At Marlene’s calm, measured explanation of reality, Nox slowly nodded.
The room she led him to was one of the guest rooms on the first floor. There was nothing especially remarkable about it. After escorting him all the way there, Marlene turned away.
“You are to wait here. If His Grace summons you, you are to finish preparing yourself and come at once.”
“Understood.”
Nox thought about that. What exactly did preparing himself mean? Did it simply mean dressing neatly and going to him, or…
Nox shook his head. Then, after watching Marlene’s retreating back for a moment as she walked farther and farther away, he opened the door to the room.
Click.
A moment later, the door closed.
Meanwhile, Khalid, having gone to the Imperial Palace, was in the Emperor’s presence.
Those gathered in the Emperor’s office were the people who had not been crushed beneath the Crown Prince’s power and had instead lent their strength to the Second Prince. They could be called the center of power in this new Empire. There were six of them in all, and among them the most prominent by far were Khalid Via, who had personally stepped forward and cut off the Crown Prince’s head, and Ellerdin Weiss, who had served at the Second Prince’s side as his strategist.
And then…
“No matter what anyone says, your share of the credit is great indeed.”
“N-no, Your Majesty.”
At that, Peltion—no longer the Second Prince, but the Emperor now—smiled.
“Baltias, had you not infiltrated the Rainerio estate and told us that an attack would come that night, none of us would be standing here now.”
“I-I am only overwhelmed by Your Majesty’s grace.”
Baltias Deron.
He was the man who had taken employment at the ducal estate of House Rainerio in disguise as a servant, while outwardly serving as one of the Crown Prince’s lackeys. It had only been possible because he was no more than a baron and, by temperament, too shy for society to know his face. No one had expected much of him, yet he had brought the Second Prince a great deal of information, like a seasoned spy.
With his head bowed deeply, Baltias Deron did not grow proud. He merely nodded at the Emperor’s praise. Everything was fine, the Emperor thought, except for that painfully timid nature of his.
“Now that you are to become a marquis and one of the central figures of power, being this timid will not do.”
Peltion said it as a joke. Baltias flinched, then quickly raised his head and answered.
“I-I will try to correct it somehow.”
“No, I do not mean that you should force yourself. I am merely concerned.”
“I-I will make sure there is nothing for Your Majesty to worry about.”
“Yes. Considering how thoroughly you succeeded within House Rainerio this time, I know well enough that you are no easy man to handle.”
“……Yes.”
At those words, Baltias lowered his head deeply once more.
In the middle of that, hearing that Baltias had lived in the Rainerio ducal estate made Khalid wonder about something.
Nox Rainerio.
About the slave who had now lost his family name and become merely Nox. His back had been covered in old whip scars.
More than Khalid’s own.
Khalid spoke.
“When you were living there, did Nox Rainerio ever have reason to be whipped—”
But he did not finish the question.
“Y-yes?”
Baltias jerked his head up, startled. The moment Khalid met those round eyes and that gaze, he realized what it was he had been about to ask.
Hah. And what would you do if you knew?
Would he feel sorry for him? Pity him? He mocked himself inwardly. However the man who had betrayed him had lived, whatever wounds he had, there was no need to be curious. All Khalid needed to do was soothe his betrayed heart with Nox’s body.
He shook his head.
“Never mind.”
“Y-yes…”
“More importantly—”
At that moment the Emperor turned to Khalid with a smile curling over his face.
“You look unusually gentle today, Duke Khalid Via.”
“……Do I?”
Khalid Via furrowed his brow. He knew perfectly well that the Emperor had only started speaking to tease him. Ever since long ago, the Emperor had always liked to throw jokes at Khalid, who never played along, just to make things awkward for him.
“Nox Rainerio. When you said you wanted him, do you know how startled I was?”
“Were you?”
Khalid Via answered with a wrinkling of his nose. Peltion tilted his head as he watched him.
“He seems like the sort who would be troublesome to tame.”
“…Not particularly.”
“True enough. He is not someone who could defeat you by force. Still, he was once the commander of the Rainerio household knights. Do not let your guard down.”
“I understand.”
“And he is also the sort who never showed himself much in society or in politics, so no one could ever tell what he was really thinking. No telling what he may be capable of, either. Everyone says he was a snake in league with his father, but…”
Peltion trailed off.
“The two of them never looked all that close to me.”
“I do not think I have any reason to know that.”
“…I suppose that is true. He is only a slave now, stripped of both family and rank.”
Saying that, Peltion looked at Khalid’s face with a sly grin.
“If he proves hard to tame, shall I help you a little?”
At the loaded edge in those words, Khalid’s face hardened instantly. The moment the Emperor saw that expression set, he burst into laughter.
“At this rate, I shall become Emperor only to be cut down by my own knight before long!”
“Your Majesty!”
“Ahaha, I am joking. Only joking. Duke Via, are you not making it rather obvious how much you cherish your slave?”
“I have done no such thing.”
“Have not?”
Peltion soon waved his hand dismissively and brought the conversation back to what it had been before.
“So then—what do you think should be done about Count Dolans of the south, who is still trying to hold out by force?”
Ellerdin Weiss spoke.
“He is holding out, yes, but he must already be near his limit. Now that the Crown Prince is dead, he does not even have legitimacy on his side. If Duke Khalid Via were sent merely to threaten him a little, he would lower his head and submit at once.”
At that, Khalid said,
“Rejected.”
“Why are you the one rejecting it?”
“I cannot be sent out for something that trivial.”
“Not because you cannot bear to leave behind the slave you just got your hands on?”
Ellerdin sneered openly, and Khalid, one leg crossed over the other, answered in a flat voice.
“That’s right.”
“…If you admit it that easily, there is not much left for me to say.”
“That was the idea. In any case, I will not be going to the field for a while.”
Having said that, he turned his gaze to the Emperor. Peltion nodded, still wearing that bright, smiling face.
“True enough. Duke Khalid Via has worked harder than anyone until now. We cannot very well send him out for something so minor. He has worked so hard that it seems he has suffered more than I, the Emperor, have. Yes, exactly so. He ought to have time to roll around with a favored bed companion at least.”
“If that is what you mean, then perhaps Your Majesty could simply tell him to deploy with dignity.”
Ellerdin said it in a tone of exhaustion, and Khalid’s face soured as well. The Emperor laughed and clapped his hands together. Not one person laughed at the Emperor’s joke. Looking disappointed, he said,
“No one laughs for me anymore.”
“When every word from Your Majesty carries weight, that is only natural.”
“So you are telling me to send him out after all?”
Khalid said it with open displeasure.
“Not immediately. We should watch for a while yet, drain his strength and provisions first. Ah, though if he shows signs of trying to plunder the surrounding lands, then we must stop him at once.”
“I understand.”
Khalid Via nodded. In the end, it meant that he would have to go himself. Different from the other nobles, he had come from mercenary stock. This time, he needed to step forward and display his strength.
Once Khalid accepted, matters proceeded smoothly after that.
The handling of those who had gained new titles and those who had been demoted. The disposition of those who had fallen into slavery, and the filling of places left empty by the dead.
They went on to discuss matters Khalid had no particular wish to give his opinion on.
“You have a face that says you are bored to death.”
“Do I?”
“You even pretend not to know at an expert level.”
“I do not know what to do with such praise.”
“Now you can even answer a joke.”
“I have spent years at Your Majesty’s side.”
“Yes, now at last things are becoming a little amusing. Have you already started growing slick because you’ve become a duke? It’s giving me a headache.”
Laughing, the Emperor waved his hand, signaling that the meeting was at an end. His men rose and began to clear away. Only Khalid Via remained seated where he was.
Once everyone else had bowed and filed out in a noisy stream, the Emperor asked,
“Why are you still here?”
“There is one thing I would like to ask.”
“What is it?”
“……”
Khalid thought for a moment. About whether it was right to ask this here.
But unlike his hesitation, the words came out of his mouth first. His body had reacted before his mind had caught up.
“What kind of man was Nox Rainerio?”
“Why ask that all of a sudden?”
Khalid himself did not know why he was asking the Emperor something like this. Only that Nox belonged to him now. A desire had risen like a flood inside him—a desire to know even his past.
Even though he had told himself there was no need.
If the Emperor was to be believed, Nox Rainerio had never set foot deeply enough in society for much to be known about him.
“He never participated in anything beyond official engagements. Other than the fact that he had taken up the position of commander of House Rainerio’s knights, there was truly very little known about him.”
“I see.”
“Ah, though there was one time I saw him up close.”
The Emperor spoke as if the memory had only just occurred to him. Khalid looked at him.
“Would he have been around eighteen?”
The words themselves made it clear that it had been a very long time ago.
The Emperor fell silent for a moment, as though recalling those days, and then a slanted smile touched his lips.