✧✧✧
When all was said and done, I retired to the study. Satsuki was waiting for me.
“You certainly did well,” she said, sounding slightly annoyed.
“It went all right,” I replied.
Naturally, this room had comfortable chairs. I wondered whether Rook had often sat here.
Various items were strewed on the desk, as if he’d been working here just yesterday. There was a note written on a piece of parchment, along with a crumpled collection of Ho paper scraps in the wastebasket. Each discarded piece had a similar message written on them. I wished I could preserve it all, but it would soon be cleared away, and—with it—Rook’s presence would gradually fade from the room completely.
“I expected things to get tricky... You haven’t graduated from the Knight Academy, after all.”
I didn’t have a single realistic competitor. Satsuki was worrying too much.
“There’ll be tough fighting ahead,” I replied. “I can’t let anyone think the head of the family’s weak.”
“Even so, you shouldn’t—”
“Warriors will follow the strong. I couldn’t bow to anyone before taking charge here.”
Following the strongest person meant betting on the winner, which was how nobles generally became nobles in the first place. When any knight family was traced back to its origins, the story was always the same.
Rook’s reign had been different. He’d been accepted because it had been a time of peace. I, however, had to lead an army into war.
“The Ho family is about to capture the royal capital and eradicate all the witch families. The Knight Academy and its qualifications might be a thing of the past already. My lack of a knight medal is trivial.”
“Well... You may be right about that.”
During Gok’s time, Satsuki had probably kept out of politics. But in the ten years since Rook’s time had begun, she’d been one his most trusted associates. She might’ve been a lady of leisure offering occasional assistance to Gok, but she’d worked like a government official for the whole of Rook’s headship. Those ten years had no doubt shaped her current thinking. Her opinions would often differ from mine, and she’d try to act on them independently.
Satsuki’s involvement might’ve been a minor nuisance, but I needed people like her whom I could trust to remain loyal to me. But it wasn’t military affairs where her help was needed—I had another job for her.
“More importantly, I’d like you to refurbish my home as quickly as possible.”
“What? Your home? You mean your parents’ home?”
“That’s right. I’ve been thinking, and I decided I can’t bring Carol to Kalakumo. Somewhere less populated will be easier to defend, and there’s so much noise here. It’s no place for recuperation.”
Things would’ve been different if there’d been a major hospital here where she could receive the best treatment, but there wasn’t. Since there was no antidote for red canolia, the best thing for her would be a peaceful place to rest and rebuild her strength. She’d still be close enough that Kalakumo’s best doctors could visit her regularly. If she was here, there’d be people asking to see her and no end to rumors about the state of her health. She wouldn’t relax while people surrounded her.
“Very well. I’ll take responsibility for that.”
“Order that the building be refurbished for my personal use without any mention of Carol. I’d like to keep her whereabouts a secret.”
“That sounds wise.”
“There’s a room with a nice view on the second floor. You might want to focus your efforts there. Replace the bed with the finest bed available and change the carpet as well. Make the window bigger too.”
“Very well. I’ll give the task to a local carpenter right away.”
A local carpenter? Ah, there must be first-rate carpenters here in Kalakumo who work on this manor.
“Please see to it at once.”
Satsuki left the room.
With another job done, I sighed to myself.
As I idly began reading the documents scattered across the desk, I realized that they were orders related to the development of a town a little south of Kalakumo. Just a few days ago, someone had sat in this chair writing with the pen lying in front of me.
It was as though Rook’s breath still hung in the air.
Dark feelings welled up within me, threatening to spill out. They were difficult feelings to describe, but they weren’t too far from a mixture of rage and hatred.
✧✧✧
“Your Excellency, a woman claiming to be a royal sword has arrived accompanied by a woman from a witch family.”
The report was given to me in the study by the manor’s captain of the guard. I rose from my chair without a moment’s hesitation.
I’d expected a royal sword to show up, but not a witch.
Could it be Myalo? I wondered. “Where? Guide the way.”
The captain of the guard reacted quickly when he saw the look on my face. “They’re being held in the foyer. I was told that she wished to meet with Princess Carol in Rossi, but she surrendered herself to us without resistance and was transferred here. She carries a black blade.”
So she came quietly. If they brought her straight here, does that mean she never saw Carol?
I hurried to the foyer, where I found Myalo and a woman I recognized as Tillet both tied up.
“Myalo! You’re safe!” I exclaimed.
“Yuri.”
“Untie her immediately. She’s a friend.”
At my command, the soldier holding Myalo’s rope swiftly untied her.
“Um, the dagger...” Myalo said nervously.
The soldier who’d untied her looked at me. I’d asked for her to be unbound, but he wanted to be sure before returning her weapon. When I nodded, he handed Myalo a familiar dagger. It must’ve been taken from her because it was a dangerous weapon.
“Yuri, allow me to return this.”
“Oh, thanks.”
I took back the dagger I’d given her in the castle. I felt like I’d left it with her for a long time, but it had only been three days.
“I worried you might not make it out,” I said.
“I escaped with the royal swords. There was a window to the third floor directly below us that we were able to reach with a rope.”
“Hey,” Tillet said, breaking her silence. “Aren’t you going to untie me too?”
“I don’t trust you yet. You could be working for Carla now.”
“Not a chance. Just hear the witch out.”
I looked at Myalo.
“I think we can trust her,” Myalo said. “I was there when Her Majesty ordered Tillet to serve Carol, and then when Carol ordered Tillet to serve you... Though I do fear that she’ll switch sides if Carol dies.”
An ominous warning.
“Even in that event, I wouldn’t follow Carla,” Tillet said. “When someone becomes queen by killing the former queen, they lose authority over the royal swords.”
They do?
“If someone could simply kill the queen and command the royal swords, there’d be rampant usurpation,” Tillet explained.
That made sense. Otherwise, someone in Carla’s position could attack the queen while they were alone, giving her instant authority over the royal swords. Then she could warn any chieftain family that they’d better accept her as queen, or else she’d send the swords after them. But it wasn’t as though queens had never died as a result of some internal dispute, so maybe Tillet was lying. I was hardly a history scholar, but even I knew of two such events within the Shiyaltan royal family.
“But there are historical cases of that happening, right? What do you do after losing your master? Do all the swords hold a vote or something?”
“The new queen has to seek forgiveness from the royal swords. If the former queen was eliminated as a means of cutting a disastrous reign short, then the royal swords might accept her successor. Needless to say, Carla doesn’t deserve forgiveness.”
Carla—not Princess Carla. Apparently, Tillet no longer respected her enough to give her that title.
“And what if a usurper does take the throne for their own gain? What do the swords do then?” I asked.
“There aren’t any examples of that in history, but the procedure would be for the royal swords to step down and return a generation later. If Princess Carol were to pass away, we might serve Carla’s daughter someday. But you don’t need to worry about that now.”
Okay. That all sounds sensible. “Well then, how about you release yourself?”
“What...?”
“I mean your binds. Can’t get out of that rope without help?”
“I gave up all my concealed weapons to avoid arousing your suspicion. I’m not a snake—I can’t slither out of a rope coiled around both my wrists.”
Whoops, I think I made her mad... I was just curious.
“Untie her,” I ordered.
The soldier, who’d been listening with some amusement, undid Tillet’s binds.
“Good grief.” Tillet rubbed her wrists where the ropes had been.
“Let’s not stand here. Come talk in my study.”