Chapter 19 The One Who Waits on Time

1

It was a few days before Zara would fight to defend Bia-Dharla. Alkan, the former head of House Riga, was relaxing and looking down on the royal capital from his veranda.

It was Alkan’s eighty-first birthday. His family members and servants understood that he hated extravagance and pomp, so they had a modest but heartfelt dinner party.

Harmony spreading among people—nothing made Alkan happier than that.

What brought him joy was seeing a great number of family members, relatives, and friends journey to visit him. There were, however, people he wanted to come but couldn’t bring himself to invite and people who wouldn’t come despite his invitation.

As he expected, Esseluleia did not come.

Banust was quite far. But she did have to come to the royal palace once a year, so she could have timed that trip to make it to his birthday.

That Esseluleia didn’t even send a letter or a present showed her feelings more than anything else.

She really does think that I stole her Panzel’s life, doesn’t she?

That was a bitter thought. To Alkan, nothing could have been more absurd. In no way did he harm Panzel. But it was the truth that he had done certain things that made it only natural for her to think he did.

You reap what you sow, huh?

He laughed softly and brushed away the loneliness he felt at growing old and being hated by his daughter.

2

The first head of House Riga came to serve the founding king not long after the creation of the kingdom. At first, he was not a vassal but a simple onlooker.

The first head was the heir to House Onis, which ruled over an expansive land facing the North Sea. By comparison, the founding king’s country consisted only of the royal capital and a handful of towns. The first head of House Riga did nothing more than offer some advice and cooperation as an observer while basking in the fun environment of a new country being born.

The founding king was a strange man, thought Alkan.

He was greedy and lacked modesty. He had no self-control when it came to items or women he wanted. He would try to forcibly snatch anything he desired for himself, even if it belonged to one of his vassals. It was fair to say he was a man of many faults.

But on the other hand, he was not stingy in the least when it came to recognizing the distinguished service of others. If he was admonished, he was capable of acknowledging his error with honesty. And above all, he was capable of inspiring others to dream big.

That was why no small amount of people who possessed the virtue and ability to build a country gathered around the founding king. They all exercised their talents, believing that they needed to support him. The founding king also had the ability to draw out the full potential of others.

Alkan thought that if he had been alive at the time and had been permitted to join them on that adventure, he would have hastened to do so. That was how joyful, unprecedented, and grand an era the founding king had built at the birth of this country.

When the founding king died, the first head of House Riga made to travel back to the North Sea. His parents had grown old, and he’d lost interest in the country after the founding king’s death.

He was in his carriage leading his family and retainers out of the royal capital when the founding king’s queen detained him. Then, holding the child who was to be the second-generation king in her arms, she lay down on the road in front of the carriage and said the following.

“If you leave, then neither I nor this child will be able to keep this kingdom together, and it will soon perish. You may as well run us over and kill us now.”

After the founding king’s death, the queen had watched in silence as his most influential vassals left one after another, but as soon as she caught word of the first head of House Riga’s departure, she suddenly dashed out of the royal palace and tried desperately to stop him. She all but wrapped herself around his feet to implore him to stay.

The first head was unable to shake her off, and he remained in the royal capital. That was when he threw away his position as heir to the land of Onis.

When the kingdom was founded, the king named his twenty-four direct vassals Defenders of the Realm and established the noble families of counsel. Many of those houses had been passed on to the next generation when the founding king died.

Of those twenty-four houses, the only two that swore allegiance to the kingdom after the founding king’s death were House Mercurius and House Lowell, the latter of which died out with the death of Evert. The rest of the houses became effectively independent and focused all their efforts on managing their own domain and expanding their territory as they pleased.

The first thing the head of House Riga had to do was bring those noble families back into the kingdom. Acting at times with negotiation and at others with force, over a long period of time, he managed to bring all the other twenty-two families back into the kingdom. It was a truly great achievement. When his life’s work was over, the Baldemost Kingdom occupied more territory than any other country in the north of the continent.

The next thing they worked to accomplish was securing a road to the sea. His first objective was a collection of small coastal cities to the northeast of Baldemost.

He chose not to take them with military might. Instead, he developed a city of commerce in the region of Riga, which sat between Baldemost and the coastal settlements.

The city of Riga bought salt and marine products from the coastal cities and sold them in the Baldemost Kingdom. The coastal cities benefited from this because a new market had opened in which they could easily sell large quantities of goods. Riga took care of the transport and escort, so it was a great opportunity for the coastal cities to develop industry. Riga also cooperated with the development of processing technology and even lent funds. Riga became an essential presence for the coastal cities, and they came to rely on each other deeply.

The lords of Baldemost put pressure on the coastal cities to lower the price of salt, but the cities would not budge from a price that would turn them a sizable profit. In contrast, Baldemost sold medical goods and metal products to the coastal cities as cheaply as possible.

The industries of the coastal cities expanded, and once the shipping industry really started to boom, they ended up with a shortage of personnel. The first head of House Riga gathered up refugees and poor people from all across Baldemost and sent them to the coastal cities.

Eventually, villages made up of Baldemost citizens began to be established along the sea. The people of the coastal cities welcomed this gladly as a sign of development. The rulers of the coastal cities then paid tribute to the king of Baldemost of their own accord through Riga, and they were eventually incorporated into the kingdom.

A number of direct-control municipalities were established, starting with Anpoan. Riga also achieved striking developments and became an important strategic point for both industry and defense. The first head was named the Duke of Riga, and he changed his family name to Riga.

In the final year of his life, he visited the place that was once the land of Onis.

The once-prosperous land had fallen to ruin and had become a borderland overrun by monsters. The first head of House Riga realized his mistake in thinking that the division of land would not affect the livelihood of its people.

That land was once a country, and he was supposed to be its ruler. But there was no longer a country, because its people had disappeared.

Which meant that a country was its people.

That was the true essence of the country that the first head of House Riga spent his whole life to build.

3

The true essence of a country was its people, and those people increasing in population, spreading, and gaining wealth was how a country prospered. That was the philosophy that House Riga centered itself on, and from their perspective, the majority of the lords of Baldemost had too narrow an outlook, were obsessed with ideals with no real substance, and mistook the possession of military power for the use of it.

Those lords said that loyalty to the king was the basis a kingdom needed to flourish. Raising strong kings should be what the kingdom’s system hoped to accomplish.

That was not wrong.

But when the king was the only great man, the country would decline after his death. Alkan couldn’t believe how many people failed to see that the founding king’s death was an indictment against that system.

It was true that buildings need a pillar, living beings need a spine, and families need a head of the household. However, if you were to set sail across the ocean on a ship with only one sail, the voyage would be a perilous one.

Why did no one realize that the second-generation king made the first head of House Riga a duke as a clear expression that he wanted to build a country where the king and the lords supported each other?

For most of the lords who clamored for loyalty toward the king, the word loyalty was nothing more than a decoration on their behavior that was driven by jealousy toward other houses and the desire to bring profit to their own. In the end, all their attention was on their own house, and they didn’t spare a thought for the kingdom.

A good example of such a lord was Earl Wezor.

House Riga had a long-cherished desire. That desire was to establish an economic community between the Baldemost Kingdom and the coastal region on the northwest of the continent. This was the greatest wish of the first head of House Riga that he entrusted to his successor.

The west coast of what was currently the feudal states of Fenks had been a good harbor since olden times, had an excellent and large-scale salt pan, and also possessed developed marine-processing technology.

Their trade with the western archipelagos was flourishing thanks to their advanced shipbuilding technology and naval strength, they had the technology to process all the minerals from throughout the feudal states of Fenks, and there were wealthy merchants with financial power that surpassed that of some kings.

The wealthiest cities in the northern part of the continent were all clustered together in this region.

The Baldemost Kingdom needed to be tied to that region. Not through conquest or by demanding allegiance but by becoming equal trading partners and enabling people and goods to move freely between the kingdom and the northwest coast. That was what the first head of House Riga said would be the key to the kingdom’s development.

House Riga had gradually increased exchange with the cities along the northwest coast over a long period of time. The house had also worked to decrease animosity with the powerful feudal states of Fenks, which were located between the Baldemost Kingdom and the cities along the northwest coast.

Then a day arrived when those efforts paid off enormously. In the year 1040 of the Royal Calendar, House Nadal of the feudal states of Fenks declared its return to allegiance to the king of Baldemost, thanks to intermediation from Alkan’s father, Molzora, and the head of the house was named the Baron of Paulo.

Molzora was thirty-five years old at the time. Alkan was only four years old, but he remembered well the festival-like bustle and joy in his household. From then on, he would be reminded at every opportunity of the importance of House Nadal’s declaration of allegiance.

The lords in Fenks defended their territory using corps of soldiers called the Northern Knights, which boasted unrivaled strength on level ground with their heavy equipment and unique battle formations and tactics. The lords of Fenks all acted independently and did not interfere with one another, but they would band together when it came time to face a foreign threat.

The lords of Fenks called Baldemost a country of cowards. They looked down on it as a country created by nobles who fled from the weak south. They didn’t even take kindly to citizens of Baldemost passing through their territory. Fenks had become an impossible obstacle in House Riga’s attempts to trade with the northwest coast.

Baldemost then regained House Nadal’s allegiance. The Northern Knights of House Nadal were known for their exceptional strength. Gaining House Nadal’s allegiance meant adding their military might to the Baldemost Kingdom.

Also, by integrating the baron’s domain of Paulo into Baldemost, the kingdom drew closer to the northwest coast. House Nadal also had many relatives in the central region of the feudal states of Fenks, and you could almost reach the sea just by lining up the territories of those relatives.

House Riga moved forward carefully with preparations for establishing trade routes.

Then an incident occurred in which vassals of Earl Wezor were massacred by a group of government officials in the territory of Lord Daina of the feudal states of Fenks. The vassals were on their way back from buying jewels in a city of commerce on the coast in preparation for a marriage ceremony.

They were captured and killed despite possessing a permit to pass through that land, and their killers fled with the jewels. There were no excuses for their deaths. Lord Daina admitted fault and sent envoys to apologize.

When Molzora heard this, he jumped for joy. Lord Daina had always been prejudiced against Baldemost, and he was in opposition to the opening of trade routes. Molzora could use this incident to silence Lord Daina. If he handled the situation well enough, he might even have been able to win Lord Daina’s support for the trade routes.

That joy lasted for only one day.

News arrived that Earl Wezor had invaded Lord Daina’s territory. Alkan had never seen his father so depressed.

At the time, Molzora was forty-nine years old, and Alkan was eighteen.

“Alkan, I don’t understand. Why did the earl go to war?”

“Probably to gain territory.”

“What good would scraping off a slice of that territory, which is mostly wasteland, do for his people? How much military strength would he need to expend to protect the land he obtained? Lord Daina admitted fault. Debts only mean anything if you keep the other side in debt. If we invade, then the debt disappears, and we end up in the wrong.”

“Yes, but the earl would surely point out that increasing his domain increases the territory of the kingdom.”

“If the Northern Knights united their forces, our kingdom would stand no chance of victory. Then we would be the ones who end up losing territory! All right, what would he say to this: I know you’re angry that your vassals were killed, but who made it so that you could obtain a permit and purchase goods on the coast in the first place? Do you know how much time and money that took?”

“The earl would likely answer with the following: That was done for the kingdom. Our war is also for the kingdom. So you have no right to say that to me.”

“Hmm. I see. But I’ve been saying for years that our country does not have territory-related ambition. What happened to that?”

“Expanding the territory of a kingdom is the duty of its loyal subjects. He would probably say you have been disloyal to the crown for your dealings with the feudal states of Fenks.”

“We no longer have any need for increasing our territory! Opening up genuine trading with the northwest coast will bring great wealth to the kingdom and lead to population growth, which will increase our productivity. We have plenty of usable land left even within the kingdom right now. Our first priority should be developing within the country and increasing our own strength. To do that, we need to bring wealth to our economy through trade. The lords in Fenks whose territory the trade routes will pass through will benefit as well. Creating an economic relationship where both sides depend on the other will decrease the chance of war. Once we have grown our nation’s power to a sufficient degree, we can invite the lords into our kingdom economically. Taking territory by force will not endear its people to us, and their resentment will run deep. Countries grow prosperous through the profit of their people. Was that not already proven with the northeastern coast?”

“That won’t convince anyone. The lords of Baldemost will see your actions as benefiting only House Riga. They’ll argue that everything to the north and east of Riga is essentially our territory. We invested money and people from the kingdom to increase its wealth, and then we made it our own. Because of that, they’ll say that we need to give them a chance to grab some land to the west for themselves.”

“So not even saying that this is all for the kingdom’s benefit rather than our own will reach them. Hmm. Alkan, what can I do here?”

“Father. Have you received a request from Earl Wezor to provide logistic support for the war effort?”

“No. I have received nothing of the sort.”

“Then let’s sell our salt to Tada.”

“What?”

That year, the northeast coast of the continent had suffered consistently bad weather, and the production of salt had fallen tremendously. As in other countries, the royal family in Baldemost had a monopoly on salt, but in reality, it was House Riga that had total control over the production and sale of it. They had built up a healthy stockpile of salt under House Riga’s direction.

House Riga sold that entire supply to the neighboring country of Tada. Tada had been suffering from a shortage of salt, so this placed the country in Baldemost’s debt and brought enormous profit to the kingdom. All distribution of salt, aside from regular provisions, to the cities throughout Baldemost was cut off temporarily, prices inflated on the open market, and then it disappeared entirely.

The opinion that Baldemost should supply Earl Wezor with reinforcements was voiced in the Privy Council, but that was rejected mainly for the reason that it would result in a war between nations. There were no lords who wanted to go so far as to spend their own money to support the earl, so the war dragged on.

The earl then ran out of salt. There was no salt for him to buy, so the war effort had to be suspended without gaining any territory.

If any one lord had assisted the earl, it would not have worked out that way. When Molzora asked Alkan why no one came to his aid, Alkan answered with the following.

“If any of the surrounding lords had supported the earl, it would have been because they thought their turn to receive support would be next. But they also couldn’t stand the idea of the earl reaping all the rewards from this war. No lord was going to be willing to help increase the earl’s territory at their own cost.”

That was exactly what happened.

A crack had formed in the friendly relationship between the lords of Fenks and House Riga, and the dream of opening trade routes grew more distant. However, learning that they were capable of holding back the earl’s army opened up possibilities for the future.

4

Just like that, House Riga’s generations of hard work were torn down by another house.

Conversely, there were also cases where House Riga trampled other houses underfoot and showed them the foolishness of their desires.

The extermination of House Vald was one such example.

At the time, Alkan’s father, Molzora, was nineteen years old, and Molzora’s father, Krelm, was forty-nine years old. Krelm had held the positions of head of the cabinet and prime minister when the king declared he wanted to appoint Mazel Sou La Vald, a common knight of the Imperial Guard, to the position of Royal Inspector. Krelm advised the king that the knight’s social rank and personal history made him unfit for the position, but in his heart, he actually welcomed the appointment.

The king would come to be known after death as Shana Eran, or the Kindhearted, but he was too idealistic and too purehearted. Krelm always ended up passing political measures that went against the king’s wishes, and he felt bad about it. If selecting his favorite knight would make the king feel better, then Krelm was perfectly okay with it.

Also, government affairs at the royal palace had become extremely inefficient and unproductive due to being bogged down by complicated issues of power and prestige, so he had hopes that a young Royal Inspector could come in and win people over by breathing new life into the court.

However, the newly appointed Royal Inspector very quickly took action that was equivalent to bringing a poisoned blade to a friendly training match. He suddenly launched an investigation into the government offices of the Marquis of Anpoan, and then he implemented punishment without any consultation.

It was true that three viscounts under the jurisdiction of House Riga had been using their position to line their own pockets, and they were clearly in the wrong. If Krelm had been consulted about this, he would not have hesitated to make them take responsibility and reflect on what they had done.

But what the Royal Inspector called unfair trade with foreign countries was definitely not unfair trade. They were beneficial investments that were necessary for maintaining friendly relations with an eye on opening trade routes in the future.

Normally these kinds of practices should have been implemented as national policy after consulting with the Privy Council. However, whenever former heads of House Riga brought this to the Privy Council, the response would always be that if they had the leeway to give beneficial deals to foreign countries, then they should lower the prices on salt and other goods stored in the royal palace. In other words, they demanded profit for themselves.

There was no other country that had such disregard for diplomacy.

That left House Riga with no other choice but to bestow favors on foreign nobility at their own discretion in order to maintain favorable relations with foreign nations. Those nobility were the window of their respective territories.

If Krelm had been asked about their dealings with foreign countries, he would have been able to explain himself in a dignified manner, as it was not behavior he had to feel guilty for in the least. Nevertheless, the investigation was performed and judgment was delivered without any questions asked, resulting in House Riga losing face with foreign countries and with the coastal regions. People began to scorn the trustworthiness of promises made by House Riga, which did nothing but hurt the future profits of the kingdom.

This event was also likely going to lead to Anpoan losing its status as a center for shipping and industry on the coast, ruining years of hard work to build it into a marquis’s domain.

“That idiot inspector can’t see the big picture. He’ll pay for this.”

Krelm reacted violently. He framed the Royal Inspector for rebellion and killed his entire family, as well as all his retainers.

Some days later, an unusual sound came from Krelm’s room. Molzora rushed into the room and found Krelm striking his desk repeatedly, blood streaming from his hands. He was screaming the following as he did so.

“I made a mistake. I made a mistake.”

That day, Krelm had looked through the Anpoan investigation files that were collected from the royal palace.

The documents were perfect.

They were precise with no wasted space. The points of comparison, the depiction of the fluctuation of numbers, and everything else about the documents could be described only as exceptional.

The responsibility of each person involved in the event was explained in a concise and well-reasoned manner, and the writing was powerful and beautiful.

The documents concerned the potential of under-the-table payoffs to foreign countries, but they eloquently explained the reason for the judgment given.

They didn’t simply follow the law but laid a path to return back to the original spirit of it. A compassionate legal principle was present in the documents that wished for the growth of systems and people.

The person who wrote this report was the kind of government official who came along once every hundred years.

The Royal Inspector was an outstanding person who House Riga should have humbly invited to be their master of law. Judging by the number of documents he put together in such a short period of time, he must have had truly gifted subordinates as well.

And Krelm had killed them all.

They were talented, righteous, and worldly—they were the government officials this country needed the most. He had failed to realize this and stamped them all out.

Krelm felt that he needed to take responsibility for inflicting such tremendous harm on the future of the country and decided to resign.

Before he tendered his resignation, he reinstated the Marquis of Anpoan as well as the three viscounts who had been punished in the incident. He then appointed the Marquis of Anpoan to the cabinet as Black Minister. Given that he couldn’t turn back time, he needed to do what he could to suppress the damage.

Then, just as he was about to resign, the king died.

Baldemost always spent a year in mourning after the king’s death and refrained from decisions on important political measures or changes in important offices.

Krelm then applied for resignation the next year, along with the new king’s coronation. The reason he gave for his departure was being unfit to rule, citing poor health and other factors, so naturally, he stepped down as the head of House Riga as well.

His oldest son, Molzora, succeeded him to become the Duke of Riga, inherited the seat of head of the house, and assumed the post of Black Minister.

The failures of Krelm were a bitter lesson for House Riga.

Alkan had a thought. Krelm must have had arrogance and self-righteousness in his heart.

The anger of being defaced by an insignificant government official caused him to react that violently.

When distinguished families quarreled, sometimes it would end with one family killing every member of the other. This was done because if even one child was left alive, they would one day seek revenge.

But House Riga had never done such a thing. What’s more, given the size and station of House Vald, there was no reason for House Riga to pick a fight with them.

It was difficult for people with power to escape from arrogance. Whenever House Riga forgot that, it became poison to the country.

Through their simple existence, humans always served as a hindrance to some and poison to others. If a person possessed great wealth and power, that became even truer.

Working hard at the center of this country for so long had ended up giving birth to a rotten stagnation.

What could they do to purify themselves of that stagnation?

5

Alkan took the seat of White Minister in the year 1065 of the Royal Calendar at the age of twenty-nine.

Alkan worked hard as the head of House Riga and as the White Minister while carrying the burden of Riga’s past successes and failures. When he had just begun to think of retirement, an event occurred that suggested a major turning point in history was at hand.

The arrival of a hero.

The impetus of this event was the issue surrounding the investiture of the crown prince.

The king died the same year that Alkan became the White Minister. A year later, the new king ascended the throne at eighteen years old.

As was suggested by his posthumous name of Yuulala Eran, or the Sword King, the new king had a personality full of vigor. The Sword King was one of the founding king’s nicknames, so this posthumous name fit him exceptionally.

He had wed a consort before his enthronement, and a year after he became king, a son was born. He was the first prince.

There was a problem with the first prince—his maternal grandfather was a marquis who was starting to openly demonstrate ambition for expanding territory. The cabinet ministers were concerned about the influence of this marquis and were not enthusiastic about naming the first prince the crown prince.

The next year, Alkan’s daughter wed the king and became the second queen consort. Two years later, she birthed a son who became the second prince.

There was much argument over which prince should be named the crown prince, and much time passed without the issue being decided on. In the year 1096 of the Royal Calendar, the king turned forty-eight years old, and the investiture could not be delayed any further.

By that time, the first prince himself had become more of a problem than his maternal relatives due to his clear intention to use military might to expand the kingdom’s territory.

Alkan opened the Privy Council after thorough preparation. Normally Privy Council sessions would be performed with only the king, the cabinet ministers, and others related to the case present, but when it came to important matters, everyone above a certain rank participated.

Votes for the second prince numbered ten to one until the twenty-two-year-old Julius Mercurius overturned the course of events with the following statement.

“It is an ancient tradition that the eldest son inherits the house. Does that not apply to the kingdom as well?”

No one took this worse than Alkan’s eldest son, Garrest. He felt a deep sense of anger toward Julius for trampling on Alkan’s carefully laid plans.

Garrest was then approached by the Baron of Paulo to ask if he wanted to attack House Mercurius together.

The head of House Nadal had changed twice since the house returned to the Baldemost Kingdom and had its territory renamed as the baron’s domain of Paulo. Bolan was thirty-four years old at the time. He was a childhood friend of the thirty-eight-year-old Garrest.

House Nadal was a house of superior military strength, but for a while after returning to Baldemost, they didn’t get a chance to show that. Eventually, however, the king became assertive when it came to suppression within the country, and House Nadal was given a big stage on which to flourish.

There were many forces throughout the expansive kingdom that were not obeying the king’s rule. The Baron of Paulo had been accepting royal orders and putting down one rebellious influence after another.

When Bolan inherited the house, Garrest began to frequently act with him.

Bolan was perfectly okay with financing his missions himself as long as he had a moral cause and stage on which to make a name for himself, and he even set out on expeditions far from his own domain that wouldn’t gain him any profit. His knights were unrivaled in their strength, and his achievements far outpaced anyone else’s.

By the time Bolan’s military fame had resounded throughout the country, Julius Mercurius appeared like a comet.

In the year 1088 of the Royal Calendar, various forces that had been driven from the country joined hands with the barbarians of Jami Forest and tried to attack the royal palace with an army of twenty thousand. At the young age of fourteen, Julius gathered two thousand soldiers and enlisted the help of six S-rank adventurers and laid out a defense camp in the town of Micaene in just two days. He then took advantage of the enemy’s weak coordination, killed two commanders, and halted the enemy army’s advance for a whole week. The lords then finally amassed their troops and exterminated the enemy.

With this battle, the kingdom drew much closer to total suppression.

Afterward, the king used Julius for many important jobs, and the boy continued to live up to expectations.

The baron’s domain of Paulo was far from the royal capital. House Mercurius was located within the royal capital. The lords weren’t thrilled with the Baron of Paulo’s army passing through, so naturally, royal commands for subjugation began to more often fall to House Mercurius.

Over time, Bolan was filled with a deep desire to challenge the military might of this great fourteen-year-old commander who regularly routed armies larger than his own.

When Alkan was told by Bolan that he was going to attack the Mercurius estate in the royal capital and then told by Garrest that afterward they would enter the royal palace and pressure the king into crowning the second prince, he was shocked by the radicalism of their plan.

“When are you going to attack?”

“In the middle of the harvest festival, of course. That way we’ll have the attention of the entire country.”

That was an answer he never would have expected. But once he gave it some thought, he realized it wasn’t such a bad idea.

There would be no one in the labyrinth on the day of the harvest festival, so he could devise a means to send that hindrance Panzel to his death.

The chief vassal Pan’ja Raban was old and bedridden.

Most importantly, despite the fact that this plot was equivalent to treason, he felt no maliciousness in Bolan’s words.

This might work.

Alkan then reached a point where he could no longer turn back.

He had been overly thorough with his preparations, and as a result, the actions of the second prince’s faction reached a larger scale and became more radical than he’d expected. The first prince being named the crown prince would be a crushing defeat for House Riga and its sympathizers. Mass political confusion would likely ensue. If wars then began to be waged to gain territory with no moral cause, it would likely spell the kingdom’s ruin.

But House Riga would be throwing away its pride if it used force to make the king abdicate and place the second prince, Alkan’s own grandson, on the throne. They could not afford to lose the struggle over the investiture of the crown prince, but they could not afford to steal the country, either.

All right!

Alkan made up his mind.

First we will defeat Mercurius. We will defeat them and send Julius through the gates of hell. Then we will gain control over the royal palace. But we won’t steal it. We will negotiate directly with the first prince and get him to abandon hopes of a foreign campaign. We should be able to break the first prince’s heart with the death of Julius. Only then will we crown the first prince. I will apologize for my crimes with my death. Then House Riga should be safe in Garrest’s hands.

The plot moved forward, and then the day arrived.

The only people who knew of the plan to send soldiers to the royal palace after defeating House Mercurius were Alkan, Garrest, Bolan, and a number of Garrest’s closest aides. Alkan would take care of everything after they occupied the royal palace.

Bolan marched his soldiers into Pantram Square, which was lively with exhibitions, stalls, and crowds of people, and called out the following.

“Listen up! I am Baron Bolan of Paulo! I have led my northern warriors here today to cross swords with the renowned young general of this kingdom, Julius Mercurius. My observer is Lord Garrest of House Riga. Let us have an honest contest of military strength!”

The crowd then grew very lively, vacated the square, climbed up onto nearby buildings, and shouted cheers of encouragement for the Northern Knights marching on House Mercurius’s residence. That was a good indicator of how charismatic a general Bolan was.

A delighted Alkan roared with laughter when he received this report in his villa in the royal capital. He then felt relief at the steady stream of reports saying that House Mercurius was having to devote all its resources just to defend themselves against the Northern Knights.

Everything was going according to plan.

But when he next received a report that the knight Panzel had returned, invaded their camp by himself, and taken Garrest’s head, he felt as if his world had been flipped upside down.

This report might have meant the ruin of all his plans, but Alkan felt strangely moved.

A hero might have just arrived.

6

Why did I choose the unjust path of attacking House Mercurius in the first place?

Alkan had never viewed House Mercurius as his enemies. Far from it, he thought highly of them as a truly loyal family who stuck to their principles.

He had felt some frustration in regards to the house.

House Mercurius may have been famed for its military might, but the heads of house throughout the generations had always held intellect and perspective to match House Riga’s. Percival, the previous head of the house, had an especially sharp eye for seeing the true nature of things.

He was definitely not a fool who only had interest in fighting. A fool would not have been capable of maintaining the unity of such a great house. Percival was not the simple warrior he appeared to be. He even had the ability to challenge Alkan on level ground when it came to managing affairs of state.

Despite that, Percival avoided the royal court. He held a seat, but he didn’t even try to participate. Alkan thought that it may have been for self-concealment because Percival didn’t want to be suspected for ambition after marrying the king’s little sister, but that wasn’t the reason.

Alkan once tried to appoint Percival as the commander of the Fourth Division of the Imperial Guard. The Fourth Division was the order of knights assigned to protect the second prince, so Percival would be able to earn favor and enter the cabinet when the second prince was named the crown prince.

But Percival refused outright.

This ended up inducing a strange sequence of events after Percival’s death.

The commander of the Imperial Guard’s Fourth Division was the head of one of House Riga’s branch families, and after Percival declined to succeed him, the commander’s son assumed the role. This new commander felt a strange sense of rivalry with Percival, and that continued even after Percival’s death.

That sense of rivalry ended up having a direct impact on the Fourth Division’s attempted subjugation of the minotaur.

The commander’s initial plan was to challenge the minotaur with a group of eight elite knights. However, the subjugation force ended up swelling to eighty people. It was common knowledge that the king was singularly devoted to the minotaur’s defeat, and because subjugation missions never failed—provided the proper preparations had been made—knights signed up in quick succession, none of them wanting to miss the boat.

Every one of the knights’ families was adamant about their sons’ participation. None of them wanted to be the odd one out. There was also an absurd rumor that loyalty to House Riga was being tested on participation in this subjugation force.

In the end, the commander himself pulled out of the operation. That was understandable. He wanted to demonstrate his own valor by taking down the monster that had defeated Percival. There would be no meaning in a fight where they just overwhelmed it with numbers.

As a result, the subjugation force ended up lacking strong leadership.

Even still, Alkan never would have expected them to be wiped out. When he heard the report, he grew so weak at the stupidity of the knights that he felt like he had lost all strength in his legs.

The families of the knights completely forgot the sequence of events that had led to the massacre and blamed Alkan. He had opposed the dispatch of the subjugation force from the beginning to the end and then was made out to be responsible for the tragedy.

But political leaders were occasionally placed in this kind of position. Alkan definitely had some responsibility for the incident, in the sense that he should have foreseen the outcome and taken measures to prevent it.

Regardless, Alkan’s hope that Percival would actively participate in politics ended when he died too young.

House Riga needed a political rival. A mighty political rival.

How long had it been since they had had a decent discussion in the royal court? A discussion in which the members of the court did nothing but agree with every statement made by House Riga’s cabinet minister was not a discussion. Political measures became sound through exhaustive debate in which they were battered by opposing opinions. Answers that rose to counter objections were what polished political measures and made their significance apparent. For that reason, Alkan was earnest in his desire for a political rival.

That political rival then appeared. It was Julius Mercurius.

Julius was the new head of House Mercurius, and he distinguished himself in a way typical of a family known for their military prowess. Alkan had called out in his heart on numerous occasions for Julius to use his accomplishments as background to enter the political world.

When Julius did enter the royal court, he made dignified and sound arguments. It was a scene that should have pleased Alkan greatly.

But for some reason, what Alkan felt was fear.

He had been very thorough in his preparations to set up the second prince as the crown prince, and the chances of his plans being overturned were minuscule. Then, with just one statement, Julius realized that minuscule chance. With a voice that didn’t contain a fragment of greed or high-handedness.

He was a person who could overturn years of effort with just one act.

He was a person who could make an impression with casually spoken words.

He was a person who possessed a natural ability to have an immense influence on other people.

It was then that Alkan learned that Julius Mercurius was that kind of person.

He then had a thought. House Riga could not oppose Julius with Garrest. Julius was too dangerous.

That thought was what made him consent to killing Julius.

But Panzel protected Julius and killed Garrest.

This plunged House Riga into a life-or-death crisis.

7

Alkan’s decision was quick. He would throw away everything and demonstrate his allegiance to the king.

He groveled in front of the king and high-seated nobles for the purpose of House Riga’s survival and concentrated all his attention on Panzel. He couldn’t stop thinking about the blessed sword that was received for defeating the monster in the labyrinth and the strength Panzel showed when he fought with it.

After watching Panzel easily defeat one hundred knights on his own, he spontaneously said that Panzel should be named Defender of the Realm.

The king agreed without a moment’s delay, and it was decided. Panzel was appointed Defender of the Realm, and House Goran was established.

The first prince became the crown prince, the second prince fell to the status of a subject, and the second queen consort lost her position.

A subjugation force was sent for Bolan Nadal, the Baron of Paulo. House Riga did not take part in the campaign and instead bore the burden of the army provisions. This was done in order to give the achievement to other houses.

Alkan gave the house and his rank to his second son, Draydol; withdrew from center stage; and watched over Panzel.

The baron’s domain of Paulo was difficult to attack from the kingdom, and the Northern Knights would be on them immediately upon detection, so the campaign should have ended in nothing more than a stalemate.

As expected, as soon as they arrived in enemy territory, five of the seven knights who the baron’s domain had been divided among took command of their armies and solidified the defense of each of the potential points of invasion.

Panzel then left the disheartened lords behind, broke through the steep ground of all nine strongholds one after another, flew like the wind through the wide plains, and approached the baron’s castle.

Panzel was accompanied by the one hundred Imperial Guard knights who had been given to him by the king and two hundred cavalrymen of House Mercurius.

Bolan would likely have had no chance of losing if he had just shut himself away in his castle, but he ended up leaving it to meet the daring general and his lightning-quick charge. Panzel’s knights were extremely fatigued from their impossible advance. Bolan felt like he owed the reckless and ambitious Panzel the courtesy of burying his army personally. He had also been wishing for a chance to determine which of them was the better general.

The armies then clashed on the plains.

The two hundred cavalrymen of House Mercurius followed behind and blocked the extra knights rushing to join Bolan. Then the two hundred and fifty Northern Knights led by Bolan himself and the one hundred knights led by Panzel collided.

Panzel had his army take a wedge formation with himself at the tip and attacked the square formation of the Paulo Army head-on.

Everyone watching thought Panzel’s charge would break like a wave against a rock. But instead, it ended up piercing the rock like a longsword cutting through a curtain.

Panzel heavily wounded Bolan, soundly defeated the Northern Knights who were supposed to boast unparalleled strength on level ground, and occupied the castle. Bolan relied on his relatives and fled.

It was a perfect and impossible victory. Enemies and allies alike could not believe the result upon first hearing it.

Then something even more unbelievable happened. Three of the seven knights who had been given land in Bolan’s domain swore their allegiance to Panzel.

Panzel was a rare hero, and Alkan made every effort to ensure he could exercise his strength to the fullest.

First, through Draydol, he publicly stressed the meritorious service of House Mercurius in the capture of the Baron of Paulo’s domain. Panzel was under Julius’s command in the organization of House Mercurius’s army, so this was not a stretch.

He engineered for Julius to enter the Baron of Paulo’s castle and take command. He did that because it had been a long-cherished desire of Panzel’s for House Mercurius to be appreciated.

The lord of the domain had been driven out, and the troops under his direct command had been defeated, but there was still much unoccupied land, and it would not be easy to get the domain under control. But Alkan was sure that Julius would be able to handle it.

Just as Alkan expected, Julius showed wondrous cunning and flaunted the might of the Mercurius Army and the Goran Army, ultimately expanding the land under his rule and stabilizing it. The three knights who swore their allegiance were very helpful.

Alkan wed his beloved daughter Esseluleia to Panzel and sent him a dowry along with fifty elite knights. The king’s face lit up upon hearing this, and he said that he would send fifty knights as well.

Alkan felt that his and the king’s feelings were aligned for the first time.

The king probably felt the same.

Two years later, when rule was completely established in the domain, Alkan had Draydol suggest to the king that it would be suitable to give the entire former Paulo domain to Julius.

Julius was then made the Marquis of Keza. The land was named after the site of the royal palace.

Alkan also felt that he needed to ensure the stability of House Mercurius by tying it to a lord who was versed in domestic affairs and rich in property, so he had Draydol arrange a marriage with the daughter of a marquis’s family that had a long history of friendship with House Mercurius.

8

The Baron of Paulo turned to his relative Lord Banust for help when he fled the Baldemost Kingdom.

Baldemost demanded that Lord Banust hand over the Baron of Paulo, but Lord Banust, whose name was Orubine, demanded that the king of Baldemost return the Paulo domain to Fenks.

The negotiations didn’t get anywhere, but there was a strong vigor in Baldemost’s diplomacy at the time and a sense that the character of the kingdom had changed.

Behind the negotiations, both sides were preparing for the outbreak of war.

In Fenks, the Baron of Paulo excitedly convinced his friends and relatives that it would make for a fun war.

In Baldemost, the king and the crown prince led the charge for war, arguing that because rule had been established throughout the kingdom and there was money to spare in the coffers, it was the perfect chance to show the outside world their power.

Eventually, the negotiations that had stalled for four years broke down, and both sides exchanged extremely old-fashioned letters saying that they would have a contest of military might and entrust judgment to the gods. The war then began.

Banust boasted the most territory in the feudal states of Fenks. The Banust castle was the strongest fortress in all of Fenks, and it was surrounded by multiple layers of branch castles and strongholds that made it difficult to even reach. Early in the war, the cabinet ministers of Baldemost occupied a number of the branch castles with an eye on exchanging some of them for the Baron of Paulo.

The feudal states of Fenks did not have a king. Instead, the lords involved in the matter would gather and hold a conference, and the lord who sealed and safeguarded the resulting pact would act as the representative. In this war, Lord Banust was made the representative. Fourteen lords ended up signing the document voting to start the war, so the conflict became close to an all-out war between two countries.

Baldemost named the crown prince himself the supreme commander and invaded Fenks.

Panzel fought like a god who had descended to the earth.

In a period of just over three years, they defeated six divisions of Northern Knights, took the head of the Baron of Paulo, drove Lord Banust to commit suicide, occupied Banust castle, and also captured five branch castles.

In the year 1100 of the Royal Calendar, Panzel and Esseluleia had a son named Arza. It was impressive that they even found the time to have a child.

The lords of Baldemost carefully expanded the occupied territory to prevent the front lines from becoming isolated.

Alkan spent those three years feeling as if he were inside a pleasant dream.

Panzel differed greatly from other military commanders on two points.

The first was that he won the respect of the enemies he defeated.

The Baron of Paulo praised him by saying the following.

“He is the god of thunder made flesh…”

Every division of the Northern Knights wanted to fight Thunderstorm Panzel, and after they lost, they would sing his praises for his magnificent, thunderous fighting style.

The second way he differed from other commanders was his mastery of House Mercurius’s treasures.

The heads of House Mercurius had tried many times throughout the house’s long history to have their family members or vassals use the five blessed items, but as far as Alkan knew, the blessings had never activated for anyone other than the head of the house. Panzel was likely the first exception.

There was something to Panzel beyond his supreme military prowess.

The kingdom was moving in a direction that ran completely opposite to what House Riga had always strove for.

But what was this fulfilling and exhilarating feeling welling up inside him?

They were struggling for land with blood and violence, but why did he feel a refreshing wind blowing through the country?

The only explanation he had was the presence of a hero on the level of the era of the kingdom’s founding.

Alkan was able to believe that he was living in a grand era.

The entirety of Banust ended up becoming Baldemost territory, which meant the coast wasn’t far now. If he appealed for the opening of trade routes on the backing of Panzel’s military prowess after Banust was stabilized, there was no doubt it could be achieved.

Just a little more.

Just a little more and House Riga’s generations-old desire could be realized in a wholly unexpected way.

And then Panzel died, along with the dream.

Panzel was laying siege to the branch castle in the deepest position in the Banust territory, and then one night, he suddenly died in camp.

He was thirty-one years old.

9

Alkan thought that Julius’s performance at that time could not have been praised enough.

Julius hid Panzel’s death entirely. He announced that Panzel had fallen ill and then put a body double in his place. He took great care in regularly sending a doctor to see him, delivering him food, and having it look like he was giving orders.

He then had the crown prince hasten to sign a peace treaty.

Talks for a cease-fire had begun slightly before that.

The Baron of Paulo had been killed, and Lord Banust had died as well, so Baldemost didn’t have a great cause to continue fighting.

Fenks did not want to lose in such a one-sided manner. They had clearly shown that they would not agree to a peace treaty unless they had half the occupied territory returned to them. That said, the lords of Fenks should have known that they were in an inferior position and recovery would be difficult.

The eventual peace treaty returned a few strongholds but specified that nearly all the occupied territory would be retained by Baldemost. However, the people on Baldemost’s side of the negotiations greatly praised the admirable fighting of Fenks and showed great generosity by giving them a vast amount of relief funds and saying that they would not impose tariffs on items imported from Fenks for a period of ten years.

Also, the nobility and citizens of the former Fenks domain who wanted to move to Fenks were allowed to do so while retaining a certain amount of their assets.

Furthermore, the nobility among the prisoners of war were returned without condition, and it was decided that the commoners would be released after a few short years of labor. It was the standard for prisoners of war with rank to be exchanged for a ransom and to make commoners into slaves who performed manual labor, so enemies and allies alike were taken aback by this stipulation.

The crown prince finalized the conditions of the peace treaty, but he was acting on the suggestions of Julius, who occupied the position of Black Minister.

Alkan was in awe.

First off, it was fair to say the other lords of Fenks entered the war for personal gain. Letting them profit through relief money was very smart. What Baldemost saw as relief money, Fenks saw as indemnities, so both sides maintained their honor.

Next, the temporary abolition of tariffs would become a stimulus for active trade and serve to relax relationships frayed by the war, and it would also serve as a significant preliminary arrangement for the future opening of trade routes.

Although citizens of Fenks had been granted permission to move, farmers could not leave the farmland that they had poured their blood, sweat, and tears into for as long as they could remember. Merchants were used to crossing borders anyway. In the end, the freedom of movement served as a means to rid the domain of discontented nobles. The nobles who elected to stay were likely to serve as a bridge to the citizens of the domain.

There were some in the royal court who loudly opposed releasing prisoners of war without payment, but once implemented, the policy brought about an unforeseen result.

First, half the knights among the prisoners of war and most of the soldiers ended up wanting to swear allegiance to Baldemost. Then Fenks returned the Baldemost nobility among their prisoners of war for remarkably small sums of money, and they also set commoners free after a few short years of labor. The lords of Fenks were proud people. Baldemost’s fighting style was the picture of chivalry, and that was matched by the generous terms in the peace treaty, so there was no way Fenks was going to do any less.

This was not an idea that a twenty-year-old cabinet minister should have been able to come up with. Alkan thought that Julius, too, must have spread his wings and rode the wind summoned by the hero.

The crown prince was the same. He grew a great deal during the war. Alkan no longer felt any concern about him being the king’s heir.

The lords of Baldemost gained almost no financial reward, but they did win expansive occupied territory. The king generously awarded new land to the lords who distinguished themselves in the war. Most of that land could not have been said to possess much economic strength, but the lords were deeply satisfied by the honor of having won it from the feudal states of Fenks.

They were able to implement such a policy because they fought in a way that limited the exhaustion of farmland and the citizens, and because House Riga made free use of the reserves it had been accumulating for the last thousand years.

The biggest issue was deciding who should rule the Banust domain, which was the crown jewel of the occupied territory.

If Panzel had still been alive, then there would have been no debate. No other lord was worthier of the land. But Panzel was dead.

Being named the lord of the Banust domain was a great honor, but it was also on the front lines and could be attacked from three cardinal directions. Only a capable lord could be entrusted with it.

The crown prince declared in the Privy Council that it was unthinkable for anyone other than House Goran to govern Banust. Draydol, who held the position of White Minister, vehemently opposed this.

He may have held the highest position in the court, but Draydol was only thirty-nine years old. Other than the twenty-nine-year-old Julius, who occupied the position of Black Minister, he was the youngest of the cabinet ministers, and he didn’t have much experience.

Draydol had never opposed the other cabinet ministers since joining the cabinet, and this was the first time he had ever disputed the crown prince’s words. With a voice that sounded like he was suppressing a violent emotion, he said it would surely be too heavy a burden to bear for a widow.

No decision was reached that morning. Panzel’s widow, Esseluleia, was Draydol’s much younger sister, and there was no one who didn’t know how fond of her he was. For that reason, everyone thought that he spoke his mind out of a reflex to protect his little sister.

But Draydol’s words were not born of affection for his sister. They came from his hatred of Panzel.

To Draydol, Panzel was a bitter enemy who took the head of Garrest, the hope of their family. The night that his beloved little sister was offered to Panzel as a sacrifice, Draydol went mad with rage.

Draydol had become the White Minister, but he had been on a bed of thorns during the war with Fenks. He devoted himself to showing loyalty to the king and worked to coordinate fairness among the ministers, all the while feeling like he was groveling in mud. He sunk incredible sums of money into the quicksand of that war. All while being careful not to take any of the credit for himself.

Whose fault was it that House Riga, the house that had worked harder than any other for this country, had to prostrate themselves and bear this absurd fate?

Draydol had thought that their days of submission and patience would finally be over with the signing of the peace treaty, but then it was said that the largest occupied territory would be given to Panzel’s house. Draydol decided that was the one thing he couldn’t allow.

Alkan was troubled by this.

The crown prince grew enormously from this war, but my son has been twisted.

In politics, you needed to be able to have an outside perspective. This country’s internal affairs were not the most important thing to consider when selecting the lord of the Banust domain. More important was the mindset of the people of Fenks.

Banust would be given to Thunderstorm Panzel, and the valor of his spirit would become the land’s protection. There was no other way the people of Fenks would accept it as Baldemost territory.

It was actually the same for the Baldemost government. The government was run by the king, the cabinet ministers, and the lords, but what really mattered was that this country stood on the achievements of the founding king and the twenty-four heroes and that the king ruled through reverence for the spirit of the deceased founding king. Running governmental affairs without being aware of that was akin to thinking that crops grew thanks to your power alone rather than from the blessings of the earth and the sun.

It was not hard to figure out. Would the deceased Lord Banust or the Baron of Paulo accept anyone other than Panzel as the lord of the domain? If those two important figures were not satisfied, then the people of Fenks who revered their honor would not accept it, either.

But his son was blinded by hate and couldn’t see reason. Understanding that, Alkan approached his son from a totally different angle.

“Then steal.”

Alkan surprised himself with the intensity of the emotion he felt behind his words.

“Steal everything that Panzel had. Why do you think I gave Panzel my daughter? It was to drown House Goran in the blood of House Riga. Give the domain to his family. Give them the faraway land of Banust. That way, we can separate House Goran from House Mercurius. House Goran doesn’t have much in the way of vassals, so who else can they rely on but House Riga? Send people skilled at administration, people who excel at diplomacy, and people with a thorough knowledge of economics to serve Esseluleia. Banust will belong to House Goran, but they will be entirely under House Riga’s thumb. Send skilled instructors. Fill Panzel’s son with Riga’s history, Riga’s ideology, Riga’s spirit, and Riga’s hatred. Then you will have your revenge.”

Draydol’s eyes regained their sanity at Alkan’s words.

The next day at the Privy Council, Draydol took back his previous words and agreed to award the Banust domain to House Goran. He said House Riga would do their best to offer what little support they could, and he made a deep impression on the king, the crown prince, and the cabinet ministers.

That wasn’t all. The lords of Baldemost had been under the impression that the former Banust domain would be partitioned and divided among them, but Draydol said that the defense of the domain could not have proper coordination unless it was under one rule, so the new Banust domain ended up larger than initially expected.

House Goran received Banust, and Panzel Goran, Defender of the Realm, was given the title of the Marquis of Banust posthumously.

Panzel’s funeral service was performed in Banust. Surprisingly, Baldemost’s former enemies in the feudal states of Fenks sent twenty-two envoys to give their condolences.

10

Alkan would occasionally reread letters he had received from Esseluleia.

He didn’t tell her to do anything for Riga when he married her off. He desired for her to put House Goran first and perform her duties as a wife and to find happiness. He thought that could lead to a friendship between Riga and Goran.

Esseluleia was very attached to her older half-brother Garrest, so he was a little worried about whether she would be able to get along with Panzel.

That fear turned out to be unnecessary. She almost immediately became Panzel’s wife in the fullest sense. He was surprised when he read the letters in which she gushed about how she adored her husband. He hadn’t thought she had that kind of personality.

Panzel had entrusted her with the internal affairs of House Goran, and she warmly watched over the estate as it struggled to find its footing. Alkan felt her love toward her father in those frequently delivered letters, and they brought him comfort.

After Panzel’s death, the letters suddenly ceased.

Esseluleia thought that her father was behind her husband’s death.

At first, everyone believed Panzel’s passing was an assassination. Given the blessings of his divine sword, it was difficult to imagine he died from an injury suffered on the battlefield. Apparently, his death was sudden, and his health had shown no signs of deteriorating. He had returned all of House Mercurius’s blessed items to Julius except for Alestra’s Bracelet, so death by curse or poison was a possibility.

But Alkan had been impressed by the precautions Panzel had taken against assassination and subterfuge.

Panzel had such integrity when it came to his fighting style and his tactics that his enemies had given him the nickname Panzel the Pure, but he did know how to play dirty as well. He likely gained that knowledge from the half-dwarf who was a former Adventurers Guild president and had come to live at the House Mercurius estate.

He would hire a great number of adventurers with the ability to work as spies in order to gain control over the information war, and he would begin his battles only after making preparations to ensure his opponent could not use any underhanded tactics. The adventurers were so skilled that the spies House Riga sent to Julius’s and Panzel’s respective camps reported that the adventurers turned a blind eye to them and allowed them to operate.

No matter how Alkan racked his brain, he could not figure out how Panzel’s life had been taken. Esseluleia probably didn’t know, either.

That would place suspicion on anyone who hated Panzel and would want to kill him in a way that Esseluleia could not discern.

I see. From Esseluleia’s perspective, she can think of no culprits other than me.

This misunderstanding would not be undone easily. The only thing he could do was wait for time to pass.

Esseluleia acted fast after Panzel’s funeral in order to get a jump on House Riga. She went to the royal capital and appealed directly to the king.

“My husband, Panzel, the Marquis of Banust, obeyed a royal order and achieved victory against the minotaur, but he was forced to leave the labyrinth without reaching a conclusion. That means the order has not yet been fulfilled. My husband promised to the monster in the labyrinth that he would return one day to settle things. Children inherit the will of their fathers. Please order my son, Arza, to fight the minotaur when he reaches the age of twenty-four, the same age my husband was when he fought it. Also, I do not have the ability to train Arza to be a knight. Please grant me permission to entrust Arza to House Mercurius until he settles things with the monster of the labyrinth, and I beg of you to order me to rule over Banust until that time comes.”

His daughter was considered the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, and Alkan was sure the scene of her draped in black and holding her three-year-old son must have looked like a painting.

The king was deeply moved, and then he descended from the throne and granted her request. He appointed Esseluleia to the rank of marquis and ordered her to rule over the Banust domain until Arza completed his mission.

Draydol was enraged. In the Privy Council, it was said that Panzel’s heir, Arza, would inherit his father’s position of the Marquis of Banust, but he would be taken in and raised by House Riga, and Draydol would rule Banust as his representative until he came of age. However, a royal order from the king on his throne could not be overturned. This was Esseluleia’s victory.

This development meant that House Riga would no longer be able to freely raise Arza and shape him into their dog. Also, if Draydol had been allowed to rule Banust as Arza’s representative, he would have been able to manage the domain however he wanted, but with Esseluleia as the marquis, he would need her permission to pass important matters.

That said, it was clear that she would be unable to rule the domain without personnel support from House Riga, so Esseluleia wasn’t much more than a figurehead ruler.

By Alkan’s estimation, Esseluleia was more talented than Draydol. Esseluleia pretended to follow along with Draydol’s policies while in reality protecting House Goran from House Riga.

One good example of this was how, through the mediation of Logan, she appointed a former president of the Micaene Adventurers Guild named Palos as her officer of finance. Palos was a shrewd and capable official, and he rescued House Goran from being swallowed financially by House Riga by gaining control of the movement of its money and property. He also made effective use of the abolition of tariffs, expanded economic exchange with the lords of Fenks, and even repressed the profits of House Goran by sharing some of their wealth with the lords in the northern part of the kingdom. These preparations would help Arza immensely when it came time for him to take his seat as marquis.

Later on, the investigation into Panzel’s death made it clear he had died as a result of overuse of the divine sword’s blessings. Even that did not remove Esseluleia’s suspicion that Alkan had assassinated Panzel.

He really couldn’t blame her for thinking that way. As the Marquis of Banust, Esseluleia had likely thoroughly investigated the events that had happened around Panzel in the past. She surely knew that Alkan had tried to send Panzel to his death at the time of the Pantram Revolt, and that Draydol had sent assassins on a number of occasions to kill him. There was no way she wouldn’t suspect him.

Being hated by Esseluleia was very hard for Alkan.

Not being able to meet Arza was even harder.

No matter what Esseluleia or anyone else thought, to him, Arza was a cute grandson. He was the son of Panzel and Esseluleia. He had never once met him, never once heard his voice, and never once embraced him, but he had never gone a day without thinking of him.

What Alkan was looking forward to more than anything else was watching over Arza’s growth. He had laid out an information network around him.

When Arza was fourteen years old, he started delving into the labyrinth.

One day, Julius had Arza try to use Alestra’s Bracelet. Its blessings activated for him. And it didn’t stop with Alestra’s Bracelet—Arza was able to use all five of House Mercurius’s treasures.

When Alkan received this report, he was so excited, he thought his heart would burst.

My grandson might be a hero.

Arza then left on a journey. For better or worse, much happened on the road that Arza walked. He significantly changed the fates of people, he roused divine spirits, and he had an impact on countries and the future of the continent. He was no ordinary person.

Arza would likely fight the minotaur once his travels came to an end. He would then become a hero, and his real work would begin once he returned to Banust.

Esseluleia, Palos, and Panzel’s close aides were patiently waiting for that moment. He would become the Marquis of Banust seven years from now, so it was unlikely Alkan would get to see it.

That reminds me, Pan’ja Raban died when he was eighty-one years old—the same age I am now.

I wonder how deep and violent his hatred was of Riga and of myself.

I felt a chill when I heard that royal envoys were sent to his funeral.

The royal family hasn’t forgotten about Vald, either.

Pan’ja Raban achieved a lot in his life, but the king never tried to confer him with peerage.

The royal family probably learned about Pan’ja Raban’s identity early in his ife.

Once one is given peerage, they have to visit the royal palace. If anyone realized who he was, House Riga would not have been able to leave him alone.

If it had come to that, House Mercurius would have suffered a large blow.

That was why he had to live in the shadows.

But he made the best of his circumstances and died having given his utmost loyalty to House Mercurius and the royal family.

He is also the one who raised Panzel.

He was an impressive man.

How deep was the royal family’s grudge against Riga?

Riga had given its all toward the royal family for a millennium. They had taken a lot of harsh criticism when it came to the royal family. The royal family might have thought of the words of Riga as a curse and the embodiment of arrogance. There were a thousand years of baggage between Riga and the royal family.

That year, Julius became the Red Minister. Julius would likely become the next White Minister when Draydol retired.

Riga and Mercurius had always had a mutual respect for each other, but animosity had been born due to Alkan’s ignorance. He hoped that animosity would naturally come undone once Arza became the Marquis of Banust.

He hoped that would once again be the start of a grand era.

He was happy that he was able to live in anticipation of such a day.

Alkan had a thought.

There were a multitude of blessings in this world. Time itself may have been the greatest blessing bestowed by the gods.

Time healed wounds.

Time softened painful memories.

Time allowed living creatures to grow and progress.

Time provided a great sense of tranquility.

Time changed hatred to love, suspicion to trust, bitter enemies into friends.

Every moment one lives is rich with the blessing that puts things in order and eases things that had become entangled.

Riga had been waiting for a thousand years.

That gave birth to stagnation and distortion.

But at the same time, they had built up a thousand years’ worth of blessings.

When I die, it will be Draydol’s turn to wait on time.

Even if he won’t know what he is waiting for, the blessings of time always provide.

Alkan closed his eyes and prayed for the good fortune of those who would bear the future.