like folds beckoned me. Countless hands reached out from there and grabbed my shoulders, hair, feet...”

Ahh. His daughter covered her face both hands, crying face down. Ax hugged her.

“Don’t worry. Everything’s all right. It’s just that you have a sensitive heart and were a little disturbed by those weird rumours about Garda’s revival.”

Giving a glance at the maids, he signalled them to escort her all the way to her room.

Even after Esmena had gone, the surroundings remained in tumult for some time. Tch. Ax smacked his lips.

“I hope no weird rumour starts up again.”

“Will things really stop at a rumour?”

Saying this was Grand Duke Hergo Tedos, a man who had supported Taúlia after his father and was also currently an existence much like Ax’s right-hand man. His dignified face was now white as a sheet.

“Garda was a man serving as a Ryuujin priest in the former Zer Tauran. I hear that even after our founder Jasch Bazgan pa.s.sed away, he defended the Zer Taúlia capital to his last. His whereabouts, along with the other claw, have faded...”

“And now, in 200 year’s time, you’re telling me he’s been revived? Ridiculous,” Ax spat out.

He tried to make a show of courage, but as he remembered his daughter’s spellbound face that he had seen close up, he could not suppress that feeling of something freezing over within him.

This makes the third time.

Esmena Bazgan had suddenly slipped out of bed, and like a sleepwalker unsteadily attempted walk out the castle while calling Garda’s name. The first time, he’d heard she tried to seduce the door guards stopping her.

Ax was furious and was even about to cut their heads off right that instant to prevent the news from leaking. But just as he was going to do so, he was stopped by Ravan Dol.

To his horror, this type of incident appeared to have been occurring throughout the western lands. Young maidens of high stature all similarly muttered Garda’s name and wandered the castle night and streets with entranced faces like pilgrims trying to make their way to the former Zer Illias temple.

This was hard to believe, but nothing except magic could elicit such eccentric behaviour from his own daughter.

“Ancient magician or not,”

Ax’s face grew sterner and he ran his hand against the fan hanging on his waist.

“There’s nothing steel can’t cut. Stay firm, Hergo. I’d like to believe there’s no soldier so weak-willed he’d get disturbed by gossip, but there’s always that one in a thousand. Superiors must make a show of their valour.”

“Besides, our current enemy is Mephius. The Mephian imperials may name themselves descendants of the Dragon G.o.d, but they don’t actually expect any idiot to believe that, do they?” Ax scoffed.

He was a man who lived through the feuding west. Even if he harboured fears within, Ax was no fool that would so easily let it come on his face.

Part 2

The conference took place in the Gajira Plains, distanced equally between Apta and Taúlia. It was across the Yunos River and seven kilometres west through mountainous terrain within Taúlia dominion. Ax thoroughly investigated the area in case some uncalled-for schemes from the enemy awaited him and set up tent.

There was still a bit of time until the promised noon. The sky was cloudy, and lukewarm winds blew aimlessly. It was unpleasant weather.

Ax led a mere twelve soldiers here. Other than that, there was only two airs.h.i.+ps he had prepared to to survey from air. It was to show of Ax’s boldness, but there was a crowd in his surroundings.

“Seems the lord of Taúlia is having a meeting with Mephius’ prince!”

“I wonder what kind of person the Mephius successor is.”

They were the people living in the nearby villages, and desperately trying to get a closer look across the fence the soldiers had set up.

In the western world that prospered the collapse of countless powers whereby(and) the prospering collapse, the Bazgan House’s history was all the more long and its people’s lives also protected. In the other regions, it wasn’t rare for rulers to change several times in the span of a year, and each time, the governing body would be thrown into disarray and the people wheezing in hards.h.i.+ps, to only have the soldiers and mercenaries turn burglar and a.s.sault them frequently. Many things happened that disrupted peaceful living.

“Should we drive them away?”

A soldier from within the tent asked as he pushed the opening to look outside.

“Leave it, leave it.”

Ax shook his head as he wiped the sweat off his neck. It was humid.

“Our Taúlian people are dogged. Even if you drive them away, they’ll immediately conceal themselves and watch us. Did you know? When there’s a struggle nearby, there’s even a bunch that bring boxed lunches to watch it,” Ax said straightly.

And though his people’s backbone was clear as day to him, that same notice did not reach so far as to his own blood relations’ action-taking.

In a place separate from where the citizens gathered, were people viewing the conference spot from far away. A man leading his horse and a hooded women closely cuddling up to him. Their appearances were suspicious, so a soldier had called them to a stop and asked to remove the hood, but then they were immediately driven away.

“I wonder if he was ordered to by father.”

“I gave him plenty of threats. That guy knows what will happen if he angers me.”

“Well,” the girl spoke in a laughing voice that rang out like a bell, “you sure are scary, Bouwen. Even if you are reputed as the gentle boy that loves birds and flowers.”

“P-Please stop it, princess. Look, we don’t know who might be watching.”

The one with his face reddening was the adopted son of Grand Duke Hergo, Bouwen Tedos. He was still young, some would even say child-faced, but he was also a general commanding a part of Taúlia’s army; those eyes that occasionally kept watch of the surroundings were stern.

And the woman referred to as ‘princess’ was Ax’s daughter, Esmena Bazgan. Unlike her father whose forehead was surrounded by incessant wrinkles, her features were extremely gentle. Her big eyes glistened with curiosity and her luscious lips naturally broke into a smile.

“Aah, outside feels great! As I thought, I can’t go being holed up in my room. It feels like my body and mind are rotting. That’s why I had that repulsive dream.”

Bouwen returned a smile, though in fact, he was looking at his childhood friend three years younger than him with heartrended thoughts.

That she can say a cloudy day like this, with such ill-blowing winds, feels great...

It should be considered extremely depressing weather. The princess, raised under Ax’s fundamentally overprotective bearing, had been confined in her room since the aforementioned disturbance with the nightmare, and additionally guarded by some several dozens of soldiers; a state of house arrest. Surveillance so strict that taking even a single step out the door warranted her father’s permission, and that might cause her to raise the white flag before the various nightmares could.

Although, even with a.s.signing that many guards, it’s a fact things will end up like before. It’s abnormal.

All the soldiers he questioned on guard duty that evening heard the princess’ weeping. And their memories from thereon had been completely wiped. When they were discovered, everyone—those outside the room, those in the corridors, those on the roof were all fast asleep.

Everyone. There was not in the slightest way this was simple negligence.

Magic that affected a covered distance was from more than 200 years ago. Why would that manifest now—

Bouwen ground his teeth, when the people rose into a stir. A single air carrier appeared as a dot under the ashen sky. It drew closer before their eyes. It appeared to be a cruiser-cla.s.s s.h.i.+p. Bouwen had collected his share of information on Apta. Since the prince had not used any s.h.i.+ps when he departed from Solon, that would make it the sole carrier available in Apta.

From it, small airs.h.i.+ps launched, carrying its pa.s.sengers to the ground.

“Ho, so that’s…”

Bouwen muttered. Esmena also watched them intensely. Descending were five people. It went without saying the leading youth was Mephius’ first prince, Gil. He was lightly armed, but as per custom, he placed the sword hanging on his waist onto the ground.

He walked up halfway towards the tent. Ax exited and exchanged words of greeting.

“I’ve heard stories, but he’s surprisingly young.”

Bouwen glared at the young successor of his longtime enemy Mephius with piercing eyes. These were turbulent times such that it wasn’t rare for men to adorn their first campaign at the age of thirteen or fourteen, but seventeen was a bit too young to be attending a meeting as a country’s representative.

That is...a person from a different country.

Esmena murmured in an inaudible whisper. Although there had been merchants from other countries that came to Taúlia, the number Esmena could meet were severely limited. Especially with those from their historically contested enemy, the Mephians, although she had heard many stories of them.

Well, I wasn’t really expecting them to be any different from us.

Seeing them with her own eyes, she nodded convinced. There was no way they would have horns or tails, and she didn’t see them as that savage. Mephius’ prince was certainly young, but she could also see all his retainers valiantly confront her fearsome father. As proof of that, her father tried to invite them into the tent, but the prince declined and pointed to the surrounding ground.

After her father made the usual sour face, he ordered the soldiers from inside the tent to set up a long table and chairs. The prince had likely proposed to hold the meeting outside. Before long, her father was seated across from him.

What could they be talking about?

As far as Princess Esmena was concerned, even this trivial matter was like a great adventure to her. It was a heart-pounding excitement.

Above all, the prince of their archenemy. Esmena unwittingly felt herself drawn towards this youth who carried features from a land unbeknownst to her. That might have been an omen of the future.

“Now then, O’ young Mephian prince,”

Ax Bazgan initiated.

“Our ancestors have long since thousands, and tens of thousands of years past, explored our homeworld and settled into these lands, handing them onto us. We have succeeded their frontier spirit, but their decennial oath sworn in the lands of the Seirin Valley was ultimately never fulfilled in ten years time.”

“So long as there is merit, I shall not seek conflict.”

“That’s right,” Ax shook his head. “‘These vast lands and boons are before us. Why do we fight and divide them?’ —Those are famous lines used even in plays, but in the end, humans are beings who inflate to match their insatiable desires. In the midst of the battle against the former inhabitants, the Ryuujin Tribe, the one to turn his gun on his own brothers was none other than one of the five sages who established the decennial oath, an old female scientist.”

“You’re well informed.”

“And in this way, we now shed our blood competing with one another. I won’t say anything clever, like how this is truly absurd. However, if a futile battle can be avoided, I believe there’s nothing better than to do so. I’ll say this outright, Prince Gil. Withdraw from Apta.”

“That’s a really interesting proposal.”

Prince Gil grinned and looked back into Ax’s eyes.

This d.a.m.n greenhorn’s getting ahead of himself.

Of course, Ax did not think once he would obediently accept the proposal. He was observing Orba's behavior taking a high-handed att.i.tude, regardless of his character.

“Once I obtain Apta, the west’s power balance will undergo a drastic upheaval. Within two years, no, in under a single year, I will unite it. Moreover prince, I’ve prepared to form an alliance with your Mephius.”

“My thoughts of avoiding a battle are the same, Lord Ax. All the more reason why there should be no need to put things off. We should join oaths of friends.h.i.+p right here, right now.”

“And who would believe that the prince and I joined hands and pledged here? You aren’t the emperor yet. When a man of no credence hopes to get something, he must provide some definitive compensation in return. That would be Apta. It is to our mutual benefit that—”

“I don’t have the least intention of leaving Apta.” Gil’s expression remained unchanged. “Bazgan-dono, you’re saying selfish things. It’s you who desperately wants the alliance with Mephius so you can focus on the west.”

“What?”

“But you’ve been in conflict with Mephius for a long time. As far as the Bazgan family is concerned, it has been stirring into its men that Mephius is their longtime enemy. That you would just join hands with that enemy without gaining anything is bound to brand you a coward and traitor. That’s why you first tried taking Mephius’ fortress through armed might.”

Tch. I won’t be able to strike a deal with this one.

Saying it so outrightly like this would only cut off both sides’ path of retreat. Ax irritatedly flexed his hands over his lap.

Or could it be he even hopes we have a frontal collision? No—if that was the case, then he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to request an audience like this.

Gil had his own weakness. Ax was of course aware of this, but he was hesitant if he should actually say it. That would really be the final straw in cutting off his final path of retreat.

“Prince Gil, aren’t you being a bit discourteous? It was you who proposed this meeting. As a matter of fact, I expect you to return the men you took prisoner using your cowardly traps as compensation for responding your invitation.”

“Do you still not understand, Lord Bazgan?”

“What is it that I don’t understand?”

“The one who triumphed in battle was us, Mephius. And the ones who will continue to triumph shall also be us. However, I’ve been thinking of having Taúlia function as a buffer between us and the west. That’s why I didn’t storm you by force. It should allow you, Lord Ax, to concentrate on unifying the west without worry of being attacked from behind. It is we who are offering you our hands.”

“Ho—”

Ax felt a violent rage surge within. Ax had never engaged with a man who irritated him this badly. He felt as if his long-standing Bazgan House’s authority had been trampled under his feet. So he too, finally unleashed those words he had locked within himself.