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Chapter 25
“Are you okay?”
He looked as though he had gone several nights without sleep.
It was the first time she had realized dark circles could be that severe. The area around his eyes was so hollow and shadowed that he looked like a panda.
“Didn’t you sleep?”
“…I’m fine.”
The way he struggled to blink made him look anything but fine.
He stood beside the carriage and waited until Karin and Iris had climbed aboard. He offered them his hand so they could get in comfortably, but the one who looked like he needed help was Arken himself.
Just as Karin was about to board, he swayed on his feet.
Instead of climbing into the carriage, she ended up supporting him.
With Karin’s help, he barely managed to regain his balance.
“Surely you didn’t stay awake for three nights straight?”
“……”
Arken said nothing, but his reaction felt like a silent confirmation.
Scenes from the original story flashed through Karin’s mind like a panorama.
His body had always been weak. There had been several occasions when he had collapsed from overwork and ended up bedridden.
She worried that he might have gotten sick because of her. Once the trial was over, she would have to tell Duke Lucas to force him to take some time off and recover.
She had paused while holding him up, lost in thought.
During that brief moment, Arken lowered his head in a small nod before jerking it upright again.
He had dozed off standing up.
“I’m a little sleepy. Other than that, I’m fine.”
Then he answered a question nobody had asked.
Maybe he had even dreamed during that short nap.
A little sleepy?
That definitely wasn’t it.
His blue eyes were bloodshot red, like a rabbit’s.
Karin stared at him worriedly before letting go of his blue coat.
“You should get in. We don’t have much time.”
Prompted by his urging, Karin climbed into the carriage without taking her eyes off the blue coat, afraid he might stumble again.
Arken kept his eyelids half-closed, then somehow managed to follow her into the carriage.
The place where Iris lived was on the outskirts of the capital.
It took a little over an hour to reach the palace.
Throughout the journey, Arken leaned his head against the carriage wall and nodded off repeatedly.
Whenever the wheels hit a stone and jolted the carriage, his body would twitch, suggesting he was drifting in and out of sleep.
As time passed, however, the frequency of those twitches gradually decreased.
Eventually, he fell into such a deep sleep that he looked dead.
Karin quietly watched him.
She remembered the deathly pale face she had seen on the night they watched the stars.
He was not quite as pale as he had been then.
Still, he was pale enough to make her heart ache.
There were only two colors visible on his haggard face.
The dark shadows beneath his eyes and the faint crimson tint of his lips.
Aside from those, there was no color at all.
He looked like a terminally ill patient.
Karin admittedly had a weakness for sickly beauty.
She loved handsome young men with pale, fragile appearances.
But now that she was seeing Arken reduced to such a state, concern outweighed any fluttering excitement.
‘He must have suffered a lot preparing for the trial…’
Was that why he had hesitated when she asked for help?
If she had known he would go through this much trouble, she would have asked far more politely.
No.
Maybe she wouldn’t have asked at all.
“Your aide looks incredibly tired.”
Iris spoke worriedly.
Karin nodded in agreement.
He was sleeping so deeply that she almost felt guilty for having been upset about not hearing from him.
“He must have worked really hard. Maybe it’s because he likes you.”
Karin immediately stopped nodding.
“What?”
“If he didn’t like you, would he really work himself that hard?”
“Iris?”
“Hm?”
“Could you be quiet?”
Seeing the dangerous look on Karin’s face, Iris quickly closed her mouth.
Karin hurriedly checked Arken’s face.
Fortunately, he was fast asleep.
His neatly folded eyelids didn’t move even slightly.
With a sigh of relief, Karin exhaled deeply.
“How can you say something like that when the person is right in front of us? What if he heard you?”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
Iris smiled sheepishly.
There was no point arguing with her.
Karin grumbled and turned toward the window.
It was true that Arken had gone to great lengths to help her.
But it was still too early to conclude that he liked her.
Karin had absolutely no doubt that she and Arken were friends.
Although his attitude toward her had changed considerably, he still didn’t seem like someone who was in love with her.
Even if he did come to like her someday, that would be a matter for the future.
Apparently deciding she should be more careful, Iris remained silent for the rest of the trip.
How much time had passed?
Eventually, the carriage arrived at the palace.
“Wake up.”
Even after the carriage stopped, Arken didn’t wake up.
Karin had to shake him awake herself.
Only after telling him to wake up exactly three times and shaking him five times did he finally open his eyes.
“Ah, it seems I accidentally fell asleep.”
Embarrassed, he brushed his bangs back and avoided Karin’s gaze.
After helping Karin and Iris step down from the carriage, he climbed out himself.
Perhaps thanks to the nap, he didn’t stagger this time.
“The courtroom is over there.”
Arken led the way toward the palace’s main entrance.
The trial was held in one of the palace’s great halls.
With a nervous heart, Karin followed behind Iris and Arken.
News that the Second Duchy might disappear into the pages of history had sparked tremendous curiosity.
Pushing through the crowd gathered like a flock of sheep, Karin and her companions made their way to the seats beside Duke Tricia.
The duke sat on the left.
On the right sat a mustached man and an elderly man Karin had never seen before.
The old man had a white beard that reached his chest.
Finally, at the center, the king sat atop the raised platform with his chin resting on one hand, looking utterly uninterested.
Calling it a trial was almost an exaggeration.
In reality, the mustached man’s side and Duke Tricia’s side simply presented their arguments, and the king listened before delivering a verdict.
The moment Duke Tricia saw Karin, his face brightened.
“My daughter, your father believes in you completely.”
“……”
Karin offered no response.
Duke Tricia had contributed absolutely nothing to resolving this matter.
Even when she told him she had secured Arken’s help, instead of asking for details, he had simply squeezed her cheeks and exclaimed, “That’s my daughter!”
From now on, Karin intended to expect absolutely nothing from him.
“Quiet, everyone! The trial will now begin.”
At the king’s words, the noisy hall fell silent in an instant.
People who had been leaning forward to get a closer look at the star of the tragedy froze in place.
“Oh, and one more thing. If anyone plans to make absurd claims because they think people are unfamiliar with ancient law, I suggest they reconsider. Yesterday, we found an interpretation text that has been passed down through the royal family. Naturally, only royalty may read it.”
What?
So he intended to keep the interpretation all to himself?
Karin hadn’t personally prepared the trial, but even she could tell that having access to that text would have made things much easier.
What an inflexible man.
How could someone like that be king?
“How mean.”
“…Please be quiet.”
Karin muttered under her breath and immediately received a reprimand from Arken.
When she glanced up at him, he appeared perfectly composed.
The man who had been nodding off throughout the carriage ride was nowhere to be seen.
His blue eyes were shining sharply.
The dark circles remained, but mentally he looked fully alert.
“Who would like to speak first?”
The mustached man immediately raised his hand.
When the king nodded, the white-bearded elder beside him began speaking.
“Ahem, ahem. According to the provisions of ancient law, any promise made in the ‘Dragon’s Cradle’ must be honored. It also states that failure to fulfill such a promise requires one to forfeit their life. Therefore, this is an extremely simple matter that hardly requires a trial. Duke Tricia promised, within the ‘Dragon’s Cradle,’ to pay ten billion gold if he lost the wager. He lost. Therefore, he must either pay ten billion gold or repay the debt with his life.”
The mustached man sat beside him wearing a vile grin.
Karin immediately burst out.
“But surely the ‘Dragon’s Cradle’ mentioned in the law doesn’t refer to a tavern! Wasn’t ‘Dragon’s Cradle’ originally the name of a secret meeting chamber in the royal castle? Obviously that’s what it means!”
While staying at Iris’s house, Karin hadn’t simply spent her time idly.
Using the information Duke Tricia had given her, she had researched everything she could.
Fortunately, Iris possessed bookshelves large enough to rival a library.
Karin had read every book she could find about the ancient era and eventually discovered what the term “Dragon’s Cradle” originally meant.
Despite sounding like a place where dragons might live, the Dragon’s Cradle had actually been another name for a secret conference chamber within the ancient royal castle.
And the reason the law demanded one’s life as compensation for breaking promises made there was simple.
People in ancient times were hot-tempered and distrustful.
Lying was practically a daily habit.
Fed up with it, the ancient king of Esmeril enacted a law declaring that, at the very least, people should not lie within the secret conference chamber.
Unfortunately, the tavern where Duke Tricia and the mustached man had gambled happened to share the exact same name.
“The ancient law does not explicitly state what specific location the ‘Dragon’s Cradle’ refers to. Therefore, it could mean the palace’s secret conference chamber… or it could mean the tavern.”
The old man finished while stroking his beard.
How cunning.
In other words, he and the mustached man were exploiting the ambiguity of the law and stubbornly insisting that “Dragon’s Cradle” referred to the tavern.
“What kind of ridiculous law is that? Then if I put up a sign right now saying this place is the Dragon’s Cradle, the law would apply here too! And ancient law isn’t even used anymore!”
“And is there any law stating that ancient law cannot be used? Ahem, ahem.”
“Well…”
Karin wasn’t a legal scholar.
She had no answer.
Seeing her fall silent, the king asked,
“So is that the entirety of Duke Tricia’s argument?”
“It is not.”
It was Arken.
Stepping forward before everyone, he began speaking in a clear voice.
“You said the promise was made inside the tavern. Was it inside the building itself?”
The courtroom fell silent.
No one could understand the purpose of the question.
Judging from the expressions around the room—including the king’s—everyone was equally confused.
“Ah, I made a mistake. You were all wearing shoes, weren’t you?”
What a bizarre thing to ask.
Still, Karin listened carefully.
She trusted Arken completely, so she felt neither anxious nor worried.
She simply wondered what point he was trying to make.
As the silence stretched on, the spectators began whispering among themselves.
The mustached man was the only exception.
“What exactly are you trying to say? You seem to be speaking nonsense because you’re sleepy.”
Arken certainly looked exhausted, but what was that supposed to mean?
Karin nearly rose from her seat in indignation before forcing herself back down.
Endure it.
She had to endure.
Causing a scene in front of the king would accomplish nothing.
Ignoring the mustached man’s mockery entirely, Arken continued speaking.
