Editor 71

After hardship comes settlement (3)

When she saw the two men blinking cluelessly, Dione lost interest in teasing them.

“Sigh, what am I supposed to say with these blockheads. By the way, young master, if you rest again, are your attendance days still okay? What about the midterm exams?”

“It’s the same for me, and for Ray as well—the dean officially approved our medical leave, so who’s going to question our attendance days? For the subjects we missed exams in due to injury, they treated our trip to the ‘Remembered World’ as a special exam and passed us with an average score.”

“Well, that’s a relief then. Young master, let’s rest a few more days and go take a look around the Oreils District next Sunday.”

“I was just about to mention that. The De Neige Est Hotel ad has already been published in magazines.”

“It’s a world of difference compared to a few months ago, you’ll be shocked at how much things have changed.”

“Oh, is that the new hotel being built on the east side of Chel’s house?”

“Yes.”

“Come to think of it, you said you had land nearby too. So you were interested in that sort of thing.”

“My family business is commerce, after all.”

Arthur responded indifferently, showing little interest.

Unexpectedly, Chel, who was tight-lipped, seemed not to have told Arthur about the scale of the land or anything related to the hotel.

There was no need to brag about being rich when he didn’t know. Clayio, who had zero interest in the family business, shamelessly used his family as an excuse.

When Clayio and Dione started planning their outing in detail, Arthur left his seat to get a fresh cup of tea.

The fourth quarter land rent was received when the hotel construction started. Clayio had been so preoccupied with incidents and accidents that he could barely keep up, but Dione was handling things reliably.

She promptly collected the rent on the due date, calculated the commission, opened a high-yield account, and after explaining to Clayio, also purchased government bonds.

Following Clayio’s request, she focused not on yield but on liquidity—ways that would be easy to cash out.

It was because he was gathering energy for what would be his one and only futures trade in life.

‘At this rate, I’ll make a big score.’

Clayio only skimmed the documents Dione had prepared. It was a complete trust made possible by the ether contract that bound his heart.

For someone like Clayio, who wasn’t savvy with financial matters, he was grateful for such a contract.

“If you feel a bit better, I wanted to talk about restoring the magic tool, but seeing your complexion, it looks like that’ll have to wait. Take good care of yourself. I’ll send a carriage at noon on Sunday.”

“Lady Dione, please take care of your health as well.”

Dione swept out like a small storm, just as she had when she arrived. It still felt like her perfume lingered in the air.

In a few minutes, Arthur returned, holding a warm teapot.

“Has the lady left? Oh, I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

“Well, would she really care to get your goodbye….”

“Hey, that’s a bit harsh. Don’t you feel sorry for me, being cold-shouldered by such a beauty?”

“No.”

Clicking his tongue, Arthur poured fresh tea into Clayio’s cup, pulled over a chair, and sat down. Then he inspected the letter envelope on the table, apparently intrigued by the Asher family crest on the seal.

“What’s this?”

“A message from my father.”

“He must be worried about you?”

“He says I should reconsider, since his youngest son is hanging out with bad company.”

“…Is that what the letter says?”

“Read it if you want. He didn’t say not to show it to the bad company in question.”

Arthur scratched the back of his head after skimming the letter Clayio handed him.

“Ugh, it’s true. How am I supposed to clear up this misunderstanding? I wanted to make a good impression on your father.”

Arthur seemed to have Asher the junior baron in mind as a patron to fund the upcoming civil war. After all, moving troops would require immense expenses.

It wasn’t a bad calculation.

Junior Baron Asher wanted power, and since he wasn’t part of the existing establishment, if he supported Arthur, whose influence was relatively weak, he could reap great benefits later.

“If you want to prove your worth to my father, you can’t go on like this. He’s ruthless when it comes to calculations.”

“Haha, he’s the type you can’t face unless you have something to bring to the negotiating table. I guess I’m not ready yet.”

“Well. Are you really not ready?”

The two locked eyes.

Arthur understood what Clayio was getting at.

His hand, which was messing up his hair, got rougher, and his thick blond hair stuck out in all directions.

“When we got out of the dungeon, I said I’d ask you in detail about what you, Isiel, and Chel discussed.”

“You did.”

“Arthur Riognan. Shouldn’t there be a premise that you won’t deceive a friend?”

Before Arthur could dodge or make excuses, Clayio quickly deployed a circle.

He had become quite adept at adjusting the range, so he could expand it just enough to cover just the two of them without wasting ether.

The [Soundproof][Shield] magic formulas rose instantly, followed by the incantation.

“Explain.”

Whether he had been betrayed by Arthur or by the author, Clayio couldn’t tell, but realizing that the person he’d been dealing with with such earnestness hadn’t revealed all his cards was definitely a letdown.

At seventeen, Arthur was quite different from the unknown boy in the previous draft—he now had considerable martial ability, his own private soldiers, and patrons.

It was a bit infuriating that he was hiding his full strength while claiming to protect Clayio, and Clayio didn’t want to face another sudden crisis like in the dungeon, all while not having a full grasp of the situation.

Of course, he himself was hiding more than a few things as well.

‘From the start, am I in the same position as the protagonist for whom the world was made? If he wants, he can cut me off at any time, but I have to stick with him until the end.’

The reason he wanted to understand Arthur was because it was a matter related to the safety of the world.

“Where should I start?”

“First, talk about the ‘prophecy that a conflict will come between two princes and between two rivers. The prediction that an age of war is coming.’ Now that I think about it, even mentioning that passage was suspicious.”

“Hmm. Ray, do you know the names of those two rivers?”

“I’m not the one answering questions today, you are. When did you learn the detailed meaning of that prophecy? Wasn’t it because you knew that you roped in Count Kishion and Chel and started preparing in advance?”

“As for the river names… I realized it before I was even thirteen. What else but Tempus and Clotho.”

The Tempus River flowed through the capital, Lundein, of Albion.

Also, the Clotho River, which originated in the northern Pintos Mountains and flowed south to the inland sea, served as the border between Albion and Brünnen.

That’s why Albion’s territory was often called “the land between two rivers.”

“But that couldn’t be considered a prophecy or proof. Anyone could predict that.”

Clayio nodded.

That was true.

“If war broke out in Albion, of course it would be between us and the Principality of Brünnen. The Carolingian Republic has been mired in internal strife since the revolution, and Albion… with His Majesty the King dying, how could we attack Brünnen? So if the land between the two rivers becomes a battlefield, I figured it meant Brünnen would invade.”

Arthur’s judgment was astonishingly accurate. But Clayio kept his arms crossed and his face blank.

“So? Why didn’t you explain all this in detail to me, your ally?”

“Because I didn’t have enough evidence for my words yet.”

“You thought I wouldn’t believe you if you told me to prepare for war with Brünnen? You really have that little faith in me, even though I didn’t waver against Melchior’s skill?”

“That wasn’t about you—it was my problem. Think about it. Someone who lost his mother the queen and was constantly tormented by Aslan—no matter what I say about Brünnen, people would just think it’s a vengeful accusation. My words have no authority. There’s no power behind them.”

“With Schulliman Kishion’s support and Celestes’ patronage, your private army wouldn’t have made your words seem empty. If you really intended to tell me the truth.”

“Ray.”

Arthur pulled both legs up on the sofa and sat cross-legged.

He looked at the river outside the window, then at the parliament building beyond, then back at Clayio.

Regardless, Clayio gazed at Arthur in the same posture. The silent urging grew heavier.

“Sigh. To be honest, I don’t know what patriotism is. I’ve never been moved by the rhetoric about loyalty and all that.”

“Don’t go off on a tangent. Explain properly.”

“But if Brünnen’s army crosses the mountains and invades, the first place to get trampled would be the Kishion County.”

‘In the previous draft, about halfway through part one, Emperor Joachim Castilien of Brünnen does exactly that… even knowing countless of his own people will die. So this guy knows.’

The Kishion County was situated at the lowest part of the Pintos Mountains.

For Arthur, that was basically home. It was understandable he’d be desperate to protect it.

“But the knights stationed or dispatched to Kishion County—”

“You said before, right? There are only twenty in total. A quarter of the Cruel Knights, an eighth of the Capital Defense Knights.”

“Right. With that number, they could never repel an invasion, but the central government kept reducing support. They insisted Brünnen would never cross the Pintos Mountains.”

“On top of that, since Juleika is a princess of the Castilien imperial family and Duke Cruel, who has military influence, colludes with the queen to monopolize support, any attempt to oppose them is ignored, right?”

Clayio decided to directly compare what he knew from the manuscript with the events of the .

“Wow, Ray… you really know the ins and outs of parliament for someone who barely leaves his room. That’s exactly it. How could I just stand by and watch Schulliman’s territory get destroyed?”

“You probably didn’t see any political solution, either. Count Kishion is a warrior, not a politician.”

“Exactly. If he was the calculating, profit-driven type, would he have taken me in?”

Before they knew it, night had fallen and the room was dark.

Arthur’s expression wasn’t clear, but Clayio could sense those teal eyes shining with seriousness.

“So first, I persuaded Schulliman Kishion. Even without the support of the royal family or central government, he should raise his own private army. Even if it’s selfish to want to hand down an intact estate to Isiel, I can’t argue with that. Frankly, that’s quite a virtuous act. Raising private soldiers without reporting to the central government is first-degree treason.”

“How is that different from lese-majesty or ordinary treason?”

“It’s different. Execution by beheading is carried out immediately upon conviction. Those who confess to first-degree treason are tortured beneath the north gate of the royal castle. Otherwise, who would admit to a crime so serious you can’t even have a grave? And the person in this country who gets confessions best is….”

“Melchior, is it?”

Arthur explained the background.

Before seizing the throne, the first authority Melchior was given by the king was the right to handle the secret intelligence department. And he used that right to seize power through somewhat suspicious means.

“Right. And the thing is, he’s never even fabricated a crime through perjury.”

“Ugh.”

Clayio let out a groan.

‘Yeah. Even when he suppressed the People’s Banner, he didn’t arrest anyone for something that didn’t happen. He manipulated their minds to incite them to terrorism.’

If Melchior were just a third-rate dictator drunk on his own power, he wouldn’t be so terrifying.

The fact that he never crossed the line despite having power, and always operated behind the scenes, was what made him truly fearsome.

‘Maybe, if this wasn’t a story with a predetermined protagonist, Melchior could have been a great king… Even if he wasn’t actually a sage king, he could’ve made people believe he was.’