After we’d hurried through the night, we finally reached Ho Province the next afternoon. Upon our arrival, we found troops waiting for us near the border. Around two thousand soldiers had moved roughly two kilometers into the royal territory where they awaited us.
“Lord Yuri, we were expecting you.”
Gino Toga, the man I’d met in a forest in Kilhina, was the one to greet me. Alongside him were a number of familiar old men who were all saluting me.
“Good work,” I told him. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Excuse my impatience, but could you perhaps explain the situation?” an old man asked. He held the title of lord-of-estates, which was one rank below lord-supreme, and governed a wide region near the border.
“I’ll explain in full during a gathering of lords in Kalakumo, but to summarize, my father, my mother, and Her Majesty the Queen were killed by poison.”
“It can’t be...”
“It’s the witches’ doing. Expect a war.”
The hint of joy that appeared on the old man’s face for a moment didn’t escape my notice. Eradicate the witches of the royal capital and reclaim the kingdom—a cause like that was bound to tug at the heartstrings of any knight.
Our cause was a temptation that several chieftain families had succumbed to throughout Shiyalta’s history. But in each case they’d been quickly defeated, or their leaders had been assassinated. They lived on in history books only. Uprisings had been more successful in some other kingdoms that had existed in the past, but those had long since fallen.
“Then let us hurry to Kalakumo,” Gino said.
“Princess Carol rests aboard this carriage,” I said. “She’s recovering after drinking a small amount of the poison. I’d like to find an inn where she can rest before we reach the provincial capital.”
“Very well. I shall make arrangements. Please hurry onward, Sir Yuri.”
“No, I won’t leave her before she reaches an inn. Now send messenger eagles and pigeons to the lords and tell them to gather in Kalakumo.”
“As you command.”
“Oh, what about my father’s eagle, White Sunset? Where is he?”
“The bird is resting in a village nearby. He arrived unharmed.”
That’s a relief.
“Hm...?” Gino suddenly narrowed his eyes and stared at something behind me. His gaze was aimed along the road I’d just taken.
Now what?
I turned around and saw a lone knight slowly approaching us on a plainrunner. He looked like he’d bathed himself in a stream of blood. His entire body was filthy, as was the bird he rode on. Where the blood had already dried, the color had turned to a blackened red. His appearance spoke of a gruesome battlefield.
It was Soim. As he slowly made his way back to us on his plodding plainrunner, he kept glancing back over his shoulder. Once he reached me, he got off the bird.
“Soim! You made it!”
This is great news!
“Yes, well... Haaah.” Soim sighed deeply as he removed the strange mask he’d borrowed from the residence.
It wasn’t the sigh of an exhausted man finding a moment to rest. It was a sigh of disappointment. For him, there was no joy whatsoever in having made it back alive.
“What happened?” I asked.
“They were pathetic. My expectations were utterly betrayed.”
Now that he was back on his own two feet, Soim kept glancing behind him even more often. It was as though he still held hope that the enemy was chasing him, despite the fact that he’d already made it to safety.
“I don’t know the details, but isn’t that a good thing? You survived.”
“Haaah...” Soim once again heaved the deepest of sighs.
Judging from the state he was in, the witches had indeed pursued him. But they clearly hadn’t given him the challenge he’d been hoping for. I suspected that he’d only had to fight off five or so pursuers.
“You could have dealt with the enemy without help from me or anyone else, Your Excellency. They were the most pathetic weaklings.”
“Really...?” That must’ve been a letdown.
“I’m still struggling to believe that they’ve retreated permanently and won’t make another attempt,” Soim added.
I could almost hear his thoughts: Why didn’t they have another go? What’s up with these guys? I had to wonder what had happened.
“Please forgive me, young master, but I feel I must rest. I haven’t drank in some time, but I feel the need for something hard.”
“S-Sure. Rest all you need.”
“Haaah, what a disgrace...” Soim muttered.
He climbed onto his plainrunner and trudged off along the road, an aura of gloomy disappointment rising from under the many layers of blood coating his body.
“We’re here,” I announced as I opened the carriage door. Inside, I saw Carol, the head maid, and Sham.
“Haaah... Haaah...” Carol seemed to lack the strength to respond. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, and the life was almost gone from her eyes.
“Yuri...?” Sham looked just as drowsy as she blinked her eyes.
Since the stone cobbles of the road weren’t smooth like asphalt, carriages moving quickly would rattle horribly. Although our passenger carriages had a little wooden suspension, it didn’t dampen the vibrations enough for the passengers to sleep. Sham had been in the carriage all through the night and into the afternoon of the next day, so it was a given that she’d be exhausted.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll need you to keep working a little longer,” I told the head maid.
She couldn’t hide her exhaustion, but she was the only passenger still sitting up straight in her seat.
I entered the carriage and put my arms around Carol’s knees and shoulders to lift her. Moving as slowly as possible, I carried her like a fragile item, out of the carriage and into the inn we’d stopped alongside.
“Th-This way please.” The inn’s owner, overawed by the important guests that had arrived with barely any warning, guided us into the establishment’s finest room.
This inn town, known as Rossi, was a small place that most travelers passed by without stopping, so most of the lodgings were also small. This one was the only exception. The finest room wasn’t all that fine, but all Carol really needed at that moment was somewhere to lie down.
I carefully laid Carol down on the bed.