Part 20 — Role

As the Batterabbe party made its way to the Tempera Village, Lord Sepaeda and Douve were having a family meeting. The matter was important enough that Lord Sepaeda had sent an escort from the capital, so that Douve alone would come to see him, leaving Sansui and Blois at the academy. Douve herself understood that this was not simply a family meeting, but rather an important discussion as a member of House Sepaeda.

“Once again...”

While Douve may tease her older brother, who serves as the head of House Sepaeda, she places a great deal of trust in him. Given his serious expression, Douve, while smiling, has no intention of teasing him now.

“Sansui has done well by us.”

“Thinking back on it, we’ve always asked the impossible of Sansui.”

“Yes, his loyalty has been admirable.”

“He has wielded the blade he spent five hundred years honing without hesitation for the sake of this kingdom.”

“I agree.”

“Now, what do you think we can do for him?”

Ah, it is, in fact, an extremely important topic. Douve decides then to accept whatever it is her brother proposes.

“My Lord, I do not know specifically what we can do, but whatever reward we offer, we should spare no expense for him.”

She isn’t sure what he plans to offer Sansui as a reward. However, Douve feels that if there’s anything they can do, even one thing, then they should do it. While she wouldn’t say it in his presence, she has no reservations against richly rewarding him.

“However, My Lord, you are aware of Sansui’s personality. I highly doubt he desires land or laurels.”

There’s no point in giving Sansui a reward he wouldn’t appreciate. As an employer, a humble employee is a blessing, but it makes situations like these rather difficult.

“I have considered it, and I believe the best reward would be some time off.”

“...I agree. Sansui does always accompany me.”

“Not just for Sansui, but for Blois, as well.”

It’s true that Douve is always accompanied by Sansui and Blois, no matter where she goes. Once she hit a certain age, she even had Lain accompany her as well. Of course, for things like society functions, she’d leave Sansui and Lain behind, but Blois had always been at her side.

“Then, Your Lordship...”

“Yes.”

The relationship between Sansui and House Sepaeda, which hadn’t changed in the past five years, was about to change dramatically.

“Until now, the two of them have been assigned to protect you, but we’ll be relieving them of that assignment. We will provide Sansui with another role and an appropriate rank, and have him marry Blois.”

“And Blois will retire, I assume?”

“I believe that would be the best reward we could give them. Do you have any objections?”

“Not at all, Your Lordship.”

Douve acquiesces in a manner unimaginable based on her usual demeanor.

“I’m grateful to Sansui and Blois for all they’ve done for me each and every day. If it makes them happy, then that would be best.”

A faint moue of loneliness crosses her features, but she quickly cuts off that sentiment.

“After all, as one with an overly doting father and brother, I should at least know when to let go.”

“Uh... Hrmph.”

Well aware of his own faults, Lord Sepaeda refrains from comment.

“But, if I may ask, Your Lordship?”

“What?”

“Why now?”

There had been discussions of Sansui and Blois getting married before. It was soon after that that Sansui’s actual age was revealed, but because Blois was still attached to Sansui, the subject never went away. But, still, it was rather sudden. It didn’t seem to be that urgent, so the timing caught Douve by surprise.

“One reason is that we now know Sansui is capable of doing things other than serving as a bodyguard.”

“That...is true.”

“If he couldn’t do anything else, we couldn’t very well relieve him of that task. But now, we can confidently assign him as a sword instructor.”

A swordsman’s skill isn’t necessarily related to their abilities as an instructor. At the same time, instruction for nobility and for soldiers are different matters, as well. By having him instruct various people, ranging from Saiga and Tahlan to an assortment of ruffians, they’d learned Sansui was capable of both.

In which case, they can provide him a role as an instructor. Sansui himself has received permission from his master, Suiboku, and has witnessed those under his tutelage gain skill, so he probably doesn’t have any complaints on that front, either.

“The other concerns the matter of Ran.”

“What would that have to do with anything?”

“On a basic level, the definition of ‘people who ought to be killed’ is the same for our House and for Sansui. That is why there have been no problems until now.”

While Sansui is over five hundred years old, while he lived in the woods, he didn’t gain any combat experience, and therefore had never killed anything, human or otherwise. Despite that, Sansui shares the same ethics on killing as House Sepaeda.

Anyone who draws their sword and points it at another is fair game. As for opponents who ignore warnings, well, they’ve more than given up their right to live. And the opponents that Sansui has killed while serving as Douve’s bodyguard are basically people who have attacked him in the course of trying to harm her. Even putting aside the matter of Douve being a daughter of House Sepaeda, he has no qualms about killing any number of people of that sort.

But if House Sepaeda had ordered Sansui to kill opponents who Sansui didn’t want to kill, and if that had started to become the norm... Given his lack of attachment to society, he may very well have taken Lain and fled.

To give a few basic examples, they could have been people who committed crimes not deserving of death, ordinary citizens who simply didn’t have much social status, or those who had committed religious blasphemy.

Douve doesn’t have the best personality, but she has kept from crossing that specific line. She can enjoy herself without crossing it, so there’s no point in doing so.

“But Ran is different. We believe that she should be left alive, but Sansui believes that she should die.”

But, on the other hand, what if House Sepaeda orders Sansui to spare an individual that Sansui believes should die? And, in particular, if it’s given as an order specifically given to Sansui to capture them alive, rather than as a matter not involving him at all? That is the situation they find themselves in now.

“It’s true that berserkers are dangerous. From the perspective of protecting the people of the Arcana Kingdom, there’s more than enough reason to kill her. But even considering that, we prioritized creating a new Rare Art by sparing her and absorbing the other four martial artists.”

“You believe Sansui is dissatisfied by this?”

“We made him do something he didn’t want to do. We should be more considerate as a result.”

They got greedy and decided to spare a dangerous individual. It’s not an unfair description of the situation. And Sansui, who was concerned about the dangerous individual, was the one tasked with keeping her alive. Of course he might resent it.

“If all we wanted to do was kill Ran, we’d have just sent Shun to take care of her. That’d be the most certain method, at least.”

“But that would involve owing a debt to House Disaea.”

“If something is really necessary, there’s no reason to concern ourselves with things like debts and favors. But if we didn’t need it to be certain, we could have asked Sunae or Saiga to deal with it. They might not want to, but no doubt they’d agree once the reasons were explained to them.”

Berserkers are in a constant state of heightened emotion, and have an extremely hard time running away. They can’t ignore even the tamest taunts and attacks. Even if she understands, rationally, that she can’t win, Ran would react the same way against any opponent.

“But, this time, we ordered Sansui to make her accept defeat, because Sansui was the only one who could do it.”

Not kill. Not defeat. Make them accept defeat, make them understand that they can’t win. How to do that with a berserker, even the ones giving the orders hadn’t known.

It was pointless to knock them out quickly, as Sansui did in his first bout. The method of exhausting her Tainted Blood, like Sunae had done, hadn’t worked, either. They had never imagined that he would beat her until she broke down in tears.

“But that means we made Sansui take an unnecessary risk. Although, Sansui himself felt guilty about letting her go the first time, so he couldn’t object too strenuously.”

“Risk? Sansui?”

“Sansui isn’t particularly tough. You’re aware of that.”

Berserkers were, ordinarily, monsters that would be fairly described as the strongest creatures in this world. Against such an opponent, Sansui explained how he was fighting and continued to demonstrate how he was fighting, barely avoiding disaster each time.

The fact that he accomplished it without incident means that it’s easy to forget just how dangerous a line he had been treading. He had, by most standards, been risking his life.

“Appreciation only means something if it’s expressed while we live. If having Blois retire and remove herself from the frontline is a thing that brings joy to Sansui, then the earlier, the better.”

“That is true of Blois and Lain as well, yes?”

“Of course,” Lord Sepaeda declares, in a manner worthy of Sansui’s master. “Sepaeda is a martial Great House. We must provide appropriate rewards for good work.”