“How entertaining it was. I’d never seen our professor so in love before. He’s truly a coldhearted person, you see.”
As I exchanged all sorts of trivial stories with Angelina like that, the day passed.
&
The next day.
I was traveling in a carriage with Angelina.
The carriage swayed slowly along a gentle dirt road,
and the wind seeping in through the gap in the window still carried the chill of early morning.
The sunlight was bright,
but the atmosphere inside the carriage was heavier than I had expected.
“Is that really true? The Old Dynasty...”
Angelina murmured, her hands neatly folded together,
her face, unusually, devoid of mischief.
“That’s truly frightening.”
Now that she had learned about the Old Dynasty as well,
it was only right to tell her, just in case harm might come to the Pimale family.
“But... where are we going? This isn’t the direction of the Bedberiu territory, is it?”
Even though it must have been her first time on this road, she pinpointed the direction accurately.
As expected, she wasn’t someone who only buried herself in books.
“There’s somewhere I need to stop by for a moment.”
I leaned against the carriage wall and continued.
“During the territorial war not long ago, there was a moment when things became extremely dangerous.”
Angelina’s gaze changed in an instant.
She lightly pushed up her glasses and waited for me to continue, holding her breath.
“Originally, I expected the enemy to move with about twenty men, thirty at most. But contrary to my expectations, all of them moved. There must have been around fifty.”
“All of them?”
Her eyes widened.
“So we were caught at the edge of the forest. We were pursued from there, and I barely managed to escape by turning toward the lower slopes of the Asterus Mountains.”
“Hup...”
A short gasp escaped her.
“There were five soldiers with me, and all of them were on the verge of losing breath. I had no leeway either. In that situation, we had to find a place to hide.”
At last, the carriage slowed.
The wheel caught on a stone and jolted once,
then soon came to a stop.
We got off at the entrance to the mountains.
Above us, old trees covered half the sky,
and whenever the wind blew, the leaves brushed against one another with a soft sound.
“We’re here.”
I raised my hand and pointed ahead.
“It should have been around there.”
Angelina shifted her gaze to where I was pointing.
Thick roots protruded from the ground,
and between the trees and rocks, it seemed questionable whether there was even enough space for a person to barely squeeze in and hide.
“You can’t see it from here, but up there, between the roots of a giant tree, there was just enough space to hide.”
“It must have been difficult...”
“We really hid by cramming ourselves in.”
Angelina was now completely absorbed in the story.
“And then?”
“The problem came after that.”
I moved a little, roughly recreating the position where I had hidden that day.
“The enemies were coming up from there. They weren’t completely close yet, but they were clearly within the edge of my vision. Which meant, conversely...”
I turned back to Angelina.
“If they so much as shifted their bodies a little, they would be able to see me.”
“Hup.”
This time, she drew in a louder breath.
“Still, I thought it was fortunate that it was night. There was darkness. But then...”
I looked up at the sky once.
The sunlight filtering through the branches
reminded me of the moonlight from that day.
“The moonlight moved.”
Angelina’s lips parted ever so slightly.
“At first, it was just shining through the trees. But that light began to seep deeper and deeper into the gap, and in the end, it touched my armor.”
She held her breath entirely.
“At first, it was fine. The reflected light was blocked by the tree. But as time passed, the light kept moving downward. If it continued like that... it was only a matter of time before I was discovered.”
Angelina adjusted her glasses as if she were reading an interesting novel, focusing even more intently.
“Then.”
I spoke a little more slowly, in a lower voice.
“I heard a rustling sound.”
“A rustling...?”
“At first, I thought it was the sound of the wind. I thought it was the sound of leaves shaking.”
In that instant, Angelina’s eyes flew wide open.
“D-don’t tell me...”
I looked at her and nodded.
“I hadn’t seen it wrong.”
My voice naturally grew calm.
“The tree was definitely moving. Astonishingly, the space where the moonlight had been reflecting, and the space through which they could have seen me from over there, had vanished before I knew it.”
Angelina’s pupils trembled greatly.
“A-an Ent!?”
She spoke almost like she was screaming, then covered her own mouth.
“Hup, I-I’m sorry. I was just so surprised.”
I smiled.
“Yes. I think so too. An Ent. A spirit and guardian of the trees.”
Then I looked up again and said,
“It was a chaotic situation, so one might say I could have been mistaken. But at that moment, I was actually extremely calm. It was a moment where, if I missed anything about the situation, we would all die. That’s why I’m certain. I did not see it wrong.”
It was a hard story to believe.
The sort of story that even Angelina, who loved mysteries, would have difficulty believing.
And yet Angelina did not refute it.
For a while, she looked up at the trees in silence with me.
The wind passed by.
The leaves collided with one another, making a soft rustling sound, as if telling her that my words were true.
As silence settled for a moment, the mountains were quiet and still,
but now that stillness instead carried a strange sense of mystery.
After gazing for a long time, Angelina quietly opened her mouth.
“I believe you.”
I could feel sincerity in the eyes that looked at me.
I responded with a smile, and the two of us looked upward again.
“Thank you. To me, this is truly the best reward.”
“I did think you’d like it.”
I scratched my head.
“Even if you say you believe me, there’s no way to confirm whether this is really true or not. It makes me feel a bit...”
“No. Truly. I really loved it.”
Angelina still could not take her eyes away.
I did not go out of my way to disturb her.
For some reason, I felt that the Angelina I was seeing now was subtly different from the one I had seen back in her territory.
***
The Bedberiu territory.
Count Trevio Grek could not hide his expression for a moment when he saw me sitting before him.
Only one year.
Just one year ago,
he must have sensed from me the air of a clumsy young nobleman.
But not now.
It was not merely that my outward appearance had changed.
My gaze was different,
my seated posture,
and the very atmosphere with which I looked at him without saying a word had changed.
I quietly surveyed his office first.
A strong scent of perfume lay thick throughout the spacious office.
Heavy curtains hung by the window,
and hunting trophies and expensive framed paintings were mounted on the walls.
Trevio looked at me while burying himself deeply in a chair with a high backrest.
His small eyes narrowed over his plump face.
“It has been a long time, Count Trevio Grek.”
“Indeed.”
It was brief.
His gaze had already shifted toward probing my intentions.
“What brings you here?”
I took a contract from my breast pocket and placed it on the table.
“I intend to reduce the production of potatoes and sweet potatoes further. From now on, I plan to leave only enough for our territory to consume.”
“Hmm.”
Trevio understood quickly.
“Well, yes. Now that you can cultivate rice, there would be no need for it.”
The corner of his mouth rose ever so slightly.
“So. You intend to exchange them for rice?”
That expression was almost half-welcoming.
From his standpoint, compared to potatoes and sweet potatoes,
if he could obtain even a small amount of rice, it would be a far more profitable trade.
But I shook my head.
“No.”
Trevio’s smile froze faintly.
“What did you say?”
“We no longer need this place’s iron ore. We have reached a point where we need iron of slightly higher quality.”
His expression immediately twisted.
“So you’re saying you’ll break the contract?”
“I will compensate you in money.”
Trevio picked up the contract almost as if snatching it.
His thick fingers roughly crumpled the corner of the paper.
He quickly scanned the contents.
Looking only at the conditions, they were not bad.
In fact, they were rather generous.
But his greed had already gone elsewhere.
Rice.
He had to obtain it somehow.
“To handle a contract in this manner.”
Trevio slowly raised his head.
“After getting a taste of money, do you think money can solve everything? Was the Signal family such an undignified house?”
I quietly met his gaze.
“Is it insufficient?”
The corner of Trevio’s eye twitched.
“Are you... seeing me as a man mad for money? This is terribly insulting and infuriating.”
But unlike before, he did not slam his fist on the desk.
It was probably because of the changed atmosphere around me.
“Of course not.”
I answered very calmly.
“If I truly saw you that way, I would have tried to settle it without taking a loss. But because I know you could feel sufficiently displeased, I am instead offering more. That is courtesy.”
Trevio blatantly scowled even at those words.
“You wrap it up well with pleasant words. But changing the expression does not change the essence.”
His bulging belly remained the same,
but his gaze was sharp.
I slowly nodded.
“Very well. Then I’ll give it to you again.”
Only then did Trevio’s expression ease slightly.
“Now we’re finally speaking the same language.”
I pushed a new contract in front of him.
Trevio accepted it as if it were only natural.
He probably thought new terms including rice would be written there.
However.
His face stiffened in an instant.
“You bastard... what is the meaning of this?”
This contract had an even smaller amount written on it than the first.
“Are you playing games with me?”
Unable to hold back his anger any longer, he exuded an aura as if he might strike the table at any moment.
“Does it look as though I’m playing games?”
But when my voice sank coldly,
Trevio’s eyes wavered for an instant.
“Does the Signal family seem that idle to you?”
Trevio pressed his lips tightly shut.
The moment he belittled the Signal family any further here,
it would no longer be simple displeasure, but an unmistakable insult.
He was capable of at least that much judgment.
His fingertips trembled with rage,
but in the end, he could not strike the desk.
Rather, thanks to the sight of him holding himself back,
I was able to feel it even more clearly.
My own change was one thing,
but the Signal family was now no longer an opponent he could shout down as he pleased.
“Fine.”
Trevio spoke through gritted teeth.
“There must be a reason for you doing this.”
He forcibly steadied his breathing and glared at me.
“If it is some absurd reason, you will pay dearly for this insult.”
I nodded silently.
Then I took out a plaque from inside my coat.
The royal plaque engraved with a golden pattern caught the sunlight and gave off a weighty gleam.
“Count Trevio Grek.”
I placed the plaque on the table and spoke clearly.
“From this moment on, answer my questions without the slightest falsehood.”
In that instant,
Trevio, having failed to notice the plaque, tried to unleash the anger he had been holding back at my words.
“How dare you!!”
However, the moment his gaze touched the royal plaque,
his movement came to an abrupt halt.
His eyes widened.
The burning anger vanished from his face as if it had been a lie.
“Behind me, from this moment onward, stands the royal family.”
“H-hup!”
Trevio hurriedly sat back down,
then soon knelt on one knee.
“I-I shall obey your command.”
I lightly waved my hand.
“Stand up.”
“Y-yes.”
“You may answer comfortably.”
But those words instead made him even more confused.
How deeply he should bow,
what tone he should use to answer,
how far he needed to lower himself before me now.
I intended to make use of that confusion.