Chapter 26 - Interlude – Ganche’s Repairs (2/2)

All Ganche was doing was taking the planks that he’d chopped with the axe and nailing them to the wall around the hole.

Originally, the stone foundation had been layered with wood, which then had wallpaper pasted on top of it. After many years, the wind and snow had peeled off the wallpaper, rotted off the wood planks, and weakened the exposed stone foundation, causing holes when the stones fell off.

As the militiamen had said, it would be better to inlay a stone that was the same size as the hole, but Ganche didn’t have any method for creating a stone that was the hole’s dimensions. He had forcibly filled the hole with thick poles and rocks, then nailed on some planks to add support to the top, but after being asked so many times whether this was really okay like this, he felt depressed.

They were right – Ernst wouldn’t be happy with something as clumsy and unsightly as this.

He had started off these repairs in triumphant spirits, but maybe it would be better if he just gave up…

“Everyone’s gathered around here – is something happening?”

Upon hearing the light voice of a boy drift over, the militiamen who had been teasing Ganche now quieted down.

“No… uh… the wall…”

Targes answered, inching in front of the misshapen wall repairs to hide them with his own body.

“Aah, so you’re fixing the wall. Is everyone helping to fix it?”

Speaking with a cheerful voice, a small face suddenly popped up amidst the soldiers.

When those blue eyes saw the wall that Ganche had repaired, they slowly opened wide in surprise.

“Um… Lord Ernst…”

Ganche trembled with fear as he opened his mouth. Ernst turned to look at him, and then a smile split across his face.

“How wonderful. Ganche, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with a solution like this myself.”

“Eh…? It’s so haphazard; are you really fine with it?”

When Targes asked him this in disbelief, Ernst answered nonchalantly.

“The hole is closed, so I’m satisfied… I had been under the impression that, in order to repair the estate, I would need the appropriate amount of money to commission an expert in carpentry to do so. Yet nevertheless, all I wanted was for the holes to be closed.”

He kneeled and traced the site of the repairs with his white hands.

“Ganche, you have a very flexible way of thinking.”

As he said that, a kind smile rose over Ernst’s face.

Perhaps it was because they wanted to earn Ernst’s praise, but the militiamen scrambled to start repairing the estate. In the blink of an eye, they had fixed all of the defects.

Upon seeing those repairs that were just as unsightly as Ganche’s, the head butler threw a fit and acted like he was about to faint, but since the Lord himself had given his approval, there wasn’t any problem with them.

“Lord Ernst seems like a pretty surprising person, doesn’t he?”

After they had finished training, Targes asked this to Ganche, who had been drinking alcohol with Aldo.

“Since they hate even just training, they try to take it easy whenever they can. But he was able to make those guys who have laziness soaked into the marrow of their bones do all of that work in just a snap… and without even giving them an order.”

He plonked himself down on the chair and helped himself to a drink.

“Certainly…”

Aldo murmured.

“All Lord Ernst did was admire what Ganche had done. That was all it took to make those soldiers get up and move like it was a fight.”

“That’s right. Once I came here, I learned full well just how hard it was to get those soldiers to want to do anything. No matter if you screamed at them or coaxed them, they wouldn’t move at all.”

“I’m very sorry for that…”

Before Targes had become the captain of the militia, that role had been filled by Aldo.

Although Targes had spent over fifty years moving from place to place as a mercenary, before that, he had been a knight in the Rintz Kingdom’s army.

Those who could become knights in Rintz Kingdom were limited to those who had been born with the title of knights. Their rank was second only to the nobility, and Aldo, in respect to Targes’ accomplishments and title, had ceded to him the position of captain.

However, Ganche thought.

When he looked at the fief’s soldiers, he understood Aldo’s previous hardships. He wondered if, when Targes appeared, Aldo saw it as a blessing from the heavens and threw in the towel.

Although Targes had firmly refused him countless times, it seemed like he’d been shoved into that position before even realizing it.

Targes sometimes whispered into people’s ears, Even though he has the face of a good person, you can never be too careful with Aldo.

“I thought that it was impossible to motivate Meissen’s troops, but Lord Ernst was able to do it so easily. Those troops, deep inside, they want someone to acknowledge them and make them feel like they’re needed. He was able to see that in an instant…”

“…Wait. Lord Ernst is certainly an amazing person, but what you guys are saying is that he’s the kind of person who manipulates others into acting as he pleases?”

At this rate, Ernst was going to seem like just some sort of scheming tactician.

“Well… you have a point. He was royalty, after all.”

Targes kept on drinking.

“When I was a knight, I served at His Majesty’s side. When I was a mercenary, I also served the royalty of other countries. The people of royalty… in general, they don’t pay any mind to the feelings of other people. Especially in places like Rintz Kingdom where there are only two royals, their status and authority in the kingdom are as high as the sun in the sky, becoming existences that others aren’t able to trespass upon. Lord Ernst had been the crown prince up until half a year ago. Only a select few were allowed to speak with him, and he couldn’t leave the royal palace. Lord Ernst wouldn’t have the need to pay any mind to the motives of other people.”

“…When you think about it that way, he seems like a pure person.”

Aldo murmured admiringly.

“That’s right. That’s why I feel that he’s rather scary.”

Targes said, his greenish-blue eyes laughing happily.

“…What he did, he didn’t plan at all.”

When Ganche told him about the conversation of that afternoon, a hollow expression came over Ernst’s face.

“But, it was thanks to everyone working that it became so easy to take care of.”

Certainly, no matter where you walked in the manors of the estate, you would no longer feel a cold wind. Ernst had also stopped wearing his cloak.

“With all due respect…”

They were seated in front of the fireplace, and when Ganche spoke those words to the small body perched upon his knee, Ernst giggled.

“You’re my companion, Ganche. You don’t have to be afraid of saying anything.”

“Then… Lord Ernst, you won’t become angry?”

“What should I be angry about?”

“Lord Ernst had been the crown prince, and now you are the noble Lord of the fief, too. Yet even so, everyone just speaks to you as they like, and I wondered if that wasn’t terribly impolite…”

When Ganche had been a mercenary, most of the people he had served had been nobles. No matter what country’s or what territory’s nobles they were, they more or less shared the same conduct: they disdained the lower classes.

The people surrounding them always acted with courtesy and moderation so as to not upset the nobles.

Because Meissen was such a remote region, the militia and the servants who were just common people treated Ernst with incredibly crude manners.

“Humm… Well, isn’t it fine like that?”

Fufufu, Ernst giggled, leaning back on Ganche.

“It’s a valuable thing for people to be able to speak to me without hesitation. If everyone reveres me and carefully selects the information they want to give me, then I might end up choosing the wrong path to walk on… Though sometimes I might be surprised by it, even if they just hurled profanities at me, I feel like it would be to my benefit.”

He turned around, his blue eyes reflecting Ganche.

“Besides, since Ganche will always get angry for me first, there’s nothing for me to be upset over… I have to apologize, but the fact that Ganche’s heart can be thrown into such disarray over me makes me feel so happy.”

Unable to hold himself back, Ganche kissed those mischievously smiling pale red lips.

He greedily devoured that small body. It had been one month since the last time they indulged in each other.

Ernst’s slender body was still unaccustomed to it, but although Ganche couldn’t savor him to his heart’s content, these days where he could deeply intertwine himself with Ernst made Ganche feel the joy of supreme bliss.

As they lay beneath the bedsheets, Ganche loosely gathered in his arms that beloved body which continued to sweetly pant.

“The words that the lord says might also lead his subjects astray.”

Ernst whispered this quietly.

A Dunbertian’s eyes were able to see well even without much light. Though the room was shrouded in darkness, Ganche’s eyes were able to make out Ernst’s face, which still contained traces of passion.

“People interpret things according to what’s convenient for them. Thus, they will bend what was actually said to fit within their own selfish interpretations, and share that with other people… this propagation can’t be underestimated. After passing through several people, the shape of the message will break down, changing into a piercing sword that will be turned against me. Or, it may become a rope which ties my hands.”

He lowered his eyes, his thin fingers rubbing Ganche’s chest.

“Ganche, you seem to think that everyone acts as if they aren’t aware that I was formerly royalty, but… perhaps, out of everyone, the people of Meissen are the ones who most view me as the former crown prince.”

His boyish face twisted with self-deprecation.

“Since I’m the former crown prince, nothing should be impossible for me. They all think this… It’s as if they believe I carry a magic wand.”

Ganche had also felt uneasy about this. When he conversed with the militia troops, there were times where he could tell they thought this way.

It wasn’t just one or two soldiers who had absurdly said to him, ‘Why don’t you just try bringing it up with Lord Ernst?’

“…I also believe that, if Lord Ernst sets his mind to it, anything is possible. But I feel this way not because you are the former crown prince, but because Lord Ernst is Lord Ernst.”

As if weighing the true meaning of his words, those barely-visible blue eyes gazed up at Ganche in the darkness.

“The overpowering light which radiated from your body had instantly pierced my heart, but in the bathing chamber, when I saw the unfathomable depths of your blue eyes, my heart had been captured and bound to you.”

Those blue eyes widened. They became slightly glossy with tears before slowly falling shut.

“Ganche, you are truly amazing. You were able to heal my melancholic mood, just like that.”

He smiled, and when he opened his eyes again, they no longer showed any signs of tears.

“Ganche…”

“Yes.”

“I want to tell you about what I imagine the future of Meissen to be. I can’t speak of this to anyone until I can clearly see the path which leads to it, but I want to tell you, at least, Ganche… Even if it might just end as a pipe dream of mine.”

Ganche hugged that slender body in his arms.

“I will stay by Lord Ernst’s side until the end. Though I have no education, and I may not understand the complexities, if Lord Ernst has a use for me then I will work myself to the bone to fulfill it… however, even if this story ends as a pipe dream, I believe it will be fine. If it is a dream that Lord Ernst and I look at together, then I believe it will be a happy dream, no matter what it is.”

“…Ganche, you’re like rain which falls upon parched earth. Your words fill up my heart and take my breath away again and again.”

Ernst reached out his small hands and hugged him tightly.

The Dunberts were people of destruction.

They lived in battle and died in battle. They didn’t possess the culture to create, and they moved according to fleeting emotions.

They were a people who despised boredom, and who chased after a moment’s exaltation.

Yet even so, if he was with Ernst, and if he walked alongside Ernst toward the future they had looked at together, then he would never feel bored even if he spent the rest of his life in this quiet and tranquil land.

Ganche was drawn into the future Ernst spoke of.

The future of Meissen, which no one had ever imagined before, unfurled before his eyes there.