Chapter 45

Marriage was a sacred ceremony joining one man and one woman as husband and wife. Such was the custom human society had inherited from the old empire, but for nobles, matters were somewhat different. Unlike ordinary humans, they were descendants of the gods, obliged to spread their magical bloodlines as widely as possible.

Noble marriages took two main forms. The first was companionate marriage, a union between wizards of relatively equal standing, much like marriage among commoners. The second was subordinate marriage, in which several lesser wizards were joined to a superior one.

What the seven houses were now proposing was the latter: they would send Turan knights' daughters born with a measure of potential to marry. Naturally, as mere concubines, they would not dare interfere in the governance of Kalamap.

“Naturally, these young ladies lack nothing in beauty or refinement. They have been thoroughly educated to serve as concubines to persons of exalted standing.”

Young women raised under strict supervision from childhood to become nobles' concubines... Turan had read about them in the library, in a book on the management of wizard houses. If he remembered correctly, they selected exceptionally beautiful children of knights who had either inherited no mana or been born with an ambiguous amount somewhere between a knight's and an ordinary person's.

Of course, carnal desire was not exclusive to men, nor did every man desire women, so men filled similar roles as well. Demand for them was said to be much lower, however, owing to pregnancy and various other concerns.

“Before anything else, I would like to know what prompted this proposal. It is rather sudden.”

Turan posed the question after listening with an impassive face. It had been a month now since he became Kalamap's Protector. That was no short time, yet while some unknown young upstart took control of the city, the neighboring houses had remained silent rather than trying to stop him or establish relations.

Now they had suddenly arrived, not to suggest getting acquainted, but to spring this proposal on him? At his question, the noble who had introduced himself as coming from Ravana declared confidently,

“We know that the lord of Kalamap faces considerable difficulty governing this city without a house of his own! Why, you cannot even use the central mansion at present, can you? If you father children by seven concubines, a fair number of capable knights will surely be born among them. They will be of great use in your future rule! And since half their blood will come from us, they will also do much to strengthen our friendship!”

What he described was the very reason nobles formed houses. Even a wizard as mighty as a god still had only one body. However vast the lands they ruled, they could neither fend off monsters appearing simultaneously in every direction nor issue orders all at once to commoners scattered far and wide.

By contrast, a noble with four ordinary knights under their command could station them in different places and govern a broad territory without lifting a finger. The more nobles and knights one secured, the easier it became to rule extensive lands.

Turan sat quietly, considering. Why had they suddenly made this offer, and why now of all times? Recalling recent events, he had little trouble guessing.

'So it's because they heard the threat in the west will soon be gone. Are they hoping to gain influence over Kalamap in the future?'

After making contact with Arabion's army and discovering the nature of the western threat, Turan had publicized the news widely. Simply knowing what threatened their city, and that it would soon be gone, would reassure the people.

Surely the Dark Elves and dwarves had not planted spies among humans, so there was no reason to keep it secret. The lords of the Gray Zone had clearly heard the news and wanted to stake a claim to Kalamap before its value rose.

'The cities are usually three days to a week's walk apart for an ordinary person... For a knight, depending on their abilities, it would take anywhere from a few hours to a day. Did they use knights as messengers to consult one another quickly? No, perhaps they'd already discussed it beforehand.'

Either way, the fact that the lords of seven neighboring cities had acted together was telling in more ways than one. Clearly, instead of ousting Turan, they had agreed to coexist with him by mixing his bloodline with those of the Gray Zone's other ruling houses. Having listened quietly, Turan shook his head.

“I appreciate the offer, but I must decline. In fact, I would like to make a proposal of my own, since you all happen to be here.”

“A proposal of your own...?”

“It concerns the right to rule this city, Kalamap.”

Watching every noble's eyes light up, he quietly laid out his terms. They were to trace the movements of a certain young woman who had traveled through the Gray Zone some twenty years ago. They must not reveal publicly who had requested the investigation, and he would hand over the right to rule Kalamap to whichever house brought him the most useful information. Every noble looked bewildered.

“But that is absurd...”

“You would hand over a city for nothing more than that?!”

For any noble house, a city held immense practical value as well as prestige. The tribute commoners labored to provide was the foundation that sustained every kind of luxurious living.

Yet he would give such a city away merely in exchange for tracing one woman's movements? It was as ludicrous as offering someone a warship for picking up a coin in the street.

'Could he really be some sort of secret weapon raised by Arabion?'

Having heard that he had recently made contact with House Arabion, they found that explanation the most plausible. Otherwise, how could a supposed fallen noble casually offer up an entire city? Surely one of the fondest wishes of such rootless wanderers was to gain a city of their own, settle down, and establish a house.

“If the simplicity of my terms troubles you, I will add one more. Whoever takes this city must swear in the name of the Freyans to faithfully protect its citizens as their ruler. The moment that promise is broken, their right to rule will cease.”

Turan was thinking of what he had seen in Murei, the first city he had visited. Even after monsters outside had devoured child after child, the rulers had shoved the work onto monster hunters because they found it bothersome...

He would be deeply displeased if he handed the city to just anyone and it ended up like that. Hadn't even its former ruling house been destroyed fighting to provide that protection?

The nobles' expressions turned peculiar at his words. Faithfully protect the city's citizens? Wasn't that the sort of antiquated sentiment one found in Freyan scripture? One noble asked, as though unable to understand,

“Why... would you go so far?”

The other nobles said nothing, but seemed to share the question. Why open the central mansion to vagrants while living in shabby city hall lodgings himself, then make protecting the citizens a condition for handing over an entire city?

To nobles, commoners were people who needed protection for religious and practical reasons, but they hardly required such devoted care. However much a shepherd cherished his sheep, didn't he ultimately raise them to slaughter for their meat and hides?

To them, Turan was a bizarre shepherd who, rather than slaughtering his sheep when the time came, let them sleep in his own bed and tended them until they died of old age, then even gave them a proper burial. Turan considered for a moment before answering with a smile.

“Indeed. Why do I?”

Afterward, the nobles of the seven cities conferred in hushed voices before asking leave to depart.

“We know it is discourteous to leave without staying even one night, but this is urgent. We will speak to our House Heads and return with answers as quickly as possible.”

“Please do.”

By the customs of hospitality, arriving, saying one's piece, and immediately leaving was rude. Still, so was proposing to lodge exalted nobles in city hall, so they could call it even. Once all the nobles had departed, Daruk entered from his waiting place outside the conference room and asked,

“Thank you for your efforts, Protector of our city. Do you have any instructions?”

“I will hold a meeting.”

“Everyone is already gathered downstairs.”

Of course, if nobles from all the neighboring cities had come to visit, they must have discussed something crucial to the city's future. It was only natural that the city's leaders would have assembled.

A little later, Turan informed those gathered in the conference room of his intention to transfer the right to rule Kalamap to another house before long. Every face darkened.

“But great Protector, this city still needs you...”

“Arabion will soon defeat the threat to the west. Given the terms under which they will acquire the city, the other houses will take proper care of it as well. It should manage perfectly well without me then.”

Kalamap's leading figures had secretly hoped that Turan would establish his own house here. Unlike other nobles, he did not exploit them, but used his abilities for the city: a devoted shepherd of a kind they had never even imagined.

But whether to retain a city's rule or hand it over was ultimately a matter for the nobles alone. Sheep and pastures alike were bought and sold between people. Sheep did not choose who would tend them.

* * *

Naturally, no immediate answers came from the seven noble houses that had received Turan's proposal. They would probably gather information about his mother discreetly in their cities and the surrounding villages, then agree only once they felt certain they could win.

Since he had ordered the proposed transfer kept quiet, Kalamap's citizens continued to live each day full of hope, unaware that their master might soon change. From time to time, Turan sat on the roof of city hall and looked down at their lives.

“They all work so hard, don't they?”

Without her metal tray, Vije had nowhere to write and answered with a simple chirp. Turan gazed at the people of Kalamap, who would have died helplessly without him. He recalled the question another noble had asked him not long ago.

“Why go so far...?”

When he was a child who had only just awakened his magical powers, his mother had told him he was merely a sheepdog working under a shepherd. Because of that, Turan had never considered himself particularly superior to ordinary humans—to the sheep. In the end, he too was only a dog living in hiding for fear of a shepherd's tyranny.

Then he had met Keorn, who taught him that he was not a dog at all, but a shepherd—and that shepherds need not simply be feared. They could be noble beings as well. A good shepherd who cared for knights and commoners, sheepdogs and sheep, protecting them from the wolves that were monsters and the other races...

Turan wanted to become the ideal figure that old knight had described. Not the evil shepherd his younger self had feared, who drove sheep and sheepdogs mercilessly to their deaths.

While he was deep in thought, he sensed the presence of a fairly powerful knight some distance away.

'Who is that?'

At first he thought it might be a messenger from one of the houses, but if so, an official would have come to report it first. Whether noble or knight, most wizards announced their presence as soon as they entered another city. That no report had come even as the visitor approached city hall near the center of town meant no one had noticed him.

'Did he sneak in?'

Turan did that often enough himself, so it would be absurd to criticize, but wizard society generally considered it rude. One could hardly object if accused of infiltrating the city to carry out an assassination.

“Vije, will you stay here a moment?”

After hearing her answering chirp, Turan quietly concealed himself and jumped down from the roof. Before long, the visitor's face came into view. Turan's eyes widened.

“Ah...”

He slipped into a nearby alley and dropped his stealth, then stepped out and immediately called to the man.

“Elder!”

Keorn, the knight of Arabion, turned sharply toward Turan. Delight spread over his wrinkled face.

“So it was true! I came to see on the off chance, but to think it really was you!”

His delight lasted only a moment before he cleared his throat, straightened, and offered a greeting.

“Forgive me, Turan of Kalamap.”

“Please don't call me that. You know I don't like that sort of thing.”

“You've grown quite a bit, but you haven't changed at all.”

At Turan's playful complaint, Keorn laughed heartily and returned to his familiar manner. It felt strange to hear that he had not changed at all after Maysa had recently told him how much he had changed. Especially when the physical training he had done must have made the difference in his appearance all the greater.

A little later, to avoid prying eyes, Turan brought Keorn to his lodgings in city hall. Had it been roughly half a year since they had met?

When all was said and done, they had only spent a few days together. Why was he so happy to see him? It must have been a measure of just how great an influence Keorn had had on him.

“I never dreamed I would meet you here. You must have taken an enormous detour to get here.”

At a knight's pace, traveling here from Hisaril Hill in half a year would not have been particularly difficult. But with the lands west of the Gray Zone turned into a battlefield, the journey must have grown tremendously longer. Mountains blocked the north, so he would have had to come by the southern route. Keorn looked a little awkward at Turan's words.

“Ah, about that... I didn't simply come here on my travels.”

“If not on your travels, then why?”

“Actually, I heard about the war while traveling, so I sought out the subjugation force and asked to return to service. I've already fought the Dark Elves several times.”

“Ah...”

In other words, the old knight before him had come not as a retired traveler, but as an Arabion knight serving in the subjugation force. He had probably learned of Turan's presence as his name and particulars spread through the force after his encounter with Maysa and her uncle.

“Have you told Arabion about my bloodline, by any chance?”

“I haven't. From what little I heard, you didn't seem particularly interested in living as a Zahar noble. Was I being presumptuous?”

“No, you were right.”

Not the slightest trace of the nervous scent characteristic of a liar came from the old knight as he answered calmly. Turan had only a moment to smile in relief before Keorn cleared his throat lightly and broached his real business.

“Now I had better do my duty as Arabion's messenger. Or, to be precise, as Lady Maysa's messenger.”

“Do you know her personally?”

The gap in standing between a mere knight and the heir to a great house was far greater than that between most nobles and commoners. Of course, Keorn was no ordinary knight.

“Not well, but we are somewhat acquainted. Somehow I ended up with a title beyond my station...”

“You mean Keorn the Hero.”

“Don't tell me you saw that play?”

Keorn stared at him with an expression that mingled embarrassment and self-reproach, then forcibly changed the subject.

“We can discuss that later. First, let me pass on Lady Maysa's proposal.”

“Yes.”

“She says a problem has arisen in the campaign against the Dark Elf wraith sorcerer... the self-proclaimed Wraith King, and she would like to ask for your assistance.”