“Still, I can’t put you in danger, Mr. Reion.”
“...”
“I’ll be going now. See you again.”
I nodded without a word.
And her carriage slowly began to move.
&
Right.
I understood now that she was interested in me.
But why?
It wasn’t as if I had done anything for her.
All I had done was listen to her talk.
I really didn’t understand women.
But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
I returned straight to the mansion and opened the books Angelina had sent me,
along with the records she had personally organized.
The arrangement was astonishingly neat.
Short notes were attached to each key point,
and records connected to one another were even tied together with string.
It truly looked like material made solely for me to read.
I picked up the sheet of paper lying on top.
From the very first line, Angelina’s handwriting caught my eye.
[The upper embankments and sluice gates of the Asterus southern water system were not facilities built by the current Halsen family.]
She had started by stating the conclusion outright.
I turned to the next page,
and beneath it was a brief, orderly explanation.
[There are records stating that these water system facilities were initially operated by the “western water management family, Renfer.”]
Renfer.
It was a family name I had never heard before.
But what mattered more was the next sentence.
[However, it appears that the Renfer family did not build them as private property either, but instead assumed the duty of joint water system management under royal authorization at the time.]
My hand stopped.
Royal authorization.
Those four words lodged especially deeply in my mind.
In other words.
The embankments and sluice gates in the Rubant territory, which Halsen had insisted their ancestors built,
had never belonged to the Halsen family in the first place, nor had they been private facilities of any specific family.
I immediately turned to the next page.
As if Angelina had known I might get confused,
she had written a very simple conclusion below.
[In summary, the upper sluice gates and embankments in question are “public irrigation facilities built under royal authorization,” and it is highly likely that only the operating family changed with the times.]
And below that.
In slightly heavier handwriting.
[In other words, the Halsen family’s claim that they “managed them for a long time” may be partially true, but their claim that these are “facilities they built and maintained” is highly likely to be false.]
I slowly drew in a breath.
Halsen had packaged it as if it had been theirs from the very beginning,
simply because they had had their hands on it for a long time.
Because they had held it for so long,
they had pretended to be the rightful owners.
They had grabbed someone else’s leash,
and now had the gall to demand usage fees for it.
And the decisive evidence was the very book Angelina had brought.
The design methods and structural explanations used when the royal family built the embankment long ago.
Within it remained, almost exactly, the operating method of the embankment I had personally seen upstream.
An extremely old method,
one no longer used today.
Good.
We had them by the throat completely.
Father also broke into a broad smile the moment he saw the materials.
“Let us launch a counterattack.”
“Father.”
I closed the book and looked at him.
“If we’re doing this, let’s do it properly. We need to end it in one blow this time.”
Father nodded as well, his expression resolute.
***
On the day exactly three days after the promise.
In the empty field beside the upper embankment, the two sides sat facing each other.
On the left was the Signal family.
On the right was the Halsen family.
Doren Halsen drank his tea with a leisurely expression.
“Ha. To call even the royal family here over this—what an amusing spectacle.”
“It will be amusing indeed.”
“I hear you intend to uncover the truth about the upper embankment?”
Doren gave a snort of laughter.
“The truth? What truth? We’ve already been operating this place for three generations. A truth we don’t know? Ah, don’t tell me—you mean it actually belongs to you?”
Father smiled lightly.
“You have quite a long tongue. They say someone from the royal family will be coming soon, so you need only wait.”
“I did agree to that, but... it would take fifteen days to get here from the capital, wouldn’t it?”
Doren narrowed his eyes mockingly.
“Surely... you weren’t lying?”
“The royal family is not only in the capital. Surely you didn’t fail to know that?”
At those words, Doren’s expression stiffened for an instant,
then quickly changed back into a twisted smile.
“I know. I merely thought some truly grand personage was coming from the capital.”
“Anyone from the royal family is a grand personage. Those words of yours could be taken as...”
“Of course. Naturally. Who said otherwise? Goodness, one should listen until the end before speaking.”
Every single word out of Doren’s mouth grated on the nerves.
His expression and face played their part too.
I wanted to tear off that thin mustache sprouting on both sides of his mouth.
If it had been me, I might have punched him already.
But Father truly did not so much as twitch.
Time passed like that.
Since the person from the royal family had yet to arrive,
both sides simply sat in the field outside the embankment and waited.
Doren was the first to speak, as if bored.
He acted as though he were perfectly at ease.
“This is dull. How about this? Why don’t we have our knights face off once?”
“Are you bored?”
Father set down his tea and gave a faint laugh.
“I’m not bored at all.”
“...”
Doren’s face twisted.
Father quietly looked at him, then spoke in a low voice.
“Because I am very much enjoying waiting for what is soon to come. Ah, could it be that you are anxious?”
“Anxious? Ha! Me? Why would I be anxious?”
At that moment.
The smile vanished from Father’s face.
The aura that changed in an instant seized Doren Halsen and swallowed him whole.
“Then just sit still.”
A short silence.
“And wait with your mouth shut.”
The atmosphere was completely overturned.
Doren flinched,
then shrugged his shoulders and gave a pointless cough.
But he could no longer bring himself to speak first.
It was then.
From afar, a certain sound came slicing through the wind.
Everyone’s gaze turned at once.
And beyond the horizon,
a single flag slowly rose into view.
“They’re here!”
Someone shouted first.
Beneath the flag, a procession appeared.
And behind it, a carriage followed.
The closer it came, the clearer its scale became.
“Uh...?”
“Is the royal tribunal... always that extravagant?”
I, too, was staring with a blank expression.
The splendid carriage stopped before us,
and everyone rose from their seats at the same time.
It was so large
that, for a moment, I thought some grand royal procession had arrived.
Then the carriage door opened,
and one person stepped down.
The moment we saw his face,
both our side and Halsen’s side froze at once.
Then, all at once, everyone dropped to one knee.
“W-we greet Your Highness!!”
Baron Bel Elstragad.
No one had imagined
that he would come in person.
What the hell.
Why him?
While everyone stood frozen,
Baron casually clapped his hands once.
A knight hurriedly set down a chair,
and he sat on it, crossing his legs.
“Very well.”
He propped his chin on his hand and looked around.
“Let’s hear what this is about, shall we?”
Everyone still wore blank expressions.
At that moment, Doren was the first to regain his senses.
“I-I shall explain! Prince Baron!”
Like a fish that had found water, he began speaking rapidly, spittle flying.
“And that is why they are using the water we manage! Our demand is justified, and...”
“Fine, I understand.”
Baron waved his hand and cut him off.
“Then what about you?”
When that gaze turned toward us,
Father calmly opened his mouth.
“First, I will refute their claim. The water flowing from the Asterus Mountains spreads across a very wide area. The waterways managed upstream may have some effect on us, but that is only a portion of it.”
At Father’s words, Doren Halsen suddenly cut in.
“If there is an effect even in part, doesn’t that make it meaningful?”
Baron nodded.
“That’s not wrong. Even if it’s very small, there is an effect.”
“E-exactly. Haha!”
Doren laughed triumphantly.
Father glanced at him once, then continued as if nothing had happened.
“Very well. Then I will acknowledge it. Thanks to upstream management, we are also able to handle the water system with some degree of convenience.”
“If you acknowledge that, then the contribution fee...”
“However.”
Father cut him off.
Then he took from his coat the notice they had sent and held it out to Baron.
“First, this is the notice they sent to us.”
Baron skimmed through it roughly and asked,
“So?”
“As you can see here, they clearly stated it. That they built and maintained these upper embankments and sluice gates.”
Baron pointed to the sentence.
“Yes. It’s here.”
“I will ask Viscount Doren Halsen again.”
Father looked straight at Doren.
“Were these embankment facilities truly built by the Halsen family?”
“I said they were!”
Doren raised his voice.
“Ha, this is truly absurd. Didn’t I already say it has been three generations?”
“Can you prove it?”
“Prove it? Why should I have to prove it? Do you want me to show you traces left by my father? Well, it’s not as though that would be difficult!”
Father clicked his tongue briefly.
Baron, no longer even looking at him, flicked his hand.
It meant to continue.
Father took a book from his coat.
“When my son briefly occupied the upper reaches, he discovered something remarkable.”
“...”
“The operating method of this embankment is an extremely old method no longer used today.”
Doren immediately sneered.
“Of course it’s old! I told you earlier, three gener—”
“Not the Halsen family.”
Father’s voice struck sharply.
“It means it was made during the era when the Renfer family governed the Rubant territory.”
At that moment, the smile vanished from Doren’s face.
“What do you...?”
“And that is not conjecture, but a record.”
As Father tried to open the book,
Doren hurriedly raised his voice.
“T-that! We could have inherited that old method and built it ourselves, couldn’t we? This is absurd!”
“True.”
Unexpectedly, Baron sided with Doren’s argument.
“Whether it’s the wooden structure or the mechanism, you could have built it by referencing something old. Are you sure you checked properly?”
“E-exactly! These people are now daring to force absurd claims before Your Highness and mock the royal family!”
Father smiled.
“The Renfer family did not build it alone at the time.”
Then he held up the book and said,
“Inside this book are the embankment design method, the operating structure, and the royal joint construction records from the era of the Renfer family.”
Doren’s face stiffened completely.
“This is a history book of the Elstragad royal family. Within it remains a record stating that the Renfer family, under royal authorization, built the embankment together with the royal family in order to jointly manage the southern water system of Rubant.”
Baron took the book and skimmed a few lines.
“Oh.”
He pointed to one line with his finger.
“It’s here. To manage the southern region, Rubant was established, and the Renfer family, together with the royal family, installed the embankment... Mm. That’s enough.”
Baron closed the book and slowly rose.
Then he looked at Doren.
“N-no... th-that can’t be.”
At that moment, an administrator who had come from the royal side,
after inspecting the embankment facilities, shouted,
“We found it! There is a royal crest! It is faint, but certain!”
Doren’s face went completely dead.
Since those were the words of an administrator from the royal family, they could not be false.
And Baron shrugged.
“That’s what they say.”
“Uh, uh...”
Baron slowly approached Doren.
“Then this isn’t about upstream or downstream or whatever the hell else. It means it originally belonged to the royal family.”
“W-we...”
“And you acted as if it were yours and even tried to extort contribution fees?”
Doren’s lips trembled.
Baron lightly tapped his shoulder.
“Then since you used something belonging to the royal family as if it were your own... isn’t this a matter that should be handled under royal law?”
Doren, whose face had turned deathly pale, hurriedly dropped to his knees.
“I-I have committed a crime worthy of death! Your Highness!”
His face was already a mess of cold sweat.
Understandably so.
Because the moment it passed into the hands of royal law,
it would not be strange even if his head went flying.