5: Exiled Lord — Chapter 5 – Now That Things Have Come to This, Let’s Eat First 5: Exiled Lord — Chapter 5 – Now That Things Have Come to This,
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Field had modified the maid outfit with modern sensibilities — hemline raised to above the knee, long sleeves cut short.
No black stockings or white stockings, unfortunately, but the sight of her bare, rounded toes and smooth pale thighs was pleasant enough compensation.
“It fits well.” Ashina had clearly run out of patience waiting for him to say something.
She spoke with a teasing lilt, as if she’d already seen straight through him.
“My lord, what exactly do you want me to do?” The maids had told her the job was sleeping with the man in front of her.
But Ashina doubted it.
Humans despised beastkin.
The animal ears and tails made them feel as though beastkin were human bloodlines fouled by beasts, devil-spawn bastards, something born after an unspeakable encounter with a goat.
“Assist me in developing the territory, as I just said.” Field answered like it was obvious.
Seeing her unconvinced face, he pressed a palm to his forehead.
“Let’s eat first.
We can talk while we eat.” The word eat landed like a switch.
Ashina went calm immediately.
Her stomach had been burning for a while now.
Field’s situation wasn’t simple.
Being despised by his siblings was one thing, almost background noise.
But the old count’s health was failing day by day, and his vast fortune would soon need to be divided.
Unfavored or not, the laws of the Holy Griffin Empire were clear: direct bloodline meant the right to inherit.
Every last sibling.
The otherworldly version of the Grace Expansion Decree in action, great territories carved into smaller pieces, ensuring no single lord grew too powerful.
Which meant Field’s brothers all wanted him dead.
And they wanted each other dead too, for that matter.
The meal bell rang, and two well-mannered maids came in carrying sauced meat cutlets and honey bread.
“Ashina, you possess — hey, where did she go?” Field had been searching for the right words.
He glanced up and she was simply gone.
He blinked, blank-faced.
“I’m here.” Ashina was sitting on the floor in the corner, legs tucked neatly beneath her, perfectly still.
“What are you doing?” Field stared.
“Uh…
sitting.
Waiting to eat.” She went tense immediately.
“My lord, did I do something wrong?” Field walked over in three strides, grabbed her hand, and hauled her to the table.
“Sit in a chair.
We’re eating now.” Ashina perched on the front third of the stool.
She watched him for a long moment, making sure the noble lord before her had no intention of reaching for a whip, or anything else.
“You’re not joking?” She pointed at the fragrant meat cutlet.
“I can actually eat this?” Field spread his hands.
“Obviously.” She stared a moment longer, then carefully lowered her head and took a small bite.
The flavor hit her all at once, meat, spice, rich sauce, blooming across every corner of her mouth.
Taste buds that hadn’t touched real meat in god knows how long went absolutely wild.
This was the greatest thing in the world.
She stopped thinking about anything else.
She devoured the cutlet, then licked the plate clean of every drop of gravy.
Then she ate another.
Then another.
Five honey bread rolls followed.
When her belly had swollen round as a pregnant woman’s, she finally, reluctantly, stopped.
Field watched it all with the serene smile of a proud father.
Heh heh heh.
Eat up, eat up.
You’re going to work very hard for me.
“Hah.” Ashina swiped the last smear of sauce from the corner of her mouth.
Her wolf ears stood up straight and alert.
“I could die happy right now.” “That won’t be necessary.” Field laced his fingers together and leaned back in his chair.
“What I’m hoping for is to make you a Chosen One.” He certainly wasn’t going to admit that she was an already-destined, unawakened Chosen One.
Cultivate was a perfectly good word.
“Ah.” Ashina blinked.
“You might be disappointed, my lord.
The odds of becoming a Chosen One are almost nothing, and I’m beastkin.
I’ve never once heard of a human contracting with a beastkin.” The records bore her out.
The more prosperous and densely populated a city, the more likely Chosen Ones were to appear, and even Golden Eagle City had only produced three in a hundred years.
Two noble children and one clergy member.
Beastkin producing a Chosen One was rarer still.
No powerful nations, no prosperous cities.
Half of them couldn’t even meet basic subsistence.
Field smiled lightly.
“How will you know if you don’t try?
I believe I can do it.” And if he couldn’t, he’d probably die in the Cursed Land anyway.
“…Fine,” Ashina said, licking the corner of her mouth one more time.
“As long as there’s meat.” The next ten days blurred past in travel.
At every city they passed through, Field bought large quantities of meat and magical tonic supplements to keep Ashina fed and building strength.
She realized quickly that he wasn’t joking about any of it.
He also spent 150 gold coins on Fog-repelling Lanterns, Purification Potions, and Awakening Crystals.
He’d done his homework.
These were non-negotiable essentials for anyone trying to develop the Nightfall Territory.
At last, they arrived at the final fortress standing between them and the Northern Province.
Bull Baron’s Kashan Fortress.
A stone castle braced against the high mountain range, built to hold back the Corrupted Creatures, Magical Beasts, and terrifying Orcs pressing in from the North.
“Goddess of Winter, please,” Ashina murmured, tucked inside the groaning, creaking carriage, praying quietly to the deity of the wolf beastkin.
“Let me become a Chosen One.” These past days felt like a dream she couldn’t quite trust.
Riding in a noble’s carriage.
Eating real meat cutlets.
Having maids attend to her, grudgingly, with plenty of complaints, but still.
It had already been better than anything she’d had in years.
Better than anything she’d dared hope for.
She pressed a hand to her forehead to check if she was feverish.
The one thing she couldn’t make sense of was the magical tonics.
Field kept buying expensive ones for her to drink, and she’d never once heard of anyone eating their way to becoming a Chosen One.
“Maybe it’s some kind of evil ritual,” she muttered.
She thought it over.
“…But honestly, even if I were being prepared as a sacrifice for some devil, it might still be worth it.
Ptooey, ptooey — what am I even saying?” She settled back against the cushioned seat.
“I really do hope I’m actually a Chosen One.
Otherwise Baron Field is going to be furious.” She folded her hands and kept praying.
Steward Kao exhaled a long, hollow sigh from the front of the column.
“Never thought my last visit to Kashan Fortress would be like this.” Field, riding alongside him on horseback, ignored the moaning for a moment, then reached out and tapped Kao on the shoulder with his riding crop.
“You came here often before?” Kao rolled his eyes.
“Of course I did.
You were always donating your living allowance to the villagers here, or sending it directly into Bull Baron’s private coffers so he and his soldiers could eat, drink, and enjoy themselves.” “Ah.” Field’s mouth twitched.
He’d forgotten the original owner had been a saint.
He laughed awkwardly and rolled his shoulders in a stiff shrug.
“Well.
At the very least, Bull Baron will be glad to see us, won’t he?
The locals will have good things to say.
Coming and going from Kashan Fortress will be a lot easier going forward.” ➤ Next: Rotten Corpses!
The Locals Are Overly Enthusiastic