“The job to protect the prince came to me three months ago. A month later I arrived in Morgan. That was exactly when I heard the news about the ‘Bloody Unity Gathering.’ Stol is so vast that it takes at least a month for rumors to spread across the whole land.”
“So the latest information you received is actually something that happened about a month ago?”
At the Red Eagle Prince’s question, Black Weasel nodded.
“That’s right. Anyway, there were still two months left before the prince would reach Morgan. The final payment was too big to walk away with just the advance. So I decided to wait and watch how things developed, and I prepared this hideout.”
Black Weasel spread both arms wide and waved them.
“Now I’ll give you the most recent information. The chick prince’s big brother is busy cleaning up the tribal chiefs. The chiefs who block his path get killed in war, the ones who can be useful are kept alive through alliances. Three chiefs have already been crushed. White Deer is still standing. At least, that was the situation a month ago.”
“In other words… there’s also the possibility that in the past month the situation has flipped, and my mother has won.”
“You’re asking about the possibility? Sounds like even the prince thinks the odds of your mother winning are low.”
Black Weasel shot back mockingly. The Red Eagle Prince’s face turned pale.
“One question. If White Deer loses, will I kill the prince… or let the prince live?”
“That…”
The Red Eagle Prince trailed off and lowered the gaze.
“To be honest, I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on! That’s not even a hard question and you still can’t answer it?”
Black Weasel bared the teeth in a grin.
“If White Deer wins, I deliver the prince and collect the remaining payment. If White Deer loses, I let the prince go. That’s it! Prince, you said you want to go back to Atania, right? Then pray every night that your half-brother’s sword cuts off your mother’s head. No matter who wins or loses, the prince will never die. So relax. I’m not that scary a person.”
Wolf silently glared at Black Weasel. When someone with a grin like a bear that had just found a mountain of honey said, “I’m not that scary a person”… it made the man seem extremely scary.
To a contract killer, there were only two kinds of people who knew the face. Colleagues. And witnesses. If White Deer won, the Red Eagle Prince had monetary value as the client’s son. If White Deer lost, the prince would be nothing more than a witness who knew the killer’s face. At that point, both the prince and Wolf would be killed.
Silver has to be brought over to our side.
* * *
“Even so, she’s still my mother. I can’t pray for something like that. I’ll face her alive and persuade her myself.”
The Red Eagle Prince spoke calmly. Like Wolf, the prince must have understood Black Weasel’s intentions, yet not the slightest sign of agitation showed. Wolf felt a deep sense of relief. Having a companion skilled in courtly dealings during a crisis like this was rare good fortune.
「Talks well enough.」
Muttering in the Stol language, Silver suddenly splashed into the hot spring and dunked the head under water. Bubbles rose to the surface in a steady stream.
“Anyway, enough of the gloomy talk. Prince, what do you think of Stol? You’ve only just set foot here a few days ago, so maybe you haven’t formed an opinion yet.”
At Black Weasel’s question, the Red Eagle Prince smiled.
“Yes. As you said, I haven’t been here long enough to gather my thoughts yet. Still, the natural scenery was very beautiful.”
“Hmph. Boring answer. What about the servant?”
“Me? Uh….”
Wolf trailed off, then snapped the fingers.
“Oh! The cow that looked like a black bear! And the rabbit was fascinating too. It was completely different from the rabbits in Atania.”
“What are rabbits like in Atania?”
Silver suddenly poked the face above the water and asked. Wolf began explaining with animated gestures.
“The fur is this short. Stol must be colder and cloudier, so the rabbits here have long, curly fur. Are the cats here long-haired too?”
“Of course.”
“Wow, I knew it! That’s amazing!”
Wolf grew excited.
“Cats in Atania mostly have short fur. Lebanon especially has short winters, so long-haired cats are something you only see in the palace. The animals in Stol are fascinating. The human mutants were fascinating too….”
“Spruce and birch?”
Black Weasel abruptly cut in. Wolf blinked in confusion.
“What trees? I’ve only seen birch in storybooks.”
“I mean the human mutants. Men are spruce, women are birch. In Stol language, Narte and Rekrivte.”
“Oh… that’s what it meant?”
Wolf found it oddly fascinating.
“So that’s what they’re called in Stol. Giving human mutants the names of trees sounds mystical. Is there some special reason?”
“Nothing special. Both trees are common as dirt in Stol. And because they’re monoecious trees. A single tree has both male and female flowers.”
Black Weasel raised two fingers and waved them.
“At first they were called pumpkin and cucumber. Pumpkins and cucumbers usually bloom with separate male and female flowers, but sometimes a flower appears that looks like both.”
“Ah. I see.”
Logically, it made sense… but still.
“Then at some point it changed to spruce and birch. Why? I don’t know the exact reason myself, but if your kid gets called pumpkin or cucumber, the parents probably wouldn’t be too happy about it.”
“Right. Pumpkin and cucumber would really be awful.”
Wolf nodded vigorously. Black Weasel flicked droplets of water from the shoulder.
“Still, servant brat, you’re not completely ignorant about Stol, are you? You even know about birch and spruce.”
“Human mutants are famous even in Atania. As for Stol, I’ve only read one dictionary-style book about it. I was curious since it’s technically my homeland.”
The book was titled The Great Stol Encyclopedia, but in truth it went far beyond simple entries, constantly attaching negative commentary from an Atanian perspective. One passage that had especially infuriated Wolf read: “Stol people are stupid.” The prejudice had been familiar since childhood, back when Wolf grew up with the Red Eagle Prince in the palace. It was more tiresome than the oatmeal eaten every morning.
“How admirable. Did that book also explain how to identify mutant traits?”
“No?”
Wolf widened the eyes.
“It only said they’re identified immediately after birth. The exact method… do you know it?”
“Of course I do. I’m from Stol. Mutant babies supposedly have slightly lower body temperatures than normal infants. It’s a subtle difference. The people who detect it are called trait examiners. Usually old priestesses with extremely sensitive fingertips.”
“Body temperature? But…”
“Right, babies with low body temperature aren’t rare for various reasons. Since mutants were always said to be born very rarely, most babies identified as mutants were probably just normal infants. But those people are priests, so no one could protest. And there were quite a few cases where they deliberately labeled someone’s child a mutant out of spite.”
Hearing the explanation from a local was different from reading the book while suppressing yawns. It was far more detailed. And it left Wolf with the same numb feeling as discovering the expensive leather gloves stolen months ago sitting casually on a friend’s desk. Some stories would have been better never known.
“How could they… That’s unjust.”
The Red Eagle Prince cut in, face flushed with anger.
“You’re placing the power of life and death over countless infants in the hands of untrustworthy old people. Killing someone just for being a mutant is already unjust, but—”
“Prince. This is Stol.”
Black Weasel cut the prince off. Both the prince and Wolf flinched.
“Killing mutants is a law set one hundred forty-five years ago by the ‘great’ King Thorn Spider, with the agreement of every tribal chief in Stol. Unjust? You’d say the same even if they hung a god from a tree. If you don’t have the courage to fight every tribe in Stol, keep your mouth shut.”
Silver, who had been silently listening until then, flicked water at Black Weasel with the fingertips.
「Those idiots don’t know about ash trees, do they.」
「Of course not. Ash trees were already treated like legends even one hundred fifty years ago.」
Black Weasel curled one corner of the mouth into a grin.
「Gentlemen who learned from books would never know. Even natives of Stol barely know about ash trees.」