Chapter 8:
Brothers, Reunited
Jard
PREPPING THE RANDOM, HASTILY ASSEMBLED mercenaries was slow work, pushing our departure much later than I had planned. And while I was getting them ready, I received word from Father that we were to depart ahead of him. Anxious that my slow prep might have left a poor impression on him, I had my personal troops handle other preparations and assist the mercenaries with their gear.
I was spending an obscene amount of money. Hiring a single mercenary for a month cost anywhere from one to three large silvers, so one hundred of them for a month ran me one to three large gold. A thousand mercenaries cost another ten times that. When you considered that a single knight made three to four gold per year, this was shaping up to be a massive money sink, and on top of all that, it was hard to imagine this campaign lasting only two months. If I didn’t perform big time, I would be in the red.
I had to hurry to the border village so I could improve Father’s impression of me, even if only by a little.
“Van’s territory, eh?” I mused aloud. “I never expected that failure of a child to become a baron.”
Not only did he not have an elemental affinity, the magic he did have was useless production magic. Dee and Esparda had followed him out of pity, and somehow the boy had managed to use their skills to add a few accomplishments to his name. Rumor had it that he hired adventurers and mercenaries, so it was possible that Dee and Esparda gave him some measure of financial assistance, too.
I knew Dee was an experienced warrior, and I’d heard that Esparda had a lot of battlefield accomplishments of his own. With their help, it was possible to imagine Van defeating a dragon, saving his small border village in the process and becoming lauded as a dragon-slaying hero. That was all luck, but I considered luck an important quality. But now it was my time to reduce the battlefield to ashes and put my power—Jard Gai Fertio’s power—on display.
My carriage rocked back and forth as I pumped myself up, heading toward Van’s village. I managed to get some rest in the towns and villages along the way, but the constant rocking of the carriage was taking its toll on my state of mind. Conversing with Sesto did little to help either of us hide our fatigue.
Eventually, one of the mercenaries leading the way reported that our journey was coming to an end. “Lord Jard, we will arrive shortly!”
“Damn you,” I said, poking my head out the window. “Could you not deliver your report more quietly?”
I was fed up with this mercenary captain and his vulgar yelling. On his first day, I berated him for his impolite speech, so he at least watched his words now; his yelling gave me headaches, but it was still preferable to how things started out.
I scowled at the carriage next to me, where I met eyes with Sesto. His expression mirrored mine.
“I guess we’re almost there,” Sesto whispered dully.
I nodded at him, then sighed. “I am certainly glad to have seen in person how vast House Fertio’s territory is. However, I now find myself pitying our little brother for getting exiled out here. His treatment was dictated by his lack of talent, so Father must have decided he was useless.” Of course, my pity for Van and his miserable situation only enhanced my satisfaction in being a superior elemental mage.
Sesto frowned, peering ahead toward our destination. Slowly, in blank amazement, he said, “Jard, what is that? That…can’t be Van’s territory, right?”
I looked up, wondering what he was talking about, and quickly found myself dumbfounded. “Is that…a wall? He had that built in only a year or so?”
Down the road was a walled fortress city, that much was clear. It was relatively small, but still large enough to comfortably house a thousand or more people. I could see soldiers atop the wall, keeping an eye on their surroundings.
“This must be Dee and Esparda’s work,” I breathed. I mustered all the calm I could, though internally, I was shaken. “But how much did all of this cost?”
The city to which Father assigned me was far from Van’s village, so it wasn’t until I returned home that I heard of Van’s alleged recent exploits. I dismissed them as nonsensical rumors. After all, who would expect me to believe that Van had used his magic to build houses and craft weapons, thereby making leaps and bounds in territory development?
Absurdity. I had never heard of such a possibility. He possessed production magic, yes, but history told of no production magic wielders capable of such feats. I would never pay heed to such outlandish rumors.
But the fortress city before me could not have been built in a year’s time. The closer we got, the greater the oppressive shadow its front gates cast over us.
“I’ve never seen this kind of design before,” I said conversationally, hoping to keep myself from being overwhelmed by what I was looking at. But Sesto was clearly shaken to his core.
“R-right… And it sure is big.”
Eventually, someone on the wall called out to us. “Am I correct in assuming you are guests from House Fertio?” It was the voice of a young woman, which I found surprising.
The commander of the Chivalric Order ahead of us responded, explaining that not only were we from House Fertio, we were in fact Marquis Fertio’s sons. The gates were soon opened for us, but we were not allowed immediate entry.
“What? Only ten representatives may enter?”
“My apologies. We are expecting the arrival of a large number of Chivalric Orders.”
I glared past the front gates. Open, they revealed a beautifully developed cityscape, one that you could be forgiven for mistaking for the capital city. Even not being all that large, it was enough to make me catch my breath.
“Brother, it is what it is,” Sesto said with a faint smile. “There is not enough land here to fit everyone.”
I snorted. “True enough. If anything, I suppose I should be impressed that such a poor village was capable of such growth,” I said, putting on airs and entering the city.
Sesto was right: the area was full of tall, beautiful buildings, but there wasn’t actually that much land. It could fit a thousand or so people at most…or, well, perhaps a little more, since most of the buildings were more than three stories tall. But even then, it was much smaller than the city I was assigned to. They were undoubtedly at a disadvantage for goods distribution compared to other cities.
A feeling of relief settled over me as I cast my gaze around the city. Eventually, I realized that we were being led to the gates on the opposite side of the city from where we entered.
“Why are we leaving?” I demanded.
“Y-you better not be thinking of tossing us out!”
Hearing our complaints, our guide looked back at us with some confusion on his face. Then he nodded, seemingly remembering something. “My apologies. I should have given you a better explanation. This is not Seatoh Village. The village itself was seeing extremely high adventurer traffic, so Lord Van created a separate town just for adventurers.”
“H-huh?” I couldn’t comprehend this. A town just for adventurers? What madness was that? What was the man talking about? Sesto and I exchanged glances, and I tried to wrap my confused head around the guide’s words.