Volume 10 Chapter 1 (2/2)

They, who had once spent their days like beasts prowling in a field, were now swamped with work coming from holding positions powerful enough to influence the country.

Perhaps because they were reflecting exhaustion from work he was not used to, Pas.h.i.+r's eyes looked unusually wild. Once he was inside alone with the prince, he said -

”Looking after the newbies is too much for me by myself. I would like to request that some of them be distributed as mercenaries to Commander Gowen, or to Generals Saian and Lorgo.”

Orba had declared that Pas.h.i.+r was to shoulder the entire responsibility for taking care of the mercenaries who had newly arrived in Birac, from training them to taking command of them.

”Gowen is in charge of the mercenary unit made up from the people of Birac and from the gladiators bought from the city's gladiator companies. That gramps is an old man, so he's busy.”

”Besides, it was careless of you to hire them all unconditionally,” at times like these, Pas.h.i.+r did not choose his words with care. ”What if spies from Solon have slipped in among them? No, there are definitely going to be some among them.”

”And that's why I've had them collected in one place without dividing them up,” Orba retorted. ”It's easier to watch them this way. Try openly calling out to every single one of them who looks suspicious. Ask about where they come from, deliberately beat them hard during training, let them believe that they're distrusted. That will create an opening at the seams.”

”I'm no good for that part.”

”Me neither,” Orba laughed unintentionally. ”That was s.h.i.+que's specialty.”

As soon as he had said that, the smile vanished from Orba's face. He then said quickly,

”A prince who will need a great many followers from now on can't afford to shut the gates tight at this point. Anyway, I'll do something.”

It had been a few days since that conversation. Orba had put on his tiger-shaped mask and had shown up at the practice session that Pas.h.i.+r was personally supervising.

”Why are you here?” Pas.h.i.+r asked in a low voice.

”Didn't the prince tell you he'll do something?” Orba smoothly warded him off then stepped out in front of the young men.

”Is there anyone here who has confidence in their own skill? If you're serviceable, His Highness will appoint you to his Imperial Guards,” he said loudly.

In terms of the fame and money to be earned, there was naturally a world of difference between being a mere mercenary and being an Imperial Guard under the crown prince's direct supervision. The hot-blooded youths suddenly became excited.

With a wooden sword in his hand, Orba continued provocatively,

”You can use steel weapons. Doesn't look like you could hit me.”

Paying no attention to Pas.h.i.+r's scowling face, he confronted one of them with his eyes.

It was a tall man. Perhaps he had inherited the northern blood of the people of Va.r.s.eal as he was fair-skinned and had soft blond hair, which was currently damp with sweat.

Leaving him to wield his steel sword, Orba focused on maintaining an even distance as they circled around.

”Go, go!”

”Beat the hero into a fit!”

The man thrust and jabbed, urged on by the cheers from his comrades. His height made him impressive. However, because of that, he swung wide. On his third attack, Orba suddenly bent to avoid it and thrust the tip of his wooden sword at the man's neck. The man's eyes rolled back and he collapsed, unconscious.

”Next.”

When Orba said that, his breath completely undisturbed, a long line formed in front of him.

The second and third people met with much the same fate as the first one.

The fourth man drew as close as...o...b..'s chest. His footwork had an element of unpredictability. Orba returned his attack with a short stroke, which he caught with his sword before quickly closing the distance between them. Simply by twisting the lower half of his body, and without seeming to put any strength into it, Orba destroyed his opponent's posture and swept a blow at his feet.

”Not too bad.”

Orba surveyed his wooden sword. There was a crack running from its centre. He tossed it aside and had Pas.h.i.+r's men bring him a replacement.

There followed the fifth, sixth, and seventh men.

Not surprisingly, his breath had become ragged by that time and sweat had started to glisten all along his back on which the slave mark had been branded.

He had a little trouble with the eighth person.

When the ninth was about to step in front of Orba,

”That's enough.” Pas.h.i.+r clapped his hands once.

Orba had his heart set on getting up to ten people. He looked over his shoulder,

”Don't interfere however you like.”

”If you want to continue, your next opponents can't use real weapons. Otherwise, I won't allow this to go any further.”

”Who are you talking to, cur?”

”Orba, even if you talk to me the same way that His Highness the prince would, the head of the Imperial Guards' infantry is still me. You're the one who isn't to interfere anyway you like in my policies.”

Orba stayed silent, looking as though he had come to a sudden realization.

After that, Pas.h.i.+r left the training to another of the men and brought Orba to the back of the training grounds. With each step, the heat that had been controlling his body seem to dissipate. Once his sweat had completely ebbed away, it was suddenly hard for him to believe that only a few minutes earlier, steel had been raining down on him.

Tch

When he had decided to go as...o...b.., the Imperial Guard in the iron mask, to personally train the new recruits, it had seemed like a perfectly good idea. But at the time, he had not been planning to let his opponents use real weapons. That had been a spur-of-the-moment idea.

It had been terrifyingly sudden. His own emotions had been thrown into chaos. Nor could he think of any reason for it. And therefore, it had been all the more terrifying and exasperating.

Because he was thinking of that, as soon as it was just the two of them, Orba said, like a sulky younger brother,

”You have any complaints?”

”I've got something to tell you, since you're close to His Highness.”

”What?”

”I'll be sending bodyguards for His Highness from now on. I'm thinking there'll always be two people by his side, day or night.”

”Who told you to do that?”

”I thought of it myself. The Prince's person isn't his alone,” he said with insistence.

Thinking about it, it was probably Pas.h.i.+r who appointed guards to the residence. Orba felt it was surprising. Even though he had never disobeyed orders before now, it was rare for Pas.h.i.+r to act on his own accord.

Pas.h.i.+r still had more to say.

”Which is why it's a problem when you act recklessly. The crown prince is bound to have many things to think of and regret. Even so, absolutely nothing will come of it by getting injured here. The victims of that last battle will have fallen for nothing. I'm asking you to stop this time.”

Through the two slits that were the tiger's eyes in his iron mask, Orba silently gazed at Pas.h.i.+r's visibly sunburned face.

This guy - At that moment, words were entangled in complicated patterns within Orba's mind. His earlier 'terrifying' feelings oddly agreed with Pas.h.i.+r's words.

”That,” just as he started to speak,

”Finally found you!”

This time, it was Gilliam who came into sight. As he was the owner of a body even more muscular than Pas.h.i.+r's, it felt as though a hot blast of wind had swept by the two of them.

”So you're here, no.... so you abideth here, no that's wrong... so this is where you were?”

”What is it?”

Even though he was thinking that the situation was dangerous, Orba could not help smiling wryly. Gilliam had not yet gotten used to the bother of having to change his behaviour and speech according to the situation.

Gilliam grinned in return.

You won't be able to smile for much longer - he seemed to be saying.

Seeing that, Orba's expression grew tense. Has the capital made its move?

But Gilliam had come with a different piece of news. In a way, it was a threat that was outside of Orba's predictions.

Princess Vileena had shown up in Birac.

It was about seven days after the battle at Tolinea that Princess Vileena left the town of Apta at the northwest tip of Mephius.

The report of the victory had, of course, already arrived. What with their relief at having it end without their houses and fields being damaged, and the fact that Gil Mephius had overturned an unfavourable situation to achieve victory, the people were extolling him as the G.o.d of War incarnate.

”He is invincible.”

”The day he ascends as emperor, both the land and the people of Mephius will be secure.”

Similar things were being whispered all around and there were even incidents in which the overly-hasty had decorated shop fronts with hanging banners that proclaimed, 'Long live Gil Mephius, emperor of Mephius'. The town guards were, of course, unable to just let that one pa.s.s and took them down.

First among all the towns and cities in Mephius, Apta had begun to trade with the west. Western merchants were conspicuous among those coming and going along its streets. Up until recently, that would have been unthinkable. The friends.h.i.+p with Taúlia meant in turn that the days pa.s.sed peacefully in Apta, so it was not surprising that the people were in a festive mood.

Whenever Garbera's Princess Vileena pa.s.sed someone in Apta Castle, they would address their congratulations to her. While the princess accepted these with a smile - she would think to herself that it might be best not to go out for a while.

Her departure for Birac was also being put off.

The Princess had, of course, deeply rejoiced at the tidings of victory. In this fight, there had been nothing but causes for fear, and after Gil had left for the front, she had remained alone in her room, without eating, without speaking even with those closest to her, silently, earnestly, hoping for the prince's victory.

Even sleep had eluded her. The next morning, in the moment in which she heard the messenger report that ”after capturing Folker and the enemy generals under his command, His Imperial Highness entered Birac,” she felt that her shoulders and back, which at some point had grown stiff from the tension, relaxed all at once as she gave a long sigh of relief.

The Princess was seized with the desire to jump into an airs.h.i.+p and see for herself in Birac whether the prince and those she knew were safe. However, she deliberately quelled that feeling.

Now every day in Apta was a day of revelry, but she had heard that when the troops led by Folker had been approaching to within a stone's throw away, opinion in the town had been split down the middle. One view had held that when the time came, they should take up arms themselves and fight in support of the prince, while the other advised that if it came to the point where the fields risked being trampled and the houses burned, then they should surrender.

Surely that was also the case right now in Birac. Therefore, for the time being, she would wait until the situation over there had calmed down.

With that said, it should have been three or four days at most.

Unlike the people of Apta, the princess understood that circ.u.mstances were pressing. Perhaps even tomorrow, the great gates of Solon might be thrown open and a host of fully-armed soldiers and warhorses might march onto Birac, their weapons and armour bathed in the sunlight.

She had also thought that a summons would come from the prince by horse or by airs.h.i.+p once things had stabilised somewhat.

I was overly-optimistic - she realised.

Three days pa.s.sed... five days pa.s.sed... and there was still no news from the prince.

”He'll be fully engrossed in things again,” Vileena shrugged her slender shoulders. And thereupon added, ”He is ever thus. Once he begins something, his surroundings are no longer reflected in his eyes. To say nothing of the likes of a foreign princess, who will long since have vanished from his mind. Ahaha,” she tilted her small chin downwards and laughed.

Layla, who had still only just started to be an attendant, had a bewildered expression, but Teresia, who had known her for a long time, simply lowered her eyes to show her agreement with her mistress.

Quickly growing tired of laughing, Vileena fixed her gaze on Teresia and said -

”Make arrangements for our departure.”

Her face was as stern as that of a general ordering his men to prepare to march. Nor did Teresia make any objection.

She went to find General Rogue Saian, who had temporarily returned to Apta to see to the transfer of troops towards Birac, and had requested to ride on an air carrier that was transporting supplies.

”I am sorry to inconvenience you.”

”In what way,” Rogue laughed open-heartedly then offered advice with a serious expression. ”The area east of here might well turn into a battlefield at any time. Please bear that in mind.”

At heart, Rogue was an old-fas.h.i.+oned warrior. His feelings were strongly opposed to the thought of a woman proceeding nonchalantly to a place that might at any moment turn into the front line of a fierce battle.

It had to be said however that with regards to his future emperor, he also believed that - His Highness Gil is a lonely person.

He could not say how it was, but even when he was surrounded by crowds of subordinates and companions, there seemed to be a cloud hanging above Gil Mephius' head alone which was quick to cast the shadow of loneliness over him.

He had that in common with Emperor Guhl Mephius, whom Rogue had watched over since his youth. And that vision of the past was tied to bitter memories.

And so, Rogue thought that more than ever, right now - His Highness needs a bright ray of suns.h.i.+ne.

Having finished their preparations quickly, Vileena's party boarded the air carrier.

”Layla, will this be your first time in Birac?”

”Y-Yes.”

Layla's complexion as she gazed out from the window of the air carrier was not good. She had been in that state since the morning.

”If you are in poor health, please stay in Apta,” Vileena had urged her, but Layla herself had wanted to accompany her.

At that time, the princess from Garbera could not, of course, have understood the dark fears that Layla held in her heart.

The lord of Birac was Fedom Aulin.

His connection to Layla ran deep. Rather than a connection, it was more like a fate. After all, the two of them had been present at the scene when the crown prince was killed. Immediately afterwards, her father had hurriedly taken his family away from Solon, probably because he feared that Fedom would send a.s.sa.s.sins to seal their mouths.

She could not let him see her face. She could not be separated from the princess now.

No, in this case, rather than the princess, it would have been better to say that she did not want to be separated from Crown Prince Gil.

Just as indicated by ”the scene when the crown prince was killed”, Layla had witnessed Gil Mephius losing his life with her own eyes. Her own father had fired a gun at him at point-blank range. Gil's back had been convulsing and then, before long, he had stopped moving as he lay in a puddle of blood. Layla remembered the scene clearly.

And yet, Gil - He's revived from the land of the dead.

When she saw Gil addressing the crowd from the castle in Apta, she had felt her entire body tremble. She felt as though that man were a demon, who had revived from the land of the dead to once again call down a horrifying calamity on her and her loved ones.

And therefore, Layla could not take her eyes off of Gil.

During the entire journey, as she stared down with unseeing eyes at the rippling mountains that flowed by beneath and at the cliffs where herds of deer lived, Layla's face was pale.

Normally at times like these, there was someone who gave him a piece or two of advice beforehand.

But that person was not there anymore.

So when he received the information that the princess was visiting from Apta, Orba deplored his own behaviour. My head wasn't working. He should have sent some kind of communication when he had entered Birac.

Even though he himself had asked her, lend me your strength when he had been reunited with the princess, he had once again neglected his fiancée.

He needed to go back to his room at once, take off the iron mask and put on the 'mask' and clothes of the crown prince.

Leaving Pas.h.i.+r, Orba turned towards Birac Castle. But -

”What's wrong?” Gilliam, who was walking right behind him, asked as...o...b.. stopped walking.

That's right, there was that. Speaking of advice, Orba had already received some. He had been told over and over again that he should go and see the princess, not as the crown prince but as the Imperial Guard Orba.

And so, in the end, he went to the port with Gilliam as he was, without changing his clothes.

Of the fleet of s.h.i.+ps that had arrived from Apta, only one of them had touched down in the exclusive landing area used by aristocrats on a hill close to the castle.

A girl disembarked from the s.h.i.+p, her s.h.i.+ning hair blown around in the wind. For a moment, she opened her eyes wide at the unexpected reception.

”Orba. It's been a long time.”

”Yes.”

Orba bowed but did not say any further words. Thank you for having taken the trouble to come all the way from Apta - He had been intending to say something like that, but he wondered if it did not sound sarcastic coming from him, and so, because of that groundless concern, he remained silent.

Vileena was not bothered by it and thanked him for saving her life in the western village, then introduced Layla whose family Orba had similarly helped out.

”Is His Highness working you hard again?”

”Yes. …No, why?”

”Because he seems to keep you busy.”

The Princess' words were the ones that sounded sarcastic, but her eyes suddenly turned towards the giant standing next to Orba. He was standing respectfully to attention in a posture he was not used to. Vileena gazed at him with a somewhat thoughtful look.

”Ah, Gilliam,” she said in a murmur. ”I remember. You are called Gilliam.”

”Y-Yes,” Gilliam ducked his head in a sort of bow. ”I'm, I'm surprised that you remembered the name of, someone like me.”

”How could I forget?” Vileena smiled with nostalgia. Truthfully, when she had heard the name while in the west, she had not remembered it, but that was unimportant right now.

Looking at the two soldiers, one in an iron mask, the other a giant, in turns, she said, ”Seeing you like this has reminded me of Zaim Fortress. You rushed to help me just as I was about to be killed by General Ryucown. Orba, Gilliam, and s.h.i.+que. For me, seeing the three of you working, as then, for His Highness is…”

Haven spoken that far, Vileena's eyes flickered between Orba and Gilliam. ”Where is s.h.i.+que at the moment? Is he with His Highness?”

That casual question instantly caused Orba to feel the same shock as he would if he had been strongly struck on the chest. After a long pause -

”He was killed in battle.”

”What did you say?”

”s.h.i.+que fought to the utmost for His Highness and lost his life.”

”Oh my,” Teresia's voice unintentionally slipped out.

Vileena was at a loss for words. Her lips parted open, then shut.

It was only that she was blinking repeatedly. Then -

”His Highness?” The Princess' expression was like one who had suddenly snapped out of a dream. ”Where is His Highness at the moment?”

”That's, um… I-I'll go get him right away.”

As proof of how shaken he was, Orba referred to 'go getting' his master the prince. He could not understand how things had gone from s.h.i.+que to suddenly talking of wanting to see the prince.

The conclusion was that the princess would call on him in his apartments in a few minutes' time. Orba, of course, had to race back to his room. He removed his mask and, with help from his page, Dinn, he changed clothes in a mad rush.

No sooner had he done so then there was a knock. The door opened and the princess appeared.

Her expression was grim. Orba felt a chill.

”Thank you for coming. Although I'm sorry that I wasn't able to go and meet you, Princess, as I was somewhat busy.”

”No need,” the princess said little as she shook her head.

Dinn bowed and withdrew, leaving just the two of them. The silence that followed weighed oppressively on Orba, who had expected to be on the receiving end of a rapid succession of complaints being hurled at him.

Twiddling the hilt of the sword that hung at his waist, he said, ”I'll answer before being asked,” with that preface, he then explained about his discussion with Fedom about what to do from then on. ”What we need after this is to 'wait'. To see what move Father will make and how the generals throughout Mephius will react. We need time to determine the course of events.”

They had successfully made 'time' move, when it should have been stuck fast. Afterwards, Orba continued, they needed to confirm how far the ripples caused would spread and what kind of effects they would have.

As Fedom had pointed out, the emperor would not want Mephius' centre for foreign trade to be occupied indefinitely, but if he acted forcibly this time again, he might be attacked from behind. The Emperor would first think to tighten his grasp on internal affairs. The consequences of that were something that Orba honestly did not want to think about. Although they were going to 'wait', there was a good chance that 'waiting too long' would put them at a disadvantage.

How Orba and the emperor would gauge distance and time would determine who would win and who would lose.

”You might have to spend some time chaffing from impatience. The gallant princess will probably want to kick me in the seat of the pants, but even so…”

”I heard about s.h.i.+que,” the princess let drop a few words. Looking at it, her stern expression had collapsed and her eyes were filled with sorrow. More than the words themselves, that was what startled Orba and for a moment, he turned away.

”I see,” he said after some time had pa.s.sed.

The small hand with which Vileena was unconsciously gripping her skirt trembled. ”Your Highness and s.h.i.+que were always to be seen together. It must be so painful… Forgive me, I do not know what I should say to you at a time like this.”

”Many soldiers died in that battle,” Orba went towards the window. ”It wasn't just s.h.i.+que. We lost many young men who had futures before them.”

The Princess hesitantly approached him. With every step, the distance her feet covered grew greater.

For some reason, Orba felt an emotion that he could not put into words from that gesture. It was natural to extend his hand to her.

Ah - for a second, Vileena was surprised, then she placed her own hand on the one that was bridging the distance between the two of them. Orba lightly drew her to him and they stood looking out of the window together.

”…I have to build a future that will live up to those sacrifices.”

”I would like to help you. If my poor abilities can.”

Orba nodded almost imperceptibly.

At that same time, Dinn, who had finished laying things out for tea, stood paralyzed in front of the door then turned on his heels and left.

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