Chapter 182 - Toward the Duty Left Undone (2)

There was an office in the North, where the days were short, set in the sunniest spot of all.

It was a place Countess Oksana had specially prepared for him, though at the moment it was so cluttered everywhere that the sunlight streaming through the window seemed almost embarrassed.

"Lord Joseph. I have brought tea."

"... Leave it and go."

"Would it not be better to work while taking at least a little rest?"

Vordan, who had brought the warm tea himself, looked at the office strewn with odds and ends and sighed inwardly.

'It is better than him shutting himself away in gloom...'

When Joseph had first returned to Sturma, he had shut himself inside his room and shown no intention of coming out.

The fatigue that had built up until now and the sense of loss from being eliminated from the competition had finally brought his body down.

According to the rumors, he had grown so weak that he had even coughed blood, so perhaps this passionate state of his now was something to be welcomed instead.

"I told you to leave it and go."

But it was true that even Vordan, who had served Joseph for a long time, still could not get used to that gleaming look in his eyes.

Joseph's eyes shone like those of a beast, and together with the deep shadows beneath them, they gave off an even stranger air.

"... Lady Oksana said she would like you to join her for dinner later this evening."

"Understood."

Whether he had truly understood or not, Joseph merely waved his hand and shooed Vordan away.

Looking at Joseph like that, Vordan had no choice but to leave with a worried expression.

"..."

Once Vordan left, the office was again left with Joseph alone.

A teacup growing endlessly cold waited for Joseph, but he was now frowning as he looked at the map before him.

'Why did they make it this way?'

It was a map so large that it filled an entire broad wall.

But that enormous map was covered with newly drawn lines and words, and Joseph was now sunk in deep thought as he looked at them.

'If they simply coveted power, was there any need to tear it apart this much?'

Though he had been eliminated from the competition to become Family Head, Joseph had not let go of everything.

There were political circumstances he could see precisely because he had taken a step back, and the Empire as organized from a distant view was, in a word, a complete mess.

'... The central region is split between the Dragonblood Duke faction and the Court Duke faction, and they are fighting.'

The Territory Wars, great and small, still breaking out among the central families were ultimately no different from proxy wars fought on behalf of the Dragonblood Duke and the Court Duke.

The lords who had lined up to lean on the authority of the center were now continuing an unstoppable war according to the factions they belonged to.

'In the East, resentment toward the elves' forest is rising.'

The elves' forest marked on the eastern side of the map.

Aushrin.

The arrows pointing toward it had been drawn thick and dense.

Each and every arrow Joseph had drawn began from the territories of the East.

'It is not that I cannot understand, since their lifeline was suddenly choked off.'

The eastern lords, whose trade had been unilaterally cut off by the elves, were now said to be gathering soldiers around the Count of Vitskaya's house.

From the East's perspective, if they wanted to open the trade lifeline that had suddenly been blocked, they had no choice but to throw open Aushrin's gates by any means necessary.

'They say the West has gone quiet, but there is no way it will stop here.'

Gaidar, who had suffered a heavy blow in the decisive battle against Bayezid, had hidden himself beyond the desolate gorge, but even now, he was likely ceaselessly watching for a chance to rise again and take revenge.

The reason Iron Duke Timur had built a gate fortress to block the gorge in the first place was because he had been worried about exactly that.

The North had become independent, and the central region was still in turmoil.

The East was preparing an offensive against the elves, and the West was still baring its teeth toward the North.

He did not know about the South, where an information network had not yet been properly laid, but that side would not simply be keeping quiet and holding its breath amid such disorder either.

"... What are they trying to do by tearing the Empire to pieces like this?"

As old as the Empire's history was, there was a pile of conflicts that had accumulated layer upon layer over all that time.

By race, by region, and even by the religions they held.

And the one who had set fire to that pile of conflicts was Dragulia.

In the end, if one followed the arrows engraved on the map in reverse, one would realize that all of them pointed to Dragulia.

"..."

Only by knowing the opponent's intent could one respond to the move they put forward.

But Dragulia's behavior made it impossible to guess their intent at all, and so the shadows beneath Joseph's eyes only grew darker as he stared at the map.

* * *

They were leaving at the same time, but the directions they had to go were different.

Some to the west, and some to the south.

The lords who had left the Iron Duke's city of Bastopol now began turning their horses toward their own territories.

"Now we are the last ones."

At the fork in the road where they would now have to part, Vlad looked at Alicia as she held out her hand to him.

Seeing the pale hand extended from inside the carriage, Vlad hurriedly took it in his in case it might grow cold.

"I will escort you to Deirmar."

"It is all right. I have the knights I brought with me as well."

They might fall short compared to Vlad, but as Alicia said, the party moving to Deirmar was not lacking in personnel.

"I have always been grateful to you, Sir Vlad. From my parents' graves until now."

Alicia's gaze reached the luggage Noir was carrying.

The luggage carried by the black horse, who had a dissatisfied look on his face, contained the modest gifts the northern lords had handed to Vlad as they left.

They might have been insignificant gifts, but each of them was also a token containing its own recognition.

"... Now, when I have yet to repay you for all of that, I at least do not wish to become an obstacle on the path you are taking."

Looking at them, Alicia could no longer help but acknowledge it.

The name Heinal was now far too small to keep Vlad tied down any longer.

Because Vlad, walking down the corridor with the seven lords of the North behind him, had looked larger and freer than ever before.

"Go. I heard you must go to Sturma."

"..."

Seeing Alicia forcing a smile as she told him to go, Vlad found himself thinking of Zemina, who would be in Soara.

It was because Alicia's expression as she stood at the fork where they had to part, saying she did not want to be an obstacle to him, resembled Zemina from long ago.

"Still, please, at least once..."

"I will be sure to come visit you."

What had he done back then?

The words he had said to soothe Zemina, who had been reluctant to part.

"Pardon?"

"I do not know when it will be, but I will be sure to stop by Deirmar."

I am leaving now, but I will definitely return to see you.

He seemed to remember that when he had said something like that, Zemina had smiled for him.

"Look. I keep it separately now."

Vlad took a small cloth pouch from his breast and shook it in front of Alicia.

When he opened it and showed her what was inside, there was a neatly folded handkerchief.

Seeing her own handkerchief, now carefully kept so it would not be mixed with another lady's, Alicia ended up laughing despite her gloomy heart.

When the nest grew small, the bird would fly away, but the place it returned to would still be the nest.

Seeing Vlad regard not only Rose's Smiles but also Deirmar as his nest, Alicia was able not to grieve over their farewell even before the fork where they had to part.

* * *

There was no wind, but the waves rolling into the harbor were rough.

They were waves created by the enormous body approaching from far away.

Devious, the head butler of the dragon killer knights, raised the collar of his cloak as he looked at the huge ship approaching from the distance.

"What kind of ship is that..."

Looking at the ship approaching the harbor, several soldiers cried out as if their breath had caught.

A size difficult to take in even with both eyes wide open.

It was because the ship's shadow, growing taller the closer it came to land, was falling over them.

"Drop anchor!"

"Lower the gangplank!"

Cutting through the soldiers' stifled screams, the ship arrived at the harbor.

As the red sails, recognizable even from afar, were folded, a long gangplank began descending from the ship toward the ground.

"Haha! I did not expect you to come out yourself!"

A man came down into the harbor with a hearty laugh.

His loose attitude was that of a typical seaman, but the clothes he wore were wrapped in expensive silk.

"You look much better than when I saw you on my land last time!"

"Welcome, Duke Barbosa."

He was so powerfully built that he took up the entire width of the plank, though it was broad enough for two people to descend side by side.

And he had hair tinged with the reddish hue unique to the South.

The hearty laugh the man wore held the strength and dignity that only a man in his prime could possess.

"You must have had a hard journey coming all this way."

"What hard journey? I roam this distance every day."

Devious bowed respectfully to Duke Barbosa, who casually patted his shoulder.

From the man who approached with an affable smile came the strong smell of the salty sea.

"Since it has been so long since I stepped on land, I am getting seasick."

The man called Duke Barbosa said that this was exactly the time to drink, and pulled a bottle of liquor from inside his coat.

"It is late, but Duke Dragulia asked me to convey his congratulations on your conquest of the southern archipelago."

"Well, that is something I can hear from him myself once I go to the imperial capital."

Duke Barbosa answered as if it were nothing, but the achievement he had accomplished was truly remarkable.

Unlike other regions, where existing powers such as Ravnoma or Baranoff had already established a firm order, the southern archipelago was a land that had never once been ruled by a single family throughout the Empire's history.

"By the way, I hear you have a headache on your hands these days?"

"That is correct."

Devious answered politely, but his eyes did not leave the chest being lowered from the ship.

The chest the sailors groaned as they lowered to the ground must have contained something extremely precious, for it had been strictly sealed with silver chains.

"In the end, the North declared independence. It seems pressure from the West alone was not enough."

"Hm. What a fine state the country is in."

Duke Barbosa drank from the bottle he was holding, then continued speaking while narrowing one eye, as if the sharp bite lingering on his tongue was strong.

"That is why I told you Count Gaidar would not do."

Count Gaidar, who could still be called the ruler of the West despite suffering a crushing defeat.

But the man called Barbosa was speaking down of him as if it were nothing.

"I told the Dragonblood Duke again and again that great undertakings must be done with great men."

Duke Barbosa casually threw away the empty liquor bottle.

From behind him as he took off his captain's hat, a pitch-black wave was approaching.

Those things racing in from the distant blue sea were the privateering fleet Duke Barbosa was so proud of.

"So with me at your side this time, you will not fail."

The duke's winking eye looked playful, but the wave he had brought would be anything but light.

Because he was Duke Barbosa, the Golden Duke and the only duke of the South.

The noble dukes said to number only four in the Empire.

The Iron Duke of the North.

The Dragonblood Duke of the Central.

The Court Duke of the imperial family.

And now, even the Golden Duke of the South.

In the Empire, where only an emperor who existed in name alone remained, four monarchs were facing one another.

Every one of them was a person whose name alone was enough to found a nation.