Aslaf said farewell to Yobik and left his house. After mounting his horse, Aslaf departed Azure Castle.
As they traveled along the road, Iwan asked,
“Why are you suddenly taking an interest in the Yeon tribe’s affairs? Are you really going to look for Yatsuki?”
He could not understand Aslaf’s state of mind as he showed interest in the affairs of the Yeon tribe, with whom he had no connection at all, as though they were his own.
“Didn’t you say you were going to earn money through business?”
Even his attempt to be acknowledged as Baron Lenke’s son had originally been so that he could become a merchant without being treated like a member of the Gypsy tribe.
“I did.”
But after seeing the world that had changed so miserably after Alexei I’s death, some indescribable emotion surged within him.
“I can’t do business or anything else unless the seventeen-year war with the Yeon tribe ends. Right now, this isn’t an environment where business can be conducted steadily.”
Aslaf clenched and unclenched his fist as he muttered,
“To do that, I have to start by untangling what went wrong, one thing at a time.”
The conflict with the Rong tribe, the war with the Yeon tribe, and the tyranny of Georg and Sigrid had thrown the world into chaos.
If he wanted to live comfortably in this life, he felt he would have to finish the things he had failed to accomplish in his previous life.
“Still, no matter how much Yatsuki wanted to instigate a riot, how could he just kidnap and kill innocent civilians of his own people at random?”
“To the Yeon tribe, anyone who is not kin is an outsider.”
To the Yeon tribe, other tribes of the same Yeon people, who competed with them over oases and pastures, were far more formidable enemies than imperial people, with whom they had fewer conflicting interests. Alexei I had also used that point to handle the Yeon tribe effectively.
“Let’s go to Gironde Castle.”
Aslaf, who had been on his way to Beden Castle, turned his horse’s head south.
“Gironde Castle? Why there?”
They had not gone to Beden Castle, and after meeting the Yeon tribe in Azure Castle, their destination had suddenly changed again.
As though he had made up his mind, Aslaf spoke firmly.
“I am going to meet Marquis Sigrid.”
At Aslaf’s words that he would meet Marquis Sigrid, Iwan stared at him in surprise, his mouth hanging open. He had never met a noble of such high rank before.
“Will Marquis Sigrid meet with you? He is the king of the Duchy of Gironde.”
Even if a low-ranking noble like Baron Lenke went to visit Marquis Sigrid, it was uncertain whether he would be granted an audience. Yet Aslaf, who was not even the heir but the second son, wanted to meet him. By common sense, it was absurd.
However, Aslaf had a plan.
“Of course. Thanks to me, Marquis Sigrid was able to wage war against the Yeon tribe.”
They crossed the bridge stretched over the moat of Gironde Castle and entered the castle.
After passing through the checkpoint and winding through the alleys, they emerged onto a market street. For the capital of a duchy, the city felt somehow poorly maintained.
Aslaf entered the most expensive-looking clothing shop. Then he bought the finest clothes there and put them on.
In the Empire, clothing proved one’s status, so it was worth the investment. After all, people who had enough money to buy expensive clothes and knew how to wield a sword were rare.
Dressed properly, he went to the count’s mansion.
“Who... might you be?”
The gatekeeper asked them. He had a suspicious expression when he saw Aslaf’s purple eyes, but since Aslaf wore a sword, rode a horse, and was dressed in expensive clothes, he quickly added polite speech.
“This is Young Master Aslaf Lenke, son of Baron Oleg Lenke, lord of Beden Castle.”
When Iwan introduced him to the gatekeeper, Aslaf commanded in a solemn voice,
“Tell Marquis Sigrid that the second son of Baron Lenke, who went to negotiate peace with the Rong tribe, has come to report the results of the negotiations.”
In truth, the Rong tribe was under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Galleon, so there was no need to report anything to Marquis Sigrid, and there was nothing to report either. However, making his existence known like this would be useful in broadening his room to maneuver in the future.
“U-Understood.”
At Aslaf’s confident attitude, the gatekeeper bowed at the waist and immediately guided him to the second floor.
“Please come this way.”
The place was the office of Marquis Sigrid’s secretary.
“What brings you here?”
The secretary looked at Aslaf, whom he had never seen before, with a suspicious gaze.
When Aslaf gave him a look, Iwan held out the identity guarantee document for the hostage in the peace negotiations with the Rong tribe, signed by Marquis Sigrid.
After reading the document, the secretary quickly understood who they were. It was a document he knew well, because he had personally received the signature on it and sent it out.
“Ah, you are Young Master Aslaf Lenke, who went as a hostage to the Rong tribe.”
“That is correct. I have confidential information that I must urgently inform Marquis Sigrid of.”
The secretary seemed to think that Aslaf might have discovered important information no one else knew while he was with the Rong tribe, so he said he would let him meet the marquis.
“Please wait here for a moment.”
The secretary guided Aslaf to the reception room.
As he waited in the room, the door opened a short while later, and Marquis Sigrid entered.
‘Sigrid.’
Aslaf had prepared himself to suppress his emotions, but as expected, the instant he saw the man’s face, disgust surged up inside him.
Sigrid ruled the Duchy of Gironde, located south of the Duchy of Azure.
When Alexei I’s Duchy of Azure expanded its territory, Sigrid had grown wary and started a war. The southern port of Pordis had originally been his domain, but after he fought a war with Alexei I, it was taken from him as war reparations. Because of that, he had held a grudge and joined hands with Georg to attack Alexei I.
As a result, after Alexei I died, he reclaimed Pordis and also seized the southern territory of the Duchy of Azure.
With cunning eyes, he ceaselessly looked Aslaf up and down.
“You are Aslaf, the son of Baron Lenke who went as a hostage?”
“That is correct.”
“What is it you wish to tell me?”
“If there is anything you are curious about, please ask. There is likely no imperial person who knows the Rong tribe as well as I do. I dealt with the great chief and the chiefs there for a year.”
“I am not curious about the Rong tribe. What I want to know about is the Yeon tribe.”
The Rong tribe bordered the Duchy of Galleon, while the Duchy of Gironde bordered the Yeon tribe, so Marquis Sigrid’s interest was in the Yeon tribe.
In the past, the Duchy of Azure had served as a buffer between the Duchy of Gironde and the Yeon tribe, but since the Duchy of Azure had been destroyed and its southern territory absorbed, Marquis Sigrid had to manage that region as well. From his perspective, he had expanded his domain only to take on a troublesome area too.
“Those insect-like Yeon bastards. I want to crush them all underfoot. I am sick to death of them.”
Sigrid ground his teeth and clenched his fist. He had scraped together all his forces and marched into the desert to deliver a decisive blow. Yet although he had laid their villages to waste, he had lost even more soldiers on the way back, so he must have been angry enough to bolt upright even in his sleep.
“What is the current situation with the Yeon tribe? Has there been any progress?”
“It has been the same for seventeen years. Several tribes take turns invading, plundering, and returning.”
With bloodshot eyes, he muttered without hiding his hatred.
“Among them, the Red Snake tribe is the most vicious. They do not only plunder goods. They even drag residents away and demand ransom.”
“If the ransom is not sent, do they kill them?”
“They do not merely kill them. They cut off their heads and throw them into the village before leaving.”
Committing horrific crimes against civilians was already enough to provoke fury, but mutilating the bodies to instill fear was the work of the most vicious among the Yeon tribe.
“I cannot understand the Yeon bastards. They slaughter and kill one another, and yet their numbers never decrease.”
Sigrid shook his head as though he was fed up.
“Do you have informants who gather information on the Yeon tribe?”
Aslaf, who had been listening to his complaints, spoke, and Sigrid furrowed his brows.
“I am getting information from Yeon soldiers, but at best, it is fragmentary. Each of them says something different, so I cannot tell what is what.”
Among the Yeon tribe in the desert, who moved constantly, fought for power, and were surrounded by rampant lies, it was extremely important to distinguish real information, synthesize it, and make judgments.
Alexei I had been able to know the Yeon tribe’s real-time changes as clearly as the palm of his hand because Yobik had collected vivid information from the Yeon tribesmen who traveled between the desert and the Empire, then summarized and conveyed it to him.
However, Sigrid, who thought of all Yeon tribesmen as beings that had to be exterminated, could not possibly have such an informant.
“If you want to know about the Yeon tribe, should you not have someone go directly to the desert and grasp the situation?”
At Aslaf’s words, Sigrid shook his head stubbornly.
“How could I trust a Yeon informant? What if they give false information? It would only make things more confusing.”
“If you cannot trust the Yeon tribe, how about sending an imperial person?”
“An imperial person? Who would go to the Yeon tribe? To the Yeon tribe who kill imperial people on sight?”
“Then how about me?”
Sigrid asked back with an expression of disbelief.
“Are you thinking of going?”
“If you give me the opportunity, I will do my best.”
Sigrid was left speechless, his mouth falling open. A seventeen-year-old youth had asked to be sent into the middle of enemy forces where he might lose his life. Sigrid doubted his own ears.
“The Yeon tribe are different from the Rong tribe. If they see an imperial person, they will kill him without question. Can you do it?”
“There are tribes friendly to the Empire. If you give me the position of peace envoy of the Duchy of Gironde, I will try speaking with them.”
At Aslaf’s proposal, Sigrid leaned forward with an interesting expression.
“What will you do once you go?”
“First, I believe it is important to understand the factional relationships within the Yeon tribe. After that, the best course is to pit them against one another.”
Alexei I had selected tribes among the Yeon tribe that were friendly to the Empire, traded with them, and enabled them to procure food and weapons. In that way, he had indirectly supported them so that they could steadily gain the upper hand in fights against tribes hostile to the Empire.
He intended to use that method this time as well.
“Can that be done? Will the Yeon tribe listen to us?”
Perhaps remembering his experiences of being deceived by the Yeon tribe, Sigrid frowned.
“I have hired Yeon tribesmen as mercenaries before, but those bastards are hopeless. They always cared only about money, deceived me, and betrayed me.”
“Yatsuki carried out his mission well, did he not?”
Aslaf casually tossed out the remark in order to draw out information about Yatsuki.
“Yatsuki? How do you know that man?”
Sigrid flinched in surprise, and his expression changed as he narrowed his eyes. Wary of Aslaf, who knew of the secret conspiracy he had plotted long ago, he questioned him in a threatening tone.
“Well, well. You are not a young man I can take lightly just because you are young. Where did you hear such a story? It happened before you were even born.”
He crossed his arms and pressured Aslaf with a suspicious gaze.
“Who told you that? Your father?”
“My father does not know. As you know, I am of Gypsy blood, so I wandered from place to place and have heard more than my father.”
At Aslaf’s words, Sigrid remembered that his eyes were purple and stroked his chin.
“Ah, you were an illegitimate son. Well, Baron Lenke, holed up in the mountains, would never know things even the people here do not know.”
Sigrid looked at Aslaf with a somewhat contemptuous expression and muttered.
Then, as though an unpleasant memory had surfaced, he shuddered as if brushing off an insect.
“Yatsuki also turned his back on the Empire in the end and returned to the desert. Worse, he coaxed all the Yeon tribesmen in the unit and deserted with them. He even raided my warehouse and took money, food, and weapons.”
Yobik had said there was a rumor that Yatsuki had returned after receiving reward money, but Sigrid’s account was different.
As though he did not even want to think about it, he grimaced.
“At any rate, if you are willing to go to the Yeon tribe and try to persuade them, I will not stop you. But no matter what happens, do not resent me. You volunteered for this.”
“Understood. However, I would be grateful if you appointed me to a high position so they cannot kill me recklessly.”
“That much is possible. What position do you want?”
“Please give me the position of representative envoy of the Duchy of Gironde.”
Because diplomatic relations had not been established with the Yeon tribe, there was no position of ambassador, so when dealing with the Yeon tribe, representative envoy was the highest position available.
Sigrid gave him the position of Yeon envoy representing the Duchy of Gironde and wrote him a letter of appointment. Since he would be an envoy representing the duchy, the Yeon tribe would not be able to kill him carelessly or take him prisoner for ransom.
At a time when information about the Yeon tribe was desperately needed, Sigrid had calculated that there would be no harm in trusting the son of Baron Lenke, who had carried out his role as a hostage in peace negotiations for one year without issue.
“Then I will leave it in your hands.”
“Please do not worry.”
With the letter of appointment in hand, Aslaf immediately left the room.