Chapter 239

Chapter 239 - The Margrave

The Margrave had fully settled in the borderland instead of engaging in a filthy struggle with the emperor.

It had been for quite a personal reason, rather than any sort of brotherly affection.

However, the Youngest Son pretended not to know and drank the freshly poured tea.

“Do you not face the Northern Sword Family every day? Why would you suddenly bring up something as frightening as conquest? To me, no less.”

The Margrave did not hide his thoughts, like the clean snow that fell upon the borderland.

“Because you are already waging a war of conquest. Everyone has lost interest in the fight between the Great Families now, and they are all busy preserving their own positions.”

“So I stood out because I was the only one doing something different?”

“You could put it that way. And I have already met Older Brother and am on my way back. I heard a rather interesting story within the family.”

“……”

The bloodshot eyes, which seemed to know what he was talking about, avoided the golden eyes. However, the Margrave did not miss it.

“Older Brother seems to have taken quite a liking to you. Why else would he try to connect you with my niece?”

“…That is a hasty judgment.”

“It is bound to feel hasty to you. You have not even become the Family Head of the East yet.”

“So the story is spreading. Then what do you want from me?”

The Youngest Son brought the topic back to the conquest of the North. The Margrave gave a faint laugh and continued.

“Exactly what I said at first. I am asking whether, after the West, you have any intention of targeting the North.”

“Are you asking merely to learn my intentions?”

“For now.”

There was no wavering in the Margrave’s golden eyes. His outward appearance was similar to the emperor’s, but his way of handling matters was completely different.

He possessed the decisiveness and drive to come in person merely to gauge another’s intentions.

The king who ruled the frozen land of the harsh borderland was someone who did not hesitate to draw his sword.

In addition, he was someone who never forgot anyone who had once drawn a sword on him.

“I have no such intention. For now.”

“For now, is it? I have been thinking this for a while, but you speak like the weasels in the Imperial Palace.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Whatever your intentions may be, entrusting my back to a weasel makes me rather uneasy.”

RUSTLE—

The Margrave rose from his seat.

“Enough. For now, it is enough that I know what kind of person you are.”

“Are you leaving without hearing my reason?”

The Margrave’s steps stopped abruptly. After all, the visitor was not the only one who had wanted to meet the other.

His golden eyes looked at the bloodshot eyes once more.

“There is a saying in the South called mutual aid.”

“You mean we should help each other?”

“A one-sided demand would be burdensome for you as well.”

At some point, the smile had disappeared from his face.

“It would be burdensome to lead the borderland’s forces all the way to the West right now. The soldiers of the borderland are not mine. They belong to the Empire.”

“I know. And what I want is not troops either.”

“Then what is it?”

“If I had to describe it, I would say it is the weight of your name.”

If the current Emperor Miliard led the sunlit side of the Empire, the Margrave led its shadowed side.

He lived in an environment far colder and harsher than Parfe, where he had to hold back the Northern Sword Family and the ferocious Snowfield Giants.

Survival there was strength, and it was reputation as well. That was the reputation the Youngest Son wanted.

“To the delicate hothouse nobles of the Empire, is the king who oversees everything on the Empire’s border not another Snowfield Giant?”

“Heh heh…. Calling a man a Snowfield Giant, are you? Say that after seeing those monsters in person.”

“I have seen plenty of fleshless Skeleton Giants.”

“The more I speak with you, the more my head begins to hurt. Are you casting a curse on me?”

“That is praise I have heard often.”

As though his head had begun to ache again, the Margrave frowned and shook his head.

“The weight of my name, my reputation. I understand what you intend to do with such things. There must have been countless visitors before me already.”

The Youngest Son neither confirmed nor denied it, but that was already answer enough.

“The powerful ministers who can once again reach into the Imperial Palace. Since you do not know whether they are hiding knives or flowers in those hands, you need a shield for the time being.”

“If you become my shield first, I may become a spear for you.”

“Another vague answer.”

The weasel shrugged.

“I cannot give you a perfect answer. I do not know how sturdy a shield you are.”

“Hah.”

The Margrave snorted briefly and tapped the navy leather coat he was wearing.

The fist he used to tap it was aimed at the emblem of the borderland, and the shape of that emblem was a wall.

A wall was used either to block something or to protect something.

“The reason the nobles here have never once seen the face of a Snowfield Giant in their lives is because there is a shield called me.”

“Who knows? I am from the East.”

“……”

He turned from where he had been about to leave and strode back.

The closer he came, the more keenly that massive frame could be felt, as though he could break the limbs of a Snowfield Giant with his bare hands.

“Let us do this. In the future, you will give me a spear equal to the shield I provide.”

“You mean you will receive only as much as you give?”

“That is how the weasels handle business, is it not?”

“I said it because I liked it. We have a deal.”

The Youngest Son held out his pale hand.

After looking at it for a moment, the Margrave clasped it with his own. The difference in the size of their hands was at least a finger joint.

“The shield will arrive by tomorrow.”

“I trust you are not planning to give me an actual shield.”

“That is an unfunny joke.”

The Margrave raised the corner of his mouth and left.

Left alone once more, the Youngest Son looked down at the hand where a red mark remained.

He had not gripped it with any particular malice. He had merely clasped it, yet it contained this much strength.

[What on earth did that man eat while growing up?]

“I know. I am curious too.”

After he massaged his hand a few times, the mark soon disappeared.

[What is this shield that bear is giving you?]

“I do not know either.”

[…You accepted something without even knowing what it was?]

“It will probably be a person.”

Speaking with the Youngest Son for a long time made one’s head hurt.

That curse came not only to the Margrave, but to Enad as well.

[You should simply consider yourself fortunate that your head did not fly off in front of the emperor.]

“I think that was fortunate too.”

If the emperor had been even slightly more twisted, there had been several moments when he would have gone up to the execution ground.

Rattle—

Soon, the door that had closed opened once more, and the attendant David returned.

“Did you see the Margrave off properly?”

“Y-Yes.”

As it happened, the ship that had been above the mansion had disappeared, so sunlight returned to the room once more.

David approached carefully with another letter in his hand.

“Young Master.”

“What is that now?”

“Th-This time, you must not burn it…!”

“I am not some arsonist. Just give it here. I have eyes too.”

This was not a simple letter.

It was an invitation, and the Imperial Family’s seal affixed to the outside immediately revealed who the host was.

“It seems he intends to impress upon everyone, and quite splendidly at that, that His Highness the Crown Prince is perfectly well.”

The invitation was inviting the Youngest Son to a social gathering.

From the high-ranking feudal lords to the Imperial Family, it was a legitimate probing match that would begin under the host known as the emperor.

[But why is he inviting you there?]

—Who knows. It will become clear if I go, but it seems the emperor does not particularly think he needs to hide me.

It meant that if anyone wanted to live, they had to watch their own mouth.

The Youngest Son checked the date written on the invitation.

“…It is tomorrow.”

Considering it was an event hosted by the Imperial Family, it was an extremely sudden move.

However, the feudal lords would not let this pass. Rather, they would think the Imperial Family had shown an opening and come trying to stab at it.

Yet once they came in, the Crown Prince, risen from his sickbed, would greet them.

The heir of the Empire would show everyone that, contrary to the rumors, he was perfectly sound.

The highest social gathering hosted by the Imperial Family carried that meaning.

Then, at this point, one question arose once more.

“Why did he invite me there?”

He could think of a few possibilities, but he hoped none of them would happen.

Fortunately, now that he had obtained the shield called the Margrave, he could block all the spears of the feudal lords.

However, he could neither predict nor stop the emperor’s movements.

David, who had been thinking hard nearby after hearing the Youngest Son’s murmur, spoke up.

“Since social gatherings like this are also good places to make announcements, could it not be that he intends to officially inform the feudal lords of something?”

“……”

At David’s words, a future that had existed only in imagination seemed to draw closer, and Enad felt it too.

[Surely the emperor is not planning to bring up a marriage discussion with the Princess.]

—I have been thinking about that too, but the probability is low. The emperor is not that insane.

It was a marriage discussion with none other than a Great Family.

There was no way he would officially announce such a major event when nothing had been made certain yet.

If, by any chance, that did happen…

‘I would have nothing to say even if the Grand Duke of Blood came looking for me.’

He rubbed his face and dry-washed it with his hands.

Two prospective fathers-in-law had appeared unintentionally. A sigh escaped him on its own.

‘If the situation truly reaches that point, the Princess will step forward.’

After all, she did not like him in the slightest.

***

The Margrave received the Imperial Family’s invitation that had arrived for him aboard the aerial warship. Of course, he threw it aside without even opening it.

Even without going through the trouble of opening it, the contents inside were obvious.

Honored guest this, seat that.

In short, it was an invitation to a refined mud fight among nobles.

Normally, it would have been a piece of paper he gave to a goat, but not this time.

“I will have to stay in Parfe for one more day.”

“And I will have to stay until that man called the Fifth Son leaves the Imperial Palace.”

At his subordinate’s complaint that was not quite a complaint, the Margrave smiled faintly.

“Is that not wonderful? It is none other than Parfe. A place where one does not freeze to death wearing only a shirt, and where warm sunlight shines down instead.”

“That is why I feel as though I am going to die from the heat.”

After arriving in Parfe, all the borderland soldiers took off their armor and put on ordinary clothes.

Because of the fur built into the armor, sweat poured down like a waterfall even while standing still, so it was impossible to wear it.

“If there is something good, there is also something bad. The reverse can also be true, so do not pout so much.”

“…Understood. Since Your Highness says so, I must obey.”

The title referred to a king, but his attitude toward him was not that of someone facing a king at all.

The white-haired man standing before the Margrave spoke. He wore rough borderland clothing and had a sword at his waist.

“So what exactly is my mission? If you only say ‘shield,’ how am I supposed to understand that?”

“There is nothing more to say. Starting with tomorrow’s social gathering and until the Fifth Son leaves the Imperial Palace, all you have to do is remain by his side.”

“…Is that truly all?”

The Margrave nodded.

“At the social gathering, the feudal lords will approach the Fifth Son in order to harm or entice him.”

“And I am to block that.”

“Yes. Block all of them.”

“Understood. That is easy. From the social gathering to the Three Generals’ mansion, how many people could possibly come?”

The subordinate, now almost like an adopted son, smiled with the same confidence as always.

Confidence was good to see, but it was not something to reveal regardless of the situation.

Especially not before someone like the Fifth Son, who had caused him a headache despite their brief conversation.

“Be careful, Pale. That weasel called the Fifth Son is not an easy one.”

“Who do you think raised me? I will do well.”

“Yes. I believe you will.”

The Margrave smiled a smile that seemed impossible to emerge from a face that looked capable of tearing apart even a giant.

That warm smile contained trust toward the knight and subordinate named Pale.

“For now, we must wait for tomorrow to come.”

Now that he had returned home after a long absence, amusing things had indeed begun to sprout everywhere like mushrooms after rain.

He wondered whether his nephews and nieces had grown much.

He would be able to see that tomorrow as well.