ã€ŠTales of Leo Attiel ~Portrait of the Headless Prince~ã€‹


 Volume 1, 1: Prince Leo

    Volume 1, Chapter 1: Prince Leo

    Part 1

    Leo was lying spread-eagled in the grass.

    The sky was a light purple. First one, then two stars started to twinkle.

    Will I die? he thought. Am I going to die?

    The sun would soon have set. He had heard that at this time of year, nights were unbelievably cold in the mountains. Leo had not yet experienced winter in these lands.

    It had all started with the two brothers, Walter and Jack.

    ¡°We¡¯re going out hunting,¡± Walter had suddenly woken him up early that morning.

    ¡°Hurry up and get ready. Everything you guys from Atall do is so slow,¡± Jack¡¯s shrill voice came next.

    Without understanding what was going on, he was made to get dressed, and a bow and arrows were shoved into his hands.

    ¡°The wild animals in Allion are way faster than someone like you, and they have keen noses. If you dress up too heavily, they¡¯ll catch the scent.¡±

    With that for an explanation, he was taken outside in thin clothing. Given that the brothers were properly equipped against the cold, it was obvious that this was what they had been aiming for from the start.

    Each astride a horse, the three of them had galloped north of the Anglatt family¡¯s manor.

    ¡°Listen,¡± on the way, Walter had sternly lectured him, ¡°I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s like in your country, Atall, but in the Kingdom of Allion, a weakling who can¡¯t bring down a deer can¡¯t inherit his House, and wouldn¡¯t even be recognised as a man in the first place.¡±

    ¡°And, of course, you can¡¯t use a gun. You have to do it with a bow, like a man,¡± Jack, the younger brother, had followed up. ¡°So in other words, here in Allion, you¡¯re just someone who isn¡¯t even a man yet. You¡¯re already eleven, right? Go on and prove that you¡¯ve inherited that noble blood. I¡¯ll especially let you use this bow. This was specially made for when I killed a boar when I was two years younger than you¡­¡±

    Leo realised they were lying. It didn¡¯t seem like a very Allion-like custom. Besides, although the two of them were always taking every opportunity to boast about ¡°here in Allion¡±, they weren¡¯t part of Allion¡¯s royalty or nobility. Leo Attiel, on the other hand, was incontrovertibly the son of the current ruler of the Principality of Atall. But when he had pointed that out ¨C

    ¡°Oh, is that right? Is that riiight? Then in that case, can you show us your might, O great lord?¡± Walter¡¯s lips had curled into a faint, contemptuous smile.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Leo remembered how Jack had immediately chimed in.

    So he had not protested. He wordlessly followed the two of them into the mountains. After following a river on horseback for an hour, they had tied the horses to trees which had lost all their leaves, and had then climbed on foot for another hour.

    ¡°Right, this is the perfect place to hunt,¡± when Walter came to a halt, Leo was already drenched in sweat ad his breathing was ragged.

    Seeing that, Jack sneered. ¡°Men from Atall have no stamina.¡± However, given that he was three years older than Leo, and that Walter was more than five years older, that was not exactly a fair evaluation.

    ¡°There¡¯s a good view from here. We¡¯ll drive the game towards you right away, so you lie and hide in that underbrush.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let go of the bow. Keep your breath quiet and lie still.¡±

    ¡°Once the prey comes, kill it in one strike. Like you''re hunting the heads of enemy soldiers.¡±

    The two of them spoke in turns before leaving Leo behind. They were soon gone.

    Leo lay hidden as he was told. He pulled the bowstring a few times. Although it was quite a bit smaller than the ones adults used to hunt and go to war with, his thin arms couldn¡¯t even draw the bow a third of the way. He was worried that he would not even be able to kill a rabbit with it.

    He realised at once though that it was a needless anxiety. He didn¡¯t need to wait half an hour, or even ten minutes. Their two figures had vanished from sight, the sound of their footsteps faded, and afterwards all he could hear was the occasional sound of a branch swaying in the wind and the chirping of birds.

    Yeah, I knew it: it was a lie.

    There was absolutely no sign that the brothers were driving prey towards him. They had, from the very start, had no intention of going hunting. He was willing to bet that the horses tied fast in the woods ¨C his own included ¨C were already gone.

    Even so, Leo continued to lie where he was for a while longer. If he hurried back to the manor, the two brothers from the Anglatt House would feign ignorance.

    ¡°Yo, you sure were slow.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine to be engrossed in hunting, but don¡¯t get that caught up.¡±

    While behind his back, they would be sticking their tongues out and jeering behind his back.

    Therefore, Leo didn¡¯t move. It didn¡¯t need to be a wild boar or a small deer. If a bird or two could swoop down in front of him¡­ or even just a squirrel that was late hibernating. As long as he went back carrying something, nobody was likely to openly make fun of him.

    Oh, but I need to be careful. Florrie loves those birds with the green-tipped feathers. If I come back with a dead one of those, there¡¯ll definitely be a fuss in a different sense.

    Leo pictured the sight of that girl who was a year younger than him sobbing and wailing. It was only at that point that his mouth formed into a wry smile. Determined to see things through, he once more turned his gaze forward.

    In the end, however, he did not even stay at it another hour. His sweat had long since dried, and the cold wind had instead robbed his body of its heat. Leo stood up and brushed the dirt and grass from his clothes.

    ¡°Let¡¯s head back,¡± he said to no one. Even though going back was entirely his own intention, perhaps he had needed to hear himself say it.

    Although he knew that it was pointless, he went back to where the horses had been tied.

    Or rather, he tried to go back, but was unable to do so. When they had climbed for almost an hour, they had practically walked in a straight line. He had though that going back would be easy, but no matter how much he walked, only unfamiliar scenery surrounded him.

    Weird¡­

    As was to be expected, he got irritated and impatient. He started worrying that he was going down the wrong way, and decided to go back the way he had come. Then, just as he was turning around, his ankle twisted beneath him. Leo¡¯s small body went tumbling down the hill. Stones of all sizes bit into his back and his chest, and branches slashed at his hands and feet.

    When he stopped rolling, the evening light washed over his face. He had arrived in a somewhat open space. Leo didn¡¯t move and stayed lying spread-eagled. Or rather, he no longer had the energy to move. The sky he looked up at was almost shockingly vast.

    Let¡¯s head back ¨C he thought he was a complete idiot for having said that earlier.

    Go back? And where on earth to? The Anglatt manor? To helplessly continue playing his part as a hostage?

    Or else, would he wind his way north-east across these mountains until he was treading on the soil of his native country, Atall? At that thought, Leo¡¯s cheeks quivered with laughter. Although, right now, he couldn¡¯t even go back the way he had come!

    And to start with, he knew that he wouldn¡¯t be welcomed even if he did go back. He was a hostage. The proof of friendship between the two countries of Atall and Allion ¨C it sounded nice, but basically, this was a reprimand and a punishment against Atall for having defied the powerful Allion.

    It had been about two months since Leo had left his native country and set foot in the eastern part of Allion.

    A general named Claude Anglatt was to take charge of him. Thanks to his achievements in the previous war, he had only just been made lord of a keep. According to rumour, he was a man who had risen from being a simple soldier, which was rare in Allion¡¯s long history.

    From that day forward, the general¡¯s manor became where Leo was to stay. He would live in accordance with Allion¡¯s customs, would eat Allion¡¯s food, and would study Allion¡¯s learning. However, although it had already been two months, Leo had not yet met General Claude. Apparently, he had temporarily been posted in the royal capital, far to the west.

    Jack and Walter were the general¡¯s sons. At first, they had been perplexed as to how to treat this noble who had suddenly come from a foreign country. No matter what the era or the circumstances, men were cautious towards those they did not know, exercised mutual restraint, and weighed up which attitude to take. The younger they were, the shorter that period was. The two brothers soon decided which manner to adopt.

    Even if he¡¯s a lord, the fact is that he¡¯s a hostage that a weak country presented to out powerful Allion.

    And like that, the mood coalesced into one of looking down on Leo.

    Leo Attiel was eleven years old. He was too old to be cared for like a little brother, and too young to become a friend. Above all else, his attitude was not endearing. He was always plunged into his own thoughts, alone and with a sour look on his face.

    Claude had one other child, the youngest, Florrie. From her, there was none of the caution and restraint between men. She simply innocently rejoiced that ¡°now I have one more big brother.¡±

    In the hall where dinner was being held, she would pay no attention to her mother¡¯s attempts to stop her, instead pulling her chair close to Leo, and badgering him for stories about the Principality of Atall.

    Although he didn¡¯t go so far as outright ignoring her, Leo adopted an uninterested attitude. No matter what he was asked, he would answer coldly with something like ¡°Heh, how was it again? I don¡¯t remember,¡± or ¡°I¡¯ve forgotten. I¡¯ll try and remember next time.¡±

    As Florrie sadly lowered her large eyes, her two brothers almost looked as though they were about to leap from their seats and throw themselves at Leo.

    ¡°Leave it at that, Florrie. The prince has only just arrived and he isn¡¯t used to the atmosphere in Allion.¡±

    The mother to Florrie and the boys, Claude¡¯s wife Ellen, held the brothers back at times like these, but when she was not around, such as during his studies or martial training, Leo was made a target of. Near the eastern border was Conscon Temple, and Claude had invited one of the monks to educate his sons, but when Leo failed to answer the monk¡¯s questions, they openly scorned him.

    ¡°The barbarians from Atall don¡¯t know a thing.¡±

    During sword practice and barehanded training, he was always hit so brutally that if the instructor didn¡¯t intervene to stop them, he would have been left not just with bruises but probably with broken bones.

    On the whole, and right from the start, Leo had not been concentrating on the lessons in Allion¡¯s learning or military arts. He simply needed to live a long life. The value of a hostage lay in their continued existence, and currently had no other worth except as a hostage¡­

    I¡­

    Who would welcome him back if he stepped into his native land, which was so far away from where he was in Allion? Not the soldiers who had been wounded in the war, not the people, not the members of the ruling princely house ¨C nobody would welcome him. Especially not his mother: her gentle features would probably change all at once, she would look at him as though he were an enemy, and her plump lips would hurl out accusations as sharp as arrows.

    ¡°No!¡± In the same way as back then. ¡°He¡¯s only an eight-year-old child. And his health is particularly fragile. If it¡¯s to send to Allion, can¡¯t it just be Leo?¡±

    Still lying stretched out, Leo harshly bit his lip.

    As the darkness grew deeper, the ground under his back became colder and harder. His own body temperature seemed to be slowly seeping into the soil.

    If I¡¯m here when the sun sets¡­

    He would die.

    Would the point when his warmth finally disappeared within the earth also be the point when a beast prowling the mountain, now almost barren of prey, would smell the scent of fresh meat and gobble him up completely? The instant he thought of that, Leo felt a strangely pleasant sensation, as though his body had shattered into tiny pieces that were swept away by the early winter winds and flung to every corner of the sky that he had been gazing up at.

    He didn¡¯t have anywhere to go back to anyway, and his life didn¡¯t matter to anybody, so it was better to end things that way. He was sure that the general he still hadn¡¯t seen, and that general¡¯s children, would be thrown into a panic. Worthless though Leo¡¯s existence was, he was still supposed to be a guest who had been left in their care by a foreign country. Having struggled to become a general, he would end up in a wretched state. He would be made to take responsibility, and his land and castle would probably be taken from him. Leo smiled. His features were naturally delicate and when he smiled innocently, he looked like a girl.

    And in Atall¡­ Just as he was about to imagine what would happen there, his hard-earned and happy delusions were shattered by the echo of horses¡¯ hooves.

    He wondered if Walter and Jack had returned for him, but there was the sound of metal clanging. A sword at the waist. Leo didn¡¯t need to see them to guess that whoever it was, they were wearing armour. Probably a soldier serving General Claude. They had come searching for him because he hadn¡¯t been back in so long. The horse gave a light snort and came to a stop. Leo¡¯s eyes turned towards its direction for the first time.

    He was immediately startled. An unfamiliar man was staring down at him from horseback. Just as Leo had guessed, he was wearing light armour and a sword. His build was sturdy and large, and his skin was tanned from the sun, giving an impression of weather-beaten leather. His bushy beard probably hadn¡¯t seen a razor in a long time, and above it, his large eyes were glaring.

    Part 2

    Rather than a soldier, this was a bandit.

    No way, Leo thought for an instant. This territory had only just been torn away by Allion and because of that, immediately after being awarded the entire region, General Claude had been busy running around to subjugate it. This land lay deep within the mountains, so there were plenty of bandits and thieves, but Claude had fed them the taste of sword and bullet until they could taste no more. Leo had heard any number of those tales of bravery in the Anglatt house.

    Meeting a bandit here in the area of the Anglatt stronghold shouldn¡¯t be¡­ he gazed as though mesmerised at the man on horseback.

    ¡°Is your tongue not working, boy?¡± the man suddenly hurled at him. ¡°I¡¯m looking for someone. A noble lord by the name of Leo Attiel. I¡¯ve been left with the important task of immediately bringing him back to the Anglatt manor, so do you happen to know anything about him, boy?¡±

    ¡°M-Me. I¡¯m Leo Attiel,¡± Leo answered him. Although he could have pretended not to know, he was overwhelmed by the wild energy flowing from the man. Whereupon ¨C

    ¡°Oh, that right? I¡¯ve been rude. I¡¯m here now, so there¡¯s nothing to worry about. Come on,¡± the man beamed with joy as he jumped down from his horse. His bandit-like features were completely transformed by his friendly smile.

    Caught up in it, Leo got up and, with the man¡¯s help, scrambled into the saddle. The man himself once more got his feet in the stirrups, and Leo ended up clinging to him by the waist.

    ¡°Well then, off we go.¡±

    It was hard to believe from his appearance, but he really was a soldier in the employ of the Anglatt House. He seemed to be familiar with their surroundings, and handled the reins to guide his horse without any hesitation.

    They continued in silence for a while. It was only when they could hear the murmur of the river that the man unexpectedly started speaking.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got guts. The locals would find it unbelievable for a child to go to spend a night alone in the mountains at this time of year.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not like I wanted to do it.¡±

    ¡°Oh? But when I found you, you seemed relatively calm.¡±

    ¡°I figured that instead of wandering about without knowing where I was going, there was a better chance of people coming to rescue me without getting lost if I didn¡¯t move.¡±

    ¡°I see. Just what you¡¯d expect from a son of Atall¡¯s ruling family. ¡­Is what I wish I could say, but the way I see it, it was a little different. You were looking up at the sky, smiling like a monk who had finally reached their holy land after a journey of martyrdom. Were you intending to die?¡±

    Leo kept silent. After a while, the bandit-like man changed his question.

    ¡°For me, no matter how old I get or how many battlefields I¡¯ve been on, death is just scary. How about you, aren¡¯t you afraid to die?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not afraid.¡±

    Their surroundings had gotten darker. Because of the trees crowded around them, the evening light could not filter through. To their right, the sound of the river was growing louder.

    The man gave a small snort.

    ¡°Those words would be heartening on a battlefield, but here, you¡¯re in the middle of the mountains of a foreign country. If a prince of Atall gets eaten by a wild beast after being left to freeze to death, a great many people will grieve.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯d grieve if I died,¡± atop the horse, Leo let out a small chuckle. ¡°I have an older brother. And¡­ a younger brother.¡±

    When he said ¡°younger brother¡±, Leo stopped smiling for a moment, but he quickly gave another chortle. ¡°So neither my parents nor the people who want the princely house to continue would be sad if it¡¯s just me who dies. Even my family name, Attiel, is meaningless to me. The same way that if I die as a person, it would be meaningless to other people.¡±

    At that moment, the horse stood bolt upright. The man had suddenly pulled the reins in tight. Since he had also wrenched his waist aside, Leo¡¯s hands instantly fell away from it, and he fell from the horse¡¯s back. He couldn¡¯t even speak from the pain. He wondered if bandits really had appeared this time and the man was getting ready to fight them, but ¨C

    ¡°Then die.¡±

    While Leo was groaning, the man took aim at him.

    ¡°I pushed my way into the mountain to come help a young lord of the Attiel House. It wasn¡¯t for some boy without a family name who would even throw away his own life. Who¡¯d go risking their lives for a boy like that? If you want to die, then just go wherever and die.¡±

    ¡°What did you say?¡±

    It was as though fire had come crashing onto Leo¡¯s head. He might be a hostage, but there was no reason for him to be treated that way. He forgot the pain in his back and glared at the man with eyes that were slightly misty with tears. Just then, the man kicked his horse¡¯s flank and took off at a gallop.

    ¡°W-Wait.¡±

    Leo ran after the horse¡¯s vanishing rump. The heat that was like a fire in his head continued to produce, one after another, emotions so violent that he himself couldn¡¯t understand them.

    ¡°Die, you say? I¡¯m a prince of Atall. I don¡¯t remember having to take orders from you. Get back here!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the one who said that names don¡¯t have any meaning. And same for me, I¡¯m not in a position where I need to take orders from a corpse who threw away his own life.¡±

    Leo chased after him, repeatedly telling him to wait. Occasionally, the man would stop his horse.

    ¡°And why are you chasing after me? Are you planning on cutting down the insolent?¡± or ¡°Hey-ho, a corpse is opening its mouth wide and running after me,¡± he would say, laughing all the while.

    Each time, Leo¡¯s face flushed bright red as, struggling and gasping for breath, he sped up and tried to reach the horse¡¯s backside.

    ¡°Oh?¡± the man laughed as he once again halted his horse. ¡°Best not to move. Those bushes to the left just rustled. A bloodthirsty beast with gleaming claws and fangs is aiming for you.¡±

    With a sharp intake of breath, Leo stopped moving. Just as the man had said, the bushes to the left were making rustling noises as they shook. Although he thought that it must be the wind, he couldn¡¯t be sure of it.

    The man on horseback drew his sword.

    ¡°Nameless boy, want me to act as your backup?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t need it,¡± Leo slowly moved forward while being vigilant of the what was on the left. ¡°G-Give me your sword. I¡¯ll get rid of it myself.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re a strange boy: didn¡¯t you just say that your life had no value to you? Anyway, I won¡¯t let you use my weapon. Be sure to die like a man.¡±

    The man returned the sword to his waist and once more urged his horse into a canter. Leo was thrown into panic. He was afraid of drawing the beast¡¯s attention by running, but it was even more terrifying to remain where he was. And so, he broke into a run. In other words, at that point, he realised something.

    ¡°Wait, waitwaiiit!¡± he shouted.

    For all that it looked like he was burning with anger as he chased after the man, the truth was that Leo was utterly terrified of finding himself alone in this darkness. He looked up at the sky in which the sun was just about to set. In the end, dreaming about dying had been no more than nonsense that he could afford to think because he had been lying comfortably somewhere safe.

    Leo hurried. At some point, he had started crying. He wasn¡¯t calling out for the man to wait anymore. He couldn¡¯t talk as he was desperately trying to breathe. The man¡¯s back was gradually getting further and further away. Soon, his figure, which already barely looked human, would be swallowed up by the darkness. The sound of the horse¡¯s hooves was also becoming distant. Leo put all the strength he could into his hands and feet. Right then, a line of red appeared on the other side of the darkness. Illuminated by the light, the figure of the man on horseback once more came into sight. Leo exerted the last of his strength and ran.

    They were at the foot of the mountain. The man had already halted his horse, and Leo sank to his knees, looking as though he was clinging to its rump.

    He realised what that burning red light was: fires lit by a group of people. Soldiers and servants employed by the Anglatt House, and also as many as a hundred people from the castle town and the surroundings who had probably all been roped in, were milling about at the foot of the mountain, with fires blazing. As soon as one of them noticed the horse, he came hurrying up to it.

    ¡°Lord Claude!¡±

    ¡°Whoa,¡± the man on horseback answered their call and waved his hand.

    Leo suddenly had a new reason for gasping.

    ¡°The Atallese prince his here,¡± the man said loudly, pointing to Leo.

    The people gathered around in a rumble of voices.

    ¡°General, you have only just returned yet we¡¯ve already had to bother you.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯re you saying? We¡¯re the ones¡¯ who¡¯ve troubled you. My sons seem to have gone hunting and caught prey today. How about grilling their catch on the fire and eating it with everyone? Right? Walter, Jack?¡±

    When the man suddenly raised his voice, those gathered together by one side of a fire gave a start. Walter, who had been hidden among the people there, took a step forward.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry, Father,¡± he said quickly, ¡°Although we did go hunting¡­ we couldn¡¯t catch anything.¡±

    ¡°I heard from the servants that you went home real triumphantly considering you were empty-handed.¡±

    ¡°No, that was¡­ er, to save face¡­¡±

    ¡°Fine. They¡¯ll be some suitable snack if we rummage around the castle. It would be a disgrace to the Anglatt House if there was nothing. Although, there are a lot of people here, huh¡­¡±

    When the man said that, everyone burst out laughing.

    Leo looked up in amazement at his smiling face. The man that he had for a time seen as a bandit had been hailed as ¡°Lord Claude¡±. Needless to say, he could only be Claude Anglatt: the lord of this territory, the one Leo had been entrusted to, and, of course, Walter, Jack and Florrie¡¯s father.

    Claude jumped nimbly from his horse. He grasped Leo¡¯s shoulder in his large hand and stooped forward towards Leo, who could not break free.

    ¡°You said that you¡¯d thrown away your family name,¡± he started to whisper, while pretending to be tying his boot straps. ¡°However you look at it, every human¡¯s name and family name is a gift they received from others at birth. People are free to keep it or abandon it, but it¡¯s still too soon for you. You don¡¯t yet possess power greater than the family name ¡®Attiel¡¯.¡±

    He continued in a rush, ¡°Originally, I didn¡¯t have a name. Well, no, I did have one, but nobody knew it, so it¡¯s the same thing. So I made a name for myself and proved my own existence. Compared to that, even if you abandon the name ¡®Attiel¡¯, it¡¯s kind of a waste to let you die in obscurity. Until you¡¯ve amassed power equal to it, why don¡¯t you mentally lean on it for a while?¡±

    After said that, he immediately stood straight, turned down a subaltern who was going to take his horse by the bit, and personally walked his mount away. People promptly came up to Leo and wrapped him up in a blanket. It was so warm that he felt like crying.

    Led towards it, Leo also walked towards the line of lit fires. He felt that every step took him further away from the early evening sky that he had looked up at from the grass. Further from that moment in which his body and mind had seemed to fuse. Yet it was also for that very reason that Leo Attiel now took shelter by the fire, where the wind from the plain would not chill him.

    Part 3

    It was clear from the affair on the mountain that Claude Anglatt was adored by the local people. This was a territory which had only just fallen into Allion¡¯s hands, and apparently unexpectedly at that, but this land which lay deep in the mountains had originally been criss-crossed by several national borders, and bands of outlaws had frequently laid waste to its villages. No sooner had he been granted the domain than Claude personally drove the horses forward and led his soldiers to annihilate the outlaw strongholds one after another. Moreover, he had put a network of soldiers and swift horses in place in the villages, and he kept the roads in order so that if anything happened, reinforcements could immediately be dispatched from the castle. He employed scores of locals for those engineering works, and although the wages they received were not high, during the slack season for farmers, the people ¨C and especially the inhabitants of the poorer villages that had little livestock or pastures ¨C were glad to have the money.

    Walter and Jack often told Leo tall stories about how ¡°I also rode with Father and drove my spear bang through those bandits,¡± when they boasted about their father.

    After the night when Claude Anglatt had found him in the mountains, Leo Attiel gradually began to change.

    For a start, he threw himself into his studies. From back when he had been in Atall, he had never disliked learning. He had a brother who was two years older then him, Branton, who was known for his love of scholarship and who provided an objective for Leo. At seven, he started on the books that his brother had finished reading when he was ten. When his brother was thirteen, he presented his own original analysis on a topic found in old documents; Leo poured over them, and wrote an essay offering a different interpretation from his brother¡¯s when he was ten. He did not show it to anybody, which meant that nobody assessed it and it was no more than for his own self-satisfaction, but he had originally had an extraordinary passion for learning.

    He regained it. During class, he spoke up more actively than anyone, he gave more accurate answers than anyone, and when the monk set an assignment, he wrote essays with opinions that no one else would have come up with.

    The monk in charge of their education was deeply impressed, and even went so far as to compliment him by saying that ¡°You could already be recommended to Allion¡¯s university right now.¡±

    Walter and Jack did not find this amusing. After the events on the mountain, the brothers had been quiet for a while, but once Leo started standing out, their antagonism flared up once more with the desire to bring him down a peg or two. However, their father, Claude, was often in the fief lately, so they could not openly torment Leo.

    Thus it was only during combat training that they could show off their strength. There, the brothers struck Leo even more violently than before. Studies were one thing, but he could not overturn the difference in physical strength and physique simply by becoming a bit more motivated.

    Moreover, from back when he had been in Atall, Leo had been poor at martial arts as a whole. He had a slender build, and not much strength. Let alone his older brother, this was the one thing he could not compete in even with boys of his own age. At eleven years old, he himself realised that I¡¯m not cut out for this.

    Naturally, Walter and Jack could no longer thoughtlessly designate him as a sparring partner. Allion had a unique form of wrestling called kabat. Opponents stripped naked to the waist and grappled with each other in a circular ring. Victory was obtained by pushing the opponent out of the ring, or by toppling him backwards to the ground. You could jab or kick anywhere beneath the neck except for the crotch. It was a popular competition in Allion, that was both held in large-scale tournaments and often used for hand-to-hand training.

    Walter, who was proud of his own strength, easily hurled Leo away. Compared to his brother, Jack gave a somewhat weaker impression, and when the instructor wasn¡¯t looking, he would hit Leo in the face with his shoulder or elbow.

    However ¨C

    Leo started to take martial arts seriously. He didn¡¯t give up from the start just because he couldn¡¯t win. Even when he was thrown to the side, even when his mouth and nose were filled with blood, he stood back up, kicking himself off the ground.

    His energy sometimes created a chance at victory. At the very least, compared to when he had given up right away, he had a better chance of winning. At most, he would come out triumphant in one out of every ten challenges, but as it continued on, the Anglatt brothers could no longer comfortably designate Leo to spar with. Previously, they had easily dealt with him, and had treated him as being beneath contempt, so losing even once in ten thousand times would be embarrassing.

    They became afraid that they might even lose in public, and so in the end ¨C

    ¡°I don¡¯t want Leo.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s violent at kabat.¡±

    ¨C They complained with sullen expressions.

    Thus, Leo continued to work hard at his studies and at combat, but even though it was true that he had acquired an awareness as a prince of the Principality of Atall, it was not in order to one day get revenge that he was absorbing Allion¡¯s civilian and military knowledge.

    In fact, it was the opposite.

    ¡°Lean mentally on your family name, ¡®Attiel¡¯.¡± The words that Claude had thrown at him that night had left Leo astounded.

    They also implied that there was a possibility for him to live as someone other than an Attiel. Not being an Attiel meant that on that night when he had been thrown into the mountains, he would not have been met by crowds of people and lit fires, and he would not have been wrapped up in a blanket. He would have had no choice but to obtain the fires and the blanket for himself.

    Leo was fully aware that was currently impossible for him. In other words ¨C

    When I lose my family name, I¡¯ll die.

    It was an absolutely terrifying thought but, at the same time, it was also a thought that Leo found extremely pleasant. He only had to decide to throw his life to the four winds, and then, at any time, he could cast himself into the vast horizon. Whenever he thought of it, Leo Attiel felt moved to tears. It was the same as when he had first become aware of ¡®death¡¯.

    And so, Leo worked hard at his daily training. He was all but in a trance. When he thought about a life other than as an Attiel, he got caught up in dreams. When he was studying, he imagined a future surrounded by countless books and fellow scholars; when he was training, he imagined himself as a soldier, armed with a single spear, standing on the battle front.

    However¡­ almost without fail, in those times, a feeling appeared in a specific part of his chest to block his happy daydreams. Those feelings, that were like a stagnant black sludge, were directly related to what had happened just before he had left the Principality of Atall. The warm blood that flowed throughout his body all at once ran so cold that it almost felt like it had coagulated. Leo consciously expelled those feelings from him. That was something which required more hardship and effort than forging his physique or than chasing tiny letters across a page ¨C in other words, it was something that needed its own form of training.

    There is no field in which daily practice would fail to produce its effect. Little by little, Leo grew better at driving out that sludge. He was able to put more effort into studying and military training. Still, the stagnant sludge did not completely disappear. He was aware of it, and it felt as though, with time, those feelings that had forcefully been torn from him acquired their own face and their own limbs, taking the shape of another Leo Attiel who stared at him intently from afar with emotionless eyes.

    I know, it whispered soundlessly to him, I know, I know it well, Leo Attiel. I know you¡­

    Part 4

    Time passed.

    Leo turned seventeen years old. It had been six whole years since he had been sent over as a hostage from the Principality of Atall. Atallese messengers would occasionally come to visit to check on him, but no permission to return to his home country was ever issued.

    These past few years, Allion had rapidly expanded its territory through force of arms. The conflict which had resulted in Leo becoming a hostage was rooted in the ambition for supremacy that the current king of Allion had suddenly started displaying. This, however, also caused rebellions to frequently break out within his domains. Even though troops were sent out at once to put out the fire, what remained of it immediately scattered as small, smouldering embers that were still connected to each other.

    Allion needed to be cautious, so that even when he received news around the time of the New Year¡¯s celebrations that his father, the sovereign-prince, was ill and had taken to bed, and although Atall was only a small power, Leo was not allowed to return home even for a short while.

    Moreover, at that point in time, new embers were being lit, and they were not unconnected to Leo.

    The monk from Conscon Temple who had long been in charge of educating the sons of the Anglatt House suddenly stopped coming to the manor.

    Leo heard from people swapping rumours that relations between Allion and the temple had apparently turned sour. Yet he never once imagined that this would bring about a huge transformation in his own fate.

    The Anglatt brothers had been restless since the previous evening. A ¡®ship¡¯ was coming from the capital, and they intended to go see it.

    Walter, the older brother, was coming up to twenty-two, and Jack, the younger, to twenty. Appearance-wise, they looked remarkably mature, but personality-wise, they had not lost their childishness.

    The next day,

    ¡°My brothers apparently went to the waterfall before the sun had even risen,¡± Florrie, looking exasperated, informed Leo. ¡°They said that since crowds of people were going to go have a look, they would go early to reserve a good spot. Don¡¯t you think they¡¯ve been a bit too unruly since Master stopped coming?¡±

    Despite what she said, Florrie also seemed to be excited and, after breakfast ¨C

    ¡°Leo, shall we go together?¡± she invited him to go see the ¡®ship¡¯.

    A few days earlier, an envoy from Atall had arrived with books for Leo, so he had wanted to read them all in one go, but seeing Florrie look so lively, he couldn¡¯t turn her down.

    Ten days earlier, Florrie¡¯s beloved horse had broken its leg and had to be put down. Florrie herself was not in the habit of going horseback riding, but she had always loved looking after animals, and she had, in particular, taken care of that mare, that she named ¡°Princess¡±, since it was born. Florrie hadn¡¯t shed a single tear in front of others. But every morning, when they met, her big eyes were red and swollen. Leo had seen how, in spite of her tell-tale eyes, she had smiled and pretended to be cheerful in front of her family. If it could help lift her spirits even a little, then he would go with her.

    ¡°Leo, look! There¡¯re so many people!¡±

    Just as Florrie had said, there were crowds of people on the hill from which you could see the front of the waterfall. Those gathered there were probably not only from the castle town but also from the nearby villages.

    The River Bahr¨¦, which had once acted as the national border, coursed vigorously downwards and formed a small lake there. With the added sound from the waterfall, the area was already filled with noise. The Anglatt brothers were probably also somewhere in the crowd.

    Leo and Florrie stood together some distance away from the end of the line of people.

    An improvised pier could be seen on the lake. Amidst the throng of sightseers milling around, it was the only place which was left clear. On the other hand, soldiers armed with spears and guns were positioned on either side of it. The castle lord, Claude Anglatt, would personally greet the messenger who was to alight from the ¡®ship¡¯.

    ¡°Look, your father¡¯s there.¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯s that, Leo?¡±

    Florrie stood on tiptoe and lightly jumped up and down, but it looked as though she couldn¡¯t see because there were too many people. Leo gave a small laugh.

    ¡°Want a piggyback ride?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be silly,¡± Florrie looked sulky.

    At seventeen, Leo had grown very tall and had already overtaken Jack, the second son of the Anglatt House. However, since that was not matched by an increase in width, his lanky appearance gave an impression of frailty. He almost looked as though he might be blown away by a gust from the wind that blew from the waterfall, but as he imposed harsh daily training on himself, his legs were far steadier and sturdier than they seemed.

    With that being said, from infancy onwards, he had always had delicate features that could be mistaken for a girl¡¯s, and even though he had a sword strapped at his waist for self-protection, in no way did he look like a military man.

    His chestnut-coloured hair that was swaying in the wind was worn long. Apart from around Allion¡¯s capital city, neither the men in this region, nor in Atall had the custom of growing out their hair, and since it looked increasingly feminine, he had more than once wanted to cut it short.

    ¡°Oh no, it would be such a waste,¡± Florrie stopped him every time. ¡°Even the ladies in the capital would be jealous of such soft, fine hair. If you find it bothersome to have to take care of it every morning, then I¡¯ll do it for you.¡±

    True to her word, Florrie came to help every morning. Even if she had to drag him there before he could escape, she led her ¡°brother¡± in front of the dresser and diligently combed out his hair. From time to time, when it needed it, she ran scissors through it. Occasionally also she would braid it into whatever shape her fancy dictated.

    Claude Anglatt was from a line of hunters, but his wife, Ellen, came from a distinguished merchant family. She was also the only follower of Badyne within the family, so she was not pleased to see her daughter act that way.

    ¡°Florrie, an unmarried woman shouldn¡¯t touch a man¡¯s body anymore than necessary.¡±

    Despite those admonishments, Florrie, who was usually extraordinarily obedient to her parents for a girl of her age, always became stubborn when it came to Leo. That morning as well, she had hastily braided Leo¡¯s hair, which was now swaying in the wind, even though they had been running short on time before setting out.

    The girl who was barely ten years old when Leo had come to Allion would now soon be sixteen. ¡°I have a new big brother¡± ¨C the child who had called him ¡®brother¡¯ ever since their first meeting, when she had welcomed him with an innocent grin, had grown up to be a girl so beautiful that whenever she went out, everyone who met her, regardless of age or gender, would unconsciously stop and smile, and think to themselves, Ah, the young lady from the manor.

    Even now, a lot of people were sending glances her way. Even Leo, who, by nature, disliked being exposed to people¡¯s eyes, felt somewhat proud.

    ¡°Florrie, are you cold?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine. Leo¡­ Ah!¡± Florrie exclaimed suddenly and pointed to the sky.

    The people gathered there all looked up in the same direction and likewise pointed while exclaiming out loud. The ¡®ship¡¯ had finally come into sight. This ¡®ship¡¯ was not sailing down the river. While everyone, Leo and Florrie included, shaded their eyes to look up, it flew down from the sky.

    A dragonstone ship ¨C commonly called an air carrier. By spewing out ether ¨C a legacy from the Magic Dynasty ¨C to repulse the earth¡¯s magnetic force, the ship stayed afloat and, just as its name indicated, it flew in the sky. Since times immemorial, small, single-person airships had been used by messengers and scouts on the battlefield, but the ship which now appeared in the sky had a overall length of over twenty metres, from its curved prow to the end of its line of engines.

    Air carrier engineering was said to have accomplished remarkable advances in the past few years, and every country on the continent was now building ships that were able to carry several dozen people.

    Even for Leo, a prince of Atall, this was his first time seeing such a large ship, and as for the people of what was aptly known as a backwater area, this was the first time they laid eyes on any kind of air carrier. Everyone, young and old alike, greeted the ship with cheers.

    This region had not long been part of Allion¡¯s territory, so there was no landing pad for air carriers. Therefore, when Claude received notice of the its arrival from the capital, he looked into using the lake on the River Bahr¨¦.

    The ship¡¯s slow descent made the spectators nervous, but it landed successfully on the water, sending up impressive sprays of water as it did so.

    While cheers were raining down, a small airship appeared from inside the hold. Since it was the sort that the pilot operated while standing up, the design was very plain, with almost no cladding, and the seat was located directly above the engines. As it was a type of craft designed for when nobles had to travel short distances, this too was a novelty for the populace.

    Given that the man aboard had alighted from the airship onto the pier, it seemed that this was the guest Claude had gone to meet. Even from a distance, he seemed young. Probably not yet thirty. Even so, Claude received him with great courtesy.

    Apparently, he possessed a small territory close to the capital, while at the same time being a general with troops under his command. His name was Hayden Swift and he was a noble who had been chosen to act as a mediator with Conscon Temple, now that relations with them were breaking down. For that reason, he would be staying a while at Claude¡¯s castle.

    Leo narrowed his eyes to get a better look at him.

    ¡°I will be singing for him,¡± said Florrie. It appeared that her father had asked her to entertain at the welcome reception that would be held that night.

    ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± Leo nodded with a smile. Florrie, however, went sulky again.

    ¡°It¡¯s not great at all.¡±

    ¡°Why not? Your singing makes people happy, Florrie. I¡¯m sure Lord Hayden will enjoy it too.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re being mean to me when you say things like that, Leo,¡± Florrie glared reproachfully at Leo. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that he''s closely related to the royal family. The royal palace has tons of orchestras and singers that only perform there. Rumour has it that since our king is especially fond of music, he invited them from Allion, of course, but also from other countries. I¡¯m going to be compared to all those famous singers, so please show some sympathy. He¡¯ll definitely snicker at me for having a weak and shabby singing voice.¡±

    Florrie was a young woman in appearance only, and when she pouted, she looked just the same as when she had been a child.

    ¡°You just need to sing as confidently as you always do. If you worry about useless things, your voice will dry up in your throat and you won¡¯t be able to show off even half of your talent,¡± Leo said soothingly.

    That evening, Leo attended the welcome dinner held for Hayden Swift alongside General Claude and his sons. Hayden himself, incidentally, did not bring a single attendant with him.

    From up close, Hayden Swift seemed old.

    It wasn¡¯t a question of appearance. Far from it: his looks were the sort that probably sent the court ladies at Allion¡¯s royal palace in a flutter, and he was every bit the young nobleman. The air around him, however, was dark. He spoke little, and although Claude talked about a variety of things, Hayden¡¯s attitude did not reveal any interest in any of them. He was the very definition of expressionless and impassive, and in that, he did not seem at all like a young man, but projected instead an air of maturity.

    Strangely, that caught Leo¡¯s interest. He himself could not tell if what he felt towards the man was dislike or its exact opposite, sympathy.

    Claude¡¯s two sons sensed from Hayden¡¯s manner that he looked down on their upstart father, and so they seemed to have disliked him from the start. Since he was who was, however, they couldn''t say anything and morosely continued eating their meal.

    As Hayden drank, first one cup of wine, then a second, the sombre expression that clung to his eyes like dirt grew darker. As bad luck would have it, he began at that point to take an interest in Leo.

    ¡°Honourable prince of Atall¡­ how long has it been since you came to Allion?¡±

    Although startled by the attention, Leo cleared his throat and answered, ¡°It will soon be six years.¡±

    ¡°Six years¡­ that¡¯s a long time,¡± Hayden theatrically closed his eyes, as though to experience the six years that Leo had spent there. ¡°I truly would not be able to bear it. I¡¯m sure it would be painful.¡±

    ¡°No¡­ The Anglatt House has received me well. To go as far as calling it painful is¡­¡±

    ¡°For someone related, even in the furthest degree, to a royal house, being forcefully separated from their native land and family, and being treated like a prisoner¡­ I, for one, simply could not bear it. Or rather, not me myself: my bloodline, that unbroken flow of history that courses through me, could never endure the dishonour.¡±

    ¡°Dishonour¡­ In terms of dishonour, I¡­¡±

    ¡°Why not go die in battle?¡±

    Receiving that sudden strike, Leo was unable to breathe, as though he was moments away from meeting death. After a short while,

    ¡°What¡­ What is it that you mean?¡±

    ¡°Atall and Shazarn had an agreement to set Allion¡¯s territory aflame. Although posterity will surely judge their actions to be those of foolish barbarians unable to think ahead, since they did take action, Atall and Shazarn had both the will and the enthusiasm. So naturally, they must also have had the resolve.¡±

    ¡°Lord Swift,¡±

    Claude was going to intervene between the two of them, but Hayden looked as though he did not hear what anyone else was saying. He continued to observe Leo closely. His gaze was like white flashes of lightning coming from behind rumbling, swirling black clouds.

    ¡°Take your enemy¡¯s head, or have you own head taken... A noble should not hold a sword in hand without that resolve. And yet, as soon as they saw that the tide of war was turning against them, Atall easily sent messengers to broker peace. Their words and deeds are as insubstantial as air. That¡¯s right, they¡¯re as light as a whore who opens her legs for money.¡±

    Leo furiously sprang up from his chair. His face was suffused with rage, which was rare for him. Claude¡¯s two sons, who had simultaneously turned to look at him, drew in their breath when they saw his face.

    Claude also started to get up. No matter how closely related Hayden was to the royal family, those words had crossed the line. Meanwhile, Hayden Swift, as though feasting on the boy¡¯s rage, fixed his eyes on his face and tilted back his wine cup.

    ¡°Why are you getting angry? For the past six years, you¡¯ve been enduring the shame of being a prisoner, haven¡¯t you? The words I just spoke are the self-same words that everyone around you is silently thinking. You can¡¯t tell me you hadn¡¯t noticed.¡±

    ¡°I would like you to take them back,¡± the voice that came from him didn¡¯t seem to Leo to have passed through his body, but rather to be reverberating from above his head.

    ¡°I refuse,¡± across from him, Hayden¡¯s sneering face was as pallid as though the blood had receded from it, in sharp contrast to Leo¡¯s face, which was flushed blood-red.

    Leo started towards Hayden. He didn¡¯t know himself what he intended to do. Or rather, in that moment, he could not grasp the true nature of his own fury.

    There was of course no one who would laugh at hearing their birthplace being insulted. Yet Leo was someone who had once thought of abandoning the family name ¡®Attiel¡¯. It felt to him as though this time, everything he had secretly dreamed of without telling anyone, everything he had worked hard for, everything that had brought him comfort at that time had all been negated and denied.

    It¡¯s hopeless, you¡¯re an Attiel ¨C the stagnant black sludge seemed to whisper to him.

    Hayden meanwhile had raised his hand halfway to his waist, and made it clear that he was ready to fight back.

    Just as Claude was about to step between the two of them ¨C

    ¡°Oh, my¡­ What¡¯s all this commotion about?¡± Florrie Anglatt, all dressed up, appeared in the hall.

    Florrie apologised, saying that it had taken time for her to get ready. But there was no need to hear how her breathing was already uneven, or to see how her cheeks were coloured as red as roses, to realise that she had not readily agreed to sing before the guest. It looked as though her mother had forcefully pushed her forward the whole way until they finally came in.

    Regardless, Claude Anglatt was far from blaming his daughter, and, indeed, he looked profoundly relieved as he led her to give her greetings to Hayden.

    Hayden Swift politely returned it. Gone was his earlier pallid face, and the maliciousness had, for the time being, also left it. Wearing an expression as though nothing had happened, he even went so far as to say:

    ¡°Lord Leo. It seems my words were a little excessive. I am often criticised for making mistakes when I drink. It was just a boorish man¡¯s ridiculously bad habit: won¡¯t you laugh it off?¡±

    Leo had no choice but to back down. He returned to his seat with a sullen expression.

    Florrie looked nervous as she gave a bow. She formed a circle with the index and thumb of her right hand, and brought it to the tip of her chin. This was one of the numerous good-luck charms of the believers of Badyne and was said to be effective for taking away nervousness. Florrie¡¯s mother had been brought up in a community which had many Badyne faithful, which was unusual in Allion¡¯s domains. She did not force her religious precepts on her husband and children, nor, for that matter, was she a particularly fervent believer herself. However, since Florrie had been interested in these good-luck charms, the mother had taught many of them to her daughter.

    The song started. It was a song of thanks dedicated to the spirits. Belief in spirits thrived in Allion, and not only among the nobles and the royal family. Even the farmers ploughing the soil, or the hunters tracking wild beasts, believed that spirits dwelt in their belongings, so even in run-down taverns on the outskirts of town, drunken, tuneless voices sang similar songs.

    In short, it was an ordinary song.

    After that, the dinner party peacefully came to an end, yet Claude was tearing his hair out.

    That was a strange turn of events.

    First of all, quite honestly, Florrie¡¯s song had not been a success. In the past, when Leo had first arrived in their family, Florrie had cheerfully called out to him but, as she grew older, she had developed a shyness of strangers. When guests came, she would often hole up in her own room and refuse to take a step out of it.

    Thinking that he needed to do something to remedy this, Claude had brought his daughter out for Hayden¡¯s welcome reception but, predictably, she could not hide her nervousness. In front of her family, with her two brothers whistling and beating time with their hands, she would sing without a care. That evening, however, her naturally rich voice had been shaking, she lost her ease of modulation, and there were even a few times when she hadn¡¯t been able to make a sound.

    Florrie had probably also been self-conscious about it since she left the room as soon as she had finished singing. Claude felt sorry for his daughter but, contrary to expectation, Hayden was satisfied with the performance.

    Except that was not what had happened.

    Apart from when he had been making snide remarks aimed at Leo, Hayden had remained impassive and unimpressed at all times. Yet when Florrie had earnestly been singing, he had gone wide-eyed, his mouth had been hanging open, and he had gazed at her with heated admiration.

    In short, he had fallen in love at first sight.

    Hayden was already married and his wife, who was of ancient and noble lineage, had borne him two children. Even so, the next day, when he went to see Claude alone in his chambers, he sounded him out.

    ¡°How about letting Miss Florrie receive an education at the royal capital?¡± he said. ¡°Naturally, I will take responsibility for her so that her talent can blossom.¡±

    He did not ask that she be given to him as a concubine. But it was as good as. He intended to place her beside him under the pretext of letting her receive an education then, after she had acquired some polish by serving as an attendant to some influential noble lady at court, he would make her his.

    Such was the strange turn of events.

    In truth, this was not a bad proposal for Claude. Allion had a long history, and a man like Claude, who had risen from being a simple soldier, was naturally the target of a lot of criticism. He had now been entrusted with a castle, but this was no more than one of the many unimportant fortresses along the border, and naturally, it was a poor territory that produced little.

    Moreover, this territory was one that Allion had only just acquired, so it had been left to Claude until the situation within had settled down, but once the rebellions and banditry had been brought under control, and if the border line was fixed in position here, several fortresses would probably be combined into one large territory, and Claude would no longer be needed. It was the same for the family name ¡®Anglatt¡¯: when he had received the castle, the name of a famous historical figure had been handed over along with it.

    In other words, Claude¡¯s position was still unstable.

    Hayden Swift on the other hand was a person who was close to the centre of power. He was descended from a royal bastard, so his title of nobility and his position as a general existed largely in name only, yet even so, his ancestry was a force to be reckoned with. Claude had also heard that he was a close personal friend to the king. It would certainly be no disadvantage to an upstart like Claude to have a connection to the seat of power, and Hayden himself had hinted as much.

    He had gone so far as to say: ¡°A man of your ability, Sir Claude, should be in charge of a division of troops at the royal capital.¡±

    Claude¡¯s heart wavered. The upstart that he was had not yet given up on his childlike dream of achieving the kind of success in life that you heard of in legends. He did not plan to end up as no more than the governor of a fortress far from the centre of power.

    But¡­ Hayden¡­

    The way he had insulted Leo, or more correctly, Atall, had left a deep impression on Claude. He had also heard several rumours about him in the royal capital. Although it was a fact that he was close to the king, and although it was said that the king was unusually fond of him, there were also plenty of unsavoury stories among those that he had heard. Claude had a commoner¡¯s love for his daughter, and his wish for her happiness outweighed his na?ve dreams of success.

    ¡°As a parent, I really don¡¯t know what to do about my daughter, seeing as she is that shy. Even though she is already sixteen, she is just no good at coping with strangers, as I am sure you realised from last night¡¯s song. Your proposal of course fills me with so much delight that I could jump with joy, but would Florrie be able to fit into life at our resplendent royal capital? That is not something that she is ready for yet,¡± he gave a roundabout refusal.

    Hayden Swift extended his stay to continue negotiating.

    Even though neither Claude nor Hayden revealed a word about it, Leo and the others started to hear rumours of what was going on.

    ¡°You can¡¯t, Father.¡±

    ¡°Of course you can¡¯t.¡±

    Walter and Jack protested vehemently. Although the two brothers sometimes made the gentle Florrie cry when they teased her, they very deeply loved their younger sister.

    When Florrie herself heard about it, she flushed bright red and from then on avoided being anywhere near Hayden.

    Yet Hayden was irritatingly persistent. Een though Claude did everything he could, choosing his words and attitude so as to not stir up trouble, he realised that Hayden¡¯s passion was continuing to be enflamed. And so, he lied.

    ¡°The truth is, my daughter apparently already has someone in her heart, and she cannot bear the thought of going to the capital and being separated from him.¡±

    Even so, Hayden was not going to give up so easily, but as the day of the meeting at Conscon Temple was drawing near, he was reluctantly forced to leave the castle.

    On the day of his departure, Claude, his sons and Leo went to see him off. The lake on the Bahr¨¦ was once again crowded with people. This time, they were there to see the ship take off.

    Just as he had at the time of the banquet, Hayden Swift wore an entirely detached expression and, after having courteously given his thanks, he jauntily embarked on the air carrier.

    It would be a long time, however, before Leo Attiel would forget the glance that Hayden cast towards him right at the end.

    Even though he was smiling, he could not conceal the hatred smouldering in his eyes as he looked at Leo.

 Volume 1, 2: The Youths at Conscon Temple

    Volume 1, Chapter 2: The Youths at Conscon Temple

    Part 1

    Mount Conscon¡¯s market was bustling with energy and there were throngs of people. The children who were running around at Percy Leegan¡¯s feet had the same innocent expression that was common to children everywhere.

    Yet only a small part of the market was officially in use. As evidence of that, there were practically no stalls selling food. According to what he had heard, the temple was now buying up food such as grain, vegetables, fruit and meat in bulk.

    As a result, the voices of the hawkers were somewhat subdued. Yet even so, it was crowded with as many people as you would find in any large town, and that was due to the issue surrounding Conscon Temple.

    Rows of buildings made of wood or stone encircled the city and, if one¡¯s eyes travelled up them, the edge of the temple came into view. A huge cross towered above the top of a slender spire.

    It¡¯s just like rumours say, thought Percy.

    The mountain was not just a temple where monks practiced ascetics, but formed an actual town. And not just any kind of town: it was a fortified citadel.

    Percy included, five hundred soldiers had arrived there late the previous evening. The main temple gate was halfway up the mountain, and it was guarded by warrior monks, all of whom were armed with guns and spears.

    There were also plenty of armed men to be seen in the market where Percy currently was. Setting aside from the groups of warrior monks who wore their white clerical robes above their chainmail, these were predominantly rough-looking men in dishevelled clothing who each carried a sword at their waist. They were mercenaries temporarily hired by the temple.

    Among them, there were devout believers spurred on by righteous indignation, who proclaimed that ¡°We can¡¯t just stand by and let our historic temple be burned to the ground!¡±, but they probably made up less than ten percent. Most of them were men who were fed up with a life of manual toil and who had come racing from their farming villages, or else they were penniless thieves or mountain bandits. Actually, just since the previous evening, Percy had heard plenty of them bragging about how ¡°I was stealing over at such-and-such¡±, or ¡°I laid that town to waste¡±, and other similar violent episodes.

    Whatever their origins, it was because of mercenaries arriving in force that Mount Conscon was bustling with more energy than usual. There were people who seemed to have brought their own ale with them and who were drinking it together from early morning onwards; people supplying themselves with weapons and armour from the city blacksmiths; and in alleyways hidden from the temple¡¯s eyes, there were shopkeepers secretly selling eggs and meat, who were busy haggling prices with customers who spoke with thick accents.

    The reason the temple was buying food up in bulk was so that it could be rationed out to the mercenaries as well as to the actual inhabitants of the mountain.

    From what he had heard, there were normally less than a thousand people living here. It was now so lively that it was almost impossible to believe than until just a few years ago, the place had essentially been an abandoned ruin.

    Conscon Temple, which took its name from the mountain, had been founded by the religion which had always flourished in the eastern part of the continent.

    The god they believed in was peculiar for not having a name that could distinguish it from other religions. However, since their temples and other buildings, as well as the clothes that their priests wore, were adorned with may symbols of a cross, their religion was commonly referred to as the ¡°Cross Faith¡±.

    According to what Percy¡¯s tutor had told him when he was a child, their teachings had existed since before the immigrant ship had arrived on this planet. It had taken root in this new land but, with the long passage of years, factions had developed within it. This would not have been a problem if the various faithful had simply cut ties with one another, but they had soon started fighting as each tried to propagate their own dogmas.

    There were nevertheless many ascetics monks who were, by nature, uninterested in missionary activities or in world salvation, and who merely sought through prayer to bring their minds and bodies closer to their god. These monks disdained the secular world, and they had been the first to seclude themselves on this mountain.

    Some of those who had come to train at Mount Conscon had later become famous throughout the entire continent, but that had already been some five hundred years ago. The number of monks going into seclusion on the mountain gradually diminished, and their stone-built temple, which in those days had been as sturdy as could be, had time and again been captured by the likes of bandits, or of nobles fleeing their country, until it had gradually crumbled away.

    The one who had rebuilt it into its current form was Bishop Rogress, who held the highest position of power in Conscon Temple.

    Percy had met him the previous evening. He was a plump man with eyes as vigilant as a fox¡¯s, and his age was somewhere above fifty. His appearance, combined with his uniquely deep voice engendered a calm atmosphere, like that of a weighty boulder. Only this dignitary could pick a fight with Allion ¨C that was the kind of impression he gave.

    The kingdom of Allion and the temple had once shared a good relationship. In fact, it was Allion which had generously provided the money and manpower to rebuild the temple. That had been about seven years ago. In those seven years, the mountain had once again attracted crowds of ascetic monks and had been reenergised. Accommodations were set up for the carpenters and stonemasons hired to rebuild the temple and, partly because of that, a number of people in various different occupations started to flock to the mountain. When it advertised the fact that trade there was subject neither to taxes nor to cumbersome rules, many merchants also came to open up shop, and Conscon Temple gradually grew in strength.

    Then, however, relations suddenly took a turn for the worse.

    The reason that was given later was that Bishop Rogress had been setting up a chapel within Allion¡¯s castle, but an incident broke out when this temple was set alight. Many of the monks who had been inside it died. The bishop had barely escaped with his life, and he immediately returned to Conscon Temple, from where he demanded that Allion extradite the criminals who had lit the fire.

    Allion did not agree to this, but sent a delegation to try to repair relations. One of its members was Hayden Swift, who had stayed at General Claude¡¯s manor.

    Yet the temple turned them down. Moreover, they flung curses at Allion¡¯s royal family.

    ¡°If Allion does not deliver the criminals to God¡¯s justice, then divine punishment will strike its royal family. It will be cursed for now and all eternity. Newborn children will all be plagued with illness; crops for harvest and prey for hunting will all rot and die; castles and estates will be engulfed in flames. Before long, those who wear splendid clothes and adorn themselves in silver will all be dragged to the gallows.¡±

    Allion was enraged. They considered it a declaration of war. The temple, meanwhile, did not back down, showing themselves ready to put up a fight.

    The temple did not belong to any country, so it was often the target of brigands. Because of that, it had long since bought weapons ¨C cannons and guns included ¨C from various countries, and most of its young monks, despite being in the priesthood, were armed. When an enemy who blasphemed against God¡¯s teachings appeared, they were ever ready to repel them, not with words of prayer or curses but with steel and bullets.

    Percy, however, could not help thinking that, Allion is said to be able to mobilise ten thousand troops at all times. The difference compared to Atall is huge. It¡¯s not clear how many of those they¡¯ll use to threaten the temple, but it won¡¯t just be several dozen, or even several hundred.

    Although the temple had hurriedly recruited mercenaries, Percy had been wandering about the mountain since early that morning, and at his rough estimate, the number of men available to fight was around seven or eight hundred. Moreover, most of them were not professional soldiers but bandits or the sons of farmers. Among them might even be men who had attacked the temple and more than once been repelled, so it was hard to say that preserving command would be easy.

    Quite the opposite: if they had responded to the call for recruitment thinking that it would at least temporarily protect them from rain and hunger, wouldn¡¯t most of them run away as fast as they could once the fighting began?

    Yet when he had met Bishop Rogress the previous evening, he had seemed as calm as though they were just chatting over tea. Although the difference in strength was obvious, surely, when the time came, God would sweep aside the enemies of the virtuous ¨C the bishop could not possibly naively believe that.

    Or else¡­ could Dytiann, in the east, be sending reinforcements?

    That thought had been on Percy¡¯s mind even before they had come rushing to the temple. The Holy Dytiann Alliance, which existed further east than Atall, was a collection of countries and states gathered under one religion. And that religion was the same one that the temple had been founded on. Currently, Dytiann was regarded as the only equal to Allion¡¯s might on the continent.

    It would not be surprising if Dytiann sent reinforcements to the temple ¨C not least as a way of restraining Allion, which appeared to be trying to extend its reach eastwards. The previous evening, Percy had obliquely probed around for information about the alliance¡¯s participation, but Bishop Rogress did not say what he had expected him to. Seperate from that, however, he had said something interesting.

    ¡°I did not curse Allion¡¯s royal family,¡± Bishop Rogress had smiled gently. ¡°For one who serves God, uttering curses is anathema. Besides which, God bound Allion¡¯s royal family and myself together so that this temple might be rebuilt. I feel nothing but gratitude towards the royal family, and there is no room in my heart for hatred and resentment towards them.¡±

    His slender eyes twinkled. ¡°Rather than being about the relation between myself and the royal family, this affair will serve to reveal the wicked designs that some in Allion harbour. They will use any kind of lie and they twist the facts so as to invade and plunder this sacred ground. Is it those repulsive sorcerers, who have made a nest for themselves at the centre of Allion¡¯s government, or is it depraved nobles or warriors who hope to taste the delicious fruits of war? Whatever the case, if I know the king of Allion, he won''t squander any great amount of money or time on such a meaningless war. After sending troops once for form¡¯s sake, he is sure to immediately turn back.¡±

    Is it really that simple? No¡­ first of all, does Master Rogress even believe that himself?

    Percy could not read his real thoughts. Although this was a situation in which battle could break out at any moment, the bishop seemed proportionally unconcerned about his own life.

    Anyway, let¡¯s just hope that our Sovereign-Prince of Atall doesn¡¯t draw the short end of the stick, while Percy continued to pursue his thoughts, he put the tip of his forefinger into his mouth, then brought his finger, moist with saliva, over both of his eyebrows.

    ¡°That¡¯s an unusual good-luck charm, Sir Percy,¡± a voice suddenly called out to him from behind.

    When he turned to look around, a young warrior monk was standing before him. Over his chainmail, he was wearing a white, knee-length clerical robe that was tied at his waist with a blue cloth. Although Percy realised that the man had been present last night in the room where the meeting with Rogress had taken place, that was not what surprised him.

    ¡°You remember my name?¡±

    At the time, the leader of the five hundred soldiers, Nauma Laumarl, had been invited along with several platoon leaders, Percy included. The young warrior monk had not been present for more than a few minutes either.

    ¡°Once I meet someone, I never forget their face,¡± far from looking proud, the warrior monk spoke as though blandly stating a fact. ¡°It seems you have been walking around by yourself since early this morning, but have you eaten, Sir Percy?¡±

    Smoke from breakfast fires was rising throughout the town. Mercenaries could be seen lining up along the roadside.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry to treat an officer in command of a unit like an ordinary soldier, but please line up over there if you haven''t yet had anything.¡±

    ¡°What are you saying? Honestly, there¡¯s not much difference between a platoon leader and a rank-and-file soldier. Please don¡¯t worry about it.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Still, I feel a bit embarrassed to ask someone of noble blood to line up alongside bandits and burglars.¡± The young warrior monk cast an irritated gaze at the mercenaries who were talking in loud and vulgar voices.

    Somehow, he feels kind of fierce for a priest¡­ Percy noted inwardly.

    First of all, the man''s appearance was ferocious. He had thick eyebrows, sharp eyes that slanted upwards as though pulled by a thread, and cheeks that looked as if they had been hollowed out. Rather than a monk, his face was that of a young warrior burning with ambition. His physique was also impressive, and his height did not compare at all unfavourably with Percy¡¯s, who was considered tall among those his age. The spear he carried in his hand was certainly not just for show. From the jaunty swing of his shoulder down to the way he walked, he exuded a certain air of self-confidence. Percy¡¯s own strong point was his spearmanship, so he could tell.

    It was obvious that he was valiant. So it must be irritating for him to be in a situation where they needed to invite people of doubtful origin into the temple precincts to protect it. It was easy for Percy to tell given that the warrior monk¡¯s anger-filled gaze had, for a while now, been turned not only towards the mercenaries, but also towards Percy himself.

    As mentioned previously, the one leading Percy''s group was a man called Nauma Laumarl. The Laumarl House was a renowned noble family within Atall, and Nauma was the second son. When he had come here, however, he had introduced himself as ¡°Nauma Shalling.¡±

    ¡°I was born and raised in a House directly descended from the nobility of the Magic Dynasty, one that has established a castle, albeit a modest one, far to the southeast of here. Up until now, I have simply passed my days in self-indulgence, supported by the good people who still continue to venerate the lineages of those ancient times, but on this occasion, in order to punish Allion for its godless acts, I hastily shook the rust from my spear and armour that were lying idle in storage, hurriedly gathered my retainers, and immediately came to you,¡± he had claimed.

    That was of course a complete lie. Percy Leegan had not revealed his family name either. Although the Leegan House was not as famous as the Laumarl family, they had supported the ruling House of Attiel for many generations. The reason they had concealed both of those family names was because they did not wish to reveal that they were ¡®reinforcements from the principality of Atall¡¯.

    ¨C When he had received the request for reinforcements from Conscon Temple, Magrid Attiel, sovereign-prince of Atall, had been tearing his hair out.

    With Allion in the west and the Holy Dytiann Alliance in the east, his tiny country was only barely managing to maintain good relations with both of those huge powers. Although they had made the mistake of entering in a skirmish with Allion nearly seven years ago, the difference in power between them was just too great, so in the end, they were forced to negotiate a reconciliation by offering the second-born prince, Leo Attiel, as a hostage.

    With Allion in the west and the Holy Dytiann Alliance in the east, his tiny country was only barely managing to maintain good relations with both of those huge powers. Although they had made the mistake of entering in a skirmish with Allion nearly seven years ago, the difference in power between them was just too great, so in the end, they were forced to negotiate a reconciliation by offering the second-born prince, Leo Attiel, as a hostage.

    Lending their aid to Conscon Temple against Allion would, inevitably, put an end to that reconciliation. Who knew what would befall the hostage Leo and, more importantly, the next place Allion would send troops to would be Atall. Therefore, when he received the appeal from Conscon Temple, Sovereign-prince Magrid should have turned away the messenger.

    And yet, he had been ¡°tearing his hair out¡±.

    In plain speech, Conscon Temple was a neutral buffer zone between Allion and Atall. If Allion conquered it and established a military outpost there, for Atall, it would virtually mean having a huge blade thrust beneath their noses.

    For some time now, Magrid had heard rumours that Allion was planning to extend its power eastwards, that it was planning an ¡°eastern expedition¡± so to speak. Atall was not its target; it was only a small power that they would trample through while advancing their troops to destroy Holy Dytiann. And there was someone who persuaded Magrid that Conscon Temple was the first step towards that.

    ¡°My Lord Sovereign-prince, if we overlook this, it would be the same as allowing vermin to devour our crops. In no time at all, our people, our assets, our buildings ¨C all will be a harvest for Allion to pillage.¡±

    The one who spoke was Oswell, a domain lord with a castle in the south of Atall.

    The northern part of the principality was largely governed by Sovereign-Prince Magrid, his relatives and the retainers whose families had been loyal to his for generations. The southern half, however, was divided between the nobles who held lands there. These nobles, who were known as the ¡®vassal lords¡¯, had a somewhat complicated relationship with the ruling House of Attiel. Although theirs was a master-servant relationship, the sovereign-prince could not unilaterally issue commands to them.

    Faced with this situation, Magrid had invited several vassal lords to the castle to offer their counsel, but most of them had opposed sending reinforcements.

    ¡°There is no need to even think about it,¡± even surrounded by scornful laughter, Oswell had stuck to his opinion. ¡°We should send soldiers. We must hurry, and we cannot afford to lose the time spent here hesitating over this.¡±

    ¡°But wouldn¡¯t that be handing Allion the perfect excuse to attack us?¡±

    ¡°If Allion feels like attacking us, they¡¯ll come up with some excuse to invade us anyway. More importantly, this is Conscon Temple. Now that Shazarn was driven to the north in the last war, the temple is essentially our country¡¯s final shield. We shouldn¡¯t disregard its religious influence either. Even among Allion¡¯s soldiers, there are many who belong to the Cross Faith. Because of the rumours about the royal family having been insulted, national sentiment is currently at fever pitch, but if the war drags on, more and more voices will start defending the temple. But if by then it is already a smouldering ruin, it won¡¯t help us any. We have to lend aid to the temple to allow it to hold fast.¡±

    Oswell seemed to be implying that the continued existence of the temple in its present form was vital to national interests ¨C not their current interests, but those of Atall¡¯s future. Taking into account the process by which he himself had arrived on the throne, Sovereign-prince Magrid placed his trust in Oswell¡¯s words.

    However, since they had sent a hostage to Allion, they could not allow their soldiers to fly the flag of Atall. Therefore, they informed only Bishop Rogress that Atall agreed to send reinforcements in the form of five hundred soldiers, while the official story was the earlier lie about ¡°Nauma Shalling, who traces his lineage back to the ancient dynasty, etc.¡±

    This young warrior monk who had called out to Percy probably knew all about it, however. Given that he had shown up at the meeting, he must be close to the bishop. And that was also why he was looking at Percy with unconcealed irritation.

    What a tedious thing to do. Or are you saying that Atall can¡¯t be seen to uphold justice?

    His annoyance was directly connected to the misgivings that Percy had been feeling earlier about the bishop. In other words, no one could tell where this war ¨C if it even came to war ¨C was heading.

    The young warrior monk tore his eyes away from the rowdy men.

    ¡°Please feel free to laugh at my ignorance, but I had never heard Lord Shalling¡¯s name before. Where is his castle?¡±

    ¡°As his lordship said last night, it¡¯s in a land far to the southeast.¡±

    ¡°Does that mean that it¡¯s further east than Atall¡¯s domains? Let¡¯s see¡­ if it¡¯s near Dytiann, the situation would be a little complicated, but¡­¡±

    He was implicitly pointing out that ¨C I know what that situation actually is.

    At the same time ¨C Does Atall intend to call it quits with a troop of just five hundred? Are there going to be reinforcements or not?

    Although aware of the implicit question, Percy avoided answering. It wasn¡¯t so much because he had good reason not to answer, as because Percy found it amusing how this man was desperately trying to swallow his annoyance. It was clear from his words that he was educated. And yet, perhaps because of his youth, or because of inborn temperament, it felt as though his emotions were in danger of exploding at any moment. Percy liked his fervour. He was jealous of it, considering that he himself could not work up anything but the minimal amount of enthusiasm for this fight. And because of that, he felt like winding the other up a bit.

    Just then ¨C

    ¡°Big brother, what are you standing around chatting about so early in the morning? I¡¯m sure it¡¯s something interesting. Won¡¯t you let me join in?¡±

    A woman called out to the warrior monk from behind him.

    Oh ¨C Percy unconsciously sighed in admiration.

    That was how beautiful she was.

    Part 2

    Given that she called the warrior monk her brother, she must be his little sister. Thinking about it, there was a resemblance in their facial features. The sharp sweep of her eyebrows and the upturned shape of her eyes were as similar to the monk¡¯s as though they had been carved by the same sculptor.

    What differentiated her from her brother, who was still giving of a savage feeling, were her plump lips. They bulged out ever so slightly, and it gave her smiling face an indefinable charm.

    Percy Leegan was dazzled for a moment. She appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old; the same age as his fianc¨¦e back home. Between the two of them, whose figure was¡­ Percy¡¯s youth was to blame for that fleeting but unpardonable thought.

    ¡°And this gentleman is?¡±

    ¡°Sir Percy. He arrived last night with Lord Shalling,¡± the warrior monk spoke curtly. He then introduced her to Percy in the same brusque tone.

    ¡°This is my little sister, Sarah. Like me, she can be a bit clumsy, so please don¡¯t be too hard on her.¡±

    Percy and Sarah shook hands. From up close, Sarah¡¯s deep, dark gaze oscillated. The look in her eyes seemed to be appraising him, and it was a lot like the ones Percy received from the noblewomen that he met at social gatherings.

    Tall and muscular. Slightly curly light-brown hair: it suits his handsome face. Didn¡¯t they say that he performed remarkably well at the horseback joust? There were rumours at one time about his womanising, but that much can be overlooked in a young man. He¡¯s the ideal partner to drive off boredom on nights when my husband isn¡¯t around¡­

    Although he casually warded off the silent but bold passes that married noblewomen made at him, Percy had gone through some pretty terrible times.

    He returned Sarah¡¯s gaze, looking at her just as openly as she was him. She was wearing the white robes of novices, so she must be a nun, but those clothes, which were normally supposed to be loose fitting, clung tightly to her and revealed the graceful lines of her body. It must be a sore temptation for young monks. At any rate, the novice habit that she wore was supposed to be a cage of celibacy and poverty, but instead of being locked up within, the girl¡¯s youthful figure was already bursting and overflowing from it. Feeling at risk, Percy quickly averted his gaze, and turned to question the older brother.

    ¡°You¡¯ve kindly introduced me to your younger sister, but I have not yet asked you your own name.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± the young warrior monk looked slightly embarrassed. The ferocity which had filled his face vanished for a second, and a young man¡¯s honest face showed through. ¡°I¡¯m called Camus[1].¡±

    Just as the monk had finished giving his name, a commotion suddenly broke out behind him. It was coming from where people had been lining up for breakfast.

    ¡°Oi, what the hell is this guy saying?¡±

    In the group which had nothing but rough-looking men, an especially large one spoke in a voice that boomed like a gong.

    ¡°I don¡¯t get a word you¡¯re saying. How about speaking in human language.¡±

    It was clear at a glance that he was a bandit. He wore furs over his burly, muscular body, and he had a longsword and gun at his hip. Around him, men who seemed to be his companions struck suitable poses as they watched on, smirking.

    Even among the other ruffians, this group seemed to be considered dangerous. Everyone else simple looked on from a distance or hastily turned away ad walked off, even if they had been in the middle of lining up for the meal.

    On the other side, one person was squaring off against them on his own. From where he was, Percy could only see his back, but he had a small build for a soldier, and looked completely helpless against the huge man he was confronting. And yet ¨C

    ¡°What I said was completely obvious. What part did you not get?¡±

    What surprised Percy was that it wasn¡¯t just that he was small, but that it sounded from his voice like he was still a boy. The boy stretched out a swarthy arm and pointed at the men who seemed to be the giant¡¯s underlings.

    ¡°Those guys lined up three times and handed the food over to you. The rest of the bunch also took turns muscling in. Food is in limited supply. So I told you to stop. If you can¡¯t understand that much, then the beasts who can¡¯t speak in a human language would be you guys,¡± the boy valiantly fired back, but the men roared with laughter, their wide-open mouths revealing their filthy teeth.

    The boy¡¯s speech had an atrocious accent. He placed his intonations in a way that Percy had never even heard before. At the very least, he probably wasn¡¯t from around here.

    While he was being laughed at, the boy remained standing where he was, looking mostly confused. One of the men then stepped forward.

    ¡°Bumpkin brat. I bet you ran away from home after stealing from it. Anyway, when the fighting breaks out, a guy like you will be the first to die.¡±

    He gave the boy¡¯s chest a powerful shove. As he was stumbling backwards, the man threw the bowl he was holding at the boy¡¯s face. The soup inside, with its small amount of meat and vegetables, splashed against him.

    ¡°If you want to eat, then eat,¡± he laughed again.

    The very next moment though, the crowd¡¯s voices were ringing out in a different way.

    The boy had swiftly rushed towards the man and struck his nose with the top of his head. Blood gushing from his nostrils, the man fell backwards.

    ¡°You¡­ You brat!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t get full of yourself!¡±

    Two others jumped at the boy. Both were far larger than he was. It looked as though it would be the end for him no matter where those fists landed, yet they did not hit him. The boy nimbly dodged them, moving left and right, and slipping below them. With the same easy rhythm, he gave a sharp kick to one man¡¯s shin. The man collapsed with a groan. The other one tried to catch him from behind; the boy struck out behind him with the same foot that had just landed the other kick. The movement seemed almost nonchalant, but it hit the man right in the crotch.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Percy exclaimed in unintentional admiration. Although the boy was young, he was clearly used to fighting. Percy¡¯s cause for surprise, however, was only just starting.

    Finally enraged, the men swarmed him from all directions, but the boy continued dodging every one of them. Bending down as he sprinted, sometimes leaping up ¨C one way or another, he never stopped moving. Neither did he miss the opportunity when his opponents were left floundering after they had thrown a punch or tried to ram him, and in that very same moment, with his fist, his elbow, or a kick, he would unerringly hit one of their vital spots.

    The wind¡­ He¡¯s like wind and lightning, Percy thought feelingly. No one could ever catch the wind. Even when a master wielded a blade, even with a spear that could drill holes through solid rock, the wind would always evade them. The boy¡¯s agile movements were exactly that. And when the moment came, he struck his opponents with the speed of lightning. However ¨C

    ¡°He¡¯s just like a monkey.¡±

    Sarah, who was standing beside him, voiced a very different impression. And, now that she mentioned it¡­ it was entirely accurate. Percy was about to smile in spite of himself, but just at that moment, the fight in front of them turned fiercer.

    One of the men that the boy had kicked flailed back and fell against the pot of soup. The pot crashed to the ground and its contents went flying. They splashed onto the boss¡¯ face and his patience finally snapped. His face flushed bright red and twisted into an expression like a wild beast¡¯s as he drew the large sword from at his waist.

    ¡°That¡¯s it, brat. I¡¯ll slaughter you first before Allion¡¯s small fry soldiers!¡±

    Perhaps encouraged by that, his fallen men each picked up their own scattered weapons.

    That¡¯s not¡­ but faster than Percy could step forward ¨C

    ¡°Stop, enough!¡± Camus roared as he pushed through the crowd and dashed towards the centre of the fight. ¡°Do not needlessly spill blood in the temple. You should direct that energy against Allion, who would set fire to these holy grounds. Now step back all of you. Step back!¡±

    Impressive though he was, the over-excited men would not so easily back down. Since he looked as though he was going to get in their way, several among them seemed like they were going to start by dealing with him first.

    ¡°Fools!¡±

    Camus spun the spear in his hand to bring up the tip ¨C and jabbed the butt end into a ruffian¡¯s stomach. He too moved with the speed of wind and lightning. His opponent collapsed without a murmur.

    ¡°Bastard!¡±

    Another man swooped in to attack and was dealt with in the same way.

    By that time, Percy had was also rushing in, and he kicked back an opponent who was about to slice at the boy.

    You¡¯re helping me? said the boy¡¯s face as he watched was happening. It was the first time Percy saw him from close up, but just as his voice had indicated, he was young. His eyes held an expression just as sharp as Camus¡¯s, but the expression he fleetingly showed in that instant was very young.

    The boy was about to immediately kick at the ground and launch himself at another target of prey, when Percy caught him by the shoulder. Completely unprepared for that, the boy turned a startled face towards him. Percy hooked his leg around the boy¡¯s knees and collapsed with him to the ground.

    ¡°What¡¯re you doing!¡±

    As the boy squirmed face downwards, Percy quickly pressed his knee against the centre of the boy¡¯s back to stop him from moving.

    Just as the ruffians, seeing their chance, started to gather around, he raised his voice to bring them under control.

    ¡°You lot cease as well!¡±

    Camus, who had just finished toppling the other men, ran up to Percy¡¯s side and took up position as though to defend him. He once again spun his spear, and this time; it was the sharp tip that was pointed towards the men.

    Either they had heard the commotion or someone had alerted them, but it was at that moment that monks from the temple came rushing up, their footsteps pounding. Even if the men were originally bandits or thieves, here and now, the temple monks were their employers. The man who seemed to be their chief gave a small click of his tongue.

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to lose work over this. We¡¯re off.¡±

    His large back heaving, he left with his men. The only ones left were Percy, Camus and the boy who was still shouting ¡°Lemme go, lemme go!¡± He was the only one who was not about to stop kicking up a racket. Despite his slender frame, he was terrifically strong, and Percy, who was pressing down on him with his full body weight, felt as though he might be sent flying at any moment.

    Because of how violently he was acting, the monks took out a rope and trussed him up.

    Percy could somewhat sympathise and was about to tell the monks that the fight wasn¡¯t entirely his fault. Just then, laughter as clear as a bell rang out.

    ¡°Honestly, tied up like that, you really are just like a monkey,¡± Sarah stood next to the boy who was lying prone on the ground.

    For some reason or another, she started to take off one of her boots. Her appearance, as she lifted her foot and nimbly unfastened the laces, was most definitely not that of a lady. The young monks looked away from the slender white leg that was now exposed to full view.

    The boy, meanwhile, was glaring at her.

    ¡°The hell, who¡¯s a monkey? Don¡¯t go making fun of a man, little girl.¡±

    ¡°A man? Where¡¯s this man you speak of? Isn¡¯t there only a little monkey, screeching and squeaking?¡±

    While speaking in a way that left Percy startled, Sarah went on to do something even more unthinkable. With her now naked foot, she stepped on the boy¡¯s head. ¡°You bitch!¡± as the boy growled, she trod on him once more.

    ¡°Don¡¯t talk as though you¡¯re an adult. Do you know what you just did? The meals that are distributed come from food that belonged to the people who live here. Everyone brought out their own provisions to help feed the soldiers. But you went and overturned the pot. Look at those children over there. Their stomachs are going to go empty until evening. You just go barging in without thinking ahead: how is that not exactly like a monkey?¡±

    With her lovely face and the clerical robes she was wearing, Sarah¡¯s figure as she trampled on a ruffian¡¯s head was reminiscent of the legend of a saint who had once driven away a group of rowdy gnomes from a barn with nothing but her broom.

    The boy gave a low groan but did not protest. Judging by his expression, he had only just realised that he had spilled the contents of the pot.

    In the end, the boy, who was still tied up, was hauled away by the monks. Although Percy and Camus explained the circumstances, the rule about not fighting within the temple precincts had to be enforced. He was to be locked up in the temple cellars until the next morning.

    ¡°Honestly, what a needless fight,¡± Camus sighed as he brushed clean the hem of his clerical robe.

    Percy walked up to him. ¡°Your skill with the spear is amazing. Where were you taught?¡±

    ¡°What are you saying,¡± Camus modestly shook his head. ¡°In the past, a wandering martial arts master happened to stay in the same place where I was. I learned from him as a way of passing the time. That was only for a month, and after that, I just trained by myself.¡±

    If what he said about being self-taught was true, then he must have put himself through ridiculously rigorous daily training. Moreover, from what Percy had observed, his movements were free from hesitation and belonged to someone who had actual combat experience.

    ¡°Your younger sister also seems to have quite a temperament.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ well, that¡¯s how she is,¡± his expression grim, Camus turned his face away. The wild warrior monk seemed to have some trouble handling his little sister.

    Sarah, meanwhile, had walked up to the children who had been among those watching the fight. The older ones were comforting a young child who was crying from hunger. Sarah handed each of them an empty bowl.

    ¡°Does everyone have one? Then let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°Where to?¡± asked the children.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to go around and ask everyone else to share a little bit each,¡± Sarah laughed.

    I see, thought Percy. Although she was only a girl, her beauty was already like a flower in full bloom, so if she went with them to plead for food, the men in town would not be able to turn them down. Perhaps even the rough thugs would blushingly offer the contents of their bowls.

    ¡°Where are the two of you from,¡± Percy asked casually.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where we were born,¡± answered Camus, in a somewhat brusque tone. ¡°This temple is where we are now studying, it¡¯s our home, and it¡¯s the temple the we must protect even at the cost of our own lives.¡±

    Percy gave a nod.

    ¡°It hasn¡¯t been seven years since the temple was rebuilt. So there wouldn¡¯t be any monks who were born and raised here. Everyone has gathered here from different places and with their own circumstance. That rowdy boy must also have had his own reasons. And of course, Lord Shalling and the principality of Atall do to.¡±

    Perhaps because Percy was harking back to the conversation they had been having before the boy put on that display, Camus pursed his stubborn-looking lips and stayed silent.

    Percy continued,

    ¡°As far as I know, however, you can take it that the principality of Atall will not take action. Some whimsical noble rushing over here at the head of his private army¡­ that will also only happen this once. To what extent does Bishop Rogress have a plan for what comes next?¡±

    ¡°The bishop isn¡¯t one to commit mistakes,¡± Camus said sullenly. ¡°We only need to follow his instructions. If we do, the path will surely be opened before us.¡±

    You don¡¯t even believe that yourself, Percy almost blurted out, but he kept his mouth shut. Even so, Camus raised the thick eyebrows that revealed his violent temper better than anything else could, and launched into a counterattack.

    ¡°Sir Percy, although it may be rude of me to say this to someone who has taken the trouble to come running here, but I can¡¯t rid myself of the feeling that you are looking at this from afar. After all, as far as you¡¯re concerned, none of this has anything much to do with you. Compared to you, those who gathered here in search of a daily salary and meal are far more implicated in this fight. If you don¡¯t have a good reason for putting your life on the line, then war is just meaningless mutual killing. You seem exactly like a sulky child who feels hard done by because you were sent here. You have my sympathy.¡±

    I don¡¯t need it ¨C Percy stopped himself from saying while almost admiring Camus: he might be a little simplistic, but he was a good judge of people. Percy deliberately avoided thinking about how that was in line with his own bitter feelings.

    Part 3

    The boy introduced himself as ¡®Kuon¡¯.

    It was a strange name. That the boy himself turned aside and almost spat it out was probably because he had been laughed at every time he had given it since he was here. In this area, ¡®kuon¡¯ was the sound used when imitating a dog¡¯s bark, and puppies especially might childishly be called ¡°kuonkuons¡±.

    He said that he was from the mountainous region south of the Kesmai Plains.

    That place?

    Percy felt that things made sense now. He had never been there himself, but maps of the principality depicted a mountain range known as ¡°the Fangs¡± beyond those plains. Because of how rugged and inaccessible they were, these mountains were cut off from the surrounding countries, and he had heard that they were inhabited by people with unique customs, commonly referred to simply as ¡°the mountain people¡±.

    They made their living by hunting and by fishing in the bay that lay further south of the mountain range. The young men also had another task. Bandits, outlaws being chased by their countries, the occasional group belonging to fallen nobles... ¨C exactly like Conscon Temple, there were plenty of people who tried to invade that land which lay apart from other countries. Every time, the young men would pick up their swords and guns. Because they had constructed a small harbour in the bay, they had their own independent trade routes, and so it was easy for them to obtain weapons. They were a tribe which did not accept being ruled by others: they had a strong sense of autonomy, and they would bravely oppose any group that threatened their way of life.

    Kuon probably also had a history of taking arms and fighting invaders. The precision of his movements suddenly made sense if it had been honed through actual combat.

    When he asked him his age, ¡°Eighteen,¡± was the answer he got back.

    ¡°That¡¯s a lie to make it easier to get yourself hired, isn¡¯t it?¡± Percy retorted as they walked alongside each other. ¡°I¡¯d put you at about sixteen.¡±

    Kuon didn¡¯t reply but, for a second, his eyes opened wide. Bull¡¯s eye, Percy decided.

    It was the morning after the brawl. Percy Leegan had waited outside the temple for Kuon to be released. If he left him by himself, those bandits might aim for him. Although aware that he was meddling, Percy had paced around waiting for him since early in the morning, feeling that he was acting precious. Perhaps it was a way of refuting Camus¡¯s accusation that he looked on coldly at other people¡¯s affairs.

    Kuon had appeared, escorted out by two warrior monks armed with spears. The second he had seen Percy, his eyes narrowed. He had not forgotten the previous day¡¯s grudge.

    Here I was, waiting in the same frame of mind as I would a lover, and you¡¯re being so cold¡­ Deciding not to say that, Percy lined himself up beside the boy and took a look at him.

    His frame was small, but judging from yesterday¡¯s affair, those arms and legs concealed unexpected amounts of strength. He was still only a teenage boy. If he grew well, he would probably fill out impressively within two or three years.

    Although his features still had a trace of childishness, his eyes smouldered with constant irritation and dissatisfaction. Be it Camus ¨C the young monk that he had met the previous day ¨C or Percy himself, there wasn¡¯t a single young man who would feel anything except displeased over the current situation, but Kuon¡¯s displeasure seemed particularly pronounced.

    As they walked, Percy tossed him what he had been holding.

    ¡°Breakfast,¡± he explained, and produced his own portion.

    It was a kind of orange that grew on the mountain, commonly called ¡®Raya¡¯s fruit¡¯ in honour of a saint from the temple who had become famous in his own lifetime. The skin was comparatively cold and had a very sour taste, so children tended to spit it out as soon as they put it in their mouths.

    They started to walk side-by-side.

    ¡°Raya¡¯s fruit has hard skin,¡± Percy took out a knife and deftly peeled his orange. Just as he was about to offer to do Kuon¡¯s too, the boy started to gnaw at the peel directly with his teeth, chomping as he rotated it.

    Cute, thought Percy.

    ¡°What? Why are you grinning? It¡¯s creepy,¡± Kuon said as he spat out the orange peel. Since earlier, he had been walking fast to try and leave Percy behind, but Percy had matched him and stuck with him.

    ¡°Heh. I was just thinking about my lover.¡±

    ¡°That so?¡±

    Percy chuckled as he turned his eyes away from the boy who was glaring at him again. He understood perfectly well why he was interested in the kid.

    Yesterday¡¯s incident had surprised Percy, but at the same time, he had found it ¨C interesting. At the very least, it wasn¡¯t the sort of thing that could have happened in the normal course of Percy Leegan¡¯s life up until then.

    The Leegan family had, for generations, owned a residence in Tiwana, Atall¡¯s capital city. Although they were a fairly prestigious family within the principality, they did not have a fixed territory. As the second son, Percy would neither inherit the residence nor become the head of the family, so instead, his father had recommended that he assist his older brother, who would one day inherit both.

    ¡°You could be a scholar. You have the eyes to bravely see to the bottom of things,¡± he told his son, but Percy was unable to meekly go along with it. Ever since he had been very young, he had been the sort of boy to prefer exhausting himself at martial arts rather than at studying. He could brag of being above average at the handling of sword, spear, horse and gun.

    Seven years ago, he had taken part in his first military campaign. Both his body and soul had been throbbing with excitement. However, because it was his first campaign, he had been stationed on standby in the rear, and he was only entrusted with meaningless tasks such as conveying messages even further back, or scouting out areas that the enemy wasn¡¯t anywhere near. In the end, he had barely sniffed the air of the battlefield before Atall and Allion had reached a peace agreement.

    Percy had cursed his bad luck. Thirteen was not too young to take part in his first campaign, but it was far too young to be able to take the head of an enemy general. Perhaps Atall¡¯s fighting spirit had been crushed in that war, but from then on, there had been no other opportunity to go to war. A year passed, and then another, and while his body grew sturdier, he was left with bitter feelings.

    If only I was given a place to shine, I would accomplish more for the country than anyone.

    His hazy longing for the battlefield wreaked havoc on his heart and mind. The few years of his mid-teens were a past Percy did not particularly want to look back on. He had gone to the pleasure quarters with several other youths who felt the same kind gloominess as he did, got into fights, and paid frequent visits to the house of a prostitute who was more than twenty years older than him.

    That prostitute had taught Percy a lot. People would probably have roared with laughter if they had known that she lived according to certain religious precepts. He had seen her laugh scornfully at herself for that very reason, yet among the many things that she had taught him, she had passed on a great many good-luck charms to him. Still, there was no denying that most of the things he had learned from her were related to night-time activities.

    The pleasure of debauchery and the boundless self-confidence that came from wanting to believe that he was special: those two elements competed within him for three years, during his period of puberty.

    It was also around about that time that he had met his now fianc¨¦e, Liana.

    He had got to know her at a ball held by her father, who was one of the vassal lords. Her wisdom, her liveliness and, above all, her beauty caused mayhem among the young men of his age. As bad luck would have it, that day, Percy had gotten completely drunk. Egged on by his companions, he had written Liana a love letter as a joke. He had lined up magnificently intricate phrases, which were ostensibly quoting masterpieces from poetry of the ages, but which actually had been filled with hidden sexual metaphors. He and his companions had laughed uncontrollably as they passed it around.

    He had not thought that they would actually convey the letter to her.

    When he found out about it the next morning, Percy had turned pale. After thrashing the friend who had sent the letter, he had hurriedly requested to meet her. Kneeling before her, he had apologised for his rudeness. All the alcohol he had drunk the previous evening turned into a cold sweat that dissipated from his body. After this, he would have had no room to complain even if his house had disowned him. He would have brought it on himself.

    ¡°Please lift up your head,¡± Liana had said. ¡°And first of all, please don¡¯t worry. Since I¡¯m a very lazy student, I really don¡¯t know understand these ¡®words of unparalleled vulgarity¡¯ that you are apologising for. I was impressed by the person who had written such a difficult, fastidious and old-fashioned letter. Since I am so lacking in education, won¡¯t you go over and explain your lines one-by-one?¡±

    Although he couldn¡¯t say that it had completely transformed him, that was definitely when something in him had changed.

    Having reached twenty, he had managed a reconciliation with Lady Liana, with his parents ¨C who had deplored his debauched ways ¨C, and with his own childish inner turmoil, but the blood still boiled inside him.

    Which was why he had been excited when he had received orders to ¡°go to Conscon Temple as reinforcement¡±.

    His position would be a platoon under the command of Lord Nauma Laumarl. In the Principality of Atall, only nobles had the right to lead troops. Percy was able to bring fifty men from the soldiers that his house had in its employ. Compared to other houses, which had hired soldiers temporarily, his men had honed their skills through training. He was certain that he would definitely be able to play an active role in the fighting.

    But when he heard about things in detail, it appeared that the identity of Atall¡¯s troops were to be concealed. He was given strict orders not to hoist the flag of the principality ¨C naturally ¨C but also to avoid flying any flag bearing the crest of the House of Leegan.

    Which means I won¡¯t be able to increase either my military fame or my family honour.

    Percy¡¯s plans had fallen through. There was, of course, no splendid seeing off of the troops. The five hundred soldiers under Nauma Laumarl¡¯s command each left, concealing themselves from public view, and met up in a forest someway apart from the highway, before silently carrying on towards the temple. Most of the soldiers did not talk even when they stopped to take rest. Only their commander, Nauma, had cracked cheerful jokes.

    ¡°I wonder if we should also wear masks to hide our faces. That¡¯ll make us look much more mysterious and threatening,¡± he had suggested to the retainers. The story about being descended from one of the noble families of the Magic Dynasty was also an idea that he had dreamed up during the march.

    On top of all of that, what Percy was the most fed up with, was how Nauma Laumarl took every opportunity to summon him and give him chores to do. He would order him to gather firewood, to draw water from tiny brooks, or to do yet another head count of the soldiers.

    From time immemorial, the people of Houses Laumarl and Leegan had been on bad terms. It was said that back in the days of Percy¡¯s grandfather, while heading together towards the same battlefield, they had been so zealous about tripping each other up that the sovereign-prince had eventually given them a direct reprimand.

    Since they were both proud families, they had, in recent times, avoided letting things come to a head, but two years ago, at a horseback joust held in Atall¡¯s capital city, an unfortunate opportunity had arisen.

    Crowds of representatives from each house, or their proxies, took part in that tournament. Percy, who had only just put the vices of his puberty behind him, had also been told to participate by his father.

    He had always been confident in his own martial prowess, and he was proven right when he won in the quarterfinals against Nauma. There were many who knew about the relationship between the two families; the enthusiasm swelled to fever-pitch on the competition grounds, and that excitement had set young Percy¡¯s blood boiling.

    The two armour-clad opponents drove their horses towards one another, carrying blunt spears. Contestants received a point if, after they struck them with their spear, their opponent was either unseated from their horse or their posture was thrown too greatly off-balance. Whoever was the first to earn two points was the winner.

    Percy brilliantly took the first point. If he had wanted to, he could easily have taken the second as well. However, Percy went through the motions of swinging his spear, but when Nauma flinched, he did not strike him, and instead, when they were passing by each other, he had plucked the feather attached to Nauma¡¯s helmet. He then brandished it towards the surroundings that burst into cheers and applause. What particularly appealed to them was that it could only have been done if there was a considerable difference in skill between the contestants.

    Percy had absolutely not acted out of maliciousness towards Nauma or the Laumarl House. It was simply that he had wanted to respond to the excitement on the competition grounds, and that it was the perfect opportunity to dispel his own gloomy feelings. Naturally, however, the other party did not see it that way.

    ¡°That was obnoxious.¡±

    With that declaration, Nauma had dismounted and left the competition grounds. It was not a gracious withdrawal, but Percy¡¯s attitude had not been praiseworthy either, and as a result, the verdict that was handed down was that both families were to be banned from the tournament for a year.

    Since then, the relation between the two houses had grown stormy again.

    For Nauma, who harboured a personal hatred towards Percy, this mission was an unexpectedly lucky opportunity. Even though his unhappiness at having to hide his family name was identical to Percy¡¯s, the main point was that the man he detested had been placed under him. The consequence of that was the above-mentioned treatment that Percy was receiving.

    If this continues throughout the war¡­ Percy bitterly resented the entire situation. To make matters worse, when they arrived at the temple, they found that its troops were lacking and were, to put it bluntly, a disorderly mob. Nor could they expect any further reinforcements.

    We¡¯re going to lose.

    That was his honest opinion. If Allion took up battle positions and advanced, forget a month, they wouldn¡¯t last ten days. It was true that the temple had positioned canons on the high ground and had deployed soldiers armed with guns by the main gates, so they did have something resembling a battle formation, but at the end of the day, because they had widely recruited mercenaries, there were plenty of people of dubious origin here, and among them there were probably ¨C or rather, there were absolutely certainly ¨C any number of spies from Allion.

    Percy¡¯s cause for bitterness just kept growing deeper. Yesterday, Camus had told him that: ¡°I feel that you are keeping your distance from other people¡¯s affairs, and that you have the attitude of a sulky child,¡± but it was only natural that Percy¡¯s heart should be far from elated at the prospect of a basically useless battlefield, where he would have no chance of gaining fame, and where defeat was clear from the start.

    Still¡­

    Percy looked towards Kuon, who was eating an orange next to him. His clothes and the area around his mouth were covered in juice. Percy was seized by the impulse to personally wipe it off.

    Could you call it paternal love? Smiling at his own ridiculous thoughts, he continued his conversation with Kuon.

    ¡°When did you leave the mountain?¡±

    ¡°Who knows.¡±

    Cold.

    Considering that he didn¡¯t seem used to this area, though, Percy guessed that it couldn¡¯t even have been a month since he had left his native land.

    ¡°Why did you leave?¡±

    ¡°Who knows.¡±

    ¡°Are you thinking of making your fortune with a sword?¡±

    ¡°Who knows,¡± Kuon repeated again.

    Percy did not give up.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like you have any weapons. Did you leave with nothing but yourself?¡±

    ¡°I brought a sword and a bow. But the bow got broken along the way, and the sword¡­ I got so hungry, I sold it in a village while I was travelling.¡±

    ¡°You sold it? That not¡­¡± Percy shrugged, genuinely at a loss. ¡°Stop by my unit later. I can give you a sword at least. I¡¯ll lend you a bow, too, if you need it. And with that, you can forgive me for yesterday.¡±

    ¡°I really don¡¯t get it.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°The one who was wrong was that big guy who acting like an idiot. So why was I the only one caught like an escaped monkey¡­ dog, and shoved into a cellar?¡±

    Percy grinned in spite of himself. He felt like he knew why Kuon had corrected himself when he said ¡°monkey¡±.

    ¡°Well, that, huh? If Camus and me hadn¡¯t seized you back there, things would have gotten a lot worse.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have lost.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not what it was about.¡±

    Percy¡¯s smile was starting to get strained again when Kuon stopped.

    Camus was in a grassy patch to the left of the mountain path that the two of them were walking along. He was swinging a spear by himself. He almost seemed to be soaring as he shifted the position of his feet, and he was repeatedly adjusting his grip and jabbing at the empty air. There was whistle of wind as he did so. He was stripped naked to the waist and sweat was flying from where his muscles were vigorously flexing and contracting. He stopped when he noticed them.

    ¡°Ah, Boy. Were you let out? That was quick. Oh, Sir Percy as well.¡±

    ¡°Even though I went out of my way to go and meet him, he¡¯s been giving me nothing but indifference.¡±

    Perhaps because of what had happened the previous day, both Percy and Camus had unbent a little. Incidentally, aside from Kuon being sixteen, Percy was twenty and Camus, according to what was said yesterday, was apparently nineteen. Probably because his eyebrows were constantly set at a stern angle, Camus tended to look five or six years older than his actual age.

    Percy introduced the boy to Camus as ¡®Kuon¡¯.

    ¡°Well then Kuon, you have us to thank. You came from the countryside so you probably don¡¯t know your way around at all. But if you let your instinct get you into fights, then sooner or later, some bandit or another will catch you napping and kill you. Or maybe you¡¯ll find yourself left with only the shirt on your back, and I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if two or three days after that, you didn¡¯t end up joining a band of ruffians and working as a robber yourself.¡±

    Kuon flushed red.

    ¡°Don''t you call me a robber. I¡¯ve already carved up any number of those bastards.¡±

    ¡°In the case of enemies, obviously, killing them isn¡¯t a problem,¡± said Percy. ¡°But everyone here is, more or less, an ally. Since we¡¯re going to be facing a powerful foe, it¡¯s best not to quarrel with friends, you know?¡±

    ¡°As soon as he made fun of me and threw food at me, that guy became an enemy,¡± Kuon erupted angrily. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t have had any right to complain even if I¡¯d killed him on the spot.¡±

    ¡°That must be how things are done where you¡¯re from,¡± Camus¡¯s spoke in a vaguely interested tone as he wiped away his sweat. ¡°But when you go to a different place, the way of doing things is, naturally, also different. In your case, you probably have neither creed nor faith, so you need to learn how things are done here if you want to live long. With your way of doing things, you¡¯ll make ten new enemies in a day. In ten days, there¡¯ll be a hundred. Even you can¡¯t cut down a hundred or a thousand enemies.¡±

    ¡°If I kill them on the day they become enemies, then there won¡¯t be a hundred after ten days.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s this? This guy has an answer to everything.¡±

    They traded retorts. By no means did Camus seem like a patient person, and his eyebrows were already starting to bristle. Sensing that fact, Kuon jumped backwards.

    ¡°You want to bring it on? You meddled with my fight yesterday, so that means that you¡¯re also part of the enemies I made yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Aha, ha, ha, ha,¡± Camus bent his head backwards and laughed heartily. That was probably because Kuon¡¯s taunts sounded completely wrong in his high-pitched voice. No doubt Camus found it cute.

    Kuon, however, was sensitive to being laughed at after yesterday. His expression changed entirely and he leaped towards Camus.

    ¡°Oh!¡±

    Camus avoided the fist at the last second, but his expression had changed. He spun the spear he was holding and aimed its handle at the bridge of Kuon¡¯s nose. The way Kuon suddenly drew back his head and avoided it looked, just as Sarah had said, more like the movement of a wild beast than of a warrior.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mess with me, boy. Next time, I won''t miss.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t miss, I dodged. But same here, next time, I¡¯ll bloody your face for you.¡±

    ¡°This guy¡¯s always got more to say,¡± Camus, half-wrathful, half-astounded, seemed genuinely fascinated by this almost feral boy. His expression changed once more.

    ¡°You really seem like a lost cause, but it is to ignorant men like you that we need to preach God¡¯s teachings. Kuon, would you not receive baptism and the revelation of God? Your hardened heart may find some comfort from them. Through that comfort, your heart will be nourished and, with an enriched heart and mind, you will be able to find meaning to your life. If you continue on in this situation, biting anyone around you, only the life of a stray dog awaits you.¡±

    His appeal at least had the effect of leaving Percy flabbergasted.

    ¡°God, huh? The mountain had a mountain god,¡± for some reason, Kuon¡¯s tone grew even more vicious and he shook off the hand that Camus was about to touch his shoulder with. ¡°Even though God uses people to carry out the punishments that he hands down, he never grants the desperate prayers that people send up.¡±

    ¡°It is not for God to grant prayers, Kuon. To love God is first to face oneself. Once your heart is filled with modesty, it will be emptied and, in every phenomenon that you encounter, you will be able to find God.¡±

    On the evening of the day that strange exchange took place, another incident occurred. One that again involved Kuon, Camus and Percy.

    Percy had returned to his unit for a while to check on the soldiers. Nauma, his superior officer, had been summoned to the temple. It was for a council of war, but Percy did not know what exactly they were meeting to talk about. Broadly speaking, it was Bishop Rogress who was in full command: the warrior monks were certainly full of spirit, but they were amateurs in actual military affairs.

    Once Percy returned to town, he found that Kuon and Camus were still together.

    Oh? Is really is trying to make Kuon into a servant of God?

    A brand-new sword was hanging at the boy¡¯s back: Percy had given it to him, just as he had promised. Camus, a book in one hand, was about to launch into some sort of impassioned speech, whereas Kuon had was resting his chin in his hands and was staring absentmindedly at where children were playing in front of the houses.

    You can preach, but he isn¡¯t listening to a single word.

    Percy¡¯s lips formed into a smile. Still, when he was daydreaming, Kuon looked defenceless and very young. The irritation and displeasure that were constantly blazing in his gaze seemed to lose some of their intensity. Percy could remember: young people sometimes didn¡¯t know what to do with the forcefulness of their emotions, and would go as still as a cat sleeping in the sun.

    Percy was about to call out to the two of them but swallowed his words before he could do so. The people walking along the street had stepped back to either side of it, making way for the band of ruffians who were swaggering boldly down the centre. It was the same bunch that had stirred up trouble with Kuon the previous day.

    Rigaund, wasn¡¯t it?

    After what had happened yesterday, Percy had been gathering information. Their chief was called Rigaund, and he had previously been a mercenary in a different country. However, when it had come to light that he was secretly receiving funds from the enemy, he had promptly escaped over the border. There, he had joined a group of bandits and, in barely a year, he had gathered two hundred subordinates.

    More than half of them, though, had originally belonged to a different band; Rigaund had killed their chief and absorbed the rest of them into his own group. The bald man who was currently sauntering at his side had once been an underling in that other gang, and it was said that he had been the one to help Rigaund. Perhaps in recognition of that service, he had been appointed as his vice-chief.

    Kuon eyed them with hatred. He clearly couldn¡¯t stomach yielding the road to them.

    ¡°Humans intent on serious matters do not concern themselves with trifles,¡± Camus grasped him by the shoulder and pulled him back.

    Noticing Kuon¡¯s presence, Rigaund¡¯s lips curved into a supercilious smile.

    ¡°Oh-ho, yesterday¡¯s monkey? That was a lot of fun. Don¡¯t you want to play today?¡±

    Kuon didn¡¯t answer. He seemed to think that the previous day¡¯s uproar might have been a bit overboard.

    ¡°Lost your nerve, I see,¡± this time, Rigaund laughed out loud. ¡°The beast is chained up and howling from its cage.¡±

    Just as he was about to go past Kuon, someone stepped out into to middle of the road from among the crowd of people on either side.

    ¡°Oi!¡± Camus raised his voice.

    Since they were right in front of him, Rigaund had no choice but to stop.

    ¡°What?¡± yet although his expression was threatening as he asked that question, he did not appear particularly angry. Which was understandable, given that the person who had stepped out was a woman ¨C or rather, it would be more appropriate to call her a girl.

    It was Sarah, Camus¡¯s younger sister. She was smiling, and her smile was resplendent enough to turn the darkness into light.

    Rigaund responded with a vulgar smirk. ¡°Little miss nun, why don¡¯t you come play with us instead? You¡¯ll have a way better time than with that ball-less brat.¡±

    Camus¡¯ expression started to darken. That was hardly surprising since his little sister was being treated like a prostitute. Sarah, however, continued smiling with her hands clasped behind her back.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t there someone else you should be playing with before me?¡± she spoke teasingly. Who knew what she was thinking.

    Rigaund was still smirking but the mouth hidden beneath his black beard soon shut when Sarah leaped towards his chest with startling agility and whispered something his ear.

    ¡°¡­ she¡¯s called. You get on well with her, don¡¯t you?¡±

    It looked like she had given the name of someone he knew. While Rigaund remained silent, Sarah once again seemed to jump lightly, this time away from him.

    ¡°The place you¡¯re lodging at is a convent, right? Apart from the servants, the sisters also take it in turns to go and help do the cleaning and the laundry, right?¡±

    Rigaund looked away. The fifteen or sixteen men following behind him exchanged glances.

    There was a convent a little way away from the temple grounds. Normally, it was where the nuns and novices lived, but currently, as Sarah had just said, it was being used as a lodging house for soldiers.

    ¡°Is that how you came to have an eye on her? That girl is still only a novice, but before that, she used to be the wife of a blacksmith who lived at the foot of the mountain. She came here after losing her husband when she was young. Maybe that¡¯s why she¡¯s unusually sexy, even though she doesn¡¯t wear any makeup. It¡¯s no wonder she caught the eye of a man like you.¡±

    Kuon, Camus and Percy watched with suspicion as the conversation unfolded. Only Sarah was still smiling brightly.

    ¡°We¡¯re friends, her and me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah? That¡¯s nice. Oi, we¡¯re leaving,¡± Rigaund called out to his men, clearly unhappy with this conversation. Sarah, however, stood directly in his way.

    ¡°I wanted to thank you for getting along so well with her. To thank you for using the excuse that your clothes were torn, then pushing her down as soon as you got her alone.¡±

    ¡°Shut up, nun,¡± Rigaund finally barred his teeth. ¡°Move it. Or do you want me to make it so that you can¡¯t stand on your legs either?¡±

    Rigaund¡¯s men were getting noisy. It didn¡¯t look as though they were enjoying his joke. Percy watched them carefully. Rigaund had pretty much admitted that he had raped the woman. They were originally bandits, and that kind of group wasn¡¯t likely to censure him for something like that. They had come here as mercenaries, however. The fighting had not yet begun, and so they had not yet been paid. Percy noticed that a somewhat fed up expression flitted across the men¡¯s faces.

    Something similar has probably happened before. And more than once. That Rigaund¡¯s caused a mess and they¡¯ve had to look for work elsewhere without getting paid, Percy felt an instantaneous conviction.

    ¡°Oh, no. Here¡­¡±

    Sarah suddenly brought forward her hands which had been clasped behind her waist. She was grasping a gun. It was small compared to the weapons that infantrymen usually carried, and was the kind of short-barrelled gun that could be used from horseback, although its accuracy was also proportionality reduced. Which was why Sarah had placed herself right in front Rigaund.

    ¡°¡­have my thanks.¡±

    ¡°W-Wait,¡± fear coloured Rigaund¡¯s expression.

    Percy felt that it served him right, but he certainly did not expect her to unhesitatingly pull the trigger.

    Amidst the wind that carried the colours of dusk, the gun roared. A hole opened in Rigaund¡¯s forehead, and his huge body toppled backwards.

    Amidst the wind that carried the colours of dusk, the gun roared. A hole opened in Rigaund¡¯s forehead, and his huge body toppled backwards.

    The atmosphere in the streets changed completely: noise erupted, some thought it was an enemy attack, women screamed. And among that commotion ¨C

    ¡°Y-You bitch!¡±

    ¡°Now you¡¯ve done it!¡±

    Two of Rigaund¡¯s men who seemed especially hot-headed were about to lunge at Sarah with their broad blades drawn.

    Faster than Sarah could react, a whirlwind blew behind her. Just before the wind could hit her in the back, it parted in two.

    The right gust turned into Kuon. Unsheathing the sword at his back, he slashed straight through the arm of the man who was brandishing his blade overhead. In a gush of blood, the arm, severed at the elbow, went flying in the sky.

    The second gust of wind was Camus. He jabbed the butt end of his spear at the chest of the other man who had sprung towards Sarah.

    The men collapsed on either side of her. It happened so fast there was no time even to blink. For a moment, the other men stood there blankly, as though they thought they were hallucinating, and even Percy caught his breath.

    I thought Camus was good, but I didn¡¯t think he was that good. And Kuon¡­

    His earlier stillness, like that of a cat sleeping in the sun, had vanished who knew where, and with his naked steel blade at the ready, Kuon seemed as energised as though a fire had surged up from within him.

    The flames of irritation and displeasure that had been flickering in his eyes had suddenly dissolved, and those eyes were now simply gazing at enemies. Was that what a warrior looked like? For Percy, who was dragging along his regrets over his first campaign, it was an almost divine sight.

    He quickly tore his away from Kuon. This was no time to be lost in admiration: if things went on like this, allies on the same side would end up killing one another.

    Looking towards them, he saw that the men were still in shock.

    There it is ¨C this time, it was Percy who stepped forward. He was headed for the men who were belatedly reaching for the weapons hanging at their waists or from their backs.

    ¡°Wait, waitwait,¡± just like Camus had yesterday, he shouted loudly. He spread both his hands out, indicating that he was not going to go for a weapon. ¡°Rigaund went too far. Don¡¯t you agree, Matthew?¡± he called out.

    Matthew was the afore-mentioned vice-chief. The bald man blinked in confusion.

    ¡°H-How do you know my name?¡±

    ¡°Because everyone in your group¡¯s been talking about it. Saying that Rigaund guy is too hot-blooded whereas everything seems to go a lot smoother with Matthew. You guys there think so too, no? If you fight to avenge Rigaund here and now, it won¡¯t just be us you¡¯ll be facing, but all the monks at the temple.¡±

    Making use of his momentum, Percy talked as though his words represented the opinion of the entire temple. And in any case, both Camus and Sarah were wearing clerical robes. The men¡¯s expressions, Matthew¡¯s included, turned hesitant. Rigaund hadn¡¯t been their chief for very long, and there was basically not a single one of them who was willing to risk their life to get revenge for him. For the rest, it was a question of honour.

    ¡°Setting that aside ¨C Matthew, if you could gather up the men and talk to them. The temple too would rather have you as their leader than a rapist like Rigaund. I and Camus here will negotiate with the top brass.¡±

    Percy didn¡¯t give the other side time to question anything. As a result, Matthew put away his weapon.

    ¡°That¡¯d better not be a lie.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to make enemies out of you.¡±

    Matthew walked up to the man whose right arm had been sliced through and who was faint with agony, dragged him up by the shoulders, and forced him to stand. He had set look in his eyes. He was a man who had only ever followed and obeyed others, but this was probably the decisive turning point for him. As he was leaving, he spat on Rigaund¡¯s corpse.

    ¡°The cur caused far too much trouble.¡±

    Matthew called out to the men and, one after another, they crossed the street, following after him. Only the corpse and the crowd about to break into a commotion were left. Among them ¨C

    ¡°Sarah, what were you planning?¡± infuriated, Camus walked up to his sister. ¡°Were you even thinking? What would have happened if we hadn¡¯t been there?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± even while apologising, Sarah was laughing breathlessly. ¡°But of course I was thinking. After firing once, I was planning to run and hide behind that building, then pick of the guys who gave chase one by one.¡±

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have been able to keep up that level of shooting. You¡¯d have been caught in no time.¡±

    ¡°I hid guns all over the place. So I could have kept up rapid fire.¡±

    The argument seemed to be veering off in a somewhat strange direction. Percy watched the two siblings, his heart throbbing. He had helped to carry corpses and seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefields during his first campaign, but this was definitely his first time actually witnessing a woman shoot someone down.

    And yet, what left him dumbfounded was Sarah¡¯s smile and insouciance. Thin trails of gunpowder smoke wafted through the surrounding air, and the smell of blood started to assail his nostrils. A point in Percy¡¯s chest burned hot. It was partly also because of having witnessed Kuon and Camus¡¯s martial prowess right before his eyes. For a second, Percy felt dizzy from the strange sensation that all his different, jumbled-up emotions were melting into that heat and being boiled together in it.

    No, it wasn¡¯t just the feelings coursing through his blood that were cast into that heat, but all of those days that he had spent as the second son of the Leegan House. All that time during which he had been protected by stone walls, during which he had read, trained, taken part in jousting tournaments, played pranks with other youths his age, and burned with regrets that were appropriate to his age, all of those experiences, seemed about to turn into bubbles and burst.

    Meanwhile, Kuon, who had been silent until he had wiped the gore from his sword and returned it to its scabbard, now started muttering just deliberately loud enough to be heard.

    ¡°Makes sense,¡± he carefully enunciated each word, probably conscious of how thick his accent was, ¡°Is this what you guys mean about thinking ahead before you act? Is she acting like how things are done here, and is that god¡¯s way of doing things? At the end of the day, it¡¯s not a bit different from how I do things.¡±

    Camus grimaced at the obvious sarcasm.

    ¡°My younger sister is still only partway there. Just like you, she needs to spend time from here on studying God¡¯s teachings and¡­¡±

    ¡°Yesterday, that one who¡¯s ¡®partway there¡¯ called me a monkey and stepped on my face.¡±

    Camus had nothing he could say in response to that. Percy¡¯s instincts were telling him that for all this boy called Kuon had been brought up differently than he would have been in a town, he was no fool.

    ¡°What¡¯s this,¡± Sarah¡¯s always slightly slanted eyebrows tilted at a sharper angle than usual. ¡°And here I was planning to thank you. Are you never happy unless you¡¯re kicking up a fuss?¡±

    ¡°What your big brother said was right. If you¡¯d been alone, you¡¯d be dead. Tortured to death at that. If you want to live long, you need to change the way you live.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    They had only met the day before, but Percy reflected that people who were able to shut both siblings up were probably rare.

    Just like yesterday, a stream of monks came running. Percy and Camus were pressed into explaining the situation to them. As though to say this had nothing to do with him, Kuon was slipping away by himself, out from the ring of people. Sarah, who should have been the main person concerned by it all, also stole quickly away from the group.

    ¡°Kuon,¡± she called out to him.

    The boy looked back, startled. The girl dressed like a nun gave him a broad grin. ¡°I heard your name from my big brother. Anyway, this is just to say thanks. Thank you for earlier.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t need it. They were pissing me off too. So much, I wanted to kill the big guy myself.¡±

    ¡°You really seem offended,¡± Sarah¡¯s smile was replaced with an irritated expression. ¡°If you¡¯re saying that I¡¯m the same today as you were yesterday, then please, by all means, you should drag me down and trample all over my head and neck,¡± she stuck out her chest with a challenging attitude. She was probably unyielding by nature.

    ¡°I¡¯d be stupid to do the same thing as a little girl,¡± was all that Kuon said before walking away down the street and disappearing from sight.

    Sarah stood standing there in silence for a moment, but, after a few seconds, a torrent of insults that were incredible coming from the servant of a god started spilling at terrific speed from her plump, shapely lips.

    References and Translation Notes

    1. ¡ü Pronounced like the name of the French author, with a silent ¡®s¡¯.

 Volume 1, 3: Raising the Curtain

    Volume 1, Chapter 3: Raising the Curtain

    Part 1

    Although the violence Rigaund had committed had come to light ¨C the name of his victim was kept concealed as much as possible however ¨C Sarah could not escape censure, and she was locked away in the same cellar where Kuon had been kept overnight.

    Even so, it was an exception for wartime. Normally, a trial would have been held at the temple. Since Conscon did not fall under any country¡¯s jurisdiction, its laws originated from the temple. She could have been stripped of her position as a nun, but, in all honesty, the temple could not currently afford to be fussy over one criminal. In fact, since Sarah had demonstrated her skill with a gun, she actually became sought-after as a soldier.

    She was probably not going to be shut away for long. During that time, the group which was now headed by Matthew remained quiet; which was partly because the monks kept a strict eye on them. Their weapons were to remain confiscated unless an emergency arose.

    With that, Conscon Temple returned to calm for the time being ¨C but just as that seemed to be the case, things suddenly started moving.

    It had been three days since Sarah had been imprisoned. Early that evening, just when it would soon be time for the night watchmen to go on duty, a man came rushing up, gasping for breath. He was from a unit which had been scouting out the area around the mountain.

    ¡°Troops from Allion have been sighted!¡± he shouted out loud.

    According to what he said, there were twenty or thirty cavalrymen, followed by about twice that many ordinary soldiers. It looked as though they were a large reconnaissance force.

    The mountain erupted into action. The clang of swords and armour rang like the drums of war, with the men¡¯s deep voices acting as the chorus. Then, without waiting for instructions from the temple, the mercenaries wilfully advanced down the mountain paths. Since there was no set organisation of troops apart from the lookouts and the scouting units, those who could take action did so with enthusiasm. It wasn¡¯t that there was absolutely no chain of command, but it was a fact that it took time for the higher-ups at the temple to respond, and it was made clear that both those handing down the orders and those receiving them were novices at this.

    Although Percy Leegan did worry fleetingly about that fact, his youthful blood thrilled with wild excitement. He issued commands to his own platoon and chose no more than twenty as an attack force. There was no time to pull on armour. Each soldier held a lantern aloft as they raced down, and the enemy troops were detected in a village near the foot of the mountain. In their unit, only Percy was on horseback.

    ¡°Go!¡±

    With just one word, they plunged towards the enemy group. His heart was beating wildly, and he had the illusion that it was doing so in step with the way his entire body was jolted up and down on horseback. The instant he saw an enemy face appear in sight within the red light of the flames, Percy thrust his spear at them.

    The enemy weren¡¯t wearing armour either, perhaps because they wanted to be able to move lightly while on reconnaissance. When the spearhead was swallowed away out of Percy¡¯s field of vision, he felt a heavy resistance, and, from his elbow to his shoulder, and then by way of his chest, the sound of a thud reverberated down to the pit of his stomach. That was the moment in which he took an enemy¡¯s life for the first time.

    He did not shout out that he had done it, and it was only within his own heart that Percy yelled for joy.

    I won¡¯t slip up when I¡¯m grasping a spear. I can do it. I¡¯m strong. I can slaughter my enemies. I can survive.

    Camus and Kuon¡¯s warrior-like appearance were vividly in his mind. He felt that he hadn¡¯t lost to them.

    There was no leeway afterwards to think of anything. There was nothing but blindly jabbing at the enemy and desperately parrying the swords or spears with which the enemy lunged at him. Time and again, he felt the enemy¡¯s breath on his face. He saw endless scenes of steel striking down heads or limbs. Amidst it all, he repeatedly heard something that sounded like gunshots ringing in the distance.

    Allies, probably. They can shoot at fleeing enemies, but they¡¯re holding back from firing into those fighting because of the confusion, he though in the one small corner of his brain that was still capable of rational thinking.

    ¡°Retreat, retreat!¡±

    He heard from afar a voice that seemed to belong to an Allian soldier, and the rough fight came to an end.

    The result of it was that Percy had killed two enemies. The first was the mounted soldier from right at the start, and the other had been a foot soldier wielding a halberd. Apart from that, he had also wounded several, but not fatally.

    ¡°You fight well.¡±

    He suddenly realised that Camus was standing by his horse, which was snorting roughly, and stroking its neck. His clerical garb and the chainmail he wore beneath it were stained red. That of victims, no doubt; the person himself was smiling and seemed entirely healthy.

    ¡°Despite how you look, your way of fighting is impressive. Your way of handling your spear and horse is still a bit rough, but with some more experience, you¡¯ll be taking plenty of enemy heads.¡±

    He spoke just like a general. His expression was filled with even more energy and self-confidence than usual, which was proof that he too had brought down several enemies. It really was a shame that he was a monk. And then there was ¨C

    What about Kuon? He wondered about the boy who hid a wild pride within his heart. Turning his head this way and that from horseback, he could not catch sight of him. He was sure that Kuon must have been among the first to come rushing as soon as he heard that there were enemies.

    He can¡¯t possibly¡­ just as he was looking towards the figures that had fallen to the ground, Camus exclaimed, ¡°over there!¡± and started to run.

    It was the same direction as the one the enemy had fled in. Urging his horse forward, Percy overtook him and caught up with Kuon, who was running at terrifying speed. Sure enough, his sword was drenched in blood.

    ¡°Chasing too far is forbidden, Kuon. The enemy might have set up camp.¡±

    With Percy blocking him from horseback and Camus also having caught up and restraining him, Kuon reluctantly came to a halt. His breathing was uneven, but he did not seem particularly worn out.

    ¡°How many did you kill?¡±

    ¡°Three or four. And I injured a guy who looked like a commander. If I¡¯d caught with him, I could¡¯ve finished him off,¡± Kuon looked thoroughly annoyed as he spoke. His fighting spirit was practically pouring out of his pair of shinning eyes.

    ¡°There¡¯s no point if you end up having the tables turned on you. Are you injured?¡±

    At Percy¡¯s questions, Kuon looked over his own arms and legs. His nose wrinkled up as though in dislike from the smell of blood, but his answer was a simple ¡°no¡±. Percy smiled, thinking that this guy was really just adorable.

    ¡°If you want to rake up achievements, why don¡¯t you fight with my unit from now on? It would be more efficient than fighting at random by yourself,¡± he invited him.

    After pondering for a moment, Kuon replied, ¡°I¡¯m fine wherever. As long as you don¡¯t go on about too much annoying stuff.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a deal, then. Camus, how about you? I¡¯m still new at this, so would you help me to accumulate experience?¡±

    ¡°It is the duty of the faithful to guide young people down the right path,¡± Camus spoke with solemn reverence, although he was, in fact, a year younger than Percy.

    That day, in the temple that was drunk on victory, Percy announced that he had incorporated Kuon and Camus into his unit. The temple was unused to organising military formations, which also meant that it was not very strict about it. In that sense, it was very flexible.

    Although Nauma Laumarl had not taken part in the fighting, he was absolutely delighted that his ¡®subordinate¡¯ had accomplished such a feat.

    ¡°At my command, they¡­¡± he commented at length to the bishops about the battlefield that he had not personally witnessed.

    Of course, while it was a victory, they had done no more than repel a single enemy reconnaissance unit. Since this proved that Allion had started to take military action, the mountain, separate from its ecstatic atmosphere, was also increasingly starting to fill with nervous tension. Percy Leegan had prepared himself in body and mind for the attack that was sure to come in the near future.

    And yet ¨C

    While everyone expected Allion to advance in force, from the next day onward, they chose a completely different course of action. One after another, they pillaged the villages that were dotted around the base of Mount Conscon.

    From out of nowhere, armed groups suddenly appeared, laying waste to the fields and stealing the harvest and the livestock. The men who tried to oppose them were run through with spears thrust from horseback, or were pierced with arrows through the chest. When they ran out, the defenceless wives and daughters of the farmers were also snatched away.

    The villagers speculated that it was the work of bandits, or perhaps of marauding soldiers.

    Although these ¡®marauders¡¯ were sometimes also soldiers employed by the local domain lords, their salaries were low compared to those stationed at the castles. In compensation for that, in the border areas where it was difficult to extend any country¡¯s authority, they were allowed to demand a toll from merchants and wayfarers, in the name of ¡°providing a secure escort during your travels¡±. The rulers tacitly consented to this. In practice, the merchants could indeed travel safely under their escort. Moreover, the marauders occasionally proceeded to neighbouring countries and attacked the villages there. They pillaged, set fire, murdered and kidnapped. They hid where they came from, pretending to be outlaws or armed fishermen. These raids that earned them both profit and combat training could be carried out on the orders of their ruler. The military aim behind them included such things as attacking a foreign power, provoking them or providing a distraction.

    In Atall, the local domain lords frequently hired marauders to ravage other territories within their same country. Among them was a man whose infamy struck fear even in the House of the sovereign-prince, but those details can be left for later.

    In this current case, there was no doubt that these were Allion¡¯s forces. Either it was their troops disguising themselves as bandits, or they were employing local marauders. Since the villages around the temple did not belong to any country, once they were attacked, the only place the villagers could escape to in search of protection was the temple. The provisions which were sent from the villages to the mountain¡¯s markets were cut off, and on top of that, the temple had to care for a great deal more people.

    ¡°Stamp out the thieves,¡± Bishop Rogress ordered.

    By then, as was to be expected, the arrangement of units had been set. Every one of them were sent out to intercept them.

    Most of the marauders fled immediately when the encountered the temple¡¯s soldiers. The speed of their movements proved that they had good leadership. That made things difficult when the situation turned into a battle. While the warrior monks would protect the temple at all cost, the mish-mash groups of ruffians would, on the other hand, be the ones to first to flee if the opponents showed any resistance. And those opponents did not miss those signs of weakness.

    ¡°Now, give chase. Pursue, pursue!¡± They tore through those weak links and, as a result, instead of protecting the villages, the temple suffered a number of defeats.

    Percy¡¯s platoon was frequently sent out to clean up after these fights. Perhaps Nauma Laumarl found it the perfect way to get satisfaction since he touted him as ¡®a reliable commander¡¯, and sent him off into successive battles. Although unhappy about it, Percy could not go against orders. It was also a fact that nobody obtained better results than they did.

    Day and night Percy was pressed into service and made to ride out. As soon as the marauders decided that this was a strong opponent, they would flee. They seemed to scatter in every direction, yet next time they appeared, their movements once again displayed that they had leadership. Thinking they were about to press forward, the temple¡¯s side prepared to fight back, only to have them pull back again. It was a constant repetition of wasted effort.

    ¡°Damn them,¡± Camus ground his teeth in frustration. ¡°They act like cowards. It should be more dignified.¡±

    What should? Percy wondered silently. War was not only about powerful forces mutually colliding. There were plenty of cases that started and ended with nothing but diversions. This too was war. Yet at the same time, he could not help thinking that Allion¡¯s troops were behaving strangely.

    Perhaps they don¡¯t have the manpower to encircle the area around Mount Conscon. Or else, maybe their supply train doesn¡¯t have much leeway? Both are possible, he considered.

    He remembered what Bishop Rogress had once said: that Allion was not necessarily eager to suppress the temple. Perhaps only one portion within the country was fervently in favour of doing so. In which case, they would certainly not have any large amount of troops. It was doubtful that they even amounted to a thousand.

    Still, the temple was undeniably being made to endure hardship.

    If we stay on the defensive like this, the temple will continue suffer. Sooner or later, the food will run out and the mercenaries will be quick to turn traitor.

    On Bishop Rogress¡¯ orders, troops were to be stationed immediately within the villages. Again at Nauma¡¯s command, Percy¡¯s unit was to be among them. It was the same harsh workload as ever, but, for now, Percy had no objections. It wasn¡¯t just about preventing further damage to the villages: if the villagers grew weary of the fighting and surrendered to Allion, the foot of the mountain would instantly turn into an advance base from which to capture the temple. Going directly to the villages to offer the inhabitants peace of mind was part of the soldiers¡¯ duties.

    The village was surrounded by forest and numbered a few hundred households.

    Percy had a watchtower built, and sent scouts out to survey the area with greater secrecy than before. Before his departure for the front, the Leegan House had provided him with war funds which he now made free use of, buying a number of horses as well as various other things he wanted, which brought profit to the village blacksmiths and harness makers.

    Occasionally, he allowed the soldiers to go to the village¡¯s only tavern. Since they were forbidden from brawling with the villagers, a few people always had to remain sober. Camus was one of those who took on that responsibility. He had never had any great affinity for liquor. If some of the soldiers got too drunk and seemed about to cause trouble, his stout arms would remove them to the outside one after another.

    Then there was his other boon companion, Kuon, who even when he didn¡¯t have any ale in him was always at the centre of every fight.

    It was great that he had joined the unit but, at first, whenever Kuon caused a ruckus, Percy had to come rushing. The reasons for the fights were trivial. Things like: he had gotten laughed at for his name or for his accent, he had been cheated when gambling at dice, or, conversely, it could be because his careless manner of speaking earned him the antipathy of some of the younger soldiers.

    ¡°Nobody is particularly making fun of you,¡± Camus lectured him every time, ¡°it¡¯s just that you¡¯re unusual for them. If you leave it be, they¡¯ll soon get used to you. Unless you get upset at every little thing and swing your fists.¡± Kuon, flushed red from belligerence, stayed silent.

    ¡°Kuon, a man of ambition doesn¡¯t care who laughs at him. You left your home with sword in hand, so there must be something that your heart is set on. If you keep getting yourself involved in trifling quarrels, you won¡¯t accomplish anything.¡±

    ¡°Ambition or not accomplishing anything has sod all to do with me,¡± when Kuon occasionally opened his mouth, it was only to let it pour out abuse. ¡°If I can get something good to eat today, then it¡¯s all good. That¡¯s it. What¡¯s wrong about that?¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re driven out from where you¡¯ve finally found work, then they¡¯ll be no question of getting something good to eat,¡± Percy felt a bit like laughing at himself for using that kind of persuasion.

    Looking at Kuon was exactly like looking at his own past self. Without even understanding his own worth, he hated above all else to have other people look down on him. Everyone around him was laughing at the man who had not been able to do anything during his first campaign, and who practiced with the spear while boasting that he would one day achieve great things ¨C that was how he had felt.

    Looking at the boy who was so exactly like him, he felt that he had been given the role of an old man, and felt like laughing again.

    Anyway, this was how, at the start, Kuon had Percy running all over the place. However, when he stood on the battlefield, Kuon changed entirely. Since the boy was usually a hothead, Percy worried about whether he would actually move according to orders, but during actual combat, he was unexpectedly obedient and went about his work quickly and efficiently.

    After being on the battlefield with him, the way his surroundings looked at him started to change.

    ¡°That guy¡¯s still only small, but his way with the sword is terrifying.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s got nerve. He runs straight towards the enemy without any fear.¡±

    As the attitude of those around him transformed, Kuon also change somewhat.

    Perhaps because he had grown up in the mountains, he had sharp night-vision, so he often volunteered for night watch duty. Also, occasionally, he would seem to go wandering off alone all day in the mountains, but when he came back, he would be carrying huge quantities of herbs in both hands. He would then line them up on the ground and divide them up into those that could be eaten, and those that could be used as medicine. He personally mashed those latter ones and handed the medicine to the wounded soldiers.

    ¡°Oh, the boy¡¯s changed, hasn¡¯t he?¡±

    The soldiers, who had long served the Leegan House, were impressed. Nowadays, they would chase away the village children who gathered around the watchtower, telling them ¡°Kuon¡¯s dangerous.¡± The children thought both his accent and his name, which sounded like a dog¡¯s bark, were funny, so they took every chance they got to incessantly call out ¡°Kuonkuon, Kuonkuon¡± to him.

    ¡°I wonder¡­ Rather than saying he¡¯s changed,¡± Percy tilted his head, ¡°Given that he¡¯s now on the stage of battle, there¡¯s no need for him to go looking for fights.¡±

    Originally, Kuon had spent each day fighting against invaders alongside his companions in the land of his birth. It was obvious that they didn¡¯t each fight individually against the advancing enemy but that they had their own tactics and traps, and Kuon must have learned from birth about the strict rules of fighting as part of a group. Do not leave your post whatever what happens; do not so much as take a single useless breath; once the order has been given, charge at the enemy troops without hesitation¡­

    Thinking about it, it was only natural that Kuon should prove himself to be a capable soldier. He was probably bewildered because of being in an unfamiliar culture, yet right now it wasn¡¯t that he had ¡°changed¡± but that this was how he had always been.

    One evening, Percy spotted him among his men, who were in a cheerful ring around the fire. One of them, who was good at telling jokes, was telling stories about his past woes with women while everyone else roared with laughter. Kuon was also holding his sides with mirth. Percy was relieved to see his boyish side but, the next day, Kuon was polishing a sword some distance away from everyone else, his expression sullen.

    He was a difficult man to please. Or perhaps it was better to say that he was at a difficult age?

    Percy felt that he would like to hear from Kuon about his time in the mountains and about his experiences when he left them. In other words, he was starting to harbour the hope that ¨C if he survives, maybe we could become lifelong friends.

    After taking up his station, Percy Leegan was not simply waiting for the enemy to strike.

    He asked people from the village to get him maps of the surroundings. Since these, however, were made for those from the area, Percy and his men, who were strangers there, found them hard to read. Accordingly, he sent out several of his subordinates on horseback to investigate the terrain. More and more lines were added to the maps and once the features of the landscape were revealed, Percy marked with a cross the places where the marauders frequently appeared.

    The enemy seemed to be appearing at random and scattering haphazardly when they fled, but in fact, their actions were orderly. Which meant that they must have built bases around the mountain where they could keep their horses, even though those bases wouldn''t be anything as big as fortresses or castles. And judging by how frequently this village was being attacked, there were definitely one or two nearby.

    Percy asked Camus to go around the neighbouring villages. As a monk from the temple, Camus¡¯s presence was helpful for gaining the villagers¡¯ trust and, when he made the appeal, people from all over gathered to help. Percy had them cut down trees from the nearby forest.

    With the lumber, he had them build a simple watchtower in each village, as well as fences. Referencing a book he had once read, Percy drove the sharpened tips of the stakes into the ground, and fastened several of these together with ropes. He had them set up at various points to create what was essentially a horse-repelling barrier. It didn¡¯t need to be particularly high, since, by nature, the horses would not want to cross the low fence.

    Moreover, Percy had pits dug in the surroundings and had them covered with straw. He also used the soil that had been dug up to plug the gaps in the anti-horse palisades, creating a defensive wall in wattle-and-daube.

    Since most of the enemy¡¯s raids occurred at night, the fences, the improvised walls and the traps should prove quite effective.

    Percy naturally also mobilised his own soldiers for cutting down the trees, building the fences and walls, and digging the pits. All of them worked all day long, covered in dirt and drenched in sweat. This too was only second-hand knowledge from books, but Percy understood that in war, the great majority of time was spent in engineering works.

    He had arrows made from the wood left over from constructing the fences. Women also helped out with that work, and Percy was surprised to see Sarah joining in, as bold as could be. She had been released and some point and, upon learning of her brother¡¯s whereabouts, she had gone down the mountain to them.

    Predictably, she and Camus quarrelled over trifling things and ¨C equally predictably ¨C Sarah came out the winner. Besides that, she was a sociable creature and very soon gained the villagers¡¯ affection. For the children especially, she became a favourite playmate.

    ¡°Let¡¯s all train together so that we¡¯re ready for when the time comes!¡± she said, then gathered up the youngest villagers and went galloping off ¨C and even the naughtiest children, who usually gave their parents a hard time, would join in. Sarah also took part, and the girl who ran about with her breath uneven and the hem of her clerical robes fluttering was watched by all of the villagers.

    ¡°I¡¯m first!¡± she panted, as she reached the goal that she herself had decided on.

    Her eyes suddenly met Kuon¡¯s, who was polishing his sword under the eaves of a house. For a moment, they were enveloped in a strange mood.

    Kuon was the first to look away. ¡°You run just like a man,¡± his tone held neither criticism nor praise.

    Facing him, Sarah looked as though she wasn¡¯t sure what to say.

    ¡°Won¡¯t you come and run too? Since you¡¯re from the mountains, you should have good legs, right? In that case, why don¡¯t we compete against each other and bet tonight¡¯s dinner?¡± she suggested, provokingly.

    The edge of Kuon¡¯s lips curled and he stood up. His face was reflected in the surface of the sword he had just polished as he started to leave.

    ¡°What, are you running away?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t compete against women,¡± said Kuon, and Sarah¡¯s cheeks puffed into a pout. The next moment, it turned into a smile.

    ¡°You¡¯re scared of losing. Listen up, everyone, Kuonkuon¡¯s a coward!¡± Sarah incited the children to make fun of him.

    Kuon aspired to be a ¡®man¡¯, but he wasn¡¯t able to keep up the right attitude for long. A few seconds later, he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sarah and, once the command was given, they both started to run.

    The result went without saying.

    ¡°I ran just before,¡± Sarah scowled at Kuon, her shoulders heaving. ¡°One more time¡­ No, since it¡¯d just be the same, after a break.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re so annoying!¡±

    Percy pretended not to understand the plea for help that Kuon¡¯s gaze was sending his way. Just then, Sarah noticed his presence and her expression, seen from over Kuon¡¯s shoulder, changed. The childish impression vanished, and she became entirely ladylike. She was a girl whose expression was constantly changing.

    A few days later, Kuon spotted enemies at around about the time when the sun was setting. Normally, he would have called out loud to alert everyone, but this time, he quickly climbed down the watchtower and went to inform Percy, just as he had been ordered to do.

    Percy nodded. He had been thinking that it will soon be time.

    Erecting a fence and digging traps had of course been done to strengthen the village¡¯s defences, but it had also been so that they could cope with an attack with fewer soldiers than before. And as for what they would be doing with the soldiers than had been subtracted from the usual number ¨C

    ¡°We¡¯ll launch ourselves out from here.¡±

    ¨C Right, they would be used to attack.

    Percy issued his commands, thirty riders following behind him. Kuon was among them; he was well used to horses. Camus and Sarah, meanwhile, were helping defend the village.

    Percy and the others departed in the direction opposite from where the enemy was expected to attack, and rode out into the dusk. To assail the enemy from behind¡­ was not the plan.

    The noise from the village faded. Percy¡¯s aim was to go closer to the root and to strike one of the enemy bases. He had surmised its location from the places and times that the enemy had appeared at up until then.

    As expected, the base was on the other side of a narrow stream, hidden amongst densely-growing trees. With the mounted soldiers having gone out to attack, there were not many people there.

    Percy¡¯s heart pounded with excitement. During those seven years in Atall¡¯s capital, there had not been a single night when he had not hoped against hope to shine on the battlefield. And the scenes he had pictured inside his head on every one of those nightmarish nights when his blood had been burning, was exactly the one that was now unfolding before his eyes.

    ¡°Now!¡± Percy bellowed and had the men stoke huge fires.

    When the soldiers at the base noticed those flames, the first to come out to see what was happening were mowed down by twenty riders, led by Percy.

    ¡°Enemy attack, enemy attack!¡±

    As the foot soldiers came crawling out, Percy and the others took up position to intercept them. At the same time, ten hand-picked and especially skilled men, Kuon among them, raided the simple, log-built building from the side. They took control of the base, which was now even shorter on hands than it had been earlier since the soldiers were all out.

    Chasing away the soldiers, they set themselves up within the base. They waited for the unit that had gone to raid the village to return, then attacked it ferociously.

    It was a one-sided slaughter.

    The outcome of the battle was that Percy Leegan obtained large amounts of food, weapons ¨C including guns ¨C and seven prisoners of war, all without loosing a single allied soldier.

    Part 2

    These results earned high praise from the temple. For a while, Percy was extolled as a minor hero. And with that, Nauma Laumarl, his superior officer, once again strutted around triumphantly. He spent several busy days explaining how he himself had taught Percy tactics, and was showered with acclaim and expectations for the future.

    Percy himself was also in high spirits. It felt as though the regrets over his first campaign which had accumulated in his chest for the past seven years had cleared a little. With that said, Percy Leegan¡¯s military fame would not resound far and wide from this, and nor did he believe that they would win just because of this. The seven prisoners they had taken were, after all, no more than marauding soldiers who had been hired for a pittance, and although one of the men had been acting as a liaison with another base, whose location they had gotten him to cough up, their overall situation did not improve even after they had seized that one too.

    From then on, the enemy¡¯s actions changed again.

    Allion¡¯s regular soldiers finally started to move. Firstly, their armaments changed: they were fully equipped and had a great number of guns. More importantly, the echo of the clattering sound of wheels indicated that they had even brought cannons.

    On the temple side, they had carried in the contents from the second enemy base, and were in the process of remodelling it into one of their own fortifications, but it was recaptured before they had time to blink They had of course guessed that the enemy would try to reclaim the base, so they had planned to strengthen its defences and to use the moment when their opponents had been lured out to deploy an attack force and to capture them in a pincer movement, but the enemy acted too quickly for them.

    Before anyone knew what was going on, Allion¡¯s main forces, armed with cannons, had arrived at the foot of the mountain. Although the temple also sent out rapid waves of clean-up troops, the opponents were different from the marauders they had faced up until then. By dint of repeated three-way charges down the paths and the side of the hill, they were just barely able to push them back, but it was the temple¡¯s side which sustained the greatest number of casualties.

    Each day was a series of fierce battles. Percy¡¯s unit was also temporarily recalled from where it had been stationed, and they were sent out to those battles time and time again. Most of the soldiers could no longer move because of their wounds. Although Percy himself, as well as Kuon and Camus, all remained unharmed, they could not hide the exhaustion in their faces every time the unit returned.

    Atall¡¯s soldiers and the temple¡¯s armed monks continued to fight hard, but the worry that Percy had long held had become reality: once they saw that the situation was turning unfavourable, the mercenaries, who were mostly outlaws, lost their nerve. In the middle of battle, they would abandon their allies and flee without a qualm. There was nothing tactical about it, and they were no use in a head-on fight.

    ¡°Damn cowards,¡± Camus barked one evening, the light from the nearby bonfires casting its bright glow on his face. The bowl of thin wheat gruel in his hands was shaking. Apart from a few slices of turnip, there was nothing else in the broth. ¡°This is God¡¯s holy crusade to extinguish evil. From now on, we need to gather everyone at the temple to explain God¡¯s teachings to them. If everyone here fights without fear and uses their bodies as shields in our holy cause, we could annihilate that bunch in no time.¡±

    ¡°So those teachings will cure everyone of their fear of death if you preach them for one night?¡± Percy knew full well that this wasn¡¯t the case, but he felt like making fun of this virtuous fellow. ¡°Those are some really handy teachings. But then, the priests who spend their every day disciplining themselves sure are bad at gaining wisdom. Forget one night, it looks like they can¡¯t achieve the right state of mind in ten or even twenty years.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± his ire roused, Camus glared at Percy, but right then even Kuon, who was lying near the fire, wrapped up in a blanket, chimed in.

    ¡°I agree. I¡¯ve seen plenty of priests tremble just from hearing the sound of gunshots, then scampering away at the same time as those bandits,¡± he said.

    Camus gritted his teeth before raising his voice compellingly.

    ¡°Anyway! We¡¯re more or less even. So that means whoever shows the most spirit, wins!¡±

    I wonder¡­ Percy was doubtful, but this time, he did not say anything.

    Each day, their side got battered bloody, but it didn¡¯t feel as though the enemy was taking any real damage. The enemy pulled back when pushed, pulled forward and was pushed back, and repeat. That was probably because they still had plentiful supplies of food, bullets, arrows and so on. To misquote Camus: Allion¡¯s side doesn¡¯t need to show spirit.

    Whether they had come to that conclusion through crossing blades with them, or through information obtained by the spies that had slipped into the temple, Allion¡¯s forces seemed to have decided that there was no need to run any risks. Their repeated advances and retreats were enough to drive the temple to exhaustion, and it would soon destroy itself.

    On top of that, rumours that Allion was advancing with cannons was having a bad effect on the villages at the foot of the mountain. Fearing that their houses might be burned down, the villagers all fled to the temple. The cost of supplying food increased, and the temple¡¯s situation would, of course, only get worse. Percy looked down into his own wooden bowl: up until a few days ago, the thin gruel had also contained meat.

    Fortunately, he had been correct in his assessment that the enemy did not have sufficient numbers to lay siege to the mountain. Bishop Rogress had horses sent out to the towns and villages to buy provisions, but even then, their funds were not limitless. Besides, they could not travel under heavy guard, so when they were spotted by marauders ¨C be they Allion¡¯s patrols or not ¨C money and food were both stolen.

    Soon, there wouldn¡¯t even be turnips floating in the gruel. Once that happened, and given the number of violent-tempered people around, quarrels were sure to erupt over the distribution of food. People would start to run away one after another.

    ¡°They say that Heaven helps those who help themselves. If we demonstrate that we will not yield to injustice, then naturally, we will walk the path of righteousness that God¡¯s teachings have granted us.¡± Camus¡¯s enthusiasm, however, remained undiminished.

    Although Percy was beginning to think that he was half saying that to convince himself, he couldn¡¯t help but envy Camus¡¯s ability to think that way. And also ¨C

    ¡°What¡¯s so difficult? What¡¯s important is the enemy general. If we can hunt him down, we can win the fight.¡±

    He also felt jealous of Kuon¡¯s simple way of looking at things. On this violent field, those beliefs might be like a blade that cleaved through adversity.

    Percy¡¯s superior officer, Nauma Laumarl, on the other hand, was trembling in terror. As though his bragging only a few days ago had never happened, he secluded himself indoors and had Atall¡¯s soldiers keep a tight watch around the building.

    ¡°Will it soon be time?¡± he asked when he summoned Percy, his tone almost that of one beseeching permission.

    Nauma was so mentally cornered that he even sought advice from Percy ¨C whom he hated ¨C as though he were an expert about the battlefield.

    ¡°We¡¯ve fought enough. We¡¯ve sufficiently accomplished our duty as reinforcements. Perhaps we should send our lord sovereign-prince a messenger asking for permission to withdraw,¡± he added.

    He could not necessarily be blamed. Percy himself had thought time and again that this is after all a fight with no hope of victory and which won¡¯t even bring military fame. It was not worth risking their lives for. He knew what was meant by it ¡°soon being time¡±. Yet even so, his heart could not immediately let go.

    Isn¡¯t there something¡­ some kind of plan?

    The enemy¡¯s formation was not spread out before them like some impregnable iron wall. Allion was Allion, but it seemed that for some reason, they had not been able to bring a large number of troops here. Which was why Percy could not just give up. In a way, it would have been preferable if they had brought an army so huge that even Percy would be forced to think any more than this and we will lose our soldiers for nothing.

    Right now, there should still be something that they could do. But the man carrying the responsibility of command was acting weak-kneed.

    ¡°How can you be so cowardly!¡± Percy tried rebuking him.

    He hit the table hard. Nauma Laumarl stared open-mouthed at him for a moment, then an angry crimson flush started to come over his face. He was about to stand up, but Percy forestalled him by taking a step forward to stand right in front of him. Nauma, apparently thinking he might really be about to cut him down, backed away with a panicked cry.

    ¡°If you leave here now, the temple will be just like a building which has lost its supporting pillar and which is about to collapse into rubble at any moment. For everyone here, it¡¯s because Lord Nauma Shalling is with them, and because they¡¯re bathing in his brilliant military renown, that they¡¯re able to remain cheerful and full of courage.¡±

    ¡°O-Oh¡­ Is that right? No¡­ I mean, that¡¯s right!¡± Nauma Laumarl had been blinking in confusion from beginning to end.

    ¡°Then pardon me,¡± was all Percy said before leaving the room.

    Honestly¡­ Talking so grandly ¨C am I being influenced by Camus? He had a hard time preventing himself from smiling.

    On the evening of the same day, a messenger came from Allion¡¯s side. A single horseman, who came galloping right up to the gate as soon as he had raised his flag.

    ¡°I request an audience with His Excellency the Bishop,¡± he proclaimed in a loud voice.

    Bishop Rogress agreed to the meeting. He did not, however, prepare for them to talk alone, and their encounter took place in the public square in front of the temple. As the two faced each other, they were, of course, surrounded by a crowd of people. Percy, Camus and Sarah were all among them.

    Percy could easily guess what the messenger would say. And just as expected, he advised them to surrender. He said that if Bishop Rogress alone surrendered to their general, no further damage would be inflicted upon the mountain.

    ¡°This is the royal decision, Your Excellency.¡±

    More than his words, what impressed Percy was the messenger¡¯s dignified attitude and the deep, reverberating timbre of his voice. In appearance, he looked exactly like a bandit chief, but judging from his calm and collected manner, there was no doubt that he must be a renowned military commander.

    That¡¯s surprising¡­ And just by himself.

    There was nothing unusual about choosing someone of some standing to deliver the suggestion of surrender. Conscon Temple, however, was not a country. Yet even so, and even knowing that it had employed outlaws as mercenaries, this messenger was showing the utmost courtesy to those opposite him.

    Nevertheless, the bishop¡¯s response was not favourable. That too was only to be expected. It had been predictable from the very fact that he had decided to meet the messenger before a large crowd.

    ¡°I thank you for your exceptional concern. I can tell that you are a decent man, and I honour you for that. However, with justice and righteousness on my side, I will stand firm against the evildoers who repeat those vile, slanderous rumours that I spoke curses. The wise already understand who it is who really wishes for this fight, and what their designs are.¡±

    This time, it was the bishop¡¯s words which made a deep impression on the faithful. Each of them raised the swords or spears that they held in their hands.

    ¡°Allion savages, go back to your country!¡±

    ¡°Do you think you can fool us by promising peace in exchange of His Excellency, the Bishop?¡±

    They all raised rousing cries. The bishop lifted his hand to have them quieten back down while the messenger looked mortified.

    ¡°It seems that there is a misunderstanding between Your Excellency and ourselves. Which is why, Bishop Rogress, if you would come back to Allion and explain things in your own words¡­¡±

    ¡°My chapel was set alight, and innocent worshippers who were pursuing their work as servants of God perished in the flames. Their souls have received no lack of prayers to guide them safely over the horizon, but I do not wish to set foot in the place where the criminal who lit the fire is allowed to unconcernedly live his life.¡±

    There was no trace of violent emotion in either the bishop¡¯s expression or in his voice, but being stared at with those eyes that were like cut glass must have been a nerve-wracking experience for the messenger. It was even for Percy Leegan, who was watching from the side.

    It was solely thanks to Bishop Rogress that Conscon Temple had become a power strong enough to worry even Allion and, at the same time, he had achieved that with Allion¡¯s help.

    ¨C It had been about seven years ago.

    A prince was born in the Kingdom of Allion. Before the king had been crowned, a woman from a merchant house had borne him a bastard, but this was his first child from his legitimate wife. But the baby was premature, and immediately after birth, he hovered between life and death. Although he managed to pull through after a few days, he often fell sick afterwards and he gradually grew so weak that it became difficult even to give him milk.

    The king and his wife were distraught. Although, naturally, that was partly out of love for their child, it was also because in Allion, it was considered an evil omen for the eldest son of the legal wife to die young. In the very worst case, other members of the royal family, who had previously given up on their ambition for the throne, might even claim that ¡°our current king has incurred the hatred of the spirits, and we fear that the country might fall into chaos because of it¡±, and use that as a righteous pretext to raise armies.

    The king gathered doctors from throughout the land and mobilised every sorcerer in the country. He even summoned before him shamans rumoured among the common people to have ¡®spiritual abilities¡¯, or priestess serving gods that no one had ever heard of.

    Rogress was also among them. In those days, he had been employed as a chaplain to a castle lord within Allion. In the past, he had instantaneously cured the castle lord¡¯s wife, who had been confined to her bed because of illness and so, although Allion¡¯s royalty had no relation with the Cross Faith, the king had clutched at this fact.

    ¡°I have never had anything more than a superficial knowledge of medicine. It is entirely thanks to God¡¯s gracious revelation that one such as I was able to heal the castle lord¡¯s lady,¡± Rogress had announced in a clear voice before the king. ¡°Charity, unselfish love and selfless devotion to God are needed to receive divine revelation.¡±

    Rogress went on to talk about an old temple that was falling in ruin beyond Allion¡¯s territory.

    The king no longer had any more straws to clutch at; for the time being, he sent just enough money and people to rebuild the chapel within the temple. A mere seven days later, Rogress was praying without sleep or rest within that chapel. A further seven days later, he returned carrying ¡°a miracle drug which was made in accordance with the divine revelation¡±. Although it was first tasted for poison, there was no reluctance to having the baby suckle on it. In fact, because the child had already reached the last extremities of weakness, the king personally fed him the medicine.

    Whereupon, as though by miracle, the prince¡¯s health rapidly improved. He regained the strength to suck at his mother¡¯s breast, his body started to grow plump, and he cried so lustily at night that those taking care of him didn¡¯t know what to do with him.

    The king was overjoyed.

    Just as Rogress had requested, he sent money to continue rebuilding the temple. He had an impressive temple built within the capital city, and allowed Rogress to proselytise on a large scale. That close relationship with the royal family lasted for almost seven years.

    As the number of faithful within the kingdom increased, Rogress took on the role of an advisor to the royal family and frequently made politically-loaded remarks. He criticised how Allion was constantly in a state of war with the neighbouring powers, and he also condemned the aristocracy for their dissolute way of life. His presence started to be seen as an annoyance, and, at court, movements opposing him were born. These banded together and claimed firstly that Conscon Temple was gathering merchants to make money, and secondly that they were providing foreign enemies with weapons.

    They spread rumours that, ¡°Within our lands, Rogress preaches divine love, but outside of them, he is training armed groups. He is taking advantage of the king¡¯s affection for him and plans to take over both Allion¡¯s military and its politics.¡±

    Even so, Rogress had the support of countless faithful and the king¡¯s backing, but when he opposed those voices, the aforementioned fire occurred, and he had no choice but to flee to the temple.

    Which brings us to the current situation.

    ¨C That was Bishop Rogress. The attitude towards the messenger was that of someone who was dignified and measured in both his manner and his actions. His expression showed no emotion, but behind, it was easy to see that he was determined not to flee anymore.

    Percy couldn¡¯t help wondering again whether the bishop could somehow see the future, or whether it was simply that he felt no fear in dying for his god.

    The warrior monks¡¯ spirits were roused to such fervour that steam was practically rising from them. Not far from him, Camus was moved to tears. To a man, they would undoubtedly wield their spears at the bishop¡¯s side and would continue to fight against Allion until their chests were pierced through with bullets.

    The messenger probably shared that impression; he left a few polite words to the bishop then jumped back on his horse. As he was leaving, the soldiers hurled violent insults at his retreating back.

    As rude as was to be expected, thought Percy and he ran up to the messenger, took his horse¡¯s bit, and offered to lead him out. The messenger smiled atop his horse.

    ¡°I beg your pardon, but I did not catch your name. May I ask you what it is?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing grand, but I am called Claude Anglett.¡±

    Wait¡­ that Claude?

    Percy was surprised but, at the same time, he had no difficulty believing it given the man¡¯s dignified demeanour.

    There was a link between Claude and the Principality of Atall, or perhaps better said, a fated connection. Percy had hear that in the war, it was this man who had earned the greatest achievements.

    At the very end, as he was leaving through the temple gates, Percy called out to him:

    ¡°You did a fine job of carrying out your duty as a messenger.¡±

    Claude gave a sincere smile and a single nod, then whipped his horse and galloped away.

    I heard that he rose through the ranks from a simple soldier. Atall probably can¡¯t breed that kind of man.

    It was because of his own youthfulness that he could think that way of the warriors from his own country.

    A certain restlessness made itself felt within his heart, and the regrets over his first campaign were not far from him. It occurred to him that the other side might not even recognise them as ¡®enemies¡¯, and the feelings that immediately starting churning inside him at the thought were like black rainclouds.

    And it was just after he had reprimanded Nauma, too.

    We¡¯ll win. ¡­I can¡¯t go as far as saying that, but at least¡­ At least¡­ Percy¡¯s feelings shook within him.

    Behind him, the warrior monks were still roaring all together. Sarah stepped away from that crowd. She kept turning her head to look back.

    ¡°I sometimes wonder, do men see things that women don¡¯t? Or is that men don¡¯t see what women do?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s been a puzzle since the dawn of time,¡± Percy replied with a studiously grave face.

    What Sarah basically wanted to say was that: men are fools. No doubt she saw things somewhat more realistically than her older brother, which made Percy curious about one thing:

    ¡°But, Miss, even though you see this war differently from men, you don¡¯t seem to want to run away from it.¡±

    ¡°Miss? You are being very distant, Lord Percy. You may address me simply as Sarah,¡± she said in deliberately formal language. Yet when she said her own name, the expression in her eyes was slightly bashful.

    She was a thoroughly mysterious girl. When she was bickering with Kuon, she was exactly like a child, but when it was just the two of them talking, he caught glimpses of a young woman, and there was also that time when she had fired straight at the forehead of a man who had injured a friend of hers. Needless to say, she was hardly the kind of girl that could be found at court.

    Sarah kept glancing around her and patting down her hair, looking agitated. She seemed to want to say something more, but Percy deliberately refrained from tossing her a line and stayed silent. So after prefixing her next words with an unnatural-sounding ¡°speaking of which¡­¡± ¨C

    ¡°Where did that idiot go?¡± she asked, unable to bear it any longer. This time, Percy had a hard time stopping himself from smiling.

    ¡°That idiot? There¡¯s no one I know who deserves to be called that so mercilessly.¡±

    ¡°Right, I apologise for calling him an idiot. A more usual way of talking about him would be to call him a wild monkey and a country bumpkin. I haven¡¯t seen him around recently, has been any chance been killed? No¡­ if he had, my brother would have said something, but I don¡¯t remember hearing anything like that. Or did maybe get scared of the fighting and go scurrying back to his mountain?¡±

    ¡°Are you talking about Kuon?¡± Although the answer was obvious, Percy asked the question in a quiet voice as he looked down towards the ground. Sarah gave a sudden gasp at the sight of that and he glanced towards her. ¡°He¡­ Right, he¡­ truly, a brave man.¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t be¡­ Are you serious?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s because of that courage...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ Don¡¯t say anymore,¡± Sarah¡¯s long hair swayed as she fiercely shook her head. ¡°I made fun of him and called him an idiot and a wild monkey. But Percy, I would never have believed that he could die so easily.¡±

    ¡°Oi¡±

    ¡°If something like this was going to happen, I should have been kinder. That regret will never leave me. And to think that I had always hoped that this temple could be like a warm fire for children who are shivering from cold and from hunger. Kuon too¡­ Right, he was just like a child. If I¡¯d been able to clearly see him as such from the start, maybe I could even have loved him like a child¡­¡±

    ¡°Oi¡±

    ¡°Kuon¡­ His soul must be at peace. Now that the filthy earth is holding him in its embrace, I can only hope that this prayer offered to God will be enough.¡±

    As Sarah recited the words of a prayer, her long eyelashes sweeping downwards, she looked lie the very image of a saint, but a voice kept calling out ¡°oi¡± with far too much insistence.

    ¡°What?¡± The saintly image vanished to who knew where and she looked up with eyes like those of a snarling wolf.

    Then ¨C

    ¡°I told you to move it. You¡¯re standing right in the middle of the road. You want to be trampled to death?¡± Kuon repeated harshly from on horseback.

    ¡°Heya,¡± said Percy nonchalantly as he raised a hand, while the blood drained from Sarah¡¯s face. ¡°You were faster than expected. What¡¯s the result? The enemy didn¡¯t see you, right?¡±

    ¡°I passed by several scouting parties, but it¡¯s like those guys are as blind as bats in the dark. They don¡¯t think and just raise their torches, and they only look at the parts that are lit up.¡±

    ¡°No surprises, then. My eye for choosing you was completely unerring.¡±

    Percy puffed out his chest just like Kuon on horseback was doing, but a something kept poking him on the shoulder. He didn¡¯t need to turn around. A presence like that of roaring flames was flaring behind him.

    ¡°Say, Mr Percy, Sir Percy, Lord Percy?¡± Sarah¡¯s expressionless face was right next to his. ¡°Please, won¡¯t you continue with your story from earlier? ¡®A brave man. And because of that courage¡­¡¯ what were you going to say next?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ Well, I wanted to say that because he was brave, I was giving him a special mission.¡±

    Did I joke around a bit too much? This time, it was the bit on Kuon¡¯s horse that Percy hurriedly grabbed hold of before hastily starting to walk away.

    ¡°Now then, tell me the whole story. But not here. I¡¯ve given it some thought, and I don¡¯t want too many other people hearing this.¡±

    ¡°Got it,¡± Kuon followed him obediently. It would have been nice if he had continued being that docile, but he turned back towards Sarah, who was standing ramrod straight, and deliberately called out to her with another ¡°oi¡±.

    ¡°I heard you, you know. If it¡¯s to be loved like a child by you, I¡¯d a hundred times rather jump straight at enemies armed with guns.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Huh, right, that¡¯s right,¡± instead of glaring at Kuon, Sarah grinned defiantly, displaying her white teeth. ¡°By all means, please do so in the next fight. And if you nonchalantly survive and come back, I¡¯ll happily fire through your forehead.¡±

    Part 3

    Kuon had started to add things on the map that was spread out before him. Percy and Camus, who had been called over, stared intently at what he was doing.

    The reason why Kuon had been absent from the temple for the past few days was because Percy had given him instructions to conduct independent reconnaissance action, on the grounds that he had been raised in the mountains and forests, and had sharp night vision. From the location of the enemy bases that they had found up until then, Percy wanted to work out where Allion had set up its headquarters. Kuon¡¯s mission had been to verify that location and to investigate its surrounding terrain.

    As expected, Percy¡¯s eyes crinkled as he smiled. The thick lines that Kuon was drawing roughly matched the place that he himself had guessed at. Mountains stretched out along the whole area northwest of the temple, and there was only place that was open plain. Kuon had not been able to observe it from close up, but that was probably where Allion had erected its stronghold.

    They were close to Allion¡¯s territory; which had expanded into this land in the war, seven years ago. Consequently, the north was dotted with keeps meant to ensure the borders'' safety, but the routes leading south to those castles were all but barricaded by the steep mountains and deep valleys. Therefore, they were probably having things like provisions and materials be transported to them from further west. It would be a different story if they had air carriers prepared but, at least while Kuon had been watching, he had not been able to confirm the presence of even a single ship.

    Further proof that Allion hasn¡¯t gone all out with this.

    Using air carriers was costly for two reasons: because the technology was still developing, and because ether, its source of power, was drying up worldwide.

    If we could attack them there¡­

    With their supply route cut off, the frontline troops would have no choice but to pull back. No¡­ even if they didn¡¯t actually capture the headquarters, the fact that it had been attacked would definitely have an effect on the frontlines.

    Emotion blazed within Percy¡¯s eyes. He had not yet made his decision when he had given Kuon orders to go on reconnaissance and had only wanted any extra information they could get about the enemy to help defend the temple. However¡­

    ¡°Oh, are we going to attack them there?¡± peering at Percy¡¯s face, Camus seemed surprised.

    His intentions having apparently been seen through, Percy outwardly returned to calm.

    ¡°Kuon is good at getting around in the mountains ad at night. He¡¯s investigated the terrain beforehand. Kuon, going through the mountains, how long would I take to get to the enemy stronghold?¡±

    On level ground, it was a distance that galloping horses could cover in three days, but after thinking for a moment, Kuon declared, ¡°You¡¯d have to count ten days.¡±

    ¡°No, we could take the horses as far as where these two rivers meet,¡± said Camus. ¡°Leave them at the fishing village there, and take the mountain path that veers off to the north.¡±

    ¡°It would take a day to get there, then five more days from there.¡±

    ¡°Three days at a flat march.¡±

    Percy checked with Kuon. ¡°Would that work?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯d work. But there would be guys who¡¯d fall by the wayside. And we¡¯d have to abandon any heavy equipment.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡±

    Percy gazed down at the map and above his head, Kuon and Camus exchanged glances filled with an unusual mutual understanding. Is he serious? ¨C That feeling connected them. Percy raised his head and smiled.

    ¡°I¡¯m not saying we should do it just by ourselves. Obviously, we¡¯ll need the numbers. A hundred¡­ no, two hundred. Thereabouts. More than that would just slow down the march.¡±

    ¡°Two hundred? But how many enemy soldiers are there at their headquarters?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll lure them away.¡±

    Oh? This time, it was Camus who smiled as he realised that Percy had already drawn up a plan in his mind.

    ¡°Luckily, the enemy has offered us a chance to surrender at just the right time. Allion was turned down and they¡¯ll be sore about it, so if we send them bait, there¡¯s a very high probability that they will go and attack it in force.¡±

    ¡°And we¡¯ll attack from behind?¡±

    Percy nodded. They sank into silence. Percy was somewhat surprised by it: although Camus and Kuon were different in many ways, one thing they both had in common was they were both excitable. He had been sure that as soon as he explained even just one part of his plan, they would jump on board, happy that ¨C with this, we don¡¯t just have to wait for the enemy to attack us. And yet, for some reason, the two of them seemed to be hesitating. Impatience welled up within him.

    ¡°What, have you gotten cold feet at this point?¡± In spite of himself, anger had crept into his voice. ¡°This is a one in a million opportunity. If we let it slip away, the only one of two things can happen: either the temple will be overwhelmed, or it will gradually waste away from the inside until it collapses in on itself. I would never have believed that the bravest pair in Conscon¡¯s army would resign themselves to that kind of fate!¡±

    ¡°No, nono,¡± Camus hurriedly shook his head at Percy¡¯s fiery expression and tone.

    Kuon carried on, ¡°We¡¯ll do it if you say to. But¡­ is it alright for you to be saying that?¡±

    ¡°What? Your problem is with me? If you doubt whether I¡¯m serious, then...¡±

    On the verge of getting even angrier, Percy suddenly shut his mouth. He had realised that the other two were staring at him wide-eyed.

    Laughter bubbled up next. The other two¡¯s expression changed quickly, becoming serious.

    ¡°Is it alright?¡±

    ¡°Things might get hairy in the next few battles.¡±

    ¡°Idiots,¡± said Percy, laughter rumbling in his throat. ¡°D-Don¡¯t be so stupid.¡±

    At that moment, Percy understood the real reason why he was so intent on staying here, even to the point of sharply reprimanding Nauma, his superior officer.

    Regrets over his first campaign? That wasn¡¯t it. Those had already vanished at some point without his realising it.

    Then¡­ anger towards Allion for their violence towards the temple? Not that either.

    This land of Conscon was where he had fought his first battle, where he had first killed an enemy soldier, where he had captured his first enemy base, where he had first seen allies die close to him. He remembered how a nun had fired a gun, how a warrior monk skilfully wielded a spear, and how a boy swung a sword. After the fire was lit and when he went to sleep by it, wrapped up in a blanket, he did so accompanied by the chattering voices of innumerable men and their beast-like odour. Percy felt an almost painful connection to that atmosphere of savagery and chaos that he would not have experienced at the Leegan family¡¯s mansion, and to the many people ¨C enemies included ¨C that he had met. You could also call it affection.

    It was as simple as that.

    He found himself ridiculous. Bundling his current self with his past self, who had set his heart on achieving great feats and becoming the greatest hero in Atall, he laughed them all away. He was no longer thinking of earning fame in this land. Now, Percy only had one single thought: Just one blow. Just one blow hard enough to make them regret turning their blades against the temple. It was, in the end, just a childish and foolish thought, born from being unable to stomach the difference in power, from being unable to strike them. He just wanted to punch Allion in the nose.

    Although he found himself ridiculous, he was filled with laughter at the sight of how Kuon ad Percy opened their eyes wide when he suggested giving that punch.

    Originally, I might not have cared about you guys, but now I¡¯m the one who can¡¯t just stand by and watch indifferently ¨C that was how he now truly felt about the situation.

    Under the influence of the two people who were in a radically different position from him, Percy had reformed.

    ¡°Then if you¡¯re doing it, I¡¯m doing it,¡± Camus suddenly made up his mind. ¡°I believe in God¡¯s divine protection, but I don¡¯t believe that we simply have to pray and wait for divine punishment to smite our enemies from the heavens. God grants protection to the braves who fight without regard for their own lives.¡±

    ¡°Right, exactly right, Camus. How about you, Kuon? You might be able to catch the enemy general at their headquarters. You wanted an achievement and you won¡¯t be able to get one any greater than that,¡± Percy said, face flushed with more excitement than he had ever shown before then.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± nodded Kuon. His words were terse but his eyes were sparkling. Then ¨C

    ¡°Honestly, there¡¯s something wrong here,¡± he grinned, showing his teeth. ¡°You¡¯re making me forget the time the two of you tied me up. Maybe you civilised people and devout believers have changed this mountain monkey a bit.¡±

    First was getting soldiers. Including Kuon and Camus, there were only twenty people who were still mobile in Percy¡¯s unit and if it came to a route march through the mountains, then only ten would be able to keep up. Because of that, they decided that Percy would sound out Nauma Laumarl.

    Nauma¡¯s attitude was already indecisive, so he was unable to hide how startled he felt, but Percy patiently explained that ¡°this is the perfect chance to accomplish something impressive.¡± It was only natural though that the commander¡¯s blood was not roused in this situation where he had to hide both his name and his origins. However ¨C

    ¡°If Lord Shalling¡¯s fame starts to resound, our lord, the sovereign-prince, will of course hear about it too. There will probably be a reward. Besides, once the situation has calmed down, the real identity of the mysterious hero will be talked about throughout this land. If, by any chance, everyone started to whisper that his real name was Nauma Laumarl, they will look at you with even more respect for not having spoken about until then.¡±

    As Percy patiently worked to persuade him, Nauma was gradually won over. He had loathed Percy but, ever since leaving their country, the latter had always worked well and with a meek attitude. He allowed Percy to take the unit he was already commanding, as well as a number of men from the other troops.

    Even while ardently imploring Nauma, Percy did not, in fact, reveal the entire plan to him. He had only given him a general outline, saying that: we will leave the temple for a while and conceal the troops in the mountains to the northwest then, when the enemy is busy attacking, we will strike them from behind. To add persuasiveness to his words, he had also woven in some deliberate misinformation. That also served as a safeguard against the spies from Allion who were almost certainly within the temple.

    Besides which, Nauma had not given Percy command of the troops. No matter how many indirect achievements he might earn from it, there was, after all, no way that he would want to make things easy for a young man from the Leegan House.

    Even now¡­ thought Percy, but still, at least for now he did not have to worry about getting enough men.

    After having left some orders to the soldiers from his unit that Percy judged unable to withstand the mountain march, and who were therefore to stay at the temple, they finally arrived at the day of their departure. The man who had been appointed as the commander enthusiastically seized his horse¡¯s reins. He was a platoon leader under Nauma¡¯s direct command, but, actually, he had only been in charge for about half a day.

    When they took their first short break, Camus drew water from the river and, after boiling it, he offered a kind of tea to the commander, saying: ¡°This is a secret elixir handed down among those at the temple. Just one sip and you will immediately be overflowing with energy. We priests often drink it on nights when we have ascetic training or when we have holy tasks to accomplish.¡±

    The commander happily drank it all up. The story of the ¡°secret elixir¡± however was a complete and utter lie: in actual fact, it was made from a decoction that Kuon had boiled using leaves and plant roots that he had gathered while in the mountains. Kuon was knowledgeable about both the mountains and medicinal plants, and knowledge about medicine went hand-in-hand with knowledge of its opposite: poison.

    Having finished the tea, the exultant commander once more got back on horseback, yet not even half an hour later, his face was ashen, with drops of sweat clinging to it. Finally unable to endure any longer, he jumped down from his horse so fast that he almost seemed to fall off, and rushed towards some nearby bushes.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t good,¡± Camus diagnosed with a straight face. ¡°Legend has it that when a person without faith drinks the elixir, God¡¯s wrath will immediately strike them down. They will suffer from diarrhoea, they won¡¯t stop sweating and urinating, and if they aren¡¯t better after two or three days of complete bedrest, then there are even those who will continue to lose all their bodily fluids, leaving behind a dry and mummified corpse.¡±

    ¡°Y-You¡¯re joking. W-Wh-What should I do?¡±

    ¡°Divine protection will counteract divine wrath. Return at once to the temple¡¯s holy grounds. Since it¡¯s Conscon, God¡¯s compassion will surely shield you.¡±

    Just like that, the frantic commander retraced his steps back to the temple, taking only two or three men with him.

    ¡°I¡¯m worried about that gentleman¡¯s health, but time is precious. We continue forward,¡± said Percy Leegan, and he continued onwards, taking everyone with him.

    When he glanced backwards, he caught a glare from Camus which seemed to be saying: You owe me for that farce, but his lips were parted in a smile. Percy gradually took command of the entire unit. Which had naturally been the plan from the start; including Kuon, who had mixed the poison, a strange partnership was forming between the three of them.

    For the time being, they were on schedule. ¡­It was as they were driving their horses onwards that something happened which none of the three had expected. Noticing the sounds of horses¡¯ hooves coming from behind them, Kuon turned to look back. He didn¡¯t just have good night vision; his hearing was also sharp. Just as Percy was about to call out a word of caution, an indescribable expression appeared on Kuon¡¯s face. Camus¡¯s was next.

    The rider¡¯s captivating smile jolted up and down with the horse¡¯s movements. The hem of her novice robes fluttered, a gun was attached to her saddle ¨C the one approaching them was Sarah.

    Meanwhile, once the unit had departed, the soldiers that Percy had left behind started to put into action the orders he had given them. First of all, he had wanted them to strengthen the defence at the main temple gate. Moreover, with Nauma¡¯s cooperation, the soldiers from Atall were to maintain strict watch both night and day on the various other gates around the mountain.

    ¡°There might be spies on the mountain. If information about us leaks out, the feats we¡¯ve waited so long to achieve will be dashed from our hands.¡± Having been thus persuaded by Percy, Nauma was anxious to deploy soldiers, but the ones who were the most bothered by it were not the spies from Allion, but the ruffians who wanted to flee from there as quickly as possible.

    Since it was clear to anyone that the war was progressing unfavourably, it was only a question of figuring what the best time to escape would be, but with such a strict watch being kept, it was not so easy to make a move. Moreover ¨C

    ¡°Last night, a man was about to run from the mountain, but he was spotted and caught by the gatekeepers. Originally, he was just a small-time thief. There was obviously no way he could be a spy, but the warrior monks decided that he was, and they say that they¡¯re tormenting him every night with sticks and whips and water torture, and that they¡¯re calling it ¡®questioning¡¯¡­¡±

    The rumour spread. In other words, it was being said that in order to prevent any more people from running away, the temple was making an example of the thieves who had been the first to flee, claiming that they were spies and torturing them.

    A man called Kenny shuddered at the rumour. Just like the tortured man, he claimed to have been no more than a petty thief but, in reality, he had worked as a marauder along the border between Atall and Allion. In exchange for a small sum of money from Allion, he had slipped into the temple as an ordinary soldier.

    He was, so to speak, a spy, but actually, several ¡®professional¡¯ spies had also infiltrated the temple, although Kenny did not know about them. In other words, he was a decoy. He was of use only to attract suspicion and to make it easier for others to do their work while all eyes were on him. Another use for him was that since the other spies knew of Kenny¡¯s existence, should they every be suspected, they could buy trust for themselves by selling him out.

    It¡¯s gotten ugly.

    There were also rumours that Allion would be launching a huge offensive, and Kenny couldn¡¯t help but want to leave the mountain as soon as possible. However, the main gate was under tight watch so it was no longer easy to come and go, and then there was also that uproar about the spies. If he was caught and his real identity came to light, he wouldn¡¯t just be beaten as a warning. He would be tortured.

    While Kenny continued to shudder, a man who used to be a bandit came up to him.

    ¡°It¡¯s gotten ugly,¡± said the man.

    Surprisingly, it seemed that he too was a spy sent by Allion.

    ¡°I was told about you beforehand,¡± the man revealed, paying close attention to their surroundings. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten hold of some good information, but it looks like the warrior monks suspect me. I won¡¯t be able to get through the gates and deliver it to Allion¡¯s army.¡±

    ¡°Would you do it?¡± he continued. ¡°Around dawn tomorrow, go to and hide near the main south gate. At the appointed time, me and a pal will kick up a commotion to attract their attention. All you need to do is to take this letter to Allion¡¯s west base. I¡¯m sure there¡¯ll be money in it for you.¡±

    He even handed over a map with the location of the base written down. A horse and provisions would be prepared in advance near the gate.

    It was a good deal for Kenny; he would have to cross a slightly dangerous bridge, but it was much better than staying here, shivering and trembling while waiting for Allion to attack. He made his decision and they put the plan in practice.

    Near dawn, he was hiding in the hillside forest and observing the situation at the gate when a gunshot rang out overhead. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± the warrior monks shouted out to one another as, one after another, they climbed up the path. The diversion had been a success. Riding the horse which had been tied to a tree, Kenny swiftly raced down the mountain road.

    Conscon Temple was afraid that the villages at the foot of the mountain might soon be occupied. For that reason, they had apparently temporarily dismantled artillery positions that were near the summit, and had brought three canons closer to the base of the mountain.

    Such was the information received by the commander of Allion¡¯s forces. His name was Hayden Swift.

    When the relations between Allion and the temple had taken a turn for the worse, he had been one of those sent to mediate with Bishop Rogress, who was remaining secluded within the temple. The negotiations, however, broke down. There was also the story that the bishop had ¡°cursed the royal family¡±, which had led to the current situation of warfare.

    Yet, just as Percy Leegan and Bishop Rogress himself believed, this was by no means a fight that all of Allion was united in supporting. In fact, when the attempt at mediation had ended in failure, the king of Allion had nonchalantly suggested, ¡°How about leaving it for a while?¡±

    It was only afterwards that the rumours about Bishop Rogress cursing the royal family had first begun to spread. And Hayden had been the very first to react.

    He was a relative of the king¡¯s, as well as a close personal friend of his. They were hunting companions and competitors in seizing pawns on a board. While they were in the middle of playing one such a game:

    ¡°If we remain indifferent to those who have cursed the royal family, it will damage the royal family¡¯s prestige. That damage will turn into an open hole, and in no time at all, it will be a crack running in all directions. I believe that we should, without loss of time, make a show of power,¡± he urged the king.

    This was a man who had an atmosphere of having matured young, so the king was surprised at how passionately he spoke. Perhaps Hayden felt humiliated because he had met directly with the bishop as one of the mediators.

    The king was only in his thirties and he was generous with the relatives he was close to.

    ¡°The are many followers of the Cross Faith in the country. Including even among my close advisors. Settle things while the rumour about having cursed the royal family is still going strong. And if the temple offers some kind of conciliation ¨C like surrendering up the bishop or giving up their weapons ¨C immediately cease hostilities.¡±

    With just that warning, he gathered soldiers from within the country and placed eight hundred of them at Hayden¡¯s disposal.

    But, again as Percy had thought, this was an insufficient number to encircle the mountain entirely. The king had probably been taking Rogress lightly, believing that it would only take a small threat for him to immediately fear a fight and surrender.

    Perhaps Hayden had also made that same mistake.

    He moved his troops with caution. He manoeuvred in secret, deliberately hired marauding soldiers and even sent a messenger to give them the chance to surrender. He seemed to be trying to avoid there being any victims in his own army.

    However, there was still no sign of the temple surrendering.

    Just like the king, it seemed that Hayden¡¯s expectations had been off the mark.

    If, at this point in time, someone was to claim that Hayden Swift had spurred on the king with the aim of moving the troops, who on earth would believe them? And yet ¨C the rumours about the curses and whatnot had been spread by people hired by Hayden himself.

    Hayden chuckled privately to himself as he thought of the rumours that were now flying throughout the country, and as he remembered the expression on Claude Anglatt¡¯s face when he had ordered him to ¡°go to Mount Conscon as a messenger.¡±

    For all that he was an upstart, Claude was a man who had deservedly gained some fame during the last war. Although it wasn¡¯t much, he did hold territory along with a castle that served to maintain security at the border. Hayden had appointed that man to the mortally dangerous task of messenger, correctly judging that Claude would not refuse the order.

    At this point in time, Hayden had achieved most of his goals.

    Now then, next is¡­

    He would not have minded in the slightest if all the soldiers were to pull back right now but, given his position of having deployed troops, he wanted at least one tangible military success.

    However, his opponents were just armed priests and a collection of outlaws. While victory was assured, if there any more victims than necessary on his side, he was worried that he might branded an ¡®incompetent¡¯ commander.

    Well, it¡¯ll be easy enough once we get an opening.

    Hayden killed time by moving pieces on a board game by himself in the temporarily-erected fortress. It then that news arrived from one of the bases.

    Having firmly refused the offer made by Allion¡¯s messenger, the temple believed that their opponents would be mounting a large-scale offensive. They had brought down their guns and pointed them towards the villages at the foot of the mountain. According to a spy who had infiltrated the temple:

    ¡°Thanks to that, there¡¯s now a place which is completely defenceless. My companions and I will arrange to light fires to guide you so even if you attack at night, you will have no difficulty capturing the temple.¡±

    The opportunity that Hayden had been waiting for had arrived.

    ¡°Good. First, we¡¯ll create a diversion using two hundred of the soldiers. We¡¯ll draw the enemy guns by pretending to occupy the villages at the foot of the mountain; and while that¡¯s going on, we¡¯ll have twice that number be guided by the spies to storm the mountain. No need to penetrate too far if their resistance is tougher than expected. If we set fire everywhere, the enemy won¡¯t be fighting back any more.¡±

    Hayden intended that to be his final orders. Even though he had the authority to command soldiers, and although he had studied the military arts to some extent, he had hardly ever stood on the frontlines. It might have been a different matter if he had been facing a national army, but his skill at command was not going to be outdone by this bunch of amateurs. Even though that had been obvious from the start, still, I¡¯d hoped to get excitement out of it, Hayden could not stop himself from sighing.

    Be it hunting, board games, scholarly studies or casually taking up painting, poetry or love-making, Hayden had what it took to be above average at everything. And once he understood that, no matter what the activity was, he no longer found any pleasure in it.

    My birth was misfortunate.

    Hayden Swift frequently cursed his own self.

    This halfway position of being born just a distant relative to the royal family¡­ With nothing higher to aim for, nor any need to fear a downfall. If I were a hunter, I would search for ways of hunting and would polish my skills every day. If I were an ordinary soldier, my heart would burn with the ambition of climbing the ranks thanks to my glorious achievements; if I were a merchant, I would put every effort into expanding my business, even if only by a little. I have nothing. As long as Allion¡¯s royal family continues to prosper, I don¡¯t need to do anything and can just live my life as a noble. Just what on earth is expected from me? What do I have to hope for?

    I was because of that, because of that misfortune, that he had realised that his heart was throbbing at least a little when he had first been in command of a large number of soldiers. Could it be that his blood, which was as cold as water in midwinter, might, for a short time, be able to boil and seethe?

    But he had sat at the rear of the army, where neither the sound of battle nor even a single gunshot could be heard, and everything had unfolded exactly as he had anticipated. In the end, even the battlefield, where so many warriors risked their lives for fame, was no more than a stale and dull playground from the past.

    Well, it¡¯s fine.

    After handing out his orders, Hayden closed his eyes in the room where he was now alone.

    A silhouette emerged from the darkness behind his eyelids. A graceful appearance and skin glowing in a honey colour under the light of the lanterns as she nervously and falteringly sang at the top of her voice. Although who knew how many days had passed since then, he could remember it as vividly as though she was still in front of him. Hayden¡¯s pulse quickened.

    Even at Allion¡¯s royal court, he had never seen such a beautiful girl. No, if one was talking simply of gorgeousness, then there were countless women who surpassed her, but, when it came to her, you could take any one of her features, and Hayden would not be able to imagine anything more beautiful. It was as though the myriad spirits that dwelt within Allion had diligently moulded her to suit him.

    Reason no longer came into it. It was his blood. His heart. Hayden¡¯s very soul was entranced. He who had been on the very verge of losing interest in everything, ached with a unbearable lust and burned with passion.

    Most important of all, she was young. She had not yet been sullied by the ways of the world. In all honesty, it would have suited Hayden¡¯s tastes better if she had been a little older, but he had to protect his bud while she was still young and tender, or else she might attract the attention of vulgar lechers who did not understand the true meaning of beauty ¨C did not even think of it ¨C and who would pluck her for fun. Or perhaps she might be taken away by some country-bumpkin noble who would try to claim that theirs was a destined love simply because they had spent a little time together.

    Just imagining it left him enraged. He felt that every man, no matter who they were, who went near her should die. He fervently longed to shelter her somewhere within his reach and watch over her growth.

    He had not spent more than a few hours in that house before meeting her, but time no longer held any relevance to him. Which was why he had immediately opened negotiations with Claude Anglatt.

    The result had not been favourable. Hayden felt angry and suspicious towards Claude, and even after not having seen him for a long time, his body still seemed to seethe from those emotions.

    Nevertheless, Hayden was still someone at the edge of Allion¡¯s high nobility. When needs be, he could demonstrate steely self-control, so, back then, he had taken his leave with an unconcerned expression.

    From the day he returned home, he had started tirelessly working out a plan. After which, he had gotten in touch with scores of people, from those he was already acquainted with to those he could summon him thanks to his bloodline. He was so immersed in his work that he had even turned down an invitation from the king to go hunting, claiming that his health was not good. It was as though during those few days, all the passion that he had lost had been condensed before exploding, and it had been such an intense period that even looking back on it now made him feel dizzy.

    Hayden finally wrenched open his eyes. When he did so, the vivid image of Florrie Anglatt was mercilessly extinguished, as though blown out by the wind, and all that lay before him was a bleak room made out of wooden planks. A sigh mingling anger and grief escaped from his lips.

    Just a little more, he thought to himself, looking as though he was almost grinding his teeth.

    Just a little more, and I¡¯ll be able to bring you back to where you belong¡­

    However, on the day after Hayden Swift had his soldiers depart, an incident occurred that not even he, with his above-average talent, could have predicted.

    At that same time, the two hundred led by Percy were climbing the steep mountain paths and were approaching Allion¡¯s headquarters. It had been four days since their departure. They were on a route march so harsh that they did not even pause to sleep, stopping instead only for a few short breaks.

    Among Atall¡¯s soldiers, there were some who had ignored Percy¡¯s advice and who had put on armour but, by now, most of them had already thrown it away. Even so, all of them were out of breath, and were covered in mud and in sweat. Only Kuon, who was leading the way, had any energy left in his face.

    Amazing ¨C as the commanding officer, Percy did not express a word of complaint, but the one he was inwardly praising was Sarah. Camus had scolded his little sister for chasing after them, but Sarah clearly had no intention of listening to him. In the end, Camus had suddenly stopped talking, perhaps believing that she would give up halfway, anyway. And besides, time was precious.

    Yet, contrary to expectation, Sarah had not made a single complaint and, clenching her teeth, she had followed the march that was enough to make even the men collapse.

    Not long before the sun sank on the fourth day, Kuon, who was in the lead, stopped.

    ¡°C-Can you see it? The enemy fortress?¡± asked Percy, gasping for breath after desperately having caught up with him from behind.

    ¡°Shh!¡± Kuon ordered sharply, and, as though telling those behind him to lie low, he hid himself behind a tree.

    Percy used up the last remaining breath in his lungs to quickly go stand beside Kuon. He peered forward from the shadow of the same tree.

    Beneath the steep cliff to the left of the path a shadow that seemed to be the enemy fortress could be seen in the pitch darkness thanks to the lights around it. But that was not the only place where fires blazed: the mountain road should have been shrouded in darkness, but a number of lights were crawling along it like just like some glowing insect.

    It could only be soldiers. And there were too many of them for this to be an ordinary patrol. It was obvious that something unusual had happened, and that they were moving in response to that.

    Have they noticed something?

    A cold shiver ran down Percy¡¯s spine.

 Volume 1, 4: A Night of Encounter

    Volume 1, Chapter 4: A Night of Encounter

    Part 1

    After four full days, they had finally arrived before the enemy encampment. It was only on the first day, when they had been galloping on horseback, that they had exchanged frivolous small talk with their companions ¨C which was also a sign that they were feeling tense about the fighting to come. Afterwards, it been nothing but an accumulation of hunger and exhaustion. Whenever they had one of their breaks, everyone would simply sink down without saying a word. When they next stood up, their feet were even heavier than before. What awaited them at the end of the path was only more exhaustion. Yet somehow, while sometimes encouraging, and sometimes scolding friends who had stopped walking, they had reached their destination according to schedule.

    Yet just like that, those efforts of theirs which had almost been torture turned to nothing.

    The enemy was prowling the mountain with raised torches. Have they gotten wind of our attack? wondered Percy. For a moment, his entire body was paralysed. The unit which was supposed to strike at the enemy and bravely lead their allies to victory, was now no more than a platoon in enemy territory that could do nothing except wait to be tortured to death.

    Kuon smoothly and nimbly climbed a nearby tree to get a wider view of the line of lights. Just as he was narrowing his eyes to try to make how many they were, he spotted another group which has descending further down the very slope that they themselves were on. This group did not yet seem to have noticed them, but they were all shouting something at the same time. Kuon¡¯s ears caught a single word:

    ¡°Prince¡±

    Kuon hastily dropped from the tree and reported to Percy. They numbered about twenty or thirty and, from the looks of things ¨C

    They aren¡¯t preparing for an attack? thought Percy, but it would be all the same if they noticed them. It was thanks to Kuon¡¯s swift actions that Percy had broken out of his paralysis. Even if it had just been for a moment, he was ashamed of how he had been able to think of nothing except waiting for death.

    Coming to a quick decision, he waved his hand to order his men to descend the hill.

    The first thing to do is to get past that group and find somewhere to hide while Kuon scouts out what the situation is... such was the plan that Percy¡¯s mind was formulating, but it was shortly to be rendered useless.

    One of Atall¡¯s soldiers who was hurrying towards the front caught his foot in a tree root and tumbled downwards. Because he took the soldiers in front of him with him, the noise was deafening. All at once, shouts erupted from overhead.

    ¡°Who are you?¡±

    ¡°The prince?¡±

    ¡°No... I...¡±

    Quickly! ¨C while grabbing the hands of the fallen soldiers to help them get up, Percy was waving his other hand more furiously than ever before. His allies ran down the hill as though flying down it, but Allion¡¯s soldiers were coming after them from overhead at roughly the same speed.

    ¡°Wait! If you don¡¯t wait, we¡¯ll use our arrows on you!¡±

    ¡°We have guns, too.¡±

    As Allion¡¯s soldiers joined up, there were more and more lights overhead. Percy could no longer hide his voice.

    ¡°Run, run!¡± he urged his allies while he himself stopped. He intended to let the enemy get close enough to see him, then run in a different direction from his allies, and he was slowing down to divert the enemy¡¯s attention. His head and heart were filled with cold dread, but his fear for his own safety was nothing compared to the terror of seeing his allies annihilated. For the inexperienced Percy, that latter pain would be unbearable.

    At that point, Camus came racing back. With a: ¡°What are you doing?¡± he was about to pull Percy by the shoulder, but Percy instead grabbed the warrior monk¡¯s arm.

    ¡°Please get everyone down the mountain,¡± he begged him.

    Camus¡¯s eyes wavered before suddenly flaring sharply, and he knocked Percy down. A moment later, an arrow had pierced the ground where Percy had just been standing. It had not come from overhead, but from the side.

    We¡¯re surrounded ¨C Percy bit his lips in despair as he stood up. Apparently, the enemy had split into two groups to chase them. And needless to say, Allion had the advantage of terrain.

    It was in that instant that a gunshot rang out in retaliation nearby.

    It had come from Sarah. She too had come back at some point. Her aim was true, and the Allian soldier who was readying his next arrow collapsed forward. But now twice as many arrows again were being released from overhead and from the right. Now that it was clear that the opponent had the means to counterattack, Allion¡¯s troops no longer had any mercy.

    Percy, Camus and Sarah hid behind trees to avoid the arrows, but, at the same time, they could not make the slightest move. The net around them tightened. Percy¡¯s heart was pounding furiously, when he suddenly looked up. The stars were starting to appear.

    Then, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed something crawling. Although he couldn¡¯t clearly distinguish the figure, Percy knew instinctively that it was Kuon. He was probably hiding up a tree, waiting for a opening to fire an arrow before jumping down and causing confusion among the enemy.

    Idiot. You should have just escaped ¨C Percy inwardly cursed at him. It was impossible to overturn the situation with Kuon alone attacking the enemy.

    So this is all there is to the second son of the Leegan House.

    If there was one miracle cure for the dread that was freezing his body and soul, then that was resignation. Percy once again felt something like despondence.

    I wasn¡¯t able to return them a single blow.

    So in the end, was the heat that he had felt in his blood when he had been thinking up these tactics no more than the recklessness of youth? A chill struck Percy¡¯s heart and soul. The faces of his parents and older brother ran through his mind. Next was his fianc¨¦e, Liana¡¯s, smile.

    At that moment, he shook himself like a wet dog and threw off his lethargy.

    Wait. I can¡¯t let them find out that I¡¯m a noble from Atall.

    If his identity was uncovered, he would be bringing danger not only to the temple, but also to his native country. That was a fear of a different nature and a different magnitude than his previous dread. Whatever death he was to die, there was no way it would be one that brought shame to his loved ones.

    His hesitation disappeared in an instant. Within his heart, the narcissistic longing that was his craving for heroic deeds resonated perfectly with his desire not to feel the fear of death any more than this.

    ¡°God¡¯s hand rest over my head. You bastards, praise the name of the Lord!¡± shouting what few prayers he knew, Percy leaped out alone.

    The sound of an arrow grazed past his ear, and the next one struck just a few millimetres from the tip of his boots. Just as he was about to charge at the enemies with his spear in hand ¨C

    ¡°You idiot!¡±

    A voice came from overhead. Kuon sprang down from the tree, cutting down one of the bowmen as he did so. He then killed another. But they were outnumbered. Pressed back by the enemies¡¯ spears, he drew back towards Percy.

    ¡°You idiot,¡± Kuon yelled again as he swung his sword and knocked away an enemy arrow.

    The idiot here is you. Why didn¡¯t you run away? Percy was about the shout back despite himself. But Kuon¡¯s strong hand grabbed him and brought him back once more to the shadow of the tree. Meanwhile, Sarah had starting shooting again.

    There seemed to be slightly fewer arrows piercing the trees. Yet this was not because the enemy was daunted, but rather because they had guessed that their opponents were few in number and so were moving rapidly to tighten the net.

    His breath ragged, Percy looked in turns at Kuon, who was right next to him, grasping a sword, at Camus, who was hiding behind a different tree, then at Sarah, who had her gun in her hand. Each of them wore desperate expressions. And any second now, he might never be able to see their faces again.

    When he realised that, his chest was filled with a burning emotion that was different from fear. It hadn¡¯t even been two months since they had first met. Yet as they faced death together, shoulder to shoulder, it felt as though they had been together their entire lives.

    ¡°Shit!¡± a very uncharacteristic swear word spilled from Percy¡¯s lips.

    The idiot is probably me.

    His spear could not save his home country, nor could it even protect his irreplaceable friends. Percy¡¯s hands shook. If it were possible, he would have wanted to carry out a charge and give them a way to escape. But he did not believe that Camus, Sarah or Kuon would go along with that.

    In that case ¨C how about if we all move at the same time? How about if all four of them simultaneously started running in different directions? Even if one person was shot, that would still leave three, if a second person was shot, that would leave two, and if a third person was killed, at least the last remaining one should be able to escape.

    All he could do was hope for the best. Percy made eye contact with his friends. Had Camus understood his intention? He had turned to his younger sister and seemed to be telling her something.

    And then ¨C

    ¡°Wait, stay your arrows!¡±

    From overhead, a voice tore through the night air just as though it was itself a huge arrow. The attack suddenly ceased. Out of reflex, Percy looked up the hill and saw a figure on horseback. It was approaching towards them, handling the horse with almost outrageous skill down the steep path.

    He recognised that imposing figure.

    The rider received a light from one of the bowmen and raised it to his own eye level.

    ¡°Oh, I see. If it isn¡¯t the gentleman who helped me by taking my horse¡¯s bit.¡±

    With the light shining on him, Claude Anglatt smiled broadly.

    Percy, Camus, Kuon and Sarah were captured by Allion¡¯s forces.

    When Claude had called for their surrender, saying that: ¡°I promise you will be treated with courtesy,¡± Camus had barred his teeth, growling ¡°What!¡±, but there had been no other choice.

    The next action that Percy took was not taken because he had resigned himself to dying, but because he wanted to save the lives of the other three. Faster than anyone, he had left the shadow of the trees and had thrown down his weapon. He had then asked the others to do the same.

    Sarah and Kuon complied, and, in the end, Camus had thrust his spear into the ground, his voice raw with anger.

    Even though they were captured, they were not tied up. With Allion¡¯s soldiers in front and behind them, they walked along the mountain path.

    ¡°Let go, don¡¯t touch me!¡± yelled Kuon. Percy managed to sooth him by pointing out that, forget not being touched, it was already unusual for prisoners not to be bound hand and foot.

    ¡°Honestly, this is why I told you not to follow us,¡± Camus said to his younger sister in a serious voice. ¡°Have I ever told you anything that didn¡¯t turn out to be true? Look, it¡¯s the same thing this time, too.¡±

    ¡°What are you bragging about when you¡¯ve been captured by the enemy? I don¡¯t remember having been any kind of burden. Which means, Big Brother, that this is your mistake.¡±

    ¡°What mistake did I make? This plan was impossible from the start. I followed that impossible path, grasping my spear even while knowing that it was hopeless. That is a man¡¯s resolve, and something that you cannot understand.¡±

    Walking in front, Percy¡¯s ears were burning. In their current predicament, he had prepared himself more than once for death, but he was far from having done so with the mental fortitude of a valiant warrior. It was simply because he couldn¡¯t bear the fear that was squeezing his neck tighter and tighter. Percy Leegan was made sharply aware of his own inexperience.

    Looking up at Claude¡¯s back as he guided them from the front, Percy let out a quiet sigh.

    Were the other soldiers able to escape? If so, then it was still worth risking death.

    He expected that they would be taken to the fortress, but for some reason, Claude did not choose the road leading to it, and instead continued to climb upwards, leading the four of them to a clearing in the trees.

    Watchfires were burning and an encampment had been hastily set up. Upon seeing Claude, soldiers holding guns stood to attention. This was probably somewhere that Claude had been supervising until he had gone to deal with them. Percy was wondering if they had set up a camp away from the fortress because they suspected that there would be a surprise attack, when just then, another rider came racing back from a different direction.

    ¡°Oh ¨C Father?¡± the newcomer opened his eyes wide when he saw Claude, who was likewise on horseback. ¡°Where did you go?¡±

    ¡°Just some minor business,¡± Claude glanced towards Percy and the others, grinning. He was not looking at them as you would at prisoners. Percy was startled to realise that it was instead exactly as though he was looking at a group of mischievous brats who had been caught red-handed.

    ¡°More importantly, did you find them?¡±

    ¡°There was neither hide nor hair of them on the immediate surroundings. Hayden¡¯s soldiers appeared to the north, so we couldn''t get close.¡±

    ¡°Damn Hayden. He¡¯s so caught up in this, he¡¯s forgotten he¡¯s supposed to be in command,¡± Claude barred his teeth. ¡°He¡¯s the man who deliberately spread rumours in the country about soldiers from Atall, and now he¡¯s gone and decided that the prince kidnapped my daughter ¨C he¡¯ll probably be aiming for the prince¡¯s life.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s also the man who sent you off as messenger, Father. I won¡¯t show him any mercy if he does anything to hurt Florrie...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t do anything rash. Sorry, but would you go investigate the surroundings again?¡±

    ¡°Aye,¡± Claude¡¯s son pulled on his reins and immediately galloped out of the camp again.

    For a moment, Claude remained on horseback, glaring towards the north, then jumped down. ¡°We have a bit of a situation of our own, here,¡± he noted, with a somewhat bitter smile.

    Percy could not stop himself from speaking up. ¡°May I ask you what it is? Wasn¡¯t it because you were expecting our attack that you set up this camp?¡±

    ¡°Not at all,¡± Claude admitted with startling frankness. ¡°A problem¡¯s cropped up. And it¡¯s a problem I can¡¯t get involved in. If my men so much as approach, that Hayden guy will start up the rumours again.¡±

    Percy did not understand what the circumstances were, and it was his first time hearing the name ¡®Hayden¡¯. However, he had remembered something when he had heard the word ¡®prince¡¯ earlier.

    Claude Anglatt... and the prince. Right, Lord Leo, the second-born prince of Atall, was sent to Allion as a hostage. And if I¡¯m not mistake, he was placed in Claude¡¯s territory.

    Percy experienced a shock that was completely unrelated to his own current situation. Earlier, Claude had also said that ¡°he¡¯ll probably be aiming for the prince¡¯s life¡± ¨C just what on earth had happened here? Although he did not fully understand, it was certain that whatever it was, it was connected to his own country.

    As though he had only just noticed the existence of the four of them, Claude Anglatt swept his gaze over each of them in turn.

    ¡°A warrior monk from the temple, a nun and a mercenary... is it?¡±

    ¡°Even if you torture me, I won¡¯t reveal a thing,¡± Camus glared fiercely. ¡°Besides that, it¡¯s fine if I¡¯m the only one to experience the shame of being taken prisoner. Surely a general from Allion wouldn¡¯t lay hands on woman, right?¡±

    Claude ignored Camus and turned his gaze towards Percy last.

    ¡°Were those rumours actually true? I see, I did think that for a mercenary, you... You¡¯re a soldier from Atall, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°A-Absolutely not. That I... I couldn¡¯t possibly...¡± Almost giddy from his memories, Percy was about to deny his own origins, but ¨C

    ¡°It¡¯d be better not to hide it. If you¡¯re from Atall then, in a way, your goals coincide with ours.¡±

    Claude stopped him quickly, looking as though he had absolutely no patience to listen. Then, he made a proposal that startled all four of them.

    ¡°Would you save the life of Atall¡¯s prince, Lord Leo Attiel?¡±

    Part 2

    ¡°Leo, you need to run away quickly.¡±

    It was only a little past noon when Florrie Anglatt said that to Leo, her expression anxious.

    Leo had been in a parlour, reading. The swaying curtains were embroidered with reproductions of famous paintings depicting the spirits in human form.

    Run away?

    At first, he thought it was a joke, but Florrie¡¯s usually rosy cheeks were pale and the blood also seemed to have drained from her lips.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t run away quickly, Leo, you¡¯ll be killed.¡±

    The tears that were pooling in her eyes seemed about to slide down her ashen cheeks.

    At present, Claude Anglatt was not at the residence.

    ¨C It had all started when relations with Conscon Temple had deteriorated. Leo would not easily forget how a group that included the high noble, Hayden Swift, had gone to the temple but had failed in bringing about a reconciliation. When a punitive force was raised with Hayden at the helm, Leo had felt considerable surprise.

    They had only sat together for a single meal, so Leo himself didn¡¯t know why he felt that it¡¯s not like him.

    ¡°It won¡¯t drag on too long,¡± Claude had said, looking uninterested. It was obvious that he was opposed to attacking the temple by force. However, as an upstart general, he could not say anything against the plan that Hayden, a distant relative to the royal family, was pushing forward. Claude seemed to be hoping that at least this would be over soon, given that the temple was recruiting soldiers but was unlikely to have an organised plan of resistance.

    Yet the fighting went on for longer than expected. And Claude could not remain uninvolved.

    A few days earlier, a messenger had arrived at the Anglatt mansion. He carried directives from Hayden, ¡°Send soldiers to the highway to help escort the provisions of goods. Claude is to command them in person.¡±

    Hayden Swift had established his headquarters at a location just south of Claude¡¯s territory. The distance between the two was not very large, but the way was obstructed by steep mountains and deep valleys. Passing through them required having the right equipment and skill, as well as courage verging on recklessness. Horses could not be used to transport either goods or people, so, naturally, the route was inefficient unless one had an air carrier capable of high-altitude flying. Because of that, Hayden¡¯s army was relying on the route from the west for its supplies. That was the highway that they were to protect.

    ¡°Even though I¡¯ve been tasked with guarding the border, I¡¯ve got to send soldiers to the highway?¡±

    Claude was unable to hide his indignation, but Hayden had received the king¡¯s consent for his military operations. So Claude had grudgingly ridden from his fortress to go and carry out his task.

    Another few days had passed when a disturbing rumour reached Leo, who was at the Anglatt mansion. It was being whispered that the main reason why this battle was dragging on was because: The Principality of Atall is sending reinforcements to the temple.

    The Principality of Atall was a neighbouring country with which Allion had crossed spears seven years ago. Not knowing its place, Atall had joined up with Shazarn to pick a fight, but once it had been made to realise the overwhelming difference in power with Allion, it had all at once lost heart and had accepted a reconciliation. Afterwards, they had handed over Lord Leo Attiel as a hostage.

    Yet in spite of this, it was sending reinforcements to a force which was hostile to Allion. In other words, this was a betrayal.

    ¡°Oi, it looks like your country has abandoned you,¡± Jack, Claude¡¯s second son, harshly pointed out to Leo at the breakfast table.

    These past two or three years, his spite towards Leo had died down considerably, but he was apparently unhappy that his father had only taken Walter along with him to accomplish his duties, and although Jack¡¯s expression had been starting to mellow, irritation was now creeping into it. At the same time, his attitude towards Leo was reverting back to what it had been when they were children.

    ¡°Once things are settled at the temple, Atall will be next. Since you¡¯ve no more use as a hostage, the first thing that¡¯ll happen is probably that you¡¯ll he hanged as an warning to them.¡±

    ¡°Stop it, Jack,¡± again just as in their childhood, Florrie, who was sitting with them, defended Leo while tears were pooling in her doe-like eyes.

    ¡°Humph,¡± snorted Jack, biting into the bread he had soaked in his soup. ¡°If you don¡¯t like being called a traitor, you should take up a spear too. If you want to survive, you¡¯ve no choice but to kill other Atallese and demonstrate your loyalty to Allion.¡±

    He was able to make fun of Leo like that because the rumour had not yet grown beyond the point of being a mere rumour.

    ¡°Damned Atall, even though we showed them compassion seven years ago.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re pretty full of themselves for such a small country. We should¡¯ve just conquered them back then.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re in charge of the hostage, right? Take this brat and throw him in a cell. If Atall doesn¡¯t cease its aid to the temple, we¡¯ll hang him. They will, of course, have been prepared for that.¡±

    It seemed that the situation that Jack was describing, half in joke, might become reality. As previously mentioned, there were many adherents influenced by the Cross Faith within Allion. Consequently, while the country had not risen as one in support of subjugating the temple, the despondent feelings that had emerged in that situation found an outlet in ¡®Atall¡¯s betrayal¡¯. Hatred started to swell against Atall, rather than against the temple.

    It¡¯s impossible, right? At first, Leo had been dubious about Atall sending reinforcements to the temple.

    There was of course the fact that he himself was a hostage, but also, because of the influence of the vassal lords, who governed the southern half of the country, the sovereign-prince could not move large numbers of soldiers any way he wanted. In other words, he would never have been able to send enough soldiers to overturn the difference in strength between Allion and the temple.

    Yet every day, the rumours gained more credibility, and Leo started to feel a little anxious as he begun to wonder if he had no worth as a hostage.

    From the start, I was never sent to be a hostage. Back then, I had already been abandoned.

    Leo chased away the feelings of bitterness and the memory of his mother¡¯s voice just before they had time to graze the surface of his consciousness. The skill he had grown most proficient with during these six years was not using the sword or the bow; it was the strange ability he had gained to detach inconvenient emotions from his mind. It was being able to gaze from a distance at those dark emotions which had turned into a sludge, and which had then taken on a form that looked vaguely like Leo Attiel.

    Thus, setting his own problem completely aside and thinking about the situation, he felt that there was definitely something unnatural about his father¡¯s actions and about how Hayden had taken the initiative to lead soldiers.

    Deliberately thinking things through to the end, he could only conclude that: it¡¯s as though everything is conspiring towards my death. Conscon Temple, Hayden, Father ¨C absolutely everything.

    He unintentionally gave a bitter smile.

    ¡°I see ¨C I¡¯m going to be killed, aren¡¯t I?¡± he groaned out loud, causing Florrie Anglatt to become frantic.

    ¡°No, no! You won¡¯t be put to death, Leo! I won¡¯t let them!¡±

    Leo came back to himself when he heard a voice sobbing. The feelings, the stagnant sludge, that he had temporarily sent far from him now returned, and with them, it was as though the blood slowly started flowing again through his limbs which had gone numb.

    According to the story he heard once Florrie had calmed down, she had heard women gossiping when she had gone down to the small town close to the castle. They said that Hayden had apparently sent envoys to the Anglatt residence, and those envoys consisted of several dozen men, all of whom were armed. Thinking about why they would go to the Anglatt mansion now that Claude, the head of the family, was away, it seemed that they had received orders to bring Leo Attiel to Hayden¡¯s encampment.

    Leo opened his eyes wide. ¡°But what kind of business could he possibly have with me?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But those rumours ¨C there are are those wicked, untrue rumours,¡± what Florrie was saying became hard to follow. ¡°I also talked about this to Jack. I wanted him to promise that he wouldn¡¯t hand you over, Leo, if those envoys came for you.¡±

    Perhaps because she was still so worked up, Florrie¡¯s eyes once again started to fill with tears as she talked.

    ¡°But Jack had nothing to say except cowardly excuses! He¡¯s always throwing his weight around, but when it comes down to it, he doesn¡¯t have any backbone!¡±

    ¡°I can understand Jack¡¯s situation. Right now, he¡¯s the acting head of the family, here in this castle. He can¡¯t cause any unnecessary trouble on just his own authority.¡±

    ¡°What unnecessary trouble! Your very life is on the line!¡±

    As for that, well... Leo mumbled something that sounded like he excuses.

    Perhaps irritated by that, Florrie suddenly raised her tear-filled eyes and grabbed him by the hand.

    ¡°Let¡¯s run away, right now. I¡¯ll come with you.¡±

    Her slender arms held surprising strength. She had already changed what she was saying from ¡°run away¡± to ¡°let¡¯s run away together¡±. Leo remained silent but just then ¨C

    ¡°Miss Florrie!¡±

    A plump, middle-aged woman came barging in. She was a servant employed by the Anglatt family, and right now, she had an air of urgency around her. Worried that she might have misunderstood something, Leo was about to shake off the girl¡¯s hands, but:

    ¡°I sent Milius from the stables to keep watch on the highway and just got a message from him. The envoys from the army will soon be here!¡±

    ¡°Leo,¡± Florrie¡¯s hands gripped his with increasingly unusual strength.

    While Leo almost had the impression that he was being burned by the fervent emotions surging in her eyes, he went along with Florrie¡¯s actions and started walking.

    Run... Should I run? But where, and how? He asked himself as they left the mansion and continued to the stables that located by the walls.

    His heart was being tossed about on a wave of conflicting thoughts, but separate from that, Leo found it surprising that the maid, Milius who had gone to keep watch, and another elderly stable hand who had already saddled Leo¡¯s horse, were all helping him like this.

    No, it¡¯s not me. It¡¯s thanks to Florrie, he thought darkly.

    If the hostage entrusted into the care of his house were to escape, then Claude, as head of the family, would naturally not let these servants go unpunished. The reason why they were willing to help even though it might mean losing their jobs, or even being charged with a capital crime, was probably because Florrie had begged them in tears. The daughter of the Anglatt family was loved by everyone in that house.

    With help from the elderly stable hand, he climbed onto the horse¡¯s back. As thought it was completely natural, Florrie sat behind him.

    ¡°They''re here, they''re here! Lord Leo, Miss Florrie, hurry!¡± shouted the maid from a window on the second floor. She was craning her neck as far as she could, keeping watch on the highway.

    Leo whipped the horse and it broke into a run. The back gate was open. The gate-keeper, a pimply-faced youth, raised his hand and watched as the horse passed him by and galloped out of sight.

    They raced along a alley lined with trees. Leo had the impression that he could feel the cold shadow of the guillotine drawing up right behind them. Cold though it was, it also felt as though, wherever he drove his horse to ¨C no matter where that was ¨C that shadow would be calmly awaiting, it gleaming blade ready to chop of the head of the criminal¡¯s head.

    The sun had set.

    After pretending to travel west from the mansion¡¯s rear gate, Leo had left the horse in the forest and, carrying nothing but the saddle bag, had changed course and had taken a mountain path that headed south. Having spent more that six years there, Leo had some familiarity with the lay of the land.

    The saddle bag contained a little bread and cheese, a pine torch as well as the flints and the metal fittings that went with it. When night had fallen, he lit the torch and they carried on. Walking through the dark mountains, he thought back to the time when he had clung to Claude¡¯s waist as they rode through the darkness.

    Back then, after being mocked as a ¡°boy who is as good as dead¡±, he had run after Claude, his face flushed red. Although physically he had grown since then, the situation he now found himself in was not so very different from that time.

    Leo continued walking in silence. For now, he had no purpose in mind; he could only keep on walking, relying on his senses. Florrie frequently looked back behind them. They continued along the narrow path, pushing their way through leaves and branches, until these suddenly opened before them.

    It was a grassy clearing. That too reminded him of the place where he had lain, spread-eagled, six years earlier. A huge tree towered from the top of a gentle slope, and the dark, star-studded night sky spread out behind it. The space had opened so abruptly that, for a second, Leo felt dizzy.

    ¡°Leo!¡± at that moment, Florrie suddenly cried out.

    Looking back, he realised that they could see the foot of the hill from this position. Rows of glittering lights stretched out in the distance.

    ¡°Are they from the army?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. The lights you can see on the left will be the ones who came to fetch me from the Anglatt mansion. The ones on the right are probably coming from the encampment that Sir Hayden set up. The road in that direction is supposed to be incredibly steep; he must really not want me to get away.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re still speaking in such a carefree way. Come on, let¡¯s hurry.¡±

    ¡°Going beyond this point is the same as mountain climbing. So let¡¯s rest, instead. You must be tired too, Florrie.¡±

    ¡°No, I...¡± Florrie wanted to protest, but she was gasping for breath.

    Which was no wonder: it had already been four or five hours since they had abandoned their horse, and since then, they had kept walking. Florrie was drenched in sweat, and the clothes that were clinging to her were covered in dirt, so that she was already unrecognisable as the young lady from the mansion. She had admirably come this far without uttering a single complaint.

    While Florrie was fretting, Leo dropped down by the tree and leaned against it.

    ¡°I remember doing something like this when I had just arrived here,¡± he spoke as nonchalantly as he could while feeling the cold evening breeze against him. ¡°You know, back then, fires were also burning bright at the foot of the mountains, waiting to welcome Lord Claude and me. It was the proof that a great many people had gone out looking for me. And that was because I was none other than Leo Attiel. It¡¯s the same, even now. Even though I¡¯ve started to forget my parents¡¯ faces, even now, I¡¯m still the second son of the House of Attiel. That fact follows me around everywhere, and there¡¯s nothing I can do about it.¡±

    Florrie stared at Leo, finding it strange how he was able to so nonchalantly string his words together at a time like this. It was as though he wasn¡¯t afraid of anything.

    It was natural, though, since Leo had never believed that they would succeed in escaping. First of all, it would create a huge problem for the Anglatt House if they disappeared. Florrie and the servants who had helped her would of course be blamed, but Claude, as head of the house, would also be made to bear responsibility. Since he had originally climbed up from nothing, it was very possible that his lands would be taken from him.

    That he had gone along with escaping with Florrie even knowing that was because when she had said Let¡¯s escape, when she had taken his hand and gazed at him fervently, not even Leo was able to keep away and ignore the single, almost burning feeling that remained in his chest. He had decided to go with her, even if only for a short while.

    And that ¡°short while¡± would now soon the over. Leo closed his eyes.

    When he opened them, he said, ¡°Florrie, won¡¯t you sing for me?¡±

    ¡°Leo, at a time like this,¡± Florrie stood on tiptoes, turning her gaze in every direction and completely unable to calm down. Crying out in a panic that the line of fire was approaching, she desperately tried to convince Leo to leave at once, but every time, he smiled gently and replied, ¡°If you sing for me, Florrie.¡±

    They repeated that several times over.

    After Leo had sat without budging for about ten minutes, Florrie finally gave in.

    Escaping any further now... was impossible ¨C perhaps it was because she had acknowledged that on some level that for a moment, she hung her head, looking heartbroken.

    She then raised it back up and, at first slowly and hesitantly, started singing. Leo watched the young songstress. He was smiling but Florrie¡¯s attention was focused on the line of flames that was approaching them from below, until she seemed to sternly order herself to ¡®concentrate¡¯.

    Florrie¡¯s voice gradually grew in volume and in flexibility. Realising that her mind had begun to focus on her song, Leo once again closed his eyes.

    It was a song that he had sometimes listened to at the mansion. It spoke about a young child innocently at play, and there were various interpretations to it. One was that, ¡°if children can play cheerfully and without a care, it proves that the society which is raising them is in good shape.¡± Another was that, ¡°adults who work tirelessly to earn the food to survive with miss the days when they could run around playing.¡± Yet another was that, ¡°Life is after all but one long children¡¯s game, so no matter what difficulties or crisis I find myself in, I will live with a clear heart and will never lose my sense of fun.¡±

    As she sung, Florrie would occasionally imitate a child¡¯s breathing. It was so accurate that listening with his eyes closed, he could almost believe that it was a little girl of six or seven who was singing merrily. Florrie¡¯s singing voice overlapped with memories of Claude, of his wife, Ellen, and even of Walter and Jack forgetting to eat as they listened to her sing at dinnertime. The warm fire in the hearth flickered.

    Before he had realised it, the back of Leo¡¯s eyelids had grown hot.

    Was it Florrie¡¯s song that was piercing his chest so painfully? Was it her voice, her breath, her warmth that he could feel close to him that were enveloping him in such kindness, such gentleness, yet at the same time, in such violent emotions? I will not cry, Leo ground his teeth hard.

    The singing suddenly stopped. The warm fire went out with it. Because he had been on the verge of immersing himself in his emotions, Leo wrenched open his eyes, feeling nothing but anger towards Florrie. As he did so, the young songstress buried her face in her hands and her slender shoulders shook.

    ¡°Leo, I¡¯m so sorry for you,¡¯ she said, sobbing convulsively where she stood. ¡°If you wanted me to sing, I would have sung for you anytime you wanted. If it¡¯s your request, anytime. But the very first time you¡¯ve asked me to sing, why is it at a time like this?¡±

    Leo was about to say something, but he stayed quiet instead.

    ¡°I wanted you to smile. Because when you first came to us, you always looked sad and brooding. I wanted you to learn to like Allion. Even though you must have been feeling lonely separated from your family, I hoped that you would get along with my beloved father, and mother, and brothers, that you would listen to my songs, and that you would say that you were glad that you came here. But... Leo, it would have been better if you¡¯d never come to Allion. Then this wouldn¡¯t have happened. I¡¯m so very, very sorry for you...¡±

    Finally unable to bear it any longer, Florrie crouched down, hunching her back as she sobbed. Her voice and words were enough to gouge out the heart of a listener, but, just as with the rough voices of the soldiers below them, the night was probably swiftly carrying them away.

    ¡°I should never have come,¡± at Leo¡¯s muttered words, Florrie¡¯s back shook even more violently than before. Leo looked down at bright lights crawling below them.

    ¡°Or rather... I wasn¡¯t originally supposed to come here,¡± he said. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me but the third prince ¨C in other words, it was my younger brother, Roy Attiel, who was supposed to be given as hostage. Roy was eight at the time. He was young, but he was old enough to take on the role of hostage. Even so, at the very last minute, I was the one who was sent instead of Roy. Why do you think that is?¡±

    Florrie could not answer.

    Speaking of which, why am I talking about this now? As Leo inwardly asked himself that in a calm voice, he continued with his story without waiting for an answer.

    ¡°Mother doted on Roy. She said that if he as going to be taken from her, then she would rather go with him to Allion. She was so frantic that it was as though she might kill herself and take Roy with her the second someone tried to separate them. I had never seen her like that before. And then, with an expression that I had never seen her wear before, in a voice that I had never heard her use before, Mother said: ¡®You should make Leo go. If it¡¯s for a hostage, can¡¯t it just be Leo?¡¯¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not saying that she turned to me and hurled at me that ¡®since it¡¯s just you, it¡¯s fine, even if you die¡¯. But to the me of back then, it was probably pretty much the same. Anyway, even though I was already ten at the time, I really was a pampered child.¡±

    Are you trying to say that it¡¯s different, ¡®now¡¯? A voice whispered again inside his heart. It was the stagnant sludge, which had existed at a place a little separate from Leo¡¯s heart and which, at some point, had peeled itself away, slowly and surreptitiously, to be near Leo.

    Leo ignored it and carried on.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t want my mother to be tormented any more than she already was ¨C or rather, I hated the thought of being with this mother that I didn¡¯t recognise, so I volunteered to be the hostage. I pretended to be an adult, you know, saying ¡®This is a good opportunity to broaden my perspective¡¯.¡±

    You¡¯re still pretending to be an adult. Are you going to start forcing yourself to believe what you can¡¯t bring yourself to think? Do you want to play the adult in front of Florrie?

    More than six years.

    In the end, it was his mother who had stuck firmly in his mind. Even when he wanted to forget her or keep her away from his conscious thoughts, that face of his mother¡¯s, that voice of hers, had always, constantly been by his side.

    When Claude had found him, in a place not so far removed from here, and told him, ¡°Until you¡¯ve amassed power equal to the family name ¡®Attiel¡¯, why don¡¯t you mentally lean on it for a while?¡±, he had felt as though he had woken up. He had worked hard in both his studies and at his military drills. He believed that carrying the name ¡®Attiel¡¯ was not his only possible path in life. Or at the very least, by concentrating on grappling with what was right before him, he believed that he would not feel as though he was rotting away.

    Yet for all that ¨C

    You can¡¯t become someone else. You''re just the same as when your mother abandoned you. Nothing has changed, you¡¯ve simply stopped yourself from thinking about it. Back then, you lost your future; you¡¯ve even lost the will to think about the future.

    He understood it clearly now. When the man called Hayden Swift had visited the Anglatt mansion, Leo had been fascinated by his somewhat pessimistic atmosphere, and had believed that here was definitely someone who was similar to him. They had both lost their enthusiasm for the future.

    No, that man and you, you¡¯re just spoiled children. Didn¡¯t you say it yourself, earlier? The two of you have left both the past and the future to others, and simply bemoan the present. During these six years, you have been nothing but a crying, spoiled child.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Florrie could not understand why Leo nodded his head. Still answering the voice inside his heart, he continued, ¡°that¡¯s exactly right. But the time I¡¯ve spent in Allion was not completely meaningless to me.¡±

    Perhaps attracted by how bright his voice was, Florrie lowered her hands behind which she had been hiding her face. Upon doing so, she noticed that Leo was gazing straight at her, and her cheeks along which tears were trickling instantly turned bright red.

    ¡°Because you were there,¡± said Leo. ¡°You were there, as well as Lord Claude and your mother. Even though Walter and Jack were sometimes mean, there were also times when they were older friends to me. And they were good rivals in studies and in martial training.¡±

    Although Florrie looked pure and innocent, in reality, she had time and again shown a talent for skilfully tricking those closest to her. On days when she invited Walter and Jack to ¡°go for a long ride, just the three of us,¡± she would actually also invite Leo, and kept it a secret from both sides until the day. When the three of them met at the stables, their expressions turned sour, but a cheerful voice would pipe up from behind Leo, saying ¡°Right, let¡¯s go. The weather is beautiful today,¡± as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

    Having been tricked, Walter and Jack would be sulky for a while, but at the end of the day, the three of them ¨C counting Leo ¨C were children. In the exhilaration of riding their horses fast through the wind, they soon forgot to be upset. Later, at the riverside, they would compete at fishing, throwing stones ad climbing trees. Although Florrie cheered them all on equally, in actual fact, she was just a little biased towards Leo.

    There were many of those bright days that Leo could look back on with a smile.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad I came to Allion. Because I got to meet you... all of you. So you don¡¯t have to cry. You don¡¯t need to feel sorry for me. Please smile, Florrie. And sing. There¡¯s neither Atall nor Allion ¨C wherever it is that you¡¯re smiling and singing, that¡¯s where I¡¯ll be able to smile happily.¡±

    Leo stretched out his hand as he spoke. As Florrie was timidly reaching out to take it, they heard the sound of innumerable footsteps reverberating along the ground. Startled, Florrie remained petrified.

    Looking around, there were lights swaying along on the other side of the bushes.

    ¡°Oi, someone¡¯s here!¡±

    ¡°Whaat? Lend me a light.¡±

    Several soldiers from Allion made their way through the bushes and came into sight.

    Leo quickly stood up.

    Part 3

    Claude Anglatt held grave doubts about the dispatch of troops towards Conscon. He also found it suspicious that it was Hayden Swift who had urged the king to send the soldiers. At the time, however, the way he saw it was that: The fool just wants to vent his resentment and blame the temple for his failure at mediating. It¡¯s just a childish revenge, and so he viewed Hayden with contempt.

    However, the situation began to change after he had been ordered by Hayden to guard the highway. Rumours that ¡°Atall is aiding the temple¡± started to run rampant.

    Claude did not think it was possible, but apparently, Hayden had already captured and interrogated an enemy soldier, and he had learned from him that a force of thousand men had come from Atall, concealing their identities.

    ¡°It looks like the hostage, Lord Leo, is sending information about us to the temple.¡±

    No sooner had that and other similarly groundless rumours started circulating, than embellishments were added. It even began to be whispered that:

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be Sir Claude who¡¯s pulling the strings from behind the scene? He¡¯s just a upstart, after all, and he¡¯ll have gotten big money from Atall or from the temple.¡±

    At that point, Claude began to harbour some nasty doubts.

    Impossible. Right, it¡¯s impossible but what with the relationship with the temple going downhill, with the fight being dragged on, with Atall¡¯s sending troops... isn¡¯t it just like everything is moving just to drive me into a corner?

    His impression about it was roughly the same as Leo¡¯s was. But whereas Leo had smiled bitterly and decided that ¡°It really is impossible¡±, Claude could faintly discern who might be behind it.

    He did not have any means of proving it, however.

    Therefore, when Hayden assigned him to the dangerous task of messenger, he could not do anything but agree to undertake it so as to demonstrate his loyalty to Allion. At the same time, however, if he returned after safely completing his mission, it would result in fanning rumours such as, ¡°He made it back because he has ties to Atall and to the temple.¡±

    The shame he felt only grew stronger.

    And then, a few days after the invitation to surrender had been refused, Hayden mounted an all-out offensive. Claiming that he had been able to obtain information about the temple, he had most of the soldiers leave from the headquarters. Just as Claude was thinking that this unproductive fight was finally coming to an end, he received some unexpected information:

    ¡°Hayden is going to have Lord Leo hauled to his camp.¡±

    Claude, who had returned to command the highway guards, was astounded. He could not understand what Hayden¡¯s intentions were. Even though he was a close friend to the king, and even if Atall was planning betrayal, Claude did not believe that Hadyen would, on his own authority, order Leo to be punished. But he still he hurried to the headquarters with his son and a few soldiers. He had wanted to find out what Hayden was intending to do, but the man was nowhere to be found within the camp. Even the soldiers who had been left behind were clattering about and could be seen heading off in all directions.

    Something unexpected must have happened.

    Claude caught hold of an attendant to the Swift family to ask him about it, but the attendant, who was the youngest son of a prestigious aristocratic family, looked down on him from the start.

    ¡°A skilled commander does not carelessly reveal his movements, even to his allies,¡± he said.

    Claude seized him by the collar.

    ¡°T-T-This is coercion...¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve received information that the enemy will be attacking the headquarters while the soldiers are all away. Now speak: where is this esteemed ¡®skilled commander¡¯?¡±

    He just said whatever came to mind, but the attendant went pale and revealed the whole story. Whereupon, Claude also went white.

    Leo Attiel fled from the mansion? And with my daughter?

    Claude was astonished, but when Hayden had heard the news a few hours earlier, he had apparently, and for reasons known only to himself, received an even greater shock than the general, and had completely lost his composure. He had taken about half of the soldiers who had remained stationed at the headquarters, and had them board the precious air carriers that the base had been equipped with as a precaution.

    It was abnormal. Who had ever heard of a commander leaving headquarters during an assault to go conduct a manhunt in the mountains?

    That man is as incomprehensible as ever.

    Claude was inwardly exasperated but, at the same time, his blood ran cold. Just who was that man¡¯s obsession focused on? Was it on Lord Leo, whom he had wanted to summon to the camp, or was it on Claude¡¯s daughter, whom he had pleaded to take with him when he had only just met her? Either way, he was dangerous.

    Claude had his men search the headquarters¡¯ surroundings. While he did not know when Leo had run away, and although the possibility was slim, he decided to start from the beginning. Steep mountains and precipitous valleys separated Claude¡¯s castle from the headquarters, and with his daughter in tow, it would be impossible to cross them on foot.

    It was while they were searching that, by chance, they came across the attack unit led by Percy Leegan. For Claude, the lie that he had told Hayden¡¯s attendant had apparently become reality. As a result, he captured Percy¡¯s group of four, but he inwardly considered that:

    They¡¯re brave men. Well, no, there¡¯s also a woman among them. Warrior monks are nothing to look down on.

    However, when he looked again at their leader, Percy, he found himself feeling suspicious. Claude had invited a priest of the Cross Faith to his mansion as a teacher for his sons, and he did not sense the same kind of aura from Percy. And he certainly did not look like a mercenary or a bandit. Putting together his manner when he had taken the bit to guide Claude¡¯s horse, and the way he had been willing even to sacrifice himself to allow the soldiers to escape...

    I see. Maybe the rumours that Hayden spread weren¡¯t necessarily lies.

    He realised that Percy was a soldier from Atall, and, moreover, that he was from a noble family. While he was angry that the matter of the ¡®reinforcements from Atall¡¯ had brought about this current difficult situation, at the moment, he had no time to waste on blaming them. Instead, a solution which surprised even him flashed through his mind.

    ¡°Would you save the life of Atall¡¯s prince, Lord Leo Attiel?¡±

    Once he actually said it, he felt that it wasn¡¯t a bad idea.

    Hayden was searching on the north side of the mountain, which meant that he was not far from Claude¡¯s castle, but if Claude had offered to help, given that he was under suspicion, it was unlikely that his soldiers would be allowed to approach. But Atall¡¯s soldiers and the warrior monks were, from the start, enemies of Allion.

    ¡°You were travelling along these paths after sundown; you must be used to the mountains. Even so, it¡¯s a gamble whether or not you¡¯ll be able to find the prince, but how about it: won¡¯t you try out your luck?¡±

    Claude offered his suggestion after giving them a brief rundown of Lord Leo¡¯s situation.

    Percy remained silent throughout but, inwardly, he was bitterly regretful: to think that not only had Allion gotten wind of Atall¡¯s participation, but that on top of that, it had driven the hostage Lord Leo into danger.

    ¡°Are you planning on using us as a decoy?¡± Kuon spat out, at which point Camus looked as though understanding had dawned on him, and he nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Are you perhaps saying that just as we approach this Hayden person and his troops, you will deliberately let them find us and create a commotion, during which time, you will go and rescue the prince?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea, either,¡± Claude grinned. ¡°Naturally, we¡¯ll also be sending as many people as we possibly can, so if you do get found by Hayden, we¡¯ll go with that method.¡±

    Both Kuon and Camus sullenly fell silent. They had nothing to answer back. Besides which, they both had a favourable impression of this very honest man. Given the situation, however, they did not want to show it openly.

    ¡°Well then,¡± standing next to her brother, who had been talked down, Sarah interposed. ¡°How about if we find Lord Leo first? Should we bring him to you?¡±

    Claude was surprised that a woman could speak up like that in this kind of situation, but he realised that he quite liked these four people. For one thing, they guts to attempt a surprise attack on the headquarters with only so few soldiers. Considering that they had timed it perfectly to be right after the soldiers had left camp, Hayden had probably been tricked by the enemy.

    Thinking so, Claude felt hugely relieved, and his mood lifted considerably.

    ¡°Naturally, I would hope for you to bring the prince back to me, but... who knows what might next.¡±

    Huh? The four made the same expression. There was something quite innocent about it.

    ¡°Well yeah, my orders are to defend the border, so there¡¯s no way I could be talking with enemy warrior monks and soldiers from Atall. And in the first place, how would I even meet them if they don¡¯t do something as unthinkably outrageous as try to attack the headquarters? So whatever it is that people I couldn¡¯t possibly meet get up to, there¡¯s no reason for me to take part in it.¡±

    Percy gulped. What Claude was basically saying was: Give up on attacking the headquarters. In exchange, if you find Lord Leo, it¡¯s fine for you to take him back to your own country.

    Those words were unthinkable, but returning the prince to Claude¡¯s care would not solve the situation. For one thing, it was still unclear what Hayden intended to do with him, but given that he had run away, things would probably be very bad indeed for Leo. If Claude were to protect him, it would lend credibility to the completely unfounded rumour that he was connected to the principality and had betrayed his own country, which would spell catastrophe for the Anglatt family.

    In which case, to Claude¡¯s way of thinking, it¡¯s better if he manages to escape out of the country.

    The way Percy saw it, however, that¡¯s still plenty dangerous. Having allowed a hostage to escape from his territory, there was no way that Claude would be able to avoid blame. Rumours that he had deliberately let Leo flee were bound to spread. Yet despite that, and although Leo¡¯s existence was dangerous, caught between the prince and getting into trouble with his own country, Claude had chosen to let him go.

    Percy¡¯s chest felt hot.

    This man is truly compassionate.

    From Claude¡¯s point of view, there should be no issue with delivering Leo to Hayden. Or rather, that was the obvious course of action. Yet even so, he had looked after Leo for six years, and he could not bring himself to simply send him to die.

    Besides, it was not only Claude who was in danger. In actual fact, even if Lord Leo managed to safely make it back to his own country, his situation would still be uncertain. Allion was already aware that Atall had sent reinforcements, and if the hostage escaped on top of that, there was a good chance that the next place Allion would dispatch troops against would be Atall.

    Even so...

    Still, from Percy¡¯s point of view, Claude¡¯s compassion was deeply impressive and to release Leo was... at which point, Percy gave a wry smile.

    ¡°What¡¯s making you laugh?¡±

    Percy shook his head at Claude¡¯s question.

    ¡°Nothing. I forgot for a moment that we were prisoners. If it¡¯s possible for the four of us to survive, and also to save the prince, then there was never ay reason for us to decline,¡± he declared cheerfully.

    Part 4

    Leo Attiel was cornered. Soldiers from Allion were getting close. There were about seven of them. Leo had already decided on his course of action, but there remained the problem of Florrie, Claude and the people of the Anglatt House. Leo stood up, his eyes fixed on the approaching lights.

    ¡°Florrie, after I¡¯m captured, when you¡¯re being questioned, tell them that you escaped with me because I threatened you,¡± was what he was about to say, but Florrie didn¡¯t let him. Instead, she pulled the dagger she kept at her waist for self-protection.

    ¡°Leo, when they get here, please take me as hostage and run away,¡± she held out the dagger for him to take.

    Unable to say anything, Leo was about to accept the dagger out of reflex, but the lights had already almost drawn up to them. Steel armour appeared in sight, reflecting the colour of the flames from the torches. Leo pushed back Florrie¡¯s hand, and the dagger with it.

    ¡°Are you Lord Leo Attiel?¡±

    The one who stepped forward brought the light closer to peer at Leo¡¯s face. Leo could Florrie about to come flying from behind him at any moment, and held her back.

    ¡°...That¡¯s right,¡± he nodded.

    Another soldier nodded in return. Having already resigned himself, Leo took a step forward.

    ¡°Leo!¡±

    The only thing that was painful to him was the sound of Florrie¡¯s sobbing voice striking him from behind. It was only then that his hands and legs started to shake.

    Even though he was supposed to have resigned himself.

    No, he couldn¡¯t really tell himself whether or not he was ¡®resigned¡¯, but, at the very least, he had to prevent trouble from falling on Florrie and Claude because of him.

    Because that was the last display of honour that ¡®Leo Attiel¡¯ could show.

    At the moment, because of the darkness, Leo failed to realise something. The soldiers naturally took hold of him but, although one would have expected them to descend back down the mountain with him, the one in the lead was smiling strangely beneath his helmet.

    ¡°Would the young lady please come over here.¡±

    ¡°Wait, please wait...¡±

    Yet another soldier forcefully dragged Florrie by the hand, and started to climb down the path a little ahead of the rest of the group.

    Once Leo and Florrie were separated, the soldiers who were with Leo reached to unsheathe their swords.

    Just then ¨C

    ¡°Have you found the prince?¡±

    A different group emerged from behind them. Three soldiers, also wearing armour from Allion.

    ¡°We found him first. The reward from Lord Hayden is ours.¡±

    ¡°Who cares? As long as the prince was found,¡± one of the young men from the newly-arrived group said easily. ¡°But why have you got your hands to your swords? They said that the prince was unarmed.¡±

    Lord Leo noticed then for the first time that the soldiers in front of him seemed about to take out their weapons.

    Meanwhile, Florrie continued to be dragged further and further away. Waiting for her to be gone, the first soldier gave a low, scornful laugh.

    ¡°What, didn¡¯t you hear about it? Our mission changed when the prince escaped.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°After the prince fled from us and escaped into the mountains, nobody knows how he met his end. Maybe he was attacked by a ravenous beast, or maybe he slipped and fell to the bottom of a ravine.¡±

    Beneath their helmets, the soldiers from the new group exchanged glances. The young man who had spoken first nodded.

    ¡°In other words, your saying that Lord Hayden is using the fact of the prince¡¯s escape to secretly get rid of him.¡±

    He spoke loudly, clearly enunciating every word. Leo gasped and took a step backwards. Florrie, who still being taken away, apparently also heard, and started to shout something in their direction as she struggled with the soldier who had hold of her.

    ¡°You idiot, saying that so loud!¡± groaned one of the soldiers who was about to draw his sword.

    This time, it was the young man who chuckled scornfully.

    ¡°Were you planning on taking care of things once the young lady was far enough away? You guys aren¡¯t very smart. I guess those were your orders, but you started showed bloodlust too soon. Looks like you¡¯re not used to fighting.¡±

    ¡°What!¡±

    The mood within the first of group of seven turned dangerous. But... Leo could not clearly make out what happened next. It was that fast, and that bewildering.

    The first thing was that the man who brought his hand to his waist was, in the end, unable to draw his sword. The young man who had mocked them as ¡®not very smart¡¯ casually thrust his spear at him. The tip unerringly pierced his throat, and while Leo was staring in surprise at the red blood that came gushing out, the other two from the new group had already started to move.

    One of them likewise started to quickly attack the nearby soldiers with his spear. The one lowered his stance and charged into the group of soldiers, drawing his sword as he moved. He was the fastest of all. He leaped like a wild beast, twice jumping off the ground, smashing through one soldier¡¯s helmet, and striking the legs of another one. As both of them fell to their knees, screaming in pain, the ¡®beast¡¯ was already flying towards a third soldier.

    Leo could only stand there in amazement. He did not even notice that blood from the first victim had splashed onto his face.

    ¨C The three of them were, of course, not soldiers from Allion. The first to go for his spear had been Camus, the warrior monk from Conscon Temple; the second spearman was Percy, the noble from Atall; and the one who moved like an animal as he sprang at the enemy was Kuon, the mercenaries from the mountains.

    A few hours earlier, having accepted Claude¡¯s request, the three of them, along with Camus¡¯s younger sister, Sarah, had entered the mountains. Their weapons had also been returned to them. Claude chose a few of the soldiers who were with him to act as their guides. They were originally hunters who were familiar with where the many small hunting cabins dotted around the mountain area had been built. For about half of the journey, they followed animal trails known only to these men, and things went relatively easily.

    Everyone remained mostly silent. Percy felt guilty now that his identity as an Atallese noble had been seen through, but Camus, who had seemed curious about the principality¡¯s movements, did not say anything.

    They parted from the hunters when the lights carried by Hayden¡¯s soldiers started to come close. Once it was just them again, Sarah had whispered quietly:

    ¡°There¡¯s also the option of just escaping like this.¡±

    For her, Lord Leo¡¯s situation was of no importance whatsoever. The one one who was fastest to shake his head, however, was not Percy, the Atallese aristocrat, but Camus.

    ¡°God¡¯s faithful do not go back on their word. The general placed his trust in us. We must return him that trust.¡±

    ¡°What you say sounds nice,¡± Sarah spoke bitterly, ¡°so, of course, you have some kind of plan, right? If you hadn¡¯t, you¡¯d declare that ¡®God¡¯s faithful do not take promises made with savages seriously.¡¯ Since the only thing that you¡¯re good at, Big Brother, is saying what¡¯s convenient for you.¡±

    ¡°W-What did you say?¡± as Camus nearly raised his voice, Percy got between them.

    While mediating between the siblings, he felt that he could guess at the contents of the ¡®plan¡¯ Sarah had spoken of. If we rescue the prince, we¡¯ll earn a favour from the principality. In which case, the next thing to do is to urge them to openly send reinforcements to the temple. Which was why he did not reproach Percy despite only finding out now that he was a noble from Atall.

    Kuon, the only one who had remained silent, acted as their guide from then on. Along slopes so steep that it seemed you could not climb them without crawling with your knees close to your chest, over so terrain so complicated that there did not seem to be a single foothold, Kuon walked on as though it was nothing, then, just when they occasionally reached a part where it looked like a person could walk unhindered, he would scramble up a tree to check their surroundings.

    Percy, Camus and Sarah desperately followed at his heels. Sarah, who was at the end of the line, had almost run out of strength but, just as when they had been they had been struggling to reach the enemy headquarters, she did not utter a word of protest. Instead, it was only the times when Kuon stopped and waited her for to catch up that she spoke.

    ¡°You¡¯re looking at me... like a wounded and pathetic pet dog... this time, it¡¯s between those eyes of yours... that I¡¯ll put a bullet,¡± she threatened, gasping for breath.

    Kuon¡¯s went wide for a second before narrowing into slits, after which he once more walked by himself, cursing under his breath. Although he felt sorry for Kuon, Percy could more or less understand Sarah¡¯s feelings. Kuon had never said anything like ¡°you¡¯re slow¡± or ¡°I¡¯ll leave you behind if you¡¯re any slower than this¡±. Sarah persisted when even the average man would have collapsed by the side of the road, with the result that Kuon probably more than half acknowledged her, but realising that made Sarah even angrier at him, or, perhaps, angry at herself. Such was Sarah, but her presence was to prove invaluable. And not because of her skill with a gun.

    At that time, Kuon¡¯s eyes let him down. Focusing only on scouting out what was ahead, he failed to notice a group of six of Allion¡¯s soldiers approaching from behind. This group had lost their unit, and they were coming after them because they thought that the light Percy was holding belonged to their companions. When they heard the rustling sounds from someone coming through the underbrush behind them, Percy and the others exchanged startled glances.

    There weren¡¯t so many enemies that they couldn¡¯t overcome them, but if those enemies fired guns, or even simply shouted out loud, in no time at all, their numbers could double or triple. At that moment, Sarah gave the men an order:

    ¡°Hide.¡±

    She personally shoved Kuon, who was staring at her blankly, to the ground. Then, for some reason, she started ripping up her own clothes. Once they were torn enough that skin was peeking through in some suggestive places, she took the light from Percy and went towards the approaching group.

    Naturally, the soldiers were startled. They had been expecting to join up with their companions, yet the one walking unsteadily towards them was a woman whose naked skin was exposed.

    ¡°W-What the... Who are...¡±

    ¡°Those clothes... Are you a nun from Conscon?¡±

    ¡°Ye... Yes.¡± No one was more surprised than Kuon at Sarah shedding tears. ¡°I escaped to the mountains. I was afraid of the fighting... I wanted to go back home, but I got lost. I... some bandits happened to find me...¡±

    ¡°F-Found you?¡±

    ¡°It was shameful. I can¡¯t even say it...¡± Sarah suddenly started sobbing.

    Although baffled and embarrassed, the soldiers from Allion could not tear their eyes away from Sarah¡¯s body. Illuminated by the light from the flames, Sarah¡¯s features were beautiful, and the bridge of her nose and the sharply defined contours of her chin line displayed the elegance of a young noblewoman. Captivated by that beauty and by the skin which peeked through her torn clerical robes, the men¡¯s thoughts turned hazy.

    Seizing that chance, Percy, Camus and Kuon scattered in three different directions. Synchronising their actions, they leapt out at Allion¡¯s soldiers. From the experience of past fights, they each trusted the other two¡¯s fighting skills. The way that even their breathing was in time with one another was simply splendid.

    As a result, the ground was soaking up the blood of the enemy soldiers before they had even raised a cry.

    At Percy¡¯s suggestion, the three men stripped out of their own equipment and put on Allion¡¯s armour. Camus also looted the tunic from one of the fallen and tossed it to his sister.

    They continued on for a little over another hour. Just when even the men could no longer conceal their exhaustion, they heard a voice saying, ¡°Someone¡¯s there¡±. For a second, their blood ran cold, but it was the voice of the soldiers who had found Leo Attiel.

    Sarah stayed back alone as the other three approached the group from behind, pretending to be allies.

    ¨C Which lead to the scene that Lord Leo Attiel was now starting at in utter amazement.

    Partly thanks to the effect of surprise, they did not allow the enemy to so much as resist against them. Percy also jabbed his spear through the neck of the soldier who was taking Florrie away, and the man fell in the pool of blood from his companions. He was the last one.

    At that moment -

    ¡°Leo... please get away!¡±

    Florrie moved as though she had been released from a spell. She thrust the dagger that she had still been holding right in front of Percy¡¯s eyes. Both the tip of the dagger and her own eyes were trembling. It was the first time in her life that she had seen people die before her eyes.

    ¡°L-Leave. Please leave,¡± Florrie¡¯s voice was also shaking. ¡°Leo and I won¡¯t go back to Allion. So... Please, let us go. Please just leave us be!¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Camus smiled, his face smeared in blood. ¡°It looks like you have enough spirit to kill us if we refuse. As expected from Lord Anglatt¡¯s daughter.¡±

    ¡°Father... My father... You ¨C why...¡±

    Realising that in her confusion, the light of reason had returned to Florrie¡¯s eyes, Percy jabbed his spear into the ground. Startled, Florrie pointed the dagger towards him again.

    ¡°At Sir Claude Anglatt¡¯s request, we have come to rescue the two of you,¡± he said. ¡°We aren¡¯t from Allion. We are soldiers from Atall and clerics from Conscon Temple.¡±

    ¡°From Atall?¡±

    This time, it was Leo¡¯s turn to raise his voice in surprise. Percy smiled, and lowered one knee slightly as he bowed towards him.

    ¡°It is my great pleasure to meet you, Your Highness and second-born prince, Lord Leo. My name is undeserving of being placed before you, but I am called Percy Leegan.¡±

    ¡°Leegan... Ah, Nordred Leegan¡¯s....¡±

    ¡°Aye, Nordred is my father. Unworthy though we are, my family has pledged allegiance to sovereign-prince¡¯s House for many generations.¡±

    ¡°Humph,¡± Camus snorted from behind him. So you¡¯re finally giving us your name ¨C it was probably because he was thinking that.

    ¡°And, why did Lord Claude request something of a soldier from Atall and warrior monks from the temple?¡±

    ¡°We will explain in detail afterwards. Please come with us.¡±

    Percy was about to stretch his hand out towards Leo when ¨C ¡°No!¡± Florrie clung to Leo so suddenly that Percy¡¯s hand was almost pushed aside.

    ¡°Because, because... Leo will be killed if he goes! You heard what those soldiers said earlier? Hayden Swift plans to kill him! ¡°

    That right.

    Although realising that it was sudden, Percy was seized with serious doubts.

    That¡¯s what I don¡¯t understand. I get that Allion would pass judgement on the prince since they know about Atall sending reinforcements. But what was it those soldiers said? ¡°Kill him in secret¡±... that was definitely what they were saying. And that¡¯s something that only that man names Hayden is aiming for...

    There was something very strange about this fight. Percy started to share the doubts that Claude and Lord Leo had both felt. However, there was naturally no time to think about it at length.

    ¡°For the time being, we need to leave,¡± Percy urged the prince in a firm tone. ¡°Sir Claude¡¯s soldiers should be waiting for us if we climb down to the east of here.¡±

    Leo started to walk behind the three of them, soothing Florrie as they went. The prince himself was still confused. Though he had been aware that the guillotine was bearing down on him, Allion¡¯s soldiers had not been going to capture him and take him for execution, but had been intending to kill him in the mountains. And then just at that moment, a noble from Atall, his native country, had protected him at Claude¡¯s request.

    When they climbed down the path, a woman was waiting for them. She was a beautiful girl who looked to be around the same age as Florrie, but she held a gun in her hand and was cautiously surveying the surroundings. Once she noticed Leo and the others approaching, she broke into a smile.

    ¡°Are you Lord Leo Attiel? It¡¯s lovely to meet you. I¡¯m Sarah from Conscon Temple, where...¡±

    ¡°Save it for later, Sarah. We need to leave here at once.¡±

    ¡°Buzz off, Big Brother. Don¡¯t disturb our predestined encounter. This is the crucial moment that will decide whether your little sister can marry a rich man in the future.¡±

    ¡°D-Don¡¯t be ridiculous. Sarah, even as a joke, you can¡¯t say something like that.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t take her seriously, Camus. She¡¯ll just play you for a fool. That girl¡¯s never happy unless she¡¯s shocking someone.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that, Kuon? Since when did the lowly mountain monkey get smart enough to criticise other people?¡±

    ¡°Stop it, all of you. Lower your voices. We don¡¯t want Allion¡¯s soldiers to walk into us like earlier.¡±

    While hearing Percy¡¯s voice, Leo Attiel turned back once to look at the open space they were leaving behind. The sky was pitch-black. It felt as though just by looking at it, that sky could suck up your body and soul, and Leo reluctantly tore his gaze away from it.

    Everyone walked in a group.

    Percy glanced repeatedly at Lord Leo, who was leading Florrie by the hand. Despite the Leegan House¡¯s high social standing, as the second son, Percy did not have much interaction with the princely House. Lord Leo was the current sovereign-prince¡¯s second son, and because he had gone to Allion as a hostage six years ago, this was the first time that Percy had even seen him.

    Maybe it¡¯s because of his age, but he¡¯s kind of slender. His face looks like a girl¡¯s too.

    Honestly speaking, apart from his position as prince, there was nothing about him that left much of an impression. Florrie Anglatt, who had faced them, dagger in hand, had been far more striking.

    Of course, back then, Percy would never have imagined.

    That it was not just himself, the second son of the Leegan House, but also Camus, the warrior monk of the Cross Faith, and Kuon, the mercenary from the mountain lands, whose fates were bound with irresistible force to Lord Leo Attiel, and that force would soon attract trouble for the principality of Atall.

    None of them were omniscient gods, so none of them could ever have imagined.

    That nothing could have been stranger or more wondrous than this one night.

    All of those who were led by Lord Leo would remember this night again and again.

 Volume 1, 5: The People of Atall

    Volume 1, Chapter 5: The People of Atall

    Part 1

    I bet the lord sovereign-prince was completely astounded, thought Leo Attiel.

    Said sovereign-prince was, of course, Magrid Attiel, ruler of Atall ¨C in other words, Leo¡¯s father.

    When things had gotten heated between Conscon Temple and Allion, the sovereign-price had sent five hundred soldiers in reinforcement. In a way, he had been earning a favour from the temple, but that would be completely meaningless if the temple were to fall. Leo did not know whether the sovereign-prince was satisfied with just that number of soldiers, or whether he had been preparing to send a next wave of reinforcements.

    At any rate, Magrid had dispatched Nauma and had exchanged messengers with the temple, so he should have some level of understanding of the battle situation. He must have been pleased to hear that Allion was having an unexpectedly difficult time. With that, Atall¡¯s plan was successfully unfolding towards the situation described by the vassal-lord Oswell when he had first suggested sending reinforcements ¨C namely, that the faithful within Allion would be worried about the fight and would speak up in the temple¡¯s defence.

    Nevertheless, unexpectedly distressing news had reached Magrid that: ¡°Lord Leo is to be executed within Allion.¡±

    When it was discovered that Atall had supported the temple, the army commander for Allion had flown into a rage and had Leo killed. That rumour came from the southwest border area, and slowly seeped out within the territory, so that it reached the capital, Tiwana, a few days later. Magrid had been in the middle of eating, and the spoon he was holding fell to the floor.

    It must have seemed impossible.

    He had sent his troops with great caution this time. Even the temple¡¯s request for help had only been revealed to a few of the vassal-lords and a small number of his own retainers. The soldiers¡¯ preparations had also been kept entirely secret, and they had avoided using any piece of armour or weaponry that was characteristic of Atall. For example: Atall¡¯s regular soldiers frequently used curved blades, but these soldiers had been strictly forbidden from taking any with them. Moreover, when they had been choosing the men, one of the criteria had been to send only those who did not have an Atallese accent, or those who could hide it.

    Yet all that trouble had been in vain. Allion had discovered that Atall had sent reinforcements, and it was said that the hostage Leo had lost his life.

    I didn¡¯t receive any report from Nauma about anything like this.

    For a while, the sovereign-prince was badly shaken up, however, the story of Leo¡¯s execution was no more than a rumour. Magrid admonished the people at the castle who were starting to get worked up ¨C ¡°Why are you all running around like this over some groundless rumour?¡± He skilfully avoided specifying whether that ¡°groundless rumour¡± referred to the reinforcements or to the story of Leo¡¯s execution, but he was going to send a messenger to verify its veracity. It was then that the sovereign-prince was ¡°completely astounded¡± in the truest sense.

    He was once again in the middle of eating when a steward came bursting in, his entire face beaming with joy.

    ¡°Lord Leo has safely returned to Tiwana!¡±

    This time, it was a glass that fell from Magrid¡¯s hand.

    The people of Tiwana had naturally heard the rumour that the prince had been executed. Although Atall had always been a small country compared to Allion, it had an equally long history and, over the generations, a deep affection for the princely house had taken root in that land. The people grieved over the tragic news of the prince¡¯s execution, and raised their voices in anger.

    It was then that they received the report that Leo had returned. It was said that although it was true that Allion had intended to execute him, but he had succeeded in escaping with the help of the soldiers secretly sent by the sovereign-prince. The people were in a frenzy, and voices all around rose in praise of their compassionate ruler.

    In no time at all, a crowd of people was thronging the road along which Leo and his party was supposed to be arriving, and since the prince and his companions actually did happen to be going that way, the people raised cheers of joy, waved their hands, and shouted the names of the prince and sovereign-prince.

    Magrid and his retainers came out of the palace to meet them. They had no choice but to do so. If, for example, Leo had been found near the border, the sovereign-prince would immediately have sent out riders with orders to keep him there, thus buying himself some time to check what the actual situation was.

    At times like these, a statesman''s duty was to give priority to the country¡¯s situation, rather than to the affection between father and child. If it had not been true that Allion was going to execute Leo, and if they had no intention of doing so in the future, then there would still have been the possibility of pretending not to know anything about things like reinforcements, and sending Leo back to Allion¡¯s domains.

    However, Lord Leo, who had once been said to have been executed, had been rescued by the soldiers sent by the sovereign-prince, and had returned safely. When the people saw the young prince before them, they shouted and cheered; the sovereign-prince could not choose to ignore this.

    Those men called Percy and Camus... it¡¯s all going according to their plan. Lord Leo forgot his own situation and almost smiled.

    ¨C Having safely left the mountains from the east, the party had been met by soldiers from Claude¡¯s camp.

    On the way, he had heard from Percy that Claude apparently hoped to return Leo to Atall. When they had been climbing down the mountain, Leo had been mostly expressionless, but when he had heard that, he had been unable to hold back his tears.

    Moreover, Claude¡¯s daughter, Florrie Anglatt, had announced that she would accompany him out of the territory ¨C ¡°Until the prince has safely returned to his land.¡±

    Naturally, Leo had refused, but he had been struck with an idea: If it comes to it, wouldn¡¯t it be a good idea to say that I took her hostage and escaped?

    If they did, then this flight would not have been orchestrated by Claude, emphasis would be laid on how Leo had acted alone, and Claude¡¯s situation within Allion would not turn any worse than necessary.

    Claude gave them horses and provisions, as well as a small amount of travel expenses. Florrie was again seated behind Leo and the entire group travelled east to cross the border.

    Well, it was from that point that Percy Leegan and Camus the warrior monk revealed their plan. They were worried that the sovereign-prince would certainly act in the manner mentioned above. Therefore, even after they had entered Atall¡¯s territory, they did not immediately head for a town or a castle to ask for protection for the prince, but instead deliberately avoided the highway and aimed straight for the capital.

    While hiding the prince¡¯s identity, they stayed at village inns and actively spread rumours about Leo¡¯s death. As though they were following after those rumours, they slowly took their time to arrive at the capital, and entered it after revealing for the first times their identities as ¡°Leo Attiel and the ones who saved the prince.¡± This time, they intentionally chose the main streets so as to attract attention. Sarah, dressed up as a town girl, had first gone and spread the news that ¡°Lord Leo has returned alive¡±, so there were crowds of people to greet them.

    The scheme worked, and the sovereign-prince was forced to welcome his son.

    ¨C That, at any rate, was the public attitude that Magrid adopted, but, of course, his private thoughts were different. For the time being, he shut his son in a room, saying ¡°you should have some rest¡±, after which he got Percy to give him the full details.

    Just as he had been asked to, Percy told his story. He told the truth about their planned attack on the enemy headquarters, and about how this had failed and they had been captured by the enemy general, but from that point on, he added a few embellishments as he saw fit.

    ¡°We too have no way of knowing if the king of Allion was intending to execute the prince. However, there seemed to be some unrest among Allion¡¯s troops when that rumour spread. The prince escaped to the mountains from the mansion where he was being taken care of, along with the young lady of the family. The enemy camp was in complete disarray because of the hunt in the mountains, so thanks to that, we found an opportunity to slip away and successfully met with the prince before anyone else. No matter how much the presence of our reinforcements may have angered Allion, leaving the prince to die would have been the height of disloyalty. That was why I brought the prince with us on nothing but my own judgement.¡±

    ¡°I thank you for the trouble you took.¡±

    What could Sovereign-Prince Magrid say other than that?

    Rather than trouble having been taken, however, it had only just started.

    Allion has realised that we supported the temple.

    If it had only been that, they could still have come up with some excuse.

    Leo, the hostage who had been given to them, escaped by himself.

    There was no getting away from that, however.

    Rumours of Leo¡¯s return had, by now, gone around the whole territory, and was causing ripples all over. At first, the people had welcomed his return, but currently, many shuddered with worry.

    ¡°What will happen to our relations with Allion after this?¡±

    ¡°A huge army could march on us at any moment!¡±

    Having heard the rumours, the vassal-lords came running one after another to the capital.

    As mentioned previously, these ¡®vassal-lords¡¯ were domain lords who ruled the southern half of Atall, which was divided between them. They had considerable authority within Atall. Although they belonged to the same principality, they kept their personal military forces to protect their lands and assets, and, at times, they would also stand united when addressing the princely house.

    An episode which perfectly illustrates that power relationship was an event which happened ten-odd years previously. Two nobles, both vassal-lords, quarrelled over a newly-discover vein of dragonbone. Both hired mercenaries and there were even military clashes, but the ruling house did not intervene. Even if he had tried to, since there were militias in every vassal-lord¡¯s territory, the sovereign-prince, despite his position, could not mobilise all of the country¡¯s armed forces. It would, of course, have cost money to hire new troops and, at the time, an unusually long spell of rain had lead to repeated flood damage in the northern part of the country, so what with providing aid to the villagers and having to undertake works for flood-control, there were also very few funds left at hand.

    Magrid¡¯s father, who was the sovereign-prince at the time, made the token effort of sending a letter and envoy, then left things to die down naturally.

    Half a year later, although they were still standing-off against each other and there were still the occasional skirmishes, the two sides had finally reached a reconciliation. However, the vassal-lords collectively criticised the sovereign-prince. ¡°The sovereign-prince abandoned the domains and their people.¡±

    ¡°His attitude risks being indecisive if the time comes to face off against another country.¡±

    ¡°His Majesty is getting on in years. Wouldn¡¯t it be about time...?¡±

    Rumours sprang up that soldiers were being gathered in each of the territories. So ¨C ¡°Rather than allow the country to split...¡± Magrid¡¯s father had no choice but to abdicate the throne.

    He had not been mistaken in judging that his position was too weak to allow him to intervene in the dispute. Nevertheless, in doing so, he sowed the seeds of trouble. After all, it had set a precedent in which the vassal-lords were able to match House Attiel in strength ¨C or rather, in which they had demonstrated even greater influence than the ruler.

    They obeyed their liege, the sovereign-prince¡¯s, orders only if these served to protect the territories, people or assets of the vassal-lords, but there was no reason for them to follow orders which did not benefit them. And the recent reinforcements to Conscon Temple was definitely an example of an order which did not benefit the vassal-lords.

    Magrid had invited several vassal-lords that he was comparatively close with to discuss the matter, but, apart from Oswell Taholin, all of them had opposed helping the temple. And even though Oswell had recommended sending reinforcements, he had not offered any of his own soldiers. Consequently, it was not merely because he had not wanted Allion to suspect anything that Magrid had not sent any more soldiers than necessary; from the start, he had never been in a position to be able to dispatch a large contingent of reinforcements.

    Anyway, one after another, the vassal-lords turned up uninvited at the palace. There were seven of them.

    Those who had not known about the reinforcements all expressed anger ¨C

    ¡°Why did you send soldiers to the temple?¡±

    ¡°We didn¡¯t hear anything about this!¡±

    As for those who had been informed about it ¨C

    ¡°I told you so. This is why I was against it.¡±

    They too were openly furious.

    ¡°This will rekindle the antagonism with Allion. Does the sovereign-prince have any kind of plan to deal with this situation?¡±

    For all that he was their ruler, Magrid had no way to appease them when they pressed him like that one after another.

    While his father was caught in that predicament, Leo Attiel had not once been seen in public since returning to the country. Nor had he met with his father except on that first day.

    Afterwards, it was his older brother, Branton, who came to visit him. The brother who was two years older than Leo and whom he had not seen in about six years hugged him so tightly he almost couldn¡¯t breathe.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you made it back,¡± Branton whispered in tears in his younger brother¡¯s ear. ¡°Right now, your situation has a lot about it that must be tough for you, but be patient. Now that you¡¯re home, nothing will happen to you, don¡¯t worry.¡±

    It was only when Leo started choking that he finally released him and took another look at his little brother.

    ¡°But you¡¯ve grown up so fine while I couldn¡¯t see you! You¡¯ll soon be taller than me,¡± he beamed with joy.

    That one occasion was the only family affection that Leo got to experience during those few days. Both his other, younger brother as well as his mother merely had stewards bring him their perfunctory greetings, and did not meet with him.

    Even Leo¡¯s meals were eaten in solitary silence in his own chambers. There, there was no unkind teasing coming from Walter and Jack, nor was there Claude¡¯s booming, bandit-like voice, nor his wife, Ellen, who liked attending to every small detail in the kitchen despite coming from a wealthy merchant family, nor Florrie¡¯s smiling face.

    Florrie was apparently currently installed within Tiwana Palace. It seemed that she herself had wanted to remain here.

    In a sense, the girl¡¯s presence could potentially turn into an even more dangerous burning ember than Lord Leo. Eager to avoid any more trouble than necessary, Sovereign-Prince Magrid had dispatched a messenger to Claude Anglatt¡¯s castle, bearing a letter, the gist of which was that, ¡°Miss Florrie Anglatt is welcome as an honoured guest¡±. He added that, ¡°we will send her to you at once if you have made arrangements to receive her¡±, but a few days later, a runner sent ahead of the messenger returned to say that the messenger had not been allowed to cross the border.

    Leo thought it was only natural. Claude was not currently in a position where he could afford to be suspected of having any ties to the principality. If rumours spread that they were exchanging secret messengers, that position would become even worse.

    Leo calmly surveyed the room in which he had spent his childhood, then went to stand by the window. When he opened the curtains with their slightly childish design, he could just make out the ridgeline of the mountains that lay on the other side of the castle town. He stared hard at them, wondering if they were the same line of mountains that could be see from the Anglatt territory, but he quickly realised that they were different.

    Feeling utterly dejected, Leo roughly closed the curtains.

    Part 2

    After returning to Tiwana, Percy Leegan had, naturally, gone to stay at his parents¡¯ residence. House Leegan had a mansion close to the palace, and compared to Leo Attiel, he received a warm welcome from his family. Even so ¨C

    ¡°You did your duty well.¡± ¨C His parents¡¯ expressions as they were congratulating him were a lot like Sovereign-Prince Magrid¡¯s when he had thanked for the trouble he had taken.

    The palace had not yet decided how to assess his actions in helping the prince escape, and his parents and brother had likewise not yet decided what attitude to take. Even when listening with rapt attention to Percy¡¯s tales of the battlefield, they could not conceal the worry behind lurking behind their appreciative expressions.

    ¡°Will you be going back to the battlefield?¡± his father asked, trying to make his question seem offhanded.

    ¡°If I receive orders to, then I think I would like to head back to Conscon immediately,¡± Percy answered without a moment¡¯s hesitation, but he had yet to receive official notice about what was to happen to him next.

    It felt a bit anti-climactic. He had imagined that bringing the hostage prince back would stir things up considerably within the country, but the only news was that the vassal-lords had descended onto the palace, and not a single concrete action had been taken.

    It was as though both the country¡¯s position and Percy¡¯s own situation were hanging in mid-air.

    Isn¡¯t it the same for ¡®Lord Shalling¡¯?

    Nauma Laumarl and his troops were still at Conscon Temple. Given that there were suspicions about Atall¡¯s participation, the sovereign-prince naturally very much wanted to pull them out, but if several hundred soldiers were to travel to Atall, the spies at the temple would have their suspicions confirmed. Until the situation had calmed down, Nauma had no choice but to remain where he was as ¡°Lord Shalling¡±.

    Nauma must be pretty bewildered as well. Percy was supposed to lead the soldiers in an attack on the enemy headquarters, but instead of accomplishing that mission, he had returned to their own country before anyone else, taking the prince with him as a sort of small souvenir. Not just bewildered, either.

    ¡°T-That damn cub from House Leegan has gone and a fool of me all over again! He robbed me of my soldiers and grabbed all the glory!¡±

    Percy could easily imagine that worthy gentleman working himself up into a towering rage.

    ¡°Given that it¡¯s Lord Nauma, that does seem about right,¡± that pleasant laugh came from Percy¡¯s fianc¨¦e, Liana. Her curly, raven-black hair danced lightly above her shoulders.

    Her father was one of the vassal-lords, and she had travelled with him when he had come to meet with the sovereign-prince. Ever since arriving at Tiwana, Lord Gloucester, who would one day be his father-in-law, had remained at the palace, so Percy had not seen him once since returning.

    Lord Gloucester had been one of those that the sovereign-prince had consulted about the matter of the temple, which meant that he was one of those who had opposed sending reinforcements. Not only had his daughter¡¯s fianc¨¦ been part of the army that the sovereign-prince had sent ¨C overriding those objections ¨C but that fianc¨¦ had then brought back a dangerous source of trouble to the country. Percy wondered what Lord Gloucester¡¯s expression had been when he had heard of all of that.

    The engagement might be broken off if I play my cards badly ¨C it was a danger that he dreaded, but Liana did not mention her father at all. Her manner was exactly the same as usual as she served Percy tea. Her tone was teasing as she continued,

    ¡°And since it¡¯s Lord Nauma, he might very well tell everyone that you fled back to Atall by yourself.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say I fled back. If it were possible, I¡¯d want to go back to Conscon as soon as...¡± Percy started to say, but held his tongue. Going to the battlefield to protect his childish dignity would help neither Atall nor Conscon Temple.

    ¡°This gentleman¡¯s feelings seem to still be on the battlefield,¡± Liana noted with annoyance, seeing that the crease did not disappear from between Percy¡¯s brows.

    ¨C It had been about five days since Percy and the others had returned to Tiwana.

    He had invited Camus and Kuon to a tavern away from the city¡¯s main streets. Both of them had been provided with a room in a high-class inn within the town as a reward for having rescued the Second-born Prince. Apparently, they had even been made the offer of having residences built for them, but both had declined.

    Camus was a given, but Percy tried to persuade Kuon.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have anywhere to go, right? It might not be a bad idea to set up house here.¡±

    The boy from the mountains, however, only shook his head ambiguously. Sipping soup that held some meat on the bone, his eyes were as listless as usual. When that normally hot-headed boy was not given anything to do, he would either violently flare up in an instant, or, on the contrary, fall into lethargy.

    Percy turned his attention towards Camus.

    ¡°Then what about you, Camus? What are you planning on doing from here on?¡±

    ¡°Is that something you should be asking me?¡± Camus threw a glare at Percy. It was easy to tell that he was irritated. Although he hadn¡¯t touched anything to drink, his face was ruddy. ¡°What on earth is Atall intending? The prince who was sent as a hostage was about to be murdered, you know? Now should be the time for the sovereign¡¯s family and the people to unite and rise to smite Allion. Instead of which ¨C just how much longer are they going to drag their feet?¡±

    His tone was scathing. It wasn¡¯t difficult to imagine how this pious servant of God was getting more irritated by the day. And all the more so since he had expected the principality to take immediate action after the prince had been rescued.

    None of you bastards can be counted on. Rather than waiting for you to make a move... it would better to grab a spear and rush back alone to the temple ¨C it would hardly be surprising if he felt that way. No, actually, he might well have decided to do that several times already.

    However, Camus was neither reckless nor foolish. What could he accomplish, heroically hurrying back to the temple all by himself? Percy could perfectly understand the monk¡¯s feelings.

    Just as Liana had said, Percy still longed for the battlefield.

    That fiery chaos had disappeared. The strain of never knowing when a cannonball might fall from overhead, or whether luck might finally abandon him, leaving him to be pierced through the chest by an enemy spear, had also vanished, and with it, the cold sense of danger lurking at every moment just beneath the surface of their daily lives, even though they were living in supposed safety, beneath a roof and within the protection of four stone walls.

    Not having anything against which he could hurl a sword, a spear, or his own fighting spirit was more frustrating than anything.

    Eating a meagre meal around a campfire, getting into wild conversations that somehow seemed like deeply meaningful discussions for the people involved, then falling asleep, exhausted, to be ready for the next day¡¯s battles ¨C to Percy, those days had been so dazzling that it hurt.

    It¡¯s the same for you, isn¡¯t it? Then let¡¯s go back together ¨C he felt the impulse to grasp Camus¡¯s hands and to make him that offer.

    Percy, however, was possessed of strong self-control.

    ¡°Sending soldiers to the temple was failure on our part,¡± he said with a bitter expression.

    ¡°And that¡¯s exactly why. Now that they¡¯ve seen through you, don¡¯t be surprised if a group of armed soldiers descends on Tiwana in the near future. It¡¯s better if the people here make a move before that happens. Standing around with their arms crossed simply means waiting for Tiwana Palace to be burned to the ground,¡± he said fiercely.

    It was a simple way of looking at things, but there was some truth to it. Earlier, Percy had felt that the country¡¯s situation was suspended in mid-air, but it was only hanging there by the very thinnest of threads. And the very slightest of breezes would make it sway, cause chaos, and, if things were handled badly, would make it snap. A restlessness born from fear constantly held him in its grip.

    ...Lord Leo. Maybe I really did bring something truly dangerous back to the country.

    Just as Percy was thinking that, Camus asked,

    ¡°The prince. What about Lord Leo?¡±

    Percy had the feeling that Camus had read his mind.

    ¡°W-What do you mean, what about him?¡±

    ¡°That prince we rescued spent many years in Allion, right? Allion are criminals who would even turn their guns against God. He must have tasted untold hardship, and besides, they were going to murder him in secret. He must have a deep grudge against them. If he issues a command, soldiers might gather. We can set the prince up as our leader and declare war on Allion as quickly as possible.¡±

    ¡°Well, as to that...¡± While measuring Camus¡¯s mood and expression, Percy found it strangely humorous that he was talking about ¡®we¡¯. ¡°I don¡¯t think that he does have a grudge against Allion. This is only my own impression, but... it was General Claude Anglatt who was left to take care of the prince. And he saved the prince¡¯s life even though it would plunge him into trouble. I don¡¯t think he has feelings of wanting revenge so much as he has feelings of gratitude towards the general.¡±

    ¡°Right... that man, huh?¡± Camus hummed and crossed his arms. It looked as though Claude¡¯s personality had a profound effect on him. His tone of voice became somewhat subdued. ¡°Hmm, Lord Leo... To start off with, does he even have what it takes to be a leader?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m just going by his behaviour in the mountains, but he didn¡¯t look like someone who leads soldiers.¡±

    ¡°Going by his build, he¡¯s no fighter, either,¡± said Kuon. He sucked the bone from which most of the meat had already been picked off.

    You¡¯re saying that... Percy couldn¡¯t help but think. After all, Kuon was still growing.

    Camus nodded. ¡°He definitely gave the impression of being a delicate aristocrat who¡¯s only suited to scholarship. I¡¯m not sure that anyone would gather if he issued a command,¡± he readily overruled his own earlier remark.

    Percy was just going to give a strained laugh when Camus added something that Percy could not let slide, ¡°But the men of Atall are pathetic.¡±

    Looking at him closely, his eyes had gone redder than earlier. Perhaps at some point, without his realising it, Camus had emptied Percy¡¯s tankard?

    ¡°We¡¯ve been in Tiwana for several days and the men here only seem to be going around wondering what¡¯s going to happen next. They shouldn¡¯t just be thinking about what¡¯s going to happen, but about what they should do. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s someone else¡¯s problem; isn¡¯t there a single one who is going to pick up a spear or a sword? At least we, God¡¯s faithful, are bravely opposing Allion¡¯s tyranny. So in the end, is there nothing that the godless believe in enough to risk their lives for?¡±

    ¡°Camus, you¡¯re going too far in saying whatever you want. Everyone follows their own way of life. Saying that picking up a sword and fighting head-on is the only solution is...¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Camus banged his fist against the table. ¡°That kind of sophistry is just superficial wisdom. At times like these, you want the guts to protect yourself and what¡¯s important to you, and to defeat your enemy. That¡¯s what the men of Atall are lacking!¡±

    Percy was worried about how Camus¡¯s voice was gradually getting louder. Looking around them, there was a group of young men at a table a little apart from theirs. Some of them were repeatedly glancing towards them.

    ¡°I¡¯m...¡± just then, Kuon, who had polished off most of the food but who had not had anything to drink, opened his mouth to speak. ¡°... planning on going back to the temple soon.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    Percy and Camus exclaimed together. Kuon seemed to be deliberately talking in a slow, leisurely tone.

    ¡°Instead of having a house built, I¡¯ll be getting money. With that money, I can buy horses, guns and armour, and, if possible, hire some soldiers to go back to the temple.¡±

    ¡°O-Oh,¡± Camus looked deeply moved as his voice escaped from his lips. ¡°Before I even realised it, did you awaken to the divine love that knows no fear of death? As your teacher, I am so happy.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember seeing anyone as a teacher.¡± Kuon glared suspiciously at the priest. ¡°But there¡¯s no point staying here. Even if I had a house built, it wouldn¡¯t earn me a living.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous. You¡¯re a hero who saved the prince. If you wanted to, you could be hired as a soldier by any noble.¡±

    ¡°Even if I become a soldier, I won¡¯t be earning any glory if there¡¯s nowhere to fight.¡±

    Whether consciously or not, Kuon seemed to be making a cynical statement about Atall, which was not going to take any kind of action despite the fact that the prince¡¯s life had been targeted. He crunched on the bone that he still held in his mouth.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to the temple. And this time, I¡¯ll get the enemy general.¡±

    This guy ¨C Percy went pale. He knew perfectly well that it wasn¡¯t in Kuon¡¯s nature to make jokes. Which meant that he was being serious. Although he had said earlier that: ¡°It¡¯s fine as long as I can eat¡±, the fact that he was pursuing such reckless thoughts probably meant there was reason why he wanted to earn fame quickly.

    Camus, meanwhile, was practically moved to tears.

    ¡°Is it true? Have you decided? Right, then I¡¯ve also made up my mind. Between master and disciple, it should be the master who guides the disciple, but there is no doubt that you have shown me the way. It¡¯s a waste of time to take too long to think about it. God will surely grant us His protection as we face forward. Let us go together and die together, Disciple.¡±

    ¡°I told you: I¡¯m not your disciple. And I¡¯m not planning on dying.¡±

    ¡°W-Wait,¡± Percy half-stood up from his chair as he hurriedly tried to stop the other two. ¡°What can the two of you do if you back to the temple? You¡¯d basically just be going back to die.¡±

    ¡°My brethren are still fighting in that place of death! The blades are at their throats, and after all, how could the men of Atall, who turn their eyes away from that fact, even begin to understand our courage!?¡±

    Camus¡¯s booming voice finally reverberated throughout the room. Percy one again worried about the people around them, but it was already too late. Men were gathering to their table. They were locals who were all of them drunk, and who were, moreover, all of them young.

    ¡°We heard what you were saying.¡±

    ¡°The prince ¨C was it you, by any chance? Are you the ones who brought Lord Leo back?¡±

    ¡°And if we were, what of it?¡± Camus proudly stuck out his chest.

    The men looked at each other.

    ¡°What do you mean, ¡®what of it¡¯? You goddamned priest, doing something so stupid!¡±

    ¡°Stupid?¡± Camus opened his always large eyes even wider. ¡°On Mount Conscon, men are losing their lives one after another; yesterday it was my brothers, today it will be my friends. And everyone always knows that ¡®tomorrow, it might be me¡¯, yet even so, they all grasp their spear and their guns, and they fight! It was the same for the soldiers from Atall who went as reinforcements. They risked their lives in your place to fight against Allion¡¯s tyranny. They were not members of the faith, but all of them fell protecting Conscon. Just like the faithful, they have received God¡¯s blessing and have been called to Heaven. And that is stupid? Who dares say so?¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡±

    ¡°Guys who want to die can just die. The bastards just went off and did whatever they wanted anyway. But I¡¯m saying not to get us involved!¡±

    For a moment, Percy looked up towards the ceiling, stained black from soot.

    Caught up in the mood, they were just saying things to hurt their opponents. It wasn¡¯t what they really thought. But although he clearly understood that, he still had hard time swallowing back the dark feelings that rose in his throat.

    However ¨C if Percy had a hard time, it meant that for those who had never had any intention of making any such effort, those words were the same as pouring oil over a burning fire. Camus¡¯s eyebrows bristled like flames and, next to him, Kuon¡¯s previously listless eyes opened wide.

    Who was it who made the first move?

    There was the sound of a blow landing along with cries of pain.

    ¡°Shit! Bastards!¡±

    ¡°Right, you¡¯re on.¡±

    A chair flew over Percy¡¯s head at the same time as all the men erupted with rage. Angry roars echoed in time to the sound of fists been slammed.

    ¡°Stop. Stop it!¡±

    As he was trying to calm things down, Percy got splashed in the face with the froth from a tankard of beer. Coincidentally, at the same time, he was hit hard in the chest and staggered back a few steps.

    Percy wiped the froth from his eyes and licked the drops which clung around his mouth.

    After which ¨C

    ¡°Riight.¡±

    ¨C Was all he said. One young man had his back turned towards him, and Percy put all his strength into kicking him in the backside.

    Percy desperately dragged Kuon and Camus, who were still swinging their fists and their legs, from the inn.

    It had turned into a truly massive brawl, with even people who didn¡¯t really know the details joining in. But seeing outsiders acting up, men who took pride in their own strength and youths who usually felt dispirited waded in.

    With the number of their opponents swelling into a crowd, not even the three of them could get out of it uninjured. Their clothes were torn all over, and blood was oozing from their face and limbs. Camus¡¯s eyes had already gone black and swollen.

    Checking behind them as he went, Percy staggered into a narrow alleyway and, for the time being, remained gasping for breath by the edge of a building.

    Good grief. My family¡¯s going to be getting a shock again.

    Although he did have that thought, for some reason, the weight that had been pressing down on his chest seemed to have lightened.

    ¡°Damn those unbelievers. Why can¡¯t they show the same anger and guts that they turned against us to Allion?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s our master priest alright,¡± Percy spoke without thinking. ¡°So then, Camus, were you putting your body on the line to teach them?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°...Really? Are you an idiot?¡± Kuon said scathingly, standing next to Camus who was puffing his chest out. He spat a mouthful of blood from his torn lips. ¡°Then all I¡¯ve got to say is wipe your own arse. In the mountains where I¡¯m from, even babies known that much.¡±

    ¡°Oh? From where I was looking, you were the first to hit them.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid. I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Kuon looked away.

    Percy laughed and clapped the two of them on the shoulder.

    The stars were sprinkled overhead.

    Afterwards, Percy crept home with stealthy footsteps. He hadn''t wanted his family to see him with a swollen face, but when he got there, he learned that Atall¡¯s palace had received news that threatened to send it into uproar.

    A messenger from Allion was said to be coming. His name was Hayden Swift.

    Part 3

    Leo, of course, remembered Hayden. They had met each other at Claude¡¯s mansion and he had heard that Hayden had raised an army in order to attack Conscon Temple. As for Percy, when he had been captured at Claude¡¯s camp, he had heard that the enemy commander was called Hayden.

    It was said that man would be visiting Tiwana, the capital of Atall, as an official envoy from Allion.

    While it might have been thought that he was, for now, giving up on capturing Conscon, there was also a report that soldiers remained at the fortress. In other words, the commander was personally leaving the headquarters even though the battle front was being maintained. Moreover, according to hearsay, this was not an order from above, but something that Hayden himself had apparently applied for.

    His behaviour isn¡¯t normal ¨C Percy and Leo shared the same impression.

    It had been the same when Lord Leo escaped into the mountains with Florrie. Even though it happened right after he had sent a great many of his soldiers out from their headquarters, Hayden had been so badly shaken by the news that, even though it meant leaving the camp empty, he had mobilised most of the remaining soldiers to go hunt in the mountains.

    On top of that, it was clear that he had given the soldiers orders to ¡®secretly kill Lord Leo¡¯.

    That was no longer just a case of unusual behaviour: both of them also recognised that ¨C There¡¯s something completely off about Hayden himself.

    Needless to say, Sovereign-Prince Magrid Attiel did not turn away an envoy who was right at their gates.

    Atall possessed three air carriers, but all of these ships were sent elsewhere to clear the port so that it could receive the vessel that Hayden was sailing on.

    In those days, dragonstone ships were getting larger in size. Up until then, single-seat airships had often been used for messengers or in surprise attacks, but when it came to ships large enough to transport personnel or goods, there was still a lot of work to be done to optimise the engines and their ether consumption.

    At the time this story takes places, technology in each country was starting to show rapid progress. Techniques for refining weightless dragonstone metal or for extracting high-quality ether, or else, basic engine technology... the rate of growth in each of these miraculously coincided, and the various countries were starting to build large-scale ships. Moreover, this, in itself, would influence the fates of both Lord Leo and of the Principality of Atall. From then on, and until the King of Allion took possession of the country, ships would continue to increase in size, but the era during which ships and small-sized crafts would be able to sweep over the battlefield would be very short... ¨C But that is a story of a later time.

    At that point in time, it could be said that large ships were still rare, just as they were when Leo and Florrie had gone especially to see one, and that these ships served to showcase new technology and to demonstrate a country¡¯s power.

    This particular ship, which was a size bigger than any that Atall possessed, alighted in the narrow landing space in a superb demonstration of skill at handling a boat.

    Sovereign-Prince Magrid of Atall and the envoy, Hayden Swift, immediately sat together in conference.

    Hayden went first.

    ¡°Your country sought peace with our Allion in the previous war. Yet even so, you sent soldiers to Conscon Temple without any kind of notification to us; this clearly shows your intentions. Supporting the temple which laid curses on Allion¡¯s exalted royal family is essentially the same as pointing a blade towards our king.¡±

    He cut straight into things.

    ¡°I find myself greatly amazed,¡± opposite him, the sovereign-prince held firm, ¡°as there is no such thing. To start with, do you have any clear proof that my country sent soldiers to the temple?¡±

    Hayden did not so much as flinch at the retaliation.

    ¡°Both when battle was joined and when we were at camp, we showed considerable mercy towards the soldiers who had surrendered to us. Which is how we received multiple testimonies from the soldiers who came to us. Quite naturally, they did not openly speak of the Principality of Atall, but, well, perhaps you have heard of ¡®Lord Shalling¡¯? According to the information we obtained, there is a strange resemblance between him and a certain gentleman of your country, Nauma Laumarl,¡± he pressed forward.

    For the sovereign-prince, Nauma¡¯s name being known to Hayden was the same as having his headquarters come under attack. Nevertheless, the Principality of Atall could not recognise the fact that they had sent reinforcements.

    ¡°I am not aware of it.¡±

    ¡°In that case, why not invite Lord Laumarl here? How long would it take for him to arrive? Would he be here this afternoon, or tomorrow? Or would it need about ten days to call him back from the temple?¡±

    The sovereign-prince was being buffeted by the incessant onslaught, but Atall also had an arrow with which to retaliate against Allion.

    ¡°Well then, how do you explain that my child, Leo, was going to be executed within Allion¡¯s domains?¡± he asked, but, of course, Hayden had clearly already prepared an answer beforehand, and his words never faltered.

    ¡°Your accusation is completely unfounded. Once Atall¡¯s betrayal became known, there were certainly wild rumours within our territory concerning how to handle Lord Leo, but there is no truth to the tale that we would have dragged the prince to the gallows. With all due respect, it would appear that when the prince heard the rumours, he grew frightened and planned his own escape. It also seems that soldiers from Atall, who had trespassed into our territory, helped him do so.¡±

    There were several recesses throughout. Each time, the sovereign-prince gathered his hereditary retainers and they racked they brains. They could play with words however much they wanted, but the fact was that their national power was far different from Allion¡¯s. It was also true that their position was weakened since they had sent soldiers to an entity which was hostile to Allion, despite their relationship as allies with the kingdom.

    If, in the end, the discussion turned incandescent and things developed into Hayden declaring that ¡°we will make you understand through sheer strength,¡± Atall would not be able to do anything.

    They had hoped popular opinion would rise up to oppose the attack on the temple, but, at this point, the smouldering hostility against the temple might well be entirely turned against Atall instead.

    Where can I find an opening to put an end to this?

    While they were exchanging words, the sovereign-prince scrutinised his opponent¡¯s mood, and as he was doing so, he suddenly realised that there was something strange about Hayden Swift.

    Simply put, he lacked drive. He had lost the tone of voice, so sharp that it could have sliced through Magrid, that he had when they first met, and his gaze, which had been like a tightly drawn bow ready to release its arrows, was turned downwards. Perhaps he had already used up most of the words that he had prepared beforehand as he tended now to sink into silence.

    Faced with the envoy¡¯s wavering attitude, the sovereign-prince put his reasoning to work.

    Does this mean that he never intended to attack Atall from the start ¨C or rather, that Allion hasn¡¯t yet decided what attitude to take towards us? In that case, he might just have come to give us a warning not to interfere anymore with regards to the temple.

    The implicit threat was, of course, still there, but, at the very least, it seemed that they were not at a point where a huge army of several tens of thousands was about to descend upon them with its banners raised high.

    Magrid continued to pay close attention to Hayden¡¯s expression.

    ¡°It seems as though there is an unfortunate mutual misunderstanding between ourselves and Allion,¡± he tried a conciliatory approach.

    The envoy seemed exhausted from the perfunctory and fruitless argument, and, taking heart from his somewhat relieved expression, Magrid continued,

    ¡°Sir Hayden, won¡¯t you do us the honour of staying a while in Atall? I feel sure that as we breathe the same air, eat the same food, and speak together at leisure and at length, the misunderstanding between us will surely vanish.¡±

    ¡°My liege is in no particular hurry to reach a conclusion, either. And he is sincere in wishing to maintain good relations with Atall. I will accept your kind offer.¡±

    The next day, the sovereign-prince announced that ¡°Three days from now, we will hold a banquet in the palace¡¯s great hall.¡±

    It was to be a huge event, to which the retainers with residences in Tiwana were invited as a matter of course, and which would also include the vassal-lords who were currently staying in the capital, as well as many of the leading figures in the city who regularly paid heavy taxes.

    The guest of honour would be Hayden Swift, the envoy who had travelled from Allion.

    When they heard about it, the retainers, who had been waiting on tenterhooks for the result of the interview between their ruler and the envoy, and the populace who had been worried that their very lives might come under threat at any moment, all heaved the same sigh of relief.

    It was clear that the envoy had not come to present a declaration of war. Sovereign-Prince Magrid of Atall had successfully managed to put him off and buy time.

    That was what many people, Magrid included, believed, but actually, it was Hayden Swift who had wanted to stall for time.

    There were two reasons for this.

    Allion had sent spies, whose mission had been to focus on gathering intelligence, even further east than Atall. Among the reports that Hayden had received while at the camp, there was one that he could not afford to overlook.

    There are movements in Dytiann that do not look good.

    The Holy Dytiann Alliance was basically Conscon Temple¡¯s religious bedrock. What Allion feared the most right now was Dytiann getting involved in this fight. Dytiann was regarded as the only power on the continent currently capable of opposing Allion, so if that federation of religious countries took action to assist the temple, Allion would not be able to remain indifferent.

    And the country that lay between Allion and Dytiann was none other than Atall.

    Right now, you cannot drive Atall into a corner, Hayden had received that warning from the king through an attendant.

    There was a fear that if Atall decided that it could no longer avoid a conflict with Allion, it might be receptive to Dytiann, who wished to prevent Allion from advancing east, and the two might ally themselves on the pretext of assisting Conscon Temple.

    And therefore, during his discussion with the sovereign-prince, Hayden had deliberately displayed a hesitant attitude, which contained the leeway to reach a peaceful agreement. His stay in Atall would also serve as a way of keeping Dytiann in check.

    Hayden did not fail to find this irritating. That he, a noble from mighty Allion, needed to pay attention to the mood of an insignificant little country infuriated him. But that would only be for a very short time, and Hayden had one other reason for needing to spend time in Atall.

    The next day, Hayden went to pay a visit to Florrie Anglatt¡¯s parlour.

    It was an extremely natural development that he, as a guest, should go and check up on a young lady from his country who was being taken care of in Atall. For Atall, it was also a way of proving that they had not treated her roughly, so permission was granted readily for the two of them to meet.

    ¡°We seem to share a strange fate, Miss Florrie. Since meeting you in your home, I have found it painful to be separated from you, but to think we would meet beyond the border, in Atall.¡± Hayden tactfully opened the conversation. ¡°I would very much like to hear you sing again.¡±

    ¡°I do not feel like doing so at the moment.¡±

    Florrie¡¯s behaviour had changed completely from that of the innocent young girl at the Anglatt manor, and when she answered him, the expression on her face and the tone of her voice was exactly those of an adult woman. Her very caution, however, proved that she was still a young girl.

    Hayden did not lose his smile. ¡°Your father must certainly be worried. A few days from now, I will be returning to Allion. Won¡¯t you ride back with me on the air carrier and give your family peace of mind?¡±

    Even though he urged her to return home in the proper manner, Florrie did not nod in consent.

    That day, Hayden left after no more than a few minutes.

    The way he saw it, this will need time. If he tried to hurry things too much, it would end in failure. Which was why he felt the need for a lengthy stay in Atall. He had judged that it would take at least ten days, but, by the second day, his self-control was already reaching its limits.

    Florrie Anglatt, whom he had pictured in his mind even when he was in a military camp, was now right in front of him. And not as an illusion. He could feel her body temperature close by. Her voice reached his eardrums. If he stretched out his hand, he would be able to touch her black hair. He could draw her body, which had never been polluted by anybody¡¯s hands, to him.

    The passion that had long remained dormant within Hayden had converged to flow towards one single point. It was only by keeping a tight grip on his self-control that he just barely managed to maintain outward appearances. If Florrie were to sense his intense interest in her, her caution against him would increase noticeably.

    Hayden¡¯s abilities in every area far surpassed that of the average person, yet the one thing that he could not handle was his own passion.

    Florrie¡¯s caution did not abate by the second day. That was expected. Today, he intended simply to chat, without urging her to return to their home country. He would start with asking her if she was not bored in Atall, then tomorrow, he would present her with the poetry anthologies and illustration books that he had purposefully brought with him from Allion. That was the plan.

    But even though it was expected, Hayden could not endure Florrie¡¯s obstinate attitude. Why didn¡¯t she immediately show him a smile? Why wouldn¡¯t she sing like she had before - but this time only for him? Even though there was no future for Florrie Anglatt other than one in his arms!

    Hayden wanted to make Florrie realise that she should never, not even for a second, take her gaze away from him. It was a feeling close to hatred.

    ¡°Enough, Florrie.¡±

    His strict tone had Florrie turn a startled gaze towards him.

    ¡°Although your father might be master of a castle, at the end of the day, he¡¯s just an upstart come from nowhere. You don¡¯t seem to understand your own position.¡±

    ¡°A-Are you insulting my father?¡±

    Even though up until a moment ago, she wouldn¡¯t meet his eyes, now Florrie was scowling straight at him as hard as she could. Hayden¡¯s blood boiled as it pounded in his ears. Urged on by that heat, he chose the most dangerous of the weapons that he had at hand.

    ¡°You¡¯re just like a child, and you know nothing: neither about your dear father, nor about anything else. You are aware that I can mobilise the army, right? And even a child like yourself should be able to understand what kind of situation Atall is in right now. Not only did it betray Allion and send soldiers to our opponent, but Lord Leo, who was a hostage, used you as a shield and escaped from the country. That¡¯s more than enough provocation. Right ¨C the fate of a tiny country like Atall rests entirely in my hands.¡±

    The blood rapidly drained from Florrie¡¯s face. After which, colour violently returned to it and her large eyes filled with tears.

    ¡°A-Are you threatening me?¡± she asked in a stiff voice.

    Hayden¡¯s heart ached painfully. Yet even so, that pain still felt sweet as it had been given to him by his beloved lady.

    ¡°I merely stated the facts. Whether the nobles and people of Atall, as well as its prince, will be able to continue to happily live their lives tomorrow, or whether those lives will be swallowed up in a sea of flames in an instant, and all of their happiness be reduced to ashes... that all depends entirely on your attitude.¡±

    He could only laugh sardonically. At times like these, there was no choice but to stray from one¡¯s real feelings and choose words that would shake the other person. He was putting into practice what Percy Leegan had called to mind a few days earlier.

    Something other than tears also welled up within Florrie¡¯s eyes. Vehement anger.

    ¡°You coward!¡± She shouted.

    In that instant, Hayden felt her anger pierce through his chest like an arrow. Florrie was sweetness itself, yet it felt as though her emotions were thrusting his heart into the burning agony of the hellfire that was spoken of at temples.

    What am I doing?

    For the first time in his life, he felt something like self-reproach. Everything he handled had always gone according to his expectations, so he had lived life without knowing remorse. Hayden was as overwhelmed as a child by the fact that he could show off neither these first emotions of his, nor his own talents as much as he would have wanted to.

    ¡°N-No, that.... That was just an example,¡± the voice that spilled from his lips also sounded like a child¡¯s. ¡°That wasn¡¯t what I really meant. I just wanted to explain to you how dangerous your position is, and...¡±

    With the sudden change in Hayden, Florrie forgot her anger and was left astounded. She did not, by nature, have a violent personality. On the contrary, she had lived a life unrelated to hatred and anger. As anger receded, something like pity for this man welled up within her in its place.

    In a sense, that too ¨C let us purposely write down the words, despite knowing that tedious repetition is inelegant ¨C was proof of how young Florrie was.

    Her showing compassion for the man who had threatened her did not only stem for her natural kindness. Florrie naturally knew that after spending just one night at the Anglatt manor, Hayden had approached her father to say that he wanted to take her back to the royal capital. What was the roundabout meaning behind it?

    This man liked her. He saw her as a woman. That fact made her feel so embarrassed that she wanted to just vanish, but, at the same time, it made her feel just a little bit happy and encouraged. Because Florrie was at that age to be interested in love and to long for it.

    It could not be said, however, that she had much experience with it. If she had dealt with it, even just once or twice, she might have dealt with the situation better, pushing Hayden by the shoulders while telling him, ¡°at any rate, please go back. I will pretend that I never heard what you just said.¡±

    At that moment, she found herself in a dominant emotional position towards a man who was considerably older than her. Therefore, she pitied him and, just like Hayden, she did not know how to handle emotions that she was encountering for the first time.

    ¡°If there is something you want, you are the kind of gentleman who will do anything to get it,¡± Florrie continued to attack the already despairing man. ¡°I don¡¯t know about other people ¨C but my feelings will never be stirred by a man like you!¡±

    In a way, Florrie was almost in rapture, and her words sent Hayden Swift¡¯s feelings into upheaval again. He drew up towards her with a look of fury. Without giving her time to make a sound, Hayden seized her by the shoulders then twisted one of her arms behind her.

    ¡°How fragile,¡± Hayden growled. ¡°It feels like I just need to put some strength into it to snap it off. Little girl, were you just making fun of a man from the House of Swift?¡±

    ¡°L-Let go ¨C Let me go!¡±

    Florrie struggled desperately and, in doing so, her free hand struck Hayden¡¯s chin. The next second, a slap flew across her cheek.

    Florrie had never received that kind of treatment before, not even from her parents. It was an extremely light blow, but the shock it caused her was more than sufficient.

    The dark presence of violence swirled next to her. And its unexpected appearance made her remember the scene in the mountains when she had witnessed someone being killed for the first time. Swords and spears gleamed, there was the sound of flesh and bone being torn, screams of pain, sprays of dark blood flying...

    Florrie¡¯s entire body trembled and her teeth chattered.

    Hayden stared down intently at the girl who had stopped resisting.

    The sight of a damaged flower is also nice... the blood inside him was pounding loudly.

    Sensing Florrie¡¯s terrified gaze on him, he himself had the impression that his was an existence which towered over everyone, so much so that his early weakness seemed unreal.

    He released Florrie¡¯s arm and took hold of her dainty chin instead.

    ¡°Don¡¯t go too far in bothering adults, Florrie. Never speak like that in front of me again.¡±

    With her chin still in his grasp, Florrie indicated her consent.

    ¡°You will also be attending tomorrow¡¯s banquet. And there, you will announce that you will be returning with me. If you do not, Atall will be engulfed in the flames of hell, and will perish within a single night. I am ready to use whatever power is needed to make that happen. Do you understand?¡± he whispered into her rose-tinted ear.

    Florrie nodded again. Large teardrops spilled from her eyes. As though entranced by the way they shimmered, Hayden once more brought his face next to hers, moving to suck on Florrie¡¯s lips.

    She shuddered violently. For a moment, it seemed as though she wouldn¡¯t react but then, at the very last moment, just as their lips were about to touch, she weakly shook her head.

    Hayden had seemed about take them by force, but Florrie¡¯s compliance allowed the heat of his blood to abate. He released her after having only brushed his lips against her cheek and ear.

    When he left the room, his chest seemed about to burst with joy.

    All that he had done had almost been for naught, but, in the end, it had turned out well.

    He had held the girl he loved in his own arms; not an illusion or a pretence, but her actual flesh-and-blood body. He even felt that there had been awe in her gaze as she looked at him.

    The excitement of having treated her harshly provoked a new feeling of arousal within him. As far as Hayden was concerned, that warped arousal did not contradict the love he had for Florrie: if she was going to be hurt, then of course it had to be at his own hands.

    Once I have Florrie, this tiny country will have no more use. Once I¡¯m done with the temple, I¡¯ll find some excuse to level it to the ground.

    He had that power.

    Hayden Swift felt that the long time during which he had almost lost all enthusiasm for anything was more than made up for by the force with which it had come sweeping back to him in this short space of time.

 Volume 1, 6: The Banquet

    Volume 1, Chapter 6: The Banquet

    Part 1

    When told that Percy wished to attend the banquet, his father had not looked pleased.

    If Percy attended, he would naturally attract attention. This was to be the ceremonial occasion that would symbolise mending their relationship with Allion, so Percy could sympathise with his father¡¯s feelings, and he understood why Nordred did not want to bring a potentially dangerous trigger to it ¨C especially not one from his own House. However, Percy desperately wanted to see the man called Hayden Swift with his own eyes.

    He was the man who had been sending orders from behind to the marauders and to Allion¡¯s enlisted soldiers whom Percy had clashed with first-hand. And he was probably the man who had attempted to carry out the scheme to erase Lord Leo; a plan which was incomprehensible, but which was all the more horrifying because of it.

    Percy didn¡¯t have any concrete intention of doing anything when he saw the man, nor did he expect anything to change, but he could not bear the thought of waiting and leaving the situation to others.

    Because his son, who did not usually ask for anything of his parents, was being unusually persistent, Percy¡¯s father eventually gave in.

    ¡°But no heroics. Try to stand out as little as possible. And don¡¯t even think of speaking to Sir Hayden, the guest of honour,¡± he warned.

    Percy had never had the slightest intention of starting a fight, but, only a few hours before he was to leave for the banquet, Sarah suddenly paid a visit to the mansion. Just one glance at her urgent expression was enough to tell him immediately that something bad had happened. A ¡®fight¡¯, exactly what he hadn''t been aiming for, was brewing.

    Hastily adjusting his outfit, Percy rushed from the mansion. Led by Sarah, he found Kuon waiting at their destination, but this time, the boy was not responsible for the commotion; Sarah¡¯s brother Camus was.

    When he heard that the envoy from Allion who was currently staying in Atall was Hayden Swift, Camus had flown into a rage. Hayden was the very person who had gone to the temple to mediate yet who, faced with failure, had immediately claimed that they had ¡°shouted curses at the royal family¡±, before leading the army to attack.

    Camus had already been on the verge of losing all patience with Atall, which still hadn¡¯t taken action. Upon learning that Hayden, who should, by all rights, have been despised in the principality, was going to be the guest of honour at the banquet, he had finally snapped.

    ¡°I''ll march straight into that banquet. If I strike Hayden down there, Atall won¡¯t be able to go back anymore.¡±

    Yesterday, he had said words to that effect. And today, he had disappeared from the inn. To make matters worse, Sarah¡¯s gun had vanished at the same time as him.

    At that point, even Sarah had worried, and she raced outside, forcibly dragging along Kuon, who had been in the next room. They had run all around the downtown area, but there had been no sign of Camus. They realised that in the worst-case scenario, he might already have gotten into the palace. It was at that point that Sarah had come to find Percy.

    Leaving the two of them at the palace gates, Percy went galloping into the castle. He searched the courtyard that would serve as the venue for the banquet, as well as the great hall that gave onto it, but they were filled with crowds of people who were still getting things ready for that evening. Ignoring the group of irascible, elderly nobles who were sitting in a corner of the hall, snitching food as they chatted together, he went over every nook and cranny.

    Honestly, what kind of priest are you! He cursed him inwardly.

    His blood ran cold as he imagined Camus shooting Hayden dead. That would spell destruction not only for Camus, but also for the entire country of Atall.

    He went around the hall two or three times and searched its vicinity. There were a few people who looked like Camus from behind, so Percy deliberately walked past them to check their faces. He also called his name out loud. The young warrior monk, however, was nowhere to be found. As he left the castle grounds, Percy was making up his mind to either give Camus¡¯s description to the soldiers, or else to consult with his father about whether to organise a guard for Hayden.

    ¡°Ah!¡± Just as Percy was about to join up with them, Kuon let out a cry of surprise.

    A different voice echoed the same cry. Camus was by the outer corner of the wall.

    He disappeared at once, running back the way he had come. Kuon started sprinting after him in that same moment, with Percy and Sarah chasing a little behind.

    Camus ran down the street, either avoiding people or shoving them aside, but Kuon was much faster than him and continued chasing while skilfully weaving through the crowd.

    Constantly looking back, Camus tried two or three times to lose his pursuers by ducking into alleyways, but Kuon nimbly climbed up the walls that lined the road and got ahead of him. He jumped. Camus had hurriedly turned on his heels but stumbled forward when Kuon flew onto his back. It looked like the boy was pony-riding on Camus¡¯s back.

    ¡°Let go,¡± Camus shouted behind him. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing, kicking your teacher! Even speaking of it will bring down divine retribution!¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Camus. Our positions are reversed compared to that time,¡± Kuon pinned down the struggling monk.

    Having come rushing after them, Percy and Sarah grabbed the panting Camus by the arms and made him stand once Kuon had gotten off. Camus did not have the gun. When asked about it,

    ¡°I already sold that thing off,¡± he answered angrily.

    ¡°Whaat!¡± Sarah shrieked. ¡°Why? That was my gun.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need it any more. And besides, there was that event at the mountain. Your brother was worried that you¡¯d cause some needless commotion in town. What, why are even Percy and Kuon getting so worked up over just a single gun.¡±

    ¡°The one who¡¯s been going around kicking up ¡®needless commotions¡¯ is you, Big Brother!¡±

    Camus assumed an air of complete innocence. He insisted that the only reason he had left the room taking the gun with him was so that he could sell it for his sister¡¯s sake.

    Percy stared searchingly into the monk¡¯s face.

    ¡°Apparently, you were threatening to shoot the envoy from Allion.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid! That was just a joke. Sarah foolishly took it seriously and then you two took a woman¡¯s babbling at face value. Honestly, it¡¯s ridiculous.¡±

    ¡°Then why did you run away?¡±

    ¡°If someone suddenly shouted at you and started chasing after you like a hunting dog, you¡¯d run away too.¡±

    Although he was putting on a show of anger, Camus turned his eyes slightly away from Percy¡¯s. And this was a man who, when he was angry, displayed it much more openly.

    When he left the inn at least, Camus might have really intended to shoot Allion¡¯s envoy dead. But what was certain was that, now, he did not have the gun but had the money from its sale instead. Although he could somewhat guess the reasons, Percy avoided probing too deeply at this point in time.

    ¡°Whatever the case, that was definitely my gun. How could you just go and do whatever you wanted with it!¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t I already tell you that you don¡¯t need it anymore? Did you think that I, your older brother, would wholeheartedly approve of you acting like a man and fighting? You should stay in this city and look for happiness like a woman. I¡¯ll find a partner for you.¡±

    ¡°Piece of shit.¡±

    ¡°Sarah, what did you just say to your brother!¡±

    Glancing at the siblings who were snarling at each other, Percy gave a small sigh.

    To shoot Hayden...? The chills he had been feeling as he searched the castle had vanished but for some reason, now the matter was settled, his heart seemed to be burning with emotion. Emotions that were in agreement with Camus.

    Percy shook his head, a little afraid of himself. Honestly, those guys ¨C it looked like it wasn¡¯t only at Coscon Temple: even here in Tiwana, the city he knew so well, they still had their own way of doing things. While deploring something a little ridiculous, he discretely called Kuon over.

    ¡°I still haven''t gotten my money,¡± Kuon said abruptly.

    Percy wondered for a second what he was talking about, but Kuon had previously announced that, ¡°with the money I receive, I¡¯ll buy weapons and armour, hire soldiers, and return to the temple.¡± This was probably him forestalling the question of how come you¡¯re still in Tiwana? Percy gave a small laugh.

    ¡°I¡¯ll ask the people at the castle about the money later. More importantly, you¡¯re a good friend to have. Just because Sarah asked you to, you went running around looking for Camus until you were drenched in sweat from it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not like I had anything else to do, anyway.¡±

    ¡°Hmm? But if Camus had shot the envoy, Atall and Allion would definitely have gone to war. It would have been a good opportunity for you to gain as much glory as you wanted.¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡± Percy was half-teasing but Kuon frankly acknowledged what he was saying, even as he turned his eyes away. ¡°But that... would have been a betrayal.¡±

    A betrayal, murmured Percy. Did he mean that letting Camus run loose while knowing that it would lead to war would have been a betrayal towards Atall? It was difficult to understand in that moment. Since it seemed like there was some tangled circumstances behind those words, Percy deliberately decided to return to the problem at hand.

    ¡°Sorry, but could you keep watch on Camus tonight? Just in case.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Kuon looked towards the still-squabbling siblings. ¡°Sarah won¡¯t be leaving him alone, anyway.¡±

    After parting with the three of them, Percy immediately went home to the mansion and got himself ready in a mad hurry.

    The banquet began as the stars started to twinkle in the sky.

    It was a huge affair. Flames burned brilliantly from the chandeliers ornamenting the hall¡¯s ceiling and from the iron braziers in the courtyard, casting a light that was as bright as day. The feast was spread out over the rows of table tops. Percy¡¯s eyes were drawn to the food that would not normally be seen even at the Leegan House¡¯s dining table: the freshest of fruit, fish baked straight from the water rather than having been salted and preserved, a whole roast of pork... normally, Percy''s young stomach would almost have been growling, but tonight, perhaps because of his feeling of tension, or perhaps because of the earlier crisis, he had no desire to wolf down food.

    There were a few people he knew, here and there, as well as dignitaries from the city and the vassal-lords who had come hurrying from the south. So far, Sovereign-Prince Magrid and the guest of honour, Hayden Swift, had not yet appeared.

    Whoops ¨C as he was surveying the hall, the people from the Laumarl House came into his sight, and Percy quickly put some distance between them before they noticed him. As mentioned earlier, the Houses of Leegan and Laumarl were antagonistic towards one another. On top of which, there was the issue of the process through which he had left Nauma behind and returned on his own; he did not want too much inquiry into those details.

    That was how Percy came across a corner of the hall which was like a gaping hole, empty of people.

    Leo Attiel was standing alone near the wall.

    It was the first time that the prince had shown himself in public since returning to the country. Although there was no end of people who came to give him their greetings, there was no one who stopped and talked with him for long. After exchanging a word or two, everyone moved away from him as if they were fleeing then, once they were at a sufficiently safe distance, they would steal furtive glances towards him.

    Having been told not to attract attention, Percy simply stopped and observed him for a while.

    Compared to the mud-covered figure he had met in the mountains, he was of course currently dressed much more neatly, but there didn¡¯t seem to be any spirit in him as remained gazing downwards throughout. Even his long hair, which had previously been carefully braided, was now simply tied in a single bunch behind his head.

    When the hall herald announced the sovereign-prince¡¯s arrival at the same time as Magrid appeared, almost everyone there turned to welcome him, so Percy took advantage of the opportunity to approach the prince. When he called out to him, he was met with a hesitant gaze. The next moment, however, Leo Attiel gave him the same relieved smile he might give an old friend.

    ¡°Oh, the Leegan House¡¯s... I was feeling bothered by the fact that I still haven¡¯t thanked you sufficiently.¡±

    Percy found it heart-rending. Even though he had saved the prince¡¯s life, the fact that Leo would show so much affection when greeting someone that he had only met once indicated how isolated he had been since returning to their country.

    ¡°I was hoping you would come. The others aren¡¯t with you?¡±

    ¡°They all said that they don¡¯t can¡¯t really handle formal ceremonies. I am to give you their greetings in their stead, Prince,¡± Percy picked suitable words for glossing over the situation. Just like he himself, Camus and Kuon had never been invited.

    ¡°I¡¯m not good with them either,¡± Leo¡¯s tone became casual as he shrugged. ¡°Anyway, I spent more than six years in a backwater in Allion. I don¡¯t have connection to sumptuous feasts.¡±

    ¡°I-Is that so?¡±

    ¡°The castle lord and his family were often invited to banquets at other castles or mansions, but I didn¡¯t go even when I was included in the invitation. I hate being the centre of attention. But it was a bit of problem: Florrie used to insist that if I didn¡¯t go, she wouldn¡¯t go either. That girl has always worried about others, even way back when. To be honest, I¡¯m not sure which would be worse: being shamed as a criminal in front of a crowd or trying to soothe and coax Florrie,¡± Leo gave the slightest of laughs.

    Immediately after, he seemed to regret having shown happiness, and his expression tightened. He was probably aware that being publicly shamed as a criminal was, in a way, a good description of his current situation. Percy felt his heart wrench again.

    ¡°Enough about me; won¡¯t you tell me tales of heroism?¡± Leo asked, looking like he was trying to change the mood.

    ¡°Tales of heroism? But you know, if you wish to hear some, there are several minstrels in the courtyard...¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear boring old legends and mouldy old myths. I want to hear new epics from one of the people themselves about the brave men who rescued Attal¡¯s second-born prince,¡± while maintaining a straight face, Leo showed a glimpse of playfulness.

    Percy was somewhat modest about his own ¡°tales of heroism¡± but, as Percy Leegan of the Leegan House, he did not have many stories or topics of conversation that could help dispel the prince¡¯s boredom. The only thing they had in common to talk about were the events in the mountains in Allion, so he chose to talk, in the hopes that it would help raise the prince¡¯s spirits, if only by a little. He had only intended to sketch the briefest of outlines, but seeing Leo¡¯s eyes sparkle and the way that he leaned forward, occasionally letting slip a wondering sound, Percy began talking with enthusiasm.

    ¡°What? That girl, Sarah, she looked like a young saint from a legend, but she actually shot a bandit leader through the head?¡±

    Percy did not only talk about himself, but also spoke at length about Kuon, Camus and Sarah.

    At that point, since most people had finished giving their greetings to the sovereign-prince, their attention was drawn back to Lord Leo.

    Never mind.

    Percy deliberately pretended not to notice, and continued his tale, enhanced with hand gestures ¨C sometimes pretending to stab at something with a spear, sometimes pretending to be harshly scolding Nauma, his superior officer. He finally reached the climax of the story. Percy and the others had arrived at the end of their forced march and the enemy headquarters was right in front of them.

    ¡°The stronghold seemed to be almost empty, right? That¡¯s right... If only I hadn¡¯t escaped into the mountains at that time, the soldiers would not have been sent out and that means that you wouldn¡¯t have been found, and instead, you would definitely easily have taken the enemy headquarters. If you had, you really would have been extolled as patriotic heroes in Atall. And then, your tale wouldn¡¯t have been wasted by telling it only to me in a corner of the hall; you would have crowds of people at banquets like this begging to hear it, it would become a new ballad for the minstrels, and it would become known throughout the country. It¡¯s my fault; I¡¯m truly sorry.¡±

    ¡°What are you saying?¡± Percy smiled. ¡°In the first place, it was thanks to Hayden sending his soldiers out to look for you, Prince, that the camp was empty. So your assumption doesn¡¯t hold.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right,¡± the prince laughed.

    Percy laughed with him as if to encourage Leo to continue smiling, but, perhaps because they were once again attracting attention from their surroundings, the prince pulled back his happy expression.

    Camus might have been right, thought Percy. Even though the prince was seventeen-years-old, there was a trace of childishness in every one of his actions. At the same time, perhaps because he had spent so many years as a hostage, he seemed to hate catching people¡¯s attention any more than necessary. Just as Camus had said, you could not hope to find in Leo the dignity and boldness of ¡°a commander capable of rallying people at a single one of his commands.¡± However ¨C

    ¡°You truly are braves. I would dearly like to listen to Camus, Kuon and Sarah as well.¡±

    Percy felt an overwhelming feeling of affection for Leo when he spoke that innocent wish, like a child longing for a toy that they could never have. He wanted to talk more with the prince about his friends and himself.

    ¡°Being too brave can also cause unnecessary trouble. Take today for example: because of that, I felt as though my blood had frozen in my veins.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°That damn Camus was raging about how if Atall wasn¡¯t going to move anymore but was going to sit down to peace talks with Allion, then he would shoot the messenger from Allion dead.¡±

    Despite knowing that he was treading on dangerous ground, Percy talked about the day¡¯s events. Although naturally, he did not mention that they had only been able to stop him through sheer use of force, but kept the story at a level where everyone had to desperately talk Camus down after he had drunk too much.

    He had expected Leo to be astounded before maybe breaking out into laughter, but Leo did not say a word about the story.

    The princess-consort of Atall had entered the hall right at that moment. While everyone present clapped their hands to greet her, Leo quickly hurried out of his mother¡¯s line of sight.

    Part 2

    Leo Attiel still did not have the courage to meet his mother¡¯s eyes.

    Percy could not read his feelings to that extent, and thought that he must have lost interest in his stories. Just then, he caught sight of Lord Gloucester ¨C his fianc¨¦e Liana¡¯s father ¨C in the crowd.

    ¡°I have to go and greet some people,¡± he excused himself and took leave of the prince.

    Leo, left behind, once more loitered in silence.

    Had it really been six and a half years since then? I still haven¡¯t even seen my mother¡¯s face clearly, Leo felt horribly discouraged about himself.

    On top of that, he felt he even harder to understand his own feelings. Did he hate and resent her? Or did he desperately miss her? No matter how far away he had tried to keep it from the surface of his mind, the shadow of Leo¡¯s mother had always been at his side. Yet he felt that if she only turned to him with a smile, and said, ¡°Leo, it¡¯s been hard on you,¡± that shadow would vanish like the mist.

    With just that little... He felt disappointed and irritated with himself at the thought.

    Still ¨C he did not have the leisure to think about his mother at any great length. Now that he was alone again after Percy had left, Leo was once more made aware of how complicated his situation was. Although he was still looking down, he could feel gazes piercing him from every direction.

    ¡°Why did he run away?¡± He could hear their voices. ¡°Even if he came back to Atall, the second-born prince is worthless. The first prince and heir has grown up healthy, while the third prince is loved by everyone at court. Whether the second prince exists or not, it¡¯s all the same.¡±

    ¡°Since he¡¯s not good for anything, at the very least, we could have hoped that he carry out his job as a hostage.¡±

    Naturally, those voices were no more than auditory hallucinations. At that point in time, the second prince was in a strange frame of mind. It was as though his eyes had flown away from his body and he was looking from afar at himself, who was standing still and staring down near the wall. Watching himself from the other people¡¯s point of view, he really was nothing more than a tiny, wretched little boy.

    Perhaps it was a phenomenon unique to Leo, who had been honing his eyes and his skill at observing his own emotions from afar. And in this case, the word ¡®eyes¡¯ could just as well be replaced by ¡®his heart itself¡¯; that was how Leo was able to cool-headedly observe himself and his surroundings from the viewpoint of a third party.

    Basically, he could see himself as others saw him. Leo understood other people¡¯s feelings very clearly, which was he heard so many of those imaginary voices.

    Honestly, why did you come back, me? Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to be killed in Allion?

    Six years earlier, Claude had told him to wait ¡°until you obtain power equal to the name ¡®Attiel¡¯.¡± However, in the end, he had done nothing in those six years to either surpass it or find a substitute for it. It was entirely fair to say that he was useless.

    Compared to that...

    He vividly recalled the tales from the battlefield that Percy had just told him. Be it Percy, Camus or Kuon, their ages were not so very different from his, yet they had fought a fearsome foe. They had put their lives on the line in that struggle, without letting themselves be overwhelmed. His heart thumped just thinking of it. The feats they had accomplished did not have any relation to either their family names or their lineages. Percy had fought to accomplish his duty, Camus to protect the faith he believed in, and Kuon probably to gain fame. Those reasons had been enough.

    As far as Leo was concerned, they were dazzling. What on earth was there for him to fight against or to fight to obtain?

    Although he had no way of knowing it, his laments were a lot like those of Hayden Swift. Neither of them had anything more that they could wish for, nor any way of showing their abilities, so they had sunk far down instead.

    Leo felt envious as he imagined Percy and the others dashing across the battlefield. If he had been born a commoner, would he too have charged shoulder-to-shoulder with them, a spear in his hand and his face flushed? Would he then be standing with his shoulders miserably hunched up in a place like this, which was more hostile even than enemy territory?

    And... what was it Percy had talked about last? Oh right, he had said that the warrior monk called Camus had wanted to kill Allion¡¯s envoy, Hayden, to get the situation to move again. He had gotten distracted because his mother had made her entrance at that moment, but thinking back on it now, it had been a truly audacious and thrilling conversation.

    Leo¡¯s lips curved into a faint and bitter smile.

    He could imagine being born a commoner, but even so, he didn¡¯t think that he would be able to show the same determination in any situation that Camus had. He who had no value other than as a hostage, he who could not even look directly into his mother¡¯s face ¨C he probably would not be able to carry through with that way of life like the level-headed Percy or the reckless Kuon.

    They will make names for themselves. That¡¯s an impossible fight for me, since I¡¯m enmeshed in the name ¡®Attiel¡¯.

    It was that bitter thought that had made him smile, but he quickly retracted it in case it made him look arrogant. He returned to seeing things from his own position, and lifted his head. The piercing gazes that had been shot at him like arrows scattered and fell.

    Everyone chatted light-heartedly about things that had nothing to do with Leo. Outwardly, at any rate; before long, there were people who started sending glances his way again. Earlier, Leo had turned away from them, but this time, mostly on impulse, he deliberately returned their looks. His eyes met those of a portly noble. Leo smiled sweetly; looking flustered, the man sketched something like a bow before turning to avoid his eyes.

    Interesting, though Leo Attiel.

    The reason why they were currently looking down on him and disregarding his presence was because Leo was an Attiel. Meanwhile, the reason why they could not ignore him and had to show him more than common courtesy was also because Leo was an Attiel.

    When he realised that, a faint feeling of mischievousness took root in him. In the end, he had not been able to obtain anything equal to the name of ¡®Attiel¡¯, but Claude had said something else six years ago: ¡°I didn¡¯t have a name. So I made a name for myself and proved my own existence.¡± Looking at it the other way round, the power that Claude had struggled for, fought for, and had desperately grabbed with his own hands was something that Leo had been given from birth.

    Power, huh?

    A power so insignificant that it almost made Leo burst into laughter. If he had to make a comparison, it was like one of those stray dogs that lived off scavenging scraps in alleyways trying to fight one of the giant dragons whose civilisation had once swept over the entire planet. But, even so, the other dogs in the small area of those narrow backstreets might perhaps be afraid of that stray. Maybe it had the authority to get first pick of the leftover scraps. That was still a form of power.

    Leo once again let his gaze wander around the hall. Those whose eyes met his and those whose eyes seemed about to do so all turned away. Among them were three men standing diagonally across from the wall he himself was next to.

    He recognised them. All of them were vassal-lords with their own established castles.

    One of them was Oswell Taholin, the man who had strongly urged the sovereign-prince to send reinforcements to the temple. His hair was already conspicuously tinged with grey. Even six years ago, people were talking about whether he wouldn¡¯t soon be handing over the family headship to his son, but it seemed that he was currently still residing at his castle as its lord.

    With Oswell were Bernard and Tokamakk.

    Bernard was in his mid-thirties. He was tall and had a sturdy build. Both his hair and beard were neatly groomed, but his clothing was dishevelled. With that said, it was undoubtedly an artful disarray. He was, after all, a dandy. Be it at court or on the battlefield, he was man who stood out wherever he was, and equally, he was a young fellow whose eyes followed the behinds of every woman who happened to walk past him.

    The third man, slender and fair-skinned, was Tokamakk. He was the complete opposite of Oswell: a youth who had only just been handed the position of head of the family by his father, who had recently been confined to a sickbed. Since his father had been late having a son, Tokamakk was still only twenty-one years old. When Leo had entered the hall, he had made an effort when presenting himself, but his hostility towards the prince was obvious behind the cramped smile that he wore.

    His expression then was the same as it was now, and Tokamakk¡¯s bearing showed that, for some reason, he disliked being with Oswell. It was clear from his animosity towards Leo that Tokamakk did not want any quarrels with Allion, so he probably did not have any kind feelings towards the one who had advised the sovereign-prince to send reinforcements to the temple. However, their ages were as far apart as that of a parent and child. Oswell was smiling benignly and seemed to be making evasive conversation with Tokamakk, who was a straightforward young man. Bernard looked like he was finding it amusing to watch them, and he occasionally opened his mouth to poke fun at something.

    Leo started to walk towards them. His heart was pounding.

    I¡¯ll give it a try.

    In Allion¡¯s rural backwaters, the name ¡®Attiel¡¯ had not held any great power ¨C well, actually, being able to provide him with food every day to fill his belly and a warm bed to sleep in was already pretty great, but it wasn¡¯t the kind of power that could shake society at large ¨C but how about in the Atall¡¯s own palace?

    I¡¯ll test how far my fangs can reach in this world of stray dogs.

    Somewhere in his thoughts, he had the stories that Percy had told about fighting against Allion. He was probably in a frame of mind similar to that of a child who had gone to bed with their heart throbbing after their parents had read them heroic tales, and who wanted to gather up all their friends as early as possible tomorrow to play heroes.

    He wasn¡¯t being carried away with fervour. This was nothing but a game. An innocent child¡¯s game, just as Florrie had sung about.

    Was I born to play? Was I born to frolic?[1] He hummed to himself.

    The three people noticed his approach. Their expressions were uniformly startled, but each of them greeted ¡°His Highness, Lord Leo¡± with the appropriate courtesy. Realising that Leo was empty-handed, Bernard offered him a wine cup. Leo was about to refuse, but then changed his mind at the last moment and took it.

    ¡°But please keep it a secret from my father,¡± he said jokingly. Bernard grinned.

    ¡°Tonight¡¯s banquet is also a celebration of your safe return, Your Highness. His Majesty the Sovereign-Prince will surely overlook something like this.¡±

    ¡°Is that right?¡±

    ¡°With all due respect, I believe it would be best to stop,¡± Tokamakk interjected. Even though he was always pale, his face was now strangely white. Bernard made a fed-up expression.

    ¡°You¡¯re being so rigid again.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not an issue of being rigid or soft. Allion¡¯s envoy has been invited to this banquet. There are still many uncertainties about what direction the relationship between our two countries is heading towards. Since it was our side which acted improperly towards Allion, Lord Hayden¡¯s mood might be soured if he sees the prince merrily getting drunk.¡±

    By that time, Leo had already shifted his viewpoint to one outside of the four of them. As soon as he did so, his anxiety and fear melted away, and it felt as though he was a spectator watching a play on stage. And the very best actors were those whose field of vision stretched wide, and who could pay careful attention not only to themselves, but also to each of the other people.

    In other words, you¡¯re saying that I needed to understand my position as a hostage.

    Leo put on a fearful expression and seemed about to put the wine cup back down.

    Tokamakk smiled when he saw that. It was a smile that was very like the one that Hayden had worn at the Anglatt manor.

    In that moment, Leo drained the contents of the wine cup in one gulp.

    ¡°Oh!¡± Bernard exclaimed out loud.

    ¡°Y-Your Highness!¡± Tokamakk¡¯s voice sounded as though his throat was clogged up.

    ¡°I have no taste for alcohol,¡± Leo¡¯s expression was unconcerned. ¡°Getting drunk, not getting drunk... I don¡¯t have anything to measure that by. So I tried having a cup. It¡¯s fine: if it¡¯s just this, then I think it will take three cups before I show any effects.¡±

    He stretched out a hand towards Bernard, who immediately handed him another cup. Meanwhile, Tokamakk¡¯s pale face flashed as though lit by a fire.

    ¡°Your Highness, you are being reckless.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only one or two cups. What are you making such a fuss about?¡± Bernard reproved him, although he had probably realised that the prince''s drinking was not what had caused Tokamakk¡¯s anger. ¡°Were you always this rigid? When I brought you with me to my favourite brothel in Tiwana, weren¡¯t you having a grand old time? How many girls did you go with that time? Three... four, was it?¡±

    ¡°L-Lord Bernard, you can¡¯t talk about something like that at a place like this!¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just jealous of you being a bachelor. Do you know how what my wife and daughter put me through afterwards? It was definitely someone from your house who betrayed me. It¡¯ll be a while before I forget this grudge.¡±

    Leo smilingly watched the exchange between the two. At the same time, however, and from a spectator¡¯s position, he was carefully observing Oswell¡¯s expression and behaviour, as well as those of the surrounding people who were casting interested glances their way.

    ¡°Lord Bernard, your wife and daughter are both renowned for their beauty. Personally, I''m jealous of you,¡± when Oswell said that, Leo looked as though he had just thought of something.

    ¡°Did you not bring them with you? How unfortunate... I would love to present them my greetings.¡±

    ¡°But of course. My wife and daughter have both been influenced by the Cross Faith, so they might seem a little eccentric, but if you come to visit us, Prince, my entire family will be happy to welcome you. It would be an honour for our castle.¡±

    After exchanging some more light-hearted chatter, Leo broached the main topic with an ¡®oh-by-the-way¡¯ sort of expression.

    ¡°...Sir Tokamakk, earlier you mentioned that our future relations with Allion remain uncertain.¡±

    It looks like I¡¯ll have to direct the conversation a little forcefully. Since he realised that the three of them were a little tense, Leo had quickly reached that conclusion, but he continued to smile as though this was not the main issue he had wanted to discuss.

    ¡°What do you mean by that? Since we are holding this banquet for Sir Hayden, we should be able to pat ourselves on the back about the fact that relations with Allion will not grow worse.¡±

    ¡°It is not that simple,¡± Tokamakk¡¯s voice and expression were stiff, but his feelings showed clearly through his transparent mask ¨C

    Brainless brat.

    Leo immediately looked anxious.

    ¡°You don¡¯t mean that there¡¯s a risk Allion might declare war on our country?¡±

    ¡°That is a possibility. Even now.¡±

    ¡°T-Then, should head towards Allion to put a stop to it?¡±

    What¡¯s he saying at this point... It wasn¡¯t only Tokamakk¡¯s face that reflected that thought; Oswell and Bernard¡¯s were the same.

    Tokamakk bitterly shook his head.

    ¡°Allion probably no longer needs you, Prince. If it intends to start something, no excuses or tribute will stop it. We will have no alternative but to take our spears and put ourselves on the battle front.¡±

    This is the situation that you brought down on your own country ¨C It was probably only because he wanted to berate this simple-minded prince that Tokamakk was bringing up such an extreme topic. Honestly, Leo had expected it to take a little longer. But since the other side had offered him such a perfect opportunity...

    Now ¨C the Leo Attiel who was watching from a distance whispered to him.

    ¡°Is that so? Take up our spears to fight... you say?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. It goes without saying that Allion is a powerful country. If it comes to war, every one of Atall¡¯s subjects will need to be prepared to take arms. Naturally, even you, Lord Leo, will be no exception...¡±

    ¡°Hearing that is a great relief.¡±

    What? The three people once more wore the same expressions. The only one still smiling, Leo drank from the second cup.

    This is bad ¨C it looked as though Oswell was having a hard time stopping that thought from showing on his face.

    ¡°What do you mean when you say that you feel relieved?¡± he asked Leo in a careful voice.

    Leo took his time to answer, drinking his cup empty before he did so.

    ¡°When I was staying in Allion, I asked the people there, half as a joke, what kind of battles they expected if the situation with Atall once more turned to war, and what kind of outcome they predicted. Their answer was perfectly clear: ¡®it won¡¯t come to war¡¯.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°¡®After all,¡¯ they said, ¡®Atall¡¯s vassal-lords don¡¯t have any obligation to send soldiers to the central ruler. They would oppose such an overwhelmingly unfavourable war. And if it looks like something is going to happen, as long as we promise to let them keep at least half of their possessions, they¡¯ll go from trembling in fear to easily switching sides, and they¡¯ll let Tiwana fall to us¡¯.¡±

    The three were left speechless.

    This time, Lord Leo stretched out his hand in a slovenly manner, and it was Oswell who handed him the third cup. With it I hand, Leo continued,

    ¡°Actually, they told me that they had planned to hold out their hand to the vassal-lords during the previous war. That pointless war ended quickly. I had no way of verifying what they said, so I felt terribly depressed. But hearing what you said just now, Sir Tokamakk, I feel at ease. After all, you are all ready to fight for Atall at any time, right? I feel like going straight back to Allion ad thrusting those words at them. This time, it will be their turn to tremble, right?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Oh but no, I don¡¯t need to go all the way back to Allion,¡± Leo nodded triumphantly. ¡°Sir Hayden will soon be here. I happen to be acquainted with him. I must go and tell him at once about Atall¡¯s determination.¡±

    ¡°S ¨C Stop! N ¨C No... I mean, please wait, Your Highness,¡± exclaimed Oswell, speaking instead of Tokamakk, whose mouth didn¡¯t seem to be functioning properly.

    His expression mirrored Bernard¡¯s, who was next to him. Don¡¯t tell me, could clearly be read on both their faces, d ¨C don¡¯t tell me that this damned brat is planning to make a fool out of us adults?

    Leo did not feel any duty to answer that question of theirs. He simply maintained his smile. Blinking in confusion, Oswell said,

    ¡°It¡¯s better to keep that determination concealed in our hearts. To let the opponent take us lightly and then, when the time comes, to act decisively is...

    ¡°If we allow them to look down on us, we¡¯re giving the enemy a chance to invade us. By showing them that we are ready to fight to the very last soldier, we can prevent the enemy from making any hasty moves.¡±

    ¡°T ¨C That¡¯s true, there is that... But...¡±

    Leo was satisfied with the conversation.

    After that, they talked lightly about Allion¡¯s possible arrangement of troops and also about how best to deploy Atall¡¯s forces. All of this on the assumption that the vassal-lords would send out their soldiers. While attempting to read Leo¡¯s expression and to sound him out on how serious he was being, the three of them could not afford to ignore the conversation given the current situation.

    A little later, Tokamakk, followed by Oswell, made some vague excuses and left the prince. Only Bernard remained. For a short while, both of them stayed silent. During that interval, Leo¡¯s gaze followed Oswell¡¯s back, watching as he went to speak to other vassal-lords. Maybe he was walking around making small talk by telling stories of the ridiculous Lord Leo since they turned around to look towards Leo, but when they saw him staring fixedly at them, they hurriedly shifted their gaze forward again.

    Leo Attiel¡¯s gaze did not only follow Oswell; it travelled carefully around the other vassal-lords and nobles as well. There were plenty of variations even among the nobles: on the one hand, there were those dressed in gorgeous clothes, while on the other there were those whose shabby appearance would make it easy to mistake them for servants working at the palace. There were those who exchanged smiling voices, and those ¨C was it because of some past history or because they were currently in the middle of a quarrel ¨C who would not even look at each other.

    They... even if the country were in danger, they would absolutely never unite to defend it ¨C Leo felt that realisation so strongly it left him stunned.

    ¡°Oswell Taholin...¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± Leo had spoken so suddenly that Bernard answered out of sheer surprise. Leo didn¡¯t pay it any attention and continued,

    ¡°I had not expected him to behave so boldly.¡±

    ¡°... By which, you mean...?¡±

    ¡°He was the one who advised my father to send reinforcements to the temple. Naturally, everyone here is aware of that fact.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Given the situation, his position should be as bad as mine, who ran away from Allion.... Or perhaps even worse. Something along the lines of: ¡®it¡¯s your fault that Atall is on the brink of danger¡¯, no?¡±

    ¡°That... No, that¡¯s true.¡±

    Bernard probably didn¡¯t know where the conversation was headed. Nor did he notice that Leo¡¯s tone had changed; he simply felt uncomfortable.

    ¡°Yet even so,¡± Leo put the third cup, that he had never seemed interested in drinking, back on the table, ¡°he is very dignified. Even when Tokamakk was criticising him, he didn¡¯t bat an eyelash. It¡¯s been six years since I saw him, but I don¡¯t remember Oswell having nerves this strong.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°That story about what was planned, is it true?¡±

    This time, Bernard did not ask anything. Hs head slightly lowered, he only opened his eyes wide. In response, Leo deliberately pretended to be impatient.

    ¡°I asked you a question. Answer.¡±

    For a moment, anger flashed across Bernard¡¯s face at Leo¡¯s high-handed tone. After a few seconds had passed, however, he started to speak heavily.

    ¡°...It¡¯s true that before the last war began, an envoy from Allion, disguised as an itinerant entertainer, visited the castles of the vassal-lords. He came to mine too. It wasn¡¯t anything as grandiose as a plan, though. He claimed that since Allion didn¡¯t wish for a war at that time, his mission was to ask us to band together and try to persuade the sovereign-prince out of it.¡±

    ¡°That would have been more than enough to throw our camp into chaos. He must have hinted at rewards too,¡± this time Leo did not demand an answer, switching instead to another question. ¡°Does my father know?¡±

    ¡°Lord Oswell apparently travelled to Tiwana at the earliest opportunity and explained everything directly to His Majesty the Sovereign-Prince.¡±

    Father knew about it? In that case, this isn¡¯t a topic that Bernard particularly needs to conceal anything about.

    Leo was a little disappointed, but, well, getting him to tell even this much to a seventeen-year-old boy wasn¡¯t a bad result for now. Even if Bernard had, ostensibly, pledged allegiance to Sovereign-Prince Magrid, and even if Leo merited his respect by virtue of being a prince, Bernard had no actual obligation to obey when Leo had ordered him to ¡®Answer¡¯.

    ¡°Is that so, Oswell was it?¡± having started it Leo, continued with his act. ¡°That would certainly have earned him His Majesty¡¯s trust. Enough so that when he advocated sending troops to the temple, His Majesty took that advice.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±

    Bernard''s question was asked in a low voice, but Leo had only spoken an idea out loud, and the conversation had simply veered in that direction by chance. At that point, Leo was preoccupied with something else.

    So the ¡®Attiel power¡¯ that I hold is, at best, just this much?

    He had wanted to try out how effective the weapons he had to hand were, but although he gone barging in, the end result was that they only allowed him to ¡®not be ignored by the vassal-lords¡¯. Even though he was supposed to have known that from the start, Leo felt so irritated that the top of his head seemed to be burning, and at the same time, he felt so anxious that it seemed as though he was about to collapse.

    It¡¯s not just me. Atall itself is horribly fragile and flimsy. A single whisper from Allion can upset things this easily.

    With Atall as it was, even a man as powerless as he was could easily throw it into chaos as long as he simply had Allion¡¯s backing. It would be like a dragon stepping forward and trampling over a hut: it would effortlessly be crushed underfoot.

    Leo inwardly caught his breath. His body went cold to the core, just as though the castle ramparts, that he had always implicitly believed to be so solid, and the palace walls with them had collapsed with a thunderous roar and left him exposed to the winds.

    He was enraged at the people who laughing happily. It felt as though he was the only one who was facing up to their terrifying reality.

    However, he had just been made to realise just how weak the ¡®power¡¯ that he wielded really was. It was a paltry thing, incapable of changing anything..

    If I want more power...

    He could feel himself being bathed in the light ¨C as bright as the noonday sun ¨C coming from the brilliant flames that shone all around from the chandeliers, from the lamps on top of the tables and from the candles; whereas looking at his surroundings, he had the impression that they were somewhat dark and dim.

    If I want to be the strongest ¡®Attiel¡¯... that only means one thing ¨C becoming the sovereign-prince.

    Part 3

    He had started out only wanting to play at being a hero, but even though it was just a game, his thoughts had taken a strange turn.

    For a second, Leo was confused by his ow ideas, but immediately afterwards, he felt his blood seething with excitement. He thought that it was almost like a profanity.

    Just then, the voice of the herald announcing arrivals rang out, and new guests appeared in the hall. At a single glance towards them, Leo¡¯s blood, which had almost been roaring with heat, seemed all at once to turn chilled.

    It was Hayden Swift. He was escorting a woman that he was leading by the hand.

    Hayden was, of course, the guest of honour at this banquet, and also an envoy from Allion; the very ones who were thrusting true ¡®power¡¯ at Attiel. Leo could not compare to it. Leo¡¯s buoyant feeling receded. Right then, he heard Bernard, who was next to him, ask in a surprised voice,

    ¡°Oh? Who¡¯s the beauty?¡±

    Leo took another look at the woman next to Hayden. He hadn¡¯t noticed because of the distance, but it was Florrie Anglatt.

    Just like Leo, it was the first time she had appeared in public since arriving in Tiwana, and she was standing beside Hayden, wearing the kind of dress that he was not used to seeing her in and lavishing her smile on her surroundings. It was not only because of the distance and the dress that she had, for a moment, looked like another person to Leo: she was also wearing makeup, which was unusual for her. Although it might be a slightly exaggerated way of putting it, Leo was utterly dumbfounded.

    She who combed his hair every morning when he was in Allion, calling out ¡°Brother, Brother,¡± to him, now seemed like a completely different person. She was a girl around whom there had always drifted the scent of wind and earth, and the faint perfume of flowers, but now, in her grown-up dress and makeup, and wearing a slightly enigmatic smile, she seemed exactly like a young lady born to a noble house.

    Was it Hayden who had brought her here? Also smiling all the while, he was holding her by the waist and showing off their intimacy.

    Although the behaviour they were displaying was perfectly appropriate considering their positions, Leo had an uncomfortable feeling about Florrie¡¯s smile that he found hard to shake off.

    Besides Bernard, a number of voices throughout the hall had started murmuring praise of her beauty. They subsided, however, when the host and the guest of honour ¨C the sovereign-prince and Hayden ¨C finally stood side-by-side. Together, they spoke words about expecting good future relations between the two countries, and they both lead the assembly in offering toasts.

    Leo was once again left alone in a corner.

    All the many gazes and the idle curiosity converged on Hayden. He skilfully rode the wave of noble ladies who closed in on him, wanting to speak in person to this Allian aristocrat, and bestowed the perfect smile and words on them. With just a few parting comments to the prince, Bernard also gravitated towards Hayden. It was a scene that clearly showed Leo their difference in ¡®power¡¯.

    By nature, he and Hayden were equals. Compared to Hayden¡¯s, however, the ¡®power¡¯ that Leo had tested to its limits was, in the end, only something to be used in a world of stray dogs. Leo had tasted excitement strong enough to make his blood roar, and because of that, having truly been made aware of the difference in ability between them, he now felt miserable enough to fall prostrated to the floor. He who had been so proud of his privileged access to leftover scraps had his tail stepped on by humans holding stronger ¡®power¡¯, his back had been hit with a broom, he had effortlessly been sent scampering away.

    Playtime is over, he realised.

    He became aware that the wave of gazes and curiosity was once again surging towards him. When he looked, Hayden was approaching him, having left Florrie on the other side of the crowd.

    Leo¡¯s body tensed up. Facing the smile that Hayden was throwing at him, the smile that he desperately pasted on his own face was so stiff that it was hard to believe he had managed to put on that act earlier, in front of the vassal-lords. His heart was beating wildly.

    But why? Leo himself was puzzled by it.

    When they had met at the Anglatt manor, he had not experienced this nervousness that was almost like dread. When Hayden had mocked him, he had even been seized with the impulse to leap from his chair and strike him. So why was it that the sight of the now-smiling Hayden Swift filled Leo with horror from the bottom of his heart? Why was it that even the silk clothes Hayden wore seemed to be giving off a dazzling radiance? Leo was conscious of the damp sensation of sweat on his forehead.

    ¡°It has been many long days since we last met, Prince.¡±

    ¡°Y-Yes.¡±

    As though the skin of his throat had gone stiff, his voice would not come out smoothly. Hayden raised one eyebrow, ever so slightly, but did not show any other reaction, instead taking two wine cups from the table. He held one out.

    ¡°No, I already...¡± Leo was about to raise his hand to refuse, but at the same time,

    ¡°Take it. Everyone is watching,¡± Hayden whispered in a fearfully low voice.

    Leo¡¯s shoulders started in surprise. He hurriedly accepted the cup from Hayden. With a clear clinking sound, they brought their two cups together. Hayden emptied the contents of his in one go, while Leo only drunk a mouthful from his. He started coughing immediately afterwards, though, probably because he was so tense.

    ¡°Oh my, my,¡± Hayden raised his shoulders and turned to the people watching. ¡°Was it a little bit too soon to offer alcohol to the prince? It¡¯s true that he still young. I do not know the customs of Atall, for which I beg your pardon. Or maybe... did the prince perhaps misunderstand, thinking that Allion wanted to kill him, he might have been excessively afraid of me. Thinking, for example, that I might have slipped poison into the wine.¡±

    His joke cut dangerously close to the bone.

    ¡°Lord Leo, if you come to visit Allion again, please spend your time at ease there. That way, you won¡¯t jump to the wrong conclusion and run away so quickly.¡±

    Several people laughed. Essentially, Atall would only have the right to exist if they took it as a joke.

    Leo felt as though he wanted to just disappear. Although he actually didn¡¯t need to cough anymore, he kept it up because he did not know what to do with himself.

    Percy Leegan had been closely watching the scene and, much later, Leo Attiel talked to him about it and frankly confided that never, before or since, had he felt as terrified of someone as he had then.

    Because of that, Percy would occasionally think,

    Hayden Swift clearly made a mistake in allowing the prince to escape from Allion. Within the country, there was some debate about who, between him and Claude, bore responsibility for that. And for Hayden, Lord Leo wasn¡¯t the only opponent that he failed to kill: it had been the same with Bishop Rogress, so it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if he was furious at the thought that his reputation had been dragged through the mud.

    If, at the time...

    Hayden had already publicly given the prince a verbal smackdown. If he had been content with leaving Atall out of it...

    If only his sadistic tendencies hadn¡¯t still remained unsatisfied, if only he hadn¡¯t whispered something like that, in a voice deliberately too low for others to hear, in order to deal the finishing blow to the prince...

    ... then history might have been different.

    Perhaps the Principality of Atall would not become what it later became.

    But of course, and just as it is widely said, ¡®what-ifs¡¯ cannot change history.

    And back then, Hayden Swift had deliberately touched the prince¡¯s arm, as though they were close, and, while pretending to have a pleasant conversation with him, he had whispered it.

    That fact could never be erased.

    Hayden strode jauntily away from Lord Leo. Once more left behind, the prince stared at his retreating back with an almost vacant expression. What Hayden had whispered as he was leaving was still ringing in his ears.

    This is what he said:

    ¡°Well done from escaping from Allion. But that¡¯s the absolute best that you can do. I¡¯ve said it before: ¡®if you plan on standing against us, then you have to be ready to give up your own life¡¯. You don¡¯t have that. No, actually, every man in Atall is missing that. It¡¯s probably just as I said before. Everyone here is carefully watching my mood and continues to live without determination. What the hell does ¡®live¡¯ even mean here? If all you crave is to eat your allocated amount of fodder, and to sleep soundly under someone else¡¯s watch, then that¡¯s no different from cattle. O Lord Prince of this country of cattle. The peace you are ¡®living¡¯ in is simply something that Allion has granted you. It won¡¯t last for much longer.¡±

    He was speaking fast into Leo¡¯s ear, his eyes gleaming fiercely as he did so.

    ¡°I wanted to see for myself ¨C how far can my own power go? The ones who gave me this chance were you and Claude. My thanks.¡±

    With those equally rapid parting words, he left.

    Leo Attiel was rooted to the spot in surprise. Why, for what purpose, with what intention, had Hayden spoken that way?

    Atall¡¯s peace won¡¯t last for long.

    What did those words mean, and what was he trying to hint at with them?

    Leo felt like he was being overwhelmed with the ¡®power¡¯ that Hayden held. It was as though he was being once more knocked down by the aberrant words that Hayden, who was still calmly walking away, had uttered.

    At the same time, however, a strong sense of resistance emerged within Leo. It was close to the feelings that he had experienced when Hayden had heaped abuse on Atall, Leo¡¯s native land, but now, the kindling had taken fire, and the flames were starting to burn brightly within him.

    What can I do with my ¡®power¡¯? What can I say? What can I change?

    Hadn¡¯t he just been given a vivid demonstration of their difference in ¡®power¡¯? Leo understood it. Everyone understood it. Earlier, when he had been talking to Bernard, he had the impression that only he himself understood the current situation, but in fact, it was because everyone was aware of that ¡®power¡¯ difference that they had to constantly monitor Allion¡¯s mood, and that his father went through so much trouble to seek out good relations with Allion.

    It was at that moment, just after he had been verbally belittled by Hayden Swift, that Leo¡¯s eyes met those of Florrie Anglatt. Not wanting to see the pity in her eyes, Leo was about to turn away, but the first to break eye contact was Florrie.

    Hayden, who had just returned to her side, had urged her about something. The girl who had spent six years with Leo took a step forward and once more gave her greetings to the Atallese dignitaries, starting with Sovereign-Prince Magrid, who was close by.

    ¡°Although my abruptness may be impolite, I thank you all for the kindness with which you have received me. I will warmly remember it for the rest of my life. I will soon be returning to my native country, but I pray that both Allion and Atall will continue to prosper.¡±

    Hearing that Florrie was going back, Leo forgot for a second about the storm swirling inside him. It had all been to protect Leo¡¯s back that she had done the unthinkable and left Allion¡¯s domains, but by now, she had already fulfilled that duty. Therefore, it would be best for Florrie to return, both for her and for her father¡¯s sake.

    Even though his rational mind told him that, Leo could not help feeling melancholy. The relationship between the two countries was still uncertain, ad this might well be where he and Florrie parted ways in this life.

    At least a few words... Leo was about to step forward with a different reason from earlier.

    His eyes once again connected straight with Florrie¡¯s; she once again turned away but then, the next moment, she seemed to change her mind and smiled at him.

    Leo suddenly understood why he felt such a strange sense of discomfort from Florrie¡¯s smile. This was not her usual smiling face. Although with that said, he had the impression that he had seen it before, but it was only now that he remembered when and why that had been.

    It was the same smile that Florrie had given her family just after her beloved mare, ¡®Princess¡¯, had been put down.

    From the next morning onwards, she had appeared at table with a smiling countenance. Be it Claude, his wife, Ellen, or Florrie¡¯s brothers, Walter and Jack, who usually often teased their sister, all of them noticed that her doe-like eyes were red and swollen, but they pretended not to see. Ellen made a point of asking for her daughter¡¯s help in the kitchen, while Walter and Jack hogged Florrie¡¯s favourite food until their father was provoked into scolding them. The brothers had done that a lot when they were young, but now, since it was a little childish, it seemed unnatural of them. Florrie had never stopped smiling while her father was forcing himself to yell angrily.

    She now had the same expression as back then.

    Moreover, now that he had taken a few steps forward and could see her face from closer then earlier, he felt that he understood the reason for her almost incongruously thick makeup. Both her cheeks were rouged, but only the left one was somewhat dark in colour. Or rather, it was to hide that colour that she had needed to put reddening powder on both sides.

    Leo realised that there was a mark. And not something like a birthmark, but a recently-given bruise.

    In that instant, there was the sound of something clanging in his heart.

    The separate gears that had been spinning randomly up until now seemed to suddenly fit together.

    He had not logically reasoned it out. It was simply that Leo¡¯s brain had retained the fact that Hayden Swift had once wanted Florrie Anglatt. Only by placing that fact at their centre did he now feel like he could make sense of the strange events that had taken place.

    The fighting between Allion and the temple. The actions that Allion¡¯s side had taken at the time. The reinforcements that Atall had sent. The way Claude¡¯s position had worsened. Or how, even without the looming threat of the guillotine, Leo had almost been murdered in the mountains.

    Why it was that the only time Hayden had been thrown into a complete panic was when he had learned that Leo and Florrie had escaped, to the point of emptying his own headquarters. And why he had left the battle front and was now to be seen in distant Tiwana, capital of Atall.

    To reiterate: there was no logical process of reasoning.

    Why, what, how... ¨C he had not thought about any of these. He did not yet hold the key to solving those mysteries.

    But the crucial point here was the fact that just as the gears clicked together in Leo¡¯s head, Hayden placed his hand once more at Florrie¡¯s waist.

    When he did so, Hayden once more flashed a scornful ¨C or possibly triumphant ¨C smile. At least, that was how it appeared to Leo, and that was all the answer he needed. Part of the high-handed and oppressive atmosphere surrounding Hayden fell away, and human emotions were clearly visible from him.

    ¡°I wanted to see for myself ¨C how far can my own power go?¡± Hayden had said as he was stepping away from Leo.

    Your power, you say?

    The driving force behind the first step forward that Leo Attiel took was the fury that raged within him.

    Would that be the power to snatch Florrie away and to destroy Atall?

    That man could do it. Leo could feel it. Hayden¡¯s parting speech had not been a hollow threat or mere mockery. He was the kind of man who, if he could do it ¨C no matter how ridiculous it might seem to other people ¨C would do it. He had basically announced to Leo that he would be leading troops to attack Atall.

    After you¡¯ve destroyed Atall, are you going to hug Florrie¡¯s shoulders with your bloodstained hands? Are you going to force to always wear that smile?

    Rage managed to propel him forward for his second and third steps, but before he could take another one, an insurmountable wall seemed to appear before Leo¡¯s eyes. Even though his fury was so strong that he was almost dizzy from it, there was a limit to anger.

    It wasn¡¯t rational. Simply giving in to a violent impulse would not allow him to break through or smash down anything and everything. Leo bit the edge of his lip and clenched his hands so tightly into fists that his nails bit into his palms.

    It would still be fine if it was just my life. I¡¯ve already twice prepared myself for death. But the enemy is Allion. If all of Atall gets caught up in this...

    ¡°No.¡±

    Leo¡¯s shoulders started with surprise as he suddenly had the impression that someone¡¯s breath had tickled his ear.

    There was no other person near him. What had appeared like smoke beside him was the stagnant black sludge, which had taken the shape of another Leo Attiel. It was an existence which could sometimes be called an aggregate of every emotion that Leo had tossed away, and which, conversely, was sometimes that other viewpoint which was utterly detached from all emotions that Leo adopted.

    ¡°The enemy isn¡¯t Allion. What your power can and should crush, set fire to and overthrow ¨C that is...¡±

    Leo Attiel could feel each of his own footsteps reverberating strangely loudly inside his brain. Before he had even realised it, the insurmountable wall had cleanly vanished from before his eyes. He walked past Bernard, who was standing at the end of the line of people crowding around Hayden, then Tokamakk and Oswell ¨C Leo¡¯s profile crossed by the line of sight of each of those three vassal-lords.

    The next was Percy Leegan.

    Perhaps Hayden had sensed something, because he turned around, looking surprised. By that time, Leo had already passed him by. Hayden continued to look as though he was enjoying his conversation with the surrounding nobles, but he was inwardly nonplussed.

    The next moment, both Hayden and Florrie, who was standing next to him, were left startled.

    The sound of laughter blew like a breeze through the hall.

    It was Lord Leo. He had suddenly appeared right in front of Hayden and Florrie, and continued to laugh loudly, as though he had completely lost all restraint.

    ¡°What the...¡± Hayden Swift was clearly annoyed by it.

    Florrie, too, looked surprised. However, she opened her large eyes even wider at what Leo said once he had finished laughing.

    ¡°You should stop it with the pranks, Florrie. If you say that you¡¯re going back to Allion immediately, everyone will actually believe you. Since nobody here knows you all that well, they¡¯ll take even a silly joke seriously.¡±

    As mentioned, Florrie¡¯s eyes went round and she was left speechless, but her natural complexion gradually slowly returned to her make-up-coated cheeks.

    ¡°W-What silly joke? Leo-nii... no, Lord Leo, I...¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re really sulking at me for not making many opportunities to meet here in Tiwana, huh? I had my own circumstances. Well, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t understand where you¡¯re coming from.¡±

    ¡°Prince, what on earth...?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, you don¡¯t have to pretend. I had intended to personally tell Father and everyone else once things had calmed down a bit more. But if you can¡¯t wait anymore and are talking about going back to Allion, then it can¡¯t be helped. Let¡¯s make the announcement here and now. Florrie,¡± Leo casually stretched out his hand and took Florrie¡¯s in his.

    Hayden opened his eyes wide in anger, but Leo payed him no attention and pulled the bewildered Florrie to stand next to him.

    ¡°Father. Mother. I need to introduce you to her.¡±

    ¡°Leo, what are you saying?¡± Sovereign-Prince could not conceal his confusion. ¡°I already know the young lady.¡±

    ¡°No, this is something nobody will know about,¡± Leo smiled as he made his announcement. ¡°Claude Anglatt¡¯s daughter, Florrie Anglatt, and I, Leo Attiel, have promised our future together.¡±

    ¡°What!¡± Hayden let out a voice that was almost a shriek.

    He was the only one to do so. Florrie was speechless. Leo¡¯s father and mother, as well as the vassals, at first all looked as though they had heard a joke in poor taste. Leo, however, was smiling.

    ¡°Sir Claude has not yet officially given me his blessing, but we can send a messenger from here. If it comes down t it, I¡¯ll even go myself. When we receive permission from the king of Allion through Sir Claude, I¡¯ll be happy to hold the wedding at once,¡± he continued, at which point, Percy Leegan stepped forward.

    ¡°What a happy story,¡± he smilingly followed Leo up.

    Percy, of course, had no way of knowing either the prince¡¯s circumstances, or even whether what he was saying was true or not. But this short amount of time had been enough for him to form a good impression of the prince, and he was moved by the impulse to have his back.

    ¡°What this means is that when His Highness, Lord Leo, and Miss Florrie get married, relations between Atall and Allion will get warmer, and all those misunderstandings that have occured will all be solved at a stroke.¡±

    At that point, the people in the hall grew noisy with excitement. Hearing what was happening, those in the courtyard were also gathering close.

    Leo Attiel swept his gaze around the enthusiastic crowd.

    ¡°May I hope that you will all celebrate it?¡± he asked.

    Say what you would, the prince who had seemed about to sow the seeds of trouble with Allion was instead going to become their best bridge with Allion. There was nobody who did not welcome this development. Everyone there clapped as they unanimously called out their congratulations.

    Florrie Anglatt blushed bright red, and tears flowed out from her limpid eyes.

    Unfortunately for her, however, after giving her slender shoulder a single pat, Leo quickly released her arm and, still smiling, walked towards Hayden Swift.

    The sound of applause was ringing out incessantly. Amidst it, Leo deliberately took a heavy step forward and trod lightly on the tip of Hayden¡¯s boots. Hayden¡¯s scowling expression turned into one of surprise.

    In exactly the same tone that Hayden had earlier used on him, Leo whispered softly,

    ¡°Smile. Everyone is watching.¡±

    ¡°W-What?¡± Hayden was struck dumb, but rage quickly flared up within his eyes. ¡°What are you trying to pull, you bastard? Even an ignorant brat like you... you can¡¯t think that you¡¯re going to get away with s-something like this and...¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Leo laughed brightly. ¡°There¡¯s currently no great cause worthy of sending troops from Allion and Atall. Or instead of a cause, are you, my little friend, going to substitute that power that you were so proud of earlier to move the army? It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll happily show it you: how Atall, how its second-born prince, Leo, will turn the tables on you.¡±

    Hayden¡¯s Swift¡¯s eyes opened as wide as they would go.

    References and Translation Notes

    1. ¡ü ¡°Was I born to play or flirt?¡± or ¡°Was I born to play? Was I born to frolic?¡±, is a line from the Ry¨­jin Hish¨­ (Áº‰mÃØ³­/Songs to Make the Dust Dance on the Beams), a collection of songs popular in 12th century Japan and compiled by Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192). Thanks to the help of the Taira and Minamoto, Go-Shirakawa seized the throne after a struggle for succession and a brief civil war (the H¨­gen rebellion]), but reigned only three years before completely losing effective power to first the Taira then the Minamoto who had once supported him. After the Genpei War between the two samurai families, Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Kamakura shogunate, and the emperors of Japan were reduced to figureheads for the next few centuries. Leo humming a song associted with this emperor is probably ominous. It could also be indicating that he is very well-read, since the anthology he is quoting is relatively obscure.Finally, this song in particular, sung by an aged prostitute, is controversial since it can be interpreted either as her regretting her old way of life, or nostalgically looking back on her youth, which would fit Leo''s ambiguous reputation.

 Volume 1, Afterword

    Volume 1, Afterword

    Sorry for keeping you waiting!

    ... Even if I say that, those of you who have just read this book probably won¡¯t have any clue about what you are going to be reading here next.

    It would be one thing if this was a popular series which hadn¡¯t come out in a while, but this book is the first volume of a new series. And there must be plenty of people picking up a book by this author for the first time. But in actual fact, that strange ¡®sorry to keep you waiting¡¯ greeting was not meant for the readers.

    Around about the end of last year, Sugihara Tomonori folded his arms as he sat in front of his desk. This useless adult, who was no longer young but who really doesn¡¯t exude the dignity of a veteran, was worried about ¡®becoming a productive member of society¡¯.

    He had written successively about a gladiator who got caught up in a plot and made into the body-double to the heir to the throne of a large country; then (under a different publishing label!) about how, on a battlefield filled with heroes and braves, a boy rose in position not through physical strength or magic power, but only thanks to his own inborn cunning; and finally about the adventures of an ordinary boy, and of his older sister who yearned for a world of fairies.

    ¡°So, what comes next?¡±

    The sense of being unable to move forward was like a gaping hole had opened wide in his chest.

    That''s right, he was racking my brains for an idea of what to write for his next novel.

    Although various fragmentary ideas, such as Celtic mythology, karate, ninjas, yakuza, teachers, MRV missiles, spirit possession, boxing, warring states... came to mind, he could not find anything that clinched things within him. Given that worrying endlessly was probably nothing but a waste of time, this man, who was seriously worried, decided to waste time doing whatever he wanted instead ¨C sorry, I mean he gave ¡®his own seriously worried self¡¯ some time off instead.

    After spending several weeks in complete idleness, a certain name surfaced within his brain.

    Leo Attiel.

    The sound of that name carried with it a mix of joy and nostalgia, like unexpectedly meeting an old acquaintance in the street. Right, at the time, he hadn¡¯t abruptly come up with something, but rather, he had known that name since long ago.

    Several years ago, when he was writing ¡®Rakuin no Monshou¡¯ under Dengeki Bunko and was coming to the end of the ¡®story of the west¡¯, he though to himself,

    ¡°Maybe the next one will be the ¡®story of the east.¡± And so he started to ponder about the various countries and powers that were dotted around to the east of Mephius, the lead actor.

    In the end, and perhaps also because of the author¡¯s own lack of ability, not even half of the memo produced at the time was put to use, and, for some reason, only Leo Attiel¡¯s name and a brief outline of his career stuck in the author¡¯s mind for a long time after.

    The name ¡®Leo Attiel¡¯ did not only bring feelings of nostalgia with it. The various settings and scribblings concerning Leo and Principality of Atall, the many scenes from Leo¡¯s life, the innumerable anecdotes that drew a picture of Leo¡¯s personality, all came flooding back one by one with so much strength that it was impossible o stem the tide.

    It was exactly as though Leo was complaining to the author,

    ¡°Have you finally remembered? In that case, hurry up and write about me. Tell my story to as many people as you can.¡±

    Sugihara Tomonori ¨C actually this is kind of a pain, so, basically, I ¨C stiffened my resolve and took up my pen.

    That greeting at the beginning ¨C ¡°Sorry to have kept you waiting!¡± ¨C was addressed from the author to none other than to his main character, Leo Attiel.

    An old hero, forgotten by history. I want to tell to as many as possible the ¡®true¡¯ tales of a person who is by no means famous, or who is only known because of his bad reputation. It was with a passion a bit like that of a history writer¡¯s that I finished penning this book.

    Those of you who have already finished reading it will have realised that the lead actor in this story did not appear much in this volume. However, I hope that you, the readers, will look forward to seeing how Leo, who is currently still an unreliable boy, will leap to the centre of this historical tale.

    P.S.

    As written in this afterword, this humble book is set on the same stage as ¡®Rakuin no Monshou¡¯. If it had been a direct sequel, however, it wouldn¡¯t have been possible to enjoy it without knowing the previous series, and I wanted those who have not read ¡®Rakuin¡¯ to be able to pick this up without worries.

    Although of course, if this book motivates you to take an interest in the author¡¯s other series, nothing could make me happier...

    --- Sugihara Tomonori

 Volume 2, 1: After the Feast

    Volume 2, Chapter 1: After the Feast

    Part 1

    Later historians would say that in his life, Sovereign-Prince Magrid Attiel of Atall had greatly misread the situation on three occasions.

    The first was seven years earlier.

    Atall was a country with a long history. After the collapse of the Magic Dynasty which had united the world, the continent was engulfed in the torrents of chaos, and Atall was one of the countries which had been born as though it had come crawling out from those waves. But, turning one¡¯s eyes to the west, the mighty Allion, a nation with an even longer history, and with a size more than several times that of Atall, had settled its massive bulk right next to the principality.

    So as not to be crushed underfoot, Atall inevitably studied the mood of this large country on every occasion. It could even be said that the length of Atall¡¯s history corresponded to the length of time that it had been sending envoys and tribute to Allion.

    Southeast of Allion and to the west-northwest when looking from Atall, there was a kingdom called Shazarn. In terms of territory, it was slightly larger than Atall, but in terms of its financial power, it far exceeded Atall, thanks in part to its close relationship with the northern coastal countries, and the prosperous trade that went with it. It was said that when it came to the number of their guns ¨C cannons and firearms ¨C Shazarn could even hold its own against Allion, and so its surroundings whispered that it was ¡®the Silent Ruler¡¯.

    There was an area where the borders of the three countries ¨C Allion, Atall and Shazarn ¨C met. Because of the nature of that region, skirmishes had broken out time and again, but, throughout the long years of history, it had served as something of a buffer zone between the three of them, and no matter how fiercely they glared at each other from across it, none of them forayed too deeply into it.

    Then Shazarn suddenly built a fortress there. They hired groups of marauding soldiers ¨C mercenaries who acted on a country¡¯s orders but who frequently concealed or lied about where they were from or who their employers were ¨C and repeatedly sent them to that area, to drive out the gangs of bandits and vagrant thieves who tried to settle there, or else to bring those men under their influence and borrow their help to construct the fortress. After which, Shazarn sent in regular soldiers one after another.

    The general in charge of defending Allion¡¯s northeast border was astounded by this, and he immediately flung open his castle gates and led an onslaught against the fortress. For Shazarn, this was completely unexpected. When undertaking military action that involved crossing the border, a commander should naturally first ask their king to make a decision, and Shazarn had judged that since Allion¡¯s territory was vast, it would take time simply to send a message to the royal capital.

    However, Allion¡¯s king, who had been enthroned in his twenties, vigorously crushed any opposition through sheer might. From time immemorial, it has been said that retainers take their cue from their liege¡¯s personality, and this border general too followed his king¡¯s way of doing things.

    If I carelessly let things slide, it¡¯ll be too late afterwards ¨C he decided for himself, so before anything else, he sent out messengers requesting reinforcements from the nearby forts and towns, while he himself set out with a party of five hundred soldiers to lead an assault.

    Facing his manoeuvre, the fortress took hurried action. They naturally sent messengers to their own country, Shazarn, but they also requested reinforcements from Atall, which was closer to their location than Shazarn was. Atall had long had good relations with Shazarn, and had, from the start, taken part in building the fortress. In those days, Allion was active in expanding its territory, and the cooperation between the two countries stemmed in part from the fear of not knowing when Allion might extend its reach eastwards. In fact, it could well be said that the king of Allion¡¯s towering ambitions had caused Shazarn¡¯s apparently abrupt actions.

    From Atall¡¯s point of view, rather than having a border in direct contact with such a dangerous military force, it would be preferable to have the ¡®Silent Ruler¡¯ become a wall for them. Sovereign-Prince Magrid immediately assembled more than five hundred of his troops and sent them to the fortress.

    In that, however, he had misread the situation.

    At the time, in Shazarn, the king had begun to hint that he was thinking of abdicating. A fight for the throne was secretly being fought between the two princes and the king¡¯s younger brother. Building a fortress in the neutral zone at the border was the sole decision of one of the young princes, who was trying to get a step ahead in that struggle, and it had never been the king of Shazarn¡¯s wish.

    Moreover, that young prince had apparently naively believed that:

    ¡°We won¡¯t be attacking any of Allion¡¯s keeps, so you can¡¯t say that we¡¯re seizing a part of their territory. Allion is currently filled with enemies inside the country, without even mentioning those outside of it. They won¡¯t go all-out for something like us building a single fort.¡±

    On top of that, the bold general who had launched an assault against the fortress suffered because of that same boldness. He repeatedly assailed the fort, but the reinforcements from Atall attacked him from behind and he died in battle.

    Worse was yet to come.

    Those at the fortress were drunk on their victory. Setting aside the regular soldiers, the prince of Shazarn did not have the makings of a commander capable of harmoniously uniting this group of bandits and marauders, as well as the reinforcements from Atall. Quite the opposite; the prince rode on the wave of momentum and personally led an invasion into the deceased general¡¯s territory. Villages were looted at the hands of savage soldiers, and even the castle town was set ablaze.

    The king of Allion was enraged. At the time, he had been in the region of the southwestern Kilawoo Mountains, engaged in a standoff against a rebellious territory, so he plucked a thousand men from his camp there and, for five days, almost without pause, he rode hard towards the north. On the sixth day, after riding for part of it, he swooped down on those invading his territory.

    No matter how well-maintained Allion¡¯s highways might be, that speed was extraordinary. And it too came down to the fact that Allion¡¯s vigorous and resilient king was in command. Lacking experience because of his youth, the prince of Shazarn was no match for him. Forced further and further back as the king of Allion pressed forward, he might have been expected to barricade himself in the fortress, but, contrary to all expectations, he passed straight by it, and before anyone had time to realise what was happening, he had already holed himself up in his own country¡¯s territory.

    Once Shazarn¡¯s soldiers had withdrawn, the only ones left were the bandits, the marauders and the troops from Atall. Naturally, they fled too. The fortress that Shazarn had built burned to the ground in no time at all.

    After that, negotiations were conducted between Allion, Shazarn and Atall. The territory that had once been the neutral zone between borders was given to Claude Anglatt, a general from Allion who had distinguished himself during the war, with the result that Shazarn¡¯s border was pushed to the north, while Atall was forced to send its second prince, Leo Attiel, as a hostage to Allion.

    That was the first occasion on which Sovereign-Prince Magrid had misread the situation.

    Seven years had passed since the war. For a time, the relationship between Allion and Atall seemed to have reverted to calm, but then a change occurred. Relations worsened between Conscon Temple, which was situated within the neutral zone, and Allion, which had once funded the temple and promoted its reconstruction.

    In response to the temple¡¯s request, Magrid Attiel sent reinforcements. Although they did not take part from the start, unlike the time with Shazarn, the situation was very similar.

    Tensions sprang up again between Atall and Allion. On Allion¡¯s side, they dispatched an envoy to find out what Atall¡¯s real intentions were. Sovereign-Prince Magrid was hard-pressed to give an answer, but judging from Hayden, the envoy¡¯s, attitude, he guessed that Allion was not planning on immediately sending troops, and it seemed that they had just barely managed to maintain a semblance of friendly relations.

    Additionally, an unexpected but happy situation occurred.

    It concerned Lord Leo Attiel, who had been sent to Allion as a hostage. Although given that he had escaped from Allion, the prince might potentially have become a new source of conflict with them, he now announced that he had pledged his future with Florrie, the daughter of General Anglatt, in whose custody he had been placed. It was at a banquet at which Hayden had been the guest of honour, but thunderous applause filled the hall.

    Not having been informed of any of it, Magrid was taken by surprise, but he quickly realised that this was not a bad idea. Once the marriage was completed, far from being a source of conflict, Leo would become a good link with Allion. The only thing was that since General Anglatt was an upstart, he had no connection to Allion¡¯s royal family. It would be a lie to say that Magrid was unconcerned about that, but, for now, he was not in a position to aim too high.

    ¡°Is that true, Leo?¡± Magrid also clapped his hands. After which, ¡°Really, in sending my son away, I had intended for him to broaden his perspective, but then he goes and finds himself a bride. I guess you can¡¯t fight the Attiel blood, huh?¡±

    He joked and made everyone laugh. He glanced towards his wife, the princess-consort, to get her approval, but as she responded with an unamused expression, he quickly cleared his throat. Nevertheless, there was no doubt that Sovereign-Prince Magrid welcomed the announcement.

    That was the second occasion on which he misread the situation.

    The hall was enveloped in a harmonious mood, but Lord Leo Attiel¡¯s announcement was in no way likely to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, and was instead a ¡®declaration of war¡¯ from Atall to Allion ¨C or rather, from Lord Leo to the Allian aristocrat, Hayden Swift.

    But then, perhaps it was too harsh to blame Magrid for misreading the situation. The only one there who had realised Leo¡¯s real intention was Hayden Swift, who was staring intently at Leo, his face ashen. In other words, within that hall that was filled with warm applause, it was only between Leo and Hayden that feelings of furious enmity were colliding.

    Speaking of declarations of war, Leo had already received one from Hayden. It was he who had first said that, ¡°Atall¡¯s peace is just like the feed tossed to cattle. It won¡¯t last for long.¡±

    It was nothing less than a declaration of his intention to burn Atall to the ground. For a moment, Leo had not thought that he was serious, but when he noticed how unnatural Florrie¡¯s attitude was as she announced to everyone that she would be returning home, he had realised, that man would actually do it. It was only now that he realised how this man had worked out scheme after scheme to get his hands on Florrie.

    For a moment, the capital, Tiwana, appeared in Leo¡¯s mind; set alight at Hayden¡¯s hands, its buildings burning down. The people who were running about, trying to flee, were cut down one after another by Allion¡¯s soldiers. Hayden Swift watched as women, children and the elderly were run through with spears. He wore a faint smile, and Florrie was at his side, his hand on her waist.

    That was what Hayden had said he would do.

    Which was why Leo had also spoken.

    ¡°I¡¯ll show it you. How Atall, how this second-born prince, Lord Leo, will turn the tables on you.¡±

    He had spent more than six years as a hostage in a foreign country, and he was a prince who had rarely openly displayed his emotions before now. His anger, sadness and joy all seemed to be wrapped up in a cloth, which they never came out from. He frequently did not even now what kind of expression he himself was showing at any given time. In that moment, those feelings that he had been accumulating for six years and more had condensed and transformed into a single arrow which were fitted to a bow drawn as tightly as it would go before being released at full power.

    Hayden Swift ¨C the enemy pierced by that arrow ¨C staggered and stared astounded at Leo. And Leo Attiel savoured unparalleled delight.

    But that too lasted no more than an instant. Hayden¡¯s face slowly turned scarlet from rage and, as if keeping pace with it, Leo''s joy faded. I might have done something that can never be undone, a surging sense of regret completely shrouded his delight at his victory.

    Allion was, of course, a great power. Even if all of Atall fought against it, they did not have a one in a million chance of victory. Which meant that the words which had ridden on the arrow he had just fired might have been no more than an incantation to bring ruin and destruction to his native land.

    While Leo might have gotten frightened at Hayden¡¯s furious expression, now that he understood its true nature as well as what lay behind it, there was no longer anything dignified about it. On the contrary, Leo could see that the essence of Hayden¡¯s anger was that of a childish and vain man filled with a distorted desire to monopolise what he wanted, and a desire to flaunt his own power.

    For a while, Leo and Hayden continued their silent exchange of emotions, carried out only through their gazes, but this too did not last long.

    ¡°Congratulations, Prince.¡±

    ¡°Congratulations!¡±

    Wine cups in hand, men and women of all ages crowded around Leo to express their delight. Even though they had been curious about Leo, there was a world of difference with how they had earlier hesitated to even stand around talking with him. By nature, Leo was always flustered when he had to appear before a large number of people, yet this time, perhaps because he had only recently put on an act in front of Oswell and Bernard, he was able to receive all of their congratulations with a smile.

    ¡°Thank you very much.¡±

    His heart was learning to feel relaxed enough to calmly return their good wishes.

    On this occasion, the entire crowd converged on Leo. Everyone wanted to hear about the start of his romance with Florrie, and about his life in Allion. Although Leo was still under some strain, he managed to answer them more or less tactfully.

    During all of that, from the corner of his eye, Leo caught sight of Hayden addressing Sovereign-Prince Magrid. He seemed to be requesting permission to withdraw. The sovereign-prince nodded and called to gather everyone¡¯s attention, once more saying a few words in celebration of the good relationship with Allion.

    Hayden crossed the hall and walked straight towards Leo, who could not avoid tensing up. Hayden passed him by without pausing, sending him only a slight bow. Observers would not even have been able to see it.

    In that instant, however ¨C

    ¡°Remember this,¡± he whispered. ¡°Brat, I¡¯ll take Florrie to bed in front of your severed head.¡±

    He darted no sharp glare towards Leo. It was only that there was a darkness within his eyes. Leo remembered the first time he had been anywhere near Hayden; the Allian noble had worn the exact same expression while pouring scorn on Leo and on Atall.

    Although he had an air of being terribly level-headed, in fact, and just as Leo had earlier sensed, Hayden was as immature as a child who had yet to grow up. In spite of that, he could not, of course, be dismissed as ¡°nothing but a child¡± since he was a high-ranking noble from the great country of Allion, and one whose position allowed him to be entrusted with diplomatic missions such as his current role of envoy.

    At the very least, compared to Leo, who was not in a position to freely move even a single soldier, he held some ¡®power¡¯. And he had both the ability to take action and the ambition to put that power into practice. The proof of that was that he had come to Atall Palace according to his own wish.

    How does he intend to wield his ¡®power¡¯ next?

    Before long, Hayden¡¯s retreating back passed out of sight, but Leo was inwardly plunged in worried thoughts, even as he was still surrounded by people offering him their congratulations.

    Part 2

    Once Hayden had left the hall and everyone gathered around Leo had satisfied their curiosity about him, the atmosphere at the banquet turned a little dull. At least for the time being, the threat that might have befallen them at any time had passed by, and it seemed that they would be able to continue enjoying the peaceful days they had known until now, and so all of those there started to spend their time how they best pleased: flirting with the women they had an eye on, talking business, singing songs or dancing for pleasure.

    Sovereign-Prince Magrid showed signs of leaving, so everyone spoke words of salutation and were about to see him off, when a commotion that was not a minor one erupted.

    When turned to look at the people involved, Leo¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    How interesting, he thought.

    Of the two of them, one was a man who, even among the other vassal lords, inevitably attracted the eye thanks to the luxurious clothes, sparkling ornaments and precious metals that he wore, while one glance at the other was enough to see that the faded clothes he had on were his best suit, which he seemed to have hurriedly climbed into.

    In terms of appearance, the two were complete opposites, but both were domain lords with castles to the south of Tiwana, the capital city, and were nobles who were referred to as vassal lords of hereditary fiefs. Even Leo, who had been away from Atall for so long, remembered their names and faces.

    The first was Darren Actica.

    More than ten years ago, sparks had flown when two vassal lords had been embroiled in a dispute over a vein of dragonbone, and Darren, who had been one of those concerned, had emerged victorious. Moreover, because the then sovereign-prince had been unable to arbitrate the dispute, a great many of the nobles had criticised him for his ¡®lack of ability¡¯, which had forced him to hand over the throne to the then prince, Magrid. The key figure in ousting the previous ruler had again been Darren.

    From there on, the power of the ruling princely house weakened, while that of the vassal lords was strengthened. And among them, Darren was the one who had become the most influential of them all.

    The other man was Savan Roux.

    He possessed a fort and a small territory at the southwest border. His clothing was shabby and his face pallid, in sharp contrast to Darren¡¯s glowing complexion. Although Savan could not have been older than his mid-fifties, his hair was already completely grey. He should have retired from the position of castle lord a long time ago.

    Savan edged up to Darren to say something, then, the next moment, seemed about to move towards Sovereign-Prince Magrid.

    ¡°Wait!¡± This time, it was Darren who sharply called out as he blocked Savan¡¯s way. ¡°What are you planning on saying? Are you going to inflict upon His Majesty the same baseless rumours that you just told me?¡±

    ¡°What ¡®baseless rumours¡¯?¡± Savan shook his grey head. ¡°How dare you say that? Pull your scoundrels out of my territory right now!¡±

    He was as incandescent with anger as a fireball, while Darren turned towards the sovereign-prince, who seemed about to stop, as though to quickly ward him off.

    ¡°I beg a thousand pardons. This is nothing that you should be disturbing yourself over, Your Majesty.¡±

    He spoke courteously, but to Leo, it looked as though the sharp glint from Darren¡¯s eyes was urging the sovereign-prince to leave as quickly as possible.

    Although Magrid¡¯s expression turned conflicted for a moment, he nodded. ¡°Well, in that case...¡± he said and left the hall, accompanied by his wife and several pages,

    ¡°Please wait!¡±

    Savan cried out even so, but Darren once again stood in his way. Savan agitatedly shoved him in the chest, at which point the onlooking crowd starting clamouring in excitement at the prospect of an interesting development. Darren, however, calmly fixed his dishevelled clothing and shrugged his fleshy shoulders.

    ¡°This is very distressing, Lord Savan. You have defended this country for many long years, and I respect for you for that. But it is clear how you intend to bring me down ¨C well, to put it simply, this vulgar gossip sprung up very quickly...¡±

    ¡°Shut up, you damn whelp,¡± he was gasping and wheezing as he thrust a finger towards Darren. ¡°You manipulate the ruler like a puppet with your hundreds of lies and your thousand of flowery words. You¡¯re the very incarnation of the two-faced, country-destroying devil. The guardian deity L¨¦vi-Rahan¡¯s scissors made from a melted horseshoe should reveal your two tongues and your three tails, and expose your real nature.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve gone too far!¡±

    Previously poised and relaxed, Darren now flared up angrily. ¡°The two-faced devil¡±, ¡°scissors made from a melted horseshoe¡± and so on were the greatest possible insults in those lands. They originated from myths but, since they were very old-fashioned expressions, the younger generations barely used them.

    ¡°Take that back!¡±

    ¡°Oh, it looks like even a devil can¡¯t stand to have their own actions criticised.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re still saying that!¡±

    Now that both of them were shouting, the other vassal lords and nobles finally intervened. Some time later, the two of them had been pulled apart and were on the point of leaving the hall through separate exits, but Leo was right ahead in the direction that Savan was taking. Or rather, Leo had put himself there, making it look like nothing more than coincidence. The grey-haired rural domain lord glared at him, anger blazing in his eyes. Still breathing violently, he passed by Leo without a single word of greeting.

    Only a few people were left in the hall after that, involved in long conversations, stuffing left-over food in bags, or, for the lovers, exchanging promises of secret rendez-vous. Leo emerged from the narrow corridor leading to a balcony from the hall¡¯s mezzanine floor. Florrie Anglatt walked beside him

    ¡°You must have been surprised,¡± he said nervously, and Florrie nodded silently.

    She still hadn¡¯t spoken since Leo had made his declaration. Whenever their eyes had met in the hall, she had quickly looked down, her face as red as if it were on fire.

    ¡°I was thinking of talking to you about at some point, when I got a chance,¡± Leo¡¯s explanation was equally awkward. Stuttering repeatedly over his words, he spoke of his emotions. ¡°Do you remember what I said that time ¨C the night we were being chased down by Allion¡¯s soldiers? That for me, whether in Allion or in Atall, wherever it is that you''re laughing and singing is where I can laugh too. My feelings have been set since a long time ago.¡±

    It¡¯s not a lie, thought Leo.

    At the very least, it was true that his heart had strongly rebelled against it when he realised that Hayden was probably reaching to grasp hold of Florrie. He had also thought at that moment that he should be the one standing beside her, with his hand on her shoulder.

    Fate has decreed that will definitely be the case one day. It just happened a bit sooner than I expected. Leo transposed his feelings into those words.

    He peered at Florrie, who was still silent.

    ¡°Are you against it?¡± he asked. ¡°If you¡¯re against the idea, then there¡¯s no helping it. Tomorrow, I¡¯ll talk to my father and we can forget about it. You can even go back to Allion with Sir Hayden on that very same day. Everyone at court will laugh at the pathetic prince for the rest of all time. But don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s fine. You don¡¯t need to feel even the smallest twinge of pain over it.¡±

    ¡°Leo, you...¡± Florrie opened her eyes wide and her mouth fell open in surprise. It was as though the smiling mask she had constantly been wearing in the hall was crumbling away. ¡°Are you threatening me?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, maybe not.¡±

    ¡°You''re a coward.¡±

    ¡°Maybe, maybe not,¡± seeing Leo avoiding the issue, Florrie looked as though she gave up.

    ¡°Could you ask me once more? ¡®Florrie, are you against it?¡¯¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not against it?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, maybe not,¡± Florrie threw out her chest, imitating Leo¡¯s voice and facial expression.

    The two of them broke into chuckles. Then Florrie, her face bright red, said ¡°I¡¯m... not against it,¡± in a voice that had almost faded to nothing.

    ¡°...anyway, if I go back to Allion like this, I would probably never see you again.¡±

    ¡°When Florrie isn¡¯t by my side, I cry from loneliness.¡±

    ¡°Honestly,¡± Florrie stared wide-eyed at him again. ¡°You''re hopeless without me. It¡¯s only been a few days that I haven¡¯t taken care of it, and that beautiful hair has already turned into this.¡±

    Florrie touched Leo¡¯s hair, which was roughly bunched up behind the back of his head.

    ¡°There wasn¡¯t anyone making a fuss about my hair, and since it was just in the way, I was thinking of cutting it short. Without you, Florrie, this hair only has a few days left. Poor thing,¡± Leo softly placed his hand over hers, which was still touching his hair. ¡°It seems that the young lady who loved you so much is heartlessly going to abandon you and go home. Isn¡¯t there anything you, O my hair, wants to say?¡±

    ¡°Are you planning on holding your own hair hostage this time?¡±

    Afterwards, they talked endlessly, mostly about stories of their time in Allion. About the secret hideout hut they had made out of hay, about going fishing at the pond, and also about the time they had saved money without the adults knowing, and then slipped past those adults¡¯ surveillance and gone out shopping in the town.

    ¡°Back then, you were the scarediest, Leo. ¡®Look, that vendor on the street corner, doesn¡¯t he look like one of the soldiers at the castle? He¡¯s definitely in disguise and keeping watch on us. Let¡¯s take a different road. Ah, wait... the women down that way ¨C I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve seen them in the kitchens¡¯...¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t frightened,¡± Leo responded indignantly. ¡°It was a case of being cautious and wary. It¡¯s essential when protecting yourself and the one you care for. That¡¯s something that both Walter and Jack are missing; they¡¯ll definitely never be called heroes.¡±

    Florrie giggled and Leo burst out laughing in turn.

    Encased in their iron baskets, the fires were still blazing in the courtyard. The time the two of them spent talking as they looked down on that line of lights reminded Leo of living in Allion. From start to last, the two talked only of past events.

    ¡°Father,¡± Florrie let drop a single word. ¡°What would Father say if he could hear us?¡±

    The unchangeable past had suddenly been caught up by the shadow of the future. The signs of change were impossible to predict, and so went hand-in-hand with unease. For just a second, Leo did not know what to say.

    ¡°He would be happy. Or then again, maybe he¡¯d come after me with a sword. While shouting something like: ¡®if you want to take my daughter, you¡¯ll have to take my head first¡¯.¡±

    He laughed it off as a joke, and Florrie also let herself be lured into smiling.

    ¡°I wonder who I should support in that case? I don¡¯t want either you or Father to be hurt.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯ll just mean going easy.¡±

    ¡°Father will have to, you mean?¡±

    ¡°Hey! Even I¡¯m stronger than I look.¡±

    The fires in the courtyard started petering out one after another. Before long, Florrie, accompanied by several ladies¡¯ maids, left the balcony. He wished her goodnight and watched her leave, while thinking, that girl and I are going to get married? Strong and sweet emotions welled up within him. It seemed unreal.

    A memory resurfaced of playing house when he was very young ¨C long before he had been sent to Allion. He had chosen one from among the daughters of the palace servants to play the part of the bride, and they had spent all day pretending to be a married couple. He smiled crookedly, but it quickly vanished.

    As though replacing Florrie, Percy Leegan appeared on the balcony.

    ¡°Have you, by any chance, been waiting for me all this time?¡± Leo asked when he saw him. Percy nodded with a calm expression.

    ¡°I did not want to disturb your time with the young lady. Please do not worry, I was not eavesdropping.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine since it¡¯s you. You helped me out back there.¡±

    Leo thanked him for how, when he had announced his betrothal to Florrie, Percy lent him a hand by saying that ¡°your relationship will mean that relations between the two countries will grow even warmer.¡±

    ¡°It was impertinent of me, but I am honoured if it was of help to you,¡± Percy gave a slight bow. ¡°Although this may be arrogant of me, I feel that it was through a mysterious connection that I met Your Highness and the young lady in the mountains. Your marriage would fill me with joy, but...¡±

    Percy was worried about how abrupt the prince¡¯s actions appeared to him. Percy had spoken to him directly at the banquet, but judging from his state at that time, it was hard to believe that the prince had been intending to announce his engagement from the start.

    What¡¯s up with the timing?

    It was just after Florrie Anglatt had declared that she would return to Allion, so it was possible to view as the impetuosity of youth succumbing to the pain of separation. However ¨C

    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything much about it, but when everyone was swept up in that celebratory mood, only Hayden went white. Was that really alright?¡±

    When Percy said that, the expression on Leo¡¯s face was exactly the same as if a person passing him in the street had suddenly sprinkled purifying salt over him. The next moment, he unintentionally let out a laugh.

    ¡°Not only are you a master at the spear, Percy, but you¡¯re also outstandingly sharp.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to barge in again since that would also have been impertinent, but...¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡±

    Still, even though he said that, Leo did not explain anything about Hayden and Florrie. Percy did not press him for a answer as he was still unsure about what his distance was with the second prince. And while he was hesitating, Leo changed the subject entirely.

    ¡°You arrived just at the right time. I was curious about the commotion earlier. Do you know what¡¯s going on between Savan and Darren?¡±

    This too was abrupt. Oh? Percy seemed to say as he raised his eyebrows for a second, but he answered immediately afterwards, ¡°As I was also somewhat curious, I asked a few people about it. Apparently, marauders have appeared in Lord Savan¡¯s territory and have laid waste around a quarry there. It seems as though Lord Savan believes that it was Lord Darren¡¯s doing.¡±

    ¡°The Leegan House¡¯s hero is also quick of ear,¡± Leo smiled at Percy¡¯s ready answer. ¡°...And? How credible do you think that rumour is?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have enough grounds to form a judgement, but the vassals and retainers are saying it''s ten to one that what Lord Savan says is true.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Lord Darren frequently talks about how he wants to build a new castle in his territory. And Lord Savan¡¯s domains have an excellent quarry. For a long while now, Lord Darren has been approaching Lord Savan about the idea of sharing ownership of it, in exchange for which, he would send soldiers to help with ensuring security at the border.¡±

    ¡°And Savan keeps refusing?¡±

    ¡°Aye. Well, he does not seem very fond of Lord Darren.¡±

    There was of course a reason for that. During the war, seven years ago, Savan Roux¡¯s lands were the only ones to have been invaded by Allion. Shazarn, the main instigators behind the war, had lost their fortress, and Atall¡¯s troops had already withdrawn, but Allion had probably reasoned that ¡®we need to make our opponents fully understand the difference in power.¡¯ The border fortresses held by Savan¡¯s retainers were all burned down one after another, and Allion¡¯s army got close to his castle town. Savan repeatedly requested reinforcements to Darren, who was on standby to his rear, but Darren came up with one reason after another for not responding to the appeal.

    No doubt he had realised that Allion did not intend to utterly annihilate Atall, and that this was no more than their making a show of power to instill fear. In which case, there was no need to desperately defend the country to the death. Darren must have decided that rather than wasting soldiers and money, it would be better to firmly shut the gates of his own castle, and wait for the storm to pass.

    With the brunt of Allion¡¯s attack turned towards him, however, Savan had no way of protecting his people other than to frantically try to stop Allion¡¯s invasion.

    ¡°...The result was that Allion pulled back even though Lord Savan¡¯s castle was right before their eyes, but both of Lord Savan¡¯s sons died during the fighting.¡±

    After a short pause, Leo nodded. ¡°I see.¡±

    He remembered the glance that Savan had sent his way when passing him by. That anger had not been directly solely at Darren.

    Leo Attiel descended back down to the hall in which all activity had almost entirely died out. It was here that, today, he had stood isolated and friendless, that he had approached the vassal lords in order to try out his own ¡®power¡¯, that he had trembled in fear of Hayden Swift, and that he had declared his betrothal to Florrie Anglatt. The past no longer existed here. What there was, or better said, what Leo needed to be looking towards, were the ¡®changes¡¯ of the future.

    Part 3

    From the next day onwards, one sudden ¡®change¡¯ took place and Leo started to be proactive. It was hard to believe that he had been secluding himself in his own room at the palace, since he now started visiting the nobles who resided in the outskirts of the capital, Tiwana, as well as the vassal lords, who had gone there to call upon the sovereign-prince.

    Among the nobles that he visited were those of the Leegan House. At the time, Percy, the second son, was out of the house, but he learned about it later from his father, Nordred.

    Leo had apparently approached him saying that, ¡°I wish to deploy permanent forces in Tiwana and in the other towns.¡±

    It had been so abrupt that Nordred Leegan had been bewildered.

    ¡°Currently, in Atall,¡± Leo had begun, ¡°the nobles who have soldiers live in the towns or villages of their domains and, if ever war breaks out, they will receive the king¡¯s command and gather their retainers, and sometimes, mercenaries so as to assemble a troop to command. The proportion of mercenaries in Atall¡¯s military forces is unusually high. But don¡¯t you think that this is far too inefficient? I saw that in Allion, several hundred or, depending on the scale, several thousand soldiers were stationed at all times in each of the castles and towns. This isn¡¯t only for defence, but also so that whenever an order comes from the king, military forces can be moved quickly. Moreover, those in command of them are not the domain lords, but ¡®generals¡¯.

    The majority of them are nobles but, as was the case with Sir Claude, in whose custody I was left, there are also those whose birth has no bearing on their position. A certain percentage of them serve as domain lords or as lords of a keep, but the remainder reside with their soldiers at the royal capital, or at important strategic locations, and in case of an emergency, their mobility is far greater than that of a keep-lord. Furthermore, since they are, by nature, individual groups, it¡¯s easy to identify each one¡¯s strengths and weaknesses ¨C for example, the House of Gatanoah is good at siege warfare, or the Veen Corps excel at naval battles ¨C so that when Allion is at war, the troops selected from among the keep-lords and generals are organised according to the situation and to the battlefield.¡±

    After expounding at length on Allion¡¯s military superiority, Leo had declared that ¡°Atall should do the same¡±.

    ¡°I wish to request the assistance of each of the vassal lords and of the hereditary retainers. Please, won¡¯t you petition Father with me about it?¡±

    He had leaned forward as he said that, but of course, Nordred could not give him an immediate reply. His eyes politely looking down, he had said, ¡°I will think about it.¡±

    To his son, however, Nordred confided his honest thoughts. ¡°With all due respect to him, His Highness whom you rescued seems to have been a bit too strongly influenced by Allion.¡±

    Percy wasn¡¯t able to say anything, but neither did he laugh at it.

    Just like at the banquet, he¡¯s very sudden in what he does.

    The next day, as he was leaving the castle as usual, Leo was ambushed by Percy. Unsure about what to say after giving his greetings, Percy had decided to leave that for when the time came. As a result ¨C

    ¡°I heard about it from my father.¡±

    ¨C Was how he broached the subject. Having halted his steps, Leo smiled.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure your father laughed it off as me being whimsical.¡±

    ¡°I did not say that. Still, I¡¯ve crossed spears with soldiers from Allion; there are things to think about in Your Highness¡¯ suggestion. May I accompany you today?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Leo agreed easily.

    They left the castle building together and attendants lead horses to them.

    ¡°Do you intend to go far?¡± Percy¡¯s eyes went wide.

    Leo only had one young boy as an attendant, while Percy hadn¡¯t brought any.

    ¡°Today, I¡¯m going to visit the residences of the vassal lords in the suburbs.¡±

    Do you intend to visit everyone who lives in Tiwana¡¯s suburbs?

    He was certainly being thorough. Which indicated that he was neither doing it just for show or on a whim. Percy deliberately refrained from trying to get Leo¡¯s intentions out of him. Nor did he ask him why. He felt that if he tried to press him now, Leo would simply dodge the issue. Leo Attiel looked like a soft and malleable person to deal with, but there was a certain firmness in his expression.

    Let¡¯s try going with him for a bit.

    After all, he felt a strange ¡®connection¡¯ to Lord Leo. There was probably no clear reason for it, but when Leo had publicly announced his betrothal at the banquet ¨C Leo, who had once been humiliated in front of everyone by Hayden and who, from what Percy could see, was now giving Hayden a surprise ¨C Percy¡¯s impression of the prince had acquired a little more depth.

    And speaking of ¡®connections¡¯, there were also Percy¡¯s strange friends.

    From the next day onwards, the mercenary Kuon and the warrior monk Camus joined Leo and Percy. Needless to say, the latter had been the one to call them; partly to protect the prince, of course, but also because Leo had wanted to meet from the start. And with Camus, his younger sister, Sarah, naturally came to, looking intrigued.

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to play,¡± said Camus.

    ¡°I know. That¡¯s why I brought this,¡± on horseback, Sarah brandished what she was talking about. Camus started.

    ¡°T-That... Isn¡¯t that the gun I sold? W-Why... How come you have it?¡±

    ¡°I went and spoke honestly with the merchant. He was a very kind-hearted old gentleman, and immediately gave me my gun back.¡±

    ¡°What was honest about that?¡± Kuon wearily denounced her. ¡°You even dragged me into it.¡±

    From what he said, Sarah had forcefully brought Kuon with her to the shop where her brother had sold her gun and there, she had immediately pointed at the guns lined up in front of it.

    ¡°That gun was stolen from our home,¡± she had declared before suddenly clinging to Kuon.

    ¡°Although the family has fallen into ruin, we are descended from village nobles who were once known for their military exploits. Thieves barged into our home, aiming for what little was left from our grandfather¡¯s time. Who was it who brought you this gun? What? It was someone who looked like a priest of the Cross Faith? Kuon, it must definitely have been him. Right... I see, that man was no monk of the Cross Faith. He pretended to be one in order to deceive us but was actually the ringleader. He murdered our father when he tried to stop him. That gun is essentially my little brother¡¯s sole memento of our father. Please, take pity on the child. Please give him a chance to take a revenge of leaden bullets against those hell-spawned demons!¡±

    Sarah buried her face against Kuon ¨C her ¡®little brother¡¯s¡¯ ¨C shoulder and burst out weeping. It went without saying that Kuon¡¯s shoulder did not get even remotely wet, but the shopkeeper, who looked so stern at first glance, completely fell for it.

    ¡°I thought he looked shady from the moment he appeared in front of my store, but I never imagined it was that bad. My credibility is going to drop like stone for having bought stolen goods from such a vicious bastard. It¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t need the money. Take it. Use it to drill a hole right through his sorry forehead.¡±

    He handed the gun to Sarah, believing her to be the older sister in this imaginary pair of siblings.

    ¡°W-What! How could a devout believer lie like that?¡± Camus roared from on horseback. The poor guy had, after all, been treated like a burglar and got called a ¡®hell-spawned demon¡¯. ¡°Get off that horse, Sarah. Kneel and beg the Lord for forgiveness.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Sarah¡¯s response was as quick as it was uncompromising. ¡°In the first place, you¡¯re the one in the wrong, Big Brother, for going and selling my gun any way you pleased. You¡¯re the one who should be confessing and repenting.¡±

    Since the usual kind of quarrel had sprung up between them, Percy ¨C also as usual ¨C had to calm things down between them.

    ¡°Enough already, you two. Honestly, even though His Highness the Prince is right here.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. They¡¯re exactly as you said they were,¡± Leo laughed brightly.

    Sarah turned to smile at him and congratulated him on his engagement.

    ¡°It¡¯s such a romantic story: the aristocrat¡¯s son and the young lady bound together beneath the starry sky as they were chased down by savages bearing flaming torches. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it still gets sung about as a verse in a heroic legend many years from now. Big Brother, we¡¯ll be in that legend too.¡±

    Sarah looked like she was in high spirits.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t a starry sky,¡± when Kuon threw cold water over it, she immediately turned sulky.

    At the same time, Camus wore a complicated expression. The mood was already tending towards a reconciliation between Atall and Allion, and on top of that, if Lord Leo married the daughter of an Allian general, that trend would only get stronger. Which would be a problem for Camus, who was hoping for reinforcements from Atall to help Conscon Temple against Allion¡¯s army.

    Still, he didn¡¯t say anything. That was partly because his interest had been caught by the Leo¡¯s ¡®business¡¯ with the nobles he was visiting.

    ¡°Right, let¡¯s go.¡±

    Even if the number of attendants increased, that didn¡¯t change what the prince needed to do. Leo urged his horse forward.

    Leo¡¯s group visited ten nobles in three days.

    By the third day, the rumour had already spread about him paying calls to aristocratic residences. Each and every time, the nobles standing in the entranceway or in front of the gate, or else looking down from the mansion windows, wore an expression that said ¨C Wow, so he really came. Percy had seen it time and time again.

    Among the aristocrats they visited were several vassal lords who had been at the party.

    Oswell, Bernard, Tokamakk.

    There was no particular difference between their reactions and those of the other nobles. When Leo started to preach about the need of forming a national army:

    ¡°I see. What you are saying is certainly very reasonable,¡± nodded Bernard.

    ¡°However, it isn¡¯t the sort of thing that can be done overnight,¡± answered Tokamakk, irritated at having to waste time on the prince¡¯s visit.

    ¡°It is a momentous topic for the country so, in the future, let us take out time to discuss it at length,¡± Oswell began, turning him down in an unhurried tone of voice.

    In short, it was the same as with Percy¡¯s father.

    ¡°His Highness has been a very much influenced by Allion,¡± was an impression that was widely shared. Among the nobles:

    ¡°Since the prince lived in a foreign country, he seems to believe that only he can recognise how vast the world is.¡±

    ¡°Things can¡¯t go on like this, our country has fallen behind... ¨C well, that kind of fretting is common among young men, but dragging us into it is honestly not funny.¡±

    ¡°His Highness no doubt intends to protect the country single-handedly.¡±

    His father¡¯s words and reactions were more than enough for him to guess what kind of rumours were being whispered. At first, Percy had held similar thoughts. Where he differed the most from the other nobles, however, was that he had found it heart-warming, interpreting it as, he is in every way a young man with a budding interest in politics and society.

    Yet after finishing making the rounds of several noble residences, he began to think differently. Although he had known him only a very short time, he could not believe that the second prince was that foolish and unperceptive. He must surely realise that he was not welcome at any of his destinations, and that his proposal was not being favourably received.

    Normally, one would at least consider changing their way of doing things.

    The prince¡¯s attitude, however, did not change. What he said remained exactly the same. Since his words never changed, even Kuon, who stood behind him like a bodyguard, learned to remember them, and one lunchtime, when the prince wasn¡¯t around, he recited them from memory.

    Sarah immediately flared up.

    ¡°Do you even understand the meaning of those words? Even a monkey can imitate human actions.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s talking about how to fight more skilfully and more effectively. Don¡¯t take me for an idiot,¡± Kuon snarled in reply. In the past, he had surely experienced fighting as part of a group. ¡°I get what the prince is saying. But it¡¯s useless. Because he keeps talking on and on, it¡¯s so boring that listening makes you fall asleep.¡±

    Despite showing sympathy for the prince, even Kuon was critical and felt that he needed to do better. Camus did too.

    ¡°It¡¯s presumptuous for us to interfere, but shouldn¡¯t we instruct the prince in a few things?¡± He came to consult with Percy. ¡°As things are now, the prince is being far too direct. For example, when we speak of God¡¯s teachings, merely preaching with passion is no good. To lull people¡¯s caution, we need wisdom, structure and quick wits at the appropriate times.¡±

    ¡°Oh? Does that mean that you support what the prince is trying to do, Camus?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Camus raised his thick brows and puffed out his chest. ¡°The prince is no doubt raising the need to reorganise the military because he has experienced how untrustworthy Allion is, and because he has his doubts about the current talks of peace. I can tell that he is far braver compared to those gutless Atallese nobles. While everyone is slavering for a false peace, he is prepared to gather soldiers and to oppose Allion, even if it means doing so alone.¡±

    Previously, Camus had concluded that the prince ¡®did not have what it takes to lead soldiers¡¯, and he had felt no little displeasure over the engagement with Florrie, yet it seemed that Leo¡¯s current attitude had greatly impressed him.

    ¡°Still,¡± Percy frowned. ¡°Doesn¡¯t it seem that he is hurrying things too much? Rather than going around calling on anyone and everyone, he should narrow his focus on two or three people who look like they might be open to his suggestion, then carefully argue his case in depth with them.¡±

    ¡°If he does not act swiftly, the vassal lords will all return to their territories. More importantly, about persuading him: Percy, won¡¯t you talk to the prince? I can teach you how to seize a person¡¯s heart so that it can¡¯t break free of your grasp.¡±

    ¡°In that case, wouldn¡¯t it be better for you to talk to him directly?¡±

    ¡°A mere warrior monk cannot talk to a prince about something like that.¡±

    As unlikely as it seemed, it looked like Camus was conscious of differences in social position. Although, rather than it being a case of him being filled with awe, Percy guessed that it was simply because Camus felt awkward dealing the unfamiliar House of the sovereign-princes. Although he seemed like kind of reckless hothead who would come flying out of a house shouting, ¡°I¡¯ll shoot the messenger¡±, he also had this other side to him.

    As for Percy, he had more than once thought about talking to the prince. When the nobles that Leo was trying to persuade looked bored, Percy had several times been on the verge of lending him some help.

    Yet he had stopped himself each time. Not so much because it wasn¡¯t his place to interrupt, but because he had been struck with the thought that, perhaps the prince is always repeating the same thing because his purpose is something other than trying to convince the nobles.

    And even if I¡¯m overestimating him...

    On the evening of the third day since Percy had first joined him, the object of Leo¡¯s final call was Savan Roux. The man who, during the banquet, had tried to petition the monarch over trouble at a quarry, and who had gotten into a quarrel with Darren Actica.

    Unlike the other vassal lords, Savan had not set up a mansion within the capital. In cases such as these, there were residences as well as rooms at the palace prepared for those who had come to pay their respects to the ruler. Yet Savan had rented a small, cramped house. But then again, he had only brought three attendants with him. Although the living room served its purpose, it soon got overcrowded as Leo, as well as Percy, Camus, Sarah and Kuon all squeezed into one after another.

    ¡°I was thinking of leaving Tiwana tomorrow. If you have business with me, please keep it brief.¡±

    Again unlike the other vassal lords, Savan did not even put up a superficial pretence. He must surely have heard from rumours what the ¡®business¡¯ was, and had decided that it was a waste of time. Camus started to frown, however ¨C

    ¡°Tomorrow? Did something unexpected come up?¡±

    ¨C Leo¡¯s curiosity-filled question had him exchanging glances with Percy. The message their gazes exchanged could be summed up as: huh? Up until then, Leo had always cut directly to his own ¡°business¡±, without allowing the other party to get even a single word in.

    ¡°As to that,¡± Savan shook his grey head, ¡°it¡¯s simply that if I am away for too long, certain parasitic henchmen will be free to damage my lands.¡±

    ¡°I see. Sir Savan, since your castle is by the western border, you need to prepare for foreign incursions.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not limited to foreigners.¡±

    The anger in Savan¡¯s expression was clear even as he smiled, and his words were aimed at Darren for sending marauders to his quarry.

    ¡°Do you not think that the current system is insufficient to protect the country against foreign enemies?¡± Leo returned to the usual ¡®business¡¯.

    Savan listened in silence while sipping his watery tea.

    ¡°What you say is interesting,¡± he said with a nod. Leo¡¯s expression instantly brightened.

    ¡°Really? In that case, Sir Savan, won¡¯t you cooperate with me and...¡±

    ¡°However, it would cost huge amounts of money,¡± Savan reigned Leo in.

    It was obvious that it would ¡®cost money¡¯. Setting up the aforementioned defensive force would cost two or three times what had been spent on the military up until then. They would need to pay for wages, provisions, weapons, armour and horses. The soldiers would also need places to live and people to help tend to their daily needs.

    It was precisely to avoid the cost in money and effort that, in Atall, the sovereign-prince and the nobles employed mercenaries every time there was a war. So in a way, the system was one that maximised efficiency.

    ¡°A moment ago, I said that the enemies might not only be outside. But since my castle is at the border, I have to use my personnel and my funds to defend it at all costs, and I cannot afford to spare either for the enemies within. That¡¯s what my situation is. Pardon my rudeness, but your idea is unrealistic.¡±

    What he said was entirely reasonable, yet Leo¡¯s reaction was unexpected for Percy and the others.

    ¡°It¡¯s about money?¡±

    For some reason, his good-humoured interest abruptly disappeared, his tone of voice changed, and he started contradicting Savan.

    ¡°The ones providing the money will not be you lot but the princely house. There is nothing for you to fret about, Sir Savan.¡±

    ¡°The princely house?¡± Savan¡¯s expression also changed. ¡°In that case, it¡¯s all the more impossible. As I said a moment ago, I am one link in the western chain of defence. Yet in spite of that, His Majesty Magrid has not once concerned himself with my territory, which was driven to ruin by the previous war. It¡¯s gotten to the point where I have to wonder if His Majesty Magrid hasn¡¯t decided to let Allion have the western border region. If, at this point in time, the ruling House finally decides to raise the vast sums of money needed, then we can start reorganising the military.¡±

    ¡°That...¡± the prince immediately opened his mouth to argue, but could not find the words to continue.

    Camus elbowed Percy in the ribs. Since he himself was unfamiliar with the country¡¯s situation, he was probably trying to tell Percy that he should the one to help the prince out. Percy, however, remained silent.

    ¡°Please go home, Your Highness. My circumstances are as you see, so I am in no position to offer you proper hospitality. Your Highness, why don¡¯t you talk directly to your father about your thoughts?¡±

    After that, there was nothing more to be done. By the time Leo and the others left the house that Savan Roux was renting, it was already starting to get dark. Sitting astride his horse, Percy could read the expression on Leo¡¯s face.

    ¡°Well then, let¡¯s go back,¡± Leo Attiel called out to the others. ¡°I appreciate that you¡¯ve undertaken to act as guards. Not to borrow Savan¡¯s words, but as I do not have money to spend freely, I¡¯m sorry that I cannot pay you.¡±

    He urged his horse into a canter. The others followed behind. Camus was sullen the whole way, since, in the end, things they had not gotten the results he had hoped for. Yet when Percy has glanced at Leo¡¯s face, he was sure that he had seen him smiling.

    It was a smile that seemed to imply that far from not having achieved any results, they had accomplished something vital, which the rest of Leo¡¯s party would learn of before long.

 Volume 2, 2: Laying the Groundwork

    Volume 2, Chapter 2: Laying the Groundwork

    Part 1

    There were two reasons why Leo Attiel had been in such a hurry to visit the nobles and vassal lords.

    The first was the one Camus had pinpointed: he had to see the vassal lords before they returned to their own domains.

    The second was Hayden.

    The visits absolutely had to be finished before the messenger from Allion returned to his own country. During this time, when the situation had yet to become urgent, Leo had wanted to ascertain how the nobles thought and what they would do. Put differently, Leo was convinced that once Hayden returned home, the situation would begin to move in some way.

    And Hayden Swift would be leaving the Principality of Atall on the fifth day after the banquet.

    Hayden¡¯s chest was filled with dark anger. In and of itself, the return journey should have been something for him to look forward to. Florrie Anglatt should have been sailing on the same air carrier, they should have been relaxing together in the spacious cabin, talking, laughing, and he should have had the chance to hear Florrie sing near him. Instead of which, he was wild and rough as they sailed back: he never parted from his alcohol, and he who was known for his elegance now spent his time shouting indiscriminately at pages and sailors alike.

    As soon as they arrived in Allion¡¯s royal capital, he requested an audience with the king. This was to ask him to raise an army to subjugate Atall; during the voyage, Hayden had thought of nothing else. Or better said, whenever he imagined Tiwana engulfed in flames while he personally severed Leo¡¯s head, Hayden felt a seething anger, as hot as those same flames, that almost seemed about to burn him to death.

    Unfortunately, however, the king was away from the capital.

    Three days earlier, he had apparently headed south with an army in tow, as a insurrection had broken out in a territory that lay in that direction. The king could have let the troop of two thousand deal with it, but once he heard about battle, he was completely unable to resist, and so he had left his throne and departed in person.

    That bad habit of his...

    Hayden clicked his tongue, which was equally unusual for him. Then again, speaking of unusual, Hayden¡¯s current proactiveness and level of energy were rare for him. Previously, he had been bored and weary of everything, but now, as soon as he heard of the king¡¯s absence, he had his retainers prepare horses, clothes and travel expenses, while he promptly left the capital for the south.

    Another five days later, he had reached the place where King Hugh-Jarl of Allion had pitched his pavilion to rest along the way.

    ¨C This is a digression, but as a matter of fact, the king¡¯s name was the very embodiment of bad taste. Both ¡®Hugh¡¯ and ¡®Jarl¡¯ were the names of kings who had ruled over Allion in the past, but Hugh was known as a lecher, said to have impregnated a thousand women, while Jarl¡¯s repeated failures at government and warfare had led to the loss of large swathes of territory, and had earned him the nickname ¡°King Landloss¡±. In other words, the name was an aggregation of terrible reputations.

    ¡°No future king would ever inherit this name, so I¡¯ll claim it for myself,¡± the current king had declared on the day of his coronation. Even so, less than a few days later, he seemed to change his mind and decided that he no longer liked being called ¡®Hugh-Jarl¡¯. Still, it wouldn¡¯t do to change his name immediately, so instead, he insisted on having even those closest to him refer to him simply as ¡®Your Majesty¡¯ or ¡®King Jamil¡¯.

    Hayden hurried to ¡°King Jamil¡¯s¡± pavilion.

    After he had been announced by a sentry, a naked white body came crawling out of the tent. This man, who was lazily stretching his neck and yawning sleepily was King Jamil. He was developing a bit of a paunch, but he was still a young man in his thirties, and his once chiselled body was yet robust.

    ¡°I seem to have disturbed you while you were resting, Your Majesty.¡±

    ¡°Oh, who do you think I am, Hayden? You¡¯re having trouble with Atall, huh?¡± A flustered-looking page draped a gown over the king from behind The king did not appear to pay it any attention. ¡°I¡¯ve already received your report. So why are you here? Have you come to join the hunting? Although I¡¯ve competed with you before on the number of beasts killed, we¡¯ve never yet competed on the number of soldiers slaughtered.¡±

    He laughed as he chewed a rather tough-looking twig of some medicinal plant that had received from the page.

    Unfortunately, King Jamil loved the battlefield, and could never get enough of it. Rather than sit quietly on the throne and handle the petitions brought to him, he was always much happier when riding his horse through the fields of war, spear or gun in hand and armour clanging. Ever since he had taken the throne, the kingdom of Allion had constantly been at war.

    According to whispered gossip, this was not so much because of a burning ambition for supremacy, but because, he simply loves war, so it¡¯s inevitable.

    ¡°No, I have to go to a different ground,¡± Hayden matched the king¡¯s manner and smiled. Just as he had pictured on the journey back, he asked the king for permission to suppress Atall.

    ¡°They have halfway admitted to helping the temple. If we turn a blind eye to this, they¡¯ll grow more and more arrogant, and might start scheming against us with the temple, or even with Shazarn again.¡±

    Hayden fervently preached his piece, but the only thing about it that caught the king¡¯s interest was the ardour which Hayden had been showing recently.

    ¡°You look like you¡¯ve changed, Hayden. Haven¡¯t you heard of how evil spirits bring grief when you sleep alone? If a good man isn¡¯t always sleeping with a good woman, wicked spirits will encroach on him. You should get friendly with your wife in bed and pray for protection from benevolent spirits.¡±

    ¡°Y-Your Majesty...¡±

    ¡°I told you I¡¯d received your report. Ignore Atall. They¡¯ve been given enough of a warning.¡±

    The king had always seemed indifferent to the issue of Atall sending reinforcements to the temple. He was currently busy stabilising his territory, which had expanded so rapidly, so, for now, he had his hands full. When he got tired of administering the country from his throne, he would go hunting; when he got tired of hunting, he took part in riding the warhorses to whatever skirmish had occurred in some part of his territory. As far as King Jamil was concerned, the current status quo was nothing but enjoyable, so he did not feel the need to go out of his way to embark on a foreign campaign.

    What made it all the more bitter for Hayden was that it confirmed Leo¡¯s words. ¡°There¡¯s no great cause worthy of sending troops to Atall,¡± he had said.

    For all the eloquence he could deploy, Hayden could not march on the principality all on his own. The report that had reached the king contained the facts that a banquet had been held with Hayden featuring as the guest of honour, and that as a messenger, his stay had been a smooth one. There wasn¡¯t a single thing warranting suspicion. At this point in time, there was no reason for the king to take action, and there was certainly no just cause to back it up.

    And Hayden certainly couldn¡¯t say that he wanted war ''because Atall¡¯s prince provoked me to my face''.

    Hayden bit his lip. He was no fool, however; if it was not possible to raise a new army, then at the very least, he could not afford to lose his current military authority.

    ¡°Then I leave the matter of Atall for my king to decide,¡± he gave a laudable nod then changed the focus of his speech. ¡°However, I heard some disturbing rumours in Atall. There are hints that Dytiann intends to take advantage of the matter of Conscon Temple for their own selfish ends.¡±

    ¡°Dytiann, is it?¡±

    King Jamil rinsed his mouth and gargled with the contents of a wine cup, then spat out the alcohol at his feet. If the fearless king of Allion had one thing he worried about, it was Dytiann. He flatly denied the rumours whispered among his retainers of any ¡®Great Eastern Campaign¡¯ ¨C which was speculation that he might soon lead Allion¡¯s army to unify the whole of the eastern part of the continent ¨C but any intervention from Dytiann would be a problem.

    As already mentioned, the king was busy with consolidating his power base. If, by any chance, a large army came marching towards them, not even Allion would be able to avoid having to make concessions.

    Seeing an opening, Hayden once again launched into a speech to persuade the king. The result was that they came to an agreement that ¡°Conscon Temple must be seized without delay to prevent Dytiann from having an excuse to intervene¡±.

    Hayden then deliberately declared that, ¡°the troops currently at our stronghold are sufficient. Reinforcements are unnecessary.¡± This way, he underlined the fact that he still held military authority, and easily ensured that he would obtain the king¡¯s authorisation.

    As expected, the king nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯ll leave it to you then.¡±

    At which point, Hayden witnessed an eerie sight. The pavilion¡¯s entrance flap split open at the same time as gracefully slender white arms stretched out from it, and mercilessly twined themselves around the king¡¯s neck from behind.

    ¡°Argh,¡± King Jamil pretended to be in distress. ¡°Alas, is the king of Allion, renowned for his valour, to be slain at the hands of a villainous temptress? Hayden, seize thy sword and rescue thine liege.¡±

    ¡°This is what you call ¡®getting your just deserts¡¯. Since you are the king of Allion, please get out of this by yourself.¡±

    ¡°Honestly, what a retainer unworthy of affection. Oi, Sausha, knock it off, won¡¯t you? I¡¯m discussing important matters of state right now.¡±

    ¡°Your Majesty, it¡¯s not good to keep a lady waiting this long,¡± the woman called Sausha placed her dainty chin on the king¡¯s shoulder and cuddled up to him.

    The king often brought his favourite mistress to the battlefield. Hayden was disgusted by those of his peers who lecherously prowled around after women, but although he saw this as a bad habit of his friend the king, he was naturally not going to say anything about it right now.

    ¡°Well then, Your Majesty, I take leave to retire from your presence.¡±

    ¡°Leaving already? You¡¯re a restless bastard. I don¡¯t care much about the rest, but try to keep Bishop Rogress alive if you can. He did once save Prince Kaseria, after all.¡± ¡°I understand.¡±

    Even as he answered, Hayden had already started to think about something different.

    Part 2

    This happened a little before Hayden returned home.

    Leo had been visiting a great many nobles and vassal lords, arguing for the establishment of a permanent army... When the rumour reached Sovereign-Prince Magrid, he naturally couldn¡¯t just ignore it, and, one morning, he summoned his son.

    Sitting at the dining table, Magrid broached the main topic after the meal was over.

    ¡°You¡¯ve turned seventeen, haven¡¯t you? As a prince of the Attiel bloodline, I¡¯m sure you have many thoughts and ideas. But if you want to say something, you should tell it directly to your father. You got the retainers involved for nothing, and might have caused needless concern.¡±

    ¡°I am sorry, Father,¡± Leo bowed his head obediently. ¡°Although I have my own ideas, I am still inexperienced. I was worried that my own limited ideas would only bother you, Father, so I wanted to discuss them with the vassal lords.¡±

    ¡°And, what did everyone say?¡± asked Branton, Leo¡¯s older brother, looking deeply interested.

    Leo laughed slightly as he shook his head.

    ¡°They didn¡¯t think much of me. And because of that, somewhere along the way, my visits to them started to be made mostly out sheer stubbornness.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense,¡± Magrid nodded with relief.

    If the talk had ended there, the occasion would have ended in complete harmony. It was the first time in a long time that all the members of the family, Leo included, ate breakfast together. He could have entertained them with tales of his time in Allion, and they would have passed some time quietly together.

    However ¨C

    ¡°Then, Father ¨C would you hear what I have to say? Oh no, I won¡¯t take up much of your time. From now until the audience starts is all I need,¡± Leo dove in determinedly.

    For a second, Magrid looked annoyed, but this was after all the child who had been sent away as a hostage for six years. He clearly felt some compassion and sympathy for him, as, in a display of generosity, he said,

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, but keep it short.¡±

    Just as he had to the nobles, Leo presented his idea at length to his father. The sovereign-prince¡¯s answer, however, was already obvious; as stated previously, Atall¡¯s current system aimed for the greatest possible financial efficiency. Within the country, the vassal lords held considerable authority, and the majority of the income from each of their domains went straight to them. In other words, there was no surplus in the sovereign-prince¡¯s treasury.

    ¡°Then you should tighten the pressure on the vassal lords. Have them pay a percentage of their revenue to the national treasury,¡± Leo brought out another argument. ¡°Are you not the sovereign-prince and guardian of this country, Father? If His Majesty exercises his authority and gives the order, nobody could oppose it.¡±

    ¡°National affairs are not as simple as you think. The sovereign-prince and the retainers are all equally human. Being the guardian of the country does not give me the right to act as though I were a god.¡±

    ¡°Leo, think about it,¡± Branton came to his father''s aid, ¡°you are, of course, father and child, and you love and respect your father. But what if someone took your favourite toy or book by force and without asking you for permission? Even if that person was your beloved father, wouldn''t you fight back and, after it was taken, wouldn''t you feel bitter about it?¡±

    The reason behind the somewhat childish allegory was that the image of Leo already being a young man of seventeen had not quite taken hold within Branton yet. But Leo was not able to make allowances for that. His face flushed red.

    ¡°We''re not talking about children''s toys. This is a situation which could influence the state of the country. With all due respect, Father, Brother, neither of you understand how important this is.¡±

    After shouting that out loud, what he said next was enough to make everyone there feel uncomfortable.

    ¡°If this was Allion, this wouldn''t even be up for argument. It''s so truly childish. In Allion, the king wields absolute power, and all the retainers bow before him like grass blown down in the wind. That is how you hold a country. For Allion...¡±

    ¡°Enough, Leo!¡± Magrid finally burst out.

    He was usually a gentle monarch, so the maids and even the government officials eating at the lowest end of the table looked surprised.

    ¡°Are you trying to say that I lack authority as the ruler?¡±

    ¡°N-No... that isn''t...¡±

    ¡°If you like Allion that much, then you can leave your father''s protection right now and go running to the king of Allion. Should I personally write him a letter asking him to take you in?¡±

    Unsurprisingly, Leo could not stand up against that angry rebuke. He bowed down and apologised in tears. Still breathing roughly, Magrid showed himself to be a father:

    ¡°Well anyway, you''ve been away from the country for many years, and you did, after all, accomplish something important. The fact that you are thinking and planning for the country''s future is proof in and of itself that you are growing into adulthood.¡±

    Afterwards, Branton worked hard to calm to situation by asking Leo about his time in Allion, and especially for tales concerning the announcement of his betrothal to Miss Florrie.

    Incidentally, Leo''s mother and younger brother, Roy, were also present, but the two of them appeared wholly uninterested in the conversation. Seeing her youngest son finishing his meal before anyone else and putting his knife down, his mother asked anxiously,

    ¡°Are you not eating any more, Roy? You''re not feeling unwell, are you?¡± When Roy nodded with an abstracted air, her expression turned faintly alarmed. ¡°Don''t go to studying and training today. Stay in your room; I''ll come and check on you later.¡±

    Beyond that, she did not say anything.

    The events at the dining table soon leaked out and spread all over thanks to the servants'' gossip.

    As a sequel to that, the prince who had so energetically been expounding on his ideals became utterly despondent after being scolded by his father, and once again secluded himself in his room.

    Leo Attiel certainly remained in his room for a few days. He went out only once, but immediately shut himself in again. To the people around him, he seemed as though he had been possessed by some timid insect, but very soon after that, the second prince of Atall would make his move, and would implement various measures involving his country and its current enemy, Allion.

    Most of them were what he had thought about while he was shut away in his room.

    Whether or not those plans succeeded as Leo had hoped is something that will gradually be revealed as the story unfolds, so we will leave that question aside for now. Nevertheless, it is worth saying that Leo held no hesitation.

    Normally, when one was about to put large-scale plans into practice, one would definitely experience worries and doubts. Isn¡¯t there something missing? If even a single thing is lacking, won¡¯t it bring it disaster down on me and those around me? ¨C such fears would arise. Leo Attiel, however, put into effect one after another the measures he had imagined.

    Now then.

    Allow me to interrupt the story for just a moment and ask a certain question.

    Do you think that Leo, who, at the tender age of seventeen, carried out his plans with such a complete lack of hesitation ¨C who seemed to be brimming with so much confidence ¨C believed himself to have the makings of a wise general, worthy of leaving his name in history?

    Or that he could have guessed that he would later be known far and wide as ¡°the enemy of God¡±? That they would whisper in every land that he had summoned devils that oppose the Heavens, and that these had imparted their evil wisdom to him, and granted him countless vile traps to use?

    That latter is, of course, impossible.

    As for the former, it is difficult to know.

    Leo had certainly had a talent for scholarship ever since he was young. He read. Both when he was in Atall and when he had been sent to Allion, he read to a staggering extent. Books were by no means inexpensive and, since Claude was an upstart, there was at the time no library in his castle. However, and in part because he hoped that Leo¡¯s love of learning would be a positive influence on his sons, Claude asked the temple priest to buy old manuscripts and such as cheaply as possible, and gave them to Leo, who would finish reading them so quickly after getting them that Claude would joke about it.

    ¡°If my territory ends up bankrupt in the near future, it¡¯ll either be because the warlock Hebetes of the bottomless stomach has secretly taken up residence in the castle, or because of that prince from Atall.¡±

    Books are the crystallisation of the wisdom and knowledge of our predecessors. By making their contents ours, we can also imbibe some of that. However, not to repeat myself, but Leo was still only seventeen. He did not know the battlefield. He had never experienced the strategies of adults. Nor had he met and talked with all that many people.

    And above all, there was the question of Leo¡¯s personality.

    According to those who had known Leo up until then, he was not, by nature, someone who enjoyed fights, and he did not choose the life he led. Although he had shown some slight ambition while in Allion, that was merely in the form of wanting to live a life as something other than an ¡®Attiel¡¯, but, in the end, even that was about to be buried beneath the fate he had been born to. Finally, even when Hayden was going to have him brought to his headquarters ¨C where one cannot deny that death by hanging probably awaited him ¨C Leo only fled because Florrie had dragged him by the hand and forced him to do so.

    Even so, Leo cannot simply be dismissed as a ¡®coward¡¯.

    He accepted his responsibilities. He had a sense of duty as a hostage sent from Atall, and also when he had been determined not to bring trouble upon the Anglatt family. Leo treated those around him with as much sympathy and consideration as he would himself.

    Knowing Leo Attiel¡¯s true personality, it is impossible not to doubtfully question his future actions. Yet I can assert that he did carry out those actions, despite being as he was ¨C or rather, because he was as he was.

    When Hayden Swift left Atall, the vassal lords also returned to their domains one after another, as though being pulled along with him.

    They had originally come to the capital to censure the sovereign-prince for sending reinforcements to Conscon Temple. When a messenger from Allion arrived on top of that, Magrid couldn¡¯t help but break out into a cold sweat. This turned out to be a stroke of luck, however: when the messenger¡¯s attitude softened, the vassal lords also suspended their criticisms for the time being.

    The sovereign-prince heaved a sigh of relief, although obviously, he didn¡¯t believe that everything was now amicably resolved. There was still the matter of Conscon Temple. It was obvious that Allion had not yet given up on capturing it. However ¨C

    ¡°If the temple falls, it will be as good as leaving Atall stark naked,¡± Oswell Taholin, who had thus persuaded his monarch to send reinforcements, had also returned to his territory without offering any further advice.

    Nauma Laumarl is still at the temple. Should I have him withdraw immediately? No, but... if we abandon Conscon, it¡¯ll turn out just as Oswell said.

    It was a constant source of worry.

    ¡°There¡¯s also the issue of Leo¡¯s betrothal. First of all, we need to send a messenger to Miss Florrie¡¯s father, General Anglatt, then next, one to the king of Allion. Could we go as far as having them acknowledge Atall as a friendly nation through this marriage, and have the envoys carry a treaty of non-aggression?¡±

    Time and time again, he sat in talks with his retainers and Branton, his eldest son.

    ¡°When His Highness and Miss Florrie have a son, we could also consider sending him to Allion on the grounds of ¡®sending him to receive education in his mother¡¯s native country¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Or perhaps we could have the child inherit the Anglatt family¡¯s castle?¡±

    During one, somewhat protracted, conversation, a soldier guarding the Chamber of State Affairs brought in a message. The very Leo Attiel whom they were talking about was outside the door. Magrid¡¯s expression turned grim, whereas Branton¡¯s brightened.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this perfect? After all, he is the one involved in this marriage. There are sure to also be circumstances on Allion¡¯s side that only Leo knows about. There¡¯s a lot to ask him about.¡±

    Branton truly had all the thoughtfulness of an eldest son, however, not even he could have predicted what his younger brother¡¯s errand was.

    ¡°I¡¯ve come to report to you, Your Majesty.¡±

    Once the door was opened, Leo stepped in with an expression just as bright as his brother¡¯s.

    ¡°What about?¡± asked the sovereign-prince. ¡°The previous conversation is already over.¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course. I have come to realise how thoughtless I was being. After you scolded me, Father, I have spent the past few days reflecting deeply upon myself.¡±

    Then what was it he wanted to say? Just as the retainers were wondering if he had come up with an idea for entertainment at the wedding ceremony, Leo smiled,

    ¡°I was thinking that, in the near future, I would like to be baptised into the Cross Faith.¡±

    His tone of voice was utterly inappropriate for what he was saying. He announced it as casually as he would say something like, ¡°from tomorrow onwards, I¡¯m changing my horse¡¯s name from Celios to Atlas.¡± Although, of course, one couldn¡¯t just respond with, ¡°oh, is that right?¡±

    The people present, Sovereign-Prince Magrid included, were every bit as surprised as they had been when Leo had announced his betrothal with Florrie at the banquet.

    Wanting to know if his son was being serious, Magrid sent away the retainers so that only Branton and Leo remained.

    ¡°A-Are you quite sane, Leo? What do you mean by this?¡±

    While there were adherents of the Cross Faith in Atall, they were very few in number. Except for in the west, where the Dragon Gods¡¯ Faith flourished, and in the east, in Dytiann, which was held together by the Cross Faith, people throughout the continent mainly held polytheist beliefs which had existed since the Magic Dynasty. Even in Allion, where the notion of spirits was deeply entrenched, the basis of their faith included many of those teachings and legends.

    In this region, there were several ¡®chief gods¡¯, and in Atall, that role belonged to the ¡°Iron Saint¡±, L¨¦vy-Rahan. There was a fairly large-scale shrine to him in the capital, and the ruling family frequently used it during festivals and formal events. Consequently, it was unprecedented for a member of the sovereign-prince¡¯s family to convert to another religion.

    ¡°As I said, I reached this conclusion after thinking long and hard about it.¡±

    Leo¡¯s point of contact with the Cross Faith had been Camus, the warrior monk. He was one of those who had saved Leo from a nearly certain death, and because of that, his teachings had left a deep impression on Leo.

    ¡°In all honesty, I thought that things like gods only existed in the unreachable heavens, and had nothing to do with us mortals. I was in a distant foreign land, far from you both, Father, Brother, and I lost count of how many times I cursed the gods for giving me such a fate.¡±

    Whether or not he was deliberately saying things that were painful for his father to hear, Leo continued,

    ¡°However, I was reminded that although God is an existence to respect, He does not mercilessly hand down a fate whose decrees one must blindly follow.¡±

    He spoke with eyes wide open. The best example was Conscon Temple, Leo continued. They had fought against Allion, whose terror and might Leo knew well for having once lived there himself. They were motivated neither by self-serving pride not by a selfish greed for the spoils of war, but believed that by standing before God, they could empty themselves and discover their own true will and power as humans.

    Sovereign-Prince Magrid frowned. The threatening clouds that had been gathering between Allion and Atall had finally been dispersed, yet if Leo, who had fled from Allion, was now going to do no less than convert to the Cross Faith, he would simply be needlessly provoking their powerful neighbour.

    Magrid was about to clearly state his opposition when Leo said something that was the complete reverse of his father¡¯s opinion.

    ¡°If I receive baptism into the Cross Faith, I will be able to build a better relationship with Allion.¡±

    When asked what he meant by that, he continued,

    ¡°There are many adherents of the Cross Faith in Allion. And there must be equally many who have very mixed feelings regarding the campaign against Conscon Temple. Those who loathe the temple from the bottom of their hearts are probably a minority. Which is why the brunt of the populace¡¯s feelings turned against Atall, which broke the peace treaty and sent soldiers. Therefore, if I join the Cross Faith, the anti-Atallese sentiment should subside somewhat.¡±

    Magrid swallowed back the dissenting opinion that he had been about to voice. It was certainly true that Leo had by far the best understanding of Allion¡¯s internal situation.

    ¡°And although you could call this making up excuses after the fact,¡± Leo still had more to add, ¡°if I, the second prince, am an adherent of the Cross Faith, won¡¯t it make other adherents think that was why Atall couldn¡¯t ignore the danger the temple was in? Or rather, we should actively spread this rumour: that the connection between the temple and the prince goes far back, and that the temple even went out of its way to send warrior monks to save the prince.¡±

    In other words, the point here was to downplay the fact that they had ¡°betrayed Allion¡± by deeply fixing in people¡¯s minds the impression that they had ¡°taken action to defend God¡¯s teachings¡±.

    Rather than expressing his own thoughts, Leo then spent some time talking about how far the Cross Faith had penetrated Allion, and abut how, although they were by no means a majority group ¨C or rather, for that very reason ¨C they felt a very strong affinity for fellow adherents, and even for those who lived far away from them.

    After pondering the matter, Branton showed a willingness to endorse his little brother.

    ¡°If on top of his religious conversion, Leo celebrates his wedding to the young lady of the Anglatt House according to the rites and customs of the Cross Faith, wouldn¡¯t the connection to Allion deepen in a double sense?¡± he spoke up in Leo¡¯s favour.

    Magrid folded his arms.

    Part 3

    An event occurred that same evening.

    Kuon was called into the chambers that Camus and Sarah were sharing in the inn they were all staying at, and also found Percy there. The inn was high-class, so the sleeping area was separate from the living room, which had a fireplace installed.

    They chatted for a while. Camus was still unhappy with the atmosphere in Tiwana, where the prevalent mood was one of reconciliation with Allion, and his irritation only seemed to be increasing.

    ¡°What¡¯s with those brainlessly optimistic nobles we met with? Even though they were once trembling with fear at the thought that Allion might be arriving any day, or even today. The saying about ¡®danger past, God forgotten¡¯ fits the people of this country perfectly.¡±

    ¡°Who wants to listen to the same complaints every day? Say, Percy, could you please refer me for work somewhere? I want to earn to pay for a room of my own. Even working as a maid at the palace would be fine. Oh, actually, how about just hiring me to work at your house?¡±

    Although Sarah, his younger sister, was pretending thoughtless optimism, her heart was by no means as calm as her outer appearance suggested. After all, she was a woman who would open fire in the street for a friend¡¯s sake. She could not possibly be indifferent to the predicament the temple was currently facing.

    Kuon, for his part, was squatting motionlessly in a corner of the living room. Relentless as the boy was, if they took their eyes off of him, he might go running back to the battlefront.

    Finally, the last to turn up was the very person who had called them all there ¨C Leo Attiel.

    According to what was being said, the prince was in very low spirits after having received a sharp rebuke from his sovereign and father, so Percy had thought that ¨C the prince has no choice but to stay quiet for a while. So he had been surprised to receive these sudden summons from him. He was wondering what he wanted to talk about, but after exchanging greetings, Leo precipitously dove straight into the matter.

    ¡°I want to convert to the Cross Faith,¡± he announced.

    Those words came as a complete surprise to everyone in the room.

    ¡°Ah,¡± Camus sounded overcome with emotion. Leo had already been the only one in Atall advocating reorganising the military, and now that he was turning to belief in the Cross Faith, Camus could feel that this prince was truly, truly, a kindred spirit. Or no ¨C he wondered as his excitement flared up ¨C was their meeting not perhaps ordained by God?

    Listening carefully, however, it became clear that the purpose of Leo¡¯s conversion was to soften the anti-Atall feelings in Allion and was absolutely not because he wished to entrust himself to divine guidance.

    Camus closed his eyes, crossed his brawny arms, and stayed silent.

    He had pledged to dedicate himself to God¡¯s teachings for the rest of his life and until his body rotted, no, even after death, his soul would be consecrated to the Heavens, so to hear that Leo intended to use those beliefs for political reasons left him fiercely angry. But also,

    So after all, the prince is also someone who is just scared of Allion¡¯s might and who can only cower and lower his tail before a powerful country ¨C disappointment grazed his heart.

    Disconnected from Camus¡¯ emotions, Leo continued to explain,

    ¡°I want the baptism to be made a big event, so as to communicate my religious conversion to Allion, and to advertise the fact that this isn¡¯t just a stopgap measure. For example, rather than just making do with some public spot within the palace or the town, I would first have a chapel built according to the traditions of the Cross Faith, and hold the ceremony there. I¡¯ve already petitioned Father for it and received his approval.¡±

    Although Percy was surprised that Leo had already talked to Sovereign-Prince Magrid about it, what he actually expressed surprise about was something else,

    ¡°Oh. You are going to have a chapel built in Atall?¡±

    Leo nodded.

    ¡°To be exact, a church with a chapel sanctum. Or would a large-scale building be called a cathedral?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Percy exclaimed again, then glanced towards Camus. His expression immediately turned a little complicated; he did not know what the other was thinking, but Camus was a man whose expressions were easy to read. He was probably pondering the fact that although it was irritating to have his god¡¯s teachings be used like this, having a base for proselytising in Atall would not be a bad idea...

    ¡°Will you build the church here in Tiwana? If you do, but... how long would the construction take?¡±

    ¡°First, I¡¯ll have them quickly complete a chapel suitable for baptism. We can expand it later, so something simple will be enough for now. I intend to hold the baptism within a month.¡±

    ¡°A month?¡±

    ¡°Also, the church won¡¯t be built in Tiwana. I suggested to Father that Sir Savan Roux¡¯s territory would be a good place, and Father gave his permission.¡±

    Catching on to the prince¡¯s intentions, Percy lifted his eyebrows a little.

    To be sure, there were high-quality quarries in Savan¡¯s territory, ideal for materials needed to construct a church. Thinking about the time and labour needed to transport the quarried stone, it would be preferable to build as close to the source as possible ¨C that was probably how Leo had convinced the sovereign-prince.

    Are you thinking not only of holding a baptism and softening the feeling in Allion, but also of drawing closer to Sir Savan?

    ¡°Between purchasing stone from his territory and inviting a large number of people to take part in the building work, Sir Savan¡¯s purse is certain to benefit. Nor will Sir Darren, who is aiming for the quarry, be able to do anything to interfere.¡±

    Percy was extremely impressed. And at the same time, he was glad.

    The prince really is far from ordinary. He¡¯s thought of ways to try and break out from the current conditions.

    This proved that Percy¡¯s own judgement had definitely not been wrong. If he could rescue Savan from his plight, he would surely earn his trust. And he would be killing two birds with one stone by chipping away at the hostility within Allion. And then, once he had brought one of the vassal lords over to his side, what did the prince intend to do afterwards?

    Percy felt like a teacher watching over as a good student easily found the right answer, and he was looking forward to what would come next.

    ¡°Indeed, Darren¡¯s movements will also be blocked... In due time.¡± Leo¡¯s words were loaded with unexpressed meaning. ¡°At the start, I intend to hide both my conversion and the building of the church and move forward with them secretly. Which means that when Darren sees large quantities of stone suddenly being cut from the quarry he is aiming for, he¡¯ll panic. If Savan¡¯s reading of the situation is correct ¨C if Darren really is sending marauders because he wants to take over the quarry ¨C then he won¡¯t be able to leave things alone.¡±

    ¡°In other words, you will be deliberately luring Sir Darren¡¯s soldiers to the quarry?¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Leo nodded as though a student he was teaching had given a correct answer. Their positions seemed to have been reversed.

    Percy¡¯s eyes went round.

    ¡°A-And then what will you do?¡±

    ¡°Defeat them,¡± Leo declared decisively.

    While Camus opened his eyes wide, and Kuon and Sarah¡¯s eyes were transfixed, Percy spoke almost without realising it.

    ¡°W-Wait, Your Highness. Why do that? C-Certainly, Sir Darren¡¯s actions are unworthy of a retainer to the sovereign-prince¡¯s House, but this would inevitably cause you to make enemies within the country, and...¡±

    ¡°It would be terrible to make enemies. I¡¯m doing this to get allies,¡± Leo¡¯s response was concise. ¡°Right now, I basically have neither allies nor troops at my disposal. So I¡¯m doing this to get both.¡±

    ¡°T-Then, when you have allies and troops, what do you intend to do next?¡±

    Leo closed his mouth. Rather than looking as though he was hard pressed to answer, it looked as though he was carefully choosing what his next words should be. It was only after Kuon had time to cough once to clear his throat that Leo completed what he was saying.

    ¡°My aim is to fight Allion.¡±

    Everyone was speechless.

    Fight?

    In that moment, Percy almost smiled.

    There were two reasons for that.

    The first was that hadn¡¯t he just said that he was converting to the Cross Faith in order to ¡°soften the hostility within Allion¡±? Yet now, completely incongruously, he was talking about ¡°fighting¡±.

    The second reason was simply because the word ¡°fight¡± did not fit Leo Attiel. In both his facial features and his build, he was just like a girl. He was still only seventeen, and he had not experienced his first campaign. As Leo himself had just said, he had neither allies nor soldiers to lead.

    Yet even so, he had said that he was going to fight. Moreover, on top of saying that he was going to ¡°deliberately lure Darren¡¯s marauding soldiers and defeat them,¡± he had also announced that this was first and foremost no more than a way to get hold of allies and troops, with which he would someday attack Allion. This tiny prince, against an opponent that Atall and Shazarn had not been able to compete with even when they had joined forces...

    It was no wonder that Percy almost burst into involuntary laughter.

    When Leo had appealed for the army to be reorganised, although Percy had found the prince childishly idealistic and still unable to discern the realities of the situation, he had also felt that to be endearing. Being childish also meant looking towards the future as only youth could, and that was something that the leading Atallese nobles and vassal-lords that he had observed did not have.

    As the prince grows older, as he climbs the stairs of reality one by one, his ideals will surely turn into a stone weight. It will become hard to climb upwards while still holding that weight, his heartbeat will become erratic, and, in the end, he might even toss them away completely. And they will naturally scatter as they fall. Yet even so, he might also grit his teeth until they bleed, and keep clutching at one last part of his current ideals.

    Might not Leo Attiel become a prince worthy of playing a role in Atall¡¯s future? Percy held that expectation, and with it, he hoped that he and the prince would be able to walk forward together. But in his mind, that was very much a story for the future.

    His childish ideals are like a balloon that has blown to the limit, and they¡¯ll burst spectacularly when they confront reality. What can I say to get him to stop?

    ¡°You may laugh.¡±

    Because of Leo¡¯s words, Percy suddenly realised something.

    Lord Leo gave him an enigmatic look, just like a young girl would to a member of the opposite sex.

    ¡°But before that, maybe I should correct one thing I said. It¡¯s not Allion that I¡¯ll be fighting ¨C it¡¯s Hayden Swift.¡±

    ¡°Hayden Swift?¡±

    Although he repeated the words, it did not sound as though Percy was simply parroting them.

    Surpassing sympathy or disappointment, Percy felt intense irritation towards the prince. He felt like he knew someone very similar: his own past self, who had so blindly believed that he could become hero, without a single thing to support that conviction.

    Just then ¨C

    ¡°...May I say something, Prince?¡± The one who spoke was Sarah. ¡°Visiting the residences of the aristocrats was probably part of your plan, right? Won¡¯t you tell us what it is that Lord Leo is thinking about, including his future intentions?¡±

    Her tone was calm and her judgement composed.

    Percy felt embarrassed at how his blood had heated and gone coursing through him. At the same time ¨C I see... The reason why Leo Attiel had invited them all and deliberately talked to them about this was because he was looking for their cooperation. It was only now that Percy realised something so entirely obvious.

    They still did not know each other well. The number of times they had met face-to-face were few enough to be easy to count. Yet Leo had spoken to them of thoughts that he should normally have kept to himself, including the one about ¡®defeating an ally¡¯s soldiers¡¯. Thinking about it, the prince was crossing a very dangerous bridge; whatever it was he was planning on doing, Leo did not have anyone to rely on other than themselves.

    Has he been counting on us?

    Although Leo¡¯s plan was bold, after all, Percy and the others had also been plenty foolish and bold when they had seriously set about overturning their situation by attacking Allion¡¯s headquarters. Thinking back on how, when he was at the temple, Percy had vowed to himself to at least strike a blow against Allion, he felt that he ought to at least listen to the end to what Leo had to say.

    At Sarah¡¯s prompting, Leo started to speak. And from that moment onwards, Percy Leegan experienced a series of surprises.

    First, Leo explained how Hayden had mocked him at the banquet, and ominously declared that ¡°Atall¡¯s peace will not for much longer¡±, which had led to Leo making his own declaration of war in return. Percy unwittingly opened his eyes wide.

    ¡°My goodness,¡± Sarah exclaimed involuntarily, but her reason for doing so was completely different from the men¡¯s concerns. ¡°So it was because you were afraid of Hayden snatching Lady Florrie away that you abruptly announced your engagement, Prince? Without checking Lady Florrie¡¯s wishes? I feel so sorry for her!¡±

    ¡°Be quiet, Sarah,¡± said Camus. Not in his usual weary tone, but with a sharpness that resembled the spear he wielded.

    Although Leo blinked at Sarah¡¯s unexpected attack, he resumed his explanation at Camus¡¯ urging. Judging from his experiences while in Allion and from Hayden¡¯s words, Leo was practically convinced that Hayden was the one pulling the strings of the war on the temple.

    His conviction was not founded on any tangible evidence, but Percy found it easy to believe. When they had been about to attack the enemy headquarters only to be captured instead by General Anglatt, he had, through the what the general was saying, had the constant impression that there was something strange about this war.

    Although Allion was the one who insisted that Bishop Rogress had ¡°uttered curses against the royal family¡± and who had sent its army, the number of troops dispatched was insufficient to surround the mountain. Hayden, the commanding officer, had also planned to kill the prince, even though Leo only had a very tenuous relationship with the temple. Moreover, when he learned that the prince had escaped with Florrie, Hayden had promptly abandoned command of the war, and had uprooted the soldiers from the headquarters to go and hunt in the mountains.

    If that series of moves by Allion had in fact been made according to Hayden¡¯s wishes, if the reason behind the war lay in one person¡¯s feelings, then no matter how incomprehensible it all was, that baffling, inefficient, ostentatious military campaign was certainly easier to understand.

    Camus spoke up again.

    ¡°Hayden is the kind of man who could take the initiative to try and conquer the temple even though he had visited it as a mediator. I wouldn¡¯t put it past him to be thinking of destroying Atall.¡± He nodded with conviction.

    Lord Leo looked at each of them in turn as he continued,

    ¡°However, even if our opponent is Hayden alone, he has the ¡®power¡¯ to move a considerable number of troops. But Atall on the other hand? Even with the country on the brink of crisis, the vassal-lords won¡¯t fall in step with the sovereign-prince. You all saw that, right? Once an obvious threat is gone from sight, they immediately go back to acting like they can lazily doze off in peace. Even though the beast that was just driven off is actually hiding in the nearby bushes, and sharpening its claws and probably still aiming for their throat.¡±

    Leo was no doubt talking about the nobles and vassal-lords that he had gone visiting. What had become apparent to the prince was exactly what Camus had pointed out.

    ¡°Given that only the nobility holds the right to command troops here, Atall is fragile. I knew of course what everyone wanted to say back then: ¡®you need to try and convince them more skilfully.¡¯ Even I¡¯m not that stupid. I might have obtained better reactions if I had chosen my words or my manner better. But that wouldn¡¯t have been any good. If people didn¡¯t at least share my anxiety before I went to talk to them, then I did not think that they would align themselves with me afterwards either. But, as you also all realised, I couldn¡¯t get even half the response I was hoping for. What do you think it means?¡±

    Percy¡¯s position was once again like having a teacher ask him to answer to a subject under discussion, but this time, he could not carelessly speak up.

    ¡°No matter how much you, Prince, try to warn people of the threat posed by Allion and Hayden, as things currently stand, no one will listen,¡± Camus replied in his place. ¡°In which case, Conscon Temple will soon go up in flames, and Atall will eventually share the same fate.¡±

    Ridiculous, thought Percy. Setting aside the matter of the temple, the talk related to Atall was probably no more than the prince¡¯s mistaken assumption. Surely this was just Camus exaggerating the danger to Atall in the hopes of getting a firm promise of aid to the temple?

    Yet despite his impatience, for some reason, Percy couldn¡¯t say anything. Every time he tried to speak up, his throat seemed to constrict as though to prevent from uttering a sound.

    Oblivious to Percy¡¯s fretfulness, Leo continued,

    ¡°...And that¡¯s why.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why?¡± Camus asked, as though lured in. He had half-risen from where he sat.

    ¡°And that¡¯s why, first of all, I will fight. I will fight and defend the country. After having defended it, I need to change it.¡±

    The words almost made Percy feel dizzy. When the floor shook with a dull thud in the next moment, he wondered if getting vertigo due to excessive shock, but actually, it was Camus¡¯ fist which had slammed against the boards.

    ¡°You¡¯ll fight. Fight and fight. That¡¯s what you¡¯re saying, right Prince?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been saying it for a while now, warrior monk.¡±

    ¡°Wrong! Up until a moment ago, what you were saying was as unreliable as a dream. But now, I see it clearly: you are a warrior, Lord Leo. Even though you haven¡¯t struck down enemy soldiers at spearpoint, you are more of a warrior than anyone, here in Atall!¡±

    His eyes were shining, and his eyebrows were bristling even more than usual.

    ¡°It¡¯s good that you confided in us. It was undoubtedly God¡¯s will that we met in the mountains of Allion. With you, the temple... No, you are one who is protected by God¡¯s love!¡±

    Hold it, Percy tried to hold Camus in check. Yet even though he was driven by a sense of urgency so strong it was enough to make him break out into a sweat, his throat still remained clogged up and his voice could not escape from it.

    Dammit! What was wrong with him? Why wasn¡¯t he able to utter a single word to stop these two?

    The looks that Lord Leo and Camus were exchanging were feverish. Dangerously ardent. Leo¡¯s heated thoughts about melting the country¡¯s very framework, and Camus¡¯ fervent resolve to protect his divine doctrine even if it meant taking on the most formidable of enemies ¨C the two were mingling into a vortex that might burn away Percy and Atall at any moment.

    These two are young. Or rather, they¡¯re too childish. The prince provoked Hayden even though he has neither power nor support. And it doesn¡¯t even need to be said that Camus thinks it¡¯s fine to die for his god. And it¡¯s all well and good for him to die by himself, but he can¡¯t be allowed to involve the rest of us. If I leave these two unchecked, they¡¯ll put Atall in danger. They¡¯re more of a ¡®threat¡¯ than the one from Allion that they¡¯re talking about.

    I have to stop them. Right, as the oldest one here, scolding children is my duty...

    ¡°Lord Leo.¡±

    The constriction in his throat finally wore off and Percy called out Leo¡¯s name more prudently than he had ever addressed him up until now.

    ¡°To fight... yeah, your intention to fight is splendid. And I certainly can¡¯t say it¡¯s impossible that Hayden will march his troops against us in the future. But taking on an impossible fight can lead to death, even for the recklessly brave like Camus here.¡±

    ¡°How can you say that Percy? Those who aren¡¯t prepared to die cannot survive war!¡±

    Camus shouted angrily, but Sarah stopped him with a quiet wave of her hand. It was a reversal of the siblings¡¯ usual roles. Percy continued, without paying them any attention,

    ¡°Winning is essential. Or at the very least, hoping that you will win. You are saying that you won¡¯t wait for Hayden¡¯s invasion, but will start the fight deliberately and of your own accord ¨C do you believe you can fight and win?¡±

    While ostensibly, he was directing that question to Leo, inwardly, he was asking himself,

    Is this what I wanted to say? Didn¡¯t I want to stop the two of them?''

    Percy¡¯s eyes were open as far as they would go and were staring intently at the prince, as though to not miss a single thing he did. Percy himself did not notice that those eyes of his were also radiating a certain kind of heat.

    There was a long pause.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    For as long as he lived, Percy would never fully forget that moment in which Leo gave a single nod.

    ¡°I¡¯ll say it as many times as I have to. If I don¡¯t win this fight, Atall will fall.¡±

    Part 4

    Savan Roux returned to his territory, but not a single one of his retainers enquired about the result of his visit to Tiwana. They didn¡¯t even need to see the expression on his face; it was enough to hear his angry footsteps.

    The other vassal-lords had also visited the capital, but in Savan¡¯s case, his reason for going had not been to criticise the sovereign-prince.

    A ridiculous situation ¨C Savan felt like laughing it to scorn. After all, he was the one who had the best right to denounce the sending of reinforcements to Conscon Temple.

    He was the lord of the only territory which had been caught in Allion¡¯s invasion seven years ago.

    The battles had been fierce. Clad in his armour, Savan had personally lead his troops and had fought desperately.

    Yet the sovereign-prince, who had guessed that Allion was not interested in extending their invasion any further than that, had only sent a few hundred in reinforcement, and those soldiers had merely remained stationed inside the castle. Rather than wage desperate war against Allion, it seemed that they were simply going to wait until their enemy had, so to speak, finished ¡®teaching them their lesson¡¯.

    Allion¡¯s aggression did not abate, and the dependent castles and fortresses leading to Savan¡¯s main stronghold fell one after another. Reports reached him again and again of the deaths of his retainers ¨C kinsmen or long-time companions all. Among the fallen were Savan¡¯s two sons. His second son had been married less than a year. It seemed like so very long ago that Savan had leaped to his feet in joy upon learning that his daughter-in-law was pregnant.

    In the end, even though they had made peace with Allion, that relationship had now once again turned dubious.

    Savan felt like flying into a towering rage and screaming to the sovereign-prince¡¯s face ¨C What the hell did you even learn from the last war? Haven¡¯t I sacrificed enough yet?

    Since a while ago, however, Savan had another problem in the form of his quarry being targeted.

    Bandit-like men were frequently sighted, and they harassed the villages around the quarries, claiming to be ¡°mercenaries in charge of defending the territory.¡± They seized provisions, demanded women, picked quarrels with the men working at the quarry, and when the rough stonemasons responded to the provocation, the bandits set fire to houses and tied up the workers in question before dragging them behind their horses, all in the name of ¡°revenge¡±.

    Naturally, having received the reports, Savan had sent out soldiers more times than he could count to send them away. Yet the raiders would quickly reappear and do the same thing all over again. Given that Savan was a domain lord with the country¡¯s border to defend, he could not afford to move too many soldiers away from it.

    It was obvious that this was Darren Actica¡¯s doing. He had long had his eyes on the high-quality quarry in Savan¡¯s territory, and had several times approached him with an offer of joint ownership of them. A few days earlier, a message had arrived from him, saying,

    ¡°It appears outlaws are running riot through your domains. Given that you bear the important duty of defending the country¡¯s borders, Sir Savan, why not allow me to take over the task of subduing these shameful raiders?¡±

    These ¡®raiders¡¯ were clearly actually marauders that Darren was directing. He planned to pretend to send soldiers to drive them away, then, under the vague pretext of ¡®defending resources¡¯, he would afterwards occupy the quarry.

    Darren had wanted to build a new castle in his domain for a long time now. He would need a very large quantity of stone for that, but he begrudged having to pay the money to buy it from Savan.

    In Atall as it was then, even though they belonged to the same country, it was by no means rare for fights over resources to break out between domain lords, starting with the vassal-lords. This was largely because the ruling princely house, which bound the country together, had lost much of its power ¨C but I have already spoken of this several times.

    Even among the vassal-lords, Darren¡¯s political power was conspicuously strong. The other nobles can¡¯t say anything, and the ruling family doesn¡¯t have the strength to spare to intervene in my affairs ¨C perhaps it was because he had made that evaluation that Darren, more than anyone, acted as he pleased.

    ¡°That damned villain.¡±

    Savan bitterly resented Darren for the way that he had repeatedly turned down his appeals for reinforcements during the aforementioned war against Allion.

    When he had learned that Darren and the other vassal-lords intended to visit Tiwana because of the matter of Conscon Temple, Savan had made firm his decision to go too. At this point, he had no choice but to appeal directly to the sovereign-prince in front of a crowd of nobles.

    As for the result... the sight of Savan wandering aimlessly around his castle, his loud footsteps, and the fact that he had barely spoken to his retainers since his return all told their own tale.

    The sovereign-prince had absolutely no inclination to listen to him. Besides wanting to keep any kind of trouble at a distance because of the pressure from Allion, that was undoubtedly also because he feared Darren, who had lead the movement which had pushed Magrid¡¯s father from the throne. The fear that he might follow the same path if he carelessly antagonised his opponent had been clear on Magrid¡¯s face.

    Darren is a villain, but the sovereign-prince is utterly unreliable as a ruler. Savan wept from frustration. If he can¡¯t even defend a retainer¡¯s people and land, it would be better if relations with Allion grew worse and he was destroyed. I no longer have any reason to offer my life to the sovereign-prince. When the time comes, should I join Allion¡¯s side and go take Darren¡¯s castle first?

    He even went so far as to think those thoughts.

    Sava stopped in a corner of the castle. The jars that he had collected as a hobby in his youth were lined up on either side of the corridor. One especially old and valuable wine jar had a large crack running through it. It had been caused when his sons, who had been very young at the time, had been swinging pieces of wood around, pretending it was sword practice. The two of them had apologised to their father in tears. At first, their attitude had been laudable, but that soon turned to a quarrel.

    ¡°It was Big Brother¡¯s fault.¡±

    ¡°What, you¡¯re the one who broke the jar! How can you trample all over my good intentions when I said we¡¯d take the blame together!¡±

    And with that, they had started scuffling again.

    As he traced the crack with his finger, tears rolled down Savan¡¯s cheeks.

    ¨C Not even a few days later, a messenger came to Savan from the sovereign-prince. Savan, understandably, frowned in suspicion.

    What business does the sovereign-prince have with me at this point? If he wanted to talk, he could have done so in Tiwana.

    It was not just the timing which was strange, but also the line-up of messengers.

    Leading them was an elderly man whom he had never seen before. He said his name was Bosc, and he seemed to be a priest of the Cross Faith. He had been born and raised in an area of what was now called the Dytiann Alliance, and had crossed over to Atall thirty years earlier. Since then, he had been scraping by and carrying out missionary work. He currently lived in a village southwest of Tiwana, in a small church which had been built there.

    ¡°But what business does an honoured priest have at my castle?¡± enquired Savan, whereupon a man who was accompanying the priest handed him a letter from the sovereign-prince. This man also appeared to be a monk, but his build was large and his eyes sharp.

    Growing increasingly suspicious, Savan opened the letter and read what was written.

    The man accompanying Bosc ¨C Camus, saw Lord Savan Roux¡¯s expression change. The suspicion in his face turned to surprise as he turned his eyes down towards the letter, before he quickly cleared his throat, probably in an attempt to regain his composure, and read through the letter again.

    The old man named Bosc was someone Camus had located. During his stay in Tiwana, he had mingled with the few members of the Cross Faith there, and had exchanged information with them. Since there was no church within the capital, a certain merchant had built a small chapel in the basement of his own home, and people gathered to worship there. When Camus heard from his fellow faithful that there was a priest who, unusually in Atall, was continuing to disseminate God¡¯s teachings, he had gone to visit him in person.

    When Camus had confided what his business was to Bosc, the old man had been no less surprised than Savan currently was. However, his small church had been harassed several times after Atall¡¯s relations with Allion soured over the matter of Conscon Temple,

    ¡°This is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to dispel the people¡¯s ill feelings and to spread our teachings throughout Atall,¡± he made up his mind to help.

    Meanwhile, as the hands with which he was holding the letter trembled imperceptibly, Savan asked,

    ¡°Is this true?¡±

    ¡°It is true,¡± Camus answered instead of Bosc. ¡°His Majesty Sovereign-Prince Magrid wishes to build a church for the Cross Faith ¨C we ourselves do not call it that, but, for the sake of convenience... ¨C here in his land.¡±

    ¡°B-But... why my territory?¡±

    ¡°As is written in the letter, a large-scale monastery will eventually be built, but for now, because there is need to hurry Lord Leo¡¯s baptism, he believes that even for what will only be a simple church, it would be preferable to build it near the quarry.¡±

    Savan¡¯s eyes returned repeatedly to the letter. It was certainly in Sovereign-Prince Magrid¡¯s handwriting.

    He gulped. The country would be buying vast quantities of stone from Savan¡¯s domain. Furthermore, in order to build the church, scores of carpenters, masons and craftsmen would be converging on his castle town.

    The markets under Savan¡¯s jurisdiction would naturally profit greatly. And once construction was complete, adherents would come every time there was a ceremony, and it was even possible to hope that a great many pilgrims would travel from afar to it.

    But what Savan was most grateful for was not those long-term considerations, but that this meant that Darren won¡¯t be able to interfere with my territory anymore.

    This was an edict from the ruler. No matter how much Darren might look down on the princely house, he would not oppose the ruler¡¯s decision for no good reason.

    ¡°Since there is not yet any large church organisation in Atall, Father Bosc here will one day be installed as bishop and a single, large diocese will be established in this country. We hope to build monasteries and churches throughout Atall, starting in your domains, Lord Savan, while a church council, centred around Bishop Bosc, will preside over their establishment and the selection of abbots, and...¡±

    Savan was barely half listening to the speech that Camus was smoothly reeling off. Thinking about how this would put Darren Actica¡¯s nose out of joint, Savan decided that for the time being, he would extinguish the fires of treason which had been irresistibly raging in his heart only a short while earlier.

 Volume 2, 3: Sword and Mask

    Volume 2, Chapter 3: Sword and Mask

    Part 1

    Just as Leo had explained to Percy and the others, the construction of a church and the prince¡¯s religious conversion were, for now, being kept hidden. The official reason was that ¡°it¡¯s best to wait for a good opportunity to advertise these facts.¡±

    Sovereign-Prince Magrid looked sullen and grim again as he worried that the vassal-lords would once again denounce the way he ¡®acted without taking advice¡¯. However ¨C

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it fine to ostensibly be preparing a place to hold the wedding ceremony?¡± said Leo, looking unruffled. ¡°First of all, it¡¯s not even a lie. And then, it goes without saying that the vassal-lords fear Allion. If you emphasise the fact that we are holding the ceremony on a large scale in order to mend the relationship with Allion, they won¡¯t utter a word of criticism.¡±

    After obliquely conveying the information that Savan¡¯s quarries had come under attack from marauders, Leo further added:

    ¡°Sir Savan is having to move soldiers away from defending the western border. Father, you should send some guards in your name as ruler... Oh no, it doesn¡¯t need to be any great number. The point is simply to make it known that this is His Majesty¡¯s edict,¡± he sounded out his father.

    Sovereign-prince Magrid could not conceal his surprise at the way Leo was giving out opinions one after another. When he further insisted on taking command of those soldiers, Magrid stared fixedly at his son¡¯s face. Still, since it was a purely nominal position, he gave his permission. After all, once Leo got married and set up a family, he would need to provide him with a suitable territory, or perhaps with an official position within the palace. So it wasn¡¯t a bad thing to have him undertake various tasks from here on.

    ¡°Up until I sent him to Allion, I thought he was such a quiet and docile son.¡± Magrid smiled wryly to his oldest son, Branton, after Leo had finished giving his opinion and left the room. ¡°But why is it? It¡¯s been nothing but surprises from him ever since the banquet.¡±

    ¡°Leo has obviously inherited the blood of the House of Attiel.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s that but... Seeing him change so much is a bit terrifying. Let¡¯s hope the boy hasn¡¯t received a bad education in Allion,¡± Magrid passed off his concern as a joke.

    Leo Attiel was provided with soldiers from the Royal Guards, which were the military troops under the sovereign-prince¡¯s direct command. All of them were of aristocratic lineage, but although they were all children of the nobility, most of them were second or youngest sons, who would inherit neither land nor title. Since Percy fulfilled that condition, and given also that he hoped to make his way through the military, his father had, as a matter of fact, recommended that he enlist into the Royal Guards.

    However, as Percy explained to Leo, ¡°I wanted to stand on the battlefield more than anything, and to earn glory through my own achievements.¡± And when the Royal Guards took to the battlefield, they were given very few opportunities to perform anything of merit.

    Leo had been given twenty cavalrymen. Since each of these was accompanied by five retainers acting as infantrymen, the total number of troops came out at more than a hundred. Along with Leo and the familiar faces that were Percy, Kuon and Camus, the troops left the capital.

    Given that it was a military departure involving the Royal Guards, Sarah was unable to join them this time. Camus had been worrying about how to persuade his tomboy little sister, but unexpectedly, she had readily backed down.

    ¡°Got it. It wouldn¡¯t look good for a nun to be included when Lord Leo is leading military troops for the first time. I¡¯ll behave myself. I¡¯ve been able to make a few friends in Tiwana, so I won¡¯t be bored.¡±

    Leo¡¯s group made it to the highway without any problems. As it was a military force, Leo was naturally wearing armour and a helmet. Although, since his build was not suited to massive armour, the equipment was light. It was the first time Leo had experienced arming himself and riding his horse forward, followed by soldiers. He turned to Camus, who was next to him and who was cautiously surveying their surroundings.

    ¡°Does it suit me, Camus?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Camus nodded deeply.

    This large warrior monk already held certain hopes and expectations of Leo. The air drifting around him was like that of a warrior who would still be serving the prince ten years from now.

    ¡°I¡¯ll gallop on to survey what¡¯s ahead,¡± he sprang his horse forward.

    It had not even been an hour since they had left Tiwana. Besides which, it seemed unlikely that anyone was going to aim for the prince¡¯s life on the well-maintained highway. Still, it seemed very much like him to be restless.

    ¡°That¡¯s Camus, but what do you think, Kuon?¡± Leo turned towards the person who was riding on the other side of him. Percy, who was behind them, stifled a chuckle at the sight of Kuon¡¯s startled face.

    Among them, Kuon was the only one who was younger than Leo. Even though he had accompanied him several times already, he had never spoken with Leo directly up until then. Percy and Camus wanted to protect the country and the temple and, aware that the prince shared that desire, they could not help but feel a more than average interest in his actions, and hold certain hopes of him. On the other hand, Kuon, who had left his birthplace behind him, did not share that sense of purpose. Fundamentally, he couldn¡¯t care less about what the prince was going to do, and on top of that, he had been under the impression from the very start that the prince couldn¡¯t possibly be interested in a country-bred mercenary like him. Which was why the boy was so unexpectedly flustered when Leo spoke directly to him.

    ¡°E-Er, well, what Camus said... er, no, that which he said... is, er, correct...¡± he replied stutteringly.

    Leo gave a soft laugh. His tone, however, was harsh.

    ¡°There was no conviction in those words. If you don¡¯t speak honestly, I¡¯ll have you punished.¡±

    Kuon looked around him, searching for help, but Percy deliberately pretended not to notice.

    ¡°T-Then, if I have to say it honestly...¡±

    ¡°Hmm.¡±

    ¡°Y-You¡¯re too skinny, Prince, so... it, really, doesn¡¯t suit you... at all. There are women where I¡¯m from, who fight with bows and guns, and t-they¡¯re much... more masculine.¡±

    ¡°Go on.¡±

    ¡°You should... throw back, your shoulders more. And then, when you¡¯re riding your horse, you should throw out your chest more, like a general, and put your chin up... then you¡¯d look more like it.¡±

    ¡°L-Like this?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s too far. Your neck has to be straight and you have look ahead.¡±

    In short, Leo was messing about. Even so, he felt considerable interest in the boy called Kuon. Percy had talked with the prince several times about the battles that had taken place around the temple, so he was curious about the characters who appeared in those tales.

    When it came to Kuon, however, there were still many things that Percy did not know about him. Percy wished to protect his country, Camus and Sarah wanted to protect the temple; but then, for what purpose was Kuon fighting? If he merely wanted to earn his daily income, there should be plenty of other work available. And he did not seem to be the calculating sort, who would get close to the prince in the hopes that it would prove profitable for him later.

    Regardless of whatever youthful thoughts they held, the party entered Savan¡¯s fief a few days later. The vassal-lord''s main castle simply took its name from the territory and was known as Guinbar Castle.

    Savan came out in person to greet the prince¡¯s party. Rumour seemed to have spread throughout the district that the second prince of the House of Attiel had come from Tiwana, so there was a crowd of people outside the citadel''s walls, watching curiously and cheering in welcome.

    ¡°Tsk,¡± Percy easily guessed why Camus clicked his tongue with a glum expression. After all, even the sharp-eyed Kuon looked stunned.

    Sarah, disguised as a town girl, was mixed in among the populace that were waving their hands. Looking amused, she blew a kiss towards Percy and her older brother, who had turned their gazes her way.

    Now then, Leo was supposed to stay at Guinbar¡¯s castle, but no sooner had he arrived than he gave Savan a strange order.

    ¡°Please prepare five hundred sets of armour, spears and swords. I¡¯d like them to be ready as quickly as possible.¡±

    Savan was bewildered. When he asked the reason for needing them, Leo replied that it was:

    ¡°To enhance the prestige of the baptismal ceremony.¡±

    Given that the church hadn¡¯t even been built yet, Savan felt that he was really getting ahead of himself, but considering that Lord Leo was Guinbar¡¯s lifeline, he could not refuse him.

    In parallel to that, Leo started travelling around the villages exactly as though he was inspecting his own territory. Percy, Kuon and the others escorted him to guard him. Incidentally, just like last time, Camus was following up on the connections between the few adherents of the Cross Faith to find builders with experience in constructing churches, so once they had reached Guinbar, he had immediately left castle again to go meet with them.

    When Leo found any solidly-built young men in the villages, he would send one of the soldiers or pages that Savan had put at his disposal and have them brought to him, with the words: ¡°you¡¯ve caught the prince¡¯s eye. Won¡¯t you come and listen to what he wishes to say to you?¡±

    While the youths'' expressions went tense from suddenly being summoned before a nobleman, Leo asked them, ¡°would you carry a spear for my sake?¡±

    He explained that in order to confer dignity to his baptismal ceremony, he wished to be accompanied by five hundred young men in full armour. A small sum of money would also be paid out to them, so they unhesitatingly jumped at the offer.

    The numbers increased in no time at all, and Percy Leegan, who was accompanying Leo, suggested sifting through them. He proposed that the criteria be that they had brothers, and that they were single. Upon hearing that, Leo simply said, ¡°I see,¡± and lowered his eyes.

    Even with Percy¡¯s stipulated conditions, they somehow gathered together five hundred young men, and Leo had them summoned several times for Percy to teach them some basic military skills.

    ¡°Even though I told you that I simply need soldiers for the prestige, it would be a problem if you were simply there as ornaments. If you have the mettle to kill enemies with your spears, then that will come through even when you stand still, and make you look more impressive. On the other hand, if you don¡¯t have that fighting spirit, it will be obvious that you¡¯re complete amateurs, and you¡¯ll become a laughing stock,¡± Leo argued to persuade the young men.

    At first, Percy took on the role of instructor, but when they were given spears to hold, it became apparent that some of them already had some technique. Some of them had even had practical experience manning fortresses as soldiers, so once Leo and the others had identified those, they immediately promoted them to platoon leaders, and left them the task of organising and training their own units.

    A strange thing to do, thought Savan, but he did not pay it any more attention than necessary. It was a truly childish way of thinking to want to demonstrate his own authority through a ceremony, but then, this was the prince who had advocated reorganising the army until he had been scolded by his own father. And it was equally indicative of childishness that he wanted to implement his ideals among his entourage, even if it was only on a very small scale.

    When he learned that scores of stone-cutters and labourers had been sent to Guinbar¡¯s craggy mountains, Darren was in the middle of entertaining himself, his compliant retainers, and his sons, with a hunt.

    Hunting was an aristocratic pastime, which also served to temper and forge body and mind, and Darren was therefore proud that his domains boasted any number of good hunting grounds. The only thing that was unobtainable to him without buying it from another territory, however, was stone with which to build a castle.

    Which was why he had his eyes on Savan¡¯s lands, to the west. Yet not only had Savan flatly refused Darren¡¯s suggestion of shared ownership of the quarries, he had even attempted to appeal directly to the sovereign-prince. Fortunately, even the nobles who had long had dealings with Savan had no intention of getting themselves involved. And that included the sovereign-prince. As for Savan himself, it must have been truly vexing to be made to realise anew what the balance of power was like between Darren and him.

    You''re a damned fool, Savan, to not know your own place. All you need to do is to keep pushing your old sack of bones to watch over the border.

    Darren and Savan were only about five years apart in age, but since Darren spent his days going out hunting, his skin had a healthy glow to it, and even though he was a little plump, he was in excellent physical condition compared to other men his age. Even now, he kept five mistresses.

    He felt nothing but contempt for Savan Roux, yet no sooner had the latter returned to his territory than he had apparently sent crowds of people to the quarry. Darren was surprised for a second, but he soon started to laugh while wagging his fleshy neck.

    ¡°Ha, ha, ha. Harvesting the ¡®crops¡¯ before they get stolen? I don¡¯t know if he wants to annoy me, but what¡¯s he hoping to do, spending huge sums of money to stockpile stone he won¡¯t be able to sell? Togo, you go and play with him.¡±

    Togo was Darren¡¯s oldest son. A grin spread across his plump face, which closely resembled his father¡¯s. He was thirty years old, and, while officially serving as his father¡¯s aide, he was the one who was secretly in charge of hiring marauders. Occasionally, he would ride out in person at the head of the soldiers, pretending to be a marauder and laying waste to Savan¡¯s territory. At those times, to avoid letting his face be seen, he wore a mask that a master blacksmith at the castle had forged for him. He gloated proudly at the way the marauders referred to him as ¡°Master Iron Mask¡±.

    The next day, that man in an iron mask, accompanied by five vassals and about twenty marauders, forced their way into the quarry. Just as the reports had said, scaffolding had already been erected at the foot of the mountain, and huge numbers of workers were carving out stone. The mineral dust from the rocks drifted in the wind, and Togo grimaced behind his mask.

    He had wanted to charge in immediately, but armed soldiers could be seen all over the quarry. No doubt the troops Savan had moved for guard duty. When they noticed them, they started shouting something and converging towards them.

    Taking hold of his horse¡¯s reins again, Togo decided to withdraw for the time being. Up until then, they had always pulled back from ravaging the quarry and surrounding villages whenever Savan sent out soldiers. They didn¡¯t need to go out of their way to shed blood; it was enough to simply give him plenty of trouble. Besides, Guinbar did not have the means to permanently station soldiers either in the villages or in this quarry.

    When Darren received the news from his son, however,

    ¡°Now that they¡¯re in the middle of quarrying the stone, there are crowds of people around. Maybe they¡¯re planning on having a few guards remain permanently.¡± He looked pensive for a while, then, ¡°right, let¡¯s bring things to a head. There won¡¯t be that many enemies. Go take the fight to them.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± having removed the iron mask from his sweaty face, Togo grinned broadly.

    ¡°Once you¡¯ve driven away the soldiers, don¡¯t chase them too far. Keep watch on the surroundings for a while, just to make sure. If it looks like they¡¯re coming back with increased numbers, do the same as usual and pull back. Seriously, don¡¯t go overboard. I won¡¯t close my eyes to it if you act like before and even attack the villages,¡± Darren didn¡¯t forget to warn his son.

    It would be easy to plunder by force of arms, but he was still, at least for the time being, a retainer to Sovereign-Prince Magrid. He had to maintain outward appearances.

    The next morning, with thirty additional marauders beefing up the previous day¡¯s line-up, Togo Actica headed towards the quarry.

    He found it completely deserted. The armed guards, as well as the craftsmen and labourers who had been working away so busily had vanished. They investigated the huts which had been built for the workmen to sleep in, but these too were completely empty.

    Togo had been hugely excited since that morning at the prospect of testing out on human opponents the skill he had long been polishing at hunting, but his targets had slipped from between his fingers.

    ¡°The hell, did they get scared because we showed up yesterday? They¡¯re not worthy of being men from Atall; Savan¡¯s soldiers don¡¯t even have an ounce of our guts.¡±

    In retaliation for having his hopes betrayed, Togo burned down the huts and the scaffolding which had been set up at the foot of the mountain. He roamed around the surroundings on horseback for a while, but got tired of the colourless landscape, and took a rest at the only remaining hut by the mountain.

    ¡°There isn¡¯t even a bird or a beast to shoot.¡±

    Togo had taken off his iron mask to sulkily wipe the sweat off his face when one of the vassals whispered into his ear as he was bringing him tea.

    ¡°There was a village when I went down to the riverside. Although, even if I say a village, it was more of a small settlement for hunters who roam from one hunting base to another. Even if we attack it, your lord father wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d like it too,¡± despite putting on an unwilling expression, Togo continued, ¡°it can¡¯t be helped. Dispelling their retainers¡¯ displeasure is part of the duty of those who stand above them. Grab a weapon, you lot. From here on, we¡¯re going hunting. But our opponents are going to be hunters who are used to taking down game, so don¡¯t be careless.¡±

    Regaining his enthusiasm, he drained his tea in one gulp then once more put on the mask.

    It was at that moment ¨C

    Arrows flew one after another into the hut¡¯s immediate surroundings. One man, who was just stepping out of the doorway, had the tip of his boot pierced and leapt back with a shriek.

    ¡°W-What is this?¡±

    Panicked, Togo peered out from the hunt and saw a group of riders appear from downhill. The armoured cavalrymen had their bows at the ready. There were about twenty of them perhaps.

    Togo grabbed a pot which had been left abandoned in the hut, and while covering his head with it, he just managed to jump on his horse which was tied outside. The others did the same, crawling out from the building and catching hold of their weapons.

    Togo¡¯s group had checked their surroundings. Yet even so, like clouds drifting out of nowhere in a clear sky, the enemy had appeared and had probably been intending to corner them like this from the start.

    As soon as Togo¡¯s group took up their stance to counterattack, the arrows stopped. In their place, black clouds again came rolling into view, this time at the riders¡¯ feet. It was a group of infantrymen, long-handled spears in hand.

    ¡°Get them!¡±

    At someone¡¯s command, they started to charge.

    Although Togo held his breath for a second, the attack was not one to lose his nerve over. Even from a distance, he could tell that they were amateurs, who were simply wearing armour like they were the real thing.

    Poor Savan, were you so understaffed that you had to hire neighbouring peasants? Togo¡¯s mood immediately lifted, and he smiled.

    ¡°Even if there are a lot of them, our opponents are just novices. Soldiers, go! I¡¯ll pay you for every head you take.¡±

    In response to his order, the marauders moved forward. They were, of course, very familiar with fighting, so it was sure to turn into a one-sided massacre. Carried by their momentum, they would attack on horseback from behind. With that intention in mind, Togo took the spear which was tied to his saddle.

    Speaking of spears, the ones that group of foot soldiers were carrying had handles which were far too long. They were about twice the normal length; let alone peasants, even seasoned soldiers would have difficulty handling them. Which just made it all the clearer that they were rank amateurs. And yet ¨C

    What?

    Togo could hardly believe his eyes.

    The foot soldiers were not using their weapons to jab and attack. In the first place, because of their spears¡¯ length, it was impossible to inflict fatal injuries on their enemies with them, so they were using them simply to halt heir opponents¡¯ charge.

    The tips moved vertically in a tight formation. They did not do so with any great vigour, yet even when Togo¡¯s subordinate marauders caught them in their hands and easily turned them aside, because of the long handles, they did not have time to get close to the enemy. At that point, Togo noticed that there were men without spears mixed in among the foot soldiers. They were armed with short-bladed swords, the complete opposite of the spears which they easily slipped beneath, before diving towards the chests of the marauders, who were having so much trouble advancing, and landing clean blows on them. Several men fell.

    ¡°B-Bastards!¡±

    When the marauders, who had been jabbing at air, concentrated their caution on the swordsmen, the tips of the spears once again swarmed towards them. When their attention was caught by those, they were again showered with blows from the short swords.

    The movements had clearly been drilled into them. In terms of numbers, this bunch of amateurs was double Togo¡¯s group. And thanks to the strange tactics they were using, they had gotten a head start on his subordinate soldiers, who were gradually being pushed back.

    While Togo was becoming worried, one of the vassals spurred his horse forward.

    ¡°Young lord, this way!¡±

    He too had no doubt decided that they were at a disadvantage and was looking to find an escape route while the marauders continued to fight. But even if they slipped past the group of infantrymen, there were still the twenty or so riders beyond them.

    There was no choice but to force their way through them.

    Just as Togo was making up his mind, there was once again movement among the enemy. A single cavalryman rode forward from among the group of riders.

    He wore a helmet, and Togo had no way of knowing it, but this was the group¡¯s commander, Leo Attiel.

    He had deliberately set only a small number of soldiers to guard the place on the previous day. It was of course well within his expectations that Darren¡¯s troops would attack today; therefore, after having the craftsmen leave, he and his group had concealed themselves in the mountainous terrain. In addition to the regular soldiers from the Royal Guard, Leo had also brought a part of the militia that he had previously gathered from the villages and had trained.

    There would be actual combat. Since the young men from the villages had not at all expected to find themselves in that situation, there were many who absolutely refused to go, but Leo did not say a word of reproach to them, and he took only the hundred or so of them who decided for themselves to take part.

    Fundamentally, just using the regular soldiers would have answered the purpose. In spite of this, Leo had purposefully brought them to a scene of genuine fighting. And just as purposefully, he had them stand them before Togo and his group, who had lost their path of retreat and who had no choice but to attack.

    For Leo too, this was his first time in a real fight.

    He had continued his martial training throughout his time in Allion. He had taken part in mock jousts. Yet when he saw blood flow for real, he was, unsurprisingly, unable to repress a shudder.

    I-I¡¯m going? Into that?

    The arms of a marauder was sent flying from a sword slash; the next moment, a peasant had his foot pierced. Simply from looking at it, he felt pain course through him at the same place. Simply from being on horseback, his breathing was as uneven as though somebody was strangling him by the neck. He wanted to scream out loud, ¡°Stop, please! Save me!¡±

    Leo clenched his teeth hard. No cry escaped from him and instead, it simply reverberated hollowly through his insides. He urged his horse another step forward.

    ¡°Your Highness!¡± Percy shouted, and he and Kuon ¨C who sympathised with his reaction ¨C were about to surround Leo from both sides when ¨C

    ¡°Forward!¡± he spurred his horse onwards as though to leave his companions with nothing but empty air.

    Percy, Kuon and the riders of the Royal Guard hurriedly followed after him. Leading the way, Leo brandished his spear.

    If I¡¯m not able to go first now, there¡¯ll be nothing for me afterwards.

    The resolve he strengthened in that moment was no temporary thing. For the past few days, every time the sun went down, he had told himself that over and over again. That he had to do it; that this was a stage on which he had to demonstrate his own skill.

    The enemy also urged their horses forward, although a little too late. Their figures were rapidly approaching. There was no longer either pain or suffocation. There was only the path on which a single second separated life from death, and the strength of spirit to run headlong across it.

    He took aim and thrust his spear at an enemy. It grazed the mounted warrior¡¯s breastplate. On the other hand, the enemy rider¡¯s spear struck hard against Leo¡¯s helmet.

    Just as Leo¡¯s vision went black, a single point of light blazed within it, only to be scattered by the sound of horses¡¯ hooves. The next rider was already approaching right up to him.

    The fight ended in barely any time at all.

    ¡°Are you safe, Your Highness!¡± Percy came rushing.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± said Leo Attiel, removing his helmet. Blood was flowing from the area around his temple. Nevertheless, he had gotten away with an unexpectedly light injury.

    The outcome of the battle was overwhelming victory. Upon being attacked by several dozen people, the marauders wavered then fled one after another. The group of riders had still held out, but the braves of the Royal Guard clustered around Leo. Percy¡¯s handling of the spear had grown even sharper and faster after experiencing real combat, while Kuon compensated for his scrawny physique thanks to the innumerable ways of fighting retained in his muscle memory.

    Coordination within the enemy cavalry broke apart while several men fell from their horses. As luck would have it, one of those was the man in the iron mask who was thought to be their commander. Kuon jumped from his horse without a moment¡¯s delay. His speed in doing so was wholly characteristic of him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t kill him!¡±

    In response to Percy¡¯s shout, Kuon simply sat astride the man in the mask, his blade thrust against the man¡¯s throat.

    They had reaped splendid results from the battle.

    Compared to them... Leo sighed in frustration as he wiped the blood from his temple. He had not been able to kill a single enemy. Quite the opposite: the spear attack from his second opponent had thrown Leo¡¯s posture off balance, and he too had almost fallen from his horse. Mortification at his disappointing performance kept flooding through him.

    ¡°You were magnificent.¡± When Percy called out to him, the prince uncharacteristically raised his voice in anger.

    ¡°Stop with the flattery. I wasn¡¯t even able to do anything.¡±

    Percy smiled gently.

    ¡°Being the one leading the charge on your first campaign cannot have been easy.¡±

    At Percy¡¯s words, even Kuon ¨C who had left the man in the iron mask to the royal guardsmen ¨C chimed in.

    ¡°The vanguard rider¡¯s job is to keep advancing until the end. And while he¡¯s running through, the riders behind him spear the enemies who have broken posture because of him. That''s obvious,¡± he said.

    Percy made an eye signal at him.

    ¡°...er, is how it is, Your Highness,¡± Kuon mended his speech at the very last moment.

    At that, Leo smiled despite himself. In a complete reversal from his earlier regret over his disappointing performance, he now experienced a sense of accomplishment and of satisfaction at having pulled off an outrageous feat that was completely unlike him.

    ¡°Also, when you, er, are unused to handling a spear, you should not, er, attempt to jab; it is... better to swing it to hit against them. When you thrust, you leave yourself, er, you leave openings. While you¡¯re stabilising yourself in the saddle, like this, ...¡±

    While continuing with his faltering lecture, Kuon was probably thinking to himself that this prince is a menace.

    Percy burst out laughing.

    Part 2

    When Darren Actica received the report from those of his vassals who had escaped back, he was left literally dumbfounded.

    The force which should have been more than enough to rout Savan¡¯s soldiers had been annihilated, and on top of that, his son Togo had fallen into enemy hands. Moreover, it had become clear that the one who had brought and commanded those troops had been Lord Leo Attiel, and that it was for the sake of building him a large-scale church that Savan¡¯s stone was being quarried.

    Darren ground his teeth. It was obvious that Savan and the prince had read his movements and set a trap. His hatred was not only reserved for those two, however, and he dearly wanted to personally chop off the heads of every last one of the bunch which had shamelessly come scurrying home.

    Still, the most pressing problem was Togo. It would take no time at all to reveal that the real identity of ¡°Iron Mask¡± was Darren¡¯s son. Just when he was trying in vain to devise some kind of counter-measure, a messenger arrived from Savan.

    Darren made up his mind. Accompanied by several attendants, he rode hard and arrived at Guinbar Castle just as the sun was setting.

    Savan had him guided to the hall which was used for audiences. Although, for all that it was called a hall, it was a cramped room, longer than it was wide, that got crowded with just thirty people inside. There were a few hanging lamps, but it still felt gloomy and oppressive.

    Sitting in the castle lord¡¯s seat, Savan thanked Darren for taking the trouble to come all that way. His manner was not at all appropriate for a meeting between castle lords of equal standing, and it was as if he were dealing with a subordinate. Darren desperately fought to swallow his anger and humiliation.

    ¡°This is a strange business. You say that an outlaw leader is using my son¡¯s name?¡±

    ¡°Yes, exactly. Your honoured son, Sir Togo, is not with you? If you had brought him along, this absurd inquiry could have ended before it began.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes, but his health is poor, and he is confined to his bed. My son is very frail, not at all like me. Him leading bandits is simply impossible.¡±

    Darren had broken out into an unstoppable sweat. Savan offered a perfunctory show of concern for Togo¡¯s health before continuing.

    ¡°Well then, just to make sure,¡± he clapped his hands and ordered the captured criminal to be brought before them.

    Before long, a man with his hands tied behind his back entered the hall. Darren scowled: the man certainly seemed to be Togo, but he was still wearing that iron mask. They were sure to have torn the mask off of him and checked his identity when he was first captured, so they must have deliberately put it back on him. Were they trying to put psychological pressure on Darren by having him go through the whole process of having his son be exposed?

    The man in the iron mask still didn¡¯t say anything as he was brought forward. There was only one thing that Darren could do.

    ¡°It¡¯s a different person,¡± he spat out after the first glance. ¡°As I just said a moment ago, Togo is at my castle. Which means this can only be a completely different person. Good grief, just what kind of cunning snake is this that he would even use my son¡¯s name?¡±

    ¡°Yet when he was being interrogated by the soldiers, this man seemed curiously well-informed about the Actica House, and the face under the mask looked a lot like your son¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°In this world, there are those frightful beings known as sorcerers. According to what I¡¯ve heard, they can take other people¡¯s appearance and pull off large-scale magic tricks. In Allion especially, the centre of politics is overrun by those who use sorcery. Isn¡¯t this just one of Allion¡¯s tricks to undermine Atall?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± while Savan was glaring warily at Darren, Darren on the other hand was carefully scrutinising the surroundings. He could not see Lord Leo, who was said to be in Guinbar. As for Togo, perhaps he had already completely resigned himself, as he only occasionally stirred slightly, without ever uttering a word.

    Are you taking you father¡¯s feelings into account? Then just stay as you are, Togo, Darren thought with a prayer-like fervour. For now, there¡¯s no other choice. But sooner or later, there will be a chance for me to rescue you.

    That was the direction that Darren¡¯s thoughts were running in, however Savan took the worst step of all those that Darren had anticipated.

    ¡°If it isn¡¯t your son, then you won¡¯t mind even if I have him executed on the spot, right?¡±

    For a second, Darren stopped breathing.

    Said otherwise, it was only during that one second that he hesitated. He had already made up his mind and prepared himself ever since leaving his own castle.

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t mind. This bandit was caught in your territory; do whatever you want with him.¡± Darren spoke clearly, his face calm and his voice unwavering.

    Savan was beaming as he nodded his head.

    ¡°I see. With that, all doubts have been cleared. I really must thank you again for having come. If you have time, why don¡¯t we have a drink? How about a cup of wine after the execution?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I too still have one or two trifling matters to attend to. I will be taking my leave.¡±

    Damn you... Darren was smiling, but his heart was boiling with anger hot enough to melt iron.

    Of course Savan Roux must have known from the start that the man he had caught was Togo himself. On top of that, he was going to execute the son in front of the father¡¯s very eyes.

    Damn you, Savan, you fucking bastard. You¡¯re only this cocky because the prince decided to help you on a whim. And where is Lord Leo? Bah! What does that childish brat think he can do, when even Sovereign-Prince Magrid fears me? One day, when your church is built, I¡¯ll burn it to the ground along with this castle, you bastards. You¡¯ll get your reward for what you¡¯re trying to do here.

    It took everything Darren had to stop his limbs from shaking with fury as he turned on his heel to leave. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the man in the iron mask. It truly needed courage for Darren to look at him.

    And yet ¨C

    Lord Leo!

    Darren¡¯s startled gaze was pulled towards the direction of the man in the mask. At some point, Lord Leo Attiel had appeared close to where the masked man was. He was looking straight at Darren. While Darren hesitated, wondering if he should stop walking and greet the prince, Leo stretched his hand out towards the iron mask. He couldn¡¯t possibly be intending to reveal the son¡¯s face so as to watch the father¡¯s reaction?

    Not even a demon would act that way. You think I¡¯ll fall for your tricks?

    A set look came into Darren¡¯s face. Leo quietly plucked off the mask.

    Ah! Despite his determination, Darren almost shouted out involuntarily.

    When the mask was removed, the features bared beneath it were not those of his son. It was simply a different person whose build was very similar to Togo¡¯s. Darren dimly recalled that this was one of the marauders that his son had led. It was hardly surprising that he hadn¡¯t said a word until then since there was a gag blocking his mouth.

    W-What is this?

    Darren had just barely been able to hold back his agitation, but immediately afterwards, he was dealt the final blow. Feeling lightheaded, he took two or three staggering steps.

    Togo appeared from behind the prince. Although there was a soldier on either side of him, he was not bound with ropes. But his eyes burned with an even fiercer anger than the one Darren had felt towards Savan, and moreover, it was turned directly towards his father.

    This was planned!?

    By then, Darren had come to that realisation. After placing the mask on a different person and making Darren believe that it was his son, Savan had confirmed that he ¡®wouldn¡¯t mind even if the man is executed.¡¯ And they had let Togo witness the whole thing.

    Who could measure Togo¡¯s grief, despair and anger? He had acted on his father¡¯s orders, yet his father had betrayed him.

    He was surely filled with resentment towards Darren. And left behind in this castle, he would soon learn the feeling of hopelessness; since his father had insisted that he was ¡®a different person¡¯, he was no longer Togo Actica. He had also lost the support of House Actica. From here on, he was no more than ¡®a marauder who had ravaged Guinbar¡¯.

    When will I be executed? ¨C It was obvious that Togo, his mind and body worn down by that terror, would be like putty in Savan and Leo¡¯s hands.

    He would probably plead before the sovereign-prince that he had gone to Guinbar on his father¡¯s orders. If the testimony came from his Darren¡¯s own son, then it would sound very credible. The political strength and influence that Darren had worked so hard to achieve would collapse. It was even possible that the sovereign-prince would take advantage of it to destroy the Actica House, which was a constant source of hindrance to him.

    In other words, Savan and Leo had invited Darren here to threaten him: if you try anything further against this territory, we will use our trump card.

    Darren avoided his son¡¯s eyes. In these past few minutes, his glossy skin had lost its springiness and he looked as though he had aged ten or twenty years in one go.

    Leo walked up to him as he was totteringly leaving the hall. Although taken aback, Darren had to keep up appearances no matter what the situation was.

    ¡°G-Greetings, my lord prince. Were you also here?¡±

    ¡°Even though you went out of your way to visit, it seems that it was a waste of your time and effort.¡±

    ¡°Y-Yes...¡±

    Damned demon, what do you want now?

    Even though Darren¡¯s anger against the prince was reignited, it didn¡¯t have the same force as earlier. Up until now, he had judged Leo as being as worthless as Savan, but now he felt daunted when facing the prince, who seemed to have strangely transformed, as though possessed.

    ¡°But I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here, Sir Darren.¡±

    ¡°G-Glad? What do you mean?¡±

    Leo explained that since he would be converting, they were in the middle of building a church in Savan¡¯s domains. Darren had already known that for a while now, but he was just about able to feign surprise and to reply with: ¡°I see.¡± The true surprise, however, was what was to come next.

    ¡°From what I hear, Sir Darren, you are also planning to build a new castle? I¡¯ve talked about it with Sir Savan, and since we¡¯ve gone to the trouble of starting to have the stone quarried, we were wondering if we couldn¡¯t also cut out more to be used for something other than building the church. That being the case, we could sell you the leftover stone at a reduced price.¡±

    W-What...

    The two of them had already left the hall and were going down the stairs. They arrived in front of the gate. Leo suggested a cost ¡®at eighty-percent of the market rate¡¯. It didn¡¯t seem like a particularly impressive cut in price, but a huge quantity of building stones would be needed to construct a castle, so it would mean a considerable saving for Darren if he purchased most of the materials from Savan¡¯s territory.

    ¡°I-I am very grateful for your offer. Later... I will send a messenger to Sir Savan.¡±

    ¡°Please do.¡±

    Having escorted Darren to the outside of the gate, Leo retraced his steps back into the castle, walking exactly as though he was returning to his own home. Darren turned around to glance at his retreating back only once.

    ¡°Just what is he, that prince?¡±

    The almost aggressively gleaming fat seemed to have fallen completely from Darren Actica¡¯s face, and his shoulders trembled.

    Part 3

    If you asked him ''what are you'', Leo would have no other choice but to give you his name ¨C

    ¡°I¡¯m Leo Attiel.¡±

    Recently, however, he had been wondering about it more and more often.

    Is that really the case?

    Am I really Leo Attiel?

    He had repeatedly been wanting to ask that of himself. Which was mostly because, since his confrontation with Hayden Swift on the night of the banquet, he had constantly been on the move.

    So far, everything was going as planned.

    The first thing had been to visit the vassal-lords and other nobles to argue the need to reorganise Atall¡¯s army. The reason for that had been the same as what he had earlier explained to Percy and the others: he wanted to ascertain how many people understood the danger that Atall was currently facing, to see how many shared his own anxieties at this point in time.

    Just as he had expected, almost no one saw the pressing threat that was menacing Atall. It was exactly as Camus had pointed out: even though everyone, their faces pale, had gone to petition the sovereign-prince in person as soon as relations with Allion deteriorated even slightly, now that the banquet had created a friendlier mood, they had all gone back to their happy-go-lucky way of thinking, and no longer seemed afraid of anything.

    That being the case, rather than having any sense of crisis management, they were like children who simply read the expression on their father¡¯s strict face.

    Leo didn¡¯t find that entirely unreasonable. Seven years ago, there had been war with Allion, and the ones who had misjudged the situation had been those of the ruling house. Or at any rate, that was how most of the vassal-lords saw it. Failure to discern Shazarn¡¯s internal situation and inability to predict the course of the war had led the country to receive a harsh blow from Allion. That, along with the affair of the dragonbone vein, had been one of the causes that had to lead the princely House¡¯s loss of authority.

    Therefore, it was completely understandable that the vassal-lords, who didn¡¯t want to see the same mistake repeated a second time, had moved to criticise the sovereign-prince. However, if they were blithely unaware of the impeding threat, then that was a completely different story.

    Within all that, Leo had the good fortune of meeting Savan Roux, a person who had some sense of the danger that the Principality of Atall was facing. This wasn¡¯t based on predictions like Leo¡¯s thoughts were, but was an inevitable consequence of both the harm Savan had suffered from Allion in the past, and the geographical location of his fief. In addition to that, he had been put through bitter experiences by Darren, one of his compatriots.

    Someone who feels the danger down to their bones will be ready to move at any moment, was Leo¡¯s estimation. Which meant that he would be far more ready to take action than those who saw no need to change the current situation.

    That was why he decided that the first thing to do was to approach Savan. Then, while thinking about what would come after that, he had hit upon the idea of converting to the Cross Faith. The plan was not only to draw psychologically closer to Allion, but also to use the construction of a church to block Darren, and to earn Savan¡¯s trust all in one go.

    ¨C It was at around about that point that Leo had started to question whether he was really himself.

    Not that he had any time to worry about it, instead pushing forward to fully implement the plan he had come up with.

    To truly have Darren submit, I can¡¯t simply use my position as prince to keep him in check. Since he¡¯s sending soldiers, I have to retaliate with even stronger force.

    With that in mind, he had deliberately hidden the fact that a church was being built so as to lure Darren¡¯s soldiers.

    It will turn into a fight. In which case, this is a good chance for me to experience my first battle. So I¡¯ll need soldiers that I can move around freely. If I only use the troops borrowed from the Royal Guard, it won¡¯t be enough to earn recognition.

    That thought led him to recruit soldiers from among the people. At the same time, he steeled his resolve to ready himself for his first battle. This is repeating what has already been said, but during that short time, he did not have time to hesitate. What kept him preoccupied was always what would come after he had put it all into practice, and after convincing his father to build a church, he was not without regrets.

    Saying I believed in the Cross Faith was insincere. I¡¯m hiding my real intentions from Father and from my older brother. And even though I don¡¯t feel even a shred of piety towards the god of the Cross Faith... Right, you could say I¡¯m even deceiving a god. How long will I keep up this lie?

    When he was at the scene of actual fighting, his body and mind had once again been shaken. The brutal atmosphere; the fear that an arrow might come flying from afar at any moment and pierce his throat; it was completely different from when he had sat at his desk, turning over his thoughts. He wanted to curse his past self, to ask him why he had come up with a plan that had put him in so much danger.

    And also ¨C

    There had been that situation that Leo had never imagined when he was sitting thinking at his desk.

    The peasant militia that he had hired for himself.

    Although the battle at the quarry had ended in complete victory, it had not been a fight without casualties. Five of the farmers had lost their lives, and more than a dozen had lost arms, legs or received similarly severe injuries. Since the victims¡¯ parents had not been told that their sons would be sent into battle, they were utterly astounded, and plunged into sorrow and grief. Father Bosc took the responsibility of offering them mental succour. Percy brought him to the parents of the fallen, and asked him to preside over their burial.

    ¡°Your sons have left for the fields of tranquillity. Please mourn for them. But please remember that those left behind in this world have their own duty. So that your sons may find peace, you too must reconcile yourselves to finding peace of mind as soon as you can.¡±

    Even though the priest¡¯s prayers and rituals, and the many words he spoke to them, truly could not appease their feelings, they did provide them with a support to lean on.

    Nevertheless, among the village youths, growing ambition outweighed sorrow and grief. Regardless of whether they had lived or died, the young men who had taken part in the fight received money, and those who had killed even a single enemy soldier were given a far greater amount.

    Moreover, rumours started being whispered to the effect that,

    ¡°The fact that farmers with no experience in warfare were able to win victory is thanks to the power and skill of Attiel¡¯s second prince. Even though it was his first battle, he confronted the enemy like a god of war.¡±

    Leo figured that the rumours had mostly been spread by Percy.

    ¡°I also want to stand next to Lord Leo holding a spear.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve always thought that would suit me much better than a hoe or a spade.¡±

    Many came rushing to apply to join Lord Leo¡¯s troops.

    From a balcony at Guinbar Castle, Leo looked down towards the young men who were gathered again today. Among them, there were a few who were his age, and their honest faces shone with hope and expectation. Leo himself knew the feeling of longing for a bright future in which you could become something other than yourself.

    A soldier soon appeared before them and stated the same conditions that Percy given before, namely: they had to have brothers, and they had to be single. When Percy had previously suggested those criteria, Leo had been surprised, but they were meant to take into account that there will definitely be victims in the fight. It¡¯s best not to invite more resentment than necessary from the villagers.

    Leo hadn¡¯t really taken that to heart. Even though he had expected there to be victims, there hadn¡¯t been ay sense of reality to it.

    The men who did not meet the conditions started muttering one after another.

    ¡°Boo-hoo, quit oinking like pigs, you lot. All those who don¡¯t meet the conditions are to go home. And don¡¯t bother lying, we¡¯ll find out later and the money paid you will be taken back,¡± the soldier barked. Incidentally, he too had been a farmer only a few days ago, but he had managed to kill two enemies in battle.

    Leo quietly stepped away from the balcony.

    Money was needed to hire soldiers. So were lodgings to station them in, provisions and also equipment. Leo, however, was not hiring them as professional soldiers. They would remain ordinary farmers, craftsmen or labourers who would perform their work as usual, while only occasionally being called up to train and do military drills. And they were paid when they responded to those calls.

    You could say that Leo was stepping back from the system of a permanent army that he had spoken about to the nobles, but in his current circumstances, this was as much as he could do. Moreover, he had to ask Savan for the money to pay the soldiers. Now that the harassment from Darren had completely stopped, Savan trusted the prince implicitly and listened favourably to anything he said.

    Gaining that trust also meant making his first ally among the vassal-lords, which was all according to plan.

    Construction work on the church continued steadily and, about half a month after Leo had come to stay at Guinbar Castle, a simple chapel was completed. When that day arrived, the stones strewn around the building site were tidied up, the temporary scaffolding was dismantled, and decorations made from flowers were hung up all around.

    Father Bosc had said that ¡°labouring for free will earn forgiveness for many sins,¡± and this had spread far and wide, so that able-bodied men from the surrounding villages had gathered one after another, and the building work had been able to advance quickly.

    The evening before the baptism finally arrived, and with it came one minor occurrence.

    A single horse-drawn carriage arrived from Tiwana, guarded in all directions by soldiers. Florrie Anglatt was riding in it. She had come to celebrate her fianc¨¦¡¯s baptism ¨C Leo having also informed her that his religious conversion was intended to bring about a reconciliation with Allion ¨C but for some reason, she did not step out of the carriage.

    She would not reply at all, even when the soldiers or the people of Guinbar Castle called out to her from outside. Upon hearing that, Leo came running.

    ¡°Is it all right for me to come close to a chapel of the Cross Faith?¡± her shoulders trembled as she sat in a corner of the carriage.

    Florrie¡¯s mother was a follower of Badyne. Although by no means a fervent believer, Florrie had been influenced by her, at least to the extent that she had been taught many of the charms and incantations characteristic of the faithful of Badyne. Ever-sensitive, she was apparently worried that treading on the holy ground of a different god would could bring punishment down upon her.

    ¡°God is tolerant. Besides, I would never believe in a god that would hand down punishment to a girl as innocent and upright as you. Come on, Florrie, I¡¯ll show you around the chapel.¡±

    Leo held out his hand, but Florrie¡¯s mind had not been put at ease. Whereupon, Leo, suddenly and incomprehensibly, got down on all fours on the ground before the carriage door. Florrie, the soldiers and the castle personnel stared at him, astounded.

    ¡°L-Leo, what are you doing?¡±

    ¡°You do it too,¡± Leo called out to the soldiers.

    They looked at each other, but since the prince had taken the lead in crawling on the ground, each of them, their expressions dubious, hunched over like he was. Florrie was open-mouthed.

    ¡°Just walk on our backs. Wherever you go, Florrie, I will definitely prepare a path of bent backs for you to step on. Because in that case, you won¡¯t have walked on the ground, and even God won¡¯t be able to say a thing about it. Come on, hurry up.¡±

    Florrie¡¯s face instantly went red. Her eyebrows slanted sharply downwards and she raised both shoulders.

    Treating me like a child again! Just when it seemed like she was about to shout out angrily, all the strength seemed to drain from her body and she heaved a sigh.

    ¡°Leo, no matter how much time goes by, you¡¯re still mean to me.¡±

    ¡°Where would you find another man willing to give his back to lift his fianc¨¦e?¡±

    ¡°Do stop it. I hate that kind of thing, Leo.¡±

    As she spoke, Florrie jumped nimbly from the carriage. Fortunately, the event ended with only the prince¡¯s back being trampled on.

    They were blessed with beautiful weather.

    From early morning onwards, crowds gathered around the brand-new chapel. Since a great many people had been hired to help with the large building-work, it had been widely talked about and those gathered there came not only from Guinbar¡¯s castle town, but also from other neighbouring towns and villages.

    Some stalls had also been set up. Many of them sold food, and the sugary scent of pastries wafted alongside the fragrant smell of roast meat. Now and then, you might catch sight of people who seemed to be performers, and musicians played their instruments here and there.

    Rather than a solemn ceremony, it was more like a festival day, but according to Father Bosc, a baptism was ¡°like the start of a new life, and it is best to have as many people as possible celebrate it with you.¡± Of course, he was also aiming to have people feel closer to the unfamiliar Cross Faith. Besides, even though it was a baptismal ceremony, the people would not be able to observe Leo¡¯s baptism into the faith.

    The ceremony was currently under way, and Leo Attiel was shut away in the chapel while Father Bosc recited his god¡¯s catechism. The people were outside, eating and drinking whatever they liked best, chatting pleasantly, and waiting impatiently for the prince to emerge from the chapel.

    Several nobles had also turned up. It went without saying that Savan, the lord of Guinbar Castle, was there, but so was Darren Actica. Other than Florrie, no had come from Tiwana, and although several elderly and distant relatives of the ruling House had shown up, jolted along in horse carriages, Leo¡¯s family members were not present.

    Finally, there was one more vassal-lord: Bernard. His wife and child were with him; his still youthful wife was as beautiful as rumour claimed, and their little daughter, who had inherited both her parents¡¯ good looks, was truly lovely. They were the very picture of a happy family, and fit in perfectly with the splendour of the occasion, yet Bernard looked somewhat glum.

    He had talked with Leo at the banquet and he remembered the impression he had of him at the time. Taking into account the announcement of his betrothal to Florrie, as well as his petition for reorganising the army, Bernard¡¯s thoughts had been that it¡¯s easy to see that he wants to do something. This could be interesting, but I¡¯ll want to be watching him from as far away as possible. Although enjoyable from a distance, Leo was dangerous enough to burn anyone who carelessly got close.

    When he heard that Lord Leo was going to be baptised, he realised that prince wouldn¡¯t be doing it simply for the sake of it, and that there were certainly some intentions regarding Allion lurking behind it. Consequently, he had wanted to pretend to go sightseeing somewhere with no relation whatsoever to the ceremony, but his wife and daughter both insisted that: ¡°we want to go to the prince¡¯s baptism.¡±

    His wife was from a small country west of Atall which was now part of Allion¡¯s territory, and she had been born and raised as part of the Cross Faith. His daughter, who was still only six years old, had also been influenced by it. Pestered by his wife, Bernard had even built a small chapel for his castle.

    A letter, written in the prince¡¯s own hand, arrived for Bernard¡¯s wife and daughter.

    Dammit, that was completely unnecessary.

    Bernard cursed the prince but also himself for having revealed in the course of conversation that his wife and child belonged to the Cross Faith.

    When his wife had received the letter, she had been deeply moved. If the prince joined the faith and a large church was built within the country, then naturally, the situations for adherents of the Cross Faith would vastly improve compared to what they were now. She even suggested that Bernard could maybe build a secondary residence near Guinbar, so that they could go and worship whenever they wanted to.

    Completely unnecessary!

    The ceremony within the chapel came to an end, and Lord Leo emerged from within, greeted by cheers.

    It was probably a lingering trace of the ceremony that his hair and face were damp. Leo¡¯s expression was bright as he waved his hand. Recently, he had simply been tying his long hair into a single bunch at the back of his head, but today, it was carefully braided. Besides that, he wore a white cloak over his ceremonial clothes and, as he waved smilingly, he looked like a noble youth who had slipped out of a story, so much so that the young village women gathered there could only gaze at him in admiration.

    Young men dressed in brand-new armour carried the flags of the Attiel House as they walked behind the prince. Accompanying and intersecting with those flags was another one of a blue cross on a white background.

    Young girls dressed in many-pleated, sleeveless tunics were lined up along the path that Leo was following, and as they sang, they showered him in petals to wish blessing on his baptism.

    For now, the baptismal ceremony had been completed.

    Naturally, the construction of the cathedral continued. Lord Leo¡¯s baptism had attracted a lot of interest, and there was an incessant stream of people from the neighbouring villages wishing to be baptised as well. Also, despite the fact that the construction work was still ongoing, pilgrims from all over had already started visiting the territory. Once they heard that people were flocking to Guinbar, merchants also travelled there in great numbers. And since large-scale building work naturally needed not only craftsmen, but also labourers for the manual work, there were many people who came looking for jobs, and who brought their families with them.

    The result was that Guinbar¡¯s markets were thriving, and Savan received an amount of revenue that would have been unthinkable up until then.

    After his baptism, Leo remained at Guinbar Castle. He had preparations to make for the next stage in his plan.

    Savan, the lord of said castle, had no objections. He wept when Father Bosc offered a special prayer before the tombs of his two sons. The distrust and anger he had long felt towards the ruling House no longer included Lord Leo.

    As for Leo, he immersed himself in his work for a while, but it was then that something outside of his predictions came to alter the situation.

    The Dytiann Alliance took action.

 Volume 2, 4: Pale Flames

    Volume 2, Chapter 4: Pale Flames

    Part 1

    One of the castle lords who defended Atall¡¯s eastern border had received a letter from Dytiann, the gist of which was that they wished to send envoys to Atall¡¯s capital city, Tiwana. The letter was immediately forwarded to Sovereign-Prince Magrid.

    More problems? The sovereign-prince felt like clutching his head.

    Just when he thought that they had weathered the storm with Allion to the west, here came Dytiann from the east.

    ¡°We wish to give praise to Lord Leo for his wise and decisive judgement in bowing his head before the Lord¡¯s teachings. We wish also to request a chance to meet him in person and to converse with him,¡± stated the message.

    Leo had only been setting up measures to use against Allion, so the intervention of this new power was a problem for him too. Depending on how things went, it might force him to revise part of his plans.

    In any case, they needed to probe around to find out what really lay behind Dytiann¡¯s request to send envoys.

    Since the other side has suggested it, should I meet them in person? The thought flickered through his mind.

    Besides, he did have a desire to appear on the political scene, where the situation appeared to be constantly fluctuating. His thoughts were similar to Percy¡¯s just after he had experienced his first campaign, yet Leo also felt that he had already stood out too much in the matter at Guinbar. So if he stepped forward and declared that he would meet the envoys, it would not be favourably received.

    If negative rumours such as the prince is meddling unnecessarily again were to spread, he would encounter difficulties in implementing his plans from here on. Yet even if he didn¡¯t meet with them himself, he needed to have a firm grasp on Dytiann¡¯s actual intentions.

    So Camus headed towards Tiwana, holding in his hand a letter from Leo stating that, ¡°I am sending a monk of the Cross Faith in my place. Would it be acceptable to have him sit in at the meeting?¡±

    Dytiann was a group of countries tied together by the Cross Faith. If Camus was given the position of representative of Conscon Temple, then there would be nothing unusual about him attending the meeting, especially since, in all likelihood, Dytiann¡¯s business would be related to the temple. Lord Leo¡¯s conversion simply offered them a chance to seek out talks and was, so to speak, no more than a pretext.

    Having arrived at that point, the one thing which caused Leo concern was Camus. When informed about the issue, he had seemed to brood over something for a moment. This usually responsive man had been plunged in thought with an almost agonised expression on his face, and even deeper wrinkles than usual carved into his brow. In the end, he had agreed, ¡°if it¡¯s an order.¡±

    Camus had gathered skilled builders from throughout the land and had only just returned to the prince¡¯s side in Guinbar, so perhaps he really didn¡¯t like receiving orders in such quick succession, or else he wouldn¡¯t have been so reluctant.

    Equally curious was that Sarah showed the same reaction. Even though she had not been ordered to do so, she accompanied her brother. Her normal way of doing things was to do whatever she pleased, but this time, she silently huddled close to her brother, whereas Camus made no objection to having his sister come along.

    ¡°They¡¯re exactly like soldiers going off to fight a hopeless battle,¡± said Leo from on top of the castle ramparts as he watched the siblings leave. He probably meant that there was a sense of despair about them. Percy was with him on the ramparts, and they exchanged an anxious glance.

    Camus and Sarah continued across the plain in almost complete silence. That night, lying in a room of an inn at a relay-station town, within the pitch darkness, Camus stared up at the ceiling.

    Dytiann, huh?

    There were feelings he had been unable to stifle ever since Lord Leo had ordered them to attend the meeting. Confusion, and no small amount of sadness. At times, when he forgot to hide it, fierce anger showed in his face. The strongest feeling of all, however, was probably homesickness.

    They had not yet revealed it to anyone, but Camus and Sarah were born in Dytiann.

    To be more precise, they were from a small country which belonged to the Dytiann federation. Moreover, they did not come from the street: their father was from a powerful family which was close to the king, and he was also a domain lord who had established his hall in a village. Although they were a noble family, they were not very rich, yet even so, the two siblings, Camus and Sarah, lived a life in which they never lacked food or a warm bed.

    Camus worked hard at his studies every day, whereas Sarah tended to slip away from her boring classes to run and play with the village children until she was covered in dirt.

    Their own country included, almost all of the surrounding powers, whether large or small, had the Cross Faith as their national religion. Most of them were affiliated to the Church organisation that was centred around Dytiann Cathedral, forming a coalition that was both religious and military. The country where Camus and Sarah had been born and raised was no exception.

    Yet when a power grows oversized, even one bound together by religious convictions, internal strife is sure to arise.

    ¡°The upper echelons of Dytiann¡¯s church reek of corruption and greed.¡± With their slogan of ¡°wresting God¡¯s teachings back from those in power,¡± movements opposing the church started to spring up all around. This was the first step that would later lead to the creation of the ¡®Holy Dytiann Alliance¡¯, and that initial stage brought with it the worst civil strife.

    Camus and Sarah¡¯s country was also embroiled in the turmoil. The fires of war burned throughout the land and swallowed up countless lives.

    The king entrusted Camus¡¯ father with a thousand soldiers to go and suppress those fires, but he fell into an enemy trap and perished in combat. Their hall was surrounded by enemy soldiers. In its front garden, their mother was burned at the stake.

    The siblings were not yet ten years old, and attendants led them out of the castle to flee. In the end, however, they were still captured. They were declared, ¡°agents of the corrupt Church of Dytiann, guilty of despoiling the people,¡± and were almost executed.

    However, unable to watch such young children be executed, a priest of the anti-Church faction took them under his wing.

    His name was Tom. He brought Camus to the monastery where he was abbot, and had Sarah placed in a somewhat remote nunnery that also fell under his jurisdiction.

    At first, Camus had furiously rejected the teachings that were handed down to them. Whatever flowery rhetoric you dressed them up in, weren¡¯t these the precepts that had killed his father and burned his mother alive?

    He opposed Abbot Tom in every way, was constantly planning his escape, and was willing to use violence, yet the abbot patiently kept him company. He would scold him harshly, but he would also shed tears with him. Every time he cried, the abbot would hold the boy close; Camus could still remember the feel and warmth of Tom¡¯s woollen habit.

    A year passed, then two.

    It wasn¡¯t that he had forgotten the sorrow and anger of losing his parents, but the target of those emotions was changing. It was no longer aimed at a specific power, a specific teaching, or a specific person.

    Why do people ¨C especially people who claim to call upon the same god ¨C wage war like that? Why do they take from others like that, why do they satisfy themselves like that?

    It expanded wider, and even into the realm of the philosophical.

    Wasn¡¯t the simple life at the monastery enough? Every day, their stomachs were more than half full. They were assured of a place to sleep. Every day, they would pray during the pauses in manual labour, meditate, read the holy scriptures, debate the interpretations of ancient teachings ¨C wasn¡¯t that enough, or rather, wasn¡¯t that the only way for humans to live?

    For a kid, I was a convincing sophist.

    When he thought about the past like this, Camus still unconsciously wanted to look away from the contradictions that had existed within him.

    Although it looked as though the brunt of his anger had changed, he could not reconcile that with the bubbling, boiling blood that coursed within him. When he remembered their hall engulfed in flames, when he remembered his mother¡¯s screams, when he remembered how he had run barefoot along the flagstones, pulling his little sister by the hand, his irrepressible bitterness and his seething blood drove Camus to agony. There was no one he could blame, no one he could hate, no one he could hurt ¨C at that thought, his feelings, having lost their target raged inside him.

    When Camus was thirteen, a certain group came to the monastery asking for lodgings. They were priests travelling on a pilgrimage, but with them were also mercenaries who had been hired to escort them. One of them was a master at the spear. One morning, before the sun had fully risen and when he was returning to the cloister after the early prayers, Camus came across the sight of the mercenary training on a hilltop.

    His body outlined by the day¡¯s first, faint rays of light, he vigorously went through his motions. Just when it looked as though he was moving as fiercely and incessantly as the wind, he would sometimes suddenly stop still. Camus watched, transfixed, as ¡®motion¡¯ turned to ¡®stillness¡¯, and ¡®stillness¡¯ to ¡®motion¡¯ in swift succession. Rather than being violent, to Camus¡¯ eyes, it looked holy and sublime. Every time the spear whistled as it was thrust through the air, it felt to him as though it was smashing the conflicts and doubts within him.

    Before he realised it, he had drawn closer as he gazed at the man in fascination. ¡°It¡¯s dangerous, boy.¡± ¨C He had not even noticed how close he had gotten until the mercenary rebuked him.

    And it was also largely unconsciously that he had prostrated himself before the man and begged him to take him as his disciple. The mercenary was already about to turn fifty, and he turned down the ¡°boy¡¯s¡± request like he found it bothersome, but when Camus repeated his plea, as though on a whim, he decided that it might be interesting.

    They started to wield spears together.

    Fortunately ¨C well, that word can''t really be used here, but anyway; the destination that the pilgrims¡¯ party was headed towards was in the middle of an insurrection at the time. Let¡¯s see how things turn out ¨C they said, and decided to stay at the monastery a bit longer.

    Even so, they remained for less than a month. During that short period, Camus absorbed as many of the techniques that the mercenary drilled into him as he could. He was so absorbed in his training that he would pass out in the middle of it. His daily religious duties were also affected.

    ¡°How could you have dozed off in the middle of mass?¡± ¨C The fact that he was learning spearmanship from the mercenary was something that he naturally kept hidden from those around him, the abbot included, so he was on the receiving end of more than a few sharp scoldings.

    ¡°I slacked off,¡± he would reply before eventually ending up in a cramped cell in solitary confinement.

    Yet he did not abandon the spear. He did feel guilty about desecrating the sanctity of the place, but he felt that when he brandished a spear, the tempestuous feelings raging inside him were expelled from its tip. Imagining the ¡®enemy¡¯s¡¯ figure and predicting that ¡®enemy¡¯s¡¯ movements, he leapt left and right, backwards and forwards. When he saw the perfect chance, he once again thrust with the spear.

    Right, in this case, the ¡®enemy¡¯ is none other than me myself.

    I¡¯m not wielding this spear to destroy anyone except myself. I thrust this spear to defeat my own weak heart.

    In which case, couldn¡¯t this also be seen as a way to bring his body and mind closer to God¡¯s teachings?

    That was what he told himself to assuage his feelings of guilt.

    On the last day, the mercenary practically didn¡¯t say a word and carefully watched from the side as Camus wielded a spear. Just as Camus lunged into the last thrust... in that moment, the mercenary was right before him. Camus was startled, but the mercenary effortlessly repelled his spear, then lunged into a jab of his own.

    For a moment, Camus lost the awareness of control over his own body. He avoided the attack with the defensive moves that had been hammered into him in the past month, while preparing at the same time to jump towards the mercenary¡¯s flank, his waist and arms moving together to thrust forward the spear.

    The sequence of movements was carried out without a single pause.

    The mercenary shook his head and was about to parry, but then just before doing so, he leaped backwards. Drops of blood scattered and flew. There was a narrow scratch on the mercenary¡¯s left cheek. He wiped the blood away with his hand, licking it afterwards.

    ¡°You did it,¡± he laughed. ¡°How old are you again? Thirteen? If you were a bit bigger in size, that strike just now would honestly have given me the shivers.¡±

    After the mercenary left, Camus continued to train hard.

    Before long, he turned fourteen.

    Life at the monastery continued peacefully, but all around them, the fighting only intensified. Dytiann Cathedral, the centre of the Church, had already been captured by the anti-Church faction, which meant that what had previously been the ¡°anti-Church faction¡± now transformed into the ¡°Church faction¡±, while conversely, the ¡°Church faction¡±, which had, until then, controlled that entire area, was being ousted as the ¡°anti-Church faction¡±.

    That group, the ¡°Old Church faction¡±, so to speak, started to regain strength in the region in which Camus lived. It was at around about that time that he and Sarah, his younger sister, met once more. Apparently, she had fled the convent after it had been attacked by ¡°Old Church¡± soldiers.

    The soldiers had neither faith, nor doctrine, nor ideals. Or perhaps it would be better to say that ideals had never had a place in this war. The Church of Dytiann was by then ruled by a man who claimed the title of ¡°King of the Allied Countries¡± and by his younger brother, who called himself the Pope ¨C and as you know, even the two of them would eventually quarrel in the future ¨C and they were busy hunting down the remnants of the defeated armies, or else using that pretext to sweep away any opposition within the many churches that were dotted around the allied countries.

    The troops of the ¡°Old Church¡± approached increasingly near to the monastery. To Camus¡¯ despair, Abbot Tom was unable to put any measures in place before the enemy had closed in on them. He merely sent messengers to try and talk to them, which meant that nobody was able either to fight or to flee.

    Camus watched as that fortress of ideals and of faith in God easily collapsed.

    It was set ablaze by enemy hands. Camus and his sister escaped together; it was the second time that they had run into the night, pursued by flames.

    Anger welled up within him.

    Abbot Tom was a truly good man, strong of heart and mind, but he was also the exact opposite of the soldiers who were laying waste to the land: a man of ideals only. Camus wondered if, when it came down to it, that wasn¡¯t the same as having no ideals at all.

    No matter how righteous the words or how pure the teachings, if all they¡¯re good for is to wait to be burned in flames, then they can never be turned into ¡®power¡¯.

    He faced the soldiers who were chasing after them, and for the first time, he swung his spear with the intent to kill. He did not feel that he was going against divine doctrine. It would be more correct to say that he did not have leisure to think, however ¨C If it can be forced into surrender by savages, then being holy isn¡¯t enough. Camus had twice been made to flee, and that thought now started to emerge within him.

    His hands that grasped the spear was full of strength. They were stained with the blood that was trickling from its tip.

    I need ¡®power¡¯. To do what is right, I need unstoppable ¡®power¡¯.

    Afterwards, Camus and Sarah left the countries within Dytiann¡¯s sphere and entered the Principality of Atall. While they were wandering around the various towns, constantly hungry, they heard about a land belonging to the Cross Faith that was independent from any other country and which even had the power to arm themselves when needed.

    Conscon Temple.

    The siblings¡¯ steps were naturally drawn to it. It was there that Camus met Bishop Rogress, who shared the same opinion as he did.

    ¡°To oppose power with power is both sorrowful and foolish, however power cannot be allowed to trample over our teachings.¡±

    Camus engraved that new ideal in his heart.

    That was five years ago.

    And now, after five years, he was going to meet with the past.

    The meeting was held in a town in the east of Atall. The envoys had hoped to call on Tiwana, but the sovereign-prince had refused, stating that ¡°this isn¡¯t a good time¡±.

    Allion was sure to pick up on any large-scale reception. Rather than it being a case of Atall being afraid Allion might learn of it ¨C after all, even if Atall wanted to conceal it, if Dytiann had no such intention, then the news would soon leak out ¨C it would be better to say that this was a defensive measure for when the information would eventually be known. At the very least, Atall wanted to show consideration towards Allion by demonstrating a difference in the way the envoys were received.

    It was an almost painful effort to have to make, but that kind of consideration was crucial for a small country.

    On Atall¡¯s side, the envoy was an elderly aristocrat acting as the sovereign-prince¡¯s representative. Assisting him were several retainers who resided in Tiwana, the patriarch of the Laumarl family being one of them, and Camus, who had joined up with them.

    Camus¡¯ position there was given as ¡°a novice monk from Conscon Temple and Lord Leo¡¯s surrogate, acting as a representative to Guinbar Church, which will soon become the base of activity for the Cross Faith in Atall.¡±

    Camus and Sarah returned to Guinbar ten days after departing from it.

    When they had left, they had been strangely quiet, but by the time they got back, Camus was entirely back to being the same as before.

    In other words, he was angry. Appropriately for the warrior monk with the savage soul, his eyebrows were bristling, and his face was flushed scarlet. Once they arrived back, he grabbed a spear and dove straight into training by himself, sweat flying, like he used to do every morning at Conscon Temple.

    Once he was done, he headed to the room in the castle where Leo had summoned. There, the usual faces ¨C Percy, Kuon and Sarah ¨C were all lined up in row. After Leo had thanked the siblings for their trouble and treated them all to a meal, he asked them to go into detail about the meeting.

    First came the members of Dytiann¡¯s delegation.

    There was the commander of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division, Arthur Causebulk, a twenty-seven-year-old military man who was part of Dytiann¡¯s crusader army. According to Sarah, he was ¡°very sexy,¡± but, at the same time, ¡°I can¡¯t shake the feeling that he¡¯s still very na?ve and doesn¡¯t know much about the world.¡±

    Staring fixedly at his sister, Camus took up the story.

    ¡°The one you really need to keep an eye on is probably the bishop who was acting as his assistant.¡±

    He had introduced himself as Baal, a diocesan bishop. Smiling gently the whole time, he had taken the lead in all the aspects that Arthur, the official representative, neglected to address.

    At first, the Dytiann side had talked about how delighted they were about Lord Leo¡¯s baptism and about the prospects for the friendly relationship they hoped to establish with the growing Church in Guinbar, for example by creating an environment where monks and priests could travel both ways, or by transferring relics.

    After that, they broached the main topic.

    ¡°We intend to send reinforcements to Conscon Temple and would, if possible, want to leave them stationed there,¡± Dytiann had said.

    ¡°When we send the soldiers of our crusader army, we would very much appreciate it if you could let them pass through your country,¡± they had unequivocally requested of Atall.

    It was within predictions.

    Actually, when Percy had gone to the temple, Bishop Rogress¡¯ calm demeanour had made him suspect that there might be reinforcements coming from Dytiann.

    Camus, however, was boiling with anger, as though to demand why only now?

    Dytiann¡¯s national religion and the doctrine preached at Conscon Temple originated from the same faith. Upon hearing that the temple was being besieged by Allion¡¯s troops and was at risk of annihilation, opinion in Dytiann should have leaned towards sending armed relief. Still, it was hard to imagine that they would gain anything from clashing with Allion¡¯s military. And besides, the temple was sure to fall before long. Rather than risk playing a poor hand and earning Allion¡¯s enmity... better by far to wait and see.

    However ¨C the temple held out longer than expected.

    For some reason or another, it seemed that Allion was unable to get the upper hand. At which point, perhaps the upper echelons of Dytiann had started to think that ¡°we could make use of this.¡±

    Rumours that Allion was planning a large-scale eastern expedition never seemed to entirely die out, so the ¡®use¡¯ to be made of was as a foothold to block any advance to the east. If Dytiann could send a steady stream of soldiers and provisions to the temple, this might one day be able to serve as frontline base against Allion.

    Naturally, that plan required Atall¡¯s involvement. Going by geography, the quickest route by which to send staff and supplies was through the principality¡¯s territory.

    ¡°We would very much appreciate it if you could let us pass through your country.¡± ¨C Although the tone was courteous, beneath it was a combination of threats and urging:

    Sooner or later, Atall will also be drawn into war. You¡¯d better be prepared for it. If you leave things be, one of these days, Allion will gobble you up whole. Or perhaps not... maybe they¡¯ll peck away at you first.

    Furthermore, if Atall stood by and did nothing for the temple, the pressure from Dytiann would increase, on the grounds that ¡°your country bears responsibility for the fact that we were unable to protect our brethren of the same faith.¡±

    The problem was that given their situation, whether they cooperated with Dytiann or, conversely, whether they joined Allion against Dytiann, the one which would pay the heaviest price in terms of victims would unmistakably be Atall. Given that two huge powers were at a standoff against each other on either side of this small country, if ever it came to war, there was a very good chance that Atall¡¯s territory would be the stage on which they would fight.

    The representatives from Atall had spent the entire time in a cold sweat.

    Camus had tightly pursed his lips and remained silent; he understood that he was not in a position to offer any remarks of his own. Nevertheless, a thousand words were welling inside him, and he desperately held down the impulse to thrust them like a blade at Dytiann.

    Even though up until now, you stayed indifferent to the suffering of the people at the temple, now that you see a benefit in it, you come barging in. And you even claim to be God¡¯s good faithful. How are you going to face those who died in battle? Ah, no ¨C bastards like you would just stand in front of those endless rows of gravestones with tragic looks on your faces as you pray for their happiness in the next world. And all the while, you¡¯ll be counting the cost of each word of prayer.

    His shoulders shook. The muscles in his arms bulged. He had always been a man whose emotions were easily aroused, and now, they were about to be unbottled.

    Nothing¡¯s changed since five years ago. The powerful all dress up like servants of God while all they¡¯re looking for is their own gain. They burn down those who oppose them and force those who might be useful to them to obey. How am I supposed to believe that lot follows the same God!

    Without his realising it, Camus¡¯ closed lips were about to open.

    It was then that a girl who was waiting on the table used for the meeting pretended to clear away a cup and softly touched him on the shoulder.

    When Camus looked up in surprise, it was Sarah. He had been about to lose his composure, but Sarah, while placing a fresh cup of tea before him, winked at her older brother. She had no doubt managed to slip in by using her position as ¡°younger sister to the prince¡¯s representative.¡± It wasn¡¯t hard to imagine that she had been worried Camus might get emotionally carried away, which was honestly disgraceful for him as the older sibling. That thought helped him calm down a little.

    ¡°Rest assured that we will, without fail, convey your country¡¯s request to Sovereign-Prince Magrid.¡± For the time being, the delegation from Atall wanted to bring the talks to a close.

    However, they did not have much time.

    The Holy Dytiann Alliance demanded an answer within half a month at the latest.

    Part 2

    Hayden Swift arrived at a fortress built near Allion¡¯s eastern border.

    It was the very same fortress that had been constructed to capture the temple, and he had kept about eight hundred soldiers stationed there. His cloak fluttering as he returned, the ¡®commander¡¯ received the reports of what had happened during his absence, although he barely registered them. His eyes were fixed on something far beyond the temple.

    He had not obtained the king¡¯s permission to invade Atall. At the time, he had played the part of the understanding vassal, but there was of course no way that this man would have given up.

    From here on, I¡¯ll focus everything on having Conscon Temple surrender. His eyes gleaming like a newly-sharpened blade, Hayden once more pictured the plan that he would carrying out from there onwards. Then, once the temple becomes a military base for Allion, I¡¯ll have soldiers garrisoned there ¡®for our defence¡¯...

    Hayden himself would stay on, as he planned to draw Atall¡¯s nobles to him. Then, he would have those who responded to his call rise in rebellion, on the pretext that ¡°the sovereign-prince is acting as high-handedly as he pleases, as though the country belongs to him.¡±

    With his armed force stationed near the border, Hayden would be able to immediately send in soldiers, on the grounds that he was ¡°assisting those who have risen in righteous indignation.¡± He would fan the fires of civil war, and use their flames to capture Atall¡¯s capital city. Given that Atall would have fallen with very little effort, the king was unlikely to say anything even if he only received the report when everything was already almost over...

    ¨C Such were Hayden¡¯s plan for the immediate future.

    He felt that, no matter what work I try out, it isn¡¯t ever difficult.

    First, capture the temple.

    That was nothing. I just need to crush them with the difference in strength.

    If Allion¡¯s military commanders could hear him, they would burst into laughter, exclaiming that, Hayden really thinks he can actually pull it off? And as a matter of fact, rumours had reached him that a certain general had said something very similar.

    But after all, they only had the limited intelligence of army men. To be sure, Conscon Temple was currently still going strong, but that was neither because of a mistake on Hayden¡¯s part, nor because he did not know how to attack. It would also be wrong to say that he had at first been overly cautious, out of fear of losing more soldiers than was strictly necessary.

    The reason for all of it was simply that¡¯s what I wanted.

    And that was all.

    Hayden had changed.

    All those who were close to him were agreed on that, and he himself was aware of it.

    Nor is there any need to repeat what had caused that change ¨C it was Florrie Anglatt.

    The moment he first laid eyes on her, he had felt as though a throbbing new pulse had started flowing through his rusted blood vessels. As though time, which had seemed to stand still around him, had started moving to the creak of cogwheels turning.

    Hayden had a wife and children, and before his marriage ¨C as well as after it, too ¨C he had accumulated who knows how many trysts with ladies serving at court and so on, yet he had never been fully engrossed in any of them. Whether it was romantic love such as it was celebrated in songs, or the stories told by his peers about how blind love had been their undoing, they were just wild and fantastic stories to him.

    Yet the second he beheld Florrie singing unskilfully but still trying her best, Hayden¡¯s mass of hard, coagulated emotions was instantly smashed. The plain truth is that it was his first love. And it was no directed so much towards the current Florrie as it was towards what Florrie would become in a few years time, when she would perfectly correspond to Hayden¡¯s ideal.

    And that was why he was so impatient.

    If it had been just an ordinary first love, he could have built a closer relationship with her father, Claude Anglatt, while concealing his feelings, and then, with time, he could have become more intimate with Florrie as well. A few years later, once Florrie had grown up, it would not have been very difficult to steal her heart.

    However, it was the future Florrie that Hayden was so deeply in love with. Although one could assume that she would continue to safely mature into that ideal future version of herself, there was still that small chance of a ¡®mistake¡¯ occurring during the process of her growth into adulthood. The still incomplete Florrie was so close to his ideal that Hayden wanted nothing less than unimpeachable ¡®perfection¡¯.

    I have to have her by me, he resolved to himself. He would monitor Florrie¡¯s growth from close by so that it could continue unhindered by any static noise. He would cut away anything unsuitable as though pruning a plant, and would encourage the growth of what was pleasing to the eye.

    Florrie¡¯s father, however, had obstructed that plan. He had turned down Hayden¡¯s offer of ¡°having Florrie receive an education at the capital,¡± and to make matters worse, he had confided that Florrie seemed to already have her heart set on someone. He had even hinted that the man in question was Leo Attiel.

    As far as Claude was aware, there was no truth in what he had said about Leo and Florrie having feelings for one another. It was simply that he expected Hayden would give up if he were told that ¡°her betrothal to the Atallese prince will soon be settled.¡±

    Hayden realised that static noise was already interfering with her progress towards his ideal, but even so ¨C

    It¡¯s not too late yet. It absolutely isn¡¯t.

    Exactly contrary to Claude¡¯s hopes, Hayden¡¯s love flared up even more strongly.

    After that, he went to Conscon Temple as a mediator meant to mend the worsening relationship, although he returned to his own country shortly afterwards.

    That was where it had all begun.

    First of all, Hayden decided to make use of the temple. He pretended that the mediation had failed, and spread the rumours that Bishop Rogress had rained curses down on the royal family.

    It was Hayden also who had persuaded the king to attack the temple. ¡°You definitely have to show them,¡± he had urged. In that way that he had built up antagonism between Allion and the temple. Next, he had gotten Atall involved in their relations.

    And for that, Oswell Taholin, one of the vassal-lords who shared the southern part of the country, had been most helpful.

    When Hayden had been working out a plan to seize hold of Florrie, he had met with several of the commanders who had been involved in the war against Atall seven years ago. He had been groping about for as many of the principality¡¯s weaknesses as he could find, which was why he had gone to see Hawking, who had been in charge of gathering intelligence about Atall¡¯s internal situation.

    At the banquet, when Leo had spoken with some of the vassal-lords, one of them, Bernard, had admitted being invited into a scheme from Allion, and Hawking... well, Hawking was the very person who had been behind it.

    It was rare for Hayden, whose sense of self-importance was ridiculously inflated, to take the trouble of initiating action, yet he had personally galloped to Hawking¡¯s residence to hear what the man had to say.

    Hawking, a military commander, had lost his left leg in an earlier war than the one against Atall, so he no longer stood on the battlefield. However, thanks to his sharp mind, he had switched to espionage, and the king placed a lot of trust in him.

    ¡°Atall¡¯s vassal-lords are a weak spot,¡± Hawking had opined. The sovereign-prince¡¯s authority was teetering and since the vassal-lords were highly aware that they now had to protect their lands and people by themselves, it made them susceptible to plans from the outside.

    That was especially true of Oswell Taholin, who appeared to be a man who could easily be swayed. Seven years ago, during the war, ¡°if the time had come and we had given him the order, he would even have risen to cause trouble from inside the country,¡± said Hawking.

    In the end, Atall had surrendered without there being any need to use that scheme, but Hawking had judged that Oswell might well be useful in the future, so they had continued to exchange letters and envoys. The commander was a man with a lot of foresight.

    ¡°Then, would you write a missive to this Oswell for me?¡± Hayden¡¯s eyes gleamed.

    ¡°Oh? It looks like you¡¯re thinking of something interesting. Very well, I¡¯ll get in touch with Oswell and inform him about you, Sir Hayden. In exchange, and should it ever come to actual warfare, would you take my boy as a squire?¡± The commander replied, his eyes gleaming also.

    Hawking had a sixteen-year-old son. The boy had a good physique and there would have been nothing unusual about his having already been to the battlefield. Yet even though wars followed one after another in Allion, by some inexplicable stroke of misfortune, he had never had the opportunity to be called to the front. His name was Randius.

    At present, he was serving as an apprentice to Hayden and had taken an active part in the campaign against Conscon by mixing in with the marauders.

    It was in that way that Hayden got Hawking¡¯s cooperation and was able to approach the Atallese vassal-lord. He enticed Oswell with the prospect of funds and favourable treatment by Allion, and drew him into the plan. Not long after, Oswell urged Sovereign-Prince Magrid to send reinforcements to Conscon Temple.

    Conveniently for Hayden, when pressure from Darren and others forced the previous sovereign-prince from the throne, Oswell had been one of those who had supported Magrid in taking over the position. Consequently, the sovereign-prince felt a debt of gratitude towards him, and besides that, Oswell was an eloquent speaker, so Magrid accepted the plan and sent soldiers to the temple.

    In other words, even that had been part of Hayden¡¯s scheme.

    He had two goals.

    First, after deliberately exposing the fact that Atall had sent reinforcements, Lord Leo¡¯s position in Allion, where he was being kept hostage, would deteriorate.

    The second was to spread slanderous rumours to the effect that, ¡°General Claude, who is in charge of Leo, is linked to Atall and the temple through that self-same Leo,¡± in order to put the general in a difficult position.

    Being an upstart, Claude had very few allies. If Hayden then approached him, Claude would have no choice but to rely on him.

    That was all. In order to remove a rival in love and to place Florrie¡¯s father deeply in his debt ¨C and for those reasons alone ¨C Hayden Swift had caused the chaos at the temple. And not only that: one day, he was determined that one day, he would cast the Principality of Atall into the flames.

    During the initial stage that was the fight to seize Conscon Temple, Leo and Florrie had fled to Atall, which inevitably meant that he had needed to rethink his plan. Yet Hayden¡¯s thoughts on that was that in a way, I don¡¯t mind.

    His ardent desire for Florrie was no different from before, but another, greater, part of Hayden Swift had changed. Ambition such as he had never felt up until then had flared up within him.

    I¡¯m sure I have what it takes to leave my name in history.

    Naturally, walking alongside him down his glorious path would be the by-then adult Florrie Anglatt.

    Why not aim for an exhilarating future? For a heart-pounding daydream?

    Life was going to be very enjoyable.

    And for that, Conscon Temple comes first.

    Now that the war had been stretched out, there was no longer any need to drive Leo and Claude into a corner. They would be swallowed up.

    Still, if he recklessly dived head first, even though victory was assured, there would inevitably be casualties.

    Thereafter, Hayden would prepare for war against Atall. Since his plan could not yet be openly revealed, he refrained from asking the king for reinforcements, so it was necessary to keep victims and sacrifices to a minimum.

    I will obtain a swift and brilliant victory with almost no losses.

    Of that, Hayden was certain.

    Part 3

    There was more to Camus¡¯ report. The warrior monk of the Cross Faith had received firm instructions beforehand from Lord Leo:

    ¡°Don¡¯t say a word during the meeting, and hand over a letter once it finishes.¡±

    The meeting proved a test of Camus¡¯ self-control but, with help from his little sister, he was able to get through it and, at the end, he handed over the letter, saying that it was ¡°from the prince¡±, just as he had been told to.

    Even though it was no more than a excuse, Dytiann¡¯s ostensible motive was ¡°to meet Lord Leo¡±, so given that he had not attended the talks, there was nothing surprising about the fact that he had entrusted a letter of greeting to his representative. Yet seeing Leo checking with Camus that ¡°You definitely handed over the letter, right?¡±, Percy guessed that there had been more to the contents than just simple salutations.

    What was in it? He would find out a few days later, when the usual group was once again lined up in one of the castle rooms.

    ¡°The day after tomorrow, I¡¯ll be going to Bernard¡¯s castle,¡± said Leo.

    This lay east of Savan¡¯s territory, and you had to cross Darren¡¯s domains to get to it. Leo explained that he had arranged to meet directly with Dytiann¡¯s envoys over there.

    ¡°Then, Your Highness, the letter that was handed to the envoys was about that?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. I told them that I wanted to meet with them and fixed a date to do so.¡±

    The envoys from Dytiann were currently staying in a town in the east of Atall, while waiting for a reply from the sovereign-prince. Yesterday, Leo had received a reply in which they agreed to see him.

    As for what was going to be said during those talks...

    ¡°I intend to request reinforcements from Dytiann,¡± Lord Leo stated plainly.

    Camus objected right from the start.

    ¡°That lot cloak themselves in God¡¯s teachings, but in the end, they¡¯re only thinking about filling their own purses. Even if their reinforcements are useful for a while, sooner or later, they¡¯ll prey on the temple and on Atall.¡±

    Meanwhile, Percy tackled the issue from a different angle.

    ¡°Are the reinforcements a request from His Majesty?¡±

    As soon as he had asked the question, Leo sent him a sharp glance. It was a gesture that was clearly saying, ¡°don¡¯t ask anymore.¡±

    Don¡¯t tell me the prince decided that on his own! Percy was struck speechless.

    Sovereign-Prince Magrid was probably still hesitating: stuck between Allion and Dytiann, he couldn¡¯t give his answer thoughtlessly. Yet Leo, who had been given no diplomatic responsibilities, was saying that he wanted to join forces with Dytiann.

    ¡°Your Highness, please wait a moment,¡± Percy¡¯s expression and tone of voice of course grew firm. ¡°My prince, previously, you said that our only enemy was Hayden Swift. And that you were going to fight him and win. I... no, everyone here, believed those words. But if you allow Dytiann to intervene, then the war front will certainly shift. If several states are involved, then any attempt to bring things to an end will be vastly more complicated, and we probably won¡¯t be able to avoid a full-scale war. This goes beyond defending the temple, and could lead Atall into an even worse crisis.¡±

    ¡°That won¡¯t happen. I won¡¯t let it happen,¡± Lord Leo¡¯s expression had remained fixed for some time now.

    For a moment, Percy did not know how to deal with this aristocrat who was younger than he was. Is he ecstatic because a few things have gone as he hoped? He wondered uneasily.

    It would be great if he was simply restless; that was common in boyhood, after all. The problem was that Leo was seriously concerned about the country¡¯s future. And because he was brooding so seriously, the boy could not see his surroundings. He believed that he had to carry Atall¡¯s weight alone, and that only he was serious about protecting the country. But a boy¡¯s earnestness could sometimes give rise to danger.

    Leo stuck his hand out before him as though to hold back Percy¡¯s fears.

    ¡°Won¡¯t you hear me out first?¡± said the prince.

    While Percy, Camus, Kuon and Sarah listened in attentive silence, Leo Attiel talked about how he saw what would happen from now on.

    Percy Leegan was astounded.

    Back in that room at an inn in Tiwana, when Leo had revealed that he would be luring in Darren¡¯s soldiers and defeating them in order to obtain allies and soldiers of his own, Percy had genuinely been amazed. This time, it went beyond that. It was no longer simply on the level of worrying that the prince was selfishly allying himself with Dytiann, or that he was calling for reinforcements without consulting anyone. Percy didn¡¯t realise it, but his hands were shaking.

    Sarah was staring wide-eyed, and even Kuon, who was usually indifferent during these kinds of talks, could not hide his astonished expression.

    Leo had revealed to them all of his plans.

    ¡°You can¡¯t!¡±

    It was Camus who vigorously leapt to his face in that instant. He had not been seized by sudden fury. Actually, Percy thought that he had endured remarkably well to have listened until Leo had finished talking.

    Leo, for his part, responded with perfect calm.

    ¡°Why can¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°That... That goes too far. It¡¯s too despicable! And Dytiann, who is being asked for reinforcements... and Bishop Rogress...¡±

    Camus was so worked up that his words weren¡¯t coming out clearly. Yet Percy, and all of those to whom Leo had confided his ploys, understood what he was trying to say.

    At the same time, Percy Leegan was at a loss.

    Was the young man who was taking Camus¡¯ anger head on really the same one they had rescued in the mountains of Allion? His figure simply did not overlap with the forlorn boy who had descended the steep paths while pulling Florrie by the hand.

    ¡°I-If by some complete fluke that actually worked, then with that kind of battle, those who fought and died for the belief that God¡¯s authority would one day shine upon the whole world wouldn¡¯t be able to rest in peace.¡±

    ¡°Oh, ¡®won¡¯t be able to rest in peace¡¯? Then would the souls of the dead find comfort from charging into what they know is a hopeless fight, armed with their faith alone, only to be annihilated?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s...¡±

    ¡°You yourselves once told me this: fighting is great and all, but there¡¯s no meaning to it if you don¡¯t win. So I tried to find a path to victory. And other than this, there is no way to defeat Hayden Swift and to prevent the front lines from extending any further.¡±

    ¡°B-But... It¡¯s going too far. Your way of doing things is even worse than that godless Allion, or than Dytiann, which pretends to love God just so that it can profit from it. I can¡¯t go along with it.¡±

    Camus was almost grinding his teeth. Opposite him, Leo stretched his hand out towards the armed monk while pressing him verbally.

    ¡°Then, Camus, tell me. If there is a way to win without losing any lives except enemy ones ¨C so: a method without bloodshed in which everyone would agree to lay down their spears ¨C please, by all means, tell me what it is.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡±

    In a way, it was almost invigorating; Camus let out that single yell before turning his back on Leo so swiftly it almost caused a breeze.

    ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I have no answer to your question. I can¡¯t come up with any other plan that would work. But at the same time, I can¡¯t betray my own beliefs. I can¡¯t work with you any longer. I¡¯m taking my spear back to the temple. I¡¯ll fight in my own way. And you can laugh that it¡¯ll just mean dying in vain... dying defeated. I bid you farewell.¡±

    ¡°Wait.¡±

    Faster than Percy or Sarah could cry out to him, Leo had shouted out and thrown himself in front of Camus. When the warrior monk tried to pass to his left or his right, Leo moved to stand directly in his way. It would have been a comic scene, and completely inappropriate for the atmosphere, except that both of them were facing off against one another as though there were drawn blades between them.

    ¡°Please move aside!¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t.¡±

    Their expressions were filled with the hostility of those facing an enemy.

    ¡°Camus, you seem to think that it doesn¡¯t matter if your own blood is spilt, but how many lives do you think you can save with just the blood spilt from your body? Even if you are all resolved to sacrifice your lives so that there will be no other victims, the end result will be that you won¡¯t have saved anybody.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying I should look at the big picture? What do you think a sheltered, ignorant noble can teach me?¡±

    ¡°Right now, I¡¯m seeing more than you are, Camus.¡±

    ¡°What does a lordling who has never seen his friends die in front of his eyes think that he understands?¡±

    Percy half-rose to his feet. The quarrel was going around in circles.

    Wasn¡¯t it strange? Previously, Camus had cursed at the vassal-lords, calling them ¡°blind¡± for not seeing that Allion was a threat. Yet now that it was time to fight, it was Camus who was indignant after having been shown a path to victory, and who was being criticised by Lord Leo for being ¡°blind¡±.

    Percy didn¡¯t know what was right in this situation, either. Confused emotions were running rampant in that room. Anyway, what everyone, himself included, needed right now was time to cool their heads. As Percy was watching, trying to find a chance to intervene, he saw Leo¡¯s hand go to his waist and unsheathe his sword. The blade was one of those slender and curved ones that were widely used in Atall.

    Camus, on the other hand, was unarmed. Given that he was not an Atallese soldier, it was only natural that would not be allowed to carry a weapon into the castle. For a second, his expression went stiff before turning into a faint and eerie smile.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to kill me? Fine, do it. If you kill those who won¡¯t do as you say, then you¡¯re no better than Allion.¡±

    ¡°Big Brother!¡± Sarah shouted out.

    Kuon was also in position to spring up.

    Percy held his breath.

    ¡°No,¡± Leo smiled and turned the sword around, pushing the grip into Camus¡¯ hand.

    The warrior monk¡¯s thick eyebrows drew together at almost the same moment that Leo let go of the grip. Out of reflex, Camus caught the sword which was about to fall to the ground. Again almost at the same time, Leo¡¯s two hands covered Camus¡¯ so that it looked like the two of them were holding the sword together. Whereupon, Leo took a step forward, placing himself in a position where it looked like the blade was resting on top of his shoulder. Before Camus had time to react in surprise, it was already too late.

    ¡°You will kill me,¡± said Leo.

    Part 4

    ¡°W-What?¡± Camus blinked in confusion.

    Leo stared straight into his eyes.

    ¡°I revealed my whole plan to you. Since you object to it, I cannot allow you to leave. But having said that, I can¡¯t kill the protector who saved my life, either.¡±

    ¡°T-That¡¯s ridiculous. Do you think I¡¯m the kind of man who would spread word around? I won¡¯t tell anyone. So...¡±

    ¡°No. I can¡¯t put this plan into effect without everyone¡¯s approval. I absolutely need all of you to lend me your help. So if you¡¯re saying that you can¡¯t endorse the plan ¨C since it means following the same fate anyway ¨C I would rather you killed me here and now.¡±

    ¡°W-What are you talking about? You¡¯re probably thinking I won¡¯t do it. How like a noble, with your exaggerated play-acting to make you look...¡±

    ¡°Kill me, Camus.¡±

    Leo took another step forward. The downturned blade pressed against his neck. Even when Camus hurriedly tried to step back, Leo followed after him.

    Camus¡¯ back hit the wall. And Leo still continued to advance.

    Bah ¨C Seething with irritation, Camus tried to forcefully tear the blade away from Leo. Camus was by far the stronger of the two, but Leo was desperate. He firmly planted his legs on the ground and put his strength into his shoulders. The tip of the curved blade grazed his cheek and ear, swiftly opening a red line along its path, from which thick drops of blood started to trickle down.

    Even Camus¡¯ blood ran cold and he stopped moving.

    ¡°Prince!¡± Several voices overlapped.

    ¡°Show me, Camus,¡± Leo, on the other hand, spoke quietly. ¡°I¡¯ve already shown you my resolve. Now it¡¯s your turn to prove your determination. If you have enough determination to cut me down here and now, to be chased out of Atall and yet still head towards the temple to die a brilliant death, then prove it to me.¡±

    ¡°P-Prince, stop,¡± Camus groaned as Leo took yet another step forward. The tip of the sword was now at the nape of the prince''s neck.

    ¡°It would be one thing if you were the only one to die. But what does defeat mean in this case? It means this country will fall, the temple will go up in flames and countless people will face death and destruction. If you claim that you¡¯re willing to bear that responsibility, then prove that your resolve is greater than mine, O Monk,¡± said Leo.

    Percy could no longer utter a sound as he watched this scene unfold. It was then that he noticed that the two who were facing off so closely had something in common.

    Camus was gritting his teeth and looked as though he was in the middle of enacting a fight to the death, but he was, at heart, a very honest man. While his emotions were raging, what lay under the surface was easy to see: showing beneath his expression was a vulnerability ¨C a sense of inferiority, so to speak ¨C born from the fact that he could not offer a straight rebuttal or counterargument to the prince¡¯s plan.

    Then, there was Lord Leo Attiel. His usually gentle countenance had changed entirely, and he looked close to anger. Yet if one looked closely, his eyes which were supposed to be glaring sharply, and his lips which were supposed to be set firmly were all trembling ever so slightly.

    In terms of their positions, their opinions and the road they were following, the two were completely different. It was as if those very differences were what had caused them to clash with each other. And yet ¨C

    Their positions and their opinions are different, but at the very least, the inner conflict that they both feel is probably the same. They can clearly see the road they''re going to follow. They''re also prepared for the need for sacrifices to be able to take a step along it. And they''re probably a lot alike in how they biterly regret that they can''t pay the price of sacrifice alone, thought Percy.

    It occurred to him that it wasn''t limited to those two, and that there was a part of him that also overlapped with them. Oh, I get it.

    With that thought, a light suddenly flickered within his mind.

    There was another scene like this... When Lord Leo said that he was going to ''defeat Darren so as to fight Allion'', Camus'' response at the time...

    Percy had felt that those two might one day cause calamity to befall Atall. He had felt impatient. It would not have been surprising if he himself , exactly like Camus was right now, had outright opposed the prince and stood before him.

    Yet back then, for some reason, Percy has not given vent to his emotions.

    What he now got was what that reason had been.

    Percy stood up and stepped towards the two of them.

    Camus'' eyes turned towards him; drenched in sweat, the monk seemed to be pleading for help.

    ¡°Get the prince away from me, Percy. I''ll never tell anyone what I saw and heard here. True, we haven''t known each other long, but you must know me enough to believe me when I say that. So let me go!¡±

    Leo''s eyes also looked towards Percy. Both their gazes were definitely alike.

    Percy got so close to the two of them that he could feel their breath. And from there, he did something completely different from what Camus had hoped and Leo had expected.

    He clapped them both on the shoulders. ¡°Interesting,¡± he added, as he did so.

    ¡°What is?¡± Camus glared, his face covered in sweat. The anger he had been directing at Leo now seemed to be turned at full force against Percy.

    Who remained undaunted.

    ¡°Don''t you think so, Camus? Or actually, you might have thought it more than once. Back then, you know. Back on Mount Conscon, when were giving our all in a fight that we couldn''t see the end of, and I suggested attacking Allion''s headquarters. Thinking about it now, that was a really reckless, and foolish, and childish suggestion, huh? Well, no, there''s no ''thinking about it now'' about it. We already knew it back then. Me, you, Kuon, Sarah ¨C everyone understood it. But... everyone thought it sounded interesting, right? Better to do something outrageous than to gradually let ourselves be driven into a corner. Rather than sit around waiting to be killed, better to give our lives of our own free will.¡±

    On either side of the blade, Camus and Leo''s gazes were now turned solely towards Percy. Kuon and Sarah were the same.

    ¡°And it was the same when you, Prince, Camus, were agreeing excitedly about going to defeat Darren''s soldiers. I should have stopped you. Deliberately inviting internal conflict when the country was in danger was simply too stupid. I should have objected clearly, just like Camus is now. But... I couldn''t do it. You understand, don''t you Camus? Back then, you probably went along with the prince because you were thinking the same thing. Yep ¨C that it was ''interesting''.¡± Percy smiled without even realising it. Although he had felt danger emanating from the prince until just a few moments ago, Percy was now in a position akin to that of supporting the prince as he walked along a narrow tightrope. Or perhaps it was better to say that he would advance with him, ready to cross the rope together.

    Anything¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t mind.

    He could perceive his own true feelings. He could tell what he should do, and what he wanted to do. What could be more joyful for a young man?

    ¡°I hit the bull¡¯s eye, didn¡¯t I, Camus? True, we haven¡¯t known each other long, but I least know you well enough for that. Yeah. ¡®Interesting¡¯. I thought so again too. This is Lord Leo, who flew over the predictions made by the sovereign-prince and the vassal-lords, and who was going to stand alone against Allion. No matter how far it went off the beaten track, no matter how ludicrous it seemed, you thought that was far more ¡®interesting¡¯ than not doing anything, and just waiting for some change to happen in a situation that was created by someone else.¡±

    At some point, Percy¡¯s hands had extended towards Camus and the prince¡¯s shoulders, and gradually started forcing the two apart.

    Percy then abruptly asked Camus a question.

    ¡°Camus, what do you fight for?¡±

    ¡°W-What do you mean, ¡®what¡¯? At this point, ¡®what¡¯... that¡¯s,¡± while Camus¡¯ tongue was getting itself tangled up, Percy substituted in his own words.

    ¡°To win,¡± he finished the sentence. ¡°I also want to fight to win. I want to bet my life believing that victory is within reach. I have no wish to fight if victory is impossible; if I died in that situation, it would just be dying in vain.¡±

    Camus¡¯ eyes were dark with anger. He breathed in, looking like he was about to give an immediate retort, yet his voice did not come out, and all he exhaled was a helpless sigh.

    Percy did not miss that cue. He pushed hard on Camus and Leo¡¯s shoulders, forcing them away from one another. As their entangled hands separated, there was the sound of the sword clattering to the floor. The noise was unexpectedly loud and, in response to it, a voice came from behind the door.

    ¡°Your Highness, is something wrong!¡± The soldier on sentry duty burst in.

    He was still very young, and Percy remembered his red hair and freckled face.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, Rhoda. We were just playing about a bit,¡± Lord Leo laughed and picked up the sword which had fallen to the ground, returning it to his waist.

    The boy called Rhoda was one of the militiamen who had been recruited in one of the villages. Despite his gentle appearance, he proved to be quite skilled, so he was even made a commanding officer. Most of the farmers had returned to work in their villages until they received orders, but a few of them, Rhoda included, had been hired to help guard the castle¡¯s surroundings.

    It was obvious to any onlooker that he adored the prince who had changed his life. He gazed at him as he would a god. Although the red-haired boy wasn¡¯t happy with it ¨C he had heard angry voices coming from inside the room ¨C since it was the prince¡¯s command, he obediently withdrew.

    ¡°Your Highness, the blood...¡±

    When Percy pointed it out, Leo brought his hand to his cheek. His skin had been slightly torn, and blood was oozing out from under it. He quickly wiped it away with his hand.

    That same hand was suddenly seized hold of by Camus. The gesture appeared insolent, but Leo said nothing. Camus bowed his head. He seemed to squeeze a few words out, but not even the nearby Percy could make out what they were. Camus spoke once again, this time opening his mouth wide.

    ¡°You¡¯re asking me to betray them,¡± he said. ¡°The temple, the bishop, my native land... And my own future, I who had dedicated myself entirely to God.¡±

    His native land? Percy frowned. This was the first time that he had reason to guess that Camus might have been born in Dytiann.

    ¡°And you¡¯re threatening me with the fact that if I don¡¯t betray them, it¡¯ll usher in even greater destruction.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Camus kept his face turned down, without as much as looking at Leo, who was nodding silently, as he painfully bit out his next words.

    ¡°Victory.¡±

    Then ¨C

    ¡°Can you promise victory, boy?¡± he continued.

    Percy was on the verge of reproving him for his insolence, but Leo answered without a moment¡¯s hesitation.

    ¡°I promise.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re telling the truth, right?¡± Camus gripped his hand with all his strength. Leo¡¯s expression became ever so slightly distorted. ¡°I... I can¡¯t take any more. I can¡¯t run away a third time. I would rather die than run away again. But... like Percy said, it would probably just be a useless death. But, boy... To win... You say that there¡¯s a way to win. There¡¯s a way to finish this without having the true teachings and the righteous way of doing things be burned and smashed and destroyed?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± through the sound of bones cracking and crunching, Leo nodded with no change in his expression. ¡°But in exchange, please lend me your help, all of you. I am powerless, so please give me your recklessness and your strength.¡±

    Who¡¯s the reckless one here? Percy thought, but out loud, he answered with a clear ¡°Aye,¡± and placed his hand over theirs.

    Camus¡¯ was shaking. Finally ¨C

    ¡°In that case, I pledge this body of mine... no, I will even entrust you with my soul, Your Highness. Forgive my rudeness.¡± As he said that, he fell to his knees, completely drained of all strength. Since their hands were still clasped, it looked from the outside as though Camus was kneeling before Leo Attiel.

    Percy felt stimulated, as though the warmth from the overlapping hands had entered into his bloodstream and was coursing through him.

    ¡°Come over, Kuon. Sarah,¡± he called out to the two who were half rising to their feet.

    He took both their hands and placed them on top of the ones which were covering Lord Leo¡¯s.

    ¡°It really is interesting. Don¡¯t you think so, Camus? Kuon? Sarah? A ¡®powerless¡¯ prince is asking for help from us ¡®reckless¡¯ ones. And he says that even though nobody has ever heard of us, he can win against Allion with our assistance. Isn¡¯t that interesting?¡±

    As he uttered those words, Percy felt happy from the bottom of his heart.

 Volume 2, 5: Assiduously Running About

    Volume 2, Chapter 5: Assiduously Running About

    Part 1

    While Sovereign-Prince Magrid was having a hard time dealing with Dytiann, his son Leo was meeting with its two envoys under the pretence of being ¡®the sovereign-prince¡¯s representative¡¯.

    Just as Percy had identified, it was done entirely on the basis of the prince¡¯s own judgement.

    The meeting place was in a room of Bernard¡¯s castle. Leo had told even the castle lord that he intended to ¡°exchange greetings with the envoys,¡± and had certainly not informed him that they would be discussing policies as their country¡¯s respective representatives.

    Dytiann¡¯s representatives were, of course, the same as last time: Commander Arthur Causebulk of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division, and Bishop Baal. Just as Sarah had said, Arthur was a very handsome man, and even his demeanour had a romantic appeal. Said otherwise, he did not seem like a soldier. Bishop Baal, meanwhile, was a skinny man of about forty.

    Neither of them had stopped smiling since they had introduced themselves, but the nature of both those smiles were very different. Arthur¡¯s was like a child¡¯s: it didn¡¯t hold a speck of malice or ill-will, and had all the warmth of one who lived in a safe and sunny spot, sheltered by adults. Baal on the other hand wore a reassuring smile that was entirely becoming of a priest, but his eyes were harsh.

    When Baal¡¯s hand had been stretched out in greeting and Leo had first met his gaze, he had felt cold, instinctive chills run across his skin. He had lowered his gaze in spite of himself, as though loosing strength.

    Oh my... Baal, for his part, looked at Leo as he would at an ill-mannered child.

    Camus, who was sitting with the prince, cleared his throat and they cut to the main point. Camus, acting as the prince¡¯s representative, had previously handed over a letter allowing them to set up this meeting because, as Leo started to explain, ¡°I have things that I very much wish to speak of to you alone.¡±

    Which meant ¨C in short ¨C that this was a matter which would not be revealed even to the long-time retainers. Leo additionally announced that they were prepared to receive reinforcements.

    ¡°Oh, then His Majesty the Sovereign-Prince has already made up his mind?¡± Arthur¡¯s joyful behaviour made it look like he was about to clap his hands at any moment.

    Upon enquiry, it appeared that Dytiann had three large air carriers at the ready. Each ship could carry three hundred soldiers, and they could send them in sequence to the temple.

    ¡°Three hundred...¡± Leo said in genuine admiration.

    Even the largest ship in Atall could not hold more than a hundred on board.

    ¡°Then, about these arrangements...¡±

    Baal seemed to want to bring the discussion to a close, but Leo¡¯s attitude towards Dytiann¡¯s envoys now turned imploring.

    ¡°Previously, my father Magrid also sent reinforcements in response to the temple¡¯s plea for help, as he could not bear to watch while God¡¯s innocent faithful were harmed. Yet within our country, there is an immoral group which opposed that decision.¡±

    The vassal-lords.

    According to Leo, ¡°they only think short-term and are afraid of Allion,¡± so this time again, they were sure to pour cold water over the sovereign-prince¡¯s decision.

    ¡°Sooner or later, we will manage to persuade the vassal-lords, but since this is now an emergency, time is precious.¡± Therefore ¨C

    ¡°When you head towards the temple, couldn¡¯t you sail along the northern side of our territories, near to the capital, Tiwana?¡± Leo suggested.

    Travelling in a straight line from the westernmost town in Dytiann to the temple would mean passing through the domains of the vassal-lords. This, according to Leo, would be a problem.

    Baal and Arthur exchanged glances and this time, both of their expressions read: oh my. And they did so much more openly than before. They had clearly decided that in this situation and with this person opposite them, there was no need to conceal their inner thoughts.

    So is that why they deliberately fixed a second day for a meeting?

    For all that they¡¯re supposed to be the ruling House, they can¡¯t even unite their retainers, hmm.

    ¡°Well then, we¡¯ll do it that way,¡± Baal accepted Leo¡¯s plan, a faint look of contempt on his countenance. ¡°I am in admiration before your determination; both the sovereign-prince¡¯s, who wishes to help the temple however he may, and your own high-minded nobility, Lord Leo. Since you in particular have also received baptism, I hope that we will hereafter maintain friendly relations.¡±

    Baal¡¯s attitude was nothing but solicitude. Across from him, Leo looked relieved at having his proposal be accepted so easily.

    ¡°We will provide you with soldiers to guide you during navigation. Let us together protect God¡¯s teachings from the hands of the wicked.¡±

    In less than an hour, the conference drew to a close.

    ¨C It was after Leo and Camus had left the room.

    ¡°Filthy.¡±

    Bishop Baal wiped away the smile he had worn throughout the meeting, and crossed himself with a look of deep loathing.

    ¡°A truly repulsive creature was here. Do you know it, Arthur?¡±

    ¡°Lord Leo, right? Lord Bishop, you seem to have hated the prince since even before the meeting.¡±

    ¡°But of course,¡± Baal rose from his seat and opened a window, as though to say that he could not stand the stench Leo had left behind. ¡°That youngster doesn¡¯t know a single tenet of the faith and doesn¡¯t plan on learning any from hereon either; he only converted to observe Allion¡¯s mood. In receiving the gospel only to protect himself, he blasphemes against God.¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t have been something the prince thought of himself though. Surely his father must have forced him to it. And when you call him repulsive and a blasphemer, aren¡¯t you being a little harsh on him?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re being very soft. Did you take a liking to the prince?¡±

    As the bishop harrumphed, Arthur shrugged with an openhearted laugh.

    ¡°I sympathised with him. Did you see? Lord Bishop, it looked like he couldn¡¯t even make eye contact with you throughout the entire meeting. Your face must have been terrifying.¡±

    ¡°Now you¡¯ve gone and said it, Arthur,¡± the bishop chuckled in the depths of his throat. ¡°Blaspheming against a bishop will earn you an eternity of roasting in the fires of hell.¡±

    ¡°Oh, scary. Lord Bishop, please, I beg of you, forgive me my sins.¡±

    ¡°Fine, kindly kneel.¡±

    The exchange between the two of them had the air of young men joking around together. They had known each other for a long time: Baal had originally spent many years as a secretary to the previous commander of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division ¨C in other words, to Arthur¡¯s father ¨C so he had known Arthur since the latter had been a child.

    Their relationship between the two of them, however, did not stop there.

    Even Lord Leo had sensed it.

    After the meeting was over, the prince and Camus exchanged a few brief words of greeting with Bernard and his wife and child, then quickly left the castle. Leo looked pale.

    ¡°Pitiful,¡± glancing at him, Camus had a hard comment to offer. ¡°If you let that frighten you, you won¡¯t be able to act out your part. Or do you mean to say that you took Sarah¡¯s nonsense seriously?¡±

    ¡°So you say, Camus, but you saw that bishop¡¯s eyes too, didn¡¯t you?¡± Leo looked like he was about to start shaking at any moment.

    Sarah, who had been present at the first meeting, had previously shared her impression of the two envoys.

    ¡°I¡¯m willing to bet that those two have a thing going on.¡±

    ¡°A thing?¡±

    Kuon¡¯s expression was boyishly blank, and Sarah pretended to flick the bridge of his nose.

    ¡°It means they have a very deep relationship. Those two, when they thought that no one would notice, well, they kept exchanging these sweet glances. Just looking at them made me feel exhausted.¡±

    ¡°Sarah!¡± Her brother had to scold her about going on endlessly about ¡®that¡¯ kind of topic.

    According to what they heard later, in Dytiann, there were plenty of ¡®those¡¯ kinds of stories within the upper echelons of the church. Which was why Leo had been unable to bear Bishop Baal¡¯s gaze, which had seemed to be appraising him. While he could fight against the swords and spears of enemy soldiers, this was a type of threat he had no experience with.

    ¨C Anyway, just as Sarah had noted, the two envoys from Dytiann enjoyed their sweet exchanges as soon as it was just the two of them.

    ¡°At any rate, forget arguing with Allion or with our Dytiann, it looks like Atall¡¯s ruling House can¡¯t even find firm ground to tread on under its own feet. There will be plenty of opportunities to take advantage of in the future. Simply learning that is already a good result,¡± Baal was in a good mood, having already laughed his fill at the prince who was no longer present.

    ¡°This departure for the front is an unparalleled opportunity for you, Arthur. I can¡¯t come with you because of my work in the diocese, but the preparations will be flawless.¡±

    ¡°Really, when is the good bishop going to stop treating me like a child? It¡¯s fine. We just need our troops to set up camp within the temple, right?¡±

    ¡°Exactly, it¡¯s all good as long as you can arrange for our soldiers to be permanently stationed there. Even Allion can¡¯t have sent that many men. They¡¯ll pull back for the time being at least once they hear that Dytiann is taking part in the battle. After that, between Allion and us, it will be a contest of manoeuvring according to political influence. I beg of you, don¡¯t try to do anything heroic. I will definitely arrange a stage for you to stand out on, Arthur.¡±

    ¡°I know, Bishop. Everything is in accordance with God¡¯s will.¡±

    During the meeting, both Dytiann and Lord Leo had gotten their proposals accepted, so to all outward appearances, it was a success.

    Leo, however, did not have the leeway to rest on his laurels and be satisfied with these results. No sooner had he returned to Guinbar Castle with Camus after the meeting than he headed back out of Savan¡¯s territory, this time taking Kuon and Percy with him.

    ¡°He certainly is busy,¡± Savan said, his eyes wide with surprise.

    Yet if he had heard where Leo was headed to next, he would not simply have gone wide-eyed: the shock would have drained the blood from his face and he would probably also have set off with his soldiers, to try and stop Lord Leo at all cost.

    Part 2

    A few days later.

    After crossing several mountains to the southwest of Savan¡¯s territory, and stepping over the national border, one arrived in the domains of the Allian general, Claude Anglatt.

    South of that territory, across even steeper mountains, stood a hastily constructed fort. Allion had built it to topple the temple, and its commander had long been absent, but now, Hayden Swift had returned.

    He had not brought fresh troops, and the less than a thousand soldiers that were stationed in the camp was the sum total of his forces. Equally, they had not been ordered to pull back, which meant that Hayden intended to continue this war.

    In that case, he could pay a little more attention. Claude was irritated.

    He had set soldiers to guard the way between his territory and the fort. Although these mountains looked impossible to travel through on foot without excellent equipment and know-how, two hundred soldiers had previously emerged from them to save Lord Leo. That was apparently thanks to a mercenary who had himself been born in a mountainous area, but since he alone had done the guiding, it meant that there existed a route which was virtually a blind spot, even for the locals.

    Even though his headquarters had only narrowly avoided being attacked, Hayden seemed perfectly unconcerned by it. Instead, it was Claude who was setting up precautions.

    ¡°It would take pretty big guts. Me, if I had a mistress who shoved a blade to my neck, I wouldn¡¯t go and sleep snoring next to her the very next night.¡± Claude laughed at the retainers through the use of unfunny metaphors, yet no sooner had he stretched a surveillance net throughout the mountains than he caught prey.

    And it was big game at that.

    When it was brought in front of him, Claude was once again left irritated; the captured prey was Leo Attiel¡¯s group.

    Leo and the others were more or less made up to look like pilgrims of the Cross Faith, but they surely could not have believed that alone would deceive the sharp eyes of Allion¡¯s soldiers.

    Actually, although he was a captive, Leo¡¯s expression was cheerful. He had been intending from the start to meet with Claude. The fact that he had not gone through official channels was because there were certain considerations which meant that he did not want anyone else to know about it.

    ¡°Good grief, all these braves gathering in my surroundings,¡± said Claude while picking his nose. Instead of a show of contempt for the one opposite him, it was proof of familiarity towards someone who was, in fact, practically family.

    They were in a room at the castle. The sun had already set, so lamps and candles were needed to light it.

    ¡°Well, I was thinking I needed to present my greetings to you, Prince, at some point. The order has just gotten a bit reversed.¡±

    Rumours of the betrothal which had been announced in Tiwana had already reached Allion. Not surprisingly, Leo could not stop himself from blushing and lowering his head.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m very sorry. It was inconsiderate of me not to have gotten your permission, Sir Claude.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m amazed. My sons were in uproar, going on about ¡®our little sister has been kidnapped by Atall¡¯. If they knew that Lord Leo had nonchalantly come sauntering back, they¡¯d be sharpening their swords in their rooms around about now. I advise you not to wander down any unlit streets at night.¡±

    ¡°Y-Yes,¡± Leo was finding it decidedly hard to lift his head.

    Claude was talking as if it were a joke, but the reality was that he must be feeling at least somewhat humiliated because of his daughter. If nothing else, people were gossiping about how, ¡°Claude must be connected to Atall,¡± and ¡°that¡¯s why he let the prince escape.¡± Then on top of that came the news of a betrothal between his daughter and the prince, and the criticism from the capital must have grown even stronger.

    Claude, however, laughed it off heartily.

    ¡°My wife, Ellen, was the only one who smiled about it: she said she¡¯d know it would happen sooner or later. As for me, as a parent, I¡¯m just not sure. Is this man good enough for Florrie?¡±

    ¡°T-That¡¯s...¡±

    Claude listened with a fatherly expression to what Leo told him about how Florrie was living well in Tiwana. Still, they did not have much time for idle chatter.

    ¡°Now then, you won¡¯t have sneaked into my territory just to tell me about your engagement. What¡¯s your business?¡±

    Leo looked towards the soldiers and stewards who were in the room with them. Claude took the hint and ordered them out. Leo¡¯s two attendants remained in the room ¨C although they had of course disarmed before entering the castle ¨C but Claude himself was a ¡®brave¡¯, and had no fear of letting them remain.

    Being one of the attendants, Percy watched as Leo broached the main topic.

    This is going to be a re-enactment of what happened back then, huh? He thought to himself. ¡®Back then¡¯ was by no means far in the past; what he meant was the scene in which sparks had flown when Lord Leo and Camus confronted one another head-on. There will probably be more and more of those kinds of scenes from now on.

    That was the presentiment Percy had as he watched Claude Anglatt¡¯s expression change from over Lord Leo¡¯s back.

    The general was experiencing the same feelings as the people who had only known Leo for a short amount of time.

    In other words, he was feeling the same amount of surprise as Percy had; just as Darren had, he found himself filled with doubts ¨C Is this boy who is spouting this nonsense really the same Lord Leo who stayed in my domains for six years? ¨C, and, just as Camus had, he ended up feeling enraged.

    ¡°Hang on, Leo,¡± Claude held out his large hand to interrupt the prince¡¯s talk. ¡°What are you saying? Are you planning on telling me about some fantastical story you saw in a dream?

    ¡°No. I¡¯m telling you about the plan I intend to carry out from hereon.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s a dream,¡± while Claude¡¯s eyebrows rose in anger, his lips alone somehow managed to retain the shape of a smile. ¡°Because if you aren¡¯t talking about a dream, I can¡¯t just keep silent and let you go. Leo... you, what you¡¯re saying is that you¡¯re going to betray me... betray Allion.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re wrong,¡± Leo shook his head.

    ¡°How am I wrong!¡± Claude finally roared. ¡°Even if you¡¯re getting engaged to Florrie, do you think I¡¯m the kind of man who would betray my country for my daughter and my future son-in-law? Leave, Leo. Go back to Atall right now! If you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll cut off your head with my own hands!¡±

    As Claude spoke, he actually seized hold of the broadsword which had been hanging from the wall. In that instant, Percy and Kuon, who were both behind Leo, prepared to leap into action, but Leo spread his hands either side of himself and stopped his retainers.

    ¡°Wait. Sir Claude, please wait!¡±

    Still in the same position, Leo stared straight at Claude. With his eyebrows drawn together and his teeth tightly clenched, his expression was desperate. He seemed to be declaring that even if Claude came at him with the broadsword, he would not move a single step.

    ¡°Sir Claude, you would never betray your country. I came here today because I was convinced of that.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°General Claude Anglatt, this isn¡¯t betrayal. On the contrary, you will be protecting the country from a threat.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, and I¡¯m asking you what you¡¯re on about,¡± still holding the broadsword, Claude clicked his tongue in irritation. ¡°Do you want to talk ethics? You¡¯re right, there¡¯s no morality in Allion attacking the temple a second time like this. So do you want to say I should support Atall to end this unjust war and become a hero and saviour of Allion? Don¡¯t be ridiculous!¡±

    Claude had his doubts about taking military control of Conscon Temple and he suspected that, on the whole, this entire war had probably been started solely at Hayden¡¯s behest. He also believed that it would be best if every plan attempted by the newly-returned Hayden and his troops could be thwarted. Nevertheless, it was unthinkable for Claude to actively support the enemy side.

    ¡°Spare me the fake concern, Leo. You¡¯re far more educated than I am. But you still won¡¯t convince me with the clever way of speaking that you¡¯ve gotten from your learning. Go back to Atall. I won¡¯t tell you to give me back my daughter; Florrie has chosen her own path. So...¡±

    ¡°Please wait!¡± Leo¡¯s voice flew like an arrow.

    Ah! For a fleeting second, Claude, a general famed on the battlefield, had the illusion that a bolt was flying straight towards his face.

    Leo rose from his chair and tramped up to Claude, who still had the broadsword in hand, then swiftly knelt before him, his cloak swaying. While Claude stumbled a few steps forward, the prince raised his face towards him.

    ¡°I am not talking about ethics or morality. General Claude, with your own hands, you will drive back a ¡®foreign enemy¡¯ aiming at Allion,¡± he flatly asserted.

    Claude stared down at the boy¡¯s face. He was pouring with sweat in the glozing heat. The boy continued to look up at Claude.

    This little guy... Claude once again felt the same misgivings. They were of the same kind that Darren, Percy, and perhaps even Leo himself held.

    Someone who was insignificant right up until yesterday hatches out today and turns into a different person even while the eggshell is still clinging to them ¨C I¡¯ve seen guys like that a few times on the battlefield. Are you one of them? Just what kind of battlefield did you experience in Atall, Leo? No, if it comes to that, even this foreign country that Allion is to you might have been a battlefield.

    He didn¡¯t understand. And talking about something else that he didn¡¯t understand...

    ¡°A ¡®foreign enemy¡¯? What foreign enemy? The only enemy Allion currently has abroad is Conscon Temple. Or Is Atall taking part in the war again? Is that who you¡¯re talking of driving back? You, Lord Leo of Atall?¡±

    Claude found it incomprehensible. Lifting his gaze a little, he fixed his eyes on Percy and Kuon, who were arrayed behind Leo. They ¨C Percy especially ¨C were watching what was happening while apparently holding their breath, and also holding themselves back. They had probably resolved to leave this to Leo. Such was the relationship between lord and vassal.

    The general heaved a deep sigh and returned the broadsword to its original position. In exchange, he stretched a brawny arm out towards the prince.

    ¡°Let¡¯s both sit back down, Leo... sorry, Lord Leo. I¡¯m only saying I¡¯ll listen to what you have to say. But that also means that there¡¯s no going back. No matter how I try, I won¡¯t be able to laugh it off as a joke or a dream anymore. If, once you¡¯ve finished speaking, I judge that you¡¯re a threat to me and to my country, I¡¯ll simply have your head ¨C and that, even if it means that my daughter will hate me for the rest of her life,¡± said Claude, holding out his hand to pull Leo up.

    There was no longer the relaxed attitude of those who had been like family for six years. Nor was there an atmosphere like the one between son-in-law and father-in-law.

    ¡°Understood,¡± yet Leo Attiel¡¯s face was bright as he took the hand that helped pull him to his feet.

    While Leo, Percy and Kuon had headed towards Claude¡¯s castle, Camus and Sarah had returned to Conscon Temple.

    The road Leo and the others had taken was not an easy one, but rushing along mountain paths at night made it a difficult journey for the siblings. They were covered in mud and sweat by the time they arrived at the temple which they had both been missing. The situation there was likewise in a sorry state.

    Even though Allion¡¯s troops had been without their commander, they hadn¡¯t gone easy on the temple. They had sent out soldiers around the base of the mountain to cut off the supply of food and funds. They quickly pulled back when the temple¡¯s side attacked them, but no sooner did they do so than they then started firing from cannons placed at the foot of the mountain, whose existence they seemed to have suddenly remembered.

    What wasn¡¯t cut off was the flow of deserting soldiers escaping from the temple, which they believed no longer had any chance of winning. For a time, the temple had clamped down hard on fugitives, but thoughtlessly keeping soldiers who had lost their spirit meant that they had grown violent.

    ¡°Then give us food. Hand out money. Show us a path to victory!¡± they had raged.

    With soldiers like that on the inside, there was no longer any way to keep fighting. There was no other choice but to allow them to escape. Almost all of the bandits and marauders who had light-heartedly come to the temple as mercenaries had already vanished. Those left were little more than the Atallese troops led by Nauma Laumarl, who reluctantly remained because of the sovereign-prince¡¯s orders. To be more specific, losses due to the repeated battles and to the departure of Percy¡¯s unit meant that the original five hundred soldiers were down to three hundred.

    Apart from them, there were about two or three hundred warrior monks. Even the nuns at the monastery had grabbed spears, saying that ¡°if the time comes, we will fight¡±, but the current circumstances meant that they could not even get one proper meal a day, so their energy, which had once had the force of a forest fire, would soon be extinguished as though put out by heavy rains.

    Naturally, there weren¡¯t only monks and priests at the temple. The people who had originally been living on the outskirts of the temple were also present, and there many too who had fled there from the villages at the foot of the mountain. As he passed through the streets, Camus repeatedly heard the wails of children, and could sense the listless gazes of the adults.

    Camus called on those of them that he knew by sight; more than half of them had already passed away. The more elderly among them had apparently declared that, ¡°once this old deadweight is gone, at least there¡¯ll be one less mouth to feed,¡± and, so saying, they had pushed their old bodies into going to fight the enemy, and had fallen in glory.

    He pretended not to see how Sarah¡¯s shoulders shuddered and heaved up and down throughout the entire day.

    The sun had set by the time he met with Bishop Rogress. Camus told about how, although their surprise attack on the enemy headquarters had ended in failure, and they had ¨C for a short time ¨C been captured, they had ultimately saved the Atallese prince and had crossed over to Atall.

    ¡°To protect the temple, His Highness, Lord Leo, was baptised into our God¡¯s religion, and is moving in various ways.¡± When he heard that, the bishop made the sign of the cross in front of his chest.

    ¡°Everything is in accordance with God¡¯s will.¡±

    ¡°Nevertheless, Bishop, Lord Leo can only make use of a limited number of soldiers. We cannot be optimistic about the chances of victory.¡±

    ¡°Have faith in the Lord¡¯s will. By complying with it, we will, at the very least, live lives we need never be ashamed of,¡± said Bishop Rogress.

    As was only to be expected, the bishop¡¯s plump face and figure were starting to look gaunt, yet both his posture and his manner remained firm. He presented the appearance of the ideal priest, and Camus should have been deeply impressed by it.

    For some reason though, this time, Camus felt strange about it.

    He was reminded of Abbot Tom, who had spared his and his sister¡¯s life, and who had taken them in right after they had fled while their family home burned down. The abbot¡¯s heart had been full of splendid ideals; but even though he had ideals, he had no power. Which was why, when Camus was driven out by fire and forced to flee, pulling his sister by the hand, for a second time, he had come to this temple, which had both ideals and power.

    Even though Rogress and Tom were each supposed to have given him a completely different impression from the other, at that moment, Camus could see their faces perfectly overlapping with one another.

    What am I thinking?

    After taking his leave from Rogress, Camus shook his head quickly. Still, he could not shake the thought. It was as if there was an area in his own mind that he had not been aware of, in which a devil was crouching, with its black wings folded.

    He remained plunged in thought until morning.

    The next day, the two siblings were busy doing what needed to be done to fulfil the purpose of their separating with Leo and returning to the temple. Camus had hoped that he might forget if he immersed himself in doing something, but the devil wasn¡¯t so easily driven away.

    The next day again, he did something which he himself found hard to believe. Still possessed by that devil that he was deliberately pretending not to have noticed, he intended to act according to the orders he had received.

    He himself could not understand why he, a devoted servant of God, could temporarily throw away his own faith.

    ¡°Surrender?¡± In a corner of the chapel, the bishop opened his narrow eyes just a little wider.

    ¡°These are not naturally not my own words,¡± said Camus. ¡°It is just one possibility among the tactics that Lord Leo brought up. Although even if we call it a surrender, it would ¨C again, naturally ¨C only be temporary. The important thing is to make sure that Allion¡¯s attention is focused on us.¡±

    Camus spoke dispassionately, his face expressionless. The morning sun penetrated through the gaps between the pillars, and the two people¡¯s shadows stretched out long.

    ¡°There are many faithful within Allion, and public opinion is conflicted about the temple. Not even Hayden would dare to harm believers who have surrendered... is the idea.¡±

    From start to finish, Camus had presented it as ¡®Leo¡¯s opinion¡¯. This was by no means a lie: among the points listed in the plan that Leo had presented ¨C to which Percy and Camus had added one or two considerations for analysis ¨C the possibility of having the temple surrender had certainly been raised. The idea behind it was to attract and focus Allion¡¯s attention on it. However, it had soon been dropped from the list of possible courses of action since there were just too many unknown factors ¨C for example, even if their surrender successfully held the enemy¡¯s attention, it was nonetheless impossible to tell whether Allion would let the populace and the faithful go free immediately, so on Leo¡¯s side they would not be able to count on having Atallese soldiers attack from the mountains. Yet for some reason, Camus talked about it to the bishop as though it were still a valid option.

    Rogress¡¯ reply was both swift and simple.

    ¡°I have no intention of doing so.¡±

    ¡°But, Bishop...¡±

    ¡°I believe I have already told you: it is our duty to comply with God¡¯s will. Even if only temporarily, even if as part of a plan, we cannot surrender to His enemies. Even if we should be defeated by Allion, whose might is so much greater than ours, the dauntlessness we will have shown by betting our own lives will surely reach the Heavens. And if so, God¡¯s words will cross over our mountains, and in every city and citadel, they will ring out like the tolling of bells.¡±

    Camus said nothing further, and respectfully lowered his head. After putting his fingers in blessing to Camus¡¯ forehead, the bishop left the chapel.

    ¡±Defeated¡±... you say?

    His head still bowed, Camus stayed a long while scrutinising the floor at his feet.

    Arrogant though it might have been, he had been ¡®testing¡¯ the bishop. Even if he had not gone along with the plan of surrendering ¨C just as Leo and Camus themselves had not ¨C Camus had wanted to know by what kind of process he would reach that decision, and to see for himself what were the bishop¡¯s inner thoughts.

    Did he have determination? Was he prepared to drive away the enemy?

    He was prepared.

    Prepared to sacrifice himself for God.

    Prepared only for that.

    I believed this temple had power. That it was strong enough to drive back an unjust use of strength, that it had enough power to act upon God¡¯s will. So I was fine with dying for it, as long as I could help it, even if just a little. If it meant that victory was within reach...

    Camus imagined that perhaps, when he had been younger; Bishop Rogress and the god he believed in had also been harmed by unjust use of power. And maybe that was why, with Allion¡¯s cooperation, he had built up his own armed force and economic territory.

    And in truth, he had fought against Allion.

    But here too, if it had to be said, he had only fought.

    Perhaps he had never once believed that they might win. In this holy sanctuary that he himself had built, he would continue fighting without retreating before the use of strength, and perish. What counted more than anything else was that he would sacrifice himself for God¡¯s teachings.

    The scattered words and doubts within Camus¡¯ heart were slowly taking shape. But that shape differed from the simple violent thoughts that he had previously held.

    He had Percy, who had suggested the reckless plan of carrying out a surprise attack on the enemy headquarters; and Kuon, his treasured disciple with whom he fought side-by-side; and Lord Leo, who was going to use the most outrageous tactics to overturn the current situation. All of them longed for victory.

    And also, on the palm of his hand, he could still feel the sensation of Sarah¡¯s very young hand, when he had pulled her along. He didn¡¯t want to see people burned in flames anymore. He couldn¡¯t bear to flee from the fires anymore.

    ¡°... so after all, Bishop Rogress, you too...¡± he mumbled vacantly.

    After which, he said nothing further.

    Part 3

    Hayden was confident that the temple would fall. It would, moreover, be a perfect victory, as rapid as possible and with as little damage to his own troops as possible.

    For one thing, there was the intelligence from their spies within the temple. They said that the temple had been lured out by Allion into placing their cannons at the foot of the mountain. Since the warrior monks were also concentrated in the areas surrounding the guns, the corollary was that there were many passageways that were apparently completely undefended. It had been arranged that when they received the signal, the spies would guide Allion¡¯s soldiers to those locations.

    Soon after receiving that information, Hayden was planning to move his troops for a large-scale offensive. Originally, the temple should already have fallen by now, but back when he had received news of Lord Leo and Florrie¡¯s escape, Hayden had been left with no choice but to postpone its capture. He had even gone so far as to leave the headquarters and depart for Tiwana.

    He had not, however, given the order ¡°not to do anything¡± while he was away. Just as Camus had guessed, they had continued to send out soldiers to cut off the temple¡¯s supply lines, and to sporadically cause skirmishes in the villages at the foot of the mountain. The reason for that last one was because they wanted to force the enemy to maintain fixed gunnery positions.

    Just as Camus had also seen, runaways were escaping the temple one after another. A spy mixed in among them had brought one more piece of information, and his report was the second reason why Hayden was convinced that complete victory was within reach.

    ¡°Oh-ho, so Atall¡¯s soldiers have finally pulled out?¡± Hayden smiled as he sat back in his chair in a relaxed pose.

    Of the Atallese reinforcements which had come rushing, about three hundred had still remained at the temple, but they had finally left the day before. Apparently, they had streamed down the mountain like the remnants of a defeated army.

    Hayden chuckled to himself. Even if the sovereign-prince had wanted a little longer before deciding when to quit, there was no more time left.

    Incidentally, among the information that Hayden had collected, there was also some concerning movements within Atall itself. There was no evidence that they would be sending in any fresh troops. The Atallese aristocrats had jumped at the bait called ¡®peace¡¯ that Hayden had prepared for them, and were savouring its false flavour. As for the sovereign-prince, he would have no thought of defying their opposition and sending soldiers to defend a temple with which he did not actually have any connection.

    And also... among the topics covering Atall, there were reports concerning Leo Attiel. He alone had called for a reorganisation of the armed forces, but he had tragically failed and had thereupon immediately been baptised into the Cross Faith. Actually, rumour had already spread within Allion that his conversion had served as the pretext for building the first large-scale church within Atall¡¯s domains.

    So Atall¡¯s ruling family does have a connection to the temple after all ¨C there were may voices that cried out in anger and suspicion. Yet many of the adherents of the Cross Faith within Allion had favourably received the news of the prince¡¯s baptism.

    It made Hayden want to laugh.

    Don¡¯t you care how you look anymore?

    Was he hoping to win over public opinion in Allion thanks to his religious conversion? Certainly, there were many who viewed it with favour, but that would not be enough to sway the country¡¯s policy. Being baptised into the Cross Faith and establishing a diocese within the country was a shoddy, hastily thought-up plan that could not possibly halt Hayden¡¯s momentum at this point.

    Ha.

    On the eve of his departure for the front, Hayden felt like laughing as he inclined his wine cup towards him. Yet for some reason, he couldn¡¯t laugh. For a moment, he was bewildered as he couldn¡¯t understand why that was.

    He pondered for a while.

    Silence reigned inside the fortress. While this might have seemed strange, it was the proof that every unit had already completed their preparations for tomorrow¡¯s assault. As was Hayden¡¯s habit, he kept both those of lower rank and the pages waiting in attendance at a distance, so he was alone. While hearing the faint hum that was the voices of insects, he arrived at his answer.

    I see.

    Hayden looked down on Leo¡¯s plan. That was a fact; yet, at the same time, he was inclined to admire Leo Attiel. During the banquet in Tiwana, Hayden had provoked Leo; yet in and of itself, that had not been necessary. To be sure, Leo had committed the crime of taking Florrie away from Allion, but that was only a temporary thing. If the banquet had ended peacefully, he would have been able to bring Florrie back with him on the ship, and, very little time later, he would have destroyed Atall.

    Leo, however, had responded to Hayden¡¯s provocation.

    He had publicly announced his engagement to Florrie. Moreover, as he trod down on Hayden¡¯s foot, he had fired off these words: ¡°Are you saying that your power can take the place of a proper cause, and get the army to move? Then show me. And I¡¯ll show you how I turn the tables on you.¡±

    Hayden had been engulfed in intense fury but, looking back on it after he had left Atall, he realised that Leo¡¯s words had been no more than childish defiance. With no concrete plan to go on, he had simply blurted out how much he wanted to oppose Hayden. Which was why, when he was having his audience with the king of Allion and reaffirming his right to military command, Hayden had believed that, a brat of no more than seventeen, who isn¡¯t even the heir, won¡¯t be able to do anything. He can just wait and shiver. I¡¯ll make him regret his words from the bottom of his heart when I march the troops upon them.

    Yet Leo had shown movement. At least compared to those Atallese nobles who were indulging in the bait known as ¡®peace¡¯, he still had the will to oppose Allion. He was not just ¡®waiting and shivering¡¯. Even though, when Hayden had first met him at Claude¡¯s castle, he had been no more than an insignificant hostage.

    If I can say that you, who was supposed to live out your life as a worthless hostage, was the one who shook me awake from where I was sleeping in the ocean that is Allion, perhaps it can also be said that I was the one who woke you.

    Hayden felt an oddly profound emotion. He was even relaxed enough to be able to objectively think of it as strange.

    I¡¯m drunk, he put down his wine cup with a forced laugh.

    Even if he admitted that he was increasingly feeling something like a connection to Leo Attiel, there was no point thinking about it too deeply; in the end, Leo amounted to no more than one who would be engulfed by even the smallest of waves born from the ocean that was Allion.

    But I¡¯ll remember you, Leo Attiel, Hayden closed his eyes. I¡¯ll take your head as Atall¡¯s palace goes up in flames. But, I will be the only one who will remember you name, since it won¡¯t be left either in history or in people¡¯s memories. That is the least I can do for you, you who woke me up, as a show of thanks... and as your eulogy.

    He soon started to snore softly, before being awoken again by the pages.

    Until that day arrived, Leo Attiel was running abound making preparations.

    He had met with Dytiann¡¯s envoys, had snuck into Allion¡¯s territory, and had spoken with Claude Anglatt. Concurrently to that, he was pushing along another strange item on his agenda.

    In the western part of Savan¡¯s territory ¨C which was to say, everywhere that was close to the border with Allion ¨C he had encampments hastily constructed.

    The one whose cooperation he called upon was Bernard. Most of his territory was covered in forest, so Bernard served both as a domain lord and as the forester for the woodlands owned by the ruling House. Using the authority of the princely house, Leo had him cut down trees and have them transported to Savan¡¯s lands.

    Up to something weird again, thought Bernard, but his wife, who was an ardent believer in the Cross Faith, did not stay silent when she heard that the wood was to be used to build lodgings for the craftsmen working on the church, as well as for sheds in which to temporarily store the stone. Partly at his wife¡¯s instigation, Bernard had hurriedly started work.

    This is a digression, but before returning to the temple, Sarah had once paid a visit to Bernard¡¯s wife. As women dedicated to the same faith, they had a lot to talk about. The topic of the war at Conscon Temple was also brought up, and it left Bernard¡¯s wife deeply worried. ¡°Why can¡¯t our country help the temple?¡± her words were unusual for a woman from Atall, or rather, they came dangerously close to stepping into the domain of politics. Because of that and because he intended to build a base to allow the Cross Faith to conduct large-scale activities in Atall, Leo had become something of a hero to Bernard¡¯s wife.

    Leo now had a huge quantity of timber to hand, but most of it was used no to build dwellings for the craftsmen, but to construct encampments.

    Although even if they were called encampments, they were nothing more than structures with roofs that could house several dozen people. As for what they were used for, it was to lodge Leo¡¯s five hundred militiamen ¨C who, incidentally, had pitched in to build the camps.

    They were joined by regular soldiers. Not, however, the Royal Guards that Leo had brought with him from Tiwana. Since those were no more than guards for the quarry who had been left to him by the sovereign-prince, Leo had sent them back to the capital once they had successfully drawn out Darren¡¯s soldiers.

    The regular soldiers in question were the three hundred led by Nauma Laumarl. Having been left for so long at Conscon Temple, they had been waiting impatiently for orders from the sovereign-prince, and finally been given permission to come down from the mountain. In actual fact though, Sovereign-Prince Magrid had not issued any such orders.

    Leo Attiel had given Camus a dagger bearing the crest of the princely house on its hilt and, along with a letter, it gave the impression of being an order from Magrid that allowed Nauma and the others to descend from the temple.

    Once they crossed the border, they had, for the time being, been guided to Savan¡¯s nearby castle, where they had stayed a night to ¡°recover after your long campaign¡±. Given that their impression of Savan Roux was that he was merely ¡®an impoverished vassal-lord¡¯, they were astonished by the magnificent reception they received.

    Right, His Majesty the Sovereign-Prince must have given Savan the money to thank us for our services. We had a hard time of it, and His Majesty appreciates it, now that he was tasting civilised food and drink for the first time in a long time, Nauma was intoxicated.

    The next day, while they were in the middle of getting ready to ¡°return to dear old Tiwana,¡± Leo Attiel showed up. That too came as a surprise to Nauma. Which was understandable, since he was completely ignorant of Atall¡¯s current internal situation, but yet another shock was in store for him.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be taking charge of all the soldiers under your command, Nauma,¡± the prince announced.

    Nauma himself was ordered to remain as captain to the men. Well, even if it was presented as ¡°an order from the sovereign-prince¡±, that was, of course, another of Leo¡¯s lies. In all honesty, he did not actually have any further need for Nauma himself, but if he returned like this, the sovereign-prince would find out that Leo had acted on his own to have them withdraw from Mount Conscon.

    ¡°P-Please wait. What does His Majesty intend for us to do now? Have we not made peace with Allion?¡± Nauma asked, but the prince stuck to it that it was ¡°an order from my father, the sovereign.¡±

    While Leo was explaining that he would be taking overall command of the troops, Nauma found himself unintentionally doubting his liege¡¯s sanity ¨C His Majesty must have been caught between Allion and the vassal-lords, and had to try and do something.

    But anyway, if it was an order, he had no choice but to obey. Muttering complaints the whole time, he divided up the soldiers into a number of units, and sent them off to the encampments.

    That evening, Leo Attiel was in the chapel. He had received information that Hayden Swift had returned to the frontlines. The attacks on the temple would start up again soon.

    Camus and Sarah were at that temple now. Percy had headed to a different location, and was waiting for Leo¡¯s signal. Kuon had been entrusted with an elite unit, and he too was waiting for the prince¡¯s orders.

    And Leo Attiel was also waiting. While soaking up the atmosphere in the simple and still completely unadorned chapel, he had one hand on the sword at his waist. His other hand was on his chest, and he could feel the beat of his heart against his palm.

    The wind was blowing, and the candle flames were flickering. Leo¡¯s shadow also seemed to sway, then it turned into that ominous, stagnant sludge, a one-dimensional figure that stood right before him, thrusting its black, featureless face at him.

    Will you do it? It spoke in its silent voice.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± said Leo.

    People will die. A great many people. Foolish little prince. Countless lives will be lost which wouldn¡¯t have needed to be if only you hadn¡¯t provoked Hayden. And you too will plunged headlong into hell.

    ¡°If I don¡¯t take action, sooner or later, Atall will fall.¡±

    Excuses, excuses. Their corpses won¡¯t want to listen to those words from you, Little Prince.

    ¡°If they don¡¯t want to listen, then they don¡¯t need to listen. Somebody has to make a change. Somebody has to force things to move.¡±

    Who was Leo speaking to?

    ¡°The relationship between the ruling family and the vassal-lords has collapsed simply because the ruling House wasn¡¯t able to show the necessary strength when it needed to. As the ruling family lost power, the influence of the vassal-lords increased inversely to that. That¡¯s why they can¡¯t give a single order that doesn¡¯t profit the vassal-lords, and can¡¯t make a single move.¡±

    In other words ¨C

    ¡°Ultimately, the ruling family is to blame for Atall¡¯s current weakness.¡±

    ¨C was what he was saying.

    ¡°And that¡¯s why,¡± the moment Leo said it, the sludge returned to being a shadow. ¡°that¡¯s why, I will do it.¡±

 Volume 2, 6: The Battle of Conscon

    Volume 2, Chapter 6: The Battle of Conscon

    Part 1

    Hayden Swift had mobilised his troops.

    During the night, rows of armour illuminated by the light from pine torches approached Mount Conscon in a scarlet wave. Near dawn, the first two hundred soldiers advanced to the foot of the mountain. The trumpets sounded, and battles cries welled up with so much force that they drowned out the instruments.

    The temple side responded in kind. The warrior monks, who were gathered at the base of the mountain, hurriedly came into view. Arrows were shot, then came the sound of gunfire.

    Allion¡¯s side drew ever closer, raising their shields before them or using the cover of trees to protect themselves. Yet they did not push in any deeper than necessary.

    Meanwhile, five hundred soldiers were making their way to the back of the mountain. This group did not raise any loud blast of trumpets. Instead, they approached stealthily. Once they were near the mountain, they put out their torches and stopped moving. They silently hid themselves low and, for a while, it was as though the five hundred men had transformed into a single beast, observing its prey from the cover of tall grass.

    When the sky started to turn purple, a change occurred on Mount Conscon: a plume of smoke rose from its summit.

    It was a beacon fire.

    There had been no movement up until then, but even now, Allion¡¯s soldiers showed neither surprise nor restlessness. After all, it was not an action taken by the temple, but by spies from their own side. The rows of armour rose as one.

    As per arrangement, a man came to meet them in the grove of trees, a lantern in his hand. He was dressed like a warrior monk, but was actually one of the agents they had sent in, and he would be guiding them from there on. Since the beacon had been lit, it meant that the fighting had already begun on the other side of the mountain. Their unit at the back of it would used this opportunity to attack the temple from the rear.

    Meanwhile, there was another person who watched the beacon from a forest that lay to the west of Mount Conscon.

    Percy Leegan.

    There was a small hill within the forest, at the summit of which a ship was anchored. On its hull was the crest of the Dytiann Alliance: the crossed swords of Saint Mars and the purple scarf that symbolised the lady Saint Brizanica. On the other side of the ship, the crest of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division was clear for all to see.

    It was, of course, one of the ships sent by Dytiann as reinforcements for the temple. Arthur Causebulk, the division¡¯s commander, and three hundred of his soldiers were on board.

    At first, Percy had been unable to conceal his amazement at the sight of a ship that could carry that many people. In terms of speed and capacity for high-altitude flying, it was inferior to Atall¡¯s twenty-men air carriers, but in terms of its overall size, it was nearly twice as large as them. It was practically on the same scale as seafaring warships.

    ¨C Ten days earlier, Arthur had set sail from Dytiann¡¯s sphere of religious influence and, as Atall had requested, he had not headed due west, but had navigated along the circuitous northern route, in order to avoid urban areas as well as the territories of the vassal-lords, and so also to avoid causing anymore unwanted commotion.

    It was a voyage that had the officers on Dytiann¡¯s side store up a pile of complaints, since ¨C it¡¯s all because Atall¡¯s ruling House is weak and cowardly that we have to put in unnecessary amounts of time and money. Ether, which was needed to keep ships afloat, was by no means a cheap commodity. Butt their commander, Arthur Causebulk, had a relaxed personality.

    ¡°Sightseeing from the sky is nice too,¡± he said, without a trace of irritation. ¡°Isn¡¯t this idyllic view of Atall just amazing? Oh, Sir Percy, come over here too. Come and see what your country looks like from the sky.¡±

    He had taken a liking to Percy, whom Leo had sent to act as the ship¡¯s pilot, and was always calling out to him. Not only that, he familiarly slung his arm around Percy¡¯s shoulders, and seemed about to touch his hand. While maintaining an outwardly gentle demeanour, Percy Leegan inwardly felt a sense of impending crisis such as he had never experienced before.

    Apart from that personal threat, the navigation itself went well, but now that they had crossed west of Atall¡¯s border, they met with an unexpected impediment. Once the ship was moored by the riverside, Percy had ridden to the neighbouring villages to gather information, and had confirmed that the overall situation had not changed much since he himself had been fighting at the temple.

    Soldiers from Allion appeared sporadically within the temple¡¯s vicinity. It seemed increasingly unlikely that the base that Percy himself had once snatched away from them would have been left untouched.

    ¡°In the circumstances, it won¡¯t be easy to bring the ship closer,¡± warned Percy.

    Allion¡¯s troops might have cannons, and there was a chance that they might have brought several with them on location. A large, slow-moving ship would become an easy target.

    ¡°In that case, should we continue on horseback?¡± Arthur asked with a reluctant expression.

    ¡°No,¡± Percy¡¯s expression grew thoughtful. ¡°We have information that Hayden, the commander, has returned to his troops. There¡¯s a high chance that the enemy will begin a large-scale attack on the temple.¡±

    He unrolled a map of the neighbourhood on the bridge.

    ¡°If the ship makes a large detour to the north and allows Allion¡¯s troops to pass first, we could then thrust at them from the rear.¡±

    Arthur¡¯s officers did not look favourably impressed by Percy suggestion. There¡¯s that rumour that Atall has withdraw its soldiers, so are we going to be the only ones fighting?

    That thought showed on their faces, yet originally, it was Dytiann which had approached Atall with impassioned speeches about how they wished to send reinforcements to the temple, and how they were compelled to defend God¡¯s teachings. Having come this far, they could hardly announce that, ¡°no, us taking part in actual fighting is a completely different matter.¡±

    Only Arthur¡¯s eyes brightened like those of a child.

    ¡°Interesting. So with what you¡¯re suggesting, even though Allion¡¯s troops are planning to encircle the temple, they¡¯ll end up being the ones attacked from behind, huh?¡±

    Bishop Baal had emphasised that he must not ¡°try to be a hero,¡± but it had been barely a year since Arthur had taken over the Sergaia Holy Rose Division from his father. Although he was twenty-seven, he had not yet taken part in a real battle. Which was why the higher-ups in Dytiann had judged that this mission would be good experience for him, and why they had entrusted him with newly-built ships when they had ordered his departure for the front ¨C essentially, Dytiann¡¯s take on the situation was that, at least until the next dispatch, things would not turn into a large-scale war of attrition.

    Arthur did not find this in the least bit amusing. He was also displeased because it seemed that his own strength was really being made light of. Which was why he was greatly tempted by Percy¡¯s strategy.

    Besieged by an overwhelmingly large enemy force, the temple was in a precarious situation. And then, amidst the wails of grief and despair coming from countless monks and townspeople, Dytiann¡¯s troops came rushing, their horses¡¯ hooves dashing lightly across the ground. Charging in the lead, his silver armour gleaming, was none other than Arthur Causebulk!

    Arthur ecstatically imagined a scene which was like something out of a heroic saga.

    The result was that on his orders, the ship veered off its intended course and took a large detour to the north, and while keeping Conscon Temple within sight to its south, it positioned itself west of it. On the map, they found a dense forest about twenty kilometres west of the temple. When airships were sent to investigate, they found that there was a hill within it that would just about allow the air carrier to land and to set sail. They let down anchor there for the time being. A scouting party was sent out to check the surroundings.

    ¨C Five days later, they confirmed that Allion¡¯s army had started making its advance, and was moving towards the foot of Mount Conscon.

    ¡°Now is a good time,¡± Arthur Causebulk left the bridge, looking exhilarated.

    Not long after that, Percy confirmed that the beacon had been lit.

    It was finally time to spring into action. He gave the order for his men to all grab their weapons.

    The ship did not have extensive stables, so they had only taken a few horses with them, Arthur¡¯s included, but it wouldn¡¯t be a problem that they did not have many cavalrymen. Simply having Arthur galloping in the lead, brandishing Dytiann¡¯s flag, would leave the enemy dumbstruck.

    No, it wasn¡¯t just the enemy: once they heard how he had heroically routed the enemy on the battlefield, his family and the older soldiers who had belonged to the division since his father¡¯s time, and who usually spent their time nagging Arthur, would all be amazed.

    At that moment, Percy, who had guided them to the temple and who was the first to have finished arming himself, appeared on deck.

    ¡°Sir Arthur, I pray that the fortunes of war be with you.¡±

    ¡°Oh? Aren¡¯t you coming with us?¡±

    ¡°To tell you the truth, we were expecting something like this, and there are troops lying hidden west of Atall¡¯s border. I will go and give them the order, and we will be following behind you.¡±

    ¡°I see. Atall is certainly shrewd,¡± Arthur was genuinely delighted.

    Since Atall was launching into a military attack on Allion, it meant that they had given in to Dytiann¡¯s threats. Bishop Baal would be pleased as well; even if, after this, they were to clash swords with Allion, the main battlefield would be either the temple or Atall. Dytiann would be able to send successive waves of soldiers to thwart Allion¡¯s eastern ambitions without having to worry about seeing their country burn.

    ¡°Then see you later, on the battlefield.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, later, on the battlefield.¡±

    With the help of a subordinate, Arthur donned his armour, placed a brand-new sword at his waist, and had his horse brought out from the onboard stable.

    His men, over three hundred of them, had completed all their preparations. Outside the ship, they arrayed themselves in ranks, and Arthur rode before them.

    It was early dawn. Although the forest was still dusky, the twinkle of stars was vanishing from the sky above.

    The timing is perfect. Now then, the next step was to call out and to go charging out from the forest...

    There was a whistling sound, a bit like the chirping of an insect.

    A sentry holding a pine troch was the first to collapse. An arrow stood quivering in his neck.

    The whistling sound was repeated again and again, and arrows pierced all around the troops¡¯ surroundings.

    ¡°What!¡±

    Just as Arthur cried out, an arrow struck the ground at his horse¡¯s feet. The horse neighed loudly and reared upwards, its forelegs raised overhead. Arthur was almost shaken from the saddle, but managed to desperately hold on its neck.

    ¡°Grab your shields!¡±

    ¡°Enemies, enemies!¡±

    The ranks of soldiers, which had only just assembled, fell into disarray as voices roared in jumbled confusion.

    Enemies. Enemies, they say?

    Both arms still wrapped around his horse¡¯s neck, Arthur restlessly swept his gaze around his surroundings. He started: fire was burning right in front of him. Or no ¨C as Arthur ran his eyes over one place after another, what he saw were lit flames that shone upon the armour of soldiers positioned throughout the forest.

    Arthur, who had been planning on attacking the enemy from behind and leaving them dumbfounded ended up being the one struck dumb. Allion¡¯s flag fluttered above the bowmen. In no time at all, Arthur and his group, with the air carrier at the centre, were surrounded. Among the soldiers, some attempted a counterattack, while others fled inside the ship.

    However ¨C

    ¡°Fire, fire! Kill every last one of those eastern savages who¡¯ve come trampling into Allion¡¯s territory!¡±

    Just when the volley of arrows seemed to have ended, gunshot replaced them. Blood spurting, soldiers collapsed all around him, and Arthur Causebulk¡¯s mind went blank.

    ¡°Young lord, my lord! Escape to the ship!¡±

    When the vassal who struck his horse¡¯s flank as he said that suddenly had his wide-open mouth pierced through by a bullet, Arthur didn¡¯t even have the time to feel anything about it.

    From a position overlooking the ship, Allion¡¯s commander gazed down at Dytiann¡¯s Sergaia Holy Rose Division, whose ranks had completely fallen apart.

    That commander¡¯s name was Claude Anglatt.

    Part 2

    Percy Leegan had the feeling that he had heard a gunshot behind him, and he turned to look back while on horseback.

    He immediately brought his attention back to what was in front, however, and continued eastwards.

    Percy was, of course, acting on Leo Attiel¡¯s orders. Speaking of Leo, and although this hardly needs repeating at this point, he was the only one in Atall who intended to fight Allion. It is also an established fact that, compared to Allion, his military force was pitiful. Therefore, the reinforcements from Dytiann, which, taking the long-term view, was a country that was far more likely to prove dangerous to Allion than Atall was, should have been something of a godsend for Leo and his group at this time.

    Yet Dytiann¡¯s ship had been caught in a surprise attack, and Claude was the one commanding that offensive.

    Percy, however, did not get his horse to slow down. This was all according to plan. And this was one of the things that Camus, the warrior monk from Conscon Temple, had so strongly objected to when Leo had confided his plans to them all.

    When Percy had first heard it, he had not been able to repress a shudder. According to Leo:

    ¡°We will deliberately guide the reinforcements from Dytiann close to Sir Claude¡¯s territory, and we will have him defeat them. Oh, and we need to tell him about it beforehand.¡±

    ¡°The important thing here is to make use of the fact that Dytiann trespassed onto Allion¡¯s territory, and to manufacture the reality that Sir Claude defeated this ¡®unexpected foreign enemy¡¯ before they had time to do anything.¡±

    With that, Claude Anglatt would become a hero who had protected Allion. At the same time, it would throw cold water over Dytiann¡¯s enthusiasm, given that they were hoping to reap all the benefits without running any risk of injury to themselves.

    ¡°We¡¯ll approach Sir Claude with the offer of leaving him that accomplishment,¡± Leo continued.

    It was only natural that Camus should have objected. He had no kind feelings for Dytiann ¨C that too has been said repeatedly. Nevertheless, pulling Dytiann in by pretending to be their allies while actually plotting to stab them in the back was something that he simply could not approve of.

    Moreover, there was one other plan on top of that one that Camus was furiously opposed to.

    One that went against loyalty. That went against justice. That went against God¡¯s teachings.

    Camus had boldly held forth on justice, exactly as though he was standing in for God in person, but when Leo had stood before him and demanded that Camus kill him, when he had gone as far as taking his own life hostage, he had gotten Camus to submit to the plan.

    No, thought Percy Leegan as he rode his horse, back then, it wasn¡¯t His Highness Leo Attiel that Camus was fighting. It was probably himself. The confrontation between the two of them was the embodiment of Camus¡¯ inner conflict, as he was stuck between his god¡¯s teachings and reality.

    Although Camus was noticeably rough and wild in appearance, speech and conduct, his heart was actually delicate and easily wounded ¨C although they had only been together a few months, Percy could tell that much about Camus.

    In these past few months, Camus too had been through a number of experiences. Perhaps, if he had been the same as when Percy had first met him, he would have killed the prince ¨C or, even if he hadn¡¯t gone that far, he would have thrust those slender shoulders aside and would have run from the room, even at the risk of being injured, and afterwards, he would have made his way back alone to the temple, to die a heroic death.

    ¨C The teachings he followed were his ideal. Yet concrete ¡®power¡¯ was needed to put those teachings into practice. ¡®Power¡¯ to prevent one from being destroyed, from being denied, from being erased from this world.

    Although Percy was not aware of it, Camus had constantly been caught up in that dilemma.

    He had fallen to his knees in tears, and had consented to the plan. To defend his comrades and his god¡¯s teachings, he had agreed to knowingly carry out actions that went against every one of his precepts. Back then, just how much pain had accompanied Camus¡¯ decision?

    Percy Leegan was completely unaware of it.

    As he thought back to Camus while riding along right then, it was, in all honesty, a form of mental escape. It was, after all, Percy himself who had offered to guide Dytiann¡¯s ship.

    He had to ensure that Dytiann continued to believe that Atall as a whole had accepted their reinforcements. Although the House of Leegan, to which Percy belonged, was not particularly famous, it was nonetheless a family that had served as retainers to Atall for many generations. It was not without prestige. On top of that, it was a fact that he himself had gone to aid Conscon Temple. Just for that alone, Arthur Causebulk had trusted Percy.

    Arthur, huh?

    Just like Camus, Percy could not conceal his disgust for Dytiann¡¯s current actions ¨C but he did not hold any hatred towards Arthur himself. Although he had felt a previously unknown intimidation from him, Arthur seemed young for twenty-seven, and his smile was utterly guileless. In short, while it was true that Arthur was someone who would harm Atall, he was not particularly villainous and, as Percy continued his journey, he was conscious of a weight pressing down on his chest.

    It wasn¡¯t just Arthur. Every one of those soldiers was the same. There were even those that he had talked with on friendly terms. Young soldiers who had told him that ¡®this is my first time going to the front,¡± and who had listened attentively to Percy¡¯s stories about the fighting around Conscon Temple, as though anxious not to miss a single word. Percy could sympathise to an almost painful degree with their need to encourage themselves by hearing about the experiences of those who had already gone to war, and with their fervent anxiety about whether they would be able to achieve success, or whether they would simply die miserably.

    Turning his back to where the massacre was taking place, Percy urged his horse onwards.

    The sun was climbing in the sky.

    At around the same time, five hundred of Allion¡¯s soldiers swarmed up the mountain paths, guided by the spy.

    The row of armour weaved its way upwards, looking like it was sewing stitches between the small groves of trees. Two turns before the main temple gates, they took a sidepath. Ahead of them, a hole opened up in the cliff.

    It seemed that the faithful and the priests had spent several years burrowing into a natural cave. It was mainly used by the priests for meditation, but on the temple¡¯s festival days, they sometimes held masses there which laymen could also attend.

    By passing this way, they would apparently be taking a shortcut to the shrine on the summit.

    The assault by Allion¡¯s troops on the other side of the mountain was no doubt holding the attention of the warrior monks, since there was not a single one of them to be seen. Although the soldiers had made this detour just to be sure, there seemed to be barely anyone left at the main temple gates.

    Allion¡¯s side could tell that, everything is going according to plan.

    In reality, however, they were the ones moving ¡°according to plan.¡±

    The one who had originally drafted these measures was Percy Leegan. This was before he had even met Lord Leo. When he had still been fighting at the temple and had thought of attacking the enemy headquarters, and before leaving to do so, he had imparted a plan to those of his men who would be remaining on the mountain.

    They had made use of an enemy spy called Kenny. He was originally a marauder, and it was immediately obvious from his behaviour that he was also an agent working for Allion. The other side was probably using him because his clumsy actions were sure to attract attention, and so allow the other spies to move about more easily. Percy, however, deliberately pretended not to notice him, and had one of his subordinates approach Kenny.

    Claiming that he himself was also a spy for Allion, the man fed Kenny false information and helped him escape from the mountain. This had all happened immediately after Allion had advised the temple to surrender. There was no doubt that they were planning an all-out assault, and Percy believed that if, on top of that, they received information that ¡°the rear of the mountain is full of openings,¡± then they would definitely jump at the bait.

    Percy had put these measures in place so that after enticing a large part of the enemy troops out from their headquarters, he and his men would be able to strike at their very heart. They had failed temporarily because of the unforeseen situation surrounding Lord Leo¡¯s escape, and the mountain hunt that Allion had conducted because of it, yet these measures were still valid.

    While Hayden, the commander, was away, Allion had still continued to sporadically send out soldiers in frontal attacks; their aim was probably to make sure that the temple¡¯s gun batteries maintained fixed positions. Which also ensured that the unguarded gaps at the back of the mountain still remained, and which meant that they were certainly intending to attack from the rear at some point. Having realised as much, Percy suggested to Leo that they once more put his measures into practice, and Leo had agreed.

    Allion was caught in the trap.

    At the mouth of the cave, Allion¡¯s soldiers reorganised their long line of troops. Their cheeks were flushed from anticipation at the savagery they would be enacting from there on. There was, after all, no greater joy than to trample triumphantly over an opponent defeated in war.

    However, in their surroundings and at the top of the steep cliff, warrior monks were silently lying in ambush. Camus was acting as the linchpin; stifling his breathing, he watched what the enemy was doing while waiting impatiently for the moment to give the order. As soon as he raised his voice, the warrior monks would all rise as one to shoot their arrows and bullets; being literally caught off guard, Allion¡¯s side would naturally escape into the cave.

    But the story that there was a shortcut to the temple through the cave was a complete lie. They would immediately run into a wall. The monks would charge in after Allion¡¯s soldiers, who would no longer be able to either advance or retreat.

    That was the plan.

    Having arrived at the steep cliff, the spy who had guided Allion ¨C and who was, of course, a soldier employed by the Leegan family ¨C softly started to make his escape. The soldiers who were exchanging ribald smiles were supposed to meet with the same fate as the troops from Dytiann immediately afterwards.

    However ¨C

    ¡°Oi,¡± a captain leading the troops called out to the spy. The man started and stopped.

    Ever since the current king had taken the throne, Allion had been plunged into one war after another. And this captain had plenty of combat experience. Here, in front of the cave, some kind of instinct for danger had probably alerted him.

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you a few men. Go run around the other side of the cave, just to be sure,¡± he ordered.

    ¡°Ay... n-no, but... if, by any chance, we were spotted by any of the warrior monks, it might compromise the surprise attack...¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Even if they do figure it out, the attack will still happen. And speaking of any chance, it¡¯s more important to make sure there aren¡¯t enemies lurking around.¡±

    Concealed within the long grass, Camus watched the scene from a distance. Although he could not hear what was being said, a torch was pressed into the hands of the soldier who was pretending to be a spy, and some of Allion¡¯s soldiers gathered to the side, so he could roughly guess the gist of it.

    Camus was forced into a decision. If they found out that the cave was a dead end, then the plan would obviously fall through.

    Should it be said that neither Percy nor Leo were able to anticipate such small, on-the-spot problems? They had wrongly assumed that the soldiers convinced of their victory would neglect to be cautious. This was the difference between theory and experience.

    Still, the temple side, which had received the pair¡¯s plan without working on the details, had also been inadequate and overly optimistic.

    Seeing that the spy was hesitating, the Allian captain grew increasingly suspicious. He called up soldiers from the various platoons, and was preparing to give them the order to search the surroundings.

    They could not wait any longer.

    Damn! His eyebrows bristling like flames, Camus leapt to his feet.

    ¡°Shoot!¡±

    ¡°Disperse!¡±

    Between him and the Allian captain, which one gave their order the fastest?

    A storm of arrows and gunfire rained down on Allion¡¯s soldiers. Screams and shrieks surged and got jumbled together, just as they had around Dytiann¡¯s ship. It did not last for long however. The explosive show of force had sent Allion¡¯s troops scattering in every direction, and from their various locations, they started returning fire with arrows and bullets of their own.

    Camus clicked his tongue in annoyance. The events unfolding were clearly different from the plan. Even worse, because the temple did not have proper supplies, their bullets were already about to run out. They had been prepared to use their last remaining amunition to carry out this scheme, but the in the end, less than thirty enemy soldiers had been killed in the surprise attack.

    Allion¡¯s group was five hundred strong. Once they realised that the enemy no longer had any bullets, the situation was reversed, and they started pressing forward, swords and spears in hand, while those of their comrades who were armed with guns provided covering fire for them.

    On the temple side, even while they continued to shoot with bow and arrows, the group armed with spears had rushed forward, making the first move.

    The one nimbly running in the lead was Camus. With a single thrust of his spear, he sent the helmeted head of an Allian soldier flying. After which, he thrust again. A soldier who was jabbed through the neck jerkily fell back before collapsing. He was aiming for the captain through this series of surprise attacks but Allion wouldn¡¯t simply let him do as he pleased.

    Swords swung towards him in counterattack. As he repelled their blades with his spear, he shouted out at the top of his lungs,

    ¡°Push forward, push forward!¡±

    There¡¯s no other choice, he thought.

    The only chance they would ever have was now, when the enemy was still getting their formations ready. They would push forward with numbers and momentum. Push, and push, and overwhelm them. Even if they couldn¡¯t get the enemy to fear for their lives, their momentum would at least give them trouble...

    There will be needless losses on their side. They need time to ready their formations.

    Even a momentary weakness would be enough; then, Allion¡¯s side would flee into the cave. If they could secure the entrance and exit, they would at least be able to gain time.

    But gaining time was also what Camus and his group wanted to achieve.

    The cave itself was a dead end, but from where they were, there were any number of ways to reach the summit. If they allowed Allion¡¯s side to win here, then, just as Allion had planned, the temple would be caught in a pincer attack. Which was why they had to stop the enemy at all cost. If only Allion¡¯s soldiers would escape into the cave, then they could restrain the location of the fighting to just the entrance, and Allion would not be able to make use of its numerical superiority.

    And that was why they would push forward. Could only push forward.

    Camus took the lead, brandishing his spear and encouraging his brethren. A wild and furious god, different from the one that he believed in, seemed to have completely seized hold of his body. The Allian soldiers who stood before him were far more experienced at war than he was, yet most of them were ready to run.

    Responding to Camus¡¯ impetus, the other monks lined up on either side of him, offering up prayers as they did so. Now that friend and foe were so close together, using firearms was no longer possible. Steel collided against steel as sparks flew.

    Allion¡¯s soldiers were on the verge of being overpowered by the force of momentum.

    Compared to the warrior monks, who were determined to die here, they did not have the same deep attachment to this place. They had never expected the fighting to devolve into this kind of melee, and they were starting to lose their nerve.

    ¡°Withdraw,¡± the captain shouted. ¡°For now, withdraw to the cave!¡±

    Thank Heaven, Camus smiled.

    He jabbed spear downwards towards an enemy soldier. He didn¡¯t even know how many it had been anymore.

    But at that moment, an intense shock ran across his thigh.

    Huh?

    He had repelled a sword which was swinging towards his face. The pain had come right after that.

    Looking down, his right thigh had been cut, and blood was flowing. The still boyish face of the enemy soldier who had injured Camus¡¯ leg could be seen from beneath his helmet.

    ¡°I¡¯m called Randius!¡± He gave his name in a clear, sonorous voice.

    Who the hell cares? Camus aimed to drive his spear straight into the youth¡¯s throat, but he was easily parried.

    ¡°I pity you because of your youth. But even though I pity you, that had nothing to do with mercy. The best I can offer is having my spear finish you off in one go,¡± said Camus, then thrust his spear in attack once more.

    But it missed again as his opponent lunged close. Camus hurriedly pulled back his spear to block the sword¡¯s blade. It turned into a test of strength, but Camus, whose leg had been cut, could not use it to brace himself. In a complete reversal of what had happened earlier, he was now being pushed back through brute strength.

    ¡°Fool!¡± Camus yelled at the enemy who was so close to him. ¡°Do you not understand God¡¯s compassion? Resisting it just means that you will be thrown into the fires of hell as kindling. Make the sign of the cross before you die! If you do, even a dragon might pass through the eye of a needle, and the Gates of Heaven might open for you.¡±

    As he was the one being pushed back, Camus¡¯ words did not sound sane. And in fact, he was not in his right mind. Just a while earlier, his way of fighting had been fiercely terrifying. He had actually felt as though God had descended into his body to meet out justice.

    Yet even for Camus, surpassing the abilities of a normal human in the way he had done took an extreme toll on his body and mind. And now that his momentum had been stopped, he was forced into awareness of his exhaustion and his injuries, and was being pushed back by an opponent who looked like a child.

    Even so, Camus gritted his teeth and exerted all of his strength, but when Randius bent diagonally and Camus¡¯ leg moved to follow him, Randius swept his own leg to knock him off balance.

    Camus tumbled onto his back.

    Randius raised his sword.

    What?

    Camus was almost light-headed as looked up at the sword. Now? he wondered. Did God want his life now?

    No sooner had he thought that, than Randius staggered back with a jerk. His right shoulder guard had been blown off.

    It had been hit by a bullet. The impact was too much for Randius¡¯ posture, and he fell backwards.

    When Camus instinctively looked back, he saw a smoking gun muzzle close by. And the one holding it was Sarah. He didn¡¯t remember having his little sister join their unit, so it looked like she had decided to take part in the surprise attack entirely on her own. She had just fired the last remaining bullet.

    ¡°Ugh!¡±

    Sending a look to his sister that expressed neither gratitude nor anger, Camus used his spear like a cane and lifted himself up to his feet. Dragging one leg behind him, he raced to where his comrades were still fighting bravely.

    Part 3

    Leo Attiel had shot three arrows to settle this battle.

    The first arrow had led to the annihilation of Dytiann¡¯s forces near Allion¡¯s territory.

    The second one was preventing the advance of five hundred of Allion¡¯s soldiers who had been attempting to approach Conscon Temple from the rear.

    While Percy and Camus were in charge of the first and second arrow respectively, Kuon was responsible for the third one.

    He was guiding two hundred of the soldiers who had originally been serving under Nauma Laumarl, as well as a further hundred that Kuon himself had selected from the peasant militia. At Percy''s suggestion, Kuon was also acting as their commanding officer.

    ¡°If you give him soldiers to lead, he will probably show a rapid transformation,¡± Percy had told Leo.

    It was true that Percy had high hopes for Kuon¡¯s future prospects, but actually, this was a case of Percy magnificently overdoing things in a bid to give Kuon ¨C who seemed unsettled and liable to wander aimlessly to some other land once this fight was over ¨C a sense of responsibility and of accomplishment, so as to convince him to stay in Atall.

    The regular Atallese soldiers were naturally baffled by this decision, and there were some who had objected, but since it was a direct order from Lord Leo, they had no choice but to obey this boy before them. And depite all of that, the three hundred men that Kuon was leading actually held the key role in this battle around the temple.

    Not long before dawn, they had marched along a certain mountain path. But not one on Mount Conscon. Nor was it a path up the hill where Dytiann had concealed their ship.

    Travelling the steep and rugged mountain paths while fully armed was dizzyingly difficult, yet Kuon seemed unconcerned as he led his unit. This was not only because he had been born and raised in mountains, but also because he had already taken this route more than once.

    Indeed, they were in Allion¡¯s territory. They were south of Claude¡¯s castle, in the area where Lord Leo had once fled to, and which Kuon and the others had penetrated to go and help him.

    On top of that, fires were lit all along the way, so it was far different from the previous time, when he had been forced to move around stealthily, and Kuon was practically humming a tune as he went along the paths. Claude had placed those fires as a defence measure, yet currently, there was not a single soldier from Allion to be seen as Kuon and the others continued their way. That was all due to the secret conversation which had taken place between Leo and Claude shortly before the battle began.

    The third time that Kuon had passed through these mountains was that very time when Leo had entered Allion, taking only Percy and Kuon with him, to meet with Claude. Back then, Leo had made one request to Claude:

    ¡°Please allow my soldiers to pass along the road that Percy and the others once used to for their planned attack.¡±

    It was hardly surprising that Claude had then flown into a rage and ordered Leo to ¡°leave!¡± It was virtually the same as saying that ¨C we intend to attempt another attack on Allion¡¯s headquarters, so Sir Claude, I would like you to look the other way. In other words, it was asking Claude to betray his country.

    That, however, had been before he was informed Dytiann¡¯s participation.

    When Claude was informed that the great eastern power will be intervening in this war, his expression turned grim. Thereupon, Leo had explained the self-same plan that Camus had once objected to.

    ¡°It seems that Dytiann¡¯s army is going to come over by air carrier. If we can guide this ship, there is a very good chance that we will be able to offer you the entirety of their troops, Sir Claude.¡±

    Who could guess just how great Claude Anglatt¡¯s surprise had been? His entire face ¨C which looked just like a bandit¡¯s at first glance ¨C was scrunched into a scowl while he sank deep into thought.

    ¡°...You¡¯re a damned villain,¡± he cursed.

    The situation surrounding the temple would turn into something huge if Dytiann joined the fray. It might turn into a drawn-out standoff as both sides entrenched themselves in their positions. On a personal level, because of Hayden¡¯s dislike for him, Claude was under suspicion of being linked to the temple and to Atall, but he would be able to rack up considerable merit from stopping the unforeseen incursion of a foreign enemy.

    What made Claude call Leo a ¡°villain¡± was the way he had seized Allion¡¯s weak point: while Dytiann¡¯s intervention would undoubtedly be a problem for Allion, it would also, by all rights, be one for Atall as well. Yet Leo was breezily bringing it up as a ¡®bargaining chip¡¯, even though he was actually forcing Claude¡¯s hand.

    All of this explained that none of Claude''s soldiers were stationed along the route that Kuon and his group were travelling. The excuse that would be given was that Claude ¡°suspected that Dytiann was making its move,¡± and had thus taken ¡°every available soldier¡± to go and stop the trespassing ship.

    Kuon¡¯s party was able to approach the enemy headquarters without anyone suspecting a thing. The watch fires, built in iron baskets, which were originally supposed to help guard against a surprise attack had, ironically, served as a guide for the attack corps.

    By the time the sky had turned a light purple, the enemy fortress was before their eyes. Although for all that it could be called a fortress, being large in scale and having quite a few soldiers stationed there, it was just a hastily built construction. Since he had been in no position to request generous funding, Hayden had probably felt it was enough as long as it could house the soldiers and store the weapons and provisions.

    Looking down at the fort beneath them might have been an almost nostalgic scene for Kuon. Back then, they had also gotten very close to it, but Claude¡¯s soldiers had found them immediately afterwards. They didn¡¯t need to worry about that now, though; there weren¡¯t even any sentries around the fortress.

    ¡°...?¡±

    Kuon creased his brow and made a movement like a dog sniffing at the air. Let alone not having any sentries, the fortress gave no sign of any kind of human presence.

    ¨C On this one point, Leo¡¯s reading had been off.

    The third arrow that he had shot was supposed to a lethal one, which would pierce Hayden Swift in the throat.

    Hayden had sent out many of the soldiers to capture the temple, leaving no more than two hundred men at the headquarters. Since he needed to immobilise the temple¡¯s artillery, he had also sent out all of his cannons. With defence being so fragile, if Kuon and his elite group had attacked that night, there was a very good chance that they would have been able to kill Hayden himself.

    Perhaps fate was on the side of Allion¡¯s commander: even though up until then, Hayden Swift had not once gone to the frontlines, earlier, after having sent out most of the soldiers and while it was still night, he had whimsically decided that: ¡°I want the see the situation at the temple with my own two eyes.¡±

    He had woken up virtually all of the remaining soldiers, who had all already gone to sleep, and, astride his own horse, he had personally left for the temple. The fortress was basically completely empty. The only ones left behind were the young servants who helped take care of Hayden and of the soldiers, and although there were a few who grabbed a spear in response to the surprise attack by Kuon¡¯s group, they quickly realised that they were at a complete disadvantage, and readily surrendered.

    Kuon gnashed his teeth; he had just lost the perfect opportunity to take the head of the enemy general.

    But not only that ¨C the unit that Hayden was leading was about to become a new player in the struggle at the temple, and there was a risk that it would turn into a threat from behind for Kuon¡¯s companions.

    Moreover, in this fight, Kuon¡¯s arrow had been their greatest hope for overall victory. Even if they were able to drive several hundred soldiers away from the temple, it would hardly end in the complete routing of their opponents. Although any number of fights were sure to break out from here on, none of them would earn them anything more than a single, small-scale win.

    Right, it was to settle things ¡®from here on¡¯ that Leo had given Kuon the strict order to ¡°get Hayden at all cost, even if he¡¯s the only one.¡±

    The blood rushing to his head, Kuon grabbed hold of all of the horses which were left in the enemy stable and shouted, ¡°We¡¯re chasing after the enemy general!¡±

    The soldiers had all been ordered to obey Kuon as they would Leo. And yet ¨C

    ¡°Hold up,¡± one of the regular Atallese soldiers called out to him.

    ¡°What?¡± Kuon glared at him from atop his horse. The man had probably spoken because he hated having to follow some brat from the sticks.

    The soldier¡¯s plump, unshaven face broke out into a broad grin.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we going to set fire to the fortress, Captain, Sir?¡±

    Fate.

    Just a moment ago, I stated that fate might have been on Hayden Swift¡¯s side. When the Heavens ¨C I use ¡®heavens¡¯ here in a generic way, and it makes no difference to think of it as referring to the God of Heaven, to the myriad Spirits, to the Dragon Gods, they who are said to have inherited the wisdom of the ancients, or to any of the great beings that various people believe in ¨C when, then, the Heavens look down, they are never a fair and impartial ally, and this time as well, they were inclined to grant Hayden just a little more luck than others.

    At the same time as Hayden Swift was advancing on a position overlooking the temple from the north with a little under two hundred of his soldiers, Leo Attiel was also approaching the temple. After completing all sorts of preparations in Savan¡¯s territory, Leo had vanished from Guinbar Castle.

    I have already mentioned that he had built several encampments near the border and had billeted soldiers there, but I have not yet said that one of those was actually built a little further west of the others, and was actually across the border. Percy and Camus had chosen the location.

    When they had been stationed in one of the villages at the foot of Mount Conscon, they had crushed a base belonging to the marauders who were attacking in that same neighbourhood. After that, they discovered another, then yet another of these bases, and Percy had used their relative positions to work out where the other enemy camps which were scattered around were situated. He had linked their various positions in a line which roughly enclosed Allion¡¯s field of activities. And they had built that last encampment just beyond the line.

    It was audaciously close to the temple. In othered words, it was only a stone¡¯s throw away from Allion¡¯s forces.

    That was where Leo was. Kuon¡¯s group had also previously been hidden there. While keeping an eye on the situation at the temple, they had spent a few days gathering soldiers from the other encampments and, when Leo decided that the time was right, he had sent Kuon to the north. And then, at a moment which was very close to what Leo had predicted from his various observations, the beacon had been lit on Mount Conscon.

    Leo left the encampment with three hundred of the soldiers that he had summoned there. Given how many regular Atallese soldiers had joined Kuon¡¯s unit, and taking into account that a hundred had been left under Nauma¡¯s command to act as the rear-guard, most of his soldiers were from the peasant militia.

    If Leo¡¯s guess proved correct, those of Allion¡¯s troops which had advanced to the foot of the mountain would currently be in the middle of fighting the temple¡¯s forces, while Allion¡¯s detached unit would have arrived at the other side. Leo intended to join in the former of those two fights.

    Those in the most dangerous position in this battle were the ones who had to attract Allion¡¯s attention. Because it was vital that they annihilate the detached force in one strike, all of the temple¡¯s few remaining bullets had been given to the troop lying in ambush on the rear-side of the mountain.

    Allion¡¯s troops were similarly intending to attract the enemy¡¯s attention so that it would be easier for their detached force to make its move. As such, they would not be intending to penetrate too deeply onto the mountain. However, if they realised that, ¡°The enemy is weaker than ever before; they don''t even have bullets or arrows anymore,¡± then they would no longer be cautious about their opponents, and they might decide that rather than drag things on, they should take them down in one go. And Leo would move into position to attack them from behind.

    Hayden was moving to the exact same position to watch the temple fall. If both of their groups continued on their current trajectories, they would inevitably meet.

    Both units had sent out scouts on horseback, but this was where Allion¡¯s skill made a difference. The scouts that Leo despatched were, after all, simply amateurs. Allion¡¯s party, on the other hand, noticed the presence of an enemy reconnaissance unit, and hid behind a clump of trees. Once the enemy scouts had passed them by, they made a rough guess of where the enemy unit probably was, before hurrying over there. After thoroughly observing that enemy force from a distance, they headed back.

    The report reached Hayden at once. The enemy was Atall¡¯s army ¨C they had apparently openly been flying several flags of the principality. This in itself came as a surprise to him, but on top of that, there was information about a flag with the emblem of a cross that was flying so close to the others it was almost overlapping with them.

    Leo Attiel!?

    Hayden¡¯s Swift¡¯s eyes opened wide. There was no one else in Atall other than Leo who had a connection to the Cross Faith. The moment he was aware that Leo was on the battlefield, Hayden decided to destroy both him and his troop.

    There was no definite proof that Lord Leo himself was part of the unit, but Atall, which had once denied sending reinforcements to the temple, had now brazenly crossed the border. There was no way Hayden was going to let them get away with it.

    The surprise attack on the temple should already have begun. It would fall within the next few hours. Once the reinforcements lost their purpose, Atall would no doubt turn back and leave, so it wouldn¡¯t be bad to catch them out before that happened.

    You won¡¯t be able to slip out of it with vague excuses anymore, Magrid ¨C Hayden smiled from horseback.

    Perhaps it was because of the excitement of experiencing combat from close up for the first time that his emotions were running wild. Hayden had the scouts lead the way, and ordered his men to advance more quickly. Most of them were on horseback.

    Half an hour later, Leo Attiel¡¯s unit was moving west along the river which flowed in the plain at the foot of Mount Conscon. They were about five or six kilometres away from the first of the temple¡¯s main gates. When he though about how the fighting had surely begun on the mountain, Leo¡¯s expression turned grim.

    There were wooden houses in the area, so this had probably been a settlement which had been established to open up the forest by the riverbank. It seemed, however, that Allion¡¯s raids had caused to villagers to flee either to some other area or to the temple, and there was no one to be seen. Only a few emaciated dogs were prowling around.

    The mountains¡¯ ridgeline was starting to turn white, the buildings¡¯ shadows were slowly standing out from their dark surroundings. From the other side of the river came the sound of successive horses¡¯ hooves. When Leo looked towards it out of reflex, he saw a group of armoured riders. There wasn¡¯t even time to cry out.

    In that moment where everything seemed to be holding its breath, the gazes of the commanders met.

    If Leo Attiel was, of course, surprised, then Hayden Swift was too. But his startled eyes quickly gave way to a joyful expression.

    ¡°The prince is there,¡± he shouted out from horseback. ¡°Those dogs from Atall are swarming around the leftover scraps! Get them, bring them down!¡±

    The mounted group crossed the bridge. Leo and his party were in no position to bring that bridge down, but then in the first place, Leo was far too astounded to even think of doing so.

    Hayden was here. Which meant that Kuon¡¯s surprise attack had not been on time. On realising that Hayden was not at his headquarters, Leo thought the same thing as Kuon had. Even if the measures put in place at the temple succeeded and managed to drive Allion¡¯s forces away for a while, given that Hayden was still there, that victory ¨C paid for with so many sacrifices ¨C would be for naught.

    ¡°Prince, please withdraw!¡±

    Faster than Leo could recover his senses, the militiamen had put themselves at the ready to counterattack. They were full of zeal, and some of them were even rushing forward.

    ¡°Wait! Please wait!¡± Though Leo tried to stop them, he was too late.

    Allion¡¯s riders made nothing of the spear-wielding militiamen. Some of the soldiers¡¯ long-handled halberds crushed through the farmers¡¯ skulls, while the spearheads that other soldiers thrust downwards pierced through the craftsmen¡¯s leather-clad chests.

    Leo¡¯s peasant-soldiers shuddered. Yet they did not flee. They stood firm in front of him, as though to halt the enemy onslaught. As they did so, those of the young men who had once been hunters quickly stepped forward and, while some of them kneeled in front and others stood behind, they nocked arrows to their bows and shot them. It was a movement they had learned through training, using the skill they had acquired through hunting every day. About five riders fell from their horses. Seizing that opportunity, the foot soldiers, whose unusually long-handled spears they had received from Leo, shouted out ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±, and moved forward together.

    As though his horse¡¯s hooves were stitched to the ground, Leo could not move away. All he could see was red blood spurting.

    The small houses were clustered around a narrow road, and now that their initial momentum had been halted, the enemy did not seem able to advance as easily as they had expected to. But now that it had turned into close combat, the difference in skill naturally became apparent. One after another, the militiamen had their arms sliced through, their legs pierced, or their heads cut off.

    Leo¡¯s head ached furiously.

    The blood coursing to his brain was increasing the pressure beyond what it could bear, and it felt as though his head would explode at any moment. He was seized by the impulse to tear off his helmet and throw it away.

    While he remained like that, Leo¡¯s people, whom he loved, fell prey to the enemy¡¯s swords and spears. Even so, he couldn¡¯t think of anything. He couldn¡¯t even feel anything.

    ¡°Please, please escape,¡± shouted one of the militiamen who stood closest to him. He almost looked like a child. ¡°We¡¯ll stay and protect you, so Prince, please hurry and escape!¡±

    He was so close that when he opened his mouth wide, Leo could even see his two rows of teeth.

    It was then that somebody whispered in Leo¡¯s ear.

    ¡°Use fire.¡±

    Leo started in surprise.

    In that moment, Leo Attiel¡¯s mind dredged up the information he needed from the books of tactics that he had read voraciously up until then. He snatched one of the torches that they used on their march from one of his men, and flung it towards one of the houses. He then grabbed another and repeated the action with the house opposite the first one, then again with the house behind it.

    The soldiers who were standing on guard around the prince looked blank, but once he ordered them to ¡°do it!¡±, they all started mimicking his actions. The area began to be engulfed in flames, and a hot wind blew against everyone there. Leo also gave swift instructions to those of the youths who had originally been carpenters, and they took their axes to the houses on either side.

    ¡°Pull back, pull back from here!¡± Leo ordered his companions who were still engaged in fighting, and he himself turned his horse back around to the way they had come.

    As the prince ran, the militiamen followed. Without a second¡¯s delay, Allion¡¯s riders moved to do the same but, at that moment, the carpenters¡¯ axes brought down a pillar.

    The house¡¯s structure had been a very simple one, so even when just a single pillar fell, the roof on either side of it collapsed onto the street. Smoke and flames crashed down, and Allion¡¯s horses reared up. It seemed the flames would prevent them from advancing.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let him escape!¡± Hayden shouted out from the rear. He himself sprang his horse onward; abandoning the idea of giving chase by going straight forward, he instead raced around to the side.

    Leo too recklessly galloped forward.

    ¡°The enemy ¨C no, Hayden¡¯s target is you, and you alone,¡± that voice whispered once again.

    ¡°I know,¡± Leo replied, kicking his horse¡¯s flanks. He hurried forward, even though it meant leaving his soldiers behind. Leo knew full well who it was who had been whispering to him since earlier.

    There was no one there who could give him orders. No one other than he himself.

    He urged his horse forward so as to pass through the south of the village.

    The Heavens, however, seemed to have decided to continue favouring Hayden. An arrow shot by one of Allion¡¯s soldiers struck Leo¡¯s horse in the rump. This time, it was his mount which reared upwards, forelegs in the air, before toppling over sideways.

    Leo was thrown off, and knocked his head hard. In that moment, his helmet came off, and tumbled along the side of the road.

    The horse that Hayden Swift was riding kicked it away as it came thundering up towards him.

 Volume 2, 7: The Fifth Arrow

    Volume 2, Chapter 7: The Fifth Arrow

    Part 1

    ¡°It¡¯s the end of the road for you.¡±

    Hayden had brought his horse to a halt right in front of Leo and spoke as looked down towards him. One by one, the other Allian riders joined him. Leo was surrounded.

    His lips curved into a refined smile, Hayden jumped lightly down from his horse. He drew the sword that was at his waist, and thrust it right before the prince¡¯s face.

    Leo could do nothing except moan in pain from where he had hit his head and his back.

    ¡°Smile,¡± said Hayden. ¡°Do you remember? You ordered me to do so. And what was it you said after that? Oh, right: ¡®go on and do your worst, I¡¯ll show you how I turn the tables on you¡¯ ¨C wasn¡¯t it?¡±

    The nearby riders all laughed as Hayden imitated a boy¡¯s voice. Even when jeering at someone, it was extremely unusual for Hayden to joke around to make others laugh. Simply put, he was in an incredibly good mood.

    ¡°You also said that you wanted to see what I could do with my own ¡®power¡¯. And now you see it. It¡¯s only a matter of time before the temple falls. And now that you¡¯ve come running to it, I fear that next it will be your own country¡¯s turn. Atall¡¯s aristocrats are completely blind. On that point, I give you my praise. But... well, what of it?¡±

    The tip of his sword shook in time to Hayden¡¯s laughter.

    ¡°Even though you wanted to defend the temple at all cost, were you only able to scrape up this many soldiers? And on top of that, they look like a bunch of amateurs. What can you do with them? Toss a stone in an ocean and they¡¯ll be swallowed up in an instant by the wave it causes. That is the limit of your ¡®power¡¯, you who challenged the mighty ocean that is Allion.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Leo gave no response. He merely raised a feeble gaze towards Hayden. The sun had finally risen, and it bathed the surroundings in its pale light.

    ¡°Now than, what should I do, Lord Leo?¡± Hayden tilted his head to one side, just like a young girl might do. ¡°I could keep you alive. As a hostage captured on the battlefield. But would the sovereign-prince of Atall pay the ransom money? If he decides to carry on pretending complete innocence, he might well just watch his son die without lifting a finger. But if that¡¯s fine by you, let me see you beg for your life. Still, I¡¯m not a man without compassion. If you say that you couldn¡¯t bear such a disgrace, I¡¯ll kindly kill you on the spot. At the end of the day, no matter which you choose, it won¡¯t change either Allion or Atall¡¯s destinies.¡±

    Hayden struck Leo¡¯s cheek with his sword as he spoke. The soft skin burst open and blood started to flow out.

    ¡°Now then,¡± Hayden walked closer. ¡°Choose, Leo Attiel. I taught you this before: a noble should not grasp a sword without the proper resolve. So with that resolve, choose your own fate. Now then!¡±

    Hayden slowly removed the blade from near Leo¡¯s cheek. When he did so, Leo murmured in a trembling voice ¨C

    ¡°I...¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    ¡°I want to live.¡±

    ¡°I see. Then you¡¯ll be a hostage. This gentleman has already been a hostage in Allion for six years, yet it seems that he¡¯s taken a considerable liking to living like that.¡±

    While Hayden sneered as he pulled back his sword, the soldiers on horseback all burst out laughing again.

    Whereupon, Leo laughed too. And it was not the kind of obsequious, flattering laugh meant to try and prolong one¡¯s life.

    ¡°I will live and I want to live,¡± said the prince. ¡°But I won¡¯t be left alive thanks to your ¡®power¡¯. I will live thanks to my own ¡®power¡¯ alone.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Hayden looked down his nose at him as he jeered. ¡°Are you still talking back? Poor fool, you can keep your life and still lose a few limbs, you know?¡±

    Leo¡¯s smile did not falter.

    If the Heavens were going to grant Leo even a little of the luck that they had been lavishing on Hayden, that was the moment to do it.

    Ally reinforcements did not appear. Nor did Leo have any other plans carefully prepared in advance and still waiting to be used. And of course, there was no miracle, such as a bolt of lightning from the sky striking Hayden down.

    But Leo was laid out on the ground, surrounded by Allion¡¯s soldiers. And from that position, he could see it. Over the line of hills, unobstructed by houses or walls, smoke was clearly rising in the western sky, which was still faintly shrouded in darkness.

    Noticing that Leo was not looking at him, Hayden casually glanced back behind him. And saw the same thing as Leo.

    ¡°What¡¯s...¡± he started to ask his men, then suddenly opened his eyes wide in astonishment. ¡°That¡¯s...!¡±

    ¡°Allion¡¯s headquarters.¡±

    Hayden swiftly turned back around when Leo¡¯s voice answered him. In that same moment, their surroundings suddenly erupted into noise.

    ¡°Go look!¡± Hayden barked an order at one of his men, who quickly took off on horseback. He then turned his sharp glare back towards Leo. ¡°Our headquarters, you say? Bastard... is that it, so you attacked out camp?¡±

    ¡°If you had been just a little slower, you might also have been going up in flames, and your soul might have been sucked into the smoke.¡±

    ¡°Bullshit!¡±

    Hayden readjusted his grip on the sword he had just pulled back and struck Leo on the cheek with the hilt. The blow was so strong that Leo¡¯s head jerked sideways, and blood flew from his mouth.

    ¡°I see, so this was your plan to pull back from the brink? But how unfortunate for you ¨C see, even though I was supposed to be devoured in your flames, I¡¯m still alive!¡± Hayden spread out both his hands and roared with laughter. ¡°So what if that temporary fort burns? The temple will fall soon anyway. I¡¯ll just take it over and turn it into my base. Even if your damn soldiers took control of our headquarters, we can just attack them from both sides once the next wave of our Allion troops come and...¡±

    ¡°Lord Hayden!¡±

    The rider that Hayden ha sent out had already returned. Listening to the words that hastily tumbled from the soldier, Hayden¡¯s face went pale.

    ¡°My troops are retreating, you say? How?!¡±

    While Hayden¡¯s question was completely understandable, if he had been able to see the situation, the answer would have been just as readily available. Allion¡¯s troops were, at that moment, in the middle of withdrawing from Mount Conscon. The rider had been able to return so quickly because as soon as he had left the abandoned settlement, he had been able to see the long line of lights descending the mountain.

    It had started with the five hundred of his men who had crept up Mount Conscon from behind: they had witnessed the black smoke rising from their headquarters from the very beginning.

    Those soldiers had no way of knowing that Hayden was not at the headquarters. Moreover, even though they were supposed to have been guided by one of their spies to stage a surprise attack on the temple, they had been the ones to be ambushed and fired at. And now, on top of that, their headquarters were in flames.

    Allion¡¯s forces obviously couldn¡¯t know what the enemy¡¯s actual situation was. From their point of view, it looked like they had been lured to the mountain so that the enemy could launch a large-scale offensive.

    In which case, there was only one possible choice to make.

    ¡°Retreat!¡±

    There was no worse fear having a force cross into their own country¡¯s territory to attack them, and losing their support from the rear.

    They turned their backs on the unit of warrior monks.

    Thanks to their captain¡¯s accurate judgement, they had been able to avoid receiving a devastating blow, and had even pushed back the enemy at one point. But there was no denying that they had fallen into a trap. The soldiers definitely held doubts about this fight. Not about whether the warrior monks had laid further snares beyond this one, but about whether this entire fight at the temple hadn¡¯t been designed to lure them in.

    In other words, ironically enough, it was the very fact that Allion had seen through the only trap that Leo had laid which sparked their fears.

    Helmets and armour of Allian design rushed down the slopes of the mountain, like an avalanche of steel. That was the uproar which Hayden and those near him had heard.

    ¡°Ridiculous! Have them go back!¡± Hayden yelled.

    He was about to send out more men to have them convey his orders, but at that moment, the militiamen that Leo had outdistanced heaved into sight, all shouting as one. Although in themselves, they were not opponents that Hayden¡¯s soldiers needed to far, their appearance suggested that the warrior monks might be chasing after Allion¡¯s fleeing troops and be heading this way.

    They all realised that remaining where they were was dangerous.

    ¡°Lord Hayden, we should withdraw for now!¡±

    ¡°We should regroup with the rest of our troops. If you appear before them, Lord Hayden, they will surely regain morale. Capturing the temple can come later.¡±

    Hayden growled like a beast of prey. When he glanced again towards Leo, his face became suffused with even greater rage.

    ¡°Why are you smiling?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the one who told me to smile, Hayden. So I¡¯m smiling.¡±

    ¡°You...¡±

    At that moment, Hayden Swift made the stupidest mistake of his life.

    There was no way that Lord Leo would be unarmed. Yet even so, and perhaps carelessly believing he could deal with an opponent who had no weapon in hand and who seemed to have no more practical combat experience than a child, he bent forward towards Leo.

    Was he intending to at least kill Leo with the sword he held in his hand, or had he planned to take him hostage?

    In that moment, Leo¡¯s lips puckered. From those lips that seemed to be asking a lover for a kiss, he spat out a blood-covered tooth.

    It had broken when Hayden hit him earlier. And now, it hit Hayden in the eye. In the second that he faltered after being struck on the eyeball, Leo drew his sword and swung it straight at him.

    Leo had long been receiving training; he could not err when striking at an defenceless opponent. The blow beautifully cleaved the top of Hayden¡¯s head in two.

    The screams that rang out were not Hayden¡¯s own, but those of his men, behind him on horseback. As for Hayden Swift himself, he didn¡¯t make a sound as his head helplessly bobbed left and right, like a doll dropped from a great height, before slumping into a sitting position, his eyes starting wide open.

    Death was close.

    He was less than a second away from the moment of his death, but in that instant before the high wave came crashing down and dragged his consciousness into the dark, his thoughts were many.

    I¡¯m going to die, was the first of them.

    Impossible, was his next thought, but he immediately revised it as, in that second, Hayden accepted what had happened with surprising ease.

    And then, he thought of Leo Attiel, the one who had defeated him.

    He did not think of anything else. Thoughts of his parents, of his wife and children, of the King of Allion, and even of Florrie Anglatt, whom he had been so deeply obsessed over, were all easily swept away from Hayden¡¯s consciousness just before death.

    Leo Attiel...

    It was just last night, before he had left for the frontlines, that Hayden had, for the first time, felt a bond of fate with the second prince of the Principality of Atall. But he had from the very start sensed that there was something predestined about Lord Leo¡¯s existence. Hayden understood that; it was simply that he had not previously acknowledged it.

    It had been when he had first met Leo Attiel at Claude Anglatt¡¯s castle, a place he now remembered with nostalgia.

    He had instinctively realised that, we¡¯re alike.

    In other words, they had both shared the same mutual perception of each other.

    Which was why ¨C

    Hayden had felt so overwhelmingly irritated by Leo¡¯s manner, by his voice, by his very existence.

    Which was why ¨C

    Even though he had not been particularly drunk, he had publicly mocked the young Atallese prince.

    Which was why ¨C

    Hayden, who had lost interest in so many things, had, in so short a time, poured out his energy to an almost frightening degree, until he was utterly spent.

    That¡¯s why...

    Unable to think any more thoughts beyond that, Hayden fell backwards against to the ground, and never moved again.

    Astounded as they were, the Allian riders hesitated for one single moment: should they thrust their spears against Lord Leo in revenge, or should they leave this place immediately? That one second was enough. In contrast to Hayden, who had collapsed from the waist up, Lord Leo stood up straight and raised his sword which had, even now, only taken a single life.

    ¡°I¡¯ve killed the enemy general, Hayden Swift,¡± Leo bent back his head and shouted. ¡°It¡¯s our victory! Drive out the remains of the enemy force!¡±

    ¡°Aaay!¡± the militiamen all cried together as they came rushing up to obey that ferocious order.

    To the Allian riders, it looked for all the world like battle-hardened troops were running to them from the other side of Leo Attiel¡¯s upraised sword, responding to the one who was unmistakably their military commander.

    Since they had lost their own commander-in-chief, there was no more question of victory for them. Only their own decisions could save them now. And as a result ¨C

    ¡°Retreat!¡±

    One after another, the riders turned their horses around and rapidly galloped away, Covering Lord Leo in a cloud of dust as they did so.

    Part 2

    Camus, warrior monk of the temple, looked down at the enemy who was withdrawing from the side of the main gate. After the enemies at the back of the mountain had retreated, he had immediately gathered his unit and gone to join those defending at the front. These new arrivals and the tangled information around them led the front part of Allion¡¯s army to believe that their force had already entirely collapsed, which in turn meant that they too commenced a speedy withdrawal.

    All over the mountainside, warrior monks were waving their arms overhead. There were many also who were kneeling and crossing themselves. Some laughed out loud, while others openly wept, not caring that they could be seen. ¡°No, we can¡¯t let down our guard yet,¡± said those with actual combat experience, and they immediately started getting their units ready.

    Camus did none of these things.

    For a while, he watched the retreating backs of Allion¡¯s soldiers, his shoulders heaving as he gasped for breath. Do I go?

    He then started climbing up the mountain path.

    He was using his spear to support himself, but his feet were dragging for a reason that was completely separate from the injury to his thigh.

    Although a few of their calculations had been off, on the whole, things had gone according to plan. Yet Camus was not feeling elation from their victory. There was still one more thing he needed to do.

    ¡°We did it!¡±

    ¡°God¡¯s grace protected us!¡±

    But as his comrades called out to him and clapped him on the shoulders, Camus did not respond in kind, and silently walked by.

    His destination was the inner sanctum in the main temple at the summit. He could see the cross towering from on high above the steeple, yet for some reason, Camus could not look at what was supposed to be the very symbol of his faith.

    The temple was surrounded by the very few of Nauma¡¯s men who still remained on the mountain. They had received Leo¡¯s orders through Camus. Guard the temple where Bishop Rogress is staying, and don¡¯t let anyone go in or out, he had said.

    When Camus had conveyed this to the bishop, he made the point that, ¡°Allion¡¯s spies are still mixed in among us. And there will be more than one. They might take advantage of the fighting to come after your life, Bishop. Whatever you do, please stay in the inner sanctum during the fight. Don¡¯t take so much as a single step outside.¡±

    Bishop Rogress had agreed to it.

    Upon being asked, the Atallese soldiers confirmed that no one had entered or left. Which meant that the bishop was definitely inside.

    ¡°Well then, do we go in?¡± The soldiers lined up their spears, but Camus stopped them from entering the temple.

    ¡°Why not?¡± The soldiers looked puzzled at first, but suspicion soon crept into their faces. ¡°You haven¡¯t changed your mind because of one win against Allion, have you? Victory probably won¡¯t last, you know. If you think about what will come afterwards...¡±

    ¡°I know!¡± Camus roughly interrupted the soldier.

    ¡°Even if we manage to win this fight, it will only be temporary,¡± these were the very words that Camus, standing in for Lord Leo, had thoroughly drilled into these soldiers. There was no need to repeat them at this stage.

    ¡°But let me go by myself first. I don¡¯t want to suddenly have the bishop threatened with a row of spears. I¡¯d like to tell him myself.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t have that much time.¡±

    The soldiers scrutinised their surroundings. Since the enemy was still withdrawing, most of the warrior monks and the faithful were still in position, but once the enemy had disappeared from sight, people would soon start gathering around the temple.

    ¡°I know that too,¡± Camus replied curtly, and stepped into the building.

    He walked down the empty passageway. His last remaining task was to remove Bishop Rogress from Conscon Temple. When Lord Leo had revealed his plans at Guinbar Castle, this had been the one thing that Camus had most objected to.

    Leo did not believe that they could be content with repelling the onslaught led by Allion¡¯s army. Percy, and also Camus himself, had agreed with him. Even if they defeated a thousand soldiers, Allion still had ten of thousands more. These might be sent out in quick succession, or tens of thousands of men might be sent out all at once, and the temple¡¯s one victory would be as good as inexistent.

    According to Leo, there were two people who would be vitally important in turning that one victory into the end of hostilities between Allion and the temple.

    ¡°The first is Hayden Swift. He¡¯s the one who suggested to the king that they send soldiers against the temple. Allion won¡¯t stop its attack unless we defeat the man who started it all. On the other hand, if we can get rid of him, there probably won¡¯t be anyone left who will want to continue a campaign which has brought them no benefits.¡±

    Up to that point, Camus had been in agreement. The problem lay with what had come next.

    ¡°And the second one is Bishop Rogress,¡± after pausing for a beat, Lord Leo had continued. ¡°Rumours in Allion claim that he ¡®cursed the royal family¡¯. On top of that, there are any number of criticisms within the country about how ¡®the bishop is interfering in Allion¡¯s politics,¡¯ and about how ¡®he is busy establishing his own independent state by establishing a free market at Conscon Temple and by having the monks take weapons¡¯.¡±

    That was nothing but vile slander, thought Camus, but he had not interrupted at that moment. The prince had only just described his plan of a sneak attack against Dytiann, and Camus, whose attention had been on that, had already been close to erupting in anger. Leo¡¯s next words, however, had left the monk aghast.

    ¡°Even if the fight can be brought to an end for the time being, as long as the bishop himself is at Conscon, it will be impossible to eliminate the antagonism and hostility against the temple within Allion. Which is why... after defeating Allion¡¯s forces, I intend to have the bishop resign, at least for a short while, from his position as head of Conscon Temple.¡±

    Leo continued still further,

    ¡°We¡¯ll have him write a letter to the King of Allion along the lines that he will be embarking on a pilgrimage to pray for the souls of those who died during the campaign. That way, we can have the bishop disappear so that even the temple won¡¯t know where he is. That will be the official story, at least; in fact, he will be moved to the church here in Guinbar. A suitable successor will also need to be installed at the temple until things calm down. Allion will almost certainly accept this ¡®concession¡¯ from the temple. With no more reason to continue the fight, and given that Allion will more or less have been able to maintain face, they...¡±

    At that point, Camus¡¯ emotions had exploded.

    Isn¡¯t that exactly like saying that Bishop Rogress is the main reason for the war!

    Despite having that thought, Camus had agreed to the plan after his exchange with Leo. He couldn¡¯t do anything but agree. The desire to oppose Leo¡¯s plan still remained within him, but he also believed that there was no other method to bring an end to the quarrel between Allion and the temple.

    Just as Lord Leo had said, the pretext for the fight had always been to punish the bishop for his ¡®insolence¡¯ at having rained curses on the royal family. If the bishop left the temple, then Allion would lose all justification to send its army against Conscon.

    Even Camus could see what the reality was. For all that his faith was as firm as iron, and for all that he was willing to continue brandishing his spear, that wouldn¡¯t result in anything except adding more victims to the count. Sooner or later, the temple would burn down. And when that happened, he would once again have folded before ¡®power¡¯.

    Faith alone ¨C ideals alone can¡¯t oppose ¡®power¡¯.

    That was something that he understood all too well, both from Abbot Tom¡¯s example, and from his own experience.

    He had told nobody ¨C neither the bishop himself nor any of the temple monks ¨C about the scheme to remove Rogress. It was clear that they would oppose it, and he could not afford to cause divisions within the temple just before they put their battle plan into practice.

    So at the very least, Camus was determined to personally take on the duty of informing the bishop.

    How would Bishop Rogress respond to it? It would good if he agreed to it. But if he fought against it, then... Then it can¡¯t be helped. This is for the temple¡¯s future ¨C and for all the people who live here. I¡¯ll take him with me, even if I have to do so by force. I¡¯ll take the bishop¡¯s anger and the whole weight of sin on myself.

    Just as he was steeling his resolve, he felt like someone¡¯s shadow was moving on the left side of the passageway, in the direction of the chapel.

    ¡°Bishop?¡± Camus called out. Bishop Rogress was supposed to be the only one within the inner sanctum.

    The shadowy silhouette that he thought he had seen for a second vanished with a rustle.

    Was it just my imagination?

    He needed to hurry.

    Camus climbed the staircase and went to the room where the bishop usually stayed. He knocked on the sturdy wooden door and called the bishop¡¯s name. But there was no answer.

    ¡°Bishop Rogress,¡± he called out once more.

    There was nothing but silence.

    His heart suddenly started pounding wildly. As though trying to shake off his awful premonition, Camus once again called out, ¡°Bishop,¡± with a nonchalant air as he pushed open the door.

    The scene that greeted him was far worse than he had imagined. Bishop Rogress was slumped over his favourite desk. His episcopal robes were soaked in blood, while blood also trickled down from the edge of the desk and onto where a dagger, which was likewise dyed red, had fallen.

    Camus dropped his spear.

    He rushed up to the bishop, forgetting all about the pain in his leg. He pulled Rogress to him, but it was already too late. The bishop had breathed his last, and blood was flowing from the base of his neck. It had no doubt been slashed with the dagger which had fallen to the floor.

    In contrast to the gore-covered body, Camus¡¯ face was pale, but as he lifted the bishop into his arms, he noticed a sheet of parchment spread out on top of the desk. There was something written on the blood-spattered paper. As Camus¡¯ eyes almost unconsciously ran over the words written there, they somewhat belatedly started to fill with tears.

    Conscon Temple savoured the taste of victory for only a very short time. The monks, as well as the many other people living on the mountain, soon heard of Bishop Rogress¡¯ death, and the triumphant victory songs which had been echoing across the hills quickly gave way to cries of shock, and then of grief.

    The Atallese soldiers had guarded the temple where the bishop had been. There had been no crack in their defence; the bishop had taken his own life.

    The letter that Camus had found contained the bishop¡¯s last words. It started by saying that he had not erred in his piety. The letter continued, however, by saying that although he had not gone wrong in his faith, there was equally no denying that it had caused the deaths of a great many people.

    ¡°Whether this fight ends with us achieving victory or suffering defeat, there is no longer any sense in allowing more people to die. I have already proven my love for our God. It is now those who follow our teachings who are indispensable in order to carry on our feelings of faith. My life, therefore, has become unnecessary.¡±

    The bishop then wrote with nostalgic fondness of his bond with the king of Allion, and expressed his gratitude towards the king for having done so much to revive the temple. After which, he continued,

    ¡°To end one¡¯s own life is anathema to our teachings, but I will hereby deliberately break that taboo and bear the stigma of being an apostate. My dear pupils, my soul will fall into perdition, and I will experience the agony of burning in the fires of Hell for all eternity. You do not need to praise my name. You do not need to try and protect me. Instead, you must turn your voices against me: hate me, curse me, and mock me. But even though I am a man who gave up halfway on the thorny path that was my allotted fate, you must not deny the unbroken, living faith that carries on within you. There is no falsehood in it, for it has been carved into you down to your last drop of blood, through your pain and suffering; and you do not need to abase yourself before anyone in this world, for your faith is holy. The fight ends today. This current fight. There is a new fight that you will embark on from today onwards, and in it, you must never yield. Even as I burn in the fires of Hell, I will not fail to offer my prayers to God for you,¡± it concluded.

    Every single one of the monks, without exception, wept when they heard Bishop Rogress¡¯ last testament. The populace also knelt as they made the sign of the cross, and offered prayers to the Heavens.

    When Percy Leegan arrived at the temple a short while later, he too learned of the bishop¡¯s death. He went to the room where Rogress had died, which had still been left untouched, and was struck as speechless as Camus had been. He did not, however, lose his presence of mind.

    He carefully examined the floor. There were some red footprints; they were probably Camus¡¯, since his boots had been covered in the bishop¡¯s blood. Then, in a spot that was slightly removed from the vivid red footsteps, Percy noticed something red which was clearly different from blood ¨C a strand of red hair which had fallen to the ground.

    After swiftly making sure that there was no one else in the room, he picked it up and hid it in his breast pocket.

    Shortly thereafter, Leo Attiel also arrived at Mount Conscon. Once the news spread that the prince had killed Hayden Swift with his own hands, the cloud of sorrow covering the mountain seemed to lift, even if only for a brief period. Praised as a ¡®hero¡¯, he was greeted with cheers that sounded like a beast roaring as the morning mist still drifted through the trees.

    Leo received Percy and Camus¡¯ reports. When he heard that the bishop had committed suicide, Leo got down from his horse and, for the first time in his life ¨C not counting his baptism ¨C he made the sign of the cross. There was no time, however, for him to feel grief or any particularly deep emotion. He needed to shoot the ¡°final arrow¡± without delay.

    Allion¡¯s army had pulled away from Mount Conscon like the receding tide. They had passed by the smouldering remains of their burned-down headquarters, and returned to their own country.

    As though chasing after them, the news of Bishop Rogress¡¯ death crossed Allion¡¯s border and reached the capital. At first, there were rumours that ¡°the king of Allion sent assassins¡±, but these were later corrected to, ¡°the bishop committed suicide¡±.

    There was one person who offered stronger proof of it than anyone. Crossing over the border and into Allion, he had almost seemed to be chasing after the rumours that had, in turn, been pursuing the soldiers.

    That man was Leo Attiel.

    Very soon after Allion¡¯s army had retreated from Mount Conscon, he had got in touch with General Claude Anglatt, with whom he had friendly relations, and with Claude¡¯s permission, he had entered Allion¡¯s territory with a very small handful of attendants.

    He remained for a while in Claude¡¯s fief while the general dispatched a letter to the capital. Upon receiving that missive, the king of Allion fell silent.

    Hayden Swift had been a friend of his. That friend had lost his life on a battlefield where he should have been absolutely sure of winning. And to top it all, it was said that he had died at Lord Leo Attiel¡¯s own two hands.

    Damned Atall! The king raged.

    There were several young men who rushed to fall in with the king¡¯s emotions. They clamoured wildly that they would gather the troops posted throughout the country and, without pausing at the temple, would strike against Atall.

    Very soon afterwards, however, the news of Bishop Rogress¡¯ suicide caused huge tremors within Allion. According to a further piece of news that had arrived, Lord Leo had been organising the troops to give chase to the retreating army but, upon learning that the bishop had killed himself to put an end to the fighting, the prince had cancelled his departure with his soldiers, and had offered prayers for the ¡°great martyr¡± throughout an entire night at Conscon Temple. His actions received considerable praise from the followers of the Cross Faith within Allion.

    When, in addition to that, the king of Allion was informed that Leo Attiel was prepared to personally travel to the capital to deliver Bishop Rogress¡¯ last letter, it was no longer possible for him to carelessly raise the troops for a war of revenge.

    Besides these internal considerations, there was also the fact that Dytiann had taken advantage of this opportunity to try and trespass into Allion¡¯s territory. Although Claude Anglatt¡¯s efforts had put a stop to it before anything happened, between Atall and Dytiann, the latter was a far greater threat, and Allion¡¯s warriors were more inclined to turn their hostility towards Dytiann, vowing that they ¡°could not let this pass¡±.

    ¡°I¡¯ll meet him,¡± said the king of Allion after a moment¡¯s silence. ¡°But I would hate for the prince to undertake the long, hard journey all the way to the capital.¡±

    Thus, they would meet in an area called Jester, which was situated exactly halfway between the capital and the Anglatt territory. It was a beautifully scenic place, with a lake close to the local castle town, and on the shores of which were villas belonging to the royal family, which they often made use of when inviting foreign dignitaries to visit.

    The audience would take place in an old castle built on an island in the lake. It was rich in history, as it was said that a grandson to Zodias, the founder of the Magic Dynasty, had built the castle overnight for his beautiful and beloved wife, using sorcery to carry the stones. Its appearance was likened in loveliness to a swan, resting its feathers on the lake.

    In that castle¡¯s audience hall, Lord Leo Attiel, the second-born prince of Atall, stood in front of Hugh-Jarl Jamil, king of Allion. Nobles stood in rows on either side. It was not only those who resided in Jester who were present; there were also many who had travelled from the capital to catch a glimpse of the prince.

    They could not hide their surprise at Lord Leo¡¯s childlike appearance. Moreover, the prince was wearing a long, simple robe that resembled the habits worn by monks of the Cross Faith, and a crucifix hung from his neck. He greeted Allion¡¯s king in a calm voice, and held out the letter that Bishop Rogress had left behind.

    First, the king received it from a servant and cast his eyes over the blood-smeared parchment. For several seconds, he went over the words written in the letter. Once he had finished reading the document whose edges had been dyed into a red border by Rogress¡¯ own blood, he rolled up the parchment and handed it back to the servant who, in turn, returned it to Leo.

    The prince spoke in the same quiet voice as earlier,

    ¡°The bishop was, to the very end, a man of principle. As a fellow believer in the Cross Faith, I received his kindness and moved my soldiers because of it, but Atall never had the slightest desire to inflict any injury on Allion¡¯s territory.¡±

    Seated imposingly on his throne, the king of Allion replied,

    ¡°Allion too has no wish to particularly go looking for trouble with our neighbouring country. The recent events, Rogress¡¯ death among them, have been an accumulation of misfortunes. That is how I see things.¡±

    At the risk of repeating myself, Allion had lost its justification for war with the death of Bishop Rogress. By having this audience with the king, Leo, who had trespassed into Allion¡¯s territory and killed Hayden, was more or less saving appearances. And the king of Allion had decided to meet Leo face-to-face because, of course, he too wanted that outcome.

    ¡°By the way, Lord Leo,¡± said the king now that they were practically at the end of the audience. ¡°Even though you spent more than six years in my country, this is the first time we meet, huh?¡±

    ¡°Aye.¡±

    ¡°We should have gotten to know each other a little earlier. That¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking now.¡±

    ¡°...Aye.¡±

    Leo Attiel could only hang his head, disconcerted.

    It was at that moment that he heard the pitter-patter of small footsteps approach. When Leo raised his eyes, a little boy with snow white skin was standing at his side. Their gazes met.

    ¡°Is it you?¡± the boy demanded in a high-pitched voice.

    ¡°Oi, Kaseria.¡±

    The boy paid no attention to the king who called out to him from the throne, and stared fixedly at Leo.

    ¡°Is it you who beat Allion¡¯s army?¡± he asked in the same high voice.

    With several of teeth missing and his clothes covered in dirt, he was the very image of a child enjoying his life of play. And yet ¨C

    Kaseria? I see, so this child is the prince of Allion?

    It was a name that Leo was familiar with.

    He was seven years old. Leo had heard that right after he was born, he had hovered on the border of life and death, and the one who had saved him had been none other than Bishop Rogress.

    Did the bishop really receive a divine miracle? Or was it just a coincidence? I suppose now, we¡¯ll never know, Leo remained silent.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get too full of yourself,¡± screamed Kaseria, while his freckled cheeks went crimson. ¡°You still haven¡¯t beaten me. Don''t think you''ve already beaten Allion!¡±

    He didn¡¯t just shout, he also kicked Leo in the shin.

    ¡°Kaseria!¡±

    When the king raised his voice in reproach, the ladies¡¯ maids in charge of the boy came rushing out from behind the rows of courtiers.

    ¡°Prince, please come with us.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve prepared some delicious sweets and tea, so won¡¯t you come with us?¡±

    While each of them called out coaxingly to him, they tried to catch the prince who was running about in the hall. The king of Allion sighed with a bitter expression on his face.

    ¡°He¡¯s always been spoiled. Apologies, Lord Leo.¡±

    ¡°All goes in accordance with God¡¯s will,¡± right at the very end, Leo let show just a tiny bit of mischievousness as he raised his crucifix.

    Part 3

    This was the last arrow that Leo shot. He had turned himself into an arrow to bring an end to things, at least for now. This ¡®fourth arrow¡¯ added itself to the ones he had released on the battlefield.

    Yet if, during the battles around Mount Conscon, there had been someone able to observe things from the ¡®Heavens¡¯, they would probably deem that ¡°Lord Leo¡¯s visit to Allion was the ¡®fifth arrow¡¯ from Atall¡¯s side.¡±

    Then what was that fifth arrow? Who was sent out?

    Only a very few people know the answer to that now.

    At the same time as the rumours were spreading in Allion, they blew like the wind into Atall. As the facts were revealed to them one after another, everyone¡¯s expressions went from astonishment, to pallor, to dread. Then, when it became known that Lord Leo had already peacefully concluded his audience with the king of Allion, people finally felt at ease and, with that sense of security, the story of how Lord Leo had rushed to the temple and repelled Allion¡¯s forces now sounded exhilarating. In the blink of an eye, voices rang out throughout the land in praise of Leo.

    There were some, however, who did not view him favourably.

    The first was Dytiann.

    The upper echelons of the Church had sent Arthur Causebulk on a mission that they had viewed as a mere formality, yet he and the entire advance troop of three hundred had died in battle. Nobody in Dytiann could believe their ears. Arthur¡¯s mission had merely been to lead the Sergaia Holy Rose Division to the temple, so an outcome like this one simply shouldn¡¯t have been possible.

    Just before he left for Allion, Leo had sent Dytiann a letter. In it, he explained that when they had been about to land with the Holy Rose Division¡¯s air carrier, Arthur had received information that the fighting had already begun, whereupon, he had declared that ¡°we will show them Dytiann¡¯s mettle in this holy war,¡± and had personally decided to lead an assault deep within Allion¡¯s territory. The plan had been to cut off the attacking forces from their headquarters and to wear down their spirit, but, alas, Claude Anglatt had been quick to realise what was happening, and he had laid his troops in ambush. The result was the tragic annihilation of Arthur¡¯s unit.

    Leo lavishly praised Arthur Causebulk, saying that the victory at Conscon Temple was largely thanks to his courage, and he accompanied his words with expressions of gratitude. At around the same time, a letter from the temple¡¯s acting representative, the contents of which were very close to what Leo was saying, arrived in Dytiann. Attached to it was the desire to honour Arthur as one of the temple¡¯s saints.

    Dytiann had failed entirely in its designs. Not long after, they received a communication from Allion. Since they had to leave themselves a way out, they could not afford to be careless in their remarks to Atall. They sent a letter of congratulations for their victory to both Atall and the temple.

    There was one person, however, who could not settle for this.

    ¡°Impossible!¡±

    Bishop Baal cried out, his face ashen. He who had gone to Atall with Arthur as an envoy continued,

    ¡°I made sure to tell Arthur not to stand on the frontlines. Yet they say he attacked the enemy camp? And on top of that, he was conveniently ambushed by Allion¡¯s troops? A-And above all else, they were annihilated without a single survivor! It¡¯s completely unthinkable. This is Allion we¡¯re talking about: they would have taken hostages to get information about Dytiann, or ransom money, or whatever. They must have been working with Atall. They massacred the unit to ensure their silence!¡±

    He continued to fire off words to himself so forcefully that it seemed as though the veins which were starting out from forehead would burst at any moment, and he would collapse as his blood gushed out of him. Yet no matter how much of a ruckus he kicked up, he could not alter Dytiann¡¯s policy all by himself.

    ¡°You...¡±

    Finally, his face as crimson as though he were crying tears of blood, Baal pledged a terrible oath before the church¡¯s altar.

    ¡°You who murdered Arthur, I will bring down the hammer of God¡¯s judgement upon you. No... it may be Allion who is directly responsible for Arthur¡¯s killing, but in reality, the ones deserving of hatred are Atall ¨C and also Leo Attiel. That accursed boy, pretending to cling to us in desperation, while inwardly, he was sneering at us. With an expression as innocent as a child¡¯s, he offered Arthur in sacrifice to the devil. Watch well: one day, I will definitely, definitely, take your head ¨C you who are possessed by the devil ¨C and I will raise it on high above this altar!¡±

    And then, there was one other...

    The other person who could not view Lord Leo¡¯s actions with any kind of pleasure was Magrid Attiel.

    Indeed, yes, the prince¡¯s own father.

    When he received the succession of reports about this latest mayhem, and once he grasped the whole picture, he shook with surprise, agitation, and then with anger.

    That anger was equal to the king of Allion¡¯s, who had lost a close friend. No, perhaps it even exceeded it. Magrid promptly had Leo return to Tiwana Palace, but as the rumours of Leo¡¯s accomplishments had already reached the capital, the welcome he received there was unprecedented in its enthusiasm.

    It was similar to what had happened before, when he had escaped from Allion. Now, however he was the hero who had defeated that same Allion. As Leo strutted along the road on horseback, the populace¡¯s loud cheers washed over him like rain. Beneath the blue sky and alongside the flag that was emblazoned with the crest of Atall¡¯s ruling house, a flag bearing a cross fluttered in the cool, refreshing breeze. This was the flag which symbolised Leo Attiel and, from then onwards, it would come to leave a strong impression on the people of Atall.

    Claiming that he was ¡°not feeling well,¡± Magrid did not go to meet his son. Yet that evening, he immediately summoned Leo to his chambers. The only other person in the room was Branton, his oldest son.

    ¡°What is the meaning of this!¡±

    Faced with the furious shouting of his sovereign and father, Leo embarked on a lengthy explanation.

    First, he revealed how he had received a letter from Bishop Rogress of Conscon Temple very shortly after his baptismal ceremony.

    ¡°It contained a direct plea to me for help as a fellow believer in the Cross Faith. After I had finished reading it, I was shaking. The bishop was already contemplating suicide even back then. But offering his life alone would probably not be enough to put a stop to Allion¡¯s greed and ambition. Therefore, could I not, at the very least, send enough soldiers to protect the populace and the faithful, he asked...¡±

    Naturally enough, however, the number of soldiers that Lord Leo could freely make use of was extremely limited. Thereupon, when the envoys from Dytiann repeatedly stated that they wished to ¡°meet directly with the newly-baptised Lord Leo,¡± he had decided to see them on the pretext of a private greeting.

    ¡°And so you decided, on nothing but your own authority, to ask for reinforcements from Dytiann?¡± Magrid frowned.

    What the sovereign-prince was most concerned about, however, was not how to berate his son. Apparently, upon receiving Leo¡¯s unsupported permission, Dytiann¡¯s military unit had openly crossed Atall¡¯s territory in an air carrier. Magrid¡¯s concern was that he had not received a single report of their being sighted by any of the patrols.

    If a group of cavalrymen or of infantry had forced their way into Atall¡¯s lands, the surveillance network spread out across the towns and fortresses would definitely have caught them. This incident, however, clearly revealed that conventional surveillance by itself was not enough to monitor movements by air carrier.

    I hadn¡¯t realised that an armada of air carriers could suddenly appear in the skies above Tiwana.

    The development of large-sized ships carrying nothing but soldiers meant that the way of conducting warfare would change.

    Countries that are by the sea absolutely need a navy. Not only to prevent enemy attacks, but also to keep their territorial waters from enemy hands. Will an ¡®air force¡¯ become necessary in the same way for the skies which every country shares?

    Magrid was experiencing the sensation of encountering a new threat. Leo continued,

    ¡°There is no denying that I had no right to lead soldiers and to go in reinforcement to the temple. Please forgive me, Father... no, Your Majesty. But should I have pretended not to see the temple¡¯s suffering? Should I have refused the favour that Bishop Rogress was begging of me with his life on the line? Up until then, I ¨C Leo Attiel ¨C had only ever been an insignificant hostage sent to Allion. How could I, when the bishop¡¯s request was recognising me as a man, as a warrior, as a fellow believer of the same faith?¡±

    You could certainly say that Leo was skilful. Why else would he bring out such a narcissistic comment at a time like this? Rather than say that ¡°the prince was behind everything that happened and even entirely deceived his father the sovereign-prince,¡± it was better to present the disturbance as being due to ¡°the prince going off and taking action because of his selfish desire to be a hero.¡± The rout of Allion¡¯s army would then be no more than a result of that.

    And thus ¨C

    ¡°You fool!¡± Being berated by Magrid was probably well within Leo¡¯s expectations. ¡°Are you planning to become king, maybe? Do you realise that because of your selfishness, Allion¡¯s army might well have been trampling into Atall at this very moment? A ¡®man¡¯ and a ¡®warrior¡¯ and a ¡®believer¡¯, was it? Are you saying that the people of Atall aren¡¯t worth any more than that puny little pride of yours!?¡±

    There was nothing that Leo could do except fall to his knees. At times like these, it was always the kind-hearted Branton who would come to his defence.

    ¡°I can understand Leo¡¯s feelings,¡± and ¡°my little brother is still very young ¨C he still has a lot he needs to study,¡± he said, while at the same time turning to his brother to rebuke him, ¡°but you know, Leo, deciding by yourself to have an audience with the king of Allion, that really is going too far.¡±

    In all honesty, saying that Leo had ¡°gone too far¡± was putting it too mildly. However, even though Magrid could summon Leo in private and yell at him as a father, as the sovereign-prince, he could not publicly punish the young lord.

    One of the reasons was that this matter was simply too big. The reality was that Leo had lead soldiers to fight Allion¡¯s army, but if it became known that this had not been what the sovereign-prince wanted, then it would be revealed for all to see that not just the country but even the ruling House itself was lacking any kind of unity. It was all too easy to imagine that this would allow the vassal-lords to gain even more power, not to mention that Allion or Dytiann might see in it a perfect opportunity to intervene in Atall.

    The second reason was that Leo had successfully protected the temple. He had also prevented relations with Allion from deteriorating any further by personally meeting with the king. Atall¡¯s current situation could not possibly be any better than it was. And in fact, the people were already starting to see Leo as a hero.

    And finally, the last reason was that Leo would soon be getting married to the daughter of an Allian general. This was certainly also one of the reasons why the king of Allion had allowed Leo into his lands. On top of wedding Florrie, Leo also had a strong connection to the Cross Faith, and was preparing to establish its first diocese in Atall. From here on, he would be responsible for contact with Allion in more ways than one. It wouldn¡¯t be too much of an exaggeration to say that Leo¡¯s very existence was now a lifeline for Atall.

    Thus, the sovereign-prince could not, at this time, publicly condemn his son.

    After scolding Leo harshly then having him leave for the time being, Magrid sat far back into his chair and heaved a very, very long sigh. He summoned a page to prepare him a drink.

    ¡°Even though it¡¯s a bit late, should I get a tutor for Leo?¡± he said to no one in particular. ¡°Or maybe, even if it is right after his wedding, I should have him cloistered away in the cathedral as a priest of the Cross Faith? Either way, he¡¯s too dangerous to leave as is.¡±

    Magrid twirled the wine cup in his hand.

    Even though they were father and child, Leo had spent six years growing up in Allion, so Magrid did not know his son¡¯s personality. Because of that, he was not surprised at how much Leo had changed in such a short amount of time. In other words, the way he saw it wasn¡¯t that ¡°Leo has changed,¡± but rather, ¡°that boy has always had the potential to be dangerous.¡±

    This would have a huge influence on the relationship between the two of them.

    Thus did Leo Attiel triumph over Hayden Swift.

    Around that time, a letter of thanks was sent to Leo from Conscon Temple. According to what it said, a priest who been the equivalent of a close aide to Bishop Rogress would soon be inaugurated as the new bishop. Camus had risen considerably in rank, going from being merely one of the warrior monks to becoming the new bishop¡¯s assistant. He would also serve as the point of liaison between the temple and the church at Guinbar. He and his sister, Sarah, would be staying at the temple for the time being, ¡°until the situation has calmed down¡±.

    When Sarah had informed Leo of this, she had added some other, completely unnecessary comments.

    ¡°Please take care of Kuon while I¡¯m away in case he gets lonely. That puppy is always disappearing somewhere as soon as you take your eyes off of him, so I think it might be a good idea to teach him kindly with a collar,¡± she said, in a deliberately loud voice, so that Kuon would be able to hear.

    Percy had a really hard time soothing the boy¡¯s fury.

    Half a month after being reprimanded by the sovereign-prince, Lord Leo left Tiwana with Percy and Kuon, and once more headed to Guinbar Castle. He wanted to see how the cathedral¡¯s construction was advancing but, once he got there, he received a report that dashed cold water over his victory.

    ¡°I am truly sorry, Your Highness,¡± Savan Roux, the lord of Guinbar, hung his head of grey hair. ¡°I had guards keeping watch night and day but... they took their eyes off of him for a second...¡±

    Togo, the son of the vassal-lord Darren, who had been in custody in Guinbar Castle, had been killed.

    He had received a single sword stroke in the back. The killer must have been a man of considerable skill since Togo had probably died instantly. This had been neither a personal settling of accounts, nor a drunkard¡¯s brawl. It was assassination.

    And as to who it was who had ordered it...

    Darren?

    Leo thought of the man who had worn such an innocent expression at the time of the prince¡¯s baptism. Within the bustling confusion caused by that huge crowd, had he perhaps been choosing a suitable place for Togo to be brought to and assassinated?

    By using Togo as their trump card, they had once been able to drive Darren Actica into a corner, but now that Darren had personally gotten rid of that trump card ¨C gotten rid of his own son ¨C the danger posed by that vassal-lord would be resurrected.

    Was this what was bred on Atall¡¯s soil?

    In that case...

    From a parlour in the castle, Leo Attiel gazed into the distance.

    In that case, there¡¯s no choice but to change what grows on this soil.

    The next enemy would be neither Allion nor Dytiann. Instead, it would be ¨C ¡°Atall.¡±

    Reflecting the lights in the parlour, Leo¡¯s eyes gleamed.

 Volume 2, Afterword

    Volume 2, Afterword

    Hornet, rat, spider, bat.

    ...Now then, what does this sudden enumeration of creatures mean?

    Answer: these are the animals featured as the motifs on the coat of arms of the various vassal lords of the Principality of Atall. Since they will be appearing in the actual story in future volumes, everyone, please be sure to remember them well...

    Yeah, saying that would be an outright lie.

    The real answer is that there were a lot of animals tormenting me just as I was writing this second volume of LeoDen.

    Just what kind of wild and remote region does Sugihara even live in? ¨C let us set aside the wonder that I¡¯m sure you must all be feeling since, somehow or another, all of those obstacles (?) have been overcome and this second volume has safely been published. With feelings aplenty of gratitude and regret over life, let us raise our glasses and give a toast.

    Even though it¡¯s called ¡®Tales of Leo Attiel¡¯, Leo, the second-born prince, had a weak presence in the previous volume. However, this time, with the increase in the number of his appearances and him being placed at the centre of the story, has he, for now, lived up to expectations as the main character of this tale?

    The main character, in other words ¡®the hero¡¯, is definitely Prince Leo but then, who on earth is the ¡®heroine¡¯ able to stand alongside him? When it comes to that...

    Soon after I had finished writing the first volume, I had a telephone exchange with my editor.

    ¡°I¡¯ve received the manuscript, so I¡¯m thinking of having Okaya, the illustrator, start working on the full-scale illustrations soon.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Please give my regards to Mr Okaya. The character sketches that you emailed me before gave off a really good feeling.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Since we have pictures of all the characters, I¡¯d like to settle fairly soon on the design for the cover. Well, given the title, Leo¡¯s presence is essential, but I¡¯m not quite sure who else should be featured.¡±

    ¡°Line up Percy, Camus and Kuon one-by-one, and you¡¯ll be on the easy road to the ¡®young master and servants¡¯ appeal, no? It¡¯ll be out-and-out manly and tough, with muscles and sweat almost jumping out of the picture, and...¡±

    ¡°The easy road to make a new publication appealing is to pretty it up with a cute female character, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly right.¡±

    ¡°(The hell¡¯s with this guy?) I have one question: who¡¯s the heroine of the story?¡±

    ¡°Who... what do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Well, normally, you¡¯d expect it to be Florrie, no?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, Florrie becomes Leo¡¯s fianc¨¦e, after which (¡ùSpoiler omitted)... so she does have that very important role, but as for appearances, yeah... Since I¡¯m not planning for her to have all that many, it¡¯s a little difficult to answer when you ask if she¡¯s the story¡¯s heroine.¡±

    ¡°Then, Sarah?¡±

    ¡°Sarah, well, she¡¯ll start appearing more often but... (¡ùSpoiler omitted)... So because of that, I can¡¯t really say that she¡¯s the heroine either.¡±

    ¡°...Er, so in other words, there isn¡¯t any heroine?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not saying there isn¡¯t one. It¡¯s not something I can decide unilaterally: whoever the readers think of as the heroine is the heroine. In the tale of real life, we all have our own heroines.¡±

    ¡°(Shaddup) So then, what are we doing about the cover?¡±

    ¡°Well if it comes down to it, we could have Florrie and Sarah stand on either side of Leo to make it look like there are double heroines and fool the readers.¡±

    ¡°Oi, oi.¡±

    ¡°For the advertising, we could have something like: ¡®The timid Prince Leo Attiel was sent as a hostage to the powerful country of Allion. For he who doesn¡¯t even know what might happen to him tomorrow, his meeting with Florrie, a sweet and charming young lady, and Sarah, a self-assured, gun-totting nun, will be the turning point of fate. Just then, trouble occurs between Allion and his native country, Atall, and...!?¡¯, no?¡±

    ¡°...Well, it just barely manages to not be a lie, but I can feel the malice in that last ¡®!?¡¯.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s like how my friends say that being zapped by electricity is fun.¡±

    ¡°(Time to rethink my acquaintance with this guy.)¡±

    Some time after that exchange, I received a draft in which Sarah was smiling enigmatically behind Prince Leo.

    ¡°So then, this time, for volume 2, it¡¯ll be Florrie, right?¡± I thought, but I was in for a surprise when I saw the draft for the cover of volume 2, which arrived a little while ago.

    It was actually Camus who got selected! No, well, thinking about the plot this time around, it wasn¡¯t so strange, but... Had even the editorial side given up on using the ¡®young girl¡¯ appeal...?

    Honestly, this is going to be trouble.

    -- Sugihara Tomonori

 Volume 3, Prologue

    Volume 3, Prologue

    Recently, both just before falling asleep and just after waking up, Leo Attiel had been having two different kinds of hallucinations.

    First, just before falling asleep, when he threw himself down on the bed, stretched out with his back against the mattress. If he did that with enough force, he felt as though he could catch a glimpse of his own back, left behind in just that split second before he flung himself backwards.

    Yo, Leo Attiel.

    Leo spoke to his own back.

    How was today? Did you take matters into your own hands? Did you handle things well as ¡®Lord Leo¡¯?

    His back then answered,

    Well, nothing got out of hand. But I couldn¡¯t do everything I¡¯d set my mind to doing this morning. Issues keep piling up. There were all sorts of things I wanted to get further along with too, but it¡¯s already over for today¡¯s me. I¡¯ll leave the rest to tomorrow¡¯s me.

    Is that right? As Leo smiled, the shadowy back before him went blurry and disappeared. Well then, let¡¯s be ¡®Lord Leo¡¯ tomorrow, too.

    He closed his eyes while thinking that.

    What Leo meant by ¡®Lord Leo¡¯ was his vision of a future Leo, clothed in hopes and ideals.

    Leo truly wanted to become that kind of person. Considering that previously, he had even disliked his family name, ¡®Attiel¡¯, there had clearly been a change within him, psychologically speaking.

    For example, while he had always loved reading books, he now sometimes noticed that there was a difference in how he chased the words over a page. Before, he had simply admired these worlds that were unknown to him and in which he would likely never set foot. It was different now. When he read historical tales that depicted heroes from times past and near, he felt that he would one day be like them, that had to one day be like them.

    That¡¯s the way it has to be.

    That conviction did not only bring hope with it, however, and sometimes, it was despair, its exact opposite, which it beckoned into the young man¡¯s heart.

    He was painfully aware that when he acquired one piece of knowledge, he needed a hundred or two hundred more items of knowledge before being able to fully understand it. If he yearned to be like one hero, he also dreaded the thousands of steps he would need to climb to be like him.

    There were tens of thousand of future Leo Attiels stretched out before him. Because of that, he sometimes forgot who he was.

    During the day, he was fully engrossed in all those things, and it was only in the short time before going to sleep in his bed that he was brought back to his original self. His back was the lingering remains of ¡®the me from the daytime who isn¡¯t me¡¯.

    Then he would sleep.

    Leo had not been dreaming recently. He simply slept deeply.

    But in place of dreams, when the morning sun washed over his bed and awoke him, he saw a different illusion.

    From when he had been eleven, he had spent more than six years in the land of Allion. It was a long time; from childhood to puberty. And so, whether the bed he lay in was actually in Tiwana, the capital city, or in Guinbar Castle, or even in a room in Conscon Temple, Leo sometimes had the impression that he was still in Claude Anglatt¡¯s manor.

    If he opened the door and went downstairs, he would smell the breakfast that Claude¡¯s wife, Ellen, had gotten ready. The brothers, Walter and Jack, would already be at table, chattering away, and Florrie, who would be helping lay out the food, would greet him with, ¡°Good morning, Leo-niisama,¡± while giving him a smile as lovely as the seasonal flowers which sometimes decorated the table.

    That illusion was as vivid as reality, but it disappeared entirely once his body and mind were fully awake.

    One-by-one, he mentally went over all the things he needed to do today, and all those he would need to start tomorrow, as well as all the things that had been moving along yesterday and that he needed to check the progress of.

    There were too many things that he had to chase up after. Or maybe he was the one who was being chased after? ¨C Either way, another new day had begun.

    Whether or not it would bring Leo Attiel closer to his longed-for image of ¡®Lord Leo¡¯, whatever its fights, its challenges or its trials, it was a new day.

 Volume 3, 1: The Leo Guards

    Volume 3, Chapter 1: The Leo Guards

    Part 1

    One afternoon, towards the end of winter, Sovereign-Prince Magrid Attiel of Atall had gone out for a stroll accompanied by Kirsten, the princess-consort, and ten or so attendants.

    Magrid had originally intended to go hunting after finishing the morning¡¯s work, but Kirsten, his wife, had all of a sudden announced that she wished to join him, so the plan had been changed to a walk along the riverbank northwest of the capital, Tiwana. The sovereign-prince now sat on a hill that sloped gently upwards from within the wood that ran along the riverside.

    Next to him was Stark Barsley. As a member of a long-serving family of hereditary retainers, he had established himself at the castle in his territory, but since he had already retired, he occasionally visited Tiwana to express his gratitude to the sovereign-prince ¨C who was younger than him ¨C or perhaps to come and tease him.

    ¡°His Highness Leo, is it...¡± Stark spoke the name in a relaxed tone of voice. ¡°I couldn¡¯t help feeling surprised. Hmm, while I would have said that both were mild-tempered, he was a boy who did not give me quite as good an impression as his older brother ¨C ... but from there to thinking that he would move troops behind Your Majesty¡¯s back... Truly, the blood of our ruling House is not to be taken lightly.¡±

    ¡°This is no time for you to be so nonchalant. Stark, won¡¯t you take charge of him?¡±

    ¡°Recently, I¡¯ve been spending all my time fishing from an open boat in the lake. Your suggestion is not appealing enough to give up that pleasure for.¡±

    ¡°How can you be so heartless? Father relied on you more than anyone,¡± the sovereign-price pleaded with a man who was older than his own father.

    The one Stark was being asked to take charge of was Leo Attiel.

    ¨C A month after the affair at Conscon Temple had come to an end, Florrie turned sixteen, and Leo eighteen three months after that. There had been rumours that the wedding between them might take place on one of their two birthdays, but both dates had passed without anything happening.

    Leo himself had said that, ¡°The church is only halfway built, so it isn¡¯t the right time yet.¡± And also, ¡°My birthday? The priests of the Cross Faith say that it¡¯s an unlucky day.¡± Because of it repeatedly being put off, an official date had yet to be decided.

    Leo Attiel.

    Until a few months earlier, it wasn¡¯t at all clear that the people living in the capital, Tiwana, had even heard his name. Nowadays, there was no one in all of the Principality of Atall who did not know of the second-born prince.

    After the events surrounding Conscon and Allion, as well as Dytiann, there were two major schools of thought concerning Lord Leo.

    The first was to see him as a hero. The voices speaking in his favour were mainly those of the people, and Leo¡¯s popularity had soared in the outskirts of the capital. The story of how he led his troops to save Conscon, and there killed Hayden Swift, the commander of the Allian forces, became a topic for popular illustrated storybooks and for the improvised songs of minstrels, and before long, even plays were being performed about it.

    As the plays became ever more popular, their performances tended to be staged even at shrines, which caused some problems. The main shrine in Tiwana worshipped ¡®Iron Saint¡¯ L¨¦vy-Rahan, but Leo, the hero of the story, had, through a series of events, converted to the Cross Faith. As such, the priests frowned at having a ¡®pagan¡¯ tale performed on their premises.

    Yet Leo was also, of course, a member of the sovereign-prince¡¯s family. If the shrine refused to stage the play, it would probably give a bad impression to those in power. Accordingly, the play was allowed to be performed as long as the script glossed over Leo¡¯s religious conversion. It was said that the initial performances were so popular that people couldn¡¯t even get through the shrine¡¯s gates anymore.

    Amongst the commoners, most people thus cheered for Leo and praised his name.

    There was, however, a second school of thought when it came to Leo ¨C one which regarded this ¡®rash and thoughtless prince¡¯ as nothing short of dangerous. That opinion was mostly whispered among the vassal-lords and noble retainer families.

    Sovereign-Prince Magrid struggled to offer a convincing explanation about what had happened. If he explained that Leo had acted completely on his own ¨C not only when personally leading soldiers to Conscon, but also when meeting the king of Allion shortly thereafter ¨C he would be showing weakness by revealing that the princely house was not internally united.

    On the other hand, if he claimed that everything had been done according to his own intentions, he would probably bear the brunt of criticism again. ¡°While it is all very nice that Allion ended up giving in, the sovereign-prince once again arbitrarily brought the entire country to the brink of disaster¡± ¨C something along those lines.

    Just like the troupe staging the play, the sovereign-prince had to rack his brains to find a good way of keeping the details hazy. But not only was Magrid not a skilful orator, he also had no one that he could consult with on this matter. As a result, he ended up sounding evasive. Which was what he actually was being, but, more importantly, that evasiveness also shed light on the very facts that he was trying to hide.

    Although nobody could possibly imagine that Lord Leo had acted entirely on his own from start to finish, theories and complaints still flew around.

    Could it be that the young lord was so convinced that the temple needed to be saved that he actually disregarded His Majesty''s orders?

    But any way you look at it, it was the prince''s first campaign. He didn''t have any experience with military command. Then maybe it was only luck that allowed him to defeat the enemy general. He was playing an incredibly risky game. You can¡¯t move soldiers based on nothing but a chivalrous spirit, without the light of wisdom. One wrong step, and all of Atall would have been in flames right about now.

    The vassal-lords got onboard with that speculation, but rather than saying that they deeply believed that Leo Attiel was dangerous, it would be closer to the truth to say that they bitterly resented him.

    After the events at Conscon Temple, Leo once addressed the vassal-lords about the need for a permanent army. When Leo had previously raised the issue, stories were widely repeated even among the populace about how the vassal-lords had practically laughed in his face; now however, the ones being laughed at and criticised were those same lords.

    ¡°They¡¯re all completely blind.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s clear that the prince has far more foresight than any of them. If they had listened to His Highness¡¯ petition, the prince wouldn¡¯t of had to suffer all alone.¡±

    There was no end to those voices.

    The sovereign-prince could ignore neither the displeasure and sense of impending crisis felt by the nobles, nor the vocal disagreement of the people. Which was why Magrid had summoned Stark Barsley, who had once won fame as a loyal retainer to Magrid¡¯s father, to Tiwana. The original intention had been to invite him hunting, but as that had been changed to taking a stroll, it was while they were leisurely standing shoulder to shoulder on top of the hill that he sought Stark¡¯s wisdom.

    ¡°What should I do?¡±

    There is not time enough to talk here about all of Stark Barsley¡¯s career. As the illegitimate son of a noble house that he had no mind to inherit, he had already left the country by the time he was a young man. He had wandered, of course, to Allion and Shazarn, and had then extended his steps further west, travelling beyond the Grand Duchy of Ende and the territories of the Imperial Dynasty of Mephius, all the way to the western countries of Tauran.

    According to one theory, he had worked as a mercenary in Tauran and had been made a slave in Mephius.

    It was coming up to thirty years since he had inherited the family keep from his younger brother, who had died of illness. Although he seemed like someone who really should write his own autobiography, now that he was nearing his seventies, his countenance had grown so gentle that his once harsh way of life seemed almost impossible to believe.

    Now as well, he spoke with a smile on his long face.

    ¡°Entrust soldiers to the young lord.¡± The sovereign-prince looked understandably sour. ¡°To all outward appearances, the young lord obeyed Your Majesty¡¯s orders to repel Allion and rescue Conscon. In recent years, Atall has not pulled off any other military feat equal to it. It would look unnatural for you to cast him away. Therefore, as a reward for the young lord¡¯s great deeds, it would be fine to grant him soldiers fulfilling a position close to that of royal guards... right, you could have them be ¡®personal guards¡¯. With the voice of popular discontent currently on the rise, even the lords won¡¯t be able to wriggle out sending out money or men either... It should be possible to organise a fairly grand unit without emptying the Treasury.¡±

    ¡°But,¡± the crease had not vanished from Magrid¡¯s brow, ¡°Although it¡¯s vexing to admit it, that damned Leo outmanoeuvred me and turned his blade against Allion. If I grant him troops, he might grow more and more arrogant, and pose a greater threat to Atall than ever before.¡±

    As he groaned, the sovereign-prince wore an expression that he rarely showed his other retainers. It was the expression of a young man clinging to an older person. ¡°And so,¡± was all the sovereign-prince said, with an air of broaching the topic of negotiation, before asking Stark to take Leo in hand.

    ¡°If I grant him soldiers, Leo will one day also become the master of a castle keep. So Stark, would you be willing to hammer into my son the preparedness and mental attitude needed for the ruling family, while at the same time keeping an eye on Leo?¡±

    He asked with his head bowed, but Stark did not look particularly inclined to respond favourably.

    Hmm, thought Stark, while striking a nonchalant attitude, His Highness Lord Leo? You can¡¯t even go fishing at some backwater pond without hearing nothing but rumours about him. ...It might not be bad to meet him at least once.

    This wasn¡¯t because he was intending to act as his mentor, but simply because he had been thinking for a while now that Leo was an interesting person.

    He was a noble who had been in service since the era of the previous sovereign-prince. In this era, the ruler placed great trust in him, and he frequently served as a diplomat. In that position, one did not merely convey the ruler¡¯s thoughts when in a foreign country, and there were plenty of times when one had to rely on one¡¯s own judgement, so, naturally, those chosen for the task were all people whose political stance was aligned with the ruler¡¯s.

    Stark had been a friend of the previous sovereign-prince, and he was well-versed in gauging the mood in Allion to the west, Shazarn to the north, and the various countries to the east that were tied together by the Cross Faith.

    In his time, Atall had experienced virtually no wars with the outside. There had been times when relations with the neighbouring countries had temporarily deteriorated and each side had taken up position in the border regions, but he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of actual battles that had been fought.

    Stark himself had fought against marauders ¨C which included bands of mercenaries and members of powerful clans chased out of their own countries ¨C who had broken into his territory. There had even been an episode in which he had recaptured his own castle after it had been taken from him. Not even he, however, could conceive of crossing swords with a foreign country, and on top of that, with Allion of all places.

    Yet Leo Attiel had accomplished that inconceivable feat.

    Very interesting, thought Stark. But also, very dangerous.

    Stark had gradually reached his fill of leaving his old friend¡¯s son in suspense. ¡°Taking charge of him is a different matter,¡± he said by way of preface, ¡°but I might as well meet Lord Leo. Although I¡¯m not at all sure that this up-and-coming hero will want to listen to what an old sack of bones has to say.¡±

    For now at least, he offered words to please the sovereign-prince.

    Since the conversation had reached its conclusion, they walked to where Kirsten, the princess-consort, was sitting beneath a parasol held up by ladies¡¯ maids. Since the sovereign-prince fell into conversation with her, Stark took a discreet step backwards.

    It had been quite a while since he had last seen the princess-consort. Since she only had a three-year age difference with Magrid, she must have been nearing the end of her thirties, yet she was still as lovely as ever. She was so slender that it was hard to believe she had born three children, and both her expression and her bearing indicated her deeply modest and reserved personality.

    Stark, however, had been observing the princess-consort since her youth, and he felt that the corners of her eyes twitch convulsively. As her emotions piled up within her without ever showing on her face, there was a danger of them exploding. Stark had known any number of women who were like that, and, in a way, the princess-consort fit into that mould.

    Actually, the Princess-Consort Kirsten had once had a bout of hysteria that was still talked about within the palace. It had been barely a few years after the birth of her eldest son, Branton. To ensure his son¡¯s education, Magrid had decided not to have him raised in the palace at Tiwana, but to instead have the child fostered by one of the long-serving, hereditary retainers. This noble¡¯s territory was not particularly far from Tiwana, but Kirsten had nonetheless vehemently opposed the decision.

    Kirsten was by birth the daughter of a family of vassals in service to a different house of high-ranked hereditary retainers. Her father had died young, however, and the fight to succeed him as family head had not been gentle. Their liege had just barely managed to put an end to it by personally acting as arbitrator, but by that time, her mother had also passed away.

    Magrid had fallen in love with her at first sight when he was still a prince but, perhaps in part because of her early history, she had remained extremely shy and reticent and ever since her marriage, she had always found one reason or another to avoid showing herself in public whenever possible.

    The princely house had a long history, and its customs influenced every aspect of daily life, so it was easy to imagine that she had found it suffocating at the ceremonious court where she knew virtually nobody.

    Thereupon, the long-awaited eldest son had been born.

    For Kirsten, the existence of this baby who shared her own blood gave her place to belong, and must have seemed almost like her one and only ally, given that there were so few people in her life that she could trust. When the child was separated from her, she showed passion and fury such as she never had before. She hounded the sovereign, her voice shrill, and wrecked one room after another within the palace.

    Most of the retainers were unfortunately unsympathetic towards her. ¡°The princess-consort lacks awareness as a member of the family of the sovereign-prince,¡± said her those around her, showering her in their harsh criticism.

    Although Kirsten¡¯s rampage lasted no more than three days, the affair cast an even deeper shadow than before over the princess-consort. Several years after coming to Tiwana, she had finally and with difficulty managed to make friends, but now she utterly cut off all relations with them and stayed cloistered within the palace all day long.

    The birth of the second prince, Leo, brought Kirsten no comfort. On the contrary, that time, the mother gave the impression of being hesitant to get close to her son. She was probably feeling cautious, thought Stark. Because she was afraid that he would immediately be taken away from her, she would not allow herself to love her son.

    Because of what had happened with their eldest son, Magrid had relented with Leo and had left him in her care, yet Kirsten failed, so to speak, to love her second son. He was almost entirely looked after by nursemaids, and although they occasionally met each other, the relationship between mother and child was strangely formal and distant.

    ¡°Mother!¡±

    The fact that Kirsten was now more or less able to show herself and to be at ease in the full sunlight was without a doubt thanks to the birth of the third prince, Roy, who was currently running up the hill as he called out to her.

    Right after Roy Attiel had been born, Kirsten had held her child close.

    ¡°He has exactly the same eyes as my father. And his mouth and nose are the living image of my mother,¡± she had said through her sobs.

    As though in compensation of her eldest son, Branton, who had been stolen away from her love, and of her second son, Leo, whom she has failed to love, Kirsten doted on her youngest child, Roy. She had even claimed that the souls of her parents, whom she had lost young, lived in Roy, and she would not be parted from him even for a moment.

    Roy had been raised receiving not only his mother¡¯s love, but that of the entire palace. He was friendly and intelligent, and there was no one who would not feel affectionate towards him.

    ¡°Oh dear, what have you been up to, Roy? You¡¯re covered in mud.¡±

    Even now, when she was admonishing him, Kirsten¡¯s eyes watched him fondly.

    Roy Attiel had been picking flowers at the foot of the hill with the ladies¡¯ maids, and had made them into a garland. When his mother bent forward a little, he placed it around her neck.

    ¡°Oh my, how lovely.¡±

    Kirsten and the ladies¡¯ maids all smiled, and even Magrid turned a gazed filled with love towards his third son.

    How calculated. Stark was the only one who was critical of the third-born prince, Lord Roy. He isn¡¯t a child of five or six. If I¡¯m not mistaken, His Highness Roy is around fourteen or fifteen. A boy who¡¯s old enough to have been on his third campaign, making a flower garland for his mother. And to get himself all muddy on top of it... he really is slick.

    Appearance-wise, he closely resembled Kirsten and was as lovely as her. His boyish face still gave a childlike impression, but, in a year or two, it would surely start troubling the women around him.

    Stark had also heard that he was good at his studies. Although his mother indulged him and frequently took him away from his training in martial arts, so that he often took breaks from it, it was said that he was not incompetent with a sword.

    Yet all for all that Roy¡¯s eyes were sparkling with joy, Stark could tell that his aim had been to please the adults. Rather than intelligence, he gave off a whiff of cunning.

    Since he¡¯s always being fawned on at his mother¡¯s side, his tendency to earn favour with the adults is just going to get stronger and stronger. His abilities aren¡¯t bad; it would probably have been best if he had been fostered out, like His Highness Branton was.

    Despite having those thoughts, Stark had no intention of suggesting any such thing to Magrid. He did not want to be told, ¡°Well then, since you¡¯re retired, you have plenty of time to take him in,¡± nor did he want to hassle of having the princess-consort bear a grudge against him.

    Stark was aware that he had already given plenty to his country, and he was not inclined to work himself to the bone any further for it. For the same reason, he did not wish to get dragged into every kind of trouble that appeared. And since he was as he was, in truth, he really didn¡¯t want to have to take charge of Leo, either.

    Part 2

    ¡°I might as well meet Lord Leo,¡± had said Stark, but in actual fact, it wasn¡¯t until a month later that they came face to face. In the meantime, the creation of the ¡®personal guards¡¯ that he had suggested was given the go ahead.

    Since it had been authorised by the ruler, Magrid, neither the nobles nor the vassal-lords could object, and they had to fork out money and men, just as Leo himself had once badgered them to do.

    Percy, an Atallese noble, and Kuon, a mercenary, both of whom had been following Leo and whose positions were close to those of vassals, were also formally integrated into the unit.

    The second son of the House of Leegan is being a fool ¨C Kuon was one thing, since he was a rootless drifter, but there was a lot of malicious gossiping about Percy. He¡¯s letting himself be dragged along at the prince¡¯s whim. That¡¯s no way to get on in life.

    The rumours weren¡¯t necessarily wrong, either. Leo certainly seemed to be engrossed in military affairs, but what were the odds that Atall would plunge into more foreign campaigns from now on? Even though these were war-torn times, there was no territory that this tiny country could hope to aim for, sandwiched as it was between the two great powers that were Allion and Dytiann.

    In other words, there was very little chance that Leo would perform any spectacular feats from here on. And unlike the Royal Guards, which conferred considerable status even if one had no distinguished war records, this newly-established ¡®personal guard¡¯ had neither history nor prestige.

    Percy himself did not find it unnatural that there were rumours about his having bad luck. Naturally, his family was against the whole thing. His father repeatedly suggested different courses for Percy¡¯s future, but he eventually gave up once he realised that his son was firmly determined.

    His mother was more persistent than his father.

    ¡°What does Lord Giml¨¦ think about it?¡± she asked bluntly.

    Giml¨¦ Gloucester, one of the vassal-lords, was the father of Percy¡¯s fianc¨¦e, Liana. Speaking of Giml¨¦, when the request for reinforcements had reached Tiwana from Conscon Temple, he had made it very clear that he was against sending them any help, stating that ¡°it has nothing to do with us.¡± Consequently, when he later learned that the sovereign-prince had one-sidedly decided to send soldiers to the temple, Giml¨¦ had visited Tiwana for the express purpose of voicing his strong criticism of his ruler.

    Percy had been among those reinforcements.

    On top of that, Giml¨¦ did not seem at all happy about the whole chain of events that had led to Lord Leo driving back Allion¡¯s army.

    ¡°How is this heroic? It only on the surface that things miraculously ended well; in fact, he¡¯s sown huge seeds of discontent in Allion. And also in Dytiann, which had its troops annihilated,¡± this time as well, he forthrightly criticised the princely house.

    When at that point, Percy joined Lord Leo¡¯s personal guards, Giml¨¦ was quite naturally not going to hold any positive emotions towards his daughter¡¯s fianc¨¦. And in all truth, Percy¡¯s own feelings grew complicated whenever he thought of Liana.

    I get where my parents are coming from, he sometimes thought. At the moment, I¡¯m like a child who is delirious from fever. I can¡¯t calm down. There are just too many things going on. So I should plant my feet back on the ground for a while, and reconsider again after cooling my head for a bit.

    It would be fine for him to become an assistant to his older brother, who would one day be head of the family. Enlisting in the prestigious Royal Guards would also be good. As would be receiving a subsidiary castle from Lord Giml¨¦ and going to live there with Liana.

    But when all those possible paths leading to bright, golden futures were confronted with the thought that I will walk alongside Lord Leo, they immediately faded into colourlessness, cracked, and were crushed and scattered into a thousand tiny pieces.

    There were certainly no mapped-out paths to where travelling with Lord Leo would take him. There would be chaos. There would be ups and downs. Perhaps his future itself would be shortened as a result. And that was why Percy thought it was interesting.

    Compared to burying himself in a predictable future, it would be far more interesting to walk towards an unknown one, following a path that was shrouded in darkness so thick that he could not see even a single step ahead, and in which Leo Attiel was the only guiding light.

    The young Percy¡¯s heart swayed time and again but, in the end, and to the very last, that one thought did not change. Taking several dozen retainers of the Leegan family with him ¨C most of whom had fought alongside him at Conscon Temple ¨C as a gift, he enlisted into the personal guard.

    A ceremony was held on the day of the guards¡¯ inauguration. Several hundred soldiers, led by Leo, who was clad in brand-new armour, marched in a parade into Tiwana Palace. Leo stopped before Magrid, who was sitting on the throne in the audience chamber, removed his helmet, and placed it at his feet, while behind him, all of the soldiers knelt in unison.

    Magrid rose from the throne and stepped forward. Leo knelt before him and took hold of a precious sword, inlaid with gold ornamentation, the tip of which he pressed against his own chest. Magrid placed his hand on the hilt. Leo did not move. If my life displeases my lord, please push this blade forward and end it, was the declaration being made.

    Instead of thrusting the sword into his son¡¯s heart, Magrid stooped and kissed the hilt. After which, he once more took hold of sword and returned it to the scabbard at Leo¡¯s waist. The meaning of those actions was I am entrusting you with a part of the power I hold as sovereign.

    The nobles and high-ranking commanders who had gathered in the audience hall in their ceremonial clothes all clapped. With that, the Personal Guards were formally instated. ¨C Though this became something of an object of mockery in Tiwana Palace.

    First of all, although Leo Attiel wore golden armour which covered him from tip to toe, it did not suit his slender silhouette. Nor was it just an outward impression: it actually wasn¡¯t fitted to his size. Normally, the helmet and armour should have been especially made to order for Leo, but he himself had turned down the idea, saying that ¡°It¡¯s only a formality. I don¡¯t want too much being spent.¡±

    Instead, as there were any number of old sets of ceremonial armour lying unused in the treasury, he had chosen suitable pieces from among them, but since there had been no rehearsals before the ceremony, all sorts of flaws were discovered right before the actual performance. The torso was a little tight, whereas around the waist and from his ankles down, it was too loose, and cloth had to be stuffed into the chinks. Because of that, however, Leo¡¯s gait as he walked was a little strange. Every time he took a step forward, the helmet noticeably jiggled up and down, and it comically looked as though it would go flying off at any moment.

    Nor was it just Leo: the soldiers also attracted ridicule. Since they were a mish-mashed unit which had been hastily cobbled together, they marched without any kind of coordination, and on top of that, some of them had been mere farmers or merchants until just very recently. It was their first time setting foot inside the palace, so all of their attention was taken by wondering at the interior and at the crowds of people, which led to them accidentally and repeatedly kicking whoever was in front of them, prompting those around them to want to laugh.

    ¡°Oh my, truly a gathering of mighty warriors.¡± Sarcastic comments flew.

    And while everyone laughed, it felt somehow as though they were returning to their senses after having seen an illusion. When they had first heard of how Leo had defeated Allion, it had been like something out of a heroic tableau, but now he was before them in the flesh and in armour, accompanied by soldiers who were obviously amateurs.

    It seems that just as the rumours said, there must have actually been very little fighting.

    Maybe it¡¯s true that Allion retreated when they realised that Atall was taking part and that Dytiann was prepared to intervene.

    They lost interest.

    Stark Barsley was also within the crowd. Once the inauguration ceremony had ended, he headed for the antechamber which Leo had withdrawn to. Just as he was about to offer his greetings ¨C

    ¡°Oh! Lord Stark. It¡¯s been a long time,¡± flushed and sweaty, and having just removed his armour, Leo sat up.

    They had no seen each other since he had been sent to Allion as a hostage. For a while, they exchanged stories about when Leo was young.

    ¡°Ah, but Your Highness is no longer the little master from back then. Your Highness Leo, once again, many congratulations on both your recent military exploits and on the inauguration of your Personal Guards.¡±

    ¡°Thank you very much.¡±

    ¡°Well then, now that you have soldiers of your own, what does our gallant Lord Leo intend to do next?¡± Stark broached the main topic on a joking tone. ¡°Will you be delivering the finishing blow to Allion? Or will you be seizing Shazarn, now that rumours say the country is in turmoil?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, indeed. First of all...¡±

    ¡°First of all?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll start with building work.¡±

    ¡°Building work?¡±

    As the startled Stark watched, Leo finished changing his clothes and started to leave the antechamber.

    Well, we can continue to talk while eating somewhere, thought Stark, as he hurriedly chased after Leo.

    ¡°W-Where are you heading, Your Highness?¡±

    ¡°To Guinbar.¡±

    What?

    ¡°There are a number of building works that need to be done. Sir Stark, thank you for going out of your way to be here today. Let¡¯s arrange an opportunity to talk together at leisure at some point.¡±

    Leo left the palace with the soldiers who had just taken part in the ceremony and Stark was left reeling from surprise. The ¡®building work¡¯ that Leo had mentioned was the construction of barracks to house the hastily established Personal Guards. The first thing to do was to have them built in the two castle towns of Tiwana and Guinbar. While lodging there, they would be assigned tasks such as undergoing military training, acting as guards, going on patrols and so on. In one go, they had essentially become professional soldiers.

    Up until then, every time there was a war, Atall would hire mercenaries, call up militias, or have the various noble Houses send a few dozen of their retainers. Aristocrats who held lands had to call up soldiers from the villages and fortresses dotted around their domains, which created problems in terms of coordination and mobility in an emergency. Leo had long observed the problem, which was why he intended to have his soldiers live in groups throughout the castle towns, and have them perform daily combat training with their units, in an attempt to develop a mobilisation system that was close to Allion¡¯s in terms of skill and efficiency.

    It was clear that Leo hoped to one day extend the system throughout all of Atall, and that he intended to first test it out by using his Personal Guards. This would, of course, cost money. Which was why Leo had pleaded with the vassal-lords, and also why Stark had suggested to the sovereign-prince that they be asked to contribute, so as not to overburden the national treasury.

    Most of the nobles forked out the money, albeit unwillingly, as I mentioned earlier. There were some, however, who flatly refused to do so.

    These were Darren Actica and Oswell Taholin.

    ¡°They¡¯ve rejected the hero¡¯s request again...¡± with just that, their reputation plummeted in their home areas. Yet when the order to contribute had come from the sovereign-prince, they responded with the same plausible excuses that they had used to reject Leo¡¯s plea ¨C ¡°We would very much like to cooperate, but the financial situation in our domains is regrettably strained. We will take part later, when we have a bit more surplus.¡±

    After the ceremony, Leo behaved himself. He went back and forth several times between Tiwana, the capital, and Guinbar, Savan Roux¡¯s territory. He inspected the construction of the barracks in both towns, kept an eye on how building-work was progressing on the church at Guinbar, and personally went to observe the soldiers as they trained until the sweat was pouring off of them.

    Stark would occasionally accompany him. Leo naturally had his own thoughts about this elderly retiree who was suddenly drawing close to him, but he never openly said a thing.

    ¡°You¡¯ve come again?¡± he greeted him. ¡°The elderly seem to have plenty of time on their hands. I would love to hear about your experiences and learn from them, Sir Stark. But please keep them to a length that won¡¯t bore the young.¡±

    Their relationship had even turned into one which allowed him to make those kinds of jokes. And yet ¨C

    He really isn¡¯t very good at shortening the distance with people. Stark inwardly appraised him. Maybe it¡¯s because this comes after seeing His Highness Roy. It shows in stark contrast how poor he is at socialising.

    Leo did not only travel between Tiwana and Guinbar: very soon after his Personal Guards were instated, he had gone once to Conscon Temple. He had wanted to see how it was doing after Bishop Rogress¡¯ death and now that it was working to rebuild. At the same time, he had gone to see Camus, the warrior monk who had fought against Allion alongside him, and Camus¡¯ little sister, Sarah.

    ¡°It is good to see you in good health, Your Highness.¡±

    Camus had been promoted to being an aide to the temple¡¯s bishop. There didn¡¯t, however, seem to be any particular difference in his appearance, including in the clothes he wore. He still wore chainmail under his monastic robes, and grasped a spear in his hand.

    When he heard that Leo had been assigned a personal guard, his eyes sparkled.

    ¡°Just what I¡¯d expect of you, Your Highness. You are steadily progressing towards your goal. Well then ¨C I will of course also be joining your troops, right?¡± he said as if to confirm it.

    Leo gave a low hum as he gravelly shook his head.

    ¡°You¡¯re now a person of importance at the temple. Rather than having me involve you in the trivial, worldly matters, don¡¯t you think it would be better for both you yourself and for the temple if you concentrated on its reconstruction, and put all your energy into supporting the new bishop?¡±

    ¡°W-What are you saying? Of course I will give my all to rebuilding the temple and assisting the bishop, but I am not the sort of man who would begrudge offering my life for you, Prince. If we¡¯re talking about the temple¡¯s future, then I believe that we must implement the ideals that you once talked about so as to demonstrate our military might to our surroundings, and to build up our influence. For that, I, Camus, am willing to face death as many times as I need to, and I am ready to have my bones crushed in order to repay you the debt we owe you.¡±

    ¡°Actually, my big brother finds it boring to be secluded in the temple,¡± shrugged Sarah, who was standing next to him. ¡°Now that he¡¯s become such a great man, he leaves all his holy duties to others, and spends his entire time training with his spear. There isn¡¯t a single day when you don¡¯t see steam rising from his muscles. Honestly, given that he jabs at them so much, just how many times a day do the gates of Heaven open? A thousand times? Or maybe ten thousand?¡±

    ¡°W-W-Who is it that you¡¯re saying neglects their holy duties? Even though now that Bishop Rogress has passed away, everyone here has carved his last wishes into their heart, and is pushing forward every day... Sarah, you might be my little sister, but you¡¯ve gone too far.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Now that you¡¯ve become so great, you¡¯ve also become even more pompous than before. Lord Leo, whether it¡¯s to the battlefield or to certain death, please take my brother wherever you feel like. It will be refreshing not to have him around hurting my ears.¡±

    The prince laughed to see that the two of them were the same as ever.

    ¡°I was joking, Camus. What kind of Personal Guards would they even be if you weren¡¯t part of them? You¡¯ve also got your work at the temple, so I¡¯m sure it¡¯s going to be tough on you, but I¡¯ll be counting on you from here on as well.¡±

    Relieved to hear those words, Camus finally cheered up again. He looked as though he might seize his spear at any moment to go and thrust it somewhere a thousand or ten thousand times to release the fiery energy that had been accumulating inside him, which earned him his sister¡¯s heartfelt disgust.

    Still, Leo¡¯s goals were not confined to observation and meeting his friends again, and he had brought part of his Personal Guards with him. As part of their duties, they would be stationed at the temple and in the outskirts of Guinbar, to allow them to feel the tension of being somewhere where actual combat had taken place.

    Nothing actually happened afterwards though, and the hereditary retainers, the vassal-lords and others simply saw it as ¡°the prince is playing around with his new toy.¡±

    Having observed Leo from close up, Stark was not as quick as the other nobles to draw that conclusion. With his ever-present relaxed expression, he took the tea that Sarah held out to him.

    ¡°Oh my, it was well worth leaving the countryside to be offered tea by such a beautiful nun,¡± his face broke into a smile as he accepted the cup.

    It was on that occasion that news reached Atall about Allion and Dytiann, the two countries which lay east and west of it, which were also the two powerhouses whose antagonism had come to head during the battle around Conscon Temple. There had apparently been a number of letters and messengers going back and forth between them, but this time, they had arrived at the point at which a meeting would be held between representatives of both countries. Moreover, those attending would not be nobodies.

    For this reason, they would not be meeting in either of their two lands, and it was said that wished to hold the conference in a place halfway between them, in Tiwana, the capital of the Principality of Atall, a country which was also connected to this issue.

    And lastly, both Allion and Dytiann had nominated Leo Attiel as a witness to the meeting.

    Part 3

    Time and time again, throughout history, the small countries covering the entire region had been compelled to come together and form an alliance centred around Dytiann Cathedral so as to defend themselves against an outside threat.

    About half a century earlier, these countries had joined hands in the face of an invasion from the north. Since the war had dragged on for longer than expected, they were inevitably forced into forming a strong connection and a prolonged alliance. To the outside world, this powerful league of countries, tied together as it was by religion, soon seemed to be a single organisation, and it came to be referred to by others as the ¡°Dytiann Alliance¡±.

    Time and time again, throughout history, the small countries covering the entire region had been compelled to come together and form an alliance centred around Dytiann Cathedral so as to defend themselves against an outside threat.

    About half a century earlier, these countries had joined hands in the face of an invasion from the north. Since the war had dragged on for longer than expected, they were inevitably forced into forming a strong connection and a prolonged alliance. To the outside world, this powerful league of countries, tied together as it was by religion, soon seemed to be a single organisation, and it came to be referred to by others as the ¡°Dytiann Alliance¡±.

    The Papal States expanded from around the cathedral ¨C which, from that point in time, came to be known as the Holy See ¨C and the Church organisation based in those states seized suzerainty over the other countries.

    After more than ten years of war, the alliance achieved victory, or at least a respite, against the north. Soon after, however, the Pope succumbed to illness. This caused repercussions of a different sort from the invasion. Previously, the papal throne had gone no further than providing spiritual and moral guidance, but after the birth of the ¡®alliance¡¯, its authority was no longer merely moral, and it had become the very real ruler of a group of vassal states. Consequently, the struggle for succession to the papacy was now of a completely different nature than it had previously been.

    Each country competed both openly and covertly through political influence, military might and information gathering. Before long, a succession of quarrels broke out. The Holy See should have brought them to an end, by sheer force if necessary, but those within it where instead accepting bribes from the various countries, and corruption gradually grew widespread. There were even some cases in which they used the conflicts to build up their own personal funds.

    Any who disagreed with this were thrown into secret jails without being given a chance to defend themselves, and were burned at the stake without any official trial.

    Popular discontent grew greater and greater. Violence against officials from the Holy See broke out in one town after another. When the Papal States¡¯ independent army carried out ¡®purges¡¯ in response, the fires of rebellion against the Holy See finally blazed bright throughout the lands.

    The various countries who had fought over who should sit on the papal throne were deeply divided into two camps.

    On the one hand, there was the ¡®Church Faction¡¯, which was currying favour with the Holy See by supporting it, and which was trying to seize power as a religious state, on the same model as the current regime. Opposing it was the ¡®Rebel Army¡¯, for whom the enemy was the none other than the present Holy See, and which wanted to establish a new Church power.

    Among those who joined the rebellion, be they the great or the humble, there are many who are still praised as heroes even to this day. And the most representative of all were the ¡®Yanos Brothers¡¯, Mordin and Wymer.

    They were originally from a poor village, but Wymer, the younger brother, had been given to the local church from a very young age, where he had demonstrated outstanding academic ability. He first became a page to the local lord, then from there he rose to become the secretary to an influential aristocrat, and was eventually employed as a steward in charge of managing estates. Since the noble family who employed him was part of the anti-Church faction, Wymer had joined the rebellion from the very start, and had manoeuvred to thwart the Church faction¡¯s plans and to prevent interventions from other powers. He had also made full use of his inborn talents by launching a propaganda campaign to win over the masses.

    The manoeuvres that Wymer set up proved effective, and the anti-Church faction obtained tremendous support from the people, while also scoring one victory after another against the Church faction.

    At around about that same time, Mordin, who had remained in their native village, caused an uproar. He was still only a mere farmer at the time, but he was built along massive lines, and he had always been absurdly strong.

    One day, an official who was in with the Holy See came to visit the village, on the pretext of ¡®making an inspection¡¯. In reality, however, he had come to con the gullible villagers with a fake get-rich-quick scheme; claiming that they would need initial capital to start, he lent them money at illegally high interest rates. When the villagers were unable to repay him, he mercilessly seized their lands and fields. Those who resisted were roughed up by marauding soldiers who had been hired with Church money.

    Mordin¡¯s father was also among those who were assaulted, and he was beaten until he couldn¡¯t stand anymore.

    Mordin flew into a rage. He hid himself in the surroundings of the church which served as the marauders¡¯ base and, when some unlucky soldiers in groups of one or two happened to be loitering around, he caught them, dragged them into a clump of bushes, and beat them to death, before taking their swords, armour and other equipment from them.

    When the soldiers, unsure of what was happening, cautiously showed themselves, Mordin and a few of his friends, wearing the equipment that he had stolen, ambushed them and slaughtered all thirty of them, as well as every one of the officials who had been staying at the church. This provoked the Holy See¡¯s fury, and they put together a full-scale subjugation corps.

    With no means left with which to fight, Mordin had already resigned himself when his younger brother Wymer heard of his native village¡¯s plight, and dispatched a troop from the rebel army.

    After an impressive battle and with the help of his powerful allies, Mordin magnificently routed the subjugation corps. Shortly thereafter, he too joined the rebel army.

    Just as the younger brother excelled in negotiations and scholarship, the older brother had a military genius that was now allowed to flourish.

    He achieved countless exploits on the battlefield. According to rumour, while he himself was talented, he could not shake his air of rugged simplicity, which reeked of country bumpkin, and which seemed completely at odds with his aura of a hard-bitten fighter. This exerted a strange fascination on people, and prominent warriors gathered around him one after another, with the result that Mordin accomplished those feats in battle.

    About ten years after the previous pope had died, and five years after the rebellion flared up, those who belonging to the Holy See, as well as those supporting them, were expulsed from the cathedral. They now became the ¡®Old Church faction¡¯, while the rebel army turned into the ¡®Current Church faction¡¯.

    That was when Mordin and Wymer were given the family name ¡®Yanos¡¯.

    The Yanos brothers included, the volunteers enlisted in the rebel army entered Dytiann Cathedral, in what had once been the Papal States. The civil war, however, had yet to be entirely suppressed. Another five years passed, during which Mordin became the supreme commander of the armed forces, yet even after taking the cathedral, he continued to lead his troops to hunt for the remnants of the Old Church faction.

    Wymer, the younger brother, whose skills were highly valued, had carried out the role he had been given as diplomat, tasked with hindering any southwards progression from the northern countries during this time of internal strife. He was at the forefront of things when the Church was being completely reorganised and was eventually able to seize the position of its leader, appearing all the while as though he had been pushed into it by the army volunteers.

    As it would have seemed arrogant to call himself ¡°pope¡± at that point in time, he went no further than ¡°head archbishop¡±.

    Mordin, the older brother, as supreme commander of the army, and Wymer as head archbishop ¨C it could be said that the Yanos brothers were, for all intents and purposes, the rulers of the Dytiann Alliance. Such was Dytiann.

    After the events at Conscon Temple, the upper echelons looked for every possible way of avoiding a confrontation with Allion. If you put all of its territories together, Dytiann¡¯s power was considerable but even so, the civil war had only just subsided. Everyone in the higher levels of government recognised that it was still too early to take on such a truly powerful country as Allion.

    After more than three months of exchanging letters and messengers, Allion¡¯s side finally showed signs of caving. It looked as though things had quietened down among Allion¡¯s hot-blooded, swaggering young warriors who had clamouring that ¡°Dytiann must be destroyed¡±.

    Both sides would send envoys to talk with each other. The purpose was, of course, to build a road towards mutual reconciliation.

    The meeting was to be held in Atall.

    Now that a place and time had been announced, the eyes of its people were on Allion, so they would be doing things seriously. Dytiann would also need to send weighty representatives. But if they made a mistake in their negotiations, if they inadvertently made too many concessions, they might be branded as ¡®incompetent¡¯. However, having said that, it they were too firm, they might cause the worst possible outcome: a war between two influential countries.

    Who on earth should we send to this? Within the Church, opinions were in chaos.

    From the residential area, with its rows of private houses, you had to cross a long bridge to enter Dytiann¡¯s cathedral.

    In the past, the way to the cathedral had been made deliberately tortuous, and you had to cross over three separate bridges to enter. Moreover, tolls had been collected on each one of them. Not even the clergy was exempt.

    The Yanos brothers had all of those bridges destroyed and replaced with this one long one. It was decorated at regular intervals with carvings of angels and saints. There had been plans to create images of the heroes who had risen to fame during the rebellion ¨C although the present Church referred to it not as a ¡®rebellion¡¯, but as a ¡®crusade¡¯ ¨C but these had been halted at Wymer¡¯s urging.

    Bishop Baal was crossing the bridge, sitting astride a horse. His long hair was a colour that was close to grey, and his nose was aquiline. His figure was gaunt but, being a diocesan priest, he was known as a man of dignified demeanour. In fact, once upon a time, he was a man who exuded so much vigour that the other priests and deacons would hurriedly clear the way for him.

    Now, however, after crossing the bridge and leaving his horse at the stable, Baal hunched his shoulders and concealed his face, as though wanting to hide himself from people¡¯s eyes. This was because the plan to send reinforcements to Conscon Temple had been drawn up at his suggestion. The idea had been to use the temple, as well as Atall if at all possible, to gain a foothold that would help them obstruct Allion¡¯s ambitions to the east. Yet when you looked at the actual results, Arthur Causebulk, the commander of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division, had been killed by an Allian general, and the upper echelons were racking their brains to find a way to repair relations with Allion.

    It was hardly surprising that Baal¡¯s shoulders stooped.

    Once he entered the church¡¯s precincts, he had the impression that he was being laughed at from every corner.

    They say that Bishop Baal over there was acting like some great tactician when he made that suggestion.

    Lord Mordin, who supported him, must also be feeling terribly disappointed. How dare he actually come here?

    He felt like the monks who lowered their heads to him, the servants who treated him courteously, and even the little pages drawing water from the well were all hurling scorn at him behind his back.

    Baal felt utterly wretched. At the same time, he was enraged at those who spent their time mocking and judging others without ever putting themselves in danger. And then, whenever he thought of Arthur¡¯s death, it was as though his grief was tearing him apart, limb from limb.

    Shame. Anger. Sorrow. How many times had these emotions tormented Baal since Arthur¡¯s death? And although they whirled confusedly within him, in the end, they always blended into one and formed another, distinct emotion. Hatred. Or, to be more accurate, the urge to kill.

    It was the same now.

    Perhaps because the seething bloodlust radiating from him was so easy to sense, the sneers and gazes turned towards him all receded at once. The hatred and murderous impulse that Baal was consumed by was not, however, turned against anyone in Dytiann.

    Only one man¡¯s face was on his mind as he passed by the side of the cathedral, walked on without stopping at buildings which looked like lodgings for pilgrims, and arrived at an edifice along the wall that seemed to be a private residence. He climbed the stairs, passing by more monks as he did so, and arrived at Mordin¡¯s office.

    The door had been left open. There were several guards on either side, and when they saw Baal, their expressions turned sour and their eyes signalled to him to ¡°wait a bit¡±.

    He soon understood why, as a scathing voice could be heard from inside.

    It was definitely not that of Mordin Yanos, and belonged instead to his younger brother, Wymer. Since that voice could occasionally be heard addressing someone as ¡°Brother¡±, it was unmistakably Mordin that Wymer was one-sidedly lecturing.

    Really not a good time... An annoyed expression flitted across Baal¡¯s face, but since the two de facto rulers of Dytiann were in the middle of a discussion, he could not enter. He stayed waiting outside for a while.

    Simply from hearing that voice, Baal could clearly picture what the two of them looked like right now. Since he had long served a domain lord ¨C after the success of the rebellion, the troops that lord had lead were given the name of ¡®Sergaia Holy Rose Division¡¯ ¨C Baal himself had joined the rebel army, and had met the Yanos brothers almost immediately after doing so.

    Even though the brothers could roughly be described as the older being a warrior and the younger an intellectual, in terms of height, the younger was also the taller of the two. From the top of that great height, he was berating his older brother in that ever shrill and piercing voice of his. Said older brother was probably deeply ensconced in his chair, with his arms folded and his eyes shut as he remained silent. Mordin Yanos was known to be a taciturn man. He never spoke any more than was absolutely necessary. And, of course, he never spoke a single word in joke, so it was said that even those serving closest to him had never even seen him smile.

    ¡°When we won the Holy War and had to present a new model for the Church faction, it was utterly preposterous that your wife was a pagan. Why won¡¯t she be baptised?¡± Wymer kept coming back to the same thing.

    Mordin gave no reply.

    ¡°And anyway, having her celebrate pagan ceremonies is a real problem. You already have two daughters with that woman. Could you please try to look at things from a wider perspective? Brother, as supreme commander of the crusader army, you need a suitable wife. And by that, I mean someone who will be the first to kneel before God¡¯s teachings, who can serve as a role model for the people, and whom it would be suitable to call the mother of the nation. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t already know that.¡±

    Once he was done delivering his repetitive complaint, Wymer left the room. His archiepiscopal robes were embroidered with gold and silver thread and, having only just finished his solo performance, his skin was faintly glistening with sweat.

    Wymer¡¯s eyes met Baal¡¯s for a brief moment. Although he was an archbishop, he was still only in his forties, so his age was not so different from Baal¡¯s. Yet with his great height, it felt as though he was lording it over the kneeling Baal from far above.

    Although he had certainly seen him, Wymer completely ignored Baal¡¯s greeting.

    ¡°Oh, and one more thing,¡± apparently, he still hadn¡¯t said enough, since he threw his high-pitched voice back into the room. ¡°Recently, haven¡¯t you been gloating about how the people close to you have taken to calling you ¡®king¡¯? No, I know that you¡¯ve never called yourself that, but even so, Brother, you should be actively putting a stop to it. When others call me ¡®pope¡¯, I kneel with my forehead to the floor before them, and I would wear my knees to the bone in shame at having others unjustly suspect my intentions. Our Dytiann doesn¡¯t need a ¡®king¡¯. You should be more than well enough aware of that.¡±

    After that, without sparing Baal a single glance, he left with the guards who had been waiting outside the room. The matter of Conscon Temple was something that Baal had suggested to Mordin, who had one-sidedly approved the plan, without consulting his younger brother. Right after that incident had ended in failure, Wymer had likewise gone to his brother¡¯s office, and, exactly as he had just done now, had sermonised him at length.

    As far as Wymer was concerned, Baal was no more than a man who ¡°does things that are completely uncalled for simply to toady up to my brother¡±. As such, his stance was that he didn¡¯t need to pay any more attention to Baal than what was absolutely necessary.

    Baal felt faintly angry, but he quickly corrected his expression and asked for Mordin¡¯s permission to enter the room. The only answer he received was a grunt.

    Which indicated that permission had been granted.

    Baal stepped into the room. Mordin was sitting in exactly the position that he had earlier pictured him as being in.

    Mordin Yanos was a man who held countless titles of every rank throughout the lands of Dytiann, starting with Supreme Commander of the Crusader Army, Captain of the Church Cavalry, Bishop of the Church, and continuing up to being the domain lord of several regions. Yet his appearance seemed completely at odds with all those magnificent titles and the many glorious feats he was said to have accomplished during the ¡®Holy War¡¯.

    Those with malicious tongues claimed that, originally, his face was longer, but the Geblin tribe crushed it flat from top to bottom with their inhuman strength. His heavy eyelids made him look perpetually sleepy, his nose looked as though it had been squashed into the middle of his face after taking a blow from an iron ball, and his lips were thick and long.

    On top of that, as I mentioned previously, he had a taciturn personality. Before Mordin rose to fame, those who met him would at first believe he was mute. Just what remote countryside does this bumpkin come from? They say that in the northern lands, where the winter is harsh, there are villages of serfs who can barely understand human language ¨C did he run away from there? Apparently, quite a few people imagined something along those lines.

    When Baal offered him his greetings, Mordin nodded with another grunt. He sent a glance towards the private secretary who stood at his side, and the old man, who was as desiccated as a withered tree, brought over cups of wine. Baal only drank enough to just moisten his lips. The aroma was quite strong.

    After that, Mordin continued to barely speak at all. Through who knew what kind of mutual understanding, every time Baal said something, the secretary would smoothly give a reply after receiving an eye signal from Mordin, whose expression barely changed throughout. This made him look all the more slow and stupid, but those within Dytiann ¨C Baal included ¨C who knew his personality were well aware that his appearance was deceiving.

    Yet even Mordin raised his eyebrows slightly at the proposal that Baal put forward.

    Even though Wymer had declared that he would be in charge of selecting who would attend the conference with Allion, Baal completely ignored this and announced that ¡°I wish to go myself.¡±

    Moreover, he went even further and said ¨C

    ¡°If at all possible, I would like you to come with me, Your Excellency.¡±

    The private secretary stayed quiet for a while, and instead, it was Mordin himself who answered in his somewhat hoarse voice ¨C

    ¡°To Atall?¡±

    ¡°To Atall,¡± Baal nodded vigorously. ¡°As I have written in several letters, the enemy we now most urgently need to confront is not Allion. The only target we should be focusing on is Atall. They are enemies to God, who schemed against us and used Allion to bring Arthur to his death. Because of that, we need at all cost to avoid any kind of strain in our relationship with Allion. Your Excellency, we are weak and need your help.¡±

 Volume 3, 2: Readying Weapons while Smiling like Gentlemen

    Volume 3, Chapter 2: Readying Weapons while Smiling like Gentlemen

    Part 1

    The conference would take place after both sides had finished taking their breakfast together.

    The location was in the outskirts of Tiwana, the capital city of the Principality of Atall, and, more specifically, in a castle built by the youngest brother to the previous sovereign-prince, in a village where had chosen to establish himself. A long table had been set up in one of the castle rooms, on either side of which the representatives from Allion and Dytiann faced each other. Presiding in the seat of honour was the witness from Atall.

    Dytiann¡¯s delegation consisted of Mordin and Bishop Baal.

    When they had received reports, a month earlier, that ¡°Mordin Yanos might be attending,¡± Atall had been abuzz. He was very much a big-shot. This was the man who held command over the entire military of the Dytiann Alliance, and rumours claimed that he was now calling himself ¡°king¡±. He had ridden to Atall on a gorgeously decorated air carrier.

    Opposite them sat Aventa Navarro, who was the younger brother of Allion¡¯s king, Hugh-Jarl Jamil, as well as Administrative Deputy-Secretary for the capital city.

    With him was also the greatly-experienced Hawking Ingram.

    According to the rumours which had been floating about, Hawking had been unwilling to come to Atall, claiming that he was, after all, ¡°practically retired¡±. He had not, however, been able to refuse after being personally nominated by the king¡¯s younger brother, Aventa.

    Finally, the witness from Atall was Branton Attiel, the eldest son of Sovereign-Prince Magrid.

    And next to him, with the position of aide to his brother, was the second son, Leo Attiel. He was nothing if not closely related to the incident at Conscon Temple, being the mastermind who had received assistance from Dytiann to defeat Hayden, the commander of Allion¡¯s army. As such, he was more closely concerned with the matter at hand than any of the great men present.

    As far as the sovereign-prince was concerned, he wanted Atall to remain strictly neutral throughout the meeting. Accordingly, he had not intended to let Leo attend, given that he was bound to cause trouble, but when both Allion and Dytiann nominated him, Magrid was unable to flat-out reject their request.

    Behind Leo, who was sitting at the head of the table, was Stark. He was serving as an advisor to the assistant but, naturally, he had also been tasked with monitoring Leo.

    Everyone introduced themselves and exchanged greetings.

    The meeting started out comparatively peacefully.

    To begin with, Dytiann¡¯s stance rapidly became clear. While justifying themselves to Allion, they did not wish to seem unduly servile. When all was said and done, it was Allion which had first caused all the turmoil. Without any just cause, they had marched their troops towards what was a holy site for the Cross Faith, and so, if anything, Dytiann felt like they should be the ones denouncing the other party. Of course, however, they did not want to provoke a war by relying on that kind of emotional argument.

    Broadly speaking, Allion was following the same lines as Dytiann. Although they were censuring Dytiann for having trespassed into their territory, they didn¡¯t want to make it into anything bigger than it needed to be. However, since Dytiann had been caught violating their borders, public opinion in Allion would not accept it if they did not obtain at least one concession from Dytiann.

    Skill was required from the representatives of both sides.

    Dytiann insisted that: ¡°Our sole purpose in dispatching our troops was to protect all of the believers at Conscon who share the same God as us.¡± This agreed with the explanation that Lord Leo had given to the king of Allion, about why he had sent reinforcements.

    In other words, they were playing on the fact that their position was the same as Price Leo, whom Allion had more or less forgiven. ¡°We had no intention of invading Allion,¡± ¡°there is no reason for you not to overlook our actions, just as you did with Lord Leo¡¯s,¡± they petitioned.

    Opposite them, Allion demanded explanations. ¡°Well then, why did Arthur Causebulk cross the border?¡±

    Incidentally, the one speaking for Dytiann was almost entirely Baal. Mordin would occasionally interject with a grunt, or give the very slightest of nods, but he did not speak.

    On Allion¡¯s side, only Aventa, the king¡¯s younger brother, was talking ¨C so excitedly that he was practically frothing at the mouth. Hawking¡¯s expression remained uninterested from start to end. Once again, Aventa leaned forward towards those on the other side to press them for an explanation:

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it absolutely obvious that you intended to attack Allion under cover of wartime fire from the temple?¡±

    Bishop Baal replied,

    ¡°He was there only to create a distraction. As it took place on the battlefield, I do not have the full details, but I believe he intended to cut Sir Hayden¡¯s attacking forces from their headquarters, and so chip away at their morale. Isn¡¯t that right, Your Highness Leo?¡±

    Although Leo was supposed to be an observer, Baal seemed intent on dragging him into things at this point. The tone he spoke in was mild, but his eyes were darting poison.

    At that moment, Stark, pretending to pick up a sheet of paper which had fallen to the floor, whispered something in Leo¡¯s ear.

    ¡°I do not know the full details either,¡± Leo¡¯s answer was concise. ¡°Although I too was certainly present on the battlefield, by the time I arrived at the temple, Sir Arthur had already been killed in battle. However... what the lord bishop has just said accords with what I later heard from the people at the temple.¡±

    By presenting it as second-hand knowledge, Leo pulled himself away from the whirlpool of arguments he had risked being dragged into. In so doing, he also gave some measure of support to Bishop Baal, but Allion¡¯s interrogation did not end there.

    ¡°I hear that in your country, there is a tendency to view Arthur as a hero? And that he is even being seen as a saint who ¡®sacrificed himself for God¡¯s teachings¡¯. Are you aiming to exacerbate people¡¯s hostility towards Allion?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Bishop Baal interrupted so forcefully that he was spewing spittle.

    It was actually true that Arthur was being treated as a hero. Or, more accurately, it was true that the higher-ups in the Church were acting that way, so Allion¡¯s concern was entirely reasonable. The aim, however, was not to stoke people¡¯s fighting spirit.

    Instead, the problem was Leo Attiel, whose fame was resounding throughout Dytiann. The people in those religious lands were singing the praises of the prince who had faced the mighty Allion in order to defend a temple of the Cross Faith.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t Dytiann do anything?¡±

    ¡°Surely the temple must have asked for help from Dytiann as well? But the top-brass in the Church are afraid of Allion.¡±

    ¡°To think that even a tiny country like Atall took action, even though it only has a distant connection with God¡¯s teachings ¨C the Church really is deplorable. Normally, they always look as though everything they do is in accordance with God¡¯s will, and they¡¯re quick to preach His teachings, but when they need to protect His devout followers, they just run away.¡±

    The Church had come under repeated criticism. It hadn¡¯t been so very long since the civil war had died down in Dytiann so, if, at the time, the situation had developed into war with the mighty Allion, the people would likewise have been outspoken in their condemnation. Yet, for the same reason that the civil war was so recent, the Church feared nothing more than this sort of criticism.

    Which was why it needed to loudly proclaim that, ¡°our Dytiann fought to defend Conscon. This victory was not achieved thanks to Lord Leo¡¯s courage or prudence, but instead owes far more to Arthur Causebulk, the commander of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division, who took action even at the cost of his own life.¡±

    Allion¡¯s side naturally understood these circumstances, it was just that they wanted the extra ammunition to fire at their opponents.

    Given that everyone there understood the circumstances, nobody was remotely interested in Baal¡¯s rebuttal. They all knew that nothing that was said was true. And naturally, for that reason, those who heard him were as impassive as walls, and Baal¡¯s words merely bounced off them in vain. However ¨C

    ¡°Arthur left for the front on my orders.¡±

    Everyone there turned their startled gazes in the same direction.

    Towards Mordin.

    He had one brawny arm stretched out on top of the table, and his other palm was placed on top of it. If Leo¡¯s memory served correctly, he had remained in that same position since first entering the room.

    ¡°There is no cause for regret when a warrior bravely offers his life in a foreign land on the orders of his liege, and in accordance with the Divine Will. We were not especially holding him up as a hero, but merely asked that prayers be offered so that his soul could find peace. And the people simply responded to that call.¡±

    The tone in which he spoke was low, but it was heard far more clearly than Baal¡¯s raised voice.

    A little after noon, they took a short break.

    Once the representatives had left the room, Leo called Percy over to a corner of the room.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± He asked briefly.

    Percy had also been in the room from the start, mixed in among the pages, and so he had witnessed the full proceedings. He thought for a moment before answering.

    ¡°It looks as though both countries have their own circumstances to consider, and want to avoid an open confrontation. Both sides are attacking lightly while waiting in ambush for the opponent to make concessions.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    There was always friction between countries. They wished to avoid attracting hostility from other lands but, at the same time, if they appeared weak, then they would lose support from their own people. They constantly had to weigh in the balance the twin dangers of having other countries send troops against them, and of rebellion erupting from within.

    ¡°In Allion, fights are still breaking out in the wake of its wars of expansion. From what you hear, the king himself is constantly galloping off in all directions to suppress them or to act as mediator. Well, then again... rumours say that the king loves being personally present in battles and war.¡±

    I can sort of see it ¨C Leo was reminded of the king that he had only ever met once. Among Leo¡¯s acquaintances, the one he most resembled was Claude Anglatt. Their positions and outward appearances were completely different, but they were alike in that they were both brimming with energy, and both seemed bad at staying quietly in one place.

    ¡°Meanwhile, in Dytiann, it has been five years since the civil war came to an end, but no doubt they want more time to consolidate their ground. It was certainly unexpected to learn that Mordin, the army¡¯s supreme commander, would be coming here, but, from that alone, it is clear that they want to avoid a head-on collision with Allion.¡±

    That a man in Mordin¡¯s position had come in person was, in itself, a mark of Dytiann¡¯s consideration for Allion.

    ¡°That being the case, how¡¯s this meeting going to end?¡±

    ¡°In Allion, the notion of subjugating Dytiann will be brought up because of this. Those voices won¡¯t be particularly loud since, thanks to Sir Claude¡¯s ¡®achievement¡¯, they did not take any direct damage. Still, the king is as he is. And from time immemorial, retainers have taken their cue from their king¡¯s personality. With the younger warriors at its centre, the momentum will build up.¡±

    Percy¡¯s reading was to prove accurate.

    Once the meeting resumed after the break, Allion launched itself into an offensive. In contrast to earlier, it was Hawking who spoke.

    ¡°We would prefer not to have to listen to your country making long, drawn-out excuses again. We want firm promises. We would like you to guarantee to us that, from here on, Dytiann will sever all contact with Conscon Temple, and that you will not send soldiers to that area again,¡± he stated firmly.

    Across from him, Baal grimaced. Conscon was conveniently located as far as Dytiann was concerned. If they could maintain their connection with it, it would make a very good defence if Allion made a push towards the east. Moreover, Conscon Temple was displaying gratitude towards Dytiann over the recent incident. If they could use that to build up their relationship, Conscon¡¯s usefulness would further increase.

    Besides which, there was also the loss of Arthur. Baal had known Arthur since the later had been a child, and he did not want his death to go to waste. In spite of himself, he became emotional.

    ¡°If it¡¯s a matter of firm promises, then we want the same. And in the first place, if Allion does not send soldiers against the temple, we will have no reason to dispatch our own...¡±

    While Baal looked ready to take up the fight, Mordin cut his words short by raising his hand.

    Wow, what huge hands! Unconsciously, Leo opened his eyes wide.

    Mordin was so huge that Leo really couldn¡¯t compare, and even his face would probably fit several times over in the surface of Mordin¡¯s own.

    Baal was also startled and bit back his words. Just now, he had almost said that it¡¯s because you sent soldiers that we sent soldiers, but that backward and forwarding of blame had already been endlessly exchanged through letters and messengers before the meeting had started, until both sides had grown tired of it. Which was what had led to both sides sending envoys to meet face-to-face.

    If he repeated that childish exchange now, it would harm the authority and the whole meaning of this conference. After bringing Baal under control, Mordin seemed to swiftly reach a decision.

    ¡°We have no intention of bringing fights into holy grounds.¡±

    The meaning behind those words was that he accepted Allion¡¯s request.

    Having obtained the commitment they had asked for, Allion¡¯s side might have been expected to leave things at that for now. Yet if anything, Hawking, the veteran, did not stay his hand and attacked with such vigour that his earlier lack of enthusiasm for the meeting seemed impossible to believe.

    ¡°Then next...¡± he went on to add further stipulations.

    Baal¡¯s expression changed once more. It wasn¡¯t just him: emotion even flitted across Mordin¡¯s face, which had so far remained expressionless. Hawking had suggested that Mordin go to Allion¡¯s capital and meet the king in person.

    Of course, he did not go so far as to say that Mordin should offer obeisance to the king as his retainer, but the humiliation that he was going to force onto the commander of the crusading army was very close to that.

    The problem was that Hawking¡¯s provocation was not only aimed at Dytiann; it was also meant for Atall, which had been contenting itself to act as a neutral party.

    Percy¡¯s analysis had been correct, and neither Allion nor Dytiann wanted war with one another. However, Hawking¡¯s assessment was that Atall will also want to avoid any deterioration in the relationship between its two neighbouring countries. And it was with that in mind, and with the intention of observing Atall¡¯s attitude, that he had deliberately made a request that Dytiann would never comply with.

    Will the observers from Atall try to soothe us, or will they try to persuade Dytiann?

    Simply put, he was virtually holding a blade to their neck and demanding ¨C ¡°Which side will Atall choose?¡±

    Part 2

    Not surprisingly, Branton, the official witness, was thrown into confusion. He half rose from his seat and looked first towards the crimson-faced Bishop Baal, then towards the proud-looking Hawking but, in the end, he sat back down again without saying a word.

    At that point, Hawking turned his attention towards Lord Leo, who was sitting next to Branton. From his attitude, it seemed as though Hawking had only just noticed that he was there, but this was very much an act. If Hawking found anything worthwhile in this meeting which he otherwise had absolutely no interest in, it was the fact that he might be able to grasp Leo Attiel¡¯s personality.

    Ever since withdrawing from the frontlines, Hawking had mostly been engaged in drawing up plans and gathering information. Through his own schemes, Hayden Swift had forcefully pushed the situation into his desired direction, and when Hayden had come to ask for his cooperation, those schemes had held a certain fascination for Hawking. He had even entrusted his own son to them.

    Yet the result was that Hayden¡¯s troops had been crushed.

    By Leo Attiel.

    Just what kind of man is he?

    More than anger, what he felt was curiosity. Because of that, Hawking had gone to Jester Castle when the king had met directly with Leo, to see what he looked like. And since what he looked like was a normal, insignificant boy, Hawking¡¯s interest had been piqued all the more.

    Now then, what moves will you make?

    He had felt a certain amount of anticipation, but, after all, Leo had kept quiet in front of all these powerful figures, remaining silent, with his eyes lowered. Hawking had been somewhat disappointed.

    Is he the kind of hothead who only shines on the battlefield? Or did he achieve those military exploits simply because his retainers had paved the way for him?

    With Atall unable to say anything, Hawking had taken the opportunity to press Dytiann still further. Which was when Baal, whose emotions were at breaking point, made a slip.

    ¡°I-Isn¡¯t it you who first attacked the temple for no reason at all? You¡¯ve been calling for apologies and for His Excellency Mordin to go to your capital, but aren¡¯t you forgetting your own position?¡± He blurted out the words that Mordin had earlier managed to get him to control.

    Naturally, Hawking would not let that chance slip.

    Branton hurriedly intervened as both sides started to get heated.

    ¡°I-If the king of Allion and His Excellency Mordin were to meet, how about doing so at a castle in Atall?¡± he suggested.

    If Mordin went to Allion, it would be nothing but a humiliation for Dytiann, but if they met in neutral Atall, both sides would save face. It would have been much like this current meeting, but Hawking was intent on bringing shame to his opponents.

    ¡°I would appreciate it if you gentlemen from Atall would keep quiet. This is between us.¡± The authority with which he turned him down threatened to overwhelm Branton.

    The meeting was turning stormy.

    Needless to say, Hawking Ingram was not being serious. Allion, however, had sufficient room for manoeuvre, so if they take it seriously, then fine.

    During the interview, Hawking had constantly been scrutinising the expressions worn by the representatives. The conclusion he had come to was that if the negotiations broke down now, neither Atall nor Dytiann had either the guts or the desire to mobilise their troops. Even if these talks were suspended, both of those sides would no doubt do everything they could to set up a new meeting.

    Out of the three countries of Allion, Dytiann and Atall, it was after all Allion which was the most powerful. Although Hawking did want to avoid war, he also believed that it would not matter if these talks broke down. He was ready to rise from his seat and proclaim that ¡°it will be too late for you to back down later!¡±

    At the same time, however, if there is one person we need to be careful about... that was Mordin, who had come to take part in the meeting.

    His presence at the talks was completely outside of Hawking¡¯s predictions. Moreover, as he was, by nature, a man who was slow to express emotions, Hawking was having a hard time reading him.

    He¡¯s a man of high standing. If I push too much now, he might decide to go to war on nothing but his own authority. Now then, how will you navigate these stormy seas? Will you bring things to an end or will you self-destruct?

    Hawking glared down at his surroundings, showing that he was prepared to leave if needs be, depending on what Dytiann and Atall would do. Baal was loudly arguing, but not a single one of his words was sincere, while Mordin remained silent, perhaps because he was hesitating. Branton was just looking around him in a panic.

    Whereupon ¨C

    ¡°Mordin, Your Excellency.¡±

    Leo Attiel called out to Dytiann¡¯s ¡®king¡¯. Having finally spoken after so long, what would he say?

    ¡°I am acquainted with the king of Allion. If you meet with him, I could come with you,¡± he offered.

    For a moment, Hawking was as astounded as Stark, who sat behind the prince. Yet that quickly turned to gloating. Oho, so Atall¡¯s prince has chosen to support us and to try and persuade Dytiann? Well, as expected, he has an eye for things. Even if it causes friction with Dytiann, they can¡¯t take on Allion.

    At that moment, Leo looked straight towards Hawking. And smiled.

    ¡°Would His Majesty the King be willing to meet with me a second time?¡±

    ¡°But of course. His Majesty, King Jamil, frequently praises your bravery, Lord Leo. He has been telling us until our ears burn that he wishes the men of Allion had even a fraction of your daring, so I have no doubt that he sincerely wishes to see you again, Prince.¡±

    Hawking spoke as though he was stroking the head of a puppy which had come to be hugged. And yet ¨C

    ¡°Is that so? Certainly, when I think about it, the king of Allion was a gentleman who was courteous even to a shallow youth such as myself. When I said that I very much wished to meet him in person, he said that he would hate to have me travel all the way to his capital city, and went out of his way to select a meeting point that was halfway between the Anglatt domains and the capital. Naturally, he will also be anxious to meet with His Excellency Mordin. And it¡¯s none other than Atall which is the halfway point between Allion and Dytiann. Yet, Sir Hawking, for some reason, you don¡¯t really seem to favour that solution. So in that case, where would be a good place?¡±

    ¡°Hah?¡± Hawking exclaimed somewhat foolishly.

    What is this idiot of a prince talking about? What does he mean, ¡®where would be good¡¯? If anywhere within Allion would have done, I¡¯d have said so from the start. The whole point for us is to have Mordin go to the capital. Does he want me to repeat myself?

    ¡°Ah, no, Prince... Please hold on.¡±

    Given that it concerns our Allion and that Dytiann...

    Hawking realised the meaning behind the smile that Lord Leo had maintained throughout. Leo had stated that ¡°I will accompany Mordin,¡± and furthermore, he had asked, ¡°Would the king be willing to meet me?¡± By confirming the latter, Hawking had agreed to the former. In other words, he had agreed that the Principality of Atall was not unrelated to this matter.

    Bastard...

    Just as Hawking unintentionally fell silent, Leo spoke again.

    ¡°I would like to confirm this with our guests from Allion. The Kingdom of Allion no longer lays claim to Conscon Temple, is that not right?¡±

    ¡°Naturally. Peace has already been concluded in our king¡¯s name.¡±

    What are you trying to do by going over all of this again, brat? Hawking scowled faintly at Leo, who did not turn his eyes away.

    ¡°Then that¡¯s perfect. The land with the deepest connection to this matter is, of course, Conscon. His Majesty Jamil said that what happened was ¡®an accumulation of misfortunes¡¯. I share the same opinion. We must not risk repeating the same misfortune. Do you not agree that if the king of Allion were to go to Conscon, it would symbolically sweep away all of those misfortunes and misunderstandings?¡±

    ¡°Wait! You want our king to go to Conscon?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Leo¡¯s cheerful smile was unwavering. ¡°If the king of Allion and His Excellency Mordin are to meet, there is nowhere more suitable. Isn¡¯t that right? If they truly wish for peace, I hope that they will give it some consideration.¡±

    Why Conscon of all places? Faced with Leo¡¯s beaming smile, Hawking Ingram chewed on the corner of his lip.

    It was currently at peace with Allion but, obviously, it wasn¡¯t the sort of place in which the man who held supreme power in Allion ¨C which had once led hostilities against it ¨C would currently want to set foot. Conversely, Dytiann had sent soldiers to their aid, so the temple was sure to warmly welcome them.

    The meeting between Mordin and the king is supposed to be a concession on Dytiann¡¯s part, but does he intend to turn it into a concession from the king of Allion by having him go to the temple? And more than that, since the prince is personally concerned with this, it makes it difficult for us to refuse.

    While inwardly growling, Hawking outwardly presented a expression from which the interest was fading.

    ¡°Hmm, thinking about it, I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s such a good idea.¡±

    He backed down. Which brought the talk about a meeting between ¡®kings¡¯ to an end. From the start, that had never been something Hawking was really aiming for. And with Allion pulling back from that issue, Dytiann was also more or less able to save face.

    After this, Allion and Dytiann would follow the established route of continuing to exchange frequent messengers, and the talks came to an end.

    Although all of those who had taken part in the meeting ¨C including Stark Barsley, who had been observing closely from start to end ¨C rose from their seats with calm expressions, all of them had but one name which similarly and deeply impressed itself upon their minds.

    Conscon.

    Hawking¡¯s expression had turned ugly when he heard that name, but on their way back to Allion, the ship he was riding on had no choice but to drop anchor for a while at the temple.

    Soldiers who had been wounded in battle, and who had thus been slow to escape, were being held there as prisoners of war. Given that locking them up was nothing but a burden in terms of time and money, those without status had been released. Those who were in any way prominent, however, had remained confined up until now.

    It had been more than three months. Allion had deliberately ignored them in favour of investigating the relation between the temple and Dytiann. During the conference, Leo had promised Allion that they would be returned without any request for ransom.

    Out of consideration for the feelings of those living on Mount Conscon, the air carrier landed some distance away from the foot of the mountain. Hawking himself had remained on board. ¡°You go,¡± he had ordered one his retainers with a sour expression.

    At the same time, the imprisoned captives were being let out of the building in which they had been kept, and were being made to stand in row. Warrior monks armed with spears and guns were keeping watch over them, with Camus at their head.

    ¡°You!¡± One of the prisoners of war shouted towards him in a violent ¨C but unmistakably high-pitched ¨C voice.

    Looking at him, he was still young ¨C probably about the same age as Kuon. However, unlike Kuon, who gave the impression of a somewhat feral child, this boy had a certain dignity in both expression and manner. Even though he had been held captive for over three months, it was clear at a glance that he was young but strong-willed.

    ¡°You¡¯ve forgotten? I¡¯m Randius!¡± Even though he was a captive, the boy puffed out his chest.

    After thinking about it for a moment ¨C Ah! ¨C recognition seemed to dawn on Camus¡¯ face, but he then proceeded to ignore the boy. That was how little importance he gave to him.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got it now, right?¡± Randius, however, continued to talk in that voice of his which still had a trace of boyishness in it. ¡°You were pretty good. Of all the monks at the temple, you were the strongest. That probably makes it even harder for you to have been defeated by me. You¡¯re pretending not to recognise me and trying to look like it¡¯s nothing big, but that¡¯s just because you don¡¯t want to admit how bitter you feel. I get it, I get it, you know?¡±

    Camus pretended not to hear. The voice rose even higher into the blue sky.

    ¡°Did you all hear, warrior monks of Conscon? That man over there was defeated by me. And then, just before I could kill him, he managed to escape by having a sniper shoot at me. What a coward! Nobody with even the smallest knowledge of the art of fighting would act that way. Cowardly, underhanded and base a thousand times over!¡±

    The spear in Camus¡¯ hand started to shake and, in the next moment, he had suddenly rushed up to Randius.

    ¡°Who¡¯s a coward? On the battlefield, taking you captive makes me the winner, getting caught makes you the loser. There¡¯s nothing else to it!¡±

    ¡°Shut up you pathetic fool who pretends to get your power from God. Both our wounds should have healed by now, so let¡¯s have another round!¡±

    ¡°Victory has already been decided. Look, they¡¯ve come from your country to take you back. I don¡¯t care whether it¡¯s by ship or on horseback, but hurry up and leave these sacred grounds, you little cretin.¡±

    ¡°Are you afraid of losing again, warrior monk? Actually, no ¨C I¡¯ve heard your name. It¡¯s Camus, right? If you¡¯re even half a warrior, have a rematch with me, one-to-one. If you don¡¯t, then don¡¯t think that battlefield is over yet.¡±

    Randius was still shouting. Just then ¨C

    ¡°Please do so later, Master Randius.¡±

    The one who spoke was a man who had come for the prisoners, and who had already come up to the two of them. Not having been given a chance to explain himself, Randius¡¯ face flushed bright red and he turned to look at who had spoken, before suddenly exclaiming ¨C ¡°Ah!¡±

    ¡°Igor, it¡¯s been forever! Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve been sent to fetch me?¡± Randius¡¯ face broke into a boyish smile. ¡°Perfect timing. Give me your sword; I need to settle things with this guy.¡±

    ¡°And I ask that you do so at some later time.¡±

    ¡°What did you say? Even you ¨C even though you¡¯ve served Father for a long time, if Father hears about this, he¡¯ll be furious. How can you not help his son wipe out his disgrace and...¡±

    ¡°Have you not heard about it?¡± The middle-aged man said with a grin. ¡°I¡¯ve just returned from Atall. I was waiting on your father, who was attending the conference with Dytiann.¡±

    ¡°Father... Father came here?¡±

    Randius¡¯ ruddy face underwent a complete transformation as the blood drained from it at an almost frightening speed. Igor bit back a smile.

    ¡°Your father is waiting for you at the ship. Now then, we mustn¡¯t take up too much time with these gentlemen of the temple. Young master, you know that Lord Hawking hates nothing as much as being kept waiting.¡±

    ¡°I-I know,¡± Randius had turned astonishingly meek. Still, as they were heading towards the ship, he turned once to look back.

    ¡°Camus! We¡¯ll postpone settling things for now,¡± he did not forget to call out.

    ¡°What¡¯s with that young cub!¡±

    Camus was snorting with indignation, as his sister came to stand beside him.

    ¡°It looks like you have a fated connected with that eligible young bachelor,¡± she teased. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to bring things to an end? Couldn¡¯t you have settled it in a second?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t wield my spear for no good reason,¡± Camus sullenly replied.

    Just as Igor had done earlier, Sarah had to fight back a smile. Actually, nobody wanted to settle things more than her brother did. In that battle, Camus had fought like one possessed, but because of that, he ran himself into complete exhaustion, and it was when both his body and mind had reached their limit that the boy had challenged him. He had taken a cut to the leg and had been pushed back until he had been on the verge of losing his life, only to be saved by a bullet fired by Sarah.

    I would never have been defeated by that kind of brat if I¡¯d been in peak condition ¨C there was no doubt that Camus, who fundamentally hated losing, felt that way. Which was why he had probably very much wanted to accept when Randius had challenged him to a rematch.

    But as one who followed God¡¯s teachings, he was desperately trying to convince himself that ¡°On the battlefield, a win is a win.¡±

    It was because she understood his anguish very clearly that Sarah was so amused.

    While Hawking and the others were returning to Allion, Lord Mordin and Bishop Baal were sailing back to Dytiann.

    The two of them had spent their time in separate cabins but, having entered Dytiann¡¯s territory, they disembarked at a location some distance away from the cathedral. It was forbidden to ride up to Dytiann Cathedral in an air carrier, and Mordin was no exception. Or more accurately, it was Mordin himself who had created the rule.

    People should not brazenly dance near the sky in those holy precincts, was the explanation that was given. The real reason, of course, was to protect the cathedral.

    Mordin and Baal were jolted about in the same carriage as they travelled the road leading to it. For a while, the two of them remained silent but, when the sun had almost sunk out of view behind the forest, Mordin abruptly spoke up, startling Baal.

    ¡°The prince helped us out.¡±

    Seen from the side in the setting sun, Mordin¡¯s appearance was even more like a wild beast¡¯s than usual.

    ¡°He holds considerable talent.¡±

    ¡°B-But, Your Excellency...¡±

    ¡°I know.¡± Since Mordin was gazing straight ahead, seen from the side, it seemed as though he was just muttering to himself. ¡°That¡¯s what convinced me. Just as you said, that young lord definitely pretended to request reinforcements and caught Arthur in a trap.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Subjugating Atall will be a fitting pledge to offer to God. But, Baal...¡±

    ¡°I understand, Your Excellency,¡± Baal¡¯s expression turned solemn.

    There was no one else in the carriage. There was nothing to fear from the coachman either, as he was out of earshot. Yet even so, Baal lowered his voice still further.

    ¡°Now is the time for caution. So that very soon, Your Excellency will single-handedly hold all real power within the Church.¡±

    After the representatives of Allion and Dytiann left Atall, the higher-ups decided that the talks had, at least for the time being, been a success.

    Numerous voices rose in praise of Branton, who had skilfully served his role as a witness. Branton outwardly received those plaudits with modesty, saying that ¡°I showed my face, nothing more,¡± but Percy, who had also been present at the meeting, was strangely concerned about Branton¡¯s manner right after it had ended.

    After both sets of envoys had left, he had walked up to Leo.

    ¡°You saved me,¡± Branton had said. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing you were there. Being deceived like that by Allion, we would probably have lost any chance of smoothing things with Dytiann.¡±

    His words had been sincere. But for that very reason, Percy had been all the more aware of the unease in the smile that he had given Leo. There was no sense of jealousy or hostility towards his younger brother. Rather, it had seemed like he didn¡¯t have the strength to smile. He seemed to be depressed.

    Even so, Percy had no tangible cause for concern, so he did not speak about it. Instead, as they were leaving the castle which had served as the stage for the meeting, he talked to Leo on a different topic.

    They had avoided any deterioration in their relations with Allion and Dytiann, but that was only on the surface. In fact, seeing the two of them together had highlighted that both sides had the same thought: The present situation is as it is, but one day, this is an enemy we will cross swords with. On this, at least, Leo and Percy were in agreement.

    ¡°It felt a though even if right now their interactions are courteous, it would only take one chance opportunity for a massive war to erupt.¡±

    ¡°And when that happens, the blade will definitely fall on Atall,¡± Leo wore a thoughtful expression.

    He did not say anything further, but Percy had learned to read this prince¡¯s mind, even if only a little. That means that we can¡¯t be negligent in our preparations. Whatever direction the blade falls from, we can raise a shield overhead. And from the openings in the shield, we can thrust out a spear at any time.

    ¡°It¡¯s amazing, isn¡¯t it?¡± Leo spoke again after a while.

    ¡°What is?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure how to put it ¨C Oh, right, for example: when I was living in Allion, I never imagined that I would meet people like Mordin or Hawking. Or, obviously, that I would watch them discuss their countries¡¯ policies right in front of me. And that wasn¡¯t a problem. There was nothing missing in my life, at least as far as being to able live it went.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡±

    ¡°But seeing them like that, watching as they tackle discussions that might involve entire countries in turmoil ¨C I can¡¯t believe that I used to live such a carefree life. Even though so many strategies are mapped out in this world, even though there are people who are like gods in that they¡¯re playing a game far above the heads of the people and the soldiers, and who, with just a single word, can mobilise ten thousand, or a hundred men... I didn¡¯t have even the slightest sense of crisis, and all I thought about were things like what was supper going to be that evening, what book would I read that night, or wouldn¡¯t it be nice if tomorrow was sunny...¡±

    Percy understood what Leo was trying to say. After all, he too had started to become aware of a similar sort of feeling to what the prince was describing.

    ¡°I also look with consternation on how I used to know nothing.¡±

    ¡°Right, consternation. And what I find especially appalling is that there are so few people who have that in common, here in Atall.¡±

    Percy very much shared that feeling.

    When taking their first step into society, it was common for young people to feel fearful of that world which was so much wider than anything they could have imagined, and that they were starting to catch glimpses of.

    At the same time, they felt scornful of their previous, ignorant self. And simultaneously, some people would start to lament that I¡¯m the only one who understands, and those laments were close to being a sort of superiority complex. In other words, they would look at the people around them and think forlornly ¡°They live their lives without noticing a thing. How can they be so stupid and slow?¡± And they looked down in mocking contempt at everyone ¨C their present self excepted and their old self included.

    At that time, Leo Attiel was in a frame of mind that closely resembled that. And, as often happens when young men feel a sense of superiority, his desire to change the current situation as quickly as possible, even if it was only by a second earlier, invited impatience.

    I have to make them understand, thought Leo. Those fools who think that simply avoiding the pebbles that they can see in front of them is enough to protect themselves, their property and their country ¨C I¡¯ll make them understand that war isn¡¯t something you see in front of you, that it¡¯s always lurking in the shadows underfoot. And I¡¯ll show them what they need to do to protect the people and their belongings.

    Part 3

    Some of his time had been taken up by attending the high-level conference, but even so, after his Personal Guards were established, Leo continued to personally go on inspection tours in the villages, and to appoint youths. Exaggerated rumours sprang up about how ¡°the prince is hunting for men,¡± and ¡°where Lord Leo passes, not a single able-bodied man remains¡±.

    A few days after the meeting, Leo held a large-scale kabat tournament in the grounds outside of Guinbar Castle. Those who qualified to take part were men above fifteen and beneath forty. That was the only requirement.

    ¡°Anyone who manages to win three times in a row will receive a reward,¡± Leo had his subordinates spread the information throughout the villages.

    More rumours spread about the ¡®man-hunting¡¯ Lord Leo ¨C ¡°If you catch the prince¡¯s eye, he¡¯ll appoint you to his Personal Guards¡±. As a result, the number of participants swelled to a startling degree.

    Since kabat was a form of grappling contest that originated in Allion, there was practically no one in Atall who had officially performed it. The good thing about kabat, however, was that the rules were simple and that it was fun to watch, even if the contestants were not particularly skilful.

    The crowd got excited as those who took pride in their strength spectacularly collided with one another, and when those of less impressive physique made free use of inspiration and technique to topple those larger than them, the spectators roared their appreciation.

    When one contestant valiantly managed to knock his opponents down one after another, they cheered that: ¡°He¡¯ll end up a great general.¡± When a soldier of slight build threw a large opponent, the praises swirled: ¡°He¡¯s got a talent for fighting.¡±

    The tournament¡¯s fame grew by the day, and more and more people came to watch. As was common at the time, traders and prostitutes appeared wherever people gathered. Leo turned a blind eye to them. Bets on the matches started to take place between the spectators, but once the bookies had properly introduced themselves to him, Leo gave his tacit consent to them too.

    At one point, though, an incident occurred.

    Two young men who were clashing with one another in the circular ring made of piled earth were fighting with unusual ferocity. They repeatedly skirted close to breaking the rules with elbow strikes to the throat, or by striking their opponent¡¯s jaw with their shoulders. Upon inquiry, it turned out that the two of them were from neighbouring villages, and that those villages were constantly quarrelling and competing. The two of them were close in age, they were both wild, and, from the time they were born, they each seemed to have decided that the other was their ¡®arch-enemy¡¯.

    Even after the match was over, they continued to scuffle with no intention of stopping, until finally, other youths from the same villages also rushed into the ring, and a fight broke out among all of them.

    ¡°Prince, please step back!¡± The soldiers tasked with Leo¡¯s personal protection stepped forward to shield him.

    Percy and Camus, who had only just arrived in Guinbar, entered the fray to act as mediators. With the Personal Guards also threatening the youths with their spears, the brawl finally died down, but Percy then suddenly realised that Lord Leo was no longer there. He had apparently returned to the castle, escorted by guards.

    The atmosphere on the grounds turned strange.

    Even at the best of times, tempers frayed easily, but the prince¡¯s absence threatened to spoil it entirely. Even if the matches continued, it didn¡¯t seem that there would be much enthusiasm. ¡°Right,¡± Percy threw off his leather armour.

    ¡°Everyone! I know that you don¡¯t know me, but I¡¯m Percy Leegan, a spearman who follows His Highness, Lord Leo. Is there anyone who will be my opponent? I will recommend whoever defeats me to the prince,¡± he entered the ring while shouting loudly.

    ¡°In that case, me too,¡± Camus also stripped the upper half of his burly body.

    Percy and Camus¡¯ names had spread since they were closely attached to Leo¡¯s fame. The area abruptly started bursting with excitement.

    Since Kuon was also nearby, Percy had been hoping that he would also step up but, for some reason, the boy had constantly been in a bad mood recently. He had been watching the kabat with a bored expression, and, perhaps because the earlier brawl had completely killed any enjoyment he had, he seemed to have left with the prince.

    When Percy later returned to the castle, he addressed Leo in scolding tones,

    ¡°At times like that, shouldn¡¯t the organiser turn around and come back?¡±

    ¡°But Percy, when there was that uproar, you were one of those shouting ¡®Prince, withdraw¡¯.¡±

    ¡°That was only supposed to be temporary. Without you there, Lord Leo, the situation was unstable. And because of that, look at me.¡±

    Percy pointed to the cuts and bruises that covered his entire body. He had got them when breaking up the brawl, and in a series of kabat fights. Even the tip of his nose had been scrapped raw, and looked comically red.

    ¡°I see, I¡¯m sorry,¡± Leo gave a slight frown and nodded. He got neither angry nor depressed, and simply seemed perplexed.

    The prince displayed almost startling amounts of talent but, on rare occasions, one caught a glimpse of how lacking in experience he was. Since he had been left in a foreign country from when he was very young, he probably didn¡¯t have a standard by which to measure the effect on others of the actions of someone in authority.

    ¨C The incident was only a small one, but the impression it left on Percy would be an unusually lasting one.

    It had been two months since his Personal Guards had officially been inaugurated, and about half a year since the end of the battles around Conscon Temple. As new faces joined, Percy gradually came to be acknowledged as Leo¡¯s right-hand man by those around them, while Camus, who was coming and going between Conscon Temple and the Guinbar area, started to be know as a retainer who served as a link to the temple.

    Yet ¨C as I already mentioned earlier ¨C the third hero who had once rescued Lord Leo from Allion¡¯s territory, Kuon, the mercenary who came from the mountain lands, had been in a bad mood recently.

    For a start, he had nothing to do.

    He had, for now, joined Leo¡¯s Personal Guards. However, there was no particular danger within the principality, and although, when the prince was moving around he did so without pause, when he stayed still, he did so for extended periods of time. Perhaps those times caused Kuon¡¯s gloominess to increase, but he got into quarrels over the most trifling things with his fellow Guards and with the young men in the towns.

    Honestly, not this again, sighed Percy.

    When they had been fighting Allion at the temple, Kuon had often caused disturbances among his companions. Remembering how he had to run around and break things up each and every time, Percy decided that he needed to give Kuon something to do.

    ¡°If you¡¯re free, won¡¯t you supervise the training for the new recruits?¡± he asked.

    Having no particular reason to refuse, Kuon accepted, but as he was taciturn and seemed to bad-tempered, he did not have a good reputation among the recruits. More importantly, although they were ¡®new¡¯ recruits, the overwhelming majority of them were older than Kuon, and since he had not earned any particularly noteworthy achievements in the previous battles, an increasing number of people started to look down on this ¡®instructor¡¯.

    At that point, Kuon¡¯s bad mood also increased.

    ¡°If you¡¯re not happy, then come at me!¡±

    The fights he picked only grew more numerous.

    Yet interestingly enough, Kuon never slacked off about training. Even though he tended to talk as little as possible, and his manner was a little rough, he taught methodically. He was especially in-depth when it came to helping those whose physique was slightly on the underwhelming side, enthusiastically drilling them in how to choose a weapon, or how to use their size.

    ¡°When you tangle, it has to come from you,¡± he hurled his instructions. ¡°If your legs are injured and you fall, it¡¯s the end. When you take a blow, you absolutely have to pull back while your armour is deflecting it, and quickly move in to attack again from a different angle.¡±

    It was obvious that he was familiar with teaching the art of fighting to others. Since neither Percy nor Camus had any experience with doing so, in that sense, Kuon was invaluable, and Percy often felt what a waste it was that he attracted so much criticism and displeasure because of his attitude.

    ¡°Kuon seems to be getting more irritated by the day. Do you know why?¡± Percy asked when Kuon wasn¡¯t around.

    He had approached Kuon several times to ask him what was wrong, but Kuon shot him down with a curt, ¡°Nothing.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s what¡¯s worrying you, leave it to me,¡± Camus thumped his chest. ¡°Kuon is my beloved disciple. Considering his personality, he¡¯ll be stubborn at first, but with God¡¯s love, I, his master, will pry open his hardened heart, and then surely, in a flood of passionate tears, he will lean his head on my welcoming chest and will honestly bare his emotions.¡±

    Camus went up to Kuon, brimming with self-confidence.

    ¡°How about it, Kuon? Won¡¯t you come to mass sometime soon? It¡¯s nothing too formal. You only need to listen as the Holy Scriptures are read out loud, and immerse yourself in the atmosphere.¡±

    First, he planned to use an indirect approach. He expected Kuon to answer with, ¡°Shut up,¡± and to turn him down flat. And yet ¨C

    ¡°Speaking of which, Camus, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you about it. God, that is.¡±

    ¡°O-Oh!¡± Camus¡¯ voice was filled with emotion. Seeing Kuon so unexpectedly proactive, he only barely managed to avoid shedding ¡®passionate tears¡¯ of his own.

    ¡°I see, there are points you have been thinking of. No, no, there¡¯s nothing remotely strange about it. It isn¡¯t as though, when you enter the faith and offer your body and soul entirely to the Divine Love, all of your doubts and misgivings are cleared away. Instead, it means that you are standing at the starting point. Everyone hesitates and loses the way whilst walking it, and that¡¯s why we need the help of mentors and of senior disciples. Indeed, the path of faith is a hard one, and it is not one that can be walked alone. Well then, Kuon, what is it? Think of me as an older brother to whom you can say anything.¡±

    ¡°Camus, it¡¯s something you said earlier. Before our ancestors rode a huge ship and landed on this planet... I mean, on the planet they lived on before that, you said that the Cross Faith already existed.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Our Master is the God which has been believed in for the longest time. His great works are...¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering about it since I heard it, but...¡± Kuon continued, cutting through Camus¡¯ words. ¡°That god is on the previous planet, and he¡¯s also on this planet, so does that mean he also rode on the big ship?¡±

    ¡°W-What?¡±

    ¡°But if you think about it, isn¡¯t it weird? Or is there one more god every time there¡¯s another planet?¡±

    ¡°D-Don¡¯t be stupid. God definitely isn¡¯t the kind of being that you¡¯re imagining. God... right, He dwells in the hearts of all who believe and resonates with them... No, wait. That¡¯s wrong. I was going to just give you my interpretation. I am still a greenhorn. This isn¡¯t a topic that can be settled with my words alone. Let¡¯s put it on the agenda for the next reading session. And for that, I need to get the materials ready at once. Faith is truly profound...¡±

    Camus¡¯ mind was struck with a puzzle of its own, and his attention was entirely taken up by it. To put it simply, he proved completely useless.

    Percy felt extremely foolish.

    What a completely unreliable monk. He¡¯s far more useful in fight. But anyway, about Kuon. Percy was fairly sure that he wouldn¡¯t get anything out of him either. But if I ask him directly, it might just make him even more irritated. And it will become difficult if he puts his guard up afterwards. I need to carefully remove the obstacles and give him as little provocation as possible, and take my time, without getting impatient, to edge my way closer...

    He continued to worry over it. As bad luck would have it, though, Sarah had witnessed the whole series of events and, the day after her brother failed in his attempt ¨C

    ¡°Kuon, everyone says you¡¯ve been strange recently. Well, since it¡¯s you, did you eat something which was lying about on the ground and get a stomach ache?¡± she approached Kuon so outspokenly that had he been there to see it, Percy would probably have felt faint.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± Kuon was as curt as ever.

    Sarah became indignant.

    ¡°Yesterday, I thought the stray dog was getting tamer and attached to me, but today it goes and bites me.¡±

    ¡°What? Who¡¯s getting attached to you? If you got close, even a puppy that hasn¡¯t grown fangs yet would bite.¡±

    ¡°What did you say? Animals love me, I¡¯ll have you know.¡±

    Even though it was a metaphor that she had brought up herself, it was very much like Sarah to then take it at face value. Just as it looked like they were about to get into their usual quarrelling ¨C

    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you getting along.¡±

    Normally, it was Percy¡¯s role to get between the two of them, but just this once, it was Lord Leo who stepped in. Not surprisingly, Sarah quickly stopped talking while Kuon looked uncomfortable.

    Leo Attiel sat down on the bare ground.

    They could hear the voices of soldiers coming from the castle courtyard where they were training. Leo was on a leisurely inspection of them. He was watching as the young men fought with staffs to capture the others¡¯ flags or broke in horses, when Kuon suddenly asked a question.

    ¡°When¡¯s the war going to be... if I may be so bold as to ask?¡±

    Leo looked surprised.

    ¡°War?¡±

    ¡°Since you¡¯re training soldiers, there¡¯s going to be a war, right?¡±

    ¡°Just because you¡¯re gathering and training soldiers doesn¡¯t mean a war is definitely about to break out,¡± Sarah giggled. ¡°The prince is doing what he¡¯s doing so that he¡¯ll always be prepared for when a war does break out.¡±

    ¡°I get that,¡± Kuon bit out, as much as to say ¡®don¡¯t butt in¡¯.

    Sarah shrugged.

    ¡°It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t understand. You want to earn glory as quickly as possible. And in the last battle, you lost your chance to kill Hayden, right? It¡¯s because you don¡¯t have any achievements to your name that the recruits treat you like a fool. So I understand that you¡¯re feeling impatient.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not...¡± Kuon started to gnash out his words again.

    ¡°Percy mentioned something,¡± Leo¡¯s gentle voice broke in between the two of them. ¡°Kuon, he said that you clearly have experience in training recruits. That¡¯s how good at it you are, you know?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s... On the mountain, that''s just normal,¡± said Kuon.

    The ¡®mountain¡¯ he was talking about was not Mount Conscon, but the place where he had been born and raised. Leo had heard from Percy that Kuon¡¯s birthplace was the rugged land that lay south of the Kesmai Plains ¨C an area which was called ¡°the Fangs Mountain Range¡± on maps in the principality.

    ¡°Most of the young men in the mountains become soldiers. It¡¯s only natural that the seniors teach the juniors who¡¯ve been incorporated in the same unit. If they don¡¯t, then the unit loses strength and they¡¯re the ones who¡¯ll be in danger.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by ¡®unit¡¯? Are you organised in units from childhood in your mountains, Kuon?¡±

    ¡°The ¡®unit¡¯ is... Well, you¡¯re right, but it¡¯s more like something like a family. Most kids join the same ¡®unit¡¯ as their father, although there also cases where that doesn¡¯t happen, but then... you know, they change their ¡®surname¡¯.¡±

    Kuon¡¯s expression indicated that he was having a hard time explaining. Other than for martial arts, he wasn¡¯t used to explaining things to someone who knew nothing about them. But Leo patiently listened to him, while still observing the soldiers who were training.

    ¡°For example, I was called Kuon Wei. The one who looked after me was a man called Datta Wei. And because Datta was the strongest of the Wei¡¯s, he was the head of the ¡®Wei¡¯. So if I left the ¡®unit¡¯, I¡¯d have a different surname.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t simply that Kuon was bad at giving explanations, when he said the name ¡°Datta Wei¡±, his expression seemed pained. His past seemed to include some unpleasant memories, but Leo deliberately pretended not to notice.

    ¡°So, Kuon, you were trained by the people of the ¡®Wei Unit¡¯, and you also taught the younger ¡®Wei¡¯ children?¡±

    ¡°Those who were good with a sword taught the sword, for those who were skilled at archery, it was the bow, and if your strong point was marksmanship, you taught how to use guns.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that you¡¯re good with all of them. You must have been given an important position. So, Kuon, if you hadn¡¯t left the mountains, would you have one day ended up leading the entire ¡®Wei¡¯ unit?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Kuon declared firmly. ¡°That wouldn¡¯t have happened.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± Sarah had been listening with considerable interest. Actually, since this was the first time that Kuon had talked about his birthplace, she hadn¡¯t been able to rein in her natural curiosity. ¡°Although it pains me to admit it, you¡¯re strong, aren¡¯t you? Or else, is your ¡®mountain¡¯ full of apes all as skilled as you are?¡±

    ¡°Even if I¡¯d won the festival, I probably couldn¡¯t have become Warrior Raga.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s Raga?¡±

    ¡°The strongest warrior on the mountain. He was a swordsman said to have been granted the shape of a beast by God to expel evil spirits but, obviously, now, he doesn¡¯t actually look like a beast... but when the time¡¯s right, they choose the strongest man.¡±

    Kuon really wasn¡¯t any good at giving explanations. Leo and Sarah listened to him while sorting out the words in their heads.

    So ¡®Raga¡¯ is the name of a legendary swordsman from the mountains and, from generation to generation, they¡¯ve been selecting the strongest man and respectfully give him that as a title ¨C is that what he means?

    ¡°Even though they said that either me or Diu might be the next Raga, if I¡¯d beaten Diu, they¡¯d probably have found all sorts of reasons for not recognising me as Raga. Like how Raga¡¯s soul couldn¡¯t dwell in a half-blood like me, or...¡±

    Having talked up to that point, Kuon suddenly seemed to snap back to himself.

    ¡°Anyway, never mind about me,¡± he almost spat out his words. ¡°I¡¯ll work for you, Prince, if you give me money. If you say to do it, I¡¯m fine with training recruits. But it¡¯s just that if there isn¡¯t going to be a war, then that isn¡¯t worth doing.¡±

    Leo carefully observed at his profile.

    Given that Kuon had been growing increasingly irritated recently, his thoughts probably didn¡¯t match his words. He wanted war. What Sarah had said about him wanting to ¡°earn glory¡± probably wasn¡¯t wrong.

    Leo didn¡¯t know what his reason was, but ¨C

    ¡°Be patient for a bit longer, Kuon.¡±

    Leo Attiel stood up while patting the dirt off from his backside, before stating something that left Sarah startled. ¡°It will only be for a short while. There will soon be a war in Atall.¡±

 Volume 3, 3: Bloody Sword

    Volume 3, Chapter 3: Bloody Sword

    Part 1

    Darren Actica.

    He was one of the vassal-lords who, between them, governed over the southern half of Atall¡¯s territory, and who had once clashed with Leo over the quarry within Savan Roux¡¯s domains. Although officially that fight had never happened, in the end, Darren had been forced to give up on the quarry, and had lost his oldest son, Togo.

    It had been half a year since then.

    Darren¡¯s attitude never wavered, and he became the leader of what could be called the ¡®anti-Leo Attiel¡¯ faction.

    ¡°These Personal Guards are outrageous. Have you all forgotten the incident at Conscon? If the prince is put in charge of an armed force, he¡¯ll go over our heads and our lands again, and start wars however he wants.¡±

    He used every possible occasion to remind the vassal-lords of the danger that Leo posed.

    Ostensibly, Leo had ¡®acted on the sovereign-prince¡¯s orders¡¯ at Conscon, but rumours were being whispered about how he might have wilfully acted entirely on his own, and they had been spread by none other than Darren.

    ¡°The only result is that it¡¯s drawn Allion¡¯s attention. If the prince is allowed a free hand to do as he pleases, he might call forth unprecedented danger to Atall. His Personal Guards need to be taken away from him as quickly as possible,¡± he insisted.

    Leo wasn¡¯t the sole target of Darren¡¯s attacks, and he also turned them against Savan Roux.

    Given that a church was being built in his territory, Savan was strengthening his exchanges with Conscon. He was inviting a number of monks to discuss how to administer the future cathedral, and to work out plans to establish monasteries and churches throughout his territory.

    Whereupon, Darren voiced suspicions that: ¡°Savan strengthening his connection to the temple looks a lot like he actually intends to make the Guinbar area a part of the temple¡¯s territory.¡±

    Although Darren¡¯s speeches ¨C delivered sometimes calmly, sometimes fervently ¨C were impassioned, the response to them had so not been very favourable.

    Darren Actica was a particularly powerful vassal-lord, and even the princely House kept an eye on his mood. Nobody could afford to disregard him but, right now, Lord Leo was being extolled as a hero such as Atall had never seen before. There was no one who was going to deliberately oppose that trend. And since Leo was at the time being relatively quiet ¨C probably because he was absorbed in playing with the new toy he had had been given ¨C there was no reason for them to feel a sense of urgency.

    Shit, those damn fools are just sitting on the fence. As usual, all they care about is what¡¯s right in front of them. It will be too late by the time they realise I¡¯m right. By then, they¡¯ll be nothing left for you bastards except kneel in a row before Leo, waiting for him to slice off your heads.

    It was ironic: Darren spent his every day criticising Leo, yet he was the only one who perfectly agreed with Leo''s long-hald dissatisfaction against the vassal-lords and other nobles.

    As his gloom-filled days piled up, the only one to offer him any support was Oswell Taholin.

    Up until that point, the two of them had never had much to do with one another. This was natural enough: Darren had been the driving force behind toppling the previous sovereign-prince, and had accrued considerable power as the ruling House lost prestige, whereas Oswell was comparatively close to the sovereign-prince.

    If one traced their family line back to its origins, then most of the nobles who administered the northern half of the principality could be said to be linked by blood to the princely house. Conversely, the Taholin family had strengthened their relationship with the centre of power either by adopting sons of high social standing, or by arranging marriages with well-connected children.

    Therefore, rather than saying that Darren and Oswell ¡®had little to do with one another¡¯, it was more accurate to say that when they came into contact, they were like mutually opposing forces that repulsed one another, and so they actively avoided having anything to do together.

    Yet now, they were rapidly narrowing the distance between them.

    ¡°I was the one who once persuaded the sovereign-prince to send reinforcements to Conscon, but I always advocated sending mercenaries whose origins were unknown, to help the temple in secret. I certainly never imagined that the prince would openly fly the flag of House Attiel, or that he would personally lead troops against Allion,¡± said Oswell. Both of them appeared to share the opinion that ¡°Lord Leo¡¯s very existence might harm Atall.¡±

    Having obtained such an unexpected ally, Darren almost felt like jumping for joy.

    Since then, the two of them had been meeting frequently. Sometimes, it was in each other¡¯s territories, and sometimes they avoided attention by dressing up as commoners and meeting in cheap, downtown taverns. On these occasions, they talked about what they could do to keep Lord Leo as far away as possible from government and military affairs.

    When they held their many discussions, both of them looked for all the world like men who ¡®worried about their country¡¯s future¡¯, although Darren¡¯s heart was, of course, not so much concerned with the future of the country as it was consumed by hatred for Leo. Ever since being so badly burned by the second prince, Darren had vowed to have revenge on Leo and Savan. From start to last, it was all about his own personal feelings.

    As such, when Oswell ¨C a man completely unrelated to what had happened ¨C climbed on board so eagerly, Darren felt complacent. You just need to talk about ¡®fearing for the country¡¯, and that kind of idiot jumps on it. It¡¯s worth making use of him since it¡¯s so easy to do so.

    In fact, however, Oswell did not have a single shred of loyalty towards the ruling family, nor one ounce of patriotic feeling towards Atall. Looking at things from a national perspective, it was actually Oswell who was infinitely more unscrupulous than Darren.

    ©¤ Just as Hawking Ingram had once explained to Hayden Swift, Oswell Taholin, despite being one of the vassal-lords of Atall, had maintained a secret correspondence with Commander Hawking, and so, through him, with the Kingdom of Allion.

    It dated back to seven years earlier.

    Back then, when the principality had allied itself with Shazarn, and so had been attacked by Allion, Oswell had already agreed to work with Hawking. To borrow Hawking¡¯s words, ¡°if the time had come and we had given him the order, he would even have risen to cause trouble from inside the country.¡±

    Even though it had already been seven years, Oswell was prepared to bare his fangs towards the Sovereign House of Attiel.

    ¡°Up until now, I¡¯ve always bee striving to build a connection to the centre of power, but this tiny country doesn¡¯t have a future anymore,¡± he believed.

    ¡°It would be ridiculous for a man of my intelligence to be destroyed along with this insignificant country. Someday, I want to wear a toga of cinnabar-purple,¡± he had thought for some time past.

    ¡®A toga of cinnabar-purple¡¯ was what high-ranking nobles in Allion wore to festivals or when they sat at important meetings.

    When Hayden had been planning his second march on the temple, Oswell had received a communication from Hawking, and had already made preparations to gather soldiers. Yet in the end, the plan had fallen through since Lord Leo had defeated Hayden.

    This had crushed Oswell¡¯s second chance at becoming an Allian aristocrat, and it left him extremely despondent, yet even so, he continued to exchange messages with Hawking.

    It was a few months later when a third opportunity arose.

    Instead of the usual messenger, Hawking dispatched one of his direct retainers to Oswell¡¯s residence. He piled bags of money onto a desk. The purpose of those funds was ¡°to erase Leo and destroy Guinbar Church.¡±

    Erase the prince ¨C Oswell caught his breath when he heard it.

    But it only lasted a moment. He was a man who had twice plotted to stage a rebellion within Atall¡¯s domains ¨C he had long since steeled his resolve.

    It was at that point that he started getting rapidly closer to Darren. Here, after all, was a man who was openly criticising Lord Leo. On top of that, during their many meetings together, he had come to realise something ¨C this is a man who holds extraordinary spite and hostility towards Leo.

    It was certainly timely. If he did a good job of manipulating Darren, then he would be able to accomplish his purpose without getting his own hands dirty. In short, and contrary to what Darren believed, Oswell was the one ¡®making use¡¯ of his accomplice.

    Incidentally, and to talk about details that were hidden even deeper, the idea of ¡®erasing the prince¡¯ came solely from the Allian commander, Hawking Ingram. It was not an order from the king. The king of Allion had already shrugged off the question of Atall, and was having a great time riding his war horses east and west to pacify the situation inside his lands.

    However, Hawking had cooperated with Hayden before Leo killed him, and he had also met the prince in person at the afore-mentioned meeting. As a result, his instincts were telling him that ¨C Leo Attiel is dangerous.

    For the time being, Leo was still young and, as far as Allion was concerned, he was not worth fearing. But although his country was small, his talent was disproportionately large, and one day, he would surely cause Allion harm.

    And while he was at it, Hawking also judged that the church which was being built within Atall might prove an obstacle to Allion if the matter with Atall came to war. There were many adherents of the Cross Faith in Allion. He feared that, as had already been the case with Conscon Temple, the country might be held back from the inside because of the links between members of the same faith.

    Although he had retired from the front lines, Hawking loved Allion, his native land, more than anyone. He was a man who genuinely believed that ¨C If one day the entire continent is unified, then the flag flying in its capital city has to be Allion¡¯s. If his eyes landed on the sprout from a bad seed, then no matter how small it was, he would not rest until he had trampled it underfoot.

    Which was why Hawking pretended that this was the king¡¯s own will, and handed over those war funds while murmuring, ¡°The king of Allion has great hopes for you, Sir Oswell.¡±

    Basically, Hawking was using Oswell, Oswell was using Darren, and both of them were planning on removing Leo without getting their own hands dirty.

    So then, Darren and Oswell.

    These two met repeatedly, and their discussion gradually grew heated. At some point, Darren confided to Oswell about his son, Togo ¨C

    ¡°He was murdered by those base, vile cowards, Savan and Leo.¡±

    This, of course, was false. It was true that Togo had fallen into a trap laid by Leo, but he had actually been killed by an assassin sent by Darren himself. He had said it only as a way of attracting Oswell¡¯s sympathy, but Oswell looked so sorry for him, his eyes even filling with tears, that it was instead Darren who got pulled in and who started to cry.

    Oswell took the considerable funds he had received and handed them over to Darren, claiming that they were ¡°what I¡¯ve managed to scrape up.¡± Darren, needless to say, never suspected that Allion was manoeuvring behind the scenes.

    Delighted with the offer of so much money, he hired soldiers for what was to come.

    ©¤ While Darren was furthering his plans, Leo Attiel was actually paying close attention to his every move. After all, this was a man who even had his own son killed, and who was clearly hostile towards Leo. Moreover, over the past half year, he relentlessly and openly criticised Leo¡¯s own actions, as well as the creation of his Personal Guards.

    During that half a year, they had only seen each other once. It was on the day when Leo had returned to Tiwana¡¯s castle to prepare for the conference, and they had passed by each other in a corridor.

    ¡°I hear you have been admonishing me. Please be gentle, Sir Darren,¡± said Leo.

    ¡°Now, now. I say what I do simply because I have sworn allegiance to the princely House, and because I hope to see a brilliant future for Atall. Your Highness Leo, you possess talent second to none. I earnestly implore you to turn that keen intelligence of yours in a different direction,¡± Darren had responded with a smile.

    While publicly maintaining that relationship, Leo had secretly sent several people to Darren¡¯s main citadel. Disguised as merchants or pilgrims of the Cross Faith, they were to carefully observe the situation in both town and castle.

    Most of those sent out that way were the former retainers to the Leegan House, owing to the fact that they had the most experience. Leo, always alert to opportunities, decided that ¡°this is the perfect chance,¡± and had several men from his own troop go with them, to learn how to carry out reconnaissance duties.

    At first, there had been no movement from Darren¡¯s side but, after the talks with Allion and Dytiann, Leo received more and more reports of human activity. Lesser castle lords under Darren¡¯s banner, and the governors of his forts were bringing their troops to his main castle town.

    They claimed that ¡°marauding soldiers sent by another power have set up base nearby.¡± Yet when Leo sent people to investigate, just to be sure, they didn''t hear the whisper of a rumour about marauders.

    With that much information in hand, even someone other than Leo would be able to realise that Darren was planning on taking military action. It was also clear that he did not want his objective to be known.

    Did he intend to come up with some reason or another to attack Guinbar again, or was he thinking of targeting Lord Leo himself?

    ¡°I¡¯ll only end up on the defensive if I just wait and see,¡± Leo was forced into making a rapid decision.

    Unlike when he had opposed Hayden, and every time, Leo could not postpone things until after he had carefully thought things through. There was, however, one very considerable difference between this time and all the previous ones ¨C

    Before, Leo had always been driven by a sense of urgency and necessity. Which meant that he had no choice but to make his move, just as though he was being pushed forward by fire. Even if his methods had been a bit rough-and-ready, simply waiting would result in him being consumed by the flames, so the first priority had been to find a way ¨C any way ¨C to take action.

    This time, however, when he heard that Darren is making a move, Leo¡¯s expression had been exactly like someone who has been told that a long-expected caller has finally arrived.

    He¡¯s moving? He¡¯s doing me the favour of making his move?

    Now, when he stood to meet the enemy, it was no longer because he had no other choice, nor because doing so was the only way to protect himself and what he held dear.

    This was an opportunity that Leo Attiel had no intention of letting slip.

    Leo immediately summoned Percy, Camus and Kuon to Guinbar Castle.

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking of luring him in,¡± Leo stated after explaining about Darren¡¯s movements. He wanted to probe the vassal-lord¡¯s intentions by deliberately leaving him an opening. And if Darren was really thinking of killing him, Leo would entice him into trying to carry that out, then turn the tables on him and attack him by surprise.

    ''It¡¯s dangerous ¨C both Percy and Camus shared that thought, but neither spoke it out loud. They were starting to get used to Leo¡¯s way of doing things. Of course what he did was going to be dangerous, and the prince himself acknowledged that danger when he declared that I no longer have any choice but to do this.

    Even in that situation, however, Percy could not help but give him a reminder.

    ¡°Prince, I¡¯m sure you are well aware of this, but fighting against Darrens¡¯ group means...¡±

    ¡°Bringing civil war to Atall,¡± Leo readily acknowledged. ¡°But I don¡¯t intend to allow that fire to spread. We¡¯ll extinguish it at once by swiftly and accurately targeting his weak point. This is necessary.¡±

    Percy nodded. If anyone ¨C be they from Allion or from Atall itself ¨C was targeting the prince¡¯s life, then Percy would naturally grasp his spear while standing as Leo¡¯s shield. And if Darren was plotting to rebel because of his personal grudge against the princely house, then it would bear out Leo¡¯s fears that the country lacked unity, while also providing the prince with an opportunity to show off his strength to the other vassal-lords.

    Which was precisely why they needed to be swift and accurate. They could not allow anyone the time to interfere.

    Leo proposed a plan, on which Percy and Camus offered comments. Kuon sat on the floor in a corner of the room, cradling a sword. Although he remained taciturn, the irritation that had been showing on his face recently had been wiped away.

    When the meeting was over, he spoke for the first time since entering the room.

    ¡°Is it going to be war?¡±

    The prince confirmed it ¨C

    ¡°It is.... Probably.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d be bothered if it wasn¡¯t,¡± the corners of Kuon¡¯s mouth curled upwards.

    After holding several other similar meetings, Leo started to take action.

    First of all, he summoned the Personal Guards, who were stationed throughout Guinbar. The vassal-lords had assembled six hundred soldiers, while he himself had conscripted three hundred from among the people. Counting the reserve soldiers, the total number exceeded a thousand. Since ample funds had also been collected from the vassal-lords, they were equipped with guns, cannons and armour all in the latest model, and had plenty of horses. In terms simply of numbers, Darren could perhaps match that one thousand if he called up the soldiers in his territory for military service, but if he had to hurriedly arrange for cavalrymen, then he would have fewer than three hundred, even including the vassals of House Actica.

    When Darren Actica learned of Leo¡¯s movements, he felt considerably shaken.

    Does he suspect something? Darren wondered, upon hearing that the prince was gathering all of the soldiers he had to hand.

    Just as Leo had guessed, Darren was preparing to attack Guinbar. After spreading false rumours that ¡°Savan is plotting with Conscon Temple and intens to rebel,¡± he would march all of his troops on Guinbar in one go, on the pretence that, ¡°I found out that Savan¡¯s first wave of attack was going to be directed at my territory, and so I decided to pre-empt him.¡±

    The plan was that later, when it came to making excuses to the sovereign-prince, Oswell would back him up. Although Darren was unaware of Oswell¡¯s connection to Allion, that connection meant that Oswell could obtain endless amounts of letters and seals related to the Cross Faith within Allion. In other words, they could create ample evidence of a connection between Savan and the Cross Faith after Guinbar¡¯s castle town had been reduced to ashes.

    While he was at it, Darren had every intention of killing Lord Leo, given how frequently the prince visited Guinbar. For that too, he had prepared ay number of reasons.

    ¡°The good-natured prince was happily staying for a time at Guinbar Castle without realising anything about Savan¡¯s schemes. When my troops neared the castle, the prince terribly mistook the situation, and rose to defend Savan. When the prince appeared before us, leading his soldiers, we were reluctantly compelled to fight against him. As a result, the prince fled, and we have not been able to find him since.¡± ¨C something along those lines would do fine.

    The prince liked to play at being a hero, so a made-up story like that one would sound plausible.

    After obtaining Oswell¡¯s support, Darren had explained the entire plan to no one but a handful of close relatives and vassals.

    ¡°We¡¯ll do it.¡± ¨C All of them, starting with Dingo Actica, his second son, had shown their willingness. They believed, after all, that his eldest son, Togo, had been killed when he fell into a trap laid by Leo and Savan. Darren had told no one, not even those closest to him, that he was the one who had sent out an assassin against his first-born son.

    The head of House Actica was as he was, and, on top of that, his loyalty to the princely house was essentially non-existent. Or rather ¨C

    ¡°The ruling house is so happy about that matter concerning Leo that they seem to have forgotten what happened to the previous sovereign-prince. Now is the time to show them our power.¡±

    From the ambition he showed, it was as though he himself were a sovereign.

    It was as their preparations were reaching the final stage, that they received reports that ¡°the second prince¡¯s Personal Guards are gathering at Guinbar Castle.¡± Darren¡¯s face went pale when he heard about it.

    Yet Leo did not keep his Guards long at Guinbar, and soon moved most of them away. Apparently, he was going to leave them for a while with Conscon Temple, which he had close ties to. Darren did not know whether a group of marauding soldiers had appeared nearby, or whether Leo wanted to have his men train with the warrior monks, but this was pretty good news either way.

    There was more good news to come.

    Leo had not only summoned his Guards, he had also invited his fianc¨¦e, Florrie, to come from Tiwana. It seemed that after seeing the Personal Guards off at the border, the prince intended to travel with a small number of the remaining soldiers to a an area of holiday villas on the edge of Guinbar. He was planning to enjoy a summer break with his fianc¨¦e in a region noted for its beautiful natural scenery.

    What an opportunity! Darren leaped for joy when he heard about it.

    However, the excuse mentioned earlier would no longer be usable if Darren¡¯s soldiers led an attack on a quiet rest area. At that point, he went to Oswell Taholin for help.

    A new gift soon arrived from Oswell: five hundred full sets of armour.

    Their make was not uniform: some were, of course, Atall-made, but sets crafted in Allion, Dytiann and various other countries had also been prepared. They were to allow Darren¡¯s soldiers to pass themselves off as ¡®marauders of unknown origin¡¯.

    Darren entrusted these five hundred ¡®marauders¡¯ to one of his relatives, a military man in command of a fortress. They would first surround the resort area, cutting off the prince¡¯s escape route, then they would swoop in to attack.

    Darren would personally lead the remainder of his forces to very edge of Guinbar¡¯s territory. As soon as he received word that the prince¡¯s head had been taken, the two troops would immediately join up and launch the assault on Guinbar ¨C such was the plan.

    Togo, your father will avenge you of our foe.

    Before, Darren had been rather plump, and his skin had been glowing with health, but recently, his face had been growing gaunt. Within it, only his eyes still gleamed sharply.

    Part 2

    The horse-drawn carriage which had left Guinbar arrived in the resort area in the evening.

    There was a river flowing at the foot of a gently sloping hill. The woods growing along its banks occasionally opened up to reveal the villas of nobles and wealthy merchants.

    The carriage drove into the grounds attached to the most luxurious residence of them all.

    Leo, however, was not riding inside it. About an hour earlier, he had blended in with the group of riders which were escorting the carriage to its destination. Immediately upon arrival, the prince had stepped out of it and had stood at the summit of the hill which overlooked the villas to the south.

    The only ones within the carriage were soldiers who was serving as decoys. Leo¡¯s fianc¨¦e, Florrie, had remained at Guinbar Castle.

    ©¤ She was the most unfortunate one.

    To prevent the plan from being leaked, Leo had hidden it even from her. Since receiving the invitation from Leo a few days earlier, Florrie had been happy and excited at the thought of spending time alone again with her fianc¨¦ after so long, but when it was finally time to leave Guinbar, Leo had shown up in her room.

    ¡°Something urgent came up. Don¡¯t take a single step out of your chambers until I get in touch with you,¡± he had suddenly said.

    Florrie was surprised and was about to voice her complaints, but any thought of getting her fianc¨¦e to listen to her vanished in an instant. Leo¡¯s eyes were looking straight through her, and were gazing at somewhere far distant and different from where she stood.

    Leo is up to something, she realised.

    ¡°I get it. I¡¯ll just wait here all alone until you come back,¡± she smiled.

    Without even returning her smile or nodding to her, Leo had simply said, ¡°See you,¡± and, stopping only to assign guards to her rooms, he quickly left Guinbar.

    Left by herself, Florrie had stood at the window for a while. Beyond the balcony that stretched out from the floor below the one she was on, she could see a group of riders lined up in a row. Leo, now bearing weapons, walked towards them, took a horse¡¯s bit from a page, and swung himself into the saddle. He then gave an order, and in the blink of an eye, he and his group had vanished from Florrie¡¯s sight.

    There were times when Florrie Anglatt could not understand Leo.

    One such occasion had been half a year ago, when she was told that ¡°Lord Leo killed Hayden.¡±

    Hayden was the person who had been going to take her back to Allion, by force if necessary. When she had heard that he was dead, she had been confused about her own feelings, unsure whether what she felt was surprise, relief, or something close to sadness.

    Above all else, she found it impossible to image Leo Attiel fighting at the head of troops, and brandishing a sword towards Hayden.

    That wasn¡¯t the first time, however.

    Take her father, for example, Claude Anglatt. Both his voice and his body frame were huge, and when he yelled harshly at his retainers or at his sons, his face was terrifying. Yet towards Florrie ¨C and her alone ¨C he was gentle and indulgent. It was instead her mother who was strict about her upbringing, and whenever Florrie was crying sadly because her mother had gotten angry over some small thing or another, Claude stealthily sneak up behind his daughter, and would hold her tight in his big arms.

    ¡°My beautiful princess, you¡¯re always bringing happiness to everyone around you with your smiles and your songs, but today, it¡¯s the princess herself who¡¯s in a sad mood. I won¡¯t go easy on anyone who makes you cry. When all¡¯s said and done, I¡¯m the strongest man in Allion, after all.¡±

    When Claude said that, Florrie would sniffle and ask, ¡°Stronger than Mother?¡±, whereupon, Claude would pretend to look terrified. They always had that conversation at times like that.

    ¡°What did you say!? So the one who made you cry ¨C in other words, the person in the worst mood here ¨C is Ellen? That explains why thunderclouds are swirling around the living room. Sorry, but she¡¯s the one person I can¡¯t go against. She¡¯s stronger than me. And at the end of the day, her word is law in this house. So you¡¯d better hurry and apologise quickly. If you say it with a cute expression, Ellen¡¯s mood will immediately improve. The dark clouds will be blown away, and I won¡¯t have to be afraid of my strongest foe. Everyone will be happy.¡±

    When he was at home, her father was always laughing heartily, yet when he took part in war outside, he would plunge into groups of fully armoured soldiers and slaughter crowds of enemies ¨C even though she knew it intellectually, she could never equate her father as he was at home with ¡®the valiant Claude Anglatt¡¯ of rumour.

    It was much the same for her two older brothers. Even though they could sometimes be a bit mean, their expressions were gentle when they talked to Florrie, and she simply could not imagine them killing people if ever there was a war.

    I suppose men have a different face when they¡¯re outside from when they¡¯re at home, was how Florrie saw it. Which was why she had intended to do her best to try and understand Leo. Yet that thought had now turned into : Leo has become a man. By which she meant that he now showed her a different face from the one he showed to others.

    Even after the prince had disappeared from sight, Florrie did not leave the window. She lifted her hand towards her head and plucked out a single strand of hair, which she briefly brought to her lips before winding it around the little finger on her left hand.

    It was one of the many good luck charms used by followers of the Badyne Faith. As long as the strand of hair remained coiled around their finger, a person who was precious to them would be protected from harm. Florrie¡¯s mother had taught her many such charms.

    Please let Leo stay safe ¨C Florrie continued praying for a long time, holding her finger with the hair wound around it to her chest.

    ¡°Please be sure to make things up to Miss Florrie.¡±

    Standing next to Lord Leo as he looked down on the villas from the hill, Percy Leegan, who had ridden with him, offered his advice. It was already the third such reminder.

    ¡°One day,¡± Leo¡¯s reply was curt.

    ¡°When will ¡®one day¡¯ be?¡±

    ¡°War is coming. Percy, you know that too, right? From now on, things are just going to keep getting busier.¡±

    Since Percy was being a bit too insistent, Leo was feeling petulant ¨C He¡¯s like an old man with the way he keeps making a fuss.

    Wanting to ease the tense atmosphere before they started talking tactics, Leo launched a counter-attack.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard about that too.¡±

    ¡°About what?¡±

    ¡°That your fianc¨¦e is Lord Giml¨¦ Gloucester¡¯s daughter.¡±

    ¡°Indeed.¡±

    ¡°Sir Giml¨¦ harshly criticised my father about sending reinforcements to Conscon, and I doubt he was pleased when I defeated Hayden. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising if he was secretly linked to Darren.¡±

    Percy¡¯s expression turned serious.

    Currently, there was nothing to indicate that Giml¨¦ and Darren were linked in any way, and even when Darren publicly denounced the prince, Giml¨¦ did not seem particularly interested in it ¨C yet it was a fact that he was very unamused by the recent string of actions that the princely House had been taking. That particular piece of information came from Giml¨¦¡¯s daughter, Liana, so it was certainly reliable. And, of course, given that Percy had joined Leo¡¯s Personal Guards, the vassal-lord held no kind feelings for his daughter¡¯s fianc¨¦ either.

    How would Giml¨¦ react when, on top of all of that, the Personal Guards clashed in combat with Darren?

    ¡°And you¡¯ll be making it up to Miss Liana...?¡±

    ¡°One day,¡± replied Percy, deliberately maintaining a fastidious expression.

    Leo laughed.

    ¡°Well then...¡± Since Percy had to go and take up position, he took leave of the prince. ¡°Your Highness, I earnestly entreat you to be careful. Please do not forget that on the battlefield, there are many occasions when one has an equal chance of being branded a coward or lauded as a hero. The most important thing of all is to watch for opportunities and then make a decision.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°Then, with that...¡± Percy had been about to say something further, but ¨C It¡¯ll just come across as tedious, he decided, and said nothing more.

    When Percy left, he plucked a strand of his own hair and would it around one of his little fingers, but Leo was no longer looking in his direction.

    When Percy left, he plucked a strand of his own hair and would it around one of his little fingers, but Leo was no longer looking in his direction.

    He did not have fires lit, and the entire surroundings were gradually plunged into darkness. Several soldiers remained with him as bodyguards, but since they didn¡¯t speak a single word of idle chatter, it was just as though Leo had been left behind, entirely on his own.

    Leo continued to stand in silence, staring at the riverside that was now shrouded in shadows. At times like these, he was invariably haunted by a shadow that somehow resembled stagnant sludge. The questions that shadow threw at him were questions that Leo had also asked himself.

    Where am I? What will I do? Who am I?

    The surroundings were so quiet, enveloped as they were in the dusk that was lit only by a few stars, that the voice seemed to echo louder than usual.

    War? What will you do if it comes to war? And what will you do once you are waging war?

    He knew. He had known for a long time now that there was no turning back. He could not afford to indulge in hesitation for even a single second.

    Now that things have started, questions like who I am are irrelevant. I am who I am right now.

    And since I¡¯m doing this...

    You need to achieve sufficient results in battle. If you don¡¯t, there would be no meaning to killing and being killed.

    Leo once again shook off the sludge that resided within him, shaking his entire body as he did so.

    The troop of Darren¡¯s subordinates had arrived near the riverbank.

    They did not carry any lights either, but the land was level and clear in the area near the villas, so the five hundred men easily reached where they were going. Before long, they started to divide themselves into several smaller units.

    Only the soldiers in the lead carried torches and Leo, from the top of the hill, could follow the movements of the glowing red points of light.

    The enemy believed that there was only a handful of soldiers here, and the only thing they were worried about was that Leo might escape from them. Which was why they used the classic strategy for cases like that: compared to the soldiers gathering by the river opposite the villa, they placed a greater number of men in a position to cut off the path of retreat from the residential area.

    Naturally, Leo had predicted that they would do so, and he had thoroughly examined the lay of the land beforehand. The points of light were moving almost exactly according to the predictions he had made at the time.

    While the enemy was on the move, a messenger came up to him.

    ¡°The soldiers have arrived,¡± he said.

    The ¡°soldiers¡± in question were none other than the Personal Guards which were supposed to have been sent to Conscon Temple. They had pretended to set off towards it, then took the first opportunity to change direction, and had arrived here by way of inconspicuous mountain paths.

    ¡°Do as planned,¡± was the only order Leo gave.

    Maps indicating where they were to go were to be handed to each of the commanding officers. The six hundred soldiers moved swiftly and, just as Leo had hoped, messengers soon came running one after another to give their reports.

    ¡°The First Unit has completed its preparations.¡±

    ¡°The riflemen of the Second Unit have taken up position.¡±

    ¡°The Fifth Unit has completed its manoeuvres.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± as soon as he knew that all of the units were ready, Leo had his men set fire to the pile of kindling which had been stacked up at the top of the hill. It was the signal for each of the Personal Guards to light torches of their own.

    A commotion ran through Darren¡¯s men when they saw the brilliant flames that were lit behind them. Did Lord Darren change his mind and send reinforcements? Many of them wondered for a moment.

    The very next second, gunfire rained down upon them.

    The main strength of Leo¡¯s Personal Guards was that almost every man had guns.

    The quiet surroundings were abruptly transformed as gunshots and smoke filled heaven and earth.

    ¡°E-Ene-Enemies!¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re enemies!¡±

    The confused and terrified voices of Darren¡¯s soldiers surged from every direction. Of course they did ¨C the men who had encircled the villa to prevent Leo from escaping suddenly found themselves encircled in turn, and the area around them was now filled with waves of hostility and killing intent.

    No sooner had the gunfire abated than cavalrymen charged towards them. The small units that had intended to block Leo¡¯s path of retreat now scattered. Darren¡¯s men had not imagined for a second that armed soldiers would swoop down on them, shouting out battle cries, and so the ambushers effortlessly tore through them.

    ¡°Don¡¯t panic! Return the attack!¡±

    ¡°Avoid further damage! Retreat, retreat!¡±

    Contradictory orders flew, showing how badly they had lost their heads. With gunfire and gleaming spears closing in on them, every unit soon chose to fall back.

    Aware of their disadvantage, the commander of Darren¡¯s forces decided to abandon the encirclement and instead ordered all troops to gather in one place. In order to surround them, Leo¡¯s forces were stretched out wide. Besides which, the commander quickly realised that our numbers are about the same as theirs.

    Leo, still watching the movements from the top of the hill, quickly raised his hand. The soldiers who were by his side all immediately lit torches from the bonfire, and started waving them in unison.

    While they were doing so, Leo made his preparations. He checked the armour he was wearing, then jumped onto a horse that a page had brought up to him.

    Behind him, soldiers bearing swords and spears had gathered at some point. These were not the soldiers that the vassal-lords had assembled; these were the three hundred villagers that Leo had recruited and trained. Simply put, Leo had arranged it so that those of his guards who had at least some experience would surround the enemy then, when they had driven them away from their various positions, his most inexperienced soldiers would be given the task of charging at the opponent.

    Equally on horseback, Kuon lined himself next to Leo. Up until then, he had constantly seemed to be chomping at the bit, but now, his eyes were shining.

    ¡°Just as promised,¡± Leo said to him. ¡°I¡¯ve arranged a suitable opportunity for you to earn your first achievement.¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡± the boy from the mountain lands shouted, so fired up that his real nature was laid bare.

    After receiving the signal from the torches, the actions taken by the Personal Guards changed. Near the river¡¯s shallows, they deliberately left an opening in the encircling net. The enemy braced themselves and charge through it, but Leo and his men were already galloping down the hillside to catch them in a head-on ambush.

    The gunshots continued, causing loud splashes of water and sprays of blood. Next ¨C

    ¡°Cut them down,¡± Leo urged his horse forward as he yelled.

    The Personal Guards quickly closed the gap in the net that they had earlier left open. The enemy was caught in a two-pronged attack, coming from both riverbanks.

    ¡°Don¡¯t waver, don¡¯t hesitate!¡± One of the enemies repeatedly called out from the middle of the river. ¡°Advance, advance, advance!¡±

    When he saw that, Kuon leaped from his horse, ran forward, and jumped into the water. He cut his way past an enemy soldier, then past a second one and, while the rest were still reeling in surprise, he drew up towards the man who seemed to be the enemy commander.

    ¡°You little shrimp...¡±

    Those were the only words that the enemy commander managed to say after spotting the figure approaching towards him.

    Kuon forcefully pushed forward, bumping against the horse as he did so. He nimbly swung his longsword diagonally towards the his foe, and struck him in the neck.

    Leo¡¯s Personal Guards had been motley group of soldiers and, even now, it would be hard to say that they excelled at coordination.

    When thinking back on it, Leo had a lot of things to regretted, such as points he should have worked out in more detail before they launched the operation, or ways of improving the timing of command. Still, in the end, the single most useful element proved to have been his prior survey of the terrain and, if one only took the results into account, they were able to rout the enemy with very little damage to their own side.

    Leo had poured nearly the entire the military strength he could mobilise into this battle.

    If it had just been a case of driving away enemies disguised as marauders, he could have held more of them back in reserve but, as I explained earlier, the Personal Guards were soldiers who had been gathered from all over. Their origins were equally varied. While some were the vassals of noble families, others, like the ones Leo had personally recruited, had never held a weapon before. There was also a difference in their degree of enthusiasm. On the one hand, there were those who zealously wished to repay the favour of having been appointed, while on the other, the soldiers who had been offered up by the reluctant vassal-lords did not have a shred of interest in their present surroundings.

    Which was why Leo had wanted them to stand together on this battlefield, where they could obtain an almost flawless victory, and to give them the chance to build up a sense of being part of the same troop.

    I see, Percy thought admiringly as he looked in turn at all of the soldiers'' faces.

    Previously, they had stayed at the same barracks, slept under the same roof, and joined in the same training, but it appeared that fighting side-by-side just once was far more effective than living together for any number of days had been. Soldiers from different areas clapped each other on the shoulder, boasted about their own achievements, or mutually congratulated each other on their success in the fight.

    But the problem is going to be what comes next...

    Percy was worried. Although this time, everyone had been able to band together against a group of marauders who were targeting Leo''s life, the next person who would be aiming to kill him would probably be Darren Actica, one of Atall''s vassal-lords. Among the soldiers who had come from other areas, there were sure to be some who would become agitated.

    We''re going to be taking on nobles from Atall?

    Does the prince also intend to bring the fighting to our native region?

    Not only would it lower the troops'' morale, but there were sure to be men who would desert the unit.

    Percy had talked about the problem with Leo several times before the beginning of this fight.

    ¡°We need to make the marauders confess that Darren is behind them and is pulling the strings.¡± He and Leo both agreed on this. Which was also why it had been crucial to gather most of the Personal Guards in one place.

    But we don''t have that much time. If we take too long about it, the soldiers who managed to escape will join up with Darren.

    While Percy was lost in his own thoughts, Leo dismounted from his horse.

    ¡°Everyone, quiet down. Bring me the captured soldiers.¡±

    At his words, the ecstatic guards fell silent, and the enemy soldiers who had surrendered after being unable to escape were brought to stand in a row before him, their hands tied behind their back.

    Standing behind Leo, Percy Leegan checked to make sure that the other guards came over to see what was starting up. Earlier, he had casually placed his men in all the various units, and had told them beforehand to gather together at this point.

    Once he was sure that a crowd had assembled, Leo Attiel thrust his sword at the first man in the line of ''marauders''. During the battle, Leo had inflicted deep wounds on three opponents, so the tip of his blade was covered in blood.

    ¡°Who are you? Why were you targeting me?¡± He demanded, his breathing ragged.

    ¡°Ha!¡± jeered the soldier who was the head of the row despite being seriously injured from a bullet wound to the stomach. The scornful smile on his pallid face came from the fact that Leo''s voice had none of the strength of a person making threats.

    ¡°I don''t anything about you. I just got talked into a nice-sounding scheme to make some easy money. These fancy houses are packed with treasure, right?¡±

    With his unshaven and slightly grimy face, the man really did look like the marauder he was pretending to be. The Personal Guards who were watching the scene angrily raised their voices.

    ¡°I see,¡± said Leo.

    ©¤ Back when more of Darren''s soldiers had been causing mayhem in Savan''s quarry, Leo had decided that he would face those soldiers as his ''first campaign''. He had taken several days to both work out a plan and steel his own resolve. He needed to mentally prepare himself before standing on the battlefield for the first time in his life. The situation now was similar to that one, and Leo had already pictured this scene for several days now.

    Do it without hesitating, he repeatedly told himself.

    And now the time had come.

    ¡°I see,¡± he said again.

    The next moment, Percy, standing beside him, opened his eyes wide in shock. Leo had drawn his sword back until it was above his own shoulder then, without the slightest hesitation, he had cut through the soldier''s neck.

    The strike had been shallow. The man staggered and collapsed, clutching his neck as he writhed in agony. With his foot on the man''s shoulder, Leo pierced him from above with his blade. The soldier''s movement suddenly came to a stop.

    ¡°Next,¡± said Leo, and another enemy soldier was pushed out before him. He asked him the same question.

    ¡°I-I don''t know. It''s true!¡± The soldier pleaded with tears in his eyes. ¡°Please believe me. There was a guy who came to us with this offer. If you find him...¡±

    It also ended in the same way. The only difference was that this time, Leo gave three strokes of his sword. The first cut was to the man¡¯s leg, the second was to his face, and the third was finally the killing blow.

    Your Highness ¨C Percy tried to call out, but couldn¡¯t. Leo¡¯s face, covered in the blood of his victims, was almost like a demon¡¯s.

    ¡°Next,¡± said Leo.

    And a third man met the same fate.

    The soldier who was pushed forward when he once more called out ¡°next,¡± was trembling from the start. Leo no longer asked his question, and silently raised his sword. The still-youthful soldier opened his eyes wide, his gaze riveted to the bloody blade.

    ¡°W-Wait... Please wait!¡±

    The one who cried out was not the young soldier. One of the older soldiers came crawling on his knees from the line of captives, and tumbled at Leo¡¯s feet.

    ¡°H-He¡¯s my only son. Have mercy... I mean, please have mercy, Your Highness Leo!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t recall having introduced myself as Prince Leo. My flag was not flown. Which means that you did know who you were attacking, doesn¡¯t it?¡±

    In a quivering voice, the older soldier confessed that they were soldiers fighting under Darren¡¯s banner. He also told how, after killing Leo, they were supposed to attack Guinbar.

    That was all Leo needed to hear and returned the sword to his waist.

    ¡°We¡¯ll take a few of them with us. Leave the other ones here, but don¡¯t untie their ropes.¡± After issuing that order, he gave a second one, ¡°Gather at once at the foot of the hill.¡±

    Everyone hastily obeyed. The expressions on the soldiers¡¯ faces held a greater sense of urgency than they had ever shown before. That was no doubt partly due to their astonishment at hearing Darren¡¯s name, but also partly to the shock of the scene they had just witnessed.

    Regarding the latter, Percy felt the same way. Nevertheless, he went to his horse without letting anything show. Yet his hands as he took hold of his saddle were nearly shaking.

    After making sure that everyone was going, Lord Leo once again climbed astride his horse. Suddenly, however, as though he had changed his mind about something, he jumped back down to the ground.

    ¡°Percy, Percy!¡± He called the name twice.

    His voice sounded so desperate that Percy rushed over in surprise. Meanwhile, Leo had, for some reason, started running towards a thicket of trees.

    ¡°Please watch behind...¡± even as he spoke, he crouched down to the ground. Leo¡¯s back heaved and there was a retching sound, like a frog croaking in his throat.

    Ah, that¡¯s it ¨C Percy understood.

    ¡°Is something wrong?¡±

    ¡°Is His Highness unwell?¡±

    Several soldiers started to approach the thicket, but Percy stopped with a wave of his hand.

    ¡°It¡¯s a confidential conversation. You can¡¯t come.¡±

    Behind where Percy was standing guard, Leo continued to throw up, keeping the noise as quiet as he could.

    Lord Leo had already gone through his first campaign, and he had also killed Hayden Swift with his own two hands. However, it was one thing to kill an enemy in the heat of battle, but this was, of course, the first time he had swung his sword at someone who was not resisting, ad doing so repeatedly, tearing through their skin, crushing their bones, piercing their organs.

    Several minutes passed as Percy remained standing where he was.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine now, thanks,¡± Leo stood up and walked up to Percy¡¯s side. His face was calm, and he seemed about to walk back to his horse and once more take the bit from the page.

    Percy called out to him from behind,

    ¡°Your Highness, for the blood,¡± he held out a cloth.

    Leo took it expressionlessly and wiped the blood from the enemy soldiers from his face ¨C or at least he pretended to: it was actually the contours of his lips that he was wiping clean.

    ¡°I intended to kill them in a single blow,¡± he said as he was doing so.

    ¡°Aye.¡±

    ¡°But I failed. And then I realised that the other captives were afraid. That¡¯s why...¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± Percy nodded.

    Actually, he didn¡¯t understand. But as the prince made excuses for his actions, Percy managed to hold back his agitated feelings.

    ¡°In the future...¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°I mustn¡¯t put family members in the same unit. That¡¯s what happens when you do.¡±

    What he meant by ¡®that¡¯ was probably having a father freely give information as he pleaded for his son¡¯s life.

    Leo flung himself atop his horse. When Percy caught a glimpse of his profile, Lord Leo was just as he always was.

    Horrifying, thought Percy as he too flung himself into the saddle and urged his horse forward, following after Leo.

    War is horrifying. And so is the position of leader in war.

    Part 3

    Darren Actica¡¯s domain had been known as the Dharam region since long ago. It had once belonged to the ruling family, but it was officially awarded to the Ruband House ¨C an experienced military family which had been put in charge of Dharam Castle ¨C in recognition of an unparalleled achievement that they had accomplished. It was also at that time that the principality was cleanly divided into the domains of the sovereign-prince to the north, and the fiefs of the vassal-lords in the south, the two being separated by the Iron Chain, a mountain range that ran straight through the centre of the country. The seventh head of the Ruband family indulged in dissipation and debauchery, bringing his House to ruin, and it was the Actica House, a branch family of the Rubands, who inherited the domain.

    Within the principality, it was a region known for its rich harvests. As it was also situated roughly at the centre of the country, large market towns had easily established themselves at the heart of the trade routes, and as the grain-producing area also faced a river, the region quickly gained wealth. It was simply because Darren had the financial means to employ large numbers of mercenaries whenever necessary that he was able to oust the previous sovereign-prince.

    Right now, that same Darren had only been able to mutter ¡°Impossible...¡± before finding himself at a loss for words.

    It was around midnight, and he was on horseback. After sending troops for the surprise attack on the holiday villas, Darren Actica had climbed into the saddle so as to personally take part in capturing Guinbar.

    His hobby was hunting, but he had not organised a hunt since the death of his oldest son, Togo, and throwing himself onto a horse, and grasping sword and bow again after so long had left him feeling exhilarated.

    I¡¯ll thrust this sword at Savan¡¯s grey head.

    His blood grew heated at the thought.

    He had been waiting impatiently for the report that ¡®Lord Leo has been killed¡¯, yet those who rushed to find him were not only messengers, but also several dozen soldiers, all of them wounded and staggering as they walked. The report they brought was that Lord Leo¡¯s assassination had failed, that their commander had been killed in action, and that they had also lost over a third of their numbers.

    At first, Darren was left speechless, but then, his armour-clad body started to tremble violently. This was the second time that he had been caught out, and he was by now truly afraid of the man called Leo Attiel.

    ¡°Retreat!¡±

    All Darren could do was utter that single word, and return to his castle. On the way, he was constantly worried about what was at his back.

    Given that Lord Leo had laid an ambush to turn the tables on Darren¡¯s forces and encircle them, he must naturally know who the ringleader was, and what actions he, Darren, had been taking.

    Then what will the prince¡¯s next move be?

    Would he strengthen Guinbar¡¯s defence, or would he meet up with Savan¡¯s troops and attack Darren¡¯s territory?

    No, that¡¯s impossible. Even a prince wouldn¡¯t be able to invade a domain within our own country without first consulting the sovereign-prince. So in the meantime, I need to come up with a new plan.

    He arrived back at his castle. It was called Olt Rose, and was said to have been named after the lover of one of the heads of the Ruband family. He had been going to remove his armour as soon as he entered, but before he could do so, a soldier who had been sent out on patrol came tumbling in before him.

    ¡°The prince¡¯s troops have broken into our territory!¡± He announced, in a voice so high-pitched it was almost a squeak. They numbered approximately six hundred. What Darren had thought impossible had become real.

    They had moved fast. In what had virtually been a night attack, Leo had captured the fortress on the border of Darren¡¯s territory. Most of the troops which had originally been stationed there had been called up for the assault on Guinbar. The remaining soldiers had never dreamed that Lord Leo would be attacking them, so there had been virtually no fighting, as they had surrendered at the first sound of warning shots from the enemy cannons.

    Continuing northwards, Leo¡¯s forces had also taken a fort that was governed by one of Darren¡¯s relatives. For all that it was a castle, it was on open ground; since it only had jurisdiction over the neighbouring villages, the building was not large, and had no more than twenty or so soldiers guarding it. There was no way they could oppose Leo¡¯s Personal Guards, who were charging towards them with cannons and guns.

    The prince had waited at the castle for the three hundred men in his rear guard, before setting off once more with a troop of six hundred. And so it was that Leo was approaching Olt Rose Castle, with his soldiers mostly unharmed.

    ¡°T-That bastard! He can¡¯t possibly be planning to put to the torch the territory of a vassal to the ruling House? That devil¡¯s spawn is finally revealing his true nature!¡±

    Darren hit the gorgeously-made table before him. Normally, he should have broken into Guinbar Castle by now; at around about this time, Savan, the man who had harmed his son, was supposed to have been driven into a corner, and Darren should have been gloating down at him. Yet in reality, it was Darren who had been driven back against a wall by those who had destroyed his son.

    How can something this absurd be...

    Fortunately, the troops which had been meant to capture Guinbar had all been led to Olt Rose Castle. Although they had fewer cannons and guns, Darren¡¯s side had more soldiers.

    With Leo¡¯s forces drawing closer and closer, it was time to make a decision. Should they face them in open battle, or should they prepare for a siege?

    In those days, the warrior code was strongly entrenched and held that, ¡°Since we outnumber them, we should attack them head on, not sneakily hole ourselves up.¡±

    The people of Atall had very little experience with war and yet ¨C or, no, perhaps it was because they were not used to it ¨C many of their men were mesmerised by those warrior values, and the soldiers were beating their spears against their shields, insisting that they should launch themselves against the enemy.

    Foremost among them was Dingo Actica, Darren¡¯s second son. The desire to avenge his brother burned just as fiercely within him as it did in his father. He was only twenty years old, but he was built along the same burly lines as his father and brother, and, again just like them, he had gone as a marauder to lay waste to other territories. With his teeth bared as he yelled, he cut an impressive figure.

    ¡°Father, our enemies aren¡¯t mercenaries ¨C half of them are just peasants and traders. We should boldly sally forward and overpower them head-on.¡±

    Yet Darren did not give his consent. He had felt the sting of his previous lessons, and had learned that you can¡¯t make light of Leo.

    He simply placed riflemen along the outer ramparts of the town, then firmly closed the gates and gave every sign that he was readying himself for a siege. At the same time, he sent a messenger post-haste to Tiwana, the capital, with a request for Sovereign-Prince Magrid to intervene. The way he saw it, Leo can¡¯t have gotten Magrid¡¯s permission to get rid of me.

    Which meant that Leo had, once again, acted on nothing but his own judgement. Ever since the incident at Conscon, the sovereign-prince must surely be nervous about what Leo might do, and if he was informed of the circumstances, he would probably bring his son under control.

    ¡°If I make my excuses convincing enough, the prince who ¡®arbitrarily invaded a vassal¡¯s territory¡¯ will lose all trust. I¡¯ll be able to have his Personal Guards taken away. And... right, if Leo¡¯s falls from his hero¡¯s pedestal, then Savan, who is so strongly tied to him, will also be brought down.¡±

    That was how Darren justified himself to his son and to his vassals.

    ¡°We only have to wait, and not only will Leo self-destruct, he¡¯ll also provide us with plenty of excuses for invading Guinbar. There¡¯s absolutely no reason to get impatient at this point.¡±

    The next day, he managed to persuade his vassals, and they agreed on a siege.

    Another unexpected event occurred, although this time, it was a fortunate one for Darren. When they had arrived before the ramparts of the town of Olt Rose, Leo¡¯s troops had assumed that Darren¡¯s forces would charge out to fight them, and so they had taken up position to the south of the walls.

    It was close to dawn when they were attacked by surprise. Right, not ¡®Leo attacked by surprise¡¯, but ¡®Leo was attacked by surprise¡¯.

    The prince had set up camp to the south. The roads along the gently-sloping hills were bathed in the pale light of dawn when, all of a sudden, that light was covered in dark shadows. Upon closer inspection, the shadow turned out to be men on horseback, drawing closer to Leo¡¯s camp while the sound of their horses¡¯ hooves rang out.

    When the soldiers standing sentry raised their voices to sound the alarm, their heads were cut off. The enemies were fast. Leo¡¯s men desperately tried to fight back, shouting to wake their companions as they did so. The riders flung their lit torches in every direction, and many of the tents caught fire.

    Leo was also pulled out of sleep, but by the time he had gone out to take command, the group of riders had already picked out an archery unit, and vanished. They were as swift as a gust of wind.

    They left behind them three dead, and five who were too seriously wounded to be able to move. Moreover, some of their provisions had been burned.

    While fires burned within the camp, a group of bowmen, thought to be allies to the riders, had lined up in formation before anyone had time to notice them, and released their arrows into Leo''s base.

    This was clearly an outside attack, but nobody could figure out where on earth they came from. Leo had naturally placed guards on watch-out in the area around the camp, so just how skilled must the enemy be to have easily slipped through that net of sentries?

    The next evening, the same thing happened again.

    The camp¡¯s defence was a lot tighter than it had been the previous night, but the enemy concentrated on attacking at a single point, and easily ploughed their way through to Leo¡¯s headquarters.

    Unlike the previous night, he had arranged for riflemen to be on duty in shifts, yet the enemy seemed to have perfectly seen through that as well. The riders in the lead were pulling carts, and the instant that Leo¡¯s side opened fire, they jumped from their horses and set fire to the hay inside the wagons. They then struck the horses¡¯ rumps, and directed them towards the camp.

    A second group of riders appeared, with bowmen riding pillion and, just like the night before, a hail of arrows rained down.

    The billowing smoke dulled the aim of the riflemen and, despite the threat from fire and arrows, riders came charging in, and once again brought chaos to the camp. At about the same time, the guards that the riders had previously broken through came racing towards the camp in a mass, and immediately tried to chase the enemies down.

    ¡°Fools. Do you think you¡¯ve outmanoeuvred us? Those guys actually believe we¡¯d fall for a pincer movement, huh?¡±

    The second wave of attack started up. A detached enemy force which had been lying in wait further back had been waiting for the moment when the guards would turn their back on them. Given the situation, a pincer attack was no longer feasible for those on Leo''s side.

    While the guards were thrown into confusion, the first wave of troops made a leisurely exit, and the detached force soon followed suit. They had been fast both when attacking and when pulling back. What they left behind them was soldiers in agony, voices crying out the names of those who had been pierced by arrows, and brightly burning fires.

    ¡°Damn it!¡± shouted Leo, violently flinging down the helmet that he had just been about to put on.

    This was the second time they had been had by the enemy. Thinking that those in the castle might seize the opportunity to open the town gates, Percy, Camus and Kuon had strengthened the defence at the front, and had ordered most of the soldiers to stay awake, but, in the end, there was no more movement before dawn. All it did was increase the soldiers¡¯ fatigue.

    Leo summoned Percy and the others early in the morning.

    ¡°Did Darren pretend to hunker down in his castle for a siege, while actually having forces hidden in the surroundings?¡± Leo suggested a first analysis, but Percy disagreed.

    ¡°The troops that attacked us were the best of the best; and I don¡¯t see how Darren could have hired people that good in so little time.¡±

    The assailants excelled at handling their horses. While there weren¡¯t that many of them, and although they had seemed to charge headlong in, their movements when they were disrupting the camp were coordinated, and when the time had come to retreat, they had turned their horses around with impressive speed.

    There weren¡¯t that many highly-skilled horsemen in Atall, so they were probably marauders or mercenaries who were used to setting towns and villages ablaze. And among them, there was only a very limited number who could boast of such outstanding abilities...

    ¡°It¡¯s probably Lance Mazpotter,¡± Percy suggested a name.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± asked Camus. There was an irritated crease running down the centre of his forehead, and he had hardly slept since the previous evening.

    ¡°He¡¯s the leader of well-known band of marauders here in Atall. He¡¯d recently been keeping quiet, but...¡± According to Percy, the man had been born in Atall, but when he was young, he had apparently been a pirate and a bandit who had laid waste in the northern coastal countries. Towards the end of his twenties, he had returned to the principality and taken up trade as a marauder. He was skilled with a sword and proficient in strategies that made use of horses, so his considerable talents had been sought by any number of territories. By the very nature of the marauders¡¯ trade, it was often difficult to know who their employers were at any given time.

    ¡°A little while ago, there was a rumour or two that he had recently been spotted at Oswell Taholin¡¯s castle.¡±

    ¡°Oswell, is it?¡± Leo ground his teeth.

    They had met face-to-face during the banquet. Oswell Taholin was the only one of the vassal-lords who had argued that the sovereign-king should send reinforcements to Conscon Temple. Yet when Allion had sent an envoy, his attitude had been that he knew nothing of Conscon, and after that, he had not said anything further on the matter. Ever since then, Leo had found him strangely suspicious.

    ¡°So basically, he¡¯s secretly connected to Darren?¡± Camus¡¯ indignant words were ones that Leo agreed with.

    As a result of their council of war, Leo decided to move their camp.

    The river that flowed through the centre of the castle town became wider to the southwest of the ramparts. Although not on a scale that you could call it a forest, there were trees growing on the south bank. With the river behind them and the trees to defend them against another surprise charge from the riders, Leo had his men take up position again. The ground dipped slightly, so in all honesty, it wasn¡¯t the best place for observing or intercepting an enemy, but it was far better than staying out in the open in front of the castle town.

    ¡°How are we going to take the castle from here?¡± Kuon voiced his displeasure. This passive attitude of having to helplessly wait for the enemy to make their move was sure to get under his skin.

    ¡°We''ve got cannons. We could just blow holes through the walls.¡±

    ¡°We want to avoid harming the town as much as possible. When we took our previous position right in front of it, it was to deliberately lure the enemy out,¡± explained Percy, but even so, it was originally only supposed to be for three days.

    The reason for that was not so much that they were granting Darren a three-day grace, but because they were intending to spread rumours that, ¡°even though Darren has a greater number of soldiers, he is a coward who would not come out to fight, and his lack of character caused the town to suffer needless damage.¡±

    Their aim had been to change the target of criticism within the town, by turning it away from Leo and towards Darren instead. So because of that, these surprise attacks were a very serious blow to Leo''s side. Moving the camp''s position seemed like a definite sign of weakness but, understandably enough, Leo could not think of any alternative.

    Part 4

    ¡°So it¡¯s Lance Mazpotter.¡±

    That was a name that even Darren had heard before.

    A messenger from Lance had circumvented Leo¡¯s camp to enter Olt Rose Castle. The excitement was at fever pitch inside the castle when they learned that Lance had twice hindered Leo¡¯s troops by attacking them.

    Here were unexpected reinforcements.

    According to the messenger, their unit had, on Oswell''s orders, gone to lend a hand in capturing Guinbar, but when Lance heard that the situation had reversed, and that Leo was attacking Darren instead, he had immediately altered his plans, and had decided to cut through Leo''s troops from behind.

    That''s Oswell for you. Definitely a guy worth using.

    While maintaining an outwardly calm expression, Darren was inwardly considerably relieved.

    He had been dreading that Leo might mount a surprise attack from some unknown direction, and that any carelessness on his part would lead to castle town being invaded. Thanks to this, however, he could stall for time far more easily than he had expected.

    But still...

    Frankly speaking, Darren did not like this messenger who had come from Lance. His bare arms were crossed in front of his worn-out chest armour, and even though he was before an Atallese noble, he did not show the slightest sign of courtesy. Although his moustache was neatly trimmed, he wore his hair long and had it tied back in a bunch behind his head. As he also wore an eye patch over his left eye, he truly looked like a mountain bandit.

    I guess this just goes to show what kind of origins his ''leader'' Lance comes from...

    Even so, these were unmistakably valuable reinforcements, and Darren did his best to act amiably.

    ¡°Please convey my thanks to Sir Oswell. To Sir Lance as well.¡±

    ¡°I''ll tell ''em.¡±

    The messenger had helped himself uninvited to a piece of fruit from the tray placed on the table, and he made his answer while bringing it to his mouth. Although Darren had a hard time swallowing his anger, this turn of events had bolstered the spirit of Olt Rose''s soldiers far beyond anything that he had hoped for.

    These were originally men who had been enthusiastic about setting another territory to the torch, and they almost seemed to be slobbering like stray dogs waiting for food.

    ¡°We should seize this chance to launch our offensive,¡± they kept insisting one-by-one.

    The leader of the movement was once again Darren''s son, Dingo, yet Darren shook his head at the suggestion.

    ¡°Don''t make light of Leo.¡±

    ¡°I am not suggesting we kill him here and now,¡± Dingo''s face was red, ¡°but instead of waiting for the sovereign-prince to mediate, if we strike a hard blow against the prince and drive him away with our own strength, then afterwards, we''ll be able to take a stronger attitude towards the princely house. And those within our domains who view Leo as a hero will wake up to reality.¡±

    His father fell silent despite himself. Certainly, relying on the sovereign-prince to help him would affect Darren''s reputation: even if he was able to socially destroy the prince, he might lose the ability to coerce the ruling house itself.

    ¡°Father, we won¡¯t chase them too far. Please give your permission,¡± Dingo asked insistently.

    Darren hesitated, but he was a man whose power and influence had long been a match for the ruling family¡¯s; he was not used to reigning himself in at the last moment like this. And then, there was also that information about how Leo had moved camp ¨C it was obvious that he had done so as a precaution and out of fear of Lance¡¯s attacks.

    If we attack them now... the thought took root in Darren¡¯s mind.

    He granted his son permission.

    With unconcealed delight, Dingo went to wait on standby by the gate with seven hundred men. There was a risk that Leo might get impatient and lead an onslaught against the castle town first, but Dingo was determined to fling open the gates and ride out to fight if that happened.

    As soon as he saw an opportunity, the quick-witted Lance would definitely attack from behind with his cavalry troops. Those new models of guns and cannons that Leo¡¯s men were equipped with would become useless once the fight turned into confused close-quarter combat.

    Early in the morning, two days after the second surprise attack, riders launched an assault on Leo¡¯s camp for the third time.

    They struck from the southern direction. Since Leo¡¯s side had taken position on low ground, it was ideal for a cavalry attack, and the riders swooped down the slope.

    Leo, however, was naturally not just sitting there helplessly: riflemen had been placed between the trees growing south of the camp, and they were ready for the riders. Cannons also belched out fire, and the projectiles crashed into trees even further south. Several cavalrymen fell.

    A group of soldiers stood waiting to intercept the remaining riders, their spears at the ready.

    At about that same time ¨C

    ¡°Open the gates!¡± Dingo Actica roared, and his troops launched themselves out from the gates of the castle town.

    The charge was timed to match with Lance¡¯s cavalry attack. The first to leave was the central column, which consisted mostly of mercenaries. They headed straight towards Leo¡¯s camp, which of course now found itself forced to deal with them.

    Although they looked like they had dashed out without preparation, a second unit followed right behind Dingo¡¯s central column. This was the left wing, centred around its cavalrymen, which made use of its speed to quickly flank Leo¡¯s interception unit, which was now surrounded.

    Meanwhile, the right wing, which Dingo led in person, started to move along the river. Leo¡¯s attention was occupied by Lance¡¯s attack, and he failed to grasp how the army which had left the castle town was manoeuvring as a whole. Leo¡¯s troops were lured in by the central column and the left wing, leaving their encampment insufficiently defended.

    As a result, Dingo¡¯s group was easily able to break through the camp¡¯s outer guards. With the cannons immobilised in the south, there was no risk of cannonballs falling towards them.

    At around that same time, Lance¡¯s riders, who had led the initial charge, brought their first attack to an end and altered their course. Although they had taken damage from the riflemen and cannons, their cooperation was unimpaired as they briskly commenced their retreat.

    Leo¡¯s cavalrymen gave chase.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let them escape!¡±

    ¡°Kill them!¡±

    Their angry bellows echoed from every direction. And there were many of them.

    Or rather ¨C there were too many of them.

    They could finally give vent to their fury over Lance¡¯s repeated attacks, and that spurred them on so strongly that they forgot to look back towards the encampment behind them. Which meant that they had been lured away by Lance¡¯s troops.

    This made things even easier for Dingo¡¯s unit, which was edging up towards the enemy camp. They continued onwards, while the soldiers set fire to the simple watchtowers, and either demolished the perfunctory abatis placed around the camp, or avoided them altogether.

    When Dingo¡¯s group came crashing into the camp, the soldiers who had stayed by Leo¡¯s side ran away, screaming.

    ¡°What ¡®Personal Guards¡¯? What ¡®hero¡¯?¡± Dingo roared with laughter from horseback. ¡°You might have defeated Allion¡¯s forces, but your luck ran out when you made an enemy of House Actica! Lord Leo, come on out! I¡¯m a generous warrior: I¡¯ll fight you in single combat.¡±

    One after another, he cut down the flags with the emblems of the ruling House and of the Cross Faith, whose presence indicated that these were the troop headquarters.

    Dingo¡¯s group pushed its way in even further before suddenly realising something: they had expected there to be very few soldiers at the headquarters since they had lured the enemy away from the camp ¨C but there were too few soldiers around. In fact, the place was practically empty.

    By the time Dingo¡¯s expression had changed because of the realisation, it was already too late.

    There was the roar of cannon fire, and earth went flying, mixed in with the blood and flesh of men and horses, spraying their entire surroundings. The shots continued to rain down on them, uninterrupted.

    Dingo was shaken from the saddle, and fell to the ground. As a result, his collapsed horse served as a shield against the storm of bullets, but it would be hard to say that luck was on his side. Simply said, it was Leo who had successfully lured the enemy.

    After the first surprise attack, Kuon ¨C who excelled at night-time espionage ¨C had been ordered to lurk in the area around Olt Rose¡¯s castle town. Percy and Camus¡¯ prediction was that if this attack corps was Lance¡¯s group which had been sent by Oswell, then, without a doubt, there would come a time when they would act together with those from inside the castle.

    And Kuon had commendably managed to detect a person surreptitiously slipping into the castle area under cover of night. His night-vision was impressive, and there was no doubt that the one he had seen was a messenger from Lance¡¯s troops.

    They¡¯ll work together to attack us from both sides ¨C was Leo¡¯s guess. Basing himself on that reading of the situation, he had drawn up a strategy to entice the enemy into his headquarters.

    He had his troops pretend to take the enemy¡¯s bait and all but desert the camp, then waited to launch an assault on their assailants¡¯ core force. The cannons had been aimed towards where the ruling House¡¯s flags were planted, and they were set off as the enemy approached them.

    But then, where was Leo Attiel at that moment?

    He was leading the group which was chasing after Lance¡¯s cavalry unit. Although... the ¡®chasing¡¯ was no more than a pretence, aimed at emptying the camp.

    He was wholly focused on galloping forward until he heard the roar of artillery that blew apart Dingo¡¯s group. At that signal, Leo called out to his men and turned his horse around. Along with his two hundred riders, he started to charge.

    Ahead of them was the first interception unit. Since they were in a defenceless forward position, they were surrounded by the enemy¡¯s central column and left wing, but that unit¡¯s role was precisely to keep those two forces immobilised.

    They had essentially been given the most dangerous duty. If they had been annihilated in a short time, the entire strategy would have collapsed at that point. Which was why the elite fighters that were Percy, Camus and Kuon had been included within that unit.

    Each of them fought hard.

    Percy and Camus excelled with the spear.

    When they had headed out to intercept the enemy, Kuon¡¯s unit had deliberately fallen behind, allowing them to flank the opposing troops which had eagerly started their encirclement, come up behind them, and scatter the enemy¡¯s attention with their manoeuvre. For all that they were highly skilled, Percy and Camus were still unused to group combat, so this was not a trick that they could have attempted.

    It paid off, and they were able to hold out astoundingly well.

    Just when Darren¡¯s soldiers were losing their cool, Leo¡¯s cavalry unit attacked the left wing from behind. Darren¡¯s side did not have the mental preparedness for that, and so neither did they have much persistence. Carried by the momentum of Leo¡¯s unit coming to the rescue, the interception troop once again went on the offensive ¨C the mercenary-based central column was the first to start pulling back, and when their centre collapsed, the left wing gradually lost its will to fight.

    When messengers came hurrying with further news of how the right wing had been routed, and how Dingo had to be carried back to the castle, carried on his companions¡¯ shoulders, there was clearly no longer any way of winning, and Darren¡¯s men all started running back to the castle town.

    Darren¡¯s face had turned ashen when he saw his blood-covered second son being carried in to the castle area, and although many of his men were still outside, he ordered that the gates be shut, not only to the castle, but also to the town. Finding themselves locked out, most of the mercenaries considered fleeing, then fell to their knees on the spot, and begged for mercy.

    Good.

    Leo Attiel slowed his horse¡¯s pace, and breathed a sigh of relief beneath his helmet. For now, things were going according to plan.

    He sent messengers again to every one of the units, and, by noon, they had set up formation right outside the main gates. The cannons had also been hauled over, and were aimed at the town¡¯s walls.

    They had intended to ride the momentum and break in, but, as though to chip away at their spirits, Lance¡¯s cavalry corps launched an attack on them. Platoons of two or three hundred men rushed towards them again and again.

    At noon, they came from the south then, just half an hour later, it was from the east. Another hour and a half later, it was from the west, even though the river should have been in their way. It was clear that they had made the considerable detour to avoid it, but it still gave the impression they had appeared as though by magic, since the cooperation between the platoons was so perfect that they almost seemed able to time each other¡¯s breathing.

    Taken individually, none of these were large-scale attacks, but since Leo¡¯s side was not numerous enough to surround the castle, they were forced to rush to repel them each time.

    When Darren¡¯s soldiers, who had taken refuge back in the town, saw that Leo had run into an unexpected problem, they rallied once more, and started shooting from above the ramparts while infantrymen left from another gate to create a diversion.

    From the outset, Leo¡¯s side had never had the numbers to topple the castle. Leo had nevertheless made the attempt by relying on their superior speed and equipment, as well as on their fully-loaded cannons, which would serve as siege weapons. However, Lance¡¯s intervention had outdone theirs in terms of ¡®speed¡¯, crushing Leo¡¯s optimistic hopes.

    The battle which had begun in the early morning had continued throughout the afternoon, and showed no signs of ending even when evening was drawing close. The people of the castle town were certainly terrified of the fighting, and they had locked themselves up in storehouses and cellars, trembling as they huddled close together. There were even some who had put boats out on the river, and made their escape northwards.

    The time for Leo¡¯s plan to succeed had long since passed. Yet even so, Leo Attiel was not going to call back his troops.

    ¡°Your Highness!¡±

    Percy knelt down beside Leo beneath the dark red sky. The face under his helmet was covered in sweat, and his armour¡¯s breastplate was stained with dark blood from those he had killed.

    ¡°Our units are reaching a level of damage that we cannot ignore anymore.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°I deeply apologise ©¤ our strength was unable to live up to your expectations, Your Highness. For now, let us retreat.¡±

    Sitting on horseback, Leo Attiel removed his helmet.He seemed about to fling it to the ground again, but then immediately changed his mind and placed it back on his head.

    He could hear birds making a racket by the side of the river. They must be swarming because of the blood and flesh splattered about by the cannonballs.

    ¡°Withdraw,¡± Leo cried out. ¡°We withdraw!¡±

    While leading the movement, Leo glanced up towards the heavens. Dark black clouds seemed to be pulsating in the blood-red sky.

    He ground his teeth.

    They had obtained victory after victory. Yet in the end, the soldiers up on the ramparts were the ones shouting out triumphantly, and hurling abuse as they watched his soldiers leave.

    He had lost.

 Volume 3, 4: Child of the Land

    Volume 3, Chapter 4: Child of the Land

    Part 1

    Having returned to Guinbar, Leo immediately sent out scouts. This wasn¡¯t only because he was wary of Darren being in pursuit, but also because he wanted them to investigate the terrain around Olt Rose.

    Their defeat stemmed from a lack of information. Just a single piece more might have allowed them to predict how Lance¡¯s troops would move.

    After that, the other problem had been the number of soldiers. After meeting with Savan Roux, the castle lord, Leo had informed him that, ¡°Darren is scheming to capture Guinbar,¡± and had ordered him to hire a great many more troops. This was, of course, to defend Guinbar, but also so as to add part of them to his own attack corps.

    In other words, Leo had not yet given up.

    As long as his information and troops were complete, he would probably have ridden his horse the very next day after his defeat, to raise his sword a second time, while the walls of Olt Rose and their surroundings were filled with the stench of gunpowder smoke.

    Leo chaffed with impatience.

    ¡®Speed¡¯ is crucial.

    He had already thought so when they went to capture Olt Rose, but the meaning was not limited to tactics on the battlefield: it also concerned his strategy for what to do after having subjugated Darren.

    Darren plotted Lord Leo¡¯s assassination, and was immediately cut down at Leo¡¯s own hands ¨C He wanted that to become a reality. With just that, he would be able to speed up the plan to unite Atall as one.

    He could not afford to have trouble simply because of one man like Darren.

    ¡°We need airships,¡± Leo asserted to Percy and the others. ¡°There¡¯s nothing better to investigate the layout of a battlefield. They would be useful for messengers too. Is there any way to get five or six... no, even just three would be enough.¡±

    However ¨C

    While they were still only halfway through the preparations for the second attack, envoys came from Tiwana, sent by the sovereign-prince. He demanded that both Darren and Leo explain the situation to him.

    ¡°Your Highness, you are requested to leave at once for Tiwana,¡± said the envoy.

    ¡°My life was targeted,¡± Leo answered however, ¡°I will not stay in the same place as Darren.¡±

    Thus, he refused to go to the capital

    A second messenger soon came to see him, but Leo again turned him down. Once the prince was wedded to Florrie, he would have the duty of being a ''bridge-builder'' with Allion. Leo''s assessment was that since the sovereign-prince was aware of the importance of this, he would yield if his son remained firm.

    But Leo''s actions at Conscon Temple seemed to have worried his father more than Leo had anticipated. When yet a third envoy arrived, the message he carried was:

    ¡°If Second Prince Leo refuses the summons a third time, I will have a notice proclaimed that he is to be chased down and dragged before me.¡±

    In front of the messenger, Leo''s expression remained calm, but he was inwardly surprised. If he had received that letter when he was alone, he might even have started trembling uncontrollably.

    First, there were the ¡°summons¡± to explain himself before the sovereign-prince. They had been sent out as an official document, and were synonymous to declaring that, ¡°you are simply a retainer, not a member of the princely house¡±.

    And needless to say, the ¡°proclamation that he is to be dragged before me¡± was essentially an order to ¡°capture a fugitive criminal¡±.

    Did something happen to Father? Leo wondered, completely blind to his own faults.

    Once the messenger had left the room, Leo kicked the wall as hard as he could.

    I knew ''speed'' was important.

    If he could have captured Olt Rose, he could have branded Darren a ''criminal'', and then the situation would never have turned out like this. But it was too late for regrets.

    ¡°What will you do?¡±

    In response to Percy''s question, Leo¡¯s expression looked like he was about to burst into laughter at any moment.

    ¡°What can I do except go? I want to unite the country, so I can''t be the one to divide it.¡± His eyes were filled with anger and self-mockery. Yet even so ¨C ¡°I swear by all that is holy that we did nothing wrong. I''ll explain that in person to Father.¡±

    He did not seem to be in despair. Percy understood that, and nodded carefully in response.

    ¡°I understand. Then we too...¡±

    ¡°No. The only guard I''m taking is Kuon. Percy, there''s something I want you lot to do for me.¡±

    After a short discussion, Leo prepared what he needed for the journey.

    Some ten days later, Leo was gazing the northern meadows as he arrived at Tiwana, the capital city, which almost seemed to be binding together patches of countryside. Before he even had time to wash off the dirt from travelling, he and Darren were summoned together before the sovereign-prince.

    It was already evening by then.

    Father must be absolutely furious ¨C thought Leo. He remembered how, after he had wilfully gone to meet with the king of Allion, his father had called him to his personal chambers to yell at him.

    Leo steeled himself for having angry roars flung at him as soon as he appeared, but the sovereign-prince''s expression, as he sat on the throne, was stern, and his gaze was equally cold, whether he turned it towards his son or towards Darren.

    Apart from a few Royal Guards, there was no one in the audience chamber, and no other retainers present. Given how things stood, he probably wanted to bring things to an end as discretely as possible.

    ¡°Let''s hear what both of you have to say about the reasons for this ruckus,¡± at Magrid''s words, Leo was the first to speak.

    ¡°It was because Darren turned his blade against me,¡± he explained.

    After telling about how he had been targeted by a surprise attack to the holiday resort area, and how about how he had just barely managed to overcome it, he went on to talk about how they had captured and interrogated several soldiers, who had confessed that Darren was the mastermind.

    ¡°That''s impossible,¡± Darren Actica vociferously interrupted.

    ¡°What''s impossible?¡± Leo shot Darren a sidelong glare. ¡°We arrested several soldiers, and I can have them brought here.¡±

    ¡°Even if the soldiers were fooled into believing that I was the mastermind, it is nothing but a trap set by someone who wishes for my downfall. Something similar happened not so long ago. Sir Savan called me to his castle on the grounds that the leader of the marauders who were causing havoc at Guinbar''s quarry apparently looked like my son. Your Highness Leo, wasn''t that misunderstanding supposed to have already been cleared up?¡±

    Darren deliberately crossed that dangerous bridge. In bringing up that past quarrel, he was playing the card that ¡°Lord Leo has already suspected me unfairly before this.¡±

    Leo had captured Darren''s son, Togo, but he had deliberately presented him as a ''stranger'' with the intention of subsequently blocking any of Darren''s manoeuvres by keeping Togo under guard at Guinbar Castle. The prince had wanted, if at all possible, to draw Darren''s faction to his side, but the way he had dealt with things back then had provoked a bitter enmity.

    While Leo stuttered, Darren instead continued speaking.

    ¡°Your Majesty, there must be some nefarious actor at work who wishes to drive a wedge between House Actica and the princely House. His Highness Leo, who is known for the heroic way that he saved the temple, is honest and upright. It is for that very reason, however, that his emotions are easily provoked, and I fear that His Highness might have been duped by vile rumours spread by that nefarious agent.¡±

    How dare he... Leo felt like punching Darren in the face.

    Standing there, next to him, was the man who had unmistakably targeted his life. Yet Darren didn''t breathe so much as a hint of that fact as he calmly proclaimed his innocence to the sovereign-prince. Was this what was called a devil in human skin?

    Or maybe humans, who are supposed to be fashioned in God''s image, are actually closer in nature to the devil? Unbidden fury filled his heart.

    Leo was unable to smash through the play that Darren was acting out. In which case, what he needed were the words and attitude capable of swaying the sovereign-prince''s heart and influencing the judgement he would hand down, but this discussion was something that Darren himself had originally asked for, and the sovereign-prince was increasingly inclined to view his son as dangerous. The odds had been stacked against Leo from the start.

    While Leo could not say half of what he was thinking, the sovereign-prince raised a hand and stopped the two of them.

    ¡°Fine, I understand what both of you are saying,¡± his decision was more or less exactly what Leo had been expecting. ¡°At the moment, I do not have enough information. Until I have had it investigated, neither of you is to start a fight with the other. Whatever the circumstances may be, I fully intend to punish whoever made the first move.¡±

    Leo had no choice but to obey, while Darren had no reason not to.

    Leo did not even stay three days in Tiwana. During that short time, Florrie had asked to see him, but Leo refused on the grounds that ¡°my health isn''t great.¡±

    Please be sure to make things up to Miss Florrie ¨C it wasn''t that he had forgotten Percy''s repeated reminders, but right now, and even if it was Florrie, he did not think that he would be able to talk normally to anyone.

    His tactics had been aimed at strengthening the central power by forcing the vassal-lords to submit, even through sheer strength if necessary. Yet he had tripped over the very first stumbling block. Leo was furious over his own incompetence.

    He could not deny that he had been careless on every single point. Yet simultaneously, and for the first time, he felt irritated by his father, the sovereign-prince ¨C Father doesn''t understand anything!

    The ruling House has to strengthen its central power ¨C at least as it is right now, with the vassal-lords not even falling in line with its policies, we won''t be able to compete against Allion and Dytiann. Even though everything I''ve done is for Atall''s sake, why doesn''t he understand?

    When he and Darren had been presenting their excuses, his father''s attitude had been strange: it had been that of a ruler, coldly and emotionlessly staring down at those far beneath him. Whenever Leo recalled that gaze, he could not help but feel chilled to the core.

    He requested several times to have a meeting alone with his father, but was turned down each time.

    Stark Barsley, who was in Tiwana at the same time, came to see Leo. It was impossible for Stark to feel anything but flabbergasted at Leo''s actions, but outwardly at least, he simply gave advice like an elder.

    ¡°For now, you need to stay quiet. You cannot expect our sovereign to tolerate fights within our borders. And all the less so when one of the parties involved is his own kin. If His Majesty appears to be dealing with you so strictly, it is only to protect your House. Give it time, and His Majesty will be willing to listen to you.¡±

    Leo, however, paid him no heed. In the end, angry, irritated and faintly uneasy, he returned to Guinbar three days after arriving in Tiwana.

    Those at the head of Atall who gathered around the sovereign-prince only had an even worse impression of Leo because of it.

    His Highness does not understand His Majesty''s heart, and will apparently only rely on Savan, who is loyal whom he knows to be loyal to him.

    One of these days, he might come up with some other excuse and break into our territories.

    Darren, on the other hand, was gaining momentum He had lost his eldest son in a series of incidents, and his second son had been gravely wounded, but now he saw a chance to shift the blame, and started spreading all sorts of insinuations.

    ¡°It seems the prince bears a grudge against me for not having contributed to establishing his Personal Guards.¡±

    Or else ¨C

    ¡°It''s doubtful whether that attack on the resort area even happened. Isn''t it possible that he used marauders that he had to hand to try and stage his own little play?¡±

    ¡°As a faithful vassal to our ruling House, I stopped at merely sending the prince packing. However, while I am a tolerant man, if this happens again, then if the prince gets hit, it might not just be from a stray bullet. Let''s hope he''s learned his lesson.¡±

    His words were vehement, but Leo, having returned to Guinbar, wasn''t sitting idle either.

    The Personal Guards had, for the time being, been garrisoned in Guinbar, but there was the risk that the sovereign-prince might soon declare that ¡°until my judgement has been handed down, Leo is not to move any soldiers,¡± and then use that as a pretext for dissolving the unit. Before that could happen, Leo had his guards transferred beyond the sovereign-prince''s reach ¨C to Conscon Temple, which had a good relationship with.

    The prince had already given Percy the order to take the Personal Guards away while he himself was in Tiwana. Since there needed to be at least some kind of official excuse for it, the explanation given was that they were going to perform large-scale joint drills. With Camus'' help, the temple''s bishop had written a letter to that effect to the sovereign-prince, and Savan would be shouldering the cost of having them stationed in one single place.

    This was what Leo had been talking when, just before leaving Guinbar, he had said that there was something he wanted Percy and the others to do. Thanks to that, he had for now avoided having his troops confiscated, but it was no more than a temporary measure, and it did not change the fact that his military strength had been moved far from him.

    Which meant that he would not be able to mobilise them quickly.

    It was at around about that time that the target of the rumours actively being spread by Darren''s side slowly shifted from Leo to Savan.

    ¡°From the time there was that banquet to welcome Hayden, Savan has blamed me for the attacks on his quarry.¡±

    ¡°That story didn''t have a word of truth in it. Now that I think about it, it was from that time onwards that Lord Leo started getting closer to Savan. Could it be that Savan was planning from the start to trick the kind-hearted prince?¡±

    ¡°In that case, when the prince led his onslaught against our Dharam, Savan might have been the one pulling the strings from behind...¡±

    Darren used people to circulate similar stories in Tiwana and in other castle towns. To Leo''s mind, his goal was not only to criticise and checkmate the prince, but also to lay the groundwork for an attack on Guinbar. In the near future, he would definitely come up with some reason or another, then march on Savan''s territory.

    In a way, Darren''s existence was emblematic of the vassal-lords. He had been pivotal to ousting the previous sovereign-prince, and he took great pride in his power, which all but allowed him to stand on the same level as the ruling House. If he captured Guinbar, then not only would his momentum increase, but Leo''s ideal of ¡°strengthening the central authority¡± would vanish completely, like a heap of sand in a child''s sandpit kicked away by adults.

    Stark had talked about ¡°giving it time¡±, but if he just stood by with his arms folded, the situation would only head in a worse and worse direction.

    What do I do? Leo''s impatience grew with every passing day.

    Percy and Camus were both at the temple, so he did not have any advisors close by. He only had Kuon by his side to act as his guard. Currently, there was also Sarah, whom Camus had sent over ¡°in case of communications with the temple,¡± but neither of those two were suited to complex talks about politics.

    It had already been two months since he and Darren had stood before the sovereign-prince.

    During that time, Savan had recruited a great many mercenaries, and had issued orders to the various keeps and fortresses within his domains. The principal keep lords and fortress commanders had gathered at Guinbar Castle, and in all, they managed to scrounge up two thousand soldiers. As was to be expected in a region that guarded the border, it was easier to find fighters here than in other areas. Their equipment, however, was old, and besides not having any airships, they only had a few guns and cannons.

    Moreover, it proved impossible to keep that many men stationed at Guinbar Castle. Darren was gradually starting to bare his fangs.

    He fell back on his old trick of using marauders to start skirmishes. Throughout all the villages in the area, groups of bandits, thieves and penniless mercenaries suddenly appeared, setting the houses on fire. They killed the men who resisted, kidnapped the women, and stole the crops and livestock.

    The keep lords and commanders who had arrived in Guinbar Castle were forced to hurriedly go back to where they had come from and deal with the attackers. The castle''s defences continued to be chipped away, and Leo''s impatience turned into anger and irritation.

    One day, unable to bear simply staying still, Leo dressed up as one of the people to go down to the castle town and take a look at the assembled mercenaries. In terms of numbers, there were quite a few of them but, just as had been the case at the temple, recruiting soldiers far and wide made it easy for the enemy to slip spies in among them.

    How many of them can I actually use?

    Among the soldiers were some who had been labourers, working on the church''s construction until just the other day. Was it because they had decided that they far preferred wielding a spear to cutting and carrying stone, or was it perhaps because the church might be destroyed if the town was attacked, and so they had chosen to take a stance to defend their work?

    That church was where Leo and Florrie were supposed to one day hold their wedding ceremony.

    If Guinbar is set alight, I''ll lose my authority. Relations with Allion and the temple will become uneasy.

    It happened on the way back...

    All of a sudden, among the people who were coming and going along the night-time streets, two men who were entangled together, came tumbling into view just in front of Leo. A fight had broken out between ruffians who had come to work as mercenaries in the tavern which doubled as their inn.

    To the startled Leo, it felt for a second as though Darren''s assassins had come to target his life. The story about how Darren''s oldest son, Togo, had been killed with a single strike to his back flashed through the prince''s mind.

    Kuon was with him, acting as his guard, but since they were pretending to be part of the populace, neither of them carried a sword. Kuon quickly stepped in front of the prince.

    ¡°You taking that bastard''s side!?¡± One of the brawlers misunderstood his action and thrust Kuon aside.

    The boy dodged his arm and delivered a kick to the man''s stomach.

    The assailant was knocked backwards but the blow must have been a shallow one, since he immediately got back on his feet. He unsheathed the sword at his waist with a cutting motion.

    Although he had intended for it to be a threat, Kuon instead drew right up to his opponent. While the man panicked in his confusion, a fist struck him in the throat, and the sword was snatched from his hand.

    ¡°Kill him,¡± Leo ordered.

    ¡°Hiii,¡± the man shrieked, and sank to his knees.

    Just in the instant when Kuon stepped up towards him ¨C

    ¡°Wait,¡± Leo cried, changing his mind.

    He was too late, however, and the blade whistled through the air.

    Leo gasped and the flash of steel halted. The tip of the blade quivered right before the man''s eyes. These promptly rolled until only the whites could be seen, and he fell in a dead faint. The people who had been coming and going along the street, as well as those who had come out from the tavern, broke out in chatter. Leo and Kuon hurriedly continued on their way back.

    ¡°Kuon,¡± after a while, the prince called out to his bodyguard, who was scanning their surroundings in every direction. ¡°What is it?¡±

    The prince stared intently at the boy. Leo had held a sword; stopping a blade which had gathered momentum required a corresponding amount of strength and leg power. Yet Kuon had halted that sword without staggering even by a single step.

    ¡°You never actually intended to kill him, did you?¡±

    ¡°Sorta...¡±

    ¡°Hm?¡±

    ¡°I sort of thought that you wouldn''t want to go through with it, Prince.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn''t want to go through with it? Atall''s Lord Leo isn''t that soft-hearted. You saw how I cut away at Darren''s soldiers, didn''t you?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°I told you to kill him. A soldier obeys orders.¡±

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°Enough,¡± Leo started to walk even faster. He realised himself that his nerves were on edge. Having a retainer ignore his orders out of concern for him was no good, so part of the reason for his irritation was anger at himself.

    After taking a few more steps, however, he stopped. Sarah was in front of the castle''s drawbridge. She was, as usual, dressed in her novice''s robes.

    When Leo waved his hand, Sarah looked relieved and came up to them. Kuon wrinkled his nose.

    ¡°Why''re you here?¡±

    ¡°Because the two of you disappeared from the castle. I came rushing out because I was worried that something might have had happened.¡±

    Everything about her speech and demeanour revealed that Sarah must have received a high level of education, yet whenever she was speaking to Kuon, her tone became oddly common.

    ¡°I''m with the prince.¡±

    ¡°Then that''s even more reason for concern,¡± she stuck out her tongue, which irritated Kuon.

    ¡°My skills are trustworthy.¡±

    ¡°Your arm is, yes. But that''s only if things are straightforward. If I was an assassin, I could think of a hundred ways to get you away from the prince. I could run after pretending to make a first attempt on his life, and lure you away; or else I could shout out ''over there, there''s an enemy general you can kill to earn glory''; or I could win you over with the luscious skin and flesh of a sexy and scantily clad woman... ah, but that might be kind of a pain. Or even more simply, I''d just have someone jeer at you and say ''Kuon''s an idiot, a fool, a stupid-face,'' and you would immediately abandon the prince''s side to go chase after that person.¡±

    Leo''s eyes opened wide. Sarah''s tone and attitude were exactly the same as if she had said, ''Alright, my lad. Come at me from any angle.¡± Yet what was surprising was that she herself wasn''t trying to provoke Kuon. What brought Leo to that realisation was that she got angry as Kuon became irate from her deliberately taunting him.

    Even now, Kuon was yelling, ¡°What''s that, bratty girl?¡±

    ¡°Even if you call me a ''bratty girl'', you''re still younger than me, Kuon. Monkey boy, stray dog,¡± she barred her teeth and fought back.

    Leo cleared his throat and Sarah put a hand in front of her mouth, her expression saying ''Oops''.

    After a moment, Leo indicated one of the high-restaurants that could be found in the quiet side streets.

    ¡°Let''s stop by there,¡± he suggested to the other two.

    From the staircase, the first and second floors were no different from those of other restaurants in the area, but the third floor was a series of private rooms for the use of honoured customers, and Leo entered one of them. The three of them sat at the fairly large table there.

    Leo drank a mouthful of ale flavoured with ginger. It was certainly not high-quality alcohol, but right now, he wanted the stimulus.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Sarah asked Kuon in a low voice.

    It was rare to see Leo drink, and it was equally unusual for him to eat out or to invite any of them to share a meal with him.

    ¡°Nothing. It¡¯s nothing you need to know about,¡± replied Kuon, which was tacit admittance that there is something going on.

    Sarah frowned, bristling.

    ¡°What¡¯s that? Do you think that while I was away at the temple, you got closer to the prince than anyone? My, what a great and distinguished gentleman you¡¯ve become.¡±

    She had spoken in a low voice but, since their surroundings were quiet, Leo had also been able to catch what she said. Kuon looked irritated but, just then ¨C ¡°Ah!¡± Sarah suddenly exclaimed so loudly that both he and Leo were startled.

    ¡°What is it now?¡±

    ¡°You... Have you grown a bit taller? You definitely have. Are you going to just impertinently overtake me? Here, turn around.¡±

    ¡°Shut up. And stop touching me.¡±

    Leo laughed at the exchange between the two of them, which remained the same as ever and which was continuing on from earlier. Thinking about it, these two had been like that ever since he first met them. Back when they had been fleeing through the mountains in the dead of night, not knowing when Allion¡¯s army might find them, Kuon and Sarah had been bickering incessantly, like two small birds pecking at each other, and Percy had to keep telling them off.

    Then there was also the time when the battles at Conscon Temple were over, and Leo had invited the two of them, along with Percy and Camus, to eat with him and Florrie, his fianc¨¦e, since she had been saying for some time that she really wanted to thank them. She had not seen them since they had met in Allion.

    The conversation had flowed pleasantly. In front of Leo and Florrie, Sarah had adopted a meek and modest attitude.

    ¡°I need to apologise to you all. Back then, I had completely lost my calm, and far from thanking you, I even...¡± Florrie had started.

    Kuon who, after fidgeting about uncomfortably for a bit, had been stuffing food into his mouth at a startling rate, piped up:

    ¡°Yeah, I was really surprised when you turned a sword towards us, Lady. You looked like you were stronger than any of Allion¡¯s soldiers.¡±

    It was rare for him to make a joke like that, and Florrie hunched her shoulders as though she wanted to disappear from sight. Sarah had furiously berated Kuon.

    ¡°Do you want me to sew that mouth shut for you right now? All you¡¯ve got is a nasty tongue and no manners,¡± she shouted.

    ¡°Those two are like that every time they see each other. They must have a really bad affinity.¡±

    Leo said, while Sarah had still been going on at Kuon, but for some reason, Florrie had smiled slightly.

    ¡°Hmm. Who knows?¡± She answered, tilting her head.

    Leo had realised something at that point. Namely: that women were a mystery.

    He drank another sip of ale. It felt like it had been a long time since he had thought about Florrie like that.

    Having gotten worked up, Sarah seemed about to drag Kuon up from his chair and force him to stand, when her eyes met Leo¡¯s and she sat back down, her face red.

    ¡°I beg your pardon, Your Highness. I was causing a fuss.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. More importantly... I¡¯m the one who needs to beg your pardon,¡± Leo said, looking at Kuon.

    ¡°Eh?¡± Not surprisingly, the boy looked surprised.

    ¡°Despite your achievements, I haven¡¯t been able to give you a reward.¡±

    ¡°Ah, no... that¡¯s...¡±

    ¡°If only I¡¯d done a bit better. Around about now, the Personal Guards would be double the number and you might be a company commander with five platoons under you, Kuon. Actually, no ¨C since you¡¯re familiar with every weapon and every way of fighting, it might be better to put you in charge of a troop of mercenaries who¡¯ve come from all over.¡±

    ¡°That would be nice. But it¡¯s story for much later, when Kuon is twice the height that he is now, right?¡± Sarah joked. ¡°With Kuon¡¯s current size, the mercenaries would just make fun of him.¡±

    Kuon gave her sidelong look, but he didn¡¯t protest. Perhaps he was mindful of the prince, but t it was also that he had never been good at dealing with being the topic of conversation.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine as is. As long as I can eat every day, that¡¯s plenty.¡±

    He tried to quickly bring the topic to a close, but Sarah wasn¡¯t going to let him escape so easily.

    ¡°What a strange fellow you are. All you would do every day was look irritated and say, ¡®I want to earn glory, I want to earn glory¡¯. And big brother would always say, ¡®You¡¯re still immature. You need to patiently hone your skills. Those who rush out to meet tomorrow before anyone else are the ones who will lose their lives without ever seeing that tomorrow¡¯.¡±

    Sarah lifted her eyebrows with her fingers and spoke in a deep voice, imitating her brother. As was to be expected from a sibling, it was surprisingly like him and Leo almost laughed. This time, however, he stopped himself.

    Sarah was still going on,

    ¡°Even though you never seem to listen to what anyone says, starting with my brother, have you given up now? And in the first place, why were you in such a hurry to earn glory? Is it for money, or because you want to go up in life? Do you need social standing because you¡¯ve promised to marry a high-class young lady?¡±

    Kuon looked towards Leo with a completely fed up expression. Normally, this was where Percy or Camus would bring a stop to things, but, just this one time, Leo was not going to let Kuon off either.

    ¡°I¡¯m interested too.¡±

    ¡°P-Prince...¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how you feel about it, but for me ¨C who doesn¡¯t have many allies ¨C you are a trustworthy retainer, and also an irreplaceable companion, and even a friend. I would be troubled if you were to think ¡®I really can¡¯t earn glory as long as I¡¯m around that prince¡¯ and leave; or if you got too impatient and ¡®died without seeing tomorrow¡¯. If you have circumstances or reasons, then I very much want to hear about them. Of course, I can¡¯t tell you that I¡¯ll arrange for a new war tomorrow, but I might be able to help you in other areas.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    For a moment, Kuon opened his eyes wide with surprise as he stared fixedly at Lord Leo. He then almost immediately turned them away, unable to bear Leo¡¯s equally unwavering ¨C and far more enthusiastic ¨C gaze. In the end, however, he gave an answer.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing.... amazing about my circumstances... my Lord,¡± Kuon said heavily. ¡°There¡¯s just that one prediction about me ¨C maybe if it comes true, everyone will be surprised... but that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°Who was it who made a prediction?¡±

    ¡°Old Granny Mist. A priestess to the god of the mountain, Tei Tahra.¡±

    Sarah was about to interrupt, but Leo sent her a glance over Kuon¡¯s head to stop her. Let me handle this, it said. He then adopted a deliberately nonchalant tone.

    ¡°A priestess? I¡¯ve heard that in the religions of the mountain lands and other remote areas, priestesses aren¡¯t just women priests, but that they can hear the voices of the gods, and that their role is to convey the divine will to the people of this world.¡±

    When he mentioned that knowledge that he gleaned from books, Kuon agreed in a subdued voice.

    ¡°They are like that... my lord.¡±

    ¡°Then, what is the prediction about you¡±

    As Leo asked his questions one-by-one, Kuon returned answers, bit-by-bit. It was as that point that Sarah noticed: Leo was using their conversation as a starting point to learn about the place of Kuon¡¯s birth. The boy had occasionally let drop fragments of information, but he had never seemed to want to follow them up by confiding everything about his past.

    Which was why Leo was pretending to make casual conversation, repeatedly asking questions one after another in a deliberately dispassionate voice, and at a relaxed pace, so as to not put Kuon on his guard. And Kuon was carried along by that pace, like someone rowing a small boat away from the shore and who, while enjoying the slow, rocking motion of the waves, didn¡¯t realise that they were drifting away from the coast. And so, unusually for Kuon, he continued to tell his tale.

    He was by no means a good talker, and he tended to confuse his listeners with the way he unconcernedly brought up names and knowledge about the mountains that they were unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, Leo listened without getting impatient. Even if there was information that he wanted, he never tried to jump straight to the answer he was looking for, and always advanced methodically, step-by-step.

    Sarah was anything but patient, but although it was sometimes so irritating that she was almost shaking, she too gradually got an understanding of the full picture.

    Part 2

    Kuon was born and raised south of the Kesmai Plains, at the foot of what was known, in the principality, as the Fangs Mountain Range. The settlement that existed there naturally had its own distinctive beliefs and culture, separated as it was from the outside by rugged peaks.

    It was also for that same reason that neighbouring countries did not send armies against it. Less prudent powers, however, had time and time again attempted to invade. Criminals chased out from their own countries, bandits, as well as nobles or generals who had fallen into ruin had all tried to break into those isolated lands and turn them into their new stronghold.

    And each time, the young men from the village picked up their weapons and fought back.

    While the overland route was almost inaccessible, they had built a port in the bay, and through this, they had some ¨C very limited ¨C contact with the outside, which meant that they held a large number of weapons, including swords and guns.

    Most of those who lived by the mountain remained there for their entire life. They naturally had the advantage of terrain and they were subject to none, so their sense of independence was unusually strong compared to people from other lands. They banded together with terrifying solidarity whenever anyone from the outside threatened their families, their livelihood in the mountains, or tried to defile the sanctuary to Tei Tahra, the mountain god.

    Kuon was born a member of those ¡®mountain people¡¯. However, as he himself had once said, he was not a ¡®pureblood¡¯ from the mountains.

    At one time, a mercenary from ¡®outside¡¯ had strayed into the tribe¡¯s bay.

    The man had apparently been on the losing side of a naval battle, and had drifted for many days in a small boat, until he had washed up in their gulf by chance. The tribe¡¯s punishment for entering their land without permission was death, but because the man was so haggard and emaciated, and because the tribe head wanted information about the war that had taken place on the southern sea ¨C there was, after all, the fear that trouble might come to them ¨C he was allowed to recuperate in the village for a while.

    A few months later, the man had recovered and, perhaps fearing that he would killed by these barbaric savages, he fled the mountain under cover of darkness.

    Yet by that time, one of the women of the tribe was carrying his child.

    That child was Kuon.

    They were a people who had built a world for themselves and, for a very long time, no foreign blood had entered it. Mother and child were, of course, treated harshly. They were entirely forbidden from taking part in the village ceremonies, and were never invited to other houses.

    Whenever Kuon wandered around, playing by himself, if other children of the same age caught sight of him, they would jeer at him ¨C

    ¡°Look, it¡¯s Kuon.¡±

    ¡°Only half his blood is human. He was born when an evil spirit impregnated his mother.¡±

    Their tribe believed that a person¡¯s forehead was the doorway to their soul. And since good and evil spirits were constantly feuding in the mountains, the people feared that the evil spirits would enter someone¡¯s forehead and control their body like a soul would, turning them into ¡®betrayers¡¯ who harmed the tribe. Because of that, members of the tribe marked their foreheads with a protective charm. On each and every one of them, the shamans who served as priests tattooed a red, oval-shaped bead surrounded by an intricate pattern.

    If the tattoo was given to a young child, however, it was said that, ¡°it will hinder the influence of the good spirits, and will stunt the child¡¯s growth,¡± so the tattoo was permitted only to those who had come of age and who had their own families.

    Still, the balance between good and evil spirits varied considerably according to time and season. Once a year, Tei Tahra¡¯s protection weakened, and evil spirits were said to proliferate within the mountains; it was only during that time that children were allowed to wear charms. Early in the morning, their father would lift them onto his lap and paint the protective pattern on their forehead with red dyes.

    Only Kuon¡¯s forehead remained bare at those times. Women were forbidden from drawing the amulets against evil spirits. He had no father, and he and his mother were estranged from her relatives, so there was no one to draw the charm for him.

    And so, the children taunted him more than ever.

    ¡°If you touch him, evil spirits will come for you!¡± They said as they hurled stones at him.

    Kuon had been hot-tempered ever since very young, and he threw stones back. While they were running away, screaming with excitement, he caught them and deliberately struck them on their hated foreheads. He was, of course, at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage. Even more importantly, he did not have a single friend. The other children quickly surrounded him, punching and kicking him to their heart¡¯s content. Kuon was covered in injuries, but if any of the others had even a single scratch, their parents would kick up a fuss.

    They went to Kuon¡¯s mother, protesting loudly.

    ¡°Drive out that loathsome beast!¡±

    ¡°Tie it up to a pillar of the house!¡±

    Kuon heard their angry roars time and time again.

    His mother, who had broken a tribal taboo, had lost her right to her own home. Even when illness forced her to stay in bed, none of her relatives came to see her. Unable to bear hearing his mother crying out from a fever-induced nightmare, Kuon ran out of the house in the pouring rain, and left the village at the foot of the mountain.

    He had gone to beg for help from the shamans. Usually, they lived in isolated retreats in the mountains, far from other people, and he had heard that they were knowledgeable about illnesses and medicine. But a child¡¯s feet could not travel very far. He walked for an entire day and night but, in the end, he did not find any of the shamans, and could only return to the village, drenched through from the rain. When his mother¡¯s older brother saw Kuon in that state, maybe he felt some compassion after all, because he secretly brought them medicinal plants, and concocted a remedy that he had once learned from a shaman.

    Kuon¡¯s mother had always been in frail health and, when he was eight, she died of a chest illness. For a while, the tribe argued over what to do with him. None of his mother¡¯s relatives wanted to take him in.

    In the end, a man called Datta Wei took charge of Kuon, giving as his reason that ¡°my house needs an extra pair of hands.¡±

    Datta Wei.

    He had a surname, which meant that he was a warrior.

    Datta had about two hundred subordinates, all of whom also bore the name ¡®Wei¡¯. His wife, on the other hand, could not take that name, and neither could his own children unless they officially joined the unit once they were adults.

    The same, of course, held true for Kuon. Even though he received food and a place to sleep, his position was close to being a servant, and his circumstances had certainly not improved.

    The adults still despised him, especially the women who looked down on his mother for her ¡®wanton¡¯ behaviour. The children from the same age-group as him also continued to bully him. Datta¡¯s son, Diu, was particularly violent about it. He was three years older than Kuon, and was always going around saying,

    ¡°Don¡¯t speak to me like we¡¯re equal, you fucking ¡®unwanted spawn¡¯. I¡¯ll definitely became a man of the ¡®Wei¡¯, but you won¡¯t. If you go to the battlefield, it¡¯ll just be to die as a shield for me or my father. Now doesn¡¯t that sound nice?¡±

    Without a word of warning, he would knock him down as soon as he saw him. He stole Kuon¡¯s share of food, then kicked him in his growling stomach. Diu was outstandingly good at hiding his behaviour from his parents and from the comrades-in-arms of the ¡®Wei¡¯, while Kuon got pushed around as the lowest-ranking member of the household. On top of doing a servant¡¯s work inside the house, he was always sent out to accompany the hunters.

    ¨C If asked whether he felt nothing but unhappiness at his circumstances back then, Kuon would have to say that he couldn¡¯t really remember.

    Of course, he resented Diu. The other boy was older and larger than him and, because there were adults around, Kuon couldn¡¯t fight back like he used to.

    Naturally, he felt depressed. But at the same time, to Kuon in those days, the mountain life that existed thanks to the blessings from Tei Tahra was the only world he knew.

    The world outside...

    His imagination ran rampant about it. Whenever he heard the adults who worked in trade at the port talk about the surrounding countries, he always told himself ¨C

    One day, I¡¯ll leave the mountains and go to other lands too.

    That wish grew especially strong right after his mother¡¯s death. Surely there, the children his age wouldn¡¯t throw stones at him, and the adult women wouldn¡¯t gaze at him in contempt for no reason.

    As he got older, that simple, innocent yearning turned into slightly more realistic plans, as he thought about whether to run away one night through the mountains, or whether to steal a boat from the harbour and row himself into the open sea.

    Yet at the same time, Kuon had a tremendous fear of breaking the mountains rules, which also came from the fact that he was not a pureblood. His existence was one that the mountain rejected and, if he failed to follow along with its god and its people, even if only by a little, he was terrified that he might be eliminated. His young heart never stopped trembling from that one fear.

    In particular, there was the coming-of-age ceremony, which was performed once a year. This was the time that Kuon feared the most. As a minor who could not take part in it, he had no way of knowing anything about the ceremony itself, but when the time for it drew close, a ¡®betrayer¡¯ would inevitably appear within the community.

    During that period, the priesthood spoke as one, saying that:

    ¡°The mountain¡¯s energy is changing. The good and righteous are starting to go into hiding, and the evil spirits are starting to swarm.¡±

    The mountain god, Tei Tahra¡¯s, divine protection was at its weakest at those times. During that period, hunting was restricted, fishing was completely banned, and it was forbidden from leaving the house once the sun had set. This was also the period during which fathers drew the protective charms on their children¡¯s foreheads.

    Moreover, it was said that, ¡°those with evil thoughts are easily possessed. Those who do not believe in Tei Tahra¡¯s divine protection, those who disagree with the decisions of the tribe head, and those who use their cunning to deceive others ¨C all of them have wicked hearts which can be drawn in by evil.¡±

    Because of that, Kuon was made fun of even more than usual at those times.

    ¡°The only thing you can do, Kuon, is to stay and tremble inside the house. You¡¯re not a pureblood, and you don¡¯t have the charm either, so there¡¯s no way Lord Tei Tahra will grant you His protection. You¡¯ll get possessed as soon as you breathe the air outside.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if that happens, I¡¯ll exterminate you along with the evil spirit!¡±

    Kuon pretended not to be the slightest bit scared of their threats, but inwardly, his anxiety grew exponentially: for all that the people of the community usually faithfully observed the taboos, during this time of the year, there were always some who became possessed by evil.

    Once a year, a single trail of smoke would rise in the evening sky.

    ¡°Look, look!¡±

    ¡°The great shamans are casting the protective spells against evil!¡±

    Pointing at it, the villagers would start clamouring.

    These spells were cast because this was the one day when Tei Tahra¡¯s protection was all but lost and, before long, a member of the tribe would inevitably vanish.

    There was never any exception.

    One of the men from the village would definitely disappear. Sometimes it was an old man of over sixty, sometimes it was a child who had yet to undergo his coming-of-age ceremony. That man was called into the mountains which were overrun by evil spirits, and it was said that one night, he would stagger aimlessly into the wilderness, responding to those summonses.

    The family grieved for him, but there was nothing they could do. Once someone became possessed by evil, they were no more than ¡®a betrayer who will harm Divine Tei Tahra and the tribe.¡¯ It was said that not even the shamans could exorcise them.

    Kuon had never seen anyone who was possessed by evil spirits, but it was for that very reason that a strange terror enveloped his heart. ¡°This year, you''re the one who''s going to go missing¡± ¨C whenever they pointed at him and said that, he couldn''t help but shiver uneasily.

    He wondered where those who were possessed by evil went to. What were they looking for, there, beyond the protection from God and the mountain? He wondered if maybe, before going to sleep, he should ask someone to bind his hands and feet. So that he wouldn''t be able to stagger out into the night.

    I don''t have a wicked heart. I hate Diu and that bastard Tubai, but I''ve never thought of killing them. Lord God Tei Tahra, I''m not a pureblood, but I''m part of your people. Please protect me. Please don''t let me be carried off outside.

    Up until the moment when he fell asleep, he would desperately pray in silence, while drawing the protective charm with his fingers again and again. It seemed to work, because Kuon never became a ''betrayer''.

    Or at least, not until he came of age.

    Among the children of the same age group as Kuon, there was a girl called Aqua.

    She was a year older than him. Since very young, she had joined in with the boys, and loved playing with slingshots, duelling with sticks, or any kind of rough game. Ostracised by the boys his age, Kuon sometimes became a target for them to throw stones at, and Aqua also took part in that.

    When she was eight or nine years old, she was thin, swarthy-skinned, and when she laughed, she seemed to be missing several teeth. Since he didn''t have much to do with the other children his age, for a long time, Kuon didn''t even realise that Aqua was a girl.

    He was nine by the time he noticed it. By then, he had already been with the Wei household for a year.

    That day, he had gone hunting with his seniors from the Wei. Although having said that, Kuon''s role was, at best, to carry bags, drive the prey to the hunters by shouting, and generally just run around; he had not yet received a gun or a bow. When they were heading back, a bird suddenly flew out from the undergrowth, and one of the hunting dogs belonging to the Wei household followed after it and disappeared off the path.

    Having been ordered to ¡°Look for it and bring it back,¡± Kuon waded alone into the bushes, calling its name.

    Stepping out onto the path on the other side of it, he found Aqua, equally alone, coming down from the mountain. She was holding a small bow in her hand. Her eyes were brimming with tears but, when she saw Kuon, she glared sharply at him.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡±

    ¡°I''m not looking at anything. I''m searching for a dog. I''ve got nothing to do with you.¡±

    ¡°A dog? Hmph, well you are basically being kept by the Wei. So the pet dogs get along well.¡±

    Kuon didn''t offer a retort and continued with his search, but Aqua came with him.

    ¡°Why are you following me?¡±

    ¡°I''m not following you. I''m looking for prey. Don''t lump it with a kid''s chores.¡±

    It wasn''t rare for women in the mountains to have guns or bows. Quite the opposite: be it for self-defence or to be ready for when invaders broke into the mountains, women were generally encouraged to be familiar with weapons. And in practice, whenever there were trespassers seeking to harm the mountains, women joined the armed units to go and greet them at gunpoint.

    Unlike fighting, however, only men were allowed to go hunting. The mountain god Tei Tahra had only bestowed unto men the right to track the birds and beasts that came under his jurisdiction, and, although they could go fishing, no woman was ever permitted to hunt.

    Aqua was not happy about it. She was sure that, whether it was at using a bow or at advancing along the mountain paths, she would do much better than any boy her age, so she was constantly pestering the hunters of the ''Holo'' and her father, the head warrior, to ¡°let me go hunting too¡±. Since her father had always firmly refused, that day, she stealthily tailed the hunters. She believed that she could earn recognition if she managed to bring down at least one bird or animal but, in the end, the adults had found her and, after giving her a harsh scolding, they had sent her away.

    Which was when she met Kuon.

    The bow she held in her hand seemed to be something she had made herself. Perhaps she thought that Kuon had realised it, given that it was considerably smaller than the ones used by adults.

    ¡°This bow is much stronger than it looks,¡± Aqua said proudly, even though she hadn''t been asked anything. ¡°The guys who can only bring down beasts with huge weapons are the ones who are really idiots. They don''t have any dedication.¡±

    Maintaining a reasonable distance between one another, the two of them continued to search the mountain, but neither of them obtained any results.

    The sun had already started to set, and night was the time when Tei Tahra transferred his protection from the humans to the beasts. Unless there was a compelling reason to make an exception, hunting at night was forbidden.

    Kuon turned to head back to the village, but Aqua berated him for it.

    ¡°Coward. Your unit gave you a mission but you''re abandoning it halfway ¨C how are you even a man? This is why you''re just a halfwit.¡±

    Kuon was completely fed up by then.

    ¡°Shut up. The guy who was sniffling because the adults got angry has nothing to say. You''re the one who''s not being a man. You want me to try Lord Tei Tahra''s ''thousand arrows of courage on you?¡±

    Shouting loudly, he took a step towards her, and Aqua''s shoulders suddenly jerked in surprise before her expression quickly turned to fright.

    Up until then, Aqua had joined in with the boys when they insulted Kuon, and thrown stones or sticks at him from afar. When he had angrily chased after them, everyone would run away laughing, or would gang up to attack him. It was all part of playing.

    But judging from Aqua''s expression, she had just realised that now, she was all alone. She closed her mouth shut, hunched her shoulders, and shrank away from him.

    Kuon was bewildered by her reaction.

    At that moment, the bushes in front of them started to rustle, startling both of them. Something was making its way through the tall grass and would soon be in sight.

    In the distance, they could hear the voices of adults calling their names to one another. This was probably the prey they were chasing after.

    Kuon was ready to leave at once, but Aqua''s expression turned from fear to delight as she readied her bow.

    ¡°What''re you doing? Run away!¡±

    ¡°If you want to run away, do it by yourself. The first kill I''ll bring down has come to find me all by itself!¡±

    Just then, scattering blades of grass in its wake, a grey-brown wild boar appeared.

    It was huge. It was so massive that it looked like it could keep running even if Kuon and Aqua both clung to the mane along its back. What drew the eye more than anything were the tusks that curved higher than its snout.

    Aqua shot an arrow, but she her timing had been far too hasty. She had been too impatient. She immediately nocked another arrow to her bow but, this time, she was too slow. Lowering its head, the boar charged.

    Kuon could picture how Aqua would be flung into the air, and he rushed forward. While he ran, he picked up rocks that were rolling at his feet, and hurled them at the boar.

    Aqua fell backwards. Just as she was about to be trampled underfoot, the second stone that Kuon had thrown struck the boar. It almost hit it in the eye.

    The boar backed off noisily.

    Just then, adults armed with spears and guns arrived, and the boar, with a high-pitched cry, changed its course and fled. The adults were surprised to find Kuon and Aqua there. They raced after the beast without a moment''s delay, but as they were doing so, and because the children had gotten in the way of the hunt, they told them something that was sure to scare more than anything:

    ¡°We''ll have the shamans punish you after this.¡±

    The shamans, who lived in mountain hermitages away from human settlements, were said to transform children who bothered adults into beasts who prowled the mountains.

    ¡°You alright?¡± Kuon reached out to touch Aqua''s shoulder as she started to get up, but his hand was shaken off.

    ¡°I couldn''t bring it down,¡± said Aqua, hanging her head. Her voice was shaking, maybe because of how frustrated she felt. The next moment, she lifted her face and screamed,

    ¡°It''s your fault! If you hadn''t interfered, I''d have killed it. Then they wouldn''t have gotten mad. I''d have been accepted. I don''t want to go to the shamans. I don''t want to be turned into a beast or a frog. If someone''s going, you go by yourself!¡±

    She was crying as she shouted. She flung herself face downwards against the ground and wept loudly. She seemed to be at a complete loss. So was Kuon: he had intended to go home by himself, but he couldn''t leave Aqua behind while she was crying. And that was because he had only just realised that she was a girl.

    He stayed rooted in the same spot.

    After about five minutes, Aqua stopped crying and slowly stood up. She threw away the bow that she had been holding the whole time and started to walk back towards the village. Kuon let her put a short distance between them, then started after her. As soon as he did so, Aqua looked back. He expected her to tell him not to follow her, but instead -

    ¡°What are you doing? Pick up the bow.¡±

    ¡°Didn''t you just throw it away?¡±

    ¡°I''ll give it to you. Something like that suits a child like you better.¡±

    That was all she said before briskly walking forward.

    Kuon couldn''t remember if he picked up the bow or not.

    Yet after that, Aqua didn''t join the boys to play anymore. She didn''t insult him or throw stones at him.

    It wasn''t because she had become meeker, though ¨C she started to join the ''Holo'' men in diligently training at archery.

    A woman came of age when she turned twelve. That was three years sooner than the men. Usually, within the next two or three years, they would marry a similarly adult man and start to bear children. In a very small number of cases, the priests would find that a girl had an aptitude for becoming a priestess during the coming-of-age ceremony, and she would then begin her training. There was no right of refusal. It was a very great honour for a family to produce a priestess, so even though the training and religious learning were said to be harsh, there was no way for anyone to reject the call to serve near Tei Tahra, the mountain god.

    Yet it wasn¡¯t that there was no way at all to be allowed to go hunting or to be given a warrior¡¯s surname. It was just that it meant giving up on being a woman.

    Since girls were encouraged to handle guns and bows, there were sometimes, albeit rarely, women who demonstrated talent in using them that was equal to a man¡¯s. ¡°Perhaps God made a mistake when assigning them their sex.¡± In those cases, and as long as the person themselves wished it, they could be assigned to the afore-mentioned duties.

    Upon choosing that path, however, one was no longer a woman. Naturally, they were forbidden from getting married or giving birth. If one of those people who ¡®were born women but who are not women¡¯ were to form a relationship with a man, then both of them would be banished from the community.

    Aqua had apparently set her sights on walking a man¡¯s path.

    Yet contrary to her fervent desire, after a year or two passed and she had undergone her coming-of-age ceremony, in appearance at least, she gradually started to look more and more like a girl. ¡°She really has become a beauty¡± ¨C Kuon could remember how even Datta, the head of the Wei, had said so.

    More and more men asked for her hand in marriage. One of them was Diu, who reached adulthood three years before Kuon. Yet Aqua refused them all. In order to be able to convince the priests and priestesses that she had a man¡¯s talent, she continued to single-mindedly train with gun and bow.

    Part 3

    When Datta¡¯s son, Diu, came of age, he officially entered the Wei, just as he himself had declared he would.

    At the around the same period, Kuon received a bow for hunting, and his skill with it slowly became famous throughout the community. He had no fear of beasts. His arrows never missed the mark. He was fleet of foot when it came to giving chase...

    Every time he accomplished another feat at hunting, the way that people looked at him, starting with his comrades in the Wei, began to change, and, at long last, his interactions with his surroundings also started to shift.

    Perhaps he could be called lucky since, at around about that same time, intruders came to the mountains.

    Upon being defeated by Allion, a certain powerful clan had braved the danger of crossing the Kesmai Plains to the southeast and of pushing into the ¡®Fangs¡¯ in search of new land. Although they had been driven back once, it seemed that had been no more than an advance party and the second time, when they were again spotted by the lookouts, they were marching in such great numbers that all the ground that should have been within sight was covered in the colour of their armour.

    The mountain people needed as many fighters as possible. Accordingly, and although it was unusual, Kuon was incorporated into the unit before having his coming-of-age ceremony. He donned the leather armour that the unit had snatched away during the previous battle, hung a sturdy sword at his waist, and rushed onto the scene of actual combat.

    Although it felt like his feet were going to be swept away from under him, and his mind was almost blank from fear, but all that disappeared the moment he charged at the enemy.

    Every day, the seniors in the Wei put him through intensive training in how to use weapons. Having learned to hunt was also very useful when it came to fighting.

    Kuon took down five enemies.

    On the one hand, the tribe practiced exclusivism but, given the harsh environment that they lived in, it also applied meritocracy to an important degree. Kuon¡¯s military achievements were so highly evaluated that they were greeted with cheers.

    A year later, he took part in his second battle, which was also highly unusual and, as a result, Kuon officially joined the group of adults a year earlier than he normally would have.

    ¡°He is already on par with adults.¡±

    ¡°The mountain god wanted Kuon¡¯s lifeblood a year early,¡± the priests all agreed.

    Saying that ¡®the mountain god wants his lifeblood¡¯ was the same as talking about his death but, at the same time, it also meant that ¡®the mountain god loves him¡¯.

    Kuon took part in the coming-of-age ceremony with the boys who were one year older than him. As I mentioned earlier, this took place in the period when Tei Tahra¡¯s protection was all but lost. That year as well, three days before the ceremony, smoke was seen to rise from halfway up the mountain to ward off evil.

    The next day, a man disappeared. He was an elderly fisherman who had also been a blacksmith, by the name of Gosro. When Kuon heard about it, he was stunned.

    Previously, he had never had any interaction with the men who vanished, but now that Kuon had been allowed to take part in hunting and fighting with the adults, he had gradually developed more of a relationship with his surroundings. Gosro was an acquaintance of his.

    Once, when Gosro had told him, ¡°my son prefers hunting, so I¡¯m short a pair of hands,¡± Kuon had ridden in his boat and helped haul up the nets.

    Gosro was nearing sixty, but his legs were still strong, and it was instead Kuon¡¯s which were shaky on the unfamiliar boat. While Gosro repeatedly hurled rebukes at him, Kuon had desperately pulled up the nets.

    When they had finally got back to shore, he slumped down in exhaustion.

    ¡°I¡¯ll make you a sword,¡± said Gosro. ¡°You¡¯re small. You¡¯ll need a sword that suits your build.¡±

    The next time Kuon had gone into combat, the sword at his waist had been forged by Gosro.

    It hadn¡¯t even been three months since then.

    But why him?

    Rather than grief, what Kuon felt the most strongly was confusion. Gosro was a heavy drinker, he could be rough, and he was a merciless commander on board a ship; Kuon had even heard that he had kicked his own son from the boat when he wouldn¡¯t listen to him. But at the same time, he loved his family, he never forgot to pray to Tei Tahra, and was generally very well-liked.

    How could a man like that be possessed by evil spirits? Kuon found it hard to believe.

    Be that as it may, the day of the ceremony arrived. Kuon had eagerly been counting down the days to it. At long last he, the ¡®unwanted spawn¡¯, the one ¡®who¡¯s blood is only half human¡¯, the ¡®beast¡¯, would join the lines of those whom Tei Tahra would recognise as adults.

    This should have been the most splendid day of all for him.

    Although it was called a ceremony, the first part of the proceedings was unspeakably dull.

    Early in the morning, he was shut away in a hut with the children who were a year older than him, and made to listen to long, tedious legends about Tei Tahra and the mountain people.

    Afterwards, they went to the sea. Not only was it forbidden to go fishing on the day of the ceremony, but other people were also prohibited from going near the shores. There, they were daubed in multicoloured dyes by priestesses young and old who had purified themselves beforehand. The symbols that were drawn on them meant that they would have appearances befitting of warriors when they went before Tei Tahra. The boys pointed and laughed at what each other looked like.

    It was the first time that Kuon had ever had the protective charm applied to his forehead. While the priestesses¡¯ fingers skittering over his body felt ticklish and embarrassing, at the same time, he held an immense sense of pride.

    From then until sunset, they sat around an open fire, passing around jars filled with alcohol and stuffing their cheeks with meat from beasts which had been consecrated for the occasion. More and more adults came to join them. While offering each of them their congratulations, they too drank, ate meat, and sang songs.

    What the... thought Kuon. Children who were not yet adults could not go to the ceremony. They were forbidden even from watching, and so were locked up at home from early morning onwards on those days. Because of that, the children¡¯s imagination ran wild about what might be happening. Rumours flew about how ¡°the priestesses dance naked,¡± or ¡°they hold sword duels¡± but, now that he himself had reached the stage where he could attend, it wasn¡¯t so different from the banquets that were held whenever the hunters brought back a large catch.

    That, however, only lasted until sundown.

    The adults left one after another, until only the boys taking part in the ceremony were left around the fire. The festive atmosphere changed completely, and in a silence as still as death, a new group of people appeared. These were the priestesses who officiated at the ceremony, several shamans, priests, the soldiers who were guarding them and, lastly, the strongest man in the tribe ¨C the warrior Raga.

    He wore a mask.

    Raga was the name of a hero from the mountain legends. He was one of the ¡®Five Honoured Ones¡¯ who first praised Tei Tahra¡¯s name, and in reward for the courage with which he had defended His shrines, the mountain god had granted him eternal life.

    The myths told that ¨C

    ¡°Even though life completes a full cycle every hundred years, Raga will be reborn again and again. No matter where or when, his sword skill will surpass anything within heaven and earth, and he will be entirely removed from the laws of death that he should have been bound by.¡±

    Naturally, the ¡®Raga¡¯ before them now was not the hero from the legends. In imitation of how Raga neither aged nor died, every generation, the warrior who demonstrated that he was the very strongest would obtain the name and position of ¡®Raga¡¯. More specifically, during a festival which was held every four years, when Tei Tahra descended from the mountains, a tournament to decide a single winner was held between those of the men who asserted that ¡°I am worthy of inheriting the name and soul of Raga.¡±

    They fought with a single sword in hand, and because of how dangerous that fight was, it was not at all rare for them to kill each other. Yet nobody who killed another during that struggle or who fought until their own death was ever praised for it. Dropping their sword once their limbs were wounded, and recognising that they had lost was the correct attitude for a warrior to take pride in. That meant in turn that there was nothing more splendid than to win by giving a brilliant demonstration of the difference in ability without inflicting any fatal wounds.

    Every time that festival was held, some twenty or thirty men met at the ceremonial grounds, sword in hand, and fought amidst that solemn, even stern, atmosphere. The last man standing was the winner, and he received blessings from the priestesses and the shamans, a ritual was held through which Raga¡¯s soul was said to enter his body and, for the following four years, he abandoned his own name and became worthy of calling himself ¡®Raga¡¯. In imitation of the half-human, half-beast figure which God had given the warrior, he was given a beastlike mask to wear.

    During those four years, ¡®Raga¡¯ held a special position within the tribe. He lived in a residence close to where the priestesses dwelt and, since the villagers brought him food every day, he was released from routine tasks such as hunting or fishing. When battles occurred, he was always given the chance to stand at the vanguard; for warriors, that was an unequalled honour.

    On the other hand, since ¡®Raga¡¯ was the living symbol of warriors within the community, he did not take part in politics. He was required to remain silent during the frequent talks that the head of the tribe held with the village¡¯s adult men. He could not give his support to anyone, nor could he ever oppose a decision made by the head.

    Conversely, if there was someone else who was dissatisfied with anything the tribe head had decided, and if he reached the point where he believed that ¨C Talking is useless. I need to prove I¡¯m right through strength ¨C then that person was obliged to fight a duel with Raga.

    Those who fought Raga one-on-one had no alternative but to win. It was believed that the mountain god Tei Tahra granted victory to the one who was in the right. A man who was reluctant to go through with it, and who instead tried to change the situation by force ¨C perhaps by recruiting like-minded companions and rebelling against the head ¨C would never earn the respect of the tribe. Instead, as ¡®a coward who ran away from a fight with Raga,¡¯ he would become an object of contempt to men and women alike.

    Accordingly, anyone who wanted to change any of the community¡¯s policies had no choice but to face Raga in single combat. Yet that fight occurred under horrifyingly unfair conditions. The challenger was always placed under a harsh handicap, and it was the village head who had the right to choose what that handicap would be. For example, whereas Raga would be armed with his weapon of choice, the challenger might be forced to fight barehanded, or his dominant arm might be tied back with ropes, or there was even one ancient precedent in which a man was said to have been made to fight blindfolded.

    Fighting against the strongest warrior in the community while being placed under that kind of handicap ¨C needless to say, there was not a single person who was capable of winning. Nor had there ever been a single case of anyone overturning the head¡¯s policy through strength.

    There was no possibility of branding Raga a ¡®coward¡¯ or ¡®unfair¡¯. The decisions of the tribe head brought the entire community together, and they were made according to the advice from the priestesses, who could hear the voice of Tei Tahra. As such, there should not be any call to overturn them, and Raga had to win, in part so as to demonstrate the god¡¯s infallibility.

    So if one intended to claim instead that, ¡°the priestesses have misheard Tei Tahra¡¯s voice, and the head is taking a path that goes against God¡¯s intentions,¡± and since Tei Tahra granted victory to the one in the right, then no matter what handicap they were placed under, they should be able to defeat Raga and prove that they were correct.

    This then was Raga, who arrived in front of Kuon and the other boys.

    Since the residence he lived in was near to the priestesses¡¯ community, he was almost never seen. Even in combat, Kuon had only ever glimpsed him from afar while the warrior was commanding the troops.

    While Raga watched, the soldiers guarding the priestesses came up to the boys, and each of them took the sword that was hanging from their waist and pierced the ground with them right in front of the boys.

    Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s going to be duels? Kuon wondered if they were going to be told to prove their courage in front of Raga by fighting to the death with their fellows, but then again, he had never heard of anyone dying during the coming-of-age ceremony.

    The boys exchanged doubtful glances.

    ¡°Soon, the betrayer will be executed,¡± Mist, the oldest of the priestess announced in a voice as raspy as if it was rubbing against a tree branch.

    The priestess then explained again what everyone living in the community knew: that at this period, somebody would inevitably be possessed by evil spirits and would become a betrayer who would harm the mountain.

    ¡°When this time arrives, we give the soldiers, Raga included, the order to capture the betrayer. As you known, once someone is possessed by evil spirits, then even with Tei Tahra¡¯s protection, we cannot expel the spirits from his body. The only way to save that person is to extinguish the spirits. The person¡¯s life must be taken, after which, we cover their corpse in sacred ashes and purify it within the flames. You will undertake this ritual. Do not make a single mistake in any of the proceedings. Once you have purified the evil energy with your own hands, you will receive the path that will lead you to Tei Tahra after your death and, at the same time, you will be born in the true sense in these mountains.¡±

    Kuon and the others were made to take hold of the swords. The open fire was extinguished, and only the pine torches held by the soldiers illuminated their surroundings with their red flames.

    Thereupon, the ¡®betrayer¡¯ was dragged out.

    That year, it was Gosro. Kuon had thought that he might perhaps have run away, but it seemed he had already been captured by Raga and the others.

    At first, however, Kuon could not recognise the face which was supposed to be familiar to him. That was how much Rosgo had changed.

    He was naked and tied up with ropes. Was it for some kind of magic spell that he was completely covered in white powder?

    His entire body had been dyed pure white, and the only colour came from his red and bloodshot eyes. Yet they made him look even more like a demon which roamed the world of night.

    His mouth remained gaping open, and drool overflowed from it as he growled like a beast. He sometimes scratched the ground with his toenails. Perhaps because he already done it so often, those nails were cracked and oozing blood. Most disgusting of all was how the ¡®arrow¡¯ that the mountain god Tei Tahra bestowed only to men was standing at the ready.

    Gosro¡¯s goggling eyes restlessly moved around and, when he noticed the boys standing in front of him, he gave a shrill shriek of laughter. Again and again, he jumped where he was, bending then straightening his back as he laughed.

    The boys screamed.

    Gosro was about to charge right at them. The soldiers who were holding the rope gave it a strong pull. By repeatedly striking him in his flanks and legs with the butts of their spears, they finally managed to stop his charge, but even though was now covered in blood, his shrill laughter continued to echo.

    This was no longer Gosro. His sternness when he had scolded Kuon on the boat, and his kindness when he later forged a sword for him, had all vanished completely along with his power of reason.

    So this was how atrocious possession by evil spirits really was? It brought you down to the level of a beast?

    ¡°Do it,¡± ordered Priestess Mist.

    ¡°Do it!¡± Raga shouted.

    ¡°Do it!¡± the soldiers raised their spears threateningly.

    One of the boys made up his mind and pierced Gosro deeply with his sword. A howl like a beast¡¯s rose to the heavens. Another one did the same. Then another, until only Kuon was left.

    Gosro was already dead. Yet even though he was dead, Kuon still had to jab his corpse with the sword. He was in tears as felt the sensation of tearing through Gosro¡¯s flesh and organs. He stopped when he reached his breastbone, but an adult soldier pressed down on his shoulder from behind.

    ¡°Do it.¡±

    He pushed the blade in further. Although he didn¡¯t realise it himself, Kuon had apparently been screaming.

    Afterwards, they all carried the corpse on their shoulders towards a different ceremonial ground where they tied it to a stake and, while the priestesses and shamans chanted the words of some kind of spell, they set fire to the kindling. As the flames flared into life, they crept up the stake and enveloped Gosro¡¯s corpse. Kuon watched as the fire washed over the old fisherman''s blood and blistered his skin.

    ¡°You did well. With this, Gosro and the mountain have been saved.¡±

    Having finished reciting spells, Mist whispered as she stood behind them all.

    ¡°And with this, you have all of you safely reached adulthood.¡±

    Kuon continued to breathe heavily for a long time.

    The fire engulfed Gosro¡¯s face. As his flesh burned, it gave off an unpleasant smell, yet in that moment, a strange sense of relief filled Kuon¡¯s chest: with his eyes closed as though he were sleeping, Gosro¡¯s face had once more looked like it always used to.

    We did it. We saved him.

    When that thought sprang up in his mind, he felt elated.

    Part 4

    Like that, Kuon was able to officially join Datta¡¯s subordinates and to obtain the surname ¡®Wei¡¯.

    Later, there was dancing around a bonfire and the priestess Mist, who headed the ceremony, threw animal bones into the flames then, after carefully scrutinising the fissures that had appeared, she made a curious prediction:

    ¡°One day, Kuon Wei will bring forth more gold that the mountains can hold.¡±

    This was taken as meaning that Kuon would become a warrior without equal in the mountains.

    ¡°That¡¯s something to look forward to, isn¡¯t it Datta?¡±

    The pillar of the ¡®Wei¡¯, that his friends were trying to draw into conversation, was usually a man of so few words that he almost seemed gloomy, but, this one time, he beamed with delight.

    ¡°He¡¯s still just a half-size, but one day, he¡¯ll definitely be skilled enough to even be able to compete for the position of Raga,¡± he squeezed Kuon¡¯s shoulders.

    At some point, the children of Kuon¡¯s age started to gaze at him with envy. Nonetheless, half of the blood flowing through his veins was that of an outsider so, naturally, there was bound to be some who were not amused by this situation.

    Chief among them was Diu Wei, Datta¡¯s son.

    Although Diu also possessed outstanding skill for his age, and the adults had applauded him for the excellent results he had achieved in one battle after another, he did not stand out given that Kuon, who was younger, had performed every bit as well as he had.

    And now he too was already an adult. Publicly, he did not ill-treat Kuon, but because of that, hatred and impatience smouldered all the more strongly within his young heart. During hunts, he had already been told off by his father for giving Kuon one absurd order after another.

    ¡°I¡¯m the patriarch of the Wei, not you. Don¡¯t just go about giving orders any way you like¡± ¨C that was the only meaning behind the rebuke but, this being Diu, he took it as implying much more. He was probably even afraid that ¨C my father might be planning to leave the ¡®Wei¡¯ family to Kuon.

    About two years after Kuon had been accepted as an adult, invaders came to the mountains again. This time, it was a group of former mercenaries.

    In Allion, where battles were never-ending, they had fought for a side that unsuccessfully opposed the king. They had fled after laying utter waste to several villages to create a distraction. Several platoons had banded together, and the men now numbered about five hundred.

    In the mountains, there was a little under eight hundred men capable of fighting on the front lines. If you added in the women who fought with guns or bows and arrows, as well as the more elderly people who provided logistical support, then that number doubled.

    Naturally, the Wei Unit was among those who were sent out to intercept the invaders.

    As former mercenaries, these were well-used to fighting, and the mountain people did not have sufficient numbers to overwhelm them. Thus the fighting dragged on for three or four days.

    The Wei Unit suffered damage because of it, and several of the seniors whom Kuon admired for being brave warriors were killed. Even so, they had an overwhelming advantage in term of terrain, and no matter how many of their companions were taken down, they continued to attack the enemy with undaunted daring.

    Faced with that kind of opponent, and once they realised that they would not be able to easily seize the mountains, the former mercenaries abruptly started to withdraw. With the enemy pulling back, Diu, as Datta¡¯s oldest son, organised a troop to give chase and deliver follow-up attacks on them. Its members were the Wei Unit¡¯s elite, Kuon among them.

    Datta was at the camp set up halfway up the mountain slope, and when he heard about this, he had a bad feeling about it; he chased after Diu¡¯s troop on horseback, without taking a single soldier with him.

    His instincts proved correct.

    Diu had the warriors disperse to give chase to the would-be invaders, but he deliberately lied to Kuon about where they would join up again, with the result that Kuon found himself isolated right in the middle of their enemies.

    All alone, he fought against the enemy troop. He cut down one, then two of their soldiers, but, because of his small frame, Kuon was forced to constantly be moving around and, in a situation where attackers were coming at him from all sides, his breath was soon ragged.

    Who knew how many opponents he fought. Just as he was joining swords with yet another one, his legs were knocked out from beneath him and he fell backwards. The enemy figures vanished as he found himself looking up at the sky. Within it was the blazing sun and a few strands of clouds.

    Ah!

    In that moment, death was so close to Kuon that he could almost feel its breath against his ear. It was as though his consciousness, which had been wholly focussed on fighting, was about to leave his flesh and soar into that sky.

    He experienced a strange sense of elation, a lot like he had at the coming-of-age ceremony. Perhaps it was the sensation of things coming together: life and death, the individual and the group.

    ¡°Kuon, get up. Get up!¡±

    In that very instant, he heard Datta¡¯s voice.

    ¡°It¡¯s too soon for you to offer your blood to God!¡±

    At the last possible moment, Datta came charging in on horseback, driving off the enemy soldiers who were swarming around Kuon.

    Awareness returned to Kuon, and he quickly sprang to his feet. Datta rode his horse up to him while parrying the enemy¡¯s spears.

    ¡°Get on, Kuon!¡±

    Obeying his order, the boy nimbly leaped up behind Datta, and the horse broke away at a gallop.

    Their enemies hurled spears at them, but Kuon quickly cut them down. When he looked at Datta¡¯s broad back, it was shaking. Neither of them spoke. But then, neither had ever been talkative. Kuon had hardly ever seen him talking affectionately even with Diu, his own son. And yet, it was Datta who broke the silence.

    ¡°I won¡¯t ask you not to blame my son,¡± he was speaking fast, entirely unlike his usual self. ¡°There¡¯s no doubt that he¡¯s in the wrong, but he¡¯s far, far more childish than you. The only reliable thing about him is his skill. One day, he and you will make the ¡®Wei¡¯ even stronger and more outstanding.¡±

    Kuon didn¡¯t make any reply. He was entirely focussed on the enemies chasing behind them.

    At long last, their shouts faded into the distance. It happened at the same moment that the horse¡¯s pace changed to a trot; Datta¡¯s back, which had been like a bulky wall, gave a great heave, then he fell from the horse.

    He had taken a fatal wound to the chest when he rushed into the enemy soldiers to save Kuon.

    ¨C As Leo and Sarah watched, holding their breath, Kuon ¨C clumsily, bit-by-bit ¨C piled his words one on top of the other.

    ¡°...And then what happened?¡±

    Kuon voice was almost a mutter as he answered,

    ¡°Did I tie Datta¡¯s body to the horse and go back to the village? Or did I leave Datta and the horse where they were? I can¡¯t remember. But I remember Diu, screaming and crying with his face bright red, ¡®It¡¯s your fault¡¯, ¡®You killed my father¡¯. And also, ¡®You led him into a trap¡¯. Well, I wasn¡¯t a pureblood after all, so pretty much everyone believed what Diu said.¡±

    What the hell! Sarah was about to say something, her expression furious, but she just managed to hold herself back when Leo gave her a warning glance.

    ¡°And after that?¡±

    In exchange, Leo prompted Kuon to continue in a serene tone of voice. Kuon blinked, as though he had just woken up.

    ¡°After that... After that? Right, after that, I came here.¡± Kuon pointed to the table. ¡°I¡¯d become a traitor to the mountain. It¡¯s like I said earlier. Betrayers can appear even in the mountain god Tei Tahra¡¯s sanctuary because evil spirits enter from the forehead. And that why betrayers are... how can I put this... right, in order to ¡®purify¡¯ them, betrayers are burned at the stake. Like what happened to Gosro during the coming-of-age ceremony. But I really didn¡¯t want to be burned alive, so, as a betrayer, I left the mountains.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    For a short while, silence filled the room.

    Kuon looked at Leo and Sarah in turn, a bewildered expression on his face. He couldn¡¯t understand the meaning of that silence and it looked like he was mistakenly worrying that he might have done something wrong.

    ¡°I learned a lot; that was really useful. Thank you.¡±

    After saying that, Leo let a while pass by before getting up from his chair.

    ¡°The bill has already been paid. I¡¯ll head back to the castle first.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m you guard. Me too, I¡¯ll...¡±

    ¡°The castle isn¡¯t far. I¡¯m not a child, so I¡¯ll be fine by myself. More importantly, I¡¯ve had you speaking for so long that you barely had anything to eat. I¡¯m fine, I had plenty.¡±

    Leo spoke in the same tone that he might use for a child, then left the private room. The sound of his footsteps disappeared from earshot.

    ¡°I wonder if the prince wasn¡¯t hoping to be able to rely on the strength of the ¡®mountain people¡¯,¡± said Sarah, nibbling on cheese from the tray.

    ¡°What do you mean by rely on them?¡± Kuon drew the tray a little towards himself, worried that everything on it might get eaten. Although Sarah saw him do it, she didn¡¯t get angry or make fun of him like she normally would.

    ¡°Darren might lead his troops any day now, the Personal Guards have been left at the temple, and the prince doesn¡¯t have any soldiers he can make use of at the moment. So he was interested in the ¡®mountain people¡¯ that you¡¯d spoken of before and, if possible, maybe he was thinking of asking for their help with you as an intermediary.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid. That¡¯s impossible.¡±

    ¡®Right, it¡¯s impossible. The prince also thought so after hearing your story. That¡¯s why he didn¡¯t say anything.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Kuon remained silent and another short while passed.

    ¡°Gah!¡±

    Kuon started at the sound of a voice. Sarah had apparently just tried the alcohol that the prince had been drinking, and had spat it out on the table.

    ¡°What is this? It¡¯s disgusting! God grants us tongues to savour flavours, but those guys who can chug this down looking like it¡¯s absolutely delicious must have had them pulled out!¡±

    ¡°Your brother does the same.¡±

    ¡°My big brother?¡±

    ¡°Once, when we were in a bar in Tiwana, he quarrelled with a whole lot of people. It was probably because he¡¯d stolen Percy¡¯s drink.¡±

    ¡°An act unworthy of a monk.¡±

    Sarah crossed herself, teary-eyed and looking truly indignant. Kuon shook his head in astonished exasperation. He finally had a chance to score a verbal victory over Sarah, who was always attacking him. Just as he was trying to think of the right words to make fun of her, Sarah spoke first.

    ¡°You get it, right? ...No, since this is you, you probably won¡¯t get it unless you¡¯re told.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯re you talking about? You want to threaten me about keeping it a secret?¡±

    ¡°The prince was sorry when he heard your story. He¡¯d asked you too much. Don¡¯t forget that care for you. If it had been any other noble, even if they had to threaten you to do it, they¡¯d have ordered you to link up with the mountain people, you know.¡±

    Her almond-shaped eyes were faintly red. Maybe it was because she was already drunk, or perhaps it was because she was self-conscious about also having said ¡®too much¡¯.

    Kuon shut his mouth tight again.

 Volume 3, 5: The Kesmai Plains

    Volume 3, Chapter 5: The Kesmai Plains

    Part 1

    When staying in Guinbar, Kuon had a room in the barracks which had been built for the Personal Guards.

    After parting with Sarah, Kuon had gone to his room. Usually, the soldiers shared a room between five or six, or even ¨C in some extreme cases ¨C ten, but Kuon had received a private one. It was often left empty since he was constantly coming and going between the temple and Tiwana, but then, it wasn''t as though it contained anything but the basic necessities. True, there was the Cross Faith''s sacred book, which Camus had forced him to take, but even that had just been left tossed in a corner.

    It was already night-time.

    Even though he hadn''t done any training today, for some reason, he was exhausted down to the marrow of his bones. He immediately put himself to bed.

    But he couldn''t sleep.

    That was rare for Kuon. The boy who could sleep anywhere, be it in the middle of the mountains or on a battlefield, with a tree root or the sheath of his sword for a pillow, could not sleep even though he was aware of being exhausted. Getting irritated, he let out a growl of annoyance.

    He knew what the reason for it was.

    This is the prince''s fault.

    He was taciturn by nature, so it felt like he had used up his lifetime''s worth of words during the nearly two hours of talking that he had done earlier. And he hadn''t been talking about another person, it was his own past, which he prevented himself from remembering too much about, that the prince had coaxed out of him and had him talk about at length.

    When he thought of how he had been earlier, he could almost feel himself blush from embarrassment.

    At the same time, he could not stem the flow of his memories. Up until now, those memories were supposed to have been locked away beyond his reach, but because he had spent so long reminiscing, the seal had fallen off entirely, and he could no longer prevent them from surging out.

    He tossed and turned again and again, and kept telling himself that he wouldn''t think about them, but his memories still would not allow him to escape into sleep. Even when he closed his eyes, the images rose clearly before him. Or else it was a voice which was vividly resurrected.

    ¡°You did it! Father was always reprimanding you and hitting you, so you resented him. That''s why you caught him in a trap and dragged him to his death!¡± Diu had screamed at him in tears.

    And the tribesmen had believed those words. No matter how much they might recognise his strength, at the end of the day, Kuon was not a pureblood, and that single fact decided the matter for them, and meant that they did not believe one word of his attempted explanations.

    When explaining to the prince how he had arrived at Conscon, he had simply said that he had ¡°come down from the mountains,¡± but the truth was that he had consciously obfuscated the details. It was impossible that he could have left so easily, after all.

    Immediately after Datta''s death, Kuon had been hauled away by muscular soldiers, and had been locked up in a prison within a cliff that was used for the tribe''s criminals. While he was shut away, the priestesses would hold a ceremony to ascertain his guilt.

    In the same way as divination was performed at the coming-of-age ceremony, they would burn an object related to the event ¨C the armour that Datta had worn, or a piece of one of his bones ¨C and then, depending on things like the condition of the fire and the cracks that the heat caused in the object, the priestesses would divine Tei Tahra''s will. Based on that, they would determine Kuon''s guilt or innocence, and, if he was guilty, they would also determine what punishment to hand out to him.

    Kuon, of course, knew that he was blameless. As long as Tei Tahra righteously guided the priestesses, his innocence should become clear at once. Yet swirling black doubts and misgivings easily enveloped that hope. And the reason for that was, again, that ¨C I''m not a pureblood.

    From the time he was born, he had never once been accepted by the mountain, so how could he overturn Diu''s words? Even the priestesses might falsify their divination, while everyone gloated about how they could finally get rid of Kuon, the eyesore, and so wouldn''t he end up burned at the stake?

    That thought obsessed him as he lay on the damp stone floor. The ceiling was too low for him to be able to stand. Kuon was now lying down in his lodgings in Guinbar, and back then as well, he had been unable to sleep. In his mind floated the image of Gosro, his eyes open so wide that the eyeballs seemed about to fall out, and drool spilling from his mouth. His screeching laughter. His body engulfed in the flames...

    ¡°You''re wrong, it wasn''t me,¡± Kuon cried over and over.

    He shouted until his throat was so raw he could no longer speak. His tears never stopped flowing either. In the end, he even felt like calling for his mother, who was long dead.

    Then, when the night was at its deepest, he heard a voice outside. He wondered whether the executioner had finally come for him, and pressed his body close against the prison''s stone wall, when an arm stretched out towards his shivering form.

    He was dragged towards the open door. A man stood there. No, actually, it was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman since they were wearing a mask similar to Warrior Raga.

    That person cut the ropes that were binding Kuon''s hand and feet, and clapped him on the back.

    ¡°Run away,¡± they whispered.

    Kuon didn''t need to be told twice. He even considered that this person might be pretending to help him, only to then jab a blade in his back. Convinced that the entire mountain was already out to kill him, Kuon recklessly galloped down the dark mountain paths.

    The only thing he could rely on was the light from the stars. Again and again, he slipped and tumbled against the rocks. He suffered more wounds than he could count, but thinking about it now, it was lucky that none of those had been fatal injuries. There were watchtowers built all along the mountain pass; Kuon avoided the light from their fires which illuminated the darkness, and carried on with as much force as though someone was pushing him from behind. In the end, a day later, he had crossed to the south of the Fangs.

    He remembered how he had stared in almost blank amazement at the Kesmai Plains, which unfolded out before him. But even that only lasted an instant. He was worried that the figures of pursuers might emerge from behind him at any moment, so he pushed himself forward, despite his wounds and his exhaustion, and ran towards the north. Of course, he had no clear destination in mind, it was simply that it was the direction away from the mountains.

    ¡°Huh,¡± the gloomy sound he made was meant to chase away those scenes from his past which had come spinning back to him one after another.

    In the end, he gave up on trying to force himself to sleep, and glared at the ceiling, both eyes open wide.

    He could hear the sound of his heartbeat.

    He stayed like that for a long time.

    It was not yet dawn when Kuon headed towards the barracks'' stables. He saddled a horse and jumped on its back; since the animal was familiar with him, it didn''t make a sound. With his bag behind him, Kuon rode the horse down the quiet streets, but then soon brought it to a halt.

    There, in the semi-darkness, was the figure of a nun of the Cross Faith.

    Sarah.

    She was leading a horse and, before Kuon had the time to say anything ¨C

    ¡°I thought as much,¡± Sarah looked up at Kuon with eyes like a kitten''s. ¡°Are you intending on returning to your home mountains, and asking them for help?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Give it up. Kuon, aren''t you a ''betrayer'' to the mountain? You''ll only be captured and burned at the stake.¡±

    ¡°Don''t decide that for yourself.¡±

    Did Kuon''s bitter answer come in reply to ''return to the mountains'', or was it because of the words ''burned at the stake''? Either way, something had hit the mark.

    ¡°Did I go too far? Still, it''s a bit unexpected, you know?¡±

    ¡°What is?¡±

    ¡°The fact that you''re even willing to run the risk of being burned to death. Percy and my brother seem to be placing their hopes on His Highness Leo, but what in the world is in it for you?¡±

    ¡°I just want to win the war.¡±

    ¡°Which is why I''m asking why. There are wars everywhere. There are places where you have a far better chance of winning compared to here, and places where you can make far more money.¡±

    Sarah piled up questions as though to test him, until opposite her, Kuon growled in annoyance.

    ¡°I decide where I fight. It''s got nothing to do with you. So leave me alone.¡±

    ¡°I can''t do that. The prince said it too, right? You''re his bodyguard. You''re no longer a drifting mercenary: your position comes with responsibilities.¡±

    ¡°And who are you to say that? Are you in a position to give me orders?¡±

    ¡°I...¡± Sarah faltered for a second, then proudly puffed out her chest. ¡°I am the beauty in heroic tales who guides the hand of destiny.¡±

    ¡°Whatever.¡±

    Kuon had his horse start walking again. Sarah levered herself by putting her foot against the stable''s gate and swung herself into her own saddle. Her movements were supple and nimble.

    Kuon passed under Guinbar''s main eastern gate, and started along the road heading south.

    ¡°Did you bring travelling expenses?¡± Sarah asked from behind him.

    He ignored her at first, but eventually held up the bag that was at waist because of how persistent she was being.

    ¡°Right, I see. So, we should get what we need from one of the villages ahead. This isn''t going to be a five or six day trip, is it?¡±

    Weren''t you planning on stopping me? Was written all over Kuon''s face, but he didn''t say it out loud. If he started talking, he would just get caught up in Sarah''s pace. Determined to get away from her at some point, he urged his horse forward.

    Half a day after leaving Guinbar, they arrived in a village where they bought provisions and sleeping bags. Sarah had something to say about every item of shopping. ¡°It''s best to visit another shop before making a decision,¡± she said, or, ¡°Please be more careful about what you choose. Your life depends on the equipment you select for travelling.¡± She just wouldn''t shut up. Kuon wasn''t able to stay silent either.

    ¡°What are you, a meddling old granny? And how long are you planning on sticking around for?¡±

    ¡°I decide where I go. So leave me alone.¡±

    After riding their horses further, they stayed overnight in a different village.

    Kuon had intended to stay at an inn, but Sarah objected. Savan Roux had built centres for the Cross Faith throughout his territory, and in this village as well, a storehouse which had originally been under the joint management of merchants was in the middle of being remodelled into a monastery. There were still only very few monks living and studying there, but Sarah was able to request that the two of them be put up for the night in the name of solidarity between members of the Cross Faith.

    ¡°Every little bit of money is worth saving.¡±

    Kuon went along with it for the time being. Although there was still money to spare, it wasn¡¯t as though it were plentiful.

    The two of them continued to ride forward for several more days. Sometimes Kuon had his horse speed up, or left a village after making sure that Sarah was fast asleep, but each time, Sarah would inevitably catch up with him. Once, they fell in with a merchant caravan ¨C in effect, a group of peddlers ¨C of several dozen people, and a spent a night in their company in a forest. However, when Kuon stealthily got up in the middle of the night and seemed about to gallop away on horseback, young merchants who were standing guard came chasing after him, also on horses and with ugly expressions.

    Thinking that something might have happened, Kuon brought his mount to a halt.

    ¡°Chase after him at once if that guy looks like he¡¯s going to sneak away without permission,¡± Sarah had apparently told them. ¡°He took my chastity and we''re fleeing from the pursuers sent by my parents. But now, it looks like he''s trying to run away from me. Even though he''s promised that we would go where we could be happy together.¡±

    Because of that tearful explanation, the men were all on Sarah''s side, and had kept watch on Kuon with glowering eyes.

    ¡°You shameless piece of shit, taking advantage of such a beautiful young lady then trying to run away!¡±

    ¡°I''d rather tie you to that tree over there and let the wolves eat you, but then the young lady would be sad. Right, come on ¨C you''re going back!¡±

    Kuon was completely baffled to find himself surrounded and threatened like that. He gave up for a while on trying to shake Sarah off.

    As the road grew more rugged, signs of human life gradually became scarcer. There were no more travellers and merchants to be seen, and hardly any houses. Normally, upon leaving the centre of Atall and approaching the border areas, there would be marauders roaming, who would forcibly announce that they would ¡°protect¡± wayfarers to extort money out of them, yet even those bandits were nowhere in sight here.

    They arrived near the road through the mountain pass. Wedged between the highlands and the rocky mountains to its east and west, this path separated Atall from the lands that lay further south. Although the place was virtually deserted, the road appeared to be relatively well-maintained, which stemmed from the fact that before the southwestern country of Garanshar had been absorbed into Allion''s domains, this route was frequently used by merchants from Atall and the surrounding countries when they went on business to Garanshar and did not want to cross Allion''s border.

    Because of the cliffs towering on either side of it, strong winds blew through this valley path, and because they sometimes sounded like a woman''s weeping, it was called ''Pass of the Wailing Tresses''.

    At times galloping fast, at others, leading their horses, Kuon and Sarah crossed the steep ridge. As the cliffs fell away behind them, there was suddenly nothing to obstruct their view and, instead, desolate fields opened before them.

    The Kesmai Plains.

    The gently rolling ground seemed to carry on forever. Diagonally west of the plains, the domains that had once been Garasharn continued until they adjoined the inland sea, which had now become Allion''s border.

    The temperature seemed impossibly high compared to the mountain pass, and Sarah''s hair fluttered in the dry wind. Moisture was scarce, and there so were so few trees growing that they could easily be counted, which made this land look it was rejecting life.

    ¡°How did you cross these plains?¡± Sarah asked.

    She stroked her horse''s neck as though to soothe it, but in doing so, she was probably trying to hide her own unease.

    ¡°Nomads wander all over the plains. I followed them.¡±

    ¡°You sure are good at being reckless,¡± Sarah crossed herself with an astounded expression. ¡°Simply being able to find them was already a desperate gamble, and then, there are plenty differences between nomads. There are even some who attack caravans and towns, you know. You should give thanks for still being alive. Be sure to offer prayers to God.¡±

    ¡°Sure, humans are dangerous too, but from here on, they''ll be more wolves than humans. Also, watch out; there are loads of valleys that look like the mountains have collapsed inwards. In places like that, there are plenty of holes where ashinaga have their nests.¡±

    ¡°Ashinaga?¡±

    ¡°That''s how we call them. But in Atall and among the nomads, I''ve heard they''re called ''armoured spiders''. They''re giant, man-eating spiders.¡±

    ¡°Eh...¡±

    Her tone was curt, but Sarah''s answer seemed strangely heavy at the same time. His interest piqued, Kuon continued his explanation.

    ¡°In the tribe, there were men who hunted ashinaga at the foot of the mountain on the far side from the village. Because they only appeared a few times a year, on the morning after strong winds had been blowing, only the exceptionally skilled hunters were chosen. It''s an honour to hunt ashinaga.¡±

    ¡°Why would you even be hunting them? To eat?¡±

    ¡°Of course not. The priests wanted the ashinaga''s poison, the hunters used the hair from their legs as arrowheads, and the warriors took their hard shells as shields. I''ve never seen a living one though. ©¤ You scared? They say that if you take ashinaga poison, you''ll die in agony.¡±

    The implicit advice was that now was the time to turn back.

    ¡°Really? That sounds exciting. This means that from here on is where a great adventure begins, right? This could the tale of how the brave and beautiful Sister Sarah, accompanied by a puppy-like attendant, found treasures and ruins hidden since long ago in this barren wasteland.¡±

    Sarah straightened her back and urged her horse on before Kuon could do the same, leaving him to follow hurriedly after.

    Travelling south across the plains, there were what looked like huts made out of solidified mud lining a narrow river. They looked like they probably formed a village. Back when merchants had frequently been going to and fro the north and Garanshar, they had probably been bustling with people, but now, there was so little life in the place that even the sun which was shining overhead seemed stagnant.

    They therefore decided to stay at an inn. Well, for all that it was called an ''inn'', it was more like an ordinary farmhouse. The talkative host threw open rooms in his house for the few travellers and merchants that came by in order to hear stories from the outside world. Yet when that genial old man heard that Kuon and Sarah were travelling even further south, They''re crazy was written all over his face.

    ¡°There aren''t any proper villages south of here. Even if you''re on the run from the north, you''d do better to head west of the northern edge of Kesmai. There you''ll find the remains of the highway that Garanshar maintained through the plains, back when the country still existed. It''s a little far, but there should be several post-station towns along it.¡±

    When Sarah insisted however that they needed to go south, their host pondered for a while, then told them,

    ¡°In this season, the Halia open up their bazaar. It''s at the ''Moon Ring Stones''. Those guys trade with the towns, so there shouldn''t be too much danger. You need to go further southwest along the river.¡±

    The Halia were apparently one group within a clan of nomads, and a bazaar seemed to be a market which the nomadic tribes held at regular intervals.

    Their host looked at Sarah, who was dressed in her novice''s robes.

    ¡°The Halia are good-natured for nomads, but it would still be best if you changed your clothes. The nomadic clans have their own gods. And they''re different from city-dwellers: they''re mostly not very tolerant of other people''s faiths,¡± he offered another warning.

    Sarah might have been expected to resist the idea ¨C

    ¡°These clothes have been reduced to tatters from the trip, so that''s perfect. Kuon, we still have travel funds, right?¡± Instead, however, she immediately demanded money.

    Kuon pulled a sour face, but by then, he had given up on shaking Sarah off, so it was better to have at least one less source of trouble.

    The next day, she visited the various houses in the village, looking to buy cheap clothes from the daughters of farmers or shopkeepers. By the end, she was wearing second-hand linen clothes that seemed to have belonged to a farm girl, and a traveller''s cloak. When he first saw her looking like that, Kuon''s eyes went wide for a second, but when he noticed Sarah''s knowing smile, he immediately turned his gaze away.

    Part 2

    It was still early in the morning when they left the village and headed south.

    The strong sunlight was beating down, and neither Kuon nor Sarah felt like idle chatter. Pouring with sweat and keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, they silently urged their horses forward. Luckily, from morning until the sun''s light faded into dusk, they met neither beasts nor bandits.

    They came across a deep valley at the bottom of a gentle slope in which a large crowd of people had gathered. Tents with tapered points were packed close together, filling the valley. As they got closer, the sight of the nomads in their long robes of different colours and designs, the sound of the vendors'' high-pitched voices, and the smell of spices and herbs all mixed together to create a jumbled atmosphere that assaulted Kuon and Sarah''s five senses.

    This was surely the Halil''s bazaar. The ''Moon Ring Stones'' seemed to refer to a series of low-lying boulders on the east side of the valley. At certain times of the day, the shadow that the boulders cast into the valley resembled the shape of the moon, hence the name.

    These nomads were generally on the small side, with dark black hair and narrow eyes. They were split up into numerous clans, and never settled long in one place: as soon as they had built a base in one part of the wilderness, they would move to another destination. Occasionally, they would hold a market, to which other clans also came. Since the market was usually held in the name of the leader of the host clan, he was responsible for guaranteeing its peace. If clans were in the middle of a feud, bringing that quarrel to the market was strictly forbidden. Men dressed in long white robes, and armed with guns and swords that curved even more than the half-moon swords often used in Atall, were patrolling the valley and its surroundings. They appeared to be in charge of maintaining security, which meant that they were part of the Halil clan, which was sponsoring this bazaar. One of them had rushed immediately to where a buyer and vendor had started yelling loudly at one another.

    ©¤ This is a digression, but one theory holds that, several hundred years ago, a group of these nomads travelled north, then went separate ways to the east and west. The group which went east found a new base of operation to the north of what is currently the Grand Duchy of Ende, and it continues to this day to threaten Ende''s northern borders. The group that headed west eventually reached the lands of Tauran, and it is said that after repeatedly interbreeding with the indigenous Zerdians, they became known as the Pinepey Tribe, which is famed for its skill in shooting from horseback.

    Whatever the land in which they arrived, they chose the same way of life, faithful to their love for freedom and the wind, and to their traditions of violence and bloodshed.

    ¡°It''s really crowded!¡± Sarah exclaimed in a somewhat excited voice. Apparently, she was fond of that kind of mixed and diverse atmosphere.

    Kuon patted the bag at his waist to check what remained of their travel funds. They needed to resupply in provisions and water. Their host had mentioned that from here on, the sun''s rays would be merciless, so new cloaks were another necessity.

    Outsiders have come ¨C it was clear that the Halia guards were keeping a watchful eye on them. Wanting to stand out as little as possible, Kuon was going to pay whatever price the vendors asked for, but Sarah interfered each time.

    Which got them dragged into a strange situation.

    Just as Sarah was complaining about the price of a bag of dried fruit, a hand swept the bag away from the side. It belonged to a man dressed in long black robes. There was a noticeable scar on his forehead, and he might have been in his mid forties.

    ¡°Now look here...¡± Sarah was about to protest that they were still in the middle of bargaining, but the man paid the asking price for the fruit, then held the bag out to Sarah.

    While Sarah stared blankly back, the man crocked his finger to call over Kuon, who was inspecting curved short swords at another stall. Kuon was offended at the gesture, which was just like that of a master summoning a menial, but what the man said next was a proposal which was so outrageous that it left the boy stunned.

    ¡°I want to buy this woman,¡± the man announced.

    He spoke with a heavy accent. It brought back memories of Kuon back when he had first appeared at the temple, but Sarah seemed to have no problem understanding it. Instead of being angry, however, she answered with a sweet smile;

    ¡°Unfortunately, I''m not for sale. Although I am curious about what kind of price you might set.¡±

    The man open his mouth wide in a hearty laugh, and named a sum. In that area, it would have been enough to stock up on ten day''s worth of luxury provisions.

    Kuon had been glaring angrily, but, so as to not stand out, he relaxed his shoulders and deliberately looked towards Sarah in amusement.

    ¡°What a strange guy. Do you really want to shorten your lifespan so badly that you''re willing to pay for it?¡±

    ¡°Oh my, you''ve learned how to speak, little kuonkuon puppy.¡±

    Although it could have ended there and have been no more than funny anecdote ¨C

    ¡°I can add more,¡± the man was persistent.

    There was an impression of strong will from the mouth buried beneath his black beard, from his narrow, upward slanting eyes, and from his forehead which was like the sheer cliffs in the surrounding area. Although he was slim, his shoulders were broad, and there was a red sash tied firmly around his waist. Kuon''s feeling was that he was not simply some lady''s man, and neither was he to be underestimated.

    ¡°Despite appearances, she''s a daughter from a family of pretty good standing. She has a fianc¨¦ back home,¡± he said quickly, and reached out to take Sarah''s hand to get her away from the man.

    His hand was blocked. When he looked around, he found himself half surrounded by a group of men wearing robes of the same colour. All of them had sheathed swords conspicuously on display.

    ¡°Then how about enjoying a little adventure before going back to that Mister Fianc¨¦? I''m telling you, I, Bah¨¡t, know far better how to please a young lady than any of those soft city-dwelling men.¡±

    ¡°Knock it off,¡± Kuon wanted to deal with this as calmly as possible, but the man called Bah¨¡t wasn''t giving up.

    Sarah didn''t say anything. For some reason, she seemed to be watching happily what Kuon, who was now grasping her hand, intended to do.

    ¡°Don''t think that outsiders can do things their own way here,¡± Bah¨¡t''s lips twisted into a smile. ¡°If you become too much of a pain, should I feed your flesh to the ravenous wolf god of Kesmai, Roh Gas?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°My advice to you, boy, is to scram and leave the woman before there¡¯s trouble.¡±

    ¡°Bastard,¡± Kuon started to reach for the sword that hung at his back. Seeing that, Bahat and his men burst out laughing; they didn''t think for a second that he was a master swordsman. To them, the two looked like the son and daughter of good families who had come from the city for a small shopping adventure.

    Sarah now looked worried. To go back to what was being said earlier, if outsiders wrecked the market place, they would make enemies of everyone there. She was about to say something to stop them, but it was already too late.

    At that moment, a different group made up of several riders came rushing up. Just like the guards on duty, these men wore white robes, meaning that they must be from the Halil. The group of five horsemen advanced in a row, as though to force the cluster of black-robed men to part before their mounts.

    ¡°You got here fast,¡± Bah¨¡t laughed. ¡°This brat is going around trying to make trouble. Won''t you take him away for me?¡±

    ¡°What. Bastard, you''re the one...¡± While Kuon was flaring up, the lead rider spoke,

    ¡°I did not think that you would do us the honour of coming to our bazaar, Uncle.¡± Although he was young, his voice carried unusual dignity. Within the group, he was the only one wearing a pointed helmet. ¡°Naturally, as you know, since this bazaar is being held in my name, everyone attending is my guest. Tell me, Uncle, do you have business with my guests?¡±

    ¡°None at all. As a guest, I was simply going to buy something which caught my eye. Exactly what you''d expect at a bazaar.¡±

    ¡°Yet it looked like there was about to be a commotion because you were forcibly trying to buy something which was not for sale.¡±

    ¡°Oh? Are you trying to say that I''m the one who was about to disturb the bazaar? And, in your position, what are you going to do to me? Expel the problem by force? This is great opportunity for you, since you can''t seem to stand my company,¡± as Bah¨¡t spoke, the mood changed.

    The group in black put their hands to their waist or to their breast pockets. Seeing which, the party of white-robed riders also put themselves at the ready.

    Kuon grimaced: from being at the centre of the disturbance, his position had suddenly changed completely and he was now entirely left out. In short, it looked like there were certain ties and circumstances among the nomads there.

    Amid an atmosphere so tense that blood might start flowing at any moment, Bah¨¡t put on a smile, and shrugged his broad shoulders.

    ¡°Well, leave it. I''m still in the middle of shopping. It wouldn''t be so funny to be turned away now. Let''s go enrich your bazaar a little,¡± saying so, he turned around.

    Once he started to walk, the group of black-robed men all immediately did the same. A sand-laden wind started blowing from behind Kuon, and it was exactly as though Bah¨¡t was guiding that wind as he strode away.

    Kuon and Sarah were invited to the tent which was closest to the ''Moon Ring Stones''.

    The one who had asked them there was the man in a helmet from the Halil clan. ¡°Please allow me to treat you to a cup of tea,¡± he had said.

    Before Kuon had time to refuse, Sarah''s eyes had lit up.

    ¡°Did you say that this bazaar was being ''held in your name'' earlier? Does that mean, sir, that you are the head of this clan?¡± She asked, her eyes still shining.

    Don''t say any more than necessary, Kuon glared at her, but the young man laughed readily.

    ¡°Please know that I am H¨¡les Halia, O beautiful one.¡±

    While saying that, he showed the two of them into the tent. H¨¡les was still only about thirty. The image that city-dwellers had of the prairie tribes was that of bloodthirsty savages who attacked travellers every night, but H¨¡les had a clear pair of eyes, and when he smiled, there was a sophisticated air to him that was hard to disregard.

    An Atallese carpet was spread out inside the tent, with a table and chairs from Allion arranged in proper order.

    ¡°None of these were plundered, they were bought at bazaars held by the other clans,¡± although in spite of H¨¡les'' explanation, these were almost certainly articles that the clansmen had sold at their markets after pillaging them from the towns...

    H¨¡les served them tea himself. Maybe it was because some unknown animal''s milk had been added to it, but Sarah felt something very off about the drink that she was normally used to, and had a hard time preventing it from showing on her face. Kuon, meanwhile, downed his cup in a single gulp. He wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

    ¡°Thank you for kindly for your hospitality and for the tea,¡± as ever when speaking with excessive formality, Kuon''s voice was too loud. ¡°We have no intention of causing a disturbance at the bazaar. We have already found what we need, so we will be leaving immediately.¡±

    He took Sarah''s hand and was about to stand up.

    ¡°Please wait,¡± H¨¡les was still half-standing as he stopped Kuon. Young though he was, and just as there had been with Bah¨¡t, there was something in the way he held himself which made it clear that one could not be careless around him.

    ¡°We need to hurry to where we''re going.¡±

    ¡°It will be sunset. Bah¨¡t will definitely attack you if you leave now. Please at least stay the night and leave when the sun is high in the sky. The bazaar ends tomorrow, so we can provide you with guards.¡±

    ¡°Bah¨¡t was the man who wanted to buy me, right? Lord H¨¡les, didn''t you call him your ''uncle''?¡± Sarah asked before Kuon had time to say anything.

    For a second, H¨¡les'' suntanned face wore an embarrassed expression, but he immediately after started to explain the situation to them.

    Bah¨¡t was the younger brother of the previous head of the clan. When the previous clan leader ¨C in other words, H¨¡les'' father ¨C had passed away from illness, the elders had gathered and had designated H¨¡les as his successor. At the time, however, Bah¨¡t had been taking part in a skirmish caused by other clans ¨C one of the parties had offered him money and horses for his support ¨C and so had not been able to take part in the discussion to choose the successor. He seemed distinctly unhappy about it, and, along with several dozen companions who had fought alonside him, he had distanced himself from the clan, only appearing on occasion to harass those within it.

    ¡°Uncle probably came to stir up trouble at the bazaar. He wants to drag my name down. Still, if sheds the blood of a fellow clansmen for no reason, and for all that the plains are said to be unfettered, he''ll find that they will suddenly become a very small place. Those who make light of the connection between clansmen who share the same horses and who drank the same milk will unfailingly find that Roh Gas will howl their infamy far and wide, and they will become objects of hatred and scorn even to the other clans.¡±

    ¡°And so when I appeared, it was like a boon from the Heavens for Bah¨¡t,¡± Sarah nodded.

    He was going to target an outsider to start a fight. This wasn''t the first, or even the second time that Bah¨¡t had performed this kind of harassment.

    The bazaar held at the ''Moon Ring Stones'' was so large that even merchants from the lands of the northern civilisation ¨C Atall included ¨C used to form a caravan to come and trade there. Half a year ago, however, Bah¨¡t had attacked them on their return journey. He had stolen their carts and left several dead, so from then onwards, the merchants in that caravan no longer had the slightest inclination to set foot in the Kesmai Plains again. Given what kind of man he was, it was indeed entirely possible that he might swoop down upon Kuon and Sarah as soon as they left the valley.

    H¨¡les seemed both worried by Bah¨¡t''s actions, and considerably enraged by them. Realising that, Kuon revised his intention of leaving at once. And with it ¨C

    ¡°That man is no longer your uncle,¡± even Sarah was startled by his words. ¡°He''s simply a traitor to the clan ¨C an enemy. You should kill him. Why haven''t you done so?¡±

    H¨¡les glared for a second, then got his emotions under control and showed them a serious expression. He was a man who had become head of his clan at a young age: his hand and feet were no doubt bound by any number of shackles. And besides ¨C

    ¡°Uncle is well used to the plains, and usually, we don''t even know where he is. And I have to take into account that if we attack him, he might call for help from other clans. I can''t decided to start a large-scale conflict simply on my own judgement.¡±

    ¡°You could always find a pretext to lure him out.¡±

    ¡°A sneak attack is out of the question. Instead of my uncle, it''s my infamy that Roh Gas would spread across the wide plains,¡± as H¨¡les spoke, he once again gave a momentary glimpse of anger.

    He would do what he could, but this was not Atall or Allion; the plains had their own way of doing things.

    ¡°You shouldn''t be the one to do it.¡± Why was it that, having gotten to this point, Kuon was showing an abnormal amount of enthusiasm? ¡°But how about if an outsider kills him?¡±

    Not long after that, Kuon and Sarah were once more sitting astride their horses as they swiftly left the Moon Ring Stones behind them. Sunset was closing in, and the dark red sky was melting into the plain''s vast ground.

    In the end, the two travellers had apparently decided to ignore H¨¡les'' advice. And it wasn''t even half an hour later that clouds of dust appeared behind them and to their side.

    ¡°Ay-ay-ay-ei, ay-ei,¡± the group of black-robbed nomads bore down on them, raising their rough voices in a way perculiar to them.

    There was a dozen or more of the men. All of them wore the cruel, predatory smiles of wolves, and as they rode forward, they had their curved and twisting swords raised high. Horses and men alike all seemed to be feverish at the promise of bloodshed.

    If H¨¡les could have seen them, he would certainly have sighed ¨C Didn''t I tell you so?

    The assailant galloping in the lead was none other than Bah¨¡t. The gentlemanly manner that he had just barely maintained at the bazaar had been entirely flung aside, and his cruel laughter was echoing loudly.

    Kuon and Sarah tried to get their horses to run faster and shake off their pursuers, but the nomads were superior in their handling of horses, and in their knowledge of the terrain. The outsiders barely managed to run away for more than a few minutes before being chased and cornered by a steep cliff.

    Several more men joined the group, until there were about twenty of them spread out in a fan shape and surrounding the two who had been forced to halt their horses. The assailants also slowed their horses'' steps.

    ¡°You should''ve listened back then, boy,¡± positioning himself in front of them, Bah¨¡t was laughing enough to make his black beard quiver. ¡°I''d have let you go if you''d given over the woman. But this isn''t the bazaar where your sort can fit in anymore: here, you''re in the Kesmai Plains, where wolves, and storms and giant spiders prowl. There aren''t any rules or laws here. This is a land where the strong take, and the weak simply get taken from. After having that woman while you watch, I''ll slice you to shreds and leave you tied up here. Will you be torn apart by the fangs of wolves while you''ll still alive, or will you be pecked to pieces by birds of prey? Or will you be gobbled up by armoured spiders?¡±

    As Bah¨¡t laughed, his eyes almost looked blood red, like those of a man possessed. It was clear that he loved fighting, and that he took pleasure in cornering his prey then taking the time to torment it. There was no doubt from the look in his eyes that when he attacked and captured men from other tribes, merchants, travellers, or anyone else, he was used to torturing them to death like this. As for what happened to those who were left alive, they were sold as slaves to the western countries.

    Bah¨¡t''s like-minded friends were also laughing as they called out in their coarse voices.

    ¡°Choose how you want to die.¡±

    ¡°We could let you have the woman before that. If you can actually get it up while we watch.¡±

    While the men on horseback were all laughing at once, Kuon kicked his horse''s flanks and raced it towards an opening in the fan-shaped encirclement.

    ¡°You going to just let the woman die, boy?¡±

    The nomadic rider who was positioned at that edge spurred his own horse forward.

    ¡°Don''t kill him yet.¡±

    ¡°Cut his arm off and knock him off the horse.¡±

    Accompanied by the voices of his companions, the rider swung his greatly curved sword to block Kuon''s path. It should have sunk into the boy''s shoulder, except that it was instantly parried.

    The man on horseback had his posture thrown off. At some point, Kuon had drawn the sword at his back. Or perhaps it was better to say that he had parried the blow with the very action of ''drawing his sword''. While everyone there was still having a hard time believing their eyes, Kuon struck again and slashed his opponent through the throat.

    The man fell from his horse in a spray of blood.

    A moment passed. Then Bah¨¡t''s eyes flew open wide.

    ¡°Don''t let him get away!¡± He howled.

    The vulgar smirks had completely vanished from the nomads'' faces, replaced instead by a terrifying killing intent.

    As they circled to draw the net tighter around Kuon, there was also one who moved his horse towards Sarah. Terror must have rooted her to the spot, because she wasn''t moving.

    ¡°Boy, do you value this woman''s head? If you do, then...¡±

    The man had been about to press his sword against Sarah''s neck, when he suddenly saw a gun muzzle appear from beneath her cloak. He didn''t even have time to blink: his forehead was shot through, and he fell backwards from his horse.

    Sarah aimed one after another at the men on one end of the group encircling Kuon, and pulled the trigger. She was unused to shooting from horseback, so she did not hit them, but it caused a shock to run throughout Bah¨¡t''s group.

    Then another situation arose: multiple arrows were shot from behind Bah¨¡t and his men.

    Two arrows struck true, and a man riding next to Bah¨¡t screamed in pain as he fell from his horse.

    What the hell? Bah¨¡t could not comprehend what was going on. He had not imagined for a moment that the ''outsiders'' might have companions. While he was hesitating about whether or not to turn his horse around, Kuon stole up to him, unnoticed.

    Another gunshot rang out.

    A man who had drawing up to Kuon from behind toppled over in a spurt of blood.

    Sword in hand, Bah¨¡t stopped Kuon''s blow just before it landed on his face.

    ¡°Boy, you''re aiming a weapon at me? Do you know what happens in Kesmai to those who bare their fangs at Bah¨¡t?¡±

    ¡°How would I know,¡± Kuon answered while avoiding his counterattack. ¡°There aren''t any rules or laws here, right? The strong take, and the weak get taken from.¡±

    In spite of how he looked, Kuon''s blows were sharp. For a second, then a third time, steel crashed against steel so fast that sparks flew around their faces.

    ¡°Bastard...¡±

    Bah¨¡t was superior in terms of raw strength, but there was no time for him to leverage that advantage by swinging his blade wide. Kuon''s attacks were incessant, and in a second when Bah¨¡t twisted away to avoid them, it was instead Kuon''s sword which drew a wide arc.

    ¡°Argh!¡±

    The blade sliced through Bah¨¡t''s carotid artery. Blood gushed up and dyed the dry earth red. He still moved jerkily as though to swing his sword, but his sturdy body soon fell at his horse''s feet.

    Part 3

    Having lost its leader, the group fled with shouts of ¡°Withdraw!¡± while still being pursued from behind by the archers.

    Sunset was near when white-robed nomads appeared over the ground which had been stained dark red. They were the ones who had drawn the bows. There were only five of them, but that had been sufficient to throw Bah¨¡t into confusion. Leading the rest of the group was the young clan head, H¨¡les.

    ¡°That was magnificent,¡± H¨¡les cried out, his face still flushed with excitement. ¡°I can''t believe you''re this much of an expert with the sword. To be honest, I thought it was touch-and-go whether you''d survive, even if you did manage to kill Bah¨¡t.¡±

    Just before leaving the Moon Ring Stones, Kuon had approached them with a suggestion:

    ¡°You don''t know where Bah¨¡t is? That guy wants to attack us, so if we leave now, without any guards, he''ll definitely show up in front of us.¡±

    H¨¡les Halia was astounded. Kuon was saying that he was going to lure Bah¨¡t out by defencelessly going out in the open. And right now, at that.

    ¡°Gather a few people you can trust. The enemy will be confused if arrows are shot from behind them. I''ll use that opening to kill Bah¨¡t,¡± Kuon volunteered.

    Sarah''s expression turned surprised, perhaps deliberately so.

    ¡°I see. If we bring too many people, it will simply end with Lord H¨¡les becoming known for having attacked a kinsman. It has to be carried out by outsiders to the very end. Kuon, what''s gotten into you? Since when were you infected with His Highness'' intelligence?¡±

    ¡°Ridiculous,¡± H¨¡les turned the suggestion down flat. ¡°Even if we''re covering you, how far do you think you''ll get, drawing their attention all by yourself. With all due respect, a child like yourself...¡±

    ¡°He isn''t a child, clan leader,¡± Sarah said about the boy that she was usually the first to make fun of. ¡°He''s a renowned warrior in the country of Atall. And as for me, I won''t fall that easily at enemy hands. So won''t you leave this to us?¡±

    A man who looked like a child was saying that he would take down Bah¨¡t, and a girl who seemed like a farmer''s daughter was asking a warrior to ¡°leave it to us¡±. The young clan head blinked in bewilderement.

    ¡°Why? Why would you do something like this? We''ve only just met. What benefit is there for you in risking your lives to take Bah¨¡t''s?¡±

    ¡°We only said we wanted to leave here at once. We''re not doing this for you. You could actually that we''re using your situation to get rid of a guy who''s getting in the way of our journey.¡±

    H¨¡les'' astonishment did not abate. Still, even though he was usually a simple man, he was still a warrior nomad who gave his body over to blood frenzy whenever war broke out. In these wild plains, he had been reared on the milk of battles and hunting. He had fought both humans and packs of wolves that had come to seize the nomads'' livestock.

    ¡°If you''re going to go that far, I''ll provide a few people. But we cannot be seen. Until we get close enough to shoot arrows, even if you get caught or if one of you gets killed, we will pretend to have nothing to do with it. Are you really alright with that?¡±

    The two others nodded.

    And thus, still half-doubting this plan ¨C or, rather, despite being seventy or eighty percent sure that it would fail ¨C H¨¡les chose four companions who were close to him in age, and with whom he had forged especially solid bonds, and together they had stealthily followed behind Kuon and Sarah, bows in hand.

    The result was that Bah¨¡t''s corpse was now lying at H¨¡les'' feet. This was a man whose conduct had been awful, and who had risked dividing the clan. Yet even though H¨¡les had hated him enough to want to kill him with his own hands, he had still been a kinsman. For a moment, H¨¡les was almost carried away by the desire to offer his uncle a proper burial, but he soon revised that thought.

    To the very end, they had to stick to the story that Bah¨¡t had been killed by the ones he had intended to attack. What happened to his corpse was something that was best left to the ravenous hunger of the wolf god, Roh Gas, who ruled as he pleased over the plains. In short, and to use Bah¨¡t''s own threatening words, it would be left to chance whether he would be ¡° torn apart by the fangs of wolves, pecked to pieces by birds of prey, or gobbled up by armoured spiders.¡±

    ¡°I would love to invite you to my tent as heroes, but...¡±

    ¡°The sentiment is sufficient. If the honoured clan leader was to shower hospitality to ''outsiders'' right after Bah¨¡t''s death, unfortunate rumors would be sure to spring up.¡±

    H¨¡les gazed at the pair in considerable wonder. When he looked carefully, he felt that the boy called Kuon had something about him that made him far closer to them, the nomads who roamed the plains as the wind dictated, than to those who lived in stone cities.

    ¡°Where will you go?¡±

    ¡°South,¡± Kuon answered laconically. H¨¡les thought about it for a moment.

    ¡°I see. You''re from the people of the mountain lands that received Tei Tahra''s protection?¡± No sooner had he said so than he frowned. ¡°No, they almost never leave the mountains. And besides, you don''t have a tattoo on your forehead, either.¡±

    Kuon remained as silent as ever, and simply allowed the question to be carried away by the wind.

    Although H¨¡les had given up on offering them a heroes'' reception, he still provided Kuon and Sarah with seven riders to act as guards and guides. Since these had brought plenty of equipment and provisions for camping, the two travellers were far more comfortable and relaxed than they had been before then on their journey.

    After ten days of travel, the smooth plains gave way to a terrain of jagged ups and downs. Kuon and the others continued where valleys were nestled among rocky peaks. Or perhaps it was better to say that the rocky peaks besieged the valleys. There, they said goodbye to the nomads: they were afraid that if they penetrated any further into the mountain people''s sacred lands, they would be seen as invaders.

    Said otherwise, this proved that they were getting closer and closer to Kuon''s birthplace. As they did so, he spoke less and less.

    On the first evening when they were back to travelling as just the two of them, strong winds whipped themselves into a gale. Despite how the winds slipped through the cracks in the cliffs, by evening of the next day, the pair had riden their horses as far as the mouth of a wide gorge. Continuing through it, the slope on the left side gradually became gentler. Climbing up it to reach the summit that gave into the gorge, would bring them to the foot of the mountains that were Kuon''s birthplace.

    Sarah gazed at the rugged landscape.

    ¡°The horses can''t continue any further, can they? Anyway, the sun is already going down. Let''s camp here.¡±

    Kuon didn''t move, even though he had seemed about to get down from the horse. It was as though he was now about to turn it back around.

    ¡°And, what is it?¡± Sarah raised her eyes. She understood that Kuon''s birthplace was close. ¡°You can''t possibly be planning to tell me that from here you''ll be going alone, so I should turn back? Don''t even joke about it. Since I''ve come this far, I''m continuing forward no matter what happens.¡±

    ¡°...No, you can''t.¡±

    ¡°Don''t be stupid. I kept up in the mountains in Allion, even when it was the middle of the night.¡±

    ¡°Go back. I''m the one who was being stupid. Nothing good is going to come from going further.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Sarah''s voice rose higher. ¡°That''s right, you really are stupid. You''d have to be an absolute fool to have come all this way and turn back right before your destination.¡±

    ¡°...¡± ¡°Don''t tell me you''re scared?¡± Sarah was being harsh to raise Kuon''s spirit. ¡°Is this the great warrior Kuon? Since you ran away from the mountains, it makes perfect sense that you''d be worried about the people from where you were born turning their bows against you, but I thought that you''d ridden here fully aware of that. It looks like I''ve overestimated you. It''s fine, Kuon. You can wait here, or go back to Lord H¨¡les'' camp. I''m going forward. I''ll talk with the mountain people and return to Atall in triumph with reinforcements.¡±

    Kuon didn''t answer. Feeling ridiculously irritated, Sarah was on the verge of speaking even more harshly when she noticed that Kuon''s entire face was dripping with sweat. He was shaking a little, too.

    ¡°Seriously, what''s wrong, Kuon? Have you come down with an illness?¡±

    Sarah advanced her horse forward and seemed about to touch Kuon''s forehead, but he shook off her hand.

    ¡°It''s nothing. It''s just like you said. It''s just... I''m just scared.¡± Because of how frank Kuon was being, Sarah, for her part, was left speechless.

    Kuon was utterly drenched in sweat and trembling frm fear. It was hard to believe this was the same man who had undertaken to act as bait and lure out the savage nomads.

    For a while, the two of them remained on horseback without saying anything, but then a strange sound filled the valley. It was like the shrill cries of wild birds, but as it drew closer, it became clear that it was overlapping with human voices. Kuon looked towards, his eyes flying wide open.

    Rocks stretched out before them along the valley''s path. At some points, they were piled up to an unnatural height. You only had to see them to realise that they had been placed there by human hands. The stones had been stacked up like walls to slow the escape of prey when hunters where chasing after them.

    ¡°Run, Sarah!¡± Kuon shouted as he grabbed the horse''s reins.

    ¡°What''s the matter now...¡±

    ¡°Ashinaga... armoured spiders are coming!¡±

    Just as he cried out, a strange creature came rushing down the slopes. Sarah saw it too.

    What made it spider-like were its six gnarled and spindly legs, which would be longer than Kuon or Sarah''s full height if it stretched them out straight. Above those legs was a dusky black carapace that certainly looked solid and hard. That part of it looked less like a spider and more like a beetle.

    Armoured spiders were fierce carnivores. They were simple creatures that did not act in swarms, but they were extremely aggressive by nature. Once they spotted prey ¨C a human, for example ¨C they would mercilessly leap towards it and seize it with the sharp, curved claws at the end of their legs, then devour it from the head down. Moreover, their fangs were known to contain poison, and simply having their skin grazed was enough to cause violent pain to their victims. That pain would soon disappear however. And that was because their nerves would rapidly become paralysed.

    Kuon and Sarah turned their horses around to leave there at once.

    The armoured spider must have originally fled that way as it was being chased by hunters but, perhaps because its appetite took over once it saw Kuon and Sarah, it started narrowing the distance between them, its legs squirming at a speed faster than the eye could see.

    Kuon''s horse steadily gained speed, but Sarah''s fell behind. When she turned to glance back, the creature''s torse, gleaming like black armour, was already so close that she had to look up to it. It lifted and waved one of its legs, with its claws sprouting from the bottom of it, casting a dark shadow over Sarah''s face.

    Turning his horse back round again, Kuon threw himself in the space between them. While the horse was neighing wildly in horror, Kuon had his legs firmly clenched around its flanks and used his sword to drive back the claws that were about to rip into Sarah. The horse and the giant beetle seemed to pass by each other.

    Kuon planned to use that moment to cut another of the beast''s legs, but instead, his horse''s flank was torn through by one of the claws. The animal collapsed sideways, throwing Kuon to the ground.

    Unfortunately, the armoured spider seemed more interested in the flesh of humans than of horses. It legs moving frenetically, it scuttled up to Kuon and leaned over him. On either side of his head were nothing but the claws attached to those legs.

    Still facing upwards, Kuon swung his sword with the speed of lightning. He cleaved off the claws of the leg to his right as he rolled to the side. His movements were meant to have him crawl out from beneath the huge body, but he was a second too slow, and the talons from the left leg ripped into the armour on his back. They pinned the partly torn-off strip of armour to the ground. Kuon tried to hurriedly slice through the left leg, but because he was still half rolling to the right, he was unable to put any strength into his blow.

    The armoured spider bent its huge body forward a little, its round head looming closer. Blackish and glistening with slimy fluids, it reminded Kuon of the mud balls he used to make as a child. Something heaved into sight from either side of that globular head.

    Thousands upon thousands of fine orange hairs were closely packed together. No... every one of them was a razor-sharp fang. From the gaps between them, a viscous liquid oozed and seemed about to trickle down at any moment.

    Poison!

    Kuon forced strength into his limbs. No matter how great a warrior someone might be, if they were bitten by those posionous fangs, that would be the end. He struck his sword repeatedly against the left leg that was pinning him to the ground. But the creature overhead was entirely unperturbed by his blows.

    Just as the fangs were before him, a gunshot rang out. Vibrations ran through the huge body and seemed to transmit themselves to Kuon.

    The armoured spider shook violently. It''s legs flayed up and down wildly and, in the process, the claw pinning Kuon down was luckily pulled away, allowing him to hastily roll away and escape.

    Sarah''s gun was still smoking as she came rushing up to him. Dismounting from her horse was what had allowed her shot to aim true.

    The creature raged violently for a while before finally folding its legs and collapsing where it stood.

    ¡°Kuon, are you hurt anywhere?¡±

    ¡°I''m good,¡± he answered, breathing raggedly.

    He had not been hurt, but losing the horses was a serious blow. Just like the armoured spider, Kuon''s horse was lying on its side, breathing its last, while Sarah''s horse had bolted when its mistress dismounted, fleeing in terror. Sarah shrugged.

    ¡°We can only...¡±

    Had she been about to say that they could only go forward?

    At that moment, the huge creature which was supposed to already be dead lifted itself up. It could only struggle halfway to its feet, but, faster than Kuon could push Sarah out of the way, it lunged for her ankle.

    As Sarah collapsed with a thud, Kuon raised his sword high and struck at the top of the round head. Although he met with a resistance like that of hard rubber, his blow seemed to have been strong enough to be effective, and the armoured spider once more sank to the ground, belching out poisonous fluids as it did so.

    ¡°Sarah!¡±

    This time around, it was Kuon who was worried for her, but Sarah, forcing herself to smile, had already started to get to her feet.

    ¡°I''m fine. You pushed me out of the way in time.¡±

    ¡°Really? Show me your injury.¡±

    ¡°I said I''m fine. Ah, hey, don''t touch my skirt!¡±

    The pair of them were about to start arguing when they both suddenly stopped. They could hear the hoofbeats of horses approaching.

    A group of about eight riders appeared from the other side of the valley, avoiding the stone walls as they rode, and occasionally jumping their horses over them. Above their sleeveless clothes, which were dyed a bluish-green, they wore fur pelts. One among them also wore armour. They carried long-handled spears and guns, and although their physique and facial features were similar to those of the nomads of the plains, these people had slightly rounder eyes, and most of them had a red tattoo on their foreheads, painted in blood and in the shape of a dot.

    ¡°Who are you to have invaded our hunting grounds?¡± A man barked, his voice carrying a thick accent.

    Without so much as pausing, they rode into a semi-circle surrounding Kuon and Sarah. One of them gazed at the corpse of the armoured spider, then shifted their line of sight and stared intently at Kuon.

    ¡°You''re...!¡±

    Similarly, Kuon also realised something with astonishment.

    Among the men, this was the only one who did not have a tattoo on their forehead. Neither did they have a beard, and they seemed strangely slender next to the other hunters, but it was easy to understand why that was.

    This was a woman. Or perhaps it would be better to say a former woman? Since ''she'' had joined the hunters, ''she'' must have abandoned the path of living as a woman.

    ¡°Aqua,¡± Kuon spoke ''her'' name.

 Volume 3, 6: Dangerous Pair

    Volume 3, Chapter 6: Dangerous Pair

    Part 1

    ¡°Kuon? Kuon, ''the fugitive from the mountain''!¡±

    One mountain man was enraged at the name. Hearing it said, the others were all equally surprised, but that man''s eyes were noticeably filled with fury.

    ¡°How dare you just come back here, you and your filthy blood, you fucking betrayer! To think that hunting game would lead to meeting a friend''s enemy!¡±

    It seemed that Datta must have been a friend of his. The man drew the broad sword at his waist.

    ¡°Don''t move from there! By the horn of the bronze bull that Tei Tahra rides, I''ll cut you down along with the evil spirit possessing you.¡±

    He strode towards Kuon, his gleaming blade brandished over his head. Before Kuon had time to react,

    ¡°Kuon isn''t a betrayer!¡± Sarah, who had only just managed to stand up, cried out.

    Being yelled out face-to-face by a clearly foreign woman left the man considerably startled. Sarah opened her mouth even wider,

    ¡°Kuon never betrayed anyone. And first of all, there wouldn''t been any point to his killing Datta! That man called Diu Wei set a trap. If you can''t even understand...¡±

    ¡°Stop it, Sarah!¡±

    This time, it was Kuon who yelled as he seized her. Sarah frantically broke free from his hand which was gripping her shoulder.

    ¡°What? Are you going to just let him take your life because of a misunderstanding? You can''t possibly have come all the way here just to get yourself killed?¡±

    ¡°Don''t interfere. I''ll explain it myself.¡±

    ¡°Weren''t you going to run away just now? You''re the one who shouldn''t interfere. I''ve been pissed off at that Diu person even since I heard your story, Kuon! Now, get Diu here. I''m going to let him have it.¡±

    ¡°Sarah!¡±

    Just when Kuon reached to grab hold of Sarah''s shoulder again, her posture unexpectedly collapsed completely. Taken by surprise, Kuon''s hand let go of her, and Sarah fell sideways to the ground. Kuon hastily crouched down and lifted up her head. Her entire face was drenched from large beads of sweat. Diluted blood was mixed in within them. Her breathing was shallow and uneven.

    While Kuon had lost his calm, unsure what to do, Aqua knelt by Sarah''s feet and rolled up the hem of her skirt without asking permission.

    There were several wounds puncturing Sarah''s slender ankle. There was less blood than might have been expected, but what there was plenty of was a viscous, dark green liquid that was stuck to the puncture marks. Kuon could not stop himself from moaning when he saw it.

    ¡°She''s been poisoned by the ashinaga,¡± said Aqua.

    Kuon shouted at ''her'' almost on reflex.

    ¡°Medicine... Don''t you have an antidote!¡±

    ¡°There isn''t any antidote that works against ashinaga poison,¡± Aqua''s reply was perfectly calm. ¡°If one of the hunters had been poisoned, we could have given them into the care of the shamans. But even then, they wouldn''t be sure to be saved.¡±

    The blood instantly drained from Kuon''s face.

    Sarah''s eyes were closed as she gasped weakly for breath, and her earlier, reckless energy seemed almost impossible to believe. It looked like her voice could no longer even make a sound.

    ¡°P-Please,¡± Kuon pleaded in a trembling voice, ¡°please take Sarah... this woman to the shamans. Sarah has nothing to do with my situation. So...¡±

    ¡°We''ve no reason to help someone who has nothing to do with us,¡± the man who had brandished a broad sword earlier laughed scornfully. But with a shake of the head, Aqua disagreed.

    ¡°Are you insane, Older Brother Koru?¡±

    Aqua and him were not blood siblings, but that way of referring to him was probably because they were warriors from the same household and shared the same family name.

    ¡°Even if it costs them their life, a warrior''s duty is to drive back those who try to invade the mountain. But this woman was injured by the prey we were chasing. What''s wrong with at least giving her to the shamans to take care of?¡±

    ¡°It happened because that woman got in the way of our hunt,¡± the man called Koru, who seemed about thirty, squared his shoulders and shouted. ¡°This is Kuon, the murderer whose despicable trap killed Datta, even though he''d always looked after him. Since that woman is with him, she''s just as guilty. Her being poisoned by an ashinaga is Lord Tei Tahra''s will.¡±

    ¡°Brother, that''s...¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Aqua. You might be the head of the Holo''s daughter, but you''re no more than a newcomer to the unit. How dare a woman answer back to her older brother?¡±

    In venting his anger, Koru provoked Aqua to utter fury. The circlets on ''her'' arms clanged as ''she'' strode up to ''her'' ''older brother'', ''her'' slender face red with rage.

    ¡°Older Brother Koru, you''ve made three mistakes. The first was to act as though you know God''s will even though you aren''t a priest. The second was to talk as if this woman was a criminal. In these mountains, deciding who is guilty of a crime is the duty of the priestesses, who can hear God''s voice. And finally, you treated me ¨C a member of the Holo ¨C like a woman. Not only did you spit on the Holo family, your words also sullied Lord Tei Tahra by misunderstanding his nature,¡± Aqua declared in a single breath.

    The man called Koru went pale and could find nothing to answer. At that point, the man in armour, who appeared to be the leader of the group of hunters, pulled on his reins.

    ¡°If we stay here, we''ll be attacked by another ashinaga. We''ll take the woman to the mountains. As for Kuon, there''s no other choice but to leave anything about him to the head priestess,¡± he declared his decision.

    Several of the hunters hurriedly started to dismember the corpse of the armoured spider, while in the meantime, the men from the tribe took possession of Kuon''s sword and of the gun that was still in Sarah''s hand. Kuon lifted Sarah onto his back before anyone ordered him to do so, and started to climb out of the valley with his former companions.

    Sarah was light. He wondered how such a small body could have crossed Allion''s mountains without a single word of complaint, or followed him on the journey through the Kesmai Plains.

    Just before sunset, they finally arrived at the hut the hunters were using. He laid Sarah down; her breathing was even more ragged than it had been earlier. Seeing her shaking hands, Kuon wanted to wrap them up in his own, but as soon as they arrived at the hut, Aqua tied up his feet, and he was placed far apart from Sarah.

    ¡°There should a shaman at the nearby meditation grounds,¡± said one of the hunters as he left the hut.

    ¡°Don''t move,¡± Koru Holo bared his teeth at Kuon, who had been thrown into a corner of the hut. ¡°Just let me see you even try to call in evil spirits. I''ll kill the woman right away.¡±

    Kuon didn''t say anything in reply. Even if his feet had not been bound, he had never had the slightest intention of moving from where he was.

    After what seemed like an eternity, the man who had left the hut returned with a shaman.

    The shaman whore long robes, the hem of which had been dyed red, while strings of shells, animal horns or shiny minerals picked up in the mountain jingled and clanged as they hung from his neck down to his chest. His flowing, unkempt hair was partly white. His forehead and eyes were almost entirely hidden by a wide cloth wound around them, and, as though to replace them, a single large eye had been drawn in the centre of that cloth.

    Generally speaking, those who conveyed God''s voice to the people were all women and priestesses, while the priests, who belonged to the same priesthood, as well as the shaman were all men. Yet it was not as humans that they served by the god''s side, as it was said that even though they were human, they all shared a divine protection. Just like the priestesses, they spent their time overseeing the various ceremonies, and, within the many hermitages that were scattered across the mountains, they underwent rigorous rites to ward against the incursion of evil. They also studied medicine and poison.

    The shaman who entered the hut was followed by two priestesses. Both were teenage girls, and they had probably been entrusted to the shaman as they were in the middle of their training. They wore long, plain robes, and not a single ornament. Being close in age to Kuon, they were acquaintances of his, but right now, he didn''t have time to care about it.

    The shaman knelt by Sarah''s side and first examined her wounds. He stretched his hand out to the priestesses, and one of the girls produced a bundle of medicinal plants from a leather bag. The shaman covered the wounds with them.

    ¡°Ashinaga poison does not have any specific antidote,¡± he said to no one in particular, ¡°so there''s no choice but to use the poison from a horned snake on it.¡±

    From his words, you might expect that horned snake poison would have a neutralising effect, but in fact, it too was a substance that could snatch a person''s life away from the mountain god. When the two poisons mixed inside someone''s body, they transformed into a third type of poison, causing the patient to suffer a raging fever, which would last all night. The odds were fifty-fifty that they would survive, and even if they did, they might have to offer as consecration their eyes, tongue or the ability to move any of their limbs. In other words, they might lose their eyesight, speech, or be affected in their arms and legs.

    Kuon held his breath and did utter a sound.

    ¡°We don''t have everything we need here. Let''s carry her back to the hermitage,¡± said the shaman and, with the help of the hunters, he had Sarah carried out from the hut.

    Naturally, Kuon could not go with them.

    Wandering around the mountains after sundown was extremely dangerous, so they would stay at the hut until the next day. Kuon lay stretched out, his feet still tied together. He couldn''t sleep. Even if he didn''t want to think about it, he couldn''t help but worry about Sarah. He would feel a lot easier if he just gnawed his way through the rope and ran to the shaman''s place, but that would just cause unnecessary antagonism, and they might halt Sarah''s medical treatment.

    And so, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and wait for time to pass.

    ¡°Are you stupid?¡±

    He suddenly noticed that Sarah was looking down at hime from above. Her hair, which was longer than it had been when they had met, tickled the tip of his nose as she spoke.

    ¡°Did you think I was going to die? Too bad for you. Fate and God love me. That''s completely different from some stray dog.¡±

    Beeh! The image of her sticking out her tongue rapidly receded from before Kuon''s eyes. He was going to chase after her, but his legs wouldn''t move.

    Right, I was tied up... The moment Kuon realised that, he woke up. He must have dozed off at some point, and, of course, that image of Sarah had been no more than an illusion appearing in a dream.

    The next morning, the party left the hut.

    Although his legs had been untied, Kuon was surrounded front and back by brawny hunters. When he asked about Sarah, the only answer he received was that ¡°there''s been no communication from the Master Shaman.¡±

    Currently, he had no choice but to follow them. They continued in silence along a path which was only discernible to the eyes of hunters who were very well used to the mountains.

    At every one of the mountain passes, there were watchtowers for guards on lookout. Warriors were stationed there in shifts and every time the party passed by, they called out to them admiringly: ¡°You''ve brought down some splendid prey!¡± Yet Koru and the others wore complicated expressions. The dead ashinaga ¨C the dead armoured spider that they were carrying had been killed by Kuon and Sarah. But when the warriors on watch realised that Kuon was among the party, their attention immediately shifted and they started raising a fuss.

    ¡°Kuon the fugitive?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that''s Kuon, the guy who got possessed by evil!¡±

    The warriors all made the sign to invoke Tei Tahra''s protection. Kuon had survived ceremonial execution despite being possessed by evil spirits and betraying Datta, and all of them viewed him as an ominous existence.

    ¡°Tei Tahra, I implore your protection!¡±

    ¡°No, this is clearly God''s will. Lord Tei Tahra''s wooden staff has chased down evil!¡±

    The party crossed the summits one after another, as voices rained down incessantly upon them. Just before sunset, they struck a course that detoured to the east of the mountain peaks, and lead Kuon to a cleft that opened up in a sheer cliff face.

    Kuon felt a chill strong enough to make him his shiver for a moment.

    He remembered. On the other side of that boulder that was shaped like a beast''s raised claws was the rocky prison in which criminals were incarcerated. In the past, right after Diu Wei had screamed that ¡°You killed my father!¡±, Kuon had been locked up within it.

    There were ceremonial grounds nearby. Whenever criminals were thrown into the rock of imprisonment, the priestesses performed a divination by fire to determine their guilt.

    Entering the cleft meant having to stoop, but although the interior was wide, the ceiling got lower and lower the further you went in. The very deepest part had been fitted with prison bars, and Kuon, whose arms and legs had both been tied up this time, was thrown into it.

    He was left there, alone.

    This did not mean that his guilt would be determined right then and there, but that for the time being, Kuon''s presence would be reported to the village, and that he would remain locked up while waiting for the head of the tribe and the priestesses to reach a decision.

    Night fell once more. As he lay where he was, Kuon''s body felt heavier than usual. He was exhausted from having walked all day along the steep mountain paths, and, since he had not been given anything to eat at all that day, he was intensely hungry. On top of that, he was lying on bare rock, and the cold, damp surface was gradually leeching away his body heat.

    Yet Kuon quickly forgot his overwhelming exhaustion and hunger, as well as his frigidly cold body.

    I came back. I actually came back?

    Because of worrying about Sarah, he hadn''t really thought about it the previous night, but he was, undeniably, back in the birthplace that he was supposed to have abandoned. Once he realised that, Kuon felt dizzy.

    In replacement of the physical pain he had felt, a shadow crept up to his mind. It was so icily cold that it made him shiver. The shadow stretched out its clammy hand and stroked him. Kuon shuddered. This was the same stagnant sludge which had assaulted him just before entering the mountains.

    ¡°Ah...¡± A short, involuntary breath escaped from him.

    Its mouth curved into a smile.

    Getting yourself locked up in the same place as before ¨C you really are one stupid bastard, Kuon. What have you been doing and what''s been going on for you in between the two? Was it just a dream? Maybe I never actually took a single step out of this prison, and just had a really long dream.

    Right from the very start, what Kuon had done had been stupid.

    Needless to say, he had not crossed the Kesmai Plains and returned to the Fangs out of nostalgia for his birthplace. The conversation in the restaurant that he had with Leo Attiel had stuck in his mind. The prince had pestered him into telling stories of the past, then Sarah had explained to him that the prince had wanted to get help from Kuon''s old home.

    At first, he had though that was just stupid. Was Leo really so cornered that he had to seriously consider something so ridiculous?

    Kuon took pride in his own strength. Moreover, he believed that whatever the battle, it would be over once they took the head of the enemy general. The old Kuon would never have gone to the trouble of crossing the Kesmai Plains; instead, he would have ridden directly to Olt Rose to take down the ''enemy general'' that was Darren. If Leo was having trouble, then removing the source of that trouble ¨C Darren ¨C would spell Leo''s victory.

    ©¤ But Kuon had learned a lot at Conscon and after it. He realised that some things were impossible to achieve with nothing more than his own sword.

    We need allies.

    All of a sudden, Kuon hadn''t been able to stay still anymore.

    Right, I''ll go back to the mountains. Once the priestesses hear Tei Tahra''s voice clearly, there''s no way I''ll be accused of any crime. And then, I can gather willing allies and the prince will be saved.

    Considering Kuon''s current situation, that had been some truly misplaced optimism.

    But no, even back then, calling it optimism would be wrong, and instead, it was a feeling of needing to hurry.

    Should I go?

    Once that thought had occurred to him, his heart was filled with a such a fierce sense of urgency that it felt strange to think that he could have left the mountain for so long. As soon as ''should I go'' turned into I have to go, he had crossed the Kesmai Plains as though he were chasing after that feeling.

    Even so, once the mountains where he was born had been before his eyes, Kuon was struck with a different kind of emotion, albeit one that stemmed from the same root. For Kuon, it was exactly as Sarah had said.

    ¡°I''m scared¡± ¨C And at the same time as he felt that emotion, Kuon could no longer comprehend why he had come back.

    This has been mentioned plenty of times already, but he was not a pure-blood from the mountain. Because of that one fact, and just as he had said earlier, even his relatives had looked away from him. Yet Kuon was supposed to have been set free from that conflict. He was supposed to have obtained freedom, and to have escaped from the malice that was about to make him take the blame for a crime; from the guilt of ¡°not being a pure-blood,¡± and the shackles and loneliness that went with it; and also from his fear.

    So why did he come back? What was that sense of urgency that had made him feel that he had to go? Why had been able to make this decision so easily?

    Unable to set his emotions free or to understand them, in the end, he had been thrown into the same prison where he had been less than a year ago, and he was as frightened now as he was back then.

    Whywhywhy?

    He trembled in terror. Once he started shaking, he could no longer gain control of himself.

    Was it just to die? Was it just to go out of my way to be killed?

    ¡°That''s exactly right,¡± a voice answered.

    Without Kuon realising it, the stagnant sludge with its viscous hands had taken on a clear form. He trembled even more violently than before.

    Even though he tried not to see that figure, and tried not hear that voice, it was in vain. This was a creature that did not exist outside of Kuon''s perception.

    The sludge now had pure white skin. In the darkness of the stony prison, only its eyes were burning a brilliant, bright red as they started intently at Kuon.

    It was Gosro. The image of him as he had been after he had lost human intelligence and reasoning, and turned into a beast, hung over Kuon.

    ¡°You came back simply to die,¡± Gosro whispered, his breath carrying a strangely fishy smell. ¡°Hey, boy. Hey, Kuon? I haven''t forgotten. What you did with your own hands.¡±

    Gosro stretched a white arm and grasped Kuon''s hand. The boy''s back arched under pressure from a strength that seemed unbelievable in an elderly man.

    ¡°There''s no way I could forget. You pierced me through with the sword you were holding. And then you threw me into that burning hot fire. That means you chose to make me into a sacrifice so you could live as part of the mountain. But even so, you ran away?¡± Gosro''s bright red tongue protruded from his mouth as he smiled. ¡°You idiot. Like hell you could escape. Because if you could, why did I die? Why did you jab your sword through my flesh and bones and entrails?¡±

    ¡°Turning someone into a sacrifice means that you''ve agreed to suffer the same fate one day.¡±

    Another Gosro peered upside down into Kuon''s face. But no, it was yet another, lying flat to the ground, who brought his lips close to Kuon''s ear.

    ¡°You should have realised ''who'' I am by now, right? I, who was run through by all those swords and then burned in the flames, I became one with the mountain, the spirits and with Tei Tahra. That''s right, Kuon. You didn''t come here of your own will. It was me. I called you, Kuon.¡±

    ¡°Isn''t it the fate you accepted yourself? The fate of offering your blood and flesh and soul to the mountain.¡±

    ¡°Say, Kuon,¡± at some point, the Gosro who covered him from the front had turned into Kuon''s own figure. His skin was dyed chalk white, and his eyes had turned so red that it looked like tears of blood might start trickling from them at any moment. When the Kuon whose hands and feet were bound opened his eyes wide, swords were piercing the pure white Kuon from every direction. Next, a red dot of light flickered at his feet, which turned within an instant into a raging fire that swallowed his body whole.

    ¡°Help me!¡± Kuon cried. And struggled. He tried his hardest to swing his tied up limbs and shake of the images of Gosro and of himself being engulfed by flames. Yet as he squirmed and floundered, he, who could strike fear into the enemy even as a lone swordsman when he held a weapon, looked exactly like a child struggling to go against an adult who was telling him off. Seeing Kuon in that state, the Gosros burst out laughing.

    ¡°Help me! Help me! Help me!¡±

    Kuon continued to scream as he rolled this way and that. Eventually, his own laughter started to mingle in chorus with that of the Gosros.

    Part 2

    After the death of Bishop Rogress, Conscon Temple hailed a man called Neil as its new leader.

    He had originally served as a monastic assistant to an abbot, and was only just in his forties. He had close-cropped hair, and he was always mindful about being clean and tidy. He was a man whose emotions easily showed on his face, who laughed often, and who cried in times of hardship along with his friends and disciples. As such, he was a complete contrast to Bishop Rogress, who had always seemed as solid as a rock, but Neil''s earnest personality inspired the love and respect of all.

    It was said that he had been a shepherd when he was young, but that he had taken up the sword to protect his native land.

    Recently, after completing his holy duties in the morning, his daily routine had been to walk around the mountain. The temple was currently in the middle of being restored. Neil halted his steps when he came upon several men busy rebuilding the main gate, which had been damaged by Allion''s artillery fire.

    During the battle, Neil had been one of those at this very gate. Gun in hand, he had desperately fought back. The ruins of the gate had been sprayed with blood, and Neil crossed himself before it as a way of paying his respects to the many who had fallen there ¨C be they friend or foe ¨C and to give thanks for his own survival.

    About half of the Personal Guards that Leo had left at Conscon were pitching in to help reconstruct the buildings and gates. The more people helping, the better, and Neil thanked them for it. Still, the Personal Guards had their own purposes, and as for what the remaining half of the soldiers who were not helping with the reconstruction work were doing, they were spending their days drenched in sweat as they cut down trees to the back of the temple, and levelled a large patch of ground.

    Camus, who was both Bishop Neil''s assistant and a member of the Personal Guards, had taken several of the Guards with him and gone to Allion, and was currently there buying airships. Apparently, the prince had ordered him to do so. The ground which was being cleared and levelled was intended as a training space for airship pilots, and Neil had further been informed that there were plans to one day also purchase ships capable of holding several dozen people at a time.

    The prince is full of energy, Neil thought admiringly.

    Since he had learned from Bishop Rogress, he had absolutely no objection to increasing their weapons in order to defend themselves. Rogress had admirably demonstrated with his own life that one could not defend one''s beliefs without power.

    Yet even while Neil admired the vitality of youth, he could not help but feel suspicious. News of Atall''s situation had reached the temple, and Neil was aware that the prince had picked a fight with a vassal-lord, and that as a result, Leo''s position within the country had grown precarious.

    The Personal Guards had been left at the temple because of that, and the fact that they were getting together something that could be called an ''air force'' was proof that although he had temporarily been defeated, Leo was planning to mount a counter-attack at some point.

    It was a fact that Leo Attiel was a unparalleled ally for the temple but, at the same time, Neil feared that his very existence might become dangerous to them.

    It''s fine as long as this is just meant to be a show of power to the vassals. But if it goes beyond that and he is actually harbouring a frightening ambition...

    Leo was the second prince. His older brother Branton would one day succeed their father and become ruler. But what if Leo voiced an objection to that? What if he contended that ¡°I deserve to be the sovereign-prince¡±? And what ¨C if the time came ¨C he intended to ask the temple to support him given their friendly relationship?

    We''ll be forced to make a choice. I believe that refusing to get involved in a country''s internal power struggle would be the righteous decision, but then there''s the fear that if His Highness Leo wins and becomes the next ruler of Atall, our relationship with them will deteriorate.

    Even though they were currently at peace with Allion, he had heard that there were still many who still proclaimed hostile intentions towards the temple. If a rift appeared in their relationship with Atall, then Conscon would be surrounded by enemies on both sides.

    Even if we just want follow God''s warnings and live in righteous poverty, simply spreading those teachings to as many as we can... politics and war are never far behind, Neil lamented.

    And thus, so that no power can threaten us, we unfortunately need ''power''.

    It all came back down to Bishop Rogress'' stance on the matter. And so it was that Neil spent his days with unease lurking not so far at the back his mind.

    Camus came back a few days later, having apparently managed to purchase six airships. These were ornithopter-type vessels which had been built in the Kingdom of Garbera. In addition to ether repulsion, this model had wings which literally flapped, just like the birds whose shaped it mimicked. Compared to modern ships, with their unmoving wings, it was distinctly old-fashioned. Yet although they were lacking in speed, altitude capacity and flight endurance, their absolutely outstanding in-flight stability and low-cost engines meant that they were still being widely used.

    The generic name for ships that floated in the sky was ''dragon stone ships'', which came from the fact that the weightless metal which was the main component of airships was made from refining fossilised dragon bones. This refining process flourished within Garbera, and it was said that the make of their airships and the skill of their pilots was a clear cut above all others. It seemed that these ships, which Camus had managed to buy comparatively cheaply, had also originally been used to train new recruits in Garbera.

    Moreover, the unfamiliar man he had hired and brought back with him to the temple had once taken part as a pilot in the airship races that were held at festivals and the like in Garbera. Camus intended to set him up as an instructor for everything from maintenance to how to handle the ships.

    Training began the very next day. All the young men in the Personal Guards applied for it, and they were as exited as children who had been given new toys.

    The first thing the instructor did was to give them a demonstration. The engine made a raspy, metallic sound when the low-altitude ornithopter took off. Appearance-wise, it was modelled on a Steller''s sea eagle. Its overal span was about three metres long, and when the men working on rebuilding saw the artificial bird dancing through the sky, they gazed up in fascination. Whether they stared open-mouthed, cheered excitedly or got scared, they too were like children.

    ¡°If you pay too much attention to what''s above, you''ll trip over a branch or stone at your feet,¡± Neil, who was walking around the mountain that day as well, called out to them in a friendly voice.

    At the time, he was headed somewhere else.

    While one might have expected that here too, everyone''s attention would be held by the airship, a single man was actually giving them all an impassioned speech, the topic of which appeared to be Bishop Rogress. In spite of himself, Neil stopped too stopped to listen,

    ¡°He was a truly magnificent man. His pious way of life was so, but it was his way of death that truly moved my heart...¡±

    His way of death...

    Neil frowned in displeasure. It was just as though the bishop had simply been a warrior.

    The man continued about how extraordinary Bishop Rogress'' suicide had been. The man had originally come to the temple as a mercenary, and had apparently settled down in one of the villages at the foot of the mountain after establishing a family there. He spoke of how he had seen companions kill themselves on the battlefield because they were so badly injured that they could barely even move.

    ¡°At first, it looked like the bishop had fatally slit his own throat with a dagger, but on investigation, it seems that he had stabbed himself in the heart. They say that the dagger had fallen to the floor when the bishop''s corpse was found. So in other words, it wasn''t a blade which was fixed in place, he actually pierced deep into his own chest with the dagger in his hand. That''s not something you could do half-heartedly.¡±

    The bishop had stabbed himself in the heart then had pulled out the blade. It was certainly an extraordinary scene to imagine. Neil unconsciously crossed himself, but as he did so, he felt a strong sense of incongruity. Given that it was Bishop Rogress, he would certainly have been able of going that far, yet Neil did not feel that he necessarily would have done so.

    Did he do it to demonstrate his resolve? His resolve which was literally to die rather than to allow the King of Allion, someone he had once had a close relationship with, to go any further in his tyranny?

    It was Lord Leo who had saved Conscon just before it fell to Allion''s attacks. He had rushed from Atall, leading reinforcements, and had even slain Hayden, the enemy commander. But with that, they had only gained a temporary victory, and there was no denying the possibility that the war could have dragged on. Basically, it was Bishop Rogress'' suicide which had led Allion to lay down its weapons.

    Right, it was the bishop''s death. If he hadn''t died...

    The forehead between Neil''s eyebrows suddenly twitched and squirmed. A terrifying thought had taken shape in a corner of his mind.

    At the around that same time, Leo Attiel was once again spending unquiet days in Guinbar.

    When will Darren make his move?

    His nerves were on edge as, unusually for him, he stayed in one place and helped organise the troops in Savan Roux''s castle. Yet, unexpectedly, Darren was bidding his time.

    Or perhaps it would be better to say that bidding his time allowed the situation to move in Darren''s favour. The story of how Leo had led an army to invade Darham was now being talked about throughout the country. Even the vassal-lords, who had maintained a cautious attitude towards the prince since the events at Conscon, were openly starting to criticise him. Leo had already pegged Oswell as Darren''s chief ally, but he was now joined by Tokamakk, whom Leo had seen at the banquet held in Hayden''s honour, and Giml¨¦, the father of Percy''s fianc¨¦e.

    ¡°That permanent army that the prince was loudly insisting on, was it just to eat away at our territories?¡±

    ¡°Since there''s been no suitable explanation from His Highness, those troops should be dissolved right now.¡±

    Opinions were lined up against Leo.

    His support among the people also visibly started to fall away. The number of spectators at plays staring Leo in the main role were now starting to dwindle. Moreover, since his wedding to Florrie had still not taken place, this in turn was inviting unfortunate rumours that ¡°relations with Allion might turn sour again,¡± and with it, people once more began talking about how this would all be Leo''s fault for having opposed Allion.

    Leo had to admit that he had made a mistake. Not knowing when Darren might attack, he had decided to remain in Guinbar, but had allowed Darren to take action in the capital, Tiwana. With no obstacle to hinder him there, he could do as he pleased and was steadily gaining allies and support. And since he was switching positions with Leo, it followed that the prince''s side were earning nothing but enemies and ill will.

    In spite of this, Leo and Savan gathered soldiers in Guinbar. They needed to remain cautious against Darren yet, ironically, this gave Darren the perfect excuse to legitimately take military action.

    ¡°Savan has taken advantage of His Highness Leo''s youthful ideals, he''s twisted them, and he has won him over to his villainy,¡± Darren was now saying. ¡°He''s pursuing friendly relations with the temple. The prince''s religious conversion was also all according to his plan. He''s pretending to simply be building spaces for the Cross Faith within Atall, but in actual fact, he''s extending his own power. It''s the same as with the Personal Guards. Savan seized money and manpower from us, and created his own private militia.¡±

    His powerful assertions didn''t stop there.

    ¡°The marauders who attacked the prince in the resort area were probably also in his pay. And even now, Savan is continuing to gather soldiers. He is finally revealing his true colours as he prepares to send troops to each of our territories. And for now, his sights are on my Darham. Before now, he fabricated an issue at the quarry and was setting up a trap for me. On top of that, he probably hates me for having seen through him. It''s not surprising that the first thing he wants to do is to shut me up, even if that means invading my lands tomorrow.¡±

    His repeated tirades drew public opinion within the capital towards him.

    You bet..

    Leo Attiel was so angry that all the blood in his body seemed to be boiling.

    You bet it could be ''even tomorrow''. It''s that guy attacking us which wouldn''t be in the least bit surprising. And I''ve gone and helped him prepare the ground...

    Even though Sovereign-Prince Magrid had announced that he would investigate the matter at the resort area, he had not taken any concrete action. He had simply heard Leo and Darren''s side of the story several times over through the messengers he dispatched. To misquote the King of Allion back when Leo had met with him, was Magrid planning to draw the curtain down by pretending that ¡°each of you misunderstood the other¡±? Leo once again directed his anger at his father and sovereign.

    A vassal raised his blade against a member of the ruling family, so why aren''t you reacting more? Why can''t you seem to imagine that the same bloodstained blade will one day fall on you, who shares the same blood? Are you afraid of changing the current situation? Are you so afraid of breaking the safe and fragile balance of peace and order?

    That''s right, it''s fragile, Father. Even if it looks on the surface like nothing is changing, ''order'' is constantly crumbling. You can''t protect it anymore simply by looking away from trouble. If you turn your eyes away from fights, then even that fact alone means that your ''order'' can''t possibly maintain its shape, and is changing even now. Darren might be the very symbol of that. He makes sure to look like he is perpetuating the ''order'' that the Sovereign-Prince believes in, but deep in his heart ¨C in revenge against me and Savan ¨C he''s planning to create chaos like you''ve never seen before.

    Leo''s feelings were in disarray. Neither Percy nor Camus were nearby to offer counsel, while Kuon and Sarah had both disappeared a month ago. He thought that he could guess the reason for that, but as they not left behind any message, he had not positive proof of it. It felt like he was going back to that time at the banquet, when he was alone in the darkness without a single ally, while his surroundings stared inquisitively.

    Part 3

    It was a long, long night.

    Just when the images of Gosro and of he himself, transformed into a sacrifice, finally faded, hunger and thirst took their turn to torment Kuon''s body and mind. He tried to sleep, but couldn''t. Every time he was about to drift off, the stagnant sludge reappeared once more, surrounding him, sneering, cursing and laughing at him. Kuon couldn''t help but have both eyes wrenched open.

    Less than a year ago, someone had rescued Kuon from this same prison. In futile hope, he imagined the same arm extending from beyond the darkness and pulling him to the outside.

    Even now, he didn''t know who had gotten him out. Maybe it was the real Warrior Raga? Since Raga was said to have the power to expel evil, perhaps he had seen through to the truth and had helped Kuon out. But no ¨C Raga wouldn''t have been so short and slight. So who was it? Was there someone in this village who would have come to his help even though it meant breaking the mountain''s rules? Or had they been sent by Tei Tahra?

    Kuon''s thoughts tumbled about in confusion.

    And the night wore further on.

    More than once, Kuon thought that it might never end. In which case, he wouldn''t be thrown to the fire. In exchange, however, he would be slowly eaten away by hunger and thirst, and by so much exhaustion that it seemed to press down on him like a grey weight.

    He pictured how, when the morning sun finally rose, it would faintly illuminate the white skeletton he would have turned into inside the rocky prison. He didn''t even notice that he was sobbing.

    Kuon lifted his head at the sound of the grate of iron bars opening. His sense of time had grown vague, and it felt to him that it had already been several days since he had been shut away. At some point, although he did not know when, even the fear which had once been greater than pain had been worn away by the passage of unchanging time. His senses had dulled, and now, it was only physical agony that continued to gradually break him down.

    Have they come to kill me?

    Which was why, when he heard the door opening, rather than fear, what he felt was joy.

    The one who stepped in through the open doorway was the leader of the tribe, Suo. Kuon could dimly make out that he only had one person with him who seemed to be acting as a bodyguard.

    Suo was a very old man. He had already been old when Kuon was born, and, as a child, Kuon had sometimes thought that when he himself was old and came to the end of his life, maybe Suo would still be head of the tribe, and would still look the same.

    Kuon felt a strange sense of nostalgia at the sight of that white hair, and of those long, drooping white eyebrows. It had not even been a year since he had fled from the mountains, but even though Suo might be here to announce his death, Kuon almost wanted to jump at him in delight.

    Suo however wore the same expression as though they had just seen each other yesterday.

    ¡°So it''s you, Kuon,¡± he muttered softly. ¡°I didn''t think we would ever meet again.¡±

    ¡°This is surely Tei Tahra''s divine guidance,¡± said the single soldier who was accompanying Suo.

    His muscular torso was stripped bare. Tusk-like ornaments extended from either side of his forehead, and half his face was covered by a mask in the shape of a beast opening its maw.

    It was the warrior, Raga. Looking at him, Kuon understood that this was a different person from the Raga he had once known. His eyes widened slightly, but he was so numb to fear and to any other sensation that doing that was all the emotion he was capable of showing. ¡°Lift him up,¡± said Suo, and even when Raga put his hands behind Kuon''s shoulders and placed his back against the wall, Kuon barely had any reaction at all.

    For a while, Suo observed Kuon from beneath his drooping eyebrows.

    ¡°Why did you come back at this point in time?¡± He asked. ¡°You must have known that things would turn out this way. Surely you couldn''t have thought that your crime would be forgiven less than a year later?¡±

    ¡°He must have gotten scared after wandering around like a beast once he left the mountain. As a criminal, how could he survive far from Tei Tahra''s protection?¡±

    ¡°Raga, don''t interrupt. I''m asking Kuon.¡±

    Raga gave a respectful bow.

    His eyes fixed on Kuon, Suo asked him the same question once more. Kuon remained distracted for a while, but when Raga''s heavy hands struck him on the cheeks, he dully shook his head, then coughed repeatedly.

    ¡°I get it. I''ll talk,¡± he said in a rough voice that sounded like it belonged to someone else, and began to briefly narrate what had happened to him since he had left the village.

    He talked about how he had gone to Conscon Temple as a mercenary, how he and the companions he had met there had headed to the enemy headquarters to attack them by surprise, and how that had then ended in a strange meeting with Leo of the Principality of Atall. He also explained about how, since then, he had followed Leo and had been involved in the fights against Hayden and Darren.

    With his senses still numbed, and talking in a voice that didn''t seem to be his own, he found himself wondering whether he was truly talking about himself. No, in the first place, it seemed doubtful that this could possibly be his own experiences.

    Raga appeared to feel the same way. Kuon had always been a poor talker, and he clearly found it irritating to listen to his words.

    ¡°Enough already. Chief, what''s the point of listening to this endless talk?¡±

    ¡°I believe I told you not to interrupt.¡±

    ¡°If it''s to hunt down a beast or an enemy, I can wait without moving while the sun rises and sets any number of times, but the time spent here is just wasted. From the very start, everything that''s come out of this guy''s mouth is just random nonsense.¡±

    ¡°Why do you think so?¡±

    ¡°Even here, where he was born, Kuon has never had either friends or companions. And on top of that, he''s the bastard who killed the leader of the Wei, who looked after him. It''s completely impossible to believe that he''s found and fought for a master and companions in a some culture we know nothing about. Even if he got hired somewhere as a soldier, he''d definitely cause trouble all day long until he finally got himself killed.¡±

    Neither Warrior Raga nor Suo, the village chief, noticed it. With his hands and feet still bound, and his back leaning against the wall, Kuon smiled faintly.

    True. That really is true.

    It felt to him like the story he had told was a tale belonging to some other person.

    Obviously, I got dragged to the rock of imprisonment after Datta died. That was just a dream I had in the meantime. I''m an unwanted spawn with half of my blood not even human ¨C how could I have left the mountain...

    ¡°What''s the matter, Kuon? Can''t talk anymore?¡± Raga gave a small, scornful laugh. ¡°You''re no good at lying. All you''ve been doing after slipping out of your shackles is run and hide around here like a baby rabbit. But now that you''ve given up on running away and come back...¡±

    ¡°He''s not lying.¡±

    They heard the voice of someone who could not possibly be there.

    The one who had appeared, her hand against the cleft in the rock, was Sarah. Kuon actually suspected she was another illusion.

    ¡°Who the hell are you?¡±

    Raga reached for the sword at his waist, but when he saw the face of the next person to walk in through the opening, he looked surprised and took his hand away from the hilt.

    ¡°Come and give me a hand.¡±

    Prompted by that hoarse voice, Raga hurried to the cleft and stretched out his brawny arms. The one he helped pull inside that way was Mist, the highest-ranked of all the priestesses.

    This elderly lady was even older than Suo, and her back was so terribly bent that she could no longer walk by herself. Whenever she moved through the village, she did so carried in a hamper on a soldier''s back. With the passage of time, her eyelids had grown heavy and hooded her eyes, so that it seemed likely that they must barely be able to see anymore, yet when she turned towards Kuon ¨C

    ¡°Oh, Kuon. It''s you, Kuon. It really is,¡± she spoke in a strangely happy voice.

    ¡°This is a surprise, Mistress Mist,¡± Suo brought a hand to his chest and offered her the greeting given to priestesses. ¡°Why have you come to such a filthy prison? Is it perhaps because you have heard the decision from that exalted voice?¡±

    ¡°To be sure, that child left the mountain without waiting to hear the voice of Tei Tahra''s decision. I''ll need to ask for it again.¡± Mist continued inwards, supported by Raga''s arm at her waist, and pointed a bony finger at Sarah. ¡°More importantly: this girl. This morning, I learned that this girl, who had only just woken up by the grace of Tei Tahra was saying that she wanted to see Kuon no matter what. Through the other priestesses, I also heard a very interesting story. So I felt like bringing myself over here, even if it meant breaking these old bones to do so.¡±

    ¡°Story? What story?¡±

    ¡°Didn''t you both hear it too? The story of why Kuon deliberately returned to the mountains after having left them.¡±

    ¡°You can''t believe a single one of his words,¡± Raga roared.

    ¡°He isn''t lying,¡± Sarah once again flatly contradicted him. She stared unflinchingly at the eyes drawn on the beast mask. ¡°He is, incontrovertibly, a platoon leader in the Personal Guards affiliated to His Highness, Prince Leo Attiel, second prince of the Principality of Atall. I, Sarah, a nun from Conscon Temple, swear to it.¡±

    ¡°By the crown of ivy that Tei Tahra wears, I don''t need to listen to the words of a heathen.¡±

    ¡°Now, now, listen to her story, Warrior Raga. Not everything can be settled with swords and bulging biceps, you know.¡±

    Rebuked by Priestess Mist, Raga could not longer say anything. Having successfully caught Mist''s interest, Sarah formally knelt in front of Suo.

    ¡°In the name of His Highness, Lord Leo of Atall, I present a request to Master Suo, chief of this village.¡±

    Kuon stared vacantly at her as she did so. For him, everything separated Suo and Sarah ¨C they existed, so to speak, in different worlds, so simply seeing them face each other and have a conversation was a strange scene in and of itself.

    Another thing which he found surprising was how smoothly Sarah stated her business. She explained that their lord and master, Leo Attiel, was currently caught in an appalling trap and was facing a terrible plight. He needed strong soldiers to extricate himself from it. Hearing that there were warriors well-suited to his crusade in the land that Kuon ¨C a platoon leader in his Personal Guards ¨C hailed from, Leo Attiel had shown considerable interest.

    ¡°We implore your assistance, Master Suo. It goes without saying that we will prepare rewards worthy of you all as thanks. Please lend us the strength that your brave warriors have fostered in these mountains, and help Lord Leo carry out justice.¡±

    She had been in the grip of a fierce fever up until just that very morning, but she fervently appealed to her listeners'' emotions, and spoke so eloquently it seemed unthinkable that she had recently been suffering. Suo gazed at the girl with admiration.

    ¡°And so that was why you crossed all the way over the dangerous Kesmai Plains? You truly went to great lengths to get here. However,¡± Suo''s long white swayed as he shook his head, ¡°our tribe does not take part in any fights beyond these mountains. We have never sided with any power, nor yielded to any threat. No matter how righteous and just they might be, nor how many rewards they have piled up, it has nothing to do with us. The weak will be destroyed, and the strong will prosper; that is all there is to it. Please transmit that message to your lord, Leo.¡±

    ¡°But, Master Suo...¡±

    ¡°Enough!¡± Raga let out a thunderous roar. ¡°The Chief has already made his decision. If you want to overturn it, then you have to defeat me, the strongest warrior of our tribe. But an outsider like you doesn''t have the right to try.¡±

    ¡°It''s as he says. I ask that you leave at once. We will not spit on Lord Leo''s honour, so I will have several of our warriors accompany you until you have gone down from the mountain. We will also provide you with horses and provisions.¡±

    After he had finished speaking, Suo turned away from her, as though he had already lost interest in the outsider. Having received an eye signal from him, the soldiers were about to draw towards her.

    ¡°Please wait,¡± Sarah hurriedly strung her words together. ¡°You said that I''m to leave the mountain, but what about Kuon?¡±

    ¡°Since Kuon is a member of our tribe, an outsider has no business interfering.¡±

    It was Raga who had answered her. Sarah glared fearlessly at him.

    ¡°Are you planning on killing him?¡±

    ¡°Kuon is a criminal. As for what form his punishment will take, it is not for mere humans such as ourselves to know.¡±

    Raga''s words implied that what came next would be left to God''s decision. Sarah interpreted it as saying that ¨C Kuon will be killed. Her face pale, she looked around her. She had no allies. Even Mist, who had declared that Sarah''s story was ''interesting'', showed no sign of speaking up in Kuon''s favour.

    In that instant, the courteous expression vanished from Sarah''s face, and it was replaced by one that Kuon knew well. In other words, it was the look she wore right before exploding with anger. Now listen here, you savages! ¨C Kuon shuddered at the thought that she burst out with that any moment now.

    The warm feel of his blood flowing slowly started to return to Kuon''s limbs, which had been as cold and numb as though they had been turned to stone. Or perhaps it was returning to his heart itself.

    That''s enough already, Sarah, just leave it ¨C Just as Kuon was mustering his energy to open his cracked lips and speak, Sarah was a split-second faster, and said something that no one there had been expecting.

    ¡°That won''t be tolerated.¡±

    ¡°What won''t be tolerated?¡± asked Raga.

    Sarah scowled at him ¨C or rather, she glared at all the mountain people gathered there, Kuon included.

    ¡°It''s obviously already been decided. Kuon will be killed.¡±

    ¡°And? Who won''t tolerate it?¡± Raga''s voice held the trace of a smile. ¡°The pagan god you believe in? Are you saying divine punishment will fall on us from the heavens the second we kill Kuon? How stupid. We''re under Tei Tahra''s protection, and that kind of threat won''t...¡±

    ¡°The one who won''t tolerate it is neither God nor myself. It''s His Highness Leo Attiel,¡± Sarah''s voice was shot out like an arrow. Her upturned eyes were filled with strength.

    ¡°It''s just as we told you earlier: Kuon is now a retainer to Lord Leo. If he hears that Kuon brutally lost his life while requesting your help, His Highness certainly won''t leave things at that. Raising your hand against him means making an enemy out of all of Atall. And? Isn''t it your tribe''s policy not to take sides in any fight?¡± she said straight out.

    Raga stayed silent for a moment. On the other hand, Suo, the head of the tribe, seemed to have regained the interest that he had previously lost.

    ¡°And how would Lord Leo know what fate befell his retainers? You might have been attacked by ashinaga on the Kesmai Plains. Or maybe targeted by bandits before you had even crossed the border,¡± he said.

    Contained in his words was the implicit meaning that we can kill you as well as Kuon to keep your mouth shut.

    But Sarah didn''t back down.

    ¡°Didn''t you notice? We didn''t arrive all the way here, just the two of us. One of the nomadic clans guided us, and they know that we were coming to these mountains. And if we fail to return within a month, a search party will be sent without fail from Atall to the south. There, they will hear about things in detail from the nomads. And once His Highness Leo learns that Kuon and my tracks end here, in these mountains, well, what will you gentlemen do?¡± she threatened in return.

    The earlier situation had reversed, and Suo stopped talking while Raga now took his place.

    ¡°Let him try!¡± he barked as he took a step forward. ¡°We''ll get rid of any intruders. Who cares if it''s Atall or whoever, as long as we have Tei Tahra''s divine protection, and Warrior Raga''s strength, we won''t let anyone take these mountains from us.¡±

    Kuon had gone beyond surprise and was momentarily bereft of speech he was so dumbfounded. Sarah''s retorts were completely absurd. Even though she could leave if she just forgot about him, she was placing both the tribe''s fate and Kuon''s on the scales, and adding her own for good measure as she risked her life in these negotiations.

    What an idiot, he thought in spite of himself. He''d felt the same way when he had watched her shoot a bandit through the head at Conscon, except that time, he had noticed that her legs had been shaking, ever so slightly.

    Why, Sarah? Why are you doing something so stupid?

    Kuon couldn''t understand. And it wasn''t only Sarah that he couldn''t understand.

    No, it wasn''t just Sarah.

    For Kuon, the many people he had met after leaving the mountains, and the numerous events that had happened were impossible to decipher. Whether it was those who believed in a god other than Tei Tahra, or the young nobleman who had no sooner finished fighting a neighbouring country than he turned his blade against his own countrymen, or those who didn''t stand up to fight even though they knew danger was approaching their land, or the many customs that prevailed in towns ¨C he didn''t understand any of them.

    Ah...

    Within Kuon''s mind, scenes had begun vividly spinning around. At first, they had been grey-tinted and had sunk into darkness, just like illustrations of stories far removed from reality. But, as he stared intently at them, they had started to glow faintly with colour. The colours gradually grew in number and in brightness, until finally, various scenes from his memory were painted in a flood of brilliant hues.

    ¡°It''s impossible to believe that man found and fought for a master and companions. Even if he got hired somewhere as a soldier, he''d definitely cause trouble all day long until he finally got himself killed.¡± ¨C That was what Raga had said a while earlier.

    And he was exactly right: Kuon had barely been hired as a mercenary at Conscon before he was already causing an uproar. He had fought over food with a bandit chief, whose name he had already forgotten. The bandit leader had a whole bunch of subordinates, but Kuon was all by himself. Any mistake would have gotten him killed. No, even if he hadn''t been killed that time, the same thing would have repeated over and over, until one time, he would definitely have died, and his corpse would have been left to rot among the weeds on the side of a road, without anybody taking any notice of it.

    Nowadays, he realised that himself. So how did someone as stupid as he had been manage to survive in an unfamiliar culture in the middle of war? How... he didn''t even need to wonder about it.

    It''s because I wasn''t alone.

    Thinking back on all the fights since Conscon, there had always been people beside him. And not only during the fighting, but also in the scenes of daily life.

    ¡°Kuon¡± ¨C There was always some there who called out to him.

    ¡°Were you brawling again, Kuon?¡± Percy asked helplessly, even though there was a crease between his eyebrows.

    ¡°Kuon, it looks like you''re steadily memorising the tenets of the Holy Scriptures. What, still not? From now on, I''ll be instructing you while keeping you under strict supervision, so there''s no escape!¡± Camus pronounced with a stern expression.

    ¡°Kuon,¡± when she caught sight of him, Sarah came running up, the hem of her novice''s robes fluttering.

    Even though he himself couldn''t remember having done anything, whenever he saw her rush over like that, he felt a strange feeling of guilt, and wondered if he''d done something bad to her. That was probably because Sarah was always far too honest about her emotions, and because she was always launching attacks on him. Even when the reasons she gave for them were completely unreasonable. Like, for example: ¡°Our match from last time hasn''t ended yet. What will it be today? And let''s forget about a rematch footrace, because I definitely won''t lose at whatever we do next.¡±

    And then, there was one other. Leo Attiel.

    Even a man from the tribe who had know and spent time with Kuon since he was born had concluded that ¡°there was no way Kuon could live in that civilisation,¡± yet Leo had made him his subordinate, and had sometimes even entrusted him with hundreds of men.

    They had barely exchanged any private conversations. If you added up all the time the two of them had spoken together, it probably wouldn''t amount to more than three hours. Still, in his own way, Kuon understood how difficult Leo''s situation was. And because of that, and even if it was only ever so slight, he felt a certain sympathy for him.

    Kuon''s senses, which felt as though they had been paralysed by poison, slowly started to return. The blood circulated through his veins, and warmed his hands and feet. It was certainly as though blood and flesh were returning to an abandoned corpse but, at the same time, it meant that the fear he had forgotten for a time also came back to him.

    Let us say it as often as it needs to be said: Kuon was afraid. Not since coming back within sight of the mountain; no, he had constantly been afraid ever since he had fled the mountain, just after Datta died.

    Just as he had told Sarah, after escaping from the mountains, Kuon had headed north by tracing the location of the nomadic tribes who roamed the Kesmai Plains.

    He had always been watching his back. For Kuon, who had never had the opportunity to be involved with trading, it was the first time he had even met human beings other than the mountain people. And so, while he was of course cautious because he had no way of knowing when the nomads might turn those large blades they used to hack of the meat from their livestock against him, what made him tremble more than anything was the fear that his native village might send assassins against him.

    Finally, he had crossed the Pass of the Wailing Tresses and entered into Atall''s territory, where he had heard the rumours about Conscon that had led him to become a mercenary.

    Facing actual combat, the wariness of not knowing when a pursuer might appear was soon just as worn down as Kuon himself had been only a few minutes earlier.

    As he learned about the rules of the outside world, he started feeling that the laws and rituals of the mountain were hideously distorted. Besides that, he had wanted to burst out laughing when he realised that there innumerable gods in this world other than Tei Tahra. To think that when he was living in such a confined space, he had been terrified of a god that only tyrannised such a tiny world, and of that god''s messengers.

    When he had first started as a mercenary at Conscon, all he had wanted was food enough to survive but then, before he knew it, he had become eager to accomplish some glorious feat. He wanted to become famous, to be called a hero, and to prove that he had been right when he chose to leave the mountains.

    Or perhaps what he was anxious to do was to fulfil the prediction made at his coming-of-age ceremony, when it had been said that ¡°Kuon Wei will one day bring forth more gold than the mountains can hold,¡± and show all of them, back at the mountain.

    This was supposed to be the proof that he had overcome the traditions and the shackles of his birthplace, but in reality, it was the exact opposite: it was sign that his native land still continued to hold him back.

    I didn''t run away. One day, I''ll day go back with my hands filled with gold. So my existence isn''t harmful to Tei Tahra. Holding on to that belief was simply a way to obtain a sense of security, to still be part of the mountain and to still be with Tei Tahra, even though he was far from his birthplace.

    The fear which was deeply ingrained in his heart and soul could not be wiped away so easily.

    After he had become a mercenary, both the overflowing zeal that Percy and the others had observed with amazement, and the dull listlessness he had sometimes displayed where simply the result of his unbearable insecurities.

    Suo had asked him, ¡°Why did you come back?¡±

    And Kuon himself had wondered the same thing ¨C Why did I come back? ¨C as he stood before his native mountains, and also as he writhed across the prison''s stone floor.

    It was obvious.

    The answer was exactly the same as the one to ''Sarah''s stupid behaviour,'' which had seemed ''incomprehensible'' to him just a short while ago.

    ¡°Throw this woman out,¡± Raga bellowed in a voice that seemed to rumble to the pit of his stomach. ¡°Chief, there''s no need to kill her. Let her hurry back to Atall. It doesn''t matter what kind of man this Leo is, I won''t run from any challenge.¡±

    Raga''s figure was undeniably valiant, but Kuon did not fail to notice the anguished expression that flitted across Suo''s face at that moment. No matter how much the mountain people might have the advantage of the terrain, or how brave their warriors were, fighting against the forces of an entire country would be far too much for them.

    Yet having said that, allowing Kuon ¨C who had once fled the mountain ¨C to return to Atall would mean utterly disrupting the rules that protected the mountain.

    Having understood that hesitation, Kuon came to a decision.

    ¡°If no one else is going to do it, I''ll throw her out. Chief, you won''t be stopping me, right?¡± Raga strode towards Sarah and reached to grasp hold of her shoulders. Just as she was about to quickly dodge ¨C

    ¡°Chief Suo...¡±

    Everyone there started in surprise, and turned to look at the boy whose back was leaning against the stone wall. It was as if they had all forgotten his existence until that moment.

    Below the mask, Raga opened his mouth wide.

    ¡°You stay silent, Kuon. The priestesses will be sure to judge you not only for murdering Datta, but also for the crime of having brought war to the tribe.¡±

    He took a swipe of his brawny arms towards Kuon, as if to tell him not to interfere. However ¨C

    ¡°It''s just as you say, Warrior Raga. I''ll wait here for Tei Tahra''s judgement.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Whatever Sarah... ¨C whatever that woman says, I''ll stay here.¡±

    ¡°Kuon!¡± At his words, Sarah was the first to cry out.

    ¡°This is what I''ve decided for myself. Since I accept whatever crime the mountain accuses me of, as well as whatever punishment they decide, it''s impossible for Lord Leo to retaliate in revenge.¡±

    Those words brought an end Sarah''s negotiation tactic''s, even though she had finally managed to make Suo falter and hesitate. She was just about to scream at him, half-frantic with fury.

    ¡°But, before that,¡± Kuon spoke forcefully, looking at Raga, ¡°you said something, Warrior Raga. You said that as an outsider, Sarah didn''t have the right to try and change the Chief''s policy by challenging you to a duel.¡±

    ¡°And what about it?¡±

    ¡°What about me?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    After gasping in surprise, Raga then shook head contemptuously towards the one he was speaking to.

    ¡°What do you think you''re saying? A criminal can''t challenge Raga. If that was possible, everyone who received the death sentence would choose to challenge me, since they would already have one foot in the grave anyway. Do you want Raga to have to deal with every single criminal?¡±

    ¡°Wrong. The only time anyone can challenge Raga to a duel is when they oppose a decision from the chief. Only the mountain god, Tei Tahra ¨C or basically, only the priestesses who can relay his voice, can decide if someone''s guilty. Not the chief. So a criminal can''t challenge Raga just because he''s not happy with his sentence.¡±

    ¡°You fool. That''s why I said...¡±

    ¡°My guilt hasn''t been decided yet, so I''m not a criminal yet.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± This time, Suo said it too.

    The two of them looked towards the aged Priestess Mist, and she replied in a voice that was like the low pipping of a flute.

    ¡°Kuon disappeared before we could clarify his crime and decide whether he was guilty. It''s a fact that Lord Tei Tahra has not yet pronounced His judgement.¡±

    ¡°That''s completely ridiculous,¡± Raga yelled, his brawny shoulders heaving up and down. ¡°Even if that''s true, this man escaped from the mountain. A man who left the tribe can''t challenge Raga.¡±

    ¡°That''s wrong too.¡±

    ¡°What''s wrong!¡±

    Raga''s fury was now so strong, it was as though thunder was about to crash down. But Kuon''s eyes were also blazing with the force of a fire.

    ¡°I said I''d wait for Tei Tahra''s judgement. Both Suo and Mist look like they intend for me to receive it too. Since I''m leaving my fate to the mountain god, I''m not an outsider. And, Warrior Raga, you yourself said it to Sarah, too: ''Kuon is part of our tribe''. And that''s exactly right. Even if my innocence is in doubt and I left the mountain, right now, I''m still a member of the tribe.¡±

    Even Raga was left speechless.

    I''m a member of the tribe ¨C just how long had Kuon waited for the day he would be able to proudly declare that? Yet right now, Kuon wasn''t boasting.

    ¡°As so, in the same way that I have to obey its laws and fulfil its obligations, I can call upon my rights as a member of the tribe.¡±

    It was in order to survive. It was in order to save Sarah, and to rescue Leo, Percy and Camus from the danger he wanted to help them out of. For that, Kuon was willing to wield his words like weapons as much as he needed to.

    ¡°I object to Chief Suo''s decision to refuse Lord Leo''s request. I make use of my right, and challenge Warrior Raga to a duel. Whether I win in a fight with him, I leave to Tei Tahra''s judgement.¡±

 Volume 3, Afterword

    Volume 3, Afterword

    While I was writing this book, my main PC broke down, but although I ran into quite a few heart-stopping situations in which my data almost went flying away, I somehow managed to get to the point where I¡¯m writing this ¡®Afterword¡¯ on my dust-covered secondary PC... Continuing on from the last time, and still filled with suffering (mostly the author¡¯s), ¡®LeoDen¡¯ has reached its third volume.

    Previously, Lord Leo just barely managed to protect his country from the intrigues of major powers. And he then determined that the next target he needed to swing his sword at was not a group of foreigners but those in his own homeland, Atall. From here on, we will gradually be seeing the historical events that earned him the distinction of being later known as the ¡°Headhunting Prince¡±, and also the ¡°Headless Prince¡±.

    What kind of destiny did he follow, this boy who threw himself down spread-eagled in the grass in the opening of this story? And why does posterity treat him like an utmost villain?

    Dear readers, please be sure to check it out for yourselves.

    Now then.

    Recently, along with writing the main series, I¡¯ve been made to write ¨C er, no, I¡¯ve been given the opportunity to write short stories and vignettes as shop-exclusive extras or for the web as a way of promoting sales.

    In part to sort them into order for myself, here is a list of the stories that I have written so far:

    1: Vignette: A story about Florrie trying her best to congratulate Leo on his thirteenth birthday.

    2: Vignette: Set in Conscon Temple, a duel (?) between Kuon and Sarah.

    3: Vignette: After battling at the temple, a story about how Camus lost a certain spear contest.

    4: Short Story: A story about Leo and Zanakk, a ¡®drunkard¡¯ who was one of Claude¡¯s subordinates.

    1 and 2 were shop-exclusives extras (currently unavailable ¨C it doesn¡¯t seem like there¡¯s any point asking at the bookstore), 3 was featured on Dengeki Bunko¡¯s NicoNico web channel, and 4 was published in the Dengeki Bunko Magazine, vol.44.

    If you¡¯re interested, please don¡¯t forget to check again at a later date, in case I have the chance to write more.

    With that, see you next time!

    --- Sugihara Tomonori

 Volume 4, 1: The Duellists

    Volume 4, Chapter 1: The Duellists

    Part 1

    By Tei Tahra''s guidance, Kuon the fugitive has returned to the mountains.

    No sooner had that rumour flown round the village than another one swiftly started to spread.

    Kuon wants to overturn the Chief''s decision, so he''s going to fight a duel with Warrior Raga.

    The normally quiet atmosphere within the mountains was as noisy as thought they had suddenly been attacked by an entire enemy division.

    Whenever anyone maintained their opposition to a decision from the chief, that person had no choice but to fight Warrior Raga in a duel, and win. Said otherwise, Raga was duty-bound to accept duels, but it wasn''t something that happened very often. Most of the tribe lived their entire life in the mountains where they had been born, but even then, they might see it at most once or twice in their entire lifetime.

    Moreover, his opponent was Kuon.

    The ''unwanted child'' whose contaminated blood had not received Tei Tahra''s divine protection, the one who had ensnared then murdered Datta Wei, even though Datta had helped look after him ¨C in other words, a ''betrayer'' who was possessed by evil spirits, and a fugitive who had fled from the mountain before those spirits could be cleansed.

    ¡°Why is Kuon fighting Raga instead of being thrown to the fire?¡±

    People were understandably puzzled. Nothing but death awaited a ''betrayer''. Those who were inhabited by evil spirits were usually killed by the youths who had only just reached adulthood, during their coming-of-age ceremony, and their corpse was burned in the sacred flames lit by the priestesses and shamans.

    Such were the customs, lifestyle and laws of the people who lived in these mountains, which others did not approach.

    ¡°According to Mistress Mist, Tei Tahra''s divine voice hasn''t passed judgement on Kuon yet.¡±

    ¡°And also, Kuon seems to have brought a woman from a country called Atall with him. That woman asked the chief to lend them our military strength.¡±

    ¡°That''s ridiculous. We don''t belong to Atall here.¡±

    ¡°That woman also said something else: apparently, if we don''t lend him our strength, the prince of Atall will attack and annihilate us.¡±

    ¡°We''ll take him on and beat him back!¡± The youths shouted and raised their fists to the sky. Here, on this mountain, woman were included among said ''youths''. Warlike cries flew throughout the village, coming from men who were preparing to go hunting, and women who were tanning beast hides with smoke. Some of the more quick-tempered youths even held a sword or a gun in the fists they raised overhead.

    ¡°That woman who doesn''t know the awe and terror of Divine Tei Tahra should just burn along with Kuon!¡±

    ¡°Of course the chief didn''t give in to the threats from Atall. And of course, Warrior Raga, who was also there, roared the same thing as everyone here: ''we''ll take him on and beat him back''. But at that moment, the one who spoke in objection was Kuon.¡±

    At this point in time, Kuon was being seen as heinous sinner, but since he had not yet received Tei Tahra''s judgement, he was not yet a criminal. Furthermore, he had undergone the coming-of-age ceremony. Since he was guilty of no crime, for all that he was called an ''unwanted child'', and for all that he had left the mountain without permission for a year, he was still an adult of the tribe, and he naturally had all the rights that went with it.

    Kuon had made use of those rights to directly oppose the chief''s will. ¡°I challenge Warrior Raga so that I can prove before Divine Tei Tahra that I am right,¡± he had insisted. People were astounded and incredulous. There were not a few of them who burst out laughing.

    ¡°A man living on borrowed time, waiting for Divine Tei Tahra to hand down His judgement, wants to prove to our mountain god that he''s right?¡±

    ¡°That accursed ''unwanted spawn''? That ''betrayer''?¡±

    ¡°The lady priestesses don''t need to wait to hear Lord Tei Tahra''s voice. That bastard will be using his own body to show this mountain what justice is. It''ll be proven the instant Raga''s sword sends Kuon''s head flying.¡±

    Throughout all of that day, the entire village was occupied with the topic of the duel between Raga and Kuon. People were not only getting worked up by insulting Kuon; it had already been about twenty years since Warrior Raga had taken part in a fight over village policy. Although the outcome was absolutely obvious, the contest provided the people there with a certain form of entertainment.

    ¡°How is Kuon going to be killed? Is he going to be felled in a single blow, or are his nerves going to be ground down while Raga takes his time chopping his limbs off one by one? How long will Kuon last? Will their swords even clash once? No, they say that the beast eyes painted on Raga''s mask hold the power to make evil spirits falter. That guy definitely won''t be able to even move...¡± Sarah intoned expressionlessly, in exactly the same voice as a priest transmitting a message from a god.

    ¡°...Is what they''re saying, Mr Officer in Prince Leo Attiel''s Personal Guards,¡± she addressed Kuon, who was on the other side of the iron bars, his back leaning against the stone wall. He didn''t seem like he was going to answer, however. Ever since he had informed Chief Suo and Priestess Mist that he would duel Raga, Sarah had treated him with the coldest of attitudes.

    ¡°Even though, thanks to my superb negotiation skills, it looked like I was the verge of getting a concession out of Suo. I would even have been able to have you released. But in spite of that, you went and said ''I''m staying here. I won''t run away.'' Hmph, well, how splendidly manly of you. And, what do you intend to accomplish with this duel? Savages from the wilderness, who won''t even listen to reason, really seem to like fighting to see who''s right,¡± Sarah declared, her eyebrows drawn tightly together.

    However, when she glanced towards Kuon, whose face was hidden behind one raised knee, her cheeks puffed out.

    ¡°What is it? Why are you laughing?¡±

    ¡°The Cross Faith also has duels,¡± Kuon snorted. ¡°Apparently, the style changes a bit depending on the country or city, but when things can''t be settled with a trial, or when you want to avoid the time and trouble of going to trial, you can solve things by having a duel between the people concerned, or their representatives.¡±

    ¡°Th... Well, hum...¡±

    ¡°I heard about it from Camus. Seems he''s also done it. I had to listen for almost an hour while he explained, complete with gestures, about how his spear had righted ''injustice'' and proven his innocence.¡±

    ¡°That bastard,¡± Sarah openly cursed her brother. Then immediately continued, ¡°That''s one thing, and I don''t want to talk about it. Don''t try to sidestep the issue.¡±

    Kuon was left speechless by how high-handed she was being. It was as though she might be able to change the direction the wind was blowing through sheer force of will.

    ¡°There was no other choice. Even if your ''superb negotiation skills'' had gotten us both out of the mountains, what then? Were we supposed to just happily go back to the prince? Without a single soldier following us?¡±

    ¡°That''s...¡±

    ¡°If I win, I can change Suo''s decision. In other words, we can help the prince by getting reinforcements. It''s not like I ever thought that getting them to help would be easy. I was ready for at least this much.¡±

    ¡°Liar. You were about to run away. It''s only because of the way things unfolded that it ended up like this,¡± Sarah made another bitter comment.

    However, she changed her tone immediately afterwards, probably believing that there was no point continuing in that vein.

    ¡°That guy... That Raga, is he strong?¡±

    ¡°I told you before, right? The strongest man in the tribe is the one who becomes Raga.¡±

    ¡°So you''re saying he''s stronger than you?¡±

    When Sarah asked him that, biting her thumb with irritation, Kuon for some reason looked dumbstruck for a moment. After thinking about it, he replied,

    ¡°I''m stronger.¡±

    At his answer, Sarah once again retorted ¡°Liar,¡± without a second''s delay.

    ¡°Didn''t you only just say that the strongest becomes Raga? If he''s stronger than anyone, then that means he''s stronger than you, right!¡±

    ¡°You can''t take part in the fight to choose Raga until you''re an adult. So I never took part until now, and the current Raga got that position while I was away from the mountain. In other words, Raga was decided while I was gone. If I''d been here, Raga would be me.¡±

    Kuon met Sarah''s tempestuous emotions with a dispassionate answer. The young nun still had her mouth open wide, as though she were about to say something, but all that came out of it was the sound of her breathing, and before long, she let her slender shoulders dropped. Instead of calling him an idiot, she asked, in a small voice,

    ¡°...So when will the duel be?¡±

    ¡°Didn''t you hear? Suo said it, you know. It will start tomorrow at sunset.¡±

    ¡°T-Tomorrow,¡± Sarah''s breath caught in her throat, then she gasped. ¡°You''re in no state for that. It''s been three days since you were locked in here, right? I''ve heard that I was unconscious for about that long. Are you moving at all? If you just stay still, your muscles will become stiff and you won''t be able to move them. And what about meals? You haven''t been getting any, have you? I''m more or less a guest, so if I ask, I can probably get them to share some with you. Hang on, I''ll go and fetch...¡±

    As soon as she decided that, Sarah started to set off and seemed about to leave the cleft in the rock. Kuon had no time to stop her, yet Sarah herself suddenly paused when her hand was already on the edge of the entranceway.

    ¡°That won''t be necessary.¡±

    A new voice could be heard from the other side of the opening. It was Aqua, with a wooden tray in hand. Grilled fish and several types of nuts were arranged on top of it, and there was also a bowl filled with mashed corn.

    ¡°This is from Chief Suo,¡± said Aqua, silently gesturing to Sarah to ''get out'' as ''she'' walked past her. Sarah stood aside.

    Aqua slid the tray through the gap between the iron bars and the ground''s surface. Kuon''s gaze shifted in turn from the tray to Aqua. Seeing the ''girl''s'' slender face again, it seemed to have matured a little since he had left the village. Aqua stared expressionlessly back at him, but before long, ''her'' shoulders started to jerk in a way that showed ''she'' was uncomfortable.

    ¡°Aren''t you going to eat?¡± ''Her'' voice was low, but it was sharp and firm.¡±It might be your last meal.¡±

    ¡°I''ll eat. More importantly, Aqua, you were taking part in the ashinaga hunt, so I guess that means you''ve ''become a man'', huh?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Too bad for Diu. He wanted to marry you.¡±

    ¡°Is that right,¡± Aqua answered indifferently.

    Pulling the tray towards him, Kuon seemed about to ask something else, but Aqua abruptly swung ''her'' slender frame around, and started to leave without another word. In a complete reversal from earlier, however, this time, Sarah was the one standing in the way, and Aqua had no choice but to stop.

    ¡°Move, Outsider.¡±

    ¡°Forget it. I was intending to kick that Diu person flying as soon as I got here. Where is he?¡±

    ¡°Diu? You''re going to ''kick him flying''? Aqua chuckled softly after repeating Sarah''s words.

    The novice nun felt as though she was being laughed at as a completely ignorant outsider, and her face flushed crimson.

    ¡°Yes, that''s exactly right. And I''m not ''you'': I''m Sarah, the best woman warrior of Conscon Temple, who is going to beat up Diu, the puniest of your tribe.¡±

    ¡°Why? You''ve never met him, right?¡±

    ¡°I''ve heard about him. He set a trap for Kuon. The one who killed Datta Wei wasn''t Kuon, and that Diu person...¡±

    ¡°Stop it, Sarah!¡± Kuon shouted angrily from the other side of the iron bars, but Sarah shook her head.

    ¡°I''m not saying it for you. I''m still furious.¡±

    ¡°Idiot. Camus said that your god teaches that even if someone hits you on the side of the face, you should turn the other cheek without hitting back.¡±

    ¡°How did he have the nerve to say that? That stupid spear maniac! You''re stupid too, and so is Big Brother, and Lord Leo, and every single one of you men, all of you, all of you are stupid!¡±

    Sarah was bent slightly forward in rage as she vented her fury, and Aqua passed by the side of her with unconcerned steps.

    ¡°Ah, hold on... this conversation isn''t over...¡± Sarah made as if to stop ''her''.

    ¡°If you want to beat up Diu, you should just leave it to Kuon tomorrow,¡± Aqua said coldly.

    ¡°What? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Don''t you get it? At the ceremony held half a year ago, the new vessel which Warrior Raga''s soul chose to reside in was the one who used to be Diu Wei.¡±

    The pine torches at the entrance of the cleft threw light on Aqua, and half ''her'' body was illuminated red.

    Part 2

    The setting for the fight was a shallow ravine near the summit of the great mountain.

    The ceremonial combats to choose a new Raga were held in the same place. In other words, this was where, not so very long ago, Diu Wei had competed for and earned the right to house Warrior Raga''s soul.

    Kuon was let out of the cliff-face prison a little before sunset.

    Red curtains had been hung at both ends of the floor of the ravine. As one of the contestants waiting to duel, Kuon was led behind one of them. Even now, his hands and feet were bound in chains. Soldiers, who were more like lookouts than guards, had followed behind him, but after he was pushed behind the curtain, there was no longer anyone around him.

    For a while, time simply passed.

    Kuon dropped down to the ground on his backside. Having come this far, he naturally had no intention of running away. He felt the presence of people gathered on the other side of the curtain. The light of the sun gradually grew weaker, and was replaced with deep shadows in the area cut off by the draperies.

    At that point, Aqua came in, accompanying an elderly priestess clad entirely in scarlet robes.

    As soon as the greetings were over, the priestess started drawing a pattern over Kuon''s skin with red dye. It was meant to call the Spirits of battle into his body, and normally, it was a pattern that only the head of a unit was allowed to receive when going to war. Two exceptions were made, however, and the braves who dared contend to become Raga, as well as the warriors who challenged Raga, were also allowed to wear it.

    A few minutes later, Kuon''s skin was covered in a pattern of red stripes. The priestess placed a finger at the centre of the large circle that was drawn on his chest, and said, ¡°All will be according to Lord Tei Tahra''s guidance,¡± before disappearing back to the other side of the curtain.

    After the priestess had left, Aqua, who had been watching motionlessly from start to end, silently crouched down next to Kuon, and took a key to unlock the chains at his hand and feet. Kuon swung his legs, which suddenly felt light again. ¡°Why did you come back?¡± Aqua asked him in a whisper.

    Kuon answered while gazing at the dirt-stained tip of his toes,

    ¡°It was Lord Tei Tahra''s guidance.¡±

    ¡°Liar. You don''t have the mountain god''s guidance,¡± ''she'' retorted flatly. ''Her'' callousness reminded him of Sarah. Speaking of which, the two of them were the same age.

    ¡°Diu Wei was strong,¡± Aqua continued, as though speaking to ''herself''.

    ¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°No, you don''t know. After you left, Diu became stronger. It was almost frightening how he continued practising day and night, as though he was possessed by the Spirits of battle and he didn''t know how to release them. Even though everyone thought that after Datta''s death, Diu would succed him as the next ''Wei'', he even left that to Aro, his senior brother in the unit, and continued improving his skills all by himself. The ceremonial battle to decide Raga was amazing. Whether it was the warriors with more experience than Diu, or those with a better physique than him, nobody could even touch him.¡±

    Kuon didn''t answer. He remembered how Sarah had asked him the previous evening, ¡°Is Raga stronger than you, Kuon?¡± At the time, he had truly felt astounded.

    Of course Raga was strong. It was a simple fact, something that even babies knew, as obvious for those born in the great mountains as saying that things dropped from a height would fall. Yet when Sarah asked him that question point-blank, Kuon realised that he had completely forgotten that well-known truth.

    It wasn''t because he had been looking down on Raga. As soon as he had faced the masked warrior at the prison, he had sensed that the current Raga was Diu. And Diu was a man who had always been one step ahead of Kuon, not only in age, but also in terms of skill with sword or bow. If they were to fight one-to-one, it would be difficult for Kuon to win without a large amount of luck on his side.

    The rules of duel were clear: victory would only be decided when one of them either died, or accepted defeat. But the people from their community believed that Kuon was steeped in sin ¨C that his flesh housed evil spirits. Even if Kuon were to admit defeat, Raga held the duty of expelling evil spirits, so it was unthinkable that he would stay his sword.

    In other words, it meant that Kuon had a very high chance of dying in this fight.

    Yet when he had declared that he would face off against Raga, he had felt neither fear nor anxiety. Still, when he had explained to Sarah that Diu became Raga when I wasn''t around, so he isn''t the strongest. The strongest is me, those were not his true feelings.

    Nor was he labouring under the na?ve assumption that I didn''t kill Datta. I''m innocent. Lord Tei Tahra grants victory to the righteous, so there''s no way I can lose.

    Aqua, who was strapping shoulder pads and a belt on the still-seated Kuon, also seemed to find it strange.

    ¡°Aren''t you scared?¡±

    ''She'' then changed ''her'' question, and spoke in a voice just as quiet as before,

    ¡°You deliberately came back knowing that you would be killed, and now, you''re definitely going to die. I''m also a ''man''. I''m not afraid of losing my life in battle. When I die, my body and bones will be burned, but my soul will ride on the back of Valgo the wind-wolf, he who serves Lord Tei Tahra, and will turn into a spirit. It''s something to be proud of. But you, from the moment you left the mountain ¨C from the moment you even thought of leaving the mountain ¨C you lost Lord Tei Tahra''s protection. The corpse that housed evil spirits is burned in the sacred fire, but although the soul is saved, it can no longer follow the path to becoming a spirit. That means it loses the path to achieve eternity. Do you understand? That''s basically the same as never having been born. I would hate it. Everything that you''d done up until then, the fact that you''d fought for the mountain, your family ¨C it would be as if all those things never existed. I couldn''t bear it!¡±

    Blood rose to Aqua''s face during ''her'' long and vehement speech, and, even though it was only a little, it showed traces of how ''she'' had looked in ''her'' girlhood, back on that day when they were young and she rebuked Kuon without rhyme or reason.

    It is scary, Kuon mentally agreed. But there was something that he found even scarier.

    There was a loud booming noise, and the curtain that surrounded them shook. It was the sound of a drum, and it meant that battle was approaching. A second slower after the drum, there was a loud roar as the men of the tribe cheered enthusiastically.

    Aqua stood, as though ''she'' had suddenly come back to ''her'' senses.

    ¡°Stand, Kuon. I need to make the last of the ''preparations''.¡±

    Kuon moved to obey the order, but then suddenly stopped.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°My legs have gone to sleep. Lend me a hand.¡±

    ¡°How pathetic, and you''re saying you''re going to fight Raga?¡± Aqua shook ''her'' head as though ''she'' found him utterly deplorable. ''She'' stretched out ''her'' hand, caught Kuon''s wrist, and helped him up.

    While Aqua completed the ''preparation'', Kuon stared fixedly at the wrist that ''she'' had seized only just a few moments ago.

    A large crowd of men were gathered at the top of the slightly elevated cliffs that formed the shallow ravine.

    Of those there that night, the most conspicuous were the heads of units, adorned in their battle markings. The warriors who represented the mountains were closely monitoring the fight, and this served to guarantee that justice would be served by the outcome of the fight, whatever that outcome might be.

    If, after this, someone were to appear who opposed the policy that was decided this night, who expressed dissatisfaction and deliberately refused to obey, that person would probably be expelled from the unit on the authority of its leader. And there were those among them who, out of shame that such a person could have come from their household, would resign from the position of leader of their own accord. The warriors'' patterns that were painted on them testified to that level of resolve.

    Aside from them, an unbroken line of men could be seen from between the unit leaders. Apart from the priestesses, only men who had reached adulthood were allowed to witness the fight.

    An exception had been made for the ''outsider'', Sarah, and she could be seen in the area where the priestesses had taken up their positions, just next to Mist, the very oldest of them.

    Most of the men were holding pine torches aloft. Their light shone down on the ravine as the figures of the contestants appeared from either side of it. One was a warrior in a beast mask, the fangs of which framed both sides of his head.

    ¡°Raga.¡±

    ¡°Raga.¡±

    ¡°Raga!¡±

    Every time he took a step forward, the loud cheers of the tribe''s men thundered and reverberated through the ravine. The men wore enraptured, entranced expressions, and their voices had a worshipping ring to them.

    Naturally, all of them knew that the face beneath the mask belonged to Diu Wei. And among the warriors, Diu was still young. For all that he had earned the position of Raga through genuine ability, it would hardly be surprising if, among the vastly more experienced warriors, there were some who still doubted Diu''s actual skill, or who took him lightly.

    Yet not a shred of that was in evidence among any of those who now held up torches or weapons. Even the heads of units in the prime of their life, even those who ¨C if their children had slipped up ¨C might have grandchildren that were close to Diu''s age, turned fervent gazes towards him.

    But no, this wasn''t ''Diu''. Strictly speaking, there was no face beneath Raga''s mask.

    When he won his position as Raga, and once he had received the rites from the priestesses, Diu unmistakably became Raga, the warrior told of in the legends. Even if the body which was now moving forward had once belonged to Diu, it was now the dwelling in which Raga''s soul resided. Which meant that the man known as Diu Wei currently did not exist.

    And that was why, among those gathered there ¨C and even among the highly-skilled warriors who secretly believed that ¡°If I had taken part in the battle ceremony, I''d have beaten down a brat like Diu Wei,¡± ¨C absolutely none of them looked down on Raga. They could not even begin to doubt that he might win.

    On the other hand, when Kuon walked towards the centre from the side opposite Raga, jeers hailed down incessantly from the young men.

    ¡°You accursed unwanted spawn!¡±

    ¡°Know your place! Not only did you oppose the chief, but you even challenged Raga?¡±

    ¡°He''s as shameless as his mother was!¡±

    Sarah bit her lips as she watched, and her brows drew together for a moment when the two of them finally arrived at the centre of the ravine.

    Both contestants were similarly stripped naked down to their waists, and wore a shoulder pad on their left shoulder. Both similarly grasped a single, unsheathed long sword. There was, however, one single point of difference between the two men: Kuon was holding his sword in his left hand.

    Kuon was right-handed, but it was clear from the start that he would not be transferring the weapon to his dominant hand.

    He couldn''t.

    And the reason for that was because his right arm was pulled behind his back, and bound against his torso with rope.

    ¡°Those are the ''shackles'' that Suo has imposed on Kuon.¡±

    Perhaps noticing Sarah''s shock and disbelief, Mist, the head priestess, explained while maintaining her eyes fixed straight ahead, even though her eyelids drooped so low that it was unclear whether she could even see anything. Any challenger who contested a decision by the chief and who fought Raga would, without exception, be handicapped by ''shackles'' that were chosen at the chief''s own discretion.

    Kuon had mentioned it when he had once talked about his past: the head of the tribe guided his people according to the council he received from the priestesses, who conveyed Tei Tahra''s words to him. Opposing the chief was virtually the same as claiming that ¡°the priestesses misheard the Divine Voice.¡± Which was why that person had to prove themselves beyond any shadow of doubt ¨C so clearly that anyone could see.

    Since the dispute concerned the will of the mountain god, Tei Tahra was certain to grant victory to whoever was right, and so, the challenger had to be able to win no matter what handicap he was placed under. There were some who had been made to challenge Raga empty-handed, while he carried a long-handled spear. There were others who had even been thrown into the ring with their eyes covered with a blindfold.

    ¡°Has there ever been anyone so far who''s won against Raga?¡± Sarah asked in a trembling voice. She held no sense of hope about the answer.

    And, just as expected, Mist shook her head.

    ¡°As far as I know, this ritual has always ended with Raga''s victory, and no one has ever overturned any of the chief''s policies.¡±

    Sarah turned back to where Kuon and Raga were facing each other and, looking at them again, the difference in build between them was obvious. Raga''s physique was by no means the most impressive within the tribe, but compared to his burly frame ¨C and even though Kuon had grown taller since Sarah had first met him ¨C Kuon was like a young and flimsy sapling. Forced into a fight where he was at a disadvantage even at the best of times, his dominant arm was now immobilised.

    Sarah wanted to scream in protest against what was going on. This was completely stupid. She wanted to break through the crowd and into the ravine at once, grab Kuon by the arm, and drag him back to Atall, even if it was against his will.

    But her legs wouldn''t move, and her voice wouldn''t come out. She realised that it was too late to turn back. If she forcibly broke up this fight, the only fate that awaited Kuon was being thrown to the flames. And so all Sarah could do now was to pray for his victory. A victory which he did not have one in a million chances of obtaining.

    Chief Suo stood between the two fighters who were silently facing one another. Riding a palanquin carried on the shoulders of warriors, Mist also headed to the same place. This fight was a way of seeking Tei Tahra''s will, but the official verdict on the outcome would come from Suo and Mist.

    Mist looked up at the heavens overhead. At the same moment, she lifted the sleeve of her faded robes, and raised a bony arm to the night sky.

    ¡°I feel them. Of Lord Tei Tahra''s one thousand eyes concealed within the mountains, three pairs now turn overhead. One pair watches Warrior Raga, one pair watches Kuon, and, from high in the heavens, the last pair sees nothing but the truth in this place. You who are not born of the energy of earth, trees and wind must fight. You who are not gods and who question the truth have no choice but to weigh your one, insignificant life in the scales. And then fight... fight... fight!¡±

    The warriors who carried spears or swords struck their weapons against the ground. At first it was quiet and slow, and, since no one was giving orders, the noise was chaotic and disjointed.

    As the seconds passed, however, a pattern emerged from the series of uncoordinated sounds. As others followed or were made to follow it, the intensity and speed of the pounding sounds soon swelled until they envelopped the ravine, and reverberated so loudly that they seemed to be challenging the night sky and making the whole mountain shake.

    The chief headed up from the ravine while Mist was again transported by palanquin back to Sarah''s side.

    First, Raga ran the tip of his long sword across the surface of the ground, then put himself in a fighting stance. Kuon raised the blade that he held in his left hand by a fraction.

    Having arrived at the top of the cliff, Suo raised his arm, and the noise that had engulfed the entire surroundings abruptly stopped. It was so sudden that a loud ringing sound continued to echo in Sarah''s ears.

    As it disappeared, Suo shouted,

    ¡°Begin!¡±

    And at the same moment, blades flashed, reflecting the light of the flames.

    Part 3

    Raga was the first to move at the signal. Just like the mask that concealed his face, he sprang at Kuon with movements like a beast leaping at its prey''s throat.

    He was fast.

    Sarah almost screamed. There was still that difference in build between them: it was to the point where if Kuon took a single blow, the match would probably be decided.

    As Raga''s long sword hummed, Kuon leaped back. Sarah had no time to sigh in relief: for a while, both sides started moving hectically within the narrow ravine, their feet never stopping.

    Whenever Raga tried to close in on him, Kuon put distance between them. Yet Raga wasn''t just going to let him escape however he pleased. Would it be to the right, or to the left? Just when it looked like his pursuit was slowing down, he would swing his sword. And his footwork never faltered.

    If Camus, Sarah''s combat-loving brother, had been there, would he have made comments along the line of: ''His hips and waist are steady, and his centre is unwavering. He must have trained diligently''? Sarah was a layman in terms of fighting, and his movements had a strength and ferocity that made her gasp.

    Against an ordinary opponent, Raga would not have swung his sword five times before either the other''s head fell, or his chest was pierced through. And in fact ¨C

    ¡°It''s over, huh?¡±

    The warriors standing near Sarah gave the impression of having already seen how the contest would end.

    ¡°Once the physically inferior one gets run ragged, there''s no more chance of victory for him.¡±

    ¡°Kuon should have charged from the start. I don''t think he''d have been able to land a blow on Raga even then, but at least he''d have a shown a little pride as a man of the tribe.¡±

    ¡°We''re talking about unwanted spawn ¨C even if he was once recognised as a warrior of Tei Tahra, there''s no point having sympathy.¡±

    And certainly, Raga was the only one attacking, while Kuon simply ran away. It was no wonder that everyone considered the match already settled.

    Yet Raga had already swung his sword more than ten times since Suo had given the signal. But he still hadn''t caught Kuon. Gradually, the crowd''s aside comments and mocking jeers started to fade away.

    Kuon was dodging skilfully. He side-stepped left or right even as he faced Raga head-on. Even when the blade was closing in on him, he wasn''t the least perturbed and just nimbly bent his head to avoid a swipe aimed at an angle, or jumped lightly back and let the blow pass by him, just a step away. Every time it happened, the circle of men following the contest all let out ¡°ooh¡±s and ¡°ah¡±s that might have been expressions either of disappointment or of admiration.

    Although Sarah, who held her breath as she watched the fight, didn''t make a sound, a corner of her mind was remembering the first time she met Kuon.

    At Conscon Temple, he had gotten into a fight with men who were probably mountain bandits. He had faced about five or six opponents, but he smoothly and continuously passed by the fists they swung and the legs they kicked at him, sometimes even looking as though he was about to cling to their large frames. If the sword that Raga swung held all the ferocity of a wild beast, then Kuon''s limbs were like supple plants entangling the predator.

    The experienced tribesmen could not help but recognise that fact. Still, once it had continued on for nearly five minutes, the crowd who was watching tensely could no longer hide its irritation.

    ¡°Just how long are you planning to run away for!¡± Unable to bear it any longer, a man on the opposite side of the ravine from Sarah shouted out.

    ¡°Don''t you dare defile the arena that the mountain god is watching over!¡± By Sarah''s side, one of the young men who had being carrying Mist''s palanquin cried out angrily.

    One after another, more and more of the men started hurling abuse at Kuon.

    That''s just telling Kuon to die! Sarah wanted to furiously shout back at them.

    However, at that point in time, there was a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer of emotion within Kuon''s eyes as he continued to carefully observe his opponent. It wasn''t anger at being scorned and mocked. Rather, it was the light that came from having found a chance at victory.

    Kuon had been waiting for ''this''.

    From the very first, he had not believed he had any chance of winning through a direct confrontation. If he had lunged at Raga, who had been ready for everything, his blows would simply have been repelled, and the only thing that would have awaited Kuon at that point was ''death''.

    And so, his only hope had been to systematically evade every strike. Yet even so, Raga was the man who had emerged victorious after defeating who knew how many seasoned fighters. When their movements had intersected, Kuon never once saw a single opening in his opponent.

    However, now, a change appeared in Raga''s way of moving.

    Even if he had been crowned with the name of the legendary warrior spoken of in myth, Raga ¨C or rather, Diu Wei, the one beneath the mask ¨C was still young.

    And because he was young, he was under heavy mental pressure. That of being Warrior Raga: in other words, that of being stronger than anyone else in the tribe. And, as Raga, he had to continuously prove that strength.

    Moreover, his opponent was Kuon: someone who was smaller than him, who was a traitor who had broken the laws of the village, and whose dominant arm was blocked. It was completely obvious that Warrior Raga would win against that kind of opponent. There was no way it could be a difficult fight. He needed to settle it effortlessly, in one, single strike.

    Up until then, Kuon had not been able to sense whether the current Raga felt ''the heavy pressure of being Raga'' weighing on his shoulders, but when the crowd began to voice their irritation, the change he had been eagerly waiting for had finally appeared.

    Seen from the outside, it only looked like Raga had become even fiercer, as his speed and strength had increased. But Kuon saw the impatience beneath it. The leeway, based on instinct, that Raga had previously had, and which had allowed him to steadily drive his prey into a corner, had now vanished from his movements. In other words, now that he was intent on raining blows down on Kuon, the flexibility had disappeared from the way he moved.

    When Kuon realised that, he brought his feet ¨C which had been moving incessantly ¨C to a halt, and started to crouch. The muscles of his tempered calves bulged. In the next moment, he broke into a run towards Raga.

    In the same instant, the men who had been howling angrily started shouting with excitement. Sarah covered her eyes. As far as she and the crowd could see, Kuon had been unable to endure the booing, and was just charging recklessly.

    Yet even as Kuon seemed to be offering his own neck to Raga''s sturdy sword, he suddenly vanished.

    Or at least, that was how it looked to most of those watching, including Raga himself.

    While sprinting forward, Kuon had bent down until he was almost skimming the ground. He felt a gust of wind above his head. Raga had swung his sword. The very next second, Kuon''s strong knees and thighs exerted a strength twice as great as his own weight, and he sprang upwards.

    For the first time, the blade clasped in his hand traced a semi-circle in the air as he attacked. The tip struck Raga''s mask. Raga staggered backwards, and Kuon deliberately rolled to the side, almost as though he was falling over.

    The crowd raised a noise that was close to a scream.

    Kuon immediately stood up as he was rolling. Raga''s steps were unsteady.

    Which meant that he was still alive.

    The next one to attack was Raga, but having to brace himself meant that his strike wasn''t so vigorous, and Kuon''s blow seemed to have half negated his strength. The mask cracked, and the top half started to crumble.

    If Raga''s mask had not been there, and if Kuon''s right hand had been free... then the contest would already have been decided. However, this was a fight in which speculation had been meaningless from the start: Tei Tahra would grant victory to the one who was in the right.

    Kuon drew up from behind towards the opponent he had failed to kill. Raga started to look behind him, but his movements were terribly slow, probably because his consciousness was still hazy.

    ¡°Raga!¡±

    A huge number of the men all shouted simultaneously, but it was to no avail, and Kuon''s sword swung in attack. It seemed as though the fight would be settled this time for sure, but Kuon was aiming for Raga''s sword.

    The blade dropped from Raga''s limp arm, and Raga himself pitched forward from the impact. The tip of Kuon''s blade instantly pressed against his throat.

    Ah! ¨C who could even tell whose voice had just escaped them?

    The two fighters, who had been moving without pause up until then, now stood still, both panting heavily. The cloud of dust they had kicked up during their fight was still swirling slightly at their feet.

    It''s Kuon''s win ¨C thought Sarah, but, next to her, Mist muttered quietly:

    ¡°How foolish.¡±

    In order to win, a contestant had to either kill his opponent, or else get them to concede defeat. Kuon silently urged Raga to choose the first option, but there was no way that the strongest warrior in the tribe could accept that kind of outcome.

    If Raga lost, it could only be through his death.

    In that moment, Kuon saw pale flames flash in the eyes that glared at him from behind the cracked and crumbling mask. Just as Raga''s burly arms seemed about to stretch out towards him, he instead caught the blade at his throat in his bare hands. That unexpected move caused Kuon''s posture to falter, and in that same instant, Raga sprang up, kicking Kuon in the stomach as he did so.

    Kuon staggered, and Raga wrenched the sword from his hand. Within a split second, Kuon had rolled to the ground and swept away the sword that Raga had dropped earlier.

    The two steel swords collided. Sparks scattered a second, then a third time.

    The contest had returned to the start ¨C or so it might seem, but Raga''s way of moving had clearly suffered. Yet even if that was the after-effect of the blow he had taken to the head, from the other side of the mask, he was now concentrating on raining down powerful strikes. Which meant that Kuon had also lost his advantage, which had been in the flexibility of his movements.

    More than anything, this meant that unlike earlier, the two of them were in close range from one another. Kuon could no longer rely on his footwork to escape from Raga, and was forced to use the sword to defend himself. Now that things had come to that point, the difference in their build was crucial; forced into a contest of brute strength, Kuon was at an overwhelming disadvantage. Every time he stopped a blow, his centre of gravity shook. His waist bent, his shoulders heaved, and his steps were becoming unsteady.

    The tip of the blade grazed the top of Kuon''s shoulders, and blood flew. If Raga had been just half a step closer, that blow would have taken Kuon''s head.

    ¡°Oooh!¡±

    ¡°Get him, Raga!¡±

    ¡°Cut down that evil spirit.¡±

    The men once again started striking their swords and spears against the ground.

    Sarah felt a sort of vertigo, as though her brains were being shaken to the core. In the light of the pine torches, the shadows of the two warriors were so close that they overlapped with one another. Steel gleamed in the space between them. Was there even that space? The men roared as their sweat flew. Their weapons beating against the ground played a murderous and oppressive rhythm.

    For someone from the civilised world, it was like a scene from a world of twilight. It resembled a painting daubed in primary colours, one that could release you from the shackles of reason with just a single look.

    Even though the feeling of warm blood had receded from her entire body, leaving only coldness, there was a single thin line, drawn from the top of her head down to her crotch, which was so hot that it seemed her blood was actually boiling. Unable to endure the cold and heat, Sarah wanted to crouch down where she was. She wanted to turn her eyes away from Kuon, who seemed about to be bisected by Raga''s sword at any moment now.

    But Sarah suddenly opened her eyes wide. Shaking off the chilling cold, she was conscious only of the heat of her blood and, as though that heat was urging her on, she raised a cry that was completely unbecoming of a nun.

    ¡°Damn it, Kuon! Are you just going to die here for nothing? Kuon! If you win, I''ll give myself to you. Sarah Pushelko would never sell her body, even if the lord of a country said he wanted it and offered me my weight in gold, and then the same again in jewels. I''ve given my body to God, and it doesn''t come that cheap. But Kuon, I set the value of your victory higher. My body was supposed to ascend to Heaven as untainted as my soul, but I''ll let you hold me if your arms are covered in the blood of your defeated enemy!¡±

    Did he hear that shout? Kuon desperately kept away from Raga, who was hurling blows straight at him. Each one of them was heavy and sharp. Even if he had been able to use his dominant hand, it was by no means sure that he would have been able to win.

    Raga was still cutting down the distance between them. He was not about to make the same mistake twice. He struck at Kuon''s shoulders, aimed to entangle his feet and destroy his stance, determined not to allow him a single chance to counter-attack.

    It was terrifying. Kuon felt as though his entrails were frozen with fear, knowing that he was on the brink of having his head cut off or one of his limbs severed.

    But that was only for now. He had felt the same kind of fear when he had decided to fight Raga. But he had a will of iron: his determination was unshakable, and he would survive and win at all cost, to personally save Lord Leo from danger... ¨C saying that would be a lie.

    If Kuon had left the mountain without fighting Raga ¨C perhaps thanks to a deal with Suo brought about by Sarah''s self-proclaimed ''superb negotiation skills'' ¨C he would certainly have been tormented by the same nightmare for the rest of eternity.

    Day and night, by his pillow, at his feet, on either side of him, the spirit of the fisherman he had pierced with a sword at his coming-of-age ceremony would appear before him, thrusting blades into Kuon''s body from all directions, then searing him in hellfire hotter than flames, even though they wouldn''t leave a single burn mark on him.

    That was the stagnant sludge that was binding Kuon. The days he had spent in the mountains where he had been born and raised, the beliefs, the customs, the people, the voices chanting incantations, the blood that had been spilled ¨C all of them were fetters that bound his limbs and heart.

    He needed to sever them.

    That didn''t mean discarding his past, but he had to settle things with his own hands, so that the past would stay in the past, and would not cast its shadow over the future.

    Kuon gazed at Raga, whose face was now close to his. More than half the mask had already peeled off and fallen away. Diu''s eyes blazed with light.

    Raga''s sword crashed head-on and hard against the blade Kuon held. The shock of the impact ran like lightning from Kuon''s left wrist to his shoulder, and he dropped his sword.

    The crowd''s excitement swelled to its peak. The fierce surge of heat that blew up from the ground seemed like it could knock down the stars hanging in the night sky.

    Yet that terrifying rush of heat vanished in an instant.

    It happened just after Raga had taken the half-a-step needed to land the finishing blow.

    Kuon once more vanished from his sight.

    It was a tactic that overturned the difference in physique. By making it look like he was throwing everything into defending himself with his sword, Kuon had drawn Raga''s eyes to the upper part of his body. And then, timing the loss of his sword for a point where escape was no longer possible, he had instantly slipped between Raga''s legs. Kuon grabbed on to Raga''s ankle as he rolled, and ended up behind him. And he didn''t give him the chance to even look back.

    Kuon flung a rock the size of a fist, which he had picked up as he rolled, into the back of Raga''s head.

    It was a terribly primitive end to a duel between swordsmen of outstanding skill.

    Raga toppled forward without making a sound.

    The men who had been leaning forward on all sides of the ravine, their fists raised and their mouths wide open, all suddenly froze.

    Afterwards, only silence remained.

    Part 4

    Within the sanctuary of Tei Tahra, ''time'', which had moved steadily and unfalteringly forward ever since the days of the distant past right up until the present, suddenly seemed to grind to a halt.

    That was how great the shock of Warrior Raga''s defeat was to the mountain people.

    However... time could not stop. That was, after all, no more than an illusion. The one who shattered that moment that held them all spellbound was Sarah, the outsider to the mountains.

    ¡°You did it!¡±

    As she shouted with joy, Mist, who was next to her, called out to the village chief who was at the top of the cliff.

    ¡°Suo.¡±

    Whereupon, Suo, repeatedly blinking his eyes in astonishment, raised his arm.

    ¡°The contest has been decided,¡± he announced in sonorous voice.

    In that moment, a violent tremor seemed to jolt the ''time'' which clung to the ravine''s surroundings, and they were suddenly enveloped in noise and commotion the like of which had never yet been seen there. Almost none of those present were able to wrap their heads around what they had just seen, and around how the fight had ended.

    And that was why some of them started to speculate:

    ¡°Did Kuon use the wiles of evil spirits?¡±

    Others, however, objected, still half dumb with amazement.

    ¡°No, if he''d done that, there''s no way Raga would have been defeated. Since he''s a being who devours evil spirits.¡±

    While the winner, Kuon, crouched down, breathing raggedly, several shaman, along with some of the guards who protected the priestesses, moved towards the loser, Raga.

    He was only unconscious for a few minutes. The soldiers were carrying him away to receive medical treatment, but he shook them off and got down to stand on his own two feet.

    ¡°Kill me.¡±

    Raga ¨C the one who had once been Diu Wei ¨C spoke with a hate-filled glare directed at Kuon.

    ¡°Raga cannot be defeated as long as he still lives. Kill me, Kuon. If you don''t, then I haven''t lost yet. Come me at me again. I''ll even free both your arms. Well fight until one of us dies. Well, come on!¡±

    Raga continued to howl, but since Suo had already spoken, the match had already been decided. Although he was staggering and swaying, he would have continued to move towards Kuon, except that the heads of unit, who had been there to monitor the fight, blocked his way and removed him from the ravine.

    Meanwhile, Suo repeatedly hurled his voice ¨C ¡°Quiet, quiet!¡± ¨C at the crowd which was still making a commotion. But the shock was so great that he was not having much success. However, the elder priestess, Mist, who had appeared next to him at some point, spoke:

    ¡°Warrior Raga has lost.¡±

    Although her voice was by no means loud, it held enough pressure to make everyone there swallow their breath and stop moving. As the crowd looked towards her, Priestess Mist spread out her arms on either side of her, like a withered tree.

    ¡°The warrior who should never have lost, has been defeated. You all know what that means. God has handed down His verdict. He has granted victory to the side in the right. That it is to say that, yes, our Lord, Divine Tei Tahra, desired Kuon''s victory. Or, more accurately, rather than Kuon''s victory, what He desired was that Kuon would overturn the chief''s decision.¡±

    Thereupon, Chief Suo knelt at her feet.

    ¡°In light of this verdict, I acknowledge that I misunderstood the voice of God that the priestesses relayed to me. Although I have been granted the title of ''chief'', I am, after all, no more than a insignificant existence, brought to life by Tei Tahra''s divine protection. How about you all?¡±

    ¡°We too,¡± one of the heads of unit struck his sword into the ground. ¡°We too are those who exist within the mountain god, Tei Tahra''s divine protection.¡±

    As the heads knelt one after another, the crowd too, amazed and bewildered, dropped to their knees and offered prayers to Tei Tahra.

    Each had their own thoughts and feelings ¨C including the heads and the priestesses ¨C but for those of the tribe living in the great mountains, these were easily swallowed up by the deity, the spells, and the inumerable customs rooted in their religious beliefs. At the climax of the duel, they had encouraged Raga and booed angrily at Kuon, but it was a fact that their god had granted his judgement.

    They all of them fell silent.

    Amidst them, Kuon remained crouching on the ground. For a while, he couldn''t even move, and didn''t feel like doing anything except breathing.

    How much time went by?

    By the time he realised it, the row of torches had left from around the ravine, and the human figures had also vanished. Kuon was taken to a house, and was given treatment by a shaman. Close to his ear, Sarah never stopped scolding him, but he barely registered it. At most, all he heard were things like, ¡°you... a guy like you,¡± or ¡°honestly... honestly...¡± and nothing else. Yet sometimes, she sniffled and sobbed, and her strained voice made him feel strangely embarrassed.

    Eventually, both Sarah and the shaman left, and Mist appeared in their place.

    ¡°All has unfolded according to God''s guidance.¡± After praising the winner with those words, she then asked, ¡°...But, what about that? Kuon, your victory was certainly in accordance with God''s will, but leaving Raga alive was not. That looked like something you decided on for yourself. Why was that?¡±

    ¡°Well...¡± said Kuon, gazing down at the bowl at his feet. There were still some faint traces of mashed up medicinal plants inside it.

    There was one question which had always remained with him. When he had been shut away in that prison in the rock, just after Datta Wei had died, and just before the priestesses were going to ask the god''s voice to judge Kuon, somebody had saved him. For a long time, he hadn''t been able to figure out who that could have been, but then he had wondered if it hadn''t been Aqua.

    He had no proof. It was just that, among those of his age, she was pretty much the only one he had ever spoken to outside of during fights. Yet when he thought of that girl, with whom he had only had the slightest of connections, actually breaking the rules of the mountain to save him, he couldn''t help but reject the idea. For the people of the tribe, the rules were absolute. If you didn''t uphold them, you couldn''t hope to live. And this wasn''t something that they gritted their teeth and endured; for those who were going to live their lives in the mountains, this was as natural as the air they breathed.

    Those who, just a short while earlier, had hurled jeers at Kuon, but who had, in the end, devoutly accepted the results of the match, were also kith and kin, in whom the customs and the way of life of the mountains were rooted just as firmly as they were in Kuon. It was because of that, because of a longing for home that made it hard to part from it, or perhaps because of an obsessive love that prevented parting, that he had set out to return to this land.

    Under normal circumstances, it should be absolutely impossible for someone to help another escape when they had been locked in the rocky prison, and were awaiting God''s judgement. And yet, among Kuon''s acquaintances, there was already someone who had broken the rules of the great mountains.

    That person had spoken lies to lay a trap for a man from the same household, and because of that, the head of the family had lost his life. Yet far from acknowledging his own duplicity, he had spun more lies and had pushed the blame onto the one he had tried to ensnare earlier.

    Needless to say, it was Diu Wei.

    Kuon had been trapped, blamed, and locked away in the rocky prison. That night, having lost his freedom, he had struggled, screamed, pleaded, then, finally, wept.

    Then how about Diu? How had he spent that night? Had been satisfied, now that the ''unwanted child'' he had always hated had finally been brought down? While Kuon was crying and screaming, did Diu lie in his own bed, gloating?

    No.

    Kuon knew. At this point in time, he understood it so well, it hurt.

    Diu was anything but impious. Just like Kuon and the others in this land, he was a warrior living within Tei Tahra''s divine protection. He spoke words of joy and celebration when Tei Tahra granted them a good hunt, and if an enemy invaded, he would fight with courage and to the death, offering his soul to their god. That was the kind of man he was. And because of that...

    Diu Wei must have been in a similar state to Kuon. Although he lay down, he could not sleep. He had done something that meant he could no longer face Tei Tahra. On top of that, because of it, he had caused the death of his own father. He must have been in pain. He must have been caught in sorrow and regrets. And also... again like Kuon, he must have been afraid. And that was why, just before night turned to dawn, he might have helped Kuon escape.

    He had laid the blame of his own crimes on Kuon, so perhaps, by releasing him, he had hoped to lighten the guilt and terror weighing on his heart.

    Freeing Kuon was an act that also broke the rules. In order to save himself, Diu had broken another taboo.

    After you left, it was almost frightening how Diu continued practising day and night, as though he was possessed by the Spirits of battle ¨C Aqua had said.

    He had probably had no choice but to do so.

    He had no choice but to throw himself entirely into something that would help shake off the ever-present fear that held him in its coils. And he had no choice but to prove that he was someone who would offer his very blood and flesh to Tei Tahra. That was why he had been so desperate to earn the position as Raga. Just like how, even after he had left them, Kuon had yearned to fulfil the prophesy that he would one day ¡°bring gold to the mountains.¡±

    ...All of this was nothing more than Kuon''s own speculation.

    But when he thought about it that way, his feelings of hatred and blame towards Diu had already vanished from within him. In their place, he felt a sort of sympathy, a certain feeling of closeness. There was someone else who tasted the same sense of alienation and fear that Kuon had experienced for so long.

    ¡°I had to prove it.¡± When Kuon answered Mist, it was not with his real thoughts. ¡°I had to show everyone that unlike Raga, my determination went beyond fighting to the death. Otherwise, even if I''d killed him, I probably couldn''t have convinced everyone, deep down.¡±

    ¡°Oh, it looks like you''ve started thinking about some complicated things,¡± Mist slurped some wheat porridge through a wooden tube that hung at her waist. She held it out to Kuon.

    While holding up his hand to refuse it, Kuon said,

    ¡°Granny Mist, there''s something I want to ask you.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Why did you bring Sarah to the prison?¡±

    ¡°Wasn''t that topic already discussed in the prison?¡±

    ¡°You heard the story from Sarah, and because it got you interested, you decided to go together with her. But Granny, even though you said that, Atall doesn''t have anything to do with these mountains. And yet...¡±

    ¡°Kuon, we are small beings caught in the embrace of great plans. God is beside us, but His voice does not whisper to us about every little thing. I do not base my every thought on the voice of our Lord, the mountain god. I have my own eyes, my own ears, and my own head to think.¡±

    Kuon had no idea what that meant, or if that even answered his question in the first place. Seeing his sullen expression as he stayed silent, Mist cackled shrilly with laughter.

    ¡°And here I only just praised you a minute ago, but that''s all you''ve got? Kuon, I''ll reveal just a bit of the answer to you. Not all of us have clouded eyes. Take me in particular: there are things that I see simply because the light barely reaches these eyes of mine.¡±

    Did that mean that Mist had things she divined for herself? Kuon stared at the wooden tube at her waist. If she offered it to him again, he intended to accept it, but it remained hanging on her belt the entire time.

    After that, time passed in the blink of an eye.

    First of all, the day after the duel, another judgement was performed over whether Kuon had ''led Datta Wei into a trap.''

    The result was his complete acquittal. No doubt, in the confusion of the battlefield, Diu Wei had misunderstood what had happened.

    Although from Kuon''s point of view, this was the correct and obvious ruling, if he looked at things from a slightly wiser standpoint, he definitely believed that if he had waited for a judgement immediately after Datta''s death ¨C if he had not fled from the mountains ¨C his fate would have been to end up condemned to burn at the stake.

    Here was the true meaning of Mist''s words. The voice of God was not omnipotent. The divine voice, which should have been able to quieten and to lead the people, was sometimes controlled by the will of the people.

    Afterwards, in the village, the men hurried about making preparations for going into battle, while the women had their hands full getting provisions ready.

    About five hundred of the men would be leaving.

    This was more than half the active soldiers from the units. On average, there were about fifty soldiers to a household in the mountains, although a household like the Wei included about two hundred warriors. But even if they were called that, most of the men in the settlement were engaged in work as hunters or fishermen, and those who specialised exclusively in warfare were only Raga, and the special guards who protected the priesthood.

    Which meant that nearly half of the male working force would be leaving, but in these mountains, it had always been normal for the elderly who had retired from the forefront, and the women who kept the homes, to pick up bows and guns whenever intruders broke into their sacred mountain land.

    Besides which, the heads of unit did not all join the reinforcements. Instead, most of them actually stayed in the village, having selected those who ranked next after them to act as the leaders of their platoons. The heads would need to draw up plans for hunting and fishing in the village, which was about to become short-handed, and that would be a burden far greater than heading into battle.

    One after another, the men had put their names forward in order to make up the five hundred. This was, after all, a holy fight, sanctioned by Tei Tahra''s divine will.

    Achievements earned in this battle would surely be equal to that of defending the great mountains against foreign enemies, or perhaps the glory achieved would be even greater. It wasn''t as though the mountains were continuously under attack, and the young men who had not yet had an opportunity to offer their blood and flesh to Tei Tahra were especially eager to volunteer, and among those whose application was rejected, there were many who wept tears of bitter regret.

    The problem was horses.

    There were horses within the great mountains, but not that many. If they gathered all the ones from the village at the foot of the mountains, they would have no more than two hundred. Yet crossing the Kesmai Plains without horses would take several times more days that Kuon and Sarah had needed. There was no way of knowing what the current situation was for Lord Leo, but from the point it had been at when they had left, it was obvious that they could not afford to leisurely take their time.

    Which was why Kuon had the horses which had already been gathered be brought together, and decided to lead an advance party of two hundred riders. The remaining three hundred men would travel on foot. Sarah offered to guide them.

    Apart from the meetings at which this plan was proposed, Kuon at first barely spoke to anyone in the village of his birth. To start with, there was no one for him to get closer to.

    There were still some, even now, who looked at him with hostility, or who loathed him for being ''unwanted spawn'' with mixed and foreign blood, but Kuon now held the position of one who had proven Tei Tahra''s judgement with his own body. As I have mentioned repeatedly, the voice of God was all that was righteous on the mountain, and so the ill will and animosity towards Kuon had already considerably softened. Simply put, they were probably puzzled as to how best to approach him now.

    Within all that, it was the village''s children who were the first to draw up to him.

    They simply felt admiration for someone strong, and when Kuon defeated Raga, their interest in himwas unparalleled. On the first day, they watched his every move from a distance, but on the next day, they shyly came up to him with the swords and spears that were used during training.

    ¡°Can you teach us to fight?¡± they begged him.

    While Kuon was wondering what to do, Aqua Holo, who just happened to be passing by, called out to him teasingly, ¡°Why don''t you do it? Weren''t you good at training the children from the Wei?¡±

    ¡°I''m busy.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really? After the meeting yesterday, you seemed to be completely free though.¡±

    With the children as a point of contact, their parents and older brothers ¨C not their actual family members, but their elders within the same unit ¨C also shortened the distance with Kuon and, on the third day, the senior brothers of the Wei, with whom he had once stood shoulder-to-shoulder, invited him to go hunting. Since a large amount of provisions needed to be prepared, a large number of households were currently heading out to bring down prey.

    Aqua, who had earlier made fun of Kuon, was also one of the hunters.

    ''She'' would also be joining the fighting as a member of the Holo. From Kuon had heard, nowadays, ''her'' skill at archery was inferior to none of the men in the village. Which was only to be expected, since ''she'' had been chosen to join the ashinaga hunt.

    ¡°That guy is already an excellent hunter. It''ll be ''his'' first time in battle, but given that it''s ''him'', I wouldn''t be surprised even if ''he'' took three enemy heads with ''his'' bow.¡±

    On the one hand, there were voices which sung ''her'' praises.

    ¡°Is ''her'' heart and soul already that of a man? What a shame.¡±

    On the other, there was also a scene in which a husband murmured absentmindedly as he gazed at Aqua''s firm waist, only to shut his mouth after receiving a terrifying glare from his wife.

    Since the person ''herself'' had decided to live as a man, since the priestesses had recognised this, and given that ''she'' also joined in with hunting and combat, within the great mountains, Aqua was no longer a ''woman''. Having ''her'' own family was of course out of the question, but ''she'' could not have relations with a man either. These too were the ''rules''. If, for example, Aqua tempted a man with ''her'' womanly features, an order might be given to ''her'' from the priestesses or the chief to cut off ''her'' breasts.

    ¡°What a waste.¡±

    It wasn''t only men who held that thought; Sarah also shared it.

    ¡°Even though she''s such a beauty. If she showed herself in a town, she could lead any rich man or noble by the nose. But in spite of that, to have to cut off her breasts...¡±

    ¡°Not right this second. And anyway, looking at it, it doesn''t seem like it''s going to come up for a while... Oww!¡±

    Kuon, who had been casting repeated glances at Aqua''s figure in the distance, had his foot firmly trod on by Sarah.

    ¡°What was that for!¡±

    ¡°A man was watching a ''man'' with strange eyes.¡±

    As the two of them embarked on one of their usual quarrels, the people of the tribe watched them curiously for a while. Apart from in his childhood, it was a new sight for them to see Kuon with his face flushed beet-red, and his emotions laid bare.

    The day of departure finally arrived.

    Early in the morning, the young priestesses performed a dance in prayer for victory. The elder priestess, Mist, placed portions of armour in the fire and observed the cracks that formed.

    ¡°A good omen,¡± she announced.

    When the armoured warriors, with their faces daubed bright red from their war patterns, heard this, their excitement rose in crescendo.

    When Kuon was saddling his horse, Mist and one of the shamans approached from behind him.

    ¡°Take this,¡± the shaman held out a small bottle. The liquid that shook within it was the colour of dark dye dissolved in honey.

    The shaman explained that it was horned snake poison in which a decoction of several medicinal herbs had been added. It was poisonous to humans but, at the same time, it was also used to neutralise the poison of the ashinagas that lived on the outskirts of the great mountains. It was this medicine which had saved Sarah''s life when she fell unconscious after being attacked by an ashinaga.

    By rights, only a shaman could handle those kinds of poisons and medicine. Since even carrying it around was said to be unadvisable, even the ashinaga hunters like Aqua''s group had not had any. Kuon had no idea why he was being made an exception.

    ¡°It is tribute to the warrior who defeated Raga,¡± the shaman, half of whose face was covered with a cloth, spoke calmly. ¡°We cannot leave the great mountains. You should use this if you are attacked on the way by ashinaga. Although there is no guarantee that it will work perfectly.¡±

    Since Mist nodded at him to ¡°take it,¡± Kuon decided to accept it with gratitude.

    When everyone had finally finished with their preparations,

    ¡°This fight had been decided by our lord, the mountain god. Do not be concerned with your lives; the souls of those who fought bravely will be called to God''s side.¡±

    Most of the men who now had Mist''s voice at their back, and who had been raised in the cradle of the mountains, would be leaving them for the first time in their lives. According to the plan, five hundred soldiers would leave the mountains at the same time, but the two hundred on horseback would go north across the Kesmai Plains without waiting for the for those on foot.

    Kuon descended the mountains while bathed in the light of the early morning sun, and urged his horse towards the entrance to the sun-baked Kesmai Plains.

    Yet a mere five days after leaving the mountains, his group was caught in an unexpected ambush.

 Volume 4, 2: Those who do, those who do not, and those who cannot take action

    Volume 4, Chapter 2: Those who do, those who do not, and those who cannot take action

    Part 1

    During that time, Leo Attiel had remained in Guinbar. This, of course, was because he was wary of Darren Actica''s movements. While staying at Savan''s stronghold, Leo had repeatedly sent out scouts to the area around Darren''s castle, Olt Rose. So far, even though the head of House Actica had gathered soldiers, there was no information that he had transferred them out of his keep.

    A band of marauders, however, were being relentlessly active within Guinbar''s territory, and Darren appeared to be the one behind that. To defend against them, Savan had sent soldiers to various points throughout his fief, and there were now only a thousand who were still stationed within Guinbar Castle. Moreover, although they had hurriedly hired about seven hundred mercenaries, the increase in numbers was not solely a good thing as, to start with, Guinbar did not currently have the financial assets to be able to properly feed several hundred soldiers.

    Since they had to be cautious of what moves Darren would make, they had not recently been able to hold markets outside the castle walls. Given that this was the busiest season for the wool trade, that was a very hard blow. The merchants who had speculatively put up the funds for the trade fairs risked going bankrupt.

    With every passing day, Guinbar was being slowly strangled and driven to the brink.

    Leo suggested to Savan that they should build a fort to the east of the territory, in an area that was comparatively close to Olt Rose ¨C since it was within the same country of Atall, there were no keeps or fortresses built at the borders between domains ¨C and where a river would form a natural moat. Five hundred of the mercenaries were then transferred to this hurried construction.

    All that Leo could do at the moment was go back and forth between the castle and the fort, checking the situation in each one. Despite the sense of impending crisis, he was bored. Since there was very little he could actually do, he was struck with an idea ¨C Should I take a few people to Olt Rose to go see the look on Darren''s face? That thought made him cheer up at once.

    Immediately afterwards, though, he realised that ¨C It''s not realistic, and became even gloomier than before.

    If the thought had occurred to him in conversation with someone else, it would still have been bearable. If Percy had been there to laugh and say something like, ¡°Your Highness, you really are still a child,¡± his feelings would have settled down thanks to not being alone.

    But currently, there was no one of Leo''s age for him to talk with. He had entrusted his Personal Guards to Percy and Camus, and sent them to Conscon Temple. Kuon and Sarah, on the other hand, had suddenly vanished from Guinbar.

    He was all alone.

    He had gone back to the time when he stood by himself in a corner during the banquet, while men and women in gorgeous clothing laughed cheerfully.

    Of course, even when saying that he was alone, Leo was currently surrounded by guards that he had gathered from the villages and personally appointed, and they adored him because of it. But they were not advisers.

    Speaking of which, among the Personal Guards, there had been a red-haired boy called Rhoda. Even compared to the other soldiers, his sense of veneration towards Leo had been conspicuously strong: the attitude with which he had served Leo was that of someone who seemed to believe that he would be blinded if he gazed directly upon Leo''s majesty. Although Leo had been more embarrassed than pleased by it, he valued Rhoda''s skills and diligent personality, and so he had appointed him as a close guard.

    However, more than half a year ago, during the fight against Hayden, Leo had been severely short-staffed, and had no choice but to station the soldiers hired from the villages in all sorts of different places. Rhoda had also been pulled up from his usual unit, and his whereabouts were currently unknown.

    Did he lose his life on the battlefield, or did he earn a certain amount of glory, and go home with it to his native village? Leo suddenly wondered about the red-headed guard. But even then, only casually, and only once.

    So what else did he think about?

    Nothing. He didn''t think about anything.

    Or at any rate, it was the same as.

    When he had nothing in particular to do and was all alone, Leo loitered around his room, contemplating this and that. But along the way, those thoughts turned to resentful bitterness towards Darren, who was just running after his own interests, without paying any attention to the wider trends of the time. Before long, Leo''s father, the sovereign-prince, also became a target for his resentment.

    Leo had met the king of Allion. He had also encountered Allion''s crafty general, Hawking, and Dytiann''s self-professed ''king'', Mordin. All of them seemed to have blades in their hearts. And those kinds of people, who could move thousands or tens of thousands of troops with just a single word, were keeping a close watch on Atall from both east and west.

    And even so, a tiny country like Atall is being torn apart by tiny internal skirmishes, isn''t it? And I''m having trouble with those trivial skirmishes, aren''t I?

    At the end of the day, what irritated him the most was neither Darren nor Magrid, but his own powerlessness. And since he spent every day in that state, it was essentially the same as not thinking about anything at all.

    When he got tired of walking around alone, Leo would sit down on his bed. At those times, he had the illusion that it was like he was sitting in another position, looking at his own exhausted face. That was something he was used to, as well.

    You''re a mess, Lord Leo ¨C he felt like jeering at himself with some of the words he had picked up from commoners ¨C You defeated Hayden and established the Personal Guards. And just when you were getting happy about things going your way, it turns this is the best you can do. The King of Allion? Mordin? Did you seriously think you could compete with them as an equal? You''re way better suited to having a hard time fighting small fry like Darren.

    ¡°Shut up.¡±

    You haven''t changed at all. You haven''t achieved anything. To start with, you only put on airs without any resolve behind it.

    ¡°I have resolve. I killed enemies with my own hands. I led allies to their deaths.¡±

    That''s just child''s play. Are you ready to kill a thousand allies to save ten thousand of the people? Or conversely, are you willing to abandon those ten thousand to their deaths in order to save a thousand allies that you absolutely need if you want to win?

    ¡°I told you to shut up.¡±

    You want to change things? Then raise the wind. To raise that kind of wind, you need a huge fire. Fuel it by burning your own hair first. Then, before it burns out, stoke it by burning your own clothes. Then, one by one, offer it the lives of each of the soldiers who protect you. Your acquaintances... your family... your friends... thrown them in, in your order of preference. If you do, you might just be able to raise a gentle breeze.

    ¡°Shut up, shut up, shut up!¡± Leo screamed, and fell backwards onto the bed.

    Those days continued on, until one particular one.

    The direction of the wind changed.

    Oh no, it wasn''t a large-scale event that showed immediate results. It was no more than a ''gentle breeze''.

    Around about noon, there was a commotion at a watchtower built on the outside of Guinbar: a group of about three hundred was apparently approaching. The soldiers immediately put themselves on the alert but, upon closer inspection, it became clear that the group advancing towards them was flying the flag of the Cross Faith. Upon receiving the news, Leo went racing from the castle to personally greet them.

    ¡°Camus... Why are you here?¡±

    It was a reasonable question. The one leading the group and holding the flag was Camus, the warrior monk from Conscon Temple. The young man whose clerical robes covered a muscle-bound frame was currently supposed to be assisting Neil, the temple''s bishop. Besides, he had only just gone over there with the Personal Guards that Leo had entrusted him with.

    ¡°As per your orders, I had an air carrier departure point prepared at the temple, and set up an airship squadron, but, being worried about you, my lord, I have come rushing back.¡±

    ¡°I''m not a child!¡± The days of accumulated irritation made Leo flare up unintentionally. ¡°And for a start, didn''t I tell you not to move the Personal Guards? What will you do if my father hears of this? I''d only just sent them to the temple so that he wouldn''t be able to come up with some pretext or another, and remove them from me.¡±

    ¡°If I may humbly say,¡± Camus spoke up to explain. ¨C The three hundred he was heading were not from the Personal Guards. Instead, they were all warrior monks.

    ¡°Since they are monks from the temple, which is an allied power to Atall, Lord Magrid has no authority to interfere with them. Oh, please don''t look down on them for being no more than three hundred. Every one of them is the same as me: a valiant warrior who has offered his body and soul to God, and who cares not about risking his life.¡±

    Leo gaped, half stunned. Then, he burst out laughing. While clapping Camus on the shoulders, he felt something hot, like tears, welling up within him. The loneliness he had experienced in those past days had been so very heavy and deep that even he found it strange.

    About half a month ago, at Conscon Temple, while Leo had been sinking deeper and deeper into depression all by himself, both Percy and Camus had been experiencing the same thing at the temple. Leo had only just been defeated after attempting to invade Darren''s territory and his reputation had plummeted around the outskirts of the capital, whereas Darren Actica''s influence seemed to have inversely increased.

    What move would he make? And how about Sovereign-Prince Magrid and the other vassal-lords? No, even as they stayed here at the temple, their ears filled with the prayers of monks and nuns, who knew if Darren wasn''t moving his troops to attack Guinbar? At those thoughts, their youthful blood simply could not settle down.

    Just as the prince had ordered them to, the two of them had prepared a space for an air carrier departure point, had travelled to an even further country to buy airships, and had trained the young soldiers. At the same time, in an effort to try and erase at least a little of his own worry, Percy Leegan wrote a letter to one of the vassal- lords.

    Specifically, to Giml¨¦ Gloucester.

    He was an aristocratic vassal-lord whose domain was in the southeast of the Principality of Atall, and he would one day become Percy''s father-in-law, since Percy was engaged to Giml¨¦''s daughter, Liana Gloucester. The two men had not seen each other, however, since the banquet held in Hayden''s honour. To be more honest, the truth was that they did not get on very well, but right now, Percy needed him as ally even if it meant ignoring his personal feelings.

    He wrote to ask him to help Lord Leo. The world misunderstood him, believing that the prince had been lured by Savan into invading Darren''s territory, despite not having any personal ill-will towards Darren. Percy wrote down the facts about how Darren had used armed force because he coveted Savan''s stone quarry, and emphasised the point that the prince''s actions were all done with the future of the country in mind.

    Since he was the father of his fianc¨¦e, Percy had some understanding of Giml¨¦''s personality. Although he could be pig-headed, Percy saw him as someone who was certainly not deaf to reason, and compared to Darren ¨C who was a concentrated mass of self-interest ¨C or people like Bernard and Tokamakk ¨C who preferred to sit on the fence ¨C Giml¨¦ had at least a little bit of the backbone that should be expected from an Atallese noble.

    When he looked over the words he had written, Percy blushed. His words had been too vehement. It was exactly like the exaggerated language of a young child passionately telling the grown-ups that those nasty other boys had stolen his playground. Percy calmed himself down, and revised the contents.

    And so, the letter he sent to Giml¨¦''s territory was one that he had written and rewritten over and over again, but no matter how long he waited, he did not receive a reply. Percy passed beyond disappointment, and was seized with anger. In that sense, he was a lot like Leo was at the same moment. Even though he wanted to yell at him about how he, Lord Giml¨¦, also liked sitting on the fence after all, the brunt of Percy''s anger was turned towards himself for having gone running to his fianc¨¦e''s father.

    While he spent his days like that, unable to calm down, a man who was in the same situation as him, and who was far less patient that Percy, took action. That man was Camus.

    ¡°I''m going to gather volunteers from among the warrior monks, and head back to Lord Leo,¡± he had declared.

    That alone was surprising enough, but when he learned that more than two hundred young men had already volunteered, Percy was left completely amazed.

    Leo Attiel was the saviour who had rescued Conscon Temple from ruin, and the hero who had defeated Allion. So naturally, once they heard that he was in trouble, there were many people who were ready to pick up their spears and announce that: ¡°This time, it''s our turn to help him.¡± But even so, this was really fast.

    On top of that, Camus had decreed that: ¡°This isn''t enough yet,¡± and was going to also gather men from the Personal Guards, which was completely illogical. Wasn''t he assembling warrior monks because he couldn''t move the Guards? When Percy pointed this out, Camus shook his head.

    ¡°All of the soldiers gathered have received God''s baptism. Since they''ve become novices, they''re now warrior monks of Conscon Temple. Not Personal Guards.¡±

    He said it so off-handily that Percy''s mouth hung open.

    And this is the man who was pulling such a sour face when the prince talked about getting baptised back then... Going on about how the prince hadn''t actually been won over by the divine teachings, and how he was only using the appearance of a believer in the Cross Faith for his own ends... Aren''t you doing the exact same thing this time around!

    Reading Percy''s expression, Camus puffed out his brawny chest.

    ¡°These men have volunteered to go help Lord Leo even at the risk of their own lives. And the prince has accepted God''s teachings, and is helping spread them throughout Atall. Since they''re anxious about saving a lord who is doing so much for the Cross Faith, these men are qualified to count among the faithful,¡± he declared.

    Since his words were that smooth, and given that this was Camus, there was absolutely no doubt that he had been inwardly conflicted. Which was why he had thought up this excuse, with which he was trying to convince not only others, but also himself.

    Camus prepared to set off once a full three hundred had been assembled. Besides the reinforcement in terms of soldiers, they had also dismantled one of the airships used for training, and would carry it with them. One of the Personal Guards who had been appointed as a ¡°warrior monk¡± had shown the makings of a skilled pilot during the training drills.

    ¡°It''s only one aircraft, but the prince will definitely be happy when he sees the results of work with his own eyes,¡± Camus had said.

    Up until just a few days earlier, he had been as gloomy as Percy was, and there had been a permanent crease between his eyebrows. Yet now that he was planning to leave the temple, his expression was bright and he seemed to be walking on air. Camus had always been a man who got livelier when he had something to do as opposed to just staying somewhere silent and still, but when he saw him in such high spirits, Percy for some reason felt extremely unhappy, and instinctively started to detain him.

    ¡°Camus, wait. I wasn''t the only one left in charge of the Personal Guards: His Highness gave you the same order.¡±

    ¡°I''m leaving that to you.¡±

    ¡°And the training for the airship unit?¡±

    ¡°That too.¡±

    ¡°Don''t just say whatever you feel like. If you go and take three hundred soldiers at your own whim, all you''ll get from the prince is criticism.¡±

    ¡°Then, are you telling me to just stay here quietly? I can''t do it. Rather than sit and wait for ruin, I chose to walk out on the battlefield myself.¡±

    ¡°Those are bold words, Camus. But you''re not saying them because you''re strong, but because you''re weak,¡± Percy unintentionally hardened his tone.

    ¡°What are you...?¡± Camus opened his eyes wide as Percy continued to verbally lash out:

    ¡°Isn''t that right? The orders we received from the prince were to secretly establish an air force squadron and train it into something usable, yet you''re saying that obeying them is ''sitting waiting for ruin''. That proves that you don''t understand the prince''s thoughts. You simply can''t even stand your own uneasiness. You''re only taking action to satisfy yourself, not for anyone else''s sake. How is that not weakness? Your physical strength and your words are both very fine, but apart from that, you''re nothing but a coward.¡±

    Camus blinked, then every muscle in his body heaved.

    Ah, that''s... Percy suddenly came back to his senses.

    Although he had undeniably meant what he said, he had chosen the wrong time and place to say it ¨C and the wrong person to say it to. He was aware that he had been too emotional, and so he braced himself, steadying his neck and gritting his teeth, expecting a punch to come flying his way. After taking a deep breath, however, Camus relaxed his own tensed-up frame.

    ¡°You''re probably right,¡± he said. ¡°But everyone has their strong points and their weaknesses. You''re better qualified to carry out the prince''s orders this time. I can only do what I can to help support him. So then...¡±

    Camus left the the temple with the three hundred men he had already assembled.

    Percy sighed as he watched them disappear from sight. He had harshly lectured Camus like an adult telling off a child, but in the end, it was Camus who had taken the more mature attitude.

    I''m jealous of how he can be so upfront in everything he does.

    At that point, someone came up to stand next to Percy.

    It was Bishop Neil.

    The man who now managed the temple in replacement of Bishop Rogress was still quite young.

    ¡°Has Camus left?¡±

    The bishop craned his neck as he stood beside Percy, but Camus really had moved fast. He and his men had already passed through the main gate, and they could no longer be seen.

    ¡°Did you authorise Camus'' actions, Bishop?¡±

    ¡°The prince is an irreplaceable man for our temple. I have no reason to prevent someone from going to help him. All will be in accordance with God''s will.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Percy wasn''t particularly interested, but he felt that it would be rude to leave almost without saying anything, so he gave his thanks for allowing the soldiers to stay at the temple. It was supposed to be nothing more than idle small talk, but Neil then said something unexpected.

    ¡°I don''t mind in the slightest. However, Sir Percy... During your stay at the temple, you might hear a deeply unpleasant rumour involving the people of Atall.¡±

    ¡°A rumour?¡± Percy drew his brows together.

    ¡°Aye,¡± Bishop Neil gave a nod. ¡°A rumour that Bishop Rogress did not commit suicide, but that he was killed by someone.¡±

    Percy responded with a simple: ¡°Oh¡±. His face was wiped clear of any expression. ¡°It''s certainly not the kind of rumour that you can simply ignore, but... well, I don''t see how it has any direct connection to those of us from Atall.¡±

    ¡°There is more to that rumour,¡± Neil''s honest-looking face was equally expressionless. ¡°During the battle, the bishop remained in the Inner Sanctum since there was a high chance that spies from Allion had slipped into the temple, the bishop''s life was in danger, which is why Atall''s brave soldiers closely guarded the sanctum. Not even a puppy could have gone in or out.¡±

    ¡°Indeed.¡±

    ¡°In other words, only the Atallese soldiers could approach the Inner Sanctum. And so, for those who say that the bishop did not kill himself, but died at another''s hands, the logical conclusion is that those hands belonged to someone from Atall. That''s the kind of plausible-sounding rumour which is currently being whispered around. It''s utterly deplorable. Even though things have finally settled down in this land, and just when peace has returned, there are fools going around killing time by spreading this nonsense. I''ve heard there are even some impious monks who are joining in. I intend to severely rebuke them, so please do not take it to heart.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    As Percy smiled cheerfully, Bishop Neil''s blue eyes gazed at him intently.

    Part 2

    The wind had changed direction ¨C and Camus'' arrival was not the only proof of that.

    Around about that time, Sovereign-Prince Magrid of Atall sent messengers to both Leo and Darren. The reason behind it was to investigate the circumstances which had led Lord Leo to invade Dharam, Darren''s territory.

    The envoy who came to see Leo was none other than Stark Barsley. Officially, this man who served Leo''s father ¨C and who had served his father before him ¨C was there to ¡°hear Leo''s side of the story,¡± but, in reality, the sovereign-prince had asked him to keep on eye on his son for a while. The idea was, essentially, to make sure that Leo didn''t do anything he shouldn''t again.

    Stark had readily agreed to the request. The way he saw it, Leo was ¨C Interesting. He had, of course, been surprised when Leo had invaded Dharam through force of arms, and he could see why Magrid, Leo''s father and sovereign, saw his son as dangerous. But at the same time, Stark had a certain presentiment:

    Lord Leo is young. And he fully embodies both the best and the worst points of youth. If there could be someone by his side who was able to hold back those worst points and encourage the best ones, the prince might well become someone whose name will go down in history.

    Even so, his feelings were, at most, that Leo was ''interesting''. He did not feel any urge for that ''someone'' who would guide Leo to be him. Stark was content to remain detached from the world, and had left behind him his youth, in which he would have gone running to the scene of any excitement.

    Meanwhile, Leo, the one receiving the envoy, did not believe the official reason given for Stark being sent over to him. His father talked about ''investigating the circumstances,'' but the sovereign-prince couldn''t care less about the truth, and while he would be fair and impartial by giving both parties a chance to explain themselves, that fairness would only extend to the hearing. The most likely outcome would be that, after a short while, he would give a light punishment to both Leo and Darren.

    I won''t let it end like that ¨C Leo was determined about that, however, and Darren probably thought the same way. Leo intended instead to make use of this opportunity. With the sovereign-prince ostensibly taking action to arbitrate the dispute, not even Darren would be able to move troops while the envoys were present.

    Leo and Savan met together and decided that, first of all, they would open a market five days after Stark''s arrival.

    The place chosen for it was the church, which was to the east of Guinbar Castle, at a distance of two days'' ride along the old highway. This was the base for the Cross Faith that Leo was having Savan build. Although the road leading to it was known as the ''old highway'', it had been repaired and maintained to allow the movement of people and goods which had been steadily increasing ever since the construction of the church had begun. Buildings that served both as relay inns and barracks for the highway guards had been built at several points along the road.

    Nowadays, it was every bit as busy as the main roads. Thanks to that, the market there would be able to attract every kind of business, and allow the fief to replenish its dwindling funds.

    During that time, Leo would be away from Guinbar. He intended to take action while Darren''s movements were blocked. The future certainly didn''t suddenly seem bright, but at least this was far better than constantly turning around in circles.

    ¡°I will definitely return with help at hand,¡± Leo promised when Savan Roux came to see him off, then rode away.

    Hurrying along the Old Highway soon brought him within sight of the church.

    When the building work had first begun, there had only been lodgings for the stonemasons and other skilled craftsmen, the labourers and the various other people who actually took part in the work. Now, however, swarms of merchants and prostitutes had descended on the area, intent on snatching away even only a small portion of the workers'' daily wages, and there were any number of buildings where you could eat or drink, or where women beckoned to the men to join them.

    When people came from the outside, inns would be built; where people gathered in large numbers, soldiers would make the rounds; and where there was a certain degree of public security, people would start settling in the area to plough fields. Cases of towns and villages appearing in that way were not rare back in those days, and Conscon Temple was another example of it.

    At this point, the settlement around Guinbar Church had grown into a village that was not a small one. Since night had already fallen, Leo went straight to the monastery where he would be staying, which was attached to the chapel. However, people having realised that: ¡°The prince is here,¡± they streamed out into the street and gathered by the church, carrying products from the shops, produce from the fields, or casks of wine. There were even some who killed what very little livestock they had for Leo''s sake.

    Since such a large crowd had come out, Lord Leo personally appeared before them to respond to their warm reception. Bishop Bosc, the representative of Guinbar Church and a central figure in the ''Church Council of Atall'', which was currently being established, threw open the garden of the monastery, and allowed the crowd inside.

    Fires were hastily lit to cook the ingredients that people had brought, then the food was carried to the tables that the monks had hurriedly set up. It spontaneously turned into a small banquet. The liquor served was only watered down wine, but the smile never left the face of even a single one of those gathered there, while the monks and nuns peered restlessly through the monastery windows, before retreating from sight.

    The prince''s reputation had been hugely damaged by the invasion of Dharam, but he could boast of being tremendously trusted and popular throughout all of Savan''s domains, and especially in the area surrounding the church, which was being built on his own suggestion.

    Faced with recent events, the accepted explanation in the territory was that: ¡°The lord prince went to punish Darren, that cur, for trying to attack Lord Savan.¡± And because of it, there were many voices that were sympathetic towards him, and which talked about looking forward to what he would do next.

    At the end of the feast, a woman who was still young led her daughter by the hand towards Leo. The child was perhaps six or seven years old. Bosc beckoned the woman, who quietly approached Leo.

    ¡°I''m sorry, Lord Prince. Even though she was already tucked up in bed, when she heard that you were here, this child begged to come and see you, even just for a little while.¡±

    The woman was apparently from one of the neighbouring villages. When Darren had sent out marauders to snatch away the nearby quarry, her hot-blooded husband had gotten into a fight with them, and had been killed somewhere in secret. For a while, she had shut herself away in her parents'' house, but when the church had started being built on Leo''s suggestion, she had found comfort in the teachings of the Cross Faith, and had moved to this area with her daughter.

    When the little girl with a face full of freckles walked up to Leo, she straightened her back as much as she could. She tried to say hello, but ended up mumbling and being unable to speak clearly. Just as she looked like she was about to burst into tears because of it, Leo gently patted her shoulder and gave her a smile.The child''s face changed completely, going from being close to tears to beaming with joy, and the people around them also smiled at the scene.

    Leo intended to leave early the next morning. After yesterday''s commotion, he was afraid that if he went out when the sun was already high in the sky, it would draw a crowd again.

    The people who were out and about early all stopped whatever work they were doing, and watched Leo''s group ride off along the road. ¡°Prince!¡± When some of them unthinkingly shouted out loud, Leo raised a finger to his smiling lips, as though to tell them to hush, and it was as though those people now shared a secret with him; they blushed with pride and bowed as he went past.

    The armoured group rode on unimpeded but, when they had almost reached the edge of the settlement, Leo himself suddenly chose to dismount. The mother and daughter from the previous evening were standing discreetly by a fence. The mother bowed her head, ¡°we aren''t worthy,¡± written all over her face.

    ¡°We only intended to watch you leave from a distance without bothering you...¡±

    Despite what her mother said, the daughter seemed to have decided from the very start to have an audience with the prince and, while her mother had not yet finished giving her greetings, the little girl drew up to Leo so quickly that Camus, acting as guard, caught his breath. She held up something that she was holding in her arms.

    It was a doll. Although, with that said, it was really no more than rough pieces of cloth sewn together into a shape that was just barely recognisable as human. It probably wasn''t something which had been brought, but rather something that the girl had made herself. On its chest, there was a decoration that seemed to be in the shape of a cross, so it looked like this had been modelled on Lord Leo Attiel himself. Threads were coming loose all over it, and the limbs looked like they would come off if it was treated roughly, so Leo handled it very carefully as he lifted it to line it up against his own face.

    When he set off again, it was to the sight of the little girl''s face, smiling fit to burst.

    His group''s destination was the main castle belonging to Bernard, one of the vassal-lords. Dharam, the land that Darren governed, lay in the middle of their way, so after leaving the church, and so as not to attract attention, the troop of three hundred split into several parties which entered Bernard''s domain one after another, even though it meant slowing down their progress.

    Leo, Camus and a few others made a detour of several days, avoiding the highway, so as to cross through the south of Dharam, after which, they joined up with a large group in one of the towns in Bernard''s territory. A party of about twenty, however, deliberately crossed straight into the Dharam district, and remained there. They were disguised as merchants, and their role was to gather information while trading in the towns and villages.

    Lord Leo had a difficult time travelling, but Stark Barsley, who was supposed to be visiting Guinbar to ''investigate the circumstances'', had a carriage prepared for himself and was carried along the highway in grand style, following after Leo.

    Since he wasn''t particularly trying to hide his visit to Bernard, Leo didn''t really mind but, at the same time, he had no idea what this retired, former-retainer was actually thinking. Still, given that Stark didn''t look like he planned to make any special fuss or get in his way, the prince let him follow along.

    He had sent a letter to Bernard beforehand, and the vassal-lord put on a show of receiving him. At that banquet, back then, he himself had invited the prince, after all.

    His wife and daughter both belonged to the Cross Faith, and they rivalled the mother and daughter that Leo had met at the church in that, ever since first meeting him, they had treated him as though he was an envoy of God. Their cheeks flushed, they did everything they could to give him the warmest of welcomes.

    Bernard didn''t feel the slightest ill-will or dislike towards the prince, but there was no denying that right then and there, he saw him as a pest. He probably also had an inkling about what Leo''s business with him was.

    ¡°Please don''t be so stiff, Bernard,¡± the prince decided to tread carefully, and started by trying to mollify Bernard''s feelings by laughing off his fears. ¡°No matter what, I won''t give you any high-handed orders like ''lend me some soldiers''. Even I''m not planning on immediately marching off to attack Olt Rose again.¡±

    When the two of them were alone, he changed his tone.

    ¡°Darren is definitely scheming to attack Guinbar soon. Father probably won''t be able to stop him.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Bernard''s words were, of course, far more cautious than Leo''s.

    The prince nodded firmly.

    ¡°If you want proof, Darren is recruiting soldiers within his territory. Actually, he''s been gathering weapons for a while now. If I hadn''t moved in to attack Olt Rose back then...¡±

    ...''I would have been killed instead'' was what Leo had been about to say, but he forced himself to hold it back. There had been plenty of arguments about what the truth of this matter, and Leo was aware that they had left him looking in the wrong, so what he wanted to avoid at all cost was making it seem like he had acted out on his emotions at the time.

    ¡°...Darren would have set Guinbar Castle alight. What I did has only helped postpone things.¡±

    ¡°It''s perfectly normal for Lord Darren to be gathering soldiers,¡± Bernard''s expression remained unyielding. ¡°After all, Your Highness, you have only just invaded his lands. On top of that, and from what I hear, his second son, Lord Dingo, was seriously wounded. Although you no longer have the Personal Guards close at hand, it''s highly possible that next time, it might be Lord Savan''s soldiers which advance on Dharam... or at any rate, Lord Darren will use that kind of explanation to justify reinforcing his military strength.¡±

    Bernard was not a coward, but it was clear that he had no wish to take part in a fight that would be of no benefit to him. If Leo had been the eldest son, promised to become the next sovereign-prince, then Bernard''s attitude might have been a little different, but Leo was the second-born, and there were rumours that the current ruler, Magrid, was not best pleased with his enthusiasm for taking action.

    In short, there was no advantage to joining up with this prince.

    Leo saw Allion and Dytiann as two huge, slavering beasts, and believed that the only way to defend against them was to unite the entire country. The others, however, had never shared his sense of looming crisis; since life had always been relatively peaceful up until then, their vague image of the future was based on their unfounded belief that tomorrow would surely be just as tranquil as today.

    He desperately wanted to denounce them in ringing words ¨C not just Bernard, but all of the vassal-lords and other nobles. But it would be utterly stupid to make an enemy here when he had originally come looking for an ally. Leo struggled to suppress his emotions.

    ¡°I said a while back that I wasn''t going to ask you to lend me any soldiers. However, I would just like you to prepare and gather them in your castle town. When Darren starts his military manoeuvres, have them raise their flags and threaten Olt Rose from the rear. That''s all ¨C you don''t need to fight. I won''t bring the battle to your territory. So please, Bernard...¡±

    In the end, his words turned to pleading.

    ¡°If it''s just that...¡± Bernard replied with obvious reluctance. ¡°Still, I don''t have enough regular soldiers ¨C since I''ve only just sent them to you, my lord, for the Personal Guards. I''ll give my retainers the order to call up levies in the villages. But naturally, that means that I can''t say how long it will take to gather them up.¡±

    As I mentioned earlier, when Lord Leo heard that the sovereign-prince had despatched an envoy to Darren, he anticipated that the vassal-lord would not be able to take action, and so made his own moves. He opened a market in Guinbar. He took his time to cross Dharam, then took it again to try and persuade Bernard.

    Yet Leo was to regret all of it.

    Darren Actica used the envoy who had been sent to him to set his own plans in motion.

    Part 3

    It was night and pouring with rain when a courier arrived, riding fast, at Bernard''s castle. It was one of the warrior monks that Leo had left in Dharam. Dripping wet from head to toe, he cried out,

    ¡°Lord Actica is attacking Guinbar!¡±

    Bernard immediately sent the news to Leo, who had already retired to his room. Leo leapt to his feet, closely followed by Camus.

    ¡°It must be some kind of mistake.¡± As Leo left his room, he was praying: Please let it be a mistake.

    To start with, Darren shouldn''t be able to take action now. In any event, Leo decided to get the details from the warrior monk. And as he listened, he felt aghast.

    At the outset, Darren had gone to meet the sovereign-prince''s envoy not in the town by Olt Rose, but in a village near the castle. It so happened that on that day, there was a holiday which was celebrated in that area, in honour of the resurrection of the goddess of the harvest.

    Since it was not related to the main faith of the Principality of Atall, Darren did not allow the festival to be celebrated in the main castle town but, beyond that, he did not try to take away the people''s enjoyment of it. In fact, he had the habit of going with his retainers, all of them dressed up as farmers, huntsmen or fomer knights, and travelling around the villages to enjoy the festivities himself.

    That day, he took the envoy and several retainers to one of the villages. And there, they were attacked. A group on warhorses suddenly appeared, setting the houses on fire with the torches they held in hand.

    With helmets on their heads, they lunged out at the fleeing populace with their swords, spears and bows, amassing piles of corpses all around them.

    Soldiers soon dealt with extinguishing the fires in the village but, by then, some two hundred lives had already been lost.

    ¡°What is this?¡± Darren bit his lip, his face just as ashen as the envoy''s. ¡°This is definitely Savan''s doing. He''s had his soul stolen by the Cross Faith, and can''t bear the existence of any other god. If you add to that his despicable, single-minded hatred of House Actica, then of course he ended up resorting to this kind of violence.¡±

    Darren brought the quivering envoy to his own carriage, and ordered the coachman to ¡°protect him on the way to Olt Rose.¡±

    ¡°W-What about you, Lord Actica?¡± asked the envoy, and Darren flapped the overly-large cape he wore as a disguise.

    ¡°Savan is building a church, and acts as though he alone in all Atall is under divine protection. But know this well: the god he worships ¨C that he alone reveres ¨C is an evil god. Repulsive, cunning and strong. But as long as he lives on this earth, this isn''t a problem about gods. This is an issue involving we living, breathing humans. Even if he worships an evil being, and even if receives dark powers from it, we will take our blades in our hands to resist against it, and use them to pierce through his own flesh. I''ll make Savan realise that!¡± he declared.

    ¨D Or so the story went.

    ¡°What a joke,¡± Leo spat out after listening to the warrior monk''s report. He bit back his voice as much as he could, but he could not entirely hide his emotions, and his cheeks were shaking from them. ¡°Was that bastard so desperate to attack Guinbar that he had to torch the very people he was supposed to protect? And he dared do it in front of the very messenger sent by the sovereign-prince!¡±

    It was probably as Leo had guessed. Darren had made use of the envoys presence, and had his own subordinates attack the area that he had taken him to visit. And in order to make that attack seem real, he had sacrificed the people of his fief. ¡°That bastard...¡± Camus'' hand trembled with rage as he grasped the crucifix at his chest. ¡°An ''evil god''? He''s one to speak. Your Highness, that creature is an enemy to anyone of the faith... to the people of Atall... to all of humanity!¡±

    The reports didn''t stop there. Messengers came flying to Leo''s side one after another. Every time a new piece of information became known, yet another messenger was sent from Dharam, up until the final report, which arrived in the early morning.

    Leo had passed beyond anger, and had now gone as far as to feel fear. He heard that when Darren had first set out, right after the village had been attacked, he had only taken with him the few troops stationed at Olt Rose. If you added the soldiers who served as his guards, they did not amount to more than three hundred men. Yet the closer they got to Guinbar, the more their numbers swelled, until finally they grew into a force of more than two thousand.

    Cavalrymen, infantrymen, bowmen, riflemen... the balance was flawless. It was obvious that Darren had prepared his troops beforehand, and had allotted them to areas throughout his domains. When Leo had first learned that Darren was on the move, he had given orders to have fast horses saddled and was going to set off immediately for Guinbar, but the situation had changed far faster than he had expected, and had escalated into something huge.

    This was the day when the market would open by the church. Darren would probably attack it as a first step.

    Savan would have no way to predict the event, and so his soldiers would be too late when they set out. Or perhaps, since it was obvious that any soldiers he sent out would be pushed back, he might make the conscious choice of abandoning the church. If he did, Leo would not be able to blame him; Savan Roux had a duty to protect the greater number of people in his fief.

    Yet Leo Attiel could not remain rational. He had the impression that everything had turned black, and that the darkness was striking him from all sides. He almost fell to his knees.

    ¡°Camus... the horses,¡± Leo gave the order almost unconsciously. His raspy voice sounded like it was being squeeze out from a crack in his throat. ¡°What are you doing? Hurry with the horses. We''re going to Guinbar at once!¡±

    ¡°You cannot, Prince.¡±

    Although Camus was about to hurriedly agree, he was stopped by both Stark, who had come flying out of bed that night when he heard the news, and Bernard, who had been watching the whole thing unfold.

    ¡°What do you mean, I can''t?¡± Leo demanded loudly while shaking off their hands. ¡°Oh, righ; Bernard, how about your soldiers? Have you gathered plenty? Then, they could go together to Guinbar with... no, we don''t need to go that far. First is Dharam. We''ll do what he did and torch the villages there. Once he knows that his lands are being burned, he''ll be forced to go back. Do it right now!¡±

    ¡°Prince, you cannot,¡± Stark''s voice was every bit as loud as Leo''s own.

    Leo glared at Stark and Bernard as though he was looking at Darren himself.

    ¡°They what are you saying I should do!¡± He screamed, sounding as if he was about to stamp his foot at any moment. ¡°Haven''t things ended up exactly as I said they would? Isn''t that right, Bernard? Why couldn''t you react sooner to what I said would happen? It''s not too late yet! But even so, you won''t make a single move, either of you! If you''re not going to do anything, at least don''t get in the way. Yes, yes, I know; I wouldn''t do anything like setting Dharam on fire. I would never become a man like Darren. We''re going to Guinbar!¡±

    ¡°I am telling you that you cannot, Prince,¡± Stark would not back down either. ¡°If what you said is true, Prince, then Darren has already plotted to have you killed before now. What if his soldiers find you along the way? And even if you somehow manage to make it to Guinbar, what will you when you get there?¡±

    ¡°Camus, what are you doing? Horses. Also, armour and...¡±

    ¡°Leo!¡± Stark''s furious voice crashed down on him.

    Leo was startled into remaining paralysed. He looked as defenceless as a young child who had been unfairly scolded by his father.

    ¡°Did you say ''we''? Certainly, if Your Highness gives a direct order, then, just like Camus over there, there will be many who will gladly go, even though they know they are heading to their deaths. Because they have entrusted their lives to you. Which also means that, yes, of course, you can choose to toss their lives into a waste bin. And that is what you are doing right now.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°You look like you want to say: ''But I''m going too.'' That too is something you cannot do. If you say that you will go no matter what, then the retainers cannot stay behind. That is true for me, and also for Bernard. And Darren would kill us too. Your Highness, your position as Lord Leo Attiel now means that you will never again be left to act alone. You cannot be left to die alone. That is the fate you received from the gods on the day you were born and received the name ''Attiel'', and it is one that you can never escape from.¡±

    Stark''s words pierced through Leo''s flesh. As he reeled from them, his back hit the wall, and he slowly slid until he was sitting on the ground.

    He understood that his actions ¨C no, that his very existence as ''Leo Attiel'' ¨C carried the weight of responsibility. Back when he had fought Hayden, so many of the militiamen had given up their lives to form a wall a wall for him, and to allow him to escape alone. Even now, he could not forget that scene.

    ¡°Yeah... yes, you''re right, Stark. That''s right. Your words are true. But then... what can I do? What should I do?¡±

    ¡°Although Your Highness was always warning us, we did not heed your words, and allowed this situation to develop. It is a disgrace for us too,¡± Stark suddenly crouched down. ¡°Please grant us the opportunity to redeem ourselves, and allow us to take care of this. We will send messengers to Tiwana. I myself will also leave for the capital at once. I will explain the situation to the sovereign-prince, and tell him that we must stop Darren, even if it means assembling an army.¡±

    Too late... Leo spoke to himself in a small voice, his back still against the wall.

    Stark called someone at once and started to write the letter that he and Bernard would be jointly signing, yet while that was going on, Leo could only stare up at the ceiling that was still dark and dimly-lit.

    Not in time... By the time the sovereign-prince took action, all of Guinbar would already have fallen in flames.

    The church... the marketplace. It would be bustling with people doing business. In the tents and at the tables, vendors and buyors would be laughing boisterously, and bargaining hard behind the smiles. Leo had heard from the merchants'' guards that when the haggling got too fierce, vendors would break out alcohol to try and ease negotiations. There would also be food carts lined up along the market. He could picture the sight of children, pestering their parents for freshly baked pies and sweets.

    Leo took the doll out from his trouser pocket, where he had left it. The simple buttons that had been used for the eyes and nose were already coming off. Would that mother and daughter also be at the market? The little girl had been tongue-tied in front of Leo, but to get her mother to buy her sweets, would she do her very best to bring out all the words and persuasion she could manage, bargaining hard in her own way? ¨C ¡°I''ll help you a whole lot. I''ll go and draw water from the river even in winter. I''ll do the laundry and the cleaning. So please...¡± ¨C She would definitely be cajoling her mother like that.

    They would be attacked. They would be surrounded by flames. Scores of people would die at the market which had been set up on Leo''s orders. The church would also be destroyed. ¡°Burn down the evil god''s dwelling!¡± ¨C an image of Darren on horseback flashed through his mind.

    Pain struck Leo like a blow. The blood vessels in his temples pounded, and his head throbbed. He felt sick to the stomach.

    Where was Darren now? Had he already arrived at Guinbar''s market? Or not yet? Or was he already standing next to a pile of corpses, made up of men and women, young and old?

    ¡°Damn it,¡± Leo cried.

    Camus, who had been left with nothing to do, turned around, startled and with his face flushing red.

    ¡°Shit!¡±

    Leo punched his fist into the wall. And repeated that action again and again.

    Darren Actica had pretended to be attacked. That was how he would defend himself to the sovereign-prince. Leo remembered how he himself had pleaded his cause in the same way, resisting Darren with everything he had.

    Then what would Sovereign-Prince Magrid say?

    It was already decided, anyway.

    ¡°I will investigate, so neither of you are to take any kind of action.¡±

    And after that, he wouldn''t do anything. The vassal-lords would fall in line with Darren and Magrid.

    No doubt about it.

    And then, all of them together, would blame everything on Leo. He''s dangerous, he''ll bring the fires of war to the country... no, one day, he''ll destroy the country himself ¨C they would all agree...

    ¡°Damn it!¡± Leo felt like he was going mad.

    Bernard''s wife, who had gotten up and heard of the situation, was worried about the prince and tried to get him to have breakfast, but Leo wouldn''t go with her.

    ¡°Leave me alone!¡± Having even raised his voice against Bernard''s wife and child, Leo buried his head in his knees, and sank entirely into his own thoughts.

    He couldn''t just stay here doing nothing. He couldn''t bear it. At the very least...

    Right, should I write to Savan and urge him to surrender? Fighting Darren now is hopeless. No ¨C Darren wants to prove above all else that he is more powerful than the House of the sovereign-princes. Then, how about if I go to Darren''s camp myself and surrender?

    Earlier, Stark had said that Leo might be killed if he was found by Darren''s soldiers, but that was only because he was an obstacle to the head of House Actica. If he made it clear that he was personally going right up to Darren''s encampment, then he would instead transform into a proof of Darren''s power ¨C basically, his existence would have some worth in Darren''s eyes.

    Leo hated himself for being able to think, almost calmly, about what would happen after the church''s surroundings were torched. But even though he was disgusted with himself, he also believed that this was better than not doing anything. Time passed, and noon was already approaching. Yet the sky was still carrying traces of yesterday''s rain and was covered in dark clouds, which cast their gloom over the entire area.

    Leo sluggishly started to get to his feet. Defeat had cast a dark shadow over his face, and his still childish features seemed to have aged all at once. Camus watched him with concern, and was about to call out to him but, right then, the door leading into the room burst open, and a wind swept in. In the next second, a soldier almost came racing in, almost tumbling in his haste.

    Again? Leo thought hazily. Is this more bad news?

    Every possible disaster had already happened. Nothing could surprise him now. Nothing could make him despair any further.

    Yet even though he had made up his mind to that, when the soldier rushed to kneel before him, the news he brought was utterly unexpected.

 Volume 4, 3: Wolf and Fox

    Volume 4, Chapter 3: Wolf and Fox

    Part 1

    It was just as Leo had imagined.

    By early evening, the area around the church had become a hunting ground for demons.

    Just as the prince had advised, a market had been set up, and business had been thriving when Darren''s soldiers suddenly attacked. He sent out three hundred of his troops but, in practice, only about a hundred led the attack, while the remaining men stayed on standby on the Old Highway. There was nobody at the market who would be able to put up a fight against them, so a hundred was more than enough. The assailants set fire throughout the market place for no reason at all, trampled the fleeing populace beneath their horses'' hooves, struck young and old alike with bludgeons and mallets, and then sliced through their necks with blades.

    Black smoke rose from all over, and as it swirled upwards, it seemed to drag with it the unending chorus of screams and cries. Some of the merchants had hired mercenaries as guards before coming, but that was only to deter thieves and bandits from attacking them on the road, and no one had ever imagined this kind of situation.

    In the end, the people at the marketplace were unable to put a resistance or fight back, and they were slaughtered one-sidedly. When the excitable soldiers noticed a good-looking woman, they hoisted her onto their shoulders, cut off her feet her to stop her from moving, and had their men tie her up. If their lover or husband gave themselves over to fury, or if their children tearfully tried to oppose the soldiers, the number of victims only increased.

    ¡°This way, everyone, hurry!¡±

    Bishop Bosc opened the doors of the church, and frantically shouted for people to come and take refuge inside, personally going out again and again to lead them in. Even though it was still in the middle of construction, the church was the only solid building in the area. People flooded into it, driven forward by terror.

    The mother''s expression was also deformed by fear as she hurried to the church, leading her young daughter by the hand, but a fat merchant rushing up from behind pushed her out of the way, and both mother and child tumbled to the ground.

    ¡°Hurry!¡±

    Even so, the mother quickly struggled to her feet, and lifted up her daughter. The child was sobbing convulsively as her mother pulled her along by the hand and they started running again, but an attacker on horseback drew up behind them.

    The spear in his hand was wet with blood, and his clean-shaven face had relaxed into a slovenly expression. He was drunk on the joy of massacre.

    ¡°D''you want to ran over there? Oookay, I''ll let you run. But you have to have my horse follow you.¡± The man with the clean-shaven face deliberately avoided catching up with the mother and daughter, and laughed loudly as he stayed just behind them. ¡°Running is useless, anyway. The building to the evil god will be burned down soon enough. You can curse Leo''s name when you go to hell, since he built that thing and called death down on you all.¡±

    Tired of playing tag, the soldier raised his spear. Its tip was aimed at the mother; he would stab it through her back then ride his horse to trample over the child where she fell.

    But he never had the opportunity to carry out that plan. An arrow pierced his elbow, crushing the bone and slicing through his tendons. His blood and his screams gushed up simultaneously

    A horse swiftly came up to him. For a second, he thought it was an ally. After all, there couldn''t have been anyone on horseback other than his allies.

    Yet the man on that horse was a stranger. No... rather than a man, he was more like a boy. And that boy swung a sword down towards him. Out of reflex, the clean-shaven soldier raised his wounded arm above his face, but the blade smoothly changed trajectory and, in a sideway sweep, sliced through clean-shaven''s throat. The mother and daughter gazed up at the rain of blood coming from overhead.

    ¡°Go, hurry!¡± the boy yelled as his sword repelled the bludgeon that another soldier swang at him, before striking a blow in return and smashing his enemy''s crude helmet.

    That boy''s name was Kuon.

    It wasn''t just him: an entire group had burst in like a sudden gust of wind onto a scene in which there had been nothing but blood and screams. They had dispersed into every direction, fiercely striking at Darren''s soldiers from under the cover of their allies'' arrows. They had no banner, and wore no visible insignia.

    ¡°W-Who are you!?¡± even though Darren''s soldiers screamed in confusion, this new group had neither the duty nor the obligation to introduce themselves. Bellowing their war cries, they toppled the demons who were smeared in the blood of the people, slicing them down, and piercing them through with arrows.

    Kuon halted his horse to protect the mother and daughter as they fled, and to run his eye around his surroundings for a moment, and the archer who had shot through clean-shaven''s arm a moment ago rode up beside him. It was Aqua. And it was, of course, the mountain warriors who had thwarted what was supposed to be a one-sided slaughter led by Darren''s men.

    But they weren''t alone, and, just a moment earlier, men from a different tribe had surged into the church''s surroundings in response to Kuon''s order.

    Kuon turned back once to check that the mother and daughter had disappeared into the church at Bosc''s urging, then exchanged a look with Aqua.

    ¡°Right,¡± they spurred their horses on to their next prey.

    ©¤ To explain how Kuon came to be there, we need to wind back time a little.

    About five days after he had left the mountains with reinforcements from his clan, they ran into an unexpected ambush in the north of the Kesmai Plains.

    This wasn''t because of a lack of vigilance on Kuon''s part. Although most of the Kesmai Plains was barren land with only the reddish-brown forms of sandstone cliffs as far as the eye could see, there was a narrow river running through it, flowing towards the mouth of the Zedora in the east, and its banks were dotted with patches of green grasslands. Since these meadows were suitable for pasture, the horse-riding tribes frequently pitched their tents in them. The violent temper of the Kesmai nomads was also well-known, so Kuon was going to keep as far away from these small steppes as he could, so as to avoid any unnecessary fights.

    Yet, ahead of them, in the shadow of a rocky hill that looked like a man-made fortress, they spotted a group of about ten horsemen.

    Enemies? the mountain tribe was immediately on frenzied alert, but Kuon had noticed the white flag that the group was flying. These were nomads from the Halia tribe.

    Kuon gave the order to pull up behind the riders. The dry wind blew between the two groups. Since one of the other riders had dismounted and seemed to be about to approach them, Kuon also jumped down from his horse. The man from the Halia tribe looked astonished as he approached him. When Kuon had killed Bah¨¡t, a man whose violence had been causing endless trouble for H¨¡les ¨C the head of the tribe ¨C this young man had been one of those who had gone with H¨¡les to help provide cover with his bow for Kuon and Sarah. Kuon recognised that scar on his cheek.

    Kuon and the young man from the Halia tribe came to a halt between their two groups.

    ¡°Kuon, it really is you.¡±

    The man lowered his voice since, even within the tribe, no one except those who had taken part in it knew that Kuon had cooperated with H¨¡les to kill Bah¨¡t. He continued,

    ¡°Our people have been really worried: the tribe which has always stayed in the southern mountains suddenly started flocking in droves to these lands,¡± he said.

    Someone had seen Kuon''s group heading north, and had raced hurriedly to inform their tribe about it. Normally, the nomads were divided into a number of clans which travelled around the grasslands that were scattered throughout the plains. And although the Kesmai Plains were vast, its meadows were scarce, so there were plenty of times when groups clashed with one another over territory rights. Yet when they heard the news that: ¡°The mountains are moving,¡± they all hastily got in touch with their fellow tribesmen.

    There was no time for family quarrels when an unexpected threat was drawing near. If one of the many powers scattered throughout the plains had allied itself with the ''mountains'' to destroy the power balance in Kesmai, then they might need to work together to crush that plan as quickly as possible. Following that, H¨¡les, the young head of the Halia, decided that the first thing to do was to try and approach the ''mountains''.

    But although he understood the situation, Kuon could not afford to stop here. It was lucky that the one chosen as an envoy was a young man who shared Chief H¨¡les'' secret. Kuon was easily able to explain to him both his reason for crossing the Kesmai Plains and heading towards the ''mountains'', as well as why he was now once more travelling across the plains, this time with the mountain people in tow.

    ¡°We just want to go through Kesmai. Unless someone tries to stop us, we absolutely won''t do anything to interfere here.¡±

    ¡°I''ll report to the Chief. I think you already know this, but don''t go near the meadows. Our clan is one thing, but there are plenty of guys with short fuses in the other ones too.¡±

    The nomad riders left, and Kuon and his group once more started heading north. During the next few days, although the figures of other horsemen ¨C who were probably monitoring them ¨C could occasionally be glimpsed in the distance, the mountain people were able to advance without meeting any obstacles.

    It was on a day when the wind was blowing somewhat strongly that they received an answer from the head of the Halia. A party of about thirty riders appeared, their white robes fluttering in the brownish, sand-laden wind.

    The one acting as their envoy was the young man with the scarred cheek.

    ¡°Our chief, Lord H¨¡les, has mediated with the other tribes, and has informed all of them that this move from the ''mountains'' isn''t going to harm the plains,¡± he explained to Kuon.

    Chief H¨¡les had also added that: ¡°I owe a great debt to Master Kuon and Lady Sarah,¡± and, as such, he had sent them reinforcements: ¡°By Faihan, the fang of the Wolf God, Roh Gas, which continued to fight even after it had been broken off, I pray that Master Kuon will make free use of the thirty that I send him.¡±

    Naturally, Kuon was surprised.

    ¡°Hang on. You don''t need to go that far. Bah¨¡t was... er, no, I mean, when I did that, it was for my own sake, not yours.¡±

    ¡°Don''t worry,¡± the young man''s dark, suntanned face broke out into a smile. ¡°The Halia tribe isn''t afraid, first, to fight, and second, to die in combat. By Faihan, the fang of Roh Gas which came to life, I hope that you won''t hold back when using us.¡±

    That really wasn''t what Kuon had meant, but since they couldn''t afford to waste any time, he decided to swallow his surprise and add these new companions to the group.

    ¡°I''m called Zan Chiredeau,¡± the young man introduced himself.

    And so, Kuon continued his way across the plain, while gaining some unplanned allies. Their trip was uneventful... Or would have been, if not for the fact that they were attacked by wolves one night.

    It was often said that: ¡°the wolves of the Kesmai Plains know the taste of human flesh.¡± There were stories about how, when they attacked the camps set up by merchant caravans from the north, they would leap to attack humans, even though these held flame torches in their hands, rather than the horses who were tied to one place.

    The mountain people were all thrown into a frenzy, but Zan and the other nomads knew what to do: ¡°There aren''t many of them, so we can drive them away with j¨±ma smoke,¡± they said and, from their saddlebags, they produced bundles of dried grass that they then set alight. The smoke had a unique smell that wolves hated.

    The young nomads, Zan included, brandished the lit bundles of grass while chanting prayers to the wolf god. The beasts growled and snuffled almost sadly, but before long, they hung their heads and turned tail one after another.

    After which, the group was fortunately able to leave the Kesmai Plains without meeting any more packs of wolves or swarms of ashinaga.

    Taking the same route as when heading towards the mountain, Kuon led the way across the Pass of the Wailing Tresses and then to the highway. There, he chose about ten riders, and hurried ahead with them to Guinbar.

    He was fretting that Darren''s forces might start marching at any moment but, at the time, the situation was still perfectly peaceful. It was so anticlimactic that Kuon felt let down. And on top of that, when he asked Savan, he learned that Leo was away from the castle.

    For a while, Kuon hesitated about what to do. He had the option of waiting at Guinbar, but this was his first time leading troops of several hundred men. He couldn''t just decide at his own discretion where they would be lodged, and where they would live. If he had discussed things with Savan, he would certainly have been able to sort that out, but Leo was Kuon''s direct superior, the equivalent of a unit leader in the mountains, and so it wasn''t to Savan that he was going to entrust his fate..

    ¡°In that case, I''ll head to Bernard''s territory too,¡± he decided, and immediately got back on his horse. It hadn''t even been an hour since he had first passed through the gates of Guinbar Castle.

    What a restless child, thought Savan, but turned his mind to practical things:

    ¡°If you go straight along the highway, you''ll arrive in Darren''s territory. I''ll send some soldiers to guide you.¡±

    Thus, after joining up with his main force of riders again, Kuon rode fast to the east of Guinbar and arrived at the start of the Old Highway before sunset. There, he made an encounter that was completely outside of his predictions; he met with the advance unit that Darren had sent out.

    Darren Actica had left Dharam with a force of two thousand, from which he had detached a unit of five hundred, and had them advance as the vanguard. Since three hundred of those were to attack the church, the remaining two hundred were moving forward along the Old Highway to attack the guard posts and take control of the relay stations. Among them, twenty riders were travelling ahead to the west, scouting out where to set up a blockade along the old road. These were the ones who ran into Kuon.

    Naturally, Darren''s men were startled by this group of riders that had suddenly appeared out of the blue. Judging from their appearances, they guessed that they were probably bandits who had established their base nearby.

    ¡°Who are you bastards?¡± they arrogantly called out to them. ¡°Get out of the way. We''ve got several hundred soldiers behind us, so don''t look down on our numbers,¡± they said. ¡°You trot along quietly. We don''t have time to deal with you lot,¡± they sneered from horseback and held up their weapons threateningly.

    Kuon scrunched his eyes into a squint. Among the mountain tribe, his eyesight was known to be especially good, and even in the dusky light of sunset, he spotted the crest on their armour. It was the emblem that had also been on the enemy banners back when he had fought at Olt Rose ¨C the crest of the Actica family. And in fact, the leader of the scouting party was a man with family ties to House Actica.

    Kuon threw out his chest with deliberate provocation.

    ¡°Who are these ''insolent curs''?¡± he shouted back an expression that he had picked up somewhere. ¡°I serve Lord Leo, and I''m on urgent business. You guys are the ones who need to give way.¡±

    ¡°What!¡±

    ¡°Did he say the prince?¡±

    Their opponents were visibly shaken. Which was perfectly understandable: they were supposed to be leading a surprise attack, so it was unthinkable that the prince was already moving into action.

    Just then, someone brought their horse up alongside Kuon''s. It was Aqua. ''She'' ¨C ''he'', I should say ¨C was wearing full armour, and tossed a glare at the opposing side before asking: ¡°Are they enemies?¡±

    Energy was almost radiating from that helmeted profile. The message was clear: either they had enemies to be defeated, or they were just wasting their time by stopping here like this. Kuon found it kind of amusing.

    At the same time, he also came to a decision: there was no point arguing back and forth here. No matter what their opponents said or did from now on, the response was already clear. Namely ¨C

    ¡°They''re enemies. Get ''em.¡±

    Kuon kicked his horse''s flanks. By the time he had pulled the sword from at his waist, Aqua''s bow was already taking aim.

    ¡°R-Retreat!¡±

    ¡°Head back to the station. Before we''re attacked by the prince''s troops!¡±

    Their opponents all simultaneously started turning their horses around. Kuon had already made his mind up about this, too. The man who was the slowest to turn back fell from his horse, his throat pierced by Aqua''s arrow. Kuon''s horse galloped past him in the next instant, and the rest of the group of riders also sped forward to the echo of their horses'' hooves.

    For a little while, it turned into a chase, but their numbers were fundamentally different. And the people of the Halia tribe could ride across the plains all day without problem. With that kind of rider, the horses were also well-trained: even though their opponents'' horses were panting wildly, the nomads'' steeds chased after them with complete unconcern.

    Kuon had half of the twenty men killed, and the remaining half tied up and interrogated. From what they said, there were less than two hundred soldiers occupying the relay station up ahead.

    So Darren Actica had already made his move, after all.

    The Halia tribesmen had some experience when it came to dealing and trading with urban settlements, including those in Atall, so Kuon entrusted them with a message from him, and sent them to Guinbar Castle. After sending them off, he took the lead of the group of riders, and they boldly rode along the Old Highway.

    They arrived at the relay station around midnight, where they saw torches had been lit. These were not nightlights for travellers, but fires allowing the occupying military unit to keep a watch on their surroundings. When they noticed Kuon''s group approaching, the soldiers on guard came racing over. They probably thought that the scouting party had returned, but Aqua, who was next to Kuon, already had a bow drawn tight and, using the torches as signpost, pierced a soldier''s windpipe with an arrow.

    A second went by. Kuon was reminded of the time he had pissed on an ants'' nest, back when he was very young. After a moment, countless numbers of them had come scurrying out of their den. The only difference was that this time, it was humans, not ants.

    Only about half of them were armed, and the rest of them looked like they had been roused from their beds. It would have been better for them if they had taken shields, but most of them had just grabbed a single weapon. The mountain people aimed their many arrows at the ''ants''. Almost all of them had better night-vision than those raised in cities, and the men of the tribe normally spent their days shooting down birds and beasts. Darren''s soldiers, who had not even been wearing armour, fell crashing to the ground.

    Seeing that the time was right, Kuon carved his way through the front. Here again, it was a one-sided fight. The soldiers on Darren''s side realised their complete disadvantage, and were going to double back along the Old Highway, but Kuon had sent men from the Halia tribe in that direction beforehand, and they were waiting there in ambush.

    Screams, shrieks, and cries of pain rose into the night along the road, but they didn''t last long. The entire fight didn''t even last half an hour.

    Despite achieving victory for now, Kuon and his group had no time to rest. They left only a few soldiers to guard the relay station, and immediately headed east along the Old Highway. Yet neither the mountain men nor the nomads showed any sign of fatigue. On the contrary; their eyes gleamed, hungering for blood. Aqua, who had killed humans for the first time, was in the same state.

    ¡°Is that it? Are these Atall''s soldiers? They''re way slower and more cowardly than the beasts in the mountains.¡± Kuon shook his head at those words.

    ¡°Things won''t go this easy forever.¡±

    The heads of unit among the soldiers who were following him backed him up.

    ¡°Stay focused! Heed the words of the warrior who even defeated Raga!¡± they shouted, and cries of agreement rose up from within the troops.

    It was late afternoon of the following day when Guinbar Church came into sight. The surprise attack from Darren''s soldiers had begun, and there were already many victims. Kuon realised that they were late, but not yet too late.

    ¡°Let''s go,¡± Kuon gave his order from horseback. ¡°Everyone, attack!¡±

    This was no place for detailed tactics. The mountain warriors were used to acting with their households ¨C in other words, with their units ¨C and the nomads also knew how to hunt and how to attack. Aqua''s first arrow, which pierced clean-shaven''s arm, signalled the start of their assault. And Darren''s side was about to be crushed for the third time in a very short span by the same group.

    Part 2

    Riding at the centre of his main force, Darren Actica doubted his ears when he heard the report from the unit sent to attack the church.

    ¡°That''s absurd! Impossible!¡±

    How many times had Darren used the words ''absurd'' and ''impossible'' since he and Leo had started opposing one another?

    It was obvious that both Savan Roux and Leo Attiel had grown careless after the sovereign-prince had dispatched envoys. Leo had left Guinbar, and Savan had opened a market near the church. It was the perfect opportunity; Darren''s troops were at the ready, and he made the most of the envoy who had been sent to him to fabricate an excuse, and to give them the signal to march on Guinbar.

    And now, his plan to first burn down the market place and destroy the church while simultaneously advancing on Guinbar had been foiled.

    They did suspect something? No, there aren''t enough of them for an ambush. Leo shouldn''t have any troops he can move, and even if Savan desperately scrapes up as many men as he can, we should have at least twice, or even three times their numbers. So what''s the scale of this force? And its line-up? Endless worries assailed him.

    The only thing that was certain, was that the unexpected had occurred. He no needed time to reorganise himself.

    ¡°It looks like when they attacked us on the day of the festival, they had also predicted how we would react. As expected of Leo and Savan, those cunning bastards.¡±

    He deliberately avoided showing how shaken he was, and retreated for the time being to a village on the very edge of his domains.

    The same report reached Leo a little bit later than it had Darren, at just about the time when Leo was thinking off going to the enemy''s camp to make them stop their attack.

    Since the information was based on what had leaked out from Darren''s camp and from the village where they had taken up position, the identity and exact scale of the friendly reinforcements which had suddenly appeared was unknown. It was clear from the report, however, that the forces which driven had Darren back were neither from Atall, nor from any of the surrounding countries, and Leo had an immediate intuition of who it might be.

    Is it Kuon?

    It was as though the clouds covering the sky had parted, and the sun was shining brightly through. At with it, Leo stood up and set to work with so much energy, it was hard to believe that up until then, he had been sitting hugging his knees. He had messengers come and go incessantly until he had gathered all possible information.

    It looked like it really was Kuon who had arrived with reinforcements. However, he was remaining by the church, without setting off to meet up with Leo. Darren''s sphere of influence extended to the east of him. Perfect, thought Leo. At the same time as he sent a direct messenger to Kuon, he also ordered Bernard to assemble his battle flags.

    ¡°What do you intend to do?¡±

    ¡°You just need to collect the flags together. You don''t need to do anything else afterwards, so don''t get in my way at least.¡±

    Bernard was half astonished, half exasperated by Leo''s attitude and manner of speaking. When Stark had been coercing him, Leo had looked sulky then, just as his emotions seemed about to erupt, he had sat hugging his knees, as depressed as thought the world were ending. And now, here he was, as cool and calm as a military commander.

    He''s just like a little child, he thought. At the same, he felt a certain admiration: But right now, there''s a sharpness to him that could cut anyone who touched him.

    Stark Barsley had already left the castle. However, even though he was preceded by a messenger on a swift horse, it would still take some time before the sovereign-prince was informed of what was going on. Not so long ago, Leo had been impatient for that, but now, he thought the exact opposite: he needed to settle things before his father interceded.

    This time... Leo''s face still had lingering traces of childishness, but the expression he wore tightened.

    For the next few days, he went around the villages in the western part of Bernard''s territory ¨C which meant the ones which were nearest to Dharam ¨C gathering young men. In the past, people had said that he was ''headhunting'' in the outskirts of Guinbar, but this time, Leo had no intention of taking these men as soldiers.

    He travelled to the domain''s border, and there set up camp in the ruins of an old temple. The building had existed before Atall had even been a country, and only hermits or recluses went anywhere near it nowadays, but Leo had provisions and men transported there.

    The people he had gathered were set to work digging up the surroundings all day long. They piled up earth close to the temple, and managed to complete an improvised moat and defensive wall.

    Inside the camp, Leo flew the flags that Bernard had collected for him. He also chose several men from among the warrior monks, and sent them to villages in the Dharam area. Dressed in their priestly robes, they went around all over, spreading rumours while pretending to zealously be preaching their faith.

    ¡°Bernard seems to have joined forces with Lord Leo.¡±

    ¡°If Lord Actica invades Guinbar, the prince will certainly attack from the rear with the forces that Bernard has lent him.¡±

    ¡°When that happens, the villages will definitely suffer. You need to keep a close watch on that camp, so that when the prince sets out, you can evacuate as quickly as possible.¡±

    Those rumours spread through the villages like wildfire. Naturally, Darren, who was waiting for a chance to lead a new invasion, could not afford to ignore them.

    Right after his first attempt had been blocked, he had ordered the marauders, who were lying in wait throughout Guinbar''s territory, to start increasing their activities. As a result, Savan had suddenly found his hands were tied. He had sent five hundred soldiers to the Old Highway, where the fake bandits had taken up position, but it looked like that was the limit in terms of troops that he could afford to move around, and since then, there had been no obvious movement from Guinbar.

    Good. With this, I still have a chance at victory. Darren licked his lips with satisfaction, but still, the information that Bernard might attack from behind was extremely problematic.

    Having said that, Darren could not afford to waste too much time. Just like Leo, he felt that he needed to finish things before the sovereign-prince could intervene. Events were currently uncertain and unsettled, which was exactly why he had to force them into moving towards his goal. Because once his movements were brought to a halt, it would take a lot of time and effort to get the situation to change again.

    I may have said this before but Leo and Darren were surprisingly alike in that shared belief.

    ¡°Summon Lance Mazpotter,¡± Darren ordered.

    He had never personally met him. And as for the messenger that Lance had once sent him, the man''s attitude had been so overbearingly arrogant that Darren hadn''t been able to stomach him.

    It''s easy to tell what kind of person his leader Lance is, he had thought at the time. Darren was proud of being the most influential of all Atall''s vassal-lords, and Lance was definitely not someone he wanted to meet firsthand.

    Still ¨C He''s a man I can use. There was no denying that. In all honesty, with his skill, it wouldn''t have been in the least bit surprising if he had been in command of a thousand, or even ten thousand, soldiers for some country somewhere. But perhaps the man called Lance found pleasure in leading a band of marauders, and when, after the battle at Olt Rose, Darren had hinted that he wouldn''t mind officially hiring him, Lance had sent someone to decline the offer.

    What a fool. The day I defeat Leo and take Guinbar, I''ll just appoint him to something in my new territory.

    Lance didn''t have any aspirations. He wasn''t capable of having them; at the end of the day, he was a man well-suited to living like a stray dog. Darren found him hard to understand, but at least he served his purpose.

    Anyway, having heard that Lance had arrived, Darren had him allowed into his pavilion. And was instantly left feeling bewildered. The one who appeared was a tall man with an eye patch over his left eye; it was that self-same insolent messenger.

    No matter how much he might dislike the other party, Darren had intended to welcome him warmly ¨C feeding the dog a bone, so to speak ¨C but now...

    ¡°Where''s Lance?¡± his voice was unintentionally laced with fury. ¡°I''m not talking to the likes of you. Go get your leader.¡±

    ¡°What funny things you say,¡± said the man with the eye patch. But he was not smiling. ¡°By the way, I don''t think I ever introduced myself, Lord Actica. I''m Lance Mazpotter. I''ve lived for nearly forty years, but I''ve never been called by any other name, and in my unit, there''s no one else by the name of Lance, either.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Darren''s mouth dropped open.

    The one in front of him did not seem to be either lying or joking. Then it must be the truth. This man, in light armour and with his long hair bunched up behind his head, really was Lance. Which meant that previously, when Leo''s army had been in position right in front of Olt Rose Castle, the leader of the unit had snuck in alone to meet with Darren.

    Lord Actica wiped the sweat that was oozing from his brow.

    ¡°I see... in that case, I apologise. I would never have imagined that you were Sir Lance in person, and...¡±

    ¡°Drop it,¡± Lance was as haughty as ever. ¡°And? What do you want?¡±

    Darren felt fury well up within him, but he somehow managed to swallow it back down, and talked about the encampment within the ruined temple in Bernard''s territory.

    ¡°I''m not saying that it needs to fall right this second. I just want you to cause enough trouble at the camp that they won''t be able to interfere when we take Guinbar.¡±

    ¡°I see. It''s certainly the perfect mission for us,¡± Lance nodded, looking completely unruffled.

    His forte lay in making use of horses, and he had once played Leo''s forces for fools by repeatedly charging at them then withdrawing. It would be child''s play to confine the enemy within a small area.

    Darren didn''t like the man, but he appreciated that he caught on fast. Feeling generous, he saw him off at the end with a gracious smile and a few parting words:

    ¡°They say that Leo is there. That damned whelp fancies himself a hero, so he probably resents you for having defeated him, Sir Lance. If he heads out, I won''t mind even if you kill him.¡±

    Lance nodded for appearances'' sake, but, in a low voice, he murmured: ¡®¡¯I wonder.¡¯¡¯

    Lance Mazpotter.

    He was said to hail from Atall, but no details were known about where his birthplace was specifically, what his father''s occupation had been, or when it was that he had left the principality.

    When he was in his twenties, his fame had started to grow in the northern coastal countries as a bandit and pirate captain. After a number of feats impressive enough to be widely retold, he had suddenly started commanding a navy ship for Tallnia, one of said coastal countries. He spent about two years in the very navy which had been his natural enemy during his pirate days. His life was relatively well-established: adored by the sailors of Tallnia and with countless rumours floating around about his affairs with court ladies, Lance had achieved a certain pinnacle of success. Yet, and again very abruptly, he then fled Tallnia, leaving behind words to the effect that "I got tired of the sea".

    According to one opinion, he had escaped because his life was being targeted due women-related problems.

    He returned to Atall as he was nearing the end of his twenties, and became a mercenary along with several companions who had followed him since his days as a pirate. As there was, however, practically no work to be found in Atall, he got tired of touring around it as a hired soldier, and immediately started in the marauding trade.

    These marauders were, so to speak, employed by rural domain lords ¨C or, better said, they received their tacit consent to actions such as forcing merchants and travellers at the borders of the domain to employ them as escorts, or arbitrarily setting up barriers and collecting high tolls from them, since they also acted as domain guards. Their functions also included occasionally heading off to another territory or country at the request of the local ruler, and there attacking villages ad ports, snatching cattle and crops, or setting fire to houses and ships. Since nothing they did could be ascribed to any country or military, and as they could be thrown away whenever one wanted, they were very convenient for Atall and its surrounding countries.

    The marauder business seemed to strangely suit Lance''s nature. He who had quickly tired of both piracy and being in the navy moved all over Atall plying this trade. He would be hired one day by a domain lord to set fire to another fief''s fields, then the very next day, having been employed by the farming families in that land, he would crush the domain lord''s troops while the latter was still planning his next and final move. Right after being rewarded by merchants whom he had escorted to a safe destination, he would receive a request from poverty-stricken nearby villages and would then plunder the merchants'' goods, and split them equally with the villagers.

    It had nothing to do with beliefs. He accepted whichever requests he pleased. Nor was he particularly interested in money. Nonetheless, once Lance Mazpotter accepted a request, he would never abandon it halfway. And he always carried it through successfully. It was only ever the day after he had completed a request that he would switch over to the other side. Those were, so to speak, his ''aesthetics''.

    For the past ten years or so, Lance had been fond of horses, had loved war, and had shared his bed with women and drink. However ¨C

    ¡®¡¯I just kinda..¡¯¡¯

    ¨C He had reached the point of wondering if he was tiring of this, too. Of late, he had not come across either a battle or a woman that set his blood aflame.

    Having said that, he was not thinking of officially entering any country''s employ at this late hour. When Darren had made his offer, Lance had likewise turned it down. It would be wrong to say that he was now feeling pessimistic enough to be ''looking for a place to die''.

    Since it was only on the level of "not all that fun," Lance accepted that there was no other choice but to put up with it.

    ¡®¡¯Ride, plunder, kill and set fire until the day you can no longer move and are abandoned where you fall by your companions and your horses? Well, wouldn''t that be a fitting death for Lance Mazpotter?¡¯¡¯ half in self-derision, he had recently been contemplating that thought.

    After Lance left Darren''s pavilion, and without having spoken a word of those thoughts of his, he started that very day to gather up his companions, who were usually scattered all over the place, in order to faithfully carry out the request he had received.

    Three days later, he had collected seven hundred men and had arrived at his destination.

    Leo, on the opposing side from him, had brought all three hundred of his warrior monks to the temple ruins where, in the dead of night, they were attacked by Lance''s troops. Speaking purely about the outcome, it was a perfectly obvious one: Leo suffered a crushing defeat.

    Their guns fired through holes in the fences and walls, but, in the darkness, they hit nothing. The enemy, on the other hand, seemed to be laughing at their defencelessness, and easily broke through each important position, until they had even crossed over the dry moat which had been dug out with so much effort.

    Just when it looked like they were converging to attack in one direction, they suddenly appeared from the side as well. There were several different moments when soldiers carrying ladders managed to scramble up and breach the walls, but Camus and the warrior monks were all battle-hardened, and they beat them back energetically. Perhaps Lance suspected that they would follow up by attacking his unit, since he quickly pulled back, waiting for the exact moment when Leo''s side would be catching its breath to attack again.

    They did not have enough soldiers to launch a counter-attack from their camp. Once their walls were breached, Leo and his men had no choice but to immediately pull back. They set the temple ruins on fire, and escaped to the east.

    At around about the same time ¨C

    ¡°Push forward without looking back.¡± ¨C Darren and his force of two thousand once again started marching on Guinbar. It looked as though the few measures that Leo had taken were completely in vain, yet he set up camp a few kilometres east of the temple ruins, and once more raised his flag. Lance started to chase after them, but this was, after all, Bernard''s territory, and Lance would not unconcernedly penetrate further into it. He sent out scouts in various directions, and took the time to check whether there weren''t any soldiers poised to strike at his riders.

    Leo, for his part, did not remain idle during that time. In this second camp, he handed out spears to the young men he had recruited from the villages, and had them line up in formation. From atop his horse, he once more took up position at the centre of the encampment. Then, as a provocation to Lance''s side, he rode down the hill by himself, and deliberately let them catch sight of him.

    A part of Lance''s unit was lured out, but Camus and other warrior monks, who were concealed in the forest by the side of the hill, were waiting for them with guns in hand.

    There was a volley of gunfire and men and horses fell to their side, struck down by lead bullets.

    ¡°Bastards!¡± the cavalry unit was about to charge into the forest, but Camus and his group swiftly retreated. Following an escape route which had been prepared beforehand, the monks released a second, then a third salvo of shots even as they increased the distance between them and the cavalry unit, which was held back by having to make its way through the trees.

    ¡°Don''t chase them too far!¡± Lance''s orders were as quick as ever.

    Darren looked down on Leo as a ¡°brat who thinks he''s a hero,¡± but Lance did not underestimate the opponent whose soldiers he had clashed against. Quite the opposite: ¡®¡¯There aren''t many in Atall who can wage war like him¡¯¡¯, was how he saw it.

    While still on horseback, he wet his finger.

    ¡°The wind''s in the right direction. Set fire to the forest.¡±

    His order was meant to deprive Camus'' ambushing troops of anywhere to hide. But by that time, Camus and his men had already crossed the forest and left by the north, where they met up with Leo and the others.

    To prevent horses from breaking through, a ring of abattis had been set up at the foot of the hill where Leo had established his camp, but a number of men from Lance''s unit dismounted and went running to uproot the wooden spikes. While half of the unit was occupied at that, the other half provided covering fire with bows and guns.

    Of course, Leo''s side aimed similar weapons back at them, but when about a third of the fence and already been pulled up, Leo came a decision:

    ¡°We''re retreating.¡±

    They fled further east at a speed which left Lance''s unit dumbfounded. Here too, the conclusion was obvious ¨C

    Right from the start, Leo had never intended to face Lance Mazpotter directly.

    Part 3

    ¡®¡¯I won''t lose this time!¡¯¡¯ ¨C facing an opponent who had once defeated him, it was only natural for a young man''s feelings to flare up. Unfortunately, however, that was not Leo''s case. Or rather, no, he did have those feelings, it was just that...

    ¡®¡¯At best, I only have three hundred soldiers that I can freely command¡¯¡¯ ¨C he also had that other ''viewpoint''.

    Even though he had gone to pieces when he had heard that Darren''s forces were advancing on Guinbar, he could also observe himself with surprising detachment. And when he received the information that Lance Mazpotter was moving to attack the temple ruins, his first thought was: ¡®¡¯Good.¡¯¡¯

    They would run.

    Leo easily abandoned both the first, then the second of his encampments. Still, he used various tricks so that his intentions wouldn''t be seen through too quickly; one such was when he had shown himself to lure the enemy.

    Setting up camp to draw out the enemy, then escaping as soon as he saw a chance to do so... It''s easy enough to talk about, but a war of retreat was, of course, always accompanied by considerable danger. At the first glimpse of an opportunity, the horse-riding unit would effortlessly crush Leo''s troops, which were so few in number. Yet Leo repeated the manoeuvre.

    In a situation in which bullets would fly at him as soon as he stopped, or where his head might be smashed open at any moment, he kept his gaze on what was happening in all directions and gathered detailed information from the messengers sent by each platoon, and with that, made his decisions.

    The airship that Camus had brought from Mount Conscon was invaluable in this. Leo did not send this precious weapon directly out to fight, but only occasionally despatched it into the sky to have an idea of how the battle was progressing. On one occasion, Leo himself had gone up, clinging to the pilot''s back and with his face hidden under a helmet. From high above them, he could see the full picture of how his allies and enemies were moving.

    After they had been chased from their second camp, Leo set up yet another one.

    ¡°We''re just being lured away, huh,¡± Lance Mazpotter said in disgust after stopping his horse.

    When he had first received Darren''s order to ''cause chaos in the camp in Bernard''s territory,'' Lance''s honest opinion was that: ¡®¡¯This man is a fool¡¯¡¯. Although it was certainly a tactic that Lance excelled at, if they were going to use the same method anyway, then they should been the ones spurring their horses towards Guinbar Castle.

    ¡°Darren should have assembled his men and horses at Olt Rose, and continued threatening the prince from there. If he had, the prince wouldn''t have been able to move, and Darren wouldn''t have ended up on the battlefield for no reason. And as for us, we wouldn''t have had to waste our time like this, and we could have struck a blow that would have been enough of a threat against Savan.¡±

    Darren was not used to war after all. He loathed Savan, and what he wanted above all else was to watch his enemy''s castle burn, and to take his head with his own sword, so he wasn''t interested in whether his method for doing so was inefficient.

    Lance marched forward, feeling nothing but exasperation towards Darren, but the situation had developed into one that made him exclaim: ¡°So there was actually someone who''s even more of a fool than Darren!¡±

    His lieutenant, who had halted his own horse beside Lance''s, looked at him.

    ¡°You don''t mean me, do you?¡± he asked. ¡°You can''t mean me. I was just following orders. Who knew that the wind would change direction as we were halfway through setting fire to the forest? And to make things worse, my beautiful beard even got singed...¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you''re a fool too, but in a different sense. The man I was talking about was Leo Attiel!¡±

    He had seen through the prince''s intentions: all he was doing was luring them away. That was it. Judging from Leo''s battle formation, he didn''t have the military strength to withstand a siege after inviting it on himself. Which meant that the prince wouldn''t be getting help from Bernard either.

    Yet despite that, Leo publicised the idea that Bernard had allied with him, and he deliberately set up camp in a conspicuous location. Because Lance had been wary of Bernard ¨C who had never had the slightest intention of making a move ¨C he had taken far too long to attack Leo''s base. It really had been a complete waste of time. And on top of that, he had lost a portion of his men. Thinking about it infuriated him.

    Up until then, he had thought of Leo as: ¡¯¡¯an opponent who is capable in warfare¡¯¡¯. But now, that hasty evaluation seemed absurd. Rather than being capable, Lord Leo''s way of waging war was unconventional. Even now, when he had already seen through him, Lance found it hard to believe that Leo had used himself as bait to lure him in.

    ¡®¡¯In battle, it''s checkmate once the ''king'' is taken. Even if you have the upper hand, even if your formation is bound to win, it''s all over once the ''leader'' is taken. Having the ''leader'' become a decoy is such a foolish idea.¡¯¡¯

    Darren didn''t know much about war, but the prince''s behaviour was like that of a child. And Lance could feel his blood boil with anger from having been tricked by that childishness. He turned his horse around. His men hurriedly imitated him, but he drove his horse on alone, without waiting for them.

    ¡°Ha,¡± a feeling separate from his fury welled up inside him. ¡°I''ve lost this fight, huh?¡±

    Just like the prince, he was a man who could always see what lay ahead with calm detachment.

    Another reason why Leo had set up camp in such a conspicuous location was to forcefully grab the attention of Darren''s army, and so make it easier to send messengers to where Kuon had taken up position, west of the Dharam region. Since Darren was marching hurriedly, he had neither the time nor the number of soldiers to widen his surveillance net.

    At first, Kuon had established his camp near the church, but following Leo''s instructions, which had been brought to him by messenger, he had travelled north along the Old Highway, and had taken up position at a point where it intersected with the current highway.

    By that time, they had been joined by the troop composed of the rest of the tribesmen, who had all of them ¨C except for Sarah, their guide ¨C travelled on foot. Adding them all together, however, they were only a little over a thousand; no more than half of Darren''s forces.

    When he received the report from his scouts, Darren believed that this must be the total number of troops that Savan could dispatch. Although there was the possibility that more soldiers might come to support them from behind, these would have to be taken from the castle''s defence.

    ¡°What a brave bunch, to come and face us out on these plains. It looks like they''ve become overconfident after pushing back our advance unit,¡± he said to raise the morale of his troops.

    For all that Lance considered him to be someone who did not understand war, Darren was still vigilant. He frequently sent out scouts while his troops advanced. Thanks to this, it was clear that no matter how you looked at it, there was nowhere where the enemy could conceal troops in ambush close to Darren¡¯s battle formation, and there was no sign that further troops would join Savan''s side.

    I''m repeating myself, but time was precious for Darren; he needed to have things settled before the sovereign-prince interfered. So he increased the speed of their march.

    A platoon from Savan''s side came out to meet them to fight a defensive battle, but when they saw the enemy in the distance, they were forced to retreat. Darren''s army advanced ever more arrogantly.

    An unexpected attack was staged by night, but Darren had not been negligent. The would arrive at the enemy camp on the next day, so there was sure to be a large-scale battle, and they were increasingly at the ready.

    The camp that Darren was fast approaching was, of course, Kuon''s headquarters. Tactically speaking, the position there was completely useless, yet Darren was marching towards it. Which meant, of course, that he had been lured there.

    On Leo''s instructions, Kuon had gathered locals who were familiar with the area, and listened to their advice. He was able to infer which route the enemy would follow, and had its surroundings investigated in depth. And although Darren was not negligent, he did not notice: as he and his men steadily advanced, the enemy soldiers that they were supposed to have left behind them as they passed, or that they had driven away from their flanks, had circled around them and were now lurking in hiding.

    The mountain tribe had always been good at battles that involved drawing the enemy to them. They knew how to retreat in unison, and how to kill in unison.

    That night, the forest which should have been sleeping quietly was alive; villagers rushed out in a frenzy and saw clouds of dust billowing upwards from beyond the hills which should have been echoing with nothing but the cries of beasts.

    Darren''s various units were attacked from all sides. Seizing the opportunity, the five hundred soldiers that Savan had sent in reinforcement also made their move, lead by Kuon. It was exactly as though a pack of beasts which had been hiding in the night''s shadows had opened their maws wide, and leaped out from all directions.

    Leo had been the one to suggest this multi-directional attack, but he had gotten the idea from Lance Mazpotter''s tactics, which made skilful use of the terrain. In fact, it was fortunate for Kuon and his group that Lance''s unit was not present.

    Communication between Darren''s various platoons was cut off, and they were routed and forced to flee while barely understanding what had happened. The only ones that Kuon''s group did not allow to escape was the central command ¨C in other words, Darren''s own unit ¨C whose position they had inferred beforehand.

    Kuon smashed into the headquarters with enough force to carve out an escape route all by himself, cutting down the spear-wielding defenders to make his way to Darren Actica. Even the commanding officers with strong ties to House Actica had already fled, and, rather than throw away their own lives, the hired mercenaries surrendered one after another.

    Around the time the world was dyed in the colours of dawn, Darren had finally been chassed down to a deserted house in a village that showed no other sign of human life. He flicked the sleeves of the filthy clothes which had been abandoned in the building.

    ¡°You''ve got it wrong: I''m a villager from here. I don''t know Darren. Go away, go somewhere else,¡± he screamed, but Kuon''s men dragged him out.

    When Kuon himself dismounted and walked towards him, Darren changed his attitude and snorted.

    ¡°I am Darren Actica. You foul messengers from hell! Tie me up with ropes, bind me with chains, do whatever you like. But don''t think that you''ve won because of this. The gods ¨C not that evil deity that Leo believes in, but the gods who watch from above all that humans do ¨C see everything. Justice is on one side. And which side that is will soon be made clear in Tiwana Palace,¡± Darren shouted, his face covered in mud and hay.

    He still had Oswell Taholin to back him, and he was sure that most of the vassal-lords would stand by him.

    ¡°When that time comes, you lowlifes will regret it. Leo is destined to end on the gallows sooner or later. And every last one of you, his followers, will burn at the stake! But it''s alright, it''s not too late yet. Join my side and...¡±

    Darren continued to cry out, but Kuon drew the sword at his waist without saying a word, cut down the distance between them in an instant, and pierced Darren through the heart.

    In that too, he was carrying out Lord Leo''s instructions.

    Darren Actica was dead.

 Volume 4, 4: Endings and Beginnings

    Volume 4, Chapter 4: Endings and Beginnings

    Part 1

    Most of Darren''s army was made up of hired mercenaries. Although that single word, ''mercenaries'', actually covered a wide range of situations and realities, in this particular case, there was a very simple connection: when the money ended, so did the relationship. They had lost the guarantee of being paid when their employer, Darren Actica, had fallen, and now all that remained was to save their own life by escaping.

    Olt Rose, Darren''s castle, was emptied in the blink of an eye. Savan sent out more soldiers who met up with Kuon''s unit, and together, they occupied the castle while clearing up any groups of enemy soldiers who showed any signs of still wanting to resist. Soon after, and once he had paid and dismissed the youths hired from the villages, Leo Attiel entered Olt Rose with Camus and the other warrior monks.

    ¡®¡¯Is that Lord Leo?¡¯¡¯

    The people of the castle town peered up at him with fear or curiosity as he rode by.

    ¡®¡¯What the... he still looks like a child.¡¯¡¯

    ¡®¡¯So he''s the one who defeated Lord Darren?¡¯¡¯

    There were, of course, no cheers or acclamations, but since the town around the castle had fortunately suffered no damage, it didn''t look like its populace felt any deep-seated hatred for Leo. This was due to another of Leo''s instructions to Kuon and Savan: he had strictly forbidden the victorious troops from breaking into town houses after the castle had fallen and seizing women and goods, or from randomly capturing and imprisoning anyone they didn''t like the look of in the name of ''hunting for survivors''.

    Having said that, Darren Actica had not been particularly cruel towards his people ¨C the story behind the massacre on the day of the festival was not yet known ¨C and so, naturally, there were many who lamented and grieved over his death. It was obvious, however, that they would prioritise their own safety and that of their family, so there was practically no one who openly displayed hostility towards the prince''s soldiers.

    Riding alongside Leo as they paraded down the streets, Camus felt shivers across the back of his neck for some reason. He had experienced victory before. When he was in Conscon, there had been more times than he could count when he had used the spearmanship of which he was so proud to send bands of ruffians packing. There had also been a number of victories since he started following Leo, including the one against Hayden. But the ''taste'' of this victory felt different from the others. Or perhaps the fights that he had experienced up until then had finally allowed him to distinguish the ''taste'' of battles?

    Camus could not conceal his excitement.

    ¡®¡¯At one point, I really thought it might be impossible. We were forced to withdraw from Olt Rose, this very same castle, and seemed about to be invaded by Darren in return. The prince was in despair as well. I thought the fires of war were going to snatch away things I care for again.¡¯¡¯

    ¡®¡¯But so what? We won. We drove back that pack of fiends, and the prince can stride into this city that was once a den of evil with a crucifix hanging across his chest.¡¯¡¯

    Thinking about it, Leo''s actions had set everything in motion. For better or for worse, there was nothing half-hearted about how he carried out what he did ¨C nor did he simply think about taking action, like others would ¨C and he forced the situation to move even if it meant kicking through it and crushing it.

    This was the decisive difference between Leo and Bishop Rogress, or Abbott Tom who had taken care of Camus in the past. Although he loved and revered both of them even now, there was no denying that they fell short of his idea of what holy men should be. In that sense, Lord Leo could be seen as a certain embodiment of Camus'' ideals. There was no end to his exaltation.

    ¡®¡¯Even now, His Highness isn''t particularly ardent about the faith, but if I stay by his side and take the time to reach his mind and instil the teachings in him, then, one day, His Highness Lord Leo will certainly become an envoy in God''s employ in this world.¡¯¡¯

    ¡®¡¯Oh,¡¯¡¯ that''s ¡®¡¯it.¡¯¡¯

    That ¡®¡¯was God''s plan in bringing the prince and me together. Both Abbot Tom and Bishop Rogress disappeared as I travelled along my path. But it''s different this time. This time, it''s the other way around, and I''m part of the path that Lord Leo is travelling. If an arrow comes flying from his destination, I will serve as his shield; if the road becomes impassable, my body will serve as a bridge; if there is no more light along the way, I will take the lead and venture into the darkness... that is the mission that I''ve received from God.¡¯¡¯

    Camus was so delighted with the idea that he rode along in ecstasy. This must be what it meant to feel as if his body and mind were dissolving. This was what laymen experienced when they slept with a fine woman or drank good wine. Those were states that had little connection to Camus but, for the first time, he felt like he could understand them. The pleasure was causing him to lose his balance, and, at one point, he was in danger of falling off his horse.

    While the young warrior monk''s heart was writhing with new sensations, Leo Attiel''s expression never brightened. When he had been travelling along the way to Olt Rose, he had met with a messenger sent by Savan. According to his report, there had been a little under three hundred casualties at the marketplace. Fortunately, the church was unharmed, and Savan''s messenger had also been carrying a letter from Bishop Bosc. It explained that most of those who had perished had ¨C except for those whose families had claimed their remains ¨C been buried in the churchyard. The messenger had also said that Savan was doing everything he could to compensate the merchants for their lost goods.

    Still, damage had been kept to a minimum thanks to Kuon having rushed over. That was a profound relief for Leo, and he felt like he wanted to hug Kuon the moment he met him again. His feeling of happiness that there had not been more lives lost in vain was even greater than his sense of accomplishment at having won.

    However... taken another way, it meant that if Kuon had arrived late, or if he had been unable to bring back reinforcements in the first place, then the marketplace would have fallen, and there would now be far more than three hundred corpses, none of them with graves.

    Kuon had not brought reinforcements on Leo''s orders. Which was why Leo, seeing no hope for victory, had for a time been ready to accept defeat. It was that realisation that clouded the prince''s expression. The drawbridge at Olt Rose had just been lowered, and Leo raised his downcast eyes, gazing up at the castle as though he was glaring at it.

    Leo''s actions after entering Olt Rose Castle would be known for generations to come.

    First, as soon as he got in and saw Kuon again, his expression brightened all at once, he rushed over to him and, just as he pictured earlier, hugged him with all his strength.

    Kuon was utterly at a loss and Camus, who was watching from nearby, smiled at the sight. Still, his expression changed when he heard the story of how Kuon had brought his reinforcements. He had not previously known that Sarah had also gone along. Before he could berate his sister, however, Leo clasped her hand with words of gratitude.

    Leo also gave endless thanks and compliments to the warriors from the mountain tribe when Kuon introduced him to them.

    ¡°He''s completely different from what I''d imagined,¡± the mountain warrior Aqua whispered to Kuon, looking as confused as he did, after receiving the prince''s effusive greetings and thanks.

    The mountain warriors were worried about leaving their home for too long, and Leo looked disappointed upon hearing that more than half of them had already left.

    ¡°I wanted to meet all of them. Those of you who are left, please do me the honour of staying in Atall for as long as you can. I will make sure that we can talk at length,¡± he said, and it was a long time before he let go of the warriors'' hands.

    Afterwards, when Leo caught a glimpse of what was at Kuon''s waist, he raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Oh my, that girl is quite a philanderer.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°It looks like you''re the hero now.¡±

    A small ragdoll was dangling from Kuon''s belt. Her craftsmanship must have improved in that short amount of time, as it seemed better made than the one Leo had received.

    In the end, Kuon remained bewildered from start to finish.

    The problem was what came afterwards.

    The actions Leo took next seemed like those of a different person from the one who was happily frisking about upon seeing his friends again.

    Most of Darren''s servants and retainers were confined within the castle. Among them was Darren''s second son, Dingo Actica, who had been given a private room on the instructions of the castle doctor, on the grounds that he was seriously wounded. Yet Leo had Dingo dragged from that room.

    This was a person whose bones were broken in more than ten different places, who had fragments of cannon shell embedded in his flesh, and whose skin was covered in burns.

    ¡°This is outrageously cruel!¡± cried the doctor and those who served the House of Actica as they tried to stop what was happening, but Leo had his soldiers mercilessly push them back. Those who still tried to resist found themselves threatened by gleaming swords.

    Leo used Dingo Actica as a hostage.

    If Dingo lived long enough, he could ensure the direct continuation of the Actica House. The long-serving steward of the Actica family, as well as a village head with a family connection to Darren and the younger brother of Darren''s father ¨C a man who lived in retirement in the castle town ¨C all begged Leo for mercy in tears. He took all three of them with him to Tiwana.

    By that time, the sovereign-prince had already heard Stark''s report. In the face of a direct appeal from Stark, even the sovereign-prince had roused himself, and was in the middle of assembling troops to block Darren''s invasion when a courier riding a swift horse arrived from Leo.

    ¡®¡¯What is it now?¡¯¡¯ The sovereign-prince looked sour. When it came to Leo, his second son, he felt as though he was caught in a whirlwind of bad premonitions whenever he simply heard his name.

    And sure enough, the information that had been brought to the court sent everyone simultaneously into an uproar. Not only had he prevented Darren''s invasion of Guinbar, but during the fight, Darren himself had been struck down by an ''unfortunate'' stray arrow and had passed away.

    ¡®¡¯That boy, he''s done it again...¡¯¡¯ thought Magrid, but since he had heard from Stark ¨C on whom Magrid''s own father had once relied ¨C about Darren''s deceit, he could not condemn Leo outright.

    Moreover, Leo brought the three men who were so deeply connected to the Actica family to explain the circumstances in the presence of their ruler. Since Dingo was being held hostage, they had no choice but to do what Leo wanted, and tell everything. They revealed the truth about the plot Darren had put in motion because he coveted Savan''s stone quarry, about the attempted assassination against Lord Leo when he visited the resort area, and also about how Darren had killed his own people to give himself justification to attack Savan''s territory.

    There was also the added support of Stark and Bernard''s testimonies, so neither the sovereign-prince nor those of the vassal-lords who disliked Leo''s way of doing things had any choice but to acknowledge both Darren''s villainy, and that Leo had acted with justice on his side to protect Guinbar.

    Actually, it would be more accurate to say that Stark strongly encouraged Magrid to publicly acknowledge Leo''s accomplishments.

    Back when Magrid had asked him to take Leo under his wing, Stark had taken the detached attitude of one who had all but retired from the world. Yet now, he threw himself into protecting and covering the prince: exhausting his words in persuading the sovereign-prince; and sending out letters to the vassal-lords and retainers who were still in shock over Darren''s defeat. Stark himself found it almost amusing: ¡®¡¯To think I still had this much energy and stamina left inside me...¡¯¡¯

    The sovereign-prince dispatched people to reorganise things in the Dharam region and, after investigation, he decided to entrust the territory to a long-serving family of retainers who were currently without lands of their own.

    Darren had planned to turn his blades against the princely house, and it was Leo who had successfully suppressed him, so that territory should have been given to him had he asked for it, but Leo himself had never had any intention of requesting that as a reward. After all, there was still something he needed to do before becoming the lord of his own castle.

    Part 2

    The large living room on the ground floor of Guinbar Castle was one that Leo and the others were very familiar with. They were in the middle of dinner. Leo and Florrie were arranged at the head of the table, while Camus, Sarah and Percy sat facing each other along it.

    It was over a month since the fall of Olt Rose.

    Sarah was the only one providing a topic at that dinner table, which came from the fact that Percy was curious about how they had brought the warriors from the mountains.

    Leo and Camus had both more or less heard about it from Kuon, but he since he was a poor speaker, about all they had gotten out of him was: ¡°I went back to my native village, and got help after beating the strongest guy there in a duel.¡±

    After the battle, Lord Leo had no time to rest. He had taken part in the induction ceremony for the new lord of Olt Rose, then he had gone to Tiwana for the triennial ceremony commemorating the founding of the country, after which, since Bernard had finally caved in to his wife and was going to build a church of the Cross Faith in his territory, he had sat in on the discussions for that with Bishop Bosc. When it looked like he could finally take it easy for a few days, he summoned his group of familiar faces to Guinbar.

    Incidentally, Kuon was running late, which was why Sarah was holding the floor unchallenged at the dinner party.

    Kuon''s way of telling it was far too simple, but Sarah tended to exaggerate too much so as to make the story more dramatic. As the light from the chandelier made the tableware and wine cups glow golden, she spun her tale to the accompaniment of sweeping gestures, sometimes leaning so far back that it looked like she was about to stand up on her chair. She told of how she had laid a trap for the savage nomads, using nothing but her own wits, or of how she had fought against the ferocious, man-eating armoured spider which had come scuttling out of a corner of the wilderness.

    In response, her older brother interposed comments each and every time along the lines of: ¡°How reckless,¡± or ¡°You could have died ten, no, a hundred times over while crossing the Kesmai Plains. I hope you haven''t neglected to offer prayers of thanks.¡±

    Percy could understand his feelings. ¡°Reckless¡± didn''t even begin to express how stupid it had been for two people alone ¨C and a boy and girl of marriageable age, at that ¨C to attempt to cross the Kesmai Plains. Even though his little sister was safe and right in front of him, hearing about the two''s adventure was probably enough to make Camus'' blood run cold.

    Finally, the story reached the point where Kuon was about to fight a duel with Raga, the strongest warrior of the tribe. At some point, Lord Leo, Florrie, Percy, and even Camus, who had been constantly grumbling complaints up until then, had all stopped eating, and the hands holding their cutlery had gone still.

    Naturally, Sarah noticed the change in her audience. To draw out the moment, she held out her empty drinking cup to the serving girl, and asked for water, which she then deliberately took her time sipping it.

    ¡°A-And then?¡± asked Florrie, unable to endure the ''pause'' that Sarah had set up. ¡°What happened then? Sir Kuon is surely very strong, but his opponent was the strongest in the entire tribe, wasn''t he?¡±

    ¡°Very much so,¡± Sarah drew her brows together as she nodded, ¡°he was a man as big as a bear, with biceps so huge that several men could swing from them and his arms wouldn''t even budge. They say that when he laughs, children are blown away from the wind pressure.¡±

    ¡°Oh my,¡± Florrie put a hand in front of her open mouth.

    ¡°And that''s not all, my lady. In that tribe, the custom is that those who fight Raga have to have their dominant hand immobilised. Just before the duel, an elderly priestess, whose back was so bent it looked like her chin might touch the ground, stepped forward. That old woman touched Kuon''s right arm with one bony finger, and chanted some strange spell then, from her fingertip, something like a black snake appeared, and coiled itself twice, then three times around his arm. Before I knew it, his right arm was fixed against his body without being able to move even the tiniest bit, and Kuon had to pick up his sword with his left hand, which he isn''t used to using.¡±

    ¡°Oh my,¡± Florrie exclaimed again. Her knife and fork were lying discarded on the dining table.

    The audience was starting to become restless. Sarah drained the rest of her water, then set the cup down upon the table with a firm clink. Just as she drawing her breath to begin describing the entire fight scene in single go...

    ¡°Sorry for being late, Prince.¡±

    Kuon turned up from the other side of the door.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Leo personally stood up in welcome. Kuon wasn''t alone, and had four other people following behind him.

    Kuon pointed them out to Leo.

    ¡°I''ve brought three representatives from the tribe, and one representative from those who serve H¨¡les Halia,¡± he introduced them.

    Leo shook hands with each of them in turn.

    ¡°Oh, so these are...¡± Camus and Percy also got up and stepped forward to meet them.

    What the... Sarah, meanwhile, was annoyed. She had taken great pains to ''prepare'' and then, just when that was about to show its effect, the person being talked about had come and thrown cold water all over it. Now she would have to set the mood all over again... while she was thinking that, her eyes came to rest on one of the people who had appeared from behind Kuon.

    Feeling like she recognised them, she peered hard at the person, and saw that it was one of the warriors from the mountain tribe: Aqua.

    The reason why Sarah had been slow to realise this was because Aqua''s appearance was completely different from what it had been in the mountains. Instead of a simple tunic that was no more than a piece of cloth with a hole for the head, ''she'' now wore a sleeveless leather vest and trousers fastened with a belt, and looked like an Atallese lady with a taste for riding horses in the park around her mansion. Aqua''s build had always been slim and, combined with ''her'' slender, dignified face, ''she'' projected an atmosphere like that of a ''cross-dressing beauty'' from a story. ''She'' looked unexpectedly sophisticated, and also unexpectedly seductive.

    Sarah had heard that the mountain tribesmen had already left, but it looked like Aqua had yet to return to the ''great mountains''. They had received a promise that ¡°If you help us, then we will send you whatever rewards your hearts desire.¡± Sarah had not had any authority to speak on Leo''s behalf, but he, of course, did not go back on that promise, and he had given them cartloads of gifts. Rather than jewellery made of gold and silver, the tribesmen had shown far more interest in Atallese-made weapons and horse-riding equipment. Sarah had also learned that on top of that, Leo had provided a horse to each and every one of them.

    Had they come to see the prince today to give him their farewells? Not that it mattered. Sarah was frantically trying to rebuild the story in her head. Where should she start from when she began telling it again? Since Kuon was actually here now, he might interrupt her and take the tale in weird directions, so...

    While puzzling over that conundrum, Sarah didn''t hear what Leo and the others were talking about, so she was startled when she realised that the conversation had taken an unexpected turn.

    First of all, it seemed that twenty of the reinforcements sent by the tribal leader H¨¡les Halia as a proof of his gratitude and friendship towards Kuon would not be returning to their nomadic life. Instead, they, Zan Chiredeau included, would be joining the Personal Guards. Naturally, this was H¨¡les'' wish, and not something they had just decided on their own. He probably judged that it would be no bad thing to establish a friendly relationship with Atall''s Lord Leo. It would make it easier to trade with the urban areas.

    Meanwhile, and although from Atall''s point of view they only did a negligible amount of trade with the nomads, there was nothing to lose in being able to pursue it without having to worry about the threat of mountain bandits or of other savage tribes. Moreover, it could be useful in a variety of situations to have an allied power beyond the national border.

    And then, there was Aqua. That tribal warrior would also be joining the Personal Guards instead of returning to the great mountains.

    ¡°I received some words from Mistress Mist, the head priestess ,when we sent a messenger to Chief Suo.¡±

    So the tribe had given its permission.

    ¡°Really, it''s reassuring to know that we''ll have another warrior from the same tribe as Kuon,¡± Leo said, accepting the news in a friendly, easygoing manner.

    The one who objected was Sarah. Without a second thought, she threw away the continuance of her tale which she had taken such pains to mentally construct.

    ¡°H-Hold on a second. No, I mean, please wait a moment, Your Highness.¡± She raced over to where everyone was, pulling up the hem of her novice robes to do so. ¡°Aqua is going to join the Personal Guards? Is that really alright, Prince?¡±

    ¡°Is there a problem?¡± Leo looked surprised. ¡°Aqua showed tremendous skill in archery during Darren''s invasion. Savan''s soldiers were all full of praise. There''s no better horseback archer in Guinbar, or even in the whole country.¡±

    ¡°But... but... Aqua is a ''woman''!¡± Sarah exclaimed loudly, facing someone who was slow to understand. ¡°She''s good with a bow? Then my marksmanship with a gun is just as good. And I fought on the battlefield just like Aqua.¡±

    ¡°What? I haven''t heard about that! Honestly, do you think that you can just do anything when your brother can''t see you? What is this? One who serves God should be ready to called to Him at any moment, but...¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Big Brother!¡±

    Camus unintentionally fell silent at Sarah''s sharp response. His little sister''s show of force was unusually impressive. Sarah turned to towards the prince, her eyes and voice still filled with that same forcefulness.

    ¡°Then please add me to the Personal Guards, Prince. Up until now, being a woman, I would have refused to join, but if Aqua is joining, then it''s a different story. I''m sure you know of my skill with a gun. I have full confidence that I can accomplish just as much in battle as Aqua can... no, that I can do better than any man!¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± this time, it was Aqua who had intervened in a calm voice. ''He'' drew the fire of Sarah''s anger in place of the prince, who had been recoiling from it.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°You''ve been repeating ''woman'', ''woman'' for a while now, but I''m not a woman. Certainly, I was one when I was born, but it''s different now. By Tei Tahra''s guidance, I''ve been reborn as a ''man''. But up until now, I didn''t have any opportunity to fight, so I didn''t know if my soul was worthy of being that of a warrior who will be called to Divine Tei Tahra''s side after death. But here, I can fight. That''s why I intend to polish my skill until I''ve become a fully-fledged warrior, before returning to the mountains where the spirits await. If the prince refuses on the grounds that he doesn''t need a man like me, then that''s one thing; but we don''t need a woman like you interfering.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about? It doesn''t matter what you think, or what kind of oath you''ve taken. What matters is how the people around you see you.¡±

    ¡°¡±The people around me are...¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes ¨C the men from the same tribe as you will accept the words of your god or of the priestesses, but we aren''t in the ''great mountains'' here. Tei Tahra''s voice has absolutely nothing to do with the men of Atall. They''ll just see you according to how you look.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean, ''see me according to how I look'',¡± Aqua started to look angry, and took a step in Sarah''s direction. ¡°Are you saying that I''m not worthy of being a ''man'' who serves Lord Leo? In that case, bring me a ''man'' who is. I''ll pierce every last inch of him with arrows and...¡±

    ¡°And what I''m saying is that proving your strength doesn''t mean a thing. It''s the same as for me. By ''see you accroding to how you look'', I mean that as far as men are concerned, neither you nor I are either comrades or soldiers. If you''re even a bit pretty and sexy, they get all confused and horny just from looking at you, they feel like they''re on to something really good if you just call out to them, and they think that they just need to give a little bit more of a push for you to fall into bed with them, because they''ll think that you''re ''just a woman''. That''s what I mean. And at that point, you''re skill won''t have anything to do with anything. Because simply because you''ve got breasts and no ''arrow'' between your legs, men will always look at you with ravenous eyes.¡±

    ¡°S-Sarah, that''s enough. Even if it''s still only probationary, you''re a servant of God and you can''t...¡± Camus, whose face had been getting redder and redder, finally cut in to stop her. However ¨C

    ¡°In that case, I''ll just cut off these breasts. I don''t need milk to give to a child, anyway. You should do the same.¡±

    Aqua was becoming overwrought and looked like ''he'' was about to take out the hatchet hanging at ''his'' waist.

    ¡°Right, I''ll do just that!¡± Sarah cried, and lunged at the sword that Kuon was wearing.

    Camus, Percy and Kuon hurriedly stopped them.

    ¡°Do not touch a nun''s body, you scoundrels!¡± Sarah could be heard shouting shrilly.

    ¡°You only act like a ''woman'' when it''s convenient!¡± Camus'' angry voice joined in.

    The men found themselves being hit and beaten back by the ''women'', and Florrie was too flustered to know what to do. What was supposed to be a peaceful evening meal had all of a sudden turned as noisy as a brawl.

    But, well, that kind of scene occurring was, in a way, proof that things had grown peaceful around Lord Leo.

    Although Sarah and Aqua were eventually pacified and soothed one way or another and taken out of the room, there was one person whose mood did not lift.

    Percy Leegan.

    He had listened to Sarah''s story with great interest, but no matter how much he looked like he was enjoying the dinner party, his heart had not been at ease.

    Percy had not been able to take any part in bringing an end to Darren. To be more accurate, he ''hadn''t been allowed to do anything''.

    Originally, it had been the same for Kuon, who had brought five hundred soldiers in reinforcements, and for Camus, who had taken the unit of warrior monks and gone rushing to Leo''s side. Neither had received those orders from the prince, and both had acted entirely on their own. Camus had even gone against Leo''s orders ¡°not to move the soldiers¡±. Although the pair''s actions had proven effective in the war against Darren, that was only something that was clear with hindsight. Leaving their actions unsanctioned would disrupt the chain of command, and there was a risk that in the future, Leo''s orders ¨C or even his very existence ¨C might be taken lightly.

    Therefore, Leo Attiel should have publicly reprimanded both of them and handed down suitable punishments. Yet neither of them had received the slightest criticism. On the contrary, the prince openly praised them. And so the one who had remained in sole charge of the Personal Guards at the temple ¨C in other words, Percy, the only one who had faithfully abided by Leo''s orders ¨C seemed to have drawn the short end of the stick.

    This trend can''t be allowed to continue. It will affect our movements in the future. Should I advise the prince of that? He wondered. However: No, if it comes from me, he might take it as me being jealous of Camus and Kuon. His face flushed red with shame.

    He felt he was being childish.

    Should he say something now?

    No, for the first time in a long time, Leo was enjoying a dinner with his fianc¨¦e and the friends he could open up to in a relaxed atmosphere.

    ¡°Things are going to get tough for Kuon from now on, aren''t they?¡±

    Leo was implying that Kuon would be bearing the brunt of any fighting between Sarah and Aqua, and turned to Percy with a smile, looking for his agreement.

    ¡°It''s just as you say,¡± Percy laughed without thinking, and, Kuon, who didn''t understand what they were hinting at, was left feeling bewildered.

    Maybe it''s fine for now. Later, after a bit more time has passed...

    In the end, he didn''t have the courage to say anything, and kept it to himself.

    There was one other reason for his despondency. And that was Lord Giml¨¦ Gloucester.

    When he had been at the temple, Percy had written a letter to Giml¨¦, the father of his fianc¨¦e, asking him to help the prince. And when his appeal had been ignored, Percy had been furious. It was probably because he himself was the only one who had been no use to Leo, but his anger was lasting for longer than even Percy had expected.

    After the events with Darren, Percy had dropped by his parents'' house in Tiwana on one occasion. At the time, Lord Giml¨¦ had also just arrived in the capital.

    ¡°I travelled with my daughter. It''s been such a long time, why not come and see us at our house?¡± Percy received a pointed invitation.

    Percy Leegan was the oldest within Leo''s group, so he often had to run around mediating between the other youngsters, but in actual fact, he too was also very young.

    He abandoned the prince and me, but the final outcome is that Darren was defeated and the prince survived, so now he feels the need to make it up to me ¨C Percy felt repulsed and ended up turning down the offer, claiming to be in poor health.

    Although it had felt good at the time to metaphorically flip Giml¨¦ the bird, Percy regretted it later. He should have swallowed back his anger and his repulsion, and met Giml¨¦ with a cool, calm expression.

    And then, there was also Liana.

    Perhaps Giml¨¦ had revised his opinion of Leo, and was hoping to draw closer to him with the help of his daughter''s fianc¨¦. Basically, that might have been a chance to win over a steadfast ally from among the vassal-lords.

    But Percy had shaken off Giml¨¦''s outstretched hand. If, from here on, Giml¨¦ took a harder stance against the Personal Guards, there wouldn''t just be he question of what would happen to Percy''s engagement with Liana, there was also the fact that the prince would have gained yet another difficult enemy.

    Even though I went and gave the prince advice about Miss Florrie, this is how I ended up handling things...

    In place of the somewhat bitter-tasting wine, Percy placed his forefinger in his mouth. He licked its the tip and traced his right, then his left eyebrow with it.

    ¡°Oh my, do you also know that charm, Sir Percy?¡±

    Percy nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice suddenly spoke to him. When he turned toward it, it belonged to none other than that very same Miss Florrie Anglatt. From over her shoulder, he could see Leo, Camus and Kuon grouped together, talking.

    Is it about that war that I don''t know about? he wondered with a trace of self-mockery.

    Florrie was probably bored of the talk about battles.

    ¡°You transfer the gloom in your heart from your mouth to the eyebrows, where the wind blows it dry... I learned that from my mother. Were you educated in the ways of Badyne, Sir Percy?¡±

    ¡°No, I...¡±

    Percy had learned the ''good-luck charms'' that he occasionally performed out of habit from a prostitute that he had once been intimate with, back when he was even younger than he was now. But obviously, that wasn''t something he could say.

    ¡°I was just imitating a good friend of mine who does those things a lot. But I hadn''t realised that you were a follower of Badyne, Miss Florrie. If I''ve offended you with my thoughtless imitation...¡±

    ¡°Oh no. My mother only taught me the good-luck charms for fun when I was a child. The Badyne faith has terribly strict teachings, doesn''t it? Someone as weak-hearted as me isn''t fit to be a believer,¡± she laughed bashfully.

    After which, she pointed to the space next to Percy. ¡°And over there, are things alright?¡± she asked. ¡°Leo... or no, that lord prince, is constantly talking about war with his friends. It''s a little tiring.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Florrie''s eyes widened with apparent surprise, then: ¡°Have you noticed?¡±

    ¡°N-Noticed what?¡±

    Florrie brought her face close to his as though they were really having a secret conversation, and Percy unconsciously sat up straight. The smile on her face was brimming with playfulness.

    ¡°The two serving maids who help with the meals here in Guinbar ¨C the girl with the braid is Lana, and the tall one is Anne, but anyway ¨C every time they look at you, they go red and look embarrassed, but they also seem quite happy. I''m sure they both like you, Sir Percy.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really?¡±

    ¡°How cold of you! But of course, I suppose that you''re used to it.¡±

    ¡°N-Not at all. It''s just that I find it hard to believe. Miss Florrie, are you sure you aren''t mistaken about those two?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not,¡± Florrie looked a little sulky. ¡°I''ve always been sharp when it comes to things like that. Even when I was a child, I could tell what the relationship was between people on the estate just from a single glance. Oh, for example, how my older brother Walter likes that woman he''s always taking flowers to, or how Brett, the gardener in charge of pruning, always looks sullen, but he seems to spend time with Cathy, the lady''s maid. When I told Leo about Brett and Cathy, he didn''t believe me. But later on, they got married,¡± Florrie looked proud of herself.

    As they continued to chat about nothing in particular, Percy noticed that the sharp pain in his heart had softened a little.

    Did she perhaps realize? The thought dawned on him.

    It was probably in Florrie Anglatt''s personality that if someone was feeling isolated, she could not leave them to themselves. Although neither Leo nor Camus had noticed that Percy was feeling gloomy, she had approached him.

    If it''s this young lady, then surely... She must have likewise drawn closer to Lord Leo, when he had been experiencing the loneliness and anxiety of being left all by himself in Allion. Percy could well-imagine what the two young children had been like back then , and he smiled faintly.

    Part 3

    Although Oswell Taholin was a vassal-lord with a castle and lands in Atall, he had often dreamed of receiving an appointment in Allion, yet he had failed every time.

    And this time as well.

    He had been going to use Darren, who held a personal desire for revenge against Leo and Savan, to carry out the wishes of one of Allion''s generals, Hawking, to both erase Leo and destroy the church that was being built in Savan¡¯s territory, but... there is no need at this point to go into details about how that ended.

    Darren was defeated. Oswell had sent Lance Mazpotter''s unit to him, but they had disappeared after the events. As far as Oswell knew, they hadn''t even sent a messenger. Perhaps Lance had been defeated in battle. They were, after all, a bunch of hardened thugs, so if that had happened, they would have scattered in all directions, forgetting any sense of duty towards their employer.

    Darren and Lance were both useless.

    He and Darren had both shared the same secret, but Oswell was far more cautious than Darren had been. Even though he sent secret letters to Darren, he always had them go with a messenger, who made sure that they were burned after Darren had finished reading them. There shouldn''t be a single scrap of evidence still remaining in Olt Rose Castle that could prove the relation between Darren and Oswell.

    Although that was something of a relief, it didn''t do anything to lighten the bitterness of having his plan thwarted. For a while, Oswell was as sulky as a child.

    Unlike Darren, he wasn''t in the habit of going hunting or horseback riding every day; unlike Leo, he didn''t read much; and nor was he a man who particularly treasured the time he spent with his family, like Bernard did. At court, he was, on the whole, an eloquent orator and a man who made his surroundings laugh with his ready wit, but he didn''t really like to be in the limelight.

    He didn''t particularly enjoy drinking, either. He had no particular feelings about food, and he wasn''t thinking of a taking a mistress this late in life. On a superficial level, he had plenty of friends, but no close companions that he could spend hours at a time with, so other than work, he didn''t really have anything that he could do with his time.

    He mostly stayed in his room, sitting in a chair with his own thoughts. He had no serious problems in his day-to-day life. His wife was a silent and submissive woman, and his two daughters had married into the houses of long-serving retainers. Oswell had also handed over the management of his lands to his adult son. Seen from the outside, Oswell''s life was as easy and as satisfying as could be.

    But he thought.

    Since he very few problems, his thoughts quickly flew beyond every day matters and scattered in various directions.

    Oswell Taholin was a man who had originally strengthened his ties with the princely house, yet he had suddenly started intriguing with Allion and, from then onwards, he had plotted several times to betray Atall''s ruling family. Perhaps the time simply spent thinking, alone in his own room, had influenced that.

    In the past, Hayden had inwardly accused him of being ''easily swayed'', and that criticism wasn''t unfounded. During the time he spent plunged in his own thoughts, and although he himself didn''t realise it, Oswell''s pride had gradually inflated. He began to think how melancholy it was that he should be in a single room of a tiny castle in a small country like Atall, he who pondered more than any great scholar, and whose thoughts galloped over every topic under the sun.

    I''m running out of time.

    He was no longer young. He had to hurry to a place where he could properly display his keen intelligence, and receive praise and honours in recognition of it. What was Atall? Who cared about the princely house?

    His self-importance and conceit, which had swollen while he himself was unaware of it, was now so bulging and was inflated that he could no longer contain it. It was when Oswell was in that state that he received a proposal from Allion, and it was as shocking to him as an arrow to the head, and alluring enough to make him weep.

    And yet...

    Damn you, Leo! Not just once but twice, and now three times...

    Dark emotions coiled about him and crept into Oswell''s heart.

    As far as he had been concerned, Lord Leo''s existence was insignificant. Previously, in response to Hayden''s request, Oswell had counselled the sovereign-prince to send reinforcements to Conscon Temple. At the time, Leo had still been a hostage in Allion. What would happen if Atall took action within Allion''s territory, and if, as per Hayden''s plan, they were found out?

    If the prince is killed, he had thought, well, that''s too bad.

    That was it. That was all there was to Leo''s existence: no more than a fleeting life destined to vanish after having been toyed with fate, someone who was unable to take control of their own fate, simply because they had been born into a noble house. And yet, Leo had fled from Allion without permission; he had killed Hayden, the one who was supposed to open up the path for Oswell to become an Allian aristocrat; and now, he had defeated Darren, who had been the most perfect tool imaginable for Oswell to use.

    Now, he had no choice but to acknowledge it: Leo Attiel was a fearsome enemy who stood in Oswell''s way.

    Being unable to deny his existence meant that Oswell''s dream of becoming an Allian noble would remain unreachable, that the time he had spent plunged in thought by himself had been in vain, and that his life would end in a tiny country like Atall.

    Leo has to die.

    His existence was not only a barrier for Oswell; Hawking Ingram of Allion also regarded him as dangerous. Which meant that Leo''s head would be the perfect present to deliver to Allion one day.

    No matter how he looked at it, it seemed that his course of action had already been decided. In his room, which was conspicuous for the Allian-made furnishings within it, Oswell continued to spend gloomy nights.

    So, what should he do?

    Should he imitate Darren, and start by trying to gain allies at court? No, they were only fair-weather friends who changed with the wind. When Darren had been talking big, a great many people had taken a leaf out his book and harshly criticised Leo, but now, they all kept their mouths shut. In fact, now that Darren''s various misdeeds had been exposed, there were plenty who praised Leo, saying that: ¡°The prince splendidly dealt with that disloyal cur who had forgotten his own place.¡±

    Getting them on his side now would require correspondingly huge amounts of effort, yet despite all of that hard work, he had no way of being sure that they would help him out if anything occurred.

    Doing the same as Darren would obviously just lead to failure.

    Darren had been fixated on showing off his power as an Atallese vassal-lord right until the end. In that case, the first thing to do would be to gather allies at court and send in soldiers as soon as he saw the right opportunity. However, since Oswell intended to abandon Atall itself, he really didn''t feel like using such a long and tedious method.

    ©¤ Now then, on to Hawking Ingram, whose name was mentioned just now.

    Oswell had maintained his ties with that crafty general even after Darren''s death but, Hawking being Hawking, he was also in secret correspondence with someone from the Holy Dytiann Alliance, to the east of Atall. And that person was Bishop Baal.

    Leo would have found it extremely strange if he had known about it. Hawking of Allion and Baal of Dytiann were the very two people who had once furiously traded verbal jabs in front of his own eyes. The two of them had been incapable of holding back from attacking and reproaching one another... so why?

    Their verbal sparring had, of course, been genuine. It was not a play put on to deceive Leo. But on top of having representatives attend the conference, Allion and Dytiann had also exchanged letters and communicated through messengers. Since both sides had essentially been looking for ''the right moment to quit'', they didn''t only exchange vociferous claims: at times, they also hinted at concessions and, occasionally, appealed to the other''s fellow feelings.

    Though they carried neither swords nor guns, these two people were undoubtedly on the frontlines of a war between nations. They understood the other''s point of view better than anyone. As the letters piled up between them, and although it was different from feeling of belonging to the same country, a strange sense of camaraderie was born between them.

    This was by no means unique to Hawking and Baal, but was something that had been true since times immemorial. Moreover, as could be seen from his relation with Oswell, Hawking''s diplomatic strategies were sometimes a little ¡°obstinate¡±. Even when it seemed that a situation needed decisive measures, he would take the time ¨C or even too much time ¨C to obtain allies abroad.

    And this time as well, it was probably Hawking who had approached Baal.

    Bishop Baal of Dytiann was a man who, for some time now, had loathed Leo every bit as much as Darren had.

    Naturally, he didn''t vent his emotions when meeting messengers fom a foreign country, but Hawking was a man who had spent many years at the heart of intrigues and plots. Baal had recently been getting almost excessively close to Dytiann''s ¡°king¡±, Mordin, and, although he avoided doing so publicly and always acted behind the scenes, he was also busy criticising Mordin''s younger brother, the Head Archbishop Wymer, and whipping up anti-Atall sentiment among those who agreed with him, working them into a fervour about how they needed to attack Atall. When Hawking somehow found out about it, he realised that Baal hated Leo with single-minded determination.

    Hawking Ingram had realised far faster than either Darren or Oswell that: Lord Leo might one day become a danger. And because of that, he was currently deploring Darren''s failure even more bitterly than Oswell was. And just then ©¤

    Oh, interesting...

    Hawking spread the letters that he had received from both Oswell and Baal side-by-side on his desk.

    Within Dytiann''s territory, two men had been invited to a large bishop''s hall on the banks of the river.

    Neville and Godwin. Both had received family names from the Church but, currently, both had also been stripped of that right. ¡°Invited¡± was perhaps not the right word, either, since both of them had their hands tied behind their back, and were being led by soldiers armed with guns.

    Neville was in his twenties, and Godwin in his thirties. Both were young and had sturdy physiques. Their clothes were crude, and their hair and beards had grown long, but when he saw them, the first thing Baal said to them was not a greeting but: ¡°I hardly recognised you¡±

    He wasn''t being sarcastic. The last time he had seen them, they had been a far worse state than this. They had been covered in dirt and in the stench of faeces and urine, and their tattered clothes had been reduced to virtually useless scraps of cloth. That was normal enough, given that the first time Baal had met them, it had been in a prison.

    Both of them were military men who had once fought for the Holy See. Within Dytiann''s domains, anyone with any skill, regardless of their origins, has been gathered up and conscripted as soldiers into the ''Cruciform Army, the armed force under the direct control of the Holy See. Most of the time, they defended the papal domains and, whenever they received an order to do so, they headed off to suppress insurrections in whatever part of the territories these occurred in.

    Nowadays, there was no organisation within Dytiann''s territory called the ''Holy See''. Both of them were part of what was now referred to as ''the Old Church faction''; in other words, they were among those who had lost their power and their holy titles when the ''Current Church faction'' ¨C Mordin and Wymer included ¨C had rebelled.

    When Mordin''s troops had been drawing near to the papal domains, a great many bishops and priests had gathered up all the riches they could carry, and quickly fled the territory.

    The Cruciform Army was not the only one in charge of defending the papal domains, and each territory sent a complement of regular soldiers, but far from joining them to turn their spears against ''the enemies of God,'' most of those soldiers had either escaped or betrayed them by joining Mordin. The Cruciform Army, which was largely made up of men recruited from the masses, was the only one who stood firm to the end against Mordin''s troops.

    From their commander, Maximo, downwards, they all of them flung their lives aside and literally used their own bodies as shields to defend the cathedral. The bloody result was that out of three thousand soldiers, more than seventy percent died in battle. Those who survived, like Neville and Godwin, were thrown into jail ¨C every last one of them. Meanwhile, their families were kept under house arrest, and under surveillance. But perhaps the ones in charge of the monitoring were reluctant to keep an eye on all of the houses, especially in the villages that had provided a lot of men to the Cruciform Army.

    ¡°Evil teachings are being concealed within the villages, and the only way to stop them from spreading further is to purge them with fire,¡± they declared, before setting the villages alight and burning to death every one of the villagers.

    When Mordin heard about it later, he was furious, and sentenced those responsible to be burned at the stake. But that didn''t change the fact that those who belonged to the ''Old Church faction'' suffered miserable fates no matter where they were.

    The one which should have awaited Neville and Godwin was to die in prison. Bishop Baal, however, had visited them there about a month earlier.

    In all honesty, Baal had not known their names. But he had been employing people to gather information on the survivors of the the ''Old Church faction,'' and he had frequently been told that although these two were not famous, they were both highly skilled. And nothing could have suited Baal better than ''unknown but skilled''.

    And now, one month later, Baal had the two men removed from prison and brought to his hall, albeit with their arms still restrained.

    ¡°Make yourselves comfortable,¡± Baal gestured the two young men towards chairs.

    Godwin immediately complied but Neville, the younger of the two, remained standing. The soldiers who had brought them there pushed him by the shoulder, as though to force him to sit, but he didn''t budge an inch. While Baal was wondering where on earth he found that kind of strength in that body of his, which had grown emaciated from long imprisonment, he also signalled to the soldiers:

    ¡°It''s fine,¡± he had them back down. ¡°You won''t yield to a sworn enemy? It seems you still have a soldier''s spirit.¡±

    ¡°A sworn enemy?¡± Neville laughed with such naked contempt behind his grimy beard that the soldiers who had only just calmed down at Baal''s orders now once again flushed an angry scarlet.

    ¡°I don''t know you. If I was going after a sworn enemy, it''d be Mordin, Wymer, Guerric,¡± he continued to enumerate the heroes who had destroyed the ''Old Church faction''. ¡°Try giving me a blade, even a small one. I''ll immediately send every last one of them to Hell, those bastards wallowing in their greed to rule over Dytiann, trampling on His Holiness the Pope''s dying wish. I''m not going to bother with a nobody like you, so untie me right now and...¡±

    Unable to control himself anymore, one of the soldiers struck Neville in the back with the butt of his gun. That was followed immediately by blows to his chest and stomach, and hard enough to break bones. The young man fell to his knees and hunched his back, but he did not utter a single cry of pain, and his glaring eyes never turned away from Baal.

    His state of mind seemed the same as that of one already dead, who no longer felt pain in this world, but whose hatred and resentment still vividly remained. Deep down, Baal shuddered at being hit with the horrifying emotions of a corpse.

    ¡°Enough,¡± yet even so, he gave his orders to the soldiers in a low and dignified voice. ¡°You say that we are trampling over His Holiness'' dying wish. Well, there are a heap of objections I could make to that, but there''s no point going over the endless fights of that time of civil war, when blood was washed away with blood. And my reason for calling you here would also be lost.¡±

    ¡°And what business do you have with the likes of us?¡± Godwin spoke for the first time since arriving there.

    He was similarly emaciated, but he was a head taller than Neville and had once been known as ''the colossal monk''.

    Baal nodded.

    ¡°I have something I earnestly want to ask of both of you.¡±

    Neville snorted scornfully when he hear that, while Godwin''s expression turned solemn. Just as Baal had said, the war which had unfolded was one in which both sides had slaughtered the other, ''washing blood away with blood''. And those grudges ran especially deep within the survivors of the Cruciform Army, who had lost so many of their companions.

    ¡°You really think we''re going to do as you say, you who snatched away the pope''s throne? There''s nothing to talk about....Kill us. That''s what you''re planning on doing anyway, if we don''t listen to you. Go on, stab us through the heart right now. Our souls will rise to the Heavens and there, we will once more serve His Holiness.¡±

    Neville showed all the determination of the martyrs that are spoken of and written of in history, but when Baal continued to try and convince them, he did so by alluding to their families, who were still being kept under house arrest. Not surprisingly, the expressions on the men¡¯s faces changed. Neville ground his teeth fiercely and scowled at Baal again.

    ¡°Is that a threat?¡±

    ¡°How you choose to take it depends on you. However, what I mean to say is that if you fulfil my request, I intend to release both your families from under surveillance. And besides...¡±

    Since it looked like Neville was about to say something again, Baal spoke quickly to block him.

    ¡°...This is not a request that goes against your loyalty or your convictions. I''m not going to ask you to sell out your companions from the Holy See, or to become my subordinates, or anything like that.¡±

    ¡°Then what do you want?¡± asked Godwin.

    Baal pressed his fingers together above his desk, and gave them a smile that was unusually friendly for him.

    ¡°In this world, there is an agent of the Devil who spits on our most important teachings, who tramples all over the Holy Book, and who, with his sweet words, deceives good people who once shared our beliefs before dragging them down into hell. I want you to destroy him. That man''s name is Leo Attiel.¡±

 Volume 4, 5: Assassination Plot

    Volume 4, Chapter 5: Assassination Plot

    Part 1

    It was about two months after Darren''s death that Leo received a letter from Oswell Taholin. The sender was surprising, but then so were the contents: he claimed that he been petitioned by the people of his fief to ¡°create a space for the Cross Faith in my castle town.¡±

    Works had begun to convert a house there into a church, and had been completed about a month later, so now: ¡°I would be overjoyed, Lord Leo, if you could visit me,¡± to both discuss how to administer the parish, and to attend the inauguration ceremony.

    Oswell had already looked around here and there, and had hired several priests from Dytiann. Through them, he had invited a minister of some reputation to come from Dytiann and officiate at the ceremony.

    It was true that when Conscon Temple had been in danger of being invaded by Allion, Oswell Taholin had single-handily persuaded the sovereign-prince to send help to them. In fact, once the matter became public knowledge, Conscon had sent a letter of thanks in which they named both Magrid and Oswell. He had always been a man who showed sympathy towards the Cross Faith.

    Naturally, this was also good for Leo. If the Cross Faith acquired more strongholds throughout the country, then the prince''s influence would grow in proportion to them. Besides, if it had to be said, then the church in Savan''s territory served as a connection between the faithful in Atall with Conscon and Allion, which were geographically close. Oswell, on the other hand, seemed to want to give the job of running his parish to priests from Dytiann. Maintaining relations with the Cross Faith in both the east and the west was also very convenient for Leo.

    ©¤ Or rather, it was too convenient.

    ¡°It''s a trap,¡± Percy asserted without a second''s hesitation when Leo showed the letter to the main members of the Personal Guards.

    Once, during the events involving Lance Mazpotter, Leo and the others had guessed that there might be a connection between Oswell and Darren, and now, Oswell had very rapidly made approaches to Leo after Darren''s death. It was clearly suspicious.

    ¡°But, this Oswell person, wasn''t he originally strengthening his relationship with the ruling house?¡± Sarah, who had forced her way in behind her brother, interrupted. ¡°Then couldn''t he be the kind of man who wants to cozy up to both sides? So even though he helped Darren, once Lord Leo defeated him, Oswell decided to make good with you, Your Highness. He''s a guy who knows how to get on in life as a noble.¡±

    ¡°Women should keep out of this,¡± Camus yelled as usual.

    Why is that Camus can''t hold back from saying things that he knows will lead to a fight? Percy sometimes wondered.

    Actually, this was a fault that he shared with his little sister, Sarah, and neither of them were ever satisfied unless they said exactly what they thought. And since Sarah had opened her mouth wide as though to argue back, Percy hurriedly stopped the siblings'' brawl by pretending to offer her an explanation, while covertly watching for the prince''s reaction:

    ¡°Still, if we''re talking about Oswell, then His Highness already suspected that he was secretly tied to Allion ¨C or, more accurately, to Hayden.¡±

    Leo merely gave a slight nod, leaving Percy feeling disappointed. There was no way that the prince wasn''t suspicious about Oswell''s overtures. Percy had thought that if he brought up Hayden, then Leo would offer and explanation that coincided with his own opinion.

    Exactly. Oswell is the noble who, all by himself, convinced the sovereign-prince to send out soldiers to Conscon. And looking back on Hayden''s actions at the time, it seems like he expected that to happen. Oswell was probably secretly connected to Allion, and he swayed the sovereign-prince in the direction that Hayden wanted. If you want proof, just look at how that man, who was so fixated on the temple, seemed so completely indifferent when Allion marched on Conscon that second time ¨C or something like that.

    Yet Leo''s response was muted. Or rather than muted, he was enveloped in the atmosphere of someone who had already made up their mind, and who found it difficult to explain that to others...

    ¡°You can''t possibly...¡± Percy suddenly spoke up, ¡°... Prince, you can''t possibly be thinking of going to see Oswell?¡±

    ¡°There''s no hiding anything from you, Percy,¡± leaning against the window frame, Leo smiled a little bashfully.

    Why... when you know it''s a trap...? but before Percy could ask that question, Leo continued:

    ¡°There''s a good chance that he is on the alert,¡± he said while gazing out of the window. ¡°But it''s also a good opportunity for us.¡±

    It''s dangerous, but it''s also a good opportunity ¨C that was almost a tenet of faith with Leo. He had often repeated those words to himself and to his companions before then. One easy example was how he had deliberately set off to the holiday villa with only a few bodyguards to draw Darren''s attack upon learning that he was plotting to kill him.

    ¡°If we do what the enemy wants us to, then that also means that the enemy''s intentions will become very easy to read,¡± he explained once more.

    By that point in time, Leo already saw Oswell as an ''enemy'', and he had been waiting impatiently for a chance to get rid of him. And that ''chance'' had come thanks to the ''enemy''s'' actions.

    Percy understood what Leo was trying to say... but the situation was different from when he had invited Darren''s attack in the resort area. In fact, it was the exact opposite: instead of lying in ambush for the enemy, they would be the ones walking up to a foe who was sure to have made every possible preparation.

    ¡°It''s too dangerous,¡± Percy objected to the end. ¡°Please reconsider. Instead of accepting Oswell''s invitation, it would be far better to provoke that bastard into leaving his castle and killing him, just as you did with Darren.¡±

    ¡°What are you...¡± Percy''s words were so extreme that Camus'' eyes widened in surprise, but Percy stubbornly continued to shake his head.

    It hadn''t been long since the affair with Darren Actica. It was now widely known among the people that Darren had planned to murder Leo and to wrest away Savan''s stone quarry, but there was no denying that Leo Attiel''s impetuous actions made the nobles ¨C sovereign-prince included ¨C very nervous. The trap that Oswell had set was surely a dangerous one, but what would be far more dangerous was if Leo caused yet another disturbance.

    Percy Leegan was absolutely right. Anyone with any common sense would have supported him. Even Leo himself agreed with him.

    There''s probably something wrong with me. Yet every time the had that thought, there was one scene that came back to him ¨C that time at the banquet when he had told Hayden: ¡°I''ll show you how I''ll turn the tables on you.¡± The threat that he himself had spoken back then was one that Leo had never ceased to hold to heart. And he constantly drove himself forward with the thought that: If there wasn''t something wrong with me, then I wouldn''t be able to turn this situation around.

    Now that Darren was dead, Leo viewed Oswell Taholin as the greatest threat. If he really had been tied to Darren Actica, who had tried to destroy Leo, then there was a strong possibility that he would continue to pose a threat in the future. And if you added to that a connection to Allion, then he would be a far more difficult opponent than Darren had been.

    If I stop now, it will all have been for nothing. Up until then, and also from then onwards, Leo drove himself forward with those words.

    Defeating Hayden, killing Darren, and also, allowing all those soldiers to die in the battles surrounding those events... it would all have been absolutely for nothing. And my life as Leo, the second prince of Principality of Atall, will also lose its meaning. In the future, those unknown historians will laugh, saying that: ¡°He was a man who didn''t accomplish anything, and it would have been better for him to simply live out his entire life as a hostage in Allion.¡±

    Leo was firmly set in his decision.

    But Percy''s attitude was also unwavering.

    ¡°For now, please turn him down. We have too little information, and we don''t have enough time to remedy that. I agree with you that Oswell is an ''enemy'', but please be patient for just a little while longer. That would also be best for your future. If you are too hasty, you will only end up losing everything for nothing at all.¡±

    Leo was perfectly aware that it was a valid argument, and one which he could not refute. By the time they had talked it over again several times, the day had already passed.

    Yet Leo could not afford all that much time when it came to his trip to Oswell¡¯s territory and, before long, he arrived at the point where he needed to start preparing for it, even though he not been able to counter Percy¡¯s objections.

    At that point, he was forced into making another decision. It was probably the first one like it since he had travelled through Allion, fleeing from being a hostage; Leo decided to take action without taking Percy¡¯s opinion into consideration. To prevent Percy from suspecting anything, he deliberately gave him something to do that would take him far away, and, during that time, he hurriedly finished his various preparations for the trip.

    Once I get results, I¡¯m sure Percy will understand, thought Leo.

    Yet if he had been the same as he usually was, he would have taken as much time and used as many words as he needed to to win over approval from all of his close guards: Percy, Camus and Kuon, and when he intended to make his move, he would have first worked at persuading them as though his life depended on it.

    That was how it went when he decided to fight Hayden. Even though Camus had vehemently opposed his plan, Leo had litteraly put his life on the line to convince him to take part in it.

    However, the circumstances then and now were different.

    Back then, Leo had not had a single soldier that he was free to move, but now, his Personal Guards had swelled to over two thousand. Percy was just one person, and even if he did not agree with what Leo did, Leo now had enough ''power'' to force a change in the situation. So, in other words, he no longer needed to waste time in trying to persuade the one person that was Percy, or to put his own life on the line.

    When Percy Leegan returned to Guinbar, he received a shock. It had been five days already since Leo and his group ¨C which included Camus and Kuon ¨C had left the castle.

    On top of that, he had left a verbal message to pass on as an order: ¡°I''m leaving five hundred men with you, Percy. Have them continue their training while they guard the territory.¡± Which translated to: Stay where you are and don''t move without permission.

    ¡°The fuck is this!¡±

    Percy vented his emotions which such rare and open violence that the nearby pageboys and new recruits trembled.

    Don''t move. Don''t move, you say? Camus and Kuon both moved, completely ignoring your orders. But you didn''t criticize them for it. So what if I move too? His Lordship won''t be getting angry as long as the result works out, right? Well, isn''t that right, Prince? Isn''t that right, Leo!

    He was incandescent with rage. It looked like they had gotten cocky just because things had worked out well that one time.

    Camus and Kuon are both pathetic. Is risking their lives the only things they can do? Simply blindly obeying isn''t loyalty. They''re just acting like idiots who''ve given up on using their own brains!

    At the same, since he had suddenly been left behind like this, he also wondered if the problem didn''t lie with his attitude towards Leo.

    I opposed the prince''s decision. I wasn''t wrong, but... maybe I was too stubborn afterwards, when I refused to listen to his arguments.

    He couldn''t say for sure that he hadn''t been influenced by his jealousy towards Camus and Kuon, and by the feeling he had because of it that the way the prince was treating him was unfair. If he hadn''t directly opposed Leo, but had simply offered him a different opinion, if he had listened to what Leo intended to do after accepting Oswell''s invitation, then there should have been both a way and the time to figure something out. Maybe not much, but there should at least have been something.

    ¡°Shit!¡±

    Standing near the warehouse were stones for the church construction were kept, Percy let out an angry howl that sounded like it could have come from a wolf.

    Part 2

    Oswell Taholin''s territory, Archon, stretched from the eastern tip of the Iron Chain mountain range down towards the south. Since the mountains protected it from the northern cold, it was an area which remained comparatively mild even in the winter, whereas in this season, which was starting to carry a hint of summer warmth, the many forests that dotted the land helped soften the heat. As a result, it was an area where all of the noble families had built holiday villas.

    ¡°Live in Tiwana to spend money; do business in Dharam to make money; retire with money to the banks of the River Archon,¡± was a saying that was often repeated within the country.

    Fields stretched out on either side of the highway, and farmers could be seen working vigorously, harvesting the wheat. A group was travelling along the road towards the castle town, looking at those figures without really seeing them.

    A carriage rolled on at a leisurely pace, and those travelling on foot around it all wore leather cloaks over their long religious robes.

    ¡°Still, I''ve always thought so, but you really are stupid, Neville,¡± said a tall man. ¡°Look at how you were when we met Bishop Baal in his hall. Saying too much for no reason just got you injured. At times like that, you should stifle your breathing, stifle your presence and keep a careful watch on the situation. Especially in one like that where we didn''t know anything: we were surrounded by enemies, and we didn''t know why those enemies had us brought to them or what they wanted from us.¡±

    ¡°I''m greatly obliged to you for your teachings, venerable elder,¡± retorted the young man walking next to him.

    The tall man stuck out his lower lip and shrugged.

    ¡°That''s exactly it. You look so solemn, no matter what you''re saying. There are times when I think I''m a complete fool for talking to you.¡±

    ¡°Everyone knows that you''re uneducated, Godwin. And yet you think that you can call me an idiot and make fun of me? I really can''t stand guys like you.¡±

    ¡°Want me to strangle you with your own hands until you repent, cretin?¡±

    How long had it been since they had met Bishop Baal? Their appearances had completely changed from what they had looked like while in prison, when they had been emaciated, covered in grime, and with long, unkempt hair and beards.

    Godwin had recovered the brawny body that had made him stand out even among the warriors of the Cruciform Army, and which had lead to his being feared as the ''colossal monk''. He now strode along the highway as his thick blond hair fluttered in the wind.

    Neville, on the other hand, had cut his hair short, like a monk. When they had met with Baal, he had been as thin as a skeleton, which made the sharp glint of his eyes stand out almost eerily. Now, however, he had regained weight, his dress was neat and tidy, and his virile good looks caused quite a number of those they passed on the road to want to turn around and look at him again. His cheeks were still a bit sunken, but then again, that had always been how he looked, even before the prison. Compared to Godwin''s more rounded face, he gave off an austere impression.

    ¡°Heh, that was a joke.¡±

    ¡°A joke? I''ve known you for a long time, but I still don''t get your jokes.¡±

    ¡°I get what you''re saying, Godwin, but I can''t change myself at this point. From the moment I became aware of how I am but an empty void in God''s gracious presence, changing how I am was no longer in my own hands.¡±

    ¡°That''s a beautifully poetic exegesis, comrade.¡±

    ¡°What''s an exegesis?¡±

    ¡°It means to explain to other people something that you saw, or heard, or felt. Pictures, songs or talking are all forms of exegesis for people.¡±

    Neville''s joke about Godwin being ''uneducated'' had clearly rankled, and he was showing off the half-understood knowledge that his companions in the Cruciform Army had taught him.

    The two of them were from the same village. Godwin, who had been known for his strength since he was very young, had been the first to enter the Cruciform Army. Then, a few years later and almost as though chasing after him, Neville had also donned the that unit''s blue uniform.

    Neville was a scrupulous young man, and even within the army corps, he was especially devoted to his duty. It was to the point that if he had received the order from above to ''die'', he might have cut his throat on the spot. On top of that, he was extraordinarily skilled, and when it came to handling the halberd, there were very few people who could win against him in a one-on-one fight.

    But by the time he entered the corps, the civil war was already in its final stages, and he was captured before his fame could spread throughout the lands of Dytiann. Even so, the two of them were able to escape thanks to the help of friends.

    While they were being hidden in one place and another by acquaintances from all over, they attacked carts transporting goods to the Papal States, and continuously made things difficult for Mordin and the others who were trying to make changes to the states. Ultimately, however, those were no more that the struggles of pygmies in grass canoes against a huge, oncoming wave. After three years, the two of them were caught by the troops of the ''Current Church faction'', and thrown into a filthy and cramped underground dungeon, where there were very few to provide them with anything they needed.

    That had been less than a year ago.

    Bantering in their own style, Neville and Godwin continued along the highways of the Principality of Atall, in the direction of Archon. Their destination was Aconrey, the town built at the foot of the castle belonging to Oswell Taholin, one of the vassal-lords. And there, the two of them would wield their blades to kill Leo Attiel. That was the mission that Bishop Baal had given them.

    When they had first heard it, neither Neville nor Godwin could believe their ears.

    ¡°What do we have to do with the prince of a small country like Atall? And assassination? Go ask someone else,¡± said Neville.

    ¡°This isn''t assassination,¡± Baal answered seriously. ¡°You will be destroying an envoy of the Devil and exorcising the taint of evil from this world.¡±

    ¡°Aren''t you the bastards who took the citadel? Then why aren''t you giving such a glorious mission to one of those on your side? If you''re really acting in accordance with the Lord''s will, you should be able to chase away a devil with just your prayers, right?¡±

    ¡°I don''t have time for endless debates,¡± Baal cut through Neville''s words as though he found them truly childish. ¡°Time is precious. What I want is a swift and prompt decision from those able to bring down that Hell''s spawn.¡±

    Baal stressed that one point, that ''time is precious'', without offering any further information.

    Neville and Godwin had family back in their native village. The only one Godwin had left was his elderly mother, but Neville had married in his late teens and had children. They had wanted to go and see them after they escaped, but since they knew there was a high chance that the ''Current Church faction'' would be monitoring their relatives, they both of them decided to consider that they no longer had any family, and acted accordingly.

    And yet...

    ¡°I will release your families if you successfully carry out this mission.¡± ¨C There was no way that the young men''s hearts would not be swayed when they heard those words.

    It was probably because he could tell that their hearts were moved that Baal smiled then for the first time.

    ¡°There would normally need to be a certain amount of recognition and glory for heroism but, since that is what you wish, I will not make this matter public. I''m proud of you for not seeking fame, fighting only to bring about the time when God''s glory will shine upon the whole world,¡± he even went as far as to say.

    Your names will not be made know ¨C essentially, what that meant was: it will not be made public that you took part in an assassination.

    It was thanks to those words that Neville made his decision. He, who was from a farming village, had taken up weapons and taken lives only because he deeply believed that he needed to do so for the Pope, God''s representative in this world. It was true that his family had been taken hostage, but he had devoted himself to the Pope, and if his name spread because of his being involved in assassination, then he would never again be able to face either his family or his now deceased master.

    Neville informed Baal that he would accept the mission.

    But after that, I¡¯ll drag you on a chariot of flames and plunge you into regret as deep as the depths of Hell that you ever let me hold a weapon again.

    Hatred blazed in his heart.

    A few days before Neville and Godwin arrived in Aconrey, Oswell received a reply to his invitation from Lord Leo.

    ¡°I am truly delighted to learn of your desire to experience God''s will through his teachings. I am also anxious the learned gentlemen from Dytiann, and I will certainly do myself the pleasure of coming to visit you in a few days.¡±

    Oswell felt himself tremble when he read the contents. He looked over them again and again.

    Finally...

    Both his mind and body were so tense that it felt as tough he was being squeezes by some giant hand, and he felt like he was suffocating and unable to find any ease. As I mentioned previously, the path to success had crumbled in front of Oswell each and every time. Lord Leo had recently become a major roadblock to him.

    He would kill Leo.

    And of course, he wasn''t the only to share this thought. With Hawking of Allion acting as a link between them, Oswell of Atall and Baal of Dytiann were working together to make their shared wish come true.

    First of all, using the fact that Leo was trying to propagate the Cross Faith within the country, Oswell had invited him on the grounds that he was building a church. Even if the prince refused with the excuse that he was too busy, or something like that, simply establishing a parish within his fief meant that Oswell would have any number of opportunities to invite Leo again in the future. Which also meant that Oswell was prepared to be in it for the long haul. However, Leo had jumped at the bait with unexpected alacrity.

    Leo would blithely wander over and enter the house that was being converted into a church. There, warriors chosen by Baal and disguised as priests would be waiting for him. The bishop had gone to great pains to gather a dozen skilled but unknown individuals. And at the head of that list were, needless to say, Neville and Godwin.

    But Leo might be on his guard if there were nothing but nameless attendants.

    And so, also on Baal''s advice, a priest by the name of Gemili was travelling with them. He was the man who had been shaken about in the carriage.

    He had belonged to the same monastery as Baal when the latter was still a monk. Even back in those days, Gemili had lived a life of laziness and dissipation so, even though he was a little older than Baal, his junior had despised him since their youth. Gemili, however, was the youngest son of a domain lord with enough authority to employ soldiers from the Papal States, so he had been ordained unusually quickly. Still, he was a terrible drunkard. Not even his father''s influence could cancel out his repeated excesses, which was why he had worked as a parish priest in Baal''s church for more than ten years now, without ever making it to bishop himself.

    Baal had given Gemili this task with the air of giving small change to a child and sending them on an errand. He had, of course, hidden the truth, and had simply instructed him to: ¡°Travel with Neville and the others to carry out missionary work in Atall.¡±

    Setting his personality aside, Gemili was well-known. So even if there were somebody at Leo''s side who was knowledgeable about Dytiann''s internal affairs, they probably wouldn''t expect anything strange to occur since a big name from the ''Current Church faction'' had publicly announced his participation.

    At the house, Leo''s group would meet and talk with those from Dytiann, including Gemili, Neville and Godwin. Oswell would initially be present at the meeting, but would soon leave because of having some business to attend to.

    ¡°And that''s when you kill Leo,¡± Baal had carefully gone over his instructions to Neville and the others.

    He did not inform those who were to carry out the assassination that Oswell was working with him. He worried that if they knew that there were people within Atall who wished for the prince''s death, they might start questioning why they were the ones who had been chosen to assassinate him.

    Which was why Baal told Neville and the others that: ¡°Your weapons and escape route will be prepared by one of my agents, who will be sent beforehand to infiltrate the Taholin House.¡±

    That was not the only thing that Oswell and Baal kept hidden from the assassins.

    Oswell would arrange to have soldiers lie concealed around the house; they were to wait until the meeting was in progress, then simultaneously shoot fire arrows at the building. Meanwhile, the exits would, of course, have been locked, and if anyone managed to force their way out, they would be met with armed and armoured soldiers.

    Leo''s group would fall prey to the flames or to the soldiers'' swords and spears, but so would Neville and the others. Father Gemili would be no exception.

    Oswell Taholin would just barely manage to escape the burning house ¨C that would be the official story, at any rate ¨C and would pretend to learn from his servants that: ¡°Neville''s group killed Lord Leo. The fire must have been caused during the struggle. When we heard the uproar, we came running over with soldiers and slew Gemili, the ringleader, as he was trying to flee our territory.¡±

    They would also claim to have ''understood the situation'' after inspecting the corpses:

    ¡°Neville''s group came here as official envoys from Dytiann''s Church, but they had falsified their real identities and actually belonged to the former Holy See, which fought against the current Church authorities. They were aiming to cause war between Dytiann and Atall by murdering Lord Leo.¡±

    ¡°Those damned rebels probably intended to take advantage of the turmoil that would cause to bring down Dytiann and allow the old Holy See to seize power again. Father Gemili shouldn''t have had any connection to the Holy See, but it looks like he used in this plan either because he was being threatened by them, or because he had been tricked.¡±

    That was the version of events that they publicly announce.

    By throwing Neville, Godwin and the others to the flames, and blaming them for Leo''s death, they were aiming to prove that neither Oswell nor Dytiann''s regime were directly connected to the prince''s murder. However, it was of course inevitable that Oswell would earn the fury of both Dytiann and Atall for having foolishly invited the assassins.

    Which was why Oswell and Baal would pretend to hurriedly set up a meeting immediately after the events to: ''handle this mutual emergency as quickly as possible.''

    ¡°This was all done by the partisans of the former Holy See, and our two countries cannot be foolish enough to fall for the plot and turn our blades against one another,¡± they would say as they pretended to work out a solution. For example, perhaps they could propose that Mordin might come to Atall on a condolence call? In that way, Oswell would paint the image of himself as a man who was doing everything he could to calm the tension between the two lands, and so he would avoid taking too much damage to his reputation.

    Put another way, Oswell was fully aware that this plan would lead to his reputation being tarnished for a while.

    It was the same for Baal.

    Even though the crime would be committed by a group which was hostile to Dytiann''s current government, the Church''s influence would inevitably suffer since they had been unable to prevent it from happening. It was only five years since the end of the civil war, and its embers had yet to be extinguished, so that this would be a hard blow for the country. But Baal was willing to risk it, so deep was his desire to see Leo dead.

    Part 3

    A large part of why Percy had tried to hold Leo back was because, while they knew that this was probably a trap, they had no time to investigate what the trap was. And Leo himself was also perfectly well aware of that.

    Take, for example, the envoys from Dytiann who were coming to visit Oswell''s territory. Were they real ones? If they were fake, then they must be assassins aiming for Leo''s life. But if they were assassins, then it was hard to believe that they had simply disguised themselves as priests of the Cross Faith. If Leo''s side had a bit more time,

    then they could have sent messengers to Dytiann to check the identity of these visitors.

    Is Oswell tied to Dytiann?

    Although Leo had considered it, he also believed that Oswell''s treacherous connection was with Allion instead. So was it possible that he could be closely linked to Dytiann at the same time?

    And then, it was also possible that the priests from Dytiann were no more than bait to lure Leo in, and that something completely different would be used to try and murder him.

    Poison, or an attack by soldiers posing as marauders... No, if it was a question of posing as something else, then the chamberlains that were to take care of him at the residence could be replaced by soldiers who might kill him while he slept...

    In short, they had no idea what to expect.

    Which was why Percy Leegan had been so desperate to get Leo to change his mind.

    This was basically jumping naked into the den of a starving dragon.

    Yet it was also a good opportunity to get rid of Oswell, who was in Leo''s way. Leo was ready to walk towards the dragon which waited for him with its jaws wide open, and so he left Guinbar without telling Percy.

    He went with a little less than a dozen attendants. These included Camus, the representative from Conscon Temple, two deacons who were acting as representatives of Guinbar Church, and several of his Personal Guards, Kuon and Aqua included.

    Later, the different platoons within the Personal Guards, who had been given orders beforehand, would also depart. Leo had them remain on standby at Olt Rose Castle, which had once belonged to Darren, whom he had only just defeated.

    It was the height of the Atallese summer when Leo Attiel arrived at Oswell Taholin''s castle. Since most of Atall enjoyed a mild climate, there was no need for him to spend the entire trip jolted about in a carriage. He travelled along the same highway bordered by wheat fields that Neville, Godwin and the others taken about half a month earlier.

    Camus'' nerves were on edge as he wondered if the entire town might not become the stage for an assassination. Gripping his spear tight, he stayed close by Leo''s side and didn''t budge from there at all, anxiously peering around in all directions. But, of course, the only thing to greet Leo when he entered the town were the cheers from the crowd, and no arrow suddenly came flying, nor was he abruptly surrounded by soldiers armed to the teeth.

    That evening, Leo was invited to a reception held in the castle''s great hall. Apparently the idea was for the guests to have a chance to see each other before the real meeting.

    ¡°Has it finally come?¡± as usual, Camus'' eyebrows were bristling up like flames.

    ¡°No,¡± Leo''s tone of voice was the same as someone trying to soothe an unruly horse. ¡°Quite a few of Aconrey''s merchants and bigwigs have been invited to the banquet. I don''t think there''s any way that they''ll try to kill me there. They''ll start by giving us a warm reception so that we don''t suspect anything.¡±

    ¡°But, my lord, look at Darren, who was willing to kill his own people to give himself an excuse to attack you. And after all, Oswell is a villain of the same stripe. We don''t know what might happen.¡±

    At that point, Kuon interrupted:

    ¡°Looks like the gates to the castle are going to be left open until the end of the banquet.¡±

    Apparently, that was information gathered from his subordinates in the Personal Guards. He had now gotten to the stage where he could show that much forethought.

    ¡°We need to place the Guards inside and out in case we have to close the castle gates in a hurry.¡±

    ¡°Understood. Kuon will be in charge of that.¡±

    ¡°Aye.¡±

    Seeing Kuon nod and give a slight bow, Aqua, who was travelling with Leo as a Personal Guard for the first time, looked at him strangely.

    Speaking of Aqua, it hadn''t been long since ''he'' had gotten into a violent quarrel with Sarah, who had also come along as an assistant to her brother, in his capacity as the representative of Conscon Temple. She was the one who had promptly gone to get information from the monks from Dytiann, and who reported back to Leo about the priest named Gemili.

    ¡°There''s no doubt that he really is a priest from the ''Current Church faction'', but he isn''t anyone who particularly stands out within the Dytiann Alliance. He is probably connected to the upper echelons of the faction. We hadn''t heard of him either. But he''s been working as a parish priest alongside Bishop Baal.¡±

    Baal? Leo shivered suddenly.

    He had met Bishop Baal twice in the past. The first had been when he and Arthur, the commander of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division, had met with Leo to talk about volunteering reinforcements to Conscon Temple. Back then, Baal had stared persistently at Leo with eyes as cold as a snake''s.

    Sarah, his informant then and now, had claimed that ¡°Arthur and Baal have a thing going on.¡±

    The second time they met was after Arthur''s death. On that occasion, Baal had avoided looking at Leo, as though holding himself back. But from time to time, when their gazes happened to meet by chance, Leo clearly caught sight of a fire in Baal''s eyes. To put it more bluntly, rather than a fire, it was hatred. Rage and the urge to kill.

    Those eyes clearly understood who it was who had lured Arthur Causebulk into a trap, then killed him.

    Leo had no doubt at all that Bishop Baal bore a bitter grudge against him. And now, the priest who had come over apparently had some connection to him.

    While attending the banquet, Leo could not rid himself of the fear that any and all of the people who greeted him were hiding a blade at their breast, and that at any moment, they might plunge it into his heart or slice through his neck with it. However, the party passed its height without any particularly noticeable occurrence. Just as he himself had said, Oswell surely wouldn''t have him assassinated so publicly.

    Leo''s mental strain gradually melted away. He spoke with Father Gemili. His usual manner returned as he exchanged trifling jokes with Oswell. Whereas earlier, he hadn''t touched the wine, he now stretched out an arm to take a goblet, and emptied its contents in one gulp. His throat had been parched, probably because of the stress, and the drink was so delicious that it seemed to flow throughout his entire body.

    But... was it a case of negligence?

    Camus'' vigilant gaze was scanning the entire hall. Kuon was monitoring the escape routes from the castle. It was the same for the other Personal Guards.

    For just one second, their attention shifted away from Leo himself.

    The wine cup dropped from his hand and rolled on the carpet.

    ¡°Prince?¡±

    Camus, who was beside him, was a fraction too slow in turning around. The colour drained from Leo''s face as he staggered then, like a doll which had lost its support, he pitched forward, face first.

    ¡°Prince!¡±

    ¡°Your Highness!¡±

    As shouts rose up all around, Leo started frothing at the mouth before loosing consciousness.

    Early that morning, a thin layer of clouds hung over Aconrey, and a light rain started to fall on the houses and on the streets that people were hurrying along.

    ¡°Have you heard?¡±

    Maybe it was because of the gloomy weather, but those who were talking together looked despondent, and spoke in hushed voices.

    ¡°They say His Highness, Lord Leo, has died.¡±

    ¡°I heard it too. Even though he was waving at us so cheerfully just the other day.¡±

    ¡°It seems he was poisoned at the welcoming banquet.¡±

    ¡°Shh! Be careful what you say.¡±

    Even though it was still early, armed soldiers could be seen patrolling around the streets, which explained that sudden, sharp tone and the cautious check of their surroundings.

    ¡°It''s not true that he died. I heard it from a guy who sells vegetables to the castle, so it''s definitely reliable.¡±

    ¡°What? That bastard Boyle, acting all puffed up and talking like he knew everything... Right, he''s going to give me back what I treated him to yesterday.¡±

    A man who seemed to be well-informed stopped a man who looked like a carpenter as he started rolling up his sleeves.

    ¡°Hold your horses. The story wasn''t completely unfounded. It looks like it''s true that His Highness collapsed at the banquet...¡± He continued his story with a self-important air.

    Three days after Lord Leo arrived at Aconrey Castle, rumours such as those started to circulate on every street corner in the castle town, in every tavern and in every house. Oswell had declared martial law, but it was impossible to stop people from talking.

    And it was undeniably true that Leo Attiel had collapsed towards the end of the banquet, after downing a goblet of wine. Given the timing, it was hardly surprising that people were saying that: ¡°Prince Leo was poisoned.¡±

    And when thinking about the circumstances, the natural progression was to suspect that the criminal was Oswell Taholin, the castle lord of Aconrey. Although, taken the other way around, it also meant that if Oswell were really plotting to assassinate the prince, he surely wouldn''t have chosen such a conspicuous method.

    And in actual fact, Oswell had been thrown into a panic when Leo collapsed. Had his own plan been pre-empted by someone who wasn''t in on it? At first, he had turned to look at Gemili''s group, then his gaze had travelled those from his own House, but every last person there seemed as alarmed as he was.

    It was the same for the prince''s attendants too. While everyone turned ashen, a large priest called Camus lifted Leo into his arms and shouted at Oswell to call for a doctor.

    Leo had been taken to a room in the castle and Oswell had done what he could by sending for medical help.

    Three days had passed since then.

    Oswell had come up with three hypotheses.

    The first one was fairly ridiculous: since Leo is only a boy, he made himself ill by gulping down too much alcohol when he isn''t used to it.

    The second was that: maybe he somehow got wind of our plan and is only pretending to be ill. While he lies in bed he will be observing how we react.

    As far as Oswell was concerned, that was not a situation that invited optimism.

    However, when the doctor he had sent for came out from seeing Leo, he announced that it was impossible for the prince to be pretending.

    It was clear from the way his skin had passed beyond pale and had instead started to darken that there was a problem with his blood circulation. On the night he collapsed, he was seized more than once with convulsions. His fever couldn''t be brought down at all, and there was no end to his diarrhoea and vomiting. The doctor had given him a decoction of herbs to drink, but Leo even threw that up, and as his body could not take in any nutrients, he grew increasingly weaker. In just three days time, Leo had wasted away into nothing more than skin and bones.

    ¡°What''s the cause?¡±

    Upon being asked that, the doctor had shaken his head and replied that he couldn''t say for sure.

    ¡°It''s most likely some kind of snake venom, but the prince''s symptoms are unlike those caused by any snakes found around Atall. It might be a poison that was compounded for some specific purpose,¡± he added, and Oswell Taholin went speechless.

    If it was poison, then it strengthened his suspicions, and fell in line with his third hypothesis. Namely ¨C

    ¡°There''s someone in this castle who wants to kill Lord Leo and frame me.¡± When thinking about who this ''someone'' was, it could only be Dytiann or Allion.

    The plan had originally been for Dytiann to share the blame for not having been able to prevent the crimes of the former Holy See, but it was conceivable that they had decided to pin sole responsibility on Oswell.

    But... given that Neville and the others had, from the start, come to Aconrey with the intention of carrying an assassination, Dytiann''s current government, which was pulling their strings from behind, must surely realise that if Oswell had them arrested and tortured, they would confess everything. Why would Dytiann go to all the trouble of sending assassins, only to create a more dangerous situation for themselves?

    Then... is it Allion?

    That didn''t quite fit, either. If Oswell were an eyesore for Allion ¨C which he himself would find hard to believe ¨C then they had plenty of far simpler methods of dealing with him than setting up this convoluted scheme. For example, Hawking could just send one of Oswell''s letters to the sovereign-prince with a warning that there was a traitor in the country. Hawking Ingram had exchanged personal dealings with both Oswell and Baal, so he fully grasped all the circumstances and was in a position to make use of them.

    But... what in the world for?

    If his goal was to have Leo murdered, then he just had to sit back without doing anything.

    Did he want to cause Oswell''s downfall in order to avoid having to keep his promise about appointing Oswell to a position in Allion?

    Argh! I don''t know. What is this? What''s going on?

    The situation left him drenched in cold sweat. Even if someone was hidden behind all this, if Leo died now, then Oswell would have to shoulder all of the blame and disgrace.

    Please, I''m begging you. Don''t die.

    It was almost farcical how a man who had schemed to murder Leo was now the one person in the world who was the most anxious about Leo''s wellbeing.

    The group from Dytiann, which was originally supposed to be found guilty of Leo''s assassination, seemed bewildered by how things had developed. And since they didn''t know that Oswell and Baal were connected, he couldn''t get in touch with them. For now, they seemed to have decided to stay at the castle ''until Lord Leo recovers.'' But then, regardless of how the situation evolved, they probably wouldn''t feel the same sense of urgency as Oswell, since Leo''s death was exactly what they hoping for.

    When the prince failed to regain consciousness after three days, those at his side requested that doctors be invited from the capital. Oswell Taholin had no reason to refuse.

    And more importantly, the priest called Camus who made personally came to make the request was glaring at Oswell as he would at an enemy general across the battlefield. He definitely suspected the vassal-lord was the poisoner. If Oswell shook his head in refusal, those powerful hands might wrap around his neck and start strangling him.

    A messenger on dispatched from Aconrey on a fleet-footed horse. Yet that night, Leo''s health improved ever so slightly. After he managed to drink a little tea and eat a small amount of easily-digestible food, his fever dropped considerably.

    After another two days, and without waiting for any team of doctors from Tiwana, he left his bed and went to see Oswell.

    ¡°It looks like I''ve caused you trouble.¡±

    Although his face was still almost bloodless and his entire body was haggard, compared to how he had previously been almost unable to speak, his voice was a lot clearer.

    ¡°I''m sorry to have kept the visitors from Dytiann waiting. If possible, I''ll meet with them tomorrow.¡±

    Here again, Oswell Taholin had no reason to refuse.

    Thank goodness you survived ¨C even though his feeling of relief was so overwhelming that he felt like hugging the prince, he was inwardly going over and over the plan for Leo''s assassination on the very next day.

    The dark clouds hanging over Aconrey had not yet cleared.

 Volume 4, 6: Venomous Serpent

    Volume 4, Chapter 6: Venomous Serpent

    Part 1

    The mansion that Oswell had converted into a church was on the outskirts of the castle town. Rumour had it that this villa had formerly belonged to a distant relative of the princely house, who had sold it to pay off gambling debts.

    And today, Leo would be meeting with the envoys from Dytiann in that house with a high fence.

    The main part of the building was being altered to include colonnades, and it was already looking like a church. It was destined to soon be burned to the ground, yet Oswell had spared neither money nor manpower, and used both lavishly. He had even paid expensive fees to a painter for the religious frescoes on the walls and ceilings. As a result, Leo''s group looked up admiringly at the paintings as they climbed the staircase to the second floor of the side building, without the slightest inkling of the gruesome scene that was scheduled to unfold.

    Gemili, Neville and the others were already waiting in a square room with a balcony. The two sides exchanged greetings. On Dytiann''s side, when they saw Leo, they were startled by his haggard appearance, and several people expressed concern about his health.

    ¡°I am very sorry to have worried you. But I''m fine now. So then, shall we begin?¡±

    Since Leo himself suggested it, they started the meeting straight away.

    The time appointed for the assassination was fast approaching.

    It would soon be sunset.

    Neville had not said a single thing during the talks. Father Gemili, the representative for the Dytiann priests, was currently pleading in favour of Atall''s Church integrating the monastic orders. Dytiann''s cathedral was essentially the main seat for all the monasteries within the country. In that, it differed from Allion, where religious orders flourished Although they all belonged to the same Cross Faith, there were different sects depending on what country they were in.

    While Neville''s posture remained rigid as he listened to the conversation, beneath the table, he clenched and unclenched his fists, preparing himself for when the time came.

    Still, Gemili''s frivolous voice and insincere attitude offended him. Even though this entire meeting was meaningless ¨C most of those present would probably no longer be part of this world within a few hours ¨C it irritated him that this kind of person was acting like a mouthpiece for Dytiann.

    After Leo had collapsed, that man had done nothing but loaf around. As he was not in on the plan, and had only been brought along to help gain the trust of the Atallese, he was not aware of the true purpose behind the meeting. And so, he didn''t feel the slightest bit nervous, and instead seemed to view this task as nothing more than a good chance to kick back and relax while in a foreign country.

    After making a single call on Leo to inquire about his health, he had declared that: ¡°We''ve now got more time to do whatever we want,¡± and started going out to have fun day after day. By the time he staggered back, he always reeked of alcohol.

    What annoyed Neville and the others more than anything, was how each and every time, he made them listen to how he had been ''welcomed by a woman''.

    ¡°It''s not like with tarts. This was a girl with real class, even though she''s still young. Half a year from now, she will have to marry a man she''s never even met, so she''s visiting the town to try and taste at least a little freedom before then. When I preached God''s teachings to her, there was an entranced look in her lovely almond-shaped eyes, and she rested her head against my shoulder. I absolutely must take the time to go again and guide her towards the path of the faithful,¡± he would cheerfully tell them.

    It made Neville sick. Whenever he thought about how that gang of conmen had destroyed the Holy See and were now ruling however they pleased over the land in the name of ¡°God''s teachings,¡± he went beyond anger and felt nothing but wretched and ashamed.

    Well, never mind about Gemili. There was something they needed to do before worrying about him.

    Every exit to and from the mansion was blocked by Oswell''s men. The road leading to Aconrey was of course one of them, but even the paths heading outwards were blockaded, as they seemed to be on high alert, intent on preventing anyone from entering or leaving. On the other hand, none of those soldiers were inside building. The only ones present were the two parties taking part in the talks, and a few servants who were preparing the dinner for after the meeting.

    Which meant that the prince would only be able to rely on the few guards that he had brought with him, but from what Neville would see, they didn''t look very reliable. The only exception was the well-built man introduced as the representative to Conscon Temple; he at least looked somewhat competent. He didn''t have the slightest trace of composure, however, and his gaze had been wandering around incessantly throughout the meeting. That might be his own brand of vigilance, but the fact that he couldn''t relax meant that he was the type to exhaust themselves before the time came.

    The other members of the group were three soldiers who looked like they had only just been hired from the populace and who didn''t even have the right posture yet, and a thin boy who looked even more childish than Leo. They weren''t exactly impressive shields for the prince.

    The same could be said of Neville and his group, but the others weren''t even armed, since it had been agreed beforehand that neither group would take any weapons into the meeting room with them. They had all been searched before entering the room, and those guards shouldn''t currently be carrying even as little as a dagger.

    ©¤ Neville once more went over the plan in his head. Oswell would be present for the meeting''s initial stages. As a domain lord, however, he had other business to attend to, and was scheduled to leave early because of some matter or another. They would spring into action some time after that.

    A large casket decorated in gold and silver was brought into the room. It contained ''relics'' that were to be presented to the party from Atall, which were meant to be transferred to the church which was being established there. In reality, it was filled with a pile of weapons.

    Neville and the eight others from the old Holy See would casually go to stand by the entrance, from where they would grab the weapons and rush in to cut down Leo''s group.

    The first target would be the man from Conscon. If they could strike him down from the first, then the rest wouldn''t be too difficult. In all honesty, seven of the assassins wouldn''t even be needed; Neville and Godwin by themselves would be more than enough to kill Leo in no time.

    Leo''s group wouldn''t be the only ones Neville would point his blade towards. Father Gemili, that fellow traveller from Dytiann who was currently waxing eloquent in fervent speech, would also be on the receiving end of it. This was one of Baal''s schemes to make it look like Leo had been killed by ''traitors'' to the Current Church faction, and to ensure that nobody linked his murder with Dytiann.

    You only need to injure him, had said Baal, but his eyes revealed a different intention. ''Kill him''. Neville understood that to mean that Gemili could not be allowed to become trouble in the future. Afterwards, the plan was that the secret agents that Baal had sent to Archon beforehand ¨C those they would meet once they arrived at Aconrey ¨C would set fire to the mansion. They would escape during that time.

    Since the guilt of Dytiann''s current Church would be exposed if Neville and the others were caught, Baal was sure to invest a lot of energy into securing an escape route for them.

    The real fight will come after this, thought Neville.

    When they had been about to depart, Baal had told them: ¡°Once everything is settled, head for Eashar, a village at the western edge of Dytiann. I''ll transfer your families there and you''ll receive your pay when you get there.¡±

    It certainly wasn''t out of the kindness of his heart that he would move their families. There would, of course, be eyes to monitor them, and the implicit threat was that if Neville''s group abandoned their mission halfway, well then, who knew what might happen to their loved ones...

    And if they managed to safely make it to Eashar, would Baal pay the money and release Neville and the others, as well as their families, as he had promised? Baal was a clergyman in the service of God ¨C but it would be naively optimistic to think that would prevent him from lying. Far from keeping his promise, he might be intending to kill Neville and the others, who knew some inconvenient facts about Dytiann''s current regime.

    Considering what the current Church was like, that was a definite possibility.

    But don''t think I''m going to fall into a trap that easily.

    Their families should be safe at least until Baal heard that the mission was a success. And there were currently no chains at Neville''s hands and feet; there were plenty of ways for him to do what he needed to.

    After going over the entire plan, Neville looked towards Leo Attiel. The first thing that needed to be done was to successfully assassinate this prince.

    When he had first seen him at the banquet, five days earlier, Neville had thought: It''s a shame.

    Leo was still only in his teens. His face and body both showed that he was basically still a boy. He didnt look in the slightest like the ''envoy of the Devil'' that Baal had painted him as.

    Neville felt his chest tighten. He was a man who had fought as a servant of God. He had mercilessly killed all enemies of the Church and of the pope, even when they had been women or children. The situation was different this time, but he could only try to force himself into a state of mind similar to the one he had then.

    Forgive me, little prince. He made the sign of the cross. You are not an enemy to His Holiness, and it''s just unlucky that you acted against the corrupt and degenerate Dytiann that exists now. I will happily also be branded as evil. Never mind if I spend all eternity whipped by the scourges of Hell. Your death will not be in vain. I swear it will serve as the foundation for building the true kingdom of God in this world... although I don''t know if it can be accomplished in my lifetime...

    ©¤ While Neville was lost in his thoughts, Oswell rose from his seat.

    ¡°Then I apologise, but I will take my leave. Your Highness, I had intended to hold another dinner party in your honour tomorrow evening, but does your health allow it?¡±

    ¡°I''m fine.¡±

    ¡°You are young, Your Highness. Still, you will be shouldering the weight of the principality in the future, so please do not overdo it,¡± Oswell''s expression was unruffled as he left the room.

    After that, a half hour went by, and the talks were all but settled.

    Standing next to each other, Neville and Godwin exchanged glances. It would soon be time. They both stole a glance to confirm the position of the casket full of weapons.

    ¡°To misquote what Lord Oswell said earlier, it isn''t healthy to work ourselves into exhaustion,¡± Leo suddenly stood up, without any prior warning and clapped his hands.

    For a moment, Neville and his group became cautious, but it was only wine that was brought in on Leo''s signal. There were goblets placed before everyone there and the servants waiting on the table now filled each one to the brim. Leo picked his up.

    ¡°May Our Lord''s teachings bring light upon this world,¡± he raised his cup.

    What the... Neville felt relieved. Well, this will be your last cup of wine. I hope you enjoy it.

    Leo drank down the contents in one go. Gemili was the next to drink, and Neville followed suit.

    Gemili, the wine connoisseur, wiped his lips. ¡°That was delicious,¡± he beamed. ¡°My home area produces good grapes, but I didn''t know that you had such excellent wine in Atall.¡±

    ¡°Did you enjoy it? Then I''ll make sure you receive a barrel later.¡±

    ¡°I''m very grateful.¡±

    ¡°But did you know that there''s a secret about how this is produced? Once you hear it, I''m not sure you will still want it, Father Gemili,¡± Leo laughed teasingly, and Father Gemili went along with the joke.

    ¡°Oh? I wonder what it is. Don''t tell me that the secret ingredient is insects, which any right-minded man hates?¡±

    ¡°It''s something close,¡± Leo put his cup back down on the table then continued, ¡°this wine contains the same poison that I drank, five days ago.¡±

    He smiled radiantly as he made that announcement.

    Part 2

    When heard the word ''poison'', Father Gemili started coughing furiously. The soldiers of the Holy See, disguised as priests, stared at each other in horror. As Leo watched, them, he continued speaking.

    ¡°How do you like the taste of poison, gentlemen? The speed at which it takes effect varies from person to person. Perhaps you''re already feeling as though you''re suffocating? Some of you might be getting dizzy. At this point, the Devil has probably already raised his gleaming scythe over some of your heads. Oh, but then some of you might be lucky enough to see heavenly messengers come for you, trumpets in hand. You should go through those gates to the sky,¡± he chuckled.

    Gemili was clutching at his own throat. It looked like he had only realised he was suffocating after Leo had pointed it out. Some of the other soldiers were also clawing at their own bodies, while others were simply staggering around.

    ¡°What the hell,¡± screamed a soldier of the Holy See, his face scarlet. ¡°Lord Leo... bastard, you plotted against us?¡±

    Godwin seized the man by the shoulder just as he was about to rush towards the casket. The soldier was on the verge of loosing his sanity; he tried to shake Godwin off by force, but this was, after all, the ''colossal monk''. His feet seemed to have taken root, and he didn''t budge at all.

    For a second, it looked as though the entire place was going to be thrown into chaos.

    ¡°A prank.¡±

    It was Neville who had spoken loudly to prevent the situation from getting worse. He then raised his empty cup, and tipped it sharply so that a few drops who remained at the bottom fell onto his lips. He licked them and said: ¡°Your Highness, I''d appreciate it if you put a stop to your prank. Is there some reason why you pretended to poison us, Lord Leo?¡± he laughed.

    It was what you could expect from a man who had witnessed countless scenes of carnage. Even though he he had been told that he had drunk poison, he turned to face the prince with a nonchalant air.

    ¡°I have a reason,¡± opposite him, Leo wiped away his own enigmatic smile and glared at those from Dytiann. ¡°Wasn''t every single one of you here planning to murder me? So what further reason did I need? You should savour in your own flesh the reward for baring your fangs at Leo Attiel, second prince of the principality of Atall.¡±

    ¡°You damn...¡± Another soldier lunged past Godwin''s side and tried to seize the casket.

    ¡°Wait,¡± Godwin stretched out his second hand and caught him by the shoulder.

    ¡°Let me go, Godwin.¡±

    ¡°I told you to wait.¡±

    Although Godwin''s expression was also one of desperation, he tried as much as possible to keep his voice under control. He didn''t know how to take the prince''s words, but Neville was still calm, and Godwin based himself on that to evaluate the situation.

    An unnatural silence fell between the two groups.

    For a while, they stayed still within this strange, uncomfortable silence thick with confusion, then... it vanished like the mist when Lord Leo''s laughter rang out a second time.

    ¡°That''s a man who''s dedicated his life to God''s teachings for you. You''re so calm that there''s no point trying to make fun of you. Yes, you''re right. I lied about poisoning you. This wine is the finest in Atall. I had it brought in for your enjoyment to embellish this stage which I set up here. I needed something sweet enough to be plausible as the last thing you would taste in this life.¡±

    ¡°W-What...¡± The priest bowed his head with an air of heartfelt relief. His complexion was so pasty that it looked like he really had drunk poison. ¡°My lord, that was atrocious,¡± whether from anger or relief, Gemili''s tone was vociferous. ¡°I am one who received sacred orders in Dytiann. This isn''t some amusing joke; you made a mockery of me. I demand that you apologise right here and now and...¡±

    ¡°However, not everything I said was a lie,¡± Leo interrupted Gemili has though bashing past him with a shield and glared at the soldiers disguised as monks. He raised his right hand and held up to fingers to count. ¡°There were two truths. The first is that you plotted to kill me.¡±

    He bent down one of his fingers. Neville, Godwin and the others watched, their mouths dry, as he lowered the second finger.

    ¡°The second is that, five days ago, I drank poison,¡± he stated calmly.

    Neville shook his head.

    ¡°We heard of course that Your Highness'' health was far from good. And we were also aware of the rumours that you may have been poisoned. However, surely you cannot believe that it was we who...¡±

    ¡°The one who poisoned me wasn''t someone from your group, and it definitely wasn''t Lord Oswell Taholin, who is being accused of it by the rumours.¡±

    ¡°Then who was it?¡±

    Leo''s right hand was still raised and he used it to point towards himself.

    ¡°It was me. I, Leo Attiel, put poison in my own wine cup.¡±

    The room once more erupted with noise and confusion.

    Is he insane? Even Neville couldn''t hide the thought that was written all over his face. Only the prince and the guards accompanying him had remained calm.

    Neville gulped before speaking up again.

    ¡°And... why in the world for?¡± he couldn''t help but ask.

    A faint smile once again appeared on the prince''s lips as he gave a small nod.

    ¡°The first reason was to buy some time.¡±

    ¡°Time?¡±

    ¡°I had intended to act according to how Oswell expected me to, but if I''d done that, then the enemy would have set the pace and I wouldn''t have been able to find out anything about their trap. So I pretended that my health collapsed, and used that time to gather information.¡±

    Leo suddenly directed his gaze towards the window. The soldier who looked like a boy reacted to the signal and headed in that direction. Leo turned back to Neville.

    ¡°I say ''pretend'', but it wouldn''t have been easy to deceive Oswell and the others with a fake illness. So I decided to take a poison I''d received from one of my men, dilute it in wine and water, and drink it. And as a result, absolutely no one doubted that I was genuinely ill.¡±

    Honestly... The one who sighed in frustration from not knowing how to vent his own anger wasn''t anyone from Dytiann, but rather the warrior monk at Leo''s side, Camus.

    They had probably forgotten how he had gone ashen when Leo collapsed, but that hadn''t been an act. Leo hadn''t told anyone except Kuon and Aqua about how he was going to poison his own wine. The poison itself was apparently something that Kuon had brought back from his native land.

    Leo had received a detailed explanation about the concoction from Kuon. How much did it have to be dilluted so that the effects would be as weak as possible, but without being so weak that it become pointless? What was the right quantity to cause symptoms that would allow him to stay in bed for three or four days without attracting suspicion? By all accounts, Kuon had strongly objected at first.

    ¡°I''m not a shaman, so I don''t understand it all that well, but it''s dangerous, Prince. It had different effects on different people. Even if you dilute it, you could die from suddenly swallowing it. And even if you don''t, you can go blind, or lose the use of your arms and legs... the shaman who made Sarah drink it said so.¡±

    Leo, however, was every bit as stubborn. The horned snake poison in Kuon''s possession could not be obtained anywhere near Atall. Which made it perfect for deceiving the doctors, and if it looked like something which had been specially concocted, then the surroundings were sure to start whispering that Oswell might have been planning his assassination. And that in turn could be used to uncover the relationship between Oswell and Dytiann, which Leo was still unclear about at the time.

    Which was why he ordered Kuon and Aqua to carefully observe how people reacted in the instant that he took the poison and collapsed. It was simple. Easy. When Leo fell, what would be the first thing that Oswell and the monks from Dytiann would look at? Oswell stared at those from Dytiann. And as for the party from Dytiann... on the one hand, there was Gemili, who seemed shaken and confused, whereas the rest of the group looked at each other. Not a single one of them turned to gaze at Oswell.

    That didn''t reveal the whole story, of course, but it provided a piece of the puzzle that allowed Leo to guess at the situation.

    But when the prince told Camus about it afterwards, the warrior monk naturally flew into a rage.

    ¡°Why didn''t you tell me about it? No... first of all, you must have been mad to take some unknown poison!¡± He shouted so fiercely that it made his muscles heave but, as the prince continued to weaken day by day, Camus'' tone softened.

    As he nursed the prince, who was losing his strength and growing increasingly haggard, Camus mulled over his thoughts.

    How amazing he is. God granted me as my destiny to meet this man, the conviction which had come to him when they were entering Olt Rose flitted across his mind.

    Alright. In that case, I''ll take poison too, he decided. In other words, if Leo believed it to be necessary, then Camus would obey him even to the end. As long as Leo lived, Camus would not be a single step apart from him, and if Leo died, then he would choose to join him in the same grave.

    Camus was prepared to live his life that way.

    So you need to be prepared as well, Lord Leo, he whispered silently that night, as he wiped the sweat that was pouring from Leo''s feverish brow. You are someone who will never be allowed to die alone. And even if, in the future, you want to live a peaceful and solitary life, I will never allow you to. I will always drag you back to the front stage, whether I have to cling to your legs and lick your boots, or prod you with a spear. So be prepared, Lord Leo, Your Highness....

    ¡°It was Oswell who brought you gentlemen over here. Yet at the same time... you aren''t aware that you''re collaborating with him,¡± Leo''s words had all the force of a spell, binding his audience. He continued his recitation while Neville and the others remained rooted in place.

    ¡°Basing myself on that hypothesis, I had my subordinates gather information. Investigating at random is about the same as wandering aimlessly in a desert. So as a starting premise, that one wasn''t too bad. Especially if we''re talking about Father Gemili...¡±

    Leo glanced sideways towards him, and the priest almost jumped out of his skin just from that. He ¨C and he alone ¨C couldn''t understand anything about how events were unfolding. He was still worried even now about whether he might really have drunk poison.

    ¡°It was very fortunate that we were able to get closer to you,¡± Leo gave him a small bow.

    Gemili still didn''t understand, but I''m sure there is no need to point the identity of the ''young, high-class girl'' who approached him while he was going out to have fun every night...

    There, in Aconrey, where there were no eyes to strictly monitor the clergyman, he indulged in the wine he was so fond of, and talked about everything that the girl asked him about. About how Bishop Baal had suddenly ordered him to temporarily leave for Atall, and how, for some reason, the monks travelling with him were all unfamiliar faces to Gemili. About how the monks were carrying a large casket containing ''sacred relics,'' and how Baal had strictly admonished him not to touch it...

    Naturally, information was also being hastily gathered from other directions, including details about the schedule for this meeting. They also found out that they would not be allowed to bring weapons into the room. Moreover, they found out that soldiers would be defending the road to the mansion ''just in case'', so they also collected information on how many guards there would be and where they would be positioned.

    ¡°I was able to guess quite a lot from all that. Maybe about eighty percent. As for the remaining twenty percent... well, there''s no point being too greedy, and we just had to take a gamble on the rest.¡±

    ¡°A gamble, you say,¡± there was a faint sheen of sweat on Neville''s forehead as he repeated those words.

    What had happened was neither a prank nor an act of mockery. The prince who stood before him had fully realised that the group from Dytiann were a secret unit sent to assassinate him. Even for Neville, who was usually calm and collected, the situation was as unexpected as it was horrifying.

    Yet at the same time, there were a lot of points that Neville found hard to understand. It was his first time hearing that Oswell Taholin was in on this, but setting that aside, it seemed that even though Leo had figured out the real nature of the ''relics'', he had not confiscated the weapons. And his own guards were unarmed. Had the contents of the casket been replaced? No, Neville and the soldiers of the Holy See had never had it out of their sight. They themselves had carried it into the room, and they had checked the contents just before doing so.

    What is this? What''s he thinking?

    When he had first seen the prince, he had felt compassion for his youth, but now Leo towered before him as an enigmatic and powerful enemy. He felt thirsty. Even when he had been in the middle of ferocious battles, and even during his long imprisonment, or his time as a fugitive before that, not a single ripple had ever caused a disturbance in his heart. As far as Neville was concerned, the world would always be easy to understand. The pope''s enemies were his enemies. And those who fought those enemies and who risked their life to accomplish the same goal as him were his friends. A man who could draw the world along such simple lines was one who could remain strong even to the very end. Neville''s boldness, as well as his calm, came from that. But this time, too many complicated things were jumbled together.

    Neville swallowed again. It felt like his throat was constricted. Just when he finally managed to open his mouth again ¨C ¡°Prince.¡±

    By the window, the boy-soldier ¨C Kuon, called out.

    ¡°They''re making their move?¡± Leo asked shortly, his eyes still fixed on the group from Dytiann.

    Kuon nodded. ¡°About a hundred of them. They''re divided into platoons, and they''re using the bushes and the fountain as cover as they approach.¡±

    ¡°I see fire,¡± said Aqua, who was watching from another window. ¡°They''ve probably prepared fire arrows.¡±

    At that point, Leo''s expression changed. The smile vanished from his lips, and his face took on a firm look.

    ¡°It''s just as you heard. They will soon be attacking this place.¡±

    ¡°Attacking?¡± Neville was startled. ¡°Are you going to kill us without even a proper interrogation because you think we tried to kill you?¡±

    ¡°Their target isn''t you. It''s me.¡± For a while now, Leo had been staring unblinkingly at Neville''s face. ¡°Oswell''s soldiers have surrounded the mansion, and they will soon be shooting fire arrows. They think you''ve already killed me. But even if you hadn''t, it wouldn''t matter. The mansion would still be engulfed in flames, with armed soldiers waiting at the exits. All of you, as well as myself, are destined to end our lives here, as charred corpses.¡±

    Around the same time as the events in the meeting room, the soldiers blockading the road to the mansion had lit bonfires and were keeping a careful watch on their surroundings by the light from them.

    It was boring work. Normally, the happy-go-lucky soldiers would have brought liquor along, but this time, they had received strict orders from their domain lord to: ¡°Let absolutely no one pass.¡± On top of which, Oswell had also insistently repeated to their captain that: ¡°Even if something happens, you are not to leave your posts.¡±

    ¡°If villains try to attack, it''s absolutely certain that they will create a distraction to divert the guards'' attention. Do you understand? Spears would come raining down on you, so you are not to decide any kind of action on your own. Don''t move even a single soldier. There are other units stationed closer to the mansion whose duty it is to protect the prince and the monks, so the only thing you should be thinking about is blockading the road. And don''t forget it!¡±

    That was how monumentally important their mission was.

    The guards of course knew that Lord Leo was currently at the mansion. Up until a while ago, they had been exchanging comments on the sexy and beautiful landlady at a recently refurbished inn in Aconrey, but by now, they had used up their topics for idle chatter, and were keeping watch while fighting back yawns.

    Just then, they felt the presence of a large group of people who had come from the direction of the town, and all of the guards quickly stood up, their weapons at the ready. Could there really be an attack on the mansion while the prince was in it... they wondered. But only for a second. Peaceful laughter was coming from the group. From their appearance, it looked like townspeople from Aconrey. Still, it was strange that they were headed towards a mansion in the suburbs at this time of day.

    ¡°Hold, hold,¡± the soldiers brandished their spears to stop them. ¡°What''s your business? You can''t go any further than here. His Highness Lord Leo is here.¡±

    After saying that, the soldiers tried to chase the group back, but the people ¨C who included young and old, and men and women alike ¨C looked displeased.

    ¡°His Highness is the one who asked us to come,¡± they announced. It was the first the soldiers had heard of it.

    Although the prince''s collapse had been kept as hidden as possible, rumours about it had flown around the town at astonishing speed. Several well-known merchants had then apparently gone to the castle with gifts, claiming that they were get-well presents. For safety reasons, very few of the items actually reached him personally, but Leo Attiel was impressed by the warmth of the people of Aconrey.

    ¡°It was thanks to your care and to your prayers that I recovered. I would dearly like for you all to come and see for yourselves how I''ve recovered,¡± he had said, and had officially anounced that he could be found that evening at the mansion which was being converted into a church.

    ¡°We didn''t hear about anything like that,¡± the soldiers were bewildered. Word had spread throughout the entire town, and more people were arriving behind this first group.

    ¡°Hurry up and let us through. Otherwise, we won''t get to see the prince!¡±

    ¡°W-Wait. I told you to wait. We''ll go and have it confirmed. Don''t you dare move from here!¡±

    Soldiers and townspeople were pushing and tussling in the street when suddenly, the towspeople stopped protesting in annoyance and instead all started screaming.

    Now what is it?

    The townspeople pointed towards the wall. When the soldiers turned back and looked up, they too all let out involuntary shouts. Of all possible things, flames were rising from the mansion which was currently housing Lord Leo. The blaze was already so big that it cast a glow on people''s faces, and it seemed to be burning with particular ferocity on the second floor of the building.

    Naturally, the soldiers were also thrown into a panic. ¡°No matter what happens, you can''t let anyone through, and you can''t move from your posts¡± ¨C those were the firm order they had received from their domain lord. Part of the reason for those orders was so that, when Oswell returned because he had ''heard that there was a disturbance,'' he would be able to lead these soldiers into chasing after the ''criminals''.

    However, in Oswell''s plan, that was only supposed to happen after the mansion was completely engulfed in flames. He had not thought for a second that there would be townspeople there to witness the fire.

    The townspeople shouted at the soldiers, anger and worry in their voices.

    ¡°Hurry up and go put that fire out!¡±

    ¡°No, before that, you have to save His Highness!¡±

    The soldiers also lost a lot of their vigilance. Taking advantage of that, several people broke free of the soldiers and tried to get closer to the mansion. But the gates were shut fast and the walls were high and perpendicular, making them impossible to climb.

    At that moment, a new group of armed soldiers came running up. Judging from their uniforms, they must also have been on guard that evening.

    ¡°What are you standing about for? We have to get in there right away and rescue the prince,¡± they exclaimed, and ordered the original group of guards to open the gates.

    ¡°B-But, we received orders from Lord Oswell. There are other people guarding the mansion else...¡±

    ¡°You fools!¡± roared one of the new arrivals. ¡°What if those guards have already been defeated? If you just stand there without doing anything, Lord Oswell will have your heads!¡±

    True, that was probably what had happened. The captain of the guards, who had the key to the gates, opened them from the outside.

    ¡°Follow us!¡±

    Urged on by the newly arrived group of soldiers, the guards who had been sternly ordered not to move from their posts also threw themselves into the estate.

    Part 3

    Smoke had entered the room and there were noises that sounded like the walls were shaking as they were hit by a quick succession of fire arrows. Neville''s group cried out in fear, but Lord Leo glanced at the window with about as much interest as he would have if a strong wind were blowing, and got up from his seat.

    ¡°Once the ground floor is blocked because of the fire, we won''t have any escape route. We''ll go down.¡±

    ¡°H-Hold on,¡± Neville called out, feeling that he needed to gain some control over the situation. However ¨C

    ¡°If you want to end up burned to a crisp, by all means, do as you like. But we have no reason to stay with you. Oh, right, we need to call the servants in the mansion. Since they''re also caught up in this, it obviously means that they weren''t part of the plot,¡± Leo started to leave, accompanied by his unarmed guards.

    ¡°Wait. We''ll go first. Neville and the others will follow at the rear,¡± Godwin just barely managed to gather his wits.

    Leo''s group and the servants would be placed between the two halves of the Dytiann delegation, so that they could not escape. Leo, who had stopped walking away to listen, now shrugged.

    ¡°I''m fine with that too. Oh... don''t forget the weapons. I''m sure you''ll need them.¡±

    He pointed to the casket as he said that.

    It was embarrassing, but there was no point in hiding it now, so Neville and the others opened the casket, and handed out the various weapons to their companions.

    Neville was holding a halberd, his weapon of choice. In addition to the sharp pike at its tip, there was an axe-head and a claw-like thorn mounted on the spear shaft. It was, of course, far heavier than an ordinary spear and could be used in far more ways when wielded with skill and discernment, but there were not many who had mastered the weapon to that degree. Neville took pride in being one of the few such masters, but who knew if that would be of any use in this situation.

    We''re being chased by fire and the one guiding us away from it is the target we were supposed to kill. And on top of that, he''s saying that someone other than us is aiming for his life, and that we were also supposed to die here.

    This had all been planned.

    Neville understood that very well.

    And he could easily guess that Baal and Oswell had secretly conspired together and were going to lay the entire blame for Leo''s assassination on the soldiers of the old Holy See.

    But what I don''t get...

    ...Was Leo Attiel.

    He had attended the meeting despite being fully aware of everything. And he must obviously have known that Neville''s group has been given the task of murdering him. What was he trying to do by being so stupid as to face the danger of being cut down, on top of the risk of being burned alive thanks to Oswell?

    Leo stopped at the entrance hall on the first floor. The building was still sound there, but the fire had already closed in to the point where the flames could be seen from where the group stood. Heat and thic smoke were starting to fill the area. At this rate, they were likely to suffocate before the fire had a chance to reach them.

    Leo turned to Neville, who had arrived last, and jerked his chin towards the entrance.

    ¡°Break it down,¡± he said. Seeing Neville''s surprise, he explained: ¡°The doors are probably locked. You took a lot of trouble to bring those weapons along, so you might as well put them to good use.¡±

    From his tone of voice, it sounded like he was spelling things out for a fool, incapable of understanding reason. Neville had gone beyond surprise and was now so literally dumbfounded that he could no longer speak, but the other soldiers were still highly excitable.

    ¡°Does a princeling from a tiny little country think that he can order us around?¡± they brandished their weapons, but before Neville and Godwin had time to stop them, Leo barked with laughter.

    ¡°Are you still talking about murdering me, at this point? You''re so simple-minded it''s almost cute. Then go on, tell me, what reason do you guys have for killing me? And once you''ve killed me, what exactly will you have achieved?¡±

    ¡°W-What!¡±

    ¡°The one who set you up to all of this was Bishop Baal, right? Who used to be your enemy. Baal was going to use you to get rid of me, and there was no way he was going to let you live after that. The names of those who murdered Lord Leo would be made public one after another, and you would have been held entirely responsible for the crime.¡±

    Neville and the others had no way of knowing that right then, Leo was taking another gamble. He still had no definite proof of their real identities. But given that Baal was using them for his own ends, it meant that it would not harm the current regime in Dytiann if their names were openly revealed. Based on those facts, he speculated that they might well be part of the Holy See, and thus enemies of the government now in power.

    Whether it was Neville, Godwin or the other soldiers, none of them were able to utter a word.

    They had defended the Holy See to the bitter end. When the nobles and all those eminent clergymen with their impressive titles had fled before the fires of war, only the soldiers like them had remained among the flames, risking their lives to fight.

    Their heavily wounded friends had smiled at them and said: ¡°Well then, we''ll be seeing you. With God''s guidance, our souls will be safe in Heaven, so let''s meet there again one day.¡± And with those words, they had gone charging in the lead to fight enemy units that outnumbered their own two or three times over. Their backs had stood in front of Neville and the others, who remembered each and every one of them.

    At some point, the corner of Neville''s eyes had grown hot. If their names were stained like this, they would never be able to face His Holiness the Pope, who had already left this world, nor their companions who had bravely gone their deaths. Better by far to perish in the fire.

    No, he corrected that impulse. They couldn''t die here. Even if they hadn''t touched him, if their corpses were found with the dead prince, the crime would be pushed onto them.

    ¡°Guwah!¡± Neville swung his halberd and started to hack at the door, the axe-head crashing into the solid wood.

    Godwin followed suit, using his longsword, and then other soldiers joined in after that. Before long, they had smashed the door to pieces. Before the fresh evening air could even blow in through it, Neville and his companions caught sight of a group of fully armed soldiers.

    Oswell''s handpicked men, no doubt. Unlike the unit which had been left to guard the road, this lot knew about the plot to assassinate Leo. And their mission was to kill every single person who attempted to escape from the mansion.

    Upon seeing that the door had been hacked open, they had quickly readied their spears and shields yet, even though their faces were entirely hidden beneath their helmets, it was clear that they were shaken. It had been within their expectations that some people might manage to break out of the mansion, but they would never have imagined that Lord Leo would emerge together with the very group from the Holy See which was supposed to have already killed him.

    Before the soldiers had time to get over the shock, Neville and his group launched their attack. These were men who had once born the duty of single-handedly defending the Holy See; and as was to be expected, their skill was outstanding. Neville''s halberd was as swift and decisive as the wrath of God. He had already taken down one, then two soldiers before anyone had time to even blink.

    Watching that from behind, Camus roared and picked up a spear which one of Oswell''s fallen soldiers had dropped.

    ¡°I''ll help you too. So I''d appreciate it if you don''t mistake me for an enemy!¡±

    With that, he stood next to Neville and added his spear to the fray. Kuon, Aqua and the other Personal Guards also grabbed weapons from the enemy and stood in ranks, guarding Leo as he made a leisurely exit from the broken door.

    Friend and foes alike were being cut down. In the middle of that hard battle, Neville glanced back just once to where Leo was.

    Surrounded by guards on either side, the prince was observing the fight with interest. That soldier who looked like a child was far stronger than Neville could ever have imagined. If an enemy started to get anywhere near the prince, he drew up to them as fast as the wind and struck them down with the speed of lightning.

    In the middle of those frantic, hectic surroundings, only Lord Leo remained standing still, as the fighting had absolutely nothing to do with him. Appearance-wise, he was very thin, with sunken cheeks and haggard looks. Yet far from seeming frail, the atmosphere that enveloped him was somewhat detached, almost transcendental even. The fire blazed behind him, twisting and leaping like some huge dragon.

    Neville''s heart was shaken. He felt that he had just seen something that was far out of the ordinary.

    He quickly turned back around and dealt with an enemy spear, hooking it by the claw of his halberd. He gave a sharp yank, and the spear was wrested out of his opponent''s hands. Seizing that chance, the tip of Camus'' weapon pierced the soldier''s throat.

    Godwin was also in the middle of an intense struggle as he swung his remarkably large sword. Every strike he took was so fierce that it almost seemed to raise a storm, and not a single one of Oswell''s soldiers could find an opening to attack. As they staggered back, they soon got caught up in the tempest and their helmeted heads went flying.

    But Neville and the others were only able to overrun the enemy for a short space of time. Even though the soldiers had initially been bewildered by the unexpected development, they still held the overwhelming numerical advantage. Platoons which had been stationed at different exits came running one after another to join the fight, until the small group was encircled by a net of enemies that was two or three rows deep.

    The soldiers who had once been part of the Cruciform Army were all unflinchingly brave, but overturning this situation was all but impossible. Several of their companions had already fallen, and the net was slowly but surely tightening around them. If their numbers decreased any further, their hastily constructed formation would crumble and they would be trampled to the ground.

    At this rate...

    A hint of unease flitted across Neville''s ascetic-looking face but, next to him, Camus was still wielding his spear like a man possessed and didn''t show any sign of anxiety. Neville felt a strange sensation; it was looking at themselves, back when they had fought in the name of God without fear of death.

    Just then, from the other side of the encircling net of soldiers, another group came hurrying. If those had been Leo''s Personal Guards, it would have led to a dramatic reversal, but unfortunately, those were more of Oswell''s men.

    It was over.

    Yet just when Neville was grinding his teeth, an astonishing thing occurred.

    ¡°Your Highness!¡±

    ¡°We''ll save you!¡±

    For some reason, the new group had started to break the encirclement from the rear.

    These were the guards who had been blockading the road until just a while earlier.

    ©¤ Perhaps the simplest way to explain it would be to say that this was Oswell Taholin''s one mistake.

    It was absolutely normal that Oswell didn''t tell too many people about his plan to assassinate the prince. The soldiers on guard had only received orders not to let anyone approach the mansion, to which he had added the strict injunction not to move from their posts no matter what happened, since it would be a problem for him if they moved into action upon seeing the mansion go up in flames.

    But it was then that the unexpected happened. A great crowd of townspeople converged there and, on top of that, a different set of guards slipped in among them and shouted for the gates to be opened...

    Correct: they were Leo''s Personal Guards. While the prince had been bedridden, the Guards had collected the same kind of uniforms and equipment that Oswell''s soldiers used. Among the chaos caused by the townspeople''s outcry, tthey pretended to urge their fellow soldiers to open the gates. And so, what was the first thing that the soldiers on guard had seen when they rushed into the estate?

    That goes without saying: it was the sight of Lord Leo surrounded by armed men. And just as naturally, they deduced that: ¡°The armed group set fire to the mansion and is trying to kill the prince!¡± Which was how the situation developed in a strange and ¨C as far as Oswell was concerned ¨C remarkably unfortunate way, with soldiers who had originally been serving him now fighting against soldiers who also belonged to him.

    ¡°W-Wait!¡± Oswell''s soldiers cried out in confusion.

    ¡°Don''t bother arguing!¡± Those of Oswell''s soldiers who had been in charge of guarding the roads were desperate to kill these bandits. They felt that in a way, the fire at the mansion was their own fault. True, Oswell and Lord Leo would probably reprimand them later, but, at the very least, they were determined that they would take down this band of villains themselves and protect the prince at all cost.

    Now that things had come to this point, Oswell''s soldiers had no hope of winning. They had already been having trouble with Neville''s group, even though it wasn''t a large one, and now they were being attacked on both sides.

    Assailants, guards, soldiers of the Holy See and Leo''s Personal Guards... there was a wide range of soldiers in that fight, but the flames shone on all of them equally, and the shadows they cast overlapped with one another, then disappeared one after another.

    Part 4

    When the pillars of the mansion collapsed and the second floor caved in with a resounding crash, there was someone who was planning to come galopping up just a little too late. That person was Oswell Taholin.

    After leaving the meeting on the pretext that he had business to attend to, he launched himself into action with carefully planned timing.

    ¡°What! The mansion is burning?¡± He performed his part, pretending to hear the news from a soldier then hurriedly throwing himself on a horse.

    Unlike Darren or Bernard, he had never once stood on the battlefield. And actually, he wasn''t used to horses either, but it would look bad if he went by carriage or rode behind one of his subordinates. So, since there was no helping it, he rushed over on horseback. He travelled along the road while suffering a thousand torments.

    The blaze was visible even from a distance. Although his heart was leaping with excitement, he made it look like he was unbearably worried about the prince''s safety.

    Even so, Oswell noticed something unexpected along the way: the guards who should have been blockading the road were not there. In his initial plan, he was supposed to come galloping up and find them staring in shock and horror at the fire, at which point he would have yelled at them: ¡°What are you doing? Can''t you even move unless you''re told to? Follow me! We''re going to save His Highness!¡± After which, he would have lead them to the mansion.

    But the soldiers weren''t there and instead, there was a gathering of townspeople.

    ¡°It''s Lord Taholin,¡± a sharp-eyed youth pointed towards Oswell.

    ¡°Lord Oswell is here!¡± a man past his forties cried out with relief.

    ¡°Please, you have to hurry to the prince!¡± a woman begged him, clasping her hands.

    Oswell had a bad feeling. Still, now that he had attracted so much attention ¨C and since they knew that the prince had been attacked ¨C he could no longer turn back.

    As long as the results are there, it''s fine, Oswell decided, changing his mind.

    Even if the guards had been drawn towards the blaze, Leo was certainly dead inside the building. ¡°After the mansion which was being renovated into a church burned down, the only thing we found were the remains of Lord Leo and of the monks from Dytiann. And as a matter of fact, it appears that those monks belonged to the former Holy See, and that they were enemies of the current Church¡± ¨C things would still be fine as long as those facts remained.

    And so, Oswell only had a few soldiers with him as he arrived at what remained of the new church, which barely even resembled a building by now. The first thing which caught his eye were the corpses of soldiers littering the front garden. They had been part of the unit which had set fire to the place.

    Oh! ¨C just as he was starting to really worry, his eye alighted on what looked like good news for him.

    Neville, Godwin and the rest of the group from Dytiann were surrounded by the road guards.

    ¡°G-Good work,¡± Oswell called out, practically tumbling from his horse in his haste to get down from it. ¡°Are they the criminals? From what I''ve heard, they suddenly grabbed weapons and attacked the prince during the meeting, is that right?¡±

    There had been some unexpected developments along the way, but the end result was still the same. The prince''s party was unarmed, so they couldn''t have failed to be killed. The main purpose had been achieved, so afterwards, he just needed to pretend that Neville''s captured group had been made to confess, and everything else would go as planned.

    Oswell crumpled to his knees.

    ¡°How can this be!¡±

    It was a magnificent play, performed by a world-class actor. As the endless mass of dark smoke was sucked into the night sky, he roared in a voice so powerful that his throat was trembling.

    ¡°If only I hadn''t left the mansion... Oh, Your Highness, Your Highness, forgive me! What could be more bitter than knowing that something like this happened in my territory...¡±

    ¡°You don''t need to blame yourself to that extent, Oswell.¡±

    ¡°W-What are you saying? His Highness is dead. So how could I not blame myself...¡±

    Out of reflex, Oswell turned to look towards the voice that had spoken to him, and his eyes almost started out of his head.

    From behind Neville and Godwin, Leo Attiel appeared with unhurried steps. Oswell felt like he was seeing a ghost.

    ¡°Did I die? You''re awfully hasty, Oswell. As you can see, I''m as well as can be. So there''s no need for you to blame yourself to that extent.¡±

    ¡°Ah... Oh...¡± Oswell could only blink in confusion, unable to say a word.

    H-How? How!? He howled inwardly. Those useless bastards! What peerless soldiers of the Cruciform Army''? They couldn''t even kill one unguarded brat!

    ¡°Nevertheless, Oswell... It''s true that security was lacking. I almost lost my life.¡±

    ¡°T-That... yes, of course... huh, that''s...¡± Oswell spluttered, barely managing to say anything at all. Sweat was pouring like a waterfall from his brow, and he was desperate to mop it up. ¡°B-But it''s inexcusable to have targeted your life, Your Highness. Are these the culprits?¡±

    He pointed towards Neville and the others, but Leo laughed the idea to scorn.

    ¡°Them, the criminals? Certainly not. They''re the ones who saved me from the attackers.¡±

    Oswell gulped. The looks that Neville, Godwin and the others were directing towards him were as sharp as the bloody blades of their weapons.

    ¡°Now then,¡± Leo glanced back towards the remains of the mansion that were still merrily blazing away, ¡°let¡¯s go somewhere where we can talk for a bit, Oswell.¡±

    From where he crouched, still collapsed on the ground, Oswell Taholin hunched his shoulders slightly.

    Leo Attiel entered Aconrey¡¯s castle with Camus and Kuon in tow. To Oswell¡¯s amazement, there were already soldiers from the Personal Guards stationed throughout the building. According to the castle servants, these soldiers had barged in and started searching the rooms.

    ¡°I had them search,¡± Leo said laconically. He explained that since he did not know who had tried to kill him, he had extended his investigation far and wide.

    Oswell could not oppose him. Even though this was his own castle, Leo all but guided him to a narrow room in the watchtower within its right wing. It was a dreary place, with a rough wooden table and several chairs sandwiched between the stone walls, and it was only used by soldiers on guard duty when they took their breaks.

    Leo first sat down, then gestured to Oswell to take a seat opposite him.

    While Oswell sat with his face turned downwards, waiting for what Leo had to say, the second prince of Atall studied the room with considerable interest.

    ¡°I-It can¡¯t possibly be...¡± Finally, unable to bear the piercing silence any longer, Oswell opened his mouth to speak. Leo turned to look at him and Oswell ran his tongue over his parched lips before continuing. ¡°It can¡¯t possibly be, Your Highness, that you suspect me?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m only having the castle searched to be on the safe side. If anything, it will help make sure that no suspicion falls on you in the future, Lord Taholin.¡±

    ¡°I-Is that so? B-But, I¡¯ve heard that there are some bad rumours going around. When Your Highness collapsed, some were saying that I might have poisoned you...¡±

    ¡°My life is made to be targeted,¡± Leo said cheerfully as he pointed to his own chest. ¡°I was almost killed when I was in Allion. Darren attacked me in the resort area. And now this time as well. My life has been targeted so often that nowadays, every time I meet someone, I wonder if they aren¡¯t trying to kill me. So Oswell, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised even if you had tried to poison me.¡±

    ¡°P-Please don¡¯t joke about it,¡± his sweat was still flowing freely. It was almost impossible to believe that this was the same man whose attitude had been that of an adult talking to a mere child when he had spoken with Leo at the banquet held for Hayden.

    Drinks were brought in at that point. Leo picked up both of the cups brimming with wine and held one out to Oswell.

    ¡°Father Gemili of Dytiann greatly enjoyed this. I brought it over from Bernard¡¯s lands. Apparently, it¡¯s a good area for producing wine.¡±

    ¡°Er, yes, the wine there is... er, really...¡± Oswell answered absently while desperately trying to think of a way to talk himself out of this situation.

    It was obvious that Leo suspected him. First things first, what method could he use to negotiate his way out of this position? Should he spout enough lies to fill up the entire castle, or maybe cling tearfully to the much younger Leo? Either way, whatever worked.

    Then, as soon as he was let free, he would have no choice but to flee to Allion to seek asylum. Unfortunately, he would have to resign himself to not receiving the splendid welcome that he had once imagined. When he pictured the miserable sight of himself escaping by night to avoid people¡¯s attention, Oswell wanted to cry.

    He took the wine cup and poured, first one, then a second mouthful down his throat.

    ¡°Is it tasty?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes,¡± he answered while completely unable to taste anything. ¡°Y-Your Highness, the Taholin family shares a strong relationship with the princely house. Please, I beg of you to calmly consider the truth without being deceived by absurd rumours.¡±

    ¡°And that''s what I''ve told you I''m doing.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that may be so, but...¡± Oswell started to argue further, but his words came out slurred. It looked like he was unusually tense.

    Oswell tried to pull himself together and align his arguments, but now it felt like the entire interior of his mouth had gone numb and he couldn''t even tell if his mouth was open or not. Saliva dribbled from his lips.

    ¡°Yurr Hinass,¡± he spoke indistinctly, ¡°Y-Yurr Hinass...¡±

    ¡°Is the wine tasty, Oswell?¡± Leo asked again.

    Oswell felt as though he had been struck in the middle of the forehead. He tried to rise from his seat, but had no strength to do so. His chair fell backwards, and Oswell landed pathetically on his backside.

    ¡°L-Leo, Leeeoh, you... bastard...¡±

    He tried to stand up by holding on to the wall. His legs were shaking like those of a new-born calf, and his waist was trembling, but he finally managed to stand, only for his hands to suddenly slip. His nails left faint scratch marks behind them as he collapsed into a crouch, coughing violently. The wine that he had drunk earlier splattered against the stone floor. He threw up a second time.

    That''s...

    Oswell fearfully wiped his mouth. That red colour didn''t only come from the wine. It was blood.

    His breathing suddenly grew rough. Something as simple as just breathing in and breathing out had become so very difficult all of a sudden.

    He couldn''t breathe in. Or out.

    He felt dizzy. Even though he was supposed to be nearby, the contours of Leo Attiel''s figure had become hazy, as though the details wouldn''t bind together anymore. But within Oswell Taholin''s field of vision, he could still make out the strange smile on Leo''s face.

    That bastard.... that bastard...

    Oswell unconsciously clawed at his own chest. He tore at his clothes as if they were suffocating him. When he had scratched enough at his chest, he collapsed, face up.

    Oswell''s mind would never puzzle over anything ever again.

    After watching the whole scene unfold, Leo drank what remained of his own wine and stood up.

    ¡°What is this?¡± he asked Camus, who had been by his side the whole time.

    The warrior monk from Conscon Temple bowed his head.

    ¡°Lord Oswell Taholin probably couldn''t bear the thought of facing his punishment. While being interrogated by His Highness Leo, he resigned himself to the fact that he could no longer hope to escape, and so mixed the poison that he had been concealing within his clothes into his wine. He committed suicide.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Leo nodded expressionlessly. ¡°Then that''s how it is.¡±

    ¡°Aye, that''s how it is,¡± Camus bowed. His manner was as unwavering as an iron wall. He was, after all, a man who had decided that if Leo drank poison, then he would drink it too.

    Camus continued to bow as he watched Leo Attiel leave the narrow room. The wind was blowing listlessly as the prince stepped out of the watchtower. The clouds must have finally lifted since there were countless stars in the sky when he looked up.

    ¡°Somebody... Is anybody there?¡± He heard Camus call loudly from inside the room. It was already late at night, but many people were still up and about inside the castle. The whole place would soon be in uproar.

    As though wanting to enjoy the brief moment of quiet before that happened, Leo continued to look up at the stars for a long time.

 Volume 4, Epilogue

    Volume 4, Epilogue

    Percy Leegan left Guinbar and made his way to Aconrey about ten days after receiving the news of Oswell Taholin''s death.

    Within Archon, the towns and villages alike had been thrown into confusion. There had only just been the affair with Darren Actica. Like most of the principality, the people of Archon had turned Darren into a target for mud-slinging:

    That high-and-mighty lord noble sure was stupid for turning his arrows against the princely House.

    He must have been jealous of His Highness'' fame after he rescued the temple.

    Fundamentally, though, it was simply someone else''s problem, and they would never have dreamed that the lord governing them would ever have plotted to assassinate Leo. The search made in Aconrey''s castle had apparently revealed some documents which indicated a connection between Oswell and the late Darren. The people of Archon were shocked and grieved. When their domain lord died, the younger people wondered with eager anticipation if something different from the usual might happen, while the older ones worried that their peaceful days might be shattered.

    From what Percy had heard, reactions at court had also been varied. Usually, he would have have sent messengers to Tiwana, or asked the people from his parents'' house to gather information, but right now, he didn''t have the composure for that.

    He was furious at the prince, who had readily left behind someone who didn''t agree with his own opinion.

    I''m obviously not needed.

    Disgruntled and sulky, Percy made a point of remaining at Guinbar with the soldiers that had been left with him, as per the prince''s orders.

    Since he went flying even though he knew it was a trap, he can just do whatever he likes.

    Since the prince had cut him off, he intended to cut the prince off too, yet no one knew better than Percy himself that he was just putting a brave front on things.

    He spent his days in Guinbar and by the time he received the news that: ¡°His Highness has collapsed,¡± the matter had already been settled over in Archon. When he heard about Oswell''s death, he himself wasn''t sure how he felt about it. His emotions were made up of surprise, admiration and anger.

    He''s always so impatient. At this rate, one of these days, he''ll be tripped up by a pebble by the roadside.

    Percy rode hurriedly to Aconrey. The first person he met there was Kuon. The sun had already set, but Percy was impatient.

    ¡°Where is His Highness?¡± he asked, intending to go see him at once. Kuon, however, shook his head.

    ¡°He''s resting... er, no, I mean ''His Highness is partaking of his rest''. You can see him tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Resting?¡±

    Even though the sun had set, it was still early in the evening.

    Percy could well imagine the uproar that Oswell''s death had caused in Tiwana. Normally, Leo would have made the first move by immediately going to the capital and explaining the circumstances. Yet for now, he had apparently left that task to one of his subordinates and was resting at ease at Aconrey''s castle.

    ¡°What is this? Does the prince think he can just slack off because he''s taken down his political opponents for now?¡± Percy bore down on Kuon with rare vehemence.

    Kuon seemed to find it a pain, but since he knew he wouldn''t be able to divert Percy''s attention, he resigned himself to telling him the full story about how they had driven Oswell to his death.

    What? The blood drained from Percy''s face. His emotions could no longer be described as simply a mix of surprise, admiration and anger. In order to deceive Oswell and gather information, Second Prince Leo had chosen to drink poison. And now, perhaps because of the after-effects, his state of health meant that he had to spend over half his days in bed.

    ¡°He''s slowly getting better. The doctor says he should be fine in a month. Oi... what''s wrong?¡±

    Seeing Percy start to sway, the boy-soldier quickly held out his hand. Roughly shaking away Kuon''s hand, the young Atallese noble felt like he wanted to laugh.

    It''s not going to make any difference, even if I worry about him ¨C his expression was somewhere between laughter and tears.

    There''s no telling where the prince''s enemies are, or when they will brandish a weapon at him... I was always being so careful because of that ¨C and then he goes and drinks poison of his own free will.

    Just do whatever you want, Lord Leo. I don''t care anymore. Don''t listen to what anyone says, don''t pay any attention to how much anyone worries about you, just go and do whatever you decide to do. Like hell I''d care about a reckless brat like you!

    Percy went alone to the bustling entertainment district and gulped down tasteless booze. A messenger from the castle came to fetch him almost at once however. Leo was already resting in bed, just as Kuon had said, but when he heard from him that Percy had arrived, he had apparently said he wanted to see him, and had sent a messenger. Said messenger was now glaring at Percy, his expression clearly saying that he had a hard time finding him.

    Percy was aware that he was already drunk. He wondered for a moment if he should turn him down, just like he had back when Liana''s father had tried to get closer to him. Still ¨C

    ¡°He ''wants to see me''? Hah, he ''wants to see me''! Fine, I''ll let him see me.¡± He left the tavern with drunken, tottering steps.

    As he approached the castle, his anger swelled all over again. Even though he had told himself that there was no way he cared about someone like the prince, there was no way he could stop himself from venting his complaints.

    Do you think everything in the world is always going to go the way you want? What an idiot. You should just go and swallow as much poison and as many blades as you like.

    He muttered savagely to himself.

    Yeah, and I''ll do the same. I won''t care even if I''m sent away from the Guards or if an assassin comes after the prince. I''ll just do whatever I like.

    He started snickering. The messenger was looking at him strangely as he brought him to the prince''s appartements.

    The door opened onto the antechamber, where Camus was.

    ¡°Bastard,¡± Percy was the first to speak. He was going to immediately seize the monk by his lapels, but Camus dodged his hands.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°Shut up. You were here, so how did you let this happen?¡± Percy glowered murkily at him. ¡°This is a pious believer? I''d feed your piety to the dogs.¡±

    ¡°Percy, you''re drunk, aren''t you? I''m not letting you meet His Highness in this state. Come back tomorrow once you''ve sobered up and you''re in your right mind.¡±

    ¡°You''re the one who isn''t in his right mind, you damn Bible basher. But I''ll beat your personality back into shape.¡±

    He punched him. Caught by surprise, Camus took a blow to his chest from Percy''s fist.

    ¡°Bastard,¡± this time, it was Camus who growled at him. ¡°I''ll help you sober up right now. The treatment''s going to be a bit drastic though.¡±

    ¡°Go right ahead and try.¡±

    Just as the two of them were about to break into a fight ¨C

    ¡°Camus,¡± they heard Leo''s voice coming from the room.

    Camus immediately returned to his senses.

    ¡°I apologise for the disturbance, Your Highness. I''ll throw this drunkard out right away and...¡±

    ¡°No, it''s fine. Show Percy through.¡±

    ¡°But...¡± Camus protested, yet he couldn''t oppose Leo''s order. The prince then went further:

    ¡°I want to talk privately. Camus, could you leave for a bit, please?¡± he said.

    The monk reluctantly left, but he didn''t forget to give Percy some whispered advice just before doing so.

    ¡°I''ll be waiting right outside the room. If I hear anything, I''ll come running. And when that happens, I won''t let you off.¡±

    Humph ¨C feeling like he wanted to spit at him, Percy stepped from the antechamber into Leo''s room.

    Leo Attiel was lying in bed. When Percy saw him, he was going to hurl everything he had to say at him, yet the words suddenly vanished before leaving his mouth. Instead, as he strode up towards the bed, Percy Leegan hit Leo. His fists could have punched holes in the stone wall, but there was only a sharp sound as he slapped Leo''s cheek.

    ¡°You...¡± said Percy as he grabbed Leo by the shoulders and shook him. ¡°You look completely pathetic.¡±

    ¡°You''re right,¡± Leo smiled.

    His eyes had sunken into their sockets, his cheeks were as hollow as they could get, and his skin had turned slightly blackish. Although they were hidden beneath the blanket, his arms and legs were definitely needle-thin. A few days after taking poison, Leo had claimed that he felt better and so had taken part in the meeting, but that had actually just been a pretense, and one that had put his health at further risk. In reality, he showed no sign of getting better and, with every passing day, the poison continued to undermine his vitality.

    ¡°There was no other choice.¡±

    ¡°Don''t mess around. There were plenty of other ways. But you think only your way is right, and this is the result.¡±

    ¡°Oswell died.¡±

    ¡°You''re dying too.¡±

    ¡°I''ll get better in no time.¡±

    ¡°Even though you look like you''re having a hard time just talking?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°You''re an idiot.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Idiot.¡±

    ¡°Percy...¡± Percy''s hands were still grasping Leo''s shoulders, and the prince placed an emaciated hand on top of one of the knight''s. It trembled. But not because Leo''s hand was shaking; Percy''s trembling was being transmitted to it. ¡°Are you crying?¡±

    ¡°I feel like crying. So why shouldn''t I cry?¡±

    Tears fell from Percy''s eyes and dropped on Leo''s chest, one-by-one.

    Oh, I see.

    Words spun endlessly around and around in Percy''s mind.

    So much...

    I love the prince so much.

    So very undependable and so very lonely; a razor-sharp mind allied with the ability to always take action; horrifyingly cold-blooded and worryingly kind-hearted; it was dangerous to take your eyes off of him for too long, and you never knew what he might do if you turned your attention away from him... that was the prince.

    Percy Leegan realised something. The anger he experienced when he was left behind, and the feeling close to hatred that he felt when he was riding to Aconrey ¨C both of them stemmed from his love for the prince.

    In the past, he had wielded his spear for the prince and had been willing to become a shield for him if danger approached simply because he found him ''interesting''. Now it was no longer so simple. Part of it was his feeling that: the prince is the right person to carry Atall into the future. He was also worried that: if the prince isn''t here, huge beasts like Allion or Dytiann will devour Atall.

    It was a mix of all those emotions that made up Percy Leegan''s love for Leo. Even if, in the future, they had another clash of opinions, that feeling would definitely not change.

    ¡°I''m sorry, Percy. I knew that you were right. I know that I was too impatient. I forced the situation to twist in a direction that would make me right and...¡± At that point, Leo starting coughing violently.

    ¡°Don''t say anything more,¡± Percy gently pushed him back towards the pillows. ¡°For now, please rest.¡±

    ¡°If I fall asleep like this... I''m worried that when I wake up, you won''t be there.¡±

    ¡°That won''t happen.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°What is it you''re afraid of?¡±

    ¡°Afraid... right, maybe I was afraid. Even though I believed that I had to go against you and do what I had to, I was really worried about what might happen with you, Percy. What if I''d used up all of your goodwill towards me, and you were already gone from Guinbar, or even from Atall? What if I''d lost the best of companions... of friends... of brothers.¡±

    ¡°There''s nothing to worry about. Percy Leegan isn''t going anywhere,¡± Percy smiled like a father laying a fretful baby to sleep. ¡°I learned some charms a long time ago. I''ll teach you one of them. If ever you don''t know where I am and you don''t know how to find me, raise your forefinger and chant the names of the three fairies Pique, Lotta and Torin. If you do that, the fairies will come to dwell in Your Highness'' finger. After that, take a single strand of your own hair and wind it around your finger and tell them: ''Look for Percy Leegan. You can''t leave until you''ve found him''. If you do that, the fairies will use their magic and I will immediately appear in front of Your Highness.¡±

    ¡°I''ll remember it,¡± Leo smiled. ¡°Pique, Lotta, Torin, right? Pique, Lotta, Torin...¡±

    His voice faded as he repeated the fairies'' names, and before long, he had fallen asleep. Percy pulled the blanket over the prince, then turned around and left.

    ...Later, historians would say that ''this'' was the turning point for Leo and Percy. At that moment, instead of being moved by emotion towards Leo, Percy should have admonished the prince. If necessary, he should have been ready to turn his spear against Leo to make him heed his criticism. Among those who were close to the prince, Percy was the one who understood the most about Leo''s thoughts, his power to take action, and the danger he represented, yet Percy let himself be swayed by emotion, and followed the wrong course of action... That is what they say.

    But those are just the voices of historians with the benefit of hindsight. How could they ever reach the people who were living back in those times?

    Leo and Percy were both young.

    And the consequences that were created by the violent torrent of youth simply piled up one on top of the other.

    Allow me to plainly lay out some of the things that happened later.

    First of all, Leo Attiel sent a letter of thanks to Dytiann.

    When Oswell had attempted to assassinate Leo, he had invited monks from Dytiann probably for no other reason than to trick Leo, yet these monks had defended the prince''s life with unrivalled energy. Leo loudly and publicly proclaimed that fact, and deliberately spread it to Dytiann.

    ¡°It is shameful that Oswell planned to use the Cross Faith for the assassination, but God''s guidance is truly awe-inspiring. Oswell intended to make use of them, but instead, he brought together those brave and innocent men as well as myself. We felt an immediate understanding for each other, saw through Oswell''s plans, and smashed them together. I would very much like these braves to help with the missionary work here in the principality. Would it be possible to send their families over so that they can accomplish this holy mission without worry?¡±

    In Dytiann, Leo''s words made him famous even among the common people.

    Who could tell how much loathing and disgust Baal must have felt?

    It goes without saying that there was an implicit threat behind Leo''s words: I know. I know very well who secretly sharpened the blade for Oswell.

    Two months after Oswell''s death, Neville, Godwin and the others were able to meet their families again. Incidentally, those two joined the Personal Guards at around the same time.

    Afterwards, Leo established religious bases in Archon''s territory centred around Father Gemili, who also stayed in Atall, just like Neville and the others.

    Florrie had also heard the rumour that Oswell had poisoned Leo and, perhaps because she was constantly by his side and nursing him, Leo''s health recovered to a certain extent around then. The talk of his marriage with Florrie Anglatt finally crystallised into something concrete.

    Seen from the outside, everything was going well for Leo, who had magnificently gotten rid of his political opponents and who was about to get married to a young lady from the Kingdom of Allion. However ¨C and perhaps here again ''finally'' is the correct word to use ¨C the widening rift between him and Sovereign-Prince Magrid could no longer be ignored.

    The shock of Darren and Oswell''s successive deaths was huge. Of course, it was widely known that the two of them deserved it because of the crimes they had committed, but those circumstances had no influence on Magrid''s fears.

    If I displease him, will that damn son of mine one day turn his blade against me?

    Even if Darren and Oswell had made mistakes, and even if Leo had flawlessly rendered justice, the crucial point was that delivering his ''justice'' without consulting anyone made Leo dangerous.

    And to make things worse ¨C

    ¡°Branton has gotten cowardly recently.¡±

    That evening, when Magrid visited Princess-Consort Kirsten in her bedchamber, he chose Leo''s older brother as a topic of conversation.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°He''s already turned twenty. I figured it was about time to find hima good partner and give him a castle. On the same occasion, I was going to officially announce him as the next sovereign-prince, and grant him the title of heir to the throne.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Kirsten cautiously interjected.

    ¡°And would you believe it, he refused. ''That responsibility is still too heavy for me'', he said.¡±

    ¡°Oh my. Branton said that? Yet before Leo came back, he was so self-confident that you were even worried about it, Your Majesty.¡±

    ¡°Umm, Leo,¡± lying in bed, Magrid nodded somewhat bitterly, apparently unaware of the way his wife had almost shoehorned Leo''s name into the conversation.

    ¡°He probably got influenced by Leo. Not surprising: everything that brat does has to be flashy. I''ve heard that the people are gossiping about it. Things like how Leo is the one they hope to see as the next sovereign-prince, and how compared to him, his older brother, Lord Branton, is only remarkable for being unreliable...¡±

    ¡°Leo... that child is dangerous.¡± Kirsten snuggled up to her husband as though she was seeking warmth. Her white skin still looked so youthful that it was almost impossible to believe that she was the mother of three children.

    ¡°If I''m being honest, Leo is dangerous and frightens me. But... it''s a fact that Branton seems a little unreliable. Your Majesty... in that case, wouldn''t Roy be the best choice for the next sovereign-prince? He is still very young, but he is growing up fine and healthy, and he will certainly be a successor who would follow in your footsteps, Your Majesty. Or rather, I, Kirsten, promise that even if it costs me my life, I will raise him to be worthy of you...¡±

    As Kirsten spoke, her eyes were misty with tears, so perhaps she was already picturing her adored youngest son sitting on the throne.

 Volume 4, Narrator, to the Sky (in Place of Volume 4â€™s â€˜Afterwordâ€™)

    Volume 4, Narrator, to the Sky (in Place of Volume 4¡¯s ¡®Afterword¡¯)

    Nowadays, there were not many people who wanted to hear stories about Leo Attiel. That was easy enough to see. Even though he had been invited to this imperial court as a guest, and even though at first there had been a great crowd of people, there was currently only a tiny audience left in the great hall.

    Exchanges of all sorts were now thriving between this country and the neighbouring kingdom of Garbera, and apparently, the many chivalric romances that flourished there had also gained popularity at the imperial court. The nobles all wanted to invite minstrels from Garbera to every banquet that they hosted. Night after night, the spellbound guests listened to tales of virtuous knights destroying evil for the sake of beautiful ladies.

    For those who were entranced with dazzling legends of chivalry, Leo Attiel''s story was far too plain and lacking in glamour, since there was no heart-thumping element of good being rewarded and evil punished, and neither were there enough passionate love scenes.

    ©¤ Yet amidst that:

    ¡°And what happened then? What did the sovereign-prince do? And how did Lord Leo act? No, wait... that would have been around about when civil war broke out in Dytiann again. So, anyway...¡±

    The only one to show enthusiasm for Leo''s story was the young emperor himself, and that fact made him feel like he had been saved. At the very least, he probably wouldn''t be kicked out of the palace after being told: ''We''ve no use for birds who only sing boring songs.''

    ¡°Your Majesty, the hour is already late.¡± Sitting beside the emperor, the equally youthful empress ¨C or better said, the almost girlishly young empress ¨C seemed to be fighting back yawns as she spoke. ¡°Let''s continue tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow? Tomorrow we leave early for Apta. You know that.¡±

    ¡°Then it should be fine to invite our guest onboard the air carrier, right?¡± The empress'' reply was short and decisive.

    ''Is that alright?'' she asked with her eyes, and he bent at the knee in response.

    ¡°I am a wanderer with no urgent business. I am at His Majesty''s disposal.¡±

    ¡°Right, then that''s decided. Hurry and get ready. I''ll hear the rest starting early tomorrow.¡±

    Since it was settled, the emperor immediately got up and left. Half exasperated, half amused, the empress laughed.

    ¡°His Majesty really seems to have fallen in love with Leo Attiel. Dear guest, please take care: your throat will definitely be overused tomorrow. So when you lose your excellent voice, please be sure to put all the blame on His Majesty!¡±