91 – Return to the Empire
“Lord! Have you heard you’re returning to the Empire tomorrow─”
“I’ve already heard. Spare me the dramatics.”
Even after I awoke,
time continued its relentless march.
Enough time had passed for the injured to become, somehow, mobile.
But ‘mobile’ was the operative word.
I thought it would be some time yet before we could return to the Empire.
‘Ah, come to think of it, the Empire provided something, Lady Sylvia.’
‘…Certainly that curled mustache did arrive
with a considerable amount of baggage.’
When Azazh visited the Great Forest,
the medicines, potions,
and carriages provided by the Empire resolved the issue.
The Great Forest side, also, didn’t have
Due to a lack of resources to support the Imperials,
they seemed to have chosen to send them back.
“…”
“If you return, what will young master do?”
“For now, I must return to the Academy.
No further absences will be tolerated.”
“Ah, yes…”
“And…”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
My head tilts back.
I rest my forehead on my hand,
and inwardly, I let out a deep sigh.
‘…I must meet the Emperor.’
“Young master? Are you feeling unwell again?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Even as I told Ella, who was worried about me, that I was alright,
time continued to flow,
and before I knew it, tomorrow was upon us.
A tomorrow I couldn’t help but find uncomfortable and burdensome.
*
“It’s regrettable that I cannot accompany you.”
“It’s alright, you still have duties to attend to.”
I thought it was just a formality,
but it seemed she was genuinely disappointed,
a faint wry smile playing on her lips.
And again, she bows her head,
leaving countless elves behind.
“…Once more, I give you my thanks.
Thanks to you, we were able to live.”
“…”
Her head slowly rises,
her face reflected in my eyes.
Her hair scatters in the wind,
sunlight dazzlingly illuminating her from behind.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate to wish for
the Great Forest’s blessing to be upon you any longer.”
“…?”
“Because you are no longer a stranger
to us.”
“…?”
“We are prideful, yes, our noses held high, that is true.
But at the very least, we have never once forgotten a kindness.”
So she said, the parting words she offered
shifted from the first.
Utterly unsuited to the solemn tone and vocabulary,
she wore a bright smile on her lips,
“May the Great Forest always be with you on your path.”
She spoke thus.
*
“Young Master.”
“What is it?”
“When you return… what will you do?”
Inside the rattling carriage,
Ella, seated across from me, speaks.
With each jolt of the carriage,
her hair flutters softly.
“…Why do you ask that all of a sudden?”
“Just… I suddenly felt it…
That I don’t know when you’ll return.”
“….”
“My parents passed away
when I was young, both of them.”
“….”
“It was a simple robbery.
They broke into our house and even set it on fire.”
I began to see her hands tremble
very slightly.
Probably because reliving unpleasant memories
was causing her body to react.
Even so, she did not stop speaking midway.
As if she absolutely had to say this much.
“My father and mother were ordinary people,
so they couldn’t possibly overcome a robber wielding a knife.”
“….”
“Fortunately, my younger sibling and I happened to be saved
by someone passing by our house,
but it was too late for both of them.”
“….”
Ella, who had kept her head bowed throughout the conversation,
now looks up at me.
A single, round tear glistened in her eye.
“Young Master, Madam also told me to
take good care of you.”
“..Yes, I know.”
“But the way you are right now…
you seem so fragile to me.”
“….”
“Like you could crumble with the slightest stumble and
be damaged beyond repair.”
“….”
“I want you to live a long, long life, Young Master.
Because you’re precious to me now too.”
My collapse alone must have
been a great shock to her, for
words she would never normally utter
tumbled from her lips one after another.
All of them heavy with suppressed feeling.
“So, what I mean to say is…”
“..Enough, Ella.
I understand well enough what you want to say.”
“..Sir?”
“I’ll be more careful from now on.
I won’t step forward for anything dangerous.”
Before her voice could become more choked,
I cut her off.
She looked like she couldn’t continue speaking.
Besides, I couldn’t claim not to understand
her anxiety.
She had watched someone she considered family
lay unconscious before her eyes for three days straight.
For her, who had lost family once before,
it must have felt even more profound.
‘..I really should be careful for a while.’
A promise that would not be kept
lingered only in my heart today.
Unheard by anyone.
*
“We’ve arrived, Captain.”
“Hah… first, get the injured moved.
I’ll handle the formalities.”
“Yes, sir!!”
“And escort those people as well.”
The carriage door swung open,
Announcing our arrival in the Empire.
I woke Ella, who had dozed off moments before,
And stepping outside, I saw
Servants unloading luggage beside the carriage,
Knights supporting the injured.
Further ahead, the Captain of the Knights was,
Hard at work jotting something down, catching my eye.
“Hey, take it easy unloading!!”
“That could be worth more than your monthly wage?!”
The servants chatted amongst themselves,
As they carried the baggage, and
“—bit on the pricey side, though…”
“—the news that they’ve returned…!”
“Kya-ha-ha!! Mama, over here, here!”
The boisterous sounds of the street carried from the distance.
Finally, after that long journey,
The reality of arriving in the Empire began to sink in, when
“Get, get out of the way!!”
“Plea…please, you can’t do this!”
“Did I not say to clear the path!!
The…the Captain of the Knights, where is he?!”
Someone pushed through, shoving aside
The knights who were carrying the injured.
A portly man with a gleaming head came rushing over,
His purple cape billowing behind him.
For some reason, he was desperately searching for the Captain,
And upon learning his location, he immediately charged towards him.
“My…my son!! Where is my son?!”
He grabbed the Captain by the collar without preamble,
And began to shake him violently.
The Captain offered no reaction
To his utterly deranged and discourteous behavior.
He simply waited for the man to exhaust himself and
Release his grip, while
“Huu…huuuh…whe…where…”
“Please calm yourself, Duke Blen.”
Not long after, the man who had been so violently shaking his lapels,
began to pant, breath catching raggedly in his throat. He braced himself,
hands on his knees, gasping for air.
But more than that, those words from just moments ago…
Unless my ears deceived me…
“A Duke…?”
“That…that person, could it be…”
“The head of the Blen Ducal House…?!”
“Oh my, then that’s Lord Robert’s… gasp!!”
It seemed I hadn’t misheard, after all.
The mutters of the servants nearby carried clearly.
The head of the Blen Ducal House, Glen.
One of the few Dukes remaining in this Empire, and
“W-what…?! R-Robert… is dead?!”
“…My apologies… cough!”
“D-don’t talk such rubbish!!
Where have you hidden my son?!”
He was also Robert’s father, the first to fall victim
in the Great Forest.
*
“…My apologies─”
“Enough of the nonsense, bring him to me at once…
My son… I demand you bring me my son!!”
The Commander of the Knights’ words
were cut short, mid-sentence.
By the palm of a certain man’s hand,
aimed squarely at his face.
*Smack—*
*Smack—*
The Commander’s head
snapped back and forth, again and again.
“Y-you mongrels should have died…!!
Wasn’t that what I sent you there to do?!”
“…We are truly sorry for failing to protect him─”
“If you’re so sorry, then go and bring back my son,
alive and well, now!!”
Again, his hand flew towards the Commander’s face.
This time, not an open palm,
but a fist, clenched tightly and sure.
“Enough, there.”
“Wh-what, and just who are *you* then, eh?!”
But the fist didn’t land.
Someone had intercepted his punch.
A blond man in armor, with golden pauldrons,
and a lion emblazoned upon his breastplate.
The massive sword strapped to his back
looked as though two grown men would struggle to lift it.
Even *I*, who rarely grace the social circles,
knew his face and his reputation. He was *that* famous.
One of the most individually powerful warriors in the entire kingdom,
the Shield of the Empire, the Golden Knight – Ruindel.
*He* had appeared, and now held Gren’s fist in his grasp.
“Y-you…are you?!”
“I am, strictly speaking, a knight of the Empire.
Not one of *your* duchy’s knights.”
“Wh-what…!”
“Your son’s misfortune is truly regrettable, but
any further violence will not be tolerated.”
“Y-you…I am the Duke of this land…!”
“And I am the commander of the First Imperial Knights,
as well as a direct subordinate of His Imperial Majesty.”
The knight, standing at perhaps one-and-a-half times the height of an average man,
looked down upon Duke Gren, who was a little shorter than average.
The difference in their sheer size was staggering,
almost like David and Goliath, and Duke Gren visibly flinched.
But he quickly recovered, voicing his grievance
with a defiant shout.
“No, *my* son died in some distant land because of those incompetent fools. How can I possibly stay calm?!”
“…That is, indeed, a tragedy.
Therefore, you should first listen to the reports of the other knights and assess the situation ─”
“Assess the situation, my arse!
*They’re* the reason my son is dead!”
His attitude was undeniably and uncontrollably rude,
but he *was* the Duke of this land.
Not someone who could be easily dealt with.
Given the way he was currently raging,
there were only two ways to calm him down.
Without a thought for the aftermath,
to overpower him with brute force,
or something even the Duke wouldn’t dare meddle with,
at least until another Duke appeared to stop him.
‘…Well, either is highly unlikely–’
“Pardon me, might I intervene?”
“Who else is…gasp…!”
From behind his massive frame,
a snow-white elder cleared his throat, stepping forward.
There was, indeed, someone even the Duke couldn’t trifle with.
An old man who held dominion over a religious order, monopolizing its priests.
“H-His Holiness?!”
“Heh heh, I’ve simply come to tend to the injured…
But I seem to have stumbled upon quite the spectacle.”
It was the Pope’s appearance.