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Chapter : 41
Emblin sat in front of the fireplace with her brows knitted. This was usually her favorite time of day, yet her mind kept drifting.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
It was because of that sound. The village, once quiet, had suddenly grown noisy.
“What on earth are they doing?”
This had never happened before. With the ground still frozen, everyone should have been holed up like hibernating animals. Other than shoveling snow off the roofs so they wouldn’t collapse, there was nothing to do. Emblin muttered to herself.
“Is it that person again?”
After reading the ledgers all day in the office, was he starting something now?
She murmured softly.
“So it really is different when you’re an heir.”
The eldest son of a noble family received various lessons from a young age in order to inherit the title. One of them was learning how to govern a territory. Her gaze naturally drifted toward the office. The ledgers. What could be written in them…? Emblin rose from her chair and walked over. Pushing aside the warm air, she opened the door to the office.
It was a door that had never once been opened before. Yet now, the room had been thoroughly cleaned. It seemed Kishi and Lea had worked hard to prepare it for Tris. For a moment, the corner of her lips twisted involuntarily. A strange, aching sensation stabbed at her heart.
Steadying her emotions, Emblin pressed her lips together and looked toward the desk. Whether it was Tris’s doing or not, the ledgers were divided into two piles. One pile appeared to have been read; the other was still in progress. With an absent-minded gesture, Emblin reached out and opened one of the ledgers.
There was a map. Five villages centered around Wintergarden. Of them, four villages—excluding Burk—were marked with large X’s.
Rustle. She turned the page.
It contained information about Wintergarden. Emblin traced each word with her finger as she read.
At that moment, her eyes trembled slightly.
So this is it. A longing she had forgotten lifted its head. She had wanted to learn so many things…
Masser had received heir training under the full support of King Accus. One day, she had seen him receiving knightly instruction. Since she was never allowed to even step into the study, that had been the first lesson she ever witnessed.
She had secretly watched him grip a sword and learn movements under the guidance of the capital’s chief knight—and she couldn’t stop herself from crying. She had felt so miserable, so unbearably sad. It was the first time she had ever cried like that. Though she was a princess, though she was royalty, it was a life never permitted to her. She cried until her eyes were swollen shut, and Merrill, upon seeing her, had screamed hysterically.
<The one who wants to cry right now is me! If only you’d been born a son, none of this would have happened!>
Suddenly her vision blurred. Startled, Emblin wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
How absurd—tears, now of all times. She hadn’t even cried when she was told Merrill had died.
Hoo—she drew in a deep breath. It was all in the past. It was over. And yet her fingers continued to follow the lines of text.
As if her thirst for learning still remained.
She read. When numbers appeared, she turned the page. Even when she didn’t fully understand, she read on. Before she realized it, she had taken a seat. Leaning close over the ledger, she engraved each word into her eyes, reading letter by letter.
She forgot about the distracting noise. She forgot about the passage of time.
As usual, Kishi prepared dinner. Today, Jacob brought rabbit meat, saying it had been caught in a trap set in the monastery garden. As Kishi dressed the meat, she chatted with Lea.
“Do you think the lord will come today as well?”
Lea asked in a timid voice.
“Wouldn’t he?”
“He really should.”
The two of them chattered away as they cooked. That morning, on their way out, they had seen Jack and others gathered together, delighted that there was finally work to do. The excitement had rubbed off on them, lifting their spirits. Perhaps because of that good mood, the stew turned out exceptionally well.
But Tris did not come.
On her way home, Kishi looked down the road again and again with lingering disappointment, but his figure never appeared.
The next day, the work continued. They trimmed the branches off the felled trees and cut them to uniform lengths. There were far more people than the day before. With the increased numbers, the work progressed quickly, but at this rate, each person would only end up with one dir. It felt pointless.
Tris observed the scene, then moved aside and motioned for Jack to come over. Jack quickly set down his axe and followed him.
When they were far enough away from the worksite, Tris stopped and asked,
“Aren’t there too many people to split the wages like this?”
Jack replied,
“No, sir. One dir is fine for us.”
“And what do you expect to buy with one dir?”
“We plan to pool the money and buy wheat and potatoes.”
That way, everyone who worked could at least get a small share. Tris crossed his arms and stared at him intently.
“Is it because it’s February? You failed to secure enough food to get through the winter?”
“I’m sorry.”
“That was foolish. What’s the point of a village representative if he can’t manage something like that?”
“I’m sorry, my lord.”
Tris had not gone to Wintergarden the day before. He had been irritated at himself for being swept up in an uncontrollable desire, and he couldn’t bring himself to go. He was also afraid of what madness he might commit if he faced Emblin again. Because of that, he still hadn’t finished reading the ledgers.
When Jack had organized them, he had sorted them by category. Among the ones Tris hadn’t read yet were records related to taxation. If he had read them, he wouldn’t have spoken so harshly.
“So… how did you manage to endure until the first harvest?”
Jack answered respectfully,
“We managed, more or less.”
In the past, they had shed far too much blood. It had begun the moment the capital ruled the Radian territory through a proxy. Under the pretense of Merrill’s will, King Accus seized everything in sight. Almost nothing was left behind.
After enduring it for several years, they finally sent the village representative and the captain of the Radian knights to request an audience with the king. They begged him to allow the people to survive without starving until spring. But their plea was deemed an insult to the king. Both men were hanged in the middle of the capital’s marketplace. The shock was immense.
After that, the king’s proxy grew even more cruel. Impossible taxes were imposed, and when people couldn’t meet them, their children were taken or they were beaten half to death. Fear blanketed the Radian territory. No one listened to them, and Merrill—who should have protected them—did nothing.
People were reduced to serfs. Boys between the ages of five and ten were taken to the capital. Those who resisted were beaten to death. The territory collapsed. When famine was followed by plague, people dropped like flies. In the end, they began to flee in search of a way to live.
The villages around Wintergarden, in particular, suffered especially long winters and unbearably cruel times. People died of disease, then died again at the hands of criminals who ran rampant. Life as a serf was even worse, so people fled. In the end, only Burk village survived, while the other four villages were reduced to ruins.
Those who barely survived learned how to remain silent. They never spoke first. Even now, it was the same. They answered only what Tris asked. Wariness had seeped into their very bones. It was instinct—the instinct to survive.
Tris looked quietly at Jack, then spoke.
“Pathetic. It can’t be helped. When are you planning to go buy food?”
Jack answered immediately.
“Once all the work you ordered is finished.”
“I see. Tell me again when the time comes. I’ll go with you.”
In that instant, tears welled up in Jack’s dark, hardship-worn eyes. His chest tightened at the thought that a path to survival might finally be opening. He bowed deeply and said,
“Thank you, my lord.”
“That’s enough. I’ll take care of things from now on.”
“Thank you!”
He had been worried about going to buy food. Criminals could sniff out supplies like ghosts. Even with thorough preparations, he feared sacrifices would be unavoidable. But now, that worry vanished. If Tris went with them, no one would dare lay a hand on their food.
Tris looked formidable just standing there—no one would attack rashly. And he even said he would look after them from now on. It felt like a miracle had arrived. Jack’s mouth fell open, and he couldn’t close it.
That was when it happened.
Tris’s gaze changed in an instant. Jack’s face drained of color. He must have done something wrong—otherwise…
As Jack instinctively clasped his hands together, lips trembling as he was about to beg—
Tris suddenly lunged, knocking Jack to the ground, and drew his sword.
Clang!
Hot blood poured down over Jack’s head as he lay pinned to the ground.
“Aah!”
A scream tore out of him before he could stop it.
Tris leapt up and grabbed the back of Jack’s neck, dragging him behind himself.
“Don’t move.”
A wolf, its waist deeply slashed by Tris’s draw, collapsed and twitched. At some point, a pack of wolves had silently approached, surrounding the two of them. Stepping outside the line had been Tris’s mistake. Jack trembled violently in terror.
Tris adjusted his stance and said,
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you live.”
At those words, Jack unconsciously looked at Tris’s back. It was the first time anyone had ever said something like that to him.
“Keep your head down and stay flat on the ground.”
The moment Jack pressed himself to the earth, the wolves attacked.
The true prowess of Tris—the finest wolf hunter in the Eike territory—was revealed.
Gripping his sword, he spun in a single, sweeping motion, drawing a straight line through the air. His speed was incredible, but the force that cleaved through the wind surpassed imagination.
Squash!
In an instant, the stench of blood filled the air. At his feet, wolves lay twitching, their bodies deeply slashed.
