HGOS 12

Chapter 12

Dreian, who had pulled Cassia into an embrace, seemed not to see the disbelieving looks around them. He even went a step further and rubbed his face against the nape of Cassia’s neck. Jester bristled and grabbed Dreian by the forearm.

“Sir, Viscount!”

Jerking around under Jester’s force, Dreian tilted his head.

“…What?”

Did he really not know why he was being questioned? Jester was left speechless by Dreian’s utterly composed reaction. It was Cassia who stepped in quickly and settled what could have turned into an ugly scene.

“It seems the Viscount is simply a little excited because it has been so long since we last met. Before I came to Greze, he had been busy with matters of succession and the like, so we did not even get to say a proper farewell. Still, Viscount, there are many eyes on us, and I am no longer the Count’s daughter but the proper mistress of Greze now, so please mind your manners.”

At Cassia’s firm but not unpleasant words, Dreian smiled and gave a slight bow.

“It seems I have been rude, madam. Ah, and my apologies to the Baron as well. I seem to have behaved too freely out of joy at seeing an old friend.”

Dreian readily admitted his fault with remarkable neatness. Cassia had openly defended him, and Dreian had even apologized.

Part of Jester wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him for hugging another man’s wife and rubbing his face against her, but if he lost his temper any further, he would look like a petty husband. Cassia’s obvious warning gaze seemed to say exactly that.

In the end, Jester could only let out a baffled breath and shut his mouth.

Dreian was escorted to the room Paul had prepared. Cassia went with him. The two sat across from each other at the table in the room and simply looked at one another.

They stayed in silence, staring at each other, for what felt like ten minutes. Cassia was struck by how different her friend seemed after more than a decade, while Dreian felt his chest tighten with emotion.

It was Dreian who broke the tedious silence first.

“Ah, damn it…”

“I-Ian?”

Cassia was startled. Dreian suddenly covered his eyes with one large hand, threw his head back, and choked up.

“This is driving me crazy…”

After staying like that for a while, Dreian lowered his hand and looked back at Cassia. His eyes had turned red and damp, as if he had truly cried.

Cassia, dazed, asked, “Why are you crying?”

“If it were you, would you not be crying too? Was the land I saw on the way here even really a territory? Never mind how cramped it is—how are people even supposed to survive here?”

“It is still winter… If we plant and raise things, if we work the land, then we can get by…”

Cassia looked away and trailed off, sounding embarrassed. Dreian was not about to miss that. Thinking of how shabby Greze was—so shabby it was almost embarrassing to call it a territory—only made him angrier, especially since Cassia clearly understood that fact as well.

“A war hero, and this is how they treat you? I had heard it was a countryside, but I never imagined it would be a slum.”

“It is not a slum. The people here live earnest, decent lives in their own way, you know? Could you not put it that way? Anyone hearing you would think they were living off handouts.”

Cassia huffed, her expression sharp with offense. She was upset by Dreian’s words. As she always thought, the bad one was Jester, not the kind and gentle servants or the poor but hardworking people of the territory. Hearing someone dismiss them as poor and shabby when he did not even know them made her flare up.

“Sorry. I got too worked up thinking about how hard it must be for you in a place like this.”

Dreian apologized immediately, his face turning contrite. He had always been like that. When they fought as children, when he accidentally made a mistake, even when Cassia seemed to be in a bad mood for no reason, he would apologize at once or try to soothe her. He never let a rift between them drag on.

Cassia liked that about him. This time too, she accepted the apology with a simple “All right,” and immediately let it go.

“I do not want to get angry, but I cannot help it. It is not as if you did anything wrong. Honestly, even His Imperial Majesty is too much. If someone is a war hero, should they not be treated accordingly? Is it right to preserve one’s own face by selling off someone else’s daughter?”

“I think so too.”

In her previous life, Cassia would never even have dared to blame the Emperor. She would only have thought that if such a lofty figure gave an order, it must naturally be obeyed. But after being dragged back through life, she had freely blamed him whenever she liked. When Dreian named him outright and cursed him, Cassia eagerly nodded in agreement.

“He really seems selfish.”

Cassia muttered with her lips pouted. Dreian stared at her in surprise before letting out a sigh. Thinking back on her original personality, she would have soothed him instead of agreeing with him when he spoke badly of the Emperor. It was obvious that life here had become unbearably hard for her.

“How is the Baron? Is he a decent man?”

Do not even ask. The curse nearly slipped out of her mouth, but Cassia swallowed it down.

“Let us talk about something else.”

Dreian was not someone who would miss the change in Cassia’s expression. So not only was the territory shabby, but her husband was also apparently a problem.

‘Well, he is a commoner-born brute who only ever rolled around on battlefields. If he does not swing his fists at her, he should at least be grateful. Damn it.’

Dreian clenched his fist.

“I do not think much of the Baron either. He knew perfectly well what kind of person Count Ruberno is, and what sort of level you are, and yet he still pretended not to know and went ahead and made you his wife. If he were truly decent, he would at least have spoken to His Majesty out of conscience. Was that excessive flattery really necessary?”

That was true. Cassia murmured inwardly and sighed.

He was not the kind of man who would cherish her like treasure, nor did he intend to use her family background as support, nor had he even known in advance that his wife would be the sort to cough up blood while managing the territory in his place. Why had Jester agreed to this marriage?

There was no need to think hard for the answer. Had not Cassia already spent ten years in her previous life becoming sick of his personality? He had simply not thought about it at all. The Emperor had ordered him to marry the Count’s daughter from this or that place? Fine, then he would do it.

A man who cared only about money, a personality so exhausting it made her sick. Ah, and now an old childhood friend on top of that. Cassia’s expression hardened.

“Oh, right. Cassia, I brought you a present.”

Seeing her face twist, Dreian gave her an apologetic smile and reached into the bag he had brought. He took something out.

It was a glass marble resting atop the mouth of a wide-necked glass bottle. She did not know what it was for, but since the marble itself glowed pink, it seemed like some kind of lamp. The glass marble was connected by a thin metal wire to a thumb-sized stone inside the bottle.

“This is amazing. It has not been shown anywhere yet, and I brought it just for you.”

“What is it?”

“You know my father put a lot of effort into the magic engineering industry, right? This is the result of all that, finally shining in my generation.”

“Oh.”

Cassia gave a small cry of understanding.

The magic engineering industry pioneered in Haveln and supported by Ruberno.

She could not possibly forget it. As Cassia thought back on what had happened in her previous life, anger rose in her again. She exhaled a long breath to calm herself.

‘That damned magic engineering industry. They gave some silly stone a fancy name like mana stone and made such a racket over it.’

In ancient times, there had supposedly been magic. But as the years passed and mages with mana gradually disappeared, magic naturally faded, then vanished. Grieving that loss, ancient mages are said to have processed raw stones and infused them with their own mana so that later generations could inherit the origins of magic. Those stones were called mana stones.

Haveln was shabby compared to Ruberno, but it was famous for one thing only: it was a territory where mana stones were buried in abundance. It was probably once a region where ancient mages had gathered and lived.

In any case, no matter how many mana stones there were, they were useless if no mages remained to use them. In this world, magic had already been reduced to an ancient legend, and with science and technology beginning to develop into industry, mana stones were nothing more than unusual rocks.

The one who refused to give up and tried to find a use for mana stones was Haveln’s former viscount. He gathered ancient magic researchers and engineers and poured generous support into them. As a result, a new industry called “magic engineering” was born, combining the energy emitted by mana stones with mechanical engineering.

When magic engineering was first introduced, everyone rushed to invest in it. Ruberno, quick to seize an opportunity, immediately poured in massive support and secured the largest stake in the industry.

An energy source embedded in stone that could actually be used. Everyone said it was bound to become an enormous success.

But unfortunately, magic engineering only drew attention in the early days, when small magic-engineering items were first created. They made use of simple mana stones with condensed magic, but the truly complex mana stones, with their elaborate formulas, remained useless.

‘In the end, it all collapsed. Idiot Dreian! Foolish father!’

If anyone asked why she was so furious while reminiscing about another person’s failed business when she had enough trouble of her own, the answer was simple.

‘If it was going to fail, it should have failed alone, not dragged us down with it!’

Back when magic engineering first began drawing attention, all kinds of scavengers came circling around Haveln. The people trying to steal mana stones included everything from foreign bandits hiding under cover to nobles within the country.

Cassia’s father, Count Ruberno, had spent a great deal of money supporting the magic engineering industry, and he needed to protect Haveln until it had settled safely enough to function. That was why he had been struggling to fend off repeated intrusions. Then there had been a rather large territorial war, and in desperation he had contacted Cassia, a daughter he did not usually speak to. He asked her to send reinforcements.

Cassia had hesitated. Yet somehow Jester heard of it first and sent word that he would personally join the campaign as reinforcements for Haveln. He had rushed there without looking back, just as he always did, and returned after sweeping everything away.

Jester probably thought he would bring back a generous reward as thanks for assisting his father-in-law. Cassia had also expected the war spoils he received to be a great help to Greze, which was struggling financially at the time.

But Ruberno had already been stretched thin by repeated raids. The Count expressed regret, saying he could not afford to put on a grand display for the son-in-law who had come all that way to help.

Still, there had to be a limit. The thing he had sent back as compensation had been truly absurd.

“I hear this is the most valuable mana stone in Haveln. If the magic engineering industry is properly established, its value will soar through the roof.”

Jester, having returned home after all that labor, had held out to Cassia not a reward fit for the trouble he had endured, but a stone the size of his fist—a mana stone, or rather a high-grade mana stone packed with a complex formula of magic that could not be used right away.

It went without saying that Cassia, trying her best to act calm while accepting it, had collapsed in shock.

She had been bedridden for a full week. Once she finally came to her senses, she sent a letter to Count Ruberno.

Father, are you joking?

Have you no shame in treating my husband like a fool?

If you truly think of me as your daughter and pity me at all, then show at least the bare minimum of courtesy again.

I have no face left to show my husband.

The Count must have received a letter brimming with anger from the very first line, but he simply ignored it and brushed it off.

Cassia truly had no face left to show Jester. No doubt Jester had wanted to smash Count Ruberno’s face to pulp when he was handed a useless stone as the price of his trouble. He must have endured it with superhuman self-control. Even so, Count Ruberno was still technically his wife’s father, his father-in-law.

Cassia, already feeling awkward enough just from having to read Jester’s mood, naturally shrank even further.

Knock, knock.

“Madam, it is Paul. Dinner is ready. His Lordship said it would be best if you came down quickly.”

Cassia was finally pulled out of her furious recollections by the strangely anxious voice coming from beyond the door.