Against the Dark (3)

Lunch the following day, Kleio stepped into the knights’ office for the first time since he had arrived. Unlike the newly expanded buildings, it was in a medieval style, with narrow windows and cold stone walls covered in tapestries. Surrounded by all sorts of documents, letters, and files, Lysa was unable to get out of work despite Kleio’s treatment. Other knights and soldiers in need of treatment milled around near Lysa’s desk.

“You went through a lot of trouble because I asked. I’ve so many tasks that I have to look over.”

“No. Sir Lysa is the deputy head of the vice-captain, so isn’t it a busy time?”

“Thank you for thinking so.”

Kleio’s magic mended Lysa’s ankles in no time. She carefully flexed her legs with a satisfied look afterward.

“This is great. It’s a lot better than Meyer’s usual work.”

“Lights flashed, and now everything’s better?”

“The skill of the little wizard is unusual.”

“Hey, stop talking and step up to be healed.”

Kleio healed the knights’ injuries, whether they were big or small. Countless scars had been engraved into their bodies, wounds from both sword and ether as well as tears and bruises from the teeth of beasts. They seemed to have suffered a lot more difficulties than the young knights of the Capital Defense Force. That experience would be a tremendous asset for them in the coming war. Finally, after getting his back healed, the knight Trude began to mutter.

“Hey, that’s curious. My back is healed. Thanks! You have a lot of talent, but I would like our duke to see it once…”

At once, the atmosphere became cool, and Lysa pressed the knight with a glance. Trude’s expression became sorrowful. He had heard that Theo Tristein was seriously ill, but Kleio had no clue what kind of disease it was.

“You know that magic can’t cure deep sickness.”

“To fix that, let’s see… Did you forget we’ve sent for doctors and wizards before? Meyer was only able to help a little.”

“But now our duke’s worse than before. Meyer’s in the subjugation squad right now too, uh…”

“You need to go out and get a better brain.”

Several of them smacked Trude in the back of the head and carried him out of Lysa’s office. It was a defensive attitude as he had unintentionally revealed something that shouldn’t be seen to the outsider Kleio.

.

.

.

As he walked through the long corridor, Kleio suddenly came to a stop and squatted down for a while. If someone passed by, his excuse would be that he was dizzy. He raised his Perception to the peak, sniffing at a scent that came out faintly from the highest bit of the castle. It was the stench of death. Arthur’s party didn’t know where the duke’s bedroom was and never went to greet him. Vice-captain Rotan had cut them off, saying that the duke wouldn’t meet with anyone. As a result of eavesdropping, they had discovered it had been more than five years since the duke had been seen. He couldn’t even eat by himself, and so he needed magic to stay alive. It was clear that the state of the duke was becoming direr and direr as his wizard, Meyer, was out.

‘The duke is dying while the wizard is out, and here I thought the castle was bright. But… you can’t tell everything from an outside glance.’

***

The practice ended the day after tomorrow. The twins had followed the knights on a hunt while Isiel and Cel were learning how to conduct ether in snow oxide, which was a technique peculiar to the Tristein knights. Meanwhile, Arthur was confronting Mietsu. Kleio had returned to the parlor and read a newspaper while eating honeyed chestnuts. After eradicating the beasts and clearing the roads, a wagon laden with daily necessities had arrived. There were also newspapers tied up in the luggage, but few were interested in it.

‘They bring it, but no-one here cares about news from central.’

Thus, Kleio was able to take his time reading it. It seemed that the entirety of Albion had been in an uproar the past two weeks, and the status of beasts slain by region was summarized in a table.

‘Of course, most appeared in Tristein’s estates, and there are dozens of them still here. At best, one or two were level 3.’

The beasts of level 2 or lower had been eradicated by the knights. Even if the knights weren’t actively stationed, it seemed that the situation had been corrected without much damage.

‘It was like this at the start before. However, the problem became serious as more and more strong guys with huge mana stones appeared from deep underground.’

Kleio turned over the newspaper, looking at the spectacular headlines.

-Victory! Victory! Win!-

-Blessing of Albion, our two princes-

-Cruel’s Knights show amazing performance-

Aslan’s stock prices were rising tremendously while Kleio was buried in the duchy of Tristein.

‘It was an uproar before, but now, they’re outright praising him.’

While Melchior took control of the nationwide crisis, Aslan led Cruel’s knights to sweep through the entire southeast. The newspaper seemed to focus on Aslan over Melchior, who was in charge of only administrative work.

‘The real battle is often on the administrative end. Is the race to take over the throne beginning in earnest? Ugh.’

Kleio, his expression seriously, looked over to see Mecht, the knight who led the subjugation.

“Wow, little wizard. What are you reading so hard?”

“Hello, Sir Mecht. Some outside news.”

“The news is about demons. The order came, and we sent a telegram back to the capital with our status.”

“Yes. I’m glad that it was resolved safely without any major mishaps.”

“Whew, it seems like this wasn’t a big deal for the affluent estates. This time, we formed a subjugation squad and hired mercenaries. There were many unexpected expenditures, to the point where we thought the vice-captain might start vomiting blood. Even so, we barely made it.”

Tristein had a fairly wealthy manor, but since there was no farmland, most of the food had to be imported from outside.

“You eradicated the demons, but there should be a reward for that. Congratulations.”

Mecht, who had been camping from the first day the demons showed up, was happy to return to the castle. As Mecht settled in, the knights who needed treatment came to Kleio and the soldiers on night guard finally had some free time. Trude, who was trembling from earlier, pointed at the newspaper illustration.

“Is that the second prince? It is, right?”

“I see. Trude, you were on a joint drill with Cruel’s knights in the capital. Have you met that prince too?”

“He was a completely unsavory guy. He said he couldn’t even fight with commoners! It was obvious why.”

Kleio had to clench his jaw to hold back his laughter. The knights here were sincere and not hesitant towards the royal family. It was clear that they had never even heard of the word blasphemy before.

“Because of what you said.”

“Hmm. ‘Do you dare call yourselves a knight? Those who don’t make a covenant aren’t knights.’”

“I see. When I became a knight, I was sworn by the duke! That’s it. What kind of covenant would be made to our country, which never helped us? Would we accept that?”

Kleio’s ears perked up.

“You were ordained by the duke? How is that possible?”

Any official knight would meet the king once in their life at the time of the standing ceremony. In unavoidable cases, the Queen or the crown prince could represent the king. Suddenly, Mietsu sat down next to Kleio and spat out an answer. Right after he had grabbed the snack, Kleio was eating.

“When I look at the expression of our little wizard, there seems to be something he doesn’t know. The three dukes were assigned the title by the king and granted the authority to ordain knights on his behalf. Originally, they were kings of their own territory. Since the other two dukes were cut off, only the master of this castle retains that authority.”

“Ah…”

He had learned of that before, but he wasn’t aware that such a past still had an impact of such a magnitude.

“By the way, it’s surprising that Duke Cruel doesn’t covet that authority or try to abolish it.”

“Oh, good thought. In fact, it’s too remote here, but the black-haired prince is guaranteed to argue with it eventually.”

Mietsu laughed. He was a middle-aged man with a rough way with words and a short beard, but when he laughed, he gave off a gentle impression.

“Mietsu’s opened the mouth of truth again, hehe.”

“So what, you don’t like it?”

“No, we all like honest people.”

Trude giggled as he teased his colleague. It seemed that he was the troublemaker among the knights.

“That honesty makes nobles angry wherever you go, right?”

“That baron who arrived to buy mana stones last time was like that. He vomited because he got sick from the carriage. It’s like that, but isn’t it funny?”

“That’s right. Only nobles will be treated well by other nobles.”

While the knights and soldiers argued, Kleio scanned the rest of the newspaper.

“Have you ever seen Melchior?”

“Ah, maybe two or three times when I went to the capital.”

“How could you get there? Isn’t it usually difficult?”

He had learned while staying there that the Tristein knights had more restrictions on their movements than other knights. Now, he figured it was likely due to the peculiarity of their covenant.

‘There were some complicated circumstances behind Melchior and these knights.’

“That’s right. I was escorting the duke’s family with three other knights. It was possible without royal authorization.”

“So it’s possible to go to the capital city by fours. I and Trude’s turn was three years ago, and at that time, the crown prince was a man he looked up to.”

“He was a real noble, sending Meyer to our duke.”

“But I’m a little scared of him being crowned. He has an energy that can’t be overcome, right?”

“Trude’s cousin also said the same thing.”

‘Aren’t these people too keen? Or maybe the brainwashing doesn’t work because their thoughts are simple. It’s amazing.’

“Why, the youngest prince also works hard. See.”

Trude pointed out the window. Arthur was running through the training field, steam practically wafting off of him. The knights treated Arthur like he was their friendly younger brother.

“When I see the prince working hard, it reminds me of Tasserton when he was a child. He practiced day and night.”

“Still, our Tasserton is the best.”

“Still, it would be nice if he were here. He’s always in the capital…”

“It is his duty to be the king’s loyal agent. We can manage here.”

“Still, what are you saying? Only a knight, if it were a thousand years ago, he could’ve been a prince or a king!”

“Right. Now, he only comes home once a year.”

“Well, we’re not bound to the knight, but the duke…”

“Hey, hey.”

A knight jabbed Trude in the side, conscious of Kleio’s existence, but the conversation quickly overheated. As he listened silently, Kleio was able to reach a conclusion.

‘The blind loyalty to Tasserton Tristein was understated.’

Kleio recalled the contents of the previous manuscript and the sight of Tasserton and Melchior, whom he met in Dubris. Isiel and Arthur were similar. It was hard to think about Tasserton’s attitude, but the relationship between the two seemed solid.

‘They first met after Theo Tristein fell… six or seven years at most?’

Tristein had been devoted absolutely to Melchior until the end before.

‘What the hell is going on?’