Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Discord

Morning in the territory of Count Consillus begins with the military morning jog song.
— Hey! Hey!
— One, two! One, two! Let the military song begin!
— Look, we have already arrived!
— Your voices are too low!
— Advance! Advance! The final line of defense! There is nowhere to retreat! Using the wife as a shield, today we advance as well! We advance! If we become heroes, let’s go for new wives!
The morning jog song echoes around the castle.
They ran along the castle walls every morning, but the difficulty varied drastically depending on who led as the instructor.
And among them, Arwen was the strictest of all, boasting the highest difficulty.
“Aish, just run half a lap moderately and leave.”
“It’s painful every time this knight gets guard duty.”
Not only did they have to constantly sing the military song while running, but the winding path was a challenge in itself; furthermore, under the pretext of patrolling, they ran through every nook and cranny, such that the distance covered basically exceeded two laps.
— Good work, everyone! Have your breakfast and prepare for morning duties!
— Uh…….
— With voices like that, do you want to run one more lap?
— No, sir!
— Then retreat at the speed of light! Whoever I catch will run one more lap!
Fearing being caught, the soldiers scattered in a hurry.
While Arwen wiped his sweat with a towel, the gatekeeper approached and greeted him.
— Loyalty. Sir duty officer, you’ve had hard work.
— Is something the matter?
— That is, a knight from Valdrova Castle says he wishes to see the duty officer.
Valdrova Castle.
There were two knights there.
Among them, only one person would come looking for him.
Arwen frowned by reflex.
— Where is that person right now?
— Hey, Arwen!
— No, never mind.
Without needing to ask, that man was already waving his hand and approaching.
Arwen wiped his face with the towel and looked at the man.
Brown hair, handsome face.
— It has been a while, Sir Jed.
— Yes, likewise. Have you been well?
— I didn’t expect you to come here. What business do you have?
— Nothing out of the ordinary, I just came to ask about that knight training thing.
— Knight training…… you say?
Arwen’s eyes rounded at that request.
— Why can’t parachute knights do it?
— There’s no reason why they can’t. Rather, parachute knights need training even more. I just didn’t expect you to say you would do it…….
— True. I didn’t expect to be like this either.
Jed scratched his head and admitted it calmly.
Seeing that, Arwen began to worry again.
They say that if a person does something they don’t normally do, they die, don’t they?
— Is something wrong?
— You know about the wolf monsters that appeared in Halim, right?
— Yes. I heard the regent was active there. The Empire was in quite a stir.
The stir was mainly due to two reasons.
That seven wolf monsters were summoned inside the castle.
And that, despite such an incident, not a single death occurred.
— I heard you were active there too. That you bought time playing with the enemies with movements like those of a sylph?
— Playing, my ass. One slip and you die, so my ass was on fire.
— So what is the problem? Lord Valdrova’s reputation rose and you got material to pick up women, didn’t you?
That was the human called Jed that Arwen understood.
That being a knight is the best job for telling lies and that, with an exaggerated tale of valor, seducing young ladies is a piece of cake.
— When that wolf bastard was charging at the regent, I blocked his path.
— He charged at the regent and you blocked him. And?
— But I couldn’t stop that bastard. I hit him once and my body just went flying. Like a piece of plywood.
Arwen shrugged at those words.
— That can’t be helped, you know? There are hardly any knights who can withstand the attack of a monster head-on.
— What about you?
— I can block it.
— That’s the problem then. Others can but I can’t, is that it?
— I underwent formal training and I am a selected knight, am I not? I shouldn’t be compared to ordinary people.
Arwen said it with the intention of comforting him, but Jed only frowned as if he had asked something unnecessary.
— So you’re saying you need the power to block an opponent in frontal combat?
— Not necessarily frontal combat, I just want to gain what I can do in that kind of situation.
— Do you mean swordsmanship or self-defense?
— Yes.
— I can teach that part…… but how old are you, Sir Jed?
— Twenty-seven. Soon turning twenty-eight.
— Isn’t it too late to train?
— I have been training my body constantly for a long time. I also had quite a mercenary life.
Arwen knew well that his combat skills were outstanding.
He had observed his skills closely when they carried out the rescue operation of the Chancellor of Escolleia together.
— It is not simply a matter of training the body. Withstanding the attack of a monster-class entity is the domain of aura manipulation. That training alone takes several years of consistency, and at your age it is already too late to understand and apply it.
— Aura, you mean this thing?
Jed clenched his fist tightly and concentrated his whole body.
A undulating blue light emerged on the surface of his body.
Arwen was startled upon seeing it.
It erupted unstably like a solar flare, but it was unmistakably aura.
— How can you use it?
— I said I was a mercenary, didn’t I? You meet all kinds of people there. Well? Can I? Can I not?
— If you undergo aura correction and train, it will work. Being able to release aura means you are halfway there.
Arwen warned firmly.
— Even so, it will be difficult. Habits exist, and the older the head gets, habits become several times harder. In the worst case…….
He paused, emphasizing the seriousness even further.
— You could end up being a cripple who can’t even hold a sword.
Becoming a cripple was a truly miserable end.
For those who lived in the present like Jed, the fear of becoming a living corpse was not something to overlook.
— I have already made up my mind for that.
Jed answered immediately as if it were nothing.
— Is it worth doing so much?
— When the time comes that I must protect something, I don’t want to be like that again.
Arwen then saw what dwelt in Jed’s eyes.
Regret over powerlessness.
There was more than simply having failed to protect Ferda.
At those words, Arwen smiled.
Jed frowned at that smile.
— What are you smiling at?
— Nothing. Then let’s start with light physical conditioning.
— What physical conditioning—.
— Let’s just run five laps around the castle and think about it!
— Five laps!?
— To be a knight under the command of Count Consillus, you need that amount of stamina. And it can’t take years, right?
— No, that’s true, but—.
— Then let’s run.
Arwen started running and Jed followed behind him.
He thought that perhaps he could become close to this man.
— Ah, Sir Jed. Can you help me after training?
— With what?
— I need to write a letter, but words won’t come to my head. I thought your skill might work…….
— My writing being useful…….
Jed spoke before realizing halfway through the sentence.
— Don’t tell me, at the Grand Council, that young lady at whom you sent passionate glances?
Arwen looked back.
With a face of “how did you know?”.
— Yeah, well…….
— Talking about chivalry and all that, but you’re a male bastard too! When did you start contacting each other?
— A letter arrived three days ago. It said my appearance serving in the Far East touched her heart, she sent a story like that.
— Touched her heart, huh? I’ll help you all you want. Just say the word. I’ll even teach you properly how I seduced a woman with the story of the wolf monster.
— Yeah, than…… wait, the wolf monster?
— Yeah, the wolf monster.
— That’s a recent story, isn’t it?
— True.
Arwen blinked.
— Even while you were agonizing like that, did you have the energy to pick up women?
— Well…….
Jed didn’t really want to do it either.
But there was a reason why he couldn’t not do it.
“—Why! Why! You won’t do it! You said you would! I used magic, so let me absorb your vitality! Harem banquet! You said you would! Liar! Liar!”
Banging her head with a pillow, throwing a tantrum, he had yielded to Penelope’s justified demand.
Not wanting to explain that whole process, Jed replied briefly.
— You have to do what has to be done.
— …….
— One has to eat, right?
— ……Ten laps.
— What? Why?

Stefan returned.
He was glad that things had gone well, but briefly, his mood was complicated inside the carriage.
Ferda’s words echoed in his ears.
“—Then you have no value.”
If he cannot obtain the Pascal Merchant Company, he has no value.
Was the reason he recruited him only because he coveted the company’s value?
If he is independent, he can grow enough.
Not just growth, explosive growth was possible.
Ferda has been regent for barely a year.
And his economic knowledge is superficial.
There is no way he knows.
How aggressive and radical this strategy is.
That the Pascal Company would look like a mere field radish.
“What’s the use of saying it.”
Stefan wanted to catch his breath even a little.
Sit at his desk and idle away even a little.
— Welcome back.
— Yes, back. But why so tense?
— That’s because that person came…….
— Me? I came so all of you…….
— No, not the director…….
Then he understood.
Who could make them so tense.
— Bro, brother?
The secretary nodded slightly.
Upon realizing, Stefan tensed along with them.
Everything that happened in Halim was reported, and he would know the situation completely.
— ……Can’t you say I have to go somewhere else?
— I cannot do that.
— No, then at least let me change clothes and meet…….
— Director.
The secretary held Stefan’s hesitant shoulders.
— You must go.
Not wanting to go was Stefan’s feeling.
He forced his feet toward the stairs.
He peeked inside carefully as if opening the door to an execution chamber.
At his desk sat a familiar muscular man.
— Stefan, has it been a long time?
The man greeting like a thug was Stefan’s older brother, Merkat Pascal.
Stefan’s eyes caught the curves of the biceps that seemed about to burst the silk.
He swallowed saliva.
— Long…… time, brother.
— What brother, call me big brother. More than a hundred bastards call me brother, so blood relatives should be more affectionate, right?
— ……No, brother. How could I…….
— The damn kid is frustrating.
Merkat smirked and said to him:
— Did you go to Halim?
— Yes.
— For what reason?
— The Far East exhibition was scheduled, so I went to support it.
— Wasn’t that where father said to let it go? Are you still clinging to it?
— Yes. There is enough commercial value, so I supported it.
— Is your eye better than father’s, is that it?
— How could I insult my father…….
— The kid still has no guts. Just vent refreshingly. Don’t be suffocating, dammit!
Merkat slammed the desk.
The desk that wouldn’t collapse even under mountains of documents cracked from that single blow.
Merkat looked down at the crack and scratched his head.
— Ah, shit, I hit too hard. I’ll pay later. Anyway, I heard everything, so dammit. You established trade with Lord Ahmed there too, right?
— Yes.
— You know that’s where I’ve been investing effort, right?
— Yes, I know.
— Knowing that I am openly aiming for the south, did you try to swallow that gem?
Stefan excused himself in a hurry.
— It wasn’t intentional.
— You knew it and still ate it.
— There was no reason to refuse. Above all, this trade was led by Regent Ferda, and it is a successful deal.
— Right, so I stayed out of it, meaning I have nothing to do with it?
— It’s not that there is no connection…….
He trailed off his words.
Merkat looked at him with a disgusted face and then sighed.
— What can I do? Family eating each other too much isn’t good either.
Could the story end like this?
Unfortunately, that wish was not granted.
— I’m not asking for much, just share the goods traded through Halim. That’s fine, right?
— Joint…… you mean under joint names?
— Yes. We are a family doing a business, you can do at least that, right?
The road to Halim is the road to a gold mine.
Even divided into two parts, it is enough to sit on mountains of money.
In exchange for stepping back a bit, for yielding a bit.
However.
For some reason, the current Stefan did not want to do it.
— That is…….
Stefan opened his mouth.
What came out was the first shot declaring war.
— My business.
Merkat’s face hardened coldly.
— Hey, Stefan.
— Yes.
— Your words just now, to this brother, do they mean you won’t lend the road, won’t give the carriage, something like that?
Like a tiger staring intently.
Stefan’s legs trembled.
Merkat did not hesitate to use violence.
And once violence begins, it does not end until something breaks.
Stefan was always that target, so the fear of that pain was great.
But greater than that fear was.
“Losing trust…….”
Ferda’s trust, believing without questions or conditions like a merchant.
He had disappointed him once by stepping back in the succession struggle.
Then, Ferda said this.
That giving up even what you originally had and compromising is not a merchant the Grand Duchy needs.
That that is what ordinary merchants do.
Compromise.
Compromise is a good tool to mediate a conflict.
But only then did Stefan realize what compromise Ferda was referring to.
It was exactly this.
First just sticking the head in, to eventually take the entire tent like a camel.
Things that do not stop until they have taken everything.
Stefan could no longer disappoint the one who believed in him.
“And myself as well…….”
So he took a step forward.
— Halim…… I will monopolize it.
— …….
Merkat stood up.
Terrifying sitting down, but standing up his build was threatening.
Fear enveloped him that his fist could drive into his stomach at any moment.
— Fine, if that is your will, I will take it as such.
— …….
— Instead, as much as you don’t look at our situation, I won’t look at yours either.
Merkat walked past Stefan and patted his shoulder.
— Let’s see how well you eat and live without me.
With that, Merkat walked out.
As soon as he realized that a storm had passed, Stefan’s legs gave out.
It was the first time.
That he had answered back to that terrifying older brother, who seemed immovable.
— Phew…….
Ferda promised to make Stefan the owner of the Pascal Company.
What does it take to become an owner?
Herman Pascal’s seal of approval?
Or money and connections that surpass them?
The most necessary thing,
“Having the heart of an owner.”
The ability to protect what is mine.
Not yielding to external pressure, being able to claim rights.
That is why Stefan opened his mouth with difficulty.
— I did the right thing.
Even if that mapped out a path toward a painful path of thorns…….
He thought that way.